322 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The reader cannot fail to appreciate 

 the fact that, placing a comb of eggs 

 in a colony, will not insure all tlie 

 cells started from the egg or young 

 larviB, as bees will continue to start 

 cells until the larvie gets too large to 

 develop into queens ; but liy knowing 

 when the lirst cells ought to be sealed 

 over, and destroying all after-cells, we 

 are sure of obtaining what we desire, 

 viz : queens reared from larvse, fed, 

 from the time they hatch from the 

 egg. upon tlie royal jelly. 



I let the cells remain in the colony 

 where they were reared until nearly 

 ready to hatch, and here is the advan- 

 tage of having the eggs laid at nearly 

 the same time, as itenables me to tell, 

 within a few hours, when the cells will 

 hatch. When nearly ready to hatch, 

 I cut them out carefully and insert in 

 the nuclei, cutting out enough comb 

 with each cell to be sure and not press 

 the cell in any way. Nuclei will very 

 rarely destroy cells when just ready to 

 hatch, even if put in soon after their 

 queens are taken from them, and I 

 am seldom troubled with loss of queens 

 ., in this way. 



As soon as each queen hatches, I 

 hunt her up and examine her care- 

 fully, to see that she is all right. If 

 there is anything about her "that is 

 not perfect, her head gets between my 

 thumb and finger. I save only the 

 perfect ones, as I want no others. 



Now how do I mate ray queens ? I 

 will tell you. I select early in the 

 season a number of colonies which 

 produce the best drones, and keep 

 them continually stimulated by feed- 

 ing, and give them all the drone comb 

 they will use. These colonies will. 

 therefore, rear an immense number of 

 drones, and by keeping the drones in 

 the other hives cut off, I reduce the 

 danger of mating with poor drones to 

 a minimum. 



To some, my method of queen rear- 

 ing may seem laborious, with too much 

 attention given to small matters, but 

 it takes labor, time and attention to 

 small matters, to rear good queens. 



Another important element to suc- 

 cess, is care and skill in selection. I 

 aim, in selecting, to combine all the 

 characteristics of a good strain of bees, 

 breeding from beautiful, prolitic 

 mothers, and rearing drones from the 

 most hardy and industrious colonies. 

 Such a queen, mating with such a 

 drone, cannot fail to produce fine offr 

 spring. And by continual selection 

 from each generation, I am all the 

 time raising my bees to a highei- 

 standard of excellence. 



Coleraine, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Preparing for Winter. 



L. R. JACKSON. 



Successful wintering of bees, in the 

 North, is one of the most important 

 subjects with bee-keepers. This, 1 

 think, is any easy thing to do. if we 

 commence in time to prepare for the 

 coming winter. 1 have always com- 

 menced in June to prepare for winter, 

 and have always been successful in 

 my S years experience, having never 



been troubled with "spring dwind- 

 ling " but one year, and'that was when 

 I fed the bees with rye flour early in 

 the spring. 



Honey contains sugar in two forms : 

 Cane sugar and grape sugar. Clover 

 honey contains more cane sugar than 

 fall honey, and is more easily and 

 more thoroughly digested than "grajie 

 sugar, or fall "honey, and should be 

 used for winter stores. 



Our bees now have honey enough to 

 winter them, with all the increase we 

 shall have, and, as soon as it is well 

 ripened, we will put away 2,000 pounds 

 for winter. Then we can take honey 

 with no fear of our bees starving next 

 winter. 



I have never known as good a pros- 

 pect for a large crop of honey as we 

 liave this year, or known bees in a 

 better condition for gathering it than 

 they are now. Nearly all our bees 

 are working on 20 Langstroth frames, 

 and are crowding the queen, in spite 

 of all we can do, unless we extract 

 the honey before it is ripe, which it 

 will not pay to do. 



We have rain about three days in 

 the week, yet it does not seem to stop 

 the flow of" honey as it usually does. 

 I had prepared to run the bees for in- 

 crease until I saw what the harvest 

 was going to be, when I changed ray 

 plans, and it has crowded me with 

 work, so that I have had to hire extra 

 help, and work from 4 a. m. until 8 p. 

 m. to keep up with the bees. 



I have given a few hints for winter- 

 ing, which can be understood by any 

 who wish to profit by them, arid in 

 September I will give my plans for 

 packing. 



Urmeyville, Ind., June 11, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey Plants of Louisiana. 



J. A. SMYTHE. 



I see by a late copy of the Bee 

 Journal, that apiculturists, in gen- 

 eral, have the blues ; in this section 

 we are all trying to excell each other 

 in blueness. The spring was very 

 late, and was followed by cold rains. 



Most of us made our increase dur- 

 ing March and April, while the willow 

 and oak trees were in bloom ; since 

 then, bees have not gathered enough 

 to support themselves. Our bees all 

 have to cross a lake a mile wide, to a 

 willow bank, for their principal sup- 

 ply of honey ; the contrary winds and 

 cold rains have caused thousands of 

 them to fall into the water to rise no 

 more. As June. July and August are 

 our great honey mouths, and as no 

 one has taken honey yet, most of us 

 have lost all hope" o"f making more 

 then expenses. One of my neighbors, 

 who has nearly 400 hives, has spent 

 S500 upon them, this year, in improve- 

 ments ; he does not even expect to 

 make expenses. 



For the benelit of Northern readers, 

 I give a list of our best honey plants 

 with date of commencing and end of 

 bloom. It i^the result of two years 

 observation, and is n;eiierally accepted 

 in this section. Plum, apple and 

 peach, from Feb. 1 to 27. Willow, 



Feb. 1 to April 10. Oak. March 1-5 to 

 April 1. Orange and China trees 

 commence blooming Marcli ISand last 

 two or three weeks. Clover and dew- 

 berries bloom in March, but cannot 

 be depended upon. Bees seldom ob- 

 tain much honey from fruit trees, 

 owing to the cold" rains. The willow 

 and oak are our stand-bys. Orange 

 trees are rather scarce ; China only 

 yields honey early in the morning. 



For the summer months we have 

 corn, elder, sweet bay, crape myrtle 

 and clover, besides countless vines and 

 swamp plants whicli produce more or 

 less honey. Corn, elder and clover 

 are our best honey plants ; bees work- 

 ing upon them allday long ; sweet bay 

 only produces honey after a rain ; 

 crape myrtle give large quantities 

 some years, while in others it is per- 

 fectly barren. 



I have seldom seen bees upon cot- 

 ton, although Prof. A. .1. Cook classes 

 it among honey-producing plants. 



During the swarming season, our 

 bees (Italians) seldom wait for cap- 

 ped queen-cells before swarming ; 

 sometimes swarming without leaving 

 even a sign of a qeen-cell. 



Hermitage, La., -June 11, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Wood Separators. 



F. M. REEDS. 



I have been waiting for some one 

 to give his experience with Dr. Besse's 

 wood separators, but as none have 

 reported their success or failure with 

 them, I thought I would write a few 

 lines concerning my own failure. I 

 had for sometime, before noticing his 

 article, been reflecting in regard to 

 wooden separators, and, in fact, had 

 sawed out some by hand, which, by 

 the way, is a very particular job, if 

 sawed as thin as should be ; but as 

 soon as I saw his article, I thought I 

 had struck a bonanza, for chea)) sep- 

 arators ; so I sent an order for 350, 

 which were received all riarht and in 

 due time. But with me, they have 

 proved a complete failure ; they hav- 

 ing been cut out of green elm, like all 

 elm lumber, warp and twist as soon 

 put in between the boxes, in such a 

 manner as to render their use impos- 

 sible ; and while I do not doubt that 

 the Doctor is still, and has been all 

 the time, honest in his effort to sup- 

 ply the long-needed cheap separator, 

 I have no doubt, in my own mind, 

 that he has made a sad failure; as 

 tliey are cut out of elm timber. The 

 boards were nicely cut, and would, no 

 doubt, have made flne separators had 

 they been cut of timber which would 

 not warn, and if some one will get 

 them up as nicrly as those I received, 

 of some kind of "lumber that will not 

 warp, I will try some more, for I be- 

 lieve the day is not far distant when 

 they will be the only separator used. 

 I am now cutting some by hand 

 from pine lumber, which does not 

 warp. 



I see a great many notions in re- 

 gard to deep and shallow frames. Now, 

 I have used two kinds or two widths 

 of combs, 7 and S inches, with hives 



