.TiLV. 1921. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



427 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



cess, and, as there is no patent on it, I pass 

 it on for the benefit of any beekeeper who 

 has had difficulty in getting queens accept- 

 ed. 



The idea is simply a ventilated super 

 clearer with the addition of two tin hive- 

 rabbet strips tacked on the sides of the 

 wooden center piece to make a runway for 

 a tin slide that is worked with a wire thru 

 a small hole in the side of the frame from 

 the outside. The whole cost of the appara- 



Ventilated escape-board arranged for introducing 

 queens or uniting colonies. 



tus is less than the price of a good queen, 

 and the risk of requeening is reduced to 

 jiractically nothing. To requeen, first kill 

 the old queen. Then raise two frames of 

 emerging brood from the brood-chamber, re- 

 placing with empty combs. Put on the im- 

 proved super clearer, take out the Porter 

 bee-escape, and close the tin slide over the 

 hole. Over this place an empty deep super 

 and put in the two frames of emerging 

 brood after first shaking off every adhering 

 bee. Put a partly filled frame of honey on 

 each side of the emerging brood, release the 

 new queen at once on the four combs, and 

 cover witli a clean sack. The sack goes over 

 the four frames, down the sides, and 

 spreads over the space on either side of 

 the screen below so as to confine the heat 

 of the colony below the screen to the four 

 frames above. Very little brood is lost, and 

 the emerging bees take care of the new 

 queen at once, so that she soon starts laying 

 in the cells from which the young bees are 

 emerging. In two or three days the tin 

 slide is drawn quietly by pulling the wire 

 from the outside and there is no disturbance 

 to cause the balling of the queen. The bees 

 below come up and mingle with the laying 

 queen, which is invariably an accepted queen. 

 A few days later the screen can be taken 



away, and the brood packed down below 



if necessary. 



For making increase from nuclei the same 

 j)rocedure is adopted except that the old 

 queen below is left there and the tin slide 

 is kept closed; but a small opening is made 

 in the rear of the screen frame by making 

 a saw-cut in the upper edge of the frame, 

 cutting out a piece about 2 inches wide and 

 % inch deep. This piece can be fitted with 

 a small hinge so that it makes a small 

 alighting-board when open. Increase can 

 be made at little cost in this way without 

 any sacrifice of the field force, by taking the 

 emerging brood at the start of the honey 

 flow when it is of least value. The heat 

 arising thru tlie screen helps the nucleus to 

 build up rapidly, and additional frames are 

 added as it gains in strength until the hive- 

 body is full. It is then moved off the orig- 

 inal colony and place don a clean bottom- 

 board and gradually turned around every 

 day a little until the entrance faces the right 

 way. Last year I started a nucleus in this 

 way above a strong colony as late as Sep- 

 tember with two frames of emerging brood 

 and eight frames of honey. Before frost 

 there were four frames of new brood, plenty 

 of young bees, and sufficient stores left for 

 winter. Early this spring when I separated 

 them I had to make more room for the 

 queen by putting on a second brood-cham- 

 ber, and now they are storing surplus rap- 

 idly. All this cost me was two frames of 

 emerging brood, a new queen, and stores for 

 winter. The colony below appeared to 

 benefit also, as it came thru as powerful as 

 any other in the yard. Of course, this win- 

 ter increase was made in our mild Pacific 

 coast climate where we get more rain than 

 snow during the winter, and botli colony and 

 nucleus were protected in the Kootenay hive 

 case. 



Tlie small opening from tlie screen 

 frame was connected thru an inch hole 

 bored in the side of the hive case with a 

 3-inc'li tube of birch bark rolled up like a 

 cylinder and flattened at one end. It would 

 hardly be possible to make winter increase 

 in this way in a very cold climate, but it 

 migjit be tried at that. W. H. Turnbull, a 

 very successful beekeeper here, has used 

 this plan for two seasons, and he claims he 

 can make increase in this way any month in 

 the year that he can obtain queens from the 

 South and has emerging brood to give them. 

 I have seen several of his two-frame nuclei 

 built up into strong colonies during the 

 winter equally as well as mine. The screen 

 can be used for several other purposes, such 

 as uniting weak colonies, etc. As a winter 

 cover over the brood-frames it gives the 

 bees access to stores by providing a space 

 over the top-bars. It supports the packing 

 on top and allows the moisture to pass thru. 

 (Galvanized screen would be better for this 



