754 



American Ttee Journal 



Sept. 6. 1906 



advises well when he advises you to 

 pass judgment on your laggard colo- 

 nies in late spring. If you judge they 

 are not likely to finish up enough sec- 

 tions to amount to much, then give 

 them a chance to store some honey in 

 extracting frames. Page 579. 



Short Life of Some Queens. 



F. !_,. Day comes back with explana- 

 tions of the very short life of his 

 queens which are evidently very much 

 better than mine were. The locality 

 conduces to excessive swarming, it 

 seems. Perfectly true that some locali- 

 ties do that. And I guess we may lay 

 it down as a sort of general rule that 

 when the bees want to swarm and the 

 queen will not lend herself to that idea 

 they show displeasure by worrying her, 

 and are liable to worry her to death. 



They are especially liable to do this if 

 they swarm and find she is not with 

 them, and have to go back on that 

 account. We also know that some- 

 times bees ate not satisfied with one 

 series of swarms in a season, but go 

 through the rouud of prime swarming 

 and afterswarming again. Page 596. 



Releasing Queen Through Comb- 

 Honey Plug. 

 Comrade Scholl gives an experience 

 which is rather new in print, but per- 

 fectly natural and liable to happen 

 every now and then. If you expect 

 bees to release a queen by gnawing 

 through a cut-out plug of comb honey 

 they may take out the honey and repair 

 the comb, and repair it in such a way 

 that the queen is kept in indefinitely. 

 Better we " look a little out." Page 

 596. 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



A Neat Georgia Apiary 



Mr. J. J. Wilder, of Cordele, Ga., has 

 very kindly sent me a photograph of 

 one of the pretty apiaries of that State, 

 with the following regarding it : 



This is only a portion of the apiary of Mr. 

 E. H. Norton, of Berrien Co., Ga He run6 

 for both comb and extracted honey, and has 

 large crops each season. The neatness of this 

 apiary shows that it receives the best of care. 

 The man in the apiary is Mr. Norton, and the 

 boy is his oldest son. 



Mr Norton is one of the coming bee-keep- 

 ers, loves the business, and a promoter of the 

 industry in this section. J. J. Wilder. 



Mr. Wilder also writes that reports 

 have come in from every portion of the 

 Southeast, that the honey crop is the 

 bast in years. This is quite contrary 

 to reports of the West and Southwest. 

 Texas, as a whole, will have a very 

 short crop — only a very few scattered 

 localities being favored with even a 

 light crop of surplus honey. Recent 

 rains may improve conditions for late 

 summer and fall, however. 



8 frame Ideal super, 2 frames to each 

 nucleus The baby-nucleus hives are 

 very handy to haul about, and I use 

 them mostly for out-apiaries. At the 

 home yard I use what I call "flats." 

 They are regular 8 frame Ideal supers 

 with 3 division-boards that fit bee- 

 tight, thus dividing one super into 4 

 nucleus boxes, with entrances at each 

 end and each side. 



I also divide an 8-frame brood-cham- 

 ber into 3 parts, with entrances at each 



balled or refusing to lay. The trouble 

 with them is that the bees, after cut- 

 ting down the deep cells for the queen 

 to lay, will proceed to build an extra 

 comb between. A tack pressed in un- 

 der each section holds the sections ' + 

 inch off the bottom. 



Queens' eggs can be moved without 

 breaking, Stachelhausen and others to 

 the contrary notwithstanding. I some- 

 times use them in grafting queen -cells, 

 and get as good results as with larva?, 

 but as an egg may be 3 days old, or an 

 hour old, it is not best to use them in 

 grafting, on account of the different 

 ages. 



Breaking Up Laying Workers. 



A good and easy way to break up lay- 

 ing workers is to get an old queen and 

 cage her without feed for a few min- 

 utes, and then lift out a comb with the 

 laying workers and let the queen crawl 

 out and on the comb ; no smoke to be 

 used. Set the comb back, and the job 

 is done. Young queens can be intro- 

 duced to queenless colonies the same 

 way, but not to laying-worker colonies. 



Sabinal, Tex. Grant Anderson. 



Bee-Keeping in Alsace and Loralne 



The superintendent of railroads of Alsace 

 and Loraine, Germany, has issued the fol- 

 lowing circular to his employees, which is 

 translated from a Spanish exchange, El 

 Colmenero Espanol : 



"The success obtained in the cultivation of 

 bees has induced us to recommend it warmly 

 to our employees. Although it presents cer- 

 tain difficulties at first, and requires a certain 

 degree of knowledge, yet we are persuaded 

 that, after certain trials and several attempts, 

 our employees will overcome these obstacles. 

 Their efforts will be splendidly rewarded 

 with the crop given by the bees. The instal- 

 lation of an apiary should be directed by an 

 experienced bee-keeper. We would especially 

 advise our employees to become members of 

 the Apicultural Society, whose president and 

 members will illustrate the subject to them, 

 and give them suitable advice. The station- 

 masters, and especially the watchmen, should 



Queen-Rearing Nuclei- 

 Workers 



-Laying 



As I see so much in the bee-papers 

 about nuclei, both large and small, I 

 will tell what I use. Having years of 

 experience along this line, I may be 

 able to save some one the trouble and 

 expense of trying what I have. 



The first nucleus hives that I used 

 are still in use, and I would recommend 

 them as the best baby-nucleus hives. 

 The frames for this nucleus hive are of 

 the proper size to hang crosswise in an 



APIARY OF E. H. NORTON. 



end and one side. Bach division holds 

 2 Langstroth frames. These I do not 

 haul about, as they are bulky and 

 heavy ; but are good to keep queens in 

 all winter. I also use some boxes just 

 big enough to hold two 4% x4% sections, 

 and have no trouble with queens being 



be members of these societies, with power to 

 initiate those in their charge in the science 

 of bee-keeping. 



"The administration will accord a loan to 

 those employees whose pecuniary position will 

 not permit them to make a start in beea. 

 Likewise it will undertake to plant seeds of 

 honey-bearing flowers along the road." 



