560 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



heavy loss if the winter continued at 

 all severe. Yet our friend had just 

 assured ns that he could now winter 

 bees as safely and surely as horses, 

 cows and other farm stock could be 

 wintered. 

 New Philadelphia. O. 



Read at the Somerset County, Me., Association. 



Swarming vs. Dividing for Comb 

 Honey. 



ISAAC HUTCHINS. 



If we allow bees to swarm they will 

 cast their first swarm at or about the 

 commencement of the honey season, 

 and in about twelve days we may ex- 

 pect the second swarm and in four 

 clays more the third — I think this is 

 the average time of swarming ; there- 

 fore it is sixteen days from the time 

 the old queen leaves the hive with the 

 first swarm until the third swarm 

 issues. Then the young queen will 

 commence to lay in about ten days 

 more, making twenty-six days that no 

 eggs have been deposited in the old 

 hive and twenty-six days tliat no bees 

 will hatch. Each of the three swarms 

 have taken a large portion of the old 

 field bees so that the old colony will be 

 deficient in worker bees during all the 

 time from the going forth of the first 

 swarm until they raise them from the 

 young queen, which v/ill be at least 

 fifty-five days. Fifty-five days being 

 the extreme length of our honey sea- 

 son, excepting the fruit and fall flow- 

 ers, the old colony will do well if it 

 stores honey enough to carry it 

 through the winter. 



The first swarm commences house- 

 keeping under more favorable condi- 

 tions, nearly all of the worker bees 

 are old enough to go into the field to 

 gather honey, and they have a laying 

 queen which will occupy the brood 

 chamber, and they will readily go into 

 the surplus boxes to store their lioney; 

 but as it will be nearly thirty-five days 

 before the young worker bees will 

 hatch and be old enough to take their 

 places in the field, nearly one-half of 

 the worker force will die before the 

 young will take tlieir place, so this 

 colony will not do as well as it would 

 if it had a few sheets of brood in all 

 stages when they first commenced, so 

 as to keep their numbers good all 

 through the best part of the honey 

 flow. 



The second swarm issues about 

 twelve days later, and the young 

 queen will not commence laying until 

 the second week. They will hatch no 

 worker bees before the basswood 

 honey harvest is over, and nearly two- 

 thirds of the worker bees will die be- 

 fore the young bees come forth to take 

 their place ; and as more than one 

 week will pass before the queen will 

 occupy the brood combs, the bees will 

 commence to store honey in them and 

 they will not readily go into the boxes 

 afterwards, and our experience is— 

 usually no surplus honey from second 

 swarms. 



The third swarm will be very much 

 smaller than the others, and uidess we 

 nave an extra honey season it will 

 have to be fed if we winter it. There- 



fore, if we allow our bees to swarm as 

 they please,we shall get surplus honey 

 from only the first swarm, and not so 

 much from that as we should if we 

 kept them strong in numbers all 

 through the honey season. 



How shall we prevent our bees rrom 

 swarming and keep all our colonies 

 strong to store surplus honey ? 



I answer by dividing in such a man- 

 ner as to have each new colony as 

 strong as possible and keep them from 

 swarming, giving each a portion of the 

 brood and a laying queen, being sure 

 to give them room enough, and each 

 division will be as good as the first 

 swarm. Then they will have the ad- 

 vantage of having bees continually 

 hatching, so there will be no dwind- 

 ling during the honey harvest and we 

 may expect better results from each 

 division than from the first swarm, 

 thereby giving us double the amount 

 of surplus honey with only one-half 

 of the increase. 



Wellington, Me. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Society- 



A. R. KOHNKE. 



The knowledge conveyed in the re- 

 port of the meeting of this society is 

 well worth a year's subscription to the 

 Bee Journal to any bee-keeper. 



Speaking of races and strains of 

 bees, there seems to be a preference 

 for crosses, especially to overcome the 

 aversion of the Italians to go into sec- 

 tions. I tliink there is a difference in 

 this trait of character between colonies 

 of pure Italians. Since sucli differ- 

 ences exist, may not this aversion be 

 bred out and still preserve purity of 

 race V 



The prolificness of queen and the 

 industry of colony do not necessarily 

 go together. I have an Italian colony 

 the queen of which is very prolific, 

 having kept the hive and 48 sections 

 full of bees ever since .June 10th. The 

 proceeds from that colony at the end 

 of the season were 9 pounds of comb 

 honey, and of extracted, about as 

 much from unfinished sections; and 

 on examination before putting them 

 up for winter, I did not find more than 

 9 pounds of honey in the brood cham- 

 ber. The bees look like what Mr. 

 Heddon calls the "Golden Italians." 

 The Germans have done better for 

 me, (for comb honey). 



The fact that bees try to supersede 

 not only old queens but very prolific 

 ones also, has led some bee-keepers in 

 Germany to suppose that extraordi- 

 nary prolificness may be a reason for 

 bees to supersede the queen. 



Bee-keepers should try to profit by 

 Mr. Burnett's experience in regard to 

 the size of sections. Sections in which 

 the sealed comb is or cannot be much 

 thicker than sealed comb in the brood 

 chamber, would perhaps be more read- 

 ily taken to by the Italians, while those 

 two inches wide may seem to them out 

 of all proportion in comparison to their 

 lower apartment. 



"Jane, take this honey down cel- 

 lar," said a lady to her servant girl, 

 after I had sold her a crate of nice 



clover honey. Of course, I stopped 

 them right there, giving some sound 

 advice as to where to keep that honey. 



Dysentery.— If Mr. Ileddon had 

 omitted one word in his reply to the 

 Rev, L, L. Langstroth when he savs : 

 " but they are sometimes compelled to 

 eat it," (pollen,) he would have given 

 the sole and only reason for bees dy- 

 ing with it. Drop the word "some- 

 times" and you have the whole thing 

 in a nutshell. AVhenever a large 

 amount of pollen is covered with 

 honey or sugar syrup, bees clustering 

 on that will get the dysentery, if they 

 cannot readily leave that, when they 

 get to the pollen, " which is at the 

 bottom," as Mr. Oatinan expresses 

 himself; but I think this latter gen- 

 tleman is mistaken if he tliinks cover- 

 ing pollen with honey or sugar syrup 

 will prevent the malady. Bees will 

 not cluster on dry pollen because they 

 cannot live on it, but should it be cov- 

 ered, they will. Result, dysentery ; 

 unless mild weather permits them to 

 move. 



As to the new bee enemy, described 

 by Prof. Cook, I would suggest treat- 

 ing the affected colony to a good dose of 

 tobacco smoke — not enough to stupefy, 

 and after ten minutes or so, transfer 

 them to a clean hive and scald the one 

 they were in. It may be necessary to 

 repeat the treatment after a week or 

 ten days. 



Youngstown, Ohio, Oct. 30, 1883. 



Fnr the American Bee JoumaL 



Equalization of Colonies of Bees- 



J. E. POND, JR. 



I presume that every intelligent 

 bee-keeper that gives his own time to 

 the care of his apiary, has noticed that 

 of a dozen colonies, all apparently in 

 like good condition, 1 or 2 will give 

 exceedingly good results comparative- 

 ly, while the balance will hai-dly come 

 up to mediocrity in the amount of 

 surplus obtained from them ; and I 

 myself have noticed one thing fur- 

 ther, (which I presume is not excep- 

 tional,) that, of a dozen colonies, the 

 1 or 2 that gave the best results last 

 year, would be this year among the 

 majority from which a poor yield is 

 gained. This has been my experience 

 for years. At first I concluded it 

 must be owing to superior strains in 

 the superior colonies, and endeavored 

 to remedy it by making such changes 

 as would — theoretically, at least — 

 equalize the matter, but when, the 

 next season, I found the best colony 

 of the previous year showing a decid- 

 etily poor state of affairs, I concluded 

 that something besides poor stock was 

 the cause of the trouble. My aim in 

 my own apiary is, not to raise 1 or 2 

 colonies which would store an excep- 

 tional amount of surplus, but to put 

 my whole apiary into a condition such 

 that each colony would give a fair 

 amount of gain, and the average 

 would be nearly equal in each colony 

 also. This I have found it impossible 

 as yet to do; no matter how careful I 

 am in choosing queens, or how much 

 attention I pay to equalizing the con- 

 dition of my stock, the result in the 



