T'mm MMERICW'JNE MMM JOtJRNJtl^. 



343 



In my f)wii yanl tliey arc allowed to 

 mix indiscriminately, and to ijo from 

 one hive to another without being' 

 troubled at all. — J. E. Pond. 



Drones are free eommoner.s until the 

 time of their deslruotion arrives. I 

 have set apart a nucleus for queen- 

 rearing without a drone or an}^ drone- 

 broo<l, and in a few daj's I have found 

 hundreds of drones in it — J. M. 

 Shuck. 



No, not as a general rule. They are 

 admitted by queenless colonies as a 

 general thing, but not always. Drones 

 mark their locatio7i just as do worker 

 bees ; and if you introduce them to 

 queenless colonies after they have 

 mtiH;ed their location, they will return 

 to the old stand as do worker-bees. I 

 have often proven this by direct ex- 

 periment. If they are removed from 

 their home before they have been out, 

 they will stay where you put them just 

 as do J'oung worker-bees. — G. W. 

 Demaree. 



They will, as I have positive proof 

 of the fact. I have one colony that 

 liatched out .select drones (Italians of 

 course) on Jan. 10 ; it is the only col- 

 on\' out of 60 that has drones now (Jan. 

 25). I have another colony that 

 hatched out a young queen last week, 

 and after she was hatched I looked into 

 the hive and found 4 or 5 drones on 

 the middle combs, and I know this 

 particular colony had not had any 

 drones since last July — of course they 

 came from the colony that had the 

 young drones, which is nearly in front 

 of the one witli the young queen. — R. 

 H. Campbell. 



Bees will usually admit drones from 

 other colonies when houey-gathering 

 is going on and the colony is strong 

 ill numbers, if drones are welcomed in 

 other hives. — The Editor. 



CO.KVEI^XIOI\ P«OXI«_KS. 



|:y The next meelinK of the N. W. Ills, and 8. W. 

 WiB. Bee-Keepers' Asauciation will be held in Rock, 

 ton, 11)8., Miiy -2. IMKy. D. A. FULLER, Sec. 



t3S^ The spring meeting of the Wisconsin Lalte 

 Sliore Center Bee-Keepers' Association will be held 

 on May 31. I88<, in Mueller's Hall, at Kiel. Wis. 



Ferd. Zastkow, Sec. 



t3^ The Hardin County Bee-Keepers' Associa. 

 tion will meet at the Court Uouse in Uitlora, Iowa, 

 on the second Saturday in each month, at noon 

 (12 o'clock), until further notice. 



J. W. BtTCHANAN. Sec. 



Al-*vay» Mention your Post-Office, 

 County and State when writing to this 

 oflice. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually writing— 

 never nieiitiou anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the new address. 



WHITE CLOVER. 



MRS. L. IJ. FLEMIN<t. 



Scatter the L,eaflet!«. — Look at the 

 list (with prices) on the second page. 



My little maiden came tome, 

 Her small hands hrimmiiigover. 



Not with the gai den's choicest flowers. 

 But only sweet, white clover. 



I took her yift, the while my thought 

 The Icing years traveled over — 



When I, like her, with busy hands 

 Made wreatlis of sweet, white clover. 



I dream my childish dreams again, 



In fairy land a rover, 

 A magic garland, this, I ween. 



Though ouly sweet, white clover. 



Yet much of life's best sweetness we 



In homely things discover. 

 As honey-bees pass gaudy flowers, 



To seek the low, white clover. 



COMB HONEY. 



Tiie Be§t methods for Obtaining 

 a Oood Article. 



Written for thelEastem Farmer 



BY E. p. CHURCHILL. 



As the time is at hand for obtaining 

 comb honey, a word about the methods 

 to be employed may not be amiss. 



No doubt shallow frames without 

 comb tend to drive the bees into the 

 sections ; but at the same time the 

 queen must be suppressed in her duty, 

 namely, to keep the colony supplied 

 with brood ; for where there is ample 

 vacant cells, the queen is sure to in- 

 crease even beyond one's expectations. 

 I believe that I first gave the origin of 

 my own plan in the Lewiston Journal, 

 a number of years ago, which is in 

 full harmony with the instincts of the 

 bees. 



As the queen will onlj' use comb J 

 of an inch thick, it must be shaved 

 down to that depth. Now where there 

 is much honey in the comb, it is to be 

 extracted. But the combs must not be 

 left, as it generally is, say f of an inch 

 or so apart. They are to be closed np 

 to at least f of an inch, and by using 

 strips of wood i;xi, with a large-headed 

 tack driven in the edge 'f of an inch 

 from the top (the strip is half the 

 length of the end-bar to the frame) ; 

 these are now hung on the tin rest, 

 and the frames crowded ag.ainst them, 

 one at each end of the frame next to 

 the side of the hive, and so on. At 

 last they are hung between the divi.sion- 

 board and the last frame, and all 

 crowded up close. Thus the frames 

 are all spaced alike, and we can move 

 the hives, and yet all is secure. Thus 

 close, the bees cannot bulge much of 

 the comb, and the queen is sure to use 

 the natural thickness, which she has 



pltuity of, and the bees are glad to 

 enter the sections. 



I am sure. too. that we need less 

 comb ill this way. and j'et we are sure 

 of more brood. I get nine frames into 

 a hive only lli| inches wide ; with even 

 this number, the bees will work in the 

 sections far better than in the old way, 

 when crowded down on live or six 

 combs, spaced away apart by bulged 

 and thick comb. Such was sure to 

 cause swarming, as instinct plainly 

 teaches tlie bees that they must soon 

 be unknown if no brood-room is pro- 

 vided ; and how often we have found 

 but little brood where there should 

 have been an abundance, and yet the 

 cause never occurred to us. This 

 shaving and narrow spacing also pre- 

 vents storing of pollen in the sections 

 to a great extent, simplj- for the reason 

 that there is plenty of room right 

 among the brood, where it should be. 

 Where one has a large number of colo- 

 nies, there is a great saving in the 

 comb, which is quite an item. 



Of course for winter the combs are 

 spread, and a "stay" like the above 

 only i of an inch would plea.se any 

 one when he comes to move the hives 

 into and out of the cellar, as they are 

 simple and clieap, and remain nicely 

 in place. Try it. 



After trying about ever3' method, I 

 have proved the above plan to be the 

 one. Also that it pays to use full 

 sheets of foundation in sections, and 

 to cover the boxes up warmly, and 

 then rest assured if there is honey in 

 the field, it will be carried into the 

 sections. 



Hallowell, Me. 



INCREASE. 



methods of Obtaining Comb and 

 Extracted Honey, etc. 



Bead at the Nebraska State Cmivention 

 BY J. M. TODNG. 



Knowing the interest taken in the 

 advancement of bee-culture, I improve 

 this opportunity of making a short re- 

 port of my labors in that direction. 

 The honey crop of last season was con- 

 siderably below the average in this 

 part of the State, and in certain parts 

 an almost total failure. The fall crop 

 was very light, owing to the continued 

 drouth tluring the summer months. 



Fruit-bloom and the early blossoms 

 of white clover put the bees in good 

 condition, and kept them so until 

 swarming ; but they secured only 

 enough nectar from these sources to 

 build np rapidly, and not enough to 

 store any surplus. White clover proved 

 neai'lj", if not quite, a failure in this 

 part of the country, so far as I know. 



