SEPTEMB?:R 15, 1914 



735 



Heads (D)f Grain fronini Differeelt Fields 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER 



When you read in the paper about these new- 

 made fortunes takin' wing, you don't think much 

 about it, but when your new five-dollar queen gets 

 tired of your foolin' manipulations and does the 

 same, you do. 



A Modification of the Somerford Method of 

 Making Increase 



My bees are in the more mountainous section of 

 Western North Carolina, where we have the fruit- 

 blossoms in the latter part of April, and whitewood 

 (poplar) about the middle of May. It was my in- 

 tention to raise a few queens and make increase of 

 some twenty hives about the first of April ; but for 

 several reasons I was unable to get the time, and put 

 it off until May 10 when I found that quite a num- 

 ber of hives had contracted the swarming fever, and 

 upon going over the hives I found that ten of them 

 had swarmed and in many cases queens had hatched. 

 Of course this condition could have been avoided had 

 I been on the ground; but as I am 150 miles off I 

 misjudged the season, as I learned from the condi- 

 tion of the bees. Wintering was splendid, blossoms 

 were earlier than usual, and I was rather backward 

 As my time was limited I decided, upon finding the 

 conditions as they were, to make a small increase in 

 this way : I merely went to those hives which had 

 sealed queen-cells and cut them all out, saving from 

 each hive one fine cell; and, taking this frame and 

 one other and placing them in the center of a pre- 

 pared hive and replacing them in the old hive with 

 frames of foundation, first having located the queen 

 and shaking most of the bees before the new hive 



viiicli I had placed close beside the old one, I then 

 placed a super with full sheets of foundation on the 

 old hive and left it in position. Now, as soon as 

 most of the shaken bees entered the new hive I 

 closed the entrance tight with grass and moved it to 

 a new location some 30 feet distant and left the 

 entrance closed for about three hours. I then re- 

 moved the grass and contracted the entrance to about 

 one-fourth, and found that in two hours from the 

 time I removed the grass a few bees were bringing 

 in pollen, and quite a good many were bringing in 

 honey. The whitewood had just begun, and the bees 

 were very busy on it. I judge that about half the 

 bees shaken returned to the old hive; but upon in- 

 vestigation after the fifth day I found the new colo- 

 nies about as busy as any of them. The old hives in 

 four out of nine cases were working splendidly in 

 the supers placed on five days before. 



I tried the experiment a little differently with one 

 hive as follows: This hive was very strong, but had 

 not contracted the swarming fever so far as I could 

 detect, only a few young drones unsealed being m 

 the hive, though the hive was filled to the tenth 

 frame with brood. I selected a fine queen-cell from 

 another hive, took this and three frames of brood 

 and placed them in a new hive as I did in the other 

 cases ; located the queen, and shook most of the bees 

 before the new hive and proceeded to put the old 

 hive in shape and placed a super as I did on the 

 others. I then closed, as I thought, the entrance to 

 this hive as I did the others; but upon returning 

 after three or four hours I found that I had, without 

 knowing it, slipped the hive forward on its bottom- 

 board until the hive overlapped the side strips form- 

 ing the entrance about % of an inch. Upon exam- 

 ination I found that nothing but young bees were on 

 the combs, and not enough of them to keep the brood 

 warm, I feared, as it was getting very cool that day, 

 and, as it turned out, went nearly to forty that night. 

 I took the frames out of this hive and gave them to 

 two hives I had made the day before, as I did not 

 consider the operation successful. The colony from 

 which I took the brood, with the exception of the 

 frame containing a queen-cell which I destroyed 

 I'pon giving the frame to the new colony (made the 

 day before) immediately commenced work in the 

 supers. After placing supers and getting my bees 

 in condition so I could leave them a few weeks I re- 

 turned to this city. With the exception mentioned, 

 all the new colonies were doing splendidly one week 

 after they were " made." 



Our honey crop consists of whitewood, sourwood, 

 aster, the season coming respectively. 



Knoxville, Tenn., May 29. John Ewbank. 



Trouble with the Smoke Method of Intro- 

 ducing. 



My bees this season are certainly not Jormal or 

 else their education has been badly neglected. In 

 attempting to requeen and Italianize a new apiary 

 I stumbled on to some nuts that were hard to crack. 

 Some colonies especially persisted in refusing queens 

 by the mailing-cage method, no matter how ihey were 

 prepared. Some, queenless for weeks, repeatedly 

 balled their would-be foster mother, and even de- 

 stroyed virgins hatched in their own hive — these 

 from protected cells. 



The Miller smoke method was then tried, with no 

 better success, and we have come to the conclusion 

 many things happen that are apparently nexplica- 

 ble, even if we have been beekeepers for orty years. 



This season nearly the entire work was turned 

 over to my associate, an enthusiastic beginner and 

 a painstaking one. When the last queens arriv«d. 



