Jan. 26, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



51 



of weak colonies, for in this locality one of the main factors 

 of success in the science of production of honey is to have 

 strong colonies at the proper time ; but in the production of 

 comb honey, at least, it is also a very important factor to 

 have these strong colonies in the right size of hive. 



Let us take two strong colonies of equal strength at the 

 beginning of the white honey-flow— one in an 8-frame hive, 

 the combs of which are tilled with brood and stores. If the 

 other is in say a 12-franie hive, there will be. as a rule, two 

 or three emptv combs ; this means so much less white sec- 

 tion hoi'.ey. for no colony will do section work with unoccu- 

 pied comb in the brood-nest. 



But it is claimed by many that a colony in a small hive 

 is much more liable to swarm. This is not, however, 

 usually the case, here, for of the two colonies I have just 

 described one is about as likely to .swarm as the other, but 

 the one on 8 frames will swarm a few days sooner, the 

 other following suit as soon as, or very shortly after, the 

 empty comb in the brood-nest is filled. That is, in a good 

 season with nothing done to prevent or discourage swarm- 

 ing, for 12 frames of comb will not prevent swarming, lb 

 .sometimes will, 24 will as a rule prevent all desire to swarm 

 with an V colony, provided they are also given additional room 

 if it is required. But here it is a better .season than we have 

 had for sometime when a colony on even 16 frames will do 

 much section work, that is, with only the bees which are 

 the product of one queen. But I believe it is a fact which 

 has often been announced, that a colony, no matter how 

 .strong, will very seldom swarm in any season if it has all 

 the drawn empty comb in large frames that it can occupy. 

 But can this means of preventing swarming be profitably 

 practiced in even the production of extracted honey ? I be- 

 lieve not, in my locality, unless the working force of two or 

 more colonies are thrown into one. 



Some experiments I have made in this line I may de- 

 -scribe later. Southern Minnesota. 



Why a Poor Season — Queen with the Swarm. 



BY C. E. ME.\D. 



I WISH to tell why the past season was the poorest I ever 

 had for honey. In March my bees flew strong, and with 

 so many bright, well-favored young bees, I thought that 

 they would need surplus room in fruit and dandelion bloom. 

 But northeast winds prevailed cold and damp from oflr' Lake 

 Michigan. The field-bees that ventured out were chilled, 

 and never got back to the hive. When I reacht home at 

 night I would look first at the hives, and see the ground in 

 the yard covered with bees loaded with pollen, honey and 

 water, chilled and dead on the ground. Of course, what I 

 saw was a small propi>rtion of the loss, as most were chilled 

 away from the yard. 



I contracted the hive-entrances, and made them as 

 warm as I could. Still the wind held in the northeast. It 

 would be warm in the middle of the day and then clouds or 

 a sudden, stift' lake wind would cut off all that were out. 

 This kept up till the middle of June, with the result that 

 my bees were weaker in numbers June 1 than on March 1, 

 tho all the bees were young ones. They seemed to jump 

 from weak colonies to full-sized ones by July 1. 



In the first part of August the northeast winds again 

 came on, and kept in that quarter the balance of the season, 

 so my report is only 20 pounds of extracted honey per 

 colony. 



Tlie most ambitious colonies suffered the most. Bee- 

 keepers further away from the Lake, as the winds got 

 warmed up by the time they got there, did not have the 

 losses that I did. 



Heretofore my hives have been full of bees when the 

 first honey came — sometimes 20 Langstroth, and 16 Lang- 

 stroth frames in two bodies high, and run that way through 

 the season. 



A YOUNG OUEEX WITH THE SW.\RM. 



I have always said that the old queen alwaj-s went with 

 the first swarm. Well, she doesn't. I sold a queen to a 

 man some eight miles away, and its colony swarmed in 

 Ma)'. As he requested me to look over the new swarm to 

 see if they had honey enough to last through the cold, wet, 

 northeast rain. I found a big young queen witii unclipt 

 wings. I lookt over the parent colony, and found the old 

 queen with dipt wing, and all the young queens and queen- 

 cells destroyed, and combs full of brood and eggs ; and the 

 hive two stories high ver)- strong in bees. I account for it 

 in this way : 



The bees wanted to swarm ; the bad weather kept tliem 



back until the young queen got out, and as she could fly she 

 went with the swarm, and tiie old queen crowded back into 

 the hive. In the face of the bad weather they did not wish 

 to swarm again. If it had been a case of .superseding, the 

 bees would not have destroyed all the cells, but would have 

 reared one to share the hive with the old queen till the 

 honey-flow became slack again ; and then I think they stop 

 feeding the old queen and let her die. 



I found an old queen nearly dead on the bottom-board 

 and fed her. and divided the colony (taking away part of 

 the bees and the young queen), and then fed the old colony, 

 and reared three fine young queens. I let one stay in the 

 old hive and superseded the old queen. 



I have tried three times to save a valuable breeder 

 when she seemed to be as prolific as any queen, and for 

 some unaccountable reason the bees were determined to 

 supersede them. By rearing the cells in other colonies, cut- 

 ting' them out when "ripe." in each of the three cases the 

 old queen died before spring. No matter what you may 

 think, the bees knoiv before you can detect it, when a queen is 

 beginning to fail. Let them have their own wav about 

 that. Cook Co. ."ill. 



^ 



Winter Work in and for the Apiary. 



By F. A. SXELL. 



WHERE the bees were properly housed in November, 

 as they should be in our cold winter climate, not a 

 great deal of work remains to be done with the bees, 

 but it is important that this be done when necessary. If 

 the bees are wintered otit-of-doors, when snow-storms occur 

 and the snow drifts so as to obstruct the hive-entran.ce and 

 exclude air, it .should be shoveled away as .soon as the storm 

 is over. If allowed to remain it may soon thaw and seal 

 the hive-entrance with ice, and smother the bees. 



With tho.se who give no winter protection this work is 

 of increast importance. I do not believe in having our bees 

 buried in snow. The snow covering makes the hives 

 warmer while it remains over them, and is almost sure to 

 start the bees to brood-rearing, especially as late as the last 

 of January or February, which is undesirable in our lati- 

 tude during winter. There is danger of our bees having 

 diarrhea fnjm the activity and increast consumption of food 

 thus caused, unless they have frequent fliglits, which is not 

 apt to be the case. 



Our bees, if buried for a time in snow, and a thaw com- 

 ing later and melting the snow off, leaves the hives much 

 colder if followed b)' cold weather, and the brood reared be- 

 fore is very liable to be chilled, the older bees die oft', and 

 by spring we have the so-called spring dwindling, which 

 was caused by the early activity in brood-rearing', and the 

 connecting increa.se of food consumed. 



The dead bees that accumulated on the bottom-boards 

 should be removed about once each month, wherever our 

 bees are wintered, and the hives be kept sweet and clean b)' 

 doing .so. 



When the bees are wintered in the cellar, the hives and 

 cellar floor should be kept cleared of dead bees, and if signs 

 of mice are found, traps should be set, and the mice caught. 

 It is only a few hours' work each month that is needed to 

 keep the hives and surroundings clear. 



Hives, if to be made, can be put up at this time of the 

 3-ear. honey sections and cases put together, and be out of 

 the waj- when the busy spring-time arrives. 



As work is not crowding at this time of year, and our 

 evenings are long, considerable time shfiuld be give'n to the 

 laying of plans, and reading' up in our pursuit. It is an ex- 

 cellent plan to get out the old bee-papers and look them 

 over, always to find valuable ideas that we had nearly or 

 quite forgotten. We will find numerous articles that will 

 give us light on points we most need ; read, too, each new 

 number as it arrives in the mails. If not a sub.scriber to a 

 good bee-paper, become one right away, for success depends 

 very much upon tJie knowledge we possess. This we can 

 only get by study and experience. At least one good book 

 on bee-culture should be obtained and studied, which will 

 prove a very pleasant work indeed. I well remember, over 

 30 3'ears ago, when I was a boy, how anxiously I lookt for 

 the then monthly arrival "f the good old American Bee 

 Journal, to which I at that time became a subscriber, and 

 which I have taken and read ever since. ' The work, if such 

 it can be called, was then, and has ever since been, a very 

 pleasant one. I eagerly read all the books on bees that I 

 could find. I was a real enthusiast. I believe no one can 



