1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



333 



APPENDIX TO THE A B (J OF BEE Cl'LTUHE. 



For the 42d Thousand. 



Again I have called upon oni- friend and 

 corresi)ondent, Dr. ('. V. Miller, of Marengo, 

 111., to review this edition, just before the 

 final form goes to press. It is to be observed, 

 that he has commented on some things in 

 the body of the work, and suggested some 

 of the later developments which have come 

 up since some of the forms were printed. 

 These latter, though promising much, should 

 be put in tlie appendix because they have not 

 been sufficiently tested to warrant giving 

 them such i)rominence and indorsement as 

 the body of the work gives to devices and 

 methods that have been most thoroughly 

 tested. I have also made some additions. 

 His matter will appear in solid type, while 

 mine will be. as usual, like tliis. The doc- 

 tor begins as follows : 



PAGE 4.— AFTER-SWAKMING. 



Perhaps it is not best to leave entirely out 

 of sight the old-fashioned way of returning 

 all swarms that issue when no more swarms 

 are desired. It is a troublesome, but entire- 

 ly effecti;al way, if persisted in, and was 

 practiced with box hives bef(n-e the advent 

 of the movable comb. All that is necessary 

 is to put the swarm back into the parent 

 hive as often as it issues ; and when only 

 one young queen is left alive in the hive, the 

 swarming will cease. Sometimes putting 

 back an after-swarm once is all that is nec- 

 essary. 



PACfE 12.— AXTS. 



There is a kind of large black ant that 

 may be specially mentioned. These ants 

 are troublesome, and sometimes even dan- 

 gerous. They burrow in the wood of bot- 

 tom-boards ; and I have seen a bottom- 

 board that looked sound on the exterior, so 

 thoroughly riddled by these pests that a very 

 little touch would make it crumble. Think 

 what a time you might have, if such a bot- 

 tom-board should crumble while being haul- 

 ed on a wagon I 



PAGE IH.— APIARY. 



One objection to any apiary made sym- 

 metrical in form, no matter how beautiful 

 in appearance, is, that the bees do not so 

 readily And their liomes when they have no 

 distinctive landmarks. On this account some 

 think it well to plant trees, if none are al- 

 ready growing; and a studied irregularity 

 in their positions — copying after Nature's 

 planting — makes each spot in the apiary 



different from every other spot, so that no 

 bee need have any difficulty in going with 

 unerring certainty straight to its own home. 

 A natural linden grove is a fine site for an 

 apiary. Instead of being placed in the cen- 

 ter of the apiary, workshops are nowadays 

 generally placed to one side. One reason 

 for this IS, that it is not always convenient 

 for a team of horses to be driven into the 

 center of an apiary to reach the shop. 



I'AGK 20.— jroA'lXO WHOLE APJAKIES XOHTII- 

 WARD. 



Within the past few years some progress 

 has been made in this matter, and it now 

 seems that these who have had sufficient ex- 

 perience may successfully bring bees from 

 the South to" the North in time to profit by 

 the clover and basswood. Byron Walker, of 

 Cai)ac, Mich., can not successfully winter 

 Ins bees, on account of unwholesome food 

 gathered in his locality, and he has made a 

 practice of buying up bees in the sprnig in 

 the South, and" transporting them bv rail to 

 the North. 



PAGE 26.— ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



Since the increase of out-apiaries, advan- 

 tage has been taken of the fact that, when a 

 frame of brood and bees is taken a consider- 

 able distance, tlie bees will stay wherever 

 they are put. Suppose you have a hive full 

 of combs, each comb having a queen-cell, as 

 explained already. If this hive be taken to 

 an out-apiary, each comb with its queen-cell 

 and adhering bees may be put into a sepa- 

 rate hive, the hive then filled with frames of 

 foundation ; and, if done early enough in an 

 extra good season, each nucleus thus formed 

 will grow into a good colony during the 

 course ot the season, with no further care 

 than to see that it hiis succeeded in getting 

 a laying queen. It is better, however, to 

 take alcmg, at the time of hauling away, a 

 second hive full of brood and bees, but with 

 no queen or queen-cells, and give to each 

 nucleus one of these combs with adhering 

 bees. Then you have a fair chance of suc- 

 cess in any ordinary season. 



For those who use large hives, and work 

 for extracted honey, there is a very simjile 

 way to double the number of colonies, whicli 

 has worked well in the hands of some. When 

 the time comes for surplus storing, put a 

 queen-excluder on the hive, and on this i)ut 

 a second stoiT filled with frames of fouiuhi- 

 tion, or, better still, eniptv comb, then a 

 third story also filled in the same way, ex- 

 cept that you jilace in the third story one or 

 two comb"s of- brood taken from the lower 

 storv, together with the adhering bees. 



