1898. 



lected queen safely introduced, the hive 

 fixed in complete winter trim, with no 

 bees to bother while selecting the rich- 

 est combs in honey, etc., and best of all, 

 no loss of bees by returning, for when 

 thus shaken together and filled with 

 honey, each bee marks its location 

 anew, the same as do bees in natural 

 swarming, and you have a sure thing 

 with no guesswork about the matter. 

 And if you do not wish to unite again 

 in some years, it is no waste of time 

 in making a box and funnel, for these 

 are very convenient to use quite often 

 in introducing valuable queens, etc. 

 We can also pick up bees in this way 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



199 



allowed them to swarm or tried to keep 

 all together in their hives. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



My Bee-keeping Experience. 



Written for the American Bee-Keeper. 



BY C. E. PALMER. 



Y acquaintance with the honey 

 bee commenced a few years ago 

 with a colony in a single-walled 

 hive and movable frames. As the pur- 

 chase was made in the winter, I did not 

 attempt to discover their true condi- 

 tion, but long before spring the bees 

 died for want of stores. The cause, as 

 I found out afterward, was the too free 



C. E. Palmer and bis Apiary, Ransomville, N. Y. 



from different locations until we get 

 such a sized swarm as we xieem- best, 

 then make one of them by giving them 

 a queen. 



I have often put a lot of bees to- 

 gether in this way from colonies which 

 insisted in swarming during the honey 

 harvest, thus stopping the swarming' 

 mania and securing a big yield of sec- 

 tion honey from the colony formed and 

 also a good yield from those from 

 which the bees were taken, while 

 neither would have done little else than 

 swarm during the honey fiow, had wq 



use of the extractor. This sudden loss., 

 was a little more than I had bargained 

 for, but being more than anxious to try 

 again, I secured another colony in the _ 

 spring. This one did fairly well (so I 

 thought at the time), for at the close 

 of the season I had my two hives full 

 of bees and some surplus honey. 



I now attempted to. winter these two 

 hives without any extra protection, 

 with the result that I lost one colony 

 entirely; the other wintered well. 



Although this was not very encour- 

 aging, I was not yet willing to quit, so 



