July. looq. 



American Bee JournaJjj 



235 



have to learn to overcome all the disagreeable 

 obstacles that come in the path to higher at- 

 tainment. I believe now I have become so in- 

 oculated from the stings that I sliall never be 

 troubled with rheumatism. That's what some 

 doctors say, "stings cure rheumatism." But 

 really my bees are so well acquainted with me 

 now that they are very well behaved, and I 

 forgive them for all their ili temper, for I 

 suppose I must have been very awkward with 

 such methodical little things. But I have lots 

 to learn. 



When you people in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal run up your honey crop into the thousand 

 pounds, and the way you do away with swarm- 

 ing and increase, by the modern methods, and 

 talk to your queens and have them rear none 

 but workers, well, I am not in it. and I must 

 sit quietly and listen and learn from the skilled 

 in bee-culture, for my bees know only natural 

 methods, and as I have gone to the bee for 

 many of my lessons and consider her very 

 wise and thrifty, I must wait until I know 

 more than I do before I shall dare to interfere 

 with her methods. 



One of the sisters that wrote in the last 

 Journal was from this State, and I was glad 

 to know of another bee-woman. 1 do think 

 the sisters can help to make our department 

 as wide-awake and interesting as any in the 

 Journal. Let all those who have profited and 

 do know just as much as the brothers (though 

 they may not think so) — just let us know what 

 they think of introducing new queens into an 

 apiary where the old queens have reigned so 

 long. Emm.\ S. L.\ne. 



Newport, Vt., June 5. 



Don't get the idea. Sister, that to have 

 success in bee-keeping we must get away 

 from natural methods. Rather we should 

 strive to learn more fully just what bees 



naturally prefer to do, and govern our- 

 selves accordingly. You are on the right 

 road toward getting yields equal to the 

 best of us, so keep up heart. 



Do you really think your bees are 

 better acquainted with you, or have you 

 learned better how to behave in their 

 presence? And. yet it can not be dis- 

 puted that when a colony stands where 

 people are constantly passing, the bees 

 are gentler than where they are in some 

 secluded place. 



With regard to changing queens, while 

 there are some who think a queen should 

 not be tolerated beyond one or two 

 years, others think it best to leave the 

 matter entirely in the hands of the bees 

 — to "natural methods," as you would 

 say — so long as good work continues. 

 If left to themselves, bees will gener- 

 ally supersede their queens when 2 or 

 3 years old. In our own apiary the 

 age of a queen is no objection so long 

 as good work is done, and if poor work 

 is done, off comes the queen's head, no 

 matter how young she is. Last year the 

 colony which gave the biggest yield (276 

 sections of honey ) had a queen 2 years 

 old, and the next best had a queen 3 

 years old. 



Yes, we shall be glad to hear what 

 other sisters think about introducin;' 

 new queens. 



Conducteti bv J. L. B YER. Mount Joy, Ont. 



The Honey Season in Ontario. 



Our late cold spring terminated ab- 

 ruptly into warm summer weather about 

 May 25, and since then it has been quite 

 warm with but little rain. Fortunately 

 the aliundant precipitation earlier in the 

 season, had put the clover in fine shape, 

 and at present the rather dry weather 

 now prevailing has not hurt it any yet. 

 Apples were in bloom on June 5th — 

 very late for our locality — but the 

 clover rushed ahead so fast that it came 

 into bloom about the saine time as in 

 earlier springs. While the weather dur- 

 ing apple-bloom was fine and warm, yet 

 strange to say, very little nectar was se- 

 creted. However, the fine flow from the 

 willow earlier in the season, coupled 

 with abundance of old stores in the 

 hives, brought the bees up to the clover 

 flow in fine condition. Clover started to 

 yield June 19th, and, for the 4 days 

 since, the nectar has been coming in 

 fine, and from present indications only 

 unusual weather conditions will pre- 

 vent a crop of honey. 



Rut last year the clover started in fine 

 and yielded for only about a week to 

 amount to anything, and there is the 

 same possibility this year again. Of 

 course we are not looking for a repe- 

 tition of last year's slim crop, but, on 



the contrary, are full of hope for an old- 

 time yield again. The next 4 weeks 

 will tell the tale. 



Introducing Queens. 



The Sibbald quick method of introduc- 

 ing queens as mentioned in the June 

 .'\merican Bee Journal has proved en- 

 tirely successful with me so far. A se- 

 vere test was made last week and as it 

 proved a success, naturally I have con- 

 siderable faith in the plan. A queen was 

 received by mail, which on examination 

 showed the wings all frayed, convincing 

 me that she could never have flown, so 

 must be a virgin. I wrote the breeder, 

 but decided to introduce her and prove 

 the matter. The queen was introduced 

 by the plan as given last month, and to- 

 day I found her as I expected — a drone- 

 layer. 



If one can introduce virgins or drone- 

 layers by the plan, it certainly should 

 be a sure method for laying queens. 



Speaking of introducing queens, leads 

 me to recall a little incident that hap- 

 pened today, an incident by the way that 

 some will wonder at my relating. Real- 

 ly, though, I wonder if any other bee- 

 keepers do have accidents and make 



blunders like the writer of these notes, 

 anyway. 



It came about in this wise : One of 

 my very best colonies at the Cashel yard, 

 headed by a young queen of last year's 

 rearing, was given a second story of 

 worker-combs early in the season, no 

 excluder being placed between the two 

 stories. Today I found the top story as 

 I expected — full of brood and honev. 

 The brood was taken away and given 

 to some other colonies not so strong, 

 an extracting super being given to the 

 other in place of the combs taken away. 

 Now in doing this work, I was more 

 careful than usual, and although I did 

 not see the queen, yet I thought =he had 

 run down into the second or lower story 

 all right. 



After dinner, when I came out to the 

 yard again, I noticed the colony all in 

 an uproar, and knew at once that the 

 queen was somewhere not in the hive. 



As I had shaken the bees all in the 

 super as the combs were taketi away, 

 I felt pretty sure that she was not car- 

 ried away on the combs, so I looked 

 all around the hive. Noticing some bees 

 about 6 feet away to one side, I went 

 and investigated and found about a doz- 

 en of the poor bees clustered around the 

 queen which was dead. How it happened 

 I can not imagine unless she had been 

 right on the quilt when I opened the 

 hive, and had, unobserved by me, run 

 down the side of the hive and into the 

 grass, later on to be trod upon by my 

 very clumsy feet. While I would not 

 liave taken a five dollar bill for her, 

 yet I had taken a good deal less, and 

 liere was a quecnlcss colony to fix up 

 somehow right in the opening of the 

 clover flow. To patch up a bad bargain, 

 I decided to take a young Italian queen 

 out of a nucleus wintered over, and 

 give it to them. How to introduce her 

 to that powerful colony was the ne.xt 

 question. I got a wire cage and put into 

 it the dead body of the old queen which 

 the bees were simply crazy over, then I 

 also put the new queen in as well, and 

 laid the cage at the entrance of the 

 hive. 



The bees formed in a great ball 

 around the cage, and from their actions 

 I judged they were airiiable rather than 

 otherwise towards all the contents of 

 that cage, and in about 10 minutes I 

 pulled out the cork and let her run the 

 hive. 



Well, the bees simply quieted down 

 about as quick as a pan of syrup boiling 

 over will settle when a lump of butter is 

 dropped in. At night, before leaving 

 I could see nothing of a dead queen in 

 front of the hive in the closely clipped 

 grass, and from the quiet condition of 

 the colony 1 have good reasons to be- 

 lieve that the new queen was safely in- 

 troduced in less than g hours after the 

 old queen was superseded, and this right 

 in the middle of the day, too. 



Try the plan of introducing, but by all 

 means do not try the plan of supersed- 

 ing, on any good (pieens you have in the 

 yard. 



Ollar-Wintering of Bees. 



In the I'ebruary issue of this Journal, 

 mention was made of the experience 

 of Editor Hutchinson last fall in mov- 



