September, 1912. 



American Hee Journal 



been to go to the colony, destroy all 

 queen-cells, remove two frames, then 

 go to a nucleus that has a laying queen, 

 take two frames of brood with the 

 queen and adhering bees and put in 

 place of the two frames removed. We 

 have always considered this a safe plan 

 of introduction, and have rarely failed 

 to write the word " P.\ss " as the next 

 entry for that colony; so we were 

 somewhat surprised this year, on open- 

 ing up 3 colonies that had been thus 

 treated, to find every one of them 

 queenless. Just what the trouble was 

 is hard to say. We have been having 

 ■a lot of rainy, cool weather, and that 

 may have had something to do with it. 

 Clearly something else must be done. 

 We have introduced by the caging 

 plan, but do not like it as well on ac- 

 count of its interfering with the laying 

 of the queen. So we tried the news- 

 paper plan; took off the supers, cov- 

 ered the hive with one thickness of 

 newspaper, without making any hole 

 in the paper, placed an empty hive-body 

 on this, placed the queen from the 

 nucleus with her two frames of brood 

 and bees in it, put one thickness of 

 newspaper over this with no opening 

 in the paper, and put on the supers 

 which were full of bees. We left an 

 opening just big enough for a bee to 

 pass out under the cover over the su- 

 pers. In a day or two we found the 

 paper gnawed away, the bees united, 

 and queen laying all right. It is a lit- 

 tle more bother to introduce in this 

 way, but evidently safer, no doubt 

 owing to the fact that at first the unit- 

 ing is very gradual. So far as we have 

 tried it, and we have used it for several 



years, the newspaper plan of uniting 

 has always been a success. 



Three Honey Recipes 



I have forgotten the source of these 

 recipes, but I give the following for 

 what they are worth ; 



1. If threatened with a cold, take this 

 drink just before jumping into bed; 

 One spoonful of honey, one-half lemon 

 juice stirred in a tumbler of boiling 

 water. Drink as hot as possible. 



2. For all burns, sor.es on the skin, 

 chapped hands and kindred ills, take 

 two tablespoonfuls of honey, one of 

 camphor, and a small piece of wax, all 

 heated together, and then let cool. 



.'5. For coughs and sore throats take 

 one tablespoonful of spruce gum, 

 pounded fine and dissolved in a pint of 

 honey. — D. M. M.\cdon.'\ld, in Brilisli 

 Bee Journal. 



*-•-* 



How to Interest the Boys and Girls 



Let bee-keeping mothers wishing to 

 interest their children in bee-keeping, 

 try this scheme ; 



Give to each child a colony of bees 

 with the distinct understanding that 

 everything that he can make with that 

 colony belongs to him. You may be 

 surprised at the interest awakened. 

 Especially will this be true if there be 

 more than one child in the family, for 

 competition spurs their efforts. Even 

 young children from tl to 7 years old 

 may compete with the older ones. In- 

 directly it may help to solve the prob- 

 lem of how to keep the girls and boys 

 on the farm. 



EMt Western W) Bee-Kjeeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder, Colo. 



A Bee-Keeper's Weeit — Over-confidence 



Sunday, July 20, George, a bee-keeper 

 neighbor, and I went down the river 35 

 miles to transfer 4-!) colonies of bees 

 from bo.x-hives. George had raised the 

 boxes end up and placed our hives 

 with drawn combs under them about a 

 month before. It rained 4 times during 

 the day, and we were soaked through 

 as many times. Our bedding was 

 damp, and we put it on the floor of the 

 old adobe house the first night. Mrs. 

 H., who sold me the box-hives, got a 

 lunch for us at 9 o'clock p.m., so we 

 did not go supperless to bed. 



Monday, July 21, we began transfer- 

 ring the bees by smoking them down 

 into the lower hives. They did not 

 drive well, and we lost several queens 

 in the operation. We cut out the 

 combs, threw the brood out in a pile 

 and ran the combs of honey through 

 the capping melter. Large extracting 

 knives were used to cut out the combs 

 and separate the honey-comb from the 

 sealed and unsealed brood. The bees 

 seemed to be going out of the boxes 

 well, so George went ahead smoking 

 out and setting off the old boxes until 

 he had 20 set off. Soon the bees began 



going back to the boxes, and after that 

 we had an awful time to get them out 

 at all. 



By night we had 35 colonies driven 

 out, and had run (iO lO.-pound pails of 

 honey through the melter. We worked 

 until 10 o'clock p.m.. running the melter 

 and filling pails. We were tired and 

 awfully sticky with honey when we quit 

 for the night. 



Tuesday, July 22, we began work at 6 

 o'clock, and had the last 10 boxes 

 emptied of bees by 8 o'clock. We cut 

 the honey out and threw away the 

 brood, which the chickens relished. 

 Bees worked on the old sticks, frames, 

 and hives until about 8 o'clock, when 

 the alfalfa and sweet clover bloom be- 

 came more attractive. George and I 

 did not think it would pay to save the 

 brood, as it would be a sticky job fitting 

 it into frames, and the combs would 

 not be very good, even after we had 

 fitted and fastened them in. I gave 

 Mrs. H. all the wax for keeping the 

 melter going on the kitchen range. 

 We finished running the honey by 

 noon, after cleaning the melter twice 

 in the forenoon. When all the lit- 

 pound pails were filled we counted 91 



in all. Many of the colonies had stored 

 ■ the lower stories full of honey so they 

 weighed HO pounds or more. Some, 

 however, did not have any honev. In 

 the afternoon we screened the tops of 

 the hives with wire screens, using lath 

 to put around the hive edge. We 

 stapled on the bottom with a hive staple 

 at each corner. 



We had a hard time getting all the 

 bees into the hives, and it was very 

 warm and sultry. We set the frames 

 up in front of the hives that were clus- 

 tering out, and the bees crawled all 

 over these combs. Then I took them 

 to weaker colonies and shook the bees 

 into them. In an hour I had the bees 

 well equalized. I did this by moon- 

 light, after supper. I went to bed dead 

 tired on the hayrack, bedded with old 

 hay for hauling the bees. 



Wednesday, July 23, we got up at 

 4 :30 a.m., and I closed up the entrances 

 with cloth while George sawed lath 

 and nailed the entrances tight. By 8 

 o'clock we had all the cracks and holes 

 closed and the bees on the wagon. We 

 started at 9 o'clock, and had not gone 

 more than a half mile when one of the 

 strongest colonies began to smother. 

 We unloaded it and drove on. We had 

 4 horses and 4(; hives of bees ; the road 

 was rough, and we went 5 miles before 

 1 p.m. We saw then that all the colo- 

 nies would smother unless we un- 

 loaded, so we took off the hives and 

 released them. Some of the best ones 

 seemed nearly gone, but we will not 

 know the exact loss until we go back. 

 The day we started out was coOl, but it 

 became very hot about noon and water 

 did no good. Wet blankets were laid 

 and suspended over the tops. We left 

 for home at 4 o'clock p.m. and drove 

 15 miles to a rancher's where we stayed 

 all night. 



Thursday, July 24, we drove the re- 

 maining 15 miles by noon, and made 

 arrangements to go back after the 

 bees next w-eek. We will take empty 

 supers and screen the tops of therti. 

 This will give clustering space so no 

 smothering should be experienced. 



Friday, July 25, I put on more supers 

 on the colonies at home. I walked to 

 town, bought lumber, and engaged a 

 carpenter to build a 12x14 foot honey- 

 house at the new out-yard I am estab- 

 lishing. Native common lumber costs 

 $22 per thousand, and barn hinges for 

 the doors and windows 50 cents a pair. 

 The 3-ply paper roofing costs $3.25 a 

 roll — it takes two rolls. The carpen- 

 ter charges $1 a day, and my bill for 

 lumber and all was $43. The lumber 

 yard does not deliver, so I had to hire 

 a team for $2 to haul the stuff a mile. 



Saturday, July 2l), the carpenter and 

 I have the honey-house about half 

 done. There are many loose knots in 

 the lumber, and I will have a hard time 

 to make the house mouse and bee 

 tight. I will probably line the build- 

 ing with 1-ply roofing on the inside, and 

 tin the cracks and holes in the floor. I 

 will raise the corners on heavy timber 

 pillars about one foot off the ground, 

 and place inverted tin pans on them to 

 keep out the mice, a In corncrib. 



The room is built with the studding 

 on the outside, so that piles of hives 

 and supers can be stacked up well on 

 the inside without coming in contact 

 with the studding. Then some day I 



