774 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 17, 1904. 



that he had a queenless colony and telegraphed to a neigh- 

 boring city for an Italian queen from a breeder there. As 

 he was to be away, he asked to be informed in proper time 

 of the arrival of the little insect. To satisfy him, the ship- 

 per wired, 'The queen will reach your station at 3 : 40 p.m.' 

 On his arrival at the station, at the indicated hour, he was 

 much astonished to see a crowd of people in their best 

 clothes. The mayor was there in a frock-coat, and a band 

 was playing its finest tunes. Upon inquiry, he ascertained 

 that one of the telegraph operators had been indiscreet 

 enough to give out the announcement of the arrival of the 

 Queen at that hour. A few words of explanation dispersed 

 the disappointed crowd." 



I find but one fault with this story ; no one will vouch 

 for its truth. Hancock Co., 111. 



Cleaning Unfinished Sections of Honey, Etc. 



BY EDWIN BEVINS. 



ON page 707, is an editorial advising beekeepers to get 

 their unfinished sections cleaned out by the bees in the 

 fall. This is good advice, and should have been given 

 a month earlier. I had all of mine (more than 2000) cleaned 

 by Oct. 20. The method of procedure advised in the edito- 

 rial referred to, is too wasteful in practice for me, and I am 

 sure it is for any bee-keeper who has some colonies in his 

 yard that need to be fed for winter. What yard of any 

 magnitude is there that has not some colonies with insuffi- 

 cient stores ? I have described my method in the American 

 Bee Journal once or twice, and will outline it again. 



I first fill a super with unfinished sections after uncap- 

 ping all that have any sealed honey, then I spread a piece 

 of burlap over the brood-frames so as to cover all but about 

 2 inches at the front end of the hive ; then set the super on 

 tie hive and cover it up tight. 



Do this work near the close of day. If the covers are 

 not tight, and if you try to do the work at midday, you may 

 be sorry. I have not had any robbing. 



Miss Wilson, Mr. Hasty and Mr. Baldwin have written 

 in a way to indicate that they did not have success in trying 

 to get sections cleaned in the fall by the above method. I 

 confess that I do not see why, if they began early enough. 

 I have had success with the method for several years. 



PERFORATBD-ZINC AND COMB HONEY. 



In some late issues of the American Bee Journal I have 

 noticed that C. P. Dadant has been questioned a good deal 

 as to the reasons why he does not have to use bee-zinc when 

 producing comb honey. The reason is not far to seek. He 

 uses brood-combs so large, and so many of them in a hive, 

 that the queen has room to deposit in the brood-chamber all 

 the eggs she is capable of laying. I have used some of the 

 Dadant hives (which, as is well known, take 10 Quinby 

 frames) for 10 or 12 years in the production of extracted 



honey, and I have never had to use queen-excluders on 

 them, while I have always had to use them on the 8 and 10 

 frame Langstroth hives. 



For the minimum of labor and the maximum of results 

 in surplus honey (given the right kind of queens), I believe 

 the Dadant hive to be unsurpassed. If I were running out- 

 yards for extracted honey, I would want nothing better, as 

 I could feel all the time pretty sure that I would not lose 

 swarms enough to hurt if no one was present in swarming- 

 time, and that my presence in the yard would not be needed 

 many times in the course of a season. 



COMB-HONEY SUPER CAPACITY. 



I notice that Mr. Doolittledoes not regard kindly a hive 

 that for extracted honey does not take a super of the same 

 capacity as the brood-chamber. Of course, a super as large 

 as the brood-chamber would be out of the question when the 

 Dadant hive is used for a brood-chamber. If Mr. Doolittle 

 were producing extracted honey, and desired to reduce 

 swarming to almost nothing, and wanted to avoid the use 

 of excluders, and also wished to make his visits to the api- 

 ary infrequent, I will venture the opinion that he would 

 adopt a hive of the size of the Dadant, and that on these 

 hives he would use supers taking frames about 6 inches 

 deep. 



I know something of the advantages and disadvantages 

 of full-depth supers on the 8 and 10. frame Langstroth hives, 

 but the labor required for the production of honey in these 

 hives is away beyond what is required in its production by 

 the Dadant method. I know that some beekeepers use the 

 Langstroth hives and full-depth supers, and allow the 

 queens to roam at will through all of the stories throughout 

 the season. 



These are a class by themselves, to whom I have noth- 

 ing to say. My remarks are intended for those whose aim 

 it is to keep the queens out of the supers. My experience 

 goes to prove that this result can sufficiently well be accom- 

 plished by the use of the Dadant hive as a brood-chamber. 



Those who are averse to the use of bee zinc, and yet 

 would not like to have brood in the extracting-combs, will, 

 I am sure, be pleased with the results of using these hives. 



FALL REQUEENING — THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



At this writing (Oct. 29) I have just finished requeening 

 the colonies that did not swarm and did not do good work 

 in the supers. 



Th6 writer was a looker-on in St. Louis, Sept. 27, 28 

 and 29, but was too ill to attend all of the sessions of the 

 National convention. He noted with pleasure that the 

 meeting had an efficient presiding officer, and that this pre- 

 siding officer had an efficient right-hand man. He was also 

 amused at the desperate endeavors of one individual to 

 choke off some men in the audience who were consuming 

 time by irrelevant and random talk. His success was not 

 great, but I wished heartily that it had been greater. 



Decatur Co., Iowa. 



Report of the Southwest Texas Convention. 



BY W. H. LAWS, SEC. PRO TEM. 



The Southwest Texas Bee-Keepers' Association met in 

 San Antonio at 9 a.m., Oct. 28, 1904. 



Pres. H. H. Hyde called the meeting to order, and W. 

 H. Laws was appointed secretary pro tern. After the open- 

 ing remarks and some informal discussions, the program 

 was taken up. 



The following paper was read by W. H. Laws, of Bee 

 County, on 



SUCCESSFUL MANAQEMENr OF OUT-APIARIES. 



To be able intelligently to tell in this article how to 

 manage a series of out-apiaries successfully, one must first 

 of all have had success himself. 



Since it has been my fortune to deal with out-apiaries, 

 and out-apiaries only, I might tell how I have managed to 



get a fair crop of honey each season, as well as give my 

 plans for the season to come. 



An important item in the successful management of 

 out-apiaries is the location of the apiaries themselves with 

 regard to convenience and time saved in going from yard 

 to yard. It is evident — and that for various reasons — we 

 can not always place our bees where the greatest conven- 

 ience for working them can be considered. The apiaries 

 themselves should be placed in line, or two lines, rather, in 

 the form of a circuit, where one trip to the farthermost 

 yard will take the operator by one line of yards on the out- 

 going trip, and by the other on the return trip. 



As many colonies should be kept iti each yard as the 

 location will profitably admit. 



It shijLild be the exclusive business of the keeper of 

 numerou.^ lut-apiaries to look after his bees, especially in 

 the sprinj and honey seasons. Certainly he should not mix 

 other bus. I, ess with his bees, for no man can keep a thou- 



