698 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 31, 



thought I was going to get some honey, and looked no more 

 until July 2-1, when, on examination, I found six frames well 

 filled with brood. I did not need to be surprised, as there was 

 no queen-excluder below them, and I just lifted out the 6 

 frames full of brood and bees, and the two adjoining frames 

 pretty well drawn out, and some honey, and set them in an 8- 

 frame hive. The queen was on one of the frames, and was 

 taken to the new hive. Then, of course, I filled up the space 

 in the upper story of the old colony with 8 frames with full 

 sheets of wired foundation. Following that, I took 5 frames 

 of brood and bees from a strong colony, placed them in an 8- 

 frame dovetailed hive, and 3 frames of foundation to till up ; 

 I also put in 5 frames of wired foundation in the old hive 

 after adjusting the frames with bees and brood near the cen- 

 tral part of the hive, and put the new frames on the outer 

 part of these. Did I do right in this ? 



Then I took 3 frames of brood and bees from No. 9, and 

 the same from No. 10 (each 10-frarae hives), sprinkled them 

 with flavored water, and put them in an 8-frame hive, filling 

 up with 2 frames of foundation as before, and filling up the 

 old colonies with 3 frames each of wired foundation. (I think 

 full sheets are much better than starters, even large ones, as 

 the bees are so likely to build drone-comb, and it takes them 

 so much longer.) 



On June 5, my wife, daughter and I went to a social party 

 two miles north, and after spending the day very pleasantly, 

 until about 5:30 p.m., we started home, and found a small 

 swarm of bees on a bush on the roadside. I got out and went 

 back a short distance to a neighbor's house and obtained a 

 suitable box ; cut off the bushes the bees were ou, with my 

 pocket-knife, laid them down on the ground, and set the box, 

 mouth down, over them, and as soon as I heard the hum of 

 the bees starting up into the box, we drove home (% mile), 

 then prepared a hive, drove back, and soon hived them. I 

 fastened them up and drove home. They have done nicely, 

 and are a fair colony now. But a swarm left us that day — 

 absence, you see. 



On June 12 a good, strong swarm came to us and settled 

 on an apple tree, about two rods north of the apiary, and in- 

 stead of cutting the large branch with a good many fine wine- 

 saps on it, I took a short step-ladder, nailed four laths on the 

 top step, spread a sheet on it, set it under the bees, then put 

 the hive on the sheet, so that 1 could just draw the branch 

 down a little and jar the bees off onto the sheet at the en- 

 trance of the hive, but careful to shake or brush off all the 

 bees. 



I had two swarms to leave me this summer just in the act 

 of trying to hive them, and in both cases the bees started 

 rapidly into the hive, but not fiudiug the queen, I think, they 

 came out again and clustered around the queen, and while I 

 was busy here and there they were gone. I believe that is 

 largely the trouble with bees leaving the hive — after once 

 going into any fairly clean hive — that the queen has not been 

 shaken off with them, or they were queenless ; but I never at- 

 tempt to hive a swarm, of late, except on full sheets of foun- 

 dation, or some empty comb — it certainly pays well, as you 

 get so mitch nicer combs, and in much less time, and in that 

 way very little drone-comb. 



On June 24, while the swarm did not come to me, it came 

 to a near neighbor (O. D. Fletcher), who told me he could not 

 handle bees, but kindly sent me word to come and get them if 

 I wished. I gladly accepted the offer, and got a very nice, 

 large colony of bright Italians, and they are "rustlers ;" have 

 filled their brood-chamber, and about a half dozen shallow 

 frames in the surplus department, with nice honey. 



On June 2() another good swarm came to us, and is doing 

 finely — has stored some surplus. 



On Aug. 6 a very fair swarm came and settled on the 

 apple-tree before referred to, was hived on full sheets of foun- 

 dation, and is doing nicely. 



We have not had a great honey season. The basswood 

 flow was hindered very much by two cold days and some rainy 

 weather the latter part of June. Our honey-locust flow in 

 May was about the longest and best here this year. I am 

 situated with some timber west, 40 acres on the north, and 

 some on the east, with quite a sprinkling of honey-locust, and 

 it is a fine producer of nectar — perhaps not the finest honey, 

 but in good time and good quantity for brood-rearing. 



The editor may think I am rather long-winded this time, 

 for one that has not written often, but I have noticed recently 

 that he desires us, who have kept rather quiet, to give some 

 of our experience, etc., and I take it that we are in a kind of 

 " experience meeting." I have now 21 colonies in fair condi- 



tion, but have not taken more than 10 pounds of honey yet, 

 and do not expect to take more than 150 pounds of honey, all 

 told — I will not take any from the brood-chambers. 



The American Bee Journal has been a great help to me, 

 and I think it still improves. 



Braddyville, Iowa, Sept. 18. 



CONDBCTED BY 



DR. C. C MU^LER, MARENGO, ILL, 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



Cleaning' Up Extracting-Combs. 



I have perhaps 100 empty extracting-combs that the 

 honey has just been thrown out of. I wish 1o have them 

 cleaned up by the bees. I would know what to do if the 

 weather was warm, but now it is cold, and "quiet robbing" 

 will not work. Can I place them on the top, or over a colony 

 of bees, and have them clean them up without endangering 

 the life of the colony ? J. P. H. 



Wyanet, 111., Oct. 14. 



Answer. — I don't think you'll endanger the life of the 

 colony, but you may endanger the chances of getting the 

 combs as nicely cleaned out as you would like. And I think it 

 quite important that extracting-combs and unfinished sections 

 that are extracted should be thoroughly cleaned out this fall 

 if they are to be used again next year. I don't know of any 

 way they can be thoroughly cleaned except by the bees. When 

 they are put ou the hives to be cleaned, the bees don't always 

 take it into their heads to clean them out, especially if the 

 brood-chamber is as well supplied as it should be with stores. 

 Sometimes they clean up the daubiness and store the honey in 

 part of the cells of the same combs. Then what's left candies, 

 and when fresh honey is stored on it in the following season, 

 the fresh honey candies very soon. Of course, if you don't 

 care to have the honey remain liquid, you needn't take pains 

 to avoid the candying. 



I'll tell you what I did with a lot of combs this fall : They 

 had a little fall honey stored in them, but not enough to make 

 me care to keep them over, so I wanted the bees to clean them 

 out. I put them in hives, left the hives uncovered at a dis- 

 tance of four rods or so from the apiary, and gave the bees a 

 full chance at them, and they soon left nothing but dry combs 

 with no bad results. But now mind you, I want to warn you 

 about one thing. Don't let the bees get fully to work on the 

 combs and then take them away. If you do, you may have a 

 picnic with robbing at the hives. Leave the combs undis- 

 turbed for a few days after they are all cleaned out, and then 

 the bees will keep trying to find some more honey in them 

 rather than to try to force an entrance into some of the hives 

 of weak colonies. There will still be fine days occasionally 

 when bees will work lively on any combs that are exposed. 



Cement Bottom for Bee-Cellar — Wintering'. 



1. I am building an under-ground cellar for my bees. I 

 intend to have a cement bottom. Have you any objections to 

 cement floors for bee-cellars ? 



2. Would it do to put the bees in before the cement was 

 perfectly dry ? 



3. Would you take off the bottom-boards, or not ? 



4. I gave frames of honey to some of my light colonies 

 to-day, and found that some of my late queens were laying 

 considerable yet. Had I better wait for this brood to hatch 

 out, and have a good flight before I put them in the cellar ? 



Baraboo, Wis., Oct. 12. H. H. P. 



Answers. — 1. On one of my visits to Adam Grimm, he 

 showed me a cellar purposely built to winter bees. It had a 

 cement bottom, and seemed perfectly adapted to its design. 

 Next time I saw him he told me it was a failure. He thought 

 the cement bottom was to blame. Under my house is a cellar 

 31x33 feet. It was divided in two parts, and one room in- 

 tended for the bees had a cement floor. Trial showed that 

 bees wintered better in the other part, and for years I have 

 put no bees in the room with cement bottom. So, although 

 it's one of the things that it's hard to be entirely certain about, 

 I think I'd rather not have a cement bottom in a bee-cellar. 



2. That depends somewhat on the temperature. If warm 



