APRIL 1, 1913 



-Home apiary of Daniel Danielson, Brush. Colo. Through the center of this apiary runs a track for 

 the hand-car shown, which is used for carrying supplies in and out of the yard. 



an inch through the cork, through which it 

 must be pierced. Bend the wii'e over to 

 prevent the cork from coming off. Now 

 flatten with a hammer the other end of the 

 wire to make a spatula with which to apply 

 the paint. 



Fill the bottle about half full of tincture, 

 and drop into it any coloring matter handy. 

 Half a saltspoonful of liquid bluing does 

 very well. If 3-ou have to use a dry piece 

 it acts just as well. This washing-blue alone 

 I find is too dark. Queens marked with it 

 are very little easier to find than if unmark- 

 ed ; so, mix a little whiting, chalk, dry white 

 clay, or any thing that will lighten the blue, 

 and remember that it dries considerably 

 lighter than it appears in the bottle. Mix 

 yellow and washing-blue for green, as pow- 

 der greens all contain either copper or ar- 

 senic, and we wish to run no risks with 

 poisons, either with our families or bees. 

 The coloring matters are not dissolved in 

 the tincture of gxim benzoin, but only mix- 

 ed in it, and the benzoin only acts as a 

 fastening medium after the spirit has evap- 

 orated. 



Xow for the last time, let us hope, go 

 through the time-honored and time-wasting 

 task of finding madame by adopting the 

 sifting-through-the-excluder method, which 

 is the best idea, except branding, that I 

 have hit upon. Be careful, after the last 

 frame is shaken, not to smoke riotously the 

 bees with a view to hastening the departure 

 of the bees to the lower regions. This was 



an error I fell into. Too much smoke so 

 demoralizes the bees that they boil over the 

 top of the empty body into which they have 

 been shaken, and her majesty goes with 

 them, and you "dunno where she are," and 

 she has to be let alone while you make an- 

 other trial elsewhere. Just smoke gently 

 the top edge of the body, and keep on going 

 all around it, and in short order the bees 

 will keep turned head downward, and very 

 quickly get through the excluder. 



Having pounced upon the cause of all 

 the roar and hubbub, grasp her with finger 

 and thumb by the thorax as though you 

 meant to clip her. I always clip mine, if 

 needing it, at the same time as branding, 

 and with the bottle-neck curled tight in the 

 little finger o'f the same hand draw the cork 

 with the other hand and apply a fairly 

 liberal dose of the liquid paint on top of 

 her thorax, and a little on the end half of 

 the wing left undipped. One would think 

 that any bee, black or yellow, carrying a 

 dab of bright yellow paint on her thorax 

 nearly an eighth of an inch square would 

 be seen at once on the most crowded frame; 

 but let madame jam herself between the 

 comb and bottom-bar, and she may hide 

 there all day before you see her; but the 

 colored wing seems to show up directly. 



Any way, after branding my first twenty 

 on the thorax only, a week's heavy weather 

 followed; and going over them to test the 

 new adventure, and to count the supersed- 

 ings, I found none of the latter, and all too 



