THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



63 



My clamps are small ; one covering only 

 one half the brood nest. AMien tilling them 

 with sections, I usually put two sections at 

 each end tilled with drawn comb left over 

 from the preceding season, I look upon 

 this as an advantage, as it seems to induce 

 the bees to enter sooner than they other- 

 wise would. Full sheets of foundation are 

 used in the other sections. I use foundation 

 more to prevent the building of drone comb 

 and to secure a better finish to the honey 

 than for any other reason. 



At first I put but one clamp on a hive, cov- 

 ering the other half of the lirood nest with a 

 board. As work progresses, more clamps 

 are added, until there are sometimes six or 

 eight on one hive. I have reference now to 

 unfinished sections, as all finished sections 

 are removed as soon as completed. 



In the spring, brood rearing is encouraged 

 as much as possible in order that there may 

 be a good force of workers in time for the 

 clover harvest ; which usually begins here 

 about the 15th of June. I allow the bees to 

 swarm only once ; and, after swarming has 

 commenced in earnest, two, and sometimes 

 three, swarms are hived together on a new 

 stand. In such cases a part of each swarm 

 is returned to the parent hive, in order that 

 all hives may have a good working force at 

 all times. The following day a set of clamps 

 is given the new swarms, when work in the 

 sections is commenced at once. By this 

 plan, there are no idle bees, as all colonies 

 have sufiicient strength to work in the sec- 

 tions at all times ; and, as the hive and sec- 

 tions are warm at night, comb building is 

 continued even with a small force of bees. 



It will be seen that, by this plan, the in- 

 crease of colonies is much less than it would 

 be if each swarm were hived separately, 

 while the amount of surplus is much larger ; 

 at least, this has been my experience in a lo- 

 cality where clover and basswood are the 

 only sources from which surplus is secured. 



I use the j^opular, "poplar," J'our-piece 

 sections, and prefer them to any I have 

 seen. My being their originator, man ^^- 

 couut for my preference, but I firmly believe 

 that, all things considered, they are as cheap 

 as any style. 



In every apiary there are usually, in the 

 spring, a few colonies that have barely sur- 

 vived the winter, and cannot possibly lireed 

 up sufticiently to store any surplus. Some 

 bee-keepers recommend the uniting of such 

 colonies, or else the building up of them by 

 drawing brood from prime colonies. Nei- 

 ther plan has been satisfactory with me. 

 Prime colonies are never too strong to suit 

 me, while the doubling up plan does not 

 seem to answer the purpose. My practice 

 now is to draw the brood from these colonies, 

 about the last of May, giving it to colonies 

 that are nearly up to full strength. As 

 soon as swarming begins, the queens in these 

 weak colonies are killed and swarms hived 

 in with these queenless colonies. In this 

 way the colonies are made to do good ser- 

 vice, when, if left to themselves, they would 

 have given no profit and only barely built 

 up in time for winter. 



If we could discover a plan whereby 

 swarming could be prevented, the expense 



and difficulties attending the production of 

 comb honey would be greatly lessened. Then 

 we would have little else to do than the put- 

 ting on and taking oft" of sections. But 

 what of the effect upon the price of honey ? 

 Would it not be lower in price in proportion 

 to the lessened cost ? In order that I might 

 dispense with help, I have tried many plans 

 for the prevention of swarming, but none 

 have been fully satisfactory. During the 

 last four or five years, I have experimented 

 quite extensively by removing queens just 

 before swarming, as recommended by Mr. 

 P. H. Elwood, but I am not fully satisfied 

 with the plan. I must admit, however, that 

 there has been no good season since trying 

 this plan extensively. 



I am one of that class that believes that 

 the nearer we stick to the laws of nature, the 

 greater will be our success. 



Bkistol, Vt., Mar. 1.5, 1890. 



Wax SecretionXLeads^to' Swarming — Objec- 

 tions to "Contraction," and to Chaff 

 Hives or Packing. 



fN THE last paragraph of your leader in 

 the March issue, you cite us to the fact 

 that you have managed your bees with 

 but little labor. One great point in the 

 production of comb honey, where out-apia- 

 ries are established, is, if the swarming im- 

 pulse could be controlled, one-half the ex- 

 pense of such apiaries would be saved. The 

 methods of manipulation, of after-swarming, 

 of removing queen cells, even of providing 

 an extra hive and a swarming machine, do 

 not fill the bill. And we have come to the 

 conclusion that as long as the bees are al- 

 lowed to perform the duties of wax build- 

 ing, just so long will the swarming impulse 

 continue. Our observations upon this point 

 lead us to believe that the secretion of wax 

 is one of the causes, if not the main one, for 

 the swarming fever. When running colo- 

 nies for extracted honey we find that with 

 hives stocked with old combs the swarming 

 is easily controlled , but with the extracting 

 supers filled with foundation and wax build- 

 ing allowed there is an abundance of swarm- 

 ing. In like manner, in the production of 

 comb honey, a large secretion of wax is nec- 

 essary, and, if honey comes in rapidly, the 

 wax workers, as the sections approach com- 

 pletion, find their occupation gone, and, 

 having no place to deposit their abdominal 

 loads of wax, immediately prepare for 

 swarming ; and the addition of more surplus 

 room will not check the impulse. The se- 

 cretion of chyme may also have an impor- 

 tant bearing, but we think in a less degree 

 than the wax building. 



Now, at this point, contract the brood 

 nest, and, in our experience, swarming will 

 result. Another objection that we have 

 against close contraction is that it throws all 

 the honey into the supers and leaves the 

 brood nest empty. This might not be ob- 

 jectionable were we certain of an abundant 

 yield in autumn. In this location bees sel- 

 dom get enough honey in autumn for winter 

 stores, and objectionable feeding would be 



