620 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 31, 1905 



chilled, or wasn't the nursery made right? 

 The nursery was covered on the sides with 

 wire-netting, and a tin cap where the queen- 

 cell and candy were. Would you advise me 

 to try them again? If so, howl 



Indiana. 



Answers.— 1. The usual thing, when two 

 virgins hatch in the same hive, is for one to 

 kill the other, and I hardly see how you can 

 be sure that did not happen in your case. Is 

 it not possible that the colony that swarmed 

 reared a virgin queen itself? Still, it is true 

 that not infrequently young queens enter the 

 wrong hive. 



2. Yes, you should try again ; there is no 

 reason why you should not succeed as well 

 as others. It is possible that the cells were 

 not ripe enough. It is better not to cage cells 

 till they are within a day or so of having the 

 virgins emerge. Your cages were not of the 

 best liind. Being ," „ thick, the bees might not 

 get near enough to the cells, especially as one 

 side was wood. You will do better probably 

 with the common Miller introducing cage that 

 you will find mentioned in all catalogs, or you 

 may like the improved Miller cage described 

 in "Forty Years Among the Bees," page 347. 



Keports anb 

 (Experiences 



Dealing With Laying Workers 



I note that bee-keepers are still troubled to 

 know how to deal with that pest of the hive, 

 the laying worker, uniting with another col- 

 ony having a fertile queen being the only rem- 

 edy I have seen proposed. 



I have a remedy that has always succeeded 

 with me, either to introduce a fertile queen 

 or have the bees rear a queen from brood. It 

 is this : 



Take the hive from its stand and carry it 

 behind the house or some building near by, 

 then after placing an empty hive on its stand 

 to keep the bees from going into other hives, 

 shake or brush every bee off the combs on 

 the ground, setting the combs to one side 

 away from the bees, and after all are off and 

 the hive cleaned, put the combs back in the 

 hive and return it to its old stand. Then put 

 a frame filled with brood and covered with 

 bees into the hive, and the bees will do the 

 rest. Or, if you want to give them a queen 

 do it after a few hours. G. A. Wright. 



Mitchell Co., Iowa. 



to two pounds a day. Week after week in 

 .July they worked on acres of white clover, 

 with a steady loss every day. Last year the 

 same colony stored 250 pounds of honey. But 

 it must be borne in mind that they never 

 lacked for empty comb to store in. 



From about 50 colonies, spring count. I had 

 only 2 swarms this year, but they are swarm- 

 ing some now. It is mostly on account of su- 

 perseded queens, but an old clipped queen 

 came out yesterday. 



There is barely half a crop of honey in this 

 locality, as most bees swarmed in June. 



Linn Co., Mo., Aug. 12. Irving Long. 



Easy Queen Introduction 



A prime swarm came out this year on April 

 28, with 2 queens. I caught one of these 

 queens and let her run into the hive of a 

 queenless colony, without any restrictions, 

 and she was received all right. 



J. B. AtJSMUs. 



Benton Co., Ark., Aug. 16. 



A Satisfactory Bee-Veil 



A very satisfactory bee-veil is made from 

 1}4 yards of black netting, drawn in at the 

 top and bottom, the same as any bee-veil, then 

 dipped in cooked linseed oil. Wash it thor- 

 oughly in this preparation, rubbing it until 

 all the bubbles have disappeared from the 

 meshes, and pull it through a dry cloth. Then 

 hang it up in a warm place to dry. Put a 

 stick through it horizontally when drying, so 

 that it will be spread out. This makes the 

 veil stiff, and the bees do not attempt to sting 

 through it as they do when it is flimsy. It 

 will also last a good deal longer than an ordi- 

 nary bee-veil. Raw linseed oil might answer 

 the purpose as well as the cooked, but we 

 have not tried it. Hayck Bros. 



Kane Co., 111. 



Net Gain of an Average Colony 



The net gain of an average colony brought 

 up to good strength by feeding about a month 

 before the harvest of this year, was as follows ; 



The first gain for the year was May is, 

 which was % pound; this slowly increased 

 until May 31 when the gain for the day was 11 

 pounds; the next day it was 8>.,, and for the 

 following consecutive days, respectively; 12, 

 10, 3, 0, 10, 6K, ly., 4, 2, 9, 10, 9;^, 8, dy,, 10, 

 S}4, 8, 1, 3, 2, 8. Then it droppe'd very rap- 

 idly, and in less than a week there was a loss 

 of from J-4 to one pound, and until Aug. 7 the 

 loss kept up. Now, strange to say, they are 

 storing honey from wild boneset, about one 



Backward Spring Makes Poor 

 Season 



May and June were so wet and cold that 

 the bees were very slow in breeding up, my 

 first swarm issuing July 6, fully one month 

 later than usual. However, since that date 

 we have had a fair flow from white clover and 

 basswood. I think I can count on an average 

 of 30 pounds of comb honey per colony, which 

 will be as much as I got last season. I have 

 now 40 colonies, but have had only 14 swarms 

 this season. Geo. Stout. 



Hennepin Co., Minn., Aug. 14. 



Swarm Clustered for 29 Hours 



I started last spring with 4 colonies. I now 

 have 5, and they are not swarming as much 

 as I think they should. 



One of my neighbors, who is afraid of bees, 

 when coming through his pasture on the af- 

 ternoon of July 4, at about 4 o'clock, saw a 

 swarm of bees clustered on a bush. He 

 wanted to let me know about them, so I could 

 get them, but he was going away in the even- 

 ing and had not time. The next day at 5 

 o'clock p.m., when he went after his cows, 

 there was that cluster yet. In the evening he 

 came to let me know and I hived them that 

 night at 9 o'clock, so we know they actually 

 hung in the cluster 29 hours, besides what- 

 ever time they may have hung before he saw 

 them. I have " Langstroth on the Honey- 

 Bee," and "ABC of Bee Culture," and I 

 could find nothing like this in either. What 

 do you suppose was, or could have been, the 

 cause of their hanging so longi They were 

 good Italian stock. I hived them in a double- 

 super Wisconsin hive, and they are doing fine. 

 Their queen was as floe as any I ever saw. 



Adams Co., Wis., July 8. W. B. Smith. 



[Although such cases do not often occur, a 

 good many have been reported. Sometimes 

 the weather accounts for it, turning rainy 

 after the swarm has settled, thus preventing 

 the bees from taking flight. There have been 

 a few cases in which the bees stayed perma- 

 nently where they clustered. — Editor.] 



of brood. So you see I have 4 fine swarms of 

 bees and 300 pounds of honey, all from one 

 queen. If any one should ask me if I think 

 it pays to get queens my answer would be 

 yes, and, emphatically, j/es. I got some 5- 

 banded golden Italians from Texas which are 

 very nice. I bought them as an experiment, 

 and will report later as to how I like them. 



I had 6 colonies, spring count, and now 

 have 16. I am making them pay for every- 

 thing they get (or everything I get for them,) 

 so I am sure they will not bankrupt me. The 

 neighbors say that I would tame the worst 

 bees on earth and make them gentle. Bees 

 are not as vicious as people think. 



I owe much of my success to the good read- 

 ing matter found in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and advise every one who keeps bees or 

 is thinking of doing so, to subscritie for it. 



Kane Co., 111., Aug. S. E. J. Bryant. 



Record of a Good Queen 



Here is the record of a queen which I got 

 in 1904. On Aug. ir of that year I gave her 

 2 frames with bee-; and brood, and gave 

 frames with foundation as she needed them. 

 When cold weather came on they had 7 frames 

 filled with honey and brood (and lots of 

 brood, I tell you.) This spring the colony 

 was strong. I gave ihem a double hive, and 

 it contained so mm h brood that I divided 

 them, with good results, June 15. July 5 a 

 monster swarm issui^d, and they now have 2 

 bodies and oue super, and if the flow should 

 return I will have to i^'ive them another. July 

 13 another small sw arm issued, with a fine 

 queen, so I put them in an 8-frame hive. 

 They are doing well. 



To-day I looked t ' -ough the parent colony. 

 The young queen h - mated with a obanded 

 golden Italian drone, and she has a fine nest 



Poor Honey Year in Georgia 



I mingle my voice with the other "busted" 

 bee-keepers by saying that this has been a 

 rocky year on bee-keeping in Georgia. 



There was no fall flow last year, and the 

 winter was hard on the bees. There were but 

 few of them in the early spring, and no honey, 

 though plenty of bloom, but bees never noticed 

 it. There was a fine crop of honey from the 

 gallberry in this and other sections. 



We have had a fine fall fiow and bees are in 

 good shape lor winter. I have taken off 40- 

 1-5 pounds of honey per colony, but have had 

 very little increase. J. J. Wilder. 



Crisp Co., Ga., Aug. 14. 



Langstroth on the 

 Honey-Bee 



' 30 ' X f *Xr 



Revised by Dadant— Latest Edition. 



This is one of the standard books on 

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 library of every bee-keeper. It is bound 

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 over 500 pages, being revised by those 

 large, practical bee-keepers, so well- 

 known to all the readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal — Chas. Dadant & Son. 

 Bach subject is clearly and thoroly ex- 

 plained, so that by foUowing the in- 

 structions of this book one cannot fail 

 to be wonderfully helped on the way to 

 success with bees. 



The book we mail for $1.20, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for 

 one year — both for f2.00 ; or, we wUl 

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 THREE NEW subscribers to the Bee 

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This is a splendid chance to get a 

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send $1.20 to 



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