THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



brood chamber, then went for the 

 drone combs, and filled them all but 

 two (or else emptied them, whicli V) 

 any way, they weighed much less. 

 Then I interfered, as we had a little 

 spell of mild weather (this was about 

 fruit bloom time). I took away all 

 the drone combs, put them in a hive, 

 gave them one that had a little brood 

 in (worker brood), and a ripe queen 

 cell, and started in for a drone swarm 

 as an experiment. The queen came 

 out all right, but took longer to ferti- 

 lize than usual and did not lay much, 

 but this may have been owing to the 

 bad spells of weather we had at that 

 time. Then I gave them a frame of 

 brood, but, as they did not flourish, 

 last week I took away all the drone 

 combs, put the queen in a new hive on 

 the old stand, moved the drone swarm 

 away, and killed 1670 by count, besides 

 what few I would waylay by cuffing 

 one and kicking another when down. 

 About half or more were the yellowest 

 drones I ever saw, and the restasnear 

 like black drones as I know how to 

 make them Now, did one queen fur- 

 nish the brood for all those drones, or 

 have helpV or did they merely run out 

 of stripes for them V Mind, the drones 

 are not all dead yet, only thinned out 

 some, and it was not a very good day 

 for drones either. 



How many drones will a swarm 

 have? Owing to circumstances y The 

 Text books say 200 to 300. 



I once put a drone comb in an Ital- 

 ian colony, to raise some on purpose, 

 and when I had done with them, I 

 killed 1900. 



Wrinkle 4. Noticing Mr. Ileddon's 

 indicator on page 301, also so ranch 

 talk last winter about little slates, 

 moves me to mention my method of 

 keeping track of what is going on, 

 which I call signals. I use two or 

 three little sticks to tell most of what 

 I want to know in regard to the con- 

 dition of my bees in the working sea- 

 son, i'or instance : 1st division, a 

 stick laid on the front part of a hive 

 has reference to the bees, while on the 

 back part refers to honey or surplus 

 itrrangements. 



2nd. A stick laid lengthwise, or 

 with the frames means all right, or in 

 working order, or it has been attended 

 to ; while if it is laid diagonally, indi- 

 cates something doubtful, or in statu 

 quo for the present only, but will need 

 to be looked at again some time. 



3d. Anything laid crosswise, maybe 

 it needs something done, while two 

 sticks laid crossing each other show- 

 that part of the hive needs looking 

 after urgently, etc. 



The larger the object in case of an 

 urgent signal, the more urgent is the 

 call. It will be seen that much can be 

 said with a little movement of one 

 stick or two, and you could easily see 

 them as far as you can get a fair view 

 of the cover to the hive. If I have a 

 signal to show that something needs 

 to be done with any hive, I can trust 

 to my memory for the rest, and so 

 keep posted as to the needs and con- 

 dition of my bees (100 colonies or 

 more), without writing much, and it is 

 quicker. 



The most I write down is the pedi- 

 gree of queens (and that by number). 



and anything in regard to nuclei in 

 rearing queens, etc., though most of 

 that can be shown by a stick. I use 

 entrance blocks mostly. 



On page 300 the sense was perverted 

 by putting a period at profit, where 

 there should be no pause (4th line 

 from the bottom of the page). 



New Richmond, Mich. 



Prairie Farmer. 



Hiving Bees— Clipping Bees' Wings. 



MRS. L. HAKRISON. 



A lady called on me yesterday who 

 had caught a runaway swarm of bees 

 and hived them in a nail-keg. They 

 had been in it four days and she had 

 procured a Langstroth hive, and 

 wanted to put them in it. A friend, 

 " wlio knew all about bees," told her 

 to jar them down in front of it. Ilad 

 she done so, their nice white tender 

 comb, that tliey had built, would 

 have broken, and might have killed 

 the queen in falling. A better way 

 would be to alarm the bees with 

 smoke, invert the keg, and place 

 another over it, and rap on it with a 

 stick. The bees will crawl up into the 

 empty keg, and cluster in about 20 

 minutes. The bees are then out of 

 the way, and the comb could be taken 

 out, and fastened into frames with 

 little splints. While this Is being 

 done, the driven swarm should be 

 placed where the old one stood so that 

 the bees returning from the fields will 

 unite with them. A warm part of 

 the day should be chosen to do the 

 work, as many bees will then be ab- 

 sent in the fields and out of the way. 

 As soon as the comb is transferred to 

 the frames, it should be put into the 

 hive, and placed where the keg stood, 

 and the bees jarred out in front of it. 

 If the bees do not incline to enter it, 

 they should be driven with smoke. 

 If h(mey is abundant, they will soon 

 be at work repairing the damage, 

 and bringing in honey as tliough 

 nothing had happened. An expert 

 transfers without driving, but a 

 novice had better have them out of 

 the way. 



Bees are full of antics this season ; 

 they ascertain what time their neigh- 

 bors are going to Jlit, and join com- 

 pany. They are not always in good 

 humor, and when one colony clusters 

 on a limb, they fight another joining 

 them. It is only a pleasant pastime 

 to hive one colony clustered alone, but 

 when several unite, it is a pande- 

 monium. If the queens can be 

 caught and caged, order may be re- 

 stored, but this can be seldom done, 

 as it is no easy task to discover a 

 queen among so many thousands 

 moving constantly. If these united 

 colonies are hived together, only one 

 queen will be retained ; the others 

 will be destroyed. Sometimes they 

 will issue again, and cluster separ- 

 ately, to the delight of their owner, 

 but oftener enter other hives, raise 

 the mischief generally, and many will 

 be destroyed. 



This week one of these erratic colo- 

 nies issued, after being hived a couple 

 of days. We saw them, and fortu- 



nately caught her majesty before she 

 took wing, and pinned her to a comb 

 in a tin cover with a wire gauze top, 

 where she is now, much to my satis- 

 faction. A comb of unsealed brood 

 was also given this colony to nurse 

 and rear, so that they may forget 

 their foolishness, stay at home, rear 

 children, and mind the house. As 

 soon as this colony missed their 

 queen, they returned in search of her, 

 entered the hive, and finding her, set 

 up a joyful hum. 



Many apiarists practice clipping the 

 queen's wing, so that wtien the colony 

 issues they will return, as she cannot 

 accompany them. When they swarm 

 she crawls out, and can be picked up, 

 placed in a new hive, and it the old 

 one is removed, and the new one put 

 in its place, the bees return, enter it, 

 and, finding their queen, remain. It 

 can now be removed to the stand it is 

 to occupy, and the old one restored to 

 its former place. Some persons, 

 ignorant of the habits of the honey- 

 bee, clip unfertile queens ; this ruins 

 them, as they cannot fly out to meet 

 the drone. 



The first swarm is accompanied by 

 the old queen— which is fertile— all 



queens, 

 • bridal 



after swarms have unfertile 

 and if they are lost on their 

 tour," the colony will dwindle away, 

 unless supplied with another, or the 

 means to raise one, as there are no 

 eggs in the hive. The loss of the 

 queen may be known at first by their 

 mournful hum, running out and in of 

 the hive, and touching the antennse 

 of their fellows. In a day or so they 

 appear listless and idle, but if a queen, 

 or a queen-cell, eggs or larvce are 

 given them, all be activity and life. 

 Peoria, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Review and a Reply. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I am much in sympathy with the 

 individualism expressed in Mr. W. H. 

 Stewart's article on the standard 

 frame, on page 332 of the current 

 volume. 



As one of the advocates of the 

 standard frame, I want to say that I 

 favor the adoption of a standard, as 

 near as possible and practical. I be- 

 lieve the Langstroth frame to be the 

 best in use, all things considered. I 

 maybe in error; however that may 

 be, I am forced to express my honest 

 opinion, if I express any. Now, I 

 would not make a law to compel any 

 man to change one hive. That would 

 be wrong. I will, however, urge all 

 who are beginning, or who can change 

 without too much sacrifice, to do so. 

 Just suppose for the sake of the argu- 

 ment, that the Langstroth frame is as 

 good as any, and no better. The time 

 has already arrived when it will pay 

 to change quite a number of hives, or 

 if you liave 10 or 20 American hives, 

 to adopt the Langstroth hive for all 

 future increase, and close out the 

 Americans as time and circumstances 

 make it practical. I should do this if 

 I had .50 of them on hand ; yes, even 

 100. Now if I thought the American 



