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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



them all out on the summer stands. I 

 had no trouble in their cominfj out and 

 going into other hives, but they were 

 very light in honey, and before I knew 

 it some had dwindled down so that I 

 doubled up until I only had 20 colonies 

 left, but they were in good condition, 

 and the summer of 1891 I got 1,500 

 pounds of comb honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions, with an increase of 20 swarms. 

 Like a fool, I kept them all over the win- 

 ter until the spring of 1892, and then 

 after I put them out 2 colonies starved 

 before I knew it, and some more of them 

 were so light that I'doubled up so that I 

 had 30 colonies in fair condition. Then 

 I went to feeding, and I had to keep it 

 up until I had fed about 200 pounds of 

 honey and sugar, and it kept them rear- 

 ing brood so that when the honey-flow 

 came I had 30 hives full of bees, and I 

 took off 1,100 pounds of comb honey 

 and 650 pounds of extracted ; and for 

 all my success I give the American Bee 

 JouRNAT, credit. 

 Hammond, Wis. 



^^• 



A Beginner's Interesting; Experi- 

 ence with Bees. 



Written for the Americaji Bee Journal 

 BY WALTER SHIVER. 



Last winter (1891-92) I bought 5 

 colonies of bees in box-hives. The holes 

 for the bees to go in and out of were 

 large enough for cats to crawl through. 

 I made some hives to suit myself, as I 

 have no patent on them. Then came 

 the " tug of war" for one who did not 

 know anything about transferring bees. 



So I subscribed for the American Bee 

 Journal, and also got a bee-veil about 

 April 5, 1892, and on April 15th I put 

 on the veil and started to transfer the 

 bees. I got one of the old box-hives on 

 a table, spreading a quilt on it, and gave 

 the bees a dose of smoke, and com- 

 menced tearing the box-hives to pieces. 

 Such a job you never saw, for it was 

 nailed with 20-penny nails, and five or 

 six center sticks for the bees to build 

 their combs on. I told Mrs. Shiver to 

 look out for the queen, for neither of us 

 had ever seen one. 



There was about a bushel of bees in 

 the hive, and Mrs. S. said : " I don't 

 see any queens, but what a lot of 

 'kings.'" We have learned since then 

 that they were drones ! When I was 

 cutting the comb and putting in the 

 frames, I said, " Now, don't be scared," 

 for she was completely covered with 

 bees, and so was I. She said, " Well, 



your eyes look as large as a tea-cup." I 

 admit that I was scared. Eight or ten 

 bees got under my bee-veil, and I 

 thought that Mrs. S. was right, for my 

 eyes felt as large as tea-cups. 



But the most trouble that I had was 

 to put a bushel of bees into a half-bushel 

 hive. But when I put them back on the 

 stand, they were glad of it, I tell you, 

 and so was I. They had a jubilee over 

 it, they were so glad. They were racing 

 and tumbling and rolling, four and five 

 together, until nearly sundown. I found 

 out that it was bees that had come to 

 see the transferring, and to see if they 

 would like to be transferred next. So I 

 thought I would put a stop to that. I took 

 them to a tight room, and I had no 

 trouble with them. After that I took 

 the windows out, and brushed the bees 

 out of the room. 



The last spring was a very bad one 

 here. No one secured any honey. 

 About Aug. 15th I took out about 10 or 

 15 pounds of good honey. Then I had 

 to go away for two or three weeks, and 

 when I came back I examined the bees 

 and found every hive with surplus 

 honey. I took out a frame, and was 

 about to take out more, when my wife 

 said, " Whoopee, taste it !" and behold it 

 was bitter. What was I to do with it. I 

 had 12 hives with 8 frames in each one. 

 It was not honey-dew — it was stored 

 from what is called the yellow dog-fen- 

 nel here, and the country abounds with 

 it. The surplus chambers were full of 

 it, about 6 pounds to the frame, and 

 eight frames to the chamber. 



My hives are double, and the two are 

 26 inches from top to bottom, and made 

 out of 1^8 -inch lumber. We winter our 

 bees on the summer stands here. 



My neighbors that have had bees for 

 years, say that I have got the prettiest 

 and best hives they ever saw. They are 

 all painted red, white and blue, and 

 they are all numbered ; and because my 

 bees have done nothing for me last year, 

 I am not discouraged. Some of the 

 neighbors think I am a great bee-man, 

 and get me to hive bees for them. I 

 divided two of my colonies, and thus 

 made four out of them, and a neighbor 

 gave me a queenless colony — the queen 

 had been drowned, I suppose, by her 

 owner getting honey out of the top of 

 the old box-hive. 



I bought three Italian queens, and I 

 did not throw them over the house nor 

 against the lightning-rod, nor up in the 

 trees, as Mrs. Atchley once wrote of, 

 but I simply pulled the corks out of the 

 cages and loosened up the honey that 

 had been put in the cage for the queen, 



