206 



American l^ee Journal k 



.'uly, 1M2. 



and half of the supers and bees, I place 

 the old hive on the new stand with the 

 remaining supers. 



In ') or ti days I return and examine 

 all divisions, and remove the cell-pro- 

 tectors and insert a comb or so in the 

 center of the brood-nest of the divis- 

 ions that liave queens, if they need 

 more comb. Then 2 weeks later I re- 

 turn and insert more comb in the 

 broodnest of the divisions which con- 

 tain the old queens. I remove some 

 sealed brood from the stronger ones 

 and give to the weaker divisions. By 

 this time the new divisions have laying 

 queens. About 2 weeks later I again 

 return and place the remaining empty 

 combs in the brood-nest, and again 



add sealed brood to the weaker divis- 

 ions. With only a little honey coming 

 in it may be necessary to equalize 

 stores somewhat. It is then only a 

 week or so before the next honey-flow. 

 As soon as it has begun I return and 

 again give the weaker divisions more 

 sealed brood from the stronger colo- 

 nies. 



About all the honey has been con- 

 sumed in this great increase, but every- 

 thing is ideal for the honey harvest, 

 and supers are placed on in sufticient 

 numbers for it. There is no swarming 

 during this flow, and it will not be 

 necessary to disturb the bees any more. 

 The greatest amount of honey possible 

 will be harvested. 



Conducted by J. I.. BvER, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



Moving a Car of Bees " Nerve Racking" 



A few weeks ago the writer had his 

 first experience in moving a carload 

 of bees, and he is now quite ready to 

 agree with all who have been on the 

 job, that it is a "nerve racking" busi- 

 ness. The car was loaded at night, 

 and the bees had to stay on the siding 

 until the next day at 3 in the afternoon. 

 The day (May 23) was the only real 

 hot one we have had this year, the 

 mercury going up to nearly 90 degrees, 

 and it was surprising what a heat was 

 generated in that car while standing 

 there. Each colony had a full depth 

 empty super on top of the hive, screened 

 over with wire-netting. 



The abundance of ventilation was all 

 that saved the bees. During the day I 

 used about 20 gallons of water on 

 them, and I was thankful for the wet 

 weather we had had the day before. I 

 ran out of water, but was able to re- 

 plenish my can from thcditches when 

 the train stopped at a station. 



From 7 in the evening until 3 in the 

 morning my car was banged around 

 the West Toronto yards by about a 

 dozen different s.vitch engines. At 

 first, I was a bit afraid of results. How- 

 ever, I found that an extra hard jolt 

 did not harm them, so after that I did 

 not worry. Leaving at 3 a.m. we were 

 12 hours going less than H") miles. We 

 had r,(i cars with but one engine, and 

 often had to wait to let other trains 

 pass. Arriving at our destination at 3 

 p.m., we found that a telegram sent 

 had gone astray. We hail to hustle for 

 some rig to unload the bees. In the whole 

 community there was not a spring 

 wagon. At last a flat hay-rack on a 

 heavy lumber wagon was secured, and 

 1 he bees were moved on that over a 

 road that I would have been afraid of 

 at any other time even with a good 

 spring wagon. 



However, "all is well that ends well," 

 and with all the banging the bees re- 

 ceived on the car, not a hive budged 

 an inch, and after the moving over the 

 rocks with a heavy wagon, not a single 

 comb was broken. I was afraid that 



some brood would die, owing to the 

 hot weather encountered on the mov- 

 ing trip, but no dead brood was in evi- 

 dence, and there was not a pint of dead 

 bees in the whole outfit when the bees 

 were liberated. 



For two nights I had no sleep. The 

 night we unloaded the bees it was 

 was after 12 when we finished the job, 

 and I was so tired that I could not sleep 

 when I got the chance. Yes, moving 

 bees is a " nerve-racking " business, but 

 there is a fascination about it, and at a 

 future date I hope to give more partic- 

 ulars about my trip for the benefit of 

 some other " greenhorn " who may 

 have work of that nature. 



Advantage of Clipping Queens' Wings 



Owing to the continued wet weather 

 during the spring, and the fact that I 

 had to move the bees referred to above, 

 as well as spend a week in the East 

 helping my son at the New Dublin 

 yard, for the first time in a long while 

 I found it impossible to get all my 

 queens clipped — not half of them were 

 attended to. I had to rush supers on 

 them before I left, to keep down 

 swarming, and when I got home fruit- 

 bloom was over and the hives could 

 not be opened as no honey was com- 

 ing in. If we get a flow of honey, and 

 there should be much swarming, cer- 

 tainly I will have a picnic with only 

 about half of the queens clippeil. For 

 3 years past, while all the queens have 

 been clipped, we have had almost no 

 swarming, so it would have made little 

 difference whether they were clipped 

 or not. This year may tell a different 

 story. 



Canada a Large Country 



Canada is not likely to ever be part 

 of the L'nited States, certainly it is not 

 at present. Ontario is a province of 

 Canada in the same way that Illinois is 

 a .State of the Unicjn. This informa- 

 tion is for the benefit of a great num- 

 ber of friends over the line who write 

 me and enclose United States stamps 



for reply. While I can get the stamps 

 exchanged, yet when I receive the reg- 

 ular stamped envelopes with the parties 

 name and address written on, the en- 

 velope and stamp are wasted. 



In regard to my address, much mail 

 comes addressed to Mount Joy, Canada. 

 Suppose I sent a letter to Hamilton, 

 U. S., what would happen ? Chances 

 are that " Hamilton " is duplicated in 

 several States in the post-olfice direc- 

 tory, just the same as many post-offices 

 are of the same name in different prov- 

 inces of Canada. Address letters to 

 Mount Joy, Ontario, Canada. 



Tlie Carniolan Bees 



Many are praising the qualities of 

 the Carniolan bees, especially those 

 bee-keepers who are situated where 

 they have a very early flow of honey. 

 The common diificulty is in having col- 

 onies ready for the flow, especially 

 after a cold, late spring. From my 

 personal experience I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that a good strain of 

 C^rniolans is the best solution of this 

 problem, as given a big brood-nest and 

 abundance of stores to draw from, 

 weather conditions make little differ- 

 ence with this race of bees. In the 

 early spring, brood will be reared at 

 an enormous rate. One friend in 

 Idaho is afraid that they will swarm 

 too much to be of practical use — this 

 idea gleaned from what others have 

 told him. If you use a single brood- 

 chamber 8-frame Langstroth hive, they 

 will certainly give trouble, but with 

 a brood-nest large enough, and lots of 

 storing room, everything will be lovely. 

 By large enough, I mean not less than 

 10-frame Jumbo, or if the 10-frame 

 Langstroth is used, two bodies can be 

 allowed until the opening of the main 

 harvest, and then if very strong, as 

 they are apt to be, some of the brood 

 should be taken away from the lower 

 story, and foundation or empty combs 

 given before the queen is restricted to 

 the one set of combs. 



No Time to " Boil it Down " 



Friend Tyrrell gives advice in the 

 June Bee-Keepers' Review as to how 

 correspondents should "boil down" 

 their contributions for the journals. 

 First write the full acccuint, giving all 

 details, etc., then go over with a pencil 

 and mark out all not really necessary, 

 and rewrite the story much simplified 

 and much shorter than the original. It 

 sounds all right friend Tyrrell, but that 

 is absolutely impossible for this scrib- 

 ler, because sometimes I am /no />itsy, 

 and at all times I am /na /a:y to do so 

 much work. I simply sit down to the 

 typewriter, I have learneil to play on a 

 bit, and without a single note to guide 

 me, rattle off a lot of stuff to puzzle 

 friend Dadant and others. It "goes" 

 that way every time. This confession 

 will, no doubt, serve to make the read- 

 ers exercise charity when they scan 

 over the stuff I send in ; they will be 

 willing to make allowance for much I 

 say. 



[Friend Byer, we would rather ac- 

 cept a lot of " stuff " written by a prac- 

 tical bee-keeper sitting on a bee-hive 



