THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



21 



wintered in a bee house above the 

 ground, while at the same time good 

 strong colonies that were left out doors 

 on their summer stands, without any 

 especial care, would often be full of 

 bees and ready to swarm. I do not 

 mean to say that such was generally 

 the case, but there was always more or 

 less in the neighborhood that would 

 winter finely without care, while many 

 so carefully housed would turn out 

 disasterously. A neighbor who had 

 devoted almost all his time to his bees 

 would be obliged, in spite of his well 

 built bee-house, to buy back bees in 

 the spring to keep his others alive. It 

 seems as though the black bees winter 

 better in this locality without any 

 packing than they do with packing. 

 My bees are all pure Italians. 

 Sunny Side, Md. 



What I Have Observed, Etc. 



BY T. K. MASSIE. 



I Continued.) 



If I clip my queens wings I am at 

 no loss when a swarm issues. All I 

 have to do is to catch and cage the 

 queen, remove the old hive to a new 

 location, and set a new one in its place, 

 letting the bees return to the old loca- 

 tion and enter the new hive, and re- 

 leasing the queen so she can run in 

 with the bees. I thus get them swarm- 

 ed and hived at one operation without 

 the aid of the hiving box and pole 

 which are used by some to hive and 

 carry the bees to the hive. The hives 

 can be put in place in less time than 

 is required to get the box and pole out 

 and again return them after using. 

 The hive has to be put in place any 

 way, and therefore I have drawn the 

 conclusion that the money invested in 

 the hiving boxes, and the time and 



labor in using them is all thrown away. 

 When the queen is allowed to fly out 

 with the swarm there is always danger 

 of losing queen, bees and all, by ab- 

 sconding, and then our honey crop is 

 gone , so far as it relates to that colony. 

 But I have decided to no longer mar 

 the beauty of my queens by clipping 

 their wings when I can get Alley's 

 queen and drone traps for a few cents 

 each and accomplish the same good 

 results by their use. The trap costs 

 less than the hiving boxes, can be 

 used with less labor, and, when not in 

 use, can be stored away in much less 

 space. They are also very useful in 

 controling the flight of drones and for 

 trapping and destroying the useless 

 ones, while the boxes can only be used 

 for the single purpose of hiving 

 swarms. And after they are hived if 

 they take a "notion" to depart, as 

 they sometimes do, the hiving boxes 

 are useless, and we lose queen, bees 

 and all, our surplus crop of honey is 

 gone "a glimmering," and we are 

 short in cash from $5.00 to $15 00. 

 With the traps we need never lose a 

 queen or swarm of bees by abscond- 

 ing. And then we stand a chance at 

 least to get a crop of honey. 



The subject of feeders is another 

 matter in which we find a good many 

 nuisances. Hill's is the nearest per- 

 fect of any I have seen. There is no 

 daubing of bees, and no loss of syrup, 

 as the bees can take much or little 

 just as it suits them. And after we 

 have done using them for feeding' 

 they make good cans for berries, pre- 

 serves, extracted honey, etc., thus be- 

 coming useful for more than one pur- 

 pose. 



The notes for these articles were 

 written in March, 1891, and my ex- 



