FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 171 



KEEPING QUEENS CAGED. 



Success was repoiied by others witli the plaii of keeping 

 queens caged in the hive during part or the whole of the har- 

 vest, and although I tried it on a large scale there was no case 

 of success with me. 



FASTENING YOUNG QUEENS IN. 



The good old-fashioned way of managing after-swarms was 

 lo return them as fast as they came out. This gave the young 



Fig. S8 — Movable Shade. 



queens a chance to fight it out till only one was left, and when 

 only one was left there would be no more swarming. So I 

 planned to let the young queens fight it out without the trouble 

 of returning swarms. I put a queen-excluder between the bot- 

 tom-board and hive, so that no queen could get out. As no 

 queen could get out no swarm oould leave. When the young 

 queens emerged they oould settle their Httle differences to suit 

 themselves till only one queen was left. I would keep track of 

 what was going on inside the hives sufficiently to take away the 

 excluder after all but one queen had been put out of the way, 



