July 5, 1906 



583 



Reports and 

 experiences 



If Wet Enough, Good Prospects. 



My wife's folks packed 7 colonies of bees 

 last fall with leaves, putting the bees in 

 outside cases, and 4 of the 7 were so light 

 of honey, and the winter being so open, 

 only s were alive in February. They wanted 

 to go out of the bee-business, as they were 

 not able to care for the bees longer, so they 

 made me a present of the 7 colonies, and all 

 the extra supplies at Christmas time. Only 

 3 colonies came through alive till March, and 

 I shipped them 75 miles here, and all 3 ar- 

 rived here all right, but one was so weak 

 that robber-bees robbed them, while I was 

 away from home a few days; and that left 

 me only 2 colonies. 



One of my parishioners at Argyle gave 

 me a swarm of the common black bees, and 

 I transferred them from the old cracker- 

 box they were in into a Langstroth hive, and 

 they are doing well. I have only the 3 

 colonies of my own at present, but have 8 

 empty 8- frame Langstroth hives, and am tak- 

 ing care of Rev. Hoober's apiary of 42 colo- 

 nies, and get half the new swarms. We have 

 not had a new swarm yet, but the bees are 

 working in the supers quite well, and when 

 we do get swarms they will be large ones. I 

 will keep my 3 colonies from swarming. 

 We are working for comb honey altogether. 



The loss of bees last winter was about 25 

 percent in this locality. The raspberry is in 

 full bloom now. white clover is just com- 

 mencing to yield some honey, and the bees 

 have been doing good work the last few 

 days. If it continues wet enough, the pros- 

 pect is good for a fair flow of honey from 

 white clover. J. W. Stine. 



Mr. Pleasant, Iowa, May 30. 



American Hee Journal 



A >out the time \ be bees are preparing to 

 swarm I plao tin super on top of the hive, 

 and then they musl have some inducement to 

 go up, ili< sam< is a fish is induced to bite 

 the hook. So I put in a section of honey, 

 uncapped, which will cause them to go up 

 after it. and in so doing they will commence 

 to move up anil work, and lay aside all no- 

 . of swai mi ■ 



If I notice that this section of honey fails 

 to do the work, then I put in one more, and 

 in times out of 10 it is successful. But 

 snould I fail, and they swarm after the above 

 method lias been tried, then I put the swarm 

 in a super and place the super on top of the 

 mother colony, and they will stay. 



Thia year I intend to allow some of my 

 bees to swarm, as there are not so many bees 

 in this county as last year, on account of 

 last summer's unfavorable honey-season, which 

 was the cause of many losing their bees last 

 winter for want of food. I lost but 1 colony, 

 as I fed them a little this spring. 



My bees are doing very nicely now. I 

 think they will have no trouble to get all the 

 honey they want. 



I think the prospects in this locality are 

 very favorable this year. 



I wish to thank the many contributors of 

 the American Bee Journal for the many valua- 

 ble points they have given in its columns. 



A. G. Erickson. 



Monett, Mo., May 15. 



Non-Swarming Brown or German 



Bees — Transferring Larvae with 



a Medicine Dropper. 



I would like to reply once more to Mr. 

 Henry Alley, and say that I have some pure 

 Brown or German bees that I wouldn't trade 

 for any other race of bees on earth; but 

 they have one very serious fault — they won*t 

 swarm enough to suit me; nor are they good 

 cell-builders; but as I am not a queen-breeder 

 and haven't any queens to sell, I am not seek- 

 ing any free advertising. 



I am one of those fellows who want my 

 bees to swarm once, and that is about the last 

 <>f May, or forepart of June, as I much pre- 

 fer natural queens to any other; but by the 

 way [ have been handling my bees for the 

 last 6 or 8 years I have completely broken 

 them of swarming, and I didn't want to; 

 and the funny part of it is I don't know just 

 what part of the performance has done it, 

 or I would let those into the secret who want 

 things that way. 



Now I am going to give the old queen- 

 breeders a kink that they probably haven't 

 thought of, in the way of handling young 

 larva; and royal jelly. Instead of using a 

 feather or spoon and scraping the larva 

 around in the cell, and killing or crippling 

 many of them, just take a medicine-dropper 

 with the largest hole in it you can find, or 

 break it off back where the hole is large 

 enough to admit a very small larva. Draw 

 up a little royal jelly into it first, then the 

 larva, then more royal jelly and then in- 

 sert it in a cell-cup and eject the whole, 

 and you have the cell-cup all done. 



Linn Co., Oreg. Geo. B. Whitcomb. 



Getting Bees Into Supers and No 

 Swarming. 



I notice on page 401 that Mr. Daven- 

 port's method of controlling swarming of 

 bees will not be given to the public. I be- 

 lieve the public already know as much as is 

 necessary on the subject. 



I have 50 colonies of bees, and in the last 

 3 years I have not had any of them swarm 

 without my will. I have learned my method 

 partly through the valuable American Bee '< .;,- 

 nal, and partly through my own ob-Tvations 

 and experiments. 



Safe Introduction of Queens. 



I will give a plan which, if followed, never 

 fails with me in successfully introducing 

 queens: 



First, when the queen arrives make the col- 

 ony queenless. As soon as the old queen is 

 found, either destroy her or (if you want to 

 use her further) take 2 or 3 frames of brood 

 with adhering bees, put them in a new hive, 

 and on a new stand ; or better still, put 3 

 frames of brood on a new stand, after seeing 

 that the old queen is not there. To make 

 sure of this, you would better hunt her out 

 first, and set the frame on which you find 

 her to one side; then take out the frames 

 as directed, and put the queen back into the 

 hive. 



Find a comb on which young bees are hatch- 

 ing, and when you see bees just emerging, 

 gently catch them by both wings with the 

 thumb and first finger, and put one by one 

 into a new cage containing only the new 

 queen, until you haye put 8 or 10 into it. 

 Then put the cage right in the new hive on 

 a new stand by simply moving 2 of the 3 

 frames apart so that it will just fit in above 

 the combs. Press the frames firmly together, 

 close the hive and let it alone for 10 or 

 12 hours, then pull the cork out of the 

 cage, or if paper is tacked over the end with 

 candy in it, pull it off so the bees can help 

 those in the cage to release her. This is 

 an important point, as the sooner they release 

 her at this time the sooner egg-laying will 

 commence. 



Let the hive alone for 5 or 6 days, and 

 you will never lose a queen, as the bees that 

 have j ust hatched move about the queen in 

 the cage, and impart the scent of the other 

 bees of the hive to the queen, and, of course, 

 they will not harm her. Also, you can, after 

 putting the young bees into the new cage, and 

 if you have removed the old queen as directed 

 and cut out all queen-cells, put the cage in 

 the hive of the old colony. In fact, the best 

 results are obtained by putting the cage in 

 right away, as soon as the old queen is re- 

 moved. Also, if you have a feeder, it is best 

 to fill it and put it in the hive, so that no 

 robbing is induced ; close the hive-entrance 

 so that only a few bees can pass out at a 

 time. 



But to go back to the old hive: After re- 

 moving the 3 frames, put empty ones in their 

 places right away, so as not to retard the 

 work. The best thing to do is to put 1 frame 

 between 2 combs, as it will induce them to 

 build them out at once. Also, by putting 

 empty frames between drawn combs the queen 

 will not lay in one side or the other, as she 

 would in case you put the 3 empty frames in 

 the center of the brood-chamber. 



I am writing this in the hope that it will 

 still be in time t-< save many a good queen 

 which would otherwise be killed. After los- 

 ing many good queens _ I adopted this plan, 

 and have not lost one since. Later on I will 

 *iv« a plan by which 20 colonies can be 

 formed from 2 and still produce a surplui 

 of honey. Julius Happel. 



Evansville, Ind . May 28. 



We WilS Move 



Goods Must Move First ! We will 

 make prices that will move them 

 Quickly. 



All Lewis Goods, and First-Class 



Five l 1 .-story Hives, 8-frame, $6.25. 

 Write for price on SO or more, and for 

 Full List. Other Goods Equally 

 as Low. No more at these prices when 

 these are sold. It will pay to buy for 

 next year. Act Quickly. 



E. T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. 

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BARNES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY 



Read what J. I. Parent, of 

 Charlton, N. Y., says: "We 

 cut with one of your Com- 

 bined Machines, last winter- 

 50 chaff hives with 7-in. cap, 

 100 honey racks, 500 brood, 

 frames, 2,000 honey boxes, and 

 a great deal of other work. 

 This winter we have double 

 the amount of bee-hives, etc., 

 to make, and we expect to do 

 it with this Saw. It will do all 



you say it will." Catalog and price-list free. 

 Address, W. F. & John Barnes, 



995 Ruby St., Rockford, 111. 



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