AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



307 



the division-board, the carrying over of 

 which stimulates brood-rearing wonder- 

 fully. 



When the strongest of these weak 

 colonies have their five frames full of 

 brood, I take one of them away, and 

 give it to one having four frames, 

 always taking a frame where I can see 

 plenty of bees just gnawing from the 

 cells. An empty comb is put In the cen- 

 ter to take the place of hatching brood 

 taken out, which will soon be filled with 

 eggs and brood. Don't on any account 

 give this frame of brood to one of the 

 weakest colonies at this time, as some 

 are prone to do ; for by so doing a part 

 of the brood will be lost, for the bees in 

 the weakest are not yet strong enough 

 to care for more brood than they already 

 have. 



In a week, I take another frame of 

 hatching brood from the same colony 

 and give it to one that has three frames 

 full, and also take a frame from the one 

 I gave the frame to the previous week. 

 Thus I keep on taking from the stronger 

 and giving to the next strongest, until 

 all have five frames of bees and brood, 

 giving brood the latest to the weakest of 

 the little colonies. Having all of them 

 with five frames of brood, I proceed to 

 unite them as follows : 



I go to No. 1 and look it over until I 

 find the frame the queen is on, which 

 frame (bees, queen, and all) is set over to 

 the vacant side of the hive. I then take 

 the four remaining frames, bees and all, 

 and set them in a comb-carrier, when I 

 put the frame having the queen upon it, 

 back where it was. I also place beside 

 it an empty comb, and adjust the divi- 

 sion-board to suit the two frames, when 

 the hive is closed. 



Next I take the comb-carrier and pro- 

 ceed to No. 2, which is then opened and 

 the division-board taken out. I now 

 take the first frame next to where the 

 division-board stood, and place it next 

 the opposite side of the hive, when I 

 take a frame from the carrier, bees and 

 all, as taken from No. 1, and place next 

 to the moved frame in No. 2. Next I 

 move another frame in No. 2 up to the 

 one taken from the carrier, when 

 another is taken from the carrier and 

 placed beside it, and so on until the four 

 frames from the carrier are alternated 

 with those of No. 2. As my hives hold 

 nine frames, it will be seen that I now 

 have in No. 2 nine frames completely 

 filled with brood, which will soon make 

 a very populous colony. 



In this way I keep to work .until all 

 are united, and the sequel nearly always 

 shows a better result from these united 



colonies than from those which were 

 considered strong in the spring. 



As these colonies are generally ready 

 to unite about 10 to 15 days before the 

 harvest, they do not contract the swarm- 

 ing fever before the harvest arrives, 

 and often go without swarming, which 

 gives them the advantage over colonies 

 which are bound to swarm at about the 

 time the harvest commences. 



As soon as the old bees which were 

 brought from No. 1 fly out, they return 

 to their old stand, which makes that a 

 strong nucleus, and as soon as tt^e queen 

 gets the empty comb given her filled 

 with eggs, the two are spread apart and 

 an empty /rame is given, which will be 

 filled with nice, straight worker-comb in 

 short order. When this is filled, two 

 more empty frames are given, and so on, 

 as long as the little colony will build 

 worker-comb, and in this way this little 

 colony contributes much toward the 

 value of the apiary. 



If, at any time I have more bees than 

 I wish In the spring, I adopt the above 

 plan with all colonies, keeping the whole 

 apiary on five combs of brood as long as 

 I can consistently, when I unite them as 

 above, thus making one-half the number 

 of extra strong colonies. As these are 

 stronger, hence have to be doubled ear- 

 lier in the season, most of them will 

 swarm in a few weeks, when I have my 

 original number,generally much stronger 

 in bees than any of the very best would 

 have been had they been left alone to 

 manage their own affairs. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



■ ^ 



Rlieumatlgm Cured by Appli- 

 cation of Bee-Stings. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 E. A. BABNWELL,. 



I noticed in an Issue of the Bee Jour- 

 nal a request for information or experi- 

 ence In the cure of rheumatism. I think 

 it was in 1885, I first bought a colony 

 or two of bees. In June of the same 

 year I was very severely aflfllcted with 

 rheumatism. I tried all the cures that 

 I could think of in the way of liniments, 

 but they did me no good. So one morn- 

 ing I went to take off a case of honey ; 

 and the bees went for me. I think I got 

 the honey, but the bees got me. Oh, 

 but didn't they give it to me ? I think 

 there was a thousand on me at once. 

 Did I run ? You had better believe I 

 did. I never thought of my rheumatism 

 once ; In fact, I never thought of it any 



