198 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



about May 10, when it is time for 

 their combs to be filled with brood so 

 entirely that the queen deposits her 

 eggs right down around the bottom 

 of the combs, and up the other side 

 clear to the top-bars. At this time 

 the insertion of another comb is 

 necessary. 



In contracting to so few combs it 

 may be seen that there is but little if 

 any room for stores. Formerly each 

 colony would have from 1 to 15 pounds 

 of honey, and as it was so hard to 

 know how long it would last, or which 

 colonies had the most, without going 

 over the whole apiary, sometimes a 

 colony would get entirely out of honey, 

 de.stroy the brood, and consequently 

 be unprofitable for the season. This 

 suggested the contraction of the 

 brood-chamber, and feeding every 

 day enough diluted honey to last until 

 the next. 



With the right arrangements the 

 above proves to be quite an agreeable 

 method of management, as it requires 

 but one hour to feed 50 colonies. It 

 stimulates brood-rearing, facilitates 



freat contraction of the brood-cham- 

 er, which is so necessary in spring, 

 and what is more, no innocent bee is 

 obliged to retire with an empty 

 stomach. 



The feeders which I use are made 

 by inserting an extra cross-bar some 

 distance below the top-bar of a brood- 

 frame, and enclosing the sides with a 

 thin material so as to form a sort of 

 trough. The feed is put in with a 

 funnel through a hole in the quilt 

 and the top-bar of the frame. The 

 feed should consist of two parts of 

 water to one part of honey, and in 

 amount should be about 3}^ ounces. 

 I believe that there are few colonies 

 so small in the spring that it will not 

 pay to nurse them up, as they after- 

 ward make very paying colonies ; 

 while colonies that were crowded 

 with brood and bees barely make a 

 living. 



The time during which I feed the 

 bees daily is from May 1 to June 10. 

 The following is a record for 1884, of 

 the average number of solid combs of 

 brood per colony, taking the apiary 

 through: May 1, about 1}^; Mav 10, 

 2}i ; May 18, i}4 ; May 27, B% ; June 

 5,8; June 15. 11; and June 25, 12. 

 Contracting the brood-chamber and 

 feeding warm food just before night, 

 is the best safeguard that I know 

 against absconding or " springdwind- 

 ling." From the above may be un- 

 derstood what I call solid combs of 

 brood. 

 Bradford, (^ Iowa. 



be returned to the parent colony to 

 store honey there, mstead of estab- 

 lishing a new colony of bees ; and 

 still another error is, that Mr. H. 

 Alley, in his " Handy Book," claims 

 to know that he can give to a colony 

 of bees, which he has deprived of 

 their queen and combs, and so re- 

 duced to the most helpless and mis- 

 erable condition bees can be put into, 

 the true natural " swarming impulse " 

 (of preservation of race through colo- 

 nial propagation or reproduction), by 

 confining them in an empty wired-box 

 for some length of time before giving 

 them fresh brood to start royal cells. 

 1 will speak here but of the first 

 error and reserve the other two for a 

 future time. 



It is a well-known fact that some 

 varieties of bees are more inclined to 

 swarm than others, and that the 

 swarming propensity in a variety of 

 bees makes that variety objectionable 

 to the honey apiary, as bees that are 

 inclined to swarm cannot well furnish 

 much surplus honey. I have tried 

 the blacks, the Italians, the Cyprians, 

 the Holy-Lands, the Mt. Lebanons, 

 the Albinos, and the Carniolans, and 

 have found the blacks the least in- 

 clined to take to swarming in my 

 large hive, which is a composition of 

 the Langstroth and Quinby hives, 

 having the suspended brood-frames of 

 the former, and the surplus-honey 

 arrangement of the latter. 



The next least inclined to swarm I 

 have found to be the Mt. Lebanon 

 colonies that had prolific young 

 queens of the previous season's late 

 rearing. I have had occasion to ob- 

 serve those queens and their fertility 

 verv closely, and I found that with 

 the'end of the first season's service 

 in my large hives, a Mt. Lebanon 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Lenitli of a Queen's Fertility, 



GUST. MUEHAED. 



I have within the last few years 

 had occasion to discover some prevail- 

 ing errors which need correction. 

 One is the prevailing'opinion.that the 

 fertility of a queen of any of the yel- 

 low-banded varieties of bees is good 

 for five years. Another error is that 

 an issued first swarm of bees should 



queen has reached the meridian of 

 her life fertility and usefulness, and 

 henceforth is on the decline, and will 

 give entirely out in the early part of 

 the third season, when the sagacious 

 workers will ball and supersede her. 

 As with the expiration of the first 

 season's service in the honey apiary 

 the queen has come to her decline, 

 she is, although her fertility is but 

 half exhausted, still no longer fit for 

 the honey apiary, as her decline is 

 liable to show signs in the early part 

 of the next season, when the natural 

 instinct of the double self-preserva- 

 tion, as well of the colony as of race, 

 will prompt the workers to swarm ; it 

 would be as well to establish a new 

 colony as to try the vital strength of 

 the old queen, which had better be 

 lost at that time than any other sea- 

 son of the year, in case she cannot 

 stand the swarming. 



Each colony in a honey apiary 

 should, at the expiration of the honey 

 season, either be furnished with a 

 young queen reared that season, or 

 the colony be taken to the queen- 

 nursery to make use of the queen's 

 remaining half of fertility, by furnish- 

 ing brood for the nuclei, when, at 

 the end of the season, the colony with 

 a reared young queen may be taken 

 back to the honey apiary to serve next 

 season again for surplus-honey gath- 

 ering. 



Portland,^ Oregon. 



Tlie Honey Market. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Combine, combine, bee-keepers all, 

 Whether your " biz " be large or small, 



Keep up the rates of honey ; 

 Ten cents extracted is the price. 

 Eighteen for section-boxcB nice, 



And see you get your money ! 



Beware, beware the flantrernns 'len 

 Of hard and yrar^pint; niiilrlU'-ini'ii — 



Sell honey " ntrii.lt:hi." aw whisky 

 Is swallowed down tUv Icallierv throats 

 Of tough, salooii-frequentiug bloats— 



All other modes are risky. 



But now that sugar is so low. 

 And may. perhaps, yet lower go, 



Before it finds rock-bottom. 

 Had we not better face our fate- 

 Let the extracted go for eight ? 



And— comb— well if you've got 'em* 



You'll see the prices current veer 

 From eighteen there to thirteen here, 



'Till men of wisdom wonder 

 Whether it is not time to " get," 

 And, for their parts, consent to let 



Bee-keeping go to thunder ! 



Sweet friends, can we not find a tiehl 

 That will afl'.nvi.t lioney yield, 



Our present "iic to dnnble ; 

 Also a way tu hamlle bees. 

 Doing our work with greater ease. 



And half the time and trouble ? 



The laws of trade are bound to rule. 



And he who doubts it is a fool- 

 Low prices i-atrh thi' masses ; 

 If we intend to " talu- thf cake," 

 Honey we must :is low-priced make 

 Aa sugar or molasses. 



Dear friends, I hate to see you wince 

 Because the trutli I cannot mince. 



But must your pet corn tread on ; 

 Yet still a living you can earn. 

 If you at once turn to and learn 



Bee-keeping a la Heddon. 



If this we do, glucose " must go," 

 For we will honey sell as low 



As that nefarious mixture ; 

 Oh ! won't it be tlie jolliest fun. 

 To the arrant humbug run 



And honey stay a fixture ? 



Poetic justice will be doled 



To those who have the public sold 



When glucose thus goes under ; 

 Then give them competition hot. 

 And send their syrup shops to pot, 



"Mit blitzen und mil dunder." 



Mead and metheglin then will be 

 Drunk by the multitude like tea- 

 Hams will be cured with honey ; 

 No bee-man wear a <lo\vi)-( a^t look, 

 But each possess a pni-ket-itodk 

 Which has some ready money ! 

 Guelph, Ont. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



KeeninE Bees Near a Railroad, 



J. A. QUEEN. 



I see by the answers to Queries No. 

 198 and 199, that some of those re- 

 sponding think that the smoke of 

 passing trains would be detrimental 

 to an apiary situated near a railroad. 

 I can give some facts from experience. 



On the west side of my apiary, and 

 only 200 feet away, is the railroad 

 station, where a much larger quantity 

 of smoke is discharged than at any 

 point away from the station. On the 

 east side, at the foot of the bluff, on 

 the edge of which the apiary is located, 

 are the kilns of the drain-tile works, 

 with the tops of their chimneys nearly 

 on a level with the apiary, and less, 

 than 200 feet away. During the sum- 

 mer these chimneys pour forth almost 

 constantly a heavy volume of smoke. 

 Whenever the wind is from the east, 

 each puff of wind blows a cloud of 

 smoke into or over my apiary ; and 

 the same thing happens whenever the 

 wind is in the west, and there is a 

 locomotive at the station. 



