1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



189 



No; don't let the swarms go to the woods, nei- 

 ther oblige some of the family to remain at 

 home to '■ watch for swarms." 



Drone-guards will prevent swarming tempo- 

 rarily; Imt I object to them on account of the 

 drones fussing to get out, and keeping the 

 whole hive in a hubbub. Why not use the 

 drone-trap pure and simple? That will do 

 away with the drone nuisance; and, should a 

 swarm issue, catch the queen and save your 

 swarm, even while the v/holtj family is away 

 listening to the sermon. 



Now. instead of dividing on Saturday, as pro- 

 posed by Mr. Dean, when perhaps the bees are 

 not ready for such division, or so far advanced 

 that they would swarm again in a few days 

 anyhow, you can make such division as de- 

 sired, on Monday. The drone-trap is good; and 

 if there were nothing better I should use it on 

 every hive in my apiary during the swarming- 

 period. But. why not go a step further and use 

 the self-hlver? But it will be objected to as 

 not yet being perfect, or. at any rate, as not be- 

 ing generally understood. It is true, there have 

 been jnany failures, and some have given up in 

 despair. 



After a great deal of experimenting during 

 the past four years, on a large scale. I have 

 finally adopted a plan that works fairly well. 

 It has all the advantages of the drone-trap, and 

 goes much farther, as it hives the swarm in the 

 hive, where they are to remain. The plan con- 

 sists of an empty hive placed on a wood-zinc 

 honey-board. on a bottom-board placed in front 

 of the swarming hive, as heretofore described 

 in Glp:anixgs. The bees pass fi'om the old 

 hive through the bee-space formed between the 

 bottom-board and honey-board, and through 

 the swarmer at the entrance. A few will work- 

 up through the honey-board, and out of the 

 entrance of the new hive. As swarming ap- 

 proaches, some bees will take possession of the 

 new hive, and will commence drawing out the 

 foundation, and commence filling in honey. 

 How far this maybe desirable before swarming, 

 I have not yet determined; but it can be regu- 

 lated by covering a part of the honey-board, 

 under the new hive, with oilcloth or tin. 



One obJT'Ction to putting the old hive on top 

 of the empty one is, that the bees too readily 

 accept it as a part of their hive, and use it for 

 storing honey in, instead of carrying it into the 

 sections. 



I have no " ax to grind " in this matter, as I 

 have no idea of patents, etc. My only desire is 

 to make bee-keeping less irksome. If one has 

 but half a dozen or so of colonies it will certain- 

 ly not pay to watch for swarms or keep the 

 family doing such useless work. If one has 

 colonies by the hundred, then there is all the 

 more reason for using the hiver, as there is no 

 such trouble from doubling up as where natural 

 swarming is permitted; neither is any climbing 

 of tall trees, endangering one's life, at all nec- 



essary. There is no sulking of bees In my plan, 

 and the little run through the space under the 

 new hive seems only to give them additional 

 energy. The swarming propensity is also 

 greatly abridged. 

 Milan, 111., Feb. 9. 



[You are quite right. The self-hiver will 

 save unnecessary work in hiving swarms on 

 Sunday. One quiet Sunday morning three or 

 four swarms came out, and A. I. R. came rush- 

 ing over to "our house." telling us that the bees 

 needed looking after, as they were swarming. 

 In later years he has left all such work for us. 

 We very quietly replied that they were all 

 right, and that we need not trouble ourselves, 

 asself-hivers were on those colonies that were 

 likely to cast swarms. A. I. R. was a little 

 skeptical, but in a few minutes he was satisfied 

 that the self-hivers were doing their work. 

 Monday morning showed that the bees of each 

 swarm had gone into the new hives, gone to 

 work, and every thing was as nicely done as if 

 we had done it ourselves, with all the usual 

 paraphernalia, such as bee-veil, smokers, hiv- 

 ing-boxes, and squirt-gun, to say nothing of hur- 

 rying and scurrying about, shinning up trees, 

 taking stings, etc.— Ed.] 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



BY KAMBLER. 



Dr. Miller looks very Y's 



While he sits at his E's 



Poking straws into other mens I's, 



Shouting, "It's all in behalf of the B's." 



Now, Dr. M., just mind your P's 



Or we'll send you o'er the C's 



Where the Chinamen pick T's; 



Then what'll you do for straws and B's? 



No, Dr. M., I did not get the kerosene in my 

 flap- jacks; but I must '/ess I did get some on 

 my toast one evening. 



Soine of our California bee-keepers are get- 

 ting blue on account of the light rainfall up to 

 date. Keep up courage, gentlemen; late rains 

 sometimes do a world of good. 



The latest wrinkle of the enemies of the bees 

 is to mix yeast and honey, and expose it where 

 b^es will get it. The mixture, when stored in 

 the hive, sours and ferments, and is disastrous 

 to the colony and the bee-keeper. 



Just see what sort of men we had at our 

 State convention: W. P. Richardson, 65 tons of 

 honey; Mr. J. Moffatt, 54 tons; J. F. INIcIntyre, 

 24 tons; M. H. Mendleson, over 30 tons, and 

 others well up to those amounts, too numerous 

 to mention. 



Railroad statistics for 1893 give a sura total of 

 honey shipped from Southern California at 

 3,303.(XK) lbs. Add to this the shipments by wa- 

 ter and from Northern California, also quite an 



