240 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July. 



altogether, but that they may be 

 profitably employed to replace win- 

 ter losses or to make increase. 

 Combless Packages Vs. Wintered 

 Colonies 



'17-18 '18-19 

 Wintered Colony. Cost. 



Stores consumed in winter- 

 ing $4.60 $5.40 



Packing cases .56 71 



Packing material .12 .15 



Labor of packing and un- 

 packing .40 .40 



$5.68 $6.66 



An expected loss of 1 col- 

 ony in 10 brings total to. .$6.31 $7.40 

 Package Colony. 



2-lb. package, untested 



queen, delivered $4.75 $6.00 



Labor of installing in combs .25 .25 



$5.00 $6.25 

 An expected loss of 1 pack- 

 age in 10 brings total tO— $5.55 $6.72 

 Net Gain 



Wintered oolony 60 lbs. 133 lbs. 



Package colony __. 40 lbs. 103 lbs. 



Comparative Cost Per Pound Pro- 

 duced 



Wintered colony lO.Sc 5.5c 



Package colony 14.0c 6.5c 



■^Does not include interest on in- 

 vestment, depreciation of equip- 

 ment nor labor through the summer. 



(In our opinion, bees as carefully 

 packed as the above were reported to 

 be should not lose one colony in ten 

 during ithe winter. Therefore we can 

 put that much to the credit of win- 

 tered colonies. The above compara- 

 tive statement is certainly very inter- 

 esting. — Editor.) 



vvork, any tinner can furnish the ar- 

 ticle. 



Cut 4. 



A Honey Gate 



By A. F. Bonney 



The threading on the average 

 commercial honey gate, as furnished 

 in the past, will not fit the screw- 

 tops lof cans, and is, therefore, worth- 

 less. Make them yourself, in this 

 way : 



Cut a piece of heavy tin 3x5 inches 

 and with a tinner's die cut a hole in 

 the center 1^ inches in diameter. 

 Cut 1 



Next bend the edges up three- 

 eighths of an inch on either side. 

 Cut 2 



Cut a strip of tin seven inches long 

 which will slide tightly in the folds 

 of No. 1. Fold 'the end to form a 

 handle. 



Cut 3 



Now cut the screw-top from an 

 old can and solder it to No. 1 by 

 its upper edge, and the job is done. 

 If you are not handy at this kind of 



jYo.i 



Gate 



J^oM 



Sonney's home-made honey gate 



Swarm Control 



By W. J. Sheppard 



Some method, or other, for the con- 

 trol of swarming, or, in the event of 

 swarms issuing, the building up of 

 colonies to pre-swarming strength, 

 as siQon afterwards as possible, is of 

 paramount importance in honey pro- 

 duction. Here in British Columbia, 

 where we usually experience short 

 honey-flows, there will be swarming 

 galore as soon as honey begins 

 to come in at all freely, unless 

 some measure has been taken to 

 check or control it, and so prevent 

 the honey -crop being curtailed, or, 

 as sometimes happens, being lost 

 altogether, through want of such pre- 

 caution. 



A simple method to check swarm- 

 ing, suitable to British Columbia con- 

 ditions, is to place a second story of 

 built-out combs, or, full sheets of 

 foundation, above the brood-chamber, 

 as soon as the bees begin to get 

 crowded in the spring, adding supers 

 afterwards, as required, above a 

 queen excluder. This will provide 

 the queen with abundance of room 

 for egg-laying, giving her access to 

 20 frames in a 10-frame hive, and 16 

 in an 8-frame. 



Needless to say, colonies will, by 

 this means, become very strong, and 

 be in the right condition to render a 

 good account of themselves when the 

 honey flow comes. The queen, after 

 a short time, will ascend into the 

 second story and make this her head- 

 quarters, so that, as a rule, there will 

 not be very much brood below. Just 

 before the commencement of the 

 honey-flow the queen may be found 

 and put down in the bottom story, 

 below the all-wire queen-excluder. 

 Then, as the brood hatches out, the 

 bees will fill the combs with honey. 

 It is advisable to search through the 

 combs in the second story, on the 

 ninth day after the queen has been 

 put down, in case queen-cells have 

 been built which should be destroyed, 

 unless required for nuclei, or for re- 

 requeening. Some prefer the ex- 

 cluder to remain on the top of the 

 second story all the season, without 

 troubling to put the queen down. 



What is often referred to as the 

 Demaree plan for swarm control is an 

 excellent method and in favor with 

 many up-to-date beekeepers. It is 

 simple in application and can gener- 

 ally be relied on to give good results. 

 As soon as the brood-nest becomes 

 crowded, all the brood, except one. or 

 two frames, is placed in a second 

 story over a queen-excluder, and the 

 queen left below, empty combs, or 

 full sheets of foundation being added 

 to fill up the vacancies. By this 

 means the queen is provided with 

 abundance of room in advance of her 

 requirements, the conditions being 

 much the same as if she had been put 

 into a new hive with a swarm. The 

 colony, by this means, builds up 

 quickly, so that ithere is a tremendous 



