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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



were longer lived than those reared un- 

 der improper conditions. 



When I first started in Wisconsin I 

 could not purchase any bees, but by lots 

 of talk I induced a neighbor that had 5 

 colonies in extra-large box-hives, to let 

 me have them on shares. He had kept 

 them several years, and got neither in- 

 crease nor honey. I moved them home, 

 cut down the hives to a size to suit me, 

 and got both increase and surplus honey. 

 Now those bees had superseded their 

 queens, and rearing new ones in such 

 strong, large colonies, they were extra 

 prolific and grand workers, and I 

 thought the bees were extra-large com- 

 pared to what I was used to in Canada. 



Then I helped to take the bees and 

 honey out of a house built on purpose, 

 about 6x-i feet, and 6 feet high. Here 

 was a very powerful colony. They had 

 been in the house several years, and of 

 course must have superseded their 

 qneen, perhaps several times. They had 

 become so troublesome in the neighbor- 

 hood by robbing neighbor's hives, and 

 pitching into kitchens where the ladies 

 were making preserves, etc., that the 

 owner determined to stop their fun. 

 Those bees were extra large, and I 

 thought then that the queen was the 

 largest by one-half of any queen that 1 

 had ever seen. 



The first season after moving to Iowa 

 I had some horses to stray away, and in 

 looking for them I came across a Mr. 

 Drake, just at night, about 10 miles 

 from home, who had a few colonies of 

 bees ; so, Gallup like, I asked if I could 

 stop over night. Well, in our conversa- 

 tion (of course about bees) he said that 

 he had an old log, and if any one could 

 get the bees out, he would give $5.00 

 for the job. The log was about 6 feet 

 high, and crotched at the top, as it stood 

 in the yard. One prong was sawed off 

 into the hollow, and a board nailed on. 

 The body of the log was at least 2 feet 

 across the hollow, with a shell about 2 

 inches thick. It was a powerful colony. 

 I smoked them, and then drummed out 

 a good, strong colony into a box, but no 

 queen — the queen went up into the 

 closed prong. I went to a movable- 

 comb hive, hunted out the queen, and 

 gave her to the box of bees. 



We then turned down the log, sawed 

 it in two in the middle, turned the top 

 part bottom up, and drummed out 

 another good, strong colony. This time 

 we got the queen, so I hived thpm. This 

 queen was extra-large, but where we 

 sawed off the log we found some six 

 sealed queen-cells — two in the upper 

 half, and four in the lower half, and as 



large ones as I ever saw in my life. I 

 made a milk-weed queen-cage, cut out a 

 slot in one side, inserted a cell, plugged 

 up the top end, placed a small piece of 

 honey in the lower end, plugged that up, 

 and placed it in the hive that we had 

 taken the queen from ; and all this time 

 I was explaining when, why and where- 

 fore to liberate this queen ; when and 

 how to transfer the combs and bees from 

 the two pieces of log after their queens 

 and the most of the brood had hatched, 

 etc. I gave the man a lesson that he 

 remembered as long as he lived, for he 

 had no previous knowledge or experience 

 in the business, and all I charged him 

 was keeping self and six horses over 

 night, and until after dinner the next 

 day. 



Now here was certainly an improve- 

 ment, and the foregoing were all black 

 bees. Mr. Drake informed me that he 

 had grand success in transferring, and 

 all turned out as I informed him it 

 would, and the four colonies that he got 

 from that log at that time were the most 

 prosperous colonies he had, by a long 

 odds. The colony that I gave the queen 

 to was no better than the others, but 

 the one that I gave the large cell to was 

 an extra-good one. 



Well, Mr. Editor, I have so much more 

 to tell on this subject, that this will 

 have to be continued next week. 



Santa Ana, Calif. 



CONVEWTIO]^ DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1894. 

 Jan. 5. — Indiana, at Indianapolis. Ind. 



Geo. P. Wilson, Sec, ToUgate, Ind. 



Jan. 10-12.— Minnesota, at Minneapolis, Minn. 

 A. K. Cooper, Sec, Winona, Minn. 



Jan. 23, 24.— Nebraska State, at York, Nebr. 

 L. D. Stilson, Sec, York, Nebr. 



Jan. 24, 25.— Vermont, at Burling-ton, Vt. 



H. W. Scott, Sec, Bai-re, Vt. 



In order to have this table complete, 

 Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



North American Bee-Keepers' Association 



Pres.— Emerson T. Abbott St. Joseph, Mo. 



Vice-Pkes:— O. L. Hershiser.... Buffalo. N. Y. 

 Secretary— Frank Benton, Washing-ton, D. C. 

 Treasurer— George W. York... Chicago, Ills. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— Hon. R. L. Taylor.. Lapeer, Mich. 

 • Gen'l Manager- T. G. Newman, Chicago, 111. 

 147 South Western Avenue. 



