THK bek-kp:epk:;s' review. 



167 



DESIRABLE INCREASE. 



BY A. SNYDER. 



How it May be Secured, with Excellent Queens, and 

 Swarming Prevented in Out-Apiaries. 



'Kill two birds with one stone' 



FRIEND Hutchinson, what do \-ou 

 think of my idea of increase, which 

 is as follows ? I have kept 50 of my best 

 colonies at home, and most likely nearly 

 all will swarm, and those that do not I in- 

 tend to tuake them do so, and set the new 

 swarm, in all cases, in place of the old col- 

 ony, with the old one at one side. Just 

 before the young queens hatch, divide 

 the old stock into as many parts as it has 

 good cells (save all cells from best stock, 

 none from the undesirable ones), say we 

 divide each old colony into six parts or 

 six nuclei, that would make 300 nuclei. 

 Then, either fasten the bees in these little 

 nuclei until the queen hatches or move 

 them to out-yard — that is where I want 

 them anyhow. Will it answer to move 

 them in a wagon before the queens have 

 hatched (yes or no) ? 



Now we will consider we have them 

 in out-yards that we run for extracted 

 honey, and we don't want any swarms. 

 j.\'ow hark. We want to kill two birds 

 with one stone. We want to build up 

 these nuclei and at the same time prevent 

 swarming in the ont-yards. Now, my 

 idea is to draw frames of brood from the 

 extracting-colonies that are likely to 

 swarm, and build up these little colonies 

 with this brood, and there you have it. 

 what do you say ? 



Kingston, N. v., May 13, 1902. 



[If you wish to prevent swarming at 

 the out-apiaries, and still desire increase, 

 your plan is all right. I should not try 

 moving the nuclei before tlie young 

 queens had hatched. If carried in a 

 spring wagon, over a very smooth road, 

 with slow, careful driving, there might be 

 no injury to the unhatched queens. 



Whether injury would occur would de- 

 pend largely upon the stage of develop- 

 ment that the queens had reached. I 

 very soon learned that it would not an- 

 swer to shake bees off a comb upon which 

 were cells containing nearly matured 

 queens. Imperfect wings and legs were 

 too often the result. But, friend Snyder, 

 there is no necessity of shutting the bees 

 in the nuclei. There will be no unseal- 

 ed brood in the combs, while the bees 

 will be hatching out rapidly. All of the 

 old bees, those that have flown, will, of 

 course, return to the old stand and join 

 the newly hived swarm, but that will Vje 

 all right. That will be just where you 

 want them to boom along the work. 

 When I practice the Heddon method of 

 preventing after-swarming, the old hive 

 is set to one side of the newly hived 

 swarm ( which is hived on the old stand ) 

 for one week. The old colony is then 

 given a new stand. All the bees that 

 have flown during that week will, of 

 course, return and join the swarm, where 

 the sections are, and it is exactly where I 

 want them. When placed upon a new 

 stand, very few bees will fly from the old 

 colony for the first few days, 3'et the bees 

 are hatching rapidly. If we open the 

 hive in three or four days, we will find 

 the combs well covered with bees. If 

 we should divide up the colony into nu- 

 clei just as we were about to place it on a 

 new stand, the bees would hatch in the 

 nuclei just the same, and the combs 

 would soon be well covered with bees. 

 As soon as the queens have hatched, the 

 nuclei can be moved to the out-yards. — 

 Ed. Review.] 



