634 



T«© ffiiiiEKicMff mmm j&wmmmi^. 



hive by alternating the frames, fifst 

 smoking the bees and jarring the hives 

 to get the bees to gorge themselves 

 with honey. 



If I had no choice of queens the}" 

 were allowed to ■• fight it out." other- 

 wise I destroyed the poorest before 

 uniting. In a number of instances I 

 simply placed one hive on top of the 

 other, after smoking and jarring as 

 before, and the}' went together nicely. 

 The latter plan is much the easiest and 

 quickest, and I consider it equally as 

 good. 



Where a weak colony and a strong 

 one stood together. I removed the 

 weak one to another part of the apiary 

 during the middle of the day, when 

 the honey was coming in, putting two 

 or three of the weak ones together, and 

 the same, or tlie ne.\t evening, they 

 were made into one colony, and the 

 surplus combs, if any. used for extract- 

 ing. By this plan the strong colonies 

 were made stronger, and enough of 

 the weak ones were put together to 

 make an average colony. 



This uniting I consider the most 

 protitable work done in the apiarj' the 

 past season, for, without it we would 

 have obtained but very little honey. 



ROBBING WHEN EXTRACTING. 



To avoid robbing when extracting 

 at the close of the honey-flow, I use a 

 tent, and by throwing a bunch of grass 

 or weeds against the entrance, I can 

 return the combs as I proceed, without 

 fear of getting the bees started to 

 robbing. 



Quinoy, Ills.. Sept. 3, 1890. 



SWARMING. 



A Description of an Automatic 

 Swarni-Hiver. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY F. D. LACY. 



entirely through hive No. 2, in order 

 to reach their home. At first I re- 

 garded this as objectionable, but I 

 soon found that the delay of the bees 

 in traveling tlirough hive No. 2, was 

 more than made up by the warding oft' 

 of robbing bees, and the perfect 

 security of hive No. 1 from the spring 

 winds and stormy weather. The colo- 

 nies with hives so arranged have done 

 fully better than any others in the 

 yard. This is a point wherein experi- 

 ence is better than theory. 



At the time of swarming, the queen- 

 excluding screen is to be adjusted, 

 which is quickly manipulated. It will 

 be seen that hive No. 2 becomes the 

 swarm-receiver, and no mistake about 



As there are manj' desirous of 

 knowing the result of my experiments 

 with the swarm-hiver, I will endeavor 

 to describe it. A patent was granted 

 to me on this invention on August tJ, 

 1890. 



It is a combination of two hives, as 

 represented in the illustration, without 

 the use of any front entrances, as 

 shown. Therefore the alighting-ljoard 

 and bee-entrance is at the orifice of 

 vacant hive (No. 2) which is provided 

 with a queen-excluding screen at the 

 time of swarming. The tube in the 

 engraving is represented too long. 



The closing doors are so made as to 

 come entirely ofl', and allow the two 

 hives to come close together, and it 

 will be seen that the bees must pass 



The season has been poor, but my 

 bees have done much better than any 

 others I hear of near here. One 

 swarm issued on June 16, and I took 

 from it 70 pounds of surplus comU 

 honey on July 28. I placed in the 

 upper seven brood-frames without 

 divisions, and each frame over-run 

 from IJ to 3 pounds. I would advise 

 to always use divisions. This was the 

 best yield of any in the yai'd, but some 

 of the others are doing quite well. 



The golden-rod makes yellow hun- 

 dreds of acres of the forests near, and 

 that growing upon the low land is a 

 great honey-producing flower, but that 

 upon the high groimd is not so good. 



Lake Co., Mich., Aug. 28, 1890. 



C^ 



PATEN TJ^^, APPLIED 



FOR 



OCCUPIED 

 No. 1. 



VACANT 

 Ho. I 



Automatic Swarni-Eiver. 



it in all first swarms. But in second 

 swarms it might sometimes fail, in 

 case they issue with a virgin queen, as 

 the queen is sometimes so small that 

 she will pass through the meshes of 

 the queen-excluder. But as second 

 swarms should never be allowed to 

 issue, except in view of increase, this I 

 regard as no objection. 



When the swarm issues into the 

 swarm-receiver, it is often the case 

 that the workers will swarm entirely 

 out into the air, but owing to the fact 

 that the queen and drones remain in 

 hive No. 2, the swarm will soon clus- 

 ter upon the side of hive No. 2, and 

 over the entrance, at which time the 

 two hives should be disconnected, and 

 the opposite orifice of hive No. 2 

 closed, and the alighting-board placed 

 at the entrance of hive No. 1, where 

 the tube entrance is shown. 



It needs no argument to show that 

 this device is a success. M}' experi- 

 ence has proven it in every case on 

 first swarms, but I have failed in three 

 or four cases with second swarms, for 

 the reason already given. 



I commenced last spring with 34 

 colonies, two of which were queenless, 

 that I doubled in with others, leaving 

 32. They increased to 98, after which 

 I doublecl them down to but 74 colo- 

 nies. 



GOLDEN-ROD. 



It Yields Honey — Entrances to 

 Chaif Hives. 



Written for the American Bee Jov/mal 



BY C. GERE. 



I was surprised to see the answers 

 to Query 726, that bees do not work 

 on golden-rod. Here it never fails 

 when the weather is suitable for bees 

 to work. In some seasons it is our 

 main dependence for winter stores, and 

 this season is one of them, as we have 

 had aver}' poor season, and many col- 

 onies are in a starving condition now. 



Three years ago I commenced pick- 

 ing grapes on the first day of Septem- 

 ber, and picked until the middle of 

 October, and in all this time the bees 

 were so busy on golden-rod that they 

 never came on the grapes to bother in 

 the least, until we had two frosts, and 

 then the last two or three days there 

 wore plenty of bees on the grapes. 



We have two kinds of golden-rod 

 here — one we call the "square top," 

 which is very early, and grows about 

 two-thirds as high as the late kind, the 

 blossoms running up somewhat in the 

 shape of a corn-tassel. In favorable 

 weather it is as alive with bees as I 

 ever saw them on buckwheat. There 



