152 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 7, 1901. 



cell she never enters it again, and it is not a great while af- 

 ter she leaves it until the workers tear it down all but the 

 base or enough to make a concave hemisphere. If you 

 look into a hive at this time of the year, it is not likely that 

 you will find a queen-cell in it, but you will be likely to find 

 quite a number of cell-cups, some of them the remains of 

 queen-cells from which queens have issued, and some of 

 them cups that the workers have started and never finisht, 

 and most of them they never will finish. If you look into 

 a hive at the time a first swarm issues you will find 5, 10, 

 20, or perhaps more queen-cells with young queens in them, 

 and they may be in any part of the hive. Generally they 

 will be found near an edge of a comb, possibly right among 

 the worker-brood near the center of a comb where there 

 happens to be a hole or an irregularity. Sometimes you 

 may find a queen-cell not on the comb at all, but built di- 

 rectly on the wood of the end-bar, but this is very rare. 



You must excuse me from attempting to tell you all the 

 other things that you as a beginner do not know, that is, if 

 the list of unknown things is as long as my list was when I 

 was a beginner. It would take many pages of this journal 

 to contain the answers to all the questions I had, but most 

 of the desirecl information can be obtained from the excel- 

 lent text-books we now have. 



2. Buckwheat is one of the best honey-plants. It does 

 not yield the best honey, for the honey is very dark, and 

 most persons do not like it so well as honey of milder flavor, 

 and yet some prefer buckwheat honey to any other. It is, 

 however, a somewhat fickle yielder, one year yielding an 

 abundant harvest and the next yielding nothing. 



3. If you get either you will have a treasure, and will 

 find in it so many good things that you will wish you had 

 the other also, with Prof. Cook's excellent work added. 



Introducing a Queen to a Colony that Has Just 

 Swarmed. 



I would like to know, just after a swarm issues, how to 

 give the old or mother colony a laying queen. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Give the queen in an introducing-cage, and 

 there may be no trouble without any further attention. It 

 will be safer, however, to destroy all queen-cells in the hive. 



Putting Bees Out of the Cellar at Night. 



Is there any objection to putting bees out of the cellar 

 at night ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — There is probably no difl'erence between put- 

 ting bees out at night and putting them out the following 

 day. That is, if you are sure you will put them out to-mor- 

 row morning, you may as well put them out to-night. But 

 you can not always be entirely sure at night that you will 

 want to put them out in the morning. For the weather is 

 sometimes so changeable that between night and morning 

 the temperature may sink so many degrees that it will not 

 be safe to have the bees out. When bees have been in the 

 cellar all winter and are put out-doors, they are not as prudent 

 as they might be, and will fly out in weather when large 

 numbers of them will be chilled and be lost. If yovi could 

 be sure of good weather the next day, it would be all right 

 to take out bees at night, but on the whole it is more pru- 

 dent to take them out when you know they can fly with 

 safety within ten minutes of being taken out. 



Uniting Colonies and Introducing Queens. 



1. I have some colonies which I wish to unite. When 

 do you consider the best time in the spring for doing it ? 



2. Which plan is the best ? 



3. Would it be advisable to introduce a new queen at 

 the same time ? British Columbia. 



Answers. — 1. If you intend to unite colonies in the 

 spring, it may be safely concluded that it is because the 

 colonies are not strong enough single. If you have two 

 colonies, each having bees enough to cover two frames of 

 brood, they ought when united to be able to cover at least a 

 little more than four frames of brood. At all events, when 

 the two are united you will have six frames of brood sooner 

 than you would have done if you had kept the two separate. 

 So you can easily see that you will gain nothing by wait- 



ing, and the sooner the uniting is done the better. Unite 

 before the bees begin to fly, and there will be less danger 

 of the bees of the removed colony going back to the old 

 place. 



2. There is little danger of fighting if you alternate 

 the frames with their adhering bees, first a frame from one 

 hive then a frame from the other, and so on. If you unite 

 before the spring flight, there is little danger of trouble if 

 you simply put one set of combs in the hive beside the 

 other. In any case, if you see any bees doubled up in the 

 death struggle on the bottom-board after having been stung, 

 or any other sign of fighting, give them smoke till they 

 promise to be good, as Mr. Root says. If they get bad 

 again, smoke them again. 



3. Yes, you can introduce a queen at the time of unit- 

 ing if you kill the other queens, altho on account of the 

 greater difficulty of getting queens in spring, and the 

 greater cost, very few queens are introduced in early 

 spring. 



Excellent Alfalfa Honey. 



I have mailed you a sample of honey that I think to be 

 first quality, and would like to have your opinion. 



UTAH. 



Answer.— I have no quarrel with you for calling it 

 first-class. It is very white indeed, and altho very mild in . 

 flavor, like all alfalfa honey, what flavor there is is excel- 

 lent. 



K*4J!W*J<V*4^*i^*iJ*^*4J^i*J*^ 



Convention Proceedings. 



i<i*T5nrT*'> 



Report of the South Dakota Convention. 



BY E. F. ATWATEl;. 



The annual convention of the South Dakota State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association met' at Yankton, Jan. 25, 1901. More 

 than half the members were present, and all were very enthu- 

 siastic, considering the past poor honey season. 



Many interesting pohits were brought out in the discus- 

 sions ; a short talk by Daniel Danielson, was especially inter- 

 esting, his subject being " Migratory Bee-Keeping." Some 

 years there was a good profit in moving bees from one locality 

 to another : in other years it would be a loss, as the honey- 

 crop can not be foretold. In moving bees they should have an 

 abundance of ventilation, and the hauling should be done at 

 night, when possible. Cold water soust down thru the hives 

 helps to bring the bees thru in perfect condition, without loss 

 of enersv or iinmliers. 



President ■I'li.K. Chantry called attention to the real neces- 

 sity of ii];iiiit;iiiiiiiL' our organization. Our association pro- 

 tPi-ts its niciiibris, as we have joined the National Bee-Keep- 

 .■]■<• A->n. i:itiuu in a body. If all the State bee-keepers' soci- 

 ctir^ wiHiI.l join the National in a body it would be a great 

 help tu the National in its great work of fighting adulteration, 

 and protecting the bee-keepers of this country. All the bee- 

 keepers of the State should get in touch with the State associ- 

 ation, as by so doing they get full protection from the Na- 

 tional also. Many of our members have saved several times 

 their membership fee, in buying their supplies thru the associ- 

 ation. 



A paper on foul brood— that most destructive of bee-dis- 

 eases—was read by E. F. Atwater. By special request, the 

 Rev. Dr. Matson, formerly of Ohio, spoke briefly on the 

 " Home of the Honey-Bees," and of the members of the Root 

 family. His address was very enjoyable. 



E. F. Atwater was made Association foul-brood inspector 

 for South Dakota. 



At the evening session .1. .1. Duffack gave a report of the 

 great National Bee-Keepers' Convention, at Chicago, bringing 

 out very prominently the great need of a suitable National 

 pure-food law. 



A paper by Mr. R. A. Morgan, formerly an extensive Wis- 

 consin bee-keeper, toucht on the value of honey as a food, its 

 wonderful keeping qualities as compared with butter and 

 other foods, the causes and processes of swarming, and queen- 

 rearing. 



Mrs. .John M. Downer spoke of the convention of the 

 Horticultural Society, at Siou.x Falls. S. D., and of the grow- 



