THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



113 



customers, however, I am going to give 

 another plan a trial this year. Here are 

 the instructions that I shall give mj- cus- 

 tomers: — 



When the (|ueen arrives, put her away 

 in a safe place. ]Make a wooden frame 

 that will just nicely slip over the top of 

 your hive. Cover perhaps one-half of 

 the frame with a piece of wire cloth, and 

 the other half with a piece of thin board 

 having a hole through it large enough 

 to allow the queen cage to easily slip 

 down through it. Cover this hole with a 

 sort of button, made of wood, and fasten- 

 ed on with a screw through one corner, 

 so that the opening ma}- easily be covered 

 or uncovered. Early in the forenoon, 

 after the bees are nicely to work, remove 

 the old queen from the colony to which 

 you wish to introduce the new queen. 

 Next remove to another hive all of the 

 combs except one containing honey, but 

 no brood. Leave the old hive, with this 

 comb of honey, on the old stand, cover- 

 ing the hive with the wire cloth cover 

 already described. Next proceed to 

 shake, in front of the old hive, a goodly 

 portion of the bees from the removed 

 combs. If the weather is cool, be care- 

 ful not to shake off loo many. Leave 

 enough to care for the brood and defend 

 the hive. When most of the bees shaken 

 off have entered the old hive, close the 

 entrance, brush off the few on the out- 

 side, and carry the hive to the honey 

 house, or some cool room. Upon the old 

 stand set the hive containing the combs 

 from which the bees have been shaken. 

 To this the field bees will return, and 

 these, together with the ones left upon 

 the combs, will be sufficient to protect 

 the brood. 



The hive containing the bees that have 

 been shaken off should be left undisturb- 

 ed for 24 hours, then take the cage con- 

 taining the queen and remove sufficient 

 of the candy so that the bees will surely 

 eat out the remainder and release the 

 queen inside of two or three hours; attach 

 a wire to the cage, and liang in the hive, 

 through the hole made in the wooden 



part of the cover, turning the button back 

 so that no bees can escape. These bees 

 have been hopelessly queenless for 24 

 hours, and are ready to accept anj-thing 

 ill the shape of a queen. Virgin queens 

 can be introduced by this method when 

 all others fail. 



Just at sunset carry the confined bees 

 back to the apiary, and hive them, to- 

 gether with the queen, back into the 

 hive on the old stand. During the day 

 and a half that these bees have been ab- 

 sent, the bees remaining on the old stand 

 have missed their queen, and gladly wel- 

 come back their comrades with their 

 adopted queen. 



»*»^fcF»*»»^' 



HOW TO SECURE RAPID INCREASE. 



Various are the desires of bee-keepers. 

 Some wish to prevent swarming or in- 

 crease, but occasionally there is one who 

 desires increase — all that he can get. I 

 have a letter now before me from a sub- 

 scriber who wishes to establish out-apia- 

 ries, and build them up as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. He wishes to know how this can 

 be done to the best advantage. I shall 

 be glad to receive and publish articles on 

 this subject; in the meantime I will tell 

 him how I once increased three colonies 

 to thirt}-, in one season, and wintered 

 them nicely. 



In the outset I will say that no combs 

 were built (except from foundation) and 

 no queens were reared. Foundation, or 

 empty combs, and queens were furnished. 

 Not only this, but the season was favor- 

 able — there was a good flow from clover, 

 bass wood and buckwheat. 



I waited until the colonies were fairly 

 populous, and honey coming in from 

 clover, then took, from each, two combs 

 of brood and honey, with the adhering 

 bees, and set them all together into a new 

 hive, on a new stand. This newl}' form- 

 ed colony was given a laying queen and 

 two more empty combs to fill out its hive. 



The empty places left in the old colo- 

 nies by removal of the combs were filled 

 either with empty combs or full sheets of 

 foundation. 



