Feb. 11, 1904. 



THt AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 





Contributed Articles 





No. 1.— Getting Both Increase and Honey. 



BY J. K. JOHNSON. 



ON page 792 (1903), W. W. McNeal not only criticises my 

 seemingly "wildcat plan" of bee-keeping, but gives 

 my article on page 600 a thorough overhauling, but does 

 it in a -fair, sensible manner. On page 714, Mr. Hasty very 

 kindly calls my atteiition to the fact that I am teaching the 

 children to play with fire. Yes, "I acknowledge the corn ;" 

 such is not the proper way to get both increase and honey. 

 First, let me ask Dr. Miller's pardon for trying to 

 answer a question in his department. I, however, emphati- 

 cally disagree with Mr. McNeal and Mr. Hasty on several 

 points. My total crop the past season was as follows: 2300 

 pounds of comb honey, 700 pounds of extracted, and 20 

 pounds of wax. I also have 100 shallow combs built dur- 

 ing the season ; and about 100 section-boxes of empty comb, 

 some of which the bees emptied, and some I extracted. The 

 honey from these sections was counted in the above 700 

 pounds, so in honey alone I got an average per colony of 250 

 pounds, spring count, and increased to 55 colonies — all good 

 colonies but 2, that are not very strong. I reported this to 

 the Editor some time ago, but did not want it published, as I 

 did not think people would believe it. It is not very pleas- 

 ant to have one's statements doubted when I know they are 

 true ; but I offered to pay the expenses of the Editor both 

 ways, if he saw fit to come and investigate, and found I had 

 exaggerated. Now I will ask for considerable room this 

 time, and in the future leave the space for other more ex- 

 perienced and better able writers. I have plenty to do. 



I have kept bees altogether about 20 years (selling out 

 several times and starting anew in different localities). I 

 shall try to tell why I do so and so. It is not my intention 

 to brag, but first let me contradict Mr. Hasty's statement to 

 some extent, " Not possible to know of a season's peculiari- 

 ties before they arrive." Is it possible for us to know any- 

 thing of the future except as we judge from our experiences 

 of the past ? All our future work will be done properly only 

 when we use the knowledge gained by past experience : if 

 we should forget all our past we would be poorly fitted for 

 the future. 



Two years ago was a very dry year, and all cattle-own- 

 ers had too many cattle for their pastures, and had a very 

 hard time to get feed. As soon as possible they sold off a 

 lot of their cattle and determined never again to be caught 

 with too many cattle for their pasture. Last year (1902) was 

 a very wet year, and the white clover made a good growth, 

 and this year the pastures were not overstocked with cattle, 

 and, consquently, not pastured so close. Now, judging from 

 past experience, I expected a dry, or medium dry year, owing 

 to so much rainfall last year, and I have not as yet seen a 

 good crop of white clover (from old roots well supplied with 

 tubercles) in a dry or medium season but what we had a 

 good honey year. So I was as certain of a good honey-year 

 as I was of anything in the future. 



Here we have hilly land, north as well as south slopes, 

 also bottoms and big slough in the pasture, so clover will 

 last quite awhile, beginning on the southern slopes and 

 blooming late in sloughs and northern slopes. I live near a 

 small river, ,'2 mile to bottoms on the south, V mile to the 

 river on the east, J2 mile to a creek on the west, and about 

 1 mile to a creek on the north. Along these streams are lots 

 of soft maple, box-elder and elm. First blooms maple, then 

 elm, and afterwards wild gooseberry and box-elder ; then 

 wild plum, Japan plums and pears, then apple, and last, but 

 not least, quite a lot of wild crab-apple ; then raspberry, 

 both tame and wild, and quite a lot of wild blackberry, so 

 we have a nice, continuous bloom in spring, but bad 

 weather often hinders bees from working, and for this rea- 

 son they should be fed in spring to keep up a continuous 

 brood-rearing, and if properly done you may have good, big, 

 roaring colonies for the clover flow — if you have the clover. 

 Only once have I had bees swarm before white clover came, 

 and that was last year; 2 colonies swarmed on raspberry 

 bloom last year. 



Now, this year (1903) I took pains to get my colonics 

 very strong early, by giving an extracting super to rear 

 brood in over frames, and by feeding ; or, in other words, I 



reared a lot of bees and brood on early bloom and sugar and 

 water, and put them to work in the supers right in a good 

 white clover flow. No, Mr. McNeal, I would not take your 

 good combs, or full sheets, as a gift to hive big swarms on in 

 a good honey-flow ; they are all right for small swarms or 

 nuclei. 



I can nearly always depend upon smartweed and other 

 late bloom for winter supply of honey, and sometimes 

 a good supply of surplus, and this I had in view, 

 as that rainy week in June caused corn to get weedy, 

 and when a little smartweed starts in a hill of corn, in a 

 wet spring, it is there to stay, and makes a big plant after 

 corn is laid by ; and if we would have had a good smart- 

 weed flow for 2 or 3 weeks I would have had 5000 pounds in- 

 stead of 3000, and possibly even more, as I then had 50 colo- 

 nies ready for it with many partly-filled sections and empty 

 shallow combs ready for filling ; but in this I failed, owing 

 to cold rains and the overflowing streams destroying smart- 

 weed (some call it heartsease). But if I had had a good fall 

 flow I would not have had the courage to report it. 



When my other article came out I was surprised to see 

 that I thought I had taken off only 90 sections, and had 90 

 more soon to come off. I should have said that I had taken 

 off 90 sections, and that I thought there were 90 more soon 

 ready to come off. 



I have 2 little boys, 4 and 7 years old, who are endowed 

 with a great tendency to ask questions ; also 3 girls that are 

 older, and are practicing music, so, sometimes, " the old 

 man " gets a little " rattled," especially in swarming-time. 

 I had not inspected that colony for awhile, and when I did 

 look after them I found that they had not been doing as 

 well as expected ; they, I think, had been superseding their 

 queen, and the honey had been going in the brood-chamber, 

 and sections were being capped before full. So all I got 

 above the 90 first sections were second-grade and unfinished 

 sections, but that was somewhat my fault. 



Mr. McNeal speaks of young queens gathering honey. 

 None of my queens gather honey, or at least I never catch 

 them at it ; but their colonies do. It was from these second, 

 as well as first, swarms that I got most of my surplus. With 

 me, after-swarms very seldom come out until 12 days after 

 the first, and with 8 Langstroth frames and 8 shallow frames 

 pretty well filled with brood hatching out daily, those 

 second swarms were very large, and a good percent of those 

 bees were young, and by using only comb-foundation strips 

 they spent their energy in storing honey in the supers, not 

 in wholesale brood-rearing, but went at brood-rearing grad- 

 ually ; furthermore, they stored little or no honey in those 

 brood-combs; the young queens were soon fertilized, and 

 followed those comb-builders pretty close. Those brood- 

 combs were built for brood at that time. They had no in- 

 tention of swarming then — why should those bees want to 

 build a lot of drone-comb for a young, fertile queen to 

 deposit her eggs in immediately ? They did build some 

 drone-comb, but not a great amount ; some of them more 

 than others. I am not afraid of some drone-comb. I give 

 the bees credit for a good deal of sense, and if they want to 

 build some drone-comb under such conditions then it must 

 be for some good. I believe some drones are necessary in a 

 hive of bees whenever the bees want them, if for no other 

 reason than to satisfy that desire ; an all-wise Creator gave 

 them that desire or instinct. He is wiser than I. 



The 12 colonies had combs containing considerable 

 drone-comb built on strips the same way, and reared plenty 

 of drones. When I find combs containing a large amount 

 of drone-comb I take them away and give foundation, when 

 I know the queen wants immediately to fill that comb 

 with worker-eggs, or, rather, when I think she does. I don't 

 want drone-comb in the center of the hive, and when I find 

 it there I move it to the side until I take it out. 



In regard to wiring good combs in shallow frames, or 

 full sheets instead of strips, Mr. McNeal is entirely right. 

 I had not the comb, and feared I should run short of founda- 

 tion before I got more ; furthermore, I have always tried to 

 make the bees pay for their own supplies (last year was not 

 a good yean, still that was poor economy ; but when I put 

 on this super the queen was ready to lay in them, and the 

 bees had very little if any thought of swarming or super- 

 seding their queen; the result was mostly worker-comb; 

 some have little or no drone-comb, although some have quite 

 a bit, but only a very few have much drone-comb. I expect 

 next year to use only the best combs and will discard only 

 10 or 12 of them. 



In regard to hiving bees in a hive containing only one 

 super, then in a day or two giving another next to brood- 

 frames, probably I did not express myself right when I said 

 chock-full of bees. I meant the super was full, and a large 



