358 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL 



June 6, 1901. 



Let us gfive it up and admit that we do not know a 

 thing- about it. 



By the waj', speaking of John M. Weeks, few living- 

 apiarists know that such a bee-keeper and author ever 

 existed; and yet I think he should be accorded a place in 

 history alongside of Father Langstroth and Moses 

 Quinby. He began keeping bees about the year 1800 in 

 Salisbury, Vermont, and struggled along with log-gums 

 and straw-skeps with varying success until somewhere 

 about the beginning of the thirties, when he invented and 

 patented a hive which was, in the matter of convenience, 

 far in advance of anj'thing before in use. 



In 1836 he published a treatise on bees and their man- 

 agement — a very practical work, which, I suppose, was not 

 very widely distributed, for two reasons : First, meagre 

 transportation and advertising facilities ; and second, the 

 work was unpopular, because the author did not accept any 

 of the superstitious theories so prevalent at that period, 

 but gave them solid facts, which, even to-day, relating to 

 bees, seem stranger than fiction. 



There were no railroads in Vermont at that time, and it 

 was 13 years afterward before the State could boast of one, 

 in fact it had been only six or eight years since the locomo- 

 tive made its first appearance on this continent, conse- 

 quently the mail service was also very poor at this time. 



According to Mr. Langstroth's biography in the " A B 

 C of Bee-Culture," this work appeared two years before he 

 (Mr. Langstroth) became the owner of his first colonies. I 

 almost wonder that Mr. Langstroth, who was scouring the 

 world for bee-literature about this time, never ran across 

 this work. As a proof that he did not, I will quote from 

 his work, page 244 : 



"Mj- attention has been recently called to an article in the Ohio 

 Cultivator for 1849, page 185, by Micajah T. Johnson, in -which, after 

 detailing some experiments, he says : 



" ' One thing is certain, if l)ees. from any cause, should lose their 

 queen, and not have the means in tlieir p<:iwer of rearing another, the 

 miller and the moth-worms soon take jios^essiou. I believe no colony 

 is destroyed by worms while an etlicient queen remains in it.' 



"This seems to be the earliest published notice of this important 

 fact by any American observer." 



Now hear what Mr. Weeks says, 13 years before this, 

 on page 51 : 



" Large colonies, that never swarm, are never destroyed by tl)e 

 moth unless they lose their queens, melt down, or meet with some casu- 

 alty out of the ordinary course of managing them.... The colony of 

 bees are so numerous that their combs are all kept well covered dur- 

 ing the moth season, so that no miller can enter and deposit her 

 eggs." 



Quoting from Mr. Langstroth's biography in "ABC :" 



"Mr. Langstroth at that time (ISSS) had never seen or heard of a 

 book on bee-culture; but before the second year of his bee-keeping, 

 he did meet with one, the author of wliioh doubted the existence of a 

 queen." 



Now, Mr. Weeks not only admitted the existence of a 

 queen, but he reared them, and had a method of his own of 

 introducing them into queenless colonies. 



Mr. Quinby in his work mentions T. B. Miner as being 

 the author of a work on bee-culture which appeared proba- 

 bly a very short tinre before his own. Without a doubt, Mr. 

 Weeks' work is the earliest treatise on bee-culture ever pub- 

 lished in America, and I am convinced by his knowledge of 

 bees, and the methods he employed in their management, 

 that they were acquired only after years of untiring perse- 

 verance and hard study. 



He seems to have done all in his power to advance and 

 promote the interests of bee-culture — the art he loved so 

 well ; but the people were not as ready to accept the true 

 facts as we are to-day, consequently his labor was, to a 

 large extent, in vain ; everything pertaining to bee-man- 

 agement at that early day being attributed to luck, and the 

 almost universal answer to the query, " Why, don't you 

 keep bees ?" was, " I have tried them but they don't do well 

 for nie.'^ No amount of reasoning could induce them to 

 make another trial. 



Considering all the obstacles that lay in his way, and 

 the difficulties he had to overcome, I think that Mr. Weeks 

 made a good fight, and he should not be entirely forgotten. 

 Peace to his ashes, and all honor to the memory of John M. 

 Weeks. Clark Co., Wis. 

 ^-•-» 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a copy 

 of this song. 



Out-Aplaries— Their Management for the Preven- 

 tion of Swarming. 



BY F. GREINEK. 



IT does not lie within the scope of this article to advise 

 nor to discuss ways and means to bring our colonies up 

 to the required standard of strength. It is supposed 

 that at least the majority of our colonies have already 

 attained that state of development. 



The principal drawback in running out-apiaries is that 

 the bees are apt to swarm, and that the swarms are apt to 

 go to the woods. It is therefore imperative that our man- 

 agement be such as to prevent all swarming. 



We might run our out-yards for extracted honey, giv- 

 ing plenty of room to both queen and bees, always supply- 

 ing empty comb, etc. ; there would then be no swarming. 

 However, we wish to produce comb honey, principally, as 

 we can find a more ready sale for it. Giving plenty of 

 room alone does not have the desired effect, and we must 

 adopt a different management. It would be of great advan- 

 tage to have only young queens in our colonies — we would 

 then not be troubled with swarms out of their season, 

 which appear frequently, when colonies supersede their 

 queens. All swarms that would appear during the regular 

 swarming period we try to head off. We seldom have any 

 indication of swarming in this locality sooner than June 

 15. Nearing this date we watch a few of the best colonies, 

 and when we find them constructing queen-cells our oper- 

 ations must soon begin. Hives and supers must of course 

 have been gotten in readiness before this time. 



About June 20 — some years not till June 25 — I go to the 

 colonies most likely to cast swarms. First I give a little 

 smoke at the entrance, then rap on the hive. I aim to give 

 the bees time to fill themselves with honey. The hive is 

 now opened ; it may be set to one side first and an empty 

 hive put in its place. This latter should contain but six 

 Langstroth frames or their equivalent, supplied with start- 

 ers only. This super is placed on top over an excluder, 

 which, however, may be taken out after a week's time. 

 The danger of a queen entering the super is generally past 

 after that time, and the excluder may be needed on some 

 other hive, and may be removed. 



After the bees have all filled themselves they are not 

 apt to offer any resistance, and, without using much smoke, 

 I now shake all the bees from their combs in front of the 

 eraptj' iiive. I have " an eye out " for the queen and note 

 her condition. After she has gone in with the majority of 

 the bees, I place an entrance-guard over the entrance. 

 Sometimes these shaken-off swarms leave their hive after 

 the apiarist has left, and then the bees leave for other quar- 

 ters. The entrance-guard is to prevent ,such an occurrence ; 

 it should be removed when making the next visit. The 

 apiary is gone over in this fashion, always selecting the 

 strongest colonies first to be manipulated as stated. A 

 visit is made each week. If honey is coming in, even but 

 moderatel}', the section-cases on these treated colonies will 

 fill up surprisingly, especially if we have filled the sec- 

 tions with comb foundation, and, unless the season con- 

 tinues through a verj' extended space of time, there will be 

 no trouble with such as to their swarming that season. 



If buckwheat is a source to be relied upon, each of 

 these colonies should receive four frames of comb or foun- 

 dation at the beginning of the buckwheat flow, which will 

 end the manipulations of the brood-chamber of the shaken- 

 off bees. 



The question now arises : What shall we do with the 

 brood-combs we gain from week to week by our shaking- 

 off method ? I utilize them in two different ways, viz : For 

 increase and for the purpose of getting- extracted honey. 

 At the beginning of the season I set apart a number of 

 good colonies to take care of these brood-combs. They 

 need not be the very best colonies, and still they must be 

 populous enough to be able to take care of a full set of 

 combs full of brood, for they are to receive, each in its 

 turn, such a full story of brood as we gain it by shaking ofif 

 colony after colony. I have said before that I always select 

 the most prosperous colonies first for shaking off, so each 

 successive week we have some colonies to treat in this 

 fashion — have some brood-combs to dispose of. Our nurs- 

 ing colonies, which had received a set of combs full of 

 brood one week, may receive another after a week's time, 

 and a third after another week. Even a powerful colony 

 given this brood from week to week, will not think of 

 swarming — they are kept too busy taking care of the 

 young. They become very populous and also store much 



