Bee-keeping for profit

by W. S. Morley

A super of the same size as the brood-chamber should be prepared and a similar number of frames to those already in the brood-chamber duly fitted with empty combs or a sheet of foundation. The first frame is then removed from the brood-chamber, the bees shaken from it and placed in a super. The "shaking" should be done by holding the frame about a foot above the hive and giving it a sharp downward and upward jerk to displace the bees. Needless to say, great care is necessary in the operation, as to drop the frame, or crush the bees, would lead to disaster. When the second frame is removed, an opportunity is afforded to look for the queen, which may be identified by her larger bulk and longer legs. Close attention must be given to see that there are no queen cells in the combs as they are removed, for the presence of a queen in the super is fatal to the scheme. All queen cells—easily identified by their acorn shape—therefore, should be removed from the combs.

After the third frame has been removed the empty ones should be inserted as each full one is transferred to the super, until the whole interchange has been effected.

The next proceeding is to place a sheet of queen-excluding zinc over the brood frames, so that no possible way is open for the queen to gain access to the super. The super is then placed in position and covered up. Should the combs contain any drone brood opportunity will have to be given them to escape after hatching, as they cannot pass through the queen excluder. This may be done by rolling the quilt back for about an inch along the whole length of one side, on a bright, sunny day. The drones will soon find the opening and take flight.

If, after supering, the weather should be unfavourable for the bees to gather food, artificial feeding will have to be resorted to. Should the scheme be carried out early in the year and the queen be prolific, it may be found necessary to repeat it to prevent swarming.

It is necessary to remember that inasmuch as the rearing of young queens and the consequent swarming is not carried on under this method, it is a necessity that the hives should be re-queened every two years.

Queen Rearing.—It is better to retain one hive for queen-rearing purposes and this should contain the very best queen available so as to secure a good strain of workers.

The drones, too, should be selected by allowing no drone cells in any but the best hives.

For the small bee-keeper who cannot spare much time among his bees, and who only requires half a dozen queens in a year, I would recommend that queen-rearing should be worked in with the standard-frame super method described in the earlier part of this chapter. If this course be adopted the procedure is as follows.

The hive should be allowed to come to swarming-point in order that queen cells maybe formed by the bees. These should contain eggs or larvæ before the frames are transferred to the super, and all eggs or larvæ should be of the same age. This is an important point, for should one be hatched earlier than the others it will promptly destroy all the other queen eggs or larvae in the frame. The wisest plan is to destroy all queen cells that are capped and the ages of eggs or larvæ noted in accordance with the information given on this point on [page 13].

In working this method of queen-rearing, the frames must not be shaken, but the bees brushed off into the hive, otherwise the contents of the queen cells will be displaced.