THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



515 



out glass is inconvenient if only a part 

 of the sections are full and to be re- 

 moved, for a whole tier must be taken 

 out to get one full section out, or run 

 the risk of breaking the capping in 

 shoving it by another one. 



The portable-sided rack has all the 

 advantages of tiering up and of re- 

 moving sections by the rack, instead 

 of one at a time, that the stationery- 

 sided rack has ; and then it has the 

 advantage of removing apart of the 

 surplus honey, one or more sections, 

 without disturbing the others, if de- 

 sired, in case of a shortening up of 

 the honey How, or danger of coloring 

 up of the combs. Separators can be 

 used in the one as well as the other, 

 but I regard them as worse than use- 

 less in either. The glass to view the 

 sections to tell when they are ready to 

 remove from tlie hive, I regard as a 

 very convenient arrangement, but the 

 rack may be made either with or with- 

 out glass, to suit the taste, in that re- 

 spect ; but the portable-sides in a rack 

 I regard as very necessary and im- 

 portant. The portable-sided rack 

 certainly has aJl llie advantages of any 

 othei' kind of a rack, andnone of their 

 dmalvantages as far as my knowledge 

 extends on section holders. 



Sussex, Wis. 



For the American Jiee Journal. 



My Fourth Annual Eeport. 



ICUOENE BECOK. 



1 belong to the amateur list. I keep 

 bees because I like to ; in fact, because 

 I cannot help it, and not merely for 

 the dollars and cents it brings me. I 

 belong to that number who believe in 

 occupying their leisure moments in 

 a prolituble industry, rather than with 

 fast horses, dog and gun, billiards or 

 base ball. Hence I have drifted into 

 those delightful employments of culti- 

 vating fruits and keeping bees as a 

 recreation, and as a means of fiu-nish- 

 ing the family those luxuries which 

 money cannot always buy in the mar- 

 kets of a small inland town. My love 

 for the fascinating art, made practical 

 by the immortal Langstroth, increases 

 with my years, and some day I may 

 make it my specialty. 



Tlie past four years have been ex- 

 ceptional in many respects. A great 

 deal of cool and wet weather during 

 the summers, and at least two very 

 trying winters, have militated against 

 the highest achievements in the 

 apiary. The season just closed has 

 been very cool. There has been frost 

 about every month, and only a short 

 time when the niglits were warm 

 enough for the bees to venture far 

 froui the brood nest; comb-building 

 in surplus boxes was, therefore, slow. 

 Frost came and killed the llovvers 

 about two weeks earlier than usual, 

 and cut short the best honey How of 

 the season. "White clover bloomed 

 freely, but gave hardly any surplus. 

 Basswood appeared to be plentiful 

 and full of nectar, but as it rained 

 ne:aiy all the time it was in bloom, we 

 obtained no honey from it. Sumac 

 has again this year proved to be one of 

 the best honey i)lant3 among our mid- 



summer blossoms. Some section boxes 

 lilled with this kind of honey, present 

 a wonderfully clear and beautiful ap- 

 pearance. Tlie fall llowers were plen- 

 tiful and yielded generously until the 

 freeze, Sept. S. 



I began the season with 14 colonies, 

 all in hne condition except one. They 

 increased by natural swarming to 26. 

 I devoted three colonies and their in- 

 crease to extracted honey from upper 

 stories, and the remainder to comb 

 honey in 134 1'^- boxes. They began 

 swarming in May and kept at it at in- 

 tervals till late in August. All but 

 the tirst swarins were returned. The 

 first surplus removed (box) June 29. 

 I kept a strict account with each col- 

 ony, as well as every important fact 

 in "its history, by means of a card on 

 the top of each hive. 



Total number lbs. comb honey, 758 ; 

 extracted, 4i0 ; total, 1,208 lbs. Great- 

 est amount of extracted from one 

 colony and its increase, 151 lbs Least 

 amount of comb honey from one col- 

 ony, 2," lbs. Cjreatest amount of comb 

 honey from one colony, 114?^ lbs. 

 Average, comb and extracted, per 

 colony, spring count, 86 2-7. This is 

 not as well as I expected to do, nor as 

 well as I should have done, had the 

 season been a little more propitious ; 

 but, as none of my neighbor bee-keep- 

 ers liave done as well, I ought to feel 

 somewhat reconciled. 



I shall never be satisfied until I can 

 make my colonies average a hundred 

 pounds or over, of comb honey. I be- 

 lieve such possibilities are in the bus- 

 iness, and if I can only reduce that 

 possibility to a certainty, you may 

 then write me among the happy mor- 

 tals who " giet there.'" 



Forest City, Iowa, Oct. 1, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Drone-Laying Worker Bees- 



GUST. MAKHARD. 



Having noticed some articles in the 

 Bee .Jouh'NALon drone-laying work- 

 ers, I tlioiighl I would send you my 

 experience with them during the 30 

 years of my handling bees. 



The lirst case was a strong black 

 colony, which ha<l been deprived of its 

 queen to force them to construct royal 

 cells for use in the apiary. The col- 

 ony constructed seven line cells, six 

 of wliich were taken out and but one 

 left them. The young queen was lost 

 in her bridal excursion, when they 

 were furnished with another royal 

 cell. The queen was again lost. The 

 weather here in Oregon is very 

 changeable, and unfavorable for 

 queen rearing a greater part of the 

 year. 



Fresh brood was then given to the 

 colony, as there were no royal cells 

 just then. But the bees had, in the 

 mean time, accepted of a drone-laying 

 worker as queen, and did not con- 

 struct any royal cells. I then gave 

 them a good laying queen, but found 

 her gone the next day, when I gave 

 up the colony as unredeemable, after 

 I bad taken them into a room before 

 closed windows, and had made them 

 all travel, to see if I could not dis- 



cover any suspicious looking worker 

 among them, in which I failed. 



In the mean time summer has 

 passed, and it happened that a small 

 colony of bees, with a laying queen, 

 which had left its hive in despair, 

 came to settle on an apple tree in my 

 garden, which I hived for to experi- 

 ment with them on my despaired-of 

 colony, with tlie drone-layiug worker. 

 The colony belonged to a neighbor of 

 mine, who was a real genius of a bee 

 man, a great experimenter, and very 

 neglectful man, who tried to rear 

 queens of drone brood, experimenting 

 with his colonies until he had not a 

 decent colony left, and who either 

 would not shut his hives at all or 

 would cover them but partly. But 

 the bees did belong to aiKither man, 

 and it is not a costly thing to experi- 

 ment with another man's property in 

 a trifling way. 



I united the small colony with the 

 afflicted colony, sliiit the hive up, after 

 smoking them well, and let them 

 alone for an hour. After re-opening 

 the entrance of the hive, about .50 

 dead workers were pushed out. Next 

 day I found the queen alive, and the 

 colony thenceforth went on all right. 



I have had several cases since, and 

 have saved every colony by taking a 

 frame of brood with the queen and 

 bees thereon and setting the same in 

 a new hive. Then remove the hive 

 vi'ith the drone-laying worker, and 

 set the new hive in its place. Then 

 take the combs of the affected hive 

 out, shake and brush all the bees 

 therefrom, before the entrance of the 

 new hive, to make them enter. After 

 this is done, either put the emptied 

 combs in the hive also, or exchange 

 them for combs out of another hive, 

 which latter way is by far the better. 

 The bees with the queen on the 

 frame are by no means in a fighting 

 spirit, and the bees of the drone-lay- 

 ing worker colony become dispirited 

 by taking their combs .-ind making 

 them enter a new hive with new 

 combs. The workers on the frame 

 with their queen will defend their 

 queen until better counsels prevail, 

 and the drone-laying worker is de- 

 throned. 



The exchange of combs is also the 

 safest way to introduce a new queen 

 in another colony, and it can be done 

 within an liour's time without fear 

 that the bees will destroy her upon 

 introduction, or any time thereafter, 

 when the bee-keeper may wish to 

 open and inspect the hive. If the bees 

 are forced to accept of strange combs 

 and brood, they are just as ready to 

 accept of a strange queen as soon a 

 they have become convinced that th 

 loss of their queen and her brood i 

 irrepairable. This will be within an 

 hour's time, at the farthest. I once 

 received from California a Cyprian 

 queen unexpectedly. She arrived late 

 in the afternoon, and I had no colony 

 ready for her reception. I went to a 

 hybrid Italian colony, found and re- 

 moved their queen, took all their 

 comb containing brood, and ex- 

 changed them for others out of 

 another hive. Half an hour later I 

 introduced the Cyprian queen in a 

 black cage with the hole filled with 



