IS'JT 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



287 



after ihe (iivi>ifin. >ou would havi^ two qiinens 

 laying iii-toad uf one; ami in this tht-re is gnat 

 gain. But such reasoning as this is mysterious 

 to me, for the bees which hatch from those 

 eggs laid by the two queens after the division 

 can never become honey - gatherers in the 

 white clover-honey harvest, unless said har- 

 vest is much more prolonged than it ever is 

 here; so the bees raised from the eggs of the 

 extra queen will only become consumers, with- 

 out adding one iota to our crop of honey. Yea, 

 more: instead of adding to the crop of honey 

 It will lessen that crop by just the amount that 

 it will take to feed and nurse the brood and 

 the young bees after hatching, which is a clear 

 loss to us. 



Then, again, all admit that one strong colony 

 will store far more honey when kept together, 

 it not having the swarming fever, than the 

 same colony would if divided and placed in two 

 separate hives, thus making two weak colonies 

 of it. Hence, by dividing at the commence- 

 ment of the honey harvest, or a little before, 

 we have two weak colonies to do the gathering, 

 up to about the time the harvest closes, instead 

 of the one very strong one; while after-results 

 from fall flowers are no better for an increase 

 at this time. Still again: By such division we 

 shall have many combs from half to three- 

 fourths full of honey to extract from during 

 the season or at the end thereof, instead of lit- 

 tle if any more than half the number of chock- 

 ful combs which will yield bountifully of hon- 

 ey every time we put them in the extractor. 

 Hence we have very much more work in the 

 extracting arising from this division, just be- 

 fore the honey harvest. 



For these reasons my plan has been to work 

 the colonies as above given till very near, or 

 just at the close of the harvest, when I go to 

 work and make what increase I wish, by divid- 

 ing as many of the colonies as I wish increase. 



If any happen to swarm near the close of the 

 honey harvest, or at any time during the latter 

 part of the same, I accept their increase as far 

 as they do so, thus lessening the number de- 

 sired, according to the number which swarm. 

 About ten days before the honey harvest will 

 naturally close, I start queen-cells In upper 

 stories (the colonies thus used for cells should 

 have a queen-excluding honey-board between 

 the stories), according to the plan given in 

 "Scientific Queen-rearing," to the needed num- 

 ber, these queen-cells being built without any 

 detriment to our honey crop, as the old queen 

 is still doing duty below; and when these cells 

 are ripe I proceed to divide the required number 

 of colonies by an equal division of brood, bees, 

 and combs, allowing the old queen to remain 

 on the old stand, and giving the nearly mature 

 cell to the part removed, twenty-four hours after 

 removal, when they will readily accept the 

 same without using any precaution against the 



bees tearing the cell cpen and destroying the 

 young queen. 



If queen txcludi'rs are used between the two 

 stories of each colony, as I think it well pays to 

 do, then I like this plan a littlt? better: Four 

 days before I expect to make the division I go 

 to the hive and raise the more nearly mature 

 brood to the upper story; and if I see the queen 

 I leave her below; but I take no special pains 

 to look for her. At the end of the four days I 

 take a look at the combs; and if the queen is in 

 the upper story it will be revealed by there be- 

 ing eggs in the combs. If there are no eggs 

 found I insert a queen-cell and let the hive 

 stand as it is till near sunset, when I take off 

 the upper story and carry it to where I wish it 

 to stand, and the divi.^ion is made. If eggs are 

 found I hunt out the queen and let her run in 

 at the entrance below, and at night carry the 

 upper story to a new stand, giving the cell 24 

 hours later, as I did by the first plan, as the 

 bees having a queen in this upper ^tory would 

 be likely to destroy the cell if no precaution is 

 taken. If I do not readily find the queen, 

 where one happens to be in an upper story, I 

 either shake off the bees in front of the en- 

 trance to the lower hive, or shake the bees off 

 their combs into the upper hive, smoking the 

 bees down through the queen-excluder, when 

 the queen will be easily found trying to get 

 through the zinc. If I wish to catch the queen 

 I use the latter way; but if I only wish to have 

 her in the lower story, the first is the more 

 quickly accomplished. 



pettit's method op producing comb honey; 

 perforated followers. 

 Will you kindly refer back to page .52 of the 

 present volume of Gleanings to that part of 

 the article by Mr. S. T. Peitit, beginning, "But 

 there is another new and valuable feature to be 

 described " ? Read to the end, and I think you 

 will conclude, as I have, that Mr. Pettit ex- 

 presses it well when he speaks of this feature as 

 "new and valuable." I have scanned closely 

 all articles in Gleanings and the Amer. Bee 

 Journal for a good many years; but, so far as 

 I can remember, this is the first time this sim- 

 ple but practicable idea has been placed before 

 the bee-keeping fraternity. The morel think 

 of this suggestion the more it grows in import- 

 ance, until I feel impelled to revert your atten- 

 tion to its sterling worth. Not only so, but, 

 original and weighty as this feature appears, I 

 was somewhat disappointed to find that, in your 

 footnote, you failed to give it even a passing 

 notice. But what is this new feature? If I 



