86 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



Explanatory — The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 5 north of the centre ; 9 south : O* east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; xi northwest: 

 o. southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Lengllieiiiiig tlie Swarains-IfflPfllse. 



17— G. JI. DOOLITTLE, (40-95). 



By reading the answers to Query, 

 No. 17.S, on page 820, I notice that the 

 lengthening of the swarming-impulse, 

 so as to get more queens "reared, is 

 stated by some to be an advertising 

 "trick of tlie trade." Some of the 

 replies appear a little uncharitable 

 and iincourteous, to say the least, and 

 as I am one of those who have adver- 

 tised queens reared under the swarm- 

 ing-impulse, I wish to say a few 

 words on tlie subject, in addition to 

 what I said on page 8120, of the Bee 

 JouNRAL for 1885. 



If any person entertains the idea 

 that the swarming-impulse is to be 

 commenced at will, on tlie first day of 

 April, and closed on the last day of 

 October, I will simply say that I 

 know of no plan of doing such a feat; 

 but I do know how to get bees to 

 swarm 2 weeks in advance of the 

 time they otherwise would, and keep 

 them swarming from a month to 6 

 weeks later, each varying of course 

 according to the season. So it occurs 

 that I have had prime swarms as 

 early as May 18, and as late as Sept. 

 3, although the average will be from 

 June 10 to Aug. 20. As 1 keep no 

 secrets from the readers of the Ami;ki- 

 CAN Bee Journal, I will tell them 

 how it is done ; but first I wish to 

 explain why I consider queens reared 

 under the swarming-impulse superior 

 to those reared by the erroneously- 

 called " artificial process." 



1. The bees will not thus rear 

 queens until all the conditions for 

 queen-rearing are favorable ; while 

 with that method they are obliged to 

 rear queens at the will of the bee- 

 keeper, often under the most un- 

 favorable conditions. 



2. The queen-larva is so abundantly 

 fed that a thrifty growth is obtained, 

 thus giving great vigor ; while by the 

 so-called "artificial" method the 

 queen-larva is often insufficiently fed, 

 tlius dwarfing the queen's capacity as 

 an egg-layer. 1 have never cut open 

 a queen-cell produced under the 

 swarming-impulse but what I found 

 a lump of royal jelly left nearly as 

 large as a pea ; while I have cut scores 

 of queen-cells produced otherwise 



that did not have enough left in them 

 so as to detect a particle of royal jelly. 

 3. My queens reared under the 

 swarming-impulse, and those so 

 reared that are purchased of others, 

 have lived to be 3, 4, and some even 5 

 years of age, doing good business all 

 those years ; while I have never pur- 

 chased but one "dollar" queen that 

 lived 2 years, and three-fourths of 

 them never lived over 1 year. 



Now as to how I manage : In the 

 latter part of April I select colonies 

 having such queens as I wish to breed 

 from, which, as a rule, I know where 

 to find from the fall previous ; and 

 when thus selected I use every known 

 means to advance them as fast as 

 possible. I formerly depended upon 

 giving these colonfes frames of hatch- 

 ing brood, but for the past 2 seasons I 

 liave used the plan of giving caged 

 bees, with better results. I take a 

 cage, and from each of a number of 

 colonies I get a pint or so of bees, 

 until I have as many as I wish, when 

 the cage is placed in the cellar until 

 nearly dark ; it is then brought out 

 and placed over the selected colony in 

 such a way that the bees can run 

 down with the colony during the 

 the night through a hole in the quilt. 

 In this way the colony is materially 

 strengthened without the danger of 

 chilling any brood. I treat only 1 or 2 

 colonies in this way, depending on 

 the usual means to get the majority 

 of them ready to swarm a little later 

 on ; but I do get these one or two to 

 swarm two or more weeks in advance 

 of the rest. 



Next, as it comes toward the close 

 of the swarming season, I cage the 

 queen and hang her with the swarm 

 having just issued, so as to keep them 

 out as long as I desire, and be secure 

 from their leaving for the woods, 

 when from other colonies I get frames 

 of hatching brood so as to fill the 

 hive into which the .swarm is put. 

 If no honey is coming in from the 

 field, they are fed liberally, which re- 

 sults in the hive being crowded with 

 bees and stores so that in from 12 to 

 ^8 days 1 get another swarm from this 

 prime swarm. This I practice only 

 when I do not have enough queens on 

 hand reared when the bees swarm 

 without coaxing to supply the esti- 

 mated demand. All queens are kept 

 which are reared from the best colo- 

 nies during the general swarming in 

 the last of June and July, so as to 

 save this expensive coaxing and feed- 

 ing, so that I often send out queens in 

 September and October that were of 

 this sort. 



Another item : I manage to get 

 nearly double the queen-cells built by 

 these coaxed colonies that 1 do ordi- 

 narily. To do this, I proceed as fol- 

 lows : When I think that they will 

 be about starting queen-cells, I take 

 a frame of drone-comb (or partly such) 

 and cut three strips out of it about 

 1% inches wide, one at the bottom, 

 one in the middle, and one near the 

 top. Previous to this I have saved 

 some queen-cups or embryo queen- 

 cells, as I came across them in my 

 work with the bees. These cups are 

 stuck to the upper part of the comb 

 where the strips were cut out, by 



means of melted wax.when this frame- 

 is hung in the centre of the colony 

 coaxed. The bees seem to think that 

 they have started these queen-cups 

 themselves, so that I have in a few 

 days from 20 to 30 nice queen-cells 

 instead of from -5 to 10 as I ordinarily 

 would. 



When the colony swarms, a part of 

 the swarm is returned so as to protect 

 the queen-cells from any injury from 

 cold, and if the swarm is very early 

 in the season, the queen is taken 

 from them and all the bees allowed to 

 go back. If really good queens are to 

 be reared in the hive of the parent 

 colony, do not move this hive from 

 the old stand, so as to hive the new 

 colony on the old stand, as there is 

 danger of chilling the queens in the 

 cells. 



I have now described how I proceed 

 to secure queens which give me great 

 satisfaction, and this method is no 

 " trick of the trade " with me. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



For the Amencan Bee Journal* 



Feefliiig Sugar for Winter Stores, 



J. G. HARLAN, (17— 32). 



Allow me to join with those who 

 have already spoken against the ex- 

 tensive sugar-syrup feeding. It is 

 very obvious why this universal feed- 

 ing of sugar syrup will cause still 

 farther decline in the honey market. 

 It will throw hundreds of thousand* 

 of pounds more honey on the market, 

 and that kind, too, that does more to- 

 cause low prices than almost any- 

 thing else; by this 1 refer to dark 

 extracted, honey in bulged combs, 

 broken sections, and sections not 

 completed. Now this unsalable honey 

 is just as good for spring, summer or 

 winter stores as any sugar syrup ; at 

 least it has proved so with me. 



This practice is also causing much 

 distrust both among dealers and con- 

 sumers, they strongly suspecting that 

 all the honey offered, especially by 

 large honey-producers, is more or less- 

 composed of sugar ; and indeed they 

 have some ground for their suspicions. 

 I would make this suggestion : Put 

 no honey on the market but the very 

 nicest, and in the most attractive 

 form. Do not be in too great haste 

 to sell. Keep honey the year round 

 for your home trade. Work the home 

 market as though it was the only one 

 you knew of. Do not cut on prices. 

 Dealers in your own town can afford 

 to pay a cent or two more per pound 

 to have honey laid down in their 

 stores, than to have it shipped from a 

 distance, and paying Ireight and 

 drayage. I know of honey being 

 shipped from this county to the New 

 York market, last fall ; and I also 

 know of a groceryman in this town 

 that had honey shipped, this winter, 

 from New York here, for his trade. 

 This illustrates the point. Now let 

 those who do the most writing for our 

 bee-papers, take this matter up and 

 give their advice to us who are in the 

 habit of looking to them for advice. 



Yet, in justice to the bee-keeping 

 interest, I will say that in seasons 



