OEVOTEO To UEEH A.l^r> HOIVEY, AlVD I10M:E IlVTEREfciTS. 



Vol. VI. 



JUNE 1, 1878. 



No. 6. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor 



•LJ 



PublisUed Monthly. rTFElins: Sl.OO Per Annum in Ad- 



I vance; 3 Copies for S2.50; 5 for »3.Tii; 

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OTY ii:xps:Rix:NCii:. no. g. 



QUEENS ENTERING THE WRONG HIVE. 



f-iyOjERHAPS the best way to tell you how I lost 

 f^ my queens is to quote from my diarj-. 

 "^^ JanelWi. This afternoon, as I was passing; 

 in front of the hives, I noticed a small cluster of 

 bees in front of the entrance to one of the hives 

 that contained a young- queen. I distui'bed them, 

 and found that they were clusterinof aroimd a 

 (Uieen. [In all my readings, I never read anything 

 about linding a queen in a clustei- of bees outside 

 the hive.] I thouirht perhaps the queen had flown, 

 was tired, and had stopped outside the hire to rest; 

 so I allowed her to ent<;r the hi\e. 



June IWi. Examined the other young- (jueen'S, 

 hive. Found no egg-s, but found the bees building 

 fpieen cells, and droiu' comb. Went to the hive 

 that I divided last, cut out a (jueen cell, and gave it 

 to them. I related the above to a bee keeper, who 

 told me that whenever I found a queen in a cluster 

 of bees outside the hive, I might know that it was a 

 stranso (jueen. 



The next day, I examined the hive into which I 

 saw the yuiig (juecn enter, and foun<l it in the 

 same condition as the others. My hives, with the 

 exception of the caps, were just alike in appear- 

 ance, and stood in a row, six feet apart. 



A little later in the season, I had four queens 

 hatch in the same day, and had them all fertilized 

 without loss. The hives were placed in different 

 positions; around one, I tied .i piece of red cloth; 

 around another a piece of white; around another, 

 a piece of black; and the other, being quite a dis- 

 tance from the rest, was left without anything. 



COMB HONEY. 



My comb honey was built in smail frames. They 

 were close fitting, except at the bottom. Enough 

 were placed side by side to reach across the top of 

 the hive, and a piece of glass was placed at each 

 end. Two rows covered the top of the hive. A 

 small piei-e of new comb was fastened into the top 

 of caeli frame. As fast as frames were filled, they 

 were removed, and empty ones put in their places. 



EXTRACTING. 



The two colonies which became qvieenless by the 

 tpieens entering the wrong hive, soon contained 

 several frames of solid hbncy. I kept up their 

 strength, by giving them frames of brood in ex- 

 ehan«re for frames of honey. By the last of June, 

 I had eight frames of honey stoi-ed away forfutuce 

 use. How I did wish 1 had an extractor; but I did 

 not have the money to buy one. The bees were 

 wovkinir finely in the section boxes, but I wanted to 

 extract the honey from those 8 frames, and have 

 the empty ci^mb to use. After I had puzzled my 

 brains severiil days, trying- to "think out" a way to 

 liuy an extractor, the hotel keeper drove over, and 

 wanted to buv some honey. He was going to have 

 a party the "Fourth," and he wanted some honey for 

 supper. He would give me A5cts a pound for all the 

 new honey I could "rake and scrape," and never 

 mind if some of the sections were not (piite finished. 

 When I came to "rake and scrape" the honey off 

 the hives, there was more than T thought there 

 would be. The money that I received for it, with 

 what "loose ebang-e" 1 happened to Imve, was 



enough to send for an extractor. The extractor 

 came just in the "nick of time," just as basswnod 

 commenced blossoming. I extracted from the out- 

 side frames only, leaving the brood frames un- 

 touched. 



After using the extractor one season, I do not ¥iee 

 how any one who keeps bees can get along without 

 it. 



SMOKE. 



In the fore part of the season, when I wished to 

 use smoke, I lighted a piece of rotten wood. Sonie- 

 times it went out; once or twice I burned some 

 holes in my clothing; the tears that the smoke 

 caused me to shed were not a few; and when I hap- 

 pened to get a "poor stick" of wood, I had to blow 

 so hard that I wished I could "save my breath to 

 cool my porridge." In September, I obtained a 

 smoker. 1 don't know but I am putting it rather 

 strong, but I will say that, for $1.00, I never before 

 obtained so much satisfaction. It never goes out. 

 there is no danger from fire, you can put the smoke 

 just where you want it, and, if you wish, in large 

 quantities. W. Z. Hutchin.son. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich, 



1^ ■ tf ■ < !■ 



HOW TO PUT THE SECTION BOXES TO- 

 GETHER AND PUT IN THE F»N. 



SWANT to tell about my using fdn. and sections, 

 that others may benefit by my experience, and, 

 -^ more pai-ticularly, that you may tell me wherein 

 I may improve. My experience is not very exten- 

 sive, as 1 only used sections last season. I put to- 

 gether between 3 and 3000, size 414X4I4. The sheets 

 of fdn. being 13x18 in., I cut each one into 20 pieces, 

 ;ix3 6-10 in., using frames of lath (such as you have 

 described) to cut them by. I used the point of a 

 pen knife blade, but Carlin's cutter may be better. 

 I'f I fastened into the sections one of the edges of 

 the fdn. which had been on the outside, it was very 

 likely to drop out; so I was careful to use only 

 those edges which I myself had cut. In all my op- 

 erations, I found it better to have the fdn. warm; 

 the nearer to 80^, the better. Yon can cut and fast- 

 en it more easily when warm, and when I put the 

 fdn. in the sections cold, it was more likely to 

 drop out. 



For a work bench, I used a board 12x18 in., which 

 I held on my lap. Near the left hand corner near- 



i»lTTTING UP sections AMI) PUTTING IN THE FDN. 



est to me, I nailed two pieces, of the same thickness 

 as the section stulf, and a little shorter than the 

 sections, fastening them about l^i inches apart, so 

 that the top of a st-(-tic>n would fit snugly between 

 them. For liendiiig the top i)iece of the section 

 ojM'ii enough to let the fdn. into the groove, I used 

 a St ick (1 (ir S in. long, 1 in. wide, and '.i in. thick, 

 each side l)eing beveled ofl' for part of its length. 



