THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



20t 



title. I was practicing the Heddon method 

 of preventing swarming, that of leaving the 

 old hive by the side of the swarm for seven 

 or eight days, and then moving it away. I 

 neglected to move one hive until the ninth 

 day in the afternoon. Within half an hour 

 after the removal a second swarm issued. 

 The queen did not go with the bees ; prob- 

 ably she was too young to fly. According 

 to the rules, the bees should have returned 

 to the hivey.from which the issued. About 

 one-third of them (probably those that had 

 never before left the hive) returned to the 

 hive from which they had swarmed, and the 

 rest of them went back to the old location 

 and joined the swarm that was hived nine 

 days before on the old stand. 



THE SIMMINS METHOD OF INTRODUOINO yilEENS 

 — IT IS NOT ALWAYS SUOOESSFUIj. 



I have been trying the Simmins method of 

 introducing, or rather of releasing queens. 

 The central idea, and it is a good one, is to 

 keep the queen away from the bees without 

 food for half an hour, and then allow her to 

 run down from the top of the hive just at 

 dusk, or a little later, when a lamp must be 

 used. I made up ten nuclei and left them 

 qneenless three days, then gave each a caged 

 queen and allowed her to remain in the cage 

 one day. Just at dusk the queens were re- 

 moved and each put in a box by itself, the 

 boxes being numbered and the hives also, so 

 that no mistake would be made in returning 

 the queens. As it was cool the queens were 

 taken in the house and kept there from one- 

 half an hour to nearly an hour. Then they 

 were introduced by lamp light. Without 

 using smoke, one corner of the quilt was 

 carefully turned back and the queen allowed 

 to run down into the hive. There was no 

 running or squealing. The first bee she met, 

 out came her tongue — she was hungry and 

 humble — and soon there was a crowd around 

 her offering her homage and pabulum, and it 

 is in this manner she slowly passed down be- 

 tween the combs. Every queen was accept- 

 ed — I presume they would have been if they 

 had been released without the fasting, but, 

 of course, I do not know. Mr. Simmins says 

 it makes no difference as to how long the 

 bees have been queenless, nor whether the 

 queen has previously Vjeen caged among 

 them, so I tried making four nuclei in the 

 forenoon and in the evening releasing in 



them queens that had not been previously 

 caged in the hive. Two queens were accept- 

 ed and two were killed. I think it is a good 

 way to release queens, but I doubt if it is any 

 better than allowing the bees to do the work 

 by eating out candy from the entrance of 

 the cage. 



LOOSE BOTTOM BOAEDS. 



We frequently see inquiries and discuss- 

 ion in regard to the desirability of loose bot- 

 tom boards compared with those fastened to 

 the hive. The advantage of the fast bottom 

 board is apparent when we wish to ship bees. 

 It is also easier to pick up a hive and carry 

 it to some part of the yard when the bottom 

 is fast to the hive. ( )f course, we can reach 

 under the hive and hold the bottom board 

 fast to the hive as We carry it along, but this 

 is not so convenient as to grasp a rim of 

 wood nailed around the hive near its top, or 

 to insert the fingers in hand-holes in the 

 sides near the top. A hive may be removed 

 from the bottom board when it is carried, 

 but it is usually stuck fast with propolis, and 

 the loosening of it irritates the bees and they 

 come rushing out and make it interesting. 

 If we depend upon the propolis to hold the 

 bottom board fast to the hive, it usually 

 proves a case of misplaced confidence, the 

 bottom tumbles off on the ground with a 

 "dull thud," throwing a lot of enraged bees 

 into the air. These are the objections to 

 loose bottom boards. 



The advantages of loose bottom boards are 

 that two colonies can be very easily united 

 by simply setting one above the other. If 

 the hives can be raised two inches from the 

 bottom in winter, all rubbish and dead bees 

 drop away from the combs, and if there is 

 an entrance at the top of the rim put under 

 the hive, it can never be clogged with dead 

 bees. In cellar wintering there seems to be 

 a decided advantage in wintering the bees 

 with no bottoms to the hives. When bees 

 die in winter, or, if the colony does not per- 

 ish wholly, only there are a large number of 

 dead bees in the bottom, they will be wet 

 and mouldy and the combs stuck together 

 with filth if the bottom board is close to the 

 combs. In order to clean out the hive, the 

 combs must all be lifted out and the debris 

 shoveled out. With loose bottom boards 

 this may all be avoided. In raising extract- 

 ed honey upon the tiering up plan, the same 

 kind of a hive body answers either for brood 



