206 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



upper story, receiving the heat from the 

 mass of brood and bees below. The bees 

 can't swarm, as the queen cannot pass 

 the excluder. Nine or ten days later, set 

 the upper story containing queen, bees 

 and new brood, off to a new stand. The 

 field-bees will return to the old stand. 

 The hive on the old stand now contains 

 only sealed brood. Destroy the queen 

 cells, if any, give a ripe queen-cell, or run 

 in a virgin queen, and put on the supers. 

 The bees will not swarm, as they have 

 no eggs nor larvae from which to start 

 queen-cells. They are practically in the 

 same condition as a colony ten days after 

 swarming, except much stronger, and all 

 cells cut out but one, or a colony run on 

 the Hetherington-Elwood plan of un- 

 queening; with this important advantage 

 over that plan, that they have a queen 

 much sooner, and the old queen on the 

 new stand will furnish a fine force of bees 

 for a later flow. 



As soon as the young queen begins to 

 lay, the honey will go up into the supers 

 with a rush. For some conditions the 

 method may be better than forced swarm- 

 ing as usually practiced; for the hatch- 

 ing brood reinforces the field-force for 

 about 1 to 12 days after the old queen 

 and her hive of new brood is removed to 

 a new stand. 



The chief fault that 1 find with this 

 plan is that occasionally a queen fails to 

 mate and return safely, when we have a 

 hopelessly queenless colony to attend. 

 Mr. Rauchfuss says that the above plan 

 will give more honey than any oth,.r, for 

 arid belt conditions, at least. The Dudleys 

 value the method highly, and partly by 

 its use were enabled to make up a severe 

 wintsr loss, and to ship a nice crop of 

 honey. 



Later 1 will suggest some modifications 

 of the Rauchfuss-Aikin plan. Another 

 valuable method was described by a Mr. 

 Wright of New York State, in Gleanings, 

 some few ye^rs ago. The essential fea 

 tures of tho vVriofht method — get the bees 

 quitrj strong some time before the flow, 

 then v/lieri the secoi, 1 ■^i.ory contains some 



brood, a bee-escape board with wire 

 screen on both sides of the hole, is placed 

 between the stories. Provide an entrance 

 to this upper story and supply a queen- 

 cell. The virgin will mate and begin lay- 

 ing in the combs of this upper hive. See 

 that both new and old queens have plenty 

 of room to lay, and build up the upper 

 colony at the expense of the old. 



When the flow arrives make a forced 

 swarm on combs (Doolittle), foundation or 

 starters, as you prefer, using the young 

 queen in the swarm. 



Last year we used mostly full sheets, as 

 they would build drone-comb when hived 

 on starters. When we can get good 

 combs by hiving on starters we prefer it. 

 The brood and old queen can be used for 

 increase. Usually, having such a fine 

 young queen when hiving on starters will 

 result in mostly worker-comb, and a new 

 brood-nest well-filled with brood, while 

 super work is stimulated to the utmost. 



Another fault o the Rauchfuss-Aikin 

 and Wright methods is the necessity of 

 rearing so many queen-cells fairly early 

 in the season. I will add a modification 

 of this plan also. 



Now the Doolittle method, which would 

 be ideal, if best results in super work and 

 swarm-control would follow its use, when 

 no disease is present in the yard, as the 

 colonies are becoming strong some time 

 before the flow, an upper story of combs 

 like those below, containing, preferably, 

 some honey, is added to each colony with 

 an excluder between. 



You may need to raise some of the 

 combs of oldest brood to the upper story 

 to insure that the queen has enough room, 

 or put another body of combs below in 

 unusually favorable seasons for breeding. 

 When the flow is well begun, make a 

 forced swarm, using the body of combs 

 above the excluder as the new brood-nest, 

 giving the queen and perhaps one frame 

 with a little brood, to the swarm. 



For some reason, during 1906, our col- 

 onies so hivGd did not "hustle" the honey 

 into the supers as they should, although 

 the swarms were unusually strong. With 



