598 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 



23, 



situation. If you follow a few simple rules relating to their 

 in.-tiiict, they will be easily handled, and will become your 

 pets and your delight. 



Now, suppose it is March, and a balmy day, and you have 

 four colonies of bees. If you lift the back of the hive you can 

 tell if they have plenty of food, and if they seem numerous 

 you need not bother them. But if they need food place a 

 cODib of honey from last year, or a comb of syrup in the brood- 

 chamber. Then let them alone, pai'kt warm till June. Pre- 

 pare the supers with sections and starters of light foundation 

 some rainy day. 



The first week or ten days of Juno you may walk by the 

 strotigest colony and turn back the corner of the cloth, and if 

 they are not whitening the upper edges of the combs with new 

 comb, you can go to your plowing. But if they are, you must 

 put on two supers of sections right away. It only takes one- 

 half minute to do this, looking to one hive every day during 

 the first of June. 



If the sections are on and half filled, you should lift the 

 supers and place a new one under, and go on about your 

 plowing. 



If working for extracted honey, you simply place the 

 upper story on full of empty combs, and go your way rejoic- 

 ing. But if they swarm you should hive the swarm in a new 

 hive on the old stand, and give them the sections from the 

 parent colony. Don't put any empty combs in the brood- 

 chamber in the new hive. Give only full combs and frames 

 with starters. 



When your honey season is over you can take it some day 

 If you wish, but if for home use I would leave it on the hive. 

 It gets a little travel-stained, but has a richer hive-flavor, and 

 Is always new and fresh tasting. When winter comes, take it 

 off and close the bees down in the brood-chamber ; place some 

 inverted wooden butter dishes over them ; see that they have 

 plenty of honey by lifting the back end of the hive, and cover 

 with ducking, fill the top box with clover cbafl', and let them 

 go till March. Be sure that mice can't get into the hive. 



You need a few tools about the apiary — smoker and a 

 veil for four or five colonics. I roll up carpet paper for my 

 smoker. 



There Is no reason why most of the familes of Indiana 

 should not thus with a little care and tact enjoy the richest 

 luxury the sweet world can afford. 



A Ne'W Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 20 cents. It is called "The Wood 

 Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should get it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get it yearly. 



■^-—^ 



Xlie Al!!«ik.e ClOTer Leaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 20 cents ; 100 for 35 cents ; or 200 

 for GO cents. 



♦^-►^ 



Back Xutubers Since Jan. i.— We are able to 



supply complete sets of the Bee Journal since Jan. 1, 1897, 

 to any who may desire, at two cents per copy. There are a 

 number of new readers who perhaps would like to get some of 

 the first numbers of this year, to complete their volume for 

 lyyi. We shall be glad to furnish them as long as they last, 

 at two cents each. 



-« • ♦■ 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. See offers on page 5iJ!t. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DK. O. O. MILLER, MARBKGO. ILL. 



[i,>ue8tlon8 may be mailed to the Bee JourDal. or to Ur. Miller direct. 1 



Didii^l Hiioiv It rrom a Biimblc.Bcc. 



I have been laboring under the delusion that when an in- 

 sect was placed before me I could tell whether it was a bum- 

 blebee or not. It seems I don't know as much as I thought I 

 did. Not long ago a bee-keeper sent an insect that he said 

 was caught in the act of killing a bee, and wanted to knov7 

 what it was. I promptly replied that it was a bumble-bee, 

 and altho I didn't say so, I wondered how he could have made 

 such a mistake as to think it was killing bees. The bee- 

 keeper will please accept my most humble apology. 



At the Buffalo convention there was pinned on the wall a 

 specimen of Asilus Missouriensis, sent by S. T. Pettit, of 

 Canada. When I saw that, I was immediately convicted of 

 gross ignorance in having formerly called it a bumble-bee. 

 As pictured and described in Prof. Cook's Manual, it seems 

 very little like a bumble bee, being rather long and slender, 

 but in its dead and dried state it looks very different. It might 

 be allowed that I was not altogether inexcusable for my ignor- 

 ance when two veteran bee-keepers, on looking at the speci- 

 men sent by Mr. Pettit, said without any hesitation, " It's a 

 bumble-bee." 



Asilus Missouriensi, or bee-stabber, as it is also called, 

 has not as yet appeared in great numbers in any given locality, 

 and it would be a terrible thing if it should, but its appearance 

 as far north as Minnesota and Canada makes it wise to be on 

 the lookout ; altho just how such an enemy could be success- 

 fully fought may yet be an unsolved problem. But if you see 

 anything kill a bee, be just a little slow about pronouncing it 

 a "bumble-bee." _ C. C. M. 



Transrcrrins -Use or Drones — Prcvcnlloii of 

 Swarming. 



1. How can I transfer bees from box-hives into frame 

 hives? 



2. What is the use of drones in a colony of bees? 



3. How is it best to prevent bees from swarming ? 



New York. 



Answers. — 1. As I learn from another part of your letter 

 that you have " Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," I refer you to 

 that for full instruction as to transferring. But you will 

 hardly want to transfer before next spring, and after studying 

 the subject in your text-book if questions arise, don't hesitate 

 to send them in. 



2. The drones are the males. Without meeting a drone, 

 the queen might lay eggs, but such eggs would never produce 

 anything but drones. Some think that the drones have for 

 additional office the task of helping to keep up the heat of the 

 hive, but the same weight of workers would do this equally 

 well. The majority of bee-keepers think It best to suppress 

 drone-rearing to a great extent, and this can bo done by 

 allowing as llttio drone-comb as possible. 



3. I don't know. How I wish I did. I have lain awake 

 lots over the question, but never reacht any answer entirely 

 satisfactory. If you work for extracted honey and give the 

 bees abundant room, you may get along with very little 

 swarming, but sometimes you'll have swarms in spite of every- 



