March IS. 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



233 



the cover, and down the side of the division-board. I he 



entrance of the hive is now regulated so that but one o 

 bees can pas. at a time, and is SO fixed that it comes beyond 

 the division-board, thus shutting off the cool outsidi iir, 

 coming directly upon the bees, as well as enabling the little 



colony to protect itself much better from robber-bees I he 

 stone to tell the condition of this colonj is placed on back 



oi cover, telling that the colony in the hive is weak 



In this way I go over all the colonies in each row ol hues 

 in the apiary, putting each colony in the best possible condi- 

 tion, when they are left undisturbed till the opening oi the 

 fruit-bloom. 



When the fruit-trees bloom. I again go over the bee-yard 

 ,1- before, so we will again commence with colonj X" 1. 

 After opening the hive, the first thing to do is to look fin the 

 queen to see if her wing is clipped. If T find her wing not 

 clipped, the clipping is now done, as it is much easier to find 

 qui i ns for this purpose now than it will he later when the hive 

 is more populous in bees. 



Having clipped the queen, I now observe the brood, and 



if the colony has gotten along as it should, there will be fir 1 



in 7 or 8 combs, the center ones being nearly or quite full, 

 while those on the outside are from half to two-thirds full. 

 I now change this brood right around, that is, I place the out- 

 side frames of brood in the center, and the center frames on 

 the outside. This causes the queen soon to fill those part 

 filled outside combs, completely full of brood, while the combs 

 filled full of brood, next the frames partly filled with honey, 

 near the side walls to the hive, cause her to put eggs in them, 

 or in every cell not occupied with honey, so that in a week or 

 so every available cell is occupied with brood, and this in just 

 the right time to produce the maximum amount of bees in 

 time for the white clover honey harvest. 



By this time the fair colonies may have nearly or quite 

 caught up with the good ones, and if so they are treated the 

 same. If not. the brood-nest is reversed the same as with the 

 good ones, while a frame of honey is brought up on either 

 side of the brood so as to make them feel "rich" in stores. 

 This will cause them to remove this honey, feed the queen 

 more abundantly, and she in turn fill the combs to completion 

 with brood ; and by the time the harvest arrives, such colonies 

 will be not far behind the very best. 



The brood in the weak ones is looked after, and if it is 

 found all in one end of the frames, one or two are changed 

 ends with, so as to cause the frames to be filled with brood, 

 which have any in, and coax the queens to greater egg- 

 laying. Two more frames of honey are put in, one on either 

 side of the brood, which also adds "zest" to this little colony, 

 which will soon be on the road to prosperity, so that all will 

 be as nearly ready for the harvest as possible when it arrives. 



This getting of the bees in the right time for the honey 

 harvest counts more toward cash and fun in the apiary than 

 all else, unless I have made a great mistake during the 38 

 years of my bee-keeping life. Borodino. X. Y. 



Wit. pasty's 

 Ctftertfyougfyts 



j 



The " Old Reliable" as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Formalin and Its Taste on Combs. 



I think little has been said hitherto about honey getting 

 a disagreeable taste from combs previously treated with 

 formalin. If such a capacity to give a bad taste really per- 

 sists for years there is not much use of talking about forma- 

 lin any more. Page 84. 



Rogues in Other Trades Besides Queen-Trade. 



Rogues are not all in the queen-trade. When the Wor- 

 den grape came out it directly transpired that quite a pro- 

 portion of men in that line would fill Worden orders with 

 Concord vines— the great resemblance of the two varieties 

 giving them a chance to deny things. (The Worden, how- 

 ever, is much more juicy, and 5 days earlier — but not so re- 

 liable to bear, and too tender of berry to carry to market.) 

 Well, it seems that with our folks the fact that some Carnio- 

 lans are banded is sufficient excuse for them to send any 

 old striped thing when Carniolans are ordered. The com- 



monness of such offences in this world doesn't make them 

 any the less sad. If it's allowable to say a kindly word 

 even for scoundrels, I would suggest that some of the not- 

 on-time chaps mean to fill the order as directed when they 

 spend your money, but fail of it, and are always so hard up 

 that they can not return money when it's gone once. Their 

 straits almost compel them to use money as soon as it ar- 

 rives. Query : Which is better for these offenders, a little 

 more vehemence of denunciation, or a little more remem- 

 brance of the fact that they, too, are human ? Page 9t. 

 Concave Capping of Comb Honey. 

 I think any kind of bees will put on concave capping 

 (deeply concaved capping) under certain circumstances. 

 Given an expanse of comb in what was recently the brood- 

 nest ; let the cells be nearly full of honey, but not quite ; 

 surplus harvest suddenly over for the year, but about enough 

 for daily food coming in for some time— with things "J this 

 shape I think they seldom empty part of the cells to fall the 

 others. And apparently their preference is to have all 

 honey sealed that's fit to seal in warm weather. In such a 

 finishing-up job they will be pretty sure to use old wax for 

 cappings— and may work so much propolis into it that it 

 looks very queer; and you think you have something very 

 abnormal when all is perfectly regular. Page 98. 



Bee-Keeping and Fruit- Growing. 



It is characteristic of Must-be's that they sting badly 

 if not allowed to have their own way. My counsel would 

 be • Don't try to entertain two Must-be's at once— as, for 

 instance, these boxes of strawberries must be taken to mar- 

 ket, and these swarms in the trees must be hived. J. h,. 

 Johnson, on page 99, almost ignores the above— and he 

 must be our old friend " Yon "—got his speech bejoggled 

 by too much hopping around. 



Yes, indeed, a few thousand pear-trees to make the 

 period of fruit-bloom 5 days longer is a royal help to a bee- 

 locality. Peach orchard fully as good. You can see the 

 honey in a peach-blossom, which you can not do with apple 

 and pear blooms. 



Short-Lived Queens. 



Here's " locality "—or something else that might per- 

 haps yield profit if looked into. A 30-colony apiary has 

 short-lived queens wholly— only 1 in 4 years living through 

 2 seasons, and she was very poor the second season. Why ! 

 Certainly not to be supposed that that is normal, and the 

 current doctrine of queenly longevity a mistake. The local- 

 ity is Minnesota, 170 miles west of Duluth. We have not 

 heard that Manitoba and arctic Sweden have short-lived 

 queens. Expectation would lean the other way. Warm 

 localities with honey all the year (so the queen has no regu- 

 lar rest from rapid laying) have shortlived queens as a rule. 

 As my everlasting guess must come in, I'll guess the solu- 

 tion lies in the strain of bees. Such mad-caps at swarming 

 that they worry all their queens to death, trying to hurry 

 the swarm idea into their heads. F. L. Day. Page 100. 

 Shade and Swarm-Holder— Swarming. 



Dead and dry cedars set in tiles for apiary shade, and 

 also for swarms to cluster on. Thanks to Denis Nolan for 

 an idea nearly or quite a novelty. If there were green trees 

 or bushes at hand swarms would probably choose them ; 

 but if entirely remote from green growth the cedars are 

 likely to be tip-top. It's an unusual situation, but if I had 

 a home apiary, and my home was on a bare prairie, I think 

 I'd try plants in little tubs mounted on posts. What plant 

 would be best ? Cherry or peach, willow or geranium or 

 grape? Needs something healthy, with a powerful hold on 

 life, and good foliage. 



I was going to protest Mr. N.'s saying that too many 

 colonies in one place increased desire to swarm. Was going 

 to call that the exact opposite of the truth— overstocking 

 one's locality a little the most reliable remedy for swarm 

 fever that has been found yet. But on reflection I think he 

 is right sometimes. The enthusiasm of rapid gathering 

 postpones the swarming idea (provided said idea is not 

 already started), and too many bees for the number of 

 flowers might spoil the enthusiasm. 



To explain the opposite dogma, let pollen resources be 

 considerably overdrawn and nurse-bees can not get so 

 vastly out of proportion to field-bees. The tendency of a 

 proper balance between the different classes of workers is 

 to mitigate swarming. Page 101. 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



