324 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



November 



a straight comb, and all worker, such 

 a swarm will be a profitable one, or a 

 lucky swarm, as it used to be termed. 

 If you attend to the building of the 

 comb the first season and have it as 

 above, you will have all profitable 

 swarms. No apiarist, if he has no 

 more than three or four colonies should 

 consider a swarm in proper working 

 order until each comb is a straight 

 worker comb. There is no need of 

 having hives half full of drone comb 

 and so crooked that they cannot be 

 handled. Do things at the right time 

 and in the proper manner and your 

 bees will more than pay you for all 

 the time spent on them. It makes no 

 particular difference what hive you 

 use, this method of getting combs 

 built is the correct one, if you do not 

 wish to use foundation or feel too poor 

 to buy it. Suppose a large swarm 

 comes out when honey is coming in 

 plentifully and you hive them without 

 paying any further attention to them; 

 they will build comb very rapidly, 

 filling their hive in eight or ten days, 

 as I have known them to do, and their 

 combs will be quite apt to be crooked 

 and at least one-third drone or store 

 comb, which is good for nothing for 

 raising worker bees the next season, 

 and is an actual damage as the drones 

 will consume a greater part of what 

 the workers will gather. Such swarms 

 or colonies will be unprofitable, either 

 for raising bees or storing honey, just 

 so long as you allow the combs to re- 

 main in that condition. Again, by 

 the use of the division boards I keep 

 all colonies strong in the spring as far 

 as they go, and a colony that can keep 

 two combs full of brood and covered 

 with bees is a perfect colony to all in- 

 tents and purposes. They will build 



up just as fast in proportion and will 

 send double the number of bees into 

 the field that they would if scattered 

 over five or six combs, with hardly half 

 as much brood. This economizing of 

 all animal heat is not mere theory, 

 but can be proven in twenty-four hours 

 at any time in May or June. Take 

 one of these small swarms at night, 

 remove the division board and move 

 the two frames, bees and all, into the 

 center of the hive, and the following 

 day nearly all the bees will stay at 

 home to keep up the necessary tem- 

 perature. Place them back at night 

 as before, adjust the division board 

 and the next day they are ready to go 

 to work again, and you will find the 

 queen can and will deposit some eggs 

 wherever there is empty comb. When 

 these two combs become crowded with 

 bees, I put an empty comb on an emp- 

 ty frame for them to fill, between 

 them. By so doing, when the hive is 

 full, every comb is occupied with 

 brood, and all the eggs, instead of 

 being laid on the outside of the clus- 

 ter, are where they should be, in the 

 center, where the greatest amount of 

 heat is. Both new swarms and weak 

 colonies in the spring, should have 

 only as few combs as they can cover 

 and be a little crowded, especially 

 those swarms where comb is being 

 built, for in this way the combs which 

 are begun are rapidly carried forward, 

 rather than starting many to go slowly 

 and crookedly, being finally finished 

 off with more or less drone comb. If 

 they are liable to crowd out on the 

 hive because there is too little room, 

 put on a part or all of the sections, 

 thus securing an early start in the 

 same, while at the time giving ad- 

 ditional security against the building 



