1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



583 



more for comb honey because it looks better, but they also pay 

 more for comb honey because in general it is better. 



The Chicago Convention, according to an item on page 



556, is to be during the week of the Fat Stock Show ; but the 

 same mail that brought that notice brought the Chicago 

 Record, saying there would be no Fat Stock Show on account 

 of the collapse of the Coliseum. Kow, what's going to be 

 done ? The convention should be only at such times as give 

 low railroad rates. 



A Model Apiary. — According to that article on page 



557, the main thing in a model apiary is to have such ar- 

 rangements as will not allow swarms to cluster out of easy 

 reach. Why not secure that by haviug all queens clipped? 

 One advantage is, that you can clip your queens without wait- 

 ing, but you can't get trees to your mind without much waiting. 



With regard to evergreens, my experience does not agree 

 with that of the writer. A number of evergreens are about 

 my house, but no swarm in all the years has ever lit on one. 

 Fruit-trees are, however, nearer to the apiary. But I had for 

 several years an out-apiary in a beautiful grove of evergreens, 

 and I never knew a swarm to alight on one of them. By pref- 

 erence they took a small deciduous bush farther away. But 

 it is also true that I never saw many swarms there. 



Bee-Swarming Houbs. — The difference of observation 

 mentioned on page 558, may be very simply accounted for by 

 the fact that B. Taylor has not only had a long experience, 

 but an experience with a large number of colonies. The 

 longer his experience, and the greater number of colonies 

 kept, the more exceptional cases, and the more exceptional 

 some of the cases. I've had swarms as early as Mr. Taylor, 

 but I'm not sure I ever had any as late. 



That Constitution. — Eugene Secor, on page 563, com- 

 plains that the North American is so overloaded with a con- 

 stitution that it's in trouble, and thinks the constitution should 

 be short and simple. I'm afraid the executive committee have 

 failed to carry out Section 2, of Article IV, of the Constitu- 

 tion, or he would hardly talk that way. But I suspect, Bro. 

 Secor, that you have forgotten that some of the "overload- 

 ing" was unloaded at St. Joe. .lust turn to page 578, and 

 tell us what there is in the constitution that should be shorter 

 or simpler. And if you find it all right, just send a boy with 

 a typewritten apology to my house. Marengo, 111. 



Cause and Prevention of Smothering Bees 

 by the Bee-Escape. 



BY Wil. MDTH-RASMUS8EN. 



I have just read Mr. Demaree's article on page 502, about 

 smothering bees by the bee-escape. Having had the same 

 experience a few times, I will give the true cause, as I have 

 found it in my case, and also the prevention of this disaster 

 to the bees left in the super, after the escape had been put on 

 the hive. 



Lack of ventilation is, of course, the cause, but not the 

 first cause. It is the result of the first cause. 



I use wide frames in the super, and a honey-board be- 

 tween super and brood-chamber. When the honey-flow is 

 good, and the sections are left in the super until they are 

 fully finished, the bees will often build burr-combs between 

 the honey-board and the wide frames, filling these burr-combs 

 more or less with honey. When the super is raised, to place 

 the escape-board underneath, these burr-combs are broken. 

 Now, if any of them happen to be directly over the entrance 

 to the bee-escape, or under the exit, the bees cannot go 

 through. If only the exit is stopped by burr-combs, the bees 

 will crowd into the escape from above, jamming each other 



until those already in the trap are smothered to death, when 

 they soon swell and effectually stop all ventilation from below. 

 This, of course, causes the smothering of all the other bees in 

 the super. 



Now for the prevention: When I put on escapes, I always 

 carry with me a box-scraper and a tin pail. After loosening 

 the super from the honey-board, by inserting a strong butcher- 

 knife between them, I raise the right-hand side of the super 

 and peep underneath. If I see any burr-combs likely to in- 

 terfere with the exit of the bees, I take the scraper, and with 

 a few quick strokes remove the burr-combs directly over and 

 under the trap in the escape-board, as it will be when it is in 

 position. My assistant has in the meantime kept the bees 

 back with the smoker. After dropping the scraper into the 

 tin pail, I raise the super with both hands, while he puts the 

 escape-board in place, and I then let the super down. The 

 whole is only a moment's work, and since I have practiced 

 this, I have never lost any bees by smothering in the super. 



Independence, Calif. 



Migratory Bee-Keeping in Michigan. 



BY J. A. PEARCE. 



On page 461, it says a migratory bee-keeper from Kala- 

 mazoo had gone to Frankfort, Mich. Now, I wish to make a 

 little correction. I am not from Kalamazoo, but from Grand 

 Rapids, and I am identified with her interests. I do not know 

 why any one should say I was from Kalamazoo, unless he 

 must have thought I had escaped from our splendid asylum 

 located there, as you naturally suppose that any one who 

 would move right off into the wilderness of the north, with a 

 carload of bees, without saying anything about it, must be a 

 little "rattled." Even the engineer of the switch-engine 

 that placed my car to be unloaded, thought I was a little 

 " off," I guess, for he asked me if I was going to let those bees 

 loose in the woods; and if I thought I would ever find them 

 again ! I told him I thought I would have no difficulty, as I 

 had a little horn that I could blow, and as soon as the bees 

 heard it they would all come flying to me I "Well," he re- 

 plied, " that is a wonder !" 



Now the facts about this business are about like this : 

 The conditions we have had at my home have well-nigh para- 

 lyzed the honey-business there. Last year I had SO good col- 

 onies in the spring, and in the fall I had 80, and about 300 

 pounds of honey. And last spring in looking over the field, I 

 could not see anything encouraging, and already a drouth had 

 set in that bid fair to be what it has been — the worst that the 

 south half of the State ever saw. So I came in and told my 

 wife that, although I was of a hopeful turn of mind, I could 

 see nothing that the bees could get to live upon, and we should 

 have to go to a good deal of expense to barely hold them where 

 they were, if they then did not "go up," and next year must 

 be even worse than this ; and if she thought she could care 

 for the chickens, and the man for the raspberries, if there were 

 any, I would pack my bees and start for Benzie county with 

 them. She did not quite favor the proposition, but owing to 

 the condition of things she yielded. 



So one morning I commenced to put the screens on the 

 hives, and before the next morning I was well on my way 

 towards Prankfort-on-the-Lake. There were two large loads 

 of fixtures, and two loads of bees — 76 colonies. We hauled 

 them 5 miles, took the fixtures in the afternoon, and as soon 

 as the bees would go in (and that was not very early) we shut 

 them in and started. It was nearly midnight when I kissed 

 my loving wife, caught up my grip that she had carefully 

 packed, and took my departure from our lovely home in the 

 hills, surrounded with its 40 acres of nearly all kinds of fruit. 

 It was with some misgivings that I went, myself. It was no 

 Sunday-school picnic, and if any one should attempt to follow 



