338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



Apiary at the University Farm (University of Minpesota, St. Paul). Photographed by O. L. Wills, 

 Minnesota stands first in the United States in introducing beel^eepingl in the agricultural college as a distinct 

 division. 



from those I have just taken from the other 

 hives with queens. If by any possibility a 

 young' queen is found hatched, no larvae are 

 jiiven, as this would lead to swarming. 

 When my stock of combs of laiA'^e is ex- 

 hausted 1 return to other colonies that still 

 have their queens and continue the work of 

 examination until this stock is again re- 

 plenished. I thus continue to examine al- 

 ternately the two classes of colonies until 

 I am thru the yard ; and as I proceed with 

 this work I also note and mark the colonies 

 that need supers. 



The giving of the comb of larva3 satisfies 

 the bees. They have babies to feed, and they 

 continue the work of honey-gathering, as 

 they know that it will be impossible to 

 swarm within twelve or fifteen days. Their 

 queen-cells are all gone, and they go to work 

 energetically to build another lot; and, by 

 the time the new lot of queens is ready to 

 hatch, the swarming fever has been cured. 



THE FOURTH VISIT. 



The last visit is about nine days after de- 

 stroying the first batch of queen-cells and 

 giving the combs of young larvae, or eighteen 

 days after the removal of the queen. Near- 

 ly all the brood has hatched, the hives are 

 overflowing with young bees, tlie working 

 force has been kept together, and tlie brood- 

 nesls are nearly full of wliite honey. The 

 bees' greatest desire now is for a new moth- 

 er, and tliis desire can be gratified by siraj^ly 

 destroying all the cells except one — the 



largest and finest in each hive. I always 

 place the comb of lan-ae in the same position 

 in each hive, hence lose no time in finding it. 

 Two minutes per hive serves to destroy the 

 cells,, and it is not necessary to examine 

 these colonies again. As the young queens 

 begin to lay, the bees will remove the honey 

 from tlie brood-nest into the sections. Fur- 

 thermore, we save the honey that would 

 have been used in rearing a lot of bees that 

 would be merely consumers of still more 

 honey during the hot part of the season 

 when there is little to gather. 



At this fourth visit, if the honey-flow is 

 fairly good, the bees should be ready for the 

 third super. This time I raise the top 

 super and put the empty one between the 

 tAvo. I cover the top of the lower super 

 with oilcloth, leaving tJie bees only one row 

 of sections thru Avhich to go above. I also 

 cover the top of the empty supers, leaving 

 but the one row of sections in which the 

 bees can go up into the second super, now 

 on top. If the lower super should be near- 

 ly capped I put this one on top and the 

 second one at the bottom. It is very appar- 

 ent, if the honey-flow is still on, that the 

 queen will have no desire to swarm witli 

 three supers of forty-five sections each. 



The bees practically finish one super be- 

 fore I take the queen out. They finish the 

 second one shortly aftei', and the third later 

 on in the season. Tliey oCten require a 

 fourth super in the fall. 



I do not use bait sections. I have found 



