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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 22, 



ly the face is hit. It is not safe to take strangers or visitors 

 into your apiary if the bees are managed with tobacco smolve. 



To explain how I manage bees : Some friends come in 

 and want to see a queen and the inside of a bee-hive. A bee- 

 veil is handy, and one is furnisht for each. I have some very 

 soft rotted wood, or spongy puul<, piclft up on some of my 

 rambles in looking to see what the bees are at work on at dif- 

 ferent times, which has been and is kept thoroughly dry. With 

 a lighted match this is ignited, which it is always ready to do, 

 for soft, dry punk will take a spark the quickest of anything 

 I know of. This lighted punk is dropt into the bottom of 

 the smoker, and a little more sprinkled on, when the smoker 

 is filled with some beech, maple, or apple wood, which has on- 

 ly partially decayed, or what is termed "hard rot." Of this 

 last I keep a quantity on hand, keeping an eye out for the 

 same when I am in any woodland or old orchard, and storing 

 it away in the loft of the barn, where it is always ready and 

 dry whenever I wish any to use. Having the smoker filled, we 

 are ready to proceed. 



Now we walk up to the hive — step around back side, if 

 you please, for we do not wish to disturb them in their labors. 

 it seems strange, but such is the fact, that nine out of ten 

 persons who visit a bee-yard, will persist in getting right in 

 front of a hive, and standing there till a swarm of loaded bees 

 collect behind them and fall tired out on the ground, rather 

 than to stand in any other place. There is nothing that so 

 annoys me and the bees as this very thing, so please remem- 

 ber and don't do so any more, if you are in the habit of doing 

 this. 



I next take o£f the cover, and roll back the bee-quilt, and 

 if I have gone thus far without any sudden jar or accident, no 

 smoke has been used, having only had it on hand in case of 

 necessity. I now commence to take out the frames, show the 

 bees, the brood in its various stages, and as a rule do not have 

 to take out more than two or three frames before the queen 

 is found. 



The next operation is to replace the frames, when a little 

 smoke is used to drive off any bees which may be standing on 

 the rabbets to the hive, so they will not get killed by setting 

 the ends of the frames on them. A little smoke is also used to 

 drive the bees off the tops of the frames so that none will be 

 caught under the quilt, especially if we are using the sawdust 

 cushion at this time. But supposing it is not visitors we are 

 entertaining, but work — stern, rapid work — of putting on or 

 taking off sections, what then ? Well, as follows : 



Step to the front of the hive, and blow a puff or two of 

 smoke into the entrance to stampede the guards which are al- 

 ways ready to rush out when the hive is disturbed, then take 

 hold of the quilt with one hand, and have the nozzle of the 

 smoker handy with the other, when with one steady pull the 

 quilt is peeled off the frames, a puff of smoke following up the 

 lifting of the quilt, so that the bees scamper below the tops of 

 the frames in a jiffy. The sections take the place of the quilt 

 before any bees have time to return. 



To take off: Insert the thin edge of a chisel or screw- 

 driver between the section-case and the hive, prying up a little 

 till a crack is made which is too small to allow a bee to come 

 out ; then blow a puff or two of smoke in the crack, raise high- 

 er, and give another puff; raise to an angle of forty-live de- 

 grees ; another puff; slip under the escape-board, drop the 

 section-case down, slipping all to its place, instead of lifting 

 the heavy case to the ground and back again, and you have 

 done it without killing any bees, er using much smoke, or get- 

 ting stung. — Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Too Enthusiastic — The Season. 



BY MRS. L. HAKRISON. 



I heard a bee-keeper express himself as follows, and there 

 Is much truth in what he said : 



" Some bee-keepers are always cutting their own throats. 

 Let there be one good honey-day, and they will write to the 

 bee-papers, 'Greatest flow of honey ever known; never saw 

 the like!' and dealers, reading this, will jump to the conclu- 

 sion that honey being so plentiful the price should be low. 

 Perhaps this fellow could truthfully write the day following, 

 ' Not a drop of honey coming in, bees trying to rob.' " 



The season so far in this locality has been, hives full to 

 running over with bees, but few swarms issued ; a few days, 

 when there was an odor of honey at night, with a low bum- 

 ming, but no two consecutive days of this kind. A day when 

 they would not notice papers dripping with honey, followed 



by one when they embraced every opportunity to get into the 

 honey-house. 



White Ci^over has been very abundant; the bloom fairly 

 touching, yet only an occasional bee could be seen upon it. It 

 is now drying up. 



Sweet Clover— Meli lotus alba — is now blooming, and 

 has preempted every vacant spot in the city. I saw several 

 acres of it yesterday, In a suburb, covered with bloom, and as 

 high as a horse's back. The yellow variety — Melilotus 

 officinalis — has been blooming since early in May, a waving 

 sea of gold, and still continues. There was only an occasional 

 basswood that bloomed here this year, and honey from this 

 source usually lasts only a day or so. 



The Home Market. — This is a field that it will pay all 

 honey-producers to cultivate well. Where a family uses 

 honey, they consume considerable ; but there are some who 

 never use it. Those whom we patronize will favor us by tak- 

 ing part pay in honey, and the appetite once created will in- 

 crease. Do not get sick, unless your doctor eats honey ; 

 sweeten your minister's sermons with it ; shoe your horse with 

 it ; paint your carriage, or mend your harness. 



Peoria Co., 111., July 10. 



How We Wintered the Bees, Etc. 



BY MRS. L. E. R. LAMBRIGGER. 



I believe I promist last fall to be heard from in the spring 

 if our method of wintering proved successful. 



That you may all appreciate the situation to its full ex- 

 tent, it will be necessary to describe our location and the kind 

 of weather we had to contend with. 



First, then, we live on the Missouri River bottoms, within 

 30 rods of the river itself, one of the most beautiful, pictur- 

 esque spots in all Nebraska, and an ideal location for honey- 

 production. In years of drouth, when other localities are 

 burning up, this spot knows no failures ; but they say "every 

 rose has Its thorn," and this has developt one safe enough. 



It rained all the fall, until late November; the ground 

 froze early, and from that time until late March did not thaw 

 sufficient to take in live months of accumulation of rain and 

 snow. Take it all in all, I cannot call to mind another such 

 disagreeable winter. Not that it averaged so extremely cold, 

 as that it was so very wet. Cold enough to keep the surface 

 of the ground a glare of ice for some months ; but I suffered 

 less discomfort in the high altitude of the Rocky Mountains 

 with the mercury down to 63° below zero, than I did the past 

 winter here, and it only 15^ below. Such is the difference 

 between a wet and a dry cold. 



With alternate thawing and freezing there were times 

 when I trembled for the bees out on the summer stands ; but 

 I need not have done so, for they came through with colors 

 flying, and with sealed brood present on March 25. We had 

 no loss, and this is how we flxt them : 



Our apiary faces east — south winds in Nebraska the rea- 

 son. We use only the "Alternating Hive," and all are 

 painted. The hives were two feet apart and four inches above 

 the ground, slightly raised at the back. The entrance space 

 was % of an inch, extending across the hive. Mice are too 

 plentiful here to admit of wider entrance. As it was, we 

 found a little sneak In one of the hives. For the sake of ex- 

 periment wo cut down the brood-chambers on part of the 

 hives to two, while three were left on the balance. Each col- 

 ony was allowed to retain 50 pounds of honey. Those hav- 

 ing two chambers were provided with a super which was 

 packt with straw only. Those with three chambers had 

 either a burlap or seamless sack folded and laid smoothly over 

 the top chamber, after which the hive covers were put snugly 



