April 24, 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL 



267 



lonp as the brood lasts. Two weeks later you can ripoat 

 the operation, not doinp anythiti^f to strengthen the w.ak- 

 €st colonies till all the stron^fcr are brought up to the 

 mark. 



Unless you have had a pood deal of experience you may 

 make bad work increasing- 40 to 200, and you are just at)cnit 

 sure to make a bad mess of it if you get up to the 2iiii in 

 May. Here is one way that I have successfully used : Sup- 

 pose No. 1 has your best queen. Wait until your colonies 

 are at least fairly strong, and until honey is regularly yield- 

 ing, and by that time build up No. 1 very strong. Take 

 from No. 1 all its brood with all the adhering bees, leaving 

 the queen to welcome home the returning field-bees. The 

 brood and bees you have taken from No. 1 are to be put on 

 the stand of No. 2, or some other strong colony, setting Xo. 

 2 on a new stand. Then go to the remaining colonies, and 

 take from each one all the brood it has beyond 4 or 5 frames, 

 but taking no bees, and give this brood to No. 1. About "J 

 days later — certainly not more than 10 days later — go to the 

 queenless colony that was left on the stand of No. 2, and 

 divide it up into nuclei having 2 or 3 frames of brood each, 

 making sure that each nucleus has 2 or more good queen- 

 cells centrally located so there shall be no danger of chill- 

 ing. Then take all brood and bees from No. 1 and put as 

 before on the stand first occupied by No. 2, and fill up No. 1 

 with brood from other colonies, but no bees. Repeat this 

 every 9 days so long as the flow continues, or until so late 

 that there will not be time to build up. As the work con- 

 tinues you will need to add stories to No. 1, and equally to 

 the pile of queenless brood and bees on the stand of No. 2. 

 If there is danger of having the piles too high, you can 

 start a second plant to working the same as Nos. 1 and 2. 



Uniting in the Fail— Extracting Late. 



1. I let my bees swarm once, then build the new colonies 

 up strong at the expense of the old. If I have 100 colonies 

 in the fall, and want only to winter SO, what would be best, 

 to kill off the surplus colonies, or unite in hives that hold 11 

 Langstroth frames ? 



2. Can I extract honey as late as October? 



MlNNKSOT.\. 



Answers. — 1. I should prefer to unite so as to have 

 stroug colonies for winter. 



2. Yes. but not without taking special pains to warm 

 the combs before extracting. For 24 hours before extract- 

 ing keep them in a hot room ; all the better if hung up near 

 the ceiling. No danger of having them too warm if you do 

 not melt the comb. 



Early ttueen-Rearing in Pennsylvania. 



I opened a lO-frame hive April S (as the bees were fly- 

 ing) to ascertain their condition. I found plenty of capped 

 brood but no young larv;e, eggs or queen. But I found a 

 queen-cell nearly ready to cap containing a large larva. 



Now what I want to know is, whether I could safely and 

 profitably get that colony in good condition for the honey 

 season, which commenced about July 10 last year. Drones 

 commenced flying May 23, last season. 



I have been a bee-keeper since 1898 and have lost only 2 

 small colonies in box-hives. 



Now I have 3 strong colonies besides the one mentioned, 

 in 10-frame hives. 



I do not care for any more colonies — all I want is a 

 large amount of bees to store honey. The honey crop last 

 year was poor ; year before, good. Pennsylv.\nia. 



Answer. — If I understand your question rightly, it is 

 this : With drones flying May 23, will a queen reared from a 

 cell nearly ready to seal April 5 be able to bring up a colony 

 strong for the harvest by July 10 ? I should say she will not 

 be likely to do so. The queen will issue from her cell by April 

 15 or sooner : May 23 she will be 38 days old, and the 

 chances for her being fecundated at that age are not worth 

 considering. Very likely some drones will be flying before 

 that time, but hardly early enough, for she will probably 

 fly out on her wedding-trip about a month before May 23. In 

 general you will find that in the latitude of Pennsylvania a 

 queen emerging as early as the middle of April will not be 

 a good one. Perhaps your best plan is to destroy the young 

 queen and get a laying queen from the South, or else break 

 up the colony and divide its forces among the other colonies. 



% The Afterthought. * \ 



The "Old Reliable" seen throuKh New and Unreliable Uluset. 

 By e. e. HASTY. SU. B Rural. Toledo, O. 



SERVING VV " REPORTS." 



And so John M. Davis wants thu reports woll-dlgesied and 

 intelligible— size never stated as, •' as big as a piece of chalk." 

 and di-stance never "a right smart piece," and the keystones 

 never left out from the arches of testimony. Hi- seem.s rea- 

 sonable In his desire and rri|uest: and yet Mio.st certainly no- 

 body Is going to fill tlie great yearning chasm In his soul to 

 any" satisfactory degree. Itrlef, lucid statement of things 

 when they write — why. you might as well ask Algebra and 

 Greek of a great majority of Intelligent people. An editor 

 can't do more than he can do. Hi' cant scold continually 

 about rambling and unintelligibility without frightening off 

 the reports altogethrr. I I'Xjject If we km-w how carefully lie 

 carves, and how deftly ho fixed things that tnus/ be lixed, 

 we'd send up a vote of thanks, and refrain from asking any- 

 thing more. Page 171. 



THE "MUSLIN SANDWICH" COVER. 



Doubtless a coat of paint with a thickness of muslin In 

 the middle of It would make an excellent surfaci' for some 

 climates, providing you get enough paint both above and be- 

 low, and also providing you keep putting it on as fast as the 

 weather beats it off. Such a hive-roof would, I judge, fit best 

 a climate of fierce sunshine and occasional violent rains. In 

 a climate of little sunshine and endless drizzle there might be 

 danger perchance that the surface would disintegrate. Page 

 173. 



BARRELS FOR COMB ,^ND EXTRACTED HONEV. 



The chaps that can't stand barrels for honey, and the 

 chaps that want all their honey In barrels, can be reconciled 

 by the method of C. A. Deadman, page 173 : Make your honey 

 secure in tin, and then fill barrels with the tins— for security 

 and convenience in handling. Guess he's right, that no big 

 package ever was or ever will be devised that will handle as 

 nicely as a barrel. If second-hand barrels at ten cents each 

 can be had, the expense ought not to frighten one — in fact, 

 the greater expense of crates Is one of the Items pro. 



MELTING GRANl'LATED HONEY EXPEDITIOUSLY. 



Pshaw: Didn't everybody know that'? Then let them hear 

 and heed that the melting of a mass of honey Is very greatly 

 expedited by frequent punchlngs and whirlings and subdivi- 

 sions of it. Page 174. 



CARNIOLANS FOR INCRE.1SE — THEN ITALIANIZE. 



Here seems to be a winning kink which Mr. Coveyou of 

 the MIchigans gave: Premising that you start with a few 

 bees, and want to build up a big apiary, keep Carnlolaus till 

 you get your number, and then Italianize. Page ISU. 



BLEACHING COMB HONEY. 



On page 1 81 we have more about the unfamiliar subject 

 of bleaching comb honey. Sulphur vapor and sunlight both. 

 One bath of the former equals somewhat less than a week of 

 the latter. But look out the sulphur doesn't •' green " it : and 

 look out the sun doesn't melt it. In Mr. Crane's experience 

 500 pounds out of 6,500 could not be completely bleached. 

 Just one-thirteenth. I should call that encouraging success. 



THE SEMI-MOVABLE FR.^MES OF YEARS AGO. 



Exactly so, Mr. Grelner, the semi-movable frames of long 

 years ago. and centuries ago. would not have benefitted us any. 

 We should never have heard of them had not an inventive 

 mind of our own age put the thing In actual working shape — 

 not merely old-time working shape but modern working shape. 

 Should the next great inventor find out how to tly to an adja- 

 cent planet we should directly hear about Elijah and Enoch. 

 Soon the recondite literature of the world would contribute 

 dozens of Hiawathas and Laou-Tzes who had made such trips 

 before. 



Wonder what Solon thought he was after when he went 

 to Egypt in the interests of iiee-keepers, 500 B. C. Could 

 hardly have hoped to copy the floating apiaries on the Nile. 

 Might have sought an Improved manipulation and a better 

 kiud of bee. Page IS'2. 



