98 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. IS, 1900. 



the method of taking comb honey from small colonies that 

 have to be squeezed or forced to the supers. More than 

 this, it takes greater apiarian skill to handle such methods 

 to obtain success, both in maintaining- the stock in proper 

 condition, and in getting a nice, salable product. Few in- 

 deed are the apiarists who do not desire increase of stock, 

 and to those who do not want to risk a decrease in their 

 apiary, and to all but the most skillful I must recommend 

 getting surplus from strong colonies only. 



My nest article will continue this subject, entering 

 more fully into the details of the work. 



Larimer Co., Colo. 



Price of Swarms and Queens in Germany- 

 Honey in Switzerland. 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



ON page 730 (1899), it is said that in Germany the price of 

 honey is very high, but for live bees the bee-keepers 

 would seem to get very unsatisfactory prices, because 

 heather swarms are advertised at 63 cents to $1.00, and lay- 

 ing queens in the fall for 25 cents. 



These low prices need an explanation. Generally the 

 prices for swarms are much higher — 75 cents to SI. 00 per 

 pound ; queens SI. 00 and more — about the same as in the 

 United States. The bee-keepers in Lueneburg sell bees and 

 queens very cheap only in the fall, and this has a proper 

 reason. In this province prevail circumstances concerning 

 the hTjney-flow which can hardly be found anywhere else. 

 A management is adopted by the bee-keepers which has 

 been taught in the craft for more than 100 years, from gen- 

 eration to generation, and is well fitted to the condition of 

 the honey-resources. 



The main honey-flow is late in the fall, buckwheat and 

 heather, and the purpose of the spring and summer man- 

 agement is to get as many field-bees as possible for this 

 honey-flow. The bees generally belong to the landlord, and 

 he hires a man who has learned the craft during at least 

 two years. This man is called an imker (bee-keeper), and 60 

 to 80 colonies in straw-skeps are given into his hands in the 

 spring, and he has to manage them all the year around. To 

 get his colonies strong he uses stimulative feeding. In 

 April he migrates with the whole apiary to the river-bot- 

 toms, where good meadows will give him a honey-flow ; or 

 into the rape-fields, all for the purpose to develop his colo- 

 nies as much as possible. If the weather is bad, or the 

 honey-flow scarce, he feeds again in small quantities. 



In May or June his hives are full of bees and brood, and 

 the colonies can not get any stronger ; he expects swarms 

 now, and they do swarm, to be sure, every one of them. He 

 catches them with a swarm-catcher similar to Taylor's, but 

 much simpler and cheaper, and has done so for more than 

 100 years, witholit knowing anything of Taylor's invention. 



But he wants strong swarms. The after-swarms are 

 weak, so he unites so many that they fill at least one-third 

 of his straw-skeps. These swarms build up to strong colo- 

 nies by-and-by, if well cared for, and they always get good 

 care. 



In July he migrates again with 180 or 240 colonies to 

 the buckwheat fields, from there to the heather, and at last 

 home ag-ain. In the fall the prime-swarms are inclined to 

 swarm again ; he knows how to prevent this. 



Now commences the honey crop. At first he selects 

 carefull)' 60 or 80 colonies he wants to winter again ; they 

 must have a young queen and not too much honey, but 

 plenty. All the other colonies are brimstoned, and the 

 honey cut out. His honey is of the cheapest grade, never- 

 theless he clears a profit of about 2,000 marks a year for the 

 landlord, and small wages for himself. 



Very few bee-keepers with movable-frame hives in 

 Germany do better, many not as well, and besides this they 

 are good customers for the bees and queens the imker would 

 kill anyhow. 



Now instead of brimstoning he drums them out and 

 sells them for anything, if he gets paid for the drumming, 

 and he is an expert in this. If he can not sell all the colo- 

 nies, he sells the queens at least. 



The mobilist fills a hive with empty combs and honey- 

 combs, hives the swarm in it, and feeds some sugar if nec- 

 essary. If he winters the new colony all right, he will 

 have increast his apiary with very little expense. This is 

 the explanation why swarms and queens are sold as cheap 

 by the heather bee-keepers in the fall ; they do not cost him 

 anything, and no queen-rearer can compete with him ; but 

 he has nothing to sell except in the fall. 



Another correction is necessary. At the Philadelphia 

 convention Prof. H. W. Wiley said that in Switzerland 

 honey is adulterated, and that he didn't see a bee-hive while 

 there. He said further : "If you have a variety of bees 

 that can make honey out of snow, take them to Switzer- 

 land; they would find there an inexhaustible supply of the 

 raw material. 



It is true, and much is written about it in German bee- 

 papers, that in the hotels of Switzerland glucose and other 

 sweets are served to the foreign travelers as honey of the 

 Alps ; but the natives are smart enough not to eat that 

 stufi^. In so far I agree with Prof. Wiley, but the above 

 statement seems to me to be one of the extravagant ones, 

 which do " more harm than good." As Prof. Wiley puts it, 

 the reader may think Switzerland is somewhere in the 

 neighborhood of the Lady Franklin Bay. Quite the con- 

 trary is true ; Switzerland is very suitable for bee-keeping, 

 and this occupation is very advanced there, and is paying 

 better than in some other countries of the continent. 



In Switzerland is one of the best bee-papers in the 

 world, the Revue Internationale d'Apiculture, publisht by 

 Ed. Bertrand, and from there our American hives and 

 methods are slowly but surely being propagated over the 

 continent of Europe. 



From the southern part of Switzerland the best Italian 

 bees are exported, and in one point at least the bee-keepers 

 of Switzerland are ahead of us — they have all over the 

 country experiment stations in which simultaneously obser- 

 vations and experiments are made according to a well-con- 

 sidered plan. Bexar Co., Tex. 



Winter Passag-eways in the Brood-Combs. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes me that he thinks much 

 of the loss of bees during winter comes from the chill- 

 ing of the bees, or the impression of cold on those bees 

 occupying the outside of the cluster, or more properly the 

 outer ranges of comb, when a sudden cold spell comes on 

 with the cluster spread out all over the hive. He then goes 

 on to say : 



" Especially is this loss very considerable where comb- 

 passages are deficient, as in such cases the detacht clusters 

 are unable readily to join the main cluster, and are not in 

 sufficient numbers to maintain the requisite degree of heat, 

 hence are lost. Thus, after each cold snap a loss occurs, 

 and when there are a sufficient number of these cold snaps 

 during the winter, the whole colony goes little by little till 

 the remaining number are not equal to the occasion, when 

 all perish. W^hat is your opinion in this matter ? Please 

 tell us in the American Bee Journal." 



In the above our correspondent brings up a subject 

 which has been discust at length at times during the past, 

 and " winter passageways " thru the combs have been often 

 recommended. The argument brought forth in favor of 

 these passageways was that, on the first cold spell, the 

 cluster of bees was obliged to contract in order to maintain 

 the necessary heat ; and in doing so those occupying the 

 outer ranges of comb, being in a sluggish state from the 

 influence of the cold, failed to pass up and around the comb 

 quick enough to keep up with the receding cluster, hence 

 were left away from the warmth of the main cluster to 

 perish. To obviate this loss winter passageways were rec- 

 ommended thru the center of the combs, made by boring or 

 cutting holes thru them, or by having a curled shaving 

 suspended in each frame when the swarm was hived, so 

 that the bees would of themselves leave such passageways, 

 when they were building their combs. 



By this means the outer bees had direct communication 

 with the cluster or main body of bees in the center of the 

 hive, so that, even tho partially stiffened with the cold, they 

 could easily recede so as to keep up the main cluster. As 

 the bees would, as a rule, fill up these passageways each 

 summer, it was found to be quite a job to make them each 

 fall, when some one proposed boring a hole in the side of the 

 hive at the proper place, when, with a square stick of suit- 

 able size, pointed at the end, which was to be slowly 

 "wormed " (so as not to kill the bees) thru to the opposite 

 side of the hive, and thus make a passage thru all the combs 

 at once, thus making quite a saving of labor. Where such 

 passageways are desired, probably there is no better way of 

 securing them than this last. i " J 



However, it was soon found that the bees would remain 

 and die within one-half inch of these holes, as I have seen 

 them many and many a time, and as side holes were quite a 



