June 26, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



407 



previous to my visit, and I found 1") out of the 23 inoculated 

 with the disease, and had to l)e condemned. 



I could ffive other instances in which we have reasnu to 

 be apprehensive, but I will close by reiteratinjf my previous 

 position, that box-hives and stationary combs should be 

 done away with by legislation. They are a nuisance to the 

 industry, and exceedingly unpro^jressive. 



lyCt us hear from some of our inspectors upon tliis sub- 

 ject. San Diego Co., Calif., June S. 



Production and Care of Extracted Honey. 



Writfrii fur t/ir \y'iseo7mii .State ('oni'nilio)i, lirlil in J-ebrnnry. I!iii:\ 

 BY ELIAS FOX. 



The prepartion for a future crop of extracted honey be- 

 gins soon after the close of the present season. This prep- 

 aration consists in having an abundance of stores which 

 varies with the season. Should there be no How of honey 

 after basswood, each colony should have from 40 to 50 

 pounds of honey, but should there be a fall flow, a less 

 •quantity would be sufficient. The point is, not to have less 

 than 25 pounds of good honey in each hive when the bees 

 are placed in their winter quarters. 



Nest to plenty of good stores is the necessity of having 

 a young, vigorous, and prolific queen. 



Then comes proper wintering, which consists in plac- 

 ing the bees in suitable winter quarters at the right time. 



In my estimation, after 18 years of practical experience, 

 my method of manipulation is as nearly successful as the 

 average. 



Late in the season I remove the oil-cloth from the hives 

 and place over them a piece of factory cloth. Then, as 

 soon as cold weather begins, the bees are carried to the 

 cellar and the covers are removed. The first hive is placed 

 upon 2x4 studding lying flat upon the bottom of the cellar. 

 Two sticks '4 -inches thick are placed crosswise on top of 

 the first hive to support the nest one, and thus they are 

 tiered up six hives deep. 



The covers of the top hives, however, are left on, and 

 one end slightly raised to allow the escape of accumulating 

 moisture. 



The cellar should be as near underground as possible 

 in order to control the temperature. It should be dry and 

 well ventilated with at least two doors three feet apart. 

 The temperature should range from 40 to 50 degrees above 

 zero. Prepared thus the bees come out in the spring with 

 combs as dry and free from mold as when put into the cel- 

 lar. The bees should be removed from the cellar as early 

 in April as the weather will permit. You will, no doubt, 

 be surprised to see them bringing pollen, and perhaps you 

 will wonder where they get it so early. But if you make 

 investigation you will find them working upon willow, tag- 

 alder, poplar, or hazelnut, or perhaps all of them. This 

 will be a week, or perhaps two weeks, before elm and soft- 

 maple are in bloom. Thus, some bee-keepers make a mis- 

 take by leaving their bees in the cellar till the latter trees 

 bloom. If these simple instructions are implicitly adhered 

 to our winter loss, as a rule, will be nearly nothing. 



As soon as the bees are removed from the cellar and 

 have a cleansing flight, each hive should be cleared of all 

 dead bees. The frames should be rearranged by placing a 

 frame well filled with honey at one side of the hive, and the 

 queen and brood should be placed nest to this frame, and 

 then another well-filled frame should be placed upon the 

 opposite side of the brood. Place oilcloth over the factory 

 cloth, and put on a tight-fitting cover to exclude robber- 

 bees, storms, and wind. 



Then, in ten days or two weeks, should the weather 

 prove favorable, go over them again, and if the bees are 

 sufficiently strong, spread the brood and insert one empty 

 frame of worker-comb in the center of the cluster. In one 

 week repeat the operation, adding two empty combs in those 

 hives having bees enough to cover them well. Continue 

 thus until the brood-chamber is over-flowing with bees and 

 brood in at least six of the eight frames. Then put on an 

 upper story with at least three or four frames of worker- 

 comb, and let the queen have access to this also. 



As soon as the honey-flow begins, confine the queen to 

 the brood-chamber with a queen-excluding honey-board, 

 and if there is any honey to be had I will guarantee the 

 bees will get it. At least this has been my experience. 

 Should the colonies be sufficiently strong add a third story, 

 and as soon as the honey is capped remove and extract. 



Have a sufficient number of large barrels to hold two or 

 three pounds of honey. Remove the heads and insert 



inolasses-gales near the bottom of each barrel. Place these 

 barrels around the walls of the extracting room on strong 

 benches of sullicient height to draw off the honey into f/J- 

 pound cans. 



Have the head of each barrel covered with fine cheese- 

 cloth, through which every ounce of honey should be 

 strained. Leave the honey in the barrel as long as you can 

 conveniently do so, as by so doing, should the barrel con- 

 tain any thin honey, it will rise to the top and ripen by 

 evaporation. Then draw oil the honey into f>0-pound cans. 

 (In my estimation the f)(i-poun<l can is the only perfect 

 package for storing and shipping honey.) Screw down the 

 caps on the cans as tightly as posssible. Then place the 

 cans in cases holding two each, which makes a 120-pound 

 package, net. Securely nail down the covers of the cases, 

 and you can safely ship your honey to any foreign country 

 should you so desire. This package is covenient to handle, 

 free from leakage, and consccjucnt unsightliness. Also, 

 there will be no danger of having fermented honey in any 

 climate. 



You should get all of your clover honey out of the hives 

 by the time the basswood season begins. At the close of 

 the basswood season clean all the combs out again, in case 

 there should be a fall flow of hdney. Thus, you have each 

 variety of honey separate from the others, and should there 

 be a better market for one variety than the other, you are 

 in a position to take advantage of it without any extra 

 expense. 



The secret of success in the honey-business is to do the 

 proper thing at the proper time ; as our seasons here in the 

 North are short, at the best, we must make honey while the 

 sun shines. Vernon Co., Wis. 



The Cause of Spring Kiliing of Drones. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



" I have been keeping bees for about a year and a half now, and 

 read the American Bee .Journal. I want yon to tell me through the 

 columns of that paper what is the trouble with my bees. I have ten 

 colonies that wintered well in the cellar, coming out strong in bees. 

 They are strong now, and I see plenty of them working on the open- 

 ing heads of white clover to-day, but they are killing off their drones. 

 What could the drones have done that they are thus killed ; They 

 are making a business of killing them as much as they did last Sep- 

 tember. What is the cause, and what will be the result '. Two of the 

 ten colonies swarmed a short time ago.'' 



The correspondent seems to think that his drones must 

 have done something very wrong to cause the bees to kill 

 them ; but I hasten to assure him and the readers that his 

 drones were not •' sinners " above other drones, for all 

 drones are treated in the same way under like circum- 

 stances. The failure of flowers, or with a " sea " of bloom 

 and the flowers failing to secrete nectar on account of un- 

 favorable weather, or the atmosphere not being favorable 

 for the secretion of nectar, no matter if the weather appears 

 all right, often causes the bees to kill their drones in May 

 or June, as well as later on in August and September ; and 

 if the scarcity of nectar is great enough, drones just ready 

 to emerge from their cells have the cell-covering gnawed 

 open, and they themselves ruthlessl)' dragged out just be- 

 fore their wings are formed, and before they get even a sip 

 of honey. 



And if the failure of nectar-secretion continues, no 

 matter how nice and fine the weather may appear, till the 

 colony is on the verge of starvation, drone-brood, in its 

 milky condition, is torn from the cells and sucked dry so as 

 to prolong the esistence of the colony, the refuse, not hav- 

 ing any life-supporting qualities left, being cast out at the 

 entrance to puzzle the bee-keeping novice who is not ac- 

 quainted with these things. 



The questioner did not tell us anything about what 

 kind of weather he had been liaving in his locality, nor in 

 which quarter the prevailing winds were. But I suspect 

 that it was very much the same as we frequentlj' have in 

 this locality at about the time of the opening of the white 

 clover bloom, namely, cool, cloudy, and windy, with more 

 or less rain ; or, what is nearly or quite as bad. all clear 

 weather with the air in the northeast. I do not know why 

 it is so, but in this locality we rarely get any secretion of 

 nectar from any source of bloom, when the wind or air con- 

 tinually hangs in a northeast direction. I have known col- 

 onies to be killing their drones and dragging out drone- 

 brood right in the very height of white clover bloom with 

 seemingly nice weather for nectar-secretion, except that 

 there was a northeast air day after day. 



During cool, cloudy weather the bees rush out every 



