March, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



used it long before the noise several 

 years ago, and have continued to use 

 it with a great deal of satisfaction. 



It would be well to mention, however, 

 that I have not made it a rule to use it 

 in a wholesale way for any reason. But 

 there are so many uses to which the 

 shaking of a colony of bees can be ap- 

 plied that there is enough in it to be 

 worth a good deal. 



It might also be well to mention here 

 that while I am an advocate of "shak- 

 ing energ)- into bees" and getting better 

 results, and more work out of thein, I 

 do not advocate going too far with the 

 matter. In this respect I am not quite 

 in accord with the Williams idea of 

 "shake, shake, and shake again," every 

 little while, to make the bees go to work. 

 In the first place it seems too cruel a 

 thing for me to do, and then it would 

 consume too much time with a great 

 number of apiaries. 



Keeping a colony stirred up at cer- 

 tain times of the year, v.-hijh can be 

 done during certain hive-manipulauor. . 

 will bring good results, however. .\nil 

 the "shaking method" can be used suc- 

 cessfully in swarm-control, for intrti- 

 ducin.g queens, nuclei-making, moving 

 bees short distances, and in numerous 

 other things as well. 



Logi.«Iation for Bee-Kcj-pers. 



That is news to me — page 45 — relative 

 to an amendment to the California 

 foul-brood law. Texas is just contem- 

 plating the same kind of a change, ap- 

 parently, viz. : to provide for an annual 

 appropriation of $2500 to carry on the 

 work, which will be put in the hands of 

 the State iMitomologist of the E.\peri- 

 ment Stations, in whose power the State 

 foul-brood law has been placed. An 

 extra person is to be appointed as Chief 

 Inspector of Apiaries to look after the 

 work in all parts of the State, with full 

 authority and supervision, under the 

 direction of the State Entomologist. 



Since the State is such a large one. 

 and it is impossible for one man to 

 cover the entire territory, deputy dis- 

 trict inspectors may be appointed where 

 needed. This will be very much like 

 that of California, and while Mr. Pryal 

 does not favor it, I have been inclined 

 to believe that we can make it work 

 very satisfactorily here. 



Beps Allowed to Build Comb. 



There are conditions when bees se- 

 crete perhaps more wax than under or- 

 dinary conditions, and during such times 

 it might be wise to make use of this in 

 allowing the bees to build a certain 

 amount of combs. Too much should 

 not be depended upon this, however, for 

 I am sure that, after several experiences, 

 I have lost quite a good deal tiy sup- 

 posing that bees would waste much wax 

 if not given a place to use it. Conse- 

 quently my views differ somewhat from 

 the position taken by Mr. Aikin, as quo- 

 ted on page 37. 



An experience that opened my eyes 

 last year showed very conclusively that 

 it was a mistake to suppose that it was 

 a waste to give comb foundation in full 

 sheets to colonics that were working 



"full blast" in the midst of a splendid 

 honey-flow. Conditions were most fa- 

 vorable in May for wax-secretion and 

 comb-building. Supers were being given 

 every 8 or 9 days until every colony had 

 from 6 to 7 30-pound shallow- frame 

 comb-honey supers on. The average 

 j-ield was 180 pounds per colony. 



For years it was my rule to use full 

 sheets of comb foundation in the first 

 one or two supers given, or until the 

 bees were secreting w-ax so freely that 

 it was considered a waste to do so So 

 the third and following supers received 

 only 1-3 or 1-2 sheets. 



Having considerable beeswa.xlast spring 

 I had it converted into super founda- 

 tion, and used it more freely, so that 

 full sheets were being given in all, even 

 the third and following supers. It hap- 

 pened that on account of a delay in ship- 

 ment of a part of our foundation, we 

 ran short, and therefore were compelled 

 to till a goodly number with only 1-3 



and 14 sheets. The results were a great 

 surprise to us. Instead of the bees 

 using the "great quantities of wax they 

 were supposed to be secreting," all the 

 colonics given supers with less than full 

 sheets of foundation fell behind fully 

 10 pounds of comb honey to the super. 

 We had saved an average of 10 cents in 

 foundation per super, but lost $1.20 of 

 honey for it. This proof was so con- 

 vincing that I shall use full sheets 

 throughout^ now, supers and all. I have 

 always advocated nothing less than full 

 sheets for brood-frames. During a poor 

 season the difference would have been 

 greater. 



It may be well to mention here that I 

 have seen the bees use poor white wax 

 to stop cracks with, and daub it in other 

 places even when they had comb to 

 build, so that this can not have great 

 weight. .\s a producer of both comb 

 and extracted honey. I have had other 

 similar experiences. 



^nadiaii 

 nSeedom 



Conducted by J. L. BYER, Mount Jny. imi. 



How the Bees Are Wintering. 



At this date (Feb. 19) naturally we 

 are beginning to speculate as to how the 

 bees are going to winter. All my bees 

 with the exception of the 35 colonies 

 mentioned in another item, are out of 

 doors and heavy with buckwheat honey. 

 They have not had even a partial flight 

 since November, and from present indi- 

 cations I would judge that there will 

 l)e some loss from dysentery, as a few 

 colonies show unmistakable signs of the 

 complaint already. 



Last fall, as 1 had detected no honey- 

 dew present in the hives, I decided to 

 risk the buckwheat honey for stores, but 

 if there is any trouble this year, it will 

 be the last time I will take any chances 

 on wintering without a goodly portion 

 of the stores being sugar syrup or clover 

 honey. The bees that are in the cellar 

 are on sugar stores for the most part, 

 by reason of the smaller hives they are 

 in, necessitating more feeding in the fall. 

 If the bees that are on the buckwheat 

 stores could have had a flight in Janu- 

 ary, it would have had a good influence 

 on them, no doubt, but that flight was 

 conspicuous in its absence. 



How much difference a few miles one 

 way or another in a locality may make, 

 was forcibly brought to my notice a 

 short time ago, when on Jan. 24 all the 

 bees from 'I oronto and west had a glnr 

 ious flight, while at my place, about i.; 

 miles east of that city, everything was 

 shrouded in a dense fog on that date. 

 .Sometimes one good flight makes the 

 difference between good wintering and 

 Iiad wintering, and there is a possil)ilily 

 that this may be the case this vear. 



This winter as a whole, would be 

 classed as milder than usual, but, on the 

 other hand, we have had practically no 

 snow, and the bees have been fully ex- 

 posed to what cold weather we have 

 had. With the hives well protected 

 with snow, severe weather is not felt 

 by the bees nearly as much as is the 

 case when the hives are open to the 

 wind all the time, even if the tempera- 

 ture does not go extremely low. 



Clover looked good in the fall, and I 

 do not think there has been weather to 

 injure it yet, but of course the spring 

 is the critical period for this plant. 



Since writing the foregoing, the bees 

 have had today (Feb. 22) a partial flight, 

 and with the exception of two or three 

 colonies that show signs of dysentery, 

 all appear to be wintering well, so per- 

 haps the flight they missed in January 

 did no harm after all. Here in this 

 locality it is quite common for the bees 

 to go 4 months, and often 5 without a 

 cleansing flight, yet if the stores are 

 good we find no trouble to winter them 

 successfully. 



In this connection I often wonder 

 what the reason is therefor, when I see. 

 in the bee-papers reports stating bad 

 results when perchance the bees had to 

 go 7 or 8 weeks without a flight. 



Cellar-Wintering of Bees. 



While at the llrant District Rcc-Keep- 

 ers' convention, held in I'.rantford dur- 

 ing the last week in January, R. F. Hol- 

 termann kindly took the writer out to 

 the mammoth bee-cellar of lloltermann 

 & Foster, some 2 miles outside of the 



