502 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark O indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named; 

 6 north of the centre ; ? south ; O* east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^northwest; 

 o* southeast ; and 9 southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



Thousands Wanted for Defense. 



J. W. MARGRAVE. 



I am surprised to see that only 

 about 1.50 bee-keepers have placed 

 themselves on record for the defense 

 fund ! Surely they will soon come to 

 the rescue. We cannot afford to wait 

 until each of us are attacked (for at- 

 taclsed we will be if this Freeborn 

 case is decided for the plaintiff). If a 

 respectable number of bee-keepers 

 respond promptly and raise a fund 

 commensurate with our numbers, we 

 wilf be far less liable to be annoyed 

 by ignorance and stupidity than ."we 

 should be if this case was vigorously 

 defended and gained, as it assuredly 

 will be if Mr. F. can get a fair and 

 impartial trial. Let two or three 

 thousand bee-keepers hasten to enroll 

 their names in this army, and let the 

 benighted sons of ignorance be in- 

 formed that we have the means and 

 the will to defend our chosen pursuit, 

 and they will be slow to prosecute us 

 for keeping bees to fertilize their 

 fruits, flowers, and clovers. 



We, here in northeastern Kansas, 

 have a very poor honey season thus 

 far, this year. August is our princi- 

 pal lioney month, and we hope for 

 the best, but begin to fear another 

 off year. 



Hiawatha, d Kansas, July 31, 1885. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Among the Bees in Summer. 



16— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (80—50). 



On page 421 of tlieBEE JornxAL I pave 

 a brief di-scription of how I managed my 

 bees in tlie spring, and left the reader at a 

 time when the hives were full of bees 

 wliicli we had obtained by our spring 

 management. As soon as a colony has 

 all the frames full of brood, spring has 

 given |)lace to summer, so in this arliele 

 J will give a brief sketch of how I manage 

 my bees in the summer. Tlie first thing i 

 do when 1 find a colony as above, is to 

 put on the boxes or lioney sections, or 

 rather a part of them, for I contend that it 

 is poor policy to give any colony (unless 

 it IS in the case of two prime swarms 

 bi lug hived together,) all of the surplus 

 room on the start, as such tends to dis- 

 courage them, as they do not as yet have a 

 sufficient amount of bees to take posses- 

 sion of so large an amount of room. I 



generally give surplus room amounting to 

 from 20 to 25 pounds at the start, and as 

 the bees take possession of it give as much 

 more room, and finally the lull capacity 

 of the hive ((50 pounds), when the force of 

 bees increase so as to warrant it. How- 

 ever, as a rule, the swarming season 

 arrives before all the sections are put on, 

 when no more sections are added until 

 the old colony gets a laying queen. 



Always in managing bees the apiarist 

 should have an eye on the future as re- 

 gards his honey haivest, until the harvest 

 arrives, and when it arrives, then bend his 

 every energy for the time wliich is pres- 

 ent. For instance, my honey harvest 

 comes from basswood, or during the last 

 half of July, so all my operations previous 

 to this time, must be in reference to this 

 harvest, or all my efforts will result only 

 in failure. 



Now the time the bees swarm has a very 

 important bearing on what I get as cash 

 out of the apiary. If they swarm too 

 early, they defeat my plans, and if too 

 late it is nearly as bad. The thing is to 

 get them all to swarm at the right time, 

 whicli is bi'ought about as nearly as it may 

 be, by keeping back the strongest and 

 building up the weakest. This is done 

 by drawing bees and brood from tiie 

 strong and giving to those which are 

 weak, until all are brought to a uniform 

 strength at the desired time for swarming. 

 But says one, when is the proper time for 

 increase, to which 1 reply about 15 to 20 

 days before the main honey harvest. 

 Why ? Because this gives time for the 

 young queen in the old colony to hatch 

 and become fertilized, and not enough 

 time to the swarm to get so strong as to 

 desire to swarm again. 



Remember I am talking exclusively of 

 raising comb honey, for the raising of ex- 

 tracted honey require? a very different 

 mode of procedure, in my opiuiou, and I 

 have extracted as high as 565 pounds from 

 a single colony in one season. Nothing 

 can detract more from our crop of comb 

 honey than to have our bees get the 

 swarming fever during the honey harvest, 

 unless it is, the having them so weak at 

 that time, that they are of little or no 

 value. In the forepart of June I was ac- 

 costed by a neighbor, by saying, "Have 

 your bees swarmed yet?" No, said I, 

 nor do I expect them to generally for the 

 next tliree weeks. "Well," says he, "1 

 guess you won't get much from them, for 

 Sir. S. is having lots of swarms." All 

 right, says I, I shall be glad to have Mr. 

 S. get a good crop of honey. Well, the 

 result is, that now, July 2.3, with the bass- 

 wood in full bloom, Mr. S. is having lots 

 of swarms, which he is putting back, cut- 

 ting out queen-cells, etc., in tlie vain hope 

 to get them to go to work, while I have 

 only now and then a swarm with the sec- 

 tions on nearly every hive, being filled as 

 if by magic. 



On page 422, in closing my article on 

 spring management, I said " the getting of 

 bees in the right time for the honey har- 

 vest counts more toward cash and fun in 

 the aiiiary tliaii all else," wliich is true, 

 and next'to ihis is the managing of those 

 bees, so that they *ill be only bent on 

 storing honey during the lioney harvest ; 

 for the lack of either gives the apiarist 

 only small returns for his labor among 

 the bees. After doing all in my power to 

 get all swarms out between June 25 and 

 July 4, I frequently get some as early as 

 June 20, and as late as July 12 to 15. Those 

 issuing before July 4 are hived on anew 

 stand, and a part of the sections are put 

 on in 2 or Z days after hiving, while the 

 date of swarming is put on each hive : N. 

 S. <j 22 being put on the swarm, and Sw'd. 

 22 on the old hive, if that is the date. 

 On the evening of the eiglith day I listen 

 a moment at the side of the old hive, and 

 if swarming has been done " according to 

 rule," 1 hear the young queen piping, 



when I know a queen has hatched, and an 

 after-swarm will be the result if it is not 

 stopped. 



If no piping is heard, I do not listen 

 again until the evening of the 13th day, 

 for the next rule is that the colony 

 swarmed upon an egg or small larva being 

 placed in the queen-cell, which allows the 

 queen to hatch trom the 12th to the 16th 

 day after swarming. If no piping is 

 heard by the evening of the 17th day, no 

 swarm ueed be expected. When it is 

 heard, which will be in 19 eases out of 

 20, on the Sth day, 1 go early the next 

 morning and take every frame out of the 

 hive, sliaking the bees off of each (in 

 front) as I take them out and return them 

 again, so I shall be sure and not miss a 

 queen-cell, but cut all otf, for we know 

 there is a queen hatched. This is a sure 

 plan, while I have found by experience 

 that none of the other plans given are sure 

 of the prevention of after-swarms. This 

 colony is now boxed to its fully capacity, 

 and if the queen gets to laying all right, it 

 will have double the amount of comb 

 honey that any swarm will. In21da.\s 

 from the time the swarm is hived, young 

 bees will begin to hatch so as to reinforce 

 that colony, so on the 2.3d to 25th day after 

 hiving, I give the full capacity of surplus 

 room to that also, which tends to keep 

 them from having a desire to swarm. 

 Well, this article is long enough, and I 

 will stop, although I have not said one- 

 half 1 desired to say. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee JoumoL 



Marketing Extracted Honey, etc. 



J. E. POND, JR. 



In considering the question of the 

 honey market at the present time, I 

 am inclined to the idea that the in- 

 vention of the honey-extractor has 

 been a positive injury to bee-keepers. 

 Not that I for one instant admit that 

 this is the fault of the extractor, for I 

 consider it one of the greatest bless- 

 ings that has been presented to us ; 

 but that many bee-keepers in their 

 desire to produce a " big crop," have 

 extracted too often, and too closely, 

 the result being, that not only have 

 the bees suffered during the winter 

 from insufficient stores, both in 

 quantity and quality, but that the 

 market "has been glutted with unripe 

 honey, thus causing a distrust of this 

 honey as an article of consumption. 



I believe that this matter of offer- 

 ing unripe honey for sale has done 

 more injury than all the lies that have 

 been invented in regard to glucose; 

 and the ingenuity of the " I'ankees " 

 exhibited in putting it into marketable 

 shape. I presume there are as few 

 dishonest persons among bee-keepers 

 as can be found in any business of 

 the same magnitude, but unfortu- 

 nately tliere are some, and their acts 

 have caused the whole fraternity to 

 be looked upon with suspicion. The 

 remedy is sure, but it will require 

 persistent and long continued use to 

 perform a cure. Kvery producer of 

 honey must take it upon himself to 

 offer for sale nothing but the very 

 choicest of his production, and that, 

 too, in the vicinity of his own home, 

 where he is best known. By this 

 means a reputation will become es- 

 tablislied, and when it is found that 

 extracted honey is equally as pure, 



