JUNE 15, 1916 



491 



man with out-apiaries must know what he 

 can do and how many colonies he can handle 

 in a day. I have taken care of 700 colonies 

 alone, in four yards, thru the swai'ming 

 season, and handled every brood-comb every 

 seven to nine daj-s — without losing a swarm. 

 I admit it takes lots of hard work, and 

 everything must move like clockwork and 

 without lost motion. 



The most failures in this method have 

 been caused by shaking colonies that have 

 never thought of SAvarming, and that might 

 not swarm during the season. I never shake 

 until I find cells started. 



Other failures consist of weakening the 

 old hive of brood so that the brood is chilled, 

 and the new swarm dwindles. A colony to 

 shake should be in the same condition a 

 natural swarm would be. It should be 

 strong, and nearly all the brood should be 

 sealed. "VVTien shaking, leave about as 

 many young bees in the hive as a natural 

 swarm would leave. A shaken swarm that 

 has cells nearly or entirely sealed is almost 

 sure to swarm out in 24 hours. The queen 

 in such cases should be clipped or caged so 

 she will not get away. 



Another method is to lift the hive from 

 the bottora-board and look for cells on the 

 combs. This is a quick way to get over a 

 lot of colonies. I use it somewhat when I 

 get behind and swarming is getting ahead 

 of me. But I miss some, as it is hard to see 

 cells in a strong colony unless they are on 

 the bottom of the combs. 



If no increase is wanted, and there are 

 no weak colonies to build up, I shake in 

 with the swarm all the young bees out of 

 those old hives left back of the shaken 

 swarms the week previous. That gives them 

 a lot of young comb-builders and a big 

 boost, and swarming is done with. I have 

 taken off three finished supers by the time 

 their brood-combs were filled out from one- 

 inch starters. 



Those old hives of sealed brood without 

 bees are looked over carefully, and all 

 queen-cells pinched off. I use those hives to 

 shake new swarms on and put on plenty of 

 super room, and then swarming is cured. 



Another method which I use mostly in 

 the second flow, when hives are full of 

 honey, and frames are hard to get out, is to 

 raise the hive up from the bottom; and, 

 when queen-cells are formed, cut out all 

 cells, then exchange locations with a weak 

 colony. That ends the swarming in one 

 operation, and shoves the other colony into 

 the supers lively. 



Still another method : If I want a moder- 

 ate increase I shake one colony clean of 

 bees; then the next one found wanting to 

 swarm I put on a new location and place the 

 old hive of brood in its place and give a 

 caged ripe cell. 



If the reader will notice, in all of these 

 methods I aim to keep all my bees together, 

 and all strong, at all times, and working in 

 the supers. 



Reno, Nev. 



WHY I CLIP THE WINGS OF A QUEEN ON BOTH SIDES 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN 



So Dr. C. C. Miller wants to know why I 

 clip the wing's on both sides of the queen, 

 p. 345, May 1. The queen appears to me 

 to look very awkward, backing to lay into 

 cells. There may be nothing in this, but she 

 certainly loolvs like a cripple with one side 

 clipped and the other not. In this matter 

 I followed the advice of the late Wm. Me- 

 Evoy, and am satisfied with the change. 



In my estimation there is a much better 

 way of marking a queen's age. We used to 

 clip the queens before the colonies were 

 taken out of the wintering-cases. This ne- 

 cessitated putting the record on the winter- 

 ing-ease and a transference of this record to 

 the hive when it was removed from the case. 

 This gives extra thought and work at a time 

 when one is in a hurry. So I now follow 

 the idea given to me by my son Ivar. He 

 sci-apes the propolis from the top of the 

 top-bar and marks when the queen is clip- 

 ped. My system of marking the age of the 



queen is to put down " Cl/Mayl5/16," if 

 she is found and clipped that day. If she is 

 found clipped on that day the top-bar is 

 marked " Cld/Mayl5/16. If she is found 

 clipped, and there is a record that she was 

 found clipped (Cld) the previous year, that 

 means that the queen is nearly three years 

 old. 



I prefer this system to having the record 

 on the queen for the queen may be any- 

 where in the hive; but there is no difficulty 

 in finding it on the top-bar. 



While writing in reference to clipping I 

 have come to the conclusion that it may not 

 be well to clip the wings too closely, for 

 there must be some circulation thru the 

 vrings, and probably the nearer the body the 

 more this is interfered with. 



BEES DRIFTING. 



The editor of Gleanings appears to be 

 under the impression that with the four- 

 colony winter-cases the bees drift. Let me 



