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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 26, 1903. 



PUBLISHBD WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK S CONPAINY 



144 & 146 E. Erie St., Chicago, 111. 



EDITOR, 

 CS-E!OR,OE3 "W. "X"0K.K:. 



DEPT. EDITORS, 



Dr. C.C.Miller, E.E. Hasty, Emma M. Wilson 



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I FROM MANY FIELDS | 



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 Shaken op Forced Swarms. 



I will try and answer the following; 

 questions through the American Bee Jour- 

 nal : 



"i. I read your article on page 55. Why 

 not shake on wide starters V 



"2. They did not punctuate as you in- 

 tended. I think you wanted to say that 

 'after the five frames were filled then in- 

 sert drawn combs or frames filled with 

 foundation.' Did you not? 



"3. I see Mr. Miller, at the Ontario con- 

 vention, said: 'Do not leave extracted 

 honey open.' Do you agree to this? 



"4. Why need we turn hives upside 

 down in transferring? 



"5. Our alfalfa blooms about every five 

 or six weeks during summer. Now, why 

 wouldn't you shake at the beginning of 

 every flow, as I want to double ray colo- 

 nies and get the alfalfa honey in supers 

 and let them fill up brood-chamber from 

 heartsease for winter? — F. Kingsley, of 

 Nebraska." 



.\nswers. — I. Because if the bees get 

 ahead of the queen in building comb they 

 will build drone-comb. By using half- 

 inch starters the queen, if a prolific one. 

 will keep up with the .bees witn egg-laying, 

 and consequently there will be less drone- 

 comb built. 



2. Yes ; I intended to say "and after the 

 five frames are filled the dummies should 

 be removed and space filled with full 

 sheets of foundation or drawn combs." 



3. Yes, I agree with you. I never ex- 

 tract until all honey is sealed and well 

 ripened ; then I put in a tank holding 

 3,600 pounds to settle, and seal, as I think 

 it retains its flavor better. 



4. In transrferring from box-hive I turn 



the hive upside down, as the honey is at 

 the top, and as the lower end is generally 

 open it is less trouble to turn the hive 

 over; and, besides, if there is any honey 

 in the hive, in tearing off the cover the' 

 honey would begin to run, and bees can't 

 be driven over sticky combs. Another 

 reason is, if bees are inclined to rob you 

 are liable to start them. 



S. I don't think your bees would build 

 up sufficiently to shake every five or six 

 weeks. If you did shake that often you 

 would more than double your colonies. 

 If your bees are strong enough to shake 

 at the beginning of the first flow from 

 alfalfa you can do so ; but if I wanted 

 to increase my colonies I would not make 

 the second drive, but would leave enough 

 bees to take care of the brood and re- 

 move the old colony to its permanent 

 place and give a queen or ripe cell, and 

 it will be ready for the fall fiow, and 

 depend on the swarm for your surplus 

 from alfalfa. Never shake until your bees 

 are strong and there is honey coming 

 in. J. T. Hairston. 



Cherokee Nation, Ind. Ter. 



Press for Forming Sections. 



I enclose a sketch of section-press that 

 I invented and used for the last two sea- 

 sons. It does the work fast and easy. 

 A lever raised by a spring folds the sec- 

 tion, place in press ; pull down the lever 

 and the section is pressed nicely to- 

 gether and is square. 



The small pieces in the corners (xx) are 

 pieces of a section-box ; they are there so 

 the section will be pressed a little more 

 than square (they will spring back 

 square). 



On the side of the press have a board 

 that covers the opening so the section 

 will be placed in opening square and 

 even. 



I don't think any more explanation is 

 necessary ; if so, will be glad to answer 

 any question you may ask. 



I. C. Bachtel. 



Modoc Co., Cal. 



[This section-press will no doubt make 

 good work, as it is practically the same 

 as one in use for a long time, although 

 later presses have largely taken its place. 

 Section-presses are furnished ready-made 

 at such moderate prices that one could 

 hardly afford to make one of these for his 

 own use. especially as this can hardly be 

 called an improvement. — Ed.] 



Cleaning Partly-Filled Sections. 



Allow me to say a word or two about 

 cleaning partly filled sections, as I notice 

 Miss Wilson has some trouble in having 

 them cleaned out by the bees (page 41). 

 I have no trouble and have now on hand 

 some four or five hundred, which I use 

 in the spring on such hives as I find in 

 need. The Bevins method, in theory, may 

 be all right but is not practical for sev- 

 eral reasons : 



1. If the colony is a little weak (and 

 those are the ones that need feeding) 

 it allows too much cold air to circulate 

 through the body of the colony and chills 

 them. 



2. It does not separate them sufficiently 

 but what they can get at it at any time. 

 But if you will take a thin board, mortise 

 a hole at one end ^^ by 3 or 4 inches, 

 and place it on the hive, then a super on 

 that, set the sections in promiscuously, 

 and imcap and deface the honey enough 

 to set it running, I am inclined to think 

 you will have no further trouble in hav- 

 ing your desires accomplished. The board 

 should be thin, % or f^, placing the 

 mortise in the front to avoid draught, 



I had the same trouble mentioned with 

 cloth, but since using the above method 

 I succeed every time. Should there be a 

 failure where the honey is capped, deface 



it with a chisel or other implement you 

 have in use. I use a one-inch firmer 

 chisel, which I find to be the handiest 

 tool for all-round purposes that I can 

 find. A smoker, chisel, goose-wing and an 

 old-style case-knife and you can have all 

 the balance of the whole paraphernalia 

 in the bee-kingdom. Try the goose-wing 

 for a brush and see if it does not surpass 

 any brush mentioned in the supply cata- 

 log A. Y. Baldwin. 

 DeKalb Co., 111. 



Worcester Co., Mass., Convention. 



The annual meeting of the Worcester 

 (Mass.) County Bee-Keepers.' Association 

 was held Saturday, Jan. 24, 1903- The 

 following officers were elected : 



President, Charles E. Prouty ; first vice- 

 president, Horace P. Jacobs ; second vice- 

 president, Norman B. Parsons ; secretary 

 and treasury, Charles R. Russell. 



Plans were made for some very inter- 

 esting meetings during the spring. Speak- 

 ers from outside, papers from our own 

 members (including ladies), a banquet, 

 outings to surrounding apiaries during the 

 summer ; in fact, a whole season of enjoy- 

 ment is before us. 



At the meeting of Jan, 24 Mr. S. A. 

 Burgess related a very pleasing incident. 

 He has lived in one house all or nearly 

 all of his life. More than fifty years ago 

 a hive of bees was placed in a small attic 

 room ; as soon as the hive was full the 

 bees made comb on the outside, and grad- 

 ually spread out until the walls and ceiling 

 are nearly covered, and for more than 

 fifty years the bees have been allowed 

 to use that room. The writer has never 

 been there, but he hopes to go before 

 long and will be able to give a complete 

 description. 



Another one of the older members, Mr. 

 S, B. Parsons, is very enthusiastic on 

 the subject of bee-stings as a cure for 

 rheumatism. He has no relish for the 

 story told by Dr. Mackie of a man who 

 was so firm in the clutches of that dis- 

 ease he could not walk ; he was taken 

 to an apiary and wheeled in a barrow 

 to the side of an unusually cross colonv. 

 The hive was kicked over and the sick 

 man jumped up and ran, cured of his 

 trouble ! 



Later I will tell more of our associa- 

 tion, number of members and other mat- 

 ters pertaining to bee-keeping in this vi- 

 cinity. C. R. Russell. 



Worcester Co., Mass. 



Observations on Queen-Rearing. 



I see by Mr. Alley's last article he dis- 

 dains to refer to my $25 proposition, and 

 well he may, as he would surely lose if 

 he were to send me five queens reared 

 from worker-eggs in nuclei. 



I am also able (after reading Mr. Al- 

 ley's article) to pick out conclusive evi- 

 dence enough in that article .to condemn 

 his entire method of rearing queens. In 

 that article he speaks of a very popu- 

 lous nucleus that after having their queen 

 taken away refused to accept a virgin 

 queen, and that this same small nucleus 

 reared a batch of queens from their own 

 brood, among which was one that was 

 worth $100, and that the others were not 

 good enough for breeders. 



Now, I want to ask Mr. Alley : Did 

 you ever think that that small colony 

 was so crowded that the queen you took 

 away had deposited an egg in a cell-cup. 

 and that the colony would have swarmed 

 in a few days anyway, and that $100 

 queen was a natural queen, and all the 

 rest were only queens from worker-cells? 



Another thing I want to state for the 

 benefit of the uninitiated, and that is, 

 look out for any queen breeder who has 

 a $100 queen, as his system of rearing 

 queens must be seriously wrong, or he 

 would have more good queens, and as a 

 (Contitiued on page 139.) 



