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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



articles for the Canadian Farmer, en- 

 titled, " Seasonable Hints for Fruit 

 Growers ;" and in 1886, a series for the 

 Farmers' Advocate, entitled, " Hints for 

 Amateur Fruit Growers." Last year he 

 wrote an essay for the Hamilton Scien- 

 tific Association, (entitled, " Some Prob- 

 lems in Horticulture," dealing especially 

 with the fungi affecting fruits), a body of 

 which he had previously been made a 

 corresponding member. Three years 

 ago he was elected Vice-President for 

 Ontario of the American Pomological 

 Society, to whose report he has con- 

 tributed considerable matter. 



Lately, through the legacy from a rel- 

 ative, Mr. Woolverton has been enabled 

 to build a beautiful house, in which the 

 Horticulturist has, for the present, a 

 convenient and suitable home. The 

 ofiice occupies one of the principal rooms 

 on the ground floor, while the large attic 

 is stored with back numbers, bound 

 volumes, reports, electrotypes, etc., the 

 property of the Association. A. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the ~5 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting- on another page. In the main, it 

 win contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Supposed Trouble with Bees. 



I have one colony of bees that lived 

 through our last hard winter, although 

 they suffered a great loss. They seemed 

 to do extremely well until July 1st. As 

 at that time its hive was packed full of 

 honey and young bees, and had not 

 swarmed then, I put on some small 

 boxes. They went to work Immediately 

 in them, and in a few days had some 

 filled. Then they cast a very large 

 swarm, which I hived all right, but the 

 old swarm stopped working in the small 

 boxes, only to carry out what they had 

 put there, and up to date have not done 

 any more, nor have they swarmed again. 

 I am a beginner, and would like to know 

 the trouble. 



I find a great many things in the bee- 

 papers that I do not have to ask for, but 

 I would like to ask. Are all bee-keepers 

 troubled with the bees filling between 

 the tops of the brood-frames so that tha 

 comb has to be broken if the brood- 

 frames are removed ? 



Also, does smoking bees so as to re- 

 move the frames stop their working for 

 any length of time? 



I have one hive in use that has an en- 

 trance at the top of the frames, and also 

 at the bottom, but the bees use the top 

 entrance most. Is this a good kind of 

 hive '? E. H. Hallett. 



St. Johnsbury Centre, Vt., July 31. 



Answers. — The trouble with your bees 

 is not, as you suppose, something out of 

 the usual line. It is in the usual course, 

 and just what you may always expect 

 under similar circumstances. Your col- 

 ony did " exceedingly well " up to the 

 time of swarming, and then did poorly 

 after swarming, just because it had 

 swarmed. You see, swarming took 

 away its strong force, reducing it to the 

 condition of a very weak colony, and 

 then it did just what you might expect 

 from a very weak colony. If you could, 

 by some conjuring, have persuaded it to 

 have abstained from swarming, you 

 might have had a continuance of its 

 good work in storing surplus honey. 



A division of forces, as made by 

 swarming, seems not to have been a 

 desirable thing in your case. It is ex- 

 ceedingly difficult, according to the tes- 

 timony of nearly all bee-keepers, to 

 keep the whole force of bees at work in 

 the old hive, once they have taken a 

 notion to swarm. Failing in this, the 

 next best thing is to try to get as much 

 of the force as possible into the new hive 

 containing the swarm. This you can do 

 by putting the swarm on the old stand 

 at the time of swarming, removing the 

 old hive a few feet away. Then all the 

 old bees that have been left in the 

 mother hive, when they go to the fields 

 for plunder, will, on their return, fly 

 back to the old stand, making the 

 swarm very strong, and the old colony 

 correspondingly weak. Put supers from 

 the old hive on the swarm at once, and 

 let the old colony build up at its leisure. 



In reply to your second question, the 

 probability is that all bee-keepers are 

 more or less troubled with the nuisance 

 of brace or burr combs, unless they take 

 some steps to prevent it. The first 

 thing that seemed to offer any relief in 

 the case was that slat honey-board, in- 

 vented by James Heddon. In spite of 

 the expense of the honey-board, and the 

 dauby nuisance whenever it was lifted 

 from over the top-bars, it was a real 

 boon, well deserving thanks to the in- 

 ventor. Later, immunity from trouble 

 was claimed by using one or more pre- 

 cautions. J. B. Hall, an able Canadian 



