THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



585 



we have practiced for several years, 

 and any of m>- stndents reading that 

 article with the authors name covered, 

 would have declared that I wrote it. 

 Knowing liow easily we learn to over- 

 come the troubles Mr. 1). so fears, we 

 still prefer it to any results we can 

 get from clipped queens, with all the 

 conditions and lixtures Mr. I), tells 

 us about. This, we admit, does not 

 prove that Mr. D.'s plan is not best 

 m his apiary. 

 Dowagiac, Mich. 



Spirit of the Farm. 



My Plan of Transferring Bees. 



ARNOLD DELFFS. 



In the (irst place, according to my 

 observation, the stereotyped plirase, 

 "When fruit-trees blooni then trans- 

 fer", will not do. Tlie nights are too 

 cold, bees do not secrete any wax to 

 speak of, and do not store any surplus 

 at that time. Tearing down combs, 

 honey and brood, at that period, 

 would cause the adjoining bees to go 

 on a vigorous, perhaps even indis- 

 criminate, robbing expedition. I 

 never transfer my bees before May 

 15, and often not even so early. But 

 after tlie middle of June, the opera- 

 tion would, in many localities, be 

 rather late, unless linden and sour- 

 wood trees were abundant. My way 

 of proceeding is as follows : 



Put a table in the shade, cover it 

 with a quilt or blanket, obtain a 

 strong chisel, an oil-cloth, hand-saw, 

 sharp knife, spool of coarse thread, 

 dish for holding honey, a piece of 

 burning half-rotten elrh or hickory- 

 wood (a patent smoker is preferred by 

 some), and a clean frame-hive fitted 

 with frames ; select a fine day when 

 the bees are well at work, expose 

 some honey, and observe whether the 

 bees will notice it much or not ,■ if 

 they do not, you may safely proceed. 

 Thoroughly smoke the colony which 

 you wish to transfer; and be in no 

 hurry, but give as many returning 

 bees as possible a chance to enter 

 their home. Xext, carry the box- 

 hive close to the table, spread the oil- 

 cloth on the ground and set the full 

 colony on the centre; a sheet will 

 answer, but the burning wood, which 

 you have to employ occasionally to 

 quiet the bees, will almost invariably 

 Are the cotton or linen. 



Now place the brood-chamber— 

 minus the frames— on the old stand 

 and put on the lid. The bees which 

 may still return will hover around it, 

 but, as yet, will show no disposition 

 to enter. With the chisel you next 

 take off the top of the stand which 

 you work on ; if a box-hive, you some- 

 times can take out one of the four 

 sides, which will enable you to cut 

 the honey in large, solid pieces. But 

 usually such cannot well be done — 

 never in case of hollow logs ; in the 

 latter case yon must remove tlie hon- 

 ey in the best shape that you can ; 

 for combs filled with lioney can 

 but seldom be transferred, though I 

 have succeeded in a few cases. If 

 the combs are well fastened to tlie 

 sides, take the hand-saw and saw off 



the cross-sticks next to the wall. 

 Sometimes it is advisable to cut but 

 one, sometimes it is safe only to saw 

 off but one end, and then again the 

 newly-formed end for about two inch- 

 es — this latter, if the combs are very 

 heavy and depend for their main sup- 

 port "on the cross-sticks. 



After this, take the hand-saw, or a 

 long blade, and remove one of the 

 outside combs ; it generally has to be 

 mutilated more or less ; the removal 

 of the (jrst is more difficult than all 

 the rest put together. Put this 

 comb on tlie quilt, take one of the 

 frames which lay on top, mark the 

 inside size of frame on the comb, then 

 fit it into this frame. If a close fit, 

 no wrapping with thread will be need- 

 ed, othervvise the necessity exists. 

 Some use what is termed "transfer- 

 ring clasps" made of tin ; others, 

 specially prepared wires. Always 

 let your first choice be those pieces 

 containing the most of the brood, 

 especially if capped over ; reject, 

 however, all drone brood, also empty 

 drone comb, unless the queen be very 

 choice. If the remaining piece of 

 comb is too small, save it for wax, 

 like all offal ; but two or more may 

 be patched together, some fastening 

 then being needed. As fast as the 

 frames are filled, or partly filled, 

 carry them to the empty hive. After 

 the lower story is supplied, put on the 

 second ; proceed as before, and let as 

 many brood or worker-combs be saved 

 as possible. You will but seldom 

 have enough to fill both stories. 

 Give, therefore, empty combs, if you 

 have them ; otherwise, sheets of foun- 

 dation, or even strips of foundation, 

 fastened to the top-bar. The small, 

 empty pieces of worker (not drone) 

 comb that almost invariably accumu- 

 late, should not be used for wax ; 

 fasten them, too, to the lower side of 

 the top-bar, because the bees will then 

 build with far more vigor and exact- 

 ness. It is generally warm enough 

 to make the small pieces adhere by 

 mere pressure, but sometimes artifi- 

 cial heat becomes necessary ; also, a 

 cement made of heated wax and rosin 

 is recommended. 



One very important point to be 

 observed is this : Xever let the sun 

 shine one instant on the brood, espe- 

 cially that not capped over. This is 

 the reason why the transferring-table 

 must stand in the shade. After all 

 combs are transferred carefully, lift 

 off the now almost empty stand ; on 

 the bottom will be found the bees ; 

 carry them on the oil-cloth to the 

 entrance of the new hive and brush 

 them in. If possible make sure the 

 queen enters. In most instances 

 they will stay ; in a few isolated cases 

 have I known them to resist stub- 

 bornly, and leave en masse next day. 

 The way to do then, is to remove a 

 strong colony while at work, and put 

 the transferred comb and hive con- 

 taining them, on their plate. If a 

 queen can be given, so much the bet- 

 ter. A sealed-over queen-cell will do, 

 but even in the absence of them, the 

 returning bees will generally rear a 

 new queen. 



I finally wish to make a few general 

 remarks. Most writers recommend 



driving bees into a box by noise or 

 smoke, but with me this has always 

 been slow and often impracticable 

 work. I niiich prefer the |)laii that I 

 have suggested. It is also well to 

 mention, that shortly after having 

 cast a swarm, a colony should not be 

 transferred, as there is too great a 

 danger of destroying the queen-cells. 

 The case is, of course, different if a 

 queen has been hatched. If weak, 

 transfer and put together two and 

 even three colonies ; it is customary 

 in that case (if job-work) to charge 

 for but one. In this neighborhood, 

 the usual price paid is fifty cents for 

 each colony, unless the number ex- 

 ceeds one dozen ; then thirty-three 

 and a third cents is customary. As 

 usual, it will be found true economy 

 to hire experts to do the work ; this 

 rule holds as true in transferring 

 bees as in auythiug else. 

 Shelbyville, Tenn. 



For the Amerinan Bee Journal. 



'Honor to Whom Honor is Due." 



A. A. FKADENBURG. 



Hold, gentlemen ! your are entirely 

 wrong. In the first place I fear that 

 you are letting a wrong spirit come 

 up. Can we not discuss our case in a 

 pleasant and friendly manner V In 

 the second place, you are wrong in 

 your conclusions of what I have been 

 writing, and I think there is a good 

 deal of very careless reading. 



Let me here state that to the readers 

 of the Bee .Iournal I am compara- 

 tively a stranger, having never taken 

 it nor written for it before this year ; 

 but the Oleanings in Bee-Culture I 

 have taken, and written for, nearly 

 all of its lifetime, so I am better 

 known by its readers. I have written 

 for the press more or less for nearly 

 20 years, but have never been so 

 severely criticised as I am now by Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, on page 483 of the 

 Bee Journal. 



I will now see what I can prove in 

 the way of defense. In the first 

 place, I have never claimed that I 

 first discovered the "pollen theory" 

 as he states. The changing of a sin- 

 gle phrase, word, or even a letter, many 

 times changes the meaning of a whole 

 sentence, and places the writer in a 

 bad light. 



In my article on page 4.55, 1 said, 

 " Mr. P. closes by saying, he (the bee- 

 keeper) who first discovers the 'cause' 

 of bee-diarrhtea will receive the 

 heartfelt thanks of his grateful breth- 

 ren. Now, I claim to be that one." 

 Mr. H. has changed the word " cause" 

 to the word " theory," and the Editor 

 has made the same error in his com- 

 ments. Now, do the two words mean 

 one and the same thing in this con- 

 nection ? I think not. The first dis- 

 coverer of the "pollen theory," as 

 here applied, I think means the first 

 one who thinks of or suggests that 

 pollen is the cause of bee-diarrhcea. 

 Hold ! Such a theory may be false, or 

 supposed to be false until it is proven 

 true. 



Nosv, let us see who has the best 

 claim to the priority of the " pollen 



