AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



607 



stage of action in time to help consume 

 what has been gathered by the oldei- 

 ones, and at a time when there is little 

 or nothing to be gathered. Locality, 

 length of honey-flow, and other circum- 

 stances, should guide us in this. 



My way of preventing after-swarms is 

 one that is well known, and I thijik as 

 good as any. Look through the hive 

 and examine each comb carefully after 

 the swarm is cast ; select one of the best 

 cells and leave it, and destroy all others. 

 In about 5 days more look over the 

 combs again and destroy all cells that 

 have been started, leaving of course the 

 one first selected. By the time this 

 queen hatches and commences to lay, 

 the bees will have given up the idea of 

 swarming, unless the colony is too 

 crowded, or the honey-flow continues 

 longer than usual. 



In this way you have a good queen 

 reared by natural swarming, and under 

 normal conditions, that in all probability 

 will be far superior to any queen reared 

 by most of the artificial or unnatural 

 means now employed by bee-keepers. 

 Should this colony from any cause, such 

 as unexpected flow of nectar, cast a 

 swarm later, the swarm will be equal to 

 a prime first swarm, and cannot properly 

 be called an after-swarm. — Fann, Field 

 and Stockman. 



Bluffton, Mo. 



Four anl Five Banled Bees. 



.T. E. POND. 



I see by the Bee Journal that an 

 idea has obtained among some, that 

 " four and five banded bees" are a new 

 product. One man says he bred such in 

 1890. Now, as a matter of fact, such 

 bees have been bred for years. The first 

 I ever knew or heard of were bred in my 

 own apiary in 1869, from a queen I 

 bought when just mated, from Wm. O. 

 Sweet, of Mansfield, Mass., in the Spring 

 of 1869, and sold in the Summer of 

 1870 to Henry Alley, of Wenham, 

 Mass., the " oldest queen-breeder " now 

 alive, I believe. 



The mother of the queen I sold to Mr. 

 Alley was the progeny of an imported 

 queen, and was bought by Mr. Sweet 

 from a Connecticut queen-breeder. 



Since that time the "Albinos" have 

 been boomed to a big extent, but I never 

 saw any so-called " Albinos" that were 

 yellower than those I mention as being 

 bred in my own yard. 



I have no desire to discuss the 



"Albino" question; I simply state a 

 fact coming within my own observation. 

 I will say, however, that those four and 

 five banded bees, and they were a ma- 

 jority of the colony, were nearly as gen- 

 tle as flies, were large and hardy, and 

 possessed as good honey-gathering quali- 

 ties as any bees I ever saw. 



I no not know whether others found 

 " four and five banded bees " earlier 

 than the time I have stated, neither do 

 I write the above as a claim of priority 

 in the matter, but as Mr. Wallace, on 

 page 551, asks "who was the first to 

 produce them ?" I answer as above to 

 give what light I can on the matter. , 



North Attleboi-o. Mass. 



Some Spring-Time Bee-Notes. 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



When we wrote our last notes for 

 April 1, the outlook was rather gloomy 

 for both bees and the clover, as the 

 weather was dry, with hard freezing 

 nights, and thawing days. Since then 

 the prospects have improved greatly, as 

 we have had plenty of rain, and it now 

 turns out that the white clover has not 

 been greatly damaged. All danger 

 from severe freezing is now over, and 

 bee-keepers can once more look forward 

 to an old-time season. 



The bees came out of winter quarters 

 in a very discouraging condition, about 

 one-fifth being dead, and the rest in not 

 a very flourishing condition. The Mill 

 Creek apiary was put out on March 28, 

 fully two weeks earlier than last year, 

 and were found in rather better condi- 

 tion than those at the home place. This 

 we attribute to the fact that they were 

 supplied with a better quality of honey. 



That cave cellar seems to be a better 

 place, too, than the cellar we have under 

 the honey-house, for some reason. One 

 reason of this, we think, is that the Mill 

 Creek cellar is covered over with some 

 18 inches of soil, with a roof on top ef 

 that, thus maintaining a warmer, and 

 more even temperature. The brick 

 walls at the home place, seem to draw a 

 great deal of moisture, and during the 

 Winter a good deal of mold collects. 



Another year we shall run a stove- 

 pipe to the bottom of this cellar, and 

 connect with the chimney above for 

 ventilating purposes. This we think 

 will help matters very much, but of 

 course the great trouble this Winter was 

 the honey-dew for Winter stores. 

 (Continued on page 610). 



