416 



T'HE: MmSKICMff ®®)®- JO'^KlfMEf. 



from the east, blew directly' into the 

 entrances. I covered them with 

 boards, but on the da}' after the storm, 

 I climbed through the drifts and dug 

 the ice out of the entrances, with a 

 hair-pin. 



As I could not open the hives for 

 sometime, I did not know but that the 

 bees might be hungry, so I fed them a 

 little. When it grew warm, they 

 dragged out quite a lot of dead bees. 



Between storms and mice, I was 

 afraid that my colonies would be very 

 weak, but later, when I opened the 

 hives, I found lots of honey, and quite 

 an amount of bees, with brood alread}* 

 capped. 



Bj- the way, I have fed rye-flour 

 every warm day all the spring, and 

 mine and my neighbor's bees would 

 carr\- away a pint in half a day. 



During fruit-bloom we had very 

 little time that bees could work, as it 

 rained almost every day, but one col- 

 ony of mine filled and capped every 

 empty cell, even building and tilling 

 comb at the ends of the brood-frames. 



On Maj' 14 a swarm came out, and 

 though I thought I cut out every 

 queen-cell except one, the same colony 

 cast another swarm on Maj' 26. I 

 opened the hive and found a half-dozen 

 new cells, and one from which the 

 queen was cutting. I waited for her, 

 and welcomed her. O, but the queens 

 are such little beauties ! Then I took 

 every possible queen-cell out. Now, 

 will some one tell me how many days 

 later I dare clip her wings, or must I 

 wait until I find eggs ? In that case 

 she will have plenty of time to swarm, 

 if she chooses, as I will not open a 

 hive during the present dearth of 

 honey. 



On May 25, another first swarm 

 came out, and Tom — I may as well in- 

 troduce you to Tom Clover — took his 

 first lesson in bee-keeping by going up 

 into a tree after the cluster. Perhaps 

 I might add, that he didn't get it. He 

 had the l)ees in my big, covered bread- 

 pan, when away went the cover, the 

 ladder broke under his feet, he caught 

 an upper round which broke, and 

 down went bees, pan, and all, although 

 Tom caught lower down on the ladder. 



Then a bee-keeping neighbor climbed 

 the tree, and shook the cluster into a 

 four-gallon pail, with fitted cover, and 

 — they are doing well. But I notice 

 that the bees uncapped every bit of 

 honej' in the old hive before going. 



Last night, as I went to feed the 

 chickens, 1 bethought myself that we 

 feed the horse, the cow and the calf — 

 even the fowls — and why should one 

 be so very stingy with the busy little 

 bees, as to let them go hungry ? So I 

 put a pound section into each surplus 

 case, and gave the new colonies some 

 sugar syrup in feeders at the entrance. 



I had put on the surplus-cases about 

 the middle of the month, to prevent 

 swarming, if possible. The bees just 

 poured up and filled them, and began 

 pulling out combs. 



Just now there seems to be a com- 

 plete dearth of honey, and I notice 

 they cut now and then a little hole into 

 the foundation. 



The hives of my colonies, before an}- 

 of them swarmed, were just simply 

 packed full of bees — so full that I do 

 not see how they all managed to live in 

 there. 



I have questioned every bee-keeper 

 near me, and except one colony of 

 blacks, kept on the sand near the 

 river, I have heard of no other swarm 

 issuing this spring. Do mine swarm 

 early because they are Carniolans, or 

 because I fed them rye-flour, or just 

 " O, 'cause ?" 



One colony, in which I found a sur- 

 plus of drones, and cut-down drone- 

 cells, thinking I would put on a drone- 

 trap immediately, began killing drones 

 the next day, and killed every one. I 

 supposed that it was because there is 

 no honey coming in. 



In early spring, I had one colony 

 that carried out sick bees, somewhat 

 swollen, and a shining black. They 

 seem to have gotten all over it now. 

 What is the disease ? What is its 

 cause ? and what its cure ? 



Dubuque, Iowa, June 2, 1890. 



QUEENS. 



The Rearing and Shipping of 

 Quecn.Bees. 



Read at the Ohio State Convention 



BY MISS DEMA BENNETT. 



I do not feel myself competent to 

 undertake anything of a discourse on 

 scientific queen-rearing, but I will 

 simply describe my way of doing, and 

 some of my opinions, in a very un- 

 scientific way. 



I want a linen hat, a thin black veil, 

 a good smoker, and plenty of dry fuel 

 for it. I have a tool-box with a claw- 

 hammer, two or three sizes of small 

 wire-nails, and some large ones ; pins 

 and pin-cushion, a knife with two 

 blades, an oil-crayon, pieces of clean 

 broken sections for tablets, and tin- 

 tags for marking the hives ; a turkey 

 feather, a provisioned cage a tin box 

 for matches — an apartment for put- 

 ting pieces of comb and wax — all in 

 this box. Besides these there should 

 be a honey-knife and extractor. 



I have never found it necessarj' to 

 have a work-room for handling either 

 bees or cells, although I have both a 

 work-room for making foundation, and 

 a fancy bee-house with wire-screen 



doors, on the edge of the yard, where 

 there are from 50 to 100 nuclei in the 

 summer time. 



The hive for the nucleus should be 

 one that will take the frames in gen- 

 eral use in the apiary, so that they 

 will be interchangeable. I prefer the 

 Langstroth frame, and as a chaft' hive 

 is too heavy, as well as expensive, I 

 would use Simplicity hives ; they are 

 valuable property, and can be used for 

 storing frames of comb or sections, 

 when not in use in the yard, and, if 

 one wanted to go out of the queen- 

 rearing business, there would not be a 

 lot of unsalable boxes on hand. 



The frames should be of wood, 

 wired and filled with foundation, and 

 previously drawn out, or combs which 

 are securely fastened at the edges. 

 This is important, for in looking for 

 the queen, or eggs, or in shaking the 

 bees oft', one is likely, if not extraordi- 

 narily careful, to tip out the comb, 

 honey, bees and queen in a conglom- 

 erate mass, into the hive or on the 

 ground, as the case may be. 



There should be two adjustable 

 division-boards for each hive, arranged 

 so that there is a bee-space under each 

 side. This saves trouble in picking up 

 any bees that may be brushed off. 



For covering the frames, use enam- 

 eled cloth ; over this, a burlap cushion 

 filled with forest leaves ; it is very 

 essential that nuclei be kept warm, and 

 there are very few nights when it is 

 not better to use them. In case the 

 cushion is used with the Simplicity 

 hive, it would need to be a two-story 

 hive. The cover should be tinned and 

 painted to make it absolutely water- 

 proof. 



For the mother-bee I prefer a chafi" 

 hive, because quiet is insured imder 

 all circumstances of wind and weather. 

 It should be fitted up as I have men- 

 tioned, except the frames, part of 

 which should be of foundation without 

 the wires, about two-thirds of the 

 depth of the frame, and already 

 drawn out. Drive two long wire-nails 

 into each side of the chaft' hive directly 

 over the rabbets, and near the ends, 

 so that they will slip in when not in 

 use, and draw out when wanted to 

 hang frames on, so as not to risk los- 

 ing the queeu by setting the frames 

 out on the ground. There should be 

 an alighting-board fastened at the en- 

 trance to every hive, and where queens 

 have clipped wings, it should be long 

 enough so that they will not fall oft' 

 the end of it, if a swarm comes out, 

 and crawl under and get lost. 



WHAT THE QUEEN SHOULD BE. 



The queen mother should be a well- 

 developed queen of whatever race or 

 combination of races one may choose 

 — I prefer a pure Italian strain, and a 



