(§) 5 OLDEST BEE PAPER 



IN AMERICA ^zz^ 



.*£»■ 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 9, 1881. 



No. 6. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



koitor .ami Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL.. 



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Entered at Chicago post office as secnndclass matter. 



For the American Bee Journal 



The Weekly, Introducing Queens, Etc. 



ct. H. ADAMS. 



As I have been a reader of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and a - keeper of 

 bees for over 3 years, I thought I 

 would express myself in regard to the 

 Journal. I like it very much and 

 cannot do without it. Friend Newman, 

 you may put me down as a life sub- 

 scriber of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. I am glad it is to be a Weekly. 

 I think $2 a year very low for a weekly 

 bee paper. I will say I think there is 

 just one article in the December num- 

 ber, p. 565, written by Mr. G. M. Doolit- 

 tle, "Plenty of bees; plenty of honey," 

 that is worth the whole amount of the 

 subscription to beginners, let alone all 

 the other good articles. 



As I have not sent in my report for 

 1880, I will now do so. I opened the 

 season with 40 colonies of bees; 12 of 

 the number were good, strong colonies 

 — the others were very weak. The 12 

 gathered 700 lbs. of comb honey ; two of 

 the twelve, where I could side-box, 

 thereby getting on 68 2-lb. sections at 

 once, obtained for me 250 lbs. I had 

 100 lbs. of honey stolen off the hives this 

 last fall. My honey sells readily for 20c. 

 per pound, it being mostly white clover 

 and goldenrod. The other weak colo- 

 nies being in tine condition for winter, 

 and what is best of all, are all Italianized. 

 I have but 2 black colonies in my apiary. 

 My coloijies increased from 40 to 64 ; 

 soldi, leaving me 63, all packed in chaff, 

 in their winter quarters. In the spring 

 I will give my method of packing in 

 chaff. I sold 5 Italian queens. 



Now, I will give my method of intro- 

 ducing queens, which 1 have discovered 

 and adopted as the only true method. 

 It is this : Take the queen from the 

 hive you wish to introduce another too, 

 then take all brood combs from the 

 hive, that is those combs that contain 

 eggs, larvae and sealed brood ; fill up the 

 vacancy with combs of honey or foun- 



dation from other hives and place the 

 brood in other hives in their places. 

 Close the hive and in a few minutes 

 great excitement will prevail in the hive, 

 rushing out and up the sides of the 

 hive in wild confusion. Now drop the 

 queen right among the bees, and the 

 excitement will immediately stop and 

 the queen will be safely introduced. I 

 have introduced several valuable queens 

 by this method with success. Of course, 

 you must always wait until this excite- 

 ment prevails and success is certain. 

 North Nassau, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Two Queens in One Hive, etc. 



J. d. enas. 



The December number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal notices two queens 

 in one hive. I was at the Mechanics' 

 Fair, at San Francisco, last August and 

 September, for three weeks. When I 

 returned home, as soon as convenient, 

 I examined several hives. One had a 



Our unusual heavy frosts have kept it 

 back. The rains are backward, and the 

 new grass has just beguu to make its 

 appearance. My bees are in good con- 

 dition, but colonies are not large. I 

 have not extracted any honey sinee 

 June ; have plenty of goldenrod honey 

 for wintering. I save all my dark honey 

 j in the frame, and keep it for wintering. 

 Moths are destroyed by fumigating with 

 sulphur. I consider it a better way to 

 melt up empty comb and give founda- 

 tion in the spring. My cappings furnish 

 me with enough wax, with what old 

 comb I melt up, for my own use without 

 buying. 



We had a very short season for sur- 

 plus in this neighborhood. With 47 

 colonies in the spring. I obtained about 

 1,800 lbs. of extracted and 3.50 lbs. of 

 comb honey, and have 100 Langstroth 

 frames of goldenrod, all sealed over, for 

 feeding between now and spring, in- 

 creased to 70 colonies, besides rearing 

 about 50 young queens. I sold and re- 

 duced to 60 colonies, mostly pure 

 Italians. I found it very hard to get 

 honey in small frames the nights being 



(7 



Melilot or Sweet Clover. 



White or Dutch Glover. 



young queen ; I supposed at the time 

 that the old one was superseded; in 

 about a fortnight after, I did not find 

 her. as I supposed, but found a queen 

 with only one wing, the other gone en- 

 tirely. I supposed it to be the old queen. 

 I make a practice of clipping one wing 

 as soon as proved to be laying, although 

 I leave at least a half ; but she had 

 wings on only one side. Her color was 

 duller than the young one, when I ob- 

 served her before. I was in doubt 

 about which queen was in that hive. 

 The first week in December having oc- 

 casion to look over the hive, I found 

 the young queen with perfect wings, 

 apparently all right, and at home on the 

 combs. By the shape, I should judge that 

 she had been fertilized, but there were 

 no eggs in the cells from first to last, 

 and the colony was only about medium. 

 There are no flowers in bloom at present, 

 and very few colonies have brood. 



I observed my Italians gathering 

 worm-dust from an old decayed tree, as 

 a substitute for pollen. I find very little 

 pollen either old or new in the hives. 

 We generally have the manganita in 

 bloom from the middle of November, 

 but it has not commenced to bloom yet. 



cool and the season not over 6 weeks, at 

 most. Swarming was backward ; my 

 first swarm came off May 10th. They 

 come out generally in February and 

 March. 



On account of the late and cold rains, 

 queen-cells were cut down by the bees, 

 and in one instance I found 8 queens in 

 a first swarm. The old queen was 

 superseded. I saved 7, one was killed 

 in the cluster, and I had. to do con- 

 siderable work in a heavy drizzling 

 rain. Owing to sudden and frequent 

 showers, many of my cells were hatched 

 in an incubator, and I even had to keep 

 them and feed them several days for 

 clear weather. I lost a good many vir- 

 gin queens on that account in introduc- 

 ing them. 



I like the introducing cage mentioned 

 in the American Bee Journal so 

 well that I shall use no other. I have 

 had considerable success with it. The 

 first time I used it, I had a queen out of 

 a hive 14 days, had no hive ready, and 

 so I put her in with another queen, in 

 one side of the hive, with no division- 

 board. Four days after, I found the 2 

 queens on different combs at home, I 

 made two colonies successfully. That 



was in September, 1879. I always 

 recommend it to others, especially to a 

 novice. 



I find that the Langstroth frames 

 mold here in the winter, and they hold 

 too much for comb honey, so I have 

 made hives this season 1% m - shorter 

 in length of frame, which give me bet- 

 ter satisfaction. I use the same surplus 

 apartments ; have no portico, but the 

 front projects about 3 inches. The 

 hives are ready for surplus sooner, and 

 the bees are forced into the sections 

 sooner. To illustrate : I had a swarm 

 come off on the 13th of May, 1880 ; the 

 queen, with clipped wing was on the 

 ground. I removed the hive to a new 

 stand ; as soon as bees were out I put a 

 new hive on that stand ; gave them one 

 frame of brood and stores, 2 frames of 

 stores in drone comb, and 7 empty 

 frames. On the loth, I took away 20 

 empty frames, placed 2 of drone comb 

 in each side of the hive, and the 7 

 frames of foundation (full sheets). In 

 just 7 days, on the 22d of May, at the 

 entrance, something looked suspicious. 

 Expecting to see the foundation on the 

 bottom, I opened the hive, and found 

 the foundation all built out, full of 

 honey, and nearly capped over ; I took 

 out 5 frames, gave them 5 empty combs, 

 and put on 27 sections, .5J4x6xlJ£. 

 Just 3 weeks from that time, I took off 

 21 sections, solid, and 5 frames sealed 

 over ; the other 6 sections from % to % 

 filled ; v but as the honey flow was cut 

 short, I gave them to other colonies. I 

 obtained about 75 lbs. of honey from 

 this colony, of superior quality. I did 

 not sell any of my honey until October, 

 and shall dispose of all of my surplus 

 at fair prices, and my honey has a good 

 reputation. I have to compete with 

 honey, repacked, at the fruit factories, 

 at San Francisco, and labeled " Orange 

 Bloom Honey." Perhaps all the orange 

 is on the label. Wherever I can leave 

 a sample, I do not fear for the result. I 

 use the best of machinery, even if I 

 have to pay high express charges to get 

 it, and my honey is clean and pure. 1 

 have it in different styles of packages, 

 and even on draught, to suit different 

 customers. 



It is difficult to save empty combs 

 here, as moths will breed, I think the 

 whole year ; but in the hives that I use, 

 my bees will keep the combs free from 

 moths, even if they do not cover > 4 of 

 them. 



Napa, Cal., Dec. 13, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees Dying in Indiana. 

 e. c. faequhab. 



In the the spring of 1879, I bought 2 

 colonies of bees in box hives, transferred 

 them to movable frame hives, and at 

 the same time divided them, making 4 

 colonies— 2 of them queenless. Butthey 

 soon reared queens, and done well 

 under the circumstances. I then bought 

 another colony, transferred and divided 

 as before, also bought 1 young swarm, 

 and by fall I had 13 colonies, and 1 natu- 

 ral swarm left me after it was hived. 

 All went into winter in good condition. 

 I also obtained about 100 lbs. of surplus, 

 and had plenty left to winter on. One 

 colony lost its queen in the spring, and 

 I united it with another. During the 

 winter I bought 5 more colonies, and 

 took 19 oil shares; 3 of these starved, 

 and two were destroyed by worms. Thus 



