The Townsend Bee Book 81 
therfore, see that this foundation is all drawn out before stories 
of extracting frames are given. 
In the above discussion I have purposely said nothing about 
a flow of buckwheat honey, having taken into consideration only 
the white-honey flow of June and the fore part of July. Here at 
Remus we get some dark honey from the buckwheat and aster. 
Some of our winter losses in years past have been made up during 
this flow. While it is somewhat cheaper than to do it during the 
white flow, J am very sure that such colonies are not worth as 
much as those made earlier, judging from what the bees are able 
to accomplish in storing surplus the season following; and it seems 
that these little swarms are a little on the order of late natural 
swarms, for they do not winter as well, and they are, consequently, 
not as desirable. We have, therefore, come to the conclusion that, 
while it costs more to make our increase early, it is cheaper in the 
end, and therefore we try to do that at the present time. 
A practical honey-producer can buy bees of less successful 
beekeepers for much less money than he can produce them him- 
self, if he can find any for sale that are in a desirable condition. 
Sometimes we find desirable bees, and in such cases we buy them 
instead of trying to make our own increase. 
THE CHAPMAN PLAN OF MAKING INCREASE 
Mr. S. D. Chapman has a plan somewhat different from these 
otLers mentioned. At a period about eight days before the close 
of the raspberry flow (it would be the same if the flow were from 
clover or basswood), he hunts out and kills all his queens with 
the idea of having only young queens with which to go into winter 
quarters. In ten days, when the queen-cells that have been started 
come to maturity, half of the bees and brood, including a good 
queen-cell, is taken out of as many colonies as desired, and put 
into empty hives, and then both hives are supplied with empty 
combs from the colonies that died during the winter. As this is 
about the middle of July, these half-colonies that will soon contain 
young queens will build up into good colonies for winter, although 
they will probably need to be fed quite a quantity for winter 
stores. The bees have eight days of the last of the honey-flow in 
which to build their cells, which insures the best quality of cells. 
Furthermore, at this time it is less expensive in the amount of 
honey it takes to produce the increase; for when one runs for 
extracted honey, as Mr. Chapman does, this killing of the queens 
is not likely to cause any loss of honey; and the smaller amount 
of brood the bees have to care for may be a gain rather than a loss. 
