September, i 



American Hee Journal 



would winter as well as any large col- 

 ony. A good way to proceed is as fol- 

 lows : 



If one of the queens is known to be 

 feeble or inferior in any way, hunt her 

 out and kill her, so that the best queen 

 may survive ; otherwise pay no attention 

 to the queens, for one of them will 

 soon be killed after the uniting is done. 



Having the queen matter disposed of, 

 go to the colonies you wish to unite and 

 blow smoke quite freely in at the hive- 

 entrances, pounding on top of the hives 

 at the same time with the doubled-up 

 fist. When both have been treated in 

 this way, wait 2 or 3 minutes, and then 

 do the same over again, only smoke 

 them a little less, and pound a little 

 longer and more vigorously. This will 

 cause every bee to fill with honey, and 

 the fuller they are the better our suc- 

 cess. 



After waiting 2 or 3 minutes after the 

 last pounding, if there is any difference, 

 carry the weaker of the 2 to the strong- 

 er, setting it down right close beside it. 

 Now proceed to open up both hives, and 

 select out the combs from each which 

 contain the most honey, putting these 

 together in the hive which was not 

 moved. In thus putting in, it is always 

 best to alternate the frames, whereby 

 the bees are so mixed up that they have 

 no desire to quarrel, although causing 

 them to fill completely with honey gen- 

 erally takes all fight out of them. 



Then, this mixing is calculated to 

 make each bee that touches another a 

 stranger, and thus either colony's iden- 

 tity is broken up, and the bees are so 

 bewildered that it causes them to re- 

 mark their location on their first flight 

 afterward. 



After the hive is filled with the combs 

 having the most honey in them, close 

 the hive by putting on the cover. Now 

 put a piece of wide board up against 

 the entrance, so that the bees can run 

 from the ground right up into the hive, 

 and proceed to shake the bees off the 

 remaining frames, taking first a frame 

 from one hive, and then from the other, 

 thus mixing the rest of the bees as the 

 first were, seeing that every bee is out 

 from the old hive before you put the 

 combs back in again. Failing here, it is 

 possible that you may lose the queen, 

 where one of them has been killed, as 

 some queens, especially those of the 

 black race, will often run into the corn- 

 ers of the hive during such an opera- 

 tion. 



After all the bees have gone into the 

 prepared hive, set a board up in front 

 of it, having the bottom out 4 or 5 

 inches from the entrance, and the top 

 leaning against the hive, so that the 

 next time the bees fly they will bump 

 against it, thus causing them to mark 

 their location anew, should any other- 

 wise fail of doing this through the mix- 

 up they have had. In this way, none of 

 the bees will return to their old stand 

 to get lost there, as would be the case 

 were they not caused to fill with honey, 

 nor any board set up. Then it is best 

 to remove all relics of the old hive and 

 stand, so there is no home-like look 

 about the old location to entice them 

 back. Put the now beeless combs away 

 in some safe place for the next season's 

 use, and the work is done. 



Bee-Feedeks. 



There are many feeders on the mar- 

 ket, and for sale by supply dealers, but 

 should it happen that you would rather 

 make your own, here is something I 

 have used for years with the best of 

 satisfaction: 



Get out 2 pieces of thin board, A to 

 ^ thick, having them the size of the 

 frame less yi inch at the top. Nail these, 

 one on each side of the frame, fitting 

 th? joints together with white lead, so 

 as to prevent any leaking. If, after 

 making, hot beeswax is run all over the 

 inside, there is no possibility of leaking, 

 and all soaking of the feed into the 

 wood is prevented, and through this all 

 danger from the feed soaking and 

 souring the wood is done away with. 



Bore r. hole through the top-bar for 

 a funnel to slip in, and the feeder is 

 ready to be hung in the hive the same 

 as a frame at any time you may wish 

 to feed ; and it can be left there also 

 when not in use, if so desired. 



As most of the hives in use have a 

 quilt, cloth or enameled cloth, over the 

 frames, all we have to do to fix for 

 feeding is to cut a little slit in the cloth 

 to correspond with the hole in the top- 

 bar of the feeder, through which the 

 point of the funnel is to be inserted and 

 the feed poured in. When the funnel 

 is removed, the slit in the cloth closes 

 up so that no bees can get out to annoy 

 the operator. 



As the feeder is only an inch wide, 

 there is no need of a float, as the bees 

 can easily reach either side, so none 

 stick fast in the feed and drown, as 

 they do in large-mouth feeders not pro- 

 vided with a float. 



Feed for Bees. 



The same correspondent that wished 

 to know about uniting, wanted to know 

 about feeders and what to use in them 

 for feed, so Jiat all colonies short of 

 stores for winter might be fed up in 

 the fall. There are several ways of 

 making feed for bees from sugar, but I 

 will tell of the one which I consider 

 best, after having tried all of the others. 



The sugar used for winter stores 

 should always be granulated sugar; but 

 for feeding in the spring or summer 

 any of the "C" sugars are just as good. 



To make a feed for winter, I find 

 the following formula the best, after 

 trying nearly all the different ways rec- 

 ommended : 



Put 15 pounds of water into a vessel 

 that will hold about 24 quarts, setting 

 the same over the fire until the water is 

 boiling nicely. Now pour in 30 pounds 

 of granulated sugar — pouring in slowly 

 and stirring the whole as poured in, 

 so it will dissolve instead of settling 

 to the bottom of the vessel and burning 

 on, as would be the case were the whole 

 poured in in a body. 



When the sugar is dissolved, allow 

 it to stand over the fire until the whole 

 boils again, when s pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey is poured in, and the 

 syrup stirred until it boils once more, 

 when it is ready to set from the fire. 

 This gives 50 pounds of feed of about 

 the consistency of honey, and as soon 

 as it is cool enough so you can hold 

 your hand on the outside of the vessel 



containing it, it is ready to pour into 

 the feeders. 



The honey is put in to prevent the 

 sugar crystallizing again, as will be the 

 case without it, when such thick syrup 

 is fed in cool weather in the fall. 

 Where sugar syrup is fed in warm 

 weather, and the syrup is quite thin the 

 bees will change it over into honey so 

 it will not crystallize, if it is fed slowly; 

 but this cannot be relied upon when 

 thick syrup is fed for winter stores. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Beeswax and Digestion- 

 Increasing Demand for 

 Honey 



BY DR. C. C. MlliER. 



Dr. Bohrer, page 241, takes exception 

 to my saying that the indigestibility of 

 beeswax probably does no harm in any 

 case. All right, old friend, I cheerfully 

 accept the amendment, and agree that in 

 cases of cancer of the stomach, as well 

 as in some other cases of exceeding 

 irritability, beeswax better be left out of 

 the bill of fare. More than that, if you 

 insist that there may be cases in which 

 the best extracted honey may do harm, 

 I'll agree to that, too. 



Begging your pardon for having been 

 so careless as to say, "Probably in no 

 case does that do any harm," instead of 

 saying, "Probably the cases in which 

 that does any harm are very rare," I 

 arise to make a few remarks upon the 

 latter part of your article. In 'sub- 

 stance you say, "The facts I am giv- 

 ing — and there is no guessing in the mat- 

 ter — if made known to the public, can 

 bring no harm to the sale of the prod- 

 ucts of our industry, but on the con- 

 trary will increase the sale of honey 

 beyond any demand heretofore known." 



To secure that unprecedented demand, 

 would it not be well to have what you 

 say embodied in a short article and have 

 the publication committee of the nation- 

 al secure its general publication? With- 

 out taking the time for elaboration, I 

 might suggest that the pith of it would 

 be somewhat as follows : 



"Pure honey free from all sources of 

 irritation to the human digestive organs 

 is by all odds the most wholesome 

 sweet ever used by man. There are two 

 sources of irritation to be guarded 

 against : 



"First : The poison scattered over the 

 combs, which bees invariably expel upon 

 the slightest jar or disturbance of the 

 hive ; although only a very few persons 

 are susceptible to its influence. 



"Second : The wax of which the hon- 

 eycomb is made. It acts as an irritant 

 to the digestive organs. But as a rule, 

 in time it will bring about disastrous 

 results. Men use intoxicants to excess 

 through a long life, while very many 

 others fall victims to their effects in a 

 very brief period of time. And so it is 

 with beeswax. 



"Extracted honey is free from both 

 these objections, the honey being en- 

 tirely separated from the comb, and also 

 from the poison scattered over the 

 comb." 



There, doctor, isn't that about the 

 thing? Looks like a pretty good anti- 



