360 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



getting their colonies too popnlous at 

 this time, and in tliis latitude witli 

 our short spring-time. During the 

 fifty days to come, look to each colony 

 weekly, add com lis by spreading 

 brood and placing an empty comb in 

 the centre, keeping a record of every 

 colony. 



Up to this, I have not said anything 

 about hives. Good residts may be 

 obtained with nearly all of the mov- 

 able-frame hives. I think, wlien we 

 get to the honey season, a rightly ar- 

 ranged top-storing hive is pieferable. 

 But during spiing management a 

 hive, in which you can extend the 

 brood-nest, is of "great advantage. A 

 strong colony will use more than eight 

 frames and be crowded, before the 

 honey harvest begins. Now, if yoiu' 

 hive is such that you can ad<l extra 

 frames, they will be quickly Idled with 

 brood. Some would say draw a frame 

 of brood and give to a weaker colony, 

 and replace it with an empty frame. 

 This may be done, but experience has 

 taught that, as a rule, better results 

 casi be obtained by letting the brood 

 . remain in the strong colonies until 

 about the time to put on surplus 

 storage ; then draw tlie extra frames, 

 taking the oldest brood and give to 

 the lighter colonies, if any still re- 

 main. By this time, they are ready 

 to take care of it, and it comes when 

 it will do them much more good than 

 it would earlier. If fortunate enough 

 to have colonies on full frames, these 

 extra cmbs with a few bees will 

 make some line early nuclei, that will 

 build themselves into good colonies 

 if given a yomig queen or a queen- 

 cell. It is better to have a few young 

 queens to give them, as you will want 

 tbem when the swarming season 

 comes. 



Now we come to the honey season. 

 We are all ready with sections filled 

 with light foundation, not less than 

 ten square feet to the pound, placed 

 on racks with separators clamped be- 

 tween. Go to the yard, and as you 

 pass through, lift up the quilts, and if 

 you find that they are wliitening the 

 tops of the combs, they are storing 

 new honey, and shoiddbe given the 

 sections at once. I think I am safe 

 when I say, there is no way in winch 

 the sections can be given, that lias the 

 advantage of the rack, or clamping 

 case, worked upon the tiering-up 

 system. When nicely started raise 

 them up and pl^ce another set under. 

 Continue this until well in basswood 

 time ; then be careful not to get more 

 started than the bees will linisli on 

 white honey. 



Some, of course, are ])rei)ared to 

 take issue with me, who are joined to 

 their idol, the wide frame, which, if 

 for no other reason than the saving 

 of time, should have been laid aside 

 long since, and any hive that will not 

 admit of taking the top off to a level 

 with the tops of tlie brood comlis, 

 should be placed with them and be 

 kept as relics. 



Now our dish is reiidy to catch the 

 sliower fif honey. But just here 

 comes the cry that the bees are 

 swarming just as they had one set of 

 sections about ready to raise. What 

 shall we do V I would sav. with all 



strong swarms that issue up to within 

 one week of the opening of basswood 

 bloom, remove the old hive to a new 

 stand ; pbice the new hive upon the 

 old stand, tilled with one empty comb, 

 and seven frames of wired founda- 

 tion, with the set of partly lilled sec- 

 j tions from the old hive placed in 

 position on the new one. Now liive 

 the -swarm, and they are ready for 

 business ; as you liave all tlie working 

 force of the old hive, you will seldom 

 have any trouble with the new colony 

 swarming again. But now what is 

 the condition of the old one V You 

 will tind eight frames of brood in all 

 stages, and young bees enough to care 

 for the eggs and Uvrvfe, and hundreds 

 more hatching every day. Let them 

 stand six or seven days ; then open 

 the hive and cut all -queen-cells, sav- 

 ing the best to be placed in the nuclei 

 from which you are to take a laying 

 queen and place in the old hive, and 

 you have a colony that will often till 

 one and two sets of sections during 

 the basswood flow. After much ex- 

 perimenting, I find this allows the 

 bees a chance to be true to nature, 

 and still we practically control the 

 swarming. 



Now, we are within a few days of 

 the basswood bloom, and we must 

 make everything count. Ilive the 

 swarm on the old stand as before, but 

 do not carry the old hive to a new 

 stand, but place it beside the new one 

 with entrance at right angles. Let 

 this stand eight days. Towards night 

 of the eighth day, open the old hive 

 and you will find that you have a fair 

 colony of bees. Have the comb-box 

 ready, remove the combs, shake the 

 bees at the entrance of tlie new hive, 

 place the combs in the box, shake 

 some of the bees from the old hive 

 and remove to a new stand, and place 

 the combs in the hive, cutting out all 

 queen-cells but one ; or all, if you 

 have a young queen that you can give 

 them. Now the young liees and what 

 are yet to hatch will take care of the 

 work in the hive, and will' care will 

 be in trim to take tlie last of basswood 

 and store dark honey enough to win- 

 ter upon. 



From the first swarms you will get 

 more honey than you would had you 

 tried to keep them in one hive' by 

 hiving and returningthem.aud trying 

 to suppress the swarming impiilse. 

 Second, you get the greater part of 

 the worker bees when they will do 

 the most good— during the honey-flow. 



With the above management you 

 have doubled the number of colonies 

 that have cast a swarm. Now, brother 

 bee-keepers, what I have said comes 

 from practical experience, and if any 

 one has gained a new thought, then I 

 have accomplished all that I hoped 

 for. 



Allow me to discard the subject as 

 given, and ask you to accept this as 

 one of the best 'managements of the 



I apiary for comb honey. 



j Perry Centre, -kj N. Y. 



For me American Bee JuumaU 



My Report of Two Colonies. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



{S~ Ttie Willamette Valley Bee-Keepers' 

 I Association will hold its second meeting- at 

 ! La Fayette, Oregon, on the third Tuesday iu 

 '■ June, 18S5. All who are interested are in- 

 vited to attend. E. J. Hadley, Sec. 



In my article on "Ventilation and 

 Temperature," which appeared on 

 page 326, I gave a somewhat prema- 

 ture and erroneous account of my ex- 

 periment with vertical ventilation, 

 which I ought to have supplemented 

 by a fuller statement of the facts be- 

 fore now. But as I thought that arti- 

 cle would certainly appear before I 

 could correct the part of it referring 

 to my 2 colonies, I kept delaying, and 

 now 1 am sorry I vvas not more 

 prompt, because I fear th.it some of 

 my fellow-contributors may commit 

 themselves to criticisms not in har- 

 mony with the ^acts of the case. 

 However, I canuot blame any one but 

 myself. 



Of my 2 colonies, I said : " One of 

 them succumbed to the last cold spell 

 in March, the other is alive, but in a 

 bad condition vvith diarrhea, and will, 

 no doubt, ' spring dwindle' to noth- 

 ing," I added that "in my anxiety 

 to give plenty of ventilatioii, and not 

 counting on so severe a winter, I over- 

 did the air-supply." This was writ- 

 ten on April 8, before there had been 

 any weather here admit ling of open- 

 ing out a bee-hive in the open-air. 

 The first genial day we had was April 

 19, but it was Sunilay, and I confess 

 that I just ached to stretch the fourth 

 commandment a little, so as to ex- 

 amine my living colony. However, I 

 managed to wait until Monday, and 

 then got a genuine and pleasant sur- 

 prise. My bees, which t expected to 

 find in a weak, diseased condition at 

 the point of extinction with diarrhea, 

 were in splendid order. I never win- 

 tered a colony that came through so 

 satisfactorily. The combs were clean 

 and bright with not a foul speck on 

 them ; there was brood in all stages, 

 and many young bees were already 

 hatched out. I closed the hive and 

 betook myself to reflection. One of 

 my first thoughts was to look over the 

 hive of the defunct colony, when I 

 had another surprise. The bees had 

 died, not of diarrhea, but of starva- 

 tion. That cold spell toward the last 

 of March had caught them on the op- 

 posite side of the hive from their re- 

 maining stores. Only one frame of 

 honey was left, and that the outside 

 one. They were benumbed and para- 

 lyzed so that they could not get across 

 to it. 



Up to the end of March I had 

 watched my bees with a most perplex- 

 ing result. ' When I looked into the 

 hibernating box-stand, I saw but a 

 very few dead bees, and there were 

 the ridges of dry powder which I have 

 long regarded as winter feces. Judg- 

 ing by these indications, I should 

 liave pronounced the bees '" all right;" 

 but on the only two occasions that I 

 saw them fly during the winter, all 

 the bees that came outside seemed 

 atBicted with diarrhea. This was the 

 case with both colonies. Very few 

 bees, however, took flight — not more, 

 perhaps, thad a couple of dozen or so 

 from each hive ; these fell on the 

 snow, died there, and left in every 



