576 



GJ.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Kov. 



taken in bee-keeping. But the time has come, T 

 think, when the people will wake up to their better 

 interests. 



When I commenced hive-making and transferring 

 my bees three years ago, some said it would never 

 pay; others said I was crazy; but what a change my 

 crop of honey wrought ! Some can hardly believe 

 the truth in the case; others would not, if they had 

 not seen it with their own eyes. 



TOBACCO. 



Before I close I must tell you that I have quit the 

 use of tobacco, after being a slave to it for -tO years; 

 have not used any for seven months; am free from 

 it: have no taste for the weed. The result i.s, T have 

 gained 30 lbs. in flesh, and have my health better 

 than in the past. I do not send you this for a smo- 

 ker. Imt I feel rather indebted to you. By reading 

 the Tobacco Column I found that others had thrown 

 off the yoke, and tha^. encouraged me to try: and by 

 the hplpof God T am free. W. D. Tharp. 



Eagle Mills, Tredell Co., N. C. Sept. 24, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend ¥., for vour verv 

 kind words, and also for vonr rousine report 

 from North Carolina. We have had so few 

 larjfe reports from the northern part of the 

 Southern States that T have sometimes felt a 

 little sad abont it. But here vou come, de- 

 monstrating that North Carolina — at least 

 some portions of it— is all right; or at all 

 events so far as her honey resources are con- 

 cerned. 



HOW I DIDN'T DO IT. 



CONTROLLING SWARMING, AND GETTING SURPLUS 

 HONEY. 



iTH the editor's permission, I will tell the A 

 B C class (of which I am a number) how my 

 plans for getting a big crop of honey this 

 year miscarried. 



Last fall 1 had 23 swarms, all of which wintered 

 fair. In the spring I concluded to work them all 

 for surplus honey, and have as little Increase as 

 possible. They were in Root's chaff hives (non- 

 swarming hives, you know). Two of my strongest 

 colonies, I prepared to extract from. The spring 

 was very late, but the bees built up fast; and about 

 the 15th of May I began to see a small cloud ahead, 

 about the size of a swarm of bees. May 20 they 

 commenced to swarm, and they kept at it pretty 

 steadily until the middle of July, when the honey 

 ceased very suddenly. Among the first to swarm 

 were the ones I had prepared for extracting, by giv- 

 ing plenty of empty combs, one of them swarming 

 without going into the upper story at all. 



As my first lot of queen-cells did not hatch well (I 

 think I injured them by shaking the bees off the 

 comb when I went to cut them out), T laid a part of 

 my trouble with after-swarming to not having lay- 

 ing queens to give the old swarms; and when I got 

 some queens to laying, I thought my trouble was 

 mostly over; but when a swarm issued, and I gave 

 the old hive a laying queen, about half of them 

 would keep her a prisoner until she consented to 

 lead out a swarm, and cutting out the queen-cells 

 made no difference. While T think of it, I will say 

 that, when you cut out queen-cells, unless 5'ou know 

 just when they are likely to hatch, cage them. 

 When I was very short of queens I cut out three 

 and laid theni on my box; and before I could shut 



up the hive, two of them hatched out and flew away; 

 and although I waited for them a long time, I never 

 saw them again. 



CUTTING OUT QUEEN-CELLS. 



As a sample of the way they swarmed, one colony 

 of hybrids sent out three swarms; and when the 

 fourth came out I thought I would try to stop iheir 

 antics. I went to the hive and destroyed 13 queen- 

 cells; and as I could find no queens I thought I 

 had the best of them. I then went to the swarm 

 that was out, and killed two queens, and they went 

 back to the old hive. Just at night I went to see if 

 they were quiet, and found 4 queens on top of the en- 

 amel cloth, sounding their war-bugles, and no other 

 bees with them. I caught them, and next morning 

 I found two in the same place. After that they 

 came out three times more, and I killed five more 

 queens, and that left the hive queenk8.s. My two 

 best Italian queens led out swarms, although I had 

 robbed them of brood until they had but two frames 

 of brood each, and not many bees. Thus, you see, 

 when the bees get to swarming, the rules of all the 

 bee-masters fail. Now, I find, after putting back 

 swarms and putting two together as long as 1 could 

 make them stay, I have 50 colonies and 900 lbs. of 

 honey in sections. There are a few lessons I have 

 learned this summer, one of which is, to use no 

 more drone comb In sections. I had drones raised 

 in about 100 sections this summer. I use no sep- 

 arators, and hid but 9 sections out of 1100 that 

 would not pack in a case. Now, if any of the old 

 hands can tell me how I should have managed under 

 the circumstances, I should feel thankful. 



THE BREAD-PAN FEEDER. 



Friend Root, I see you rather condemn the bread- 

 pan feeder which you used to recommend so highly 

 Now, 1 think it is the best, handiest, and cleanest 

 feeder in use, and no bees get drowned in mine. I 

 make a rack of narrow strips that will fit loosely In 

 the upper story of a hive, and nail blocks under the 

 corners, just long enough to raise it above the pan; 

 fill the pan; turn back one end of the enamel cloth; 

 put in the rack; put the chaff cushion on top of that, 

 and tuck it down snug, and it will take a cold night 

 to drive the bees down out of it. John Woolsey. 



Bedford, N. Y.. Oct. 22, 1883. 



So, friend W., after you had killed all the 

 queens, and destroyed all the cells, five more 

 queens hatched out. I guess you did not 

 have on your spectacles then, did you V We 

 never have the swarming mania in our lo- 

 cality, such as you describe, and therefore I 

 could hardly suggest a remedy. When bees 

 swarm with us, they almost always get hon- 

 ey as well ; and so we have learned to con- 

 sider swarming as a good omen. — I am glad 

 to know you like the bread-pan feeder. It 

 certainly is simple and cheap, and your im- 

 provement would be a fine thing, doubtless, 

 in cold weather. 



HOir TO SELiIi HONEY. 



SOME EXTREMELY SENSIBLE IDEAS. 



M FTBR reading a good deal about the great hon- 

 J^^ ey crop, I fear that some are afraid they will 



' not get rid of their honey. Now I will tell 



you how I am selling my crop as fast as I take it 

 from the hives, and could sell it faster if I had it. 



For a sample, I take a quart jar. I put in three 

 nice pieces of conab honey; then fill in with ejftraot- 



