296 



THE AMERICA!^ BEE JOaRNAL. 



nailed with tiiree small nails to hold it 

 well in place. If the staff is stained (not 

 painted) a color that resembles a natnral 

 bee-color, a swann wilh'lustercm it sooner. 

 The strips that are nailed on in the centre 

 should be 1.5 inches in length, and grad- 

 ually shortened each way to one foot at 

 each" end. 



When a swarm begins to cluster, hold 

 the staff under them, close to the object 

 ui)on whicli tlicy are aliijlitim:. and nearly 

 all tlie liers will aliirlit (jji the statf, and by 

 moving it aside a little ami agitating the 

 remaining ones, all will be secured, and 

 may be carried any distance to the hive 

 and none will fall from the staff, which 

 will save any extra trouble of carrying 

 hives, and the flying back and forth of bees 

 for a day or two, wHiere one is hived and 

 left to stand for one day and removed on 

 the morning of the next. With such a 

 staff a lady or an elderly person may hive a 

 swarm easily even in a place where it would 

 be difficult for two men without the staff ; 

 and as soon as the bees cluster, or a part of 

 them (no need to wait for all, the rest will 

 follow if yon go slow), they may be hived 

 in one-half, and in some instances one- 

 quarter of the time ; and there is not so 

 much danger of two or more swarms 

 uniting. 



Hives should front east, southeast or 

 south, east being always preferred if pos- 

 sible, on account of the morning sun 

 warming the hives ; later in the day the at- 

 mosphere becomes warm, and hives facing 

 west (which is the worst direction of all) 

 get the biu-ning rays of the sun, when it is 

 a damage rather than a benefit. If one 

 has but a .small plot of ground, and the 

 hives are crowdeci, then it is best to vary 

 the frontage, as the bees are thrown too 

 much together, and are hindered some- 

 what in working. There is one other 

 thing to be taken into consideration : It 

 is hard work for laden bees to enter a hive 

 with the wind, and hives should be set 

 somewhat to conform with this in particu- 

 lar. Bees enter a hive best head against 

 the wind, as they are not so liable to take 

 a tumble and mix up in heaps as they 

 would in entering with the wind, when 

 heavily laden and cannot control them- 

 selves. But as in most localities the pre- 

 vailing winds are from the southwest to 

 northwest, a frontage from south to east 

 will be all that is required. For .smoker 

 tuel the fungous exeresenoes growing on 

 decaying logs and trees in the woods, well 

 dried and cut in pieces the size of a hickory 

 nut, burn well, and last a long time. If, 

 however, bees are at all inclined to be 

 vicious, take cheap smoking tobacco, per- 

 haps the refuse stems would do, but care 

 slKiidd be taken not to smoke them too 

 much, as it soon puts a (luietus on the 

 bees, and too umch smoke might make 

 the honey taste, if wanted for use in a 

 few days. I scarcely ever use anything 

 but tobacco, and 1 can quiet the very 

 worst colony in 10 seconds. 



Lockwood, N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Marshall Co., Iowa, Convention. 



The Marshall County Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at the Court House in 

 Marshalltown, Iowa, on April 18, 188.5, 

 with the President, Mr. J. Swift, in the 

 chair. 



At the afternoon session the minutes of 

 the previous meeting, as published in the 

 Bke Jouknal, were read and approved, 

 and five new members joined the Associa- 

 tion. The election of ofticers for the en- 

 suing year resulted as follows: Presi- 

 dent, O. B. Barrows, of MMishalltown ; 

 Vice-President, Jos. .Swift, of .SiHte Cen- 

 tre; Secretary, J. W. Sanders,of Marshall- 

 town ; Treasurer, G. W. Calhoun, of 

 Marshalltown. 



The subject of "Spring management of 

 bees" was then introduced by Mr. Coeper. 

 He allows small entrances, keeps all 

 warm during early spring, and uses arti- 

 Hcial pollen and other feed when neces- 

 sary. When tbe honey-season begins he 

 gives more room in the hives. He keeps 

 all drone-comb out of the brood-chambers 

 of all colonies except one selected colony, 

 and also one colony is selected for the 

 purpose of rearing queens ; both tbe 

 drone-rearing and the queen-rearing colo- 

 nies are selected for their Italian purity, 

 and for a combination of other good quali- 

 ties. Wlien ready to rear queens, he 

 removes the queen from the particular 

 colony, when the colony starts a number 

 of queen-cells, which he uses for starting 

 new colonies. He allows colonies plenty 

 of room, and controls increase by the 

 nuclei system of swarming. By this 

 means he gets all his young queens from 

 his best stock. He prefers the Italians for 

 all purposes, but owing to other strains 

 around his apiary, he finds it hard to keep 

 them pure. Out of IS queens reared dur- 

 ing the past season only 9 were purely 

 mated ; the others produced hybrids. 



Mr. Barrows made some remarks on 

 the necessary spring supplies for the 

 apiarv. He put out his bees on March 11, 

 but thought perhaps he had put them out 

 too soon, as some had weakened since 

 being put out. • They did not carry in rye 

 pollen until March 39. Mr. G. W. Keeler 

 put his bees out on March 28, and Mr. 

 Haskins put his out on April 6. 



President Swift said that be began in 

 1883 with 4 colonies, simply as a recrea- 

 tion, and for the interest that he took in 

 the study of bee-keeping. In 1884 he be- 

 gan with 7 colonies, having lost none dur- 

 ing the previous winter, increased his 

 number to 21, and took 300 pounds of 

 honey which he sold at 1.5 and 2(5 cents per 

 pound. During the past winter he lost 8 

 colonies, and thought that 75 per cent, of 

 the bees in his vicinity, that were not 

 properly cared for, were dead. 



In regard to wintering bees in cellars 

 containing vegetables, Mr. Barrows said 

 that it did no harm ; but keep the cellar 

 warm enough— about 45° above zero. He 

 thought that 90 per cent, of the colonies 

 left on the summer stands during the past 

 winter, were dead. 



Mrs. Van Meter said that she put in 21 

 colonies last fall, and had lost 2 since put- 

 ting them out. Mr. Cover put in .5e colo- 

 nies, and took out .54 alive. He does all 

 he can to get all the colonies strong by the 

 time the honey harvest begins. 



The Secretary, in speaking of the spring 

 care of bees, showed the great need of tlie 

 division-board for contracting the size of 

 the brood-nest to suit the size of the col- 

 ony ; and he would even up weak colo- 

 nies by taking frames from the strong 

 ones, and get all as strong as possible by 

 the time of the white clover harvest. He 

 also spoke of the advantage of having 

 uniformity in frames and hives, as it aided 

 materially in caring for the bees 

 properly. 



In reference to drone-comb in the brood- 

 frames, and keeping empty combs from 

 the moth, Mr. Coeper saiti : Keep all the 

 drone-comb cut out, and place such 

 frames in the middle of the brood-nest, 

 when worker-comb will always be se- 

 cured ; if not, cut it out again. If the 

 combs have become old, cut al| out and 

 let the bees build new ones, or put in 

 comb foundation, and replace them in the 

 centre of the brood-nest, when the object 

 will be accomplished. To keep empty 

 combs from the moth, store them in a dry 

 place, and fumigate them with sulphur 

 smoke two or three times, keeping them 

 enclosed so moths cannot get at them. 



The Secretary said that be had success- 

 fully fumigated empty combs by rolling 

 u|i some sulphur in a piece of cotton cloth, 

 and using a bee-smoker in fumigating them. 



The subject, "Care and marketing of 



honey," was then discussed. 



Mr. Cover thought that we needed some 

 responsible party to handle our honey for 

 us ; but Messrs. Keeler, Moore and others 

 thought best to sell it direct to the con- 

 sumers, as much as possible, and not to 

 run each other in prices. They also ad- 

 vised putting up honey in good shape for 

 the market, and net try to compete with 

 the honey that is brought to market in a 

 broken-up mess in jars, or in large boxes 

 and tubs. Nearly all consumers would 

 gladly pay more for comb honey in one 

 and two-pound sections than for that 

 which is broken or slovenly prepared tor 

 market. 



In caring for comb honey, Mr. Keeler 

 said that he keeps it in a warm, dry place; 

 and the extracted honey he first puts into 

 barrels which have parts of the heads re- 

 moved, and covers the openings with 

 cloths, which allows the honey to ripen 

 well by evaporation. It is then drawn 

 from the barrels and put into any kind of 

 vessels desired. He does not endeavor to 

 keep it from granulating. 



As a full report could not be obtained, 

 the Secretary requested that all the mem- 

 bers forward to him their reports stating 

 the number of colonies last fall and their 

 present number, which will then be sent 

 for publication. He also stated that the 

 Fair premium-list would be the same this 

 year as last, and hoped that all would en- 

 deavor to make a good exhibit. 



The subject for the next meeting is, 

 " Fall care of bees." Adjourned to meet 

 on Saturday, July 18, 1885. 



J. W. SANDEK.S, Sec. 



0. B. Barrows, Pres. 



For tbe American Bee Journal* 



Is it Necessary to Wire Frames? 



For the last few years we have heard a 

 good deal about wired frames, and quite a 

 number of bee-keepers are using them. 

 In their favor two claims are made— that 

 the combs in wired frames are stronger 

 than in uuwired frames, and that the 

 foundation in such wired frames does not 

 sag so that some of the cells become 

 drone-cells. Perhaps a bit of experience 

 may be of service on these two points. 



Strong combs, that is, combs strong 

 enough to endure any strain that may be 

 expected to come upon them, are desira- 

 ble. They should be strong enough to 

 bear up the weight of the brood even in 

 the heat of summer ; they should be strong 

 enough to be used safely in the extractor ; 

 and they should be strong enough to be 

 shipped by express in case one wants to 

 ship bees. This is all the strength that 

 they need ; any strength above this is quite 

 superfluous, and involves a useless ex- 

 pense. The wise bee-keeper will labor to 

 nave his combs strong enough ; he will 

 not care to have them needlessly strong. 



I work my apiary entirely for extracted 

 honey, and in the course of the summer I 

 extract from nearly every comb in it. I 

 keep my hives standing in the sun, and 

 they have no shade of any kind even in 

 midsummer. I ship bees in large quanti- 

 ties, and to long distanct-s, and if anybody 

 needs strong combs, I do ; if anybody has 

 trouble with nnwired frames, 1 ought to 

 have trouble. I have never had a wired 

 frame in my apiary, and as to combs 

 melting down in the sun, it never liappena. 

 For the last three years there has not 

 been a comb that has melted down. In 

 extracting it is very seldom indeed that a 

 comb is broken, in one season I shipped 

 by express 140 colonies of bees, and did 

 not have a i)article of trouble with one of 

 them. I have every year, for the la.st four 

 years, shipped from 40 to 140 colonies of 



