232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURINAL. 



April 9, 1903. 



your own horse and cultivate for him up to breakfast. 

 Generally one such act will establish such g-ood feelings no 

 farther trouble will arise. I have proven it so. 



AT GROCERY STORES .\ND RESIDENCES IN THE FAI,L. 



After the honey season often bees are a great annoy- 

 ance at the above places, especially in empty sugar and 

 syrup barrels, and candy shops. Go to those places and ask 

 to place the packages where bees can not get to them. Go 

 to sugar-cane mills and keep the premises cleaned up, and 

 to neighbors' kitchens where bees come in and bother while 

 canning fruit, and ask them to keep the door and windows 

 screened while at such work. Bees do not go where no 

 sweets abound. 



IN THE HIGHWAY AND PUBLIC PLACES. 



If people or teams are stung in such public places by 

 your bees, it is your duty so to locate the bees, or change 

 the surroundings, that they do not disturb the public. If 

 damage to person, stock or property is done by the bees, 

 the owner is liable for damages; and if it continues may 

 become a nuisance. High board fences, or high hedges are 

 a great help. Even with all possible precaution if bees are 

 near the street the bees at times will bother. Keep out of 

 trouble if possible. Don't get the idea that the National 

 Association can win every case. You must keep within the 

 law if you want protection. 'Avoid conflicts, compromise, 

 and live up to the Golden Rule. N. E. France, 



General Manager National Bee-Keepers' Association. 



\ Our Bee-Keeping Sisters \ 



Conducted bu EMMft M. WILSON, Marengo, 111. 

 Spring- Stimulative Feeding— Gnawed Cappings. 



1. What is the best time to -begin feeding bees in the 

 spring to start them to brood-rearing ? Is the middle of 

 March too early ? 



2. What is the dark brown substance, similar to saw- 

 dust, found on the bottom of the hives ? Is it the excre- 

 ments of the bees ? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. If the weather was such that the bees 

 could fly every day, and there was nothing for them to 

 gather, then it might be a good thing to feed to stimulate 

 brood-rearing, ho matter how early it might be. But such 

 a condition does not occur very often, and it may be well, 

 unless one has had a good deal of experience with bees, to 

 let stimulative feeding alone, for it is a two-edged sword 

 that may do more harm than good. 



2. Mainly the cappings of combs that the bees have 

 gnawed away during the winter in getting at the honey in 

 sealed combs. Some say that there are also some excre- 

 ments of the bees mixed with it. 



Using Partly-Filled Sections— Hiving Swarms- 

 Shaken Swarms. 



1. I desire to use sections again which were placed on 

 the hives last year and not filled out. They are some 

 mussed. Should they be all scraped off nicely, or just set 

 out again as they are ? 



2. What do you consider the best way to hive a swarm 

 of bees, in a 10-frame hive with all old combs ? 



3. Can old combs be satisfactorily used with shaken 

 swarms ? If so, what is the -modus operandi ? 



4. If starters are always used with shaken swarms, will 

 not the old combs accumulate for the moths to regale them- 

 selves in ? L. S. R. 



Ashtabula Co., Ohio. 



Answers. — 1. If the bees have never put any honey in 

 them, or if they were all nicely emptied out by the bees last 

 fall, put them on just as they are. If they were not emptied 

 by the bees last fall, and contain honey, don't use them at 

 all, for almost surely some of the honey left over winter will 

 have granulated, and the smallest amount of granulated 

 honey left in the cells will afifect the honey put into them. 



2. I don't know of anything different from hiving a 

 swarm on full sheets of foundation or frames with starters. 

 Perhaps you had something else in mind ; if so, ask again, 

 and I will try to answer. 



3. Yes, some prefer old combs to anything else. Re- 

 move from its stand tile hive to be operated upon, and put 

 in its place the hive with empty combs. Then taking one 

 by one the combs from the removed hive, shake and brush 

 the bees into the new hive, just as you would if foundation 

 were used. 



4. If starters are always used there certainly would be 

 an accumulation of drawn combs, but it would not be nec- 

 essary to turn them over to the tender mercies of the moths, 

 for they would be melted up — but I should use them. 



Hiving a Swarm from a Tree. 



Would some of the bee-keeping ladies tell us what they 

 do in case a swarm of bees clusters in a tree out of reach 

 with a pole ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — I would keep the wings of the queens clipped 

 so that when my bees clustered in a tree out of reach of a 

 pole, I would pick up my queen and cage her, put her at the 

 entrance of the hive, and go on with my work serenely ob- 

 livious to the fact that those bees were in the top of the 

 tallest tree they could find. They might come back at their 

 leisure. 



That is, I should generally do that way. Occasionally 

 it will happen that a swarm will come out with a virgin 

 queen, in which case I should take a saw, climb that tree, 

 saw off the limb, and bring them down, if I could reach 

 them. If they were away out of reach on an overhanging 

 branch, out of all possible reach by climbing, and out of 

 reach of a pole — well, it is a big nuisance, but I will tell 

 you what we did do once with just such a swarm. We 

 nailed two long, light poles together, drove a spike in the 

 end of one, and over this spike we placed a long rope, 

 with a stone securely tied in the end ; with a good deal of 

 trouble we succeeded in pushing the stone over the limb and 

 down came the stone bringing the rope with it, and we 

 were masters of the situation. We put the hive on the 

 ground under the limb, taking hold of both ends of the rope 

 gave it a lively jerk, and down came the swarm squarely in 

 front of the hive. Part of them made a bee-line for the 

 hive, and part persisted in going back to that limb, and we 

 had to keep up a lively jerking on that rope to prevent quite 

 a cluster from returning to the tree, but we finally got the 

 swarm. 



I often think such a swarm costs more than it is worth 

 to get it. I am sure I should hate to be obliged to climb 

 after them all. 



Any good stone-thrower might tie a stone to the end of 

 a ball of wrapping-twine and throw it over the limb, then 

 tie the rope to the wrapping-twine and pull it over. 



Perhaps some of the other sisters will tell us how 

 they do. 



The Afterthought. % 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By B. B. HASTY. Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



BEE-FLIGHTS IN WINTER. 



It's a better showing than we can often make — but not 

 such a great deal better — that Washin§:ton puts up on page 

 110 — two flights in November, none in December, two in 

 January, two in February. We don't usually have it quite 

 as damp as they do (which counts for something), and my 

 bees last winter flew, once in November (three successive 

 days),, not at all in December, once in January, twice in Feb- 

 ruary. But then, my worst winter would show no flights at 

 all, and probably their worst would still have some. 



MOVING BEES K SHORT DISTANCE. 



I think E. F. Atwater, page 116, has a good idea. When 

 you move a hive a short distance it is better than the regula- 

 tion board set up in front to make every bee that comes out 

 dig out through a mess of grass. Can't help knowing that 

 there has been a change then. 



