THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



71 



tendants can get out, place the cage in- 

 side the hive and put on cover tight. 



4th. If the weatlier is cool set the hive 

 in the house or somewhere that it will 

 keep warm, especially at night, livery 

 warm keep in the shade during the mid- 

 dle of the day. In a few days enough 

 bees to form a little cluster will be 

 hatched. 



5 th. Do not open the entrance for 

 about a week, then open it just a little 

 before night. Unless plenty of honey 

 is coming in it will be necessary to keep 

 the entrance closed except a little while 

 before sundown for a week or more, or 

 robbers may storm the castle. By the 

 end of the second week there will be 

 plenty of bees and brood from the new 

 queen in the hive. These new swarms 

 should be fed, either by giving frames 

 of honey from other hives, or with sugar 

 syrup, till plenty of young bees are able 

 to go to work in the field. Sugar syrup 

 may be fed very easily even if you have 

 no expensive feeder. One way is to fill 

 a bottle with syrup, tie two or three 

 thicknesses of mushn over the mouth 

 and lay on the top of the frames, or 

 place anywhere in the hive where the 

 bees can get at it. 



I know this method is considered by 

 many as too slow and expensive ; but I 

 look at it thus : One queen safely intro- 

 duced, even if it does take a little longer, 

 is cheaper in the end than half a dozen 

 failures. 



After the new queen gets to laying 

 well it is an easy matter to get queen 

 cells from her eggs, which may be used 

 to requeen as many hives as you please. 



Now, friends, if you have never tried 

 this plan, and would like to improve 

 your bees and at the same time gain 

 some pleasant and i)rofitable informa- 

 tion regarding our little workers, just 

 send for one queen and try it. MiQX 

 the queen has become reconciled to her 

 new home (sometimes it may take sev- 

 eral days) there is little danger in open- 

 ing the hive at any time as they rarely 

 try to sting if carefully handled from 

 the first, and may be examined without 

 smoke or protection for hands or face, 



for a long time. In fact, careful hand- 

 ling in my opinion, has a good deal to 

 do with the disposition of our bees ; but 

 lest this article should be like the arti- 

 ficial honey we hear about, too much 

 wax to hold a little bit of honey, I will 

 not draw it out any longer. 



Mrs. a, L. Hallenbeck. 

 Millard, Neb. 



BEEKEEPING IN DIXIE. 



As you have heard from all parts of 

 the world but the state of Georgia, I 

 would like to tell you of some of my ex- 

 periments with bees. I have been study- 

 ing bee culture more or less for years, 

 and last year I gave it my whole attention. 

 In the spring I selected eight colonies 

 to experiment with. Commenced in 

 March to feed to promote brood rear- 

 ing. The first of April I had eight rous- 

 ing colonies. I put on sections and the 

 bees commenced work in them. By 

 May 20th, I had taken off 800 lbs. 

 honey, 100 lbs. from each colony. By 

 this time they had reared lots of drones. 

 Now for an experiment with the drone - 

 and-queen trap. 



I kept the traps on four of the hives 

 but none of the colonies cast swarms. 

 At the end of the season I had taken 

 off 1600 lbs. honey. The four hives 

 on which the traps had been placed, 

 each gave 220; while those colonies 

 that had a free entrance gave but iSo 

 pounds each. These are facts. 



I intend to try the experiment again 

 this season, and if by using a trap the 

 colony will produce more honey, it will 

 be a strong point in favor of the trap. 



Here is another experiment I tried 

 with the trap. I had a weak colony 

 other bees had commenced to rob. I 

 closed the entrance to a small space and 

 placed a trap on the hive, and that was 

 the last of the robbing. 



Big CreeJc, Ga. W. M. Glover. 



I have claimed that the trap will do all 

 that Hro. Glover says he did with it. Now 

 that the trap is used as a self-hiver in sev- 

 eral ways, it should come into more gen- 

 eral use. — Ed.] 



