The queen may not come out until half 

 the swarm has. Place the hive as you 

 wish it to stand (that is, the empty one), 

 turn the catcher over, dip out a tew and 

 put them down by the hive, drum on 

 Dive a little and as soon as they give the 

 call or begin to go in take the catcher 

 by the handles and give it a quick jerk 

 in front, so that they will fall in front, 

 and they will gather in. The ones that 

 get the start before you place it over 

 will return to the catcher and be as anx- 

 ious to get in as the ones inside are to 

 get out. The material for one will not 

 exceed 50c. Xowitdoes seem as though 

 this is enough ; make an experiment 

 and report in the Bee Journal. 

 Osakis, Minn. 



From the Planters' Journal. 



How to Italianize Black Bees. 



rev. j. w. m'niel. 



Whenever any one desires to Italian- 

 ize an apiary it is necessary to start 

 right. The important matter first is to 

 be certain to procure a pure Italian 

 queen. Let what are called dollar 

 queens alone, they are, at best, poor 

 property according to my experience. 

 Deal directly with a responsible party, 

 and purchase a pure tested queen. 

 When obtained and introduced into a 

 hive, of which I will hereafter give my 

 plan, then the work of raising queens 

 from her maysoon be commenced. The 

 fiame hive of some make is necessary 

 in this work. Of whatever kind used, 

 be certain to have all the frames of the 

 same size ; this will obviate a great 

 deal of trouble and loss of time, not 

 only in the work of raising queens, hut 

 also in the general management of bees. 

 After all the eggs of the black queen in 

 the hive into which the Italian queen 

 lias been introduced, have hatched and 

 been capped in their cells, then the work 

 of raising queens maybe commenced, 

 provided the Italian queen has beenlay- 

 mg. This being sure, my plan is to re- 

 move a hive from its stand, placing an 

 empty one in its stead, and in this place 

 a frame of comb, with eggs in it from 

 the Italian queen, then return to the 

 hive, having been removed from its old 

 stand, and blow a strong draft of smoke 

 into it ; many of the bees will return 

 to their old stand, and those, together 

 with others out foraging, will enter this, 

 making a nucleus— if not strong, still 

 continue to agitate the bees of there- 

 moved hive until the nucleus is a good 

 sized colony. 



This nucleus will in a few days com- 

 mence queen cells, making from3to 15. 

 These must be closely watched, ami 



from the day the first is capped allow 

 only 6 or 7 days to pass before all the 

 queen cells except one are carefully cut 

 out, and place one in each of the queen- 

 less nuclei. These nuclei may have 

 been previously prepared by destroy- 

 ing a queen and dividing up the 

 hive. Be certain that the nuclei have 

 neither queens or queen cells. In 

 these introduce the queen cells into the 

 combs in about the same position as 

 those made by the bees. These queen 

 cells will soon hatch, and after the 

 queens are fertilized they can be intro- 

 duced into hives of the common bee. 



It may be well to remark that the 

 safest plan I have tried is to cage the 

 young queens, destroy the black queens 

 into whose hives it is desired to intro- 

 duce the young queens. Suspend the 

 cages about the center of the hive, hav- 

 ing placed a small piece of comb in the 

 bottom with honey in the cells, upon 

 which the queens can feed themselves. 

 After the cages remain there about 48 

 hours, take them out and cork them 

 with a small piece of thin honey comb, 

 and suspend" them again in the hives. 

 The bees of the hives will uncage the 

 queens by removing the comb from the 

 mouth of the cages. After suspending 

 the cages thus, the second time, do not 

 disturb the hives in less than 3 or 4 days ; 

 after which the hives may be opened, 

 and, if the queens are alive, they can 

 soon be found among the black bees, for 

 the reason the Italian queens are of a 

 bright golden color. By the above plan, 

 any one may in a short time displace all 

 their black queens and place in their 

 stead the Italian. 



For tlio American Bee Journal. 



Systematic Apiculture. 



SILAS M. LOCKE. 



This subject may be an old one ; but 

 it is of vast importance. When we con- 

 sider that the bulk of our honey is 

 gathered in about six weeks, we must 

 at once realize the necessity of system. 



System is a secret of success ; and the 

 more fully we comprehend it as such, 

 and encourage its practice, the greater 

 will be our success. This applies not 

 only to apiculture but to all other kinds 

 of business. 



Show us a man who is prompt and 

 systematic (other things being equal) 

 and I will show you one Avho is gener- 

 ally successful. The result of my in- 

 vestigation is that in no department of 

 business is there so great a lack of sys- 

 tem as in apiculture. Many bee-keep- 

 ers fail to comprehend the full value of 



