April 4, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



217 



about as soon as they will one. In 30 minutes these sec- 

 tion-cases are filled with bees ; and they g^o right to work. 

 I can take more section honey, late as it is in the season, 

 than I could if I had workt the colonies for section honey 

 from the beginning- of the honey harvest ; and I have 

 already taken 60 or 80 pounds of extracted honey before I 

 put on the section-cases. They do the work so quickly that 

 we get an extra, No. 1 quality of section honey. 



I have told you that my bees do not swarm, and I think 

 I can tell you zc'hy they do not swarm. The raising of the 

 brood to the upper stories, distributing it in three or four 

 places, there is no large body of brood in the brood-nest at 

 anytime; es,pecia.\\y sealed brood. PVom the time I put up 

 the first frame of brood they have been starting queen- 

 cells in the upper stories, and every 10 or 12 days I des- 

 troyed them, but during all this time (four to six weeks) 

 they have not attempted to start a queen-cell in the brood- 

 nest where the queen is laying. Eleven years ago I used the 

 same management as I do at pre.sent. That season I killed 

 140 queens, and over 80 of that number did not start a 

 queen-cell in the brood-nest : and the brood was too old in 

 the upper stories. I should have had over 80 queenless 

 colonies had I not discovered it just in time to take cells 

 from those colonies that were rearing queens. 



I mention this case to show the conditions into which 

 we can bring our colonies ; and how slovf they are some- 

 times even to recognize the loss of their queens. 



I think these are the reasons why my bees do not swarm 

 up to the time that the young queens hatch ; and I think 

 this management has something to do in keeping them 

 from swarming at the time the queens hatch. My bees do 

 not get the swarming-fever. When the young queens 

 hatch, the conditions in the hive are changed ; I have put 

 no brood in the upper stories for a week or more previous to 

 killing the queens. If there is a colony in the yard that 

 has the swar)ning-fever at the time I killed the old queen, 

 that one will swarm from the 11th to the 13th day, even tho 

 I destroyed every sign of a cell at the time I killed the 

 queen, while the others do not hatch a queen till the 14th or 

 the Ibth day from the time of destroying the queens. 



At the time the queens hatch there is no brood in the 

 upper stories, and I extract the honey closely, so, at this 

 time, there is plenty of room. This is the reason they do 

 not swarm at the time the queens hatch. 



I have run my out-yard of 90 colonies the whole season, 

 killed all the queens, and have had but one swarm ; and 

 that swarmed at the beginning of fruit-bloom before I had 

 put on any upper stories. The sv?arming-fever is a spon- 

 taneous impulse, and we can so change the conditions of a 

 colony that it is liable to contract the desire to swarm in 

 ij minutes. Supposing, at the time the young queens 

 hatch, each colony has a young queen, and most of them 

 have destroyed the queen-cells, now remove all the upper 

 stories, confining these large colonies to the brood-nest, 

 and I should expect every one of them to sjvarm. I would 

 have my hands full for a day or two. With these condi- 

 tions I have known a colony to swarm in 30 minutes after 

 we had brusht the bees carefully from the combs. If we 

 shake the bees from the combs we cover them with honey, 

 and have spoiled the experiment. 



Just before the queens hatch I make my increase by 

 division ; and it is not at the expense of my honey crop. In 

 union there is strength. I have kept the bees in each col- 

 ony together till near the end of the honey harvest. 



Many of our best writers have frequently told us always 

 to keep our colonies strong. I hardly think this is good 

 advice for our locality. Years ago I would have given a 

 good deal if they had gone a little farther and told us just 

 how they managed to build up their colonies so they were 

 strong. And now, just for the fun of it, I would like to 

 know, when their colonies are strong how they always keep 

 them so. 



It is necessary that every bee-keeper should understand 

 his own locality, and what is best adapted to the require- 

 ments of his location. 



I have not written this as a pattern for bee-keepers in 

 New York, or California, or any other State, but simply at 

 the request of a few bee-keepers living in northern Michi- 

 gan, who wish to try my method of management. — Bee- 

 Keepers' Review. Antrim Co., Mich. 



The American Fruit and Vegetable Journal is just 

 what its name indicates. Tells all about growing fruits 

 and vegetables. It is a fine monthly, at SO cents a year. 

 We can mail you a free sample copy of it, if you ask for it. 

 We club it with the American Bee Journal— both for $1.10. 



K*4K*v*i.jiV*v*v*iJ«v*ijiij*>M; 



^ The Afterthought. % 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



A REVIEW OP "THE HOME CIRCLE." 



And so it's a "Home Circle " our journal is to have. A 

 poor one would be just so much space wasted. A good oun, 

 without much doubt, would decidedly help the paper to pros- 

 per. I can't say I exactly like that quavering editorial half- 

 promise to steal all the space needed from tlie advertisements. 

 Sounds as if the editor hadn't the "sand "to edit his own 

 paper. (He has, tho.) Other things being equal, the bee- 

 paper that makes itself of interest to the whole family will 

 distance the one that only interests one individual. In the 

 good old times, when to meet a bee-keeper was to meet a man 

 consumed with a raging "bee-fever," the above dictum may 

 not have been true, but you know we have to live in present 

 times. The species of mosquito whose bites inoculate bee- 

 fever has become nearly extinct. As for the old patients, 

 they are mostly "pretty well, thank you," at 97% degrees 

 Fah. And, don't you know, the prosperous paper (besides its 

 side-issues) will have more acres in bee-reading, and more fer- 

 tile acres, too, than the unprosperous one can possibly sport. 

 However correct you may think his principles to be, the editor 

 who allows his paper to "spring-dwindle" will make you but 

 little return for your dollar. Cause why ? He can't. It 

 hardly needs saying that Prof. Cook is a man who has right 

 ideas — progrest ideas — about what home ought to be. 



From the concentrated wisdom of the seventeen Maxims 

 I will quote just two words: "Avoid moods." Moods all 

 right in grammar ; and I think I'll advocate " high license" 

 instead of " prohibition " for moods in folks. Don't believe I 

 exactly want a friend whose whole life is one even thing, 

 unvaried by a single change of mind. Constant, even-toned 

 sounding of one note is hardly the thing— even if the note is 

 " soul." And we'd greatly want to change off upon another 

 mood, that fellow whose forever note is " Me," with a big M. 

 License of -S 10, UOO for the Me-Indicative mood. Also the 

 contemptuous Poh ! — tentiai mood, and the too-imperative. 

 Imperative mood should be mulcted well for the public 

 treasury. But the main idea of the maxim is right. Down 

 on the home-circlist who won't give a civil answer to a civil 

 question, and hides behind an excuse. Perchance this is an 

 excuse : " I have an angelic mood which I wear much of the 

 tinje — so you must remember that I average well — just for 

 now this is my nearly-innocent and not-very-big Polar-Bear 

 mood." That individual should be compelled, somehow, to 

 see self as others see. Pages 16-3, 170, 171. 



IMPORTANT POINT IN SPRAYING TREES. 



One thing in Mr. E. R. Roofs excellent paper on spraying 

 trees in bloom is less familiar to the mind of the bee public 

 than the rest of the points made. The poison is charged with 

 damaging the pollen. Grains will not develop when mois- 

 tened with the solution, or even with a half-strength solution. 

 Surely it looks hardly wise for the orchardist to depend for 

 pollen on the flowers he fails to hit. Page 120. 



BUYING SUPPLIES WITHOUT A GUABANTY. 



When it gets to the point that retailers generally are not 

 willing to buy supplies without a guaranty as to what things 

 are really made of, then indeed a pure-food and pure-honey 

 morning does begin to streak the east— or is it the west in this 

 case that gets streaked first, and needs it most ? We don't feel 

 very malignant toward any one. but wo trust the swindlers 

 also feel a little streaked. Page 121. 



WORMS ON TREES AND IN HIVES. 



And now comes a man who apparently thinks the worms 

 (so-called) he finds in his apples, and the familiar ones of the 

 bee-hive, are the same thing. And he discovers (in certain 

 frame of soul how we do discov(n- things 1) he discovers that 

 each color of apple has a similarly-tinted worm— and ditto of 

 the bee-hive that doth stand beneath that tree. Mr. Tesla 

 would b'etter be looking a little (uit for his laurels. Hut while 

 we are contemplating this good friend we would better be see- 

 ing ourselves a little also, and our inventions and discoveries. 

 I once discovered the source of the power which makes the 

 earth revolve on its axis— and came near trying to publish it 

 to the world. I made a machine that would generate axis 



