644 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 12, 1899. 







I found 14 queens, 6 drones, and 300 to 400 worker-cells, all 

 capt on the 24th. 



No. 4 swarmed July 13 ; a frame of all-worker-cells with 

 eg'gs was given, and on the 24th I found 22 queens, 20 

 drones, and probably 2,500 worker-pupa? all sealed and capt. 



No. S swarmed July 14, and was treated as those above, 

 and I found 28 queens, 10 drones, and 800 to 900 worker- 

 pupa?, all capt on the 24th. There were no drone-cells on 

 any of the frames that were g-iven to the swarms. 



I would say here that the caged queen should be taken 

 from the swarm as soon as all the bees have come back to 

 their old stand and new hive. The hive should not be 

 moved to another stand, as you will notice by my experi- 

 ments of swarms Nos. 1 and 2. None except the first had 

 any laying-workers before they had laying-queens. 



I photographt a frame from No. 4, 11 days after it was 

 given to the swarm. I had to take it 10 miles on a very 

 rough road, and it was broken from the frame and some- 

 what mutilated. We could get only the view of one side. 

 After I got home I gave it to the swarm again, but it took 

 from two to four days longer than the usual time for the 

 young bees to hatch out. 



I send the photograph to the editor of the American 

 Bee Journal, and hope he will publish it. I also hope that 

 many bee-keepers will try the experiment nest year, and be 

 convinced. Wabasha Co., Minn. 



Introducing- Queens — More Explicit Directions. 



I 



BY KDWIN BEVINS. 



HAVE received the following letter asking for more in- 

 formation about my method of introducing queens : 



On page 547, Mr. Edwin Bevinft tells how to introduce queens. Now 

 he of course means well, intending to assist the beginner, but how does 

 he presume a greeuhorn will proceed under his directions? He does not 

 say where to put the queen. 



Two neighbors of mine are trying his method; one has put the queen 

 alone in the cage between the two hives, and one has placed her with her 

 retinue on the comb above the cage. Will Mr. Bevins please tell us thru 

 the American Bee Journal just how he does it '.' H. M. J.-iMESox. 



Riverside Co., Calif. 



No wonder Mr. Jameson asks for more light. I was 

 very much surprised and chagrined at the way the method 

 appeared in print on page 547 of the American Bee Journal. 

 I intended to send a correction sooner, but was prevented 

 by an illness that took me away to a health resort. Whether 

 I omitted to write fully, or whether the editor omitted to 

 print as I wrote, I am unable to say. Anyhow, I will give 

 the method as I have practiced it, and always with success. 

 [We printed it exactly as Mr. Bevins had written. — Editor.] 



When I have a queenless colony, and the weather is 

 warm enough so that hatching brood in an upper story will 

 not be chilled, I send for a queen, and when she arrives I 

 hunt for two frames having hatching brood and some 

 honey. These frames I place over the queenless bees in an 

 upper story above the frame of wire-cloth. The frames are 

 put close to one side of the hive. Then I ptit the cover on 

 so as to be over the frames and yet leave a space open on 

 the opposite side of the hive large enough to admit my 

 hands. Then I remove the tacks that hold the wire cover- 

 ing to the cage at the end opposite the candy, and with the 

 thumb of the left hand I hold the wire-cloth of the cage in 

 place until I can place the cage right down on the wire- 

 cloth of the frame close to the lower edge of one of the 

 frames of brood. Then with the fingers of the rig-ht hand 

 I turn up the loosened end of the cage-cover, and the queen 



and accompanying bees will climb right up on 

 to the combs. Then I put the hive-cover in 

 place and go about my business. 



If bees are hatching rapidly I do not leave 

 the frame of wire-cloth between the two hives 

 more than from 24 to 48 hours. If there should 

 not be a goodly number of bees hatcht in that 

 time I would leave it longer as a matter of 

 precaution, altho I by mo means regard it as a 

 necessity. 



Any one can easily see that the above is 

 only a roomy way of caging the queen so near 

 the bees she is intended to serve that when 

 they are admitted to her presence she is re- 

 garded as one of the family. The presence 

 of the just-hatcht bees and the remaining 

 brood and the honey help to heighten the illu- 

 sion, if illusion it is. 



It may not be necessary, but I vrill saj' 

 further that the frame between the two hives 

 should have wire-cloth nailed to both sides of 

 it, and that there should be no opening thru which a bee 

 can by anj- possibility get below, or get outside, until re- 

 least by the removal of the frame. Decatur Co., Iowa. 



Report of the Central Texas Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 vention, Held at Milano, July 20-21, 1899. 



BY LOUIS SCHOLL, SEC. 



[Continued from page 630.] 



UNITING .\ND DIVIDING COLONIES. 



When H. H. Hyde unites colonies, he destroys the queen 

 of one colony two days previous, then puts most of the 

 brood in the lower chamber of one, and sets the other body 

 on top, using tobacco-smoke on the bees. In dividing he 

 buys new queens, but prefers to rear them for the new 

 division ; he divides equally and removes the half with the 

 old queen to a new location. 



Judge Terral does not look for the queen, but divides 

 equally and puts one in a new location. 



WORKING UP'A HOME MARKET FOR HONEY. 



O. p. Hyde did not have much experience, as he ships 

 most of his honey. He peddled some around put up in 

 Mason jars. 



Judge Terral peddles it around, and lets people know he 

 has honey to sell. They know him as the " bee-man." He 

 advises working up a reputation and teaching and educat- 

 ing the people about honey. He does not advise to sell a 

 large quantity to a famih' at one time, as they generallj' 

 eat too much at first and then tire of honey. He said to put 

 it up in small packages was expensive. He weighs it out 

 into the buyer's bucket. 



Mr. Guess has also had trouble by selling too much at a 

 time, even 50 pounds at once ; while Messrs. Jones, Hyde, 

 Davidson and others accommodate their customers with as 

 much as they ask for. They have sold a whole barrel to a 

 family at a time, and had no trouble. People know what 

 honey is, and buy some from them every year. 



Mr. Aten ships honey by the carload to Northern mar- 

 kets. He has drummers along the road who sell by sample. 



STARTING IN THE BEE-BUSINESS. 



Mr. Salyer advises beginners to start on a small scale 

 with few colonies, study their habits, and read the best lit- 

 erature. Visit and stay with a practical apiarist, also at- 

 tend bee-keepers' conventions. One year he fed his bees 

 early to stimulate brood-rearing, andstoptin April ; he lost 

 30 colonies b)' starvation, as he reared bees out of season. 

 He used to put new supers above the full ones instead of 

 under, when giving bees more room, and other such like 

 things. 



A good many disctist this subject. Some advised to stay 

 with a practical apiarist first, while others advised studying 

 bee-books and papers first. After a long discussion, and 

 hearing the opinions of each, it was at last decided that it 



