THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



555 



Seeding an Orchard.— I have an 

 ■orchard of three acres of trees, 12 

 years old, set 22x26 feet apart, now 

 seeded to inanimoth red ch^ver, the 

 lieavy growth of wliicli is likely to in- 

 jure tlie trees. 1 wish to make a bee 

 pasture of the orchard, liow shall I 

 proceed V The clover is now ripe and 

 full of seed, besides the ground has 

 seed iir it from last year. Soil is com- 

 mon black loam, and quite level. We 

 are three miles from any timber, and 

 tive froui town. Land is worth 875 to 

 i;,SO per acre. About one-half of the 

 fences are Osage hedge, and this is 

 full of catnip. A. II. HoLCOiiB. 



Pecatonica, 111., Aug. 20, 1SS2. 



[Cut the red clover and plow the 

 stul)ble under as usual, then in early 

 spring seed the orchard down with 

 white clover. This will make excel- 

 lent sheep, hog and calf pasture, and 

 a very good range for bees. We 

 ■would advise seeding down to sweet 

 clover, but its rank growtli on good 

 loam would make it quite as objec- 

 tionable to the orchard as tlie mam- 

 moth red clover, as it would attain a 

 heiglit of six feet or more.— Ed.] 



Excessive Swarming. — Tliis season 

 has been one of the most favorable of 

 all seasons for breeding in this locality 

 I ever experienced. Larger swarms 

 I never saw; hives full and running 

 over continually. Notwithstanding all 

 the precaution taken to prevent them 

 from issuing, tliey would come forth 

 pell-mell, witli mated or virgin queens. 

 I have given room with surplus and 

 breeding capacity to no avail. 1 have 

 practiced destroying queen cells: in 

 short, have done everything I ever 

 read of or knew to prevent them from 

 swarming and failed. Do you know 

 wliat is the matter ? With the excep- 

 tion of two days since the latter part 

 of June, until to-day, I have hived 

 from 1 to S) swarms. 1 am using the 

 Langstroth hive, an eight frame hive 

 as modified by .James lleddon, with 

 his surplus arrangement, which I like. 

 I must give you my experience with 

 a large swarm. Five issued at one 

 time and clustered togetlier. I have 

 one-third of one of the primary wings 

 of every queen clipped, consequently, 

 I captured four of those queens and 

 returned them to their respective 

 hives. The other one could lly enough 

 to accompany tlie bees. Tliey were 

 directly over my bee garden or apiary, 

 comprising ItJO colonies of bees. I 

 attempted to ascend twice to take 

 them, but was nervous about it, in 

 consequence of their becoming very 

 mucli irritated on account of the up- 

 roar produced by the swarming, and 

 gave it up to contrive some other 

 means to get them, as I did not want 

 to lose -5 Italian swarms in 1, with a 

 good queen. The size of the cluster 

 being about 4 feet long and 16 inclies 

 in diameter. As it was about 30 feet 

 high, I concluded to try what virtue 

 there was in powder and shot. I re- 

 quested a young man in my employ on 

 the farm to get the gun and shoot 

 through them. He did so the tliird 



time. You may guess there was a 

 dislodgement of the bees to my satis- 

 faction. With the exception of what 

 were killed (perhaps enough for one 

 swarm), the balance with the queen 

 settled on an aj)ple tree about 6 feet 

 from the ground, and I saved and 

 hived them in their original homes 

 with their mothers. 



Daniel Whitmer. 

 South Bend, Ind., Aug. 17, 1882. 



[This season has been a peculiar 

 one regarding swarming, some bee- 

 keepers reporting it without a pre- 

 cedent. We have known several cases 

 of swarming from 3-story Langstroth 

 hives, wherein were 30 brood-frames, 

 and the majority containing more or 

 less brood. Your trouble has been 

 augmented somewhat by using only 

 eight frames in the lower story; but 

 we doubt if double- that number 

 would altogether have repressed their 

 swarming proclivities. A bee-keeper 

 of our acquaintance, in this city, who 

 has long entertained tlie opinion that 

 a long-idea hive could be constructed 

 which would prove a non-swarmer, 

 having occasion to absent himself 

 from the city for several weeks, con- 

 structed some of that class, and was 

 so sanguine of success that he disre- 

 garded our advice to clip a wing of 

 each queen. xV'ow he mourns the loss 

 of several of his best queens, which 

 were accompanied by rousing swarms. 

 In no instance were even all the foun- 

 dation frames drawn out when the 

 bees absconded, and he doubts tlie 

 correctness of his theories.— Ed. 1 



Cyprians Beat all the Rest. — Two 



years ago this fall I obtained 2 Cyp- 

 rians and 1 Italian jjueen. I lost one 

 of the Cyprians the lirst winter. The 

 other beats all the rest of the bees 

 combined. The lirst year they cast 7 

 good swarms. This year one colony 

 has cast 6 swarms. 1 doubled up four 

 and made two, so as to have them 

 strong. They are the best workers 1 

 have. As there is some inquiry about 

 them, I will say they have done well 

 for me. I have taken from three col- 

 onies about 6') lbs of honey each, and 

 will get 40 lbs. more from each this 

 season, of box honey. From one col- 

 ony of my old strain of bees, I will get 

 about 160 lbs. of box lioiiey. I have 

 now 105 lbs., and they are good for .').', 

 or 60 lbs. more. Out of my 45 colonies, 

 26 have done all the swarming this 

 year. I have sold two, doubled up 

 some,and some swarms went together. 

 1 now have 7S colonies, all doing well. 

 13ees in this section are doing very 

 well, although the spring was wet and 

 cold, which made them rather late in 

 swarming ; but when white clover 

 came they went into it with a rush. I 

 put off swarming as long as I can, so 

 as to get large swarms, when I can 

 get honey in abundance. 



Thomas Lashbuook. 

 Waverly, Iowa, Aug. 22, 1882. 



Never saw a Better Honey Harvest. 



— The "silver linings of the clouds'" 

 reached here July loth, and I never 

 saw a better honey harvest in this 

 country than it has been since that 

 time. I inclose two honey plants, 

 please give name and value. The 

 small red flower grows in the timber 

 land, and the bees work on it all day. 

 Even where there is but one plant, I 

 find it covered with bees. The yellow 

 flower grows on the bottom land, and 

 is a great favorite with the bees. 



E. Doty. 

 Macksburg, Iowa, Aug. 15, 1882. 



[The small red flower is ligwort or 

 Simpson honey plant; the yellow 

 flower is a solidago, to which class the 

 goldenrod also belongs. It is need- 

 less, after giving the names, to say 

 more iji commendation of them as 

 honey plants.— Ed.] 



Recappinfr a (jueen Cell. — On the 



10th inst. I had a swarm of bees come 

 off. I went to the old hive and took 

 out all the queen cells but one, laying 

 them in a box which I put in the 

 shop. On the 14th I came across 

 them, and commenced to open them 

 with my knife. I found a large one 

 which I cut open, but seeing a grub- 

 looking thing which moved a little, I 

 put it in a queenless colony, grafting 

 it in a comb, then awaited results. 

 The next day at noon the cell was 

 built out again and capped over, and 

 to-day a line, lively queen came forth. 

 We are getting up quite an interest 

 in bee-culture around Bushnell this 

 season. All bee-keepers here appear 

 to be doing well, and^are taking off 

 lots of lioney. 



Nathan M. Woodman. 

 Bushnell, 111., Aug. 22, 1882. 



Best Honey Flow of the Season.— 



We are having the largest and long- 

 est honey flow of the season. With 

 10 days more of this weatlier, it will 

 exceed in bulk all the rest of the sea- 

 son's crop. Bees are swarming daily ; 

 I had three swarms yesterday, but 

 put them all back, thinking that the 

 best course to pursue. 



Geo. E. Hilton. 

 Fremont Center, Mich., Aug. 23. 



Swarming Perplexities. — We have 

 had a singular seasbn so far, with but 

 few days at a time that bees could get 

 honey, on account of rains. We have 

 had plenty of flowers, but the rain 

 washes ttie honey out in a day or two ; 

 but more flowers come again. I have 

 had a singular experience with swarms 

 this season. Heretofore they have 

 waited for each other— not so this 

 time, for I have had as many as four 

 out all at once, before I could get the 

 tirst one hived. I attempted to divide, 

 but sometimes some would get uo 

 queen, and so would go back. A 

 second swarm came out before I had 

 the first one half in ; they went in with 

 the first (uie without settling any- 

 where. I have lost over §50 worth of 

 swarms by absconding. All were 

 Italians but one, and that rose high 

 in the air and bid me good-bye. I 



