(pT (5 OLDEST BEE PAPER}^ 



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



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 17, 1881. 



No. 33. 





Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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For the American Bee Journal. 



Preparing Bees for Winter. 



DAVID HIQBEE. 



Last fall I had 7 colonies in Lang- 

 stroth hives ; 3 were made with dou- 

 ble walls and building paper between 

 the walls, and to fill the space excel- 

 sior was packed in closely. All my 

 hives, except one, were packed by the 

 use of chaff in the upper part of the 

 hives, at least 5 inches thick, also 1 or 

 2 frames on each side of the brood- 

 nest were removed, to be again re- 

 turned in the spring, and chaff packed 

 on the sides in their places. The 3 

 hives (not double-walled) I also packed 

 as above and covered over with slough 

 grass. The others I did not so cover. 



I made a mistake with the single- 

 walled hives in placing them only 4 

 inches from the ground. When the 

 deep snow drifts tilled my garden in 

 February where the bees were, and 

 began to melt, before' I was aware of 

 it the water had risen 3 inches high 

 above the entrances of the single- 

 walled hives that were covered with 

 the hay. I made every effort to se- 

 cure drainage, but found the hives 

 were frozen fast in solid ice which I 

 could not remove without destroying 

 the hives, and inasmuch as the bees 

 were supposed by me to be smothered, 

 I abandoned them as lost and did not 

 go near them again until April 1, when 

 they were standing in a pool of snow- 

 water 2 inches over the alighting- 

 boards. I then opened them from the 

 top, when I was astonished to not 

 only find them alive but in good con- 

 dition, and full of hatching brood 

 above the water-line. They have been 

 in better condition than any of my 

 bees all the season. The others came 



out well, except the one not packed in 

 chaff, which was very weak, although 

 in good condition in the fall, having 

 yielded 75 pounds of surplus comb 

 honey last year. 



I found in all my hives that the 

 chaff next to the frames was dry, but 

 nearly rotton on the top, from accu- 

 mulated moisture ; this suggests to 

 me the apparent necessity of a little 

 top ventilation. From the fact that 

 my bees did well for 2 months with 

 the bottom entrance frozen shut, I 

 conclude it is not essential. 



This fall I will set my bees one foot 

 above ground, and pack as before. 

 How about lime over the chaff to ab- 

 sorb this moisture V This has been a 



Biographical— Dr. N. P. Allen. 



Dr. Allen was born in Cumberland 

 Co., Ky., April 30, 1830, was reared in 

 Warren county, Ky., and educated in 

 the common schools and academies of 

 the county. He received his profes- 

 sional education at the Ohio Dental 

 College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1851-52. 

 In 1855 he married Miss Kate E. Ed- 

 monds, of Glasgow, Ky., and has 

 lived upon a farm ever since, his 

 health not allowing him to be confined 

 in a dentist's office. It being neces- 

 sary for him to spend much of his time 

 in active exercise in the open air, he 

 devoted his time to agriculture, bee- 



very poor honey season in this local- 

 ity ; I do not hear of any one yet se- 

 curing any surplus. I only made one 

 new swarm this year, as I was all the 

 time waiting for the honey season to 

 set in. 



My bees are Italians and are in good 

 condition and very strong, with plenty 

 of brood but scarcely any honey ; this 

 has been the poorest year in the 20 

 that I have been in the bee business. 

 I am delighted with your Journal; 

 could not think of doing without 

 the Weekly, but must beg leave to say 

 that I like the old form better, as I 

 wish always to bind it. The old form 

 is better for the library shelves and 

 for perusal. 



Avoca, Iowa, Aug. 4, 1881, 



culture, and the rearing of fine stock 

 — horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. 



In 1874 he called the bee-keepers in 

 [Southern Kentucky together at his 

 residence, where the Southern Ken- 

 tucky Bee-Keepers' Society was or- 

 ganized, and he was elected the first 

 President of the Society, and was re- 

 elected for 3 successive years, after 

 which he refused to accept the office 

 any longer. He became the Secretary 

 from that time until it was merged 

 into the State Society, at Louisville, 

 Ky., Oct., 1880. 



He was elected President of the Ken- 

 tucky State Society, in Louisville, and 

 also of the North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Society, at Cincinnati, in 1880. 



He has spent much time in the study 

 of bee-culture, but has never had any 

 intetest in patent hives or the sale of 

 any apiarian tools, and has spent much 

 time and money in spreading a know- 

 ledge of rational bee-keeping among 

 the bee-keepers of his locality and 

 State. He has never failed to attend 

 the bee-keepers' conventions of his 

 county, district, or State. He has trav- 

 eled in Kentucky and other States, in 

 the interest of apiculture. The Doc- 

 tor has given his whole energy and 

 influence to develop the honey re- 

 sources of the country, and without 

 reward or pecuniary advantage, ex- 

 cept the thought that he has been in- 

 strumental in dispelling, to some de- 

 gree, ignorance and superstition in 

 regard to the cultivation of the honey 

 bee, and in seeing thousands of pounds 

 of pure honey gathered, where none 

 was gathered before. 



The honors conferred upon him were 

 not of his seeking, neither did he ex- 

 pect any consideration for the lively 

 interest he has taken in the progress 

 of American apiculture. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Getting Bees off the Combs. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



On page 222, H. F. B. wished to 

 know how to get bees from the combs. 

 He said " we are told to shake them 

 off, but there must he a particular 

 way to shake them that I do not know 

 of, for that plan to answer." I always 

 shake the combs to get the majority 

 of the bees off, and with the blacks 

 every bee can be shaken off. 



To do this, place the ends of the 

 frame on the ends of the 2 middle fin- 

 gers of each hand, and then, with a 

 quick upward stroke, throw the ends 

 of the frame against the ball, or thick 

 part of the hand, at the base of the 

 thumb. As the frame strikes the hand 

 let the hands give a sudden downward 

 motion, which makes the shock still 

 greater. As the frame strikes the 

 fingers again it is thrown back against 

 the hand, and so on till all, or nearly 

 all of the bees are off. The principle 

 is that the bee is on her guard all the 

 while to keep from falling off, thus 

 holding on tenaciously so as not to be 

 easily shaken off. By the sudden 

 stopping of the upward, and a quick 

 downwani motion, the bees are thrown 

 off their guard and disloged from the 

 comb. I do not remember of even 

 having broken a comb by shaking it, 

 as above described. Now, if we dis- 

 turb the Italians, causing them to fill 

 themselves with honey, they can then 

 be shaken from the combs about as 

 easily as black bees. But even if we 

 cannot afford time to waittill they are 

 filled with honey, 4-5 of them can be 

 shaken off. To get off the remainder 

 I take a turkey or goose quill and 

 trim down the feather edge about % 

 on the wide side, and with this I have 

 no trouble in getting off those re- 

 maining, without irritating them. Of 

 course it will appear a little awkward 

 at first, but will soon be found easy 

 enough. 



Borodino, N. \ r ., Aug. 6, 1881. 



