450 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 24, 1906- 



than half full; if not, let the bees fill them again with dark or mixed 

 honey for the next year? I would do this to do away with spring 

 feeding, and still keep brood-rearing on the move. 



2. Can you suggest a better way, or anything further concerning 

 this plan, or do you think it would be better to put the frames of 

 honey on in the fall, before packing for winter? 



3. I want to let my bees swarm naturally this year, hive them on 

 the old stand, and get the bees from the parent colony into the new 

 swarm as fast as they hatch out, so I will have no increase. How is 

 this done? I have heard something about setting the old hive close to 

 the new swarm and turning it in a different direction, but never have 

 had it explained to me. Nor do my bee-books explain it. I would 

 like very much to know the best way to do this, and what to do with 

 young queens or queen-cells, in the parent coIod.v, in the meantime. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— 1. Your plan ought to work well. 



2. It would be less trouble to leave the frames of honey on 

 through the winter, just as they were when the bees closed up their 

 storing, and it is possible it might be better. It would make a sure 

 thing of having abundant winter stores, and save your disturbing the 

 bees in early spring. The only question in the case would be whether 

 there would not be a disadvantage in obliging the bees to keep warm 

 the extra space overhead, but the advantages might easily overbalance 

 that. 



Possibly you may run against a little snag when it comes to keep- 

 ing these frames from the time the early harvest begins till buckwheat 

 comes. Unless special care is given, you may rely on worms doing 

 their work on unprotected combs during the hot season. In a place 

 cool enough there may be little or no trouble, but it isn't always easy 

 to have such a place. You may keep the combs closed so as to be 

 proof against the entrance of the moth ; but that will not save them, 

 for pretty certainly there will be present the seeds of the evil planted 

 there the previous fall. One way to do is to fumigate the combs with 

 sulphur, or, better still, with bisulphide of carbon or formaldehyde, 

 and repeat at intervals of 2 or 3 weeks. There will be no need of 



repetition if, after all the eggs and larvas present are destroyed, the 

 combs are enclosed in some moth-proof place. 



3. The thing you probably have reference to i6 a plan of moving- 

 the hive several times so as to face in different directions, finally mov- 

 ing it away and thus getting all the bees up to a certain age to join the 

 swarm. But this is to prevent a second swarm, and not to prevent in- 

 crease entirely. Latterly the plan is simplified by omitting a number 

 of the movings, and the result seems to be just as good. It is very 

 simple. When a colony swarms put the swarm in place of the old 

 colony, setting the old colony as close as possible beside it, facing the 

 same way. A week later move the old hive to a new location. That's 

 all the bee-keeper has to do, for the bees themselves, if moved in the 

 way mentioned, will destroy all queens or queen-cells but the one. 

 What you 6eem to want, however, is to have no increase, and possibly 

 this variation of the plan might, suit you : 



Set the swarm in place of the parent colony, as already mentioned, 

 and the old colony beside the swarm. At the end of a week set the 

 old colony on top of the swarm (of course, with no communication 

 between them), and two weeks later still, or three weeks from the 

 time the swarm issued, take out the frames of the upper hive aril 

 brush the bees down on the ground in front of the swarm, and then 

 dispose of these combs in any way you like. The bees will dispose of 

 one of the queens to their own liking, and you will have a strong col- 

 ony with no increase. 



I'll tell you another way you can get along without increase, if 

 you care to take the trouble: When the colony swarms, return the 

 swarm and kill or remove the old queen. A week later begin listening 

 each evening to hear the pipingof the young queen. When you hear 

 it, go to the hive the next morning and destroy all queen cells. If it 

 should happen that you have missed any cells, a swarm will issue, in 

 which case you will return the swarm. 



In olden times a plan was used that was effective, although 

 troublesome. It was simply to return the swarm as often as a swarm 

 issued. It sometimes meant returning a good many times. 



Reports anb 

 (fxpertences 



Some Experiences With Bees. 



An article on page 1S7, by C. P. Da- 

 dant, on honey-production, has induced 

 me to give my experience, and in so 

 doing- I do not wish to be understood 

 as advocating any theory or method. 

 It is useless to advocate any particular 

 theory or method of handling bees as 

 being infallible, for different localities 

 and conditions necessitate different 

 methods. 



I am not an apiarist, I am only an 

 old farmer that has kept bees more 

 than 60 years. I have never kept more 

 than 40 colonies, and sometimes much 

 less than 4 0. I have always worked 

 for comb honey, and have never had 

 those large yields that manv bee- 

 keepers report. One of my best vears 

 was $60 from 6 colonies. None of my 

 bees swarmed that year. Another year 

 I had 12 colonies in the spring, in- 

 creased to 27, and obtained 900 pounds 

 of honey. I have not become a million- 

 aire by keeping bees, but have found 

 it profitable and very pleasant labor. 



Many bee-keepers meet with winter 

 losses and spring dwindling, and I am 

 no exception to this loss, and I always 

 save the frames of comb when such 

 losses occur, for future use. For many 

 years I have practiced hiving swarm's 

 in hives full of cornb, and I have never 

 had an instance where the bees filled 

 the cells with honey to the detriment 

 of breeding: but my trouble is in the 

 opposite direction — thev breed too 

 much. "With all prime swarms within 

 3 or 4 days after hiving on full combs. 

 I commence putting on supers with 

 foundation in sections. I always en- 

 deavor to give young swarms plentv 

 of super-room, and yet they will some- 

 times cast a swarm. For instanc. . las 

 season I had a prime swarm issue- 

 June 15. I hived them as described 

 above, and gave them 2 supers, con- 

 taining 28 sections each. In about 2 

 weeks they commenced to work in the 

 supers and filled one super full and 

 the others about 2-3 full, and on Aug. 

 10 they cast a swarm. I was very 

 much surprised, as I was not expect- 

 ing them to swarm. This is only one 

 of several instances of the same kind 

 that I have had in past years. No, I 

 have never had any trouble with young 

 swarms filling old comb with honey 

 instead of brood. 



I have not heard from any of the 



bee-keepers in this vicinity, so I don't 

 know how bees have wintered. I put 

 18 colonies into bee-cellars and they 

 are all right now, but it will be 4 or 6 

 weeks before bees can be placed on the 

 summer stands. W'e have had 3 years 

 that it was too wet and cold for a good 

 and long flow of honey. Last fall was 

 a little better than the two preceding 

 years, and bees were able to feed later 

 and fill up with honey, and they went 

 into winter quarters well supplied with 

 honey and young bees, so they ought 

 to come out strong this spring. 



We have had a large quantity of 

 snow here this winter, but the cold 

 has not been severe, although we had 

 a few days that the temperature went 

 from 24 to 32 degrees below zero. We 

 have just had a young blizzard, but 

 to-day the sun is shining warm and it 

 is 36 degrees above zero. 



S. B. Smith. 



Foreston, Minn., March 5. 



The Bee-Business — Wintering. 



I'm a busy man, to say the least. I 

 attend to 100 colonies of bees, rear a 

 large number of queens, etc., and yet I 

 always find plenty of time to read bee- 

 papers and bee-books. I can say, like 

 Dr. Miller, that I enjoy the work not 

 only for the money there is in it, but 

 for its many interesting points and its 

 educational features that make bee- 

 keeping indeed very pleasant and fas- 

 cinating. 



I have been in the bee-business sev- 

 eral years, and still I know practically 

 very little about it. And as I look into 

 the future I find by experience that it 

 pays to do the work well, and do it on 

 time. Bees have their own peculiar 

 ways of working, and no amount of 

 persuasion on our part will change 

 their habits one iota. We could help 

 them a great deal if we only had the 

 knowledge of what is required in the 

 manipulation, and bees will accept 

 readily what we have to offer if it 

 suits their purpose. Bees have no 

 whims or fancies, as some are in- 

 '■linr-d to believe. They have but one 

 instinct, and that's business. Thus one 

 nf the real pleasures in bee-keeping is 

 the fascination which inspires us with 

 that point in view, relating to that 

 "something" which will increase the 

 facilities of bees for the purpose we 

 have. 



One of the problems I've been trying 

 to solve during the past few years is 

 wintering bees safely. Heretofore my 

 loss has been from 5 to 20 per cent. 

 The past winter not one was lost, and 

 yt I wintered a large number of 2 

 and 3 frame nuclei. By this I under- 

 stand that there are lots of things we 

 ran do if we only knew how to do 



them. To accomplish this we must 

 work and study; no matter if we fail 

 the first time, we must not be discour- 

 aged. "Faint heart never won fair 

 lady," and the keeper will not be suc- 

 cessful unless he acquires the knowl- 

 edge which is essential in his line. 

 Thus I believe that the experience of 

 others is indeed worth while to con- 

 sider very carefully. H. S. Duby. 

 St. Anne, 111. 



Wintered Well — Ready for Work. 



Last winter we had 54 colonies in. 

 the cellar and only 1 was queenless. 

 We had 96 outdoors, which is a loss 

 of only 1 queen'out of 150 colonies. All 

 the rest came out nice and strong, and 

 in fine shape. We did not have to feed 

 any of them, as they all had plenty of 

 honey. Those that were outside were 

 mostly 2% stories high. There was 

 one left outside which had only the 

 winter-case around it, and 1% inches 

 of chaff on top of the cloth, and the 

 bees are as strong as any of the others, 

 but they would not have come out so- 

 nice if it had not been an open win- 

 ter. 



Many of the strongest colonies reared 

 a lot of brood in February when we 

 had a nice spell of spring weather. So 

 some of the colonies have young bees 

 to go to work now. 



The soft maple and May flowers are 

 in bloom now, from which the bees are 

 getting some honey and pollen. The 

 elms, box-elder and blood-roots will be 

 in bloom in a few days, if it stays nice 

 -weather. 



Last year we got about 13,000 pounds 

 of honey, mostly extracted, except 

 about 2,000 pounds of comb honey, 

 which we sold for 12 cents, and the ex- 

 tracted for 5, 7 and 8 cents per pound. 



We sold all of it around home, and 

 could have sold more if we had had it. 

 If we have a good honey season this 

 year, we will get a good deal more 

 honey, as our bees are in far better 

 shape this spring than last. We get 

 most of our honey from white clover 

 and basswood. Fred Banker. 



Sleepy Eye, Minn., April 16. 



Lots of Timber for Sections, Frames, 

 Etc. 



Some time ago I noticed something 

 written about the scarcity of suitable 

 timber with which to make sections, 

 frames, etc., which I suppose meant 

 linden or basswood and white pine, but 

 principally the former, out of which, 

 I suppose, most if not all sections are 

 made. I would make this suggestion: 



In this part of the South, not over 

 10 miles from Natchez, Miss., across the 

 Mississippi River in the State of Louis- 



