20 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



clap-trap that should disgust any bee- 

 keeper. 



The above troubles with the standard 

 hives in use are in no way remedied by 

 the queen excluder, and so it has been 

 condemned, and the writer, more than 

 three years since, saw the folly of us- 

 ing a queen excluder on a large brood- 

 chamber ill producing comb honey and 

 advised against its use on such hives. 

 The very troubles that the queen exclu- 

 der is capable of preventing on a prop- 

 erly adapted brood-chamber are not 

 overcome on the large brood-chamber 

 by any means, and so we are to have 

 another year in which thousands of hives 

 with large brood-chambers equipped for 

 producing comb honey without queen 

 excluders, are to be sent out over the 

 country to further disparage the cause 

 >of profitable apiculture. 



Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



[ To be co7itinued.] 



JNew Philadelphia^ Ohio. 



IMPROVEMENT IN MANIPULATION. 



I have been of the opinion for years 

 past that not enough attention has been 

 ■given to new and improved methods of 

 manipulating bees in order to make the 

 most out of them in the way of profit. 

 Good bee-hives and good fixtures in 

 general are sure to receive proper at- 

 tention because the bent of mind has so 

 long been heading in that direction, but 

 the tide is now turning and we are go- 

 ing to have better manipulation than 

 rever practised in the past. In an article 

 like this I can only touch some points 

 .of so broad a subject as this. 



When Mr. Doolittle describes his 

 •"ways" of managing bees he describes 

 "set ways," and when Dr. Miller de- 

 :scribes *'A year among his bees," he 

 <lescribes "set ways," and nearly all oth- 

 -er writers do much the same thing. If 

 it is managing of swarms their plan is a 

 "set plan," the thing is done in a "set 

 way." Now I wish to call attention to 

 the fact that it is impossible to practise 

 any stereotyped plan in the management 



of swarms unless you are assured that 

 every colony that casts a swarm is in 

 prtcisely the same condition How of- 

 ten this is not the case, perhaps few 

 have noticed. If you will examine the 

 brood nest of every colony that casts a 

 swarm you will find some of them full of 

 brood, hatching with great rapidity, 

 while others will be found full of brood 

 with very few bees hatching out To 

 obtain the best results each swarm and 

 its parent colony must be treated, in 

 view of the condition the parent colo- 

 ny was in when the swarm issued. If 

 when a colony casts a swarm there are 

 but few young bees hatching, the swarm 

 will be deficient in young bees and 

 therefore too short lived to work the har- 

 vest with profit, and the parent colony 

 will be too long getting ready for har- 

 vest work to be of much force. When 

 this state of things intervenes I keep the 

 swarm and parent colony together by 

 removing all the combs containing 

 brood to an upper story above the queen 

 excluder, and hiving the swarm in the 

 prepared brood nest below the queen 

 excluder. By this management the 

 swarming desire is satisliedand my bees 

 are all together. I am aware that to 

 produce comb-honey in this way is con- 

 trary to the "'set ways," but it is a part 

 of my mission to explode the " set 

 ways." I produce comb honey in this 

 way largely and profitably. By putting 

 the section cages on inunediaiely, the 

 work goes on in the section cases with- 

 out any delay on account of the new 

 brood-nest below the excluder. 



When settling the point of size of 

 hive to accommodate the bees, there 

 can be no "fixed rule" in so great a 

 country as this. In my locality the 

 white clover harvest lasts from six to 

 nine weeks, and swarming and reaping 

 the harvest goes on at the same time 

 and our bees must have room. I am free 

 to admit, however, that the plan I have 

 given above is peculiarly adapted to 

 taking honey with the extractor. 



G. W. Demaree. 

 Christiansburg, Ky. 



