Feb. 9, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



Successful Bee-Keeping' — Some of the Requisites 



BY G. M. DOOI.ITTI.K. 



TO be .succcessful, the bee-keeper must have a simple 

 movable-frame hive of s<:ime kind, and for coinb honey 

 the brood-chamber should not contain more than fri>m 

 1,800 to 2,000 cubic inches, inside the frames. 



All know that bees g'ather honey instead of producing,'' 

 it, and that the eg'g's laid by the queen produce bees, conse- 

 quently the more eg'g's the queen lays the more bees in the 

 hive, and the more bees we have the more honey they 

 gather. In fact, the queen is the producer of the honey. 

 Therefore, if we wish good returns from our bees, we must 

 see to it that we have good prolific queens, and that they 

 fill the combs with brood before the honey season com- 

 mences, so that when the honey harvest comes the bees will 

 be obliged to place the honey in the section-boxes, as there 

 will be nowhere else for them to store it. 



But how shall we secure combs full of brood and plenty 

 of bees to carry on the labors of the hive by the time our 

 honej- harvest beg-ins ? As soon as spring opens, our bees 

 should be examined by lifting the frames of each hive, and 

 if the colonies are weak, the bees are shut to one side of the 

 hive by means of a division-board, so as to keep up the 

 necessary heat for brood-rearing, on as few combs as thev 

 can cover. As soon as the queen has filled these with eggs, 

 thej- are spread apart .so as to insert an empty comb be- 

 tween those occupied with brood, and in a few days the 

 queen will fill this also, and so we keep on until every avail- 

 able cell is occupied with brood. 



Thus it will be seen that instead of the queen laying 

 her eggs on the outside of the cluster, v.-here it is compara- 

 tively cool and not so well suited for the youngest brood, 

 she lays them in the center of the brood-nest, where it is 

 the warmest of any place in the hive. 



After the hive is filled with brood and bees, it does not 

 make so much diiference, as the weather is warm by this 

 time, and bees are plenty, .so that the queen can deposit her 

 eggs anywhere in the hive to advantage. As soon as the 

 strongest colonies are full, take a frame of brood just g-naw- 

 ing out, and place it in the weaker ones, giving the stronger 

 one an empty comb for the queen to fill again, and so keep 

 on till all are full. 



When this is accomplisht put on the section-boxes, and 

 as was said before, if any honey is gathered it must be put 

 in the boxes. Each section should have a small piece of 

 comb attacht to the top of it for a " starter," or be filled 

 partly or fully with comb foundation of the thinnest make, 

 to entice the bees to W(jrk more readily in them ; while the 

 center tier of sections should, if possible, be full of comb 

 left over from the sea.son previous. As soon as the first few 

 sections are completed, they should be taken off before be- 

 ing colored by the bees traveling over them, and empty sec- 

 tions put in their places, thereby' causing the bees to work 

 with renewed vigor to fill the empty space left where the 

 full sections were taken out ; and thus keep taking full sec- 

 tions and putting in emptj- ones to take their places, as long 

 as the honey season lasts. 



But there is another thing which plays an important 

 part in this matter, and that is a thorough knowledge of 

 the location we are in. In nearly all localities where bees 

 can be kept there are certain plants or trees which g'ive a 

 yield of nectar at a certain time of year, while aside from 

 this there is little more honey obtained by the bees than is 

 needed to supply their daily wants. Hence, it will be ap- 

 parent to all that if such a flow of nectar, or honey-yield, 

 passes by without any surplus, none can be obtained dur- 

 ing the season. From this it will be seen that in order to 

 be a successful bee-keeper a person must have a knowledge 

 of the locality he is in, as well as to know how to secure the 

 bees to meet that locality', if they are to succeed in the pur- 

 suit of bee-keeping-. 



Failing in this point there is no profit in apiculture. 

 Here in central New York our honey crop comes mainly 

 from basswood. which blooms from July 5 to Julv lo. and 

 lasts from eight days to three weeks, according to the 

 weather. In other localities in this State, white clover gives 

 the main crop, coming in bloom June 15 to Jlme 20. and 



again in others, buckwheat, yielding honey in August ; but 

 as nearlj' all have a yield of honey from basswood, let us 

 speak of that as the harvest. Bear in mind, however, that 

 it devolves on each bee-keeper to ascertain b3' careful 

 watching just when and what is the source of his surplus 

 honey crop, so as to work accordingly. After having de- 

 termined just when we may expect our harvest of honey, 

 then the thing to do is to secure the maximum amount of 

 bees just in the right time for that harvest, doing it as has 

 been given above. 



If a farmer has a field of grain to cut he hires the labor- 

 ers when the grain is ripe, not before or afterward, yet in 

 keeping- bees few g-ive any attention to this matter, so that, 

 as a rule, the bees are generally produced so as to become 

 consumers rather than producers, and thus we often hear 

 would-be bee-keepers complaining that bee-keeping does 

 not pay. 



To know how to bring the bees and the locality together, 

 it should be understood that after the egg is laid bv the 

 queen, it takes three days for it to hatch into a larva. This 

 larva is fed six days, during which time it has grown so as 

 to fill the cell, when it is capt over and remains hid from 

 view for 12 more days, when it emerges a perfect bee, mak- 

 ing a period of 21 days from the egg to the perfect bee. 

 This bee now works inside the hive for lb daj's more, when 

 it is readj' to go outside of the hive as a field-laborer, and at 

 45 daj's from the time it emerged from the cell it dies of old 

 age, and another g-eneration takes its place. From the 

 above it will be seen that the egg must be laid at least 37 

 days before the honey harvest, in order that our bee has an 

 opportunity of laboring in that harvest to the best advan- 

 tage. 



Now. if the harvest is basswood, commencing to bloom 

 say July 10, the egg for our laborer must be laid on or be- 

 fore June 3. In this way we can calculate on any bloom, 

 so as to have our bees ready in time for any harvest. 



Allow me to say that these two factors — securing the 

 bees, and a knowledge of our location — have more to do 

 with successful bee-keeping than all else connected with 

 the pursuit. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Securing' a Foul Brood Law in Illinois. 



BY C. P. DAD.\NT. 



I WISH to call the attention of the Illinois readei's of the 

 American Bee Journal to the short report of Secretarv 

 Jas. A. Stone, on page 765 (1898), concerning the decision 

 of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association to make an 

 effort to obtain a foul brood law in this State, such as is 

 now in force in Canada, and such as has lately been past in 

 Wisconsin, where Mr. N. E. France is foul brood inspector. 

 Whether such laws are necessary needs but little 

 thought. The expense to the State of an inspector such as 

 is provided for by the Wisconsin law is insignificant if the 

 disease does not exist in general throughout the country. 

 Foul brood, altho of rare occurrence, is one of the most 

 malignant diseases that prey upon domesticated animals. 

 This disease, known scientifically as " bacillus alvei," is a 

 fungus which attacks the larv^ of the honey-bee, and 

 causes them to die and decay in the cell with the most putrid 

 and disgusting smell. It is contagious, and for this reason 

 the existence of apiaries in the neighborhood of diseased 

 colonies is threatened during the entire season, for it suf- 

 fices for a bee to visit the inside of a hive which has been 

 destroyed by this disease. to bring it home to its own colony. 

 The larva' dying before maturity, there is no reproduction 

 of adult insects, and the colony is doomed. The ccmibs, the 

 honey, the queen, the bees — nay, even the very walls of the 

 hive^are contaminated by the disease and made channels 

 of infection. 



There is one remedy, salicylic acid, which is successful 

 where properly and thoroughly applied, but in most cases 

 the safest and most rapid means of prevention of the spread 

 of the disease is fire. 



Past experience shows that when the disease once take.s 

 root in any part of the country it is likely to remain in a 

 latent state, owing to the carelessness of some bee-owners 

 who pay little attention to their bees. The late Chas. F. 

 Muth, of Cincinnati, for years was compelled to fight this 

 disease in his own apiary, owing to the neglect of neighbor- 

 ing apiaries. Just now the disease exists in very few parts 

 of the country, and this is certainly the time wlien we can, 

 with the verj- lowest cost, prevent its spreading, and de- 

 .stroy it from the face of the earth. Therefore such a law is 

 timelv. 



