Tmm mjmmmicmm mum jou^nni.. 



203 



drones. It will do away with swarm- 

 ing, but the expense will be a draw- 

 back. 



Mr. Root said that cloth had been 

 tried, but the bees gnaw it to pieces. 



Regarding the size and thickness of 

 foundation used for starters in sections, 

 Mr. Turner said that he used 10 and 11 

 square feet to the pound, and it is a 

 success. 



Mr. McNay — In a good yield, use 

 small starters, but in a slow yield, use 

 larger ones. The bees till it full when 

 there is pleut}' of honey coming in. 

 The slower they work, the more 

 crooked are the combs. 



Mr. Markle spoke of a man who was 

 opposed to the use of foundation ; but 

 in Mr. Markle's opinion, it is one of 

 the greatest discoveries of the age, and 

 the discoverer is worthy of a monu- 

 ment. Ten-feet-to-the-pound founda- 

 tion does not make " lisli-bone " in the 

 combs. 



President Hatch's starters are 3J 

 inches, and 100 to the pound. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



Mr. Turner asked a question with 

 regard to the introduction of queens 

 in the fall, and stated that he had no 

 trouble in introducing tliem when there 

 was no longer any brood in the hives ; 

 that under those circumstances the 

 bees could not rear a young queen, 

 and were willing to accept the new 

 queen. 



One-hundred -and-sixty bee-keepers 

 reported to the Secretary, as follows : 

 Tlie aggregate number of colonies of 

 bees last spring was 8,187, and 13,087 

 now wintering. The yield of comb 

 honey last season was 231,640 pounds, 

 and that of extracted was 459,820 

 pounds. 



The report of the finance committee 

 is as follows : Receipts from dues, 

 .$43.55 ; sundrv expenses, .f 19.75 ; pre- 

 mium awards, 120.00; balance in treas- 

 ury, IS. 80. 



The following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: 



President, C. A. Hatch, of Ithaca ; 

 Vice-Presidents, Rev. H. A. Winter, of 

 Madison, and Rev. T. E. Turner, of 

 Mauston ; Secretary, J. W. Vance, of 

 Madison; and Treasurer, M. J. Plumb, 

 of Milton. 



The following premiums were 

 awarded on honey : 



To J. J. Ochsner, for the best dis- 

 play ; best and second best extracted 

 clover ; best and second best basswood 

 honey ; best and second best dark 

 honey ; and for second best 12 pounds 

 of clover comb honej% and second best 

 and best 12 pounds of basswood comb 

 honey. 



To Rev. T. E. Turner, for best 12 

 pounds of clover comb honey. 



J. W. Vance, Sec. 



A. IVondertiil Weaver. 



There's a wonderful weaver 



High up in the air, 

 And he weaves a white mantle 



For cold earth to wear. 

 With the wind for his shuttle. 



The cloud for his loom, 

 How he weaves, how he weaves. 



In the light, in the gloom. 



Oh 1 with the finest of laces 



He decks bush and tree; 

 On the bare, flinty meadows 



A cover lays he. 

 Then a quaint cap he places 



On pillar and post, 

 And he changes the pump 



To a grim silent ghost 1 



But this wonderful weaver 



Grows weary at last; 

 And the shuttle lies idle 



That ouce flew so fast. 

 Then the sun peeps abroad 



On the work that is done ; 

 And he smiles : " I'll unravel 



It all, just for fun !" — Selected. 



SWARMING. 



Wliat I Know About the Pre- 

 vention of Swarming^. 



Written for the Amerwan Bee Journal 

 BY JAMES HEDDON. 



The following is sent to me to an- 

 swer in the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal ; 



I have a neighbor who has made a honey- 

 house. A dry goods box at least three feet 

 wide, and long, and high, is placed in the 

 loft of his barn, with a large door in front, 

 fitted with a pane of glass, over which a 

 dark curtain di'ops. Across the uuderside 

 of the top of the loox, slats are nailed, and 

 between these are rows of auger-holes. 

 Above these is placed a bottomless hive, 

 with an entrance cut out through the side 

 of the barn. 



The theory is. that the bees in that hive 

 will never swarm, but will keep on filling 

 that honey -house. The honey is to be cut 

 out in the fall. 



Now, I have a, notion of putting a swarm 

 of bees where they will "stay put," pro- 

 vided I can- find any such place ; but it 

 seems to me that bees prefer to carry honey 

 up above their brood-chamber, so I wonder 

 why the "honey-house" should not be put 

 on top of the hive, or would the bees have 

 to travel too far before they got up to the 

 top to start comb; The ^question I wish to 

 ask is, will a colony swarm under such con- 

 ditions? If not, why not have a home sup- 

 ply furnished in this way, giving one jusl 

 so much more time to attend to bees in 

 regular hives. . Kit Clover. 



In response to the above, from one 

 whom I do not know, desiring me to 

 write what I know and believe about 

 the difl'erent methods of preventing 

 bees from swarming, and especially by 

 virtue of the construction of their habi- 

 tation, allow me to say that I feel very 

 positive that whoever makes anj'thing 

 such as is described in that letter, and 

 puts bees into it, either in a barn or 

 anywhere else, will not do so but once. 



I knew a man once, who had a bee- 

 hive in a closet in his house, the bees 



working in and out through the siding. 

 The hive was a real good one, with 

 modern surplus arrangement, and all 

 that, and the year being a bounteous 

 one, h(! got a fine lot of surplus honej'. 

 In a jocular waj', he , said that he 

 thought the reason of the big yield was 

 that every time the workers flew out, 

 they looked back at the house, and 

 supposed that they had the whole 

 thing to fill, and waded in accordingl}'. 

 This jok(; comes about as near scien- 

 tific facts as does the building of big 

 boxes with glass fronts, etc. 



Bees are not as apt to swarm out of 

 a great box, seven or eight times too 

 big foi- a colony, as thej- are from a 

 proper sized hive, but they are more 

 apt to die in winter, and far more 

 likely to become extinct from loss of 

 the queen. The correspondent had ^ 

 better put the bees in a common hive, 

 and keep them in the ordinary way, 

 even if she never looks after the 

 swarms at all, and let the swarms go 

 to the woods. Even then she will have 

 more monej' and more bees at the end 

 of ten j'ears. 



The best and only really efficient 

 non-swarming theory that has been 

 proven to work in practice, is the one 

 set forth years ago by Gen. D. A. 

 Adair, of Kentucky, viz : Make one 

 long, horizontal brood-chamber ; fill 

 it with about thirty Langstroth frames, 

 and manipulate them so as to keep the 

 brood-nest always in the rear end of 

 the hive. Of course, the frames run 

 crosswise of the hive, but the entrance 

 must be in one end of the trough-like 

 brood-chamber. Always keep some 

 empty frames (not only empty of all 

 brood and honey, but of all comb) in 

 the front end of this long box, and not 

 one colon}' in thirty will swarm, one 

 year with another. 



While such an arrangement as the 

 above is far more practical than the 

 one described in Kit Clover's letter, it 

 is not good, and after having been 

 tried by many skilled bee-keepers, it 

 has all gone entirely out of use. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



A Special Club Rate. 



A Magazine of the choice literary charac- 

 ter which the Illustrated Home JonR:NAX, 

 sustains, will add many pleasures to any 

 "family circle." Its beautiful illustrations 

 and interesting I'eading-matter will make it 

 heartily welcomed at every " fireside." 



We desire that every one of our readers 

 should secure its regular visits during the 

 year 1890, and in order to induce them to 

 do so, we will make this tempting offer : 



We will Club the American Bee Journal 

 and the Illustrated Home Journal, and 

 mail both periodicals during the whole year 

 1890 for $1.C0, if the order is received at 

 this office by March 31, 1890— when this 

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