22 MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



make the swarm stay, or for any other purpose, for the be^ are still on 

 their own combs, with room enough for the queen to lay right along. All 

 of this, together with the carrying of the honey from the combs mto tne 

 sections, keeps them contented, and brings great results in honey to tneir 



^^^As a prolific queen in the height of her egg-laying always falls off 

 the combs she is on at the first shake, she being so heavy with eggs, 1 hold 

 each comb as low as possible in front of the entrance m shaking, so she 

 shall not be injured by the fall. I have reason to believe that many queens 

 have been seriously injured by the "shook swarming" of the past, through 

 the carelessness of the operator in this matter, and then the plan con- 

 demned, because, at the end of the season, more honey has been found m 

 the brood-chamber than in the sections, when the operator alone was to 

 blame for the queen's being injured to such an extent that she could not keep 

 the combs filled with brood, as she otherwise would. Always remember 

 that a good queen is the chief source of success in all things pertaining to 

 a large yield of section honey. As fast as the combs are freed from be^s 

 they are set in the empty hive, at first brought, each comb being set m 

 the order it had in the old hive till all are in. 



I now go to one of the colonies considered too weak to tier on the third 

 visit, take off the cover, put on the queen-excluder just taken off from No. 

 1, and on top of this I. set the hive of beeless brood, when the cover is put 

 on top of all.i 



If the season has been one with a rich flow of nectar, so much so that 

 very few if any empty cells are left at the bottoms of the central combs in 

 which the queen can lay right along, so ihai her prolificness must be checked 

 on this account, unless a comb having a little brood and many empty cells 

 is given, then, if, in shaking the bees off their combs, I come across any 

 comb which is not more than one-third to one-half full of brood, the same 

 having as many empty cells as those containing the brood, such a frame is 

 kept out of the hive of beeless brood, and used to go in No. 2 when it is 

 prepared the same as No. 1 has been, instead of a comb taken from a 

 weaker colony, as was done when fixing No. 1. As this saves time, can be 



1 While this quickly strengthens the weak colony to which the brood is given, the 

 shaken colony will become weaker until brood begins to emerge in this hive three 

 weeks later. If the colony is not shaken and does not swarm, it becomes stronger 

 every day during the honey flow instead of weaker.' During a short rapid honey flow 

 this would not make much difference, because the emerging young bees do not become 

 field-workers until nearly two weeks old; but, if the honey flow continues five to eight 

 weeks, the loss of all this brood seriously affects the strength of the colony during the 

 latter part of the honey flow. In such cases the hive of emerging bees can be set by 

 the aide of the shaken colony, enough bees being left on the combs to take care of the 

 hrood. Usually two or three combs are left with all the adhering bees, care being 

 taken to put the queen in with the shaken swarm; then a week or ten days later the 

 hive containing the emerging brood can be moved to a new location for Increase. This 

 results in all the bees that have learned to fly since the colony was shaken entering the 

 other hive, thus greatly strengthening it with these young bees. If increase is not 

 wanted, instead of moving the hive of emerging brood away, the bees may all_ be 

 shaken from their combs, shaking them into the supers or in front of the other hive. 

 The combs, after shaking still having some unemerged brood, can then be given to a 

 weaker colony, as described by the author. In either case this should be done before 

 any young queen can emerge, for queen-cells will be built in the hive containing the 

 emerging brood soon after the colony was first shaken. If no queen-cells were present 

 at that time, it is at least 10 days before any young queens can emerge. By this plan 

 about half of the bees from the emerging brood are added to the shaken colony where 

 they can take part in the work in the supers if the honey flow continues. Instead of 

 of doing this, some prefer to put the hives of emerging brood on top of the supers over 

 a ventilated bee-escape board for 10 days, so that the emerging young bees will unite 

 with the colony below through the escape. To do this would not have required an 

 e.xtra trip, since the fifth trip to the out-apiary was made 10 days after the colonies 

 were shaken. 



