A\-2 



GJ.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sett, 



^V ATE 16 ANI> SUC5AU, FOR SHIPPING 

 OEGS. 



THE ()I,I) liOTTLE gUEEN-CAGE, AFTEK ALL. 



ST would seem that my old idea of a bottle 

 of water, and pure sugar, for l)ees dur- 

 — ' iug the intense heat of summer, or for 

 long shipments, is to be the old stand-by, 

 after all. I noticed that the Cyprian and 

 iloly-Laud (jueens sent us by friend Jones 

 last year came with sugar and water, and an 

 abundance, too, of both. In the Ccnadidn 

 F((r]iin\ot August o, friend Jones tells how 

 lie i)repares bees for shipment from these 

 foreign ports: — 



It is a very difficult matter to import them to this 

 country. Those colonies I bought in Palestine I had 

 sent down to the coast, and had them forwai-ded by 

 steamer to Cyprus. There they were transferred 

 I'rom the cylinders into movable-frame hives. I 

 then made a bo.\ about 4.\r>.x6 inches, out of pine 

 lumber. I put a screen on the bottom and one in 

 in the top, each about three inches square, to let the 

 air pass tiirough. In one end of the li>ox I fixed 

 a bottle filled with water, and having- a cork 

 through which a cutting was made for a wiclc. 

 Through this cutting 1 drew a cotton wick, and by 

 capillarj' attraction this wick is kept wet with the 

 water, and the bees drink and then c-.it some granu- 

 lated sugar, which I fastened upon the other end of 

 the box b.v pouring it in hot and allowing it to coo). 

 Between the bottle and the sugar I had a comb with 

 a little syrup in it. There was a queen, and from 

 ItjO to :300 bees in this box. I had a crate made to 

 hold 27 of these bo.xes. and they were separated from 

 each other by about an inch and a half, S!> that a cur- 

 rent of air always passed around every bo.v. I have 

 Some bees that were kept six weeks in that way, 

 and during the whole time they were tlown only 

 once ; that was when I arrived in London. Some o'f 

 the bees appeared to need this, and others did not. 

 The water was very bad, and I have given instruc- 

 tions that in future consignments the water should 

 be boiled before being put into the bottle ; this will 

 purify it. 



The A'iallon candy answered admirably 

 until the great heat' and drought of July, 

 and then we found 11 queens out of 21 dead, 

 in a single shipment from Viallon himself. 

 They Avere about 5 days on the way ; but 

 when the air is so very dry. and the weather 

 so very hot, water seems an absolute neces- 

 sity. "Besides, with the water-bottle, if any 

 error or delay happens, the bees are ordin- 

 arily safe for at least two weeks. This is, 

 of course, where the water and sugar are 

 separate, so there can be no daubing and 

 stickiness, and no fermentation of the water 

 and sugar. 



^^ «e« w 



HO^V TO GET HONEY— AND MONEY. 



KV A TEXAN FRIEND. 



MOW to prevent an increase of stocks, and at 

 the same time keep the bees working vigoi'- 

 ^^^^ ously during the swarming season, and 

 cause them to store honey instead of spending their 

 time and energy during a honey yield in attempts at 

 reproduction, is a problem that interests bee-keep- 

 ers who find more profit in raising honey than from 

 the sale of bees and queens. Ever.v bee-keeper has 

 noticed that a swarm of bees placed in a new hive, 

 and given a new location, will do more work in a 

 given time than will the same number of bees in al- 

 most any other condition. It is also known that, 

 during the swarming season, the flowers yield honey 

 in great profusion. Now, how to preserve the col- 

 ony intact, and get the benefit of the business en- 



ergy peculiar to a new swarm out of the whole thing 

 by causing them to store honey instead of raising 

 queens and bees, is the question. I hai'dly think any 

 plan will (tJuaijs succeed; but I will give y^u the 

 most successful one I have ever tried. 



Try to prevent swarming by giving the bees all the 

 room they will profitably use; but, if they are not 

 satisfied, and swarm out anyhow, capture the swarm 

 in a box or empty hive; place them in a cool shaded 

 place in the dark, with bi)X slightly raised to give 

 them air. The shade of a tree or house will do, and 

 a stick undci- the edge of the hive will give them 

 air, while a thick blanket or bed-quilt spread over 

 the box, and allowed to come in close contact with 

 the ground all around, will produce the darkness 

 needed to keep them quiet. Place an empty hive 

 where you wish to locate your new colony— any 

 place away from the old stand will do— and, after 

 sunset, when the bees are all in, bring the hive that 

 cast the swarm, and the box containing the swarm, 

 alongside your new hive; shake the bees from one 

 or two combs near the entrance to the new hi\ e, 

 and, after removing the queen-cells, place the combs 

 in also. Now sh.ike your swarm down with the oth- 

 er bees, and let all go in together. AVhile the 

 swarm is going into the new hive, take the other 

 combs from the old one, shake ott the bees with the 

 others, remove the queen-cells, and place them (the 

 frames) in also. Add another story, if necessary, 

 with your surplus arrangements, and lean a board 

 in front of the entrance for a day or two. 



If you have done the work properly, and removed 

 nil the queen-cells, you have furnished all the con- 

 ditions the instinct of a new swarm requires, and 

 preserved the united strength of the parent colony 

 and the swarm intact, and the reunited colony will 

 work as vigorously as a swarm hived separately 

 from the parent stock. " To sum it all up," the bees 

 have started queen-cells under the swarming im- 

 pulse; thev have swarmed out from the old hive 

 with the queen, and forsaken their old location. 

 You have given them a new home,a new location, and 

 plenty of room, and their reproductive instinct is 

 satisfied— at least until they have filled the space 

 you have given them; and if they are judiciously 

 managed, by removing the stores before they arc 

 too much crowded, they will, nine times in ten, re- 

 main satisfied throughout the season. 



I do not expect you, and others who are more in- 

 terested in the sale of queens and bees than in the 

 production of honey, to feel any interest in what I 

 have written; but we who can get more cash out of 

 honey than from the sale of bees, or who, from va- 

 rious causes, find our supply of hives running short 

 when it is impossible to obtain more in proper time, 

 will ever feel an interest in any plan that may save 

 our bees and direct their energj' at this particular 

 time to the production of that which will bring us 

 the most solid comfort— cash. 



While writing this, I have tried to keep one of the 

 babies quiet by holding him on my knee, and another 

 by talking to it and petting it in various ways, 

 while the "madam" and the other seven young 

 "Texans" are out for a stroll. If my ideas have 

 been poorly and disconnectedly expressed, I plead 

 the circumstances an excuse. J. J. Taylok. 



Hichland Springs, Tex., July 20, 1881. 



Xow, you do me nijustice, friend T., for I 

 am interested in comb honey ; in fact, I 

 have done just what you mention, and know 

 it will work- 1 am really afraid I am inter- 



