1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



891 



tried to swarm ? I have a neighbor who claims to be author- 

 ity on bees ; I might ask him, but I prefer to ask the " Old 

 Reliable." He introduces a queen by turning her loose in 

 front, and spends his extra time in picking the surplus eggs 

 out of the cells of one colony (whose " layer" seems bound to 

 put three or four eggs in every cell) with a pin. 



A. B. GiNNEK. 



Answer. — 1. I hardly think it indicated anything more 

 than that the day was warm enough so the drones wanted to 

 come out to play. 



2. Very likely it would have been economy to have killed 

 the most of them, as it is a matter of some expense to keep a 

 big lot of drones. 



3. Probably the queen would have been caught in the 

 trap the same as the drones were. If left long enough in the 

 trap she would probably perish, but at the time of swarming 

 the bees are supposed to have one or more young queens ready 

 to emerge from their cells about eight days later. That young 

 queen would have to be allowed to leave the hive for fecunda- 

 tion or the colony would perish. If a trap is placed in front 

 of a hive, it will not do to leave it unnoticed throughout the 



season. 



^ I ^ 



Will They Carry Up the Syrup? 



I feed my bees until the hive is full, of syrup made of 

 sugar ; then when the honey-flow comes (if it does), will the 

 bees carry this syrup above and deposit it in the surplus case, 

 or will they put the nectar in the surplus boxes, and leave the 

 syrup below '? I want a square answer to this, if you please. 



J. M. 



Answer. — I'll try to give you a square answer, and tell 

 you at least what I think. If you feed enough so that every 

 cell in the hive not occupied with brood is crammed, and the 

 queen has not enough room to lay, and supers are put on im- 

 mediately after feeding, I think the bees will be likely to 

 carry up some of the syrup to make room for the queen to lay. 

 If the feeding is done some time before the harvest, I don't 

 think there is much likelihood that anything but newly-gath- 

 ered honey will be carried above. But I don't know anything 

 about it from actual trial. 



Two Grubs in a Queen-Cell. 



On May 20 my first swarm issued, and to prevent after- 

 swarms I proceeded to cut out the queen-cells. On the first 

 frame I picked up there was the biggest cell I ever saw. In 

 length it was' about two inches, and not more than M 

 inch in circumference. You can imagine my surprise when, 

 on cutting it open, two well-developed grubs tumbled out. 

 What was the cause of it ? Is this a phenomenon, or do you 

 older chaps see these things often '? L. E. H. 



Answer. — No, X don't think we old chaps often find two 

 grubs in a queen-cell, although it does sometimes happen. 



TUe BJanies and Addresses of all your bee- 

 friends, who are not now taking the Bee Journal, are wanted 

 at this office. Send them in, please, when sample copies will 

 be mailed to them. Then you can secure their subscriptions, 

 and earn some of the premiums we have oilered. The 

 next few months will be just the time to easily get new sub- 

 scribers. Try it earnestly, at least. 



The Alsike Clover Leaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 25 cents ; 100 for 40 cents ; or 200 



for 70 cents. 



.^-^-^ 



Every Present Subscrit»er of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. 





Sell Only Good Honey. 



Only last season, or 1894, I got a rather limited supply of 

 sweet honey. Yes, it tasted sweet, all right, but somehow the 

 little basswood and no white clover honey was mixed with 

 something that made it slightly off in color ; also it did not 

 have jnst the right taste ; but it was up to standard in weight. 

 Now, I believe a majority of us would have called this honey 

 good enough to offer to our best customers. We would not 

 expect at least any serious harm ; but let me tell you about it. 

 I wanted some of those greenbacks and silver dollars. I had 

 my doubts about it, but I rather reluctantly loaded up and 

 went to town. I commenced right on the start to tell my 

 customers that honey this season was not quite as good as 

 usual. Those who wanted 50 pounds or more, I would per- 

 suade them to cut down their usual supply. In one instance a 

 50-pound customer wanted their own way ; the whole family 

 tasted while I talked. I finally got them down 10 pounds 

 ^they took 40. Now for the result. This season (1895) ray 

 honey was never better. When I called at this place with the 

 usual good morning, I told them I was around with honey 

 again. The little children playing in the front yard didn't 

 even look up. 



" Well," says the good woman, "somehow we don't like 

 honey as we used to. We have kept putting it on the table 

 every day, but we have quite a bit left that we got of you last 

 season." 



I referred to what I said the season befdre. 



" Now," said I, " you bring out that old honey and I will 

 trade you new honey even up for it." The trade was made. 

 " Now, I want you to take enough more to make your usual 

 50 pounds." She hardly thought it best, but finally let me 

 have my way." 



Just a few days ago the man of this house called out from 

 the other side of the street: 



"Say, White, we are about out of honey; can we get 

 about 20 pounds more?" 



"No, sir," said I, " we are all sold out." 



"That's too bad. We will see we get more than 50 

 pounds next season." — Dan White, in Gleanings. 



Small Hives. 



In this matter of small hives some seem to think that 

 Doolittle is not helping the bee-fraternity much, for, say they, 

 " better results can be secured with large brood-chambers." 

 Well, if such as say this are right, I made a mistake in those 

 trials made years ago, and many others are making the same 

 mistake to-day, for the larger part of our successful comb- 

 honey producers are to-day using small brood-chambers; some 

 even smaller than I use. But as the reports of those using 

 these small brood-chambers are always larger, on an average, 

 than those who recommend laige hives, I conclude that I have 

 not made a mistake. 



What is a brood-chamber for ? My answer would be, for 

 the purpose of rearing as many bees as possible for working 

 in the honey season, and as few at all other times of year as 

 consistent with accomplishing this object. The main secret of 

 successful comb-honey production is the getting of the combs 

 in the brood-chamber literally full of brood before the honey 

 harvest, thus securing a full force of workers ready for the 

 field just when they are needed. What man is there who 

 hires a lot of hands to hoe potatoes before the potatoes are 

 up ? Not one : but they wait till the potatoes are ready to 

 hoe, and then hire the help. Just so, we want our bees at the 

 right time to have them profitable. A hive full of bees in 

 March is of no more use than a field full of men to hoe pota- 

 toes would be at that season of the year ; for May and June is 

 the time we hoe potatoes in this latitude. Again, if we do not 

 have the brood and bees in time for the honey harvest, all the 

 extra powers of the queen are spent in vain, for it would be 

 like employing a lot of hands to hoe potatoes in October, after 

 they were all ripe and dug.— G. M. Doolittle, in Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper. 



See " Bee-Keeper's Guide" offer on page 396. 



