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therefore to be preferred to out-door 

 hives. 



Another advantage oflercd is that 

 the bees ean be handled with less dan- 

 ger of robbing, as the end of the house 

 in whicli we want to work can be 

 closed and the opposite end left open 

 for light and for the bees to escape. 

 It is also much cooler for the operator. 

 Wliile it is not alone for the bee-mas- 

 ter, but for the bees also, that we want 

 the shade, as oftentimes the out-door 

 hives will get so hot that tlie bees will 

 hang out, the combs melt down, and 

 the bees that do not get stuck in 

 the mess, will take their departure 

 to find some hollow tree that is kept 

 cool bj' the overhanging branches with 

 their grateful shade. 



Six years ago I built my first bee- 

 house. That season I had two, the 

 following season three, and so on until 

 the past season I had five ; my smallest 

 house holding 38 colonies, and the 

 largest 82. 



After 13 years' success with bees, 

 nearly one-half of which I have had 

 both out-door and in house-apiaries, so 

 much am I in favor of the latter that 

 for my use I shall never make or buy 

 another hive- that must be used out- 

 doors, although I would add that 

 almost any kind of a hive can be used 

 in a bee-house. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



Report of Some Experimeiiling 

 by a Young Bee.9Ian. 



Writtctifor the American Bee Journal 



BY S. p. NOLU. 



This is the sixth year that I have 

 kept bees, as I may say, for experi- 

 ments. 



1. I bought a colony in a box-hive 

 for $5, and transferred them to a 

 Mitchell hive. The experiment was a 

 success, though I attributed it to luck, 

 as I knew nothing at all about bees. I 

 could not have picked out the queen 

 had any one oftered me a dozen 

 colonies for my trouble. That colony 

 was torn up every week that summer 

 for my inspection. The queen became 

 a common sight to me. 



2. I divided this colony, and gave 

 the queenless part a cell (Holy-Land), 

 which proved to be a success. The 

 queen mated with a hybrid drone, and 

 made the crossest cross I ever had. 



3. I tried to use comb foundation, 

 and would find each new hope melted 

 down or twisted out of shape. Bee- 

 keepers are hard to discourage, how- 

 ever, and now I use it in full sheets, 

 and always wire my frames — another 

 experiment. 



4. The next tiling to trj' was intro- 

 ducing queens, so I began with Ital- 

 ians, and iiilrciiluced by Heddon's, or 

 rather his "Friend's" plan. I like it, 

 and have never lost a queen by using 

 it. I tried two tine Italians b}' the 

 " Peet process." and lost one, but I 

 admit that my carelessness was partly 

 to blame. I do not like the method. 

 Heddon's Friend's plan is better. His 

 theory is correct — " they do not realize 

 that they have been queenless." 



5. I transferred by Heddon's plan, 

 and will now use no other. Cutting 

 up egg larva\ and dripping honey is 

 too dauby and wasteful. 



6. I took a weak colonj' and put it 

 on a strong colony's stand ; then I took 

 a box and scimp-shovel, and scooped 

 up perhaps a jii'ck of bees that were 

 hanging out of three hives of a neigh- 

 bor's (he said I might), and mixed 

 them with the weak colony. For a 

 week they hung out day and night.and 

 were too lazy to move for smoke, so I 

 gave them a frame of eggs and larvw, 

 and a pint of syrup. They have gone to 

 work and do not hang out. I believe 

 that hanging out is a lazy habit. Will 

 some one who has a good many bees, 

 try this "scooping up" plan of 

 strengthening weak colonies, and re- 

 port ? It is very simple. 



7. I fixed up an invertible brood- 

 nest, and tried inverting, this summer. 

 I find it a success, and believe that in- 

 vertible surplus-cases would be, too, 

 but I have not tried them. After in- 

 verting the hive of a good colony, I 

 put on three surplus-cases with full 

 sheets of foundation in pound and half- 

 pound sections. For experiment, then, 

 Ididnotfoo^ inside of that hive for 

 exactly four weeks (in June), and 

 when I did look, I felt puffed up, and 

 looked that way. They did not swarm, 

 but have stored 30 pounds of honey — 

 a good yield here for a season. 



I winter my bees without protection, 

 more than that they are put on the 

 south side of the building. I have 

 never lost any. The coming winter I 

 will try packing with straw. 



These experiments were begun when 

 I was but twenty years old, and all 

 were performed without aid or sug- 

 gestion from any one save through 

 books and periodicals. All bee-keep- 

 ers should read continually. 



I have had as high as 10 colonies, 

 but always kept them as a side-issue. 

 Some day I will buy out a farmer's 

 lot, and go into the business. 



Let me say to young bee-keepers — it 

 will pay you to have one colony to ex- 

 periment with. If it makes you no 

 money, it will enable you to get the 

 knowledge necessary to work your 

 others to the best advantage. 



Cofleyville, Kans., July 21, 1890. 



MARKETING". 



How l«> Prepare Comb Honey 

 for ilic iraarkcl. 



Read at the Oxford, Ont., Conveyition 



BY w. COUSE. 



In attempting to prepare an article 

 on this suljjeet, it will be difficult to 

 find ground that has not been gone 

 over previously by some person ; but I 

 feel that there are bee-keepers who do 

 not pay nearl}' enough attention to 

 this matter, and they ai'c not only 

 losers themselves, but the grocers they 

 sell to and other bee-keepers are often 

 afi'ected. If a grocer receives a lot of 

 poor-looking honey, he does not readily 

 sell it ; and had he received nicely- 

 done-up honey of good quality, he 

 would have likely sold much more 

 honey, and have caused a greater 

 demand. 



It is somewhat difficult to say just 

 when or where to begin to prepare 

 honey for market — perhaps the best 

 time would be before we have anj-. To 

 be able to have the choicest comb 

 honey it must be built in nice, white 

 sections, and to find what a nice white 

 section is, we can ask difl'erent supply 

 dealers for samples, and there will 

 likely be some suitable samples of sec- 

 tions received to choose from. Another 

 article of importance is nice, thin 

 foundation. With this fastened in the 

 sections, they have a neat appearance. 



Now, before placing the supers as 

 filled with the sections on the hives for 

 the bees to fill, you would likely have 

 nicer comb honey if 30U scrape all the 

 propolis possible from the hive and 

 fixtures, as when the bees t'-avel over 

 the propolis, there will be some stick 

 to their feet and soil the cappings of 

 the honey and sections. 



Some may think the propolis of little 

 injury, but to those they might take 

 the following precaution, which a gen- 

 tleman claimed to have taken that 

 showed some nice honey at one of our 

 country fairs. A gentleman showing 

 honey in competition with him wanted 

 to know how he got such nice white 

 comb, " Well," he says, " if you do not 

 tell anj' person, I'll tell j'ou. I just 

 fasten little mats at the entrance of 

 the hives for the bees to wipe their 

 feet on before going in." Now I do 

 not know whether the mats were 

 placed by the second gentleman or 

 not, but I know that there are many 

 that do not trouble with the mats, and 

 there are enough, and too many, that 

 do not scrape the propolis ofT. 



I usually find that comb honey taken 

 from a colon}' with new combs, frames 

 and hive, is nicer looking than if taken 

 from a colony without new combs, 

 frame and hive. With these precau- 



