THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



75 



enter the supers much sooner than the 

 smaller ones. 



Referrinjr to our comparison at the be- 

 j^inning of this article, I would say that, 

 in my locality, colony No. 2 would, during 

 the second year, have its large brood -nest 

 full earlier, than the colony No. i, would 

 its smaller brood-nest. If, at the end of 

 the first year's hone}- flow , the colony 

 No. 2 had twice the population of No. i , 

 it would, at the beginning of the second 

 year's hone}^ flow, have two and a half, 

 or. perhaps, three times, the strength of 

 No. I. 



.\s a matter of fact, this locality is poor; 

 and it is only the really strong colonies 

 that give any surplus to amount to any- 

 thing. .V weak colony can build up to 

 full strength during the season, if no ac- 

 cident happens, but it is only those al- 

 ready strong in the early spring that can 

 give a good surplus. 



All this is written from a comb honey 

 raiser's standpoint. I have not yet said 

 any thing on the swarming question. 



In a locality like mine, in which the 

 honey flow is very irregular, and never 

 abundant, it is necessary to keep the colo- 

 nies .strong all the time; so as to catch 

 what flow ni^y lia])i)en to come at any 

 tim.:-. This, in turn. also requires an ab- 

 solute prevention of swarming, or, at least, 

 of increase, and at the same time allow of 

 the rearing of as much brood as possible. 



.\fter several years of experiments, I 

 have finally succeeded in mastering the 

 question completely. .Vmong the difTer- 

 e;it methods that I use, I will describe 

 only one; the simplest of all, although 

 perhaps not the best. 



In the first place, let me say, I do not 

 allow the bees to clog uj) the brood-nest 

 with honey, and reduce the laying room, 

 any more than I can help. The reduc- 

 tion of the comb-si)ace available for lay- 

 ing not only induces swarming, but also 

 dimini.shes the strength of the colony. 

 In order to prevent this, it is necessary to 

 l)ut on the first super early. That is. before 

 much honey is stored in the brood-nest. 

 The general advice is to wait until some 



pieces of white new wax are seen on the 

 tops of the combs. That's too late. Too 

 much honey is already stored beloAf. A 

 few days before the hone}' flow ( if you 

 know exactly, or near enough, when the 

 honey flow will come) put full founda- 

 tion in the sections, and use all the drawn 

 combs and bait sections that you can se- 

 cure. Another precaution nmst be taken, 

 and that is, that the supers are protected 

 by an outer case, or in .some other way, at 

 least during the fore part of the sea.son. 

 Remember, it takes warmth to enable the 

 bees to secrete wax and build comb. 



Notwithstanding all these precautions, 

 a certain number of colonies will swarm. 

 Last year, I had only five per cent. In 

 some years I may have had twenty-five, 

 or even thirty, per cent. When the col- 

 ony swarms, kill the old queen and return 

 the swarm. Then put on an entrance 

 guard, and let the young queens fight it 

 out. When only one is left remove the 

 entrance guard so as to let her out to 

 mate. 



And now, dear friend W. Z., let me say 

 something more. Vouand .several of our 

 leading writers have, for years and years, 

 advised us to let the bees swarm, move 

 the old hive to a new stand, and hive the 

 swarm on the old stand on a contracted 

 brood-nest, or on empty frames. I have no 

 doubt that you have obtained good results 

 by that method; but it seems to me that to 

 make it .successful two conditions are re- 

 (juired. One is that the honey flow should 

 be of short duration, only a few weeks at 

 most, and the other that the swarming 

 takes place at the beginning of the honey 

 flow. These two conditions, to my knowl- 

 edge, exist only in the Northern part of 

 the United States, this side of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and in the adjacent part of 

 Canada — nowhere else in the whole wide 

 world. In my locality, your method 

 would be a complete failure. With me 

 swarming is rather irregular. It occurs 

 chiefly about the middle of May, during 

 the poplar honey flow, while my best 

 flow of honey, both in quantity and qual- 

 itv, is from the sourwood, beginning 



