16 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



If the part of the divided colony, which 

 has no queen, is set on a new stand, then 

 Mrs. Harrison's observations would be 

 correct, regarding their quiet condition, 

 after all of the old or field-bees had left 

 this hive and returned to their old loca- 

 tion ; but if this moved-part had a queen, 

 many of the bees would return to their 

 old location, so that, in this case, the 

 queenless part would show the most 

 activity, for the part on the old stand 

 will always show the most activity, 

 whether having the old queen or not. 



Where a colony has an old or failing 

 queen, with very little brood in the hive, 

 and much of that drone brood, then they 

 will sometimes manifest the restlessness 

 spoken of to some extent, should their 

 queen be taken from them ; but I claim 

 that such a colony is not a suitable one 

 to divide for increase. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Some ADicnMral Notes, 



J. M. YOUXG. 



During the bright weather of this 

 month, the bees were out enjoying the 

 warm sunshine. 



Our experience in handling bees covers 

 a period of nearly 20 years. 



Our city, located on the Missouri 

 River, has a population of nearly 

 9,000 inhabitants, and is the county- 

 seat of Cass County, with good railroad 

 facilities — the great B. & M. R. R., and 

 the M. P. R. R., now under construction. 



Bee-keepers throughout this vicinity 

 prefer out-door wintering to any other 

 method. 



Experience teaches us that an apiary 

 should be located on an eastern slope, 

 with the hives fronting the east. 



We prefer natural swarming to arti- 

 ficial, and always let the bees have their 

 own way in this respect. 



The 4:J^ X 4J^ section suits us better 

 than any other, from the fact that it 

 holds just one pound. 



Our comb-honey which was disposed 

 of some time ago, sold readily at 17 cents 

 per pound. 



We sell most of our extracted-honey in 

 quart fruit jars, and this is sold by going 

 from house to house. 



We live 30 miles south of Omaha, 

 where there is always a good market for 

 comb-honey, which is also very good for 

 extracted-honey. 



We always practice out-door wintering, 

 from the fact that our bees have always 

 been in chaff hives, made exactly to suit 

 our ideas. 



We always use a 2-story hive for 

 extracting purposes, and never extract 

 from anything but the upper story. 



Our apiary is situated in the vicinity 

 of large apple orchards, and near plenty 

 of basswood timber and where plenty of 

 white clover abounds. The bees stored 

 last Spring large quantities of apple- 

 bloom honey, so much so that the hives 

 were chock full. 



Plattsmouth, Nebr., Dec. 12, 1890. 



A Conyenlent Carrier for Hiyes. 



C. H. DIBBEEX. 



In August when the country was 

 suffering under a severe drought, I feared 

 that the white clover would be entirely 

 burnt out, and that the honey prospects 

 for the next year were not flattering. 

 This, with the probability of having to 

 feed a number of barrels of sugar to get 

 the bees through the Winter, made the 

 outlook for bee-keepers very gloomy. 

 Some timely rains, however, revived the 

 drooping vegetation, and gave the bees 

 a fair supply and obviated feeding. In 

 October we had copious rains and warm, 

 growing weather, which brought the 

 clover out again finely, so that the pros- 

 pect for 1891 is very much improved. 



CARRIER FOR HIYES. 



I have now in use for the past 10 

 yea!*s, a very simple contrivance for 

 carrying hives in and out of the cellar. 

 It consists simply of two square hard- 

 wood sticks, a little longer than the 

 hives, with pieces of stout cloth tacked 

 between the ends. All you have to do is 

 to remove the caps of the hives and slip 

 the stick below the cleats on the hive, 

 and carry them by taking hold of the 

 middle of the cloth pieces. This pinches 

 the sticks together, thus getting a firm 

 grip on the hive, making it well nigh 

 impossible to slip, even when carried up 

 steep stairs. A prominent bee-keeper 

 was visiting me last Spring when we 

 were taking the bees out, and said it 

 was the best thing for carrying hives he 

 had ever seen. It is my own invention 

 and I have never seen anything like it 

 described in the bee-papers. Of course 

 it takes 2 to carry a hive. 



WHAT TO DO WINTER EVENINGS. 



Study up the bee business. Get some 

 of the standard works on bees. Be sure 

 and read one good book on queen rearing, 

 and determine to do better bee-keeping 

 in 1891 than you have ever done before. 

 Few have bees so good that they cannot 

 be greatly improved. It is a fact that if 



