516 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the tree. After we had brought them 

 from the tree the third time, I suggested 

 to my father that there must be some- 

 thing the matter with the hive, and he 

 brought another hive and placed. them in 

 front of it, when they immediately en- 

 tered. Next morning, as I was starting 

 to school, I noticed my father examining 

 the rejected hive, and asked him what 

 was wrong about it. "You go to 

 school," he said, "and the next time we 

 try to hive a swarm of bees, we had bet- 

 ter take the entrance blocks away, so 

 that the bees can enter the hive." 



Worthy E. Stoner. 

 Atlantic, Iowa. 



Perished on the Summer Stands. 



Last Fall I took 6 swarms out of trees, 

 and put them in hives, and they wintered 

 nicely, although other bees in this 

 vicinity have not fared so well. Most of 

 the bees having been left out on the 

 summer stands, one-half of them have 

 perished. C. W. Gerrtsh. 



Rochester, N. H. 



Cheap Feeder. 



In the Spring of 1890 I purchased 4 

 colonies of black bees, in box-hives, 

 which increased to 11 colonies by nat- 

 ural swarming, but, being a poor season, 

 I only secured 100 pounds of honey 

 from the original 4 colonies, and fed the 

 bees 36 pounds of granulated sugar last 

 Fall. I Italanized my bees last Fall, but 

 wish to improve them still further the 

 coming Summer. Two of my colonies 

 are pure Italians, and the remainder are 

 hybrids. I use the V-shaped top-bar to 

 brood-frames. My bees are wintered out- 

 of-doors, the hives resting on two 2-inch 

 planks, placed 2 inches apart, and facing 

 the south. I put dry oat straw^ behind, 

 under and between the hives, burlap over 

 the brood-chamber, and 8 inches of dry 

 maple leaves in surplus chamber. I un- 

 packed them March 24, and found them 

 all right, with plenty of stores. I made 

 cheap, and, I think, good feeders, by using 

 ^-inch siding, about a foot long, for the 

 bottom, and ripping a piece of the same 

 material lengthwise for the sides and 

 ends. Then I took 2 little strips, less 

 than ]4 inch thick, and laid them cross- 

 wise, and tacked onto them other little 

 strips, running lengthwise of the feeder, 

 and }i of an inch apart. This I put into 

 the feeder as a float, to prevent the bees 

 drowning, and placed the feeder on top 

 of the cloth, over the brood-chamber. 



Kankakee, Ills. B. E. Graham. 



Bees in Poor Condition. 



I have 2<:) colonies of bees in fair con- 

 dition, but they will require feeding 

 before the honey-flow commences. This 

 has been a very backward Spring, and 

 for that reason I do not expect many 

 early swarms. Last Spring my bees 

 gathered the first pollen on March 4, 

 and by April 15 the hives were heavy 

 with brood. May 1 they began to 

 swarm, and continued swarming until 

 about June 15, and it kept me hustling 

 making hives for them. I have sown 

 some sweet clover this Spring. 



George F. Tibbetts. 



Ocheltree, Kans., April 1, 1891. 



Grading Honey in California. 



Bees here seem to be doing well. I 

 have had some swarms. I do not antici- 

 pate a very large crop, however. I have 

 read with considerable interest the let- 

 ters from apiarists in regard to a trade- 

 mark. The Ventura County Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association (of which I am Secre- 

 tary) passed a resolution to elect a 

 "grader," to be known as the Ventura 

 County Honey Association Grader, 

 whose business it will be to inspect honey 

 and place the appropriate grade-brand 

 of the society on each package contain- 

 ing it. It seems to me that if the 

 Grader is honest, that will fill the bill, 

 and buyers will know just what they 

 pay for. S. C. Gridley. 



Nordhoff, Calif., April 3, 1891. 



Swarm-Catcher. 



In 1889 I purchased one dozen Alley 

 queen-traps, but they did not prove 

 what I expected. I could catch the 

 queens, but sometimes 3 or 4 swarms 

 would issue at one time, and, of course, 

 cluster together. Now, the big doctors 

 had told us (and I believed them) that 

 when the bees found they had no queen, 

 each swarm would return to its own 

 hive, but they would not do that for me. 

 The swarm that started for their hive 

 first, were pretty sure to be followed by 

 the whole lot. This made queen-catch- 

 ing a nuisance, and I began to wonder 

 what I was going to do about it. After 

 a little thought I said, why not catch 

 the whole swarm ? I immediately made 

 a big swarm-catcher, which was soon 

 increased to 3 or 4, and now, after try- 

 ing them thoroughly last season, and 

 catching dozens of swarm« without one 

 failure, I am prepared to say they are 

 just O, K., and shal have at least one 



