172 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



or else give an extra story of combs be- 

 low, although that is not nearly so sure 

 to discourage swarming until the flow ar- 

 rives, as is the plan of adding an upper- 

 story of combs. This is contrary to the 

 Simmins' theories, but true with us as 

 with many others. 



If the bees need it, we feed as required 

 outside in tubs full of alfalfa stems or ex- 

 celsior. Only one season has this been 

 necessary, although it might have paid 

 well some other seasons. At first we 

 start the bees by breaking up some old 

 combs into pieces about l}i inches square. 

 We dip these in the feed, lay one at the 

 entrance to each hive, kick the hive if the 

 bees are not numerous at the entrance, 

 and so on. Then we go around and pick 



up the bits of comb, with bees at work on 

 the feed in the cells, and carry them on a 

 queen-excluder or escape-board, to the 

 tub, where they are all dumped into the 

 feed. In a few minutes every colony will 

 be at work, and the feed will all be gone 

 long before many of your neighbors' bees 

 find it. 



Our management is not fixed or stereo- 

 typed. We are on the lookout for im- 

 provements. We condemn no method 

 finally after only one season's test. We 

 may experiment until we have the 

 "crown of success", but it is not true with 

 us, that this "experimenting is ended." 

 Let us press forward. 



Meridian, Idaho, March 18. 1907. 



Controlling Increase by Gutting 

 Out the Brood. 



F. COVERDALE. 



/SrONTROL of increase is not difficult to 

 vJ accomplish in the sense of keeping 

 the number of colonies about the same; 

 but to attain this end with the least labor, 

 and to obtain the greatest profit out of 

 the bees for the work done, is a weighty 

 problem. 



If one uses eight-frame hives, is a pro- 

 ducer of comb honey, and, to keep down 

 increase has to keep one extra hive for 

 nearly every colony, or, say, at least fifty 

 extra hive bodies for every one hundred 

 colonies kept, these extra hives become 

 depreciating capital, or a stock of extras 

 to be kept up. The plan that will make 

 it unnecessary to keep on hand extras is 

 the plan for which I watch and wait. So 

 far, I know of no such way that would be 

 at all successful in my location. 



The caging of the queen in any of its 

 forms is disastrous here; not only because 



of the extra labor involved, but because 

 the bees cease to work with the same 

 vigor, and it defeats the securing of a fall 

 crop. Any plan in which a condition is 

 brought about causing the old queen or 

 bees to destroy all queen cells, and then 

 recruit the same into a strong working 

 colony again, can't be depended upon, be- 

 cause the swarming fever will again ap- 

 pear in too many cases. Any plan that 

 has for its aim a young, newly reared 

 queen, on old combs, or a full set of combs, 

 in a populous colony, can't be depended 

 upon not to swarm; for even the "set- 

 backs" swarm if not "thinned out" after 

 the young queens begin to lay. 



Any plan that rids the hives of all 

 brood, kills all swarming just as effectu- 

 ally as if natural swarming had taken 

 place. However, there is something 

 about shook swarms not exactly the same 



