THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



821 



For tbe Amerloiin Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping in 1884. 



JNO. A. THORNTON, 54—73. 



Pining the past spring my bees 

 were in pretty fair eoiulition, and all 

 except 4 were good colonies. The 4 

 were weak, and I did not secure any 

 thing at all from them, so I really did 

 riot count them as colonies. 1 ob- 

 tained 3.200 pounds of honey from the 

 50 colonies, l.SOO pounds of "which was 

 comb honey in one-pound sections (SOO 

 pounds of "this being clover and bass- 

 wood honey, and the balance from 

 Spanish-needle and smart-weed) ; and 

 ' 1,400 pounds of extracted honey, be- 

 ing mostly of fall honey. 



There was some of tlie bark-louse 

 honey gathered early in the spring, 

 bnt not enough to amount to much. 

 The flow from clover did not last 

 until July 1 ; basswood lasted only 

 three days, and then the bees did no't 

 gather m"ucli from it ; so I had to feed 

 some to get the weaker colonies 

 strong enough to gather the fall 

 honey crop, wliich commenced about 

 Aug. 26 and continued for 6 or 8 days, 

 ■when it ceased and there was no more 

 gathered ; so the bees did not have 

 very much time to gather much sur- 

 plus, but secured enough to winter 

 on. and nearly all of them stored some 

 surplus ; none of them filled a two- 

 story, Langstroth -Simplicity hive. 



Honey sells slowly here now, and is 

 not much in demand ; 13 and 15 cents 

 is tlie most 1 can get for comb honey 

 in one-pound sections ; for extracted, 

 10 cents per pound at retail ; and then 

 most of the people seem to think this 

 too high, and will buy only a few 

 pounds at a time. 



The black bees did not secure any 

 surplus at all in this neighborhood, 

 but the majority of them stored 

 enough to winter on. Some of my 

 neighbors, who have black bees, seem 

 to think that they are a poor invest- 

 ment, and are killing them for what 

 honey there is in their hives. The 

 Italian bees produced by far the most 

 honey this year. In 1883 I had some 

 colonies of hybrids, each of which 

 stored 275 pounds of honey, being 50 

 or 60 pounds more than any full col- 

 ony of Italians gathered ; but this 

 year none of them gathered as much, 

 and they did not till sections as full 

 as the Italian colonies did. I cannot 

 see wherein hybrids are so much 

 superior to the Italians, as some bee- 

 keepers claim them to be ; they are 

 hard to handle, and will not stick to 

 the combs ; and worse yet, they are 

 more likely to sting ; but I consider 

 them far .superior to the blacks. 



Some may think that I have poor 

 colonies to breed from, but this is not 

 so, for the queens are from the best 

 imported and home-bred queens, and 

 only the best are allowed to become 

 laying queens. Some colonies of hy- 

 brids are as gentle to handle as some 

 Italians, during a honey-flow ; but 

 when the flow ceases, look out ! for if 

 they cannot sting you, they will fol- 

 low you for a long while ; and then 

 they are worse robbers than any 

 others. 



Yesterday and the day before were 

 nice davs, and the bees were out in 

 full force, having a good "fly." I 

 have never tried to winter bees any 

 where else except on the summer 

 stands, and I have had good success. 

 In the fall of 1882, 23 colonies were 

 prepared, and all wintered without 

 loss; in the fall of 1883,54 colonies 

 were left on the summer stands and 

 came out all right. The way they 

 were prepared was with straw packed 

 around them and tied with strings on 3 

 sides, with covers made of shingles. 

 and the fronts of the hives were not 

 covered, and faced the south ; three 

 half- inch sticks were put crosswise of 

 the frames on top, with covers made 

 of muslin, painted, which is almost the 

 same as oil-cloth. This is the best 

 cover I ever tried for summer use. 

 but I do not like it for winter use. I 

 use the 10-frame, Langstroth-Simplic- 

 itv hive. 



"1 asked a bee-keeper, who has black 

 bees, how manv colonies he had, and 

 this is the way he answered me : 

 "Well, I do not know, but lean count 

 them. There are 3 under the cedar: 

 one of them tlie moths ate up ; 3 un- 

 der the big pine, is 5 ; 2 under the 

 box-alder, is 7 ; 2 under the little 

 cedar, is 9 ; 2 by the fence, is U; 2 

 under the little pine, is 13 ; 1 over in 

 the corner, is 14 ; and one in a log, is 

 15 ; and one more is 16. Now, I will 

 give you 4 colonies for enough honey 

 to winter the rest on. Four have 

 starved,! killed 6, and got about 6 It.s. 

 of honey, and I would like to winter 

 the rest and try them another year." 



But I did not bargain for the 4 colo- 

 nies, as I did not like the investment. 



Lima.K) 111., Dec. 5, 1884. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Wintering Bees.Swarm-Catcher, etc. 



E. GEADEN. 



I have procured several colonies of 

 bees at different times, and always 

 lost them in various ways, still I 

 would not give up, as I have quite a 

 liking for bees. Every time that I 

 lost bees I examined the contents of 

 the hive to ascertain, if possible,- the 

 cause ; yet I had the courage to try 

 again. 



After 3 or 4 years of losing bees, I 

 decided upon a course by which I 

 would not lose them in any of the 

 former ways ; so I proceeded to a 

 neighbor who kept some bees in box- 

 hives, and who never pays any atten- 

 tion to them except when they swarm, 

 when he takes an old box of any kind, 

 or an old nail-keg or cheese-box, and 

 makes a hole in it large enough to 

 admit of a flst, and then with the aid 

 of a 20-foot pole he manages to dump 

 the bees into it, sets them up 

 against the fence, and does nothing 

 more to them until the next swarm- 

 ing season, should they be fortunate 

 enough to winter. I told my neigh- 

 bor that I wanted to get another 

 swarm of bees, the first that should 

 issue, as it was then about July 10, 

 1882, and he should put them into a 

 good box-hive, which he did about the 

 last of July. 



I took mv bees home and cared for 

 them, and "they did well, and before 

 cold weather set in. they filled the 

 box-hive and a small cap holding 

 about 8 pounds of honey. I prepared 

 them as I had decided upon, and they 

 wintered safely. 



On May 21 and 22, 1883, snow fell to 

 the deptli of 2 inches, bnt on May 23, 

 the weather cleared up, the snow 

 thawed, and about 2 p.m. my bees 

 swarmed. 1 hived the swarm and it 

 did well, and on May 31, a second- 

 swarm issued, and on June 3, a third- 

 swarm issued. I increased them to 

 7 colonies, 5 good and 2 small ones. 

 When cold weather came I prepared 

 6 colonies as I did the one of the pre- 

 vious year, and one I carried into the 

 cellar, but it died with the diarrhoea 

 about the middle of January 1884. 

 The 6 which were left on the summer 

 stands, wintered safely, bnt on exauii- 

 tion of the weakest, 1 found that it 

 had exhausted its stores, and the 

 queen and a cluster of bees the size of 

 a small hen"s egg, was all that was 

 left in the hive. I immediately fed 

 them sugar syrup, and left them to 

 themselves, as I had no other frames 

 which would fit that hive. They have 

 increased to a fair-sized colony, bnt 

 this year they produced neither sur- 

 plus honey nor swarms. 



I have increased my apiary to 13 

 colonies, and have them prepared for 

 winter on the summer stands ; and 

 besides what honey was consumed in 

 a large family, I have left about 1-50 

 pounds of comb honey in one-pound 

 sections. 



In the Bee Journal I have seen 

 descriptions of different kinds of 

 swarm-catchers, bnt I use one which 

 I think is far ahead of any which has 

 been described. The following is my 

 manner of hiving bees and a descrip- 

 tion of my swarm-catcher : When I 

 hive bees, I put the hive on the sum- 

 mer stand, where it is to remain, and 

 place two small J^-inch blocks under its 

 front. Then I take a planed board 

 about one foot wide by 2 feet in 

 length, and place it in a slanting posi- 

 tion, so that when I pour the bees 

 upon it, they will slide down in front 

 of the hive. I have a light box made 

 of 14-inch lumber, which is about 8 

 inches square and 14 inches deep, and 

 which has five one-inch holes bored 

 on each side. I then put a light, stout 

 pole through the hole in the centre of 

 one of the sides, and let it run 

 through the box and secure it on the 

 opposite side. The pole may be left 

 any length that is desired. I also use 

 a second pole -which has a hook in one 

 end. 



As soon as a swarm has clustered, I 

 hold one side of the box against the 

 cluster, and with the pole which has 

 the hook, I shake or jar lightly what- 

 ever they may be clustered on, and it 

 is surprising to see how quickly they 

 will all be in the box. I have hived a 

 large swarm in this manner in less 

 than five minutes. 



After carrying the box of bees to 

 the hive, turn ihe open end of the box 

 on the slanting board before the hive, 

 and the bees will roll or slide easily 

 to the hive entrance. If some of the 

 1 bees still adhere to the box, give it a 



