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evidence, realistic of a guiding and 

 modifying agency ; and, to repeat, the 

 gratifying odors emanating from the 

 nectaries, and the pleasing colors dis- 

 played in the petals of the floral 

 world, are manifestations of an Om- 

 nipotent Director's handi-worli. 

 West Cumberland, Maine. 



LIVELY WORK. 



Bees are Booming, and Apiarists 

 are Kept Busy. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY E. W. COUNCILMAN. 



QUEENS. 



diving Laying Queens to Colo- 

 nies Immediately After 

 Swarming. 



Written for the Americnn Rural Home 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Things have changed here in this 

 section of the country since my letter 

 was written on page 412, in regard to 

 the prospects for a honey crop. Then 

 it was gloomy, cold, sour, rainy 

 weather, bees out of honej-, and only 

 occasionally the sun would shine out 

 just long enough for the poor little 

 things to skip out and got enough to 

 just keep "soul and body" together. 

 In quite a few instances bees actually 

 starved to death. 



But now, how changed ! Bees are 

 just booming ; plenty of sunshine, 

 flowers full of honey, bees swarming 

 so rapidly that one has to hustle to get 

 them hived before another is out, 

 ready for its new home. From 44 col- 

 onies I have already had 30 new 

 swarms, and I do not think that they 

 are half through swarming yet. 



White clover is plentiful, and is 

 yielding abundantly. Basswood seem- 

 ingly was never in better condition. 

 The abundant rains have tilled the 

 gi-ound with watei-, so that the linden 

 will have no excuse for not " giving 

 down" an abundance of nectar this 

 year. 



Bees have stored quite a little sur- 

 plus from white daisies — at least the 

 combs in the sections are yellow, and 

 the honey slightly bitter ; I have seen 

 the bees working on the white daisies, 

 and come in with their little bodies 

 covered with j'ellow pollen dust. Some 

 of my neighbors have already got new 

 honey in the groceries for sale. 



I am cutting out the queen-cells and 

 putting the bees back. Is this the 

 correct way to do ? Is there more 

 money in the surplus than in the new 

 swarms ? 



Newark Valley, N. Y., June 30. 



[That depends entirely upon whether 

 you want " honey " or " bees." If you 

 want to enlarge your apiary, then run 

 for increase ; but if you want honey, 

 then bend all your energies to get the 

 nectar — cut out queen-cells, putting 

 the bees back, etc. — Ed.] 



For years we have been told that no 

 colony should go without a laying- 

 queen a single day, if it were possible 

 to give them one, and plans for intro- 

 ducing queens, which required that the 

 hive should be queenless a few days 

 previous, have been severely critised. 

 We have also been told for years, that 

 the bee-keeper who wished to secure 

 the best i-esults from his bees, should 

 have a laying queen ready to give each 

 old colony as soon as they swarmed, 

 as the time lost to them, by rearing a 

 queen, was equivalent to a swarm of 

 bees. 



Being eager to know for myself, all 

 the plans which would give the best 

 results, I have experimented largelj', 

 and the truth of the statement that the 

 time lost to the bees in rearing a 

 queen in natural swarming, was equiv- 

 alent to a swarm of bees, is the reason 

 it has not proven a success. If it were 

 bees I was after, the case would be 

 diflerent. 



With me, white clover yields only 

 enough honey to keep the bees breed- 

 ing nicel}', and prepai'cs them so that 

 they mainly swarm from June 20 to 

 July 1. Our honey harvest is from 

 basswood, which blossoms from July 

 10 to 16. 



Now. all who are familiar with nat- 

 ural swarming, know that the bees are 

 comparatively few in numbers in the 

 spring, and increase by the rapidly in- 

 creasing brood produced by the queen, 

 which, in due time, hatch the bees, 

 until a swarm is the result. 



By giving a laying-queen to a colon}- 

 immediately after it has cast a swarm, 

 we bring about the same result 

 (swarming) as before, for we place the 

 bees in the same condition. The only 

 difference is, that having plenty of 

 brood, they build up quickei', and are 

 prepared to swarm in a shorter time. 



As this second swarming, brought 

 about by giving the laying queen, 

 comes right in our basswood honey 

 harvest, it cuts off the surplus honey, 

 for it is well known that bees having 

 the swarming fever, do little or no 

 work in the section-boxes, and if al- 

 lowed to swarm, the object we have 

 sought after (section honey) is beyond 

 our reacli. 



Having given the result of my ex- 

 perience on this point, let us look at 

 how the same colony would work, had 

 we not given the bees a laying queen. 

 Eight dajs after the swarm lias is- 



sued, the first young queen will have 

 emerged from her cell, as a rule, when 

 the apiarist should remove all the 

 other queen-cells from the hive, so 

 that second swarming is entii-ely pi"e- 

 vented. 



In ten days more our young queen 

 is ready to lay, which is about the time 

 the basswood begins to yield honey 

 largely ; during this period, between 

 the time the swarm issued and the 

 young queen commences to lay, the 

 bees not having any brood to nurse for 

 the last half of the time, consume but 

 little honey ; hence as fast as the j-oung 

 bees emerge from the cells, they are 

 filled with honey ; for bees, not having 

 a laying queen, seldom build comb in 

 the sections, especially while there is 

 no unsealed brood in the hive. 



Thus, when the young queen is 

 ready to lay, she finds evei-y avail- 

 able cell stored with well-ripened 

 honey. At this point, the instinct of 

 the bees teach them that they must 

 have brood, or they will soon cease to 

 exist as a colony, and a general rush 

 is made for the sections, the hone}- 

 from below is carried above, so as to 

 give the queen room, and, in a week, 

 we have as a result, the sections nearly 

 filled with honey. 



I have often had such colonies fill 

 and complete 30 two-pound sections in 

 from 8 to 12 days, while those to 

 which I had given the laying queen 

 immediately after swarming, did little 

 but swarm during the same time. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



THE UNION. 



Value of the Argument in the 

 Arkadelphia Bee-Lawsuit. 



Written fo'r the American Bee Journal 



BY EUGENE SECOR. 



I am glad that the argument (page 

 406) of the Counsel for the "Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union " in the Arkadelphia bee- 

 lawsuit was published. It will be a 

 valuable contribution to the legal 

 literature of bee-keeping. I do not 

 suppose that any well-informed person 

 thought for a moment that the final 

 termination of the case could be 

 against the right to keep bees. 



If my cows should break out of my 

 pasture and injure my neighbor, no 

 one except a lawyer who was " feed" 

 to argue the case against me, would be 

 so foolish as to maintain that the cows 

 should be abolished ; but I would be 

 liable for damages. So in keeping 

 bees — the owner should be held liable 

 for damages caused by his negligence, 

 carelessness, and perhaps ignorance. 



If I keep my bees so near the street 

 as to annoy teams, or passersby, I 

 could undoubtedly be restricted for the 



