1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Notes on Apiary Work. 



Written for the American Bee- Keeper. 



BY S. M. KEELEE. 



SOURING a good honey season we 

 are liable to have some late or 

 after swarms issue, when we 

 would much prefer to have them re- 

 main together in one good strong col- 

 ony. But out they will come, making 

 old and young too small to be of much 

 use. 



1 have adopted a plan of getting 

 them back so they will stay. This may 

 not be new to some. When hived 

 right back they will not stay there. 

 So I hive them in a temporary box, and 

 the next day, (on the second morning 

 is my choice), run them back. They 

 have then become established as a 

 s.warm, and commenced comb-building, 

 so when put back they will take full 

 possession, destroying all queen cells, 

 and are ready for business. I aim to 

 catch all the young undipped queens 

 at the entrance when the swarm comes 

 out the same as I do the clipped 

 queens. Then I can, if I have hives 

 that need more bees, divide these new 

 swarms and use a portion, or all of 

 them, if need be, to strengthen other 

 swarms, and run those that are left 

 from the box back in their old homo 

 with the queen. 



Now, if I fail to catch the queen 

 when the swarm comes out, I emptj; 

 the bees a little back from the en- 

 trance, and as they commence march- 

 ing in, the queen is very soon seen 

 walking right over the top of the mass 

 of moving bees; then I cage her and 

 keep her caged until the swarm is dis- 

 posed of. 



In the January number of theAmeri 

 can Bee-Keeper, Ed. Jolley has ap- 

 parently given us something well 

 worth knowing. From his experi- 

 ments in wintering bees, showing earls 

 honey to be the proper stores for bees 

 in the cellar, and late fall honey for 

 bees wintered on their summer stands. 

 For some years I have had buckwheat 



honey for winter stores for my bees. I 

 always winter them on their summer 

 stands, and they invariably go through 

 with little or no loss. Several years 

 ago I sustained a heavy winter loss, 

 and if my memory serves me right, 

 they had early or clover honey for that 

 winter. I contract the brood-nest for 

 the early honey, and enlarge it for the 

 buckwheat flow, so the bees can fill it 

 up for winter in their own good way. 

 I have never had to feed in the fall for 

 winter stores. Now, lest some readers 

 should class buckwheat honey with 

 this late fall honey which Mr. Jolley 

 describes as a "dark, strong and inferior 

 quality of honey," I feel disposed to 

 come to the rescue. Allowing that 

 buckwheat honey maj^ possess the 

 requisite heating quality for winter 

 stores, I consider it, for table use, in 

 ferior to none. And very many people 

 prefer it to basswood honey. Buck- 

 wheat bloom comes in August, and 

 other fall flowers later. 



* * * 



To get bees started in the supers at 

 the commencement of the honey flow, 

 I bait with unflnished sections, first 

 leveling them nearly down to the foun- 

 dation by scratching the cells ofi with 

 my fingers. I can thus do it very ex- 

 peditiously, without the use of ma- 

 chinery. 



* * * 



Steam, to moisten sections when 

 folding them, Fuits me better than 

 water. I have folded over 1000 sec- 

 tions this winter without breaking 

 one. It takes but little steam, and is 

 easy to do. The water does not need 

 to boil, but should be hot enough so 

 the hot moist vapor will rise from it. I 

 use a pan on the stove for the hot 

 water, and lay the sections across the 

 top of the pan with groves up, so as to 

 moisten the outside. While I am fold- 

 ing one, the next will be ready, and so 

 on. as fast as I can handle them. 



Hf * * 

 The February number of A. B. K. 

 has just come to hand, bringing the 



