MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



17 



cells above the bottom-bars ready for her eggs, unless the flow of nectar 

 is too great, or this upper hive is too full of honey. Now, as soon as the 

 center frame of honey is taken out, look for these cleaned cells, and if to 

 the amount of from 500 to 1000 are found, set the comb back and proceed 

 to business without getting a comb from tiie weak colony having a little 

 brood in it, as the queen will have all the necessary cells for her eggs al- 

 ready cleaned for their reception, the plan working equally well in this 

 way. 



Yes, and T find it works much better with any colony that may have 

 gotten so far toward the swarming-point as to have eggs or larvae in queen- 

 cells, and especially is thus true with any colony which may have com- 

 menced swarming and returned on account of the wings to the queen being 

 clipped, in the occasional years spoken of when giving directions about 

 clipping. In such cases when a frame of brood is given they seem to con- 

 sider themselves to be placed in the same condition as they were before 

 being treated with the shaking process, and I have known one or two to 

 keep up their swarming till a young queen emerged from the brood given 



DOOLITTLIS'S SUPER CONTAINING FORTY-POUR 3^4 x5% xl% SECTIONS. 



being changed to queen-cells so that a young queen would emerge in ten 

 or eleven days after the shaking.^ When this happens, of course it results 

 in the loss of the swarm, as well as but little surplus from such a colony, 

 and the colony in poor condition for wintering. Therefore, I now look for 

 empty cells near the bottom of the center combs, and where found, which 

 is in nine cases out of ten during most years, no brood is given when shak- 

 ing as is soon to be given. 



From 35 years of close watching I find swarming to be conducted 

 in this way as a rule: Queen-cells are formed, or the walls of old queen- 

 cups drawn out till quite thin, when the queen lays eggs in them. , In 

 three days these eggs hatch into larvsB, which are fed a little less than 

 six days, when the celL. is sealed over. On the day after the sealing of 

 the first cell the p]'ime swarm issues with the old queen. In order that 

 the queen may fly and accompany the swarm on the wing when the first 

 laj'VcB are about three days old, she begins gradually to cease laying, and 



1 This is an important point. Many failnres in swarm control have resulted from 

 the rather prevalent idea that a frame of unsealed larvae should be given to newly hived 

 swarms, either natural or artificial, to prevent the bees from swarming out after being 

 hived. An empty brpod-comb is better for this purpose. 



