AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



655 



kAi 



-■^■^■^■^■^■^■^■^^■^^^■^^^■J>..^.^^ 



iSpriiig Uniting^ of Bees Clearly 

 Explained. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY O. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes: " My bees 

 are suffering from spring dwindling, so 

 tliat my colonies are quite weak, and 

 will not be strong enough to work to ad- 

 vantage when the honey harvest arrives. 

 What shall I do with them ? Shall I 

 unite them now, or what shall I do ? 

 Please reply through the Amebican Bee 



JOUKNAL." 



Several years ago, when I wished to 

 unite bees that were wealj in the spring, 

 I did so early in the season, as nearly all 

 the writers of that time said I should do 

 it then, as two of the weak colonies 

 would make one strong one. That the 

 uniting of two weak colonies to make 

 one strong one would be a profitable un- 

 dertaking, no one would deny ; still, that 

 uniting must make the one better than 

 each of the two would have been when 

 the honey harvest arrives, or we would 

 better not touch them. 



After practicing the plans as given 

 for a year or two, I became convinced 

 that colonies thus formed were no better 

 at the end of two weeks than each one 

 would have been if left separate. I have 

 put as high as seven remnants of colo- 

 nies together in April, the seven making 

 a good colony at the time, and in a 

 month all were dead. After coming to 

 the -conclusion that I could not unite 

 bees with profit early in the spring, I 

 adopted the following plan, which has 

 proven very successful with me : 



About the middle of April, some cool 

 morning, I looked over all of my bees by 

 removing the cap and raising the cover- 

 ing a little, so I can see how strong in 

 bees the colonies are, and all that do not 

 occupy four spaces between the combs 

 are marked, and the first warm day are 

 shut on as many combs as they have 

 brood in, and a division-board placed in 



hive so as to contract it to suit the size 

 of th« colony. Honey enough is pro- 

 vided to keep them amply for two weeks, 

 and the rest of the combs I store away 

 for safe keeping. The entrances are 

 contracted so as to let but one bee pass 

 at a time, for the smallest colonies, 

 while the larger ones do not have more 

 than an inch in length of entrance given 

 them. 



The next work is to increase the brood 

 as fast as possible in these small colo- 

 nies. I keep them shut on the combs 

 first given them, until they are filled 

 with brood clear down to the bottom, 

 before they are given more room. As 

 soon as this is accomplished, I give them 

 a comb of honey having the cappings to 

 the cells broken by passing a knife flat- 

 wise over them, placing this frame of 

 honey between two full combs of brood. 

 In about a week this comb will be filled 

 with brood as full as the others. 



I go over them once a week in this 

 way until I have five frames of brood in 

 the strongest, when I take a frame of 

 brood just hatching, from those having 

 five full frames, and give it to the next 

 strongest, say one that has four frames, 

 putting a frame of honey fixed as before 

 in the place where it came from. Thus 

 I keep working until all of them contain 

 five frames of brood, which should occur 

 from the 10th to the 15th of June, in 

 this locality. 



I now go to hive No. 1 and open it, 

 looking the frames over until I find the 

 one the queen is on, when it is set out- 

 side of the hive, and the four remaining 

 frames, with all of the adhering bees, 

 are taken to No. 2. I next spread apart 

 the frames in hive No. 2, so as to set the 

 four frames brought from No. 1 in each 

 alternate space made by spreading the 

 frames in No. 2, when the hive is closed. 

 In a few days this colony is ready for 

 the surplus arrangement, and will event- 

 ually make as good a colony for storing 

 section honey as the best of the stronger 

 ones — at least such has been my experi- 

 ence so far. I have never known the 

 bees to quarrel, nor a queen to be 

 harmed by this plan of uniting, as the 

 bees and brood are so completely mixed 

 up that they do not know what to fight 

 about. 



But to return to No. 1, where the 

 frame with bees, queen and brood were 

 left standing outside of the hive : I now 

 place this frame back in the hive, and 

 put an empty frame with a foundation 

 starter in it beside the same, adjusting 

 the division-board, when I have a nucleus 

 to be used for any purpose I may wish. 

 Many of the old bees carried to hive No. 



