36 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Jan. 20, 



taken any honey from them. By doing an immense amount 

 of talking, I persuaded him to let me have the bees for half 

 the honey and half the increase. I took them home, cut the 

 hives down to about the right size to suit me, and returned 

 him about 150 pounds of honey in a very few days. I kept 

 them two years, got a good start, and returned him 10 colo- 

 nies, and I do not remember the amount of honey. 



In the meantime I had found some wild bees. The first 

 swarm I found when I was hunting for my cows, about three 

 miles from home, and in my shirt sleeves. I had just found 

 the cows, and came across a fair-sized swarm clustered on a 

 bush. I never could think of leaving a swarm of bees, so off 

 came my shirt. I fastened up the neck by tieing up the 

 sleeves, cut off the bush, and put the bees, bush and all into 

 the shirt, gathered up the flaps, carried them home across 

 lots, as the country was new and not fenced. Then we had a 

 season that the bees clustered out and did not swarm or pro- 

 duce any honey. 



The following season I heard of a Hollander, by the name 

 of Wellhausen, that made bees swarm at will. He made 

 swarms at 25 cents each. A neighbor had three colonies, 

 and said he was going to get the old "gent" to come and 

 " swarm them " for him. So I made arrangements for the 

 neighbor to be sure and have him come over and make some 

 swarms for me. I also paid the neighbor for a day's work to 

 come over and interpret, as Mr. W. could not talk English in- 

 telligently. So I wormed what information I could out of 

 him before he commenced operations. This Mr. W. held out 

 the idea to his neighbors thai no one else but he could do 

 what he did, as he possest the power to enchant the bees, .etc. 



He smoked the bees at the entrance, from his tobacco 

 pipe, then turned the hive bottom up, inverted a half-bushel 

 measure over the mouth of the hive, wrapt a sheet around 

 the hive and measure, so the bees could not get outside, and 

 began rapping on the sides of the hive, and in the mean- 

 time kept time with his rapping with a peculiar kind of 

 chant (of course to charm the bees I). After about 20 min- 

 utes he untied the sheet, raised up the half-bushel, and be- 

 hold there was a good, fair-sized swarm of bees in It! He 

 then set it open side out, at about an angle of 45^, set the old 

 hive back on its stand, and began to explain through the in- 

 terpreter that they were thoroughly enchanted, that he would 

 hive them and set them wherever I wanted them, and they 

 would go to work exactly like a natural swarm. 



He then took a long-handled spoon and began poking over 

 the bees, and soon found the queen, or " king," as he called 

 her, and after about 30 minutes he violently shook them up 

 and poured them Into a hive, as one would so much wheat. 

 He gradually and slowly turned over the hive, and set it 

 where I wanted it. Of course, I watcht every motion with 

 wide open eyes, and perhaps gaping mouth. 



He then commenced on another colony, and in the mean- 

 time I had sent one of the children to a near neighbor's and 

 procured another half-bushel, prepared a roll of rags and set 

 fire to one end, and went to work on another colony, and had 

 it done and the queen found before the old gent got through 

 with his, and he was quite angry. He made his old tobacco- 

 blackt teeth snap good at the interpreter. Then turned 

 around to me, and said, "Ghanky man no good. Don't be- 

 lieve in de witches." 



Well, I paid his price for making the two colonies, and 

 offered him more, but he refused it with scorn. That lesson 

 made a great advance in my bee-knowledge. He explained 

 through the interpreter how the old colony replaced their 

 queen, etc. He lived in the adjoining township, and I met 

 him at different times. I obtained much important informa- 

 tion from his methods, and experimented somewhat with his 

 hives, made in the form of a sugar-loaf, out of willows woven 

 basket fashion and plastered inside and out with green cow- 

 manure, and dried in the sun. He made lOS colonies in two 

 seasons from one, and wintered them successfully on the sum- 

 mer stands. Of course, I might have told you that he drum- 

 med out the bees, found the queen, and then hived them, but 

 I am telling you just how I had to learn. 



Orange Co., Calif. 

 LC'ontinued next week.] 



Langstroth on tlie Honey-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadants, is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete 

 work on bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound 

 elegantly. Every reader of the American Bee Journal should 

 have a copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions 

 that arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with 

 the Bee Journal for a year — both together for only $2.00. 



Report of the Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Cou> 



veutiou, Held in Chicago, Nov. 10 and 



11, 1897. 



REPORTED BY A SPECIAL, BEE JOUBNAL REPORTER. 



(Continued from page 21.) 



FIRST DAY— Afternoon Session. 



The afternoon session was opened at 1:30 p. m., and Pres. 

 Miller read the following question : 



BENEFIT OF DRONES ASIDE FROM MATING. 



" What is the benefit of the drone, aside from mating?" 



Pres. Miller — How many think that the drone has any 

 other use '? 



Dr. Besse — I have always been a rather close observer,and 

 I think that drones are of a good deal of use in keeping up the- 

 warmth of the hive to the right temperature; and they let; 

 that many more workers go out to gather honey. I have no- 

 ticed that where there are plenty of drones you get more 

 honey frequently than where there are no drones, other things 

 being equal. 



Mr. Thompson — It seems to me, if you keep as few drones 

 as possible, that there can't be enough to do much good in the 

 way of warmth. I can't see any use in that direction. 



Dr. Besse — I think in certain times of the year it is very 

 well to have a good many drones in the hive. 



Mr. Thompson — What time of the year? 



Mr. Besse — When they are working, gathering honey, and 

 putting it away. 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING THE LIFE OF BEES. 



" What conditions determine the life of the honey-bee?" 



Mr. Besse — I think they will live longer when there is'nt 

 much to do than they do when they are working hard. 



Mr. Whitcomb — If we were to ask the average bee-keeper 

 what the average life of the honey-bee is, he would say about 

 40 days, and that would be correct, in the main. But my own 

 observation has been that the life of the honey-bee is not- 

 gauged by years, months and days. We find in Northern Rus- 

 sia, where honey is produced away up — well, up into Siberia — 

 that the honey-bee must remain in the hive there at least 8 or 

 9 months — not less than 5 or 6, at the least calculation — and 

 the condition of the life of the honey-bee is gauged entirely by 

 the amount of work that it has done, the stages of life it has 

 past through. If they can be kept from the conditions of 

 work, their age does not count until they have past through 

 them. 



Mr. Baxter — I think more bees are killed by accident than 

 by old age ; and that is why I believe that in the winter time a 

 bee will live much longer than in the summer time. Take it 

 when they are hard at work, every bee that can be out in the 

 field, etc., the average life is very short — probably 20 or 30- 

 days would be a big average. I do not believe that bees die in 

 the winter time of old age, but that it is from poor wintering, 

 poor packing. They very likely starve to death with their 

 honey in the hive. I have seen that, time and again. And 

 why ? Simply because they were not packt properly. The 

 moisture remained in the hive. It condenst, and became a. 

 sheet of ice over the comb. They were not examined right 

 away, but after the weather became warm, the sheet of ice 

 thawed away, and the man that found them found five or six: 

 pounds of dead bees in the hive, and he jumpt to the conclu- 

 sion that they died of old age. I am satisfied that is the case- 

 nine times out of ten. 



Mr. Baxter — In reply to that, I will say that the bees that 

 have worn wings are not the only ones that workt. 



USING FULL CELL-DEPTH STARTERS. 



"Is it best to use full-length cell-starters, in brood-frames^ 

 and for comb honey ?" 



A somewhat rambling discussion ensued as to what was 

 meant by this question, and Incidentally there was shown a 

 confusion of understanding as to the terms " Weed process" 

 and " drawn foundation," some insisting that the two terms 

 meant the same thing. Secretary York then explained the 

 difference. 



