536 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



times quite diftieult to find a queen, 

 but it is very little trouble to look for 

 eggs iu the brood combs. Very few 

 colonies fail to rear a queen from the 

 first cell given them. Now that this 

 work is (lone, I proceed to prepare all 

 for winter. 



in a subsequent article I will tell 

 how it came that the brood-combs in 

 all the old colonies were only % of an 

 inch thick trom top to bottom ; and 

 as the winter stores should all be in 

 the upper half or oue-tiiird of the 

 brood-combs, these combs are so 

 tliin, and the cells so shallow, that 

 the u|iper parts have not the capacity 

 to contain the required amount of 

 stores. 



I now go to hive No. 1, take off the 

 covers, and spread the combs so that 

 they measure about 1?^ inches apart 

 from centre to centre ; take out one or 

 more of the nearest empty ones, and 

 then all those that have capped honey 

 in them I uncap, and then cover the 

 hive for three days. I work each 

 colony in regular order, as when I 

 extracted. Tiien I look them all over 

 again, and if honey is coming in, I 

 find that all combs that contain no 

 brood in the upper edge are being 

 built out and tilled with honey; but 

 if there are no signs of new honey, 

 then I begin to feed freely at the en- 

 trance, every evening at sundown, or 

 later; when the combs will soon be 

 built out and tilled with honey and 

 capped. If the fall crop of honey 

 should be plentiful, and the bees 

 begin to load the lower portion of the 

 combs so as to hinder breeding, then 

 I remove one or more of the outside 

 combs that are full of honey (and that 

 seldom has much or any brood in it 

 at this late season), and extract the 

 honey and return the comb. If new 

 honey keeps coming iu I repeat the 

 operation. 



If at any time the honey-flow should 

 cease, then I begin at once to feed, 

 and keep it up until cold weather. I 

 would feed at night during a honey- 

 dearth if I had tlie hive so full that I 

 had to take the honey away the next 

 day to make room foi- the next feed. 



Some may ask, why all this trouble? 

 I answer, it is for several reasons, 

 viz : 



1. I find that bees thus managed 

 through the fall of the year, will build 

 out Die upper portion of the combs 

 (what some call bridging them over), 

 and a good supply of well cured honey, 

 nicely capped over, is tlius placed 

 over the cluster, where it should be 

 for winter. 



2. Tlie lower portions of the combs, 

 that the bees cluster on through the 

 winter, are so separated that large 

 clusters can lind ample room between 

 each pair of combs. The bees are 

 not so much divided. They preserve 

 more of their animal heat, consume 

 less food, and winter better. 



3. Bees that find by the above 

 management some fresh honey coming 

 in all through the fall of the year, will 

 keep up breeding until cold weather 

 puts a stop to it, and a plenty of 

 young bees are present in the hive 

 that will Vje healthy and vigorous, 

 while new batches of brood are reared 

 in the spring. 



On the other hand, if bees are able 

 to gather no late honey, and no feed 

 is given them regularly (as above), 

 they will discontinue the breeding 

 much earlier, and all bees that go into 

 winter quarters are well advanced in 

 life, and before young brood can take 

 their place in the following spring 

 these older ones will have lived out 

 their life ; and as they leave the hive 

 to die, it is soon found depopulated, 

 with only a lonely queen and a few 

 helpless bees that are quite insufficient 

 to keep up the required anicnal heat 

 to prevent the chilling of the newly 

 laid eggs, through the cold spring 

 nights. This is what some call 

 "spring dwindling," but I think it is 

 no more nor less than the effect of 

 early, discontinued breeding the pre- 

 vious fall. 



Orion, p Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Plain Slieets of Wax, 



J. F. DAYS. 



On page 468 L. J. S. asks for infor- 

 mation in regard to the use of plain 

 sheets of wax. While I have great 

 respect for the judgment and experi- 

 ence of the seven bee-men who so 

 discouragingly answered the query, 

 yet my own experience prompts me 

 to squarely take issue with them. I 

 have repeatedly used plain sheets of 

 wax, both in the brood-chamber and 

 in the surplus department, with the 

 best results, never having discovered 

 a single drone-cell built on the nn- 

 printed sheets of wax. But let it be 

 remembered that I never use plain 

 sheets over 4 inches wide. 



From the answer of Messrs. Dadant 

 & Son one would suppose that honey- 

 comb was always a very clumsy, hap- 

 hazard affair, until the genius of man 

 enabled the bee to build its comb 

 without mixing drone and worker 

 cells together in an indiscriminate 

 mass. They doubtless gave their 

 honest opinion, but it is decidedly not 

 my observation. I have examined the 

 combs in a number of colonies that 

 were hived on empty frames, without 

 any starters whatever, and I found no 

 more drone-cells than in colonies that 

 were hived on full sheets of worker- 

 comb foundation. Now let Messrs. 

 Dadant & Son explain ivhy bees should 

 be more disposed to build an irregular 

 mass of drone and worker-cells on 

 plain sheets than where there are no 

 starters at all. 



Again, I have had queens to become 

 drone layers, and whole frames of 

 worker-comb that contained but very 

 few drone-cells were in a short time 

 converted almost entirely into drone- 

 comb. The facts in the case are that 

 when bees want drone comb or work- 

 er-comb they build it regardless of 

 the kind of foundation used or any 

 manipulating of man. 



Is it not assuming just a little too 

 much to say that bees are as apt to 

 build drone-comb as worker-comb, 

 unless they have printed foundation, 

 as though they have no sense of ar- 

 rangement or distinction whatever ? 



Such might do for those who believe 

 that man is the only being possessing 

 the power of reason, but I think that 

 a rational observer of nature will look 

 at the matter in a different light. 



Mr. J. E. Pond, Jr., rather con- 

 tumeliously remarks that he cannot 

 see any practical value in such a test, 

 and strongly intimates that he has 

 never had time to make such an ex- 

 periment. Well, he ought to console 

 himself with the fact that he is not 

 the only man who imagines that he 

 has not the time to step out of ruts 

 worn smooth by men who have gone 

 before. 



Now if L. J. S. wishes to test the 

 matter, let him not be alarmed by 

 the discouraging answers given to his 

 question. 



Macomb,*© Ills. 



For the American Bee JoumnL 



Evaporating and Grafling Honey, etc, 



li. J. DE SOBOTKER. 



I omitted to mention in my former 

 reports that " king cotton " began to 

 bloom early in June, has been bloom- 

 ing ever since, and will continue until 

 frost. The bees have been and are 

 working upon that and " Prince In- 

 dian corn "—the two greatest agri- 

 cultural crops grown here ; there are 

 thousands of acres of them within a 

 radius of six miles, from the north- 

 east, east and southeast of this apiary. 

 Strange to say one of our neighboring 

 bee-keepers, Mr. W. C.Stacy, paid me 

 a visit a few days ago, and told me 

 that this apiary was far ahead of any 

 around here, iii honey and wax pro- 

 duced so far this season. The hives 

 are at present nearly filled with 

 honey, but it is true that I am two 

 weeks behind with extracting, and 

 cau get no help. I am getting full 

 frames of comb completely filled with 

 honey, and entirely capped over. 



Had the weather been somewhat 

 more favorable, I judge that this 

 locality would have given very good 

 results as far as quantity of honey is 

 concerned, but under the present 

 methods of operation the great difti- 

 culty is to grade the honey, there 

 being so many different blooms at 

 the same time right along after the 

 season is properly started; but this, I 

 think, could be overcome by erecting 

 a small house, attached to the honey- 

 house ; this should be with fine wire- 

 cloth sides, having loose, light 

 wooden-shutters to keep out bad 

 weather, the root of glass, and in 

 this room a good-sized, heavy, tin 

 solar honey evaporator— one by which 

 the honey just stored and extracted 

 could run over slowly into a wooden 

 tank lined with tin inside. T'.ns tank 

 should be kept under the solar evap- 

 orator, and run upon four wheels, 

 truck-like, on rails, and be constantly 

 covered over with fine wire cloth ; to 

 be pushed out from under the evapor- 

 ator when the weather was hot, and 

 to be pushed back under the evapora- 

 tor when cloudy or cool. Two or 

 three such would still be better, as 

 thev would then act as evaporating 



