426 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 2, 1903. 



are in a good locality for bees with no bee-keeper near, and 

 are rightly built for business, you might go into it for 

 profit ; you might also go into it for the sake of having 

 honey of your own producing constantly on the table. Tak- 

 ing your question as a whole, if the ground is already oc- 

 cupied by other bee-keepers located within a mile or two, it 

 is hardly advisable for you to trespass on their preoccupied 

 territory. If the way is clear, and you are impressed with 

 the idea that you might be of the right material for a suc- 

 cessful bee-keeper, try it on a small scale, beginning with 

 not more than two or three colonies, and actual experience 

 will tell better than the most experienced bee-keeper can tell 

 by guessing at it, whether you can be successful or not. 



Shaken Swarm Without the Shaking. 



About two weeks before the white honey-flow was ex- 

 pected I placed under some of my strongest colonies hives 

 containing full sheets of foundation and combs. Then a 

 few days before the honey-flow I made some frames just the 

 size of the hives, of " parting stop " (a strip of wood jzxyi 

 inches), mitered at the corners, and covered these frames 

 with galvanized-wire screening, all but one corner, where I 

 put a piece of queen-excluder containing just one hole. 

 Then where the queen had not commenced to lay in the 

 lower hive I placed one of the frames from the upper hive 

 containing the least brood, eggs, etc., and put the empty 

 comb in the place of it. Then with little smoke I drove 

 nearly all the bees below ; put the wire-screen over the 

 lower hive, and the upper hive above. I examined them in 

 three days, and in every case found the queen was below 

 and filling every frame full of eggs, just as she would do if 

 it was a newly-hived sWarm, and enough bees were going 

 up through that one hole to care for the eggs and brood 

 above. Then I placed a super on the lower hive, with 

 either drawn comb or foundation in the boxes, and placed 

 the upper hive and screen above the super. Now — 



1. Isn't this practically a shaken swarm without the 

 shaking ? 



2. Won't I avoid swarming? 



3. Will they store surplus honey in the super, as it is 

 nearest their brood-nest, or will they go to the trouble of 

 taking it up through that one small hole, away back in one 

 corner, and filling those old combs ? They have shown no 

 disposition to start queen-cells in the upper hive. I think 

 it is because of the screen. If everything works right I in- 

 tend to drive them all below in 21 days, and pile on the 

 supers, of course watching them in the meantime and giv- 

 ing them plenty of super-room. 



We, in this part of Iowa, look for a grand white clover 

 honey harvest this year. Iowa. 



Answers. — In this case I feel very much more like ask- 

 ing then answering questions, being very much interested 

 in the outcome of your experiment, and would rather say I 

 don't know, and ask you to tell us after you've been through 

 the mill. But if you promise faithfully to report after the 

 experiment is finished, I'll answer as well as I can. 



1. It is certainly very much like it, but also like a plan 

 given by G. W. Demaree years ago, only he used Jhe ordi- 

 nary queen-excluder instead of the wire-cloth or screening, 

 and I suspect that makes a decided difference as to the 

 promptness with which the bees begin work below. That 

 is, I think they will begin work much more promptly with 

 your plan than with the excluder. The Demaree plan is 

 simply to give an empty story under the full one, with an 

 excluder between, putting the queen in the lower story. 

 The bees easily going up through the excluder, the queen 

 does not lay in the lower story generally for two or three 

 days, and Delos Wood reports that with him the plan is an 

 utter failure, the queen not laying at all. In your plan, 

 however, you have so little connection between the lower 

 and the upper story that the bees which have been smoked 

 below probably feel about the same as if there were no 

 brood above, so that after all they are much like a shaken 

 swarm. 



2. I am inclined to think you will. Be sure to tell us 

 when you know. 



3. I don't know, and I want very much to learn about it 

 from you. 



I Do It Quick! E 



flease mention Bee journal ■when writina 



BARNES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY 



Read what J. I. Parent, of 

 ' Charlton, N. Y., says: " We 

 ^ cut with one of your Com- 

 bined M.-ichines, last winter, 

 SO cha£f hives with 7-in. cap, 

 100 honey racl<s, 500 brood- 

 frames, 2,000 honey boxes, and 

 a ffreat deal of other work. 

 This winter we have double 

 the amount of bee-hives, etc., 

 to make, and we expect to do 

 it with this Saw. It will do all 

 yoti say it will." Catalog and price-list free. 

 Address, W. F. & John Barnes, 



995 Ruby St., Rockford, 111. 

 Please mention Bee jDumal -when writing. 



The Rural Californian 



Tells all about Bees in California. The yields 

 and Price of Honev; the Pasturage and Nectar- 

 Producing Plants; the Bee-Ranches and how 

 they are conducted. In fact the entire field is 

 fully covered by an expert bee-man. Besides 

 this the paper also tells you all about California 

 Agriculture and Horticulture. $1.00 per year; 6 

 months, 50 cents. Sample copies, 10 cents. 



THE RURAL CALIFORNIAN, 

 218 NorthJMain Street, ■ Los Angeles, Cal. 



Bees Doinpr Well. 



Bees are doing well here this year. Some 

 honey has already been taken off. There were 

 very few swarms, and they were the earliest 1 

 ever saw, coming in April and the first of 

 May; none after May 10. C. A. Womack. 



Mecklenburg Co., Va., June 16. 



Heavy Loss of Bees. 



Over 50 percent of our bees in this county 

 have spring-killed, and the balance are very 

 weak. The honey crop will be very small this 

 year in this country. Andrew Nelson. 



Emery Co., Utah, .June 17. 



Prospect foF a Good Crop. 



Bees are doing fine 'just now. There is 

 every prospect for a good honey crop in this 

 locality. P. H. Davis. 



Hennepin Co., Minn., June 16. 



Favorable Season— Drones— Laying 

 Queens. 



The weather in eastern Ontario has not 

 been favorable for a honey crop so far this 

 season. Between April 4th and June llth, we 

 had practically no rain, only about ^^, of an 

 inch fell in all that time. However, there 

 was an extraordinary crop of dandelions 

 from which the bees got enough to keep up 

 breeding. There was also a very good fruit- 

 bloom for a few days. The bees have worked 

 more on red clover here this season than I 

 ever knew them to do before. I presume it is 

 on account of the smallness and shortness of 

 the clover blossoms, as the result of the dry 

 weather which permitted them to reach the 

 bottom of the nectar cell. They are also work- 



AN EXPERT'S ADVICE 



The American Poultry Journal 



325 Dearborn Street, Chicago, III. 



Alrkfl«t*rml ^^^^ i^ over a quarter of a 

 *"^W 11U.1 century old and is still grow- 

 ing" must possess intrinsic merit of its own, and 

 its field must be a valuable one. Such is the 



American Poultry Journal. 



60 cents a Year. Mention the Bee Journal. 



If you want the Bee-Book 



That covers the whole Apicultural Field more 



completely than any other published, 



send $1.20 to 



Prof. A. J. Cook, Claremont, Cal., 



FOR MIS 



"Bee-Keeper's Guide." 



Liberal Discounts to tbe Trade. 



Boston Excursions 



via the Nickel Plate Road, June 25th 

 to 27th, inclusive ; also July 1st to Sth, 

 inclusive, at popular rates. Write City 

 Ticket Office, 111 Adams St., and Union 

 Ticket Office, Auditorium Annex, Chi- 

 cago. 'Phones.Central, 2057 and Har- 

 rison 2208. CZ:r. ' ZZ. 17— 2SA3tG 



