80 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



when quilts are used over them; and for 

 the reasons that I have just given. With a 

 plain, flat cover, and a bee-space above the 

 sections, or the tops of brood frames, no 

 propolis is used except around the edges 

 of the hives where the cover comes in 

 contact, and when the cover is loosened, 

 which is an easy task during the warm 

 weather when most of our work is done 

 with the bees, the cover can be lifted off 

 neat and clean, and free from all of these 

 knobs of propolis and brace combs. 



Attention is called to the fact that with 

 a quilt only a part of the hive needs to be 

 uncovered if robbers are troublesome, and 

 there is little work to do, like putting- in a 



comb of honey, but it should not be for- 

 gotten that there is nothing in the world 

 to prevent the shoving of the board cover 

 over only a few inches, instead of remov- 

 ing it entirely, when there is some opera- 

 tion of this kind to be performed. 



1 like a quilt, something like a piece of 

 carpet, to lay over the frames when the 

 hives are stacked up in the cellar, but 

 that is the only use I have for a quilt. I 

 might add that I don't yet /fnow positively 

 that the quilt is any great advantage for 

 this purpose. It is a "notion" of mine that 

 it is, and 1 am experimenting along that 

 line this winter. Ed. Review.] 



Extracting" Honey Profitably at 

 Distant Yards. 



E. F. ATWATER. 



.TUNE 19th found us again at the 

 e) distant yard, with a load of cans, 

 which were carefully piled along the 

 fence, and the work of inspection be- 

 gun as before. We found that brood- 

 rearing had proceeded at a great pace, 

 many colonies were preparing to swarm, 

 even though they had been treated radi- 

 cally on the previous trip. More room 

 was needed by some colonies, and swarms 

 had been issuing and returning, while 

 some had reared themselves a queen and 

 gone away with her. 



The men on the ranch were sure that 

 50 swarms had escaped, but this was 

 not the case. No doubt 50 swarms had 

 Issued, counting the several times that 

 some had tried it, but as the queens' 

 wings were all clipped, the actual loss 

 was small. 



Right here let me say that our greatest 

 mistake was in not having made another 

 trip for inspection and swarm control, 



seven to nine days after the trip of June 

 5th, or treating more colonies, at that 

 trip, on our new system, which seems to 

 hold the bees for a longer time than any 

 method which simply discourages swarm- 

 ing, like the plan of raising brood above 

 an excluder. 



The season was extraordinary for 

 swarming, the worst in that way that I 

 had experienced, but also the best for 

 honey. 



. The strong colonies were given such 

 treatment as described for the trip of 

 June 5th. The colonies tiered up on the 

 Alexander plan for queen-mating were 

 now divided, each part with a queen and 

 brood, :md each was given emerging brood 

 from other colonies, to make them strong. 

 A few more tiered hives for mating were 

 then prepared. 



We try to have all sheets of foundation 

 drawn out in the brood-nest, using the 

 brood-combs in the supers, as such old 



