June 14, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



373 



room. In some cases I prive the queen access to the added 

 set of combs ; in others I remove one or two combs contain- 

 ing' the most honey from the brood-chamber, place them in 

 the super that is to be added, replace by the same number 

 of empty combs in the brood-chamber, and keep the quei-ii 

 below with an excluder. This will give more room, retanl, 

 if not prevent, swarming', and insure a strong colony, as all 

 the combs in the brood-chamber will be full, or nearly full, 

 of brood as soon as the queen laj's in the two empty combs 

 given. And the two removed and placed in the upper story 

 will contain more or less brood that will hatch and augment 

 the already strong colony. 



A little later, when the white honey season has well be- 

 gun, I will reduce many of these two-story colonies (I use 

 8-frame hives), and give them one or two supers of sections 

 in place of the upper stories. Swarming may, or may not, 

 result. If swarming does result, I will manage to keep the 

 working force together. The upper stories removed will be 

 placed on weaker colonies (or on any colony that I think 

 will not do good comb-honey work) for the production of 

 extracted honey. 



FULL SHEETS OR STARTERS IN SECTIONS — SEPARATORS. 



I am using full starters of extra-thin foundation, but 

 have not as yet tried bottom starters. It seems to me that 

 putting foundation in sections is the most tedious work a 

 bee-keeper has to do ; and, as far as my experience goes, it 

 can not be delegated to cheap help. One of the largest pro- 

 ducers of fancy comb honey in this State will not trust this 

 work to any one but himself. He produces straight combs 

 in 7-to-the-foot sections without separators. I get part of 

 my crop without separators, and for part I use the regular 

 l^it-inch section with separators, and don't know which is 

 the better. 



Well, bee-keepers, I hope to see you all as members of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association, at Chicago, next 

 August. Green Co., Wis., May 29. 



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

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



HOUSE-APIARY AND WINTERING. 



The house-apiary of Notre Dame, as we see it on page 

 273, looks substantial, and made to endure. You see an in- 

 stitution is not expected to terminate with one man's life. 

 And how happy is the honey market of a college ! The 

 youths who are so sincerely interested in the Commons 

 Hall three times per diem will not haggle over the question 

 whether the product of the apiary is estimated at 5 cents a 

 pound or at 50 cents a pound. Down she goes all the same. 

 Instructive circumstance that the house has wintered its 

 bees well for six years, the hives, but not the house, being 

 packt. I'll venture to guess that that Kentucky 11-year-old 

 queen was in three successive volumes unbeknownst to the 

 keeper. And so Mr. Chrysostom would like to go on a cru- 

 sade against cellar-wintering and the loose-hanging frame ! 

 Well, as the bumpkin said of Niagara, " What's to hinder ?" 

 He'll find the Saladins on the other side a smiling, and not 

 very belligerent, lot. 



GETTING THE MOST INTO AN EXCLUDER. 



Say, Grimes, it's not to get the most out of it, but to 

 get the most into it, that's the main thing anent the ex- 

 cluder. Most of us can get out somehow or other whatever 

 gets in. Interesting to see that so able an operator as 

 Grimes succeeds with communication to the super only 

 around the outside, all the middle being thin board. This 

 critic conjectures that some strains of bees will stand that 

 all right, and that some will not stand it at all. Page 275. 



METHODS OF CONTROLLING INCREASE. 



The method of controlling increase given by John R. 

 Schmidt, page 275 (double every spring and unite down one- 

 half every fall), I think to be well up to the high water mark 

 of our present knowledge. Still, we shall not be entirely 

 satisfied with our " hoss " and his training until we can 



make him whoa. Moreover, once in awhile there will come 

 a destroying winter that will sweep away two-thirds of the 

 consolidated one-half ; and then we will regret that every 

 good colony was not allowed to try its luck. Mr. Schmidt's 

 method of repeatedly moving the parent colony from one 

 side to the other of the new one seems to be good — or would 

 be if it did not require such close attention. 



And Mrs. Snyder, she is one of a small army at work on 

 another controlling scheme — let the colony become two, 

 and then wheedle both into one again without waiting for 

 winter. This scheme subdivides naturally into two 

 schemes, the perambulate-'em-round method, often called 

 the Heddon method, and the put-'em-up-stairs method, 

 which we have immediately under consideration. Interest- 

 ing to see that Mrs. S. finds newly hatcht bees, emerging 

 under unnatural conditions, to perish in large numbers 

 from hunger, and from being hustled by their elders. 

 Page 276. 



BEES ROBBING — FEEDING-WHISKEY NONSENSE. 



Mr. Dadant doeth well to remind the greenhorns (whose 

 legs and arms are sticking out of the world's windows all 

 around) that a man cannot take a colony of bees and " sic 

 'em on " to his neighbor's bees, as if they were dogs. They 

 would go for a colony in his own yard first. Sorry he didn't 

 say right out that the idea of feeding bees whiskey to make 

 them rob must be considered rank nonsense until some 

 proof of its success is shown. May succeed to the extent of 

 getting the inebriated colony robbed by a sober one adja- 

 cent. And robbing once begun may run a long course. 

 Page 276. 



POINTS ON SPRAYING FRUIT-TREES. 



Mr. Holtermann makes two excellent points about the 

 spraying question. If a spray kills leaves (and it sometimes 

 does), the essential parts of a flower are more tender than 

 leaves, and therefore more liable to destruction — the horti- 

 culturist biting his own nose off, as it were. And the man 

 who would fain spray in full bloom might profitably receive 

 by mail a card with the spraying law printed on it. Page 

 277. 



ONION HONEY FOR WINTER STORES. 



I hope Mr. McBride has it a little too rank. I still want 

 to think that a big field of onion bloom might not always 

 prove a curse in a barren season. Doubtless the hives 

 smelt bad ; but perhaps the practical result might have been 

 the same had the bees stockt up for winter on some other 

 second-rate bloom. Page 286. 



THE BELGIAN HARE AUXILIARY. 



Happy the bee-man be's of late. 



He's found a boom for his ebbing fate ; 



Yea, found for his biz a running-mate ; 



It's the Beltrian hare, whicli the world shall ate. 



All born and bred in an onion-crate. — Page 292. 



Still something within me cries out that starting an 

 auxiliary business is the first step towards abandoning the 

 bee-business altogether. 



WHERE TO PLACE BAIT-SECTIONS. 



Place bait-sections in the center to get reluctant or 

 weak colonies started quickly, but around the corners if to 

 encourage eveti work thruout the case. Guess that is about 

 correct, Mr. Aikin. But I thought I was almost the only 

 one contrary enough to put in baits with old honey in them 

 — and lo, he steals my dirty trick I Shake, brother 1 The 

 ups and downs of super work do not exactly correspond 

 with the gains and halts of the honey-flow, as shown by 

 the scale colony. Yes, that's so, too. Pag'e 289. 



PUSSY-WILLOW AS A NECTAR-YIELDER. 



I think that the statement made on page 295, that the 

 pussy-willows yield no honey, should be taken with consid- 

 erable allowance and margin for different localities and 

 weather. Very likely it is not common for it to yield enough 

 honey to increase visibly the amount on hand in the hives. 



EMPTY BOTTLES FOR HIVE-STANDS. 



Set the hive on empty brandy bottles, eh ? Four, with 

 the necks driven into the ground. Some of the brethren 

 will think the suggestiveness of that a little too strong. Dr. 

 Miller, if you don't drink brandy you can use beer-bottles. 

 Also, those who have got onto the trick of using oil instead 

 of butter can use oil-bottles — a relief to find some use for 

 them for which they do not have to be cleaned. But still, 

 my preference is strong in favor of having things fixt so 

 bees cannot cluster underneath a hive. If you do use bot- 



