112 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



escape. Findingf one opening- by means of which they can reach 

 "home," they crowd through as fast as possible, when, in a few 

 hours, the super is free of bees. If escapes are put on at evening, 

 the supers above them will be free of bees in the morning. 



If there is not time to use escapes, or, if for some reason, it is 

 not desirable to use them, the supers can be freed of bees by other 

 methods. My practice has been as follows: Have the smoker in 

 good trim, take off the cover, and drive a perfect deluge of smoke 

 down among the bees. This starts them out of the combs at a lively 

 rate, and, before they have time to come back, I have the super off 

 the hive. The super is then tremulously shaken in front of the hive 

 until most of the remaining bees are dislodged, when it is taken to the 

 honey house and set on end. In a short time the few straggling 

 bees leave the super and escape by way of the window, which should 



have wire cloth over it on the 

 outside, letting it extend sev- 

 eral inches above the window, 

 and terminate in a small cone- 

 like opening from which the 

 bees can easily find their way 

 out, but not be very likely to 

 find their way back. If the shaking process is found too laborious, 

 and robbers are not ti"oublesome (and they will not be until the 

 close of the season), the super may be leaned against the side of the 

 hive, near the entrance, when the bees will desert the super for the 

 hive. When robbers are troublesome, the stragglers may be driven 

 out with smoke, and brushed off in front of the hive. 



By shading the hives, allowing generous entrances, also abun- 

 dance of room in the supers, swarming is greatly delayed, and often 

 avoided entirely with many colonies. I have known seasons when, 

 with this management, not more than one-half of my colonies 

 swarmed, and I have frequentljf had seasons when not more than 

 two-thirds of them swarmed. When a swarm does issue, I hive it in 

 a contracted brood nest, with starters only in the brood frames, on 

 the old stand, put on a queen excluding honey board and transfer the 

 supers from the old to the new hive. In 20 minutes, at the outside, 

 the bees are back at work in the sections that they recently deserted 

 in such a hurry. The old colony is placed by the side of the new 

 one for a week, when it is moved to a new stand, thus throwing all 

 of its flying bees into the colony having the sections, and so deplet- 

 ing the old colony, just as the young queens are hatching, that there 

 is seldom any after-swarming. If the swarming takes place early 

 in the season, the old colony may do'something in the way of storing 



