SWARMING 
809 
first story, a queen-excluder is put on, and 
then the third story of empty combs put 
over it. Finally, on top of all, the second 
story partly full of honey and brood is add¬ 
ed. This plan has the advantage of giving 
the colony an abundance of comb room and 
also an unlimited amount of breeding space 
for the queen during the critical swarming 
period previous to the honey flow. 
When the bees are wintered in a single 
story, the second story should be given a 
little before the combs in the lower story 
are completely filled with brood, honey, and 
pollen, and at least several of the combs in 
the second story should be old dark brood- 
-, 
QUEEN 
& BROOO 
— 
BROOD 
CHAMBER 
-?58 
Previous to the honey 
flow the queen occu¬ 
pies both stories. 
combs to attract the queen above promptly. 
Since in the North this second story should 
be given about the first of May (sometimes 
even the latter pait of April in well-win¬ 
tered colonies) the hives, if packed, should 
be left in the packing-cases and the packing 
material replaced around the upper story. 
If enough early honey is stored in the up- 
BROOD 
SUPER 
Q UEE N 
BROOD 
CHAMBER 
Queen is put below ex¬ 
cluder and brood plac¬ 
ed above the super. 
per story to crowd the queen there (which 
often happens with strong, well-wintered 
colonies in the spring even when weak ones 
in the same apiary are starving), a third 
story of empty combs should be given even 
tlio the main honey flow is still several 
weeks in the future. To save trouble when 
putting the queen down later, it is well to 
put the queen-excluder over the second 
story to keep the queen out of the third 
story. When strong colonies are managed 
in this way the queen usually abandons the 
lower story soon after the second story is 
given, but carries on her work of filling the 
second story with apparently increased 
vigor. 
After the queen has been above so long 
that most of the brood left in the lower 
story has emerged, she should be put down. 
This will usually be about three weeks after 
the second story was given if the queen 
went up promptly when the second story 
was given. To put the queen below, some 
prefer setting off the second story and 
hunting out the queen, when she is simply 
picked up and transferred to the lower 
story; while others prefer to shake the 
bees from the combs of the second story, 
to be sure that the queen is put below, in¬ 
stead of finding her. 
Strange as it may seem, putting the 
queen back into the lower story and con¬ 
fining her there by means of the queen- 
excluder is a swarm-control measure of 
great importance, just as inviting her into 
the second story was a few weeks previous¬ 
ly. At first thought one might expect that 
limiting the queen to a single story should 
increase the tendency to swarm. To have 
confined the queen to the lower story earlier 
in the season without having permitted her 
to go into the second story would result in 
swarming in many cases, but conditions 
now are quite different. 
The bees are now compelled to establish 
their brood-nest anew in the lower story, 
which at this time contains but a little 
brood. This brood is rapidly emerging, and 
the colony behaves much like a newly hived 
swarm. There is usually considerable pol¬ 
len stored in the lower set of combs, which 
probably retards the work of the queen to 
some extent; but, where the honey flow is 
short, this is often an advantage. The con¬ 
ditions are as tho an artificial swarm had 
been made, the swarm being in the lower 
story, below the supers and the parent col¬ 
ony above the supers, but all the bees are 
in the same hive. 
Nine or ten days after the brood was put 
up and the queen put'down, all queen-cells 
