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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



throw the hght of their experience. 

 The division-board, I consider an 

 almost indispensable article in the 

 apiary, but I experience some difficulty 

 in preventing the bees sealing the ends 

 to the sides of the hives. I liave tried 

 cutting the boards ,14 inch shorter than 

 the width of the hive, and tacking 

 strips of woolen cloth on each end, to 

 till the space. I have tried glazed 

 cloth, put on in such a manner as to 

 form a half circle tube, between the 

 end of the board and the hive. This 

 last I consider the best for the end of 

 the board. 



Then to make it easy to remove the 

 boards, I cut them in the center, or 

 make them of two pieces, and hinge 

 them with small staples. Theii to 

 remove the board, push the center 

 from the comb. Tliis shortens it and 

 it is easily taken out or moved back. 

 If any of our bee-men have a better 

 way, will they please describe it in the 

 Bee Journal V 



Farmer City, 111. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



" Who Should Keep Bees?" 



.JOHN VODER. 



So much has been said and written 

 about the art of bee-keeping, that the 

 novice may say, " 1 can never learn "; 

 and yet the '• half was never told,'" and 

 that which has been told should never 

 have been told. 



Too much is said on the bright side 

 of the bee-business; it makes the 

 hundred resolve to "embark" when 

 only one will succeed. It is very nice 

 to visit a practical bee-man and see 

 him handle his bees, taking off 20 or 

 30 lbs. of pure honey per colony; yes, 

 so the 99 resolve to get " just a few for 

 our own use.'' They do so and the 

 few gather perhaps 20 or 30 lbs. of 

 honey duting the summer and then 

 their bees die from the carelessness 

 or malpractice of their keeper. No 

 one should attempt to keep bees unless 

 he knows " what manner of man he 

 is "; if every man before starting in 

 the business would first commit to 

 memory W. F. Clarke's paper, " Who 

 should keep bees," read at the Toronto 

 Convention, and ask himself, am I 

 naturally qualiliedV if so, can I attend 

 to it y and then give an honest 

 answer and act accordingly ; if every 

 one would do that, I am sure there 

 would not be so many bee-\illers. 



It is really surprising how many 

 there are who undertake, and do keep 

 bees without having one book or paper 

 on the subject ; or who do not read an 

 article in a whole year, unless they 

 borrow or hear a short lecture while 

 on a visit to some live bee- man. 



This is the advice I gave to a bee- 

 man the other day when talking to 

 him about his bees : " If you want 

 to make them pay you a handsome 

 profit and do not "wish to take from 

 them what honey they have, or do not 

 desire to sell them, set them out from 

 under that old shed, pile those old 

 rails on them and set fire to them.'" 

 Now I know that was good advice 

 under the circumstances ; and there 

 are very many more who might -'go 



and do likewise ". What I mean is 

 this : There is lots of honey wasted 

 by every body who keep bees, to their 

 own loss and the loss of the one prac- 

 tical man. However, this is a free 

 country. A locality can be easily so 

 overstocked that very little honey 

 will come on the market. 



Xow as to spreading a knowledge of 

 bee-keeping by getthig subscribers to 

 the Bee Journal (and I know no 

 better way of doing it), I can say, it 

 is not beneficial to me ; though I have 

 tried it, talked it up, and lent my 

 paper for miles around, and never took 

 a subscription. You see if all my bee- 

 keeping neighbors would get enthusi- 

 astic on the subject (and no one should 

 keep bees unless they do) it would be 

 bad for me; but Darwin says, " The 

 fittest will survive." In this village I 

 am almost " monarch of all I survey '"; 

 but in a village 6 miles from here, 

 there is at least 6 enthusiasts that are 

 going to make a specially of the busi- 

 ness, and run it into the ground. Now 

 you may think me selfish, but there is 

 something not right; perhaps that 

 something is myself. 



I have wintered my bees for two 

 winters in the cellar, very successfully; 

 and 22 colonies consuming, on an 

 average, in 158 days last winter, a little 

 less tlian 9 lbs. of honey ; or rather 

 they lost in weight less than 9 lbs. 

 including the dead bees. Allot them 

 soiled the outside entrances of the 

 hives ; some of them so badly that I 

 really was afraid they would die. 



On April 2, 1 set out 7 colonies for a 

 fly; they spotted everything within 

 reach, so I set them back the same 

 evening. On the 14th I set them all 

 out ; they did not spot anything. How 

 was that '? And most of the hives were 

 very clean inside; while bees wintered 

 on summer stands were very much 

 soiled inside. I think when bees are 

 in a warm, dark place they will come 

 out to void themselves. In the cellar 

 I pile the hives 3 deep, the first rest- 

 ing on an empty hive, a cushion made 

 of oat-hulls over the frames of each, 

 and let the cross pieces of the bottom 

 board span the hive below, resting on 

 a slat nailed on the end of the hive }4 

 inch below the top. 



I have 53 colonies with those cush- 

 ions on most of them. The bees 

 cluster immediately under the cushion; 

 but those without the cushion cluster 

 lower down, thus showing that the 

 cushion is warm and agreeable to 

 them. Spring dwindling is what I 

 fear most, although I have not had 

 much trouble in that way. I use the 

 large hanging, S-frame Quinby hive. 



How would heavy pasteboard do for 

 division boards V When a colony is 

 strong enough in the spring to cover 

 only .5 or 6 frames I thin k such a board 

 would be just thing. Let the board 

 tit tight all around. Some use a hang- 

 ing-board the same size as the frames; 

 but I do not see that they would be 

 any better than an eiupty comb, or a 

 full one either. 



Here is a recipe for the prevention 

 of bees' stinging, as told me by an old 

 Irishman. He said there was a gen- 

 tleman in the old country who kept 

 40 or 50 colonies, and before going to 

 handle his bees he would first make a 



soap lather on a hog's back and smear 

 his arms, hands, neck, and face with 

 it. The bees would not sting him for 

 a week, unless he washed himself ; for 

 a bee would not sting a hog or any 

 thing that smelled like one. Try it. 

 Springfield, Out. 



ror tbe American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Feeding in the Spring. 



W. A. SITEWJIAN. 



In all the bee-periodicals one reads 

 much on the subject of feeding in the 

 spring ; and it well pays all who are 

 engaged in keeping bees, as very many 

 new ideas are brought forth, which 

 a careful reader and sound reasoner 

 may turn to advantage and profit. 

 The success of the season, in a great 

 measure, depends on the success of 

 spring management ; and in that 

 there are many different theories. 



To an apiarist of experience, or to 

 those having a large number of colo- 

 nies, the articles published in the bee- 

 papers are more especially , directed ; 

 and the amateur or the possessor of a 

 dozen colonies hardly finds in them 

 the intelligence just suited to his case 

 in order to make matters the most 

 practicable. Experience is a valuable 

 teacher, but practicability must go 

 hand in hand with it, in order to be 

 successful. AVith me success is to 

 succeed with the least expense and 

 labor— reasonably so. 



But spring feeding is my theme, and 

 I am on the amateur side. I read 

 various ways of feeding, but the many 

 different feeders advertised, are una- 

 vailable, so I use a method of my 

 own, which I find is successful. 



No doubt Messrs. IIeddon,Doolittle, 

 Hutchinson, etc., will smile audibly ; 

 but it will contrast with the " old 

 fogies" who "pooh"" at their fancy 

 methods. When I first examined my 

 colonies in March, I found them all as 

 strong, apparently, as when packed,in 

 the fall, and as bright as a new silver 

 dollar ; but some had very little honey. 

 How to supply it, was a question, as 

 my time was limited. So I procured 

 several small wooden boxes, that 

 would set in between the inner hive 

 and the packing case. In the side of 

 these boxes near the top a slot was cut 

 some 6 inches in length and }4 inch 

 wide. The boxes were found to leak 

 when tried with water, Init a hot iron 

 and a very small quantity of beeswax 

 soon soldered the joints on the inside 

 and they were made water tight. 

 These boxes were put next to the in- 

 ner hive, the slot even with the top of 

 the hive ; a small piece of wood was 

 inserted into the middle of the slot 

 and projected about two inches ; the 

 cloth cover over the brood-frames 

 raised enough to admit the small piece 

 of wood ; this makes a passage-way 

 for the bees to the box,— and they 

 readily find it. Then slide the cover 

 of the small box 2 or 3 inches and 

 pour in syrup, filling up to the slot ; 

 close the "cover and the bees are fed 

 without the least disturbance. At 

 any time, more syrup may be given 

 and the bees will never know how it 

 came there. 



