I'dirunry, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



a suitable location is absolutely neces- 

 sary. For this reason, beginners should 

 never start with more than a few colo- 

 nies, and accurately ascertain the re- 

 sources of llieir locality before investing 

 largely. F.ven with poor management, 

 fair returns may occasionally be had in 

 a first-rale locality, but where there is 

 no pasturage the highest knowledge 

 comes to naught. Seldom does our lo- 

 cality furnish the enormous yields some- 

 times produced in a few highly favored 

 spots, but its stability, and an immunity 

 from bee-diseases, make it fairly suit- 

 able for specialization. During the 

 number of years in which I have kept 

 bees in this State a total failure of the 

 nectar supply has been vnknown. 



Not all localities are adapted to ex- 

 clusive bee-keeping, and where this ap- 

 plies, great results should never be an- 

 ticipated from a small apiary kept as a 

 side-issue ; for where good returns can 

 be had, specializations well generally be 

 found desirable. 



Complaint is frequently made that 

 througli encouraging beginners, danger 

 may be found in some inexperienced 

 person jumping to a hasty and erroneous 

 conclusion that the bee-business is a 

 broad avenue to easy fortune. No ad- 

 vocate of specialty has, however, to my 

 knowledge, even remotely suggested 

 wisdom in such policy. For the experi- 

 enced bee-keeper, properly situated, the 

 advice so often given to eliminate all 

 entangling side-issues, is sound logic. 



Without thorough preparation united 

 with some practical experience, the one 

 who invests heavily in bees, expecting 

 to make of them a sole dependence, is 

 foredoomed to almost "certain disapoint- 

 ment. Moreover, his experience counts 

 for little if it has been with obsolete 

 methods. 



The present-day bee-keeper has great- 

 er possibilities of living a happy and 

 prosperous life than he ever had before. 

 Still there remains one thing that is 

 absolutely essential to real success, and 

 that is some knowledge of the modern 

 conditions that affect apiculture. 



Ft. Smith, Ark. 



Can Working: Energy Be 



Stimulated in Bees By 



Sliaking? 



BY GEO. W. WILLIAMS. 



It is universally recognized that the 

 novice who is full and running over with 

 enthusiasm, who is constantly fussing 

 with his bees, and tearing them up, pull- 

 ing them to pieces, etc., usually gets a 

 much better yield of honey than the per- 

 son does who has lost his enthusiasm, or 

 who has such a number of colonies that 

 he can not examine each one frequently. 

 This is usually attributed to insufficient 

 pasturage for the increased number of 

 colonies. 



But how are we going to account for 

 the large honey-yields "cranks" like Dr. 

 Miller, who is so enthusiastic that he 

 gets up before daylight so he can pull 

 all his colonies to pieces every few days, 

 and can't help "digging into" each col- 

 ony at least once a week? Or Mr. Alex- 

 ander, who kept 750 colonies in one yard. 



and in the season kept the extractor go- 

 ing almost constantly, and thereby 

 "shook" his bees thoroughly every few 

 days? These men get yields, and big 

 ones, and do it uniformly, with big api- 

 aries, while their neighbors who keep 

 bees in the same field, over the fence, 

 maybe, who let their bees alone, do not 

 get anywhere near the same yields. 



I hear some one say that the reason 

 for these large yields is the intelligent 

 manipulations, such as spreading brood, 

 destroying queen-cells, etc., and others 

 that suggest themselves. Now, I do not 

 minimize the value of these and many 

 other necessary manipulations, but I 

 wish to call attention to an important 

 fact, and one that has never been dis- 

 cussed in the journals until I called at- 

 tention to it in the December Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review, viz. : 



The increased energy noticed after 

 these manipulations, or in fact, after 

 any manipulation, is to a certain extent 

 induced by the physical excitation in- 

 cident to the "shaking" the bees get dur- 

 ing the process, rather than by any other 

 cause. That this is true I have demon- 

 strated to my own satisfaction, and I 

 feel that it will be to the financial ad- 

 vantage of every bee-keeper to investi- 

 gate the matter the coming season. As 

 I stated in the Review, I increased my 

 profits on the yard experimented on, 

 37I/2 percent over similar yards situated 

 differently. In this yard I practised a 

 system of "shaking" to stimulate them 

 into activity whenever they failed to 

 come up to the required standard. This 

 is a larger percent than I expect in 

 every case, but the fact remains that it 

 did do it in one instance, and I feel sure 

 that it will in a degree increase the yield 

 in any case. 



There are periods in a honey-flow, es- 

 pecially at the beginning, when every 

 colony, provided it be strong enough, 

 is full of intense energy. Some few 

 colonies retain this desirable condition 

 throughout the season, and these are 

 the colonies that give us the big results 

 we hear about. But in most colonies, 

 this abates to a marked degree after a 

 while, and the bees loaf, swarm, or 

 otherwise fail to store the amount of 

 honey they should. 



Very few colonies, unless they get the 

 swarming fever, allow their^ energy to 

 abate very much while the yield is con- 

 stantly increasing, but most colonies will 

 show a marked decline after a few days 

 of a stationary or a declining flow. To 

 compel each colony to retain this in- 

 tense initial energy to the very end of 

 the flow has been the dream of every 

 thoughtful bee-keeper, and, to accom- 

 plish this, many sysfems have been 

 planned and many styles of hives de- 

 vised. 



Swarming used to be the greatest ob- 

 stacle in the way of success, but "shook" 

 swarming has, in a measure, removed 

 the worst features of it, and incidentally 

 suggested to me the thought of further 

 using the "shaking" process to solve 

 some of the other problems we have to 

 meet. 



And why not? A "shook" swarm goes 

 to work just as energetically as a natural 

 swarm, and, as far as we can discover, 

 has incidentally the same desirable psy- 

 chological characteristics. Anything that 



you can do with a natural swarm can be 

 done with a "shook" swarm. The ap- 

 l)lication is obvious when we remember 

 that these desirable characteristics can 

 be induced in any normal colony at any 

 time, regardless of the presence or ab- 

 sence of the natural swarming desire. It 

 naturally follows that, when for any 

 reason whatever, we find a colony lack- 

 ing energy, or any of the desirable psy- 

 chological conditions, and we desire it 

 to have them, we can induce these con- 

 ditions, and retain them at will by using 

 the shaking process when needed. 



None of the authors in the past have 

 given this idea any recognition as an 

 aid in getting honey. In fact, it has 

 never been mentioned, to my knowledge, 

 in that connection. 



In these days of low prices for honey. 

 we must not overlook any possible means 

 to curtail our manipulations and conse- 

 quent expenses. In my experiments the 

 past sunnncr, I am led to believe that we 

 can eliminate many manipulations that 

 we have been taught are necessary, and 

 substitute a "shaking" more or less 

 thorough, and simplify and shorten our 

 existing methods materially. 



A test of this idea entails no expense, 

 and all one has to do is, when going 

 among the bees, when a colony is found 

 that does not come up to the standard 

 of a newly hived swarm, simply "shake" 

 it, and results will surely follow. 



Redkey, Ind. 



Report for Season of 1908 



BY WM. STOLLEY. 



"While the spring of 1907 was quite 

 unfavorable for bees with us, and the 

 crop the following fall a very good one, 

 the spring of 1908 was to all appearance 

 very favorable, and the bees built up 

 rapidly, but the season the past fall was 

 anything but favorable, and resulted in 

 about one-fourth an average crop. 



March and April, 1908, w'ere warm, 

 and we had but >/2-inch of rain early in 

 March. . 



May brought us injuring frost, hail, 

 and, in all, fully 7!^ inches of rain. 



June was rather cold, and we had 10^ 

 inches rain. 



July acted a little more decently, w^as 

 more normal, and brought but 5 inches 

 rain. 



August was rather cool and wet again, 

 and in this month we had 8^ inches 

 rain. 



September gave us 5'^-inch rain, and 

 October 3 inches, and on October lO to 

 II we had the first light frost. 



The result of the season's work with 

 the bees was as follows : 



From 30 colonies run for extracted 

 honey, 830 pounds ; from 4 colonies run 

 for comb honey, 20 sections— a total of 

 850 pounds. I had to feed 130 pounds 

 of honey and 120 pounds of cane sugar, 

 so as to give my bees from 30 to 40 

 pounds winter stores, per colony, for 

 this winter. 



October 17, I winter-packed my bees 

 in the open shed. I had 6 swarms of my 

 own bees, and 6 stray swarms from 

 somewhere, which entered the decoy 

 hives on top of my go-foot-long bee-shed. 

 The last of these stray swarms came on 

 October 15. It was a large swarm, 



