52 
House & Garden 
nectar from the flowers. When .they ?.Ue, idle 
they are cross. The good bee man'jyiU' always 
try to do most of the work in the apiary at such 
times as the bees are working vigorously. Never 
attempt to handle them when there are no flowers 
yielding nectar, or on cool cloudy days, <jr .too 
early in the morning or too late at might.p'Tfife 
middle of a warm, bright day, in a sea^oryo'f, 
plentiful bloom, constitutes the ideal time to in¬ 
vestigate the inside workings of a beehive. 
The Busy Season 
These bees that I bought in old box hives proved 
to be good workers, and they made the most of 
their advantages during the spring, so that by the 
first of June they had built up fine strong col¬ 
onies. The good beekeeper manages to have 
his bees in good working condition at this time. 
A weak colony will not be able to spare enough 
bees to bring in any more than enough honey 
for their own use. The bees use the honey to 
feed the young, and a weak colony will often have 
a great many young bees to feed and not many 
old bees to gather the necessary nectar. 
If there has been a scarcity of early spring 
honey flowers then it is up to the beekeeper to 
feed his colonies enough old honey or sugar syrup 
to enable them to raise an abundant family. 
At about the time that the clover starts yield¬ 
ing, the main hive body containing the brood 
combs becomes overcrowded. In a strong 
colony there will be from 40,000 to 60,000 
bees. When all these are grouped to¬ 
gether, they make a large bulk and occupy 
a good bit of space. Also they can bring 
in a large quantity of nectar in a single 
day and so the spaces in the brood combs 
that are unoccupied by young bees are 
quickly filled with new honey. When¬ 
ever this condition obtains, the bees are 
seized with the Wanderlust and begin 
to make their plans to move. 
It is always the old queen (there is only 
one in a colony) that leads out the swarm, 
but they never leave until after prepara¬ 
tions have been made to continue the busi- 
nes of the colony at the same old stand. 
This preparation consists in building one 
or more queen cells and developing the 
young queen to such a point that her safe 
hatching is assured. As soon as the queen 
cell has been sealed preparatory to the final 
development of the queen grub into the 
adult insect, the old queen is ready to lead 
forth her many followers to pastures new. 
When a swarm issues from a hive it 
simply means that a majority of the mem¬ 
bers of the hive are following the queen 
to some new location. This is a natural 
method of increasing colonies. When 
they swarm they naturally take along 
most of the best workers in the colony 
and thereby weaken the working force 
to such a point that no surplus of 
honey is liable to be stored. 
It follows that if you want 
honey you must use some me¬ 
thod to prevent the bees from 
swarming. You can’t teach 
them not to, but you can usu¬ 
ally fool them into staying on 
the job. You can even make 
them think they have swarmed 
when they have not—and they 
will then go ahead about their 
business and maybe store up 
a couple of hundred pounds 
of comb honey over and above 
what they can possibly use in 
their own families. Of course, 
if you can do this you are 
surely entitled to the spoils. 
Preventing Swarming 
There are several preven¬ 
tive measures. In the first 
place, the wings of the queen 
should be clipped close to the 
body on one side. This can 
readily be done with a small 
pair of embroidery or surgical 
scissors. The queen can be 
easily recognized in the hive 
by her lighter color, larger 
size and elongated body. She 
can be gently picked up with 
impunity, as she never uses 
her sting except in combat 
with other queens that might 
come in contact with her—a 
very rare occasion indeed. 
With the queen’s, wings clipped she is unable 
to fly, and in ?as«? the colony determines to swarm 
they will be disappointed, for they will never leave 
without the queen/ m such cases the old queen 
will usually flutter around in front of the hive for 
a few minutes and -then return. Sometimes that 
is^lPthqye is to its but on other occasions she will 
.el/rnb 'th<*. fi'rst weed or bush or tree she comes to 
tmd (He awa'rm will cluster about her. In such 
places a swarm is easily handled, and if a few 
brood frames are taken out of the old hive and all 
of the new queen cells are destroyed, the swarm 
can be quickly shaken back into the box from 
which it has originally issued. 
As I said before, the bees will not swarm until 
after provision has been made for a successor to 
the queen. The beekeeper can head off these 
successors by looking through his hives once a 
week and removing all the queen cells. They are 
large and easily recognized. Simply pinch them 
out with your fingers when you find them. This 
is where the movable frames in the modern hive 
have an advantage. Each frame in the hive, and 
there are usually either eight or ten, can be re¬ 
moved separately and thoroughly examined on 
both sides. In looking for queen cells the bees 
should be shaken from the comb. This can be 
done by holding the frame firmly by the two upper 
corners and giving it a single vigorous jolting 
shake in front of the entrance of the hive. 
Strangely enough the bees do not seem to resent 
such shaking, but generally crawl back into the 
hive quite contentedly. 
By removing queen cells, clipping the queen’s 
wings and giving plenty of room for the storage 
of surplus honey you will go a long way toward 
preventing swarms—and preventing swarms usu¬ 
ally means the production of a surplus of honey. 
Beehive Mechanics 
This surplus is stored in shallow boxes called 
supers which fit on the hive right over the main 
hive body. The super has no top or bottom. The 
cover of the hive is lifted off, the super placed in 
position and the cover replaced, this time on top 
of the super. In this way the bees can work 
right up through the super. The latter is fitted 
with small square or oblong frames in which the 
bees build that beautiful white comb which needs 
no introduction to any American table. 
When one super is fairly well filled it should be 
lifted and an empty one inserted below it so as to 
give the workers plenty of room. The more room 
you give them the more vigorously they seem to 
work, and they will do their best to fill the whole 
place with honey if the clover holds out. 
Each super holds about two dozen of the little 
honey boxes and each box should hold when full 
about a pound of honey. Sometimes a single 
strong colony will fill eight or more supers in the 
course of a single season. 
Thin sheets of beeswax, known as comb 
foundation, may be bought ready-made. 
This comb foundation should be cut into 
sheets a little smaller than the comb space 
in the honey sections, and a sheet fastened 
in each section so that it forms the foun¬ 
dation from which the bees can build the 
comb from both sides. This foundation 
is stamped with hexagonal lines to serve 
as starters for the bees. 
This use of comb foundation is not 
new, and when it was first used some 
people had an idea that it was made of 
paraffin and was an attempt to swindle 
the consumer. As a matter of fact it 
would not be practicable to use paraffin 
for this purpose, and there is no doubt 
that all comb foundation that is made to¬ 
day is the purest of pure beeswax. 
The profitable honey flow in most parts 
of the United States is limited to the 
period when the white clover and bass¬ 
wood (linden) are in bloom. These two 
plants are our greatest honey yielders, al¬ 
though in some sections a surplus is se¬ 
cured from other plants; and in some 
seasons the goldenrod and asters and 
other fall flowers produce an abundance 
of honey. This fall honey, however, is 
usually strong in flavor. It might go 
all right with the locusts, but on hot 
biscuits the pure white article justly holds 
first rank in popular estimation. 
As soon as the clover yield 
stops, the beekeeper should re¬ 
move his surplus in the supers. 
This can easily be done by 
lifting a full super and lightly 
smoking the bees out from be¬ 
tween the frames. There are 
other methods of getting the 
bees out, which you will learn 
all about when you become an 
expert. If the honey is left in 
the hive through the summer 
the bees will crawl all over 
it and it will become stained 
and dark in color. Beekeepers 
call such honey travel-stained. 
It is often very strong. 
It is at this season that the 
farsighted beekeeper will start 
to lay plans for his next year’s 
success. During the late sum¬ 
mer and fall the bees must be 
made ready for winter. They 
must go on raising young bees 
to carry the colony over until 
spring. Most of those that 
winter over are hatched after 
the first of August. 
Preparations for Winter 
Bees winter by clustering in 
a ball in the hive. Those on 
the outside, of course, get cold 
and stiff. Then those inside the 
ball work out and surround the 
cold ones and give them a 
(Continued on page 54) 
Modern beehives arranged in sets of four—an ex¬ 
cellent plan for a small apiary 
When feasible , place the hives on a sunny hillside , facing south. 
Though well located, with some shade furnished by the trees, these 
hives should be set farther apart 
