April, 1910.] 



349 



Apiculture. 



Having these combs of honey ia the 

 hive, put the cover on and shake all the 

 bees from the remaining combs, shakiug 

 a comb first from one hive then from the 

 other. The work is now done as soon as 

 the bees have run into the hive, and the 

 empty hive with the remaining combs 

 is stored away. 



Where there are many weak colonies 

 to unite, or if, as in the case of a queen- 

 breeder, there are from 50 to 500 nuclei 

 to unite, the above plan involves a large 

 ainouut of work, especially it' such weak 

 colonies are scattered some distance 

 apart. Years ago Elisha Gallup told 

 how to make natural swarms artificially 

 by first smoking the bees and then alarm- 

 ing them by rapping on the hive with a 

 slick, thus causing them to fill them- 

 selves with honey. After they were 

 filled with honey, the larger part of 

 them were drummed into a box by the 

 means usually pursued in drumming out 

 bees. When a sufficient number were in 

 the box it was carried to the new loca- 

 tion and left leaning up against some- 

 thing for a couple of hours. After this 

 the bees could be hived the same as 

 though they were from a natural swarm. 



I tried this same plan tor uniting, 

 except that 1 got all of the bees from 

 two hives into the box, and it worked 

 fairly well until I tried uniting queenless 

 bees from nuclei from which 1 had pre- 

 viously sold the queens. I found that I 

 could not make the queenless bees stay 

 in the box, as the mother-queen is needed 

 to keep them contented. To overcome 

 this difficulty I made a cage from the 

 upper story of a tiered-up-hive, putting 

 wire cloth on the top and bottom, the 

 bottom piece being nailed to a frame 

 that was fastened with hooks to the 

 hive sc that I could remove it when I 

 wished. A hole was bored through one 

 side of the hive, which side now became 

 the top of the cage. The hole was just 

 right to permit the small end of a funnel, 

 such as was used for putting up bees by 

 the pound for shipping over the country 

 on the plan so much in vogue fifteen or 

 twenty years ago, Over the hole was 

 arranged a large fiat wooden button 

 which could be turned so as to open or 

 close the opening as desired. 



With this cage I proceeded to a queen- 

 less nucleus and blew smoke in at the 

 entrance, after which I gave the side of 

 its hive several blows with my food or 

 fist. Then I went to another hive and 

 did the same thing. After this I re- 

 turned to the first hive and repeated the 

 performance, and then again on the 

 second hive. By this time the roaring 

 of the bees inside indicated that they 

 were filling with honey— just what I 

 wished them to do. 1 therefore waited 



a minute or two for the bees to take all 

 the honey they would, and as soon as 

 they were filled I shook them into the 

 funnel so that they rolled down through 

 it into the cage below. I soon had in the 

 cage all the bees of the nucleus except 

 the few that were in the corner? of 

 the hive or those that took wing 

 before they struck the funnel. Then 

 closing the hole with the button I 

 went to the next nucleus, removed the 

 cover, etc., ready for shaking, and set 

 the cage down quickly so as to jar all 

 the bees in it to the bottom. I soon had 

 the bees of that nucleus in the cage also. 



If I wished to get the bees from more 

 than two nuclei I prepared three or four 

 in the manner described before I shook 

 any, so that no time would be lost in 

 waiting for the bees to fill with honey. 

 If four nuclei were smoked and rummeid, 

 the first one would be filled with honey 

 by the time 1 got around to it again to 

 commence shaking. 1 often put as 

 many as six or eight small nuclei to- 

 gether to make one good colony for 

 winter but four is about the maximum 

 number that can be drummed and 

 shaken at one time ; for if more are 

 attempted the bees of the last two or 

 three commence to unload their honey 

 before they are shaken. 



When I had all that I wished in the 

 cage, the funnel was taken out and 

 the hole closed, and I proceeded to get 

 the queen that I wished to introduce to 

 them. By bumping the cage on the 

 ground I again jarred the bees down 

 to the bottom, and then I immediately 

 opened the funnel-hole and allowed the 

 queen to run in. Then I rolled and 

 tumbled the bees about in the box until 

 all were thoroughly mixed up and de- 

 moralized so that all thoughts of fight- 

 ing or harming the queen had disappear- 

 ed. After this I put the cage in some 

 darkened room where the temperature 

 was about (iO degrees and left it until 

 near sunset, when I prepared a hive 

 with combs of sealed honey sufficient for 

 winter stores. By this time I brought 

 the box of bees from the cellar, took off 

 the movable wire-cloth side, dumped 

 out the bees, and hived them as I would 

 a natural swarm. If I did not have 

 enough combs of sealed honey for all, 

 I gave empty combs and fed sugar 

 syrup, as 1 described lately in Gleauings. 



A very essential part in the above 

 method of uniting is to have the bees 

 well filled with honey. If I am afraid 

 that a certain lot of bees in a cage are 

 not full of honey I jar them down and 

 put a quarter of a pound of honey or 

 syrup on them, and then by rolling 

 them about each one gets its share 

 until all are full. 



