1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



85 



Twelve hives of bees, each con- 

 taining two queens, w^ere wintered 

 in the cellar in 1918. Eight of these 

 were in 10-frame hives, and four in 

 12-fraine hives. All wintered v/ell. 



Two of the 10-frame hives were 

 taken to a farmer's garden three 

 miles south of the city on May 8, 

 1919. The bees and queen on the 

 right side of the 'hive were trans- 

 ferred to separate hives on May 27. 

 (This transference would have been 

 better done ten or fifteen days ear- 

 lier). The. four colonie: built up rap- 

 idly. On June 24, when all the colo- 

 nies had eggs or larvse in queen- 

 cells, showing that they were pre- 

 paring to swartn, all the queens were 

 removed. On July 3, the queen-cells 

 were destroyed, two being left or 

 given, one on either side of a double 

 wire-cloth division then inserted. No 

 swarming took place and on July 29, 

 when the white honey crop was re- 

 moved, the brood chambers were ex- 

 amined. One had brood in all stages 

 on both sides of the division; the 

 other three had brood on one side 

 only. The loss of one or two of 

 these queens was probably due to 

 the hives being less than a foot 

 apart. One super was put on each 

 hive for the dark honey crop, which, 

 owing to drought, proved a partial 

 failure, and all the supers were re- 

 moved, partly filled, on September 

 23. The yield of one of the original 

 hives was 230 pounds of white honey 

 and 30 pounds of dark honey, total 

 260 pounds, which was sold at 27 

 cents for $70.27. The other hive 

 gave 351 pounds of white honey and 

 52 pounds of dark, total 403 pounds, 

 which was sold for $108.81. In addi- 

 tion to the honey produced, there 

 was an increase of three hives of 

 bees, or 150 per cent. One of these 

 had been built up from nuclei with 

 two of the old queens. Allowing $7 

 each for the value of the three new 

 hives, and deducting $12.46 for 111 

 pounds of sugar fed for winter, and 

 $6 for three combs of honey that 

 were given to the nuclei, the average 

 return per hive, spring count, was 

 $90.81. This figure takes no account 

 of the fact that the bees built the 

 combs to hold one-third of the 

 honey produced. 



The season for breeding up before 

 the honey flow was not as favorable 

 as usual, being three degrees colder 

 than the average up till May 11, and 

 nine degrees warmer than the aver- 

 age after May 25 (see Chart 1), so 

 that the clover flow started on June 

 15, a week earlier than usual. At 

 this date, at the home apiary, the 

 half colonies, which had been placed 

 in separate hives on May 22, were 

 beginning to work in the supers. 



On June 23 the 'capped brood 

 count of the two colonies which had 

 developed from a 10-frame hive that 

 had been successfully requeened in 

 July by the system method showed 

 1544 square inches, against an aver- 

 age of 845 square inches each in the 

 one-queen hives that had wintered 

 with it in the cellar, and 955 in the 

 one-queen hives wintered outside. 



On June 18 the queen with a frame 



of brood and adhering bees was re- 

 moved from two half colonies that 

 had wintered together in a 10-frame 

 hive The two half colonies were 

 then united together and placed on a 

 weighing machine. An ordinary col- 

 ony of average strength was placed 

 on another machine, and the daily 

 gain or loss of weight of each was 

 taken at 7 a. m. The result of the 

 comparison is shown in Chart 3. It 

 will be noticed that the system col- 

 ony made higher daily gains than 

 the regular colony up to the time 

 that the queen-cells were destroyed, 

 and again after one of its young 

 queens began to lay, but that during 

 the intervening period, its work 

 slackened. Several ways of reduc- 



2200 



2000 



1800 



ing this loss of morale or of short- 

 ening its duration were planned for 

 next year. One of the most hope- 

 ful is to cage a newly emerged vir- 

 gin on each side when, or soon after, 

 the old queen is caged ur removed, 

 and to liberate the virgins when the 

 cells are destroyed. Another is to 

 keep the old queen in a super next 

 the brood chamber or in the upper 

 half of a double brood chamber for 

 at least eight days. 



It was also decided to try to dis- 

 cover some quick and easy method 

 of detecting colonies that are pre- 

 paring to swarm, and, among other 

 ideas, the following are to be tried: 



1. Supporting the brood chamber 

 on a light stand so that the floor 



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1^00 



iloo 



1000 



goo 



6oo 



too 



200 





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Chart 2. Comparing estimated quantity of brood that had reached capped stage, developed from 

 hives that bad started the season with one queen and with two queens. The height and 

 width in inches of the area bounded by cells of capped brood on one side and of each comb 

 were multiplied together. All the queens were given plenty of room to lay. 



