March, igi-'. 



American IBoe Journal 



in a very "pointed way" of our care- 

 lessness. And even when we exercise 

 due care, there are times when the 

 opening of hives as rapidly as is neces- 

 sary where the apiarist manipulates 

 colonies by the hundreds, is somewhat 

 beset with stings. Hence, it behooves 

 us to start out right with each colony 

 as we proceed in these operations. 

 Many of these stings are brought upon 

 us by the manner in which the hive is 

 opened. There is more in this opera- 

 tion than very many of us even dream. 

 Many of our text-books do not give the 

 best instructions on this Doint, so that 

 even the beginner, having such a text- 

 book, does not learn how to open a 

 hive properly, while with those who 

 have no text-book it is simply a matter 

 of guess-work. 



Then, many of the instructions given 

 in our bee-papers are largely at fault, 

 inasmuch as they are given from the 

 standpoint of an apiarist having only 

 very gentle Italians. These may be all 

 right for such bees, but when a begin- 

 ner comes to apply them to the blacks, 

 or still more vicious hybrids, he is 

 obliged to beat a hasty retreat, or re- 

 ceive so many stings that he almost 

 wishes he had "never enlisted for the 

 war." And nine chances in ten the be- 

 ginner commences operations with 

 such bees by finding some runaway 

 swarm, a colony in a tree, or some bees 

 left him by some relative having a few 

 colonies in bo.x-hives. 



It took me several years to learn in 

 this matter of opening hives, and here 

 is what I learned : To open the hive 

 of the average colony of blacks or hy- 

 brids, have your smoker well filled with 

 partially decayed wood, having placed 

 a coal of fire in the bottom before fill- 

 ing, then work the bellows till a good 

 flow of smoke conies from the nozzle, 

 when you are ready to proceed to the 

 hive you wish to open. Arriving, blow 

 smoke two or three times across the 

 entrance, so as to start the guards back 

 into the hive, and if you have reason 

 to believe the colony an easily excited 

 one, or no nectar-secretion is abound- 

 ing, follow this with one or two puffs 

 in at the entrance. 



Now, noiselessly, and with especial 

 care about jarring, pry up the cover at 

 one side, and as soon as a crack large 

 enough to admit smoke is made, blow in 

 a whiff or two, and as the cover is 

 gradually lifted, blow more across the 

 tops of the frames, so as to start the 

 bees down between the frames of comb. 

 Unless you have reason to think they 

 need more than this, do not blow 

 smoke down between the combs, for 

 by so doing the colony, especially if 

 blacks, will be stampeded out at the 

 entrance, and returning will boil up 

 over the tops of the frames and sides 

 of the hive, thus thwarting all pros- 

 pects of finding the (|ueen, should you 

 wish to do so, as well as making all 

 your manii)ulations very unpleasant. 



If at any time the bees become rest- 

 less and show a disposition to fly at 

 you from the frames as you are hand- 

 ling them, more smoke will be re(|uired. 

 By giving it at just the right point at 

 this stage, the bees can be kept in 

 quietude until you close the hive ; but 

 if delayed until quite a lot of bees get 

 in the air and commence stinging the 

 person or the clothes worn, nothing 



short of sufficient smoking to subdue 

 such a colony entirely will answer. 

 Under such conditions I have had al- 

 most literally to drive the smoke down 

 through each range of combs, till 

 nearly the whole colony was out at the 

 entrance, or over on the outside of the 

 hive before I became master of the 

 situation. However, when nothing un- 

 foreseen happens after opening the hive 

 of the most vicious bees, occasionally 

 a few puffs of smoke floated over the 

 tops of the frames is sufficient to keep 

 them in good subjection. 



With gentle bees it is a very rare 

 thing that I blow any smoke at the en- 

 trance except when a profuse flow of 

 nectar has suddenly stopped. At such 

 times, and with a cool, cloudy day, 

 when all the old field-bees are at home, 

 almost any colony will resent handling 

 without considerable smoke, unless 

 more time is taken to open the hive 

 slowly and cautiously than is at the 

 command of the apiarist who has more 

 than 25 or 30 colonies. 



Now while I have spoken of opening 

 a hive noiselessly, cautiously, and with- 

 out jarring, do not get the idea that 

 lots of time must be spent on each hive. 

 On the contrary (but always having 

 these points in view), the quicker any 

 hive is opened, throwing the full light 

 onto theco'onyat an unexpected point, 

 the less liable are they to rally to a de- 

 fence. By opening the hive gently but 

 quickly, one will soon get so that be- 

 fore he has a chance to think twice 

 the hive is opened and a frame out. 

 Smoking at the entrances drives the 

 guards from their place as sentinels, 

 while the smoke floating over the tops 

 of the frames seems to tell them " house 

 on fire," while the quickly removed 

 frame throws a flood of light into 

 where it is usually dark, and the whole 

 colony is so demoralized, or thrown 

 out of its normal condition, that a fight 

 for home is not thought of for some 

 little time. 



If our removal of the first frame is 

 somewhat delayed, the colony relapses 

 into its normal condition, when, unless 

 more smoke is used, they will resent 

 the removal of the first frame. I well 

 remember getting the cover oft' a hive 

 as here advocated, when at that mo- 

 ment an urgent call came from the 

 house. On returning some two or 

 three minutes later, I attempted to lift 

 out a frame without further smoking, 

 and was driven from the field with dis- 

 honor by the onslaught of hundreds 

 of bees pouring from the tops of the 

 frames, almost completely covering me, 

 and singing and stinging at every 

 "'point of vantage " they could find. 

 Where one leaves a hive uncovered in 

 this way, never try to open it further 

 till the bees collected on top of the 

 frames have been stampeded down be- 

 tween the combs with smoke. 



This is the order for the beginner: 

 Smoke at the entrance first, through 

 the crack under the cover as the cover 

 is raised, then over the tops of the 

 combs until the bees are running 

 down, then removing the first frame 

 quickly to very fast. Don't wait for 

 the bees to fill with honey, let them fill 

 while you are doing what you think is 

 necessary, or not at all. Operating in 

 this way, yi>u will be very free from 

 stings. I often work a whole day with- 



out a single sting, and at one time two 

 weeks of steady work with the bees 

 was done with only one sting, and that 

 from pinching one when holding a 

 frame up to the light to see if any eggs 

 were in the cells. 



One other point before closing: If 

 through some mishap, or not getting 

 the desired subjection expected, a 

 dozen, more or less, of cross bees get 

 into the air and persist in following us 

 about like a "bodyguard," little peace 

 can be had in the work of the apiary as 

 long as these bees live. They are al- 

 most sure to be on the alert for you as 

 soon as you enter the apiary, and keep 

 this "guarding" up day after day. 

 Stand up straight with your back to 

 the wind, if there is any, when all of 

 these bees will attack you from the 

 front, when with a shingle, fence-sep- 

 arator, or a paddle of wood and wire- 

 cloth, made for the purpose, they can 

 all be killed in less time than it takes 

 to tell how it is done. But if the day 

 is still it will take longer, as at such a 

 time they will scatter all about you so 

 that only one at a time may be hit. But 

 no matter what the day is, the killing 

 of these angry bees is the only chance 

 of any peaceful work in the apiary for 

 many days to come. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Requeening^When and Why 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



That fall is the true beginning of the 

 bee-keepers' year is gradually becom- 

 ing recognized. The season's crop is 

 very largely dependent upon the atten- 

 tion given to the bees the preceding 

 fall, and the principal feature of such 

 attention is the requeening of the colo- 

 nies. The more progressive among 

 the bee-keepers regularly each fall re- 

 move all the queens from their bees 

 and put in young ones. That the very 

 highest results may be secured some 

 are taking the pains to have all the 

 young queens reared from the same 

 mother, and as nearly as possible 

 hatched at the same time. 



To remove a vigorous queen doing 

 full duty in a colony and replace her 

 with a new one seems to many persons 

 to be a grievous loss, but nevertheless 

 it is the most profitable thing to do. 

 Though a queen may be up to the 

 highest grade in work this fall, next 

 year, when most needed, she fails to 

 meet requirements. Some queens, so 

 far as can be seen, do just as good 

 work the third season as the first, but 

 it is impossible at present to predeter- 

 mine which queens will he good the 

 second or third year. Breeding of bees 

 has not yet progressed to that point 

 where characters are fixed, and until 

 they are, and until the bee-keepers rear 

 more uniformly well-grown queens, it 

 will be wise to follow the plan of an- 

 nual requeening. And even under this 

 method, and with the best of care, 

 some (jueens will not produce colonies 

 as good as the others. 



The best time to requeen depends 

 somewhat upon the honey-flows of the 

 section one is in, but it is customary to 

 get the (|ueen in after the main flow 

 and before the last flow of the season. 

 By putting her in after the main flow 



