1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



365 



and leave them till near night — just lime 

 •enough so you can finish your work before it 

 becomes so dark you can not see. At the right 

 time, go to the hive from which you took the 

 bees, and get the marked comb, shaking the 

 bees which are on it in front of the entrance, 

 and put a frame of comb from which the bees 

 have died, in its place. Now take your comb of 

 brood and a frame of honey, left from your 

 dead colonies, and place them in a hive where 

 you wish a colony to stand, putting in a divi- 

 sion-board so as to make a small hive for the 

 two combs. Go to your hive having queen- 

 cells, and take one of them, fitting it into the 

 comb having the brood, at the upper edge of 

 said brood. Now close the entrance to the 

 hive; get the box of bees, and put it with the 

 funnel-hole next the combs; open the door over 

 this hole; and if the box is within three-eighths 

 of an inch of the brood, the bees will immedi- 

 ately run out of the box on the combs. As soon 

 as they begin to run out, close the hive, and 

 the work is done till next morning, when you 

 will take out the box, adjust the division-board, 

 and open the entrance. As soon as the young 

 •queen from the cell given gets to laving, you 

 are ready to insert your combs from the dead 

 colonies till the hive is filled, giving the combs 

 as fast as the bees can occupy them. In the 

 above, I have given the mode of making one 

 little colony; and you are to make as many and 

 as often as you have colonies that can spare 

 bees and queen-cells to give the bees, using 

 about half a pound of bees for each colony 

 made during June, one pound during July, and 

 two pounds during August. Where we have 

 plenty of combs to use, there should be no 

 trouble in making ten colonies from one old one 

 in the spring, as I have repeatedly proven. If 

 you prefer to purchase queens, instead of rais- 

 ing them, then you will proceed the same as 

 above given ; but instead of doing any thing 

 about putting the bees in the hive at night, 

 you will place the queen in a provisioned cage, 

 go to your box of bees, and, by setting the box 

 down suddenly, drop them all to the bottom, 

 when the caged queen is to be hung in so the 

 top of the cage touches the top of the box, and 

 the bees left till the next morning, when the 

 hive is to be fixed as before, less the queen-cell; 

 and, instead of opening the funnel-hole for the 

 bees to run out of it, the movable side is taken 

 off, and the bees hived like a swarm, letting the 

 queen out of the cage so she can go in with 

 them. Or if you do not prefer this plan at all, 

 then let the colonies swarm as fast as they 

 will; and, six days after any swarm issued, di- 

 vide the old colony into nuclei, using two 

 combs with bees, brood, and a queen-cell to 

 start a separate colony, and build up these nu- 

 clei with the combs not occupied with bees. In 

 this way you can make six good colonies from 

 one in the spring, and often secure quite a sur- 

 plus from the new swarm. 



DIVIDING COLONIES. 



Question.— I wish to divide each of my colo- 

 nies just once; thereby securing the increase I 

 desire. How would you proceed to do this if 

 you had virgin or laying queens to give the 

 queenless half? 



Answer. — Having the queens on hand, as it 

 is supposed in the above question, go to any col- 

 ony preparing to swarm, or one that has its 

 hive full of bees and brood, and move it to one 

 side of the old location, so as to put a new hive 

 in its place. If a hive is not full of brood and 

 bees, do not touch it; for it is useless to try to 

 increase bees till such is the case. Now look 

 over the combs until you find the one having the 

 queen on it, when you will place said comb in 

 the new hive. Next give them a frame having 

 some honey in it, and then fill out the hive 

 with empty combs or foundation, when about 

 two- thirds of the bees in the old hive are to be 

 shaken in front of the new hive, and allowed to 

 run in. Now arrange the frames back in the 

 old hive, putting a division-board in place of 

 the frames taken out, when the old hive is to 

 be carried to a new location where it is wished 

 that it should remain. After the bees thus re- 

 moved have become reconciled to their queen- 

 less condition, or in from 24 to 36 hours, give 

 them a virgin or laying queen in a cage, in the 

 mouth of which is enough Good candy so that 

 it will take them from three to four hours to 

 eat it out, thus liberating the queen. When 

 the queen gets to laying, take out the division- 

 board and fill out the hive with combs or 

 foundation. In this way we secure a new 

 swarm, control all after-swarming, and intro- 

 duce a young queen, all to our liking and with 

 but little trouble. 



'^ci^g^rgk^ 



HONEY-CAKE RECIPE. 



As I know a good recipe to make honey-cake, 

 I will publish it for the benefit of others: Five 

 eggs; 2 cups honey; 1 cup sugar; cinnamon; 

 one teaspoonful soda. Beat the eggs with 

 sugar; heat the honey lightly; stir in soda 

 with one spoonful of warm water, then pour it 

 all together. Stir as much flour to it, to roll 

 out for cakes. When eggs are scarce I take 

 two eggs or none, but a cup of lard, two cups 

 honey, one of sugar, etc. I prefer this recipe. 

 I make cakes, or pour it in a pan. It never 

 fails to be good in either shape. Just try it. 

 You and the children will be satisfied. We eat 

 honey three times a day, the whole year round. 

 Guajilla and catsclaw honey have a fine taste. 

 The more you eat, the better you like it. 



Mks. Annie Schuddemagkn. 



Sabinal, Texas. 



