406 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For tbe American Bee JouroaL 



Bee-Keeping in Tennessee, 



E. C. KEMPEK. 



The past spring was very backward 

 and wet, but when it did open up it 

 came off very dry, so that bees gatli- 

 ered but very little honey from poplar, 

 ■which is counted our best flow liere. 

 Yet we have some white clover here 

 which began to bloom about May 10, 

 and yielded linely for a few days ; but 

 it has rained the most of the time 

 since— 28 days out of 30. 



I have about 2o0 colonies of bees all 

 in movable-frame hives, and have 

 only taken off about 1,000 pounds of 

 honey. I am afraid if this weatlier 

 continues two weeks longer I will be 

 obliged to feed. Sour- wood is just 

 coming into bloom, but unless the 

 weather becomes settled very soon 

 there will be no honey gathered from 

 it ; that is about tlie last that we can 

 expect any surplus from, as the fall 

 flow is very light here ; so I consider 

 the honey crop in tliis portion of the 

 State almost a complete failure for 

 1886, and while other Northern bee- 

 men are reaping a good harvest, I 

 shall live in hopes that there will be 

 a harvest for us another year. 



The bee-business is very much neg- 

 lected here in the South, and the most 

 of the bees here are kept in " log 



§ums," and are all black bees. I 

 ought .50 colonies of Italian bees, 

 and I am Italianizing all of my bees. 

 I lind it quite difficult to get the 

 gueens purely mated, as the country 

 is so full of IJlack bees, and especially 

 the sides of the mountains. 

 Pikeville,o+ Tenn., June 16, 1886. 



Prairie Farmer. 



Bees Deserting tlieir Hives, etc, 



MRS. L. nARRISON. 



When a swarm re issues, the hive 

 should be thoroughly examined to 

 ascertain the cause, for their is sure 

 to be one. If they leave silently and 

 alone, it will generally be found that 

 the queen returned to her former 

 home, and the bees followed suit. 

 Sometimes they leave the hive and 

 cluster, but I have had them take a 

 " bee-line " for the woods on re- 

 issuing. In my early days of bee- 

 keeping a swarm catne out several 

 times and clustered ; on examining 

 the hive I found the entrance to be 

 much smaller than in the other hives, 

 and they left because tlie ventilation 

 was insufficient. A swarm once emi- 

 grated because the hot sun shone 

 upon the hive the next day after 

 hiving. New hives that have been 

 stored in a close room where there 

 are barrels of kerosene, will acquire 

 an odor that is distasteful to bees, and 

 they will desert them. 



While writing the foregoing, I saw, 

 through the window, that a large 

 swarm of bees had clustered upon the 

 body of a small cherry tree, sur- 

 rounded by raspberry bushes. Hiving 

 bees from the bodies of trees, fences 



and stumps is not the pleasantest 

 work in tlie world, but it must be met 

 occasionally. I covered the raspberry 

 bushes with a sheet, and shook the 

 bees into a dish-pan, which I covered 

 with an apron and carried them to 

 the hive prepared to receive them. 

 After I thought I had most ot the 

 bees hived, I discovered a large clus- 

 ter at the foot of the tree, and another 

 on the fence, and had to bring the 

 hive there, and drive them into it 

 with smoke. If they had clustered 

 upon the branch of a tree, they could 

 have been secured easier. 



Some bee-keepers claim to be able 

 to entice bees to cluster wherever 

 they want them to. I have tried 

 these bee-bobs, time and again, and 

 have never been able to get the bees 

 to notice them ; have fixed up devices 

 resembling small clusters ot bees, and 

 with bees strung on threads hanging 

 from them, all to no purpose. I once 

 found a colony of bees with worker 

 brood, but too much drone. The bees 

 were diminutive. I took a new hive, 

 brushed the bees off the combs and 

 put them in it, placing it where the 

 old one stood, with a queen and drone 

 excluder in front, thus preventing 

 their entering the hive. These frames 

 contained brood only ; these were put 

 in the centreof the hive with division- 

 beards each side, after shaving the 

 heads off the drones, with an uncap- 

 ping knife. I pinched the head off 

 the queen, and destroyed the drones 

 as they were prevented from entering 

 the hive by the excluder. The bees 

 will build queen-cells, and when they 

 are capped I will destroy them, and 

 give them others ready to emerge, 

 reared in good colonies. There is as 

 much difference in bees as in other 

 stock, and those who keep them for 

 profit, cannot afford to keep scrubs. 

 All inferior colonies should be weeded 

 out, and this can be done by destroy- 

 ing only one bee, the queen or mother. 

 New blood should be introduced 

 yearly into the apiary by a few queens 

 from reliable breeders. 



In walking among the hives, I 

 noticed in front of one of them a ball 

 of bees as large as a walnut. I conjec- 

 tured that a queen was in the centre 

 of this nucleus, and poking off the 

 bees, and thereby getting several 

 stings, found I was correct. I caught 

 the queen, held her in my closed 

 hand, and procuring a queen-cage to 

 put her in, went into a closed room 

 before a window, so if she got away, 

 she could be caught upon the glass. 

 I did not discover the colony to which 

 she belonged, as all the bees I offered 

 her to, rejected her ; so I introduced 

 her into a queenless colony. 



To save a queen when balled, throw 

 the entire mass into water ; then self- 

 preservation will occupy the attention 

 of each bee, and she can be picked 

 out without danger from stings or of 

 injuring the queen. It is risky to 

 pick off the bees from a balled queen, 

 as they in the excitement are liable to 

 sting her. Queens do not sting, but 

 the sensation of holding one in the 

 closed hand is peculiar. 



The first swarm of this year issued 

 May 22. There would probably have 

 been earlier ones if brood had not 



been taken from the strong to build 

 up the weaker. This swarm issued 

 about noon and clustered upon a 

 small peach tree. I took a hive full 

 of frames of comb and put it near the 

 cluster, with a broad cover in front of 

 it, and scraped off some of the cluster 

 with my hands upon the cover in front 

 of the hive, and drove them in with a 

 little smoke. When they had all en- 

 tered the hive, I placed it upon its 

 summer stand. Some bee-keepers 

 recommend putting a frame of un- 

 sealed brood into the hive of a swarm 

 to prevent its leaving, as bees do not 

 desert uncapped brood. I have never 

 found this necessary, as bees will 

 seldom de-^ert a clean, cool hive, 

 placed in the shade as soon as put in 

 it. If old hives are used, they have 

 heretofore been thoroughly cleansed ; 

 if new ones, rinsed with cold water 

 to remove dust and freshen them. 

 Peoria,© Ills. 



For tne Amertcaji Bee JoumaJ. 



Ttie Caucasian Bee. 



11. E. HILL. 



Having had the pleasure of spend- 

 ing the season of 18S5 in the " \Vood- 

 stock Apiary," of J. B. Hall, in Can- 

 ada, I took great interest in observing 

 the results of the numerous experi- 

 ments which were constantly being 

 made. Of those affording the most 

 intense interest was the Caucasian 

 bee. They are a trifle smaller than 

 the common bee, are very dark, with 

 a distinct silvery band bordering each 

 segment of the abdomen, and, in 

 mass, present a bluish cast. 



They do not seem to know how to 

 gather honey. One of the assistants 

 thought that " they went to the Held 

 to get what thev wanted to eat in the 

 honey season, and came home with- 

 out any." Although they are accused 

 of being unprolific, I believe they can 

 I'ear more queens and drones to the 

 square inch than any other race of 

 bees in America. If the apiarist is 

 so kind as to furnish them with 

 plenty of nice honey (for it is a fact 

 that they will gather scarcely enough 

 to subsist on, when other colonies are 

 getting from 10 to 20 pounds per day), 

 their energy in building queen-cells 

 is remarkable, (iueen-cells stuck to 

 both ends of each comb and were 

 scattered promiscuously over the sides 

 of not only the combs, but actually 

 attached by the dozen to the sicks of 

 the hive; then up-stairs in the section- 

 boxes until the apiarist has queen- 

 cells " by the pound." 



Another peculiarity (but one in 

 their favor) is their gentle disposition. 

 The Caucasian is the strain of bees to 

 which Mr. Hall referred at the On- 

 tario Bee-Keepers' Convention held 

 at Toronto, on Sept. 10, 1885, when he 

 said " they were the quietest bees he 

 had ever handled." But somehow the 

 Bee Journal's correspondent, on 

 page 579 of the volume for that year, 

 makes him to say " Carniolans " in- 

 stead. 



I think that it would be impossible 

 to handle them so roughly as to cause 



