MAY 1, 1916 



363 



my methods, but a resume may be of ser- 

 vice to those interested in this subject. 



One can control swarming to the extent 

 of having no swarms run away by cell-cut- 

 ting and wing-clipping. This means a 

 weekly visit and a general overhauling of 

 jiraetically every colony in the apiary. 

 There is a lot of labor in this, but it is labor 

 well paid for if one can find no better way. 

 The cluef objection, aside from the labor, 

 to this method is that colonies Avhich get the 

 swarming fever badly will not finish up 

 sections. They will continue to store honey, 

 but will not do a finished job. This can be 

 offset in part by placing their partly filled 

 supers upon a colony which is doing finish- 

 ed work, and giving the unruly colony fresh 

 supers. Careful manipulation in a reason- 

 ably good season will result in a fair per- 

 centage of completed sections, but one has 

 to look out or he will have too large a 

 percentage of cull sections. 



Another plan which gives much better 

 results is to prevent the swai'ming fever 

 from starting in. Now don't get excited! I 

 have no infallible plan. Early in the sea- 

 son, before the colonies are too crowded, 

 cage queen or remove her. Substitute a 

 ripe queen-cell, either immediately in a 

 protecting-cage, or, three days later, unpro- 

 tected. Colonies thus treated will sometimes 

 later acquire the swarming fever, but most 

 of them will not; and if the operation is 

 well timed the crop is but little affected 

 thru the temporary absence of a queen. 



If one does not care to carry out this 

 plan in wholesale (and who does not find 



queens that he cannot bring himself to dis- 

 place?) then put the plan into operation 

 only with such colonies as start cells. It 

 will work pretty well here; but once in a 

 while the young queen will lead out a rous- 

 ing swarm just as soon as she has laid a 

 few eggs. 



If the last-mentioned plan is adopted let 

 the apiarist forestall a lot of the queen-dis- 

 placing by requeening the previous season. 

 It has been the experience of the writer that 

 queens reai-ed in September rarely lead out 

 swarms the following season. (I use this 

 expression, " lead out swarms," entirely 

 aware that the queen leads only in the sense 

 that she is a controlling influence.) For 

 many years I was able to state that I had 

 never had a SAvarm issue which was headed 

 by a September queen. But this last season 

 broke down all precedents. September 

 queens, young queens, old queens which had 

 already been out once, etc., were embroiled 

 in a fever of swarming that rivaled the 

 war-fever in Europe. 



Wliatever plan one follows, therefore, in 

 the production of section honey in out- 

 apiaries, he is sure to encounter difficulties. 

 He cannot, as in the production of extract- 

 ed honey, give unlimited.room, for if he does 

 he will get an unmarketable crop. But he 

 must give room or he will not get any crop. 

 Aside from the problem of the swarming 

 he has this other great problem, and in his 

 wise discretion in the matter of supplying 

 supers rests his success in getting a good 

 profitable crop to market. 



Nonvichtown, Ct. 



DON'T TRY TO MANAGE OUTYARDS WITHOUT AN AUTOMOBILE 



BY R. P. WIXON 



I am producing comb hnney in outyards 

 as a main crop, and extracted honey more 

 as a by-product. Comb honey appeals to 

 me because it has a ready sale. Until three 

 years ago I did not use an extractor, and 

 thus did not see the possibilities open to the 

 producer of good ripe extracted honey. 



Last spring 56 colonies of bees, spring 

 count, were increased to 110 colonies during 

 the season. These were in three yards — 

 two outyards and one home yard of about 

 25 colonies. This season (1916) T wish to 

 increase the total number to winter to 200. 

 These colonies will be away from home, and 

 will be run exclusively for fancy comb hon- 

 ey. The ten-fi'ame standard hive, factory- 

 built, with the 41/4 x 1%-inch sections, split 

 on three sides (Hand metliod) makes a hive 

 and super combination that gives excellent 

 satisfaction and good results. As I have 



used the split sections only one season it is 

 not quite fair to say whether tliey are ex- 

 actly ideal or not; but so far as last season 

 was concerned they gave good satisfaction 

 and stood a large amount of rough han- 

 dling, both before and after being filled by 

 the bees. 



As soon as it is safe to open hives in the 

 spring, the colonies are examined to deter- 

 mine if there are enough stores, and to 

 learn the exact strength, so as to be prepar- 

 ed to deal with each colony wisely. When 

 settled weather comes, sometimes between 

 April 20 and May 1, the queens are clipped, 

 and tlie smallest frame of brood in the 

 brood-nest is transfeiTcd so it comes be- 

 tween two larger frames, or, in other words, 

 one of the outside frames of brood becomes 

 an inside one. The second week the same 

 operation is repeated; but on the following 



