1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



733 



ubove the brood; they find that bait section, 

 and there it is stored, super work started— 

 a great gain. The moving of that honey 

 makes more empty comb below; that stim- 

 ulates the queen to lay to fill it, and there 

 is another gain. 



This is not dealing with the swarming 

 problem. I am analyzing bee nature, get- 

 ting before the mind principles. To under- 

 stand principles, and have the necessary 

 machinery (hives and appliances) puts the 

 apiarist in control— makes him master. 



Now if these statements are true, then 

 much more can be accomplished. I have 

 suppoied a hive full of bees at the opening 

 of the harvest flow; but if they are weak— 

 so weak that they will not use that super 

 with any sort of arrangement of the three 

 sections of brood- chamber, all the brood usu- 

 ally will be in 2 and 3. with No. 1 empty dry 

 comb, or possibly may have a little honey. 

 We will try some more manipulation. 



Take off the cover, smoke from above, 

 and drive the bees down. You do not need 

 to drown or suffocate them with smoke to 

 do it; and when you are sure the queen has 

 run down from No. 3, if she should have 

 been there, lift it off; put an excluder on 

 top of 2; over this your super, and on top of 

 that No. 3. This puts brood both above and 

 below the super, and plenty of empty brood 

 comb in No. 1 at the bottom. If the colony 

 has both 2 and 3 about half filled with brood, 

 and many bees hatching, with some honey 

 being stored, they will soon be drawing the 

 foundation in that super and begin storing 

 there. 



FIG, 2. 



Under some conditions that super may be 

 left there until filled and finished, such as 

 when the brood-combs of 2 and 3 are com- 

 paratively new, and nectar free. If combs 

 are old, or if much pollen is being stored, it 

 should be changed as soon as they get nicely 

 started on the foundation— at least as soon 

 as storing begins in it. No. 3 may be re- 

 moved to a new stand for a nucleus, or to 

 help some weaker colony, or placed at the 

 bottom, where much of its stores (it would 

 have been getting much of the daily gather- 

 ing as the bees hatching leave empty cells) 

 will be moved up to the super. I have had 

 many supers started in this way in colonies 

 that would not have touched them if put on 

 top, but they would have filled jam full the 

 brood-combs, and loafed or swarmed. 



USE OF LARGE BROOD-CHAMBEBS. 



Go back again to the hive as it stood at 

 the beginning of the flow arranged 1, 2, ^,. 

 and well filled with bees and brood. Take a 

 fourth brood- section and arrange the hive 4, 

 1, and 2; on this put an excluder; next a su- 

 per and No. 3 on top. Fig. 2. No. 4 should^ 

 be filled with either dry comb or foundation. 

 If starters only it will be largely filled with 

 drone comb. As each section of this hive 

 has the capacity of four Langstroth frames' 

 you now have a sixteen-frame capacity- 

 twelve below and four above the super.. 

 Now I will tell something most bee-keepers 

 do not know. Listen! 



That set of dry combs below will not in- 

 terfere with storing in the super. Instinct 

 almost compels the storing of honey above 

 the brood, so it goes into No. 3 in Fig. 2, and 

 into the super. The queen having plenty of 

 laying room beloiv her present brood-nest 

 keeps right on with business, and again 

 swarming is much reduced if not entirely 

 prevented. If the swarm conditions are so 

 strong that even this will not prevent their 

 swarming, make the arrangement 4, 1, su- 

 per, 2, and 3, always keeping the queen be- 

 low and the excluder over her but under the 

 super. In extreme cases, as very strong 

 colonies with rapid flow, or where it would 

 seem they will still prepare to swarm with 

 the above arrrangement, put two supers in 

 between 2 and 3, or take 3 entirely away 

 and make it 4, 1, supers, 2. 



THE SECRET OF IT. 



All colonies should have a large brood- 

 chamber, especially when there is any likeli- 

 hood of a notion to swarm; and in that cham- 

 ber the brood should be at the top with emp- 

 ty brood-comb below. When time to put 

 the supers on, you can have almost any 

 amount of brood above a super, temporarily; 

 but where the queen is, there should be only 

 a limited amount; but, most important of 

 all, is that the brood-chamber have its brood 

 up close to the super, and empty brood-comb 

 between that and the bottom and entrance. 



In a rapid flow, nectar will be dropped in- 

 to empty comb below the brood; but there 

 it is rarely left to ripen or be sealed. They 

 elevate it the very first chance, and put it 

 above the brood. So true is this, that, with 

 a sectional hive, where it is so easy to get a 

 chamber of brood, one almost solid full of 

 brood just under the super that, even with 

 two sections of dry combs (eight Langstroth- 

 frame space) placed under this brood, super 

 work will still go on nicely above when once 

 they have made a start there. 



The reader can now see how it is so much 

 easier to control swarming in a sectional hive. 

 Also how easy to get the super work start- 

 ed. Those chambers of brood put above can 

 be used to start new colonies, strengthen 

 weak ones, be placed over a super on anoth- 

 er colony to get them into the super, etc. 

 Increase ts under control as well, and no 

 easier way can be found to make new colo- 

 nies or nuclei than with these extra cham- 

 bers of brood. 



