THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 1 25 



Be-queening after a swarm has issued. 



More swarms than usual issued in the Bay State Apiary in 

 the season of 1888. Not caring to have so many oM stocks 

 queenless several weeks, all were requeened as soon as pos^ 

 sible after a swarm came out, but no attempt was made to do 

 so in less than two days after the swarm issued. The cells 

 were removed to nucleus colonies, and at the same time the 

 new queens were introduced by the method given above, and 

 not one queen was lost. Thus it will be seen that only two 

 days wei-e lost to the bees in brood-rearing. 



It is not so important to re-queen immediately later in the 

 season as at the flrst of it. Our bees commenced early in 

 June to gather honey and swarms soon began to come out. 

 Well, now had any colony been left to rear a queen the 

 bees would at the end of four weeks have begun to diminish 

 in numbers and before the harvest ended there would be 

 hardly half as many bees in the hives as there were when they 

 swarmed. When a colony is promptly re-queened there would 

 be no great difference so far as numbers are concerned. 



I am not a believer in contraction of the brood-chamber, 

 nor do I believe in taking away the queen from a colony for 

 any great length of time at any season of the year. Experi- 

 ence has taught me that a colony is always in the best condi- 

 tion that has a good queen, combs full of brood and plenty of 

 young bees. A hive barren of these important requisites is 

 nearly worthless, and unless a queen is soon introduced it 

 will be useless for any purpose. 



Keep the colonies supplied with strong, healthy queens. If 

 a queen fails to keep the combs full of brood whether there 

 is forage or not, pinch her head and get another. It does not 

 pay to nurse up a colony haiving an unprolific queen. 



Queenless colonies— How to treat them. 



A colony that has been queenless four or five weeks or 

 longer should have a frame of caJpped brood given them at 

 the time the queen is introduced. Unless so treated, the col- 

 ony would be badly reduced in nu-mbers before any young 

 bees would hatch. By the time the young bees began to 

 emerge the combs should be full of brood. The colony then 



