PKPMNR. • ;i05 



CHAPTER XIII. 



PRUNING. 



This chapter, like some others, Avould be useless, were it 

 not that the box hive is yet much in use. 



SELDOM NECESSABY. 



The apiarian whose main object is profit, will find that 

 pruning is desirable much less often than the patent ven- 

 der recommends, and in sections where foul brood exists, 

 it is very seldom necessary. Yet many will like to know 

 how it should be done. 



TUB TIME. 



The time at which it should be performed, is of some 

 importance. The month of March has been recommended 

 by many, others prefer April, August or September. 



Here, as usual, I shall differ from them all, preferring 

 still another period, for which I offer my reasons, suppos- 

 ing of course, that the reader is conscious of a freeman's 

 privilege of choosing whatever time or method he thinks 

 proper, in this, as in other matters There is but one pe- 

 riod from February till October, when prosperous stocks 

 are free from young brood in the combs. If combs are 

 taken out when thus occupied, there must be a loss of all 

 the young bees they contain. The old queen leaves with 

 the first swarm ; all the eggs she leaves in the worker-cells 

 ■will be matured in about twenty-one days; hence this, is 

 evidently the best time to prune the old combs with the 

 least waste. A few unhatched drones will be found in the 

 cells, but they are of no account. Also, a few very young 

 larvae and some eggs may sometimes be found, the product 

 of the young queens ; these must be wasted, but as the 

 bees have expended no labor upon them, it is better to sa- 



