THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



sections below those tliat are nearly 

 or quite linisiied. In case of swarm- 

 ing, he follows up the working bees 

 with their unfinished work, putting 

 combs into the brood-chambers of the 

 new home. 



Mr. S. F. Newman said that a brood- 

 nest of the Simplicity hive was too 

 large for comb honey. He would 

 contract it by division-boards. He 

 places a comb of sealed brood in the 

 upper story to encourage the bees to 

 go into the sections. He also said 

 that their is more profit in extracted 

 honey at 10 cents than comb honey at 

 15 cents per pound. Mr. White pro- 

 duces extracted honey almost exclu- 

 sively. Mr. Boardman, who reports 

 550 colonies, has not used his extrac- 

 tor for years. 



An essay on the " Best method of 

 increase,'' was read by Daniel White. 

 He had found that by the purchase 

 of 3-frame nuclei in the spring of 

 188-5, he could increase the number 

 very rapidly. Such a method, how- 

 ever, did not at once increase his 

 bank-account. The discussion pre- 

 sented many ways of increasing. Re- 

 ports of wintering from those present 

 showed a loss of 55 colonies out of 

 1,127. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet at the call of the Secretary, in 

 October, at Norwalk, Ohio. 



H. W. Minns, Sec. 



proved to be hollow 15 feet from the 

 ground, and a woodpecker had made 

 an opening for a nest years before, 

 which made an entrance for the bees, 

 and the prize was mine. 



On arriving at my home and telling 

 my brothers of my success, all agreed 

 that it was the tree of old, and were 

 eager to see it downed. After dark 

 several of the neighbors were invited, 

 and we started off. By an oversight 

 we had but one ax. and after a few 

 blows the helve broke off close to the 

 eye. Fortunately it was a single- 

 blade, and a fire was built, the piece 

 burned out, and the helve put in 

 again, which took until late in the 

 night. 



The tree was felled and a slab cut 

 out of the side, when it was found to 

 contain comb .6 feet in length, and 

 the diameter of the hollow was fully 

 IS inches. Every inch of space was 

 filled, but as the comb was so old not 

 one-half of it was filled with honey, 

 and we secured only 130 pounds. The 

 colony must have "been at least ten 

 years old. We could not carry the 

 dry comb that evening, and it was 

 plied up, and the tree being dry, it all 

 took fire a few minutes after we left, 

 and made a splendid bonfire. 

 Lockwood,9 N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My First Bee-Hunt, 



J. H. ANDKE. 



Many years ago my father was away 

 from home in the fall of the year 

 superintending a job of work, having 

 left a younger brother and myself to 

 finish up the late harvest and attend 

 to the stock, etc. One day in the latter 

 part of September, I ascertained that 

 bees had been seen getting water at a 

 creek about half a mile distant, and 

 as it had been well known by many 

 that an old resident bee-tree had been 

 lined to the hills near this place, and 

 none of the hunters had been lucky 

 enough to secure the prize, I thought 

 that I would try my boyish skill. I 

 had accompanied other members of 

 the family in their hunts, but had 

 never gone alone. 



After getting the work for the day 

 done, and the necessary accoutre- 

 ments ready, I set out one day at 2 

 p.m. I found the bees on the flowers. 

 and caught some and put them to 

 work on a piece of comb containing 

 sugar syrup. Sure enough, when 

 filled, and after much circling, they 

 started up the mountain on the line 

 of the famous old tree. A creek run 

 at the foot of the mountain, but my 

 boyish blood was up, and pulling off 

 boots and socks I waded through and 

 started along the line which ran 

 diagonally up the mountain, which 

 stood at an angle of not less than 55^. 

 Tree after tree was eagerly scanned 

 for one-third of a mile or so. when I 

 came to a large pine stub that had 

 been broken off by the wind some 30 

 feet or more from the ground. It 



For tbo American Bee JoumaL 



Wlat to flo witti Weak Colonies. 



4— GEO. F. kobhins, (00— .58). 



The recent reading of the answers 

 to Query, Ko. 246, " When to unite 

 weak colonies," and Mr. Doolittle's 

 pamphlet detailing bis method of 

 management, have prompted me to 

 write this article. Mr. Doolittle is 

 about right in saying that when sev- 

 eral colonies are united into one in 

 early spring, that that one is very 

 likely to die after all. I am not yet 

 satisfied whether it is better to unite 

 thus, or not, except when one colony 

 is queenless ; in that case, unite by all 

 means. 



But Mr. Doolittle agrees with a 

 number of other answers to this 

 query, that it is better to build up 

 weak colonies. By analogy it would 

 be better for me, if I owned one acre 

 of land, to start a gold mine on that 

 acre than to plant it in cabbages. I 

 have found that many times it would 

 be about a's easy to do the latter as 

 the former. Do what I may to build 

 up, often while the weak colonies do 

 not increase, the strong ones dwindle. 

 Such has not been the case so much 

 this spring. I have not endeavored 

 to build up the few weak colonies 

 I have, but I have not had a case of 

 dwindling except in case of the loss 

 of the queen. The reason is that the 

 season, especially during April, has 

 been favorable. To have a warm, 

 sunshiny April is to have the best 

 stimulating conditions possible. It is 

 our cold, damp, cloudy, backward 

 springs that do the mischief. Here 

 in Central Illinois this kind of sea- 

 sons largely preponderates of late 

 years. During such seasons bees die 



off just about in proportion to the 

 effort made to strengthen them. 



Mr. Doolittle's method of building 

 up colonies is essentially as follows : 

 If a colony has two frames containing 

 brood he inserts a frame of honey 

 with the capping broken, in between 

 them. At the end of about a week 

 he inserts another frame in the brood- 

 nest in like manner ; in another week, 

 another frame, and so on. At the end 

 of three weeks the first frame of 

 brood begins to hatch, and, according 

 to my experience during our back- 

 ward seasons, at this time those three 

 frames of brood is about all you will 

 have left. If there are plenty of 

 stores in the hive, or coming in, the 

 instinct of a good queen is to fill five 

 Or six frames with brood as rapidly as 

 the bees are able to feed and protect 

 it. I have had a queen to lay three 

 eggs in a cell, confining herself to two 

 frames, and all my efforts to build 

 that colony up by inserting frames of 

 hatching brood and of honey failed. 

 The outside frames would be left 

 empty as soon as the old brood 

 hatched out. 



I am aware that sometimes condi- 

 tions that might have been remedied, 

 helped to cause this failure, namely, a 

 flat or shaded location. But other 

 colonies well situated did not fare 

 very much better. >fow, what shall 

 we do y If we can neither unite nor 

 build up to advantage, what shall we 

 do ? To a large extent we can do 

 nothing. I have about become con- 

 vinced that all we can do during such 

 vernal seasons as I have described, is 

 to confine the bees to the number of 

 frames they can cover well, see that 

 they have plenty of good stores, pack 

 them dry and warm, get them into a 

 dry place in the sunshine, and leave 

 them alone until settled warm 

 weather. 



Unfortunately such weather and 

 white clover have been pretty much 

 in the habit of coming on together, in 

 this latitude, about June 1 ; but to us 

 who run chiefly or only for honey, I 

 think this is not necessarily so great 

 a misfortune as it appears to be. 

 Unless our winter losses have been 

 very great, -when we consider that 

 hives and fixtures cost money, and 

 that the honey-yield of any field is 

 limited, very much increase is not 

 profitable. With the swarming in- 

 stincts that my bees have, I always 

 have to do some uniting to avoid this 

 over-increase of colonies. In doing 

 this I have utilized such weak colo- 

 nies more profitably than I could 

 build them up. The first swarm that 

 issues I hive on the old stand. The 

 old hive I place down beside one of 

 these weak colonies, and in the even- 

 ing, or in a few days, I unite them, 

 giving the extra frames to a colony 

 not so weak, or putting them any 

 place where I can use them to advan- 

 tage. I have bad colonies thus 

 formed go to work in surplus boxes 

 in three days thereafter, and cast a 

 swarm in about two weeks. 

 Mechanicsburg,0 His. 



t^~ The next annual meeting of the Mlctai?an 

 State Bee-Keepers' Assojlation will be held In 

 Ypsilanti, Mich., on Dec, 1 and :!, 1h8(5. 



H. D. CDTTiNG, Sec. 



