Dec. 4, VM)2. 



THE AMHHICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



777 



hive quite extensively. I noticed all alonp, year after year, 

 that I got considerably more honey from the lO-franie liives, 

 so I decided to try a 12-fratnc hive. I transferred six s-fraine 

 colonies into the 12fraine hives, one having a young queen 

 just starting to lay, and quite strong in bees ; this was in 

 the early part of the season, and that season all the bees 

 bred unusually heavy, and it was also an unusally good sea- 

 son for honey. 



The hive having the young queen filled all 12-fraines 

 vyith brood, leaving scarcely any honey in the brood-nest, 

 and kept it full until fall, v? hile the other five had only from 

 6 to 10 frames full of brood. This is when I first began to 

 notice or believe that egg-laying capacity of a queen was 

 made when she was young. 



The next season I put in use about lOo ll-franie hives, 

 the frames having no bottom-bar, which for brood have a 

 greater capacity than a 12-frame hive having bottom-bars. 



I took particular pains to see what difi'erence, if any, 

 there was in queens from the 8-frame hives, and young 

 queens that started laying in the large hive, and I was con- 

 vinced that there was a vast difference in most cases, and 

 since then, in rearing queens, if I neglect to give a queen 

 the required amount of bees in time — that is, when she is 

 about to begin laying — I find, as a rule, such queens inferior 

 as to laying eggs. 



I wish to speak about comb-building. Nine years ago I 

 bought 10 colonies, and in this lot I found a strain of bees 

 that would not fasten the comb in the sections at the bot- 

 tom or sides, and as I had lost nearly all my bees the winter 

 before, and was practicing natural swarming, I reared sev- 

 eral queens and found their progeny did the same kind of 

 work. I bring out this to show the inherent tendencies in 

 bees. 



There are bees that fasten the combs on all four sides 

 of a section — fasten it before the comb is half finished : that 

 makes comb honey that can be shipped with safety. This I 

 consider a very important point in a good strain of bees, 

 and one that should receive more attention than it has. 



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Our Bee-Keeping Sisters i 



Conducted bij EMMfl M. WILSON, Marenao, III. 



Bee-Literature to Beg-in With. 



What literature in books or pamphlets would be best for 

 a person to read who thought of venturing in a very small 

 ■way in the bee-business? My husband and myself are 

 thinking strongly of doing a little in the line of bee-keep- 

 ing next spring. We are both inexperienced in that line of 

 work, and would be thankful for advice as to what and 

 where we can find such information as we may need. 



Nebraska. 



Answer. — The first thing for you to do is to get a good 

 text-book on beekeeping and study thoroughly. The " A 

 B C of Bee-Culture," Prof. Cook's " Bee-Keeper's Guide," 

 and Dadant's Langstroth are all good, and the instruction 

 that you would get from any of these books is reliable. 

 Either of them can be obtained at the office of the American 

 Bee Journal. 



You can hardly begin too soon being a regular reader 

 of the American Bee Journal — an excellent journal for be- 

 ginners, as well as for those the most advanced. If you do 

 much at bees you will probably want to subscribe for one or 

 more of the other bee-papers later on. 



Beg-inning Bee-Keeping-— Bee-Veils— Gloves — 

 Miller Feeders. 



Three years ago this winter I first became interested in 

 bee-keeping from reading an article on the subject in a 

 farm paper. I bought a copy of " A B C of Bee-Culture," 

 also subscribed for the American Bee Journal and Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture, and these I studied diligently all 

 winter. 



In the spring I bought my first colony of bees ; in fact, 

 the first one that I had ever seen. I have continued to 

 study the subject, also to talk with all the experienced bee- 

 keepers that I chanced to meet, and have received much 

 help from them. I have bought a few new colonies each 



fall since I had my first one. and now I have about 4f) to i>ut 

 into the cellar this winter. I work for both extracted and 

 comb honey, selling the former at 1.5 cents, and the latter 

 at 20 cents a pound. The rows of white hives in our side 

 yard are a good advertisement to the many who drive by, 

 and this fall I could not supply the demand that I had for 

 " some good, pure honey." 



It seems strange that so few women are interested in 

 bee-keeping, but I suppose it is largely because their atten- 

 tion is not called to it. Judging from my own experience 

 there is no comparison in the amount of work between car- 

 ing for a large llock of poultry and managing a moderate- 

 sized apiary ; and I certainly think the bees yield the larg- 

 est profit for the time, labor, and capital invested. 



1. Can Miss Wilson tell me why white veils are not worn 

 instead of black ones? 



2. Also, what kind of gloves does she use ? 



3. How is it possible to fix the Miller feeders so they 

 will not leak even after theseams have been well paraffined? 

 The two that I bought this fall from a bee-supply house 

 were too long for a dovetailed super, and had to be short- 

 ened before they would go in at all. 



Have any of the sisters used the Danz. hives for comb 

 honey ? I just commenced using them the past season, and 

 like them very much. 



I use a small force-pump to spray the bees in swarming- 

 time, and in that way I can nearly always prevent them 

 from going up very high, or out of my reach. 



I hope we shall hear from many of our bee keeping sis- 

 ters in our new department. Mrs. W. S. W. 



Minnesota. 



Answers. — 1. White veils are very hard on the eyes. 

 Black being the absence of all color, it is the nearest look- 

 ing through nothing that we can have. I never realized 

 what a difference it would make until one day I forgot my 

 veil when going to the out-apiary, aud wore one made of 

 white mosquito-bar all day. I assure you I was glad to get 

 back to a black veil again. 



In very warm weather the black veil will sometimes 

 crock. It is a good plan to put a piece of white on the bot- 

 tom edge of your veil, and use a white rubber cord in place 

 of the black. 



2. I use a light-weight buckskin, and like them very 

 much. The more they are worn and washed the better they 

 are so far. I suppose there is a limit to their wearing 

 capacity, and some day they will wear out for good, in 

 which case I hope to get another pair just like them. This, 

 is the first pair of buckskin gloves that I have had, and I 

 have worn them a little over two years, and they are not 

 worn out yet. 



3. Try thick, white paint and let it dry well before 

 using. 



A Cheap Wax-Extractor. 



And a good one, too. Take an old dripping-pan — or a. 

 new one ; split open one corner, and your extractor is made. 

 Put in it the scraps, pieces of combs, cappings. or whatever 

 you have to extract. Better not put in too much at a time. 

 Set the dripping-pan in the oven of the cook-stove, with 

 the slit corner projecting out ; the oven-door, of course, 

 being open. Pat a little stone or something under the end 

 that is the farthest in the oven, so as to raise it half au 

 inch, or an inch. 



Slowly the wax will melt, and as it melts it will trickle 

 towards the split corner, which is lowest. It will not do, of 

 course, to have it fall on the floor, so you must have some- 

 thing standing on the floor for it to drip into. The result 

 will be about as nice wax as you get from the sun extractor, 

 which means it will be very fine. 



The sun extractor is less trouble, and takes less time, 

 but the dripping-pan extractor will work at a time of the 

 year when the sun extractor is taking a vacation, and when, 

 perhaps, you have more time to fuss with it. 



Mice in the Bee-Cellar. 



If you winter your bees in the cellar one of the first 

 things to look after is the mice. While the bees are in a 

 dormant condition, a mouse can do a great deal of damage. 

 A mouse in a hive means holes in your nice combs, which 

 will be filled by the bees with drone-comb next summer, 

 unless you are very careful about it : honey eaten up, and 

 possibly the bees themselves gobbled up. 



It is easier to keep out than to get them out after they 

 are once in. 



A very good plan is to oarricade them out of the hives. 



