THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



237 



wanting to swarm, but if any do want to 

 swarm, we satisfy the impulse and get 

 better average results than possible with 

 natural swarming as usually conducted. 

 For this locality we certainly have "a 

 comb honey system of management that 

 will keep the bees at home and at work 

 when honey is coming in a flood." I ad- 

 vise a limited test of this method, say on 

 10 per cent, of one's colonies, working out 

 the modifications by the peculiarities of 

 one's own locality. I do not regard the 

 method as final, nor absolutely faultless, 

 but I do think that for this locality it is 

 the quickest and easiest method of control 

 yet known, has the least faults, and cer- 

 tainly gives the best results that I have 

 yet seen obtained in surplus comb-honey. 

 I expect that the tube method will 

 sometimes fail in the hands of the novice, 

 because it may be applied at the wrong 

 time or too weak colonies, or the bees 

 may be tubed up into too large a brood- 

 nest, or the method used in a season so 

 poor that it would be better to discourage 

 swarming, leaving colonies on their old 

 brood-nests. 



MANAGEMENT OF SUPERS — ESPECIALLY IN 

 OUT-YARDS. 



In out-yards run for comb honey, the 

 management of the supers is a matter of 

 the highest importance. 



On forced swarms, made by any 

 method, we usually put two supers: the 

 lower one containing at least a few clean 

 bait combs, or it may best be a super 

 from the old parent colony, or some other 

 colony, in which the bees are well at 

 work. If the flow is heavy, both suoers 

 may be worked about alike. If so, at the 

 next trip we add another super on top. 



We aim to follow Doolittle's advice — 

 always keep a super on top in which the 

 bees can begin work, if at any time they 

 become crowded. This plan saves us 

 hundreds of pounds of honey every year, 

 in running comb honey out-yards. 



If conditions are favorable, any colony 

 at work in one super may have that super 

 raised, and an empty one inserted below. 



but we do not put a third super below 

 these two -we put it on top. With a 

 home yard bees may be started to work 

 by putting the empty super below the 

 others, then in a day or two it should be 

 raised to the top. The super nearest 

 completion should be near the brood-nest 

 - -not at any time should there be more 

 than one super between. This results in 

 better work, quicker and more uniform 

 work as to whiteness of cappings and 

 uniform weight, and when you remove the 

 super, it is usually all completed, a saving 

 of your own labor — all ready to haul to 

 your home shop where your scraping, 

 grading and casing is done. 



With us. removing the completed supers 

 from the hive is usually done by smoking 

 down some of the bees, pulling off the 

 super, "jouncing" it on the ground, and 

 stack up criss-cross or on end the supers 

 in the shop or a tent so the bees will soon 

 leave them. Dr. Miller's little tent es- 

 capes are too slow, as so many of the 

 bees do not hurry out of the supers as we 

 want them to do. The Elwood plan of 

 piling supers ten high, and on top an 

 empty super covered with burlap for the 

 bees to cluster in, does not work well here. 



The use of good bee escapes is the 

 neatest, nicest way, but often requires an 

 extra trip, as it is far from true that we 

 can rely on the bees passing down through 

 the escape in less than eighteen to twenty- 

 four hours. 



By the use of the bee-escape the bees 

 clean up all drip and daub from burr- 

 combs before the supers come ofT the 

 hives. 



MAKING ONE BEE ESCAPE DO THE ORDINARY 

 WORK OF SIX ESCAPES. 



As bee-escapes are quite expensive we 

 use a plan with them that I have never 

 seen mentioned in print. Put an escape 

 under a finished super, preferably on a 

 colony not so strong as desirable, and on 

 this super pile finished supers from four 

 to six or more colonies, after first driving 

 out a large part of the bees with the smoker. 



At your next trip they are all ready for 

 the wagon and one bee escap>i has done 



