258 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



September 



place of the removed brood. In a 

 week the other side of the hive is 

 served in the same way, which gives, 

 as will be seen, 15 frames in a hive, 

 thus securing a large force of bees 

 with no disposition to swarm thus far. 

 As the brood in the frames which are 

 set over in the 5 inch space should be 

 all sealed when set there, or as nearly 

 so as possible, it will be seen that in 

 12 days the brood should be all ma- 

 tured, and as the queen rarely goes 

 into these spaces to deposit eggs, we 

 have these combs empty of brood, or 

 nearly so, when the flowers begin to 

 secrete honey. About the time that 

 the last three frames of brood was set 

 over into the 5 inch space, the sections 

 are put on over the brood-nest, so that 

 should there be any honey coming in 

 from the fields, unexpectedly, the bees 

 would have a place to work, and as an 

 additional prevention of too early 

 swarming. When the bees have com- 

 menced to work in these sections or I 

 have decided that it is time the col- 

 ony was fully prepared for the season, 

 I take out the six combs which are in 

 the side box apartments and set in 

 one tier of sections next the division 

 board. I next take from the brood 

 chamber two frames of unsealed brood 

 and place behind the tier of sections, 

 placing two frames of the six empty 

 combs where the unsealed brood was 

 taken from. By placing the frames 

 of unsealed brood behind the tier of 

 sections, I virtually have these tiers 

 of sections jn the center of the brood- 

 nest so the bees take possession of 

 them at pijce, the same as they would 

 whe^ an empty frame .is inserted in 

 the center of the hive; This secures 

 the working in the sections with a de- 

 termined will, and such a course has 



also a tendency to keep the bees from 

 swarming. At the end of a week the 

 two frames of brood are taken out 

 from behind the sections and placed 

 in weak colonies, or anywhere that 

 they can be used to the best advan- 

 tage, and the tier of partly filled sec- 

 tions pushed back so as to place an 

 empty tier between them aud the 

 brood chamber when we have the com- 

 plete number of sections on the hive, 

 and have done it in such a way that 

 we have secured the greatest working 

 force possible and have also enticed 

 the bees into the sections at the pro- 

 per time, and that with but little dis- 

 position to swarm. Now as the sec- 

 tions begin to get filled and the brood 

 chamber remains undisturbed, a part 

 or all of the colonies will soon svvarm, 

 for such a thing as non-swarming, 

 when working for comb honey, has 

 not been accomplished with any large 

 number of colonies, though this plan 

 probably comes as near to non-swarm- 

 ing as any yet put before the public- 

 To secure the most honey for the rest 

 of the season w-e proceed as follows: 

 When a swarm issues from a hive the 

 old colony is moved to a new stand 

 and the swarm hived on the old stand, 

 which secures us nearly all of the 

 working force from the parent colony. 

 A large part of the sections are taken 

 from the old hive and placed on the 

 new. In this new hive is placed six 

 Gallup frames, and next to the frames 

 are placed a tier of empty sections, 

 while back of this tier is jilaced a tier 

 of those partly full taken from the 

 parent colony. The top sections are 

 now put on and the swarm is hived. 

 The work done in the sections by a 

 swarm thus treated for the next ten 

 days is almost marvelous. During the 



