THE? ^MSRICJLPi MmW J@UKI«SI«. 



729 



outside of the ends and bottom-bars of 

 he frames, leaving shick enough in 

 the cloth so that wlien filled with chaff 

 it will bulge out enough to cause the 

 frame to fit snugly against the sides 

 ahd bottom of the hive. 



The chaft' cushion is simply a square 

 sack as wide and as long as the inside 

 of your hive, and about 4 to 6 inches 

 thick, filled with chaff. Care should 

 be taken, however, not to till it too 

 full, for if too full it will assume a 

 rounded form, and not lit down as 

 well on the frames. 



With two division-boards and one 

 chaff cushion for each colon}-, you are 

 ready to go into the apiary. If your 

 hives are two stories high, remove the 

 upper storj', and remove from the 

 lower story enough of the frames to 

 admit of a division-board on each side, 

 which will generally be three. Thus, 

 if you are using a ten-frame hive, it 

 will have room for seven frames of 

 brood and honey between them. Place 

 the frames containing the most brood 

 in the center, and those having the 

 least, or none at all, next to the 

 division-boards. Care should be taken 

 to allow the necessary amount of 

 stores, which should be from 20 to 25 

 pounds of well-ripened honey. Should 

 there not be bees enough in the hive 

 to pretty well crowd seven frames, re- 

 move one, two, or three more frames, 

 and move up the division-boards so as 

 to allow no unoccupied space. Should 

 there not be enough bees to cover well 

 four Langstroth frames, or their equiv- 

 alent, I prefer to unite them with 

 another colony. 



Should you have frames containing 

 brood that are not needed in some col- 

 onies, you will most likely find a place 

 in another colony where they can be 

 used to advantage. After you have 

 the frames and divison-ljoards ar- 

 ranged as described, place the en- 

 ameled cloth over the frames, put on 

 the second stor}-, and put in 



Tbe Chaff CusUlon, 



being sure that it fits down well around 

 the sides, then put on the cover, and 

 do not bother them until some warm 

 day in February, when it might not 

 be amiss to peep in and see how they 

 are getting along. I forgot to say that 

 before placing the cloth over the 

 frames, you should lay two sticks 

 about 3 inches apart, crosswise of the 

 frames. The sticks should be an inch 

 or more in thickness. 



This will allow the bees access to 

 any frame in the hive by passing over 

 the top. 



See that each colony has a joung, 

 healthy queen, before putting them 

 away. I should not like to try winter- 

 ing colonies that have queens over two 

 years old. 



The more bees you have in a hive 

 when prepared for winter, the surer 

 you are of success (at least that is my 

 experience), even if some of them are 

 crowded outside for a while. Should 

 j'our bees not have enough stores to 

 winter on, you had better feed them. 

 Instead of putting on the chaft" cushion 

 I would use a. feeder in the upper 

 story, turning the enameled cloth back 

 a little at one end, to allow the bees 

 access to the feeder. 



CONGCOMKRATIO.^. 



Written fur the American Bee Journal 



BY G. B. OLNEY. 



May the A. B. J. ever shine 

 Throueli ttll the coming tiiue, 

 With light and life a-tjeaniing. 

 Tiike gf'lii and silver— no dreaming ; 

 But sure protection to a union 

 All o'er the land a-roving. 

 Their legal rights construing 

 In a mild way, but ruling 

 Still but deep -no fooling. 



Arkadelphias without number 



Will only find they've mile a blunder, 



To attack an industry as oM as time ; 



With grape-t ulture and Arkadelpbla tine. 



It's <uily wa-ting time - 



There's a " tJnion " just behind. 



From over hills and many hollows. 

 Comes gleaming forth the single dollars, 

 Shouting aloud in bold, neriant power. 

 Steel-pointed shells at their glistening lower. 

 They fairlv conceive why the land is ours, 

 And all must " get'' from the "land csf the free" 

 No place here for even the honey-bee. 

 " You're a 'nuisance.' " but your not to blame- 

 Bright Arkadelphia gave the name. 



Oh, how sweet and euphonious is the sound. 

 Claiming the h-mey-bee in any town 

 Is the greaiest " nuisance" ever found. 

 Arkadelphia— your only a name. 

 A bursting bubble for public fame. 

 More ' artiticial comb mauc of parafflne," 

 '■ Scientitlc pleasantry " now it is time 

 To crawl into your holes, recall the fine. 

 Quick to hide and get behind. 

 Olcey, Iowa, Oct. 15, 188S. 



NIL DESPERANDUM. 



The Failure of llie Hone}' Crop 

 in England. 



Editorial In the British Bee Jaurnal, 

 Dated Oct. 18, 1888. 



We are right in i)resuming that the 

 bulk of our readers in Great Britain 

 are amateur bee-keepers, who do not 

 depend upon honey-raising for a live- 

 lihood, therefore to the majority, first, 

 a few words of comfort may be fitly 

 addressed now that the season of 1888 

 is ended. 



One of the great recommendations 

 of this pursuit, one of the principal 

 reasons for the growing poi)ularity of 

 our hobby, has lieen that it pnys ; 

 this has been proved over and over 

 again, the question has olily been one 

 of doubt as to whether or not one 

 could, in our fickle climate, devote the 

 whole time to bee-keeping and obtain 

 a living by it. On this point the con- 

 sensus of opinion is that bee-keeping 

 should be combincil with some other 

 occupation, such .as fruit or poultry 

 farming ; alone it could not be recom- 



mended. The occurrence of a disas- 

 trous succession of fruit, clover, and 

 heather cro))s, such as we have ex- 

 perienced this season, but adds weight 

 to the advice wi; have repeatedly given 

 in these columns in answer to inquirers 

 who have thouglit of making a busi- 

 ness of bee-keeping jKr se. Keeping 

 bees will then pay, because we have 

 more strings than one to our bow, and 

 a single bail honey season does not 

 mean disgust followed by collapse. 



'"Tis not in mortals to command success. 



But we'll do more, Sempronius ; we'll deserve it." 



So let those with whom our bee-keep- 

 ing is but an agreeable pastime, a true 

 labor of love, take heart of grace, and, 

 with true British courage, fight the 

 harder tlie more we seem to be sur- 

 rounded with difiiculties. It is only 

 by such an exhibition of pluck that we 

 can show our so-called love for bees 

 and bee-culture to be a sterling feeling 

 and not an empty sentiment, lasting 

 only so long as the couleur cle rose of 

 the hobby — only so long as lasts the 

 golden light gleaming through well- 

 filled honey-jars. 



Quite a number of proverbial say- 

 ings spring into the mind when we 

 urge our readers to have " a patient 

 continuance in well-doing ;" this, by 

 the way, being only a more ancient 

 way of telling us that " Everything 

 comes to him who knows how to wait." 

 (We will allow the cynic to get in his 

 jeer edgeway, that " whilst the grass 

 is growing the horse is starving.") We 

 have often found "the darkest — the 

 coldest hour, the one before the dawn;" 

 we have found, too, the mere effort to 

 " take arms against a sea or troubles," 

 as Shakespeare tells us, " and by op- 

 posing end them." Who has not felt 

 braced up by a firm determination to 

 get comfort out of disaster by sheer 

 force of will ? Why, the oldest 

 amongst us — old stagers, the steady 

 coaches whos(! wheels have placidly 

 revolved with the years in an unevent- 

 ful round of monotony — the monotony 

 of mere routine, these can remember 

 how many of the happiest passages in 

 life have been developed anil perfected 

 when there has been no single gleam 

 of hope on the horizon, all dark and 

 dismal everywhere. 



Be sure we may find much pleasure 

 in sympathizing with such of our fra- 

 ternity as have found the jear's trans- 

 actions a loss, all too keenly to be felt 

 perhaps ; we can try to infuse into 

 them a little of the spirit of Mark 

 Tapley, who played " Away with 

 MelanCholy" on a one-keyed flute. 

 We recently saw a couple of bee-keep- 

 ers returning from the mooi's with a 

 waggi>n-loail of hives,plodding through 

 a dreiiehing rain for eight miles on a 

 black-dark night ; one of them wheeled 

 a broken tricycle, and both were as 



