282 



American ^ee Journal 



September, 1908. 



honey scattered through more frames than the 

 hive will contain. A good way is to prepare 

 for that in advance, by having a number of 

 combs of solid honey, and exchanging them 

 for those partly filled. Rather late to talk 

 about that now, but you might Uke the hint 

 for next year. If you haven't these full combs 

 now, the thing to do is to get the bees to 

 empty part of the combs, storing the honey 

 in the others. They'll do that most readily 

 if you expose in the open air the combs to be 

 emptied. Even if the colonies that need it 

 most don't get it, you can take from those 

 that have the lion's share and give to the 

 needy. 



But it may be that your neighbor s bees 

 would get more than yours if you fed in the 

 open. Then put the combs to be emptied in 

 upper stories, and let the bees carry down the 

 honey. It will hasten matters to mash the 

 cappings of all sealed honey, and to make the 

 combs as dauby as possible. Also to cover 

 a cloth over the lower story, leaving only a 

 small place for the bees to get to the upper 

 story. 



2. "On the 1 6th day, the several parts have 

 become fully developed; and the eyes begin 

 to assume a brownish hue." — American Bee 

 Journal, Vol. i, page 11. From that it seems 

 she should emerge in 5 days or so after the 

 laying of the egg. 



3. Your performance may be interestmg, 

 just for the fun of it; but I doubt its being 

 a profitable tbmg. 



4. No, it is not a common thing. I never 

 knew it to happen unless the bees were so ex- 

 cited by smoke or otherwise as to rush out of 

 the hive in a body; a condition ot affairs that 

 hardly ought to happen under proper manage- 

 ment. 



5. I don't believe there's any combmation 

 among editors to shut out any writer. Neither 

 would it do for them to work solely in the 

 interests of advertisers. If any bee-paper does 

 so it is making a serious mistake, for bee- 

 keepers are rather a bright lot, and will pat- 

 ronize a paper only so long as they think said 

 paper is in the interest of its readers. A paper 

 must first hold its readers before it can hold — 

 yes, before it can get — its advertisers. 



I don't know a great deal about uncapping 

 knives, but I know good men differ as to hav- 

 ing them hot or cold. I suspect, too, that 

 under certain conditions the very smoothest 

 edge might not work so well as a rougher 

 one. A razor may cut hair, and yet be a poor 

 tool to saw a board. May it not be a little 

 so with uncapping knives? 



[The man who even intimates that the 

 American Bee Journal doesn't give "a square 

 deal" to every one, whether contributor or 

 advertiser, simply doesn't know what "a square 

 deal" is. If some would-be correspondents got 

 their just deserts, they woulan't even receive a 

 reply by mail, much less get any notice in pub- 

 lic print. But we are thankful to say that 

 there only a fezv samples o,f the class referred 

 to, and they are easily ignored when it comes 

 to putting their sarcastic and egotistic writings 

 in print.- — Editor.] 





Pretty Good Honey Crop. 



The honey crop here is pretty good this year. 

 I wintered 5 colonies, in good condition last 

 winter. I increased them to 9 colonies, and 

 took 642 pounds of fine honey, which I think 

 is good from only 5 colonies. I sold the honey 

 here at home at 7 cents per pound; and now 

 the bees have stored enough for winter. 



S. KncEdretson. 



Westby, Wis., Aug. 15. 



The Queen and the Swarm. 



I see Mr. I'.rickson has settled the question 

 as to whether the queen comes out first or 

 last with the swarm. He says, (page 2^0) that 

 after the queen has taken a look at the weather 

 she returns, and all the bees on the outside, as 

 well as all on the inside of the hive, turn their 

 heads in the direction of the queen. 



I can understand how he could tell when all 

 on the outside had their heads in the direction 

 of the queen, if there were not too many out- 

 side, but how does he know about those insidcf 



Then he says the queen gives two or three 

 yells, and makes for the entrance with the 



swarm close at her heels. This means that the 

 queen leads all of the swarm that is on the 

 inside of the hive at the time the queen makes 

 her break for fresh air. 



Weill Well! no doubt "locality" accounts for 

 a great many thines, but I never dreamed 

 that it "cut any ice" in this matter. 



I had a very vicious colony of hybrids and 

 decided to catch the queen when they swarmed, 

 and give them a better one. To this end I put 

 a queen-trap on, but as they did not swarm for 

 several days, and the trap seemed to interfere 

 with the bees, I took it off. The next day I 

 happened to go around to the bee-yard in time 

 to catch them swarming. More than half the 

 swarm was out, and they were still coming in 

 a stream 14 inches wide and an inch deep; but 

 I went to some distance to a colony, took off 

 a trap and knocked off a pint of bees, and re- 

 turned when fully four-fifths of the bees were 

 in the air, and still got my trap on in time to 

 catch the queen. 



I have tested this thing before, and the queen 



is just as likely to be among the last as first, 



if not more so; and I have found the queen on 



the outside of the cluster when hiving swarms. 



J. D. Rowan. 



Tupelo, Miss., Aug. 14. 



Not Much Nectar. 



The bees are working in the supers, but not 

 much nectar is coming in, as it is too dry. 

 E. CARI.YLE Goldsmith. 

 Pond CrEEk, Okla., Aug. 12. 



A Beginner's Report. 



I commenced bee-keeping last fall by the 

 purchase of 5 colonies which came through the 

 winter all right. I lost one colony by its being 

 robbed early in the spring while feeding. I 

 then purchased 6 more colonies which I have 

 increased until now I have 28, using the first 

 swarms for getting surplus honey. They have 

 produced about 400 pounds, which I will feed 

 back in September to those that are too weak. 

 P. W. NiCOLLE. 



Mapleton, Orec, Aug. 8. 



Only One-Third of a Crop. 



The bee-keepers* season in this valley is far 

 enough advanced to indicate that the yield 

 per colony will not be more than one-third of 

 last year. This is due partly to over-stocking 

 of some of the ranges, and partly to a parasite 

 that is getting the honey from the alfalfa, 

 known, I believe, as the alfalfa-bloom louse. 



A great many bees — estimated at 4,000 to 

 5,000 colonies— were brought into this (Im- 

 perial) valley during the past winter, and there 

 is much disappointment in results obtained. 

 J. B. Whitaker. 



El Centro, Calif., July 29. 



Poorest Season in 25 Years. 



If it is of any interest to the fraternity to 

 know where the honey cron has been light 

 this season, you can tell the brethern that 

 it has been the poorest season around Hud- 

 son, N. Y., in 25 years. The bottom dropped 

 out of the flow about July 4, in a most un- 

 expected and unaccountable manner. It was 

 not from drouth or wet or a dearth of clover 

 root, but simply because there was no nec- 

 tar in the flowers. We have been honing 

 for a fall flow, but dry weather is blighting 

 our hopes again. But after the cheerful 

 manner of the fraternity, we are reaching 

 forward hopefully to next season. 



Hudson. N. Y. Aug. 22. 



Jas. McNeill. 



Bee-Keeping in Missouri. 



I am a reader of the "Old Reliable," and 

 have been for years. No department interests 

 me as does "Reports and Experiences," except 

 it be "Dr. Miller's Question-Box." Yet I ap- 

 preciate and enjoy reading every page, even 

 the advertisements. 



Missouri, while producing a large amount 

 of honey, as statistics will show, is not noted, 

 ■ I believe, as a great honey-producer, from the 

 fact that so few of her apiarists are up-to-date 

 in their methods of management. It has taken 

 me some 10 years to find out that it nays to 

 handle bees in an up-to-date manner; but ex- 

 perience is a great teacher, and I have learned 

 to do things right. 



The season has been excellent here so far, 

 with great promise to the end. The weather 

 was rather wet the first of the season, which 

 only served to bring out the great crop of 

 dandelion and white clover, which exceeded 

 any crop we ever saw. 



I started in with 16 colonies last spring, and 



increased to 30, by natural swarming. I am 

 one who thinks it is hard to improve on Nature. 



1 have taken close to 500 pounds of fine 

 honey, and the hives are full again. I put 

 one swarm into a lo-frame Wisconsin hive, 

 and in just 4 weeks I took off 28 sections of 

 fine honey. This, I think, is a good record. 



Goldenrod and Spanish-needle are now be- 

 ginning to bloom, and the indications are good 

 for a good flow. 1 have a home market for 

 all the honey I can produce at izYz cents, for 

 either section or chunk honty. I extract none. 

 H. S. Carroll. 



Lentner, Mo.. Aug. 15. 



A Good Honey Season. 



There was a good flow of nice white honey 

 here; bees swarmed freely. Good colonies 

 averaged 100 pounds or better when given 

 care. Hugo Zachgo. 



Danforth. III., Aug. 25. 



He'll Make a Bee-Keeper. 



I am a 1 3-year-old boy. A stray swarm 

 of bees came to our place this summer and 

 settled down in an old salt-barrel on our 

 place in a grove. I thought I would like to 

 learn something about bees, and maybe by 

 having this swarm to start with I might 

 get an "apiary," as I see the Journal calls 

 it. I bought some white Wyandotte eggs a 

 year ago, and 1 just sold a few hens this 

 week, and have a little money, so I will 

 send enough for a year's subscription to the 

 American Bee Journal. Maybe it might help 

 me not to get stung too much. I am not 

 very much afraid of bees, and people say 

 that a man that is not afraid is not likely 

 to get stung; but I want to be on the safe 

 side and learn something anyway, so here 

 goes my money. 



Sigurd W. Rikansrud. 



Kanawha, Iowa, Aug. 22. 



Double Zinc — A Correction. 



This summer for the first time I was for 

 certain reasons compelled to have on hand quite 

 a few very small colonies. These were each 

 in one section of our divisible brood-chamber 

 hive, with an average of 4 drawn combs apiece. 

 From the beginning, however, there was no 

 end of trouble from some of the good colonies 

 in the way of plundering. At last, the plan 

 of doubling them up with zinc between was 

 given a trial. The force of guards appearing 

 at the entrance of these double colonies almost 

 equaled some of the best in the yard. Not 

 onlv was robbing effectuallv stopped, but the 

 upper ones averaged drawing out a frame of 

 foundation each 48 hours. Yes, and some of 

 these small colonies gave a nice little surplus 

 of section honey. 



When only strong colonies are in the yard, 

 this 2-queen plan may not be of great value; 

 but in building up weak ones, many advantages 

 can be found. What I wished to say, however, 

 was that at a time when the bees are disposed 

 to quarrel, the best preventive that I have found 

 when putting them together is to use at the 

 start 2 sheets of zinc having a bee-space be- 

 tween. There is no danger of their fighting 

 under such circumstances, and one of the ex* 

 cluders may be removed in one or two days to 

 provide for freer communication. 



I wish to call attention to an error in my 

 article in the July issue, page 208, in which 1 

 am made to use the word "agriculture" when 

 "apiculture" would have been correct. 



Ft. Smith, Ark. Leo. E. Gateley. 



Avoiding Weak Colonies in Spring, 



How to avoid weak colonies in the spring is 

 a problem which a New York bee-keeper thinks 

 he has solved. In fact, by his plan he has the 

 strongest and most populous kind of colonies 

 ready for work on the early fruit-bloora in the 



The bee-keeper referred to has recently been 

 in the habit of spending the winters in Florida, 

 ana last fall, as an experiment, he took 60 

 colonies of bees with him by steamer from 

 New York to the State of Florida at a cost of 

 one cent a pound for freight. As the hives 

 with contents averaged about 25 pounds each, 

 the cost was but 25 cents per colony. 



The 60 colonies increased during the winter 

 to 120, but they stored no surplus worth men- 

 tioning. The 120 strong colonies were brought 

 back North in the spring in time to work on 

 the earliest truit-bloom, and these 120 strong 

 colonics in the early spring were considered 

 ample return for the expense and trouble, even 

 though no surplus honey was secured during the 

 winter South. 



Now it is a question whether this can be 



