June 15, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



371 



reflection I have concluded to answer the same lot of ques- 

 tions myself, and then the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal, as well as the Doctor, can see how we ag-ree in the 

 matter. 



But before beginning at the general answering there is 

 one item which I think should be noticed in the matter, 

 which the Doctor never toucht upon at all. The que.stioner 

 says: " I thought I would take 14 new hives in which I 

 want to liic'e the new swarms "' (italics mine), which would 

 show that after his nuclei are formed later on he intends to 

 place the swarms, which maj' issue, into these same hives 

 having nuclei in them, for as soon as his 14 new hives are 

 occupied with nuclei he will have 28 hives with bees in 

 them, and that is the number he says he wants. Conse- 

 quently, if he has any new swarms at all they must be 

 hived in with those nuclei, or he must procure more hives, 

 in which latter case he would have more than the desired 

 28 in the fall. 



I know that he speaks of dividing, in his first sentence, 

 but knowing the nature of bees I know that unless he takes 

 more than the one frame of honey and brood from each 

 colony, as he proposes, he will have swarms to hive, and as 

 he speaks of wanting " to hive the new swarms," I take it 

 for granted that he expects the new swarms, and is calcu- 

 lating to hive them in with the nuclei. But how he is to do 

 this is something the Doctor failed to tell us, intentionally 

 or otherwise. There is only one way which I know of with- 

 out having many bees killed, and making a g-eneral " muss " 

 of it all around ; and that wa^' is to have all the queens 

 with dipt wings, those in the nuclei after they begin t<> 

 lay, as well as those in the full colonies ; then when a 

 swarm issues allow the queen to run into a cage, stopping 

 her in. Next, carry the parent colony to the stand of the 

 nucleus you wish the swarm to go into, setting the nucleus 

 oft' and the parent colony in the place of it, immediately 

 letting the queen out of the cage and allowing her to run in 

 her old home. Now set the nucleus on the stand previoush' 

 occupied by the old colony, and. as expeditiously as possi- 

 ble, fill the hive with frames filled with comb foundation or 

 empty comb. 



By this time the swarm will have begun to return, and 

 as quick as it does so, shake the bees and queen off their 

 two combs down in front of the hive from a foot to 18 inches 

 away from the entrance, when all will run in together 

 without any quarreling, providing you smoked the nucleus 

 on first removing it from its stand so its bees have filled 

 themselves with honey. If you do not take these precau- 

 tions the bees in the nucleus would kill the bees from the 

 swarm as fast as they came back, in nine cases out of ten. 

 The next day the nucleus and new swarm combined should 

 be boxt, and the hive of the parent colony opened, and if 

 the queen-cells are not already destroyed they should now 

 be cut oft", when, as a rule, swarming will be over with 

 those two hives for the season, if plenty of section-room is 

 provided for the colony having the old queen. 



Now to answering the questions propounded : After tell- 

 ing us how he proposes to fix his hive with one frame of 

 brood and one of honey he asks. " How many bees will I 

 have to put into a hive ? Will a pint do"? Well, that de- 

 pends : If four quarts of bees are taken from any colony of 

 the 14 our questioner sa3-s he has, and said 14 colonies are 

 all in the same apiary where he is forming his nuclei, as it 

 will be reasonable to infer, said four quarts will not be 

 enough to make a decent nucleus of those two frames, pro- 

 viding no precautions are taken to make that four quarts of 

 bees stay in that hive, for all but the ver^- youngest fuzz}- 

 ones will go back home, and the fuzzy fellows run out 

 in the grass and all about the outside of the hive where 

 they will perish. 



During my nearly 30 years of experience of forming 

 nuclei with bees taken from a colony having a queen and 

 putting them on a frame or two of brood and honey, it has 

 been a great mysterj' to me how nearly every one will get 

 back to the old hive, altho apparently half of those carried 

 to the nucleus have never flown from the old hive before. 

 But such is the fact, and it is useless to take bees from their 

 mother and put them into a hive having combs of brood 

 onU' expecting them to sta^-, unless they are fastened to 

 the hive, or some precaution taken to make them stay 

 " where put." But if you can go to your out-apiary, or to 

 some neighboring bee-keeper, and get a quart of bees in a 

 nucleus-box, such as I have described in previous issues of 

 the American Bee Journal, and at the expiration of 24 hours 

 put them on those two combs — one of brood and one of 

 honey — j'ou will have a good nucleus, and even if you so 

 take bees from the same apiarj- in such a box, and keep 

 them in the box 48 hours instead of the 24, feeding them so 



the.v will have all the food they need, they will stay when 

 put in the hive nearly as well as those from the out-apiary, 

 but not quite, unless you give them a queen of some kind, 

 virgin or otherwise, after they have been in the bos from 8 

 to 12 hours. 



And now allow me to disagree with the Doctor a little. 

 He takes special pains to tell the questioner that if the bees 

 do rear a queen from the eggs given, she will be " a very 

 poor aft'air." Well, as I said before, without any precau- 

 tion toward making the bees stay on that frame of brood, 

 they would all leave, and if so >io queen would be reared at 

 all — a. poor affair or otherwise; but where bees are taken 

 from an out-apiary and kept in a nucleus-box without any 

 queen for 24 hours, at the expiration of which a quart of 

 bees is turned loose on two frames fixt as the questioner 

 proposes, they will rear just as good queens as by any of 

 the plans used which deprive the colony of its queen while 

 the cells are being built, as I have proven time and time 

 again ; for. while in the nucleus-box they do "so long" for 

 a queen that nearly all of them will prepare royal jelly, and 

 when they have access to brood the_v will just "flood " the 

 young- larva chosen for a queen with it nearly, if not quite, 

 equal to those being reared in a colony preparing to cast a 

 swarm. And a quart of bees on the two frames will keep 

 up the necessary heat to fully perfect those queens, where 

 treated as I have given, fully as good as will a strong col- 

 ony whose queen has been taken from them that they may 

 rear queens. 



While I do not recommend this way of rearing queens, 

 if the doubting ones will try it they will become convinced 

 that a quart of bees so treated will rear queens as good as 

 any known a score of years ago. outside of those reared by 

 natural swarming. And if this be so. then the ques- 

 tion, " Do 3-ou think a nucleus formed in this way will be 

 all right"? would be answered in the affirmative, and the 

 robbing part the same. Onondaga' Co., N. Y. 



The Use of Barrels as Honey-Packag-es. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



IN a recent number of the American Bee Journal I see an 

 editorial criticising the use of barrels as honey-packages. 

 I will readilv agree that tin makes a much more conven- 

 ient receptacle, yet barrels have served us so long, espe- 

 cially to keep honey for several years, that I cannot help 

 saying a word in their favor. We have, many times in the 

 past, kept honey as long as three and four years in barrels 

 without any trouble. 



The important thing is to have good, tight barrels, 

 sound and well dried. The great mistake many bee-keepers 

 make when putting their honey in barrels is to treat them 

 as if intended for wine or vinegar, or other wood-soak- 

 ing liquid. A barrel which needs to be soakt in order not 

 to leak, is not safe for honey. Only the very best hard- 

 wood barrels should be used for honey, and among these, 

 those that have been treated to a coat of glue, as for coal- 

 oil or alcohol, are the safest. These are entirely imper- 

 meable, and unless they have been soakt and again dried 

 they will not leak. If they have remained in a dry place 

 when not in use. all that needs to be done is to tighten the 

 hoops on them just before using them, and keep them as 

 before — in a drv place. We have used some barrels over 

 and over again'for 10 or IS years without any loss. 



As to taking the barrel apart to take out the honey, it 

 is an easv job, and does not injure the barrel in the least if 

 properly done. When we speak of barrels, we mean iron- 

 bound barrels, for wooden hoops are unsatisfactory, always. 

 To open a barrel of granulated honey all j'ou need is a 

 strono- o-imlet. a hoop-chase and a hammer or mallet. The 

 barretis set on end, the head is thoroly cleansed, and the 

 gimlet screwed into the center of it. Then a couple of 

 marks are made on the edge of the head to correspond with 

 similar marks on the chime, so the head may be replaced in 

 the same position as first found, after the barrel has been 

 emptied. The hoops are then chased oft', the staves spread 

 a little, and the head is lifted oft" by the help of the gimlet. 

 The honey may then be scoopt out with a ladle, a scoop, a 

 shovel, or even a spade, according to its density. After it 

 has been entirelv emptied, the head is replaced in exactly 

 the position it occupied. A barrel treated in this way may 

 be used over and over again without risk. This is not 

 theory, but a practical fact, and the first thing I teach a 

 new clerk who is expected to handle honey and put it up in 

 dift"erent packages is how to remove a barrel head properly. 

 It is true that if we use the 60-pound cans we are saved 



