June, I' 



American Hee Journal 



bees ever since I was lO years old. The 

 first colony was in a box-hive and was 

 given to me by my mother. I soon trans- 

 ferred it from the box-hive to a chaff 

 hive, which cost $5.00. When foul brood 

 raged through this part of the country 

 and devastated the bee-business, I was 

 about the only one to save a few colo- 

 nies by transferring them and scalding 

 the old hives. Leo J. Beachy. 



Grantsville, Md. 



Franco-British Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 gress. 



This Congress of bee-keepers will be 

 held under the presidency of Lord Ave- 

 bury, at the Franco-British Exposition, 

 Shepherd's Bush, London, England, on 

 Thursday, June 25, 1908. The commit- 

 tee which has been appointed by the 

 British Bee-Keepers' Association to or- 

 ganize the Congress, requested the hon- 

 orary secretary of the Congress Com- 



mittee, Mr. J. B. Lamb, to say that the 

 council of tlie Association will be glad 

 if any of the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal can attend on that occa- 

 sion. 



The Bumble-Bee. 



You better not fool with a Bumble-bee! 

 Ef you don't think they can sting — you'll see! 

 They're lazy to look at, an' kindo' go 

 Buzzin' an' huniinin' aroun* so slow. 

 An' act so slouchy an' all fagged out, 

 Danglin' their less as they drone about 

 The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in 

 'Ithoutist atumble-un out agin! 



Wunst I watched one climb clean 'way 



In a jim'son-blossom, I did, one day, — 



An' 1st grabbed it — an' nen let go — 



An' "Oooh-ooh! Honey; I told ye so!" 



Says the Kap'^edy Man; an' he ist run, 



An' pullt out the singer and don't laugh none, 



An' say: "They has ben folks, I guess 



'At thought I wuz predjudust, more or less, — 



Yit I still muntain 'at a Bumble-bee 



Wears out his welcome too quick fer me!" 



— J/.MEs Whitcomb Riley. 



ee-Keepinolg 



Conducted by E.M.Ma .M. WlusuN. .Maren'^ru 



A North Carolina Sister. 



In the North Carolina State Bulletin 

 of Bee-Keeping, in the list of those hav- 

 ing 50 colonies or more, Mrs. Emma 

 Shugart stands fourth, with 194 colonies. 

 Pretty good that only three men in the 

 whole State can beat one of the sisters. 



Wintering Bees in a Fni-nace Cellar. 



When, a few years ago, we had a fur- 

 nace put in our cellar, it was a question 

 whether it was going to make it better 

 or worse for the bees. It certainly was 

 a change. Whereas in former winters 

 we had to take measures to keep the cel- 

 lar warm enough, now the problem was 

 to keep it cool. The outside cellar door 

 opens directly into the furnace-room, and 

 a door from the furnace-room opens into 

 the bee-room. Most of the time both of 

 these doors stand wide open, making it a 

 good deal like having the bees stand out- 

 doors in a mild winter. 



Last winter was what might be called 

 a warm winter, and it was a question 

 whether the bees might not suffer from 

 being too warm. The thermometer in 

 the bee-cellar generally stood about 50, 

 and occasionally at 60. During the fore- 

 part of the winter the bees were very 

 still. Toward spring, on bright days, 

 it seemed as if too many bees were fly- 

 ing out through the doors. Dr. Miller 

 was remonstrated with : "Are you not 

 afraid the bees will come out weak if 

 you leave the doors open that way for 

 so many bees to fly out to their death ?" 

 He didn't seem much concerned, reply- 

 ing that a certain number of bees would 

 die anyway from old age, and although 



letting the light in would entice out 

 some bees, if the air were foul still more 

 bees might die in the dark. At any 

 rate, the bees seemed to come out as 

 strong as usual, perhaps a little stronger. 

 When Dr. Miller is asked, "Don't you 

 think they would have come out still 

 stronger if doors had oftener been closed 

 on bright days?" he replies, "I don't 



know." 



^ 



A Summer Honey Drink. 



A good use to which to put sassafras 

 roots is to make them into a refreshing 

 mead. Make a tea of the roots, steeping 

 until quite strong, strain, and bring to a 

 boil ; to this add a half pint of honey, 

 three pints of good molasses (not corn 

 syrup), and a tablespoonful of pure 

 cream of tartar, stirring all well togeth- 

 er. This should make a half gallon of 

 the tea, and it should be put into pint 

 bottles and sealed. To a glassful of ice 

 water add a pinch of soda and a tea- 

 spoonful of the mead, and the result will 

 be refreshing, effervescent drink. — The 

 Commoner. 



^ 



How We Evened Onr Bees. 



The ideal thing would be to have all 

 colonies come out in the spring equal in 

 strength, and all strong. Our bees 

 haven't reached that point yet (May 22), 

 some being strong, and from that down 

 to very weak. A very weak colony 

 seems to stand still in spring, if indeed 

 it doesn't grow weaker. A colony strong 

 enough to have 4 frames of brood filled 

 seems to walk right along. So, as usual, 

 we tried first to bring up to that point 



those that lacked just a little of it. The 

 "little fellows" might wait their turns 

 till later. 



If a colony had 5 frames of brood, 

 it could spare one; if it had 6 it could 

 spare 2. We found the queen, so as to 

 be sure to leave her, and then we took 

 the I or 2 frames of brood, bees and all. 

 After getting a hive more or less filled 

 with such frames of brood and bees, 

 we proceeded to distribute them where 

 they would do the most good. 



In distributing these frames, the chief 

 thing to look out for was not to endan- 

 ger the life of the queens in the weak 

 colonies by giving too many strange bees. 

 If a colony had 3 frames of brood, there 

 was no danger from giving another, un- 

 less in some way the queen should get 

 away from her own bees among the 

 strange ones before these latter had be- 

 come naturalized. She might be on a 

 frame just outside of the brood-nest — 

 not very likely, but it does sometimes 

 happen— and if the added frame were 

 put next the brood-nest and the queen in 

 this way cut off from the mass of her 

 bees, the strange bees would promptly 

 ball her. So we generally looked to find 

 the queen, and put the frame on the fur- 

 thest side of the brood-nest from where 

 she was. If we did not readily find her, 

 we shook the bees off the frame outside 

 the brood-nest, so as to make sure she 

 would not be there. 



More difficult it is to manage the very 

 weak colonies. One colony in the Wil- 

 son apiary had brood in only 2 frames 

 of brood, but only bees enough to have 

 a little brood in each of 2 frames. To 

 give to such a weakling a frame of 

 strange bees directly from another 

 queen would very likely do more harm 

 than good, by endangering the queen. 

 The queen might be caged for a day or 

 two, but that is troublesome, especially 

 in an out-apiary, and besides it stops the 

 queen's laying. So we managed to give 

 to such a colony queenless bees which 

 would be friendly to any queen. 



For some reason the colonies in the 

 out-apiary were not so strong as in the 

 home apiary. So after all colonies at 

 home were up to the point where they 

 needed no help, we took 2 hivesful (16 

 frames) of brood and bees from the 

 home apiary to the out-apiary. On a 

 Saturday we took from strong colonies 

 at home the 16 frames, piled them _ in 

 a pile where no colony stood, taking 

 no precaution whatever to prevent the 

 bees from returning to their own homes. 

 If we had treated only I or 2 frames in 

 that way, taking them directly from 

 queen-right colonies, very likely the bees 

 would have deserted, leaving chilled 

 brood. But with as much as 2 stories 

 the bees don't seem to feel so lonesome, 

 and are more easily reconciled to stay 

 where they are put. Besides, such a 

 large body of sealed brood carries a 

 good deal of heat in itself, and requires 

 proportionally fewer bees to take care 

 of it. It does not, by any means, re- 

 quires 4 times as many bees to keep 

 warm 4 frames of brood as it does to 

 keep a single frame warm. 



We piled the brood Saturday, so the 

 bees would feel their queenlessness to be 

 taken Monday. But the rain didn't let 

 us get away till Wednesday (did you 

 ever see such a rainy time as May this 

 year?), and even then we were a little 



