THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



455 



But how shall we get our bees 

 strong in time for the honey harvest 

 is a question I am often aslied, so I 

 will tell how I manage : In early 

 spring I go over all my bees and take 

 an inventory of the number of spaces 

 occupied by the bees, and also to see 

 that eacli colony lias honey enough to 

 last them till warm weather comes 

 which is told by the amount of sealed 

 honey in sight. If but little sealed 

 honey is to be seen the hive is marked 

 and fed. As soon as pollen comes in 

 freely, each hive is examined and the 

 brood nest reversed, i. e., the combs 

 that have brood in them are changed 

 so those having the least brood are 

 placed in the center, while those from 

 the center are placed on the outside. 

 By so doing, the queen is incited to 

 greater activity, and those combs 

 which had the least brood in them 

 soon have the most, thus giving quite 

 a gain over letting nature take its 

 course. In about 10 days the yard is 

 gone over with again, this time tak- 

 ing a comb containing honey from the 

 outside of the cluster, and often 

 breaking their sealing to the cells by 

 passing a knife flatwise over it ; the 

 brood nest is spread apart and this 

 prepared comb is placed in the centre 

 of it. This causes the bees to remove 

 the honey and in so doing the queen 

 is fed, thus causing her to lay much 

 faster than she naturally would, and 

 thus this comb is soon tilled with 

 eggs which means bees in the near 

 future. In about a week the same 

 operation is gone over again. 



In order to get a succession of supe- 

 rior cells from my best colonies, it is 

 necessary to keep them swarming as 

 often as possible. To accomplish 

 this I adopt this plan : As soon as 

 they have become established in their 

 new home, say in two days after the 

 swarm has been hived, I insert 2 

 frames of hatching brood in their 

 hive, and in 3 days more I give them 

 2 or 3 frames more, which soon makes 

 their hive more populous than was 

 tlieir old home from which they is- 

 sued. This causes them to swarm 

 again in from 12 to 18 days from the 

 time of hiving, which gives me an- 

 other lot of splendid cells. Thus I 

 keep my best colonies producing cells 

 of the highest type as long as the 

 honey season lasts. Thus I have 

 given you my plan of getting queens 

 that are acknowledged by all to be as 

 good as any, and believed to be supe- 

 rior by some. 



Having procured our queen cells, 

 the next things in order are nuclei. 

 There are many ways of making a 

 nucleus, and the plan I see most rec- 

 ommended is to go to any hive popu- 

 lous in bees, and take from it a frame 

 of brood, and one of honey, with all 

 the adliering bees (being careful not 

 to get the old queen), and place them 

 in an empty hive, adjusting the divis- 

 ion lioard to suit the nucleus. In 21 

 to 48 hours after they will have be- 

 come aware that they are queenless, 

 when a queen cell should be given 

 them. Now, although a nucleus can 

 be formed in this way that may work 

 in warm weather, still in cool weather 

 it would be a failure, and, according 

 to my oi)iuioii, is not a good plan at 



any season of the year, on account of 

 the number of bees which will return 

 to the hive from whence they were 

 taken, thereby dL-populatiug it to such 

 an extent that the brood will mostly 

 be chilled in cool weather, and seri- 

 ously weaken it even in warm 

 weather. Bees that have been used 

 to a laying queen do not kindly take 

 to brood for a mother; hence all go 

 home that are capable of getting 

 hojue. ]5ut shoulil you happen to get 

 the queen on these two frames, vou 

 would see that the bees would feel at 

 home, and all but the old held work- 

 ers would stay where the queen was. 



From this fact, that bees will stay 

 with their queen, I arrived at the fol- 

 lowing : Inasmuch as a queenless 

 colony, with sealed cells, depend on 

 those cells for a mother, if a frame of 

 brood containing a sealed queen cell, 

 with all the bees adhering to it, are 

 put in a new hive, the bees will stay 

 there the same as they would in the 

 case of a laying queen, as given 

 above. After thoroughly trying this 

 plan, I have found it to work to per- 

 fection ; and by making the nucleus 

 hive perfectly tight, and shutting the 

 bees in for 24 hours, opening it about 

 dark, scarce one of the old field work- 

 ers will go back to their former home. 



Now for my plan of making nuclei ! 

 When all the' queen cells are sealed 

 in my queen-rearin^ hive, I get as 

 many frames of hatching brood from 

 different hives, in the yard, as there 

 are cells in the hive, lacking the num- 

 ber of frames of brood the hive al- 

 ready contains. Brush all the bees 

 off these frames of brood, and let 

 them run back into their old hive, in- 

 serting frames full of comb or foun- 

 dation in place of them. Now care- 

 fully fit one of the queen cells into 

 each of these frames, and set all in 

 the colony which produced the cells, 

 and close the hive till 24 hours before 

 the first of the cells should hatch. By 

 this time enough young bees will have 

 hatched to thickly cover all the 

 combs, with scores still hatching 

 every hour. Now get your nucleus 

 hives all ready by making all as warm 

 as possible, and having a nice fitting 

 division board in each one, when you 

 will go to your other hives and get a 

 frame of honey, brushing all bees off 

 of it, for each nucleus. Next take a 

 frame from your queen-rearing hive 

 —bees, queen cell and all— and place 

 it with your frame of honey in your 

 nucleus hive, and adjust your division 

 board. The next day at night open 

 the entrance, and you have a nucleus 

 as good as any one could desire. 



In this way make nuclei of all the 

 frames which contain queen cells but 

 one, leaving that to form a nucleus on 

 the old stand. In about 10 days your 

 queen will be laying, when she can be 

 used as you desire. Thus I have, 

 given how I rear what I term good 

 qneeri!', which have given me the re- 

 sults I have reported for years 

 past, and I claim such queens cannot 

 be reared for SI. When our dollar 

 queen-lireeders will rear all their 

 queens in this way, I shall be willing 

 to say that a SI queen will be just as 

 good for honey-gathering purposes as 

 a $3 queen. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Visit to Baltimore, Md. 



AUTHUKTODD, 



Lato of Bllduh, Alserla, and RambouUlet, France. 



A few weeks ago a friend, finding 

 me to be an apiarist, induced me to 

 join the Philadelphia Bee-Keepers' 

 Association. Induecourse I brought 

 forward the subject of breaking down 

 prejudice against our pets, by the es- 

 tablishment in Fairmount Park, or 

 other open space, of an apiary, where 

 open air exhibitions could be given, 

 etc., similar to those established on 

 the Continent of Europe. The sug- 

 gestion was well received, and the 

 material for a model apiary was dona- 

 ted in a very short time. A commit- 

 tee was appointed to see what could 

 be done, but I regret to say we found 

 it too late for this year, but are prom- 

 ised powerful assistance for the 

 carrying out of the idea next spring. 



Having business in Baltimore, and 

 finding there was quite an extensive 

 queen-rearing establishment and 

 apiary there, conducted by Mr. Lake, 

 I duly applied for and obtained per- 

 mission to make a call. This I did 

 last week, and was well received, see- 

 ing everything in the city establish- 

 ment, as also at the honey apiary 

 some miles outside the city limits. 

 The premises occupied by " Sunny 

 Side Apiary " have a special interest 

 for our craftsmen, for here it was that 

 Colviu had his apiary, and here 

 worked with him his friend Lang- 

 stroth. 



Mr. Lake has some Syrians, and 

 right here I would say that they have 

 one strongly marked characteristic in 

 common with the North African va- 

 riety. They scatter, and rush about 

 the comb too much for easy examina- 

 tion. They rush to a bottom corner, 

 form a knot of bees, and " flop " tliey 

 go, falling into the hive or on the 

 ground. Some colonies of Italians 

 opened out before me were certainly 

 the quietest strain I ever handled. 

 There seemed to be quite a hum of joy 

 when the hive was opened, and I 

 made my examination without any 

 veil or other protection without a 

 single sting. One interesting colony 

 is an Italian, an actual lineal de- 

 scendant of the first Italian colony 

 ever imported here. I believe im- 

 ported by Mr. Colvin. They are a 

 large bee, and I pointed out to Mr. 

 Lake how, to my mind, they are the 

 mouutaiu race or Bellinzona bee, bred 

 high up in the Italian Alps, while other 

 and smaller-bodied Italians belong to 

 the races bred in the Italian plains or 

 lowlands. Years ago I noticed a 

 great difference between the bees I 

 imported from Bellinzona and those 

 from Milan and Bologna. The true 

 mountain Ligurian seems to me to be 

 a stronger-bodied bee, and in order- 

 ing I would give the preference to 

 them any day. 



In what we may call the museum, 

 was a hive of remarkable interest, be- 

 ing a bar-frame hive sent over to Mr. 

 Colvin by King Otho, of Greece. This 

 hive was originally made and used 

 near Mount llymrne'tus, in Greece, 

 and is practically what is known la 



