1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



641 



ticed that the pollen is stored exclusively in 

 worker comb At one time I confined a 

 queen on drone comb, and found that, al- 

 though they would rear worker brood in 

 drone comb when compelled to do so, and 

 would even carry pollen freely, yet it re- 

 mained on the bottom of the hive, but 

 was not stored in the drone comb. In local- 

 ities like mine this drone comb is not abso- 

 lutehj needed, as but very little pollen is 

 cjmmg in during the flow. 



FIG. 12. 



With a bottom entrance and a full story 

 of brood below and an excluder between, 

 the amount of pollen that would be placed 

 above would be exceedingly small; in fact, 

 1 have put combs of pollen above which re- 

 sulted in its being used up; but I know that 

 localities differ, and one has to adopt meth- 

 ods to suit his locality. 



FIG. 12J. 

 At this point we might notice profitably 



SOME ADVANTAGES GAINED BY THIS METHOD. 



The first thing generally considered by 

 bee-keepers is the cost, so we will begin 

 with that. With the equipment for extract- 

 ed honey, the only extra necessary is the 

 comb honey attachment, which costs about 



half the amount for a half-depth super and 

 that of the cheapest make; yet in this we 

 use the wire- cloth separator, which has been 

 excluded on account of cost largely, and 

 this still brings the cost of fitting up an api- 

 ary about $1.00 per hive less than if fitted 

 with the ordinary single-depth super. 



Again, these attachments are so open that 

 honey can be stored away in them'until you 

 wish to prepare for shipment, as it gives a 

 free circulation of air on all sides; then 

 when through with them for the season they 

 can be taken apart easily and quickly, and 

 stowed away in an exceedingly small space. 



Last, and best of all, you are prepared 

 for any kind of season; and if you wish to 

 run for extracted honey wholly, or for comb, 

 you can do so. In other words, -you are 

 master of the situation, and have the appli- 

 ance that will produce more pounds of hon- 

 ey, and that strictly fancy, than any other 

 device now in use. All of this is on the side 

 of controUirg swarming besides, but this 

 will be considered later. 



PREVENTION OF INCREASE. 



This subject is so broad and so many fac- 

 tors enter mto it that it will be necessary to 

 discuss it from these varied conditions. In 

 the first place, we all know that what will 

 entirely prevent in one case will have but 

 little effect m another. In some cases bees 

 have filled their hive and portico, and then 

 gone underneath and filled all the available 

 space with honey. In other cases bees have 

 filled their hive, and, when no more space 

 was available, have simply done nothing 

 practically, because they had no more room. 

 In this case it will be readily seen that it 

 would be almost impossible to make them 

 swarm. 



On the other hand I purchased two tested 

 gray Carniolan queens of Mr. Frank Benton, 

 and their bees prepared to swarm when no 

 honey had been coming in, and they had 

 only three frames of brood and plenty of 

 empty combs, room, and honey. On ac- 

 count of their persistent disposition to swarm, 

 later in the season I broke up these two 

 colonies and made nuclei of their brood; but 

 in nearly every case these nuclei constructed 

 queen cells persistently, and finally one 

 swarmed with less than a quart of bees. 



The other colonies in the same yard of 

 different races, and from a number of dif- 

 ferent breeders, made no attempt whatever 

 at swarming. In another case our neighbor 

 had a swarm of blacks that had reared 

 brood extensively in the cellar, and had 

 queen cells in process of development when 

 set on their summer stands. In this case he 

 cut them out and used them in some queen- 

 less hives. This man has kept the same 

 stock of bees for twenty-one years, and 

 during all that time has run for comb honey 

 and encouraged swarming. 



This shows that the disposition to swarm 

 or not to swarm is much more prevalent in 

 some cases than in others; so what would 

 absolutely control in one case would have 

 but little effect in the other. In order to 



