AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



709 



the new hive is not too large, work will 

 be at once resumed in tUe sections. 



Place the old hive by the side of the 

 new one, but with its entrance turned to 

 one side. That is, have the rear ends of 

 the hives nearly in contact, but their 

 entrances perhaps two feet apart. Each 

 day turn the entrance of the old hive a 

 few inches toward that of the new hive. 

 At the end of the sixth day the two hives 

 should stand side by side. Practically, 

 the hives are on one stand. True, the 

 bees of each hive recognize, and enter 

 their own home, but remove either hive, 

 and all of the flying bees would enter 

 the remaining hive. 



Usually the second swarm comes out 

 on the eighth day after the issuing of 

 the first. Now, if the apiarist will, on 

 the seventh day, about noon, when most 

 of the bees are a-field, carry the old hive 

 to a new location, all of the bees that 

 have flown from the old hive since the 

 issuing of the swarm, that have marked 

 the old location as their home, will re- 

 turn and join the newly-hived swarm. 

 This booms the colony where the sec- 

 tions are, and so reduces the old colony, 

 just as the young queens are hatching, 

 that any further swarming is abandoned. 

 The old colony just about builds up into 

 a first-class colony for wintering. If 

 there is a Fall honey-flow, such a colony 

 may store some surplus then. 



This method of preventing after- 

 swarming, called the Heddon method, is 

 not infallible. If a colony swarms before 

 the first queen-cell is sealed, the first 

 young queen may not hatch until the 

 old colony has been upon the new stand 

 long enough for a sufficient number of 

 bees to hatch to form a swarm, when 

 they may swarm ; but as a rule, this is a 

 success. 



If the bee-keeper desires no increase, 

 let him pursue the plan just given, for 

 the prevention of after-swarming until 

 the point is reached where the old hive 

 is to be carried to a new location, when 

 the old hive is simply to be shifted to 

 the opposite side of the new hive, with 

 its entrance turned away as in the first 

 instance. Each day the hive is to be 

 turned slightly, as before, until the hives 

 are again parallel, when, at the end of a 

 week from the time the "shift" was 

 made, the hive can again be changed to 

 the other side of the new hive. 



By this management, the young bees 

 that are continually hatching in the 

 parent colony, are being enticed into the 

 hive containing the swarm. At the end 

 of the third week, the combs of the old 

 hive will be free of brood. That left by 

 the old queen will all have hatched, 



while the young queen will not have 

 been laying more than two or three days 

 at the most. The few remaining bees 

 can now be shaken from the combs of 

 the old colony and allowed to run in the 

 new hive. 



If there is any choice of queens, the 

 apiarist can kill the one that is the least 

 desirable ; otherwise he can allow the 

 queens to settle the matter themselves. 

 I prefer the latter course. What little 

 honey is left in the combs may be ex- 

 tracted, and the combs, unless there is 

 some immediate use for them, stored 

 away, and close watch kept over them, 

 that they are not injured by the bee- 

 moth's larv£e. I do not like the plan of 

 putting the brood-combs of a colony 

 from which a swarm has issued, upon 

 some other hive, the cells being filled 

 with honey as fast as the bees hatch. 

 There seems to be no good plan of allow- 

 ing bees to swarm and then preventing 

 increase by uniting, without having an 

 extra set of combs built for each swarm 

 that issues, but I believe such combs 

 are produced at a profit. 



There is still another plan of prevent- 

 ing increase besides that of merging the 

 old colony into the new ; it is that of 

 contracting the brood-nest of the newly- 

 hived swarm to such an extent that the 

 end of the season will find it too reduced 

 in numbers for successful wintering, 

 when it may be united with the parent 

 colony. 



I do not wish to be understood as say- ■ 

 ing, or even intimating, that there are 

 no other methods of preventing or con- 

 trolling increase. There are several. 

 But it is not always a question of what 

 can be done, but if it can be done profit- 

 ably ? Some have practiced, and re- 

 ported favorably, the plan of allowing a 

 swarm to return to the old hive, then 

 removing the queen, and aftewards cut- 

 ting out all the queen-cells but one. It 

 has this in its favor : The colony is re- 

 queened ; but, as an offset, there is the 

 labor of cutting out the cells, with the 

 possibility that one or more may be over- 

 looked, or that the one left, may not 

 hatch. 



With the prices at which honey sells, 

 there must be as little of this "putter- 

 ing " work as possible. The cutting out 

 of queen-cells, handling of combs singly, 

 changing them about, etc., must be 

 dropped for more wholesale, short-cut 

 methods. There must be more handling 

 of hives, and less manipulation of combs. 



For some reason, a colony with a 

 queen of the current year seldom 

 swarms. Perhaps one reason is that 

 her vigorous laying does not allow the 



