1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



423 



"You think that is right?" 



" I know it— don't think any thing about 

 it; for I once kept some section honey stand- 

 ing on the mantel-shelf behind the stove, 

 winters, and in the honey-room in summer, 

 for three years; and when we used it at the 

 end of that time it was the thickest and 

 best-flavored honey I ever tasted. The only 

 trouble here at the North would be that it 

 would require considerable labor and fuel to 

 keep a whole crop of honey a whole year 

 through. The question would be whether 

 we could get enough above the usual selling 

 price in the fall to pay for this. If we were 

 sure that any certain year of failure would 

 follow one of bountiful yield it might pay; 

 but with the large area of our country it is 

 a rare thing that the failure is great enough 

 the whole country over to raise the price 

 sufficient to cover the cost of keeping the 

 honey." 



"Well, I think it can be made to pay in 

 the South, and I am going to try the mat- 

 ter. I thank you very much for sending so 

 much time with me." 



HOW SHALL WE MAKE OUR INCREASE? 



How to Control Swarming at the Same Time; 

 a Revision of the Former Article. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



Our readers will remember the article on this subject 

 by Mr. Alexander, in our April 15th issue, 1905. Very 

 few articles, probably, have received the comment that 

 this one has; and in view of this we have asked our 

 correspondent to go over the same ground again, incor- 

 porating the various comments and criticisms. It is 

 very seldom that we reprint an article, but we are glad 

 to do it in this case, believing that it will be appreciat- 

 ed in its revised form.— Ed. 



This subject has received, perhaps, as 

 much thought and study as any other one 

 thing connected with bee-keeping, and I will 

 try to show that, with proper management, 

 you can have two colonies, each nearly equal 

 to what the mother colony would have been 

 for the clover harvest, if not divided, and 

 fully equal for a later harvest. 



In caUing your attention to this matter I 

 take it for granted that you keep bees like 

 myself, for the purpose of making the most 

 money out of them you can, regardless of 

 increase or the number of colonies jou may 

 have. Simply make what increase will add 

 to your present season's crop of honey. In 

 the first place, let me impress upon your 

 mind the importance of doing every thing in 

 your power, not only to build up all your col- 

 onies as strong in bees as you can after tak- 



ing them from their winter quarters, but to 

 keep them in that condition to the end of 

 the season; for without strong colonies we 

 can not expect much surplus. As the day is 

 now past when natural swarming is desired 

 by any progressive bee-keeper, we will turn 

 our attention to some practical way of mak- 

 ing artificial increase. 



The most common way of doing this is 

 either forming nuclei and afterward building 

 them up into strong colonies, or dividing a 

 strong colony at once by putting the greater 

 part of the bees with their queen in an emp- 

 ty hive on the old stand and setting the old 

 hive containing the brood away some dis- 

 tance in a new place. Each of these meth- 

 ods has some serious faults. The nucleus 

 method usually requires so much time that 

 frequently the best part of the harvest is 

 past before they are in condition to take ad- 

 vantage of it. They also require much work 

 and attention, and the other way of dividing 

 the strong colony is all wrong in every re- 

 spect. 



I think I hear some of you say, "Yes, 

 but that is about the same as natural swarm- 

 ing, only the old hive is set on a new stand. " 



I will admit it is something the same, 

 though not half so good; for in natural 

 swarming the old hive on its old stand re- 

 tains part of its working force, and matures 

 all its brood; whereas if divided, as is fre- 

 quently done after its queen and most of its 

 working force are left on the old stand, and 

 it finds itself in a new place without its 

 queen, the greater part of the bees that 

 have ever been out to fly will return to the 

 oldstnd and join the swarm, leaving tne 

 old hive with all its brood in a deserted con- 

 dition. Then the few remaining bees will 

 destroy every egg and nearly all the uncap- 

 ped larvae. Here you lose enough brood, 

 many times, to make nearly a swarm. 



After studying on this subject for many 

 years, and trying every thing I could think 

 of to prevent this loss of brood in making 

 our increase, and at the same time avoid the 

 loss of valuable time in fussing with nuclei, 

 and at all times keeping every colony in good 

 condition to take advantage of any unex- 

 pected harvest that might come, 1 hit on 

 what I consider the most practical way of 

 making increase of any thing I have ever 

 tried or heard of. It is this: 



When your colonies are nearly full enough 

 to swarm naturally, and you wish to divide 

 them so as to make two from one, go to the 

 colony you wish to divide; lift it from its 

 stand and put in its place a hive containing 

 frames of comb or foundation, the same as 

 you would put the swarm in providing it had 

 just swarmed. Now remove the center 

 comb from your empty hive, ard put in its 

 place a frame of brood, either from the hive 

 you wish to divide or some other colony that 

 can spare one, and be sure you find the queen 

 and put her on this frame of brood in the 

 new hive ; also look it over very carefully to 

 see that it contains no eggs or larvae in any 

 queen-cells. If it does, destroy them. Now 

 put a queen-excluding honey-board on top 



