1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULl URE. 



897 



anyhow) then the hives should be covered 

 with loose snow. But be careful to see that 

 the entrance does not become clogged. Your 

 best way to increase is by shaking swarms 

 artificially, as described in these columns 

 last year and this. — Ed.] 



Perhaps Dr. Miller can an- 



RETURNING SWARMS NOT SATISFACTORY. 



Mr. Root:— A few thoughts along the line 

 of returning swarms, and you can make any 

 use of them you have a mind to. I have 

 practiced returning swarms to the parent 

 colony or to other colonies anywhere and 

 everywhere more or less for the past five or 

 six years, and with all kinds of experiences. 

 I have but the one yard, and I think that 

 about 80 to 100 colonies is about all that my 

 location will stand (and sometimes I think 

 that is too many, though I have 115 now), 

 so I hive back and double up anyway to hold 

 them together (and sometimes I don't suc- 

 ceed in holding them where I want them ; 

 then I hold where I can), and I have about 

 made up my mind that it is worse than use- 

 less to try to return a prime swarm with a 

 laying queen back to a full brood-nest with 

 any degree of certainty of holding it there 

 more than from one to four days. I am 

 well aware that a plan will work sometimes 

 at or near the close of the honey-flow that 

 will not at the beginning or in the midst of 

 the flow ; and in some localities that will not 

 in others. 



Three years ago I tried, toward the latter 

 end of the season, the plan of taking three or 

 four frames of brood from the old colony. I 

 cut the queen-cells from the frames left, and 

 returned the swarm with the old queen to the 

 colony (on the old stand), and it worked 

 nicely the next season. I tried it again as 

 soon as they commenced swarming ; had 

 hived back about ten or twelve swarms that 

 way, and built up seven new colonies with 

 the brood taken away, when all at once 

 they commenced swarming again, and near- 

 ly all cast swarms in one day got mixed up 

 together ; and before 2 o'clock I had ten 

 swarms all in one bunch, and it took me 

 two days to get them straightened around 

 again so as to know what I was doing ; and 

 five out of the seven new colonies built up 

 cast a swarm the fourteenth day after being 

 built, so that scheme was a failure. 



As soon as I get what increase I want I 

 kill the old queen, and run the swarm back 

 to the old hive and cut the queen-cells out 

 on the eighth day, which usually settles that 

 colony for the season unless I am careless 

 enough to miss a queen-cell. I say "usual- 

 ly," because it does not always. I think 

 Dr. Miller said in the A )ner'i can Bee Journal 

 two or three years ago that he never knew 

 a young queen raised in the parent colony to 

 swarm that season ; but I have had three 

 such queens lead off swarms this season, 

 and one of them was less than 30 days old 

 from the cell. The oldest one of the three 

 was just 37 days old. Is the difference in 

 the bees or in the locality ? 



Jarretts, Minn. S. LaMont. 



[I give it up. 

 swer. — Ed.] 



A lesson in bee-escapes. 



At the beginning of the clover-honey flow 

 I put a set of narrow extracting-frames on 

 one of our colonies, thinking to get them 

 early into the habit of storing above the 

 brood-nest. I secured that result in short 

 order. Wishing to substitute sections for 

 the frames I raised them up one evening-, 

 put on a super of sections, the escape-board, 

 then the frames, and cover over all, intend- 

 ing to run the bees from the frames above 

 on to the sections. About the middle of the 

 forenoon of next day I noticed something 

 wrong about that stand. Investigation 

 showed the extracting-super full of confined 

 bees, hot, and mostly dead — melted combs, 

 dripping honey — in short, a muss. As many 

 as four quarts thus perished, including their 

 laying queen. I cleaned all up as well as I 

 could, allowed them to requeen, and secured 

 some nice sections later on. 



The cause of the trouble was too little 

 space between the escape outlet and the 

 board. I found two large drones caught 

 there, cutting off the exit entirely, hence 

 the trouble and loss. The conclusion is ob- 

 vious, that the escape-board should never 

 act as a trap. Richard Simmons. 



Sylvania, Pa. 



[We have had reports before of drones 

 clogging the escapes, but the occurrences of 

 this kind are comparatively rare. —Ed.] 



H. C. MOREHOUSE AND THE WESTERN DE- 

 PARTMENT. 



It was with the greatest disappointment I 

 read of the death of H. C. Morehouse, and 

 the resultant stopping of his "Western De- 

 partment" in Gleanings, which especially 

 appealed to me as a Western bee-keeper as 

 being just what I wanted— some way to keep 

 posted locally. By all means, try to contin- 

 ue this department, as I feel that it fills a 

 long-felt want among others as well as with 

 myself. C. Alton. 



Paonia, Col., Aug. 17, 1904. 



[We have made arrangements to continue 

 the department under J. A. Green, as you 

 will see. —Ed.] 



"CHUNK honey" ahead. 



The honey crop around here appears to be 

 a rnedium one. I have found out since I 

 moved here that all the while I was hauling 

 loads of splendid comb honey, and getting 

 from 12 to 16 cts. per lb. at the stores, there 

 are a good many bee-keepers here who pro- 

 duce "chunk honey" altogether, and retail 

 it at from 16 to 25 cts. per lb. They ped- 

 dle it out, but say they can sell all they can 

 raise. J. Hammond. 



Portsmouth, Ohio, Aug. 23. 



[Similar cases have been reported at vari- 

 ous times. Chunk honey can often be sold 

 locally and at good prices— better than can 

 be had in No. 1 sections. The comb honey 

 lies are responsible for this. —Ed. [ 



