April, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



257 



we lake all the bi'oocl it can spare, only so we 

 leave tour brood in (he hive. 



In tliis way we make the x'ounds of the 

 apiary, drawing brood and bees from each 

 colony that has five brood or more, and giv- 

 ing to each colony that has less than four 

 brood. A colony with four brood will be 

 left as it is. 



It is possible that there are so many 

 strong colo-nies in the apiary that in this 

 first round we shall be able to bring up to 

 independent strength all the colonies in the 

 apiary. In that case a brood-in-three colo- 

 ny will need two brood, and a two-brood 

 colony will also need tAVo brood. There Avill 

 now be so large a proportion of strange bees 

 that the queen will be endangered. Two 

 ways out of the difficulty are before us. We 

 may give a single brood today, and two days 

 later another. Or we can give queenless 

 bees wliich will treat kindly a strange 

 queen. For this purpose we will draw 

 brood and bees from the strong colonies, 

 and put them in an empty hive on a new 

 stand. All the better if there are enough to 

 pile them two or more stories high. All the 

 field-bees will return to their old homes, but 

 abundance of young bees will be left. Two 

 days later we can take these queenless bees 

 with the brood, and, without any prelim- 

 inai'y, use them wherever needed, no matter 

 Iww weak the colonies to which they are 

 given. 



Unless we have been so exceedingly for- 

 tunate as to bring up to independent 

 strength all colonies at the first round, we 



will repeat the process every ten or fifteen 

 days until every colony has at least four 

 frames of brood. After the first time 

 around we shall have the advantage of 

 knowing in advance something about the 

 strength of each colony, and which ones are 

 strong enough to yield brood. So it will be 

 a good plan to go first to a few of the 

 strongest and get an advance stock of bees 

 and brood, say half a dozen or so, if the 

 apiary is of considerable size, keeping them 

 in an empty hive to be used as needed. 



Of course the number of strong colonies 

 is constantly increasing, and the number 

 that need help at the same time decreasing, 

 so that at the last you can give as many- 

 brood as needed to each needy colony. The 

 only safe way to give bees with several 

 brood is to have the bees queenless, as al- 

 ready explained. The last ones to be help- 

 ed are the very weakest, even down possibly 

 to one or more with brood in only one, a 

 mere handful of bees, the queen being the 

 only really valuable part. As the season is 

 now becoming advanced, bringing such a 

 colony up to four brood will not be enough. 

 It should be brought up to 6 or 8 brood, and 

 even then it will have nothing but young 

 bees. But each day the number of bees go- 

 ing afield will be rapidly increasing, and at 

 least part of the flow can be utilized. But 

 if the plan outlined be followed up the num- 

 ber that cannot be brought uja to have the 

 benefit of the full harvest will be very small, 

 if indeed there be any. 



Marengo, III. 



MAKING THE WORK COUNT 



Methods of Assembling Frames that 

 Improve the Quality of the Work 

 and Shorten the Time of Doing it 



By H. H. Root 



THERE are 

 two ways 

 for a bee- 

 keeper to in- 

 crease his prof- 

 its. One way is 

 to get more mon- 

 ey for his crop, 

 and the other to 

 get more crop for the labor performed. 

 This article has to do with the saving of 

 time in performing a very important part 

 of every beekeeper's labor; namely, the as- 

 sembling of brood and extracting frames. 



There have been a large number of differ- 

 ent forms described in Gleanings for facili- 

 tating this work. I have tested many of 

 them and found them good, but none of 

 them, apparently, are as rapid as the plans 

 described herewith. 



When nailing frames one at a time we 

 use a simple form, shown in Fig. 1. This 



consists of an 

 upright frame- 

 work containing 

 a groove of ex- 

 act size to hold a 

 top-bar. When 

 the top-bar is 

 placed in posi- 

 tion an end-bar 

 IS put in place. Two nails are driven 

 down thru it into the top-bar; then the 

 end-spacing staple is driven in. The top- 

 bar is reversed, and the other end - bar 

 similarly nailed. Then the frame is taken 

 out of the support, laid down on the bench 

 (top-bar down), and the bottom-bar nailed 

 on. Reversing the frame, letting it rest on 

 the bottom-bar, and driving one nail down 

 thru each end of the top-bar into an end-bar, 

 completes the job. Forty to forty-five 

 frames an hour is easy work. 



For several months we have been using 



