MAY 1, 1916 



thus taken may be used to build up weak 

 colonies, if any are present, or to make in- 

 crease. I usually pile them up on the new 

 stand with contracted entrance about three 

 stories high, and give a ripe queen-cell. 

 This cell hatches before the young bees get 

 to storing honey, and the young queen will 

 destroy all other queen-cells, thereby elimi- 

 nating all danger of swarming. The weath- 

 er at this time of year is warm enougli so 

 that there is no danger of chilling brood, 

 and young bees hatch fast enough, together 

 with those few not shaken off, to care for 

 the young larvae. These three-story hives 

 are usually so crowded with honey by fall 

 that both the brood and queen will be found 

 in the lower story. The upper stoi'ies can 

 then be removed and used for feeding next 

 spring. 



Colonies that Avere given upper stories 

 during fruit-bloom are divided as soon as 

 super work gets well started. Most of the 

 honey and capped brood will be found up- 

 stairs in these hives. I shake most of the 

 bees off in front of the lower story, to 

 which I have added two supers in place of 

 the upper story; and after making sure 

 that the queen is in the lower story I treat 

 the upper story the same as other shaken 

 frames. 



When T think the honey-flow is half over 

 T stop shaking bees, because those colonies 

 that go half way through the honey-flow 



without attempting to swarm can be kept in 

 the supers by destroying queen-cells once a 

 week if any api^ear. A great many colonies 

 will not attempt to swarm at all if properly 

 handled, and those are the ones that usually 

 make the best yields. Great care must be 

 taken along the latter part of the honey- 

 flow in order to get as manj' sections com- 

 pleted as possible ; and to avoid being 

 caught with a lot of unfinished supers, tliis 

 is entirely a matter of judgment of the bee- 

 keeper, and applied to the home yard as 

 well as the outyard. 



After the white-honey flow is over I re- 

 move the filled su^oers and give at least one 

 empty super to each hive to catch any unex- 

 pected surplus. If there is a fall flow, su- 

 pers are added as needed. There isn't often 

 much swarming at this time ; and as I do 

 my requeening in the fall I can conti'ol 

 what there is without trouble. 



About Nov. 1 I remove all supers, and 

 prepare bees for winter by contracting en- 

 trances to keep out mice, and by placing 

 about a dozen sheets of newspaper over 

 hives, and covering all with waterproof 

 building-paper folded to shed water, tying 

 with stout string to hold all in place. This 

 has proven better than cellar wintering for 

 me. to say nothing of the labor saved. 



Ankeny, Iowa. 



[Mr. Schlenker and his auto are shown 

 on the cover of this number. — Ed.] 



A NON-SWARMING SYSTEM THAT GETS RESULTS 



BY J. M. BUCHANAN 



For several years T have been testing out 

 a plan for preventing swarming at out- 

 yards; and as I have had such uniform suc- 

 cess with it I feel that I can recommend the 

 plan to others who are situated in a similar 

 location, or working under like conditions. 

 Our main honey-flows are from locust and 

 white and alsike clover, and usually begin 

 about May 1, clover closely following the 

 locust, and continuing about two months. 

 There is generally a light aster flow in the 

 fall. My bees are run principally for ex- 

 tracted honey, but with some slight modifi- 

 cations this plan will give good results in 

 comb-honey yards. 



Most of the spring work is done in tho 

 fall — that is, we see that the colonies breed 

 up strong during September and October 

 so as to go into winter with a large force of 

 young bees. If there is not a flow sufficient 

 to cause such breeding, the beas should be 

 fed thin syrup or diluted honey every few 

 days for a month or so. This is a very im- 



portant factor in the next sea.son's honey 

 crop. A colony that will not bi-eed up at 

 all had better be broken up, and the combs 

 and stores used elsewhere, as it will hardly 

 pay to winter such a colony. 



In October the excluders are removed, 

 and all supers are taken off, except one, 

 leaving the bees the run of two full-depth 

 stories. (I am using both eight and ten 

 frame hives.) There should be at least 25 

 pounds of sealed honey in the combs, some 

 of which may be in both stories. They are 

 now ready for winter. 



No other protection is given, except that 

 in a verj^ cold winter the entrances are re- 

 duced with blocks. They should now be left 

 entirely alone until April, when they are 

 looked through hurriedly to see that all 

 hives have stores and queens. No stimula- 

 tive feeding or spreading of the brood is 

 done. 



A few days before the main flow begins, 

 we go through the hives and put the queen 



