1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1357 



ed up the street. The distance was about 

 two miles. It was Decoration day, and the 

 parade was going by. As I shot through the 

 crowd some one said: 



"What on earth is the matter with that 

 hmatic? " 



Another answei'etl : 



"Nothing, only he has got the hives." 



I arrived just as the bees were preparing 

 to move. They were dropping off from the 

 main cluster in bunches about the size of 

 your hst. In an instant they were all on the 

 vying and making across tlie city. But my 

 flgliting blood was up. Those bees were 

 mine, and I did not feel as if it were asking 

 to(» much to have something to say about 

 where I shoukl keep them. I got 'on the 

 Ijike and sailed around the squares until I 

 got well ahead of them. I went into a yard 

 and summoned the family and all the neigh- 

 bors, and assigned each his task. A tub was 

 put under the puiup, and a boy was asked 

 to make the pump-handle vibrate. We all 

 got pails and tilletl them with water, and 

 awaited the arrival of the bees. When they 

 came we certainly had a surprise in store for 

 them. We ducked them, we doused them, 

 we soused them. They thought they had 

 better put up while the cyclone was in oper- 

 ation, and settled in the top of an osage 

 hedge, about fifteen feet from the ground. 

 I borrowed a step-ladder, got a long forked 

 pole from under the clothes-line, put a pail 

 in this fork, and manfully made the ascent. 

 I held up the pail on the pole just under the 

 swarm, and gave the limb a poke. The 

 thing worked out far beyond my expecta- 

 tions. The whole swarm dropped en masse 

 into the pail. This made things so top-heavy 

 that bees, pail, ladder, and myself went 

 charging down through that osiige hedge. 

 () Aljsalom! how I envied you that you had 

 your little fracas in an oak in&.tea"d of an 

 osage hedgel We all landed on the hive in 

 fairly good condition. My veil was left 

 hanging high up in the hedge. The bees 

 took special notice of this fact and got busy. 

 I retreated in great disorder, but quickly 

 set up my outfit and went after that bunch 

 again. 



_ I think 1 bailed them out of that tree about 

 five times before they could understand that 

 I really needed them down there in that hive. 

 But we wheeled them home that night, and 

 in about two weeks they made about fifteen 

 pounds of extra-fancy white-clover honey in 

 Danzenbaker section.s. It was our first; and, 

 wasn't it good? 



A BOTTLE FEEDER. 



I have hit on a device for feeding my bees 

 with a bottle. Put a rag stopper in and put 

 the neck through an auger-hole in the top of 

 the hive. The ficjw can be regulated by 

 tight or loose stopper, on atmospheric-pres- 

 sure principle. J. H. Collins. 



Bardwell, Ky. 



[This form of feeder is by no means new; 

 but it is a good one, nevertheless, under 

 some conditions. — Ed.] 



ALEXANDER METHOD OF BUILDING 



UP WEAK COLONIES IN 



EARLY SPRING. 



Why Some Have Failed. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



In defense of the best and most practicable 

 method that has ever been made public in 

 caring for our weak colonies after taking 

 them from their winter quarters, I feel 

 almost compelled to notice the attack made 

 on that method by A. J. Snowden, in the 

 Sept. 15th issue of Gleanings. As to his 

 statement that I "write things that are not 

 facts," and that in recommending this meth- 

 od I write things that are not practicable, I 

 have only to say that I leave this to intelli- 

 gent bee-keepers to decide for themselves. 



First, I wish it to be understood that this 

 method in question is one that we have been 

 practicing for over 20 years with all our 

 weak colonies in early spring, and that we 

 never lost three per cent of those that were 

 treated in this way. We have had 75 weak 

 colonies at a time on strong ones, and very 

 seldom lost one. 



My friends, I hope you did not notice in 

 his attactk on me his ignorance of handling 

 bees when you read that "a goose or turkey 

 wing is the best kind of brush out." How 

 strange this is, when you and I have always 

 thought that there was nothing that would 

 irritate bees to the stinging-point like brush- 

 ing them with feathers! 



For the benefit of a few bee-keepers who 

 have made a failure of this method, and also 

 for the benefit of a very large number of 

 new subscribers to Gleanings, I will rewrite 

 this method in question, and make it as plain 

 as I can. 



About six or seven days after taking your 

 bees from their winter quarters, pick' out 

 and mark all your weak colonies, also your 

 strongest ones, marking an equal number of 

 each; then all weak colonies that have a 

 patch of brood in one comb about as large 

 as your hand. Set all such on top of a strong 

 colony with a queen-excduder between, clos- 

 ing up entrances to the weak colony except 

 through the excluder. Then there a're those 

 that are very weak that have only a queen, 

 and perhaps not more than a handful of bees 

 with no brood. Fix these last named in this 

 way: Go to the strong c^^lony you wish to set 

 them over, and get a frame of 'brood with its 

 adhering bees, Ijeing sure not to take their 

 queen; then put the queen of the weak colo- 

 ny on this comb with the strange bees, and 

 put it into the weak hive; leave them in this 



