316 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



better to give room at certain seasons of the year 

 in this way than to put it at the top. The only ob- 

 jection to it is that there will be considerable brood 

 reared in the top story ; and, later on in the season, 

 you would have to reverse the process by putting 

 the empties on top and the perforated zinc between 

 the brood-nest proper, whether there would be one 

 brood section or two, and the extr acting-super above. 

 — Ed.I 



Apigrams from the Southeast ; Stop ! Read ! Re- 

 member! 



Give all colonies and every comb a thorough ex- 

 amination this spring. 



Notice (and make a note of) the condition of 

 every brood-nest, and make a second examination 

 with equal attention, in two or three weeks, so that 

 every queen whose work is inferior may be replaced, 

 for a poor queen means a profitless colony. 



Remove all combs that contain more than a dozen 

 or so drone-cells, and melt up for wax ; for many 

 unnecessary di-ones are a heavy tax on the profits. 



Remove all combs that have dry mold in the 

 wax. If you don't, the bees will, and they will put 

 drone comb in its place. If you remove it first, you 

 profit in two ways — you save it for wax and you 

 save their labor, which labor consumes honey and 

 bee life. 



Pei'manent enthusiasm is maintained mainly by 

 profits, and profits are secured mainly by hard work 

 and head work suitably mixed ; so if you wish to 

 retain the joy of enthusiasm in your beekeeping, get 

 busy on the mixture. 



Get two kinds of wax-extractors in your apiary, if 

 you have not already done so — a sun wax-extractor 

 for scraps, and a wax-press of some good kind; for 

 in warm regions it pays much better to melt all de- 

 fective comb than to patch it, for wax is " quick 

 money." 



When you walk through your apiary, have seeing 

 eyes and hearing ears; for by entrance appearances 

 may the inward condition of your colonies be knovsm, 

 and much hard labor be saved thereby. 



It is not the bees that buzz the loudest that make 

 the most honey. 



Good seasons come both singly and in flocks; 

 ditto with poor ones ; so if you get a succession of 

 good crops don't felicitate yourself on your clever- 

 ness. The lean flock may be even now at your door, 

 to tax your prudence and endurance to the limit. 



Rejoice in the bountiful years, and let the bees 

 teach you to lay by for the poor years, when you 

 shall need to step softly over the graves of "blasted 

 hopes." 



Mt. Dora, Fla. G. J. V. 



The Capriciousness of Swarms 



Hiving sv,-arms was a difficult matter for us last 

 summer. The bees seemed undecided as to '.vhat 

 they wanted to do, and would come out, settle, and 

 then either move to another place or do some other 

 queer stunt. Only one swarm, the first, was reason- 

 able in its actions. It settled on a thornbush. I 

 bent the bush down, gave it a blow, and the bees 

 crawled into their new hive as calmly as the animals 

 WRlked into Noah's ark. 



The next swarm settled on the fop of a tall young 

 maple. I climbed up a ladder and cut off the limb 

 while the hired men caught it on a forked pole and 

 let it down in front of the new hive. The bees went 

 in. But after that our troubles began. 



A fine big swarm came off when I was away from 

 home. It settled all right, and then the hired men 

 sat down to dinner, intending to hive it after dinner. 

 But meanwhile it soared away through the sky, and 

 was lost to sight, though to memory dear. 



The next time a swarm came off I was at home ; 

 but I might as well have been away. It alighted on 



a low walnut; but while I was putting the hive in 

 position, there was a rumble of thunder. The bee& 

 became frightened, and fled back to their hive. 

 Then if I had only had a queen-trap I could at least 

 have saved the bees. They issued the next day with 

 their queen, and took refuge in the tall timber, and 

 were lost. 



I keep bees for the purpose of pollinating my or- 

 chards, and to them, in part, I owe my immense 

 crop of 8000 bushels of red juicy apples which I 

 gathered last year. 



New Wilmington, Pa. J. C. M. Johnston. 



Dropping a Swarm from a Tree into a Hive 



I had a swarm cluster in the top of a large oItu- 

 tree. As I could not reach the limb I climbed the 

 tree, and, with a cutter on the end of a long ]'ole, 

 cut off the branch and let it fall to the ground, lees 

 and all, having placed the hive at about the place 

 where I thought the bees would fall. The iimb 

 struck the ground within three feet of the hive, and 

 the bees aU ran in. 



Long Neck Sta., L. I. E.Griswold. 



[This plan you mention would, undoubtedly, be 

 a good expedient in the emergency you mention ; but 

 ordinarily, if it is possible to reach the limb it is a 

 little safer to let it down with a light rope after it "s 

 cut off. If you missed your calculation as to where 

 the limb would strike the ground so that you did not 

 get the hive near enough ; or if the limb struck any 

 thing else on the way to the ground the bees would 

 probably get away from you. — Ed.] 



An Easy Way to Fill Combs 



Last spring I had to feed my bees, and desired 

 to do so by giving them sugar-water in combs. I 

 filled my fountain-syringe bag, and the thin stream 

 directed at the cells caused hardly any drip. The 

 air was driven from the cells, and had plenty of 

 room to escape. It was far beyond the dipper meth- 

 od or the immersion way. 



Iowa. .J. Gaus. 



[The plan described is perfectly feasible. While 

 we have not tried it, we know that one can secure 

 filled combs in the manner described, with, a good 

 deal less spatter and daub. — Ed.] 



Cells Filled with Pollen in Aspinwall Hive 



I have tried two Aspinwall hives this season ; but 

 ■with my management they were not especially suc- 

 cessful. There was no swarming, but I had some 

 bulged sections, a few thin ones, and nearly a third 

 of the sections next to the brood-chamber contained 

 one or more cells of pollen. The queens also went 

 above, and a number of sections contained brood. 

 In our regular hives, pollen is never found, an4 

 brood is rare in comb-honey supers. These hives 

 may work better under other conditions and manage- 

 ment. I shall continue the trial, and hope for bet- 

 ter results. 



Fair Oaks, Cal. E. L. Sechrist. 



416 Pounds from a 24- Year-old Colony 



Our last exploit was to get 416 lbs. of honey from 

 the only colony of bees we had, and then have the 

 colony live 24 years in the same hive. The hive 

 actually rotted away from the bees. 



Galva, m., March 13. Lloyd Z. Jones. 



$17 Worth of Comb Honey from One Colony 



With reference to keeping down increase and run- 

 ning for comb honey, I would say that I have one 

 coleny that produced $17.20 worth of section honey, 

 and cast one swarm. 



Sunbury, Pa. John D.wis. 



