10 



MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



if no frame having- empty cells was given, it is quite apt to result m an 

 effort being made at swanning, which is not consistent with the immediate 

 moving of the honey in these combs to the supers above, and the success 

 we wish to obtain, although even in ease of such swarming, better results 

 are obtained than by any other plan of "shook" swarming which I have 

 tried; for after a fruitless effort or two (the queen having her wmgs clip- 

 ped so she can not go with the swann), and a few days of sulking, they will 

 go to work with a will, thus showing their acceptance of the situation. 

 However, if treated as here given, not one colony in 60 will do aught but 

 accept the situation, and go to work at once in the sections, especially if 

 there is any honey coming in from the fields, and the colony did not con- 

 tract the swarming fever before it was shaken.^ 



From later experience and experimenting I find that this frame partly 

 filled with brood is unnecessary in nine cases out of ten, in which cases it 

 simplifies matters and labor to quite an extent. As hinted at before, colo- 

 nies treated to an upper story of combs over a queen-excluder at the be- 



-:^?sr.f%---.^. 



ginning of fruit bloom will have their ten combs below nearly or quite 

 full of brood by the time we wish to manipulate them as here given. 

 Especially will this be the case with the central combs in the brood- 

 chamber — so much so that the brood in these central combs will come up 

 near the top-bars of the frames, if the cells bordering on the wood are 

 not thus usedj which is often the case. This brood coming so near the 

 bottoms of the combs over tlie excluder seems to give the bees the idea that 

 the queen can lay at this point, so they will clean and leave several thousand 



1 A serious objection to the hiving of these artificial swarms upon combs nearly 

 filled with honey is that the bees are often inclined to work with less spirit when the 

 brood-chamber contains much sealed honey. If the honey in these combs is recently 

 gathered and not sealed, the bees move it into the supers rapidly to make room for the 

 queen below, but they are sometimes reluctant about moving sealed honey. If they 

 delay in doing this, the delay often causes the bees to loaf or at least work with less 

 spirit than otherwise. For this reason the author advises that there be not less than 

 12 sections in the first super that have their combs already built out, these being un- 

 finished sections saved over from the previous season. Many prefer to use frames of 

 foundation, together with one empty comb or a comb contnining but little brood in 

 tbis new brood-chnmber if the bees are inclined to hesitate in moving the honey into 

 the supers when combs of honey are used. Another objection to the use of conibs of 

 honey saved over from the previous season is that if this honey is dark or amber, some 

 of it is carried into the sections, thus making a lower grade of comb honey. 



