28 A YEAR'S WORK IN AN OUT-APIARY 



one of which has brood In it. "We now put on top of this hive of brood, 

 still on its old stand, a queen-excluder, and on this a second hive or 

 upper story, as such a hive is generally termed, when the frame of 

 bees, brood, and queen which we set to one side at the beginning, is 

 placed in the center of this upper story, the same being filled out with 

 frames of comb, a few of which should contain some little honey, after 

 which the hive is closed. Brood-rearing will now leap ahead in this 

 upper hive from the heat, and bees which will come up from below 

 to feed the queen and encourage her on, while the bees can not swarm, 

 as the queen can not pass the excluder, so there is no need of any 

 worrying on our part for ten days. In from eight to eleven days, just 

 as the weather will permit (as no young queen will be likely to emerge 

 from any queen-cells the bees may rear from the brood in the lower 

 hive previous to the eleventh day), we visit the out-apiary again, at 

 which time we set the upper story containing the queen, bees, and new 

 brood off to a new stand which we wish a colony to occupy. This set- 

 ting off causes all the field bees to return to the old stand, which makes 

 it a powerful colony. It will be noted that the hive on the old stand 

 now contains nearly all sealed brood, with no larvas young enough to 

 turn into a queen, even should the eighth day be the one on which we 

 wish to go to the out-apiary; and only sealed brood, should the weather 

 be such that we do not go until the ninth, tenth, or eleventh day. 



Having arrived at the hive, after setting off the upper story it is 

 opened and all queen-cells destroyed, if any are found, and the colony 

 given a ripe queen-cell from the best breeder; or a virgin queen can 

 be introduced, if preferred, as this colony is hopelessly queenless, after 

 the cells are cut. A super of sections (with baits) should now be put 

 on, and on top of this another super of sections. The bees will not 

 swarm, as they have but the OlslE queen-cell, or virgin queen, and there 

 are no eggs or larvae from which to rear another. I have not tested 

 the matter; but I am quite sure that a laying queen would be just as 

 good, if introduced by the candy-cork plan at this time, in a locality 

 where the honey harvest is not of such long duration as to cause the 

 bees to swarm with her later on; for this colony is practically in the 

 same condition as a colony ten days after swarming, except much 

 stronger. With such colonies, when using natural swarming, I have 

 often given laying queens in this way, and always had better success 

 in comb honey than I did where all the cells were cut but one. This 

 giving a laying queen at this time would also do away with the only 

 trouble which attaches to the plan when a ripe cell or virgin queen is 

 used, which trouble arises from the fact that occasionally some queen 

 will fail to get back from her mating-trip, which may not be found 

 out in time to save the colony with the few visits we make at the out- 

 apiary. As soon as the young queen begins to lay, the honey will go 

 up into the sections with a rush, as the emerging brood reinforces the 

 field laborers for ten to twelve days after the old queen and her hive 

 of new brood was removed to its new stand. The removed colony will 

 usually become strong enough to store sufficient honey for wintering 



