154 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



whenever they began to build comb. Be- 

 cause drones were continually on their minds 

 they persisted in building drone comb, and 

 not much else. The difficulty is a serious 

 one, and the remedy is to let things proceed 

 according to nature. My present usage, 

 when I have plenty of combs to give, is to 

 let each swarm have a full set except one 

 empty frame, in which to exercise their nat- 

 ural love for comb-building. 



"June 28th. 3 — 8 swarmed at quarter past 

 eight, sky overcast, and rain just about to begin, 

 so the affair was conducted mostly in the rain. 

 Bees lit everywiici p at first but finally clustered. 

 Queen either went V)ack or did not fly at all, as I 

 saw her at the entrance. The bees after hanging 

 awhile in the rain went back." 



And this was not, as one would suppose, a 

 second, the bees all excited by a quarrel 

 over a batch of hatching queens, but a prime 

 swarm. Experiences like this rather put a 

 " damper " on the extravagant claims usu- 

 ally allowed to sprinklers and spray-nozzles. 

 Nature can get up a more extensive and 

 effective spray than you can ; and yet bees 

 sometimes get so much in earnest about 

 their swarming antics that they pay little at- 

 tention to nature's demonstrations, and are 

 likely to pay still less to yours. I have tried 

 the sprinkling tactics long, earnestly and 

 faithfully, but finally gave them up as a use- 

 less waste of energy. There is this impor- 

 tant rebate, however, a swarm clustered in a 

 tree can be wet down every fifteen minutes 

 or so, and thus be kept from escaping 

 until it can be attended to. 



A Revolving Non-Swarmer ; How it is to be 

 Managed and what is Expected of it. 



RiCHAKDS, Ohio. 



May 31, 1892. 



Emerson E. Hasty was born in Standish, 

 Maine, 52 years ago. ("ame to Lucas Co , Ohio, 

 in 1W3; to his present home in 1846. Helped 

 about the bees in childhood. Came to have the 

 principal care of tliem later— sometimes halt a- 

 (hizen colonies, sometimes twenty or thirty — but 

 never thought of sobing any honey— to get some 

 for home use was all. Began to get his eyes open 

 about 1877. Bought tlie home apiary, then 63 

 colonies, in 1879. Average number of colonies 

 left in the spring since then about 76. Fearful 

 winter losses in '81 anil '85. Locality a barren 

 one as to its honey 8upi)ly. Largest honey crop a 

 litth> over a ton and a half. Smallest do. 602 lbs. 

 Best year's yield per colony. 63 lbs. _ Pool est do. 

 7 lbs. First grand time of it in writing for the 

 papers in Nellis' Exchange. 1879. Other personal 

 items : Wanted awfully to go to college — glad 

 now he didn't. Tried to make up the lack by a 

 large amount of private study. Wished to pre- 

 pare for and enter the regular ministry -well 

 satisfied now that he did not do that. However, 

 he spends mucli more time, thought and money 

 in pushing the cause of Christian truth in the 

 world than in the care of bees. This, together 

 with broken health, has largely kept him out of 

 the bee i>apers of late. Best literary work, 

 translation of Virgil's 4th Georgic. Best musical 

 work, the liymn. "Seeking for Me," in Gospel 

 Hymns, No. 6. 



B. TAYLOK. 



¥ 



( )l' know that my 

 bee-yard is laid 

 out in circles. Well, 

 I have practiced, on 

 a large scale, the 

 mixing of bees from 

 different hives, and 

 I have found that 

 bees can be united 

 in a way hitherto 

 unthought of. To 

 take advantage of 

 this fact I have made 

 a revolving stand, upon the outer edge of 

 which will be placed colonies of bees. The 

 hives will be exactly alike, each containing 

 sixteen combs, 6x13 inches in ide measure. 

 My new double-walled hives have combs of 

 that size. I will keep the bees in the double 

 hives until the white clover season, when the 

 combs and bees will be lifted into the long 

 hives on the revolving platform. These 

 hives hold three supers each, and each super 

 has sixteen sections. I have used twenty of 

 them, and can keep the strongest colony at 

 work without tiering up. 



The platform revolves, and will be turned 

 partly around, say one eighth or one-quarter 

 each day, thus keeping the bees completely 

 mixed up. With plenty of room in the 

 brood nest and abundant room for surplus 

 honey, I expect to prevent swarming. If 

 they do swarm, I shall just scatter the bees 

 around the circle and keep them at won'k, 

 without increase. 



"(), you old goose!" I think I hear you 

 say. Friend H., I am going to spend the 

 balance of my days in making experiments. 

 I do not expect to get money for my pay. I 

 do not crave all money for pay. It is the 

 source of all kinds of devilment and shame- 

 ful work. But I do love to find out hidden 

 things, and am perfectly willing to take my 

 pay in that way : and, as I am situated to 

 experiment cheaply, I am determined to 

 have some happiness. I now have a great 

 store of supplies for carrying on experi- 

 ments. I have double-walled hives, winter- 

 ing and spring protecting cases, big hives, 

 little hives, long hives, short hives, deep 

 hives, shallow hives, first class wintering 

 cellars and house apiaries. 



