THE AMERIGAN BEE JOURNAL. 



185 



Mr. L. L. Buttler. of the Los Augeles 

 apiary, joined the Associsitiou. • 



The meeting then adjourned, to meet at 

 Leek's Hall, in Los Angeles, at 1 o'clock 

 on the third Saturday in June. 



W. MuTH Rasmussen, Secretary. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 How to Propagate and Increase. 



How TO Propagate Bees and Increase 

 Colonies Without Materially Injur- 

 ing the Original, Swarm. 

 I have constructed, and am using, a com- 

 bination of sections, made of a skeleton 

 frame filled with straw, bulrushes or flag 

 leaves, to absorb the moisture that accu- 

 mulates from the breath, and allow the 

 heat to pass from one section to another. 

 These sections are to be placed upon a 

 shelf, side by side, in a bee-house made 

 suitable for their protection, and to remain 

 both summer and winter; an extended en- 

 trance of about 10 to 15 inches leading to 

 each section, each painted with adifl"erent 

 color for the purpose of directing young 

 queens to their respective locations, when 

 they return from their bridal tour. The 

 house may be made to contain from four 

 to fifty sections, or colonies, proportioned 

 to the number desired to be kept. If one 

 colony is put into the house, it should be 

 enclosed in the inside of the house, so the 

 animal heat can be retained until sufiicient 

 swarms are made to keep up the tempera- 

 ture suited to their necessities. The man- 

 ner of operating with this combination of 

 sections, is as follows: 



I first build up the old colony early in 

 the season, to its full working capacity, 

 by giving them all the assistance thc}-^ 

 need. As soon as the section becomes 

 crowded with bees for want of space, or 

 brood chamber, I give them more side 

 room by setting 6 of the 11 frames over 

 into section No. 2, with the bees adhering 

 to them, leaving the queen in section No. 

 1 ; placing the frames containing the brood 

 of both sections, to the sides adjoining 

 each other, so as to economize the animal 

 heat; and fill up the balance of both sec- 

 tions with empty comb, thus giving the 

 old queen plenty of cells in which to de- 

 posit her eggs. The old worker bees 

 will return to their former location, and 

 the young bees rear another queen, which 

 will be matured as soon as the workers 

 are of sutflcient age to go to the field to 

 gather honey ; and when No. 1 and 2 are 

 full. No. 3 is added and one-third of No. 

 1 and one-third of No. 2 is taken, contain- 

 ing egg.s, or larvae, is set over into section 

 No. 3, with the bees adhering to, them, 

 leaving the queens in their old sections, 

 replacing with frames and empty comb; 

 and so continue to increase the sections as 

 the bees increase. A queen should be 

 reared for each section, and divide the 

 frames as. near equally as may be, always 



giving plenty of brood to the new colony; 

 and by thus extending the sections and re- 

 taining the animal heat, with a prolific 

 queen in each section, the worker bees 

 are rapidly increased, affording plenty of 

 laborers for the field during the whole 

 honey harvest. 



We may increase up to five swarms 

 from each colony if they are in a prosper- 

 ous condition early in Ihe spring. This 

 manner of management keeps the colo- 

 nies strong and prosperous. They never 

 dwindle away for the want of animal 

 heat. The bees being scented alike, there 

 is no fighting or difficulty in equalizing 

 the colonies when needed. The result of 

 this manner of bee-keeping, is that we 

 have created several new colonies without 

 materially injuring the old colony, and 

 provided each section with a queen, and in 

 the mean time the old workers of each 

 colony continue to labor in their respect- 

 ive sections, and assist each other in gen- 

 erating heat for the benefit of the whole 

 community. All the labor of overlooking 

 and handling the bees, is performed inside 

 the bee house in such manner that the en- 

 trance of the bees is not interfered with, 

 overcoming greatly the liability of being 

 stung, or the danger of introducing rob- 

 ber bees to molest. The house is so ar- 

 ranged that the bees may be overlooked 

 and examined rainy days, without injury 

 to the bees, thus saving time. The bee 

 house consists of 4 to 6 shelves, two on 

 each side with a space between sufiicient- 

 ly wide to handle the frames and sections 

 with convenience, and space between the 

 shelves for the sections and the honey 

 boxes. The walls are doubly filled with 

 six inches of saw dust, with double doors. 

 The inside door is made of a frame cov- 

 ered with wire cloth, for summer use if 

 needed. The greatest objection to some 

 bee-keepers is, that it is patented, which, 

 in the minds of some penurious persons, 

 is enough to condemn it. Edgar. 



[The man who invents something of 

 real value, is entitled to protection by let- 

 ters patent. It is difficult, however, to de- 

 cide as to the value of the article, as a 

 patented article, unless information is given 

 as to the patented features. The object 

 of the American Bee Journal is to give 

 all the information that can be obtained 

 that shall be useful to its subscribers. 

 Whoever makes any discovery that to him 

 seems valuable, should certainly have 

 space in our columns to give others the 

 benefit of his discovery. If, however, a 

 patent makes the improvement private, 

 instead of public property, then it is a 

 question as to whether notice thereof 

 should be found in the advertising or read- 

 ing pages. There are occasional cases in 



