2o8 A Modern Bee-Farm 



strong colony in full swing during favourable weather, 

 the entrance should be fully open, and if necessary, 

 the cover raised. I cannot imagine a well found 

 colony with a young queen attempting to swarm from the 

 four extracting chambers of the Conqueror when thus 

 ventilated, or from the comb-honey chambers as presently 

 mentioned. 



(2) " Using Excluder Zinc." This is an impediment 

 from my point of view, and has much to do with prevent- 

 ing the bees working in the supers and so bringing on a 

 desire to swarm by over-crowding the stock combs. 

 I have always insisted upon the rule that the best 

 queen-excluder is the early and powerful colony ; 

 and with such the queen has no chance to rear an excess 

 of, or mis-placed brood when honey is to be found. 

 This assertion finds ready support from prominent writers. 



Nos. 3, 4, and 5 are all related to each other in the 

 order given, and tend to cramp the bees for storage room 

 where most wanted, at the very time the owner should be 

 prepared with all the available cells for storage. 



I also find that 6 and 7 are very closely connected. 

 Young queens or the stocks possessing them are less 

 inclined to swarm ; generally winter satisfactorily and 

 start off in very good condition in the spring. I repeat 

 it is the backward and not the powerful early stocks, 

 which give the most trouble in swarming, and if as usually 

 happens the late colony has an old queen, and comes into 

 full condition about the middle of the honey flow, nothing 

 will prevent the issue of a swarm, unless the queen and 

 all cells but one are destroyed. On the other hand the 

 forward stock with a young queen begins to store from 

 the first, and with the advantages offered by the above 

 hive, there is seldom any inclination to leave work just 

 lor the pleasure of swarming. 



