Sept. 20, 1906 



sol 



American Ttee Journal 



that they are finding a ready market 

 for it. 



Some Wrong Economy. 



I heard a bee-keeper say last spring 

 that he read one article in his bee- 

 paper on the management of weak 

 colonies in early spring that was well 

 worth $10 to him, and yet this same 

 man had me order his bee-paper dis- 

 continued a little later. I call that 

 poor economy. I am a great lover of 

 bees, to say nothing of the dollar-and- 



cent side of the question, but if I had 

 to keep bees without reading the bee- 

 papers, I believe I would give them up. 



Don't Lose Hope in Poor Seasons. 



Don't give up the bees just because 

 it has been a hard year for them. If 

 you do you are most sure to regret it, 

 for it almost always happens that a 

 good year follows a poor one for bees, 

 and the very next year may prove one 

 of the very best. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue, Tex. 



Conducted by Morlet Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



Moving- Bees to the Buckwheat 

 Fields 



Buckwheat honey has turned out 

 much better than the white honey. 

 Near the end of July, I prepared for 

 moving to buckwheat. The best colo- 

 nies had some combs fit to extract, but 

 instead of extracting them, I piled 

 them on weak colonies to be taken 

 care of and kept free from moths. 

 These combs are for feeding in a 

 couple of weeks now if any feeding is 

 necessary. 



The balance of the honey in the 

 supers which was too thin to extract, I 

 simply left to be filled out and ripened 

 up with buckwheat. I then put an ex- 

 tra super on all extra-strong colonies, 

 making 2 12-frame Langstroths, or 

 about their equivalent, on all strong 

 ones, and one on all medium strong 

 ones. They were then stripped up 

 with lath — 3 on each — one on each side 

 near the front, and one up the middle 

 of the back. The covers were nailed 

 on, and the screen slipped down in the 

 portico and fastened, and they were 

 ready to be loaded on the wagons. Any 

 colonies that were weak I left at home, 

 as there was a little picking for them 

 there, and weak colonies do not store 

 enough surplus to pay for putting 

 much expense on them. 



I always get enough teams to move 

 a whole yard in one night. I get men 

 whom ' know and have confidence in 

 that they will bring good teams and 

 wagons, and will drive carefully. I 

 tell them to bring a hay-rack with 

 enough hay or straw tramped down in 

 the middle and rounded up from the 

 outer edges of the rack to be about 

 level when the load of hives is on. 

 After they have been urged to bring 

 plenty of straw they generally do not 

 have enough, so I get my eye on a 

 near-by straw-stack, and have the men 

 come early enough to get their wagons 

 properly fixed up before the bees will 

 be ready to load. 



The men are also asked to bring a 



lantern, and enough light rope to rope 

 their load. Some of them are sure to 

 forget the lantern, but unless it is an 

 extra-dark night one lantern besides 

 my own is enough. That one lantern 

 we put on the last load, so that the 

 teamster driving ahead can see that he 

 does not leave the last wagon too far 

 behind. 



There will also be a shortage of rope, 

 so I have enough of my own to rope 2 

 or 3 wagons. 



As soon as the bees are practically 

 all home, we slip down the screens 

 which close the porticoes, and fasten 

 them. Then back the wagons by hand 

 down between the rows and start load- 

 ing. There must be no horses on the 

 wagons while loading. It takes 2 men 



to load heavy hives properly, and 4 to 

 hand them up. We make 3 rows down 

 the length of the wagon, frames cross- 

 wise and porticoes turned outward. A 

 16-foot rack will take 8 times 3 12-frame 

 hives comfortably, allowing for thick- 

 ness of lath on the sides of the hives. 



It is all a matter of distance, roads, 

 and weight of hives, whether more are 

 piled on top ; but it is not wise to over- 

 load, especially for a long trip, and 

 more especially when you want to treat 

 your teamsters and their teams accord-, 

 ing to the Golden Rule. 



Two ropes drawn lengthwise of the 

 wagon — one over the top of each out- 

 side row of hives, and tied down tight 

 to the front and back of the rack — will 

 hold the hives nicely. Of course, the 

 load will settle enough in the middle to 

 let the outside hives lean in slightly. 



At the end of the journey the hives 

 are set in rows on the ground, and 

 should be fairly well leveled up, though 

 I do not bother with stands, as the 

 sandy soil where buckwheat is grown 

 dries out readily. 



This year, being busy with other 

 things, and knowing that every colony 

 had as much storage-room as it was 

 likely to fill, I did not see my buck- 

 wheat bees from the time they were 

 moved until I was ready to extract. I 

 then got help, took the extracting out- 

 fit, and went at them. 



At one yard we had a good, large 

 kitchen to extract in. The house- 

 keeper is a bachelor, who lives in free 

 and easy style, and rather enjoyed 

 having us working around. We started 

 when the flow was still on, extracting 

 and taking supers off. This has two 

 advantages — the robber-bees do not 

 bother, and the honey that comes in 

 later is crowded into the brood-cham- 

 ber for winter. 



Later, when storing and breeding 

 are all over, I shall move the bees home 

 again, weigh them, and if any are still 

 light, put in the combs of white honey 

 I have been saving. 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Waxing the Floor 



The good housewife puzzles her 

 brain no little many a time to decide 

 in just what way she shall dress that 

 constantly down-trodden article of her 

 care — the floor. It is matter for con- 

 gratulation that there seems a ten- 

 dency to get back to the simpler and 

 more sanitary way of having part or 

 all of the floor without any covering of 

 wool or other material to foul the air 

 when swept, and among the ways of 

 dressing a floor when not so covered, 



beeswax has for centuries played its 

 part. 



Some of the sisters may desire 

 minute instruction in the matter, and 

 we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. 

 C. G. Chevalier for the following, 

 taken from the Philadelphia Press : 



There are various ways of treating wood 

 floors, but the best way is to wax them. 



Many preparations are sold ready for use. 

 but if one happens to be in a neighborhood 

 where they are not readily procurable — in the 

 wilds of the country, for instance — the follow- 

 ing polish makes a good substitute : 



Cut common white beeswax into thin shav- 



