312 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 16, 1901. 



season of surplus, and had each laying in the hive of the 

 other within an hour of her removal. It is done this way : 

 Catch both queens, and then close the hives ; smoke each 

 colony a little from the entrance, and then run the queen 

 into the hive from there. The workers having- seen that 

 the queen is eager to attend upon her special duties, never 

 bother themselves about her incense, but bestow on her 

 every little kindness that was given the old queen. At 

 that choice portion of the season the queen-bees are fullest 

 of life, and neither colony is any the loser ; hence there is 

 no cause for dissatisfaction. 



Never take a queen from the bees when her duties are 

 imperative, and detain her in any way or manner till she 

 begins to fade, if you wish to give her a chance to run the 

 gauntlet with the most pleasing success. 



This is the logical deduction of this matter, drawn 

 from my experience with the honey-bees. 



Scioto Co., Ohio. 



I -^ BiograDhical. ^ | 



JESSE N. DONALDSON. 



On our first page this week is shown Mr. Jesse M. 

 Donaldson, of Franklin Co., Mass., and his nice city apiary. 

 He gives the following account of himself and his bee-keep- 

 ing experience : 



My first lessons in bee-keeping were learned in the 

 early '70's, in the apiary of my uncle, James P. Sterritt, of 

 Mercer Co., Pa. At that time I intended to become a bee- 

 keeper, but, like almost all other boys, I had a desire to 

 travel and see some of the world. 



Nature had endowed me with very flexible joints, so I 

 concluded to take advantage of that and become a profes- 

 sional acrobat and contortionist. In that line of business I 

 visited every State in the Union, also Canada, Newfound- 

 land, Mexico and Cuba. 



I was married in May, 1886, and a few years afterward 

 decided to quit the show business and " settle down." With 

 that object in view I found employment in the shoe factory 

 where I am now working. 



Soon after settling here I became afflicted with that old 

 disease— bee-fever. As it was the second attack, I knew 

 the only remedy, and applied it at once by buying a colony of 

 bees. I saw an advertisement in one of my bee-papers that 

 read something like this : 



For Sale. — 400 colonies of Italian bees in lO-franie Langstroth 

 hives, all in good condition. Price, $4.00 per colony, on board the 

 cars here. Reason for selling, sickness. 



I sent my $4.00, and in due time received the colony of 

 bees, which I examined as soon as possible. When I saw 

 the inside of that hive I began wondering which it was, the 

 bees or the advertiser that was sick. If that colony was a 

 fair sample of the other 399, it is no wonder that he was 

 sick. Some of the frames were minus an end-bar, others 

 had no bottotn-bar, and the whole 10 frames did not con- 

 tain enough worker-comb to fill six frames. 



When I bought my first colony, I intended to keep just 

 enough bees to supply my own table with honey, but I had 

 so many calls for honey that I decided to increase the num- 

 ber of my colonies. I now have 25, but that is not enough 

 to supply my trade, which is growing larger each year. 



I have quite often seen this question asked, in the bee- 

 papers: How near to a public highway is it safe to keep 

 bees ? If I were to answer that question I should say that 

 much depends upon the strain of bees, and the way they 

 are managed. My apiary, as shown in the picture, is cen- 

 trally located in a town of 5,000 inhabitants, and not over 

 50 yards from three streets. When I moved my bees to my 

 present location, many of the neighbors freely expressed 

 their opinion that they would be a nuisance, but up to date 

 I know of but one person being stung. Last Fourth of 

 July morning, a few rowdies wanted the fence back of the 

 apiary to make a bonfire, and while they were tearing it 

 down they struck one of the hives. Then there was trouble. 

 One of the crowd was stung several times. It may seem 



very strange when I say that he never entered a complaint 

 against me. 



If you will take another look at the picture you will see 

 my two "swarm-catchers " standing at the end of the rear 

 row of hives. They are not the automatic or patented 

 kind, but as swarra-catchers they are a success, because 

 they have not let one swarm get away. If a swarm issues, 

 they are sure to see it ; they first notice which hive it came 

 out of, and then there is a race to the shop to see which one 

 will tell me that the bees are swarming. 



Franklin Co., Mass. JessE M. Donaldson. 



\ Questions and Answers. 



i<>5rwTrwT?TrTr>'fT^> 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C O. MILLER. Marengo, HI. 



[The Questions maj be mailed to the Bee Joumal ofBce, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor. 1 



Detectine Queenlessness in a Box-Hive Colony. 



I have a box-hive in which is a large colony of bees. It 

 wintered well, but seems to be at present without a queen. 

 How can I tell that they have none? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Give the bees a little smoke, turn the hive 

 over, blow smoke down between the combs, pulling them 

 apart at the same time, and if they have a queen you will 

 be able to see sealed brood. Another way is to get from a 

 movable-frame hive a piece of young worker-brood and 

 crowd it between two combs so it will be held in place. Two 

 days later if you find no queen-cells started on this brood, 

 you may safely conclude they have a queen. If they are 

 queenless, the bees are very old, and unless quite strong 

 they are not worth a queen. 



Dividing to Prevent Swarming. 



I have moved 30 colonies of my bees three miles up the 

 creek, right in the midst of hundreds of acres of alfalfa. 

 Now I plati to divide them just as soon as the alfalfa com- 

 mences to bloom, as I will not be able to watch for the 

 swarms. I wish you would kindly tell me whether I can 

 just put starters of foundation in the brood-frames that I 

 put in, or inusi I have full sheets for fear they will make 

 drone-comb ? The way I thought to do was just to take out 

 half of the frames of brood and bees and put them into a 

 a new hive, and then fill in the vacant spaces with frames 

 with starters on. Of course I will try to be sure that they 

 have young brood and eggs if I do not know they have a 

 queen. 



A year ago last winter I visited at the home of a sister 

 of yours, in Denver, where I learned so many pleasant 

 things about you, and Miss Wilson, too, that I feel quite as 

 if I knew you, and that you will not laugh if I do ask fool- 

 ish questions ; I have nearly 300 colonies of bees to care for 

 the coming summer, and all I know about bees is from read- 

 ing. I have never even seen a properly conducted apiary, 

 but I have managed to have this many bees with only 5 

 colonies to start with in 12 years, with only one year's fail- 

 ure, when most of my bees died during the winter aiJd 

 spring. I have very few new swarms of late years — I think 

 it may be because I have so many bees in one place — ISO 

 colonics or more. Colorado. 



Answer. — If you divide the way you propose, you just 

 must put in full sheets of foundation if you do not want a 

 considerable proportion of drone-comb. I must confess I 

 don't believe that's the best way to divide. It's one of the 

 easiest ways, but not the way for best results. If you leave 

 the queen on the old stand with half the brood, that part 

 ought to do good work, but the other half will have no field- 

 bees at first, and will be in a discouraged condition, which 

 is not the best thing for rearing a young queen. You could 

 use the nucleus plan without making very frequent visits, 

 and have a chance for better queens. Or, here is a way 

 that might suit you, with no nuclei in the case : 



Get some good cells started, and when they are within 

 three or four days of having the young queens emerge, 

 make your divisions. Take from a colony all its brood but 



