164 



NOTES. 



in their cells. This new queen then becomes the queen of the hive. 

 If, however, the workers expect to swarm again soon, they surround 

 the young queen and prevent her from destroying the unhatched 

 queens. In this case this young queen will, in a day or two, issue 

 with a swarm, and leave the hive to be ruled by the next queen that 

 hatches. It occasionally happens that three or four swarms issue from 

 a hive in the course of a few days. The inexperienced bee-keeper often 

 thinks that this is very desirable, because he is increasing the number 

 of his swarms rapidly, but in fact, it is a great disadvantage, for the 

 new swarms will be small and weak, and the old one will have very 

 few bees left. Neither the new ones nor the old one will be in condi- 

 tion to store any surplus honey, possibly they will not gather enough 

 to winter them. A large number of bee-keepers so manage as not to 

 have any natural swarms issue. If they allow any natural swarms at 

 all, they destroy or remove all queen cells but one, as soon as the 

 first swarm has issued. Usually it is the best to practice artificial 

 swarming, by the nucleus system. 



10. Number of Queen Cells. — (Page 74.) Usually a swarm 

 of bees grows only from five to ten queen cells. But by treating the 

 combs as mentioned in the chapter on Italianizing, they may be led 

 to start a very large number of cells at once, and to nurse and seal 

 up the queen larvae. Mr. A. F. Moon editor of the Bee World, a 

 magazine formerly published at Rome, Ga., but now suspended, 

 says, that he can, by a system of management similiar to the one I 

 pursued, lead a hive to build at once from fifty to two hundred queen 

 cells, and to nurse the young queens to maturity. Where many 

 queens are needed, it is usually an advantage to have them grown in 

 as few hives as possible. — Bee World, Vol. III., p. 337. 



11. The Honey Extractor. — (Page 83.) This is a machine 

 for throwing honey from the combs, so that they can be returned to 

 the hives to be refilled with honey. The frames of comb are set into 

 the machine, and revolved with sufficient rapidity to enable the cent- 

 rifugal force to throw the honey from the cells. The bees are thus 

 stimulated to greater activity, the brood combs are emptied of honey, 

 and so the queen has plenty of cells in which to deposit eggs, and the 

 labor and expense of building new comb are saved. It is estimated 

 that every pound of comb costs from fifteen to twenty-five pounds of 

 honey. Extractors are made of different sizes and shapes ; but the 

 principle is the same in all. It is very generally used by the best 

 bee-keepers in Europe and America. 



12. Yield from Linn.— (Page (57.) This was an average of a 

 little less than twelve pounds a day for six days. The weather was 



