846 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 7, 1905 



when I hive the first swarm, should I set the hive of the 

 parent colony beside the swarm as soon as the swarm is in 

 the hive, or should I wait until dark ? And when I move 

 the parent colony away, should I do it when bees from both 

 hives are in the field at work, or should I wait until night 

 when all are in their hives ? 



2. Is there an insect that works on honey when taken 

 off? If so, how can it be prevented? 



3. My neig-hbor gave me some colonies of bees that are 

 very light, and have dot enough honey to last them the first 

 part of the winter. I know they should have been fed early, 

 but what is the best way now to feed them through the 

 winter, and what ? or must I lose them ? They have plenty 

 of bees. Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. If, when you set the swarm on the old 

 stand, yon leave the mother colony at some distance until 

 night, you will be likely to get more of the bees with the 

 swarm than if you at once set the old hive beside the 

 swarm; but the thing will be evened up a week later. It 

 • will make more difference which way you do when you make 

 the shift a week later. If you make the change after dark, 

 there will be no change felt till the next day, and then the 

 feeling will come gradually as each fielder leaves the hive 

 and fails to return. If you move away the old hive at a 

 time of day when bees are afield, and especially at a time 

 when the young bees are at play, not only will you get the 

 fielders to leave the old hive and join the swarm, but all the 

 young bees at play as well, making the depletion greater 

 than if you made the change after dark. So it will be a 

 little better to make the shift when the bees are out at play. 



2. I don't think of anything but ants likely to get the 

 honey in this country, and you can shut out the ants or de- 

 stroy them in their nests. 



3. Don't think for a minute of losing those bees for 

 want of food. If you have no combs of sealed honey, make 

 cakes of candy as directed in your bee-book ; or even feed- 

 ing thick sugar syrup in a Doolittle frame-feeder or in a 

 pepper-box feeder would be better than to let them starve. 



Bees and Tobacco Odor 



As I keep about 15 colonies of bees I would like to have 

 your advice. I have built a basement cellar this fall, in 

 which I intend to keep my bees through the winter, and I 

 am also raising tobacco. I would also like to use the same 

 basement in which is the tobacco crop. Do you think that 

 it would hurt the bees any to have the tobacco in the same 

 room through the stripping— about a week's time. There 

 might be some dampness and strong smell from the tobacco. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer, — It isn't a good thing for people to live in the 

 smell of tobacco, but I think the bees would stand it for a 

 week. But there must be some arrangement to keep the 

 bees darkened during that week. 



(£onr>entton 

 Procecbin^s 



Report of the Texas Convention 



J 



BY LOUIS H. SCHOLL, SEC. 



(Continned from page 82S) 

 How TO Produce Extracted Honey. 



A. H. Knolle says there is good sale for extracted 

 honey. Last year the demand was greater than for comb 

 honey. If more was produced more of it would be sold, 

 and it would cut out the cheap-syrup trade more than if 

 comb honey was produced. 



Mr. Robinson is an extracted-hi.mey man. He builds 

 the colonies up in two hive-bodies. He claims that old 

 combs are detrimental to the production of first-class 

 extracted honey, therefore he continually replaces them, 

 jvorking the old combs into the brood-chambers. He runs 

 colonies three stories high during the honey-flow. During 

 the winter he leaves an extra extracting super on the hive. 



Mr. Butts uses full-depth supers for extracting. 



Mr. Bell favors the full-depth over the shallow supers, 

 as he has used both. 



The Production of Section Honey. 

 H. A. Mitchell, who was on the program for this sub- 

 ject, was not present. He is the only extensive section- 

 honey producer in Te.xas at present, and he produces 

 annually much of this kind of honey. It is of the very 

 best qualitj', and mainly from basswood. The honey is 

 produced in 4^x4^^x13/^, narrow, 4 bee-way sections. This 

 gives a thin comb with a large surface. He has won 

 several premiums and a gold medal on his honey. 

 Best .'^nd S.\fest Way of Increase. 

 Mr. Laws said the best time with him to make increase 

 is right after the honey-flow. He manages all his colonies 

 for the honey-flow, and at the time of its close he makes 

 the increase, either right after or while he is making his 

 last extracting. He sees after taking oft the combs of 

 honey from the hives himself, while the boys take it to 

 the extracting house. If he wishes to increase about 25 

 colonies in an apiary of 100, he has that many hives ready 

 on new stands. As he comes to combs in the extracting 

 supers which contain brood, he places them v\ith the ad- 

 hering bees into these prepared hives. Several combs of 

 brood and honey are thus given to each, no attention being 

 paid as to which hive the bees are from. A ripe queen- 

 cell is then given and the nuclei are built up. Nearly 

 every bee-keeper can have an abundance of cells at that 

 time. 



Mr. Atchley stated that it is easy to make increase in 

 his locality, as there are fully 9 months in the year in 

 which the bees are breeding heavily. The question w-ith 

 him has been, which is the safest and cheapest way of in- 

 crease, as he sells many bees. He drives up to an apiary 

 where he has his colonies in 2-story hives, taking with him 

 100 empty single-story hives with covers and bottom- 

 boards. Then he draws one comb of brood and one of 

 honey from each strong colony to make one nucleus. 

 These he places in a hive until he has a load, w-hen they 

 are hauled off to a new location, so that the bees do not 

 return to the old stands and so the bees from the old 

 apiary do not molest them. Here each is given a virgin 

 queen and they are built up with foundation. If there is 

 no honey-flow it is easy to feed them, as there are no 

 other bees to bother these small colonies off by them- 

 selves. They are not near to the apiary to be tantalized 

 by the bees from it. 



Mr. Milam said, as he stated before, that there are no 

 two seasons alike. In an average year in his locality, 

 April 1 is the best time for increase. The best flow comes 

 April 15. He takes the old queen and all the bees on the 

 same comb, gets two other combs of brood and bees, 

 placing them in a hive on a new location. The old hive 

 is given a queen-cell. He has about 15 to 18 combs of 

 brood to a hive. The bees swarmed very much this year 

 at the 1st of April, which made it a good season for 

 increase. By removing the old queen. March 15, and 

 dividing the colony into 1-frame nuclei, adding full combs 

 of brood from time to time to build them up, he is enabled 

 to increase 1,000 per cent in 2 years. 



Mr. Atchley said that Mr. Milam's way of making 

 nuclei is a good one, but a novice may lose from one-third 

 tci one-half of them if practised in the old yard. 



Mr. Bell has studied the subject of increase thoroughly. 

 While Mr. Atchley's way is a good one, it is not the .safest. 

 He bursts a strong colony half in two, simply, dividing it. 

 He dwelt for some length upon the Alexander method of 

 increase, given in the bee-papers some time ago. AH the 

 brood is placed in an upper story above an excluder. The 

 queen is put below on empty combs. In 10 to 11 days 

 there are plenty of cells above, and the brood is in such 

 condition that there is no danger of any loss. The upper 

 story is set on a new stand, and in 2 weeks 2 colonies 

 with a good queen in each is the result. The old queen is 

 thus given a chance to do good work. 



Mr. Atchley thought that his own plan was the best 

 and safest for the novice, as the bees w'ere taken away to 

 themselves, where they could be properly taken care of. 

 Besides, his method does not interfere with the colonies 

 run for honey. He always increases from the strongest 

 colonies with young queens, and never from colonies with 

 old queens. 



Mr. Victor keeps a colony from swarming after the 

 bees have the "fever" by spreading the brood and placing 

 between each comb a frame with foundation. The other 

 brood-combs are placed in another hcidy, arranged in the 



