364 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. ' 



For Ihe American Bee JctumaL 



New Method of Transferring Bees. 



S. DAXLIiLS. 



In regard to the new method of 

 transferring, as advised by Mr. James 

 Heddon and Prof. A. J. Cook, on page 

 228, which they say can be done at 

 any time wheii the bees are on the 

 wing, I wisli to say that I endorse 

 every word of Mr. D. Clute's article 

 on page 330 I have just had a little 

 sad experience in following out the 

 method of transferring, as laid down 

 by those bee-masters. I would like 

 to have Mr. Heddon explain all tlie 

 little details of the method, as it is 

 referred to as Ins plan. 



I find it just as Mr. Clute says. If 

 the drumming is thorough there will 

 be no bees left to care for the brood ; 

 if not thorough, one does not know 

 but the queen may still be in the hive, 

 then all would be lost. But to avert 

 such a possibility, I gave my trial 

 colony a frame of brood in all stages 

 of development, from the egg to the 

 capped brood, also a section of honey 

 in the top of the liive, and yet in one 

 day they dwindled down till there was 

 scarcely a bee about the hive. Neither 

 was there any about the parent hive, 

 except a few young bees that came 

 into the world without a friend 

 to feed or protect them ; and most of 

 them crawled around, unable to fly, 

 and were lost in the grass. Now, 

 what was the matter, and how shall I 

 avert the same trouble again ? As 

 Mr. Clute siid, I found the old hive 

 full of dead brood, and would have 

 had a nice smell around my apiary 

 this summer, it I liad not melted the 

 combs up into wax. 



I put them on nearly full sheets of 

 foundation, and I would never know 

 how to do any better unless some one 

 should come to my relief. I have 14 

 colonies left in box-liives, mostly new, 

 good and painted, and the bees are in 

 the best possible condition. I have 

 wintered them two winters success- 

 fully, with the exception of a colony 

 or two that lost their queen. I am 

 putting their increase into Lungstroth 

 hives, which I expect to continue. 

 My last year's new colonies came 

 through the past winter all right, and 

 are now working in sections, notwith- 

 standing the backward spring. I 

 have been surprised at the reported 

 losses amongst some of the big bee- 

 men ; but when I begin to do as they 

 do, I expect that it w^ill be my fate 

 also. 



Pine Grove. 9 Ohio. Mav 28, 188-5. 





breail. My bees are doing well, eonsider- 

 ina the season, ami those that deserted 

 their hives are at work, and no dissatis- 

 faction seems to e.xist even in tlie colonies 

 with which the deserters took up quarters. 



Bees Doin^ Well.— Henry Knohna- 

 dle. Pair Haven, ^ Ills., on May 29, 

 188.5, w'rites thus : 



I have made an exaniinatinn of the hives 

 of the liees that deserted mi .\|pril 'Jfi, as 

 mentioned on patre 30(1, and I lonnd that 

 they had no bee-bread. My (i|iinion is, 

 that bees cannot rear brood without hee- 



New Honey.— Wm. Malone, Oakley, 

 $ Iowa, on May 29, 1885, writes as fol- 

 lows : 



Bees are boominij. I never saw them 

 do better at this time of the year. I have 

 had new honey to eat since May S^. I 

 have made 4 colonies from one, to prevent 

 them Irom swtrmiiiH. White clover is 

 now 1 eady for the bees. We feel good at 

 the prospects for 188.5. 



A Bee-Killer.— (Jeo. Mott, Village 

 Mills,o+ Texas, sends us an insect and 

 the following query : 



Please looli at the accompanying insect 

 and say if it is not by accident that we 

 have him. A bee-tree was cut, and the 

 cutters were going to hive the bees when 

 they found this object, and innnediately 

 they suspended their labor, because they 

 thoui;lit they had found a dead queen ; 

 hut Mr. Ford tooU a box and brouyht the 

 bees in and put them Into a box-Kiuii. He 

 does not say he had this object tied in. 

 He yot to talkina by wire witli me, about 

 hisbees,until I finally sent him a movable- 

 frame hive. He made the transfer on 

 Saturday night, after his office was closed. 

 He tohl me yesterday forenoon that lie 

 found lots of efigs and brood, thus proving 

 that this thing was not queen of tlie 

 swarm. 



[The supposed queen is no bee at all, 

 but a two-winged fly related to the Mis- 

 souri and other dipterous bee-killers. In- 

 sects should be sent in a box, then they 

 can be identified. When crushed like 

 this one, it is quite impossible. — A. J. 

 Cook.] 



Heavy Fruit Bloom.— Henry Alley, 

 Wenbam,($ Mass., on June 3, 1885, 

 says : 



The weather is very poor for bees. 

 There was a very heavy bloom on the 

 fruit trees, but owing to cold and rainy 

 weather the bees did not do much in the 

 way of honey-aathering. The best thing 

 for bee-forage is wliite clover. 



the ground all about the hive. All crawl 

 out of the hive to die. When they were 

 short of hoiu'y, I fed them with granu- 

 lated sngar in abundance ; tliere is a plenty 

 of bloom now, an<l has been for a month, 

 but they do not seem to work any on it. 

 Do bees have the "spring dwindling" 

 after they made the start that ours have ? 

 Will Mr. Heddon ])!ease give his opinion 

 of the cause of this trouble ? 



[This case resembles starvation, if it 

 were in this locality. But as tlie bees were 

 fed "granulated sugar in abundance," my 

 mind funis tow-ards poisonous iioiiey ; but 

 as that is something we never have liere, 

 the cause is a stranger to our climate and 

 location. Here bees die from "spring 

 dwindling" after they make the start 

 which \ours have. Spring dwindling here 

 is imperfect wintering.— James Heddon.] 



Bees Building Up aiul Swarming.— 



James B. Mason, Mechanic Falls,? 

 Maine, on June 2, 18.s5, writes thus : 



The bees are now booming, although we 

 have had such a hard winter followed by 

 the worst spring tliat 1 have ever seen, 

 sweeping off hundreds of colonies after 

 they were thought t-) be out of danger. 

 Those colonies that have survived are 

 going far beyond my expectations. I 

 never saw bees build up as fast as they 

 have during the last 4 weeks ; nor have I 

 seen such a How of honey from fruit- 

 bloom since 1870. Colonies are now cast- 

 ing large swarms, and the prospects |or a 

 good season look flattering. 



Depleting the Hives.— Geo. W. Mel- 

 ville, Durango,o, Colo., on May 28, 

 1.SS.5, writes thus : 



Our bees wintered nicely, and com- 

 menced to carry in pollen ahout the mid- 

 dle of March, and by April 20. there were 

 plenty of drones and young bees. During 

 May the weather has been rather cold and 

 cloudy, with light rains, an<l at this writ- 

 ing nearly all the liees in soiUhwestern 

 Colorado are dead. One party, out of 11 

 colonies, had but one left. I have 10, aiul 

 all are reduced si tliat I shall unite them 

 to about 4 or .5. We find bees crawling on 



Best Resnlts with Deep Frames.- 27 



-P. A. Snell, (110-10-5), Milledge- 

 ville,-o Ills., on June 1, 1885, writes 

 thus : 



My bees came througli the past winter 

 and spring in good condition, 1 put 110 

 colonies into winter quarters last Novem- 

 ber, and 1 lost one colony and 4 became 

 queenless, thus leaving me 10.5. The loss 

 of bees is very heavy thtdughout this sec- 

 tion. Those in chaff hives have been no 

 exception. Colonies in deep frames have 

 fared belter than those in shallow ones, 

 where left on the summer stands ; where 

 wintered in good cellars, the result is 

 about the same, i think. My bees are in 

 good condition now. The winter and 

 spring have been hard for bees here. My 

 colonies were all w'intered on natural 

 stores. 



Good Honey. Plant. —Pred. P. Rock- 

 well, Leonard, c$ Texas, sends some 

 blossoms of a shrub, and writes as 

 follows : 



I enclose a specimen of a shrub that is 

 getting quite common on land allowed to 

 grow up in brush. The Italian bees seem 

 to work on it with more vigor than the 

 blacks, though both have now deserted it 

 lor the rattan, which is just now bloom- 

 ing. Kindly give me the name of the 

 shrub. Last winter was a severe one ou 

 bees, and the losses were very heavy, 

 especially with those in box-hives. The 

 weather has been remarkably cool, and 

 bees take advantage of each tair day 

 either to come out in a huff and abscond, 

 or settle down to hard work. Their 

 pranks seem to be out of the usual line. 

 On May 17 1 hived a swarm unusually 

 well, and on the next morning, right alter 

 breakfast, I noticed that the bees in that 

 hive were excited, and after a short 

 search I found that they had balled and 

 killed the queen outside of tlie hive. I 

 find, by experimenting on a small scale 

 with clover— Alsike and white— tliat it 

 blooms with us just about the time of our 

 most bountiful honey-flow. Catnip and 

 mustard both bloom at a time wheu the 

 bees are in need of new pasture. 



[This is Amorpha fruticosa or false in- 

 digo. I have received this from North 

 Carolina, Peunsylvauia, and it is common 

 in Michigan. It is reported everywhere 

 as a good honey-plant. It belongs to the 

 pulse or clover family.— A. J. CooK.] 



Report, from E. P. Colburn, New 

 Cassel.o Wis., on June 3, 1885 : 



I wintered 5 colonies without any loss, 

 which encourages me a little, as some old 

 bee-keepers have lost nearly all, and some 

 have lost quite all. 



