1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



569 



""^^^^^^^^ 



Wemtiotis 



with 



moo/it tit A 



RAPID INCREASE. 



" Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. It is rainy 

 this morning." 



"Yes. We are having rain and cloudy 

 weather nearly all the time now — an offset 

 to the clear weather nearly all winter, I 

 suppose. I believe you are from Pennsyl- 

 vania. How is the weather in your State?" 



"We are having a fairly good spring. 

 Have you the bees out of the cellar yet? " 



' ' Only a few colonies we set out the sun- 

 shiny day we had last week, so we could 

 hear their merry hum again. But they have 

 not hummed very much for us, and I am 

 glad no more were put out. This is April 

 12, and it looks as if it would be very late 

 before we get them out this year." 



"You remember you sold me some bees 

 eight or ten years ago, do you not? " 



"This is Mrs. Akers, of Johnstown, Pa., 

 is it not?" 



"Yes." 



"I think I do remember about our corres- 

 pondence, and sending you some bees. Have 

 you bees now?" 



' ' No. With a large family, so many cares 

 came that I was obliged to give them up; 

 but that dread disease, diphtheria, came and 

 took some of our little ones away, and I, 

 unfortunately, have more time now, so I 

 wished to stock with bees again the combs I 

 have." 



" Then you kept the combs? " 



' ' Yes. and have plenty of every thing to 

 stock six hives complete. And I have bought 

 of The A. I. Root Co. a three- frame nucleus 

 with a good queen. Can I stock those six 

 hives with bees from this nucleus by 

 fall?" 



' 'The Roots say in their queen catalog that 

 their three-frame nucleus, properly managed, 

 can be increased to four, five, or even ten 

 full colonies in one year; but I fear that the 

 majority would fail on the ' properly man- 

 aged ' part." 



' ' Well, I want to try it, and came to see 

 you to have you tell me how to do it." 



"But it was not I who said it could be 

 done. Would it not have been better for 

 you to have gone to the Roots? " 



' ' I will risk what you tell me, for I had 

 excellent success under your instructions 

 when I had bees before." 



' ' How early do you expect your three- 

 frame nucleus?" 



"About the 15th of May." 



"That would be in good time for this lo- 

 cality. The first thing to do is to build that 

 nucleus up to a full colony, and with your 



combs it should not be a long job, especially 

 if your combs have honey in them. If they 

 do not, you must feed at all times when hon- 

 ey is not coming from the fields." 



" Yes, I understand that." 



"As soon as your nucleus gets built up to 

 a fair-sized colony, which will be by June 15 

 to 20, if you are successful, start some queen- 

 cells. You have my queen-book, do you 

 not?" 



"Yes." 



' ' Instead of trying to raise the queens in 

 upper stories, as given in the book, as you 

 have only the one colony it will be better to 

 slip a right-sized sheet of queen-excluding 

 metal down in the hive so as to shut off two 

 frames, of brood next to one side of the hive 

 from the queen, and raise your queen- cells 

 there. For the few you want, you need only 

 to prepare a few cell-cups, and push these 

 into the comb just above the brood that is in 

 the frames, when the bees will work them 

 just the same as they do when the cups are 

 on bars. In this way you can gain a week 

 or ten days, as the colony need not be so 

 strong as is necessary for rearing queens in 

 upper stories. ' ' 



"I see, and I thank you for the sugges- 

 tion." 



* ' I believe you also have one of the big 

 funnels for shaking bees through, and some 

 of the boxes to keep the bees after they are 

 shaken in." 



"Yes, I have all those things which you 

 described in Gleanings during the past." 



"Well, keep close watch of the queen- 

 cells after the expiration of ten days after 

 you started them, and at lOJ to 11^ days you 

 will hear the young queens gnawing at the 

 capping to their cells to get out; and if you 

 hold the cells up before a strong light you 

 will see the queens moving in them before 

 they even commence to bite at their cells. 

 As soon as you see any movement in the 

 cells, get your boxes and funnel (two or 

 three would be all I would try to make at 

 this time) , and shake about a pint or quart 

 of bees into each box. If you take the bees 

 from the cell-building combs, thejr will be 

 more at home in your box than will those 

 from the other combs. ' ' 



"Why will that be so?" 



' ' Because you are to give these bees one of 

 those cells in which you see the queen mov- 

 ing around, and these bees are expecting 

 that queen more than you are. But don't 

 shake these combs while the cells are on 

 them, for if you do you will be apt to injure 

 the wings of the young queen, especially if 

 you do the work as soon as you see the 

 queens move in their cells." 



"Do you think a pint or quart of bees 

 will be enough to establish a colony? Would 

 it not be better to use more? " 



" Undoubtedly better for the little colony 

 if we could use more; but not so well for 

 the cell-rearing colony; for this is our prin- 

 cipal stock in trade, and we must not do any 

 thing which will reduce this colony too much 

 for its future prosperity." 



