246 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



May 



tiful basswood flow. May God's blessing 

 continue to be with you and your bees, and 

 those you employ. I feel especially like add- 

 ing emphasis to this latter matter. When 

 blessings like these are showered down upon 

 us, let us accept them and use them as a 

 means of doing good, and helping those by 

 us who need help ; and in no way in the 

 world can you help so effectively as to give 

 employment to those who need it. Your -50 

 pages were none too long, my friend; and 

 indeed we should be glad of 50 more, could 

 you combine so much valuable instruction 

 as you have in this article. We hope you 

 will " come again " soon. 



HOW HE DID IT. 



MR. HOUSE TELLS FBIEND DICKERSON HOW HE GOT 

 3000 LBS. OF HOKEY FROM 14 COLONIES, ETC. 



MR. ROOT:— I have just read in April Glean- 

 ings the article on page IGti, and am glad to 



' hear you have employed one who is able to 



answer the many questions coming from all quar- 

 ters. You will confer a great favor if you will get 

 Mr. House to answer one or a dozen questions for 

 me, as the case may be. The question is. How did 

 Mr. House manage his bees to get 3000 lbs. of honey 

 from 13 or 14 swarms, and more than one new swarm 

 from each of the old? Did he tier up for surplus? 

 If so, how high? Did he use fdn. for surplus? If so, 

 were they full sheets or starters? In other words, 

 please give his management, and make it so plain 

 that a 14-year-old boy may understand him. I am 46 

 years old, but a mere boy so far as a knowledge of 

 apiculture is concerned. If you can not fix it ready 

 for your May issue, please write direct to me on re- 

 ceipt of this; for if tiering up is the order of the 

 day, I want to change my hives, as they are but VA 

 story high. AVillet Dickerson. 



Ladoga, Ind., April 11, 1S83. 



MR. HOUSE'S REPLY. 



Now really, Mr. Dickerson, you are trying to get 

 from mo something that may be hard to tell; for 

 since the world began it has been easier by far to 

 tell or to boast of what has been done than to tell 

 just how 'twas done; while to tell how the same 

 thing may be repeated would be harder still. But 

 Mr. Root told us the other day in our noon service 

 that we were expected to do nothing more than the 

 best we could, so I venture. 



Two years ago at Saugatuck, Mich., I lost about 50 

 swarms, having but four weak stocks in the spring. 

 During the season these increased to 14 swarms; 

 and besides furnishing enough honey for a year's 

 supply in a large family there was thirty dollars' 

 worth of comb honej^ sold. But much help was de. 

 rived by the use of old combs. These 14 swarms all 

 lived through the winter of 1881-'82; but two of them 

 were very weak, as per page 166, April Gleanings. 

 These two weak colonies were set to queen-rearing 

 for my own use; and in raising queens I have always 

 paid much more attention to the honey-record and 

 non-swarming propensities of the progenitors than 

 to their record of purity, though I had a few very 

 fine pure queens. For the 12 strong swarms I began 

 early, and followed a system something like that 

 which friend Doolittle described a few years ago — 

 keeping the bees confined by a division-board to just 

 such space as they would fiUi and added more room 

 by placing empty combs in center of bfood-nest. 



As my queens came on I made enough nuclei to 

 keep them, so as never to be in want of a queen when 

 one was needed. My method of controlling swarms 

 was a rather picked-up affair. The first and only 

 object was to keep every honey-swarm just as strong 

 as possible; hence I got them to working in surplus 

 just as early as there was any chance; and when it 

 seemed as though they could not contain themselves 

 longer without ssvarming, a frame of brood was ex- 

 changed for empty comb or fdn., these frames of 

 brood being placed in a weaker honey-swarm, if 

 there was anj' such place; if not, they were put in 

 some of the nuclei. I did not try so hard as I some- 

 times have, to prevent natural swarming; but rath- 

 er than risk any slacking of their efforts on comb 

 honey let them swarm, and here was a point T quite 

 delighted in: it was to have a new swarm that came 

 out in the forenoon be faithfully at work in upper 

 story in the afternoon. The method was to let them 

 have, not only the satisfaction of issuing as a new 

 swarm, but of going into a new hive and occupying 

 a new site. But remember this: that all but two or 

 three of the frames of brood went from the old hive 

 into the new one with them; generally leaving about 

 two of the finest frames of hatching brood on the 

 old stand for a nucleus, taking all the bees I could 

 from old stock for the new. The result was, they 

 not only had the fun of swarming, but they were 

 such a hig swarm they had to go into surplus. I be- 

 lieve that most of these swarms sent out another 

 swarm in course of the season; but all were treated 

 alike, and the increase was made entirely by the 

 gradual growth of the nuclei; and when there was 

 any surplus to be had, there wan not a swarm, except 

 among the nuclei, that had any excuse for not put- 

 ting it up in good shape. 



Now as to surplus: I did not use two tiers of sec- 

 tions, as is now becoming so common, but I used a 

 case more like the one pictured on p. 30 of Mr. Root's 

 price list. I don't know why I might not have used 

 the usual method of two tiers with as much success, 

 but I never have, and perhaps never shall. Neither 

 did I, in any single instance, " tier up." The fact is, 

 I did not see the time when it seemed as though 

 I could, with profit. As fast as any thing was 

 ready to come off I put it up in crates ready for 

 home market or shipping. But let me say, that I 

 think if I had been badly crowded I might have tier- 

 ed up with profit. 



STARTING BEES IN SECTIONS. 



Perhaps I did have one point on starters. I took 

 whole sheets of fdn. and tacked them between two 

 thin strips as long as top-bar of frames; and dur- 

 ing a free flow of honey would open my nuclei and 

 drop from one to three of them into their hives, and 

 as I kept every nucleus as strong in proportion as the 

 honey-swarms, they could and did work on these 

 sheets of fdn. most delightfully; and one of the 

 greatest pleasures I had was to go through the apia- 

 ry in the morning, and take out these sheets 

 that were then beautiful white combs, clean and 

 new, and drop other sheets of fdn. in their places. 

 It was really marvelous to see how these little 

 swarms would work out those sheets, and I was as 

 delighted over the idea of having them help me in 

 the way they did, as Robinson Crusoe was over some 

 of his new plans and discoveries. 



I very much prefer tacking the sheets of fdn. be- 

 tween two thin strips just as long as top-bar of 

 frame, in preference to putting them in frames, be- 



