1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNA*. 



407 



when other bees are busy, it looks suspicious, and if you find 

 sealed queeu-celis present that's also a sign, but you can't be 

 sure. Sometimes they have queen-ceils and don't swarm ; 

 sometimes they swarm and have no queen-cells. Sometimes 

 they hang out without swarming, and sometimes they swarm 

 without hanging out. 



13. They seem to like it, but it hinders the finishing of 

 the sections that come nearest the opening. 



14. There are cures by the hundred, but likely you'll 

 swell in spite of them. After you've been stung a good many 

 times the stings will not swell much. 



15. They probably went back to their own hive, or into 

 some other hive in the apiary. 



Trying to Prevent Swarming. 



It was very cold and rainy here all the month of May, but 

 my bees have filled their hives on willow and apple-bloom, and 

 are very strong in numbers, so that I have put hives filled with 

 old comb on top to keep them from swarming. I shall leave 

 them on until raspberry blooms, then move the bottom hive to 

 a new stand, keeping the queen in the bottom hive, giving 

 frames of eggs to the upper hive on the old stand, and put on 

 the super for comb honey. Do you think that will do, or would 

 I better put the queen into the upper hive and let the bottom 

 colony rear a queen ? They will have all the brood and eggs. 

 I do not use a honey-board, but I never have had the queen go 

 into the upper hive. Massachusetts. 



Answer. — Better leave the queen on the old stand with 

 the story that has no brood, shaking off part of the bees from 

 the brood before setting it on a new stand. But don't shake 

 off more than half the frames, for all the field-bees will go 

 back to the old stand anyhow. 



Separators Necessary. — R. C. Aikin says weak colonies 

 that build slowly must have separators or they will make 

 combs bulged and uneven, as will strong colonies in a very 

 weak flow. — Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



and glass. We afterwards found the split top-bar answers our 

 purpose more satisfactorily; and later, the section split on 

 three sides; while finally we divided the section entirely in 

 two, placing a long sheet of foundation right across the three 

 sections at one operation. — Bee-Chat, of England. 



Smoker Fuel. — Mix a little rotten wood with planer 

 shavings, and your fire will hold better. Take a dead limb of 

 a tree, bone-dry, break it into proper lengths, and four or five 

 of these mixt with the shavings will make a smoke to bombard 

 Dewey fashion. — Gleanings. 



Viciousness in Bees may be a result of rough handling, 

 and it may be because they are seldom visited. We got some 

 bees from an apiary whose proprietor was practically never 

 seen by the bees. At first they could only be approach! well 

 veiled, but after a few weeks they were as gentle as the others. 

 — Le Progres Apicole. 



Sitting at Work, while in the apiary, is strongly defended 

 by Mrs. Harrison, in Gleanings. Sitting, she takes things more 

 leisurely, doesn't get nervous and stir up the bees, and so does 

 not get into trouble with the neighbors. Some prefer stand- 

 ing, some sitting, but those who change their minds seem to go 

 all one way — to the sitters. 



United States Bee-Keepers' Union.— The American Bee- 

 Keeper quotes the reply of R. L. Taylor to the effect that its 

 membership will be increast by making it the greatest possible 

 good to its membership, and propounds the supplemental ques- 

 tion : " How can the Union be made of any possible good to 

 its members without an increast membership ?" 



Unqueening. — In Progressive Bee-Keeper, R. C. Aikin 

 thinks unqueening is more labor than to allow swarming, but 

 it allows the work to be more methodical, and better kept 

 under control. He can unqueen 25 colonies in a day, or cut 

 out cells from an equal number nine days after unqueening, 

 besides doing the necessary work with supers, making a total 

 of eight days' work for an apiary of 100 colonies, and he 

 thinks he would have to spend as much time with swarms, be- 

 sides being badly interrupted about super work. 



Prof. Cook on Sweet Clover— Prof. Cook says : "I gave, 

 as the result of my own experience, the opinion that sweet 

 clover, while a very excellent honey-plant, was of little worth 



for hay or pasturage That it has great value for green 



manuring there can be no question. There is no quicker 



method to restore lost fertility than to plow under a rich, vig- 

 orous clover crop, and surely melilot is just that. . . .1 am very 

 glad that so many report McUUAus alba, or the white sweet 

 clover, as furnishing appetizing food for cattle and horses." — 

 Gleanings. 



Facing Apples and Honey.— The replies in this paper 

 from commission-men lead to the conclusion that they are a 

 unit aqainst facing. But according to an article in Gleanings, 

 from W. S. Fultz, there are exceptions, the commission-men 

 of Saint Paul practically obliging shippers to veneer. Mr. 

 Fultz says : 



"Last summer apples were so plentiful here that they 

 went begging at 15 cents a bushel, and as I had over 400 

 bushels, I knew that 1 should have to find a market some- 

 where else, or my apples would go to loss. I sent^ trial ship- 

 ment by sf?amboat to St. Paul, and realized 47 cents per 

 bushel net. During the summer I sent 120 barrels to St.Paul, 

 and ihey averaged me $1.20 per barrel net. All of those 

 apples were faced with the nicest, and the only trouble was 

 that I could not supply the demand that I had for apples. 

 When I was sending my Dutchess apples, one of my neighbors 

 askt me to allow him to put five barrels of the same kind of 

 apples with mine. This 1 would not do, but I allowed him to 

 ship his when I shipt mine, making two consignments. When 

 the returns came I had $1.20 net per barrel, and was askt to 

 send more. My neighbor had 40 cents net per barrel, and was 

 told that his apples did not sell well because they were not 

 faced. His apples were just as nice as mine. I got well paid 

 for all my labor and trouble, and be nearly gave his apples 

 away, just because they were not faced. 



A Iioad of Honey. — Loading a bee with honey adds to its 

 weight a trifle more than one-half, according to some experi- 

 ments made by Prof. C. P. Gillette, of the Colorado college. 

 A pound of empty workers contains, on the average, about 

 5,500 bees. — Bee- Keepers' Review.— But is it cot true that 

 loads vary as the pasture varies? 



Fastening Foundation in Sections. — Our American 

 friends appear to think bee-keepers in England can know 

 nothing of their foundation fastening machines, because we 

 go in so much for split and grooved sections. Fact is, we can 

 assure our cousins across the water that, with us, such 

 machines have "been and gone." It is nearly 20 years since 

 our starters were secured by machines of our own make, both 

 by heat and by simple pressure, without heat, on both wood 



Large vs. Small Entrances. — Instigated by Editor Root, 

 Messrs. Doolittle and Miller have lockt horns with regard to 

 the amount of entrance-room given under hives, and especially 

 its relation to swarming. Dr. Miller says, in Gleanings, that 

 years ago, following the lead of Adam Grimm, he shoved for- 

 ward his super of wide frames, allowing an opening of k' to ^ 

 inch at the rear end between the two stories. When he ceast 

 the practice there was a notable increase in swarming. 



Mr. Doolittle says that in the days of box-hives there was 

 plenty of swarming when all hives were raised. To which Dr. 

 Miller replies that there were abundant reasons for swarming 

 in spite of large entrances, and he thinks box-hives thus raised 

 were not so entirely given up to swarming as at the present 

 day. Surplus room was not given then as now. . 



To the argument that when bees hang out in hot weather 

 and then all go in when the hive is raised on four blocks, Mr. 

 Doolittle says the only difference is that in the latter case the 

 bees have plenty of room to loaf under the frames, and bed 

 just as soon they'd loaf outside. But Dr. Miller insists that It 

 cannot be so warm with all four sides open as with only one. 

 But he admits it isn't pleasant to have the hives open at the 

 sides so the bees may sting one's ankles, and hives raised on 

 blocks are a little unstable. 



The editor occupies middle ground, wanting an opening 

 front and rear, with some appearance of favoring the big en- 

 trance on all four sides. 



