THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 



ones near me, I find no difficulty in keep- 

 ing my stock pure. 



Tell your readers a rich new country is 

 open to them ; a cordial welcome awaits 

 them; little cold; small taxes and a genial 

 climate. 



In honey, the coming season, I intend 

 to show that the old North state is as 

 good as California, and its honey better. 



Your April Journal is excellent, and 

 there is an idea in it which I would par- 

 ticularly endorse, and that is to divide 

 late in the season. I use the extractor 

 with frames 173^x11^:^ inches, and keep 

 the bees comb building all the time, and 

 by the time there are fifteen or sixteen 

 frames to a hive, I divide and have ample 

 comb to give both hives, besides having 

 the advantage of doubly strong swarms 

 during the height of the honey season. 

 No trouble to secure straight combs. 



Correspondents will cheerfully be 

 answered if they enclose stamps for answer. 

 I have no axe to grind, nothing to sell ex- 

 cept what surplus queens may be raised, 

 but will be glad to furnish any informa- 

 tion to lovers of bee culture, that mayhaps 

 induce a few to cast in their lot with us. 

 RuFus Morgan. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee Keeping No. 2. 



Ed. Bee Journal: — On April 6th and 

 7th last, I set out 200 stocks of bees upon 

 their summer stands, and found them in 

 extra good condition, some of them 

 having been set out in February, and 

 some in March, and returned again. 

 They were wintered in cellars under 

 dwellings. They had been fed, up to the 

 time they were set out, 1,300 lbs of choice 

 comb honey, mostly small frames, such 

 as I use in supers, by placing super on 

 in its natural position, containing one, 

 two or three frames pure honey. This 

 process insures enough to winter upon, 

 and holds the cluster of bees at the place 

 where they first commenced breeding; 

 after being set out they can get their 

 stores from the outside combs, etc. 



Since my last, I see there has been a very 

 largely attended bee-keepers' convention in 

 the State of New York. I do not wish to 

 be personal in the least, or to discourage 

 the efforts of bee men to promote or ad- 

 vance the science of managing bees, but I 

 must say that I fail to find anything in the 

 report of the proceedings of this conven- 

 tion to advance the science of anything, 

 or in the least beneficial to any one engaged 

 in any kind of business. 



I have been waiting very patiently in 

 hopes that some of your correspondents 

 would discuss these proceedings some- 

 what, but there has nothing of the kind 

 come under my observation. 



First, let us take a look into the question 

 drawer. The questions seem to be weighty 



enough, most of them, but the answers 

 are so very limited and inadequate, and 

 some of them so simple, that it is a mys- 

 tery to me how or why thej-^ ever allowed 

 them to go to press at all. For instance, 

 take question first: 



" What is the best method of controlling 

 swarming fever?" 



Anstcer. — " The free use of the extractor, 

 or by making an artificial colony." 



Why try to control the swarming fever 

 if you want increase ? On the other hand, 

 if you don't want any increase, why make 

 the artificial colony? 



Now, this talk about controlling the 

 swarming propensity of bees is all a hum- 

 bug, from beginning to end ! If the sea- 

 son is propitious, and your bees come out 

 strong and healthy in the spring, they 

 will swarm more or less, and there is no 

 effectual way of preventing it; and when 

 I hear a man talking about a non-swarmer, 

 or a non-swarming attachment, etc., etc., 

 I put him down as a knave or a fool. 



The point for the bee-keeper to decide, 

 at this season, is whether he wants honey 

 or increase. If you want the latter, irre- 

 spective of the former, increase them 

 artificially. If you want the former, irre- 

 spective of the latter, give them all the 

 surplus room that you think they 

 will go to work in, and let them en- 

 tirely alone. If you want both honey 

 and increase, your operations will have to 

 be controlled entirely by the season. " Be 

 ready to act," will be the watchword. 



Question 2d. " Is it an injury to bees to 

 have more forage in the spring than they 

 need for brood raising?" 



Answer. — "Yes." 



This is a very peculiar idea, indeed. If 

 there is such a place on this earth, I would 

 like to be informed where it is. I have 

 been looking for it for the past ten years. 



I will skip the other questions up to the 

 13th. 



Question. — " What is the best method of 

 preventing after swarms? " 



Answer. — "Introduce a young, fertile 

 queen." 



Now, here is truly a display of wisdom. 

 I did not suppose there was a man on 

 earth, at this day and age, but knew 

 better than to talk such nonsense ! I at- 

 tempted this once, my object being, not 

 so much to prevent after swarms, as to 

 Italianize. After searching and destroy- 

 ing every queen cell I could find, inserted 

 one dozen choice queens, thinking this 

 would be enough to commence with. 

 Well, I succeeded in getting two intro- 

 duced out of the twelve; two or three 

 more swarms succeeded in getting their 

 own queens, having a cell concealed. 

 The balance I fixed up by giving pure 

 brood from which to raise queens. I 

 would not have felt so very bad about the 

 operation had I succeeded in saving the 

 other ten queens, but ala^ these little 



