>rarch, igog. 



American ^ee Journal 



ferent parts as I like tliem best, and 

 made the can deep enough to hold 

 about 200 pounds below the reel. 



If any should presume to say, "the 

 thing won't work." I refer them to Fig. 

 I, which shows the machine complete, 

 together with some choice "honey" (the 

 very best kind) "taken" with it. (It 

 was ''extracted" after the ceremony of 

 snapping the kodak was over.) 



Leslie, Ga. 



Increase by Dividing Colonies 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Mr. D.\d.\n'T: — I have read your book, "The 

 Hive and Honey-Bee," and last spring pur- 

 chased a colony of bees in a large box-hive. 

 During the summer I noticed that the bees 

 were lying out of the hive and clustering 

 at)out the outside in large numbers. I con- 

 cluded to try an experiment. I put a mov- 

 able-frame hive under the box-hive, so that 

 the two would freely communicate. After a 

 few days, noticing that the bees seemed to have 

 moved into the lower hive, I removed the 

 upper hive and put it on a new stand. At 

 first it seemed to have but very few bees left, 

 and the new hive seemed to have all the 

 working force. But within a very short time 

 the old-hive colony became the stronger again, 

 and I now have 2 good colonies. Why would 

 not this be a good method of "swarming" the 

 bees to avoid all the trouble incident to natural 

 swarming and having to watch the bees? What 

 do you think of this method? Has it ever been 

 used? Illinois. 



The above method was probably the 

 first one ever used for making artificial 

 swarms, being the most elementary and 

 simple. Bernard De Gelieu, Radouan, 

 Soria, and others, in the early part of 

 the 19th Century, used "dividing hives," 

 that is, hives which were made of sev- 

 eral parts to be separated either hori- 

 zontally or vertically, as desired, each 

 part or section being removed from the 

 others at will ("The Hive and Honey 

 Bee," pages 135-6, latest edition). This 

 was before the time of movable-frame 

 hives, and there was no way to go into 

 the details of artificial swarming. 



When you add a section or a hive- 

 body under an already well filled hive, 

 during the spring laying, at the begin- 

 ning of the flow of honey, the queen 

 moves to that part as the bees fill it 

 with comb, and she begins laying eggs 

 in the cells, abandoning the part which 

 is already filled. Just as fast as the 

 young'bees hatch out of the abandoned 

 portion the workers fill the cells with 

 honey, for they always aim to keep 

 their honey above the brood-cliamber. 

 By the method which you have pur- 

 sued, if you had not separated tlie two 

 hives to make a division, the bees would 

 have eventually filled the upper hive en- 

 tirely with honey. Your removal of 

 the upper hive was done after the queen 

 had moved down to the lower hive and 

 before the brood in the upper hive had 

 become too old to supply young queens 

 by the rearing of queen-cells. If done 

 at any other time, the operation would 

 have been a failure. At the time of the 

 removal the upper hive was left with 

 only young bees, brood in all stages and 

 honey, and they had to rear a queen, 

 while the lower hive secured the old 

 queen and all the working force. It 

 was a good combination and therefore 

 successful. But apiarists prefer to make 

 absolutely sure of what they arc doing, 

 and that is why they practice what has 

 lately been called "shook-swarming," by 



which method or methods (for there is 

 a great variety of ways) they do about 

 what you did, but make sure of se- 

 curing the queen in the new hive and 

 young brood or queen-cells, or some- 

 times, also, a queen in the other part. 

 In the different methods of swarm- 

 ing by artificial means there are a few 

 points which 'must be kept in mind ; 



1st. A queenless colony is not well 

 suited to build combs, because queen- 

 less bees build drone-combs exclusively. 

 This is a natural instinct of the bee. 

 .\s long as they have a queen at hand 

 that is likely to make a demand for 

 worker-cells in which to lay, a queen 

 young and vigorous, that is not fa- 

 tigued by protracted laying, they build 

 worker-combs. Whenever the queen has 

 a large amount of worker-combs ahead 

 to be filled, the bees turn their atten- 

 tion to building large cells which tak-f 

 less time and material, and may be 

 used indifferently to rear drones or store 

 honey. There are times, also, when the 

 queen is tired of layino- eggs that are 

 fertilized as they pass the spermatheca. 

 and desires to lay drones-eggs which, 

 not being fertilized on the way. give 

 her perhaps less pleasure but also less 

 fatigue. .\i those times the bees will 

 also build mainly large cells. When 

 they have no queen, they naturally build 

 such combs as are most readily built, 

 therefore large cells. Such combs are 

 not desirable in the brood apartment of 

 the hive, for a large number of them 

 is sure, sooner or later, to secure a 

 large number of drones, and a conse- 

 quent increase of expense without profit. 

 It is, therefore, of the utmost import- 

 ance that the portion of the colony 

 which is left queenless for any length 

 of time be entirely supplied w'ith combs, 

 at least until a young queen is hatched. 

 2d. A sufficient number of young bees 

 should be secured in the hive in which 

 no hatching brood is left, to help care 

 for the first eggs hatched into larv.-e. 

 Very old bees, such as have roariied 

 over the fields for days, are unsuitcd 

 for brood-rearing. Their jelly-produc- 

 ing salivarv glands are more or less 

 atrophied from non-usage, and young 

 bees are much superior to them for 

 feeding the young larvae. In the econ- 

 omy of a natural swarm, young bees 

 that are then taking their first flight 

 will be the ones to remain in the hive 

 to care for the first brood. This has 

 been ascertained beyond the possibility 

 of a doubt, through the introduction of 

 queens of different races in colonies at 

 different stages of the season. A swarm- 

 ing colony of common bees, containing 

 an Italian queen inserted only a few 

 weeks before, and having only a few 

 young Italian bees along with the swarm, 

 will show this fact very plainly, for 

 those young yellow bees will be the ones 

 to remain at home in the new abode, 

 to care for the new brood. 



3d. The colony which is deprived of 

 its queen when tlie division is made 

 must either be supplied with a new 

 queen at once or must have incans of 

 rearing one. By the introduction of 

 a queen reared previously, or purchased 

 from a reliable breeder, we serve sev- 

 eral purposes. We save time, because 

 if the bees are compelled to rear their 

 own queen, if will be 2 or ,3 weeks 

 before she is able to lay eggs, from 



the time when the division has been 

 made. The furnishing of a queen of 

 selected stock is also an advantage, be- 

 cause we may prefer the stock of one 

 colony to the stock of another, either 

 because they are more gentle, or more 

 productive, or nearer to our ideal. The 

 improvement of the races can only be 

 carried on tfirough the changing of the 

 queens, and swarming time is the 

 proper time to make changes in races 

 without much loss of time or money. 



4th. If the queenless portion of the 

 divided colony is allowed to rear its 

 own queen, it must have young larvae, 

 and must be carefully watched so as 

 to prevent it from sending forth an- 

 other swarm. It often liappens that 

 queeidess colonies containing a large 

 amount of brood, in a very warm sea- 

 son and when the crop is heavy and 

 the cells filling rapidly, will rear a large 

 number of queen-cells and swarm to 

 excess witli the young queens first, 

 hatched. If we aim to control swarm- 

 ing in a positive manner, we must 

 watch this matter also. 



Personally, the objection I have to 

 this method of dividing very large colo- 

 nies is. that I want to keen these large 

 and powerful colonies undivided in or- 

 der to secure the honey crop from them. 

 We always have a number of colonies 

 of fair strength which are yet not pow- 

 erful enough to produce a large honey 

 crop. If we can keep our largest colo- 

 nies intact and turn their efforts to hon- 

 ey-production, we can secure our in- 

 crease from the very colonies that would 

 not swarm or produce a surplus, for 

 they are generally strong enough in 

 bees at the time of the honey crop 

 to make each a good colony. But. I 

 do not wish to breed from these queens 

 of rather inferior quality, so my aim 

 is to get a supply of good, young laying 

 queens of the very best descent, and use 

 them in making artificial increase, what- 

 ever be the method employed. We want 

 the best, strongest, most prolific stock 

 that can be secured, combined with gen- 

 tleness ami honey-producing qualities. 

 In bee-culture thus far, we have been 

 ;il)le to secure only one of the progeni- 

 tors, the female; the drone being still 

 to a great extent beyond our control; 

 but we should not leave anything un- 

 done to secure daughters of the best 

 breeders. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Uniting of Weak Colonies- 

 Drone Comb in Extract- 

 ing Supers 



BY G. C. CREI.N'ER. 



The "EditoriaK Notes and Cort'iments" 

 in the November, 1908. issue, contain, 

 under the heading "Uniting Weak Colo- 

 nies." many timely hints lor the be- 

 ginner, that are well worth remember- 

 ing, and tliey would not come amiss if 

 some of our older bee-keepers would 

 make a note of them. 



For many years I have practiced uni- 

 ting weak colonies almost every season, 

 and I know, if it is properly done, it is 

 generally successful. There arc two 

 main reasons, \*hy colonies should be 

 united, first, to pt-epare them for a 



