336 A Model )\ Bee Farm 



latter part of July, and as soon as the supers can be 

 removed, dethrone the old queen and unite the stock and 

 nucleus. You now have a stronger colony and a young 

 queen who will take good care that her domains are not 

 crowded with honey. Her first season is just coming and 

 the bees will act accordingly. 



This is a special case and special treatment is required, 

 as the honey nearly always comes in so freely that, by the 

 old method, the already exhausted queens are soon 

 crowded out, and by the time the earlier harvest is over, the 

 workers are worn out ; whereas with the young queen we 

 have a good stock left, with bees still hatching to make 

 up for the tremendous loss of life. More honey is 

 accumulated because the population is larger and does 

 not decrease as only too frequently has been the case. 



Of course, only worked-out combs are to be used in the 

 sections, including those not completed from the first har- 

 vest, after being cleared by the extractor. At the ter- 

 mination of the earlier harvest if any stores are left in the 

 stock combs, the same should be extracted, and in 



Uniting with the Nucleus, 



only those combs most crowded with brood should be 

 used. The odd combs of brood can be given to one or 

 more lots left at home. Some reader may say that his 

 hives are crowded when his bees go to the moors. They 

 may be, but like the queen such bees are already exhausted 

 by their previous labours, and new blood is required 

 throughout if one wishes to make the most of this last 

 important harvest. 



If necessary feed "from hand to mouth" after uniting, 

 until time for the heather, but on no account feed heavily, 

 as once advised by a correspondent in the British Bee 

 Journal, who hoped thereby to fill up the space the old 



