424 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



of this new hive that contains the queen 

 and frame of brood with their empty combs, 

 then set your full queenless colony on top of 

 the excluder; put in the empty comb or frame 

 of foundation, wherever you got your frame 

 of brood, and close the upper hive except 

 the entrance they have through the excluder 

 into the hive below. Now leave them in 

 this way about five days, then look over the 

 combs carefully, and destroy any larvae you 

 may find in queen-cells unless they are of a 

 good strain of bees that you care to breed 

 from, for they frequently start the rearing 

 of queens above the excluder very soon after 

 their queen has been kept below by the ex- 

 cluder. If so, you had better separate them 

 at once; but if they have not started any 

 queen- cells above, then leave them together 

 ten or eleven days, during which time the 

 queen will get a fine lot of brood started in 

 the lower hive, and every egg and particle 

 of larva that was in the old hive on top will 

 have matured, so it will be capped over and 

 saved; then separate them, putting the old 

 hive on a new stand. It will then be full of 

 young bees mostly, and capped brood, and 

 m about 24 hours they will accept a ripe cell, 

 a virgin, or laying queen, as they will real- 

 ize that they are hopelessly queenless. I 

 would advise you to give them a laying 

 queen, as I never like to keep my full colo- 

 nies a day longer without a laying queen 

 than I can help. In this way you have two 

 strong colonies from one, as you have not 

 lost a particle of brood nor checked the lay- 

 ing of your queen; and with me it almost 

 wholly prevents swarming. This is the way 

 we have made our increase for several years, 

 and we like it much better than any other 

 way we have ever tried. In doing so you 

 keep all your colonies strong during the 

 whole summer, and it is the strong colonies 

 that count in giving us our surplus. 



The mere fact of having a large number 

 of colonies does not amount to much unless 

 they are strong in bees and are tvell cared 

 for at all times. This is a fact that many 

 have sadly overlooked; and when the season 

 comes to a close, giving them a small sur- 

 plus, they feel disappointed and lay the fault 

 on many things that have had but little to 

 do with their failure. 



In making your increase in the above way 

 your new swarm on the old stand is in fine 

 shape for a clamp of sections, as it has a 

 large working force backed up by having its 

 hive nearly full of brood, and but little hon- 

 ey, as the bees have been in the habit of 

 storing their honey in the old hive that was 

 on top, so they will soon go to work in the 

 sections and have no notion of swarming. 

 Then the old hive that has been set away 

 can usually spare 15 or 20 lbs. of honey, 

 which can be taken with the extractor, giv- 

 ing its new queen plenty of room to lay, and 

 in a short time will be one of your best col- 

 onies, and also have no desire to swarm. 



Now, if you have done your duty by your 

 bees since taking them from their winter 

 quarters, as I have recommended in the 

 above, keeping them snug and warm, and 



feeding them a little thin warm syrup near- 

 ly every day for the first 30 days after they 

 commence to fly, you can have two good 

 strong colonies in the place of one ready to 

 commence work on your clover harvest, 

 which here commences about June 15 



From an extensive experience along this 

 line I find I can get nearly twice the amount 

 of surplus by dividing as above stated over 

 what I was able to acquire either by letting 

 them go undivided or dividing in a way that 

 caused the loss of a greater part of their 

 brood. This losing of brood we must guard 

 against at all times if we expect to secure a 

 fine surplus. It costs both time and honey 

 to produce it, and it is the principal factor 

 in obtaining those strong colonies that give 

 us tons of honey. 



Far too many bee-keepers think that the 

 value of their apiary consists in the number 

 of colonies they keep. This is so only to a 

 certain extent; for if you had 1000 colonies 

 and they were all weak in bees, so they 

 would give you no surplus, they would not 

 be worth as much as one good strong colony 

 that would give you 200 or 300 pounds of 

 honey. 



Several years ago one of my sons bought 

 nine colonies of bees in common box hives, 

 about the first of June. He brought them 

 home and transferred them at once to mov- 

 able-frame hives, and in about three weeks 

 divided them, making 20 colonies of the 9 he 

 bought, using some queen-cells I had on hand 

 for his surplus colonies. He then attended 

 to those 20 colonies so they were all strong 

 at the commencement of our buckwheat 

 harvest. I then lent him 20 hives of empty 

 combs to put on top of his colonies to ex- 

 tract from. He took 2849 lbs. of extracted 

 honey from those 9 colonies and their in- 

 crease, and left them in good condition so 

 every one came out the next spring in fine 

 order. 



Another son, the same season, took one 

 colony, divided into three, and received 347 

 lbs. of extracted honey. They also came 

 through the following winter in good condi- 

 tion. I speak of these cases simply to show 

 that it is not necessary to keep hundreds of 

 colonies in order to get a little honey. If 

 you will only keep strong colonies and give 

 them the best of care you will soon find both 

 pleasure and profit in bee-keeping. 



Now in regard to the criticism on this way 

 of making our increase, which has been pub- 

 lished in Gleanings. I find that nearly all 

 who have made a failure of the method have 

 taken colonies that had already made some 

 preparations for swarming* by having eggs 

 or larvae in their queen- cells, as did J. D. 

 Ronan, of Chesterville. Miss., and also Don 

 Mills, of Highland, Mich. 



During the summer I received a few let- 

 ters from parties who had made a failure of 

 this method in about the same way. Some 

 had taken colonies that had capped queen- 

 cells in their hives at the time they put the 

 queen in the under hive, and, of course, they 

 swarmed in a day or two. I can not see 

 that these failures are any proof of fault in 



