DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEE CULTURE. 



Vol. XIII. 



Chicago, Illinois, March, 1877. 



No. 3. 



Irtitor^s ^abk. 



Monroe Co., N. Y., Feb. 10, 1877.—" Do 

 bees get honey from our common red 

 clover? If not, do they hover around clover 

 fields unavv^are of the fact?" J. V. 



[The Italians do get honey from our com- 

 mon red clover. The black bees essay to 

 do so very rarely, if ever —Ed.] 



" Which is tlie best honey-producing 

 plant?" J. G. 



fl know of nothing surer or better than 

 melilot clover. It does not bloom the first 

 year, and lasts but one season, but it will 

 re-sow itself; if sowed thickly, it kills other 

 weeds. Ten acres of melilot would give 

 work for one hundred colonies. The crop 

 would be permanent, if sowed two years in 

 succession on the same spot. To get it 

 blooming in September, it should be cut 

 about the last of June or a little before. 

 Then it would start new shoots and be 

 covered with flowers from the last of Aug. 

 till frost.— Ch. Dadant.J 



Tipton Co., Tenn., Jan. 16, 1877.— "I have 

 9 colonies of blacks in box-hives. I intend 

 to get Langstroth hives in the spring, and 

 transfer my bees to them. On May 10, 1 

 had a fine swarm come out. I hived them, 

 and they worked finely for 4 days, making 

 several pieces of nice comb and filled it 

 with honey. On the 5th day they were 

 again on the wing. I put them into the 

 same hive again, it being a new one, but 

 they came out again. 1 hived them a third 

 time, but they would not stay, so I conclud- 

 ed to let them go. They settled on a small 

 pear tree in front of the hive. I paid no at- 

 tention to them, and they then settled on 

 the bottom of the hive, remaining there till 

 night. I then carried them back to the 

 mother hive, and brushed them off. They 

 soon entered it, and have done well ever 

 since. What was the cause of the repeated 

 swarming? When is the best time to 

 transfer, in this county? The moth fiy and 

 red ant are very troublesome here. How 

 can I get rid of them? Please answer in 

 the A. B. J." D. E. Haynie. 



[I have had one case very similar to 

 yours. I could never account for my own, 

 so will not try to in your case. In my case 

 there was brood in all stages, and yet they 

 would leave. 



The best time to transfer is in the middle 

 of warm days, during the first gathering of 

 honey in spring. The combs are then light, 

 and if the bees are busy storing, they will 

 not trouble. 



To protect against the moth, keep your 

 colonies strong, and never allow surplus 

 combs to hang where moths can get at 

 them. 



To destroy ants, mix Paris Green with 

 syrup, and place in the top of hive, where 

 the ants can reach it, but where the bees 

 cannot.— A. J. Cook.] 



1. Please give in the Journal your best 

 advice on the introduction of queens, im- 

 mediately after the old queen is removed. 



2. How should weak colonies be united, 

 so they will harmonize? 



3. What is the best way to feed light 

 colonies ? E. P. 



[1. With more than 200 imported queens 

 introduced in our apiary last year, we lost 

 only 5 by introducing. As this percentage 

 is small, we have full confidence in our 

 plan, which is to remove the old queen; to 

 put the queen to be introduced, caged in a 

 slieath of coarse wire-cloth, between two 

 brood combs at one end of the cage, a little 

 above the frames, to give greater facilitiy in 

 removing the cork. Then wait 48 hours be- 

 fore removing the cork. Open the cage 

 quickly, but carefully, not to arouse the 

 anger of the bees, and to avoid robbers 

 entering the hive. To find if the queen is 

 alive, without removing the cage, we re- 

 move the stopper and put in its place a 

 stopper made of a small piece of honey 

 comb, adjusted loosely in the cage. Then 

 bring down the cotton quilt, which we use 

 in place of honey-board, and shut up the 

 hive. The cage can be removed the next 

 day. In seven days we see if the queen has 

 been accepted. If there are eggs, the queen 

 is safe, if there are none and there are 

 queen cells, the queen has been killed. All 

 the queens we received last year from April 

 to August, were introduced safely. The 5 

 killed were received during Aug. and Sept. 

 In the fall months bees are more diflicult to 

 handle, especially if honey is scarce. 



2. To unite colonies, kill the oldest or 

 poorest queens; cage the queen that you 



