1082 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



or four, as the case may be, those which 

 will make the nearest to 6 or 7 pounds, and 

 put them together, shaking them up so as to 

 confuse them so they will not fight, and so 

 they will mark their location better; then 

 hive them on your combs the same as you 

 would a swarm in summer." 



"And you think the experiment will be 

 successful if I use that number of bees to 

 the hive, and do the work as we have 

 talked?" 



"All of my experience during the past 

 says you will. In fact, in every case where 

 I have gotten bees in this way they have 

 come out good and strong the next spring, 

 generally better than my other colonies, and 

 done finely the next season. If I were 

 starting in bees I would run them for combs 

 of honey, for this purpose, for the first year 

 or two, were I sure I could get for the driv- 

 ing all the bees needed to stock them." 



" How lately have you tried this? " 



"Only last fall. I heard of a man four 

 miles away who found a runaway swarm, 

 and hived it in a cracker-box. The person 

 telling me said he was going to kill them 

 soon, so I went up and saw him, asking if I 

 would come and get the bees, giving him the 

 honey if I might have the bees. He was 

 only to glad to have me do this, as it reliev- 

 ed him of the disagreeable job of killing the 

 bees, which job he knew nothing how to do. 

 The bees from this cracker-box weighed 

 five pounds two ounces; but they came out 

 fully as strong last spring as any colony I 

 had at the out-apiary, where I took them 

 when hiving." 



PROPOLIS ON COMB HONEY; THE AVERAGE 

 MAN'S OPINION of" HONEY. 



Is there any way to keep bees from putting 

 so' much propolis all over my honey and sec- 

 tions as to throw all of it into No. 2? This 

 is a fairly good season here, but, oh the 

 bee- glue! I sometimes gather a large hand- 

 ful froiji one super, or more thin I would 

 get in a whole season in Eaton, Ind., my 

 former home. I am compelled to sell my 

 best at 15 cts. in the home market. People 

 here think all this white honey is machine- 

 made, and very little of it is used. Just to 

 show you how little they know I will relate 

 a little experience. A few days ago I was 

 with a real-estate agent looking at some 

 property. We passed a bush of some kind 

 on which the bees were working very busily. 

 I said, "Look at the bees!" I told him I 

 kept bees at home. He said, " Take a hand- 

 ful of the flowers home and feed them to 

 your bees. " Another man asked if the hon- 



ey was ready to eat, or did it have to be 

 cooked or fixed up some way? Now, both of 

 these were old men. Is it any wonder peo- 

 ple believe the comb-honey canards? 

 Richmond, Ind. John Eshenfelder. 



[Evidently, in your locality more propolis 

 is gathered by the bees than in most places. 

 I have no remedy to suggest unless you use 

 the wide frame that protects the top as well 

 as the sides and bottoms of the sections. 

 Even with the section-holder appliance you 

 can overcome the propolizing of the top to a 

 great extent by using a sheet of paraffine 

 paper laid directly on top of the sections. 

 The bees will gnaw it somewhat at times, 

 but you will secure a little cleaner sections. 

 -Ed.] 



how to manage late swarms that keep 

 returning to the old hive. 



I'm a beginner in bee-keeping, and have 

 watched Gleanings very closely for an ans- 

 wer to some difficulty which has come up in 

 my attempts, but have failed to see any 

 thing published so far, so I thought I'd 

 write you in regard to it. 



I started in the spring with three hives; 

 and as the weather would not allow them to 

 swarm early I had only one or two swarms 

 in June, the most of them swarming in July 

 and August. I had much trouble hiving my 

 swarms, as they would return to the old hive 

 within a few hours after capturing, and 

 would do this three and four times before 

 they would settle in the new hive. They 

 would also build the honey all together, 

 which makes it difficult to get at it. Some 

 of the boxes have very little in, and others 

 not touched. The bees don't seem to be 

 working very much now, only flying around 

 buildings ancl going into all the cracks and 

 holes they can find on the building, as if 

 looking for a new home. 



Will those swarms which came in August 

 amount to any thing? and what can I give 

 them if they haven't honey enough to last 

 them through the winter? I have now fif- 

 teen colonies. Rodulph Zeighe. 



Corona, S. D., Aug. 24. 



[From what you write, it is evident you 

 have been having after-swarms, and it seems 

 to me those bees did exactly what they should 

 have done— go back to the old parent colony 

 where they belonged. Your little swarms 

 were possibly so weak that, when you hived 

 them in a large hive, they saw the utter fu- 

 tility of trying to build up a large cluster, 

 and concluded it was better to go back to 

 the old home. Second and third swarms by 

 themselves are not worth much. To avoid 

 them cut out all queen-cells of the old colo- 

 ny, or keep it down to one virgin or laying 

 queen. Second swarms that come out in 

 August will be all right for winter if they 

 are stimulated by feeding so they can con- 

 tinue brood-rearing till September. But it 

 usually takes an expert to take such late 

 swarms and get very much out of them.— 

 Ed.] 



