August, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



633 



that is quite unnatural, and wliich niiglit 

 very easily cause swarming. 



Of course I realize that, if we were to 

 I. use comb honoy, our plan would necessarily 

 be changed. Just what changes we would 

 need to make it is hard to say, as we have 

 raised but little comb honey since adopting 

 this method. Moreover, I have no intention 

 of criticising Mr. Doolittle's plan, since it 

 is one that we have never tried; but I do 

 know that, if we were to alter our method 

 for the purpose of raising comb honey, we 

 would try to keep the old and new swarm in 

 as nearly a normal condition as possible. 

 And we certainly would not shake, as we 

 have already tried that plan in a comb- 

 honey apiary and disQ.arded it long ago. 



2. I suppose you mean if cells were al- 

 ready started in the brood-chamber. Well, 

 I would answer this if I were not so much 

 afraid of Dr. Miller. 



3. This would be too cool an arrangement 

 for comb-building at night. The heat rising 

 from the swarm would escape thru these 

 openings. 



4. A good queen would occupy enough 

 combs so that it would not be necessary to 

 extract from the brood-chamber. 



5. Probably. Especially if they already 

 had the swarming fever. 



6. Yes. They would naturally prefer the 

 comb and also the warmer place for storing. 



7. Whoever answers this last question sat- 

 isfactorily ought to have a medal. How- 

 ever, any up-to-date comb-honey man could 

 doubtless give some valuable hints on the 

 subject; in fact, back volumes of the bee 

 magazines have quite a little along this line; 

 and also Dr. Miller has written this up very 

 fully in his Fifty Years Among the Bees. 



When an Old Hive In 1914, having just 

 is Better than a moved, I spent the 



New One first season in 35 



years entirely with- 

 out bees. The next June I started with bees 

 again in a small way, and then decided to 

 try catching some stray swarms. I put a 

 hive up among the branches of a large maple- 

 tree, but it showed no bees for so long that 

 I was almost discouraged. Then one day, 

 Aug. 15, as we were closing our noon meal, 

 my wife remarked, "Your bees are swarm- 

 ing!" I said, "No, not mine, for I always 

 remove queen-cells and put the new colony 

 on the old stand and never have any after- 

 swarm." We went out just in time to see 

 the air black with bees, and a fine swarm 

 alighting on the hive in the tree. They built 

 up in good shape, and that fall wc packed 

 them for the winter between two much 

 stronger colonies. 



When we arrived from the South. May 1, I 

 found this hive contained nice clean combs 

 and plenty of honey but no bees. As the 

 other hives were very close I decided that 

 these bees had doubtless drifted into the 

 larger swarms. These combs I changed to a 



Hive located in a tree to catch any stray swarm. 



new hive, thinking they would give a fine 

 start for my first prime swarm. The old 

 hive I saved for catching another stray one. 

 On June 10 we caught another, shook them 

 into a new hive, and again replaced the old 

 hive in the tree. 



In this way the same hive is used re- 

 peatedly, and I much prefer the old hive 

 to a new one, for the wax about an old 

 hive attracts the bees much more readily. 



Three Elvers, Mich. M. L. Brewer. 



Overheated Brood Eeferring to the con- 

 and other Matters ditions mentioned by 

 Ira J. Monroe under 

 Heads of Grain, in Nov. 15th issue, I may 

 say that I have experienced similar trouble. 

 In the bright sunlight of a summer day I ex- 

 amined all my colonies, being careful, as I 

 thought, not to expose them to injury from 

 excessive heat. However, the next day the 

 bees began bringing out nearly mature brood, 

 and I saw many pale weak-looking bees, ap- 

 parently just hatched. These were strug- 

 gling feebly from the hive or else were be- 

 ing carried out half alive. This continued 



