1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



597 



brood, with the rest of the cells nearly 

 empty, after the bees have been brushed 

 from each into their respective hives. This 

 one-fourth-full frame of brood is now set in 

 the hive on the new bottom-board, to take 

 the place of the frame of honey. 



DOOLITTLE SUPER CONTAINING FORTY-FOUR 3^x51x1 

 SECTIONS. 



Such a comb seems to be quite necessary, 

 where the upper hive contains much honey, 

 as it establishes the brood-nest in the center 

 of the hive, where it should be, and also al- 

 lows the queen to keep right on laying with- 

 out interruption, the same as she has been 

 doing. If the queen is checked in her lay- 

 ing at this point, as she would be in a hive 

 thus filled with honey, if no frame having 

 empty cells was given, it is quite apt to re- 

 salt in an effort being made at swarming, 

 which is not .consistent with the immediate 

 moving of the honey in these 

 combs to the supers above, and 

 the success we wish to obtain, 

 although, even in case of such 

 swarming, better results are 

 obtained than by any other plan 

 of "shook" swarming which I 

 have tried; for after a fruitless 

 effort or two (the queen hav- 

 ing her wing clipped so she can 

 not go with the swarm), and a 

 few days of sulking, they will 

 go to work with a will, thus 

 showing their acceptance of the 

 situation. However, if treated 

 as here given, not one colony 

 in 50 will do aught but accept 

 the situation, and go to work 

 at once in the sections, espe- 

 cially if there is any honey com- 

 ing in from the fields. 



I now get two supers of sec- 

 tions, from the pile which has 

 been brought, 8 to 12 supers 

 at a time, each time I have 

 come to the apiary, either with 

 the horse or auto, each super 

 containing 44 one- pound sec- 

 tions, as this is the number of 

 3JX5|X1§ sections my super covering a ten- 

 frame Langstroth hive contains. The sec- 

 tions in one of these supers contain only full 

 sheets of foundation, this foundation be- 

 ing of the extra thin kirid for sections, as 



manufactured by The A. I. Root Co., while 

 the other super has 12 of the 44, full or 

 nearly so of comb, left over from 1904, as 

 "unfinished" sections, they having been 

 put in the super when it was prepared for 

 the season of 1905, with the 32 other sec- 

 tions (filled with extra thin foun- 

 dation) as " baits." 



The baits are very valuable 

 with this plan, as these bait-combs 

 give a chance for the bees to be 

 storing the honey at once, or im- 

 mediately after its removal from 

 the combs below, to give the 

 queen room for her eggs— this be- 

 ing done while other bees are 

 drawing out the foundation in 

 other sections, so that work along 

 all lines progresses as one great 

 whole, without any interruption. 



This super with baits is put on 

 first, top of this prepared hive, 

 and the other with sections of 

 foundation on top of this. This 

 second or upper super is put on 

 to give plenty of room for any overflow of 

 bees or honey which may come before our 

 next visit, so that the bees may not at any 

 time feel crowded for room. I have some- 

 times put the super containing the baits at 

 the top, but the bees do not so readily get 

 to them there, and hence slower work all 

 around on the start, which is against the 

 greatest success. An immediate start in 

 the sections is a great advantage at this 

 stage of proceedings. 

 Some seem to think that the bees carry 



very little if any honey from the brood-nest 

 up into the sections, and for this reason 

 feed the bees, between apple and clover 

 bloom, sugar syrup or inferior honey till the 

 combs and all cells not occupied with brood 



