THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



151 



ceived by any swarm, and will stay wherever 

 placed. It is uot ueot'ssary to wait for all 

 the bees to hatch; they may be shakeu out 

 every few days until all are out. 



The section with its empty combs is kept 

 uutil the fall flow of dark honey com 

 mences, when it is placed on top of a strong 

 swarm, with a queen excluding honey board 

 under it, and filled with dark honey for ex- 

 tracting, or for fall or spring feeding, as 

 needed. I use mine for raising young bees 

 for the following white honey harvest, and I 

 have found it the best market for dark 

 honey. 



Now this may look like a great deal of 

 work. But with the small hives, it is done 

 with the least possible amount of work, for 

 in using these hives, we handle hives and not 

 single frames. In using j!00 of them in the 

 home yard in the seasons of 1889 and 18i)0, I 

 never lifted one single frame, and I do my 

 work with an ease and dispatch that the fol- 

 lowers of old fashions know nothing about. 

 The system resembles Dr. Tinker's, except 

 that he uses his brood in strengthening the 

 parent swarm, and I use it in strengthening 

 any swarm that needs it most. Some new 

 swarms, for instance, as we all know, com- 

 mence work in the sections with great en- 

 ergy, but their numbers soon diminish. Such 

 swarms I keep reinforced with bees and 

 "booming strong" until the end of the 

 white honey harvest. Th^e are two other 

 distinct methods of managing the small 

 hives, viz., where we wish very moderate 

 increase, and when we wish all the increase 

 we can get. They are unsurpassed for both 

 cases of the management, but of the meth- 

 ods I will write at another time. 



Forestville, Minn., March 28, 181)1. 



[In a letter recently received from Mr. 

 Taylor, he, in referring to the excellent 

 yields reported in the last Review by the 

 Western man who did uot give his name, 

 says, "In 1881) I obtained 14;> pounds of comb 

 honey per colony in an entire apiary without 

 any tedious fus-ing; still, I am greatly pleas- 

 ed with the story." I tell you friends there 

 are great things in store for those who will 

 be progressive; who will adopt such hives and 

 methods that the tedious handling of combs, 

 sitii/ly, may be dispensed with, and will learn 

 how to use, understandingly, queen-exclud- 

 ers, self-hivers, queen-traps, bee-escapes and 

 all profitaV)le labor saving implements. 



And now a few words about the swarm 

 catcher. It is practically the same as the 



Bailey catcher which I laughed at when I 

 saw it illustrated several yeafe ago. At that 

 time, however, I had never been through the 

 experience of having several swarms in the 

 air at the same time — nd more a coming. 

 When Mr. Heddon has all the swarms in the 

 air that he can manage, he removes the su- 

 pers from the hive of the next colony that 

 begins to "spout bees," and "douses" the 

 bees with water. Mr. Taylor has several of 

 these catchers scattered about the yard, and 

 when a swarm is seen issuing, a catcher can 

 be adjusted to the mouth of the hive instant- 

 ly. There is no climbing of trees, no hunt- 

 ing for queens, no mixing of swarms, but 

 everything is lovely. Mr. Taylor sent me a 

 catcher from which I had the accompanying 

 engraving made. The catcher is a very simple 

 affair; simply a frame of light wood with 

 cotton cloth tacked on the sides and painted. 

 The upper or larger end is of wire cloth in- 

 stead of cotton cloth; and is removable, be- 

 ing held in place by two buttons. The few 

 bees that get into the air before the catcher is 

 adjusted will join any swarm that is in the 

 air, or else return to the old location. — Ed.) 



A Modest Man Brought Before tlie Public. 



EARS AGO, I can't stop to figure 

 fO up how many, probably nine or ten, 

 when I was living at Rogersville and 

 enjoying myself rearing queens, I was one 

 day perched upon one end of the work bench, 

 writing letters at a little desk I had fixed up 

 against the wall, when a young man stepped 

 in at the door and asked if my name was 

 Hutchinson. I said that it was. 



"W. Z.?" 



"Yes." t 



"Well, my name is Root." * 



"Ernest?" 



"Yes, sir." 



We shook hands, and about the next thing 

 on the programme was the request for a 

 drink of water. 1 told Ernest that we 

 brought our water from a spring about twen- 

 ty rods away, and, if agreeable, we would go 

 directly to the spring. To the spring we 

 went, and if ever I saw anyou^ enjoy a 

 "drink," it was Ernest at the spring. In or- 

 der to reach me early in the day, he had 

 "pounded ties," as the boys say, on the rail- 

 road for a distance of six or eight miles with 

 a July (I guess it was) sun overhead. No 

 wonder the boy was thirsty. I have never 



