American ^ee Journal 



April, 15 



swarm duriiiR last spring and summer, so I still 

 have only 5 colonies, one of which I Italianized 

 in July, and another in September, but I am 

 not certain as to the latter. 



In the summer of 1907 I Rot about 150 

 pounds of salable honey which I sold on short 

 order, as it was a very cold and backward 

 spring, and there was no fruit except berries. 



Here I aim to jrive a little advice to the 

 beginner: Go slowly! Subscribe for one or 

 two good bee-papers, and get a book on bees. 

 I can plainly see that if my brother and I 

 had subscribed for some good paper a few 

 months before we went "into the oven to get 

 roasted," we would have saved several dollars, 

 although we were not long in subscribing for 

 bee-papers. 



I now have 5 colonies in winter quarters, 

 well packed with a water-proof cover telescop- 

 ing over the whole hive. I have this to say — 

 had I not read on the subject I wouldn't know 

 half of what little I do know. 

 , Helena, Mo. W. E. Trachsel. 



Northern Michigan Bee-Country. 



On page 2^, "Michigan" would like to know 

 about the honey-resources, also climate of up- 

 per Michigan, from a bee-keeper's standpoint. 

 The •writer has been only as far- west in upper 

 Michigan as Alger County, where, on the hard- 

 wood "cut-over" there are large quantities of 

 wild raspberry, in some places enough to fur- 

 nish pasturage for 200 colonies in a yard, on 

 this alone. 



There is the "pin cherry," so called by the 

 settlers; also "popels," that furnish early hon- 

 ey and pollen, about the same period as the 

 fruit in lower Michigan. 



I cannot say ah®ut the spring flow earlier 

 than the "pin cherry," or during April; likely 

 there would be but few days in April that bees 

 could flv, in this north location. They would 

 likely be better off in the cellar most of April. 

 This reminds me that some of the bees in lower 

 Michigan were not taken from the cellar until 

 the very last of April, last spring; also that 

 it would be necessary to winter bees in the 

 cellar, or special repository, in this north part 

 of the State. A few bees are kept near the 

 "Soo," is all I know of in upper Michigan, 

 although I have had several calls for honey 

 from upper Michigan, from advertisements in 

 the bee-papers. I do not know whether any of 

 them keep bees, or not. 



If I were "Michigan.' 

 a few 



quite 



he 



uld 



I would take alo 

 ■ing up there, for I'n 



far 



the 



resources are concerned. 



crop of honey he would 



best home markets there 



Then think of locating 



Then when he got 

 lave one of the very 

 s anywhere. 

 „ 1 a place where there 

 not a single bee but your own! Keep them 

 pure — I should think sot But I suppose I have 

 said enough, so he will take along some "seed" 

 in his vest-pocket. E. D. Townsend. 



Remus, Mich. 



Some Bee-Experience. 



I have been a subscriber to the American 

 Bee Journal about 3K years and since I have 

 been reading its pages I have learned about 

 bees what I consider is worth to me many 

 times the price of the Journal. Before I be- 

 can to take it my bees used to swarm them- 

 selves to death, and I didn't know how to 

 stop them, but now I let them swarm only 

 once. I set the new swarm on the old stand 

 and move the old colony to a new location 7 

 days later. That is the "finish" for the rest 

 of that season. I am waiting to hear from 

 Mr. Davenport. He is going to tell us how 

 to keep them from swarming at all — perhaps. 



I want to thank Mr. H. A. Smith for tell- 

 ing us about his discovery, page 72 — {1907) — 

 combined hive-cover and fcccler. As a cover it 

 is good on account of the 2-inch air-space. As 

 a feeder I believe it is the best I have ever 

 heard of. I want to give it a trial at least. 

 No loosening either top or bottom-board to 

 feed that way. I have always tried to feed 

 out in the open. Then the strong colonies 

 got all the feed, for what little the weak ones 

 aid get would be taken away from them again, 

 for the strong colonics always turn out to be 

 robbers, and the weak ones have to die. But 

 it is only a short time till the others follow, 

 for I can't get them through winter. 



Six years ago I began to buy some bees. 

 Yes, and I have been buying ever since. The 

 first season I bought one colony in the spring, 

 increased to 4, tried to winter them in the 

 cellar,, but they all died. The second year I 

 bought 26 in the spring, increased to 58, win- 

 tered them out-doors. Almost all of them 

 died. The third year I bought 21 at the 

 close of the swarming season. In the winter 

 I left part of them out and put the rest in the 

 cellar. I lost most of them from the cellar. 

 Those left outdoors got covered up with a 



4- foot snow-bank, and I left them there till 

 spring. I lost one, but some of the others 

 came through very weak. 



The fourth year I bought only i colony, but 

 I put 30 in the cellar of a vacant house. Last 

 spring only 4 hives had any live bees, and I 

 lost one of those colonies later. I went out 

 to look at them one day, and in front of one 

 hive 1 saw a queen and 4 or 5 workers. They 

 were apparently trying to get the queen to ga 

 back into the hive, so I pushed the queen in. 

 Soon she came out again. I sent her in again 

 and she came out. Then I opened the hive. 

 There was not a live bee in there, so I put the 

 queen in front of another hive. She went in, 

 but I found her dead later. Last spring 1 

 bought at diuerent places 13 colonies. I have 

 19 now (at least, I think I have), buried 

 out in the orchard. My wife says if she 

 were I she wouldn't dig them out next spring, 

 just let them be, hives and all, as I have 

 hives enough left anyway. I have about 50 

 besides what I have broken up for kindling. 



I was not the only one that lost bees last 

 spring. I know of one man that had 70 

 colonies, and lost all but 1 2. Another had 

 over 100 and saved only 13, and others in 

 proportion. This all happened around Water- 

 loo, Iowa. Iowa. 



February 4. 



Poor Season — Production and Sale of 



First-Class Honey — Advice 



to Beginners. 



Our apiary of 75 colonies in ir-frame Langs- 

 troth hives, was reduced to 58 colonies last 

 fall, owing to the loss of young queens at 

 mating time. 



We have passed through a poor season. Our 

 crop of honey, all extracted, was a trifle over 

 2000 pounds. We sold 500 pounds in one- 

 pound square jars. This went to the groceries. 

 The balance was sold in lo-pound friction- 

 top pails to private families. \Ve find that the 

 one-pound square glass jars are a splendid 

 advertisement, but it pays to look well to the 

 trade in lo-pound pails. For 15 years nearly 

 all our honey has been sold in the near-by 

 towns and cities, and I am my own salesman, 

 with my son as assistant. 



This is the way we produce first-class honey, 

 which always runs short before we get around 

 to all the customers: We put our crop of clover 

 and basswood honey in large settling tanks, and 

 leave it until we we get our fall crop of honey, 

 which is mostly from touch-me-not. This is 

 poured into the tanks of white honey, which 

 makes a blend that is fine. One of the secrets 

 of success in disposing of our honey so readily 

 is that we extract our honey only twice in the 

 season — once when we take off the white honey, 

 and late when the fall crop is nearly all 

 sealed, or about the time we get our frosts 

 which kill the flowers. Our honey is always 

 ripe and rich, with very little honey-dew to 

 give it a rank taste and dark color. 



The one-pound glass jars we sell for 15 cents 

 each, and the lo-pound pails bring $1.10. 



I find it a great advantage to be able to sell 

 one's own honey, and always try to have a 

 ready answer in making a trade. We also sell 

 considerable honey to druggists and candy 

 shops, also to parties that manufacture and 

 sell prepared medicines. So much for pro- 

 ducing a high-class honey. 



Now a word to my young bee-keeping 

 friends: Don't take your honey off the hives 

 until it is ripe and sealed in the combs. Don't 

 be satisfied until you can put as good honey 

 on your market as is produced in your locality. 

 Don't try to fool your customers with thin, 

 unripe honey. Be honest; be a man — or a 

 woman, as the case may be. 



Wc often find those that prefer the honey in 

 the comb. We try to tell them where they 

 can find it for sale, but never argue and urge 

 such persons to buy our extracted honey in- 

 stead, for, as I said before, we never have 

 enough to get around. C. A. Bunch. 



I.akcvillc. Ind., Ian. i. 



\ • 



Requeening Without Buying Queens. 



On page 55, Dr. Miller gives Mr. Walter 

 M. Adams a method for "simple requeening 

 without buying queens," which is an easy meth- 

 od, and can be worked by any one, even 



vc Dr. Miller's plan 



cander comes in Glean- 



page 210, and says, 



'ith box-hives. 



Now. before wc 

 scarcely read, Mr. A 

 ings for Feb. 15, < 



"The most common and^ worst mistake tftat 

 can be made in rearing queens is saving the 

 natural cells and virgin queens from colonics 

 that have cast natural swarms." Then follow 

 his reasons for his statement. 



I would be pleased to have Dr. Miller com- 

 ment on this part of Mr. Alexander's article. 



especially the part relating to perpetuating the 

 swarming propensities by the use of after- 

 swarms and queens reared under the swarm- 

 ing impulse. Surely the Doctor's experience of 

 nearly half a century ought to throw some 

 light on the subject. 



My plan for the coming season is to save 

 all the fine, large virgins from my very best 

 colonies when the afterswarms come forth, 

 and place them in 2-frame nuclei for mating. 

 Then 1 will requeen my poorer colonies with 

 these same queens after mating. This is prac- 

 tically the same as Dr. Miller's plan, given 

 to Mr. Adams; only I think it will make a lit- 

 tle less work for me. However, if this is going 

 to perpetuate or intensify the swarming pro- 

 pensity I will have to give it up. Mr. Alex- 

 ander's reasoning looks plausible, but what are 

 the facts in the case? Undoubtedly there are 

 quite a good many small or amateur bee-keep- 

 ers like myself who are interested in this 

 matter. 



Last season was very poor here. Bees nearly 

 starved till basswood bloomed when they com- 

 n^enced storing a little, and they continued 

 to store very little until the fall flowers 

 bloomed. During the blooming season of 

 heartsease, the best colonies stored from one to 

 3 supers of light amber honey of fine flavor, 

 but did not fill the brood-chambers well, and 

 of course, many colonies went into winter quar- 

 ters short of stores. 



Clover is wintering well here, and we may 

 have a better season for the bees this year 

 than last. E. H. Upson. 



Cromwell, Ind., Feb. 22. 



Prevention of Afterswarming. 



I had some experiences during 1907 that 

 were entirely new to me. For a number of 

 years I have waited for from 5 to 8 days 

 after colonies have cast swarms, and then 

 cut out all but one queen-cell to prevent 

 afterswarms. Last year I practised the same 

 plan on the first 12 swarms, and out of the 

 12 colonies so treated 6 were queenless and 

 one of the other 6 queens was a drone-layer. 

 After that experience I let the parent hive 

 sit close beside the swarm 4 or 5 days (I 

 have all clipped queens), and moved to a 

 distant part of the yard, and only one colony 

 treated in this way swarmed, and they 

 swarmed in about J^ hour after moving to the 

 new stand. Now, the point is. why so many 

 queen-cells failed to hatch. Was it the cool, 

 rainy weather, or did the young queens fail 

 in getting mated, or did they chill and not 

 get back from their wedding flights? At least, 

 a part of the trouble was the queen-cells, for 

 no less than 3 cells that I hung in riucl-?i, in 

 West queen-cell protectors, failed to hatch. 



There were none of the old rules that held 

 good last year. The usual time to wait after 

 swarming to cut queen-cells is 8 days; but in 

 one hive that I opened 4 days after swarm- 

 ing, 3 cells were already hatched. 



Another disagreeable thing we had to con- 

 tend with during 1907 was robbing. I never 

 saw anything in my experience to equal it. 

 The bees simply went from hive to hive "seek- 

 ing whom they might devour," and the boss 

 had better keep his veil handy or take a big 

 dose of rheumatism cure, whether he needed 

 it or not. I had a swarm out of No. 31, 

 with a clipped queen. I also had a swarm out 

 of No. 17. Four or five days after. I placed 

 No. 31 next to swarm out of No. 17. A 

 few days after, a swarm issued from No. 31, 

 with a flying queen, as I supposed; but when 

 I walked down to No. 31. I found another 

 clipped queen. The next thing to do was to 

 find where the second clipped queen came 

 from out of No. 31. When I came to examine 

 the hive that contained the prime swarm out of 

 No. 17 on the same stand, it was empty. 

 Therefore the swarm, queen and all, out of 

 No. 17 must have gone in No. 31 some time 

 when T wasn't looking. 



Another unusual thing in other years, but 

 very common in 1907, you would get only 

 1-2 or 1-3 of the bees of a prime swarm in the 

 hive on the old stand: but they would go in 

 anywhere, part in hives on each side, or pos- 

 sibly in another part of the yard. I had a 

 swarm from a prime swarm that had been 

 hived only about 30 days, and when I ex- 

 amined the hive from which the swarm issued, 

 there was not a cell of honev nor a cell of 

 brood, except 2 quccn-cells. I cut those out 

 and put an afterswarm in the hive. 



Sidney A. Peck. 



Northumberland, Pa., Feb. 13. 



Winter Brood-Rearing — Over Sixty 

 Years Ago. 



In the editorial on page 38, entitled "Brood 

 Rearing In and Out of the Cellar." this state- 

 ment is made: "The heat in the brood-nest is 

 always the Mmc temperature." Then at the 



