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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL^ 



your surplus honey. If you live in 

 Northern States, or anywhere where 

 swarming and your honey harvest come 

 together, better let your bees swarm 

 naturally, and if you are producing 

 comb honey, you can hive your swarms 

 on a contracted brood-nest (Contraction 

 and Spreading will appear later), and 

 realize a crop of honey ; while if divided 

 artiflcially, you would likely spoil your 

 honey crop, as your seasons in such 

 countries will not allow time in which to 

 build the bees up after the time of year 

 arrives that it is safe to divide. 



But if you live in a Southern country, 

 where the swarming season comes two 

 to three months before any regular har- 

 vest, I would surely advise you to divide 

 your bees, and make your colonies arti- 

 ficially, as it is called by some. But to 

 my certain knowledge there is no colony 

 of bees that equals a natural swarm for 

 work, as nearly all the field forces go 

 along with the swarm, and a new home 

 to build up, and new combs to build, it 

 seems that it gives them a vigor that no 

 other kind of a colony has. I tell you, 

 it pleases a natural swarm to get to build 

 combs, as they usually go out prepared 

 to do this kind of work, and they seem 

 to feel somewhat disappointed if they 

 are hived on full drawn-out combs. I 

 would always leave part of the combs 

 for a natural swarm to build. Founda- 

 tion gives them a place to use their 

 comb, and also gives you straight combs. 

 Foundation will be discussed later on. 



Now, if I get a little wild, and get off 

 the track, you must excuse me, as I am 

 teaching you from memory, and I am 

 using bees, hives, etc., together with my 

 experience, for books. I have no books 

 by me to quote from. I have read al- 

 most all of the bee-papers and bee-books, 

 and am indebted to them all for my suc- 

 cess, and I could not yet get along well 

 without my bee-papers and bee-books. 

 So please excuse my wanderings, for I 

 have set out to tell you all about bees, 

 and I will have to go into detail. 



Well, I now had better show you how 

 to make artificial swarms, and give my 

 reasons. 



Keep your eyes on the bees, and when 

 they are getting strong in bees, honey 

 coming in enough to keep brood-rearing 

 going, and sealed drones in the combs, 

 then you may get a new hive ready. 



Now go to the colony to be divided, 

 and raise out the combs until you come 

 across the queen, then place the comb 

 she is on into your new hive ; take half 

 the combs — those nearest empty— and 

 leave the frames of sealed brood in the 



old hive (four frames — we will suppose 

 you use an eight-frame hive). 



Now place the old hive away on a new 

 stand (leaving one frame with eggs in 

 it). They will at once start queen-cells, 

 and if you keep close watch you will find 

 on the eighth or ninth day a number of 

 sealed cells. I put the time to nine 

 days, that you won't have to make a 

 second investigation to destroy queen- 

 cells. We will say on the ninth day you 

 overhaul the young swarm in the old 

 hive, and destroy all their queen-cells 

 hut two of the longest and largest ones ; 

 then on the twelfth or thirteenth day 

 from the time you made the division, 

 look in, and if one cell has hatched, tear 

 the other one down. If neither cell has 

 hatched, better look twice a day for two 

 days more, and remove one cell as soon 

 as the other hatches. This is to prevent 

 them from swarming. 



Now, as you have only the two colo- 

 nies, and no other chance to rear a 

 queen except in that one hive, I have 

 told you to leave two cells for fear one 

 might not hatch, and I tell you now that 

 the old adage, that two chances are bet- 

 ter than one, holds good with bees, too. 

 But, should both cells hatch at about the 

 same time, you can hunt out one queen 

 and kill her, and the bees are sure not 

 to swarm. If you let them have their 

 own way about it, in this country, the 

 bees ivill swarm, and cause you to get 

 no honey from these two small swarms 

 that year. 



Now, if all has gone well with you, 

 your virgin queen will fly out and be- 

 come mated about the fifth day, if the 

 weather is fine, and on the eighth or 

 ninth day from the day she hatched, she 

 will be a laying queen, and just about 

 the time the last bees are hatching from 

 the comb, she will be there ready to re- 

 fill cells with eggs. 



Let us count and see if we are right 

 about this. We will calculate that your 

 queen was reared from a larva one day 

 old. Three days in the egg, one day 

 larva, 12 days a hatched queen. Now 

 count and see if this is not 16 days. 



Well, as there are usually eggs that 

 are two or three days behind those the 

 queens are started from, we will count 

 two days behind the queen, and three 

 days ahead of her, and we have the last 

 workers just hatching about the time 

 she mates with the drone, on the fourth 

 or fifth day; and as the queen often 

 hatches on the eleventh, and sometimes 

 the tenth day, owing to the age of the 

 larva she is started from, you may be 

 looking for your young queen to begin 

 to lay just about the time the last bees 



