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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aug. 26, 



located near of their greatest source of honey. Shall we, like 

 the Indian, be compelled to pitch our tents elsewhere? 



This goodly land is for the white man and the honey-bee, 

 and they will remain cultivating the soil and fertilizing the 

 bloom. The time may come when the l<eeping of many colo- 

 nies together will cease to be profitable ; then farmers, gar- 

 deners and fruit-raisers will see the necessity of their keeping 

 a few colonies of bees to fertilize their crops and provide their 

 families with the purest sweet known. It may be better for 



Mrs. X. Harrison. ' 



the'country to have bees equally disseminated than kept to- 

 gether in large numbers. 



'selling honey to the best advantage. 



As the sources for honey are yearly growing less, we 

 should watch every chance for making the most of what we 

 have. Not a pound of honey or wax should be shipt to a dis- 

 tant market until the locality where it has been produced has 

 a full supply. If the producer has not time to do this work, 

 there are few places where there is not an enterprising boy or 

 girl anxious to make money. Last fall and winter a young 

 man canvast this city and adjacent towns carrying a large tin 

 pail containing syrup with comb honey raasht up fine in it, 

 which he dipt out with a dipper ; he never called at a house 

 but once. If it had been pure honey, he would have been 

 welcomed the second time. 



A good way to dispose of honey is to engage to supply 

 grocerymen with all they can dispose of, calling regularly. If 

 a box of comb honey gets in a dilapidated condition, replace it 

 with a fresh one. Peoria Co., III. 



Spreading Brood and Making New Colonies. 



BY DK. E. GALLOP. 



Mr. S. A. Deacon, on page 469, asks about spreading 

 brood in California. I am rearing bees, and have workt but 

 very few colonies for surplus honey. You must understand 

 that I will endeavor to give facts. I endeavor to save all the 

 natural queens I can, therefore start many colonies of just 

 one comb of hatching brood, and the bees are confined to that 

 one comb by a division-board. A frame of hatching brood, a 

 pint of bees, and a good, young, prolific queen as a starter is 

 sufficient at any time from March 20 up to Aug. 1, In this 

 locality. This frame of hatching brood gives the young queen 

 a chance to deposit eggs, and as soon, or a little before, she 

 wants more room, I insert another frame, either containing 

 foundation or a starter. Now, a good queen will deposit an 

 egg in every cell as fast as they are ready for her. 



The next move is to spread those two combs, and insert 

 another between, and the next move I spread the combs and 

 insert two. Next I take out the division-board and insert 

 three. This completes a colony of 8 frames. If an old col- 

 ony swarms out until their numbers are reduced, I take out 

 all the combs except just the number the bees can occupy, and 



confine them to that space by a division-board. I then take 

 those surplus combs and give one each to my small colonies, 

 instead of having them build combs. The old colony is treated 

 on the same plan as the other small colonies. 



I hived one small third swarm on two empty frames with 

 starters, and now (Aug. 2) they have filled their 8-frame hive 

 and a super, and the super is filled completely with sealed 

 honey. There is this advantage in building up in this man- 

 ner, we get all-worker combs wiih scarcely any. exceptions. 



If from any cause I have a colony reduced in numbers, 

 either in spring or from losing its queen, or from a laying 

 worker, I confine them to the number of combs they can fully 

 occupy, even if it should be only one comb, and build them up 

 in the above manner; or, if I want to hurry them along, I go 

 to any populous colony and get a frame or two of hatching 

 brood and give them a lift, as the case requires. If I take 

 this brood from an old queen I replace with foundation, or the 

 bees will build drone-comb. 



I had rather a small second swarm, and when I hived 

 them I confined them to thiee frames by spreading on the 

 above plan ; they have filled their hive, built all their own 

 comb, and I have extracted 60 pounds of honey, and they 

 have another super ready to extract. Now we will suppose I 

 had hived them as many do, in a hive without using a division- 

 board. They would probably have built three or four combs 

 that the queen would partially occupy — if they built more it 

 would be outside of the cluster, where the warmth would not 

 be sufficient for the queen to deposit eggs, and the comb would 

 be bulged on the outside, and in all probability have drone- 

 comb, and in the fall I should have had a small, worthless 

 colony to double up. 



Right here I wish to say that there is no earthly use in 

 having colonies to double up in the fall, if rightly managed (I 

 will except queen-breeders). A small colony that fully occu- 

 pies three combs, if confined to that space, will work with as 

 much vim as the strongest colony in the apiary. But if we 

 give them the whole hive, they all have to stay at home and 

 do nothing, and perhaps starve. Allow a bee-space under the 

 division-board the whole length, then have the entrance into 

 the vacant space instead of in where the bees are, and they 

 will not be troubled with robbers. Ever since I used the 

 movable frames I have never had any doubling up. If I make 

 late increase it is very simple to make a full colony at once, 

 by taking a single comb of sealed brood from one strong 

 colony, and one from another, and build them right up at 

 once, if necessary ; and many times the colony that we take 

 the frame from is benefited, especially where they are honey- 

 bound, as some of my colonies were last fall. You can readily 

 see that if a colony is too full of honey in the fall, it is bene- 





l)r. K. Oalhip. 



ficlal to take out a frame or two of brood, and insert founda- 

 tion. This gives the queen room to lay fresh eggs, and the 

 bees use up some of their surplus honoy in drawing out the 

 foundation, and they are in decidedly better condition for win- 

 ter than they would be if let alone. Understand, I am now 

 writing from a CaUfornia standpoint, and for my locality. 



The third week In .Tune I had six starved-out black colo- 

 nies come to me; three undertook to go in with my Italians, 

 and were slaughtered, and throe came and clustered right 

 over my head, as much as to say, "(iallup, give us something 



