AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



269 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



Beeville, Texas. 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



Ijesson No. ' 



(Continued from page 207.) 

 GENERAL, WORK IN THE APIARY. 



We will take up in this lessou some 

 items of general work, and try to ascer- 

 tain how to do certain things. 



SIGNS OF yUEENXESSNESS. 



We will first tell how to know a colony 

 is queenless when there is a large col- 

 ony, and we have not time to search 

 very long. If the hive has been queen- 

 less some time, or beyond the period 

 where it cannot rear a queen — I mean 

 by this a colony that has no brood or 

 eggs —they become discouraged, and if 

 we watch closely we can tell on opening 

 the hive, as they will be scattered all 

 over the combs, and no general work 

 going on. Then, as soon as the hive is 

 opened, it seems that every bee sets up 

 a mourn, a slow buzz of the wings, mak- 

 ing a low humming sound. This is al- 

 most a sure sign that they are queenless, 

 and I can tell almost without an excep- 

 tion when a colony is queenless when I 

 first open the hive. 



Then we have another queenless sign, 

 when the queen has been out but a short 

 while. The bees will come out and 

 crawl up the front of the hives, and fly 

 away a short distance and return to the 

 hive, and begin a call as it seems, call- 

 ing for the queen, and to show her where 

 home is. This the bees will do some- 

 times constantly for a week, after they 

 find their queen is not with them. 



I had better here mention the few ex- 

 ceptions to this, as some bees never 

 mourn for their queen at all, and show 

 no queenless signs outside of the hives, 

 and really I have met a few cases where 

 the bees never would start a queen-cell 



or mourn after their queen was taken 

 out, and bees are always poor cell-build- 

 ers that do not mourn for their queen. 



Of course you all are to understand 

 that queen-cells are nearly always a 

 sure sign of queenlessness, but not al- 

 ways. At swarming time, and when 

 bees have an old queen that they wish 

 10 supersede, they will start queen-cells 

 with a queen present, but when we have 

 a knowledge that a hive had a young, 

 prolific queen, and no swarming is ex- 

 pected, then queen-cells are a sure sign 

 of their being queenless. But when we 

 open a hive, and the bees are all centered 

 together, or in a compact shape, and the 

 combs looking clean and the bees quiet, 

 etc., then we may be pretty sure they 

 have some kind of a queen. 



GETTING STRAIGHT COMBS. 



Now, should you be short of founda- 

 tion at swarming time, or at any time 

 when the bees are building combs, and 

 you wish straight combs, see that the 

 first two or theee combs are started 

 straight, and then keep an empty frame 

 between two of the combs started, and 

 have the hives level from side to side, 

 and you will get nice, straight combs. 



HIVING NATURAL SWARMS. 



In hiving natural swarms, or any 

 other swarms where you wish to have 

 the bees go in at the entrance, always 

 put a few bees in at the top, close the 

 cover, and as soon as they begin to call, 

 or buzz their wings at the entrance, 

 then you can jar or smoke the whole 

 swarm into the air, and they will enter 

 the hive, if you will keep a smoke at the 

 place where they were clustered, for a 

 few minutes. The main thing in hiving 

 bees this way, is to get a " call " at the 

 entrance, and they will then hive them- 

 selves. 



TO PREVENT ABSCONDING. 



To keep bees from absconding when 

 they have been hived, give them a frame 

 of unsealed brood and eggs — not sealed 

 brood. This is the best remedy I ever 

 saw, and never in all my life have I had 

 a swarm to abscond when I gave a 

 frame of unsealed brood, honey and 

 eggs. 



I gave this plan to a beginner about 

 ten years ago ; he had been losing 

 swarms, and he gave frames of sealed 

 brood and sealed queen-cells, and their 

 swarming fever was high, and they 

 would come out every day and settle on 

 a limb. He came over and said my 

 I remedy was no good — they came out 



