Swarm Control and Increase 271 



are started, since if queen cells are well advanced, their 

 removal is not so effective in preventing swarming. This 

 usually requires an examination of the brood-chamber once 

 in seven to ten days. 



Miller's methods. 



To make these manipulations clear, it may be well to 

 recapitulate by describing the system used by C. C. 

 Miller. To provide abundant bees in time for the harvest, 

 as well as to eliminate any tendency to early swarming, 

 strong colonies are given an extra hive-body, during the rapid 

 spring breeding, all the combs being built to the bottom 

 bar of the frame so far as practical. Colonies are requeened 

 whenever a queen shows signs of inability to keep up the full 

 strength of colony, these queens being from mothers whose 

 colonies have not swarmed. When the honey-flow begins, 

 a single hive-body for each colony is filled with full combs of 

 brood (any additional combs of brood being used in other 

 less populous colonies, for increase or for other purposes) 

 and each colony is given a super containing one or more bait 

 sections, into which the bees go at once, if the honey-flow 

 permits.^ Doctor Miller is a master in the manipulation of 

 supers and the system used by him is described in a later 

 chapter (p. 314). His hives have wide entrances (2 inches 

 deep) and are protected by trees from the heat of the sun. 

 Frequent examinations are made to remove newly started 

 queen cells. The crops which Doctor Miller obtains are 

 so much greater than those of other beekeepers similarly 

 situated, or even than those in better locations, that his 

 methods should be carefully studied. He uses the 8-frame 

 Langstroth hive, but does not especially recommend it. It 

 should also be added that Doctor Miller is a firm advocate 



' Doctor Miller once asked the author, in all seriousness, what bee- 

 keepers mean by their reported difficulty in getting bees to work in the 

 supers promptly. Probably his bees are so much better prepared to gather 

 a surplus than are those of many beekeepers that in his own apiary he has 

 not seen for years conditions which occur yearly in the apiaries of many 

 beekeepers. 



