THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



367 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Transferring— The Old vs. the New. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



By transferring,! mean permanently 

 changing colonies from box or un- 

 suitable hives, to better hives of 

 other dimensions. Full and explicit 

 directions for manipulating the old 

 method have been so repeatedly given 

 that it seems quite unnecessary to go 

 over the ground here. We have been 

 told all about how to cut open the 

 box hive ; how to cut out the combs ; 

 to brush off the bees ; lay the combs 

 of brood and honey down on to a 

 board covered with woolen cloth ; lay 

 the frames onto the combs; cut the 

 combs snugly inside the frame ; slip 

 the frame snugly over the comb ; tie 

 a string around the same, or tack on 

 some sticks or clamp on some clamps, 

 etc., etc., etc., and wiien the frames 

 are filled. " hive the colony and the 

 work is done." 



The objections to such a plan are 

 these : The different devices for 

 fastening comb do not succeed in 

 holding It in place at all times, es- 

 pecially if put in, in pieces. If not 

 put in in pieces, the ordinary box hive 

 and moet worthless frame hives con- 

 tain scarcely comb enough to fill three 

 frames, and piece work forever after 

 looks, and is bungling. More or less 

 brood is destroyed ; honey is leaked 

 and daubed about. A colony thus 

 transferred is not worth as much to 

 me by several dollars as one trans- 

 ferred by the new method. 



The old method of cutting out 

 combs and fitting into frames, is 

 entirely obsolete here. With our 

 modern advantages such a course is 

 far inferior to the one I am now going 

 to describe. First, let me saytliati 

 considered it a great error to hive a 

 swarm of bees upon other than 

 straight all worker combs, or full 

 sheets of comb foundation, securely 

 stayed, which will be these combs in 

 48 hours. 



When we are buying bees we prefer 

 combs naturally built in empty 

 frames, to those that are transferred. 

 Again, we very much prefer combs 

 drawn from full sheets of foundation 

 to either. No matter how nice the 

 combs may be in the hive I transfer 

 from, I proceed as fellows : 



About swarming time I take one of 

 my Langstroth hives, containing 

 eight Given pressed wired frames of 

 foundation, and with smoker in 

 hand, 1 approach the hive to be trans- 

 ferred. First, I drive the old queen 

 and a majority of the bees into my 

 hiving box. I then remove the old 

 hive a few feet backward, reversing 

 the entrance, placing the new one in 

 its place and run in the forced swarm. 

 In two days I find eight new straight 

 combs with every cell worker, and 

 containing a good start of brood. 



Twenty-one days after the transfer, 

 I drive the old hive clean of all its 

 bees, uniting them with the former 

 drive, and put on the boxes, if they 

 are not already on. If there is any 

 nectar in the flowers, the colony will 

 show you box honey. About the 

 queens : I usually kill the forced 

 queen as the bees run in. 



I run them together as I would one 

 colony in two parts. Now to the old 

 beeless hive ; of course there is no 

 brood left, unless a little drone brood, 

 and we have before us some combs 

 for wax, for more foundation, and 

 some first-class kindling wood. 



If you have no method by which 

 you can use a full hive of frames, of 

 full sheets of foundation, running a 

 full swarm into them at once, by all 

 means procure it without delay. 



But if any one has a mania for cut- 

 ting up combs, and fitting them into 

 frames, by method given above, does 

 not prohibitthem using all the straight 

 worker comb the old hive contains, 

 after first extracting the honey from 

 them. Should any one wish to in- 

 crease Ills colonies at the same time 

 they transfer, the following deviations 

 from the above are only necessary. 

 Eun the second drive into another 

 hive of full frames of foundation, and 

 use the old hive as before. 



Now, that we liave got foundation 

 perfected, so tliat the bees will draw 

 the lines or side walls to full breeding 

 depth, in from two to three days, why 

 fuss with the old comb from the old 

 hive '? 



Having once experienced the above 

 method, I shall never go back to the 

 old one. All of you know what a 

 nuisance a few odd sized hives are in 

 the apiary, also some who have just 

 started, wish they had adopted some 

 other style of hive. The above 

 method of transferring, will, in my 

 judgment, get all such out of their 

 trouble. 



The cost of foundation, and new 

 hives, is fully made up by the better 

 combs, and you have the change to 

 better style of hive, thrown into the 

 bargain. I liave ttioroughly tested the 

 results of the plan herein" described, 

 and am speaking from experience. 



My metliod of fastening securely 

 full sheets of foundation, is by mak- 

 ing it in wired frames with the Given 

 press. Those wlio have but very few 

 colonies and consequently caiyiot yet 

 afford a press, can wire their frames 

 and hand press on ready made comb 

 foundation. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Bee Items from Australia. 



A. VERGE. 



In the expectation that some reader 

 of the Bee Journal may be able to 

 advance a reason, I ask the question, 

 why do bees worry and throw out 

 their hatching brood ? I began the 

 season of 188'2 with 11 colonies, in 

 Langstroth hives, and, not desiring 

 increase, I attempted to prevent it by 

 removing frames of brood to less vig- 

 orous colonies, and cutting out queen 



cells ; but the bees appeared dissatis- 

 fied with such arrangements, and did 

 no work in the sections. They con- 

 tinued tlie process of queen cell build- 

 ing, and whenever a colony became 

 populous enough to work in the sec- 

 tions, then also occurred afresh a 

 desire to swarm. However, I contin- 

 ued to cut out cells, and remove 

 brood, till the season had advanced so 

 far that it was very certain swarming 

 must be over for the year. 



From January 1st to the end of Feb- 

 ruary, showers of rain fell almost 

 every day, and during all that time 

 and afterwards they employed them- 

 selves with worrying and throwing 

 out the hatching brood. To such an 

 extent was the destruction carried on, 

 that I had to unite colonies, and now 

 I have only tliree which were left 

 strong enough to store sutticient sup- 

 plies for the winter. The dead bees 

 cover the ground below each hive ; in 

 some cases over a space nearly 1.5 

 inches square, and in the middle to 

 the depth of an inch— the odor from 

 them being quite disagreeable at a 

 distance of several feet. 



At first I thought it might have been 

 brought about by my having checked 

 their desire to swarm, but I noticed 

 that the bees in each of the four com- 

 mon box hives in another part of my 

 yard, were engaged in the same way. 

 Then I concluded that, owing to the 

 rainy weather, the store of lioney 

 which they could collect was insuffi- 

 cient to supply the wants of so much 

 young brood, and that they took this 

 course as the surest way of checking 

 the drain upon it. But, as there were 

 thousands of acres of white clover im- 

 mediately around, and any quantity 

 of flowers from forest trees, with no 

 other colonies within 3 miles to share 

 the supply, I find it difficult to believe 

 that so few colonies should have been 

 unable to collect sufficient for them- 

 selves. 



In order to increase the honey re- 

 sources of this place, I have introduced 

 several bee plants. Besides a few 

 rows of white sage and liorsemint, I 

 have a small plot of catnip and sweet 

 clover, the produce of seed supplied in 

 January last by Mr. A. H. Newman. 

 These are growing mostluxurantly on 

 river-bottom land, while some that I 

 tried on hill-land with a stiff clay sub- 

 soil, at a depth of 12 inches, did not 

 thrive at all ; in fact, in spite of con- 

 tinual waterings, there are not now to 

 be seen more than half a dozen 

 wretched plants, about 3 inches high, 

 out of a plot of 12 feet square. I think 

 it pretty certain that in this region, 

 sweet clover will require the same 

 depth of soil as does lucerne {alfalfa). 

 Of course it would grow on a poorer 

 soil, but it could not produce much 

 stalk or flowers. My trial, however, 

 was somewhat severe, because in a 

 soil not deeper than 12 indies, and 

 under our summer sky, no sufficient 

 moisture, in spite of frequent surface 

 watering, could be present below the 

 top for the nourishment of the plant 

 while tender. Probably if planted on 

 the same kind of land in the fall, it 

 would gather strength enough before 

 the following summer to withstand a 

 long period of dry weather. 



