168 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wavelets of News. 



Prevention of Swarming. 



To regulate, and to a great extent 

 prevent an increase by swarming, I can- 

 not too strongly recommend the use of 

 baits in the surplus department. There 

 are in every apiary, sections partly-filled 

 and uncapped. I place one or two un- 

 filled sections in the surplus apartment, 

 sometime before the approach of the 

 honey-flow, or after all danger of chill- 

 ing the brood, is past. By this means 

 bees become accustomed to the surplus 

 apartment, and need no extra coaxing, 

 to induce them to go to work whenever 

 there is anything to gather ; very often 

 storing honey therein before filling the 

 brood-frames below. 



I believe this plan has been recom- 

 mended before, but I had no idea of its 

 practical value until I put it into 

 practice. 



I do know, however, that bees some- 

 times refuse to work in Cases, provided 

 with new sections, in which were fast- 

 ened starters made from the very best 

 material ; whereas, if unfilled sections 

 had been used, I am satisfied that the 

 result would be different. 



Some bees are like the human family 

 — a great incentive to labor must be 

 offered. — A. C. Tyrrel, in ApixiuUurist. 



Amount Needed for Winter Stores. 



A large colony will consume more 

 honey than a small one, as more mouths 

 require more food. A mild Winter, when 

 bees exercise freely upon the wing, make 

 them have better appetites, than when 

 they are in a semi-dormant condition, too 

 sleepy to eat. 



The changes in the temperature, from 

 very cold to mild, arouses bees to greater 

 activity than when kept at an even tem- 

 perature, as they are in the cellar. 



I put my lightest in the cellar, and I 

 feel safer with .5 pounds less, when they 

 are put in there, than upon the Summer 

 stands. I can sleep a great deal better, 

 whether my bees are in-doors or out, if I 

 know that they have 30 pounds of honey 

 rather than less. I am no advocate of 

 short stores for any time of the year, and 

 am always the better satisfied when I 

 know that my bees have plenty to eat. 



Food enough for Winter,in any locality, 

 means the interim from the cessation of 

 the honey-flow in the Fall, until it comes 

 again in the Spring. Early in the sea- 

 son, there often occur a few very good 



honey days, and these followed by sev- 

 eral weeks when there are none. This 

 spurt of new honey will start brood- 

 rearing, and if there are no stores in 

 reserve, bees will starve. 



Bees are very provident, and will not 

 rear large families, unless they are rich 

 enough to do so. It is poor policy to eke 

 out Winter stores by feeding, in early 

 Spring. In this locality, the weather is 

 very changeable, and bees might need to 

 be fed during stormy or windy weather, 

 when it would be a positive injury to 

 open the hives. I have done a great 

 deal of feeding in early Spring, but shall 

 do no more. — Mrs. L. Harrison, in the 

 Prairie Farmer. 



Perfume and Honey. 



Scientists tell us that odors of flowers 

 do not, as a general rule, exist in them 

 as a store, or as a gland, but are devel- 

 oped as an exhalation. While the flower 

 breathes it yields fragrance, but kill the 

 flower and the fragrance ceases. It 

 seems, then, that odors are simply ex- 

 halations dependent upon essential oils, 

 not upon vapor impregnated with mat- 

 ter, and cannot, therefore, be condensed 

 as such ; and we have yet to learn that 

 these exhalations are visible, or leave 

 the least stains ; and while it is well 

 known that they combine with various 

 fatty matters, they do not sensibly in- 

 crease their weight or bulk. Thus, no 

 matter how much our nice clover or 

 linden honey may perfume the room in 

 which it is placed, the quantity of honey 

 is never materially less. — G. M. Doolit- 

 TLE, in the Rural Home. 



Inducing Bees to Enter a Hive. 



If a comb covered with bees is shaken 

 some distance from the entrance, you 

 will notice that the first bees to enter the 

 hive, raise their abdomens, and at once 

 commence fanning. 



If you have ever watched bees in this 

 position, you may have noticed a small 

 brown spot, just over the sting sac. It 

 is from this that the young bees find 

 their way. A strong scent is emitted 

 from a quantity of bees in this position, 

 and this scent, coming from under the 

 scale, near this brown spot, is fanned 

 back to the rear guards, and is quickly 

 answered by a general movement toward 

 the hive. 



This also accounts for the peculiar 

 actions a lost bee will exhibit, upon first 

 finding the entrance. The same man- 

 oeuvres will be observed when young 



