410 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



addition of perhaps two or three 

 empty combs. This little colony will 

 build combs and increase in numbers, 

 and, by fall, will be a first-class 

 colony, while the united colonies will 

 be first-class for storing comb honey. 

 In uniting the colonies, the combs 

 should be placed alternately, i. e.. one 

 from one colony, then one from 

 another and so on, as this so mixes up 

 the bees that but little quarreling re- 

 sults. If honey is coming in there 

 will be but little trouble on this score. 

 It is when no honey is coming in that 

 bees give trouble when uniting. 



It may be asked why not unite the 

 weak colonies when working for ex- 

 tracted honey ? Such colonies, if 

 furnished with combs, seem to do 

 just about as well, according to their 

 numbers, when run for extracted as 

 do strong colonies, but for working in 

 sections weak colonies are of little 

 value. 



Rogersville, (f Mich. 



Read at the B. I. Convention. 



Bees and llie Production of Honey. 



W. O. SWEET. 



A colony of bees in complete work- 

 ing order consists of 15,000 to 40,000 

 bees. In all this multitude of indus- 

 trious insects there is but one queen 

 or mother-bee, which is the only per- 

 fectly developed female in the colony, 

 and the thousands of workers are im- 

 perfectly developed females or heater 

 bees. With February the queen-bee 

 commences to lay a few eggs near the 

 centre of the cluster of bees, first 

 laying within a small circle in one 

 comb, soon extending to two or three 

 combs, and in 21 days from the laying 

 of the egg the young worker-bee 

 appears. 



In March the circle of brood in- 

 creases quite fast, and by April the 

 maple and elm begin to bloom, then 

 comes the first flow of honey. Within 

 and without the hive the merry hum 

 of the bee is heard, while load after 

 load of the delicious nectar comes 

 pouring in from the first flowers of 

 spring. As the queen still enlarges 

 the cluster of eggs extending from 

 comb to comb, she comes to one that 

 has much larger cells which we call 

 drone comb, and is for the purpose of 

 rearing several hundred drones or 

 male bees. These neither work nor 

 sting, but being possessed of a capa- 

 cious stomach, are much disposed to 

 eat and grow fat on honey, but their 

 life is short, seldom over four months. 

 The worker-bee lives but three or 

 four months during the time of 

 flowers, while those reared late in the 

 season live until spring, but none ex- 

 cept the queen live to be a year old. 

 The queen lives to be 4 or 5 years old, 

 so we might compare the life of the 

 bee like that of a populous city. 

 • 



"Though like leaves on trees the race of bees is 



found. 

 Now green in youth, now witheringon the ground, 

 Another race the spring or fall supplies ; 

 They drop successive and successive rise." 



During the month of May, the sea- 

 son of fruit-bloom, the queen is the 

 most active worker in the hive ; hun- 



dreds and thousands of bees are 

 hatching every day, while she is con- 

 stantly traversing the combs and de- 

 positing an egg wherever a bee has 

 hatched and left its cell. 



This is the time for the beekeepers 

 to be busy also, for the wealth of the 

 community begins to unsettle the 

 kingdom, new hives must be ready 

 for the swarms that are likely to 

 issue, and more room given to the 

 colony by placing on the boxes for 

 surplus honey. By the month of 

 June the colony is running to its ut- 

 most capacity, and if given plenty of 

 room to store the honey, and a good 

 field where white clover is plenty 

 within two or three miles, they will 

 often show wonderful results. Nat- 

 ural swarming takes place this month, 

 wherebv the instinct of the bees leads 

 them to" divide off and form a new 

 colony. By conforming to the habits 

 of the bees, this can be accomplished 

 by dividing, which, if properly done, 

 will be as successful as the natural 

 process without waiting for that to 

 begin, for where many colonies are 

 located in one apiary, the intelligent 

 bee-keeper can provide a large num- 

 ber in one day, thus saving much 

 time and perhaps loss. 



The month of July finds the hive 

 teeming with bees, and almost filled 

 to overflowing, while the queen is 

 still laying eggs vigorously, for the 

 mortality is great in the height of the 

 season, and they literally work them- 

 selves to death. The young bee, on 

 emerging from its cell, is rather a 

 weakly thing, but it turns its time to 

 good account, helping to feed the still 

 younger bees in the larval state. 

 After becoming a week or more old it 

 takes the position of comb-building. 

 It attends to this kind of work until 

 old enough to fly, which is in about 

 four weeks. When six to seven weeks 

 old it becomes a honey-gatherer for 

 the rest of its life. 



During August the condition of the 

 colony remains about the same, and 

 Septe"mber finds it active as ever, but 

 the queen is now gradually diminish- 

 ing the number of eggs, and with the 

 bloom of goldenrod and wild asters, 

 the honey season is about over. At- 

 mospheric conditions have much 

 effect on the honey harvest through- 

 out the season ; for instance, wheir 

 the wind is east, little or no honey is 

 secreted in the flowers, while if the 

 wind is in the south, with moist air, 

 the flowers are again yielding honey. 

 When we have occasional thunder 

 showers then is the greatest secretion 

 of honey. As the honey harvest from 

 any particular bloom is always of 

 short duration, the intelligent bee- 

 keeper will study to make the most of 

 it, so by using the honey extracted at 

 these times, with plenty of empty 

 combs on hand to fill, so as to save the 

 bees time in building it, a large 

 quantity of liquid honey is often ob- 

 tained. 



Comb foundation is now used by all 

 progressive bee-keepers, for like the 

 honey extracted, it enables the bees 

 to gain time in the'storing of honey. 

 It is claimed that a new colony of bees 

 supplied with foundation when placed 

 in a new hive at times of swarming. 



will gain as much in two days as they 

 would iu eight days without it. 



Many suppose that honey-comb is 

 being manufactured entirely and filled 

 and tinished by the hand of man. The 

 most scientific experts in bee-culture 

 agree in saying that it is not and 

 cannot be done. 



In October and November the col- 

 ony prepares for its long winter rest. 

 The queen stops laying eggs, and the 

 bees do little else but fly out on warm 

 days for exercise. The first product 

 of the bees of importance is honey ; 

 the next is wax. This solid, fat-like 

 substance is secreted by the bees in 

 little wax-pockets beneath the wings 

 on the under side of the body of the 

 bee. It is always asubject of admira- 

 tion, so fragile and yet so strong. 

 There are four of these wax-pockets 

 on each side of the bee, and the first 

 we can see of the wax it is in the 

 form of little tumbler-shaped scales, 

 white and very thin. A swarm of 

 bees has to consume about 20 pounds 

 of honey to produce one pound of 

 wax, and soon after hiving, a large 

 part of the swarm hang in festoons 

 and clusters several hours, waiting 

 for the wax to form. When fully 

 formed these wax scales are trans- 

 ferred to the mouth of the bee where, 

 by the use of its jaws, it is moulded 

 into that beautiful structure, the 

 honey-comb, so wonderfully delicate 

 that it is only about 1,000th of an inch 

 in thickness, and so formed to com- 

 bine the greatest strength with the 

 least expense of material and room. 



West Mansfield, o^ Mass. 



For tne American Bee JoomaL 



Bee-Keeping in Sontliern Indiana. 



J. n. LOUDEN. 



Unless there is some change in the 

 weather soon, in this pari of the 

 country, the question that will trouble 

 the bee-keeper this fall will not be 

 how to dispose of his honey, but how 

 to winter bees without honey ! 



The bees, so far, have gathered 

 scarcely enough to keep them. The 

 weather has been very unfavorable. 

 During fruit-bloom it was cold and 

 wet ; then we had a spell of warm 

 weather, and a little honey was gath- 

 ered from the locust. White clover 

 commenced blooming the last week 

 of May, and the ground now, in 

 places, is white with it, but we are 

 getting no honey. After the clover 

 cammenced blooming, we had heavy 

 rains every day or night, up to June 

 8th or 9th, then it cleared off cold, 

 and an east wind has been blowing 

 ever since. The prospect is not very 

 encouraging. 



I have as many colonies as I want, 

 and in the spring I purchased a copy 

 of Simmins' book on preventing 

 swarms. I have been following his 

 instructions with fine results so far. 

 The system works admirably while 

 no honey is coming in. If "we are 

 fortunate enough to have a flow of 

 honey, I will report on " Simmins' 

 Non-Swarming System."' The bass- 

 wood will bloom in about ten days, 



