THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 91 



the liith of IMarch. By this time our ]:iees should be g-etting plenty 

 of nectar for Ijrood-rearing" and operations with the bees must begin. 

 I try to see every colony once in every ten days and split the 

 brood-nest open in the middle, reversing the combe: so that the 

 coml)s containing the most brood will be on the outside of the 

 l)ro()d-ncst and those with tlie least brood in the center. This re- 

 tards swarming and causes the bees to build up faster, I think. 

 This part of my system I learned of Air. Stachelhausen. who used 

 to live near San Antonio. I think 3,Ir. Doolittle also used to 

 jDractice it. 



AA'ell, I get over the bees as fast as I can. re\'ersing brood this 

 way till the hives are full of brood from side to side, helping any 

 weak ones by the addition of brood from those that can spare it, so 

 that when our honey flow begins the first of April I want the hives 

 fairly boiling over with bees and the brood-chamber all occupied 

 with brood except the outside frames, and they should be full of 

 honey, pollen and maybe some brood. 



Then I put on the supers, having a frame of drawn coml) at 

 each side, if I have it, and the rest of the frames filled with full 

 sheets of foundation. I put one super on each colony this first 

 round and after that I add supers as they are needed. Sometimes I 

 add the super above the one already on, lifting tip two drawn comi:)s 

 from below, which I place at the sides, and sometimes I lift the first 

 super and put the second under it. This will depend on the 

 strength of the colony and the stage of the honey flow. If it is 

 near the end of the flow, or I am in doubt about the colony's filling 

 two supers, I put it on top. If it becomes necessary to add a third 

 super, it is placed between those already on. 



I continue to go over the bees every ten days, if possible, and 

 reverse the brood-nest and when I find a colony making preparations 

 to swarm, I take the queen away and twenty-four hours later I 

 introduce a ripe queen cell. Now, this is the main point in the 

 Avhole system. The queen must be removed and when the queen- 

 cell is introduced it is about ten days before there is any more egg- 

 laying in that hive, and tliat interruption of the egg-laying destroys 

 an}- inclination the bees may have had to swarm and they will make 

 no further preparations to swarm during that honey flow in this 

 locality. As to whether it will work elsewhere — well, you can try 

 and see. 



If I want increase, I take two frames of brood and adhering 

 bees with the queen and start a nucleus. Later I build up the 

 nucleus so started by drawing two frames of sealed brood from 

 colonies that are threatening to swarm and adding them to these 

 nuclei, generally giving one frame to each nucleus, in the middle of 

 their brood-nest. When I take the two combs of brood from a 

 colony I supply them with two frames of coml) or full sheets of 



