806 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Hibernation,— In Rhyme. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Rest,— busy little workers all,— 

 Through winter's dreary hours : 



Into a peaceful torpor fall. 

 And hoard your latent powers. 



Your domicile is not a sieve 

 With air-drafts coursin;? through — 



In such a house I could not live. 

 Neither, my pets, can you. 



You are not buried in a pit. 



A cellar, or a clamp ; 

 Never by ray of sunshine lit, — 



Cheerless, and foul, and damp. 



Yot7r dwellinsr is a chatf-]>acked room 

 Raised abtne toads and mice. 



Jleant for a home, and not a tomb, 

 Propolized tight and nice. 



A column of heaven's purest air 



Beneath your cozy nest. 

 Your native instincts will prepare 



To suit your moods of rest. 



Whene'er Jack Frost relents his grip, 



And there's a thawing day. 

 Rouse tip ! a little honey sip. 



And have a spell of play. 



Dance onth' alighting-board a jig. 



Or pirouette on high ; 

 No need to wallow, like a pig. 



When you can have a fly ! 



Don't eat a bit of pollen, dears. 



While you are on the frolic. 

 For, if you do, .lames Heddon fears 



You'll die of bilious colic I 



Your play-spell over, tightly hug 



And cluster close together. 

 Then each can sleep, "snug as a bug," 



All through the coldest weather. 



Soon blust'ring March will shake you up. 

 And whisper loud of spring : 



Your master, then, a little cup 

 Of sweet, will to you bring. 



The queen, her sleepy head will scratch. 



And take the hint to lay. 

 Then you must seek the willow-patch 



Upon the first fine day. 



With catkin pollen feed the brood 

 And nurse them up to strength. 



Till nectar from the maple-wood. 

 Rewards your search at length. 



Then, as the hive grows populous 



With vigorous young bees, 

 Each of you, without " muss or fuss," 



Depart this life in peace. 



Your course complete — your work well 

 done- 

 Die without pain or fear : 

 And thus your history will run, 



"ESC-4PED THE DI.4RRH<EA !" 



Speedside, Out. 



1^ The Union Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation of Western Iowa will meet in 

 Stuart. Iowa, at 10 a. m. on Saturday, 

 Dec. 27, 1884. All who are interested 

 are invited to attend. 



M. E. Darby, Sec. 



For the American Bee Juumal. 



Few Uncapped Sections in the Fall. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE, 40—80. 



^- The Willamette Vallpy Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its 

 second meeting at La Fayette, Ore- 

 gon, on the tliird Tuesday in June, 

 1885. All who are interested are in- 

 vited to attend. 



E. .J. llADLEY, Sec. 



r. S. Harding, Pres. 



How to manage our bees so as to 

 secure the greatest yield of comb 

 honey, is a question of great impor- 

 tance to all those who are engaged hi 

 producing such honey for market, 

 hence we often have articles on this 

 topic giving us instruction regarding 

 it. But comb honey is of little value 

 unless thoroughly ' sealed or capped 

 over ; and from the reports which I 

 get telling of iimch unsealed honey, it 

 would seem that, "How to manage 

 our bees so as to have few uncapped 

 sections in the fall," is a question of 

 nearly as much importance as the 

 first ; yet it is one about which very 

 little is said in print. 



For years I was troubled by having 

 from ij to ^i of the combs in the sec- 

 tions not fufly sealed at the close of 

 the lioney harvest, which were only 

 salable at a reduced price ; but of late 

 I have very few of such even in a 

 poor season. After experimenting 

 for a year or two regarding the mat- 

 ter, I became convinced that the cause 

 of the trouble was in giving the bees 

 too many sections, and especially con- 

 ducive to this was the plan of tiering- 

 up sections late in the season. How 

 often have I, years ago, spoiled a 

 promise of an abundant yield of comb 

 honey by tiering-up four or live days 

 before the honey harvest closed ! 



To tier-up sections profitably re- 

 quires considerable tact,and especially 

 do we want a thorough knowledge of 

 the honey resources of the Held which 

 we occupy. I think that there is too 

 much injudicious talk in some of our 

 bee-papers regarding our not allowing 

 the bees under any circumstances to 

 cluster on the outside of the hive, the 

 idea being generally conveyed that 

 when bees thus cluster out they need 

 more room. 



Now, it depends upon when this 

 clustering out occurs, whether more 

 room is needed or not : and hence I 

 said " injudicious talk." If the clus- 

 tering out occurs at the commi'nce- 

 ment, or in the lieighth of the honey 

 harvest, then more room should be 

 given ; while if at the latter part of 

 the honey harvest, or in a time of 

 honey dearth, no more room is needed; 

 for more room at this time results in 

 one case in many untinislied sections. 

 and in the other to an absolute waste 

 of time used in enlarging the hive. 

 To illustrate : During the past sea- 

 son we had a day and a half of good 

 honey secretion, a little past the mid- 

 dle of the basswood bloom. As, at 

 this time, I had on each hive, section 

 room of only about 20 pounds capac- 

 ity, the bees began to be crowded 

 out; and hoping that the weather 

 might yet be favorable for a week or 

 more, I spread the sections on a few 

 iiives by placing some empty ones be- 

 tween those nearly full, giving at 

 most only about :>5 pounds capacity, 

 while when all is favorable, I use 60 

 pounds capacity. The result was 

 that the bees immediately took ))os- 

 session of the empty sections, while 



the weatherturned unfavorable again, 

 and vvhen the season was over, I got 

 no more than '> to 10 pounds of cap- 

 ped honey from these hives, while 

 those not touched gave 20 pounds of 

 nice, capped honey. Jn this case the 

 bad weather was the cause, for the 

 spreading was seasonable, but in 

 former years I had been the cause by 

 spreading or tiering-up but a few days 

 before the honey harvest closed. 



Again, after the basswood bloom 

 had failed, there came on a very hot 

 spell when not a bit of honey was to 

 be obtained, and the result was that 

 the fronts of my hives were black 

 with bees. According to the advicp 

 above alluded to, I should have given 

 more room, and if the bees then per- 

 sisted in clustering out, I must take 

 my smoker and smoke each colony 

 until they all went in and staid there. 

 Nonsense ! At such times the bees are 

 doing just as much for the benefit of 

 the apiarist, hanging on the outside 

 of the hive, as anywhere. 



But to return. My plan of opera- 

 tion to secure all capped sections is as 

 follows : When the bees show, by 

 building little bits of comb here and 

 there about the hive, that they are 

 ready for the sections, I put on sec- 

 tions" to the amount of about 20 

 pounds, and leave them thus until the 

 bees are well at work in them, when 

 they are spread apart and about 10 

 pounds more of room given them. 

 When this room is fully occupied, I 

 give room at the sides of the hive of 

 about 1.5 pounds capacity ; and were 

 I using the tiering-up plan 1 should 

 have my surplus arrangement so ar- 

 ranged that at this time I could raise 

 up about one-half of the sections al- 

 ready on, putting empty sections un- 

 der them instead of raising up the 

 whole 30 pounds, thus giving them 

 more room, a little at a time, as the 

 bees have need. 



By the time tlie bees fully occupy 

 the 1.5 pounds of room given at the 

 sides, the first 20 pounds given them 

 is ready to come off ; and when this 

 is taken oil, the partly filled sections 

 at the sides are raised by cases and 

 put in the places of those which liave 

 been taken off, while empty sections 

 are given at the sides, for from 1.5 to 

 30 poiuids according to the size of the 

 colony. Thus I keep taking off and 

 putting on sections, taking the full 

 from the top and putting the empty 

 sections at the sides, until the season 

 beg:ins to draw toward its close, when 

 as fast as those partially filled sections 

 are taken from the sides to replace 

 the full ones taken from the top, the 

 side-spaces are closed up till all are on 

 top. Then as fast as the sections are 

 finished there, the top-space is con- 

 tracted till only the original 20-pound 

 space remains. In this way the bees 

 are given all the space they really 

 need, while the chance for many un- 

 capped sections in the fall is quite 

 small. 



By a little study the tiering-up plan 

 can be made to conform to the above, 

 and worked on the same principle. I 

 think that any plan which requires 

 the tiering-up of from 30 to 40 pounds 

 capacity, or the spreading out of the 

 same number of pounds at one time. 



