THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



151 



ey, they trv to prevent swarming, which 

 cannot he done at this stage wilhont 

 great loss to their owner. Swarming 

 shows prusperitv, and in trying to pre- 

 vent it you cause the bees to sulk. By 

 cutting out queen-Cflls the bees quit work 

 and wait to rear more, anil when these 

 become of the right age, they swarm and 

 n(j gain has been made in the supers 

 from the time they first intended to 

 swartn. I think I am stife in saying that 

 no bee-keeper in the country Ins siudied 

 this swarnnng liabii more closely than I 

 have done an<l I have found bv experience 

 that to make the greatest profit we must 

 manage Sees in a manner conforming to 

 their natural habits and instincts as far as 

 possible. I think that I can prove to 

 yon that swarming is an advantage in 

 running for comb hone\-, and should be 

 encouraged ralher than discouraged. 

 The secret is in hiving in such a manner 

 that storing in the sections goes on dur- 

 ing the wlu)le honey-gaihering season. 



We cannot afford to lose one day, or 

 even one hour of the honey flow. We 

 are keeping bees for profit. We wait all 

 through tlie long cold winter and .spring 

 for tliis time to come; all our prufiis for 

 the year must come in now in a few short 

 weeks. Therefore, we cannot allow col- 

 onies to sjiend tlie time during the hon- 

 ey season in building brood combs, or in 

 waiting for second swarms to come, or 

 for queens to hatch or mate, but must 

 hold to}>:ether the larffe force of wortcing, 

 flying hres of the right. age tu put up sur- 

 plus. We must hive them back on the 

 old stand and directly into the half-filled 

 su])ers so that they will keep riyht along 

 putting up surplus, leaving tlie brooil 

 combs an<l unhatcbed brood and queen- 

 cells to do the wailing on a iieiv stand, 

 ami get wlrit we cm out of them later on. 

 We must deoend on the large force bred 

 up in April and Mav to gel our .surplus, 

 keeping ihem from dividing up during 

 the entire honey season, shewing that we 

 are bee masters as well as bee-keepers. 



Keep this melh(jd in mind all the time 

 and your pile of surplus wdl be lar^e and 

 your increa-e in slocks will be small, with 

 no weaklings to feed up for honey. 



We will commence the season wilh an 

 apiary of 100 colonies, and as I inenlioiu-d 

 above, just as ihe sn[)er is nearly full but 

 not \ el sealed, out j.;<ies the swarm. INhisl 

 people hive tl.em in a new hive and ])lace 

 them on a new siaiid. They go to woik 

 and build new conii)s which takes from 

 ten days to three weeks; then a super is 

 put on. but the while clover has gone. 

 They sometimes fill a super half or two- 

 thirds full of dark honey and get enough 



below to winter on. The parent stock 

 casts a second swarm in ten (lavs which is 

 also hived on a new stand. No work is 

 done in the parent hive until a young 

 (jueen is hatched and laying — 21 davs 

 from ihe time the first swarm went out. 

 The white clover season is over, a small 

 force of bees goes into ihe super and 

 finishes it up with dark honey which sells 

 at a less price than all while. Now, iii- 

 slead of proceeding as mentioned above, 

 I work for profit, and keep in sight of the 

 natural laws governing the honey bee, 

 making use of the following siini)le mode 

 of operation: I clip one wing of all 

 queens so that 1 need not climb high 

 trees. Then when the colony swarms I 

 step in front of the hive and pick up their 

 queen and put her into a wire cage, lay- 

 ing the cage at the hive entrance. I now 

 bring a new hive prepared with starters 

 of comb foundatiim mie inch deep in lop 

 l)Hrs. With a chisel I pry the super loose 

 from the old hive and set it down; then 

 set the old hive ofiF the stand, entrance 

 the other way, and set my new hive di- 

 rectly where it stood; then set the super, 

 nearly full, on top of the new hive, and 

 place the queen, still in the wire cage, at 

 the enlrance. 



The bees soon mi^s their queen anrl be- 

 gin to return, and smelling their queen, 

 commence to run in ra])i(lly; when about 

 one quarter of the swarm has run in I open 

 the cage and let the queen run in also, 

 and 111}- hive is done s^varming for the 

 seas(jn. 



We cannot afiford to hive a swarm on a 

 new slHud and wail for them to buiid 

 brood combs; we lose loo much time and 

 the honey season is short. This swarm 

 contains seven-eights of all the fiying 

 force of bees; they go out full of honey. 

 Hy hiving back on the old stand they go 

 directly into the su])er and deposit their 

 honey, and in half an hour are off to the 

 field, for more. They have a laying 

 queen which will deposii eggs in the 

 combs as fast as the bees l)uild them. 

 This swarm is happv. Their desire to 

 9wai tn is over; they have gained a new 

 impetus by swarming out, and in addiiion 

 to the swarm, we get all the flying bees 

 oui ill the fields that would have returneii 

 to the old hive. We now set the old 

 hive on a new stand and a large number 

 of Ihe olil bees in thai return to the swarm 

 in the new hive on the old stand, making it 

 enormously strong in field bees which 

 are now just where we want them. They 

 finish the super; in three da\s it comes 

 ofT; another is added, filled and comes 

 o7. atid another and another, to the end 

 of thi season. It is asionishing the 



