596 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



What Experience Has Taught Us the 

 Past Few Years, 



Experience has taught us that it would 

 not be wise for us to make bee-keepiug 

 a specialty here at our home in the mid- 

 dle of Western Illinois, but that we must 

 let it remain aside-issue, always aiming, 

 however, to let nothing arise that would 

 cause the bees to be neglected if they 

 should need any especial care, and so 

 arranging our work that the honey can 

 be cared for when it does come ; and 

 yet that we may not be idle should there 

 be no surplus honey, but will have some 

 other business by which tp make our 

 living meanwhile. 



Experience has also taught us that a 

 large brood-chamber pays best in our 

 locality, one season with another, unless 

 we are sure of having time and help to 

 take out combs at the beginning of 

 white clover bloom, so as to crowd the 

 bees into the sections, and to replace 

 them at its close ; and we reduce the 

 brood-nest for the winter only in case 

 the combs can be given back in the 

 spring. This taking out combs and re- 

 turning them at different times of the 

 year from a hundred or several hundred 

 colonies of bees, is what makes bee-keep- 

 ing very laborious, especially to persons 

 in ill-health, or who already have much 

 other work on hand ; and if it so hap- 

 pens that we get the brood-nest con- 

 tracted, and sickness comes on, or our 

 help fails us, and we are unable to get 

 the combs given back to the bees, the 

 colonies grow small, and are injured. 



Our experience convinces us that 

 when colonies of bees must be left to 

 take care of themselves the season 

 through, they do not do so well with 

 small brood-nests as if given large ones. 

 Mr. Axtell and I would call eight Quinby 

 frames, or ten Langstroth frames, a suf- 

 ficiently large brood-nest. 



Another thing we have learned 

 (though a long time in learning it) is, 

 that, so long as these poor seasons last 

 it does not pay to try to build up weak 

 colonies by feeding or otherwise, except 

 we have valuable queens which we 

 wish to keep, or except just at the 

 swarming time. When we had our good 

 seasons some years ago, we thought it 

 did pay. Feeding and nursing weak 

 colonies so often causes silent robbing, 

 that when one expects to find he has the 

 colony built up it is still weak and short 

 of stores, and dies the following winter 

 or spring. 



And again, we have learned that a 

 good colony with a large brood-nest left 

 alone, neither brood nor honey being 



drawn from it, will seldom pass a season 

 without getting enough to winter on, 

 will give its owner but little care, will 

 generally supersede its old queen in due 

 time, and can be relied upon to give a 

 good return whenever the weather and 

 the secretion of nectar render such pos- 

 sible. Mks. L. C. Axtell. 

 Roseville, Ills., Sept. 20, 1893. 



The essay of Mrs. Axtell was discuss^ed 

 as follows : 



Mr. Wilcox — I think the points in the 

 essay are more particularly applicable 

 to the locality of the writer. 



R. L. Taylor — The writer of the essay 

 evidently likes a large brood-chamber 

 on account of the trouble of handling 

 combs. Why not overcome the difficulty 

 by using the Heddon hive? 



R. F. Holtermanu — I think if experi- 

 ence has taught us anything, it has 

 taught, during the past five or ten years, 

 that we cannot succeed in bee-keeping 

 without devoting time to the business ; 

 neither can we expect to succeed with- 

 out experience. 



C. P. Dadant— Colonies that do not 

 swarm for years, will supersede their 

 queen as readily as those that do swarm. 



A. N. Draper — For comb honey a small 

 hive will do; for extracted honey we 

 want to use a large hive. 



R. L. Taylor — What does Mrs. Axtell 

 produce, comb or extracted honey ? The 

 general impression appeared to be that 

 she produced comb honey. 



Mr. Blanchard — Will the hive which 

 will allow us to give the bees the least 

 attention, be the best, or the hive from 

 which we can get the best results? I 

 think the latter. I know of no business 

 which will give us results — good results 

 — without work. 



R. L. Taylor— -I think that feeding 

 should be done in the fall of the year. 

 Last spring I examined colonies. I use 

 the Nev/ Heddon hive, and at that time, 

 in many instances, I remove one super, 

 leaving the bees a shallow one only. 

 The prospects were bad, yet they in- 

 creased wonderfully. I put a case of 

 sections on the single story hive, and 

 they gave me as much section honey as 

 those occupying two stories. I fed a ton 

 of sugar in the fall for stores, and I con- 

 sider it paid me well. 



{Contiuued next week.) 



A Binder for holding a year's num- 

 bers of the Bee Journal we mail for 

 only 50 cents; or clubbed with the 

 Journal for $1.40. 



