626 



August, 1907. 



American Vee Journal 



years in succession being failures, the 

 outlook is certainly somewhat discour- 

 aging; but as our average from clover 

 for the 7 preceding years was about lOO 

 pounds per colony, we still look for a 

 return period of prosperous years. Any 

 way, as the President of the Ontario 

 Association said last year in his address, 

 "We are one year nearer a large crop, 

 than we were a year ago." 



The basswood looks well and is just 

 opening, and as I write (July 22) we 

 are having a splendid rain. With favor- 

 able weather we might get some honey 

 from that source, but basswood, with us, 

 is such an uncertain yielder that any 

 honey from it will come as a happy 

 surprise. Quite an acreage of buck- 

 wheat has been sown, so there is a pos- 

 sibility that the bees may get enough at 

 least for winter stores. 



Heavy Loss of Bees 



During the past month I have been in 

 different sections throughout Central 

 Ontario, and the thing that has struck 

 me most forcibly is the tremendous loss 

 of bees during last spring and winter. 

 Fifty percent would not be an exaggera- 

 tion, and while the heaviest losses are 

 among the farmers who have bees, yet 

 many of the specialists have been hit — 

 and hit hard, too. One thing is certain, 

 for the ne.xt few years, for what honey 

 is obtained, good prices are assured. 



Another thing that has impressed me, 

 is the great carelessness that so many 

 bee-keepers show in the care (?) of 

 their bees, and the wonder is that some 

 have any bees left at all. In differ- 

 ent places one will find section-cases on 

 the hives without any foundation in the 

 sections, and, in a few places, cases with- 

 out even empty sections in. It reminds 

 one of the Egyptian taskmasters who 

 forced the Israelites to make "bricks 

 without straw" ; and yet these same bee- 

 keepers will wonder why their bees 

 "don't do well!" 



Needless to say, when foul brood is 

 found in bees kept under such lax con- 

 ditions, it means a lot of trouble for the 

 bee-keepers, inspector, and all con- 

 cerned. _ 



Requeening- Colonies 



At the Chicago-Northweistern Con- 

 vention last year, the following question 

 was asked : 



"Shall we requeen colonies having old 

 queens, or let the bees do the work 

 of superseding?" 



In the discussion on this question, 

 opinions were about equally divided, 

 such veterans as Dr. Miller, Hutchin- 

 son and others were undecided in their 

 views; Taylor, Abbott and some others 

 would leave the matter to the bees ; and 

 Mr. France would practice requeening. 



My own experience would lead me to 

 say that if we know that a queen is 

 about to fail, by all means supersede 

 her, as here, in "our locality," the bees 

 do not always, by any means, attend to 

 the matter. As one member pointed out, 

 queens are not all old at the same age, 

 some playing out at one year, while 

 others will give good service at 3 or 4 



years. Yet, as a rule, queens in their 

 third year are not to be depended upon. 

 As an exception to this rule I might 

 mention the fact that last year we had 

 a queen that was 7 years old. There 

 was no mistake about this at all, as the 

 queen — a Carniolan — was clipped, and 

 up to the 6th year her colony was al- 

 ways one of the best in the yard. In 

 the spring of her Sth year, the queen 

 looked more like a large ant than a 

 queen-bee, and the hive was marked 

 for supersedure. In the spring of her 

 6th year she was still there, looking 

 much the same; and in i9o6^her 7th 

 year — the colony was only in medium 

 condition, the queen hardly able to 

 crawl around, a daughter taking her 

 place during fruit-bloom. 



Previous to the past spring, nearly 

 my entire loss during winter and spring 

 wajs from {^ihng queens ; and I think 

 I am safe in saying that fully 90 per- 

 cent of the weak colonies I have exam- 

 ined this year have been headed by old, 

 failing queens. By all means, let us 

 requeen more, and not trust to the bees 

 to do their own superseding. 



Making- Increase by Dividing' 

 Colonies 



Methods of Rendering Beeswax 



A short time ago, while traveling, I 

 met a gentleman who is proprietor of a 

 silver-plating establishment. Finding 

 that I was a bee-keeper, he informed 

 me that they used a very large amount 

 of beeswax in their factory in the proc- 

 ess of manufacturing their different 

 wares. He was anxious to buy wax, 

 but would do so only by having samples 

 first submitted for trial, as he said that 

 wa.x rendered by certain processes was 

 absolutely useless for their purpose. He 

 referred to the process of pressing out 

 the wax under hot water, and said they 

 had bought a large quantity of wax ren- 

 dered in this way, and that they could 

 not use it. Wax from cappings was 

 not suitable for their purpose, either; 

 the ideal wax for their use being that 

 rendered from old combs in the cold- 

 press — the Hatch-Gemmill for instance. 



While wa,x rendered by thei hot-water 

 press is all right for foundation pur- 

 poses, from unbiased reports to hand, 

 there seems to be no question that for 

 some purposes it is not as good as wax 

 taken by the old processes. 



Only a few days ago I received a let- 

 ter from a prominent Ontario bee-keep- 

 er who has both styles of presses. He 

 says: "The hot-water press gets all the 

 wax all right, but the quality of wax 

 is not nearly so good as that taken from 

 the Hatch-Gemmill." Although he has 

 the hot-water press, yet he first puts 

 the old combs through the unheated 

 press, and afterwards runs the slumgum 

 through the other machine. 



While on the subject of wax-presses, 

 I believe the writer owes the American 

 Bee Journal readers an apology for not 

 reporting, as promised, results of ex- 

 periments in heating some hundreds of 

 pounds of slumgum with the Hershiser 

 press. By way of excuse, I will say 

 that circumstances have prevented me, 

 up to the present, from doing the work. 

 However, the slumgum is still on hand, 

 and as soon, as the work is done, re- 

 sults will be published. 



In the present article I wish to call 

 attention to a few of the details of 

 "shook" swarming that are of prime im- 

 portance if this method of handling bees 

 is to be made a success. 



When increase is desired part of the 

 bees and queen are shaken out in front 

 of a hive placed on the old stand and 

 fitted with frames of foundation or 

 drawn-out combs. The old brood-combs 

 with some adhering bees are then placed 

 upon a new stand, and the queen-cells 

 already started are allowed to remain. 

 To prevent after-swarming only one or 

 two of the best cells are left, 'and from 

 these the mother of the colony is pro- 

 duced. 



This plan has several very severe 

 faults, and, if practised for any length 

 of time, will result in a deterioration 

 of the whole yard. Chief among the 

 objections to it might be mentioned 

 three that are of primary importance : 



First. — The shaken swarm on the old 

 stand is not as strong in bees as it 

 might be, because part of the bees have 

 been left with the brood. 



Second. — Much of the brood set on 

 the new stand will perish, especially 

 the younger portion of it, even if a 

 considerable quantity of bees are left to 

 look after it. 



Third. — The resulting queens are 

 about the most worthless productions 

 that it is possible for the bee-keeper to 

 turn out. 



A plan that will give all the bees to 

 the shaken swarm, and dispose of the 

 brood in such a way that it is all saved, 

 and at the same time give opportunities 

 for a considerable increase if desired, 

 is outlined below. 



First, set aside several colonies that 

 are strong enough to enter supers read- 

 ily if such should be given. These are 

 to be used as nurse-colonies for the 

 brood taken from the shaken swarms, 

 and when the season has advanced so 

 that preparations for swarming have 

 commenced in some colonies, take away 

 all the brood from such, and replace 

 with frames of foundation. During this 

 operation smoke the bees well and see 

 that they have filled up with honey. 

 Clean all the bees off the brood-combs, 

 and let them run in with the rest, and 

 give them back their supers. This puts 

 all the bees in with the shaken swarm. 



Go over the brood and destroy the 

 queen-cells that may have been started. 

 Put queen-excluders on the nurse-colo- 

 nies and divide this first lot of brood 

 up among two or three in supers placed 

 above the queen-excluders. By using 

 judgment, and not giving a colony at 

 first more brood than it can attend to, 

 the brood-combs will all be looked af- 

 ter, and the nurse-colony to which they 

 have been given will increase in bees 

 at a surprising rate. In a very short 

 time the supers can be filled out with 

 brood-combs taken from other shaken 

 swarms, and after these have been in 

 the hive for a few days, whole supers 

 of combs can be added at a time, until 

 the hive is several stories high above 

 the queen-excluder, .^fter these brood- 

 combs have been tiered up for a week 



