806 



T'MM MBIEMIC'Sf* MM'M JO'PKIfM't. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



A Visit to tbe Apiary of the 

 Agricultural Scliooi. 



Written for the A.mericayi Bee Journal 

 BY C, B. JENKS. 



" Little Rhody," although the small- 

 est State in the Union, is trying to 

 hold her own in bee-culture, as well 

 as in other industries. 



Her Agricultural School is. I believe, 

 the onlj' one which gives to its stu- 

 dents a thorough practical knowledge 

 of bee-culture ; a thing, which, it is 

 hoped, will be introduced into other 

 Agricultural Schools, in time. 



A friend of mine, who is also a bee- 

 man, and myself, started early one 

 morning in the latter part of Jul}-, to 

 visit this apiary, wliich, with the 

 school, is situated in Kingston, about 

 two miles from the railroad station. 



The first thing that met our gaze as 

 we entered the apiar}- was, a swarm 

 of bees, which had apparently just 

 issued. We found Mr. Cushman. and 

 notified him of the fact. The swarm 

 was a large one, and hung very 

 prettily from a limb, so it was photo- 

 graphed before being " hived." 



The hives used in this apiarj' are 

 the Rhode Island Siniplicitj', and are 

 winter-proof, ground cork being used 

 for packing, The entrance to the 

 hive is through the bottom of the case, 

 which also serves as a bottom to 

 the brood-charaber. There are nine 

 frames, the tops and ends being partly 

 closed. The super is about half the 

 depth of the brood-chamber, and con- 

 tains half-depth wide frames, each 

 frame holding four boxes; then, when 

 it is desired to obtain honey for ex- 

 tracting, half-depth, wide frames can 

 be used. 



When the hive is closed for winter, 

 small cleats are laid on top of the 

 brood-chamber ; over these is laid a 

 piece of muslin, and on top of this a 

 cushion, or bag, filled with ground 

 cork, is placed. These hives present 

 a good appearance, and bees winter 

 in them with good success. 



There was one hive placed on the 

 scales, which showed the daily amount 

 of honey gathered by the bee.s. A 

 partial record of this hive, I believe, 

 appeared in this Journal, of October 4. 

 In the honej-house was an obser- 

 vatory-hive, which is probably of much 

 interest to some visitors. Mr. Cush- 

 man showed us his collection of hives, 

 which is a fine one ; showing the 

 variety used by bee-keepers in various 

 sections of the country, and is worthy 



of the examination of all persons 

 interested in bee-culture, who can see 

 them. This collection was on exhibi- 

 tion at the State Fair. 



The apiary as a whole, presented 

 a verj' neat and clean appearance, and 

 the fine display of honey and bees, at 

 the Rhode Island State Fair, which it 

 furnished, shows with what care and 

 understanding it is managed. 



Pautucket. R. 1. 



SWARMS. 



My Mcliiod of Making Artificial 

 Increase. 



Read at the S. W, Wisconsin, Convention, 



BY E. FRANCE. 



From the fact, that we can rear a 

 queen from eggs only, that would rear 

 a worker, makes it possible to produce 

 artificial swarms, or colonies, of bees. 

 We can divide a good colony into two 

 or more parts, and let the queenless 

 part, or parts, rear a queen from the 

 eggs, or very young worker brood. 

 Then each part becomes a perfect col- 

 on}' of bees, either as a small nucleus, 

 such as queen-breeders use — or, an 

 ordinarj' colony, capable of honey 

 production. 



The large colony is the only one that 

 I propose to deal with. As we are not 

 rearing queens for sale, but want our 

 bees to produce as much honey as pos- 

 sible, we try to keep all of our colonies 

 as strong as we can, and do not permit 

 swarming naturalh'. So. in the Spring 

 we build up the weak colony first, by 

 taking brood from the strong ones. 

 When we have got them all strong. 

 and our large hives are full of bees, 

 and hone}' is coming in rapidly, then 

 the bees would be likely to swarm. 

 We do not want them to swarm, as 

 there is no one there to hive the bees. 



We make one new colony in place 

 of making two or more parts of one 

 colony. We make it from three to six 

 old colonies, according to circum- 

 stances. From a good, strong colony, 

 we take, usually, two combs and some 

 bees, being sure to leave the queen 

 with the old colony. We put into the 

 old colony two empty combs, or t^yo 

 empty frames, with comb-foundation 

 starters. We then put the two combs 

 taken from the old colony into an 

 empty hive. Then in the same way 

 we take more combs from other old 

 colonies, until we have enough combs 

 and bees to fill our new hive. Have 

 .all the combs full of brood, with a 

 little honey ; we do not want this col- 

 ony to huilil any combs until they have 

 a matured queen. 



For the first two or tliroe days this 

 colony will not do much more than 

 take care of their brood ; after that, 



they are the best honey-gatherers ia 

 the apiary. When we visit this apiary 

 again, in a week or ten days, we cut 

 the queen-cells down to one. We 

 clip the wings of all of our queens. 

 We cannot manage out-apiaries in any 

 other way. We make all of our new- 

 colonies by division. As we only visit 

 the out-apiaries once in a week or ten 

 days, there is no one there to look 

 after the bees when we are away. 



One great advantage in making 

 increase by this method is. we never 

 have any late swarms, with empty 

 hives to till, for we fill the hives to- 

 commence with ; and for the last 

 new ones we should take but one 

 comb from each old colony. If the bees- 

 do not build the one comb, they will 

 winter without it. But we do not take 

 a comb out of a hive unless there is a 

 fair prospect of their building another. 



Platteville, Wis. 



DRONES. 



Do Swarms Occur before Tliere- 

 are Drones. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. Wjr. r. CAKPENTEB. 



Under the head of "Queries," ou' 

 page 740, I find the question asked b}" 

 some novice, (perhaps like myself). 

 • ■ Do bees ever cast swarms before 

 they have drones in the Spring ?" 



In answer to this, is the opinion of 

 a number of prominent bee-culturists. 

 whose long experience in the business, 

 judging by their frequent contributions 

 to bee literature, has given me great 

 surprise. I notice that some reply in 

 the negative, and others seem in doubt 

 if such ever occurs. 



Permit me to state what occurred 

 among my own bees tliis season. I 

 wintered (5 colonies ; five were good 

 strong ones, and one ( a third cast, of 

 last year), quite small; but all came 

 out in good condition in the Spring. 

 Being unable to sec to, and handle 

 them when swarming-time came, I 

 was compelled to sit by and .allow 

 them to have their own way. 



Two of the largest colonies made 

 their accustomed preparations), as I 

 interpreted their movements), to- 

 swarm, for a number of days. I sat 

 where I could see them each day, but 

 as I saw no drones, I did not expect 

 them to leave ; but, strange to say. 

 they finally swarmed and left me. I 

 had every chance to see that there was- 

 not a single drone, nor any drones left 

 among those that remained. I saw no- 

 drones among my hives until very late 

 in the season, and only a very few 

 then, although every one was well 

 provided with honey. 



