126 



THE AMERICAN BEE- JOURNAL. 



[Dec, 



cellar ; it won't do. Once built a bee house, but 

 soon became satisfied that they are far from ful- 

 filling the requirements of bees. Have tried all 

 kind of hives, but found none that seemed to 

 furnish all the necessary conditions with which 

 bees must be surrounded to gather most honey, 

 and also to preserve them through the winter. 

 He then exhibited a hive which he had invented 

 and used, and known as the Beebe hive. 



The question was then taken up, "Is a young 

 queen suitable to raise queens from ? Will her 

 daughters be hardy and prolific ? - 



Mr. Beebe being called on, said that he had 

 raised such queens that were " hearty and pro- 

 lific." 



Cook — I agree with Mr. Beebe. I can conceive 

 of no reason why they should not be so. 



Wood — Has such a queen (Italian) ; has raised 

 four swarms this year from her — good ones. 



WhitdHcer — I think such queens as good, or 

 better, than others. 



Mr. Cook explained his method of artificial 

 swarming. His hives consist of two square 

 hives, one above the other. He drives the queen 

 to the upper hive with smoke, and then removes 

 the hive containing her to another stand, and 

 allows the lower hive to raise them a queen from 

 the brood cells already furnished. The advan- 

 tage claimed by thus dividing the swarms, instead 

 of allowing them to "swarm " naturally, is that 

 you loose none by running away. I have 80 

 swarms ; with their swarming, one would have 

 his hands full. 



Beebe — From 5th to 10th of June, when clover 

 is best for honey, I take three cards from centre 

 of hive ; put new hive on old stand. The work- 

 ers that are about will come back to old stand. 

 In sixteen days the swarm will have a new queen. 

 To give an old stock a queen, cut out a queen 

 cell with a square inch of comb, and place it in 

 the comb of the swarm you wish to give a queen. 

 In answer to questions, he added that an egg 

 laid in a drone cell would never produce a queen 

 or a worker — that drones were male bees ; queens 

 were the perfect female bees, and workers were 

 undeveloped females. One impregnation of a 

 queen lasts for a lifetime, proved by a pure 

 Italian being sent off, will produce Italians during 

 her lifetime. The average life of a queen is 

 three to four years, workers about ninety days. 

 Their wings often wear out. Have often seen 

 holes in their wings. 



The question of "feeding bees" next called 

 up. 



Cook — If bees have not honey enough, should 

 be fed at once. Let them have time to cap over 

 the cells. Take coffee sugar, add water, melt 

 and skim. Sometimes add finely ground slippery 

 elm ; also glycerine oil to prevent crystalliza- 

 tion. Swarms eat twenty pounds of honey in a 

 winter. 



Beebe — Never feed in winter — makes bees un- 

 easy — but a little in spring. I give you my rule 

 for preparing bee feed : Best A coffee sugar, 10 

 pounds ; water 5 pounds ; boil five to ten min- 

 utes, skim. In fall must be a little thicker than 

 spring. 



Mr. Beebe, in answer to questions, said that it 



costs bees as much labor to gather 1 pound of 

 comb as 20 pounds of honey. He thought good, 

 clean, white comb worth $5 per pound. Keep it 

 till next year. If you have swarms to feed, do 

 it now. In movable comb hives, I can take 

 from the rich swarms and give to the poor ones 

 easily. I think a natural swarm will make more 

 honey than an artificial one. I have another 

 way to make a swarm^ftove a hive in middle of 

 day : Put a hive in its place. In it confine a 

 queen twenty-four hours ; the workers will come 

 in and form a new swarm. 



Munf/er — Last spring I noticed among my bees 

 a swarm of mixed Italians. This season they 

 have put out three new swarms. There are no 

 Italians kept nearer than Casadaga, that I know 

 of, which is about four miles from my house in 

 a straight line. Do they ever mix so far as 

 that? 



Beebe — Bees can mix a distance of about three 

 miles. They each go about three miles. The 

 meeting of the queens and drones takes place 

 in the air, and if they do not have their liberty, 

 will not mate. The queen will continue to pr« 

 duce half-bred Italians as long as she lives. 

 My Italians have sometimes been seen four miles 

 from home. 



Cook — I have known them to mix a distance 

 of four to five miles in Ellington. 



Upon the subject, "What is the best plan for 

 introducing queens?" O. E. Thayer remarked 

 that he had taken the black queen away twenty- 

 six hours, then with honey from this hive cov- 

 ered the Italian queen, and dropped her in. A 

 safe way, however, he said, was to place her in 

 a cage made of wire gauze 1-16 inch meshes, 

 and leave her in the hive till they get acquainted ; 

 they are surer to accept her. 



Beebe gave his plan of doubling up swarms. 

 Sprinkle both swarms with sweetened water, 

 with a little peppermint essence added, and put 

 them together. They will not fight, but will 

 become one swarm. In his experience in ship- 

 ping honey, he had found the crop from Chau- 

 tauqua as good as any that goes to market 

 from any locality. Bees in this county derive 

 their honey principally from basswood, white 

 clover, red raspberry blows, yellow rod, or yellow 

 weed and corn. 



Oliver Waterman, Stockton — Last fall I had 

 twenty-four swarms lost, fifteen with dysentery 

 — eight new ones, twenty on hand — have 60 

 pounds surplus honey — swarms all in good con- 

 dition but two, must feed them. Always feed a 

 little in spring. Winter on summer stands. I 

 had three acres of sowed corn this year, my bees 

 worked on it a great deal in August and first of 

 September. 



Motion was carried to re-instal the officers of 

 last year for another term. 



Next semi-annual meeting to be held in Fre- 

 donia, 3d Tuesday in April next. 



Next annual meeting to be held at time and 

 place of next Chautauqua county fair, on the 

 second day of fair. 



Mr. Beebe will prepare two series of questions 

 for discussion, to be published in the Adver- 

 tiser and Union for next meeting. 



