MAY 15, 1916 



407 



bees to fly. However, he does not want the 

 weather to be extremely cold. He finds tliat. 

 if the bees fly at once, especially if the 

 weather is jiretty warm, the bees drift and 

 mix up more than one realizes. 



From the time of setting the bees out in 

 the spring until the beginning of fruit- 

 bloom Mr. Chapman leaves the colonies 

 alone and does not disturb the sealed covers 

 of the hives. At the time of fruit-bloom he 

 puts on upper stories, letting the bees have 

 sixteen combs, but he does not put a queen- 

 excluder between. When fruit-bloom is on 

 he goes thru the colonies for the first time, 

 marking their condition as to their strength, 

 amount of stores, and condition of their 

 queen. At tliis time he also equalizes by 

 taking combs of brood from some that are 

 particularly strong and giving them to the 

 weak. His object in equalizing is to make 

 them all of the same strength so that they 

 will require about the same treatment dur- 

 ing the season. 



About June 1, or at the very beginning 

 of the raspberry flow, three combs of the 

 matured brood are taken out of the brood- 

 chamber and put into the super above, three 

 good worker combs being put in the center 

 of the lower brood-chamber. If the queen 

 has entered the upper story at this time 

 (and of course she is likely to have done so 



if the colony is strong) he shakes her into 

 the lower story and confines her there by 

 means of a queen-excluder. He now has 

 tAvo stories with brood, and other supers are 

 added for the surplus honey as needed, the 

 bees never being allowed to become crowd- 

 ed. The first extra super is required usual- 

 ly in less than fifteen days, and this is 

 placed between the two stories containing 

 the brood. This must go between the two 

 stories of brood and above the queen-ex- 

 cluder over the lower story, because the 

 combs in the upper story will have queen- 

 cells. With the cells so disposed of, Mr. 

 Chapman finds that the colonies do not 

 swarm when the young queens hatch. 



By the above system Mr. Chapman also 

 secures plenty of room for the queens to 

 lay in the combs in the lower story, to which 

 she is confined at the time the surplus rasp- 

 berry-flow begins. Three combs are entire- 

 ly empty at this time. Furthermore, if the 

 colony is strong, and the queen goes into 

 the upper story during fniit-bloom, and 

 until the raspberry begins to yield, young 

 bees will have been emerging from the cells 

 in the lower combs, giving just that much 

 more room when the queen is confined be- 

 low. By this plan, at any rate, swarming is 

 almost entirely prevented. 



Bi-antford, Ontario. 



BEE -NOTES FROM HOLLAND 



BY J. H. J. HAMELBERG 



[This is the first of a series of articles on hpekeepirg: in Holland. T^ater articles will discuss the ques- 

 tion of hive and other equipment, the honey crop, wintering, etc. — Ed.] 



With us the common black or German bee 

 reigns supreme. Italians or Carniolans are 

 exceptions ; and as to Caucasians, Cyprians, 

 Banats, and other species, I have never seen 

 them in this country nor ever heard of any 

 one keeping them. 



A few amateurs may like to have a colo- 

 ny of Italians or Carniolans in their api- 

 aries, and I know of one dealer in bee- 

 keepers' supplies who regularly orders Car- 

 niolan queens from Austria to be used in 

 his own yard; but surely nine-tenths of all 

 the bees kept in this country are pure 

 blacks. 



Altho preferring the Italians by far, I 

 consider it wrong to condemn the blacks 

 altogether. They are cross, undoubtedly, 

 and they have a nasty habit of running over 

 the combs when handling them; but they 

 have some redeeming qualities. They cap 

 their cells beautifully, and in gathering 

 honey from the heather (an important 

 source of winter stores in this country) I 

 don't believe they can be equaled. 



In judging the blacks (or, i-ather, our 

 blacks) it must not be lost sight of that 

 they are probably a good deal degenerated. 

 For years — nay, even for centuries — it has 

 been the custom of our beekeepers every 

 year to sulphur their heaviest colonies — in 

 other words, their best honey-gatherers; 

 and it can hardly be doubted that this prac- 

 tice must have had a very deteriorating ef- 

 fect upon the race. I remember once having 

 seen a very large skep in which a first 

 swarm had been put in the month of June, 

 filled to the very brim with beautifully built 

 comb or worker-cells only. Except on the 

 edges of the combs, no drone-c^lls were to 

 be seen; and all the cells, except those in 

 the two or three lowest rows of the combs, 

 were beautifully sealed. It was in the latter 

 part of September when I found this skep, 

 and I would willingly have given a hundred 

 guilders for this colony if the stupid bee- 

 keeper had not already sulphured it and its 

 parent colony, also a very good one. as Avell. 

 Such practices, continued for centuries, 



