GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



away from the old brood-nest, queen-cells 

 will be stai'ted in the majority of eases; but 

 tliey can be cared for easily later on. T 

 have had queens hatch in this upper story, 

 and yet there would be no swarming; but 

 some have reported otherwise, so it does no 

 harm to look through these combs eight or 

 ten days afterAvard. 



One great objection to this plan is that, 

 if there is any honey of inferior quality in 

 these brood-combs, it will spoil the quality 

 of No. 1 clover honey when the extracting 

 is done. This is a question that every bee- 

 keeper will have to decide for himself, as 

 locality and management of colonies pre- 

 vious to doing this work have a great deal 

 to do in determining results. 



The advantages of the plan are that it 

 nearly always prevents swarming for the 

 season; you keep all the bees in the one 

 hive, and at the same time get a lot of new 

 combs drawn out each year. More than any 

 thing else, it means a crop of honey if 

 there is any to be bad, as no other plan that 

 I have any knowledge of will give a greatei' 

 surplus. This plan is old, and was first 

 given by a southern beekeeper whose name 

 I can not recall. 



With four or five apiaries with the large 

 Jumbo hives, many might think we should 

 have no swarming when running for ex- 

 tracted honey; but unless due precautions 

 are taken, these same hives will give us lot? 

 of trouble as past experience has shown 

 conclusively. One of the main points to be 

 considered in heading off the swarming 

 desire is to give lots of room early enough 

 in the season so that the bees will have 

 supers to enter just as soon as they are at 

 all crowded in the brood-nest. Our greatest 

 trouble with swarming during the past five 

 years has not been with the very strong 

 colonies, but, rather, with those not strong 

 enough to super at fruit-bloom. They are 

 left till the opening of clover, and perhaps 

 by that time they are a bit crowded, and. 

 instead of going into supers when given at 

 that time, they make preparations for 

 swarming. When I find colonies in that 

 condition I generally raise one or two 

 frames of brood into the super, over a 

 queen-excluder. Now and then we may get 

 caught with a bit of chilled brood if the 

 weather turns cool suddenly; but, all things 

 considered, I would sooner take a little risk 

 that way, and be sure that the colony is not 

 going to get the swarming fever so early 

 in the season, and probably knock out all 

 chances of a crop of honey, particularly if 

 the season is very short. 



Colonies that have entered the supers 

 during fruit-bloom, rarely give any trouble 

 at the opening of clover, so the idea should 



be to get all in that condition as soon as 

 possible. Sometimes we get caught in fruit- 

 bloom, and find extra-strong colonies pre- 

 paring to swarm at the time we are clipping 

 queens. There are many plans of dealing 

 with such colonies at this date ; and if brood 

 has to be taken away to stop the notion of 

 swarming, one can always at that time find 

 many places to put it. I certainly break 

 U13 the swarming fever at that time in some 

 way, as one has no time to be tinkering' 

 with a few colonies at that busy season. 



Last spring I movjed two carloads of 

 bees ; and during my absence the clover 

 started to yield. One apiary was unusually 

 strong with bees for so' early in the season, 

 and, before leaving home, I had clipped the 

 queens during fruit-bloom, and given a full- 

 depth Juiubo super. When I came home 

 and got to this yard I found three-fourths 

 of the colonies with the sujier full of fruit- 

 bloom and early clover honey, and about all 

 with queen-cells started. The bees were 

 nearly all of Carniolan blood, and I realized 

 that my absence had put tilings in pretty 

 bad shape at that place. I hastily decided 

 on a plan ; and whether it was on account of 

 certain conditions of honey-flow, or from 

 other causes, I knocked out about all the 

 swarming for the time being, and in the end 

 got a very large crop of honey. I hunted 

 out all the queens, and caged each in a 

 wire-cloth cage about % inch in diameter 

 and 6 inches long. The cage was placed 

 between the brood-combs beneath the ex- 

 cluder, two combs being spread apart to 

 allow the cage to go between. Each comb 

 was taken out and examined thoroughly for 

 cells, the bees being shaken in front of the 

 hive to make sure that no cells were missed. 

 Abundance of room was given above, and 

 they were left alone for eight days, when 

 the same process was gone over and all cells 

 cut out again. The old queen was liberated, 

 and, much to my surprise, the swarming 

 fever was done for, in spite of the fact that 

 the bees were Carniolans. I always think 

 that bees having a caged queen never work 

 so well as those in normal condition ; but in 

 this instance, for some reason, it seemed to 

 make little difference. The flow was very 

 heav}', and that may explain the mattet-. 

 Of course, this plan meant a lot of work ; 

 but it was a desperate case; and if I had 

 not been away on this moving trip, supers 

 would have been given and the trouble 

 avoided. 



After colonies are all storing in supers, 

 if abundance of storage room is given thei'e 

 should be no swarming, particularly if the 

 bees are Italians and the hives at least as 

 large as the ten-fi*ame L. In my own case I 

 prefer the ten-frame Jumbo, believing that 



