154 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Jan., 



hive about the 10th of April, and which had not, 

 at that time, more than five ponnds of honey in 

 store, and still less when examined again a few 

 days afterward. All my other colonies were in 

 about the same condition— weak in stores, on 

 account of two bad seasons in succession, which 

 we very seldom have in this country. 

 Hive No. 1 gave me, in box and frame 



honey, 1 52^- pounds ; which at 30 cents 



per pound is $45 75 



One artificial swarm, worth, exclusive of 



hive 11 00 



Swarm yielded 36 pounds box honey, at 30 



cents 10 80 



Whole amount of profit from one hive.. $67 55 



Hive No. 1 contains yetthirtj'--fiv^ (35) pounds 

 of honey, besides the weight of hive, comb and 

 bees, of which I could take ten ponnds, leaving 

 them twenty five pounds to winter on. 



The hive containing the young swarm weighs 

 eighty (80) pounds. Allowing thirty (30) pounds 

 for weight of empty hive, and ten (10) pounds 

 for weight of bees, pollen and combs, tlaere will 

 remain forty (40) pounds net of honey ; so that I 

 might have taken fifteen pounds of their honey 

 and still leit them an ample sujiply to winter on. 

 But after reading H. Alley's report (Vol. VI , 

 No. 5, page 111, Nov., 1870), I thought that if I 

 put it all in my statement, some of our young 

 bee-keepers would perhaps hardly believe it. 



My apiary now contains seventy-four (74) 

 colonies, besides five stocks, made up of nu- 

 cleus hives— five or six put together in a large 

 hive, to winter jointly, and be separated again 

 in the spring, for nuclei, to raise early queens, 

 which are almost always the best. In the spring, 

 when examining- the condition of my colonies, 

 to see whether they need honey, or a comb or 

 two of brood, I cut out all the drone comb out 

 of every hive and insert worker comb in its place. 

 Tluis I get clear of all eaily drones, except in 

 such colonies as I may select to breed from. By 

 doing this, and having some good imported 

 queen to get my brood from, T hardly ever fail 

 to get number one (jueens, of which my apiary 

 is now mostly made up. I must procure another 

 imj^orted queen next spring, to keep up a regu- 

 lar crossing of my stock ; as I do not intend that 

 au}^ apiary shall excel mine in bees, hives or 

 condition of colonies, so far as my experience 

 will go. 



I have been making artificial swarms these 

 thirty-live years, or more, by the shape of hive, 

 before the movable comb frame was introduced. 

 I have Italianized nearly all the colonies in my 

 neighborhood that are in reach of me, so that I 

 think I have just as good a chance to raise pure 

 «j[ueens as any one else. 



There are a great many bees in our county ; 

 but mostly the common black bee. Many bee- 

 keepers took a decided stand against the Italians 

 when I introduced them in this county, calling 

 them a humbug. I guess that, by this time, 

 they would all like very well to be bee-hnin- 

 bugged themselves, since the saw the honey I 

 obtained last summer. 



Alfred Chapman. 



JSfew Cumberland, West Va. Nov. 28, 1870. 



'[For the American Bee Journ;il.] 



Report from a "Wisconsin Apiary. 



Mr. Editor : — I have for some time tliought 

 of "reporting progress," but being only a no- 

 vice in bee- culture, I have hesitated lest, perad- 

 venture, I should treat my bees so "scientifi- 

 cally" that I might wake up some morning and 

 find them " n"?i est,^' and hear the quotation — 

 " Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast 

 himself as he that putteth it off." But the year 

 1870 is drawuig to a close, and if I report at all 

 I must do it soon. 



At the close of last March I removed my eight 

 (8) stocks from the cellar, and placed them on 

 their sunmier stands. On examination I found 

 they all had more or less eggs and brood in their 

 cells. I was, however, much surprised to find 

 that some of my best stocks had very little honey, 

 and, in fact, were on the verge of starvation — 

 not one of the number having any considerable 

 amount. The first thing in order, therefore, was 

 to equalize the honey, and the next to feed them 

 with dissolved sugar. Furthermore, I found 

 one stock so reduced in numbers that I did not 

 think proper to risk the loss of eggs and bi'ood 

 by giving them a card from another stock. I 

 therefore reduced the size of their brood cham- 

 ber, and stimulated their queen by feeding till 

 their numbers warranted the aforesaid introduc- 

 tion. They then did better than could have been 

 expected, till all at om^e their queen was missing. 

 I gave them a card or two of eggs and brood ; in 

 due time they raised a queen, and now they ajj- 

 pear all right. 



I made seven (7) artificial colonies, and had 

 one natural swarm, which came, too, the morn- 

 ing after I had cut out all the queen cells. In 

 this "fix" all I could do was to strengthen the 

 parent stock with eggs and lai'vas, and the young 

 swarm with empty comb. 



My bees stored u]) nine hundred and thirty- 

 two (932) pounds of box honey. On the 1st of 

 October I Aveighed the colonies, and after making 

 allowance for the weight of the empty hive, and 

 subtracting ten pounds (10 lbs.) as the weight 

 of the bees, bee-bread and combs, I found my 

 lightest hive had thirty-one ^31) pounds of honey 

 in it, and my heaviest thirty-nine (30) pounds ; 

 and that the average per hive was 37 lbs. 3 oz. 

 Now, as they commenced the season's operations 

 with just next to nothing at all in their hives, 

 they must have stored up some fifteen hundred 

 (1500) pounds of honey, besides what they ga- 

 thered for their own consumption and use in 

 comb-building, and the nourishment of their 

 brood, so as to double their nunibcr.s — a result 

 with which I feel that I ought to be satisfied. 



The weather continues fine, with the thermom- 

 eter at 60 degrees in the sun. Bees remain on 

 their siunmer stands up to date. D. P. Lane. 



Koshponing, Wis., Dec. 9, 1870. 



The common but ridiculous practise of making 

 a clatter with kettles, tin pans, coal scuttles, 

 &c., when bees are swarming, is utterly u.seless, 

 and is resorted to only by old fogy bee-keepers. 



