THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



405 



Explanatory — The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years tliat the 

 person has Isept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring-, 

 aa the time of the j'ear may require. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ~o northwest; 

 o»southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



Cor the American Bee JournaL 



That Sheep-Bees Lawsuit. 



16— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (80 — 40). 



It was with a feeling of botii in- 

 terest and disgust, that I read " Is 

 the law against bee-keeping V" by 

 Mr. S. I. Fieeboin, on page 346, as it 

 aroused in me an interest to have the 

 world at large know tlirough this 

 proposed lawsuit, that bee-men were 

 not to be scared by jealous land- 

 owners, who, if they only knew it, 

 are largely benefited by our bees. 

 This interest has increased day by 

 day, as I saw the way clear how this 

 case could be easily carried in the 

 negative, thus giving the apiarists a 

 test case, which could be cited to 

 any jealous individual. I was also 

 disgusted to see how easy it was in 

 this case, for a man to forget the rea- 

 sonable, and let his envy and jealousy 

 carry hira so far as to try to make an 

 innocent and helpful insect bear the 

 loss of sheep, which could not in the 

 least be affected by the honey-bee, as 

 long as the sheep were away from 

 the apiary. Aside from the fact that 

 a bee while foraging is always timid, 

 and will flee away upon the least dis- 

 turbance of the plant upon which it 

 is at work, there are two things 

 which will surely defeat the corn- 

 plainer ; the flrst of which will 

 especially apply to this case, and the 

 latter to any and all complainants. 



Now, all sheep-raisers know, and 

 will so testify unless they willfully 

 misrepresent," that during warm, sun- 

 shiny days (which are the days when 

 bees visit the clover), sheep only feed 

 in early morning and at evening, 

 while from 9 a. m. to .5 p. m. they will 

 be huddled together in some fence- 

 corner, or under the shade of some 

 tree. Many a shepherd has become 

 incensed in trying to make sheep 

 follow him, or in trying to change 

 them from one pasture to another, 

 during that time of day, and the say- 

 ing is common, " As stationary as a 

 sheep in midday." This fact will 

 prove to any judge or jury that the 

 statement, " The bees came in count- 

 less hordes and drove the sheep from 

 the pasture," cannot be true, for at 

 the time of day when the bees work 

 on white clover, there could be no 

 sheep feeding, as the two do not feed 

 at the same time. If Mr. Freeborn 



should ask of all (through the Bee 

 Journal) who kept both bees and 

 sheep, to send him a written state- 

 ment in corroboration of the above 

 fact, he whould get scores of testi- 

 monies to present to the court which 

 could not be contradicted. 



The second point is one which will 

 apply in all cases, wliich is to require 

 the complaining party to prove the 

 ownership of the bees which are 

 doing the supposed damage. From 

 past experience I have been led to 

 believe that bees go from 3 to 5 miles 

 from their hives, from choice, to 

 gather honey, and allowing this to be 

 correct, who can tell whose bees are 

 at work upon the white clover, fruit 

 bloom, or grapes growing on their 

 land. I do not believe that tlie com- 

 plainer will even attempt to prove 

 that the bees seen on his clover were 

 all Mr. Freeborn's, and if they were 

 not all Mr. F's, how does he know 

 that any of them were V If bees from 

 the forest and other apiaries visited 

 his field, it is not reasonable to require 

 Mr. F. to stand all the damage ; and 

 if the whole cannot be placed upon 

 him, how can any part of it. I think 

 that with the help of a shrewd lawyer 

 Mr. F. has no grounds to fear that the 

 suit can go against him. The whole 

 arises from the idea going abroad 

 tliat " bees work for nothing and 

 board themselves," and any success- 

 ful bee-keeper will have many jealous 

 persons about him, because such per- 

 sons try to make themselves believe 

 that tlie bee-keeper is doing no hard 

 work, and yet is getting rich off of 

 the broad acres, brought into cultiva- 

 tion by their hard labor. Only a little 

 while ago I was told that a rich 

 neighbor said that I ought to give 

 one-half of all I possessed to him, for 

 my bees had gotten their honey off: of 

 his farm. 



As to the plan proposed by Mr. 

 Heddon, on page 347, to help carry 

 on this lawsuit. I will say that I am 

 perfectly agreed ; but do not let us 

 stop with the defensive only, but let 

 us push the thing until every adulter- 

 ator of honey and all those of iginating 

 stories to our damage, like the Wiley 

 "scientific pleasantry," are "driven 

 to the wall." On page 3.39, 1 see that 

 there are .500,000 persons keeping bees 

 in America, which will give us a 

 fund, at one dollar each, of $500,00'). 

 This vi'ill be a mighty lever to move 

 things in our favor, either in defense 

 or liy prosecution. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



Home Farm. 



Managing an Apiary for Profit. 



.1. i;. JIASON. 



There are three ways of managing 

 bees for profit ; viz : 1. Increase. 2. 

 Extracted honey. 3. Comb honey. 

 If increase is the object, and the 

 apiarist has several colonies to work 

 with, he should commence by remov- 

 ing one frame of brood, as near hatch- 

 ing as possible, from each of 4 colo- 

 nies, shaking the bees all off from the 

 frames in front of their own hives, 

 and replacing the frame of brood with 

 a frame of foundation or empty comb. 



Place these four combs of brood in an 

 empty hive ; now, from a fifth colony, 

 which should be the strongest of the 

 five, take a frame of brood, bees and 

 all, being sure not to get the queen; 

 |)lace it in the liive with the other 

 four combs, fill the empty space with 

 a frame of foundation, and remove 

 tlie old hive to a new location, putting 

 the new hive ou tlie stand of the old 

 one. Tlie new hive now contains four 

 frames of brood, and one frame of 

 brood and Ijees, and the flying bees 

 from the old hive. The most proHtable 

 way now, is to give the new colony a 

 laying queen, and in one week they 

 can be classed with tlie ottiers, to 

 draw from, in making new colonies. 

 In this way bees can be divided every 

 four days throughout the entire 

 honev-flow. and even longer, by feed- 

 ing regularly every day. Care should 

 be taken to take the bees from a dif- 

 ferent colony at eacli time of dividing. 

 In this way a large increase cau be 

 had, and it is perfectly safe, as it will 

 readily be seen that we never cripple 

 any one colony, but all are kept 

 strong. 



If one does not wish to use laying 

 queens on account of their cost, then 

 queen-cells from the flrst made colony 

 should be used as far as possible, l)y 

 giving one on the next day after mak- 

 ing. If there is but one colony to 

 increase upon, the best mettiod is to 

 take out the frame containing the 

 queen, with bees, and place it in tlie 

 emptv hive, then shake the bees from 

 one more comb into the new hive, lill 

 the vacancy in the old hive with 

 another frame, or close up the divis- 

 ion-boards, fill the new hive with 

 frames of foundation, and remove 

 the old colony to a new stand, placing 

 the new one on the old stand ; if pos- 

 sible, give the old one a laying queen, 

 and they will be ready to divide again 

 in a week or ten days, and again in 

 the same length of time as long as the 

 honey-flow lasts. 



If no laying queen is given, the 

 colony should be divided again the 

 tenth day from the first division, 

 being sure to give each one a frame 

 containing a queen-cell. The frames 

 containing the queen-cells must be 

 bandied carefully ; no bees should be 

 shaken from them. The colony should 

 be divided about equally, allowing for 

 the many bees that will go back from 

 the removed hive. No more increase 

 should be expected from those colo- 

 nies. In two or three weeks those 

 containing the young queens should 

 be looked over to see if their queens 

 are successfully mated. If no eggs or 

 larva? are found by the twenty-fifth 

 day, the queen has probably been lost 

 in mating, which is sometimes the 

 case, and the colony will have to be 

 united with some other one, or given 

 a laying queen at once. If one has 

 time and patience to watch the bees, 

 and is willing to risk the liability of 

 their going to the woods, or the 

 trouble of getting them down from 

 high trees, he can let them swarm 

 naturally. Some bee-keepers think 

 this the best way, but the larger num- 

 ber do not. 



If surplus honey is the main object, 

 and the apiarist decides to use the 



