186 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



natural swarming in large apiaries, it 

 is considered as undesirable. If 

 some increase is desired, it is much 

 better to break up a few colonies and 

 make as many as possible from them, 

 using the poorest colonies for that 

 purpose and giving queens from the 

 best stock. Strong colonies are the 

 ones that harvest the big crops and 

 for this reason the medium or poor 

 colonies are the ones to use foi- in- 

 crease. It would be a mistake, of 

 course, to breed the queens from 

 these inferior stocks. The queens 

 should be reared from the colonies 

 producing the largest amount of 

 honey. 



However, no attempt was made to 

 get increase the second year. The 

 close of the season found our 59 

 colonies increased by natural swarms 

 to 67. 



The bees were wintered as before 

 and permitted to build up in the same 

 manner during early spring. At the 

 close of fruit bloom many of the colo- 

 nies were getting crowded and re- 

 quired some attention to prevent 

 them from swarming. When the colo- 

 nies had become strong, each was ex- 

 amined carefully, and if there was 

 any indication of a desire to swarm, 

 such as newly-started queen cells, the 

 queen was removed with a frame of 

 brood and placed in a new hive. A 

 second frame containing eggs or 

 newly-hatched larvae was also re- 

 moved and placed beside the one on 

 which the queen was found. The rest 

 of the space was filled with drawn 

 combs or full sheets of foundation. 

 The hive body containing the queen 

 was then placed in the same position 

 where the hive had been and a queen 

 excluder placed over it. The old hive 

 was then placed directly over it so 

 that the bees could pass freely up and 

 down from the old brood-nest to the 

 new, but the queen was compelled to 

 remain below, where the supply of 

 empty combs gave her an abundance 

 of room to lay. A few days later, it 

 became necessary to remove all queen 

 cells from the upper story to prevent 

 swarming. 



A sudden drop in temperature, just 

 after lifting the brood above, resulted 

 disastrously for a few colonies, since 

 the bees went into the upper story 

 and left the queen and her newly- 

 laid eggs without suitable protection 

 below. There is this element of dan- 

 ger when it is done too early in the 

 season. A better plan is to place a 

 super of empty combs directly above 

 and to let the queen begin laying in 

 this, and later set it below with an 

 excluder between the bodies, if the 

 weather is still cold. 



When the honeyflow began in earn- 

 est, the supers of full depth combs 

 were set on the hives as fast as the 

 bees were ready for them. As soon 

 as they showed the least signs of 

 crowding, another super was placed, 

 so that there was never lack of room 

 in which to store. No effort was made 

 to extract any of the honey until the 

 clover flow was nearly over. At that 

 time nearly all the colonies were four 

 stories high, many were five stories, 

 and the best were six stories high, 



and all were nearly full of brood and 

 honey from top to bottom. The 

 stronger colonies occupied two 

 stories with brood and had four su- 

 pers full of honey. About 140 sets of 

 new combs were drawn the second 

 season. Getting new combs drawn 

 during a heavy honeyflow, such as 

 this proved to be, is expensive, and 

 had we been supplied with sufficient 

 combs to take care of the honey dur- 

 ing the height of the season, our 

 showing would have been still better. 

 When the clover flow was nearing 

 a close, the surplus was extracted 

 and supers replaced on the hives. The 

 clover honey is of better quality than 

 the fall honey and it is seldom advis- 

 able to mix it. About five thousand 

 pounds of clover honey was taken 

 and something more than a thousand 

 pounds of fall honey, making more 

 than three tons in all. It found a 

 ready sale at 12 V2 cents wholesale. 

 As already stated, something like 

 half a ton was left in the combs for 

 use in starting new colonies the fol- 

 lowing season, so that, including 

 that taken the first season (exact fig- 

 ures as to amount were lost), more 

 than $800 worth of honey was pro- 

 duced during the two summers, be- 

 sides a sufficient quantity to winter 

 the bees. Nearly 100 pounds of wax 

 was also secured. 



It will be noted that no account of 

 expense of supplies is mentioned 

 here. Most of the supplies were for 

 hives, foundation and fixtures to be 

 used as a permanent investment, and 

 the increase in the number of colonies 

 of bees would far outweigh such inci- 

 dental supplies as containers, labels, 

 etc. 



ECONOMY IN THE PRODUCTION 



OF QUEEN BEES 



Part I — A Swarm-box Hive 



By Geo. D. Shafer 



In the extensive queen-breeding 

 yards of Mr. .1. E. Wing, of San Jose, 

 Calif., there have been developed 

 from well-known methods, certain 

 modifications of practice which are 

 decided improvejiients from the 



Hi 



'J'hc s\varin-bo.\ hive. 



standpoint of time and bees in the 

 production of first-class queens. Mi-. 

 Wing has always been generous in 

 explaining his methods to others, and 

 with his consent a series of three ar- 

 ticles has been prepared for the 

 American Bee Journal in the belief 

 that they may be of use to other 

 queen breeders and to beekeepers 

 generally. The principal points for 

 special consideration are: 



1. A swarm-box hive for getting 

 gi-afted queen-cell cups accepted or 

 started. 



2. The practice of "dry grafting" 

 into artificial cups of wax fastened 

 upon thin, flat wooden cell bases. 



3. The use of a "stock hive" in 

 connection with the maintenance of 

 baby nuclei mating hives. 



In this first article the origin and 

 manipulation of the "Swarm-box 

 Hive" is described. 



It was during the period of 1904 

 to 1906 that Mr. E. L. Pratt, under 

 the pseudonym of "Swarthmore," 

 published his series of little pamphlets 

 on "Increase," "Baby Nuclei," "Cell 

 Getting," "Simplified Queen Rear- 

 ing," "Golden All Over Queens," and 

 "Forcing the Breeding Queen to Lay 

 Eggs in Artificial Queen Cups." Mr. 

 Wing had been making use of strong 

 colonies (rendered queenless), from 

 which all young brood had been re- 

 moved, for starting grafted queen 

 cells according to the early Doolittle 

 plan. He read Pratt's little books 

 and tried the Swarthmore swarm-box 

 principle. Excellent results were ob- 

 tained at getting grafted queen cell 

 cups accepted and started. Under 

 proper manipulation the rim of every 

 cup would be drawn down with a thin 

 edge of new wax, and after twenty- 

 four hours almost evei-y larv" would 

 be found surrounded with the beau- 

 tiful white royal jelly. It will be re- 

 membered, however, that the bees 

 were confined, in the case of the orig- 

 inal swarm-box. They could not make 

 a cleansing flight. For the best re- 

 sults it was therefore necessary to 

 return all the bees to their original 

 hive (or to use them in some other 

 way) after a batch of queen-cells had 

 been started. Before another batch 

 of grafted cell cups could be intro- 

 duced, the box must be filled with a 

 new lot of bees. The process of con- 

 stantly refilling and emptying swarm- 

 boxes was laborious, wasteful of time, 

 and all but impossible when hundiods 

 of colls must be started daily to sup- 

 ply a larg3 and growing demand for 

 queens. Yet the fact remained that 

 the swarm-box did "get the cells"; it 

 did so just as well as the strong, 

 queenless colony from which all but 

 the sealed brood had been removed, 

 and it was much less expensive of 

 bees. If only this swarm-box could 

 be used over and over without the 

 necessity of changing the bees — and 

 then the notion occurred: "Why not 

 make the swarm-box in the shape of 

 a small hive so that the bees, after 

 their first confinement, might be re- 

 leased and allowed to establish them- 

 selves as a small but crowded queen- 

 less colony"? This idea was carried 



