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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wavelets o! News. 



Hiving Box. 



When your bees swarm and cluster on 

 the limb of a valuable tree, it is not at 

 all necessary to saw off that limb. Do 

 not do it, but get to work and make a 

 hiving box. Make it of thin lumber, 

 that it may be light, leave it open at top 

 and bottom, and bore eight or ten holes 

 in each side. 



Make it of proper dimensions to hold 

 a frame of brood, and fix it on a pole, 

 place the box gently against the cluster, 

 and soon they will leave the limb and 

 adhere to the box, when you can let 

 them down. Place the comb of brood in 

 a hive, and shake the balance of bees in 

 front of the hive. 



In hiving a swarm always get the hive 

 to its permanent location as soon as 

 possible. This mistake is often made, 

 and is quite a serious one to the bees, 

 for they begin to mark their location at 

 once on being hived, and many of them 

 are lost when the hive is moved. — 

 Walter S. Pouder, in Indiana Farmer. 



Bee-Keeping and Farming. 



Apiculture is naturally a part of, and 

 closely allied with, agriculture, inasmuch 

 as the nectar gathered by the one is 

 immediately derived from the same 

 fields and forests that yield the abun- 

 dant ingatherings of the other. Indeed, 

 the bulk of the honey crop of this 

 country (which is, in round numbers, 

 about 100,000,000 pounds annually), 

 comes from the bee-keeping which is in 

 connection, more or less, with farming. 

 — Exchange. 



Putting Sections on Hives. 



This is the "busiest month in all the 

 year for the bee-keeper, for if everything 

 is not attended to promptly now, the 

 expected honey crop will be greatly 

 lessened or entirely lost. 



As the first white clover blossoms 

 begin to appear, cases of sections must 

 be put on, and bees must be hived when 

 they swarm. A great many other things 

 that were overlooked will require atten- 

 tion now, and must not be longer 

 delayed if we would succeed. 



In putting cases of sections on hives, 

 it is best not to be too fast, and put them 

 on the strong colonies first. It is worse 

 than useless to put them on hives where 



the bees are unable to cover more than 

 half their combs. 



Keep a close watch, and as fast as 

 hives become crowded, put on the 

 sections, and add more as fast as needed. 

 There is not so much need of hurry in 

 taking them off. Better leave them on 

 until all the cells are capped, but should 

 there be a sudden failure in the yield or 

 at the end of the white honey crop, they 

 should be removed without delay. — C. H. 

 DiBBERN, in the Plowman. 



Returning Svsrarms. 



Last season I tried the plan (with 2 or 

 3 colonies of bees) of killing the queens 

 and returning the swarms. I shall never 

 adopt that plan as a good one to follow. 

 When a colony gets at swarming heat 

 they will keep it up under this method 

 until the last queen-cells are hatched. 

 The last queens -hatched are generally 

 more or less dwarfed from being reared 

 in small cells, which would have* been 

 torn down, if the colony had been 

 allowed to follow their natural instincts. 

 By this practice the queens will be of 

 little worth as prolific layers, and the 

 colony never gets in good condition. 



The best results are obtained by 

 removing the old queen from the first 

 swarm, and returning the swarm. When 

 the next swarm issues hive it, and 

 return it to the parent colony in the 

 evening of the second day. Or, if it 

 issues late in the day, leave it three 

 nights before returning. The queen 

 returned will usually make quick work 

 of queens and cells alike. I have known 

 this plan to fail, however. — Stockman. 



"Wax Scales on Bottom-Boards. 



A swarm of bees always go with a lot 

 of wax scales already protruding from 

 the wax pockets. Not only this, but the 

 sac of every bee is filled with honey. It 

 seems as though the bees intended to 

 carry all the material possible with 

 which to furnish a new home. When 

 there is no comb nor foundation in the 

 hive, then wax scales " get ripe," if the 

 expression is allowable, and drop to the 

 bottom of the hives, before there is 

 opportunity to use them. If the bees 

 are hived upon combs, the scales are 

 stuck upon the combs. Did 5^ou never 

 notice how white the mouths of the cells 

 of an old black comb appeared soon 

 after bees had been hived upon it '^ This 

 comes from the scales of wax that have 

 been stuck on it, for a lack of somewhere 

 else to put them. — Review. 



