THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



173 



L 



on a new stand, in three minutes. It is 

 the searching for queens, and the lookinjf 

 over of the combs to make sure that not 

 a sinj^le cell is left, that makes slow, te- 

 dious work of handling frames. In prac- 

 ticinjf any method the success of which 

 depended upon no cell being overlooked, 

 I found it saved much time and work to 

 first set the hive up on end upon the bot- 

 tom-boartl, and drive the l)ees back with 

 a little smoke. All the cells on or near 

 the bottom can then be easily seen and 

 cut out, with the hive in this position. 

 Ivspeci.dly is this plan a good one with 

 frames that have narrow bottom bars. 

 Sj far as they go, I use the divisional 

 brood-chamber box-hive, such as were de- 

 scribed in a previous number of the Re- 

 view, for brood-chaml)er for these double 

 swarms, and also for double artificial 

 swarms; for it has been mj- opinion, until 

 lately, thai, as a rule, more surplus honey 

 could be obtained here by using empty 

 brood-chambers to hive swarms in, instead 

 of having drawn comb or foundation in 

 them. One of the problems with me is to 

 keep down increase; so, after running 

 these colonies in the box-hives for all they 

 are worth, for section honey, I, in the fall, 

 unite what bees are left in them with 

 some colonies in frame-hives that may be 

 weak in bees; or else I unite a number of 

 them together in one or more sections. 

 If some colonies in frame hives are short 

 of stores, some of the combs of honey in 

 these shallow box-hives are taken out and 

 placed in supers having tight bottoms, ex- 

 cept for a few small holes, so that the bees 

 can come up into them and carry down 

 the honey when such a super is placed 

 over a hive. These tenantless sectional 

 hives are then tiered up in the yard and 

 left until the next season, when the combs 

 are all removed, and those that contain 

 honey used for spring feeding in the man- 

 ner described. 



Those who read the description of how 

 these hives were made will understand 

 that when this method is practiced the} 

 would answer as well as frame hives wouUl ; 

 and the reason I prefer them for this pur- 



pose is that it is not much more work to 

 clean a whole hive so it is ready for a 

 swarm than it would be to clean one frame 

 if it were badly stuck up; which reduces 

 this part of the work to 1-8 of what it is 

 when using 8-frame hives. It really 

 though does more than this, for there are 

 no frames at any time to handle, and it is 

 easier to take the combs out of these shal- 

 low box-hives than it would be out of 

 frame hives. 



Some experiments I have made the 

 past two seasons leaves me in doubt as to 

 whether as much surplus can be obtained 

 here by hiving on empty frames, when 

 hiving two swarms in one hive. In order 

 to have them contented, so that they will 

 work freely and not attempt to desert, 

 they should be given plenty of room at 

 the time they are hived; and, until they 

 get well started to work, I hive them in 

 two full-depth brood-chambers, or three 

 shallow ones tiered up; then, after they 

 get well started to work I remove one or 

 two of the lower chambers and put on 

 supers. 



I-'mpt}' hives should be kept in a cool 

 place at swarming time, but not in a cellar 

 unless it is a very dry well ventilated one, 

 then, after a swarm is hived, the hive 

 should be kept well shaded for a few davs. 

 Summed up, clean, cool, well shaded and 

 ventilated hives, with plenty of brood- 

 chamber room at first, will largely, if 

 not wholly, prevent swarms deserting. 

 Southern Minx. , .\pril 17, 1899. 



VENTIL.ATING HIVES l\ SUMMER. 



The Panlts of some Plans — How it may be 



(lone with a Queen-E.vciudinjj 



Honey-Board. 



C. H. DIIJBKRN. 



rn UK question of ventilating hives in 

 T- summer is an old one; and, in my 

 opinion, is of great importance in secur- 



