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PAST-FUTURE. 



The Mysteries of Bee-Kcepiiig 

 all Done away ^Vitli. 



Written for the Prairie F.irmer 

 BY MRS. L. HARRISON. * 



The day of the log-^ni and square 

 box as a receptacle for bees is now 

 past, excepting wlien on rare occa- 

 sions, a runaway swarm is caught, and 

 there is nothing at liand to put them in 

 but a nail-keg or salt-barrel. From 

 such a beginning, nian}^ large apiaries 

 had a start, for when the bees persisted 

 in living and increasing, until even the 

 discarded bod}' of a pump had to be 

 used to put them in, their owner roused 

 xip to the necessity of further accom- 

 modations, and the result was a 

 " patent hive." 



Some enterprising individuals took 

 advantage of this state of things, and 

 went through the countrj' building bee- 

 palaces, which had a short run, but a 

 merrj- one. Their dupes thought them 

 splendid, though there was an abund- 

 ance of those terrible moths. 



Following the bee-palace came a 

 square hive, set up on high legs, and 

 run to a point below, so those terrible 

 enemies of the bees, the moths, would 

 i-oll out at the bottom. This was good 

 in some respects, and is occasionally 

 seen at the present day at farm houses. 

 All attempts at keeping bees in houses 

 have been failures with one excei>tion, 

 whieh is pronounced a success, but is 

 covered by a "patent." 



There are two ways of managing 

 bees ; one is to let them alone, and the 

 other is to control them, at least in a 

 measure. In order to do the latter 

 tliey must be in a receptacle from 

 which they can be removed at the 

 pleasure of their owner. 



" Deliornlng " Bees. 



The secrets and mystei'ies of bee- 

 keejjing have all been let out of the 

 bag, by the introduction of the mov- 

 ble-frame hive. And if some enter- 

 prising bee-keeper would only dis- 

 cover a way of removing the sting in 

 like manner as horns are now removed 

 from cattle, bee-keeping would make 

 rapid advancement. 



On my way to Chicago to attend the 

 late bee-convention, I sat for a while 

 in a seat with a lady who, in company 

 with her husband, was bound for the 

 Fat Stock Show. She said they were 

 engaged largely in rearing Short^iorns, 

 and that last summer they purchased 

 a vicious bull which she had feared 

 would kill some of her children. The 

 men had not had time to dehorn him 

 until recently, but after it was done it 

 ■was laughable to see how meek he was; 

 the fight was all taken out of him. It 

 did not appear to hurt him a mite, for 



he went immediately to eating hay. 

 Now, who will imitate the cattle-raisers 

 and dehorn the bees of there weapons? 



Apiarists are very uneasy, never con- 

 tent to tread in the beaten paths of 

 their fathers ; and when jou think that 

 you have the latest furniture, fully up 

 to the times, something new is in- 

 vented which leaves you far in the 

 shade. The latest " fad " is inverti- 

 ble hives. Now, I cannot imagine 

 what could possess any one to turn a 

 hive upside down. I never tried it, 

 but one of our horses did, and he did 

 not want to repeat the experiment, 

 neither did I, or the bees. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



UNFILLED SECTIONS. 



How to Utilize the Comb in 

 Unfilled Sections. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY W. H. STEWART. 



It seems to trouble a great many bee- 

 keepers to have so many unfinised sec- 

 tions at the close of the honey season. 

 Now these unfinished sections I look 

 upon as so many blessings, and I would 

 like to have ten thousand of them on 

 hand the coming spring. I do not 

 want them to go back on the hives 

 again for comb honey, but I will tell 

 the readers how I dispose of them : 



In the fall, after the honey season is 

 over, I put them in wide frames, ex- 

 tract the honey, and then put the sec- 

 tions out of the way of the mice. I 

 always use full sheets of worker foun- 

 dation in the sections. In the spring, 

 when the weather gets warm, or just 

 before swarming time, I take a case- 

 knife and run it around the inside of 

 the section, cutting the comb out nice 

 and square. These combs I fit nicely 

 in the brood-frames, and fasten them 

 with transferring strijis or pieces of 

 hard, twisted twine. 



I always rear my own queens, and 

 when one begins to lay, I give her a 

 couple of frames of hatching brood, 

 and fill up the hi\e with these filled 

 fr.ames, or hang them in extracting 

 supers. In a short time I have worker- 

 comb which is as nice and straight as 

 any one would wish to see. These 

 combs do not t-ost me as much as full 

 sheets of worker foundation for the 

 brood-chambers, yet they are just as 

 nice and as good. 



Let bee-keepers, like myself, who 

 have more time than cash, try my plan 

 and see if they are not well paid for 

 their trouble ; for I think that it does 

 not pay a bee-keeper who buys all his 

 foundation, to melt up a piece of comb 

 four or more inches square. 



Galt,~o Ills. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



The Three-Cell Plan of Rearingr 

 Queens. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY J. H. HIGGINS. 



In regard to queen-rearing, I would 

 saj' that a great many queens can be 

 reared by the lamp-nursery method, 

 and also by the nucleus plan ; but are 

 they as good ([ueens as any ? My ex- 

 perience says they are not. They are 

 smaller, and do not live long ; neither 

 do they fill llieir hives with bees as 

 well as do queens that have been cared 

 for from the egg. The workers are 

 not so large, and they do not work so 

 well as do those reared from other 

 queens ; hence so many weak colonies 

 and no honey. Can we not remedy 

 this ? I think that we can, and my 

 practice proves to me how it can best 

 be done. It is as follows : 



I use a 9-frame hive, and when I 

 want queens, I take from a strong col- 

 onjf the queen and all the brood- 

 frames, and give them one frame of 

 eggs just beginning to hatch, which I 

 take from a choice colony. I then 

 place one of their frames of honey on 

 each side of the frame of eggs until the 

 next day ; this being done in the even- 

 ing. The bees build queen-cells that 

 night, some of them being good ones, 

 and others are not. The following day 

 I pinch off all but three of the best 

 queen-cells, and give the colony some 

 honey and six frames of brood just 

 gnawing out. Bees will then be hatch- 

 ing all the time, which will keep the 

 colony very strong, and the queens 

 will be fully developed. 



On the tenth day I divide the colony 

 into three parts, with a queen-cell in 

 each division, and give them the first 

 six frames that I had taken from them. 



Queens reared as above described, 

 have proved to be good in every case ; 

 they are always large and prolific, and 

 bees reared fr<im them are large, are 

 excellent workers, and they can carry 

 more honey than can bees reared from 

 inferior queens. The queens will lay 

 more eggs, and last longer than any 

 others that I can produce. They also 

 winter well and build up veiy rapidly 

 in the spring. I have them now nearly 

 one-third larger than any bees I ever 

 saw here. 



I read of " over-dosing," in the Bee 

 Journal, but they do not do it for 

 me with the " three-cell plan," as I 

 call it. I believe in keeping all colo- 

 nies strong at all times, and this is one 

 of my plans of doing it. Try the plan 

 and be convinced. But it will not do 

 to rear " dollar queens " in this way ; 

 at least I could not do it. 



Victoria, On Tenn. 



