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kuow it all ? What will bee-keeping 

 be, in a hundred years from now ? 



Well, one thing I do know, and that 

 is we are not yet at "the end of the 

 string," by a good deal. Jii.st as im- 

 portant discoveries remain to be made, 

 and we have a keen lot of bee-keepers 

 who will move heaven and earth to 

 bring them to light. We are going to 

 liave better bees, better hives and 

 better section-cases ; in fact, every- 

 thing better that can be improved. 

 Much of the labor now done by man, 

 will be turned over to the bees, who 

 can and will do it better and cheaper. 

 The bees will be made to hive them- 

 selves in the near future. This device 

 will undoubtedly be perfected during 

 the next season. 1 am satisfied it will 

 prove an entire success. 



WHAT TO DO THIS WINTER. 



Now, when the bees have all been 

 snugly stored away, there will be a 

 long time before they will need much 

 attention. The successful bee-keeper 

 must make good use of all the time 

 there is, if he expects to keep "up with 

 the times." 



Be sure and subscribe for one or 

 more of the bee papers, and read them 

 carefully. It is during the Winter 

 that they are at their best, as corre- 

 spondents now have plenty of time to 

 write out their thoughts and give the 

 results of experiments that were over- 

 looked or almost forgotten during the 

 busy season. Look over some good 

 standard work on bees, and although 

 you may have read it before, it will be 

 quite likely that you will gain many 

 new ideas. 



Look over your supplies, and if an}'- 

 thing is needed you can usually get a 

 discount by ordering now. Then 

 many things can be made up at odd 

 times now. This will keep your mind 

 on the business, and is much better 

 than loafing at the grocery stores. 

 Many new things will come out in the 

 near future, and it is well to see what 

 they are and give them a trial. We 

 want everything that is of any real 

 value in our business. Eternal vigil- 

 ance is the price of success. 



RATS AND MICE IN THE BEE CELLAR. 



Often I am told, that if it were not 

 for the rats .and mice bees would be 

 wintered in the cellar. Now what 

 kind of housekeeping is that, to allow 

 these pests to take possession of the 

 cellar ? It may not be so easy to keep 

 them out of the barn or corn cribs ; 

 but in the house cellar, where the vege- 

 tables, fruits, cream and butter for the 

 family are kept, there is no excuse for 

 their presence ; nor in the bee cellar, 

 where all should be quiet instead of 

 the rats playing hop, skip and jump 

 over the hives. 



But some one says : 'JMie rats and 

 mice are there, and how shall I get rid 

 of them ? Well, in the first place, the 

 person who built the house was to 

 blame in leaving any pos.sible place 

 for them to harboi". Stone, lime and 

 cement are cheap, and every hole and 

 crevice should be tilled uji. Should a 

 mouse or rat hole appear anywhere, 

 set a good trap and catch the rascal, 

 and then be sure and plug that hole 

 up. A cat or two is of great advantage 

 in keeping them away. If a place is 

 once overrun, nothing is better to drive 

 them away than to put concentrated 

 lye in every hole you can find, and 

 along their runways. 



Milan, Ills. 



SWARMING. 



Prcveiitioii of After-Swarmiiig 

 or Second Swariiiiiis:. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY R. DART. 



I will give Mr. S. M. Carlyon my 

 method of preventing second or after 

 swarming. It is simple and, with me, 

 it never fails to accomplish its work. 



When the first or prime swarm 

 leaves the hive, turn the hive, which 

 it comes out of, a few feet to one side ; 

 place the new hive on the old stand ; 

 remove the crate of section, if not 

 completed, from the old to the new 

 hive ; then run the swarm into the 

 new hive. While they are running in, 

 draw the frames, one by one, from the 

 old hive and shake the bees off among 

 those running into the new hive, 

 leaving about one-half a pint of bees 

 on the last frame in the old hive. 

 Replace the frames in the old hive ; 

 shut it up till you put in your front 

 blocks, leaving one inner working hole. 

 At that time, or any time within a day 

 or two, carry the old hive to a new 

 stand, and your swarming from that 

 hive is over for the season. 



Do not remove any queen-cells that 

 you may find on the combs of the old 

 hive, and leave not over one pint of 

 bees in the old hive, when you close 

 them up. The combs at this se.ason 

 are full of unhatched brood, and it 

 will not hatch fast enough to have 

 bees on hand to send out second 

 swarms when the first queen is hatched 

 out. 



When the first swarm leaves the old 

 hive you will find, left on the combs, 

 one-quarter of the whole swarm, too 

 young to fly. These are the bees left 

 that gives you the after swarming. 

 Shake them among the new swarm 

 while hiving, and your trouble is over. 



The beginner in bee-keeping may 

 say that this is too much work, and 



tlie chance of being stung is too great. 

 I make all the manipulations and carry 

 the old swarm to the new stand in ten 

 minutes, with bare face ami hands. If 

 your bees are cross, puiVa little smoke 

 over the frames of the old hive. 



I catch all of my swarms, as they 

 come from the hive, in wire swarm 

 catchers. I use three of them for 60 

 swarms. If you get all your honey in 

 section, and use sw.arra catchers, to 

 catch j'our swarms, your bees will not. 

 as a rule, be cross, through the honey 

 harvest. Hiving swarms from limbs 

 of trees and other out-of-the-way places, 

 and the use of the extractor, makes 

 your bees cross for the whole season. 



I do not think it will pay any bee- 

 keeper to try to prevent the bees cast- 

 ing one swarm each during the honey 

 harvest ; but it will pay to prevent 

 them from sending out more than that. 

 If first swarms are coming too late, or 

 too many of them, I send them back, 

 cutting all the queen-cells out of the 

 old hive first, and they will not often 

 renew them and come out again. 



With our poor crop this year, honey 

 is cheap ; we may get 12J cents a pound, 

 but we have got most of our honey on 

 hand yet. 



Ripon, Wis. 



THE UNION. 



The Sixtli Annual Report of tlic 

 IKational Bee-Keepers' Union. 



In making my Sixth Annual Report 

 to the members of the Union, allow 

 me to say that while we all have much 

 to be proud of, in the achievements of 

 the past, we have nothing to be 

 ashamed of — except, perhaps, the 

 limited number of members. 



When attorneys are defending cases 

 in Courts, they often cite the suits 

 previously decided, which favor their 

 argument, or ai-e analogous to it ; and 

 usually the " best hits" they make are 

 the outcome of some " points" given 

 to them by their clients. When bee- 

 keepers are their clients, they should 

 be able to point to "decisions" or 

 • points of law " in favor of the pur- 

 suit, but unfortunately, until the Union 

 began its work, there were none. 



In the first case defended by the 

 Union, Judge Clementson remarked : 

 "This case involves new points of law, 

 upon which there are no rulings of the 

 Supreme Court. We have no law upon 

 which to insti-uct a jury." That was in 

 the Freeborn case, in Wisconsin, which 

 the Union had defended so vigorously 

 that the complainant lost his grip in 

 the first round, and it was literally 

 kicked out of Court. 



We have now secured several de- 

 cisions, notably the one in the Supreme 



