738 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



avoid brace-combs and glue, the bee- 

 spaces must be exactly the right meas- 

 urement. 



Now, then, if the measurement is right 

 between the upper and lower surfaces of 

 the slats, and the brood-frames below 

 and the surplus sections above, that 

 space will be too large between the 

 brood-frames and sections and the sur- 

 face of the zinc, because the zinc is so 

 very much thinner than the slats. 



Owing to this well-known law, the 

 closer the slats come together (that is, 

 the narrower the space between the 

 edges of the slats), by all odds, the less 

 will be the likelihood of brace-combs 

 being built to either side of the honey- 

 board. 



There must be some play, or allowance, 

 in the practical construction of honey- 

 boards, and before I would put the slats 

 far enough apart to take in a zinc strip 

 with two parallel rows of holes, I would, 

 by all means, make the honey-board en- 

 tirely of metal, such as I described .in 

 Gleanings something over two years ago. 



In that honey-board either one or two 

 rows of holes can be used over each top- 

 bar, and the break-joint and bee-space 

 principles both be preserved. The bee- 

 space can be made by turning up the 

 edges of the zinc, or by tacking on a 

 wood border, as I made them in the first 

 place, when Mr. Jones first announced 

 the queen-excluding idea. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Preyentioii of After-Swarming, 



M. H. DE WITT. 



I will give your readers my plan to 

 prevent or control after-swarming. I 

 have found it the easiest thing in the 

 world. 



My practice is to destroy all the queen- 

 cells at any time within three of four 

 days after the swarm issues. When the 

 cells are worth preserving, they may be 

 transferred to nucleus colonies, and the 

 queens reared. A young queen is in- 

 troduced to the colony, and there is no 

 more swarming from that hive that 

 season. 



Perhaps I should have said that when 

 further increase is not desirable, or we 

 have no use for the swarm, the bees may 

 be put back into the hive they issue 

 from, while the queen remains in the 

 trap. 



If a strange queen is introduced, it 

 may be done by the cage system, or by 

 fumigating with tobacco smoke. If by 



the former method, the cage may be 

 placed upon the frames, or, which is 

 still better, inserted at the bottom cor- 

 ner of one of the brood-frames. 



Cutting out the queen-cells, and then 

 placing the brood and other combs over 

 the new colony, with a queen-excluder 

 between the two hives is good, but not 

 new. Dr. Tinker, I think, was the first 

 bee-keeper to adopt that method. 



Of course, if this plan is adopted by 

 any one, I see no way so good to manage 

 to obtain surplus honey as by using the 

 extractor. I would suggest that before 

 the transfer of the brood to the new col- 

 ony, as much as possible of the honey in 

 the brood-combs should be extracted. 

 The whirling of the combs in the ex- 

 tractor would be likely to destroy any 

 queen-cells that escaped the eye when 

 the combs were examined. 



There is another suggestion I will 

 make here. It is this : Do not wait five 

 days before making the transfer of 

 brood-combs from the old hive to the 

 new one. Do it late in the afternoon of 

 the day the swarm issued. 



The young bees will go down into the 

 bottom hive after awhile. In two weeks 

 from the day they leave the combs, the 

 young bees will be in the fields gather- 

 ing pollen and honey. 



Sunny Side, Md. 



Notes froi Missouri, 



BYROX HAMS. 



The cyclone of the 20th inst., passed 

 only two miles south of this place, leav- 

 ing death and destruction in its path. 

 Houses, barns, and other out-buildings 

 were destroyed, fences and trees torn 

 up, and fields laid waste. Three persons 

 were instantly killed, five mortally 

 wounded, and more than a score of peo- 

 ple seriously hurt. 



The track of the cyclone was only 

 about 100 yards wide, but the scene 

 presented after the passage of the storm 

 beggars description. The cyclone was 

 accompanied by hail, and some of the 

 stones were as large as goose eggs. 



Bees are beginning to swarm here, 

 and yesterday they began working on 

 white clover, but I do not expect a great 

 deal of surplus honey from it this season. 



I moved 80 colonies of my bees 6 miles 

 north of here, last week. The day be- 

 fore moving them, I removed the upper 

 story, spread a sheet of cheese cloth over 

 the frames, and fastened it with narrow 

 strips around the top edge of the hive. 



