THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



183 



More Ventilation is certainly 

 needed when bees " lay out." This 

 nuiy be supplied by placinsr more sec- 

 tions on the hive, enlarging; the en- 

 trance; or by raising tlie body of the 

 hive an inch at the front from the bot- 

 tom board. 



Many beelceepers suppose their bees 

 are intending to swarm when they 

 cluster outside the hive. Well, that 

 is an indication, but it is a stronger 

 indication that the bees need more air 

 or more storage room for honey. 



Queens when they have had a 

 chance to lay to their full capacity for 

 two seasons will be worthless for a 

 third year. There are exceptions to 

 this rule, but not one queen in fifty is 

 of much value at three years of age. 

 Therefore, all queens should be con- 

 sidered old whi-u they have been in 

 the hive two years. 



Combs Melting Down.— One of 



the results of improper ventilation is 

 the melting down of the combs in the 

 brood-nest; when this occurs the bees 

 should be attended to at once. 



Remove all the bees from the combs 

 and hive, to a new hive and fix up 

 things as quickly as possible. By so 

 doing, the damage may soon be re- 

 paired; but left alone the colony will 

 be ruined. 



When the combs break down, the 

 bees will rnsh out and cover the out- 

 side of the hive; many of them will be 

 daubed with honey. If the hive con- 

 tained much honey it will run out at 

 the entrance. 



Encouraging.— We are in daily 

 receipt of most encouraging letters 

 from the friends of the An. Words 

 of praise of the fine and timely arti- 

 cles in the June number come in from 

 all quarters. Subscriptions, too, are 

 coming in rapidly, as about every bee- 

 keeper who sees a specimen copy of the 

 API at once sends for our journal and 

 one of the drone and queen-traps or 

 flue queens, all of which we oti'er at 

 such low prices. 



Bear in mind we give each sub- 

 scriber one of our improved drone and 

 queen-traps, free by mail, or send 

 tliem a select queen for 50 cents in ad- 

 dition to the §1.00 for a yearly sub- 

 scription to the Apicultubist. 



Returning Swarms.— Do not fail 

 to test the method for returning swarms 

 as given in the June issue of the Api, 

 and do not forget to send us a report of 

 your success or failure whichever it 

 may be. I am pretty sure it will be 

 successful iu most cases. 



If Queen-rearing is going on 

 while forage is scarce, the bees should 

 be fed liberally each day until the cells 

 are capped with syrup' made of three 

 parts sugar and honey and two parts 

 water. Rear your queens according 

 to directions given in the "Beekeep- 

 ers' Handy Book" and you will cer- 

 tainly succeed. I defy any person in 

 the world to rear queens by any 

 other method that will insure a certain 

 number of cells to each colony or to 

 rear such fine queens as can be reared 

 by the methods given in the " Handy 

 Book." I also challenge any bee- 

 keeper in the world to advance a more 

 perfect system of queen-rearing, or 

 practising one by which as perfect and 

 hardy queens can be reared. 



By practising the methods given in 

 the "Handy Book" better queens can 

 be reared provided the bees are- sup- 

 plied with not over fifteen eggs, not 

 larva, to each larjije colony. I can 

 give this number of egijs to a colony 

 and am just as sure of fifteen fine 

 queens as I am of one; and every time, 

 too. 



Send ($1.10 and get a copy of the 

 book, and if our instructions are fol- 

 lowed and you do not succeed the 

 $1.10 will be returned to you. We 

 also promise to return the money if 

 the book does not give perfect satis- 

 faction iu all respects. 



Introducing Queens.— Much is 

 now being said in all the bee journals 

 about introducing queens. I know no 

 way so sure and one that requires so 

 little time and trouble as the three-day 

 method given in the back numbers of 

 the Apicultubist. 



The Season here thus far has been 

 unusually poor for bees. The warm 

 weather in early May brought forward 

 the fruit blossoms early, but the trees 

 were in bloom but a few days when 

 dull weather set in, and nearly all the 

 early honey harvest was lost. 



