252 



TH® SMMMICMH MMM JOURKffilU. 



. ^»^^^- — »^^^^^^ — ^_;»^^^--^— jj >> ^ » j fca^a^«^«^« rf *^*^«^«^»^»^>^*^*^»^»^«^»»>^»»*i»*^*»«^ 



Experience ot an 01«1 Uee-.Man. 



I think that I am one of the oldest bee- 

 keepers in the northwest, and have had as 

 much experience in the business as any 

 one. I am the fifth generation that has 

 constantly kept bees, but that does not say 

 much for the business. I commenced to 

 keep bees in 18^4, when it was not so 

 much of a science as it is to-day. I began 

 with straw hives, hollow logs, then boxes 

 standing on one end, with the "luck and 

 brimstone plan " annexed to make it com- 

 plete. I have kept bees in New York, Ver- 

 mont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylva- 

 nia and Wisconsin. There is a vast differ- 

 ence in localities — some much better than 

 others. I am in the best place now, devot- 

 ing my entire time to the business. I am 

 an old painter by trade, and have followed 

 it for 50 years. I was a foreman in a car- 

 shop for 1 6 years, but I always kept my 

 bees, and took time to care for them. I 

 commenced bee-keeping here in 1850, and 

 have tried to keep pace with the progress 

 of the times. I was one of the first to adopt 

 the movable frame hive, and begin a new 

 era in the bee-business. It has cost me 

 much to experiment in the business, but I 

 have managed to make the bees pay their 

 expenses, and a profit besides. I have tried 

 all kinds of bees except the Carniolau, and 

 I expect to give them a trial the coming 

 season. I have 76 colonies of bees at mj' 

 home apiary, and 150 at out yards in the 

 country, in five places. I keep a man at 

 each yard most of the time during June 

 and July. S. T. C'K.vXD.iLL. 



Hartford, Wis., March 27, 1890. 



each. I generally use ten frames of brood, 

 and the balance of empty worker coinb, 

 owing to the size of colony; then I have 

 what I call a set of combs for extracting. I 

 begin by removing all combs that have 

 honey in, that will pay for extracting, and 

 put them in another box for that purpose, 

 placing the empty combs, and the brood 

 taken from these other hives, into the hive 

 that I have .lust emptied. I then shake and 

 brush off the bees from the combs, and all 

 is ready for business. 



I do not care to extract when there is no 

 honey coming in. To be sure, it can be 

 done with a tent, but I believe I can do as 

 much alone, when there is plenty of 

 honey coming in, as two can with a tent 

 and no honey being gathered. For storage 

 for honey, I use two cans holding 400 

 pounds each, so that the honey has a chance, 

 if it is not thoroughly cured, to ripen in 

 this way. I always have a good quality of 

 honey with this management. I had only 

 one natural swarm last season from -40 col- 

 onies, and 2,100 pounds of hone5'. I use a 

 sun wax-extractor, with which I believe I 

 can produce as nice an article of wax as 

 can be secured by any method. 



Bowling Green, O. MiLO George. 



Spacing tlie Itrood-Pi-anies. 



On page 214 Dr. C. C. Miller says that he 

 is willing to give "something" to know 

 how far to space brood-frames from center 

 to center. What I know about it is not 

 guessing; but years ago, when I wanted to 

 throw up the box-hive, I had the dimen- 

 sions of the Langstroth hive, but did not 

 know how to space the frames, so I over- 

 hauled quite a pile of box-hives, took the 

 tops off, and measured the distance from 

 center to center across the combs, as the 

 impressions were left on the top-board. 

 These were the brood, with what I think 

 must have been correct spacing. In each 

 hive, where the combs were quite straight, 

 they did nut disagree, but were just 1'.; 

 inches from center to center. This was 

 their own work, aud I suppose they made 

 them as they should be. I have 76 colonies 

 now in the cellar. S. Pllmmer. 



Mannsville, N. Y. 



Slethod or Extracting Honey. 



On page 198 is an article on extracted 

 honey, wheu to extract, the number of 

 combs to use, and how to proceed in ex- 

 tracting. Perhaps every bee-keeper in the 

 land is well aware that there is no business 

 that has more differences of opinion than 

 the one of how to manage bees, or what 

 kind of a hive to use. 



My method of extracting is somewhat 

 different from Mr. Funk's. He does not 

 say anything about extracting from brood- 

 combs. I eitract from all the combs. My 

 hive is onlj" one story, holding 24 frames. 

 12x12 inches. Mr. F. does not extract 

 until the clover season is over ; I extract 

 when my judgment says they need it — I do 

 not wait until the honey season is over, but 

 begin as soon as the combs are well filled 

 and partly sealed over. I use a Bingham 

 knife, and for a capping can, a box 2 J. 2 feet 

 by 22 inches square, with a screen at the 

 bottom, so that I save the drippings from 

 the caps. 



When I extract, I go to 4 or 5 colonies, 

 and take out three or four frames from 



are the same ; so we will have to substitute 

 flour, or something else, for awhile. March 

 has only given us one real nice, warm day 

 for the bees to fly. It has been cold and 

 disagreeable in general, and it appears to be 

 determined to go out as rough as it came, 

 and usher April 1 in as a regular winter 

 day. I had 35 colonies of liees last fall, 

 which have wintered splendidly on the 

 summer stands. My only loss, until the 

 last of February, was two queens; and I 

 doubled their colonies up with others. I do 

 not believe that the bees hero are in as 

 good condition as they were one mouth 

 ago. 



1 have had no return of foul brood in my 

 apiary, and feel safe in saying that it can 

 be effectually eradicated by keeping the 

 bees for one or two days in empty boxes, 

 and then putting them in perfectly clean 

 boxes, on sheets of foundation, and effect- 

 ually scalding and cleansing the boards, 

 boxes and everything about the apiary. 



Sulphur is recommended for killing off 

 the bees that want to swarm. It must cer- 

 tainly be an unpleasant job for any one 

 having any feeling, to first stupefy bees 

 with sulphur, and theu bury them alive ! 

 Samuel BAHXH.iRT. 



Greensburgh, Pa., March 29, 1890. 



SiiperseclinK <tiieens. 



I have read Mr. Doolittle's book on 

 " Scientific Queen-Rearing," and tried his 

 method of superseding queens, but did not 

 succeed very well last summer. I placed 

 in the upper stories of 20 colonies, above a 

 queen-excluder, finished queen-cells; they 

 hatched all right, and I withdrew the 

 queen-excluder, but only 2 colonies out of 

 the 20 superseded the old queens. Will Mr. 

 Doolittle please explain through the Ameki- 

 CAN Bee Joukxal, wherein I failed^ I 

 think that the two that superseded were 

 preparing to do so on account of old age. 

 How would it do to leave the young queen 

 above the queen-excluder until she com- 

 menced to lay, and then let her down < 



Redwood Falls, Minn. Wm. Cuouley. 



[I do not know that I can account for the 

 failure mentioned by Mr. Crouley, unless 

 he did not put a frame of brood in each 

 upper story with the queen-cell. As I have 

 been short of queens from my multitudinous 

 sales each year, I have not experimented 

 along this line as much as I should have 

 done under other circumstances, but so far 

 as I have used the plan, I have had very few 

 failures. Where the young virgin queen 

 and the bees fl-om the upper story have 

 been shaken down in front of the lower 

 story, as given on page 65 of " Scientific 

 Queen- Rearing," I have not failed in a single 

 instance in having the queen in the lower 

 hive superseded, and I consider this the 

 better way to work.— G. M. Doolittle.] 



I>i!«as:rreeable Weather, etc. 



We have had a very open winter, with 

 rain, mud and slush, making the roads al- 

 most impassable. January and February 

 were as much like summer months as like 

 winter. The last of February was very 

 springlike. The bees are in splendid condi- 

 tion, carrying in pollen and rearing brood. 

 The apricot and peach trees were just 

 bursting into bloom, but, alas, March came 

 as fierce as a lion, and* the mercury was 6 

 or 8 degrees below zero, and lasted long 

 enough to store away a good supply of ice 

 — a great luxury in the summer. Peaches 

 and all other fruit, unless it be apples, were 

 completely frozen. Maple bloom and every- 

 thing from which bees can gather pollen 



Orones Flyins-— Salve for Piles. 



The bees here are wintering well. Late 

 swarms that did not lay up much honey, 

 are starving, but those with plenty of stores 

 thus far are wintering well. On March 19, 

 I saw drones flying in my apiary. I have 

 learned a new use for bees. A few days 

 ago a man came to me, and wanted 20 

 bees. I wished to know what he wanted 

 with them. He replied that he used them 

 to make into a salve to cure the piles. He 

 said that they made the best pile salve be 

 ever heard of. Nathan M. Woodman. 



Bushnell, Ills., April 1, 1890. 



Piittins- Bees into tlie Cellar. 



In reply to Mr. S. H. Herrick, on page 

 204, I put my bees in the cellar on Nov. 

 26th to the 28th, and they came out in 

 good condition. I have lost one colony in 

 three years. I put 44 colonies into the 

 cellar last fall; on March 20 I put 28 colo- 

 nies out for a flight. It was 54 degrees in 

 the shade, but it has turned cold again, and 

 I have put the bees back into the cellar. I 

 shall let the rest fly as soon as it gets 

 warm. I know of bee-keepers that leave 

 their bees out until Dec. 24, and those bees 

 have wintered poorly. I know of one man 

 that put screen-wire over the entrance of 

 his hives the past winter, to keep the bees 

 in. I think that man will have some 

 empty hives this spring. I believe we are 

 going to have a hard spring for bees in 

 Minnesota. C. A. Goodell. 



Mankato, Minn., March 24, 1890. 



Insect Pests on Fmit-Xrees. 



This is something of a fruit-growing coun- 

 try, and the question is being agitated as 

 to the best means of destroying the insects 

 which impoverish the fruit and the trees. 

 The spraying of the trees with Paris-green 

 is strongly advocated. The method men- 

 tioned on page 179 was referred to the 

 Grange here, but it seemed to be something 

 new to the members, and is not explicit 

 enough. The questions asked in regard to 

 it are mainly these: 1. Is it as effectual 

 on all kinds of fruit-trees as poison? 3. 

 When is the proper time to apply this yarn 

 and turpentine? 3. How often is it neces- 

 sary to apply it? 4. To what extent has it 

 been practiced? 5. Has it been generally 

 very effectual against all the classes of in- 



