Aug-. 2, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



485 



them rig-ht. You ask how ? Well, there are many ways. 

 There is the doctor with his pills, powders, and plasters. 

 That is about the handiest, but not the best. Old (irimes 

 and the boys keep themselves riyht thru physical culture. 

 This cures the whole body. Of course, the exercise takes 

 time, but it pays. If you go no further than the exercise of 

 deep breathing, that pays. Not one person in ten breathes 

 properly, and there is a world of health in the development 

 of lung-power. The Grimes family are free from colds, 

 malaria, and various ills, and all from bathing and mas- 

 sage every morning. 



If you feel well— if the angel is in your heart— you will 

 think well of every one you meet. Yes, you must love all 

 animate creation, and send forth helpful thoughts. 



If a bee-keeper comes to you for information do not be 

 churlish and unduly secretive, for the seeker after knowl- 

 edge, if bent upon gaining it, will find it somewhere else, 

 and he will think better of the man who gives it, and not 

 much of the man who withholds. Remember that the man 

 who freely imparts information with word or pen receives 

 more than he gives. 



Don't cross bridges until you come to them. Ten 

 chances to one there is no bridge to cross, and the worry 

 has been useless. Worry brings on disease and premature 

 old age ; it drives out noble thoughts, shrivels, and kills. 



To get the most out of himself the bee-keeper should 

 saturate himself vrith bee-keeping lore. When Old Grimes 

 was a boy books on bee-culture were scarce, and of journals 

 there were none. But at present there is no excuse for 

 ignorance on any feature of bee-keeping. Books and papers 

 are plentiful, and one paper you can tie to with confidence 

 that it will benefit you, is the "old reliable" American Bee 

 Journal. 



If a book or paper is purchast it should be read. How 

 do you read a paper, anyway ? While your eyes are on the 

 page IS your mind on neighbor Jones' high-stepping team 

 of horses? Or do you just look at the headings and then 

 throw down the paper and think there is nothing- iu it that 

 will hold your thoughts? 



Oh, no, friend, the nut is not worth much unless the 

 meat is carefully pickt out and digested. And, yes, there 

 are bee-men who will not even crack the nut, that is, the 

 paper is thrown aside without even removing the wrapper. 

 Sucli persons may win success, but the yare not up-to-date. 

 Their knowledge comes to them bv reflection from some 

 brighter luminary in their neighborhoood. Yes, friend, it 

 is far better to be a sun than a moon— very bright and up- 

 to-date. -■ o r 



Now, there are a number of thoug-hts crowding down 

 to my pen-point to get expression, but thev would better be 

 checkt, and left to be exprest at some future time, or ex- 

 prest not at all, for here we have the whole thing in a nut- 

 shell : ° 

 " Let each man think himself an act of God, 

 His miud a thought, his life a breath of God ; 

 f And let each try, by great thoughts aud good deeds. 

 To show the most of Heaven he hath iu him." 



Managing- Late Swarms- Partly Filled Sections. 



BY G. M. DOOI.ITTI,E. 



AS soon as a swarm is seen issuing I take six frames 

 filled with foundation, and two wide frames of sections, 

 putting the same in a box or hive which is convenient 

 to carry ; and when I arrive at the hive from which the 

 swarm is coming, I take the frames from the box and place 

 them down by the hive. As soon as the swarm has mostly 

 ceast coming out the hive is opened, and all of the frames 

 of brood and honey, with the adhering bees, taken out and 

 placed in the box, after which the two wide frames of sec- 

 tions are placed, one at each side of the hive, and the six 

 brood-frames put between them. The hive is now arranged 

 and closed. 



" Will the bees stay on these combs all right in that 

 open box ? I should think they would fly out after the 

 swarm." 



There is no trouble about the bees leaving the combs. 

 If the weather is warm, and there are many bees on the 

 frames, about a third of them are shaken off in front of the 

 hive, when the box is placed in the shade a rod or two away, 

 so the bees from the swarm will not find it when being 

 hived, which is the next thing to do ; hiving them in the 

 rearranged hive on the old stand. 



" Is there no danger of having too few bees on these 

 combs should the weather be cold ?" 



If the weather is cool, or but a few bees are on the 

 combs of brood, omit the shaking- off, for it will want all 

 of the bees to keep the brood in good condition. 



" Yes, but what do you do with these combs of bees and 

 brood ?" 



They are taken to a hive which has been placed where 

 I wish a colony to stand, and arranged in it the same as 

 they were in the old hive; and after tucking them up all 

 warm and nice they are left till the next morning. At any 

 time during the forenoon of the next day they are given a 

 virgin queen, or a queen-cell just ready to hatch, and in 

 this way we have no trouble with after-swarming, for the 

 bees feel so poor at this time that they are glad of any- 

 thing in the shape of a queen, the flying bees that were 

 taken with the combs of brood having gone back to the old 

 stand with the swarm. 



"Must this giving of the queen be done at just such a 

 time ? Why not wait three or four days ?" 



If the delay is longer than 18 hours, this formed colony 

 often becomes so strengthened by the rapidly hatching 

 brood that they will destroy the queen-cell, or kill the vir- 

 gin queen, and after-swarming- will be the result. 



" Would it not be well to give this formed colony a lay- 

 ing-queen?" 



Do not give them a laying queen unless you wish a 

 prime swarm from the colony in from 18 days to three 

 weeks, for the bees will surely use her for such swarming- 

 if the honey harvest continues for that length of time. 



" What do you claim for this plan over the old one used 

 by the many ?" 



By this plan I get a powerful colony on the old stand, 

 which will do as much in the sections, if not more, than 

 they would if they had not swarmed ; for the new 

 swarm will work with a vigor rarely known to bees under 

 any other circumstances. 



"Do you do anything- further with the colony made 

 from the combs of brood ? 



In ten days, if the honey harvest continues, sections are 

 given to this colony, which has rapidly increast to such 

 from the combs of brood carried in the box ; and as the 

 young queen has now commenced to lay, the bees will at 

 once go into the sections, often giving- a fair yield of honey ; 

 yet the main yield will come from the new swarm, as they 

 have at least one-third more bees than they would had they 

 been hived on a new stand, all of the field-bees returning to 

 this place. 



" Do the bees returning from the combs of brood and 

 the fields catch the inspiration of the swarm ?" 



Yes, they all work with a will together ; and as the 

 harvest is at its hight also, and the brood-chamber con- 

 tracted, the storing of honey goes on in the sections at a 

 rapid pace, such colonies often giving from SO to 100 pounds 

 of " fancy " honey to their keeper, while, if hived on the 

 old plan, little save partly filled or empty sections would be 

 the result. 



If the hive is left as we now have it until winter the 

 bees are not liable to have sufficient stores; so when the 

 harvest of white honey begins to draw to a close, the sec- 

 tions are taken from the sides, which were placed there at 

 the time of hiving (if they have not been taken out filled 

 before), and the combs necessary to fill out the hive are 

 used to take their places. In this way the bees will fill 

 these last for winter ; and should a fall yield occur they 

 will often have some extra stores to spare to help out any 

 weak colony that may be short. 



" What is done with the partly filled sections which 

 may thus come from the sides?" 



These are taken from the wide frames and placed with 

 those which are on top, when the bee will finish them, if 

 the honey season does not drop off too suddenly ; or they 

 can be kept and used for "bait " sections the following 

 year. 



" How are these best kept over so that they can be nice 

 and clean, ready for use when wanted?" 



There are various ways, such as extracting the honey 

 from them and then placing a lot over some strong colony 

 for the bees to lick the remaining honey off, when they are 

 stored away in a clean, dry place till wanted. Or they can 

 be uncapt and set over some colony short of stores till the 

 honey is carried below. But I generally use the plan given 

 by Dr. Miller, I think, of setting the whole lot in the cellar 

 or some dark room, when on a pleasant day the door is 

 opened, giving the bees of the apiary access to them, when, 

 at night, I find them all cleaned up, with very few combs 

 gnawed, provided we give the bees access to them at the 

 right time, so that night comes at about the time the bees 

 have the honey carried away. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. . 



