10 the connecticut agricttltukal college extension service. 



Proper Supering for Extracted Honey. 

 Bees will enter extracting supers more readily and work 

 in them better than they will in section supers, especially if 

 they contain drawn combs. On this account it is not such a 

 problem to get extracting supers accepted. If one has a few 

 colonies only, he may follow the same plan as for comb honey 

 supering. If he has a large number of colonies, and some 

 out-yards, it will be better to add several supers at once. Many 

 beekeepers who run scores of colonies, add all the supers which 

 they expect to need at the beginning of the honey flow. Prop- 

 er supering, in the final analysis, is a matter for each beekeep- 

 er to decide for himself, after taking into account all the fac- 

 tors which have any bearing upon the problem, viz., the weath- 

 er, the condition of the honey plants, the activity of the col- 

 onies, the strength of the colonies, etc. 



Handling Natural Swarms so as to Get the Most Honey. 



Where the beekeeper is working for honey production pri- 

 marily and cannot prevent swarming entirely, there are one or 

 two ways of handling the colonies to get the best results. The 

 one used most often with success is to move the old hive out 

 of the way a little after the swarm issues, turning the entrance 

 away, and to place a new hive exactly in the place occupied by 

 the other. Have the new hive filled with drawn combs if pos- 

 sible, but at least with full sheets of foundation. Shake or 

 smoke the swarm into a box or basket, and dump it in front of 

 the new hive and see that it gets started into the hive. After 

 all is quiet, turn the old hive a;bout so that the entrance points 

 in the same direction as the new, and leave them for ten days. 

 If the old hive had supers on it when the swarm came out, these 

 should be transferred to the swarm. 



If conditions in the yard are such as to make it likely that 

 the virgin in the old hive will be well mated, the colony may 

 be allowed to produce its own queen, but it will make the col- 

 ony build up quicker to provide it with a laying queen. This 

 should be done soon after the swarm is hived, the queen cells 

 left in the old hive being cut out previously. At the end of ten 

 days the old hive may be taken to a new location and left to 



