THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



3" 



cells started, a hive is prepared with start- 

 ers. About six frames is the number I 

 use; sometimes hve, but never more than 

 seven. Now find the queen and set the 

 frame she is on to one side. Before this 

 the colony should be smoked and hand- 

 led somewhat rouj^hly so the bees will be 

 filled with honey, as Mr. Stachelhausen 

 says. In fact, Gravenhorst, in Gleanin<^s 

 some twelve or fifteen years ago, laid 

 special stress on this point. Now place a 

 queen-excluding honey-board on the new 

 hive, and a super with foundation onl\-. 

 Leave the yjartly filled super on the old 

 hive for a dav or two. This saves pollen 

 in the sections until the queen commences 

 to lay in the new comb built from the 

 starters in the brood-chamber. Then the 

 unfinished super from each hive can be 

 placed on top of the super on the new 

 hive, so that now your new hive contains 

 the swarm and two supers. But to go 

 back to the shaking of the bees. 



Take a newspaper and spread it down 

 in front of the entrance of the new hive, 

 for vou will, in shaking the bees off, shake 

 a lot of their honey on to the mass of bees 

 in front of the hive; and if it is dirty in 

 front of the hive many bees will b° so 

 daubed up as to perish, so I use a paper. 

 Shake most of the bees off the frames 

 close to the entrance Use a little smoke 

 so they will run in quickl}' and clean 

 themselves of the honev in the hive. 

 Now take the frame the queen is on, pick 

 her off with the fingers, or take a piece of 

 grass and scrape her off the comb down 

 close to the entrance, and see that .she 

 goes into the hive. I do not know why 

 it is, bill queens seem to find it harder to 

 get into the hive with these "shook" 

 swarms than at any other time. If there 

 is a hole or anything else in sight that 

 thev can crawl under, besides in at the en- 

 trance, they seem to be bound to do it. 



The editor speaks about shaking a//X.he 

 bees from the combs. This, for my local- 

 itv, woulil be bad advice on account of 

 loss in brood; still, if some of the young- 

 est brood were lost it would not be much 

 of a loss at this time of the year. I now 

 place the old hive and combs on top of 

 the swarm, and in ten days the bees are 

 again shaken down in tront of the swarm. 

 They can be shaken clean now and combs 

 of sealed Ijrood can be given to nuclei, or 

 used elsewhere, as one wishes. The beau- 

 ty of the whole thing is, we have the 

 swarming probletn under our thumb. 

 Look over the hives once a week during 

 the swarming period. If a colony shows 

 no queen-cells it is safe for another week. 

 If the bees have them under way, shake 

 them, and there you have it. 



Mr. Shiber very clearly shows the ad- 

 vantages of this plan. It enables us, at 

 least, to put swarming under our thumb, 

 and in a practical way. Have an out- 

 apiary for each day in the week. When 

 you visit an apiar}% go over it the first 

 thing, examining each colony, and mark 

 each one that has started queen cells. 

 With the Heddon hive this would be a 

 short task: simply lift the upper half of 

 the brood nest. If there were no cells 

 started between the two sets of combs 

 there would be no use of looking any far- 

 ther. In the Heddon hive the bees al- 

 ways build their queen cells between the 

 two sets of combs. However, let the hive 

 be what it may, all we have to do is to ex- 

 amine sufficiently to find which colonies 

 are starting queen cells, and then "shake" 

 these colonies. As Mr. Shiber says, many 

 of the colonies will not swarm. I have 

 known my apiary to go through the season 

 and only about 60 per cent, of the colo- 

 nies swarm. The trouble in managing 

 out-apiaries for canib honey has alwavs 

 been the swarming. By this plan, as Mr. 

 Shiber well says, we have the swarming 

 under our thumb. We have not yet learn- 

 ed how to prevent swarming, but we can 

 do the next best thing, we can swarm the 

 bees when zee are ready, and they are al- 

 most ready, and thus do away with the 

 uncertaintv attending the matter when 

 we leave it to the bees entirely. What to 

 do with the combs ot brood from which 

 the bees have been shaken is yet a some- 

 what unsolved problem. Some give them 

 to weak colonies. Some put them on top 

 of the swarm, and there is a man in Ohio, 

 a Mr. John Hammond, who does still 

 differently. Here is his plan: — 



J/r. Root: — As you ask in Gleanings 

 for what we know about brushed swarms 

 I will tell you a little. I have practiced 

 the plan for several years, more or less. 

 What made me take up that plan at first 

 was that swarms would bother me by com- 

 ing out and going back sometimes several 

 times, so I commenced to use the brush- 

 ing and shaking process (no jouncing), 

 similar to the Danzenbaker plan. I 

 would move and leave the old brood with 

 enough bees to care for and protect it for 



