March 21, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



183 



This experience has not taken the bee-fever out of me, 

 but it caused me to move to a more favorable locality. I 

 think bee-keeping' is the most healthy and pleasant occupa- 

 tion in the world, and it is enough to make me shudder 

 when I think back, of city life, where some of you folks 

 are working under a gas-jet in dimly lighted rooms or base- 

 ments ; or how I used to grab my hat and coat at noontime, 

 make a rush for the street, jump past the coming street-car, 

 and make a break for the restaurant to swallow my lunch 

 and get back again to get out this or that order. Yes, a 

 feeling comes over me like a nightmare, when I think of 

 ■watching for that ball on the Masonic Temple to drop, 

 and set my watch by it so as not to miss the suburban 

 train in the morning. But the bee-keeper looks for the 

 sun to turn around the gable, which is near enough for him 

 to tell that it is noon ; and when you city folks are hustling 

 and bustling in smoldering basements, the bee-keeper, 

 surrounded by birds and vegetation, works in his garden, 

 from where he can watch his bees, or else fans himself 

 under a shade-tree and waits for swarms. 



To return to ray bees, I will say that I have " A B C of 

 Bee-Culture," Langstroth, and Prof. Cook's Manual, as 

 my guides, and the extent to which I appreciate the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal is shown in the accompanying photograph, 

 ■where it is represented by a wheel (or "journal.") 



Being a mechanic I was bound to make my own hives, 

 altho they cost me as much for material as the price I could 

 buy good chaif hives for. My neighbor calls them "dan- 

 dies," and says they are the finest hives he ever saw. I am 

 ready to admit that this credit is not altogether due to me, 

 for they are but a combination of other people's brains. 

 The general shape was taken from Root's, the portico from 

 L,angstroth's, and the telescope feature of the body over the 

 bottom was taken from Dadant's, which enables me to put 

 a frame between the body and filled chaff bottom for win- 

 tering. For the pattern of the observation hive I have to 

 thank Prof. Cook. 



The rocks or boulders at the side of the hives are not 

 put there as an ornament or bee-mark, but they are some- 

 times needed in this part of the country to pile on top the 

 hives so as to keep them attacht to the world, or not to find 

 them some morning in your neighbor's field mixt up with 

 cornstalks and Russian thistles. 



I am very much interested in the different ways bee- 

 keepers introduce queens, and no sooner have I come to a 

 conclusion than I see that manner criticized in another 

 paper. I think this criticizing or debate is the proper way 

 to learn, but it strikes me that some of our more experi- 

 enced bee-masters do not explain to us very fully why bees 

 reject queens. When a patient consults a doctor he (the 

 doctor) will first examine for the ailment, and then prescribe 

 a remedy. Why not the same with introducing a queen, for 

 when bees reject her it is an ailment, or there is a cause ? 



Mr. L. H. CrcDwrs an/i /lis Apiary, of Davison Co., South Dakota. 



I will give my own way of introducing. Scientific men 

 tell us that bees of the same colony know one another by 

 the scent that the queen-bee imparts to them. Taking this 

 as a starting-point, I first destroy this scent when I want to 

 introduce a new queen. When my new queen arrives by 

 mail I give her a little rest by laying the cage (face upward) 

 in an empty hive or box. I now saturate a little sponge 

 with sugar-water scented with a drop of peppermint, which 

 I lay partly on the queen-cage so that the queen and escorts 

 can sip at it, which they soon do. and their breath becomes 

 scented with it. 



Towards evening I go to the intended colony, and after 

 treating the bees with smoke I remove their queen. I have 

 a special hive-cover with a hole cut in, the size of the queen- 

 cage, but about 1 inch longer. In this hole I lay the caged 

 queen (face downward), and shove it forward so that the 

 bees in the hive can not reach the candy plug. 



I now cover that hole in the cover with about two thick- 

 nesses of burlap, which provides a little ventilation. Next 

 I take a piece of lath and pour some peppermint extract on 

 it, after which I stick it poker-fashion in the entrance of 

 the hive. The next day when all becomes normal around 

 the hive, I raise that burlap over the cage a little, and shove 

 the queen-cage backward so that the bees can eat out the 

 candy plugs and liberate the queen, and all is done. 



Maybe our esteemed Dr. Miller will say that while the 

 colony is thus strongly scented with peppermint the bees 

 will not be able to distinguish robber-bees if such would 

 make an attack. This may be so, but as yet I have not 

 been troubled with it at that time, and as it is done later in 

 the day most of the peppermint scent is fanned out of the 

 hive by the next day. 



A thing happened to me last summer which may be 

 worth mentioning. I thought I had a case of robbing, and 

 as I just then got my bee-paper, I saw where some one askt 

 the question as to his bees fighting. Dr. Miller answered 

 the question by stating it as paralysis, and it fitted my case 

 also ; and as the Doctor said that there was hardly a cure 

 for it, it set my " thinker " going, and I thought of some- 

 thing to save a nice queen. As Webster describes "paraly- 

 sis" as an involuntary motion of muscles,! concluded that if I 

 could counteract this involuntary action it would be a case 

 of cure or kill. At night I gave that colony smoke and 

 whiskey, and two days later there was much less fighting at 

 the entrance, but whether it was cured or killed I am unable 

 to say. I think it was only the hardy ones that survived, 

 and when I opened the hive I found that hardly enough 

 bees were left to cover the brood. On another day I had a 

 real case of robbing, which was done by a stronger colony 

 next to it. When I noticed what was going on I smoked 

 both the strong and the weak colonies. I then took the 

 best comb with bees and all from the strong colony and 

 gave it to the weaker ones. Judging that the new comers 

 were the strongest and fear- 

 ing they might harm the 

 queen, I scented again with 

 peppermint; and closed up the 

 hive, leaving the few field bees 

 to take care of themselves. 

 After night I also closed up 

 the hive of the stronger col- 

 ony, and gave both new 

 stands, disfiguring the old 

 stands as much as I could. 

 The next morning I liberated 

 the weaker colony first, and 

 watcht if any of the added 

 bees would find their old hive 

 again, but they did not. Soon 

 afterward I liberated the 

 stronger ones also, and after 

 an hour's confusion they 

 went to work as before. But 

 what surprised me most, was, 

 I noticed no more fighting 

 of the ■weaker colony, and by 

 noon they were working in 

 harmonj", carrying out dead 

 brood and cleaning house. 



My bees are in chaff hives, 

 and on the summer stands ; 

 tliey had a good (light on 

 Dec. 2.5, and that weak colony 

 seemed to have bees enough 

 to cast a swarm. 



L. H. Crkmers. 

 Dec. 2b, 1900. 



