THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



335 



" I have had two swarms, nice large ones, 

 from my bees, at this late date, Aug. 3. 

 "What shall I do with them ? Of course 

 there is no prosjject of their filling their 

 hives. Please advise me through the Jour- 

 iv'AL ?" Beginneu. 



It is probable that your swarms will fill 

 their hives and prepare for winter, if they 

 are large ones as you say, though it all 

 depends on your fall honey resources and 

 the season. In the West, there are many 

 localities where the best pasturage of the 

 year, for bees, comes .after the first of Au- 

 gust. We, in our early days of bee-keeping 

 have had swarms the latter part of August, 

 and one year, we remember as late as the 

 loth of September that filled empty hives 

 with both comb and honey, and wintered 

 well. 



In this, as in every other particular con- 

 nected with bee-keeping, you must consult 

 your own locality and also decide whether 

 bees are more of an object to you than sur- 

 plus honey. If you want an increase of 

 stock, even if an early frost comes and 

 your swarms do not fill their hives, you 

 can strengthen from other colonies or feed 

 so as to make them safe for winter. 



If you do not care for more stocks, and 

 prefer the honey, such swarms may be 

 easily united with another colony, by fol- 

 lowing directions often given in this Jour- 

 nal. 



Dear Editor :— My bee enterprise has 

 been truly an uphill business. Last year 

 was so rainy that no honey could be gath- 

 ered. Consequently I had to feed my bees 

 through the summer, fall, and winter. 

 About the middle of February last, the 

 swamp maple and the peach were in full 

 bloom, and I flattered myself that there 

 was a good time coming. But March set 

 in with cold and rainy weather, which has 

 continued so within ten days of the present 

 time ; hence slow progress has been made. 

 About the 20tli ult. the weather culminated 

 in a four days storm of rain, wind, and 

 lightning, Avhich produced such a flood in 

 this state as we have no record of since the 

 days of Koah. The damage done to rail- 

 roads, bridges, and farms, is incalculable. 



I have this spring discovered a fact that 



I have not seen mentioned in the books. It 

 is this : that if a few days of cold or wot 

 follow after forming a nucleus, and giving 

 them brood, could they fail to raise a 

 queen ? Tlie reason I suppose to be, that 

 tlicy cannot gather tlie proper food for her 

 embryo majesty until the larva? is too old 

 for the change. During the past unsettled 

 weather, I have had to supply a nucleus 

 with brood comb three several times be- 

 fore they succeeded in raising a queen. 

 Since the weather has been fair they suc- 

 ceeded in every instance with the first comb 

 given them. 



Query. Will it do to take comb frames 

 with adhering bees, from dift'erent hives 

 and put them together to form a new stock, 

 or would a frame with the adhering bees 

 be put safely into another hive to strength- 

 en it? J. Applewhite. 



You can take frames with adhering bees 

 from different hives, i^ putting all into a 

 strange hive, and it is safe. Reason, bees 

 are all away from home — all discontented 

 and nothing to quarrel about — but if you 

 take a frame from one hive and put it into 

 another hive, even one containing a weak 

 colony, and every adhering bee will be 

 killed, unless you first seriously alarm and 

 disturb the bees with which they are put. 

 The best way to strengthen a weak colony 

 from another, is to put in a comb of sealed 

 brood, nearly ready to hatch. 



Dear Editor : — We have had a very 

 good season for honey so far. I don't say 

 this particularly to praise the season, but I 

 notice the majority of the writers to the 

 Journal complain of a poor season every 

 year. The spring was very backward, 

 cold and rainy ; we did not fairly get to 

 breeding bees till June ; most stocks, how- 

 ever, came through the spring well in this 

 section, although many were reduced to a 

 mere handful. Since the honey harvest 

 opened, it has been all the apiarian could 

 desire : bees have swarmed immoderately, 

 black bees in box hives have swarmed 3 or 

 4 times each. We have had some trouble 

 to keep down the swarming propensity in 

 our apiary, but we have had but one that 

 has made the second attempt. We have 

 taken oft' 40 lbs. each of box honey, from 

 several stocks. Our best stocks have put 

 upwards of 100 lbs. each in boxes at this 

 date ; and have basswood now just open- 

 ing. We would like to know if other box 

 honey producers have the same dilflculty 

 iu getting the very gentle, light colored, 

 pure Italians to work in boxes. Our hy- 

 breds will put 100 lbs. in boxes while the 

 pure pets are putting in 40 lbs. The pure 

 ones are prolific, they keep their hives full 



