126 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



brood. If a colony was short of honey, we 

 gave them a card or two. About once a 

 week, or perhaps ten days, every colony was 

 examined, and brood spread, "drones 

 shaved," and honey given if needed. About 

 the 10th of June, (chaff had now been all re- 

 moved) some colonies seemed bent on 

 swarming, but we nipped the cells. We 

 now lifted each brood chamber and placed a 

 chamber underneath, some entirely vacant 

 and some having one or two combs, just for 

 climbers or ladders. This was done to give 

 room to cluster, and to keep them cool. No 

 comb was built in these lower chambers, be- 

 cause no honey was in the fields. 



Up to this time, the bees had not made a 

 living, but were dependent on the honey 

 within the hive, but, by evening up stor.es 

 and feeding about 1000 pounds of honey, we 

 had kept all in good shape. Honey, how- 

 ever, was very nearly gone in the whole 

 apiary, and our reserve in the honey house 

 nearly exhausted. We expected the How to 

 begin about June 15 to 20th, or possibly 

 later. We wanted each colony to have one 

 or two supers on before the flow opened, so 

 they could get acquainted, chink up cracks, 

 etc., so we put on one super to each hive. 

 Now observe, we were stretching them both 

 i«ays; an empty brood chamber below, and 

 a super above. We used but nine frames in 

 the regular ten-frame Simplicity hive, so 

 you see there was lots of room in between 

 the combs and in empty cells, for bees to 

 cluster. 



The supers we put on at this time were ar- 

 ranged as follows: Of last year's unfinished 

 sections, "extracted and dried," two rows 

 against side of super, then a separator, then 

 two rows of new section with full sheets of 

 foundation, then a separator, then two more 

 rows of old sections, and all wedged up with 

 a follower. Thus we had sixteen sections all 

 ready to put honey in, and twelve new ones. 

 June 15 and IGth, the bees made* their living. 

 The 17th the flow opened and then there was 

 some flying around done. Every brood 

 chamber had to come out from beneath, 

 (those emptys I mean) and more room given 

 on top. We gave another super full of new 

 sections and full sheets of foundation, lift- 

 ing up the one already on, and putting tlie 

 new one under it. 



We had taken cards of brood from the 

 more prolific, placing them in the hives of 

 less prolific and failing queens, so that, with 

 very few exceptions, each colony had about 



eight combs of brood, some having the whole 

 nine filled, some having but seven; but the 

 average was between seven and eight solid 

 combs of brood. All cells in brood chamber 

 free of brood, were at once filled with honey 

 and lengthened. The old sections in the 

 supers ditto, while the foundation was being 

 drawn. 



The thickening of the combs and the in- 

 creased activity and heat only crowded more 

 bees into the supers, so we had to add more 

 supers, until four and five supers would not 

 keep some colonies from lying out. The 

 weather was not exceedingly hot, seldom go- 

 ing above 95° in the hottest part of the day ; 

 the nights always being cool. We also gave 

 ventilation, by blocking up the hives in 

 front, 1.2 to ^H of an inch; ^g however, is too 

 much, because some combs will be built un- 

 der frames. 



By clipping cells we thought to hold them 

 perhaps ten days longer, but in this we made 

 a mistake, for after the cells were clipped, 

 they would swarm without waiting to rebuild 

 the cells. The bees were in three apiaries, 

 and to make sure that no swarms would get 

 away, we had previously clipped the queens' 

 wings. When we saw we could no longer j 



hold them we at once began to remove I 

 queens, killing some and making nuclei 

 with others, building the nuclei up to full 

 colonies as the season passed. Nine or ten 

 days after removing the queens ( every cell 

 being carefully clipped at time of removing) 

 all cells, save one, were clipped from each 

 hive, and each colony allowed to requeen. 

 After the final clipping of cells, we would re- 

 move finished supers and put on emptys, al- 

 ways putting the fresh one at the bottom, 

 until toward the end of flow, when some 

 were added at top; much depending on 

 strength of colony. 



No sections were handled singly, each 

 super being left on until finished. As supers 

 were finished they were removed to the honey 

 house and stored just as taken from the hive. 

 At the wind up, whatever sections were un- 

 finished were extracted and kept over for the 

 next season. If a colony failed to re- 

 queen itself because of losing a yoimg queen, 

 we took away the honey and let the bees 

 work themselves to death laying in a new 

 supply of honey or trying to do so. 



Here is the result of our work: Bees 

 were in three apiaries; home yard. No. 1, and 

 No. 2. Home yard run for extracted honey. 

 Nos. 1 and 2 for comb honey. 



