MARCH 15, 1914 



223 



necessary to the upbuilding of the colony. 

 The procedure 1 followed was this: Three 

 days after hiving the swarm I took all the 

 comb built up to that time; and with the 

 aid of a piece of twine string 1 tied the bits 

 of comb into a frame. From that time on, 

 additional frames were added as necessary, 

 care being taken to place the new frame 

 between two frames of unsealed brood when- 

 ever possible. From experience in making 

 inci-ease I have found that comb will be 

 built faster, and will be more apt to be 

 worker comb when the empty frame is 

 placed in the manner just statecl. 



In the matter of avoiding drone comb, 

 there is another little kink that can be prac- 

 ticed. That is, when drone comb is built, 

 to make a practice of tearing it out, then 

 reversing the frame end for end. The re- 

 sult is that quite often the bees think they 

 have that drone comb yet, and build work- 

 er comb in place of the drone comb you 

 have removed. 



In order to practice successfully the fore- 

 going, it is necessary to go through the 

 hives two or three times a week, depending 

 on how fast comb is being built. It might 

 be well to state also that the practice out- 

 lined is in case comb is being built in the 

 brood-nest. Surplus comb is a different 

 matter. If store combs are being built it is 

 best to let them build them as the bees see 

 fit, or use foundation if you want worker 

 comb. 



And here, perhaps, a few remarks on the 

 subject of wax production might not be out 

 of the way. Some years ago this matter, 

 aside from honey production, was quite 

 widely discussed ; and at that time, under 

 certain conditions, I practiced wax produc- 

 tion successfully. It was in Cuba. There, 

 as is well known, the honey season is in the 

 winter season during the eampanilla bloom. 

 However, the swarming season is in the 

 summer months, from April to October, 

 and during these months the bees transpose 

 all the honey gathered into brood and wax 

 — the rule being that it is almost impossible 

 to secure any surplus honey during the 

 summer months. As increase was not want- 

 ed, my object was to produce wax in place 

 of bees. The method used was to have 

 nothing but worker comb in the brood-nest, 

 and quite often the brood-nest was con- 

 tracted. In the super, every other comb 

 was removed, care being taken to leave only 

 worker combs. Empty frames were then 

 placed between the combs in the super, and 

 a queen-excluder between the super and 

 brood-nest. The result was quite success- 

 ful, the bees building drone comb in the 

 empty frames; and as the bees desired and 



expected the queen to lay in the drone comb 

 so built, they held it open, no honey being 

 stored in the new comb. All that was nec- 

 essary to complete the operation was to 

 make the rounds of the hives every week 

 and cut out the comb so built. This pro- 

 cedure quite successfully held down swarm- 

 ing, and converted the surj^lus energy of 

 the bees into profit. 



The problem here confronting me with 

 my little swarm of bees was to build them 

 up as strong as possible; get all the comb 

 built that could well be done, so as to have 

 something to work with when the real hon- 

 ey-flow came on in the spring. As I have 

 previously stated, it was at the end of the 

 lioney-flow when I cajDtured my bees. While 

 the summer flow here is in many ways 

 similar to the summer flow in Cuba, yet the 

 bees have no desire to swarm. They seem 

 to know that the winter months will bring- 

 hard times, and not a time of prosperity. 



At the end of two months my colony had 

 completed eight combs, which number filled 

 the hive, and with the completion of the 

 eighth comb there was another problem. 

 To have attempted to have the bees build 

 in the super would have been out of the 

 question, for two reasons : First, they were 

 not strong enough, even under normal con- 

 ditions, to have allowed a sufiflcient cluster 

 of bees to be formed in the super to build 

 comb ; and, second, had there been enough 

 bees, there was not a sufficient flow of honey 

 to induce them to build in the super. 



But the bees could and would repair 

 a breach made in a vital part of the 

 brood-nest. So I continued as before, plac- 

 ing an empty frame, one at a time, between 

 two unsealed frames of brood, the combs 

 that were removed being placed in the 

 super, with the result that I continued to 

 get a frame of ^v^orker comb built every 

 week or ten days, where, had the bees been 

 left to their own devices, they would not 

 have built an inch of comb. 



THE ANNUAL CLEAN-UP DAY. 



While matters were thus progTessing 

 smoothly within the hive, a cloud appeared 

 on my horizon in the form of an announce- 

 ment, made by the mayor of the city, to the 

 eft^ect that September 10 would be the annu- 

 al clean-up day. Clean-up day, I might 

 state, is an annual occurrence here. A 

 proclamation is issued by the mayor of the 

 city, and evei-y householder and property 

 owner is requested to put matters right 

 about his premises. Briefly stated, it is a 

 universal external housecleaning in which 

 the entire city participates. This meant 

 that the representatives of the heirs who 

 owned the land where the bees were located 



