Oct. 3, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



633 



the frames, recommended by Mr. Davenport, but while it 

 may work with nearly empty frames, or the shallow Hed- 

 don frame, I am satisfied it will not do with any large-sized, 

 well-filled frames. 



NO USE FOR BEE-KSCAFKS. 



I hive also tried bee-escapes, but have given them up 

 as practically worthless. I have no time to fool away with 

 them. 



The honey-flow exceeding my expectations, I had to 

 defer extracting for want of tins to put it in, and so tried 

 bee-escapes, but, being alone, I found it about as much 

 trouble, and got about as many stings getting the bee- 

 escapes adjusted, as I did in getting out the combs without 

 them. My plan has been to start after noon, give the bees 

 a good smoking, takeout the frames quickly, and run them 

 into the extracting room, and stack them up three and four 

 deep, until I had 10 or 12 in ; then extract these. In the 

 meantime the bees wovild get somewhat quieted down in 

 the yard, and I would then get off a few more. Any bees 

 that would go in on the combs would soon find their way 

 to the windows, and go out of the escapes. 



The season being unusually dry, the honey is of very 

 fine quality, and sells readily in small quantities at 10 

 cents. Latterly we have had abundant rains, and the bees 

 are breeding freely, which augurs well for good wintering. 



"HIVING TWO SWARMS IN ONE HIVE." 



On page 581, Mr. Davenport says he has had no trouble 

 from hiving two swarms together when both issue at or 

 about the same time. In July last, when I had a large 

 swarm nicely hived, but before I could remove it, a large 

 swarm issued, and there being a elusterof bees on the front 

 of this hive, it came down and went in with them. I at 

 once put on a queen-excluder and two cases of sections 

 with mostly drawn comb, to give them room. On the 5th 

 day after, one of the swarms came completely away, and 

 clustered on a limb of the tree exactly where the first 

 swarm had clustered, which led me to believe that it was 

 the first swarm that had left the hive, as the others never 

 clustered at all. The time between the issuing of the two 

 swarms at first was not more than IS minutes. 



My experience thus far leads me to conclude that bees 

 do not do everything by rule, and we may always expect 

 them to do something we never knew them to do before. 



Ontario, Canada. 



The Afterthought. ^ 



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

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



THE TWO-HIVE FEEDING PLAN. 



Yes, Mr. Fargo's two-hive feeding seems to offer fine possi- 

 bilities. But first we must tind out whether it will work as a 

 regular thing, or only in exceptional cases. If the open- 

 topped screen-yard we had up a bit ago will work that will be 

 pre-eminently the way to feed. Apparently the two ways ivill 

 combine kindly. I think that one grand trouble about pro- 

 longed feeding in the home hive is that bees declare it 

 annexed, and decide to let it be till needed. Some danger of 

 the same thing in the two-hive method. In the open air a 

 salutary fear that somebody else may get it will keep all but 

 the very laziest pegging away. Page 531. 



BLACK COMBS DLSCOLORING HONEV. 



X agree heartily that black combs will discolor the inclosed 

 honey somewhat ; yet I fear that the attempts to soak them 

 clean are entirely unpractical. The situation is this : Many 

 layers of dried dirt, separated by many exceedingly thin lay- 

 ers of silk or wax. The best we can do is to keep the whole 

 thing dry. The first soaking removes part of an outer layer, 

 and makes the whole wet and nasty. With each successive 

 soaking more, and always more, dirt keeps coming " from 

 away back." Ram a two-quart can one-fourth full of dirty 

 handkerchiefs (such as are fouiid in a bee-keeper's trousf r's 

 pocket at the end of a hot week); fasten them down so tliey 

 can not be moved about ; and how long ere the bottom In yer 

 will be cleaned by turning water in and out the top? I'age 

 531. 



HIVING TWO SWARMS TOGETHER. 



To C. Davenport, page 5H1, I would say that my experi- 

 ence with voluntarily hiving two swarms together is not 

 large, because I usually avoid it when I can ; but they go 

 together in spite of me pretty often ; and my troubles with 

 balled queens when swarms are mixed are by no means imagi- 

 nary. Quite willing to let his many successes have their due 

 weight — and also qui(e glad to have so sound a veteran to fall 

 back upon as Dr. Gallup, page 532 : 



" If you have two or more swarms come out at one time and clus- 

 ter together, or if you have after or second swarms with more (|ueens 

 than one and you wish to separate them, shake tnem into the cluster- 

 ing box and let them stay for halt or three-quarters of an hour, and 

 the bees will ball the surplus <iueens, and roll down to the lower edge 

 of the box." 



I note that Dr. Gallup says, "Sometimes they ball every 

 queen, but not usually." I think that with me balling every 

 queen is rather the rule than the exception, if the swarm is a 

 mixed one. Why this difference? His experience, I think, 

 has been mostly in fat locations, where bees seldom swarm 

 except during honey-flow. My experience has been in a lean 



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MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING — PAN-AMEKICAN. 



location, where bees often swarm in lime of dearth. As I see 

 things, bees carrying little or no honey are not sure to be cross 

 to their keeper, but pretty sure to be severe on stranger 

 queens. In a mixed swarm all thp ijueens are stranger queens 

 to thousands of the workers, and if they balled some of them, 

 and did not ball all of them, it would be a curious fact calling 

 for explanation. 



Glad to see that Dr. Gallup has had experience in making 

 a colony into an impromptu swarm clustered in a box for the 

 purpose of moving their location a short distance Have won- 

 dered whether that would work. He finds that it does. 



HARD TO DESTROY ALL DRONE-BROOD. 



I smiled when .1. D. Gehring said that he found destroy- 

 ing all drone brood harder than he expected, and that unfore- 

 seen things happened. Been there. My dear bee fever child, 

 don't you be too sure you can destroy all drone-brood — not 

 even by the excellent Doolittle plans on opposite page. Page 

 533. 



SHOWING MERCY TOWARD ANIMALS. 



Prof. Cook, on page 537, did not pass on from mercy 

 toward animals to mercy toward be^s ; but there is room for 

 quite a sermon on that point. This paper surely goes to many 

 readers who want to do just right in the little things of 

 life. I have often felt it a difficult problem to decide just 

 when a bee's little life ought to be spared (at aiipreciable 

 expense of time, which means money), and just when the 

 prompt sacrificing of the little life is the real right thing to 

 do. I have also wondered about the would-be roibers and 

 stingers, how much less claim they have upon our mercy than 

 the more quiet members of the hive. I rather think that the 

 insect door-keeper, doing duty promptly and well, should be a 

 subject of admiration to a refleitive and right-minded man — 

 and that the sentence, " He stung me," ought not to be in 

 such large vocal type as it is often put. Per contra, there 

 gets afloat at times a considerable amount of sentimental non- 

 sense and unwisdom, which would fain make us more careful 

 of insect life than the Creator is himself, and which would 

 make apiculture impossibh^ before we got to its logical conclu- 

 sions. 



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