1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNALo 



99 



have to pay for the full section. I have over 60 that were 

 nearly finisht, some not capt at the lower edge, some one side 

 finisht, and the other side not capt. I had nearly 100 all the 

 way from a half round piece o inches deep to the section half 

 full. The latter I tried to have the bees clean out ; I scratcht 

 the caps with a sharp -i-tlned table-fork, and put them on ray 

 lightest colony, but they did not do as well as I expected. 



My hives are all very heavy, except one which is a late 

 swarm (Aug. IS). It was the largest swarm I ever had. It 

 swarmed out of the best colony I had, and I was working it 

 three supers high. 



Some of the hives were so full of bees that they clustered 

 on the outside for several days after I took the supers away. 

 Every colony I had except the late swarm were working in the 

 supers when the honey-flow stopt. 



I lost 3 colonies in the fall of lSi:t6. No doubt they be- 

 came queeuless, but I did not know it. I kept the 7 ou the 

 summer stands. I plajed a rim two inches deep between the 

 hive-body and the bottom-board, then put on an empty super 

 ' and some sticks across the frames like a Hill's device, and 

 covered with two thicknesses of coarse sacking, then put in a 

 bag of ground cork to fill the super full. I mide boxes (from 

 old meat-packing boxes that cost 5 cents each) to set over 

 them, with a space of three inches around them, except front 

 IX inch, and filled with planer shavings. I kept them packt 

 until dandelion bloom was quite plenty. Then part of the 

 hives had the space below the frames filled with drone-comb 

 and brood, and the young drones were just hatching out. 



The season was later than the year before. That year I 

 saw sweet clover May 28, and bees workt strong on it June 

 6. In 1897 I did not see a blossom on It till June 28, nor a 

 bee till July 6, and from that time till Sept. 30 it was lively ; 

 then the dry weather spoiled it. 



— r I have hived my swarms on full sheets of foundation, 

 set the new swarm where the old one stood, and turned the 

 old one partly around, and the seventh day carried the old one 

 to some other stand. In 1896 I moved the super from the 

 old colony to the new one; last year I did not, but the third 

 day I put a super with some partly-filled sections on it, and 

 they seemed to go right to work in them, but " they got there 

 all the same" in the brood-chamber, too. 



Well, I have learned some things that I did not know be- 

 fore, and some things I thought I did know I had to learn 

 differently. Those books are a good thing to have on hand, 

 but a person wants some bees also, and they help a fellow out 

 wonderfully. 



In 1896, when the first super was H or % full, I would 

 raise it up and put another under it, and the bees would 

 nearly finish the first before working much in second. In 

 1897, if the first was yi full in the middle of it they would 

 cap It and work down through the second supers about the 

 same width, and fill the spaces between solid full, then swarm 

 out. I could give no reason for it unless It was because the 

 nights were very cool at that time. 



I tried one colony with three supers ; they left the top 

 one less than half full, the second nearly finisht, the lower 

 stuft full, also the bee-space, then they swarmed out, and I 

 waiting for them to fill the top one. It was the largest swarm 

 I ever saw. I filled an S-frame dovetailed hive, then run a 

 lot back where they came from, and put on more empty 

 supers, and everything was all right. 



I tried one super without separators, and won't do it 

 again. The middle row of sections was 2^2 Inches thick; 

 those next to It were one-sided and bulged into the next all 

 through the super. 



My bees are the common, and some hybrid, with one and 

 two yellow rings. (Perhaps the Italians would have done bet- 

 ter.) They show their bringing up. They are nice and kind 

 to work with. 



The first 900 or 1,000 sections were the nicest honey, as 

 clear and white as water. After the golden-rod bloomed it 

 was tinged with yellow, but that is more in the wax than in 

 the honey. None of it is as dark as some here in a store 

 labeled " White Clover Honey — 2 for 25 cents." 



I have sold over 1,000 sections, and got 15 cents each, 

 except for four dozen I put into one of the groceries, and they 

 allow me 14 cents for that. 



My bee-yard has not a shrub or thing in it, and I keep It 

 mowed close. There are some small trees 150 feet away. 

 Just before swarming-time I cut some willow branches and 

 set them in clusters in the yard and kept them well watered, 

 and they kept green quite awhile. To make them attractive 

 to the bees I got some ladies' black hose and tied them in 

 bunches on the willow twigs. When the bees swarmed they 

 would fly but a short lime then settle on or close to a bunch 

 of the hose. Only two of the swarms went out of the yard 

 (which is -±0 feet square). One of the two went about 100 



feet, and before I could hive them they got homesick and 

 went back to see mamma. 



My winter boxes are made sides and ends separate, and 

 when put up are held together with one hook and staples. 

 The sides make splendid shade-boards in hot weather, and it 

 takes but little space to pile them up when not in use. 



Can't some of the bee-keepers around Chicago tell a little 

 better story than this ? It docs make me feel a little cheap 

 when I read in the papers of some one getting 500 pounds of 

 extracted honey, and I writing about my bees when they did 

 not average 200 pounds, wax and all. Cook Co., III. 



% 



Cogitations of au Old-New '• Bee-Craak." 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



Altho in my 70th year, I am only a three-year-old bee- 

 keeper. Among ray many regrets, because of the things I 

 have not done, which should have been done, is, that I did not 

 begin bee-keeping in my youth. No subject for study have I 

 found more fascinating than the honey-bee ; Indeed, as young 

 as I am in the business, my friends point to me as "a?iotti 

 hee-craixk." 



Not that there is so much money in the business, that it 

 interests rae, for I doubt (taking a series of years together) 

 whether the average bee-keeper makes any money from his 

 bees ; but, O my, what a field for investigation and thought ! 

 there is no end to surprises for those who intelligently inves- 

 tigate in this, as in all other departments of nature. 



In talking with an old Ohio bee-keeper not long ago, I 

 said to him: " You must have the bee-business down pretty 

 fine by this time." He replied that he had been in the busi- 

 ness since boyhood, liked it, had tried to learn what he could, 

 had run his apiary for comb and extracted honey, increast by 

 natural swarming and by artificial means, reared queens, 

 adopted the most approved methods in the general manage- 

 ment of his bees; but, when he felt like congratulating him- 

 self that the whole field had been explored, some surprise was 

 sprung upon him, causing the reflection that he knew but 

 little about the business. Tho having read " A B C of Bee- 

 Culture," Langstroth's original work, also the revision by 

 Dadant, and other writings ou the same subject, as well as 

 bee-papers, even in my own limited experience, there have 

 been surprises not mentioned in the books. 



It Is with the greatest pleasure that the American Bee 

 Journal is greeted on its arrival each week. I am highly en- 

 tertained by Drs. Gallup and Miller, Prof. Cook, Messrs. 

 Hutchinson, Dadant, Doolittle and others. I never met either 

 of them, excepting as I see them in the "Old Reliable." I am 

 sorry for that. I think I would know any one of them at 

 sight. May not be a good judge of faces, but as they appear 

 in the American Bee Journal, it doesn't occur to me, that any 

 one of them, in stating a matter of fact — such as, for in- 

 stance, whether he had ever seen two laying queens on being 

 introduced make faces at each other and call each other 

 names, or not — would with premeditation deliberately (to use 

 no stronger term) prevaricate. No, sir; I don't believe it, do 

 you? You need not commit yourself; I will not press the 

 question. 



Fellow bee-keepers, while we may fortify our position 

 with all the facts and logic at our command, let us be courte- 

 ous and gentlemanly withal. 



We are told that, "In the multitude of counsellors there 

 is safety." Now, I don't know about that. I dislike to fly in 

 the face of Solomon, but sometimes I wish we could know that 

 the above proverb is true. 



The novice in bee-keeping is confronted with so many con- 

 flicting theories, on the management of bees, that he becomes 

 confused, and is left to his own experience for positive knowl- 

 edge, which at times becomes an expensive teacher. 



The conflicts among our teachers, respecting the manipu- 

 lation of the apiary to obtain specific results, sometimes re- 

 minds me of the quarrel by the two knights about the color of 

 the shield — each observing and reasoning from his peculiar 

 standpoint. 



Mr. A., located in Florida, Texas, or California, where 

 the climate is mi'ld ; hence, the season long, conducts his 

 operations quite unlike those of Mr. B., in Wisconsin, or any 

 other bee-keeper in any of the northern or eastern States. 

 Differences in construction of hives, in seasons, honey-flow, 

 and various other things, materially affect the conditions, and 

 should modify the management of the apiary. The same con- 

 ditions seldom obtain two seasons in succession In the same 

 locality ; hence the necessity for the bee-keeper to keep his 

 eyes open and clear. A drowsy head for a week or ten days, 

 often means a total loss of profits, as well as endangering the 



