270 



August, igog. 



the bees got quiet in the hive, I phiced 

 the hive under the hive of a colony that 

 had swarmed a few days before.' The 

 combs of this hive were pretty well tilled 

 with honey, and made good dummies. I 

 let the hive with the swarm stand under 

 this for about 4S hours, then took it 

 away and shook the bees off their combs 

 in front ol the other hive. There was 

 no lighting at an\- time, and in a few- 

 hours the bees had entered the supers. 

 Since then I have treated others in the 

 same way, and shall so treat all that 

 corne. 



The lesson is that if you can not keep 

 a swarm and its colony together you can 

 keep together a swarm and some other 

 colony that has swarmed. 



I have not tried this with my swarm- 

 ing colony that had brood and queen- 

 cells yet in it, feeling doubtful of the 

 outcome. Perhaps it will work all right 

 if queen-cells are cut, and perhaps will 

 work on the parent colony if aueen-cells 

 are cut. I have so far had plenty of 

 colonies that had no queen-cells. Prob- 

 ably some or all had virgin queens. The 

 bees settle the matter of supremacy to 

 suit themselves. Some of the hives I 

 use for catching swarms have mostly 

 frames with starters of foundation. 



The swarms have been so accommo- 

 dating as to cluster low, and I have 

 hived all but 3 or 4 without assistance. 

 I have used a method this season that 

 I have not practiced before. I set the 

 hive with cover removed directly under 

 the cluster, give the branch a sharp 

 shake or rap, and the cluster lands right 

 on top of the brood-frames. The bees 

 are not long in getting dowti onto the 

 combs. 



For the benefit of some young bee- 

 keeper who is not yet fertile in resources 

 (he will have to become so if he keeps 

 many bees, and keeps them long), 1 will 

 tell how I hived without help a large 

 swarm of bees that had clustered on the 

 highest branch of a rather tall apple- 

 tree. The branch was of arching form, 

 and the bees were out a few feet from 

 the body of the tree, or I might have 

 had trouble. I placed a hive directly 

 under the cluster, elevated on a big box 

 so that the top of the brood-frames was 

 about 6 feet above the ground. The bees 

 were about 10 feet above the top of the 

 hive. Usually when bees are detached 

 from a limb at such a height they will 

 scatter in the air, but this cluster was so 

 heavy that I thought I could land a good 

 part of it on top of the brood-frames. 

 I cleared away some twigs and small 

 branches in order to make a clear pas- 

 sage, and then went up the tree. A 

 \igorous shake dropped about one-third 

 of the bees on top of the hive and they 

 went mostly down, while others flew 

 about, actiiig as decoys for the rest. 

 Some of these clustered again in the 

 same old place. I gave the limb a rap 

 and sent another lot to the hive. Then 

 more gathered on the limb, but before 

 rapping it a third time I took the pre- 

 caution to button my shirt-front. After 

 detaching them a third time I drove a 

 cloud of smoke right into the clustering 

 place and all the bees were soon in the 

 hive. 



In the article which appeared in the 

 July issue I told how to change a Da- 

 "dant hive to an ii-frame Langstroth, 

 and inexcusably omitted to say that the 



American Vee Journal 



hive's length should be shortened one 

 inch. This is easily done with the hives 

 as I make them. If you have the fac- 

 tory made hives, better leave them as 

 they are. I am not expecting that any- 

 body will make any ii-frame hives in 

 any way. 



In a recent issue of the American Bee 

 Journal, I was made to mention Mr. 

 Chapman's apiary as his old apiary. It 

 should have read his whole apiary. 



I have read of many ways of getting 

 and keeping swarm and swarming col- 

 ony together during the harvest, but 

 have not been satisfied with any of them. 

 The Heddon plan is too slow, and most 

 of them require too much labor, and in- 

 volve the building and care of a new set 

 of brood-combs, which very likely you 

 do not want. 



Leon, Iowa. 



Selling Extracted Honey 



For years I have been in the habit of 

 selling extracted honey from 8 to 10 

 cents a pound, according to the amount 

 taken by the purchaser. Two years ago 

 this summer while out on the road tak- 

 ing orders for extracted honey, I met 

 another bee-keeper who lives within 4 

 miles of my home. Enquiring what he 

 charged for good, well-ripened honey, 

 he told me 9 cents a pound. What was 

 my surprise when a few days afterward 

 I learned that all around in my neigh- 

 liorhood he had offered honey for 7 

 cents a pound, simply to cut down the 

 price for me ; and still greater was my 

 surprise when I again learned that with- 

 in a short distance of his home he sold 

 honey for 9 cents a pound. Is it not a 

 disgrace that there are such bee-keepers 

 in Minnesota? Of course, an intelligent 

 and up-to-date bee-keeper would do no 

 such a thing. It is only those shiftless 

 and ignorant bee-keepers who have no 

 respect for their fellowmen who can do 

 such a thing. 



But right here let me say that nine 

 times out of ten, if you ask any of those 

 bee-keepers to subscribe for a bee-paper 

 they will say, "No," telling you they do 

 not need a Isee-paper because they think 

 they know all they need to know, I 

 have read and studied a number of the 

 best bee-books, take three bee-papers, 

 and every time I find something new 

 and of great interest and sometimes 

 worth dollars to me. When will the 

 bee-keepers of Minnesota wake up, or- 

 ganize, and demand reasonable prices, 

 as other intelligent bee-keepers do in 

 other States? Why should we sell our 

 best honey for 7 cents a pound when we 

 could just as well get 2 to .3 cents more? 

 We all know well that everything has 

 raised considerably in price the past 

 years. Why should we sell our honey 

 as cheaply now as it was sold 10 or 15 

 years ago? 



To give an example of what lioney 

 will bring if not misrepresented, let me 

 state the following : Last summer a 

 man in Xew Jersey wrote to me asking 

 for samples and prices of my honey. I 

 wrote and told him I could not sell and 

 ship honey such a distance unless I 

 would get 9 cents a pound. Great was 

 my surprise when I received a letter 



)>=^^^~\ 



from him a few days afterwards stating 

 that he would gladly pay me 10 cents a 

 pound, and would pay for the cans and 

 freight besides. Of course. I sold him 

 a lot of honey, and what satisfied me 

 most, he and all his customers are well 

 pleased with the honey, and he has al- 

 ready placed a large order with me for 

 the coming season. 



For the past two years I have not 

 been blessed with good health, but how- 

 thankful I am that I am still able to 

 look after my bees! How I love to 

 watch the bees bringing in loads of pol- 

 len and nectar, how busy they are all 

 day long, and what a great lesson they 

 teach us who are trying to walk upright- 

 ly! How as the bees' toil sweetens 

 others, so must we toil and work for the 

 good of our fellow men, and try to 

 make life sweet for others, then when 

 w-e have reached our journey's end in 

 this world, how pleasant it will be w-hen 

 we look back to the past with the assur- 

 ance that we have done what we could, 

 and when then our eyes shall close in 

 death we will be able to say w-ith the 

 Apostle Paul, "I have fought a good 

 fight. I have finished my course. I have 

 kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid 

 up for me a crown of righteousness." 



La Crescent, Minn. 



No.8.--Bee-Keepingin Colorado 



BV R. C. AIKIX. 



While there are good hives and also 

 poorer ones and supers that are better 

 than others, more of the question of 

 success depends upon the man in charge 

 than on any other one thing except the 

 honey- flow. So if you have no knowl- 

 edge of first principles of bee-nature do 

 not think that any man's patent hive is 

 going to do the business if you furnish 

 the money. It is not the question of a 

 big or little hive, of a T or a section- 

 holder super, nor of the use of full 

 sheets of foundation either in the brood- 

 chamber or the super. 



Not knowing whether you will have 

 a good or poor flow, or whether you will 

 have the bees to gather a good flow if 

 it should come, you produce as best yoir 

 can, conditions that favor what you 

 want. In comb honey the best rule for 

 sections is to use full sheets of comb 

 foundation, for they are more of an in- 

 ducetnent to the bees to start and rapid- 

 ly w-ork in the boxes, to better fastening 

 the comb to the wood all around, and to 

 making a pretty even finish. 



When the supers are put on do not 

 give too much room at first, for if you 

 put 2 on and there should be but flow 

 enough for one. you will likely get 2 

 partly finished, and neither done. When 

 the first one is well started and condi- 

 tions of flow- and strength of colony 

 show that they can and w-ill soon have 

 this full, put another on top of it. When 

 the bees have worked up through the 

 first super and nicely started in the sec- 

 ond, if the first one is practically full, 

 lacking only sealing, tlie position may 

 be reversed, raising and putting the 

 other under it. And here you are to be 

 pretty keeii in your estimate of the 

 strength of flow and the ability of the 

 bees to carry on the work properly, the 



