THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



139 



given at a time. It could be mixed with 

 ground feed, we cannot say in what propor- 

 tion as we have not tried it. It would thus 

 make very rich and lieaUhy food for cattle 

 and horses. 



Our thanks are due to frieiul Dadant for 

 the light thrown on the grape and bee sub- 

 ject. Fortunately for me it lights up my side 

 only, while it leaves Mr. lliley in the dark ; 

 it will afford him a sort of magic lantern 

 view, where, in order to see the object, one 

 nmst be in the dark. 



Hope the advice given by II. W. S. will be 

 fcfllowed by those who care to know the 

 facts. It is certainly important to know 

 whether bees are guilty or not. And by fruit 

 and bee cultivators taking close observations, 

 we shall know for a certainty, leaving no 

 room for doubt. In some parts of the coun- 

 try bee-haters are crying aloud for laws for- 

 bidding bee keeping ; asserting that they are 

 a nuisance, and that they destroy fruit, and 

 raise the deuce generally. And if bee-keep- 

 ers do not remonstrate they will tinally suc- 

 ceed in making such laws. 



We as bee-keepers should stand by the bees 

 and their keepers, if these charges can be 

 proven to be'false. H. O. Kritschke. 



To Beginners in Apiculture. 



BY PROP. A. J. COOK. 



In the article of last month was given the 

 method of queen rearing. Perchance aye, 

 very like, the beginners first effort will be 

 fruitless. Or instead of four queens he may 

 succeed but partial Ij'. obtaining but one, two, 

 or three. In this case, or even if his first 

 attempt be an entire success, he had better 

 repeat the operation and be siu-e that the first 

 year's experience has made him an adept at 

 queen rearing. Any time that we desire 

 queen cells, we have but to remove a queen 

 from the colony — always from our most 

 esteemed colony — and queen cells will be im- 

 mediately built, and very soon filled. Not 

 only beginners, but every bee-keeper should 

 always have a good number of extra queens 

 during the honey season. The reason for 

 this will appear in the sequel. 



TO IXCKEASE OUR COLONIES. 



It is not in the province of these articles to 

 show that artificial division of colonies is 

 superior, hence preferable to natural swarm- 

 ing. But all experienced bee-keepers know 

 this to be the case. Convenience, as well as 

 the best success, demands that the beginner 

 should practice artitical swarming. The 

 apiarist may make two colonies from one, or 

 what will be better for our beginner, be con- 

 tent with an increase of one colony at a time. 



Take vour rotten-wood and smoke both the 



old colonies very thoroughly, and also one of 

 the nuclei, which has hatched out a queen.— 

 The queen shoiUd have been hatched 7 or 8 

 days, that you nuiy be sure that she has met 

 a drone and been fertilized.— Place after the 

 thorough smoking, the nucleus frames, 

 (lueen, bees and all into a separate hive, then 

 take o or 4 frames, bees and all, from each of 

 the old hives, being very sure not to include 

 the (pieen, as such a mistake would involve 

 the loss of a queen and a check in the oi)era- 

 tions of the old hive, and that too at a season, 

 when inactivity is attended with serious loss. 

 Put these frames in the new hive with 

 the two frames taken from the nucleus. Now 

 fill in all three hives with empty frames. — 

 These may be put between full frames so as 

 to insure straight comb building, or as I pre- 

 fer all at one end, so as not to separate brood, 

 in which case the apiarist must see that the 

 comb is built true to the frame. Now place 

 your nucleus hive say,onefoot to one side, and 

 place your new colony so that the entrance 

 shall be^very near where that of the nucleus 

 was. By moving a few inches each day the 

 hive can soon be placed where desire may 

 dictate. The old bees taken from the old 

 hives will return, while the young ones, the 

 bees from the nucleus, and the rapidly hatch- 

 ing brood will soon make a strong colony. 

 The free use of smoke will prevent fighting 

 which would seldom ensue without it, as the 

 new hive through mixing of bees, together 

 with the great number of young bees, will 

 almost always change anger into surprise. 



Now as the bees grow in strength, the col- 

 onies may gi'ow^ in nvnnber by a repetition of 

 the above process. By thus making new col- 

 onies from several, all the colonies are kept 

 strong as they do not feel the loss of the few 

 bees, few frames, and comparatively small 

 amount of brood. I now have hives (May 9th) 

 with ten frames of brood— frames one foot 

 square. They could easily spare -S or 4 

 frames. The great point in successful bee- 

 keeping is to always keep the colony strong, 

 as this fortifies against nearly all the ills in 

 bee-keeping. Another point equally import- 

 ant already hinted at is to suffer no pause in 

 the labor of the hive during the honey sea- 

 son. See to it that no hive is (pieenless even 

 for a day. 



As the warmth and bloom draw on see to it 

 that your bees have plenty of room. If the 

 queen has no room to deposit eggs from the 

 fact that all the cells in the breeding depart- 

 ment are full of honey, buy an extractor and 

 extract it. If the workers need more room 

 for storing, put on boxes or put some frames 

 in your upper story. If both queen and 

 workers have plenty of room and are shaded 

 from the hot sun. I think the bees wiW 

 never hang idly from the outside of the hive. 



