THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



another hive in a distant part of the 

 yard, and quicljly be built up to a 

 strong colony by the aid of old combs 

 or frames tilled with foundation. I 

 usually remove the queen in the even- 

 ing, and the next morning all the 

 brood may be removed and dis- 

 tributed among other colonies. From 

 40 to 48 hours after the removal of the 

 queen, a colony is in readiness to re- 

 ceive the eggs or larv;e from which 

 the queens are to be reared. 



Now. to prepare the eggs or larvse 

 ready for the bees : Take a frame of 

 comb {% or ^^ full is as good as any, 

 or if it is all or part drone comb it 

 will answer as well) ; heat a thin case- 

 knife and cut this comb so that it will 

 be about 4 inches from the lower side 

 of the top-bar to the lower side of the 

 comb, forming a semi-circle ; the 

 comb will be the shape of a crescent 

 or half-moon, being about 4 inches 

 deep in the middle. Being ready for 

 the larvfe they are now removed from 

 the hive of the favorite colony, and 

 taken immediately to a warm place. 

 I proceed to cut strips from a part 

 where I am aisle to get cells in rows 

 from 3 to 6 inches long. I leave one 

 row of cells intact, but cut each row 

 of cells at each side tlirough the mid- 

 dle. One side of this strip should now 

 be cut off with the aid of the hot 

 knife, leaving the cells not over y of 

 an inch in depth. The larvse should 

 now be removed or destroyed in every 

 other cell, not leaving anything. The 

 bees may utilize, in rearing a queen, 

 any room except in the straight row 

 of cells, and there only in every 

 alternate one. Enough of these strips 

 should be prepared to form a row on 

 the under side of the crescent-shaped 

 comb, which may be made to adhere 

 by dipping the side which has the long 

 cells, into a mixture of beeswax and 

 resin — two parts wax and one of resin, 

 heated quite hot in a small, square. 

 shallow dish madeof tin or sheet-iron, 



The reason for having the comb in 

 the shape of a half-circle, is so that 

 the bees may have plenty of room on 

 all sides of the cells, and give room to 

 pass a sharp knife between the cells 

 without destroying or injuring any 

 of the cells, tinder the old way sev- 

 eral cells would sometimes be built 

 together so that it would be impossible 

 to remove and separate them without 

 destroying some of them. 



The colony is now in condition to 

 put all its energies to cell-building, 

 and will do so as they have no brood 

 to attend to. Their whole attention 

 will be given to the cells, andbut a 

 very little honey will be gathered. 

 The prudent bee-keeper will tiiere- 

 fore see that they are well supplied 

 with food, and if they should be un- 

 easy and many bees die, some capped 

 drone brood may be given them to 

 advantage ; in fact, I think it will be 

 beneticial from the start. The queens 

 will hatch on the 16th day from the 

 day the egg was deposited in the cell. 

 I usually remove them on the 14th 

 day, as all they need after that until 

 they hatch, is the necessary warmth, 

 although the bees will h«lp remove 

 the young queen when she sometimes 

 would not be able to emerge from the 

 cell by her own efforts. 



It will be found that the new races 

 of bees, with this method, will aver- 

 age one dozen good cells, and what- 

 ever bees are used it will be found 

 that more cells will be built, and they 

 will be larger, contain more of the 

 royal jelly, and that the queens will 

 be larger and more beautiful than 

 when reared under the so-called 

 swarming impulse. 



The two most important matters in 

 increase of colonies is to keep the 

 colonies stroiig in bees ; a prolific 

 queen is also very important; second, 

 to guard against the chilling and loss 

 of the brood in the newly-formnd 

 nuclei, by a change of temperature 

 or the lack of the requisite number of 

 bees to properly protect the brood 

 from chilling. The cells, if left too 

 long, must be carefully watched, for, 

 as soon as the tirst queen is hatched, 

 the bees will quickly destroy the re- 

 maining cells by biting into them and 

 removing the young queens. I pro- 

 ceed to form the nuclei the evening 

 before I wish to remove the cells, by 

 first taking a frame containing the 

 greatestnumberof hatching bees, and 

 putting one frame only in a hive, and 

 between two empty combs. If there 

 are not enough adhering bees upon 

 the comb of brood, bees to the amount 

 of from one-half to one pound may be 

 shaken into the hive, according to 

 the weather, being careful in all cases 

 not to get the queen in. The bees 

 should be shut in until morning before 

 being liberated. Some small boards 

 should be set up in front of the hive, 

 so that the bees may mark their new 

 location and not return to the old hive. 



Remove all tlie queen-cells from 

 the hive. The cells may be separated 

 by using the warm knife, leaving a 

 small piece of comb attached to each. 

 To introduce them, all you need to do 

 is to spread one end of the combs in 

 the nucleus, and place the cell in 

 between the bars in such a position 

 that nothing will prevent the queen 

 from emerging from the lower end of 

 the cell. If the queens have hatched 

 on your hands, and you have been 

 fortunate to have saved them, all you 

 need to do is to simply let one run in 

 at the entrance of the hive. The bees 

 will not harm or molest her in the 

 least. No more bees need be added, 

 butafter the queen shall have hatched, 

 and the most of the brood also, select 

 another frame of the oldest brood 

 that may be found, and place it in 

 the centre of the nucleus which will 

 serve to add strength to the immature 

 colony, and if for any reason the 

 queen has not hatched or has been 

 lost, you may soon know it, as queen- 

 cells will soon be started if the frame 

 contains any uncapped brood, which 

 is an easier and surer test of queen- 

 lessness than not finding the queen. 



Some of the advantages of this 

 method of increase will plainly be 

 seen ; first, the bees do not waste any 

 of their energies in the wrong direc- 

 tion, but are obliged to work on such 

 eggs or larva? as are given them ; the 

 queens are reared in strong colonies, 

 and I think are superior to queens 

 hatched in the natural way. The bee- 

 keeper need not be without queens, 

 as any one surely will be if they 



depend upon the bees to rear them 

 under the swarming impulse. I have 

 known a colony of pure Italians to 

 build but one queen-cell, and then it 

 was of such thickness and solidity 

 that the queen could not hatch. I have 

 also known bees to swarm and not 

 leave anything nearer a queen than 

 newly-laid eggs, and without any 

 queen-cells whatever. 



This is also the safest manner of 

 introducing queens, for but very few 

 of the nuclei will fail to have a queen. 

 Some may be lost on taking their 

 bridal trip, if the hives are not placed 

 in proper position, and the right dis- 

 tance apart. It will also be seen that 

 it takes but few bees to start a 

 nucleus, as we depend almost entirely 

 upon brood to form them, and brood 

 may be taken every .week from a 

 strong colony and not perceptibly 

 weaken it if "done judiciously, if the 

 queens are prolific, and none others 

 should be allowed in the apiary of a 

 modern and progressive bee-keeper. 



Cato,0 Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees in a (Jreeiilioiise in Winter. 



J. A. BALMER. 



On Nov. 14, 1885, I was offered a 

 colony of bees. Their owner intended 

 to brimstone them to get the honey, 

 (about 5 lbs). They were in a box- 

 hive, and as the man wanted to save 

 his hive, I undertook to drive the 

 bees. The day was cold, but not 

 freezing. I turned the " gum " upside 

 down and commenced knocking the 

 hive and smoking them, but they 

 would not drive, so I cut out the combs, 

 brushed the bees into a sieve, and 

 brought them home. 



I had placed my own bees, that 

 same day, in a sawdust-packed house, 

 and did not care to disturb them ; 

 therefore I had to hive these few bees 

 on 3 frames of drawn-out foundation, 

 without a particle of honey or bee- 

 bread in them. I placed them in a 

 greenhouse 12x50 feet. The bees 

 were very numb from cold, but soon 

 recovered under the influence of the 

 greenhouse temperature. 



I made them some nice, thick, 

 warm feed, using granulated sugar 

 and water just brought to a boil; to 

 this I added a pinch "of tartaric acid. 

 They took the feed readily, and soon 

 made preparations for extending the 

 comb. They fiew well every day, and 

 did not struggle much to get out of 

 their confinement ; though a few 

 would be lost every day. The point 

 of interest in these bees lies in the 

 fac'. that they were badly affected 

 with diarrhea from the first day they 

 were put into the greenhouse, and 

 this without pollen. There were a 

 few flowers in the greenhouse, but 

 very few pollen-yielding ones. After 

 they had been in-doors 5 days, there 

 came a warm spell of weather, and I 

 placed them in a sheltered position 

 out-doors; they flew well, but still 

 specked their hive. 



While out-doors I made an examin- 

 ation of the hive, and found the queen 



