May. 191S. 



American "Bee JoarnaJ]^ 



171 



A Queer Way of Capturing a Swarm 



Last May I was expecting swarms, and 

 one day all of my bees, about 50 colonies, 

 were roused up Ttiey were flying and fium- 

 ming lil^e in robbing time. The wiioleyard 

 was full of bees, and 1 thougfit they were 

 going to swarm all at once. It was some- 

 thing unusual, and I could not find the rea- 

 son; the bees had never acted this way be- 

 fore. I found out shortly, however. 



My neighbor's wife was cleaning house, 

 and swept out some spilt sugar and shook 

 out sugar sacks. When my bees discovered 

 the sugar they flocked there by the thou- 

 sands to gather it up. When the bees came 

 so tliickly she thought that it was a stray 

 swarm, so she took a big dish pan and filled 

 it with sugar and fed the bees, and got a box 

 and covered the bees with it. Of course, 

 they went out and in. and she thought she 

 would ha\'e a fine swarm of Italian bees, but 

 towards evening their numbers lessened. 

 She did not know how to make them stay in 

 the hive, so sfie sent word to me to come 

 over and see about the swarm she captured. 

 When 1 lifted up the box it was empty of 

 both bees and sugar. I kindly explained to 

 her that it was cheaper to buy a swarm in a 

 hive than to try to catch it in the air. 

 The Dalles. Oreg. John Pashek. 



brood frames to place in the hives when 

 spring opens up I-'. H. Upson. 



Uber. ind.. March 4. 



Bees Higher in Price in California 



Southern California is anxiously looking 

 for rain. It has been cold and cloudy for 

 several days, but no rain. Bees in many 

 localities are light in stores and short of 

 bees. Should it be a late spring many would 

 have to feed, while if tfie honey flow came 

 on early much would be lost before the 

 colonies were strong enough to gather sur- 

 plus. 



Buyers from Utah and Nevada are look- 

 ing for bees in southern California. Not 

 many years ago it was very easy to buy colo- 

 nies at from $2.00 to S3. 50. while now from 

 St. 00 to 56.00 is nearer what a practical bee- 

 keeper would ask. Our industry is each 

 year being recognized more and more at its 

 true value. L. L. Andrews. 



Corona. Calif.. March 21. 



Fine Report from Indiana 



My bees did nicely last summer, n-lting 

 me more than S.:o per colony in cash, be- 

 sides all the honey we could use and some 

 to give away. Besides I increased from 6 to 

 14 colonies, and have plenty of honey in the 



Does Bee-Keeping Pay .' 



We claim it does when pro[>erly conducted^ 

 We commenced last spring with 80 colonies, 

 increased to no. and took off 7200 pounds of 

 comb honey and 120 pounds of extracted, 

 leavingthe bees strong and heavy for win- 

 ter. We hope to do better this year, as the 

 bees are in better shape. We could not get 

 along so well without the old American Bee 

 Journal. 



I enclose a picture of part of our apiary. 

 The secret of our success is youiim (jtieein 



and sfroiiff ro/otries. We want a bushel of 

 bees when the clover begins to bloom. 



Our bees are packed in chaff, and our 

 losses are very light; not over 3 percent in 

 the last 3 yeais. We use the Italians I 

 bought my first imported queen from Mr. 

 Dadant some ?o years ago. J. E. Walcher. 



Broomfield. Colo.. Keb. 22. 



More About Swiss Bees 



About the article written by Mr. Adrian 

 Getaz. in the American Bee Journal for Feb- 

 ruary. 1Q13. I wish to tell something more 

 about the Swiss bees. 



Mr. Getaz says that the majority of hives 

 are skeps or box-hives, in which drones are 

 reared in large quantities. That was true 

 in German-Switzerland some 50 years ago 

 when the bee-men went from house to house 

 and cut the honey out. Of course, those 

 empty spaces in the skeps were built out 

 next season with drone-comb. Box-hives 

 we never had: at least I never knew of any. 

 Since we went over from the skeps to the 

 movable-frame hives, we now find that we 

 get plenty of honey but no swarms. 



The importation of Italian or Carniolan 

 bees went on for some 20 years. It was am- 

 ple time to try them. When the swarming 

 season was over, the honey was gone, too, 

 and all we could do was to feed them to 

 keep them from starvation. 



The Burke-Jeker-Swiss hive, as it is called 

 out there, and mostly used in German- 

 Switzerland, is nearly as large as the Da- 

 dant hive. The Dadant hive is all right in a 

 country where the summer is warm and the 

 honey season long, but in our climate it is 

 too cold in winter and too large in summer. 



As to the price of honey, as an average ex- 

 tracted is 20 cents a pound, but I am sure 

 that section honey would bring as high as 80 

 cents a pound in Lucerne. "There are 

 always some apiarists who cannot see be- 

 yond the tips of their noses." That's true, 

 but if Mr. Getaz believes that the whole 

 German-Swiss Bee-Keepers' Association be- 

 longs to that class, he might be a little mis- 

 taken There are 8000 members in that 

 association. 



Last summer, when I was appointed dep- 

 uty, and went out and inspected bees. I 

 didn't find the strongest Italian colony with 

 more honey than my blacks. 



One of the queens that I imported in the 

 summer of ton. didn't lay one drone-egg 

 through the whole summer of 1012. But as I 

 wanted to rear drones from that colony. I 

 gave them plenty of drone-comb and fed 

 them when no honey was coming in. but 

 without any sign of eggs or brood in drone- 

 comb. I have no queens to sell, and I never 

 will sell any if I do not find Ihem just as 

 good as or better than the Italians. If we 

 had a non swarming strain of bees, would it 

 not be much easier to fight foul brood, for 

 we would not have to go out into the woods 

 to get the bees out of trees that might be in- 

 fected, too? Xavier Widmer. 



Highland. III.. Feb. 21. 



Part of J. E. Wai.cher's Apiarv in Colorado. 



The lO-Frame Hive Should Be 'Wider 



I started bee-keeping in the spring of IQ08. 

 and after much careful study of the various 

 styles and sizes of bee-hives. I decided that 

 a hive containing 10 Langstroth frames was 

 the one to adopt, and I also decided that the 

 frames should be provided with self-spacers. 

 Now. with 4 years' experience the decision 

 remains the same. 



But as regards the size of the standard 10- 

 frame body. I never did believe it was right. 

 Iwrotetoa leading manufacturer that the 

 hive was too narrow for 10 self-spacing 

 frames. But the answer came. " You can 

 get them out." With me it is difficult, and 

 often cruel to the bees, to remove the first 

 frame after the bees have built the combs a 

 little bulging, and gotten the frames well 

 glued in. the most accessible frame often 

 being heavy with honey. 



Let us interchange these combs, perhaps 

 with combs of a different hive, and I sup- 

 pose the manufacturer will say. " You can 

 get them in." But rather than suffer this 

 squeezing and pinching. I am using only 

 frames and a dummy of 'n-inch lumber with 

 many of my hives. In doing so I am one full 

 frame of honey nearer starvation and the 

 swarming fever. 



Surely, when this notoriously pre-eminent 



LEWIS HIVES 



Are Built Like Furniture 

 Are Perfect in All Respects 



Siend for Annual Catalog ^Thicli will tell 

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 G. B. I.,ewis Company, Watertown, Wis. 



