DEVOTED TO BEEH AISD IIOIVIJV, AND HOMii: riVTI2K,ESTe. 



Vol. VI. 



SEPT. 1, 1878. 



No. 9. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor. 

 Medina, O. 



•} 



Publisbed monthly. ("rERITIS: ftl.OO Per Annnm in Ad- 



< vance; 3 Copies for t2*50; 5/or $3.75; 



EstaTblished in 18'73. ClO o? more, 60c. each. Single Number, lOc. 



MY EXPERIENCE. NO. 9. 



FAXL MANAGEMENT. 



^pj^URING September, I gave the queens plenty 

 Jll IPI) of room to lay. 



%=!^ Oct. 22d. I removed the 3 lightest frames 

 from each hive. The remaining 6 frames were 

 placed in the centre of the hive, and chaff 

 cushions put on each side of them. The light frames 

 that were taken out were placed in the cap and the 

 bees allowed to carrj' down the honoj'. 



Nov. 3d. The average weight (of 6 frames and the 

 bees) per colony, was I8V2 lbs. 



I think, if I had left but 4 frames in a hive and let 

 the bees put all the honej' into them it would have 

 been better. 



I think my swarms were rather light, both in bees 

 and stoixis; and, if we had had a cold winter and 

 spring, I should have lost gome of them; as it was, 

 however, they all came through in line condition. I 

 never saw bees in the spring, look drier, brighter, 

 or cleaner. 



Nov. Stl). I made boxes 3 Inches deep, without 

 tops or bottoms, tacked some coarse sacking on the 

 bottoms, filled them with chaff, and set them on top 

 of the frames. 



PACKING BEES IN STRAW. 



JVoi\ 22<:L The hives were left on their summer 

 stands, and straw was packed around them, a foot 

 thick. A tube, made of boards, was placed in front 

 of each hive to allow them to fly. These tubes were 

 packed full of straw, and when it was warm enough 

 for the bees to fly the straw was removed. 



I do not think I shall ever pack my bees again in 

 straw; it is quite a job to pack them, and your api- 

 ary looks untidy all winter; if there comes a warm 

 day and you wish to examine your bees, you have 

 to take the cover off and pull out the straw; then 

 you have to take the packing away in the spring, 

 and "clean up" afterwards. Well, "just you try it." 

 If I have any bees to "pick" this fall, I shall man- 

 age to have 5 or 6 full frames of honey for each 

 swarm, place them crosswise of the hive, put chaff 

 cushions on all four sides of them and one on top, 

 and each hive shall be "just crammed full" of bees, 

 if I have to unite half a dozen swarms into one. 



Now Novice, to be candid about it, don't you 

 think that is about the way you would prepare your 

 bees for wintering, in the Simplicity hive, if it could 

 be done, even if it did "require considerable time 

 and fussing?" 



LOSING QUEENS IN THE SPRING. 



Feb. 2Sth. I examined my bees; they all had 

 queens, and the strongest swarms had considerable 

 brood, and had used the most honey, the weakest 

 had but little brood, and had not used much honey. 

 I gave the strong swarms some honey from the 

 weak ones. 



When I made this examination, hive No. 12 had a 

 fine lot of brood. I did not open this hive again un- 

 til March 29th, when I found no queen, but found 

 queen cells sealed over. I destroyed the queen 

 cells and united the bees with the weakest swarm I 

 had. As my queens were all dollar queens, pur- 

 chased the preceding autumn, and supposed to be 

 young. I did not know why things should have "act- 

 ed so." Perhaps Novice can explain. 



Rogersville, Mich. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Your plan of turning the frames half way 

 around, and placing cushions on all the 4 

 sides, is one that has been adopted a great 

 man}' times, but I believe all vote, sooner or 

 later, that it is too much trouble. When the 

 bees are cross, as they generally are in the 

 fall, and the frames covered with propolis, it 

 is quite a disagreeable task. Besides, the 

 four cushions do not make a covering as im- 

 pervious to frost, as a single body of chaff 

 extending all around the brood cluster, and 

 isolating it, as in the chaff hive; and this 

 latter is always prepared for winter, by 

 simply putting" the thick chaff cushion in 

 the upper story. 



I would suggest that you killed the queen 

 or dropped her out of the hive, when you 

 made your examination Feb. 28th, but this 

 could not be the case if you found sealed 

 queen cells, just 31 days afterward, so we 

 shall have to supjjose that she died of her 

 own accord. It is very rare for a queen to 

 die in this way, when she has a fine lot of 

 brood, such as you say you found. When a 

 queen begins to fail, she generally produces 

 but a small amount of brood. 



QUEEN'S VOICES, ^kc. 



^ HEREWITH send you 18 dollar (now 90c) queens. 

 Jl| I hope they will reach you safe and prove satis- 

 =^ factory. In getting up the cages, I copy from 

 you and Nellis; mine are not exactly like either 

 yours or his. You may i-eceive them more neatly 

 put up, but no better queens. Please give me cred- 

 it, and I will tell you when to remit. 



I have been puffing your smoker this A. m.; it 

 looks awkward, like a Sibley tent out of plumb, on 

 the side of a hill, but works well. 



W. P. Henderson. 



Murfreesboro, Tenn., June 10th, '78. 



I think you are right, friend II., and while 

 we are about it, I wish to mention one pe- 

 culiarity of your queens. When a number 

 of queens are tied up in one package, they 

 often get into a habit of teeting, or calling 

 to each other, as has been mentioned on an- 

 other page. As their voices are all different, 

 it is amusing in the extreme, to hear them 

 call — first, one with a shrill high key, then 

 one a little lower, and finally one with a 

 deep bass compared witli tlie rest. Well, 

 the clerks had frequently remarked these 

 faint calls, but, when the first lot came from 

 friend 11., we were all astonished to hear 

 them call out as if they were of as much im- 

 portance as anyone. One among the lot 



