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TheSecre ofSuccessfu Bee-keeping. 



To be successful, the apiarist must liave 

 a simple, movable, frame hive of some 

 kind; and for box honey, the brood cliamber 

 should not contain over 1550 cubic inches 

 inside the frames. All know tiiat bees 

 gather honey, and that the eggs laid by the 

 queen produce bees, consequently the more 

 eggs the queen lays, the moi'e bees we get; 

 and the more bees we have, the more honey 

 they gather. In fact, the queen is the 

 producer of the honey. Therefore, if we 

 wish good returns from our bees, we must 

 see to it that we have good prolific queens, 

 and' that they fill the combs with brood 

 before the honey season connnences, so 

 that when the honey harvest conies, the 

 bees will be obliged to place the honey in 

 the boxes, as there will be nowhere else for 

 them to store it. 



But how shall Ave secure combs full of 

 brood, and plenty of bees to carry on the 

 labors of the hive by the time our honey 

 harvest begins? As soon as spring opens, 

 our bees should all be examined by lifting 

 the frames of each hive, and if tlie stocks 

 are weak, the bees are shut to one side of 

 the hive by means of a division board, so as 

 to keep up the necessary heat for brood- 

 rearing, on as many combs as they can 

 cover. As soon as the queen has filled these 

 combs with eggs, we spread them ai)art, 

 inserting an empty comb between those 

 occupied with brood, and in a few days' 

 time the queen will till this one also; and so 

 we keep on until every available cell is 

 occupied with brood. Thus it will be seen 

 that instead of the queen laying her eggs on 

 the outside of the cluster, she lays them in 

 the center of the brood-nest,' where they 

 should be. After the hive is full of brood 

 and bees, it does not make so much differ- 

 ence, as the weather is warm, and bees are 

 plenty, so that the queen can deposit her 

 eggs anywhere in the hive. 



As soon as tlie strongest stocks are full, 

 take a frame of brood just gnawing out and 

 place it in the weaker ones, giving the 

 strong one an empty comb for tint queen to 

 fill again, and so keep on until all are lull. — 

 When this is accomplished, put on boxes; 

 and, as we said at the commencement, if 

 any honey is gathered it must be put in the 

 boxes. Each box should have a small piece 

 of comb attached to the top as a " starter, " 

 to get the bees to work more readily in the 

 boxes; the center tier of boxes, if possible, 

 should be full of comb, left over from the 

 previous year. As soon as the first few 

 boxes are filled, they should be taken off, 

 before being colored by the bees passing 

 over them, and empty ones put in their 

 places, thereby causing the bees to work 

 with renewed vigor to fill up the vacant 

 space left where the full ones were taken 

 out. And thus we keep taking out full 

 ones, and putting empty ones in their 

 places as long as the honey season lasts. 



Tiiis, in short, is the way we work our 

 bees to secure the yields of honey which 

 trouble Jno. Fox so nmch. Please say to 

 your Otisco Valley correspondent that we 

 fear he has not observed closely about teasel 

 honey. We were told when we first com- 



menced to keep bees, that teasel honey was 

 dark, but after 9 years of experience we 

 will say we never saw any dark honey 

 gathered from teasel. We have caught bees 

 while they were at work on the blossom 

 and killed them, only to find their honey 

 sacs filled with white honey; and we have 

 extracted when basswood was a failure, 

 with plenty of teasel honey, only to find it 

 white. In short, we never got a pound of 

 dark honey from our bees, when teasel was 

 in bloom. It is the whitest honey we know 

 anything about. G. M. Dooi-ittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 11, 1877. 



Comb Foundation for Starters. 



Friend Newman:— I could not do with- 

 out The Jouknai>, in the management of 

 my bees, and I cannot see how any one else 

 can, and keep up with the times. 



I see there still exists a great difference 

 of opinion with regard to comb foundation, 

 as to the advantage of using it in boxes, 

 etc. I tried some yellow foundation this 

 season, and had good success with it. I 

 tried it in boxes, and also in the brood 

 chamber, and had no trouble with ragged 

 or thick comb. They worked it out, I 

 think, as thin as any natural comb. 



I do not think a frame or a box ought to 

 be filled full of the foundation, especially 

 thick foundation, for they will have too 

 much wax to work up and remove. Conse- 

 quently, when honey is coming in rapidly, 

 they will conunence putting it in the cells 

 before they have thinned it out as it should 

 be. This, I think is one reason of so nmch 

 thick comb, or rib in the honey boxes. — 

 Now 1 put narrow strips of foundation in 

 my boxes, reaching to the bottom of the 

 box, serving them as a ladder to the top of 

 the box, and also as starters for the bees. — 

 In the biood-chamber I put 3 or 4 small 

 starters of the foundation in each frame 

 the sliape of a triangle, and about .3 in. long. 

 Starters put in this way, the bees build out 

 and I think if you will give this method a 

 trial, you will find they will build it out 

 as thin as natural comb; I think foundation 

 used in this way is of great value in getting 

 straight combs in the brood chamber, and 

 also for starting bees in the boxes, and pro- 

 ducing large quantities of box honey. 



1 have just read an article in the last 

 issue, from James Heddon, in which I fully 

 concur with him. I believe, as he says, we 

 ought not to induce every one that has tried 

 some other pursuit and failed, to try bee- 

 keeping. Especially those that are hunting 

 easy labor and large profits, for they will 

 ibe su?-e tofail. 



I believe we ought to look to the sale of 

 our honey as one of tiie most important 

 items in bee-keeping. How often do we 

 see persons that nave been induced to try 

 bee-keei)ing, when they find that tliere is 

 a great deal of labor and attention attached 

 to it. take no interest in it; take their honey, 

 as Mr. Iledden says, in tubs and pails, all 

 mashed and broken up, going around to the 

 grocery, and take just what is offered for it; 

 often as low as 6, 8, or 10 cts. per lb. for 

 comb honey. Now, this is to some extent 

 injurious to the sale of our own honey, and 

 I for one, am for building up, not for 

 pulling down our own interests. 



My father and myself commenced with 60 

 hives this season, and 20 of them were very 



