668 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 21, 1905 



on and keep up brood-reariog, and most of 

 them are in fair shape for winter. 



Swarming was not excessive. I increased 

 from 42, spring count, to 6t), but some ol the 

 increase was made ajtiBcially. I had only 

 about 18 natural swarms. 



We are often told that many queens are lost 

 on their wedding Bight, either by being 

 caught by birds or entering the wrong hive 

 on their return. Doubtless it is true; in fact, 

 1 have lost a few by their entering the wrong 

 hive, having found the queens either balled 

 or dead at the entrances of the hives, while a 

 colony near by, having a virgin queen, was 

 minus its queen. But from observation I 

 am inclined to think that as many, or more, 

 queens are lost in other waj s. 



Six or T days after swarming I usually cut 

 off all queen-cells but one, to prevent after- 

 swarms, but this season the weather did not 

 always admit of doing the work soon enough, 

 so one day, after several days of rainy, cool 

 weather, when the work should have been 

 done, I opened the hive of a colony that had 

 cast a swarm 8 or 9 days previously. On the 

 first comb I lifted I saw queen-cells torn 

 down ; on the next I found a cell from which 

 a queen had hatched, and on the same comb 

 a young queen as lively as a cricket, but with 

 the merest rudiments of wings. I promptly 

 killed har, and, fortunately, found cells not 

 yet torn down, from which they soon had a 

 perfect queen. 



On another occasion I saw quite a commo- 

 tion in front of another hive that had pre- 

 viously cast a swarm, and on examination 1 

 found a virgin queen with defective wings, 

 floundering on the ground with a handful of 

 bees with her. She had evidently started on 

 her wedding-trip, and. not being able to fly, 

 fell in front of the hive. In both of these 

 instances, had I not discovered the defective 

 queens when I did, I would later on have had 

 queenless colonies, and probably would have 

 concluded that the queens were caught by 

 birds or had entered wrong hives. 



At another time I cut all cells from the 

 combs of acolony except one veiy fine one, 

 and, later on, when I made an examination 

 as to whether or not they had a laying queen, 

 I found them queenless, and the fine, large 

 cell still on the comb with a dead queen in it 

 Here, again, had the cell not been there to tell 

 the tale, I might have said the queen was lost 

 in mating. 



Taking all these circumstances into consid- 

 eration, I am inclined to think that as many 

 or more, queens are lost from other causes 

 than by being caught by birds or entering 

 wrong hives on their mating flight. 



Many colonies that cast swarms and turned 

 up queenless when too late to remedy the 

 matter, could be saved if beekeepers would 

 make prompt examinations— as soon as youn.' 

 queens ordinarily snould be laying. 



T, .. A. H. Snowberqer. 



Huntington Co., Ind., Sept. 7. 



Common MothepwoFt 



I enclose a plant that has made its appear- 

 ance in this section in small quantities. It 

 began blooming about May 1, and has con- 

 tinued to do so until now. There has not 

 been a single day, unless hard rain, that the 

 Dees have not been on it in great numbers. I 

 am sure it is a great honey-yielder. I have 

 asked many people if they l<new anything of 

 the plant, and have not been able to find any- 

 one who did. U is usually found about old 

 barns, stables, and any old, i^eseiied houses. 



,, , ,, „ ,„ I>. H. SUDDlTH. 



Cabell Co., W. Va., Sept. 5. 



[The plant is the common motherwort— 

 Leonurus Cardiaca— and, as you suspect, is a 

 great honey-plant.-C. L. Walton.] 



Shaken Swarms-Swarms Desert- 



ingr— Home-Made vs. Faetory- 



Made Hives 



On page 501 it speaks of giving brood to 

 shaken swarms. Jn handling such swarms I 

 found it best to put the old queens and Slid 

 of tlie bees in a new hive, with strips of foun- 

 dation for guides in the frames, one frame of 

 brood being given if there was no honey in 1 



the fields, but if honey was plenty in the 

 fields the bees would generally stay without 

 any brood being given. 



On the same page it speaks of swarms de- 

 serting. I use Father Langstrotn's plan : 

 Put the bees into boxes with wire-cloth cov- 

 ers, and set the boxes and bees in the shade 

 for 5 hours or more, until the swarming-fever 

 is over, then put the bees into a cool hive. 



A great deal is said about hives, and for and 

 against the factory-made hive. After having 

 handled hives for 3(1 years, and making my 

 own hives, I wish to say that very few men 

 can make their own hives so that they will be 

 as cheap or as good, or will last so well, as 

 those made by any good, honest manufac- 

 turer—and I do not know of any dishonest 

 ones. I make my own hives, and I think I 

 have the best hives that I have ever seen or 

 heard of — certainly the best for those who 

 wish to keep only 50 colonies of bees or less, 

 and keep them on the same stands summer 

 and winter; the best for ease of handling, 

 and for safety in wintering, but they cost a 

 trifle more than ordinary hives. They are 

 well made, but not as well as some I have seen 

 from the factory. Wii. H. K. Eagerty. 



Republic Co., Kans., .July 31; 



One of the Asters 



What is the name of the flower I send? The 

 bees work on it first-rate here in the fall, and 

 it grows all over in old burnings. It is in 

 full bloom now, and will last till frost comes. 

 Is there much honey in it. or is it pollen the 

 tees are after? V. A. Goodnow. 



Lincoln Co., Wis. 



[The flower is one of the asters, and, along 

 with the other members of the same class, it 

 furnishes a large and excellent supply of nec- 

 tar for the bees.— C. L. Walton.] 



Poor Season— No Honey 



We have had a very bad season. During 

 fruit-bloom it was very wet, then when white 

 clover came it turned very dry, so much so 

 that the clover was dried up entirely. Then 

 we had the corn-tassel, but this hardly kept 

 the bees alive. Now we have the Spanish- 

 needle and a few late flowers. We have had 

 no honey yet. J. K. Botd & Son. 



Boone Co., Mo., Aug. 26. 



Crop Practically a Failure 



Our crop of honey from 650 colonies of bees 

 IS only 4000 pounds. No comb honey from 

 our 3 comb yards. There is a shortage of at 

 least 80,000 pounds of honey in this valley 



Ada Co., Ida., Sept. 9. E. F. Atwater 



Most Excellent Honey Crop 



I have 20 colonies of bees now. I thought 

 to write about the entire honey season, as it is 

 nearly over with us, but I was afraid that if I 

 gave the amount of honey or the number of 

 sections of honey gathered by a single colony, 

 there might be plenty that would doubt it, if 

 it were published. So I'll only say that the 

 honey crop here was excellent— most excel- 

 lent — in every respect. 



Emanuel B. KAnrrniAN. 



Lebanon Co., Pa., Sept. B. 



He Will Be a Bee-Keeper 



My father is a subscriber to the American 

 Bee .lournal, and I enjoy reading it very 

 much. I am 10 years old. 



We have 3 colonies of bees. One of them 

 is in an observation hive. I sit with it open 

 for hours at a time, and watch the bees I 

 enjoy watching them, and when I grow older 

 1 mean to have some myself. 



Linn Co., Mo., Sept. S. Damon MuRPaT. 



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