THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



bees have returned to the parent hive, we 

 close it up, after making sure the comb 

 of brood we gave it has no queen cells. 

 We remove all queen cells from the hive 

 from which we removed the queen, that 

 are likely to hatch within eight days. 

 Of course we return the partly filled 

 sections, and in eight or nine days 

 we again cut out all queen cells, and 

 later give a virgin queen, the same as 

 we did to the colonies whose queens we 

 destroyed. This plan keeps us very well 

 supplied with young queens. 



In eight days we again go over our 

 hives, giving the strongest ones, prepar- 

 ing to swarm, a full set of dry combs in 

 place of their brood combs, and give these 

 brood combs to the nuclei formed the 

 previous week, thus quickly building 

 them up into profitable stocks that will 

 sometimes give as much surplus as the 

 colony from which they were started. 

 Italian bees are at their best when placed 

 in small nuclei; they give up all thoughts 

 of swanning, and seem to store two or 

 three times as fast in proportion to their 

 numbers as when in full colonies. 



I am apt to find some queenless colo- 

 nies near the close of the season. My 

 young queens are frequently several days 

 old before I get around to intrduce them, 

 as I have several yards to look after. 

 Then there are some that get mixed and 

 a part of the bees appear to want an old 

 queen and a part a young virgin and so 

 like some families that pull in different 

 directions, neither get what they want. 

 These I give two or three brood combs 

 and they usuallv come out all right. 

 Some apiarists return old queens to hives 

 that have been unqueened, bnt I have 

 never succeeded in returning them satis- 

 factorily. 



In removing queen cells I select the best 

 and place in nurseries to hatch and thus 

 keep myself well supplied with virgin 

 queens of good quality. 



While the plan above outlined does 

 not wholly prevent swanning, it does pre- 

 vent very much increase; enough to use 

 all my old combs and keep my stock 



good; and while I do not get nearly as 

 much honey as I believe I should if the 

 bees would give up the foolish habit of 

 swarming, I have reason to believe that I 

 get more than I should by any other sys- 

 tem with the same expense. Of course, 

 it will be understood that I am working 

 wholly for comb honey. Where a yard of 

 bees is run for extracted honey a modi- 

 fication of this view should be used. 



MiDDLEBURY, Vt. June, 20, 1898. 



REPLIES TO MR. TAYLORS CRITICISMS. 



Some Fine Points Regarding the Depth of 

 Cells in Partly Drawn Combs. 



DR. c. C. MILLER. 



.-— -Ti-", r- -,-,..., TN Gleanings, 



^^^ J- 343, I say, "Mr. 



^^^^^\ Taylor mentions 



■ \ an objection that 



, . --f ^ j^^g ^Yso been giv- 



en by others: The 

 bees are slower to 

 fill and cap unfin- 

 ished sections. " 

 He is correct, Re- 

 '^ ' I view, 184, in sa^'- 

 ing that Miller 

 misquotes him, as he only mentioned the 

 capping. I had in mind the whole job of 

 filling and capping, in which form the ob- 

 jection has been frequently made. I am 

 sorry I did not discriminate more closely. 

 On the same topic he quotes my saying 

 that I've had hundreds of cases in which 

 the one unfinished section in the super 

 was filled and sealed, and the remaining 

 sections with foundation were left un- 

 touched, and he then says he trusts my 

 logical faculty will not allow me to claim 

 there is any argument in that. As I do 

 not desire immediate annihilation, I has- 

 ten to say that I do not disagree in the 

 least with that view; certainly not, my 

 logical faculty allows nothing of the 

 kind. But I'll merely suggest, in a ten- 



