124 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



August 



best supplied with. Now remove the 

 crate of sections from the old hive, 

 and put them in place on the new one, 

 on the old stand, and if the cover to 

 the hive is a flat one, put it on also. 



By this time, the bees will in many 

 cases have missed their queen, and 

 without clustering will be returning 

 home. Allow them to enter the hive 

 prepared for them, and if the queen 

 has been caged release her (provided 

 her wing is clipped) ; but if she is 

 caught in a queen-trap without being 

 clipped, adjust the trap to the new 

 hive, then release the queen, leaving 

 the trap in place until satisfied that 

 the colony has commenced work in 

 earnest, otherwise they might desert 

 and leave for parts unknown. 



Then take the hive containing the 

 old combs of brood and honey, togeth- 

 er with the bees which were left be- 

 hind, and set it on top of the new hive, 

 thus making the top of the new hive 

 serve as the bottom for the old one ; 

 put a cover on this, and give them an 

 entrance at one end, and the work for 

 the present is done. 



Next, keep a record of the date on 

 which this colony swarmed, and if you 

 wish to rear some queens, and the cells 

 left in the old colony are from choice 

 stock, here is your chance. Bore a 

 one-inch hole in each side of the top 

 hive for an entrance, divide the colo- 

 ny into three parts, giving say two 

 combs of brood and honey and one 

 queen-cell to each — this will probably 

 leave sufficient room to insert the ex- 

 tra division boaids required to keep 

 each one of these lots of bees separate. 

 We now have three nucleus colo- 

 nies, which in due time should furnish 

 a laying queen each (barring accident, 



of course). I usually divide up the 

 old colony in from four to five days 

 after the swarm issues, as they some- 

 times "hang fire ;" that is, they do 

 not, on account of bad weather or 

 other causes, come out as soon as the 

 first cell is capped, hence if we wait 

 until the seventh or eighth day, we 

 may get either a second swarm or lose 

 all our queen-cells by their being 

 torn open by the first young queen 

 that hatches. With this plan I find 

 that this latter is the most apt to 

 happen, as but few old field-bees re- 

 main in the old hive, so there is but 

 little honey coming in, which is as 

 we want it at this time. 



If your hive is not large enough to 

 contain all the combs of the old colo- , 

 ny with the added division-boards, 

 remove a frame or two and add them 

 to some other colony, if they contain 

 brood. 



If you do not wish to rear any 

 queens, destroy all the queen-cells in 

 the old colony, allowing none to hatch, 

 and when the swarm has become fair- 

 ly established in the new hive (which 

 they will usually do in four or five 

 days, and be working like beavers), 

 the brood in the old hive may be used 

 to build up weak colonies, if one 

 should have any, or, in case they are 

 not needed for that purpose, and the 

 hive was swarmed on old starters, 

 they may be replaced in the un- 

 der hive, bees and all, and the 

 frames containing starters removed 

 and saved for the next swarm. 



By this time, if honey has been 

 coming in freely, a good start will 

 have been made in the sections, which 

 will in most cases now be carried on 

 until completed. 



