346 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Pacific Rural Press. 



Hints to Bepners— Sprini fort 



WM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



If you are a be^tinuer in bee-culture 

 you should, durins the winter, have 

 read up on the subject, and made up 

 your mind what hive you want to 

 adopt, and where "you are going to 

 place your uew hives, when you get 

 bees in them ; for now is the time to 

 get the hives ready, whether you in- 

 tend them for transferred colonies or 

 for swarms. 



Make or send for everything you 

 ■will need during the season. When 

 swarming time comes, it is too late to 

 commence making hives. The swarm 

 may leave, before you get a hive ready 

 for it. Fill the brood-frames with 

 comb foundation. This will secure 

 beautiful, straight worker-combs, and 

 prevent the bees from rearing and 

 feeding a horde of drones. 



If you intend to produce comb 

 honey, put your sections together, fill 

 them with thin foundation, and store 

 them away in the packing-boxes, that 

 they may keep clean, and that you 

 may have them ready when needed. 

 Overhaul wide frames or section- 

 cases, scrape o£E all propolis or bits of 

 wax, if you did not do it when you 

 took them oH last fall. See that your 

 honey- tank is clean and does not leak; 

 that your extractor and smoker are in 

 working order ; that your honey- 

 knives are sharp. Make queen-cages 

 of wire-cloth. Look after swarming- 

 implements. Make or procure cans 

 in time. If you wait until the last 

 moment, you may find that supply 

 dealers are so crowded with orders 

 that you cannot get what you want 

 until it is too late, and you may lose 

 your crop. You will then only have 

 yourself to blame. 



Clean up in the apiary. Remove 

 all weeds and burn them up. Trim 

 the trees, if they need it. Plant shade- 

 trees, if they are not already there, 

 gather together all loose boards and 

 sticks that may be scattered around. 



Mark the exact place for new stands, 

 as you would lay out the ground for a 

 vineyard or orchard. Level off the 

 ground, where each new hive is going 

 to stand. Clean up all empty hives or 

 such in which the bees have died, and 

 close the entrance to prevent spiders, 

 moths and ants from getting in. 

 When you put the swarms into these 

 hives, do not forget to open the en- 

 trance again. Give all the old hives 

 a coat of paint it they need it. Num- 

 ber the hives, if they are not already 

 numbered. Procure an " apiary reg- 

 ister," or, if you have one, look it over 

 and make yourself familiar with the 

 condition of each colony, when you 

 last examined them. Make a note of 

 those colonies which have old queens, 

 that will need replacing. 



As soon as the weather is warm 

 enough, examine each hive. See that 

 it has a queen, and that it has honey 

 enough. Clean out the trash that has 

 accumulated on the bottom-board 

 during the winter. If left, it will 

 make a nest and hiding-place for 



moth worms. If the cloth over the 

 frames is worn out, replace it with a 

 new one. If the bees are weak in | 

 numbers or queenless, give them 

 sealed brood from the other hives, 

 till you can give them a a new, young 

 queen. If they are short of honey, 

 give them full combs, which you 

 should have kept over for that pur- 

 pose, or give them combs of honey 

 from the colonies that can spare it, 

 replacing them with frames of foun- 

 dation, or better, with empty worker- 

 combs. If they have too much honey, 

 which crowds the queen for breeding- 

 room, take it away from them and 

 extract it, or store it in the house, or 

 give it to colonies that need it. 



Lay your plans now Jor the whole 

 season. Have a place for everything, 

 and keep everything in its place. 

 Order takes time, but also saves time, 

 when time is precious. Even if you 

 do what you can now, you will have 

 your hands full when the swarming 

 and honey season comes. If you de- 

 lay ,the day will never be long enough. 



Independence,©* Calif. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Extracting Honey— Senses of Bees, 



AARON BENEDICT. 



As the season for surplus honey is 

 at hand, I would say to beginners, go 

 slow with the extractor. Too many 

 extract as fast as the bees gather the 

 honey ; after awhile the honey-flow 

 ceases all at once, leaving the bees 

 without honey enough to winter on. 

 The next spring the inexperienced 

 bee-keeper says that bee-culture is a 

 failure, and quits the business. I 

 will now state how to manage and be 

 safe: 



Put on sections for comb honey (the 

 most of the comb honey will be stored 

 before the bees swarm); when they 

 swarm hive them in a new hive with 

 foundation. Place them on the old 

 stand, and put the old hive on top of 

 the new colony, with a division-board 

 between the bees. A frame nearly 

 the size of the hive with wire-screens 

 tacked on it, is what is wanted when 

 the bees get fairly to work in the 

 lower hive. In 3 or 4 days remove 

 the division-board, and let the bees 

 go together again. The queen will, 

 as a rule, remain in the under hive, 

 and the bees will store the honey in 

 the upper hive. Let them remain 

 until the honey season is over, and 

 then examine the bees ; if there is not 

 enough honey in the lower hive for 

 winter, take sealed honey from the 

 upper one aud give to them ; the bal- 

 ance extract. This will be good, ripe 

 honey, and if candied, it will remain 

 so. 



HEARING, SEEING AND SMELLING. 



The sense of hearing in the honey- 

 bee is very acute, as well as seeing 

 and smelling. I have frequently 

 heard young queens answer to the 

 piping of a hatched queen before they 

 come out of the cell. Of course they 

 can hear. 



BEES DO NOT FREEZE. 



Bees do not freeze and thaw out 

 like snakes and woodchucks. Snakes 

 will freeze and thaw and live; but a 

 frozen bee never lives again. They 

 are like the raccoon— they go into 

 winter quarters, live on their fat ; the 

 bees live on their honey. 



HONEY PRODUCTION. 



By request I prepared the follow- 

 ing to be read at the Morrow County, 

 Ohio, Farmers' Institute, and now 

 send it for publication in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, for the informa- 

 tion of beginners : 



How to produce the most comb 

 honey per colony is done by using 

 sections filled or partly filled with 

 comb foundation. To get the bees to 

 work readily in these sections the 

 bees are pressed up in the sections by 

 means of a division-board ; as soon as 

 the bees get fairly to work in the sec- 

 tions the board is removed and the 

 bees given the range of the hive be- 

 low. As fast as these sections are 

 filled they are removed and empty 

 ones put in their places. This process 

 is followed throughout the honey- 

 gathering season. 



How to produce the most extracted 

 honey is done by using two hives, one 

 upon the other; the extra hive should 

 be filled with combs or comb founda- 

 tion ; the bees will store the honey in 

 the upper hive ; the extracting is all 

 done from this hive ; some extract as 

 fast of the bees gather the honey, 

 others not until the honey season is 

 over, adding a third hive if necessary. 

 After the honey season is over, the 

 bees are all placed in one hive again 

 and sufficient solid honey given them 

 to winter; the balance is extracted; 

 the empty combs are carefully pre- 

 served in a cool, airy place for the 

 next season's use ; this latter method 

 I prefer to the former. 



dividing for increase. 



Multiplication of colonies by divi- 

 sion is done by first blowing a little 

 smoke in at the entrance of the hive 

 to quiet the bees. The cover or cap 

 is removed, the honey-board and sur- 

 plus arrangements are taken o£E ; the 

 cover placed back, a little more smoke 

 is added if required, and the bees 

 soon fill themselves with honey. Now 

 by gently rapping or jarring the hive 

 the bees will go up into the cover ; 

 they are then shaken out on a cloth 

 to find the queen ; as soon as she is 

 found, the bees and queen are put in 

 a new hive and placed on the stand 

 where the old one stood ; the old hive 

 is placed on a new stand; a young 

 fertile queen is now given to the old 

 colony, and the work is done. 



To illustrate : If this old colony 

 had swarmed on the day they were 

 divided (naturally), it would have 

 been 18 to 20 days before an egg would 

 be laid by the young queen in the old 

 hive ; by giving the old colony a fer- 

 tile queen, there would be no creation 

 of eggs ; at the end of 18 or 20 days 

 there would be just as many eggs and 

 brood as there was when divided; 

 dividing in this respect is ahead of 

 natural swarming. 



