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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 30, 



THOMAS C. NEWMAN. 



Editob and pbopriethk. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAR. 30, 1881. 



Eepairing Losses by Dividing. 



I began the last season with 10 colo- 

 nies— 8 blacks and 2 Italians— and lost 

 all this winter but the Italians, which 

 are strong and in good condition. I 

 never read a bee book, nor saw the Bee 

 Journal till last fall. Had I subscribed 

 for the Bee Journal a year sooner, it 

 would have saved me $40. I thought I 

 had a good start last summer in the bus- 

 iness with 10 colonies, but now I have 

 only 2. (Ian I build up these two, and 

 ever hope to succeed V Will a good 

 manual help me ? What can I do with 

 50 or 00 frames of honey on which the 

 bees starved V S. F. Miller. 



N. Manchester, Ind., March 12, 1881. 



A seeming misfortune is sometimes a 

 blessing in disguise, and we doubt not, 

 with your spirit of inquiry and the ex- 

 perience of the past winter, you will so 

 prove it. You have every facility for 

 building up, and with the aid of a good 

 manual and the hives and combs of 

 honey left over from the wreck, it will 

 be a work of interest and a profitable 

 experience to replace your losses. Your 

 untenanted hives we suppose to be ex- 

 act duplicates of those now occupied by 

 the Italians ; if not, now is the time to 

 overhaul them, as you should have but 

 one style of hive. As soon as settled 

 weather comes on, when fruit trees are 

 in bloom and the air is redolent with 

 the perfume of spring flowers, you can 

 commence your work of dividing for 

 increase, as follows : Remove your best 

 colony to the stand where a new colony 

 is to remain and place in its stead an 

 empty hive, from the hive removed lift 

 the frame on which you find the queen, 

 and place with the queen in the empty 

 hive on the old stand, now take another 

 frame with sealed brood from the hive 

 removed and place alongside the frame 

 with the queen ; close the remaining 

 frames together in the hive from which 

 the queen was removed, and put one of 

 your old combs on eacli outer side, and 

 you are done with the interior of this 

 hive for ten days. Now, from your other 

 colony (which you will leave on its old 

 stand) remove three combs of sealed 

 brood, shake off the bees, and place in 

 the new hive with the queen; close the 

 combs together, put one old comb on 

 one side and two on the other, close the. 

 hive, and you are through with that for 

 the present. The five combs with brood, 

 in the new hive, place in the center, till 

 up the hive with old combs to its full 

 complement, and your first division is 

 completed. On the 10th day, remove 

 both hives containing queens, and put 

 empty hives where they stood ; now from 

 the queenless colony remove two frames 

 each containing a queen-cell, and place 

 one in each empty hive (if three frames 

 cannot be found containing good cells, 

 graft them in as directed in Cook's Man- 

 ual, page 167) leaving one in the hive 

 where found, and put in two frames of 

 brood (one from each colony removed). 

 This makes your queenless colony full. 

 From the colonies with queens, remove 

 four frames each and place in new hives, 

 each four on their old stand. This will 

 give you five hives, two containing live 



frames of brood and queen cells, two 

 with five frames of brood and queens, 

 and one with eight frames of brood and 

 queen cell. To the first four, place two 

 old combs, one each side and put in a 

 division board. Every three days add 

 an old comb till full. If the month of 

 May is warm and pleasant, and increase 

 is the main object, you can divide again 

 the first of June. About May 20, re- 

 move the queen from your best colony 

 with the frame she is occupying, put her 

 in an empty hive, then add two frames 

 from each of the four with queens ; now 

 fill up each hive with old combs, and 

 you have six hives occupied. Nine days 

 after, or when the cells in the queenless 

 colony are ripened, remove the five with 

 queens, and start five new ones where 

 they stood, by taking five frames of 

 brood from each, grafting a good queen 

 cell into each, and filling all up with 

 combs or good foundation. During 

 white clover bloom the colonies will 

 build up very rapidly. In the absence 

 of clean, bright combs, use good foun- 

 dation, and supply it no faster than the 

 bees can draw it out. 



In all manipulations of this kind, do 

 nothing without ascertaining first the 

 whereabouts of the queen ; with good 

 Italians this is not difficult, and a slight 

 oversight might be disastrous. Do not 

 spread brood too rapidly, for if chilled 

 disease may follow. Do not begin stim- 

 ulating too soon ; 10,000 bees and eight 

 frames of sealed brood, on the 15th of 

 May, in this latitude, will give better 

 returns than 50,000 bees on April 1st, and 

 a cessation of brood-rearing during the 

 latter part of April and the month of 

 May. We can see no economy in build- 

 ing up strong colonies very early, only 

 to feed through the bleak weather, and 

 die with age just when wanted most. 

 With judicious dividing, and a late fall 

 bloom, considerable surplus may be ob- 

 tained, but very little early surplus, un- 

 less basswood is profuse, or sweet clover 

 very abundant. 



LONDON JOURNAL OF IIORT. 



Bees in Jiew Zealand.— The following 

 article from the New Zealand Herald, 

 we find in the above excellent paper : 



Among the many varieties of the 

 honev bee few are held in greater esteem 

 than the Italian variety, or, as it is gen- 

 tlie Ligurian bee. They 



erally called 



are industrious workers, and delight in 



honey-gathering. In their hives there booked an order for several colonies this 



Canterbury. New Zealand, care of Mr. 

 Creighton, San Francisco. These bees 

 were received in New Zealand in good 

 condition, considering the length of 

 time in transit, and the hazardous por- 

 tion of the trip from Chicago to San 

 Francisco by rail. They were in a ten- 

 frame Langstroth hive; his manner of 

 preparing them was described in the 

 Bee Journal of Jan. 5, 1881. Mr. Wil- 

 son, in a letter to the editor of this pa- 

 per, written in January, says this colony 

 has been increased by the dividing pro- 

 cess to four good colonies. 

 Mr. A. H. Newman informs us he has 



gg'Mr. T. F. Bingham has removed 

 to Abronia, Allegan Co., Mich., where 

 his apiary is and has been located for 

 years. Any letters, however, sent to 

 Otsego will reach him, as it is only a few 

 miles from Abronia. 



85° We have received a copy of " The 

 Domestic Advertiser," a compendium 

 of household receipts, published by Mr. 

 J. II. Nellis, Canajoharie, N. Y. Its 

 30 pages are full of good receipts of all 

 kinds, and it will be valuable to every 

 housewife. 



;ire fewer drones than in thehivesof the 

 common honey bee, and the queen pro- 

 duces eggs all the year round, though 

 the number is considerably fewer in the 

 winter season than duriiig the warm 

 days of summer. About the time of 

 the American Centennial Exhibition, 

 several attempts were made by Mr. 

 Thomas Russell to introduce them to 

 the province of Auckland, through 

 agents he employed in San Francisco. 

 The first efforts were made by sending 

 queen bees, but the inmates of the sev- 

 eral parcels of those that were forwarded 

 all perished before reaching their desti- 

 nation. As a last effort a hive was sent 

 forward, but it was evident that there 

 was something still to learn to secure 

 the safe transportation of these bees 

 long distances, for they were nearly all 

 dead before reaching Auckland, and 

 the few sickly ones that reached here 

 died a few days after being landed. The 

 expense of these efforts was borne solely 

 by Mr. Russell. Norwere Mr. Russell's 

 failures to introduce these bees singu- 

 lar, for Mr. A. McKay, of Brisbane, who 

 made efforts to the same end. at the 

 same time was equally unsuccessful to 

 enrich his adopted land. 



But while the suggestion was made to 

 the Colonial Industries Commission to 

 spend £500 of public money to send a 

 person home to make an attempt to do 

 that in which so many failures had al- 

 ready been recorded, private and patri- 

 otic enterprise was successfully accom- 

 plishing that for which State aid was 

 being solicited. Mr. S. C. Farr, Secre- 

 tary of the Canterbury Acclimatization 

 Society, had already communicated with 

 R. J. Creighton, formerly of Auckland, 

 and now in San Francisco, on the sub- 

 ject, and Mr. J. II. Harrison, of Coro- 

 mandel, had also communicated with 

 his brother, Mr. W. G. Harrison, San 

 Francisco, formerly of Auckland, for 

 the same object. As Mr. Creighton is 

 regarded as the official representative of 

 New Zealand in the City of the Golden 

 Gate, both applications came to be re- 

 ferred to him. He made his arrange- 

 ments accordingly, and the success that 

 has attended them deserves public rec- 

 ognition on behalf of the colony. Mr. 

 Creighton regarded these efforts at ac- 

 climatization as public enterprises, and 

 not efforts for private gain, and acted 

 accordingly. Hives were made upon a 

 new construction, and a place provided 



which 



<g" Our correspondents have been so 

 liberal with their communications that 

 we have found it necessary to condense, 

 and give them much of the room usually 

 devoted to other departments. 



spring for Mr. A.V. Macdonald, Parnell, 

 Auckland, New Zealand. We are in 

 receipt of the following letter, dated 

 Jan. 3, 1881 : 



....I have heard a statement made 

 that the Ligurian bees, when they have 

 not been obtaining flowers requiringthe 

 use of the long proboscis, gradually 

 lose the length, and with the shorter 

 tongue do not gather from red clover. 

 As some colonies have already been ob- 

 tained from the United States, it would 

 be well to settle the point, Do Ligurian 

 bees successfully fertilize red clover ? 

 I lately had a small swarm sent me from 

 the country, minus the queen. I let 

 them remain all night in the hive I had 

 transferred them to, and in the morning 

 shook them out, very weak and doleful, 

 in front of a strong colony in full work, 

 but a little on one side of the entrance, 

 and left them to their fate. Half an 

 hour afterwards I found them all on the 

 alighting-board fraternized, the bees of 

 the hive pushing through the throng 

 with pollen, and others starting out 

 without molesting them. I presume 

 that the hive bees Deing very busy, and 

 the queenless bees going quietly to the 

 entrance, had not excited suspicion, and 

 thereby obtained the same scent and 

 were accepted. In this latitude we have 

 no trouble with wintering bees so far as 

 cold is concerned, but colonies are much 

 weakened by working in winter when 

 we have constant squalls of rain, which 

 must destroy numbers. 



A. V. Macdonald. 



At times when there is a scarcity of 

 other nectar-yielding bloom, we have 

 observed great numbers of Ligurian 

 or Italian bees working on red clover ; 

 but only at such times. We do not be- 

 lieve it is a favorite with any honey 

 bees, and is only utilized as a dernier re- 

 sort, as are several other honey plants. 

 That there is any permanent contrac- 

 tion or expansion of tongue is not true, 

 though it might be possible to develop 

 or obliterate physical traits by careful 

 or negligent breeding. 



Care of Weak Colonies. —Mr. F. L. 

 Dougherty, in the Indiana Farmer, 



in which was kept a wet sponge, wincri i ives the following advice : 

 secured that cool and e 



igfThis number of the Bee Jour- 

 nal will be found intensely interesting. 

 It embraces nearly every topic in bee- 

 keeping, and contains news from all 

 parts of the globe. During the storms 

 of the last few months we have received 

 many letters complaining of great irreg- 

 ularities and delays in the receipt of 

 their paper. While these complaints 

 are a gratifying proof of the interest 

 with which the Bee Journal is re- 

 ceived, we regret their occurrence, and 

 assure our readers that the paper has 

 always been mailed promptly. The de- 

 lays have been caused by the storms. 



appears to have 

 moist atmosphere necessary for bees, so 

 that when they arrived they were as 

 lively as possible, and seemed to be in 

 vast numbers. 



The two boxes were sent through the 

 Acclimatization Society, and entrusted 

 to the care of Cant. Cargill.atSan Fran- 

 cisco, who took them into his own cabin, 

 and daily attended to the wants of his 

 lively colonists. Fresh water was daily 

 supplied to the sponges, and everything 

 done that was requisite to the health and 

 comfort of the bees. The result is an 

 unmistakable success, and the colonists 

 of New Zealand are deeply indebted to 

 Capt.Cargilland Mr. Creighton for what 

 has been accomplished. Mr. Creighton, 

 in his letter to Mr. Cheesman, the Sec- 

 retary of the Acclimatization Society, 

 states that Mr. Harrison isnot to regard 

 his hive as an object for private profit, 

 but the bees are for the good of the col- 

 on v. and when swarms are obtained they 

 are to be distributed in the same way 

 that he has been provided with them. 



In August last Mr. A. H. Newman, 

 of Chicago, shipped a full colony of 

 bees to Mr. Thomas Wilson, at Kaipoi, 



Many colonies that have passed the se- 

 vere winter have come through in a 

 very weak condition and will require 

 careful handling to build them up into 

 good colonies, ready for the honey yield 

 when it comes. Weak feeding should 

 lie done inside the hive if possible. It 

 is not necessary to make syrup with 

 which to feed at this season, sweetened 

 water is just as good, two parts sugar 

 and one of water. The quantity to feed 

 should depend on the strength of the 

 colony, and should be placed as conven- 

 iently as possible to the brood cluster. 

 If it can be given to them warm, so 

 much the better. We know of nothing 

 that will operate as effectually against 

 spring dwindling as feeding this thin 

 syrup. It gives the bees food ami water, 

 and this with sufficient heat, stimulates 

 to brood rearing. Their instinct inclines 

 them to cluster in the brood nest to 

 keep up the necessary heat to accom- 

 plish this desirable result ; and as they 

 have both food and water inside the 

 hive, and work to accomplish also, 

 they seldom venture out unless the 

 weather is so pleasant that they can 

 easily return again. 



