216 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



ayiut 



warm da\ iu .hmuai'\, I'njiii coluiiics wiiili-rcil 

 Photographed by Chas. Y. Hake, York, Pa. 



brood-chamber becomes clogged with honey, 

 and crowds the queen to the lower part of 

 three or four frames (I use ten-frame 

 hives), so that, by the time the main flow is 

 over, the strong colonies become weak on 

 account of restricted space for brood, and 

 gather little honey the rest of the season. 



On the other hand the colonies which are 

 weak at the start will consume all the old 

 honey in brood-rearing, and do not get 

 much of the early honey on account of not 

 having a strong field force at that time, so 

 that their queen does not get restricted in 

 brood sjDace. These colonies will become 

 strong a little late for the beginning of the 

 main flow, but will remain strong through- 

 out the rest of the season, and store twice 

 as much in supers as the former colonies do 

 during tliis latter period, and they are then 

 apt to be the strong colonies the spring 

 following. 



Would extracting two or three frames 

 fi'om the brood-chamber of the strong colo- 

 nies a week or ten days before the main 

 flow keep these colonies strong the rest of 

 the season? If so, would it stop work in 

 the comb-honey supers? If the queen oc- 

 cupied the extracted combs as soon as re- 

 turned to the chamber (say there are three 

 combs to extract, and that it is done one 

 frame at a time thi-ee or four days apart, 

 and inserted in the brood-nest between the 

 brood, and the season is warm at that time), 



there will be no chilled brood. What would 

 be the result in the supers if the bees stop 

 work there? 



As to spreading brood, it can be done 

 here any time after May 15 in ordinary 

 years. Wlien I find a colony intends to 

 swarm I brush every bee from the frames 

 and put the frames into a new body, leav- 

 ing a comb pf unsealed brood, and perhaps 

 a comb of honey on the old stand. All the 

 sealed brood (and there will be very little 

 unsealed brood in the new body) is placed 

 on a new stand and queen-cells destroyed, 

 and a new queen placed between the combs 

 as soon as enough young bees have hatched 

 to hold the queen from absconding. I do 

 not lose any brood from chilling. Of course 

 the entrance is made small until there are 

 enough to guard it. The old queen is left 

 with all bees, young and old, to draw out 

 the new combs. This overcomes swarming 

 for the season. 



I have never had any spare combs at this 

 season, so I could not put empty combs 

 into the brood-chamber to see what the 

 result would be. I have tried frames of fu)l 

 sheets of foundation, which stops work in 

 supers until the new sheets are drawn out. 

 and the queen prefers the old comb for her 

 egg-laying. T could, to an extent, strength- 

 en the weak colonies by taking hatching- 

 brood from the strong and exchanging with 

 the weak for unsealed brood; then botli 



