1174 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



the sections, and when a slow flow of nectar 

 comes then they are sealed ' shy ' of the sep- 

 arator. Then comes another day or two of 

 good yield when the cells are drawn ont to 

 their fullest length; then another few days of 

 slow yield, and so on, thus giving the sec- 

 tion a series of full-length cells capped over, 

 nnd a series of cells capped over 'shy' of 

 the separators, so that the 'face sides' of 

 each section resemble, in a limited way, a 

 washboard. Do you 'catch on ' ?" 



"Yes, I do now; but 1 had never thought 

 of the matter in that light." 



"When the fence separators were first 

 brought out, we had nearly the same thing, 

 as the spaces between the slats were left too 

 wide, which caused the bees to lengthen the 

 comb out where these open spaces were, 

 while they could not, where the slats pre- 

 vented, thus giving the sections which were 

 produced Avith these fences the same wash- 

 I)oardy appearance. Don't you remember 

 about this, when this matter was under dis- 

 cus>ion? The washboard part was no coin- 

 ing of mine." 



"Yes, 1 think I do remember something 

 about it now. I had forgotten. But I came 

 over to have a little talk with you about 

 uniting bees. I think you told us some time 

 ago that you united bees in the brood form. 

 I think that you gave the matter in Glean- 

 ings, but I can not tell just where. Now 

 will you please tell me how many Langstroth 

 frames of brood would form a colony that 

 would be strong enough for wintering, where 

 left on the summer stand, with the brood put 

 together the fore part or September, and the 

 bees fed up as soon as all the brood has 

 emerged from their cells?" 



"Uniting brood, or bees in the brood form, 

 is better done during August, though it can 

 be done as late as September 10th to 15th if 

 brood enough is found to put together at the 

 latter date." 



"How many frames would you use early 

 in August?" ^^-i^- ft-;Ui 



" Three frames which are quite' well filled 

 with brood will do very w^ell for this locality 

 at that time, providing the rest of the hive is 

 filled with empty combs or fi'ames tilled with 

 comb foundation." 



"How about a queen?" 

 "Of course, these combs of bees and brood 

 ai-e to have a queen with them, for the bees 

 which are carried with them will not stay 

 unless there is a queen with them, or some 

 other precaution is taken. And, having a 

 queen, she will, of course, go right on laying, 

 so that by October you will have quite a strong 

 colony where only three combs of bees and 

 l)rood are used." 



" How many combs should be used when 

 the uniting is done now, Sept. 1st?" 



"The last of August or the first of Septem- 

 l)er you should have at least four or five 

 frames from half to two-thirds full of brood, 

 and in each case the queen should go on one 

 of the frames, and the adhering bees on all 

 of them." 



" But will not the bees fight and kill each 



other where l^rood and bees are taken from 

 different hives?" 



"By alternating the frames from different 

 hives no quarreling will result, and the mix- 

 ing of the l)ees causes them to mark better 

 their location anew; and this to a greater ex- 

 tent where the colony is formed just at night, 

 as should always be the case, when l)ut few 

 bees will x'eturn on the next day. or on their 

 first fiight after the colony is formed." 



"Well, how many frames will be needed, 

 should I wait as late as the middle of Sep- 

 tember?" 



"If this uniting is to be done as late as the 

 middle of September, then I should want at 

 least six frames having brood in them. I 

 have made many colonies the first week in 

 September by taking five or six frames of 

 brood, taking the same from as many nuclei 

 which 1 had used during the summer for 

 queen-rearing, and taking the queen from 

 one of the nuclei on the frame of bees from 

 her little colony, setting the whole six in an 

 empty hive placed where I wished a colony 

 to stand, when I would give four full frames 

 of honey, putting said honey all on one side 

 of the hive, so that, during winter, the bees 

 would not eat their way to one side of the 

 hive and starve with two frames of honey on 

 the other side of the hive, and had the colo- 

 nies thus formed make the very liest for hon- 

 ey-gathering the next year." 



"In thus uniting bi'ood, is it necessai'y to 

 form the colony on a separate stand?" 



"No, not unless you wish to keep the nu- 

 clei, all of them, rearing queens as late as 

 possible. Where you are willing to retrench 

 in queen-rearing, then take five or six combs 

 of brood from other nuclei, and set them in 

 the hive containing the nucleus and queen 

 you may have selected, alternating the frames 

 as you would were the same put on a new 

 stand." 



"By beginning in August you can get all 

 the real good there is in all your queen-rear- 

 ing colonies together by the middle of Sep- 

 tember, can you not?" 



"Yes, and keep up rearing queens as late 

 as can be done when no brood is taken, and 

 the uniting done in the mature-bee form. Of 

 course, there will be a very few bees that 

 would be young enough for wintering in each 

 nucleus, where this plan of uniting in the 

 brood form is used, but only a very few. 

 Nearly all that are of any value ai'e gotten 

 together in the united colonies; and the few 

 old bees which remain after the last queens 

 are sent away suffer less by being shaken off 

 the combs on some freezing morning or 

 night than they would st;ould yovi try to win- 

 ter them, and they die, one by one, as death 

 by old age came on." 



"I thank you for thus explaining. I think 

 I will try the plan, as I have several weak 

 colonies which I must get together for win- 

 ter. ' ' 



"Allow me to suggest that, if you have 

 never done any sucli uniting, it is always 

 well to go slow till you are perfectly familiar 

 with the workings of the matter, after which 



