88 



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some queens the next summer, if my 

 bees should again winter nicely in the 

 cellar. They were in good condition 

 when I put them in, and in the spring 

 I took out all the lU colonies with (as 

 it seemed to me) very little less honey 

 than they had in the fall. 



I bought anollier colony in a box- 

 hive, and one in a Simplicity hive 

 which had a very nice Italian queen, 

 so that in the spring of 1887 I began 

 with 12 colonies, and put 38 colonies 

 into the cellar in the fall, besides about 

 half a dozen that absconded, and one 

 which I sold. I thought that was pretty 

 good for two years, and although I 

 did not get much honey, I had in- 

 creased my apiary, which I cared more 

 for than honey, and had also given 

 most of my colonies j'oung queens that 

 I reared myself, and brought them up 

 from blacks to hybrids. 



I now thought that I had better be- 

 gin to work for honey, and not quite 

 so mucli for increase, for although I 

 take the American Bee Journal, and, 

 as a general thing, read ever3' word in 

 it, together with other bee-literature, 

 I began to fear that my colonies would 

 increase faster in number if I should 

 let them go on, than I would increase 

 my knowledge of bee-keeping. 



Le Sueur, Minn. 



BEES OUT-DOORS. 



Oood Way to Secure the Sowing 

 of Alsike Clover. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY I. J. GLASS. 



I do not know what kind of a bee- 

 keeper 1 will be called when I say that 

 my bees are still on the summer 

 stands, without any protection what- 

 ever. I have previously wintered my 

 bees in the cellar without loss, as 1 

 have stated in former communications; 

 but owing to my time being completely 

 occupied in other duties, I have some- 

 what neglected mj- bees. 



I cultivate a farm of 200 acres, and 

 teach school during the winter, which 

 keeps me pretty well occupied. I have 

 waited all the while for a "cold snap" 

 before carrying them into the cellar, 

 and whenever it did turn a little cold, 

 by the time Saturdaj' came (the da}- 1 

 have outside of school hours), it would 

 always be moderated, and sometimes 

 the bees were on the wing. So I have 

 kept procrastinating until here it is, 

 near the middle of January, giving us 

 regular spring weather. Although 

 there is plenty of time yet to give us a 

 few blizzards, yet I do not look for 

 much severe cold weather. 



I supposed all the while that I had 

 61 colonies, but upon investigating 

 them I find one hive deserted from 



lack of stores. 1 thought thej' were 

 all abundantly supplied with good 

 honej', but that one had been over- 

 looked ; the remaining sixty are in 

 splendid condition. 



I took 1,000 pounds of surplus from 

 my bees the past season, and retailed 

 the greater part of it at 18 cents per 

 pound in my home market. My bees 

 dirt not store a particle of sui-pliis 

 honey until after the middle of August, 

 when the boom set in. My hired man 

 let several swarms go to the woods, 

 thinking it useless to secure them so 

 late in the season. 



AlsLke lor Kee-I»asturage- 



I induced a neighbor of mine to sow 

 65 acres of Alsike clover, by paying 

 the difl'erence between it and red 

 clover seed. I got big returns the 

 first season, and another neighbor is 

 going to sow a lot the coming spring, 

 under the same conditions. This, with 

 what I have sown, and what I am 

 going to sow next spring, will give me 

 an abundance of bee-pasturage. 



We have had no white clover here 

 for the past two seasons, but the pros- 

 pect is flatteriiig for a big yield 

 another year, and I trust we who have 

 been having poor yields, will be able 

 surprise even ourselves. 



Sharpsburg, Ills., Jan. 14, 1889. 



AFTER-SWARMS. 



The Various Methods of Pre- 

 vcntins them. 



Written for the American Rural Home 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



There are various methods of doing 

 this, such as removing the old colony 

 to a new stand, as soon as the swarm 

 has left it, setting the hive containing 

 the new swarm on the stand it ])re- 

 viousl}' occupied ; cutting oft" all of the 

 queen-cells but one on the fifth or sixth 

 day after swarming, and hiving the 

 after-swarms in a box on top of the old 

 hive till the next morning after they 

 come out, wlien they are to be shook 

 out of the box in front of the old hive, 

 and allowed to run in, so that the 

 young queens will all but one be de- 

 stroyed. Now all of the above plans 

 have their various advocates, who 

 think them superior to anything else, 

 but as the correspondent has asked for 

 the best plan, I must give him the plan 

 which I consider best from my stand- 

 point. 



There are two plans which I have 

 used with good success at all times, 

 and use them in accord with what I 

 wish to do with the old colony of bees. 

 Where I wish to treat swarms the way 

 they are generally treated by hiving 



them on a new stand, I proceed as 

 follows : As soon as the swarm is 

 hived, I go to the old hive from which 

 it came, and mark on it with a lead 

 pencil, Sw'd, 0-22, which tells me at a 

 glance that a swarm came from that 

 hive on June 22, should that be the 

 date on which the swarm issued, and 

 the one which was marked on the hive. 

 If it should be another day the date is 

 dift'erent, but the plan is the same as 

 suited to any day on which the swarm 

 is cast. 



On the evening of the eighth day 

 from the date on the hive, I listen a 

 moment at the side of the old hive, 

 and if swarming has been done " ac- 

 cording to rule," I hear a j-oung queen 

 piping, when I know that a queen has 

 hatched, and an after-swarm will be 

 the result if it is not stopped. If no 

 piping is heard, I do not listen again 

 till the evening of the thirteenth day, 

 for the next rule is, that the colony 

 swarmed ujion an egg or small larva 

 being placed in the queen-cell, which 

 allows the queen to hatch from the 

 12th to the 16th day after swarming. 

 If no piping is heard bj' the evening 

 of the 17th day, no swarm need be 

 expected. 



When it is heard, which it will be in 

 nineteen cases out of twenty, on the 

 eighth daj', I go early the next morn- 

 ing and take eveiy frame out of the 

 hive, shaking the bees off of each (in 

 front of the entrance) as I take them 

 out and return them again, so I shall 

 be sure and not miss a queen-cell, but 

 cut all ofi", for we know that there is a 

 queen hatched, from the piping which 

 we have heard. Once in a great while 

 the bees will take a notion to go with 

 the queen when she goes out to be 

 fertilized, but such a happening is of 

 rare occurrence, and has nothing to do 

 with what is known as after-swarming. 

 The above is a sure plan of accomplish- 

 ing what we desire to, under all cir- 

 cumstances which may arise, while 

 those spoken of at first will work at 

 times, and at othei's not. 



The other plan which I use is 

 equally successful with the above, but 

 is used only where the old hive is car- 

 ried to a new stand while the swarm 

 is in the air, hiving the new swarm on 

 the old stand ; in which case I proceed 

 as follows : As soon as the swarm is 

 seen issuing from anj' hive, I go to the 

 shop where I get a box or hive, which 

 has previously been prepared, having 

 the desired number of frames (I use 

 frames of comb in this case) in it, 

 taking it to the hive from which the 

 swarm came, when the frames of comb 

 are set out of the box near the hive. I 

 now open the hive and take out the 

 frames of brood, putting them in the 

 box. If the combs of brood seem to 

 be well covered with bees, and the 



