THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



79 



What would be the chance for comb hon- 

 ey when colonies are treated in this way ? 

 With the plan that I propose, the old 

 colony would be ahove the sections, and 

 it should be warm there for the comb 

 honey. 



RKARINO. A Ol'EEN IX THE 

 UPPER STORY. 



What stage had the bees ouglit to be 

 at when this is done ? Should they be 

 allowed to swarm out first, before this is 

 done, or could it be done a little sooner, 

 only being sure that the hive would be 

 well filled ? If the swarm were allowed to 

 issue, queen cells would V)e started, and, 

 in this case, a young queen could be left 

 so that she could fly and become fertil- 

 ized. In that case, the apiary could be 

 doubled by setting this old hive oflF, later 

 in the season, upon a new stand; or 

 swarming could be checked entirely by 

 uniting the bees above with those below, 

 and removing the okl hive. 



Xow, if this operation was gone thiough 

 with before the swarm issued, would this 

 hive above not be likely to start queen 

 cells at once, on finding the queen re- 

 moved ? 



It seems as though there are possibili- 

 ties in this system; and I ^ish you would 

 let me know what you ih,nk of it, and 

 explain these points more Tully, so that I 

 can understand them. An^l kindl\ state 

 what you would do if you found foul 

 brood present in any of the hives, at the 

 time of making this change 



If you will kindly re])ly to these ques- 

 tions )'OU will greatly obHgt me. for I am 

 nearly up against where I can use this 

 information. 



It does not seem as thoigh the bees 

 would build much drone c»mb in these 

 starters, as they would already have 

 plenty of drones flying, and, also, by 

 giving them an entirely etipty hive, the 

 swarming fever should be so efTectually 

 cured that the3- would not be thinking 

 much of drones. 



How soon would it do to open the 

 opening in the upper hive? It need not 

 be opened, it seems to me, for a week or 



two, as the queens would not be hatched 

 until then. Give me a word on this 

 point. 



I shall await your reply with much in- 

 terest, for it seems as though this system 

 could be made to work here by getting 

 the bees strong early in the season, and 

 thus secure a good crop of comb honey, 

 at the same time being quite safe against 

 foul brood. 



Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 14, 1902. 



FORCED SWARMING. 



[As I mentioned in the Januar}' issue, 

 the article that I copied from the Rocky 

 Mountain Bee Journal did not go into 

 detail as to the management of the 

 combs of brood from which the bees had 

 been shaken. I presume it was taken 

 for granted that most bee-keepers would 

 know how to manage with them. I 

 might say, in a few words, that the old 

 hive and its combs of hatching brood 

 should be managed almost exactly the 

 same as would the hive of a colony that 

 had swarmed. In short, this method is 

 nothing more or less than forced swarm- 

 ing, and the work should not be done un- 

 til the colonies are nearly ready to swarm 

 — -perhaps some of them have swarmed. 

 To attempt it too early, before the colonies 

 are populous, the weather warm, and 

 plenty of honey in the fields would be 

 disastrous. 



THIS PLAN IS REAELV THE HEDDON 



METHOD OF TRANSFERRING — 



SOMETIMES CALLED THE 



" MODERN METHOD. "' 



To put this matter in another light, it 

 is really the Heddon method of transfer- 

 ring — what Mr. Heddon called the "Mod- 

 ern Method." Those who have tried it 

 and failed, were those who tried it too 

 early in the season — before it was warm 

 enough and enough honey coming in so 

 that there would be no robbing. The ob- 

 ject of the Colorado people in adopting 

 this sj-stem is to free their apiaries of any 

 seeds of foul brood, but the management 

 is practically the same as the Heddon 

 Modern Method of transferring. Some 



