GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



in May, because it makes the bees rear 

 drones and get ready for swarming, drone- 

 rearing being the first step toward swarm- 

 ing. Later on he judges by the action of 

 the bees; and if they are likely to swarm he 

 examines the combs for queen-oells. T 

 asked him if he thought black bees showed 

 more by their actions and entrance the 

 tendency to swarm. He answered by saying 

 that in his opinion they do show it more 

 than Italians. 



In the examination, if queen-cells are 

 found he takes the queen with the poorest 

 comb of brood and j^laces them in a new 

 hive on the old stand, the remaining brood 

 being put on top of the hive with the super. 

 If he desires to make some increase to re- 

 place lost colonies, he sets the brood, within 

 ten days, on a new stand, making a new 

 colony of it. He sometimes gives such a 

 brood-chamber an entrance so that the 

 young queens can get out and mate. In 

 that ease he puts a queen-excluder between 

 the brood-chamber and the super beneath 

 it. 



DAVID running's PLAN. 



David Running, Tilion, Mich., has taken 

 bees out of the cellar as early as March 15 

 and as late as April 27. He likes to get 

 them out as early as the Aveather will per- 

 mit. He contracts the entrances at first to 

 2 or 2V2 X % inches, enlarging them as the 

 colonies get strong. The bees are left en- 

 tirely alone until fruit-bloom, but he makes 

 sure the fall before that all colonies have 

 plenty of stores. When the apple-bloom 

 comes on he considers the colony strong 

 enough to take care of all the brood in an 

 eight-frame hive. He then clips the queens 

 and equalizes the stores. He does not 

 equalize brood on account of the danger of 

 spreading disease. Any queenless colonies 

 are set on top of other colonies, as he does 

 not consider them worth while maintaining 

 for the surplus honey-flow. 



The bees are seldom strong enough for a 

 super at the beginning of fruit-bloom; but 

 as soon as they do become Strong an extra 

 super is added without a queen-excluder. 

 A week or ten days later, or at the begin- 

 ning of the clover flow, when the bees have 

 nicely started storing honey in the upper 

 story, the queen is shaken into the lower 

 story, a queen-excluder put over it, an 

 empty super added, and finally the super 

 that was over the brood -chamber, the colo- 

 ny thus being three stories high. About a 

 weelc later, during the heaviest of the hon- 

 ey-flow, all combs in the brood-chamber are 

 transferred to the top story, and founda- 

 tion, or empty drawn comb, put in its place. 

 If foundation is used, one drawn comb is 



put in the center for pollen and eggs. The 

 position of the other super is left unchang- 

 ed, an empty super being left next to the 

 queen-excluder. If the honey-flow later on 

 does not appear to justify the last-named 

 empty super, this is removed. 



A week after the queen has been shaken 

 down below the first time, Mr. Kunning cuts 

 all the queen-cells out of tlie coiiiljs shaken. 

 This is very important. If he Ci 1. find time 

 he breaks down the cells built in the second 

 lot of brood in the top of the hive next the 

 cover. If increase is wanted, he sometimes 

 sets these upper stories on a new stand be- 

 fore the queens hatch. By this time he does 

 not consider the cutting of the cells very 

 important, because the honey-flow is about 

 over. 



If a poor queen is found this hive is 

 marked and the queen changed as soon as 

 convenient. Extracting is begun about ten 

 days after the honey-flow ceases, the supers 

 being freed of bees by means of bee-es- 

 capes. The brood-chamber and first super 

 are left undisturbed until September 15, 

 tvhen feeding for winter is begam after the 

 super is taken off. 



It was Mr. Slusher, I believe, who said 

 that he started the prevention of swarming 

 by putting empty combs in the brood-cham.- 

 ber with the queen, and the brood in the 

 super above the queen-excluder, but he 

 found this to be unnecessary. In any case, 

 all three of the foregoing beekeepers claim- 

 ed that, by giving the queen of every good 

 colony the opportunity to deposit egg« in 

 the upper story, and later shaking her down 

 and giving her plenty of range to lay in the 

 lower story under the excluder stopped 

 swarming, or at least reduced it to a very 

 small per cent. They also agreed that, if 

 the combs of brood above the queen-exclud- 

 er including the queen-cells were raised up 

 and an empty super put between, there 

 would be practically no swarming. Mr. 

 Running, however, favors the destruction of 

 the cells before they hatch, or else he makes 

 a distinct brood-chamber of them with a 

 separate entrance. Heretofore in my own 

 practice I have not provided for fresh room 

 in the brood-chamber during the honey- 

 flow. This feature should be a valuable 

 addition to our fund of knowledge regard- 

 ing the prevention of swarming. 



S. D. CHAPMAN-'S METHOD. 



S. D. Chapman, of Manoelona, Mich., 

 uses an eight-frame hive and winters in the 

 cellar. He puts the colonies on the sum- 

 mer stand, weather conditions being favor- 

 able, about April 15. He selects a time 

 when the ]irospects are that it will not be 

 warm enough for a couple of days for the 



