GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



David Runuius's home yard at Filion, Mich., from which over 10,000 lbs. of honey was harvested last season. 



cious advertising. The stamps should be 

 beautifully engi-aved, and the first thing one 

 thinks of is a clover-head with a bee. Some 

 other flowers would engTave nicer than a 

 clover-head, and the flower need not neces- 

 sarily be a honey-producer. I would sug- 

 gest a calla lily, or lily-of-t he-valley, and I 

 would have a very little reading-matter — 

 say, for instance, " Eat Honey " at the top 

 of the stamp, and the initials of the Nation- 

 al at the bottom. The stamp fad is a fad 



everywhere now, especially if the stamp is 

 artistic, and I found a lot of pleasure in 

 using a lot of Red Cross seals, and find thai 

 other people are inclined the same way. I 

 have explicit faith in this if tried out, and 

 it would not cost a great deal to try it. 

 We shall not know till we try, like the man 

 who could not distinguish his mushrooms 

 from toadstools. " Eat them; if you live 

 they were mushrooms; but if you die they 

 were toadstools," said he. 

 Indianapolis, Ind. 



NO SWARMS EXCEPT FROM OCCASIONAL SUPERSEDURE COLONIES 



BY DAVID RUNNING 



Our home apiary, as shown in the illus- 

 trations, gave us last season a surplus of 

 9972 lbs. besides what we ate and gave 

 away, which would make the total surplus 

 considerably more than 10,000 lbs. We try 

 to see that all colonies are headed with good 

 queens in July or ea^rl^y Augaist. All colo- 

 nies are fed up for winter between Sept. 20 

 and Oct. 1, and we make sure that each 

 colony has an abundance of stores to last 

 until fruit-bloom the spring following. I 

 consider this important in this northern 

 locality. 



Our bees are all wintered in the cellar, 

 and are put in about Nov. 20, depending 

 somewhat on weather conditions at that 

 time. Our winter loss is usually less than 

 one per cent. We take them out the latter 

 part of March or early April — this, too, 

 depending someAvhat on the weather. 



We take the hives out at night and close 



all entrances down to about % by 3 inches 

 so the bees will fly slowly when the weather 

 warms up. We do not open any hives till 

 fruit-bloom, as we have made sure the fall 

 previous that all colonies have plenty of 

 stores to last initil that time, and we do not 

 want covers loosened to allow the heat to 

 escape. During fruit-bloom all queens are 

 clipped, and such other manipulations as 

 are deemed necessary are attended to, such 

 as equalizing stores, etc. 



We use the eight-frame hive entirely ; 

 and as soon as more room is needed an 

 extra body of drawn combs is given on top 

 without queen-excluder. About a week or 

 ten days later the queen is shaken down 

 into the lower story, a queen-excluder put 

 on, a super of drawn combs is added, and 

 what was formerly the upper story is plac- 

 ed on top again, making the colony three 

 stories high. At this time our clover flow 



