58 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



they do. To best explain what I wish to, I 

 will say that my plan of working for comb 

 honey is as follows, and this plan I have 

 adopted after an experience of nearly twenty 

 years, trying during that time nearly all of 

 the plans devised. I work the brood up to 

 the fullest capacity of the queen, or till the 

 hive is full, previous to ten days before the 

 honey harvest. Understand that the number 

 of frames in the hive, be *he same G, 7, 8 or 

 9, Gallup size, are to be full of broud, not 

 part full. When all combs in each hive are 

 thus filled, and the honey harvest is only 

 eight or ten days in advance, the sections are 

 put on, into which the bees will go to store 

 the first pound of honey, for they have no 

 other place to store it. This storing will 

 continue till the bees swarm, at which time, 

 while the bees are out in the air, I go to the 

 hive, remove the sections, take out the 

 frames of brood and the few adhering bees, 

 and place them in a light box I have for 

 carrying combs about the apiary. I now 

 place in the hive five empty combs and two 

 dummies, one on either side, placing the 

 sections back in place again as they were be- 

 fore I took out the combs of brood. If I do 

 not have the coins, I use frames with foun- 

 dation starters in: still, I think better results 

 can be secured by using the combs. As, of 

 late years, I have all of my combs built by 

 nuclei, I always have the combs on hand. 

 The swarm is now returned or allowed to re- 

 turn, as I keep all queen's wings clipped, so 

 that they return about as soon as I can get 

 the exchange, spoken of above, accomplished. 

 I next take the combs of brood and place 

 them in an empty hive where I wish the 

 colony to stand, and the next day give a just 

 hatching queen-cell or a very young virgin 

 queen to them. AVhile the queen is becom- 

 ing old enough to commence laying,the bees 

 are hatching from the combs rapidly, so that 

 by the time she does so,I have a strong force 

 of bees of an active age in this hive, while 

 the cells from which the bees have hatched 

 are well filled with honey. The sections are 

 now put on this hive, and if the honey flow 

 holds out a few days longer, these sections 

 are quickly filled with the nicest kind of 

 honey, for with these bees and this young 

 queen the case is different than with the old 

 colony. Now, instead of the Ijees crowding 

 the queen with honey, the queen crowds the 

 honey out of the brood nest into the sections, 

 and after years of experimenting I have 

 come to the conclusion that there is nothing 

 gained by contracting the brood chamber to 

 the old colony after it has cast a swarm. By 

 the time the young queen gets about what 

 comb filled with brood that will be required 

 for the prosperity of the colony in the future, 

 the honey season draws to a close, so that she 

 only keeps this brood along, hence a host of 

 useless consumers are not reared, as would 

 be the case with the swarm, were the brood 

 chamber not contracted with them. For this 

 reason the brood chamber to the swarm is 

 contracted, while the other is not. Now, if 

 the correspondent will work his l)ees as 

 above, giving each colony not more than S 

 L. frames at any time, I think lie will be 

 better satisfied with the results than he would 

 be by the plan he proposes. The point I 



wish to emphasize is, secure the largest 

 amount of bees possible for one queen to 

 produce in time for tlie honey harvest, 

 having just as few at all other times as is 

 consistent with the accomplishing of this 

 object. 



As to Bro. Green's article, criticising your 

 position, it is faulty in his not taking into 

 cohsideration the cost of foundation, wire, 

 and the extra work of putting it into the 

 frames. The time he claims will be saved to 

 care for other colonies, will cost him pretty 

 dear if he takes this into account. It will 

 cost about lUc. per frame for the foundation, 

 to say nothing of the time required to get 

 frames ready for the bees. If I were to use 

 foundation in full sheets at all, I would do 

 so by putting it in upper stories to have it 

 drawn out, after which I would use it with 

 swarms as spoken of in this article. As 

 my nuclei do most of my comb building, I 

 get all worker comb, and, as I believe, much 

 cheaper than to buy and fuss with founda- 

 tion. 



BoEODiNO, N. Y. March 23, 1889. 



Contracting the Brood-Nest and Preventing 

 Increase by Removing the Queen — Local- 

 ity and its Influence on Methods 

 of Wintering. 



p. H. ELWOOD. 



R. SAMUEL CUSHMAN writes me 

 (jlU for more particulars as to the work- 

 ing of colonies having their qiieeLS 

 removed, and requests that my an- 

 swers to his questions be sent to the Review 

 for pitblication. The plan already given in 

 the Review in brief is to remove the queen 

 just before the bees would swarm naturally. 

 With the queen should be taken one or more 

 sheets of brood with enough adhering bees 

 to protect the l)rood and queen. All queen 

 cells liable to hatch within eight days are to 

 be broken out, and eight days later ihe 

 (jueen cells are to be again broken out. 

 Eight d;iys after this, or sixteen days after 

 removing her, the queen is usually returnee'. 

 Mr. Cushman asks if the great stimulus or 

 increased working energy arising from nat- 

 ural swarming, is not lost by this method, 

 substituting instead that lack of energy 

 which we are told is always the result of 

 leaving colonies hopeles:-ly queenless. I 

 have discovered no stimulus (juite ecjual to 

 natural swarming. For the same strength a 

 natural swarm will work with greater energy 

 than any artificial metliod 1 liave knowledge 

 of. Notwithstanding, ill a contest with our 

 tpieenless stock, a natural swarm falls be- 

 hind from lack of numbers before thx ex- 

 piration of three weeks. The natural swarm 

 from the modern small hive, usually i.one 

 too strong at the start, is rapidly losing, 

 while the queenless stock is ns rapidly in- 

 creasing in strength from the hatching 

 brood. In the experience of Capt. llether- 

 ington and myself, it has been noticed that 

 the first eight day's work of tlie (lucenless 

 stock, while raising (lueen cells, is the jx^cr- 

 est. The second eight day's work when 

 hopelessly queenless, is much better. If 

 during this second period the colony is per- 



