132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Successful Wintering. 



I commenced the summer of 1874, with 

 19 swarms and run them to 83, and took 

 1,000 lbs. extracted and 400 lbs. of comb 

 honey. I sold all but 59 — 14 of which 

 were nucleus. I tried all ways of winter- 

 ing to find which was the best. I winter- 

 ed some in the celler under my kitchen; 

 gome in a tight clothes press in my 

 chamber; some in an out doors cellar, 

 and some in a snow bank. I found those 

 wintered in the chamber, dry and in as 

 good condition as when put in. Those in 

 the cellar under my kitchen some what 

 damp and mouldy, and some signs of 

 dysentery, which I stopped by feeding 

 pure white clover honey, in my cellar as 

 they stood before I set them out. 



Those in the out door cellar came out 

 next best, and those in the snow bank in 

 very poor condition. I lost one nucleus 

 and one queen, but as I had extra queens 

 I saved the swarm. The rest are all 

 strong and in fine order. They will av- 

 erage from 20 to 25 lbs of honey to the 

 hive. I am feeding rye flour, and I find 

 they are storing it in their combs. I never 

 saw it done before. 



Mrs. D. M. Hall. 



Lima Center, Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Brood Raising and Artificial Swarm- 

 ing^ 



As the season is fast approaching when 

 those of us who would have a favorable 

 yield of honey or an increase of stocks 

 should handle our bees with these objects 

 in view. I have thought that a few notes 

 on the above subjeclsmight prove accept- 

 able. 



My best success in brood raising I at- 

 tribute mainly to two facts. After re- 

 ducing the number of combs in the hive, 

 so as to leave only those wliich the bees 

 can cover. I protect them with a woolen 

 quilt, laying it over the top of the frames 

 and also spreading it down over the out- 

 side combs to the bottom of the hive, and 

 to further confine the heat of the bees 

 I make a box frame (the exact size of the 

 top of the hive) of half inch boards, three 

 inches wide, then tack heavy muslin, or 

 better still, woolen carpet on the lower 

 edge of this frame, we have then a box 

 three inches deep, this is to be filled with 

 wheat bran or wheat chatY and used in- 

 stead of a honey-board, the stock is now 

 much better prepared for brood raising 

 than if the hive was either filled with 

 honey or empty combs. The culony be- 



ing now in proper condition to hasten the 

 increase of brood, to promote this desired 

 object the best inducement I have found 

 is to open the sealed cells of the honey 

 remaining in the hive. I find that this i» 

 a greater incentive to btood-raising than 

 feeding either honey or sugar syrup above 

 the frames, (this to a certain extent evap- 

 orates a portion of the heat of the hive) 

 further and still more beneficial stimula- 

 tive feeding may be done by opening the 

 sealed honey in a frame and placing it in 

 the vacant space outside the quilt but un- 

 der the box frame. This mode of feed- 

 ing appears to have much the same eflect 

 upon the bees and ciucen that gathering 

 honey from natural sources produces. 

 The next important step is to furnish our 

 stocks with honey as fast as the bees in- 

 crease sufficiently to cover them, continue 

 to do this regularly until we have returned 

 all the combs which were taken from 

 them early in the spring, and now after 

 all these have been filled, we are ready 

 either for surplus boxes, empty combs 

 for the extractor, or for making artificial 

 swarm*. 



But before we proceed to the important 

 step of increasing our stocks, we should 

 see that our nuclei for raising queens are 

 in proper condition. To make an artifi- 

 cial increase we select two of our strong- 

 est stocks, from one of which we take all 

 the brood combs except two, being care- 

 ful to have eggs as well as brood and af- 

 ter brushing all the bees back into the old 

 hive we place these brood combs at one 

 side of the new hive covering the whole 

 with a quilt similar to that used for brood 

 raising, then carry the new hive to the 

 stand of another strong stock, remove 

 this stock to another location and place 

 the new swarm on the stand formerly oc- 

 cupied by the strong colony. This should 

 be done about mid day or when most of 

 the honey gatherers are in full flight. It 

 will now be observed that we have the 

 brood or young bees from the second 

 stock. If we so desire it, this will con- 

 clude our labor of nudving our new col- 

 ony, as, if care has been taken to furnish 

 them with eggs as well as brood, they will 

 soon provide themselves with a c^ueen, 

 but as this will retard our young stock in 

 its labors and cTf n place it in a less favor- 

 able condition than a natural swarm, we- 

 shall see if by a little proper eflbrt we can- 

 not place it at least twenty days in ad- 

 vance of its present condition and thus- 

 have it in full strength for the honey har- 

 vest, and just here we will observe the 

 benefit of our nuclei before spoken of. 

 On the next day after making our swarm 

 (we say next day because the queen or 

 queen cells will be better received) we go 



