April 11, 1907 



319 



AnK*rican Me Journalj^j-^^^ ^^^ J 



them at least part of their own coml)8, for 

 likely they were cleaner than the combs of 

 the strong colonies that died. That is, you 

 would return them to their own liive, and 

 then give them enough full combs from the 

 dead colonies. 



3. Unfortunately such swarming out is not 

 60 very uncommon. It is not swarming in 

 the way of usual swarms later in the season, 

 but merely deserting the hive, and may have 

 been what is called a "hunger swarm," de- 

 serting the hive because near starvation, 

 although sometimes colonies desert in spring, 

 leaving plenty of stores in the hive, and it's 

 not possible to tell why they desertj 



4. Yes, the bees will clean them up, and 

 they will do to hive a swarm on, unless too 

 sour and dirty, in which case the swarm 

 would desert. 



5. I'm not sure whether it would be ex- 

 • actly classed as stimulative feeding, but you 



^ can do nothing better with them than to give 

 them to settled colonies to clean up. Don't 

 give too many at a time, if they are pretty 

 bad; but 2 or 3 at a time in the brood-cham- 

 ber will be oared for all right, giving them in 

 place of combs that are very light in honey. 

 Or, you can give a whole hive-body tilled at 

 one time, putting it under the colony, only 

 you must have things pretty well closed up 

 so as not to invite robbing. Everything must 

 be close and snug except the one entrance at 

 the bottom of the lower story, and that should 

 be as small as possible without troubling the 

 bees about getting out and in. 



6. Yes, just as soon as my hives are taken 

 out of the cellar the entrances are contracted 

 to a hole % to 1 inch square. It helps against 

 robbing, and keeps the bees warmer, day and 

 night. 



7. When you see unusual activity at the 

 entrance, especially if the colony is weak, 

 catch one of the bees that comes out with 

 considerable bustle, kill it, and see if it has 

 honey in its sac. If it goes out with a full 

 sac, you may count there's robbing. Close 

 the entrance so that only 1 or 2 bees can pass 

 at a time, pile hay or straw at the entrance 

 and at the sides till as high as the hive, and 

 drench it well with water. In a large number 

 of the cases of robbing that occur in spring, 

 it is because the colonies are queenless and 

 practically worthless, and the best thing in 

 such case is to let the robbers carry out all 

 the hocey without disturbing them. About 

 the worst thing is to take the hive away, for 

 then the robbers will pitch into the adjoin- 

 ing hives. If you take the hive away, put in 

 its place another hive just like it, with a 

 comb or combs having just a little honey in 

 them, letting the robbers clean out the little 

 honey without disturbing the neighboring 

 colonies. 



Wintered Poorly— His Best Adviser 



OOn March 2.5 I put my bees on the summer 

 stands with but little encouragement. Out 

 of 3" colonies I have only 8 left. That is the 

 result of bad fall honey. I will not do like 

 Mr. " J. T. P.," on page 225, discontinue my 

 best adviser. I will stay by the ''old reli- 

 able" American Bee Journal. 



Chas. 0. Berqstrand. 

 Amery, Wis., March 29. 



Poop Season in 1906— Another Tall 

 Bee-Keeper 



Last year was a poor season for bee-keepers 

 here. I secured 1150 pounds of comb honey 

 and 789 pounds of extracted from 74 colonies, 

 spring count. I now have 90 colonies in good 

 condition. I sell all of my honey around the 

 country and at home at from 14 to 16 cents a 

 pound for comb honey, and lOJ.j cents for ex- 



tracted. It is all sold. I work alone with 

 the liees from spring until the harvest is over, 

 about the first of August. Then after that I 

 work at my trade some, which is that of a car- 

 penter and joiner. 



It seems to me that the Editor of the 

 American Beo .lournal, on page 6fi, is Inclined 

 to boast of Mr. Louis H. Scholl, and that .Mr. 

 .\. K. Koote, on page 216, is somewhat jealous 

 of him, his man, .Mr. Isaac Wayne, being2 

 inches better— ti feet and 4 inches tall. Well, 

 now I think that I must blow my own horn, 

 as there seems to be no one else to do it. I 

 am 6 feel and 8 inches in height now, and un- 

 til 5 or years ago I stood 6 feet 9,'<.' inches in 

 my stocking feet. I was born of German 

 parents in East Troy, Walworth Co., Wis., 

 in February, 1844. I am not a fleshy man, 

 but at present tip the scales at '257 pounds. 

 In the latter part of my teens and twenties I 

 challenged the Slate of Wisconsin for a 

 Badger of my equal or superior, through the 

 Fond du Lao Reporter, but they did not pro- 

 duce him, and I still hesitate to take a back 

 seat. Theo. Rehobst. 



Campbellsport, Wis., April 2. 



Fears Chilled Brood 



We have been having tine weather until the 

 last 3 days. White clover has started and 

 promises to be abundant. 



I took my bees out of the pit, or trench, 

 March 28. Of the 42 colonies buried I took 

 out 39 in good shape; but the sudden chill 

 that has struck us here in Michigan makes 

 me fear chilled brood. C. H. Benson. 



Bellevue, Mich., April 2. 



Results of Last Season 



From 26 colonies last season I took over 

 1600 pounds of section honey, realizing some- 

 thing over $200. I had only one swarm. Here 

 is the report of one colony I kept on the 

 scales: It was No. 13. First week of May, 3 

 pounds; 2d week, 3; 3d week, 17; 4th week, 

 131.,'; 5th week, 19; (3th week, 15; 7th week, 

 7; 8th week, i^.2; 9th week, 4; 10th week, 

 lost 2 pounds ; tlow over. There was a loss 

 of from }^ to ^4 pound per night by evapora- 

 tion. The total yield was 84 pounds of sec- 

 tion honey from this one colony. The best 

 day's work was the last of May, gaining 6% 

 pounds. 



I commence this spring with 29 colonies. 



Bower Mills, Mo. A. E. Patton. 



The Farmer Trade in Honey— Early 

 Spring 



This is about the closing of the season for 

 selling honey, and my honey is about all sold. 

 The farmer trade has been good. I have a 

 good many customers among them that buy a 

 60-pound can of extracted honey at a time. 

 Just the other day I received an order from a 

 prominent farmer not many miles distant, 

 saying that they were going to build, and had 

 decided that honey was cheaper than butter, 

 and ordered two tJO-pound cans. The price 

 was S cents, and he paid the freight. Now 

 if farmers generally should tumble to the 

 fact that honey at S cents is economical, what 

 a change it would make in our business. We 

 would hardly be able to supply the demand. 

 It is the duty of each producer to do his share 

 to educate the public along this line. 



I have sold a good share of my honey the 

 past season in the 10 pound self-sealing pails. 

 I like the package, and shall try each year to 

 sell an increasing percentage in this package 

 unless I can dispose of smaller lots. I get 10 

 cents per pound in the 10-pound pails, and, 

 of course, it pays me to sell as much as I can 

 in that way. I think the paper package de- 

 scribed recently would be a good one, and I 

 wish to try it. I don't see why it would not 

 work just as well for a 2-pound or a 5-pound 

 package as lor a 1 -pound. 



I am not at all opposed to comb-honey pro- 

 duction, but I think the extracted form is the 

 one in which the greater part of it should be 

 used, and always will be. The scarcity of 



comb honi;y will bring the price up to that 

 point where it will pay fome to go to the 

 trouble of producing It, and thus the demand 

 will be supplied. 



On March 21 our bees were out of winter 

 quarters here and carrying pollen, although 

 there were many heavy patches of ice along 

 the river. This is early for this latitude, and 

 may not be for the best advantage of the bees. 

 They may get too much brood started, and, 

 cold weather coming on again, they would be 

 liable to suflter. However, Indications are 

 that spring has come to stay. We hope so. 

 Harrt Lathbop. 



Bridgeport, Wis., March 23. 



Wintered Well in Small Hives 



I have had the l)ees out of the cellar 2 days. 

 They have had a Hue airing, and seem to be 

 all right. I don't know that any have died. 

 We have taken them out about 3 weeks earlier 

 than usual for us, while the weather was cool, 

 so as to prevent the crazy first fiight and 

 mixing up, and have avoided it. I don't 

 think they have mixed worse than if they had 

 wintered on the summer stands; and they 

 are only 4 days later in getting their first 

 flight than the few I had packed in leaves and 

 hay outside. All seem to be strong. I shall 

 know more about them in a few days. Our 

 cellar arrangement has many advantages in 

 this climate, the principal one being that of 

 saving the labor or trouble of heavy hives or 

 pacRing. A small man, weighing about 125 

 pounds, carried out 64 hives in about 2 hours ; 

 and the evening before carried out 40 in 

 about the same time. Smaller hives have 

 some redeeming qualities besides requiring 

 less lumber to make them. 



T. F. Bl\QHAM. 



Farwell, Mich., March 25. 



Requeening a Laying-Worlier 

 Colony 



I have read C. P. Dadant's article on page 

 '235, as given before the Illinois convention, 

 on drone-laying workers, and how to intro- 

 duce a queen to such a colony. By this 

 method I have never succeeded in introducing 

 a queen to such a colony, but by the follow- 

 ing method I have never failed : 



Of course, I have never used tne- comb- 

 honey stopper. My method is to use a queen 

 a year or more old. I first select the queen to 

 be used, put her into a cage without any feed 

 and keep her there for 30 or 40 minutes. 

 Then I take her to the laying-worker colony 

 and gently lift out a comb with no honey, if 

 possible, or little of it, and also with few bees 

 on it. I allow her to crawl from the cage onto 

 the comb where there is no honey or bees. 

 She at once searches tor honey, and will soon 

 run up against some bees that will at once 

 supply her needs, then gently replace the 

 comb and close the hive. Let them alone for 

 4 days or so. She will be laying at once. I 

 have used this plan for a long time and have 

 never lost a queen. It would not do to use a 

 young queen, nor do I think it pays generally 

 to try to save a laying-worker colony. Better 

 unite them with another colony by putting the 

 one over the other with a couple of news- 

 papers between, making a few holes in the 

 center of the paper with a lead-pencil or some 

 other small article. Any colony you wish to 

 unite that way should be reversed, or the end 

 that was front put back, as they will usually 

 eat down through the paper at the end where 

 they think is their entrance, and consequently 

 they come into contact with the bees of the 

 lower colony at the back, and away from the 

 guards. A laying-worker colony of bees 

 must have a frame of emerging bees given to 

 them in 4 or 5 days after the introduction of 

 a queen. 



Bees came through in poor condition gen- 

 erally here, owing to lack of young bees. We 

 should have fed a substitute for pollen last 

 fall, consequently they did not breed up 

 through the winter. All strong colonies are 

 doing well now on mesquite and catclaw. 



Calaveras, Tex., March 29. H. Pipbb. 



