THE A3IEEICAN APICULTURIST. 



57 



I cannot understand either why, or 

 how, it is so many beekeepers liave their 

 queens destroyed when they introduce 

 them. Just give the colony a good fumi- 

 gating with tobacco and my word for it, 

 not one queen in one hundred will be 

 destroyed whether the hive has been 

 queenless one or three days. The be- 

 ginner in order to make a sure thing of 

 it should use the three days' method. 



One of the advantages of introducing 

 queens towards night, and it is an im- 

 portant one, is that the bees are all in 

 the hive. I don't like the idea of a lot 

 of fresh bees entering the hive after a 

 new queen has been given tlie colony. 



nrvixG swAiiJis. 



If the novice is ever excited it is when 

 his bees swarm. Some of them run 

 for tin- pans, or other old tin articles 

 upon which they can beat and create a 

 racket and seem to be doing their best to 

 frighten and drive the bees away, in- 

 stead of doing anything to make the 

 swarm settle on some object. This tin 

 pan business is all unnecessary. Give 

 the bees lime to look about, and they 

 will soon find a place on which to 

 lodge. When they have all done so, 

 it is a good plan to sprinkle them with 

 water (a small force pump is handiest 

 to use in the apiary). This operation 

 will prevent the swarm decamping while 

 the lailder, hive and other things are 

 being made ready to take the"swarm. 



Place the ladder in a safe and conven- 

 ient place to the cluster, then with a large 

 basket in hand ascend to the tree and 

 place the basket direcdy under the 

 cluster, give the limb a blow on the un- 

 der side, or a sudden shake and nearly 

 all the bees will drop into the basket. 

 The hive may be placed directly on the 

 ground and the contents of the basket 

 turned down in front of the entrance. 

 The bees will soon run in. Place the 

 hive on the summer stand as soon as 

 possible. 



Iftwoormore swarms should issue 

 at the same time and all cluster in the 

 same place proceed at once to divide 

 them. Have some cages at hand and 



capture each queen when found. Give 

 each swarm a queen. A little tobacco 

 smoke blown among the bees will pre- 

 vent any queens from being killed. 



Don't be afraid to handle the bees. 

 Turn them ina heap on a blanket, hav- 

 ing the hives near by, and with a dipjier 

 proceed to divide them up in equal lots. 



ARTIFICIAL INCREASE OR DIVIDIXG. 



If your bees will not swarm and you 

 desire to increase your apinry, artifi- 

 cial increase must be resorted to. This 

 is done by dividing the combs and 

 bees of a strong colony. Proceed thus : 

 remove three or four frames of brood 

 and honey to a new hive, leaving the 

 queen in the home hive. Fill the space 

 in both hives with other combs, frames 

 having starters or sheets of founilation. 

 Place the queenless portion of the col- 

 ony on the old stand and remove the 

 part having the queen to a new location 

 some distance from the old stand. In 

 the course of three days give the queen- 

 less colony a queen or a well-matured 

 queen cell, say one that has been 

 capped six days. Both colonies will in 

 a short time be in a prosperous condi- 

 tion. 



THE RIGHT NUMBER OF FRAMES TO A 

 HIVE. 



This is another of those qu(5stions that 

 is not likely to be settled to the satis- 

 faction of all beekeepers. The Api was 

 the first bee-paper to advise the use of 

 but eight frames in the brood- chamber 

 of any colony of bees. Now nearly all 

 successful beekeepers are using but 

 eight frames. Those who use tliis num- 

 ber of frames for one season only will 

 not return to ten frames again. The 

 advantages of the smaller brood-cham- 

 ber are so marked that it commends 

 itself after a short experience to all who 

 test it. 



It seems to me that it ought not to 

 require a long argument to convince 

 any one who has had experience with 

 bees the advantages the 8- frame hive 

 possesses over those having lo frames. 

 Eight good brood combs free of drone 



