April 5, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



215 



such swarms will sulkily haiiff on a tree for hours, several 

 of them settling- on the same place, and then the whole 

 bunch maj' enter the same hive, leaving some of your colo- 

 nies considerably depleted. Some of the young queens will 

 be very likely to get out at some crack that you didn't sus- 

 pect, and sail away to parts unknown, taking with them 

 one of those mammoth clusters. 



I don't know any good way that a beginner would be 

 likely to succeed with 32 colonies of bees so as to have only 

 eight increase and a good crop of honey, and be away from 

 the bees most of the time in May and June. You might 

 come nearer the mark by having Alley queen-traps at the 

 entrance, then when you found a queen in it you could take 

 away all the brood, leaving the old queen and all the bees 

 in the condition of a swarm. Or you could remove or kill 

 the old queen, and then when all the brood is sealed, de- 

 stroy every queen-cell but one. 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



THE NEW YORK BEE-DISEASE. 



If some of the boys feel bound to prove that the New 

 York bee-disease is owing to too much cellar-wintering — 

 why, then, we are going to have "a pretty kettle of fish," 

 sure enough. Page 100. 



MR. COGGSHALI, AND HIS APIARY. 



Here's the apiary we wanted to see — a Coggshall api- 

 ary where nothing is done for the looks of things. Hives 

 put down just where it comes handy, not even rank and file. 

 Bottom-boards extempore, sized or oversized, as fate may 

 lead. Weeds ad libitum. If ragged-edged quilts stick out, 

 so be it. And, horror of horrors, a ku-klux robe hung right 

 in a prominent tree, where he that passeth by can't help 

 seeing it I (I've got one, but I keep it out of sight mostly.) 

 The heavy villain himself stands right there in the ultra 

 foreground, like one of Rosa Bonheur's horses ; and he 

 seemeth to say : " The blood you thirst to shed is not con- 

 gealed by the artificial terrors with which you menace your 

 victim. It flows smoothly and unruffled in those channels 

 which the Creator made for a noble purpose, etc." 



Whatever we may think of the style of the " shebang," 

 we can not afford to sneeze at five carloads of honey per 

 year — neither at that four-frame extractor, in which the 

 frames are swiftly reverst without reversing. Thanks for 

 so excellent a view of it. Somebody'll have to put it on the 

 market sooner or later. The hive which is itemized into 

 bits for our benefit has a very rude-looking gridiron of wire 

 in front of it. Wonder if that's his bottom-spacer, or per- 

 chance spacer for both top and bottom. Crane smoker, eh ? 

 And we are not told that the barrow standing by is needed 

 to tote it about either. Surprised to learn that Mr. Cogg- 

 shall prefers chaff hives to wintering in the cellar. I train 

 in the same winter company, but not so much of preference 

 as because it would be inconvenient for me to run awaj'. 

 Page 114. 



OLD GRIMES' EXTRACTOR IDEAS. 



That's a good Grimes idea, to keep the extractor within 

 a boy's power to run it. Another one — lock the handle of 

 the honey-gate which has power to empty a big tank. And 

 I wish lady customers inspected all our extracting outfits ; 

 for then there would be decency all 'round. Page 114. 



PRANKS OF EXTRACTED HONEY. 



The great variety of pranks which extracted honey will 

 play in the course of years is instructively set forth in the 

 Colorado report, page 117. Of especial interest is the grad- 

 ual blackening of white honey with time. Fifteen years 

 made Pres. Aikin's sample of white honey as black as sor- 

 ghum. I have been inclined to blame contact with tin for 

 most of this darkening ; but quite possibly I am in a mis- 

 take, at least to the extent that honey in glass will often 

 get black also. The general trend of these changes is evi- 



dently downward, and sometimes in one year, and some- 

 times in many years, the outcome is a mere swill entirely 

 uneatable. An old bee-keeperof this county took a number 

 of barrels of honey to California just in time to find the 

 price knockt flat by the new broom of 'apiculture. He 

 wouldn't sell at ruling price, brought it back here when he 

 moved back, and still kept it on until it was totally worth- 

 less. 



DADANT ON EXTRACTING-SUPERS. 



Several of Mr. Dadant's reasons for clinging to shallow 

 extracting-supers have considerable weight ; but what he 

 calls the main reason refers to a difficulty that we all (in 

 this enlightened age of the world) ought to extinguish in 

 another way. Keep the queen down with perforated zinc ; 

 then decide the size of your super by other considerations. 

 Still, if one has a plan that works, and by which no honey 

 is extracted till the close of the season, the main need of 

 the zinc disappears. Page IIS. 



SOME HONEY KINKS. 



On page 117, Mr. Porter of the Colorados, posts us that 

 after having educated a customer's family to alfalfa honey 

 it won't do to change to sweet clover — which same shows 

 the latter to be decidedly the poorer. 



And the same page tells us that the candy factories 

 sometimes buy alfalfa honey, and that they know how to 

 utilize honey so as to retain delicate flavors. Room for 

 we'uns to find out something. 



MR. PRIDGEN'S DARK 'KERCHIEF STORY. 



That's a dark subject, Mr. Pridgen, that dark handker- 

 chief hanging out of a fellow's pocket, and the bees pitch- 

 ing at it. He wasn't a married man, was he ? At least his 

 wife had not the control of him she desired. When a man 

 has more independence than is good for him his handker- 

 chief is apt to be dark. And I don't blame the bees. Page 

 122. 



BEE-MOTH IN COLORADO. 



Our Colorado friends seem likely to get into a squabble 

 as to whether the bee-moth is or is not in that State. Peace, 

 brethren ! What's to hinder the moth from being carried 

 to the State any day ? And while it might not flourish as 

 it does in a difi'erent climate, it's not likely it would imme- 

 diately become extinct. Wise man would extinguish it be- 

 fore it Darwinized itself into a new variety. Page 124. 



MR. JOHANSEN'S EXTENSION HIVE AND IDEAS. 



Yes, Mr. Johansen, your considerations (four out of five 

 of them) are excellent. Use the bees' natural impulse in- 

 stead of resisting it ; prevent swarming ; keep the sections 

 clean ; protect the colony with chaff. As to utilizing more 

 than one queen in a colony, that is still among the prob- 

 lematical things. But we fear that the hive resulting from 

 churning these considerations in the Johansen brain will 

 be rickety, and quite lacking in durability, altho quite ex- 

 pensive compared with the standard hives in use. If there 

 is a swift and unmistakable " get there Eli " about it, when 

 tried by others than the inventor, its faults can be borne, 

 otherwise it will go under quickly. Twenty brood-frames 

 below and a hundred sections above, look like business. 

 But run as a side-storing hive pure and simple, that is 

 hardly in accord with the first of the considerations an- 

 nounced. That bees incline to fill the quarters below be- 

 fore going above "depends" (depends tremendously) upon 

 how big the quarters below are. And that all the eight 

 sections in one frame of a side-storing hive " are apt to be 

 in about the same condition," we find somedifficulty in get- 

 ting the conviction down, Mr. J. As to the three-queens- 

 in-a-hive method, talk to us some more after you have 

 actually run a dozen such colonies in your hive. We get 

 tired rather quickly of experiences which are going to be 

 realized. Pages 129 to 131. 



SPREADING THE BROOD. 



Mr. Aikin's plan of spreading the brood without spread- 

 ing it is an excellent plan — that is, if you wish to do any- 

 thing in that line at all. Done with sufficient care, the nest 

 is warmer " after taking " than "before taking," and the 

 great objection to that class of manipulations is obviated. 

 The only case I can think of where warning is needed (must 

 bark a little, you know) is a weak colony with an unusual 

 amount of stores. Putting the wintered stores, more or less 

 inclined to drip if a squaw-winter should come along, right 

 next the entrance, and a nest that must have all the bees to 

 keep it warm away back, might result in getting the whole 

 establishment robbed out. Page 132. 



