10 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to be examined to effect a sale as of a 

 large lot. 



3rd. The best buyers want a lot to 

 run uniform in cases, color, quality and 

 style. 



4th. It aids in breaking up the cus- 

 tom of feome producers, of sending a 

 few cases at a time. A large shipment 

 is less liable to be injured in transit 

 than a small one, and often brings a 

 little higher price. 



5th. We do not vary from the rates 

 above mentioned, whether freight is 

 prepaid or otherwise. 



R. A. Burnett & Co. 



Increase, Not Honey, Wanted. 



Please tell me how I can Increase my 

 bees. I have a colony of Italians on six 

 Langstroth frames, but they will not 

 swarm, on some account, I do not know 

 what. They are getting plenty of honey 

 and pollen for building up on. They 

 also build queen-cells on the comb where 

 there is no brood, for some cause or 

 other. I want to increase my bees. It 

 is not the Jioney I want, but more bees. 

 PoBTEE Feathers. 



Whitesburgb, Tenn. 



Answer. — The probability is that be- 

 fore this is in print your bees will have 

 swarmed. Their building queen-cells is 

 probably preparatory to swarming, al- 

 though sometimes when queen-cells are 

 built it does not indicate contemplated 

 swarming but supersedure of the old 

 queen. 



If they do not swarm, one way that 

 will be a good deal like natural swarm- 

 ing is as follows : Open the old hive, 

 find the queen, set the comb containing 

 her, with its adhering bees, in a new 

 hive, and put this new hive on the old 

 stand after removing the old hive to a 

 new stand 5, 10, or more feet away. 

 Put a frame of empty comb or founda- 

 tion in the old hive to replace the frame 

 of brood taken away, and fill up the 

 new hive with empty combs or frames of 

 foundation. 



For the next day or two all the field 

 bees, on their return from the fields, will 

 return to the old stand and join the 

 quoen, and the bees in the old hive will 

 rear a queen. If you operate at a time 

 of day when the young bees are out at 

 play, they will also join the new swarm, 

 and if you want to make still more sure 

 of havinj? the new swarm strong you 

 can shake or brush the beee from part 

 of the combs In front of the new hive. 

 There is just a litthi danger that in this 

 last operation you may make the old 



colony so weak that it cannot properly 

 take care of its brood. 



If the new swarm be made strong, 

 you may count on its doing fair work in 

 the surplus chamber. But as you want 

 bees and not honey, you will not care to 

 do anything to strengthen the new 

 colony. 



If you want to increase still farther, 

 you can form one or more nuclei by 

 taking from the old hive two frames of 

 brood and putting into a new hive. See 

 that no hive is left without a queen-cell. 

 This last change should be made nine or 

 ten days after making your first swarm, 

 unless there were queen-cells present at 

 that time, in which case you must make 

 your nuclei sooner, as the first queen 

 that hatches is likely to kill all the re- 

 maining queen-cells. 



Another way which may ensure better 

 queen-celjs, is to leave the old hive on 

 the old staud, taking from it two or 

 three frames of brood with adhering 

 bees, also the queen, and putting them 

 in a new hive on a new stand. This 

 will leave the old colony strong, and 

 before the first queen-cell has time to 

 hatch, say in nine or ten days from the 

 time you made the change, you can 

 divide it up into two, three or more 

 parts, forming a nucleus with each part. 

 The bees from this queenless colony will 

 remain on any new stand much better 

 than bees taken from a colony having a 

 laying queen. 



It isn't a hard thing to make a num- 

 ber of new colonies from an old one, but 

 it is also a very easy matter to have 

 them so weak that none of them wlli 

 live through the winter. Be sure, then, 

 not to make the mistake of trying to in- 

 crease too rapidly — a mistake that you 

 are pretty sure to make in spite of any 

 advice to the contrary. 



Bee-Keeping: for Profit.— We 



have just issued a revised and enlarged 

 edition of Dr. Tinker's book, called 

 "Bee-Keeping for Profit." It details 

 his most excellent " new system, or how 

 to get the largest yields of comb and 

 extracted honey." The book contains 

 80 pages in all, and is illustrated. Price, 

 postpaid, 25 cents, or clubbed with the 

 Bee Journal for one year, for $1.15. 



Bicycles are getting to be very com- 

 mon uow-a-days. We have two for sale, 

 and any one wanting a bargain in a good 

 bicycle, should write to the office of the 



BlijE JOUUNAL. 



