840 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



Bees are swarming some now, but the prin- 

 cipal swarming season is in the spring. I 

 hived one this morning at 6:30. The bees are 

 working strongly at sunrise, but stop about 

 ten o'clock. Later on they will not get up so 

 early. 



I had a six-weeks' trip up home, but spent 

 three of them in a hospital, and did not even 

 get to see my own apiary at West Groton. 

 However, that did not matter, as no one there 

 got much if any honey. 



Artemisa, Cuba. 



A NEW MANAGEMENT FOR COMB-HONEY PRO- 

 DUCTION. 



How to Brush Swarms; Do they Work with the 

 same Vigor as Natural Swarms? Swarm- 

 ing Under Control. 



BY L. STACHEIvHAUSEN. 



In my article, Dec. 15, 1899, I explained why 

 another management is necessary for comb- 

 honey production. For my management a 

 two-story hive is needed. In spring we man- 

 ipulate our hives in any of the recommended 

 ways. To get a colony as strong as possible 

 for the honey harvest, the brood-chamber is 

 enlarged at the right time by giving a second 

 or third story. So we get all advantages of 

 large hives, and in 99 cases out of 100 such 

 colonies will not swarm, according to my ex- 

 perience of 15 years. 



As soon as the honey-flow commences, and 

 the time arrives when we think it is best to set 

 supers with sections on top of our hives, a 

 hive is prepared with starters only. We bring 

 it to the hive selected for the new manipula- 

 tion. The old hive is removed from the bot- 

 tom-board, and set aside to be handy for the 

 following manipulation. The new hive is set 

 on the old stand, and an empty hive-body on 

 top of it. In all these operations I use smoke, 

 and handle the bees somewhat roughly to cause 

 them to fill themselves with honey. One of 

 the brood-combs, with bees and all, is put into 

 the new hive, and then all the bees are brush- 

 ed from every frame into this hive. The most 

 important thing in this operation is, that the 

 bees fill themselves with honey. A little 

 sprinkling with a solution of sugar in water 

 can be used if the bees do not suck up the 

 open honey. 



The combs from which the bees are brushed 

 into the new hive are assorted into different 

 empty bodies near by — brood-combs, honey- 

 combs, or empty ones separately. It is not 

 necessary to look for the queen. She is brush- 

 ed into the hive with the other bees. 



At last we remove the empty body, lay a 

 queen-excluding honey-board on top of the 

 new hive ; and a super with sections (contain- 

 ing preferably full sheets of foundation and 

 some bait-combs) is set on top of this, and 

 the hive is closed. 



Some time the next day, when the bees have 

 commenced to build combs, the lower story of 

 the brood-chamber is removed ; and if the col- 

 ony has not room enough, another section-su- 

 per is given. At the same time I remove the 



brood-comb, which had no other purpose than 

 to induce the bees to accept the situation with 

 less disturbance. This brood-comb is not ab- 

 solutely necessary. The colony is now man- 

 aged exactly as by Hutchinson's method. 



What to do with the brood-combs? I have 

 used them so far in forming or strengthening 

 nuclei, and the nuclei plan is the only one by 

 which I have increased my colonies for many 

 years. The first bees coming out of this brood 

 will be field bees about 18 days later ; the last 

 one, 39 days later. It depends on the dura- 

 tion of the honey-flow whether these young 

 bees are more useful in the nucleus or in this 

 hive. It is not difficult to utilize them par- 

 tially or all in the swarm by using Heddon's 

 method of preventing after-swarms. I will 

 not describe how this is done, as every bee- 

 keeper knows it. At any time inside of 21 

 days we can brush all the bees in front of the 

 swarm. 



I mentioned the queen-excluding honey- 

 bo jrd. In my locality it is not necessary to 

 use it. I never had any trouble with brood or 

 pollen in the sections ; it is an advantage if 

 we can dispense with this honey-board. A 

 similar way is recommended by Mr. Danzen- 

 baker in his book " Facts about Bees." He 

 is very near to it ; the only difference is, he 

 says we have by all means to wait till the col- 

 ony has commenced queen-cells. This is a 

 mistake. If a strong colony has any drone 

 brood it is in a condition in which it can be 

 swarmed. I recommended the forming of 

 brushed swarms about 15 years ago, in the 

 American Apiculturist, and made them on 

 the old stand as well as on a new stand in un- 

 counted numbers, with the result that these 

 swarms always worked with the same vigor as 

 natural swarms, so I know ^^hat I say. 



For this management I prefer a Heddon 

 hive with 10 frames in a body. Two of them 

 have the same capacity as a Draper barn. It 

 is just as well to use two of Root's 8 supers 

 with 10 frames, but the top-bar of the frames 

 must be made % inch instead of l>iin. wide. 

 These wide top bars work just like a que^n- 

 excluding honey-board, and are of more hin- 

 drance for expansion of the brood than too 

 small a hive. In these shallow bodies we are 

 not troubled with brace- combs, and this is the 

 only reason for their use. I use the same su- 

 per, two or more for the brood-chamber ; but 

 my frames are fixed in another way, but this 

 is of no importance. 



With the 8 frame hive and the Danzenbaker 

 hive two bodies are somewhat too large for 

 the brood-chamber. This is no disadvantage 

 during the spring development. During the 

 honey-flow they would ba better if smaller. 

 It will be difficult to get them to build out 

 with natural worker-combs only, and no drone- 

 cells. 



If one of the half-stories containing 10 

 frames with starters is given to this swarm, 

 the bees will fill them with worker-combs ; 

 and, according to my experience, these combs 

 do not cost any thing. As soon as necessary, 

 another half-story containing full sheets of 

 foundation is given under the first one, all ac- 

 cording to Hutchinson's method. 



