March 19, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



all intents and purposes, for they could not concentrate the 

 animal heat sufficiently to keep the wax soft enough to w rk 

 it into comb, providing they gather enough nectar to manu- 

 facture the wax. Wax is secreted whenever bees gatlier 

 more than they have place to store it, etc. They were in a 

 semi-starving condition, for a part of the brood had per- 

 ished. 



Well, I put them into an 8-frame hive, adjusted a divi- 

 sion-board close up to the 3 frames, fed them a pint of 

 melted sugar, and they went to work. This was the middle 

 of August ; it is now Dec. 13, and they are a good colony. 

 I have fed them in all about 15 cents worth of sugar, as 

 they could gather enough to live on, but not sufficient to 

 build comb. Whenever I inserted an empty frame in the 

 center of the cluster, for them to fill, I fed them a pint of 

 melted sugar, and the queen occupied with eggs every cell 

 that was empty ; the bees were compelled to secrete wax, as 

 they could not get rid of it in any other way. 



The queen was large and prolific. I used repeatedly to 

 raise the comb from the hive she was on, and watch her 

 hunt for a place to deposit her eggs, and see her extend- 

 ing at the rate of 5 or 6 eggs per minute from her abdomen. 

 Mind you, that was the only colony I had in the yard, and 

 no ready-made comb to give her. Now, I wish to ask you 

 chaps that are afraid of a queen laying herself to death. 

 How much more would it have shortened her life to have 

 laid those eggs in cells, than it did to drop them on the bot- 

 tom-board ? At some future time I may have something to 

 say on the subject of a queen shortening her life by laying 

 too much. 



A friend living at Tustin, paid boys 25 cents each for 

 picking up some 50 swarms ; he put them in common-sized 

 hives, but used no division-board, and the consequence is, 

 many of them are weak, and some 15 of the number "came 

 up missing " entirely. Now, if he had used a division-board 

 judiciously, all would have built up to profitable colonies. 

 Now, Yon, you can see they were in a barn, to all intent 

 and purposes, as they cannot build outside of the cluster of 

 bees. Neither will the queen deposit eggs where there is 

 not sufficient warmth for them to hatch. In building up 

 small swarms to profitable colonies, if you have a good 

 queen — and a poor one is not worth keeping, anyway, al- 

 ways use a division-board. Then insert your extra frames, 

 ready-made comb, or foundation, in the center of the clus- 

 ter ; but do not move too fast or you may spoil the whole ; 

 keep the increase more than the decrease, and you will win 

 in the end. 



I once made 16 colonies from one, in Iowa, in one sea- 

 son. They built all their own comb, filled their hive with 

 honey, and all came through the winter in splendid condi- 

 tion. Remember at that time I knew nothing of comb 

 foundation, and I reared all my 15 queens by natural swarm- 

 ing, and all from that one queen, so all were good ones. 



I am often asked how many colonies one ought to pur- 

 chase to begin bee-keeping with. My reply is usualy one 

 or two good colonies, and make the balance; in the mean- 

 time you will be gaining valuable experience. 



I began bee-keeping in Canada 65 miles north of Ver- 

 mont ; have kept bees in Wisconsin, in Northern Iowa, 

 and now in California. So I know all does not depend on 

 locality, the kind of hive, etc. But the management has a 

 great deal to do with success or failure in any locality, as 

 well as the season. Bees are managed in these localities so 

 as to be self-sustaining even in poor seasons, when you 

 know how. I confess that bee-keeping in some respects is 

 quite different here from what it is in the East. There, 

 when you have hot weather you often have it hot and sultry 

 night and day, while here in this beautiful valley it is not 

 so. The sun may shine quite hot, but there is a splendid 

 cool and refreshing breeze directly from the Ocean, so it is 

 always cool in the shade, and always cool nights. In Can- 

 ada, Wisconsin, and Iowa, I have sweltered in the daytime, 

 and could get no real rest at night. I would get up in the 

 morning all fagged out and completely exhausted : while 

 here in the hottest weather we sleep a sound, restful sleep, 

 and get up rested and refreshed and strengthened for our 

 days labor. It is an old man's Paradise. You may go to 

 bed at night thinking it may not be hot, and go to sleep un- 

 der a very light cover, but I always have an extra cover at 

 the back of the bed, so as to draw it over me before morn- 

 ing, if I need it. 



Now, what I am getting at is this : You want and extra- 

 strong colony of bees to store honey in the supers to good 

 advantage. They may begin storing, but before morniiiT 

 they are compelled to withdraw and cluster closely arouiul 

 the brood, to keep up the necessary warmth, and that maK^ 

 it late before they get back to work in the super. Thati^ 



why I lost a fine batch of quei. ii-cells in the wire queen-cell 

 protector, although I placed them well in the center of the 

 cluster. 



A writer in the Pacific Bee Journal, who lived north of 

 the Tehachapi Mountains, during a 3 days' cold north wind, 

 stated that he lost fully one-half of his bees in the 3 days' 

 blow. You see, they had to withdraw from the super and 

 pack closely around the brood-nest in order to protect the 

 brood. You see, Mr. Greiner, he jumped at that conclusion. 

 No mistake about it. He had been extracting, and the 

 supers were full of bees, but when he looked in the supers 

 after the wind, and found them all empty of bees, he has- 

 tened to write about his bad luck. We cannot pile up supers 

 here, to good advantage, 3 or 4 stories high, because if we 

 open a place for ventilation at the top, it causes a cold draft 

 of air like the draft up a chimney, and that compels the bees 

 to stay below to protect the brood. Orange Co., Calif. 



Shaken Swarms— Cause of Poor Queens. 



BY GKO. W. STINKBRING. 



I WISH to write a little in regard to artificial swarming, 

 by shaking. I will just say that it is not new to me, as I 

 have practiced it more or less for 30 years and have never 

 failed to get as good a " swarm " as by the natural process, 

 in fact it is very nearly the same as natural swarming. 



My plan is to wait until the bees commence to swarm 

 naturally, and then I go to the ones that I want to have 

 swarm and open the hive, and look the frames over until I 

 find the one that the queen is on, and set that frame in the 

 new hive, place it on the old stand, and carry the old hive 

 away a rod or so. And as I do this about the middle of a 

 nice day, the most of the working bees are out gathering, 

 and will return to the new hive. I also geuecally shake a 

 part of the bees off 3 or 4 more of the other frames in addi- 

 tion to the one that the queen is on. A swarm made in this 

 way is always sure to stay and be contented, and give no 

 further trouble. The only trouble that I meet with now is 

 that the seasons have changed so that is hard to tell what . 

 part of the year the harvest, if there is any, or the swarm- 

 ing season, will come in. 



So far as the queen question is concerned that has been 

 agitated so much of late, I am inclined to think the main 

 cause of poor queens is either because they have been reared 

 in poorly supplied nuclei, or by in-and-in breeding — quite 

 likely both. As for my part, I have bought quite a number 

 of queens, and never received very good ones, the best one 

 that I ever had being away back in 1868. She was a pure 

 Italian, issued with 2 swarms, mated with a black drone. 

 That one gathered honey and sent off swarms when other 

 bees were starving. 



I also find that bees do not go as far to gather honey as 

 most people think they do. About a mile, or nearly so, will 

 cover most of the distance. I keep the most of my bees 

 about two miles from home, and see quite a difference. 



Wayne Co., O. 



The Growing of Basswood Trees. 



BY J. D. GEHRING. 



IN his answer to " Wisconsin " (page 810 — 1902) concern- 

 ing the propagation of basswood trees, Dr. Miller says, 

 among other things, that seedling trees never live to the 

 second year. He also says : 



" This year I saw hundreds of them when they were 2 or 

 3 inches high, and I've just been out looking over the 

 ground and I cannot find a single plant. What becomes of 

 them is a mystery to me. Judging from the freedom with 

 which these have sprung up, I should say it is best to plant 

 in the fall [of the year], covering the seed from '4 to >i an 

 inch. " 



" Wisconsin " should have been informed that success 

 in raising of basswood trees depends somewhat upon the 

 locality — even in the same State — because basswood trees 

 do not grow naturally anywhere and everywhere, though 

 they can be sprouted, if properly treated, almost anywhere. 



Now, if I had " Wisconsin " to deal with I would talk to 

 him about like this : 



1. Plant your basswood seeds about the time when Na- 

 ture plants them, and in the kind of soil in which they most 

 readily and numerously "come up" and flourish into bloom- 

 ing trees. If there are basswood trees in the " woods " in 

 your locality, you can easily find out what kind of soil they 



