AMERICAN BKE JOURNAL. 



657 



and when I prove these things, the 

 readers of the American Bee Journal 

 shall hear all the facts about how it was 

 done. 

 Forestville, Minn. 



CoDiti-Foiindation for Honey & Increase. 



Head at Vie Kansas State Convention 

 BY J. C. BALCH. 



The question of comb foundation is of 

 vital importance to every practical bee- 

 keeper, and I think can be classed under 

 three heads — the man that works ex- 

 clusively for extracted honey, the man 

 that works for section honey, and the 

 man that works for an increase of bees. 



We will take the man who works for 

 extracted honey, first. We will suppose 

 that he has all the bees he wants, and 

 does not wish any increase. In this 

 case he will use full sheets of founda- 

 tion and a ten-frame hive ; and we will 

 suppose that his hives are all two stories 

 high and filled with combs. Well, you 

 say, what does he want with founda- 

 tion ? Just this : 



At the first appearance of the June 

 honey-flow, he will provide himself with 

 an extra upper story for each colony, 

 and fill every frame with full sheets of 

 foundation. Then he will want a queen- 

 excluding zinc for each colony. Then 

 place the full sheets of foundation 

 in the lower story, all but two or 

 three, and be sure the queen is in 

 the lower story ; then place the zinc on 

 the lower story so the queen cannot pos- 

 sibly get up ; then put the brood on top 

 of that, and the empty combs, if there is 

 any on, in the third story, and if the two 

 top stories are full of brood, so much 

 the better. 



There will bees enough stay with the 

 queen and what brood was left below, to 

 keep her busy, and as fast as they draw 

 out the foundation, she will fill it with 

 eggs ; and as fast as the brood hatches 

 in the upper stories, the bees will fill it 

 up with honev ; and if the honey-flow is 

 sufficient, in 5l days there will be no 

 brood above the zinc, but there will be 

 80 pounds of honey, all sealed over, 

 which can be extracted and returned to 

 the hive. If the flow continues, they 

 will fill them again in 10 days, and you 

 are not bothered with brood when you 

 are extracting. 



In the second place, the man who 

 works for comb honey positively must 

 have foundation In his sections to insure 

 straight combs, as he can't handle the 

 sections when they are filled. Then he 



must have foundation in the brood- 

 chamber to have straight combs there, 

 so he can handle the bees. Bees worked 

 for comb honey will swarm if they get 

 any surplus honey. He wants a one- 

 inch starter in the brood-chamber to 

 hive the prime swarms on, with half- 

 sheets in the section-case, or better, 

 take the case ofif the parent colony and 

 put it on the swarm with the empty one 

 under it, and place the swarm on the 

 old stand, moving the old colony to a 

 new place. 



Then the man who wants to increase 

 his bees, if he has three or more good 

 strong colonies, must have foundation. 

 Then when the weather gets warm — say 

 the first of May — make all the hives two 

 stories high, if they are not, and when 

 the combs below are all filled with 

 brood, remove half of them to the upper 

 story and fill their places with full 

 sheets of foundation, and when they are 

 drawn out and filled with eggs, remove 

 and put above, and fill their places with 

 full sheets of foundation, till both 

 stories are full of combs and brood. 

 Then he can begin to increase. 



He can take two frames from each 

 hive, at dusk, and put them in a new 

 hive with the adhering bees, and close 

 the entrance with screen-wire, and set 

 in a cool place till the next evening, 

 when he can give them a queen, and he 

 has a good average colony, ready for 

 business. By replacing where he took 

 them from, with full sheets of founda- 

 tion, he can make a colony twice a week 

 while the honey-flow lasts, or through 

 the month of June, if he has queens for 

 them ; and queens are so cheap now 

 that he can buy them cheaper than he 

 can rear them, unless he is pretty well 

 versed in queen-rearing. 



Bronson, Kans. 



After-Swarms anil Prime Swarms. 



Written Jor tJie American Bee Journal 

 BY W. HAKMEK. 



The gain in knowledge that I, we, or 

 all of us, get through the bee-papers, 

 prompts me to write a few lines more on 

 the prevention of after-swarms and the 

 control of prime swarms, in answer to 

 Mr. Coverdale's article on page 533. If 

 it has not been very inconvenient for 

 him to have given us the second contrib- 

 ution, I am glad that he thought it nec- 

 essary to write in answer to my first. 



I still condemn all traps, double hives, 

 and the practice of destroying queen- 



