THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



the old stand, setting the old hive by the 

 side of the new one until just as the young 

 queens are about to hatch, then moving it to 

 a new location. This throws the flying force 

 of tlie old hive into the new one ; leaving the 

 old one so nearly deserted just as the young 

 queens are hatching, that all ideas of swarm- 

 ing are usually abandoned. This plan neces- 

 sitates the use of light, readily movable 

 hives. 



The only " Contraction " that we feel like 

 recommending, is that of contracting the 

 brood nest into which a swarm is to be 

 hived. With an established brood nest 

 filled with brood and honey, the surplus 

 necessarily goes into the supers; a swarm 

 hived in a large brood nest, naturally fills 

 that part of the hive before doing much if 

 any work in the supers ; and often hesitates 

 about beginning work in the sections after 

 the brood nest is filled. With a contracted 

 brood nest there is no stoppage of work in 

 the supers — they being transferred to the 

 new hive. If, to a contracted brood nest, 

 we also add the plan of putting ' ' starters ' ' 

 only in the brood frames, no honey can be 

 stored in the brood nest until comb is built ; 

 and the moment a few cells are partly fin- 

 ished the queen is ready with her eggs, and 

 continues to follow up the comb builders. 

 The result is that nearly all the honey goes 

 into the supers, where it is stored in the 

 most marketable shape, and the combs in 

 the brood nest are filled almost entirely 

 with brood. A queen excluder must be qsed. 

 By the method of preventing after-swarms, 

 that we outlined in the last paragraph, 

 the swarm, in a few days, receives addi- 

 tional strength from the force of workers 

 thrown into it by the removal of the old 

 hive to a new location. With all these in- 

 fluences brought to Wear, just when the bees 

 are filled to overflowing with the vim of a 

 newly hived swarm, and the honey harvest 

 is at its height, is it any wonder that results 

 are sometimes truly amazing? 



While we have fed back thousands of 

 pounds of honey at a profit, we don't feel 

 like recommending the practice to all bee- 

 keepers. There are so many ifs, and ands, 

 and buts. It is really a distinct branch of 

 bee keeping — as much so as queen rearing. 

 We believe thei-e are times, however, when 

 feeding back is advisable if in tlie hands of 

 the right person. For instance, with us, one 

 year, clover yielded no surplus, while that 

 from basswood was light. When the season 



closed, not a poimd of surplus had beeii 

 taken from the liives, and nearly every hive 

 had upon it a case of nearly finished sec- 

 tions. These sections weighed, in the aggre- 

 gate, 1,000 pounds ; but only 200 of them 

 were finished. By feeding back 1,.500 pounds 

 of honey, some of which we bought, our 

 crop of finished sections was increased to 

 2,000 pounds in the aggregate. To those 

 who wish to try feeding back, we would say, 

 read the .June and July numbers of the 

 Review for 1888, in which the subject is 

 treated exhaustively ; to those who don't, 

 our advice would be, have as few unfinished 

 sections as possible at the end of the season. 

 As the harvest draws to a close, watch care- 

 fully and don't give too many sections. Keep 

 the surplus room well in hand ; as nearly 

 ready as possible for the harvest to close at 

 any time. It might be well in some cases 

 to take off all the sections, sort out the fin- 

 ished ones, and put back the unfinished 

 ones ; not putting more than one case on a 

 hive. If there is danger of loss from so 

 much contraction of the supers, a case of 

 sections filled with foundation may be 

 placed over the case already on the hive, 

 and the overflow, if there is any, will go 

 into the upper case, while the sections below 

 will all be completed. A set of extracting 

 combs may be used on top instead of a case 

 of empty sections. Any sections not quite 

 finished, may be sold in the home market at 

 a reduced price. Those not more than half 

 completed, can be put back upon the lightest 

 colonies, after the harvest is over, and the 

 bees allowed to carry down the honey, leav- 

 ing the half drawn combs dry and clean, 

 with which to give the bees a good "send 

 off" the next spring. 



Now friends, please notice with how little 

 labor we have managed. Not a frame has 

 been handled. All has been accomplished 

 by the manipulation of hives. If these 

 simple, cheap, effectual methods of saving 

 labor and securing good results, methods 

 that, it would seem, needed not so much as 

 a trial to be understood and appreciated, if 

 these methods are not the best, why not ? It 

 is to a discussion of this question that we 

 propose to devote the April Review. We 

 have given our honest convictions upon this 

 subject — convictions forced upon us by rea- 

 son and experience — , and, if they are wrong, 

 no one wishes them righted more quickly 

 than we do. Let each consider this a spe- 

 cial invitation for him to write. It is not 



