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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



colonies as strong in bees as you can after 

 taking them from their winter quarters, but 

 to lieep them in that condition to the end of 

 the season; for without strong colonies we 

 can not expect much surplus. As the day 

 is now past when natural swarming is de- 

 sired by any progressive bee-keepers, we 

 will turn our attention to some practical way 

 of making artificial increase. 



The most common way of doing this is 

 either forming nuclei and afterward build- 

 ing them up into strong colonies, or dividing 

 a strong colony at once by putting a greater 

 part of the bees with their queen into an 

 empty hive on the old stand, and setting the 

 old hive containing the brood away some 

 distance in a new place. Each of these meth- 

 ods has some serious faults. The nucleus 

 method usually requires so much time that 

 frequently the best part of the harvest is 

 past before they are in a condition to take 

 advantage of it. They also require much 

 work and attention; and the other way of 

 dividing the strong colony is all wrong in 

 every respect. I think I hear some of you 

 say, "Yes, but that is about the same as 

 natural swarming, only the old hive is set 

 on a new stand. " I will admit it is some- 

 thing the same, though not half so good; for 

 in natural swarming, the old hive on its old 

 stand retains a part of its working force, 

 and matures all its brood; whereas, if divid- 

 ed, as is frequently done after its queen and 

 most of its working force are left on the old 

 stand, and it finds itself in a new place with- 

 out its queen, the greater part of the bees 

 that have ever been out to fly will return to 

 the old stand and join the swarm, leaving 

 the old hive with all its brood in a deserted 

 condition. Then the few remaining bees 

 will destroy every egg and nearly all the un- 

 capped larvte. Here you lose enough brood, 

 many times, to make nearly a swarm. 



After studying on this subject for many 

 years, and trying every thing I could think 

 of to prevent this loss of brood in making 

 our increase, and at the same time avoid the 

 loss of valuable time in fussing with nuclei, 

 and at all times keeping every colony in good 

 condition to take advantage of any unex- 

 pected harvest that might come, I hit on 

 what I consider the most practical way of 

 making increase of any thing I have ever 

 tried or heard of. It is this : 



Go to the colony you wish to divide; lift 

 it from its stand, and put in its place a hive 

 containing frames of comb or foundation the 

 same as you would put the swarm in, provid- 

 ing it had just swarmed. Now remove the 

 center comb from your empty hive and put 

 in its place a frame of brood, either from 

 the hive you wish to divide or some other 

 colony that can spare one, and be sure you 

 find the queen and put her on this frame of 

 brood in the new hive. Now put a queen- 

 excluding honey-board on top of this new 

 hive that contains the queen and frame of 

 brood with their empty combs; then set 

 your full queenless colony on top of the ex- 

 cluder; put the empty comb or frame of 

 foundation wherever you got your frame of 



brood, and close up the hives except the en- 

 trance. Now leave them about ten or eleven 

 days in this shape, during which time the 

 queen will e"et a fine lot of brood started in 

 the lower hive, and every egg and particle 

 of larva that was in the old hive on top will 

 have matured so it will be capped over and 

 saved; then separate them, putting the old 

 hive on a new stand. It will then be full of 

 mostly young bees and capped brood, and in 

 about 24 hours they will accept a ripe cell, a 

 virgin, or a laying queen, as they will realize 

 that they are hopelessly queenless. I would 

 advise you to give them a laying queen, as I 

 never like to keep my full colonies a day 

 longer without a queen than I can help. In 

 this way you have two strong colonies from 

 one, as you have not lost a particle of brood 

 or checked the laying of your queen; and 

 with me it almost wholly prevents swarming. 

 This is the way we have made our increase 

 for several years, and we like it much bet- 

 ter than anything else we have ever tried. 

 In doing so you keep all your colonies strong 

 during the whole summer, and it is the 

 strong colonies that count in giving us our 

 surplus. The mere fact of having a large 

 number of colonies does not amount to much 

 unless they are strong in bees and tvdl cared 

 for at all times. This is a fact that many 

 have sadly overlooked; and v/hen the season 

 comes to a close, giving them a small sur- 

 plus, they feel disappointed, and lay the 

 fault on many things that have had but lit- 

 tle to do with their failure. 



In making your increase in the above way 

 your new swarm on the old stand is in fine 

 shape for a clamp of sections, as it has a 

 large working force backed up by having 

 its hive nearly full of brood and but little 

 honey, as the bees have been in the habit of 

 storing their honey in the old hive that was 

 on top, so they will soon go to work in the 

 sections and have no notion of swarming. 

 Then the old hive that has been set away 

 can usually spare 15 or 20 pounds of honey, 

 which can be taken with the extractor, giv- 

 ing its new queen plenty of room to lay, and 

 in a short time will be one of your best colo- 

 nies, and also have no desire to swarm. 

 Now, if you have done your duty by your 

 bees since taking them from their winter 

 quarters you can have two good strong colo- 

 nies in the place of one, ready to commence 

 work on your clover harvest, which here 

 commences about June 15. 



From an extensive experience along this 

 line I find I can get nearly twice the amount 

 of surplus by dividing as above stated over 

 what I was able to acquire either by lettii g 

 them go undivided or dividing in a way that 

 caused the loss of a greater part of their 

 brood. This losing of iDrood we must guard 

 against at all times, if we expect to secure 

 a fine surplus. It costs both time and hon- 

 ey to produce it, and it is the principal fac- 

 tor in obtaining those strong colonies that 

 gives us tons of honey. 



Far too many bee-keepers think that the 

 value o£ their apiary consists in the number 

 of colonies they keep. This is so only to a 



