THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



4? 



bottom-board, near the rear end. Nail 

 on over this hole a Hansen ventilator, pull 

 back the slide and insert a piece of queen- 

 excluding- zinc two inches square, with 

 the rough burr-edge of the zinc upward, 

 completely covering the l)^-inch hole. 



Now that we have several bottom- 

 boards so prepared, we are ready to 

 control swarming. We will go to this 

 colony that wishes to swarm (the treat- 

 ment would be the same if it did not 

 wish to swarm, if strong) find the queen, 

 put her with the frame of brood on which 

 she is found, after destroying any queen- 

 cells in this frame, into an empty hive- 

 body. Into an outside comb of the old 

 brood-nest pour as much water as you 

 can, into cells not containing brood, or 

 into an empty comb which can take the 

 place of the comb of brood removed. 

 For a lid to this old brood-nest put on one 

 of the prepared bottom-boards, seeing 

 that it fits bee-tight, nail a strip of lath 

 over the old entrance and now take the 

 hive-body in which you hung the frame 

 of brood, bees and queen, and place it on 

 the prepared bottom-board which is now 

 the lid to the old brood-nest, and the floor 

 of the new one. Put in each outside of 

 the new brood-nest a frame of honey and 

 pollen, or empty comb: fill cut with full 

 sheets of foundation in wired frames, or 

 with combs; put on a queen excluder and at 

 least two full-depth 1 0-frame extracting- 

 supers of comb or their equivalent in 

 shallow extracting supers. 



The bees in the old brood-nest soon 

 find themselves denied the usual exit, find 

 the ventilator in the bottom-board above 

 them, and. as they are queenless, so far 

 as the old brood-nest is concerned, they 

 pass up through the bit of excluder in the 

 ventilator, and finding themselves with 

 the queen, plenty of room for brood, with 

 unlimited storage room, and practically a 

 new location, as this entrance is now 

 about \0}i inches above the old one, they 

 work with all the splendid vigor and 

 energy of a new swarm. 



The field-bees will be somewhat con- 

 fused until they find and become ac- 



customed to the new entrance, but will 

 soon adjust themselves to the change. 

 Enough bees will remain below so that 

 no brood is lost, (the water given was to 

 aid in preparing larval food, a hint that I 

 owe to L. Stachelhausen) nor do the very 

 young bees desert the lower hive until 

 several days old. A little thin honey or 

 nectar may even be stored below, in case 

 of a rush of nectar. 



As the brood emerges, the older bees 

 will continue to go above, reinforcing the 

 working force of the colony, which does 

 not become weak, as does a natural 

 swarm. 



When practiced rather early in the 

 season, (May 10 to SO) to hold excep- 

 tionally strong colonies together until the 

 flow is at hand, some of the finest hives 

 of brood that any one ever saw are those 

 produced in the new brood-nest under 

 these conditions. 



If no increase is desired, the old hive of 

 emerging brood may remain there for 21 

 days, or more, or may be taken away and 

 the combs used as desired. Three weeks 

 after treatment the brood has all emerged, 

 and the combs may be used anywhere in 

 the yard. 



In localities where the swarming fever 

 is easily satisfied, and not liable to recur, 

 in 10 days after treatment this old hive of 

 sealed brood may be put on top of all. as 

 an extracting super, after destroying any 

 queen-cells or virgins on its combs. 



As proof of the wonderful effect of this 

 method of swarm control, we have found 

 in many cases virgins emerging in the old 

 hive in 10 or more days, yet there is nc 

 desire to swarm. If it is desired to re- 

 queen, the old queen may be killed after a 

 virgin has emerged in the lower hive, 

 destroy other cells below, if any, remove 

 the bottom-board between the two brood- 

 nests, and open the old entrance, putting 

 the excluder over the old brood-nest. 



In a few cases, where the work of clos- 

 ing the old brood-nest had not been 

 securely done, we found that a virgin had 

 mated, and we had two laying queens in 

 the hive in due time. 



