758 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



combs. When closing the brood-nest, 

 take out one comb with unsealed larva3 

 (perhaps two combs would be better), 

 and put it in the box A. Bees will not 

 desert their brood. Three or four days 

 later, destroy what queen-cells may be 

 found on that comb, and also the un- 

 sealed larvi«, but do not remove the 

 comb. The bees will then be hopelessly 

 queenless, and have got to it by a grad- 

 ual process. Three or four days later 

 the brood-nest can be reopened. The 

 process may be repeated during the 

 summer, in case signs of swarming 

 should appear. 



The second difficulty being a purely 

 mechanical one, will be solved sooner or 

 later. The point is to construct the es- 

 cape so that the outside bees cannot dis- 

 cover that their brood-nest is behind it. 

 Here is the one I want to try first : In 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 2, B represents the brood-nest, as 

 seen from above ; A, the box conducting 

 the bees from the outside to the supers ; 

 D the slide closing the brood-nest, and 

 F the escape in the form of a tube four 

 or five inches long, with a cone (H) and a 

 piece of queen-excluding zinc (G). I will 

 add that the presence of a brood-comb 

 in the box A will greatly diminish the 

 eagerness of the bees in hunting up a 

 hole to get into the brood-nest. 



As to the third difficulty, it is prob- 

 able that the most of the pollen brought 

 in would be deposited in the comb placed 

 in the box A. In my locality but little 

 difficulty need be apprehended on that 

 point. At the time of swarming most of 

 our honey is gathered from honey-dew, 

 and queenless bees would not bring any 

 pollen, or very little, under such circum- 

 stances. 



Knoxville, Tenn., Nov. 27, 1893. 



A Binder for holding a year's num- 

 bers of the Bee Journal, we mail for 

 only 50 cents; or clubbed with the 

 Journal for $1.40. 



managing Bees so as to make 

 Them Profitable. 



Written for the American Be-e JoumaX 

 BY ALEX. ROSE. 



I started last spring with 13 colonies 

 of hybrid bees, one being queenless. I 

 increased them to 18, and got about 

 500 pounds of comb honey in one- 

 pound sections. I use V-shaped starters 

 4 inches wide at the top, and 2 inches 

 long. In the center of the sections I 

 fasten them in with a hand-made ma- 

 chine. I made a section-press or ma- 

 chine with which I use a treadle. As 

 soon as a section is doubled it is pressed 

 together. I can fold and press about 15 

 to the minute. It is on the principle of 

 the old sash saw. 



I use section-cases made of J^-inch 

 boards, holding 14 sections to the case, 

 two cases filling one Langstroth hive. 

 I use a wood-slat honey-board with four 

 openings for the bees to pass up 

 through. I scarcely ever have any pol- 

 len in the sections. I don't have any 

 "young swarms." I manage to have 

 empty combs to start on in the begin- 

 ning of the swarming season, and when 

 my first swarm comes off, I put it on 

 empty combs with two or three frames 

 out of the hive whose colony just 

 swarmed. I then put it on the stand of 

 the old hive, with partly-filled sections, 

 and then remove to a new hive. In 15 

 minutes they are at work nicely, as the 

 bees in the field come in loaded with 

 honey, they are inclined to pass on up 

 to the sections to unload before they do 

 much below, and as I get all the work- 

 ing-force in the new hive, there are bees 

 enough to carry on all the work above 

 and in the brood-chamber. Now if the 

 flow of nectar continues good, in six to 

 ten days the sections are finished, ready 

 to take off, or tier up and have them 

 finished on top of 28 empty sections. 



Now for the old colony : If I have 

 any weak colony I set this old hive on 

 it, closing it up so the bees have to pass 

 out through the hive of the weak colony; 

 in a short time another swarm comes 

 off. I still have empty combs, so I go to 

 the hive I have on top of the weak col- 

 ony, take out about three frames, still 

 partly-filled with brood (seeing they 

 have no queen-cells), put them in with 

 the old combs, and putting on the 

 partly-filled sections the same as on No. 

 1. When I have no more weak colonies 

 I tier up old brood-chambers after 

 swarming, and when a new swarm comes 

 after this, I smoke down all the young 



