THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



301 



J. p. Moore (N. Y.) said he placed the 

 cage between the brood coiiihs for 48 hours, 

 ana was Kenerally siicoessful. 



J. H. Nellis asked it (';vL[iiis? queens did 

 not sometimes result in tlieir starviufi;. lie 

 reconnnended tiiat wIumi eatjed, food be put 

 in isohvted i)osition, from \v1iieh tiie queen 

 could feed. When bees are intent on rearinj^j 

 a nueen froui tliclr material, they sometimes 

 refuse to feed tlie (|Ueeu in the cage. 



G. W. Zimmerman ((.).) iiad introduced 

 queens in cages from oti to 48 hours, (if bees 

 clinched the cage, it was not safe); he then 

 inserted a piece of filled honey comb into 

 the cage and when they had eaten through 

 this, it was safe to let her crawl out into tlie 

 hive. lie thought it advisable to cage the 

 queen always, for sometimes the bees hug 

 her to death. 



J. H. Nellis remarked that he would not 

 cage a weak queen. 



T. B. Parker,(j\. C.) had caged a weak 

 queen 60 hours, that had been out 14 days, 

 and she did well, lie said queens were 

 often released too soon. 



J. S. Coe (N. J.) had caged a weak queen 

 with no workers, that had been injured by 

 a fall. She was fed by the bees, and did 

 ■well. 



T. B. Parker often let a (lueen loose out- 

 side the hive and let her run in. 



G. W. ZinHuerman had removed black 

 queens and liberated Italians in that way. 



A. L. Stanton (N. Y.) pinched the old 

 queen to get the scent; this he rubbed over 

 the Italian queen and immediately released 

 her. He always selected his best queens 

 and introducetl 4 out of successfully in 

 that way. Rearing queens wasted too 

 much valuable time in the busy season. 



UNITING WEAK COLONIES. 



G. W. Zimmerman had made up 40 to 60 

 full colonies from weak ones, and 7 colonies 

 from nuclei, and wintei'ed them all safely. 

 He filled them with liquid sweets, supplied 

 them frames of comb a little before sun- 

 down, when it w^as a little cool; caged the 

 queen between the frames, and shook the 

 bees down and left them till morning, 

 when thev would be all ready to work. 



H. L. Leonard (Vt.) asked Mr. Z. if he 

 took the queens away? 



G. W. Zinnnerman answered that he re- 

 moved both queens, but introduced one at 

 once. If done late in the season they would 

 create iieat by clustering, before morning. 

 He disorganized the stronger colony and 

 put in the weak one with it— and had al- 

 ways done it successfully. 



J. L. Beal (Pa.) asked if, Mr. Z.' confined 

 them in a dark room? 



G.W.Zimmerman — Yes; when necessary. 



J. L. Beal said he confined and took them 

 to a dark room and united— and after 48 

 hours to 3 days there was no danger of their 

 returning to their old stands. He let them 

 destroy one of the queens. 



Mr. Bradley (Mass.) had doubled 20 or 30 

 weak colonies. He removed the queens and 

 shook them up on a cloth and let them run 

 into the hive. He found they did not 

 quarrel. He always caged the queen from 

 12 to 24 hours. 



N. N. Betsinger (N. Y.) practiced remov- 

 ing the queens and then throwing them to- 

 gether. 



T. B. Parker (N. C.) united colonies suc- 

 cessfully by putting a board between them, 

 with a hole in it, late in the evening, and 

 closed the hole for 24 hours, then opened 



the hole and let them crawl through to the 

 other colony. 



Jas. Williams (Tenn.) united successfully 

 late in tiie fall. The hives being twenty 

 to thirty feet apart are moved nearer every 

 2 or 3 days, till they are close together. He 

 then removed the queens, took a fresh hive 

 and put in the middle frames from each 

 liive alternately, and then gave them a 

 queen. 



Mr. Crane (Vt.) said that it may be a good 

 way, but it is tedious. He took away the 

 queens and stores from weak stocks and let 

 tnem realize that they were robbed of all 

 but their hives, and then fed them with 

 honey and put them together. 



now TO CONTROL SAVARMING. 



R. Bacon (N. Y.) had tried and found how 

 difQcult it was to prevent swarming. When 

 they had the fever on, it was hard to get it 

 off. Ills best plan was to open the hive. ' 

 after the first swarm came out, and destroy 

 all the queen cells in the frames, and then 

 hive the swarm in the old hive. He had no 

 failures by this plan, and it was an impor- 

 tant matter in getting a large yield of box 

 honey. 



J. H. Nellis (N. Y.) remarked that it was 

 essential to have one swarm. Then it 

 would be well to have "cool headed bees." 

 Some lazy Italians like to swarm, but all 

 preferred cool, industrious bees! He found 

 that they did not swarm as much when a 

 loosely-fitting frame was used. He kept 

 them at work by piling on boxes, and cut- 

 ting out the queen cells. 



J. S. Hill (O.) said that the swarming 

 fever varied with the seasons. He controP 

 led swarming by adding box room as 

 needed. He provided a fertile queen, des- 

 troyed all their queen cells and kept them 

 at work in boxes. 



G. W. Zimmerman had 175 colonies, but 

 never saw one of them in the air. He kept 

 them shaded, and by keeping the brood 

 chamber cool he prevented swarming. 



Jas Williams (Tenn.) had his hives paint- 

 ed a different color on each side— red, white, 

 blue and gi-ay- with a movable alighting- 

 board on each side, which he could so man- 

 ipulate in the middle of the day as to con- 

 trol swarming by having the hive with four 

 divisions, and compelling those flying out 

 to return to any compartment desired. He 

 let them use the different entrances for ten 

 days at a time, and thus by rotation entire- 

 ly controlled s\varming. He had 300 colon- 

 ies. 



HOW TO PRODUCE THE MOST SURPLUS. 



J. S. Coe said that the point was how to 

 produce the largest yield of honey for a 

 term of years — how to make the most 

 money from the bees as a regular income. 

 If swarming can be controlled and colonies 

 can be successfully carried through the 

 winter and spring, an average yield can be 

 depended upon. Healthy, strong colonies 

 in the spring, full of brood, and in condition 

 for gathering when fruit bloom comes, were 

 indispensible. This state could be obtain- 

 ed only by feeding early in the spring; and 

 thus having them ready when fruit bloom 

 came to ^jather it in. 



L. C. Root (N. Y.) remarked that it was 

 absolutely essential to have colonies strong 

 in the spring, in orperto be profitable. 



HOW TO OBTAIN INDUSTRIOUS BEES. 



J. P. Moore (N. Y.) remarked that the 

 only way he knew was to get good queens 



