828 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 30 1905 



below the average in character, aod encour- 

 age their presence in a few of jour very best 

 honey-gathering colonies. In that way you 

 will be doing something to improve the char- 

 acter of your stock. 



2. When the prime swarm issues, hive'^t 

 and set the hive on the stand of the mother 

 colony, setting the mother colony close beside 

 it, both facing the same way. A week later, 

 move the old colony to a new place some dis- 

 tance away — 10 feet or more. That is all you 

 need do; the bees will do the rest. For the 

 field-bees from the mother colony will all join 

 the swarro, leaving the old colony so discour- 

 aged that all thought of swarming will gener- 

 ally be abandoned. 



3. About once in 10 days; but remember 

 that cutting out cells will not make sure work 

 of preventing swarming. It will generally 

 only postpone it. 



4. One; there is no advantage in two; and 

 the disadvantage that the bees must keep 

 warm empty space unnecessarily. 



5. Find out by actual inspection; lift out 

 the frames and see how much honey is pres- 

 ent; then give them quite a bit more than you 

 think they need. After they begin flying in 

 spring, 5 pounds of honey may carry them 

 through to the harvest, but if you give them 

 10 it will not be wasted. 



6. Put on queen-traps as soon as you think 

 there is any danger of swarming; in your 

 part of Wisconsin it will probably be about 

 as soon as white clover begins to bloom. 



// 



(£xtractcb" 



Why Some Bee-Keepers Succeed and 

 Some Do Not 



I am asked every now and then why so 

 many people go out of the bee-business every 

 year. In the first place, I do not admio the 

 implied condition of affairs as stated in the 

 question. They say to me that the bee-busi- 

 ness can not be a very profitable one or it 

 must have a great many more unusal draw- 

 backs than most other kinds of business. I 

 do not believe the number of those who drop 

 out of the bee-business is any greater in pro- 

 portion than in many other lines of trade in 

 the mercantile world. It must be remembered 

 that hundreds of people become interested in 

 honey-producing and queen-breeding each 

 year, and they represent all classes and char- 

 acters of humanity, from the school-boy to 

 the aged invalid. Many of them have made 

 failures in numerous callings of life, hence 

 they are attracted to the bee-bus!ness and 

 think it a very easy one; and the result is, 

 another failure to be recorded in the chapter 

 of misfortune. Those who go into the bee- 

 business with this idea seldom succeed, be- 

 cause they are woefully ignorant in regard 

 to the elements necessary to success, and are 

 not willing to give the work the attention 

 and money which it ofttimes needs. 



Looking at the bee-business from the view 

 of dollars and cents, it should be borne in 

 mind that capital and experience are neces- 

 sary for success unless one is willing to start 

 in a small way and is satisfied to wait till the 

 business can be established on a paying basis, 

 which can not be done in Qne season. 1 know 

 of no other vocation in which those interested 

 expect as great returns in so short a time, 

 and with so little outlay, as with the honey- 

 bee. They seem to look on it as an easy, get- 

 rich-quick proposition — that the bees board 

 themselves and work for nothing, and they 

 are to take in the proceeds thereof; then if 

 their expectation is not fulfilled they are quite 

 apt to condemn the business because this class 

 of people have failed at it. On the other hand , 

 investigation shows that the man and not 

 the bees are at fault. Many who become inter- 

 ested as queen-breeders, either as a fad or for 

 profit, do so Willi a very faint idea of what is 

 required to reach the point at which they are 

 aiming. The greatest stumbling-block istheir 

 lack of knowledge of the principles of queen- 

 breeding. 



This need not be the case, because we can 



all learn ; but the trouble with many lies in 

 their unwillingness to learn. I know people 

 who take the bee-journals but never read them. 

 I also know others who keep bees and will 

 not take a bee-journal. They either ridicule 

 the idea of any special study being required, 

 or they are too tired mentally to become suffi- 

 ciently interested. History repeats itself 

 again, and another man goes out of the bee- 

 business. The fact of the matter is, the bee- 

 business is a full-Hedged one, worthy of the 

 talent and time of our best men and women, 

 both of whom must have a certain degree of 

 intelligence and business judgment, and, un- 

 fortunately, there are many people who get 

 into the bee-business who do not fit this des- 

 cription ; and, in short, the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity asked what made them go out. If 

 every one who goes into the bee-business were 

 successful it would be utterly impossible for 

 the business to have reached its present mag- 

 nitude. Make up your mind what your cir- 

 cumstances will permit you to do, and live up 

 to your determination at any cost, i'our will- 

 power depends upon it. 



Thousands of little bee-plants and a few big 

 ones sprang up with the green of last spring; 

 and thousands of little bee-plants and a few 

 big ones will go down with the same green, 

 under the frost and ice this winter. Whether 

 your little enterprise will hardly survive the 

 gray, cold winter, and be ready and eager to 

 flourish again in the spring, or be steeped in 

 destitution, and be set down as a failure, re- 

 mains entirely with you. Why not obey con- 

 science and tell the truth? The old adage, 

 "There is no royal road to success," applies 

 to the bee-business just as well as to the other 

 vocations in life. .— C. E. Woodwabd, in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



A System of Comb-Honey Production 



To the veterans there may be nothing new 

 in what I am about to tell, but the beginner 

 may get some hints. The system that I am 

 about to describe is one that I followed for 

 years, hence it will be practice instead of 

 theory that will be given. 



When the yield comes on from white clover 

 the brood-nests become crowded, and the bees 

 begin to whiten the upper edges of their 

 combs with new wax, I put on the supers 

 with bait-sections saved over from the previ- 

 ous year. As soon as the first super is from 

 }'2 to -:; full, I raise it and put under it an- 

 other super with sections full of foundation. 

 When the super last added is about half com- 

 pleted, I raise both supers and put another 

 next the hive. Usually, by the time the third 

 super is half full, the top one is finished, or 

 suffleiently so to be taken off. I would re- 

 move it even if one or two sections in each 

 corner were not quite complete. These partly 

 finished sections I would put into a super un- 

 til I had one full, when I would give it back 

 to the bees. 



This method of tiering-up is continued un- 

 til the end of the season. As the season draws 

 to a close, I am careful about giving too much 

 super-room. If I feel that a colony ought to 

 have more room, I put another super on top. 

 The bees will go on and complete the sections 

 next the hive, just about the same as though 

 the super had not been added on top, and, if 

 the flow does continue, it will overflow into 

 this upper super. 



When a colony swarms it is hived in a con- 

 tracted brood-nest on the old stand, and the 

 supers transferred from the old hive to the 

 new. Only 5 Langstrolh frames are used in 

 the brood-nest, or only one section of the 

 Heddon hive, and starters only are used in the 

 frames, a queen-excluder keeping the queen 

 out of the sections. If such severe contrac- 

 tion causes 6warmine:-out, I give a full-sized 

 brood-nest for 8 or 4 days until the swarming- 

 fever has worn of, when the contraction is 

 put in force. The old colony is placed by the 

 side of the swarm for a week and then moved 

 to a new location. Usually this prevents 

 after-swarms, and helps to boom the colony 

 where the sections are. It the swarm comes 

 off early in the season, it is possible that the 

 old colony will store some surplus, otherwise 

 it becomes a most excellent colony for winter- 

 ing, having abundance of good stores, and a 

 young, vigorous queen. 



At the end of the season I unite the colo- 



nies that have been contracted. In this way, 

 we get one colony of increase from two colo- 

 nies, and all of the white honey in the supers 

 where it can be sold at the highest price. — 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view. 



Keports anb 

 (Sxpcrtences 



Honey Crop a Failure 



The honey crop is a total failure here this 

 year. Some bee-keepers had to feed sugar to 

 keep their bees alive. From 1500 colonies I 

 did not have 1000 pounds of surplus honey. 

 It was the very worst season I have expe- 

 rienced in the 15 years of my bee-keeping. 

 Bert W. Hopper. 



Rocky Ford, Colo., Nov. 14. 



Amount of Winter Stores 



I note what Mr. C. P. Dadant says, on page 

 759, about 5 to 10 pounds of honey to winter 

 a colony, I would be pleased to winter mine 

 on 10 pounds, but perhaps he means barely to 

 survive the winter. Still, I think it insuffi- 

 cient ; at any rate, in any part of New Eng- 

 land. Of course, if we have a very light col- 

 ony it might be all right, but with an ordi- 

 nary sized one I would not dare to risk it. I 

 have always wintered my bees in the cellar, 

 so I speak from that. 



I want at least 20 pounds, and then I find 

 that, when spring comes, before they can 

 gather anything there is very little left, and 

 sometimes I have to feed. Our winters, I sup- 

 pose, are more severe than Mr. Dadant's, and 

 that may account for it, but that will knock 

 some of our theories in the head where the 

 bees consume 200 or 300 pounds per colony in 

 a year. 



In putting my bees in the cellar last fall, I 

 had 6 light colonies that I placed on top of 

 the rest, where I could watch them, and I do 

 not think any one of them had over 10 pounds. 

 About the middle of February I placed a 

 pound section of honey on each, and two of 

 them worked up to it immediately, which 

 showed they were about out ; the others came 

 later. With the first two I gave three more 

 sections, and when I set them out the last of 

 March it was nearly gone, and I found no 

 honey in the hive below. 



My cellar is under the house, and the bees 

 in a room partitioned off purposely, and al- 

 ways warm, as there is a furnace near by. 



Let me have at least 20 pounds of good win- 

 ter stores for mine; it is none too much in 

 this " locality " where bees are in the cellar 

 from 4 to 5 months; and if they should have 

 a little left, it will all be needed before fruit- 

 bloom arrives. I always think it is safer to err 

 on the right side than to be always wonder- 

 ing if the bees have enough to get through 

 with, or how many I am going to lose for 

 want of stores. A. W. Yates. 



Hartford, Conn., Nov. ". 



A Variety of Wormwood 



I enclose a sprig of a plant which grows all 

 over the mountains in this section. It is in 

 bloom during May, June, and into July. This 

 sample was taken to-day (No». 4), and it was 

 in bloom. Bees work on it when in bloom. 

 What is it! Is it a good honey-producing 

 plant? W. A. Price. 



Railroad Flat, Calif. 



[The plant you send is a variety of the 

 wormwood, I think, but I am not able to tell 

 the species, or whether it is a good honey- 

 plant. As bees generally work where they 

 can get honey, it is safe to say that this is all 

 right; but possibly a little strong, owing to 

 the pungent odor of the plant. — C. L. 

 Walton.] 



