456 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey ,except a little (say an inch) 

 along the top box of each frame. As 

 soon, however, as theclover harvest is 

 well in, the upper story should be put 

 on. It should contain two or three cards 

 of hatching brood from below, whose 

 places should be filled by nice clean 

 combs, or full sheets of" comb foun- 

 dation. 



A division-board must be placed on 

 each side of tiiese combs, and a quilt 

 upon them; also a quilt over each set 

 of uncovered combs of the brood- 

 chamber. The bees will follow the 

 brood, and as fast as it hatches out, 

 ■will till its place with honey, while 

 the queen will fill the new combs be- 

 low with eggs. By the time these 

 upper-story combs are nearly full of 

 honey, some empty ones (or full sheets 

 of foundation) should be interspaced 

 with tliem, and every drop of honey 

 extracted from the brood-chamber. 

 When these last combs are nearly 

 filled, take another card of hatching 

 brood from below, and in its place put 

 en empty comb or full sheet of foun- 

 dation. Put the card of brood into 

 the upper story, and as many combs 

 or full sheets oif foundation as are re- 

 quired to make up its full comple- 

 ment. By this system of manipula- 

 tion the bees have not only been given 

 storage room as they needed it, but 

 have been gently coaxed to use it, 

 and, at the same time, the queen has 

 been supplied with empty brood 

 combs, the best way to stimulate her 

 to lay to her very utmost. By the 

 time the last combs given them are 

 filled, the first ones will be sealed over 

 and ready to extract. This system 

 also allows the honey time to ripen 

 without in any way cramping the sur- 

 plus department. When extracting, 

 remove only the full combs which are 

 at least half sealed over ; spread the 

 others towards the sides of the upper 

 story, and in the centre put empty 

 combs. The partly filled ones will be 

 ready to extract next, and so on. The 

 combs taken from one hive, when 

 empty, will do to replace the full ones 

 of the next. 



Have a good extractor in first-class 

 order ; the Ijest honey-knife you can 

 get, and sharpened to a razor edge ; 

 some efficient substitute for a capping 

 can ; a large pickle crock or headless 

 ten-gallon keg will do, if a wire cloth 

 bag about a foot deep and the full 

 size of the mouth of the vessel be hung 

 over it; across the opening of this bag 

 secure a wooden strip an inch square 

 to rub the knife upon when clogged 

 with cappings. Have all these im- 



Elements placed conveniently in a 

 ee-tight room near the apiary. Now 

 light a good smoker and proceed to 

 the hive ; do not blow smoke in at the 

 entrance, but remove the cover, raise 

 one corner of the quilt, puff in a little 

 smoke, and raise the whole quilt 

 gradually from the corner, at the same 

 time deliver a continual cloud of 

 smoke, but it must not be hot or 

 strong. As soon as the bees have 

 quieted down, remove the combs to 

 be extracted one by one, carefully 

 sliaking as many bees as possible from 

 them, or brushing the rest with a 

 goose wing, in front of the entrance. 

 As each comb is cleaned, place it into 



a comb bucket or spare story, and 

 give the bees an empty one as directed 

 above. When all are ready carry 

 them to the extracting room, and un- 

 cap each as carefully as you can on 

 both sides, and place it into the comb 

 basket opposite another of as nearly 

 as possible the same weight, and work 

 the machine. When all are done take 

 them with you to the next hive and 

 put them in place of its full ones, and 

 so on. 



The care of extracted honey is of 

 the greatest importance, and if neg- 

 lected the flavor of honey is spoiled 

 or destroyed. As soon as extracted, 

 the honey should be strained through 

 a piece of green baize into a can which 

 will hold at least twenty gallons, and 

 having a faucet at the bottom. Here 

 it should stand for a week or more, 

 in a warm room, with a light cotton 

 cover. After this it may be drawn 

 off into the vessel in which it is to be 

 sold, and left standing uncovered till 

 all the bubbles have disappeared, 

 when it should be sealed up tight, and 

 kept in a warm, dry and dark place 

 till disposed of. The last quarter of 

 the honey drawn off will be poorer 

 than the rest, and should be used for 

 feeding, cooking, etc., or sold as sec- 

 ond quality at a lower price. 



Brantford, Ont. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



A Lesson in Apiculture. 



13— W. HARMER, (56—9), 



My report for the past winter is 

 almost a complete reversal of that of 

 the winter before (when I wintered 19 

 colonies without loss), as I lost 47 colo- 

 nies out of 56. I am ashamed to say 

 that I believe this was in great part 

 my own fault ; for I left quite a num- 

 ber of colonies to be fed in winter, as 

 I had done so before with good re- 

 sults. This is very poor cellar-win- 

 tering (if it can be called a cellar). 

 They were wintered in a " dug-out " 

 under my bee-house, preparatory to 

 making a good brick-walled cellar as 

 soon as possible. All the weather 

 prophets here predicted an open win- 

 ter, and nobody seemed prepared for 

 such severe weather. The oldest in- 

 habitants say that they never knew 

 such a severe winter in this part of 

 Michigan. 



My loss is quite a disappointment, 

 for there is a good honey-flow now 

 from white clover— our main honey 

 source — and what bees are left are 

 not in a condition to make the most 

 of it. It was May 10 before my bees 

 were out of their winter quarters. I 

 have every convenience for working 

 100 colonies, and I have been keeping 

 bees long enough, one would think, to 

 have made a better winter report. My 

 bees died with the diarrhea while 

 breeding— diarrhea without brood or 

 honey, or in other words, by starva- 

 tion. But I am not discouraged. I 

 shall build up my apiary again, hop- 

 ing that the past loss will teach me 

 liow to do it on a surer footing. I 

 shall try and make this costly lesson 

 pay me back with interest in the 

 future. 



In regard to the Powers-Freeborn 

 suit, I think that Mr. P. has made a 

 great mistake somewhere, and that 

 Mr. Millard's able article on page 379, 

 will solve the problem. I am glad to 

 see so many bee-keepers with their 

 dollars ready for the defense fund, for 

 dollars mean defense ; mine is not 

 ready, but I hope it will be soon, at 

 any rate in time to help bring up the 

 rear of this case if needs be. 



Manistee,^ Mich. 



Read at the Maine Convention. 



Dividing Colonies for Increase. 



W. H. NORTON. 



This is a subject of great impor- 

 tance, for I consider that when the 

 bee-keeper can divide his colonies and 

 can make them up just as he likes, he 

 has found one of the secrets of suc- 

 cess. By this method he can have his 

 ''dish right side up," or rather his 

 bees in the right condition at the 

 commencement of the honey season. 



I wish to ask, for what do we keep 

 bees 'i' I, for one, am obliged to say 

 that it is mostly for profit, or, rather, 

 honey and the increase of bees. This 

 being our object, how shall we pro- 

 cure the best result 'i By natural 

 swarming, or dividing 'i To illustrate, 

 we will take 2 colonies— one we will 

 allow to swarm, the other we will pre- 

 vent from swarming and divide it. 

 We will now try to trace them through 

 the season. 



First, take the one we are to divide. 

 Our first object in the spring is to 

 build up our colonies good and strong 

 in numbers for the honey season, as it 

 requires bees to get iiny honey. In 

 this Northern climate it is all that we 

 can possibly do to get them in good 

 forces at the time of the honey-flow, 

 then we propose to put on the sec- 

 tions, or use the extractors, and give 

 them room to work ; if rightly man- 

 aged, and if they have sufficient room 

 in the brood-chamber, and plenty of 

 surplus room, you will soon have a 

 large colony with plenty of honey ; 

 and when the honey season is nearly 

 over, you can take off the sections, 

 divide the colony, introduce the lay- 

 ing queen, and then they are in the 

 best of condition to be prepared for 

 winter ; that is, they have a chance 

 to rear a colony of young bees, and 

 can supply them with wholesome 

 stores to winter on. 



Now, let us see how the other colony 

 is doing— the one which is to swarm 

 naturally. To give it a fair chance, 

 we will allow it to be equally as strong 

 at the beginning of the honey season. 

 In order to have them swarm nat- 

 urally, we must let them get crowded 

 for room— that is, get the brood-cham- 

 ber packed full, and perhaps what 

 few sections are on. As they get this 

 done, it being in the height of the 

 honey-flow, they find that tlieir house 

 is too small for them, and they begin 

 to prepare to swarm, as follows : 

 Finding the queen has no room in 

 which to deposit her eggs, and being 

 crowded with bees which have no 

 room to work, they hang out on the 

 exterior of the hive. Usually a heavy 



