THE SMERIC;^r« BEE JOURISafc. 



679 



in honey and building comb very fast, 

 and the river swamps are full of 

 bloom, and will be yet for more tlian 

 a month) ; so that bees will have all 

 they will need for their short winter, 

 from about Nov. 15 to Jan. 15, when 

 the maples, blackberries, and many 

 other wild Howers along the river be- 

 gin to bloom. 



Then the bee-keeper here, that ex- 

 pects to get a full crop of orange-blos- 

 som honey, must wake up his bees, 

 and have them breeding as soon as 

 possible, for the orange begins to open 

 the last of February ; so that the bees 

 that come from the North, will have 

 March, April and May here, or un- 

 til they were needed for the clover- 

 fields of the North ; and then the old 

 queen, if living, could be returned 

 North with one, two or more pounds 

 of bees, as desired, in the cases that 

 they were sent down, so that there 

 would be no expense for cages, as they 

 could be used a number of times, with 

 proper care ; and the Florida man 

 would have left a hive full of brood 

 and eggs that would soon rear for 

 them a queen, and be ready for the 

 palmetto honey through the rest of 

 May, all of June, and often part of 

 July, from the cabbage palmetto. 



I can see no reason why such a mov- 

 ing of bees could not be made profit- 

 able to both parties — the honey that 

 the North-end man would save, would 

 far more than pay the charges both 

 ways, for I see no reason whj- a colony 

 of bees (say two pounds and tlieir feed 

 and cage) should weigh over 5 pounds, 

 and a ease of ten would weigh 50 

 pounds, which, at $6.00 per 100 pounds, 

 it would not cost over 30 cents per 

 colony each way ; but, to be certain, 

 say 50 cents each way, making iJl.OO 

 for the round trip ; and $1.00 each to 

 the South-end man, for the care of 

 putting them into hives, and for put- 

 ting into the cages for return ship- 

 ment. The extra honey obtained from 

 the bees and the colon}' left of young 

 brood and eggs, would pay for the 

 honey-care if in the hands of a practi- 

 cal man. 



I have no doubt but what some may 

 think that there are many drawbacks 

 to a practical demonstration of this 

 theme, or .scheme, and I think so my- 

 self, and will continue to do so until I 

 know of a practical test being made ; 

 but I feel confident that with a practi- 

 cal man at each end of thi^ Hue, that 

 there is certainly a fair showing to 

 make a success of it. I am corres- 

 ponding with i)arties in the North, 

 with whom I would like to make a 

 practical test of a few colonies, for I 

 have not the hives and combs neces- 

 sary for only a few, but enough for a 

 test case ; and if it was practical, I 

 would prepare to take care of a eon 



siderable number another season, and 

 connect with it (|ueen-rearing, from 

 such queens as might be desired to 

 have reared and returned to the owner 

 of the bees, for the summer campaign 

 in the clover-flelds of the North. 

 Altoona, Fla. 



REARING QUEENS. 



Colonie§ Rearing tlieir Own 

 Queens after Stvarniins. 



Written for the American Bee Jounuil 

 BY BVKON HAMS. 



Mr. Doolittle is correct when he says 

 (page 599) that it pays to let colonies 

 rear their own queens after swarming. 

 I would add that if the swarm issues 

 at the beginning, or in the midst of a 

 good honey-flow, and the swarm is a 

 large one, it is a good plan, if we want 

 honey, to place the swarm on the old 

 stancl, and remove the parent colony 

 to a new location ; then give the new 

 swarm all the surplus combs on the old 

 colonj-. or a full set of combs, if you 

 have them. 



In two or three days, or as soon as 

 the bees get to business, I remove the 

 queen and give a cell as nearly ready 

 to hatch as possible. This colony, not 

 having much brood to care for, will 

 surprise the " natives" with the amount 

 of honej- that they will store. 



After the honey-flow is over, and the 

 young queen gets to work, we can 

 soon build them up into strong colonies 

 for the next flow, or for winter. 



As to the parent colony, fill its sur- 

 plus room with foundation as soon as 

 it needs it. To keep down increase 

 and secure a large yield of honey, the 

 above plan cannot be excelled. 



I place the new swarm on half- 

 sheets of foundation ; this insures 

 straight combs, and gives the bees a 

 chance to use their accumulated wax- 

 scales, which would be wasted with 

 full sheets of foundation. 



I work for extracted honej-, and I 

 cannot say how the above plan would 

 work for comb honey. 



On page 619, Frank Coverdale " hits 

 the nail squarely on the head," in rear- 

 ing perfect queens. I have reared the 

 finest queens this season by that varia- 

 tion from the Doolittle method. I 

 select a good, strong colony to start 

 the cells, give to it a few frames of 

 hatching brood, and " crowd them " 

 until they have to swarm. I then give 

 a few embryo queen-cups, placed where 

 the queen will find them (I always 

 keep a lot on hand which I carefully 

 save). As soon as I find eggs in the 

 cups or cells, I am ready to remove the 

 queen, and just as I find the proper 

 amount of royal j(dly placed in the 



cells, I remove them, and lift out the 

 larvw and fix them up, a la Doolittle. 



Some Kxcellent Resiiitt). 



The white clover honey crop was 

 splendid here this season, lasting 

 about nine weeks. Our fall crop was 

 a failure, and as we usually get our 

 largest yield from this source, we can 

 consider our crop about three-fifths of 

 a yield. My bees are in fine condition 

 for winter, very strong in numbers, 

 and with 30 to 40 pounds of the best 

 honey for each colony, and when they 

 are prepared according to Mr. Muth's 

 plan of wintering (see pages 601 and 

 629), they are bound to go through 

 safe and sound. 



Now as to my report : Although it 

 is not as good as I expected, I am well 

 satisfied with the results as they are. 

 I commenced the season with 23 good 

 colonies, increased them to 62, by 

 natural swarming, sold 2 swarms for 

 $5.00, and one 3-frame nucleus for 

 $3.00 ; 4,882 pounds of extracted honey 

 at 8 cents per pound— $390.56 ; 144 

 pounds of comb honey at 15 cents — 

 $21.60 ; and 45 pounds of beeswax at 

 20 cents — $9.00 ; making a total of 

 $429.16. 



I have 37 extra-good colonies of 

 bees, not counted in the above, which 

 1 value at $6.00 each. I owe a good 

 share of my success to the ever-wel- 

 come old American Bee Jocrnal. 



Worcester, Mo., Sept. 30, 1889. 



IN COUNCIL. 



Tlic Bee.Kecpcrs of the North- 

 ^vest meet in Chicago. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The Northwestern Bee-Keepers' So- 

 ciety held its convention at the Com- 

 mercial Hotel, Chicago, Ills., on Fridav 

 and Saturday, Oct. ll and 12. 1889, a"t 

 9 a.m., with President C. C. Miller, M. 

 D., in the chair. 



That a Society Icses by not holding 

 regular meetings is shown by the 

 diminished attendance as compared 

 with former years. It will require a 

 year or two to again awaken interest 

 and bring together the brethren tliat 

 have been practically disbanded. We 

 have no fears, however, but that the 

 Northwestern will regain its former 

 numbers, and eventually become the 

 best convention there is. It holds its 

 meetings in the railroad centre of the 

 great honey-producing West, and at 

 the season of the year when reduced 

 fares are easily secured. That a con- 

 vention cannot be a success without 

 low railroad fares, is shown by the fact 

 that but few bee-keepers were present 



