Sept. 17, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



601 



then swarm until afternoon or the next day. These first 

 swarms were hived on starters in brood-frames, and a super 

 containing sections, and they filled it chock-full of bees. In 

 two or three days I would slip another super under the top 

 one, which would prevent pollen in sections ; this I did un- 

 til they all had three or four supers. 



Now, as the old colonies had so much brood hatching, 

 the second swarms were large enough to work in two supers, 

 and to the third swarms I would give the extracting or 

 shallow-frame super. This, of course, left the old colony 

 pretty weak, but as we had a good honey-tlow on, several of 

 these supers were capped, which I took off and put on the 

 market at 15 cents for a 3 -sx5xl '2 section, which sold as 

 fast as I could get it to the home market. It was nice and 

 white, and no other honey on the market. I ornamented 

 every section with my business card, by stamping with 

 rubber stamp. 



Then I took some unfinished supers off the old colonies 

 and placed on new swarms to finish until I had only one 

 super left on an old colony. This contracted their room, 

 and when the young queen began laying she found lots of 

 empty cells in the brood-chamber and bees enough to rear 

 brood, but not to gather any surplus ; but they have now 

 built up so as to be able to fill two supers of bees and are 

 storing surplus again, and are ready for the smartweed 

 flow. 



Several of the first swarms swarmed the second time. I 

 put back these second swarms, but they would not stay back, 

 so I hived them in shallow extracting supers, and set them on 

 the parent hive the next day after caking away the queen. 

 In some of them I could not find the queen, but they settled 

 their own disputes and quit swarming. I also made a few 

 nuclei in the spring, which have built up. 



I reared my own queens from a colony of long-tongued 

 bees. That colony did not swarm, as I used so much of her 

 comb-brood, and I believe I have taken off 90 sections of 

 comb honey, and they are working slowly in 90 more sec- 

 tions, and will soon have them completed. Some of the first 

 swarms have nearly finished ISO sections, and are working 

 in four supers now. These shallow frames were moved up 

 away from the queen, and as brood hatched out they were 

 soon filled, extracted, and placed on the hives again. 



So far this season I have taken off 1400 pounds of honey, 

 all comb but about 200 pounds. I am taking off about three 

 supers a day, using bee-escapes. I have about 1000 pounds 

 ready, or nearly ready, to take off, and 50 colonies strong 

 enough to fill from two to four supers with bees for the 

 smartweed flow, which is just coming in. 



Now, this plan would not work in some seasons, but this 

 is a good year. I could have had much more increase, but I 

 wanted honey also. Smartweed promises a fair crop. All 

 queens seem to be prolific in a good season. 



I have had a hard time to get hives and supplies, but I 

 ordered an extra large supply early, so I managed to get 

 along. I want to say right here that a certain bee-supply 

 dealer beats the world to get a move on him, and can fill 

 orders quick when he has the supplies ; but when every- 

 body wants a whole lot of all kinds of supplies, right away, 

 quick, and he happens to be just out of almost everything, 

 then we are liable to think him a slow poke. Let me give 

 a little advice : Get your supplies early ; then if you have to 

 send after a lot of supplies right in the busy rush, and don't 

 get them right away, nor hear from the supply-dealer, and 

 you get plum stuck, write the supply-dealer a real sassy let- 

 ter, just give him fits, call him lazy, slow poke, and call 

 him everything you can think of, only don't swear. Write 

 about 24 pages ; spend a good half day at it, even if you are 

 busy ; ask him if he got your order ; tell him he is a 

 thief and a rascal, and is probably off on a drunk, and not 

 attending to his business. When you have it finished, read 

 it over carefully, and if you see where you can make it a 

 little stronger, add at least 10 more pages ; then, when it is 

 ready to mail, go out and chop for your wife an armful of 

 wood, make a good fire in the kitchen stove, and then open 

 the lid and quietly drop the letter in the fire, and you will 

 feel lots better. And so will the supply-dealer. 



When your neighbors come three or four times a day to 

 get you to go home with them and bring an empty hive 

 with you, and climb up to a tree top and get a swarm of 

 bees that came there, and then hive them and give them 

 supers with foundation, and show him what a queen looks 

 like, and explain all about bee-keeping in general, then 

 promise to help him cut all the bee-trees he can find this 

 fall, and bring empty hives and transfer them for him, and 

 lend him your smoker and bee-veil, and three or four bee- 

 books, and its — " I'll hand you the money some time for the 

 hives." Just say first, last, and at all time, that you are 



sorry, but you just can't leave your own business, and 

 can't help him at all right now ; and that you have not even 

 time to talk to him. Then hand him a copy of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and a catalog of supplies, and bid him 

 good-by — and it is " Come over when I am not so busy." 



This has been a good honey season, and the bee-keeper 

 that attended to his own bees all right will have lots of 

 honey. But hundreds of bee keepers that neglected their 

 bees will not have any more honey than usual. I asked one 

 bee-keeper how his bees were doing. " Oh, just fair," he 

 said, " some have swarmed five or six times. I could not 

 get hives, so they were put in boxes, some in barrels, and 

 some were left." In fact, he got tired of hunting up boxes, 

 and just let them go. 



I asked him how much honey he had taken off, and he 

 said, " Just a little bit ; the old hives are full, I guess, or 

 they would not have swarmed. They have had the supers 

 on the upper story two or three years, so I guess they are 

 full; they are so blamed cross I hate to do anything with 

 them; I guess I willwait until cold weather. They tell me 

 you are a good hand with bees. I wish you would take it 

 off. I bet it is full of nice honey. I pried up the lid, but they 

 got so cross I had to run, and did not get the lid down tight, 

 and now they are so cross I don't dare go near them ; and 

 the bees are all over the hive. They say bees don't sting 

 some people, but they just pop it to me." 



I said I had all I could do with my own bees, and got all 

 the stings I cared about at home. 



My honey is selling for 15 cents per Ideal section, which 

 is about 17 cents per pound. I get 12!i per section, the 

 dealer 2J2 cents. I advertise in different ways, and sell at 

 home and near-by towns.. People are better able to buy 

 honey now than they were several years ago, and this local- 

 ity, at least, will consume more than usual. Other eatables 

 are high ; butter is from 15 to 20 cents per pound to the con- 

 sumer, and honey should not be less, nor will mine be. 

 Honey is not a perishable article to be dumped on the mar- 

 ket right away, and if honey is sold cheap it is the bee- 

 keeper's own fault. We do not often get a good crop ; let 

 us not be foolish and sell it for a trifle. 



Later I will give you my plan of selling honey. 



Knox Co., 111., Aug. 8. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Dividing Just Before Swarming. 



Can I transfer a colony just before swarming, and let 

 part of the bees rear the queen and brood and make another 

 colony out of the bees in the old hive ? Mississippi. 



Answer. — Yes; put the largest part of the brood and 

 bees on a new stand. Better not leave more than one frame 

 of brood with the queen, and perhaps it may be well to take 

 that away after a day or two. 



Removing Pollen from Combs— Shaking for Poul 

 Brood-Rearing Queens in the Fall. 



1. Will the bees remove pollen from the center combs 

 in the brood-chamber so the queen can have a compact cir- 

 cle to lay in, the combs being filled by queenless bees, 

 caused by the queen being lost in mating ? The pollen is 

 fresh, and the cells about half full. 



2. Is one shake or two shakes right to cure foul brood ? 

 Mr. McEvoy says two, and Messrs. Root, Davenport, and 

 others say one. When doctors disagree, what is a beginner 

 to do? 



3. Would a super that had been over a foul-broody col- 

 ony be safe to use after being in an oven about an hour, 

 the temperature about the same as that for baking bread, or 

 a little below ? 



4. Can good queens be reared at this time of year, while 

 the bees are still gathering considerable honey, by simply 

 removing queens from reasonably strong colonies ? 



cZj 5. Would 20 drops of carbolic acid in '2 pint of water 



