12 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
good, if not superior, to Queens reared by any 
other process ; and that, too, while the old 
Queen is doing duty below, just the same as 
though Queens were not being reared above. : 
This is a fact, though it is not generally known, j 
By employing these methods, colonies are 
never queenless, and no queenless bees need be 
bothered with, by uniting them with other 
colonies, or otherwise. 
If you desire to know how this can be done — 
how to have Queens fertilized in upper stories, 
while the old Queen is laying below — how you 
may safely introduce any Queen, at any time of 
the year when bees can fly — all about the dif- 
ferent races of bees — all about shipping Queens, 
queen-cages, candy for queen-cages, etc. — all 
about forming nuclei, multiplying or uniting 
bees, or weak colonies, etc. ; or, in fact, every- 
thing about the queen-business which you may 
want to know, send for “ Doolittle’s Scientific 
Queen-Rearing a book of 180 pages, which is 
nicely bound in cloth, and as interesting as any 
story. Price, $1.00. 
Au edition in strong paper covers is issued for 
premiums. It will be mailed as a present to 
any one who will send us two new subscribers 
to either of our Journals. 
FALL WORK. 
United Colonies in the Fall op Wintering 
Written for the American Rural Home, 
BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 
As the season or 1889 has been rather unpro- 
pitions for bees in some sections of the country 
where only white honey is the source of supply, 
some bee-keepers now find that their colonies 
have not the necessary number of bees or the 
necessary amount of stores to give promise of 
successful wintering ; hence they ask what they 
are to do under such circumstances. 
If the colonies were strong in bees, the ques- 
tion might arise whether it would not pay to 
buy sugar, even at the present high prices, and 
feed the bees so as to have a greater number 
next spring, but Where colonies are both light in 
bees and in stores, there is only one correct 
solution of the problem, which is, to unite the 
bees till all are strong, and then if stores are 
still lacking, they may be fed. 
There have been many plans given for uniting 
bees, some of which are loo laborious to be 
tolerated, such as moving colonies little by 
little each day until they are brought together, 
carrying them to the cellar for a few days, etc. ; 
the^ advocates of these plans claiming that by 
their use none of the bees will return to their 
former location, yet I find that the more simple 
plans do just as well where a little precaution is 
taken by way of removing all signs of the for- 
mer home from the old stand. 
The plan I use, and one which has always 
worked well with me, so far, is as follows : 
Having decided that certain colonies are to be 
united, the first thing to know is, which of the 
two or three, as the case may be, has the most 
valuable queen. Having ascertained this, I 
hunt out the poorest and kill her, then take the 
hive or hives from which the queeu has been, 
killed, to the stand of the one they are to be 
united with. 
I now select from each hive the frames having 
the most honey in them, to the number I wish 
to winter them on, and set them in one of the 
hives, alternating them as they are set in the 
hive. 
In moving the bees they are jarred by placing 
the hives on a wheel-barrow in no gentle man- 
ner, and wheeling them rapidly to the place 
they are to stand, first having confined the bees 
to the hive, and doing the whole on some cloudy 
day when the bees are not flying, which causes 
them, in a measure, to forget all about their 
former home in their anxiety for the present ; 
and also causing them to remain on their combs 
much better in handling them than would be 
the case were they not thus disturbed, so that in 
the process of uoiting, very few bees take wing 
in comparison to what otherwise would, and 
these few are so bewildered that they immedi- 
ately go in with the others in the new hive or 
uoited colony. 
Having the hive full of the combs containing 
the most honey, I uext stake the bees, which are 
on the remaining frames, off at the entrance, 
taking one frame from one colony, and the next 
from another, and so on, so as to mix the bees 
up as much as possible. When all of the bees 
are inside of the hive, the woik of uniting is 
done. Remove the hives, bottom-boards and all 
from the stands occupied by the united colonies 
previous to this, and no loss of bees will occur. 
What few bees go back to the old stands, 
| return after finding their old hives gone ; also 
the mixing-up process spoken of above, causes 
them to mark their location anew, at their first 
flight afterward, the same as does a new swarm, 
or when the bees take their first flight in the 
spring . — American Bee Journal. 
Borodino, N.Y. 
CANADA. 
The products of another year have been 
gathered in, and the labours of the bee-keeper 
for the season are nearly enoed, With us in 
Ontario the result on the whole is satisfactory. 
The yield of honey has peen lair, while increase 
in stock has been abnormally large ; moreover 
the demand for honey has been unusually brisk, 
and prices good. Year after year we hear com- 
plaints of the season’s yield not being up to the 
average. We are told by some people that this 
year’s honey crop is below the standard. What 
an average crop is I have yet to learn. If my 
report as above made be correct, let us accept 
this season’s results as an average or standard by 
wnich we may compare future harvests — call it 
average, 1 am satisfied to have it settled as such, 
and think my brother bee-keepers have no good 
reason to dissent. 
Not only is the harvest ended, but the public 
exhibitions of the season’s products are also past. 
The B.B.J. furnishes us with full reports of 
these shows on your side of the Atlantic, and 
