THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



223 



diligently (as I did the past sea- 

 son) to find the honey crop minus. 

 Tliis year it averages only about 

 twenty pounds per colony. There- 

 fore, I also am among those who 

 mourn, especially as two poor sea- 

 sons have come in succession. 

 Another "out" is to view with 

 despairing gaze a swarm clustered 

 on the topmost branch of a tall 

 elm or locust. But I find that dif- 

 ficult}' may be obviated by clipped 

 queens, and tlic prevention of 

 afterswarms by cutting out queen- 

 cells. The bees were so delayed 

 in swarming b}' tlie rainy weather, 

 that I was obliged to remove queen 

 cells in five days after the issue of 

 the prime swarm, or else find the 

 hive overrun with 3'^oung queens. 

 If a single cell is skipped you must 

 make up your mind to climb to 

 " supernal heights." The past 

 season, two of the swarms took 

 their "out"-ing in the midst of 

 a heav}' rain. Both were first 

 swarms. There was no need of a 

 " fountain-pump " to secure them. 

 Altogether, we have had a very 

 trying season. I would advise any 

 lady wishing to make a business 

 of beekeeping to spend, at least, 

 one year under the instruction of 

 some practical apiarist. 



Bradford, Vt. 



For the American ApicuUurist. 



DIFFICULTIES OF A 



NOVICE. 



Mrs. H. Ilirxs. 



It is surprising, it is simply 

 amazing, that one should willingly 

 work as liard as I have this sum- 

 mer, for a matter of a couple of 

 thousand pounds more or less of 

 honey ; but there is such a fascina- 

 tion in the work, that one would not 

 give it up, even if not enough for 

 winter stores were secured. 



The great trouble seemed to be 

 in getting comh honey stored, and 

 much of tlie difficulty was doubtless 

 due to the light honey flow. I wish 

 we could have had Mr. Demaree's 

 article in the last Api, touching 

 this point, earlier. Probably if the 

 apiary had been worked for ex- 

 tracted honey, exclusively, a much 

 larger crop miglit have been secured 

 and with far less work. 



Again : such heavy colonies as I 

 took from the cellar last spring 

 frighten me. I cannot control 

 them. The little nucleus, on its 

 three crosswise L. frames, wintered 

 so remarkably well, and also built 

 up, and stored so goodly a quan- 

 tity of extracted honey, that I am 

 strongl}'^ tempted to winter more 

 such. I can get these little nucleus 

 hives in and out of the cellar with- 

 out assistance; and as tliey build 

 up in the spring, the frames can be 

 removed to larger hives. There is 

 very strong temptation to invest in 

 Heddon hives, one-half story of 

 which would hold just the sized 

 colony I should like to handle. 

 But what could be done with the 

 nice, new crosswise L. hives, and 

 the four crosswise chaff-division 

 boards for each, which form such a 

 perfect two-inch lining of chaff, all 

 around the hive, affording such 

 facilities for contraction of brood- 

 chamber, and spring protection? 



What work Mr. Schwartz did 

 make getting my bees out of the 

 cellar last spring. One colon}' of 

 hybrids, which certainly deserves 

 further mention, stung him to a 

 frightful degree. 1 thought he would 

 run and leave me, but we finally 

 finished the job, just at noon, and 

 looking up, found Mephisto grin- 

 ning surcasticall}'-, from the piazza 

 where he stood waiting for his un- 

 cooked dinner. He remembered 

 his own experience of last Thanks- 

 giving da}^ with this same colony, 

 when he, innocentlj^ enough, tried 

 to take away their entrance blocks, 



