492 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



us how to secure the same results with 

 what we now have, rather than advise 

 something new to secure these same 

 results. The " stone that keeps rolling 

 gathers no moss." — Oleanings. 



Euerience of a Bepner, 



B. H. NEWLAND. 



I wish to relate my little experience in 

 the bee-business, and if It does not teach 

 anything positively, it may negatively. 



Last Winter I boarded with a sub- 

 scriber to the Bee Journal, and became 

 really interested in the business — so 

 much so that I bought a Kevised Lang- 

 stroth and Ameeican Bee Journal, 

 and studied them very thoroughly all 

 the Spring and early Summer. But I 

 could forget details faster than I could 

 learn them by reading, so in the middle 

 of August I bought 2 colonies of hybrids, 

 In simplicity hives, after buying five 

 improved Langstroth simplicity hives in 

 the flat, a smoker, and 5 pounds of 

 foundation. 



The first bad mistake I made was in 

 locating ray new industry, which is near 

 the house, on the west side, and well 

 shaded by three oak trees; result : my 

 bees are late getting to work, for they 

 cannot get the sun at all until 11 o'clock, 

 and not much after that. 



I moved ray bees home, about three 

 miles, let them rest a day, and read a 

 chapter in Langstroth ; then I divided 

 the 2 colonies, into 4, dividing brood 

 and honey to make them as nearly equal 

 as I could, filling up and replacing with 

 frames of foundation in full sheets. 

 When doing this I looked for queens, 

 but I could not find them. I found later 

 that one queen was put into one of the 

 new hives, and the other was not. 



I then thought I could watch how they 

 worked outside, and judge from their 

 actions where the queens were ; O, I 

 had read the theory so' much that I 

 knew all about bees — could tell with 

 my eyes shut and one hand tied behind 

 me — could tell by the songs they sang. 



Next I sent to A. I. Root for 2 un- 

 tested queens, which came promptly. 

 Now, I supposed (another mistake) that 

 the old colonies were queenless, so I 

 looked the frames over, and in the first 

 one found 3 royal cells, one of them 

 sealed. I removed these, and the next 

 day introduced one of the Italian 

 queens ; in 2 days the bees had worked 

 her out of the cage, and she had gone to 

 keeping house. 



The other old colony I examined on 

 the same day that I did the first one, 

 and found no queen nor queen-cells, but 

 thought she surely had been transferred 

 to the new hive ; so I introduced my 

 other Italian queen at once ; looked in 

 the next' day and found the bees work- 

 ing at the candy in the cage, and quite 

 a cluster around the cage, so I thought, 

 she is all right. The next day I looked 

 in again, and found the cage empty, and 

 thought she is O. K. 



I sent to Mr. Root for 2 more queens, 

 which came in five days, when I got a 

 man to help rae who had studied bees as 

 well as books. You see, I had never 

 seen a queen-bee until I bought them of 

 Mr. Root, and I wanted him to show me 

 the queens in those new hives. The first 

 one we looked at had royal cells, and 

 one nearly ripe ; then my bee-man 

 wanted to know which of the old hives I 

 took this new one from. I showed him, 

 and he said, " Let us look through it." 

 We did so, and found the queen, but she 

 was not one of those which I had intro- 

 duced a few days before. I think Mr. 

 Root's queen is out in the grass in front 

 of the hive. I caged this queen, how- 

 ever, with a few workers, and we looked 

 through the other new hive, and soon 

 found the queen and destroyed her. 



I then returned the queen, which was 

 not Root's, to her hive, and she has been 

 there ever since, until to-day I caged 

 her again, and to-morrow shall intro- 

 duce another of Root's queens, which I 

 have just received. 



The next day after my bee-man was 

 here I introduced the two Italians, and 

 the second day after I found the queen 

 in the first new hive all right on the 

 combs, and the queen in the last hive 

 was balled on the bottom-board, so I ran 

 into the house for a cage, when I had 

 one right under my nose ; then I ran 

 into the house again for a basin of 

 water. When I picked up the ball the 

 bees scattered, and the queen flew, I did 

 not know where, and I spilled the water. 



But I kept looking for the queen, for 

 I did not know surely that she had flown, 

 and after a few minutes I began to look 

 around the other hives, and found her 

 balled again, at the entrance of another 

 hive, ten feet away. Then I got another 

 basin of water, threw the ball in it, and 

 soon had the queen caged. On looking- 

 this hive over again, I found a queen-cell 

 which had been overlooked when I in- 

 troduced the queen. I destroyed the 

 cell, and the next day introduced the 

 queen again, and she was accepted. 



So I have had to buy five queens to 

 Italianize four colonies, and I believe it 



