THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



425 



After an extensive and instructive 

 discussion on " Spring Management,"' 

 eoiicernina; '■ Summer Care of Bees," 

 Mr. J. Moore said lie had not given 

 his bees tlie attention they needed in 

 the past, owing to liis farm work, hut 

 intends to give more care in tlie fu- 

 ture. Had tried dividing, but did not 

 like it. for he got 3 or 4 weak colonies 

 instead of 2 good ones. 



'• How many swarms would you 

 allow to the colony V" "Only one. 

 and if second swaims issue would 

 double up. I unite them by the use 

 of smoke." 



" How do you manage two swarms 

 settled together V" " I take two hives 

 and a sheet ; shake the bees on the 

 sheet and start them to both hives, 

 and capture one of the queens so as 

 to prevent both going into the same 

 hive, then add the captured queen to 

 the one that proves queenless. 



^Ir. L. Coaper sprinkles with water 

 to separate the swarms. 



Mr. W. I*. Cover sets out as soon as 

 it will do in the spring, feeds rye Hour 

 and gets them to swarming as soon as 

 possible. He was questioned : 



" How do you prevent swarming 

 too much y " I kill the old queen 

 that issues with the first swarm, and 

 return the swarm to the hive tliey 

 came from, and when it swarms again 

 with a young queen, I hive this 

 swarm. I some times add a. new 

 swarm to a weak colony. I had 23 

 swarms in one day, last summer. 

 When two or more settle together. I 

 separate them as has been stated, by 

 the use of a sheet and two or more 

 hives to drive them into. I use 5- 

 pound boxes for surplus honey. I 

 never keep light colonies, for my ob- 

 ject is honey and notincreasein num- 

 ber." 



On •• Profits of Bee-Keeping," Mr. 

 ti. W. Keeler being called for, said 

 lie had kept bees for five years. The 

 first two years they did not pay ex- 

 penses. The third year they made 

 about S3 per colony, spring" count. 

 The fourth year, 1S82, he began with 

 23 colonies, and obtained in comb and 

 extracted honey 4,738 pounds, which 

 is 2(ni pounds per colony, spring count. 

 He sold .S700 worth of honey, and had 

 all they could use besides. The ex- 

 penses" were .SIOO. The fifth year, 

 18S3, he began with 37 colonies, took 

 3,730 i)(nnids of comb and extracted 

 honey ; 100 pounds per colonv. He 

 had sold S4(I0 worth, and had a quantity 

 on hand yet. Expenses were .SlOO for 

 hives and surplus arrangements. 



Mr. L. Coaper stated he makes his 

 swarms or new colonies after the 

 honey season. His average per col- 

 ony, soring count, in 1882, was 200 

 pounds of extracted and 20 pounds of 

 comb honey. He uses a large hive, 

 and has taken from a single colony at 

 one time 2 gallons of extracted honey. 

 He extracts from the body of the hive. 

 In 1882, from the same number of 

 colonies of equal strength run for 

 comb aiul extracted honey, he ob- 

 tained ten times as much of extracted 

 as comb honey, and last vearsix times 

 as much. He obtained in 1SS3, 100 

 pounds per colony, spring count. It 

 was not a very good honey year. One 

 trouble in extracting is ivet weather. 



He was questioned thus : " How do 

 you prevent swarriungV" "I allow 

 "no drone comb, cut out the queen- 

 cells, and keep a good supply of 

 worker comb for tlie use of the queen. 

 I do not keep so many bees but that I 

 can attend to tliem in connection with 

 other work. I have Italian bees. I 

 do not use smoke, and I am not 

 troubled with their stinging when 

 working with them, for they have got 

 used to it." 



The subject for discussion at the 

 next meeting is, " Late Summer and 

 Fall Care."' The executive commit- 

 tee appointed (i. W. Putnam, of Hol- 

 land, and J. W". .Sanders, of LeGrand, 

 to read essays. The society then ad- 

 journed to " meet Saturday, July .5, 

 1884, at 10:30 a. m., at the Court 

 House in Marshalltown, Iowa. 



Joseph Swift, Pres. 



J. W. Sanders, 6'ec. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Apis-Americana. 



DR. G. L. TINKER. 



In working my bees for comb 

 honey without separators, several in- 

 teresting facts have been developed. 

 The first is, that there is a greater 

 difference in the comb building capaci- 

 ties of the various strains of bees 

 than was supposed. 



One caps over the combs very 

 smoothly and white, and builds all of 

 their coinbs as true and regular as if 

 laid off with a straight-edge. The 

 comb built is also exceedingly deli- 

 cate, the amount of wax in it being at 

 a minimum, and the nectar stored is 

 as clear as water; the whole being 

 " fit for the gods " truly. 



Another strain builds heavy combs 

 (that is containing much wax), al- 

 though straight, and caps them over 

 rouglily, and also only moderately 

 white. The same also stored at the 

 beginning of white clover bloom quite 

 a quantity of wine-colored honey so 

 strong as to be unlit for the market. 



Another strain builds delicate 

 combs, but the capping looks as if 

 water soaked. They also build in be- 

 tween the combs many bits of wax or 

 cross-bars, which is a bad trait in any 

 strain. 



A strain of German bees, crossed 

 with Italian drones, cap their combs 

 very white but roughly, and are 

 prone to liuild all ot their combs 

 crooked, so that with tliem it would 

 be impossible to get nice straight 

 combs without separators. They are 

 also inferior in many respects to the 

 Italians, do not m;ike so much honey. 

 and in the heighth of white clover 

 bloom have collected a lot of dirty- 

 colored nectar, and stored in sections. 

 Yet they are located near by. 



What bee-keepers want is a strain 

 of bees that will build clean, straiglit 

 combs without separators, cap them 

 over white and smooth, and at the 

 same time use as little wax as possi- 

 ble in their construction. (True, such 

 comb honey does not ship so w'ell, but 

 those who consume it will appreciate 

 it, and want more.) They must be 

 prolific and good workers, breed up 



rapidly in the spring, and swarm carhj 

 to getthe most out of them. 



As I look at it, this is the ideal of 

 what " the (Miming bee " must be. By 

 a lucky hit I luive just such a strain 

 in which every one of the above points 

 would be hard to excel. The strain 

 was produced as follows : The begin- 

 ning was a pure Syrian queen ob- 

 tained from Mr. D. A. Jones, and 

 mated on the islands of the Georgian 

 bay. I have her still, although she 

 is now about three years old. She has 

 not yet led a swarm this season, but 

 is soon expected to, as she has led a 

 swarm every year without regard ap- 

 parently to "the fiow ot nectar, but 

 never early. She is very prolific, and 

 the workers are very gentle to handle, 

 even more gentle than the Italians. 

 Last season there was a second 

 swarm when I opened the hive and 

 began to cut out the queen-cells. 

 There were 2.") or more of them, and 

 they were laid on the tops of adjacent 

 hives. I had a number of tumblers 

 to put over them, but not enough, and 

 soon the young queens were flying 

 and running in all directions. After 

 some time I had killed them all but 

 one of the finest and largest. This 

 queen, I think (but of course do not 

 know), mated with an Albino drone. 

 Her bees were very beautiful and gen- 

 tle, so I bred a number of queens, and 

 introduced to colonies not up to my 

 idea, and these queens were mated 

 with Italian drones. They were at 

 first, on emerging from the cells, al- 

 most white, but soon had the general 

 appearance of Italian queens. The 

 bees from each of these queens build 

 comb like the bees of their mother, 

 and cap it over very white. They 

 build no cross-bars of wax, and as 

 truer combs were ever obtained by 

 the use of separators, and the sec- 

 tions used on two of the colonies are 

 nearly 6 inches square. The brood 

 combs, likewise of the new colonies, 

 are built as straight and regular as it 

 is possible to be, and were spaced IV.^ 

 inch. 



In clipping the fine queen above re- 

 ferred to, in April, I found her to be 

 the largest and strongest queen I ever 

 handled, and I clip all queens held be- 

 tween the thumb and forefinger of the 

 left hand. In breeding up, the past 

 spring, she had 11 Gallup frames filled 

 almost solid with brood on May 1. I 

 then gave her no more, and she led 

 my first swarm on May 24. She could 

 easily have filled 18 Gallup frames 

 with brood by the first of June. Her 

 bees will produce more than twice the 

 amount of comb honey of any Italian 

 colony I have. 



Her daughters were in hives made 

 to hold only 9 frames, so I could not 

 give them more combs, and they did 

 not have a fair chance, but far exceed 

 the Italians in the number of bees 

 and tlie quality and the amount of 

 their work. What these queens re- 

 quire is a hive holding not less than 

 10 Langstroth or 12 Gallup frames in 

 breeding up. But I have never had 

 an Italian ([ueen that could fill that 

 many frames full of brood by the 

 first of June. All my full colonies 

 were fed in April and May, and sev- 

 eral Italian colonies were pushed to 



