THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



down swarms with strong colonies, by 

 using two stories with 21 frames. Have 

 also been successful with part wide 

 frame, with sections in top story. I 

 generally move up two or more frames 

 of the youngest brood I find below, so 

 as to give the queen empty frames be- 

 low. This makes colony strong and 

 keeps swarming in check. 



Some times it is best to take the 

 outside frames below and shave the 

 caps off and put them in center of 

 brood chamber. So the bees, to fix up 

 the comb, will remove the honey 

 above. The main thing under any 

 kind of management is to keep only 

 young, vigorous queens. This is more 

 difficult to do with two stories with 

 little swarming, as queens will play 

 out much sooner. So it becomes nec- 

 essary to raise and introduce young 

 fertile queens at the end of the second 

 season. Not a few apiarists sell their 

 old queens for SI to "greeneys." A 

 few years ago a very pious, praying 

 and preaching queen dealer, sold an 

 old queen to his christian brother for 

 $2. Not long afterwards the cheated 

 and ignorant brother sent old " pious " 

 some queer looking bees that his $2 

 queen was producing, and asked what 

 they were. Well old pious loving 

 money with all his heart, did not wish 

 to "acknowledge the corn" and re- 

 turned the 82, pretended he did not 

 know what the bees were, but advised 

 his christian brother to send some to 

 Prof. Cook, causing his brother farther 

 loss of time and opportunity to save 

 the colony by killing the old played 

 out drone producing queen, and giv- 

 ing another queen, or brood to make 

 one. The bees sent were small drones 

 hatched from worker cells. 



The Bee-Keepers Union has spasams 

 of trying to purge and purify the bee- 

 keeping business in some direction. 

 Yet to date, I have never seen any 

 effort made to purge fraud and hum- 

 bugging in the queen line, out of its 

 ranks. Perhaps it will come in time 

 W. M. Evans. 



Amherst, Va., March 28, 1894. 



The W. T. Falconer Man'f'g Co., 

 Gentlemen : — I received the hives 

 shipped me on May 26th. They are 

 the very best I ever saw. There is 

 nothing lacking whatever. Every- 

 thing in good condition. 



Yours very truly, 



Manning Smith. 

 Cicero, N. Y., May 29, 1894. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES RIPENESS IN HONEY, 

 AND HOW IT MAY BE SECURED. 



A can of honey soldered in so well— 

 A watermelon proudly on the swell- 

 Is either ripe ? How can a body tell '.' 



The subject of ripening honey is re- 

 ceiving some consideration at pi'esent. 

 It a subject, too, that deserves con- 

 sideration because honey is at its best 

 when ripe. This implies that there is 

 a time when it is unripe, and a possi- 

 bility of its being over ripe. We 

 know that honey is found and some- 

 times marketed, in the three condi- 

 tions above mentioned. But we do 

 not all know the exact properties that 

 constitute ripeness in honey, because 

 no fixed standard of perfection has 

 been decided upon, or one that em- 



