THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



6T7 



Queens cannot be compelled to lay 

 eggs at any time, and especially when 

 out of season. It would be better to 

 supersede the queen or unite with 

 another colony, as advised in reply to 

 Query No. 48-5. It is too late now for 

 feeding to induce brood-rearing.— 

 The Editor. 



(^ovxcspondtnct. 



TUa mark © Indicates that the apiarist Is 

 located near tne center of tde state named ; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; 0» east; 

 •Owest; and this << northeast: "O northwest: 

 o» southeast; and 9 southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tha American Bee JoumoL 



Report for tlie Season of 1881, 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



The first of June found me with 

 only 26 queens in my yard, 1-5 of which 

 were mothers to fair colonies of bees, 

 5 were mothers to rather weak colo- 

 nies, while the remaining 6 had only 

 about bees enough to hold their 

 queens till steady warm weather 

 should come. My bees were wintered 

 as heretofore, about one-half on the 

 summer stands, and the rest in the 

 cellar. Those in the cellar wintered 

 the best, the loss being only one col- 

 ony in fifty, while among those on the 

 summer stands there was a loss of six 

 out of forty. 



As I look back over the past, I can 

 but wonder that the loss was not 

 greater, as these bees were kept con- 

 fined to their hives by steady cold 

 weather from Nov. 10 to April lO, or 

 just five months. Five months of 

 such severe weather as we had last 

 ■winter is very trying to bees on the 

 summer stands, and as the cold held 

 on day after day, and week after 

 week, after others had reported " bees 

 had a flight," I came nearly deciding 

 that I would get out of the cold 

 climate of " old cold Spafford," as our 

 town is called, and seek a more favor- 

 able locality. However, the ties that 

 bind me here are so strong that I pre- 

 sume I shall always stay here, trying, 

 as in the past, to breed up a race of 

 bees hardy enough to stand the cold 

 climate that they must endure. 



After getting the bees out of their 

 winter quarters, the spring proved on 

 the whole very unfavorable, the 

 nights being cold all the while till 

 nearly July. I had intended to keep 

 about 40 colonies with which to com- 

 mence the season of 1887, but owing 

 to my great correspondence and other 

 pressing matters, I found that I was 

 being overworked, so much so that 

 my physician said that I must do less 

 or break down in health ; so I con- 

 cluded to sell my bees down to the 

 number of colonies spoken of at the 

 beginning of this article. 



In selling I sent off my best colo- 

 nies, and in reality I had but one 

 really good colony left with the num- 

 ber kept ; I kept that to rear early 



drones with, as the mother was an 

 excellent queen for drones. When 

 willow and hard maple bloomed, the 

 bees gathered quite freely for brood- 

 rearing, of both honey and pollen, and 

 had it not been for the cold nights, a 

 much larger force of bees might have 

 been secured for the harvest. 



Of the 26 colonies, I set apart 20 for 

 producing honey, hoping to make 

 nuclei for queen-rearing out of the 6 

 weak ones ; but at about this time the 

 demand for queens was so great that 

 I thought 1 should have to use all the 

 colonies I had for queen-rearing, or 

 get " swamped." However, I man- 

 aged by working the bees for all they 

 were worth, to keep the 20 colonies 

 along in fair condition, and yet draw 

 on them every few days for bees and 

 brood to make nuclei. Of course this 

 lessened my prospects for honey to 

 quite a large extent, but I considered 

 it much better than to destroy the 

 whole prospect by breaking them up 

 entirely. 



Owing to the cold nights, and this 

 continual drawing of bees and brood 

 from them, I saw that I could get no 

 large yield of honey if the season 

 proved ever so good, for I had not the 

 brood necessary in the hives at the 

 right time to give me an abundance 

 of bees during the bloom of bass- 

 wood, which is our great honey-pro- 

 ducer. In order to get a good honey- 

 yield, the hive must be full of brood 

 at least 37 days before the honey 

 harvest, and at that time my hives 

 were not half full. Considering this 

 fact, I was greatly surprised that the 

 bees did as well as they did. 



When apple trees blossomed, the 

 weather was unfavorable, so that no 

 surplus was obtained, and had it not 

 been that there was considerable old 

 honey in the hives, I sho.ild have had 

 to feed. White and Alsike clover 

 yielded so as to give the bees a living, 

 and plenty for brood-rearina:. Bass- 

 wood opened on July 5, and bloomed 

 for nearly two weeks, during which 

 time the bees stored honey well, con- 

 sidering the number of field-bees 

 present in the hives. Teasel gave a 

 very little honey, after basswood, 

 which was quite a help by way of get- 

 ting many nearly-filled sections sealed 

 over. 



A good acreage of buckwheat had 

 been sown for this locality, and I had 

 strong hopes that a yield from this 

 source might be obtained, but for the 

 tenth time in succession I was dis- 

 appointed, for not enough was gath- 

 ered to show any surplus, even in the 

 brood-combs, after it had gone out of 

 blossom. The last year in which 

 buckwheat gave any surplus with me, 

 was in 1877. What the trouble is, 

 that this plant does not secrete honey 

 of any amount in this place, I do not 

 know, unless it is because I live in a 

 cold, frosty valley. 



Of the 20 colonies only 14 swarmed, 

 so that the increase was very light ex- 

 cept as I made a few colonies by 

 division, after the season was over. 

 My present number is 40 fair colonies 

 in readiness for winter, and 20 very 

 small ones made from doubled-up 

 nuclei ; all of which had stores enough 

 for winter except the nuclei, which 



had to be fed a part or all of their 

 winter stores. 



The result of the season is an aver- 

 age of about 62 pounds of honey from 

 each of the 20 colonies, the whole 

 amount being 1,039 pounds, 722 pounds 

 of which was comb honey. The 

 amount received for queens, nuclei, 

 etc., up to Oct. 10, was about S700. 



Taking it as a whole, I have no rea- 

 son to complain regarding the result 

 of the year 1887, unless perhaps it is 

 that I have been so crowded with 

 work that I have not found time for 

 the improvement of my mind, which 

 I would like ; nor to make the many 

 experiments that I had proposed to try. 



Borodino,© N. Y., Oct. 17, 1887. 



Bee-Keepers' Magazine. 



A Net fay of Introtlnciiis Queens. 



H. H. FLICK. 



Many valuable queens are lost an- 

 nually by introducing, some colonies 

 refusing to receive a new queen by 

 any of the old methods. There have 

 been various plans devised and de- 

 scribed, but every one thus far failed 

 in many instances, and often the most 

 valuable queens are thus lost, and 

 the apiarist greatly disappointed. 



All the different plans I have ever 

 seen are more or less a violation of 

 nature's laws, and thus place the 

 colony in an abnormal condition, 

 causing the bees to become cross, and 

 constantly on the watch to wreak 

 their vengeance on some intruder. 



So long as a colony does not ac- 

 cept the queen, that colony is prac- 

 tically queenless, although the new 

 queen may be caged inside the hive ; 

 and every observant apiarist knows 

 that when a colony becomes queen- 

 less, its actions become peculiar, and 

 this at once becomes apparent to the 

 other bees that are constantly on the 

 lookout to harrass and rob, and thus 

 puts the queenless colony on the de- 

 fensive, and every stranger is at once 

 attacked and killed. Under such cir- 

 cumstances the newly-introduced 

 queen, if caged or protected in some 

 way, is closely watched by the sus- 

 picious workers, and woe be to her if 

 she emerges from her cage under such 

 circumstances ! 



The most popular and successful 

 way thus far is, to cage the new queen 

 for some time after the old one is re- 

 moved. This caging may be done in 

 different ways, and the liberation of 

 the queen may be done either by the 

 bees or the bee-keeper, yet, in any 

 event, the colony is disorganized, and 

 the risks are great, to say nothing of 

 the time lost in egg-laying, while the 

 colony is thus queenless. 



After losing many valuable queens, 

 for some of which I paid big prices. In 

 several instances I remember, I lost 

 about half the bees. In these cases it 

 seems that the colony became divided, 

 and "civil war" ensued; a part of 

 the bees adhering and protecting the 

 new queen, while the rest were bent 

 on her destruction. Close observa- 

 tion and various experiments led me 

 to the discovery of a plan that is alto- 



