Vol. XIV. 



JULY 1, 1886. 



No. 13. 



TERMS: 81. OOPbrAnnum, IN ADVANCE;! T? ,,+ r^ 'Ul n o'h n r] -! in 1 Q 'V ^ f Clubs to ditferent postofflceB, NOT LKfB 

 2 Oopiestor$1.90;3for82.76;5for84.00i I IliCi L(J/Uiio rVtyiV Lib ±0 t O. | than 90 cts. each. Sent postpaid, in the 

 '" .-.--. ' U. S. and Canadae. To all other conn- 



1 tries of the Universal Postal Union, 18o 

 To all countries not of 



10 or more, 75 cts. each. Single Number, ' 

 5 cts. Additions to clubs maybe made , 

 at club rates. Above are all to be sent 



TO ONK P08TOFFICK. j 



PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY 



A.I. ROOT, MEDINA, OHIO. Ifheu.p'.u.^^c 



per year extra. 



NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. 



No. '■{). 



CLEANING HONEY-BOARDS. 



T|p S I have mentioned before, the only ob.iection 

 gflW that I have to the wooden queen-e.xcluding- 



1^1? honey-boards is, that the bees fill the holes 

 •'■'^ with propolis and wa.\. They arc more in- 

 clined to do this when but little honey is be- 

 ing' brought in. I have just been cleaning' about 

 .50 of them. I tooli a i)iece of hard wood, two inches 

 wide, ^4 incli thiclf, and seven or eight inches long-. 

 One end of this was carefully planed down ujx)!! 

 the sides until it was exactlj- "> 3;i thiclc. This thin 

 end was placed over an opening' that was filled up, 

 and the upper end given a lig'ht rap with a hammer, 

 which clears the hole pretty etlectually. To pre- 

 vent the stick going' through too far, a nail is driven 

 through it half an inch from the lower end. The 

 honey-board is supported by placing it upon two 

 Heddon cases set upon the floor, perhaps four or 

 five inches apart; but this operation did not free 

 the holes so conii)lctely as I could Avish, as there 

 seemed to be a little wa.v adhering to the sides. To 

 remove this, a ten-penny nail was fastened into a 

 bit-stocl£, thrust into each opening, and turned 

 slightly until the corners scraped the sides of the 

 hole as it was passed from one end to the other of 

 the slot. This cleaned them out completely. I have 

 been making some honey-boards like Tinker's; that 

 is, they are similar to the Heddon slat honey-l)oard, 

 except that the edges of the shits arc grooved with 

 a fine saw, and strips of perforated zinc slipped 

 in between the slats. They cost a trifle less than 



an all-zinc boai"d; have the desirable rigidity so 

 necessary for keeping the bee-spaces exact, and I 

 no not Uxbik the bees will fill the holes anymore 

 than they would in an allzinc board. 



SWARMING-OUT MANIA. 



I have never had bees " act so " about staying in 

 their hives after being hived, as this season. 1 do 

 not know to what to attribute it, unless it be the 

 light flow of honey that characterized the fore part 

 of the season. Don't say it was because they didn't 

 like the new Heddon hive, as all were not hived in 

 that; in fact, the two swarms that gave the most 

 trouble (one coming out four and the other five 

 times) weie hived in the old style of Heddon hive. 

 I thought it might be caused by contracted brood- 

 chambers, until two swarms re-swarmed that did 

 not even fill the brood chamber— swarms that had 

 no business to have swarmed in the first place, as 

 they were not strong enough, and swarmed, 1 sup- 

 pose, simply because their neighbors did. As the 

 honey-flow improved, so did the behavior of the 

 bees; still, an occasional swarm "acts up." After 

 we ha<l lost three swarms by their " going west" 

 (evei-y one went it'fst), preconceived notions were 

 tossed to the winds, and we fell to 



C'l.lPPINO THE QUEENS' WINGS. 



The first swarm came out and left early in the 

 season— so early that we didn't expect if. It kindly 

 came up past the house, though, to say " good-by," 

 but too high above us to " shake hands." The sec- 

 ond swarm left in spite of the combined efforts of 

 two whole families. Brother and I followed it about 

 a mile, and our wives and the twins followed us, 

 or Uial to follow us, with pails of water; and when 

 we returned, tired, hot, disgusted, chagrined, and 



