May 8, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



295 



cells as they ever will, of what is of value to Ihem individu- 

 ally or collectively. 



Bee-keepers all over the land have smoked bees in and 

 out of hives with all sorts of fuel— sulphur, tobacco, cot- 

 ton-wood, pulT-ball, etc.— and have never said that the 

 bees were injured by any of these materials. Of course, 

 every one will lift up the voice in holy horror at the sul- 

 phur smoke for bees, but sulphur smoke will not kill bees 

 any more than tobacco ; neither of them hurt bees if allowed 

 a few hours exposure to fresh air. The fresh air restores 

 them and smoke does them no enduring injury. 



It will be well for all bee-keepers to bear in -mind that 

 statements are fre(|uently made by bee-keepers more desti- 

 tute of facts to prove them than much of the newspaper- 

 talk we hear so much about. The fallacy of smoke consists 

 in the lack of enouf,'h of it at all times. In an emergency 

 a bee-keeper has no time to light matches. 



In the handling of bees one may not at all times need to 

 smoke them. But I would rather start out hunting without 

 a gun than go among my bees without a cloud of smoke 

 around, and within quick and easy reach. 



If it was well understood by everybody that bees would 

 not sting or proffer an attack away from their near-by home, 

 or unless pinched, one senseless superstition would have 

 disappeared, and happiness not common with inexperienced 

 people would be realized. 



Bees that are to be moved will fill their sacks with- 

 out smoke just as if smoked. One has to consult his own 

 convenience. 



He will find smoke, reasonably used, will save the lives 

 of individual bees and be of great convenience. 



Men have shown their vanity and ego in words like 

 this: "My bees never sting me; I can take them by the 

 double handful. Bees are all right, they need to know their 

 master." The safety of the community lies in knowing 

 that the bees do not know anybody or anything, and that if 

 proper care is taken of them, and you have no superstitious 

 neighbors, you will also have no trouble. 



Clare Co., Mich. 



Rapid Increase of Colonies in the Spring. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



THE past winter has been very serious with us, and from 

 my correspondence I find it also has been so in some 

 other parts of the country, so there has been quite a loss 

 of bees. For this reason I am receiving enquiries regarding 

 the feasibility of a rapid increase of the colonies remaining, 

 in order that the combs from the lost colonies may be stocked 

 with bees again, as quickly as possible. As it is quite a task 

 to'give a full answer to a score or more of people by private 

 correspondence, I have told these that I would give an arti- 

 cle in the American Bee Journal on the subject, and have 

 referred them to this article, which I trust will appear in 

 ample time for their use. 



After trying everything I have ever heard of for a rapid 

 increase of colonies, I prefer the nucleus-box plan to anj' 

 other, for the purpose. To use this building-up process, all 

 want one or more boxes similar to one of the shipping-cases 

 used in sending section honey to market, only having wire- 

 cloth sides in place of glass, and a hole in the top which will 

 admit a funnel large enough to shake the bees from the 

 frames down through, the same as is used in putting up bees 

 by the pound. This large hole in the box should have some- 

 thing like a door to close it with easily, and one of the wire- 

 cloth sides should be tacked to small wooden strips, like a 

 slate frame, and thus made easily removable. All about 

 how to make these "nucleus boxes" has been given by mj-self 

 in back numbers of our bee-papers, but the. above " brief " 

 •will enable any one to make it, if not able to turn readily to 

 one of the former articles. 



As early in the spring as you can do so without loss by 

 cold spells, begin to stimulate the very strongest colonies 

 you happen to have, by spreading the brood and feeding, as 

 I have given on page 246, so that one or more of these colo- 

 nies may swarm early, thus giving you queen-cells ; or, 

 what is still better, have these strong colonies build queen- 

 cells by the plan given in my book, "Scientific Queen-Rear- 

 ing," so that you can have plenty of queen-cells to use as 

 you wish them, if you prefer to rear your queens to pur- 

 chasing them. Having the queen-cells nearly mature, or 

 having queens on hand by purchase or otherwise, go to any 

 of your colonies that can spare bees without damaging 

 their building up as fast as you desire, and take out two 

 frames having to the amount of one-half pound of bees on 



them, being sure the old queen is not on these corabs. Set 

 them down in an empty hive, or on the outside somewhere, 

 and tap gently on them so as to cause the bees to fill thcm- 

 .selves with honey ; and as soon as they arc (illcd shake them 

 down through the funnel into the box, removing the funnel 

 and closing the door or hole. 



While the bees arc filling themselves with honey, you 

 can go to other colonies and take out the frames of bees 

 from them, and thus keep things moving right along, in- 

 stead of waiting as you would if there is only one colony in 

 the apiary. 



Having the bees in the box, return the combs of brood 

 to their old place in the hive, marking the one having the 

 most emerging brood, so you can get it in a moment when 

 wanted. Now set the boxes of bees in a cool place, where 

 there is little light that will come to them, and leave them 

 till near night— just time enough so you can finish your 

 work before it becomes so dark you cannot see. 



At the right time— a little after sundown— go to the hive 

 from which you took the bees, take the marked comb, shak- 

 ing the bees which are on it in front of the entrance, and 

 put a frame of comb from which the bees have died, in its 

 place. Now take the comb of brood and a frame of honey, 

 left from the dead colonies, and place them in a hive where 

 you wish a colony to stand, putting in a division-board so as 

 to make a small hive for the two combs. Now go to the 

 hive having queeen-cells, and, taking one of them fit it 

 into the comb having brood, placing it near or at the upper 

 edge of the brood, where it will be warmest ; next close the 

 entrance to the hive ; get the box of bees, and put it with 

 the funnel-hole next to the combs, then open the door over 

 the hole, and if the box is within three-eighths of an inch of 

 the brood, the bees will immediately run out of the box on 

 the combs. 



As soon as they begin to run out, close the hive, and the 

 work is done till the next morning, when you will open an 

 entrance large enough for three or four bees to pass at a 

 time, on the opposite side from where the two combs stand. 

 Then toward night of the same day you will take out the 

 box and adjust the division-board, when you have a nice 

 little swarm or nucleus started in that hive. 



As soon as the young queen from the cell given gets to 

 laying, you are ready to insert the combs from the dead 

 co'lonies till the hive is filled, giving the combs, one or two 

 at a time, as fast as the bees can occupy them. 



In the above I have given the way of making one little 

 colony, and you can make as many and as often as you have 

 colonies that can spare the bees, and have queen-cells to 

 give them, using about half a pound of bees for each colony 

 made during the month of June, one pound during July, 

 and two pounds during August. Where we have plenty of 

 combs to use, there should be no trouble in making ten colo- 

 nies from one old one in the spring, if said colony wintered 

 through fairly well, as I have repeatedly proven. 



If you prefer to purchase queens, instead of rearing 

 them, then you will proceed the same as above given, but 

 instead of doing anything about putting the bees in the 

 hive at night, you will place the queen in a provisoned cage, 

 go to the box of bees, and, by setting it down suddenly on 

 the floor, drop all of the bees to the bottom, quickly open 

 the door and hang in the caged queen so the bottom of the 

 cage nearly touches the top of the box, when the bees are 

 left till the next morning, the hive fixed as before, less the 

 queen-cell ; and, instead of opening the funnel-hole for the 

 bees to run out of it, the movable side is taken off, and the 

 bees hived like a swarm, releasing the queen from the cage 

 so she can go in with them. 



In this way I have made hundreds of little colonies and 

 nuclei, and there is nothing that pleases me anywhere 

 nearly so well for the purpose as this. But, if any one 

 thinks otherwise, then let the colonies left after a bad win- 

 ter, swarm as fast as they will, and six days after a swa rm 

 issues from any hive, divide the old colony into nuclei, 

 using two combs with bees, brood and a queen-cell to start 

 a separate colony, and build up these nuclei with the combs 

 not occupied with bees, the same as by the first plan, after 

 the young queen is laying. In this way I have succeeded in 

 making from five to six good colonies by fall from one good 

 colony in the spring, and in good seasons obtained quite a 

 little surplus from the new swarm. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



