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Full text of "The ABC of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee; bees, honey, hives, implements, honey-plants, etc., facts gleaned from the experience of thousands of bee keepers all over our land, and afterward verified by practical work in our own apiary"

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THE  LIBRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
BRITISH  COLUMBIA 


J.  W.  Wins on 
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r  ertali^ii^g  to  tl^e  Care  of  tl^e   Hoipevj-Bee 


Bees,  Hoi2ev],  MlVcs,  Jryplerrjcrpts,  Hoipcvi-Plajpts,  fitc, 


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A[2^    AfteeVvar^   Yerij-ie^    b.]   Fractical    Worl^   ii^   Our   OV/ij   jAp'ar\^. 


BY  A.  I.   ROOT. 


52d     Thousand. 


ir-IT"  "   T"\\-^'  «■ 


HEBBLEWHITE      &     CO., 

Opposite  Sydney  Arcade, 

EORC3-E    STREET,    SY-JDIsrE-X-. 
1891. 


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"^[TOTigs  of  eager,  g^-uestioriiqg  !^r-ot1:]e-]?s  3x\3l  ^istei's 

l'r|  tliG  j^rt  oi'lpee  G-ultnpe, 

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PREFACE 


In  preparing  this  work  I  have  been  much  indebted  to  the  books  of  Langstroth,  Quinby, 
Prof.  Cook,  King,  and  some  others,  as  well  as  to  all  the  Bee- Journals ;  but,  more  than  to  all 
these,  have  I  been  indebted  to  the  thousands  of  friends  scattered  far  and  wide,  who  have 
so  kindly  fiu'nished  the  fullest  particulars  in  regard  to  all  the  new  improvements,  as  they 
have  come  up,  in  our  beloved  branch  of  rural  industry.  Those  who  questioned  me  so  much, 
a  few  years  ago  are  now  repaying  by  giving  me  such  long  kind  letters  in  answer  to  any 
inquiry  I  may  happen  to  make,  that  I  often  feel  ashamed  to  think  what  meager  answers  I 
have  been  obliged  to  give  them  under  similar  circumstances.  A  great  part  of  this  ABC 
book  is  really  the  work  of  the  people,  and  the  task  that  devolves  on  me  is  to  collect,  con- 
dense, verify,  and  utilize,  what  has  been  scattered  through  thousands  of  letters,  for  years 
past.  My  own  apiary  has  been  greatly  devoted  to  carefully  testing  each  new  device,  in- 
vention, or  process,  as  it  came  up ;  the  task  has  been  a  very  pleasant  one  ;  and  if  the  perusal 
of  the  following  pages  affords  you  as  much  pleasure,  I  shall  feel  amply  repaid. 

A.  I.  ROOT. 

Medina,  Ohio,  Nov.,  1877. 

It  is  more  than  14  years  since  the  flrst  edition  of  this  work  was  printed.  It  has  passed 
the  experimental  stage,  and  thousands  of  A  B  C  scholars  have  reported  success,  simply 
from  following  the  instructions  given  in  the  body  of  the  work.  This  edition  numbers  the 
52d  thousand  ;  and  so  great  has  been  the  call  for  it  that  we  have  felt  warranted  in  giving 
it  frequent  revisions.  The  present  edition  is  not  only  enlarged,  and  illustrated  with  many 
new  and  beautiful  engravings,  but  it  has  received  a  careful  and  most  thorough  revision. 
In  consequence  of  overwork  and  ill  health,  this  work,  for  the  past  few  years,  has 
devolved  upon  mv  son,  Ernest  R.,  who  is  now  assistant  editor  of  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture. 
Some  subjects  he  has  re-written,  and  to  others  he  has  made  additions  and  alterations  as 
the  spirit  of  advancement  in  apiculture  seemed  to  demand,  all  of  which  was  subject  to  my 
approval.  As  lie  has  made  so  many  additions,  it  may  be  interesting  to  the  reader  to  know 
what  subjects  were  written  by  him  and  what  by  myself.  The  new  subjects,  and  some  of 
the  old  ones  that  he  has  almost  entirely,  and  in  most  cases  entirely  re-written,  are  as  fol- 
lows :  Chapman  Iloney-plant ;  Comb  Foundation  ;  Comb  Honey;  Contraction:  Fairs; 
Feeding  and  Feeders ;  Fixed  Frames  ;  Foul  Brood  ;  Frames,  How  to  Manipulate  ;  Hive- 
making;  Introducing  Queens;  Moving  Bees;  Record-keeping  of  Hives;  Reversing; 
Smokers;  Spacing  Frames;  A'eils ;  Wintering.  The  subjects  to  wliicli  he  has  made 
large  additions  are  these  :  Alighting-ljoards ;  Alsike ;  Apiary ;  Basswood  ;  Buying  Bees ; 
Candy  for  Bees;  Clover;  Drones;  Extracted  Honey ;  Extractors;  Out-apiaries;  (Queens; 
Queen-rearing;  Robbing;  Stings;  Swarming;  Transferring;  Wax.  The  remaining  sub- 
jects were  originally  written  by  myself,  and  have  been  retained  essentially  as  they  ap- 
l)eared  in  the  tirst  edition  of  1877.  Doolittle's  connnents  in  Itack  part  of  the  work  have 
been  entirely  revised  for  tliis  last  edition.  Tlie  87t]i  and  .52d  thousandth  edition  was  care- 
fully read  and  revised  by  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller,  of  Marengo.  111.,  an  extensive  bee-Jveeper,  and 
a  proof  reader  besides.  Tiie  subject  of  Iloney-plants.  Out-apiaries,  and  the  biographical 
sketches  in  tlie  latter  portion  of  the  work,  are  from  his  pen. 

August  1,  1891.  A.  I.  Root. 


BEE  HIVES  i  APPLIANC 


HONEY,   JELLY,    and  JAM  JARS. 


Oi' — '^ 

SEND  FOR 

OUR 

ILLUSTRATED 

LIST  OF 

GENERAL 


GOODS. 

x&' — 'i& 


— •©♦o^ 

SEND  FOR 

OUR 

ILLUSTRATED 

LIST 

OF 

Bee-Keepep's 
Supplies. 


WORKER  BEE. 


ruM^i  rr,MnMiniiiiiiiiiiiMiiHiiiiiniiinuniiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiMiiiiiMi!'iiiMiirnjiHi»iijiiiiiiMuiiiii»iiiiHiMniiiiiiiiiiiiuiMiiiuiuiiiiiiiiiiiiMMiiiiiinMiiiiiiiHniiiiMMiiHiiiiiiiiiii^ 

Willcox  and  Gibbs'  Silent  Automatic  Sewing  Machines. 


•? 


(Opposite  Sydney  A.rcade), 

GEORGE  ■  ST.,  ■  SYDNEY. 


FuUer's  Lightning  Printing  "Works  Company,  Pairamatta 


HEBBLEWHITE     &     co. 

Opposite  Sydney  Arcade 
C^EOROE    STREET,    SYID^STEY. 

INTRODUCTION. 


1    (I 


About  the  year  186-5,  during  the  month  of  August,  a  swarm"  of  bees  passed  overhead 
where  we  were  at  Avork;  and  my  fellow-workman,  in  answer  to  some  of  my  inquiries  re- 
specting their  habits,  asked  what  I  would  give  for  them.  I.  not  dreaming  he  could  by  any 
means  call  them  down,  offered  him  a  dollar,  and  he  started  after  them.  To  my  astonish- 
ment, he,  in  a  short  time,  returned  with  them  hived  in  a  rough  box  he  had  hastily  picked 
up.  and,  at  that  moment,  I  commenced  learning  my  A  B  C  in  bee  cultm-e.  Before  night  I 
had  questioned  not  only  the  bees,  but  every  one  I  knew,  who  could  tell  me  any  thing  about 
these  strange  new  acquaintances  of  mine.  Our  books  and  papers  were  overhauled  that 
evening;  but  the  little  that  I  found  only  puzzled  me  the  more,  and  kindled  anew  the  de- 
sire to  explore  and  follow  out  this  new  hobby  of  mine ;  for,  dear  reader,  I  have  been  all 
my  life  much  given  to  hobbies  and  new  projects. 

Farmers  who  had  kept  bees  assured  me  that  they  once  paid,  when  the  country  was  new, 
but  of  late  years  they  were  of  no  profit,  and  everybody  was  abandoning  the  business.  I 
had  some  headstrong  views  in  the  matter,  and  in  a  few  days  I  visited  Cleveland,  ostensibly 
on  other  business,  but  I  had  really  little  interest  in  any  thing  until  I  could  visit  the  book- 
stores and  look  over  the  books  on  bees.  I  found  but  two,  and  I  very  quickly  chose  Lang- 
stroth.  May  God  reward  and  for  ever  bless  Mr.  Langstroth  for  the  kind  and  pleasant  way 
in  which  he  unfolds  to  his  readers  the  truths  and  wonders  of  creation,  to  be  found  inside 
of  a  bee-hive. 

What  a  gold-mine  that  book  seemed  to  me,  as  I  looked  it  over  on  my  journey  home ! 
never  was  romance  so  enticing ;  no,  not  even  Robinson  Crusoe  ;  and.  best  of  all.  right  at 
my  own  home  I  could  live  out  and  verify  all  the  wonderful  things  told  therein.  Late  as  it 
was,  I  yet  made  an  observatory-hive,  and  raised  queens  from  worker-eggs  before  winter, 
and  wound  up  by  purchasing  a  queen  of  Mr.  L.  for  820.00.  I  should,  in  fact,  have  wound 
up  the  Avhole  business,  queen  and  all,  most  effectually,  had  it  not  been  for  some  timely 
advice  toward  Christmas,  from  a  plain  practical  farmer  near  by.  With  his  assistance,  and 
by  the  purchase  of  some  more  bees,  I  brought  all  safely  through  the  winter.  Through  Mr. 
L.,  I  learned  of  Mr.  Wagner ;  shortly  afterward  he  was  induced  to  re-commence  the  pub- 
lication of  the  American  Bee  Journal;  and  through  this  I  gave  accounts  monthly  of  my 
blunders  and  occasional  successes. 

Like  many  others.  I  could  not  be  content  without  dabbling  in  patent  hives;  and,  in  spite 
of  good  advice  to  the  contrary,  as  soon  as  I  was  fairly  started  I  bought  rights  and  thence- 
forth kept  the  most  of  my  bees  in  American  hives.  After  a  trial  of  both  kinds,  the  Amer- 
ican and  Langstroth,  side  by  side,  for  o  years,  the  combs  were  transferred  from  the  Amer- 
ican back  to  the  L.  frames.  In  1867,  news  came  across  the  ocean  from  Germany,  of  the 
honey-extractor;  and  with  the  aid  of  a  simple  home-made  machine  I  took  KKM)  lbs.  of  honey 
from  20  stocks,  and  increased  them  to  3.5.  This  made  quite  a  sensation,  and  numbers  em- 
barked in  the  new  business;  but  when  I  lost  all  but  11  of  the  35  the  next  winter,  many 
said,  "  There  !    I  told  you  how  it  would  turn  out.'' 

I  said  nothing,  but  went  to  work  quietly,  and  increased  the  11  to  48,  during  the  one  sea- 
son, not  using  the  extractor  at  all.  The  48  were  wintered  entirely  without  loss,  and  I 
think  it  was,  mainly,  because  I  took'care  and  pains  with  each  individual  colony.  From  the 
48,  I  secured  6162  lbs.  of  extracted  honey,  and  sold  almost  the  entire  crop  for  2.5c.  per  lb. 
Tins  capped  the  climax,  and  inquiries  in  regard  to  the  new  industry  began  to  come  in  from 


INTKODUCTION. 

all  sides;  beginners  were  eager  to  know  what  hives  to  adopt,  and  where  to  get  honey- 
extractors.  As  the  hives  in  use  seemed  very  poorly  adapted  to  the  use  of  the  extractor, 
and  as  the  machines  offered  for  sale  were  heavy  and  poorly  adapted  to  the  purpose,  be 
sides  being  "  patented,"  there  really  seemed  to  be  no  other  way  before  me  than  to  manufac- 
ture these'lmplements.  Unless  I  did  this,  I  should  be  compelled  to  undertake  a  correspond- 
ence that  would  occupy  a  great  part  of  my  time,  without  affording  any  compensation  of 
any  account.i  The  fullest  directions  I  knew  how  to  give  for  making  plain  simple  hives, 
etc..  were  from  time  to  time  published  in  the  A.  B.  J.;  but  the  demand  for  further  partic- 
ulars was  such  that  a  circular  was  printed,  and,  shortly  after,  a  second  edition;  then  anoth- 
er, and  another.  These  were  intended  to  answer  the  greater  part  of  the  queries;  and  from 
the  cheering  wairds  received  in  regard  to  them,  it  seemed  the  idea  was  a  happy  one. 

Until  1873,  all  these  circulars  were  sent  out  gratuitously  ;  but  at  that  time  it  \vas  deemed 
best  to  issue  a  quarterly  at  2oc  per  year,  for  the  purpose  of  answering  these  inquiries. 
The  very  tirst  number  was  received  with  such  favor  that  it  was  immediately  changed  to  a 
monthly,  at  7.5c.  The  name  given  it  was  "Gleanings  m  Bee  Culture,'' and  it  was- 
gradually  enlarged  until,  in  1876,  the  price  was  changed  to  $1.00.  During  all  this  time,  it 
has  served  the  purpose  excellently,  of  answering  questions  as  they  come  up,  both  old  and 
new  ;  and  even  if  some  new  subscriber  should  ask  in  regard  to  something  that  had  been 
discussed  at  length  but  a  short  time  before,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  refer  him  to  it,  or  send 
him  the  number  containing  the  subject  in  question. 

After  Gleanings  was  about  commencing  its  fifth  year,  inquirers  began  to  dislike  be- 
ing referred  to  something  that  was  published  a  half-dozen  years  ago.  Besides,  the  deci- 
sions that  were  then  arrived  at  i!eihai)s  needed  to  be  considerably  modified  to  meet 
present  wants.  Now,  if  we  go  over  the  whole  matter  again  every  year  or  two,  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  have  recently  subscribed,  we  shall  do  our  regular  subscribers  injust- 
ice, for  they  will  justly  complain  that  Gleanings  is  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again, 
yertr  after  year. 

Now  you  can  see  whence  the  necessity  for  this  ABC  book,  its  office,  and  the  place  we 
purpose  to  have  it  fill.  In  writing  it  I  have  taken  pains  to  thoroughly  post  myself  in  re- 
gard to  each  subject  treated,  not  only  by  consulting  all  the  books  and  journals  treating  of 
bee  culture,  which  I  have  always  ready  at  hand,  but  by  going  out  into  the  fields,  writing  to 
those  w^ho  can  furnish  information  in  that  special  direction,  or  by  sacrificing  a  colony  of 
bees,  if  need  be,  until  I  am  perfectly  satisfied.  Still  further :  this  book  is  all  printed  from 
type  kept  constantly  standing,  and  as  the  sheets  are  printed  only  so  fast  as  wanted,  any 
thing  that  is  discovered,  at  any  future  time,  to  be  an  error,  can  be  promptly  righted.  For 
the  same  reason,  all  new^  inventions  and  discoveries  that  may  come  up  —  they  are  coming 
up  constantly  —  can  be  embodied  in  the  work  just  as  soon  as  they  have  been  tested  sufti- 
ciently  to  entitle  them  to  a  place  in  such  a  work.  In  other  words,  I  purpose  it  to  be  never 
out  of  date  or  behind  the  times.— Dec,  1S7S. 


HOME  OF   THE  HONEV-IJEES    IN    1879. 

The  business  increased  and  developed  so  much  that  in  1879  we  located  on  a  piece  of 
ground  of  18  acres,  and  the  pictures  in  the  front  give  you  a  little  idea  of  our  building  and 
surroundings  at  that  date.  The  apiaries,  of  which  you  get  a  little  glimpse,  cover  about  2i 
acres;  there  are  seven  of  them,  like  the  hexagonal  apiary  shown  in  the  back  of  this  book. 
The  central  one  has  a  flag  in  the  center  of  it,  on  which  are  the  words,  "By  Industky  we 
Thrive.'"  The  whole  seven  apiaries  will  accommodate  -500  hives.  Three  or  four  boys 
and  girls  are,  during  the  seas  n.  constantly  employed  in  rearing  and  shipping  the  queens. 
More  are  employed  in  making  the  hives  and  implements,  and  still  more  are  at  work  oiv 
the  journal,  making  this  book,  etc.,  etc.  In  fact,  there  are  now  over  a  hundred  of  us, 
all  together.  Almost  every  trade  and  industry  is  represented  in  the  building  and  on  the- 
grounds.  We  make  all  kinds  of  wood-work,  have  a  tin -shop,  carpenter -shop,  black- 
smith-shop, machine-shop,  printing-office,  book  -  bindery,  sewing  -  room,  paint  -  shop, 
varnishing  and  japanning  room,  wax- room  where  the  foundation  is  made,  a  room  where- 
leather  is  worked  considerably  in  making  smokers,  a  well -pitronized  lunch -room,  and 
Ave  have  almost  every  thing  except  a  grog-shop.  There  used  to  be  two  of  these  just 
across  the  railroad,  but  both  have  closed  up  business  now.  I  rather  suspect  the  at- 
mosphere we  have  brought  into  this  part  of  the  town  was  more  than  they  could  stand.     If 


INTRODUCTION. 

you  should  happen  along  here  about  noon,  you  would  find  that  the  engineer  always  stops 
the  engine  promptly  at  10  minutes  of  noon,  and  that  the  hands  then  gather  in  the  largest 
room  in  the  building  around  an  organ  that  they  have  purchased  with  their  own  money. 
In  fact,  it  was  purchased  by  each  one  giving  a  day's  work.  After  all  join  in  singing  a 
hymn,  your  humble  senant  is  expected  to  read  a  verse  or  two  from  the  Bible,  and  close 
the  10  minutes  devotional  exercise  with  a  few  brief  remarks  and  prayer.  I  am  often  asked 
by  visitors  if  this  noon-day  service  was  an  idea  of  mine.  I  reply  that  it  was  as  unexpected 
to  me  as  to  any  one  else.  It  would  be  a  long  story,  to  tell  how  it  originated.  God  brought 
it  about,  I  am  tirmly  persuaded.  Do  you  wonder  saloons  do  not  prosper  near  usV  Right 
over  the  open  window  at  which  I  sit  writing,  is  a  stone  bee-hive  which  you  can  see  in  the 
picture.  Over  the  hive  is  this  inscription:  "In  God  we  Trust."  So  long  as  we  continue  to 
trust  in  him,  and  look  to  him  daily  for  help,  the  business  will  continue  to  prosper,  and 
we  shall  be  of  use  to  ourselves,  and  to  all  those  about  us ;  but  just  so  soon  as  we  cease  to 
trust  in  him,  the  business  will  go  down ;  saloons  will  spring  up  about  us ;  and  ruin  and 
devastation  Avill  be  the  end.  There  are  quite  a  number  of  us  Avho  know  what  it  is  to  be 
frequenters  of  saloons,  and  who  realize  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God  we  are  kept  where 
we  are  now.  ••  It  is  not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts.'' 


[OCTOBER,  1879.1 


TIte  followiny,  de><criptive  >if  the  picture  of  our  apiary  a  few  leaves  back,  is  extracted  from  the  Novemher 
Gleanings: 

Isn't  it  pretty  V  Had  you  worked  and  planned  and  studied  over  it  as  we  have,  dear 
reader,  you  might  perhaps  appreciate  it  in  a  different  way  from  what  you  do ;  but  I  am 
pretty  sure  you  admire  it,  any  way.  You  observe  there  are  6  apiaries  surrounding  a  central 
one,  making  7  in  all.  There  are  61  Irives  in  each  apiary,  and  the  small  apiaries  of  7  hives 
each,  in  the  corners,  make  the  number  nearly  -500.  The  hives  in  each  apiary  are  exactly  7 
feet  from  center  to  center,  and  the  streets  are  24  feet  broad.  The  gravel  walks  in  the  cen- 
ter of  each  street  are  4  feet  wide.  The  hives  face  different  points  of  the  compass,  as  ex- 
plained in  the  back  of  this  book.  Coal  cinders  are  placed  around  each  hive  to  keep  the 
weeds  downi,  and  then  the  space  before  and  around  the  entrance  is  covered  with  clean, 
white  sand.  To  keep  the  weeds  from  springing  up  through  this  it  is  sprinkled  ouce  or 
twice  a  year  with  common  salt.  This  is  not  only  to  give  the  bees  a  clean  and  pleasant 
door-yard,  but  it  is  to  enable  us,  in  passing,  to  see  if  all  is  right.  For  instance,  if  robbing 
has  been  going  on,  you  will  see  the  dead  bees  on  the  white  sand,  even  if  you  are  quite  a 
distance  away.  Day  before  yesterday,  in  passing,  I  saw  a  young  queen  on  the  sand 
near  the  entrance  of  a  hive,  and  out  near  the  grass  was  another  one. 

"  Hallo,  Will,"  said  I,  '•  what  does  this  mean  V" 

"  Oh  I  1  forgot  to  cut  out  those  queen-cells,''  said  he;  and  he  opened  the  hive  "  quicker," 
and  found  nine  good  cells,  and  two  torn  down.  You  see,  the  white  sand  saved  me  9  queen- 
cells,  that  one  time. 

The  grass  is  all  kept  in  nice  trim  with  the  lawn-mower,  and  the  labor  is  very  much  less, 
for  so  large  an  apiary,  than  to  keep  the  ground  clean  with  a  hoe,  as  I  have  formerly  recom- 
mended. It  is  now  the  middle  of  October;  but  the  grass,  in  consequence  of  the  frequeiit 
mowings,  is  as  fresh  and  green  as  in  June.  To  add  to  the  beauty  of  it,  dandelions  have 
sprung  up,  and  their  bright  yellow  blossoms  dotting  the  green  here  and  there  make  a  pret- 
tier picture  tlian  I  can  describe,  especially  as  one  or  more  Italians  ai-e  found  on  every 
blossom,  on  pleasant  days. 

On  the  outside  of  the  row  of  evergreens,  which  are  planted  for  a  windbreak,  is  a  car- 
riage-drive, and  this  drive  extends  off  to  the  south,  down  by  the  pond,  and  through  my 
creek-bottom  garden.  We  planted  100  evergreens,  ten  feet  apart ;  only  five  of  them  died, 
which  the  nurseryman  replaced.  Of  500  grapevines,  planted  last  fall,  I  believe  only  about  7 
died.  The  building  with  the  wings  is  the  honey  house,  as  we  call  it.  There  we  store  all 
the  tools  and  implements,  all  the  empty  hives,  the  sugar  for  feeding,  etc.  We  are  tiilking 
of  a  railroad  to  run  through  the  apiary  into  this  house,  but  tlie  light  wheelbarrow  seems 
to  answer  so  well,  we  may  not  build  it. 

You  will  notice  that  the  house-apiary  has  changed  so  much  that  one  would  hardly  recog- 
nize an  old  acquaintance.  The  old  wooden  roof  used  to  leak  some,  and  so  we  have  put  on 
a  tin  one.    Leaking  is  a  very  bad  feature  for  any  roof,  for  hive  or  building.    Tin,  if  kept 


INTRODUCTION. 

painted,  makes  a  sure  thing  of  it.  The  chaff  tenement-hive  looks  as  large  as  life,  or  a 
little  larger,  and  perhaps '' twice  as  natural."  You  will  observe,  in  the  center  of  each 
apiary,  or  near  the  center,  four  chaff  hives.  These  are  to  assist  in  giving  landmarks  both 
to  the  bees  and  the  apiarist. 

I  wanted  the  artist  to  get  the  inscription  on  the  flag,  but  the  letters  would  have  been  so 
small  you  probably  could  not  have  read  it.  Instead  of  a  dozen  or  more  rows  of  mam- 
moth sunflowers,  he  has  made  only  one,  and  these  resemble  some  tropical  plant  more  than 
those  out  in  the  field.  The  masses  of  foliage  this  side  of  the  sunflowers  represent  the  bor- 
age. It  is  yet  in  full  bloom,  and  fairly  covered  with  bees  from  morning  till  night,  but 
nothing  like  the  Simpson  honey-plant  and  the  Spider -flowers.  The  Spider- flowers  ai-e 
growing  right  down  at  the  right-hand  corner ;  the  Simpson-plant,  at  the  upper  right-hand 
corner  of  the  honey-farm.  The  highway,  where  the  man  is  riding  along  on  horseback, 
runs  east  and  west.  I  wish  I  could  take  you  down  by  the  pond  and  show  you  my  creek- 
bottom  garden  ;  perhaps  I  will  some  day.  I  was  at  work  in  it  this  morning  with  my  hoe, 
so  early  that  I  had  to  work  by  the  light  of  the  stars.  I  knelt  in  the  soft  rich  ground  (where 
the  cultivator  had  been  running  the  night  before  among  the  plants)  and  thanked  God  for 
this  honey-farm,  and  the  opportunities  it  gives  me  of  helping  you  all. 

Sept.  2,  1880.— "We  have  had  another  year's  experience  wirh  honey-plants,  and  the  result 
is  such  that  I  have  decided  to  plant  the  whole  of  the  available  ground  to  Simpson  and  Spi- 
der plants.  I  have  just  been  enjoying  the  dull  season  amazingly  in  underdraining  our  creek- 
bottom  garden,  and  setting  out  Simpson-plants.  From  seed  planted  in  a  cold  fr^me  in 
March,  we  now  have  beautiful  plants  humming  with  bees  fnnn  daybreak  until  dark.  A 
little  less  than  one-fourth  acre  of  Spider-plants  makes  the  most  beautiful  floral  sight  I  ever 
beheld,  and  creates  such  a  panic  among  the  bees  at  dawn  that  you  would  think  them  rob- 
bing.   The  honey  from  them  is  very  white,  and  beautiful  in  flavor. 

Jan.,  1883.—  During  the  season  that  is  past,  some  of  the  largest  crops  of  honey  have  been 
harvested  ever  known.  The  industry  has  in  several  directions  begun  to  assume  massive 
proportions.  The  demand  for  one-pound  section  boxes  has  been  so  great  that  single 
shipments  have  gont^  across  the  ocean  of  nearly  100,000.  Wax  for  comb  foundation  is 
getting  scarce,  and  we  begin  to  fear  the  product  of  the  world  will  not  supply  the  demand. 
A  kind  Father  seems  still  smiling  on  us  at  the  Home  of  the  Honey-Bees. 

Sept.,  1883.— Our  new  factory  is  now  nearly  ready  for  occupation.  During  the  summer 
we  have  employed  between  140  and  150  hands.  Two  shorthand  writers  now  take  down 
what  your  humble  servant  dictates  in  regard  to  business  and  the  matter  for  the  journal,, 
and  each  one  is  supplied  with  one  of  the  latest  improved  type-writers,  for  copying  the  short- 
hand notes.  The  new  factory  is  built  on  to  the  old  one,  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  pic- 
ture, so  as  to  form  a  sort  of  wing,  or  L  (see  frontispiece),  and  extends  from  the  old  factory 
to  the  gate,  seen  in  the  margin  of  the  picture.  The  trade  in  implements  for  bee  culture  has 
been  larger  than  ever  before  known,  and  the  production  of  honey  has  been  correspondingly 
increased. 

HOME  OF   THE  HONEY-BEES   IN   1884. 

April,  1884. — Again  we  are  called  upon  for  another  edition  of  our  ABC.  Since  its  first 
issue  we  have  tried  to  keep  it  fully  up  to  the  times  by  constant  additions  and  alterations. 
During  this  time,  over  15,000  copies  have  been  sold  in  this  and  other  countries,  and  the  de- 
mand is  still  unabated.  The  subscription  list  of  Gleanings  has  swelled,  until  at  the  close 
of  last  year  we  had  6888  subscribers.  Our  general  business  has  also  increased  since  last 
year,  so  that,  even  with  the  new  addition  to  our  factory  (a  cut  of  which  we  take  pleasure  in 
showing  you  in  frontispiece),  we  are  crowded  for  room.  We  are  glad  to  note  the  continued 
improvement  and  increase  in  apiculture  during  the  year  past,  throughout  our  country,  es- 
pecially in  Texas,  and  also  throughout  the  world ;  and  with  this  advance  in  our  science  we 
have  been  pleased  to  see  a  correspondingly  increased  demand  for  honey. 

It  may  be  well  to  add,  that  in  the  preparation  of  this  work  I  have  been  greatly  indebted 
to  the  valuable  services  of  my  friend  Walter  B.  House,  of  Saugatuck,  Mich.  The  Glossary 
and  Index  are  largely  his  work.  He  has  also  added  many  important  suggestions  in  various 
parts  of  the  body  of  the  book. 

One  of  the  lady  clerks  in  our  oflice,  who  has  been  helping  us  in  the  business  almost  from 
ts  infancy,  has  written  the  following  lines,  suggesting  the  growth  of  what  was,  not  long 
ago,  but  a  grain  of  mustard  seed.  It  was  written  to  be  read  at  the  dedication  of  our  new 
factory,  mentioned  above. 


IXTEODUCTIOX 


When  Novice  first  beg-an  to  tell 

Some  facts  about  the  bee. 
The  story  pleased  the  folks  so  well, 
"  I'll  edit  it,"  said  he. 

The  Gleanings  of  ten  years  ag-o 

Was  small;  and  placed  beside 
The  Gleanings  of  to-day,  doth  show 

How  g-reat  has  been  its  stride. 
Thovig-h  "  Barney  "  was  a  novice  then. 

And  "  Boss  "  was  t.vpo  too. 
And  wrote  his  cojjy  with  a  pen. 

Still  Gleanings  "lived  and  gi'cw. 
And  when  the  windmill  ruled  the  day. 

And  sometimes  rtither  failed, 
The  foot-press  often  came  in  play. 

That  Gleanings  might  be  mailed. 
All  hands  were  called  to  come  and  fold 

When  Gleanings  went  to  press; 
And  paper  daj%  in  times  of  old. 

Was  one  of  pasty  mess. 
When  the  tj'pe-wKter's  click  was  heard. 

The  pen  was  ])ntin  rack; 
The  windmill  flew  otf  like  a  bird, 

An  engine  took  the  track. 
Subsci'iptions  came  and  brought  good  will. 

And  business  multiplied; 
Our  Homes  made  Gleanings  stronger  still: 
'  T  was  on  the  Savior's  side. 
And  we  have  garnered  golden  sheaves, 

Which  steadj-  grew  in  store. 
Which,  in  the  ABC  book,  make 

Us  rich  in  bee-man's  lore. 
The  busy  little  engine  steamed. 

And  puffed  both  night  and  day; 
For  orders,  more  than  we  had  dreamed. 

Poured  in  from  far  away. 

Two  busy  years  went  flitting  by, 
And  found  our  space  too  small; 

So  then  we  built  a  factory 
We  thought  would  hold  us  all. 


While  our  new  engine,  stately,  strong. 

Its  shaft  of  belting  moved. 
Which  made  the  buzz-saws  hum  their  songs, 

While  cutting  out  their  grooves. 
While  from  our  large  new  printing-press, 

Which  filled  so  well  its  place. 
Came  Gleanings  forth  in  its  new  dress,— 
'  Twas  worn  with  smiling  face. 
Her  "  Heads  of  Grain  "  were  full  indeed; 

Her  ••  Blasted  Hopes  "  were  small; 
Because  success  would  write  with  speed; 

But  failure,  scarce  at  all. 
The  boys  and  girls  wrote  lettei-s  too. 

To  say  that  "Pa  keeps  bees;" 
[Jntil  a  barrowful  they  grew, 

And  yet  they  did  not  cease. 
So  Juvenile  came  on  behind. 

To  carry  them  along. 
Impelled  by  aid  of  Hasty  mind, 

It  soon  trrew  large  and  strong. 
But,  oh  1  the  factory  is  too  small— 

With  joy  we  build  again; 
We  now  behold  the  rising  wall. 

Built  up  by  busy  men. 

And  then  the  cheei-f  ul  buzz  of  biz 

Will  fill  the  new  wing  too. 
And  Novice's  contented  phiz 

A  broader  field  will  view. 
And  at  the  sacred  hour  of  noon. 

Ten  golden  minutes  spend. 
Where  swells  the  organ's  sweetl.v  tune. 

While  prayer  and  praise  asceiid. 
May  Gleanings  have,  and  Juvenile, 

A  fat  subscription  list  I 
Be  full  of  blessings  all  the  while. 

The  helpless  to  assist. 
Wlien  Novice  has  grown  old  and  gray. 

Serving  the  Master  here. 
Oh  may  he  hear  the  Savior  say, 

I'm  with  thee  —  never  fear! 

Feb.  i,  1886. — Bee  culture  is  still  progressing,  although  the  disastrous  losses  of  the  winter 
of  188-l-'8.5  proved  quite  a  setback,  and  induced  many  to  give  up  the  business.  Our  most 
successful  bee-keepers  have,  however,  either  wintered  safely  as  usual,  or  have  speedily 
made  up  for  what  losses  they  may  have  met.  The  present  edition  of  this  book  brings  it  up 
to  27,000,  and  many  improvements  have  been  made,  not  only  here  in  the  Home  of  the 
Honey-Bees,  but  in  methods  of  working,  and  appliances,  that  will  be  found  explained  in 
the  pages  of  the  book. 

Quite  a  stir  has  been  made  in  the  newspapers,  in  consequence  of  false  statements  having 
been  made  to  the  effect  that  Yankee  ingenuity  had  succeeded  in  making  nice-looking  comb 
honey  by  machinery.  The  statements  are  utterly  false,  of  course;  and  although  we  have 
not  been  able  to  make  the  newspapers  at  large  recall  their  damaging  sensational  state- 
ments, I  believe  they  have  pretty  much  dropped  the  matter,  although  the  effect  has  been 
quite  discouraging  on  the  sale  of  genuine  honey.  The  immense  crops  of  honey  that  Amer- 
ican bee-keepers  are  now  putting  into  every  market  of  the  world  has  perhaps  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  these  fraudulent  newspaper  articles.  Excellent  liquid  honey  is  now  sold 
in  market  as  low  as  10  cts.  per  lb.,  or  9  cts.  for  5  lbs.  or  more.  Comb  honey  brings  about  a 
half  more.  A  choice  article  in  one-pound  sections  will,  however,  command  double  the 
price  of  liquid  honey  in  many  markets. 

HOME  OF  THE   HONEY-BEES   IN   1SS7. 

It  is  now  May,  1887,  and  this  edition  of  the  A  B  C  book  numbers  the  32d  thou- 
sand, accompanied  with  an  increased  subscription -list  to  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture. 
The  Home  of  the  Honey-Bees,  as  seen  a  few  leaves  back,  has  been  greatly  enlarged, 
as  you  notice,  for  1887,  and  our  floor-room  now  aggregates  over  an  acre  of  ground. 
The  new  addition  to  the  works  was  built  in  1886,  and  is  seen  just  below  the  large 
main  building.  It  is  44  X  96  feet,  two  stories  and  a  basement.  It  is  in  this  struc- 
ture that  all  our  hives,  sections,  crates,  etc.,  are  made.  In  the  upper  story  of  the 
building  is  the  tinning  department.  The  machinery  in  both  buildiiigs  is  now  run  by 
an  engine  of  90  horse-power,  which  keeps  250  feet  of  line  shafting  iuunraing,  to  say 
nothing  of  counter- sliafting  and  belts.  Onr  capacity  is  now  so  increased  that  we 
can  turn  out  daily  from  20,000  to  ")0,000  sections  or  1000  liives,  besides  a  vast  quantity 
of  other  work.  As  fast  as  the  hives,  sections,  etc.,  are  turned  out  they  are  loaded 
on  to  trucks  and  siioved   into  the  main   building,  on  the  elevated  sidewalk,  as  seen 


INTRODUCTION. 

back  of  the  locomotive  coming  up  our  side  -  track.  In  the  main  building  ai-e 
the  packing-rooms  where  the  goods  are  marked  ready  for  shipment.  The  draw-bridge 
then  carries  them  across  the  track  over  to  the  freight  depot,  as  seen  in  the  left  — 
a  structure  which  was  built  by  the  railroad  company  largely  to  accommodate  the 
increase  in  our  business.  We  are  now  shipping  about  a  carload  of  goods  daily,  and 
we  have  not  yet  reached  our  busiest  season.  Last  season  we  shipped,  during  the 
month  of  June,  about  a  carload  and  a  half  of  goods  daily,  to  go  by  freight,  and 
about  a  carload  to  go  by  express,  to  say  nothing  of  the  mail  orders.  I  give  you 
these  few  facts  relative  to  the  work  at  the  Home  of  the  IIoney-Bees.  that  you  may 
know  the  present  status  and  demands  of  bee-keeping. 

Now,  dear  reader,  I  do  not  know  how  it  seems  to  you  ;  but  when  I  take  a  look  at 
the  scene  of  activity  as  shown  in  the  engraving  of  the  Home  of  the  Honey-Bees  for 
1887,  it  seems  to  me  almost  as  if  it  could  not  be  reality.  It  was  only  a  very  short  time  ago 
that  I  was  a  blundering  boy  —  yes,  a  boy  who  cried  over  his  plans  because  they  did  not 
work  just  as  he  had  ligured  out  they  ought  to  work.  When  this  blundering  boy,  however, 
stopped  working  for  himself,  and  began  working  for  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  glory, 
giving  employment  to  those  who  seemed  to  be  in  sad  need  of  it,  etc.,  then,  by  some  strange 
process,  success  seemed  to  crown  his  humble  efforts.  It  seemed  as  if  some  great  and 
mighty  poM-er  had  the  control  and  management;  and  who  shall  say  that  such  has  not  been 
the  case  while  the  motto  still  remains,  cut  in  the  solid  sandstone  right  over  the  arch,  in  the 
center  of  the  main  building—"  In  God  we  tmsV  f 

Sept.  1, 188S. — At  this  date  we  are  called  upon  to  record  the  poorest  crop  of  honey  I  have 
ever  known  since  I  have  been  familiar  with  honey-bees.  The  most  discouraging  feature 
connected  with  it  is.  that  the  two  seasons  previous  were  also  poor.  This  present  year,  250 
colonies  in  the  apiaries  at  the  Home  of  the  Honey-Bees  have  given  scarcely  250  pounds  of 
surplus,  and  at  the  same  time  almost  no  increase.  This  state  of  affairs  is  pretty  much  the 
rule,  not  only  throughout  all  the  United  States,  but  also  in  Canada  and  Great  Britain.  A 
few  favored  localities  have  reported  good  yields  of  honey  ;  but  the  crop  is,  for  the  most 
part,  a  failure.  As  our  readers  are  aware,  however,  we  hold  fast  to  the  promise  that  "  all 
things  shall  work  together  for  good  to  those  who  love  God ;"  and  no  doubt  good  will  re- 
sult, even  from  these  dull  seasons  for  honey.  It  may  be  that  too  many  are  embarking  in 
the  bee-business ;  perhaps  too  many  have  been  investing  with  the  hope  of  immediate,  sure, 
and  safe  returns.  If  so,  these  poor  seasons,  even  a  succession  of  them,  may  teach  us  a 
healthful  moral  lesson.  Uncertainty  is  the  rule  with  things  in  this  world  ;  but  although 
even  heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  we  have  God's  promise  that  Ms  wt.rd  and  his  prom- 
ises shall  never  pass  away. 

Airril.  1890. — The  season  of  1889  was  in  some  localities  exceedingly  good  ;  in  others  fair, 
and  in  others,  again  (our  State  of  Ohio  included),  rather  poor.  A  good  many  have  aban- 
doned bee-keeping  entirely  ;  but  T  do  not  know  that  the  numbers  are  much  greater  than 
those  who  are  continually  abandoning  other  pursuits  because  they  have  their  ups  and 
downs.  The  veterans,  and  those  who  started  out  to  make  l>ee  culture  a  specialty,  have 
overcome  most  of  the  difficulties  attendant  upon  wintering,  and  have,  as  a  rule,  secured 
pretty  fair  crops  of  honey.  Our  own  business  has  continued  to  increase  and  develop. 
This  edition  of  the  ABC  book  is  printed  on  a  beautiful  new  Campbell  oscillating  press, 
w^hich  does  mf)re  than  double  the  work  of  the  press  used  heretofore.  As  an  illustration  of 
the  amount  of  work  it  will  do,  it  prints  a  complete  copy  of  our  journal,  Gleanings  in  Bee 
Culture,  32  pages  the  size  of  this,  in  six  seconds,  except  the  cover,  and  keeps  on  doing  it 
hour  after  hour.  My  son  Ernest,  and  John  (my  son-in-law)  have  charge  of  the  principal 
part  of  the  business  of  the  establishment ;  and  the  credit  is  greatly  due  to  their  faithful 
work,  having  established  pleasant  business  relations  not  only  with  the  bee-keepers  of  our 
land,  but  with  supply-dealers  as  well.  In  order  to  save  expensive  freight-bills,  hives  and 
sections  are  now  being  shipi)ed  from  different  points  in  the  United  States,  instead  of  going 
entirely  from  our  estalilishment.  Many  of  the  bee-friends  are  troubled,  and  justly  so,  at 
the  destruction  of  our  basswood  timber  for  the  purpose  of  making  honey-boxes ;  and  I 
have  been  urging  not  only  to  ydant  basswoods,  but  to  fence  off  and  preserve  the  young 
basswood-trees  that  are  coming  u])  in  our  forests.  These  will  grow  with  great  rapidity  if 
cattle  and  other  stock  are  fenced  off  from  them.  During  a  visit  through  AVisconsin  in 
July,  1889,  I  witnessed  the  taking  of  enormous  crops  of  basswood  honey,  both  comb  and 
extracted  ;  and  the  large  groves  belonging  to  Wisconsin  come  pretty  near  placing  her 


INTRODUCTION. 

among  the  t'oieradst  of  our  honey-i)ioducing  States.  A  visit  to  California  toward  the  close 
of  the  j^ear  1888  gave  me  an  insight  into  their  Avonderful  climate  and  resources  for  honey 
as  well  as  other  things.  During  the  i)ast  year  our  attention  has  been  called  to  enormous 
croits  of  beautiful  honey  from  the  alfalfa  of  the  desert  of  the  Great  West.  As  this  is 
raised  now  by  means  of  irrigation,  tlie  honey  crop  is  a  permanent  affair;  and  not  only  is  It 
producing  beautiful  honey  by  the  ton,  but  even  by  the  carload.  Just  now  tlie  alfalfa  re- 
gions promise  an  encouraging  future  for  honey-producers.  Our  noonday  services,  men- 
tioned in  the  fore  part  of  this  introduction,  are  still  prospering.  Each  Thursday  noon  is 
entirely  devoted  to  repeating  texts.  The  organization  known  as  "  King's  Daughters ''  has 
given  it  quite  an  impetus,  and  some  one  of  the  Daughters  of  the  establishment  selects 
texts  to  be  read  by  the  different  ones  present.  These  texts  very  often  form  a  sort  of  Bible- 
reading,  and  sometimes  occupy  the  entire  ten  minutes  tliat  are  devoted  to  the  services, 
and  occasionally  more.  More  ground  has  been  added  to  our  original  18  acres  ;  and  as  I 
dictate  these  words  my  eye  rests  fondly  on  a  piece  of  work  that  has  been  a  special  hobby 
of  mine.  On  a  gentle  hill  forming  the  highest  ground  in  our  neighborhood  is  an  enf)rmous 
water-tank,  kept  full  by  a  beautiful  windmill  of  modern  make.  This  tank  is  elevated  on 
a  brick  basement,  and  stands  sentinel  over  our  entire  establishment,  to  guard  it  in  case  of 
lire  ;  that  is,  the  Grinnell  automatic  sprinklers  are  now  placed  over  the  ceilings  of  every 
room  of  our  large  buildings  ;  and  just  as  soon  as  a  fire  starts  anywhere,  in  the  night  or  on 
Sunday,  even  if  no  one  is  around,  suitable  automatic  machinery  commences  to  shower  the 
contents  of  the  water-tank  right  over  the  fire  and  nowhere  else.  Some  of  my  friends  say 
that  Providence  favored  me  in  my  project  of  drilling  a  well  on  top  of  a  hill,  for  I  found 
beautiful  w^ater  within  100  feet  of  the  surface,  and  the  windmill  sends  us  a  constant  stream 
of  pure  water  right  from  the  bottf)m  of  the  well,  for  the  health  and  enjoyment  of  all  the 
members  of  our  establishment  when  thirsty.  I  have  most  abundant  reason  to  close  these 
remarks  with  the  words  I  used  last :  "Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  aw^ay ;  but  God's  prom- 
ises and  his  word  shall  never  pass  away." 

H03IE  OF  THE  HONEY-BEES   IN   1891. 

August  i,  1891.— The  season  of  1890  was  generally  poor,  while  that  of  1891  was  in  most 
localities  good.  The  clover  was  prolonged  l)y  frequent  rains,  and  the  basswood  yielded 
well.  The  Home  of  the  Honey-bees,  likewise,  has  prospered,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  bird's- 
eye  view  shown  in  the  frontispiece  engravings.  In  the  fall  of  1890  we  erected  a  fireproof 
building,  36  x  98,  tw^o  stories  and  basement.  It  stands  just  in  the  rear  of  the  main  build- 
ing, and  helps  to  complete  the  hollow  square.  In  this  building  all  the  metal  work  is  done. 
On  the  first  fioor  is  a  w^ell-equipped  machine-shop  ;  on  the  second  floor  is  the  tin- shop,  and 
the  basement  is  used  for  storage.  Runways  connect  the  upper  and  lower  stories  of  the 
machine-shop  and  wood-working  building  and  the  main  building ;  and  three  modern 
freight  elevators,  besides  the  stairways,  communicate  with  the  three  floors.  While  the 
several  buildings  are  separated  from  each  other  by  fire- walls,  and  fifty  feet  of  intervening 
space,  they  are  practically  all  in  one  on  account  of  these  runways.  Several  Smead  odorless 
water-closets  are  conveniently  situated  at  different  parts  of  our  bee-plant. 

In  order  to  obtain  the  requisite  power  to  run  our  machinery,  new  boiler  power  had  to  be 
added,  and,  with  this,  more  engines.  One  large  loO-horse-power  engine  runs  the  wood- 
working department;  a  10-horse-power,  the  tin-shop  ;  a  10-horse-power,  the  wax-room  and 
dynamo ;  a  7-horse-power,  our  press  and  printing  department.  During  the  mornings  and 
evenings  of  the  winter  months  our  whole  establishment  is  lit  up  by  electricity.  It  is  also 
used  when  we  run  niglits. 

In  1891  an  east  and  west  railroad  was  built,  and  is  shown  at  the  upper  left-hand  corner 
of  the  picture.  This  enables  us  to  secure  reduced  fr  ight  rates  to  all  i)arts  of  the  country. 
A  switch  connects  the  two  roads,  and,  besides,  we  have  a  ('oui)le  of  independent  switches 
of  our  own,  with  a  short  line  of  track  to  each  as  shown.  Cars  are  loaded  by  our  own  men, 
right  on  the  track  next  to  the  manufactory,  and  this  insures  i-areful  liandling  of  goods  at 
our  end  of  the  route.  This  is  considerable  advantage  in  handling  honey,  and  other  goods 
that  require  to  be  handled  witli  care. 

In  1891  we  erected  a  large  w^arehouse,  two  stories  and  basement,  48x96,  alongside  of  the 
east  and  west  railroad,  and  within  easy  access  of  our  two  switches.  It  is  shown  on  the 
left.  Hives,  sections,  etc.,  are  made  up  during  our  dull  season,  and  stored  there  until  the 
busy  season,  when  the  already  packed  goods  are  marked  and  sent  off.    This  not  onlv  in- 


IXTRODUCTION. 

sures  careful  workumnship,  when  we  can  give  our  undividt-d  care  and  attention,  but  also 
prompt  shipment. 

In  addition  to  tlie  Grinnell  automatic  sprinklers  mentioned  above,  in  the  summer  of  ISHl 
we  put  in  an  immense  Ilewes  duplex  tire-pump.  7x12x14,  and  oOO  it.  of  2i-inc]i  rubber 
hos3.  Six  large  underground  pipes  connect  as  manj^  hydrant-houses  at  various  joints, 
within  easy  accoss  of  the  buildings  and  luml)er  piles.  Steam  pressure  is  kept  up  constant- 
ly, ready  for  a  fire.  In  such  an  emergency  one  man  can  jerk  out  the  hose,  open  the  hy- 
drant, and  a  stream  of  water  will  be  sent  from  a  U-incli  nozzle.  Our  supply  of  water  not 
only  comes  from  the  large  tank  on  the  hill,  spoken  of  above,  and  shown  in  one  corner  of 
the  cut,  but  from  a  large  cistern  containing  2(HJ0  barrels;  and  in  case  of  emergency,  from 
our  town  waterworks  supply.  About  6000  barrels  of  water  hangs  over  our  plant,  ready  at 
any  moment  for  a  fire. 

Six  years  ago  our  north  and  south  road  erected  a  big  freight  depot,  largely  for  our  pur- 
pose, so,  as  you  might  say.  it  is  really  a  part  of  our  plant.    It  is  shown  in  the  foreground. 

Our  home  apiary,  just  the  other  side  of  the  buildings,  consisting  of  some  200  or  30(J  colo- 
nies, is  devoted  exclusively  to  the  rearing  of  queens  and  bees,  largely  from  imported 
Italian  stock.  The  business  of  shipping  bees  by  the  nucleus  is  still  a  large  industry.  Our 
apiary  is  inadequate  for  supplying  all  our  needs,  and  so  we  draw^  on  three  or  four  other 
apiaries  in  our  locality,  besides  receiving  large  numbers  of  queens  for  mailorders  from  the 
South.  A  large  bank  barn,  with  some  good  horses,  besides  smaller  w^arehouses,  help  to 
make  up  our  equipment.  Our  general  office  and  storeroom,  bee-hive  factory,  machine- 
shop,  warehouses,  lumber-yards,  etc.,  together  with  the  barn,  cover  about  five  acres;  and 
this  entire  amount  is  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  the  interests  of  the  little  bee.  A  visitor 
at  the  Home  of  the  Honey-bees  in  1878  would  hardly  recognize  it  in  its  enlarged  propor- 
tions. Outside  of  these  five  acres  the  rest  of  the  land,  over  15  acres,  is  devoted  to  high- 
pressure  gardening,  and  is  the  hobljy  of  the  founder  of  the  Home  of  the  Honey-bees. 
After  reading  the  mail,  and  taking  a  general  bird's-eye  view^  of  the  business  in  the  office, 
he  re-creates  himself  out  in  the  garden,  while  the  "  boys ''  as  he  calls  them,  Ernest  and 
John  and  their  eflicient  helpers,  look  after  the  details  of  the  general  business.  The  former 
has  charge  of  the  bees  and  the  experimental  work,  hive  construction,  the  printing  and 
publishing  department;  while  the  latter  has  the  supervision  of  the  orders,  general  busi- 
ness, and  otfice  w^ork.  From  ten  to  fifteen  clerks,  mostly  ladies,  keep  the  books,  open  the 
letters,  etc.,  while  five  Remington  typewriters  answer  most  of  the  correspondence  and 
general  billing.  It  takes  fifteen  large  ledgers  to  keep  track  of  the  accounts.  Over  all  this 
the  "big  boss  "  and  founder  of  the  Home  of  the  Honey-bees  has  a  general  supervision. 

Ernest. 


A  COLONY   OF  BEES  LIVING   AND   PROSPERING  WITHOUT  A   HIVE, 
AS  SOMETIMES  SEEN  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


Whe  1  B  a  ©f  Bee  aulbupe. 


A. 


ABSCONDZIVG  SVr,ASiMlS.-Per- \ 
luips  nothing  is  more  aggravating  in  bee  ' 
culture  than  to  have  your  bees  all  on  a  sud- 
den "•  light  out  "^  for  parts  unknown,  without 
so  much  as  stopping  to  give  you  a  parting 
word  of  farewell,  or  a  single  token  of  recog- 
nition of  the  debt  they  owe  you,  in  the 
shape  of  gratitude  for  your  past  kindnesses 
in  providing  them  with  a  home,  shelter,  etc. 
Perhaps  no  part  of  animated  creation  exhib- 
its a  gi'eater  love  of  home  than  does  the 
honey-bee  ;  no  matter  how  humble  or  unin- 
viting the  surroundings,  they  seem  much 
attached  to  their  home;  and  as  they  parade 
in  front  of  their  door-way  after  a  hard  day's 
work,3*plainly  indicate  that  they  have  a  keen 
idea  of  the  rights  of  ownership,  and  exhib- 
it a  willingness  to  give  their  lives  freely, 
if  need  be.  in  defense  of  their  hard-earned 
stores.  It  is  diflicult  to  understand  how 
they  can  ever  be  willing  to  abandon  it 
all,  and  with  such  sudden  impulse,  and 
common  consent.  No  matter  if  they  have 
never  seen  or  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  a  hol- 
low tree,  but  have  for  innumerable  bee  gen- 
erations been  domesticated  in  hives  made 
by  human  hands,  none  the  less  have  they 
that  instinctive  longing  that  prompts  them 
to  seek  the  forest,  as  soon  as  they  get  loose 
from  the  chains  of  domestication.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  bees,  as  they  go  out  foraging, 
keej)  an  eye  out  for  desirable  places  for 
starting  new  homes,  and  it  may  be  that  they 
have  the  hollow  trees  picked  out  some  time 
before  they  decide  to  leave.*  Many  incidents 
have  been  reported  that  pretty  clearly 
show  this  to  be  the  case.  We  once  found 
our  bees  working  strongly  on  a  i)articular  | 
locality  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
apiary,  where  the  white  clover  was  bloom- 
ing witli  most  unusual  luxuriance.  A''ery  I 
soon  after,  a  colony  swarmed,  and  the  bees,  • 
after  pouring  out  of  the  hive,  took  a  direct 

♦Whenever  these  small  flc-ures  occur,  the  reader 
is  requested  to  turn  to  Uoolittle's  and  Miller's  com-  , 
ments  at  the  close  of  this  book. 


line  for  a  tree  in  this  clover-field,  without  so 
much  as  making  any  attempt  to  cluster  at 
all.  Did  they  not  figure  out  the  advantage 
of  having  only  a  few  rods  instead  of  over  a 
mile  to  carry  their  honey,  after  having  pa- 
tiently gathered  it  from  the  blossoms,  little 
by  little  V  Perhaps  it  will  be  well  to  remark 
here,  that  it  is  very  unusual  for  a  swarm  to 
go  to  the  woods  without  clustering;  they 
usually  hang  from  15  minutes  to  an  hour, 
and  many  times  several  hours  ;  in  fact,  we 
have  known  them  to  hang  over  night :  but 
perhaps  it  would  be  well  to  take  care  of 
them  inside  of  15  or  20  minutes,  if  we  would 
make  sure  of  them.  Long  before  swarming- 
time,  hives  should  all  be  in  readiness,  and 
they  should  also  be  located  just  where  the 
new  colony  is  to  stand,  with  the  sawdust, 
grapevines,  or  whatever  we  decide  to  have, 
all  in  nice  trim.  If  you  are  going  to  have  a 
model  apiary,  please  do  not  think  of  waiting 
until  the  bees  swarm  before  you  lay  it  out, 
but  take  time  by  the  forelock,  and  with  care- 
ful deliberation  decide  where  every  hive 
shall  be  before  it  is  peopled  Avith  bees,  if  you 
wish  to  keep  ahead  and  keep  your  bees  from 
taking  "•French  leave."" 

But  they  sometimes  go  off,  even  after  tliey 
have  been  carefully  hived,  some  will  say. 
We  are  well  aw^are  they  do  often  go  off  after 
being  hived,  sometimes  the  same,  and  some- 
times the  next  day;  but  are  you  sure  the  hiv- 
ing was  carefully  done  V  We  never  feel 
satisfied  unless  we  have  given  the  new- 
swarm  at  least  one  comb  ccmtaining  unseal- 
ed brood,  and  we  have  seldom  had  a  swarm 
desert  a  hive  when  thus  furnished,  nor  do  we 
often  hear  of  ()ne"s  doing  so.  With  such 
hives  as  we  shall  describe,  it  is  a  very  simple 
task,  and  takes  but  a  minute  to  open  a  liive 
and  get  such  a  comb.  And  besides,  if  by 
any  chance  you  should  fail  to  get  the  queen 
when  you  hive  the  swarm,  they  would  Jje 
supplied  with  the  means  of  rearing  another. 

This  plan  of  giving  them  unsealed  brood 


ABSCONDING  SWARMS. 


ABSCONDING  SWARMS. 


does  very  well,  if  yoii  can  once  get  them  into 
the  hive,  but  it  is  necessarily  somewhat  like 
the  one  of  catching  birds  with  a  handful  of 
salt ;  how  are  we  to  obviate  losing  the  occa- 
sional swarm  that  goes  off  without  cluster- 
ing at  all  V  or  the  quite  frequent  cases  of 
coming  out  unobserved,  or  when  no  one  is 
at  home  V  We  are  happy  to  say  there  is  a 
very  certain  and  sure  remedy  for  all  cases  of 
first  swarming,  in  having  the  wings  of  the 
queen  clipped  so  she  can  not  fly  ;  this  plan 
is  in  very  general  use,  and  answers  excellent- 
ly for  all  first  swarms  ;  but,  alas!  the  after- 
swarms  are  the  very  ones  that  are  most  apt 
to  abscond,  and  we  can  not  clip  the  wings  of 
their  queens,  because  they  have  not  yet  taken 
their  wedding-flight.  What  shall  we  do  V 
Candidly,  I  don't  know  of  any  better  way 
than  to  watch  carefully  when  they  are  to  be 
expected,  and  then  chase  after  them,  climb 
trees,  etc.,  until  they  are  once  got  safely  into 
a  hive.  If  you  think  this  too  much  trouble, 
prevent  having  after-swarms  as  we  advise 
under  that  head. 

Clipping  the  wings  of  the  queen  prevents 
losing  first  swarms  by  absconding,  it  is  true; 
but  it  does  not  always  prevent  losing  the 
queen.  She  goes  out  with  the  bees  as  usual, 
and.  after  hopping  about  in  front  of  the  hive, 
sometimes  gets  ready  to  go  back  at  about 
the  same  time  that  the  bees  do,  after  having 
discovered  she  is  not  in  the  crowd.  Even  if 
she  gets  some  little  distance  from  the  hive, 
the  loud  hum  they  make  as  they  return,  will 
guide  her  home  many  times;  but  unless  the 
apiarist  is  at  hand  at  such  times  to  look  aft- 
er affairs,  many  queens  will  be  lost,"  and 
the  bees  will  rear  a  lot  of  young  queens,  and 
go  into  after-swarming  in  good  earnest, 
making  even  the  first  swarm  an  ''after- 
swarm."  A  German  friend,  who  knows  lit- 
tle of  bee  culture,  once  told  me  my  bees  were 
swarming,  and  if  I  did  not  ring  the 
bells,  etc.,  they  would  certainly  go  to  the 
woods.  As  I  quietly  picked  up  the  queen  in 
passing  the  hive,  I  told  him  if  they  started 
to  go  away,  I  wovild  call  them  back.  Sure 
enough,  they  did  start  for  the  Avoods,  and 
had  gone  so  far  that  I  really  began  to  be 
frightened  myself,  when,  away  in  the  dis- 
tance, we  saw  them  suddenly  wheel  about, 
and  then  return  to  the  hive  at  our  very  feet. 
While  he  gave  me  credit  of  having  some  su- 
pernatiu'al  power  over  bees,  I  felt  extremely 
glad  I  had  taken  precautions  to  clip  all  our 
queens'  wings  but  a  few  days  before.  After 
this.  I  felt  a  little  proud  of  my  control  over 
these  wayward  insects,  until  a  fine  swarm  of 
Italians  started  off  under  similar  circum- 


stances, and,  despite  my  very  complacent, 
positive  remarks,  to  the  effect  that  they 
would  soon  come  home,  they  went  off  and 
stayed  "  off."  In  a  humbler,  and,  I  dare  say, 
wiser  frame  of  mind,  I  ''investigated,"  and 
found  they  had  joined  with  a  very  small 
third  swarm  of  black  bees,  that  had  just 
come  from  one  of  a  neighbor's  hives.  I 
tried  to  "explain,"  but  it  required  a  five- 
dollar  bill  to  make  matters  so  clear  that  I 
could  carry  back  my  rousing  swarm  of  yel- 
low bees,  and  sort  out  the  black  unfertile 
queen,  that  they  might  be  made  to  accept 
their  own.  Thus  you  see,  my  friends,  how 
many  a  slip  there  is,  in  bee  culture,  between 
cup  and  lip,  and  how  very  important  it  is 
that  you  keep  posted,  and  also  "post"  your- 
self in  some  conspicuous  place  near  or  in 
the  apiary  if  you  allow  natural  swarming,  and 
do  not  want  your  golden  visions — and  bees 
— to  take  to  themselves  wings  and  fly  away. 

ABSCONDING  FOR  WANT  OF  FOOD. 

Perhaps  bees  oftener  desert  their  hives 
because  they  are  short  of  stores,  than  from 
any  other  cause ;  and  many  times,  in  the 
spring,  they  seem  to  desert  because  they  are 
nearly  out.  The  remedy,  or,  rather,  prevent- 
ive, for  this  state  of  affairs,  is  so  plain  that 
we  hardly  need  discuss  it.  After  they  have 
swarmed  out,  and  are  put  back  into  the 
hive,  give  them  a  heavy  comb  of  sealed 
stores  if  you  can;  if  not,  feed  them  a  little 
at  a  time,  until  they  have  plenty,  and  be 
sure  that  they  have  brood  in  the  combs.  If 
necessary,  give  them  a  comb  of  unsealed 
larvae  from  some  other  hive,  and  then  feed 
them  until  they  have  a  great  abvmdance  of 
food.  You  should  be  ashamed  of  having 
bees  abscond  for  want  of  food. 

ABSCONDING  IN  EARLY  SPRING. 

This  seems  to  occur  just  at  a  time  when 
you  can  ill  afford  to  lose  a  single  bee ;  and, 
worse  still,  only  when  oiu-  stocks  are,  gener- 
ally, rather  weak,  so  that  we  dislike  the  idea 
of  losing  any  of  them.  In  this  case  they  do 
not,  as  a  general  thing,  seem  to  care  particu- 
larly for  going  to  the  woods,  but  rather  take 
a  fancy  to  pushing  their  way  into  some  of 
the  adjoining  hives,  and,  at  times,  a  whole 
apiary  will  seem  so  crazy  with  the  idea,  as 
to  become  utterly  demoralized. 

A  neighbor,  who  made  a  hobby  of  small 
hives — less  than  half  tlie  usual  size — one  fine 
April  day  had  as  many  as  40  colonies  leave 
their  hives  and  cluster  together  in  all  sorts 
of  promiscuous  combinations.  To  say  that 
their  owner  was  perplexed,  would  be  stating 
the  matter  very  mildly. 


ABSCONDING  SWARMS. 


3 


AFTER-SWARMING. 


Similar  cases,  though  perhaps  not  as  bad, 
have  been  reported  from  time  to  time,  ever 
since  novices  commenced  to  learn  the  sci- 
ence of  bee  culture;  and  although  cases  of 
swarming  out  in  tlie  spring  were  known 
once  in  a  great  while  before  the  new  im- 
provements, they  were  nothing  like  the  ma- 
nia that  has  seemed  to  possess  entire  apia- 
ries— small  ones — since  the  time  of  artificial 
swarming,  honey-extractors,  etc.  We  would 
by  no  means  discourage  these  improve- 
ments, but  only  warn  beginners  against  mak- 
ing too  much  haste  to  be  rich.  Do  not  di- 
vide or  commence  swarming  your  bees,  until 
they  are  abundantly  strong  ;  have  them  go 
into  winter  quarters  with  an  abundance  of 
sealed  honey  in  tough  old  combs  as  far  as 
may  be  ;  give  them  hives  with  walls  thick 
and  warm,  of  some  porous  material,  such  as 
chaff  or  straw,  with  a  good  thickness  of  the 
same  above,  and  you  will  liave  little  cause 
to  fear  any  trouble  from  bees  absconding  in 
the  spring. 

ABSCONDING  NUCLEUS  SWARMS. 

This,  like  the  above,  seems  an  outgrowth 
of  the  artificial  system  of  working  with  bees, 
especially  the  plan  of  rearing  queens  in  nu- 
clei formed  of  two  or  three  frames  five  or  six 
inches  square.  This  small-hive  system  was 
much  in  vogue  abovit  the  year  1865.  For 
awhile  all  worked  finely;  but  soon  complaints 
began  to  be  heard  that  the  bees  left  their 
hives  in  a  body,  with  the  queen,  whenever 
she  attempted  to  take  her  flight  to  meet  the 
drones.  Giving  them  unsealed  larvae,  to 
amuse  and  console  themselves  with  while 
she  was  absent,  was  then  advised,  and  it  an- 
swered very  well  for  a  time;  but  eventually 
one  after  another  began  to  declare  they 
wanted  no  frame  in  the  apiary  for  queen- 
rearing,  smaller  than  the  ordinary  brood- 
frame.  Since  this,  but  little  has  been  heard 
in  the  way  of  complaints  of  this  kind  of  ab- 
sconding. Where  one  has  the  time  to  study 
these  little  swarms,  there  is  something  very 
interesting  and  amiising  about  them.  We 
have  had  them  do  finely  for  several  weeks, 
with  perhaps  no  more  than  a  good  pint  of 
bees.  A  good  day's  work  during  clover- 
bloom  would  fill  the  hive  completely,  and 
the  young  (pieen,  after  commencing  to  lay, 
would  often  fill  the  combs  by  her  second 
day's  work  ;  then  if  she  turned  up  missing 
on  the  third  day,  we  used  to  wonder  wliat  in 
the  world  was  the  matter.  Sometimes  these 
little  swarms  would  be  found  hanging  on 
a  ciuTant  or  rasjiberry  bush,  as  quietly  and 
demiuely  as  if  that  was  the  way  bees  always 
did  ;  at  other  times,  when  we  had  hunted 


through  all  available  places  for  a  truant  col- 
ony, and  given  them  up  in  despair,  they 
would  come  circling  back  and  cluster  quiet- 
ly almost  under  our  very  (inexperienced) 
noses. 

There  is  still  another  kind  of  absconding 
that  seems  to  be  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  the  bees  are  displeased  with  their  hive, 
or  its  surroundings,  and,  at  times,  it  seems 
rather  difficult  to  assign  any  good  reason  for 
their  having  suddenly  deserted.  I  have 
known  a  colony  to  swarm  out  and  desert 
their  hive  because  it  was  too  cold  and  open, 
and  we  have  known  them  to  desert  because 
the  combs  were  soiled  and  filthy  from  dys- 
entery in  the  spring.  They  very  often  swarm 
out  because  they  are  out  of  stores,  and  this 
generally  happens  about  the  first  day  in 
spring  that  is  sufiiciently  warm  and  sunny. 
I  have  known  them  to  swarm  out  because 
their  entrance  was  too  large,  and,  if  we  are 
not  mistaken,  because  it  was  too  small.  ^V"e 
have  also  kno\^^^  them  to  swarm  out  because 
they  were  so  "pestered"  with  a  neighboring 
ant-hill— see  Ants— that  they  evidently 
thought  patience  ceased  to  be  a  virtue. 

They  often  swarm  out  in  spring  where 
no  other  cause  can  be  assigned  than  that 
they  are  weak  and  discouraged,  and  in  such 
cases  they  usually  try  to  make  their  way  in- 
to other  colonies.'  While  it  may  not  always 
be  possible  to  assign  a  reason  for  such  be- 
havior with  medium  or  fair  colonies,  we 
may  rest  assured  that  good  strong  colonies, 
with  ample  supplies  of  sealed  stores,  seldom, 
if  ever,  go  into  any  such  foolishness. 

By  way  of  summing  up,  it  may  be  well  to 
say  :  If  you  would  not  lose  your  bees  by  nat- 
ural swarming,  clip  the  wings  of  all  queens 
as  soon  as  they  commence  laying;  then  look 
to  them  often,  and  know  what  is  going  on  in 
the  apiary  every  day  during  the  swarming 
season;  if  you  would  not  have  runaway 
swarms  in  the  spring,  and  Avhile  queens  are 
being  fertilized,  confine  your  experiments  to 
pecks  of  bees  instead  of  pints. 

AFTZ:R-SWAB.»IIirrG.-AVe  might 
define  this  by  saying  that  all  swarms  that 
come  out,  or  are  led  out  by  a  virgin  c^ueen, 
are  termed  after-swarms;  and  all  swarms 
that  come  out  within  ten  or  fifteen  days  aft- 
er the  first  swarm,  are  accompanied  by  such 
queens.  There  may  be  from  one  all  the  way 
up  to  a  half-dozen  or  even  more,  depending 
on  thB  yield  of  honey,  amount  of  brood  or 
larva},  and  the  weather ;  but  whatever 
the  number,  they  are  all  led  off  by  queens 
reared  from  one  lot  of  queen-cells,  and  the 
number  of  bees  accompanying  them  is,  of  a 


AFTEli-SW  ARMING. 


after-8Wakmi:ng. 


necessity,  less  each  time.  The  last  one  fre- 
quently contains  no  more  than  a  pint  of 
bees.  and.  if  hived  in  the  old  way,  would  be 
of  little  use  under  almost  any  circumstances; 
yet  when  supplied  with  combs  already  built 
and  filled  with  honey,  such  as  every  en- 
lightened apiarist  should  always  keep  in 
store,  they  may  be  made  the  very  best  of 
colonies,  for  they  have  young  and  vigorous 
queens,  and  often  are  equal  to  any  in  the 
apiary,  the  next  season.  This  after-swarm- 
ing is  often  considered  a  great  nuisance,  or 
misfortune  ;  but  where  bees  can  be  sold,  at 
even  tolerable  figures,  we  would  advise  tak- 
ing care  of  all  that  may  come  out  in  the  man- 
ner indicated.'  In  fact,  we  know  of  no  easi- 
er or  simpler  way  of  raising  bees  ;  but  unless 
the  apiary  and  bees  in  the  vicinity  are  pretty 
thoroughly  Italianized,  there  is  much  great- 
er risk  of  getting  poor  hybrids  than  by 
the  ditferent  ways  of  artificial  sw^arming, 
where  we  rear  om-  queen-cells  from  choice 
selected  brood. 

There  is  one  very  amusing  feature  in  re- 
gard to  these  after-swarms.  When  they 
have  decided  to  send  out  no  more  swarms, 
all  the  young  queens  in  the  hive  are  sent 
out,  or,  it  may  be,  allowed  to  go  out  with  the 
last  one;  and  every  few  days  dimng  the 
swarming  season,  some  "new^  hand"  writes 
us  about  the  wonderful  fact  of  his  having 
found  three  or  four,  or  it  may  be  a  half-doz- 
en queens  in  one  swarm.'*  On  one  occasion, 
a  friend,  who  weighed  something  over  200, 
ascended  to  the  top  of  an  apple-tree  during 
a  hot  July  day  to  liive  a  very  small  third 
swarm.  He  soon  came  down,  in  breathless 
haste,  to  inform  us  that  the  swarm  was  all 
queens;  and,  in  proof  of  it,  brought  two  or 
three  in  his  closed-up  hands. 

The  queens,  with  these  after-swarms,  sel- 
dom lay  in  the  drone -cells  at  all  the  first 
season,  and  the  Ijees  therefore  build  almost 
entirely  worker-comb,  which  is  additional 
reason  for  taking  care  of  them,  and  supply- 
ing them  with  stores  from  other  colonies. 
However,  we  would  advise,  as  a  general  rule, 
preventing  too  much  after-swarming  if  it 
can  be  done  without  much  trouble  ;  but,  if 
they  will  come  out  in  spite  of  all  we  can  do, 
take  care  of  them  in  the  manner  indicated. 
While  first  swarms  usually  come  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  day,  and  take  things  in  a  reg- 
ular, methodical  way,  as  indeed  we  might 
expect  a  laying  queen  of  age  and  experience 
to  do,  these  after-swarms,  that  have  queens 
not  yet  fertilized,  are  to  be  looked  for  at  al- 
most any  time  of  day,  from  early  in  the 
morning  until  after  sundown,  and  they  may 


also  be  exi)ected  to  do  all  sorts  of  eccentric 
things,  and  to  cluster  in  all  sorts  of  places, 
or  to  go  off  into  the  woods  without  cluster- 
ing at  all.'' 

Preventing  after-swarming  can  generally 
be  accomplished,  at  least  temporarily,  by  cut- 
ting out  all  queen-cells  but  one,  aftpr  the  old 
queen  with  the  first  swarm  has  left.i"  There 
are  two  objections  to  this  plan,  however. 
The  first  is.  that  if  the  single  cell  left  fails  to 
produce  a  perfect  queen,  the  colony  is  left 
queenless.  The  second  is,  that  they  Avill 
sometimes— esi)ecially  the  Italians — swarm 
out  with  the  only  queen  left,  leaving  the  col- 
ony entirely  queenless.^'j  With  the  extract- 
or, or  by  the  use  of  empty  combs,  we  can  al- 
most invarialily  keep  down  the  swarming  fe- 
ver; but  if  we  work  entirely  for  comb  honey, 
even  if  the  boxes  are  all  supplied  Avith  foun- 
dation, we  must  expect  to  have  more  or  less 
swarming.  With  box  hives,  perhaps  the  best 
we  can  do  is  to  hive  the  after-swarms  near 
the  old  stock,  and  let  them  set  until  the  next 
day ;  by  this  time  all  the  queens  will  have 
been  killed  but  one,  and  M'e  can  then  kill  her, 
shake  the  bees  in  front  of  their  old  hive,  and 
all  will  be  *■'  lovely,"  or  about  as  nearly  so  as 
things  ever  are  with  box  hives. 

Giving  the  old  swarm  a  young  fertile  queen 
as  soon  as  the  first  swarm  has  left,  will  usu- 
ally prevent  all  second  swarming,  at  least 
for  the  time  being,  for  the  laying  queen  will 
soon  destroy  all  queen-cells,  or  induce  the 
bees  to  do  so.  A  simpler  method,  and  one 
that  we  believe  succeeds  almost  invariably, 
is  to  move  the  old  colony  away  as  soon  as 
the  first  swarm  is  out,  and  set  the  new  one 
on  the  same  stand.  This  has  the  effect  of 
getting  all  the  flying  bees  into  the  new 
swarm,  and  leaving  the  old  one  so  destitute 
that  the  queen  that  hatches  first  is  allowed 
to  destroy  all  the  rest  of  the  cells.  By  this 
plan  we  are  spared  the  trouble  of  opening 
the  hive,  but  are  obliged  to  carry  each  hive 
to  a  new  stand  as  soon  as  it  has  swarmed. 
If  the  queen's  wing  is  clipped,  and  we  are  at 
hand,  we  can  manage  swarming  by  this 
method  very  expeditiously.  As  soon  as  they 
commence  swarming,  pick  up  the  queen 
and  carry  away  the  hive  they  are  coming  out 
of ;  place  the  new  one  in  its  stead;  and  as- 
soon  as  the  bees  commence  coming  back  to 
look  for  her,  put  the  queen  among  them,  and 
your  swarm  is  hived  without  their  cluster- 
ing at  all.  This  plan  works  excellently,  and 
the  bees  go  right  to  work,  apparently  as  per- 
fectly satisfied  as  if  they  had  clustered  in 
the  usual  way.  The  only  objection  is,  that 
an  inexperienced  peison  might  not  find  the 


AGE  OF  BEES. 


AGE  OF  BEES. 


<iueen  readily,  and  she  might  be  lost ;  also, 
we  are  obliged  to  be  on  hand  or  risk  losing 
our  queens.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
that  a  swarm  that  issues  a  month  or  more 
after  the  first  swarming,  is  not  to  be  consid- 
ered an  after-swarm;  for  in  this  case  it  will 
be  led  out  by  a  laying  queen,  or  one  that  is 
old,  compared  with  the  queens  just  hatching. 
In  regard  to  the  oft-repeated  advice  to  pre- 
vent after-swarming  by  removing  all  queen- 
cells  but  one,  it  may  be  well  to  say  that  the 
Italians  frequently  swarm  without  con- 
structing queen-cells  at  all,  and  the  beginner 
is  sadly  puzzled  at  finding  nothing  of  the 
kind  when  he  looks  his  hive  over.  Also,  we 
may  have  several  after-swarms  without  hav- 
ing any  first  swarm  at  all,  where  the  queen 
is  killed  or  removed  by  accident.  We  once 
had  a  box-hive  neighbor  who  was  so  much 
taken  up  with  an  observatory-hive  he  saw  at 
our  house  that  he  at  once  went  home  and  made 
one,  and.  to  get  the  bees,  drummed  out  about 
a  quart  from  one  of  his  hives.  He  got  the 
queen,  and  had  a  very  fine  one-comb  hive  in 
his  parlor  ;  but  in  a  few  days  the  box  hive 
she  came  from  commenced  swarming,  and 
furnished  him  with  more  queens  and  small 
colonies  than  he  knew  what  to  do  with. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  best  to  leave  entirely  out 
of  sight  the  old-fashioned  way  of  returning 
all  swarms  that  issue  when  no  more  swarms 
are  desired.  It  is  a  troublesome,  but  entire- 
ly effectual  way,  if  persisted  in,  and  was 
practiced  with  box  hives  before  the  advent 
of  the  movable  comb.  All  that  is  necessary 
is  to  put  the  swarm  back  into  the  parent 
hive  as  often  as  it  issues  ;  and  when  only 
one  young  queen  is  left  alive  in  the  hive,  the 
swarming  will  cease.  Sometimes  putting 
back  an  after-swarm  once  is  all  that  is  nec- 
essary. 

AGE  OP  BEES.— It  may  be  ratJier  dif- 
ficult to  decide  how  long  a  worker  bee  would 
live,  if  kept  from  wearing  itself  out  by  the 
active  labors  of  the  field;  six  months  cer- 
tainly, and  ])erhaps  a  year;  but  the  average 
life  during  the  summer  time  is  not  over 
three  months,  and  i)eiiiaps  during  the  height 
of  the  clover-bloom,  not  over  six  or  eight 
weeks.  The  matter  is  easily  determined,  by 
introducing  an  Italian  queen  to  a  liive  of 
black  bees,  at  different  periods  of  tlie  year. 
If  done  in  May  or  June,  we  shall  have  all 
Italians  in  the  tall;  and  if  we  note  when  the 
last  black  bees  hatch  out,  and  the  time  when 
no  black  l)ees  are  to  be  found  in  the  colony, 
we  shall  liave  a  pretty  accurate  idea  of  the 
age  of  the  blacks."  The  Italians  will  i>er- 
liaps  hold  out  under  the  same  circumstances. 
1 


a  half  longer.  If  we  introduce  the  Italian 
queen  in  September,  we  shall  find  black 
bees  in  the  hive  until  the  month  of  ]May 
following — they  may  disappear  a  little  ear- 
lier, or  may  be  found  some  later,  depending 
upon  the  time  they  commence  to  rear  brood 
largely.  The  bees  will  live  considerably 
longer  if  no  brood  is  reared,  as  has  been  sev- 
eral times  demonstrated  in  the  case  of  strong 
queenless  colonies.  It  is  also  pretty  well 
established  that  black  bees  will  live  longer 
in  the  spring  than  Italians ;  probably  be- 
cause the  latter  are  more  inclined  to  push 
out  into  the  fields  when  the  weather  is  too 
cool  for  them  to  do  so  with  safety ;  they  sel- 
dom do  this,  however,  ujiless  a  large  amount 
of  brood  is  on  hand,  and  they  are  suffering 
for  pollen  or  water. 

During  the  summer  months,  the  life  of 
the  worker-bee  is  probably  cut  short  by  the 
wearing-out  of  its  wings,  and  we  may,  at  the 
close  of  a  warm  day,  find  hundreds  of  these 
heavily  laden,  ragged-winged  veterans  mak- 
ing their  way  into  the  hives  slowly  and 
painfully,  compared  with  the  nimble  and 
perfect-winged  young  bees.  If  we  examine 
the  ground  around  the  apiary  at  nightfall, 
we  may  see  numbers  of  these  hopping  about 
on  the  ground,  evidently  recognizing  their 
own  inability  to  be  of  any  further  use  to  the 
community.  We  have  repeatedly  picked 
them  up,  and  placed  them  in  the  entrance, 
but  they  usually  seem  only  bent  on  crawling 
and  hopping  off  out  of  the  way,  where  they 
can  die  without  hindering  the  teeming  ris- 
ing generation. 

AGE  or  DRONES. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  decide  upon  the 
age  of  drones,  because  the  poor  fellows  are 
so  often  hustled  out  of  the  way,  for  the  sim- 
ple reason  that  they  are  no  longer  wanted ; 
but  we  may  be  safe  in  assuming  it  some- 
thing less  than  tlie  age  of  a  worker.  If  kept 
constantly  in  a  queenless  hive,  they  might 
live  for  three  or  four  months  perhaps. i"- 

AGE  OF  THE  gUEEN. 

As  the  queen  does  little  or  no  out-door 
I  work,  and  is  seldom  killed  by  violence  as 
are  the  drones,  we  might  expect  her  to  live 
to  a  good  old  age,  and  this  she  does,  despite 
her  arduous  ovipannis  duties.  Some  queens 
die,  seemingly  of  old  age, the  second  season, 
but  generally  they  live  through  the  second  or 
third,  and  we  have  had  them  lay  very 
well,  even  during  the  fourth  year.  They 
are  seldom  i)rofital)le  after  the  third  year, 
and  tlie  Italians  will  usually  have  a  young 
(jueen  "helping  lu'r  mother"  in  her  egg-lay- 
ing duties,  before  she  becomes  xmprofitable. 


ALFALFA. 


6 


If  a  very  large  amount  of  brood  is  found  in 
a  hive,  two  qneens  will  often  be  found, 
busily  employed,  and  this  point  should  be 
remembered  while  seeking  to  introduce  val- 
uable qiieens. 

ALFALFA,    OK,    LUCERNE    (Medicago 
sativa).    At  the  present  writing,  May,  1S90, 
there  is  considerable  difference  of  opinion 
in  regard  to  this  plant,  especially  in  refer- 
ence to  its  adaptability  to  the  average  soil? 
of  the  different  States.    In  the  great  deserts 
of  the  West,  California,  Arizcma,  Idaho,  and 
wherever  irrigation    is   depended  upon  to 
raise  crops,  alfalfa  is  the  great  honey-plant 
—perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  world— 
certainly  the  greatest  for  artificial  pasturage. 
In  the  Great  American  Desert,  where  the 
weather  is  always  favorable  for  the  flight  of 
bees,  and  where  alfalfa  is  grown  in  fields  of 
thousands  of  acres,  the  bee-keeper  can  hard- 
ly ask  for  any  thing  more.    The  irrigation 
needed  to  grow  it  for  forage,  makes  the 
crop  almost  certain.    In  these  rainless  re- 
gions, hot.  sunny  days,  with  cloudless  skies, 
are  continuous— the  very  thing  needed  to 
make  alfalfa  do  its  best.    Indeed,  although 
it  has  been  grown  successfully  in  Wiscon- 
sin and  elsewhere  without  irrigation,  yet 
no  report  has  been  made  of  honey  obtained 
from  it  without  irrigation,  except  perhaps 
in  Kansas. 

We  have  tested  the  plant  on  a  small  scale 
on  our  own  grounds,  but  gave  it  up,  as  it 
did  not  seem  to  bear  honey  with  us.    Very 
likely,  however,  it  is  because  the  amount 
planted  was  too  small,  and  may  be  because 
other  sources  furnished  so  much  honey  at 
the  same  time,  that  the  bees  did  not  notice 
it.    It  wintered  over  without  any  trouble, 
and  gave  a  considerable  amount  of  foliage. 
In  digging  a  cellar  for  one  of  our  new  build- 
ings, a  bed  of  it  was  torn  up  ;  but  we  found 
the  roots  down  three  or  tour  feet  in  the  soil. 
We  have  tried  since,  and  it  stands  our  win- 
ters here    in    Ohio    without    any    trouble. 
As  it  is  cut  several  times  during  the  season. 
there  is  an  almost  constant  yield  of  honey 
in  the  range  of  the  bges'  flight.    We  have 
reports  already  of  not  only  honey  by  the  ton 
but  honey  by  the  carload;  and  tlie  quality 
is  probably  suiierior  to  any  thing  that  the 
world  has  ever  produced  from  any  other 
source.    In  fact,  it  resembles  so  much  a  fine 
article  of  white-clover  honey  tliat  it  will 
probably  sell  in  almost  any  market  as  clo- 
ver lioney,  which,  in  fact,  it  is,  as  alfalfa  is 
a  species  of  clover. 

One  man  mentions  a  great  tendency  to 
granulation  in  the  honey,  but  this  may  not 


ALFALFA. 

be  general.  An  editorial  in  Gleanings  for 
August,  1890,  speaking  of  a  sample  of  the 
honey  received  frcmi  Broomfield,  Col.,  says, 
'•It  is  not  only  the  finest  in  appearance  of 
any  honey  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,  but  it  is 
also  equal  in  flavor.  It  is  almost  if  not 
(luite  as  clear  as  water,  and  yet  during  a 
liot  July  day  it  will  scarcely  run.  It  is  clear 
as  crystal  and  ex(]uisite,  in  flavor.'^ 


ALFALFA,  OK  LUCERNE,  SHOWINC4  THE  WAY 

IN  WHICH  THE  ROOT  GOES  DEEP  IN  THE 

GROUND,  SEEKING  FOR  MOISTURE. 

In  Colorado,  the  honey-flow  from  alfalfa 
is  reported  as  lasting  from  June  to  Septem- 
ber. In  Idaho  it  is  considered  the  most 
paying  crop,  yielding  three  cuttings.  The- 
second  cutting  is  sometimes  for  seed,  yield- 


AJ.FALFA. 


ALFALFA. 


"in^-  live  t(i  ten  bushels  pt'r  acre.  It  takes 
ubout  tliiee  years  to  tj^et  it  to  its  best  yield. 
It  succeeds  on  iioor  rocky  soil,  and  one  man 
reports  so  much  sweet  m  it  that  he  has  seen 
bees  by  the  thousand  working  on  tlie  dry 
hay  in  spring.  From  some  parts  comes  the 
report  that  it  can  be  readily  plowed  under, 
wliile  others  say  that  the  roots  are  hard  and 
must  be  carefully  i)icke(l  out  of  each  furrf)W 
and  carted  off,  otherwise  they  will  grow 
again.  A  reiiort  comes  from  Mr.  Ball,  of 
Reno,  Nevada,  of  a  yield  of  ]7,()l»()  lbs.  of 
alfalfa  honey  from  200  cdloiiles;  and  from 
Mr.  Gregg,  of  Tempe.  Arizona,  of  an  ai)iary 
of  about  2('U  colonies  storing  4S.5  lbs.  per 
colony  from  alfalfa  and  mesquite.  It  seems 
that  there  must  be  a  mistake  somewhere  in 
this  last  report.* 

The  cuts  are  copied  from  V.  IL  Hallock  & 
Sons'  (of  Queens,  N.  Y.),  seed  catalogue  for 
1890.  The  large  oue,  giving  the  size  of  the 
root,  the  way  in  which  it  grows  deep  in  the 
soil,  is  iirobably  exaggerated,  although  such 
plants  may  have  been  grown  in  the  loose 
sandy  soils  of  the  desert. 

We  condense  the  following  in  regard  to  its 
cultivation,  from  a  pampiilet  i)ublished  by 
Halldck  &  Sons,  1SS9  :  It  is  better  sown  in 
drills,  and  cultivated,  unless  the  land  is 
quite  free  from  other  seeds,  and  is  in  very 
fine  condition.  It  can,  however,  be  sown 
broadcast,  the  same  as  other  clovers  In 
our  locality  it  sliould  b  •  sown  in  the  spring, 
or  at  least  a  suthi'ient  time  before  fall  so  it 
may  get  root  enough  to  stand  b;  ing  thrown 
out  by  the  frost,  especially  if  the  ground  is 
clayey.  After  it  gels  a  good  start  it  can  be 
cut  every  four  or  live  weeks.  It  should  be 
put  on  rich  land,  well  drained.  It  will  not 
stand  too  much  water.  This  is  indicated 
by  its  preference  for  the  desert  wastes  in 
the  raiidess  regions.  Some  writers  tell  us 
that  there  should  be  a  depth  of  soil  above 
the  rock,  ten  or  fifteen  feet,  and  some  go 
even  so  far  as  to  claim  that  the  roots  will 

*  JoTiKfir;/,  ?i-.'/7  — DiiiiiiK 'hepast  sca.'-on  we  pur- 
<;ha8i'(l  ul'  Ml.  W.  K.  JiaU,  of  Reno.  Nevada,  a  car- 
load of  pure  alfalfa  honey;  aiiri  my  opinion  is,  at 
the  present  date,  that  there  is  no  honey  produced  in 
the  world  superior  to  it.  Some  people  would  at  first 
g'ive  the  beautiful  flavor  of  the  mountain-sage  honey 
the  ijreference;  but  after  having  luid  it  on  the  tabfe 
month  aftei-  month,  the  alfalfa  honey  seems  to  be  a 
sort  of  staple,  like  bread  and  butter. "  It  candies  just 
about  like  wliit<'  clover;  liut  when  melted  it  is  .so 
thick  it  hangs  to  the  spoon  like  a  ball  ol'  clear  aniber- 
<jolored  delicious  wax.  At  present  wo  are  retailing 
it  at  10  ijts.  |)er  lb.  It  cost  us  by  the  cayUxid,  delivc^r- 
ed  here,  about  K  cts.  Nobody  knows,  at  the;  present 
time,  what  is  to  be  the  future  of  alfalfa  honey;  but 
inasmuch  as  tln^  demand  fur  alfalfa  hay  and  feed 
promises  to  be  unlimited,  and  as  tlie  number  of 
acres  in  tlie  great  West,  that  can  be  used  foi- grow- 
ing alfalfa  by  means  of  irrigation,  are  unlimited,  it 
seems  as  if  flic  bee-keeners' great  rall.Ning-nlace  in 
the  future  is  to  be  the  alfalfa  fields  of  wliat  has  for- 
merly been  called  the  (i resit  American  Desert. 


go  down  in  sear.-h  of  moisture  as  much  as 
twenty  feet.  If  sown  eaily,  and  a  good 
stand  obtaitieil,  it  may  be  cut  the  lirst  year. 
The  second  yt-ar  it  yields  two  cuttings,  and 
afterward  three  and  four  cuttings,  in  a  sea- 
son. It  has  been  grown  successfully  in 
Wisconsin,  but  no  report  has  been  made  of 
honey  obtained  from  it  there. 

It  yields  from  three  to  five  tons  per  acre, 
and  some  reports  go  as  high  as  eight  or  ten 
tons.  It  gives  from  three  to  five  cuttings  to 
the  season,  and,  under  favorable  circum- 
stances, even  six  or  seven  have  been  made. 
For  drill  planting,  ](»  or  12  lbs.  of  seed  per 
acre  is  sutficient.  For  broadcast,  however, 
15  or  20  lbs.  is  better.  For  the  best  hay  it 
should  be  cut  when  blooming  commences. 
If  raised  by  bee-keepers,  however,  they  will 
prefer  to  leave  it  until  the  bees  have  made  a 
pretty  good  crop  of  honey  from  the  bloom. 


ALFALFA  15LOOM  AND  FOLIACiE. 

The  hay  is  said  to  be  better,  however,  when 
cut  about  as  soon  as  it  is  in  full  bloom.  All 
kinds  of  stock,  even  poultry,  take  to  it  with 
avidity  at  first  sight.  For  soiling  purpcses 
it  is  probably  unequaled,  especially  if  cut 
and  wilted  two  or  three  hours  in  the  hot 
sun.  Tims  a  siqiply  may  be  kept  for  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night  feeding.  Working  an- 
imals will  get  along  with  very  little  grain 
when  sui)plied  in  this  way  with  alfalfa. 
Nothing  gives  better  results  for  milch  cows. 
I'igs,  lambs,  and  colts,  are  very  fond  of  it, 
and  thrive  when  so  fed.  It  may  be  grazed 
moderately,  but  heavy  close  grazing  will  de- 
stroy it.     Properly  managed,   it  will   yield 


ALIGHTING-BOARDS. 


ALIGHTING-BOARDS. 


honey  crops  for  40  years.  AVe  are  told  that 
there  are  heavy  iieUls  of  it  in  South  Ameri- 
ca that  have  been  orrowing  continuously  for 
centuries.  It  has  been  tested  by  the  States 
more  or  less  tV)r  perhaps  50  years  i)ast.  From 
the  fact,  however,  that  it  has  been  mostly 
abandoned,  excei)t  in  the  great  West,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  it  will  not  come  into  gen- 
eral favor  unless  under  very  favorable  con- 
ditions, or  because  it  yields  honey  as  ^'•ell 
as  hay. 

Some  writers  claim  that  the  amount  of 
rain  we  have  here  would  be  fatal  to  it  during 
the  majority  of  seasons.  Others  say,  how^- 
ever,  that  the  rain  will  do  no  harm,  px'ovid- 
ing  the  land  is  thoroughly  underdrained.  It 
is  quite  certain.  I  believe,  that  great  quan- 
tities of  seed  havf^  been  sold  by  seedsmen  at 
enormous  prices,  because  of  exaggerated 
accounts  given  in  the  seed  catalogues— that 
is,  exaggerated  in  regard  tf)  the  great  depth 
to  which  the  root  grows  in  ordinary  soils, 
and  also  in  regard  to  its  adaptaljility  to  all 
localities.  At  the  present  writing,  the  seed 
is  worth  with  us  about  $S.0I)  per  Ijushel ;  but 
we  see  it  advertised  in  the  Pacific  States  as 
low  as  three  or  four  dollars  a  bushel.  The 
price  of  the  seed  will,  however,  probably  be 
very  soon  equalized,  to  the  advantage  of 
both  parties.  In  rainless  regions,  where  ir- 
rigation is  depended  upon,  there  is  n(me  of 
the  difficulty  in  growing  it  i)erfectly  that  we 
have  here.  On  this  account  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  alfalfa  hay  may  sometimes  be 
shipped  from  the  Great  xVmerican  Desert  to 
Chicago,  and  ])Ossibly  othf  r  i)oints,  cheaper 
than  hay  of  equal  quality  can  be  produced 
in  regirms  wh^  re  rain  is  plentiful.  Indeed  a 
shipment  of  alfalfa  hay  from  Colorado  to 
New  York  is  already  reported. 

ALZGHTIBTG  -  BOARDS.  —  A    few 

years  ago  it  was  common  to  see  bee-hives 
perched  upon  benches  on  legs,  with  grass 
and  weeds  so  thick  on  the  ground  below% 
that,  if  a  heavily  laden  bee  missed  the  hive, 
it  was  a  chance  if  it  picked  its  way  out  in  a 
full  half-hour ;  but  at  present  we  usually  see 
the  hives  so  near  the  ground  that  those  heav- 
ily laden  with  pollen  or  honey  may  go  in  on 
foot,  if  they  find  it  more  convenient  so  to  do. 
If  you  doubt  the  utility  of  having  the  ground 
smooth  and  clean  in  front  of  the  hives,  it 
may  be  well  to  take  a  look  at  a  hive  set  in 
the  weeds  and  grass,  and  then  at  one  pre- 
pared in  the  way  we  advise.  Several  years 
ago  we  had  a  fine  colony  suspended  from  a 
pair  of  spring  balances.  It  was  in  the  height 
of  the  clover-bloom,  and  the  hive  gained  in 
weight  during  the  day  an  even  10  lbs.    As 


the  hive  was  raised  a  couple  of  inches  from 
the  ground  to  suspend  it,  the  bees,  at  about 
9  o'clock,  had  fallen  on  the  ground  in  quite 
a  little  cluster,  where  they  paused  to  take 
breath  until  they  could  again  take  wing  to 
get  into  the  hive.  At  this  time,  the  spring 
balance  showed  a  gain  of  an  ounce  every 
five  minutes.  To  help  them,  a  cloth  was 
tacked  from  their  old  alighting-board  to  the 
entrance  of  the  hive ;  they  then  crawled  in 
in  a  steady  stream,  and  the  dial  of  the  balance 
at  once  showed  a  gain  of  one  ounce  in  every 
four  minutes. =*»'  Other  experiments  seem  to 
indicate  very  clearly  that  a  good  alighting- 
board,  or,  rather,  a  free  and  unobstructed 
passage  to  the  hive,  is  an  important  matter. 

If  any  kind  of  a  board  is  placed  on  the 
groiind  in  front  of  the  hives,  it  is  sure  to 
warp  under  the  influence  of  the  hot  sun  on 
one  side,  and  the  damp  earth  on  the  other. 
If  w^e  clamp  it  to  prevent  this,  we  have  a 
place  for  toads,  mice,  and  other  vermin  to 
lurk,  and,  taking  all  things  into  considera- 
tion, we  prefer  white  sand,  spent  tan  - 
bark  (as  advised  by  some),  or  sawdust 
spread  directly  on  the  ground.  When  this 
is  first  put  down,  it  is  blow^n  about  by  the 
winds,  and  beaten  down  by  the  rains;  but  if 
yon  press  it  down  when  damp  or  wet,  it  will, 
when  dry,  hold  its  place  nicely,  is  not  affect- 
ed by  the  weather,  affords  no  Inrking-place 
under  it,  and  gives  an  excellent  foot  -  hold 
for  the  bees  when  returning  dviring  a  windy 
day.  Should  weeds  come  up  at  the  entrance 
in  the  sawdust  or  sand  you  can  kill  them 
with  an  occasional  spraying  of  salt. 

After  the  day's  work  is  over,  the  sight 
of  the  bees  congregated  about  in  their 
"  door-yard  "  is  suggestive  of  peace  and 
tranquility,  to  any  one  who  has  studied  the 
queer  ways  of  these  "little  busybodies." 
So  much  attached,  in  fact,  do  they  seem  to 
become  to  the  idea  of  keeping  this  little 
dooryard  clean  and  tidy,  that  they  will  labor 
by  the  hour  in  trying  to  pull  up  any  tiny 
blade  of  grass  or  weeds  that  may  have  the 
audacity  to  attempt  to  grow  anywhere  with- 
in a  foot  of  their  hives.  This  sawdust  idea 
is  also  an  excellent  one,  when  we  are  watch- 
ing or  hunting  queens  with  clipped  wings  in 
natural  swarming.  With  a  nicely  kept  door- 
yard,  you  can  get  your  eye  on  the  queen, 
when  several  yards  from  the  hive,  when, 
otherwise,  you  might  have  to  hunt  in  the 
grass  for  an  hour,  and  then  not  find  her. 

With  the  house  -apiary,  we  are  compelled 
to  have  a  regular  door-step,  or  alighting- 
board,  and  these  should  be  as  broad  as  we 
can  conveniently  have  them.    Our  own  are 


ALIGHTING-BOARDS. 


9 


ALSIKE  CLOVER. 


14x10  inches,  and  are  securely  clamped,  and 
painted  on  both  sides.  While  the  bees  do 
fall  to  the  ground,  to  some  extent,  during  a 
heavj^  yield  of  honey,  there  is  less  trouble 
than  we  imagined,  for  they  generally  strike 
the  broad  alighting-board.  Another  point 
that  faA'ors  their  easy  ingress  to  the  hives,  is 
the  2-inch  auger-hole  entrances.  Many  of 
the  bees  will  shoot  right  into  them,  and 
alight  safely  on  the  combs ;  the  auger  -  hole 
seems  to  be  a  plain  mark  for  them  to  aim  at, 
even  when  some  distance  from  their  hive; 
Very  likely  it  accords  with  their  natural  dis- 
position of  seeking  hollows  in  the  forest- 
trees,  and  these  entrances  are  not  very  un- 
like the  knot-holes  they  many  times  have 
for  entrances  in  forest-trees.  It  will  be  an 
excellent  plan  to  keep  the  ground  clean  ' 
about  the  house  -  apiaries  also,  that  we  may 
see  when  queens  are  being  brought  out  dur- 
ing natural  swarming,  superseded,  etc. 

The  old  style  of  Langstroth  hive,  with  its 
portico,  furnishes  a  very  convenient  alight- 
ing-board; but  aside  from  the  expense,  and 
inconvenient  projections  on  the  front  of  the 
hive,    we    have    found   them   very  annoy- 
ing on  account  of  the  excellent  harbor  they 
afford  for  spiders  with  their  attendant  webs. 
We  prefer  hives  without  porticos,  for  this 
reason ;  but  it  is  an  advantage  to  have  an 
alighting-board,  and  hence  we    make    our 
hives  with  a  projecting  bottom  (see  IIive- 
MAKiNts).  This  leaves  a  full-width  entrance. 
With  strong  colonies,  such  as  there  should 
be,  such  an  entrance  will   rarely  if   ever 
need  contracting.    For  winter  I  would  have 
the  full  width :  and  when  bees  are  bringing 
in  honey,  it's  an  exjjense  to  have  the  poor 
heavily  loaded  bees  crowd  by  each  other,  or 
wait  for  a  chance  to  get  in  at  a  narrow  i)ass- 
ageway.    There  are  times  in  the  spring  and 
fall  when  it  is  advisable  to  contract,  espe- 
cially with  nuclei.     Tnder   these    circum- 
stances the  old  triangular  entrance-blocks, 
made  out  of  ^-inch  stuff,  are  as  good  as  any 
thing,  althougli,  in  the  absence  of  these,  a 
strip  of  wood  about  an  inch  square,  and  of 
the  1  ight  length,  may  be  made  to  answer. 
Having  three  sides  of  as   many  different 
lengths,  the  triangular  blocks  offer  any  de- 
gree of  contraction,  from  a  full  entrance  to 
space  for  even  one  bee  to  pass  at  a  time, 
and,  besides,  guide  the  bees  to  the  entrance. 
By  putting  the  two  longest  sides  next  to  the 
entr.ince    it   can  be   closed  entirely.    The 
accompanying  diagram,  taken    from    that 
excellent  work.  ''Dadant's  Langstroth  Re- 
vised,""   shows    hovf   this    may  be    accom- 
plished. 


Blocks  will  in  time  become  stuck  down  with 
propolis;  and.  if  tlie  apiarist  is  not  on  the 


a^ 


d  ^^ 


/ 


\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

ENTRANCE  -  BLOCKS. 

a  sfwws  tlie  entrance  entirely  dosed ;  and  6, 
(?,  e,  /.  the  manner  of  increasing  the  width. 

watch,  moth- worm  cocoons  will  be  built 
under  them,  particularly  if  he  keeps  hy- 
brids or  blacks. 


^s-s'"  c[         r        h 

HOW  TO   MAKE   EXTKAXCE- BLOCKS. 

You  want  to  figure  so  that  the  two  long- 
est sides  of  the  blocks,  as  at  a.  d,  in  the  pre- 
ceding figure,  will  just  close  the  entrance. 
The  entrance  to  the  8-frame  Dovetailed 
hive  is  just  12i  inches.  The  hypothenuse  of 
one  of  the  blocks  will  be  then  Gj^e  inches. 
The  other  two  sides  (which  will  be  at  right 
angles  to  each  other)  will  be  then  respect- 
ively 2i  and  oi  inches.  To  cut  these  out 
most  expeditiously,  cut  *-inch  V)oards  (pref- 
erably wide  ones)  into  lengths  of  5i  inches. 
By  nailing  a  strip  on  the  gauge  of  your  saw- 
table,  cut  the  lengths  of  boards  into  trian- 
gles, as  shown  in  the  diagram,  a,  h,  c,d,  etc.: 
i.  e.,  first  rip  the  board  off  square,  then  cut 
it  on  a  diagonal.  By  the  exercise  of  a  little 
ingenuity  you  can  arrange  the  gauge  to  do 
both.     Use  a  rip-saw,  of  course. 

ALSIKE  CLOVER.— This  was  for- 
merly supposed  to  l)e  a  liybrid,  since  in  ap- 
pearance it  is  so  nearly  intermediate  between 
the  white  and  red  clover;  hence  its  name. 
Trifolium  hybridum,  Linn.  It  is  now  known 
that  it  is  not  a  hybrid.  While  it  furnishes  full 
as  much  honey  as  the  red,  the  petals  are  so 


ALSIKE  CLOVER. 


10 


ALSIKE  CLOVER. 


short  that  the  bees  find  no  difficulty  in  reach- 
ing it.    If  you  imagine  a  huge  head  of  white 
clover,  with  the  extremities  of  the  petals 
tipi^ed  witli  a  beautiful  pink— equal  in  beau- 
ty to  a  dahlia  if  they  were  not  so  common— 
you  will  have  a  very  good  idea  of  the  al- 
sike.-'"«  The  leaf  is  much  like  that  of  other  ; 
clovers,  except  that,  in  color,  it  is  a  soft  I 
clean    bright   green,  without  the  spots  of  j 
downi  that  are  seen  on  the  white  or  red. 

If  alsike  clover  came  into  bloom  at  a  sea- 
son when  bees  could  get  little  else,  as  buck- 
wheat does,  I  should  place  it,  instead  of 
buckwheat,  first  on  the  list  of  plants  for  ar- 
tificial pasturage.*  Where  white  clover  does 
not  grow  spontaneously,  alsike  is,  undoubt- 
edly, ahead  of  every  thing  else  now  known. 
It  not  only  produces  honey  in  large  quanti- 
ties, but  the  quality  is  not  excelled  by  any 
thing  known  in  the  world.i-  It  is  true,  many 
people  will  prefer  basswood,  mountain  sage, 
and  other  aromatic  flavors,  at  first  taste,  but 
I  believe  every  one  tires  of  these  after  a 
time,  and  clover  stands  almost  alone,  as  the 
great  staple  for  every -day  use,  with,  and 
like,  our  ''bread  and  butter." 

CULTIVATION,  AXD  SOWING  THE  SEED. 

The  cultivation  is  so  much  like  that  of  red 
clover,  that  what  applies  to  the  one  will  do 
for  the  other.  As  the  seed  of  the  alsike  is 
much  smaller,  a  less  quantity  is  required ; 
the  general  rule  is  four  pounds  to  the  acre. 
As  it  blossoms  only  the  second  year,  or  very 
sparingly  the  first,  with  ordinary  cultivation, 
it  may  be  sown  almost  any  time,  and  in  fact 
it  is  often  sown  on  wheat  on  the  snow  in 
March.  In  this  way,  we  can  see  just  how 
evenly  we  are  getting  it  on  the  ground.  The 
farmers  near  me  who  furnish  the  finest  seed, 
say  they  have  the  best  success  with  that 
sown  M'ith  their  oats  in  the  spring.  Al- 
though alsike  will  produce  some  honey  with 
almost  any  cultivation,  it  is  important  to 
have  the  ground  nicely  prepared,  if  we  wish 
to  get  large  yields  of  either  hay  or  honey. 
With  good  mellow  ground,  finely  pulverized, 
we  may  get  a  growth  of  3  feet  in  height,  and 
a  profusion  of  highly  colored  blossoms,  that 
will  astonish  one  who  has  never  seen  such  a 
sight ;  especially  when  the  field  is  roaring 
with  the  hum  of  the  busy  Italians.  As  a 
heavy  gro\\'th  is  liable  to  lodge  badly  during 
wet  weather,  it  may  be  well  to  sow  a  sprink- 
ling of  timothy  seed  with  it.    If  put  in  ear- 


*If  alsike  is  cut.  or  even  pastured  off,  just  before 
coming  into  bloom,  it  will  blossom  again,  just  after 
white  clover  is  gone,  and  give  a  crop  of  clover  hon- 
ey just  when  we  most  need  it.  One  of  our  leading 
honej--men  says  this  fact  alone,  learned  at  a  con- 
vention, has  been  worth  more  than  $50.00  to  him. 


ly,  it  may  on  good  soil  produce  considerable 
bloom  the  first  season,  but  not  much  is  to  be 
expected  until  the  second  year,  when  it  is  at 
its  height.  It  will  give  a  fair  crop  the  third 
year;  but  after  that,  if  we  would  keep  up  a 
yield  of  honey,  it  must  be  sown  again. '^  It 
may  be  sown  in  the  spring  on  fall  wheat; 
but  where  timothy  has  been  sown  with  the 
wheat  in  the  fall,  it  is  apt,  on  some  soils,  to 
choke  out  the  alsike. 

SAVING  THE  HAY. 

If  raised  for  the  hay  and  honey,  without 
any  reference  to  saving  the  seed,  it  will  give 
at  least  two  good  crops  every  season;  in 
this  case,  it  Is  cut  when  in  full  bloom.  In 
our  locality  it  usually  blooms  the  last  of 
June,  and  sometimes  furnishes  considerable 
honey  before  the  white  clover  is  out.  The 
hay  is  admitted  by  all  to  be  equal  to  any  of 
the  grasses  or  clovers  in  use,^"^  and  the  pas- 
turage, after  the  clover  is  cut,  is  most  excel- 
lent for  all  kinds  of  stock. 

Its  value  for  milch  cows  is  shown  by  the 
following,  taken  from  Gleanings  for 
March,  188.5,  page  161: 

AS   A   FORAGE-PLANT 

It  has  no  superior,  producing  a  large  flow  of  very 
rich  milk.  June  15th,  when  I  shut  the  stock  out  of 
the  alsike,  I  allowed  them  to  run  in  a  field  of  red 
clover  that  was  just  coming  into  blossom,  and  at 
the  eod  of  the  third  day  the  five  cows  had  shrunk 
their  milk  to  the  amount  of  9  quarts  to  the  milking. 
Again,  in  October,  to  test  it  further  for  feed,  as 
there  was  quite  a  growth  of  leaves  on  the  ground  I 
again  allowed  the  cows  in  the  field.  You  may  judge 
of  my  surprise  when  1  found,  at  the  end  of  a  week, 
they  had  made  a  gain  of  10  quarts  to  the  milking. 
Millington,  Mich.,  Feb.,  1885.  M.  D.  York. 

SAVING  THE  SEED. 

The  seed  is  always  saved  from  the  first 
crop  of  blossoms,  and  it  should  be  allowed 
to  stand  about  two  weeks  longer  than  when 
cut  for  hay.  If  you  wish  to  get  a  good  price 
for  your  seed,  it  must  be  very  nicely  cleaned. 
It  is  thrashed  out  with  a  clover-huUer,  made 
expressly  for  clover  seed,  and  then  cleaned 
by  a  fanning  -  mill,  with  the  appropriate 
sieves.  As  timothy  seed  is  very  nearly  of 
the  same  size,  it  is  diflicult  to  remove  it  all, 
unless  by  a  fanning-mill  having  the  proper 
blast  arrangement.  As  the  alsike  weighs 
60  lbs.  to  the  bushel,  and  timothy  only  4o, 
there  is  no  great  difficulty  in  doing  it  effect- 
ually. 

I  need  scarcely  add,  that  w'hoever  raises 
seed  for  sale  should  exercise  the  most  scru- 
pulous care  to  avoid  sending  out  foul  seeds 
of  any  kind  ;  and  where  Canada  thistles  or 
weeds  of  that  class  prevail,  I  would,  under 
no  circumstances,  think  of  raising  seed  to  be 
sent  all  over  the  land.    If  they  are  in  your 


ALSIKE  CLOVER. 


11 


ALSIKE  CLOVER. 


neighborhood,  i"aise  hay  and  honey,  and  let 
seed  be  furnished  by  some  one  who  is  differ- 
ently situated. 

PROFIT  OF  THE  CROP. 

The  seed  has  for  a  number  of  years  sold 
readily  for  about  SH-OO  per  bushel,  and  the 
average  yield  of  seed  is  about  four  bushels 
per  acre.  It  retails  for  about  18  cents  per 
poimd,  and  60  lbs.  is  reckoned  as  a  bushel. 
See  Clover. 

The  following,  taken  from  The  Farmer, 
of  St.  Paul.  Minn.,  not  only  shows  what 
profit  may  be  realized  in  raising  alsike,  but 
is  another  proof  of  its  value  as  a  hay  crop. 
The  reader  will  observe  that  the  writer  is  in 
no  way  interested  in  bees. 

WILL,  IT   PAY  FARMERS   TO   RAISE  ALSIKE  WITHOUT 
ANV   REFERENCE  TO     BEE-KEEPING   AT   ALL? 

About  20  yeai's  ago  I  bought  my  first  alsike  clo- 
ver seed,  and  sowed  it  alone  on  the  south  side  of  a 
hill.  The  season  was  dry,  and  it  grew  only  about  a 
foot  high ;  and  as  it  was  said  the  first  crop  produced 
the  seed,  I  cut  it  for  seed  and  felt  disappointed  at 
getting  so  little  that  1  was  ready  to  pronounce  it  a 
humbug,  and  plowed  it  up  the  same  fall.  Some 
years  afterward  I  saw  a  bushel  of  seed  at  the  Dane 
County  Fair,  at  Madison.  I  inquired  of  the  owner, 
Mr.  Woodward,  how  he  liked  it,  and  if  it  was  a 
profitable  crop.  He  said  he  got  four  bushels  of 
seed  per  acre,  and  sold  it  at  iSlO  per  bushel;  that 
the  hay,  after  being  hulled,  was  better  than  the 
best  red-clover  hay,  and  that  his  cattle  ate  it  In 
preference  to  any  other  hay.  I  bought  two  bush- 
els of  the  seed  aud  sowed  about  one  bushel  to 
twelve  acres,  mixing  one-third  timothy,  by  meas- 
ure, where  I  wanted  it  for  pasture  or  hay,  and 
about  the  same  quantity  of  pure  alsike  where  I 
wanted  it  for  seed.  It  does  not  raise  sped  the  same 
year  it  is  sown,  but,  like  red  clover,  the  next  year. 
I  have  sown  it  with  wheat,  barley,  and  oats.  It 
does  best  with  spring  wheat  or  barley. 

I  hulled  no  bushels  this  year  from  20  acres.  I  ex- 
pect to  get  !?".00  per  bushel,  and  I  have  at  least  25 
tons  of  good  hay,  after  hulling,  worth  enough  to 
paj'  all  expenses  of  cutting  and  hulling.  Some 
years  ago  I  sold  my  whole  crop  on  the  Board  of 
Trade  in  Chicago  for  :?1I.  00  per  bushel. 

Mr.  George  Harding,  of  Waukesha,  a  breeder  of 
Cotswold  shf»ep  and  short-horn  cattle,  and  one  of 
Wisconsin's  most  wide-awake  farmers,  showed  me 
a  small  field  of  one  of  his  neighbors  that  he  said 
prf)diiced  seven  bushels  of  alsike  seed  per  acre, 
and  that  he  sold  it  in  Milwaukee  for  $12.00  per 
bushel.  I  have  80  acres  in  alsike;  and  so  long  as  it 
pays  me  as  well  as  it  has  done,  I  will  sow  it. 

The  first  crop  the  next  year  after  sowing  is  the 
seed  crop.  It  can  be  cut  for  seed  for  several  years. 
It  is  not  a  biennial  plant  like  red  clover,  but  a  per- 
ennial. It  has  one  tap  root  with  many  branches, 
and  does  not  heave  up  by  frost,  like  red  clover, 
which  has  but  one  tap  root. 

I  prefer  it  to  red  clover  for  several  reasons. 
When  sown  with  timothy  it  matures  with  timothy. 
(Medium  red  clover  matures  before  timothy  is  fit 
to  cut.)  I  cut  about  the  10th  to  loth  of  July;  red 
clover  should  be  cut  (here)  about  the  2()th  of  .lune. 
Alsike  is  not  easily  injured  by  dew  or  light  rains 
after  being  cut.    It  has  none  of  the '•  fuzz  "  that 


red  clover  has,  making  it  so  unpleasant  to  handle 
as  hay  or  seed.  The  stem  is  not  so  coarse  nor  so 
hollow,  and  has  more  branches,  leaves,  and  blos- 
soms. The  blossom  is  of  a  pink  color.  Red  clover 
must  bf^  cut  when  we  are  in  the  busiest  time  work- 
ing our  corn.  Alsike  is  cut  after  corn  work  is 
over.    This  is  of  great  advantage  in  a  corn  region. 

Alsike  makes  a  good  fall  pasture  after  the  seed 
is  cut.  My  stock  will  eat  it  in  preference  to  red 
clover,  timothy,  or  hlue  grass.  Blue  grass,  or,  as  it 
is  often  called  in  this  country,  June  grass,  is  a 
good  early  and  late  grass,  but  in  midsummer  it 
dries  up;  and  had  it  not  been  for  clover  we  should 
have  been  badly  otf  fur  pasture  this  dry  year. 

Hi)N.  Matt.  Anderson. 

Dane  Co.,  Wis.,  Nov.  1886. 

The  next,  from  Gleanings  for  April 
15,  1886,  page  327,  is  of  so  much  importance 
in  regard  to  raising  alsike  or  other  honey- 
yielding  plants,  that  we  give  it  here  entire: 

A    SUGGESTION     TO     BEE-KEEPERS     IN     REGARD     TO 

HAVING  ALSIKE   RAISED  BY  THE   FAR.MERS 

OF  THEIR  OAVN   NEIGHBORHOOD. 

I  have  managed  to  supplement  the  natural  supply 
for  my  bees  during  the  last  five  or  six  years  as 
follows:  I  first  tried  sweet  clover  with  but  poor 
success,  so  I  took  up  alsike  clover,  and  this  is  the 
way  I  work : 

About  this  time  of  the  year  I  buy  from  200  to  400 
lbs.  of  best  alsike  clover  seed  in  Montreal  at  whole- 
sale price.  This  year  I  can  get  it  for  12  cts.,  perhaps 
less.  I  expect  to  buj'  my  supply  next  week.  It  will 
cost  me  1/2  ct.  freight,  and  1  shall  probably  sell  it 
to  the  farmers  who  are  within  two  miles  of  my  apia- 
ry, for  10  cts.  per  lb.  At  this  price  it  is  readily 
taken  up  by  all  who  are  "  seeding  down  "  land  suit- 
able for  alsike,  as  the  price  in  the  stores  here  is 
from  16  to  18  cts.  Three  pounds  mixed  with  tim- 
othy will  seed  an  acre  very  well,  so  you  see  I  get 
pasturage  which  will  last  from  two  to  five  years,  of 
the  very  best  quality  of  honey,  at  the  small  cost  of 
$7.50  for  one  hundred  acres.  I  can  not  conceive  of 
any  plan  which,  with  me,  would  be  cheaper,  less 
trouble,  or  that  would  give  as  quick  and  reliable  re- 
turns. J  could  get  a  good  deal  of  seed  sown  by  sell- 
ing it  at  cost;  but  I  find  that  taking  off  two  or  three 
cents  per  pound  makes  a  great  difference  in  the 
amount  sown.  As  white  and  alsike  clover  are  the 
most  reliable  honej'-plants  we  have  here  —  very 
rarely  failing  entirely— the  results  have  been  verj' 
marked  and  satisfactory. 

To  those  who  wish  to  try  this  plan  I  would  say, 
Work  up  the  matter  personally;  canvass  every 
farmer  within  two  miles  and  more  in  every  direc- 
tion from  your  apiary  (those  living  more  than  two 
miles  should  pay  cost  of  seed),  showing  them  a 
sample  of  your  seed,  pointing  out  its  advantages, 
etc.  Although  alsike  clover  hay  will  not  weigh  so 
heavy  as  red  clover,  it  is  far  sweeter  and  better,  and 

I  all  stock  far  prefer  it  to  eat.  One  pound  of  seed, 
also,  will  go  as  far  as  two  pounds  of  red  clover,  as 
the  seeds  are  so  much  smaller. 

Canvassing  the  farmers  should  be  done  at  unce, 
as  every  good  farmer  plans  his  work  and  buys  his 
seed  early.  After  you  have  finished  canvassing, 
add  up  your  orders,  send  to  a  reliable  seedsman,  dis- 
tribute, and  get  i)ay  for  your  seed,  and  your  work 
for  tlie  season  is  done;    but  it  should  be  repeated 

I  every  season,  to  enlarge  your  "  base  of  suppl3'  "  as 


ANGER  OF  BEES. 


12 


ANGER  OF  BEES. 


much  as  possible.     Of  course,  you  will  have  to  wait  1 
one  season  before  the  alsike  will  bloom.  [ 

In  localities  where  different  apiaries  are  near  to-  i 
grether,  if  the  seed  is  furnished  under  cost  the  par-  ( 
ties  should  make  up  the  amount  of  the  difference  j 
pro  lata,  according  to  the  number  of  colonies  they  I 
have. 

A  WORD   OF  CAUTION   ABOUT  SOWINO  ALSIKE.         [ 

First,  get  the  very  hest  seed  you  can  find.  Poor 
seed  is  an  abomination.  Don't  sow  it  on  dry,  sandy 
land,  for  alsike  delights  in  a  moist  soil. 

This  simple  plan  of  increasing  pasturage  may  not 
be  new,  but  I  never  heard  it  mentioned,  though  ] 
doubtless  some  have  tried  it.     Geo.  O.  Goodhue. 

Danville,  Quebec,  Canada,  Mar.  30, 1886. 

We  need  hardly  add,  that  the  above  plan 
can  be  carried  out  with  buckwheat,  rape, 
and  any  other  honey-yielding  plants  that  are 
of  value  to  farmers. 

AITG-ER  OF  BEZiS.  I  confess  I  do 
not  like  the  term  "anger,"  when  applied  to 
bees,  and  it  almost  makes  me  angry  when  I 
hear  people  speak  of  their  being  "•mad,"  as 
if  they  were  always  in  a  towering  rage,  and 
delight  in  inflicting  exquisite  pain  on  ev- 
ery thing  and  everybody  coming  near  them. 
Bees  are,  on  the  contrary,  the  pleasantest, 
most  sociable,  genial  and  good-natured  little 
fellows  one  meets  in  all  animated  creation, 
when  one  understands  them.  Why,  we  can 
tear  their  beautiful  comb  all  to  bits  right  be- 
fore their  very  eyes,  and,  without  a  particle 
of  resentment,  but  with  all  the  patience  in 
the  world,  they  will  at  once  set  to  work  to 
repair  it,  and  that,  too,  without  a  word  of  re- 
monstrance. If  you  pinch  them,  they  will 
sting,  and  anybody  who  has  energy  enough 
to  take  care  of  himself  would  do  as  much, 
had  he  the  weapon. 

AVe  as  yet  know  very  little  of  bees  com- 
paratively; and  the  more  we  learn,  the  easier 
we  tind  it  to  be  to  get  along  without  any 
clashing  in  regard  to  who  shall  be  master. 
In  fact,  we  take  all  their  honey  now,  almost 
as  fast  as  they  gather  it;  and  even  if  we  are 
so  thoughtless  as  to  starve  them  to  death, 
no  word  of  complaint  is  made. 

There  are  a  few  circumstances  under 
which  bees  seem  "•  cross  ;  "  and  although  we 
may  not  be  able  to  account  exactly  for  it, 
we  can  take  precautions  to  avoid  these  un- 
pleasant features,  by  a  little  care.  A  few 
years  ago  a  very  intelligent  friend  procured 
some  Italians,  an  extractor,  etc.,  and  com- 
menced bee  culture.  He  soon  learned  to 
handle  them,  and  succeeded  finely  ;  when  it 
came  time  to  extract,  the  whole  business 
went  on  so  easily  that  tliey  were  surprised 
at  what  had  been  said  about  experienced 
hands  being  needed  to  do  tlie  work.    They 


had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  this  work 
as  I  had  directed,  toward  the  middle  of  the 
day,  while  the  great  mass  of  the  bees  were 
in  the  fields  ;  but  in  the  midst  of  a  heavy 
yield  of  clover  honey,  when  the  hives  were 
full  to  overflowing,  they  were  one  day 
stopped  by  a  heavy  thunder-shower.  This, 
of  course,  drove  the  bees  home,  and  at  the 
same  time  washed  the  honey  out  of  the  blos- 
soms so  completely  that  they  had  nothing  to 
do  but  remain  in  the  hives  until  more  was 
secreted.  Not  so  with  their  energetic  and 
enthusiastic  owner.  As  soon  as  the  rain  had 
ceased,  the  hives  were  again  opened  and  an 
attempt  made  to  take  out  the  frames,  as  but 
a  few  hours  before;  but  the  bees  that  were  all 
gentleness  then,  seemed  now  possessed  of  the 
very  spirit  of  mischief  and  malice;  and  when 
all  hands  had  been  severely  stung,  they  con- 
cluded that  prudence  was  the  better  part  of 
valor  and  stopped  operations  for  the  day." 
While  loads  of  honey  were  coming  in  all  the 
while,  and  every  bee  rejoicing,  none  were 
disposed  to  be  cross  ;  but  after  the  shower, 
all  hands  v/ere  standing  around  idle ;  and 
when  a  hive  was  opened,  each  was  ready  to 
take  a  grab  from  his  neighbor,  and  the  re- 
sult was  a  free  fight  in  a  very  short  time. 

I  know  of  nothing  in  the  world  that  will 
induce  bees  to  sting  with  such  wicked  reck- 
lessness, as  to  have  them  get  to  quarrel- 
ing over  combs  or  honey  left  exposed 
when  they  have  nothing  to  do.  From  a  lit- 
tle carelessness  m  this  respect,  and  nothing 
else,  I  have  seen  a  whole  apiary  so  demoral- 
ized that  people  were  stung  when  passing 
along  the  street  several  rods  distant.  Dur- 
ing the  middle  of  the  day,  when  bees  were 
busily  engaged  on  the  flowers,  during  a  good 
yield,  I  have  frequently  left  filled  combs 
standing  on  the  top  of  a  hive  from  noon  un- 
til supper  time  without  a  bee  touching  them; 
but  to  do  this  after  a  hard  rain,  or  at  a  time 
when  little  or  no  honey  is  to  be  gathered 
in  the  fields,  might  result  in  the  ruin  of  sev- 
eral colonies,  and  you  and  your  bees  being 
voted  a  nuisance  by  the  whole  neighborhood 

Almost  every  season,  we  get  more  or  less 
letters  complaining  that  the  bees  have  sud- 
denly become  so  cross  as  to  be  almost  un- 
manageable, and  these  letters  come  along 
in  July,  after  the  clover  and  linden  have  be- 
gun to  slack  up.  The  bees  are  not  so  very 
unlike  mankind  after  all,  and  all  you  have 
to  do  is  to  avoid  opening  the  hives  for  a  few 
days,  until  they  get  used  to  the  sudden  dis- 
appointment of  having  the  avenues  through 
which  they  were  getting  wealth  so  rapidly, 
cut  off.    After  a  week  or  ten  days,  they  will 


ANGER  OF  BEES. 


13 


ANGER  OF  BEES. 


be  almost  as  gentle  as  in  the  times  when 
they  gathered  half  a  gallon  of  honey  daily, 
if  you  are  only  careful  about  leaving  hives 
open  too  long,  or  leaving  any  bits  of  honey 
or  comb  about. 

Witliin  a  few  feet  of  me  sits  a  young  man 
who  once  laughed  about  being  afraid  of 
bees,  and  commenced  work  in  the  apiary 
with  such  an  earnest  good  will  that  I  had 
high  aspirations  for  him.  One  beautiful 
morning  he  was  tacking  rabbets  into  the 
hives  in  front  of  the  door  to  the  honey-house, 
whistling  away,  as  happy  as  the  bees  that 
were  humming  so  merrily  about  his  head. 
Pretty  soon  I  saw  some  honey  and  bits  of 
combs  that  had  dropped  from  one  of  the 
hives,  scattered  about  on  the  ground.  I  told 
him  he  had  better  stop  and  clean  it  up,  or 
he  would  certainly  get  stung ;  as  the  bees 
seemed  very  peaceable  while  licking  it  up, 
he  thought  he  would  let  them  have  it,  in 
spite  of  my  warning.  After  they  had  taken 
all  the  honey,  they  began  buzzing  about  for 
more;  and  not  finding  any,  in  a  very  ungen- 
erous way  commenced  stinging  him  for  his 
kindness.  His  lesson  was  a  more  severe  one 
than  I  had  expected,  for  they  not  only  drove 
him  from  the  apiary  that  morning,  but  I 
fear  for  all  time  to  come;  for  although  years 
have  passed,  he  has  never  since  wanted  any 
thing  more  to  do  with  bees.  I  regret  that 
he  did  not,  at  the  time,  also  learn  the  folly 
of  insisting  on  having  his  own  way. 

I  can  not  tell  you,  at  present,  why  bees 
sting  so  coolly  and  vindictively  just  after 
having  had  a  taste  of  stolen  sweets,  yet 
nearly  all  the  experience  I  have  had  of 
trouble  with  stinging  has  been  from  this 
very  cause.  Bees  from  colonies  that  have  a 
habit  of  robbing,  will  buzz  about  one's  ears 
and  eyes  for  hours,-"  seeming  to  delight  in 
making  one  nervous  and  lidgetty,  if  they 
succeed  in  so  doing,  and  they  not  only  threat- 
en, but  oftentimes  inflict,  the  most  painful 
stings,  and  then  hxv/.z  about  in  an  infuriated 
way,  as  if  frantic  because  unable  to  sting 
you  a  dozen  times  more  after  their  sting  is 
lost.  The  colonies  that  furnish  tliis  class  of 
bees  are  generally  hybrid,  or  perliaps  black 
bees  having  just  a  trace  of  Italian  blood. 
These  bees  seem  to  have  a  i)erfect  passion 
for  following  you  about,  and  buzzing  before 
your  nose  from  one  side  to  the  other  (until 
you  get  cross-eyed  in  trying  to  follow  their 
erratic  oscillations),  in  a  way  that  is  most  es- 
pecially provoking.  One  such  colony  an- 
noyed us  so  much  while  extracting,  that  we 
killed  the  queen,  although  she  was  very  pro- 
lific, and  substituted  a  full  -  blood   Italian. 


Although  it  is  seldom  a  pure  Italian  follows 
one  about  in  the  manner  mentioned,  yet  an 
occasional  colony  may  contain  bees  that  do 
it ;  at  least  we  have  found  such,  Avhere  the 
workers  were  all  three-banded.  That  it  is 
possible  to  have  an  apiary  without  any  such 
disagreeable  bees,  we  have  several  times 
demonstrated,  but  oftentimes  you  will  have 
to  discard  some  of  yom-  very  best  honey- 
gatherers,  to  be  entirely  rid  of  them. 

With  a  little  practice,  the  apiarist  will  tell 
as  soon  as  he  comes  near  the  apiary  whether 
any  angry  bees  are  about,  by  the  high  key- 
note they  utter  when  on  the  Aving.  It  is 
well  known,  that  with  meal  feeding  we  have 
perfect  tranquillity  although  bees  from  every 
hive  in  the  apiary  may  be  working  on  a 
square  yard  of  meal.  Now,  should  we  sub- 
stitute honey  for  the  meal,  we  should  have  a 
perfect  "  row;"  for  a  taste  of  honey  found  in 
the  open  air  during  a  dearth  of  pasturage, 
or  at  a  time  when  your  bees  have  learned  to 
get  it  by  stealing  instead  of  honest  industry, 
seems  to  have  the  effect  of  setting  every  bee 
crazy.  In  some  experiments  to  determine 
how  and  why  this  result  came  about,  we  had 
considerable  experience  Avith  angry  bees. 
After  they  had  been  robbing,  and  had  be- 
come tranquil,  we  tried  them  with  dry  su- 
gar ;  the  quarrelsome  bees  fought  about  it 
for  a  short  time,  but  soon  resumed  their  reg- 
ular business  of  hanging  about  the  well-tilled 
hives,  trying  to  creep  into  every  crack  and 
crevice,  and  making  themselves  generally 
disagreeable  all  round.  If  a  hive  was  to  be 
opened,  they  were  into  it  almost  before  the 
cover  was  raised,  and  then  resulted  a  pitched 
battle  between  them  and  the  inmates ;  the 
operator  was  sure  to  be  stung  by  one  or 
both  parties,  and,  pretty  soon,  some  of  the 
good  people  indoors  would  be  asking  what 
in  the  world  made  the  bees  so  awfully  cross, 
saying  that  they  even  came  indoors  and 
tried  to  sting.  Now,  why  could  they  not 
work  i)eaceably  on  the  sugar  as  they  do  on 
tlie  meal,  or  the  clover-blossoms  in  ,Juney 
We  dampened  the  sugar  with  a  sprinkler, 
and  the  l»ees  that  were  at  work  on  it  soon 
started  for  home  with  a  load ;  then  began 
tlie  high  key-note  of  robbing,  faint  at  first, 
tlien  louder  and  louder,  until  I  began  to  be 
almost  frightened  at  the  mischief  that  might 
ensue.  When  the  dampness  was  all  licked 
U11,  they  soon  subsided  into  their  usual  con- 
dition. The  effect  of  feeding  honey  in  the 
oi)en  air  is  very  much  worse  than  from  feed- 
ing any  kind  of  syruj),  and  syrup  from  wiiite 
sugar  incites  robbing  in  a  much  greater  de- 
gree than  that  from  brown  sugar;  the  latter 


ANT8. 


14 


ANTS. 


is  so  little  relished  by  them  that  they  use  it 
only  when  little  else  is  to  be  found.  It  is 
by  the  use  of  damp  brown  sugar  that  we  get 
rid  of  the  gi-eater  part  of  what  are  usually 
termed  angry  bees,  or  bees  that  prefer  to 
prowl  round,  robbing  and  stinging,  rather 
than  gather  honey  ''all  the  day,"  as  the  great- 
er part  of  the  population  of  the  apiary  does. 
The  sugar  should  be  located  several  rods 
away,  and  should  be  well  protected  from  the 
rain,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  the  bees 
to  have  free  access.  When  no  flowers  are 
in  bloom,  they  will  work  on  it  in  great  num- 
bers ;  but  when  honey  is  to  be  found,  you  ; 
will  see  none  but  the  prowling  robbers  round 
it.  These,  you  will  very  soon  notice,  are 
mostly  common  bees  and  those  having  a 
very  little  Italian  blood.  We  have  seen 
Italians  storing  honey  in  boxes,  while  the 
common  bees  did  nothing  but  work  in  the 
sugar-barrels.  Where  you  work  without  a 
veil,  it  is  very  convenient  to  have  these  an- 
noying bees  out  of  the  way,  and,  even  if  they 
belong  to  our  neighbors,  we  prefer  to  fur- 
nish tliem  with  all  the  cheap  sugar  they  can 
lick  up. 

The  remarks  that  have  been  made  are 
particularly  for  large  apiaries ;  where  one 
has  only  a  single  hive  and  no  neighbors  w^ho 
keep  bees,  the  case  is  something  like  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  on  the  island  ;  no  chance  for 
stealing,  and  consequently  nothing  to  be 
cross  about.  Bees  are  seldom  cross  or  an- 
gry, unless  through  some  fault  or  careless- 
ness of  your  own.  t;ee  Robbing;  also 
Stings. 

ASTTS.  Although  I  have  given  the 
matter  considerable  attention,  I  can  not  find 
that  ants  are  guilty  of  any  thing  that  should 
warrant  the  apiarist  in  waging  any  very  de- 
termined warfare  against  them.  Some 
years  ago  a  visitor  frightened  me  by  saying 
that  the  ants  about  my  apiary  would  steal 
every  drop  of  honey  as  fast  as  the  bees  could 
gather  it.  Accordingly,  I  prepared  myself 
with  a  tea-kettle  of  boiling  water,  and  not 
only  killed  the  ants  but  some  of  the  grape- 
vines also.  Afterward  there  came  a  spring 
when  the  bees,  all  but  about  eleven  colo- 
nies, dwindled  away  and  died,  and  the  hives 
filled  with  honey,  scattered  about  the  apiary 
unprotected,  seemed  to  be  about  as  fair  a 
chance  for  the  ants  that  had  not  "  dwindled" 
a  particle,  as  they  could  well  ask  for.  I 
watched  to  see  how  fast  they  would  carry 
away  the  lioney,  but,  to  my  astonishment, 
they  seemed  to  care  moi-e  for  the  hives  that 
contained  bees,  than  for  those  containing 
only  honey.    I  soon  determined  that  it  was 


the  warmth  from  the  cluster  that  especially 
attracted  them  ;  and  as  the  hives  were  di- 
rectly on  the  ground,  the  ants  soon  moved 
into  several  that  contained  only  a  small 
cluster  and  for  awhile  both  used  one  common 
entrance.  As  the  bees  increased,  they  be- 
gan to  show  a  decided  aversion  to  having 
two  families  in  the  same  house,  although  the 
ants  were  evidently  inclined  to  be  peaceable 
enough,  until  the  bees  tried  to  "  push  "  mat- 
ters, when  they  turned  about  and  showed 
themselves  fully  able  to  hold  possession. 
The  bees  seemed  to  be  studying  over  the 
matter  for  a  while,  and  finally  I  found  them 
one  day  taking  the  ants,  one  by  one,  and  car- 
rying tliem  high  up  in  the  air,  and  letting 
them  drop  at  such  a  distance  from  their 
home,  that  they  would  surely  never  be  able 
to  walk  back  again.  The  bees,  as  fast  as 
they  became  good  strong  colonies,  drove  the 
ants  out,  and  our  experience  ever  since  has 
been,  that  a  good  colony  of  bees  is  never  in 
any  danger  of  being  troubled  in  the  least  by 
ants.-iOne  weak  cohmy,  after  battling  awhile 
with  a  strong  nest  of  the  ants,  swarmed  out ; 
but  they  might  have  done  tliis  any  way,  so 
we  do  not  lay  much  blame  to  the  ants. 

Ants  sometimes  annoy  us  very  much  by 
getting  into  barrels  of  honey,  sugar,  etc., 
and  I  do  not  know  of  any  way  of  remedying 
the  mischief  except  to  get  them  out,  and 
then  keep  them  out.  The  cloth  covers 
we  use  for  our  extractors,  we  find  very  con- 
venient for  keeping  them  out  of  barrels. 
Slip  the  cloth  over  the  top  of  the  barrel  and 
press  the  upper  hoop  over  it,  and  no  ant  can 
force  its  way  in.  Sugar-boxes  are  made 
with  tight-fitting  covers  on  purpose.  Some- 
times it  is  quite  convenient  to  protect  the 
contents  of  a  table  by  setting  the  feet  in 
dishes  of  water;  but  we  have  seldom  found 
them  so  troublesome  as  to  be  obliged  to  re- 
sort to  such  measures. 

Ants  frequently  kill  the  young  grapevines, 
and  young  plants  and  trees  of  different 
kinds,  and  it  may  be  well  therefore  to  know 
how  to  get  rid  of  them  i)leasantly  and  easily. 
I  really  can  not  feel  like  recommending 
boiling  water,  on  account  of  its  cruelty, 
besides  the  danger  of  killing  our  vines,  etc., 
by  its  use.  It  is  well  known,  that  where 
things  do  not  please  them,  tliey  are  much 
disposed  to  "  pull  up  stakes "  and  "  ab- 
scond," very  much  in  the  way  the  bees  do ; 
and  the  simplest  Avay  we  know  of  inducing 
them  to  do  this,  is  to  sprinkle  powdered  bo- 
rax about  their  hills.*    After  the  first  rain. 


*The  application  of  turpentine  to  the  hills  is  also 
very  efficient  in  inducing:  the  ants  to  leave. 


AXT8. 


15 


APIARY. 


you  will  see  them  forming  a  "  caravan,"  lug- 
ging their  larv*,  stores,  etc.,  to  a  place  where 
they  are  not  annoyed  by  the  disagreeable 
soapy  borax.  Spots  in  our  apiary,  where 
they  have  been  on  hand  every  season  for 
years,  have  been  permanently  vacated  after 
one  application  of  this  simple  remedy.  If 
they  make  troublesome  ''trains''  running 
into  the  pantry,  honey-house,  etc.,  you  are 
to  follow  them  out  to  their  nest,  and 
there  a]  p!y  the  borax.  Prof.  Cook  recom- 
mends "^  to  put  a  sweet,  poisonous  mixture 
in  a  box  and  permit  the  ants  to  enter 
through  an  opening  too  small  to  admit  bees, 
and  thus  poison  the  ants.  Or  we  may  find 
the  ants"  nest,  and,  with  a  crowbar,  make  a 
hole'in  it,  turn  into  tliis  nn  f)unce  of  bisul- 
phide of  carlion.  and  quickly  plug  it  up  by 
packing  clay  in  the  hole  and  on  the  nest." 

There  is  a  kind  of  large  black  ant  that 
may  be  specially  mentioned.  These  ants 
are  troublesome,  and  sometimes  even  dan- 
gerous. They  burrow  in  the  wood  of  bot- 
tom-boards;  and  I  have  seen  a  bottom- 
board  that  looked  sound  on  the  exterior,  so 
thoroughly  riddled  by  these  pests  that  a  very 
little  touch  would  make  it  crumble.  Think 
what  a  time  you  might  have,  if  such  a  bot- 
tom-board should  crumble  while  being  haul- 
ed on  a  wagon  I 

These  ants  seem  to  start  their  burrows 
best  between  the  surfaces  of  two  boards,  so 
it  may  be  best,  if  their  depredations  are 
feared,  to  have  such  a  stand  as  to  let  the 
bottom-board  rest  only  on  its  outer  edges. 
Painting  the  bottom-board  with  coal  tar  is 
said  to  be  a  i)reventlve. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  tliat 
ants  have  any  i)articular  liking  for  honey, 
and  I  should  take  very  little  trouble  to  drive 
them  away,  luiless  they  got  into  the  liquid 
honey  and  got  drowned  or  something  of  that 
kind.  By  making  tlieir  habits  and  instincts 
a  careful  study,  we  shall  i)robably  get  at  the 
readiest  means  of  banishing  them,  and  we 
may  also  discover  that  they  are  no  enemy 
after  all.  as  has  often  been  the  case  with 
many  of  the  i;isect  and  feathered  tribes. 
Let  us  try  to  be  as  neighborly  as  we  consist- 
ently can,  with  all  these  wonderful  little 
creatures,  that,  in  a  certain  sense,  are  fellow- 
travelers  in  this  world  of  ours.* 


*  Since  (ho  above  was  wi'il ton.  several  cases  have 
been  reported  troiii  the.  South,  of  ants  killinjf  caged 
queens,  and  (lUi-eiis  that  liaxe  heiMi  lilieraled  on 
hatching  lii'ood,  as  p -r  direi-lions  in  Intkoiu'cino 
QUKKNS.  These  eases,  of  course,  oeciiri'eil  wlien  the 
nutnl)er  of  bees  was  too'snuill  to  properly  |)rot<'ct 
themselves.  O,  her  eases  in  the  Siiilh  have  been  re- 
poitedwheie  \hcy  would  destroy  an  entii-e  colony, 
but  It  should  be  s.iid  that  such  eases  appear  to  bo 
rare. 


AFIAHIST.  One  who  keeps  bees,  or  a 
bee-kee])er;  and  the  pk)t  of  ground,  includ- 
ing hives,  bees,  etc.,  is  called  an 

AFIAR'Sr.  As  you  can  not  well  aspire 
to  be  the  former  until  you  are  possessed  of 
the  latter,  we  will  proceed  to  start  an  apiary. 

LOCATION. 

There  is  scarcely  a  spot  on  the  smface  of 
the  earth  where  mankind  find  sustenance, 
that  will  not,  to  some  extent,  support  bees, 
although  they  may  do  much  better  in  some 
localities  than  in  others.  A  few  years  ago  it 
w^as  thought  that  only  localities  especially 
favored  would  give  large  honey-crops;  but 
since  the  introduction  of  the  Italians,  and 
the  new  methods  of  management,  we  are 
each  year  astonished  to  hear  of  great  yields 
here  and  there,  and  from  almost  every  quar- 
ter of  the  globe.  It  will  certainly  pay  to  try 
a  hive  or  tw^o  of  bees,  no  matter  M'here  you 
may  be  located. 

Bees  are  kept  with  much  profit,  even  in 
the  heart  of  some  of  our  largest  cities.  In 
this  case,  the  apiary  is  usually  located  on  the 
roof  of  the  building,  that  the  bees  may  be 
less  likely  to  frighten  nervous  people,  and 
those  unacquainted  with  their  habits.  Such 
an  apiary  would  be  established  like  those  on 
the  ground  in  all  essential  points. 

Select  a  spot  near  the  dwelling,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, have  it  where  you  will  be  likely  to  cast 
your  eye  every  time  you  pass  out  or  in.  Al- 
though trees  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  ob- 
jectionable, I  believe  I  should  prefer  a 
clear  piece  of  ground,  that  we  might 
supply  the  shade  to  our  liking.  It  will  be 
an  excellent  investment  of  your  time  or 
money  to  have  the  plat  nicely  cleaned  of  all 
rubbish,  and  the  ground  leveled  as  far  as 
may  be  ;  if  you  can  get  it  in  the  coiulition 
of  a  brick-yard  all  the  better  ;  a  gentle  slope 
would  be  desirable;  and  although  a  slope  to 
the  south  and  east  has  been  thought  best, 
we  are  not  sure  that  it  makes  any  particular 
difference.  As  we  wish  the  ground  to  dry 
quickly  after  slunvers,  it  will  be  an  excellent 
plan  to  have  it  all  underdrained.  If  you 
can  not  well  do  this,  make  oi)en  ditclies 
arotind  the  outside,  or  wherever  water  seems 
disi)os('d  to  stand.  The  ground  should  be  a 
little  liigher  than  the  surrounding  land,  for 
tliis  very  reason,  and  ymi  should  be  careful 
that  no  low  places  are  left  where  the  water 
may  collect  and  stand  around  or  near  the 
hives. 

Bees  ascend  with  ditliculty  when  lieavily 
laden,  and  on  this  account  we  woidd  have 
the   apiary   located  in  a  valley,  ratlier  than 


APIARY. 


16 


APIARY . 


on  a  hill,  that  they  may  rise  as  they  go  in 
quest  of  stores,  and  then  have  a  downward 
slope  as  they  come  in  with  their  loads. 
They  will  also  suffer  less  from  the  effects  of 
heavy  winds,  when  given  a  home  on  rather 
low  ground. 

AVINDBUEAKS. 

The  most  perfect  windbreak  is  an  inclos- 
ure  of  woods  on  three  sides,  with  an  open- 


windbreak  be  provided.  If  I  desired  to  put 
up  something  permanent,  and  something 
which  would  not  rot  out  or  require  repairs, 
I  would  outskirt  the  apiary  with  rows  of 
hardy-growing  evergreens,  such  as  are  seen 
in  the  apiary  of  the  Home  of  the  Honey- 
Bees,  in  frontispiece.  These,  for  the  first 
few  years,  would  afford  but  a  scanty  pro- 
tection ;  but  in  ten  years'  time  they  answer 


THE  VINEYARD  APIARY,  AND  "SWARMING^'  THE  GRAPEVINES. 


ing  to  the  south.  This,  however,  is  not 
available  to  all.  An  apiary  so  situated 
that  there  is  a  clump  of  woods  on  one  side 
and  buildings  on  the  other  two  sides,  leav- 1 
ing  only  a  southern  aspect,  is  well  sheltered  i 
from  the  prevailing  winds.  In  the  absence 
of  any  natural  or  accidental  protection  what- 
ever, it  is  quite  essential  that  some  sort  of 


their  purpose  admirably.  In  1879,  as  the 
reader  will  see  by  the  Introduction,  we  in- 
closed our  apiary  with  evergreens.  They 
have  proved  to  be  very  thrifty,  and  now 
(1891)  are  quite  good-sized  trees,  averaging 
18  feet  in  lieight.  In  a  few  years  more  their 
branches  will  be  tightly  interwoven  ;  and  a 
more  solid  and  lasting  phalanx  could  hardly 


APIARY. 


17 


APIARY. 


be  desired  as  a  windbreak.  Only  a  few  of 
my  readers  will  feel  disposed  to  go  to  this  ex- 
pense when  the  benefits  of  such  outlay  are 
so  far  ahead,  and  as  the  prospective  apiarist 
is  not  sure  that  ten  years  lieiice  he  will  still 
be  following  bee-keeping  as  a  pursuit.  I 
will  recommend  a  tight  board  fence  to  such 
as  he.  It  should  surround  the  plat,  at  least 
on  the  ]iorth  and  west  sides,  to  keep  oft' 
cold  winds;  and  if  it  can  be  made  strong 
enough  to  stand  the  prevailing  winds  it  will 
be  all  the  better  to  have  it  as  much  as  eight 
feet  high.  I  would  by  all  means  advise 
having  some  kind  of  an  inclosure  that  will 
exclude  poultry,  dogs,  etc.  A  flock  of  en- 
terprising hens  will  make  more  disorder  in 
a  few  hours  in  a  well-kept  apiary  than  the 
owner  can  restore  in  half  a  day.  We  wish 
to  have  the  ground  so  clean  that  we  can  get 
down  on  our  knees,  in  front  of  any  hive,  at 
any  time.  This  we  can  not  do  in  any  inclos- 
ure where  poultry  have  free  access.  The 
higli  strong  fence  will  also  do  much  to  dis- 
courage tliieves  from  attempting  to  pillage 
the  honey,  for  climbing  into  such  an  inclos- 
ure is  quite  risky  business  when  it  adjoins 
a  dwelling.  If  a  part  of  the  dwelling  could 
open  directly  into  the  apiary,  it  would  be  a 
fine  thing  on  many  accounts. 

THE  VINEYARD   APIARY. 

Get  two  posts  6  feet  long  and  three  inches 
square;  these  must  be  of  some  durable  wood, 
Avhite  oak  for  instance.  If  you  can  afford 
the  trouble  and  expense,  we  really  should 
prefer  that  you  have  them  planed  and  paint- 
ed ;  at  any  rate,  do  not  expect  your  apiary 
ever  to  be  any  thing  you  may  be  proud  of,  if 
you  pusli  down  some  old  sticks  temporarily, 
one  longer  than  the  other,  perhaps,  and  both 
askew,  for  such  work  soon  becomes  unat- 
tractive, and  is  shiuined.  Many  visitors 
have  admired  our  apiary,  and  thought  it  no 
wonder  we  enjoyed  bee-keeping  in  such  a 
place,  and  these  same  persons  have  declared 
their  intention  of  tipping  their  poor  neg- 
lected hives  of  bees  up  square  and  true,  re- 
moving the  weeds,  starting  grapevines,  etc., 
but,  alas  !  their  attempts  were  too  often  l)ut 
a  couple  of  sticks  picked  up  hastily  as  we 
have  mentioned,  and  a  few  vigorous  strokes 
in  the  battle  with  old  dame  Nature,  and  then 
they  (h'sisted,  before  the  "coy  old  lady"  had 
even  had  time  to  yield  and  bless  her  devo- 
tees with  such  smiles  as  only  the  successfid 
cultivator  of  the  soil  knows  she  can  give. 

Select  the  site  of  your  workshop,  for  such 
we  shall  expect  it  to  be,  near  the  center  of 
your  plat  of  ground,  and  drive  these  i)osts  or 
stakes  so  that  they  stand  east  and  west,  and 


just  three  feet  from  each  other,  measiu'ing 
from  outside  to  outside.  They  are  to  be 
driven  in  the  gromid  so  that  just  four  feet 
is  left  above,  and  they  must  stand  plumb  and 
square  ;  if  you  can"t  make  them  true  other- 
wise, get  a  lever  and  strong  chain  and  twist 
them  until  they  are  so.  Now  nail  a  strip  of 
pine  board  1x3  inches  and  8  feet  long,  on  the 
south  of  both,  and  just  level  with  the  top, 
from  one  to  the  other  ;  just  three  feet  below 
this,  nail  a  similar  one.  When  the  whole  is 
square,  true,  and  plumb,  stretch  three  wires 
from  one  strip  to  the  other ;  these  are 
to  be  at  equal  distances  from  the  posts  and 
from  each  other,  and  we  would  then  have 
something  like  the  following  figure. 

B 


Let  A,  A,  represent  the  posts;  B,  B,  the 
1x3  strips  nailed  on  the  south  side  of  the 
posts,  and  C,  D,  E,  the  wires.  These  wires 
should  be  galvanized  iron  wire,  about  No. 
16  or  17 ;  larger  would  be  more  expensive 
and  no  better.  Xow  we  are  all  ready  to 
liave  a  line  thrifty  Concord  grapevine  plant- 
ed directly  underneath  the  central  wire  D. 
Of  course  some  other  grape  will  do,  but  we 
have  found  none  so  hardy  and  tlirifty,  and 
that  gives  us  the  strong  rapid  growth  that 
is  so  desirable  for  making  a  shade  for  our 
hives,  as  soon  as  extreme  hot  weatlier  comes 
on.  Vines  are  usually  planted  only  in  the 
spring  and  fall ;  but  we  should  have  very 
much  more  confidence  in  your  success,  if  we 
knew  you  were  one  of  those  clever  individ- 
uals who  can  plant  a  vine  and  make  it  grow, 
at  any  season  of  the  year.^'"  You  can  surely 
do  it  if  you  have  a  mind  to.  Go  to  your 
nearest  nurseryman  (doiTt  ever  buy  of  i)ed- 
dlers),  tell  him  what  you  want,  and  get  him 
to  help  you  take  up  the  vine,  roots,  dirt,  and 
all,  soaking  tlie  soil  with  water  to  make  it 
stick  together  if  need  be,  while  you  jtlace 
the  whole  in  a  bushel  basket  for  transi)orta- 
tion.  Make  a  large  hole  beneatli  your  trel- 
lis, and  lift  vour  vine  into  it  as  carefully  as 


APIAKY. 


18 


API  All  Y. 


you  took  it  up,  till  in  with  good  soil,  and, 
after  cutting  off  all  the  top  but  one  shoot 
with  three  or  four  leaves,  treat  it  just  as  you 
would  a  hill  of  corn  that  you  wish  to  do 
extra  well.:"-  If  the  operation  is  done  in  hot 
dry  weather,  it  will  probably  need  watering, 
and  may  be  shading,  until  it  gets  started. 
We  exi»ect  you  in  future  to  see  that  no  weed 
or  spear  of  grass  is  allowed  to  make  its  ap- 
pearance within  a  yard,  at  least,  of  this  grape- 
vine. Those  accustomed  to  making  rustic 
work  would  doubtless  be  able  to  make  very 
pretty  trellises  at  a  trifling  expense  for  ma- 
terials. This  vine  is  to  have  its  one  shoot 
tied  to  the  central  wire,  D,  as  fast  as  it 
grows,  pinching  otf  all  side  shoots  after  they 
have  made  one  leaf.  When  it  gets  to  the 
top  of  the  trellis,  pinch  it  off  also,  and  it 
will  soon  throw  out  side  shoots.  Pinch  all 
off  again  except  one  on  each  side  near  the 
bottom-bai-  B.  Train  these  by  tying,  straight 
out,  horizontally,  until  they  reach  the  posts, 
then  train  them  up  the  posts  and  pinch  them 
off  like  the  middle  one.    Xow  get  two  more 


but  to  have  become  impatient,  seemingly,  of 
being  restrained  by  the  continual  i)inching 
back  necessary  to  keep  it  within  such  nar- 
row limits.  Perhaps  it  has  in  fact  manifested 
this  by  blossoming  and  attempting  to  bear 
grapes  out  of  season  near  the  top  bar  of  the 
trellis.  It  is  precisely  like  a  colony  having 
too  many  bees  for  the  size  of  the  hive.  Very 
likely,  each  one  of  the  ten  upright  canes  has- 
produced  three  or  four  fine  clusters  of  extra 
large  nice  berries,  but  still  the  vigor  of  the 
vine  (if  our  directions  have  been  carefully 
complied  M'ith)  is  equal  to  something  more ; 
and,  accordingly,  we  encourage  one  of  the 
outside  canes  by  allowing  it  to  send  a  new 
shoot  up  above  the  rest  of  the  trellis.  AVhen 
this  is  well  started,  the  whole  cane  is  bent 
over  so  as  to  go  straight  down  to  the  ground,, 
and  then  curved  outward  so  as  to  lie  in  a 
trench  a  few  inches  deep,  that  it  may  be 
covered  with  soil  enough  to  protect  it  from 
injury. 

A  new  trellis  is  now  to  be  constructed,  if 
it  has  not  been  done  before,  just  4  feet  from. 


THE  LAWN  OK  CIIA 

shoots  to  train  up  the  wires,  C  and  E,  and 
we  are  done.  The  future  treatment  of  the 
vines  consists  only  in  cutting  the  upright 
shoots  all  back  to  the  horizontal  arms  tied 
to  the  lower  bar,  B,  every  winter,  train- 
ing two  new  shoots  up  each  wire  and  post 
every  summer,  and  pinching  them  off  when- 
ever they  get  to  the  to]). 

Very  well ;  yoiu'  one  vine  is  supposed  to 
have  become  strong  and  vigorous,  and  not 
only  to  have  covered  the  trellis  completely, 


FF-HIVE  APIARY. 

the  old  one  ;  that  is,  the  two  trellises  are  to 
have  a  walk  of  just  4  feet  in  width  between 
them.  The  new  shoot  grows  very  rapidly 
and  can  soon  be  tied  up  to  the  first  post  of 
the  new  trellis  and  across  the  lower  bar. 
Now  select  a  side  shoot  for  each  wire,  and, 
almost  befoj-e  you  are  aware  of  it,  you  have 
another  complete  grapevine.  The  engrav- 
ing will  make  it  all  plain. 

The  view  is  taken  from  the  south  side, 
and  the  hives  are  just  visible  through  the 


APIAEY. 


19 


APIARY. 


foliage  in  their  proper  places.  One  strong 
vine  will  furnish  shoots  for  not  only  a  new 
one  at  the  right  and  left,  but  even  for  the 
whole  six  that  are  to  surround  the  original 
one,  and  in  a  single  season,  if  need  be.  As 
the  new  vines  take  root  almost  as  soon  as 
laid  down,  the  old  vine  suffers  but  little 
loss,  and  we  have  known  new  ones,  started 
in  this  manner  the  4th  of  July,  to  be  well 
loaded  with  fine  grapes  the  next  season, 
their  connection  with  the  old  vine  enabling 
them  to  become  bearing  vines  in  one  year 
only.  Although  their  remaining  attached 
to  the  old  vine  does  not  seem  to  impair  its 
productiveness,  the  aid  they  receive  from  it 
is  quite  important.  This  matter  we  tested 
by  cliopping  one  of  the  new  vines  off  where 
it  left  the  old  one,  as  we  were  hoeing  about 
them.  It  had  been  growing  with  great  vig- 
or, and  had  considerable  fruit  t)n  it,  but  the 
next  day  tlie  sun  hung  its  foliage  like  wilted 
cabbage  -  leaves.  By  heavy  nudching  and 
buckets  of  water,  we  induced  it  to  look  up 
again,  but  it  is  far  behind  its  comrades, 
and  we  have  decided  not  to  sever  "pa- 
rental ties"  in  future  at  all,  and  if  we  are 
careful  in  laying  them  down  to  tie  them 
close  to  the  posts,  they  are  never  in  the  way. 
The  idea,  that  the  culture  of  bees  in  any 
way  interferes  with  that  of  grapes,  is  a  joke 
entirely  outside  of^  ovu-  experience. -':'  Where 
grapes  are  trained  thus,  fowls,  if  allowed, 
will  make  sad  havoc  among  tliem  ;  the  bees 
of  coiu'se  then  work  on  the  bruised  ones,  but 
seldom  otherwise. 

LAWN  OR  CHAFF-HIVE  APIARV. 

With  chaff  hives  we  can  dispense  with  tlie 
grapevines,  as  their  thick,  chaff -packed 
walls  protect  them  from  the  sun,  as  well  as 
from  the  frosts  of  winter.  Such  an  apiary 
may  be  made  very  pretty,  for  it  is  in  reality 
a  miniature  city,  with  its  streets  and  thor- 
oughfares. During  the  swarming  season,  it 
will  probably,  at  times,  be  fpiite  a  busy  little 
city.  Some  expense  and  care  is  avoid- 
ed by  tliis  plan,  it  is  true,  but  the  hives  cost 
considerably  more,  and  are  rather  unwieldy 
to  handle  when  bees  are  to  be  nuived  about, 
sold,  etc.'^*  The  fact  that  they  can  be  safely 
wintered  on  tlieir  summer  stands,  and  that 
very  little  preparation  is  needed  to  enable 
them  to  winter  safely,  is  nmch  in  their  favor. 

Oli.IKCTIONS   TO    TIIK    nKX.\(iONAL   .Vl'IAUV. 

Tlie  foregoing  instructions  are  intended 
for  tliose  who  piopose  to  keep  only  a  few 
colonies,  or  a  small  ajjiary,  and  who  can 
therefore  aiford  more  ex])ense  in  the  way  of 
ornamentation  and  suitable  and  artistic 
.shade.     Wliere  one   intends   to    manage    a 


large  nundjer  of  colonies,  or,  as  is  more  often 
the  case,  the  pocketbook  can  not  stand  a 
very  large  exi)ense,  the  vineyard  apiary  al- 
ready de.scri bed  will  be  rather  tooex})ensive. 
The  price  at  which  honey  is  now  sold  is  so 
low  that  we  can  not  afford  mucliex])ensefor 
hive-stands  or  ornamentation;  and  he  who 
would  keep  bees  solely  for  the  ni07iey  tliere 
is  in  them  will  l)e  obliged  to  lay  out  his  api- 
ary as  simi)ly  and  cheaply  as  possible. 

This  is  economical  of  si)ace  where  one  liive 
stands  by  itself,  but  the  arrangement  of 
hives  is  inconvenient  for  the  lawn-mower. 
For  reasons  already  given,  we  can  not  af- 
ford, in  large  apiaries,  to  cut  the  sod  off  and 
level  the  gnmnd  like  a  brickyard.  As  grass 
will  grow,  it  becomes  a  necessity,  of  course, 
to  mow  it  occasionally  ;  long  grass  on  dewy 
mornings  is  unpleasant;  and  tlie  hives  slumld 
be  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  a  scythe 
(or,  better,  a  lawn-mower)  can  run  in  be- 
twixt the  rows ;  and  on  that  account  many 
apiarists  incline  to  the  straight-row  idea. 

The  hexagonal  plan  is  also  olijectionable, 
in  that  the  bees  are  liable  to  get  confused  as 
to  their  entrances.  To  obviate  tliis  difficulty 
we  years  ago  arranged  the  entrances  point- 
ing toward  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  as  great  a  diversi- 
ty as  p()ssil)le — see  Introduction.  But  even 
then  the  bees  become  more  or  less  confused. 
Having  the  hives  pointing  in  so  many  ways 
makes  it  necessary  for  the  apiarist  to  en- 
coimter  the  bee-flight  from  all  points  of  the 
compass.  It  is  desirable  to  have  the  hives 
so  arranged  in  large  apiaries,  or  in  a  system 
of  out-apiaries,  that  there  shall  l)e  one  alley 
in  which  the  bees  can  have  a  highway  ex- 
clusively to  themselves  in  i)assing  out  from 
and  into  the  entrances  ;  and  it  is  equally  im- 
I'-ortant  that  another  alley  be  left  free,  or 
comparatively  so,  from  the  flight  of  V)ees,  .so 
that  the  apiarist  can  pass  back  and  forth 
with  wheelbarrows,  carts,  or  even  a  horse 
and  wagon,  unmolested. 

>r"lNTYI{Ic"s    I'l.AN    FOK   AN    AI'IAHV. 

The  following  plan  is  that  of  the  Sespe 
apiary,  l)elonging  to  J.  F.  Mclntyre.  of  Fill- 
more, Cal.;  and  although  it  departs  from  the 
straight-row  idea,  it  very  nicely  provides  for 
an  alleyway  for  tlie  bees'  flight  and  anotlier 
one  for  the  apiarist. 

You  will  observe  that  it  is  something  of  a 
nioditication  of  the  hexagonal  i)lan.  and  that 
the  rows  of  hives  are  about  as  straiglit  as — 
well,  a  rail  fence.  The  small  dots  in  the 
center  of  each  liexagon  represent  stones 
used  for  holding  the  covers  down  wlien  re- 
quired.    It  is  in  tliis  alleyway  from  nortli  to 


APIARY. 


20  , 


APIARY. 


south  tliat  the  apiarist  can  do  all  his  work. 
The  entrances  of  the  liives  face  each  otlier, 
so  that  the  tlight  of  tlie  bees,  as  they  pass 
over  the  hme  for  tlie  apiarist,  is  clear  above 
his  head,  while  the  next  one  may  be  fdled 
witli  bees  Hying  in  all  directions,  to  and 
from  their  entrances.  This  rail-fence  idea 
rather  helps  the  l)ees  to  locate  their  en- 
trances. Starting  with  the  end  of  one  of 
the  rows  from  north  to  south,  the  fronts  of 
the  first  two  hives  diverge  from  tlie  second 
pair.  Tlie  second  pair  converges  toward  the 
third,  so  that  a  bee.  in  order  to  find  an  en- 
trance i)ointing  in  the  same  direction  as  his 
own,  in  the  same  row,  has  to  go  a  good  many 
feet  away.  The  next  row  is  so  far  away 
that  he  is  not  likely  to  get  into  that. 

Wlien  I  visited  this  apiary  in  1888  I 
thought  it  was  one  of  the  prettiest  I  ever 
saw.    The  honev-house  is  at  the  foot  of  the 


PLANS     KOK    APIAUIES    ON    THE    STKAIGKT- 
UOAV    IDEA. 

Dr.  C.  C.  Miller,  of  Marengo,  111.,  and  C. 
A.  Hatch,  of  Ithaca,  Wis.,  both  prominent 
and  extensive  bee-keepers,  arrange  their 
hives  on  the  i)lan  shown  below  : 


6  feet. 


6  feet. 


A  PART  OF  AN  APIARY  ARRANGED  ON  THE 
STRAIGHT-ROW   PLAN. 

The  stars  in  the  above  diagram  indicate 
the  entrances.  As  in  the  Sespe  apiary, 
there  are  two  lanes,  or  alleyways,  one  six 


•/  11/ 


PLAN  OF   THE   SESPE   APIARY, 


incline,  just  below  the  l)ee-iiives,  on  the 
south,  so  that  a  wagonload  of  honey  goes 
down  thi'ongh  those  ojien  lanes  witliont  en- 
countering bee-flight.  Between  the  honey- 
house  and  the  road  is  a  gi-eat  iron  tank. 
These  iron  tanks  are  to  be  seen  near  every 
honey-house  in  California.  A  gas-pipe  runs 
from  tlie  extractor  into  the  tank.  Tlien  a 
gate  at  the  bottom  of  the  tank  lets  the 
honey  into  s(|uare  cans,  standing  on  a  plat- 
form just  right  to  load  into  a  wagon.  Per- 
liaps  it  is  unnecessary  to  state,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  the  Sespe  apiary  is  nni  for 
extracted  honev. 


feet  wide,  for  the  bees,  and  one  ten  feet 
wide,  for  the  apiarist,  and  his  horse  and 
wagon,  etc .  You  will  observe  that  the  hives- 
are  arranged  in  pairs,  in  such  a  way  that 
they  face  each  other  with  entrances  six  feet 
apart.  In  the  next  alley  their  hacks  are 
toward  each  other.  Ai\  apiary  on  this  plan 
can  be  made  as  large  as  desired. 
s.  E.  miller's  plan  of  an  out-apiauv. 
The  plan  above  is  similar  to  the  one  used 
by  Mr.  Hatch,  but  is  arranged  with  a  view 
of  still  greater  economy  of  space,  not  losing 
sight  of  the  scheme  of  a  highway  for  bees, 
and  an  alley  for  the  apiarist.     Instead  of  be- 


APIARY. 


21 


APIARY. 


ing  in  pairs  they  are  arranged  in  groups  of 
five  each.  Little  circles  in  front  of  the  hives 
indicate  the  entrances.  The  hives  slioiild 
be  18  inches  apart,  to  give  room  for  a  lawn- 
mower.  It  would  hardly  do  to  i)ut  them 
closer  than  12  inches,  for  long  timothy  grass 
will  grow  up  between,  and  then  it  is  a  big 
job  to  clean  it  oiit ;  and  if  not  cut  out  it  is 
in  the  way  of  putting  on  the  supers  or  covers. 
The  groups  can  be  anywhere  from  10  to  20 
feet  apart ;  but  if  put  exactly  16  feet  apart, 
and  each  hive  in  the  group  18  inches  apart, 
an  apiary  of  80  colonies  can  be  accommodat- 
ed on  a  plot  75  feet  square,  or  in  the  back 
yard  of  an  ordinary  town  lot.  One  advan- 
tage of  this  grouping  plan  is,  that  the  apia- 
rist can  sit  on  one  hive  while  he  is  working 
on  another ;  and  his  tools,  such  as  smoker, 
honey-knives,  bee-brushes,  etc.,  are  right  at 
hand  for  the  whole  5  hives.  Where  there  is 
only  one  hive  on  a  stand,  the  tools  liave  to 
be  carried  to  each  hive. 


course,  in  this  case  the  honey-house  or  work- 
shop should  be  at  tlie  hub.  or  center,  of  the 
system. 

SHADK   FOR    HIVES. 

So  far,  among  these  latter  plans  shade  isn't 
mentioned  ;  lint  a  good  many  times  it  is  con- 
venient to  put  tlie  liives  in  a  yoimg  orchard. 
Old  apple-trees  iiave  rather  too  dense  a 
shade  to  be  advantageous  to  the  bees  in 
breeding;  but  young  trees  will  give  just 
about  the  right  shade.  If  it  is  intended  to 
set  out  young  trees,  you  will  notice  that  the 
grouping  plan  will  save  a  good  many.  Take, 
for  instance,  Mr.  S.  E.  Miller's  plan.  Six- 
teen trees  will  answer.  Or,  if  preferred,  16 
grapevines  trellised  on  the  plan  mentionetl 
imder  the  "  A'ineyard  apiary  "  can  be  put  up, 
and  be  made  to  answer  a  very  excellent  i)ur- 
l)ose.  One  trellis,  made  a  little  larger, 
wc)uld  shade  live  hives  as  well  as  one ;  and 
instead  of  80  trellises  of  vines  to  keep 
trimmed,  or  80  trees,  there  would  be  onlv  16. 


>tZ] 


O      °CI] 


APlARiST_ , 


o     <a 


[Z> 


o      o      o 
o      o^    o 

DfiD 


DUD      DDD 

o     o     o  o     "      - 

—     HioHWAx  fo«  Bees 


DDD    nnn 


DDD 

O      Q       O 

o     o     o 

nnn 


°a 


on 


(Z>     <>□ 


o     «□ 


Alley  Foi\ApiAaisr 
CJo       d! 


nan 

o      o     o 

OOP 

DDD 


COD      □□□ 

o      o      o  o      o      o 

HiGHWATf    F0B.BEE5  

O        O        O  O         O        O 

DDD      DDD 


'DDD 

O        O        O' 

oho 

nnn 


<a 


□o 


'□ 


:Ap|AKIi>T. 


□o       ocz] 


no 


s.  E.  .mii.m:i;  s  plan  of  ax  orT-APiAuv. 


We  have  not  tested  the  plan  for  apiaries 
arranged,  one  alleyway  for  bee-flight  and 
one  for  the  ai)iarist ;  luit  a  good  many  com- 
petent bee-men  liave,  and  they  say  the  bees 
seem  to  recognize  this  narrow  alleyway  as 
their  own  allotted  higliway  ;  antl  when  they 
are  working  heavily,  said  liighways  are  lit- 
erally full  of  l)ees,  while  the  broad  ones  are 
comparatively  free.  In  some  ajiiaries  in 
California  1  found  doulile  rows  of  hives, 
with  a  doul)le  alleyway  l)etween  them,  in- 
stead of  being  i»arallel.  diverge  from  a  com- 
mon center,  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel.    Of 


A  good  many  times  it  is  convenient  to  locate 
an  apiary  on  the  edge  of  a  piece  of  woods, 
so  that  a  i>art  of  the  day  we  can  work  with 
the  bees  in  the  shade.  This  will  do  if  the 
shade  be  not  too  dense. 

SKAUE-HOAKDS. 

A  great  many  ajiiarists  i)refer  to  dispense 
with  shade-trees  and  trees  of  all  kinds,  and 
tise  what  is  called  *' shade-boards."  They 
are  large  covers,  cleated  on  tlie  ends,  made 
of  two  or  three  boards,  out  of  the  cheai>est 
lumber  tiiat  can  be  had.  If  they  are  niatie 
of  2  stutT  thev  will  be  lidilcr  to  liandle.     It 


APIARY. 


22 


APIARY. 


is  necessary  to  have  a  weight  or  something 
to  hold  them  down.  In  most  localities  an 
occasional  wind  will  blow  them  in  all  di- 
rections. Mr.  James  Ileddon.of  Dowagaic, 
Mich.;  Mr.  J.  F.  Mclntyre.  owner  of  the 
Sespe  apiary,  and  other  jirominent  ai)iarists, 
use  stones.  I  rather  object,  however,  to  the 
iise  of  shade-l)oards.  They  entail  just  so 
unich  more  labor  in  working  ;Over  a  liive,  to 
say  nothing  about  lifting  a  lo-lb.  stone 
every  time  you  wish  to  look  inside  the  hive. 
Besides  all  this,  they  are  unsightly.  For  an 
apiary  with  sliade-boards,  see  Picture  Gal- 
lery in  the  back  part  of  this  work,  that  of 
Mr.  W.  H.  Shirley,  of  Glenwood,  Mich.,  as  a 
good  exam])le.  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  the 
inii)ression  that  Mr.  Shirley's  ai)iary  is  \\u- 
sightly.  but  I  think  it  would  look  neater 
with  some  sort  of  shrubbery,  such  as.  for  in- 
stance, grapevines,  instead  of  a  shade-board 
and  a  good-sized  stone. 


THE  HOUSE-APIARY. 

This  is  a  very  old  idea,  having  been  rec- 
ommended and  used  at  different  times  for 
something  more  than  a  century  past. 
The  objections  to  the  .  house -apiary  are, 
first, the  expense;  especially  the^rsf  expense; 
for  one  can  make  a  start  in  bee  culture  with 
a  very  small  amount  of  capital,  with  the 
out-door  hives,  and  the  sales  of  honey  and 
bees  will  at  once  furnish  all  the  capital  need- 
ed, for  a  moderate  yearly  increase.  With 
the  house,  the  capital  to  put  up  the  building 
must  be  furnished  at  the  outset,  and  a  house 
for  50  colonies  will  cost  much  more  than 
the  same  number  of  hives.  Most  apiarists 
prefer  working  in  the  open  air  to  being 
cramped  up  in  a  building  (no  matter  how 
large  it  may  be),  even  ;it  the  expense  of  hav- 
ing to  perform  more  labor  aiid  take  more 
steps.  Secondly,  in  a  building,  we  are  obliged 
to  get  all  the  bees  out  of  a  room  every  time 
we  open  a  hive,  and  bees  are  very  untidy 
when  crushed  by  careless  footsteps  on  the 
floor  of  a  room. 

To  avoid  this  necessitates  an  almost  in- 
cessant use  of  the  broom.  Again,  when 
young  bees  are  just  sallying  out  for  their 
hrst  flight,  they  will,  if  the  hive  is  opened  at 
just  the  right  time,  come  out  in  the  house 
in  great  numbers,  and  to  try  to  stoj)  them 
by  any  other  means  than  closing  the  hive,  is 
like  trying  to  stop  the  rain  from  falling. 
These  bees,  after  having  had  their  '•'•  play- 
spell,''  will  insist  on  returning  to  the  hive 
in  the  same  way  that  they  came  out,  and  if 
they  are  driven  out  of  the  house  and  the 
door  closed,  they  will  sometimes  collect  in  a 


large  cluster  on  or  about  the  door.  It  is 
true  they  are  seldom  lost,  for  they  will  usu- 
ally be  allowed  to  enter  the  hives  nearest 
the  door;  but  it  weakens  the  hive  from 
which  they  came,  and  is  very  apt  to  puzzle  a 
novice  in  the  business  sorely.  To  obviate 
this  trouble,  we  can  avoid  opening  the  hives 
during  the  afternoon,  or  at  such  times  as 
the  bees  are  likely  to  rush  out  for  a  play  ; 
after  a  shower  for  instance. 

On  page  23  we  give  a  picture  of  the  house- 
apiary  that  we  once  used  for  several  years. 
A  more  accurate  cut  of  the  building  as 
it  now  appears  will  be  found  in  the  pic- 
ture of  our  apiary— see  Frontispiece.  The 
interior  will  be  readily  understood  from  the 
accompanying  diagram ;  the  upper  story 
was  formerly  occupied  by  the  children 
as  a  play-room.  Pei'haps  the  most  difficult 
part  to  make  in  the  whole  building  is  the 
roof,  unless  we  make  it  of  tin ;  this  is  some- 
what expensive;  but  if  kept  well  painted,  it 
will  last  almost  indefinitely.  The  orna- 
mental w^ork  is,  of  course,  in  no  way  essen- 
tial to  the  success  of  the  establishment  pe- 
cuniarily. 

Some  house-apiaries  are  constructed  of  a 
scpiare  or  oblong  shape,  but  our  objections 
to  such  would  be  the  difficulty  of  getting 
the  bees  out  of  the  corners  of  the  room 
(this  might  be  obviated  by  having  a  square 
house  with  the  doors  at  two  opposite  cor- 
ners), and  the  increased  danger  of  having 
both  bees  and  queen  get  into  the  wrong 
hives.  From  the  engraving  of  the  house- 
apiary,  and  diagram  of  the  ground  plan  giv- 
en below,  it  will  be  seen  that  only  3  hives 
are  on  a  side.  The  bees  from  the  central 
one  will,  of  course,  recognize  their  own  en- 
trance, and  those  at  each  side,  being  the  end 
of  the  row,  will  also  find  theirs  without 
trouble.  To  make  the  entrance  to  each  hive 
still  more  conspicuous  we  take  advantage  of 
the  battens  on  the  building,  as  will  be  seen 
i  from  the  diagram.  The  building  is  made  of 
pine  or  other  boards  one  foot  in  width,  and 
these  boards,which  are  put  on  up  and  down, 
constitute  the  entire  frame  of  the  building. 
Six  of  them,  put  as  close  together  as  they 
will  come  conveniently,  form  one  of  the 
eight  sides,  and  the  cracks  are  covered  with 
a  beveled  batten,  one  edge  of  the  corner 
boards  being  beveled  slightly,  that  the  bat- 
ten may  close  the  corner  crack  also. 
:  A  represents  one  of  the  heavy  outer  doors, 
!  and  B,  the  light  door  with  glass  sash  ;  these 
doors  are  the  same,  on  both  the  east  and 
I  west  sides  of  the  building.  G  is  the  shelf 
I  that  runs  entirely  around  the  room,  on  which 


APIAKY. 


AFiAKY 


the  hives  are  phiced.  It  is  about  34  feet 
from  the  floor,  and  should  be  about  18  inch- 
es wide.  The  hives  are  made  by  a  simple 
division-board,  E.  that  holds  a  pair  of  metal 
rabbets  on  its  upper  edge,  one  facing  each 
way ;  the  combs  are  hung  on  these;  and 
when  all  are  in  ])lace,  a  sheet  of  glass,  F. 
bound  with  tin  around  its  edges,  closes  the 
hive  by  being  hung  in  the  rabbets  the  same 
as  are  the  frames.  The  top  of  the  hive  is  [ 
closed  by  the  usual  sheet  of  duck.    During  ! 


comb  just  back  of  these  glass  division- 
boards,  the  effect  is  more  beautiful  than 
can  well  be  imagined.  The  room  should 
afford  as  few  corners,  where  stray  bees  may 
get  a  lodging,  as  possible;  and  to  this  end, 
we  close  the  triangular  corners  by  bits  of 
board,  I,  I.  They  may  have  a  knob  on  top, 
and  these  boxes  will  then  serve  for  little 
cupboards,  in  which  to  keep  various  uten- 
sils. If  the  room  is  open  a  great  deal,  the 
bees  are  inclined  to  waste  time  in  buzzinsr 


A  MODERN  nOUSE-APIARY. 

winter  and  spring,  the  bees  are  protected  by  against  the  glass;  therefore  it  nuiv  be  well 
thick  chaff  cushions  laid  on  the  duck  sheets,  to  have  a  clotli  curtain  to  drop  over  them. 
It  will  be  seen  that  these  sheets  of  glass  face  except  when  we  wish  to  examine  the  progress 
the  spectator  on  all  sides  of  the  room,  and  of  the  colony.  To  lu-event  the  house  from 
when  we  can  see  the  bees,  diu-ing  the  work-  becoming  dami),  we  need  a  ventilator.  II.  in 
ing  season,  tilling    sections   and   l)nilding  i  thecenter  of  the  ceiling,  about  a  foot  scpiare; 


APIARY. 


24 


we  can  also  have  a  trai)-(loor  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  floor  to  admit  cool  air  from  the 
cellar,  during  very  hot  weather.    D  is  the 


DIAGRAM   or  IXTEHIOR  OF  IIOUSE-APIARY. 

door -step,  and  the  entrances  are  shown 
throngh  the  walls,  just  by  the  battens.  It 
will  be  observed  that  the  middle  hive  on 
each  side  has  its  entrance  through,  or  rath- 
er under,  the  batten  ;  this  is  that  the  bees 
may  have  an  additional  mark  for  their  own 
hive,  for  the  entrances  (2-inch  auger-holes) 
at  the  sides  are  made  at  the  right  and 
left  of  the  battens.  The  plan  seems  to  work 
well,  for  we  have  never  lost  many  young 
queens  in  the  house-apiary.  The  battens 
are  also  a  shade  darker  in  color  than  the  rest 
of  the  house ;  thus  making  them  ornament- 
al well  as  useful.  A  light  drab  is  a  very 
pretty  color  for  such  a  building. 

Besides  the  hives  we  have  just  described 
on  the  shelf,  we  have  precisely  the  same 
arj-angement  of  them  on  the  floor,  or,  if  pre- 
ferred, raised  on  a  platform  a  couple 
of  inches  above  the  floor.  In  extracting, 
we  can  get  along  very  well  with  the  lower 
tier  by  removing  the  sheet  of  glass  and 
shaking  the  bees  on  the  floor  close  to  their 
combs  ;  with  the  upp.er  ones,  we  find  it  best 
to  stand  on  a  chair  or  box,  and  shake  them 
on  top  of  the  frames  close  to  the  wall.  If  they 
scatter  about,  and  threaten  to  run  all  over 
the  walls  and  ceiling,  take  the  next  hive  from 
the  other  side,  until  they  get  back,  assisting 
them  meanwhile  with  a  little  smoke.  For 
comb  honey,  we  work  just  as  we  do  with 
the  outdoor  hives. 

The  u])per  story  will  be  found  very  conve- 
nient for  storing  various  things  about  the 
apiary,  such  as  the  chaff  cushions  during 
the  summer,  and  empty  sections  and  combs 


APIARY. 

during  the  winter ;  for  we  wish  to  have 
our  lower  room,  at  least,  always  neat  and 
tidy. 

The  good  and  desirable  qualities  of  the 
house-apiary  are,  first,  it  is  always  sheltered 
and  dry,  and  if  the  building  is  kept  painted 
the  hives  will  always  be  in  good  repair ; 
this  is  quite  an  advantage  over  out-door 
hives. •■'I-'  The  hives  can  he  much  more  quickly 
opened,  as  they  need  no  other  covering  than 
the  chaff  cushions  in  winter,  and  a  single 
sheet  of  cloth  in  summer.  Secondly,  sur- 
plus honey,  either  extracted  or  comb,  can 
be  removed  in  much  less  time,  for  we  have 
only  to  remove  it  and  store  it  in  the  center 
of  the  room,  instead  of  the  laborious  car- 
rying that  has  to  be  done  with  outdoor 
hives.''"  Also  empty  combs,  combs  filled  for 
destitute  colonies,  empty  frames,  frames  of 
section  boxes,  and,  in  short,  everytliing  need- 
ed in  working  about  the  hives  may  be  stored 
in  the  center  of  the  room,  within  arm's  reach 
of  every  one  of  the  36  hives.  Furthermore 
we  can  handle  the  bees  and  do  all  kinds  of 
work  with  them  during  rainy  and  wet  weath- 
er when  the  outdoor  hives  could  not  be 
touched. 31-' 

Again,  Mr.  J.  Vandervort,  of  Laceyville, 
Pa.,  says  he  can  contro  the  temi)erature, 
and  so  prevent,  largely,  swarming  ;  and  this 
same  control  causes  the  bees  to  go  into  the 
boxes  sooner. 

Nay,  further !  we  can  handle  the  bees  by 
lamplight  after  the  duties  of  the  day  are 
over ;  wi  have  repeatedly  made  new 
colonies  thus,  to  avoid  the  robber  bees  that 
were  so  annoying  in  the  day  time,  during  a 
dearth  of  pasturage.  See  Robbing.  By 
closing  the  glass  doors,  and  opening  the 
outer  doors,  we  can  work  in  perfect  freedom 
from  robbers  at  any  season  of  the  year.  Ar- 
tificial swarming,  queen-rearing,  etc.,  can 
be  carried  on  very  expeditiously,  and  at  a 
small  expense  for  the  reasons  we  have  men- 
tioned. It  has  been  said,  that  the  bees  sting 
worse  in  the  house  than  in  the  open  air. 

There  is  still  another  advantage  in  the 
house-apiary,  and  it  is  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant of  all.  It  is  that  the  bees,  honey,  and 
all  the  implements,  can  be  easily  kept  under 
lock  and  key ;  a  very  important  item  where 
thieving  is  very  prevalent.  Where  the  api- 
arist becomes  the  owner  of  more  colonies 
than  can  profitably  be  kept  in  one  place,  he 
can  establish  house-apiaries  at  almost  any 
point,  and  I  have  long  had  visions  of  a  large 
central  apiary,  witli  6  house  -  apiaries  ar- 
ranged hexagonally  all  about  it ;  say  three 
miles  from  the  center,  and  three  miles  from 


APIAKY 


25 


APIARY. 


each  other.  Nay.  further,  Mr.  Vandervort 
has  already  house-apiaries  arranged  on  this 
plan,  and  he  reports  it  a  sufcess.  See  Ovt- 
Apiakies. 


PORTABLE  HOUSE -APIARY. 

In  Germany  they  use  a  lioiise-ai)iary  on 
wheels,  to  some  extent.  When  the  pastur- 
age becomes  scarce  in  one  locality  tlie  thing 
is  drawn  to  a  new  field.  The  above  cut  il- 
lustrates the  idea. 

OBJECTIONS  TO   A   HOUSE-APIARY. 

It  should  be  said,  perhaps,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  house-apiaries  are  not  now 
generally  u.sed.  They  are  expensive;  and 
where  one  has  plenty  of  land  it  is  better  to 
adopt  one  of  tlie  outdoor  apiaries.  As  al- 
ready stated  at  the  outset,  the  bees  get 
down  on  the  floor,  get  mashed,  and  have  an 
unpleasant  fashion  of  crawling  up  one's 
trowsers  legs.  In  the  summer  time  they  are 
hot,  unpleasant  places  to  work.  The  bees, 
in  returning,  are  more  or  less  confu.sed  as  to 
their  entrances;  and  the  most  inii)leasant 
part  of  all  is  tlie  use  of  a  smokei-  inside. 
This  can  be  remedied  to  a  great  extent  by 
having  a  ventilating-shaft  at  the  toj),  to 
carry  off  the  smoke  as  fast  as  it  accumu- 
lates. We  used  our  house-apiary  for  sever- 
al years;  but  on  account  of  the  greater  con- 
venience outdoors,  and  the  otlier  objections 
already  given,  we  liave  abandoned  its  use 
as  a  place  for  keeping  bees.  It  is  used  now 
entirely  for  the  storage  of  tools,  lioney.  etc. 

THE    RAILWAY    APIARY. 

The  honey-house  is  placed  at  the  lowest 
side  of  the  apiary,  and  a  track  or  tracks  with 
l)roi)er  switches  made  to  run  between  each 
two  rows  of  hives.  A  barrel  is  fixed  low 
down  in  the  car,  and  extractor  and  imple- 
ments i)laced  over  it.  The  whole  is  covered 
with  a  light  stiuare  tent,  made  of  canvas 
and  wire  cloth,  for  an  assistant  to  work  se- 
cure from  robbers.  Roll  your  car  to  the  top 
of  the  slope,  hand  the  full  frames  from  the 


hive  through  a  slit  in  tlie  canvas  to  your 
assistant  until  the  hive  is  finished  ;  then  roll 
your  car  to  the  next  two  hives,  and  so  on 
until  you  get  to  the  house,  when  your  barrel 
should  be  full  and  ready  to  roll  off  for  an- 
other. 

The  same  arrangement  would  answer  for 
avoiding  the  labor  of  removing  comb  honey 
from  the  hives  ;  and  if  the  bees  are  wintered 
indoors,  the  hives  can  be  placed  on  the  car, 
and  run  directly  into  the  wintering-house. 

Some  experiments  have  been  made  with 
hives  permanently  located  on  small  low 
cars,  Avhich  are  to  be  run  into  a  frost-proof 
house  for  wintering,  or  wlienever  the  weath- 
er is  such  as  to  make  it  advisable  to  house 
them.  See  Railway  apiary  in  Picture  Gal- 
'  lery  in  the  back  part  of  the  book. 

j  WHAT  STYLE  OK   APIARY   TO   ADOPT. 

If  you  have  plenty  of  money,  and  wish  tf) 
go  in  for  artistic  effect,  the  vineyard  apiary 
will  i)lease  you.  Of  course,  with  single- 
walled  hives  you  must  either  i)ut  them  in 
the  cellar  or  protect  them  with  some  outside 
cases  during  winter.  If  you  desire  to  keep 
only  a  limited  iininljer  of  colonies,  and  wish 
to  manage  them  with  the  least  labor  possi- 
ble, a  chaff-hive  apiary  would  suit  you. 
These  hives  require  no  [shade,  no  moving 
;  about,  into  and  out  of  the  cellar,  and  are,  to 
i  a  large  extent,  always  i)rei)ared  for  winter. 
To  put  them  into  the  best  possible  condition, 
all  the  apiarist  has  to  do  is  to  see  that  they 
have  sufficient  stores,  contracting  the  brood- 
nest  to  the  smallest  jxissible  space.  i)Ut  on 
the  chaff  cushion,  and  they  are  ready  for 
the  cold.  If  y(m  live  in  a  city,  or  where 
land  is  expensive,  or  in  places  subject  to 
the  depredations  of  thieves  or  the  visitations 
of  mischievous  boys,  the  house-apiary  would 
be  the  thing  for  you  to  adopt.  If  you  can 
not  afford  any  very  great  outlay,  or  there 
is  a  i)ossibility  that  you  may  wish  to  in- 
crease your  ajiiary  to  several  hundred  colo- 
nies, and  you  are  not  particular  al)out  the 
artistic  effect.  Mr.  Mclntyre"s  i)lan.  Mr. 
Hatch's,  or  that  i)ro])osed  by  S.  E.  Miller, 
sliould  have  youi-  jjieference.  .Vpiaries  ar- 
ranged on  these  plans  are  not  artistic;  but 
grapevines  or  shrubliery  adds  greatly  to  the 
effect,  providhiy  that  said  shrubbery  is  kept 
trimmed  down  and  in  order;  otherwise  it 
makes  tiie  apiary  look  disorderly,  unkept. 
and  uncared-for.  If  grai)evinesaren(>t  kept 
trimmed  they  are  an  intolerable  nuisance, 
and  you  will  feel  as  though  you  wanted  to 
yank  them  up.  root  and  brancli.  when  an  un- 
lucky spioiit  lia|>]»ens  to  stick  you  in  the  eye. 
Tht'iilans.  then,  tlial  I  would  recumnienii  for 


Al'lAHV 


2fi 


AFIAKY. 


(»rcliiiaiy  bee-keepers  are  those  of  Mr.  Mcln- 
tyre.  Mr.  Hatch,  or  Mr.  S.  E.  Miller.  It  is 
much  more  economical  to  so  arrange  apia- 
ries when  yon  are  keeping  bees  for  the  bread 
and  l)ntter  there  is  in  them. 

FLOATING  APIARY. 

This  project,  we  believe,  has  never  as  yet 
been  put  in  practice  in  our  own  country. 
The  idea  is  to  have  an  apiary  on  a  large  flat- 
bottomed  boat  or  raft,  which  is  to  be  floated 
along  on  some  of  our  large  rivers,  so  as  to 
be  constantly  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest 
flow  of  honey  almost  the  season  through. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  white  clover  corri- 
mences  to  bloom  first  in  the  extreme  south, 
and  then  gradually  moves  northward  ;  if  we 
could  be  in  the  midst  of  this  yield  during  its 
height,  for  3  or  4  months,  it  would  seem 
enormous  crops  might  be  obtained.  We  are 
informed  by  history,  that  the  ancient  Egypt- 
ians of  the  Nile  made  a  practical  success  of 


quence  of  several  accidents,  the  hives  were 
finally  taken  from  the  barges  and  carried  by 
the  steamer  until  a  favorable  point  w^as 
reached,  and  then  set  out  on  tlie  land,  like 
an  ordinary  apiary,  the  process  being  re- 
peated as  often  as  the  forage  began  to  fail. 
As  near  as  I  can  gather  from  newspaper  re- 
ports, the  loss  of  bees,  while  flying  on  the 
water,  was  one  of  the  principal  drawbacks. 
Our  friend  Perrine  declared  it  his  intention 
to  try  again,  until  all  ditiiculties  had  been 
met  and  overcome ;  and  although  many 
years  have  gone  by,  so  far  he  has  not  done 
so.  Those  interested  will  find  further  par- 
ticulars in  the  April  Gleanings,  and  in  the 
August  Bee-Keepers''  Magazine,  for  1878.31' 

MOVING    WHOLE    APIAKIES   TO    MORE    NOR- 
THERN LOCALITIES  IN  ORDER  TO  STRIKE 
THE  CLOVER  AND  BASSAVOOD  BLOOM. 

During    the     year    of    1884   much   was 
said  about  moving  bees  so  as  to  strike  the 


A    FLOATING   AIIAKY.    AS  THEY  USED   TO   DO    IT   ON   THE   NILE. 


these  floating  apiaries,  and  that  they  were 
warned  when  it  was  time  to  return  home, 
by  the  depth  to  which  the  boat  sank  in  the 
water,  under  the  weight  of  the  cargo  of  hon- 
ey. That  the  bees  might  not  be  lost,  the 
apiary  was  floated  to  a  new  field  during  the 
night. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  Mr.  C.  O. 
Perrine,  formerly  in  the  honey  business  in 
Chicago,  has  put  the  project  into  practice, 
on  a  rather  large  scale.  Between  four  and 
five  hundred  colonies  were  put  on  a  couple 
of  barges,  and  towed  by  a  steamer  up  the 
river  from  New  Orleans.  The  establishment 
started  out  in  the  s])ring  of  1878;  but  as  the 
affair  terminated.  I  tliink  the  enterprise 
can  hardly  be  called  a  success.    In  conse- 


honey-flow ;  and  several  experiments  were 
made  that  seemed  to  indicate  there  was  no 
ditflculty  111  making  it  a  success.  For  in- 
stance, we  have  had  a  single  colony  in  on^ 
day  bring  in  as  many  as  18  tbs.  of  honey  from 
the  basswood-bloom.  Now,  this  great  hon- 
ey-flow lasts  but  a  few  days.  If  it  could  be 
prolonged  for  months,  or  even  weeks,  won- 
derful things  might  be  done.  After  the  col- 
ony above  mentioned  gave  me  18  lbs.  of  hon- 
ey in  a  day,  the  honey-flow  soon  gradually 
went  down,  and  finally  stopped  altogether. 
After  a  lapse  of  perhaps  two  weeks,  when 
basswood  was  entirely  gone,  and  our  bees 
were  trying  to  rob  each  other's  hives,  I  hap- 
pened to  make  a  visit  in  the  northern  part  of 
Michigan.  There  I  found  a  brother  bee- 
keeper rejoicing  in  the  height  of  the  bass- 


APHIDES. 


27 


APHIDES. 


wood  season.  Xow.  by  moving  colonies 
every  ten  days  or  two  weeks,  so  as  to  strike 
points  where  basswood  flourished  largely,  it 
seems  to  me  we  might  secure  immense  crops 
of  honey  —  enough  to  repay  with  good  inter- 
est all  the  expenses  of  transportation,  by  rail 
or  otherwise.  Of  course,  the  idea  is  alluded 
to  luider  the  head  of  Floating  Apiary  ; 
but  there  seems  to  be  a  little  difliculty  or  in- 
convenience in  transporting  bees  by  water. 

Within  the  past  few  years  some  progress 
has  been  made  in  this  matter,  and  it  now 
seems  that  these  who  have  had  sufficient  ex^ 
perience  may  successfully  bring  bees  rom 
the  South  to  the  North  in  time  to  profit  by 
tbe  clover  and  basswood.  Byron  Walker,  of 
Capac,  Midi.,  can  not  successfully  winter 
his  bees,  on  account  of  unwholesome  food 
gathered  in  his  locality,  and  he  has  made  a 
l)racti:-e  of  buying  up  bees  in  the  spring  in 
the  South,  and  trans])orting  them  by  rail  to 
the  Noith.     See  Out- Apiaries. 

APHIDES.  It  is  wit^i  that  class  of  these 
insects  that  produce  honey  (or,  rather,  a 
sweetish  substance  that  bees  collect  and 
store  as  honey),  that  we  have  to  do.  They 
are  a  kind  of  plant-lice,  and  are  to  be  seen 
in  almost  all  localities,  and  during  nearly 
all  the  summer  and  fall  months,  if  we  only 
keep  our  eyes  about  us,  and  notice  them 
when  they  are  right  before  us.  If  you  ex- 
amine the  leaves  of  almost  any  green  tree, 
you  will  find  thein  peoi)led  by  small  insects, 
almost  the  color  of  the  leaves  on  wliich  they 
live  ;  while  some  are  quite  large,  others  are 
almost  or  quite  invisible  to  the  naked  eye. 
Now  all  these  bits  of  animated  nature,  while 
they  feed  on  the  green  foliage,  are  almost 
incessantly  emitting  a  sort  of  liquid  ex- 
crement ;  and  as  this  is  usually  thrown  some 
distance  from  the  insect,  it  often  falls  from 
the  leaves  of  the  tree,  like  dew.  If  this  mat- 
ter is  new  to  you,  I  would  ask  you  to  ex- 
amine the  stone  pavements  early  in  the 
morning,  under  almost  any  green  tree  ;  an 
apple  or  willow  will  Ije  pretty  sure  to  show 
spots  of  moisture,  something  as  if  water  or 
rain  had  been  sprinkled  over  it  in  a  fine 
spray.  The  leaves  of  the  trees  will  also  be 
found  somewhat  sticky  where  the  exudation 
is  sufiicient  to  nuike  it  noticeable. 

This  substance  is,  I  believe,  not  always 
sweet  to  the  taste,  but  usually  so.  The 
quantity  is  often  so  small  as  to  l)e  unnoticed 
by  the  bees:  Init  occasionally  they  will  seem 
quite  busy  licking  it  uj).  I  liave  several 
times  found  them  at  work  on  tlie  leaves  of 
our  apple-trees  very  early  in  the  morning, 
but  never  to  such  an  extent  that  it  might 


really  be  called  honey-dew.  I  have  seen 
them  also  on  a  willow  fence,  making  it 
hum  like  a  buckwheat  field,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  ground  under  the  trees  looked  as 
if  molasses  had  been  sprinkled  about.  The 
bees  were  at  work  on  the  ground  also ;  the 
honey  tasted  much  like  cheap  molasses. 
The  strange  part  of  the  matter  was  that 
this  occurred  during  a  warm  day  late  in  the 
month  of  Oct. ;  it  proceeded  entirely  from 
the  aphides,  for  they  literally  covered  the 
leaves  of  the  willow,  and  could  be  plainly 
seen  ejecting  the  sweet  liquid,  while  they  fed 
on  the  leaves.  This  was  plainly  the  cause 
of  the  honey-dew  in  this  case,  but  it  is  by  no 
means  clear  that  such  is  always  the  case. 
See  IIo]srEY-DEW\ 

During  the  year  1884.  the  honey  -  dew 
prevailed  over  a  larger  extent  of  territo- 
ry, and  in  much  greater  quantity,  than  was 
ever  known  before.  Some  of  our  bee-friends, 
in  fact,  extracted  it  in  May  and  .June  to  the 
amount  of  several  tons,  and  its  presence  in 
the  finest  and  whitest  comb  honey  did  a  very 
great  amount  of  damage  by  making  the  hon- 
ey of  only  a  second  or  third  quality,  Avhile 
otherwise  it  would  have  been  first  quality. 
Careful  investigation  showed  that  it  origi- 
nated principally  if  not  entirely  through  the 
agency  of  the  aphides.  We  give  place  to 
the  following  paper  on  the  subject,  from 
Prof.  Cook,  of  the  Agricultural  College.  Lan- 
sing, Michigan: — 

THE   MAPLE-BARK  LOCSE. 

From  very  numerous  inquiries  as  to  name,  habit, 
etc.,  regarding-  this  louse,  I  have  for  some  weeks 
intended  to  write  you.  Pres.  E.  Orton  writes  me 
that  this  insect  is  killing  the  soft-maples,  and  wishes 
a  remedy.  Mr.  O.  Terrell,  from  North  Ridgeville, 
says  they  are  affording  much  nectar,  which  attracts 
the  bees,  and  seems  excellent,  and  wishes  to  know 
if  it  is  probably  wholesome.  The  editor  of  the  Cold- 
water  (Michigan)  Ii<:)nd)lica)i.  asks  if  there  is  any 
way  to  save  the  maples.  These  are  samples  of  a 
score  of  inquiries  coming  thick  from  Ohio,  Illinois, 
Indiana,  and  Michigan. 

DESCRIPTION. 

The  maple-tree  scale  or  bark  louse  [Puh-inaria  in- 
numerahilix.  Kath.)  consists  at  this  season  (1884>  of  a 
brown  scale  about  flvc-eighths  of  an  inch  long, 
which  is  oblong,  and  slightlj-  notched  behind.  On 
the  back  of  the  scale  are  transverse  depressions, 
marking  segments.  The  blunt  posterior  of  the  in- 
sect is  raised  by  a  large  dense  mass  of  Hlirous  cot- 
lonliki-  material,  in  which  will  be  found  about  800 
small  white  eggs.  These  eggs  falling  on  to  a  dark 
surface  look  tf)  the  unaided  eye  like  Hour;  liut  with 
a  lens  they  are  found  to  be  oblong,  and  would  be 
pronounced  by  all  iis  eggs  at  once.  This  cotton-like 
egg-receptacle  is  often  so  thick  as  to  raise  the 
brown  scale  nearl>  a  fourth  of  an  inch.  These 
scales  are  found  on  the  under  side  of  the  limbs  of 
the  trees,  and  are  often  so  thick  as  to  overlap  each 
other.    Often  there  are  hundreds  on  a  single  nuiin 


APHIDES. 


28 


AETIFICIAJ.  COM  I  J. 


branch  of  the  tree.  I  find  them  on  basswood,  soft 
and  hard  maple,  and  grapevines,  though  much  the 
more  abundant  on  the  maples. 

Another  feature,  at  this  mature  stage  of  the  in- 
sect, is  the  secretion  of  a  large  amount  of  nectai*. 
This  falls  on  the  leaves  below,  so  as  to  fairly  gum 
them  over,  as  though   they  were  varnished.    This 


f  tMALE    m   VJINT  E  B. 


"^  ii 


ATllBt    rCMAUES 
5no*mO  Z  niTONV 
tCKEIION 


MATURE   fEI/ALt 
«»-»*L  VIE/ 


nectar  is  much  prized  by  the  bees,  which  swarm  up 
on  the  leaves.  If  such  nectar  is  pleasant  to  the 
taste,  as  some  aver,  I  should  have  no  fear  of  the 
bees  collecting  it. 

From  the  middle  to  the  last  of  June,  the  eggs  be- 
gin to  hatch,  though  hatching  is  not  completed  for 
some  weeks  after  it  begins,  so  we  may  expect  young 
lice  to  hatch  out  from  late  in  June  till  August. 

The  young  lice  are  yellow,  half  as  broad  as  long, 
tapering  slightly  toward  the  posterior.  The  seven 
abdominal  segments  appear  very  distinctly.  The 
legs  and  antenna  are  seen  from  the  other  side.  As 
in  the  young  of  all  such  bark  lice,  the  beak,  or  suck- 
ing-tube, is  long  and  thi-ead-like,  and  is  bent  under 
the  body  till  the  young  louse  is  ready  to  settle  down 
to  earnest  work  as  a  sapper.  Two  hair-like  append- 
ages, or  setae,  terminate  the  body,  which  soon  dis- 
appear. 

The  young,  newly  born  louse,  wanders  two  or 
three  days,  then  inserts  its  beak  into  the  leaves 
where  it  first  locates.  It  prefers  the  middle  under 
side  of  the  leaf.  In  autumn  the  much-enlarged 
louse  withdraws  from  the  leaves  and  attaches  to  the 
under  side  of  the  twigs  and  branches,  while  on  the 
leaves  they  sometimes,  though  rarely,  withdraw 
their  beak,  and  change  their  position.  In  winter, 
the  young  lice  remain  dormant;  but  with  the 
warmth  of  spring,  as  the  sap  begins  to  circulate, 
the  lice  begin  to  suck  and  grow.  The  increase  of 
size  as  the  eggs  begin  to  develop  is  very  rapid. 
Now  the  drops  of  nectar  begin  to  fall,  so  that  leaves 
and  sidewalks  underneath  become  sweet  and  sticky. 
In  the  last  Ohio  Farmer,  a  Mr.  Singleton  states,  that 
leaves  of  the  maple  do  secrete  honey-dew.  It  is  on 
the  leaves,  and  thei-e  are  no  aphides  or  plant-lice. 
Mr.  Singleton's  honey-dew  is,  without  doubt,  this 
same  nectar  from  bark-lice.  Had  Mr.  S.  looked  on 
the  under  side  of  the  branches,  instead  of  on  the 
leaves,  he  would  have  found,  not  aphides,  to  be 
sure,  but  bark-lice. 

If  these  spring  lice  are  examined  closely  with  a 
low  magnifying  power,  a  marginal  i-ow  of  hairs  will 
be  seen. 


MALES. 

Some  few  of  the  scales  in  late  July  will  be  noticed 
to  be  dimmer,  lighter  in  color,  and  somewhat  more 
convex  above.  In  these  the  setse  do  not  disappear, 
but  may  be  seen  projecting  fi-om  the  posterior  end 
of  the  scale.  In  August,  the  mature  males  appear. 
These  have  the  scales,  have  two  wings,  and  are 
very  active.  Although  the  females  are  to  continue 
to  grow  till  the  next  June,  coition  now  takes  place. 
The  males  are  seen  for  two  or  three  weeks,  though 
probably  each  individual  does  not  live  as  many  days. 
It  is  quite  probable  that,  as  in  case  of  pi-oduction 
of  drone-bees  and  aphides,  the  males  of  these  scale- 
lice  are  not  absolutely  necessary  to  reproduction. 
We  know  they  are  not  in  some  species. 

The  basswood,  the  tulip  (see  my  Manual,  p.  249), 
the  elm,  the  hickory,  the  blue-ash,  etc.,  are  all  suf- 
fering from  bark-lice,  much  like  the  above,  except 
that  the  cottony  substance  is  wanting.  It  is  a  com- 
forting truth,  that  all  these  species  are  often  des- 
troyed by  their  enemies  before  they  entirely  kill 
our  trees,  though  they  often  do  great  harm. 

Lansing,  Mich.,  June  17,  1884.  A.  J.  Cook. 

ARTinCIAIi  COIMEB.  Although 
several  attempts  have  been  made  to  produce 
comb  for  the  bees  of  full  depth  of  cell,  I 
believe  all  have  resulted  in  failures ;  the 
bees  either  leave  them  untouched,  or  gnaw 
them  down,  and  build  their  own  in  place. 
If  given  the  base  of  the  cell,  however,  with 
only  shallow  walls  of  such  depth  that  the 
bees  can  reach  to  the  bases  with  their  man- 
dibles so  as  to  shape  and  thin  the  bottom  as 
they  wish  before  the  walls  are  raised,  the 
case  is  quite  different ;  for  they  are  used  then 
as  readily,  perhaps,  as  their  own  natural 
comb,  as  has  been  abundantly  proven  by  the 
Comb  Foundation,  which  see.  Announce- 
ments have  been  made  from  time  to  time 
of  an  invention  just  about  completed  by 
which  combs  with  cells  of  full  depth  were 
aliout  to  be  thrown  on  the  market,  but 
somehow  it  never  gets  any  further  than 
"just  going  to  be."  It  is  doubtful  if  it  ever 
does  get  any  fiu'ther. 

WOODEN    BKOOD-CO.AIBS. 

Brood  combs  of  wood  have  been  invented 
and  manufactured  by  a  Mr.  Aspinwall,  of 
Three  Kivers,  Mich.  Cells  of  the  proper 
width  and  depth  are  bored  by  a  nicely  ad- 
justed gang  of  drills,  and  the  whole  coated 
with  beeswax.  The  claim  made  for  such 
combs  (and  they  have  been  sufficiently  tried 
to  show  that  bees  will  accept  and  use  them) 
is,  that  it  makes  a  sure  thing  of  having  the 
brood-nest  entirely  filled  with  worker  comb, 
there  being  no  possibility  of  rai^^ing  any 
drones,  and  that  without  drones  no  swarm- 
ing will  occur.  It  is  asserted,  however,  by 
others,  that  absence  of  drones  will  not  pre- 
vent swarming,  and  that  drones  may  be  ad- 


ARTIFICIAL  FERTIL1ZATI0:N. 


29 


ARTIFICIAL  HEAT. 


mitted  from  other  hives.  As  yet  these 
combs  have  not  been  tested  by  a  great 
many,  and  the  difficulty  of  making  any  but 
one  size  stands  in  the  way  of  any  general 
testing. 

ARTIFICIAL  FERTILIZATION.  Much 
time  and  money  has  been  expended  in  wire- 
cloth  houses,  and  glass  tixtures,  to  accom- 
plish this  result,  the  more,  perhaps,  because 
a  few  sanguine  individuals  imagined  they 
had  succeeded  in  having  the  queens  meet 
the  drones  in  confinement,  thus  securing  the 
advantage  of  choice  drones,  as  well  as  queens, 
to  rear  stock  from.*--'  A  friend  of  mine  was 
quite  sure  he  succeeded;  but  after  examin- 
ing into  the  matter  it  was  found  that  the 
queens  got  out  and  took  their  flight  in  the 
usual  w^ay  through  the  passage  that  was  left 
for  the  worker-bees  ;  he  having  based  his 
calculations  on  the  oft-repeated  statement 
that  a  queen  could  not  pass  through  a  pas- 
sage is  of  an  inch  in  width.  The  queen 
just  before  her  flight  is  very  slender,  and 
will  get  through  a  passage  that  an  ordinary 
laying  queen  w'ould  not,  and  those  who 
claimed  to  have  succeeded,  being  rather 
careless  observers,  might  have  supposed 
that  the  fertilization  had  in  reality  taken 
place  in  the  hive.  Again,  one  of  those  who 
claimed  to  have  succeeded  states  that  a 
queen  will  always  take  exercise  in  the  open 
air,  after  she  has  been  fertilized  in  confine- 
ment ;  this  seems  to  render  the  whole  mat- 
ter ridiculous,  especially  if  she  takes  this 
flight  before  she  commences  to  lay.  About 
the  year  1870,  hundreds  of  bee-keepers  w^ere 
busily  at  work  trying  this  project,  with  a 
view  of  keeping  the  Italian  blood  in  a  state  ; 
of  absolute  purity,  in  neighborhoods  where 
black  or  common  bees  were  kept  in  consid- 
erable numbers ;  and  the  subject  affords  a 
fair  illustration  of  the  mischief  which  may 
be  done  by  careless  oriuiscrupulous  persons, 
in  reporting  through  the  press  what  has 
been  guessed  at  rather  than  demonstrated 
by  careful  experiment. 

Taking  into  view  the  in-and-in  breeding  i 
that  would  have  resulted  had  the  experi- 
ments really  been  a  success,  it  is  doubtful  if 
it  would  have  been  a  benefit  after  all. 
When  it  was  found  that  the  Italians  speedi- 
ly became  hybrids  where  so  many  black  bees 
were  all  about  ns,  as  a  matter  of  necessity 
frequent  imi)ortations  from  Italy  began  to 
be  made  ;  and  when  it  was  discovered  tliat 
stock  fresh  from  their  native  home  at  once 


*  Since  the  above  was  written  the  matter  has  been  i 
revived,  and  an  account  of  at  least  a  partial  success  i 
is  given  in  the  Ameiican  Bee  Jimrual  for  Nov.,  of 
1878,  and  Oi.eaninos,  May  1."),  188tt,  pafrc  ■^^^^ 


showed  themselves  superior  as  honey-gather- 
ers, the  business  assumed  considerable  pro- 
portions, and  now  almost  every  apiarist  of 
I  50  hives  has  an  imported  queen  of  his  own 
to  rear  queens  from.-^e  This  has  the  effect  of 
not  only  giving  us  the  best  stock  known, 
but  of  giving  frequent  fresh  strains  of  blood, 
and  is  perhaps  very  much  better  all  around 
than  it  would  have  been  had  artificial  fertil- 
ization been  a  success. 

ARTinCIAI.  SEAT.  As  strong 
colonies  early  in  the  season  are  the  ones 
that  get  the  honey  and  furnish  the  early 
swarms  as  well,  and  are  in  fact  the  real 
source  of  profit  to  the  bee-keeper,  it  is  not 
to  be  Avondered  at  that  much  time  and  mon- 
ey has  been  spent  in  devising  ways  and 
means  whereby  all  might  be  brought  up  to 
the  desired  strength  in  time  for  the  first 
yield  of  clover  honey.  As  market  gardeners 
and  others  hasten  the  early  vegetables  by 
artificial  heat,  or  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
sun's  rays  by  means  of  greenhouses,  etc..  it 
would  seem  that  something  of  the  kind 
might  be  done  with  bees  ;  in  fact,  we  have, 
by  the  aid  of  glass  and  the  heat  of  a  stove, 
succeeded  in  rearing  young  bees  every 
month  in  the  year,  even  while  the  weather 
was  at  zero  or  lower  outside  ;  but  so  far  as 
we  can  learn,  all  artificial  work  of  this  kind 
has  resulted  in  failure,  so  far  as  profit  is 
concerned.  The  bees,  it  is  true,  learned  to 
fly  under  the  glass  and  come  back  to  their 
hives  ;  but  for  every  bee  that  was  raised  in 
confinement,  tw^o  or  three  were  sure  to  die, 
from  one  cause  or  another,  and  we  at  length 
decided  it  was  best  to  wait  for  summer 
weather,  and  then  take  full  advantage  of  it. 

Later,  we  made  experiments  with  artifi- 
cial heat  while  the  bees  were  allowed  to  fly 
out  at  pleasure ;  and  although  it  seemed  at 
first  to  have  just  the  desired  effect,  so  far  as 
hastening  brood-rearing  was  concerned,  the 
result  was,  in  the  end,  just  about  as  before  ; 
more  bees  were  hatched,  but  tlie  unseasona- 
ble activity,  or  something  else,  killed  off 
twice  as  many  as  were  reared,  and  the  stocks 
that  were  let  alone  in  the  good  old  way  came 
out  ahead.  Since  then  we  have  rather  en- 
deavored to  check  very  early  brood-rearing, 
and,  we  believe,  with  better  results. 

A  few  experiments  with  artificial  heat 
have  apparently  succeeded,  and  it  may  be 
that  it  will  eventually  be  made  a  success; 
but  our  impression  is,  that  we  had  much 
better  turn  our  energies  to  something  else, 
until  we  have  warm  settled  weather.  Pack- 
ing the  hives  with  chaff,  sawdust,  or  any 
other  warm,  dry,  porous  material,  so  as  to 


ARTIFICIAL  PASTURAGE. 


30 


ARTIFICIAL  PASTURAGE. 


economize  the  natural  heat  of  the  cluster, 
seems  to  answer  the  piu"pose  much  better, 
and  such  treatment  seems  to  have  none  of 
the  objectionable  features  that  working 
with  artificial  heat  does.  The  chaff  needs 
to  be  as  close  to  the  bees  as  possible ;  and  to 
this  end.  we  would  have  all  the  combs  re- 
moved except  such  as  are  needed  to  hold 
their  stores.  Bees  thus  prepared  seem  to 
escape  all  the  ill  effects  of  frosty  nights 
in  the  early  part  of  the  season,  and  we  ac- 
complish for  brood  -  rearing  exactly  what 
was  hoped  for  by  the  use  of  artificial  heat. 

For  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  be  in- 
clined to  experiment,  I  would  state  that  I 
covered  almost  our  entire  apiary  with 
manure,  on  the  plan  of  a  hot-bed,  one  spring, 
and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  almost  all 
die  of  spring  dwindling.  At  another  time,  I 
kept  the  house-apiary  warmed  up  to  a  sum- 
mer temperature  with  a  large  oil-lamp,  for 
several  weeks,  just  to  have  them  beat  those 
out  of  doors.  The  investment  resulted  in 
losing  nearly  all  in  the  house-apiary  wdth 
spring  dwindling,  wiiile  those  outside  stayed 
in  their  hives  as  honest  bees  should,  until 
settled  warm  weather,  and  then  did  finely, 
just  because  I  was  "too  busy  to  take  care  of 
them"  (V),  as  I  then  used  to  express  it.  Aft- 
er you  have  had  experience  enough  to  count 
your  profitable  colonies  by  the  hundred,  and 
your  crops  of  honey  by  the  ton,  it  will  do 
very  w^ell  to  experiment  w'ith  greenhouses 
and  cold-frames :  but  beginners  had  better 
let  such  appliances  alone,  unless  they  have 
plenty  of  money  to  spare  for  more  bees.2« 

ARTinCIAL  FASTURAaH.  Al- 
though there  is  quite  a  trade  springing  up 
in  seeds  and  plants  to  be  cultivated  for  their 
honey  alone,  and  although  we  have  about 
4000  young  basswood  -  trees  of  our  own, 
growing  finely  and  \)romising  to  be  the  basis 
of  a  honey-farm  at  some  future  time,  yet  we 
can  at  present  give  little  encouragement  to 
those  who  expect  to  realize  money  by  such 
investments.  There  is  certainly  a  much 
greater  need  of  taking  care  of  the  honey 
that  is  almost  constantly  w^asting  just  for 
lack  of  bees  to  gather  it.  A  field  of  buck- 
wheat will  perhaps  occasionally  yield  enough 
honey  to  pay  the  expense  of  sowing,  as  it 
comes  in  at  a  time  when  the  bees  in  many 
places  would  get  little  else  ;  and  if  it  does 
not  pay  in  honey.it  certainly  will  in  grain. 
If  one  has  the  money,  and  can  afford  to  run 
the  risk  of  a  failure,  it  is  a  fine  thing  to 
make  some  accurate  experiments,  and  it 
may  be  that  a  farm  of  one  or  two  hundred 


acres,  judiciously  stocked  with  honey-bear- 
ing plants,  trees,  and  grains,  would  be  a  suc- 
cess financially.  It  has  been  much  talked 
about,  but  none,  so  far  as  we  know,  have 
ever  put  the  idea  in  practice.  To  beginners 
we  would  say  :  Plant  and  sow^  all  you  can 
that  will  be  sure  to  pay  aside  from  the  hon- 
ey crop,  and  then,  if  the  latter  is  a  success, 
you  will  be  so  much  ahead  •,  but  beware  of 
investing  much  in  seeds  that  are  for  plants 
producing  nothing  of  value  except  honey. 
Alsike,  and  white  Dutch  clover,  buckwheat, 
rape,  mustard,  and  the  like,  it  will  do  to  in- 
vest in  ;  but  catnip,  mignonnette,  Rocky- 
Mountain  bee-plant,  etc.,  etc.,  w^e  would  at 
present  handle  rather  sparingly.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  we  can  hardly  test  a 
plant,  unless  w^e  have  one  or  more  acres  of  it 
in  bloom,  and  that  small  patches  do  little 
more  than  to  demonstrate  that  the  blossoms 
contain  some  honey,  giving  us  very  little 
clue  to  either  quantity  or  quality.  Bees  will 
work  on  blossoms,  and  at  times  with  great 
apparent  industry,  when  they  are  obliged  to 
make  hundreds  of  visits  and  consume  hours 
of  time,  in  getting  a  single  load ;  we  there- 
fore should  be  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  interior  of  the  hive,  as  well  as  the 
source  from  which  the  bees  are  obtaining 
the  honey,  before  we  can  decide  what  is 
profitable  to  sow  as  a  honey-plant. 

By  way  of  encouragement,  we  may  say 
that  both  plants  and  trees,  under  thorough 
cultivation,  yield  honey  in  much  larger 
quantities  than  those  growing  wild,  or  with- 
out attention.  Our  basswoods  that  have 
commenced  to  blossom  have  shown  a  larger 
amount  of  honey  in  the  nectaries  than  we 
ever  saw  in  any  that  grew  in  the  woods  or 
fields.  The  question,  "How  many  acres  of  a 
good  honey-bearing  plant  would  be  needed 
to  keep  100  colonies  busy  ?"  has  often  been 
asked.  If  ten  acres  of  buckwheat  would  an- 
swer while  in  full  bloom,  we  should  need 
perhaps  ten  other  similar  fields  sown  with 
rape,  mustard,  catnip,  etc.,  blossoming  at  as 
many  different  periods,  to  keep  them  going 
the  entire  warm  season.  It  would  seem  200 
acres  should  do  nicely,  even  if  nothing  were 
obtained  from  other  sources,  but  at  present 
we  can  only  conjecture.  A  colony  of  bees 
will  frequently  pay  for  themselves  in  ten 
days  during  a  good  yield  from  natural  pas- 
turage; and  if  we  could  keep  up  this  state  of 
affairs  during  the  whole  of  the  summer 
months,  it  w^ould  be  quite  an  item  indeed. 
Buckwheat,  rape,  and  alsike  clover,  are  the 
only  cultivated  plants  that  have  given  pay- 
ing crops  of  honey,  without  question,  so  far 


ARTIFICIAL  SWAKMING. 


M 


AUTIFICIxVL  SAV ARMING. 


as  we  have  been  informed.  See  Honey- 
Plants  in  Index. 

ARTIFICIAZi  STVARlVIZlMa.    To 

attempt  to  give  all  the  varimis  plans  and 
modihcations  that  are  recommended  and 
practiced  snccessfully,  would  make  a  book 
of  itself  ;  we  shall  therefore  give  only  those 
we  think  safest  and  simplest. 

If  you  are  a  new  hand  with  bees,  you  had 
better  not  undertake  to  do  such  work  until 
you  find  that  bees  are  swarming  naturally  in 
the  neighborhood.  At  such  a  time  you  will 
probably  succeed  by  almost  any  plan.  If 
you  have  plenty  of  money  and  not  much 
time,  you  had  better  buy  your  queens,  and 
the  untested  queens  will  do  very  well ;  if  you 
should  get  them  killed,  it  will  be  no  serious 
loss.  If  you  also  have  plenty  of  empty 
combs,  you  can  make  an  artificial  swarm  in 
a  very  few  minutes,  by  simply  moving  any 
strong  colony  several  rods  away,  and  plac- 
ing a  new  hive  filled  witli  empty  comb  (or, 
better,  with  one  frame  of  hatching  brood), in 
its  place.  That  the  returning  bees  may  not 
kill  the  strange  queen  they  find  in  place  of 
their  accustomed  mother  -  bee,  we  protect 
her  for  a  day  or  two  in  a  cage.  See 
Cages  for  Queens.  As  they  enter  with  their 
loads  of  pollen  and  honey,  they  seem  very 
much  perplexed  and  astonished,  scram- 
ble out  of  the  hive,  and,  after  a  few  turns 
about  the  premises  to  reassure  themselves, 
they  go  in  again,  repeating  this  until  too 
tired,  apparently,  to  bother  their  little  heads 
any  further  with  a  matter  that  is  altogether 
beyond  their  compreliension.  Wisely  con- 
cluding that  "what  can't  be  cured  must  be 
endured,"  they  unload  in  the  empty  combs 
near  the  queen,  and  go  after  more  spoils. 
^ye  have  had  a  colony  of  this  description 
bring  in  over  20  lbs.  of  honey,  during  the 
first  two  days.  Let  the  queen  out  after  they 
get  friendly  to  her — see  Introducing — and 
your  work  is  done.  Should  the  colony  get 
weak  before  the  young  bees  begin  to  hatch 
out,  give  them  a  comb  of  hatching  brood 
from  some  strong  stock.  This  plan  is  only 
for  the  swarming  season. 

COM15S  OF  HATCHING  15UOOD. 

As  these  combs  of  hatching  brood 
are  a  very  important  item  in  building  uj), 
or  strengtliening  stocks,  and  as  we  shall 
have  need  of  referring  to  them  often,  we 
will  explain  that  you  are  to  look  over  the 
combs  of  a  very  populous  colony  and  select 
one  that  has  bees  just  gnawing  tlirougli  the 
caps  of  the  cells.  At  the  i)roi)er  season,  yon 
should  find  combs  that  will  liat(;h  out  a  doz- 
en bees  while  yon  are  holding  them  in  your 


hand  ;  it  should  contain  little  or  no  unsealed 
brood,  for  the  new  colony  might  not  be  al)le 
to  feed  all  the  larvae.  One  L.  frame,  if  full 
of  capped  brood,  will  make  a  very  fair  swarm 
of  bees ;  and  as  these  newly  liatclied  downy 
bees — like  newly  hatched  chickens  for  all 
the  world — are  ready  to  take  up  with  any- 
body or  any  thing,  we  can  put  them  safely 
anywhere  without  fear  of  their  being  hos- 
tile to  either  queens  or  workers. 

Can  we  not  get  along  without  the  empty 
comb  by  using  foundation  in  its  stead  V 
Yes,  we  can,  but  it  is  hardly  advisable  unless 
we  can  have  two  or  three  old  combs  to  start 
with,  or  a  full  hive  of  bees. 

If  you  prefer  to  rear  your  own  queens, 
which  every  apiarist  should  do,  move  your 
colony  as  before  ;  but  instead  of  the  queen, 
give  them  a  frame  of  eggs  from  your  choicest 
queen.  Now  if  you  want  fine  queens,  equal- 
ly good  as  those  reared  in  natural  swarm- 
ing, be  sure  you  do  not  give  them  any  large 
larvse,  with  the  eggs.  The  best  and  safest 
way  is  to  get  an  empty  comb,  place  it  in 
the  center  of  your  colony  containing  your  im- 
poi'ted  or  choice  queen,  and  leave  it  there  im- 
til  you  find  eggs  in  it  that  are  just  hatching 
into  larvae  ;  these  larvae  will  be  scarcely  vis- 
ible to  the  naked  eye  when  first  hatched;  but 
in  place  of  the  egg,  you  will  see  a  tiny  spot 
of  the  milky  food  that  the  nurse-bees  place 
round  the  embryo  bee.  This  is  just  tlie  age 
you  wish  the  larvse  for  queen-rearing,  and 
you  may  take  the  frame,  bees  and  all,  if  you 
are  sure — look  sharp — you  are  not  carrying 
your  old  queen  along  to  your  new  hive.  If 
you  want  as  many  queen-cells  as  you  can 
get,  it  will  be  a  good  idea  to  cut  an  oblong 
piece  out  of  the  comb,  just  under  the  eggs 
and  larvae.  If  it  is  inconvenient  to  move 
your  hive  (as  in  the  house-apiary)  you  can 
take  only  the  combs  with  adhering  bees  to 
the  new  location,  and  in  fact  you  need  take 
only  so  many  of  the  combs  as  are  necessary 
to  get  all  the  brood  and  the  queen .:"« 

In  12  days  after  the  eggs  are  given  the 
bees,  the  queens  may.  some  of  them,  hatch; 
therefore,  if  you  design  saving  the  extra 
queens,  you  will  need  to  remove  all  the  cells 
but  one,  or  the  first-hatched  cjueen  will  de- 
stroy them  all."'  We  have  had  a  young  queen 
destrt)y  as  many  as  twenty  tine  cells  in  a  sin- 
gle day,  when  we  were  so  careless  as  to  de- 
lay attending  to  them  just  at  tlie  right  time. 
About  10  days  after  the  queen  liatches,  you 
may  expect  lier  to  begin  to  lay,  and  then  you 
are  as  far  along  as  if  you  liad  purchased  a 
laying  (]ueen  to  start  with,  except  that  your 
bees  have  been  growing  oUl  all  tiie  time.  See 


ARTIFICIAL  SWARMING. 


82 


ARTIFICIAL  SWARMING. 


Age  of  Bees.  Unless  these  bees  are  supplied 
with  fresli  eggs  or  brood,  they  will  be  i)retty 
weak  before  any  young  bees  will  be  hatched 
to  take  their  place.  Now  if  you  wish  to 
have  matters  progress  lively,  you  can  give 
these  bees  a  comb  containing  eggs  every 
two  or  three  days  during  the  whole  time 
they  are  waiting  for  the  queen  to  be  hatched 
and  fertilized ;  they  will  do  much  better  if 
they  are  thus  employed,  and  they  will  be 
quite  a  i)rosperous  colony  by  the  time  the 
queen  is  ready  to  lay.  To  get  these  eggs, 
you  have  only  to  insert  an  empty  comb  in 
tlie  center  of  a  i)opulous  colony  until  the 
queen  has  deposited  as  many  eggs  in  the 
cells  as  are  required. 

So  far,  all  is  very  simple.  To  swarm  a 
large  apiary,  and  at  the  same  time  Italianize 
all  our  new  stocks,  we  wovdd  only  have  to 
repeat  the  process  as  many  times  as  we 
have  colonies.  But  how  about  the  surplus 
queen-cells  that  we  cut  outV  This  is  just 
where  the  complication  comes  in ;  yet  if  we 
look  into  the  matter  very  carefully,  I  think 
it  will  be  found  quite  simple.  These  queen- 
cells,  if  cutout  shortly  before  hatching,  and 
inserted  into  the  combs  of  any  queenless 
colony,  will  usually  furnish  them  a  queen  as 
soon  as  the  one  left  where  it  was  built ;  and 
if  an  artificial  colony  was  made  at  the  time 
the  cells  were  cut  out,  it  is  plain  we  should 
have  them  supplied  about  ten  days  earlier 
than  the  one  that  was  obliged  to  start  their 
cells  from  the  egg.  Bees  usually  seem  to 
have  a  preference  for  building  their  own 
cells,  instead  of  having  them  furnished  ;  but 
as  they  can  by  no  possibility  get  a  queen 
hatched  in  less  than  ten  days — perhaps  nine 
in  extreme  cases— the  queen  from  the  in- 
serted cell  will  be  out  and  destroy  the  others 
almost  as  soon  as  they  are  started,  and  so 
we  need  be  to  no  trouble  to  get  all  the  un- 
desirable brood  out  of  the  way,  as  in  our 
first  experiment.  Unfortunately,  there  is 
an  if  in  the  matter,  and  it  is,  if  the  bees  do 
not  destroy  this  cell  you  have  given  them, 
and  proceed  to  raise  one  of  their  own  in  the 
good  old  way.  Many  contrivances  have 
been  invented  to  prevent  them,  such  as  cag- 
ing the  cell,  etc.,  but  I  think  you  will  do 
well  to  waste  no  time  in  experimenting  with 
such  machinery.  The  lamp  nursery  ena- 
bles us  to  liatch  almost  any  nmnber  of  queen- 
cells  with  safety,  but  occasionally  the  queens 
are  lost  in  introducing  even  then  ;  see  Lamp 
Nursery. 

The  plan  I  would  recommend  for  begin- 
ners, and  perhaps  for  everybody  else  as  well, 
is  to  procure  as  many  combs  of  hatching 


brood  from  different  hives  as  you  have  queen- 
cells  and  to  insert  a  cell  in  each ;  the  manner 
of  inserting  the  cells  will  be  found  in 
Queen-Rearing.  These  combs  are  to  be 
all  put  in  the  one  hive  in  which  the  cells 
were  built ;  and  if  you  have  more  than  ten 
cells,  put  on  an  upper  story,  or  even  a  tliird. 
As  there  are  no  bees  in  the  hive  except  tliose 
that  built  the  cells  and  the  young  ones  just 
hatching,  we  shall  have  no  cells  torn  down, 
and  in  a  few  hours  they  will  have  waxed 
them  all  firmly  in  their  places. 

Now  with  tiiese  combs  of  hatching  brood, 
every  one  containing  a  cell  nearly  ready  to 
hatch,  we  are  in  excellent  trim  to  go  on  with 
artificial  swarming.  We  can  not  only  re- 
move hives  and  put  empty  ones  in  their 
places  as  in  our  first  experiment,  but  we  can 
take  combs  of  bees  and  brood  from  any  hive 
in  the  apiary,  blacks,  hybrids,  or  any  thing 
and  put  them  into  a  new  hive  located  any- 
where, put  one  of  tlie  frames  with  the  queen- 
cell  among  them,  and,  presto  !  we  have  a 
good  colony,  requiring  no  more  care  what- 
ever. Four  combs  of  bees  and  brood  will 
make  a  good  colony  at  any  time  of  the  year, 
and  they  will  be  at  work  like  an  old  colony 
in  ten  days.  I  have  never  known  a  cell 
destroyed  when  given  to  an  artificial  swarm  in 
the  manner  I  have  stated.  In  substituting 
a  new  hive  for  an  old  one,  we  should,  if  pos- 
sible, use  a  new  hive  precisely  like  the  old 
one,  or  much  trouble  may  be  found  in  get- 
ting the  bees  to  go  into  it.  If  we  can  not  do 
this,  make  it  look  at  least  like  the  old  one. 

Since  the  increase  of  out-apiaries,  advan- 
tage has  been  taken  of  the  fact  that,  when  a 
frame  of  brood  and  bees  is  taken  a  consider- 
able distance,  the  bees  will  stay  wherever 
they  are  put.  Suppose  you  have  a  hive  full 
of  combs,  each  comb  having  a  queen-cell,  as 
explained  already.  If  this  hive  be  taken  to 
an  out-apiary,  each  comb  with  its  queen-cell 
and  adhering  bees  may  be  put  into  a  sepa- 
rate hive,  the  hive  then  filled  with  frames  of 
foundation  ;  and,  if  done  early  enough  in  an 
extra  gof)d  season,  each  nucleus  thus  formed 
will  grow  into  a  good  colony  during  the 
course  ot  the  season,  with  no  further  care 
than  to  see  that  it  has  succeeded  in  getting 
a  laying  queen.  It  is  better,  however,  to 
take  along,  at  the  time  of  hauling  away,  a 
second  hive  full  of  brood  and  bees,  but  with 
no  queen  or  queen-cells,  and  give  to  each 
nucleus  one  of  these  combs  with  adhering 
bees.  Then  you  have  a  fair  chance  of  suc- 
cess in  any  ordinary  season. 

For  those  who  use  large  hives,  and  work 
for  extracted  honey,  there  is  a  very  simple 


ARTIFICIAL  SWARMINC4. 


38 


ASTERS. 


way  to  double  the  number  of  colonies,  which  ' 
has  worked  well  in  the  liands  of  some.  When 
the  time  comes  for  surplus  storing,  put  a 
queen-excluder  on  the  hive,  and  on  this  put 
a  second  stf)ry  filled  with  frames  of  founda- 
tion, or,  better  still,  empty  comb,  then  a 
third  story  also  filled  in  the  same  way,  ex- 
cept that  you  place  in  the  third  story  one  or 
two  coml)S  of  brood  taken  from  the  lower 
story,  tfigether  with  the  adhering  bees. 
Some  young  brood  and  eggs  should  be  in  the 
comb  or  combs  of  brood  placed  above.  Be 
sure  that  the  queen  is  left  in  the  lower  sto- 
ry. Let  there  be  an  entrance  in  the  upper 
story,  not  necessarily  very  large.  In  about 
three  weeks  a  young  queen  will  be  laying 
above,  and  at  the  close  of  the  harvest  this 
upper  story  will  contain  a  strong  colony, 
which  may  be  put  into  a  separate  hive,  and 
a  bottom-board  may  be  put  under  it,  so  as  to 
stop  all  communication  with  the  lower  story. 

EMPTY  COMBS    FOR  ARTIFICIAL   SWARMING. 

These  will  almost  always  be  on  hand  in 
swarming  time  ;  but  if  not,  a  frame  contain- 
ing a  sheet  of  fdn.  may  be  put  in  place  of 
any  comb  taken  from  a  strong  colony.  The 
fdn.  is  fully  as  good  as  the  natural  comb, 
and,  in  some  respects,  even  better.  If  you 
have  no  fdn.,  let  the  bees  build  combs,  one 
at  a  time,  in  new  frames,  watching  them  to 
see  that  they  do  not  build  drone  comb.  If 
they  Avill  not  build  worker  comb,  contract 
the  space  with  a  division  -  board,  and  have 
the  combs  built  in  weaker  colonies.  Using 
frames  of  fdn.  is,  however,  far  the  better 
way.  During  fruit-blossoms,  and  long  be- 
fore swarming  time,  an  ample  supply  of 
beautiful  combs  may  be  secured,  built  out 
from  foundation. 

Caution  : — The  foregoing  directions  are 
given  generally  for  making  artificial  swarms 
during  the  swarming  season,  or,  at  least,  at 
a  time  when  honey  is  coming  in  abundant- 
ly. It  will  require  more  skill  and  more  care 
to  make  artificial  swarms  in  the  fall,  or  at 
any  time  when  the  bees  are  disposed  to  rob; 
and  if  a  hive  is  moved  away,  as  directed,  the 
new  one  must  always  have  a  comb  contain- 
ing unsealed  brood,  as  well  as  the  empty 
combs,  or  the  bees  will  not  be  certain  to  de- 
fend their  hive  against  robbers.  See  Queen- 
Rearing. 


ASTimS.  Under  this  head  we  have  a 
large  class  of  autumn  flowers,  most  of  which 
are  honey  -  bearing ;  they  may  be  distin- 
guished from  the  heliantlius.  or  artichoke 
and  sunflower  family,  by  the  color  of  the  ray 
flowers.  The  ray  flowers  are  the  outer  col- 
ored leaves  of  the  flower,  which  stand  out 
like  rays ;  in  fact,  the  word  aster  means  star,, 
because  these  ray  flowers  stand  out  like  the 
rays  of  a  star.  Many  of  the  yellow  autumn 
flowers  are  called  asters,  but  this  is  an  error ; 
for  the  asters  are  never  yellow,  except  in 
the  center.  The  outside,  or  rays,  are  blue, 
purple,  or  white.  You  may  frequently  find 
half  a  dozen  different  varieties  growing  al- 
most side  by  side.  Where  there  are  acres  of 
them,  so  to  speak,  they  sometimes  yield 
considerable  honey,  but  some  seasons  they 
seem  to  be  unnoticed  by  the  bees.  I  do  not 
think  it  will  pay  to  attempt  to  cultivate 
them  for  honey  ;  better  move  your  bees  to- 
where  they  grow  naturally,  when  you  have 
determined  by  moving  a  single  hive  first,  aa 
a  test,  whether  they  are  yielding  honey  in. 
paying  quantities. 


ASTER. 


Where  the  asters  and  goldenrod  abound" 
largely,  it  may  be  best  to  defer  feeding  un- 
til these  plants  have  ceased  to  yield  honey,, 
say  the  last  of  September. 


B. 


BARXLELS.  For  liquid  honey  in  qnan- 
tity  we  sliall  probably  never  find  a  cheai)er 
leceptacle  that  will  stand  the  rough  usage 
of  .shipping  honey,  as  well.  We  can  put 
our  honey  in  tin  cans,  but  these  are  more 
expensive — the  very  cheapest  co.sting  over 
one-half  cent  for  every  pound  of  honey 
they  Avill  contain — and  they  can  not  be  ship- 
ped safely,  without  first  being  crated.  Be- 
sides all  this,  a  barrel  of  honey  will  be  re- 
ceived at  a  much  lower  rate  of  freight  than 
any  other  kind  of  package  it  is  possible  to 
make.  If  we  are  then  all  decided  as  to  the 
expediency  of  storing  our  honey  in  barrels, 
we  wish  to  decide  upon  the  most  profitable 
size  for  these  barrels.  The  regular  size  of 
about  31  or  32  gallons  is  probably  the  cheap- 
est size,  but  it  has  been  objected  to  on  ac- 
count of  the  difticulty  of  handling  so  great 
a  Aveight  as  3-50  to  400  lbs.,  which  the  barrel 
and  all  would  weigh.  This,  however,  is  no 
great  objection  to  one  who  knows  how  to 
''take  the  advantage"  of  a  barrel,  as  my 
father  used  to  express  it  to  "  us  boys,"  when 
we  were  loading  stone,  and  as  economy  of 
money  as  well  as  "  traps  "  is  quite  an  item 
where  we  have  tons  of  honey,  I  think  we  had 
better  have  large  barrels  principally.  The 
large  extracted-honey  men,  as  a  rule,  use 
second-hand  alcohol-barrels  having  a  capac- 
ity of  about  -500  lbs.  of  honey.  They  can 
usually  be  purchased  of  druggists  anywhere 
from  75  cts.  to  SI. 25.  If  thoroughly  washed 
out  they  are  perfectly  good  and  wholesome 
for  honey. 

For  smaller-sized  packages,  cypress  kegs 
liolding  from  75  to  200  lbs.  have  the  general 
preference.  Neither  these  nor  the  alcohol- 
Ijarrels  need  to  be  waxed  inside ;  but  it 
should  be  understood,  that,  the  smaller  the 
l)ackage.  the  more  expensive  it  is  per  pound. 
Cypress  kegs  of  -50  lbs.  capacity  cost  about 
40c  each;  KKJ  lbs.  capacity,  60c  ;  175lbs..<S0c. 

Kegs  and  barrels  should  not  be  used  in  lo- 
calities where  the  atmosphere  is  very  dry. 
In  California,  for  instance,  square  tin  cans 
have  to  be  used  exclusively.    Any  wooden 


receptacle  would  shrink  so  as  to  be  utterly 
useless ;  but  in  most  of  the  cities  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  barrels  and  kegs  certainly  have 
the  preference  on  account  of  convenience  in 
handling,  their  strength  and  consequent 
proof  against  breakage  in  shipment,  and  in 
general  their  cheapness.  The  honey-buyer 
prefers  them  to  the  square  can  for  the  trade. 
An  objection  to  the  square  can  is,  that  if  a 
hole  is  punched  in  them  with  a  nail,  in  box- 
ing, or  they  happen  to  be  racked,  in  truck- 
ing, so  as  to  break  the  solder  joint,  in  a 
large  pile  it  is  difficult  to  tell  just  where  the 
leak  is  ;  but  with  kegs,  as  they  are  not  box- 
ed, it  is  perfectly  easy  to  locate  the  trouble. 
When  stored,  kegs  and  barrels  shoidd,  of 
course,  be  put  in  a  moist  place,  a  cellar  for 
instance. 

LEAKY  BARRELS. 

I  hope  you  will  feel  as  I  do  about  it,  that 
it  is  bad  enough  to  talk  about  having  honey 
leak  all  round,  without  having  any  practical 
experience  in  the  matter ;  and  I  am  very 
glad  to  be  able  to  tell  you  how  to  entirely 
avoid  it.  It  may  be  well  to  remark,  that 
honey  has  a  funny  way  of  expanding  during 
the  candying  process  —  it  will  generally 
candy  as  soon  as  the  weather  gets  cold — and 
if  your  barrels  or  cans  do  not  give  it  room 
to  expand,  it  will  be  pretty  sure  to  push  out 
the  corks  or  bungs.  Some  kinds  of  honey 
expand  more  than  others  ;  and  under  some 
circumstances,  perfectly  ripened  honey  will 
scarcely  candy  at  all.  If  the  barrels  are  left 
not  quite  full,  and  then  filled  up  completely 
when  ready  to  ship,  there  will  be  very  little 
trouble. 

We  prefer  barrels  made  of  sound  oak,  but 
I  presume  those  made  of  other  strong  wood 
will  answer,  if  carefully  waxed  as  we  shall 
direct.  The  hoops  should  be  of  strong  hoop 
iron,  for  honey  is  very  heavy  compared  with 
most  other  liquids,  and  we  wish  them  to 
stand  safely  the  rough  handling  they .  are 
likely  to  receive  on  the  cars,  even  if  they 
should  be  sent  back  and  forth  several  times. 
The  hoops  should  be  secured  by  large  tacks, 


BARRELS. 


35 


BASS  WOOD. 


if  they  show  any  tendency  to  slip.  If  you 
have  had  the  barrels  made  for  your  own  use 
and  intend  them  to  be  returned  when  you 
sell  honey,  it  is  a  very  good  idea  to  have 
them  neatly  painted.  This  will  keep  the 
hoops  in  place,  and  will  preserve  the  barrels 
very  materially.  There  is  one  objection  to 
this,  however,  and  that  is,  you  are  many 
times  under  the  necessity  of  Avaiting  for 
your  barrels  to  be  emptied,  and  then  they 
are  likely  to  be  forgotten.  We  once  waited 
two  years  for  some  we  had  sent  away  with 
honey,  and  then  succeeded  in  getting  the 
pay  for  them  instead  of  the  barrels,  after 
miich  importunity. 

WAXING  THE  BARRELS  TO  PREVENT 
LEAKING. 

A  good  barrel,  carefully  made  of  well-sea- 
soned timber,  fthould  not  leak,  without  any 
waxing;  but  as  they  often  do,  we  think  it 
safest  to  have  them  all  waxed.-*"  This  is  sim- 
ply coating  the  entire  inside  with  wax  or 
parafRne.  The  latter  we  consider  better,  as 
well  as  cheaper.  Wax  is  worth  from  2o  to 
30c.  per  lb.,  but  the  paraffine  can  be  had  for 
20c.  As  the  latter  melts  at  a  lower  tempera- 
ture, and  is  more  limpid  when  melted,  a 
much  less  quantity  is  needed  to  coat  the  in- 
side thoroughly  and  fill  all  cracks  and  inter- 
stices, and  less  skill  and  expedition  is  needed 
in  its  manipulation.  You  should  have  about 
a  gallon  of  the  melted  liquid,  for  a  small 
quantity  will  not  keep  hot  until  you  can 
pour  out  the  remainder  after  the  waxing  is 
done,  and  too  much  of  it  will  adhere  to  the 
inside  of  the  barrel.  Ten  or  12  lbs.  will  do  very 
well.  Have  your  bungs  nicely  fitted,  and 
a  good  hammer  in  readiness  to  get  the  bung 
out  quickly.  With  a  large-mouthed  tunnel, 
pour  in  the  hot  liquid,  and  bung  it  iip  at 
once.  Now  roll  the  barrel  so  as  to  have  the 
wax  go  entirely  round  it,  then  twirl  it  on 
each  head,  and  give  it  another  spinning  so 
as  to  cover  perfectly  all  round  the  chime. 
This  operation  will  have  warmed  the  air  in- 
side to  such  an  extent  that  the  liquid  will 
be  forced  into  every  crevice;  and  if  there  is 
a  poor  spot,  you  will  hear  the  air  hissing,  as 
it  forces  tlie  liquid  through  it.  Just  as 
quickly  as  you  get  tlie  inside  covered,  loosen 
the  bung  with  your  hammer;  and  if  your 
work  is  well  done,  the  bung  will  be  thrown 
into  the  air  with  a  report.  Pour  out  the  re- 
maining liquid,  waiiii  it  up,  and  go  on  with 
the  rest.  If  the  weather  is  cool,  you  had 
better  put  your  barrel  in  the  sun,  turning  it 
frequently  and  driving  down  the  hoops,  be- 
fore you  pour  in  the  wax.  This  is  to  save 
your  material;  for  if  the  barrel  is  cold,  it 


will  take  a  much  heavier  coating ;  and  the 
main  thing  is  simply  to  close  all  crevices. 
See  Extracted  IIoxev. 

HOAV    TO   remove     CANDIED     HONEY    KKO.M 
IJARRELS. 

Good  thick  honey  will  usually  become  sol- 
id at  the  approach  of  frosty  weather,  and 
perhaps  the  readiest  means  of  getting  it  out 
of  the  barrel  in  such  cases  is  to  remove  one 
of  the  heads,  and  take  it  out  with  a  scoop. 
If  it  is  quite  hard,  you  may  at  first  think  it 
quite  difficult  to  get  a  scoop  down  into  it ; 
but  if  you  press  steadily,  and  keep  moving 
the  scoop  slightly,  you  will  soon  get  down 
its  whole  depth.  If  the  barrel  is  kept  for 
some  time  near  the  stove,  or  in  a  very  Avarm 
room,  the  honey  will  become  liquid  enough 
to  be  drawn  out  through  a  large-sized  honey- 
gate.  After  the  head  of  a  barrel  has  been 
taken  out.  the  barrel  should  be  waxed  again 
before  using,  around  the  head  that  has  been 
removed.  Get  out  all  the  honey  you  can,  by 
warming  and  allowing  it  to  drain,  and  then 
with  a  tea-kettle  of  warm  water,  clean  off 
every  particle  of  honey.  The  rinsings  may  be 
saved  and  fed  to  the  bees,  or  used  for  vinegar, 
that  there  be  no  waste.  See  Vinegar.  As 
barrels  are  apt  to  get  musty,  or  give  the  hon- 
ey a  taste,  I  would  advise  washing  and  light- 
ly coating  them  every  season,  before  being 
used  again.  After  having  been  once  coated, 
a  very  small  quantity  of  paraffine  will  answer 
perfectly,  the  second  time.  I  should  have  no 
hesitation  in  using  any  kind  of  a  barrel  for 
honey,  if  it  were  first  scalded,  allowed  to  dry 
thoroughly,  and  then  perfectly  coated  with 
paraffine.  If  the  barrel  is  dry  and  warm,  or 
slightly  hot,  there  will  never  be  any  danger 
of  its  cleaving  from  the  wood,  as  wax  some- 
times does.  Paraffine  has  neither  taste  nor 
smell,  and  does  not  decay  as  wax  does,  when 
exposed  to  dampness  or  the  action  of  liquids. 

Cautum: — A  mixture  of  wax  and  rosin 
was  at  one  time  used  for  coating  barrels, 
and  after  giving  it.  as  I  thought,  a  thorough 
1  test,  I  used  it  for  a  whole  cn)p  of  honey. 
The  result  was  that  the  lioney  tasted  of  ros- 
in after  being  in  the  barrels  over  winter,  and 
it  was  sold  at  10  c.  when  it  would  otherwise 
have  brought  15c.  This  was  quite  a  serious 
matter,  as  some  of  the  journals  used  to  rec- 
onnnend  the  rosin. 

BASS^VOOD.  With  perhaits  the  single 
exceittinii  of  white  clover,  the  basswood.  or 
linden,  as  it  is  often  called,  furnishes  more 
honey  than  any  other  one  plant  or  tree 
known.  It  is  true,  that  it  does  not  yield 
honey  every  season,  l)ut  what  plant  or  tree 
I  doesV'*'  It  occasionally  gives  us  such  an  im- 


BASSWOOD. 


•dG 


BASSWOOD. 


mense  flood  of  honey  that  we  can  afford  to  be,  without  doubt,  of  great  value.  See  Ab- 
wait  a  season  or  two.  if  need  be,  rather  than  tificial  Pasturage.  Our  4000  trees  were 
depend  on  sources  that  yield  more  regularly,    phm ted  in  the  spring  of  1872,  and  in  1877 


yet  in  much  smaller  amounts.  If 
keeper  is  content  to  wait — say  ten  or 
years  for  the  re- 
alization of  his 
hopes,  or  if  he 
has  an  inter- 
est   in 


a  bee-  many  of  them  were  bearing  fair  loads  of 
flfteen  !  blossoms.  "We  made  some  experiments  with 
basswood  seeds,  but  they  proved 
mostly  failures,  as  have  nearly  all 
similar  ones  we  have  heard  from. 
By  far  the  better  and  cheaper  way 
is  to  get  small  trees  from  the  forest. 
These  can  be  obtained  in  almost 
any  cjuantity,  from  any  piece  of 
woodland  from  which  stock  have 
been  excluded.  Cattle  feed 
upon  the  young  basswoods 
with  great  avidity,  and  pas- 
turing our  woodlands 
is  eventually  going  to 
cut  short  the  young 
growth  of  these 
trees  from  our 
forests,  as  well 
as  of  many 
others  that  are 
valixable. 
We  plant- 
ed trees  all 
the  way 
from  one  to 
ten  feet  in 


providing  for 
the  bee-keep- 
ers of  a  future 
generation,  it 

will  pay  him  to  plant  basswoods.  A 
tree  that  was  set  out  just  about  10 
years  ago,  on  one  of  our  streets,  now 
furnishes  a  i)rofusion  of  blossoms, 
almost  every  year  ;  and  from  the  way 


height.  The  larg- 
er ones  have,  as  a 
general  rule,  done 
best. 

The  cut  will  en- 
able any  one  to  at 
once  distinguish 
the     basswood 


when   seen.     The 

AMERICAN  BASSWOOD.  OR  LINDEN.  32      ^^^^g^^^.g      ^f       IJttle 

the  bees  woik  on  them,  I  should  judge  it  balls  with  their  peculiar  leaf  attached  to 
furnished  considerable  honey.  A  hundred  the  seed  -  stems  are  to  be  seen  hanging 
such  trees  in  the  vicinity  of  an  apiary  would    from    tlie   branches    the    greater   part    of 


BASSWOOD. 


37 


BEAKS. 


of  the  summer,  and  the  appearance,  both  be- 
fore and  after  blossoming,  is  pretty  much 
the  same.  The  blossoms  are  small,  of  a  light 
yellow  color,  and  rather  pretty ;  the  honey  is 
secreted  in  the  inner  side  of  the  thick  fleshy 
petals.  When  it  is  profuse  it  will  sparkle 
like  dewdrops  if  a  cluster  of  blossoms  is 
held  up  to  the  sunlight. 

Climatic  influences  have  their  effect  upon 
basswood.  Among  the  hills  of  York  State 
the  leaves  assume  mammoth  proportions. 
I  measured  one  that  was  14  inches  long. 
"While  this  leaf  was  among  the  largest,  yet 
the  leaves  were,  on  the  average,  about  twice 
the  size  of  those  in  our  own  locality.  In 
Illinois  I  noticed  that  the  Wasswoods  seemed 
to  be  less  thrifty  than  in  Ohio.  The  leaves 
seemed  to  be  smaller,  and  the  bark  of  the 
trees  of  a  little  different  appearance.  The 
preceding  engraving  represents  quite  accu- 
rately the  typical  forms,  however.  The  Eu- 
ropean variety  has  smaller  leaves,  and  differs 
from  Tilia  Americana  in  a  few  other  minor 
respects. 

It  is  rather  to  be  regretted  that  this  tree 
is  not  more  plentiful  than  it  is.  It  is  one  of 
the  main  stays,  where  it  grows.  f)f  the  hon- 
ey-producer, and  one  of  the  most  valuable 
WTKxls  in  manufacture.  It  will  hardly  do 
for  outside  exposure  to  the  weather ;  but  it 
is  admirably  adai)ted  for  packing -boxes, 
and  is  used  in  immense  quantities  in  the 
manufacture  of  furniture,  fdiming  the  bot- 
toms and  sides  of  drawers,  the  Ijacks  of  bu- 
reaus, dressing-cases,  etc..  and  it  is  also 
employed  extensively  in  the  man  uf acture  of 
l)aper;  in  fact,  the  envelopes  that  are  sent 
out  from  the  Home  of  the  Honey-liees  are 
said  to  be  made  from  basswood  ••pulp." 

It  has  often  been  said  that  we  are  cutting  ' 
off  our  own  noses  in  using  it  for  one-jdece 
sections— that  we  are  ••killing  the  goose  that 
lays  the  golden  egg."  Well,  it  is  true  that 
apiariaii-supitly  dealers  may  use  quite,  a  lit- 
tle ;  but  still,  the  amount  that  thfy  use  is 
very  insignificant  in  compari.sfin  with  that 
employed  by  furniture-makers,  packing-box 
concerns,  and  paper-makers. 

After  all,  there  is  one  redeeming  feature. 
The  basswood  is  a  vei-y  rapid  grower.     We 
thought  at  one  time  that  we  had  used  about 
all  the  basswood  in  tliis  section,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  enormous  quantities  shipped  in 
from  Michigan  and  other  States.     Hut  .some- 
how the    fainiers   bring  in   beautiful   nice 
white  basswood  lumber;    and  where  tiiey  ! 
get  it  in  our  vicinity  is  a  sort  of  puzzle.     At  \ 
least  some  of  this  lumber  is  from  a  second  j 
growth  of  trees  that  .sprouted  ten  years  ago  ' 


from  the  stumps  of  old  trees — said  trees  hav- 
ing been  cut  for  us  ten  years  ago.  If  liass- 
wood  will  replace  itself  in  ten  or  even  twen- 
ty years,  so  that  it  can  be  used  again  for 
lumber,  there  is  yet  hope  that  it  may  contin- 
ue to  bless  the  bee-keeper. 

Basswood.  and  perhaps  most  other  forest- 
trees,  require  shade,  especially  when  young; 
and,  much  to  our  surpri.se.  some  that  were 
planted  directly  under  some  large  white-oak 
trees,  have  done  better  than  any  of  the  rest." 
Who  has  not  noticed  exceedingly  thrifty 
basswoods  growing  in  the  midst  of  a  clump 
of  briers  and  bushes  of  all  sorts  V  I  would 
place  the  trees  not  more  than  12  feet  apart, 
for  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  thin  them  out 
whenever  they  are  found  too  close.  A 
neighbor  has  planted  basswoods  entirely 
round  his  farm  on  the  road-sides,  and  they 
add  much  to  the  comfort  of  travelers,  are 
pretty  to  the  sight,  and.  without  doubt,  will 
furnish  honey  enough,  in  time,  to  pay  all  ex- 
penses. 

The  best  yield  of  honey  we  have  ever  had 
from  a  single  hive,  in  one  day,  was  from  the 
basswood  bloom ;  the  amount  was  43  lbs.  in 
three  days.^^  The  best  we  ever  recorded  from 
clover  was  10  lbs.  in  one  day.  The  honey 
from  the  basswood  has  a  strong,  aromatic 
or  mint  flavor,  and  we  can  tell  when  the 
blossoms  are  out,  by  the  perfume  about  the 
hives.  The  taste  of  the  honey  also  indi- 
cates to  the  apiarist  the  very  day  the  bees 
commence  work  on  it.  The  honey,  if  ex- 
tracted before  it  is  sealed  over,  when  it  is 
coming  in  rapidly,  has  the  distinctive  flavor 
so  strong  as  to  be  very  disagreeable  to  some 
persons.  My  wife  likens  it  to  the  smell  and 
taste  of  turpentine  or  camphor,  and  very 
much  dislikes  it,  when  just  gathered;  but 
when  sealed  over  and  fully  ripened  in  the 
hive,  she  thinks  it  delicious,  as  does  almost 
every  person. 

BZiARS.  The  bear  has  long  been  known 
as  the  proverbial  enemy  of  the  bee.  lie  is 
very  fond  of  honey,  and  seems  to  have  little 
regard  for  stings.  His  great  furry  coat  and 
thick  skin  seem  to  be  almost  proof  against 
their  little  liery  darts.  Our  forefathers  used 
to  tell  us  a  good  deal  about  bears  making 
raids  upon  bee-trees. 

When  I  visited  California,  hi  1.SS8,  I  ran 
across  an  apiarist  who  discovered  that  some- 
body or  something  had  been  making  noc- 
turnal inroads  upon  his  bees.  An  old  bear 
came  every  night  and  clawed  the  honey  out 
until  only  one  out  of  11  colonies  was  left, 
and  Mr.  R.  wanted  so  bad  to  keep  that  one 
that  he   Inuig  it   up  in  a  tree   by  a  rope,  so 


BEAES. 


HH 


BEE-BREAD. 


high  tlie  old  bear  could  not  reach  it.  He 
could  not  cany  it  away,  for  the  liees  that 
were  gathering  honey  would  he  lost ;  but  if 
it  were  hung  up  they  could  Ihid  it.  That 
night  the  bear  came  after  more  honey ;  and 
as  he  could  not  reach  that  last  hive,  he 
clawed  up  the  tree  and  commenced  to  slide 
down  on  the  rope,  to  get  the  bees.  Now, 
the  rope  held  the  hive  very  well,  but  it 
wouldn't  hold  a  big  bear  too.  and  so  it  In'Oke, 
and  down  came  the  bear,  l»ees,  and  all.  lie 
must  have  been  somewhat  astonished;  Imt 
he  gathered  himself  iip  and  ate  all  the  hon- 
ey, and  then  went  off.  As  he  had  now  got 
the  last  one,  Mr.  R.  thought  he  wouldn't 
come  any  more  ;  but  back  he  came  the  next 
night.  Well,  the  bees  that  had  no  hives 
wanted  to  work  somewhere,  and  so  they 
went  into  the  bee-house  near  by,  and  built 
some  combs  under  the  clock-shelf,  and, 
don't  you  believe  that  that  old  l)ear  sraelled 
the  honey  under  the  clock-shelf  and  want- 


BEAR  TAKING  HONEY  OUT  OF  A  MUTH  JAR. 


ed  that  tooV  but  as  the  honey-house  was 
shut  up  and  locked,  he  could  not  get  in; 
but  he  made  a  hole  in  one  corner  with  his 
teeth  and  claws  until  he  could  get  one  paw 
through,  and  then  he  reached  in  as  far  as  he 
could  and  tried  to  claw  down  that  last  bit  of 
honey  the  poor  liees  had  made.  I  saw  the 
place  where  he  made  the  hole  in  the  bee- 
house. 

In  1889.  while  I  was  visiting  at  the  Mich- 
igan Agricultural  College,  I  was  invited  to 
see  their  pet  bear.  Being  provided  with  a 
small  camera  I  was  told  to  watch  his  bear- 
ship  manipulate  a  bottle  of  honey,  and  take 
a  couple  of  views.    After  reaching  all  the 


honey  he  could  out  of  the  bottle  in  an  up- 
right position,  he  turned  it  up  as  in  the  en- 
graving, and  poured  it  down  his  throat.  As 
he  smacked  liis  lips  he  tipped  the  bottle  a 
little  too  fast,  and  a  lot  of  it  ran  down  over 
his  mouth,  and  some  of  it  ran  over  his  eyes. 
That  was  of  small  consequence,  however, 
for,  after  eveiy  drop  had  been  taken  from 
the  outside,  he  kept  on  jioking  his  tongue 
around  the  inside  and  then  outside,  along 
his  lurry  cheeks,  and  as  near  his  eyes  as  his 
tongue  would  reach.  After  giving  a  purr  of 
satisfaction  he  was  led  back  to  his  kennel, 
and  chained.  True  to  his  natural  instincts 
and  appetite  he  showed  he  was  fond  of 
honey.  Hundreds  of  instances  might  be 
given,  but  these  will  suffice. 

BEZi-BRZSAD.  A  term  in  common  use, 
applied  to  pollen  wlien  stored  in  the  combs. 
In  olden  times,  when  bees  were  killed  with 
sulphur  to  get  at  the  honey,  more  or  less 
pollen  was  usually  found  mixed  with  the 
honey ;  it  has  something  of  a  "bready"  taste, 
and  hence,  probably,  came  its  name. 
Since  the  advent  of  the  extractor,  and  sec- 
tion boxes,  it  is  very  rare  to  find  pollen  in 
the  honey  designed  for  table  use.  See 
Pollen. 

BEE-DRESS.    See  A'eils. 

BEE-ESCAFES.     See  Comb  Honey, 

also    EXTKACTIXO. 

BEE-KUHTTIIirG.  I  have  warned  you 
so  often,  my  friends,  against  leaving  sweets 
of  any  kind  about  the  apiary,  and  about  be- 
ing careful  not  to  let  the  bees  get  to  robbing 
each  other,  that  it  may  seem  a  little  queer, 
to  be  directed  how  best  to  encourage  and  de- 
velop this  very  robbing  propensity  in  these 
little  friends  of  ours. 

The  only  season  in  which  we  can  trap  bees 
is  when  they  will  rob  briskly  at  home  ;  for 
when  honey  is  to  be  found  in  the  flowers  in 
plenty,  they  will  hardly  deign  to  notice  our 
bait  of  even  honey  in  the  comb.  Before 
starting  out,  it  will  be  policy  to  inform  your- 
self of  all  the  bees  kept  in  the  vicinity,  for 
you  might  otherwise  waste  much  time  in 
following  lines  that  lead  into  the  hives  of 
your  neighbors.  You  should  be  at  least  a 
mile  from  any  one  who  has  a  hive  of  bees 
when  you  commence  operations,  and  it  were 
safer  to  be  two  miles.  I  do  not  mean  by 
this  to  say  that  there  are  no  bee-trees  near 
large  apiaries,  for  a  number  have  been  found 
within  half  a  mile  of  our  own,  and  an  expe- 
rienced hand  would  have  but  little  trouble  in 
finding  more,  in  all  probability  ;  but  those 
who  are  just  learning,  would  be  very  likely 
to  get  very  much  pei^^lexed  and  bothered  by 


BEE-HUNTING. 


39 


BEE-HUNTING. 


domesticated  bees  mixing  with  the  wild 
ones. 

Perhaps  the  readiest  means  of  getting  a 
line  started  is  to  catch  the  bees  that  will  be 
found  on  the  flowers,  especially  in  the  early 
part  of  the  day.  Get  them  to  take  a  sip  of 
the  honey  you  have  brought  for  the  purpose, 
and  they  will,  true  to  their  instinctive  love 
of  gain,  speed  themselves  home  with  their 
load,  soon  to  return  for  another.  To  find 
the  tree,  you  have  only  to  watch  and  see 
where  they  go.  Very  simple,  is  it  not  V  It 
certainly  is  on  paper,  but  it  usually  involves 
a  deal  of  hard  work,  when  carried  out  in 
practice.  You  can  get  along  with  very  sim- 
ple implements;  but  if  your  time  is  valuable, 
it  may  pay  to  go  out  fully  equipped.  For 
instance,  a  small  glass  tumbler  will  answer 
to  catch  bees  with;  and  after  you  have  caught 
one,  you  can  set  the  glass  over  a  piece  of 
honey-comb.  Now  cover  it  with  your  hand- 
kerchief to  stop  .his  buzzing  against  the 
glass,  and  he  will  soon  discover  the  honey, 
and  load  up.  Keep  your  eye  on  him,  and 
as  soon  as  he  is  really  at  work  at  the  honey, 
gently  raise  the  glass  and  creep  away,  where 
you  may  get  a  good  view  of  proceedings. 
As  soon  as  he  takes  wing,  he  will  circle 
about  the  honey,  as  a  young  bee  does  in 
front  of  the  hive,  that  he  may  know  the  spot 
when  he  comes  back;  for  a  whole  "  chunk" 
of  honey,  during  the  dry  autumn  days,  is 
quite  a  little  gold-mine  in  his  estimation. 
There  may  be  a  thousand  or  more  hungry 
mouths  to  feed,  away  out  in  the  forest  in  his 
leafy  home,  for  aught  we  know. 

If  you  are  quick  enough  to  keep  track  of 
his  eccentric  circles  and  oscillations,  you  will 
see  that  his  circles  become  larger  and  larger, 
and  that  each  time  he  comes  round,  he  sways 
to  one  side ;  that  is,  instead  of  making  the 
honey  the  center  of  his  circles,  he  makes  it 
almost  on  one  edge,  so  that  the  last  few  times 
he  comes  round  he  simply  comes  back  after 
he  has  started  home,  and  throws  a  loop,  as 
it  were,  about  the  honey  to  make  sure  of  it 
for  the  last  time.  Now  you  can  be  pretty 
sure  which  way  liis  home  lies  almost  the 
very  first  circuit  he  makes,  for  he  has  his 
home  in  mind  all  the  time,  and  bears  more 
and  more  towaid  it. 

If  you  can  keep  your  eye  on  him  until  he 
finally  takes  the  "  bee-line  "  for  home,  you 
do  pretty  well,  for  a  new  hand  can  seldom  do 
this.  After  he  is  out  of  siglit,  you  have  only 
to  wait  until  he  comes  back,  which  he  surely 
will  do,  if  honey  is  scarce.  {)(  course,  if  his 
home  is  near  by,  he  will  get  back  soon  ;  and 
to  determine  how  far  it  is,  by  tlie  length  of 


time  he  is  gone,  brings  in  another  very  im- 
portant point.  The  honey  that  the  bees  get 
from  the  flowers  is  very  thin ;  in  fact,  it  is 
nearer  sweetened  water  than  honey,  and 
if  we  wish  a  bee  to  load  up  and  fly  at  about 
a  natural''  gait,"  we  should  give  him  honey 
diluted  with  water  to  about  this  consistency. 
Unless  you  do,  he  will  not  only  take  a  great 
deal  more  time  in  loading  up,  but  the  thick 
honey  is  so  much  heavier  he  will  very  likely 
stagger  under  tlie  load,  and  make  a  very 
crooked  bee-line  of  his  homeward  path.  Be- 
sides, he  will  take  much  more  time  to  unload. 
Sometimes,  after  circling  about  quite  a  time, 
he  will  stop  to  take  breath  before  going 
home,  which  is  apt  to' mislead  the  hunter, 
unless  he  is  experienced ;  all  this  is  avoided 
by  filling  your  honey-comb  with  honey  and 
water,  instead  of  the  honey  alone. 

Now,  it  takes  quite  a  little  time  to  get  a 
bee  caught  and  started  in  the  work;  and 
that  we  may  l)e  busy,  we  will  have  several 
bees  started  at  the  same  time  ;  and  to  do  this 
expeditiously,  we  will  use  a  bee-lmnting  box 
made  as  in  the  following  cut. 


BOX  FOR  IJEE-nUNTING. 

^  This  is  simply  a  light  box  about  4i  inches 
square  ;  the  bottom  is  left  ojjcn,  and  the  top 
is  closed  with  a  sheet  of  glass  that  slides 
easily  in  saw-cuts  made  near  the  upper  edge. 
About  a  half-inch  below  the  glass  is  a  small 
feeder,  quite  similar  to  the  one  figured  in 
Feeding  and  Feeders. 

how  to  use  the  hunting-box. 
"^  Take  with  your  box  about  a  pint  of  diluted 
honey  in  a  bottle.  If  you  fill  the  bottle  half 
full  of  thick  honey,  and  then  fill  it  up  with 
warm  water,  you  will  Ijave  it  about  right.  In 
the  fall  of  the  year,  you  will  be  more  likely 
to  fmd  bees  on  the  flowers  in  the  early  part 
of  the  day.  When  you  get  on  the  ground, 
near  some  forest,  wliere  you  susj)ect  the 
preseiu^' of  wild  bees,  pour  a  little  of  your 
lioney  into  the  feeder,  and  cautiously  set  the 


BEE-HUNTI>s'G. 


40 


BEE-HUNTII^G. 


box  over  the  first  bee  you  find  upon  the 
flowers.  As  soon  as  the  box^is  well  over  the 
flower,  close  the  bottom  with  your  hand, 
and  he  will  soon  buzz  up  against  the  glass. 
Catch  as  many  as  you  wish,  in  the  same  way, 
and  they  will  soon  be  sipping  the  honey. 
Before  any  have  filled  themselves,  ready  to 
fly,  set  your  box  on  some  elevated  point, 
such  as  the  top  of  a  stump  in  an  open  space 
in  the  field,  and  draw  back  the  glass  slide. 
Stoop  down  now,  and  be  ready  to  keep  your 
eye  on  him,  whichever  way  he  may  turn.  If 
you  keep  your  head  low,  you  will  be  more 
likely  to  have  the  sky  as  a  background.  If 
you  fail  in  following  one,  you  must  try  the 
next,  and  as  soon  as  you  get  a  sure  line  on 
one,  as  he  bears  finally  for  home,  be  sure  to 
mark  it  by  some  object  that  you  can  remem- 
ber. If  you  are  curiovis  to  know  how  long 
they  are  gone,  you  can,  with  some  white 
paint  in  a  little  vial,  and  a  pencil-brush, 
mark  one  of  them  on  the  back.*  This  is  quite 
a  help  where  you  have  two  or  more  lines 
working  from  the  same  bait.  When  a  bee 
comes  back,  you  will  recognize  him  by  the 
peculiar  inquiring  hum,  like  robbers  in  front 
of  a  hive  where  they  have  once  had  a  taste 
of  spoils.  If  the  tree  is  near  by,  each  one 
will  bring  others  along  in  his  wake,  and  soon 
your  box  will  be  humming  with  a  throng  so 
eager  that  a  further  filling  of  the  feeder  from 
the  bottle  will  be  needed.  As  soon  as  you 
are  pretty  well  satisfied  in  which  direction 
they  are  located,  you  can  close  the  glass  slide 
and  move  along  on  the  line,  near  to  the 
woods.  Open  the  box,  and  you  will  soon 
have  them  just  as  busy,  again ;  mark  the 
line  and  move  again,  and  you  will  very  soon 
follow  them  to  their  home.  To  aid  you  in 
deciding  just  where  they  are,  you  can  move 
off  to  one  side  and  start  a  cross-line. t  Of 
course,  the  tree  will  be  found  just  where 
these  lines  meet ;  when  you  get  about  where 
you  think  they  should  be,  examine  the  trees 
carefully,  especially  all  the  knot-holes,  or 
any  place  that  might  allow  bees  to  enter  and 
find  a  cavity.    If  you  place  yourself  so  that 


*  Since  this  was  written,  an  A  B  C  scholar  says: 
"  Bees  vary  in  their  flitrht.  But  I  have  found  that 
on  an  average  they  will  fly  a  mile  in  five  minutes, 
and  spend  about  two  minutes  in  the  hive  or  tree. 
Of  course,  they  will  spend  more  time  in  a  tree  when 
they  have  to  crawl  a  long-  distance  to  get  to  the 
brood-nest,  hence  we  may  deduce  the  rule:  Sub- 
tract two  from  the  number  of  minutes  absent,  and 
divide  by  ten.  The  quotient  is  the  number  of  miles 
from  the  stand  to  the  tree.  (See  Gleanings,  1887, 
page  4.31.)  This  applies  to  a  partially  wooded  coun- 
try. Perhaps  in  a  clearing  they  could  make  better 
time.  On  a  very  windy  day  It  takes  them  longer 
to  make  trips." 

+  The  same  writer  says  further:  "  It  is  a  waste  of 
time  to  look  for  the  bee-tree,  or  to  make  cross-lines, 
until  you  get  beyond  the  tree.    When  the  bees  fly 


the  bees  will  be  between  you  and  the  sun., 
you  can  see  them  plainly,  even  if  they  are 
among  the  highest  branches.  Remember  you 
are  to  make  a  careful  and  minute  examina- 
tion of  every  tree,  little  and  big,  body  and 
limbs,  even  if  it  does  make  your  neck  ache. 
If  you  do  not  find  them  by  carefully  looking 
the  trees  over,  go  back  and  get  your  hunting- 
box,  bring  it  up  to  the  spot,  and  give  them 
feed  until  you  get  a  quart  or  more  at  work. 
You  can  then  see  pretty  clearly  where  they 
go.  If  you  do  not  find  them  the  first  day, 
you  can  readily  start  them  again  almost  any 
time,  for  they  are  very  quick  to  start,  when 
they  have  once  been  at  work,  even  though  it 
is  several  days  afterward. 

Bees  are  sometimes  started  by  burning 
what  is  called  a  "smudge."  Get  some  old 
bits  of  comb  containing  bee-bread  as  well 
as  honey,  and  burn  them  on  a  small  tin  plate, 
by  setting  it  over  a  little  fire.  The  bees  will 
be  attracted  by  the  odor  of  the  burning  honey 
and  comb,  and,  if  near,  will  sometimes  come 
in  great  numbers.  Oil  of  anise  is  sometimes 
used,  to  attract  them  by  its  strong  odor.  We 
have  had  the  best  success  in  getting  them 
from  the  flowers  as  we  have  directed. 

A  spy-glass  is  very  convenient  in  finding 
where  the  bees  go  in,  especially  if  the  tree  is 
very  tall ;  even  the  toy  spy-glasses  sold  for 
50c.  or  a  dollar,  are  sometimes  quite  a  help. 
The  most  serviceable,  however,  are  the  ach- 
romatic opera-glasses  that  cost  from  $.3.00  to 
$5.00.  With  these  we  can  use  both  eyes,  and 
the  field  is  so  broad  that  no  time  is  lost  in 
getting  the  glass  instantly  on  the  spot.  We 
can,  in  fact,  see  bees  with  them  in  the  tops 
of  the  tallest  trees,  almost  as  clearly  as  we 
can  see  them  going  into  hives  placed  on  the 
ground. 

After  you  have  found  the  tree,  I  presume 
you  will  be  in  a  hurry  to  get  the  bees  that 
you  know  are  there,  and  the  honey  that  77iay 
be  there.  Do  not  fix  your  expectations  too 
high,  for  you  may  not  get  a  single  pound  of 
the  latter.  Of  two  trees  that  we  took'  a  few 
years  ago,  one  contained  just  about  as  much 
honey  as  we  had  fed  them,  and  the  other 
contained  not  one  visible  cell  full !  The 
former  were  fair  hybrids,  and  the  latter  well- 
marked  Italians.    If  the  .tree  is  not  a  valu- 


back  on  the  line,  you  may  rest  assured  that  you  are 
bej'ond  the  tree.  Move  your  last  two  stands  clos- 
er together  (lining  the  bees  carefully),  so  that 
they  are  only  ten  or  fifteen  rods  apart.  Now,  as 
you  have  bees  flying  from  two  directions  into  the 
tree  you  will  probably  discover  where  they  are  im- 
mediately. But  if  you  fail  to  find  them  easily, 
take  a  stand  off  to  one  side,  eight  or  ten  rods,  and 
cross-line.  This  is  the  only  place  that  I  flnd  a  cross- 
line  of  any  advantage."— See  Oleanings  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture,Vol.  XV.,  page  771. 


BEE-HUNTING. 


41 


BEE-HUNTING. 


able  one,  and  stands  where  timber  is  cheap 
and  plentiful,  i)erhaps  the  easiest  way  may  be 
to  cut  it  down.  This  may  result  in  a  mashed- 
up  heap  of  ruins,  with  combs,  honey,  and  bees 
all  mixed  up  with  dirt  and  rubbish,  or  it  may 
fall  so  as  to  strike  on  the  limbs  or  small 
trees,  and  thus  ease  its  fall  in  such  a  way  as 
to  do  very  little  injury  to  the  hive  of  the 
forest.  The  chances  are  rather  in  favor  of 
the  former,  and  on  many  accounts  it  is  safer 
to  climb  the  tree  and  let  the  bee-hive  down 
with  a  rope.  If  the  hollow  is  in  the  body  of 
the  tree,  or  so  situated  that  it  can  not  be  cut 
off  above  and  below,  the  combs  may  be  taken 
out  and  let  down  in  a  pail  or  basket ;  for  the 
brood-combs,  and  such  as  contain  but  little 
honey,  the  basket  will  be  rather  preferable. 
The  first  thing,  however,  will  be  to  climb  the 
tree  ;  and  as  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  give 
any  advice  in  my  ABC  book  that  might  in 
any  way  lead  to  loss  of  life,  I  will,  at  the  out- 
set, ask  you  not  to  attempt  climbing  unless 
you  are,  or  can  be,  a  very  careful  person. 
An  old  gentleman  who  has  been  out  with 
us  remarked  that  he  once  knew  a  very  ex- 
pert climber  who  took  all  the  bees  out  of  the 
trees  for  miles  around,  but  was  finally  killed 
instantly,  by  letting  his  hands  slip,  as  he  was 
getting  above  a  large  knot  in  the  tree.  We 
do  not  wish  to  run  any  risks,  where  human 
life  is  at  stake. 

For  climbing  large  trees,  a  pair  of  climbers 
are  used,  such  as  is  shown  in  the  cut  below. 


CLIMBERS  FOR  BEE-HUNTERS. 

The  iron  i»art  is  made  of  a  bar  18  inches 
long,!  wide  byi  thick.  At  the  lower  end  it 
is  bent  to  accommodate  the  foot  as  shown, 
and  the  spurs  are  made  of  the  best  steel, 
carefully  and  safely  welded  on.  These 
points  should  be  sharp,  and  somewhat  chisel- 
shaped,  that  they  may  be  struck  safely  into 
the  wood  of  the  tree ;    the  straps  will  be 


readily  understood  by  inspection.  When  in 
use,  the  ring  A  is  slipped  over  the  spur  B, 
and  the  straps  are  both  buckled  up  safely. 
If  the  tree  is  very  large,  the  climber  provides 
himself  with  a  tough  withe  or  whip,  of  some 
tough  green  bough,  and  bends  this  so  it  will 
go  around  the  trunk,  while  an  end  is  held  in 
each  hand.  As  he  climbs  upward,  this  is 
hitched  up  the  trunk.  If  he  keeps  a  sure 
and  firm  hold  on  this  whip,  and  strikes  his 
feet  into  the  trunk  firmly,  he  can  go  up  the 
most  forbidding  trees,  rapidly  and  safely. 
A  light  line,  a  clothes  -  line  for  instance, 
should  be  tied  around  his  waist,  that  he  may 
draw  up  such  tools  as  he  may  need.  The 
tools  needed  are  a  sharp  ax,  hatchet,  saw, 
and  an  auger  to  bore  in  to  see  how  far  the 
hollow  extends.  If  the  bees  are  to  be  saved, 
the  limb  or  tree  should  be  cut  off  above  the 
hollow,  and  allowed  to  fall.  A  stout  rope 
may  be  then  tied  about  the  log  hive,  passed 
over  some  limb  above,  the  end  brought  down 
and  wrapped  about  a  tree  until  the  hive  is 
cut  off  ready  to  lower.  When  it  is  down, 
let  it  stand  an  hour  or  two,  or  mitil  sundown, 
when  all  the  bees  will  have  found  and  en- 
tered the  hive.  Cover  the  entrance  with 
wire  cloth,  and  take  it  home. 

There  are  some  trees,  indeed,  so  large  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  climb  them  with 
the  implements  already  given.  A  very  in- 
genious plan,  however,  has  l)een  put  into 
execution  by  Mr.  Crreen  Derrington,  of  Pop- 
lar Bluff,  Mo.  I  give  his  description  in  his 
own  language,  and  together  with  it  a  repro- 
duction from  a  photograph  which  he  sent. 
He  says  : 

I  send  you  a  photograpli  of  a  large  poi)lar-tree. 
wliicli  I  climbed  by  means  of  spikes  and  staples.  To 
prevent  the  possibility  of  falling  I  put  a  belt  under 
my  arms.  To  this  I  attached  two  chaii.s.  At  the 
end  of  each  chain  is  a  snap.  My  method  of  climbing 
is  as  follows:  After  a.scending  tlie  ladder  as  far  as  1 
can  go  I  drive  into  the  side  of  the  tree  a  large  bridge 
spike,  far  enough  into  the  wood  lo  hold  my  weiglit. 
A  little  further  up  I  drive  another  spike.  In  be- 
tween the  spikes  I  drive  the  first  staple,  and  to  this 
I  attach  the  first  chain  by  means  of  the  snap,  and 
a.st'end  by  the  nails  as  far  as  the  chain  will  allow  me; 
I  then  drive  another  staple,  and  attach  the  olhi-i- 
chain,  and  ne.vt  loosen  tlie  lower  snap.  After  driv- 
ing in  more  spikes,  I  again  ascend  as  high  as  tlie 
chain  will  allow  nie,  and  attach  the  other  chain  to 
anotlier  staple.  In  this  manner  I  can  make  my  as- 
cent with  perfect  security. 

The  tree  shown  in  the  picture  is  7  feet  in  diameter 
at  the  foot.  If  you  will  follow  all  along  up  the  body 
of  the  tree,  just  above  the  crotch  on  the  right  limb 
you  will  see  yovir  humble  servant,  8.S  feet  fi'om  the 
ground.  The  tree  stands  close  to  the  Ulack  River,  in 
a  graveyard,  and  from  it  I  obtained  5!l  lbs.  of  honey. 
Your  climbers  are  excellent  for  small  trees,  say 
from  two  lo  three  feet  in  diameter;  but   the  tree 


BEE-HIT]^  TING. 


42 


BEE-HUNTING. 


ilhisliated  lias  such  a  rt)ug-li  and  uneven  bark,  and 
is  so  large,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  climb  it  with- 
out  tlie  aid  of  spikes  and  the  staples  I  have  men- 


CI.IMBINO   A   BEK-TREE,  J-8  FEET   FHOM  THE  OKOUNIJ. 


tioned.  Ou  account  of  the  large  knots  it  would  be 
impossible  to  use  a  rope,  or  something'  similar,  to 
hitch  up  by  climbers,  as  described  in  tlie  ABC 
book.  Knots  are  not  in  my  way  when  I  use  spikes 
and  staples.  Gheen  Derkinoton. 

Poplar  Blulf,  15  itler  Co.,  Mo. 

If  you  want  only  tlie  honey,  and  do  not 
care  for  tlie  bees,  you  can  slab  off  one  side 
of  the  hollow,  cut  out  the  combs,  and  let 
them  down  in  pails.  The  bees  can  very  oft- 
en be  saved  in  this  way,  as  well  as  the  for- 
mer. Fix  the  brood  -  combs  about  the  right 
distance  apart,  in  a  pail  or  basket ;  the  bees 
will  in  time  collect  about  them,  and  may 
then,  toward  dark,  be  carried  safely  home. 
Many  bee-hunters  brimstone  the  bees ;  but  I 
am  so  averse  to  any  such  method  of  killing 
Ijees,  that  I  have  not  even  tlie  patience  to 
describe  it.  Sometimes  the  hollow  is  below 
the  limbs;  in  this  case,  the  climber  passes  a 
surcingle  about  him,  under  his  arms,  around 
the  tree,  and  in  this  position  chops  the  bees 
out.  I  have  said  nothing  about  smoke  or 
veils;  for  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  none 
seem  to  be  needed.  The  bees  become  so 
frightened  by  the  chopping,  that  they  are 
perfectly  conquered,  and  cease  entirely  to 
act  on  the  offensive.  It  may  be  well  to  have 
some  smoking  rotten  wood  near,  and  a  bel- 
lows smoker  would  be  very  convenient  to 
drive  the  bees  out  of  the  way,  many  times. 

After  you  have  got  them  down  where  the 
combs  can  be  reached,  the  usual  directions 
for  transferring  are  to  be  followed.  A  bee- 
keeper who  has  a  taste  for  rustic  work, 
might  set  the  log  up  in  his  apiary,  just  to 
show  the  contrast  between  the  old  style  of 
bee-keeping  and  the  new.  Some  very  inter- 
esting facts  are  to  be  picked  up  in  bee-hunt- 
ing. One  of  the  trees  we  once  cut  con- 
tained comb  as  much  as  A  yard  long,  and  not 
more  than  8  inches  wide  in  the  widest  part. 
It  has  been  said,  that  bees  in  a  state  of  na- 
ture select  cavities  best  adapted  to  their 
needs.  I  am  inclined  to  think  this  very  poor 
reasoning.  If  a  farmer  allowed  nature  to 
take  care  of  his  corn-fields,  he  would  get  a 
very  poor  crop ;  and  from  what  I  have  seen 
of  bee-trees,  I  should  judge  the  poor  fellows 
need  to  be  taken  care  of,  almost  as  much  as 
the  corn.  We  often  get  100  lbs.  of  comb 
Iioney  from  a  hive,  but  I  never  knew  a  bee- 
tree  to  give  any  such  amount,  as  the  product 
of  a  single  season.  We  sometimes  find  quite 
a  quantity  of  honey  in  a  tree,  it  is  true  ;  but 
it  is  usually  old  honey,  and  often  the  accu- 
mulation of  several  years. 

There  are  more  bees  in  the  woods  than  we 
perhaps  have  any  idea  of,  especially  in  the 
neigliborhood  of  considerable  apiaries.    In 


BEE-HUNTING. 


43 


BEE-MOTII. 


one  of  mj'  first  trials  at  bee-hunting  I  started 
a  fine  line,  directly  toward  the  woods,  but  I 
looked  in  vain  for  bees,  after  going  into 
them,  and  finalh'  gave  it  up.  A  few  days 
afterward  I  got  an  old  hand  at  the  business 
to  hunt  them  up  for  me,  and  he  almost  at 
once  pointed  out  a  tree  plainly  visible  from 
where  they  were  baited,  standing  in  the  open 
lot.  As  the  tree  contained  very  thick  old 
honey,  it  had  probably  stood  there  unnoticed 
for  years,  and  yet  it  was  in  plain  sight. 
The  same  hunter  very  soon  found  another, 
but  a  little  distance  from  this  one.  And 
witliin  a  few  days  we  had  found  two  more 
in  that  same  locality. 3* 

DOES  BEE-HUNTING  PAY  ? 

If  you  can  earn  a  dollar  per  day  at  some 
steady  employment,  I  do  not  think  it  would, 
as  a  rule  ;  but  there  are  doubtless  localities 
where  an  expert  would  make  it  pay  well,  in 
the  fall  of  the  year.  With  tlie  facilities  we 
now  have  for  rearing  bees,  a  bee-keeper 
would  stock  an  apiary  much  quicker  by 
rearing  the  bees,  than  he  would  by  bringing 
them  home  from  the  woods,  and  transfer- 
ring. In  the  former  case  he  would  have 
nice  straight  combs,  especially  if  he  used 
foundation,  but  the  combs  from  the  woods 
would  require  a  great  amount  of  fussing 
with,  and  they  would  never  be  nearly  as  nice 
as  those  built  on  the  foundation,  even  then. 
So  much  by  way  of  discouragement.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  ramble  in  the  woods,  such  as 
bee-hunting  furnishes,  is  one  of  the  most 
healthful  forms  of  recreation  that  I  know 
of ;  and  it  gives  one  a  chance  to  study,  not 
only  the  habits  of  the  bees,  but  the  flowers 
as  well;  for  in  hunting  for  a  bee  to  start 
wuth,  we  find  many  plants  that  are  curious 
and  many  that  we  would  not  otherwise 
know  they  frequented.  In  some  of  our  trips 
we  were  astonished  to  find  the  Simpson 
honey-plant,  of  which  so  much  has  been  said 
in  our  back  journals,  growing  in  our  own 
neighborhood,  and  we  saw  the  bees  drinking 
the  sweet  water  out  of  the  little  hollow  balls, 
or  rather  pitcher-shaped  blossoms. 

NEVER  QUARREL  ABOUT  BEE-TREES. 

When  you  have  found  your  tree,  go  at 
once  to  the  owner  of  the  land,  and  get  per- 
mission to  take  your  bees.  No  matter  what 
the  law  allows,  do  nothing  in  his  absence 
you  would  not  do  if  he  were  standing  by, 
and  do  your  work  with  as  clear  a  conscience 
as  you  would  work  in  your  own  bee-yard. 
Many  quarrels  and  disagreements  and  much 
hard  feeling  have  been  engendered  by  cut- 
ting bee-trees.     If  I  am  correctly  informed. 


bees  are  the  property  of  wlioever  finds  them 
first ;  and  on  this  account  it  is  customary  to 
cut  the  initials  of  the  finder,  with  the  date, 
in  the  body  of  the  tree ;  but  you  have  no 
more  right  to  cut  the  owner's  timber  w^ith- 
out  permis.sion  than  you  have  to  cut  his  corn. 
I  have  never  found  any  one  inclined  to  with- 
hold consent,  when  they  were  politely  asked 
for  permission  to  get  our  bees  out  of  the 
trees.  I  do  not  wonder  that  people  feel 
cross  when  their  timber  is  mutilated  by  rov- 
ing idlers,  and  I  can  scarcely  blame  them 
for  giving  a  wholesome  lesson  now  and  then 
just  to  remind  us  that  we  have  laws  in  our 
country  for  their  protection.  I  hope  my 
readers  will  have  no  disposition  to  trespass 
on  tlie  premises  or  rights  of  any  one,  with- 
out permission.  The  most  difticult  and  par- 
ticular person  in  your  neighborhood  will,  in 
all  probability,  be  found  pleasant  and  ac- 
commodating, if  you  go  to  him  in  a  pleasant 
and  neighborly  way. 

BEE-IVEOTK.  It  is  very  likely  that 
the  moth-worm  is,  as  has  been  so  often  stat- 
ed, the  worst  enemy  the  honey-bee  has  —  if 
we  except  ignorant  bee-keepers— but  if 
such  is  the  case,  we  can  consider  ourselves 
very  fortunate,  for  the  moth  is  almost  no 
enemy  at  all,  to  one  who  is  well  posted  and 
up  with  the  times.  When  you  hear  a  person 
complaining  that  the  moth-worm  killed  his 
bees,  you  can  set  him  down  at  once  as 
knowing  very  little  about  bees;  and  if  a 
hive  is  offered  you  that  has  an  attachment 
or  trap  to  catch  or  kill  moths,  you  can  set 
the  vender  down  as  a  vagabond  and  swind- 
ler. You  can  scarcely  plead  ignorance  for 
him;  for  a  man  who  will  take  upon  himself 
the  responsibility  of  introducing  hives, 
without  knowing  something  of  our  modern 
books  and  bee-journals,  should  receive  treat- 
ment sufficiently  rough  to  send  him  home, 
or  into  some  business  he  understands. 

When  a  colony  gets  weakened  so  much 
that  it  can  not  cover  and  protect  its  combs, 
robbers  and  moth-worms  help  themselves  as 
a  natural  consequence,  but  either  rarely  does 
any  harm  if  there  are  plenty  of  bees,  and  a 
clean  tight  hive.  If  a  hive  is  so  made  that 
there  are  crevices  which  will  admit  a  worm, 
and  not  allow  a  bee  to  go  after  him,  it  may 
make  some  trouble  in  almost  any  colony ; 
and  I  can  not  remember  tliat  I  ever  saw  a 
patented  moth-proof  hive  that  was  not 
much  worse  in  this  respect  than  a  plain  sim- 
ple box  hive.  A  plain  simple  box  is,  in  fact, 
all  we  want  for  a  hive  ;  but  as  we  must  have 
the  combs  removable,  we  must  have  frames 


BEE-MOTH. 


44 


BEE-MOTH. 


to  hold  them ;  and  if  these  frames  are  made  | 
so  that  bees  can  get  all  round  and  about 
them,  we  have  done  all  we  can  to  make  a  j 
moth-proof  hive. 

Of  course,  colonies  will  at  times  get  weak- 
ened ;  and  with  the  best  of  care,  with  the 
common  bees  especially,  worms  will  some- 
times be  found  in  the  combs.  Xow  if  you 
have  the  simple  hive  I  shall  recommend, 
you  can  very  quickly  take  out  the  combs, 
and  with  the  point  of  your  knife  remove 
every  web  and  worm,  scrape  off  the  debris, 
and  assist  the  bees  very  much.  If  there  is  i 
an  accumulation  of  tilth  on  the  bottom- 
board,  lift  out  all  the  combs,  and  brush  it 
all  off,  and  be  sure  you  crush  all  the  worms 
in  this  filth,  for  they  will  crawl  right  back 
into  the  hive,  if  carelessly  thrown  on  the 
ground. 

If  you  keep  only  Italians,  or  even  all  hy- 
brids, you  may  go  over  a  hundred  colonies 
and  not  find  a  single  trace  of  a  moth- worm. 
At  the  very  low  price  at  which  Italian 
queens  are  now  to  be  purchased,  it  would 
seem  that  we  are  very  soon  to  forget  that  a 
bee-moth  ever  existed  [-'  and  the  readiest  way 
I  know  of  to  get  combs  that  are  badly  infest- 
ed, free  from  worms,  is  to  hang  them,  one 
at  a  time,  in  the  center  of  a  full  hive  of  Ital- 
ians. You  will  find  all  the  webs  and  worms 
strewed  around  the  entrance  of  the  hive,  in 
a  couple  of  hours,  and  the  comb  cleaned  up 
nicer  than  you  could  do  it,  if  you  were  to 
sit  down  all  day  to  the  task. 

HOW  TO  KEEP  EMPTY  COMBS  SECURE  FROM 
THE  MOTH  WORMS. 

If  you  have  Italians  only,  you  may  have 
no  trouble  at  all,  without  using  any  precau- 
tion ;  but  if  there  are  black  bees  around  you, 
kept  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  or  in  patent 
hives,  you  will  be  very  apt  to  have  trouble, 
unless  you  are  careful.  Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, you  take  a  comb  away  from  the  bees 
during  the  summer  months,  and  leave  it  in 
your  honey-house  several  days ;  if  the  weath- 
er is  warm,  you  may  find  it  literally  infested 
with  small  worms,  and  in  a  few  days  more 
the  comb  will  be  entirely  destroyed.  Combs 
partly  filled  with  pollen  seem  to  be  the  es- 
pecial preference  of  these  greedy,  filthy-look- 
ing pests,  and  I  have  sometimes  thought 
they  would  do  but  little  harm,  were  it  not 
for  the  pollen  they  find  to  feed  on.  A  few 
years  ago  we  used  to  have  the  same  trouble 
with  comb  honey  when  taken  from  the  hive 
during  the  early  part  of  the  season ;  but  of 
late  we  have  had  less  and  less  of  it;  and 
during  late  years  I  have  scarcely  seen  a 
moth- worm  in  our  comb  honey  at  all,  and 


we  have  not  once  fumigated  our  honey- 
house.  I  ascribe  it  to  the  increase  of  the 
Italians  in  our  own  apiary,  and  those  all 
about  us,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  bees  in 
the  woods  are  now  partly  Italian.  These 
have  driven  the  moth  before  them  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  bid  fair  to  soon  become  ex- 
tinct. Perhaps  much  has  been  also  done,  by 
keeping  all  bits  of  comb  out  of  their  way  ; 
no  ruljbish  that  would  harbor  them  has  been 
allowed  to  accumulate  about  the  apiary;  and 
as  soon  as  any  filth  has  been  found  contain- 
ing them,  it  has  been  promptly  burned. 
Those  who  take  comb  honey  from  hives  of 
common  bees  are  almost  sure  to  find  live 
worms  in  them,  sooner  or  later. 

How  do  the  worms  get  into  a  box  of  honey 
that  is  pasted  up  tightly,  just  as  soon  as  the 
bees  are  driven  out  V  I  presume  they  get 
in  just  as  they  get  into  the  comb  taken  from 
a  hive  during  warm  weather.  The  moth 
has  doubtless  been  all  through  the  hive,  for 
she  can  go  where  a  bee  can,  and  has  laid  the 
eggs  in  every  comb,  trusting  to  the  young 
worms  to  evade  the  bees  by  some  means  aft- 
er they  are  hatched.  This  explanation,  I 
am  well  aware,  seems  rather  unreasonable, 
but  it  is  the  only  one  I  can  give.  In  looking 
over  hives  of  common  bees,  I  have  often  seen 
moths  dart  like  lightning  from  crevices,  and 
have  sometimes  seen  them  dart  among  the 
bees  and  out  again;  but  whether  they  can 
deposit  an  egg  so  quickly  as  this,  E  am  un- 
able to  say.  In  taking  combs  from  the  hive 
containing  queen-cells  to  be  used  in  the  lamp 
nursery,  I  have  always  had  more  or  less 
trouble  with  these  moth-worms.  The  high 
temperature,  and  absence  of  bees,  are  very 
favorable  to  their  hatching  and  growth,  and 
after  about  three  days  the  worms  are  invari- 
'  ably  found  spinning  their  webs.  If  they  are 
promptly  picked  out,  for  about  a  week,  no 
more  make  their  appearance,  showing  clearly 
that  the  eggs  were  deposited  in  the  combs, 
while  in  the  hive. 

When  the  queen-cells  are  nearly  ready  to 
hatch,  I  often  liear  the  queens  gnawing  out, 
by  holding  the  comb  close  to  my  ear.  By  the 
same  means,  I  hear  moth-worms  eating  out 
their  galleries  along  the  comb ;  and  more 
than  once  I  have  mistaken  them  for  queens. 
They  are  voracious  eaters,  and  the  "  chank- 
ing  "  they  make,  when  at  full  work,  reminds 
one  of  a  lot  of  hogs.  As  they  are  easily 
frightened,  you  must  lift  the  combs  with 
great  care,  to  either  see  or  hear  them  at  their 
work. 

Their  silken  galleries  are  often  constructed 
i  riglit  through  a  comb  of  sealed  brood,  and 


BEE-MOTH. 


45 


BEE-MOTH. 


they  then  make  murderous  work  with  the 
unhatched  bees.  Perhaps  a  single  worm  will 
mutilate  a  score  of  bees  before  he  is  dis- 
lodged. These  are  generally  found  at  the 
entrance  of  the  hive  in  the  morning,  and  nu- 
merous letters  have  been  received  from 
beginners,  asking  why  their  bees  sliould  tear 
the  unhatched  brood  out  of  the  combs,  and 
carry  it  out  of  the  hives.  I  presume  the 
moth  is  at  tlie  bottom  of  all.  or  nearly  all,  of 
these  complaints.  If  you  examine  the  capped 
brood  carefully,  you  will  see  light  streaks 
across  the  combs  where  these  silken  galleries 
are  ;  and  a  pin  or  a  knife-point  will  quickly 
pry  his  wormship  out  of  his  retreat.  As  the 
young  worms  travel  very  rapidly,  it  is  quite 
likely  that  the  eggs  may  have  been  deposit- 
ed on  the  frame  or  edges  of  the  comb.  It  is 
a  little  more  difficult  to  understand  how  they 
get  into  a  honey-box  with  only  a  small  open- 
ing, but  I  think  it  is  done  by  the  moth  wliile 
on  the  hive. 

You  may,  perhaps,  have  noticed  that  the 
moth-webs  are  usually  seen  from  one  comb 
to  anotlier,  and  they  seldom  do  very  much 
mischief  unless  there  are  two  or  more  combs 
side  by  side.  AVell,  if  in  putting  away  your 
surplus  combs  for  winter  you  place  them  two 
inches  or  more  apart,  you  will  seldom  have 
any  trouble,  even  sliould  you  leave  them  un- 
distm-bed  until  the  next  July.  There  is  no 
danger  from  worms,  in  any  case,  in  the  fall, 
winter,  or  spring,  for  the  womis  can  not  de- 
velop unless  tliey  have  a  summer  temper- 
ature, although  they  will  live  a  long  time  in 
a  dormant  state  if  not  killed  by  severe  freez- 
ing weather.  I  have  kept  combs  in  my  barn 
two  years  or  more ;  but  they  were  not  re- 
moved from  the  hives  until  fall,  and  were 
kept  during  the  summer  months  in  a  close 
box,  where  no  moth  could  possibly  get  at 
them.  I  have  several  times  had  worms  get 
among  them  when  I  was  so  careless  as  to 
leave  tliem  exposed  during  warm  weather, 
and  one  season  I  found  nearly  1000  combs  so 
badly  infested  that  they  would  have  been 
almost  worthless  in  less  than  a  week.  The 
combs  were  all  hung  up  in  the  honey-house, 
and  then  about  a  pound  of  brimstone  was 
thrown  on  a  sJiovel  of  coals  in  an  old  kettle. 
This  was  i)laced  in  the  room,  and  all  doors 
aiul  wiii<h)ws  carefully  (jlosed.  Next  morn- 
ing I  found  most  of  the  worms  dead  ;  but  a 
few  that  were  encased  in  heavy  webs  were 
still  alive;  after  another  and  more  severe 
fumigation,  not  a  live  one  was  to  be  found, 
and  my  coml)s  were  saved.  I  have  several 
times  since  fumigated  honey  in  boxes  in 
the  same  way.     The  following  extract  from 


Burt's   Materia  Medica  may  contain  some 
hints  as  valuable  to  apiarists  as  to  doctors. 

In  the  form  of  sulphurmis-acid  fumes,  or  ga.s,  sul- 
phur is  the  most  powerful  of  all  known  agents  as  a 
disinfectant  and  deodorizer.  To  disinfect  a  room  and 
clothing  from  infectious  diseases,  as  smallpox,  etc., 
first  close  up  the  chimnej',  and  paste  up  all  crevices 
of  the  windows  and  doors  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
g:as.  Now  raise  up  all  carpets,  and  hang  up  the 
cloths,  so  that  the  fumes  of  gas  may  have  complete 
access  to  them.  When  this  is  done,  set  a  tub  in  the 
center  of  the  room  with  six  inches  of  water  in  it; 
in  the  center  of  this  water  place  a  stone  that  comes 
just  above  the  water;  on  this  stone  set  an  iron  ves- 
sel with  two  pounds  of  sulphur  broken  up  into  quite 
fine  pieces  or  lumps;  on  this  pour  a  few  ounces  of 
alcohol,  to  make  the  sulphur  burn  readilj-;  set  the 
alcohol  on  fire,  and  leave  the  room,  closing  the  door 
behind  you.  It  is  well  to  repeat  this  fumigation 
three  or  four  times. 

After  the  bees  have  died  in  a  hive,  it 
should  never  be  left  exposed  to  robbers  and 
moths,  but  should  be  carried  indoors  at  once, 
or  carefully  closed  up.  If  you  have  not  bees 
either  by  artificial  or  natural  swarming,  to 
use  the  combs  before  warm  weather  you 
should  keep  a  careful  watch  over  them,  for 
a  great  amount  of  mischief  may  be  done  in 
a  very  few  days.  I  once  removed  some 
combs,  heavy  with  honey,  in  August,  and 
thinking  no  worms  Avould  get  into  them  so 
late,  I  delayed  looking  at  them.  A  month 
later,  the  honey  began  to  run  out  on  the 
floor ;  and  upon  attempting  to  lift  out  a 
comb,  it  was  found  impossible  to  do  so. 
When  all  were  lifted  up  at  once,  a  mass  of 
webs  nearly  as  large  as  one's  head  was 
found,  in  place  of  the  honey  and  combs.  So 
much  for  not  keeping  a  careful  watch  of 
such  property. 

HOAV    TO    KEEP   EMPTY    COMB<;. 

When  combs  are  left  in  spring,  after  the 
death  of  tlie  bees  in  a  hive,  tliere  is  no  safer 
place  to  put  them  than  in  the  care  of  a  good 
strong  colony.  Brush  off  the  dead  bees  and 
put  the  combs  in  a  clean  hive  on  the  stand 
of  a  strong  colony,  and  then  ])lace  the  colo- 
ny over  this  hive  of  empty  combs,  so  that 
they  will  be  obliged  to  pass  through  the  hive 
of  combs  to  go  in  or  out.  In  other  words, 
give  the  bees  no  entrance,  except  that  of  the 
lower  hive,  allowing  free  communication  be- 
tween the  two.  The  combs  will  be  kept 
free  from  worms  and  mold,  with  no  care 
whatever  on  your  part,  except  to  keej)  the 
entrance  so  small  for  two  or  three  days  at 
first  that  robbers  shall  not  trouble. 

After  the  weather  has  become  warm,  three 
or  four  stories  of  empty  combs  nuiy  be  piled 
on  the  top  of  a  hive  containing  a  colony, 
with  a  (lueen-excluder  between,  and  a  frame 


BEES. 


46 


BEES. 


of  brood  in  the  upper  story  to  make  sure  ' 
that  the  bees  traverse  all  the  combs. 

By  way  of  summing  up,  I  would  say :  Use 
])lain,  simple,  unpatented  hives ;  get  Italians 
as  soon  as  you  can;  keep  your  colonies  strong; 
be  sure  that  none  of  them  by  any  means  be- 
come queenless,  and  you  need  have  no  so- 
licitude in  regard  to  the  bee-moth  among 
your  bees.  If  you  have  spare  combs,  or 
comb  honey  that  has  been  taken  away  from 
the  bees  in  warm  weather,  keep  an  eye  on  it, 
and  either  destroy  the  worms  as  soon  as 
they  appear,  or  fumigate  them  as  I  have  di- 
rected. When  your  eye  has  become  trained, 
you  will  detect  the  very  first  appearance  of 
a  worm  by  its  excrement,  in  the  shape  of  a 
fine  white  powder.  We  sometimes  hunt 
them  out  thus  and  destroy  them,  when  they 
are  so  small  as  to  be  only  just  visible  to  the 
naked  eye.  Giving  your  combs  a  good  freeze, 
say  a  temperature  of  15  or  20°,  will  answer 
the  same  purpose  as  the  fumigation. 

BEZiS.  Everybody  knows  what  bees 
are,  I  suppose,  and  therefore  I  need  not  at- 
tempt to  give  you  a  picture  of  them.  If  you 
contemplate  becoming  a  bee-keeper,  I  would 
advise  you  to  get  a  hive  of  them,  and  then  to 
use  your  own  eyes  and  ears,  to  see  if  what  I 
tell  you  about  them  is  true.  There  are  sev- 
eral varieties  of  bees,  the  two  most  common 
being  the  black,  or  brown  bees  (indigenous 
to  this  country), »9  and  the  Italians,  natives 
of  Italy.  The  general  characteristics  of  the 
blacks  are  described  under  Hyf.rids,  which 
see.  The  Italians,  combining  as  they  do  so 
many  excellent  traits  with  so  few  faults, 
have  deservedly  the  i)re-eminence  over  all 
other  races,  and  this  pre-eminence  has  been 
held  ever  since  their  introduction,  early  in 
the  '60's.  The  Carniolans,  evidently  a  vari- 
ety of  black  bees,  and  which  they  very  much 
resemble,  were  introduced  into  this  country 
in  1884,  or  thereabouts.  They  are  said  to  be 
very  gentle ;  Init  the  few  colonies  of  them 
that  we  have  tried  are  no  more  so  than  the 
average  Italians,  and  in  one  case  m  i)artieu- 
lar  they  were  more  vindictive  than  the  Cyp- 
rians. As  stated,  they  resenil)le  l)la('ks,  and 
might  easily  be  mistaken  for  th;-m ;  l)ut 
there  is  a  difference.  They  are  larger,  and 
their  abdomens  are  more  of  a  bluish  cast, 
the  fuzzy  rings  being  very  distinct.  They 
are  gentler,  as  a  rule,  and  do  not,  like  the 
blacks,  boil  over  in  confusion  when  the  hive 
is  opened,  altliough  one  of  our  Carniolan 
colonies  did  tliis  very  thing.  They  have  not 
the  fixity  of  character  of  the  Italians- 
colonies  of  the  same  race  differing  (julte 
widely.    The  general  verdict   is,  that  they 


are  excessive  swarmers.  and  this  trait  alone 
makes  them  very  undesirable.  Their  close 
resemblance  to  black  bees  makes  it  impossi- 
ble to  detect  the  crosses  of  the  two  races. 
This  fact,  coui)le(l  with  their  great  swarm- 
ing i)ropensity,  will  largely  prevent  their 
meeting  with  general  favor. ^o 

The  Egyptians  have  been  tried  in  our 
country  to  some  extent,  but  are,  I  believe, 
inferior  to  the  Italians,  besides  being  much 
more  vindictive.  Bees  from  the  island  of 
Cyprus  and  from  the  Holy  Land  are  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  Italian  Bees, 
which  see.  Albino  bees  have  also  been 
talked  about;  but  after  testing  them  in  my 
own  apiary,  I  find  them  little  different  from 
the  common  Italians.  The  fringe,  or  down, 
that  appears  on  the  rings  of  the  abdomen  of 
young  bees  is  a  trifle  whiter  than  usual,  but 
no  one  would  observe  it  unless  his  attention 
were  called  to  it.  The  queens  are  very  yel- 
low, but  the  workers,  as  honey-gatherers, 
are  decidedly  inferior,  even  to  the  second 
generation;  and  when  we  select  light-colored 
bees  or  queens  for  several  successive  gener- 
ations, if  we  are  not  careful  we  shall  have  a 
worker  progeny  lacking  as  honey-gatherers, 
and  in  ability  to  endure.  By  selection,  we 
can  get  almost  any  thing  we  want,  and  that 
quite  speedily  with  bees,  for  we  can  produce 
several  generations  in  a  single  season,  if 
need  be. 

It  is  said  in  the  South,  that  they  have  two 
varieties  of  the  common  or  black  bee,  but  it 
is  quite  likely  they  are  one  and  the  same 
thing,  for  be^s  in  the  same  neighborhood 
vary  much  in  color ;  the  bees  of  one  colony 
may  be  almost  a  brown,  while  in  another 
they  are  almost  black.  I  shall  speak,  in  this 
book,  of  but  two  kinds  in  particular  —  the 
black,  or  common,  and  the  Italian. 

HOW  BEES  GROW^ 

During  warm  weather,  while  your  bees 
are  gathering  holiey,  open  your  hive  in  the 
middle  of  the  day,  and  i)ut  in  the  center  a 
frame  containing  a  sheet  of  fdn.;  examine  it 
every  night,  morning  and  noon,  until  you 
see  effffs  in  the  cells.     If  von  imt  it   l»etween 


A   QUEEN'S  ECiG   UNDER    THE    MICROSCOPE. 

two  combs  containing   brood,  you  will  very 
likely  find  eggs  in  the  cells  the  next  day. 


BEES. 


47 


BEES. 


If  you  have  never  seen  an  egg  that  is  to  pro-  ' 
duce  a  bee,  you  may  have  to  look  very  sharp 
the  first  time,  for  they  are  white  like  polish- 
ed ivory,  and  scarcely  larger  than  one  of  the 
periods  in  this  print.  They  will  be  seen  in 
the  center  of  the  cell  attached  to  the  comb 
by  one  end.  The  egg  under  the  microscope 
has  much  the  appearance  of  the  cut.  It 
is  covered,  as  you  notice,  with  a  sort  of  lace- 
like penciling,  or  net-work,  it  might  proper- 
ly be  called.  As  soon  as  you  discover  eggs, 
mark  down  the  date.  If  the  weather  is  fa- 
vorable, these  eggs  will  hatch  out  in  about  3 
days  or  a  little  more;  and  in  i)lace  of  the  egg, 
you  will,  if  you  look  sharp  enough,  see  a 
tiny  white  worm  or  grub  floating  in  a  mi- 
nute drop  of  milky  fluid.  If  you  watch  the 
bees  you  will  find  them  incessantly  poking 
their  heads  into  these  cells,  and  it  is  likely 
that  the  milky  fluid  is  placed  on  and  about 
the  egg,  a  little  before  the  inmate  breaks  its 
way  out  of  the  shell.  I  infer  this,  because  I 
have  never  been  able  to  get  the  eggs  to 
hatch  when  taken  away  from  the  bees,*  al- 
though I  have  carefully  kept  the  temper- 
ature at  the  same  point  as  in  the  hive.  The 
net-work  shown  in  the  cut  above  will  allow 
the  milky  fluid  to  penetrate  the  shell  of  the 
egg  so  as  to  furnish  nourishment  for  the 
young  bee  at  just  tlie  time  it  requires  it. 
These  worms  are  really  the  young  bee  in  its 
larval  state,  and  we  shall  in  future  call  them 
larvae.  They  thrive  and  grow  very  rapidly 
on  their  bread-and-milk  diet,  as  you  will  see 
if  you  look  at  them  often.  They  will  more 
than  double  in  size  in  a  single  half-day,  and 
in  the  short  space  of  lii  days  they  will  have 
grown  from  a  mere  speck  (the  larva  just 
hatcl  el)  to  the  size  of  a  full-grown  bee,  or 
so  as  to  completely  fill  the  cell.  This  seems 
almost  incredible,  but  there  they  are,  right 
before  your  eyes.  I  presume  it  is  owing  to 
the  highly  concentrated  nature  of  this  same 
"  bread-and-milk  "  food  that  the  workers  are 
so  constantly  giving  them,  that  they  grow 
so  rapidly.  If  you  take  the  comb  away  from 
the  bees  for  a  little  while  you  will  see  the 
larva?  opening  their  mouths  to  be  fed,  like 
a  nest  of  young  l)irds.  for  all  the  wcjrld. 

The  figures  underneatli  represent  the  age 
in  days  t'lom  the  la>  ing  of  the  egg.  First  is 
the  larva  just  as  it  has  broken  tlie  egg-shell 
on  the  third  day ;  next,  the  larva  on  the  fourth 
day.  During  the  fifth  and  sixtli  days  they 
grow  very  rai)idly,  but  it  isdillicult  to  fix  any 
precise  mark  in  regard  to  the  size.    On  the 

*  Since  this  wrs  written  it  has  been  proven  thai 
t'Ktrs,  removed  from  ttie  hive,  when  siibjectcci  to 
proper  t em penitun- will  hmeh  if  supplied  iirtilleinlly 
witii  the  milky  food;  otherwise,  not. 


ninth  day  tlie  larva  has  straightened  himself 
out,  and  the  worker-bees  have  capped  him 
over.    I  have  made  a  pretty  accurate  exper- 


;i        4        .T        6        9       12       1.5 
THE    OAtl.V   OKOWTH   OF  LARV/I-;. 

iment  on  this  point,  and  it  was  just  six  days 
and  seven  hours  after  the  first  egg  hatched, 
when  they  got  it  completely  capped  over. 
Just  when  they  begin  to  have  legs  and  eyes, 
I  have  not  <li-;(Overed;  but  I  have  found 
that  the  wings  are  about  the  last  of  the  work. 
In  reuard  t<>  tliis  point  Frank  Chesiiirp,  in 
his  work  on  '  Bees  and  Bee-Keeping,"  says  : 

The  chorion  of  the  epg  breaks,  usually  after  three 
days  fthe  time  varies  according  to  temperature), 
and  a  footless  larva,  with  thirteen  segments,  exclu- 
sive of  the  head,  alternately  straightens  and  bends 
its  body  to  free  itself  of  the  envelope.  It  is  ex- 
tremely curious  that,  before  hatching,  the  larva 
presents  rudimentary  legs,  which  disappear— a  fact 
which  some  have  supposed  to  indicate  (atavism)  a 
reference  to  an  ancestral  type  in  which  the  larva 
bore  feet;  but  this  does  not  seem  to  be  valid,  for 
reasons  which  would  encroach  too  much  on  our 
space.  Toward  the  end  of  the  larval  period,  the 
three  segments  following  the  head  have  little  scales 
beneath  the  skin  on  the  ventral  side,  which  are  the 
beginnings  of  the  legs,  and  which  can  not  be  seen 
until  the  creature  has  been  immersed  in  alcohol:  the 
budding  wings  outside  these,  on  second  and  third 
segments,  are,  by  the  same  treatment,  brought  un- 
der view,  as  are  "also  the  rudiments  of  the  sting  in 
queen  or  worker  larv;¥.  the  male  organs  appearing 
in  that  of  the  drone.  .-Vfter  sealing,  the  fourth  seg- 
ment begins  to  contract,  and  the  fifth  becomes 
pai-tly  atrophied,  so  that,  soon,  the  former  consti- 
tutes" only  a  partial  cover  for  the  base  of  the  devel- 
oping thorax,  and  the  petiole  between  it  and  the 
abdomen,  while  the  latter  becomes  the  narrow,  first 
abdominal  segment.  Tt  has  been  explained  that  the 
last  three  segments  disappear  in  forming  the  sting; 
and  now  we  find  the  fourth  formintr  the  petiole,  leav- 
ing nine  of  the  thirteen  original  segments,  of  which 
three  go  to  the  thorax,  and  six  to  the  abdomen. 

After  the  larva  are  6  days  old,  or  between 
9  and  10  days  from  the  time  when  the  egg 
was  laid,  you  will  find  the  bees  sealing  up 
some  of  the  largest.  This  sealing  is  done 
with  a  sort  of  paper-like  substance  ;  and 
while  it  shuts  the  young  bee  up,  it  still  al- 
lows him  a  chance  to  breathe  through  the 
l)ores  of  the  cai)i)ing.  He  is  given  his  last 
feed,  and  the  nurses  seem  to  say, '' Tliere  ! 
you  have  been  fed  enough ;  spin  your  co- 
coon, ;ind  take  care  of  yourself." 

After  this,  as  a  general  tiling,  the  young 
bee  is  left  covered  up  until  he  gnaws  off  the 
cai»ping,  and  comes  out  a  i)erfect  bee.  This 
will  be  in  about  21  days  from  the  day  the  egg 
was  laid,  or  it  may  be  20,  if  the  weather  is 
very  favorable;  therefore  he  is  shut  up  11  or 
12  days.  Now,  there  is  an  exce]>tion  to  this 
last  statement,  and  it  has  caused  not  a  little 


BEES. 


48 


BEES. 


trouble  and  solicitude  on  the  part  of  begin- 
ners. During  very  warm  summer  weather, 
the  bees,  for  one  reason  or  another,  decide  to 
let  a  part  of  their  children  go  "  bareheaded," 
and  therefore  we  find,  on  opening  a  hive, 
whole  patches  of  young  bees  looking  like 
silent  corpses  with  their  white  heads  in  tiers 
just  about  on  a  level  with  the  comb.  At  this 
stage  of  gro^^'th  they  are  motionless,  of 
course,  and  so  the  yoi;ng  bee-keeper  sends 
us  a  postal  card,  telling  us  the  brood  in  his 
hives  is  all  dead.  Some  have  imagined  that 
the  extractor  killed  them,  others  that  it  was 
foul  brood;  and  I  often  think,  when  reading 
these  letters,  of  the  family  which  moved 
from  the  city  into  the  country ;  when  their 
beans  began  to  come  up,  they  thought  the 
poor  things  had  made  a  mistake,  by  coming 
up  \\Tong  end  first ;  so  they  pulled  them  all 
up,  and  replanted  them  with  the  bean  part 
in  the  ground,  leaving  the  proper  roots 
sprawling  up  in  the  air.  My  friend,  you  can 
rest  assured  that  the  bees  almost  always 
know  when  it  is  safe  to  let  the  children's 
heads  go  uncovered. 

As  it  is,  many  times,  very  important  to 
know  just  when  a  queen  was  lost,  or  when  a 
colony  swarmed,  you  should  learn  these  data 
thoroughly;  for  instance,  it  will  be  safe  to 
say,  3  days  in  the  egg,  6  in  the  larva,  and 
12  days  sealed  up. 

The  capping  of  the  worker-brood  is  nearly 
flat;  that  of  the  drones,  raised  or  convex; 
so  much  so  that  we  can  at  a  glance  tell 
when  drones  are  reared  in  worker-cells,  as  is 
sometimes  the  case. 

The  young  bee,  when  he  gnaws  his  way 
out  of  the  cell,  commences  to  rub  his  nose, 
straighten  out  his  feathers,  and  then  to  push 
his  way  among  the  busy  throng,  doubtless 
rejoicing  that  he,  too,  is  one  of  that  vast  com- 
monwealth. Xobody  says  a  word  to  him, 
or,  apparently,  takes  any  notice  of  him;  but 
for  all  that,  they,  as  a  whole,  I  am  well  con- 
vinced, feel  encouraged,  and  rejoice  in  their 
way,  at  a  house  full  of  young  folks.  Keep  a 
colony  without  young  bees  for  a  time,  and 
you  will  see  a  new  energy  infused  into  all 
hands,  just  as  soon  as  young  bees  begin  to 
gnaw  out. 

If  you  vary  your  experiment  by  putting  a 
frame  of  Italian  eggs  into  a  colony  of  com- 
mon bees,  you  will  be  better  able  to  follow 
the  young  bee  as  it  matures.  The  first  day 
he  does  little  but  crawl  round ;  but  about 
the  next  day  he  will  be  found  dipping 
greedily  into  the  cells  of  unsealed  honey, 
and  so  on  for  a  week  or  more;  after  about 
the  first  day  he  will  also  begin  to  look  after 


the  wants  of  the  unsealed  larvae,  and  will 
very  soon  assist  in  furnishing  the  milky 
food  for  them.  AVhile  doing  this,  a  large 
amount  of  pollen  is  used,  and  it  is  supposed 
that  this  larvae  food  is  pollen  and  honey, 
partially  digested  by  the  young  or  nursing 
bees.  Bees  of  this  age,  or  a  little  older,  sup- 
ply the  royal  jelly  for  the  queen-cells,  which  is 
the  same,  I  think,  as  the  food  given  the  very 
small  larvae. 42  Just  before  the  larvae  for  the 
worker-bees  and  drones  are  sealed  up,  they 
are  fed  on  a  coarser  and  less  perfectly  di- 
gested mixture  of  honey  and  pollen.  The 
young  bees  will  have  a  white  downy  look, 
until  they  are  a  full  week  old,  and  they  have 
a  peculiar  look  that  shows  them  to  be  young 
until  they  are  quite  two  weeks  old.  At 
about  this  latter  age  they  are  generally  the 
active  comb-builders  of  the  hive.  When 
they  are  a  week  or  10  days  old,  they  will  take 
their  first  flight  out  of  doors,  and  I  know  of 
no  prettier  sight  in  the  apiary  than  a  host 
of  young  Italians  taking  their  play-spell  in 
the  open  air,  in  front  of  their  hive ;  their 
antics  and  gambols  remind  one  of  a  lot  of 
young  lambs  at  play. 

It  is  also  very  interesting  to  see  these  lit- 
tle chaps  when  they  bring  their  first  load  of 
pollen  from  the  fields.  If  there  are  plenty 
of  bees  in  the  hive,  of  the  proper  age,  they 
will  not  usually  take  up  this  work  until 
about  two  weeks  old.  The  first  load  of  pol- 
len is  to  a  young  bee  just  about  what  the 
first  pair  of  pants  is  to  a  boy-baby.  Instead 
of  going  straight  into  the  hive  with  his  load , 
as  the  veterans  do,  a  vast  amount  of  circling 
round  the  entrance  must  be  done;  and  even 
after  he  has  once  alighted  he  takes  wing 
again,  ruslies  all  through  the  hive,  jostles 
the  nurses,  drones,  and  perhaps  queen  too, 
and  says  as  plainly  as  could  words,  "  Look 
here  !  This  is  I.  I  gathered  this,  all  myself. 
Is  it  not  nice  V  "*•* 

We  might  imagine  some  old  veteran  who 
has  brought  thousands  of  such  loads,  an- 
swering gruftly, '•  Well,  snpi)Ose  you  did; 
what  of  it?  You  had  better  put  it  in  a 
cell,  and  start  off  after  more,  instead  of 
making  all  this  row  and  wasting  time,  when 
there  are  so  many  mouths  to  feed."  I  said 
we  might  imagine  this,  for  I  have  never 
been  able  to  find  any  indication  of  any  im- 
kindness  inside  of  a  bee  -  hive.  ;N"o  one 
scolds  or  finds  fault,  and  the  children  are 
never  driven  off  to  work,  unless  they  wish. 
If  they  are  improvident,  and  starvation 
comes,  they  all  starve  alike,  and,  as  I  do  be- 
lieve, without  a  single  hard  feeling  or  bit  of 
censure  toward  any  one.    They  all  work  to- 


BEES  ON  SHARES. 


49 


BORAGE. 


gether,  just  as  your  right  hand  assists  your 
left;  and  if  we  woidd  understand  the  econo- 
my of  the  bee-hive,  it  were  well  to  bear  this 
point  in  mind. 

Shortly  after  the  impulse  for  pollen-gath- 
ering, comes  that  for  honey-gathering  ;  and 
the  bee  is  probably  in  his  prime,  as  a  worker, 
when  he  is  a  month  old.  At  this  age  he  can, 
like  a  man  of  40,  "turn  his  hand"  to  almost 
any  of  the  duties  of  the  hive ;  but  if  the  hive 
is  well  supplied  with  workers  of  all  ages,  he 
woiild  probably  do  most  effective  service  in 
the  fields.    See  Age  of  Bees. 

If  a  colony  is  formed  of  young  bees  entire- 
ly, they  will  sometimes  go  out  into  the  fields 
for  pollen  when  but  5  or  6  days  old.  Also 
when  a  colony  is  formed  wholly  of  adult 
bees,  they  will  build  comb,  feed  the  larvae, 
construct  queen-cells,  and  do  the  work  gen- 
erally that  is  usually  done  by  the  younger 
bees,  but  it  is  probably  better  economy  to 
have  bees  of  all  ages  in  the  hive. 

BEES  ON  SHARES.  There  are  cas- 
es, doubtless,  where  it  is  advantageous  to 
both  parties  to  let  bees  out  on  shares  ;  but 
as  a  general  thing  I  would  advise  owning 
yo\;r  bees,  even  though  it  be  but  a  single 
colony,  before  you  commence  to  build  up  an 
apiary.  It  almost  always  happens  that  one 
of  the  parties  is  dissatisfied  ;  and,  as  is  fre- 
quently the  case  with  such  partnership  ar- 
rangements, both  the  parties  liave  been  ! 
wronged,  to  hear  their  story  for  it. 


^^^Wl 


KKEPING    BEES   ON   SHARES. 

I  believe  it  is  customary  for  one  of  the 
partners  to  furnish  the  bees,  and  the  other 
to  do  the  work ;  at  the  end  of  the  season, 
every  thing  is  divided  equally.  If  new  hives, 
Italian  queens,  etc.,  are  to  be  used,  the  ex- 
pense is  ecpially  divided.  Tlie  division  of 
stock  is  usually  made  as  soon  as  the  honey 
season  is  over,  and  each  party  takes  his 
cliances  of  wintering.  To  i)revent  any  mis- 
understanding,   I    would    advise    tliat    the 


whole  agreement  be  put  in  writing,  and  that 
whenever  something  turns  up  for  which  no 
provision  has  been  made,  some  agreement 
be  made  in  regard  to  it,  and  that  this  be  put 
in  writing  also.  Instead  of  inquiring  what 
other  folks  do,  arrange  the  matter  just  as 
you  can  agree,  and  make  up  your  minds  in 
the  outset  that  you  are  going  to  remain  good 
friends,  even  if  it  costs  all  the  bees  and  your 
whole  summer's  work.  Don't  let  it  turn 
out  as  sliown  in  tlic  cut. 

BIiXTE  TKISTIiE  {Echlum  vulgar e). 
If  I  am  correct,  this  plant  is  not  a  thistle  at 
all,  but  more  properly  a  near  relative  of  the 
borage,  which  it  closely  resembles.  It  grows 
in  great  i)rofusion  in  many  of  the  Southern 
and  Middle  States,  but  the  principal  reports 
seem  to  come  from  Virginia,  and  the  valley 
of  the  Shenandoah.  As  it  blossoms  fully  four 
months  in  the  year,  and  produces  a  beautiful 
white  honey,  it  would  seem  that  it  might 
well  deserve  a  place  among  the  plants  on  a 
honey-farm.  If  we  are  correct,  it  needs  but 
little  coaxing  to  cover  whole  farms  ;  and  in 
!  Va.,  we  are  told  there  are  hvuidreds  of  acres 
of  it  growing  wild,  as  a  weed.  Over  200  lbs. 
of  white  box  honey  have  been  reported  from 
it,  from  a  single  colony,  in  one  summer.  A 
field  of  blue  is  no  doubt  a  very  pretty  sight 
to  the  bee-keeper  ;  but  to  the  farmers,  who 
find  it  a  great  pest,  it  may  not  look  so  hand- 
some. We  have  really  no  right  to  make  our 
honey-farm  a  nuisance  to  the  neighborhood, 
by  bringing  in  foul  weeds  ;  so  perhaps  you 
had  better  take  your  bees  down  where  it 
grows,  instead  of  sending  for  seeds. 

Later. — Recent  reports  indicate  that  it  is 
no  worse  a  weed  than  the  borage.  It  dies 
root  and  branch  every  fall,  and  is  therefore 
entirely  unlike  the  dreaded  Canada  thistle. 

BORAG-E  [Borayo  Officinalis).  This 
has  been  at  different  times  reconunended 
for  bees,  but  as  those  making  the  experiment 
of  planting  several  acres  of  it  did  not  repeat 
it  in  succeeding  years,  I  think  we  are  just- 
ified in  conchuling  it  did  not  pay.  I  have 
raised  it  in  our  garden,  and  some  seasons 
the  bees  seem  very  busy  on  it.  It  has  a 
small  blue  blossom,  and  grows  so  rapidly 
that  a  fine  mass  of  bloom  may  be  secured  by 
simply  i)laiiting  the  seeds  on  the  ground 
where  you  dig  your  early  ])otatoes.  If  it  is 
to  be  raised  by  the  acre,  it  should  be  sown 
at  about  the  same  time  anil  mucli  in  the 
same  manner  as  corn,  in  hills  or  broadcast. 
In  1870  I  had  a  hnlf-acre  of  it.  It  was 
moderately  covered  with  bees  for  many 
weeks,  but  was  much  inferior  to  tlie  Simp- 
son honey-plant. 


BUCKWHEAT. 


5(» 


BUCKWHEAT. 


BUCKBUSH  ( Symphoricarpus  vulgaris). 
This  bush  is  sent  in  every  season  as  a  won- 
derful honey-bearing  plant,  although  on  our 
hands  it  lias  not  amounted,  as  yet,  to  very 
much.  It  is  nearly  allied  to  the  snoM'drop, 
which  it  resembles,  only  the  berries  are  small 
and  red,  instead  of  white.  It  is  sometimes 
called  the  '•  coral-berry,"  from  its  looks.    Its 


r.rcKBrsn. 
botanical  name  comes  from  the  fact  that  sym 
means  together,  or  crowded.  Pherein  means 
to  bear,  or  carry,  and  carpus  means /™ii,-  so 
that  the  name  means,  we  might  say,  "  bear- 
ing fruits  crowded  together."  I  believe  it  is 
usually  found  in  the  woods,  and  in  some  lo- 
calities is  reported  to  furnish  some  very  nice 
honey.  I  do  not  know  that  very  much  is 
done  in  the  way  of  cultivating  it  for  honey. 
The  common  snowdrop  { Symphoricarpus  ra- 
cemosus)  sometimes  bears  considerable  honey, 
but  probably  not  as  much  as  buckbush. 

BUCKIVHEAT.  In  many  localities 
Ijuckwlieat  is  the  great  staple  for  artificial 
pasturage;  and  [  don't  know  but  that  it 
might  be  ranked  next  to  tlie  clovers  in  al- 
most every  locality,  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  every  now  and  then  it  fails  to  yield 
honey."  I  l)elieve,  however,  that  a  yield  of 
grain  is  almost  always  accompanied  by  more 
or  less  honey.  The  fact  that  the  grain  usu- 
ally pays  a  good  profit,  aside  from  the  honey, 
makes  it  one  of  the  most  promising  plants 
for  artificial  pasturage  known.  In  our  lo- 
cality there  can  l)e  no  honey  nor  any  crop  of 
grain,  without  good  soil ;  and  if  it  is  not  so 
naturally,  it  must  be  made  good  by  barn- 
yard manin-e,  or  by  the  use  of  phosphates, 
bone-dust,  guano,  or  similar  fertilizers. 
Very  likely  the  profits  of  the  grain  will  sel- 
dom pay  for  such  expensive  manures  as 
guano;  but  it  is,  I  think,  worth  while  to 
test  pliospliate,  bone-dust,  guano,  and  other 
similar  fertilizers,  in  every  one's  locality. 

In  raising  the  grain  for  seed,  as  many  bee- 
keepers do,  it  will,  no  doubt,  pay  to  get  the 
ground  in  excellent  order.  Tlie  best  crop  of 
grain  we  ever  made  was  ))y  plowing  under  a 
heavy  growth  of  red  clover ;  and  I  believe 
that  sucli  a  course  viill  give  a  crop  of  almost 
any  thing.  We  also  received  considerable 
honey.  The  variety  used  is  what  is  called 
the  ''gray"  buckwiieat.     Under  tiie  ijifiu- 


ence  of  the  clover  and  abundant  rains,  the 
crop  was  fairly  ripened  in  just  Bo  days  after 
sowing  ;  and  as  it  was  not  sown  till  the  15th 
day  of  August,  our  experiment  shows  that,, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  buckwheat 
is  a  very  speedy  crop.  Buckwheat  is  largely 
used  in  most  localities  for  enriching  the  soil. 
Several  prominent  writers  reconmiend  plow- 
ing in  two  or  even  three  crops  of  buckwheat,, 
one  after  another,  when  you  are  short  of 
manure,  and  yet  wish  to  get  your  ground 
into  a  higli  state  of  cultivation.  Buckwheat 
does  not  do  well  during  severe  hot  weather 
in  the  summer,  therefore  in  our  locality  it 
does  not  pay  to  sow  it  before  the  middle  of 
July.  For  the  same  reason  it  can  not  well 
be  raised  early  in  the  spring.  Unless  we 
have  imusually  cool  weather  for  the  time  of 
year,  the  hot  weather  during  the  blooming 
time  will  prevent  it  from  filling  out. 

Buckwheat  sometimes  yields  honey  and 
grain  when  sown  early  in  the  spring ;  but 
these  cases  are  exceptional.  The  seed  re- 
mains in  the  ground  all  winter  without  in- 
jury, and  comes  up  quite  early  in  the  spring, 
therefore  it  may  be  quite  a  troublesome 
weed  if  the  seed  is  allowed  to  rattle  off  so  as 
to  seed  the  ground  while  harvesting. 

As  a  rule,  buckwheat  furnishes  honey 
only  early  in  the  morning ;  and  bees  seldom 
notice  it  at  all  after  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon.  I  have,  however,  seen  exceptions 
to  this.  A  young  friend,  living  about  twenty 
miles  distant,  on  sandy  soil  (ours  being  rath- 
er heavy  clay),  informed  me  that  he  had  a 
field  of  buckwheat  that  yielded  honey  all 
day  long.  It  was  so  contrary  to  my  experi- 
ence that  I  paid  liim  a  visit,  and  actually 
found  the  bees  liumming  busily  on  the  blos- 
soms during  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 
An  examination  of  liis  hives  showed  brood- 
raising  and  conil)-building  going  on  rapidly 
under  the  infiueuce  of  tlie  dark  honey  which 
si)arkled  from  the  cells  all  through  the  hives. 
In  our  locality,  during  buckwiieat  time  we 
often  have  the  bees  so  busily  employed  dur- 
ing the  forenoon  that  there  is  as  little  danger 
of  robbing,  as  during  clover  or  basswood 
time,  Avhile  in  the  afternoon  they  act  crazy 
for  any  chance  to  push  their  way  into  the 
hives  and  steal.  The  quality  of  the  honey  from 
buckwheat  is  genei'ally  pronounced  poor. 
It  is  dark  in  color  and  rank  in  taste,  espe- 
cially when  first  gatlieied.  Some  specimens, 
however,  that  are  thorouglily  ripened  in  a 
hive  containing  a  lai'ge  strong  colony,  be- 
come mellow  and  delicious  to  the  taste  ; 
tliis,  however,  is  rather  an  exception,  al- 
though tliere  are  individuals  in  almost  any 


BUCKWHEAT. 


•51 


BUCKWHEAT. 


community  who  prefer  l)U('kwheut  honey  to 
any  other  kind.  As  a  rule,  however,  when 
clover  and  basswood  honey  is  Inlnging  from 
15  to  20  cents,  buckwheat  sells  from  12  to  14. 
A  commission  man  in  Albany,  N.r-.said,  in 
Jan.,  1887,  that  he  worked  up  an  immense 
trade  on  buckwheat  honey  by  having  it 
stored  in  sections  holding  about  three-fourths 
of  a  pound  each.  He  got  up  a  boom  on 
them  by  selling  them  for  an  even  dime.    The 


DIFFKIiENT   VARIKTIKS  OF   BUCKWHEAT. 

When  I  flrst  began  learning  my  ABC  in 
bee  culture  there  was  only  one  kind  of 
buckwheat  known.  About  the  year  1877, 
however,  the  silverhull  made  quite  a  stir 
among  bee-men.  It  was  really  somewhat 
superior,  on  account  of  the  extra  weight  of 
the  grain,  as  well  as  the  larger  yield  per 
acre,  and  it  was  thought  to  furnish  more 
honey  than  the  common.   At  the  same  time, 


JAPANESE   BUCKAVHKAT. 


fsect ions  were  rather,  thin,  so  that  each  cus-  wiiat  is  callt'd  the  gray  buckwheat  made  its 

tomer  had  a  nice-looking  cake  of  honev  for  appearance;   but    I    soon    became    salislied 
his  ten  cents.    Tiiis  commission  man  said  he  ,  that  tiiere  was  no  material   difference  be- 

would  rather  hav(^  buckwheat  honey  for  liis  tween  the  gi'ay  and  the  silverhull. 

trade  than  any  other;   but  lie  afterward  ad-  In  18S."),  Peter  Henderson  and  otiier  seeds- 

mitted,  that  tlie   principal   reason  was  be-  men   advertised  a   new  variety  wliich   they 

cause  lie  could  give  a  l)igger  slic(^  for  adime  call(Ml   the    European   silverhull.     This  dif- 

thau  he  could  of  either  clover  or  liasswood.  I'ered   from  our   former  grains  by  tiu'  small 


BUCKWHEAT.  o 

size  of  the  kernel.  Tlie  little  seeds  were 
very  plump  and  heavy.  Reports  seemed  to 
be  rather  conflicting  as  to  its  value,  some 
tliinking  it  gieatly  superior ;  others  to  the 
effect  that,  all  things  considered,  it  was  of 
no  particular  advantage. 

In  the  spring  of  1887,  Peter  Henderson 
gave  glowing  accounts  of  a  new  variety 
called  the  "  Japanese."  This,  while  it  was 
black  in  color,  like  the  old  common  buck- 
wheat, showed  a  marked  superiority  in  the 
size  of  the  grain,  Mhicli  at  once  attracted 
great  attention.  On  preceding  page  we  give 
our  readers  a  cut  of  the  plant  as  it  appeared 
in  Henderson's  catalogue. 

During  the  season  of  1887  we  sold  some- 
thing like  forty  bushels  of  this  new  variety 
of  buckwheat,  the  greater  part  of  it  to  be 
used  in  small  quantities  for  testing  the  new 
gi-ain.  During  the  last  three  months  of 
l8->7  we  received  reports  of  this  buckwheat 
from  40  individuals.  Now,  although  we  es- 
pecially called  for  unfavorable  as  well  as 
favorable  tests,  the  report  as  a  whole  places 
it  far  ahead  of  any  thing  ever  before  known 
in  the  line  of  buckwheat.  Different  experi- 
menters report  receiving  from  862  to  1275 
kernels  from  a  single  stalk.  Now,  if  it  were 
possible  to  make  each  single  stalk  in  a  field 
give  any  thing  like  the  yield  mentioned  above, 
the  yield  per  acre  would  be  enormous.  In 
fact,  we  have  had  reports  of  its  yielding  at 
the  rate  of  80  bushels  per  acre.  It  is  my 
impression,  that,  by  studying  the  habits  of 
the  plant,  and  by  properly  preparing  the 
ground,  we  may  yet  succeed  in  doubling 
even  this  yield;  and  I  don't  know  of  any 
more  promising  field  for  experiments  for  a 
bee-keeper  than  in  developing  buckwheat  up 
to  its  best.  My  experience  indicates  that, 
while  we  do  this,  we  shall  secure  wonderful 
results,  also,  in  the  yield  of  honey.  With 
the  experience  I  have  had  in  cultivating  the 
plant  for  honey,  I  think  if  I  were  going  to 
start  a  honey-farm  I  would  sow  nearly  or 
quite  half  of  it  in  buckwheat,  and  alsike 
clover  would  certainly  occupy  a  very  great 
part  of  the  other  half.  There  is  this  in 
favor  of  buckwheat :  We  can  easily  get  two 
crops  of  seed  in  a  season ;  and  where  we 
wish  to  get  l^lossoms  for  bees,  it  is  not  at  all 
difficult  to  get  even  three  crops  of  blossoms 
on  the  same  groinid.  Very  likely,  however, 
the  l)ees  would  not  work  on  the  first  crop, 
for  it  would  come  out  simultaneously  with 
clover  and  l)asswood.  Another  thing  great- 
ly in  its  favor  is,  that  if  it  is  cut  off'  in  the 
fall  by  an  untimely  frost  it  is  usually  worth 
all  the  crop  cost,  for  fertilizing  the  gi-ound  ; 


BUCKWHEAT. 

Itut  it  sliould  be  plowed  under  promptly, 
just  as  soon  as  the  frost  nips  it.  Plow  it  im- 
der  l)efore  the  frost  has  wilted  it,  if  you  can. 

About  three  pecks  of  seed,  as  a  rule,  are 
required  per  acre ;  and  although  the  Japan- 
ese seed  is  much  larger  than  the  common 
seed,  I  would  not  give  it  any  heavier  seed- 
ing, for  the  reason  this  variety  branches  out 
more  than  the  common;  and  I  am  not  sure  but 
that  half  a  bushel  per  acre  would  give  moi-e- 
grain  than  tlie  larger  amount.  We  sow  it 
with  a  seed-drill  having  a  phosphate-sower 
combined.  We  prefer  to  sow  from  200  to  40O 
lbs.  of  phosphate  per  acre.  Excellent  crops 
are  sometimes  raised  where  the  ground  has 
been  planted  to  corn  that  has  been  injured 
by  floods,  cut-worms,  or  something  of  that 
sort. 

Dec.  -Z,  1889. — Another  year's  experience 
with  Japanese  bu^ckwheat  places  it  so  much 
ahead  of  every  thing  else  in  the  buckwheat 
line  that  other  varieties  will,  without  ques- 
tion, be  dropped  and  set  aside.  During  the 
past  seasoii  we  have  sold  for  seed  some- 
thing like  500  bushels  of  the  Japanese,  at  a 
price  ranging  fi'om  $1.50  to  $2.00  per  bushel, 
according  to  the  quantity  of  the  purchase. 
W^hen  the  new  crop  came  in,  we  thought  it 
would  be  safe  to  offer  a  dollar  a  bushel. 
After  we  had  bought  over  100  bushels,  how- 
ever, the  amount  of  seed  offered  was  so 
great  that  we  lowered  our  price  to  90  cts., 
then  to  75,  then  to  60,  and  just  now  we  dare 
not  offer  over  50  cts.  a  bushel,  the  crop  is  so 
great.  This  all  comes  about  from  the  in- 
troduction of  the  new  variety.  Not  only 
bee-keepers,  but  farmers  in  general,  can 
unite  in  giving  a  vote  of  thanks  to  our  en- 
terprising seedsman  Peter  Henderson  for 
having  given  us  this  wonderful  improve- 
ment over  all  the  old  kinds  of  buckwheat. 
The  yield  in  some  cases  has  run  as  high  as 
40  or  50  bushels  per  acre,  in  fields  of  40  or  50 
acres.  It  has  been  suggested,  that  farmers 
would  cease  trying  to  raise  it  if  the  price 
remains  so  low  as  only  50  cts.  per  bushel. 
To  this  I  reply,  "  Not  so,  if  it  sliould  con- 
tinue to  give  the  enormous  yields  per  acre 
it  has  been  giving  for  the  last  two  years." 
Another  thing  to  be  considered,  which  is 
greatly  in  favor  of  Japanese  buckwheat,  is 
that  it  may  be  taken  from  the  ground  in  so 
short  a  time  that  it  frequently  costs  com- 
paratively nothing.  During  the  past  sea- 
son we  have  published  a  little  pamphlet 
entitled  "■  Buckwheat :  All  about  It,  and 
How  to  Grow  It."  In  this  pamphlet  Mr. 
J.  II.  Kennedy,  of  Quenemo,  Ottawa  Co., 
Kansas,  tells  us  of  a  crop  of  116  Inishels  of 


BUYING  AXD  SELLIXG  BEES.       53        BUYING  AXD  SELLING  BEES. 


Japanese  buckwheat  that  cost  liini  next  to 
nothing.  After  turning  iinder  his  oat- 
stubble  in  July,  as  it  was  too  early  to  \)\\t  in 
wheat  he  sowed  the  ground  with  a  drill,  to 
buckwheat.  The  buckwheat  came  off  so 
quick  that  the  ground  was  apparently  in  al- 
most as  good  a  condition  for  sowing  wheat 
as  it  was  when  first  i)repared.  He  there- 
fore put  the  wheat-drill  right  on  to  the 
buckwheat-stubble,  and  he  reports  the  next 
season.  April  25,  that  the  wheat  i)ut  on  the 
buckwheat  atubhte  looks  exactly  as  well  as  the 
rest  of  the  20  acres.  He  has  not  made  us 
any  report  in  regard  to  the  yield  of  the 
wheat  after  it  was  harvested.  Now,  this  is 
something  wonderful.  Some  will  urge  that 
such  a  course — that  is,  such  heavy  and  con- 
tinual croi)ping — will  soon  exhaust  the  soil. 
I  am  inclined  to  think,  however,  that  a 
plant  so  different  in  its  habits  from  wheat 
would  take  little  if  any  thing  from  the  soil 
that  the  wheat  needs  ;  and  it  is  a  common 
remark,  that  nothing  fits  the  ground  so 
nicely  for  a  succeeding  croj)  as  bu;-kwheat. 

Some  years  ago,  we  had  quite  a  crop  of 
buckwheat  honey  from  a  i)iece  prepared  for 
and  planted  with  corn.  The  corn  Avas  so 
nearly  killed  by  cut-worms  that  it  was  har- 
rowed over  nicely  and  sown  to  buckwheat 
in  the  latter  part  of  June.  This  is  almost 
a  month  earlier  than  buckwheat  is  usually 
sown  here,  but  the  yield  was  such  that,  from 
the  two  acres,  we  had  at  least  200  lbs.  of 
comb  honey,  besides  the  large  amount  that 
must  have  gone  into  the  brood-apartments. 

The  bees  that  gathered  the  largest  part  of 
this  were  dark  hybrids;  the  pure  Italians 
were  at  the  same  time  storing  white  honey 
from  red  clover.  It  was  amusing  to  see 
hives  side  by  side  both  working  in  the  sec- 
tion boxes,  one  of  which  made  white  combs 
and  honey,  like  that  in  June,  while  the  other 
built  combs  of  a  golden  yellow,  and  stored  it 
with  the  dark  rich  -  looking  buckwheat 
honey.  As  the  hybrids  gave  quite  a  large 
crop  of  this  dark  honey,  I  began  to  be  a  lit- 
tle partial  to  them;  but  after  the  boxes  were 
all  removed,  I  found  they  had  put  it  all 
above,  and  left  their  brood-ai)artnient  almost 
empty,  while  the  more  jtrudcnt  Italians  had 
filled  the  brood-combs  until  they  were  in  ex- 
cellent condition  for  winter.  It  has  been 
several  times  advanced,  that  the  blacks  and 
hybrids  are  ahead,  when  nothing  but  buck- 
wheat lioiicy  is  to  lie  found  iu  tlii'  liekls. 

BUYING  AND  EELLING  BEEG.  With 
every  A  B  ('  scholar  who  wishes  to  com- 
mence, or  at  least  make  a  trial,  with  bees, 
tlie  ([uestion  naturally  aiises.  '•  How  shall  I 


proceed  to  get  a  start?''  Before  I  can  an- 
swer the  question  fully.  I  should  want 
to  know  something  about  you  personally. 
To  one  who  has  very  little  money  to  spare, 
and  expects  to  keep  bees  for  the  money  they 
will  furnish,  as  well  as  for  pleasure.  I  would 
give  a  little  different  advice  from  what  I 
would  to  some  professional  man  who  wants 
them  as  an  ornament  to  his  grounds,  and 
who  has  more  money  than  time.  The  latter, 
I  should  probably  advise  to  purchase  a  col- 
ony or  two  of  pure  Italians,  in  a  chaff  or 
lawn  hive,  with  all  the  section  boxes,  etc., 
ready  for  the  bees  to  go  right  to  work.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  you  want  the  bees  prin- 
cipally to  fill  up  your  spare  moments,  and 
wish  to  commence  with  the  least  possible 
expense,  I  would  advise  you  to  purchase  one 
or  two  hives  of  common  bees  in  your  own 
neighborhood,  and  do  all  the  rest  yourself. 
You  can  get  them  at  almost  any  season  of 
the  year  you  choose,  and,  if  you  are  in  the 
mood,  I  should  say  the  sooner  you  get  them 
the  belter.  If  you  can  choose  from  a  num- 
ber of  stocks,  take  those  having  the  great- 
est amount  of  bees  and  stores,  other  things 
being  equal  ■'•>■'  If  you  can  turn  the  hive  up  so 
as  to  examine  the  combs,  smoking  the  bees 
a  little  to  make  them  get  out  of  the  way, 
choose  one  having  straight,  regular  cards  of 
comb,  for  it  will  be  much  easier  to  transfer. 
I  would  not  purchase  more  than  two  or  three 
colonies  to  commence  with.  When  you 
have  learned  to  handle  these  few  to  your 
satisfaction,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  think 
of  more;  and  two  colonies  can  be  made  to 
build  up  a  large  apiary,  of  themselves,  if 
you  maniige  them  according  to  the  latest 
methods.  For  directions  in  regard  to  mov- 
ing them  home,  see  Moving  Bees.  As  to 
price  to  be  paid,  I  would  suggest  that  you 
should  not  pay  for  common  bees  in  box 
hives  more  than  about  S2.00  or  S3.00  in  the 
fall  or  early  wi)iter.  and  perhaps  S4.00  or 
S5.00  in  the  spring  or  summer.  Do  not  pay 
one  cent  more  for  bees  in  any  kind  of  patent 
hives.  When  you  get  them  home,  and  they 
are  settled  nicely,  and  Hying  if  it  is  warm 
weather,  you  are  ready  to  transfer  them  as 
per  instructions  under  Ti{.\nsfehring. 
After  they  are  well  over  the  shock  of  being 
transferred,  give  them  an  Italian  queen,  as 
per  instructions  in  Intu<)DUCin'(j.  and  you 
are  then  fully  started  for  business.  I  think 
it  an  ailvantage  lor  you  to  i)ertorm  all  these 
operations  yourself,  even  though  you  should 
make  bad  work  of  it  the  lirst  time,  because 
it  gives  you  valuable  experience. 
I  would  once  more  emphasize  the  ini])or- 


BUYING  AND  SELLING  BEES.        54        BUYING  AND  SELLING  BEES. 


tance  of  commencing  with  a  very  few  stocks. 
A  young  man  once  came  to  me  to  know  if 
he  would  not  better  buy  40  colonies  to  com- 
mence with,  as  they  were  offered  him  very 
low,  and  he  was  quite  sanguine  he  could 
manage  them.  Although  I  advised  him 
quite  strongly  not  to  take  them,  he  decided 
to  run  the  risk.  In  less  than  a  year  he  had 
lost  the  greater  part  of  them.  Nevertheless 
he  became  an  enthusiast,  bought  more,  and 
increased  until  he  had  over  a  hundred  ;  but 
when  winter  came,  he  lost  heavily ;  and  so 
on  for  several  seasons,  vmtil  his  friends 
plead  with  him  to  give  up  bees.  lie  finally 
came  down  to  only  a  few  colonies,  which  he 
kept  strong  and  in  good  order,  and  he  is  now 
one  of  the  most  successful  apiarists  we  have 
in  our  neighborhood,  in  wintering  his  bees. 

A  "  CKUMB  OF  COMFORT  "  FOR.  THOSE  WHO 
HAVE   LOST  IN  WINTERING. 

While  the  great  losses  have  worked  disas- 
ter to  many,  a  great  good  has  resulted  in 
obliging  us  to  improve  our  methods  of  ship- 
ping bees,  as  well  as  queens,  to  those  who 
have  quantities  of  empty  hives  and  combs. 

CAGES  FOR   SHIPPING  BEES. 

The  trade  now  in  bees  in  cages  containing 
one  pound  each,  and  a  queen,  is  almost  a 
national  industry.  The  bees  are  sent  in 
wire  cages  made  of  bands  of  wire  cloth,  and 
our  usual  one-pound  section  boxes. 


TUNNEL     KoR     STIAK- 
«i  TIIK  BEES  INTO 
THE  CAGES. 


CAOli     ton    V-1    P(JL'M)   OF    BEES. 

Bees  must  of  necessity  be  sent  by  express; 
none  are  allowed  by  mail  except  the  dozen 
or  two  that  accompany  the  queen,  and 
freight  is  altogether  too  slow. 


With  the  above  tunnel,  an  expert  will  put 
up  a  pound  of  bees  ready  for  shipment,  in 
five  minutes,  after  finding  the  queen.  After 
using  the  tunnel  a  dozen  times  or  so,  the 
honey  that  shakes  against  the  inside  should 
be  washed  off,  and  also  the  brush  that  is  used 
to  brush  them  down  with.  When  the  tun- 
nel is  dropped,  it  should  be  set  with  its 
mouth  on  the  ground,  and  the  small  end 
covered  with  the  small  cap,  to  keep  robber- 
bees  from  sucking  up  the  new  honey. 

The  cages  may  hold  more  bees  than  the 
weight  named,  especially  in  cool  weather ; 
in  fact,  we  often  put  H  lbs.  in  a  1-lb.  cage  ; 
but  if  the  weather  is  hot,  it  is  not  safe  to  put 
in  more  than  1  lb.  For  very  long  distances  we 
use  a  1-lb.  cage  for  only  half  a  pound  of  bees. 

CANDY-IiLOCKS  FOR   BEE-CAGES. 

After  several  experiments  we  have  decided 
in  favor  of  the  little  block  shown  below.  It 
is  just  4  inches  long,  and  made  to  crowd  in 
close  in  a  Simplicity  section.  The  block  is 
H  inches  wide  by  f  deep.  Two  holes,  H 
inches  or  a  little  larger,  are  bored  in  it  near- 
ly through  the  block.  Two  smaller  holes,  in 
the  center  of  the  large  ones,  are  then  bored 
through.  The  small  holes  are  |.  After  the 
block  is  filled  with  the  Good  candy  (see  Can- 
dy FOR  Bees),  it  is  fastened  with  wire  nails 
in  the  section  box — a  block  of  candy  on 
each  side.  Bees  then  have  access  to  it 
through  the  small  holes. 


BLOCK   TO   HOLD  THE  CANDY. 

You  will  observe  the  block  is  made  of 
such  dimensions  that  the  wire  caps  when 
squeezed  down  will  not  injure  a  bee.  As 
there  are  two  blocks  in  a  section,  the  quan- 
tity of  food  is  proportioned  to  the  size  of  the 
cage.  The  cage  for  two  sections  will  hold 
enough  for  one-half  poinid  of  bees,  while  the 
cage  for  three  sections  will  hold  enough  for 
a  whole  pound.  When  the  candy  is  made  of 
the  powdered  sugar,  such  as  we  have  advis- 
ed, there  will  be  no  trouble  from  the  grains 
rattling  out.  In  fact,  it  stays  in  the  box 
in  a  pasty  mass  until  the  whole  is  consumed. 
For  trips  longer  than  a  week,  perhaps  it 
would  be  well  to  use  water-bottles ;  or  the 
block  could  be  made  to  hold  more  candy  by 
putting  the  two  holes  a  little  further  apart, 
and  make  a  third  hole  between  these  two. 
Two  openings  for  bees  will  be  sufficient. 


BUYING  AND  SELLING  BEES.        bo        BUYING  AND  SELLING  BEES. 


SELLING  BEES  BY  THE   POUND. 

Sending  bees  and  queens  bj'  the  poiuid 
has  grown  to  be  quite  a  little  industry.  A 
neighbor  of  ours,  to  see  what  could  be  done 
with  a  good  queen  and  a  pound  of  bees,  on 
June  16, 1882,  put  them  into  a  hive,  with  a  sin- 
gle comb  of  brood,  all  the  rest  being  dry 
empty  combs.  He  increased  them  to  five 
fair  colonies  during  the  season,  and  wintered 
them  all.  Of  course,  tliey  were  fed.  and  sup- 
plied with  empty  combs,  but  had  no  help  in 
the  way  of  bees  or  queens.  When  a  buyer 
gets  a  cage  of  liees  and  queen,  if  he  lias  old 
combs  or  even  hives  where  bees  have  died, 
all  he  has  to  do  is  to  let  the  bees  run  out  of 
the  cage  on  to  the  combs,  just  as  if  they 
were  a  new^  swarm.  As  there  is  some  dan- 
ger of  decamping,  by  far  the  better  way  is  to 
give  them  a  comb  containing  some  imsealed 
brood.  It  will  be  noticed,  that  in  purchas- 
ing in  this  way  tme  can  put  his  bees  and 
queen  on  such  combs  as  he  is  using  in  his 
own  hives,  and  it  does  not  matter  whether 
his  frames  and  hives  are  like  those  that  oth- 
er people  use  or  not,  for  a  pound  of  bees  will 
"fit  "  any  hive  or  any  kind  of  comb. 

The  question  is  frequently  asked,  if  one  of 
these  cages  of  l)ees  with  a  queen  may  be 
turned  loose  on  frames  of  foundation.  It 
can  be  done,  but  you  will  have  to  Avatch 
them  a  little  until  they  get  the  foundation 
drawn  out,  and  the  queen  to  laying  in  it. 
AVhen  they  have  done  this  they  are  all  right. 
If  you  should  attempt  it  at  a  time  when  lion- 
ey  is  not  rapidly  coming  in  from  tlie  fields 
you  will  have  to  put  on  a  feeder  and  feed 
them.  One  great  advantage  in  purchasing 
bees  in  this  way,  is  tliat  the  express  charges 
are  but  a  trifle  compared  with  what  they 
would  be  on  a  whole  swaim. 

It  has  also  l:een  asked.  How  late  in 
the  season  will  it  do  to  attempt  to  build  up 
a  pound  of  bees,  with  (pieen,  into  a  swarm 
that  will  winter?  An  expert  ought  to  be 
able  to  do  it  without  any  trouble,  if  lie  com- 
mences the  first  of  August  —  feeding,  of 
course,  liberally  at  any  time  when  honey  is 
not  coming  in.  If  he  has  a  good  comb  of 
brood  to  give  them  by  way  of  encourage- 
ment, he  might  commence  even  a  montli 
later.  Novices  had' better  not  undei-take  it 
later  than  June  or  July;  and  if  they  could 
start  them  in  May  they  ouglit  to  get  a  good 
strong  colony,  and  something  of  a  croj)  of 
honey,  if  they  do  not  attempt  to  increase 
them.  Unless  one  can  have  a  brood-comb 
to  give  the  little  colony.  I  would  advise  i)iir- 
chasing  not  less  than  a  pound  of  bees  with 
queen  ;  l)ut  if  a  couili  of  brood  can  it '  given. 


and  they  be  started  early  in  the  season,  i  lb. 
of  young  Italians  with  queen  will  make  a 
good  full  colony  long  before  winter.  See 
Moving  Bees. 

selling  bees  by  the  nucleus,  and 

HOW    TO     SEND     HEES    LONG 
DISTANCES. 

The  foregoing  plan  of  selling  bees  by  the 
pound  answers  very  well  where  they  are  not 
to  be  sent  long  distances.  After  long  ex- 
perience and  careful  experimenting,  we 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  pound 
package  will  not  answer  where  bees  are 
oliliged  to  take  a  journey  of  a  week  or  more, 
and  we  have  tlierefore  resorted  to  the  two 
or  three  frame  nucleus.  This  is  simply  a 
small  colony  of  bees  having  two  or  three 
frames  of  brood,  and  from  a  half  to  a  pound 
of  bees.  See  Nucleus.  They  are  put  into 
a  light  shipping  box  made  of  t  stuff,  and 
tlien  covered  with  a  wire-cloth  screen  top. 
Such  a  package  will  go  almtist  any  distance. 
We  have  sent  them  even  as  far  as  Australia, 
and  repeatedly  to  California  and  other  dis- 
tant points.  In  almost  every  instance  the 
bees  arrive  in  excellent  condition.  Nothing 
else  seems  to  answer  as  well  as  combs  all 
wired,  from  which  the  bees  get  their  stores, 
and  on  which  they  may  cluster.  The  nucle- 
us form  weighs  three  or  four  times  as  much 
as  the  pound  package,  and.  of  course,  the 
express  charges  are  higher,  and  hence  cus- 
tomers should  be  notified  that  they  will 
have  to  pay  heavier  charges. 

SUGGESTIONS  ON   BUYING  BEES. 

Duiing  tlie  year  1884  we  bought  about  l.jO 
colonies.  As  we  had  plenty  of  new  hives, 
and  plenty  of  new  combs,  we  purchased 
only  tlie  bees  and  brood ;  that  is,  taking- 
enough  of  the  combs  to  get  all  the  brood 
and  the  principal  part  of  the  new  lioney  and 
new  pollen.  As  we  greatly  jtrefer  combs  that 
are  built  on  foundation  in  wired  frames. 
Ave  pieferred  not  to  take  the  old  iiives  nor  the 
old  combs.  We  paid  for  these  bees  from 
five  to  six  dollars  per  colony,  on  an  average  : 
but  we  found  a  vast  ditt'erence  in  them.  Wliile 
some  colonies  would  perhaps  be  worth  ten 
dollars,  others  would  hardly  be  wortii  three  ; 
so  where  yoi;  are  buying  bees,  and  liave  a 
chance  to  take  your  pick,  it  will  make  (piite 
a  difi'erence,  especially  if  bought  in  tlie 
spring.  Find  a  colony  first  that  is  full  of 
bees  — the  more  the  better.  I  never  saw  a 
hive  witli  too  many  bees  in  it  to  suit  my 
taste.  Next  look  out  for  the  brood.  If 
there  are  many  combs  full  <»f  brood,  even 
thoimli  the  (iiiMUtit V  of  b;'es  is  moiU'rate.  the 


BUYING  AND  SELLING  IJEES.        .5(5       BUYING  AND  SELLING  BEES. 


hatching  brood  will  soon  make  the  hive  pop- 
ulous. The  amount  of  stores  when  you  are 
buying  in  the  spring  is  of  but  little  moment, 
as  bees  can  easily  be  supplied  if  they  do  not 
supply  themselves. 

The  next  important  item  is  the  queen.  A 
good  queen  is  ordinarily  wortli  as  much  as 
both  bees  and  brood.  She  sliould  be  bright 
and  sprightly  looking,  active,  and  large.  A 
very  old  queen  can  usually  be  detected  by 
her  looks;  for  one  who  is  accustomed  to 
handling  queens  can  tell  a  young  queen  from 
an  old  one  almost  as  easily  as  you  can  tell  a 
youug  person  from  an  old  one.    A  hive  of 


bees  having  an  old  queen,  little  brood,  and 
few  bees,  may  not  be  as  well  worth  $2.-50  as 
one  having  a  young  vigorous  queen,  combs 
of  solid  sealed  brood,  and  a  hive  boiling  over 
with  bees,  would  be  worth  $10.00.  I  hardly 
believe  it  will  pay  you  to  send  off  for  bees 
and  (jueens  by  express  when  you  can  get 
them  at  the  above  prices  from  an  experi- 
enced apiarist  living  near  you.  The  begin- 
ner, in  purchasing  l>ees,  will  also  get  much 
valuable  knowledge  from  visiting  a  success- 
ful ])ee  -  keeper.  Perhaps  the  knowledge 
gained  from  a  single  trip  may  be  worth  much 
more  tlian  the  colony  of  bees  he  piu'chases. 


.1.  A.  GHIOKn's   AIMAUV    I.V   WINTKR,   SUOWIXG   outside    I'ACKIXG-CASES. 


c. 


CAaXSS  FOR  QUEEPrS.    See  Im  uo- 

i>rc'ix(i. 

CATJDY  rOB.  BEES.  There  is  just 
one  candy  that  is  used  universally  by 
bee-keepers.  Thougli  itsed  iiarticularly  as  a 
food  in  queen-cages  and  pound  cages,  it  is 
also  used  for  feeding  during  winter  or  early 
spring.  It  is  none  other  than  what  is  pop- 
ularly termed  the  "  Good  "  candy,  after  I.  R. 
C4ood,  of  Nappanee,  Ind.,  who  introduced  it 
in  this  country.  It  was,  however,  first  in- 
vented by  a  German  by  the  name  of  Scholz 
many  years  before  Mr.  Good  introduced  it. 
See  "Langstroth  on  the  Honey-Bee,"  p.  274, 
of  1875.  By  Euroi)eans  it  is  therefore  called 
the  Scholz  candy. 

HOW  TO   :\[AKE   IT. 

Make  a  stiif  douuh  out  of  a  first  (|uality  of 
extracted  honey  and  powdered  sugar.  These 
are  all  the  directions  that  were  given  at 
first,  but  it  would  seem  that,  from  the  dif- 
ference in  results,  more  specific  directions 
are  necessary.  Mr.  J.  D.  Fooshe  (or,  rather, 
his  wife,  who  makes  it  for  him)  has  been 
very  successful  in  making  candy.  Their 
method  is  as  follows :  Take  good  thick  hon- 
ey and  heat  (not  boil)  it  until  it  becomes 
very  thin,  and  then  stir  in  pulverized  sugar. 
After  stirring  in  all  the  sugar  the  honey 
will  absorb,  take  it  out  of  the  utensil  in 
which  it  is  mixed,  and  thoroughly  knead  it 
with  the  hands.  The  kneading  makes  it 
more  pliable  and  soft,  so  it  will  absorb,  or, 
rather,  take  up,  more  sugar.  For  svunmer 
use  it  should  be  worked,  mixing  in  a  little 
more  sugar  until  tlie  dough  is  so  stiff  as  not 
to  work  readily,  and  it  should  then  be  al- 
lowed to  stand  for  a  day  or  two ;  and  if 
then  so  soft  as  to  run,  a  little  more  sugar 
should  l)e  kneaded  in.  A  good  deal  will  de- 
l)eiid  upon  the  season  of  the  year.  There 
shoidd  be  moie  sugar  in  proportion  to  the 
honey  in  waim  or  hot  weather,  than  for 
cool  or  cold  weather.  It  should  not  be  so 
hard  in  winter  so  but  that  the  bees  can  easi- 
ly eat  it,  nor  should  it  be  so  soft  in  summer 
as  to  run  and  daub  the  bees.*"  Fortius  rea- 
son the  honey,  before  mixing,  should  be 


heated  so  as  to  be  reduced  to  a  thin  liquid. 
For  shipping  bees,  the  main  thing  to  look 
out  for  is  to  see  that  the  candy  does  not  run 
nor  yet  get  hard.  It  is  one  of  the  nice 
points  in  making  this  candy  to  make  it  just 
right.  Don't  delude  yourself  by  the  idea 
that  a  second  quality  of  honey  will  do.  Al- 
ways use  the  nicest  you  have.  We  have 
had  the  best  results  with  first  quality  of 
clover  extracted.  Sage  honey,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  has  the  property  of  render- 
ing the  candy  in  time  as  hard  as  a  brick, 
and,  of  course,  should  not  be  used. 

With  the  Good  candy  we  have  been  en- 
abled, with  the  Benton  cage,  to  send  ({ueens 
not  only  across  the  continent  and  to  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  but  even  to  Australia,  on 
a  journey  of  37  days.  There  is  not  very 
much  trouble  in  mailing  (lueens  to  Austra- 
lia, if  the  candy  can  be  made  just  right  so 
as  not  to  become  too  hard  nor  too  soft  on 
the  journey.  If  it  retains  a  mealy,  moist 
condition,  the  bees  will  be  pretty  sure  to  go 
through  all  right.  See  Benton  cage,  under 
Introducing. 

hard  candy  for  feeding. 

There  are  some,  perhajts,  who  would  like 
to  make  the  hard  candy.  The  following  are 
the  directions  we  have  used  in  tlie  older 
editions  of  this  work.  The  candy  answers 
a  very  good  purpose,  but  it  is  a  good  deal 
more  trouble  to  make  it,  and  it  can  be  used 
only  for  wintt^r  and  spring  feetling. 

now  TO   MAKE  HARD  CANDY. 

Into  a  tin  sauce-pan  put  some  granulated 
sugar  with  a  little  water— a  very  little  water 
will  do.  Make  it  boil,  and  stir  it ;  and  when 
it  is  done  enough  to  "grain"'  when  stirred 
in  a  saucer,  take  it  quickly  from  the  stove. 
While  it  is  "cooking,''  do  not  let  the  fire 
touch  the  pan.  but  place  the  pan  on  the 
stove,  and  there  will  be  no  danger  of  its 
burning.  Cover  the  dining-table  with  some 
newspapers,  that  you  may  have  no  trouble- 
some daubs  to  clean  up. 

To  see  when  it  is  just  right  you  can  try 
dropping  some  on  a  saucer;  and  while  you 
are  at  work,  be  sure  to  remember  the  little 
folks,  who  will  doubtless  take  quite  an  in- 


CAXDY  FOR  BEES. 


58 


CANDIED  HONEY. 


terest  in  the  proceedings,  especially  the 
baby.  You  can  stir  some  until  it  is  very 
white  indeed  for  her ;  this  will  do  very  Avell 
for  cream  candy.  We  have  formerly  made 
our  bee-candy  hard  and  clear;  but  in  this 
shape  it  is  very  apt  to  be  sticky,  unless  we 
endanger  having  it  burned,  whereas  if  it  is 
stirred  we  can  have  dry  hard  candy,  of  what 
would  be  only  wax  if  cooled  suddenly  with- 
out the  stirring.  Besides  we  have  much 
more  moisture  in  the  stirred  sugar  candy, 
and  we  Avant  all  the  moisture  we  can  possi- 
bly have,  consistent  with  ease  in  handling. 

If  your  candy  is  burned,  no  amount  of 
boilingtvill  make  it  hard,  and  your  best 
way  is  to  use  it  for  cooking,  or  feeding  the 
bees  in  summer  weather.  Burnt  sugar  is 
death  to  them,  if  fed  in  cold  weather.  You 
can  tell  when  it  is  bimied,  by  the  smell,  color, 
and  taste.  If  you  do  not  boil  it  enough,  it 
will  be  soft  and  sticky  in  warm  weather,  and 
will  be  liable  to  drip  when  stored  away. 
Perhaps  you  had  better  try  a  pound  or  two  , 
at  first,  while  you  ''  get  your  hand  in."  Our 
first  experiment  was  Avith  50  lbs. ;  it  all  got  1 
"  scorched  "'' somehow." 

As  the  most  convenient  way  of  feeding 
candy  that  will  probably  be  devised  is  to  put 
it  into  your  regular  brood  -  frames,  I  shall 
give  directions  for  making  it  in  that  form. 
If  you  do  not  like  it  so,  you  can  break  it  out, 
or  cut  it  in  smaller  pieces  Avith  a  knife, 
when  nearly  cold. 

Lay  your  frame  on  a  level  table,  or  Hat 
board ;  perhaps  you  had  better  use  the  flat 
board,  for  you  need  some  nails  or  wires  driv- 
en into  it,  to  hold  your  frame  down  close, 
that  the  candy  may  not  run  out  under  it. 
Before  you  fasten  the  frame  dOAvn,  you  will 
need  to  put  a  sheet  of  thin  paper  on  your 
board,  to  prevent  the  candy's  sticking.  Fix 
the  board  exactly  level,  and  you  are  all  ready 
to  make  your  candy.  If  you  have  many 
stocks  that  need  feeding,  you  can  get  along 
faster  by  having  several  boards  with  frames 
fastened  on  them.  You  Avill  need  some  sort 
of  a  sauce-pan  (any  kind  of  a  tin  pan  Avith 
a  handle  attached  Avill  do)  that  will  hold 
about  10  lbs.  of  sugar.  Put  in  a  little  Avater 
—no  vinegar,  cream  of  tartar,  or  any  thing 
of  the  sort  is  needed,  whatever  others  may 
tell  you— and  boil  it  until  it  is  ready  to  sugar 
off.  You  can  determine  Avhen  tliis  i)oint  is 
readied,  by  stirring  some  in  a  saucer,  or  you 
can  learn  to  test  it  as  confectioners  do,  by 
dii)ping  your  finger  in  a  cup  of  cold  water, 
then  in  the  kettle  of  candy,  and  back  into 
the  Avater  again.  When  it  breaks  like  egg- 
shells from  the  end  of  your  finger,  the  candy 


is  just  right.  Take  it  off  the  stove  at  once; 
and  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  harden  around 
the  sides,  give  it  a  good  stirring,  and  keep  it 
up  until  it  gets  so  thick  that  you  can  just 
pour  it.  Pour  it  into  your  frame,  and  get 
in  just  as  much  as  you  can  without  running- 
it  over.  If  it  is  done  nicely,  the  slabs  should 
look  like  marble  Avhen  cold,  and  should  be 
almost  as  clean  and  dry  to  handle.  If  you 
omit  the  stirring,  your  candy  Avill  be  clear 
like  glass,  but  it  will  be  sticky  to  handle  and 
Avill  be  very  apt  to  drip.  The  stirring  causes 
all  the  water  to  be  taken  up  in  the  crystalli- 
zation, or  graining  process,  and  will  make 
hard  dry  sugar  of  Avhat  woiild  have  other- 
wise been  dam])  or  waxy  candy.  If  you 
wish  to  see  how  nicely  it  works  for  feed- 
ing bees,  just  hang  out  a  slab  and  let  the 
bees  try  it.  They  will  carry  it  all  away  as 
peaceably  as  they  would  so  much  meal  in 
the  spring. 

You  can  feed  bees  Avith  this  any  day  in 
the  winter,  by  hanging  a  frame  of  it  close 
'  up  to  the  cluster  of  bees.  If  you  put  it 
1  into  the  hive  in  very  cold  Aveather,  it  Avould 
be  Avell  to  keep  it  in  a  Avarm  room  until 
well  warmed  through.  Now  remove  one  of 
the  outside  combs  containing  no  bees,  if 
you  can  find  such  a  one,  spread  the  cluster, 
and  hang  the  frame  in  the  center.  Cover 
the  bees  at  the  sides  and  above,  with  cush- 
ions, and  they  will  be  all  safe.  If  a  colony 
needs  only  a  little  food,  you  can  let  them 
lick  off  what  they  like,  and  set  the  rest  away 
until  another  time,  or  until  another  season.* 

CANDZED  HONXV.  All  honey,  as  a 
general  thing,  candies  at  the  approach  of 
cold  Aveather.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
thin  honey  candies  quicker  than  thick,  and 
such  may  be  the  case ;  for  honey  that  has 
been  perfectly  ripened  in  the  hive,  that  is, 
has  been  allOAved  to  remain  in  the  hive 
several  Aveeks  after  being  sealed  over,  will 
sometimes  not  candy  at  all,  even  if  exposed 
to  zero  temperature.  As  some  honey  can- 
dies at  the  very  first  approach  of  cold  Av-^eath- 
er,  and  other  samples  not  until  Ave  have  se- 
vere freezing  Aveather,  we  can  not  always  be 
sure  that  perfect  ripening  will  ])rove  a  pre- 
ventive. It  is  very  seldom  indeed  that  we 
find  sealed  comb  honey  in  a  candied  state, *« 
and  Ave  therefore  infer  that  the  bees  knoAV 
hoAv  they  can  preserve  it  best  for  their  use  ; 
for  although  they  can  use  candied  honey 
when  obliged  to  do  so.  it  is  very  certain  that 
they  dislike  to  bother  Avith  it,  for  they  often 

*  Maple  sngKr.  poured  into  wired  frames  while  hot. 
makes  exct-Ueiit  bee-candy.  CakfS  of  maple  sugar 
laid  overihe  framivs  answer  equally  well. 


CATNIP. 


59 


CHAPMAN  HONEY-PLANT. 


carry  it  out  to  the  entrance  of  their  hives 
when  new  honey  is  coming^  in,  rather  than 
take  the  trouble  of  bringing  water  with 
which  to  dissolve  it. 

HOW  TO  PREVENT  HONEY  FROM  CANDYING. 

By  following  out  the  plan  of  the  bees,  we 
can  keep  honey  in  a  clear,  limpid,  liquid 
state,  the  year  round.  The  readiest  means 
of  doing  this  is  to  seal  it  up  in  ordinary 
self-sealing  fruit -jars,  precisely  as  we  do 
fruit.  Maple  molasses,  syrups,  and  preserves 
of  all  kinds,  may  be  kept  in  the  same  way 
if  we  do  our  work  well,  almost  as  fresh, 
and  with  the  same  flavor,  as  the  day  they 
were  put  up.  We  should  fill  the  jar  full, 
and  have  the  contents  lieated  to  about  lo(t- 
P.,  when  the  cover  is  screwed  on.  The  bees 
understood  this  idea  perfectly,  before  fruit- 
jars  were  ever  invented,  for  they  put  their 
fresh  pollen  in  the  cells,  cover  it  perfectly 
with  honey,  and  then  seal  it  up  with  an  air- 
tight wax  cover.  To  avoid  heating  the  hon- 
ey too  hot,  it  may  be  best  to  set  the  fruit- 
jars  in  a  pan  of  hot  water,  raising  them 
up  a  little  from  the  bottom,  by  a  thin  board. 
If  the  honey  is  over-heated,  just  the  least 
trifle,  it  injures  its  transparency,  and  also 
injures  its  color ;  in  fact,  it  seems  almost 
impossible  to  heat  some  kinds  of  honey  at 
all,  without  giving  it  a  darker  shade. 

CANDIED-HONEY  CONFECTIONERY. 

If  you  allow  a  barrel  of  linden  or  clover 
honey  to  become  candied  solid,  and  then 
scoop  out  the  center  after  one  of  the  heads 
is  removed,  you  will  find,  after  several 
weeks,  that  the  honey  around  the  sides  has 
drained  much  after  the  manner  of  loaf  su- 
gar, leaving  the  solid  portion,  sometimes, 
nearly  as  white  as  snow,  and  so  dry  that  it 
may  be  done  up  in  a  paper  like  sugar.  If 
you  now  take  this  dry  candied  honey  and 
warm  it  in  an  oven  until  it  is  soft,  it  can  be 
worked  like  ''taffy,"  and  in  this  state  you 
will  pronounce  it,  i)erhai)S,  the  most  deli- 
cious confectionery  you  ever  tasted.  You 
can  also  make  candy  of  honey  by  boiling, 
the  same  as  molasses,  but  as  it  is  little  if 
any  better,  and  much  more  expensive,  it  is 
seldom  used.    See  Extracted  Honey. 

CARNIOLAirS-see  Bees. 

CATNIP.  [Ncpeta  Cataria).  This  is  a 
near  relative  of  (iiLL-oVER-THE-OROUND, 
which  see.  Quinby  has  said,  that  if  he 
were  to  grow  any  plant  exclusively  for  the 
honey  it  produced,  that  plant  wotdd  be  cat- 
nip; and  very  likely  lie  was  not  far  from 
rigid.     IJut  as  we  have  never  yet  had  any 


definite  rei>ort  from  a  suflicient  field  of  it  to 
test  it  alone,  either  in  quality  or  quantity  of 
the  honey,  we  remain  almost  as  much  in  the 
dark  in  regard  to  it  as  we  were  at  the  time 
he  made  the  statement,  several  years  ago. 
Several  have  cultivated  it  in  small  patches, 
and  have  reported  that  in  a  state  of  cultiva- 
tion it  apparently  yielded  more  honey  than 
in  its  wild  state,  for  bees  are  found  on  it 
almost  constantly,  for  several  months  in  the 
year;  yet  no  one,  I  believe,  is  prepared  to 
say  positively  that  it  would  pay  to  cultivate 
it  for  this  purpose. 

CHAPMAN  HONEY-PLANT  (Echivops 
sphcerocephalus).  This  honey-plant  was  in- 
troduced in  1886  by  II.  Chapman,  of  Ver- 
sailles, N.  Y.,  from  whom  it  derives  its 
name.  The  plant  is  quite  thistle-like,  about 
two  feet  in  height,  and  is  surmounted  on 
one  or  more  of  its  stalks  by  balls,  or  what 
botanists  term  "heads.''  These  are  from 
li  to  2*  inches  in  diameter,  and  vary  in 
number  on  each  plant  from  6  to  10  heads. 
The  heads,  when  in  bloom,  are  covered 
with  small  star-like  white  flowers,  in  the 
center  of  which  the  anthers,  blue  in  color, 
surround  the  pistil.  The  engraving  below 
will  give  you  a  good  idea  of  the  plant  as  a 
whole,  and  also  of  the  star-like  flowers, 
detached  from  the  heads,  shown  at  the  left. 


CH  A  1».M  A N    HON  K  V •  I'l.A .N T 


We  had  a  small  patcli  of  these  plants  up- 
on our  honey-farm,  and  we  were  surprised 
to  see  how  the  bees  worked  upon  them  in 
fours  and  lives  at  a  time,  and  after  greedily 
taking  a  "big  drink"  of  the  nectar  they 
give  tiiat  happy  hum  of  rejoicing,  such  as 


CIDER  AND  CIDER-MILLS. 


60 


CLOVER. 


we  see  upon  clover-fields.  The  number  of 
bees  that  will  visit  one  of  these  heads  in  a 
single  day  is  enormous— as  many  as  2135  hav- 
ing been  counted.  As  regards  the  quantity 
of  honey  produced,  Mr.  Chapman  says  that 
two  acres  of  these  plants  started  his  17-5  col- 
onies to  storing  honey.  This  seems  almost 
incredible  ;  but  I  have  found  that,  if  several 
of  the  heads  be  covered  with  a  paper  sack, 
they  will,  in  48  hours  thereafter,  after  taking 
the  sacks  off,  look  as  if  they  had  been  dip- 
ped in  honey.  The  flavor  of  the  honey  is  a 
very  pure  sweet  —  much  like  simple  syrup, 
only  it  has  a]  slight  flavor  which  is  pro- 
nounced very  pleasant.  Mr.  Chapman  has 
tested  the  plant  for  several  seasons,  and  has 
now  ten  acres  under  cultivation.  For  full- 
er particulars,  see  Gleanings  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture for  Aug.  1-5,  1886.* 

CXDZSR  AUTD  CIDER  IMEIZiIiS.   Not 

only  are  many  of  ovu-  bees  drowned  in  the 
cider,  in  the  vicinity  of  cider  -  mills,  but 
the  cider,  if  gathered  late  in  the  season,  is 
quite  apt  to  prove  very  unwholesome  as  a 
diet  for  our  little  friends.  Probably  much 
of  the  dysentery  that  causes  such  havoc  is 
the  result  of  this  unsealed  cider  stored  in 
the  cells  when  winter  comes  on.  If  the  col- 
ony is  very  strong,  and  well  supplied  with 
winter  stores,  the  cider  may  do  but  little 
harm ;  but  where  they  are  weak,  and  oblige  I 
to  use  the  cider  largely,  they  sometimes  die 
even  in  the  fall.  We  at  one  time  fed  a  col- 
ony about  a  gallon  of  sweet  cider,  and  they 
were  dead  before  Christmas.  At  another 
time  a  barrel  of  sweet  cider  was  found  to  be 
leaking;  but  as  the  bees  took  it  up  greedily 
as  fast  as  it  ran  out,  their  owner  kindly  al- 
lowed them  to  work  away.  They  all  died 
quite  promptly,  after  the  experiment. 

The  bees  of  a  large  apiary  will  take  sweet 
cider  from  the  mill  nearly  as  fast  as  it  can 
be  made,  and  we  at  one  time  had  quite  a  se- 
rious time  with  the  owner  of  such  a  mill, 
because  the  Italians  insisted  on  "  going 
shares."  whenever  he  made  sweet  cider. 
After  paying  quite  a  little  sum  in  the  way  of 
damages,  and  losing  our  bees  every  season 
there  was  a  large  apple-crop,  besides  buying 
sugar  in  the  vain  attempt  to  call  them  away 
by  counter-inducements,  we,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  one  of  the  other  sex,  hung  white  cloth 
curtains  over  all  the  oi)enings  to  the  mill. 
Some  strips  of  pine,  S2..'50  worth  of  sheeting 
2i  yards  wide,  and  a  couple  of  hours'  time. 


*IJ|i  1(>  April  1.  l«91,1lit>i-e  mi-c  ho  n>pi)i-ls  lo  justify 
tlic  liifrli  fxi)cc',:ili()iis  lliat  liiid  bcfii  luiscd  as  to  tin' 
value  of  this  plant.  Soinc  icpoi-;  that  llii-  bci-s  ad 
as  if  sittin-r  drunk  oji  the  tlowci's. 


fixed  the  mill  so  that  scarcely  a  bee  was  to- 
be  seen  inside.  In  a  very  short  time  they 
gave  up  flying  around  the  mill,  and  appar- 
ently forgot  all  about  it. 

CLOVER  [Trifolium).  While  most  per- 
sons seem  to  tire,  in  time,  of  almost  any  one 
kind  of  honey,  that  from  the  clovers  seems 
to  "  wear"  like  bread,  butter,  and  potatoes ; 
for  it  is  the  great  staple  in  the  markets;  and 
where  one  can  recommend  his  honey  as  be- 
ing pure  white  clover,  he  has  said  about  all 
he  can  for  it. 


WHITE   CLOVER. 

The  most  important  is  the  common  white 
clover  [Trifolium  repens),  which  everybody 
knows  is  perhaps  at  the  head  of  the  entire 
list  of  honey-producing  plants.  We  could 
better  spare  any  of  the  rest,  and  I  might  al- 
most say  all  the  rest,  than  our  white  clover 
that  grows  so  plentifully  as  to  be  almost  un- 
noticed almost  everywhere.  But  little  ef- 
fort has  been  made  to  raise  it  from  the  seed, 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  collecting  and 
saving  it. 

There  is  a  large  variety  known  as  white 
Dutch  clover,  that  is  sold  by  our  seedsmen, 
to  some  extent.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
gather  whether  it  is  superior  to  the  common. 
The  common  red  clover  —  T.  pratense  — 
yields  honey  largely  some  seasons,  but  not 
as  generally  as  does  the  white,  nor  do  the 
bees  work  on  it  for  as  long  a  period.*"  While 
working  on  red  clover,  the  bees  bring  in 
small  loads  of  a  peculiar  dark-green  pollen; 
and  by  observing  this  we  can  usually  tell 
when  they  are  bringing  in  red  -  clover 
honey.  The  Italians  will  often  do  finely  on 
red  clover,  while  the  common  black  bees 
will  not  even  so  much  as  notice  it.  The 
general  cultivation  is  much  like  that  of  Al- 
siKE  Clover,  which  see ;  but  the  safest  way 
for  a  beginner  is  to  consult  some  good  farm- 
er in  his  own  neighborhood,  as  different  lo- 
calities require  slightly  different  treatment. 
The  same  will  apply  to  saving  the  seed, 
which  can   hardly  be  saved  profitably  with- 


CLOVER. 


61 


CLOVER. 


out  the  use  of  a  clover  -  huller,  made  espe- 
cially for  the  purpose. 


PEAVINE,    OR    MAMMOTH    RED    CLOVER. 

This  is  the  largest  kind  of  red  clover 
known,  as  its  name  indicates;  and  it  does, 
many  seasons,  furnish  a  very  large  amount 
of  honey.  As  a  rule,  however,  like  the  red 
clover  mentioned  above,  it  is  seldom  worked 
on  by  the  common  bees ;  but  nearly  every 
season  it  is  visited  more  or  less  by  Italians  ; 
and  some  seasons,  where  large  fields  are 
near  by,  the  bees  store  very  large  amounts 
of  very  tine  honey  from  this  source  alone. 
As  it  is  in  bloom  principally  during  the 
months  of  August  and  September,  it  is  a 
very  important  honey-plant. ■■•"  AIthough[the 
hay  is  hardly  equal  to  that  from  the  common 
red  clover,  it  is  perhaps  the  best  forage  plant 
to  plow  under,  known.  When  well  started 
it  will  grow  on  almost  any  soil ;  and  once  a 
good  stand  is  secured  and  plowed  under, 
the  ground  will  be  in  condition  to  furnish  a 
fair  crop  of  almost  any  thing. 

SWEET   CLOVER. 

As  friend  J.  C.  Swaner,  of  Utali,  upon 
whom  I  once  called,  has  liad  eonsideralde 
•exi)erience  witli  tliis  i)laiit  I  asked  liim  to 
prepare  an  article,  which  he  has  done.  The 
same  appeared  in  (iLeanings  for  Jan.  1, 
1889,  and  is  here  re])roduced. 

Sweet  elovc'i-  grows  liere  aluiiK  the  water-courses, 
moist  waste  places,  alonjf  tlie  roadsides,  and  in  neg- 
lected fields.  It  Ki'ows  from  six  inches  to  as  many 
feet  in  heit^-ht,  accordinK-  to  the  location,  and  it  is 
covered  witii  an  abundance  of  bloom  from  top  to 
bottom,  yieidinjr  in  most  seasons  an  ahundance  of 
nectar,  wliidi,  aft{'r  beinjjr  g-athercd  and  sloi'cd,  pro- 
duces iioney  of  llie  vyry  l)('st  quality  and  color.  Tt 
does  not  Kctienilly  bloom  in  llie  llrst  year;  t)ut  in 
the  second  it  conunences  iilM)ut  (lie  first  of  .Iul>',  and 
keeps  up  a  continual  bloom  until  killed  by  frost, 
furnishing  bees  with  pasturage,  tfenerally  from  the 
middle  of  .Inly  mil  il  the  liiKer  |);irt  of  August. 


Sweet  clover  is  sometimes  used  for  pasturage,  and 
also  for  making-  hay,  if  cut  when  youn;?,  tliough  it  is 
a  long-  way  behind  alfalfa  for  that  puri>ose.  ,  Though 
it  is  sometimes  relished  by  stock,  very  t^v  would 
sow  it  for  feeding.  If  eaten  while  green  it  is  in  a 
measure  a  cause  of  lioven,  or  bloat,  in  cows.  If  you 
wash  good  milk  or  butter  you  had  better  not  feed  it 
to  mileh  cows,  as  it  imparts  a  very  disagreeable  taste 
to  it.  If  eaten  otf  by  stock  it  will  soon  recover,  and 
produce  an  almndance  of  bloom  for  the  bees. 

As  sweet  clover  is  a  bieimial  it  is  not  a  very  hard 
weed  to  eradicate,  and  very  seldom  troubles  culti- 
vated fields,  tliough  it  will  sometimes  seed  a  field; 
and  if  such  field  is  planted  to  grain  the  following 
season,  it  will  come  up,  and  is  cut  off  only  with  the 
reaper.  Next  season,  if  the  same  field  he  neglected, 
it  will  quite  likely  be  covered  with  sweet  clover,  and 
that,  too,  sometimes  as  high  as  your  head.  If  a  field 
is  cultivated  as  it  should  be  for  two  seasons,  the  clo- 
ver will  entirely  disappear.  Tlie  plant  requires  a 
little  moisture  in  the  soil  the  first  year;  but  after 
that  it  will  grow  without.  I  ctMisider  it,  for  my  part, 
a  great  deal  better  to  see  a  roadside  lined  with  it 
than  the  sunflowers,  etc.,  that  generally  grow  in 
such  places. 

Now,  to  sum  up,  sweet  clovei'  is  our  main  honey 
crop  in  this  locality.  It  is  our  best  honey;  and  said 
honey,  I  may  say  without  boasting,  compares  favor- 
ably with  the  best  grades  known. 

I  do  not  think  it  will  pay  to  sow  it  for  honey  alone, 
unless  on  such  land  as  is  considered  worthless;  hut 
I  think  it  would  be  a  benefit  to  such  land. 

As  to  the  amount  of  nectar  it  will  produce  per 
acre,  I  am  unable  to  say;  but  I  think  it  will  compare 
favorably  with  white  clover;  in  fact,  I  think  that  it 
produces  fully  two-thirds  of  our  honey  crop  in  this 
locality,  and  I  should  consider  this  a  poor  country 
for  honey,  if  it  were  destroyed :  but  as  it  is,  we  gen- 
erally get  a  crop;  that  is,  tlie  bees  generally  have 
some  honey  to  spare.  J.  c.  Swaner. 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  Dec.  22, 1888. 

Sweet-clover  honey  tastes-very  much  as 
sweet  clover  smells  when  its  green  leaves 
are  bruised  slightly.  The  flavor  is  not  rank 
enotigh  to  be  at  all  disagreeable,  but  the 
quality  compares  Avell  with  the  best.  Tlie 
extracted  lioney  is  very  thick,  and  has  the 
same  beautiful  flavor  as  the  comb  honey. 
It  seems  to  me  that  these  facts  give  us  a 
wonderful  oiiening  for  starting  a  lioney- 
farni  where  land  is  cheap,  and  notliing  else 
will  grow  on  account  of  severe  drouths. 

It  is  now  well  established,  tliat  cattle  do 
somelimes  eat  sweet  clover  green,  although 
some  say  it  is  objectionable  as  pasturage. 
Prof.  Tracy,  of  the  Mississippi  Agricultu- 
ral College,  speaks  highly  of  it  as  a  hay 
plant,  but  says,  as  do  others,  that  stock 
must  learn  to  eat  it.  Livingston's  catalogue 
says  it  is  "  quite  valuable  for  soiling."  Its 
general  character  as  a  good  lioney-plant  is 
well  established,  and  it  may  be  well  wortli 
while  to  give  it  a  thorougli  test  as  a  forage- 
plant. 

Tlierc  is  still  aiidlhcr  veiy  iuiiiortaut  do- 


COMB  BUCKET. 


02 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


ver;  viz.,  alfalfa,  or.  as  it  is  s(tmetimes  call- 
ed. luceriK'.    Set"  Alfalfa. 

COlMEB-BUCKIiT.  AVhen  the  bees  are 
gathering  no  honey,  especially  during  the 
lull  that  usually  intervenes  between  spring 
and  fall  pastui'age,  it  is  many  times  quite 
difficult  to  remove  combs  of  brood,  or  open 
hives  at  all,  without  getting  robbers  at  work. 
Any  one  who  has  had  quite  a  time  witli  rob- 
bing -  bees,  will  remember  for  some 
days  that  it  makes  trouble  to  leave  a  comb 
outside  the  hive  while  we  are  handling  oth- 
ers inside.  Robbing  -  bees  will  get  at  them, 
and  soon  they  will  learn  to  follow  us  about, 
and  finally  "  dive  ''  right  into  the  unsealed 
honey  the  minute  a  comb  is  exposed.  Sup- 
pose we  do  not  have  robbers ;  still,  when  we 
take  a  frame  out  of  a  hive  it  is  very  conven- 
ient to  have  some  place  where  we  can  set  it 
down  safely,  "while  we  look  at  the  rest.    If 


COMB-BUCKET. 

we  stand  them  up  against  the  hive,  or  one 
of  the  posts  of  the  grapevine  trellis,  unless 
we  are  very  careful,  bees  are  killed;  and  if 
the  day  is  a  windy  one,  the  comb  is  quite 
apt  to  be  blown  down  in  the  dirt.  To  avoid 
all  these  mishaps,  we  have  sometimes  car- 
ried about  an  empty  hive;  but  this  is  un- 
wieldy, and  does  not  keep  away  robbers 
either,  unless  a  cover  is  carried  with  it. 
Comb-buckets  have  been  made  of  wood,  but 
these  are  unsightly  unless  kept  painted;  and 
if  any  honey  drips  from  the  combs,  it  soaks 
into  the  wood  in  a  way  that  is  far  from  be- 
ing tidy.  The  one  shown  in  the  engraving 
is  made  of  light  tin,  and  I  believe  meets 
all  requirements. 

It  can  be  readily  carried  from  hive  to  hive, 
and  the  light  cover  is  very  quickly  closed 
bee-tight,  whenever  occasion  may  require. 
Where  extracting  is  done  indoors,  the  buck- 
et can  be  used  to  very  good  advantage,  for 
five  heavy  combs  are  about  as  many  as  one 
cares  to  carry  at  once. 


COnaB  rOUITDATIOSr.  since  the  in- 
troduction of  foundation,  within  the  past  few 
years,  many  difficult  points  have  been  solved 
completely ;  such  as.  how  to  insure  straight 
combs,  how  to  insure  all  worker-comb  or  all 
drone-comb,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  how  to 
furnish  the  bees  with  the  wax  they  need 
without  being  obliged  to  secrete  it  by  the 
consumption  of  honey.  It  is  so  simple  a 
matter  to  make  a  practical  test  of  it  by 
hanging  a  piece  in  a  hive  when  honey  is 
coming  in,  that  I  think  I  may  be  excused 
from  describing  the  way  in  which  the  bees 
use  it,  at  any  great  length.  Neither  will  it 
be  needful  to  dwell  on  the  successive  steps 
by  which  it  was  discovered,  and  brought  to 
its  present  state  of  perfection.  The  first 
mention  we  have  of  wax  foundations  that 
were  accepted  by  the  bees,  was  published  in 
a  German  bee-journal  as  far  back  as  1857. 
Mr.  J.  Mehring,  of  Frankinthal,  Germany, 
if  I  am  correct,  seems  to  have  been  the 
original  inventor.  For  nearly  20  years  the 
matter  seems  to  have  slumbered,  although 
different  ones  at  different  times,  among 
whom  was  our  friend  Wagner,  took  it  up, 
made  some  improvements,  and  dropped  it 
again.  The  sheets  made  in  both  England 
and  Germany  had  no  side-walls,  but  simply 
indentations.  Mr.  Wagner  added  shallow 
side- walls,  making  it  much  more  like  nat- 
ural comb.  Until  recently  it  was  all  made 
with  a  pair  of  plates ;  even  yet  the  Giv- 
en press  is  preferred  by  some  (see  elsewhere); 
but  it  did  not  require  much  wisdom  to 
decide  that  such  an  article,  if  wanted  in 
large  quantities,  should  be  rolled  out  by 
machinery.  In  the  latter  part  of  1875  I 
talked  with  a  friend  of  mine  who  is  quite  an 
artist  in  the  way  of  fine  mechanical  work 
and  machinery,  and  told  him  what  I  thought 
was  wanted.  The  result  was  that  he  made 
a  machine  that  would  roll  out  a  continuous 
sheet,  with  very  fair  side-walls  of  wax,  and 
superior  to  any  thing  ever  made.  Indeed,  so- 
perfect  was  the  workmanship  of  the  rolls,, 
that,  even  though  fifteen  years  have  passed, 
nothing  yet  has  Ijeen  con.structed  which  ful- 
ly equals  the  foundation  from  them.  Mr.  A. 
Washburn,  tlie  mechanic  who  did  the  work, 
made  the  rolls  by  staminng — an  ojieration 
slow,  laborious,  and  consequently  expensive. 
This  made  the  price  of  these  machines  from 
$100  to  $125  apiece  —  a  figure  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  average  bee-keeper,  and  even  of 
most  sui)ply-dealers.  In  consequence  of  the 
call  for  mills  for  less  money,  Mr.  Chas.  Olm, 
of  Fond  du  Lac,  Wis.,  invented  an  automat- 
ic machine  whicli  cut  with  a  set  of  knives- 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


63 


COMB  FOUNDATION 


the  embossed  surfaces  of  tlie  rolls.  It  was 
thus  made  i)0ssible  for  us  to  manufacture 
foundation-mills  at  a  i)rice  from  one-fourtli 
to  one-fifth  of  those  first  made. 

As  the  space  heie  is  limited,  I  can 
hardly  go  into  minute  details  showing  you 
how  these  rolls  are  made.  The  following 
is  an  engraving  of  a  machine  emlxxlying  the 
])rincii)les  of  the  original  one  made  Ijy  Mr. 
Olm,  but  witli  the  added  imi)rovements  of 
the  foreman  of  our  machine  shop,  ]SIr.  Wash- 
barn. 


A   MACHINE  FOR   ENGRAVING  FOUNDATION 
ROLLS. 

There  are  two  gravers,  as  you  will  notice, 
held  at  the  i)roper  angles,  set  in  slides  oper- 
ated by  a  crank  and  ])itman.  One  of  the 
keen  cliisels  first  comes  down  and  makes  a 
cut  in  the  surface  of  the  roll.  This  first  cut 
raises  the  edge  of  the  chij),  but  does  not  take 
it  out.  The  other  chisel  cuts  this  chip  en- 
tirely loose,  and  throws  it  out.  As  these 
knives  work  back  and  forth,  the  carriage 
holding  the  roll  is  spaced  automatically  until 
the  end  of  the  loll  is  reached.  Here  it  is 
again  carried  back  automatically,  and,  after 
a  "click,  click,"  the  knives,  or  gravers,  re- 
sume their  work.  This  is  rejjeated  mitil  the 
surface  of  the  roll  has  been  indented  with 
the  lozenge  faces.  Tlie  side  wall  is  then 
stamped  liy  a  jxTpendicular  i)unch,  likewise 
fastene<l  into  a  slide,  and  operated  by  a 
crank  and  jtitman.  Tlie  niacliine  is  nm  by 
power,  and  is  almost  entirely  automatic. 
The  macliinist  simply  ()i)erates  a  set  of  lev- 
ers, wliile  th(!  maciiine  responds  to  liis  l)id 
ding.  It  can  likewise  be  operated  by  hand- 
power  whenever  occasion  demands. 


10-INCH   FOUNDATION-MILL. 

The  cut  represents  one  of  the  latest  im- 
proved mills.  The  wooden  -  roller  attach- 
ment will  be  explained  further  on.  The 
price  of  these  machines  ranges  all  the  way 
from  $15.00  to  $40.00.  The  regular  size  of 
a  ten-inch  machine  for  the  Langstrotli  frame 
costs  $20.00. 

HOW   TO   REFINE   WAX. 

I'nder  Wax,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  work, 
this  subject  will  be  partially  treated  ;  but  in 
this  place,  in  order  to  make  a  first-class  ar- 
ticle of  foundation,  some  specific  directions 
will  be  necessary.  Wax  cakes  are  usually 
of  all  grades  and  colors,  particularly  if  your 
trade  is  such  that  you  are  obliged  to  make 
use  of  the  commercial  article.  The  differ- 
ence in  color  is  due  largely  to  the  amount  of 
impurities  the  wax  contains.  To  cleanse 
this  wax  and  also  reduce  it  to  a  uniform 
color,  proceed  as  follows :  Into  a  receptacle 
of  the  proper  size  (say  a  wash-boiler,  one 
that  your  wife  will  let  you  have),  pour  four 
or  five  inches  of  water.  Put  it  on  the  stove 
and  heat  the  water,  after  which  put  in  the 
wax.  When  the  latter  is  melted,  dip  it  out 
and  pour  into  receptacles  with  sloping  sides. 
The  deeper  the  receptacle  the  better  it  will 
be.  The  Dadants.  who  have  the  reputation 
of  making  the  finest  foundation  in  the  world, 
use  tin  cans  10  inches  in  diameter  at  tlie 
bottom,  12  inches  at  the  top,  and  20  inches 
deep.*  If  you  can  not  afford  these  deep  cans, 
utilize  whatever  receptacles  you  can  get 
hold  of.  Sap-pails  or  ordinary  pails  would 
answer  your  purpose  sufficiently  well,  per- 
haps. Having  dipjied  out  all  the  wax  from 
the  boiler  into  the  cans,  put  them  in  a  close 
room,  or,  better  still,  in  a  cupboard,  so  that 
the  cooling  process  may  be  delayed  as  long 


•Use  no  receptacles  made  of  dralvanized  iron— see 
Wax. 


COMIJ  FOUNDATION. 


(>4 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


as  possible.  Tlie  longer  the  cooling  the  bet- 
ter opportunity  is  afforded  for  the  impurities 
to  settle  to  the  bottom.  When  the  wax  is 
hard,  remove  and  st-rape  off  the  bottom  of 
tlie  cakes,  wliicli  will  be  largely  foreign  set- 
tlings and  other  impurities.  If  these  wax 
cakes  have  not,  in  your  judgment,  attained 
the  proper  color,  that  is,  a  briglit  yellow,  re- 
peat the  operation  once  or  twice  until  you 
are  satisfied. 

The  method  already  given  is  essentially 
tlie  one  employed  -by  the  Dadants,  and  I 
give  it  Jiere  Ijecause  it  is  one  of  the  secrets 
of  tlieir  success  in  turning  out  yellow  foun- 
dation. If  you  are  making  foundation  for 
your  own  use.  it  is  not  necessary  to  have  the 
wax  so  tlioroughly  refined;  but  as  the  trade 
demands  yellow  foundation  you  will  Jiave  to 
supply  what  it  calls  for.  We  have  found, 
however,  that  the  darker  grades  of  founda- 
tion are  as  readily  accepted  by  tlie  bees  as 
the  ligliter.  As  it  costs  some  more  to  make 
the  yellower  foundation,  if  your  customer 
prefers,  let  him  have  the  darker  for  one  or 
two  cents  per  pound  less.  I  might  state 
right  here  that  the  wax  for  thin  or  surplus 
foundation  should  l)e  brighter  in  color  than 
that  intended  for  the  brood-chamber.  We 
make  it  a  practice  to  save  out  our  yellowest 
wax  for  thin  foundation. 

HOW    TO    MAKE    WAX    SHEETS. 

To  be  able  to  do  this  work  successfully,  re- 
quires not  a  little  skill.  Neatness  is  another 
imi)ortant  essential.  A  little  carelessness  in 
spilling  and  drii)i)ing  wax  upon  the  floor 
means  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  scruljbing  it 
up  afterward.  Indeed,  it  is  well  nigh  impos- 
sible to  get  a  floor  clean  after  particles  of 
wax  have  become  pressed  and  rubbed  into 
it  by  gi-eat  big  clumsy  feet. 

The  oi)eration  of  making  wax  sheets,  in  a 
word,  is  dipping  a  thin  sheet  of  wood  into  a 
deep  vessel  of  melted  wax.  A  film  will  cling 
to  the  board,  which  is  afterward  peeled  off. 
Very  simple,  isn't  it  V  But  I  am  afraid,  my 
friend,  that,  before  you  get  tlirough  it,  you 
will  find  it  more  difficult  than  you  at  first 
imagine.  One  of  the  prime  essentials  for 
making  wax  sheets  successfully  is  experi- 
ence. But  with  the  assistance  of  a  few 
suggestions,  I  can  save  you  a  great  deal  of 
trouble. 

To  melt  wax  for  dipping,  you  must  be  sure 
not  to  burn  it,  otherw  ise  it  will  be  totally 
spoiled.  To  insure  against  this,  the  recepta- 
cle for  melting  should  be  inclosed  by  another 
larger  receptacle  containing  hot  water.  This 
is  to  be  placed  upon  the  stove,  and  the  w^ax 
cakes  are  to  be  deposited  in  the  inner  tank. 


As  the  wax  can  not  get  hotter  than  the  boil- 
ing-point, there  is  no  danger  of  Inuniug. 
But  desiring  to  work  as  economically  as  pos- 
sible, you  will  feel,  perhaps,  that  you  are  not 
aljle  to  purcliase  any  more  implements  than 
are  absolutely  necessary.  An  old  wash- 
boiler,  or  one  that  your  wife  thinks  she  can 
spare,  can  be  made  to  answer  nearly  as  good 
a  puri)ose.  Place  it  upon  the  stove  and  pour 
in  four  or  five  inches  of  water.  Into  the 
water,  put  the  wax  cakes.  As  the  latter  have 
a  specific  gravity  lighter  than  the  former, 
they  will  float  on  tlie  water  either  before  or 
after  Ijeiiig  melted,  and  consequently  there 
will  be  no  danger  of  burning.  After  jjutting 
in  a  sufficient  amount  it  can  be  dipped  out 
into  the  dipping-tank.  This  is  a  deej)  vessel 
for  holding  the  wax  after  it  is  melted.  A 
sufficient  quantity  should  be  dipped  into  this 
tank  so  that  the  dipping-ljoard  may  be  im- 
mersed within  an  inch  or  so  of  the  upper 
end. 

The  dij^ping-tank  should  be  i)laced  close  by 
the  stove,  so  that  the  hot  wax  can  be  dipped 
or  drawn  off  readily  through  a  suitable  fau- 
cet from  the  melting-tank  on  the  stove.  You 
are  now  ready  for  your  dipping-])oards,  which 
I  will  iJiesume  you  have  already  made. 
There  should  be  at  least  two,  and  more 
would  be  an  advantage.  These  boards  should 
be  made  of  the  very  best  straight-grained 
pine  lumber  which  you  can  obtain.  There 
are  generally  only  one  or  two  boards  in  a  log 
which  are  fit  for  the  purpose,  and  they  are 
the  "heart"  boards.  These  will  warp  nei- 
ther one  way  nor  the  other,  and  the  grain  is 
not  as  lialjle  to  shale  up  and  catch  the  wax 
sheets  when  being  peeled  off.  They  are  to 
be  made  of  a  size  to  suit  the  frame  you  are 
using.  If  you  are  using  the  Langstroth 
frame,  the  dipping-boards  should  be  9  inches 
wide  and  about  two  feet  long,  or  long  enough 
to  leave  about  two  inches  projecting  out  of 
tlie  melted  wax  for  finger  room.  Before 
using  they  should  be  soaked  in  brine  water 
for  a  few  hours,  the  proportion  of  salt  in  the 
water  being  about  a  teacupf ul  to  two  or  three 
pails  of  water.  We  have  found  that  the  salt 
serves  a  double  purpose :  It  acts  somewhat 
as  a  lubricant  in  facilitating  the  removal  of 
the  sheets,  and  as  a  preventive  against  the 
grain  rising  in  the  board,  and  consequently 
roughening.  Before  we  used  the  salt,  we 
used  to  have  to  sandpaper  the  boards  quite 
frequently;  but  we  rarely  have  occasion  to 
do  it  now. 

Besides  the  melting-tank,  dipping-tank, 
and  the  dii)i)ing-boards,  you  need  a  cooling- 
vat  of  water,  for  cooling  the  wax  film  adher- 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


65 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


ing  to  the  (lii)i)ing-board.s.  An  urdiniiry  tub 
of  cold  water  iiuiy  answer ;  but  if  you  pi'o- 
pose  making  very  miicli  foiuidation.  you  had 
better  make  an  oblong  shallow  wooden  box, 
capable  of  holding  water.  This  cooling-vat 
should  be  close  at  hand. 

Two  can  work  to  the  best  advantage  —  one 
to  dip,  and  the  other  to  peel  oft'  the  sheets. 
In  order  to  make  the  dipjnng  a  success,  the 
wax  nuist  be  neither  too  hot  nor  too  cold. 
We  tind  that  we  get  the  best  results  when  it 
is  at  about  the  temperature  of  lOo  or  170-  F. 
It  is  too  cold  if  there  is  a  small  film,  or  little 
spots  of  cooling  wax  on  top  of  the  melted 
liquid  from  which  you  are  di})iiing.  If  too 
cold,  it  will  leave  little  ripples  on  the  sheets, 
and  the  surface  of  the  sheets  will  be  wavy 
and  the  thickness  irregular.  If  the  wax  is  too 
hot,  the  sheets  will  crack  in  peeling  oft".  It 
is  very  important,  as  you  will  find  by  experi- 
ence, to  do  the  dipping  when  the  wax  is  at 
the  right  temperature.  Properly  made  sheets 
will  work  nuich  better  in  the  rolls  than  when 
they  have  been  subjected  t(j  either  extreme 
of  temi)erature.  If  they  begin  at  any  time 
to  stick  to  the  plate,  rub  a  rag,  moistened  in 
a  weak  solution  of  lye,  such  as  is  made  from 
an  ash-leach,  on  both  surfaces  of  the  board, 
and  you  will  probably  have  no  more  trouble. 
If  this  fails,  then  the  sides  of  the  boards 
have  become  roughened,  and,  of  course,  no- 
thing will  do  then  but  to  sandi)aper  them 
down  again  after  they  are  dry. 

We  make  five  kinds  of  foundation;  viz., 
heavy  brood,  from  4  to  .5  ft.  per  lb.;  medium 
brood,  5  to  6  ft.  iier  lb.;  light  lirood,  7  to  8 
ft.;  thin  surjjlus,  aljout  10  ft.  to  the  lb.;  and 
extra  thin  suri)lus,  from  11  to  12  ft.  To 
make  sheets  for  the  first  named,  five  dip- 
pings will  be  required;  for  the  second,  three; 
for  tl"  third,  two;  and  for  the  last,  one 
short  quK  V  dip. 

After  each  successive  dip  into  the  taidc, 
before  innnersing  again  a  low  all  the  ripples 
to  run  olf  till  the  board  is  smooth.  Im- 
merse quickly,  and  draw  out  as  quickly.  The 
number  of  (lip])ings  will  have  to  be  varied, 
however,  according  to  circumstances.  The 
adjustment  of  the  mill,  the  temperature  of 
the  wax,  and  the  quickness  of  the  plunge  of 
the  dipping-board,  all  have  their  influence. 
It  may  be  an  advantage  to  reverse  the  dip- 
ping-board, i.  e.,  dii)i)ing  the  other  end. 
After  the  boards  are  dijipetl  they  should  be 
placed  immediately  into  the  vat  of  cool  wa- 
ter, which  we  before  described.  After  the 
boards  are  cold,  scrape  the  edges  with  a  knife. 
Feel  up  a  corner  of  the  sheet,  and  pull  it  olf. 
As   you   proceeil  in  your  work,  the  wax  in 


the  dipi)ing-tank  will  become  cool,  and  the 
water*  in  the  cooling-vat  will  become  warm. 
Of  course,  both  nuist  be  restored  to  their 
proi)er  temi)erature.  To  bring  the  wax  in 
the  (lii)i)ing-tank  to  the  right  point,  i)oiu'  in  a 
dipi)erlul  from  the  melting-tank  on  the  stove. 
Add  another  dii)i)erful,  if  necessary.  To 
cool  the  water  in  tlie  cooling-vat,  draw  oflE  a 
portion  of  it  and  add  cold  water. 

I  have  thus  given  minute  details  in  regard 
to  making  wax  sheets,  because  beginners 
usually  fail  on  this  feature  of  tlie  work  more 
than  in  any  other. 

ROLLING    THE    WAX    SHEKTS. 

I  will  presume  that  you  have  carried  out 
faithfully  the  foregoing  instructions,  and 
that  you  have  already  purchased  a  founda- 
tion-machine. Procure  a  box  or  small  table 
about  three  feet  high,  and  upon  this  screw 
down  the  machine.  You  will  also  need  two 
other  small  tables,  one  in  the  rear  of  the  ma- 
chine and  the  other  in  front.  The  latter  is 
to  hold  the  piles  of  sheets  after  tiiey  have 
been  embossed  on  the  rolls.  The  former  is 
to  hold  a  shallow  vat  for  holding  the  sheets— 
the  latter  immersed  in  three  or  four  inches  of 
water.  This  vat  should  be  made  of  tin,  long 
enough  to  accommodate  the  length  of  the 
sheets,  and  of  suitable  width.  We  find  that, 
when  the  sheets  are  taken  from  lukewarm 
briny  water  (IKP),  they  work  much  better; 
indeed,  we  now  regard  this  tempering  of  the 
sheets  quite  a  necessity.  In  order  that  you 
may  get  a  proper  idea  of  the  arrangement  ivs' 
above  given,  I  suV)mit  the  engraving  on  next 
page,  taken  from  a  photograph,  as  the  two 
helpers  were  making  foundation. 

At  the  left  of  lady  No.  1  is  tlfe  oblong  shal- 
low vat  containing  the  sheets  immersed  in 
tepid  water.  For  the  sake  of  economy  of 
space,  and  general  convenience,  we  have  a 
couple  of  tables  made  exactly  right  for  the 
purpose.  The  engraving  will  make  their 
manner  of  construction  self-evident.  We 
use  a  similar  table  for  holding  the  piles  of 
wax  sheets  after  l)eing  run  through  the  rolls. 

Before  proceeding  with  the  operation  of 
rolling,  see  that  the  room  is  i)roperly  warm- 
ed, say  about  «(>-.  It  has  been  found  by  ex- 
l)erience  that  this  temperature  is  best.  This 
is  ratlier  too  warm  to  work  witii  comfort; 
Init  in  making  line  quality  of  foundation, 
comfort  is  not  to  be  looked  after.  Next,  you 
need  some  sort  of  lubricant.  Various  mix- 
tures have  been  advocated,  such  as  soap 
made  into  a  lather ;  a  weak  st)lution  of  lye, 
obtained  from  an  ordinary  ash-leach  ;  a  sat- 


*rsf  soft  water  wlient^ver  you  can  in  foundation 
making. 


COMB  FOUI^DATION. 


66 


COMB  FOUNDATION". 


nrated  solution  of  salt  ami  water ;  a  solution 
of  slii)pery-elni  bark ;  and  ordinary  starch 
])aste,  snch  as  women  use  for  wall-i)aiier. 
After  testing  most  thoroughly  all  of  the  dif- 
ferent ones  mentioned,  we  have  decided  in 
favor  of  the  paste,  with  the  addition  of  a  ta- 
blespoonful  of  salt  to  the  i)int,  as  being  by 
far  the  best.  I  believe  the  Dadants  use 
the  soap  lather ;  but  for  some  reason  or  oth- 
er we  have  not  been  aljle  to  make  it  answer 
as  well  as  the  starch  i)aste. 

Your  enthusiasm  may  pr()hii)t  you  to  run  a 
dry  sheet  through  the  rolls,  just  to  ''  see  how 
it  will  work.''  Just  as  sure  as  you  do,  you 
will  find  your  ardor  greatly  diminished,  for 
the  wax  will  cling  to  both  rolls,  and  can  be 
removed  only  Ijy  a  method  to  be  described 
further  on.     Having  prepared    your  starch 


with  the  upper  metallic  roll.  The  ofBce  of 
this  wooden  roller  is  to  keep  the  sheet,  after 
it  has  passed  through  the  mill,  from  coming 
in  contact  with  the  lower  roll  before  it  should. 
It  also  causes  the  sheet  to  be  fed  evenly.  As 
soon  as  the  sheet  is  nan  through  an  inch  or 
so,  the  end  will  stick  on  one  of  the  rolls  and 
must  be  i)icked  out  with  a  blunt  hickory 
l^odkin.  A  shawl-pin  made  blvnit  would  be 
better,  Ijut  you  must  be  careful  not  to  let  it 
scratch  the  siu-face  of  the  rolls.  You  will 
find  that  the  first  three  or  four  sheets  will 
give  you  more  troul)le  than  those  succeeding; 
and.  likewise,  that  a  new  mill  will  give  more 
troulile  at  first  than  after  you  have  used  it 
some.  After  you  have  loosened  the  end  of 
the  sheet  in  the  manner  indicated.  No.  2  is  to 
grasp  it  with  the  grippers,  made  as  shown  in 


ROLLING    OUT    FOUNDATION. 


paste  (and  we  suppose  every  woman  knows 
how  that  is  made),  add  about  a  tablespoonful 
of  salt  to  a  pint  of  pa.ste.  This  should,  of 
course,  be  added  in  the  preparation  of  the 
l)aste,  in  order  to  be  quite  thorouglily  mixed 
throughout.  When  cold,  fill  the  tin  tray  un- 
der the  roll.  Dip  yoiu'  hand  into  the  i)aste, 
and  rub  it  over  the  rolls  until  they  are  thor- 
oughly lu])ricated.  If  possible  they  should 
be  warmed  to  about  !)5^  in  order  to  work 
best.  Place  tlie  mill  near  the  stove  for  a  lit- 
tle while  before  you  expect  to  use  it. 

Referring  to  the  engraving  again.  No.  1  is 
to  feed  the  sheets  and  turn  the  crank.  We 
will  supiKjse  that  you  assiune  the  position  of 
No.  1  while  an  assistant  acts  as  No.  2.  If 
the  end  of  the  sheet  is  too  thick,  cut  it  off 
with  a  knife.*  Feed  the  sheet  into  the  mill 
and  turn  the  crank  about  half  a  revolution. 
Now  raise  the  wooden  roller  until  it  is  level 


the  accompanying  engraving.  The  manner 
of  using  them  is  shown  above  in  the  right 
hand  of  No.  2, 


GRIPPERS. 

Referring  to  the  large  engraving  again, 
No.  1  rolls  out  the  sheet,  and  watches  care- 
fully to  see  that  no  foreign  particles  adhere, 
either  to  the  upper  or  Tuider  side  of  the  sheet, 


*The  sheets  as  they  leave  the  dlppiag-boards  are, 
as  a  general  thing',  a  little  ragged,  and  sometimes  a 
little  thickened  at  the  ends.  Instead  of  trimming 
each  sheet  individually  before  passing  it  through 
the  mill,  take  a  pile  of  them  and  trim  all  at  once, 
evenly  and  squarely,  with  a  large  butcher-knife,  as 
will  be  explained  presently.  Put  this  pile  into  the 
vat  of  water,  and  you  are  ready  to  roll. 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


COMB  FOUNDATION, 


such  as  would  damage  tlie  surface  of  the 
rolls.  No.  1  receives  the  slieet  and  deposits 
it  on  the  table  at  her  right. 

HOW  TO  AD.JUST  THE   MILL   FOR   LIGHT  AND 
HEAVY   FOUNDATION. 

In  adjusting  the  mill  from  thin  to  thick 
foundation,  give  the  adjusting  top  bolts  each 
an  equal  timi — somewhere  about  one  quar- 
ter of  a  turn  up.  If  the  sheets  roll  Ijowing 
on  one  edge,  the  rolls  are  screwed  down  too 
nuich  on  one  side.  If  yon  are  running  on 
heavy  foundation,  and  desire  to  turn  the 
mill  down  to  inediiun,  an  eiglith  of  a  tiu-n 
will  proljably  be  entirely  sufficient.  Be  care- 
ful not  to  screw  down  the  mill  too  much,  or 
you  will  bruise  the  surface  of  the  lozenge 
faces.  If  the  bottom  of  the  cell  is  thick  on 
one  side,  with  a  screw-driver  loosen  the 
screw  in  the  cam  one-eighth  of  a  turn,  and 
follow  up  with  the  one  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  cam  which  you  will  tind  on  one  end 
of  the  top  roll.    Be  sirre  to  oil  often. 

CAUTION. 

I  liave  already  incidentally  remarked  in 
one  or  two  places  in  regard  to  the  danger  of 
running  pieces  of  metal  through  the  mills. 
To  prevent  the  occurrence  of  such  accidents, 
be  sure  that  all  nails  and  pins  are  kept  out 
of  the  room.  We  used  to  box  our  wax  in  the 
same  room  where  we  rolled  out  the  wax 
sheets.  By  some  means,  the  nails  would  get 
on  to  the  tallies  Ijy  the  piles  of  wax  sheets, 
and  we  liad  trouble  later.  A  nail  is  an  inno- 
cent-looking thing  when  lying  on  a  table,  to 
be  sure ;  but  let  some  one  heedlessly  lay  a 
pile  of  wax  sheets  on  top,  and  that  nail  will 
be  sure  to  imbed  itself  in  the  sheet  aljove  it. 
As  it  will  be  pretty  apt  to  elude  scrutiny,  it 
will  be  passed  through  the  mill,  clinging  to 
the  sheet,  and  the  consequence  is  a  big  nail- 
mark  on  the  surface  of  each  roll.  After  hav- 
ing invested  twenty-hve  or  thirty  dollars  in  a 
foundation-mill,  and  damaging  it,  you  will 
find,  as  Josh  Billings  says,  tliat  "  egsperieiis 
keeps  a  gude  skule,  ])ut  the  tuisiien  is  rutlier 
hi.''  Only  one  little  nail,  tiiat's  all!  We 
have  also  had  the  rolls  injured  l)y  the  bod- 
kin, or  little  implement  used  for  lifting  up 
the  sheets  from  the  rolls.  It  would  be  laid 
carelessly  in  front  of  the  mill,  and,  in  some 
strange  way,  woiUd  get  iinbed<led  into  the 
.sheet,  only  to  re])eat  tlie  miscliief.  We  now 
have  them  suspended  by  a  rnbl)er  cord  from 
tiie  ceiling,  in  .such  a  way  as  to  hang  four  or 
five  inches  above  the  rolls.  Wlien  it  is  nec- 
e.ssary  to  use  it,  the  bodkin  can  be  drawn 
down.  After  usage  it  is  let  go,  wiien  it  will 
draw  up  out  of  the  way,  where  it  can  not  get 
entangled  in  the  siieets. 


HOW  TO   CLEAN    THE    FOUNDATION  -  KOLLS. 

Now,  after  you  have  been  using  your 
comb-mill  for  a  day  or  so,  the  rolls  will  be- 
come clogged,  or  dirty,  from  small  particles 
of  wax  collecting  in  the  interstices.  The 
most  expeditious  way  we  have  found  for  re- 
moving all  such  particles  Is  to  turn  a  jet 
of  steam  upon  the  rolls  for  five  or  ten  min- 
utes, or  until  the  rolls  feel  hot  to  the  hand. 
While  the  steam  is  blowing,  the  rolls  should 
be  turned  backward  and  forward.  The  ac- 
tion of  the  steam  is  to  melt  the  particles  of 
wax,  and  then  blow  them  off.  Next  scour 
with  a  brush  and  boiling  soapsuds.  Where  it 
is  not  convenient  to  use  steam,  a  stream  of 
boiling  water  from  a  tea-kettle  will  answer 
nearly  as  well  as  the  steam,  though  it  does 
not  do  its  work  as  rapidly. 

If  you  do  not  succeed  in  making  nice  foun- 
dation, clean  the  rolls  as  I  have  just  direct- 
ed, and  you  will  be  surprised  at  the  differ- 
ence in  results.  Unless  you  do  keep  your 
rolls  clean  you  will  probably  become  dis- 
gusted with  the  whole  business. 

MAKING     FOUNDATION  IN   LARGE   QUANTI- 
TIES. 

The  foregoing  directions  in  regard  to  mak- 
ing the  wax  sheets,  and  passing  them 
through  the  mill,  apply  to  those  who  either 
desire  to  make  foundation  for  their  own 
use,  or  to  supply  a  moderate  trade  which 
they  may  have.  Where  the  article  is  to  be 
made  by  the  ton,  the  wax  should  be  melted 
by  steam,  by  means  of  a  series  of  coiled 
pipes,  or  by  heating  water  surrounding  the 
vat  of  wax.  Either  plan  is  very  simple ; 
and  where  large  quantities  are  to  be  melted, 
it  is  by  far  the  best.  Steam  is  not  only  a 
great  convenience  in  melting  the  Avax  and 
cleaning  the  foundation-rolls,  but  it  may  be 
made  a  very  useful  servant  in  turning  the 
rolls  themselves.  Very  recently,  comb- 
foundation  machines  have  been  built,  to  be 
operated  by  steam-power.  The  following 
engraving  illustrates  one  of  these  machines. 

For  some  time  it  was  a  problem  as  to  how 
these  mills  could  be  operated  by  power  so 
they  could  be  started  instantly  and  stopped 
instantly,  and  yet  in  no  way  inconvenience 
or  endanger  the  operator  while  manipulat- 
ing the  wax  sheets.  The  problem  was  suc- 
cessfully solved  by  means  of  friction-rollers. 
The  treadle  B  communicates,  as  you  will 
notice,  with  a  light  iron  rod.  This  operates 
another  lever.  A,  which  in  turn  operates  a 
friction-i)ulley.  Pre.ssure  upon  the  treadle 
brings  the  friction-pulley  in  contact  with 
the  lower  pulley,  C.  The  mill  can  be  instant- 
ly started  or  stopped.    Before  we  adopted 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


68 


power  attachment,  our  employees  complain- 
ed a  good  deal  in  consequence  of  the  tire- 
soive  work  of  turning  the  crank  on  the 
hand-mills,  and  we  found  it  necessary  to 
employ  a  good  strong  man.  Since  the  adop- 
tion of  these  power-mills,  the  services  of  the 
latter  have  been  entirely  dispensed  with ; 
and    only  one    woman  (rarely    two)    oper- 


A   POWER   FOUNDATION-MILL. 

ates  the  machine  easily  alone.  Reversal  of 
motion  is  accomplished,  wliat  little  there  is 
of  it,  by  hand.  The  large  balance-wheel  can 
be  turned  backward  <r  forward.  When 
ready  to  roll,  power  is  applied.  The  general 
directions  which  have  been  given  for  the 
hand-mills  will  apply  to  the  power-mills. 

TRIMMIXCf    AND    SQUARING    THE   SHEETS. 

As  the  sheets  are  taken  from  the  rolls,  lay 
them  squarely  upon  each  other  until  you 
have  a  pile  2  or  3  inches  high.  Now  lay  on 
them  a  board  cut  the  exact  size  you  wish  the 
fdn.  to  be,  and  with  a  sharp,  thin-bladed 
butcher  or  other  knife,  cut  through  the 
whole,  all  around  the  board.  To  prevent 
the  knife  from  sticking,  dip  it  occasionally 
in  the  starch,  such  as  is  used  in  rolling  the 
sheets.  To  have  the  knife  work  nicely,  you 
should  have  a  coarse  Avhetstone  near  by, 
with  which  to  keep  the  edge  keen.  As  the 
board  is  lialjle  to  shrink,  warp,  and  get  the 
edges  whittled  off,  where  a  great  number  of 
sheets  of  a  .i)articular  size  is  wanted,  we 
have  frames,  made  sharp  on  their  edges  and 
lined  with  tin.  The  tin  is  folded,  and  put 
on  so  that  the  knife-edge  does  not  strike  it, 
if  the  blade  is  held  in  the  proper  position. 

To  cut  the  sheets  we  have  frames  made 
as  follows : 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 

The  diagonal  piece  in  figure  1  serves  as  a 
brace  to  keep  it  true  and  square,  and  also 
for  a  handle  to  lift  it  by.  The  frame  is 
placed  over  the  sheet  so  as  to  cut  to  the  best 
advantage,  and  the  knife  is  run  around  it. 


FRAMES  FOR  CUTTING  SHEETS  FOR  BROOD- 
FRAMES. 

Figure  1  is  for  cutting  sheets  12  by  18,  and 
figure  2  for  the  L.  frame,  8  by  16i  in.  For 
the  wired  frames  shown  on  page  05,  the 
sheets  are  to  be  cut  8|xl7i. 

For  cutting  a  great  number  of  small  pieces, 
such  as  starters  for  sections,  a  pair  of 
frames  like  those  shown  in  the  engravings 
below  are  very  convenient. 

Fig.  3. 


Fig.  4. 


mm 


:j;^'' 


m 


'\yiM\ 


-|ii»l 


m 


■imiiiM;iiM|!ll|ill|):jilii;j 


MACHINE  FOR  CUTTING  STARTERS. 

Fig.  3  is  composed  of  seven  i-inch  strips, 
II  inches  wide,  by  about  20  inches  long. 
The  spaces  are  just  wide  enough  to  allow 
the  knife  to  run  between  them.  Fig.  4  is 
composed  of  the  same  number  of  boards, 
but  they  are  3|  wide,  by  about  16  long.  You 
will  observe  that  this  allows  one  frame  to  be 
placed  over  the  other,  each  fitting  in  be- 
tween the  cleats  of  the  other.  To  use  the 
machine,  place  a  sheet  (or  sheets)  of  fdn., 
say  12  by  18,  on  Fig.  3,  and  lay  Fig.  4  over 
it.  Run  the  knife  through  all  the  spaces, 
and  then  turn  the  whole  machine  over.  Now 
run  it  through  as  before,  and  your  sheet  is 
cut  into  oblong  pieces,  just  such  as  we  put 


COMB  FUUXDATIOX 


(j!» 


COMB  FOUND ATIOX. 


in  the  4i  section  boxes  when  we  ship  them 
in  hives  complete.  We  should,  perhaps,  nse 
pieces  somewhat  larger,  were  it  not  that 
there  would  be  greater  danger  of  their 
breaking  ont  with  the  rough  handling  they 
get  when  the  hives  are  sent  bj'  freight.  The 
pieces,  as  made  with  the  above  frames,  are 
If  bj'  3f  inches.*  If  much  work  is  to  be  done 
with  these  frames,  they  had  better  l)e  cov- 
ered with  tin.  like  tlie  frames  before  men- 
tioned. 

FOUNDATION  FOR   COMB  IIOXEY. 

The  only  trouble  with  it  for  comb  honey 
is  that,  under  some  circumstances  occurring 
very  rarely  I  believe,  the  bees  will  build  on  to 
the  foundation,  without  thinning  the  center 
at  all.  as  they  usually  do.  I  believe  this  is 
more  apt  to  occur  when  a  good  yield  of  hon- 
ey comes  during  rather  cool  weather,  the 
bees  being  unable  to  get  the  wax  warm 
enough  to  work  readily.''  The  remedy  for 
this  will  be  in  making  the  base  of  the  cells 
of  the  fdn.  exceedingly  thin,  and  the  small 
6-inch  machines  seem  best  for  this  purpose. 
We  have  made  machines  for  making  the 
foundation  four,  four  and  a  half,  and  live 
•cells  to  the  inch.  The  latter  is  intended 
to  be  used  in  brood-rearing,  unless,  per- 
chance one  may  desire  to  rear  drones.  In 
that  case,  four  cells  to  the  inch  should  be 
used.  As  the  queens  are  not  as  apt  to  de- 
posit eggs  in  drone-cells,  it  was  once  j 
thought  that  drone  foundation  would  l)e  ' 
more  desirable  in  the  surplus-apartment. 
But  notwithstanding  this,  more  recently  a  ; 
■decided  preference  has  been  shov\Ti  for  thin  I 
worl-er  foundation  (five  cells  to  the  inch).        | 

In  order  to  get  nice  thin  foundation,  the  I 
rolls  should  be  screwed  do«n  as  closely  as 
they  may  be  (according  to  directions  al- ; 
ready  given),  so  as  to  get  the  base  of  the  ' 
cells  nearly  if  not  quite  as  thin  as  the  natu-  [ 
ral  base.  If  it  is  made  a  little  too  thick,  the  [ 
base  is  very  easily  detected  in  the  comb  [ 
honey,  and  has  been  called,  not  inappropri- 
ately, •'  fishbone."' 

Flat-bottom  foundation  has  been  made, 
which  some  think  is  the  best  surplus  foun-  j 
<lation.  It  is  nothing  but  a  sheet  of  wax, 
■embossed  with  hexagonal  cells  inclosing  a 
flat  base.  While  it  makes  very  nice  comb 
honey,  yet  the  testimony  of  many  of  those 
who  have  tried  it  is  to  the  effect  that  it  is 
not  readily  accepted  by  the  bees,  and  conse- 

*  Nearly  all  our  prominent  honey-prorlncers.  how- 
ever, are  strongly  in  favor  of  havinjf  the  thin  foun- 
dation entirely  till  the  sections;  and  for  the  mic- 
pound  sections,  they  are  cut  3;'.(x:! ',,.  made  of  foun- 
dation with  the  /)a*e  about  as  thin  as  natural  couib. 
To  make  .starters  this  size  the  slats  in  lioth  Fivr.  3 
4ind  FiK-  4should  lie  3^4  in.  wiile. 
3 


;  quently  valuable  time  is  lost.  We  do  know 
this  much,  that  they  remodel  and  rebuild 
the  cells  before  drawing  them  out.  Xot- 
with.standing  this,  there  are  two  or  three 
laro^e  honey-pi  oducers  in  the  State  of  New 
York  who  consider  it  the  best  surplus  foun- 
dation—Mr. P.  II.  Elwood.  of  Starkville, 
N.  Y..  an  extensive  Itee-keeper  of  large  ex- 
j)erience.  amoiif;  the  numl  er.  There  are 
f)thei-  New  York  bee-keepers  who  think  as  he 
does. 

SAGGING   OF  THE   FOUNDATION.    AND   HOW 
TO    PREVENT    IT. 

Many  devices  liave  been  tried  to  prevent  the 
sagging  of  the  fdn.,  and  consequently  slight 
elongation  of  the  cells,  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  comb.  With  the  L.  frames,  this  is  so 
slight  that  it  occasions  no  serious  trouble 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  wax  of  com- 
merce ;  but  with  deeper  frames,  or  with  some 
specimens  of  natural  wax,  the  sagging  is 
sufficient  to  allow  the  bees  to  raise  drones  in 
the  upper  cells.  Paper  has  been  tried,  and 
succeeds  beautifully,  while  the  bees  are  get- 
ting honey  ;  but  during  a  dearth,  when  they 
have  nothing  to  do.  they  are  liable  at  any 
time  to  tear  the  nice  combs  all  to  bits,  to  get 
out  the  pai)er,  which  I  have  supposed  they 
imagine  to  be  the  web  of  the  moth-worm. 
In  our  apiary  I  have  beautiful  combs  built 
on  thin  wood :  but  as  the  bottom  of  the  cell 
is  flat,  they  are  compelled  to  use  wax  to  fill 
out  the  interstices,  and  the  value  of  this 
surplus  wax,  it  seems  to  me,  throws  the 
wood  base  entirely  out  of  the  question.  I 
do  not  like  the  fdn.  with  wire  rolled  in  it,  on 
account  of  the  greater  expense,  and  because 
we  cannot  fasten  it  in  the  frames  as  securely 
as  we  can  where  the  wires  are  first  sewed 
througli  the  frames. 

Aside  from  the  avoidance  of  drone-cells, 
we  want  combs  that  will  not  break  out  of 
the  frames  in  shipping,  handling,  or  extract- 
ing, in  either  hot  or  cold  weather ;  we  also 
want  frames  that  will  not  sag  in  the  middle, 
no  matter  how  heavily  they  may  be  filled 
with  honey. 


L.  fra:nie  wired  ready  FOR  use. 
For  several  years  we  wired  all  our  combs 
as  sliown  in  the  accompanying  enijraving. 
The  to])  and  bottom  l)ars  were  i)ierced  at  reg- 
nlai'  distances,  through  wliich  the  wire  was 
tineaded  back  and  forth.  If  a  thin  top-bar 
— tliat  is,  one  not  more  than  i  inch— is  used, 
a  fVdderl  tin  bar  will  be  necessarv. 


COMB  P'OUNDATION. 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


Latterly  we  have  employed  the  method 
shown  below,  and  it  is  what  vve  call  the 
Keeney  plan.  Pen)endieiilar  wiring  is  a])t 
to  bow  up  tlie  l)ottom-bar  if  the  wires  are 
drawn  tight,  and  to  pull  the  top-bar  down  if 
it  is  not  thicker  than  i.  Ti'iie.  we  can  avoid 
that  by  the  use  of  folded  tin  bars,  but  l)ees 
seldom  build  over  tlieni  nicely.  The  Keeney 
method  of  wiring  takes  less  wire  and  less 
time,  and  it  brings  tlie  entire  strain  upon  the 
four  corners  of  the  frame — the  ])()int  wliere 
there  is  the  greatest  strengtli.  No  piercing 
of  top-ljars  or  Ijottom-bars  is  necessary.  A 
U-inch  wire  nail  is  driven  through  the  end- 
bars  f  of  an  inch  fixnn  tlie  top  and  bottom 
bars.  They  are  then  l^ent  into  the  form  of  a 
hook  by  means  of  round-nosed  pliers.  To  do 
this  rai)idly,  string  a  lot  of  frames  over  a 
narrow  board,  so  that  the  end-bars  will  lie  in 
contact  side  by  side,  and  then  support  the 
two  i)rojectiiig  ends  of  the  boards.  With  a 
straight-edge  and  pencil  draw  a  Hue  I  inch 
from  the  toi)-bars.  and  then  a  line  i  inch 
from  the  bottom-bars.  This  gives  you  the 
location  ff)r  each  wire  nail  as  regards  the  top 
and  bottom  Ijars.  Before  taking  the  frames 
off  the  board,  drive  the  nails  in.  Then  slide 
them  off  f?i  masse,  and  afterward  bend  the 
]ioints,  as  shown  in  the  accompanying  en- 
graving. Cut  your  wire  69  inches  long. 
Twist  a  loop  in  one  end;  catch  the  wire  over 
liook  No.  1,  and  pass  successively  to  hooks  2, 
3,  4.  and  back  to  1 ;  then  draw.  Next  pass 
the  wire  inider  the  wire  at  o,  catch  over  the 
hfK)k  at  2.  draw  the  wire  taut,  and  fasten  by 
twisting. 


KEKXEY'S    ME'lHOD    OF  W1RIX6,  OIPROVKD. 

To  get  your  wire  the  right  length,  wind  it 
over  a  long  board  o  or  (i  inches  wide,  and 
roimded  at  the  end  to  a  featlier  edge.  The 
lengtli  of  tliis  board  should  l)e  just  half  the 
length  of  the  wire  you  use;  namely,  for  the 
L.  frame,  341  inches.  After  you  have  wound 
tlie  whole  coil  of  wire  on  this  board- fi'om  end 
to  end.  take  an  old  jjair  of  shears  and  cut  all 
tlie  strands  in  two,  rigiit  where  they  lieiid 
over  the  end  ;  and  to  keej)  them  from  flying 
all  over  when  cut,  slip  a  couple  of  rul)ber 
bands  over  each  end  of  the  board.  Now, 
when  you  are  ready  to  wire,  just  simply  pull 
the  wire  out  from  one  end. 


This  method  of  wiring  is  very  expeditious 
and  satisfactory  for  tlie  ordinary  bee-keeper. 
It  is  not  as  sul)stantial  as  tlie  i)erpendicular- 
wiring  plan,  but  enough  so  for  jjiactical  pur- 
poses. The  two  ])erpendicular  wires,  2  and  8, 
land  4,hohI  the  ends  of  the  foundation  fi'om 
Hopping  out  of  position.  The  horizontal 
wires,  1  and  2,  hold  the  top,  also,  ])erni;tnent. 

The  wire  used  is  No.  30,  tinned  iron  wire. 
After  the  wires  are  in  and  drawn  up  tight, 
the  foundation  is  cut  so  as  to  fill  the  frame, 
aiKl  the  wires  are  then  imbedded  into  the 
wax  by  means  of  one  of  the  various  devices 
for  tliat  purpose.  During  this  operation  the 
foundation  is  supported  on  a  level  board  cut 
so  as  to  just  slip  inside  the  frame,  and  come 
up  against  the  wires.  The  board  is  to  be 
kept  wet  with  a  damp  cloth,  to  prevent  the 
wax  sticking  to  it. 

A  common  carpet  -  stretcher,  like  the 
cut  below,  is  fitted  with  a  short  handle, 
and  then  the  wax  is 
warmed  up  so  as  to  be 
quite  soft.  The  wires 
are  imbedded  by  laying 
the  points  along  the 
wire,  and  pressing  down 
while  the  f<iundation 
is  supported  by  a  board 
in  the  manner  already 
given.  By  the  use  of  the  carpet-stretcher. 
carpet-stretcher,  the  bees  finish  out  the  cells 
as  perfectly  as  if  nothing  oi  the  kind  had 
ever  touched  them. 

In  imtting  in  foundation  f)n  the  Keeney 
plan,  slip  the  top  edge  up  in  the  groove 
where  the  comb-guide  would  go  if  the  frame 
were  not  wired.  Then  imbed  the  wires  in 
the  foundation. 

Still  later,  the  implement  figured  in  the  cut 
below  has  found  favor,  and  our  girls  now 


EASTERDAY  S  FOUNDATION- FASTENER. 

consider  it  quicker  and  easier  to  use  than 
any  other  thing  heretofore  tried.  You  see, 
the  points  strike  one  at  a  time,  therefore  no 
very  great  pressure  is  needed  ;  and  yet  by 
rocking  the  implement  the  work  is  done  very 
rapidly. 


COMB  FOUNDATIOX, 


71 


COMB  FOUNDATION. 


This  press  has  found  considerable  favor 
with  a  few.  With  a  pair  of  dies  just  the  size 
of  the  inside  of  the  frame,  plain  sheets  of 


STAUTERS    FOR    SECTION    BOXES. 

Many  bee-keepers  want  the  starter  to  fill 
the  section  as  nearly  as  possible,  leaving  a 
space  of  only  i  or  t  inch  at  the  sides  and 
bottom.  Even  with  so  large  a  starter  as 
tills,  the  bees  sometimes  fail  to  fasten  the 
comb  at  tlie  sides  arul  bottom.  It  is  espe- 
cially desirable  to  have  it  fastened  at  the 
bottom,  to  prevent  Ijreaking  out  in  ship- 
ping ;  but  even  if  long  enougli  to  touch  the 
bottom,  the  bees  do  not  always  finish  it 
down.  Perliaps  a  safer  way  is  to  fasten  a 
starter  at  the  bottom,  I  inch  wide  or  deep  ; 
then  fasten  at  the  top  a  starter  3i  inches 
deep.  This  makes  a  sure  thing  of  having 
tlie  comb  fastened  to  the  bottom-bar.  Such 
starters  properly  fastened  witli  a  Clark  fas- 
tener have  been  safely  hauled  on  tlie  trot  to 
an  out-apiary.  If  cut  3i  instead  of  3i,  the 
swing,  and  the  consequent  liability  to  fall 
out,  would  be-  much  greater.  The  idea 
is,  to  rub  or  press  a  thin  edge  of  the  wax  into 
the  dry  wood  of  the  section.  The  motion  of 
the  machine  spreads  the  wax  do\\'n,  and 
mashes  it  into  the  wood,  as  it  were.  Below 
is  the  Parker  machine,  which  is  used  quite 


CJIVEX    FOUNDATION-PRESS. 

wax  are  made  into  foundation,  and  the  wires 
imbedded  into  it  at  one  and  the  same  opera- ' 
tion.  The  ol)jections  to  it  are,  the  price  is  j 
much  more  than  the  price  of  rolls  ;  that ' 
it  makes  sheets  of  only  one  size ;  that  the 
wire  used  for  it  must  be  considerably  finer 
than  Xo.  30.  No.  36, 1  believe,  is  generally 
used,  and  this  we  find  too  frail  for  our  use, 
shipping  bees,  etc.  As  yet.  I  believe  it  does 
not  put  foimdation  into  wired  frames  so  that 
they  will  bear  shipment,  while  that  put  in  by 
hand  can  be  shipped  safely  anywhere  during 
wai'm  weather.  Neither  is  it  adapted  to 
making  sheets  of  foundation  that  entirely 
fill  the  frames ;  and  I  should  always  want 
the  sheets  to  come  clear  up  to  the  wood  on 
all  sides.-^' 

FASTENING    STAHTEKS    IX    SECTION    BOXES. 

For  this  purpose  the  foundation  is  made  ^^^^^^.^  stakter  machine. 

in  narrow  strips,  as  has  been  before  explain-  j 

ed.  For  the  one-poiuid  section  we  have  dip- '  The  one  next  illustrated  is  what  is  called 
ping-boards  3f  inches  wide  ;  and  after  being  Clark's  starter  machine.  Instead  of  rub- 
rolled,  they  are  then  cut  up  into  pieces  that  bing  the  foundation  it  presses  it  into  the 
nearly  lill  the  sections,  or  as  much  less  as  the  I  wood.  Pressure  is  exerted  entirely  by  the 
taste  or  purse  of  the  bee-keeper  demands,  foot.  This  not  only  gives  more  power,  but 
The  pieces  are  fastened  only  to  the  top-bar  of  ;  it  leaves  both  hands  free  to  i)ick  up  the  see- 
the section,  and  this  is  done  by  eitlier  of  the  i  tions,  adjust  the  foundation,  and,  after 
accompanying  machines  shown.  '  fastening,  remove  them. 


PARKER  MACHINE   FOR   FASTENING  START- 
ERS IN  SECTIONS. 

largely ;  in  fact,  many  thousands  of  them 
have  lieen  sold.  It  does  very  nice  work; 
but  where  thousands  of  starters  are  to  be 
imt  in,  it  becomes  a  little  tiresome  on  the 
hands. 


COMB  HONEY 


72 


COMB  HONEY. 


To  operate,  screw  it  down  to  a  bench  or 
table,  so  that  the  treadle  just  clears  the 
tioor.  Make  a  little  paddle,  say  8  or  10 
inclies  htng,  i  inch  thick,  and  1  to  U  inch- 
es wide.  Nail  upon  one  side  of  it  a  piece 
of  felt,  or  two  or  three  thicknesses  of 
(»ld  soft  cloth,  equal  to  the  lencjth  of  tlie 
presser-tongne,  then  wliittle  t)ff  the  handle 
end.  saturate  tlie  cushoncd  pai  t  well  with 
salt  water,  renewing  it  if  it  should  get 
dry.  To  moisten  tlie  tongue,  lay  your  pad- 
file  under  it.  iiress  with  tlie  feet  just  as  when 
fastening  in  a  starter,  and  then  throw  the 
paddle  in  y(-ur  lap  till  needed  again.  This 
takes  Itss  time,  and  is  moie  thornugh,  than 
to  use  the  brush.  You  may  need  to  moisten 
the  tongue  for  each  starter,  or  you  may  need 
it  (inly  after  fastening  several  starters.  It  is 
a  good  plan  to  have  a  little  tin  dish  of  salt 
water  in  which  the  tongue  may  be  so  set  as 
to  keep  in  soak  over  njght,  so  as  to  be  in 
good  trim  for  next  day's  work.  ^A'ith  one 
hand  pick  up  a  section,  and  with  the  other 
l)ut  the  foundation  in  position,  directly 
under  the  tongue.  Bring  the  latter  down 
with  the  feet,  and  let  the  feet  come  back 
with  a  rebound,  and  the  whole  i)erformance 
is  (piickly  and  easily  done.  If  the  presser- 
tongue  is  so  sharp  at  the  edge  that  it  cnts 
off  the  foundation,  nmnd  it  off  a  little  with 
sand-paper. 'T;  For  the  first  few  trials,  the 
wax  may  stick  to  the  tongue  rather  than 
to  the  section.  Scrape  the  former  off 
smooth  with  a  knife ;  wet  it  thorough- 
ly with  water  or  paste.  The  foinidation, 
before  in.sertion,  should  be  warmed  up 
to  a  temperature  of  about  110^.  If  the 
sheets  are  put  in  the  direct  rays  of  the 
sun,  shining  through  a  window,  they  will 
be  soft  enough.  Some  ])refer  to  put  the 
foundation  in  ])iles  of  i)erha])s  50,  and  then 
heat  only  one  edge  by  means  of  hot  a  brick 
or  a  l)ody  of  [water  in  some  kind  of  vessel 
kei)t  heated  by  a  lami).  Foundation  must  be 
tolerably  soft  or  it  will  not  stick  firmly  to 
the  sections.  This  is  the  machine  that  is 
recommended  and  used  by  Dr.  Miller,  re- 
ferred to  elsewhere  in  this  work. 

COIVEB  HOIVIiir.  I  believe  no  other 
sul)je(t  (unless  it  be  that  of  wintering)  has 
been  so  much  di.scussed  and  so  much  im- 
proved ui)on  as  the  one  now  Ijefore  us.  Our 
forefathers,  with  their  old  straw  skeps  and 
box  hives,  thought  they  had  done  well  when 
they  had  secured  the  paltry  amount  of  ten  or 
twenty  i)ounds  of  box  honey.  With  the  mod- 
ern ai)pliances  it  is  possible  to  secure  an  av- 
erage ofL  forty^or  sixty  ])ounds  of  section- 


honey;  and  occasional  reports  have  shown 
that  from  800  to  400  pounds  have  Ijeen  oli- 
tained. 

By  the  masses,  a  good  aiticle  of  coml>  hon- 
ey is  more  highly  i)rized  than  an  equally  good 
article  of  extracted  honey  (see  Extkactei> 
Honey).  While  the  latter  can  be,  and,  in 
the  hands  of  the  exjiert  ])roducer,  is,  equal  in 
body,  color,  and  flavor  to  the  Ijest  comb  hon- 
ey ;  yet,  as  extracted  ordinarily  rims,  the 
comb  is  a  little  superior  in  the  qualities  we^ 
have  mentioned. 

Comb  honey  can  not  Ije  counterfeited,  and^ 
consequently,  consumers  are  less  suspicious 
of  it.  For  these  and  other  reasons,  natiu'e's 
sweet,  in  its  original  form,  is  in  greater  de- 
mand, and  hence  commands  a  higher  juice. 
To  offset  this,  it  also  costs  more  to  produce 
it,  and  requires,  likewise,  more  skill  and 
more  complicated  siu'plus  arrangements  to 
get  a  gilt-edged  article.  Years  ago,  all  comb 
honey  was  ])roduced  in  glass  l)0xes.  These 
were  about  five  inches  square,  fifteen  or  six- 
teen inches  long,  glassed  on  both  ends.  They 
were  not  altogether  an  attractive  package^ 
and  were  never  i)ut  upon  the  market  without 
being  more  or  less  soiled  with  burr-combs 
and  propolis.  As  they  held  from  ten  to  flf 
teen  i)ormds  of  honey  each,  they  contained  a 
larger  quantity  than  most  families  cared  to 
purchase  at  once.  To  obviate  these  and 
other  difficulties,  what  is  popularly  known 
as  the  "  set-tion  honey-box  "'  was  invented. 

I  was  not  long  in  adopting  the  new  "  sec- 
tion.' My  original  box  was  made  of  six  pieces 
—two  on  each  side,  and  one  for  top  and  bot- 
tom. Each  piece  was  the  same  size,  and 
dovetailed  at  both  ends.  This  section  held 
about  one  i)ound  and  a  half.  For  obvious 
reasons  I  thought  it  best  that  the  section 
should  hold  just  an  even  pound  of  honey; 
and  to  secure  this,  I  found  that  a  section  4i 
inches  square  would  just  permit  eight  to  go 
inside  a  Langstroth  frame,  as  shown  on  p.  78. 
These  sections  were  first  made  of  four  pieces, 
to  be  put  together  with  nails ;  but  very 
shortly  after,  I  constructed  a  section  box  of 
four  pieces,  dovetailed  at  the  four  corners. 
Two  of  the  pieces  (the  top  and  bottom)  were 
narrower,  to  allow  of  a  passageway  for  the 
bees.  Although  my  section  box  was  at  first 
ridiculed,  it  gradually  grew  in  favor.  It 
was  just  what  was  wanted — a  small  package 
for  coml)  honey.  Thus  was  accomi)lished, 
not  only  the  introduction  of  a  smaller  pack- 
age for  comb  honey,  but  one  attractive  and 
readily  marketable.  The  retailer  was  at  once 
able  to  sui)])ly  his  (nistomer  with  a  small 
quantity  of  comb  honey  without  daul)ing.  or 


COMl',  HONEY. 


7H 


COMB  IIOXEY 


fussinij  with  i)hiles.  The  .^ood  liousewife.  in 
turn,  hcis  only  to  lay  the  ijuckaoe  upon  a 
plate,  i)ass  a  cominon  case  knife  around  the 
comb,  to  separate  the  honey  from  the  se;'tion 
proper,  atrl  the  honey  is  ready  for  th?  table, 
without  (hip.  Tiie  wood  cut  away  is  then 
dropped  into  the  (ire.  For  '■'■  IIo.v  to  Make," 
see  Section.s,  u.ader  Hivk-maivIno. 

SURPLU.S    ARIlAVOKMKNr."^    KOR    rilODUCIXG 
C;)MH   HOMEY   IN    SECTI'iNS. 

It  is  the  aim  of  every  comb-honey  producer 
to  put  his  sections  of  honey  upon  the  market 
in  as  clean  and  attractive  a  shape  as  possi- 
ble;  that  is,  free  from  projHjlis,  burr  combs, 
and  stains,  left  by  the  Ijees.  It  is  not  possi- 
ble to  accoinplish  this  perfectly  by  any  pres- 
ent siu'i)lus  arrangements,  liut  it  can  l)e  done 
to  a  very  ureat  extent,  saving  a  great  deal  of 
after-labor.  For  the  purjjoses  set  forth,  two 
surplus  arrangements  are  in  vogue  among 
bee-keepers  ;  luimely.  the  wide-frame  sys- 
tem, and  the  crate,  or  case  system.  In  the 
former,  a  frame  of  the  size  of  the  brood- 
frames  is  em])loyed.  This,  instead  of  being 
only  i  of  an  inch  thick,  is  H  in.,  or  of  a  width 


LANGSTROTH   WIDE   FRAME. 

equal  to  the  width  of  the  section  used.  When 
one  of  these  frames  is  tilled  with  sections 
ready  for  the  hive,  the  appearance  is  like 
the  above  cut.  which  rei)resentsaLangstroth 
wide  frame  tilled  with  one-i)ound  sections 
ready  to  be  set  into  the  hive.  You  observe, 
that  all  outside  surfaces  of  the  sections  are 
protected,  leaving  only  the  edges  of  the  sec- 
tions subject  to  the  propolizing  of  the  bees. 
In  the  interstices  formed  by  the  contact  of 
the  sections,  the  bees  will  also  crowd  some  of 
their  bee-glue.  i)articularly  if  the  wide  frames 
l)e  a  trille  too  large  for  the  sections.* 

\\ide  frames  are  used  with  one,  two,  and, 
in  rare  cases,  with  three  tiers  of  sections. 
The  one  figured  a])ove  holds  two  tiers,  and 
this  is  the  oiu'  which  has  had  a  very  large 
sale,  ajid,  conseciuently.  is  in  use  i)y  a  large 
number  of  bee-keepers.  Since,  however,  it 
is  not  well  adapted  for  tiering  \\\)  (a  term 
which  will  l)e  exjdained  further  on),  the  sin 

*  P(M-hai)s  it  should  be  romark«'i|  yifrht  liorn,  tlmt. 

as  Nature  ""aliliors  a  vafiiiiiii,"  s(i  bees  ablior  any 
craok  or  cTcvifc  It  is  liiH-bl.\'  iiiiiKniaiir.  Ilici-ctorc. 
that  tlu"  widi'  frames  shoiikl  l)e  close-tit  ting'  (see 
Hive  makino,  elsewhere). 


gle-tier  wide  frame  is  i)referred.  Xotwitii- 
standing  this  i)reference  on  the  grounds  of 
tiering  up.  of  some  of  our  best  bee-keepers — 
notably,  G.  M.  Doolittle.  Borodino.  X.  Y. ; 
James  lleddon,  Dowa^iac,  Mich.;  Paid  L. 
Viallon,  Bayou  Gonla,  La.,  large  crops  of 
comb  honey  have  been  secured  in  the  doul»le- 
tier  wide  frame.  H.  R.  Boardman.  of  East 
Townseud,  O.,  uses  wide  frames  with  three 
tiers  of  sections,  and  he  gets  a  good  crop  of 
honey  every  year.  But  it  is  an  open  question 
in  my  mind,  whether  he  could  not  secure  as 
much  or  more  honey  by  using  one  tier  of  sec- 
tions at  a  time,  on  the  plan  of  tiering  up 
with  less  labor. 

The  single-tier  wide  frame  used  by  Mr.  G. 
M.  Doolittle,  and  recommended  by  Mr.  ^'ial- 
lon.  is  shown  below. 


DOOLITTLE  S    STTRPLITS    ARRANGEMENT. 

The  several  wide  frames  are  clami)ed  to- 
gether by  strong  rubber  loops,  one  at  each 
end.  attached  to  the  side  boards.  Instead  of 
the  rubber,  some  use  a  wire  loop,  tension  be- 
ing l)roibiced  by  a  little  stick  stretched  across 
the  middle.  l''ou  will  notice,  also,  that  the 
wide  frames  have  no  projecting  ends.  and. 
indeed,  are  not  necessary  as  they  are  used. 
The  advantages  of  such  an  arrangement  are, 
1.  It  i)rotects  the  outside  siu-faces  of  the  sec- 
tions; 2.  It  permits  the  ready  shifting  of 
sections  in  the  outside  row  to  the  center, 
and  vice  versa.  This  feature  is  qtiite  valua- 
ble, oftentimes,  if  it  does  not  take  too  much 
time  to  do  it.  It  not  unfreciuently  happens 
that  the  sections  in  the  outside  wide  frame 
are  neglected  by  the  bees,  an<l  it  beconu's  de- 
sirable to  have  them  Idled  out  before  the 
close  of  the  honey-How.  All  you  have  to  do 
is.  to  lift  tiie  wide  fianie  in  (piestion  and   in- 


COMB  HONEY 


74 


COMB  HONEY. 


sert  it  in  the  center,  where,  if  not  too  late,  it 
will  be  lilled  out;  3.  If  the  lioney-flow  is 
very  lis^ht.  one,  two,  or  three  of  these  wide 
frames,  as  the  circumstances  may  demand, 
may  be  put  on  the  hive  at  a  time.  The  bees 
have  only  such  space  a«  they  can  occupy, 
and  the  storage  room  may  be  increased 
gradually  as  the  needs  of  the  colony  call 
for;  4.  Inversion  can  l)e  practiced  witli  tliis 
wide-frame  arranj^ement  when  tiioufiiit  de- 
siralile. 

Surplus  arrangements  of  the  latter  type  are 
quite  varied  in  design.  The  first  which  I 
will  mention,  tliough  but  little  used  is  hardly 
more  tlian  a  honey  board,  or  rack,  with  low 
projecting  sides.  It  simply  sui)ports  the  sec- 
tions, and  protects  their  bottom  sides  from 
becoming  soiled  with  ]>its  of  comb.  A  string 
holds  the  sections  together  comi)actly.  The 
following  engraving  sliows  what  it  is. 


A  HONEY-RACK. 

Another  kind,  which  has  obtained  favor 
with  some,  is  something  after  the  following 
engi'aving. 


observe,  that  it  is  simi)ly  a  shallow  box,  deep- 
er l)y  a  bee-space  than  a  section.  Across  it 
are  transverse  i)arliti<)ns.     To  tiie  bottom 


COMBINED   CRATE  AVITH  SLATTED  BOTTOM. 

As  you  notice,  it  is  simply  a  shallow  box  a 
little  deeper  than  the  sections.  For  a  bottom 
it  has  a  series  of  slats  with  indentations  cor- 
responding to  the  openings  in  the  bottoms  of 
the  sections.  The  i)uri)ose  of  the  slats  is  to 
protect  the  lower  sides  from  bits  of  comb 
and  propolis.  It  is  something  after  the  pat- 
tern of  the  one  first  described,  only  it  has 
sides.  This  is  called  the  combined  crate,  be- 
cau.se  it  may  be  used  for  a  retail  as  well  as 
storage  crate  wliile  on  the  hive.  I  don't 
leconnnend  this  crate,  however,  for  .sections 
(jught  always  to  be  removed  and  cleaned. 

The  next  engraving  shows  a  crate  after 
the  Moore  pattern  ;  and  as  it  differs  so  little 
from  the  one  bearing  the  name  of  Mr.  Hed- 
«lon,  I  will  describe  tlie  Moore  only.    You 


THE  MOOKE   CRATE. 

edge  of  each  of  these,  as  well  as  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  two  ends,  are  nailed  strips  of  tin 
to  form  projections  to  support  the  sections. 
These  transverse  i)artitions  serve  botli  to 
strengthen  the  crates  and  hold  the  sections 
square— particularly  the  one-piece,  which,  if 
not  properly  made,  are  a  little  out  of  square. 
Of  course,  separators  can  not  be  used  in  such 
a  crate,  but  some  claim  that  more  and  just  as 
cratable  comb  honey  can  be  secured  without. 
To  them  a  non-separator  crate  is  not  objec- 
tionable. When  the  Moore  and  Ileddon  crate 
had  its  "  boom ""  it  was  thought  that  separa- 
tors could  be  dispensed  with  to  advantage. 
A  few  think  so  yet ;  but  the  great  majority, 
after  carefully  testing  the  matter,  give  their 
testimony  decidedly  in  favor  of  separators. 
Principally  for  this  non-separator  feature  in 
the  Moore  and  Heddon  crates,  something 
had  to  be  devised  which  would  contain  all 
their  advantages  and  still  permit  the  use  of 
separators.  The  one  figured  below  seems  to 
fill  the  bill. 


THE  T   SUPER. 

For  some  years  it  was  used  by  only  a  few 
bee-keepers,  and  practically  it  was  unknown 
to  the  fraternity.  It  was  not  until  C  C.  Mil- 
ler, of  Marengo,  111.,  recognizing  some  of  its 
merits,  described  it  in  his  book,  "  A  Year 
Among  the  Bees  "  (see  mention  of  this  work 
in  the  ))ack  of  this  volume),  that  the  atten- 
tion of  practical  honey-producers  at  large 
was  called  to  it. 


COMB  HONEY. 


75 


COMB  HONEY. 


The   following  engraving  shows  a  T  tin 
itself. 


T  TIN. 

As  yon  will  notice,  it  is  simply  a  strip  of 
tin  folded  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  T.  com- 
bining simplicity  witli  great  strength.  It 
can  not  be  easily  folded  with  ordinary  tin- 
ners" tools,  bnt  requires  to  be  made  by  spe- 
cial machinery.  By  referring  to  the  engrav- 
ing of  the  T  siiper,  you  will  see  that  three  of 
these  T  tins,  spaced  equally  distant,  are  used 
in  each  super  to  support  the  sections,  as 
showTi.  A  strip  of  tin  is  nailed  to  the  bottom 
edges  of  each  end,  projecting  far  enough  in- 
side to  support  the  ends  of  the  sections.  In 
the  engraving,  the  T  tins  are  repres  ented  as 
being  supported  by  little  pieces  of  strap  iron 
(see  bottom  view) ;  l)ut  more  recently  a  dou- 
ble-pointed tack  of  the  proper  size,  bent  at 
right  angles,  is  not  only  cheai)er  but  neater. 
The  two  prongs  of  the  staple  are  driven  into 
the  bottom  edge  of  the  sides,  so  that  the  hor- 
izontal portion  projects  far  enough  to  support 
the  T  tin.  This,  as  you  will  observe,  brings 
them  flush  with  the  bottom,  leaving  the  bee- 
space  above  the  sections,  as  seen  in  the  cut. 

But  the  T  super,  for  all  its  desirable 
features,  has  some  disadvantages.  1.  Open- 
side  sections,  which  are  jireferred  by  some 
bee-keepers,  can  not  be  used  in  it.  2.  As 
the  upright  of  the  T  takes  about  ^  of  an 
inch,  it  leaves  a  space  between  two  rows  of 
sections,  which  the  l^ees  are  inclined  to  fill 
with  propolis.  One-piece  sections  have  a 
tendency  to  be  diamond-shaped  ;  and  the  T 
super,  on  account  of  the  spaces  between  the 
rows,  leaves  them  to  lean  against  each  oth- 
er and  from  each  other,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
leave  J  inch,  and  in  other  cases  almost  no 
spaces  at  all.  When  these  sections  are  tilled 
with  honey  they  come  out  of  the  super  a  lit- 
tle bit  out  of  square,  and  this  makes  it  some- 
what difficult,  sometimes,  to  crate.*  3.  Bees 
will  always  fill  the  sections  directly  over  the 
brood— that  is,  the  central  ones— before  they 
will  the  outside  rows.  In  order  to  make 
them  fill  out  alike  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to 
change  jtlaces  with  the  central  and  outside 
rows. 

Ouite  recently  an  effort  has  been  made 
to  combine  the  advantages  of  the  wide 
frame  with  the  advantages  of  the  T  sui)er; 
and  I  believe  it  has  been  most  successful- 


ly accomplished  in  wliat  is  now  known  as  the 
section-holder. 


*This  can  be  obviated  by  an  extra  set  of  T  tins  on 
top;  or  better,  separator  stilt!"  \  inch  wide. 


THE   SECTION-HOLDEK.* 

These  are  simply  wide  frames  having  no 
top-bars;  thick  end-bars  and  bottom-bars, 
with  insets  corresponding  to  the  oi)ening  in 
the  sections.  Such  a  holder,  on  account  of 
its  accessibility  from  the  top,  unlike  ordina- 
ry wide  frames,  can  be  filled  and  emptied 
easily,  and,  like  wide  frames,  can  be  shifted 
from  center  to  outside  and  vice  versa.  The 
end-bars  are  so  thick,  when  nailed  with  wire 
nails  to  the  bottom-bar,  as  to  stand  rigid. 
Sections  4i  can  be  fitted  into  them,  and  they 
will  be  held,  as  a  general  thing,  square. 
For  ordinary  wide  frames,  sections  are  lia- 
ble to  drop  down  from  the  top-bar.  leaving 
a  little  space  for  the  insertion  of  pn)polis. 
With  the  section-holders,  gravity  holds  the 
sections  close  to  the  l:>ottom-ljar. 

I  said  the  outside  rows  can  easily  be  shift- 
ed from  outside  to  center,  and  this  is  no 
slight  advantage  during  seasons  when  the 
honey-flow  is  slow,  or  rather  meager  at  best. 
In  the  Dovetailed  hive  the  section-holders 
are  used  in  connection  with  a  follower  and 
wedge.  To  alternate  sections,  sinii)ly  re- 
move the  wedge  and  follower.  The  section- 
holders  may  then  be  loosened  l)y  i)rying  them 
apart.  Having  Ijeen  wedged  together  in 
the  first  place,  they  will  not  stick  very  hard. 
Our  i)reference,  for  these  and  other  reasons, 
is  for  the  section-holder  arrangement.  It  is 
used  largely  in  the  east. 

HOW  TO   SECURE  COMB  HONEY. 

I  have  now  described  the  different  types  of 
suri)lus  arrangements  in  use  for  coml)  honey. 
Having  selected  the  one  best  adapted  for 
your  i)uri)ose.  you  next  desire  to  know  how 
to  secure  com!)  honey.  The  first  essential  is 
to  get  a  good  strong  working  force  of 
BEES  in  readiness  just  before  the  expected 
honey-flow.  To  do  this,  brood-rearing  in  the 
spring  shcmld  not  l)e  hindered  or  stojiped  for 
want  of  stores.  If  necessary,  stimulative 
feeding  should  be  practiced.    In  the  mean 


♦KiigravinK  rather  convi-ys  the  impression  (hat 
the  ends  arc  solid.  There  are.  in  reality,  six  section- 
holders  placed  side  by  side.  The  separators  ai'e  left 
,,tl'  all  except  (he  last  one. 


COMB  HONEY. 


7(j 


COMB  HONEY. 


time,  if  ><)U  have  not  aheajly  done  so.  you 
should  see  to  .uettin.u:  your  surplus  eases  rea- 
dy—  that  is,  tilled  \Yith  seetions,  and  the  sec- 
tions with  foundation,  as  given  under  Comb 
Foundation.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  leave 
this  to  the  last  thing.  A  still  greater  mistake 
is  to  delay  getting  your  supplies  early.  I 
hope  my  A  B  C  scholars  will  bear  this  iii 
mind.  Many  a  fine  crop  of  honey  has  fallen 
far  short  of  what  it  might  have  Ijeen  but  for 
negligence  in  this  important  particvilar.  I 
have  talked — yes,  scolded— through  Gleanings 
in  Bee  Culture  because  bee-meu  ])ersist  in 
l)utting  this  matter  off.  When  the  bees  are 
well  started  gathering  honey,  and  the  brood- 
combs  begin  to  bulge,  and  the  edges  of  the 
cells  to  whiten,  you  are  then  ready  to  con- 
tract, as  given  under  Contraction,  further 
on,  ready  for  the  reception  of  surplus  cases. 
Be  careful  about  contracting  too  much,  oth- 
erwise you  may  injure  the  fine  quality  of 
your  comb  honey  by  the  admission  of  pol- 
len. 1  think,  therefore,  I  would  not  reduce 
the  brood-nest  to  less  than  tv.'0-thirds  of  its 
former  capacity. 

TIERING   UP. 

If  honey  is  coming  in  at  a  good  rate,  you 
may  expect  (if  the  bees  have  got  started 
above)  that  the  super,  or  case  of  sections, 
will  soon  be  filled  about  half  full  of  honey — 
the  sections  Ijeing  in  different  stages  of  com- 
l)letion.  When  the  super  is  about  half  filled 
with  honey,  raise  it  up  and  place  another 
empty  super  under  it.  Aljout  the  time  this 
reaches  the  condition  of  about  half  comple- 
tion, raise  both  supers  and  put  under  anoth- 
er empty  one.  This  process  of  '•tiering  up," 
or  "  storifying,"  as  it  is  called  by  the  Eng- 
lish, may  be  continued  until  three  orfour  high, 
depending  upon  the  length  of  the  honey-flow 
and  the  amount  of  nectar  coming  daily.  In 
the  mean  time  the  ripening  process  of  the 
honey  in  the  first  supers  continues.  Usually 
it  is  not  practicaljle  to  tier  up  more  than 
tliree  high. 

CAUTION. 

Care  must  be  exercised  in  tiering  uj),  or  a 
lot  of  unfinished  sections  will  be  the  result. 
When  the  honey-flow  is  drawing  to  a  close, 
and  you  discover  that  there  is  an  evident  de- 
crease in  the  amount  of  nectar  coming  in, 
give  no  more  empty  supers.  Make  the  bees 
complete  what  they  have  on  hand,  which 
they  will  do  if  you  are  fortunate  enough  in 
yoiu"  calculations  as  to  w  hen  the  flow  of  nec- 
tar will  end.  If  uncertain  whether  another 
super  is  needed  or  not  toward  the  close  of  the 
harvest,  it  is  often  advisable  to  i)ut  another 
super  on  topJ''  The  bees  are  not  likely  to  com- 


mence on  this  till  they  really  need  it.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  general  rules  on  tiering 
up;  but  with  the  assistance  of  the  foregoing 
you  are  to  exercise  your  own  discretion. 

AVHAT  TO  DO  AVHEN  BEES  REFUSE  TO  ENTER 
THE   SECTIONS. 

At  times  l)ees  will  show  a  (lisjiositiou  to 
loaf,  and  consequently  a  disinclination  to  go 
into  the  secti(ms.  They  will  hang  out  in 
great  bunches  around  the  entrance,  while 
the  suri)lus-ai)artmeut  is  left  almost  entirely 
vacant,  to  say  nothing  of  foundation  being 
drawn  out.  This  condition  may  be  wholly 
due  to  the  backwardness  of  the  season.  Dur- 
ing those  years  (which  are  not  frequent) 
when  the  Ijees  have  not  yet  filled  their  brood- 
combs  after  the  honey  season  is  nearly  over, 
and,  as  the  days  progress,  make  little  if  any 
increase  in  the  quantity  of  honey,  we  can 
not  expect  the  bees  to  go  above  until  all  the 
available  cell  room  below  has  been  filled,  as 
a  rule.  When  this  is  crammed  full,  and 
there  is  a  rush  of  nectar,  they  will  commence 
work  in  the  sections.  Contraction  (see  that 
head  elsew  here)  is  usually  sufficient  to  start 
the  bees.  We  will  suppose  you  have  a  fair 
average  season,  and  some  colonies  are  stor- 
ing honey  in  the  supers,  and  others  are  not. 
With  the  latter,  the  trouble  is  clearly  with 
the  hive  or  with  the  bees.  Some  bees  are 
nuicli  slower  in  going  above  than  others.  If 
honey  is  coming  in  freely,  they  can  be  bait- 
ed, usually,  by  placing  a  partly  filled  sec- 
tion or  two,  of  the  year  i)revious,  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  super.  Sometimes  a  little  bit  of 
drone  brood  similarly  i)laced  may  be  used  to 
advantage,  Init  I  should  hardly  recommend 
it,  because  it  is  liable  to  result  in  the  discol- 
oration of  the  sections  next  to  it.''**  If  the  use 
of  partly  drawn-out  sections,  as  explained, 
does  not  succeed  in  baiting  the  Ijees,  go  to  a 
hive  where  the  bees  are  already  working  in 
sections,  if  you  can  have  access  to  such  a 
one,  and  remove  sections,  bees  and  all,  that 
are  actually  at  w^ork  drawing  out  the  comb. 
This  will  start  any  hive  at  work  in  the  sec- 
tions that  contain  bees  enough  to  go  to  work. 
The  sections  should  contain  full  slieets  of 
foundation,  because  it  has  been  showui,  over 
and  over  again,  that  bees  are  much  more 
ready  to  accept  full  sheets  than  starters.  If 
you  have  complied  with  this,  perhaps  the 
hive  is  not  properly  shaded,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, the  surplus-apartment  is  overheated 
by  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  In  this  event, 
if  you  can  not  extemporize  some  kind  of 
shade,  use  a  shade-board,  and  smoke  the  bees 
above. 

If  the  methods  given  still  fail  to  force  your 


COMB  HOXEY 


COMB  HONEY. 


l)ees  to  occupy  tlie  sections,  and  you  have 
followed  faithfully  the  instructions,  the  trou- 
ble is  ])rol)al)ly  either  because  honey  is  not 
coming  in  siifficiently  rapid,  or  l)ecanse  the 
brood-nest  is  not  yet  tilled. 

AVIIEN   AND    HOW  TO    TAKE   OFF    SECTIONS. 

Usually  it  is  not  practicable  to  wait  till 
every  section  in  n  super  is  comi)lete  ;  that  is, 
until  every  cell  is  capped  over.  Those  sec- 
tions most  liable  to  be  uniinished  will  be  in 
the  two  outside  rows,  and  these  the  bees  will 
be  long  in  completing.  If  the  honey-flow  is 
over  I  would  not  wait  for  tiiem  to  be  com- 
pleted, but  would  take  the  wliole  siii)er  off  at 
once.  The  longer  it  remains  on  the  hive, 
the  more  travel-stained  the  honey  will  be- 
come, and  the  more  it  will  be  soiled  with 
propolis.  Bees  have  a  fashion  of  running 
through  their  apartments  with  muddy  feet, 
and  in  this  particular  are  not  so  very  much 
unlike  their  owners.  However,  if  you  desire 
a  really  line,  delicious  article  of  com!)  hoiiey, 
one  pleasing  to  the  tongue  and  not  so  much 
to  the  eye,  and  are  not  particular  about  the 
white  marketable  ai)i)earance  of  the  cap- 
pings,  leave  the  super  on  the  hive  for  two  or 
three  months.  Most  bee-keepers  agree  that 
comb  honey  left  on  the  hive  acquires  a  cer- 
tain richness  of  flavor  not  found  in  honey 
just  capped  over.  Although  such  honey  is 
really  better,  it  is  not  quite  so  marketable. 

HOW^  TO  GET  BEES  OUT  OF  THE  SECTIONS. 

There  is  one  danger  in  leaving  honey  on 
till-  after  the  honey-flow.  As  soon  as  you 
open  the  hive,  the  bees,  especially  hybrids, 
are  apt  to  uncap  and  carry  some  of  the  hon- 
ey down.  Whether  you  leave  it  on  the  hive 
or  whether  you  remove  it  as  soon  as  eai>ped, 
the  methods  of  taking  off  and  getting  the 
bees  out  will  be  much  the  same.  In  the  for- 
mer case,  some  supers  may  not  be  hi  led  with 
lioney,  although  a  glance  at  the  top  may 
show  nice  white  capped  combs.  Satisfy  your- 
self by  lifting  one  up  and  looking  under.  If 
cai)i)ed  below,  it  may  be  removed.  To  take 
off*,  blow  smoke  into  the  top  of  the  .su])er 
for  a  little  while,  to  drive  most  of  the  bees 
down  ;  lift  off  the  super,  and  set  it  on  end 
near  the  entrance  (not  as  it  sits  on  the  hive, 
or  yyu  will  kill  bees).  If  honey  is  coming  in 
freely,  r<)l)l)(M-s  will  not  molest,  and  in  two  or 
three  hoin-s  the  bees  will  hav(^  left  tlic  sujx'r 
and  goiu!  into  the  hive. 

Until  you  havr!  had  some  experience,  per- 
haps your  safest  plan  is,  never  to  set  a  su- 
per of  lioney  by  the  hive.  Sometimes  it 
may  be  safe  to  let  it  stand  tliere  all  day 

*  The  plan  here  g'iven  is  the  one  rccomnioiidoci  l)v 
Dr.  C.  C.  Miller.  Maieiij-o,  111. 


when  the  bees  have  more  than  they  can  do 
on  the  flowers;  but.  again,  all  at  once  it 
may  start  the  bees  to  robbing,  and  demoral- 
ize them  generally.  A  Davis  brush  (il- 
lustrated under  Extracted  Honey)  can  be 
used  to  very  good  advantage  while  smoking, 
as  the  bees  pass  out  the  opposite  side.  If 
robbers  are  bad,  the  supers  containing  the 
few  bees  that  will  stick  and 
hang,  can  be  carried  to  a  darkened 
room  designed  for  the  purjjose. 
Light  should  be  admitted  through 
an  opening  about  one  foot  square. 
To  each  side  of  this  hole,  on  the 
outside,  should  be  nailed  a  piece 
of  lath  long  enough  to  project  six 
inches  above  the  hole.  To  each 
lath  is  tacked  wire  cloth  as  long 
as  the  lath.  This  will  leave  f 
of  an  inch  passageway  between 
the  wire  cloth  and  the  side  of 
BEE^EscAPE.  tlie  buildiug.  The  adjoining  dia- 
gram will  make  it  plain.  After  a  time  the 
bees  will  leave  their  supers  and  fly  to  the 
opening.  Here,  as  is  the  tendency  of  bees, 
they  will  crawl  upward  through  the  |  pass- 
ageway, and  escape.  Robbers,  instead  of 
entering  by  the  same  way,  will  alight  on  the 
wire  cloth,  opjiosite  the  opening.  Sometimes 
they  will  enter  the  i)assage — Init  rarely.  I 
believe. 

Another  device  for  removing  liees  from 
sections  is  a  bee-tent. 


FOLDING    IJEE-TENT. 

After  removing  as  many  bees  from  the  sec- 
tions as  possible,  take  tlie  crate^""  or  crates, 
with  the  bees  adhering  and  set  them  upon 
end  on  the  ground.  If  many,  pile  them  one 
upon  another,  alternately  crossing.  Xow 
take  the  folding  tent  and  place  it  over  the 
crates.  Before  doing  so,  however,  you 
should  make  an  oblong  hole  (if  there  is 
not  one  there  already)  through  the  mos- 
quito bar  near  the  peak  of  the  tent.  The 
bees,  on  leaving  the  crates,  will  fly  bumping 
their  heads  against  the  sides  of-  the  tent, 
until  they  arrive  at  the  peak,  where  they 
will  make  tlieir  escape  through  the  hole  re- 
ferred to  above  ;  but  not  one  will  have  sense 


COMB  HONEY. 


78 


COMB  HONEY. 


enough  to  come  back  by  the  way  he  came. 
In  tliis  way,  the  crates  of  sections  will  soon 
be  freed  from  the  bees  ;  and,  as  no  bee  will 
enter  by  the  hole  from  the  top,  there  will  be 
no  danger  from  robbing.  When  the  bees 
are  all  out,  another  set  of  crates  could  be 
freed  from  bees  in  like  manner.  I  need 
hardly  add  that  the  bee-tent  and  the  section- 
crates  should  be  placed  in  some  shady  place. 


MILLER  S  TENT  ESCAPE. 

C.  C.  Miller,  carrying  out  the  idea  of  the 
bee-tent,  went  a  little  further  and  construct- 
ed a  miniature  bee-tent  to  set  directly  ovef 
the  i)ile  of  tilled  supers.  It  is  simply  a  piece 
of  mosquito- netting  made  into  a  sort  of 
cone-shaped  hood.  Two  V-shai)ed  wires, 
with  a  loop  in  the  apex,  are  leaned  against 
each  other  in  such  a  way  as  to  hold  the  net- 
ting in  tlie  shape  of  a  pyramid.  The  open- 
ing is  about  H  inches  wide,  and  is  made  in 
the  netting  at  the  apex,  where  the  liees  will 
escape,  as  explained  i)revioiisly. 


POUDER  S  BEE-ESCAPE. 

My  plan  is  to  prepare  a  close-fltting  box  with  an 
entrance  (or,  rather,  place  of  exit)  similar  to  that  of 
the  chaff  hive;  over  this  entrance  I  have  arranged 
a  sort  of  trap  so  that  the  bees  can  pass  one  way  only. 
Take  a  wooden  bar  about  the  size  of  a  lead-pencil, 
and  put  through  it  a  row  of  common  pins,  about  7  to 
the  inch;  this  must  be  swung  on  pivots,  so  that  the 
pin-points  may  rest  on  the  "  jumping-otf  board." 
Walter  S.  Pouder. 

Groesbeck,  O.,  March  24, 1884. 


Another  bee-escape  which  seems  worthy 
of  mention  was  descriljed  and  illustrated 
in  1888  in  our  journal,  Gleanings  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture, page  1.5.  The  engraving  below  shows 
almost  at  a  glance  how  the  implement  works. 


REESE  S  CONE-CASE  BEE-ESCAPE. 

The  device  itself  is  shown  at  B,  and  is  the 
invention  of  J.  S.  Reese,  Winchester,  Ky.  It 
consists  simply  of  a  board  of  just  such  a  size 
as  to  tit  into  the  surplus  arrangement.  This 
board  has  two  pairs  of  wire-cloth  cones  (a 
small  one  inside  of  a  larger  one),  placed  di- 
rectly over  holes  in  the  board,  as  at  E.  This 
board  is  then  dropped  into  an  ordinary  T- 
super  shell,  cones  upward.  The  little  pieces 
of  strap  iron  serve  as  stops.  The  board  is 
then  nailed.  For  use,  the  whole  is  inverted 
as  at  B,  in  the  engraving,  and  the  apexes  of 
the  cones  are  now  downward,  ready  for  use. 
The  figure  at  the  right  explains  how  the 
wire  cones  are  made.  G  is  a  square  of  wire 
cloth.  The  funnel-shaped  implement,  F, 
crowds  G  over  the  solid  cone  H.  Y  is  re- 
moved, and  G  is  now  converted  into  a  per- 
fect cone.  A  sharpened  stick  (the  size  and 
shape  of  a  lead  pencil)  enlarges  the  central 
mesh  of  the  apex  to  the  i)roper  size  of  hole. 
The  construction  of  the  rest  of  the  cone-case 
is  self-evident  from  the  engraving. 

The  princi])le  upon  which  this  cone-case 
bee-escape  operates  is,  that  bees  will  pass 
through  the  large  end  of  a  cone  when  they 
would  never  think  of  crawling  up  to  the  apex 
and  entering  through  the  small  hole.  In  the 
engraving,  A  is  a  super  filled  with  comb 
honey,  from  which  we  desire  to  remove  all 


COMB  HONEY. 


79 


COMB  HOXEY. 


the  bees.  C  is  a  super  with  empty  sections 
ready  to  put  on  the  hive.  Tlie  cone-case 
bee-escape  is  put  between  the  two,  and  the 
cover  placed  on  A.  The  bees  will  pass  down 
through  the  two  holes  opposite  the  cones,  but 
none  will  pass  back  again  by  the  way  they 
came.  The  inventor  informs  us  that,  in  two 
or  three  hours,  every  bee  is  out  of  the  super 
into  the  hive  and  lower  section-case.  He 
takes  advantage  of  the  fact  that  l)ees  have  a 
tendency  to  go  toward  the  brood-nest ;  and 
just  as  soon  as  they  have  done  so  they  can 
not  get  back  again — at  least,  they  are  not 
sharp  enough  to  tell  how  they  got  there. 

This  and  the  horizontal  escapes  can  be 
used  in  another  way  :  Remove  a  number  of 
filled  supers ;  stack  them  up  in  a  convenient 
place,  say  eight  or  ten  high,  and  then  set  the 
cone-case  on  top.  Instead  of  the  cones  be- 
ing downward,  as  in  the  former  instance, 
when  on  the  hive,  they  are  above  the  board 
E.  After  a  few  hours  the  bees  will  have 
passed  upward  through  each  successive  su- 
per, until  they  reach  the  bee-escape,  when 
they  will  pass  out  and  return  home. 

HOKIZONFAL  BEE-ESCAPES. 

During  the  year  1890,  Mr.  Charles  H.  I)ib- 
bern.  of  Milan.  HI.,  conceived  the  idea  of 
turning  Mr.  Reese's  cones  upon  their  sides, 
as  it  were,  thus  getting  rid  of  their  i)erpen- 
dicular  i)rojecting  points.  This  makes  what 
is  called  the  horizontal  bee-escape.  The 
thickness  is  reduced  to  about  i  inch,  and  is 
flat.  The  same  can  be  fitted  onto  any  ordi- 
nary honev-board  without  slats. 


DIIJBEKN's  HOUIZOXTAL  Illil>Kt5CAl'E.* 

The  engraving  rei)resents  one  that  Mr. 
Dibbern  first  introduced,  and  is  one  of  his 
be.st.  Instead  of  taking  a  whole  super,  as  at 
B,  as  shown  in  Mr.  Reese's  cone-ca.se  bee- 
escape,  an  ordinary  honey-board  with  the 
ordinary  l)ee-escapc  under  it  answers  the 
entire  ])urpose.  Tlic  bees  pass  out  of  tiie 
super  at  A,  througii  the  hoiiey-boanl,  into 
the  next  super  or  brood-nest.    As  it  is  diffi- 

*Thestar-sli!ii)c(l  pat  torn  shown  with  its  Hve  points 
of  exit  (lid  not  work;  i.  c,  thf  hces  foinid  tlicir  way 
back  too  roadily.  i'he  pi-ar  shaix'd  form  worlted 
satisf  tic  tori  ly  in  our  bcf-yard. 


cult  to  get  back,  there  are  very  few  indeed 
that  do. 


REESE  S  HORIZ(JNTAL  BEE-ESCAPE. 

After  Mr.  Dibbern  had  introduced  his, 
Mr.  Reese  made  a  model  like  that  shown  in 
the  engraving,  and  which  he  says  works  very 
satisfactorily.  This  is  "let  in"  the  l)oard 
so  that  both  stirfaces  are  flat,  and  the  thick- 
ness of  the  escajjc  is  regulated  by  the  thick- 
ness of  the  board. 

While  either  of  these  bee-escapes  will  gen- 
erally empty  bees  out  of  an  ordinary  super 
over  night,  there  are  occasionally  three  or 
foirr  bees,  possibly  more,  that  find  their  way 
back. 


porter's  horizontal  bee-esc.\pe. 
Mr.  E.  C.  Porter,  of  Lewiston,  111.,  iiitro- 
duced  in  1891  one  devi.sed  by  his  father,  a  cut 
of  which  a])pears  above.  This  is  somewhat 
on  tlie  princijile  of  the  Pouder  escape.  The 
l)ees.  instead  of  i)assing  under  pin-points. 
l)ass  through  a  couple  of  sensitive  springs, 
that  converge  at  D.  in  Figs.  2  and  8.  The 
liees  i)ass(lown  the  hole  at  F.  Fig.  1.  enter  the 
l)assage\vay  at  E.  and  pass  through  D  by 
s]»reading  tlie  springs.  These  si»rings  come 
together  close  enough  so  that  the  bees  are 
unable  to  return  again.  Tliis  escape  in  oin- 
ajjiary  rid  a-ery  bee  otit  of  the  sujiers.  But  it 
has  two  objections — expense  of  manufacture, 
and  sometimes  a  l)ee  will  get  caught  at  the 
ajtex  of  tlie  sinings,  and  die  tliere.  and  thus 
tlie  ol)ject  of  the  escajte  is  thwarted.  But  I 
believe  these  cases  of  clogging  are  rare.'-" 

THE   ADVANTACiES  ()F   THE    LAST    KOIR 
ESCAPES. 

In  smoking  out  most  of  the  bees  and  tiien 
letting  tlie  remnant  of  tlieiii  escape  tlnougli 


COMB  HONEY. 


S(» 


COMB  HONEY. 


the  tops  of  bee-teiit.s  and  Hy  liome  (if  they 
can),  there  are  the  young  bees  that  can  not 
tly  liome,  and  these  are  quite  apt  to  become 
lost.  The  smoking  is  also  lial)le,  at  times,  to 
cause  the  bees  to  luicap  the  honey.  With 
any  of  the  last  four  escai)es,  both  of  these 
ilifficulties  are  liicely  avoided.  The  young 
bees  go  down  into  the  hive,  and  every  thing 
is  done  so  qiiietly  that  tliere  is  no  uncapping, 
no  interruption  of  the  work  of  the  bees  to 
and  from  the  entrance,  and  the  lal)or  of  the 
ai)iarist  is  also  saved. 

Any  of  tlie  last  four  named  can  be  used  for 
Extracting,  whicli  see. 

HOW    TO    REMOVE    FILLED    SECTIONS    FROM 
WIDE    FRAMES    OR    CRATES. 

My  friend.  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller,,  lias  a(U)pted  a 
very  ingenious  plan  of   emptying  the  sec- 


be.  For  the  sake  of  strengtli  it  is  cleated  on 
the  under  side  with  i  pieces.  Its  dimensions 
should  be  a  trifle  smaller  than  the  inside  di- 
mensions of  the  super,  so  that  it  may  not 
bind  wlien  crowding  out  the  sections.  A 
suitable  frame  sup])orts  the  bearing-board  to 
the  pr()i)er  heiglit.  In  order  to  place  the  su- 
per squarely  over  this  bearing-ljoard,  with- 
out looking  imder  to  see  whether  it  is  in  the 
right  place.  Dr.  Miller  has  arranged  a  box 
around  the  bearing-board,  at  such  a  distance 
from  it  that,  when  the  super  is  lifted  up 
in  one  corner  of  said  box,  a  downward  i)res- 
sure  on  the  super  will  crowd  it  down  on  the 
bearing-board  squarely.  One  of  his  methods 
of  emptying  his  super  is  illustrated  below'. 

A  SIMPLER  MKi'IIOD  OF  EMPTYING  T  SUPERS. 

The  machine  for  taking  sections  out  of  T 


HOW   DR.  C.  C.  MILLER    iiEMOVES    FILLED    SECTIONS    FUOM    THE    T   SUPER. 


ti on s  from  the  T  super,  enmasse.  To  accom- 
l)lish  this,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  construct 
a  suitable  follower,  or  a  bearing-ljoard.  This, 
puslied  from  below,  will  crowd  the  sections 
out  at  once,  together  with  the  T  tins,  which 
are  not  made  stationary,  pressure  being  ex- 
erted upon  tlie  ends  of  the  super.  The  man- 
ner of  accomplishing  the  operation  will  be 
.seen  by  the  engraving  above. 

The  bearing-board  is  shown  in  front  of  the 
table.  You  will  notice  that  the  two  sides 
are  notched  out,  in  order  to  avoid,  in  the 
jtassage  upward,  the  little  i>ieces  of  stra]j 
iron,  or  V)ent  wire  staples,  as  tlie  case  may 


siqiers  as  shown  abo\e,  although  its 
use  is  ea-ily  understood  is  somewliat  diffi- 
cult to  make.  It  requires  nice  adjustment 
to  make  it  so  that  the  super  may  instantly 
be  1)1  iced  exactly  right  over  the  bearing- 
board.  '1  he  se,  tion  can  be  taken  out  with 
no  other  apparatus  than  the  bearing-board, 
i  nd.  indeed,  at  t  mes  this  is  perhaps  the  bet- 
ter way.  'J  he  operation  is  as  follows : 
riace  over  the  super  a  1  oard  about  the  size 
of  tlie  super- a  flat  hive-cover  will  do.  Now 
turn  upside  down  both  super  and  board  held 


rhf  likeiiL'ss  of  tlu"  dot-tor  ahovf  is  exoellent. 


COMB  HONEY. 


81 


COMB  HONEY 


togetlier,  making  the  supfr  now  rest  on  the 
board.  Place  this  on  a  hive  or  box  so  as  to 
raise  it  a  foot  or  less  from  the  ground. 
Place  the  bearing-boar  J  on  the  sections ; 
press  your  weight  on  the  center  of  the  bear- 
ing-board, and  then  pound  gently  about  the 
eige-i  of  the  bearing-board  until  the  sec- 
tions settle  down  the  quarter  inch  or  so  ; 
then,  placing  the  right  knee  on  tlie  middle 
of  the  be  iring-board,  life  the  super  rim  off 
the  secti  ns.  If  this  is  douo,  in  warm 
weather  when  proi-Olis  is  soft,  it  will  not  be 
as  easy  as  it  r,  ads  to  start  the  sections  <  n't 
of  the  super.  Troptdis,  when  warm,  has 
that  aggravating  quality  that  it  W)ll  not  be 
hurried,  and  y..u  may  pound  hard  enougli  to 
break  the  sectioi;s  without  starting  them; 
but  if  y  'U  let  them  stand  long  enougli  they 
w  U  fall  I  y  their  own  weight.  So  take  it 
easy  ;  turn  ar  )und  and  sit  down  «>n  the 
bearing  bard,  and  meditate  on  the  bless- 
ings you  enjoy,  and  when  you  have  sat  and 
rested  abo  t  as  ling  aswnuld  be  necessary 
to  pound  the  s  ctions  loose  with  cold  pro;  o- 
lis,  you  will  find  that  your  secti  ns  have 
dropped  without  your  noticing  it. 

HOAV  TO  EMPTY  THE  SECTION-HOLUKK  SUR- 
PLUS  A  RIIANGEMENT. 

As  explained  under  Sectiox-iiolueus,  a 
little  fiu'tlier  l)aek.  there  is  a  great  advan- 
tage in  wedging  \\\^  surplus  arrangements. 
The  ()l)ject  of  this  is  twofold  :  1.  To  reduce 
tracks  and  crevices  between  the  sections 
where  they  come  in  contact,  and  so  reduce  the 
amoinit  of  i)ropolis  that  would  ortlinarily  be 
secreted  in  these  i)laces ;  2.  To  facilitate  the 
removal  of  the  sections,  or  to  permit  of  al- 
ternating the  outside  rows  of  sections  from 
oiitside  to  center,  as  already  explained. 
With  a  follower  and  wedge,  no  bearing- 
l)oard  nor  any  si)ecial  machinery  is  necessary 
to  remove  the  sections.  Remove  the  wedge 
and  the  follower-board,  and,  with  the  wedge, 
l)ry  loose  the  section-holders  l)y  inserting  one 
end  into  the  rabl)et  of  the  sujier.  A  little 
l)rying  against  the  ends  will  loosen  ciich 
.section-holder.  You  can  then  lift  them  out.  ' 
To  remove  tlie.  sections  from  the  section-  \ 
holder,  invert  it,  spread  the  (■nd-l)ars  a  little  j 
apart,  and,  at  the  same  time,  with  the 
tlnunl)s  ]»ress  on  tlie  bott()m-b;irs.  This  will  i 
loosen  the  iiroixilis  connections,  aiid  the 
sections  will  dioj)  out  readily. 

HOW    TO    EMl'TY    THK    MOOKK    CliAIK. 

If  you  use  the  Moore  crate,  the  method  of 
removing  the  sections  will  be  very  similar  to 
the  T  super  ])lan.  I'y  id'erring  to  the 
subject  of  IIive-Makinc;.  von  will  see  there 
are  thice  divisions,  or  partitions,  and  conse- 


quently the  follower  shoidd  be  made  so  as  to 
l)ass  up  between  these  i)artitions,  and  raise 
the  sections.  To  make  this  follower,  take 
four  ])ieces  of  wood,  in  length  a  little  less 
than  the  inside  width  of  the  super,  and  about 
of  inches  square,  or  of  such  a  size  as^will 
slij)  between  the  partitions  easily.  Space 
these  so  the  paititions  will  i)ass  between 
tliem  readily.  The  operation  of  removing 
sections  from  the  Moore  crate  is  more  diffi- 
cult than  from  the  T  super.  Some  have  not 
been  successful  in  doing  it  without  breaking 
the  sections.  In  the  T  sui)er  there  is  very 
little  opportunity  for  the  bees  to  make  pro- 
polis attachments.  In  the  Moore  crate,  the 
l)ropolis  attachments  are  made  not  only 
around  the  sides  but  against  the  partitions, 
thus  making  tlie  removal  more  difficult. 

HOW    TO    REMOVE    SI-X'TIONS    FK03I    WIDE 
FRAMES. 

A  great  many  (^f  my  readers  are  doubtless 
still  using  doul)le-tier  wide  frames.  As  with 
the  crate  and  supers,  it  will  hardly  pay  to 
pick  tliem  out  individually,  after  they  have 
1)een  tilled.  Before  C.  C.  Miller  adopted  the 
T  super,  he  employed  the  following  method  : 


FIG.     1  —  PUSHING    OUT    THE    SECTIONS. 

Fig.  1  shows  a  sort  of  frame  for  holding  a 
wide  frame  containing  sections.  This  frame 
is  so  constructed  as  to  hold  the  wide  frame 
securely  while  t!ie  sections  are  pushed  out 
from  between  the  separators  with  tlie  push- 
stick  shown.  Insert  a  wide  frame  in  the 
rack.  With  a  common  jick-knife,  sever  tlie 
jiropolis  connections  between  the  to])  and 
bottom  bai'.  You  are  next  to  gra.sp  the 
large  end  of  the  ])ush-stick  shown  in  Fig.  2. 
Beginning  with  the  iiiijier  right-hand  comer. 
l)usli  that  section  until  the  shoulder  on  the 
tenon  end  strikes  against  the  separator.  Do 
likewise  with  the  other  three  corners.  This 
tenon  end  with  a  slioidder  prevents  jamming 
into  the  honey,  and  the  small  itrojection  is 


COMB  HOXEY 


82 


COMB  HONEY. 


just  long  enough  to  break  the  connection 
and  partly  start  the  section.  Next  change 
ends  witli  the  stick,  and  push  carefully 
around  it  in  tlie  same  order  as  before,  at  tlie 
same  time  crowding  out  tlie  middle.  Be 
carefid  not  to  push  one  section  very  much  in 


FIG.  2— SECTIONS    REMOVED. 

advance  of  the  others,  but  give  each  a  gentle 
punch,  just  enough  to  crowd  them  all  about 
equally.  When  they  are  pushed  out  they 
fall  back  against  a  cloth  backing  which 
stretches  across  the  back  of  the  two  ends,  as 
shown  at  A,  Fig.  2.  You  are  now  ready  to 
remove  the  wide' frames,  when  the  sections 
appear  as  shown  in  Fig.  2.  Grasp  them  with 
the  two  hands,  as  shown  below,  four  at   a 


METHOD    OK    HANDLING    .'SECTIONS. 

time.  Lift  them  out,  and  repeat  the  oper- 
ation. Dr.  Miller's  son.  Ijy  his  metliod  has 
removed  as  many  as  9o0  in  an  hoiu"  at  his 
best — not  a  Ijad  record  for  a  boy.  For  de- 
tails in  regard  to  constructing  this  ai)para- 
tus,  yon  are  referred  to  Dr.  Miller's  work, 
"  A  Year  Among  the  Bees." 

SCRAPING    SECTU)NS. 

In  order  to  make  sections  present  a  clean 
marketalde  appearance,  all  propolis  should 
be  scraped  off.    Some  prefer,  for  this  pur- 


pose, a  case-knife ;  others,  an  ordinary  dull 
jack-knife.  But  whatever  implement  you 
use.  scrape  the  sections  nice  and  clean.  Be 
careful  not  to  gash  into  the  honey.  Before 
you  commence  the  operation  you  had  better 
put  on  some  old  clothes,  because  the  parti- 
cles of  propolis  will  be  almost  sure  to  ruin 
good  clothes. 

W^HAT    TO     DO  WITH  UNFINISHED   SEC- 
TIONS. 

This  is  one  of  the  serious  questions 
among  comb-honey  producers,  and  a  great 
deal  has  been  written  on  the  subject.  The 
more  carefully  the  apiary  is  manipulated  in 
the  matter  of  tiering  up  (which  see),  the 
fewer  will  be  the  number  of  unfinished 
sections,  but  they  are  not,  however,  always 
the  result  of  improper  manipulation.  With 
the  best  of  care,  a  sudden  stoppage  of  the 
honey-flow^  will  put  upon  the  bee-keeper  a 
lot  of  these  sections.  But  perhaps  you  in- 
quire why  they  are  so  undesirable.  In  the 
first  place,  on  the  market  they  sell  very  slow- 
ly ;  and  if  at  all,  for  several  cents  less  per 
pound.  Second,  they  are  liable  to  leak  and 
drip  during  shipment,  and,  worse  than  all, 
daub  the  nicely  finished  sections  which 
may  be  next  to  them.  Third,  they  must  be 
stowed  aw'ay  somew^here  inaccessible  to 
robber-bees  till  they  can  be  disposed  of  .'>»  In 
the  meantime,  what  shall  be  done  with 
them  ?  It  is  desirable  to  convert  them  in- 
to cash  in  some  way  with  as  little  expense 
as  possible.  Various  bee-keepers  have  ad- 
vocated various  ways  of  making  use  of 
them. 

USING   THEM  FOR   BAITS. 

Some  say,  keep  them  over  till  the  fnllow- 
ing  season  and  use  them  for  ''  baits "'  in  the 
sections  as  previously  explained.  It  is 
generally  agreed,  that,  for  baits,  they  sub- 
serve a  very  useful  purpose  ;  but  where  one 
has  a  good  many  there  will  still  be  a  large 
number  to  be  disposed  of  in  some  way. 

Serious  objection  has  been  made  t.)  using 
as  in  this  way.  cr  in  putting  back  on  the 
hive  a  section  containing  the  least  bit  of 
honey  left  over  from  the  previous  year.  The 
old  honey  is  said  to  affect  the  new.  and  the 
empty  comb  is  iust  as  good  for  bait  as  if  it 
contained  some  honey.  In  fact,  the  bees 
often,  if  not  generally,  remove  the  old  hon- 
ey bef<  re  putting  in  new.  Either  let  the 
bet^s  empty  the  s-ectionsin  the  fall,  if  you 
want  them  for  bait,  or  extract  them  and 
then  let  them  be  thoroughly  cleaned  by  the 
beis.  Better  us-e  up,  as  under  the  head  of 
Selling  fok  Less  Money,  all  sect  ons 
tl  at  have  enough  honey  in  them,  and  let  the 


COMB  HONEY. 


83 


COMB  HONEY. 


bees  clean  out  in  the  fall  those  having  less  ! 
honey,  and  you  will  probably  have  enough  j 
for  bait. 

THE   FEEDIXG-BACK    METHOD. 

Another  plan  is  as  follows  :  After  sorting 
out  the  unfinished  sections,  put  them  into 
the  regular  hive-crates  and  set  them  over 
strong  colonies  when  the  honey-flow  has 
stopped.  In  order  to  have  these  sections 
built  out  it  will  be  necessary  to  feed  ex- 
tracted honey.  Dilute  with  water  to  about 
the  consistency  of  raw  nectar,  in  the  pro- 
portion of  cne  pound  of  water  to  10  lbs.  of 
honey.  The  water  should  be  heated,  as  the 
bees  will  take  the  mixture  much  more 
readily.  Feed  in  large  feeders  to\\'ard 
night.  As  the  bees  will  be  greatly  excited 
■when  fed,  they  will  be  apt  to  rush  out  of  the 
hive  pellmell.  and  at  that  time  there  is  less 
liability  of  trouble  from  robbers.  Give 
them  all  the  feed  they  will  take,  and  as 
fast  as  they  will  take  it. 

While  some  have  been  successful  in  thus 
finishing  out  and  making  salable  unfinish- 
ed sections,  tlie  majority  have  not  been  so 
successful.  Some  of  the  objections  to  feed- 
ing back  are,  first,  that  it  has  to  be  done  at 
that  time  of  year  when  robbers  are  wor>t, 
and  that,  unless  the  sections  are  carefully 
put  in  the  crates  preparatory  to  putting  on 
the  hive,  they  will  have  a  botched  appear- 
ance. The  combs,  likewise,  are  apt  to  be 
travel-stained.  In  localities  where  foul 
brood  has  existed,  or  does  exist,  it  is  dan- 
gerous to  the  welfare  of  the  apiary.  Last 
of  all.  the  honey  in  such  sections  is  more 
liable  to  candy.  Unless  you  have  a  great 
many  vmfinished  sections  you  had  better 
not  attempt  feeding  back.  It  can  be  made  to 
pay  only  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances and  the  best  management.  Even 
then,  only  about  three  pounds  out  of  five  of 
the  honey  fed  is  obtained  in  comb  honey. 
Somel  imes,  however,  there  is  no  appreciable 
loss.    See  Feeding  Back,  under  Feeding. 


believe  the^plan  is  not  very  largely  practic- 
ed. 

SELLING  FOK     LESS   MONEY. 

Still  another  method,  and  I  believe  it  is 
the  best  where  it  can  be  dune,  is  to  sell  such 
honey  for  two  or  three  cents  less  per  pound. 
You  can  state  to  the  buyer  thav  the  honey 
is  just  as  good,  only  it  does  not  present 
quite  so  nice  and  marketable  appearance. 
If  you  have  only  a  small  number  of  such 
sections  you  can  use  them  iip  in  your  own 
family. 

.SHALL    WE    U8E    SEPARATORS? 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  considerable 
di.scussion  among  prominent  bee-keepers,  as 
to  whether  separators  could  or  could  not  be 
disi)ensed  with  profital)ly  in  the  i)roduction 
of  comb  honey.  Some  stoutly  maintained 
that*  they  could,  and  others  just  as  strenuous- 
ly asserted  that  they  could  not.  The  former 
class  urged  that  they  could  secm^e  more  hon- 
ey without  separators,  and  consequently  that 
they  could  put  up  with  the  inconvenience  of 
some  few  sections  bulged  out  beyond  the 
sides.  While  the  latter  class  were  ready  to  ad- 
mit that  perhaps  a  little  more  honey  could  be 
seciu"ed  liy  the  non-use  of  separators,  they 
asserted  that  they  obtained  so  much  luicrata- 
ble  honey,  and  were  put  to  so  much  incon- 
venience in  trying  to  so  arrange  the  sections 
as  to  have  them  built  out  evenly,  that  they 
never  wanted  to  dispen.se  with  separators. 
It  should  be  remarked  right  here,  that,  with 
the  narrow  sections,  as,  for  instance.  If,  H, 
or  If.  the  separators  are  not  so  necessary  as 
with  the  wide  ones,  such  as  \l  or  \\%.  Full 
sheets  of  foundation  in  either  ca.se  greatly 
les.sen  the  need  of  their  use.  At  the  present 
time,  however.  l)y  far  the  greater  majority  of 
the  i)ro(Uicers  of  comb  honey  advocate  and 
use  sei)arators ;  and  as  ttur  experience  in 
former  years  was  so  unsatisfactory  without 
.separators,  we  are  comi)elled  to  agree  with 
the  majority. 


FOR   WINTER   FEED. 

Some  bee-keepers  reserve  these  unfinish- 
ed sections,  and  place  them  on  those  hives 
that  are  likely  to  need  a  little  more  stnr<'> 
for  winter.  The  bees  will  empty  them  ami 
carry  the  honey  below. 

EXTRACT  THE  HONEY  FRO.AI  THEM. 

Another  method  is  to  extract  the  honey 
and  place  the  sections  on  the  hive,  to  be  non-separator  comh  honey. 

cleaned  up  by  the  bees.  Put  the  sections  I  The  accompanying  engraving  is  reproduced 
into  wide  frames.  After  being  uncapped  direct  from  a  drawing  made  of  a  series  of 
they  are  extracted  in  the  usual  manner.  !  sections  of  comb  honey  that  were  Iniilt  with- 
But  as  this  involves  a  good  deal  of  labor.  I    out  separators.     The  dotteil  lines  show  tlie 


COMB  HONEY. 


84 


COMB  HONEY 


direction  the  (•ouil)  li(»iiey  takes  in  i>ass-  the  wockI.  and  so  save  jnst  so  much  foot- 
ing back  and  forth  from  tlie  sections.  AVliile  stained  lionex .  As  1  liave  already  remarked 
this  is  an  exasperated  case,  it  sliows  tlie    elsewliere,  bees,  like  their  owners,  have  a 


tendency  to  which  combs  are  liable  to  bulge 
without  tlie  use  of  separators.  Tliis  row  of 
sections  was  taken  from  several  thousand 
pounds  of  honey  which  we  pin-chased,  over 
half  of  wliich  was  bulged,  and  a  lirge  ])er- 
centage  was  almost  micratable. 

WOOD    OR    TIN    SEPAKATOKS. 

Objection  has  been  made  to  tlie  tin  separa- 
tors, because  of  their  metallic  coldness.    It 


fashion  of  going  into  their  apartments  some- 
times witli  muddy  feet. 

There  is  one  serious  objection  to  wood 
separators,  and  that  is,  that  tliey  will  warp 
and  curl  up.  Tliis  difficulty  is  greatly  les- 
sened if.  instead  of  28  to  tlie  inch,  tliey  are 
cut  15  or  It)  to  the  inch. 

Experience  says.  *'  Never  use  tin  separa- 
tors lorse,  as  in  T  supers;  and  never  use 


is  urged,  that  the  smooth  sides  of  the  tin  are  wood  separators  where  they  are  to  be  nailed 
not  congenial  to  the  bees,  and  tliat,  further-  on.  as  on  a  wide  frame."'  The  objectionable 
more,  the  expense  of  separators  made  of  tin    curling  of    wood    separators    occurs    only 


A  SECTION  BOX  FILLED  AVITII  HONEY, 


is  greater  tlian  most  liee-keepers  can  afford, 
in  consideration  of  tlie  low  i)rice  of  their 
product.    Partly  foi'  tliese  reasons,  and  part-  i 
ly  for  otliers.  wood  sei)arators  costing  an  al- 
most  insignificant  sum  liave    been    made. 
They  are  cut  out  on  a  slicing-machine,  and  \ 
are  really  thin  veneer  wood,  cut  to  the  size  | 
of  the  separator.    The  thickness  varies  all  j 
the  way  from  28  to  the  inch  iq)  to  about  16.  i 
The  preference  seems  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
thicker  ones,  for  reasons  ])resently  to  be  giv- 
en.  Wood  separators  are  now  made  so  cheap- 
ly, that,  after  one  season's  use.  rather  than 
to  fuss  cleaning  them  of  their  propolis,  tliey 
can  be  tluown  away  and  new  ones  purchas- 
ed.   Another  advantage,  and  an  important 
one  too,  is  this  :  The  sides  of  the  wood  being 
rough,  the  liees  are  al)le  to  walk  over  the  sep- 
arators, while  they  could  witli  difflcidty  cling 
to  tlie  tin  (mes.^i  The  consequence  is,  instead 
of  crawling  over  the  nice  clean  surface  of 
capjted  honey,  they  will  just  as  readily  select 


where  ti.ey  are  nailed  on,  when  shrinking- 
and  swelling  makes  them  curl.  Wliere 
placed  loose  between  sections,  as  in  the  T 
super,  the  tin  separator  troubles  by  bending 
endwise,  while  the  stiff  grain  of  the  wood 
prevents  this,  and,  not  being  nailed,  the 
wood  separator  can  shrink  and  swell  with- 
out curling,  even  if  very  thin.  Wooden  sep- 
arators are  so  cheap  that  you  may  find  it 
better  to  throw  them  away  after  using  once, 
rather  than  to  clean  the  bee-glue  off  them. 

AVHAT   SIZE  OF   SECTION  TO  USE. 

To  answer  this  question  intelligently  for 
yourself,  it  will  be  well  to  consult  the  honey- 
market  reports.  As  a  general  rule,  sections- 
holding  an  even  pound  of  honey  are  pre- 
ferred by  consumers,  and,  of  course,  they 
bring  a  higher  price.  Notwithstanding  this, 
few  bee-keepei  s  think  that  more  honey  can 
be  secured  in  two-pound  sections  than  in 
the  smaller  sizes.  Most  bee  keepers,  how- 
ever, are  not  so  sure  that  it  makes  any  dif- 


COMI}  HONEY. 


83 


COMB  HONEY. 


feience  to  the  bees:  and  while  the  fact  re- 
mains that,  in  most  markets,  they  sell  for 
from  one  to  two  cents  less  v»er  pound  than 
the  one-pounii,  it  liehooves  ever}'  bee-keeper 
to  think  carefullj  before  he  decides  on  ad.  pt- 
ing  two-pound  sections.  The  size  of  sec- 
tion v\hich  seems  to  have  the  general  pref- 
erence is  4i  inches  square  and  H  inches 
wide.  Aside  from  its  being  more  marketa- 
ble, it  fits  most  of  the  surplus  arrangements 
in  use,  while  very  few  if  any  two-ponnd 
sections  can  be  similarly  adapted.  The  en- 
graving gives  a  very  good  representation  of 
a  one-pound  dovetailed  section  nicely  filled 
with  honey. 

NAKKOWER   SECTIONS. 

Some  markets  demand  a  smaller  package. 
Instead  of  going  to  the  expense  of  making 
smaller  sections,  supply-dealers  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  making  tlie  regular  4i  secti'  ms 
narrower — H,  If,  7  to  the  foot,  li,  If.  The 
seven  to  the  foot  hold  about  three-quarters 
of  a  pound,  while  the  U  and  If  hold  about 
half  a  pound. 

There  is  a  very  great  advantage  in  dimin- 
ishing the  tJdckness  of  a  section  instead  (tf 
the  size,  for  this  reason  :  They  will  fit  most 
of  the  surplus  arrangements  in  use.  and  can 
be  shipped  readily  in  ordinary  shipping- 
cases,  with  but  little  trouble.  In  1884,  "85, 
and  "86,  there  was  a  great  rage  for  the  nar- 
rower sections,  but  most  bee-keepers,  if  not 
all,  have  gone  back  to  the  regular  one-pound 
section — 4i  inches  square  and  H  or  IJI  in. 
wide,  as  most  suitable  for  the  bulk  of  their 
honey.  A  small  part  of  their  crop  they  may 
have  stored  in  the  narrower  sections  to  sup- 
ply a  local  demand.  H'  you  feel  moved  to 
try  variety  of  size  in  sections,  do  it  on  a  very 
small  scale  or  you  will  be  sure  to  rue  it. 

OPEN-SIDE   SECTIONS. 

Within  the  last  two  or  three  years,  the 
open-side  (or,  as  our  English  friends  term  it, 
thefourbee-way  I  sections  have  been  brought 
before  the  bee-keeping  public.  These  sec- 
tions, as  their  name  indicates,  not  only  af- 
ford a  passage  to  the  bees  from  the  top  and 
bottom,  but  afford  equal  access  from  the 
sides.  The  advocates  of  such  sections 
claijn  that  the  Ijees  are  much  more  ready  to 
enter  them,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  they  are 
better  filled  out.  H  is  argued,  also,  that  the 
bees  are  loath  to  enter  surplus  arrange- 
ments divided  u])  into  several  long  canals,  as 
it  were,  where  the  ordinary  closed-side  sec- 
tions are  placed  side  to  side  ;  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  this,  the  oi»en  sides,  for  tlie  rea- 
son that  they  afford  passageway  from  all  di- 
rections, are   preferred   l)y  the   l>ees.    Tiie- 


oretically  they  possess  points  of  superiority 
over  the  closed  sides.  As  yet  veiy  few  are 
willing  to  admit  that  this  is  to  in  practice. 

Xotwithstanding  the  advantages  above 
named,  they  have  two  or  three  quite  serious 
(lrawbiick-<.  (1)  In  conseciuence  of  their  be- 
ing nuide  open  all  around,  the  coiners  pro- 
ject so  i  s  t  ■  mnke  it  ditlicilt  to  insert  and 
remove  Ihein  from  ordinary  surplus  ar- 
rangements. (2)  In  order  to  work  them  to 
the  best  advantage,  a  surplus  arrangement 
especially  adapted  for  them  should  be  used. 
(3)  Separators  can  not  be  used  with  them 
readily.  At  the  present  time  they  have  not 
had  a  very  thorough  test,  and  it  is  not 
known  definitely  whether  they  will  ever 
come  into  general  use  or  not. 

3IARKETING  COMB  HONEY. 

There  is  nothing  that  can  malf e  a  bee-keeper  fee) 
better  than  clean  cash  for  his  surplus  honey  at  the 
end  of  the  season. — Aclain  Grhnm,  pru/t  86,  Vol.  I., 
—Gleanings. 

Every  thing,  nowadays,  depends  on  having 
goods  neat,  clean,  and  in  an  attractive 
shape,  to  have  them  "go  off"  readily;  even 
our  hoes  have  to  be  gilt-edged ,  for  I  noticed 
some  at  a  hardware  store  a  few  days  ago. 
and  it  seemed  that  those  that  were  gilt,  or 
bronzed,  perhaps,  were  selling  far  in  advance 
of  the  plain  steel  ones.  We  have  been  told 
of  gilt-edged  butter  that  sold  for  fabulous 
prices,  but  I  hardly  think  it  will  be  advis- 
able to  have  our  honey  put  up  in  that  way. 
although  we  do  wish  it  to  look  as  well  as  any 
other  of  the  products  of  the  fanii. 

In  order  to  get  a  fair  price  for  your  honey, 
you  should  watch  the  markets.  To  obtain 
this  information,  a,ou  should  t<>ke  one  or 
more  bee-journals.  Through  the  medium 
of  these  you  will  learn  whether  the  honey 
crop  is  going  to  be  small  or  large.  This  you 
can  not  tell  definitely  from  your  own  locali- 
ty. If  you  have  secured  a  good  crop  of  hon- 
ey, and  you  learn  that  the  crop  throughout 
the  country  is  small,  you  must  not  be  in 
haste  to  dispose  of  yours  to  the  first  buyer. 
In  any  case  you  must  exercise  your  judg- 
ment. 

SENDING   HONEY     TO     COMMISSION    HOUSES. 

I  believe  the  commission  houses  through- 
out our  cities  are  great  aids  to  bee  keepers 
in  disposing  of  their  honey  ;  notwithstand- 
ing, 1  want  to  enter  a  wonl  of  caution  right 
;  here  against  being  in    too  great  haste  to 
j  lump  off  your  honey  to  these  places.    You 
I  may  argue  that  you  have  not  time  to  dis- 
pose of  your  product  in  small  amounts  ;  but 
i  many  a  bee-keeper  has  found    to    his  sor- 
i  row  the  mistiike  he  made  in  contrihuting  to 
tlie  (lood  of  honev  at  a  certain  commission 


COMB  HOJ^EY. 


8G 


COMB  HONEY. 


house.  The  conseqiience  is,  that  at  that 
l)]ace  honey  is  "  a  glut  on  the  market,"'  and 
must  be  sold  at  a  very  low  price.  j\s  a  gen- 
eral rule,  I  believe  I  would  sell  elsewhere 
bef'  re  shipping  it  off  to  the  city. 

As  Dr.  Miller  has  had  a  large  experience 
in  marketing  and  shipping  comb  honey  to 
commission  houses.  I  will  here  quote  from 
his  "  Year  Amojig  the  Bees,"  page  97  : 

I  luivc  htul  no  iinifortn  way  of  iniirketing-  honey.  I 
should  prel'or  in  all  cases  to  sell  the  crop  outrig-ht 
lor  cash,  if  I  ctiulfl  get  a  satisfactory  price;  but 
many,  if  not  most  years,  I  can  do  better  to  sell  on 
commission.  Judg-ment  must  be  used  as  to  limiting- 
commission-men  to  a  certain  price.  Some  commis- 
sion-men will  sell  off  promptly  at  any  price  offered, 
and  when  sending  to  such  men  it  is  best  to  name  a 
certain  fig-ure,  below  which  the  honey  must  not  be 
sold.  I  have  sold  in  my  home  market,  as  well  as  in 
towns  near  by,  and  have  shipped  to  nine  of  the 
principal  cities,  and  it  would  Ije  an  impossibility  for 
me  to  say  what  would  be  my  best  market  next  year. 
Prices  vary  according  to  the  yield  in  different 
l)arts  of  the  country.  If  shipping  to  a  di.stant 
jjoint  in  cold  weather,  I  keep  up  a  hot  tire  to  warm 
the  honey  24  hours  before  shipping.  If  very  cold  I 
wait  for  a  warm  spell.  On  a  wagon,  the  length  of  a 
section  shfmld  run  across  the  wagon— on  a  car 
lengthwise  of  the  car.  I  always  prefer,  if  possible, 
to  load  the  honey  directly  into  the  car  myself. 
Then  I  know  that  it  will  carry  well,  unless  the  engine 
does  an  unreasonable  amount  of  bumping.  *  * 
In  deciding  between  a  home  and  a  distant  market, 
there  are  more  things  to  Ije  taken  into  consideration 
than  are  always  thought  of.  There  is  breakage  in 
transportation,  and  the  greater  the  distance  the 
g-reater  the  risk.  If  I  can  load  my  honey  into  a  car 
myself,  and  it  goes  to  its  destination  without  change 
of  cars,  I  do  not  feel  very  anxious  about  it.  On  this 
account  a  car-load  is  safer  than  a  small  quantity, 
for  a  full  car-load  may  be  sent  almost  any  distance 
without  re-shipping.  If  re-shipped,  it  is  not  at  all 
certain  how  it  will  be  packed  in  a  car.  *  »  * 
There  is  less  danger  of  breakag-e  by  freight  than  by 
express.  Besides  danger  of  breakage,  there  is  risk 
of  losing  in  various  ways.  You  may  not  be  able  to 
collect  pay  for  your  honey.  If  sent  on  commission, 
the  price  obtained  may  be  less  than  the  published 
market  report.  You  have  no  means  generally  to 
know  how  correct  the  claims  for  breakage  maj-  be. 
In  fact,  unless  you  know  your  consignee  to  be  a 
thoroughly  honest  man,  you  are  almost  entirelj'  at 
his  mercy.  A  quarter  or  half  a  ])ound  may  be  taken 
oS  each  case  by  the  claim  that  it  is  custom  to  reject 
fractions.  Taking  all  these  things  into  considera- 
tion, together  with  the  cost  of  freight  and  shipping- 
■cases,  it  must  be  a  good  price  that  will  justify 
a  man  to  ship  off  honey  tf)  the  neglect  of  his  home 
market. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Axtell,  of  Ro.seville,  111., 
are  extensive  bee-kee])eis,  and  their  an- 
nual ])roduct  goes  n]»  into  the  tons.  As  they 
also  have  had  a  large  exi)erience  in  selling 
honey  on  commission,  we  have  thought  l)est 
to  give  an  article  from  GUanivyft  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture, page  8(«,  Vol.  XYIir.,  written  by  Mrs. 


L.  C.  Axtell.  on  the  subject.  She  covers 
every  i)oint ;  and  anyone  contemplating  sell- 
ing honey  on  connnission  will  do  well  to  read 
it  carefully.  It  may  save  loss,  troulile.  and 
vexaticm  all  aroimd. 

seltjINO  honey  on  commission. 

In  the  first  i)lace,  I  think  people  do  not  understand 
liow  to  deal  with  commission  men,  as  was  the  case 
when  we  began. selling  honey.  Themaii  whohashon- 
ey  or  other  farm  produce  for  sale,  more  than  he  can 
well  dispose  of  at  home,  should  go  to  one  or  more  of 
the  grocers  in  his  nearest  large  town,  and  get  the 
names  iind  address  of  several  commission  men,  and 
ask  this  grocer  whether  his  dealings  with  such  and 
such  a  man  have  been  fail'  and  honorable,  and  note 
it  down;  then  select  the  man  he  thinks  lie  can  trust, 
and  send  to  him  for  his  ciicular  g-iving  daily  prices 
of  farm  produce. 

Possibly  the  producer  has  friends  living  in  the  city 
who  could  make  inquiries  for  him,  for  a  trusty  com- 
mi.ssion  merchant.  That  business  is  like  all  others 
—some  very  honoi-able  men  are  engaged  In  it,  and 
some  very  dishonorable  ones  as  well.  Then  write  to 
the  man,  telling-  him  that  you  have  honey  to  sell, 
and  that,  if  he  wishes  to  handle  it  for  you,  you  will 
seiul  liim  some.  Send  as  soon  as  possible  after  his 
reply,  hut  notbefore.  Yet,  one  need  not  be  in  too  big 
a  rush,  as  we  have  found  by  much  experience  that 
the  apiarist  has  plenty  of  time  to  sell  his  honey  dur- 
ing fall  and  winter,  and  we  alwaj's  get  just  as  good 
prices  during  the  early  winter  months  as  in  the  fall 
months;  yet  1  would  sell  as  fast  as  I  could  conven- 
iently get  at  it  after  the  first  of  September,  as  hon- 
ey sells  most  rapidly  in  Octobei-  and  November. 

We  always  try  to  ship  the  first  of  tiie  week,  not 
later  than  the  middle,  that  tlie  honey  may  arrive  at 
its  destination  the  same  week.  The  apiarist  should 
accompany  the  honey  to  the  cars  if  possible,  and 
hell)  load  it  on,  spreading  out  paper  to  set  it  on,  and 
see  that  it  is  piled  in  witli  the  ends  of  the  section  to 
the  end  of  the  car,  the  piles  of  cases  not  too  high. 
The  pile  against  the  end  of  the  car  may  be  higher 
than  tlie  outside,  and  glass  alwaj's  inward,  to  avoid 
breakage. 

Sometimes  we  can  get  a  through  car,  so  that  it 
will  not  have  to  be  changed  from  one  cai-  to  an- 
other, which  is  often  the  cause  of  bi'oken  honey. 
Sometimes  we  can  send  it  in  a  refrigeratoi-  car, 
which  is  a  thiough  car,  and  we  could  never  see  that 
the  cold  injured  the  honey.  Send  the  bill  of  lading 
in  the  letter  to  the  commission  mercliant.  telling 
him  how  much  per  pound  you  ask  for  the  honey. 
Sometimes  we  may  name  the  price  too  high,  and  he 
can  ntit  sell ;  in  that  case  he  may  hold  yours  and  sell 
for  others  who  have  not  named  so  high  a  price;  but 
genei-ully  he  will  not  hold  it  long,  as  he  wishes  his 
goods  to  move  off,  and  he  will  either  sell  or  notif.v 
you  the  price  is  too  high,  so  you  can  write  him 
again,  lowering  it.  Of  course,  you  keep  yourself 
posted  on  the  honey  market.  He  has  no  right  to  sell 
at  a  lower  piice  until  you  give  directions.  If  the 
ajiiarist  names  no  price,  the  commission  man,  if  he 
is  honest,  and  wishes  yt)ur  patronage,  will  do  just 
as  well  by  you  as  if  you  named  your  own  i)rice;  but 
if  he  is  not  honest,  it  gives  him  a  chance  to  cheat 
you  if  you  leave  the  price  with  him,  as  I  know  they 
do  sometimes  sell  at  a  better  pi-ice  than  they  report 
to  the  ai)iai'ist.  If  he  is  slow  in  writing  you,  write 
him  again,  aiiti  ask  him  how  soon  he  will  be  sold  out. 


COMB  HONEY 


87 


COMB  HONEY. 


iiiid  (Mil  handle  nioie.  Insist  on  ha\in^- paj  for  as 
numy  pounds  as  aie  sent,  fiactions  in<'liuled,  ex- 
cept, if  tlie  fractions  I'esiilt  in  less  tlian  5  cts.,  it  is 
usual  to  throw  that  in.  Yet  if  the  retui'ns  fall  short 
5  or  10  ll)s.  on  several  hundied,  I  should  say  nothing- 
about  it;  but  if  it  fell  short  niucli  more  I  would  in- 
struct the  commission  man  not  to  do  so  ag-ain,  as  it 
is  not  I'ulable— at  least,  this  is  what  our  most  honest 
commission  merchant  wrote  us  when  we  asked  him 
whj'  it  was  his  returns  were  so  accurate,  seldom 
falling-  short  any  in  the  least.  The  just  weights, 
with  fractions  thereof,  should  be  i)lainly  marked  on 
one  end  of  the  box  of  honey,  and  the  commission 
merchant's  address  stenciled  or  plainly  written  on 
top,  not  on  the  side,  so  that  the  case  need  not  b€ 
turned  over  to  hunt  the  name. 

Do  not  send  verj-  large  shipments  at  first  until 
you  can  trust  your  man,  and  then  it  is-l)etterto  have 
less  at  a  time,  and  quicli  i-etui-ns,  if  one  wishes  the 
money  to  use;  and  the  apiarist  can  care  for  the 
bulk  of  his  honey  better  at  home  than  the  commis- 
sion merchant  can,  only  seeing-  to  it  that  he  has  it 
as  fa.st  as  he  can  sell  it.  Thei-e  is  one  advantag-e  in 
sending-  larg-e  shipments— it  is  not  quite  so  apt  to  be 
changed  from  one  car  to  another,  and  consequently 
it  is  not  so  apt  to  be  broken  up. 

If  an  apiarist  has  lioney  enough  to  furnish  a  com- 
mission man  all  he  can  sell,  so  that  he  handles  no 
other  honey,  that  also  is  an  advantage  both  to  him 
and  you.  In  that  case  it  is  well  to  ship  to  him  just 
before  he  is  out. 

Always  write  him  kindly  and  firmly,  as  if  you  ex- 
pected him  to  do  what  is  fair  and  honest.  Unless 
you  are  personally  acquainted,  never  take  a  note 
from  him  after  the  honey  is  sold,  [f  he  has  used 
your  money,  and  says  he  can  not  i)ay  you,  it  is  a 
criminal  act;  for  it  is  criminal  to  sell  t)n  commis- 
sion and  use  that  money  to  carry  on  his  business. 
And  if,  after  all  care  and  painstaking,  you  are  about 
to  lo.se  your  money  (which  you  will  not  do  once  in  a 
hundred  times,  and  perhaps  never),  you  can  put 
your  case  into  the  hands  of  a  trusty  attorney,  to  col- 
lect for  you.  He  will  charge  about  30  per  cent, 
which  seems  high;  but  sometimes  he  will  do  it  for 
less,  which  probably  would  be  cheai)er  for  you  than 
to  make  :i  ti-ip  to  tlie  city,  if  far  otf,  and  you  ai-e 
])i-i'ssi'd  with  business  at  home.  More  than  likely  it 
would  never  have  to  be  taken  to  couit.  If  the  at- 
torney simply  states  the  case  to  him  plainly,  the 
man  would  see  that  the  better  way  would  be  to  get 
the  money  for  you.  In  Cliicago,  .5pei-  cent  is  nilaliie 
for  selling  on  commission. 

In  case  of  a  loss  when  honey  is  shipped,  get  a  state- 
ment from  the  freight  agent  where  the  honey  was 
shii)ped  or  started,  the  number  of  cases  sent,  and  in 
what  condition,  and  imt  it  in  a  letter,  with  a  state- 
ment from  your  commission  merchant  of  the  ' 
amount  of  loss,  and  inclos<^  wit h  it  the  original  ex- 
pense bill,  and  send  to  the  freight  agent  where  the 
honey  was  consigned,  for  him  to  forward  to  the 
general  freight  agent  of  the  railroad  company.  Do 
not  sen<l  in  an  e.\t i-avagant  bill,  but  just  what  the 
lost  honey  would  bring  you,  and  yo\i  will  always,  in 
time,  get  your  pay— at  least,  sncli  has  been  oure.x- 
peiience.  At  one  time  we  sent  honey  lo  two  com- 
mission men.  It  was  pur  togi  ther  in  the  same  car. 
One  was  i-eceived  all  right,  a:id  the  other  was  badly 
broken  up  so  nnich  so  that  !.')■)()  lbs  was  unsalable. 
In  that  case  it  was  probably  broken  by  the  (lr.i\ man, 
in  transil  from  the  car-  to  the  coininission  house. 
In  vei-y  cold  weatlu-r.  se\(ral  da.\s  hefoi-e  we  ship 


lioney  we  bring  the  cases  of  honey  into  a  warm 
i-ooni,  so  that  they  may  be  thoroughly  warmed 
through  liefoi-e  starling;  and,  if  packed  comi)actly 
in  a  car,  we  think  it  not  .so  apt  to  break  down  as  to 
ship  fro.sty  combs.  At  any  rate,  we  like  to  have  it 
in  the  very  best  shai)e  when  it  leaves  our  liands. 
We  generally  try  to  shij)  at  the  clo.se  of  a  cold  spell, 
ju.st  as  the  weathei-  begins  to  grow  warmer,  so  tliat 
the  honey  may  not  be  out  in  the  coldest  of  the 
weather.  Mrs.  L.  C.  Axtell. 

Roseville,  III.,  Oct.  ri2. 


SHIPPING,  AND   SHIPPING-CASES   FOR   COMH 
HONEY. 

Just  as  soon  as  your  crop  of  honey  has 
been  secured,  and  the  sections  scraped,  they 
should  be  put  immediately  into  shipping- 
cases,  providing  you  have  no  storage-room 
which  is  bee-proof.  The  cases  should  be 
glassed  on  both  sides,  in  order  that  the  fra- 
gile condition  of  the  contents  may  impress 
itself  forcibly  upon  the  minds  of  the  freight 
and  express  men  whenever  they  pass  into 
their  hands.  It  will  never  do  to  ship  comb 
honey  in  a  close  box,  and  then  mark  "fra- 
gile "  on  the  outside.  Nothing  answers 
the  purpose  so  well  as  glass.  The  engrav- 
ing below  represents  our  48-pound  shipping 
and  retailing  case  which  has  been  used  very 
largely. 


OUR     48-POUND      DOUnUE-TIER      SHIPPING- 
CASE. 

Yon  will  notice  that  the  CfU'er  is  let  into 
the  top.  This  I  regard  as  a  wise  precaution. 
Sinne  of  the  cheajter  cases  are  so  cou'-'truct- 
ed  that  the  cover  lies  on  top,  there  being  no 
raised  edgp;  l>ut  with  the  one  illustrated 
above,  it  is  impossible  to  put  tlie  cover  on 
stpiarely  without  making  it  absolutely  bee- 
proof.  If  the  cover  of  the  others  is  not  set 
on  squarely,  or  is  warped  a  little,  robbers 
can  very  leadily  gain  access  to  the  lioney. 

It  has  1)  '('11  found  by  experience,  that  a 
case  holding  as  many  as  4s  potuids  is  too 
large  to  be  handled  with  safety  to  the  con- 
tents, and  conseiiuently  a  lighter  case  is  re- 
(piired.  To  meet  this  demand,  one  of  the 
s;ime  i'V/r   ;ind   s;ime  const;  uction  is  made. 


COMH  HONEY. 


88 


COMB  HONEY. 


capable  of  holiling  only  one  tier,  or  24  one- 
pound  sections. 


2i-LlJ.   .SINGLE-TIEK   CASE.* 

Cases  holding  only  one  layer  of  sections 
are  preferred  for  the  following  reasons  : 
1.  Commission  men,  as  a  rule,  prefer  them. 
•2.  They  are  easy  to  handle,  and  consequent- 
ly are  less  liable  to  be  broken  in  the  hands 
of  railroad  men.  3.  Consumers  and  gro- 
cerymen  prefer  to  buy  the  smaller  packages. 

4.  In  double-tier  cases,  if  any  of  the  upper 
tier  drip,  the  lower  ones  will  become  soiled. 

5.  The  glass  in  the  doul)le-tier  cases  is  very 
much  more  liable  to  be  broken.  In  the  sin- 
gle-tier case,  being  much  narrower,  it  is 
much  better  protected.  6.  The  honey  shows 
off  to  better  advantage— only  the  central 
portion,  wliich  is  usually  well  filled  out,  ap- 
pearing. 


12-L15.   SINGLE-TIEK   CASE. 

The  one  shown  above  is  rapidly  growing 
in  favor,  and  was  first  mentioned  by  Mr. 
Heddon.  It  will  hold  twelve  ll-inch  sec- 
tions, or  fourteen  7-to-the-foot  sections.  It 
is  made  very  cheaply,  and  in  the  flnt  costs 
only  ()  cents.  They  are  so  small  that  a  fam- 
ily can  easily  afford  to  purchase  a  whole 
case,  if  they  feel  that  they  can  not  afford  to 
take  the  larger  ones. 

GLASSED   SECTIONS. 

Glassed  sections  are  sinii)ly  sections  of  comb 
honey  with  sfjuares  of  glass  fitted  in  between 
the  ]>rnjecting  sides  of  the  section.  The 
glass  is  lield  either  l)y  glne.  tin  ])oints,  or 
Ijajter  jjasted  over  the  toi>  and  bottom  of  the 
section,  and  lajiping  over  on  to  the  glass  a 
little  way.  When  the  section  is  sold  to  the 
retailer,  the  glass  is  included  in  the  price  of 
the  iioney.  Of  course,  the  i)roducer  can  af- 
ford to  sell  glass  at  from  12  to  15  cts.  per  llj. ; 
but  customeis  have  sometimes  objected,  and 
justly,  too.     But  in   spite  of  all  this,  glass 

♦Shipjiinfr-cases  are  iiow  usually  K':t8>ied  on  one 
side  oiilv. 


'LhoNEY:? 


imriBii-! 


sections  have  (juite  a  rage  at  times  in  the 
New  York  and  other  eastern  markets,  and 
occasionally  there  is  some  sale  for  them  in 
the  west.  The  reason  is  this:  Customers 
will  come  along  and  stick  their  fingers  into 
unglassed  honey,  so  the  grocers  say.  Of 
(•((urse,  we  bee-keepers  think  i)eople  ought  to 
know  better.  Init  they  do  not.  They  will 
pick  uj)  a  nice  neat  pearly-white  comb,  stick- 
ing their  fingers  clear  into  it,  just  to  see 
whether  it  is  nice  and  soft.  Again,  the  ini- 
glassed  honey  Ijecomes  dusty  and  fiyspecked. 
In  the  west  we  get  rid  of  the  handling  and 
the  flyspecks  V)y  putting  the  honey  in  sliow'- 
cases  or  shii)i)ing-cases.  This  is  the  cheap- 
er and  the  preferable  way.  See  Sturwold's 
show-case,  next  page. 

PASTET.OAKD   UOXES   FOK    ONE -POUND    SEC- 
TIONS or  COMIJ  HONEV. 

This  package  has  a  bit 
of  ''  red  tape  "  attached 
to  it,  to  carry  it  by.    It  is 
a  safe  and  pretty  package 
for  a  single    section   of 
honey,  being  very  conve- 
nient for  the  customer  to 
SSaS^ilvx:^^^  carry,  or  pack  in  his  va- 
Box  FOK  CARRYING  lisc  or  truuk,  if  he  wants 
"^''^''-  to.    It  is  closed  by  a  tuck 

flap,  and  can  be  quickly  opened.  Finely 
colored  lithographic  labels  may  be  used  on 
one  or  both  sides.  Their  cost  in  the  flat, 
without  labels,  is  about  So.OO  per  1000,  and 
very  pretty  labels  can  be  had  for  about  $3.00 
per  1000. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Crane,  of  Middlebury,  Vt.,  puts 
nearly  all  of  his  honey  into  cart(ms.  These 
cartoons  are  put  into  unglassed  shipping- 
cases,  the  latter  neatly  stenciled  with  an 
old-fashioned  straw  hive,  and  lettered. 
When  I  visited  his  jilace  I  could  not  but  ad- 
mire the  beautiful  appearance  of  his  big  piles 
of  cases  ready  for  market.  The  white  pop- 
lar wood  contrasted  very  neatly  with  the 
stenciling;  and  the  cartons,  with  their 
bright  clean  faces,  as  they  appeared  through 
the  sides  of  the  shii)i)ing-cases,  added  not  a 
little  to  the  effect. 

Mr.  Crane  finds  a  market  foiall  honey  put 
up  in  this  shajte,  and  the  demand  is  greater 
than  he  can  sui)ply,  and  he  ]>r(»duces  tons  of 
honey.  His  neigh])or.  not  ten  miles  away, 
Mr.  A.  E.  Manum.  ])uts  up  his  in  ungla.ssed 
sections,  in  glass  shii)])ing-cases,  and  he  finds 
a  market  for  all  he  can  i)roduce.  There  are 
others  who  glass  a  very  large  part  of  their 
l)roduct,  and  this  is  likewise  sold.  What  we 
want  to  do  is  to  build  u])  a  trade,  and  to  be 
ready  to  supply  what  the  market  demands. 


("OMB  HONEY. 


S9 


COMB  HOXEr. 


IK)  matter  wliethei-  it  Ite 
<ii-  cartoned  ^oods. 


iiassed,  iinj^lassed, 


blow's    '^ECnOX    (    VI.  I  ON 


There  is  used  to  some  extent  in  England, 
and  advertised  by  Thomas  B.  Blow,  of  Wel- 
wyii,  Herts,  England,  a  sort  of  divisiltle  sec- 
tion carton.  The  back  is  an  ordinary  paper 
box,  and  the  front  is  a  similar  liox  with 
Isinglass  face,  tastefully  decorated.  One 
beauty  of  it  is,  that  they  cover  uj)  soiled  and 
dirty  sections,  and  it  is  not  even  neces.sary 
to  scrape  the  sections.  But  they  are  rather 
ex])ensive,  and  can  be  used  only  for  lioney- 
disjdays  and  fairs. 

3IAKING  HONEY  SELL. 

In  getting  a  good  price  for  our  honey, 
very  much  depends  upon  the  way  in  which 
it  is  cared  for  and  exliibited  at  the  grocer- 
ies and  commission  stores.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  point,  and  also  as  a  good  sugges- 
tion to  those  who  have  honey  to  dispose  of, 
we  submit  the  following,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  Gleaxixgs  for  January,  188-1: 

In  former  years  I  had  trouble  to  sell  my  surplus 
honey  at  a  live  and  let-live  price  at  Brookville,  the 
county-seat,  on  account  of  the  farmers  sellinfr  their 
dark  strained  honey  at  5  or  6  cts.  per  lb.,  and  comb 
in  broken  pieces  smeared  all  over  with  honey,  from 
6  to  K  cents.  I  could  not  afford  to  sell  mine  at  those 
prices,  and  therefore  had  to  ship  it  to  larg-e  cities, 
and  I  lost  considerable  by  its  being-  smashed  while 
in  transit. 

I  had  often  noticed,  that  if  goods  were  placed  in  a 
show-window,  or  fine  show-case,  they  would  sell 
faster  than  when  laid  on  the  shelves;  and  the 
thouffht  came  to  my  mind,  that  if  the  pretty  white 
sections  tilled  with  snow-white  capped  honey  were 
put  in  a  show-case,  and  set  on  the  counter  in  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  a  leading'  jrrocery,  they  would 
draw  the  attention  of  the  customers,  as  well  as  oth- 
er goods. 

I  at  once  ordered  one  made,  2' 4  ft.  high,  by  16  in. 
square  at  base  ami  toj),  three  sides  glassed,  and  the 
fourth  side  a  |iaiifl  door  piiinttMl  a  sky  lihie;  on  the 
pane  ojijKjslte  the  door  I  had  the  inscription  in  gilt 
letters,  shaded  lirown,  as  in  the  cut. 

I  nuide  arrangements  with  one  of  the  leading  gro- 
cers to  have  the  case  put  on  his  counter,  allowing 
him  a  commission  of  20  per  cent  on  all  he  sold.  1 
t)lle<l  it  with  i>nc  and  two  pf)und  sections,  arranging 


them  in  the  shape  of  a  cone,  the  two-pound  sections 
at  the  bottom.  On  the  top  of  the  case  I  put  twelve 
two-pound  jars  of  extracted  honey,  arranged  in  a 
square,  and  above  them  eighf  one-pound  jars,  with 
a  pane  of  glass  between  them,  and  one  jar  on  top  of 
that,  with  a  few  one-half-pound  tumblers  on  each 
corner.  All  the  jars  were  labeled,  and  capped  with 
tinfoil  caps,  a  la  Muth.  This  pyramid  of  jars  was 
covered  with  tine  white  mosquit«)-netting,  to  keep 
the  flies  from  soiling  the  labels  and  jars. 


STURWOLD'S   SHOW-CASE   Fo6   HONEY. 

1  tell  j'ou  it  looked  pretty,  and  made  me  feel  hap- 
py when  I  heard  the  grocer  e.xclaim,  "  Well,  well '.  if 
that  won't  sell,  Mr.  S.,  I'll  give  up  the  grocery  Imsi- 
uess.  '  Do  I  hear  you  ask  if  it  did';r  Well,  I  should 
think  so.  In  si.v  weeks  all  my  comb  honey,  3.50  lbs., 
was  gone,  and  he  wrote  me  for  more.  You  see,  if 
we  put  our  honey  up  in  an  attractive  manner  it  will 
sell,  and  that  at  a  good  price  too.  I  sold  my  comb 
at  2(),  and  extracted  at  1.5  cents  per  pound.  The 
honey  placed  in  and  on  the  show-ease  was  not  han- 
dled, for  I  furnished  him  enoui^h  in  the  shipping- 
case.  J.  W.  Stckwolu. 

Haymoiid,  Ind.,  Dec,  1883. 

keetinct  comb  nONEY. 
It  is  sometimes  desirable  to  keep  comb 
honey  for  a  better  market,  or  that  we  may 
have  a  supi)ly  the  year  round,  etc.  Well,  to 
keep  it  with  unimpaired  llavor  it  must  not 
be  subjected  to  dampness.  If  water  con- 
denses on  the  surface  of  the  comb,  it  soon 
dilutes  the  honey,  and  then  it  sours,  etc.  On 
this  account  the  honey  should  never  be  put 
into  a  cellar  or  other  damp  room.  Better 
put  it  upstairs;  and  that  there  may  be  a  free 
cii'culation  of  air,  without  admitting  l)ees 


CONTRACTION. 


90 


CONTRACTION . 


or  flies,  the  windows  should  be  covered 
with  painted  wire  cloth.  We  are  accustom- 
ed to  keeping  conib  honey  the  year  round, 
and  rarely  have  it  deteriorate  in  the  least. 
The  same  remarks  will,  in  the  main,  apply 
to  keeping  extracted  honey.  During  damp 
and  rainy  weather,  the  doors  and  windows 
to  the  honey-room  or  honey-house  should  be 
closed,  and  opened  again  when  the  air  is 
dry. 

Comb  honey  should  under  no  circumstances 
be  stored  where  it  is  likely  to  freeze,  as 
freezing  contracts  the  wax  so  as  to  break  the 
combs  and  let  the  honey  run.  Under  the 
head  of  IIoxey-Houses  will  be  found  some 
further  remarks  bearing  closely  on  this  sub- 
ject. 

Under  Extracted  Honey  will  be  found 
hints  on  peddling  honey  and  marketing  in 
general. 

coif  TRACTION.  The  principle  of 
contraction  consists  in  reducing  the  brood- 
chamber  to  three-tV)urtlis  or  two-thirds  of  its 
original  capacity,  and  thereby  crowding  the 
working  force  of  the  bees  into  the  surplus- 
'apartment.  With  this  limited  brood-cham- 
ber the  frames  should  be  filled  almost 
entirely  with  brood,  leaving  few  empty  cells 
for  the  storage  of  honey  below.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  bees  are  impelled  by  ne- 
cessity to  store  the  honey  above  in  the  sec- 
tions, where  ample  room  is  provided.  Un- 
less honey  is  coming  in  freely,  even  contrac- 
tion will  sometimes  fail  of  making  the  bees 
work  in  the  sections,  although  you  may  be 
able  to  crowd  them  above. 

Contraction  is  ordinarily  practiced  by  tak- 
ing out  two  or  three  frames,  as  tlie  case 
may  require,  and  inclosing  the  remaining 
ones  in  as  small  compass,  as  possible.  The 
frames  left  in  the  hive  should  be  filled  with 
brood  as  nearly  as  possible,  and  those  taken 
out  should  be  given  to  nuclei  or  placed  in 
an  upper  story  over  a  strong  colony.  On 
each  side  of  the  brood-nest  so  contracted, 
dummies  or  division-boards  are  placed,  thus 
reducing  the  capacity  of  the  hive  in  the 
lower  story.  See  Divisiox-hoakd  illustrated 
under  tliat  liead  elsewliere. 

Mr.  Doolittle  claims  another  advantage 
by  contracting;  namely,  the  storing  of 
all  the  white  honey  in  the  supers.  This  he 
does  by  contracting  just  before  the  white 
honey  is  expected  ;  when  the  season  for 
white  honey  is  nearly  over  he  restores  the 
brood-chamber  to  its  normal  capacity,  and 
allows  the  bees  to  fill  their  bi'ood-combs 
with  the  darker  honey,  which  is  just  as  good 
f(»r  brood-rearing,  but  not  as  salable. 


The  tendency  of  the  times  is  rather 
against  contraction.  The  eight-frame  Lang- 
stroth  hive  is  now  being  used  very  largely; 
and  ill  a  great  many  localities  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  contract  this  lirood-chamber.  In 
other  ocalities  it  may  lie  necessary  to  re- 
move a  {'oui)le  of  frames.  But  in  any  case  it 
is  seldom  (lesiral)le  to  contract  the  lirood- 
nest  to  less  than  six  frames. 

WHEN   TO   CONTRACT. 

Those  who  advocate  and  practice  contrac- 
tion, I  believe,  encourage  brood-rearing  just 
before  the  honey -flow  by  every  available 
means ;  that  is,  they  aim  to  get  their  colo- 
nies into  as  strong  working  condition  as 
possible.  When  the  honey-flow  commences 
the  brood-chaml)er  is  contracted  so  as  to 
make  a  very  large  part  of  the  bees  spend 
their  whole  energies  in  honey-getting  and 
the  storage  of  said  honey  not  in  the  brood- 
combs,  but  in  the  surplus-apartment. 


■i  >i  ii  ii  '!  ii  ||  '!  ■ 

'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  ' 

ij  ij  ij  i{  i[  i{  i[  ■'  I 

ii  'I  '!  >!  ■!  ■!  '!  >!  ■ 

i{  i:  i|  1, 1 1  Ij  Ij  ij  I 

;i|  i{  i{  i|  ij  i[  i|  ij  I 


:i  •  •  I  I  I  I  I 

I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I 

I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I 

'l  'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  'i  !i  ' 


1                       •-.:•■,            -V,     ,            ~  ,,::,       1 

i 

! 

'■ *wi!Ni : " Jif 11 

SHEET-ZINC      II0NEV-B;)ARD,    WOOD-BOUND. 

There  are,  however,  one  or  two  drawbacks 
attendant  upon  contracting.  This  high- 
pressure  principle  is  liable  to  cause  the  bees 
to  store  pollen'"'  in  the  upper  story,  and  pro^ 
motes  or  encourages  swarming.  Tiie  colony 
is  left  at  the  close  of  the  season  witliou  suf- 
ficient food,  and  it  depends  on  the  relative 
prices  of  honey  and  sugar  whether  you  get 
any  pay  for  tlie  labor  of  feeding.  If  you  con- 
tract laterally,  and  have  part  of  your  super 
without  brood  combs  under  them,  you  will 
find  the  bees  will  not  work  so  well  in  that 
])art  of  the  super  which  has  no  combs  under 


COXTR  ACTION. 


it.  Again,  tlie  queen,  by  reason  of  the  limit- 
ed capacity  of  tiie  brood-chaniVier,  some- 
times lays  in  the  surplus-a])artnient.  Bnt 
to  overcome  this  last  objection, 

QUKEN-EXCLUDING  HONEY-BOARDS 

have  been  devised.  These  are  of  the  size  of 
the  ordinary  honey-boards,  and  are  placed 
between  the  brood  and  surplus  apartment ; 
while  hindering  little  if  any  the  passage  of  the 


91  CONTRACTION. 

workers  to  and  from  the  surplus-apartment, 
they  do  exclude  the  queen  ;  i.  e.,  if  the  per- 
forations are  of  thf  proper  size.  For  the 
discussion  as  to  the  best  size  of  perforations 
to  be  queen-excluding,  see  Dkones. 

The  question  is  often  asked.  '"Sliall  I  con- 
tract for  extracting?"  Tiiis  is  seldom  if  ever 
necessary.  If  tlie  bees  ])ut  tlie  lioney  in  the 
outside  cf)nil;s  in  the  broo(l-chanil;er.  the.se 
combs  can  l)e  removed  and  extracted. 


\   CALIFOUNIA    Al'IAKV. 


D. 


DAIVDEIiIOIV  {Taraxacum).  This 
plant.  I  am  inclined  to  think,  is  of  more  im-  , 
portance  than  is  generally  supposed,  for  it 
comes  into  bloom  just  after  fruit  -  blossoms; 
and  as  it  yields  both  i)ollen  and  honey,  it 
keeps  up  brood -rearing,  when  it  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  it  should  be  kept  going.'"  I 
do  not  know  that  it  would  pay  to  raise  a  field 
of  dandelions  expressly  for  the  bees  ;  but  as 
they  grow^  to  a  great  size  and  luxuriance 
when  allowed  to  stand  and  blossom  in  the 
garden,  I  feel  pretty  sure  that  a  cultivated 
plat  of  them  would  furnish  a  great  amount 
of  honey.  Wliat  a  pretty  sight  it  would  be 
on  our  honey-farm  !  They  do  not  ordinarily 
blossom  until  the  second  season,  but  per- 
haps, like  catnip  and  clover,  they  would  do 
so,  if  sowed  early,  and  cultivated.  As  Dan- 
delions seem  to  be  much  on  the  increase  in 
the  fields  and  about  the  roadsides  in  our  vi- 
cinity, I  think  we  can  safely  conclude  that 
the  more  bees  there  are  kept,  the  more  such 
plants  w^e  shall  have  ;  for  the  bees,  by  fertil- 
izing each  blossom,  cause  them  to  produce 
an  unusual  ajuount  of  good  sound  seed  I 
do  not  think  of  any  other  purpose  for  which 
the  Dandelions  can  be  used,  except  as  greens 
in  the  spring  ;  if  we  allowed  stock  to  forage 
on  our  yellow  flower-garden,  I  am  afraid  it 
would  mar  its  beauty,  if  not  its  usefulness 
for  honey. 

I  really  can  not  say  much  in  praise  of  the 
Dandelion  honey,  for  we  extracted  some  that 
we  called  Dandelion  on  account  of  the  taste, 
and  we  could  not  use  it  at  all.  It  was  so 
dark  colored  and  strong,  that  we  with  diffi- 
culty gave  it  away.  The  honey  may  have 
been  from  the  shell  -  bark  hickory,  however, 
asthat  comesin  bloom  at  aboutthesametime. 

DISEASES  OF  BEES.  I  am  very 
glad  indeed  to  be  able  to  say,  that  bees  are 
less  liable  to  Ije  affected  with  disease  than 
perhaps  any  other  class  of  animated  crea- 
tion.   It  is  i)erhaps  because  the  individual 


members  of  a  colony  are  so  constantly  giv- 
ing way  to  other  younger  members,  as  they 
are  hatched  out  and  come  on  the  stage  of 
action.  Nothing  but  a  really  contagious 
disease  could  do  very  much  harm,  where 
vigorous  and  youthful  members  are  being 
added  to  the  family  circle  almost  daily,  and, 
for  a  great  part  of  the  year,  by  hundreds  or 
thousands.  Therefore,  if  your  bees  lack 
thrift,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  start  brood- 
rearing  briskly  ;  and  if  the  queen  is  in  any 
way  at  fault,  you  can  simply  remove  her  and 
substitute  another,  without  even  so  much 
as  disturbing  the  regular  daily  routine. 
So  long  as  this  is  the  case,  we  have  little 

;  to  fear  from  any  disease  that  does  not  attack 
or  interfere  with  the  brood  or  young  hatch- 
ing bees.  Luckily  we  have  but  one  such 
disease.  This  is  termed  Foul  Brood,  and 
the  subject  will  be  found  fully  discussed  un- 

j  der  that  head.  The  disease  next  in  impor- 
tance is  Dysentery,  and  many  seriously 
doubt  whether  tliis  should  be  called  a  dis- 
ease at  all,  unless,  forsooth,  we  should  say 
a  boy  had  some  disease  when  he  ate  green 
apples,  or  went  about  with  his  feet  wet  on 
a  bitter  cold  day.  The  difficulty  seems  nearly 
allied  to  what,  for  want  of  some  better  name, 
lias  for  the  past  few  years  been  termed 

SPRING  DWINDLING. 

In  olden  times,  and  up  to  within  the  iiast 
ten  years,  bees  seldom  died  with  honey  in 
their  hives  ;  and  when  it  was  announced 
that  good  colonies  of  bees  were  gone,  leaving 
their  combs  filled  with  honey,  many  were 
incredulous.  Very  soon,  however,  some 
of  our  best  bee-keepers  began  to  lose  in  the 
same  way,  and,  ere  long,  whole  apiaries  of 
hundreds  of  colonies  were  swept  off  in  a 
few  weeks,  during  the  months  of  February, 
March,  and  April.'''  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  as 
soon  as  the  bees  began  to  get  new  honey 
from  fruit  -  blossoms  or  other  sources,  they 
began  to  build  up,  and  then  every  thing 


DISEASES  OF  BEES. 


9;^ 


DISEASES  OF  BEES. 


went  along  as  usual.  The  blame  was  first 
thrown  on  the  extractor,  because  some  bees 
died  in  hives  from  which  the  honey  had  been 
extracted,  and  others  in  the  same  apiary 
that  had  their  combs  left  undisturbed,  came 
througli  healthy  as  usual.  This  undoubted- 
ly made  a  difference,  for  the  honey  gathered 
in  the  fore  part  of  the  season  is  often  more 
wholesome  than  that  gathered  late  in  the 
fall ;  but  it  was  by  no  means  all  the  trouble, 
for  apiaries  having  only  box  hives  were  in 
many  instances  devastated  entirely.  Expos- 
ure to  tlie  weather  was  suggested  as  the 
cause,  and  fine  wintering-houses  and  cellars 
were  constructed,  and  for  a  while  every  thing 
seemed  prosperous ;  but  very  soon  they  died 
in  these  repositories  also,  the  bees  coming 
out  on  the  floors  in  the  dead  of  winter,  be- 
smearing their  hives,  and  deporting  them- 
selves in  almost  any  but  a  satisfactory  way. 
Some  succeeded  so  well  with  bee-houses  and 
cellars,  that  they  have  all  along  adhered  to 
them  ;  but  so  have  others  with  outdoor 
wintering;  and  in  many  localities,  bees  luive 
wintered  under  almost  all  circumstances, 
if  only  supplied  with  plenty  of  food. 

In  a  great  majority  of  cases,  it  has  seemed 
pretty  conclusive  that  the  trouble  was 
caused  by  bad  food ;  the  Italians  may  have 
been  somewhat  to  blame  for  this;  for  during 
imfavorable  seasons,  they  stored  up  large 
amounts  of  honey  from  the  aphides  or  honey- 
dew,  or  from  other  sources  that  bees  are  not 
usually  wont  to  frequent.  Tiie  use  of  the 
extractor  has  many  times,  without  doubt, 
aggravated  the  trouble,  as  we  have  mention- 
ed, where  all  the  combs  in  the  hive  have 
been  repeatedly  emptied;  for  in  such  a  case, 
the  bees  are  driven  entirely  to  the  late-gath- 
ered and  oftentimes  unsealed  stores,  for 
their  winter  supplies.  To  remedy  this  mat- 
ter, it  was  suggested  that  their  honey  be  all 
extracted,  and  that  they  be  wintered  entire- 
ly on  stores  of  a  good  (juality  of  sugar  syrup. 
This  course  proved  successful,  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  ;  but  by  tlie  time  we  got 
well  into  it,  the  dwindling  mania  had  par- 
tially gone  by,  and  those  that  were  left  with 
their  own  stores  wintered  all  right  also,  so 
that  very  little  was  proven.  Besides,  it  was 
a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  do  tliis  feeding  at 
a  time  wlien  tlie  bees  were  much  disposed 
to  rob,  aiul  so  it,  like  all  the  other  remedies, 
was  gradually  dropped.  This  was  especially 
the  case  when  extracted  honey  became  so 
cheap  that  it  was  no  object  to  extract  and  sell 
t.  A'aln,  this  b  id  fall  honey  tliat  killed 
the  bees  one  spring  almost  as  surely  as  fly- 
poison  kills  flies,  if  kept  over  until  the  next, 


could  be  fed  to  them  with  perfect  impunity. 
This  may  not  have  been  always  the  case,  but 
it  was  in  some  quite  well-authenticated  in- 
stances. "Of  course,  then,  it  was  a  disease," 
said  many,  "and  it  is  a  disease  that  is  catch-* 
ing  too,""  said  others;  "for  after  it  got  among 
my  bees,  they  '  jest  all  went.'  " 

Well,  my  friends,  I  really  do  not  know 
whether  it  was  a  disease  or  not,  and 
I  do  not  know  that  it  matters  very  mucli. 
We  learned  pretty  thoroughly  that,  what- 
ever it  was,  it  usually  came  in  the  si)ring, 
just  about  the  time  the  bees  began  to  rear 
brood  considerably,  and  that  the  old  bees 
were  generally  gone,  just  after  a  spell  of 
bad  spring  weather.  Also  that  the  very  "bad- 
dest"'  honey,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expres- 
sion, did  no  harm  at  all,  if  fed  in  very  warm 
weather.  One  more  fact,  and  I  am  done. 
Colonies  that  were  queenless.  or  that  were 
by  any  means  entirely  prevented  from  raising 

brood,  seldom,  if   ever,  caught  the the 

"•  dwindling."  I  declare,  there  is  one  more 
fact  after  all,  that  I  had  almost  forgotten. 
It  is,  that  very  strong  colonies  with  tough 
old  brood  -  combs  almost  invariably  pull 
through,  especially  if  they  have  a  good  live- 
ly queen.  Such  colonies  will  stand  like  the 
sturdy  oak,  year  after  year,  while  the  new 
stocks  that  are  so  rapidly  built  up  vanish 
like  the  smoke,  from  their  new  combs  and 
small  clusters  of  brood. 

In  view  of  the  above  facts,  and  after  try- 
ing almost  every  thing  else,  I  began,  at  the 
suggestion  of  friend  Townley,  of  Tompkins, 
Mich.,  to  experiment  by  making  the  bees  fill 
their  brood-chamber,  and  surrounding  them 
with  chaff,  brought  up  close  to  the  bees. 

My  first  experiment  was  made  on  a  pretty 
strong  colony.  The  chaff  packing  was  about 
4  inches  thick,  on  all  sides.  These  bees  did 
not  commence  brood-rearing  as  soon  as  the 
others;  but  about  the  time  natural  pollen  aji- 
peared,  they  commenced  to  gather  it  brisk- 
ly; and  when  fruit-trees  bloomed,  they  began 
to  send  a  stream  of  hot  air  out  at  the  en- 
trance that  would  melt  the  frost  in  front  of 
the  hives  after  a  cold  night,  for  several 
inches.  Do  you  sui)pose  sudden  changes  of 
weather  affected  them  V  or  that  they  caught 
the  "dwindling"":'  Of  course,  they  did  not; 
and  what  is  still  more  cheering,  I  have  had 
scarcely  a  case  of  it  in  a  stminj  colony  thus 
prepared,  although  I  have  practiced  the  plan 
for  the  past  ten  winters.  Of  course,  some- 
thing may  happen  yet,  to  upset  all  the  chaff 
experiments,  as  has  repeatedly  been  the  case 
with  other  things,  but  I  feel  pretty  sure  that 
a  good  chaff'  packing  clo.se  to  the  cluster  of 


DISEASES  OF  BEES. 


in 


DIVISION-BOARDS. 


bees  will  do  away  with  all  the  troubles  we 
have  experienced  with  cold  and  backward 
springs.  With  the  chaff  cushions  and  chaff 
division-boards,  you  can  very  easily  make 
the  experiment  on  any  colony  that  has  be- 
gun to  dwindle  down  just  about  the  time 
they  commence  to  rear  brood.  AVhen  I  first 
stocked  our  house-ai)iary,  I  was  much  taken 
up  with  the  idea  of  liavins  the  hives  simply 
covered  with  a  single  thickness  of  cloth,  that 
we  miglit  more  easily  open  and  work  with 
them.  As  the  house  was  to  be  kept  free 
from  frost,  I  thought  there  would  be  no 
necessity  of  any  other  covering,  even  in 
winter ;  but  I  had  the  worst  form  of  spring 
dwindling  I  ever  knew,  and  lost  every  col- 
ony except  a  few  that  were  in  old  tough 
thick  combs.  The  next  winter  I  prepared 
them  just  the  same,  but  placed  heavy  cush- 
ions of  chaff  at  the  sides  and  above  the  bees. 
They  all  wintered  without  a  particle  of 
dwindling,  and  by  pushing  one's  hand  under 
the  cushion,  directly  over  the  bees,  it  was 
found  to  be  as  warm  as  if  you  were  touching 
a  living  animal.  Now,  all  this  heat,  the  win- 
ter before,  had  been  passing  off  into  the  air, 
almost  as  fast  as  the  bees  generated  it.  Do 
you  wonder  their  little  bodies  were  exhaust- 
ed in  the  attempt  to  rear  brood  and  keep 
warm,  and  that  they  ''  got  sick  "V  See  Win- 
tering. 

I  believe  I  do  not  know  any  other,  unless 
it  be  that  called  tiamdn's  dineaf^e.  It  af- 
flicts the  bees  in  warm  as  well  as  cold  weath- 
er, and  the  inmates  of  heavy  hives  as  well 
as  weak  ones.  The  symptoms  are  a  sort  of 
quivering  and  twitching  motion,  and  final- 
ly the  bee  becomes  so  much  emaciated 
that  he  looks  like  a  shiny  black  skeleton  of 
what  a  bee  should  be.  I  have  seen  bees 
thus  affected,  in  perhaps  a  dozen  or  more 
colonies,  but  it  all  disai)peared  after  a  time, 
except  in  one  colony.  That  one  I  broke  up 
after  it  had  become  pretty  well  reduced, 
by  destroying  the  queen,  and  giving  the  bees 
to  other  colonies.  A  neighbor  has  also 
lost  a  colony  from  the  same  trouble.  Re- 
ports show  that  the  disease  has  appeared  in 
a  great  many  quarters,  and  it  is  sometimes 
so  mild  in  form  as  to  be  scarcely  noticed,  and 
I  Itelieve  there  are  no  reports  of  heavy  loss 
from  it.  The  remedy  recommended  is  to 
change  the  queen,  although  some  tliink  that 
if  let  entirely  alone  the  colony  may  be  ex- 
pected to  recover. 

OTHER  DISEASES. 

It  may  be  well  to  mention,  that  when  a  bee 
is  crippled  or  diseased  from  any  cause,  he 
crawls  away  from  the  cluster,  out  of  the 


hive,  and  rids  community  of  his  presence 
as  speedily  as  possible  ;  if  bees  could  reason, 
we  would  call  this  a  lesson  of  heroic  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  good  of  community.  If 
your  bees  should  get  sick  from  some  other 
cause  than  I  have  mentioned,  I  would  advise 
putting  enough  together  to  make  a  good  lot, 
surrounding  them  with  chaff  cushions  close 
up  to  the  cluster,  and  giving  them  plenty  of 
sealed  honey  also  close  to  the  cluster.  If 
you  have  not  the  honey,  and  the  weather  is 
cool  or  cold,  use  candy.  If  the  cluster  is 
small,  give  them  a  small  piece  at  a  time, 
right  over  the  cluster,  under  the  cushions. 

Weak  colonies  sometimes  get  a  mania  in 
the  spring  for  destroying  their  queens ;  this 
can  hardly  be  termed  a  disease,  and  yet  the 
colony  has  become  to  a  certain  extent  de- 
moralized, and  out  of  its  normal  condition, 
much  as  when  they  swarm  out,  as  given  in 
Absconding  Swarms  ;  they  will  generally 
come  out  all  right  if  fed  carefully  and  judi- 
ciously, as  we  have  described.  Bees  are  al- 
ways prospering  when  they  are  accumulat- 
ing stores,  and  they  are  very  apt  to  get 
astray,  in  some  way  or  other,  when  they  are 
very  long  without  some  way  of  making  dai- 
ly additions  to  their  "stock  in  trade,"  unless 
it  is  during  the  winter,  when  they  are,  as  a 
general  thing,  mostly  at  rest.  Almost  all 
sorts  of  irregular  vagaries  may  be  stopped 
by  regular  daily  feeding,  and  I  would  advise 
the  candy,  for  it  furnishes  both  honey  and 
pollen,  if  made  with  the  addition  of  flour  as 
'  we  have  advised. 

DIVIDISTG-.    This  term  is  usually  ap- 
plied  to  the    operation   of   increasing  the 
number  of  stocks,  by  putting  half  the  bees 
and    combs   into  a  new   hive,   just   about 
swarming  time ;     it  is  really  one  method 
I  of  artificial  swarming.    If  you  have  an  ex- 
'  tra  laying  queen  to  give  the  queenless  por- 
tion, it  may  do  very  well ;  but  otherwise,  it 
!  is  a  wasteful  way  of  making  increase,  and 
'  has  mostly  been  abandoned.    If  the  bees  are 
!  just  ready  to  swarm,  and  have  queen-cells 
pretty  well  along,  it  may  answer  very  well ; 
but  even  then  it  would  pay  better  to  take 
but  two  combs  with  the  queen-cell,  and  get 
a  laying  queen  before  making  the  actual 
division,  as  advised  in  Artificial  Swarm- 
ing. 

DIVISIOBT-BOARDS.  Make  a  frame 
of  lath,  precisely  of  the  outside  dimensions 
of  the  frame  you  use  in  your  hive.  As  ordi- 
nary lath  is  If  wide,  you  will  have  a  frame 
quite  similar  in  appearance  to  the  wide 
frames  that  hold  the  sections,  except  their 
being  roughly  made.    When  this  is  done,  you 


DIVISION-BOARDS. 


DRONES. 


are  to  tack  stout  cloth  all  round  tlie  sides 
and  bottom  as  shown  in  tlie  engraving;  and 
as  you  tack  it  on,  it  is  to  be  tilled  with  cliatf, 
so  as  to  make  a  sort  of  soft  cushion.  You 
had  better  use  duck  for  this  i)uri)ose,  as  our 
division  -  board  may  be  required  to  stand 
some  severe  ])ulling,  to  tear  it  loose  from 
the  propolis,  when  it  is  to  be  removed.  You 
will  need  to  pucker  or  g<lther  the  cloth  slight- 
ly at  the  corners,  that  they  may  not  draw  in 
when  the  board  is  finished.  When  this  is 
done,  nail  securely  on  each  side  a  thin  board 
about  i=*B  ill  thickne.ss,  filling  in  between 
the  two  with  chaff.  Now  our  board  is  finish- 
ed when  we  have  fastened  a  small  roll  of 
duck  to  each  end  of  the  top-bar,  to  close  the 
groove  in  the  metal  rabbet.  To  get  this  roll 
on  seciu'ely  and  in  neat  shape,  it  is  put  on 
the  top-bar  before  it  is  nailed  to  the  rest  of 
the  frame.  The  tacks  that  hold  the  outside 
end  of  this  strip  of  cloth  are  driven  into  the 
end  of  the  top-bar,  and  the  cloth  is  then 
rolled  over  the  heads  so  as  to  entirely  con- 
ceal them ;  the  other  end  is  nailed  between 
the  top-bar  and  the  end-bar  as,  in  fact,  is  the 
end  of  the  long  strip  of  cloth  also. 


'  ordinary  hive  for  wintering.  To  accomplish 
tliis  pm-pose  we  put  one  against  each  outside 
wall  of  tlie  hive  ;  if  the  colony  is  not  a  full 
one.  push  division-boards  toward  each  other 
until  it  is  a  full  one  on  a  smaller  scale  ;  put 
your  chaff  cushion  on  top,  and  they  are  in  a 
very  gootl  winter  nest. 

If  you  wish  to  feed  a  nucleus  so  as  to  build 
comb  and  raise  brood  in  cool  fall  weather,  you 
can  do  it  nicely,  using  these  division-boards. 
Place  one  on  each  side  of  the  bees  up  to  one 
side  of  the  hive,  and  feed  liquid  food  in  the 
empty  part,  by  means  of  the  wooden  feeder. 
Have  the  apartment  for  the  bees  contracted 
so  that  some  will  be  crowded  out  around  the 
entrance,  and  fold  a  sheet  of  duck  so  as  to 
perfectly  close  the  space  above  the  frames. 
Get  them  to  wax  it  all  tight  with  propolis  if 
they  will.  They  will  soon  find  the  way  to 
and  from  the  feeder,  by  passing  round  the 
lower  corner  of  the  division-board  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  hive;  and  as  the  warm  air  can 
in  no  way  escape,  they  are,  to  all  intents, 
getting  their  honey  from  outside.  With 
such  an  arrangement  in  single-walled  hives,  I 
have  built  colonies  up  beautifully  by  feed- 
ing a  syrup  made  of  granulated  sugar. 
Where  the  space  was  contracted  so  as  to 
■'squeeze  ''  the  bees  out  at  the  entrance,  ex- 
cept when  very  cool  I  have  succeeded  equal- 
ly well  with  space  for  but  three  frames. 

No  hive  is  complete  without  a  division- 
bt)ard,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  a  follow- 
er. For  simuner  use  the  plain  board  is  pref- 
erable.   The   cut    shows   how  it    is   made. 


CHAFF-CUSHION  DIVISION-BOARD. 

This  division-board,  if  made  of  the  proper 
dimensions,  should  fit  nicely  and  easily,  in 
any  hive.  It  will  stand  securely  where 
placed,  fits  air-tight,  even  if  the  hives  should 
vary  a  trifle  in  size  inside,  and  yet  can  be  al- 
ways taken  out  easily,  because  the  chaff 
cushions  are  yielding.  When  used  to  con- 
tract the  space  of  a  small  swarm  or  nucleus, 
it  can  be  easily  pushed  up  until  the  bees  fill 
their  apartment,  and  it  leaves  a  warm  ' 
smooth  flat  side  toward  the  bees.  I  prefer 
the  board  side  to  cloth,  because  if  combs  are 
built  beside  it,  they  are  always  smooth  and 
flat,  and  the  bees  can  never  bite  tln-ougli  the 
board,  as  they  will  in  time  through  even 
duck,  when  used  for  a  division  -  board.  If  ! 
you  wish  to  use  them  for  dividing  two  colo- 
nies in  the  same  hive,  the  division  is  perfect, 
and  no  bee  ever  gets  round  or  over  them,  to 
kill  a  queen  in  the  otlier  apartment.  But  ■ 
the  i)rincipal  use  of  tliese  boards  is  to  fix  an  , 


I'LAIX     ])1\  ISIOX-HOAKU. 

They  help  in  removing  the  frames  and  are  a 
necessity  for  fixed  distances.  See  Manipu- 
LATiNo  Fkames  elsewhere. 

DROrJES.  These  are  large  noisy  bees 
tliat  do  a  great  amount  of  buzzing,  but  never 
sting  anybody,  for  the  very  good  reason  that 
they  have  no  sting.  The  bee-keeper  who 
has  learned  to  recognize  them  both  by  sight 
and  sound,  never  pays  any  attention  to  their 
noise,  but  visitors  are  many  times  sadly 
frightened  by  their  loud  buzzing.  We  will 
commence  as  we  did  with  the  worker-bees, 
at  the  egg,  and  see  how  much  we  can  learn 
of  tliese  harmless  and  inoffensive  inmates  of 
the  bee-hive. 


DHONKS. 


96 


DRONES. 


If  our  colonics  :ir('  prosperous,  we  may 
tind  eggs  in  the  drone-c  >nil)  of  some  of  the 
best  hives  as  e- riv  as  Mnrch.  but  not,  as  a 
general  thing,  untii  Ajiril.  Yon  can  tell 
the  drone-cells  from  the  worker  at  a  glance 
(even  if  you  have  never  seen  them)  by  the 
size,  as  yon  will  see  by  looking  at  IIoxey- 
CoMB.  Whenever  yoii  see  eggs  in  the  large 
cells,  you  may  be  sure  they  are  drone-eggs. 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  the  eggs  that 
produce  drones  look  any  different  from  any 
other  eggs  that  the  queen  lays,  for  in  looks 
they  are  precisely  the  same.  They  are  al- 
most the  same  in  every  respect,  for  the  only 
difference  is  that  the  egg  that  produces  the 
worker-bee  has  been  iur,u'egnated,  while 
the  others  have  not;  but  more  of  this,  anon. 
The  egg.  like  those  pr-ulucing  workers,  re- 
mains brooded  <iver  bv  the  bees  until  it  is 
about  8  days  old.  and  then  by  one  of  nature's 
wonderful   tr  insformations  the  egg  is  gone, 


DROXE-BEK. 

and  a  tiny  worm  appears,  a  mere  speck  in  the 
bottom  of  the  cell.  This  worm  is  fed  as  be- 
fore, until  it  is  about  a  week  old,  and  is  then 
sealed  over  like  a  worker,  except  that  the 
caps  to  the  cells  are  raised  considerably 
more ;  in  fact,  they  very  much  resemble  a 
lot  of  bullets  laid  closely  together  on  a  board. 
They  will  begin  to  cut  the  caps  of  these  cells 
in  about  24  or  2-5  days ;  the  caps  come  off  in 
a  round  piece,  very  much  like  those  from  a 
queen-cell. 

The  body  of  a  drone  is  hardly   as  long  as 
that  of  a  queen,  but  lie   is  so  much  thicker 


through  than  either  queen  or  worker,  that 
you  will  never  mistake  him  for  either.  He 
has  no  baskets  on  his  legs  in  which  to  carry 
pollen,  and  liis  tongue  is  so  unsuited.  to  the 
gathering  of  honey  from  flowers,  that  he 
would  starve  to  death  in  the  midst  of  a  clo- 
ver-tield. 

I  i^resume  the  young  drones  are  ready  to 
leave  their  hive  after  they  are  about  two 
weeks  old,  and  they  do  this  shortly  after 
noon,  of  a  warm  pleasant  day.  They  come 
out  with  the  young  bees  as  they  play,  and 
first  try  their  wings ;  but  their  motions  are 
far  from  being  graceful  and  easy,  and 
they  frequently  tumble  about  so  awkwardly 
that,  as  they  strike  against  your  face,  you 
might  almost  think  them  either  drunk  or 
crazy.  I  do  not  know  how  we  can  very  well 
decide  how  old  a  drone  must  be  to  fulfill 
the  sole  purpose  of  his  existence,  the  fertil- 
ization of  the  queen,  but  should  guess  any- 
where from  three  weeks  to  as  many  months.''* 
Perhaps  they  seldom  live  so  long  as  the  last 
pei'iod  named,  but  I  think  they  sometimes 
do.  Many  facts  seem  to  indicate  that  they,^ 
as  well  as  the  queen,  fly  long  distances  from 
the  hive— perhaiis  two  miles  or  more.  We 
have  now  satisfactory  evidence  that  the 
meeting  between  queens  and  drones  takes 
place  not  very  high  up  from  the  ground. 
Several  observers,  during  the  past  season 
(!8b9),  have  reported  having  seen  this  meet- 
ing not  very  far  from  the  hives,  during  the 
swarming  season.  The  queens  and  drones 
both  sally  forth  during  the  middle  of  the 
day,  or  afternoon,  and  in  from  fifteen  min- 
utes to  an  hour,  or  possibly  a  couple  of  hours, 
the  queen  returns  with  a  white  appendage 
attached  to  the  extremity  of  her  body,  that 
microscopic  examination  shows  to  be  the 
generative  organs  of  the  drone.  These  facts 
have  been  observed  by  hundreds  of  bee- 
keepers, and  are  well  authenticated.  In  at- 
tempts to  have  queens  fertilized  in  wire- 
;  cloth  houses,  I  have,  after  letting  the  queens 
out,  seen  the  drones  pursue  them  until  both 
parties  vanished  from  my  sight.  Still  anoth- 
er fact :  If  you  take  a  drone  in  your  hand 
some  warm  afternoon  just  as  he  has  sallied 
from  the  hive,  and  press  him  in  a  certain 
way,  he  will  burst  open  something  like  the 
popping  of  a  grain  of  corn,  extruding  the 
very  same  organ  we  find  attached  to  the 
queen,  and  dying  instantly. 

The  manner  in  which  the  meeting  of  the 
drone  and  queen  takes  place  was  not  wit- 
nessed until  1888.  A  correspondent  for 
Gleanings  in  Bee  Cultihe  described  it 
as  follows  : 


DRONES. 


97 


DROXES. 


MATIN(i    OF   THE   yUEEN    AND    DKONE   ON    THE    WINfi. 
AS   SEEN    BY   AN    EYEWITNESS. 

On  June  21,  1888,  I  saw  this  mating'  take  plaoe. 
The  queen  issue;!  from  the  hive,  took  two  circles, 
and  came  witliin  five  feet  of  my  face,  and  was  there 
met  by  a  drone.  They  seemed  to  face  each  other, 
clinjaiufi'  b.v  their  fore  less,  tlieir  bodies  being-  pov- 
jjcndicular,  and  in  tliis  sliape  tiew  from  my  sight.  It 
liappeneii  so  unexpectedly  tliat  I  liardlj'  knew  wliat 
was  g'oing  on  before  it  was  too  kite  to  follow  them. 
I  could  have  easily  kept  up  with  them.  I  have  de- 
scribed this  because  your  book  says  they  liave  not 
been  seen,  only  as  they  were  whirling:  about  each 
otlier.  I  saw  these  fasten;  and  as  they  did  so  they 
turned  and  came  tog-ctlier,  square  up  and  down;, 
and  as  they  Hew  away  their  bodies  inclined  about 
like  tills  /.  and  eacli  bee  was  using-  its  wings. 

Myrtle,  Pa.,  ,Ian.  2,  1889.  E.  A.  Pratt. 

Shortly  after  this  uuotlier  ("orrespontlent 
reported  the  one  thiiifi:  yet  unobserved  ;  viz., 
the  manner  of  separation  of  the  queen  and 
drone.     He  described  it  as  follows  : 

AN      EYE-WITNESS     Ti)     THE     QUEEN'S     SEPARATION 
FROM  THE   DRONE   AFTER  MATING. 

I  was  going-  out  to  my  bees  one  day,  when  two  bees 
came  whirling-  down  in  front  of  me  and  fell  on  to  a 
pumpkin  leaf .  It  proved  to  be  a  queen  and  drone. 
The  drone  acted  as  if  he  had  been  stung-  by  a  work- 
er. He  held  fast  to  tlie  leaf  with  his  feet,  and  the 
queen  kept  whirling-  over  and  over,  about  as  a  fly 
would  if  cauglit  in  a  spider's  web,  utitil  she  freed 
hei-self,  then  she  flew  out  of  sight  in  an  instant,  and 
tlie  drone  remained  whei-e  he  was  on  the  leaf,  but 
showed  life  for  onlj-  about  three  minutes. 

S.  R.  Fl-ETCHER. 

Onawa  City,  Iowa,  Feb.  19,  1889. 

The  v^iiole  thing  has  now  been  witnessed, 
from  beoinning  to  end. 

In  the  fall  of  1876  I  saw  a  swarm  of  l)lack 
ants  sporting  in  the  sunshine.  A  close  look 
showed  them  to  be  both  males  and  females; 
and  as  pair  after  pair  fell  to  the  ground,  I 
had  ample  opportunity  of  noting  all  circum- 
stances. In  this  case  the  drones  at  tirst 
seemed  paralyzed;  but  after  the  queens  flew 
away,  tiiey  revived  and  afterward  flew  away 
also.  One  point  here  particularly  impressed 
me :  The  ants  of  both  sexes  were  in  such 
countless  thousands,  that  they  must  have 
come  from  all  the  ant-hills  for,  I  should  say, 
miles  around ;  the  result  was,  as  you  see, 
that  tliere  was  liardly  a  possibility  of  insects 
from  the  same  family  meeting.  Now,  is 
there  any  other  way  in  which  the  strain  of 
blood  could  be  so  effectually  crossed  with 
that  of  some  distant  colony,  as  l)y  this  huge 
jul)ilee  of  botli  sexes  V 

Queen-ants,  like  queen  -  bees,  seldom  if 
ever  come  out  of  their  homes  at  any  other 
time,  and,  as  if  by  some  preconcerted  ar- 
rangement, they  meet  and  mix  uj)  ai)])arent- 
ly  for  the  very  purpose  of  effectually  pre- 
venting 'in-and-in  breeding,"  as  it  is  usual- 


I  ly  termed  when  applied  to  stock.   Do  queens 

and  drone-bees  meet  in  the  same  way,  in 

I  vast  numbers  y    Many  circumstances  seem 

i  to  indicate   they  do,  yet  it,  like  many  other 

things,  lacks  positive  proof.     Drones  have 

been  seen  in  out-of-the-way  itlaees,  in  larger 

numbers  than  we  would  tliink  could  possibly 

come  from  one  hive  ;   and  many  have  heard 

[  their   loud    humming  who    have  not  seen 

them.    The  fact  that  a  queen  should  become 

I  fertilized  in  so  short  a  time  after  leaving  the 

I  hive,  seems  strange,  unless  it  really  is  a  fact 

[that  she  is  called  to  the  swarm  of  drones. 

by  their  loud  humming,  whicli  she  would 

!  instinctively    recognize    from    a    long    dis^ 

tance.     Flying  among  them  she  meets  the 

I  drone  fa?e  to  face,  falls  to  tlie  ground,  t-ars 

j  herself  loose  from  her  dead  mate  by  wliirl- 

ing,  and   then   n^turns  to  her  hive,  liaving 

been  absent  only  a  few  minutf^s. 

DOES  THE  DRONE  HAVE  ONLY  (^NE  PAHENTV 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  things  about 
the  drone,  or  male  bee,  is  that  it  is  hatched 
from  an  egg  tliat  is  unimpregnated.  So 
wonderful  indeed  is  this,  that  the  matter 
was  for  ages  disputed,  and  is  even  now. 
by  many  who  have  not  looked  into  the  mat- 
ter and  examined  the  evidence.  What  we 
mean  by  unimpregnated  is,  that  queens  that 
have  never  met  the  male  bee  at  all,  will  lay 
eggs,  and  these  eggs  will  hatch,  but  they  al- 
ways produce  drones,  and  never  workers. 
Those  who  have  had  the  care  of  poultry,  are 
well  aware  that  the  hens  will  lay  eggs  right 
along,  if  no  cock  is  kept  in  the  yard  at  all ; 
and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  a  pullet  would 
commence  and  lay  perhaps  nearly  her  usual 
number  of  eggs,  if  she  had  never  seen  a 
male  bird.  Now,  nearly  the  same  is  true 
with  regard  to  the  queen-bee.  If  she  fails 
to  meet  a  drone  during  the  first  80  days  of 
her  life,  she  usually  begins  to  lay  eggs,  but 
she  seldom  lays  as  many,  or  with  the  same 
regularity,  as  a  fertile  queen.  The  eggs  tlie 
hen  lays,  if  she  is  allowed  to  sit,  never  pro- 
duce any  chicks  at  all.  The  eggs  laid  by  the 
•lueen,  under  the  same  circumstances,  as  I 
have  said  before,  always  produce  drones. 
There  is/)ne  more  fact  connected  with  the 
common  fowl :  If  the  male  bird  is  put  into 
the  yard  with  the  hen  for  one  day  only,  good 
fertile  eggs  will  be  laid  for  many  days,  pos- 
sibly a  whole  laying.  If  a  Black-Spanish 
cock  should  get  among  a  flock  of  white  hens 
for  only  a  single  day,  all  the  eggs  laid  for 
many  days  afterward  will  produce  chicks 
with  more  or  less  black  feathers  on  them.  I 
give  these  statements  from  actual  facts. 
The  point  I  wisli  you  to  observe  is.  tliat    the 


DRONES. 


98 


DRONES. 


eggs  of  even  tlie  common  fowl  are  fertil- 
ized as  they  are  laid  by  the  hen.  or  possi- 
bly a  few  days  before.  With  the  fowls,  one 
meeting  with  the  male  bird  snttices  for  the 
fertilization  of  an  egg  daily,  for  a  week  or 
more  ;  with  the  (jneen-bee,  for  her  whole  life 
of  three  or  even  four  years. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  hen  has  the 
power  of  laying  fertile  or  unfertile  eggs  at 
will,  or  not ;  perhaps  not;  but  I  do  know  that 
a  queen-bee  lays  both  fertilized  and  unfer- 
tilized eggs,  alternating  from  one  kind  to 
the  other  in  rapid  succession.  Skillful 
microscopists  liave  carefully  dissected  eggs 
from  worker  cells,  and  found  the  living 
spermatozoa  in  numbers  from  one  to  five. 
These  living  spermatozoa  were  precisely 
identical  with  those  found  in  dissecting  a 
mature  drone.  Again:  Every  egg  a  queen 
lays,  passes  a  little  sac  containing  a  minute 
quantity  of  some  fluid;  the  microscope 
shows  that  this  fluid  contains  thousands  of 
these  spermatozoa.  Is  it  not  wonderful  that 
these  spermatozoa  should  live  four  years  or 
more  in  this  little  sac,  awaiting  their  turn 
to  be  developed  into  a  higher  life  whenever 
they  should  be  required  to  fertilize  the  egg 
that  is  to  produce  the  worker-bee  V  Yery 
well ;  now  the  egg  that  is  taken  from  a  drone- 
cell  contains  no  trace  of  spermatozoa. 
Therefore  it,  like  the  egg  of  the  common 
fowl,  unimpregnated,  should  never  hatch. 
But,  my  friends,  it  does  hatch,  and  produce 
the  drone.  The  first  glimpse  we  get  of  the 
little  bit  of  animated  nature,  is  the  tiny 
speck  alive  at  the  bottom  of  the  cell.  Does 
he  grow  out  of  nothing,  without  parentage, 
at  least  on  the  paternal  side  V  If  his  mother 
was  an  Italian,  he  is  also  Italian;  if  a  black 
queen,  he  is  also  black.  We  shall  have  to 
conclude,  perhaps,  that  he  is  the  son  of  his 
mother,  and  nothing  more.  The  egg  that 
has  never  been  impregnated  in  the  usual 
way,  must,  after  all,  have  some  living  germ 
incorporated  in  its  make-up,  and  this  germ 
must  come  only  from  the  mother.  The  great 
skill  and  proficiency  with  the  microscope, 
required  to  make  these  minute  examina- 
tions, is  such  that  but  one  or  two  have  ever 
succeeded  in  exploring  as  far  as  I  have  men- 
tioned, and  it  is  somewliat  like  our  investi- 
gations in  the  polar  regions.  Who  among 
us  will  educate  himself  for  the  work  and 
carry  it  along? 

Drones  are  also  hatched  from  eggs  laid  by 
worker-bees.  These  drones  are  smaller  in 
size  than  those  from  a  queen,«»  and  the 
question  as  to  whether  they  are  capable 
of  fertilizing  queens,  so  as  to  be  of  some 


value,  like  other  drones,  is  one  that  I  believe 
has  never  been  decided.  Some  facts  have 
been  brought  to  light  that  seem  to  be  pretty 
good  evidence  on  both  sides  of  the  question; 
but,  so  far  as  I  kn()w%  nothing  very  definite. 
I  confess,  that  I  should  not  want  to  make 
use  of  them,  even  if  they  were  good,  for  I 
want  the  strongest,  healthiest,  and  largest 
drones  I  can  get.  For  a  further  account  of 
the  mothers  of  these  queer  drones,  see  Fer- 
tile Workers. 

After  what  I  have  said,  you  will  perhaps 
see  how  clear  it  is,  that  the  drones  are  in  no 
way  affected  by  the  fertilization  of  the 
queen ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  all  daughters 
of  a  purely  fertilized  Italian  queen  produce 
drones'"  absolutely  pure,  whether  they  have 
been  fertilized  by  a  black  drone  or  not. 

Until  the  invention  and  general  adoption 
of  foundation  we  had  no  easy  way  of  re- 
pressing the  production  of  drones  in  far 
greater  numbers  than  could  ever  be  desirable. 
Since  the  introduction  of  foundation,  how- 
ever, it  is  foiuid  to  be  quite  an  easy  matter  to 
make  almost  every  cell  in  the  hive  a  worker- 
cell.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  choose  w^e  caii 
have  a  hive  filled  entirely  with  drone-comb, 
and  a  good  queen  could,  I  think,  be  induced 
to  raise  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  full  pect"'^  of 
drones  at  one  time.  By  this  means  we  can 
have  our  drones  raised  from  siich  stock  as 
we  choose,  and  we  can  save  the  vast  amount 
of  honey  that  has  so  long  been  wasted  by 
rearing  and  feeding  di'ones  that  we  do  not 
need.  While  extracting,  I  have  found  as 
many  as  several  pounds  of  drone-larvae  in  a 
single  hive ;  and,  to  save  the  honey  they 
would  consume  as  soon  as  hatched,  w'e  used 
to  shave  their  heads  off  with  a  very  sharp 
knife.  This  is  certainly  rather  expensive 
business,  for  it  must  take  more  than  a  poimd 
of  honey,  to  say  nothing  of  the  value  of  the 
pollen,  to  get  up  a  pound  of  sealed  brood.  If 
all  this  labor  and  material  had  been  utilized 
in  the  production  of  worker-brood,  it  would 
doubtless  have  been  equivalent  to  a  swarm 
of  bees.  All  worker-comb  would  have  in- 
sured this  without  trouble 

It  is  quite  probable,  that  all  the  drones 
will  be  raised  that  can  usually  be  required, 
w'ithout  making  any  special  provision  for 
them ;  but  still,  it  may  be  a  good  idea  to 
devote  one  hive,  in  an  apiary  of  50  or  a  hun- 
dred colonies,  to  the  production  of  choice 
drones. 

RESTRAINING    UNDESIRABLE    DRONES. 

Drones  undesirable  for  breeding  purposes 
may  be  prevented  from  going  out  to  meet  the 
queens,  by  keeping  them  from  going  out  of 


DRONES. 


99 


DRONES. 


the  hive,  or  by  letting  tliem  go  out  into  a 
cage  through  wliicli  workers  can  pass  and 
they  can  not.  Tliis  is  done  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  fact,  tliat  a  worker-bee  will  pass 
readily  through  slots  in  perforated  metal 
where  a  drone  can  not.  In  the  figure  be- 
low we  give  the  form  of  the  perforated  metal. 


PERFOKATED  ZINC  FOR  F.XC'LUDINO  DRONES. 

Zinc  is  the  material  generally  used,  be- 
cause it  is  cheap  and  will  not  rust.  Some 
attempt  was  made  to  perforate  tin  as  above, 
but  it  proved  to  be  very  unsatisfactory. 

THE   PROPER  SIZE  FOR  THE   PERFORATIONS. 

The  oblong  holes,  as  shown  above,  must 
be  of  such  a  size  as  to  pernait  the  easy  pass- 
age of  workers,  but  exclude  not  only  drones 
but  even  queens  (see  Comb  Honey  and 
Swarming).  It  is  no  great  task  to  make 
the  perforations  drone  -  excluding  ;  but  to 
make  them  queen  -  excluding  at  the  same 
time,  and  yet  not  hinder  the  easy  passage  of 
workers,  requires  a  very  nice  adjustment  in 
the  width  of  the  perforations.  The  first 
sheet  of  perforated  zinc  was  cut  in  England, 
and  imported  to  this  country.  This  had 
perforations  i\f5,  of  an  inch  in  width.  While 
this  answered  a  most  excellent  purpose,  a 
few  claimed  that  queens  would  occasionally 
get  through  it.  To  obviate  this,  zinc  was 
made  as  below,  with  the  perforations  a  little 
narrower. 


zinc  avith  smaller  perforations. 
The  width  of  this  was  ^\  or  y,;;,  of  an 
inch.  Willie  no  queen  succeeded  in  getting 
through  this,  reports,  as  well  as  my  own  ex- 
perience, convinced  me  that  this  size  was 
too  narrow.  It  not  only  proved  to  be  a  great 
hindrance  to  the  workers  when  their  honey- 
sacks  were  empty,  l)ut,  when  gorged  with 
honey,  they  were  scarcely  able,  if  at  all,  to 
pass  through.  Very  recently,  perforated 
zinc  has  been  made  in  this  country  after  the 
foreign  pattern,  but  with  perforations  ex- 
actly  ,\]„  of    an    inch  in    width,  or  a  trifle 


smaller  than  the  foreign.  Perhaps,  my 
friend,  you  think  I  am  splitting  hairs;  but 
when  we  come  to  distinguish  between  the 
size  of  small  queens  and  the  average  worker 
we  must  be  exact.  The  reports,  as  well  as 
our  own  experience  in  regard  to  the  perfo- 
rated zinc  as  so  made,  have  led  us  to  believe 
that  this  size  of  perforations  is  about  right. 
Having  discussed  the  proper  size  of  the 
perforations,  we  will  now  consider  its  use  in 
drone-excluding  entrance-guards. 
If  we  put  a  strip  of  this  material  over  the 
entrance,  the  worker-bees  can  go  out,  but 
the  drones  can  not ;  but  as  a  simple  strip  of 
L  zinc  is  liable  to  get  clogged  if  there  are 
many  drones  in  the  hive,  an  arrangement 
like  the  figure  below  is  ordinarily  used. 


drone-guard. 

This  is  simply  a  strip  of  perforated  metal, 
Ux  12  in.  long,  folded  in  the  middle  at  right 
angles,  as  shown.  Each  end'  is  then  closed 
with  a  block  U  in.  long  and  I  in.  square  fas- 
tened in  place  with  a  couple  of  double- 
pointed  tacks.  To  use,  place  tight  up  against 
the  entrance  with  the  selvage  downward,  as 
represented  in  the  cut. 

When  it  is  desirable  to  get  the  drones  all 
out  of  a  hive  without  permitting  any  to  get 
back  again,  we  put  the  guard  over  the  en- 
trance and  then  shake  all  the  bees  in  front 
of  the  hive.  The  workers  will,  of  course, 
crawl  back  on  the  empty  combs;  but  the 
drones  will  have  to  stay  out,  and  the  queen 
too,  unless  you  watch  for  her  and  put  her 
into  the  hive.  In  the  morning,  when  the 
drones  are  stiffened  with  cold,  they  may  be 
fed  to  the  chickens  or  otherwise  destroyed. 

If  you  object  to  this  method  as  being  too 
much  trouble,  you  can  try  another  way.  On 
a  sunny  day  a  very  large  part  of  the  drones 
will  be  out  for  a  fiy  about  1  p.  31. ,  or  a  little 
later.  You  are  then  to  place  the  drone- 
guard  at  the  entrance  ;  and  when  the  drones 
return  a  little  later  tliey  will  be  shut  out.  In 
the  evening  the  drones  may  be  disposed  of 
as  before. 

The  drone-excluder  just  described  is  not 
automatic.  Accordingly.  Mr.  Henry  Alley, 
of  Wenham,  Mass.,  has  devised  the  two  fol- 
lowing. 


ri-nripr.-iiTrTi.-Ti-iin7Ttr^ija 

'"'■"1    '    *i    i^.^jJC3 


ALLKV  S    I)K()NK-I:\(  lA'DER. 


DRONKS. 


KX) 


DRONES. 


It  is  to  be  observed,  that  Ibis  is  simllav  to 
the  one  just  described,  only  it  Ims  n  wiie- 
clotli  ci-ne  in  the  top.  Tlie  (J rones,  after 
making-  a  friiilless  attempt  to  piss  the  met- 
al, will  enter  the  wire-cloth  cone  in  the  top. 
and  escape:  bnt  none  will  have  sense  t-nongh 
to  go  back  the  way  they  came,  but  will  hud- 
dle together  outside  and  await  their  fate. 

If  it  is  desirable  to  get  the  drones  into  a 
box,  so  they  may  be  carried  to  some  other 
apiary,  for  instance,  a  cage  is  made  with  an 
upper  story,  and  a  couple  of  these  wire  cones 
conduct  the  drones  "up  stairs."  If  any 
worker-bees  should  go  up  too,  they  can  read- 
ily go  up  Ihrough  the  perforated  zinc.  This 
latter  arrangement  is  shown  in  the  next  cut. 

As  to  how  this  trap  has  worked  at  the 
Home  of  the  IIouey-Bees,  I  make  an  extract 
from  the  department  of  •'  Our  Own  Apiary  " 
(see  Gleanings,  p.  4(il.  A'ol.  XIV.). 


ALLEYS    DRONE -EXCLUDER,    DRONE    AND 
QUEEN    TRAP    C0MI5INED. 

''At  10  A.  M.  I  attached  one  of  the  Alley 
traps  to  a  hive  of  drones,  and  very  soon 
quite  a  number  of  bees  hovered  in  front  of 
their  hive,  evidently  greatly  confused  at  the 
altered  appearance  of  the  entrance.  After 
flying  about  for  a  few  minutes  they  no  doubt 
thought  that  what  could  not  be  helped  must 
be  endured,  and  so  crawled  through  wiien 
they  had  thoroughly  inspected  the  perforated 
metal.  A  whole  day  was  necessary  for  the 
bees  to  become  accustomed  to  the  drone- 
trap,  after  which  time  they  passed  and  re- 
passed as  before,  but  not  without  some  little 
hindrance.  In  the  height  of  the  honey-flow 
this  would  result  in  the  loss  of  considerable 
honey,  especially  if  very  many  of  the  hives 
had  the  traps  attached  to  their  entrances. 

"IS    THE    TRAP    A    SUC:CEESS    IN    CATCHING 
DRONES  V 

"Although  the  hive  to  which  I  attached  the 
trap  contained  a  large  number  of  drones, 
none  made  an  attempt  to  pass  the  perforated 
zinc  until  about  1  p.  m.  On  coming  up  at 
this  time  I  was  greatly  amused  to  see  them 
tugging  at  every  available  hole  in  the  perfo- 
rated metal.  Their  clumsy  round  heads 
wiggled  and  squirmed,  but  to  no  purpose. 
In  fact,  there  were  so  many  trying  to  make 


their  way  through  that  even  the  workers 
(?oul(l  not  pass,  by  leason  of  the  multitude  of 
drones  blocking  up  the  holes.  To  say  the 
least,  their  eflorts  were  "  real  funny/'' as  the 
boys  say.  After  repeated  attempts  the  poor 
drones  resorted  to  the  then  remaining  place 
of  escape  ;  namely,  througli  the  cone  in  tlie 
trap.  This,  as  you  are  aware,  leads  into  a 
little  chamber  where  the  drones  are  made 
prisoners.  In  about  an  hour  afterw'ard  I  re- 
turned, to  find  about  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of 
drones— quite  a  number  of  which  had  bump- 
ed around  until  tliey  had  worried  themselves 
to  death,  and  some  were  dead  below,  as  they 
had  been  unable  to  find  the  cone.  On  trying 
two  or  three  hives  in  this  way  I  find  that  the 
trap  gives  excellent  satisfaction.  As  has 
been  said,  drones  can  be  caught  and  dispos- 
ed of  accordingly.  If  one  desires  to  take 
half  a  pound  or  so  of  choice  drones  to  an- 
other apiary,  I  think  I  should  take  the  trap 
away  in  about  an  hour  after  they  have  begun 
to  collect  in  the  upper  chamber.  If  left 
longer  they  will  worry  themselves  to  death, 
as  I  have  found  by  experience.'' 

As  to  how  this  traj)  may  be  used  for  catch- 
ing swarms,  see  Swarming,  elsewhere. 

REARING  DRONES  OUT  OF  SEASON. 

This  is  quite  a  difficult  matter  to  accom- 
plish, especially  in  the  spring ;  and  although 
we  have  many  times  fed  colonies  w'ith  this 
end  in  view%  we  have  always  found  some 
other  colony  that  would  have  drones  flying 
just  as  soon,  without  any  artificial  aid. 
Drones  may  be  kept  almost  any  length  of 
time,  by  making  the  colonies  containing 
them  queenless,  or  by  putting  them  into 
queenless  colonies.  During  warm  dry  weath- 
er in  the  summer  or  fall,  drones  may  be  pro- 
cured by  feeding,  but  the  feeding  must  be 
regular,  and  given  every  day  for  several 
days  or  weeks.  By  feeding  one  colony  a 
barrel  of  sugar  in  the  fall,  I  succeeded  in 
getting  a  nice  lot  of  drones  in  October.  Of 
course,  their  combs  were  taken  away  and 
empty  ones  given  them,  to  give  the  queen 
room.  Before  we  can  get  drones,  we  must 
get  worker-brood  under  good  headway,  and 
then,  if  we  put  a  drone-comb  right  in  the 
center  of  the  brood-nest,  the  queen  will,  if 
all  things  are  favorable,  begin  at  once  to  fill 
it  with  eggs.  The  feeding  must  be  kept  up, 
however,  for  bees  are  very  easily  discour- 
aged; and  if  a  stoppage  occurs  in  the  daily 
supplies,  they  will  not  hesitate  to  pull  the 
young  drones  out  of  their  cells  and  sacrifice 
them  without  mercy. 

A  queen  will  seldom  produce  drones  until 
.she    is  nearly  or   quite  a  year   old ;    even 


DROXES. 


101 


DRONES. 


though  drone-comb  may  be  placed  in  the 
very  center  of  the  brood-chamber. 

DESTRUCTION  OF  DRONES  IN  THE  FALL. 

This  does  not  necessarily  occur  in  the  fall, 
but  may  take  place  at  any  time  in  the  sum- 
mer ;  and  I  have  several  times  known  the 
drones  killed  off  between  apple-bloom  and 
white  clover,  only  because  supplies  ceased, 
causing  the  bees  to  become  discouraged  and 
give  up  swarming  for  the  time  being.  I 
know  of  no  way  in  which  you  can  tell  so 
well  tliat  the  yield  of  honey  has  ceased,  as 
by  the  behavior  of  the  bees  to  their  drones. 
When,  in  the  midst  of  the  honey  season,  you 
see  a  worker  buzzing  along  on  the  back  of  a 
drone  who  seems  to  be  "•scratching  gravel" 
to  get  away  from  the  hive,  you  may  take 
warning  that  the  yield  of  honey  is  failing, 
and  that  you  had  better  stop  making  artifi- 
cial swarms,  and  prepare  for  feeding,  if  it  is 
your  intention  so  to  do.  I  do  not  know  that 
I  ever  saw  bees  sting  drones,  but  they  some- 
times pretend  to  do  so  ;  I  rather  think  it  is 
only  a  feint  to  drive  them  away.  The  poor 
drone,  at  such  times,  after  vainly  trying  to 
go  back  into  the  hive,  will  sometimes  take 
wing  and  soar  away  off  in  the  air,  only  to 
return  after  a  time  to  be  repulsed  again,  lui- 
til,  through  weakness  perhaps,  and  want  of 
food,  he  flutters  hopelessly  in  the  dust,  and 
so  submits  to  the  fate  that  seems  to  be  a 
part  of  the  inexorable  law  of  nature,  and  of 
his  being. 

To  preserve  drones  for  late  queen-rearing, 
I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  carrying  all 
frames  containing  drone  -  brood,  to  some 
queenless  hive,  knowing  they  would  be  safe 
there  as  long  as  wanted,  even  if  it  were  all 
winter.  I  believe  drones  have  been,  under 
such  circumstances,  wintered  over ;  but 
whether  they  are  of  any  value  in  the  spring 
or  not,  I  am  unable  to  say,  I  should  fear 
they  would  not  be  by  the  time  queens  could 
be  reared.  We  usually  have  drones  in  some 
of  our  colonies  as  soon  as  April,  and  that  is 
as  early  as  I  should  care  to  undertake  to 
rear  queens,  in  ordinary  seasons.  I  have  sev- 
eral seasons  reared  queens  and  had  them 
successfully  fertilized,  even  after  all  the 
drones  had  been  gone  some  time,  so  far  as  I 
could  discover;  and  as  they  proved  to  be 
purely  fertilized,  I  have  been  not  a  little 
perplexed.  Is  there  a  possibility  that,  by 
some  other  strange  excei)tion  to  the  rule,  a 
queen  may  lay  eggs  that  will  i)roduce 
workers  as  well  as  drones,  witliout  being 
fertilized  V  If  such  is  the  case,  it  will  ac- 
count for  the  rare  instances  in  which  (jueens 
hatched  with  imperfect  wings,  lay  eggs  tliat 
produce  worker -brood.  We  know  that 
4 


aphides  and  some  other  insects  reproduce 
their  species  without  any  agency  of  the 
male,  for  several  generations.  It  is  of  no 
use  to  say  we  do  not  believe  it,  for  the  evi- 
dence is  indisputable.  How  wondrous  are 
thy  works,  O  Lord  I 

DRONES    AVITIT    BRIGHTLY    COLORED    HEADS 
OF  DIFFERENT  COLORS. 

This  is  a  queer  feature  in  natural  history. 
Almost  every  summer  some  one  writes  or 
sends  us  specimens  of  drones  with  heads  of 
different  colors.    The  matter  has  been  report- 
ed and  commented  on  at  different  times  in 
Gleanings.    Xot  only  do  we  occasionally 
find  drones  with  white  heads,  but  we  find 
them  with  heads  of  a  cherry-red  color  ;  again, 
j  of  a  bright  green,  and  at  other  times  yellow. 
I  confess  there  is  something  very  wonderful 
:  and  mysterious  to  me  in  this  matter.    Why 
queer  old  dtmie  Nature  should  decide  to  sin- 
gle out  the  heads  of  di-ones  to  sport  with  in 
.  this  way  will,  it  seems  to  me,  be  a  pretty  dif- 
ficult matter  to  explain.    Why  should  this 
i  peculiarity  show  itself  in  tha  drones  more 
;  than  in  the  queens  and  workers  ?    Again, 
I  why  should  heads  be  the  subject  of  these 
!  bright  rainbow  colors  V    Is  there  really  any 
;  purpose  or  design  in  it?  or  is  it  just  because  it 
happened  so  V    I  presume  there  are  very  few 
among  our  readers  but  will  say  there  is  a 
purpose  and  a  design  in  it ;   and  the  next 
thing  is  to  decide  why  it  should  be  so.    Here 
is  a  question  for  scientists. 

A  singular  fact  in  regard  to  this  matter  is, 
that  we  find  many  of  these  colored  drones  in 
one  hive ;  that  is,  where  you  find  one  red- 
headed drone  in  a  hive,  you  will  probably 
I  find  more  ;  and  a  queen  that  produces  them 
I  once  will  do  so  again.    If  I  am  not  mistaken, 
i  I  have  seen  hives  where  all  the  drones  were 
colored  in  this  strange  way  ;  and  their  heads 
were  all  alike  —  of  one  color. 
'     DVSESrTEILV.'^s^   Wlien  you  see  your 
bees  covering  the  entrances  to  their  hives 
with     a    brownish     yellow,     disagreeable- 
smelling  excrement,  you  may  say  tliey  have 
the  dysentery,  or  what  is  usually  known  as 
such.    If  the  weatlier  becomes  very  warm 
and  pleasant,  tiiey  will  usually  get  over  it, 
I  after  they  have  had  a  full  flight.    If,  on  the 
I  contrary,  the    symptoms   show  themselves 
before  warm  weather,  and  no  opportunity  is 
given  them  to  fly,  they  may  get  so  bad  as  to 
cover  their  combs  with  tliis  substance,  and 
finally  die  in  a  damp,  rilthy-looking  mass. 

CAUSE  OF  DYSENTERY. 

i  I  believe  the  most  common  cause  is  bad 
food,  coupled  with  an  open,  cold  hive,  witli 
a  small,  or  insuflicient  cluster  of  bees.    I  can 

i  hardly  think  any  food  alone  would  i)roduce 


DYSENTERY. 


102 


DYSENTERY. 


the  disease,  because  we  rarely,  if  ever,  find 
the  bees  suffering  from  any  thing  they  will 
gather,  in  warm  summer  weather.  Honey 
gathered  from  rotten  fruit,  if  we  may  call  it 
honey,  is  very  productive  of  this  complaint, 
and  cider  from  cider-mills  is  almost  sure  to 
kill  bees  at  the  approach  of  cold  weather. 
See  CiDEK.  I  knew  a  lady  who  boiled  up  a 
mash  of  sweet  apples  and  fed  to  the  bees,  be- 
cause they  were  short  of  stores,  and  she 
could  not  afford  to  buy  sugar  for  them. 
They  all  died  of  dysentery,  long  before 
spring.  Where  dampness  accumulates  from 
their  breath,  and  settles  on  the  combs,  dilut- 
ing the  honey,  it  is  very  apt  to  cause  these 
symptoms.  Sorghum  syrup  has  brought  on 
a  very  aggravated  form,  and  burnt  candy  or 
sugar  is  almost  sure  poison  to  bees,  although 
it  may  be  fed  them  with  impunity  in  the 
middle  of  the  simimer.  The  burnt  sugar,  or 
caramel,  attracts  moisture  from  the  air  very 
rapidly  in  damp  weather,  and  I  am  inclined 
to  think  it  is  this  moisture  that  produces 
the  disease. 

"While  it  is  very  certain  that  no  such  symp- 
toms are  found  in  warm  weather,  it  is  also 
certain  that  a  strong  colony  in  a  hive  with 
soft,  warm,  dry,  porous  walls,  will  stand  an 
amount  of  bad  food  that  a  weak  one,  or  one 
exposed  to  drafts  of  cold  air,  will  not.  I 
have  known  bees  having  considerable  stores 
of  cider,  to  winter  very  well,  if  the  colony 
were  strong  enough  to  keep  the  whole  in- 
terior of  the  hive  dry  and  warm.  A  power- 
ful colony,  if  left  with  their  hive  uncovered 
during  a  rain  storm,  will  soon  dry  them- 
selves ;  and  while  they  are  doing  this  they 
remind  one  of  a  sturdy  cart-horse,  as  he 
shakes  the  water  off  his  hide  and  dries  him- 
self by  his  internal  aninlal  heat.  While  they 
have  the  health  and  numbers  to  repel  mois- 
ture in  this  way,  they  are  safe  against  al- 
most any  thing.  But  to  help  them  to  keep 
this  internal  strength,  they  should  have 
close  and  comfortable  quarters,  very  much 
such  as  jou  would  need,  my  friend, to  enable 
you  to  i)ass  a  severe  winter's  night  in  health 
and  comfort.  The  hives  often  used  are  so 
large  and  barn-like,  in  respect  to  the  win-  j 
ter's  brood-nest,  that  comfort  is  almost  out 
of  the  question,  for  it  does  little  if  any  good  ! 
to  pile  straw,  corn-fodder,  etc.,  over  the  out-  } 
sides  of  the  hives,  while  the  cluster  within  j 
has  no  sort  of  protection  at  all.  If  they  were 
in  a  hollow  tree,  the  diameter  of  which  was  j 
so  small  that  they  could  fill  it  completely, 
they  would  be  in  a  much  better  place,  espe- 
cially if  the  sides  were  lined  with  soft  dry 
rotten  wood.    I  have  seen  icicles  nearly  as 


large  as  my  arm,  in  box  hives  that  Avere 
tight  and  large ;  these  had  all  formed  from 
the  condensation  of  the  breath  of  the  bees. 
Now,  should  they  melt  during  a  thaw,  in 
such  a  way  that  this  water  would  run  down 
on  the  bees  and  their  unsealed  stores,  it 
would  be  very  apt  to  produce  unhealthiness, 
to  say  nothing  further. 

THE  AGENCY  OF  THE  APHIDES  IN  PRODUC- 
ING DYSENTERY. 

Perhaps  the  most  productive  cause  of  dys- 
entery is  the  honey  from  the  Aphides  ;  or,, 
at  least,  most  complaints  have  been  made  of 
this  honey.  As  bees  seldom  touch  this,  ex- 
cept during  droughts  or  unfavorable  seasons, 
it  is  quite  likely  it  has  been  the  cause  of 
much  of  the  mischief.  If  the  early  honey  is 
all  extracted  from  the  brood-combs,  and  the 
bees  left  with  nothing  but  this  bad  honey, 
gathered  late  in  the  fall,  the  matter  is  much 
worse  ;  and  many  cases  have  been  reported^ 
of  colonies  dying  where  the  extractor  had 
been  used,  while  those  untouched  had  been 
free  from  the  disease.  The  moral  is,  re- 
frain from  extracting  too  closely  from  the 
brood-apartment.  I  would  at  least  let  the 
bees  fill  their  brood-chamber  with  clover  or 
linden  honey,  just  before  the  yield  ceases, 
extracting  toward  the  close  of  the  harvest, 
only  from  the  combs  in  the  upper  story,  un- 
less you  choose  to  feed  tliem  up  for  winter, 
on  sugar  or  candy.  We  have  had  one  or 
two  favorable  reports  of  wintering  on  the 
aphidiau  honey,  from  which  we  may  con- 
clude it  is  not  always  deleterious. 

prevention  of  dysentery. 

From  what  I  have  said,  you  will  probably 
infer  that  I  would  make  the  swarm  larger 
or  the  hive  smaller,  during  the  winter  sea- 
son. If  we  say,  also,  have  the  walls  of  the 
hive  of  some  warm  porous  material  that  will 
absorb  moisture  and  afterward  dry  out  read- 
ily, you  have  the  idea  so  far.  Perhaps  the 
chaff  cushions  and  DivisiON-BO^VRDS  are  the 
readiest  means  at  our  command  of  accom- 
plishing this. ^34 

While  they  might  get  along  on  almost  any 
kind  of  food  when  thus  ])repared,  I  would 
by  no  means  fail  to  give  them  good  whole- 
some stores,  as  far  as  jiossible.  Honey  gath- 
ered in  the  middle  of  the  season  is  generally 
wholesome ;  for  by  the  time  winter  comes, 
it  is  thoroughly  ripened,  by  the  same  dry- 
ing-out power  I  have  spoken  of.  Honey 
gathered  in  the  fall,  if  sealed  up,  is  generally 
good  ;  but  some  of  the  fall  flowers  produce  a 
honey  that  seems  to  separate  into  a  thin 
watery  liquid,  and  a  granular  substance, 
something  like  candied  honey.    I  am  not 


DYSENTERY 


103 


DYSENTERY. 


quite  sure  this  causes  dysentery,  but  it  looks 
in  some  seasons  very  much  as  if  it  does.  A 
syrup  made  of  white  or  graniUated  sugar,  I 
believe  is  always  wholesome  ;  and  when  bees 
are  short  of  stores,  it  is  probably  the  cheap- 
■est  and  safest  of  any  tiling  we  can  feed  late 
in  the  fall. 

I  once  wintered  a  colony  on  sugar  stores, 
that  came  out  so  healtliy  in  the  spring  that 
they  did  not  even  spot  the  white  snow  visi- 
bly, when  they  voided  their  excrement  at 
their  first  flight  in  the  spring.  This,  I  be- 
lieve, we  may  consider  perfect  freedom  from 
-any  sign  of  dysentery.  A  friend,  who  is  aii 
old  -  time  box-hive  bee-keeper,  says  it  is  the 
pollen  that  makes  them  spot  the  snow;  that 
if  tliey  are  wintered  without  pollen,  they 
will  make  no  perceptible  spot.  I  think  there 
may  be  some  truth  in  this,  for  those  winter- 
ed without  pollen  seem  to  spot  the  snow  but 
little.  Spotting  the  snow  is  not  always  an 
indication  that  we  should  be  alarmed,  espe- 
cially if  the  bees  seem  to  rise  without  troub- 
le, and  get  back  to  the  hive  in  safety;  but 
should  they  soil  the  entrance  and  inside  of 
their  hives,  and  then  fall  around  the  en- 
trance in  considerable  nimibers,  unable  to 
take  wing,  it  is  pretty  safe  to  say,  that,  with- 
out very  warm  fine  weather,  they  will  soon  be 
■demoralized  and  broken  up. 

CUKE    FOR    DYSENTERY. 

Summer  weather  seems  to  be  a  sure  and 
<jertain  cure.  One  day  of  summer  weather, 
or  a  day  warm  enough  for  them  all  to  fly 
freely,  is,  I  believe, a  cure  usually;  especial- 
ly if  they  are  provided  with  wholesome  food 
and  tucked  u])  warm,  after  they  have  had 
this  fly-'3''. 

The  question  now  comes  up.  Can  we  not 
give  them  this  needed  fly  by  artificial 
means?  It  has  been  done,  many  times  with 
success,  by  taking  the  hive  into  a  warm 
room,  and  fixing  a  square  frame  of  thin 
cloth  or  netting  over  it,  in  .which  they  can 
fly  and  empty  themselves.  This  frame 
should  be  about  a  yard  square.  The  room 
should  be  light  and  warm.  After  they  are 
through,  the  tenijjerature  should  be  allowed 
to  fall  mitil  tliey  are  driven  back  into  the 
•cluster  on  the  frames.  To  avoid  soiling  the 
hive  and  combs,  papers  may  be  spread  over 
them,  only  allowing  an  opening  for  the 
bees  to  come  up  into  the  cage.  This  is  a 
troublesome  and  disagreeable  task,  and  I 
think  will  hardly  pay,  unless  it  is  with  a  few 
hives,  or  to  save  a  very  valuable  queen.  A 
beginner  is  very  apt  to  be  alarmed,  when 
tliere  is  no  trouble  at  all  ;  and  I  repeat,  un- 
less the  bees  are  soiling  the  combs  in  the 


hive,  and  getting  themselves  soiled,  damp, 
and  demoralized,  I  would  let  them  alone 
(after  tucking  them  up  with  chaff  cushions) 
to  take  their  chances  until  thei'e  comes  a 
warm  day.  I  know  of  a  beginner  who,  on 
looking  into  his  hive  and  finding  only  a 
small  cluster  away  down  in  the  combs,  im- 
agined they  were  nearly  all  dead;  and  hear- 
ing, through  the  journals,  of  giving  them  a 
fly  in  a  cage,  took  the  innocent  and  unof- 
fending bees  into  the  house,  and  warmed 
them  up.  The  little  knot  of  bees  began  to 
unfold  under  the  influence  of  the  warmth, 
and  turned  out  to  be  a  good-sized  colony. 
They  had  packed  themselves  down  into  a 
little  sphere,  so  small  that  an  inexperienced 
person  would  have  been  likely,  at  first 
glance,  to  call  them  only  a  good-sized  hand- 
ful ;  but  they  were  a  good  swarm,  and  were 
in  just  the  shape  they  should  be  to  stand  a 
zero  freeze,  or,  rather,  they  had  done  the 
very  best  they  could  do  in  a  winter  brood- 
nest  four  or  five  times  as  large  as  they  really 
needed. 

If  the  trouble  is  caused  by  bad  honey,  and 
this  is  many  times  the  case,  they  should  be 
removed  from  their  combs,  after  their  flight, 
and  supplied  with  honey  which  you  know, 
or  have  reason  to  think,  is  good,  well  rip- 
ened, and  wholesome.  Every  bee-keeper 
should  have  a  stock  of  such  combs  on  hand 
for  emergencies.  They  can  be  taken  from 
the  hives  during  the  yield  from  clover  or 
linden,  in  July  or  Aug.  If  you  can  not  get 
the.se,  I  would  give  them  candy,  a  small 
lump  at  a  time,  just  over  the  cluster,  the 
bees,  of  course,  being  on  empty  combs.  *Tis 
rather  risky,  I  know:  for  after  the  bees  have 
become  diseased  as  I  have  mentioned,  tliey 
seem  to  be  discouraged,  and  to  have  lost  all 
heart  to  do  any  thing.  I  have  knowai  them 
to  starve  with  candy  or  honey  close  to  them, 
at  such  a  time.  If  you  can  stir  up  some  am- 
bition in  them,  and  get  them  to  clean  off 
their  wings  and  "plumage,''  and  go  to  work, 
there  will  be  no  trouble:  but  so  long  as  they 
preserve  that  listlessness  and  indifference, 
there  is  but  little  hope  for  tliem  :  they  will 
probably  swarm  out  on  the  first  warm  day, 
if  you  do  ''tinker  them  uj)."'  If  the  season  is 
pretty  well  along,  say  April  or  May,  you  can 
often  stir  up  their  ambition  by  giving  them 
a  little  unsealed  brood  from  another  colony. 
The  old  adage,  that  an  ounce  of  prevention 
is  better  than  a  pound  of  cure,  will  apply 
most  emphatically  to  dysentery.  It  may  be 
that  we  can  not  always  prevent  dysentery,  for 
some  cases  seem  rather  difficult  to  accoinit 
\  for,  but  I  think  we  can  in  most  cases. 


E. 


ED^S^IES  or  BSES.  These  are,  so 
far  as  I  know,  taking  them  alphabetically, 
ANTs.BEE-MOTns,  birds  (King-birds),  mice, 
parasites,  skunks.  Toads  (and  frogs),  and 
wasps.  Perliaps  I  should  also  add,  wicked 
boys  or  men  who  have  so  little  regard  for 
the  rights  and  faithful  hard  earnings  of  their 
fellows.  that  they  sometimes  steal  hives, 
honey  and  all.  just  for  the  tritling  amount  of 
honey  to  be  got  from  the  mashed-up  ruins, 
which  they  generally  make  of  the  bees  and 
hives.  To  be  frank,  I  should  addpatent- 
hive'men ;  and  these  latter,  so  far  as  my  ex- 
perience goes,  have  been  worse  enemies  of 
the  bee  than  any  I  have  yet  enumerated.  It 
has  been  said,  and  with  much  justice,  that 
ignorant  bee-keepers  are  the  bees"  worst 
enemies.  If  ignorance  had  coupled  with  it, 
willful  deceit  and  fraud,  I  do  not  know  but 
that  I  should  subscribe  to  the  assertion  ;  but 
as  those  wlio  have  been  ignorant  are  now 
very  rapidly  becoming  educated  and  intelli- 
gent bee-keepers,  I  have  much  charity  for 
them.  The  man  who  is  persistently  and  will- 
fully bad,  is  not  only  the  w^orst  enemy  of 
bees,' but  of  all  mankind,  himself  included; 
and  of  this  class  are  the  greater  part  of  those 
who  take  money  for  their  pretended  inven- 
tions in  bee-hives.  I  am  speaking  severely, 
I  am  awar*  ;  but  could  you,  year  after  year, 
hear,  as  I  have,  the  statements  of  those  w^ho 
have  taken  up  the  pursuit  with  all  honest  en- 
thusiasm, and  hear  them  tell  of  how  they 
have  invested  money  and  time,  all  in  a 
wrong  direction,  of  how  they  have  been  pur- 
posely kept  in  the  dark  in  regard  to  what  was 
really  known  about  bees,  of  how  they  have 
been  told  that  the  bee-moth  is  the  one  great 
enemy,  and  that  no  one  else  has  the  secret 
of  its  b;inishment,  I  think  you  would  agree 
that  these  land-sharks  in  human  form  are 
worse  enemies  than  all  the  moths,  birds,  and 
toads  combined,  that  ever  infested  the 
neighborhood  of  bee-hives. 

Ants  and  bee-moths  have  been  noticed  al- 
ready in  their  respective  places  ;  under  the 
head  of  Kixo  iurds  we  sliall  mention  what 
is  known  of  the  depredations  the  feathered 
tribes  make  on  bees. 

MICE. 

Mice  do  harm  only  when  they  get  into  the 


hives,  and  this  part  of  the  subject  will  be 
sufficiently  noticed  under  the  head  of  En- 
TRAXCES.  It  may  be  well  to  remark  that 
mice  sometimes  make  sad  havoc  among  sur- 
plus combs,  when  stored  away  with  small 
patches  of  honey  in  them."  The  combs  will 
be  completely  riddledssn  during  the  winter 
time,  if  they  are  left  where  mice  can  get  at 
them.  On  this  account,  tlie  honey-house 
should  be  mouse-proof  ;  and  for  fear  that  a 
stray  one  may  by  accident  get  in,  it  is  well 
to  keep  a  trap  ready,  baited  with  toasted 
cheese.  If  you  have  not  a  tight  room,  make 
a  tight  box,  large  enough  to  hold  all  the  sur- 
plus combs  which  have  honey  in  them. 

PARASITES. 

The  only  parasite  we  have  ever  seen  is 
the  Braula,  or  Italian  bee-louse,  and  we 
have  never  seen  them  except  on  bees  just 
imported  from  Italy.  I  feel  safe  in  saying 
no  fear  may  be  anticipated  from  them,  if  the 
bees  are  kept  in  strong  colonies,  and  in  clean 
tight  hives,  with  no  old  refuse  and  rubbish 
accumulating  about  them.  One  or  two  re- 
ports have  1)een  received  of  bee-lice  in  our 
own  country,  but  they  were  exceptions. 

SKUXKS.*. 

Skunks  have  been  known  to  ai)i)roach  the 
hive  at  night  time,  and,  by  scratching 
on  or  near  the  alighting-board,  to  entice  the 
bees  out  where  they  could  "  gobble  them 
up."  It  would  seem  a  little  strange  that 
these  animals  have  no  fear  of  stings,  but 
they,  doubtless,  are  guided  by  ^  sort  of  in- 
stinct that  enables  them  to  divine  how  to 
get  hold  of  tlie  bee  with  its  sweet  morsel  of 
honey  in  its  honey-sac,  without  receiving 
harm  from  the  sting. 

SPIDERS. 

Spiders,  and  the  method  of  repelling  them, 
we  have  mentioned  under  Alightixg- 
BOARDS  and  Porticos.  They  too,  as  well 
as  toads,  seem  to  have  a  rare  appreciation 
of  a  heavily  laden  bee  as  he  returns  to  the 
hive ;  we  should  therefore  be  careful  that 

*A  ladycorrcsponrlent  in  Olcanings  in  Bee  Culture, 
page  866,  Vol.  XV.,  writes  that  she  effeetuaUj-  got 
lidOf  skunks  by  the  use  of  Koiiji-h  on  Rats  stirred 
in  an  eg-g'.  Thisiiiixture  was  placed  at  the  entrance 
of  hives  previousl.v  visited  by  skunks.  After  the 
doses  had  been  repeated  two  evenings  in  succession 
the  skunks  never  again  paid  their  visitations. 


ENEMIES  OF  BEES. 


105 


ENTRANCES  TO  HIVES. 


•all  s])ider-webs  be  faitlifully  kept  bnished 
awMy  from  the  hives,  and  that  the  hives 
have  no  corners  or  crevices  about  them,  to 
harbor  such  insects.  Be  sure  that  there  is  no 
place  which  tlie  broom  will  not  clear  out  at 
one  sweei);  for  where  we  have  a  hundred 
hives  we  can  not  well  spend  a  great  amoinit 
of  time  on  each  single  one.  The  house-apia- 
ry is  quite  convenient  in  tliis  respect,  and  it 
gives  me  a  fine  appetite  for  breakfast  to 
go  out  bareheaded,  and  brush  off  every  trace 
of  a  web,  with  sucli  genuine  good  will  that 
the  poor  spiders,  as  soon  as  they  have  recov- 
ered from  their  astonishment,  with  one  ac- 
cord agree  that  the  locality  is  an  unhealthy 
one  for  those  who  believe  in  driving  a  tlirif- 
ty  business. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  many  of  these 
so-called  enemies  only  take  up  the  destruc- 
tion of  bees  as  a  chance  habit,  and  that  it  is 
not  always  to  be  looked  for  or  expected. 
Common  fowls  sometimes  get  a  liabit  of  eat- 
ing their  own  eggs;  but  it  is  so  unusual  an  oc- 
currence that  w^e  can  hardly  regard  it  as  a 
matter  of  any  very  serious  importance.  It 
may  be  Avell,  at  times,  to  look  out  for  the 
enemies  that  prey  on  bees;  but,  as  a  general 
thing.  I  think  they  are  quite  capable  of 
fighting  their  own  battles,  if  we  give  them 
the  proper  care  and  proper  hives. 

WASPS. 

Wasps  and  hornets  sometimes  capture  and 
carry  off  honey-bees;  but  unless  they  should 
take  part  in  tlie  work  in  great  numbers,  I 
would  have  no  solicitude  in  regard  to  them. 

A  large  fly,  called  tlie  bee-hawk,  or  mos- 
quito-hawk, lias  been  mentioned  by  our 
Southern  neighbors,  but  it  is  said  to  be  easi- 
ly frightened  away  by  opening  a  vigorous 
warfare  with  whips  and  sticks.* 

THIEVES    AND    PATENT-RIGHT    VENDERS. 

Under  Apiary  I  have  mentioned  how  we 
can  protect  our  hives  from  the  inroads  of 
thieves,  but  I  fear  it  will  require  something 
more  tlian  tight  higli  fences  to  protect  bee- 
keepers  from  venders  of  pateiit  hives.  I  do 
not  know  a  single  i)atented  feature  on  bee- 
hives and  implements  (and  there  are  hun- 
dreds and  Inmdreds  of  them),  that  would 
come  into  general  use  if  the  i)atent  were  re- 
moved.'-' Almost  constautly  I  am  receiving 
descriptions  and  circulars  of  some  patent 
hive,  asking  if  I  would  advise  investing  in 
them;  and  althougli  1  have  faithfully  exam- 
ined every  thing  that  has  come  up,  I  find 
them  pretty  much  all  alike ;  eitlier  wretched 

*  For  further  particulars,  niul  iiNo  for  iloscriplioiis 
of  Aifilus<  MixKtturietisis,  Mdllniihuid  oirina.  MdUnjilin- 
ra  homhoiilCi*,  i\n<\  other  insect-oucmios  to  Ik-cs,  see 
Prof.  Cook's  M  iniial. 


mistakes  and  blunders,  or  the  work  of 
greedy,  imprincipled,  bad  men.  Have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  them,  and  under  no  circum- 
stances think  of  paying  them  money.  No, 
not  even  if  they  are  ministers  of  the  gospel 
as  many  of  them  claim  to  be;  and  some  of 
them  are.  I  presume, God-fearing  men  whom 
the  sharpers  have,  by  oily  words,  persuaded 
to  undertake  the  work  ;  for  they  know  full 
well  that  there  is  no  advertisement  in  the 
world  like  having  Reverend  attached  to  the 
name  of  their  agent,  or  among  the  testimo- 
nials appended  to  their  circulars.  I  would 
that  I  were  able  to  convince  some  ministers 
of  the  sacredness  of  their  calling,  and  of 
the  importance  of  the  most  zealous  care  in 
guarding  it  from  contamination. 

So  far  as  the  winged,  feathered,  and  four- 
footed  tribes  are  concerned,  we  have,  my 
friends,  but  little  to  fear  from  enemies  of 
bees,  and  we  shall  have  but  an  easy  task  to 
keep  them  in  subservience  ;  but  from  igno- 
rant and  unprincipled  men  we  have  much  to 
fear;  and  we  have  abundant  need  of  the 
most  earnest  and  faithful  work,  in  the  shape 
of  Christian  kindness,  united  with  a  firm 
and  decided  stand  against  speculators  and 
sharpers. 

UNTH/LNCHS  TO  KXVES.    I    do 

not  know  that  it  makes  any  very  great  differ- 
ence to  the  bees,  or  with  the  amount  of  hon-. 
ey  gathered,  where  the  entrance  is ;  wheth- 
er at  the  very  lowest  part  of  the  hive,  or 
right  in  the  top.  I  have  had  them  do  well 
with  their  entrance  in  almost  all  positions. 
On  many  accounts,  an  entrance  even  with, 
or  a  little  below,  the  bottom-board  of  the 
hive  would  be  most  desirable.  This  ^ives 
the  bees  every  facility  for  removing  filth,  or 
dead  bees  that  frequently  clog  the  hive  and 
combs  in  cold  weather,  also  bits  of  refuse 
comb,  cappings  from  the  cells,  dust, etc.,  for 
this  all  falls  to  the  bottom  of  the  hive,  and 
is  naturally  carried  toward  the  entrance  by 
the  passage,  out  and  in,  of  the  inmates.  Al- 
so, if  the  upper  part  of  the  hive  is  close  and 
warm,  the  warm  air  generated  by  the  clus- 
ter, rising  by  its  lightness,  compared  with 
the  colder  air  outdoors,  has  a  mucli  less 
chance  for  escape  than  if  the  entrance  were 
nearer  the  top  of  the  hive.  If  the  entrance 
is  a  little  below  the  bottom -board,  cold 
winds  and  storms  are  not  so  readily  ad- 
mitted. 

It  has  been  said,  that  an  entrance  part  way 
up  will  not  be  so  liable  to  become  clogged 
with  dead  l)ees.  This  I  admit  ;  but  I  think 
it  wovdd  be  much  better  to  have  no  dead 
bees  at  all  in   tlie   hive,  and  we  seldom,  if 


ENTRANCES  TO  HIVES. 


106 


ENTRANCES  TO  HIVES. 


ever,  see  any  in  the  cliatt'  hive  or  in  any  hive 
that  is  ecinally  well  protectee^"".  It  has  also 
been  said,  that  if  the  bees  could  set  in  near- 
er the  toj)  of  the  hive,  tliey  would  have  a 
short  path  to  the  center  of  the  brood-nest, 
where  they  generally  make  their  way  about 
as  soon  as  they  gain  a  foothold.  This  I  ad- 
mit in  part;  but  if  we  give  the  bees  this  short 
cut  in,  we  also  give  the  warm  air  of  the 
brood-nest  a  short  cut  out.  Besides,  with 
the  shallow^  L.  frames  we  use  and  advise, 
the  bees  have  but  a  short  distance  to  climb. 
All  things  considered,  I  think  we  can  not  do 
better  than  to  have  the  entrance  just  below 
the  bottom-board,  as  in  the  two  hives  we 
have  illustrated.  In  the  Dovetailed  hive 
the  entrance  is  formed  by  the  cleats  on  the 
bottom-board.  This  is  contraced  in  tlie 
usual  way  by  three-cornered  ( ntrance- 
blocks.    See  Alighting-ioakds. 

I  need  hardly  add,  that  where  we  have  the 
entrances  arranged  in  this  manner,  close  to 
the  ground,  we  must  have  the  ground  clean 
and  free  from  weeds  for  several  feet  around 
and  in  front  of  the  hive.  See  Apiary  and 
Alighting-boards. 

The  entrances  to  all  hives,  in  the  winter 
time,  should  be  closed  to  such  a  width  tliat 
no  mice  can  by  any  possibility  get  in  ;  if  they 
do  not  exceed  t  of  an  inch,  there  will  be  no 
.  danger.  When  bees  are  wintered  in  the  open 
air  without  protection,  the  dead  bees  are 
liable  to  fall  dowai,  and  clog  the  entrance. 
When  a  warm  day  comes,  the  live  bees  will 
try  hard  to  get  out.  The  apiarist  should 
be  on  hand  at  such  a  time,  and  while  he  lifts 
the  hive  from  the  bottom-board,  an  assistant 
with  a  broom  sliould  quickly  brush  off 
every  accumulation.  The  hives  and  combs 
should  then  be  fixed  so  that  no  more  may 
straggle  away  from  the  cluster  and  get  fro- 
zen between  the  empty  combs. 

SIZE    OF    ENTRANCES. 

Witli  strong  colonies  this  is  a  matter  of 
no  great  importance,  providing  the  entrance 
is  large  enough  to  let  all  the  bees  out  and 
in  readily,  in  the  height  of  the  honey  season, 
and  not  so  large  as  to  let  in  too  great  an 
amount  of  cold  air  during  the  severest  win- 
ter w^eather.  In  the  house-apiary  we  use  a 
two-inch  auger-liole,  but  it  is,  in  reality,  re- 
duced to  about  If,  by  a  piece  of  thin  white- 
wood  veneer  steamed  and  rolled  up  into  a 
tube.  The  size  of  these  entrances  seems 
about  right  for  a  strong  colony ;  if  the  colo- 
ny is  weak,  we  reduce  it  with  a  w^ad  of  pa- 
per. The  entrances  are  left  full  size  all  win- 
ter, and,  all  things  considered,  I  think  the 
size  is  about  right.    We  were,  one  winter, 


troubled  somewiiat  by  mice  getting  in  at  the 
lower  ones,  and  metal  guards  were  made, 
reducing  the  size  to  a  |-inch  slot ;  this  kept 
out  the  mice,  but  it  bothered  the  bees  so 
much  that  we  were  glad  to  take  them  away 
and  get  a  big  cat  to  guard  the  outside, 
which  he  has  done  so  faithfully  that  we 
have  had  no  further  trouble.  See  Enemies 
OF  Bees. 

The  entrances  to  the  chaff  hives  are  I 
wide,  by  14  inches  long'^-s.  If  the  colony 
is  a  full  one,  we  leave  them  open  full  length 
all  winter.  If  weak,  contract  to  about  one 
inch ;  and  for  nuclei,  sometimes,  so  that 
just  a  single  bee  can  pass.  We  contract 
them  by  cutting  a  piece  of  wood  13  x  2  x  i, 
and  covering  it  with  some  warm  thick  wool- 
en cloth.  Some  apiarists,  I  believe,  prac- 
tice closing  the  entrances  to  all  hives  dur- 
ing very  severe  w^eather,  opening  them 
again  when  the  weather  moderates.  This, 
I  think,  is  carrying  the  matter  entirely 
too  far,  and  it  reminds  one  of  the  philan- 
thropic old  gentleman  w^ho  stood  in  the  rain 
while  he  held  his  umbrella  over  the  ducks 
in  a  puddle.  We  have  wintered  bees  in  the 
chaff  hives,  with  the  entrance  open  its 
whole  length,  during  the  most  severe  win- 
ters, with  scarcely  a  dead  bee  having  been 
brought  out  when  it  came  off  warm,  and  I 
think  the  bees  are  perfectly  capable  of  tak- 
ing care  of  themselves  for  at  least  six 
months  of  the  year,  if  they  have  proper 
food  and  protection.  To  have  the  entrance 
left  open  full  width,  of  course  we  must  liave 
the  hive  contracted  to  a  small  compass,  and 
perfectly  closed  above,  or  the  entrance  will 
draw  in  the  cold  air,  like  the  draft  to  a  stove. 
Stop  every  crack  and  crevice,  with  chaff 
cushions  tightly  crowded  in;  and  if  you  do 
your  work  well,  instead  of  cold  air  forcing 
its  way  in  at  the  entrance,  you  will  tind  the 
bees  can  keep  warm,  and  send  a  stream  of 
hot  air  out  at  the  entrance  besides,  as  soon 
as  they  commence  rearing  brood  in  the 
spring.  If  you  have  hives  that  you  can  not 
close  up  with  the  chaff  cushions,  as  I  have 
advised,  it  may  be  best  to  close  the  entranc- 
es during  very  severe  weather ;  but  I  think 
I  would  always  leave  room  enough  for  one 
or  two  bees  to  pass,  lest  they  be  forgotten, 
when  warm  weather  comes  unexpectedly. 
It  is  very  bad  policy  to  confine  bees  to  their 
hives  when  the  weather  is  such  that  they 
would  try  to  get  out.  Bees  wintered  in  a 
dark  cool  cellar  may  have  wire  cloth  tacked 
over  the  front^'"'  and  top  to  keep  them  from 
getting  on  the  floor,  if  you  choose,  but  in 
this  case  you  should  take  them  out  and  i-e- 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


107 


EXTRACTED   HONEY. 


lease  them  should  the  weather  get  so  warm  ' 
that  they  are  impatient  or  uneasy.  When 
bees  are  wintered  on  their  summer  stands, 
they  are  always  ready  for  a  tly  whenever  a 
warm  day  occurs,  and  are  in  shape  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  under  almost  any  cir- 
cumstances, providing  they  have  a  free  and  | 
unobstructed  entrance.  i 

Mr.  Quinby  and  others  have  recommended  , 
having  an  auger-hole  in  the  front  end  of  the 
hive,  and  adduce,  as  proof  of  its  utility,  that 
the  bees  at  once  show  a  preference  for  this 
pass- way.  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  and  I  think 
if  an  auger-hole  were  made  directly  in  the 
top  of  the  hive,  they  would  show  a  still 
greater  preference  for  that ;  but  for  all  this, 
I  do  not  think  it  would  be  best  for  them. 
With  tall  frames,  I  think  such  an  auger- 
hole  might  be  a  great  advantage,  but  with 
our  shallow  I^.  frame  1  would  prefer  not  to 
have  it,  although  it  would  perhaps  do  no 
perceptible  harm  to  a  strong  colony  with  old 
and  tough  combs.  You  can  easily  make  the 
experiment;  and  if  you  do  not  like  the  auger 
holes,  plug  them  u])  again.  I  much  prefer 
you  should  verify  these  statements  by  tests 
of  your  own.  If  I  have  made  a  mistake 
anywhere,  write,  and  I  will  correct  it  before 
I  send  out  any  more  A  13  C  books. 

SXTRACTED  KOSTEV.  Liquid 
lioney,  taken  from  the  comb  with  the  honey- 
extractor,  has  been  before  the  world  since 
the  year  l8()o,  and  much  has  been  the  discus- 
sion, pro  and  con,  in  regard  to  its  merits 
and  its  desirableness  compared  with  comb 
honey,  for  table  use.  If  I  have  made  no 
mistake,  I  extracted  the  Hrst  ton  of  honey 
ever  taken  from  one  apiary,  with  the  extract- 
or ;  and  as  it  was  put  directly  into  market, 
and  such  honey  has  been  kept  in  market  con- 
stantly ever  since,  I  have  had  a  ju'etty  good 
opportunity  of  knowing  all  about  it. 

If  all  the  extracted  honey  put  upon  the 
market  were  as  good  as  some  we  have  raised 
and  piu'chased.  there  would,  I  am  quite  sure, 
lie  no  trouble  at  all  in  deciding  that  it  would 
drive  honey  in  the  comb  almost  out  of  the 
question.  Much  has  been  said  about  adul- 
teration, but  I  have  very  little  fear  in  that 
direction.  It  is  almost  as  impossible  to  imi- 
tate a  really  tine  article  of  clover  or  linden 
honey  as  it  is  to  imitate  fresii  strawberries. 
Let  tlie  peojjle  taste  of  the  honey  they  are 
asked  to  buy,  and  they  will  very  soon  say 
whether  they  want  it.  and  what  they  can 
afford  to  i)ay  for  it. 

A  really  nice  article  of  extracted  honey 
will  bring  10  or  12  cts..  (juicker  than  a  poor 
article   will  bring  (J  or  S;  and   I  have  seen 


some,  aye,  and  have  offered  it  for  sale  too, 
that  I  do  not  honestly  think  was  worth  over 
8c..  if  it  was  worth  anything  at  all,  unless  to 
feed  bees.  Is  all  this  difference  on  account 
of  the  source  from  whicli  it  was  gathered  ? 
Xot  at  all ;  for  all  the  honey  we  get  here,  in 
the  great  majority  of  seasons,  is  from  clover 
and  linden.  Then  where  is  the  great  differ- 
ence V  It  is,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes, 
simply  because  it  is  taken  from  the  hive 
before  it  is  ripe.  I  know  there  are  many 
who  do  not  agree  with  me,  and  I  presume 
in  some  seasons,  and  in  some  localities,  the 
honey  may  be  ready  to  extract  as  fast  as  it 
is  gathered  from  the  flowers. "«  I  make  this 
admission  solely  from  what  others  have  said, 
for  I  have  never  seen  any  honey  I  thought 
was  fit  to  extract,  until  it  was  all  sealed 
over.  Still  further,  I  do  not  believe  it  is 
nearly  as  nicest,  even  when  it  is  all  sealed 
over,  as  it  will  be  if  left  in  the  hive  three  or 
four  weeks  after  it  has  been  all  sealed.  I 
will  tell  you  some  of  my  experience  to  illus- 
trate the  point. 

In  1870  we  extracted,  from  our  apiary  of 
less  than  .50  colonies,  over  3  tons  of  honey. 
It  was  put  up  in  1-lb.  bottles,  and  more  than 
half  was  sold  for  2.5c.  per  11).  During  the 
fore  part  of  the  season,  the  honey  was  al- 
lowed to  get  ])retty  well  capped  over  ;  but 
during  basswood  bloom,  we,  bees  and  all, 
got  somewhat  crazy,  I  fear,  and  they  brought 
in  what  was  but  little  better  than  sweet- 
ened water ;  we  extracted  and  put  it  in- 
to bottles,  and  hurried  it  off  to  till  orders, 
hoping  it  would  all  get ''  good,"  as  soon  as 
the  weather  got  cool.  It  candied  wlien  the 
weather  became  cool,  for  almost  all  honey 
will  candy,  or  at  least  one  i)ortion  will  can- 
dy, leaving  a  thin  watery  part,  which,  if  it 
does  not  sour,  acquires  in  time  a  disagreea- 
ble brackish  flavor,  like  that  acquired  by 
liquids  standing  in  an  old  barrel.  At 
about  this  stage  it  shows  that  ])eculiar  qual- 
ity of  pushing  the  bungs  out  of  the  barrels, 
aiul  the  corks  out  of  tlie  bottles,  running 
over  on  the  shelves  and  tables,  to  tlie  dis- 
comflture  and  disgust  of  everybody  wlio 
likes  to  be  cleanly  in  his  habits.  Svhen  I 
tasted  some  of  tlie  honey  in  one  of  these 
bottles,  (5  months  afterward,  I  did  not  won- 
der it  had  stoi)i)ed  selling,  and  I  made  uj) 
my  mind  it  should  no  more  be  offered  for 
sale.  1  believe  it  was  all  poured  out  of  the 
bottles,  and  sold  to  a  tobacconist.  The  con- 
tents of  the  jars  were  not  all  alike,  for  the 
thin  watery  honey  has  quite  a  tendency  to 
swim  on  to]).  AVe,  one  season,  commenced 
to  retail  from  a  barrel  of  what  all  proiiounc- 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


ed  tine  clover  honey.  One  day  a  custom-  | 
er  returned  some,  saying  it  was  not  lilve  } 
what  he  bought  before.  We  assured  him  it  i 
was  drawn  from  the  same  barrel,  and  went 
and  drew  some,  to  convince  him.  Behold  !  it  i 
was  sweetened  water,  compared  with  the  j 
first.  The  thin  honey  having  risen  to  the 
top,  it  was  the  last  to  be  drawn  out. 

Again,  new  honey  has,    many   times,  a 
rank,  disagreeable  odor  and  taste.    I  have 
been    told    that    in    the    Eastern     States 
much  honey  is  sometimes  obtained  from  the 
fields  where  onion  seeds  are  raised  for  the  . 
market,  and    that    this  honey,  when  first 
gathered,  is  so  strong  of  onions  that  it  can  ; 
not  be  used.    In  a  few  weeks,  however,  this 
rank  and  disagreeable    fiavor  is  all  gone, 
and  the  honey  is  very  fair.    Few  persons 
can  tolerate  the  strong,  aromatic  flavor  of 
basswood  honey  when  first  gathered,  and 
some  of  the  jars  I  have  mentioned,  when 
opened,  gave  one  an  impression  that  some- 
thing akin  to  turpentine  had  been  mixed 
with  the  honey.    This  was  because  it  had 
been  closely  corked  when  first  gathered;  had 
it  been  left  in  the  comb  until  sealed,  the  im- 
pleasant  taste  would  have  been  mostly  gone. 
I  say  mostly,  for  even  sealing  does  not  seem 
to  entirely  remove  the  rank  flavor,  unless 
the  combs  have  been  some  weeks  in  the 
hive.    I  remember  I  once  took  a  beautiful- 
looking  piece  of  comb  honey  out  of  a  jar 
that  was  found  in  the  market.    On  opening 
the  cells  I  found  the  honey  had  such  a  rank 
basswood  flavor,  that  it  was,  to  me,  quite 
disagreeable,  and  yet  I  am  fond  of  the  bass- 
wood  flavor.     Very  white,  new  comb  honey 
is  seldom  of  the  fine,  pure,  sweet  flavor  of 
honey  that  has   been  along  time    capped 
over,  such  as  is  found  in  the  dark-looking 
comb.    To  which  shall  we  give  the  prefer- 
ence —  looks  or  tasteV     We  once  were  so 
busy  that  we  could  not  attend  to  extracting, 
and  so  we  raised  the  filled  stories  up,  and 
put  those  filled  Avith  empty  combs  just  un- 
der them  over  the    brood.    This  occupied 
little  time,  and  the  bees  were  not  hindered  in 
their  work,  a  single  moment.    I  have  never 
seen  bees  amass  stores  faster.  Some  swarms 
filled  four  stories  to  repletion,  and  the  whole 
was  left  on  the  hives  until  the  latter  part  of 
the  summer.    In  fact,  I  left  them  on  the 
hives  to  be  safe  from  the  depredations  of 
the  moth,    intending  to  cut  out  the  honey 
and  sell  it  in  the  comb,  or  to  extract  it, 
whichever  form  should  prove  most  market- 
able.   This  honey  was  cut  out  of  the  frames 
and  sold  the   following  winter,  and  it  was 
the  nicest  and  richest  honey  I  ever  saw  or 


108  EXTRACTED  IIOXEY. 

tasted.  To  my  astonishment,  the  liquid 
portions,  that  ran  out  when  the  combs  were 
cut,  would  not  candy  at  all,  even  when  ex- 
posed to  a  zero  freeze.  The  honey  was  so 
thick,  that  a  saucer  full  could  be  turned 
over  without  spilling,  and  it  had  a  bright 
crystalline  clearness,  when  compared  with 
ordinary  extracted  honey. 

Extracted    honey,    if    taken    out    while 
"•green"  (as  I  have  often  termed  the  un- 
ripened  state),  has  a  greenish  tinge,  which 
well-ripened  honey  has  not.     Some  speci- 
mens have  a  turbid,  or  cloudy  look,  and  I 
believe  such    honey    is    never    really  fine 
flavored.    I  am  well  aware  that  I  am  con- 
demning the  very  honey  I  once    sold,  by 
these  remarks,  but  I  can  not  help  it.    If  I 
had  now  some  extracted  honey  such  as  was 
taken  from    those  well  -  ripened  combs,  I 
would  feel  that  it  was  preferable,  at  15  cts., 
to  that  which  sells  at  8  or  10  cents.    Proper- 
ly ripened  basswood  or  clover  honey  has  a 
sparkling  clearness,  like  white  flint  glass, 
and  the   flavor    is  pure    and  exquisite.    I 
have  never  seen  any  nice-looking  comb  hon- 
ey equal  to  it,  for  the  market  always  de- 
mands comb  honey  that  is  white,  and  has 
not  remained  on  the  hive  a  long  time."    I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  extracted  honey 
should  be  without  color,  like  water,  for  it 
'  usually  has  an  amber  tint,  orj  it]  may  be 
quite  yellow ;  but  it  should  be  clear ,^so  that 
you  can  read  print,  without  troiible,  through 
a  jar  of  it.    After  it  has  candied,  if  it  does 
candy,  it  should  be  hard  and  free  from  any 
liquid  portion,  like  that  in  unripened  hon- 
'■  ey.    This  thin  liquid    portion  is  the  part 
that  usually  changes  and  gives  it  the  bad 
taste.    In    fact,    if  the  liquid    portion   be 
!  drained  off,   as    directed  under  Candied 
Honey,  the  solid  portion  may  be  melted, 
and  it  will  be  found  very  nearly  like  that 
,  ripened  in  the  hive. 

RIPENING    HONEY    BY    ARTIFICIAL     MEANS. 

At  several  different  periods,  machines 
have  been  suggested  for  evaporating  thin 
honey  without  the  aid  of  the  bees.  The  ad- 
vantage to  be  gained  in  so  doing  is,  that  a 
much  larger  quantity  may  be  obtained  by 

I  taking  it  from  the  hive  every  day  as  fast  as 
it  is  gathered;  or,  at  least,  the  votaries  of 
these  evaporating  machines  claim  as  much. 

;  The  one  illustrated  on  next  page  is  used  by 
L.  C.  Root,  of  Stamford,  Ct. 

It  is  a  simple  apparatus  made  of  tin,  with 
an  inclined  top.  Upon  the  top  surface  are 
strips  of  tin  made  so  as  to  guide  the  honey 
down  the  inclined  strips,  as  shown  by  the 

I  arrows.    Of  course,  the  honey  is  to  be  ex- 


EXTRACTED  H0:NEY. 


109 


EXTRACTED  HOXEY 


tracted  before  it  is  capped,  or  just  as  fast  as 
the  bees  collect  it.  In  its  unripe  condition 
it  is  run  over  ttie  evaporator,  entering  at  the 
tube  A,  and  running  out  at  B,  fully  ripened. 


PETTIT  S  m>\l\   fe\  \P(IR\T(>R. 


APPARATUS   FOR   EVAPORATING   THIN   HONEY. 

The  tube  C  is  to  fill  the  tank  with  water.  A 
thermometer  is  also  placed  in  this  tube,  to 
indicate  the  temperature.  Tlie  heat  is  main- 
tained by  an  oil-stove. 

In  the  following  cut  we  have  an  arrange- 
ment for  accomplishing  the  same  object.  It 
is  the  invention  of 
Mr.  S.  T.  Pettit,  of 
Belmont,  Ontario. 
Mr.  Pettit  states, 
that  during  a  boun- 
tiful yield  he  often 
extracts  as  often  as 
once  in  three  days  ; 
and  when  he  gets  a 
barrelf  ul  it  is  raised 
by  means  of  a  pul- 
ley to  the  top  of  his  honey-room.  The  fau- 
cet of  the  barrel  is  then  opened  slightly,  and 
a  small  stream  of  honey  allowed  to  trickle 
upon  a  sheet  of  tin.  The  honey  drips  upon 
the  edge  of  another  sheet  placed  so  as  to  be 
inclined  in  the  opposite  direction.  From  the 
lower  edge  of  this  sheet  the  lioney  drips  up- 
on the  upper  edge  of  the  third  sheet ;  from 
the  third  to  the  fourth,  and  in  this  manner 
it  continues  to  fiow  from  sheet  toslieet,  un- 
til it  passes  over  about  thirty,  when  it  runs 
into  a  large  vat.  To  prevent  the  honey 
from  running  oft'  the  sheets,  the  edges  are 
turned  up  slightly.  Mr.  Pettit  says  he  has 
never  thought  it  necessary  to  run  honey 
through  the  evaporator  more  than  once. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Hart,  of  Hawks  Park,  Fla.,  ri- 
pens his  honey  artificially  by  mejins  of  sun 
heat.  He  has  a  large  pan  made  that  has 
upriglit  partitions  passing  backward  and 
forward  (tlie  same  as  in  L.  ('.  Hoot's  evapo- 
rator) in  such  a  way  that  the  honey  has  to 
pass  a  good  many  feet  under  glass  under  a 
ti'opical  sun,  befoie  it  finally  runs  into  a 
barrel.  This  metlu)d,  Mr.  Hart  says,  gives 
him  beautiful  thick  rich  honey,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  the  solar  heat  might  be  utilized  to 


good  advantage  in  California,  and  perhaps 
in  our  Northern  Stales,  in  ripening  honey 
artificially. 

The  accompanying  apparatus  is  the  inven- 
tion of  Mr.  Thomas  William  Cowan,  of  Lon- 
don, England.  The  6 
trays,  a,  6,  c,  d,  e,  /, 
with  transverse  parti- 
tions, have  a  (loid)le 
bottom,  with  an  inch 
space  between  each, 
for  the  passage  of  hot 
water.  Each  tray  is 
connected  by  a  pipe. 
D  is  a  boiler  heated 
by  a  lamp  or  gas-jet. 
The  hot  water  passes 
from  tlie  boiler  suc- 
cessivelythrough  each 
of  the  trays  until  it 
overfiows  into  the 
compartment  A,  from  which  the  water  is 
conveyed  again  to  the  boiler.  The  "  green  " 
honey  is  put  into  B.  From  here  it  passes  to 
the  upper  end  of  tray  o,  Imck  and  forth 
through  the  partitions,  until  it  reaches  the 
lower  end,  whence  it  discharges  into  6,  and 
so  on  to  the  funnel  F,  and  finally  into  the 
tank  C.  The  honey  travels  a  distance  of  100 
feet  over  a  heated  surface,  and  by  this  time 
has  the  proper  thickness.  Mr.  Cowan  con- 
siders honey  so  ripened  just  as  good  as  that 
ripened  l>y  tlie  bees. 

I  have  never  tested  any  of  these  machines, 
and  am  therefore  not  prepared  to  give  an 
opinion  of  much  value  on  the  subject.  For 
all  that,  I  feel  like  expressing  a  doubt  that 
such  arrangements  will  ever  be  found  cheap- 
er and  better  than  to  let  the  bees  manage  it 
after  their  old-time  fashion.  You  will  see 
by  Doolittle's  24th  comment  that  he  thinks 
the  honey  ripened  by  artificial  means  is  fully 
equal,  however,  to  any  ripened  by  the  bees. 

now  TO  SELL  EXTRACTED    HONEY. 

Get  it  well  rii)ened,  as  I  have  just  told 
you,  and  then  strain  it  into  clean  tin  cans, 
into  barrels  coated  with  parattine  or  bees- 
wax, or  into  some  utensil  that  you  know 
will  not  taint  it  in  the  least.  Honey  is 
very  easily  damaged  by  any  thing  that  will 
mar  its  pure  flavor,  or  clear  transparent 
ai>pearaiice  to  the  eye.  If  you  are  going 
to  retail  it  you  can  keep  it  in  a  tall  can. 
with  a  lumey-gate  at  the  bottom.  Set  it  up 
at  a  conveni(>nt  height,  and  have  a  pair  of 
cheap  scales  directly  under  the  gate,  on 
which  you  can  set  the  bowls,  pitchers,  or 
pails,  tliat  yovu"  customers  may  bring.  You 
can  Ity  this  means  weigh  it  out  to  a  fraction. 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


110 


EXTRACTED  HONEY 


without  any  dripping  or  daubing.  If  it  is 
to  be  sold  in  honey-jars,  set  your  jars  in  a 
basin,  under  the  gate.  I  say  in  a  basin,  for 
unless  you  are  more  careful  than  people 
generally,  you  will  get  some  over  the  sides, 
or  run  a  jar  over,  and  it  is  much  pleasanter 
to  have  it  in  the  basin  than  on  the  table  or 
door.  I  have  given  tlie  in-eference  to  the 
self-sealing  quart  fruit-jars,  because  every- 
body has  use  for  these,  and  will  be  likely  to 
keep  them.  If  the  jars  are  purchased  by 
the  gross,  they  can  be  retailed  with  the 
honey,  at  a  slight  advance  on  lirst  cost,  full 
enough,  usually,  to  pay  all  expelisesof 
handling,  and  a  good  interest  on  the  use  of 
the  money  invested.  The  Mason  jar,  which 
we  generally  use,  costs  $10.00  per  gross, 
and  we  charge  tor  them,  with  the  honey, 
10c.  A  quart  jar  holds  about  .S  lbs.  One- 
pound  jars  sell  rather  better, but  we  have  to 
sell  three  times  as  many,  and  consumers 
have  little  or  no  use  for  the  jars  when 
empty.  I  think  it  will  be  well  to  keep 
both  kinds  on  hand,  as  well  as  some  i-lb. 
tumblers  or  jelly-cups,  for  the  multitudes 
who  want  "  just  a  little  "  for  one  reason  or 
another.  If  you  commence  giving,  now  and 
then,  a  little  without  any  charge,  you  will 
find  the  demand  a  severe  task  on  your  time 
as  well  as  honey;  and  if  you  have  these 
small  packages  all  ready  at  hand,  for  10  or 
1.5c.,  you  will  find  a  great  many  will  be  sold 
in  the  course  of  a  year. 

If  you  wish  your  honey  to  keep  from  can- 
dying, seal  it  up  hot,  like  fruit,  as  directed  in 
Caxdied  Honey.  The  self-sealing  fruit- 
jars  need  no  directions,  but  the  bottles  with 
corks  will  have  to  be  made  tight  with  melt- 
ed beeswax.  Dip  the  corks  in  melted  wax 
until  they  are  perfectly  coated  on  both 
sides,  and  then  push  them  in  place  while 
the  mouth  of  the  jar  is  hot,  and  perfectly 
dry.  If  it  is  wet,  or  has  the  least  particle 
of  honey  on  it,  you  can  never  make  it  air- 
tight. To  make  a  neat  job  of  it,  you  can 
dip  the  mouth  of  the  jar  carefully  in  some 
bright  nice  yellow  wax,  and  then  you  will 
have  it,  as  far  as  possible,  protected  from 
the  air  with  a  capping  of  wax,  precisely  as 
the  bees  do  it. 

Thin,  watery  honey,  when  heated  to  melt 
the  candied  honey,  with  which  it  may 
be  commingled,  even  if  it  is  exposed  to  a 
heat  much  less  than  the  b()iliiig-i)oint,  will 
turn  a  dark  reddish  color,  and  the  tlavor  is 
something  as  if  the  honey  was  burned 
slightly.  I,  at  first,  was  inclined  to  blame 
my  wife  for  overheating  it,  when  I  desired 
lier  to  make  the   experiment ;   but  as  the 


honey  was  white  when  tliis  liquid  portion 
was  entirely  drained  off,  I  finally  guessed  at 
the  truth.  We  can  get  some  beautiful,  pure, 
rii)e  honey  out  of  a  very  bad  lot,  by  drain- 
ing the  candied  portion  for  several  weeks, 
and  then  melting  it.-'*i 

Some  attempts  have  been  made  to  get  hon- 
ey into  a  marketable  shape  in  its  candied 
state,  but  so  far  have  been  unsuccessful,  so 
far  as  I  know,  although  candied  honey  can 
be  drained  out  so  dry  that  it  may  be  done 
up  in  a  paper  safely,  and  we  have  had  some 
specimens  nearly  as  white  as  loaf  sugar."" 

I'EDDLING  EXTRACTED   HONEY. 

Since  extracted  honey  was  first  put  in  the 
market,  there  have  been  a  good  many  ups 
and  downs  in  the  sale  of  it,  largely  in  conse- 
quence, however,  of  want  of  care  in  i)utting 
it  up.  During  18s7  a  young  friend  living  in  a 
county  near  by  succeeded  in  building  up  a 
very  large  business  in  extracted  lioney,  some- 
thing after  the  following  plan  :  He  goes  into 
our  large  cities,  such  as  Cleveland,  Toledo, 
or  cities  of  even  smaller  size,  and  starts  out 
on  foot,  exhibiting  a  sample  of  his  honey  in 
a  one-quart  Mason  fruit-jar.  His  reason  for 
using  this  i)ackage  is,  that  almost  any  family 
will  l)e  willing  to  take  a  jar  at  10  cents,  at 
which  price  there  is  a  little  margin  above 
cost.  Friend  Moore  gives  them  a  little  honey 
in  a  dish  as  a  sample.  Every  liousewife  can 
furnish  a  spoon  and  dish,  so  the  agent  has  no 
trouble  with  cleaning  or  washing  utensils. 
He  charges  50  cents  for  one  quart  of  honey 
and  10  cents  for  the  jar,  taking  as  many  or- 
ders as  he  can  in  a  day  ;  then  with  a  small 
hand-cart,  made  on  purjjose,  he  takes  as 
many  jars  as  he  can  draw  on  the  pavement, 
say  100  or  more,  according  to  the  weather. 
By  taking  orders  first  and  delivering  after- 
ward, the  purchaser  is  enabled  to  have  the 
money  ready,  so  business  can  go  right  along 
rai)idly  on  a  casli-down  basis. 

Our  friend  commenced  on  the  above  plan  ; 
but  as  the  business  increased  he  hired  a  man 
to  do  tlie  delivering  while  he  took  orders ; 
and  at  the  present  time  he  is  employing  four 
different  individuals  besides  himself.  Two 
men  assist  him  in  canvassing  the  city  ;  and  a 
woman  (the  wife  of  one  of  the  men)  assists  in 
washing  the  jars  and  filling  them.  At  the 
present  time  lie  is  disposing  of  one  ton  of 
honey  a  month.  This  honey  costs  him,  in  ton 
lots,  fioni  ',»  to  10  cents  a  pound.  As  there 
are  tln-ee  pounds  in  a  jar,  he  gets  between  16 
and  17  (^ents.  Where  he  is  enabled  to  get 
hold  of  a  nice  large  lot  of  honey  at  a  low  fig- 
ure, he  alujost  doubles  on  his  money.    But 


EXTRACTED  HOXEY. 


Ill 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


this  is  a  necessity,  in  consequence  of  the 
great  expense  of  doing  business  in  large  cit- 
ies. Of  course,  he  is  careful  to  have  the 
honey  nice,  and  a  tirst-class  article ;  and  he 
gives  liis  customers  satisfactory  proof  that  it 
is  absolutely  without  adulteration  of  any 
kind.  Selling  lu)ney  in  this  way  is  a  trade, 
without  d()ul)t :  and  friend  Moore  admitted, 
when  questioned,  that  he  coidd  sell  almost 
twice  as  much  as  any  man  he  coulil  employ, 
for  he  has  develo])ed  the  business  and  work- 
ed it  up  himself.  I  think  almost  any  bee- 
keeper may  dispose  of  his  honey  in  the  same 
way,  if  he  has  the  energy  and  determination 
to  work  it  out  that  H.  F.  Moore  has. 

HOW  TO  KEEP  EXTRACTED  HOXEY. 

Where  one  has  a  large  crop  of  it,  and  but 
a  small  price  is  offered,  it  is  sometimes 
quite  an  item  to  know  what  to  do  with  it. 
Without  question,  the  very  best  way  to  keep 
it  is  to  seal  it  up  while  hot,  as  before  de- 
scribed, either  in  self-sealing  jars,  or  in  glass 
bottles  with  their  corks  coated  and  made 
tight  with  beeswax.  The  expense  of  the 
jars,  and  the  troublesome  job  of  sealing 
them,  is  the  principal  objection.  Perhaps 
the  next  best  way  to  keep  it  is  in  the  coated 
barrels,  or  in  tin  cans.'»  A  friend  keeps  his 
very  nicely  in  stone  crocks,  with  stone  cov- 
ers over  them.  In  these  it  is  candied  and  is 
as  hard  as  tallow ;  but  it  can  easily  be  cut  out, 
when  wanted.  After  it  is  candied  in  the 
barrels,  the  hoops  must  be  moved  to  get  it 
out.  See  Barrels.  Both  extracted  and 
comb  honey  should  be  kept  in  a  dry  room. 
If  this  room  can  be  at  the  same  time  frost- 
proof, it  will  be  much  the  better  ;>*"  for  when 
dew  or  dampness  of  any  kind  forms  on  tlie 
surface  of  honey,  it  is  absorbed,  and  thus 
dilutes  and  injures  the  honey.  This  pro- 
cess will,  in  time,  cause  it  to  sour  or  ferment 
on  the  surface,  and  will  surely  injure  your 
reputation  if  you  try  to  sell  it.  Jars  that 
are  used  to  hold  extracted  honey  are  some- 
times so  hastily  washed  and  rinsed,  that 
enough  water  is  left  sticking  to  the  ghiss,  to 
produce  the  same  effect,  and  I  am  quite 
sure  that  not  a  little  of  the  trouble  expe- 
rienced with  bottled  honey  has  come  from 
this  Ciiuse.  Let  the  bottles  be  clean  and  dry, 
and  the  honey  i»erfectly  sealed  while  hot. 
Then  you  can  keep  it  down  cellar,  or  up 
stairs,  or  anywhere  you  wish.  A  friend  in 
the  West  says  he  keeps  his  extracted  honey 
outdoors  in  an  open  shed  all  winter,  and 
that  when  tlie  neighbors  come  for  it,  he  cuts 
it  out  of  the  barrels  with  a  spade.  Sufh  a 
place  would  be  preferable  to  a  danii>  cellar. 


VARIOUS     PACKAGES    FOR     SHIPPING    AND 
SELLING  EXTRACTED  HONEY. 

Since  1882,  extracted  honey  has  taken  an 
impetus  in  public  favor.  To  my  surprise, 
people  have  begun  to  demand  honey  that  is 
candied,  instead  of  making  it  an  objection. 
Our  friend  C.  F.  Muth,  of  Cincinnati,  one  of 
the  largest  honey-dealers  in  the  world,  says 
he  now  has  many  customers  who  will  not 
have  honey  unless  it  is  candied.  Friend 
Jones,  of  Canada,  of  whom  mention  has 
been  made,  has  also  done  much,  as  has  C. 
Dadant,  of  Hamilton,  111.,  toward  getting 
the  honey  into  convenient  packages  to  bring 
it  before  the  public.  Friend  Dadant  has 
given  us  tive  sizes  of  covered  pails ;  viz.,  H, 
2i.  .5,  10,  and  2-5  lbs.  respectively.  Friend 
Jones  struck  on  the  idea  of  putting  it  up  in 
packages  still  smaller,  and  commences  with 
a  package  of  only  i  lb.  that  can  be  sold  for  -5 
cents,  or  given  away  as  a  sample  of  the 
honey.  The  sizes  are  i,  i,  i,  1,  li,  H,  2.  to  tt 
lbs.  For  each  size,  friend  Jones  has  origi- 
nated beautiful  lithographed  labels,  which 
are,  in  fact,  beautiful  chromos  ;  and  as  the 
surface  is  varnished,  these  labels  are  easily 
cleaned,  if  any  honey  gets  daubed  on  their 
surface.  The  i  and  i  sizes  are  simply  tin 
boxes  with  a  cover  slipping  over,  and  are  to 
be  taken  to  the  grocer,  with  the  honey  in  a 
tin  can.  and  he  fills  them  as  they  are  sold. 
They  are  easily  handled  when  filled,  after 
the  honey  has  become  candied.  The  i  and  1 
lb.,  as  well  as  all  the  remaining  .sizes  uj)  to  6 
lbs.,  are  made  with  screw  caps.  The  accom- 
panying cut  shows  a  3-lb.  size.  These  cans, 
although  more  costly,  seal  more  rapidly.  They 
are  also  very  convenient  for  shi^jping. 


SCUKW-CAP  PAlf- 


SLOPING-SIDE   PAII. 


The  other  is  a  honey-pail  holding  7A  lbs., 
made  with  sloping  sides,  so  they  will  nest  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  shipping.  By  this 
means  we  are  enabled  to  pack  1(X)  i)ails  and 
covers  in  a  good-sized  connnon  barrel. 

It  would  seem  that  we  iiave  had  packages 
enough  already  ;  but  there  is  a  great  denumd 
for    tin    pails,    which    are    purchased   very 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


112 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


cheaply  in  nests, 
nest  of  five  pails 


We  give  the  picture  of  a 


A   XEST  OF   FIVE   K AISED-COVEK   PAILS. 

The  smallest  liolds  a  pint,  and  the  largest 
one  four  quarts.  One  reason,  perhaps,  why 
these  pails  are  sold  for  the  purpose  in  such 
enormous  quantities  is,  that  they  are  of  just 
such  sizes  as  to  be  extremely  convenient  for 
household  purposes.  Well,  now,  if  you  will 
be  patient  I  will  show  you  still  something 
fui'ther.  The  pails  shown  above  are  short, 
so  as  to  be  handy  for  a  little  girl's  or  boy's 
dinner-pail,  or  other  like  purposes.  Such  a 
pail  does  not  give  the  greatest  economy  of 
tin,  however,  nor  is  it  suited  for  a  graduated 
measure  like  those  pictured  below. 


'IHE   GRADUATED  TIX   PAILS. 

The  picture  explains  the  great  point  in 
their  favor ;  that  is,  that  they  will  measure 
accurately  any  liquid,  going  down  to  as  small 


'5^4^ 


POUNDS 
PURE 
HONEY' 


a  quantity  as  half  a  pint,  and  as  large  a 
(pxantity  as  a  gallon,  where  one  has  a  com- 
plete nost.  Of  course,  suitable  labels  are  to 
be  used  for  these  pails  when  they  are  full  of 
honey;  and  furthermore,  none  of  these  pails 
can  be  turned  upside  down  without  leakage, 
unless,  indeed,  the  honey  be  candied  so  solid 
that  it  will  not  run  in  cold  weather,  as 
is  often  the  case  with  a  well-ripened  article. 
These  packages  are  used  principally  by  re- 
tailers who  purchase  tlieir  honey  by  the  bar- 
rel, and  put  it  into  pails  about  as  fast  as 
their  customers  want  it.  They  are  to  be 
carried  about,  however,  rather  than  to  be 
shipped  long  distances. 

While  Mr.  Jones  and  others  have  done  so 
much  to  develop  tin  packages  for  extracted 
honey,  it  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  C.  F.  Muth,  of 
Cincinnati,  O.,  has  been  equally  active  in  giv- 
ing us  nice  packages  made  of  glass.  Below  we 
illustrate  the  foiu-  jars  that  he  uses.  The 
smallest  size  is  what  ]SIr.  Muth  calls  the 
"  dime ""  jar.    It  holds  about  live  ounces. 

The  price  of  these  is  §3.0U  per  gross,  ship- 
ped from  Cincinnati,  which  would  be  a  little 
over  two  cents  each.  Corks  and  labels  would 
make  them  toward  three  cts.  each.  Counting 
the  five  ounces  of  honey  worth  four  cents 
(putting  the  honey  at  12  cents  per  lb.  for 
such  small  quantities),  your  dime  jar  would 
cost  you  'Seven  cents,  allowing  three  cents 
profit  to  the  retailer.  One  great  trouble 
with  honey  in  glass  is  its  candying  prop- 
erty; but  as  a  great  many  like  it  best  in 
a  candied  state,  this  offsets  a  part  of  the  ob- 
jection. Another  thing:  Tliese  small  jars 
may  be  very  quickly  melted  by  setting  them 
on  a  thin  board  laid  on  the  stove  where  it  is 
not  very  hot. 

H0]SrBY-TU3IBLERS. 

A  large  trade  has  also  sprung  up  in  honey 
put  up  in  jelly-tumblers.    These  are  of  two 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


118 


EXTRACTED  HONEY. 


•sizes,  chiefly;  those  holding  i  lb.  and  1  lb. 
They  are  made  honey-tight  by  laying  a  piece 
of  soft  paper  over  the  tumbler  before  the 
tin  cover  is  pressed  on,  and  then  tearing  otf 
the  surplus  paper.  Covering  the  paper  on 
the  side  next  the  honey,  with  the  white  of 
an  egg,  makes  a  hermetically  close  joint. 
The  tumblers  cost  only  three  and  five  cents 
each  respectively.  Below  we  present  you 
with  a  handy  stand  for  exposing  fov  sale 
honey  put  up.  invented  by  Geo.  F.  Williams, 
of  New  Philadelphia,  Ohio. 


■AVILLIAMS'   STAND   FOR  SELLING   EXTRACT- 
ED HONEY. 

In  pleasant  weather  this  stand  may  be 
placed  on  the  sidewalk  in  froi't  of  the  store, 
and  the  grocer  can  be  paid  a  commission  for 
simply  keeping  the  stand  full.  After  he  has 
got  a  trade  started,  he  will  usually  be  willing 
to  buy  the  honey  for  cash,  at  a  reasonable 
price. 


GLASS  HONEY-PAIL   AND   TUMI'.LER. 

Wliile  almost  everybody  wants  some  kind 
of  a  pail  to  carry  honey  in,  many  also  prefer, 
for  liquid  honey,  a  glass  utensil  to  any  thing 
else.  IJoth  objects  have  been  secured  by  the 
pail  shown  in  the  engraving.  The  top 
jcrews  on,  like  the  cap  of  a  fruit-jar.  Tlie 
bail  turns  down  out  of  the  way,  when  they 
are  to  be  packed,  or  when  it  is  necessary  to 
set  them  on  shelves. 

The  packages  just  mentioned  are  liardly 
suitable  for  shipi)ing  extracted  honey  in 
large  amounts.    For  shipping  in  quantity. 


barrels,  kegs,  and  square  cans  should  be 
used.    See  Barrels. 

SCiUARE  CANS   FOR  SHIPPING  HONEY. 

The  package  used  for  liquid  honey  by  the 
friends  in  California  is,  at  least  for  the  most 
part,  a  square  tin  can,  either  soldered  up 
tight  or  having  a  screw  cap  at  the  corner  to 
pour  out  the  contents,  as  shown  below. 


THE  08-POUND    HONEY-CAN. 

A  s(iuare  tin  of  itself  would  hardly  be  safe 
to  ship  by  freiglrt ;  but  a  stout  box  can  be 
made  to  contain  a  single  can,  at  an  expense 
not  to  exceed  7  or  8  cents  ;  and  where  two 
cans  are  crated  together,  which  is  the  usual 
way  the  friends  in  California  do  it,  the  out- 
side protecting  box  could  be  made  for  an 
even  10  cts.  The  figures  above  explain  the 
matter  so  fully  that  no  further  tlescription 
will  be  necessary. 

A  honey -gate  is  shown  in  an  enlarged 
view  at  the  left,  below  the  large  cut.  It  is 
made  of  a  piece  of  stout  charcoal  tin,  2i  x  3 
inches.  A  piece  of  heavy  leather  is  fastened 
by  four  rivets  to  this  tin.  'Jhe  leather  is 
2x3  inches,  so  that  we  have  i  inch  of  the 
tin  projecting  on  two  sides.  Fold  this  tin 
which  projects,  in  such  a  way  as  to  take  in 
the  tin  slide,  as  shown  in  the  c»it.  With 
a  punch,  you  cut  a  hole  through  the  leather 
and  tin.  In  like  manner  make  a  hole  through 
the  screw  cap,  and  solder  to  the  tin.  as 
shown  in  the  cut.  This  gives  us  a  honey- 
gate  that  will  fit  on  any  of  our  square  honey- 
cans,  so  your  grocer  need  have  but  one  hon- 


EXTRACTOR. 


114 


EXTRACTOR. 


oxe-(;allun    12  lc 

SyUAKE  CAN. 


ey-gate,  and  he  can  attach  it  to  his  square 
cans  as  fast  as  he  retails  from  them.  These 
gates  sliould  not  cost  you  over  15  cts.  each. 
More  recently,  to  meet  the 
wants  for  a  smaller  i)acka<>e 
till  the  same  plan,  manufac- 
lui-eis  have  introduced  a 
gallon  sqiuire  can  with  a  ca- 
pacity of  12  lbs.  of  honey, 
shown  in  the  accomi)anyiiig- 
cut.  They  are  \>ut  up  in 
loxes  of  ten  each,  and  are 
sold  at  $1.50  per  box,  or 
$12.00  per  hundred  without 
boxing.  In  many  cases  it 
may  be  desirable  for  the  dealer  to  order  a 
part  of  his  extracted  honey  in  the  60-lb. 
square  cans  and  kegs,  and  a  part  in  the  12- 
Ib.  square  cans,  so  that  he  can  distribute  to 
his  cnstomers  according  as  they  want  a 
large  or  small  package  of  liquid  honey. 

EXTRACTOR.  The  extractor,  like  the 
movable  frame,  is  one  of  the  things  that 
have  made  a  revolution  in  bee-keeping.  It 
was  invented  in  the  year  1865  liy  Major 
Francesco  de  Hruschka,  of  Venice,  who 
died  at  the  good  old  age  of  75,  in  the  year 
1888.  Like  a  good  many  other  inventions, 
its  discovery  was  made  by  accident.  His 
little  b'ly  chanced  to  put  a  piece  of  comb  in 
a  basket  to  which  was  attached  a  piece  of 
rope.  With  rope  in  hand,  the  boy  began  to 
whirl  it.  The  centrifugal  force  caused  a  few 
drops  of  honey  to  lie  thrown  out  of  the  bas- 
ket aruund  in  the  air,  and  the  father  seeing 


hruschka's   original   honey-ex- 

TKACTCm. 

it,  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  in  tliis 
was  a  principle,  and  the  nucleus  to  a  big  in- 
vention, and  that  it  was  not  necessary  any 


longer  to  smash  the  couibs  up  and  strain  the 
honey  out  in  the  oM-fashioi;ed  Avay.  He 
\ery  soon  constructed  a  rude  extrac tor  that 
demonstrated  the  ]  ractical  utility  of  the 
discovery;  and,  shortly  after,  perfected  the 
machine  shown  in  the  foregc  ing  engrav- 
ing. 

Among  the  early  extractors  n;ade  in  this 
( ountry  was  one  made  by  George  Peabody. 
This  was  so  constructed  that  the  whole  can 
revolved,  and  the  honey  ran  out  through  a 
hole  cut  in  the  center.  But  this  was  poorly 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  bee-keeper.  In 
1867  (see  introduction)  I  constrncted  what  I 
have  called  the  "  Novice  "  honey-extractor. 


EXTRACTOR  AVITH   SPACE    FOR    HONEY  BE- 
LOW REVOLVING-FKAME. 

This  was  so  great  an  improvement  over 
all  those  that  had  preceded,  that  they  found 
a  ready  sale  at  once  ;  and  now  there  are 
something  like  10,000  of  them  in  use.  The 
inside  baskets  for  holding  the  combs,  in  or- 
der to  combine  lightness  with  the  greatest 
strength,  are  made  of  folded-tin  bars  and 
tinned  wire  cloth,  four  meshes  to  the  inch. 
The  center  shaft  is  simply  a  tube  rolled  out 
of  a  heavy  grade  of  tin,  instead  of  the  old 
heavy  iron  rod  that  was  formerly  used.  The 
crank  is  geared  so  that  cne  revolution 
makes  three  revolutions  of  the  baskets. 
Tlie  whole  thing  weighs  rnly  about  ;^0  lbs., 
and  is  made,  ordinarily,  to  extract  two 
combs  at  a  time.  It  is  also  constructed  to- 
take  four  combs,  to  suit  the  needs  of  large 
apiaries. 


EXTRACTOK. 


116 


EXTRACTOR. 


THE   STANLEY   AUTOMATIC   EXTUACTOH. 

The  extractors  already  described  require 
that,  when  the  combs  are  emi)tied  on  one 
side,  tliey  shall  be  lifted  out  and  replaced  in 
the  baskets,  the  other  side  to.  This  is  an 
operation  that  requires  a  little  time.  To 
overcome  this,  and  to  do  the  work  more  ex- 
peditiously, Mr.  G.  W.  Stanley,  of  Wyoming, 
N.  y.,  was  one  of  the  first  to  construct  a 
practical  extractor  on  the  automatic  revers- 
ing principle.  This  is  so  built  that  it  can 
take  two,  four,  or  six  combs  ;  and  when 
the  honey  has  been  thrown  out  on  one  side 
of  the  comlt.  the  reversal  of  motion  causes 
the  combs  to  be  reversed,  and  the  other  side 
to  be  emptied. 


STANLEY'S     AUTfniATIC     HONEY-EXTKACT- 
OK. 

You  will  observe  by  the  engraving,  that 
the  baskets,  or,  rather,  wire-cloth  pockets, 
for  holding  the  combs,  are  hinged  on  one 
side.  The  lower  hinge  is  after  the  style  of 
that  on  the  old-fasliioned  gates,  that  had 
two  centers  of  revolution.  This  feature, 
you  will  see  by  referring  to  the  engraving, 
will  cause  the  baskets,  when  at  rest,  to  radi- 
ate like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  from  the  cen- 
ter sh  ift ;  but  ust  as  soon  as  the  machine 
is  started,  they  revolve,  by  their  inertia,  to 
one  side,  and  form  the  circumference  of  a 
polygon,  the  chains  holding  them  so  the 
pockets,  as  it  were,  do  not  tiy  out  too  far. 
The  reversal  of  the  motion  when  the  speed 
is  somewhat  reduced  will  cause  the  baskets 
to  turn  their  other  side  toward  the  can. 

These  extractors  seem  to  be  suited  only  to 
large  apiarists,  and  1  understand  that  they 
do  not  please  even  all  of  these.  The  fact 
that  the  baskets  have  to  have  clearing  room 
"between  the  outside  and  the  center  shaft 
makes  it  necessary  to  have  an  extraordinari- 
ly large  can— a  can  so  large,  indeed,  tliat 
one  fellow  said  he  had  to  have  a  l)arn-door 
to  get  it  through  into  a  building.  "While 
this  is  an  exaggeratt'd  estimate  of  its  size, 
the  can  has  ten  times  the  cubic  capacity  of 
the  non-reversing  three  and  four  frame  ma- 


chines. Eut  some  large  apiarists,  notably, 
A.  W.  Osburn,  of  Cuba,  speaks  high  in  his 
praise  of  it.  In  view  of  the  defects  pointed 
out  in  the  Stanley  machine,  inventive  genius 
is  now  at  work  trynig  to  construct  a  reversi- 
ble extractor  without  these  defects.  At 
present  the  ?■  tanley  seems  to  be  as  good  as 
any  rever-ible  extractor  sold.  It  is  now 
made  by  Edward  R.  Xewcomb,  of  Pleasant 
Valley,  N.  Y.,  and  he  has  improved  it  by  a 
multiplying  geai'.  and  by  the  substitution  of 
better  material  throughout. 

THE     ADVAXTA(tES     AND     DISADVANTAGES 
OF   AN  EXTRACTOR. 

Some  of  the  advantages  and  dis:idvan- 
tages  of  using  a  honey-extractor  in  the  api- 
ary are  considered  under  the  bead  of  ex- 
tracted honey.  That  more  honey  can  be  ob- 
tained by  the  use  of  the  machine  than  by 
having  it  stored  in  section  boxes  in  the 
shape  of  comb  honey,  all  are  agreed;  but  all 
are  not  agreed  as  to  how  much  more.  If  it 
is  nicely  sealed  over  as  it  should  be  before 
being  extracted,  I  do  not  think  more  than 
twice  as  much  will  be  obtained,  on  an  avei- 
age.  although  the  amount  is  placed  by  many 
at  a  much  higher  ligure.  A  beginner  will  be 
more  certain  of  a  crop,  than  if  he  relies  up- 
on having  the  bees  work  in  sections  ;  he  will 
also  be  much  more  apt  to  take  away  too 
much,  and  to  cause  his  bees  to  starve.  This 
last  is  a  very  disagreeable  feature  attendant 
upon  the  use  of  the  implement,  especially 
where  the  bee-keeper  is  prone  to  carelessness 
and  negligence.  To  secure  the  best  results 
with  the  extractor,  plejity  of  empty  combs 
should  be  provided,  that  ample  room  may  be 
given,  in  case  the  hives  should  become  full 
before  the  honey  is  ripe  enough  to  remove. 
If  a  second  story  does  not  give  room  sufli- 
cient,  I  would  add  a  third  for  a  heavy  stock, 
during  a  good  yield  of  honey. 

DIRECTIONS   FOR  USING    THE     EXTRACTOR. 

As  mc  St  of  you  who  read  these  pages  will 
probably  use  the  Xovice  extract  r.  I  will 
make  the  directions  conform  to  that,  and 
you  can  then  very  readily  adapt  them  to  any 
other  machine  you  may  purchase.  Screw 
the  extractor  fast  to  a  bench  or  box.  just 
high  enougli  to  allow  the  honey  to  run  into 
tlie  bung-hole  of  the  barrel. 

To  strain  the  honey,  I  know  of  nothing 
that  answers  so  well  as  a  little  cheese-cloth 
bag  tied  to  tlie  honey-gate, the  same  to  hang 
in  the  bung  of  the  liarrel.  This  keeps  it  all 
closi*  from  Hies  and  dust  ;  and  when  you 
stop  work  for  a  little  while,  it  is  all  safe. 
As  the  sediment  always  settles  to  the  liot- 
toni   (if  the   bag.  the   sides   work   well  as  a 


EXTRACTOR. 


110 


EXTRACTOR. 


strainer  for  a  long  time.  Cheese  -  cloth 
strains  honey  more  perfectly  than  wire 
cloth. 

The  box  which  holds  the  extractor  should 
be  a  good  substantial  one,  and  should  be 
fastened  securely  to  the  floor.  Now,  if  you 
are  a  beginner  I  woul  1  not  advise  yoii  to  ex- 
tract unless  the  bees  are  gathering  honey. 
If  you  have  had  some  experience  you  may 
profit  by  leaving  your  honey  on  the  hives 
until  it  is  thoroughly  ripened,  and  extract 
after  the  bees  have  stopped  gathering  hon- 
ey. But  in  this  case  you  will  be  obliged  to 
have  a  large  surpliis  of  empty  combs  to  tier 
up  on  the  hives  as  fast  as  the  first  set  of 
comls  is  filled.  The  best  time  for  you  to 
extract,  if  you  are  a  beginner,  is  when  the 
bees  are  busy  in  the  fields  ;  and  if  the  yield 
is  good  you  can  hardly  begin  too  soon.  Now, 
to  save  imnecessary  running  to  and  from 
the  hives  with  combs,  you  or  your  assistant 
should  have  a  pair  of  comb  buckets  (see 
CoMB-BUCKETS  elsewherc).  These  will  hold 
all  the  combs  that  come  out  of  one  upper 
story;  and  when  they  are  empty  they  can 
be  can  led  to  the  honey- house,  or  wherever 
the  extractor  is.  To  make  things  go  along 
lively,  and  with  as  liitle  interruption  as 
possible,  bring  back  the  set  of  combs  al- 
ready extracted,  in  the  buckets,  and  put 
them  in  the  hive  from  which  you  have  al- 
ready taken  the  filled  combs. 

If  you  are  an  extensive  bee-keeper,  you 
will  want  some  sort  of  comb-cart  in  which 
to  carry  the  combs  back  and  forth.  The  ac- 
companying cut  shows  one  used  by  A.  W. 
Osburn,  of  Punta  Brava  de  Guatao,  Cuba. 


08BURN  f^  COMB-CART. 

Teihaps  I  should  remark,  that  the  box  of 
the  cart  should  be  used  wide  enough  and 
deep  enough  to  take  the  combs  you  are  us- 
ing, and  the  length  may  be  whatever  is  most 
convenient.  The  one  shown  in  the  illustra- 
tion was  made  to  hold  30  combs ;  but  Mr. 
O.  now  uses  one  that  will  carry  80  or  H-5. 

To  work  to  the  b^st  advantage,  there 
should  be  at  least  one  assistant— one  to  car- 
ry the  combs  to  and  from  the  hives,  and  the 
other  to  extract  and  uncap.*  Usually  one 


man  will  have  all  he  can  do  while  the  other 
extracts.  If  your  wife  has  not  already  more 
than  she  can  attend  to,  she  wJl  do  this  part 
of  the  work  much  belter  than  anjbody  else. 
If  she  has  more  than  she  can  do,  perhaps 
you  have  an  enterprising  boy  or  girl  who- 
can. 

TAKIXG     THE     COJrBS     OUT    OF    THE     HIVE, 
AND   GETTING  THE   BEES  OFF. 

There  are  several  ways  for  getting  the 
bees  off.  Remove  the  cover  from  the  upper 
story  of  the  hive  (for  I  assume  that  you  ex- 
tract only  from  this  part  of  the  hive),  and 
blow  considerable  smoke  down  among  the 
frames,  to  drive  the  bees  below.  Now  lift 
out  the  combs,  and  shake  each  one  succes- 
sively before  the  entrance,  with  a  quick, 
nervous  jerk.  Italianswill  stick  worse  than 
hybrids  or  blacks.  Remove  the  few  remain- 
ing bees  by  the  use  of  a  Davis  brush,  or, 


♦This  is  on  the  assumplloii  tliiit  j'ou  allow  tlio  hon- 
ey to  ripeii  in  tlic  combs. 


DAVIS'  IMPROVED  BEE-BRUSH. 

better,  with  a  brush  broom,  like  that  shown 
under  Veils,  attached  to  Mr.  Coggshall's 
person.  This  broom  is  14  or  15  inches  long, 
and  is  made  long  and  slim.  To  make  it 
sweep  a  liitle  softer,  Mr.  Coggshall  removes 
about  half  of  the  strands.  This  sort  of  im- 
plement, he  says,  will  sweep  the  bees  off 
with  one  sweep  ;  and  it  is  away  ahead  of 
many  of  the  bee-brushes  that  have  been 
recommended  in  the  books.  Mr.  Cog-shalTs 
entire  product  of  extracted  honey  runs  up 
into  many  tons,  and  he  is  competent  to 
judge  of  the  value  of  the  implement. 

Here  is  also  another  that  is  said  to  be  ex- 
cellent. 

sayar's  brush. 
It,  like    the    Coggshall    liroom,  is  long- 
enough  to  sweep  clean  the  whole  surface  of 
a  comb  with  one  sweep. 


EXTRACTOR. 


117 


EXTRACTOR. 


FREEING      C03ir.S      OF      BEES      1?V     A     1!EE- 
ESCAPE. 

Under  Comb  Honey  the  uses  of  the  bee- 
escape  are  illustrated  and  described  ;  and 
although  they  have  been  used  only  a  ye;ir  or 
two,  they  promise  to  supersede  all  other 
methods  of  freeing  bees  from  supers  of  both 
comb  and  extracted  honey.  Their  use  fur 
extracting  has  been  called  the  ''  poetry  of 
extracting."  A  lot  of  them,  toward  night, 
are  inserted  between  the  brood-nt  st  and 
supers  of  hives  that  are  to  be  extracted  on 
the  morrow.  The  next  day,  all  that  is  nec- 
essary, it  is  said,  is  to  come  around  and  pull 
olf  the  upper  stories  ;ind  carry  them  to  the 
honey-house  ;  for  almost  every  bee  will  have 
gone  down  during  the  night  to  the  biood- 
nest,  and  the  labor  of  opening  the  hives,  the 
smoke,  encountering  bee  -  stings,  shaking 
the  com1)S  and  the  annoyance  of  letting  bees 
crawl  up  the  trowsers  legs,  etc.,  avoided. 

Perhaps  I  should  remark,  that  the  use  of 
the  bee-escape  for  extracted  honey  has  been 
tried  by  only  a  few  bee-keepers  ;  nnd  when 
it  becomes  once  tried  more  extensively,  it 
may  appear  nicer  on  paper  than  in  prac;ice. 

Well,  after  all  the  combs  are  cleared  of 
bees,  they  should  be  put  into  a  comb-bucket 
or  the  hive-cart,  as  the  case  may  be,  and 
covered.  They  are  then  ready  to  be  t  iken 
to  the  honey-house  for  uncai)ping. 

rNCAPPING-CANS. 

One  of  the  largest  honey-producers  we 
have,  Chas.  Dadant,  of  Hamilton,  111.,  uses 
and  recommends  what  lie  calls  an  uncapping- 
can,  which  is  seen  in  the  following  cut : 


the  upper  one  slipping  into  the  other.  A 
wire-cloth  partition,  as  shown  in  the  cut. 
catches  the  caps  as  they  fall,  and  the  honey 
drips  down,  to  be  drawn  off  through  the  gate. 
The  very  finest  of  the  honey  will  come  fi'om 
this  uncapping-can,  as  it  has  been  all  ripened 
and  sealed.  While  shaving  the  caps  off  with 
the  honey-knives,  the  combs  rest  (m  the  tin 
bars,  as  shown  suspended  just  below  the  top  of 
the  can. 


DAD  A  NT's    rNt'APPINO-CAN. 

This    is    something  like  an  ordinary  ex-  [ 
tractor-can.  oidy  it  is  made  in  two  pieces  — 


^t'lNTYRE'S   UNCAPPING-BOX. 

The  cut  above  shows  the  device  used  very 
successfully  by  Mr.  .J.  F.  Mclntyre,  one  of 
those  extensive  bee-keepers  in  California 
who  produce  honey  by  the  carload,  and  the 
following  is  his  description,  taken  from 
CtLEANING!:^,  page  770,  Vol.  XVIII. 

It  is  2  feet  wide.  2  deep,  and  6  long- outside,  made  of 
?8  lumber  dressed  on  both  sides.  The  Ibottom  isi'2 
inches  lower  in  tlie  middle  than  at  the  sides,  and  is 
lined  with  tin  to  keep  it  [from  leaking:.  Eleven 
pieces  of  wood,  1x1x23  inches,  are  laid  across  the 
bottom  about  6  inches  apart  to  support  the  screen 
which  the  capiiings  fall  on.  This  leaves  room  below 
the  screen  for  the  honey  to  run  to  one  end,  wiiere  it 
passes  out  tlu'oijg-h  a  tin  pipe.  Two  pieces,  "8x3x72 
inches,  are  nailed  on  t  he  top  edge,  one  on  each  side,  to 
conti'aet  the  top  of  the  box  to  the  same  width  that  a 
Langstroth  hive  is  long-  inside.  Two  pieces,  Jsxjgx 
18?8,  nailed  one  on  each  end  between  the  two  last 
mentioned,  bring- the  ends  up  even  with  the  sides. 
One  piece,  ''sxSxISPb.  is  fixed  across  the  top  of  the 
box  about  14  inches  from  one  end,  witli  an  iron  pivot 
sticking  up  through  it,  IH  inclies  hig:h  to  rest  the 
combs  on.  When  uncai)ping-  you  set  one  end  of  the 
comb  on  this  pivot,  uncap  one  side,  whirl  it  around, 
and  uncap  the  other  side,  and  set  the  comb  in  the 
end  of  the  box,  as  in  the  diagram.  Wlieii  we  have  a 
surplus  of  combs  we  often  hang-  them  in  the  other 
end  of  the  box,  in  thediag-ram.  C  is  cappings,  and 
D  the  space  for  the  honey  to  run  out. 

The  bottom  of  the  box  is  T  inches  from  the  Hoor, 
wliicli  leaves  room  for  the  honey  to  run  into  the 
strainer  illustrated  on  page  248.  This  makes  the  top 
of  the  box  about  :!"'  inches  from  the  flooi-,  which  is 
about  the  right  height  foi-  me  to  uncap  easily.  A 
shorter  person  miglit  make  the  box  a  little  sliallow- 
er,  or  lay  a  plank  on  tiie  Hoor  to  give  the  righ 
height,  which  is  the  way  I  do  when  my  wife  uncaps. 
I  know  most  peoi>lewill  tliink  tliisbox  unnecessaiily 
large.  I  will  tell  you  wliy  1  think  it  is  not.  When 
uni-apping  over  a  round  can  like  Dadant's,  the  cap- 
pings  fall  on  top  of  those  taken  olf  earlier  in  the 
day;  and  when  the  can  is  half  full  the  honey  has  to 
l)ass  through  such  a  pile  of  cai)plngs  that  it  takes  a 
long  lime  to  all  run  out ;  and  when  you  put  the  cap- 
pings  in  the  sun  extr,-i(-tor  tliej'  are  heavy  with  hon- 
ey.    With  this  l;ox,  when  a  pile  of  cappings  accinnu- 


EXTRACTOR. 


118 


EXTRACTOR. 


lates  under  the  knife  wo  take  ii  foiii-tiiied  fork  mid 
pitch  them  over  to  the  other  end,  where  tliey  may 
drain  for  four  or  five  days.  There  is  a  small  stream 
of  lioney  runninjr  out  of  tlie  box  all  tlie  time,  day 
i\ud  niffht,  during  the  e.xtraftin.tr  time;  and  when  the 
cappin^s  }f<>  into  the  sun  extractor  they  are  almost 
dry.  I  think  it  pays  well  for  tlie  extra  space  in  the 
box,  because  all  the  honey  whi>:h  goes  into  the  sun 
extractor  is  siioiled  for  the  mai'ket. 

J.  F.  MclNTYKE. 

Tliere  are  many  substitutes  for  uiicapping- 
cans.  W.  S.  Hart,  of  >,'ew  Smyrna,  Fla., 
sends  us  a  sketch  of  one  he  uses,  made  of  a 
common  cheap  wooden  bowl.  A  tube  is 
fastened  to  the  bottom  of  tlie  bowl,  extend- 
ing down  through  the  table  into  a  honey- 
can  or  barrel.  A  wire-clotliscreen  is  put 
over  the  top  of  the  bowl,  to  catch  the  cap- 
pings  ;  and  as  the  bowl  turns  on  the  tube  the 
comb  can  easily  be  swung  around  in  any 
position  while  shaving  the  caps  off. 

rNCAPlINO    INIVKS. 

Before  we  can  extract  the  honey,  the  caps 
of  the  cells  must  be  sliced  off ;  and  several 
patterns  of  knives  have  been  designed  for  this 
purpose,  called  honey,  or  uncapping  knives. 
It  is  true,  we  may  throw  out  the  honey  be- 
fore the  bees  have  had  time  to  seal  it  over  ; 
but  I  believe  the  most  of  our  friends  have 
decided  in  favor  of  letting  the  bees  keep  it 
till  they  have  it  thoroughly  ripened  and 
thick,  as  we  have  before  remarked.  The 
knife  first  shown  is  one  devised  by  myself, 
and  very  extensively  used  the  world  over. 


The  curve  is  to  enable  us  to  go  down  into 
cavities  and  hollows  on  the  combs.  While 
Mr.  Quinby  and  many  others  considered  this 
quite  an  improvement,  I  have  not  found  it 
so  convenient  as  the  sliarp-rounded  point  of 
our  own  knife.  For  a  knife  for  tuicflpping 
the  cells  alone,  the  Bingham  «fe  Iletliering- 
ton  knife  shown  in  next  cut  is  probably 
ahead  of  any  other. 


THE  XOVKK   HONEY-KNIFE. 

This  knife  is  almost  as  good  as  any  for  un- 
capping, and  it  is  also  very  handy  indeed  for 
cutting  honey  or  combs.  The  blade  is  very 
thin,  shai-pened  on  both  edges,  and  of  the 
very  best  steel  and  temper.  AVlien  it  is  de- 
sired to  cut  combs  free  from  the  sides  of  the 
hive,  or  when  the  bees  have  carelessly  been 
allowed  to  build  against  the  cover,  this  knife 
will  spring  down  straight  and  close  to  the 
wood,  so  as  to  do  a  nice  job,  scraping  off  ev- 
ery bit  of  the  Avax. 

Shortly  after  my  knife  was  put  into  the 
rnarket,  our  veteran  friend  M.  (^uinby  had 
one  made  with  a  curved  point,  as  shown 
below. 


QUINUY   HONEY-KNIFE. 


BiNGnA:M  &  hethp:rington  honey-knife. 

The  above  knives  cost  from  70  cents  to 
$1.00  each ;  but  many  of  the  friends  have  de- 
vised several  good  home-made  substitutes, 
among  which  is  the  common  mason's  trowel, 
which  can  be  purchased  at  a  cost  of  about  50 
cents ;  and  recently  some  Yankee  friend  has 
suggested  that  a  10-cent  steel  garden-trowel 
will  do  as  well  as  any  thing,  although  it 
doesn't  make  so  wide  a  cut.  Of  course,  the 
edges  are  to  be  ground  sharp. 
USE  of  pehfukated  zinc  f(jr  extract- 
ing. 

Unless  perforated  zinc  is  used  to  prevent 
the  queen  from  going  into  the  upper  story, 
she  will,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  deposit 
eggs  there  ;  and  the  consequence  is?  brood  is 
reared  just  where  we  do  not  desire  it.    The 
practical   bee  keeper  wants  all  of  that  con- 
fined to  the  brood-nest.    During  1889  and 
'90  we  had  several  testimonies  to  the  effect 
that  zinc  excludeis,  placed    between    the 
i  brood-nest  and  the   extracting   super,  did 
!  that  effectually.    Here  is  an  article,  written 
for  Gleanings,  which  I  take  pleasure  in 
I  copying.    It  is  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Mcln- 
I  tyre,  as  referred  to  above. 

j  I  liave  taken  so  much  comfort  with  my  4.50  zinc 
queen-excluders  this  season,  I  am  sure  it  will  be  do- 
ing my  neighbors  a  kindness  to  tell  them  how  they 
work.    My  hives,  and,  in  fact,  nearly  all  the  hives  in 

i  Ventura  County,  are  made  with  a  bee  space  in  the 
bottom  and  top  of  lioth  super  and  brood  chamber, 
which,  when  the  super  is  on,  leaves  M  of  an  inch 
space  between  the  sui)er  and  the  brood-fiames.  I 
have  always  thought  this  a  m  stake;  but  when  i  be- 
gan to  tliiiik  of  using  queen-excluders,  I  saw  that,  if 
a  plain  unbound  zinc  excluder,  the  size  of  the  out- 
side of  the  hive,  were  laid  on  the  brood-chamber,  and 
the  super  on  the  excluder,  the  bee-spaces  would  be 
all  right.  I  ordered  4"<0  of  Root's  No.  1  unbound  zinc 
excluders  lai'ge  enough  to  fit  my  hives.  I  think  No. 
1  the  best,  because  they  allow  the  bees  to  i)aHS  up 
and  down  more  freely  than  the  break-joint  exclvid- 
ers.  After  trying  450  of  these  unbound  excluders 
one  seas(jn,  I  am  satisfied  that  they  are  better  in 
evejy  way  than  the  bound  excluders.  The  super  is 
easil  lifted  off  the  zinc,  and,  by  taking  hold  of  one 
end  of  the  zinc  and  i)ulling  up  and  out,  they  can  be 


EXTRACTOR. 


lli» 


EXTRACTOR. 


peeled  off  almost  likeclotli;  aiidif  they  bend  ;i  liltL', 
just  turn  them  upside  down  when  you  put  them  on 
again.  I  bought  tlie  excluders  because  I  had  a  good 
many  drone  combs  in  my  supers;  but  T  would  not  do 
without  them  now,  if  my  super  combs  were  all  work- 
er size.  It  makes  a  fellow  feel  good  to  open  a  super 
just  before  swarming  commences,  and  find  about  a 
square  foot  of  droue  comb  all  cleaned  up  for  tiie 
queen  to  lay  in.  It  is  ever  so  much  nicer  to  fool  the 
bees  in  this  way  than  to  shave  the  heads  otf  the 
drones.  You  don't  always  get  around  in  time  to 
sha%-e  the  drones'  heads  otf,  and  what  a  lot  of  honey 
is  wasted  in  rearing  tlieml 

When  you  have  no  excluder  on  a  ten-frame  L.  hive. 
the  bees  will  fill  about7coml:)s  in  thebrood-ciiamber 
witli  brood,  and  then  run  it  up  in  the  super  instead 
of  filling  the  l)rood-chamber  clear  across.  Tliis 
brood  in  the  super  is  a  great  nuisance  wlien  you  are 
extracting.  In  California  we  leave  our  supers  on  all 
tlie  year  round;  and  if  the  super  is  full  of  lioney  in 
the  spring  tlie  bees  will  build  up  faster  than  they 
would  if  the  hi\  e  were  contracted.  Anotlier  jjoint  I 
did  not  discover  until  I  put  excluders  on  all  my 
liives:  When  the  queens  are  allowed  to  go  into  the 
supers,  a  good  many  are  knocked  otf  on  tlie  ground, 
and  lost,  when  brushing  tiie  bees  off  the  combs.  I 
did  not  find  a   fourtli  as  many  queenless  colonies 


after  extracting  this  season  as  usual.  I  found  a  few 
queens  that  could  run  up  and  down  thi'ough  the  ex- 
cluders, but  not  enough  to  trouble  serionslj'. 

J.  F.  McIntyke. 

The  use  of  perfoiMted  zinc  promises,  at  no 
distant  day,  to  revolutionize  the  methods  of 
producing  extracted  honey. 

COVER   FOR  EXTRACTOR. 

iN'o  cover  is  ever  needed  over  the  extractor 
while  at  work,  for  it  would  be  greatly  in  the 
way;  but  after  we  are  through,  or  stop  only 
temporarily,  the  machine  should  be  covered 
to  keep  out  dust  and  insects.  The  most  con- 
venient thing  for  this  purpose  is  a  circular 
piece  of  cheap  cloth,  with  a  rubber  cord  run 
in  the  hem.  This  can  be  thrown  over  in  an 
instant,  and  all  is  secure.  When  honey  is 
coming  in  abundantly,  it  may  be  safe 
to  carry  the  machine,  located  on  a  suitable 
platform,  around  to  the  hives,  especially  if 
the  apiary  is  much  scattered  about.  But  if 
the  bees  are  disposed  to  rob,  all  such  attempts 
will  "  come  to  grief  "  very  quickly. 


HOME,   SWEET   Ht)ME. 


A    I'AKTIAL    VIKW   OF   THE    Al'IAIilAN   KXHIBIT   AT   THE   COLUJIBVS   CENTENNIAL. 


A   TARTIAI,    VIEW   OF   THE   AI'ICUI/irRAL   EXHIBIT  AT   THE   COLUMBUS     CENTENNIAL,   WITH     SOME 
OF   THE   PROMINENT   BEE-MEN   IN   THE   FOREGROUND. 


F. 


FAIRS — How  they  may  be  used  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  bee  and  honey  industry. — Of 
late,  very  mu(!h  indeed  lias  been  accomplish- 
ed by  the  exhibits  of  bees,  honey,  and  apiari- 
an implements  at  State  and  county  fairs. 
Several  of  the  larg'er  societies  have  had  very 
pretty  l)uildings  erected  on  the  fair-groiuids 
for  these  displays,  and  often  the  bee-keepers 
who  meet  at  such  places  liave  very  interest- 
ing conventions  during  the  day  time  or  even- 
ing. 

Such  exliibits  have  a  decidedly  education- 
al influence  on  the  public.  They  show  how 
honey  is  produced  ;  and  not  only  that,  but 
that  it  can  be  produced  by  the  ton  and  car- 
load. On  account  of  newspaper  yarns  start- 
ed by  one  Wiley  as  a  piece  of  "  pleasantry.'' 
there  seems  to  be  a  general  iminession 
among  people  tlmt  comb  honey  is  manufac- 
tured, and  that  the  extracted  article  is  adul- 
terated with  ghicose.  It  is  absolutely  im- 
possible to  miinufacture  comb,  till  it  with 
honey,  and  cap  it  over  with  appropriate  ma- 
chinery—just as  mipossible  as  it  is  to  man- 
ufacture eggs.  I  have  had  for  several  years 
a  standing  offer  of  $1000  to  any  one  who 
would  show  where  comb  honey  was  manu- 
factured, or  even  procure  a  single  manufac- 
tured sample  which  could  not  be  told  from 
the  genuine.  Although  this  offer  has  been 
published  broadcast  in  the  daily  papers,  no 
one  takes  it  up.  I  have  also  had  the  condi- 
tions of  this  offer  printed  on  a  neat  little 
card,  the  same  distributed  by  bee  keepers  at 
fairs  and  other  honey-exhibits,  so  that  tlie 
general  public  could  see  at  once,  that,  if 
such  a  thing  were  possible,  and  that  if  A.  I. 
Hoot  is  responsible,  there  would  be  a  bonan- 
za for  somebody.  As  to  extracted  honey, 
there  is,  perhaps,  some  adulteration,  but 
tliere  is  comjtaratively  little  of  it.  Money 
is  now  produced  so  cheai)ly  tiiat  it  would 
not  pay. 

]}ee  keepers,  besides  educating  the  gener- 
al i)ul)lic  as  to  the  (jenuincness  of  their  prod- 
uct, c;in  create  a  larger  demand  for  honey. 
As  a  usual   thing,  exhibitors  are  allowed  to 


sell  their  honey,  distribute  circulars,  and  do 
a  great  deal  of  profitable  advertising.  This 
not  only  helps  the  individual,  but  helps  the 
pursuit  in  general.  Those  who  have  done 
efficient  service  in  this  line  are.  Dr.  A.  B. 
Mason,  of  Auburndale,  O.;  W.  Z.  Hutchin- 
son, of  Flint,  Mich.;  H.D.  Cutthig.  Chnton, 
Mich.;  M.  II.  Hunt.  Bell  Branch,  Mich.;  R 
McKniglit,  Owen  Sound.  Ontario ;  and 
D.  A.  Jones,  Beeton,  Ontario. 

The  accompanying  engravings  will  give 
you  an  idea  of  how  a  model  exhibit  should 
be  arranged.  This  exhibit  was  under  the  di- 
rect supervision  of  Dr.  A.  B.  Mason,  at  the 
Columbus,  Ohio,  Centennial.  The  pictures 
are  taken  from  photographs  of  the  apiarian 
hall ;  and  the  big  sign.  '•  A.  I.  Root."'  covers 
only  a  part  of  the  exhibit,  althougli  it  repre- 
sents a  carload  of  apiarian  supplies.  En- 
gravings in  the  l)ack  volumes  of  Gleanings 
IX  Bee  Culture,  as  well  as  the  Picture 
Gallery  (  f  tliis  work,  will  give  other  sug- 
gestions. 

There  should  be  shelving  arranged  in  the 
form  of  pyramids,  octagons,  semicircles,  etc. 
The  honey  should  be  put  up  in  tin  and 
glass,  in  large  and  small  packages,  and  the 
whole  should  be  neatly '' set  off '"  with  ap- 
propriate labels.  As  a  general  thing,  glass 
packages  should  liave  a  very  small  label,  so 
that  as  much  of  the  liquid  himey  as  possible 
may  show.  Tin  r('cei)tacles  should  have 
labels  to  go  clear  around  the  can.  Comb 
honey  should  be  put  up  in  cartons  and  in 
shipping-cases  ;  and  yellow  cakes  of  wax 
should  be  shown  in  a  variety  of  shapes. 
Besides  the  exhibit  of  honey  in  various 
styles  of  i)ackages,  there  should  be  a  riiod- 
erate  collection  of  bee  -  supplies,  so  that, 
when  the  eager  i)ublic  ( ome  along  with 
their  strings  of  (piestions.  they  can  be  shown 
stcj)  by  stej)  the  process  of  producing  lioney, 
and  its  final  putting-up  for  market.  A  good 
many  questions  v\ill  be  asked  in  regard  to 
the  extractor.  It  will  be  calle<l  a  churn,  a 
wasliing-machine.  and  every  thing  else  ex- 
cept what  it  leally  is.    Set  yourself  patient- 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


122 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


ly  to  answering  all  su<;li  foolish  (luestions, 
and  you  will  be  re\v{iicled  for  your  labor. 
And  last,  but  not  least  important,  there 
should  be  one  or  more  observatory  hives  to 
show  the  folks  lu.w  the  bees  behave  when  at 
home.  A  good  many  will  want  to  s^'e  the 
*'  king-bee.''  Tell  them  it  is  not  a  H)iy  but 
the  7'Neuthat  boss'  s  the  establishment,  lays 
all  the  eggs,  etc.,  and  then  point  her  out  on 
the  comb. 

By  all  means  look  well  to  what  may  be  ac- 
complished at  your  county  fairs  ;  and  if  those 
near  you  are  too  much  given  to  gaml)ling 
schemes  and  liorse-racing,  make  it  your  busi- 
ness to  interest  the  boys  who  go  there,  in 
learning  some  wholesome,  honest  industry. 
Our  own  State  of  Ohio  has  recently  erected  a 
very  pretty  building  on  the  fair-grounds  at 
Columbus,  for  bee-exhibits. 

THUDlIta  AND  FEEDERS.     As 

a  general  rule,  I  would  not  advise  beginners 
to  take  honey  froin  the  bees  and  sell  with 
the  idea  of  feeding  them  up  in  the  fall 
with  some  substitute  for  honey ;  and  if  a 
person  is  inclined  to  be  careless  and  neglect- 
ful he  had  better  never  think  of  feeding 
at  all.  Leave  the  ten  combs  in  the  lower 
story  untouched  by  the  extractor,  and  you 
will  very  seldom  have  reason  to  feed. 1*1  If 
you  use  section  boxes  in  the  lower  story, 
you  had  better  take  them  all  out  in  time  to 
let  the  bees  till  combs  for  winter  stores,  in 
their  place,  unless  you  have  very  heavy  sur- 
plus combs  laid  away,  that  will  contain  on 
an  average  5  lbs.  of  sealed  stores  each ;  in 
this  case,  give  them  6  of  these  combs  and  a 
chalf-cushion  division-board  on  each  side  of 
them  in  place  of  the  sections,  and  you  have 
them  then  in  the  safest  shape  for  wintei 
you  possibly  can,  providing  they  are  in 
a  chaff  hive  (according  to  my  ideas  of 
Avintering).  Now,  if  we  were  only  sure  of 
having  the  well  -  filled  surplus  combs,  we 
might  skip  ''feeding"  entirely;  but,  alas  ! 
there  will  come  seasons  and  circumstances 
w^hen  we  must  feed. 

Again,  where  one  raises  bees  and  queens 
for  sale,  he  may  divide  and  sub-divide  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  have  many  colonies 
with  bees  enougli,  but  with  too  little  food. 
The  only  remedy  in  these  cases  is  to  feed. 

AVIIAT  TO   FEED. 

If  I  had  sealed  honey  in  the  combs,  I 
should  use  it  for  giving  the  requisite  stores 
in  preference  to  sugar,  unless  I  could  sell  it 
for  more,  pound  for  pound,  than  the  sugar 
could  be  purchased  for.  If  the  honey  is  late 
fall  honey,  such  as  buckwheat,  goldenrod. 


autiunn  wild  flowers,  etc.,  I  should  consider 
it  just  as  safe  as  any  other,  if  well  seasoned 
and  ripened,  unless  I  had  by  actual  experi- 
ment good  reason  to  think  otherwise : 
in  such  a  case  I  would  feed  sugar.  Quite  a 
number  of  reports  have  been  given  that 
seemed  to  show  bees  wintered  safely  on  the 
spring  honey,  or  that  gathered  in  the  early 
part  of  the  season,  when  others  in  the  same 
apiary  where  all  this  spring  honey  was  ex- 
tracted, and  they  were  confined  to  the  au- 
tumn stores  for  winter,  were  badly  diseased. 
If  the  colonies  are  carefully  packed  in  chaff 
on  their  summer  stands,  or  are  put  in  a  good 
dry  cellar,  witli  plenty  of  bottom  ventila- 
tion (no  top  ventilation),  they  will,  as  a  rule, 
winter  on  almost  any  kind  of  fall  honey,  pro- 
viding it  is  well  ripened.  Honey-dew  (which 
see)  should  be  extracted,  and  sugar  syrup 
fed. 

Well,  supposing  w^e  have  not  the  honey  in 
frames,  what  then  V  If  we  have  extracted 
honey,  two  questions  come  up;  which  is  bet- 
ter— sugar  syrup,  or  honey  ?  and  which  will 
cost  the  more  V  I  would  unhesitatingly  take 
syrup  made  of  granulated  sugar,**-  in  place 
of  the  best  clover  or  any  other  kind  of  hon- 
ey, if  offered  at  the  same  price.  I  say  this 
after  having  fed  many  barrels  of  sugar,  and 
after  having  carefully  noted  the  results  of 
feeding  both  sugar  and  honey. 

Hon.  R.  L.  Taylor  reports  that  he  made 
an  experiment  in  feeding  honey  and  sugar 
syrup  to  a  number  of  colonies  apparently 
alike  in  strength  and  condition.  Of  those 
fed  on  honey,  the  average  consumption  was 
from  14  to  1<S  pounds,  while  those  fed  on 
sugar  syrup  consumed  from  3  to  7  pounds. 
The  idea  was,  that,  while  a  pound  of  honey 
had  less  strength  than  a  pound  of  sugar  syr- 
up, it  was  more  stimulating,  causing  the 
bees  to  eat  more. 

now   TO  3IAKE    THE   SYRUI". 

Get  your  wife's  wasli-boiler,  if  she  will  let 
you  have  it,  or  something  large  enough  to 
make  50  or  IdO  lbs.  or  more  of  syruj)  at  once. 
Into  your  melting-can  pour  granulated  su- 
gar and  water,  in  the  proportion  of  'ZO  lbs. 
of  sugar  to  a  gallon  of  water.  Heat  slowly, 
stirring  it  occasionally.  Heat  the  mixture 
until  you  bring  it  to  a  temperature  of  about 
l.'O^  —  a  little  too  hot  to  stick  your  finger  in- 
to it.  You  may  bring  it  to  a  boil,  if  you 
choose.  It  will  not  do  a  i)article  of  gocd ; 
and  should  you  burn  it  a  little  it  may  do  it 
j  a  great  deal  of  harm.  To  facilitate  matters, 
perhaps  it  will  be  well  to  i)Gur  l)oiliug  water 
j  into  the  l)oiler  first,  a:id  then  the  sugar,  in 
'  the   proportions  above   named.    Keep  stir- 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


128 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


ring  until  all  the  grannies  of  sugar  are  tlwr- 
oughly  dissolved,  and  do  not  remove  the  can 
from  the  stove  until  they  are.  When  we 
make  syruj)  here  at  the  Home  of  the  Iloney- 
Bees,  we  pour  into  a  large  extractor-can  tlie 
sugar  and  water,  in  the  i)roper  proportions. 
Into  this  we  i)ut  a  rubber  hose,  and  heat 
the  mixtvu-e  with  steam.  This  i.'^  by  all  odds 
the  nicest  way  of  making  syrup ;  but  the 
majority  of  my  Headers  will  nt)t  probably  be 
so  conveniently  situated. 

Cream  of  tartar,  tartaric  acid^i^^  vinegar, 
and  the  like,  have  been  used  for  preventing 
granulation,  but  I  feel  sure  we  do  not  need 
any  thing  besides  pure  water  and  i)ure  su- 
gar,!*:' and  I  think  it  makes  little  difference 
what  the  proportions  are.  If  the  sugar  and 
water  be  boiled  together,  there  is  perhaps 
less  liability  to  granulate. 

In  regard  to  expense:  A  gallon  of  water  to 
20  lbs.  of  sugar  will  make  28  lbs.  of  nice 
thick  syrup;  and  as  the  sugar  is  now  worth 
about  5  cents  by  the  barrel,  our  syrup  will 
cost  us  nearly  4  cents  per  lb.  I  think,  if  my 
extracted  honey  were  all  ready  to  ship,  and 
I  could  get  5  cents  cash  for  it,  I  would  sell 
it  and  buy  the  sugar.  Perhaps  a  safe  rule 
will  be  to  say,  that  whenever  we  can  trade  a 
pound  of  honey,  already  extracted,  for  a 
pound  of  sugar,  we  had  better  do  so,  for  the 
difference  in  favor  of  sugar  will  certainly 
pay  for  all  trouble  of  making  it  into  syrup. 
In  regard  to  the  cheaper  grades  of  sugar 
than  the  granulated,  I  will  say  that  I  have 
used  the  A  sugar,  without  being  able  to  de- 
tect much  dilference  in  the  results ;  but  as 
the  price  is  but  very  little  different,**'  I  de- 
cided in  my  own  mind,  without  any  definite 
proof,  that  the  granulated  had  about  the 
same  amount  of  pure  sugar,  for  the  money,  as 
any  of  the  cheaper  grades.  I  also  fed  a  few 
colonies  for  winter  on  the  cheapest  brown 
sugar,  and,  somewhat  contrary  to  my  expec- 
tations, they  wintered  tolerably  well.  I  have 
not  used  brown  sugar  extensively,  because 
in  my  experiments  with  candy  for  feeding, 
I  discovered  that  burnt  candy  or  sugar — car- 
amel— was  certain  poison  to  bees  when  con- 
fined to  such  stores  in  cold  weather.  See 
Candy.  As  brown  sugar  freciuently  owes 
its  color  and  taste  to  this  same  caramel,  it 
is  very  unsafe  for  winter  food. 

Mr.  Sinmiins,  of  England,  practices  feed- 
ing sugar  witlKMit  making  into  syrup,  using 
moist  sugar,  as  Porto  Kico.  It  is  less  trou- 
ble, and  he  thinks  better,  but  Cheshire 
tliinks  that  at  times  large  numbers  of  bees 
are  lost  in  flying  for  water  to  dissolve  the 
sugar. 


FEEDING    TO    STIMULATE    IJROOD-REAKIXG. 

Bees  are  fed  for  one  of  two  purposes ;  viz., 
to  stimulate  brood-rearing  or  to  supply  needy 
stocks  for  winter.  It  will  make  some  differ- 
ence, both  in  feeders  and  in  the  amount  fed 
at  one  time,  as  to  what  the  bees  are  fed  for. 
We  will  suppose  that  you  have  one  stock 
which  you  have  divided  into,  say,  three  or 
four.  To  each  of  tliese  several  nuclei  has 
been  given  a  cell.  After  the  cell  hatches, 
and  the  queen  begins  to  lay,  you  desire  to 
have  the  bees  and  the  queen  raise  as  much 
brood  as  possible.  Or,  again,  we  will  sup- 
l)0se  that  you  have  several  weak  stocks  in 
early  spring.  To  get  them  strong  enough 
to  gather  honey  during  the  summer,  you  de- 
sire to  have  brood -rearing  progress  as  rapid- 
ly as  possible.  In  either  of  these  cases,  or 
in  any  other  case  where  it  may  be  necessary 
to  stimulate  the  cdony,  give  them  about 
half  a  pint,  or  a  pint,  daily,  of  thin  sugar 
syrup,  made  as  previously  directed.  If  you 
happen  to  have  any  old  sweet,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  soft  maple  sugar  that  is  unfit  both 
for  the  table  and  for  the  market,  make  a 
thin  syrup  of  this,  and  give  to  them  a  small 
amount  daily,  or  lay  the  sugar  right  on  the 
frames  under  tlie  quilt.  Now,  I  would  not 
give  the  bc-es  a  syrup  made  of  cheap  sugar, 
if  you  are  obliged  to  buy  it.  Granulated 
sugar  at  ordinary  prices  contains  just  as 
much  sweet  for  the  money,  and  it  is  not 
only  just  as  cheap,  but  it  is  the  very  best 

I  food  that  bees  can  possibly  have.  In  feed- 
ing the  weak  stocks,  be  careful  not  to  get 
the  bees  of  stronger  colonies  to  robbing 
them.     The    most    convenient    method  of 

'  feeding,  where  it  is  done  by  night,  is  to  put 
the  feeder  in  front  of  the  entrance.  A  little 
colony  ought  to  be  able  to  take  a  pint,  and  a 
strong  one  a  quart,  during  the  night,  pro- 
viding it  is  not  too  cool.  Never  feed  outside 
of  the  hive,  at  the  entrance,  during  the  day. 
It  will  result  in  the  pro'bable  destruction  of 
the  weak  colony,  and  a  general  uproar  among 

I  your  other  bees.  Just  before  dark,  or  at 
least  when  the  bees  have  stoi)ped  flying  for 
the  day.  pour  the  feed  into  the  feeder,  at  tlie 

I  entrance.  In  early  spring,  or  when  the  air 
is  cool,  or  jierhaps  frosty,  it  will  be  necessa- 
ry to  feed  inside  the  hive,  because  the  bees 
will  not  come  out  at  the  entrance  to  take 
any  feed  ;  and  the  next  morning  will  find 
the  syrup  untouched,  ready  for  robber-bees 
wlien  it  begins  to  warm  up.  Put  tlie  feeder 
under  a  super,  or  under  a  cover  large  enough 
to  accommodate  it,  or  pull  o»it  tlie  division- 
board  or  a  comb  or  two.  and  set  the  feeder 
down   in   its  place,  and  at  night  open  tlie 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


124 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


hive ;  lift  up  the  enamel  cloth  or  quilt,  pour 
in  the  feed,  and  close  the  hive.  For  carry- 
ing the  feed  from  one  hive  to  anotlier,  noth- 
ing is  more  convenient  tlian  a  large  coffee- 
pot. Fill  this  full  and  then  distribute  the 
syrup  from  one  hive  to  another.     Now  for 

FEEDERS. 

For  stimulating  brood-rearing,  or  for  feed- 
ing in  general,  I  much  prefer  a  feeder  made 
entirely  of  wood.  One  of  glass  or  tin,  in 
cool  weather  will  not  be  visited  by  the  bees 
nearly  as  readily  as  one  of  wood.  I  know  of 
nothing  better  for  the  purpose  than  the  lit- 
tle Simplicity  feeder. 


er,  adapted  to  an  ordinary  glass  Mason  fruit- 
can. 


SIMPLICITY   liEE-FEEDER. 

It  is  simply  an  oblong  block  of  wood, 
grooved  out  so  as  to  leave  two  thin  parti- 
tions through  its  center,  the  two  partitions 
being  cut  down  In  the  center  to  let  the  syr- 
up pass  from  one  compartment  to  the  other. 
The  bees  can  not  get  drowned,  because  they 
can  readily  reach  the  sides  and  crawl  up, 
when  the  other  bees  will  lick  them  olT,  clean 
them  up,  and  wash  their  faces.  This  feeder 
may  be  used  either  at  the  entrance,  on  top 
of  tlie  brood-combs,  or  down  in  the  hive,  in 
place  of  the  division-board.  It  is  sold  in  lots 
of  ten,  for  30  cents.  Although  it  is  very 
cheap,  there  is  something  more  economical 
yet,  which  answers  tlie  purpose  nearly  as 
well.  It  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an 
ordinary  wooden  butter-dish,  such  as  your 
grocers  give  you  wlien  you  buy  a  poiuid  or 
so  of  butter.  They  will  hold  about  the  same 
amount  of  feed,  and  we  have  used  them  in 
our  apiaries  very  largely,  along  with  the 
Simplicity  trougli  feeder  ;  and,  contrary  to 
wliat  we  might  suppose,  bees  will  not  get 
drowned. 

Thus  far  I  have  mentioned  only  two  feed- 
ers for  stimulating  bees.  There  are  others 
that  may  be  used,  and,  in  the  hands  of  some 
people,  may  be  better.  One  is  the  pei)i)ei- 
box  feeder.  A  ])ei)i)er  -  box  exi)lains  the 
whole  principle  if  you  fill  it  witli  watei-  and 
invert  it ;  and,  in  fact,  you  may  clioose  tin 
pepper-boxes,  if  you  have  but  few  colonies. 
Fill  one  with  honey  or  syrup  ;  place  it  in 
front  of  the  hive,  inside,  at  nightfall,  and 
you  will  find  it  emptied  in  the  morning. 

There  is  another  class  of  feeders  that 
work  on  the  atmospheric  i)rinci])le.  The 
one  illustrated  Itelow  shows  the  Ilains  feed- 


IIAINS    FEEDER    OR    FRUIT-.JAR. 

To  fill  this  feeder,  fill  the  jar  level  full  o 
syrup.    Screw  on  the  tin  cap,  and  invert  it. 
Just  as  fast  as  the  bees  take  away  the  syr- 
up, the  little  pan  is  replenished,  on  the  at- 
mospheric principle,  from  the  jar. 

You  can  extemporize  a  very  good  feeder 
out  of  a  tin  pan  and  a  piece  of  cheese-cloth. 
Fill  the  pan  and  lay  the  cheese-cloth  direct- 
ly upon  the  syrui».  The  bees  will  receive 
the  feed  through  the  cloth,  the  latter  cling- 
ing to  the  surface  of  the  syrup  as  it  is  grad- 
ually taken  up.  While  this  works  nicely,  I 
should  i)refer  the  Simjilicity  or  the  Ijutter- 
dish,  because  these  latter  can  be  refilled 
without  lifting  up  the  cheese-cloth,  which 
has  a  very  uni)leasant  way  of  sticking  to  the 
pan.*''' 

WHEN   TO   FEED. 

If  we  feed  during  the  day  time,  the 
bees  all  stay  at  home,  and  the  honey  that 
might  otherwise  have  been  gathered  is  lost. 
I  have  several  times  fed  stocks  during  the 
fall  to  build  them  up;  and  although  they 
were  induced  to  take  many  pounds  of  honey 
or  syrup,  they  would  be  in  no  better  condi- 
tion than  others  that  had  not  been  fed  at  all, 
for  they  "loafed"  and  fussed  with  tlieir 
feeder,  while  the  rest  were  doing  very  fair 
days'  works.  Again,  I  once  gave  a  partic- 
ular colony  all  the  cappings  during  extract- 
ing time  ;  the  honey  they  got  out  of  them 
amounted  to  3  or  4  lbs.  per  day,  but  this  was 
getting  only  about  half  as  much  as  we  were 
from  them  before,  and  we  soon  became  sat- 
isfied that  the  honey  in  the  cappings  was 
even  worse  than  thrown  away,  for  it  had  in- 
duced the  bees  to  stay  at  home,  when  they 
would  otherwise  have  gathered  a  much  larg- 
er quantity  from  the  fields.  This  result 
has  followed  feeding  so  many  times,  that  we 
are  loth  to  resort  to  it,  when  it  can  be  avoid- 
ed. Feeding  sugar,  especially  the  cheap 
sugars,  is  less  liable  to  disturb  their  work 
in  the  fields,  than  honey,  for  they  will  desert 
the  sugar  as  soon  as  honey  is  to  be  obtained, 
even  in  small  quantities. 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


12.5 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


FEEDING   UP   FOR   WINTER. 

While  the  small  feeders  before  described 
and  illustrated  may  be  used  for  feeding  up 
colonies  for  winter,  yet,  on  accomit  of  the 
necessity  of  frequently  tilling  them  in  order 
to  get  the  requisite  amount  of  stoies  in  the 
hive,  and,  as  a  matter  <  f  course,  entailing 
.considerable  extra  labor,  I  much  i)refer  to 
give  the  bees  all  the  necessary  stores  they 
need,  at  one  feed.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  give  a 
colony  2-5  or  30  lbs.  of  syruj)  in  a  large  feed- 
er as  to  give  them  only  a  single  pound  in  a 
small  one.  In  the  latter  case  the  apiarist 
would  have  to  visit  the  hives  thirty  times, 
and  be  in  constant  danger  of  robbing  all  this 
time.  In  the  other  case,  the  syruj)  would  be 
given  at  one  time,  and  the  ])ees  woidd  take 
it  down,  or  nearly  all  down,  in  one  night. 
The  feeder  can  be  removed,  and  the  hive  be 
prepared  for  winter.  We  liave  used  a  great 
many  styles  of  feeders.    We  formerly  used 


THE    3IILLER    FEEDER. 

a  large  tea-kettle  inverted,  the  bees  taking 
the  syrui»  through  perforated  metal,  on  the 
principle  of  a  pepper-box.  During  the  last 
year  or  so  we  have  found  sometliing  very 
much  superior  to  any  thing  else  we  have 
ever  tried.  It  is  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller's  feeder, 
with  W^arner"s  improvement. 

The  first  cut  shows  the  feeder  adapted 
for  an  eight-frame  Langstroth  hive,  and  its 
capacity  is  25  lbs.  of  syrup.  Tlie  accorapa- 
laying  cross-section  shows  that  tliere  are  two 


feed-reservoirs.  On  the  principle  that  liq- 
uids always  seek  their  level,  the  syrup  pass- 
es under  the  raised  partition  IJ ;  and  tiie 
l)ees,  to  get  access  to  the  syrup,  start  from 
the  arrow  E,  and  take  the  feed  from  the 
inner  chaml)ers  under  tiie  cover-board  A. 
With  most  feeders  of  the  kind,  bees  are 
obliged  to  pass  through  the  two  ends  or  the 
outside  ;  and  sometimes  in  cool  weather,  re- 
fusing U)  leave  the  center  of  the  brood-nest, 
they  will  fail  to  take  the  .syruj).  The  great 
feature  of  the  Miller  feeder  is  tlie  fact  that 


the  passageway  to  the  feed  is  located  direct- 
ly over  the  center  of  the  brood-nest,  and  the 
w^armth  of  the  cluster  rising  is  confined  in 
the  i)assageways  and  chambers  under  A. 
This  feature,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  it  is 
made  of  wood,  makes  it  possible  to  feed  bees 
during  quite  cold  freezing  weather.  In  fact, 
we  have  fed  under  the  chaff  cushion  after 
the  snow  had  fallen,  and  the  temi)erature 
was  considerably  below  the  freezing-point, 
and  the  bees  of  the  colonies  so  fed  came  out 
in  the  spring  in  good  condition. 

Large  or  small  amounts  can  be  fed  accord- 
ing as  the  circumstances  require.  The  feed- 
ers we  use  hold  25  lbs.  of  syrup  when  filled 
within  an  inch  of  the  top  edge.  If  we  dis- 
cover that  some  colonies  need  10  lbs.  and 
others  -5,  and  still  others  25,  to  give  them  the 
requisite  amount  of  winter  stores,  at  the 
time  of  feeding  we  fill  each  feeder  to  the 
proportionate  needs  of  the  several  colonies. 
Sometimes  we  till  only  one  of  the  reservoirs, 
which  would  make,  when  full,  12i  lbs.  of 
syrup.  For  a  o-lb.  feed,  we  pour  in  enough 
to  make  one  reservoir  a  little  less  than  half 
full.  To  expedite  matters  in  feeding,  just 
before  giving  the  colony  a  final  feed  we  go 
through  the  whole  apiary,  examine  each 
brood-nest,  and  estimat"*  tlie  amount  of 
stores  in  pounds  that  each  colony  will  need, 
marking  the  same  on  the  slate,  or  with  a 
piece  of  chalk  on  the  cover-board  of  the 
hive.  AVe  afterward  come  around  and  dis- 
tribute the  feeders.  Then  toward  evening, 
with  a  large  feeding-can,  we  lift  the  hive- 
cover,  pour  in  the  amount  of  syrup  as  indi- 
cated ui)on  the  slate  or  cover,  and  close  it 
up.  Thus  we  do  with  all  the  colonies.  The 
next  morning  we  remove  the  feeders  and 
pack  the  colonies  in  chaff,  when  they  are 
ready  for  winter. 

As  a  matter  of  economy,  12  or  15  of  these 
large  feeders  will  answer  for  an  apiary  of 
100  colonies,  though  a  larger  number  W(uild 
be  more  convenient,  and  you  could  finish  the 
job  up  all  at  once.  After  having  fed  the  25 
colonies,  or  any  number  of  colonies  that 
corresponds  with  the  number  of  feeders  that 
you  have,  the  next  morning  remove  them 
and  give  the  same  to  other  colonies,  and  the 
following  evening  feed  as  before.  In  cold 
weather,  if  you  have  been  so  neglectful  as 


*  A  Laiifrstrolh  coinl),  when  flllcd  and  cappitl  ovor 
with  liDiK'y  or  siiKar  stores,  holds  on  thc>  avoratrt' 
ahoiit  i")  Ihs.  To  fret  at  the  ainoiiiit  of  stores  in  a  col- 
ony, cstiniali-  tlic  anionnt  in  cai'li  conit),  and  tin'  sum 
will  jiivc  the  amount.  This  am(>\int.  subtrarted  from 
the  amount  r('(iuir('(l  to  lit-  fed.  will,  of  oo\irsi'.  jrivo 
the  amount  to  he  fed.  Some  wi-i^rh  I'ai'h  i'oml>:  hut 
a  very  little  praetii'e  will  enable  you  tt)  be  aeeinate 
enough. 


FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS.  126  FEEDING  AND  FEEDERS. 


to  leave  the  colonies  until  late,  put  the  chaif 
cushion  on  top  of  the  feetlev  after  tilling. 

FEEDING  FAST  OR  SLOWLY. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  see  that  it  makes 
any  material  difference  whether  we  feed  it 
all  at  once,  or  a  little  at  a  time  for  winter- 
ing purposes  only ;  but  for  brood-rearing  it 
is  assuredly  best  to  feed  a  little  at  a  time,  say 
a  pint  every  night.  I  have,  during  severe 
droughts,  reared  queens,  brood,  and  had 
beautiful  comb  built,  by  tlie  latter  plan. 


FEEDING   IX   COLD  WEATHER.  j 

Although  colonies  have  been  wintered  j 
well  when  fed  after  cold  or  freezing  weath- 
er, I  think  much  the  safer  plan  is  to  have  it 
all  done  during  warm  dry  weather,  that  they 
may  have  it  all  ripened  and  thoroughly 
sealed  up.  If  the  weather  is  not  too  cold  you 
can  feed  with  the  Miller  feeder  as  previous- 
ly intimated.  If  you  have  been  so  careless 
as  to  have  bees  that  are  in  need  of  stores,  at 
the  beginning  of  winter,  I  would  advise 
frames  of  sealed  honey  if  you  can  get  them; 
and  if  you  can  not,  use  Candy,  which  see. 
If  the  candy  is  covered  up  with  warm  chaff 
cushions  or  something  equivalent,  it  may 
be  fed  at  any  time,  although  it  does  not 
seem  to  be  as  satisfact(n-y  under  all  circum- 
stances as  stores  sealed  up  in  their  combs. 

In  feeding  in  cool  or  cold  weather,  you  are 
very  apt  to  uncover  the  cluster,  or  leave  , 
openings  that  will  permit  the  warmth  from  ! 
the  cluster  to  pass  off.    I  have  several  times 
had  colonies  die  in  the  spring  after  I  com-  j 
menced  feeding,  and  I  imagined  it  was  from 
this  cause  alone.  When  they  first  commence 
raising  brood  in  the  spring,  they  need  to  be 
packed   up  closely  and  snugly,  making  a 
hole  in  the  quilt  or  cushions  above  the  clus- 
ter, and  placing  the  feeder  over  this  so  as  to 
close  it  completely,  does  very  well,  but  is  not, 
after  all,  as  safe  as  giving  the  feed  from  ue- 
low :  for  feeding  in  early  spring,  especially 
if  the  stock  is  weak,  I  would  prefer  the  can- 
dy, or  well-filled  combs  of  sealed  stores. 

WHEN   KOUBERS  ARE  BAD,  FEEDING   AT 
NIGHT. 

During  the  early  fall  of  1887  we  found  our 
apiary  almost  on  the  verge  of  starvation, 
the  previous  summer  having  been  very  dry. 
Robbers  were  unusually  vigilant,  and  it 
was  almost  impossilile  to  perform  almost 
any  numipulation  with  the  hives  without 
getting  a  perfect  storm  of  roljbers  in  the 
brood-nest.  Feeding  during  the  day  was 
out  of  the  question,  and  yet  the  colonies 
must  be  fed  in  order  to  prepare  tliem  for 
winter.     Accordingly,    to    circumvent    the 


robbers  we  fed  at  niglit  by  the  light  of  lan- 
terns.   Contrary  to  wliat  we  migiit  exi)ect, 
the  l)ees  gave  us  but  very  little  trouble  by 
flying  against  the  lanterns.     As  the  bees 
took  up  all  the  feed  in  the  feeders  during 
the  night,  and  the  r()bl)ers  had  had  no  op- 
l)ortiunty  to  investigate  during  the  feeding, 
every  thing  was  comparatively  quiet  next 
morning,   and    during    the    following   day. 
We  fed  successfully  in  this  way  some  three 
or  four  barrels  of  sugar.    Although  I  have 
recommended  feeding  toward  night,  in  the 
preceding   paragraphs,  in  the  case   above 
mentioned  we  fed  from   about  7  p.  M.  in 
some    cases    until   10:30  p.   3i.     Perhaps  I 
shoidd  also  remark,  that,  if  it  is  inconven- 
ient to  work  at  night,  feed  on  the  first  rainy 
day.    Put  on   your  rubber  hat,  coat,   and 
i  rubl)er  l)onts.     As  long  as  it  rains,  bees  will 
j  not  bother  you. 

FEEDING  BACK  TO  PRODUCE  COMB  HONEY 
IMPRACTICABLE. 

I     You  could  feed  white  sugar  so  as  to  pro- 
duce very  nice-looking  comb  honey,  but  it 
would  be  sugar  syrup  in  honey-comb,  after 
all,  as  you  would  find  to  your  sorrow  if  you 
should   attempt    to   sell  it  as  honey ;  and 
furthermore,  it  is  doubtful  if  you  could  do 
it  without  losing  money,  were  such  not  the 
case.  Many  are  the  attempts  that  have  been 
made  to  produce  honey  by  feeding  sugar; 
but  all  have  resulted  in  failures.    Where 
you  can  purchase  nice  white  extracted  hon- 
ey for  10c  you  may  be  able  to  feed  it  so  as 
to  make  it  pay,  if  you  can  get  20  or  2.5c  for 
the   honey  in  the   comb.    Several   of   our 
neighbors  have  fed  out  their  extracted  hon- 
ey in  this  way.  and  they  think  it  can  be 
done  profitably,  witli  the  aid  of  the  founda- 
tion.   This  should  all  be  done  by  a  few  col- 
onies, because  they  must  have  quite  a  quan- 
tity, perhaps  2.5  lbs.,  before  they  are  in  shape 
to  build  comb.    The  feed  should  then  be 
given  as  rapidly  as  possible,  if  we  wish  to 
get  nice  white  honey ;  for  the  quicker  we 
can  get  our  comb  honey  out  of  the  hive,  the 
whiter  and  nicer  will  it  be.   Bees,  when  fed, 
are  to  some  extent  demoralized,  and  forget 
to  be  as  particular  as  they  usually  are,  about 
\  being  neat  and  tidy.    Sometimes  they  will 
scamper  over  the  white  honey  with  dirty 
feet,  like  a  lot  of  children  who  have  been 
'  fed  sweetmeats  to  an  injudicious  extent, 
i  and    this   we   wish   to   avoid.    I  am   just 
j  now  making  some  experiments  in  this  di- 
rection, and  have   found   that  a  common 
milk-pan,  pli),ced  in  a  third  story  on  a  Sim- 
'  ])licity  hive,  answers  the  purpose  excellent- 
i  ly.     The    first   story    contains    the    brood- 


FEEDIIS^G  AND  FEEDERS. 


127 


FERTILE  WORKERS. 


combs  ;  the  second,  the  section  boxes  sup- 
plied with  foundation  as  usual,  while  the 
third  contains  only  the  feeder  of  honey. 
The  Miller  feeder  will  be  V)y  all  odds  the 
best  for  the  i)urpose.  If  you  do  not  have 
this,  till  a  milk-pan  with  the  diluted  lioney, 
and  lay  upon  the  surface  of  the  latter  a 
piece  (  f  cheese-cloth  to  jjrevent  drownintf. 

For  the  purpose  of  more  accurately  test- 
ing the  exact  amount  of  loss  incurred  in 
feeding  extracted  honey,  in  order  to  get  it 
into  comb  honey  in  the  sections,  I  have 
had  a  platform  scale  made  with  a  dial,  that 
the  weight  of  the  hive  and  all  the  apparatus 
may  be  seen  at  a  glance.  A  Simplicity  hive, 
3-story,  with  section  boxes  in  the  second 
story,  was  placed  thereon  ;  and  when  the 
combs  ill  the  sections  were  partly  filled,  the 
colony  was  fed  with  the  milk -pan,  as  men- 
tioned above,  about  -50  lbs.  I  then  watched, 
with  great  interest,  the  hand  on  the  dial,  to 
see  how  many  pounds  they  lost  in  weight, 
while  the  combs  were  being  capped  over. 
To  my  great  surprise,  I  found  that  the  hon- 
ey weighed  just  about  as  much  in  the  combs 
as  it  did  in  the  pan ;  even  after  tlie  combs 
were  all  nicely  capped  over,  there  had  been 
a  loss  of  only  about  one  poimd  in  ten,  of  the 
honey  fed.  As  the  extracted  honey  was 
bought  of  a  neighbor  for  10  cts.,  and  the 
filled  sections  were  readily  sold  for  2-5  cts., 
the  investment  was  a  paying  one,  without 
question. 

There  is  one  point  that  should  not  be  lost 
sight  of,  however ;  that  is,  before  the  honey 
will  be  stored  in  sections,  the  brood-combs 
will  be  filled  to  repletion,  and  a  large  amount 
of  brood  will  be  started.  Perhaps  2o  lbs. 
will  be  used  in  this  way  before  they  will 
commence  to  store  in  the  sections,  in  real 
earnest.  On  this  account  the  brood-apart- 
ment should  be  contracted,  and  all  combs 
removed  except  those  actually  needed  for 
the  brood.-'"! 

CAUTION  IN  REGARD  TO  FEKDING. 

Before  closing,  I  would  most  earnestly 
caution  the  inexperienced  to  beware  of  get- 
ting tlie  bees  robbing.  I  have  advised  feed- 
ing only  toward  night  to  avoid  danger: 
for  attempting  to  feed  in  the  middle  of  tlie 
day  will  sometimes  result  in  tlie  robbing 
and  destruction  of  strong  colonies.  Where 
food  conies  in  such  quantities,  and  in  such 
an  unnatural  way,  they  seem  to  forget  to 
post  sentinels  as  usual;  and  before  they  have 
time  to  recover,  bees  will  i)our  in  from  all 
the  hives  in  the  apiary.  I  do  iu)t  know  wlio 
is  to  be  i)itied  most  at  such  a  time,  the  bees, 
their  helpless  owner,  or  the  innocent  neigh- 


bors and  passers-by.  Soinetimes,  all  that  can 
be  done  is  to  let  your  colony  slide,  and  wish 
for  it  to  get  dark  that  the  greedy  "elves" 
may  be  obliged  to  go  home.  Xow  when  you 
commence  feeding,  remember  that  my  last 
words  on  the  matter  were,"  Look  out  I" 

For  open  -  air  feeding,  see  Water  for 
Bees. 
FERTIZiS  W05.KEB.S.  These  queer 
inmates,  or  rather  occasional  inmates,  of  the 
hive,  are  worker  -  bees  that  lay  eggs.  Aye, 
and  the  eggs  they  lay,  hatch  too ;  but  they 
hatch  only  drones,  and  never  worker-bees. 
The  drones  are  rather  smaller  than  the  drones 
produced  by  a  queen,  but  they  are  neverthe- 
less drones,  in  every  respect,  so  far  as  we 
can  discover.  It  may  be  well  to  remark, 
that  ordinary  worker-bees  are  not  neuters, 
as  they  are  sometimes  called:  they  are  con- 
sidered undeveloped  females.  Microscopic 
examination  shows  the  undeveloped  germ 
of  nearly  every  organ  found  in  the  queen, 
and  these  organs  may  become,  at  any  time, 
sufficiently  developed  to  allow  the  bee  to  lay 
eggs,  but  never  to  allow  of  fertilization  by 
meeting  the  drone  as  the  queen  does. 

CAUSE  OF  fertile  WORKERS. 

It  has  been  over  and  over  again  suggested, 
that  bees  capable  of  this  egg-laying  duty 
are  those  reared  in  the  vicinity  of  queen- 
cells,  and  that  by  some  means  they  have  re- 
ceived a  small  portion  of  the  royal  jelly, 
necessary  to  their  development  as  bee-moth- 
ers. This  theory  has,  I  believe,  been  entire- 
ly disprove!!  by  many  experiments;  and  it  is 
now  pretty  generally  conceded  that  fertile 
workers  may  make  their  appearance  in  any 
colony  or  nucleus  that  iias  been  for  some 
days  queenless,  and  without  the  means  of 
rearing  a  queen.  Xot  only  may  one  bee  take 
upon  herself  these  duties,  but  there  may  be 
many  of  them  ;  and  wherever  the  bee-keep- 
er lias  been  so  careless  as  to  leave  his  bees 
destitute  of  either  brood  or  queen,  for  ten 
days  or  two  weeks,  you  may  be  pretty  sure  he 
will  find  evidences  of  their  presence,  in  the 
shape  of  eggs  scattered  about  promiscuously; 
sometimes  one,  but  oftener  half  a  dozei!  in  a 
single  cell.  If  the  matter  has  been  going  on 
for  some  time,  you  will  see  now  ai!d  then 
a  di-one-larva,  and  sometimes  two  or  three 
crowding  eacli  other  in  their  single  cell;  some- 
times they  start  (pu'en-cells  ovei  this  drone 
larva:  the  poor  motherless  orphans,  seeming 
to  feel  that  something  is  wrong,  are  disposed, 
like  a  drowning  man,  to  catch  at  any  straw. 
HOW  TO  get  rid  of  fertile  workers. 
I  I  feel  very  much  like  saying  again,  that 
I  prevention  is  better  than  cui-e.    If  a  colony, 


FERTII.K  WOKKERS. 


128 


FERTILE  WORKERS. 


from  any  cause,  becomes  queenless,  be  sure 
tliey  have  unsealed  brood  of  the  i)roper  age 
to  raise  another;  and  wlien  this  one  is  raised, 
be  sure  that  she  l)ecomes  fertile.  It  can  nev- 
er do  any  harm  to  give  a  queenless  colony 
eggs  and  brood,  and  it  may  be  the  saving  of 
it.  But  suppose  you  have  been  so  careless 
as  to  allow  a  colony  to  become  queenless, 
and  get  weak,  what  are  you  to  do?  If  you 
attempt  to  give  them  a  queen,  and  a  fertile 
worker  is  present,  she  will  be  pretty  sure  to 
get  stung;  it  is,  in  fact,  often  almost  imi)ossi- 
ble  to  get  theui  to  accept  even  a  queen  -  cell. 
The  poor  fellows  get  into  a  habit  of  accept- 
iug  one  of  the  egg-laying  workers  as  a  queen, 
and  they  will  have  none  other,  until  she  is 
reuioved;  yet  you  can  not  find  her,  for  she  is 
just  like  any  other  bee;  you  may  get  hold  of 
her,  i)Ossibly,  by  carefully  noticing  the  way 
in  wliich  the  other  bees  deport  themselves 
toward  her,  or  you  may  catch  her  in  the  act 
of  egg  -  laying ;  but  even  this  often  fails, 
for  tliere  may  be  several  such  in  tlie  hive  at 
once.  You  may  give  them  a  small  strip  of 
couib  containing  eggs  and  brood,  but  they 
will  seldom  start  a  good  queen-cell,  if  they 
start  any  at  all ;  for,  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
a  colony  having  fertile  workers  seems  per- 
fectly demoralized,  so  far  as  getting  them  in- 
to regular  work  is  concerned. 

My  friends,  you  have  allowed  them  to  get 
into  this  condition  by  being  negligent  in 
supplying  brood  when  tliey  were  on  the  verge 
of  ruin  for  the  want  of  a  single  egg  or  young 
larva,  and  the  remedy  now  is  to  give  them 
a  fresh  invoice  of  bees,  brood,  and  combs  from 
some  other  hive ;  if  you  wish  to  make  a  sure 
thing,  give  them  at  least  three  good  combs 
of  brood  and  bees.  This  is  almost  start- 
ing anew  colony,  but  it  is  the  cheapest  wa^, 
whentheygetso  they  willnotreceiveaqueen. 
If  the  stock  has  become  veri/  weak,  it  may 
be  best  to  unite  them  with  some  other  colony, 
for  it  certaiidy  does  not  pay  to  have  them 
killing  queens,  and  tearing  down  queen-cells. 

If  the  fertile  workers  are  discovered  when 
they  first  make  their  appearance,  before 
you  see  any  of  the  drone  -  larva>  scattered 
about,  they  will  often  accept  a  queen-cell,  or 
a  fertile  queen,  without  difhcidty.  I  have 
before  advised  giving  all  colonies  or  nuclei, 
some  eggs  and  brood  just  Ijefore  the  young 
queen  is  old  enough  to  take  her  flight:  when 
this  is  done,  there  can  be  but  little  chance  of 
fertile  workers,  for  they  will  always  have  the 
means  of  rearing  another  queen,  if  theirown 
is  lost  in  taking  her  llight.  Sometimes  a 
fertile  worker  may  be  disposed  of  by  mov- 
ing the  combs  into  an  emi)ty  hive,  placed  at 


a  little  distance  from  the  other;  the  bees  will 
nearly  all  go  into  their  old  hive,  but  the  queen, 
as  she  thinks  herself  to  be,  will  remain  on 
the  combs.  The  returning  bees  will  then  ac- 
cept a  queen  or  queen-cell.  After  all  is  right 
the  combs  may  be  returned,  and  the  fertile 
worker  will  be— well,  I  do  not  know  just 
what  does  become  of  her,  l)ut  I  sus])ect  she 
either  attends  to  her  legitimate  business,  or 
gets  killed. 

See  that  every  hive  contains,  at  all  times, 
during  the  spring  and  sunnner  months  at 
least,  brood  suitable  for  rearing  a  queen,  and 
you  will  never  see  a  fertile  worker. 

HOW   TO     DETECT    THE   PRESENCE   OF   FER- 
TILE WORKERS. 

If  you  do  not  find  any  queen,  and  see  eggs 
scattered  around  promiscuously,  some  in 
drone  and  some  in  worker  cells,  some  attach- 
ed to  the  side  of  the  cell,  instead  of  the  cen- 
ter of  the  bottom,  where  the  queen  lays 
them,  several  in  one  cell,  and  none  in  the 
next,  you  may  be  pretty  sure  you  have  a  fer- 
tile worker.  Still  later,  you  will  see  the 
worker-brood  capped  with  the  high  convex 
cappings,  indicating  clearly  that  the  brood 
will  never  hatch  out  worker-bees.  Finding 
tw^o  or  more  eggs  in  a  cell  is  never  conclu- 
sive, for  the  queen  often  deposits  them  in  a 
feeble  colony  where  there  are  not  bees 
enough  to  cover  the  brood.  The  eggs  depos- 
ited by  a  fertile  queen  are  in  regular  order, 
as  one  would  ])lant  a  field  of  corn;  but  those 
from  fertile  workers,  and  usually  from  drone- 
laying  queens,  are  irregularly  scattered 
aboiit. 

FIG-^VORT  [Scrofularia  Nodosa).  This 
plant  is  variously  known  as  Square-Stalk, 
IIeal--All,  Carpenter's-Sqnare,  Rattle- Weed, 
etc.,  the  name  indicating  some  of  its  peculi- 
arities, or  real  or  supposed  valuable  medical 
properties.  ■  t  is  also  called  the  Simpson 
honey-plant,  after  J.  A.  Simpson,  of  Alexis, 
Ills.,  who  tirst  called  attention  to  it. 

The  engraving  presented  will  give  a  fair 
idea  of  it,  and  will  enable  any  one  to 
distinguish  it  at  once,  if  it  grows  in  his  lo- 
cality. The  pretty  little  ball-shaped  flower, 
with  a  lip  somewhat  like  the  Pitcher  -  plant, 
is  usually  found  filled  with  honey,  unless  the 
bees  are  so  numerous  as  to  prevent  its  accu- 
mulation. This  honey  is,  of'Course,  thin,  like 
that  from  clover  or  other  plants,  when  first 
gathered,  and  is,  in  fact,  rather  sweetened 
water;  but  still  it  is  crude  honey,  and  the 
plant  promises  to  furnish  a  larger  tjuantity 
than  any  thing  else  I  have  met  with.  We 
have  had  f)ne  report  from  a  single  plant  un- 
der cultivation,  and,  as  might  be  expected. 


FIG  WORT. 


129 


riCWORT. 


the  quantity  of  h(iney  yielded  was  very  much 
increased,  and  the  plant  grew  to  a  j^Teat 
heiglit.  continuing  to  bloom  and  yield  honey 
for  full  four  months.  The  little  (lower,  when 
examined  closely,  is  found  to  be  very  beau- 
tiful. The  following  is  Mr.  8im])son's  de- 
scription of  tlie  plant : 

It  is  a  large  course  growt'i-  from  i  to  s  feet  in 
heig-lit,  coar.«e  leaf,  and  a  branching  top  covered  with 
innumerable  little  balls  about  tht  size  of  Xo.  1  shot. 
When  in  bloom  there  is  just  one  little  fiower-leat  on 
each  ball, which  i-!  dark  purple,  or  violet,  at  the  outer 
point,  and  li<fhter  as  it  approaches  the  seed-ball.  The 
ball  has  an  op,?nln<<-  in  it  at  the  base  of  the  leaf,  and- 
is  hollow.  It  is  seldom  seen  in  the  forenoon 
without  honey  shining-  in  it.  Take  a  branch  ftff  and 
turn  it  down  with  a  sharp  shake,  and  the  honey  will 
fall  in  drops.  It  commences  to  liloom  about  the  1.5th 
of  July,  and  remains  until  fro.«t.  •  Bees  fre<)uent  it 
from  morning- till  night.  Th<.' honey  is  a  little  dark, 
but  of  very  g-ood  (lualit.v.  I  think  it  would  be  best 
to  sow  in  seed-bed,  and  transplant. 


THE  SIMPSON    IIOXKV-rL.V.Nl'. 

It  grows  in  its  natui-al  state  among  brush- 
heai)S,  in  fence-corners,  and  amid  hedges,  to 
the  height  of  from  8  to  G  feet.  Tlie  seed  is 
easily  gathered  in  Sept.  and  ()(!t.  As  they 
vary  mucli  in  size,  it  is  likely  tliat  we  could 
produce  a  variety  with  much  larger  balls, 
by  cultivation,  and  by  a  careful  .selection  of 


the  seeds.  In  doing  this  we  should  be  care- 
ful to  select  also  sucli  as  produce  much  honey, 
and.  if  jiossible.  nnich  ijoorl  lioney.  Bees,  and 
plants  too.  are  like  wax  in  our  liands,  if  we 
go  to  work  nnderstandingly. 

In  December,  1879,  I  had  the  plants  under 
cultivation  during  the  whole  season.    The 
following  in  regard  to  tiiem  is  taken  from 
the  Aug.  and  Sept.  Gleanings  of  I87!t. 
snrrsoNs  iioney-plant. 

In  tlie  spring  I  purchased  about  200  plants 
of  friend  Simpson,  and  planted  them  on  our 
honey-farm,  setting  them  about  as  far  apart 
as  corn.  SomewJiat  to  my  suri)rise,  they  are 
now,  July  Sth.  commencing  to  bloom;  and. 
sure  enough,  every  little  pitcher-shaped  blos- 
som has  a  shining  drop  of  nectar  in  it.  This 
nectar  is  very  fair  honey,  although  it  has  a 
sort  of  weedy  flavor,  which,  I  presume,  the 
bees  will  readily  remove.  .The  amount  of 
honey  is  what  astonishes  me.  One  of  these 
little  Howers  contains,  1  should  say,  as  much 
as  a  hundred  basswood-blossoms.  At  pres- 
ent I  know  of  no  other  plant  that  promises 
so  well  for  cultivation  for  luniey  alone.  A 
single  plant  in  the  garden,  for  curiosity,  if 
nothing  more,  I  think,  would  be  well  worth 
the  trouble  to  every  bee-keeper. 

HOW   I'.EES   "make"  honey. 

Four  o'clock-  P.  M.,  Awjust  19.  1879.— The 
Simpson  honey-plants  ai;e  at  the  back  part  of 
the  honey-farm,  and,  as  it  gives  me  a  pretty 
fair  walk.  I  usually  go  over  there  when  tired 
of  writing.  Well,  I  have  just  been  over,  and 
the  veiy  great  numbers  of  bees  on  so  few 
plants  aroused  my  curiosity;  so,  watch  in 
hand  (I  borrowed  the  watch),  I  counted  the 
number  of  bees  that  visited  a  certain  flower 
in  a  certain  length  of  time.  To  my  suri)rise, 
they  averaged  just  about  a  bee  a  minute. 
The  flower  might  not  be  visited  for  two  min- 
utes, and  then,  again,  it  would  be  visited 
twice  in  one  minute.  I  very  soon  dis- 
covered that  the  bees  that  came  twice  in  a 
minute  made  much  shorter  stays  than  when 
an  interval  of  two  minutes  elapsed.  Was  it 
po.ssil)le  tiiat  enough  lidney  could  collect  in 
that  tiny  flower  to  make  it  profltable  for  the 
bees  to  visit  it  all  day  long,  from  daylight 
until  dark  V  If  so,  I  ought  to  be  able  to  see 
it  by  looking  sharidy.  I  found  a  flower,  in 
the  right  i)Osition  ti>  receive  the  direct  rays 
of  the  sun.  and,  just  after  a  bee  had  licked  it 
out  clean,  I  watched  the  nectaries  to  .see  how 
soon  any  more  honey  was  visible.  To  my 
great  astonishment,  in  just  tiiree-fcunths  of 
a  minute  I  saw  a  little  shining  gloltule  of 
honey  begin  to  ])ush  its  way  up,  right  wliere 
the  bee  liad  licked  it  off.     I  watched  it  most 


FIXED  FRAMES. 


130 


FIXED  FRAMES. 


intently— no  mistake  at  all  — this  little  glob-    no  spacing-device  connected  with  them,  and 
ule  was  enlarging  before  my  very  eyes,  and,  |  are,  therefore,  when  placed   in   the   hive, 
before  two  minntes  were  np,  it  had  spread 
over,  like  a  little  silver  mirror,  and  run  along 
the  side  of  the  pitcher-shaped  petal  of  the 
flower.    A  bee  now  became  anxious  to  push 
his  way  in,  and  I  let  him  lick  it  out,  and  then 
saw  the  process  enacted  over  and  over  again. 
To  be  sure  that  I  was  not  mistaken,  I  called 
a  friend,  and  he,  too,  saw  the  little  "  tab- 
leau "  enacted  over  and  over  again. 
I'nder  AVatkk  for  Bkes  I  speak  of  a 


spaced  by  eye— or,  as  some  have  termed  it, 
"  guesswork."  Such  spacing  results  in 
more  or  less  uneven  combs  ;  and  beginners, 
as  a  rule,  make  very  poor  work  of  it.  The 
advocates  of  fixed  frames  claim  that  they 
get  beautiful  perfect  combs,  no  burr-combs, 
and  that,  without  any  guesswork,  the  combs 
are  si)aced  accurately  and  equally  distant 
from  each  other.  Fixed  frames  are  all  ready 
for  moving  the  hives,  either  to  an  out -yard. 


way  the  bees  seemed  to  have  of  reducing  to  and  from  the  cellar,  or  for  ordinary  carry- 
thin,  watery  honey  to  the  proper  consisten-  ing  around  the  apiary.  Loose  frames,  on 
cy.  AVell,  I  secured  a  position  where  the 
bees  would  come  between  myself  and  the 
sun,  and  watched  to  see  how  many  bees  went 
toward  the  apiary  loaded.  To  my  surprise, 
I  saw  one  and  then  another,  while  on  the 
wing,  humming  from  one  flower  to  another, 
discharge  this  same  watery  fluid,  and,  when 
my  eye  had  become  accustomed  to  it,  I  saw 
all  the  bees  at  work  expelling  the  water  in 
this  way,  while  on  the  wing.    This,  then,  is 


the  contrary,  wiiile  they  are  never  spaced 
exactly,  can  not  be  hauled  to  an  out-apiary, 
over  rough  roads,  without  having  sticks 
put  between  them,  or  something  to  hold 
them  together.  It  is  contended  by  some, 
also,  that  fixed  frames  can  be  handled  more 
rapidly.  See  Fra^ies,  Manipulating.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  advocates  of  the  loose 
frame  urge,  as  an  objection  to  the  fixed 
frames,  that  they  kill  bees.    Jn  the  summer 


the  process  by  which  they  make  clear,  crys-    of  ISfiO.  at  his  apiaries,  we  saw  P.  H.  El- 
tal  honey  from  the  sweetened  water,  as  it  i  wood,  the  owner  and  successful  manager  of 
were,  that  is  exuding  so  constantly  into  the 
nectaries  of  these  little  flowers.'^x 

May.  1884.— AVe  can  now  report,  after  hav- 
ing raised  tig  wort  by  the  acre.  On  deep, 
rich  soil,  the  plants  will  blossom  and  bear 
considerable  honey  for  three  or  perhaps  four 
years ;  but  like  strawberries  and  other  small 
fruits,  they  will  then  begin  to  run  down,  and 
new  plantations  must  be  made.  Unless  the 
soil  is  rich  and  deep,  the  secretion  of  nectar 
will  be  meager.  At  present  I  do  not  believe 
it  will  pay  to  raise  any  plant  for  honey  alone, 
and  I  am  inclined  to  think  our  hon?y-farms 
will  have  to  embrace,  mostly,  alsike,  buck- 
wheat, rape,  including,  perhaps,  the  stock- 
pea  of  the  Soutli.  and  such  other  plants  as 
will  pay  for  the  crop  they  yield,  aside  from 
the  honey.    See  Artificial  Pasturage. 


FIXED  PBAlSaBS.  By  these  are 
meant  frames  held  at  certain  fixed  and  reg- 
ular distances  apart  by  some  sort  of  spac- 
ing-device, forming  either  a  part  of  the 
frame  itself  or  a  part  of  the  hive.  Under 
Spacing  of  Frames,  elsewhere,  and  un- 
der IIivE-MAKiNG,  I  have  discussed  the 
distances  that  frames  should  be  put  apart. 
Some  prefer  H  inches  from  center  to  center ; 


IHOO  colonies,  handle  his  closed-end  frames 
easily  and  rapidly,  and  without  killing  bees. 
We  witnessed  Mr.  .Julius  Hoffman,  whose 
frame  we  will  presently  illustrate,  handle 
his  with  equal  facility.  Some  of  the  largest 
bee-keepers  in  the  world  are  users  of  fixed 
frames.  Capt.  J.  E.  Hetherington,  who 
runs  successfully  8000  colonies,  has  them  all 
on  the  Quinby  closed-end  frames.  But,  de- 
spite this  fact,  the  majority  of  bee-keepers 
use  the  loose  frame— not  because  they  think 
it  is  better,  but  because  we  believe  they  did 
not  in  the  first  place  fully  understand  the 
advantages  and  convenience  of  the  fixed 
frame.  There  are  many  styles  of  fixed 
frames ;  but  there  are  only  two  or  three  that 
are  really  good  ones,  and  worthy  of  any  se- 
rious consideration  on  the  part  of  the  prac- 
tical bee-keeper.  These  are.  the  closed-end 
{,)uinby,  the  Hoffman,  and  the  Van  Deusen 
reversible  (see  Reversing  Frames  ;  also 
Frames,  Manipulating). 


The  closed-end  Quinby  is,  as  its  name  in- 
dicates, one  whose  end-bars  are  H  inches 
wide  their  entire  length.  The  top  and  bot- 
tom bars  are  1  inch  wide.  These  closed  up- 
rights, or  closed  ends,  when  they  come  in 
ibut  the  great  majority,  supported  by  the  :  contact,  cause  the  combs  which  they  con- 
best  of  reasons,  prefer  II  inches.  Fixed  tain  to  be  spaced  accurately  from  center  to 
frames,  then,  are  those  that,  when  put  into  center.  Fig.  1,  A  shows  one  such  frame, 
the  hive,  are 'spaced  automatically,  either  If  |  Almost  all  closed-end  frames  are  made  to 
or  U  inches  from  center  to  center.  Loose  stand,  and  have  very  often  been  called 
frames  differ  from  them,  in  that  they  have    "  standing  frames."    Mr.  t^iinby,  in  order 


FIXED  FRAMES. 


131 


to  keep  such  frames  from  toppling  over,  in- 
vented the  strap-iron  hook  on  one  corner,  as 
shown  in  the  accompanying  engraving,  re- 
engraved  from  Cheshire,  k  is  tlie  hook  that 
engages  the  strap  iron  ip  in  the  bottom- 
board  ;  gr  is  a  groove  to  admit  of  the  hook, 
and  at  the  same  time  render  it  possible  to 
catch  under  the  strap  iron. 


FIXED  FRAMES. 
Fig.  2   shows   a   trio   of   these 


Hoffman, 
frame-i. 

You  will  observe  that  this  frame  can  be 
used  in  an  ordinary  Langstroth  hive  (see 
Hive-making);  and  the  end-bars  are  closed- 
end  only  within  a  couple  of  inches  of  the 
top.  The  rest  of  the  frame,  two-thirds  of 
the  wav  down,  is  narrowed  down  to  I  of  an 


FIG.    1.      HOW   THE    (JUINI5Y    FRAME    HOOKS   ON    TO   THE  BOTTOM. 


These  hooks  are  on  the  outside  of  the  hive 
proper,  and  hence  they  do  not  kill  bees,  nor 
are  they  tilled  with  propolis  as  they  would 
be  if  made  on  the  inside  of  the  hive.  A  and  B 
are  respectivel\'  the  frame  and  the  follower, 
although  they  are  drawn  somewhat  out  of 
proportion.  With  a  panel  on  eacli  side,  a 
cover  and  a  bottom  -  board,  the  Quinby- 
Hetheiington  hive  is  complete,  the  ends  of 
the  frames  forming  the  ends  of  the  hive ; 
though,  for  additi(mal  protection  in  the 
spring,  Mr.  Elwood  and  Mr.  Hetherington 
l)oth  use  the  outside  case  to  set  down  over 
the  wliole.  This  makes  a  very  eheup  hive, 
and  has  many  desirable  features  in  it.  For 
fuller  details  in  regard  to  this  frame,  and  its 
manner  of  construction,  you  are  referred  to 
"  Quinby"s  New  13ee-kee]iing."  See  Book 
Notices,  also  Frames,  How  to  Maniiu- 
LATE.  elsewhere. 


FIG,  2— THE  HOFFMAN  FIXED  FRAME. 

The  great  majority  of  bee-keepers  i)refer 
what  is  known  as  the  "  hanging  frame." 
This  has  many  very  de(  ided  advantages 
over  the  staniling  frame  ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  for  this  reason,  the  loose  fraine 
is  used  so  generally  ;  l>ut  the  hanging  frame 
is  also  used  as  a  lixed  frame.  The  best  style 
of  hanging  li.xed  frauieis.  without  doubt,  the 


inch.  The  to])  bars  are  widened  out  at  the 
ends,  and  are  scored  out  in  the  middle  to 
one  inch  wide. 

It  may  not  be  clear  why  the  top-bar  should 
widen  out  near  the  ends.  It  is  for  covering 
up  the  wood  rabbet  entirely,  so  that  the 
bees  can  have  no  occasion  for  chinking  in 
propolis.  We  will  suppose  that  the  top-bar 
is  I;,',  inches  wide  its  entire  length,  and  that 
the  end-bars  are  as  shown  in  the  cut.  As 
these  are  spaced  frames,  it  is  evident  that 
the  top-bars  will  rest  in  the  rabbet  exactly 
in  tlie  same  place  at  all  times.  In  a  few 
months"  time,  if  the  frames  be  all  lifted  out, 
tlie  plac.s  in  the  hive-rabbet  not  covered  by 
top-l)avs  will  be  tlrckened  and  stuck  uj) 
witli  propolis,  and  those  covered  by  the  ends 
of  the  tnp-ba;  s  will  be  comparatively  clean. 
In  process  of  time,  especially  with  hybrids,- 
these  exposed  places  in  the  hives  will  receive 
further  accumulations  of  projjolis,  until  the 
ends  of  the  top-bars,  so  to  speak,  will  rest 
between  the  notrdies  of  bee -glue.  Now,  the 
great  "  function,'' if  I  may  liorrow  a  term 
from  Mr.  Heddon.  of  the  Hoffman  frame,  is 
a  lateral  sliding  motion.  With  ma?si>s  or 
notciies  of  propolis  placed  at  regular  dis- 
tances, this  lateral  motion  is  impracticable. 
"  But,'"  you  say, ''  why  is  this  not  true  with 
the  odinary  loose  frames  V"  For  this  rea- 
son :  Loose  fi  ames  are  never  put  back  ex- 
actly in  the  sanu'  place  in  the  rabbet ;  and 
the  result  is,  that  the  wooden  rabbets  are 
covered  about  ecpially  with  propolis  from 
one  end  to  the  other.  To  avoid  the  regular 
masses  of  iiropolis,  the  inventor,  Mr.  Ilolf- 
man.  had  tlie  top  b.irs  enlarged  vA  the  ends, 
so  that,  when  the  frames  are  all  in  the  hives. 


FIXED  FRAMES. 


132 


FOUL  BROOD. 


the  rabbets  will  be  c  )veied  up  entirely.  You 
may  examine  the  wooden  rabbeis  of  hives 
that  liave  h-id  these  frames  for  years,  and 
you  will  find  thev  are  about  as  free  and 
clean  from  propolis  as  they  were  wlien  the 
hives  were  first  made. 

If  you  use  tin  rabbets  you  can  get  along 
very  well  with  top-bars  the  same  width 
throughout ;  but  those  of  you  who  have  had 
hybrids  to  any  extent,  know  that  they  will 
sometimes  fill  tin  rabbets  nearly  full  of  pro- 
polis, and  then  you  have  to  go  and  dig  it  out 
again.  By  Mr.  Hoffman's  plan,  the  worst 
propolizing  bees  known  are  circumvented  in 
the  worst  propoliziug  localities.  If  you  use 
Italians  and  tin  rabbets,  you  will  never  have 
any  trouble  about  the  rabbets  being  filled 
with  propolis,  and  you  coidd  use  the  Hoff- 
man frames  with  straight  top-bars. 

So  much  for  the  construction  of  the  top- 
bar.  There  is  no  need  of  discussing  the 
feature  of  having  a  wide  end-bar  near  the 
top.  Its  office  in  preventing  the  liotlom- 
bars  from  kn*  eking  together  during  moving 
or  otherwise  rough  handling,  is  too  evident 
to  need  discussion.  As  these  frames  are 
wholly  inside  of  the  hive,  and  the  end-bars 
are  a  bee-space  from  the  ends  of  the  hive, 
the  bees  can  propolize  both  siies  of  the  end- 
bars  coming  in  contact.  So  we  have  as  lit- 
tle come  in  contact  as  possible. 

For  details  as  to  its  construction,  see 
Hive-making  ;  and  the  details  as  to  its 
manipulation,  see  Frames,  how  to  Manip- 
ulate. 

Not  all  bee-keepers  will  be  suited  with 
any  one  style  of  frame.  Some  would  not 
tolerate  either  the  Hoffman  or  the  Quinby 
closed-end ;  and  they  have  even  gone  so  far 
as  to  urge  the  insurmountable  objection  that 
they  are  "•  unbearable  "  and  "intolerable"] 
by  reason  of  the  propolis  and  bee  killing.  ] 
The  propolis  quf  stion  may  be  a  serious  one 
in  a  few  localities,  and  so  each  bee  keeper 
should  decide  what  frame  is  best  suited  for 
him  ;  but  as  to  being  "  bee  killers,"  that  is 
almost  altogether  because  of  improper  han- 
dling ;  or  rather,  I  should  say,  a  lack  of  the 
proper  understanding  of  their  manipulation. 
Fixed  frames  are  used  almost  all  over  the 
United  States,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent. 
It  is  said,  and  I  think  truly,  that  they  would 
l)e  intolerable  in  Cuba  and  in  certain  parts 
of  our  Southern  States,  because  of  propolis ;  : 
but  in  a  great  majority  of  places  they  can  be  j 
used,  and  not  be  "  intolerable." 

Now,  in  a  word,  what  are  their  advan- 
tages ?  They  give  beautiful  and  regular 
ccmbs ;    are    practically    free   from    burr- 1 


combs  ;  can  be  hauled  without  any  special 
preparation  over  the  roughest  roads,  turned 
upside  down,  and  rolled  over  without  dis- 
tiubing  the  combs.  They  permit,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  of  the  possible  handling  of 
hives  instead  of  frames.  Under  Frames, 
Manipulating,  is  shown  how  they  can  be 
handled  in  pairs  and  trios— in  fact,  half  a 
hive  at  a  time.  They  can  also  be  inverted, 
thus  causing  the  combs  to  be  built  out  solid- 
ly to  the  bottom-bar  ;  and,  Avhen  once  com- 
pleted, they  can  be  restored  to  their  normal 
upright  condition.  They  can  be  handled  as 
rapidly  as  the  loose  frame.  Indeed,  Mr. 
Julius  Hoffman,  of  Canajoharie,  N.  Y.,  the 
owner  of  some  600  colonies  on  Hoffman 
frames,  says  he  can  work  nearly  double  the 
number  of  colonies  with  his  frame  that  he 
can  with  any  frame  that  is  not  spaced  or 
close-fitting,  and  he  has  used  both  styles  of 
frames.  But  not  every  one  will  be  able  to 
do  this  ;  and  very  likely  some  people  would 
handle  them  very  much  slower  than  they 
would  loose  frames.  In  spite  of  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  fixed  frames  you  M'ill  need  a  few 
to  decide  for  yourself  what  you  like,  and 
whether  you  had  best  adopt  them  or  not. 

FOIiZiO^VXiR— See  Division-Board. 

FOUIi  BROOD.  I  know  of  nothing  in 
bee  culture  so  much  to  be  feared  as  foul 
brood ;  and  I  believe  it  is  pretty  generally 
agreed  that  all  other  bee  diseases  together, 
and  we  might  almost  say  all  other  draw- 
backs, are  as  nothing  compared  to  it.  It 
is  not  a  disease  of  the  bees,  but  of  the  brood. 

Microscopic  investigation  has  revealed  the 
fact,  that  foul  brood  is  a  species  of  minute 
microl)es,  which,  when  once  started  growing, 
increases  with  astonishing  rapidity,  and  on- 
ly ceases  to  extend  when  the  supply  of  ma- 
terial that  it  feeds  on  gives  out,  or  the  tem- 
perature is  raised  to  such  a  point  (boiling 
point)  that  the  vegetation  is  killed.  It  is 
on  this  accoimt  that  honey  from  diseased 
hives  is  rendered  perfectly  wholesome  for 
feeding  bees  by  being  scalded,  as  this  is 
fatal  to  the  seeds  of  all  such  microscopic 
life.  Severe  freezing  does  not  produce 
the  same  result.  The  name  of  the  micro- 
scopic plant  is  Bacillus  Alvei;  you  know 
we  always  feel  a  great  deal  better,  to  know 
just  what  a  thing  is. 

SY3IPTOMS    of    foul    BROOD. 

Before  I  proceed  further  I  am  going  to 
presuppose  that  you  have  found  in  your  api- 
ary something  which  you  are  afraid  may  be 
foul  brood.  The  first  thing  you  want  to 
know  is  the   symptoms.      Having  had    to 


FOUL  BROOD. 


133 


FOUL  BROOD. 


treat  nearly  one-half  of  our  own  apiary  on 
account  of  this  dreaded  disease,  I  believe  I 
am  competent  to  tell  you  almost  exactly  the 
symptoms  which  you  should  expect.  The 
disease  does  not,  as  you  might  suppose  from 
the  name,  liave  a  foul  odor.  The  smell, 
when  present,  is  not  unlike  tliat  from  a  cab- 
inet-maker's common  glue-pot,  and  you  may 
or  may  not  be  able  to  detect  it.  It  will  de- 
pend somewhat  on  how  far  the  disease  has 
advanced.  You  must  not,  therefore,  de- 
pend too  much  on  the  smell.  Before  you 
may  expect  any  odor,  you  are  to  examine 
carefully  the  young  larvae  in  all  the  cells, 
whether  sealed  or  not.  Foul  brood  is  gener- 
ally confined  to  sealed  brood  ;  but  I  have 
found,  in  many  instances,  cells  of  unsealed 
brood  that  were  diseased. 

About  the  first  symptom  which  you  will 
notice  in  a  diseased  colony  (and  which  will 
be  your  first  intimation  of  trouble)  will  be 
now  and  then  a  cell  or  two  of  capped  brood, 
the  capping  of  which  is  sunken,  and  perfor- 
ated by  a  small  hole.  You  must  not  always 
expect  to  find  the  capping  sunk,  however, 
neither  must  you  expect  to  find  the  minute 
hole  in  the  center  of  the  cap,  even  when  the 
colony  is  diseased.  The  point  is,  if  you  do 
find  the  capping  sunk,  and  the  little  hole  in 
the  center,  you  can  set  it  down  that  you 
probably  have  foul  brood,  and  that  it  is  well 
advanced.  Sometimes  even  the  capped  brood 
will  have  a  perfectly  natural  appearance. »« 
At  this  point,  however,  it  probably  has  not 
made  much  headway.  The  only  true  way, 
then,  to  ascertain  the  true  condition  of  the 
brood  in  such  cases  is  to  open  the  cells  with 
a  toothpick.  Whether  you  use  the  toothpick 
or  not.  in  the  early  stages  of  the  disease  you 
may  expect  that  now  and  then  the  young  lar- 
vae in  the  cells  will  have  a  light-brown  appear- 
ance. As  the  disease  advances,  the  brown 
turns  to  a  little  daiker  color — something  like 
the  color  of  the  coffee  which  you  drink  when 
a  little  milk  is  added.  The  color  will  keep 
on  turning  darker  until  of  the  color  of  the 
roasted  cott'ee-berry.  The  dead  larva  is 
then  dried  and  shrunken,  and  at  the  bottom 
or  side  of  the  cell.  At  this  stage  of  develop- 
ment you  will  be  almosi  sure  to  notice  the 
cappings  of  sealed  brood  a  little  sunken, 
with  the  characteristic  small  hole  in  the  cen- 
ter, and  >ou  will  probably  be  able  to  detect 
the  foul-brood  odor  as  described  above.  To 
further  satisfy  yourself  that  you  have  the 
real  malignant  foid  brood,  take  a  tootlipick, 
poke  it  into  the  maturated  mess  of  a  dis- 
eased cell,  draw  it  slowly  out.  and  you  will 

notice  that  the  matter  will  adhere  to  the  end 
5 


of  the  pick  in  the  form  of  a  thread,  some- 
thing as  you  might  expect  from  spittle. 
Tf  you  continue  to  stretch  this  thread  till 
it  breaks,  the  two  ends  thus  formed  will 
fly  back  to  the  points  of  attachment.  In 
other  words,  the  diseased  matter  from  the 
foul-broody  cells  is  tenacious,  and  by  some 
wiiters  it  is  not  inaptly  described  as  being 
"ropy."  While  you  are  looking  for  these 
symptoms,  be  sure  that  no  bees  are  flying. 
If  your  neighbors  want  to  take  a  look  at  it, 
don"t  open  up  the  colony  expressly  to  grati- 
fy them.  Handle  it  as  little  as  possible  after 
you  are  satisfied  that  it  is  diseased. 

If  you  notice  any  one  of  the  symptoms 
which  I  have  described  above,  you  may  be- 
gin to  suspect  that  you  have  foul  brood ; 
and  if  you  notice  them  all,  you  may  be  very 
sure  that  you  have  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  the  most  malignant  disease  that  affects 
bees,  and  that,  unless  you  proceed  at  once  to 
treat  the  colonies  in  the  manner  I  shall  de- 
scribe, you  will  find  you  have  an  "  ele- 
phant "  on  your  hands.  In  fact,  the  very 
spread  of  the  disease  from  one  colony  to  an- 
other is  an  infallible  test  that  you  have  ma- 
lignant foul  brood  ;  but  you  should  not  wait 
to  see  whether  it  spreads  or  not. 

IIOAV  TO   TELL   WHETHER  FOUL  BROOD  HAS 
BEEN   PRESENT  IN  OLD  COMBS. 

Mr.  li.  L.  Taylor,  at  the  Michigan  State 
Bee-keepers"  Association  in  1890,  told  how  it 
is  possil)le  to  ascertain  whether  foul  brood 
has  ever  been  in  combs.  He  said,  "■  The 
dead  brood  is  entirely  dried  up — mere  scales, 
almost  of  tlie  color  of  the  comb  itself,  lying 
fast  to  the  lower  sides  of  the  cell,  and  drawn 
back  more  or  less  from  the  opening."  And 
further  on,  in  telling  how  to  see  them  to  the 
best  advantage  in  a  suspected  colony,  he 
adds :  •"  Take  out  three  or  four  combs,  one 
by  one.  from  near  the  center  of  the  brood- 
nest,  and  hold  ea"h  with  the  bottom-liar 
from  you  in  different  directions,  until  the 
light  strikes  well  into  the  lowrr  sides  of  the 
cells,  when,  if  affected,  the  scales  I  have 
described  are  veiy  evident."  It  is  evident, 
that  the  foul-brood  matter  had  dried  and 
afterward  scaled  up ;  and  the  bees,  being 
very  loth  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the 
diseased,  soiled  cells,  leave  them  iintouched. 
Such  combs,  if  they  should  happen  to  get  in 
with  other  combs,  can  be  separated,  melted 
up,  or  burned  up,  as  the  case  may  be. 

AVHAT  TO  DO  WHEN  YOU  HAVE  DISCOVEHED 
KOUL    BUOOD   IN   YOUK    APIAKY. 

1  will  assume,  tliat,  from  the  symptoms 
described  above,  you  are  no  longer  in  doubt 
as  to  wlielher  you   have  f(nd   brood.    The 


FOUL  BROOD. 


l;s-l 


FOUL  BROOD. 


thing  you  now  want  to  know  is,  what  to  do. 
First,  you  are  to  see  to  it  lluit  there  shall  be 
no  delay  nor  carelessness  on  your  part.  Un- 
der no  consideration  are  you  to  let  robbers 
gain  access  to  your  diseased  colony.  The 
disease  is  propagated,  in  the  geneiality  of 
cases,  from  one  colony  to  another  by  robbers 
entering  affected  hives  and  carr\iiig  back 
foul-brood  honey  in  th^'ir  sacs  to  their  own 
combs.  You  must  bear  in  mind,  that  the 
disease  foul  brood  resides  in  the  honey  ;  and 
that  said  honey,  when  given  to  larva;,  kills 
them.  Having  now  given  you  the  proper 
caution,  I  believe  you  can  more  intelii 
gently  and  more  carefully  carry  out  my  di- 
rections. ! 

HOW    TO    CUKE    FOUL    BROOD. 

There  are  several  wa,\s  of  treating  dis- 
eased colonies.  The  first,  surest,  and,  per- 
haps I  had  bettei-  add,  the  most  expensive 
way  to  cvu-e  a  foul-broody  colony  is  to  burn 
it— hives,  frames,  bees,  brood,  honey,  and  ' 
every  thing.  If  >ou  are  situated  so  that  you 
can  gain  access  to  a  boiler-furnace,*  ihe  best 
and  most  expeditious  way  of  burning  a  col-  j 
ony  is  to  carry  tlie  hive  after  dark,  or  when  I 
no  bees  are  flying. and  all  the  inmates  of  the 
diseased  colony  are  in  their  hives,  to  the 
boiler-furnacp  and  dump  it  into  a  hot  fire.  \ 
If  the  hive  is  to  >  large  to  go  into  the  furnace 
at  one  "  dump,"  pick  up  the  cover  and 
throw  it  in  ;  next  the  quilt  or  cloth  cover- 
ing ;  tlien  throw  in  successively  the  brood- 
frames  covered  with  bees,  after  which  knock 
the  hive  to  pieces  and  throw  it  in.  I  rec- 
ommend burning  the  hive  in  a  boiler-fur- 
nace, because  you  can  get  a  hotter  tire  than 
if  you  s  niply  build  up  a  big  bonfire,  and 
consign  the  liive  in  question  to  the  flames. 
I  hardly  need  add,  that  iu  burning  the  colo- 
ny you  slioald  be  very  careful  that  not  a 
HhitjU  bee  is  allowed  to  escape.  If  you  are  so 
careless  as  to  let  a  few  diseased  bees  get 
away  from  you  and  go  to  their  own  Icca- 
tion,  they  will,  on  finding  their  own  hive 
gone,  enter  se .  eral  other  hives  neighlioriug 
and  adjacent  to  their  old  location.  Every 
bee  liavinii-  the  disease  will  be  liable  to  com- 
m  uiicate  it  to  the  other  hives. 

I  h;ive  said,  the  fire  treatment  is  expensive, 
and  so  it  is  ;  but  under  certain  circumstances 
it  will  b;  the  cheapest  in  the  end.  If  you 
have  good  reason  to  believe  that  there  is 
only  one  disea-^ed  colony  in  the  apiary,  your 
best  and  surest  way  is  to  burn  it  without 
any  further  liesitation.     If,  on  the  contrary, 

*  If  such  IS  not  convenient,  brimstone  the  bees  to 
death,  so  that  not  one  shall  escape  and  get  into  an- 
other hive,  and  then  burn  completely  the  whole 
thing-  in  a  bonfire. 


you  are  so  caieless  as  to  let  the  disease  get 
the  start  of  you,  and,  as  an  i;ie\  liable  conse- 
quence, you  have  foul  biood  in  half  >onr 
colonies,  the  treaunent  o.  complete  ext-riui- 
nation  by  fire  would  be  rather  expensive, 
and  the  following  method  W(.uld  be  the  one 
I  would  recommend. 

THE    STARVATION    PLAN. 

Near  the  location  of  the  colony  to  be 
treated,  put  a  hive  containing  frames  with 
only  starters  of  foundati  m.  .Vt  night,  move 
the  affected  hive  three  or  four  feet  from  its 
location  and  put  the  clean  new  hive  in  its 
place.  Open  the  former,  take  out  the  frames 
one  by  one,  and  shake  from  them  the  bees 
into  the  clean  new  hive  containing  the  emp- 
ty frames  and  starters.  After  all  the  bees 
are  shaken  out,  carry  the  infected  hive  and 
combs  away  so  that  all  the  flying  bees  ma}' 
return  to  their  old  location  and  enter  tlie 
new  hive  now  on  the  old  stand.  You  are 
next  to  burn  up  the  frames*  of  honey  and 
brood,  after  which  boil  t  the  hive  in  water, 
to  destroy  all  traces  of  the  disease.  The 
hive  is  now  ready  for  use  again,  and  you  can 
put  into  it  some  clean  frames  of  foundation 
ready  for  your  next  one.  In  the  meantime, 
the  bees  which  you  shook  from  the  diseased 
colony,  and  which  are  now  in  the  new  hive, 
are  to  be  deprived  of  all  food  for  about  48 
hours,  during  which  time  the  entrance  must 
be  closed.  You  are  to  make  them  consume 
all  the  honey  in  their  sacs,  and  use  the  same 
in  drawing  out  the  foundation.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  the  "  starvation  period,"  as  we 
call  it,  you  can  with  some  degi  e^^  of  safety 
give  them  syrup.  It  is  said,  however,  that 
the  bees  under  c-rtain  circumstances  will 
retain  the  diseased  honey  in  their  sacs  for 
a  period  of  four  or  live  da^s;  but  if  you 
compel  them  to  go  without  food  for  48  houis, 
at  the  same  time  fortdng  them  to  build  comb, 
I  don't  believe  there  will  be  very  much  dan- 
ger. In  this  way  you  are  to  treat  the  colc- 
nies  one  by  one. 

There  is  one  difficulty  in  treating  colonies 
by  the  starvation  plan.  In  shaking  off  the 
bees  into  clean  hives,  there  is  danger  that  a 
few',  on  entering  the  new  hive  on  the  old. 

*  D.  A.  Jones,  of  Beeton,  Ontario,  Can.,  recom- 
mends extracting' the  honey,  tryiii}<  out  the  wax  and 
boiling  the  frames,  the  latter  to  tie  used  again.  The 
wax  is  to  be  made  into  foundation,  for  further  use. 
While  this  can  and  has  been  done,  the  expetise  of  so 
doing  would  be  greater,  in  my  mind,  than  buying 
clean  new  frames  and  foundation;  besid'.s,  it  would 
be  much  safer.  The  operation  of  extracting,  trying 
out  combs,  and  "cleaning  things  up,"  might  give 
robber-bees  a  sip  of  the  virulent  honey,  and  then  — ! 

+  Boiling  heat  will  always  kill  the  germs  of  foul 
brood,  but  freezing  will  not. 


FOUL  BROOD. 


185 


FOUL  BROOD. 


stand,  and,  finding  its  inside  condition  ma- 
terially altered,  will  conclude  that  they  have 
got  into  the  wrong  hive,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, go  to  others.  By  this  means  the 
disease  is  spread  to  the  hives  visited  by  the 
new  comers.  It  has  been  recommended  by 
some  to  close  the  entrance  and  so  shut  the 
bees  into  the  hive.  This  can  be  done,  but  I 
have  fomid  it  practically  impossible  to  get 
every  bee  into  the  hive  in  shaking  off.  To 
shut  them  up  entirely  only  aggravates  the 
difficulty.  The  few  stray  bees  outside,  which 
did  not  get  in,  if  unal)le  to  get  into  the  new 
hive  on  its  old  stand  will  spread  the  disease 
by  going  elsewhere,  wliere  they  can  gain  en- 
trance. 

Dur  ng  the  summer  of  1887  we  ixsed  car- 
bolic acid  as  an  antisei)tic,  diluted  SOU  times 
in  water.*  This  we  sprayed  upon  the  bees 
after  they  had  been  shaken  out  into  clean 
hives,  with  what  is  called  a  spray-diffuser. 
These  latter  can  l)e  obtained  of  dealers  in 
Ijee-supplies.  We  found  that  this  prevented 
the  spread  of  the  disease  from  the  colony 
under  treatment  to  other  colonies.  The  ob- 
ject, then,  is  not  to  cure  the  colony,  but 
to  prevent  the  bees  from  carrying  the  con- 
tagion into  other  parts  of  the  apiary.  When 
we  did  not  administer  the  spraying,  those 
colonies  neighboring  on  the  one  diseased 
were  pretty  apt,  sooner  or  later,  to  show 
that  they  had  foul  brood — indicating  that 
diseased  bees  had  gone  originally  from  the 
l)arent  stand  to  the  neighboring  hives. 

OTHER   KEMKDIES. 

Besides  the  two  methods  of  complete  ex- 
termination by  fire,  and  the  starvation  i)lan 
just  described,  various  acid  treatments  have 
been  recommended.  During  the  summer  of 
1887,  while  the  disease  was  raging  in  our 
ai)iary  we  concluded  to  test  almost  every 
method  given.  We  accordingly  tried  several 
of  the  acid  treatments — not  exactly  accord- 
ing to  the  formula  reconmiended  by  the  or- 
iginators, but  near  enough  for  all  practical 
l)uri»()ses.  We  first  tried  salicylic  acid. 
Upon  repeated  attempts  we  found  that  it 
would  drive  out  all  traces  of  tlie  disease  as 
long  as  the  acid  was  administered,  after 
which  foul  brood  would  ai)pear  in  from  one 
to  two  or  three  montlis.  In  no  case  were 
we  able  to  make  the  salicylic  acid  effect  a 
permanent  cure.  As  carbolic  acid,  or  plie- 
nol,  was  recommended  by  some  of  the  Eng- 
lish friends,  we  gave  ita  most  tiiorough  test. 


*To  make  the  solution,  Kct  a  bottle  of  pure  car- 
bolic-acid crystals.  These  will  be  white.  Molt  (12.5° 
F.  is  sulHcleiit)  about  an  ounce  of  this,  and  mi.x  it 
thoroui^lily  with  500  ounces  of  pure  soft  hot  water. 


Like  the  salicylic  acid,  it  would  for  the  time 
suppress  the  disease  ;  but  it  was  a  long 
slow  job,  and  at  best  very  unsatisfactory  in 
its  res\ilts.  We  could  make  bees  clean 
things  up  after  a  while,  and  finally  could  get 
clean-looking  brood.  But  in  every  case  this 
brood,  sooner  or  later,  again  showed  the 
real  disease,  showing  that  the  acid  had  only 
a  temporary  effect,  and,  in  our  case  at  least, 
it  would  not  effect  a  permanent  ciue. 

A  good  deal  has  been  said  about  the  acid 
methods  of  treatment,  but  I  believe  my 
A  B  C  scliolars  had  better  have  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  them.  I  have  carefully 
read  all  the  reports  in  the  bee-journals, 
both  foreign  and  American.  I  have  seen  a 
score  of  reported  failures  with  the  acid 
treatments  to  one  where  a  successful  cure 
was  accomplished.  In  the  hands  of  a  few 
experts  they  may  effect  a  cure,  but  the  novice 
will  hardly  have  success.  In  1887  and  "8  the 
bee-keepers  of  Australia  tried  the  carl)olic- 
acid  method  most  thoroughly  ;  and,  as  near- 
ly as  I  can  judge  from  the  reports  received, 
they  have,  every  one  of  them,  given  it  up  as 
unsatisfactory. 

CAUTION. 

I  must  enter  just  a  few  words  more  of 
caution,  to  more  clearly  impress  upon 
your  minds  some  things  which  you  need  to 
be  careful  about  in  treating  foul  brood. 
First,  in  your  efforts  to  eradicate  the  dis- 
ease, do  all  the  necessary  work  after  dark, 
or,  at  least,  when  no  bees  are  flying.  Sec- 
ond, in  caiTying  a  colony  to  a  boiler-furnace 
be  sure  that  no  bees  escape,  else  they  will 
enter  other  colonies,  and  scatter  the  dis- 
ease. Third,  under  no  circumstances  get 
the  bees  to  robbing  any  colony,  either  dis- 
eased or  healthy.  If  your  bees  get  a  notion 
of  pilfering,  and  you  have  foul  brood  in 
your  apiary,  yoiu-  efforts  to  counteract  the 
disease  will  be  almost  fruitless  for  the  sea- 
son. Fourth,  do  not  exchange  combs  In 
the  apiary.  In  appearance  a  comb  may  be 
perfectly  healthy,  and  yet  at  the  bottom 
the  cells  may  have  the  diseased  honey. 
Fifth,  if  you  have  extracted  any  lioney 
do  not  feed  any  of  it  back,  no  matter  if  you 
feel  sure  that  the  honey  is  perfectly  good. 
If,  however,  you  heat  it  to  212  F.  it  will 
be  perfectly  safe  to  feed  back.  Sixth,  after 
handling  a  foul-broody  colony,  wash  the 
hands  ti)oroiighly  before  touching  a  healthy 
colony.  Seventh,  a  great  deal  more  depends 
upon  your  being  careful  at  tiie  start  in  rid- 
ding your  apiary  of  foul  brood  than  all  the 
care  and  all  the  treatments  put  together 
which  you  may  be  able  to  give  later. 


FOUL  BROOD. 


136 


FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE. 


CAUSE  OF  THE  DISEASE. 

J^Many  reasons  have  been  given  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  foul  brood,  and  it  has  been 
sometimes  claimed  that  the  disease  might 
be  generated  by  the  decomposition  of  con- 
siderable quantities  of  chilled  brood,  if  left 
in  the  hive.  I  can  not  but  think  that  this  is 
a  mistake,  and  I  also  think  that  a  great 
many  cases  are  called  foul  brood  that  are 
nothing  like  it.  If  we  admit  it  to  be  a  fungoid 
growth,  as  the  best  authorities  tell  us,  I  do 
not  know  how  it  can  originate  without  the 
germs  or  spores  being  brought  by  some 
means,  from  some  locality  where  it  iirevails. 


and  if  you  are  a  beginner,  or  are  timid,  a 
bt^e-veil.  See  that  your  smoker  is  well  go- 
ing. Approach  the  hive  that  you  are  to 
open,  and  l)low  a  little  smoke  into  the  en- 
trance. If  there  is  no  enamel  cloth  under 
the  cover,  you  will  then,  of  course,  pry  it 
loose  with  a  knife  or  screwdriver,  as  it  will 
be  fastened  down  witli  propolis.  Just  the 
moment  the  over  is  loosened,  blow  the 
smoke  through  the  crack  ;  and  while  you 
lift  the  cover  off,  blow  m  re  smoke  over  the 
top  of  the  frames.  Do  not  use  ti  o  much 
smoke— enough  to  quiet  the  bees.  If  they 
are  hjin'ii^s  ynu  will  have  to  use  more  than 


FIG.  1— HOW   TO  SIT 

like  smallpox,  and  other  diseases  of  like  na- 
ture. The  theory  of  spontaneous  generation 
of  eitlier  plant  or  animal  life  has  for  ages, 
over  and  over  again,  fallen  to  the  ground, 
where  the  experiments  were  made  with  suffi- 
cient care.  Does  corn  ever  grow,  where  no 
corn  has  Ijeen  plaiitedV 

FRAMES.  HOW  TO  MANIPULATE. 
Under  Fixed  Frames  I  showed  tliat  there 
are  two  kinds  in  use — the  fixed  and  the  loose 
frame  ;  and  as  the  latter  is  more  generally 
used,  I  will  describe  this  first.  In  the  first  I 
place,  I  assume  that  you  have  a  smoker ; 

*  For  further  description  of  this  cut,  see  Veils.       I 


ON  HIVE-COVER.* 

for  pure  Italians,  as  a  matter  of  course.  The 
moment  the  cover  is  off  turn  it  up  edgewise, 
and  sit  down  on  it,  milk-stool  fashion,  as 
shown  in  the  accompanying  cut. 

To  get  at  the  center  frame,  crowd  the 
frames,  one  at  a  time,  adjacent  to  it,  to- 
ward the  sides  of  the  hive.  This  will  give 
room  to  lift  out  the  frame  you  want.  Be- 
ginners are  pretty  apt  to  pull  the  frame  out 
without  spacing  the  frames  apart.  This 
rolls  the  })ees  over  and  over,  enrages  and 
kills  them,  besides  running  a  pretty  good 
chance  of  killing  the  queen.  Lift  the  frame 
out  carefully,  and  be  careful  not  to  knock 


FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE.         137         FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE. 


the  end-bars  against  the  sides  of  the  hive. 
If  it  is  your  first  experience  you  may  be  a 
little  nervous,  and  do  things  a  little  hurried- 
ly. As  a  reward,  the  bees  will  quite  likely 
sting  you  and  make  you  still  more  nervous. 
To  avoid  this,  proceed  very  cautiously  and 
make  your  movements  deliberate.  Having 
removed  the  fraiiie,  hold  it  up  before  you, 
as  shown  in  the  accompanying  engraving, 
which  we  will  call  the  first  position. 


FIG.  U      FIRST    POSITION. 

You  don't  see  the  queen  on  this,  and  so 
you  wish  to  turn  it  over  and  see  the  other 
side.  If  the  comb  is  heavy  with  honey,  you 
can  turn  it  right  over  with  the  bottom-bar 
resting  horizontally.  But  a  better  way  and 
a  good  habit  to  fall  into,  and  one  that  good 
bee-keepers  usually  adopt,  is  this :  Raise 
your  right  hand  until  the  top-bar  is  per- 
pendicular, as  shown  in  the  accompanying 
engraving. 


FIG.  8.      .SECOND  AND  THIRD   POSITIONS. 

Now  revolve  the  frame  like  a  swinging 
dofu",  or  the  leaf  of  a  book,  so  that  the  op- 
posite side  is  exposed  to  view.  There  is  a 
little  knack  about  it :  and  to  l)econre  famil- 
iar, take  a  frame  without  any  bees  on  it,  and 
try  a  few  times  until  you  become  familiar 
with  this  mode  of  handling. 

Having  examined  this  frame,  lean  it 
acainst  the  side  of  the  hive,  and  remove  one 
of  the  frames  next  to  the  one  already  remov- 
ed. Examine  this  in  like  manner.  Lean 
this  also  against  one  corner  of  the  hive,  or 
return  it  to  the  hive  ;  lift  out  another,  and 
so  on  until  you  have  examined  the  whole 
number.    Now,  may  be  you  have  not  found 


your  queen  yet.  Look  your  frames  all  over 
again,  and  be  careful  to  look  around  the 
bottom  edge  of  the  combs.  If  you  have  not 
found  her  yet,  examine  the  frames  the  third 
time  and  set  them  in  another  hive-body. 
Then  look  carefully  down  around  the  sides 
and  ends  of  the  hive,  especially  on  the  bot- 
tom-board. You  will  very  likely  find  her 
there.  But  we  will  suppose  you  have  not 
found  her  even  yet.  You  have  seen  eggs 
and  larvae  in  all  stngcs  of  growth,  and  you 
have  not  seen  any  queen-cells  started.  You 
know  she  must  be  there  somewhere.  Put 
the  frames  all  l-ack  ;  close  it  up,  and  visit  it 
again  in  about  ;in  hour.  By  this  time  you 
need  not  be  surprised  if  you  find  her  on  the 
first  frame. 

I  have  told  you  above  how  to  find  the 
queen;  but  you  must  not  imagine  that  it 
is  going  to  be  as  difficult  as  this  every  time. 
You  will  be  most  likely  to  find  her  on  the 
center  frames,  as  a  general  thing  ;  and  es- 
pecially with  Italians,  you  will  be  apt  to  find 
her  on  the  first  or  second  frame. 

The  directions  above  given  have  refer- 
ence to  hives  without  any  follower.  Under 
Hive-making  we  recommend  making  the 
hive  wide  enough  so  as  to  admit  the  use  of 
a  follower  or  division-board  (see  Division- 
boards),  so  as  to  take  the  follower  out  in- 
stead of  a  frame,  and  leaning  it  against  the 
hive.  Now,  then,  when  you  come  to  exam- 
ine the  hive,  remove  the  follower  and  crowd 
the  outside  frame  into  the  space  it  occupied. 
You  will  then  not  be  obliged  to  lean  a  frame 
against  the  hive.  Almost  all  practical  bee- 
keepers now  prefer  to  have  a  hive  wide 
enough  to  take  in  division-boards.  When 
l)ut  on  the  north  side  of  the  hive  it  makes  it 
warmer,  and  certainly  it  is  a  very  great  con- 
venience ill  manipulating  frames.  Indeed, 
for  fixed  frames  it  is  a  necesfiity. 

Now  when  you  put  back  loose  frames, 
space  each  one  carefully,  as  nearly  as  you 
can.  If  inches  from  center  to  center.  You 
can  not  do  it  exactly,  but  do  it  the  best  you 
can.  With  loose  framesyou  will  be  obliged  to 
space  each  frame  in  ]iosition  individually.  If 
you  do  not  space  your  frames  carefully  you 
willliave  some  combs  bulged,  and  some  thin 
ned  down  ;  and,  again,  between  others  bees 
will  be  likely  to  liuild  spurs  of  comb.  All  this 
nuisance  may  be  avoided  by  the  use  ot  tixed 
frames  or  the  Hoffman,  which  I  will  now 
tell  you  how  to  manipulate  next. 

HOW   TO   MANIPULATE    HOFFMAN  FRAMES. 

One  of  the  convpiiiences,  and  almost  ne- 
cessities, is  a  small  screwdriver.  This,  or  a 
good  strong  knife,  is  sometlidng  that  almost 


FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE.  1H8         FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE. 


every  apiarist  uses  nuwadays.  With  a 
screwdriver  or  wedge  I  pry  loo-e  the  flat 
board  cover  of  the  Dovetailed  hive,  havi'  g 
previously  blown  a  little  smoke  in  at  the 
•entrance. 

The  cover  removed,  1  place  the  same  un- 
der me,  and  sit  down  on  it,  milk-stool  fash- 
ifU  (as  in  cut\  and  as  illustr.ited  on  a  pre- 
vious page  in  the  consideration  of  the  loose 
frame.  You  will  observe  th;it  the  cover  is 
a  seat  on  which  we  can  lean  b.ic.<watd  and 
forward.  Tliis  I  lind  a  gieat  convenience, 
in  that  the  body  can  be.  leaned  towirdor 
from  the  hve ;  niicl,  the  elbows  resting  on 
the  knees,  they  can  support  ciu  te  a  heavy 
we-ght,  in  the  way  of  two  or  three  Hoffman 


hive  opposite  to  where  we  are  sitting  (see 
cut).  Willi  a  screwdriver  or  the  wedge,  M'e 
pry  ai)art  the  tirst  pair  or  trio  of  frames,  if 
tiie  frames  are  not  too  heavy,  and  lean  them 
against  one  corner  of  the  hive  as  shown 
below.  Don't  you  see  we  i)retty  nearly 
handle  the  lirood-nest  in  halves  and  cjuar- 
ters  y 

You  will  notice  that  these  frames  will 
Lang  together  by  propolis,  and  that  the 
bees  on  the  two  inside  surfaces  are  not  dis- 
turbed at  all.  The  loose  frames,  wlien  out 
of  the  hive,  have  got  to  be  leaned  against 
one  "r  two  corners  of  the  hives,  aga  i  st 
e.ich  other — in  fact,  be  scattered  all  around 
for  the  depredations  of  robbers  ;  and,  be- 


Fia.  4.      HAN-DLINCi 

frames.  You  may  argue  that  you  would 
not  sit  down  on  the  narrow  edge  of  a  i  board 
for  anybody  or  for  any  money.  I  will  say, 
in  reply,  that,  in  handling  Hoffman  frames, 
so  short  a  time  is  occupied  in  examining  the 
hive  that  no  inconvenience  will  be  experi- 
enced ;  and,  besides,  there  is  no  law  to 
compel  you  to  sit  in  any  one  attitude  over 
every  hive.  Comfort  as  well  as  conveni^^nce 
sometimes  suggests  a  standing  as  well  as  a 
kneeling  posture,  though  usually  I  prefer  to 
sit  down  on  a  cover.    Well,  to  return. 

A  little  smoke  is  blown  over  the  top  of  the 
frames.  The  wedge  that  holds  the  follower, 
or  spacing  -  board,  agaaist  the  frames,  is 
next  removed ;  and  while  the  wedge  is  in 
the  hands,  the  follower  is  leaned  against  the 


II0FF3IAN   FRAMES. 

sides  all  that,  the  liability  of  killing  bees  or 
the  queen  is  much  greater.  This  is  a  big 
point  in  favor  of  the  Hoffman  frames.  If 
we  do  not  find  the  queen  on  the  frame  in 
hive,  pry  off  the  outside  frame  of  a  trio 
leaning  against  the  corner  of  the  hive.  If 
she  does  not  api)ear  on  that  one,  pry  off  the 
next  one.  and  so  on. 

If  frames  are  heavy  with  honey,  we  may 
lift  ont  only  one  frame.    Haviiig  seen  the 
suifaees  of  two  or  three  combs,  the  practic- 
ed eye  will  get  a  pretty  fair  idea  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  colony  and  what  the  queen  is 
I  doing.    If  we  see  eggs  and    larvse   in   all 
stages,  as  well  as  sealed  Irood,  we  do  not 
I  1  su  illy  bother  to  hunt  up  the  queen;  so  we 
i  put  back  the  second    pair    remove'1,  and 


FRAMES,  TO  MANirULATE. 


139 


FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE. 


finally  return  the  trio,  as  shown  in  Figs.  4  and 
o.  \Ve  do  nut  gener.illy  crowd  tliese  frames 
togethir  at  once.  We  blow  a  little  smoke 
down  br-tween  each  of  the  eud-bars,  and 
then  with  a  quick  shove  we  close  them  all 
up  ayain 

There  is  no  cut-.iud-try  spacinnj  as  w.th 
loose  frames— nil  l-ig  and  little  lingers  to  get 
the  distances  at  wide  and  I'arri w  spaces. 
There  is  n)  continually  instructing  the  be- 
ginner on  just  how  far  t'>  space  combs,  and 
tlieie  is  no  tindin.^  the  apiary  aflerwaid, 
with  the  Ci>iiibs  spuci  d  so  far  a-  art  tliat 
spurs  of  comb  are  built  where  th«  y  ought 
not  to  be.  No,  w'ith  the  Hoffman  frantes 
the  spaces  have  got  to  be  exact,  and  the 
combs  will  have  a  fixed  and  definite  thick- 
nt-ss  ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  you 
can  alternate  them  just  as  well,  and  even 
better,  th:in  you  can  many  of  the  loose 
frames.  Let  me  explain.  Space  the  loose 
iraiU'' during  tin-  honey-harv.  st.  anywheie 
from  If  ti»  H  f.r  even  If  iuL-h' s  from  c^-ntei 
to  center, and  thtn,aft*r  the  honey  haivest 
try  to  alternate  it  with  other  frames  placed 
a  little  closer,  and  see  where  you  are.  You 
may  say  you  can  space  frames  near  enough 
right.  Although  I  have  visited  many  large 
apiaries,  I  never  saw  a  loose-frame  apiary 
spaced  near  enough  right,  unless  it  was  Mr. 
Manum's  home  apiary.  He  is  one  of  those 
precise  men  who  are  bound  to  have  every 
thing  just  St). 


swelling  or  shrinking  in  the  Hoffman 
frames  (if  there  should  be  any)  through 
changes  of  atmospliere,  from  extreme  wet 
to  extreme  dry.  If  there  are  any  bt-es  on 
the  tops  of  the  frames,  a  whiff  of  smoke 
will  usually  dri\e  them  down,  and  then 
the  cover  is  replaced  with  a  sliding  motion, 
which  I  have  already  explained. 


FIG.    5— HANDLING    HOFFMAN    FRAMES    IX 
I'AIUS   AND  TRIOS. 

Well,  now,  then,  we  will  replace  the  fol- 
lower ;  and  with  the  wedge,  as  shown  in  the 
cut  below,  we  crowd  the  frames  tight  to- 
gether ;  then  the  wedge  is  pushed  'Jown  be- 
tween the  follower  and  hive.  If  the  follow^- 
er  is  only  &  of  an  inch  thick  it  springs  a  lit- 
tle, and    this  will    take     np    aiy   uncfiual 


FIG.    B— MANN'KH    OF    C'R(*AVDING   HOFFMAN 
FRAMES  T.-GEIHER. 

Perhaps  from  my  description  alxiut  man- 
ipulating the  hive  with  Hoffman  frames,  it 
may  appear  like  a  very  long  operation  ;  but 
I  can  assure  you  that  it  is  a  very  short  one. 
Mr.  Hoffman  says  he  can  handle  nearly 
double  the  number  of  colonies  on  his  frame 
that  he  could  on  any  loose  frame ;  and  I  will 
add  right  here,  that  he  used  loose  frames 
for  years,  until  necessity,  the  mother  of  in- 
vention, caused  him  to  bring  out  this  .style. 

There  is  another  big  i)oint ;  namely,  by 
remo^ing  tw^o  or  three  frames  in  a  trio,  the 
rest  of  the  frames  in  the  hive  need  not  be 
lifted  out  at  all.  They  can  be  slipped  back 
and  fortli.  and  each  surface  examined  ;  but 
if  the  rabbet  is  covered  w  itli  pieces  of  pro- 
polis, this  lateral  sliding  is  not  easily  ac- 
complished. 

now     TO     MANIPULATE     (JUINl;Y     FRAMES. 

Remove  the  outside  case,  after  which  i)ry 
loose  ihe  honey-board  or  (luilt.  With  a 
jack-knife  or  screw-driver  jiry  apart  a  couple 
of  the  frames,  ami  then  draw  them  apart  as 
shown  in  the  acc()mi)anying  engraving. 

Sometimes  tlie  tiueen  may  be  fouiul  cm 
the  hrst  frame,  as  sliown  in  Fig.  7.  If 
not,  piy  loose  one  of  the  others,  and  slide  it 
along  and  take  a  glance  at  the  others, 
and  so  on.  If  necessary,  unhook  the  frame 
or  frames  from  the  bottom- board,  and  set 
them  to  (  lu'  side,  to  make  room  for  the  oth- 


FRAMES,  TO  MANIPULATE. 


140 


FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 


ers  that  you  may  wish  to  examine.  When 
you  ha\e  found  your  queen,  or  satisfied 
yourself  as  to  the  condition  of  the  hive, 
hook  the  frames  into  place.  Now,  to  avoid 
killing  bees  the  frames  should  not  be  push- 


entering,  so  as  to  give  a  good  clear  distinct 
view. 

In  point  of  exact  spacing,  convenience  in 
moving  over  rough  roads,  absence  of  burr- 
comos,  etc.,  these  have  nearly  all  the  ad- 


FIG.  7     QUINBY  CLOSED-END  FRAMES  MANIPULATED. 


ed  laterally  against  each  other ;  but  Ijy  a 
little  side  sliding  the  bees  may  be  brushed 
off  from  the  surfaces  of  the  end-bars  that 
are  to  come  in  contact. 


FIG.   8.     HOW   THE   QUINBY   FRAME   AVOIDS 
KILLING  BEES. 

Let  a  be  a  bottom-board,  and  c  and  b  re- 
spectively end-ljars  covered  with  bees,  c 
slides  in  the  direction  of  the  arrow  a,  and 
brushes  the  bees  off  from  the  end-bar  b.  If 
there  happen  to  be  no  bees  on  the  end-bars, 
the  frames  can  be  shoved  laterally  together, 
of  course. 

By  referring  to  the  first  figure,  closed  end 
Quinby  frames  offer  facility  in  looking  in, 
not  only  over  the  top,  but  between  tiie  open 
sides  ;  and  these  open  sides  admit  of  light 


vantages  of  the  Hoffman  frames  ;  but  they 
are  used  by  only  a  few  bee-keepers,  compar- 
atively ;  and  those  M^ho  would  like  to  adopt 
the  Hetherington-Quinby  system  could  not 
very  well  do  so  in  toto  without  discarding 
their  hanging-frame  hives ;  and  as  the  Hoff- 
man frame  has  the  very  desirable  feature  of 
the  hanging  frames  aswell  as  fixed  distances, 
I  would  recommend  it  in  preference  to  j^ny 
other  fixed  frame,  to  those  who  would  like 
to  adopt  the  fixed  spacing. 

FRUZT-BLOSSOIiaS.  Although  the 
honey  obtained  from  this  source  is  not  equal, 
either  in  quality  or  quantity,  to  that  from 
clover,  basswood,  and  some  other  sources, 
yet  coming,  as  it  does,  just  when  the  bees 
have,  usually,  nearly  exhausted  their  old 
stores,  it  is  a  crop  of  great  moment  to  the 
apiarist.9^  I  do  not  know  of  a  prettier  sight 
to  the  bee-keeper  than  the  yellow-banded 
Italians  at  work  on  fruit  -  blossoms,  nor  a 
pleasanter  sound  than  their  merry  hum  of 
rejoicing.  One  would  suppose  the  honey 
from  choice  early  cherry-trees  must  be  un- 
usually fine;  but  I  believe  those  Avho  have 
tried  it,  all  agree  that  it  is  any  thing  but  de- 
licious. It  seems  to  have  a  strong  rank 
taste,  much  resembling  the  taste  noticeable 
in  chewing  cherry  -  tree  bark,  or  the  buds. 
The  honey  from  apple  -  bloom  is  much  the 
same.  It  is  excellent  for  starting  brood- 
rearing,  but  it  is  of  little  or  no  value  for 
table  use.    I  once  extracted  about  10  lbs.  of 


FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 


141 


FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 


honey  from  fruit-blossoms,  by  putting  two 
fair  colonies  together  early  in  the  spring, 
thus  giving  about  the  working  force  of  a  col- 
ony in  June. 

Although  it  will  not  be  advisable  to  try  to 
get  surjilus  honey  from  the  fruit-bloom,  it  is 
sometimes  an  excellent  idea  to  put  a  frame 
or  two  of  sections  in  the  lower  story,  that 
they  may  get  the  fdn.  nicely  built  out  ready 
for  the  clover  season.  If  they  should  store 
some  of  the  dark  honey  in  tlie  sections,  it 
will  all  be  removed,  in  all  proljability,  during 
the  interval  between  the  fruit  -  bloom  and 
clover. 

July,  1883. — The  above  statement  in  regard 
to  apple-tree  honey  has  appeared  in  print  un- 
challenged, so  far  as  I  recollect,  since  the 
A  B  C  book  was  tlrst  published,  in  1877. 
During  the  present  spring,  however,  several 
have  reported  apple-tree  honey  as  V)eing  fully 
equal  to  any  :  and  friend  Sanford,  of  Union- 
ville.  Ct.,  has  taken  the  trouble  to  send  me  a 
tumbler  of  nice  honey  from  this  source,  which 
all  declare,  who  have  tasted  it,  to  be  equal  to 
any  honey  furnished  from  any  source.  The 
flavor  is  distinctly  apple-bloom ;  that  is,  one 
who  had  ever  chewed  apple-V)lossoms  would 
have  no  diflSculty  in  decitling  at  once  as  to  its 
source.  The  flavor  is  not  only  beautiful,  but 
the  honey  is  very  thick  and  remarkably  clear. 
Whether  this  result  is  peculiar  to  this  season, 
or  whether  the  honey  that  I  extracted  and 
bottled  in  former  years  was  mixed  with  hon- 
ey from  the  dandelion,  hickory,  or  other 
sources,  I  am  unable  now  to  say ;  but  this  I 
do  know,  that  apple-tree  honey  is,  at  least 
sometimes,  equal  to  any. 

DO    BEES    IX.JCRE   THE    FIIUIT     BY   TAKING 
THE  HONEY   FROM  THE  BLOSSOMSV 

This  is  an  idea  that  has  been  advanced 
over  and  over  again,  and  will  probably  be 
many  times  more,  by  those  who  take  only  a 
casual  view.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the 
matter  was  carried  so  far  in  a  town  in  Mass., 
that  an  ordinance  was  passed  ol)liging  a  bee- 
keeper to  remove  his  bees  to  another  local- 
ity. After  a  year  or  two  had  i)assed,  the 
fruit-growers  decided  that  they  would  ratlier 
have  the  bees  brought  back,  because  so  little 
fruit  was  set  on  the  trees,  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  blossoms  appearing.  As  it 
was  a  fruit-growing  district,  it  was  a  matter 


of  considerable  moment,  and  the  bees  were 
brought  back.  Of  course,  with  the  bees 
came  fruit  in  abixndance,  for  many  kinds  of 
fruit  absolutely  depend  on  the  agency  of 
bees  in  fertilizing  the  flowers,  to  enable 
them  to  produce  fruit  at  all.  It  seems  that 
the  small  drop  of  honey  which  natm-e  has 
placed  in  the  flower  is  for  the  exi^ress  pur- 
pose of  attracting  bees  and  otlier  insects, 
that  the  blossoms  may  be  surely  and  proper- ' 
ly  fertilized.  It  has  been  stated,  that  unless 
we  have  a  few  hours  of  sunshine  when  early 
cherries  are  in  bloom,  we  shall  have  no  cher- 
ries at  all ;  and  occasionally  we  have  a  sea- 
son when  cold  rain  storms  so  prevent  the 
bees  from  getting  out,  that  not  a  cherry  is 
produced. 

It  is  well  worth  while,  I  believe,  for  an 
apiarist  to  locate  near  extensive  orchards, 
even  if  he  should  not  think  of  planting  fruit- 
trees,  with  the  especial  end  in  view,  of  hav- 
ing his  bees  beneflted  thereby.  A  large 
yield  of  lioney  from  fruit-bloom  is  pretty 
sure  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  good  honey 
season. 

The  very  best  time  to  transfer  bees  is 
when  the  honey  just  begins  to  come  in  from 
this  source,  for  they  are  then  all  busy  and 
happy,  and  but  little  honey  is  in  tlie  w^ay  to 
run  down  and  hinder  the  work.  I  have  look- 
ed at  populous  colonies  during  fruit  -  bloom, 
that  had  not  a  dozen  cells  full  of  honey  in 
the  hive,  in  the  moiTiing,  but  by  night  the 
hive  would  seem  very  w^ell  supplied ;  the 
next  day  would  show  the  same  aspect  of  af- 
fairs, indicating  how  rapidly  they  consume 
stores  when  rearing  brood  largely. »*  Should 
a  stormy  day  intervene,  stocks  in  this  con- 
dition will  be  injured  very  much,  if  they  do 
not  starve,  by  being  obliged  to  put  the  un- 
sealed brood  on  such  short  allowance.  A 
friend  once  came  to  me,  in  May,  to  have  me 
come  and  take  a  look  at  his  bees ;  he  said 
they  were  sick.  It  was  a  box  hive;  and  as  I 
turned  it  over,  I  agreed  with  him  that  they 
xi-ere  sick,  and  no  mistake.  I  called  for  a 
bowl  of  sugar;  and  after  stirring  in  some 
water,  I  sprinkled  it  all  over  the  bees  and 
combs.  In  less  than  an  hour  they  were  all 
l)erfectly  well,  and  he  paid  quite  a  tribute  to 
my  skill  in  compounding  medicines  for  sick 
bees.  My  friends,  be  sure  that  your  bees 
do  not  get  "sick-""  iluring  fruit-blossouiing 
time,  nor  afterward  either. 


G. 


GILL-OVER-THE-GROUND.  ( Nepeta 
Ghchoma.)  Some -50  or  (0  years  ago,  wiien 
this  county  was  mostly  woods,  my  father 
and  mother  commenced  life  on  a  little  farm 
near  where  1  am  now  living.  Woman  like, 
my  mother  wanted  some  tlowers  around  the 
log  house  that  they  called  home;  and  going  to 
a  ni'ighbor"s  a  few  miles  away,  she  took  up 
various  roots  and  plants.  It  was  just  about 
the  time,  or  a  little  before  fruit-trees  bloom, 
and  amid  the  shrubbery  she  found  a  little 
blue  flower  growing  on  a  vine.  As  blue  has 
always  been  my  favorite  color,  I  c^n  readily 
excuse  her  for  wanting  to  take  home  a  root 
of  this  humble-looking  little  vine.  The  vine 
grew  and  throve  "  mightily,'' so  much  so, 
that  when  mv  father  moved  back  to  the  old 


GILL-O  VER-THE-G  ROUND . 

farm  after  a  dozen  years'  absence,  he  found 
my  mother's  blue  flower  all  over,  every- 
where, and  giving  fair  promise  of  being  able 
to  choke  all  the  grass  and  almost  everything 
else  out  entirely.  When  "  we  boys  "  com- 
menced trying  to  make  a  garden,  we  scold- 
ed so  about  this  "pesky  weed"  that  my  fath- 
er said  it  must  be  thoroughly  "dug  out."'  be- 


fore it  went  any  further.  After  some  feeble 
and  ineffectual  attempts  at  getting  it  out, 
he  finally  offered  a  younger  brother  a  tine 
colt  if  he  would  rid  the  farm  of  tlie  weed.  1 
do  not  know  how  hard  he  tried,  but  I  believe 
he  never  got  the  colt. 

It  transpired  in  later  years,  that  this  plant 
yielded  a  great  deal  of  honey;  and  in  some 
localities  favorable  to  its  growth,  such  as 
the  beds  of  streams  where  tliere  is  i)lenty  of 
rich  vegetable  mold,  it  has  furnished  so 
much  honey  that  it  has  been  extracted  in 
considerable  quantities.  Coming  in,  as  it 
does,  between  fruit  -  blossoms  and  clover,  I 
think  it  might  well  be  given  a  place  on  our 
honey-farm,  even  if  it  does  hold  so  tena- 
ciously to  the  soil  when  it  once  gets  a  start. 
That  you  all  may  recognize  it,  I  give  you  a 
cut  of  I'oots,  branches,  leaves,  and  flower. 

The  honey  is  rather  dark,  and  I  believe  a 
little  strong;  but  if  it  is  allowed  to  become 
perfectly  ripened,  I  think  it  will  pass  very 
well.  Perhaps  the  greatest  beneflt  to  be 
derived  from  it,  however,  will  be  to  keep 
the  bees  uninterruptedly  rearing  brood,  un- 
til clover  and  locust  begin  to  furnish  a 
supply. 

This  plant  is  a  near  relative  of  the  catnip, 
which  it  closely  resembles  in  the  shape  of 
the  leaf.  Both  were  originally  from  Nepeta, 
in  Germany,  hence  the  Latin  names,  iV'ep- 
eta  Cnlaria.  and  Nepeta  Glechoma.  I  pre- 
sume it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  raise 
this  plant  from  the  seed,  but  I  would  hesi- 
tate some  in  sending  out  such  seed.  It 
spreads  much  more  rapidly  than  the  catnip, 
because  it  catches  in  the  soil  like  strawberry 
plants,  from  the  little  rootlets  shown  in  the 
engraving. 

eOZiDEIVROD.  iSoUclago).  This,  in 
some  localities,  furnishes  the  bulk  of  the 
great  yield  of  fall  honey.  It  grows  almost 
all  over  the  U.  S.,  and  there  are  so  many 
different  varieties  that  it  would  be  almost 
out  of  the  question  to  try  to  give  you  a  pic- 
ture of  it  at  all ;  the  botany  describes  53  dif- 


GOLDENKOl). 


14S 


GOLDENROD. 


fereut  varieties,  and  it  is  common  to  tind  a 
half  -  dozen  growing  within  a  few  rods.  Its 
name  describes  it,  so  that  almost  any  one 
should  be  able  to  identify  it.  If  you  see 
autumn  flowers  as  yellow  as  gold,  growing 
on  the  top  of  tall  rods,  you  may  be  pretty 
sure  they  belong  to  this  family.  The  tlow- 
ers  are  very  small,  but  grow  in  great  mass- 
es, sometimes  in  long  racemes,  and  again  in 
dense  bunches.  The  general  characteristics 
are  such  that,  after  a  little  practice,  you  can 
readily  identify  any  one  of  the  family;  but  to 
assist  you,  we  give  the  cuts. 

Bees  are  almost  incessantly  humming 
over  the  flowers  in  some  localities;  in  others, 
they  seem  to  pass  them  entirely  imnoticed. 
I  have  passed  it  in  localities  where  bee- 
keepers say  they  have  never  seen  a  bee  on 
it  at  all.  Bees  are  seen  on  it,  occasionally, 
in  our  locality,  but  I  do  not  think  they  get 
enough  honey  from  it.  4n  ordinary' seasous, 
to  make  it  perceptible  in  the  hive. 

The  honey  is  usually  very  thick,  and  of  a 
rich  golden  color,  much  like  the  blossoms. 
When  first  g-ithered,it  has,  like  the  honey  of 
most  other  fall  flowers,  a  nither  rank  weedy 
smell  and  taste;  but  after  it  has  thoroughly 
ripened,  it  is  rich  and  pleasant.  On  getting 
the  first  taste  of  ^oldenrod  honey,  one 
might  think  he  would  never  like  any  oth- 
er; but  like  many  other  kinds,  one  soon  tires 


of  the  peculiar  aromatic  flavor,  and  goes 
back  to  the  clover  honey  as  the  great  uni- 
versal staple  to  be  used  with  bread  and  but- 
ter. A  patch  of  goldenrod  might  have  a 
place  on  our  lioney-farm,  and  perhaps,  with 
cultivation,  it  might  do  better  and  give  a 
surer  crop  in  all  localities  ;  but  as  it  is  only 
a  common  weed  on  our  farms,  I  would  hard- 
ly favor  a  general  dislrihution  of  the  seed. 


THREE   VARIETIES  OF  GOLDENROD. 


H. 


KAULISTG    BEES.       See    Moving  | 
Bees. 

HI VX!  -  »I AHXSra.  Unless  you  are 
so  situated  that  freights  are  high,  and  un- 
less, also,  j'ou  are  a  mechanic,  or  a  natural 
genius  in  "making  things,"  you  had  better 
let  hive -making  alone.  Hives  can  be 
bou<>lit,  usually,  with  freight  added,  for  a 
great  deal  less  than  the  average  bee-keeper 
can  make  them  himself,  if  we  consider 
spoiled  lumber,  sawed  fingers,  and  the  ex- 
pense of  buzz  saws ;  and,  besides,  hives  made 
in  the  large  factories,  where  they  are  turned 
out  l)y  the  thousands,  by  special  machinery 
run  by  skilled  workmen,  are  much  more  ac- 
curately cut,  as  a  general  thing.  But  there 
is  lois  of  fun  in  making  things,  even  if  they 
are  not  s-o  well  made;  and  there  are  some 
rainy  or  wintry  tlays  in  the  year,  when,  if 
you  are  a  farmer,  fcr  instance,  you  can  as  well 
as  not,  and  at  little  oi-  no  expense  f <  r  time, 
make  a  few  hives  and  other"  fixin's. ''  Again, 
if  you  live  in  a  foreign  country  you  may  not  be 
able  to  get  the  hives  that  I  shall  rect)mmend. 

REQUISITES  OF  A   GOOD  HIVE. 

While  it  is  very  important  to  have  good, 
well-made  hives  for  the  bees,  I  would  by  no 
means  encourage  the  idea,  that  the  hive  is 
going  to  insure  the  crop  of  honey.  I  think, 
as  Mr.  Gallup  used  to  say,  that  a  good 
swarm  of  bees  would  store  almost  as  much 
honey  in  a  half  -  barrel  or  nail-keg,  as  in  the 
most  elaborate  and  expensive  hive  made, 
other  things  being  equal.  This  is  suppos- 
ing we  had  a  good  swarm,  in  the  height  of 
the  honey-season.  If  the  swarm  were  small, 
it  would  do  much  better  if  put  into  a  hive  so 
small  that  the  bees  could  nearly  or  quite  till 
it,  thus  economizing  the  animal  heat,  that 
they  might  keep  up  the  temperature  for 
brood  -  rearing,  and  the  working  of  wax. 
Also,  should  the  bees  get  their  nail-keg  full 
of  honey,  unless  more  room  were  given 
them  at  just  the  right  moment,  a  consider- 
able loss  of  honey  would  be  the  result.  The 
thin  walls  of  the  nail-keg  would  hardly  be 
the  best  economy  for  a  wintering  hive,  nor 


for  a  summer  hive  either,  unless  it  were  well 
shaded  from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun. 

r.  H.  Elwood,  of  Starkville,  N.  Y.,  who 
owns  over  1800  colonies,  said  in  Gleanings 
in  Bee  Culture,  April  15,  1891,  "A  good  hive 
must  till  two  requirements  reasonably  well 
to  be  worthy  of  that  name.  1.  It  must  be  a 
good  home  for  the  bees;  2.  It  must  in  ad- 
dition be  so  constructed  as  to  be  convenient 
to  perform  the  various  operations  required 
by  modern  bee-keeping.  The  first  of  these 
requirements  is  filled  very  well  by  a  good 
box  or  straw  hive.  Bees  will  store  as  much 
honey  in  these  hives  as  in  any.  and  in  the 
^orth  they  will  winter  and  spring  as  well  in 
a  straw  hive  as  in  any  other.  They  do  not, 
however,  rill  the  second  requirement ;  and 
to  meet  this,  the  moval^le-frame  hive  was 
invented." 

SIZE   OF  rr.AME  AND   HIVE. 

Although  there  are  a  great  many  styles  of 
hives,  there  are  only  a  few  really  good  ones 
for  bee-keepers,  and  these  are  all  of  the 
movable-frame  type.  Well,  then,  if  we  are 
to  agree  on  movable-frame  hives,  what  size 
of  hive  or  size  of  frame  shall  we  adopt?  If 
you  are  a  beginner,  I  would  by  all  means 
advise  you  to  follow  in  the  well-beaten 
track.  The  L.  frame,  17|  long  by  Hi  deep, 
has  obtained  all  but  universal  acceptance  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  and  it  may 
now  be  safely  regarded  as  the  standard.  If 
the  statement  is  true,  that  bees  will  produce 
as  much  honey  in  one  style  of  hive  as  in  an- 
other, it  will  be  equally  true  that  they  will 
prodiice  as  much  in  one  .sizt  of  frame  as  in 
another;  therefore  when  we  decide  upon  the 
size,  we  should  select,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
the  standard  L.  It  is  generally  conceded 
that  it  is  the  best  for  comb  honey,  because 
it  is  so  shallow  as  to  bring  the  brood  up 
close  to  the  surplus ;  and  few  will  deny  that 
it  is  just  as  good  for  the  production  of  ex- 
tracted. It  seems  to  be  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  very  shallow  and  very  deep 
frames  ;  and  any  beginner  who  adopts  any 
thing  else  will  be  almost  sure  to  regret  it. 
Tiie  user  of  an  odd  sized  hive,  besides  being 


HIVE-MAKING. 


145 


niVE-MAKi:XG. 


out  of  the  beateu  track,  is  obliged  to  pay 
anywhere  from  10  to  25  per  cent  more  for 
supplies,  and  then  nm  the  risk  of  having 
his  supply-dealer  make  mistakes  in  not 
making:  the  pieces  the  size  ordered.  Then, 
again,  if  he  Avishes  to  advertise  and  sell  his 
bees  they  will  have  to  go  at  a  discount  if  at 
all.  I  believe  two-thirds  of  those  who  are 
using  any  thing  besides  the  regular  L.  size 
would  be  glad  to  cliauge  to  tlie  standard  if 
they  could  without  so  much  exi)ense.  Still 
further,  if  you  should  ever  undertake  to  sell 
hives  and  supplies,  you  would  not  find  a  big 
sale  for  your  odd  sized  goo  Is.  If  they  are 
of  the  stand  ird  sizes,  you  will  always  find  a 
decent  market  for  them. 

As  to  the  size  of  hive,  the  eiyht-h-Aine  L. 
hive  is  now  generally  conceded  to  be  the 
best  working  ^size;  and  it  is  plenty  large  for 
general  purposes  Ths  queen  will  seldom 
lay  in  more  than  eight  frames  in  the  brood- 
nest.  If  her  brooding  capacity  extends  be- 
yond this,  unless  she  is  restrained  she  will 
go  into  the  top  story.  In  the  /Rn-frame  hive, 
Italians  especially  will  fill  eight  frames  with 
brood,  and  the  two  outskleones  with  honey; 
and  this  quantity  of  stores  in  the  brood-nest 
is  apt  to  make  them  quite  loth  to  enter  the 
super.  If  the  lower  eight  frames  are  filled 
with  brood  just  at  the  beginu'iig  of  the  har- 
vest, and  there  are  no  more  frames  below, 
just  as  soon  as  the  rtf)\v  of  nectar  begins,  the 
bees  are  obliged  to  put  it  where  we  want  it — 
that  is,  in  the  upper  story  or  super. 


AN    8-KKAME   LANGSTKOTH   IIIVK. 

Now,  then,  I  will  assume,  Mr.  Ilivemaker, 
that  you  have  decided  on  the  regular  eight- 
frame  L.  hive.  The  accompanying  cut  shows 
one  of  the  most  ajjproved  forms,  sliowingthe 
bottom-board,  body  (or  brood-nest),  super 
(or  surplus  receptacle),  and  cover.  When 
tlie  hives  are  made  in  (piantity  by  supply- 
dealers,  they  are  dovetailed  at  the  corners. 


This  makes  an  extra-strong  corner.  The 
manner  f)f  doing  this  will  Ije  explained  fur- 
ther on,  when  we  are  making  hives  Ijy  steam 
power.  But  as  you  want  to  make  only  a  few 
hives,  for  your  own  use  and  for  your  neigh- 
l)ors,  yoii  had  better  content  yourself  with 
what  is  called  the  halved  corner,  as  shown  in 
the  accomi)anying  engraving.  While  this  is 
not  nearly  so  sti  ong  as  the  dovetailed  or  lock- 
joint  corner,  it  will  answer  your  purpose. 

HOW  TO  3IAKE  THE   8-FKAME    LAXGSTKOTH 
HIVE. 

Now,  before  I  describe  minutely  how  to 
make  the  hive  I  will  here  give  1  aietly  the  sizes. 
Tbe  body  is  9i  in.  deep  ;  13|  in.  wide  ;  20  in. 
long,  outside  measure.  The  super  is  the 
same  width  and  length,  with  just  half  the 
dei)th,  less  tlie  thickness  of  a  thin  saw-cut. 
The  l)ottom-l)Oard  and  cover-board,  without 
the  cleat,  are  20|  in.  long,  and  18t  in.  wide. 
To  prevent  warping,  the  ends  are  let  into  the 
ends  of  grooved  cleats  18i  in.  long,  by  If  in. 
wide.  As  the  hive  is  all  made  of  i  lumber, 
the  groove  in  the  cleat  is  plump  i  wide  and 
i%  deep.  Both  supers  and  body  have  the 
bee-space  on  top  ;  that  is,  there  is  i  in.  si»ace 
between  the  top  of  the  brood-f  i  ames  and  top 
of  the  sections  and  the  next  part  of  the  hive 
above.  There  is  practically  no  space  under 
the  frames  ;  but  to  leave  the  usual  §  sjiaie 
under  them  we  nail  a  couple  of  cleats  cm 
each  side  of  the  bottom-board,  as  shown  in 
the  cut.  This  raises  the  brood  nest  up  §  of 
an  inch  from  the  Ijottom,  and  also  provides 
for  an  entrance,  as  shown.  The  accompniy- 
ing  diagram,  cross  and  longitudinal  sections, 
illustrates  the  matter  a  little  more  perfectly. 


s: 


s 


I 


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-dy- 


iznca 


racpraEZi 


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EU 


1   m  ma  c=i   i — i  i     to f»         t     '^~ 


SECriON.VL   DUAWINOOK   THE   DOVETAILED 
HIVE. 

Both  sui)ers  and  body  have  the  bee-space 
on  top;  that  is,  there  is  a  i-inch  space  be- 


HIVE-MAKING. 


14<> 


HIVE-MAKING. 


tween  the  top  of  the  brood-frames  and  the 
top  of  the  sections  and  the  next  part  of  the 
liive  above. 

Having  given  yon  the  general  details  per- 
taining to  the  hive,  we  will  now  proceed  to 
the  next  sul)ject ;  namely. 

LUMBER   Fv)R   HIVE-. 

Get  white  pine.  If  you  can  not  get  it,  you 
would  better  use  whitewood.  If  you  can  not 
get  that  either,  get  the  best  lumber  that  they 
liave  for  house  -  building,  in  your  locality. 
For  the  body  of  the  hive,  you  want  boards 
just  ten  inch.:^s  wide.  For  the  cover  and  bot- 
tom -  boards,  which  are  one  and  the  same 
thing,  you  want  boards  not  less  tlian  U 
inches  wide.  You  <  an  get  birn  boards 
that  will  answer  the  i-urpose  for  aboivt  $20 
per  thousand  feet.  As  soon  as  you  get 
your  lumber  home,  have  it  nicely  ''sticked 
up.''  I  say  nicely,  for  I  do  not  believe  I 
ever  had  a  boy  that  would  put  up  lumber 
safely,  unless  he  was  told  a  great  many 
times.  Your  lumber  would  better  be  16  feet 
long,  for  this  length  works  witli  less  w^aste 
than  any  that  is  shorter.  Now,  before  you 
stick  it  up,  you  are  to  jirepare  a  level  place 
for  the  tirst  bo;ird ;  or,  rather,  you  are  to 
have  the  tirst  bo.ird  lie  straight  and  Hat.  If 
it  is  to  be  left  out  of  doors,  it  should  have 
slant  enough  to  carry  off  the  water.  If  you 
have  shop  room,  you  can  put  it  in  doors.  Do 
not  lay  the  first  board  on  the  floor,  but  have 
some  sticks  under  it.  These  sticks  for  stick- 
ing up  lumber  should  be  of  an  exact  tliici<- 
ness,  and  I  think  it  will  pay  to  provide  some 
that  are  just  right.  If  you  are  making  many 
hives,  you  will  have  refuse  sticks  that  will 
come  very  handy  for  this  purpose.  The 
sticks  should  be  about  H  inches  wide,  exact- 
ly i  thick,  and  1-5  or  20  inches  long.  A  stick 
should  be  placed  at  each  end  of  the  boirds. 
and  two  more  between  them,  so  as  to  make 
the  spaces  about  equal.  Put  the  sticks  ex- 
actly over  each  other,  or  you  will,  if  you 
have  a  laige  pile,  have  the  boards  bent  or 
warped  by  the  weight  of  those  above.  When 
they  are  all  piled  up  square  and  true,  you 
can  feel  sife  in  regard  to  them. 

If  you  are  going  to  make  accurate  work, 
you  must  have  your  luml)er  all  of  an  exact 
thickness;  and  as  it  is  much  easier  to  talk 
and  write  about  having  it  exactly  i  than  it 
is  to  make  it  so,  I  will  explain  to  yoii  a  kind 
of  gauge  that  I  had  to  give  the  planing-mill 
men,  before  we  i)laned  our  ow'u  lumber. 
Below  is  a  picture  of  it,  full  size. 

When  you  carry  them  the  lumber,  tell 
them  if  it  is  planed  so  that  the  "too  large" 
notch  just  fits  it,  it  will  have  to  be  i)laned 


over  again  ;  and  that,  if  it  goes  into  the  "too 


GAUGE  FOR  PLANING  LUMBER. 

small"  notch,  it  is  spoiled.  This  will  soon 
get  them  into  the  habit  of  having  it  "  just 
right,"  every  time.  Their  planers  must  also 
be  so  adjusted  that  both  edges  of  the  board 
ixre  just  riyht.  As  the  18-inch  (if  in  planer 
costs  only  $90,  if  you  have  much  work  to  do 
it  is  by  far  the  most  profitable  way  to  have 
a  planer  of  your  own.  Then  you  can  set  it 
just  as  accurately  as  you  choose,  and  it  will 
])ay  for  itself,  where  there  is  work  to  do,  in 
a  few  weeks.  The  usual  price  for  planing 
is  SI. 00  per  M.,  and  you  can  do  that  amount 
without  trouble  per  liour,  with  a  4  -  horse- 
power engine.  If  the  lumber  is  not  well 
seasoned  it  may  be  well  to  have  it  planed 
to  the  too-large  gauge  ;  but  this  is  a  very  bad 
way  of  doing,  on  many  accounts.  Get  your 
lumber  seasoned  as  well  as  it  possibly  can 
be,  before  you  commence  work,  and,  if  you 
are  obliged  to  use  that  wiiich  is  not  w^ell  sea- 
soned, cut  your  stuff  to  the  exact  length, 
then  stick  it  up,  and  leave  it  until  the  very 
last  moment,  before  you  take  it  to  the  exact 
width  you  wish  it.  This  is,  perhaps,  one  of 
the  surest  ways,  especially  when  the  work 
is  not  all  to  be  sent  off  immediately.    We 


NEW    BAHNES   SAW. 


frequently  leave  covers  in  this  way,  and  only 
bring  them  to  the  finishing  width  the 
very  day  tliey  are  to  be  shipped.     It  is  espe- 


HIVE-MAKING. 


147 


HIVE-MAKING. 


cially  needful  that  the  covers  be  well  season- 
ed, for  a  season-check  would  let  in  water, 
and  endanger  the  life  of  the  colony. 

A  great  many  Barnes  foot-power  saws  are 
in  use ;  therefore  I  shall  give  my  directions 
for  them.  Tl  ey  c;in  1)p  obtained  of  W.  F.  & 
J.  Barnes,  Eockford,  111.  The  price  without 
the  scroll-saw  is  SSo.dd.  Tliese,  lor  foot- 
power  j-aws,  do  very  well  for  light  work  ;  but 
whnn  you  wish  to  do  heivy  sawing  <>i-  rip- 
ping, you  will  have  to  use  the  crank  arrange- 
ment, shown  on  the  side ;  and,  of  course,  you 
will  then  require  an  assistant. 


A   HOME-MADE  HAND-POAVER   lUZZ-SAW. 

The  accompanying  cut  needs  almost  no 
description.  The  saw-arbor  is  geared  to  a 
crank  al)0ut  the  same  as  may  be  done  on  the 
Barnes  machine.  Of  course,  there  is  no  foot- 
power  attaclmient  to  it;  but  if  you  have  a 
hired  man  wlio  has  nothing  else  to  do  on  a 
rainy  day,  you  can  set  liim  to  turning  the 
crank  while  you  do  the  rii)ping  or  cross-cut- 
ting, as  the  case  may  l)e.  Tliis  home-made 
machine  Is  very  elfeclive.  and  will  do  very 
gooil  work,  as  we  know  by  exi>erience  with 
machines  of  that  class.  Even  thougli  two  men, 
witli  a  couple  of  good  sliarp  carpenter  saws, 
might  do  nearly  as  much  work  in  cutting  and 
ripping,  they  could  not  y)ossil»ly  do  as  accu- 
rate work.  With  tlie  a]K)ve  macliine,  rigged 
with  tlie  gauges  descril)ed.  a  couple  of  boys 
would  do  tlie  amount  (»f  work  that  men 
would,  and  it  would  be  more  accurate  than 
an  expensive  carpenter  with  try-s(|uare  and 
smooth-plane  could  possibly  make  it.  I  liave 


no  doubt  biit  that  the  boys  would  cut  up 
double  the  firewood  they  could  with  the  or- 
dinary hand-saw. 
II   w  TO    AW  ui'  iHii  i?oai:d-  k.)U  the 

Hi  VES. 

We  will  first  talk  about  making  the  body 
of  the  hive.  Your  pile  of  ten-inch  boards 
is  to  be  cut  up  in  lengt  is  of  3-t  inches.  Re- 
member, just  two  inches  less  than  a  yard. 
To  avoid  making  mistakes,  you  can  cut  a 
stick  of  just  that  length.  If  you  have  quite 
a  pile  of  stuff,  a  gauge  tliat  you  can  push 
tlie  boards  against  will  be  very  handy.  Al- 
ways commence  at  the  best  end  of  the 
boards.  If  the  end  is  checked  or  bad.  allow 
a  little  for  waste.  Cut  off  -5  lengths,  and 
leave  the  surplus  of  half  a  foot  or  more  on 
the  last  piece ;  that  is.  do  not  cut  it  off. 
l-'ile  these  last  pieces  by  themselves.  You 
will  need  an  assistant  to  do  this  ;  and  if  you 
liave  a  boy  ten  or  fifteen  years  old.  he  can 
help  ''  papa  "  a  "  big  lot.'"  in  making  liives. 

As  we  desire  to  make  the  nuicliine  rip 
boauls  '.If,  as  described  below,  we  will  set  the 
gauge  to  the  proper  place.  After  your  boards 
are  all  cut  up,  you  will  proceed  to  bring  them 
to  an  ex'ivt  width  and  straighten  one  side. 
As  we  want  the  boards  to  finish  ui,  we  will 
trim  them,  the  first  time,  to  about  S'l ; 
tliose  that  will  not  hold  out  this  width,  can 
be  saved  to  make  frames  of.  To  bring  one 
side  straight,  you  must  set  the  parallel  bar  at 
the  left  of  the  saw,  at  just  the  riglit  distnnce 
from  it,  and  then  push  the  boards  through, 
holding  closely  up  to  the  gauge.  Very  like- 
ly when  you  start,  your  saw  may  '"run,""  as  it 
is  termed  ;  this  may  result  from  either  of  two 
causes.  If  the  teeth  are  filed  longer  on  one 
side  than  on  the  other,  and  insutficiently  set, 
the  saw  wall  be  very  likely  to  run  either  into 
or  out  of  the  lumber-.  This  will  not  do  at 
all,  for  we  can  never  have  an  accurate  hive 
unless  we  get  a  straight  edge,  in  the  rirst 
place,  to  work  from.  Give  the  saw  set 
enougli  to  make  it  run  clear,  as  exiilained  at 
the  close  of  this  subject.  IIive-.^iaking, 
and  have  the  teeth  .so  that  the  cut  ahead 
of  the  saw  shows  as  in  the  diagram  below. 


puoPEiiLV  filed. 


A  second  cause  of  trouble  may  sometimes 
be  foinid  in  your  parallel  bar,  which  must 
be  just  parallel,  or  you  can  not  have  a  true 
straight  cut.  The  diagram  will  show  you 
the  conse(]uences  of  having  this  bar  imjirop- 
erlv  set. 


HIVE-MAKING. 


I4<S 


HIVE-MAKING. 


SETTING    THE    PARALLEL    BAR. 

In  tig.  1,  the  bar  is  set  so  that  the  board 
between  the  saw  and  the  gauge  wedges,  as 
it  were;  and,  when  this  is  the  trouble,  you 
will  see  the  surface,  at  A,  shows  as  if  it  had 
been  planed  ;  this'.is  done  byjthe  face  of  the 
saw,  which  rubs  or  burnishes  the  wood,  as 
it  squeezes  past.  The  remedy  is  plain; 
move  the  end,  D,  away  from  the  saw  a  little, 
or  the  other  end  nearer  to  it,  as  may  be  nec- 
essary to  preserve  the  proper  distance.  In 
fig.  2  we  see  the  opposite  extreme  ;  and 
when  this  is  the  trouble,  you  will  tind  it  al- 
most impossible  to  Iceep  your  board  up 
against  the  gauge,  for  the  saw  is  all  the 
time  crowding  it  off.  The  piece  B  will 
constantly  be  getting  too  narrow,  and  the 
strip  that  comes  off,  too  wide.  Before  j^ou 
attempt  to  do  any  work,  and  thus  spoil  your 
lumber,  you  should  test  your  saw  and  gaug- 
es, on  some  refuse  pieces.  When  it  is  all 
right,  the  saw  should  run  clear  and  smooth- 
ly in  the  center  of  the  saw-cut,  and  the  stuff 
should  easily  be  kept  close  up  to  the  gauge. 

While  you  have  been  doing  this  work,  the 
movable  cross  -  cut  gjume  to  the  table 
should  be  taken  off,  as  it  would  only  be  in 
the  way.  After  one  edge  is  trimmed,  set 
your  gauge  so  as  to  cut  exactly  lU,  and 
bring  the  boards  all  to  this  width. 

Now.  before  going  further  you  are  to  sort 
the  boards,  so  as  to  have  the  heart  side  of 
the  lumber  come  on  the  outside  of  the  hive. 
If  you  look  at  the  end  of  each  board,  you 
can  see,  by  the  circles  of  growth,  whicli  is 
the  heart  side,  as  is  shown  in  the  cuts. 


tavj^  r"^ 


WHY   BOARDS   WARP. 

At  B,  you  see  a  board  cut  off  just  at  one 
side  of  the  heart  of  the  tree  ;  at  C,  near  the 
bark ;  at  A,  the  heart  is  in  the  center  of  the 
board.  You  all  know,  almost  without  being 
told,  that  boards  always  warp  like  C ;  that 
is,  the  heart  side  becomes  convex.  The 
reason  is  connected  with  the  shrinkage  of 


boards  in  seasoning.  When  a  log  lies  until 
it  is  perfectly  seasoned,  it  often  checks,  as 
in  fig.  2.  You  will  observe  that  the  wood 
shortens  in  the  direction  of  the  circles,  and 
but  very  little,  if  any,  along  the  lines  that 
run  from  the  bark  to  the  center.  To  allow 
this  shrinkage  in  one  direction,  the  log 
splits  or  checks  in  the  direction  shown. 
Now,  to  go  back  to  our  boards,  you  will  see 
that  B  shrinks  more  than  A,  because  A  has 
the  heart  of  the  tree  in  its  center ;  th  t  C 
will  shrink,  in  seasoning,  much  more  on  the 
bark  side  than  on  the  heart  side ;  that  this 
can  not  fail  to  bring  the  board  out  of  a  lev- 
el ;  and  that  the  heart  side  will  always  be 
convex.  You  have  all  seen  bee-hives,  prob- 
ably, with  the  corners  separated  and  gaping 
open,  while  the  middle  of  the  boards  was 
tight  up  in  place.  The  reason  was,  that  the 
mechanic  had  put  the  boards  on  wrong  side 
out.*  If  the  heart  side  had  been  outward, 
the  corners  of  the  hive  would  have  curled 
inwardly,  and,  if  the  middle  had  been  nailed 
securely,  the  whole  hive  would  have  been 
likely  to  have  close,  tight  joints,  even  if  ex- 
e\posed  to  sun,  wind,  and  rain.  This  mat- 
ter is  especially  important  in  making  covers 
to  hives.  If  your  boards  are  all  sorted  with 
the  heart  side  downward,  we  are  ready  to 
proceed.  I  say  heart  side  downward,  for 
you  want  them  placed  just  as  they  are  to  be 
used  on  the  saw.  I  have  seen  boys  that 
would  turn  every  board  over,  just  as  they 
picked  it  up  to  put  on  the  saw  table,  instead 
of  piling  the  whole  just  as  they  were  to  be 
used.  I  have  seen  others  that  would  carry 
each  one  of  several  hundred  boards  6  or  8  ft. 
to  the  saw,  when  the  whole  pile  might  have 
been  put  almost  within  one  foot  nf  the  place 
where  it  was  to  be  used.  It  is  very  awkward 
and  extravagant  to  do  work  in  this  way. 

We  have  thus  far  been  using  the  rip-saw 
j  in  edging  up  stuff.    Our  next  business  is  to 
1  cut  boards  across  the  grain,  rnd  we  there- 
fore change  our  rip  saw  to  a  cross-cut. 

I  think  we  would  better  "  oil  up  "  at  about 
this  stage  of  proceeding.  I  do  not  know 
why  it  is,  but  I  scarcely  ever  take  hold  of  a 
foot-power  saw  when  it  would  not  be  great- 
ly improved  by  giving  it  a  thorough  oiling. 
It  is  really  a  saving  of  time,  as  well  as  of 
strength,  to  oil  your  machinery  often. 
Much  time  is  also  saved,  in  changing  saws, 
by  having  your  saws  and  wrench  close  at 
hand.  A  ten- cent  monkey-wrench  is  sold 
which  is  just  right  for  Barnes  saw-mandrel, 
• 

*  If  tlie  lines  liave  tlie  dovetailed,  or.  as  it  is  some- 
time.s  CM  lied,  the  lock-joint  corner,  this  gaping:  is 
,  impossible. 


HIVE-MAKING. 


149 


HIVE-MAKING. 


and  we  used  to  keep  one  tied,  bj^  a  stout  cord, 
to  the  frame  of  the  machine,  that  it  might 
be  always  in  readiness.  To  be  obliged  to  stop 
your  work,  and  hunt  for  tools  when  you  are 
in  a  hurry,  is  ''  awful."  You  would  better 
fix  some  kind  of  a  drawer  in  your  saw-table, 
to  keep  your  saws,  or  they  may  get  down 
among  the  rubbish,  and  be  lost.  I  have 
known  people  to  lose  their  cut-off  saw,  and 
be  obliged  to  stop  and  hunt  for  it ;  and  I 
should  not  be  surprised,  if  they  scolded  some- 
body who  was  not  to  blame  at  all.  I  have 
spoken  of  having  one  of  the  childi'en  help 
by  handing  you  the  boards,  etc.;  if  they  do, 
be  sure  that  you  make  the  work  pleasant 
for  them.  If  you  lose  your  tools  and  scold, 
you  certainly  will  not  make  good  hives. 

You  probably  have  not  made  any  mis- 
takes, thus  far;  but  now,  before  you  com- 
mence cutting  off  the  pieces  to  the  exact 
size,  be  careful. 

To  provide  against  mistakes  I  would  have 
a  gauge  like  that  shown  in  tlie  accompany- 
ing cut ;  and  it  is  the  same  thing  that  is  used 


GAUGE    FOR    FRA3IE-MAKING. 

further  on  in  frame-making,  where  it  will 
be  described  a  little  more  minutely.  One  of 
the  brass  stops  should  be  set  at  such  a  point 
that  it  just  measures  the  length  of  one  of 
the  sides  of  the  hives,  so  that,  when  the 
board  has  been  cut  off  on  your  foot-power 
buzz-saw,  it  will  just  slip  between  the  two 
points.  On  the  reverse  side  of  the  gauge, 
the  brass  stop  should  be  so  set  that  it  will 
just  take  in  one  of  the  end-pieces  of  the 
hive.    I  think  it  will  be  well  to  have  two 


to  scant  measure,  and  this  is  something  tliat 
we  can  not  tolerate  in  making  hives.  If  you 
attempt  to  measure  with  a  square,  you  will 
get  it  wrong  side  up  or  something,  and  get 
your  gauges  set  wrong.  It  was  not  long 
since  that  one  of  the  men  cut  up  a  whole  pile 
of  boards  to  the  wrong  length,  because  he 
looked  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  square. 
For  fear  he  would  do  something  of  the  kind, 
he  was  given  a  boai'd  just  right,  for  a  sam- 
ple; but  some  one  else  wanted  it,  and  so  he 
took  the  dimensions,  and  it  turned  out  as  I 
have  said. 

As  I  have  already  stated,  our  hives  are 
just  20  in.  long  by  18|  in.,  outside  measure. 
Now,  the  length  of  the  side  and  end  pieces 
will  (lej^end  upon  what  method  you  adopt 
for  nailing  the  hives  together  at  the  corners. 
If  you  ''  halve  "  the  corners,  eitlier  the  ends 
or  the  sides  should  be  4  sliorter  than  the  out- 
side width  or  the  length  of  tlie  hive,  as  tlie 
case  may  be.  If  you  miter  the  corners,  cut 
both  sides  and  ends  to  the  exact  length  of 
the  side  and  end  of  the  hive.  If  you  use 
what  is  called  the  box-lap  corner— that  is, 
one  straight  piece  nailed  on  to  the  end  of 
another,  either  the  side  or  end  pieces  should 
be  If  inches  shorter  than  the  length  or 
width  of  the  hive,  as  the  case  may  be.  But 
the  box-lap  joint  does  not  permit  of  cross- 
nailing  ;  and  if  you  propose  using  the  miter 
corners,  you  will  have  to  have  iron  gauge- 
frames,  or  something  to  hold  the  pieces  up 
together  while  nailing ;  otherwise  it  will  be 
very  ditficult  to  nail  the  hive  together ;  and 
I  would  tlierefore  advise  you  to  use  what  is 
called  the  halved  corner.  What  is  meant  by 
this,    is    illustrated    in   the    accompanying 


r^ 


Corner 


sets  of  gauges— one  for  frame-  making  and 
one  for  hive-maVing;  I  ecause  experience 
has  shown  that  it  is  not  wise  to  d(']>eiid  too 
much  on  measuring  with  rules  and  s(|uares, 
for  the  eye  can  not  measure  exactly  when 
the  stuff  is  the  right  length,  according  to 
the  graduations  on  tlie  square.  tSuch  meas-  j 
ured  stuff  may  vary  all  tlie  way  from  plump  I 


cross-section.  Out  of  both  sides  and  ends, 
a  rabbet,  Z,,  dee])  and  /^  wide,  is  cut.  As 
either  the  sides  or  ends  will  have  to  be  cut 
I  inch  shorter  than  the  length  or  width  of 
the  hive,  I  would  recommeiul  that  it  be  tak- 
en out  of  tlie  end-pieces.  The  sides,  there- 
fore, when  cut  up  into  lengths,  should  be 
exactly  20  in.  long,  and  the  ends  will  be  13| 


HIVE-MAKING. 


150 


HIVE-MAKING. 


wide,  less  I  in.  for  the  lialving  of  the  cor- 
ners; viz.,  18  in.  exactly.  Therefore,  if  yoii 
propose  to  adopt  the  halved  corner  (and  I 
wonld  advise  it  in  preference  to  the  otlier 
two  mentioned),  set  your  brass  stops  on  the 
gauge  already  spoken  of,  so  that  one  side 
will  measure  exactly  20  in.,  and  the  other 
side  exactly  18.  Now,  if  you  cut  out  the 
rabbet  f^,,  deep  and  wide,  out  of  each  end  of 
the  side  and  end  pieces,  your  hive,  when 
nailed  together,  will  have  the  required  di- 
mensions— 18|x20  inches. 

Now.  then,  before  you  Ijegin  cutting  off 
any  considerable  ruunber  of  pieces,  you 
Avant  to  look  sharp  to  your  gauges,  and  de- 
termine whetlier  your  buzz-saw  runs  true. 
When  you  get  nicely  to  going,  try  your 
gauge  occasionally  to  see  whether  your  stuff 
does  not  vary. 

The  sliding  cross-cut  device  has  a  bar 
bolted  to  its  top,  for  a  squiire  cut-off  gauge ; 
this  gauge  was,  in  all  probability,  set  accu- 
rately when  it  left  the  fac'ory.  It  should 
be  so  set,  that,  when  you  cut  off  a  board 
held  closely  against  it,  it  will  be  exactly 
square  across  the  end.  You  can  test  this 
with  a  good  square,  but  I  think  I  should  pre- 
fer to  take  a  board  with  true  straight  sides ; 
cut  off  a  little,  say  a  half-inch ;  now  turn  it 
over,  and  cut  off  again ;  if  the  strip  cut  off' 
is  of  exactly  tht-  same  width  at  each  end, 
your  gauge  is  set  true.  For  fear  you  may 
not  get  the  idea,  I  give  you  a  picture. 


now   TO   SET  THE   CROSS-CUT  BAR. 

If  your  gauge  is  set  right,  the  slices,  C, 
will  be  exactly  straight;  i.  e.,  not  wedge- 
shaped,  even  if  you  turn  the  board  over  so 
as  to  cut  from  the  opposite  edge  at  every 
cut  you  make.  When  you  are  satisfied  with 
this,  set  your  parallel  bar  so  as  to  cut  the 
side  -  pieces  of  tlie  hive  to  just  go  into  the 
iron  frame  lengthwise,  and  the  end-pieces 
to  just  go  in  crosswise.  The  34:-inch  boards 
will  just  make  one  of  each,  after  squaring  up. 

Now,  take  one  of  these  boards,  84  inches 
long,  and  cut  off  enough  to  square  the  board 
up.  8et  your  gauge  on  the  table  so  that  it 
will  be  just  18  inches  from  the  saw.  Slide 
the  lx)ard  along,  and  saw  it  off.  Take  yoxu" 
steel  {range,  and  see  whether  the  board  is 
exactly  18  inches.  If  so,  you  can  go  ahead 
and  cut  in  two  your  other  boards,  until  you 
have  cut  up  the  whole  lot ;  but  remember  to 
"edge  up''  the  end  of  every  board  before 
cutting.    You  now  have  one  pile  just  exact- 


ly 18  inches  long,  and  all  squai'ed  up.  You 
also  have  another  pile  of  boards  that  are 
sonietliing  over  2(1  inches,  one  end  of  which 
lias  been  edged  up — that  is,  been  made 
square  with  the  cross-cut  saw.  Set  your 
gauge  again  so  as  to  cut  the  board  exactly 
20  inches  long;  and  be  sure  to  cut  off  that 
end  of  the  board  that  has  not  yet  been  edged 
Tip.  This  done,  your  sides  and  'ends  are  all 
done  except  the  halving  of  the  ends. 

W^hile  you  are  cutting  \\\)  the  boards  you 
will  lind  that  you  will  occasionally  mm  into 
knots.  It  is  desirable  to  avoid  these  as  far 
as  possible ;  and  this  you  can  do  by  revers- 
ing the  end  of  the  board ;  and  this  will  make 
the  knot  come  in  the  center  of  one  of  the 
side-pieces.  We  want  to  so  manage  as  not 
to  be  obliged  to  work  the  knots. 

You  may  remember,  when  you  were  cut- 
ting up  yom-  boards  in  lengths  of  84  inches, 
you  had  some  shorter  pieces  left.  Some  of 
these  will  make  two  ends,  and  some  one 
side  only.  These  you  are  to  work  up  as  you 
can  to  the  best  advautage  ;  at  any  rate,  man- 
age so  the  ends  and  sides  will  be  of  equal 
height  when  ])iled  up  on  the  floor. 

HOW   TO  H.A.LVE  OUT  THE  BOAKDS. 

On  the  under  side  of  the  Barnes  saw-table 
you  will  find  a  lever  by  which  you  can  raise 
or  lower  the  table.  Raise  the  table  wp  un- 
til the  saw  will  cut  just  /„  deep.  Next  set 
yovu-  ripping-gauge  so  that  it  will  he  just  /„ 
from  the  saw.  Take  one  of  your  l)oards  and 
pass  the  end  of  it  over  the  saw.  The  edge 
of  the  cut  slumld  be  now  just  /g  in.  from  the 
end  of  the  l)oard,  and  just  exactly  ^  deep. 
Be  sure  you  make  no  mistake  here.  Then 
go  ahead  and  make  saw-cuts  on  each  end  of 
the  side  and  end  boards.  You  now  want  to 
take  off'  your  cross-cut  and  put  on  your  rip- 
saw. Leave  the  ripping-gauge  on,  as  it  will 
be  j  ust  right,  probably.  Now  turn  the  board 
on  end  and  pass  it  over  the  top  of  the  saw 
so  as  to  meet  the  other  saw-cut.  If  you 
have  made  no  mistakes,  and  have  done 
every  thing  right,  you  will  have  a  rabbet  cut 
just  /g  deep  and  /g  wide  across  the  grain. 
To  make  sure  yoii  are  right,  measure.  As  a 
fmther  precaution,  rabbet  out  a  imir  of  sides 
and  a  pair  of  ends;  and  now  put  them  to- 
gether to  see  whether  your  hive  measures, 
outside  dimensions,  20  x  18|.  If  so,  you  are 
safe  in  going  ahead  in  cutting  out  tlie  rabbets. 

CUTTING    OUT    THE    FRAME-R.^BBETS. 

The  operation  of  cutting  out  the  frame- 
rabbets  is  very  similar.  But  in  this  case, 
instead  of  being  acroiis  the  grain,  it  is  with 
the  grain ;  so,  therefore  you  want  to  leave 
on  your  rip  saw.    Screw  up  your  table  until 


HIVE-MAKING. 


151 


HIVE-MAKING. 


the  saw  cuts  f  deep.  Bear  in  mind  that 
only  the  end-pieces  are  to  be  rablteted  out  on 
the  upper  inside  edge.  This  rabbet  is  to  be 
j\  wide  by  I  deej),  exactly.  Set  your  ripping- 
gauge  I  inch  from  the  saw,  and  pass  your 
boards  over  the  saw.  You  should  now  hJive 
a  saw-cut  tV  deep  and  I  from  the  top  edge  of 
the  end-board.  Having  made  sure  of  this, 
cut  out  saw-cuts  in  all  the  end-pieces  on  one 
side  only.  You  next  let  down  the  table  so 
your  saw  inxijects  f.  and  you  are  to  move 
the  ripping-gauge  up  to  within  fg  inch  of  the 
saw.  Now  pass  one  of  the  end-pieces  per- 
pendicular over  the  saw  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  this  saw-cut  hit  the  other  one.  Meas- 
ure again,  to  see  that  this  rabbet  is  i^*,;  wide 
by  f  deep,  and  then  go  ahead  and  rabbet 
out  all  your  end-boards.  See  sectional 
drawing.  The  reason  wliy  we  make  the 
rabbet  I  deep  is  because  the  ends  of  the  top- 
bars  of  the  frames  are  f  thick,  and  we  want 
to  leave  exactly  i  inch  bee-space  on  top  of 
the  frame;  therefore  the  hive-rabbet  should 
be  I  deep.  As  our  hive  is  just  IH  iiichts 
deej),  and  the  frames  are  9i  deep,  a:d  the 
rabbet  I  deep,  and  the  top-bars  f  thick,  tliis 
will  leave  just  exactly  i  inch  under  the 
frames.  This  is  convenient,  so  that,  when 
you  set  the  hive  on  a  fiat  surface,  full  of 
frames,  the  frames  do  not  quite  hit  the  sur- 
face so  as  to  push  them  up.  Our  next  step  is 

CUTTING    OUT    HAND-HOLES. 

The  body  of  our  hive  is  nearly  all  done, 
except  the  handles,  or,  rather,  hand  -  holes, 
that  you  lift  them  by ;  these  are  made  with 
a  wabbling  saw.  Sometimes  our  saws  have 
a  fashion  of  "  wabbling,"  just  when  we 
would  rather  they  wouldn't,  and  it  would 
seem  to  be  quite  an  easy  matter  to  make  one 
wabble  :  so  it  is.  The  way  in  which  v  e  make 
saw  wabble,  ordinarily,  is  by  a  pair 
of  wooden  washers  like  this  cut. 
The  saw  should  be  securely  clamped 
between  the  two  wooden  washers; 
that  is,  clamped  so  it  can  not  real 
ly  slip  round,  or  out  of  true.  I  mean  by  out 
of  true,  so  that  the  teeth  are  just  as  long  on 
one  side  as  on  the  other.  Unless  you  have  it 
so,  the  cavity  will  be  deeper  at  one  side  than 
at  the  other.  You  will  also  need  both  the 
parallel  and  cross  -  cut  gauge  for  this  busi- 
ness, and  they  are  to  be  so  set  that,  when  the 
boards  of  the  hive  are  carefully  and  slowly 
dropped  down  on  the  saw,  one  end  at  a  time, 
a  nice  cavity  for  the  lingers  will  be  cut.  To 
smooth  out  the  bottom  of  the  cut,  you  have 
only  to  move  your  board  slightly  sidewise 
just  before  you  lift  it  oft'  the  saw.  This 
trims  off  the  strings,  as  it  were,  left  between 


the  saw-teeth.  I  would  have  these  handles 
made  in  the  sides,  as  well  as  the  ends,  for  it 
is  often  convenient  to  lift  a  hive,  when  the 
ends,  one  or  both,  are  not  convenient  to 
get  at ;  for  you  must  remember  that  our 
hives  can  be  placed  tight  up  against  each 
other,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  so 
doing.  Of  course,  hand-holes  should  be  cut 
in  the  sui)ers  or  half-depth  bodies.  They 
are  not  heavy,  like  full  bodies,  it  is  true,  Inxt 
we  need  something  to  lift  them  by.  I  omit- 
ted to  say.  that  the  depth  of  the  hand-holes 
should  be  f  inch  deep,  and  |  wide.  If  you 
make  them  narrower  and  shallower,  it  will 
not  be  as  easy  to  lift  the  hives,  for  some- 
times a  body  may  weigh  a  hundred  pounds, 
and  you  need  all  the  grip  you  can  have. 
Some  prefer  cleats  nailed  all  around  the 
hives.  While  they  are  a  little  handier  to 
get  hold  of,  they  are  in  the  way,  and  add  to 
the  expense,  as  well  as  interfere  in  closely 
packing  the  hives  together  for  moving. 

HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  COVERS. 

If  you  have  followed  carefully  the  direc- 
tions already  given,  and  consulted  the  sec- 
tional drawings,  you  will  know,  almost  at  a 
glance,  how  to  make  the  cover.  Most  bee- 
keepers prefer  a  flat  board,  and  a  whole 
board  at  that.  If  you  use  narrow  boards 
tongued  and  grooved  together  they  will  be 
alm<''St  sure  to  leak,  sooner  or  later,  from 
shrinkage ;  therefore,  for  covers  and  bot- 
toms we  want  to  get  them  out  so  that  they 
are  13^  wide,  and  20i  long.  You  are  to  i)ro- 
ceed  the  same  as  you  did  with  the  sides  and 
ends ;  viz.,  cut  boards  42i  long,  edge  them 
up,  and  then  cut  them  in  two.  To  prevent 
the  coveis  irom  warping  we  let  the  ends 
into  grooved  cleats.  These  cleats  are  1| 
wide,  IH^  long,  and  ^  inch  thick.  A  longi- 
tudinal groove  ,\  deep,  and  i)lumi)  |  wide,  is 
to  be  cut  into  one  side  of  the  cleat  with  the 
wabble-saw,  already  described.  As  the  hand- 
holes  are  i  inch  wiile,  your  wabble  will  be 
just  right.  To  make  this  groove  exactly  in 
the  center,  set  your  ripping-g  luge  f  in.  from 
the  wabble,  and  then  pass  your  cleats  over 
this.  But  be  very  careful  tiiat  you  do  not 
let  the  cleats  slij)  out  of  your  fingers,  or. 
worse  still,  let  your  hand  fall  on  to  the  wab- 
ble.    If  you  do,  you  will  maim  it  fearfully. 

In  cutting  small  i)ieces  where  we  work 
near  the  saw,  we  always  use  what  we  call 
'•jjush  sticks.  "  Tiiese  are  simply  curved 
sticks  about  s  or  1<)  inclies  long,  one  end  of 
which  is  shaped  something  like  the  handle 
of  a  pistol,  and  the  other  end  is  notched 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  a  shoulder  crowd- 
ing against  the  stuff  that  goes  against  the 


HIVE-MAKING. 


152 


HIVE-MAKING. 


saw.  If  the  work  slips  from  the  saw,  or  any 
thing  happens,  all  the  harm  done  is,  that 
the  push-stick  has  been  "cluiwed"  into  by 
the  saw,  and  not  your  hand.  And  I  might 
remark  here  in  i)assing,  tliat  it  is  always 
better  to  use  the  push-stick  where  you  can. 
Of  course,  where  you  are  sawing  up  boards, 
and  your  hand  is  four  or  five  inches  away 
from  the  saw,  the  push-stick  is  lumecessary. 
When  your  cover  boards  are  cut  out,  and 
the  cleats  are  made,  the  cover  is  complete 
with  the  exception  that  they  are  to  be  driven 
on  to  the  ends.  We  want  only  sound  boards 
for  covers.  Boards  having  dead  knots  in 
them,  or  those  that  are  in  any  way  checked 
or  knotty,  w^ill  answer  just  as  well  for  bot- 
tom-boards; so  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  cut 
up  the  lumber  into  boards  and  covers,  and 
afterward  assort  them  out  according  to  qual- 
ity. If  you  buy  the  right  kind  of  lumbar 
you  will  be  able  to  manage  it  so  there  will 
be  about  an  equal  nvimber  of  bottom  and 
cover  boards. 

The  bottom  dil'fers  from  the  cover,  in  that 
it  uses  only  one  of  the  grooved  cleats.  This 
is  n;iiled  on  to  the  rear  end.  The  following 
engraving  shows  one. 
Now,  we  can  not  use  the 
same  cleat  on  the  other 
end,  because  that  would 
close  up  the  entrance,  or,  at  least,  interfere 
with  the  bees  passing  in  and  out.  So  the 
front  cleat  is  simply  a  piece  of  wood  VSi  in. 
l(mg,  I  thick,  and  U  wide.  On  the  wide  side 
tlie  rabbet  is  taken  out  j%  deep  and  I  wide. 
This  is  nailed  on  to  the  front  end  of  the 
board,  as  sliown,  to  keep  that  end  from 
warping.  Now,  as  I  have  said,  the  bee- 
s])'ace  is  put  on  toj)  of  the  frames.  You 
must  therefore  make  some  provision  for 
raising  the  hive  up  a  bee-space,  or,  better,  a 
little  more,  above  the  bottom-board.  We 
therefore  cut  strips  of  wood  from  the  refuse 
lumber  or  edgings,  i  wide,  f  thick,  and  19i 
long.  These  are  nailed  on  the  two  sides,  as 
shown  in  the  ac('omi)anying  cut.  We  now 
have  a  bottom-boiird  with  raised  edges  on 
three  sides — the  fourth,  or  front  side,  being 
o])en.  When  a  hive-ljody  is  set  on  top  of 
this  it  is  raised  S  in.  from  the  bottom-board, 
and  thus  provision  is  made  for  the  entrance 
without  any  slotting-out  of  the  front  hive- 
board. 

SUPERS— innv  to  make. 

We  have  so  far  constructed  the  body  of 
the  hive,  bottom-board,  and  cover.  If  we 
wish  to  produce  comb  honey,  we  shall  need 
half-depth  bodies,  or  sui)ers.  These  are 
made   from   sides  or  ends  of  a  full-depth 


body  rii)ped  in  two  longitudinally  through 
the  middle,  with  a  thin  saw,  and  they  ai'e 
therefore  just  half  the  depth  of  a  full  body, 
less  the  thickness  of  a  saw-cut.  As  it  is 
S(mietimes  desirable  to  use  two  supers  to- 
gether ff)r  one  body,  we  rabbet  out  both  ends 
the  same  as  we  do  in  full-dei)tli  bodies  for 
frames  to  hang  in. 


EIGHT-FKA3IE     HIVE,    WITH    GABLE    COVER 
AND   PORTICO   FRONT. 

There  are  a  good  many  who  do  not  like  a 
flat  cover  and  plain  hive  ;  and  to  suit  your 
trade  you  may  be  obliged  to  make  some 
slight  modification.  The  cut  below  shows  a 
form  of  an  eight-frame  liive  with  a  gable 
cover  and  portico.  This  cover  is  made  after 
one  illustrate!  and  described  in  Quinby's 
"Mystaries  of  Bse-kaeping,"  edition  of  1866 ; 
and  I  do  not  know  of  any  thing  better  for 
anyone  who  wants  such  a  cover.  The  ridge 
bf)ard  is  made  just  the  same  as  that  shown 
under  Chafe  Hives,  further  on.  It  is  2li 
in.  long,  and  4  wide.  The  other  two  boards 
forming  the  cover  are  f  thick,  and  7i  wide 
by  2U  long.  The  gable  ends  are  14  in.  long, 
I  thick,  and  2f  inches  wide  at  the  widest 
part,  and  f  inch  wide  at  the  two  ends.  To 
put  together,  the  two  ends  are  laid  together 
upon  the  bench ,  and  the  two  t  boards  are 
nailed  as  sliown  in  the  cut.  The  ridge-board  is 
then  laid  flat  on  the  bench,  and  the  cover  is 
reversed  and  set  down  in  the  V,  and  nailed 
from  the  inside.  There  are  no  side  pieces  to 
the  cover,  but  they  can  be  put  on  if  thought 
necessary;  but,  for  reasons  which  encroach 
too  much  upon  our  space,  they  are  better 
left  off.  To  keep  the  bonds  from  warping, 
the  outside  edges  of  the  gable  should  be 
nailed  with  wire  nails,  and  clinched  or 
screwed  down ;  else,  when  somebody  sits 
down  ui)()n  the  cover  he  will  be  liable  to  pry 
the  covers  (jff  from  the  gable-end  pieces. 

Under  sucli  a  cover  there  should  be  used 
either  enamel  cloth,  quilting,  or  something 
to  prevent  the  bees  from  building  comb  in 


HIVE-MAKLNG. 


1.53 


HIVE-MAKING. 


the  empty  spaces.  We  prefer  a  ])lain  board, 
^  in.,  tin  lined  on  the  ends,  to  iirevent 
"warping.  This,  in  my  opinion,  is  better  than 
quilts  or  enamel  sheets.  This  tliin  board 
will  rest  on  the  top  edges  of  the  hive,  and 
yet  leave  the  regulation  i-inch  space  above 
the  frame. 

Now,  very  few  people  prefer  what  is  called 
a  iK)rtico,  and  I  can  not  but  regard  it  as  a 
nuisancp.  It  is  a  harbor  for  spiders  and 
cobwebs,  and  an  excellent  loafing-place  for 
bees  to  cluster  on  during  the  simimer  days 
when  they  ought  to  be  at  work  in  the  fields, 
or  wlien  tliey  should  bs  building  comb. 
Still,  there  are  those  who  will  have  it.  To  ac- 
commodate those,  and  go  to  as  little  expense 
as  ])ossible.  take  a  couple  of  the  three-cor- 
nered entrance-blocks  described  under  Ex- 
trances.  These  we  nail  (the  ktngest  side) 
on  the  hive.  On  top  of  these  is  then  nailed 
a  sort  of  water-table,  f'g  thick.  13|  long,  and 
3i  wide.  The  whole  portico  is  simply  and 
cheaply  made ;  and  if  you  get  disgusted  with 
them,  as  I  feel  sure  you  will,  you  can  at  any 
time  yank  them  off.  It  may  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  they  add  a  little  to  the  architec- 
tural appearance  of  the  hive  ;  but  with  most 
of  us  it  is  not  ornament  Init  the  bread-and- 
biitter  side  of  a. hive  we  are  after. 

BEVELED    OR    SQUARE    EDGES    FOR    HIVES. 

You  will  observe,  that  thus  far  the  direc- 
tions imply  hives  with  square  edges.  In  a 
former  edition  of  this  work  I  recommended 
what  was  called  the  Simplicity  hive.  This 
had  what  is  called  beveled  edges— that  is, 
the  opposing  surfaces  of  the  hive  that  came 
in  contact  were  beveled  at  an  angle  of  45,^ 
so  as  to  shed  water ;  but  as  bees  will  propo- 
lize  the  two  sections  of  a  hive  together,  it 
is  often  difficult  to  separate  them  by  reason 
of  llie  propolis.  For  that  reason  there 
seems  to  be  a  universal  agreement  among 
all  practical  bee-keepers,  that  the  edges  of 
the  hive  should  be  square,  so  tliat;  when 
they  are  gummed  together,  as  the  bees  will 
surely  do.  they  can  be  readily  pried  ap.irt 
with  a  screwdriver,  or  with  the  blade  of  a 
large  knife.  Aside  from  this,  it  is  easier  to 
make  the  square  edges.  It  rec] aires  less 
mechanical  skill  to  make  all  parts  come  to- 
gether true.  Theoretically,  the  water  would 
seep  into  these  cracks  and  rot  the  edges  of 
the  liives.  But  such  has  not  been  found  to 
be  the  case  in  practice.  Besides  that,  tlie 
bees  gum  the  cracks  together  so  that  neither 
water  nor  cold  air  can  enter.  Therefore 
these  plain  square  edges  are  just  as  warm 
as  those  that  have  tlie  telescope  iirinciple. 
Another  tiling,  by  sliding  tlie  cover  or  edges 


of  the  body  above,  the  bees  can,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  be  brushed  off,  and  so  prevent 
maiming  and  killing  bees.  Any  form  of  tel- 
escope cover  is  quite  liable  to  smash  a  lot  of 
bees  unless  a  smoker  and  brush  are  used 
pretty  vigorously  to  brush  off  each  bee  ;  and 
it  is  not  many  apiarists  who  will  take  all 
this  precaution.  They  will  claim  that  their 
time  is  more  valuable  than  the  few  bees 
killed  each  day. 

HOW  TO  MAKE   THE  CHAFF  HIVE. 

This  hive  is  all,  except  the  corner  posts, 
made  of  cull  lumber,  which  can  be  bought  at 
any  lumber-yard  ;  we  get  it  for  §10  per  M. 
Get  it  long  enough  beforehand  to  have  it 
piled  up  and  seasoned,  if  you  possibly  can  ; 
if  you  can  not,  you  must  manage  to  have  the 
stuff  piled  up  so  as  to  season  after  it  is  got 
out ;  it  will  season  very  quickly  in  these  thin 
narrow  strips,  and  so  we  often  cut  it  up,  un- 
seasoned, when  we  are  behind  on  orders. 
Fix  your  table,  as  before  directed,  and  cut 
your  Avhole  pile  of  boards,  before  being 
planed,  into  pieces  two  feet  long.  If  you 
do  not  cut  them  all  so  exact,  it  will  not  mat- 
ter a  great  deal  for  this  hive,  as  you  will 
presently  see. 

After  yovu-  boards  are  all  cut  up,  put  on 
your  rip-saw,  and  split  them  up  three  inches 
wide  ;  but  instead  of  cutting  them  square, 
cut  them  on  about  the  angle  shown  below. 


HOW    TO    CUT    THE    STL'FF    FOR    SIDING. 

If  you  find  any  bad  knots  or  shakes,  do 
not  split  them,  but  pile  them  up  nicely  at 
one  side,  to  be  used  as  rough  bottom-boards. 
This  ripping  can  be  done  either  on  the  foot- 
power  saw  or  with  the  hand  -  ripper ;  we  used 
the  latter,  and  I  think  it  does  the  work  more 
rapidly.  To  cut  the  pieces  on  the  bevel,  you 
are  to  screw  a  bevel-shaped  piece  on  the  saw- 
table. 


PUATFOKM    FOR    GIVINU     llIK    SIDING    THE 
rUOI'ER    BEVEL. 

Two  wedge-shaped  pieces,  of  which  oidy 
one  is  shown  at  Care  used  to  give  the  board 
.  the  ju'oper  inclination ;  the  other  one  is  sup- 
posed to  be  where  you  see  the  nail-holes,  at 
D.  A  is  where  the  saw  comes  up  through, 
and  B  is  a  square  bar  tliat  tiie  edge  of  the 
rough  lumber  is  rested  against.    It  is  fasten- 


HIVE-MAKING. 


lo4 


HIVE-MAKING. 


ed  to  tlie  table  by  screws  put  througli  the 
table  -  top  from  the  under  side  into  these 
pieces  C.  With  the  hand-ripper,  we  screw 
the  two  pieces  fast  to  the  two  light  wooden 
bars  that  constitute  the  only  wood  about 
the  machine. 

A  B  C 


The  lirst  piece  that  comes  off  will  be  like 
A ;  turn  it  over,  and  run  it  through  again, 
and  it  will  be  like  B  ;  the  next  operation  is 
to  split  each  piece,  like  C.  This  you  will 
have  to  do  with  the  hand  ripper,  forthe  foot- 
power  saw  would  not  reach  through  so  far. 
If  you  do  not  split  the  pieces  exactly  in  the 
middle  it  does  not  matter,  and  a  very  thick 
one  occasionally  will  be  all  the  better,  to 
give  the  hive  strength  without  any  extra 
expense.  You  can  plane  this  siding  by 
hand  very  cheaply,  or  it  may  be  done  on  the 
cigar-box  planer ;  if  on  the  latter,  you  will 
be  obliged  to  reduce  them  to  a  uniform 
thickness  unless  you  choose  to  save  out  the 
thickest  pieces,  and  plane  them  afterward 
with  the  planer  a  little  higher.  Plane  only 
the  one  side  just  left  by  the  saw.  If  you  are 
not  going  to  use  this  siding  at  once,  pile  it 
up  crosswise,  as  coopers  do  their  staves, 
until  it  is  thoroughly  seasoned  and  straight. 
Our  chaff  hive  is  built  by  nailing  these 
pieces  of  siding  to  corner-posts,  with  planed 
side  outward,  of  course.  As  nails  have  a 
fashion  of  drawing  out  when  exposed  to  the 
sun  (some  carpenters  say  the  sun  pulls  them 
out),  we  will  drive  them  all  from  the  inside, 
and  then  if  '"Old  Sol"  tries  to  pull  them  out 
by  the  feet  he  will  have  a  tough  job,  and 
will  only  draw  the  lieads  up  tigliter.  The 
corner  posts  that  we  use  ai-e  m.  de  of  solid 
wood,  and  are  cut  from  l-inch  plank.  The 
plank  should  be  so  clear  from  knots  and 
shakes  that  there  will  be  no  danger  of  the 
pieces  breaking  while  nailing  into  them. 
Cut  your  plank,  which  should  be  as  wide  as 
you  can  get  it,  into  pieces  22  inches  long. 
Now  with  the  beveling  platform  that  I 
showed  you  in  hive-making,  you  are  to  cut 
out  the  cornei'-posts  in  this  way: 


out  pieces  like  Fig.  II.  After  you  get  them 
all  out,  you  are  ready  to  nail  up  the  outside 
of  the  hive.  Lay  two  of  your  corner-posts, 
as  shown  above,  on  your  work-bench,  and 
have  them  2  feet  and  24  inches  apart.  To 
get  these  dimensions  without  measuring.  T 
would  nail  a  couple  of  strips  to  the  bench 
just  the  right  distance  apart ;  also  a  third 
across  the  end,  that  we  may  always  have  the 
hive  square  and  true.  The  chaff  hive  is  not 
quite  square  ;  it  is  I  inch  narrower  on  the 
entrance-side  and  the  back ;  therefore  when 
you  are  nailing  the  back  and  front,  you  are 
to  slip  a  strip  of  wood  |  inch  wide  between 
one  of  your  posts  and  yoiu'stop.  Our  siding, 
you  remember,  is  just  2  feet  long;  well,  the 
pieces  on  both  front  and  back  go  clear  up 
into  the  corners  of  the  corner-posts,  and  not 
the  sides  as  shov/n  in  the  cut.  This  will  pre- 
vent the  side  strips  from  coming  clear  up  by 
i  inch,  as  shown  below. 


EXTERNAL   SHELL.  AND   CORNER-POSTS  OF 
CHAFF  HIVE. 

A  is  the  entrance  ;  B,  B,  B,  B,  the  corner- 
posts,  and  C,  C,  C,  C,  the  siding.  Now,  after 
we  have  got  the  siding  nailed  securely,  with 
the  beveled  edges  so  arranged  as  to  keep  the 
rain  out  of  the  chaff,  we  will  nail  in  each 
corner  an  inch  strip,  shown  at  D,  D,  D,  D  ; 
these  are  put  in  with  heavier  nails,  and  lock 
the  whole  structure  most  securely. 

As  there  is  no  need  of  uncovering  the  chaff' 
part  when  we  uncover  the  hive,  we  make 
the  cover  so  as  to  extend  over  the  interior 
oidy,  and  have  a  permanent  cover  over  the 
space  containing  the  chaff.  This  permanent 
cover  is  our  next  piece  of  work.  Get  out 
some  long  strips,  just  as  you  did  the  siding, 
only  have  them  |  inch  wider,  preserving  just 
the  same  bevels  on  each  side.  Plane  it  on 
both  sides  down  to  J,  and  then  cut  out  a 
part  as  shown  in  the  diagram. 


Fig.  I .  shows  the  piece  before  taking  out 

the  strip,  and  Fig.  II.  after  it  is  done.    You 

HOW  TO  MAKE  THE  coKXEK-posTS.  are  to  cut  in  i  inch  at  A  on  the  same  bevel 

You  will  observe  that  the  saw  goes  in  at   as  the  sides,  and  then  2|  at  B  to  meet  the 

each  side  until  the  cuts  meet,  so  as  to  take    other  cut.     Now  turn  your  cross-cut  bar  at 


hive-maki:ng. 


loo 


IIIVE-MAKING. 


an  angle,  just  as  if  you  were  going  to  make 
a  picture-frame,  and  make  a  picture-frame 
in  reality,  of  the  stuff  shown  at  Fig.  II.  The 
inside  dimensions  of  the  frame  must  be  just 
19i  by  20i  ;  you  must  be  very  exact  about  the 
19i,  for  the  frames  will  not  have  the  right 
play,  otherwise  ;  but  that  you  may  get  tlie 
proper  idea,  I  will  give  you  a  diagram  of 
this  frame. 


KIM    THAT    HOLDS    THE    COVKK. 

To  make  the  joint  w^ater  -  tight  at  the 
miters,  a  saw-cut  is  made  in  each  end  of  each 
piece  as  sliown  at  A;  and  after  the  frame  is 
nailed  at  the  corners,  a  strip  of  tin  is  pushed 
in.  The  outside  of  this  frame  will  proba- 
bly be  a  tritle  large. 

This  rim.  when  nailed  true  and  stjuare,  is 
to  be  fitted  to  tlie  tops  of  the  corner-posts ; 
the  posts  can  be  given  the  proper  bevel,  with 
the  circular  saw,  before  the  siding  is  nailed 
on.  This  bevel  is  the  same  as  that  of  the 
siding.  The  top -pieces  of  siding  are  to  be 
of  pretty  good  thickness,  that  we  may  nail 
this  rim  securely  to  it.  as  well  as  to  the  posts. 
It  may  be  well  to  state  here,  that  the  top- 
pieces  of  siding  are  nailed  on  tirst ;  7  pieces, 
of  the  dimensions  we  have  given,  form  the 
hive.  Before  nailing  in  the  last  piece,  you 
are  to  mortise  the  entrance  near  the  upper 
side.  This  entrance  is  to  be  i4i  in  long  by  | 
wide.    Figs.  1  and  2  will  make  it  plain. 


but  that  I  would  rather  have  them  unplaned. 
Xeither  is  it  important  to  have  the  boards 
split  exactly  in  the  middle  ;  in  fact,  one  end 
I  had  in  view,  while  inventing  this  chaff 
hive,  was  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  having  to 
be  so  exact  as  we  nuist  be  with  hives  where 
both  inside  and  outside  are  exposed  to  view. 
You  see  as  we  go  along,  that,  while  the  in- 
side dimensions  of  the  hive  are  to  ''  a  dot," 
the  boards  constituting  it  may  be  of  all  sorts 
of  thicknesses,  and  lengths  too,  or  at  least  a 
part  of  them,  for  nearly  all  the  joints  are  lap 
joints.  As  before  remarked,  it  is  very  im- 
portant that  the  back  and  front  of  the  hive 
be  at  the  light  distance  apart,  and  this 
proper  distance  is  18i  inches  ;  to  insure  this 
every  time,  we  make  the  side-boards  with 
shoulders  as  sho\yn  below,  i  by  i. 


Having  now  completed  the  outer  shell,  we 
will  see  about  the 

INSIDE   OF   CHAFF  HIVE. 

This,  as  well  as  the  outside,  is  all  made  of 
cheap  cull  lumber.  I  would  by  all  means 
advise  getting  out  yoiu*  boards  a  little  wide, 
and  sticking  tliem  up  until  thoroughly  sea- 
soned, as  I  have  mentioned  before.  Cut  your 
stuff  in  two  in  the  middle,  so  tliat  you  can 
handle  it  readily,  and  then,  with  the  hand- 
ripper,  rip  the  boards  i  inch  wider  than  you 
need,  and  cut  them  up  to  the  exact  length. 
When  this  is  done,  and  your  boards  are  all 
piled  up  srpiare  and  true  as  before,  you  are 
ready  to  split  them  through  the  middle.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  the  boards  be  i)laned 
on  more  than  (me  side,  for  the  liack  side  of 
all  of  them  is  next  the  chaff;  and  as  the 
rougli  surface  would  tend  to  impede  the  cir- 
culation of  currents  of  air,  I  do  not  know 


ONE  OF  THE   SIDES  OF   THE   IXSIDE   OF   THE 
CHAFF  HIVE. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  four  of  these 
boaids  are  used— two  above  and  two  below, 
I8i  inches  from  shoulder  to  shoulder. 

The  width  of  tliese  boards,  when  finished, 
is  to  be  just  9f  inches  by  about  iHi  long. 
We  will  cut  the  shoulders  on  the  planed 
sides,' of  course,  because  they  come  inside  of 
the  hive.  The  ends  are  of  unequal  length, 
for  the  upper  story  contains  a  greater  num- 
ber of  frames  than  the  lower.  The  bottom 
ones  are  14i  in.  long,  and  the  upper  ones  20* 
in.;  both  are  9  in.  wide.  In  the  Simplicity 
hive  we  were  obliged  to  cut  a  rabbet  into 
the  upper  edge  of  the  end-boards  ;  but  with 
these,  we  simply  nail  the  tin  rabbet  directly 
on  their  upper  edges.  The  rim  before  men- 
tioned forms  the  back  to  those  in  the  upper 
story,  and  a  strip,  nailed  on  to  connect  the 
two  stories,  forms  the  back  to  those  in  the 
lower  story.  This  inside  work  is  all 
made  of  i  or  I  inch  stuff'.  The  bottom 
of  the  lower  story  is  also  made  of  this 
same  thin  stuff  ;  and  in  nailing  it  on  it 
does  not  matter  if  the  boards  lap  over  and 
project  at  both  the  sides  and  ends  too.  The 
diaerram  given,  a  transverse  sectional  view 
of  the  cJiaff  liive,  will.  I  tliink,  make  it  all 
plain. 

Hoth  the  outside  and  inside  are  nailed  up 
separately,  and  then  tliey  are  put  in  place, 
and  nailed  together,  the  only  points  of  at- 
tachment being  the  rim  which  rests  on  the 
top  edge  of  the  upper  story,  and  the  bottom 
of  the  lower  story,  wliich  rests  on  a  couple 
of  strips  that  are  attached  to  tiie  siding  on 


HIVE-MAKING. 


15(3 


IIIVE-MAKING. 


either  side,  and  to  which  the  bottom  is  nail- 
ed. Let  A  A  represent  the  siding  ;  B  B  B  B 
the  chatf ,  and  C  C  C  C  the  light  boards  that 


DIAGRAM     SHOWING     SECTIONAL    VIEW    OF 
CHAFF   HIVE. 

constitute  the  inner  hive.  D  D  is  the  rim 
that  holds  the  cover,  and  E  E  the  cover  itself. 
F  is  the  ridge  -  board  that  holds  the  siding 
of  which  the  cover  is  made.  G  G  are  strips 
about  H  inches  square,  that  support  the  up- 
per story,  and  attach  it  securely  to  the  lower 
one.  The  shelf,  or  ledge,  formed  by  making 
the  upper  story  broader  than  the  lower  one, 
is  exactly  on  a  level  with  the  top-bar  of  the 
lower  frames,  and  therefore  the  upper  tier 
of  frames  must  hang  just  f  of  an  inch  from 
these,  to  prevent,  as  much  as  possible,  the 
building  of  combs  between  the  two.  H  is 
the  entrance,  which  is  simply  a  covered  pas- 
sageway from  the  inside  hive,  through  the 
chaff,  to  the  outside.*  A  frame  is  shown  in 
place  in  the  lower  story,  and  the  ends  of 
three  of  them  in  the  upper  story,  hanging 
at  right  angles  to  those  below.  .J  J  are  two 
heavy  i)ieces  of  rough  unplaned  stuff,  that 
support  the  bottom  of  the  inside  hive.  Just 
below  these  is  the  rough  bottom  of  the  hive, 
which  is  made  of  the  knotty  and  shaky 
pieces  that  were  rejected  when  we  were 
getting  out  the  siding.  To  keep  out  the 
dampness  of  the  groimd  as  much  as  possible, 
as  well  as  to  discourage  mice  from  any  at- 
tempt to  get  into  the  siding,  we  put  a  sheet 
of  tarred  building-paper  just  under  J  J,  and 
between  them  and  the  rough  bottom-boards. 


*  1«H4  —The  bottom-board  piece^that  comes  oppo- 
site the  entrfince  is  cut  9  inches  Vide  and  '!»  thick; 
and  from  the  outside  of  the  inside  shell  to  the  inside 
of  the  outside  shell  it  is  beveled  '4  inch,  leaving  the 
end  'g  thick,  under  which  a  cleat  is  nailed,  to  pre- 
vent checkinp,  etc.  The  entrance  as  so  made  is 
shown  at  H.  only  the  artist  has  left  out  the  cleat. 
This  prevents  all  possibility  of  severe  storms  beat- 
injf  into  the  hive. 


These  rough  bottom  -  boards  are  tlie  last 
thing  put  on  ;  when  the  body  of  the  hive  is 
all  finished,  it  is  turned  bottom  upward  and 
the  chaff  filling  put  in.  The  chaff  may  be 
either  wheat  or  oats  ;  it  has  been  suggested 
that  wheat  would  be  less  liable  to  get  damp 
and  settle  down  so  as  to  be  soggy  and  moldy, 
and  our  experience  seems  to  indicate  that 
this  is  so.  The  wheat  chaff  is  probably 
the  warmer  of  the  two,  because  it  is  softer 
and  more  downy,  like  feathers.  The  chaff 
should  be  packed  sufficiently  to  prevent  it 
from  ever  settling  so  as  to  leave  the  upper 
portions  of  the  hive  vacant.  When  the  chaff 
is  all  nicely  lilled  into  the  sides,  you  are  to 
put  as  much  over  the  bottom  as  possible  and 
have  the  tarred  paper  and  rough  bottom- 
boards  go  in,  and  then  the  whole  is  to  be  se- 
curely nailed,  both  down  into  the  strips,  J, 
and  through  from  the  siding,  into  the  ends 
of  these  bottom-boards.  Now  we  are  ready 
for  the  cover. 

To  contrive  a  light,  cheap  cover  that  would 
be  absolutely  water-proof,  that  would  allow 
of  being  readily  lifted  with  one  hand,  and 
still  afford  a  flat  place  on  the  top  for  setting 
a  case  of  section  boxes,  or  any  other  article 
used  in  the  apiary,  caused  me  more  hard 
study  and  experiment  than  all  the  rest  of 
the  hive  put  together.  There  are  a  great 
many  different  pieces  to  the  chaff  hive,  it  is 
true  ;  but  these  pieces  are  all  made  of  cheap 
lumber,  and  one  kind  of  pieces  is  made  to 
answer  a  great  variety  of  different  purposes. 
For  instance,  the  roof-boards  of  the  cover 
are  all  sorted  out  of  the  same  siding  that  is 
used  for  the  body  of  the  hive.  Before  piling 
this  siding  away,  you  are  to  select  all  of  the 
poorest  and  knottiest  pieces  for  these  cov- 
ers. For  the  sake  of  lightness  we  will 
plane  these  down  to  I,  or  a  little  less. 
Where  we  get  hold  of  very  thick  stuff  among 
our  pile  of  culls  we  can  often  make  3  roof- 
boards  of  a  piece,  thus  saving  lumber,  and 
time  in  dressing  it  down.  Now  these  boards 
or  strips  are  to  be  bent  in  the  middle,  to  get 
the  slope  to  the  roof ;  and  to  do  this  we 
will  make  a  broad  saw-cut  nearly  through 
each  of  them,  as  shown  below. 


KOOF-BOARD  TO   CHAFF  HIVE. 

Make  the  cut  so  nearly  through,  that  the 
board  will  bend  along  the  line,  without 
trouble.  To  keep  them  bent  just  right,  and 
to  make  a  solid  ridge-board  with  the  flat, 
place  on  top,  we  will  get  out  a  piece  of  I 
stuff,  28i  inches  long,  and  5  inches  wide. 


HIVE-MAKING. 


157 


HIVE-MAKING. 


Fix  a  beveled  piece  against  the  parallel  bar 
on  your  saw-table,  so  that  you  can  cut  out 
this  board  thus: 

Let  A  i'epresent  the  paral- 
lel bar  ;  B,  the  beveled  piece 
screwed  to  it ;  C,  the  ridge- 
board  we  are  making,  and  D 
the  dotted  lines  where  we 
wish  to  have  the  saw  -  cut. 
After  going  through  on  one  side,  the  board 
is  to  be  turned  over,  so  that  the  piece  E  is 
taken  entirely  out  at  the  second  cut. 

To  make  these  cheap  roof-boards  water- 
proof, we  will  cover  them  with  tin.  Get 
12  X  24  roofing  tin,  which  will  cost,  at  pres- 
ent prices,  about  $7.00  per  box.  Two  sheets 
are  required  for  a  cover.  Notch  out  two  of 
the  corners  to  each  sheet,  I  x  | ;  fold  three 
sides  of  the  sheet  at  right  angles,  |  of  an 
inch,  and  it  is  then  just  right  to  put  on  the 
covers,  if  the  covers  are  as  they  should  be. 
The  tin  is  nailed  fast  only  in  the  edges  of 
the  eaves  and  along  the  gable-ends,  no  nails 
being  on  the  top  side  of  the  cover.  In  our 
picture  of  the  cover,  the  ridge-board  is  rep- 
resented in  place,  but  it  is  not  to  be  put  on 
until  after  the  sheets  of  tin.  It  is  put  on  the 
last  thing,  and  held  by  nails  from  the  inside, 
none  of  them  being  allowed  to  come  up 
through.  This  tin  cover  is  to  be  painted 
like  the  rest  of  the  hive,  and,  so  long  as  it  is 
kept  painted,  the  tin  will  last  unimpaired. 

As  the  rim  that  holds  the  cover  is  on  a 
bevel,  we  wish  the  strip  that  goes  under  the 
eaves,  as  well  as  the  gable-end  piece  with 
the  ventilating-hole  in  it,  to  be  beveled  at 
their  lower  edges  also  ;  the  former  we  make 
of  thick  pieces  of  siding,  by  splitting  them 
in  two  on  the  proper  bevel.  As  these  are  to 
hold  the  nails  along  the  eaves,  they  should 
be  at  least  I  thick.  For  the  gable-ends,  we 
adopt  a  little  different  line  of  management, 
and,  as  the  principle  is  a  very  important  one, 
I  will  take  a  little  space  to  explain  it. 

Much  time  is  occupied  in  handling  all 
these  little  bits  of  hnnber  ;  and  to  employ  a 
strong  man  to  handle  little  bits  of  pine,  and 
turn  them  end  for  end.  when  he  could, 
without  fatigue,  handle  a  dozen  or  a  hundred 
just  as  well,  is  something  that  sliould  be 
avoided  as  much  as  i»ossible.  The  same 
idea  is  brought  out  very  strongly  in  mak- 
ing section  l)()xes ;  but  to  make  irregular 
forms  is  a  little  more  dillicult.  Even  if  we 
can  accomplish  no  more  than  to  have  two  of 
the  pieces  attached,  so  that  the  workman 
can  perform  two  oi)erations  on  tliem,  while 
the  stuff  is  right  in  liis  hands,  it  is  quite  a 
saving.  This  gable-end  piece,  you  see  above. 


GABLE  END  TO   CIlAFF-IIIVE   COVER. 

You  will  notice,  that  each  piece  has  a 
tapering  cut  at  each  end  ;  that  it  has  a  bevel 
at  the  lower  edge  ;  and  that  it  has  a  hole 
bored  through  it.  To  pick  it  up  and  lay  it 
down  for  each  of  the  four  operations,  espe- 
cially if  you  are  one  of  the  awkward  kind 
that  have  to  turn  around  and  stoop  over 
every  time  they  lay  a  piece  down  and  pick 
another  u]),  requires  a  good  deal  of  time. 
If  we  should  take  a  piece  of  3-inch  plank, 
we  could  cut  the  tapers  and  bore  the  holes 
in  at  least  six  pieces  at  once,  for  they  need 
not  be  over  f ,  and  then  we  could  saw  off  the 
pieces  after  all  was  done.  But  8-inch  plank 
is  pretty  expensive,  because  there  is  so  little 
demand  for  it.  If  we  can  buy  2-inch  plank 
at  a  low  figure,  it  may  do  to  use  this  ;  but 
even  if  we  do,  after  boring  the  holes  and 
cutting  the  tapers,  we  would  better  cut  them 
in  two  in  the  middle  first,  so  as  to  have 
about  inch  pieces,  as  you  will  see.  Very 
likely  it  will  be  best  to  use  your  culls,  so  we 
will  get  out  a  piece  of  inch  stuff  planed  as 
thick  as  it  will  work,  5  inches  wide  by  22^ 
long.  This  piece  will  make  4  gable  ends,  by 
running  your  saw  through  the  dotted  lines, 
as  shown  below. 
ASDA 


A  kM.ii  A 


HOW    TO    MAKE    THE    GABLE    ENBS. 

First  we  take  off  the  corners,  A  A  ;  then 
bore  the  lioles ;  next  we  cut  from  B  to  C 
and  from  D  to  E  ;  lastly,  split  them  through 
the  middle,  and  they  are  finislied  all  but 
])laning.  The  ventilating  -  hole  should  be 
about  li  inches  in  diameter,  and  should  be 
covered  with  wire  cloth,  on  the  inside.  It  is 
never  safe  to  omit  these  ;  for  the  bees  in  a 
strong  colony  will  exhale  so  much  moisture 
as  to  cause  drops  of  water  to  hang  on  the 
roof-boards,  and  large  icicles  to  form  in  the 
winter.  1  have  wintered  bees  in  the  chaff 
liives,  without  tlie  ventilating-holes,but  was 
obliged  to  open  tliem  occasionally  during 
very  severe  weather,  to  let  the  roof  and  cush- 
ions dry  out. 

OUTSIDE   WINTEK   CASE-. 

In  18!!0  and  '91  tliere  was  an  effort  looking 
toward  something  cheiper  than  the  cliaft" 
liive,  in  the  shape  of  an  outside  protection 
that  can  be  readily  adapted  to  single-walled 
hives  already  in  use.  The  discussion  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  a  good  many  bee-keep- 


HIVE-MAKING. 


158 


HIVE-M7\KING 


ers  were  using  single-walled  hives  in  an 
outside  removable  winter  case,  the  same 
being  tAVO  or  thrte  inches  wider,  longer,  and 
deeper,  than  the  inside  hive.  These  cases 
being  large  enough  to  be  set  down  over  the 
hive,  and  leave  S];ace  all  around,  of  an  inch 
or  two,  can  be  packed  or  not  as  desired. 
The}'  are  usually  made  of  Inmber  not  more 
than  f  in.  thick,  and  tliey  may  have  a  per- 
manent cover,  or  one  that  can  be  taken  off 
at  pleasure.  The  former,  of  course,  would 
then  simply  be  a  caj),  to  set  down  over  the 
hive.  This,  of  course,  can  not  be  easily 
packed.  When  it  is  desired  to  ])aek  these 
hives  the  cover  should  be  removable.  Some 
sort  of  bridge  is  necessary  to  make  an  en- 
trance-way from  the  outside  to  the  inside  of 
the  hive,  and  to  prevent  the  packing,  wher- 
ever it  may  be  used,  from  closing  the  en- 
trance up. 

Their  chief  advantage  lies  in  the  fact  that 
they  are  chea]).  and  can  he  readily  removed 
when  warm  weather  approaches.  Another 
thing,  when  it  is  desired  to  move  an  out- 
apiary,  the  winter  Cdses  can  be  moved  in  a 
large  hay-rack  wagon,  separately  from  the 
hive  containing  the  l)ees;  and  as  the  bee- 
business  is  resolving  itself  into  out-apiaries, 
which  see,  there  his  been  a  demand  for 
something  lighter  and  more  portable  than 
the  chaff  hive.  Not  more  than  eight  or  ten 
of  these  can  be  put  on  a  wagon  at  a  time ; 
whereas  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  single- 
walled  eight-frame  hives  can  l)e  loaded  in 
the  same  space  that  tlie  eight  or  ten  large 
chaff  hives  take.  Again,  most  Ijee-keepers 
have  single-walled  hives  already,  and  they 
can  hardly  afford  to  throw  these  away;  but 
by  Ijuying  these  outside  winter  cases,  at  a 
cost  of  25  or  80  cts.  eacli,  they  can  very 
quickly  convert  their  single- walled  hives 
into  double-wiilled  or  winter  hives. 

We  have  trie<l  these  outside  winter  cases 
during  a  couple  of  winters  back,  with  suc- 
cess ;  l)Ut  as  I  am  not  certain  just  what  form 
is  best,  I  will  not  describe  any  in  particular, 
any  further  th;in  that  I  would  make  the 
cases  of  f  lumber,  about  H  inches  deeper, 
wider,  and  longer,  than  the  outside  dimen- 
sions of  the  single-walled  hive.  I  should 
tlien  liave  a  plain  top  to  telescope  over  the 
outside  c  ise.  This  may  be  either  Hat,  or 
of  the  gable  foriu.  To  prepare  the  hive  for 
winter,  take  one  of  these  (;ases  and  set  it 
over  the  hive,  having  first  removed  the  cov- 
er of  the  single-walled  hive.  Pour  chaff, 
planer  shavings,  or  other  packing  material 
around  the  sides.  Spread  a  sheet  of  burlap 
on  top  of  the  frames,  with  a  Hill  device  or  | 


something  of  the  sort,  under.  Cover  with  a 
chaff  cushion,  or  pour  loose  chaff  on  top, 
and,  last  of  all,  put  the  cover  on.  Winter 
cases  of  this  style,  when  put  ovet  a  single- 
walled  hive,  make  virtually  a  double-walled 
hive,  and  have  all  the  advantages  of  these 
hives,  with  others  pecul'arto  themselves. 

I  have  now  described  how  to  make  a  com- 
plete hive,  l)oth  single  and  double  walled. 
It  will  now  be  necessary  to  describ""  how  to 
make  the  inside  funiitiue.  We  will,  there- 
fore, firs  I  take  up 

FRA5IES   FOR   IIIVEC. 

The  frames  to  fit  the  hives  I  have  describ- 
ed, are  17S  by  9i.  I  took  these  dimensions 
from  a  frame  Mr.  L.  sent  me  several  years 
ago,  in  answer  to  an  api)lication  to  him  for 
a  frame  of  the  dimensions  he  would  prefer. 
Although  some  of  the  frames  in  common 
use,  called  the  L.  frame,  differ  somewhat 
from  these  dimensions,  yet  the  frame  will 
fit  the  greater  number  of  hives  in  common 
use,  known  as  the  L.  hive. 

It  is  a  very  important  thing  to  have  all 
our  frames,  as  well  as  our  hives,  exact  in 
size  ;  and  to  insure  this,  we  have  gauges 
made  for  each  separate  part.  We  formerly 
used  wooden  gauges  ;  but  after  long  use,  we 
find  there  is  danger  of  inaccuracy  from  the 
shrinking  and  swelling  by  changes  of  weath- 
er, or  loosening  of  joints  by  use,  and  we 
have,  therefore,  decided  on  steel  gauges, 
which  we  make  of  a  cheap  carpenters' 
square,  such  as  are  to  be  had  at  almost  any 
hardware  store.  The  stops  are  made  of 
brass,  and  are  put  on  with  rivets,  as  there 
is  always  more  danger  of  a  solder  joint  giv- 
ing way  than  of  a  riveted  one.  The  draw- 
ing below  will  make  it  all  plain,  I  think. 


^^^ 


GAUGE  FOR  FRAME-3IAKING, 

The  plate  on  the  end  is  put  on  that  end  of 
the  square  that  reads  one  inch,  thus  enabling 
us  to  read  the  dimensions  in  inches,  at  the 
same  time  that  we  are  trying  a  piece  of 
board  to  see  if  the  length  is  right.  One  side 
of  the  square  gauges  the  top-bar,  and  the 
other  side  the  bottom-bar.  The  notch  in  the 
side  gives  the  length  of  the  end-bars.  For 
frames,  we  use  box  lumber  that  costs  about 
$30.00  per  M.  A  cheaper  quality  would  an- 
swer, and  we  might  work  cull  lumber  to 
quite  an  advantage,  were  it  not  that  there 
would  be  great  danger  of  bad  pieces  getting 
in,  and  we  really  need  the  very  best  straight- 
grained  pine  for  our  frames,  both  brood  and 
section,  that  we  can  get.  Square  the  end  of 
your  board  with  the  cut-off  bar,  and  then 


HIVE-MAKING. 


159 


HIVE-MAKIJJG. 


set  the  parallel  bar  at  such  a  distance  that 
the  pieces  cut  otf  Avill  be  of  such  length  as 
to  just  push  in  between  the  stops  on  your 
gauge.  Do  not  say,  when  you  have  it  near- 
ly right,  "■  That  is  near  enough,''  but  have  it 
just  as  nice  a  tit  as  it  can  be  ;  then  you  can 
go  on  cutting  up  your  boards,  without  any 
fear   of   inaccuracy. 

If  you  wish  to  make  a  cheap  frame,  and 
do  not  caie  any  thing  about  the  sagging  of 
tiie  top  bars  and  the  building  of  l)urr-combs 
in  between  tlie  upper  and  lower  set  of 
frames,  or  lietween  the  liVood  frames  and 
sections,  you  can  not  ^et  up  any  thing 
cheaper  than  the  one  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying engraving. 


A   CHEAP   FRAME. 

Figs.  2,  8,  4,  5,  show  almost  at  a  glance 
how  it  is  made,  and  put  together.  Tlie  end- 
bars  and  Ijottom-bais  are  4  wide  and  i  thick. 
The  end-bars  are  yi  inches  long,  and  the 
bottom-bar  is  17|  inches  long.  The  top-bar 
is  f  thick,  I  wide,  and  18|  long,  leaving  a 
i-inch  projection  at  each  end  beyond  the 
end  bars.  On  the  under  side  of  the  top-bar 
there  is  a  groove  in  whicii  to  insert  the 
comb-guide  3  :  and  the  end-bars,  before  be- 
ing ripped  up  into  i-inch  strips,  are  grooved 
on  one  end,  as  shown  in  Fig.  1,  and  slotted 
out  on  the  other  end  as  in  Fig.  4.  The 
widest  part  of  the  mortise  is  /g  wide  and  f 
deep.  The  saw-cut  in  the  center  is  s'g  of  an 
inch  deep.  The  mortise  and  saw-cut  in  the 
end  bars  is  made  by  placing  a  grooving-saw 
6i  inches  in  diameter,  and  two  (i-ineh  ^^ 
saws  together,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
groover,  so  that  the  whole  end  is  tinished  at 
once,  as  .seen  at  4.  The  top-bar  is  notched 
out  at  each  end,  as  shown  at  2.  The^e 
notches  are  made  in  the  bar  before  the 
bQards  are  ripped  up  into  |  strips,  and  are  i 
inch  wide  by  ./g  deep,  on  each  side. 

A  frame  of  this  description  can  be  driven 
together  and  will  hold  tolerably  well  with- 
out nails  ;  but,  of  course,  to  make  it  secure 
they  should  be  nailed. 

TIIICK-TOP-BAU   FU.\ .MES. 

On  account  of  the  aforesaid  inconven- 
ience of  the  sagging  of  toi>-bars,  and  the 
unnecessary  building  of  burr-combs  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  set  of  frames 
when  extracting,  in   1S89  and  'm)  an  effort  i 


was  made  to  get  rid  of  these  undesirable 
features;  and  the  discissions  in  Gle.an- 
iXG<  IN  Bee  Culture  which  followed  dur- 
ing those  years,  showed  qi  ite  conclusively 
that  a  top-bar  a  full  inch  wide,  and  I  or  I 
thick,  having  a  bee-space  in  the  hive  to  al- 
low i  inch,  and  also  having  the  separate 
frames  spa -ed  from  each  other  If  from  cen- 
ter to  center,  would  be  virtually  proof 
against  the  building  of  burr-combs.  The 
L.  frame  is  what  is  called  a '•  long""  one  ; 
that  is,  the  top-bar  is  rather  longer  than  the 
other  sizes  of  frames ;  and  to  prevent 
its  sagging,  and  so  preserve  the  i)roper  bee- 
space,  experience  has  shown  that  it  can  not 
be  much  less  than  |  inch.  Top-bars  i  inch 
have  been  known  1;o  sag  a  trifle  ;  so,  to  be  on 
the  safe  side,  itis  best  to  add  at  least  i  more. 
Experience  has  shown  that,  for  "  loose  "" 
frames  (for  the  definition  of  which  see 
Fixed  Frames),  it  may  be  desirable  to  use 
even  |  inch  ;  and  this  will  be  more  conven- 
ient for  reasons  to  be  presently  given.  The 
following  cut  shows  what  we  call  a  thiek- 
top-bar  frame.  It  is  made  a  little  different 
from  the  one  already  described,  as  you  will 
see  by  referring  to  the  cut. 


THICK-TOP-BAR    FRAME. 

As  I  have  said,  a  |-inch  thickness  might 
do  for  loose  frames;  but  as  you  proliably 
will  not  be  able  to  get  lumlier  of  that  thick- 
ness without  paying  for  a  great  deal  of 
waste,  I  would  advise  you  to  make  your  top- 
bars  i  thick.  They  had  better  be  a  "little 
too  thick  than  not  thic  k  enough. 

HOW   TO   MAKE   TH:t  K-TOP-BAR    FRAMES. 

Take  |  boards,  and  cut  them  up  into 
lengths  of  18|  inches,  and  then  square 
them  up  as  already  des  ribed  under  the 
making  of  iiives.  Now,  on  each  end  of 
tiiese  boaids  cut  a  rabbet  *  inch  into  the 
end  of  tlie  grain,  by  i  inch  deep  across  the 
grain.  You  are  then  to  ri])  them  up  into 
lengths  of  Ij'j  incl  es  wide.  The  next  step 
will  be  to  cut  the  c()mb-i;uide  <iroove.  Put 
on  a  tliick  groovinn-saw.  and  cut  on  the  un- 
der side  of  tlie  top-bar  longitudinally,  in  tlie 
center,  a  groove  ».  deep.  The  bottom-bars 
are  made  just  tiie  same  as  those  of  the 
frames  previously  described.  The  end-bars 
are  made  just  the  same,  only  the  top  end  is 


HIVE-MAKING. 


160 


HIVE-MAKING. 


cut  off  square,  and  the  length  is  I  shorter  ; 
namely,  8f  inclies  long.  Into  the  end  of 
this  make  a  saw  cut,  with  the  same  groov- 
ing-sawthat  you  used  for  cutting  out  the 
comb-guide  groove  in  the  top  bar,  i-inch 
deep.  The  comb-guide  is  17|  inches  long, 
the  thickness  of  a  thick  grooving-saw,  and 
I  wide.  Your  pieces  are  now  all  cut  out 
and  ready  to  be  put  together,  as  shown  in 
the  engraving.  In  the  cut,  the  frame  above 
is  wired  on  the  Keeney  plan.  For  directions 
in  regard  to  it,  see  Comu  Foundation. 


the  grain.  The  following  cut  sliows  the 
cutter-knives  on  the  mandiel.  They  will  be 
explained imder Section-making.  The  tirst 
groove  should  be  cut  I  inch  from  the  end. 


HOFFMAN   FRAME-. 

Before  I  describe  these  I  will  ask  you  to 
refer  to  Fixed  Distances.  I  may  say  at 
the  outset,  that  tliese  frames  will  be  a  little 
ditfl-'ult  to  make  on  a  foot-power  saw,  al- 
though they  are  i)erfectly  easy  to  make  in 
an  estal)lishment  where  steam  jiower  is 
used,  and  a  proper  set  of  cutter-knives  is 
made  for  the  purpose.  If  you  purpose  mak- 
ing sections,  however,  you  will  need  a  cut- 
ter-head for  cutting  out  the  insets  of  the 
sections,  as  explained  further  on  under 
Section-making. 

You  will  need  to  purchase  i)lank  H  inches 
thick  ;  and  you  will  save  money  by  getting 
clear  first  quality  of  lumber.  This  plank 
you  are  to  take  to  a  planing-mill  and  have 
tlieni  plane  it  to  H  tliick.  Out  of  this  you  are 
to  make  the  end-bars  and  top-bars.  Cut  the 
plank  up  into  lengths  18|  inches  for  top- 
bars,  and  into  shorter  lengths,  17, -'g  inches, 
fur  end-bars.  So  far  all  is  easy  and  plain 
sailing.  Now,  the  next  operation  is  some- 
what difficult  as  well  as  dangerous  on  a 
foot-power  saw.  We  will  tirst  commence 
with  top-bars.  By  referring  to  the  engrav- 
ing you  will  see  that  the  end  of  the  top-bar 
is  paddle-.shaped.  Seven-eiM'htlis  of  an  inch 
from  tlie  end  of  the  top-liar  the  frame  be- 
gins to  narrow  down  to  l^'j  inclies  wide. and 
continues  this  width  to  within  i  of  an  inch 
of  the  otlier  end,  when  it  enlarges  to  If 
inches  wide  again.  Where  it  clianges  in 
widtli  it  rounds  off  (see  cut).  If  you  have 
the  riglit  kind  of  cutter -knives  for  cutting 
out  sections,  you  can  slide  the  plank  over 
and  cut  out  a  groove  -1  inches  wide  across 


CUTTEU-HEAD    for    HOFFMAN   FRAMES. 

But  as  tliis  cut  is  not  wide  enough,  you  will 
have  to  pass  the  plank  over  the  saw  several 
times,  each  time  cutting  out  a  score,  as  you 
would  over  a  law^n  with  a  lawn-mower,  un- 
til the  required  width  is  obtained.  To  do 
this  you  will  need  to  set  your  gauge  at  sev- 
eral diffonnt  points,  and  to  run  all  the 
planks  over  the  table  at  ea'^'h  setting  of  the 
gauge.  Proceed  thus  until  you  have  scored 
out  both  sides.  This  done,  slice  the  plank 
into  strips  f  inch  ihick.  Your  next  step 
is  to  cut  out  the  rabbets  on  the  under  side 
of  the  top-bar  (see  engraving).  Without 
special  machinery  you  will  be  oljliged  to 
rabbet  euh  top  bar,  one  at  a  time.  This 
rabbet  in  a  frame  should  be  i  incli  deep  1)y 
i  inch  into  tlie  end  of  the  grain  (see  cut). 
The  top-b'ir  is  now^  C!)mi)lete,  witli  the  ex- 
ception of  the  comb-guide  groove,  which 
you  are  to  cut  out  the  same  as  has  already 
been  described  under  thick-top-bar  frames. 
The  end  bars  (see  engraving)  are  If  inch- 
es wide,  for  2i  inches,  frcjm  wd)ich  point  it 
narrows  chnvn  to  I  inch  wide.  As  each  end- 
bar  is  to  be  81  inches  long,  w^e  cut  our  plank 
in  the  tirst  place,  as  already  stated,  twice 
this  length,  plus  the  thickness  of  a  saw-cut; 
viz.,  17f>H,  allowing  the  saw-cut  to  be  ^^ 
thick.  The  next  tiling  is  to  cut  out  the 
comb-guide  saw-cut  in  each  end,  and  this  is 
i  inch  in  depth.  We  now  score  out  each 
side  of  this  plank  in  such  a  way  that,  2i 
inches  from  each  end  of  the  jilank,  it  is  left 
its  original  thickness  (If  inch),  the  space  be- 
tween these  points  being  made  i  inch  wide 
by  the  cutter-knives.  In  order  to  do  tills 
you  will  have  to  use  the  cutter-head  which 
we  use  for  cuttins;  out  the  bee-ways  in  sec- 
tions ;  and  to  make  it  wude  enougli  you  will 
have  to  change  the  gauge  as  you  did  for  the 
toi)-bars,  as  already  explained.  The  next 
step  is  to  cut  tliis  i)lank  in  two  in  the  mid- 
dle. We  now  have  two  i)lanks  just  long 
enougli  to  make  end-bars  when  cut  up  into 
strips  i  inch  thick.  But  before  we  do  this, 
groove  the  narrow  ends  and  then  slice  them 
up  into  i-inch  strips. 


HIVE-MAKING. 


161 


HIVE-MAKING. 


THE    UPPER    STORY,  OR    SURPLUS    APART- 
MENT. 

We  can  iiin  this  either  for  comb  honey  or 
extracted.  As  the  Simplicity  body  is  inter- 
changeable it  can  be  used  for  the  lower  or 
upper  story.  This,  tilled  with  the  frames  I 
have  described  on  the  i»revions  page,  the 
same  tilled  with  foundation  or  comb,  ac- 
cording to  circumstances,  and  placed  on  the 
lower  hive,  is  ready  for  the  storage  of  ex- 
tracted honey,  and  is  really  the  surplus 
apartment  when  so  used.  No  other  fixture 
is  necessary  for  extracted  honey,  unless  it 
be  the  honey-board. 

For  the  storage  of  aymb  honey,  the  neces- 
sary tixtures  are  more  varied,  and  somewhat 
more  complicated.  As  honey  in  this  form 
is  now  universally  put  into  section  honey- 
boxes,  we  need  to  describe  how  to  make  ap- 
pliances for  holding  sections  already  men- 
tioned under  Comb  Honky.  A  few  years 
ago  the  old  double-tier  wide  frame— that  is, 
a  frame  the  same  size  as  that  used  in  the 
brood-nest— only  two  inches  wide  or  less— 
was  the  only  thing  in  use,  and  they  held 
eight  sections.  But  in  later  years,  comb- 
honey  producers  prefer  single -tier  wide 
frames,  or  cases  or  crates,  for  holding  one  tier 
of  sections  only.  A  single-tier  wide  frame 
is  shown  under  Comi?  Honky.  But  the  ar- 
rangement that  is  best  suited  forthe  8-frame 
hive  described,  as  well  as  the  one  that  is 
used  by  some  of  the  largest  honey-producers 
in  the  world,  is  what  I  shall  here  call  a 
section  -  holder,  also  shown  under  Cojib 
Honey. 

The  end  blocks  are  just*  inch  thick  by  1| 
wide.  The  bottom  piece  is  18i  in-hes  long,  i 
inch  thick  and  U  inches  wide,  and  is  scored 
out  to  corn  spond  with  the  entrances  to  the 
sections.  The  manner  of  doing  this  will  be 
shown  luidfn-  Sections.  These  scction- 
holdei'S  are  just  ripht  to  go  inside  of  the  su- 
pers previously  descril;ed,  leaving  a  i  inch 
bee-space  above  the  sections.  We  recom- 
mend this  arrangement  lor  the  h'-franie  hive 
we  have  described. 

T   SUPERS. 

The  T  super  is  another  very  jwpular  ar- 
rangement. But  a  regvdar  half-depth  8- 
franie  body  will  liardly  answer  for  it,  so  you 
will  have  to  make  a  separate  case,  or  sui)er, 
expressly  for  it,  an  inch  shorter,  and  only  4i 
deep ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  super  will  be 
13J  inches  wide,  19  long,  and  4i  deep,  out- 
side measure,  and  it  is  made  out  of  J  lum- 
ber. Through  tlie  middle,  sections  are  sup- 
ported by  three  T  tins.  These  are  simply 
folded  strips    of    tin,    in    length    e(iual   to 


the  inside  width  of  the  super,  after  de- 
ducting a  certain  amount  of  play  room.  By 
special  machinery  they  are  folded  in  the 
form  (jf  an  inverted  T,  as  shown  in  the  en- 
graving under  Comb  Hoxey,  Fig.  1. 

THE  MOORE  CRATE. 

This  is  preferred  by  some  ;  but  the  great 
objection  to  it  is,  that  sei)arators  can  not  be 
used  with  it.  It  is  of  the  same  size  as  an 
ordinary  half-depth  Dovetailed  body,  except 
in  depth,  which  would  be  i  inch  less.  The 
sides  are  grooved  on  the  inside,  -4^  in.  apart, 
so  as  to  take  three  transverse  partitions, 
these  being  f  inch  thick.  Strips  of  tin  are 
nailed  to  the  bottom  inside  edge  of  the  ends 
of  the  crate,  as  also  on  the  bottoms  of  the 
transverse  partitions  ;  and  these  project  far 
enough  to  support  the  sections.  See  Comb 
Honey. 

honey-boards. 

If  you  use  thick-top  frames,  no  honey- 
boards  are  necessary ;  but  some  bee-keepers 
seem  to  be  troubled  by  queens  going  up  into 
sections,  and  they  therefore  use  what  is 
called  the  perforated  zinc  honey-board.  For 
details  in  regard  to  their  use,  see  Contrac- 

TK^N. 

OBSERVATORY-HIVES. 

Before  closing  the  subject  of  hive-making 
it  may  be  well  to  speak  of  what  is  called  the 
observatory-hive,  used  more  as  a  curiosity,  or 
study,  than  for  any  practical  purpose. 


GLASS    OBSEKVATORY-IIIVE. 

The  picture  will  almost  make  it  plain  of  it- 
self. If  I  am  correct,  the  idea  of  an  observ- 
ing-hive  was  first  invented  by  ^Ir.  Langstroth, 
and  mine  was  made  after  the  dimensions  giv- 
en in  iiis  book,  which  I  heie  copy  as  follows, 
giving  all  dimensions  in  inches  : 

Ba8c>-l)oard,  24?^  x 4'4  x%.  An  entrance-hole,  iS.  is 
horcflS'j  inches  deep  into  the  entl.  and  two  holes  are 
bored  in  its  center,  '«  in  diameter  and  l'«  I'roin  cen- 
ter to  center,  the  wood  beinjfcut  out  between  them. 
Hottoni  of  hive,  2>«v  .\  18«a -x 'b  .  Make  a  rabbet  at 
l)oth  iii)|)er  corners,  ■'b  on  x  ,'a  deep.  Start  a  *» 
hole,  1  in.  from  the  end,  and  bore  slantin^f,  to  meet 
entrance-hole,  and   make  a  hole  in  the  center  to 


hive-maki:n^g. 


162 


HIVE-MAKING. 


match  e-ntrance-hole.  for  a  veafjlator,  and  cover 
with  wire  {?auze  on  the  inside.  Front  and  rear  ot 
hive,  'sxS'ixO's.  Rabbet  the  inner  corners,  up 
and  down,  '4X  ?i;  malie  a  ventilator  in  each  piece 
like  the  bottom;  ?»  from  the  upper  ends,  cut  in  %  ; 
and  ■'»  from  the  lower  end,  cut  in  U-  Side-strips,  %  '• 
X 1 X  2014.  On  one  corner  of  each,  rabbet  on  '4,  and 
in  'g  for  the  glass.  Movable  cover.  Si's  X4I4  x  7a. 
Holes  may  be  made  in  this  cover,  over  which  ji-lass 
receptacles  for  honey  may  be  placed.  Glass,  two 
panes,  9>4  x  19.  The  clamps  on  base-board,  4V4  x  2 
x'2.    Clamps  on  cover,  and  ledjres  on  hive,  4  pieces, 

4l4X'8X'4. 

You  see.  it  is  simply  a  one-comb  liive.  made 
so  as  to  hold  a  single  L.  frame.  The  two 
sheets  of  glass  are  just  H  in-  apart,  and,  with 
a  nice  frame  of  comb  built  out  on  wired  fdn., 
it  makes  a  pretty  sight  to  set  in  the  window. 
With  a  moderate  number  of  bt  es  in  the  hive, 
the  (lueen  is  always  to  be  seen,  either  on  one 
side  of  the  comb  or  the  other.  To  put  the 
hives  in  place,  raise  the  window  enough  to 
let  the  l)ottom-board  catch  over  tlie  window- 
sill  :  then  let  it  down,  placing  a  strip  of  wood 
on  each  side,  so  as  to  close  the  openings.  The 
way  to  get  bees  into  it  is  to  take  a  frame  of 
hatching  bees  from  any  hive,  with  all  the  ad- 
hering bees  and  queen.  If  you  choose,  you 
can  let  them  rear  their  own  queen ;  but  it 
works  a  little  nicer,  and  they  stay  better,  to 
take  the  queen  with  them.  The  hole  in  the 
€over  is  to  place  a  feeder  over.  "VMien  they 
get  their  comb  so  full  of  honey  and  brood 
that  it  will  hold  no  more,  you  will  have  to  ex- 
change it  for  an  empty  comb,  or  for  a  frame 
of  wired  fdn.,  or  they  will  swarm  out.  Mr. 
Langstroth  speaks  of  having  two  in  one  win- 
dow— one  having  a  laying  queen,  and  the  oth- 
er a  queen-cell  in  process  of  construction.  I 
hardly  need  say,  these  one-comb  glass  hives 
succeed  only  during  warm  weather.  One 
reason  why  these  hives  have  not  been  much 
used  of  late,  is  that  our  simple  hives  with 
metal  corners  make  it  so  easy  to  open  any 
hive,  and  take  out  a  frame,  without  disturb- 
ing the  queen  in  her  duties,  that  each  hive  is 
itself  almost  an  observatory-hive. 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS  ABOUT  HIVES. 

Work  carefully,  and  avoid  mistakes  and 
blunders  by  carefully  measuring,  trying. 
and  testing  every  thing,  as  you  go  along. 
Do  not  get  a  lot  of  hives  nailed  up.  and 
then  discover  that  the  frnnies  will  not  go  in 
them  properly,  but  have  a  frame  riglit  at 
hand.  and.  before  you  drive  a  nail,  put  the 
frame  in  place  and  see  if  it  is  right.  More 
than  this,  be  sure  that  your  frame  is  just 
right.-  Many  bad  blunders  have  resulted 
from  picking  up  a  frame  soipposed  to  be 
right,  but  which  was  found  to  be  a  little  too 
large   or  too  small,  in  some  of  its  dimen- 


sions, after  a  lot  of  hives  were  made  to 
match  it.  Have  a  good  steel  square,  and 
keep  it  carefully,  that  it  may  not  get  out  of 
true,  or  get  rusty  or  injured  in  any  way. 
To  test  its  exactness,  lay  it  on  a  broad 
straight-edged  board,  and  draw  a  tine  line 
along  the  blade  of  the  square,  with  a  keen- 
pointed  knife;  then  reverse  it,  andseeif  the 
knife  -  point  runs  in  the  same  track.  The 
drawing  shown  below  will  show  you  how  . 


HOW  TO  TEST   A   SQUARE. 

Let  A  A  represent  the  board  with  the 
straight  edge.  Do  not  say,  "  This  edge  is 
straight  enough,''  until  you  have  made  it  as 
exact  as  you  can.  Lay  the  square  on  as  at 
B,  and  draw  the  line,  D  E,  with  your  knife- 
point ;  now  turn  it  over  as  at  C,  and  draw  a 
line  in  the  same  place,  or  so  near  it  that  you 
can  readily  see  if  the  two  are  exactly  paral- 
lel. You  can  take  your  board  to  the  hard- 
ware store,  and  pick  out  a  square  that  is 
right,  or  you  can  get  the  one  that  is  nearest 
right,  and  then  make  it  right  by  filing. 
Another  point :  you  will  find  squares  with 
the  marks  on  one  side  not  exactly  agreeing 
with  those  on  the  ojiposite  side.  This  is  a 
very  bad  fault  indeed.  Our  blacksmith  and 
foreman  once  had  quite  a  dispute  on  some 
iron  gauge-frames,  and,  when  the  matter 
was  investigated,  it  was  found  the  square 
given  the  blacksmith  varied  a  32d  of  an  inch 
in  tlie  \v:iy  I  have  mentioned.  Further  in- 
vestigation showed  we  had  but  one  square 
on  the  i)remises  that  exactly  agreed  on  both 
sides.  Now,  when  you  go  to  buy  a  square, 
lonk-  fiul. 

When  you  get  a  square  that  you  know  you 
can  "put  your  trust  in,"  go  ahead,  but  work 
CMn^fully.  Say  over  and  over  to  yourself, 
when  starting  out,  "  Suppose  I  should  find, 
after  I  get  these  done,  that  they  are  all 
wrong;"'  and  so  measure  and  try  your  w^ork, 
at  every  step.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  cut 
boards  in  the  right  place,  as  it  is  to  cut  them 
in  the  wrong  one  ;  and  it  is  just  as  easy  to 
have  all  the  different  parts  of  your  work 
nice  and  accurate,  as  it  is  to  waste  your 
time  by  careless  bungling,  and  then  trying 
to  i)atch  up  tlie  consequences  of  your  own 
awkwardness.  I  know,  for  I  have  made  a 
great  numy  awkward  mistakes  in  my  life, 
and  I  also  know,  by  experience,  that  one  so 
awkward  and  careless  that  he,  at  times, 
almost  feels  as  if  there  were  no  use  in  trying 


HIYE-MAKING. 


IfW 


HIVE-MAKING. 


to  be  a  mechanic,  or  hardly  any  thing  else, 
for  that  matter,  c«n  learn  to  be  careful,  and 
to  do  nice  work.  I  also  know  the  thrill  of 
pleasure  that  rewards  one  after  he  has  suc- 
cessfully fought  these  besetting  sins,  and 
come  out  triumphant.  Once  more,  be  care- 
ful ;  work  slowly,  until  you  know  your  work 
is  all  right;  have  your  tools  nil  nice  and 
sharp  ;  keep  every  thing  piled  up  in  neat 
order ;  look  pleasant,  be  pleasant,  and  thank 
God  every  day  for  being  a  great  deal  kinder 
to  you  than  you  deserve,  while  you  ask  him 
to  help  you  overcome  these  besetting  sins. 


MAKING  m  VES  B Y  STEA M  PO  WER. 

While  a  foot -power  saw  does  very  well 
for  making,  say  one  hundred  or  even  more 
hives  a  year  for  one's  own  use  in  his  own 
apiary,  when  it  comes  to  making  hives  for 
his  neighbors,  or,  perhaps,  to 'ship  off  to 
distant  customers,  almost  every  one  soon 
finds  it  too  laborious  to  be  pleasant.  It  is 
true,  he  can  hire  help;  but  I  believe  it  is 
generally  a  pretty  hard  matter  to  find  help 
with  the  necessary  enthusiasm  to  be  willing 
to  tread  a  buzz-saw  many  hours  in  the  day. 
The  owner  of  the  bees  will  do  it,  f  know,  and 
thrive  on  it.  for  that  matter,  especially  when 
fighting  his  way  to  making  a  start  in  the 
world  :  but  most  people  du)-ing  this  present 
age  will  very  soon  want  to  bring  in  the  aid 
of  steam,  or  something  else,  to  do  the  work 
of  bone  and  muscle. 


BUZZ  -  SAAV   TAI$LE   KOU   HIVE -MAKING   I5Y 
I'OWEi:. 

Now,  it  is  almost  always  suggested  by  a 
new  hand,  tliat  steam  or  other  power  be  ap- 
plied to  the  foot  or  hand  power  macliine. 
This  can  be  done,  it  is  true  ;  but  as  a  rule  it 
does  not  in  the  end  prove  satisfactory,  for 
the  reason  that  all  foot-power  machines  are 
of  necessity  made  just  as  light  and  easy  run- 
ning as  they  can  be  consistently,  and  are 
therefore  not  calculated  for  raucli  more  strain 
than  the  power  of  a  man.     If  you  put  on  a 


horse-power  or  two  they  will  quickly  wear 
out,  or  break  down.  What  you  want  to 
stand  a  horse  r)r  steam-engine,  is  something 
like  the  cut  shown. 

The  tnble  is  made  of  4x4  hard-wood  scant- 
ling, say  maple  or  ash.  The  sticks  are  sized, 
and  the  "wind"  taken  out  of  them,  and 
then  the  whole  is  put  together  with  mortise 
and  tenon,  and  drawn  up  tight  with  lag 
screws  I  in.  in  diameter,  by  6  in.  long.  The 
table  is  48  in.  wide,  and  42  in.  long.  It  is 
made  of  hard-wood  boards  .securely  screwed 
fast  to  four  bars  of  hard  wood  nliont  2x2.  A 
bar  is  placed  at  each  end,  and  the  other  two 
at  equal  distances  under  the  middle.  Tbe 
table-top  is  hung  on  hinges  at  the  further 
end  as  it  stands  in  the  cut:  and  at  the  end 
nearest  us,  in  the  picture,  it  rests  nn  hinged 
strips,  resting  in  mortises,  as  shown.  Set- 
screws  fasten  the  table  at  any  desired  height. 
Strips  of  iron  should  be  let  into  the  wood 
where  the  points  of  the  set-screws  strike,  or 
the  wood  will  soon  be  injined  and  mashed 
up.  In  the^dra wings,  two  gauges  are  shown. 
We  term  these  the  "figure  four''  and  the 
"parallel"  bar.  The  former  is  for  cutting 
oft'  stull.  and  the  latter  for  ripping. 


"PAKALLEL  BAR"  GAUGE. 

This  is  to  be  made  of  the  best  piece  of 
seasoned  maple  or  cherry  you  can  get.  It 
needs  about  a  8x4  scantling,  one  foot  longer 
than  the  table-top.  Rabbet  out  a  piece  as 
shown,  to  make  a  bearing  for  the  bars  of 
iron  that  it  swings  on.  These  bars  are  iron, 
Ixi,  pivoted  at  each  end  with  heavy  screws. 
They  allow  the  bar  to  swing  clear  up  against 
the  s  iw  and  back  away  from  it,  far  enough 
to  cut  olf  the  cover  of  a  Simplicity  hive, 
which  is  in  length  20J  inches.  To  fasten 
this  parallel  bai-  spcnrely  at  any  point,  a 
third  iron  bar,  C,  is  placed  between  these 
two.  Instead  of  being  screwed  fast  to  the 
parallel  bar  A,  it  is  simply  slipped  over  a 
steel  pin  driven  into  A.  There  are.  in  fact, 
two  of  these  pins,  at  a  distance  of  perhaps  a 
foot  apart.  This  is  to  keep  the  adjusting- 
bar  always  at  pretty  nearly  a  right  angle  to 
the  i)arallel  bar.  Now,  this  strip  of  iron  has 
a  long  slot  in  it,  and  a  thumb-screw  I)  goes 
into  the  slot.  Hy  this  arrangement  it  will 
be    noticed   that  the   jHirallel   bar  can  not 


HIVE-MAKING. 


1(U 


HIVE-MAKING. 


swing  or  move,  unless  the  thumb-screw  lets  very  fine  adjustment,  which  is  a  great  con- 

the  slotted  bar  slide  under  it.    By  tightening  venience  in  sawing  sections,  which  we  men- 

the  screw,  the  parallel  bar  is  a  fixture  at  any  tion  further  on. 

point,  and  it  is  always  parallel  to  the  saw,  jjQ^y  r^.Q    make  a  cut-off  sa^w- table. 


when  once  adjusted. 


THE  ''  FIGURE  FOUR    '  GAUGE. 

This  hardly  needs  explanation.  That  it 
may  slide  easily,  and  without  shake,  it  runs 
on  an  iron  track.  This  iron  track  is  simply 
a  straight  bar,  i  inch  square,  screwed  fast 
to  each  of  the  strips  on  the  under  side  of  the 
table-top.  It  is  made  of  hard-wood  stuff 
about  i  thick.  The  longest  piece,  which  is 
grooved  to  run  over  the  iron  bar.  is  exactly 
the  length  of  the  table.  The  right-angled 
piece  is  two  feet  long.  All  are  about 4  inches 
in  width.  This  right-angled  piece  must  be 
so  adjusted  as  to  cut  boards  off  exactly 
square;  and  when  right,  it  should  be  screwed 
down  and  braced  with  iron,  as  shown,  so  it 
can  never  get  racked  out  of  true.  On  the 
accuracy  and  fineness  of  this  adjustment 
depends  all  your  work,  if  one  could  afford 
it,  it  would  be  a  fine  thing  to  have  the  whole 
table-top,  and  all  of  these  gauges,  of  planed 
iron. 


SAAV-MAXDREL  for  8AAV-TABLE. 

The  mandrel  used  for  these  saw-tables  is 
our  So. 00  one,  generally ;  but  for  a  great 
deal  of  work  I  would  advise  the  heavier  one, 
costing  about  $7..50, 

Tlie  parallel-bar  gauge  does  very  well  for 
home-made  work ;  but  there  is  nothing 
equal  for  general  ripping  purposes,  to  War- 
ner's ripping-gauge.  This  was  devised  by 
the  superintendent  of  our  hive-factory,  and 
they  are  used  all  through  our  wood-workuig 
department. 

The  gauge  is  held  at  the  right  distance 
from  the  saw  by  means  of  a  pair  of  screws, 
on  the  end  of  which  ara  sprocket-wheels 
connected  by  a  chain.  Simply  pulling  the 
chain  moves  each  screw  at  the  same  speed  ; 
and  as  the  gauge  is  fastened  to  the  s:'rews 
by  means  of  Wnvaded  lugs,  it  will  travel 
parallel  to  the  saw.  The  great  feature*  of 
this  is,  that  it  holds  the  gauge  perfectly 
solid,  and  at  the  same  time  permits  of  a 


AVhere  the  bee-keeper  has  but  little  to  do 
in  the  way  of  hive-making  he  may  cut  boards 
on  the  same  table  that  he  uses  for  ripping. 
But   in  order  to  work  this  way,  he  must 


SAW-TABLE,  WITH   W^\KNER  S   SCREW-AND- 
C'HAIN   ATTACHMENT. 

have  somebody  to  hold  the  end  of  the  long 
boai(h  whil--  he  cuts  them  up,  or  have  some 
sort  of  a  -support  on  which  they  will  slide 
over  easily. 

When  I  used  to  make  nil  my  own  hives 
with  a  single  saw-table,  and  uiy  saws  were 
run  by  a  windmill,  as  some  of  you  may  re- 
member, I  used  to  have  the  further  end  of  the 
board  slide  on  a  smooth  rest  made  of  a  piece 
of  hnrd  wood.  With  this  I  could  take  a  16- 
foot  board,  and,  without  any  assistance,  cut 
it  up  into  pieces  long  enough  for  hives  or 
covers,  and  have  them  so  exact  that,  when 
pileii  up.  no  diffeience  in  the  length  could  be 
told  b>  passing  the  fingers  over  the  ends. 
Now,  while  1  could  do  this  day  after  day, 
and'ieally  enjoy  the  work.  I  could  not  find 
any  one  who  would  do  it  for  me.  If  I  set  a 
couple  of  boys  at  ii,  the  one  with  the  other 
end  of  the  Ixtard  would  move  it  too  fast  or 
too  slow,  or  by  jerks,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
have  the  pieces,  when  cut  off,  of  unequal 
lengths.  Then  we  tried  cutting  the  board 
up  first  into  pieces  long  enough  for  two  or 
three  lengths  for  hives  ;  and  then  as  these 
pieces  were  short  enough  to  handle,  it  was 
an  easy  matter  to  cut  them  up  into  exact 
lengths.  This,  of  course,  took  a  great  deal 
more  time;  and  even  then  the  boards  would 
not  be  cut  squarely  across.  The  reason  was, 
that  although  the  edge  of  the  board  might 
be  held  closely  up  against  the  figure  four, 


HIVE-MAKING. 


Kio 


HIVE-MAKING. 


unless  at  least  one  side  of  the  board  was  per- 
fectly straight,  like  a  straight-edge,  before 
being  cut  up,  we  found  trouble  after  we  got 
through. 

There  is  away,  however,  in  which  a  board 
can  be  cut  up  into  accurate  lengths,  even  if 
its  sides  are  not  straight.  Fix  a  straight- 
edge of  steel  (nice  hard  wood  may  do)  Jjack 
of  the  saw  just  farenougli  away  to  get  the 
length  of  board  wanted.  Hold  it  hard  up 
against  your  figure  4  and  cut  off  just  enough 
to  make  it  square  across.  This  done, 
hold  the  square  cut  hard  up  against  the  steel 
straight-edge.  Now  push  the  board  along 
on  the  top  of  the  table  up  against  the  saw, 
watching  carefully  to  see  that  the  end  is  a 
perfect  lit  against  this  steel  straight-edge. 
In  this  way  you  can  cut  up  a  whole  board  and 
have  the  pieces  exactly  of  the  same  length. 
But  woe  betide  you  if  you  are  so  careless  as 
to  leave  a  crack  on  either  edge,  even  if  it  be 
not  more  than  a  hair  in  thickness.  You  see, 
we  want  the  boards  so  accurate  that  where 
there  are  two  stood  up  together  on  a  smooth 
surface,  neither  eye  nor  finger  can  detect 
any  difference  in  the  length.  In  making 
frames  for  the  hives,  this  is  a  most  important 
matter;  indeed,  I  have  had  nothing  in  the 
whole  department  of  hive-making  that  has 
caused  me  so  much  trouble  as  this  matter  of 
getting  hands  who  would  cut  stuff  perfectly 
uccurate.  ^Nlany  times  I  could  have  cried 
about  it  (if  you  will  excuse  a  little  exagger- 
ation), had  I  thought  it  would  do  any  good. 


No.  1, 


A   SAAV-TA15LE   YOK  CUTTING   OFF  STUFF. 

We  are  now  ready  to  consider  what  may 
be  done  by  the  use  of  machinery,  for  en- 
abling even  unskillful  hands,  or,  i)erhaps, 
hands  who  have  never  been  shown  the  im- 
portance of  accuracy  in  mechanical  work,  &o 
that  they  may  do  work  and  be  exact.  When 
6 


at  the  Exposition  at  Cincinnati,  once,  I 
saw  some  beautiful  iron  tables  having  a  pair 
of  saws.  These  saws  could  be  adjusted  at 
any  required  distance  from  each  other  ;  and 
to  cut  off  the  board  it  was  pushed  against 
the  saws  while  moving  on  a  carriage  of  iron. 
This,  you  will  see,  made  it  next  to  impossi- 
ble to  have  boards  cut  either  too  short  or  too 
long ;  but  the  two  cuts  every  time,  made  a 
small  waste  of  lumber. 


No.  2. 


THE   SAME   WITH  TOP  RAISED. 

We  here  give  you  some  engravings  of 
the  cut-off  tables  we  use  in  our  own  factory. 
I  don't  know  whether  exactly  the  same  de- 
vice has  ever  been  used  before  or  not. 

No.  1  shows  the  table  ready  for  work,  and 
No.  2  the  same  with  top  elevated,  which  can 
readily  be  done  to  take  off  saws.  etc.  It  oc- 
curs to  me  just  now  that  our  artist  has  made 
a  mistake,  and  drawn  a  rip-saw  where  he 
sliould  have  shown  a  cut-oft'  or  cross-cut 
saw,  as  it  is  sometimes  called.  The  table  is 
made  of  4x4  seasoned  maple.  On  the  top 
are  i)laced  three  cast-iron  \'-shaped  tracks. 
Theslidingtoprunson  these  tracks  on  0  cast- 
iron  wheels  having  a  \'-shaped  groove  in 
each.  This,  you  will  observe,  makes  the 
sliding  top  of  the  table  so  that  it  moves  to 
and  fro  with  great  ease,  yet  without  a  bit  of 
end  shake.  At  a  first  glance  one  would  al- 
most think  this  sufficient;  but  if  you  were 
to  lay  a  Ki-foot  plank  on  this  sliding  table- 
top,  and  take  hold  of  the  end,  you  would  find 


HIVE-MAKING. 


16() 


HIVE-MAKING. 


it  would  have  a  considerable  twist,  or  "  wig- 
gle," on  its  center.  This  twist  would,  of 
course,  prevent  cutting  oft"  the  boards  ac- 
curately. >Jow  to  make  the  table  rigid 
where  it  stands,  and  still  bear  sliding  to  and 
fro,  we  have  what  is  termed  a  rocking-shaft. 
This  is  a  cast-iron  shaft  about  2  inches  in 
diameter.  Don't  make  it  any  smaller, 
thinking  it  will  do.  Better  have  it  larger,  if 
any  thing.  On  this  shaft  is  a  pair  of  rigid 
cast-iron  arms,  as  you  see  in  the  cut.  At 
the  top  of  each  of  these  arms,  short  iron  bars 
are  bolted;  and  these  bars  are  attached  to 
the  movable  table -top.  Now,  providing 
these  bolts  all  work  closely,  we  have  secured 
our  table  so  that  no  twist  is  possible,  unless 
the  shaft  should  twist.  But  a  2-in.  iron  shaft 
can  not  be  expected  to  do  this  very  much.  ; 
A  handle  is  attached  to  the  sliding  top,  as 
you  will  see  in  the  cut,  for  drawing  it  back 
easily.  We  have  two  of  these  tables  in  use 
— one  about  10  feet  long,  and  the  other 
about  8,  and  they  are  in  use  almost  constant- 
ly. Of  course,  an  iron  gauge  whicli  can  be 
adjusted  at  any  required  distance  from  the 
saw  is  a  great  help  for  cutting  different 
lengths  of  lumber.  And  as  before,  your  I 
stuff  must  he  held  tight  %q:>  to  this  gauge.  I 
Such  a  table,  well  made,  ought  to  cost  per-  j 
haps  $4-5.00  for  the  short  ones,  or  $50.00  for  | 
the  long  ones,  as  described  above.  If  made  ! 
as  we  have  directed,  it  shohld,  with  a  man- 
drel of  proper  size,  be  capable  of  carrying  a  ^ 
VZ  or  14  inch  saw,  and  should  cut  up  heavy  I 
planks  used  for  chaff-hive  corners,  or  such 
as  will  be  required  for  slicing  up  wood  into 
separators,  or  any  similar  work.  Where  inch 
boards  are  to  be  cut,  or  any  thing  thinner, 
we  pile  them  up  until  we  get  as  many  as  the 
saw  will  reach  through.  By  this  means  we 
cut  three  or  four,  or  even  more,  v/here  the 
lumber  is  thin,  at  one  cut,  and  one  person 
handles  it  all  easily. 

HOW  TO  :make  dovetailed  hives. 
Under  Hive-makixg  by  foot-power  I 
recommended  the  "  halved  corner"'  because 
this  is  the  best  one  that  can  be  made  on 
light  machinery;  ])ut  if  you  have  heavy  ma- 
chinery, driven  by  power,  and  propose  to 
make  hives  in  any  quantity,  you  had  better 
adoi)t  the  dovetailed  joint.  This  sort  of  a 
corner  has  long  been  in  use  on  section 
honey-boxes.  It  is  only  recently  that  it  has 
been  adapted  on  a  large  scale  practically  to 
hives.  Such  corners  make  the  very  strong- 
est hives— so  strong,  indeed,  that  a  weight 
of  100  pounds  may  be  put  on  the  diagonally 
opposite  corners,  and  yet  not  affect  the  true 
square  of  the  body.    The  dovetails  are  I  in. 


wide,  and  it  is  done  Ijy  a  series  of  dadoe 
saws,  spaced  exactly  I  inch  apart  by  metal 
collars,  the  whole  strunjj  upon  one  large 
heavy  mandrel.  The  dadoe  cutter  is  made 
up  of  one  wabble-saw  held  by  beveled  collars 
between  two  heavy  groovers.  The  groov- 
ers are  simply  to  clean  the  edge  of  the  cut, 
and  the  wabble  is  to  do  most  of  the  cutting. 
To  do  the  work  ni-ely,  a  pile  of  boards 
should  Ije  put  in  an  automati  *  machine,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  be  se:-urely  clamped.  These 
boards,  en  masse,  are  then  passed  over  a  se- 
ries of  dadoe  saws  by  suitable  riding  table. 


A  DONETAll.LD   LK.III   1  l.AME  HIVE. 

There  is  another  and  simpler  way  that 
the  ends  of  the  boards  may  be  dovetailed, 
and  that  is.  by  shoving  each  lioard  (on  a  line 
with  the  mandrel  shaft)  between  a  pair  of 
stoi)S  on  to  the  dadoe  cutters  one  l)y  one, 
until  they  reach  a  couple  of  stops  in  be- 
tween the  saws  that  regulate  tlie  depth  of 
the  cut.  This  cut  will  be  a  little  rounding, 
to  conform  to  the  circumference  of  the 
saws ;  but  the  boards  will  bed  together.  I 
hardly  need  mention,  that  dovetailing  takes 
considerable  power;  and  you  will  need  to 
use  at  least  a  four-inch  belt  to  drive  the 
mandrel. 


DOVETAILED   HIVES   CRATED. 

This  hive  is  made  just  the  same  as  the 
eight-frame  hive,  explained  under  IIive- 
ma:cing,  under  Foot-power,  only  it  has  the 


HIVE-MAKING. 


167 


HIVE-MAKING. 


dovetailed,  or  lock-joint  corner.  There  has 
been  sucli  a  demand  for  these  hives  that 
they  have  been  sold  by  the  carload  all  over 
the  country.  They  can  be  crated  up  very 
cheaply.  The  preceding  cut  shows  10  sides 
and  ends  with  the  other  parts  of  the  hive, 
including  tlie  inside  furniture  crated  inside 
of  the  bottom-boards.  Four  square  sticks, 
I  square,  are  let  into  the  dovetails  of  tlie 
sides  and  ends,  and  nailed  with  three  wire 
nails.  Four  of  these  sticks  will  hold  10  (or 
20)  of  these  sides  securely  for  sliipment  clear 
across  the  country. 


to  cut  them  up  into  pieces  for  making  the 
usual  one-poiuid  section  boxes  ;  these  pieces 
are  to  be  only  4i  inclies  in  length.  To  cut 
the  plank  accurately  you  will  need  a  cut-off 


SECTION  HONEY-BOXES. 

ALT,  ABOUT  MAKING  THEM. 

In  taking  up  this  subject  we  will  first  con- 
sider how  to  make  what  is  called  the  four- 
piece  or  dovetailed  section. 


FOUR-PIECE  SECTION  BOX  COMPLETE. 

The  best  material  which  we  can  obtain  in 
this  locality  for  honey-boxes  is  nice,  white, 
clear-grained  basswood.  It  should  be  saw'ed 
into  planks,  about  2i  in.  thick,  that  it  may 
be  full  2  in.  when  seasoned.  Such  lumber 
is  worth  here,  at  present,  $18.00  per  M.  Aft- 
er the  lumber  is  seasoned  it  is  ready  to  be 
planed  so  that  the  sides  of  the  sections 
shall  work  full  1^  inclies.  As  the  tops  and 
bottoms  are  i^j,  less  in  width  than  the  sides, 
they  may  easily  be  made  from  ordinary  2-in. 
stuff.  The  planer  mentioned  below  is  about 
right  for  these  planks,  and  is  sliown  in  the 
following  cut. 

These  small  planers  have  astonished  us  by 
the  beautv  and  accuracy  with  which  they  do 
their  work,  and  the  small  amoinit  of  power 
with  which  they  may  be  run.  Oiu-  machin- 
ist said  he  did  not  think  w^e  could  plane  a  10- 
inch  board  with  a  4^-horse-power  engine; 
but  with  oidy  40  lbs.  of  steam,  we  cut  a  full  i 
inch  from  tlie  hardest  and  knottiest  board 
we  could  tind,  and  the  planer  did  not  even 
slack  its  motion.  As  the  machine  cost  us, 
all  belted  and  ready  for  work,  only  $90.00, 
we  were  very  agreeably  astonished.  A  two- 
horse  -  i)ower  engine  would  run  the  planer 
very  well,  if  a  light  cut  at  a  time  were  made. 

After  your  planks  are  all  planed,  you  are 


18-INCH  GEM  PLANER. 

saw^-table,  such  as  shown  on  a  previous  page 
— that  is,  if  you  do  a  very  large  business.  If 
you  are  making  them  for  your  own  use  only, 
or,  say,  for  the  local  trade  near  you,  cut 
your  plank  in  pieces  three  or  four  feet  long, 
just  as  you  would  do  for  hive-making.  If 
your  pieces  are  longer  than  this  they  will 
be  inconvenient  to  handle,  and  you  will  have 
irregular  work.  For  instance,  when  you 
cut  off  a  piece  from  the  plank  it  must  be 
just  4i  inches  long  at  each  end  of  the  piece — 
no  more  and  no  less.  For  this  purpose  we 
use  the  ripping-gauge.  Have  one  end  of 
your  plank  sawed  straight  and  true.    You 


.^m' 


MACHINE    FOR    GROOVING    OR    DOVETAIL- 
ING  SECTIONS. 

can  do  this  by  the  tigure-four  gauge.  Then 
place  it  square  against  tlie  ripping-gauge, 
and  keep  your  eye  on  the  joint  formed  by 
the  eml  of  the  i>lank  and  tlie  parallel  bar, 
and  see  that  it  dues  not  sliake  or  slii)  away, 


HIVE-MAKING. 


168 


HIVE-MAKING. 


even  the  width  of  a  hair,  while  it  is  being 
slid  along  over  the  smooth  lop  of  the  saw- 
table.  As  yon  cnt  ymw  pieces  yon  can  test 
their  accnracy  by  standing  them  on  end,  and 
running  your  linger  over  the  surface  of  the 
ends,  as  I  told  yon  in  cutting  up  your  hive- 
stuff.  After  they  are  all  cut  up  you  are 
ready  for  the  grooving,  or  dovetailing.  This 
is  done  by  the  macliine  shown  on  preceding 
page. 

This  is  called  the  dovetailing  machine, 
and  it  has  a  gang  of  8  saws  to  cut  the  whole 
number  at  once.  The  saws  we  use  are  6 
inches  in  diameter,  and  about  i  in.  in  thick- 
ness. They  are  run  with  steel  washers  be- 
tween them,  that  gauge  the  tiglitness  with 
which  the  sections  fit  together.  If  they  are 
too  loose,  a  washer  of  thin  paper  put  between 
them  will  make  them  tighter.     The  saws 


ed  they  present  about  the  appearance  of  the 

cut  below. 


PIECE    OF     PLAXK,   GIIOO\  i::Li     UEADY     FOK 
SLICIXG  UP  INTO   PIECES. 

These  bolts  are  next  to  he  ripi)ed  up  into 
strips  5\  of  an  inch  thick  with  a  saw  without 
any  set,  as  shown  under  Putting  circular 
SAWS  IX  ORDER,  presently  to  be  considered. 

THE  ONE-PIECE  SECTION. 

These  are  used  by  the  great  majority  of 
bee-keepers.  They  are  far  more  easily  and 
rapidly  put  together.  Tlie  only  objection  to 
them  is  that  they  have  a  tendency  to  assume 
the  diamond  shape.  This  does  not  appear 
to  be  a  very  serious  objection. 


SECTION    BOX,  MADE    ALL    OF   ONE    PIECE    OF   WOOD. 


are  sharpened  like  a  rip-saw,  but  they  have 
no  set.  They  are  filed  without  removing 
from  the  mandrel,  the  tile  touching  eight 
teeth  at  one  stroke.  A  4  or  4i  inch  belt 
will  be  required  to  run  these  saws,  and  the 
pulley  should  be  not  less  than  M  inches  in 
diameter.  The  shaft  should  be  about  1  inch 
in  diameter,  and  should  run  in  broad  strong 
boxes  ;  it  may  be  f  in.,  where  the  saws  go 
on.  As  these  saws  must  cut  always  the 
same  width,  exactJy,  it  is  best  to  run  them 
without  set.  Such  saws  5  or  B  in.  in  diam- 
eter are  worth  about  Sl.Of)  each;  a  steel 
washer,  3-5  c.  more  ;  and  a  suitable  mandrel 
and  boxes,  S7..50.  Therefore  the  whole  out- 
fit, with  8  saws,  will  cost  about  $20.00.  The 
saws  will  run  a  week  with  proper  filing,  and 
be  in  use  all  the  time. 
After  the  slices  from  the  plank  are  groov- 


In  1880  we  succeeded  in  making  machinerj- 
for  turning  out  the  one-piece  section  above, 
which  is  not  only  stronger  and  neater  than 
any  thing  else  yet  devised,  but,  with  the 
proper  appliances,  is  the  easier  box  to 
make.  The  engravings  will  make  it  plain, 
almost  without  explanation. 

In  our  first  machine  the  strips  were  shoved 
under  the  saws,  which  make  the  grooves  for 
the  folded  corner,  by  means  of  a  revolving 
drum  with  pins  set  in  it,  but  in  1884  we 
made  and  perfected  the  machine  which  ap- 
pears on  next  page. 

The  upper  part  of  the  machine,  as  seen  in 
the  cut,  is  a  sort  of  magazine,  as  it  were,  for 
holding  the  blanks  for  making  the  sections. 
Instead  of  the  drum  used  in  the  old  ma- 
chine, a  sliding  table  pushes  the  blanks 
under  the  saws,  one  at  a  time.    The  opera- 


HIVE-MAKING. 


169 


HIVE-MAKING. 


tor  has  only  to  keep  the  magazine  full  of 
blanks,  and  take  the  tinislied  sections  as 
they  come  out  of  the  machine,  and  pack 
them  in  boxes  holding  .50ii  each.  The  rod 
shown  in  the  foreground  enables  the  opera- 
tor, by  means  of  the  foot,  to  raise  the  weight 
that  presses  the  blanks  down  when  replen- 
ishing the  magazine.  The  handle  in  the 
rear  of  the  machine  enables  him  to  stop  or 
start  the  sliding  carriage.  In  practice,  it  is 
found  that  this  carriage  must  be  attached  to 
the  pitman  by  means  of  a  spring,  to  avoid 
the  etfects  of  a  shock  occasioned  by  one  sec- 
tion getting  above  another,  or  crosswise. 
The  spring  allows  the  machine  to  go  on 
without  any  thing  being  broken  or  injured. 


they  are  to  be  dressed  on  both  sides  until 
they  are  just  H  inches.  After  the  pi  nk 
is  dressed,  it  is  cut  up  into  bolts  just  iGi  in. 
With  the  cutter-head  lielow  to  cut  ^i  in.,  wide 
cuts  are  now  made  in  these  bolts  of  plank. 


CUT'JEK-HEAD.      F(JK       MAKING       THE      ES- 
TUAXCES  TO   THE   I50XES. 

at  the  proper  places  to  make  the  top  and 
bottom  pieces  narrower,  so  as  to  let  the  bees 
pass  through.    These  cuts  are  about  3^  in. 
deep.    If  you  want  closed-top  sections,  only 
j  one  cut  is  made  instead  of  two.    The  end  of 
;  each  bolt  is  now  dovetailed  with  the  gang  of 
j  saws,  precisely  as  in  the  old  way,  except  that 
:  one  end  of  the  plank  is  made  so  as  to  match 
i  with  the  other  end.  that  the  section,  when 
folded  up.  may  exactly  come  together.  This 
being  done,  the  bolts  are  ready  to  be  ripped 
into  strips  with  saws  without  any  set,  as  ex- 
plained at  the  end  of  the  subject  of  Put- 

,  TING  CIRCULAR  SAAVS  IN  ORDEli,  nCXt  tO  be 

i  considered.  They  are  now  ready  for  the 
machine,  after  which  the  strips  appear  as 
seen  in  the  cut  opi)Osite. 

To  fold  them,  j'ou  have  only  to  draw  to- 
gether the  two  ends,  and  then  with  a  small 
mallet  drive  the  dovetailed  corner  together. 


GRAY  S  IMPROVED   3IACHIXE    FOIt   MAKING 
SECTIONS. 

Right  over  the  long  mandrel  with  its  three 
saws  a  funnel-shaped  hood  is  placed.  This 
hood  is  attached  by  a  pipe  to  our  blower,  or 
exhaust  -  fan,  which  takes  all  the  sawdust 
right  out  of  the  way.  that  the  machine  may 
not  get  clogged,  and  that  the  troublesome 
dust  from  the  basswood  may  not  render  tlie 
air  in  the  room  unwholesome  and  disagreea- 
ble to  the  workmen.  All  of  our  saw-tables 
and  pi mers  are  now  arranged  so  as  to  have 
the  dust  and  shavings  all  carried,  automat- 
ically, right  down  into  a  brick  room  just  be- 
fore the  boiler.  From  here  there  is  another 
arrangement  which  carries  the  dust  and 
shavings  driven  by  the  same  blower  direct- 
ly into  the  furnace  under  llie  l)()iler  and  the 
same  blast  blows  the  (ire. 

To  get  out  stu  ff  for  these  sections,  you  want 
the  best  white  clear  basswood.  The  logs 
must  be  sawed  into  i)lank  2\  in.  thick.  After 
the  plank  have  been  stuck  up  and  seasoned, 


PUTTIXG  CIRCULAR  SAWS  IX  OR- 
DER. 

And  now  I  am  going  to  take  a  little  space 
to  talk  to  you  about  putting  circular  saws 
in  order.  It  is  no  use  to  say  you  can  not 
sharpen  a  saw,  for  you  must  do  it,  or  you  are 
not  ttt  to  be  a  bee-keeper.  Perhaps  I  can 
hel-p  you  a  little. 

We  will  take  the  cutter  -  head  for  an  il- 
lustration, for  it  embodies  nearly  all  the 
principles  involved. 


CUTTER  -  HEAD      FOR      GROOVING     SECTION 
HOXE8. 

The  point,  or  spur,  D,is,  of  course,  to  cut  a 
little  ahead  of  the  chisel-shaped  cutter,  C, 
and  is  to  gauge  the  exact  width  of  the 
groove,  while  C  follows  after,  and  takes 
out  a  shaving  of  wood.  Now,  suppose  the 
tool  l)e  so  carelessly  ground  that  the  lieel,  B, 
is  higher,  or,  rather,  further  from  the  hole  in 
the  center  than  the  cutting  edge.  C ;  it  is 
very  i»lain  that  the  heel  would  only  rub  on 


HIVE-MAKING. 


170 


HIVE-MAKIXG. 


the  wood,  get  hot,  and  make  tilings  smoke, 
without  doing  any  cutting  at  all.  At  about 
this  stage,  the  operator  of  the  foot-power 
saw  is  in  danger  of  losing  his  temper— es- 
pecially if  he  has  tired  himself  out,  and 
worked  himself  into  a  perspiration,  without 
stopping  to  examine  into  the  matter.  To 
illustrate,  I  will  give  a  letter  that  Barnes 
Bros,  wrote  us,  after  one  of  our  customers 
had  complained  of  his  cutter-head. 

We  mail  you  this  daj'  the  cutter-head  that  Mr. 
returns  by  our  request,  for  our  examina- 
tion. He  has  groimd  it,  or  sharpened  it,  from  the 
outside,  and  spoiled  it  of  course.  It  should  be  g'round 
or  sharpened  from  the  inner  edg-e.  Please  put  it  on 
the  saw  and  you  will  see  that  the  edg'e  is  ground 
down  so  that  the  back  part  will  not  let  it  cut;  hence 
the  jumping-  he  speaks  of.  You  will  also  see  that  it 
has  never  been  sharpened  on  the  inner  edge  —  the 
temper  color  has  not  been  removed.  We  would  as 
soon  tell  a  man  not  to  hitch  to  the  tongue  of  a  wagon, 
after  selling  him  one,  as  tell  him  not  to  grind 
these  cutters  on  the  outer  edge.  You  will  find,  on 
grinding  back  and  allowing  the  edge  to  be  the  high- 
est, as  it  was  originally,  that  this  same  cutter  will 
beat  the  best  saw  (especially  when  gauged),  cutter, 
or  groover  you  can  get.  We  like  fair  play,  especially 
when  things  are  so  plain  as  to  need  no  explanation. 

If  you  have  time,  we  would  like  you  to  write  him, 
and,  after  grinding  the  cutter  properly,  return  it  to 
him  to  convince  him.  W.  F.  &  John  Barnes. 

Rockford,  111.,  Sept.  11,  1877. 

That  the  above  is  somewhat  harsh,  I  am 
aware  ;  but  I  have  given  it  you  to  show  that 
I  think  there  is  blame  on  both  sides.  Our 
friend  was  thoughtles?,  it  is  true ;  but  had 
the  cutter  been  sent  him,  ground  just  as  it 
should  be,  at  first,  he  would  have  succeeded 
and  been  pleased ;  and  if  it  afterward  got 
out  of  "■  rig,"  he  would  have  known  the 
fault  was  not  in  the  construction  of  the  im- 
plement. I  have  purchased  much  machin- 
ery, and,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  but  little  of  it 
has  been  in  really  nice  working  trim  when 
first  received.  The  planer  I  have  men- 
tioned was  a  pleasant  surprise  in  that  re- 
spect, for  it  was  almost  as  sharp  and  keen 
as  a  razor,  and  every  part  was  as  carefully 
in  order  as  if  the  maker  had  fitted  it  up  for 
his  own  use.  If  all  kinds  of  machinery  were 
sent  out  in  just  this  shape,  it  would  save 
ever  and  ever  so  much  trouble  and  bother, 
and  hard  words  and  feelings  all  round.  I 
know  it  costs  money  to  do  this,  and  I  know 
it  is  hard  to  find  a  man  who  will  take  pride 
in  having  every  thing  just  right,  no  matter 
what  the  cost  may  be ;  but  it  should  be  done. 
There  will  be  no  difiiculty  in  getting  a  price 
to  cover  all  expense,  after  the  work  has  once 
earned  a  reputation. 

The  cutter-head  was  received,  as  it  was 
stated.  The  blue  on  the  steel  showed  that 
no  file  or  stone  had  ever  touched  it  on  the 


inner  edge  at  A,  but  our  friend  had  ground 
the  outside,  in  the  manner  stated.  I  took 
the  tool  to  one  of  our  hands  who  runs  saws, 
explained  the  matter,  and  desired  him  to  fix 
and  try  it.  As  it  did  not  cut  very  w^ell,  I 
stopped  it  and  looked,  and,  behold,  he  had 
not  even  taken  the  blue  from  the  steel  on 
the  inside. 

Friend  Barnes,  I  fear  there  are  a  great 
many  thick-headed  people  in  this  world,  and 
I  sometimes  have  reason  to  think  I  am 
"  chief  est  "  among  them.  Then  what  shall 
we  do?  I  think  we  shall  have  to  make 
every  thing  very  plain,  and  I  think  our  tools 
would  all  better  be  sh-AYpened  just  right,  be- 
fore they  are  sent  out,  and  then  purchasers 
will  certainly  know  how  they  should  be. 

Messrs.  Barnes  Brothers  have  sent  us 
a  pair  of  their  improved  cutter-heads. 
They  are  of  much  nicer  finish  than  their  old 
ones,  and  there  has  been  some  grinding  done 
on  the  points  of  the  knives ;  but  neither  of 
them  are  ground  as  they  should  be  to  make 
the  best  speed  in  cutting.  I  think  the  gen- 
tltinien  will  excuse  these  criticisms,  for  I 
have  always  found  them  very  ready  to  adopt 
any  improvement  or  suggestion  I  may  have 
made,  if  a  good  one.  We  owe  them  a  vote 
of  thanks  already,  for  having  made  such 
great  redtictions  on  the  prices  of  almost  all 
kinds  of  foot-power  machinery.  The  spurs 
on  the  cutters  sent  were  too  long,  and  they 
were  of  such  shape  that  the  block  of  wood 
was  shaken  while  being  grooved ;  when  they 
are  made  so  as  to  be  thin  sharp  blades,  cut- 
ting about  the  thickness  of  a  sheet  of  paper 
into  the  wood,  in  advance  of  the  chisels, 
with  the  steel  ground  back  so  as  not  to  bump 
or  rub  against  the  sides  of  the  finished 
groove,  your  block  will  stand  as  steady  as  if 
no  cutting  were  being  done,  and  your  groove 
will  be  beautifully  smooth  and  clean.  Best 
of  all,  so  little  power  will  be  required  to  do 
the  work,  that  you  will  hardly  know  the  tool 
is  cutting.  I  know,  for  I  have  just  stopped 
my  writing  an  hour,  to  be  sure  I  could  make 
them  go.  As  I  have  said  before,  we  use 
saws  instead  of  these  cutters,  because,  with 
the  constant  work  we  have  for  them,  they 
would  require  sharpening  so  often.  A  saw 
has  50  teeth  or  more,  where  these  tools  have 
but  two,  to  do  the  work. 

Kemember,  the  extreme  points  of  the  teeth 
are  to  do  the  work,  and  no  power  can  be 
spared  in  making  the  saw  rub  or  squeeze 
through  the  lumber.  No  part  of  the  saw 
should  ever  touch  the  lumber,  except  these 
extreme  points,  and  they  are  to  be  of  such 
shape,  and  so  disposed,  that  they  pare  off 


HIVE-MAKING. 


171 


HIVE-MAKIXG. 


just  enough  to  let  the  saw  through,  and 
nothing  more.  If  you  stand  a  cliisel  straight 
up  on  a  plank,  and  draw  it  across  it,  it  may 
scratch  the  wood  some,  but  it  will  not  cut  it 
smoothly.  If  you  try  pushing  it  forward  at 
different  angles,  you  will  find  there  is  a  cer- 
tain position  in  which  it  will  make  a  smooth 
cut.  This  is  about  the  angle  we  wish  to 
give  the  teeth  of  a  rip-saw.  There  is  a  rule 
for  getting  this  pitch,  which  you  will  under- 
stand from  the  diagram  below. 


SAW  IMPROPERLY  FILED.  PROPERLY  FILED. 

Let  H  represent  the  ceiiter  of  the  saw,  and 
F  the  circumference  ;  G  is  a  line  drawn  just 
midway  between  the  center  and  circumfer- 
ence. Xow,  if  a  straight-edge  is  held  against 
the  under  side  of  any  tooth,  it  should  lie  on 
the  line  G.  Hold  your  try-square  on  the 
under  side  of  the  tooth  of  your  rip-saw,  and 
you  can  soon  see  if  the  teeth  are  of  the  right 
pitch.  On  the  left-hand  side  you  will  see 
some  teeth  with  a  wrong  angle.  Some  of 
them  would  carry  a  line  toward  the  center 
of  the  saw,  and  one  of  them  would  go  past 
the  center  on  the  other  side.  You  need  not 
say  no  one  ever  did  as  bad  work  as  that,  for 
it  is  not  many  years  since  I  comi)lained  to 
Mr.  AVashburn  that  my  saw  would  not  cut 
well,  and  he,  with  a  straight-edge,  showed 
me  just  how  badly  I  had  been  doing.  I  had 
commenced  in  a  huny,  and  had  filed  the 
saw  just  to  make  it  do  a  little  for  the  time 
being  ;  I  had  filed  both  top  and  front  of  the 
teeth  to  get  them  to  a  point  "real  quick." 

Filing  a  saw  on  the  top  of  the  teeth  is  a 
gi'eat  waste  of  time,  files,  and  especially 
saws.  Perhaps  I  can  give  you  some  faint 
idea  of  the  matter  from  the  cut  below. 


HOW    .SAWS 


ARE    AVASTED, 
FILING. 


IMl'UOPEK 


Let  A  be  the  point  of  the  tooth  when  the 
saw  is  new;  and  C,the  point  where  it  would 
be  after  having  been  used  for  a  certain 
amount  of  work,  the  filing  having  all  been 
done  on  the  under  side  of  ttie  tooth  so  as  to 
leave  the  line  A  C  Just  as  it  was  when  it 


was  made ;  that  is,  it  has  been  untouched  by 
the  file,  and  has  only  worn  away,  in  actual 
cutting  on  the  wood.  The  saw  has  been  re- 
duced in  this  way  by  this  amount  of  work, 
exactly  from  D  to  E.  Bear  this  in  mind. 
Xow  suppose  we  have  done  the  sharpening 
by  tiling  the  top  of  the  tooth ;  in  getting  the 
same  amount  of  cutting  edge,  we  should  file 
down  from  A  to  B.  This  would  reduce  the 
size  of  the  saw  from  D  to  F,  instead  of  from 
D  to  E.  For  filing  these  small  saws  from  6 
to  10  inches  in  diameter,  we  need  a  file  made 
at  just  the  proper  angle  like  this  cut. 


The  broad  side  of  the  file  is  to  be  laid  on 
the  top  of  the  tooth ;  it  is  never  to  be  used 
for  cutting  downward,  but  only  to  preserve 
the  shape  and  angles  of  the  top  of  the  tooth, 
while  the  cutting  is  to  be  done  from  the  un- 
der side  of  each  tooth,  the  top  of  the  tooth 
being  made  while  sharpening  the  one  just 
after  it. 

So  much  for  the  shape  of  the  tooth  ;  our 
saw  must  be  set,  or  it  will  not  clear  itself 
through  the  lumber  ;  and  for  this  purpose, 
we  have  found  the  Boynton  saw-set  as  good 
as  any  thing  for  circular  saws. 

The  diagram  below  will  give  you  an  idea 
of  the  purpose  of  setting  saws. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  SETTING  A  SAW. 

You  will  observe  that  we  depend  on  the 
little  points,  A  and  B,  to  make  a  path  along 
the  dotted  lines,  for  the  blade.  If  these 
points  get  worn  off,  the  saw  will  pinch,  and 
a  great  part  of  the  power  will  be  consumed 
in  making  it  squeeze  through  the  wood.  If 
your  saw  does  not  cut  easily,  this  is  very 
likely  the  trouble.  If  your  lumber  is  un- 
seasoned or  tough,  you  will  need  much  more 
set  than  if  you  have  dry  clear  tender  lum- 
ber. Of  course,  we  wish  to  get  along  with 
as  little  set  as  we  can  consistently,  for  the 
more  wood  we  cut  out,  the  greater  is  the 
power  required.  Now,  another  considera- 
tion comes  in.  If  we  do  not  set  the  teeth  all 
alike,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  do  this 
with  any  saw-set,  on  account  of  the  tenden- 
cy of  some  teeth  to  spring  more  than  others, 
we  shall  have  occasionally  a  tooth  sticking 
out  more  than  the  rest;  this  causes  much 
friction,  and  makes  our  lumber  lo(^k  bad 
with    grooves   plowed    in   it    at   intervals. 


HIVE-MAKING. 


172 


HONEY-COMB. 


For  large  saws,  a  side-tile  is  used ;  bvxt  for 
our  work,  I  think  we  can  level  off  the  points 
very  well  with  an  oil-stone.  Lay  the  stone 
on  your  saw  table,  against  the  side  of  the 
saw,  and  turn  the  saw  backward  by  hand. 
Now  be  sure  you  do  not  trim  tlie  points  too 
much,  and  that  you  do  not  hold  your  stone 
so  as  to  make  the  points  wedge-shaped. 
When  done  rightly,  yoiu-  saw  should  cut 
smoothly  and  easily,  and  tlie  stuff  should 
look  almost  as  if  it  were  planed. 

In  the  drawing,  I  have  given  about  the 
right  angle  for  the  face  of  tlie  tooth.  The 
point  should  be  almost  square,  like  the  end 
of  a  chisel ;  but  as  the  outside  corner  has  by 
far  the  greatest  amount  of  work  to  do,  it 
should  be  kept  a  trifle  higher.  If  you  give 
the  point  of  the  tooth  a  very  sharp  bevel, 
the  saw  will  leave  a  point  in  the 
wood  like  this,  at  A ;  and  if  the  saw 
is  crowded,  the  teeth  will  spring 
outward  somewhat,  as  shown  in  the  dark 
lines,  making  a  great  amount  of  friction, 
and  rough  and  unsightly  work.  Have  plen- 
ty of  good  files  at  hand,  and  touch  up  the 
teeth  of  your  saws  often,  if  you  wish  to  ac- 
complish the  most,  with  the  least  amount  of 
hard  work. 

The  above  directions  are  all  for  rip-saws. 
A  crosscut  saw  is  filed  with  a  3-cornered 
file,  and  needs  but  few  directions  different 
from  those  already  given.  As  it  is  always 
used  across  the  grain,  it  will  work  best  to 
have  it  sharpened  so  as  to  leave  the  point  A, 
as  shown  in  the  cut,  for  this  will  break  off 
itself.  The  outer  points  of  the  teeth  are  to 
be  kept  very  sharp,  and  are  to  be  leveled  up 
with  the  oil-stone,  so  they  all  cut  in  the 
same  path.  The  saw  must  also  be  set 
enough  to  clear  itself,  in  all  kinds  of  lum- 
ber. If  you  wish  to  cut  up  Ijoards  that  are 
not  perfectly  seasoned,  you  will  need  to  set 
your  saw  accordingly.  You  can,  with  the 
Barnes  saw,  cut  off  a  foot  board  at  one 
clip,  if  every  thing  is  all  right.  Ours  is  sel- 
dom in  order  to  do  this,  I  know ;  but  if  I 
were  going  to  use  it,  I  would  keep  it  in  just 
such  order.  The  grooving-saws  for  section 
boxes  are  to  be  sharpened  like  the  rip-saws. 


SPEED   OF   CIRCULAK  SAWS. 

In  regard  to  the  speed  of  circular  saws, 
much  depends  on  tlie  power  to  be  applied, 
and  the  material  to  be  cut.  As  a  rule,  we 
may  say  that  the  teeth  should  move  at  the 
rate  of  about  hCKJO  feet  per  minute.  By  get- 
ting the  diameter  you  can  easily  figure  out 
the  iminber  of  revolutions  per  minute. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A    SAW  DO   AS  NICE  WOKK  AS 
A  PLANER. 

In  the  year  ISSo  we  discovered  that  a 
rip  saw  filed  with  sufticlent  sharpness  and 
accuracy  will  cut  well-seasoned  basswood  as 
smooth  or  smoother  than  the  average  planer 
or  sandpapering  machine  will  make  it.  The 
saw  is  used  without  any  set  at  all.  It  must 
run  absolutely  true  on  the  mandrel.  The 
teeth  must  be  filed  exactly  on  the  pitch  giv- 
en on  page  171,  and  it  may  take  an  experi- 
enced saw-filer  to  do  it  so  that  the  marks  of 
the  teeth  will  not  show  on  the  pieces  of  wood. 
The  saw  must  have  a  high  speed— not  less 
than  4000.  The  stuff  must  be  fed  rather 
slowly,  and  by  a  man  trained  to  run  a  saw 
without  set.  You  can  make  the  saw  do  a 
smooth  nice  job,  my  friends,  I  think,  if  you 
set  right  down  to  it  and  work  the  matter  out. 
Learn  to  file  your  saws,  and  then  learn  to 
run  them  after  they  are  filed.  If  you  are 
unpracticed  you  will  crowd  the  saw,  or  get 
the  pieces  thin  at  one  end  and  thick  at  the 
other  ;  but  with  practice  you  can  do  it  every 
time,  saving  nearly  half  the  lumber,  and  a 
great  amount  of  time,  over  the  old  way  of 
first  sawing  and  then  planing. 

HIVE     RECORDS.      See    Rec:ord- 

KEEPING   OF   HIVES. 

KOITIj'Sr-COZWEB.  Everybody  knows 
that  the  cells  of  the  honey-comb  are  6-sided, 
and  I  presume  most  people  know  why  they 
are  (i-sided.  If  they  were  s<|uare,  the  young 
bee  would  have  a  much  more  uncomfortable 
cradle  in  which  to  grow  up,  and  it  would 
take  a  much  greater  space  to  accommodate 
a  given  number  of  bees.  This  last  would, 
of  itself,  be  a  fatal  objection  ;  for  to  have 
the  greatest  benefit  of  the  accumulated  ani- 
mal heat  of  the  brood,  they  must  be  closely 
packed  together.  This  is  not  only  the  case 
with  the  unhatched  bees,  but  with  the  bees 
of  a  whole  colony  in  winter  ;  when  each  bee 
is  snugly  ensconced  in  a  cell,  they  occupy 
less  room  than  they  could  by  any  other  ar- 
rangement."" 


B  A 

WHY  THE  CELLS  OF  THE   HONEY-COMB  ARE 
MADE  6-SIDED. 

If  the  cells  were   round,  they  could  be 
grouped  together  much  in  the  same  way  as 


HONEY-COMB. 


178 


HONEY-COMB. 


they  are  now  ;  viz.,  one  in  the  center,  and  6 
all  around  it,  equally  distant  from  the  cen- 
tral one,  and  from  each  other,  like  the  cut, 
in  the  tigure  A  ;  but  even  then,  the  ch-cles 
will  leave  much  waste  room  in  the  corners, 
that  the  bees  would  have  to  till  with  wax. 

At  B,  we  see  the  cells  are  nearly  as  com- 
fortable for  the  yoinig  bee  as  a  round  one 
would  be— of  course,  I  mean  from  our  point 
of  view,  for  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  bees 
know  just  what  they  need  a  great  deal  bet- 
ter than  we  do — and,  at  the  same  time, 
they  come  together  in  such  a  way  that  no 
space  is  left  to  be  tilled  up  at  all.  The  bees, 
therefore,  can  make  the  walls  of  their  cells 
so  thin  that  they  are  little  more  than  a  silky 
covering,  as  it  wei^e,  that  separates  each  one 
from  its  neighbor.  It  must  also  be  remem- 
bered that  a  bee,  when  in  his  cell,  is  squeezed 
up,  if  we  may  so  term  it,  so  as  to  occupy 
much  less  space  than  he  otherwise  would  ; 
and  this  is  why  the  combined  animal  heat  of 
the  cluster  is  so  much  better  economized  in 
winter,  when  the  bees  have  a  small  circle  of 
empty  cells  to  cluster  in,  with  sealed  stores 
all  around  them. 

But,  my  friends,  this  is  not  half  of  the  in- 
genuity displayed  about  the  cell  of  the  bee. 
These  hexagonal  cells  must  have  some  kind 
of  a  wall  or  partition  between  the  inmates 
of  one  series  of  cells,  and  those  in  the  cells 
on  the  opposite  side.  If  we  had  a  plain 
partition  running  across  the  cells  at  right 
angles  with  the  sides,  the  cells  would  have 
flat  bottoms  which  would  not  tit  the  rounded 
body  of  the  bee,  besides  leaving  useless 
corners,  just  as  there  would  have  been  if 
the  cells  had  been  made  round  or  square. 
Well,  this  problem  was  solved  in  much  the 
same  way,  by  making  the  bottom  of  the  cell 
of  three  little  lozenge  -  shaped  plates.  In 
the  tigure  below  we  give  one  of  these  little 
plates,  and  also  show  the  manner  in  which  ' 
three  of  them  are  put  together  to  form  the 
bottom  of  the  cell. 


now   THE    BOTTOM    or   THE  CELL   IS   MADE. 

Now,  if  the  little  lozenge  phites  were 
square,  we  should  have  much  the  same  ar- 
rangement, but  the  bottom  would  be  too 
sharp-pointed,  as  it  were,  to  use  wax  with 
the  best  economy,  or  to  best  accommodate 
the  body  of  the  infantile  bee.    Should  we,  on 


the  contrary,  make  the  lozenge  a  little  long- 
er, we  should  have  the  bottom  of  the  cell 
too  nearly  flat,  to  use  wax  with  most  econo- 
my, or  for  the  comfort  of  the  young  bee. 
Either  extreme  is  bad,  and  there  is  an  exact 
point,  or  rather  a  precise  proportion  that  the 
width  of  this  lozenge  should  bear  to  the 
length.  This  proportion  has  been  long  ago 
decided  to  be  such  that,  if  the  width  of  the 
lozenge  is  equal  to  the  side  of  a  square, 
the  length  should  be  exactly  equal  to  the  di- 
agonal of  this  same  square.  This  has  been 
proven  by  quite  an  intricate  geometrical 
problem  ;  but  a  short  time  ago,  while  get- 
ting out  our  machine  for  making  the  fdn., 
I  discovered  a  much  shorter  way  of  working 
this  beautiful  problem. 

A, 


In  the  tigure  above,  let  A  BCD  represent 
the  lozenge  at  the  bottom  of  the  cell,  and 
A  C,  the  width,  while  B  D  is  the  length  of 
said,  lozenge.  Now,  the  point  I  wish  to 
prove  is,  that  A  C  bears  the  same  proportion 
to  B  D  that  the  side  of  a  square  does  to  the 
diagonal  of  the  same  square. 

THE    3IATHEMAT1CS    OF  THE   HONEY-COMB. 

Suppose  we  have  a  cubical  block,  E  B  C  G 
F.  and  that  we  pile  small  blocks  on  its  sides 
as  shown,  so  as  to  raise  pyramids  of  such  an 
inclination  that  a  line  from  any  apex  to  the 
next,  as  from  A  to  I),  will  just  touch  the 


edge  of  the  cube,  B  C.  Now  A  C  D  B  is  the 
geometric  lozenge  we  are  seeking.  Its  width, 
B  C,  is  equal  to  one  side  of  the  square,  E  B 


HONEY-COMB. 


174 


HONEY-COMB. 


F  H,  for  it  is  one  side  of  the  cube.  Now,  to 
prove  that  A  D  is  equal  to  the  diagonal 
E  F.  we  will  use  the  diagram  below. 


A< 


Let  E  B  F  II  represent  the  cube,  and  the 
dotted  lines  the  pyramids.  If  the  pyramids 
are  so  made  that  the  line  AD  is  a  straight, 
continuous  one,  it  is  evident,  by  a  little  re- 
flection, that  the  angles  A  and  D  will  be 
right  angles.  If  this  is  so,  A  D  is  exactly 
equal  to  E  F,  the  point  we  were  to  prove. 
Now,  referring  to  the  former  figure,  if  we 
should  go  on  building  these  pyramids  on  all 
sides  of  the  cube,  we  will  have  the  beautiful 
geometrical  figure  called  the  rhombic  do- 
decahedron •  it  is  so  called,  because  it  is  a 
solid  figui-e  having  ]2  equal  sides,  and  each 
side  is  a  rhomb,  or  lozenge,  such  as  we  have 
described.  Where  the  obtuse  angles  of 
three  of  these  rhombs  meet,  as  at  C,  we  shall 
have  the  exact  figure  of  the  bottom  of  a 
honey-comb  cell.  A  picture  of  the  geomet- 
rical solid  we  have  mentioned  is  given 
below. 


RHOMBIC  DODECAHEDRON. 

How  does  it  come  that  the  bees  have 
solved  so  exactly  this  intricate  problem,  and 
know  in  just  what  form  and  shape  their 
precious  wax  can  be  used,  so  as  to  hold  the 
most  honey,  with  the  very  least  expenditure 
of  labor  and  material?  Some  are  content 
with  saying  that  they  do  it  by  instinct,  and 
let  it  drop  there  ;  but  I  believe  God  has  giv- 
en us  something  farther  to  do  than  to  in- 
vent names  for  things,  and  then  let  them 
drop.  By  carefully  studying  the  different 
hives  in  a  large  apiary,  we  see  that  not  all 


of  them  build  comb  precisely  alike,  and  not 
all  colonies  are  equally  skilled  in  working 
wax  down  to  this  wonderful  thinness.  Some 
bees  will  waste  their  precious  moments— 
and  wax — in  making  great,  awkward  li^mps 
of  wax  ;  coarse,  irregular  cells  ;  crooked,  un- 
even comb,  etc.,  with  very  bad  economy 
either  for  the  production  of  brood  or  for  the 
storing  of  honey  ;  while  others  will  have 
all  their  work  so  even  and  true,  and  so  little 
wax  will  be  wasted,  that  it  is  wonderful  to 
contemplate  the  regularity  and  system  with 
which  the  little  fellows  have  labored.  Now, 
it  does  not  require  any  great  amount  of  wis- 
dom to  predict  that  the  latter  would,  in  a 
state  of  nature,  stand  a  far  better  chance  of 
wintering  than  the  ones  that  were  wastefid 
and  irregular  in  their  ways  of  doing  things. 
If  this  be  the  case,  those  queens  whose  pro- 
geny were  best  laborers,  most  skillful  wax- 
workers,  as  well  as  most  energetic  honey- 
gatherers,  would  be  most  sure  to  perpetuate 
themselves,  while  the  others  would,  sooner 
or  later,  become  extinct.  I  have  found  more 
of  a  tendency  in  bees  to  sport,  or  to  show 
queer  peculiarities,  than  in  any  other  de- 
partment of  the  animal  or  vegetable  king- 
dom. They  vary  in  color,  in  shape,  in  size, 
in  disposition,  in  energy  :  and  almost  every 
colony,  if  studied  closely,  will  be  found  to 
have  some  little  fashion  or  way  of  doing 
things,  different  from  all  the  rest  in  the 
apiary.  Now,  when  we  take  into  account 
the  fact  that  many  generations  can  be  rear- 
ed in  a  single  summer,  we  see  how  rapidly, 
by  fostering  and  encouraging  any  desirable 
trait  or  disposition,  the  bees  may  be  molded 
to  our  will.  The  egg  that  is  laid  by  a  queen 
to-day  may,  by  proper  care,  be  made  to  pro 
duce  a  queen  laying  eggs  of  the  same  kind 
herself,  in  the  short  time  of  only  25  days,  as 
I  have  explained  heretofore.  Well,  if  we 
should  pick  out  a  queen  whose  progeny 
made  the  thinnest  comb,  and  rear  others 
from  her,  doing  the  same  thing  for  several 
generations,  we  should  probably  get  bees 
whose  combs  would  break  down  by  the 
weight  of  the  honey.  In  a  state  of  nature 
this  extreme  would  correct  itself,  as  well  as 
the  other ;  but  the  point  I  wish  you  to  see  is 
right  here  :  Geometrical  accuracy  in  the  shape 
of  the  cells  can  never  be  overdone,  and  can 
be  reached  only  by  absolute  perfection ;  and  this 
absolute  perfection,  the  bees  hca-e  been  constant- 
ly aiming  at  through  endless  ages.  Is  it  any 
thing  strange,  my  friends,  that  the  bees 
have  got  the  honey-comb  pretty  nearly  right 
by  this  time?  I  will  give  you  a  little  story, 
and  one  which  has  been  very  interesting  to 


HOXEY-COMB. 


175 


HOXEY-COMB. 


me,  from  page  150.  Vol.  II..  American  Bee 
JoiirnaW^ 

If  a  singrle  cell  be  isolated,  it  :vill  be  seen  that  the 
sides  rise  from  the  outer  edges  of  the  three  lozeng- 
es above  mentioned,  so  that  there  are,  of  course, 
six  sides,  the  transverse  section  of  which  gi-ves  a 
perfect  hexagon.  Many  years  ago,  Maraldi,  being 
struck  with  the  fact  that  the  lozenge-shaped  plates 
always  had  the  same  angles,  took  the  trouble  to 
measure  them,  and  found  that  in  each  lozenge  the 
large  angles  measured  109  28 ,  and  the  smaller  ~0^33', 
the  two  together  making  180  ,  the  equivalent  of  two 
right  angles.  He  also  noted  the  fact  that  the  apex 
of  the  three-sided  cup  was  formed  by  the  union  of 
three  of  the  greater  angles.  The  three  united  lozeng- 
es are  seen  in  the  figure  below. 

Some  time  afterward,  Reaumur,  thinking  that 
this  remarkable  uniformity  of  angle  might  have 
some  connection  with  the  wonderful  economy  of 
space  which  is  observed  in  the  bee-comb,  hit  upon  a 
very  ingenious  plan.  Without  mentioning  his  rea- 
sons for  the  question,  he  asked  Koenig,  the  mathema- 
tician, to  make  the  following  calculation:  Given  a 
hexagonal  vessel  terminated  by  three  lozenge-shap*- 
ed  plates,  what  are  the  angles  which  would  give  the 
greatest  amount  of  space  with  the  least  amount  of 
material? 

Koenig  made  his  calculations,  and  found  that  the 
angles  were  1(j9"26  and  70  '34 ,  almost  precisel.v  agree- 
ing with  the  measurements  of  Maraldi.  The  reader 
is  requested  to  remember  these  angles. 

Reaumur,  on  receiving  the  answer,  concluded 
that  the  bee  had  very  nearly  solved  the  difficult 
mathematical  problem,  the  ditference  between  the 
measurement  and  the  calculation  being  so  small  as 
to  be  practically  negative  in  the  actual  construction 
of  so  small  an  object  as  the  bee-cell. 
A  70=32' 


109^28' 


70"32' 


109^28' 


70^32 


Mathematicians  were  naturally  delighted  with  the 
result  of  the  investigation,  for  it  showed  how  beau- 
tifully practical  science  could  bo  aided  by  theoreti- 
al  knowledge;  and  the  construction  of  the  bee-cell 
became  a  famous  problem  in  the  economy  of  na- 
ture. In  comparison  with  the  honey  which  the  eel 
is  intended  to  contain,  the  wax  is  a  rare  and  costly 
substance,  secreted  in  very  small  quantities,  and 
requiring  much  time  and  a  large  expenditure  of 
honey  for  its  production.  It  is,  therefore,  essential 
that  the  quantity  of  wax  emplnyed  in  making  the 
comb  should  be  as  little,  and  that  of  the  honey 
which  could  be  stored  in  it  as  great,  as  possible. 

For  a  long  time  these  statenu-nts  remained  un- 
controverted.  Any  one  with  the  proper  instruments 
could  measure  the  angles  for  himself,  and  the  cal- 
culations of  a  mathematician  like  Kceiiig  would 
hardly  be  (luestioned.  However,  Maclaurin,  the 
well-known  Scotch  mathematician,  was  not  satis- 
fled.  The  two  results  very  nearly  tallied  with  each 
other,  but  not  quite,  and  he  felt  that,  in  a  mathe- 
matical question,  precision  was  a  necessity.    So  he 


I  tried  the  whole  question  himself,  and  found  Maral" 

di's  measurement  correct— namely,  109  28 ,  and  70-32  . 

He  then  set  to  work  at  the  problem  which  was 

I  worked  out  by  Koenig,  and  found  that  the  true  the- 

}  oretical  angles  were  109-28'  and  70^32',  precisely  cor- 

I  responding  with  the  actual  measurement   of  the 

be.e-cell. 

Another  question  now  arose.  How  did  this  dis- 
crepancy occur?  On  investigation,  it  was  found 
that  no  blame  attached  to  Koenig,  but  that  the  error 
lay  in  the  book  of  Logarithms  which  he  used.  Thus 
a  mistake  in  a  mathematical  work  was  accidentally 
discovered  by  measuring  the  angles  of  a  bee-cell— 
a  mistake  i^ufficicnthj  great  to  have  caused  the  Idss  of  a 
ship  whose  captain  happened  to  use  a  copy  of  the  same 
Logarithmic  tables  for  calculating  his  longitudes. 

DIFFERENT   KINDS  OF  CELLS   IN  THE   HON- 
EY-COMB. 

The  bees  build  two  distinct,  regular  sizes- 
drone  and  worker  cells.  The  worker-comb 
measures  very  nearly  five  cells  to  the  inch, 
on  an  average.  Some  specimens  average  a 
little  larger,  and  some  a  little  smaller  ;  but 
when  the  comb  is  at  all  irregular,  it  is  quite 
apt  to  be  a  little  larger.  The  best  specimens 
of  true  worker-comb  generally  contain  5 
cells  within  the  space  of  an  inch,  and  there- 
fore this  measure  has  been  adopted  for  the 
comb  foundation. i"»  If  there  are  five  cells  to 
the  inch,  a  square  inch  would  give,  on  an 
average,  about  25*  cells,  and  25  on  the  oppo- 
site side  would  make  50  young  bees  that 
would  be  hatched  from  every  square  inch  of 
solid  brood.  As  foundation  is  so  much 
more  regular  than  the  natural  comb,  <xe  get 
a  great  many  more  bees  in  a  given  surface 
of  comb,  and  here,  at  least,  we  can  fairly 
claim  to  have  improved  on  nature. 

The  drone  -  comb  measures  just  about  4 
cells  to  the  inch,  but  the  bees  seem  less  par- 
ticular about  the  size  of  it  than  with  the 
worker.  They  very  often  seem  to  make  the 
cells  of  such  size  as  to  best  fill  out  a  given 
space  ;  and  we,  accordingly,  find  them  of 
all  sizes,  from  worker  size  all  the  way  up  to 
considerably  larger  than  i  of  an  inch  in 
width.  Drones  are  raised  in  these  extra- 
large  cells  without  trouble,  and  honey  is  al- 
so stored  in  them:  but  where  they  are  very 
large,  the  bees  are  comi)elled  to  turn  them 
up.  or  the  honey  would  How  out.  As  the 
lumey  is  kept  in  place  by  cajiillary  attrac- 
tion, if  the  cells  exceed  a  certain  size,  the 
adliesion  of  the  licpiid  to  the  wax  walls  is  in- 
sutHcient,  of  itself,  to  hold  the  honey  in 
place.  Where  drones  are  to  be  reared  in 
these  very  large  cells,  the  bees  contract  the 
mouth,  by  a  thick  rim.     As  an  experiment, 

*Tlie  exact  mathematical  calculation  make  these 
nimiliers  :;'.!.  :.9  liiid  iV*.  respectively,  hut  orilinarily 
the  iHimliei-s  I  liave  given  in  the  context  are  more 
Mearl>'  correct. 


HONEY-COMB. 


176 


HONEY-COMB. 


I  had  some  plates  made  for  producing  small 
sheets  of  fdn..  having  only  3i  cells  to  the 
inch.  The  bees  worked  on  a  few  of  these, 
with  these  same  thick  rims,  but  they  evi- 
dently did  not  like  the  idea  very  well,  for 
they  tried  to  make  worker-cells  of  some  of 
it,  and  it  proved  so  much  of  a  complication 
for  their  little  heads  that  they  finally  aban- 
doned the  whole  piece  of  comb,  apparently 
in  disgust.  Bees  sometimes  rear  worker 
brood  in  drone-comb,  where  compelled  to 
from  want  of  room,  and  they  always  do  it  in 
the  way  I  have  mentioned,  by  contracting 
the  mouth  of  the  cells,  and  leaving  the 
young  bee  a  rather  large  berth  in  which  to 
grow  and  develoj).  Drones  are  sometimes 
reared  in  worker-cells  also,  but  they  are  so 
much  cramped  in  growth  that  they  seldom 
look  like  a  fully  develoi)ed  insect. 


DROXE-COM14. 


WOKKEIi-C03IB. 


Several  times  it  has  been  suggested  that 
we  enlarge  the  race  of  honey-bees  by  giving 
them  larger  cells;  and  some  circumstances 
seem  to  indicate  that  something  may  be 
done  in  this  direction,  although  I  have  little 
hope  of  any  permanent  enlargement  in  size, 
unless  we  combine  with  it  the  idea  of  se- 
lecting the  largest  bees  to  propagate  from, 
as  given  a  few  pages  back.  By  making  the 
cells  smaller  than  ordinarily,  we  can  get 
small  bees  with  very  little  trouble ;  and  I 
have  seen  a  whole  nucleus  of  bees  so  small 
as  to  be  really  laughable,  just  because  the 
comb  they  were  hatched  from  was  set  at  an 
angle  so  that  one  side  was  concave  and  the 
other  convex.  The  small  bees  came  from 
the  concave  side.  Their  light,  active  move- 
ments, as  they  sported  in  front  of  the  hive, 
made  them  a  pretty  and  amusing  sight  for 
those  fond  of  curiosities.  Worker-bees 
reared  in  drone  cells  are,  if  I  am  correct, 
sometimes  extra  large  in  size;  but  as  to 
whether  we  can  make  them  permanently 
larger  by  such  a  course,  I  am  inclined  to 
doubt.  The  difficulty,  at  present,  seems  to 
be  the  tendency  to  rearing  a  great  quantity 
of  useless  drones.  By  having  a  hive  fur- 
nished entirely  with  worker-comb,  we  can 
so  nearly  prevent  the  production  of  drones 
that  it  is  safe  enough  to  call  it  a  complete 
remedy. 


IIOAV    THE    BEES   BUILD    THE    COMB. 

In  this  day  and  age  of  bees  and  honey,  it 
would  seem  that  one  should  be  able  to  tell 
how  the  bees  build  comb,  with  almost  as 
much  ease  as  they  would  tell  how  cows  and 
horses  eat  grass  ;  but  for  all  that,  we  lack 
records  of  careful  and  close  experiments, 
such  as  Uarwin  made  many  years  ago.  In 
our  house-ai)iary,  there  are  dozens  of  hives 
where  the  bees  are  building  right  up  close  to 
the  glass,  at  this  very  minute  ;  and  all  one 
has  to  do,  in  order  to  see  how  it  is  done,  is 
to  take  a  chair  and  sit  down  before  them. 
But  the  little  fellows  have  such  a  queer, 
sleight-of-hand  way  of  doing  the  work,  that 
I  hardly  know  how  they  do  accomplish  it. 

In  a  little  work  published  by  Prof.  Agas- 
siz,  about  the  year  1867,  the  renowned  nat- 
uralist speaks  as  follows  about  the  way  in 
which  bees  build  lioney-comb  : 

"  The  bees  stand  as  close  as  they  can  together  in 
their  hive  for  economy  of  space,  and  each  one  de- 
posits his  wax  around  him,  his  own  form  and  size 
being-  the  mold  for  the  cells,  the  regularity  of 
which,  when  completed,  excites  so  much  wonder 
and  admiration.  The  mathematical  secret  of  the 
;  bee  is  to  be  found  in  his  structure,  not  in  his  In- 

!  stinct." 

I 

'  Notwithstanding  the  promptness  with 
which  the  folly  of  such  a  statement  was  at 
once  shown  up  in  the  bee-journals,  it  seems 
it  never  came  to  the  eyes  of  Prof.  A.,  or,  at 
least,  he  never  deemed  it  worthy  of  notice  ; 
for,  in  1873,  he  gave,  substantially,  the  same 
thing  in  a  lecture  at  Cambridge,  Mass., 
and  it  was  praised  and  published  in  the  Tri- 

'  biine  and  other  papers,  and  sent  broadcast 
all  over  our  land.  I  believe  all  the  bee-jour- 
nals at  once  protested  against  giving  the 
people  such  ■•  twaddle"  (if  I  may  be  excused 
for  using  the  term),  as  science ;  but  for  all 
that.  I  think  the  learned  professor  never 
recalled  his  blunder,  or  even  so  much  as  ad- 
mitted that  he  had  never  seen  the  inside  of 
a  bee-hive  at  all,  but  only  guessed  at  it,  or 
repeated  what  he  had  been  told  by  some 
one. 

About  two  years  afterward,  the  great  sci- 
entist, Tyndall,  by  some  means  got  an 
inkling  of  the  way  in  which  Agassiz  had 
''put  his  foot  in  it,"  and,  in  the  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,  wisely  admitted  that  the  bees 
did  not  stand  in  the  cells  to  build  their 
comb,  bvit  tixed  them  in  this  wise  :  Says  he, 
''The  bees  place  themselves  at  equal  dis- 
tances apart  upon  the  wax,  and  sweep  and 
excavate—''  etc.  Now,  if  Tyndall  is  teach- 
ing us  other  things  in  the  same  way,  i.  e., 
delivering  lectures  on  some  subject  on  which 

i  lie  knows  nothing,  how  mtich  can  we  depend 


IIONEY-COME. 


177 


HONEYCOMB. 


on  any  thing  he  saysV  Oh  why  could  not  he 
and  Agassiz,  before  attempting  to  explain 
the  matter  to  the  people,  take  the  time  to 
get  a  hive  of  real  live  bees,  as  did  Darwin, 
and  not  be  obliged  to  take  any  thing  at  sec- 
ond hand?  If  they  hwo  were  afraid  of  stings, 
any  expert  honey-raiser  could  afford  them 
the  facilities  for  a  safe  observation,  and  thus 
prevent  their  going  into  such  folly,  or  false- 
hood, to  call  things  by  their  right  names,  for 
they  pretend  to  have  knowledge  where  they 
have  none.  Tiike  the  money  and  buy  a  hive  of 
bees,  all  ye  that  thirst  for  knowledge,  and 
take  it  direct  from  God's  own  works,  instead 
of  receiving  it  second  hand. 

For  particulars  in  regard  to  tlie  North 
Pole,  or  as  to  whether  the  planet  Jupiter  is 
habitable,  we  may  be  obliged  to  listen  to 
those  who  should  know  better  than  we  do ; 
but  in  our  own  industry  no  such  necessity 
exists,  for  a  swarm  of  Ijees  is  within  the 
reach  of  all. 

When  distinguished  persons  have  visited 
my  apiary,  I  have  almost  invariably  heard 
them  mention  the  great  discovery  of  Agas- 
siz. in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  bees 
build  their  comb;  and  when  1  explain  that 
it  was  a  great  mistake,  they  usually  think 
that  so  great  a  man  as  Agassiz,  and  one 
who  always  went  to  the  ants  and  bees  with 
his  own  eyes,  must  have  been  right,  and 
that  I  had  made  a  mistake  somewhere. 

I  have  occupied  all  this  space,  my  friends, 
just  to  give  you  an  illustration  of  how  little 
real  work  some  of  the  great  scientists  and 
lecturers  are  in  the  habit  of  doing,  and  of  the 
importance  of  proving  things  for  "yourself, 
with  your  own  eyes  and  hands. 

If  we  examine  the  bees  closely  during  the 
season  of  comb-building  and  honey-gather- 
ing, we  shall  find  many  of  them  witli  the 
wax  scales  protruding  between  the  rings 
that  form  the  body,  and  these  scales  are 
either  picked  from  their  bodies,  or  from  the 
bottom  of  the  hive  or  honey-boxes  in  which 
they  are  building.  If  a  bee  is  obliged  to 
carry  one  of  these  wax  scales  but  a  short 
distance,  he  takes  it  in  his  nuindibles,  and 
looks  as  luisiuess  like  with  it  thus  as  a  car- 
penter with  a  board  on  his  shoulder.  If  he 
has  to  carry  it  from  the  bottom  of  the  honey- 
box,  he  takes  it  in  a  way  that  I  can  not  ex- 
plain any  better  than  to  say  he  slips  it  un- 
der his  chin.  When  thus  ecpiipped,  you 
would  never  know  he  was  encumbered  with 
any  thing,  unless  it  chanced  to  slip  out, 
when  lie  will  very  dextrously  tuck  it  back 
with  one  of  his  fore  feet.  The  little  i)late  of 
wax  is  so  warm  from  being  kei)t  under  liis 


chin,  as  to  be  quite  soft  when  he  gets  back  ; 
and  as  he  takes  it  out,  and  gives  it  a  pinch 
against  the  comb  where  the  building  is  going 
on,  one  would  think  he  might  stoi)  a  while, 
and  put  it  into  place  ;  but.  not  he  ;  for  off  he 
scampers  and  twists  around  so  many  differ- 
ent ways,  you  might  tliink  he  was  not  one  of 
the  working  kind  at  all.  Another  follows 
after  liim  sooner  or  later,  and  gives  the  wax 
a  pinch,  or  a  little  scraping  and  burnishing 
with  his  polished  mandibles,  then  another, 
and  so  on,  and  the  sum  total  of  all  these  ma- 
ncEuvres  is,  that  the  comb  seems  almost  to 
grow  out  of  nothing  ;  yet  no  bee  ever  makes 
a  cell  himself,  and  no  comb-building  is  ever 
done  by  any  bee  while  standing  in  a  cell ; 
neither  do  the  bees  ever  stand  in  rows  and 
"excavate,''  or  any  thing  of  the  kind. 

The  tinished  comb  is  the  result  of  the  unit- 
ed efforts  of  the  moving,  restless  mass;  and 
the  great  mystery  is,  that  any  thing  so  won- 
derful can  ever  result  at  all  from  such  a 
mixed-up,  skipping-about  v^^ay  of  working, 
as  they  seem  to  have.  When  the  cells  are 
built  out  only  part  way,  they  are  tilled  with 
honey  or  eggs,  and  the  length  is  increased 
when  they  feel  disposed,  or  "get  around 
to  it,"  perhaps.  It  may  be  that  they  find  it 
easier  working  with  the  shallow  walls  about 
the  cells,  for  they  can  take  care  of  the  brood 
much  easier,  and  put  in  the  honey  easier 
too,  in  all  probability;  and,  as  a  thick  rim  is 
left  around  the  upper  edge  of  the  cell,  they 
have  the  material  at  hand  to  lengthen  it  at 
any  time.  This  thick  rim  is  also  very  nec- 
essary to  give  the  bees  a  secure  foothold,  for 
the  sides  of  the  cells  are  so  thin  they  would 
be  very  apt  to  break  down  with  even  the 
light  weight  of  a  bee.  When  honey  is  com- 
ing in  rapidly,  and  the  bees  are  crowded  for 
room  to  store  it,  their  eagerness  is  so  plainly 
apparent,  as  they  push  the  work  along,  that 
they  fairly  seem  to  quiver  with  excitement ; 
but  for  all  that,  they  skip  about  from  one 
cell  to  another  in  the  same  way,  no  one  bee 
working  in  the  same  spot  to  exceed  a  min-' 
ute  or  two,  at  the  very  outside.  Very  fre- 
quently, after  one  has  bent  a  i)iece  of  wax  a 
certain  way,  the  next  tips  it  in  the  opposite 
direction,  and  so  on  until  completion;  but 
after  all  have  given  it  a  twist  and  a  pull,  it 
is  found  in  pretty  nearly  the  riglit  spot.  As 
nearly  as  I  can  discover,  they  moisten  the 
thin  ribbons  of  wax  with  some  sort  of  fluid 
or  saliva.  As  the  bee  always  preserves  the 
thick  rib  or  rim  of  the  comb  he  is  working, 
the  looker-on  w<nild  supi)ose  he  was  making 
the  walls  of  a  considerable  thickness;  but  if 
we  drive  him  away,  and  break  this  rim,  we 


HONEY-DEW. 


178 


HON]i:Y-DEW 


will  find  that  liis  mandibles  liave  come  so 
nearl}'  togetlier  that  the  wax  between  them, 
beyond  the  rim,  is  almost  as  thin  as  tissue 
paper.  In  building  natural  comb,  of  course 
the  bottoms  of  the  cells  are  thinned  in  the 
same  way,  as  the  work  goes  along,  before 
any  side  walls  are  made  at  all ;  but  the  man- 
ner of  thinning  the  bottoms  of  the  cells  in  the 
foundation  is  quite  another  thing. 

For  the  consideration  of  the  thickness  of 
combs  and  how  far  to  space  them  apart  see 
Fixed  Distances;  also  Spacing  of 
Frames. 

HOIVEV-DEVT.  This,  as  its  name  im- 
plies, is  a  dew  that  falls  during  the  night, 
and  is  sweet  like  honey;  or,  at  least,  a  great 
many  claim  that  it  falls  like  dew  in  the  night, 
and  many  have  been  the  learned  theories 
embodied  in  lengthy  papers,  to  endeavor  to 
account  for  such  a  very  queer  way  of  doing 
things,  on  the  part  of  old  dame  Nature.  It 
may  be  that  sweet  dew  does  fall  from  the  at- 
mosphere without  the  agency  of  aphides,  or 
of  any  other  kind  of  winged  insect;  but  I, 
for  one,  am  very  much  averse  to  accepting 
any  such  theory.  Some  writers  explain  it 
by  saying  that  the  leaves  of  some  trees,  and 
possibly  the  blades  of  grass,  at  certain  times 
and  seasons  when  the  conditions  are  all 
right,  distill  the  sweet  matter  from  their  foli- 
age and  blades.  I  like  this  explanation 
much  better  than  the  former;  but,  inasmuch 
as  all  cases  that  have  come  under  my  obser- 
vation could  be  explained  by  the  agency  of 
the  aphides  (see  Aphides),  I  much  pre- 
fer to  give  them  the  credit  of  the  whole 
of  this  kind  of  honey.  When  the  dew  is 
found  on  the  grass,  in  situations  where  no 
trees  or  bushes  are  near,  which,  it  is  said,  is 
sometimes  the  case,  I  would  suggest  that  it 
is  exuded  by  some  sort  of  an  insect  that,  aft- 
er feeding  on  green  foliage,  etc.,  takes  a 
flight  in  swarms  like  mosquitoes,  and  ejects 
the  sweet  fluid  in  a  sort  of  spray.  It  may  be 
hard  to  prove  this:  but,  nevertheless,  I  think 
the  idea  much  more  tenable  than  that  the 
honey  or  saccharine  matter  evaporates  from 
the  flowers,  and  then  falls  like  dew.  Some 
of  the  advocates  of  the  latter  theory  m-ge 
that,  in  boiling  the  maple  sap,  a  part  of  the 
sugar,  at  least,  is  evaporated,  for  it  is  plain- 
ly discernible  by  the  smell  in  the  air. 

My  friends,  you  smell  the  volatile  essen- 
tial oil  that  gives  the  maple  sugar  its  agree- 
able odor,  and  not  the  sugar  itself  floating 
in  the  air.  You  can  smell  burnt  sugar  also, 
it  is  true;  but  the  volatile  part  in  either  case 
is  not  sugar;  for  no  skill  of  the  chemist  will 
enable  him  to  condense  it  from  the  invisible 


vapor  into  sugar  once  move.  When  it  is 
possible  to  volatilize  sugar  by  heat,  and  then 
condense  it  again.  I  shall  believe  in  a  honej^- 
dew  distilled  from  the  atmosphere,  like  the 
dews  of  the  night.  If  this  were  possible  we  / 
should  see  our  sugar  slowly  passing  away, 
while  exposed  to  the  air,  precisely  as  does 
the  moisture  it  contains.  Experiment  sho\ys 
that  sugar  may  be  wet  and  dried  innumera- 
ble times,  but  that,  while  the  water  passes 
off  very  soon,  the  full  weight  of  the  sugar  is 
invariably  left  behind. 

In  support  of  the  exudation  theory,  I  will 
say  that  I  have  many  times  found  a  liquid 
hanging  on  the  leaves  of  the  basswood  and 
some  other  trees,  in  the  form  of  a  lather,  like 
soapsuds;  but  although  this  had  a  mucilag- 
inous property,  I  could  discover  nothing 
sweet  about  it.  Should  nature  change  the 
starch  it  contained  into  sugar,  a  very  simple 
and  oft-occurring  change,  we  should  have 
honey-dew  distilling  right  from  the  leaves 
of  the  trees;  and  I  have  been  informed  that 
such  has  been  known  to  be  the  case — the 
leaves  of  the  basswood-trees  of  the  forests' 
have  been  found  dripping  with  honey.  This 
was  during  the  great  honey  yield  in  Minne- 
sota, a  few  years  ago. 

In  support  of  the  theory  that  it  falls  from 
the  air  or  clouds,  it  is  said  that,  in  the  old 
world,  there  is  a  substance  called  manna  ^^^ 
(I  presume  in  commemoration  of  the  manna 
of  the  Bible),  which  falls  from  the  air  during 
certain  seasons  of  the  year,  and  that  it  is 
gathered  and  used  as  food.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  this  manna  is  the  pollen  of  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  tree,  which,  being  light,  is  car- 
ried quite  a  distance  by  the  wiiid.  Pollen 
consists,  principally,  of  starch;  and  a  little 
dampness,  such  as  the  dews  of  night  fur- 
nish, will  frequently  convert  this  starch  into 
sugar  in  a  very  few  hours.  It  is  possible, 
that  some  kinds  of  honey-dew  are  the  results 
of  the  decomposition  of  pollen,  which  may 
become  scattered  over  the  grass. 

Another  source  of  honey-dew  has  been  re- 
cently reported.  The  following  letter  very 
graphically  describes  the  species  of  bark- 
louse  that  produces  it : 

I  send  you  some  honey-dew  insects.  Last  Sunday, 
I  noticed  ray  bees  moving  over  a  small  poplar  (tulip 
tree),  and  upon  examining  it,  I  found  the  leaves 
dripping  with  honey-dew.  Did  it  exude  from  the 
leaves?  I  saw  no  living  insects,  and  yet  the  dew 
fell  in  a  continuous  shower.  A  closer  examination 
showed  me  the  small  limbs  coA'ered  with  scale  -  like 
bunches,  piled  on  each  other  like  oyster-shells.  One 
end  of  the  apparent  shell  or  scale  is  larger  and 
broader  than  the  other,  with  a  slight  crease  up  the 
middle;  about  midwaj'  up  this  crease  is  a  small 
white  dot;  this  dot  is  a  small  valve  covering  a  hole 


HONEY-DEW. 


179 


nOXEY-HOUSES. 


through  which  the  honey-dew  is  thrown  by  the  in- 
sect. As  I  stood  and  watched,  1  could  see  the  valve 
open,  a  few  jets  of  fluid  thrown  out,  and  the  valve 
closed  again.  This  would  be  repeated  every  mo- 
ment or  two;  and  as  there  are  untold  numbers  of 
these  strange  things  on  the  tree,  you  can  have  some 
idea  of  the  amount  of  dew  thrown  out.  For  a  whole 
week  now,  these  insects  have  been  making  honey- 
dew;  how  much  longer  they  will  continue  to  do  so 
I  can't  tell,  but  intend  to  watch  them.  I  send  you 
some  of  the  insects  to-day  by  mail;  if  it  is  any  thing 
new,  let  us  all  have  the  benefit  of  it.  I  can  not  yet 
believe  the  "  Exudation  Theory"  of  honey-dew,  but 
will  wait  till  I  find  out  more  about  It. 
Jonesboro,  Ills.,  May  36, 1878.       M.  J.  Willard. 

The  scaly  little  fellows  (looking,  for  all 
the  world,  like  miniature  mud-turtles)  that 
cover  the  twig  sent,  I  should  scarcely  have 
thought  of  calling  insects,  had  it  not  been 
mentioned.  They  are  truly  wonderful,  and, 
iit  least,  demonstrate  that  honey-dew  is  not 
the  product  of  any  one  species  of  insects. 

Prof.  Cook  gives  a  very  complete  history 
of  the  insect,  with  drawings,  in  the  Ayneri- 
can  Bee  Journal  for  Sept.,  1878.  I  was  at 
first  inclined  to  think  it  might  be  worth 
while  to  propagate  these  insects  in  localities 
where  pasturage  is  very  scarce  in  the  fall  of 
the  year,  but  friend  Cook  assures  us  that 
they  are  very  destructive  to  our  beautiful 
tulip  or  whitewood  trees.  lie  has  given  it 
the  name  of  Lecauiimi  Tidipifera. 

In  conclusion,  1  would  ask  those  who  come 
across  this  wonderful  substance,  or  Hud  the 
bees  w(uking  on  it,  to  make  careful  experi- 
ments and  examinations.  Do  not  jump  hast- 
ily at  conclusions,  but  go  clear  to  the  top 
and  bottoDi  of  things.  Many  have  declared 
there  were  no  aphides  on  the  trees  at  all; 
and  one  man  who  had  so  decided,  afterward 
concluded  to  climb  the  tree,  and,  in  its  very 
topmost  branches,  he  found  the  leaves  all 
alive  with  a  sort  of  green  insect,  which  was 
spraying  the  air  with  the  dew  in  a  manner 
that  made  it  look  like  a  veritable  shower,  as 
the  sunlight  illumined  the  scene.  Look 
carefully,  and  then  write  me  your  discov- 
eries. 

ApriU  1880. — We  have  now  fair  evidence 
that  the  leaves  of  plants  do  at  times  exude 
honey.  See  the  following,  taken  from  page 
•587  of  Dec.  Gleanings  for  J880: 

HONEY  FROM  THE  LEAVES  OF  THE  CATALP.\. 

I  came  very  near  forgetting  to  tell  you  about  the 
cfital pa-tree.  It  belongs  to  the  family  of  Binntmian. 
There  are  about  6  trees  just  around  me.  They  are 
planted  for  ornament.  It  was  rich  in  honey  this 
year,  both  in  the  blossoms  and  on  the  under  side  of 
the  leaf.  At  the  axis  of  the  main  ribs,  the  leaves 
are  large.  The  drops  would  be  large  enough  for  two 
loads,  I  should  judge.  And  did  the  bees  work  on 
them?   I  should  have  been  very  mvich  pleased  could 


you  have  stood  underneath  those  trees  and  heard 
their  merry  hum;  but  you  would  have  had  to  be  up 
nearly  as  early  as  you  were  on  the  morning  that  you 
found  out  about  the  spider-plant.  It  would  have 
dispelled  some  people's  notions  about  plants  and 
flowers  secreting  honey  only  from  the  blossoms.  It 
is  the  last  tree  to  leaf  out  in  the  spring. 

W.  G.  Saltford. 
Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  28,  1880. 

On  receipt  of  the  above  I  \\Tote  friend  S. 
for  a  leaf,  and  here  is  the  reply  that  came 
with  it : 

Please  find  inclosed  a  part  of  the  leaf  I  told  you  se- 
creted the  honey.  They  are  a  little  touched  by  frost 
now.    Their  right  color  is  a  deep  green. 

w.  G.  Saltford. 

Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  18, 1880. 

We  have  the  catalpa-tree  in  our  town,  but 
it  has,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  produced  any 
honey.  The  above  facts,  and  a  host  of  oth- 
ers, seem  to  indicate,  pretty  conclusively, 
that  almost  every  plant  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom  may,  at  times,  be  in  a  condition  to 
secrete  honey  •*^''';  more  wonderful  still,  it 
may  comp  from  the  foliage  instead  of  from 
the  blossoms.  I  have  many  times  seen  bees 
prying  around  on  the  under  side  of  leaves  of 
different  kinds,  as  if  they  were  in  search  of 
something,  or  had  at  some  time  found  some- 
thing there  that  they  remembered.  The 
leaves  sent  show  a  black  spot  at  the  place 
where  the  large  veins  branch  out.  To  be 
sure  that  there  are  no  microscopic  insects 
that  have  contributed  to  the  production  of 
the  honey,  a  careful  microscopic  examina- 
tion would  be  well,  and  I  gave  the  dried 
leaf  to  the  boys,  but  they  could  not  detect 
the  remains  of  any  such  agency. 

HOUrXiV  -  HOUSES.  As  much  of  the 
value  of  lioney  depends  upon  its  care  after 
being  taken  from  tlie  hive,  and  as  very  much 
of  our  success  as  honey-producers  depends 
largely  tipon  the  facilities  we  have  for  ac- 
complishing a  large  amount  of  work  easily 
and  cpiickly,  it  is  higlily  important  that  we 
have  a  honey-house  that  is  well  adapted  to 
the  storing  of  honey  and  combs,  and  that  is 
convenient  as  a  work-shop.  Some  most  val- 
uable suggestions  were  made  regarding  the 
construction  of  lutney-houses.  in  Gleanings, 
early  in  188;^.  Among  them  was  an  article 
from  a.  M.  Doolittle.  that  embodies  many 
of  the  most  practical  points  to  be  observed  ; 
and  liis  remarks  are  the  more  valuable,  as 
they  apply  to  tlie  construction  of  a  lioney- 
house  on  any  plan,  or  even  tlie  fixing-over  of 
some  building  we  may  already  have  in  use. 
Inasmuch  as  friend  Doolittle  has  been  not 
only  one  of  the  largest  producers,  but  also 


HOXEY-HOUSES. 


180 


HONEY-HOUSES. 


one  who  has  produced  some  of  the  finest 
comb  honey,  we  are  very  ghid  to  have  the 
following  valuable  hints  from  his  pen  : 

ni  am  requested  ;to  tell  in  Gleanings  how  I  would 
build  a  honey-house;  and  I  see  on  p.  615,  of  Glean- 
ings for  December,  that  E.  T.  Fhinafran  desires  a 
plan  for  building  a  house  for  both  comb  and  ex- 
tracted honey.  In  the  first  place  I  would  say,  that  I 
should  not  want  extracted  and  comb  honey,  and  the 
necessary  work  for  each,  done  all  in  one  room.  My 
experience  says,  have  a  room  for  comb  honey,  one 
for  extracted,  and  a  third  room  large  enough  to  do 
all  the  general  work  for  both.  Now,  any  building 
can  be  cheaply  lined  so  as  to  exclude  bees,  with 
half-inch  stuff,  for  this  general  work-room,  and  the 
storage-rooms  be  built  on  the  south  side  so  as  to 
make  them  convenient,  airy,  strong,  and  sufficieu1> 
ly  warm  ^to  ripen  honey  thoroughly.  If  I  were 
building  a  shop  I  should  build  it  so  that  I  could  par- 
tition off  these  two  storage-rooms,  one  on  the  south- 
west and  the  other  on  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
same,  having  the  body  of  the  shop  for  doing  work  of 
all  kinds  pertaining  to  the  apiarj-.  I  should  build  it 
two  stories,  and  use  the  upper  story  for  storing 
every  thing  not  in  use,  or  liable  to  be  used  for  some 
little  time.  If  I  did  not  wish  to  build  a  shop  I  should 
use  any  old  building  I  had,  lining  it  and  fixing  as  in 
the  case  first  given  for  a  room  for  this  general 
work,  for  such  a  room  is  certainly  necessary.  It 
would  be  preferable  to  have  this  general  room  both 
mouse  and  rat  proof;  but  if  an  old  building  is  used 
it  could  hardly  be  expected,  without  quite  an  out- 
lay. The  two  rooms  used  for  storing  honey  I  would 
have  mouse-proof,  let  it  cost  what  it  would,  for  the 
filth  of  vermin  about  honey  is  not  to  be  tolerated  at 
all.  If  mice  get  into  the  general  room,  keep  them 
caught  out  with  traps ;  and  as  for  the  rats,  they  will 
not  be  liable  to  bother  unless  you  have  grain  of 
some  kind  in  your  room  for  them  to  feed  upon,  and 
this,  of  course,  j'ou  will  not  tolerate,  for  this  gener- 
al room  is  for  bee-flxtures  and  not  for  grain. 

Ha%ing  given  a  little  outline  of  what  I  would  have 
for  a  general  work-i-oom,  I  will  next  speak  of  a  room 
for  storing  comb  honey.  This  need  not  be  larger 
than  S  X  10  for  storing  all  the  comb  honey  from  100 
stocks  in  the  spring,  even  should  they  produce  300 
lbs.  per  swai-m!  on  an  average.  Whether  bviilt  in 
with  a  shop,  or  at  the  side  of  another  building,  I 
should  have  a  wall  of  mason-work  for  the  sills  to 
rest  upon,  if  drainage  could  be  obtained  so  the  wa- 
ter would  not  stand  under  the  wall,  as  in  such  a  case 
the  freezing  of  the  water  about  the  wall  would  soon 
destroy  it.  If  I  could  not  dispose  of  the  water  I 
would  use  abutments.  The  wall,  or  abutments, 
need  not  be  more  than  a  foot  high;  and  if  a  wall, 
two  or  four  six-inch  square  holes  should  be  left  at 
the  sides  so  the  air  can  freely  circulate  under  the 
floor.  If  a  wall  is  used,  6x8  inch  would  be  plenty 
lai'ge  for  the  sills,  and  8x10  in  any  case;  for  you 
will  see  -that  the  abutments,  if  such  are  used,  are 
close  together,  not  more  than  three  feet  apart.  For 
sleepers  I  should  use  2x8  inch,  and  place  them  but 
8  inches  apart  from  center  to  center,  having  them 
run  the  shortest  way  of  the  room.  Now,  don't  think 
this  too  strong,  and  place  these  sleepers  further 
apart;  for  if  you  do  you  will  repent  when  you  get 
from  five  to  ten  tons  of  honey  in  your  room.  I  would 
have  the  room  9  feet  high,  so  the  studding  (2x6  in.) 
should  be  that  length  less  your  plates  (4x6  in.),  if 
you  build  this  room  separate  from  your  shop.    If  so 


built  I  would  have  a  tin  roof,  and  paint  it  a  dark 
color;  but  if  in  a  shop,  of  course  no  roof  will  be 
needed,  as  the  upper  floor  will  make  the  roof. 

So  far  I  would  use  good  hemlock  for  the  wood  em- 
ployed, for  this  holds  a  nail  well,  is  strong,  and  does  / 
not  easily  decay.  For  the  floor  I  would  use  IJ4/ 
matched  spruce  4  inches  wide,  and  inch  pine  corny 
mon  ceiling  for  the  sides.  If  all  is  put  together  as 
it  should  be,  you  will  not  be  bothered  with  mice, 
providing  you  keep  the  door  to  this  room  shut  when 
not  in  use.  This  door  is  to  be  on  the  side  next  your 
general  room,  of  course.  I  would  have  a  window  on 
one  side  and  one  end,  which  are  to  be  opened  in 
warm  dry  weather,  so  as  to  thoroughly  ventilate  the 
room  and  pile  of  honej\  Over  these  windows,  on 
the  outside,  is  to  be  placed  wire  cloth  so  the  windows 
can  be  left  open  at  pleasure  without  anj-  fears  of 
robber  bees.  To  let  the  bees  out,  which  may  chance 
to  come  in  on  the  honey  as  it  is  taken  from  the  hive, 
let  this  wire  cloth  run  8  or  10  inches  above  the  top 
of  the  window,  nailing  on  strips  of  lath,  or  other 
strips,  '-'a  thick,  so  as  to  keep  the  wire  cloth  out  that 
far  from  the  sides  of  the  building,  thus  giving  space 
for  the  bees  to  crawl  up  on  the  cloth  to  the  top  when 
they  are  on  the  outside.  No  robber  bee  will  ever 
think  of  trying  to  get  in  at  this  entrance,  so  your 
room  is  kept  clean  of  bees  and  flies  all  the  while. 
This  completes  the  building,  I  believe,  except  that 
we  want  it  painted  some  dai-k  color  so  that  the  rays 
of  the  sun  may  keep  it  as  warm  as  possible.  Our 
door  should  be  in  the  center  of  one  side,  so  that  on 
each  side  of  our  room  a  platform  can  be  built,  upon 
which  to  place  our  honey.  Perhaps  all  will  not  agree 
with  me,  but  I  think  all  box  honey  should  be  stored 
in  such  a  room  at  least  a  month  before  crating,  to 
ripen  and  sweat  out.  I  know  it  is  a  saving  of  time 
and  labor  to  crate  it  at  once;  but  I  think  it  pays  for 
all  this  extra  time  and  labor,  in  the  better  quality 
and  appeai-ance  of  our  product.  For  the  platform,  I 
take  pieces  of  3x12  plank,  and  cut  them  3  ft.  9  in. 
long,  and  spike  two  pieces  together,  thus  making  a 
stick  4x12x3  ft.  9,  using  three  of  these  on  a  side,  set 
the  12-way  up,  which  leaves  an  alley  2^-4 ft.  through  the 
center  of  the  room.  Upon  these  lay  four  3x4  sticks, 
8  ft.  long  (4  on  each  side).  Now  laj'  sticks  3x2x3  ft.  9 
across  these  so  your  sections  will  stand  on  them  the 
same  as  they  did  in  the  hive,  and  have  the  ends  of 
the  sections  meet  in  the  center  of  these  2x2  sticks. 
Also  by  means  of  strips  keep  the  honej'  out  two 
inches  from  the  side  of  the  building,  so  that  the  air 
can  circulate  all  around  the  pile,  otherwise  that  next 
the  sides  of  the  building  will  sweat  so  as  to  become 
transparent.  Also,  piled  in  this  way  the  fumes  of 
burning  sulphur  can  ])enetrate  the  whole  pile  by 
placing  your  burning  sulphur  under  the  pile. 

The  i-oom  for  the  extracted  honey,  I  would  build 
of  the  same  width,  except  that  I  would  have  it  14  to 
18  feet  long  instead  of  10,  so  as  to  give  plenty  of 
room.  The  reason  we  have  our  comb-honey  room 
small,  is,  that  we  can  sulphur  our  honey  in  as  small 
a  room  as  possible.  I  would  build  both  rooms  as 
one,  so  as  to  save  material,  and  separate  them  bj-  a 
partition  so  made  that  the  sulphur  smoke  could  not 
get  through.  You  can  store  your  extracted  hones' 
in  tin-lined  vats  made  to  suit  you,  in  barrels,  kegs, 
or  in  the  300-lb.  tin  cans  sold  by  A.  I.  Root,  as  pre- 
ferred. In  fact,  fix  up  the  inside  of  this  to  suit  you, 
as  probably  nearly  all  will  have  their  own  way.  I 
prefer  the  A.  I.  Root  cans  for  storing  honey,  and  the 
Novice  extractor.  By  placing  a  cloth  over  the  top 
of  these  cans,  the  honey  ripens  nicely  in  this  warm 


HONEY-PLANTS. 


181 


HONEY-PLANTS. 


room,  even  if  the  combs  are  not  fully  sealed  when 
extracted. 

With  a  description  of  howl  store  my  combs,  which 
are  vised  for  extracting'  purjjoses,  I  will  close  thisal- 
readj'  too  long-  article.  As  you  are  building  your 
honej'-room,  have  the  studding  on  one  side  set  just 
as  far  apart  as  the  top-bar  of  your  frame  is  long; 
not  from  center  to  center  of  studding,  but  leave 
that  space  between  each.  Now  nail  strips  of  ?8 
stuff,  3i-2  feet  long-  by  o  inches  wide  to  these  stud- 
ding, letting  them  stand  out  into  the  room  in  a  hori- 
zontal position.  Let  the  distance  between  each  strij) 
from  top  to  top  be  1  inch  greater  than  the  depth  of 
your  frame,  so  as  to  give  sufficient  room  to  manipu- 
late the  frames  handilj-.  Three  inches  from  the 
ends  of  these  strips  run  a  partition  clear  across  the 
room,  which  is  to  have  close-fltting,  nai-row  doors 
placed  in  it,  spaced  so  as  to  be  most  convenient. 
Now  hang  in  your  combs;  see  that  all  combs  not  in 
use  are  in  their  place,  and  not  lying  about  some- 
where else.  As  often  as  any  signs  of  worms  are 
found,  put  in  a  pot  of  burning  sulphur;  close  the 
doors  and  the  work  is  done.  In  all  this  work  with 
burning  sulphur,  make  certain  that  nothing  can  bj- 
any  means  take  fire  from  it  before  you  place  the 
Are  to  the  sulphur,  for  a  room  full  of  sulphur  fumes 
is  a  bad  place  to  go  to,  to  put  out  a  Are. 

Borodino,  N.  Y.,  Dec.,  1883.       G.  M.  Doolitti.e. 

On  page  532,  Vol.  XV.  of  Gleanings  in 
Bee  Culture,  will  l)e  found  another  valu- 
able article  with  diagrams,  showing  how  to 
make  a  honey-house  and  bee-cellar,  as  de- 
vised by  Prof.  A.  J.  Cook. 

HOWEY-PIANTS.— Not  every  flow- 
er that  blooms  heli'S  to  fill  up  our  hives. 
The  beautiful  flowers  of  the  garden,  made 
double  by  cultivating  them,  yield  no  nec- 
tar at  all.  They  produce  no  seed,  so  there 
is  no  nectar  to  invite  the  bees  to  come  and 
fertilize  them.  If  you  will  read  the  article 
about  pollen  you  will  understand  this  better. 
Some  yield  plenty  of  i)ollen  with  little 
or  no  nectar.  Some  yield  immense  quan- 
tities of  honey,  but  the  plants  are  so  few 
in  number  that  they  are  not  worth  con- 
sidering. The  i)oinsettia  is  ^n  example.  I 
have  seen  large  drops  of  nectar  on  one  of 
these  plants,  which  had  evaporated  to  the 
consistency  of  honey  ;  but  what  does  it  mat- 
ter Ibiw  much  lioney  can  be  obtained  from  a 
single  plant,  if  there  are  no  i)lants  except  a 
single  one  here  and  there  in  a  greenhouse  V 
Some  yield  nectar,  but  the  fluwers  are  .so 
constructed  that  the  honey-bee  can  not  ob- 
tain it,  although  some  other  insect  can. 

In  spite  of  all  this,  the  list  of  flowers  that 
are  of  more  or  less  value  to  us  is  a  very 
large  one— so  large  tliat  it  is  not  desirable  to 
give  a  full  list.  Throughout  the  book,  in 
their  projx'r  ali)habetical  i)lact^s,  will  be 
found  some  account  of  the  princijial  plants 
thnt  specially  intt'icst  bee-keepers.     It  ni:iy 


Ije  desirable,  however,  to  be  able  to  tell  at  a 
glance  what  they  are.  so  a  list  is  here  given. 
Included  in  the  list  are  the  names  of  some 
that  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  honey- 
plants,  but  are  hardly  of  sufficient  conse- 
quence to  receive  much  attention,  and 
hence  are  not  mentioned  elsewhere  in  the 
book. 

Abutilon,  or  flowering  maple.  An  im- 
mense yielder,  but  of  no  consequence,  be- 
cause so  scarce. 

Acacia.    South. 

Actinomeris  Squarrosa,  or  golden  honey- 
plant. 

Alfalfa,  or  Lucerne  (Medicago  sativa),  see 
Alfalfa. 

Alsike,  or  Swedish  clover  ( Trifolium  hybri- 
d'tm),  see  Al.^-^ike. 

Apple  (see  Fruit-blossoms). 

Apricot. 

Asparagus. 

Aster  (bolidago),  see  Aster. 

Banana. 

Barberry. 

Basil,  or  mountain  mint  (Pycnanthenmm 
lanceolatum). 

Basswood,  or  American  linden  {Tilia 
Americana),  see  Basswood. 

Bean. 

Bee-balm  {Melissa  officinalis). 

Beggar-ticks  (burr  marigold). 

Bergamot  (Monarda  Jistulosa). 

Blackberry. 

Black  gum.    South. 

Blackheart. 

Black  mangrove  (Avicenvia  tomentosa).  A 
leading  honey-plant  in  Florida. 

Black  mustard  (Sinapis  in'ym),  see  Mus- 
tard. 

Black  sage. 

Bladder-nut. 

Blood-root  [iSanguinaria  Canadensis). 

Blue-bottle. 

Blue  gum  [Eucalyptus  globidus).  Califor- 
nia. 

Blue  thistle  [Echium  vulgare). 

Boneset.  or  thorouglnvort  (Eupatorium 
perfoliaturn).  A  honey-plant  of  considerable 
imjiortance. 

Borage  (Borago  officinalis). 

Box-elder,  or  ash-leaved  maple  (Negundo 
acerodes).     Where  plentful.  quite  imiMutant. 

Buckbush   (tSyniplwricarpus  vulgaris),  see 

BUCKBUSli. 

Buckeye. 

liuckthorn.    South. 

Buckwheat  [I'olygonivin  fagoptjrum),  see 
Buckwheat. 

Bmdock  [Lappa  major).  Has  white  pol- 
len. 

Burr  marigold  [liidens  frondosa).  A  near 
relative  of  the  Sjianish  needle. 

Bush  honeysuckle. 

Button ■l)ush  [Cephalanihus  occidentalis). 
Important  on  the  overflowed  hinds  of  tiie 
Mississip])!  River. 

Jiutteiweed. 

Caltbage. 

Cabbage  palmetto  [Chamwrops  palmetto). 
One  of  the  main  sources  of  honey  in  the 
South. 

Cardinal  tlower  [Lobelia  cardinalis). 


HONEY-PLANTS. 


182 


HONEY -PLANTS. 


('arpenter"s-squaie,  see  Figwokt. 
Catalpa. 

Catnip  (Nepeta  catnria). 
Chamomile. 

Chainnau  lioney-plant   {Echinops  spheroce- 
phahis).  see  Chapman  iionky-I'Lant. 
Cherry,  see  Fi:uit-hlossj3Is. 
CliiC'  ry. 

Chinese  wistaria. 
Chinquapin. 

Clover,  alsike.  see  Alsikje  (  •lovkr. 
Clover,  red  ( Tiifolium  pratense),  see  Clo- 

VEK. 

Clover,  white  [TfifoKumrepens],  see  Clo- 
ve k. 

Cobcea  scandens. 

( 'offee-berry.    California. 

Coreopsis,  see  Spanish  Needle. 

Corn.  Indian. 

Cotton  (Gossypium  lierhaceuvi).  South. 
.Some  say  it  compares  with  clover. 

Cow-pea.    South. 

Crab-api)le. 

Crocus.  Coming  so  early,  it  would  be  an 
important  plant  but  for  its  scarcity. 

Crowfoot. 

Cucumber  [Cucwmis  sativus).  In  the  vi- 
cinity of  pickle-factories  this  plant  yields 
quite  a  hai^vestof  honey  after  clover  is  over. 

Culver's-root. 

Currant. 

Dandelion  (Tarrta-aci^m). 

Elm  (  Ulmus).  The  elms,  where  plentiful, 
are  of  considerable  importance,  on  account 
of  their  aid  in  early  brood-rearing. 

Esparcette.  or  sainfoin  (see  Clover). 

False  indigo. 

Figwort  [ticrofularia  nodosa),  see  Simpson 
honey-plant. 

Fire  weed,  or  willow-herb  (Epilobium  an- 
giistifolium).  In  newly  cleared  lands,  es- 
pecially in  Northern  Michigan,  much  honey 
is  sometimes  obtained  from  this  plant. 

Fog-fruit  [Lijjpia  nodifiora].  Valued  in 
<"alifornia  and  Texas. 

Fruit-blossoms. 

Galllierry.    South. 

Gaura  coccinea.  Well  reported  in  Ark- 
ansas. 

Germander,  or  wood-sage. 

Giant  hyssop. 

Giant  mignonnette  [Reseda  gmndififmi), 
see  Mignonnette. 

Gill-over-the-ground,  or  ground-ivy  (Ae/>- 
eta  ylerhnnid).  see  Gill-ovek-the-gkound. 

Golden  honey-plant  (Actinonieris  squar- 
ro!«((U 

Goklenrod  {Solidiiyo). 

Gooseberry. 

Grape. 

Ground-ivy,  see  (iill-oveh-the-gkound. 

Gumbo,  or  okra. 

Hawthorn. 

Hazelnut. 

Heal-all,  see  Figavout. 

Heart's-ease,  large  smartweed  (Persicaria 
mite).  On  the  overflowed  lands  of  the  Missis- 
sippi this  is  a  valuable  fall  flower.  The  honey 
is  quite  light  colored,  and  of  good  flavor.  A 
peculiarity  is,  that  heating  injures  it  so  that 
it  is  ruined  by  the  temperature  of  boiling 
water. 

Heather  (Erica,  i-ulgarin),  a  prolific  source 
of  honey  in  Europe  and  British  Isles. 


Hemp. 

Hercules'-club  (Aralia  spinosa). 

Honey-locust  {Uleditschia  triacanthos). 

Hoarhound  (JIarrubium  vulyare).  Good 
yields  have  been  reported  from  this  plant, 
but  so  bitter  as  to  be  Avorthless  except  as  a 
medicine. 

Horsemint  {Monarda  punctata). 

Indian  currant,  coral-beriy,  duckbush 
[Symphoricarpus  vidgaris),  see  Buckbush. 

iron  weed. 

Japan  clover. 

Japanese  buckwheat,  see  Buckavheat. 

Japan  plum.     South. 

Japan  privet. 

•Judas-tree,  red-bud  [Cercis  Car,adensis). 

June -berry,  service  -  berry,  shad  -  berry 
[Amelanchier  Caiiadensis). 

Knotweed. 

Lentils. 

Linden,  see  Basswood. 

Locust  (Bobinia  pseudacacia). 

Loosestrife  [Lythrum  salacaria).  A  good 
honey  plant,  but  not  plentiful  enough  to  be 
of  much  consequence. 

Lucerne,  see  Alfalfa. 

Lupine  (Lupinus  perennis). 

Madrona. 

Magnolia.    South. 

Malva. 

Mammoth  red  or  peavine  clover,  see  Clo- 
ver. 

Mangrove.    Florida. 

Manzanita.    California. 

Maple.  The  different  maples  are  of  much 
value,  yielding  well  for  early  brood-rearing. 

Marjoram. 

Marsh  sunflower. 

Matrimony  vine  Lycium  vulgare). 

Meadow  sweet. 

Melilot  [Melilotus  alba),  see  Saveet  Clo- 
ver. 

Melissa. 

Melon. 

Mes{|uit-tree.    Texas. 

Mignonnette  [lie.^ada  odomta). 

Milkweed  (Ai<depias  conmti). 

Milk  vetch. 

Motherwork  [Leomirns  cardinca). 

Mountain  laurel  (JT'-Zmirt  hitifolia).  This 
plant  is  famed  for  yielding  poisonous  honey 
that  produces  severe  sickness. 

Mustard  (tivi'ipis  arvensia). 

Okra,  or  gumbo. 

Onion  (AUinm  cepa).  There  are  reports  of 
yields  of  honey  from  fields  of  onions  culti- 
vated for  seed,  having  very  strongly  the  pe- 
culiar onion  odor,  which,  however,  disap- 
peared after  a  time. 

Orange  (Ciirns  curantiuni).  Considered 
valuable  in  some  places. 

Ox  eye  daisy. 

Palmetto.    South. 

Parsnip. 

Partridge  pea  {(Msxia  chartKecrifta). 

I^each 

Peavine,  or  mammoth  red  clover,  see 
Clove  H. 

Pepper-tree.    California. 

Persimmon. 

Phacelia.    A  beautiful  cultivated  flower. 

Plantain,  ril)-grass  [Flantago major).  Has 
white  i)ollen 

Pleurisy-root    {Aarlepias    tub(rosa).    This 


HONEY-PLANTS. 


183 


HORSEMINT. 


plant  is  very  highly  praised  by  James  Iled- 
don. 

Plum. 
Poinsettia. 

Poplar,  see  Whitkavciod. 

Prairie  clover.    Good  in  Texas. 

Pumpkin. 

Eadish. 

Ragweed,  see  Pollen. 

Rape  (Brassica  caTupestris). 

Ratan. 

Rattlesnake-root,    or   tall   white   lettuce 
( Isabiilus  Altissimus.) 

Rattleweed,  see  Figwokt. 

Raspberry. 

Red-bud,  Judas  tree  {Cercis  Canadensis). 

Red  gum  (Euculijptus  rostrata.    California. 

Rocky  Mountain  bee-plant  [Cleome  inttgri- 
folia). 

Sage  (Salvia). 

Saw-palmetto.    South. 

Shad-bush. 

Sida  spinosa. 

Simpson  honey-plant,  see  Figwort. 

Snap-dragon. 

Sneezeweed  \Helenium  Autumnale). 

Snowdrop  (Symphoricarpus  raceniosus).,  see 
Blxkbu.^^h. 

Spanish  needle. 

Spider-flower  ( Clenme  pungens). 

Squarestalk,  see  Figwokt. 

Squash. 

St.  John"swort  [HypeHcum). 

Stone  crop  (Stclum  pule  helium).    South. 

Strawberry. 

Siunac  (Hhus). 

Sunflower  [Helianthus). 

Smartweed,  see  IIeart"s-ease. 

Sorrel 

Sorrel-tree,  or  sorrel- wood. 

Sourwood  (Oxydehdmm  arboreum). 
.     Sweet  clover  (Melilotus  alba),  see  Clover. 

Teasel  iDipsacus). 

Thyme. 

Tick  seed. 

Touch-me-not,    or    swamp     balsam,   see 

POLLEX. 

Trefoil,  see  Clover. 

Tulip  tree,  see  WniTEM'ooD. 

Turnip  (Brasdca  deprtusa). 

A'alerian. 

^'arnish-tree.    South. 

Vervain  ( Verbena). 

\'etches. 

A'ijter's  bugloss  \Echium  vulgare),  see 
Blve  Thistle. 

"N'irginia  creeper. 

Vitis  l>ipinnata.    Soutli. 

White  mustard  iSivapis  alba). 

Whitewood  i Liriodendron  tulipifera). 

■\Vliite  .sage,  see  Sage. 

Wild  cherry. 

Wild  rose. 

A\ild  senna. 

Wild  sunliower. 

Wild  touch  me-not. 

Willow  (Salixj.  The  willows  form  a  very 
important  class.  comiuL'.  as  they  do,  early  iii 
tlie  season,  and  yielding  liotli  honey  and 
pollen 

Willow  herb,  see  Fireweed. 

Wistaria  ■ 

Yellow- wood. 


HORSEIMEZZ7T  (  Monarda  punctata  ) . 
This  plant  was  flrst  brought  to  notice  several 
years  ago,  and  at  that  time  tlie  seeds  were 
sold  quite  extensively  as  a  honey  -  bearing 
plant.  It  was  dropped  and  almost  forgotten, 
until  reports  of  large  crops  of  honey,  said  to 
be  from  this  source  alone,  began  to  come  in. 


HORSEMINT  OF  TEXAS. 

It  first  attracted  attention  on  the  alluvial 
lowlands  bordering  on  the  Mississippi  River : 
afterward,  wonderful  reports  came  from  it. 
from  different  parts  of  Texas  —  one  man  re- 
porting as  high  as  700  lbs.  gathered  by  a  sin- 
gle colony  in  a  single  season.  The  bees  that 
did  this  wonderful  feat  were  Cyprians,  or.  at 
least,  crossed  with  Cj'prian  blood.  The  hive 
in  which  they  stored  it  was  the  common  Sim- 
plicity hive,  tiered  up  four  stories  high.  This 
great  yield  of  honey  was  reported  during  the 
season  of  1882.  As  the  crop  seemed  almost  a 
total  failure  in  the  year  1883,  it  would 
seem  that  the  yield  is  a  little  uncertain,  as 
with  a  gi'eat  many  other  honey  -  bearing 
plants.  Considerable  talk  has  been  made 
about  raising  the  plants  for  honey.  One 
drawback  is.  that  the  flavor,  and  especially 
when  first  gathered,  is  peculiar,  and  a  little 
unpleasant  to  most  people.  After  standing 
several  months,  however,  in  an  open  vessel, 
protected  from  the  flies  (with  chee.se-clotli. 
for  instance),  it  parts  with  its  rank  flavor, 
and  becomes  beautiful-tasting  honey,  and  so 
clear  and  limpid  that  print  can  readily  be 
seen  through  a  glass  jar  of  it.  while  the  lion- 
ey  is  so  thick  that  the  jar  may  be  turned  over 
witliout  the  honey  running.  As  the  plant 
grows  spontaneously  in  parts  of  the  South  in 
vast  l)eds.  acres  in  extent,  it  would  seem  bet- 
ter at  the  present  time  for  the  bee-keeper  to 
move  to  these  k)calities  rather  than  attempt 
to  raise  it  further  north  for  liojiey  alone. 

HVBRIDS.  Everybody  who  has  had 
Italians  very  long,  probably  knows  what 
hybrids  are,  especially  if  they  liave  kept 
bees  when  the  honey-crop  was  suddenly  cut 
short  during  a  dronght  in  the  fall  of  the  year. 
The  term  hybrid  has  been  applied  to  bees 
that  are  a  cross  between  the  Italians  and  the 


HYBRIDS. 


1S4 


HYBRIDS. 


common  bee.*  If  one  bnys  an  Italian  queen 
that  is  pure,  he  can  at  once  set  about  rear- 
ing queens  if  he  chooses,  and  it  matters  not 
how  many  common  bees  there  are  around  him; 
if  he  rears  all  his  queens  as  I  have  directed 
under  Artificial  Swarming  and  Quekn- 
REARiXG,  he  may  have  the  full  benefit  of  the 
Italians  so  far  as  honey-gathering  is  con- 
cerned, just  as  well  as  if  there  were  no  other 
bees  within  miles  of  him.  This  seems  a 
paradox  to  most  beginners,  for  we  have  let- 
ters almost  daily,  asking  if  it  will  be  of  any 
use  to  purchase  Italians,  when  other  bees 
are  kept  all  around  them.  If  you  are  keep- 
ing bees  for  the  honey  they  produce,  and  for 
nothing  else,  I  do  not  know  but  that  you  are 
better  off  witli  other  bees  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. The  queens  that  you  rear  will  be  full- 
bloods  like  their  mother;  but  after  meeting 
the  common  drones,  their  worker  progeny 
will  of  course  be  half  common  and  half  Ital- 
ian, generally  speaking.  These  are  what  we 
call  hybrid  bees.  In  looks  they  are  much 
like  the  Italians,  only  a  little  darker.  Some- 
times a  queen  will  produce  bees  all  about 
alike  ;  that  is,  they  will  have  one  or  two  of 
the  yellow  bands,"2  the  first  and  broadest  "^ 
being  about  as  plain  and  distinct  as  in  the 
full-bloods.  Other  queens  will  produce  bees 
variously  striped,  from  a  pure  black  bee,  to 
the  finest  three-banded  Italians.  I  have  had 
black  queens  fertilized  by  Italian  drones, 
and  these  seem  to  be  liybrids  just  the  same 
as  the  others;  I  have  not  been  able  to  distin- 
guish any  particular  difference. 

As  honey-gatherers,  these  bees  that  have 
the  blood  of  the  two  races  are,  I  believe,  tak- 
ing all  things  into  consideration,  fully  equal 
to  the  pure  Italians.  There  are  times, 
it  is  true,  when  the  full-bloods  seem  to  be 
ahead;  but  I  think  there  are  other  times  and 
circumstances  when  the  taint  of  black  blood 
gives  an  advantage  in  respect  to  the  amount 
of  honey  gathered,  that  will  fully  make  up 
the  difference;  and  I  would  therefore  say,  if 
honey  is  your  object  and  nothing  else,  you 
are  just  as  well  off  to  let  your  queens  meet 
just  such  drones  as  they  happen  to  find. 
Why,  then,  do  hybrid  queens  find  slow  sale, 
at  about  one-fourth  of  the  price  of  pure  Ital- 
ians'!* Just  because  of  their  excitability  and 
vindictive  temper.'" 

Italians,  as  they  generally  run,  are  dis- 
posed to  be  quiet  and  still  when  their  hive  is 
opened,  and  to  remain  quietly  on  their  combs 
while  they  are  being  handled,  showing  neith- 
er vindictiveness  nor  alarm.    Black  or  com- 

*For  test  &b  to  what  constitutes  a  hybrid,  see 
Itai^ian  Bees 


mon  bees,  on  the  contrary,  are  disposed  to 
be  frightened,  and  either  make  a  general 
stampede,  or  buzz  about  one"s  head  and  eyes 
in  a  way  quite  unlike  the  Italians.  The  Ital- 
ians do  not  stand  still  because  they  are  afraid 
to  make  an  attack,  for,  let  a  robber  approach, 
and  they  will  sting  him  to  death  in  a  way  so 
cool  as  to  astonish  one  who  has  seen  only 
common  bees  under  similar  circumstances. 
A  race  of  bees  so  prompt  to  repel  intruders 
of  their  own  kind,  it  would  seem,  would  also 
be  prompt  to  repel  interference  from  man; 
but  such  is  not  the  case.  They  do  not  seem 
to  be  at  all  suspicious  when  their  hive  is 
opened,  and  a  frame  lifted  out.  Well,  these 
half-bloods  inherit  the  boldness  of  the  Ital- 
ians, and,  at  the  same  time,  the  vindic- 
tiveness of  the  blacks.  And  to  raise  the  cov- 
er to  a  hive  of  hybrids,  without  smoke,  dur- 
ing a  scarcity  of  honey,  would  be  a  bold  op- 
eration for  even  a  veteran.  Without  any 
buzz  or  note  of  alarm,  one  of  these  sons  of 
war  will  quietly  dart  forth  and  indict  his 
sting  before  you  hardly  know  where  it  comes 
from;  then  another,  and  another,  until,  al- 
most crazed  with  pain,  you  drop  the  cover, 
and  find  that  they  are  bound  to  stick  to  you, 
not  only  out  into  the  street,  but  into  the 
house  or  wherever  you  may  go,  in  a  way 
very  unlike  either  pure  race  of  bees.  Some- 
times, when  a  hive  is  opened,  they  will  fix  on 
the  leg  of  one's  trowsers  so  quietly  that  you 
hardly  dream  they  are  there,  until  you  see 
them  stinging  with  a  vehemence  that  indi- 
cates a  willingness  to  throw  away  a  score  of 
lives  if  they  had  so  many.  This  bad  temper 
and  stinging  is  not  all;  if  you  should  desire 
to  introduce  a  queen  or  queen- cell  to  these 
bees,  they  would  be  very  likely  to  destroy 
all  you  could  bring;  while  a  stock  of  either 
pure  race  would  accept  them  without  trouble. 
During  extracting  time,  or  taking  off  sur- 
plus honey,  you  will  find  little  trouble,  pro- 
viding you  work  while  honey  is  still  coming; 
but  woe  betide  you,  if  you  leave  it  on  the 
hives  until  the  yield  is  passed. ii^ 

In  preparing  hybrid  stocks  for  wintering, 
I  have  seen  them  so  cross  that  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  get  in  sight  of  the  hive,  after 
they  had  once  got  roused  up;  and  when  I 
charged  on  them  suddenly  with  smoker  in 
excellent  trim,  they  charged  on  me  as  sud- 
denly, took  possession  of  the  smoker,  buzzed 
down  into  the  tube  in  their  frantic  madness, 
and  made  me  glad  to  beat  a  retreat,  leaving 
them  in  full  possession  notonly  of  the  "field," 
but  the  "artillery"  as  well.  This  was  a  very 
powerful  colony,  and  they  had  been  unusu- 
ally roused  up.    Although  it  was  quite  cool 


HYBRIDS. 


185 


IIYKRID.S. 


weather,  they  hung  on  the  outside  of  the 
hive,  watching  for  me,  I  suppose,  until  next 
morning.  I  then  came  up  behind  them  with 
a  great  volley  of  smoke,  and  got  them  under 
and  kept  them  so,  until  I  could  give  them 
chaff  cushions,  and  put  them  in  proper  win- 
tering trim.  The  queen  was  extremely  pro- 
lific, and  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  had  one 
single  queen  that  was  the  mother  of  a  larger 
family  of  bees.  Many  of  these  hybrid  queens 
are  extraordinarily  prolific. 

I  believe  the  hybrids  are  more  disposed  to 
rob  than  the  Italians,  but  not  as  much  so  ^s 


the  common  bees.  I  decide  thus,  because, 
when  at  work  among  them,  the  bees  that 
buzz  about  the  hives,  trying  to  grab  a  load 
of  plunder  if  a  ciiance  offers,  are  almost  in- 
variably full-blood  blacks. 1''  They  may  have 
a  dash  of  hybrid  blood,  but  I  judge  not,  be- 
cause the  hybrids  and  Italians  will  often  be 
at  work  when  the  blacks  are  lounging  about 
trying  to  rob,  or  doing  nothing.  I  have 
known  a  strong  hybrid  stock  to  be  slowly 
accumulating  stores  in  the  fall,  when  full- 
bloods,  in  the  same  apiary,  were  losing  day 
by  day.    See  Italian  Bkes. 


A   PART  OF  .J.   M.  MEUCHANT's   APIAKY    HY   PAPTIST   CHURCH,   AVARREX,  KHODK   ISLAND. 


I. 


ivrTRODUCirra  QUEErrs.  as  h 

geneial  thing,  those  wlio  send  out  queens 
send  along  directions  for  introducing  with 
the  cage  ;  but  it  may  be  well  liere  to  discuss 
some  of  the  general  iJriucijiles  recommend- 
ed by  the  l)est  breeders  of  queens,  as  Avell 
as  to  take  a  glance  at  some  of  the  mailing- 
cages  tliat  are  also  adai)ted  to  introducing. 
The  first  cage  to  which  I  would  call  atten- 
tion—not because  it  is  the  best,  but  because 
it  has  been  used  very  largely  both  as  a 
shipping  and  mailing  cage— is  called  the 
Peet  cage. 


PEET  INTRODUCING  AND    SHIPPING    CAGE. 

This  cut  shows  a  large  Hat  cage,  the  large 
hole  being  2  inches  in  diameter.  Communi- 
cating with  this  are  two  smaller  ones  one 
incli  in  diameter,  which  are  to  hold  the 
Good  candy  (see  Candy).  One  side  of  the 
cage  is  covered  with  wire  cloth,  and  the 
other  has  a  niovalile  tin  slide.  A  wooden 
cover  protects  the  wire  cloth  while  en  route 
in  the  mails.  To  introduce,  a  couple  of 
tin  points  attached  to  the  diagonally  oppo- 
site corners  are  revolved  at  right  angles, 
and  the  same  are  then  pushed  through  the 


brushed  away.  After  the  Peet  cage  has 
been  anchored,  the  tin  slide  is  drawn  out, 
leaving  the  queen  and  bees  caged  upon  the 
cells  of  honey,  and  brood.  This  is  quite  an 
advantage.  If  the  queen  arrives  feeble  or 
weak,  slie  is  immediately  placed  u])on  cells 
of  honey,  and  protected  from  any  hostile 
bees.  In  24  or  -48  hours  the  bees  will  gnaw 
her  out,  that  is,  release  her  automatically. 
This  they  do  by  cutting  away  the  comb  on 
the  under  side  of  the  cage.  About  that 
time  the  bees  are  ready  to  accept  her,  in  99 
cases  out  of  100. 

For  an  introducing-cage  we  could  not  ask 
for  any  thing  better ;  but  there  was  one 
great  ol)jection  to  it,  and  that  was,  that  it 
was  not  a  very  good  mailing-cage.  From  10 
to  25  per  cent  of  the  queens  would  far!  to 
arrive  at  their  destination  alive.  This  was 
too  large  a  percentage  to  lose.  The  tiouble 
was,  the  (  ompartment  shown  in  the  engrav- 
ing above,  2  inches  in  diameter,  was  too 
large,  and  the  tin  slide  was  cold,  and  a  poor 
place  for  bees  to  cling  to  during  the  rough 
.handling  in  the  m;iils.  Every  time  the 
mail-bag  was  thrown  out  of  the  car,  the 
bets  in  the  cage  would  receive  quite  a  con- 
cussion, especially  those  that  happen  to  be 
standing  upon  the  tin.  The  remedy,  then, 
seems  to  be  to  do  away  with  the  tin  slide, 
and  reduce  the  size  of  the  hole  to  about  an 
inch  or  less  in  diameter,  and,  to  maintain 
sufficient  capacity,  increase  the  number  of 
holes.  This  was  very  successfully  acc(.m- 
plished  in  the  I3enton  cage,  a  cut  of  which 
is  appended  below. 


comb,  as  shown  in  the  accom])anyiug  en- 
graving, the  bees  having  been  previously 


THE   BENTON   SHIPPING   AND   MAILING 
CAGE. 

This  cage  was  first  introduced  to  the  pub- 
li(  in  1S88  by  Frank  Benton,  formerly  of 
Munich,  Germany,  and  was  devised  by  him 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  sending  queens 
across  the  ocean  to  the  United  .states  by 


INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 


1S7 


INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 


mail;  and,  furthermore,  it  is  used  l)y  him 
for  that  piarpose  with  remarkable  success. 
As  originally  made  by  him  it  could  not  be 
used  for  introducing :  liut  we  have  modified 
it,  as  will  prtseutly  be  explained,  for  that 
l>urp()se.  The  queen  breeders  of  this  coun- 
try have  now  tested  it  for  long  distances  in 
shipping  queens.  In  our  queen-breeding 
department  we  use  it  successfully  for  send- 
ing queens  across  the  continent — nay,  even 
across  the  ocpan,  clear  to  the  other  side  of 
the  globe.  We  have  sent  queens  in  it  l)y 
mail  to  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the 
West  Indies,  witli  entire  success.  In  the 
lirst  instance,  the  queens  were  on  their 
journey  37  days.  They  arrived  in  good  or- 
der, and  were  successfully  introduced.  The 
great  secret  of  success  lies  in  the  fact  that, 
with  tlie  exception  of  the  wire  cloth,  it  is 
constructed  entirely  of  Avood.  The  com- 
partments are  small.  The  end  hole  is  filled 
with  Good  candy  (see  Candy ).  The  two 
other  holes  are  used  for  the  o  cupancy  of 
tlie  bees.  The  middle  one  has  no  communi- 
catio7i  with  the  outside  air.  except  by  means 
of  the  end  hole,  which  has  a  saw-kerf  in  one 
side  for  ventilation.  When  queens  are  sent 
by  mail  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  they 
encounter  for  a  few  hours  a  very  low  tem- 
perature, and  the  bees  and  their  attendants 
can  seek  the  center  hole,  which  is  warmer 
than  the  end  one.  When  the  bees  arrive  in 
a  warmer  climate  they  can  seek  the  end 
hole,  which  is  well  ventilated.  The  cage  is, 
therefore,  to  a  certain  extent,  climatic. 

There  are  two  or  three  sizes  of  Benton 
cages,  the  smallest  size  being  used  for  ordi- 
nary distances,  say  a  thousand  miles ;  the 
medium  size  for  two  or  three  thousand 
miles,  and  the  largest  size  for  trips  atrross 
the  ocean  or  to  the  islands  of  the  sea.  The 
small  size  is  the  one  that  is  used  most.  It 
is  3i  inches  long,  U  wide,  and  i  thick.  Into 
it  are  bored,  with  a  suitable  bit,  three  one- 
inch  holes,  /„  deep.  These  holes  should  be 
bored  with  a  bit  without  any  spur  to  it. 
These  can  be  obtained,  usually,  at  almost 
any  of  the  hardware  stores.  The  two  end  i 
holes  are  bored  just  close  enough  to  the 
center  hole  to  leave  an  opening,  as  shown  in  ! 
the  engraving.  j 

To  prepare  for  mailing,  one  of  the  end  j 
holes  is  tilled  with  the  Good  candy,  as  ex-  I 
plained    und^-r   C.vxdy.     This   should    be  I 
made  just  right     Now  all.  exce]»t  the  end 
hole,  with  a  s:iw  cut  in  it.  is  covered  with  a 
piece  of  parafline  paper.    The  object  of  this 
is  twofold— to  prevent  the  honey  evaporat- 
ing from   the  candy,  or  running  out    and 


soiling  the  contents  of  the  mail-bag,  and  to 
make  the  center  hole  as  warm  as  po.-sible. 
Wire  cloth.  3  inches  long  and  H  \\ide,  cov- 
ers the  whole.  One  end— the  end  that  cov- 
ers the  candy— has  a  hole  in  it  i  inch  in 
diameter.  To  make  a  nice  job,  take  a  |-in. 
piece  of  iron  or  steel,  2  or  8  inches  long,  and 
l)oint  it  about  like  a  leadpen  il  (a  hardwood 
bodkin  of  the  same  shape  and  size  will  an- 
swer for  a  while).  Introduce  the  point  of 
this  tool  into  one  of  the  meshes,  near  the 
end  of  the  wire  cloth,  and  worm  it  through, 
when  you  Mill  now  have  a  nice  round  hole. 

To  introduce,  after  receiving  it  in  the 
mail,  the  wooden  cover  is  pried  off  and  the 
cage  is  laid  upon  the  top  of  the  frames.  The 
bees  will  eat  out  the  ( andy,  and  in  24  or  48 
hours  they  will  release  the  queen.  The 
means  of  introduction  is.  therefore,  auto- 
matic, without  any  assistance  from  the  api- 
arist, and  without  disturb  nice,  so  detri- 
mental to  successful  introducing. 

The  substmce  of  the  directions  above 
given  are  iirinted  on  a  nice  lasswood  cover, 
i  inch  thick,  of  the  length  and  width  of  the 
cage.  The  cover  is  nailed  on,  directions 
side  down.  On  the  outside  is  the  address, 
as  well  as  instructions  to  postmasters  to  de- 
liver quick,  with  the  name  and  address  of 
the  breeder  of  the  queen.  On  the  bottom 
side,  or  on  the  cover,  if  there  is  room,  a  one- 
cent  stamp  is  attached— that  being  all  the 
postage  required. 

The  cage  that  we  use  for  sending  queens 
across  the  ocean  is  made  up  on  the  same 
plan  exactly,  only  the  dimensions  are  4| 
long.  If  wide,  and  If  deep.  The  holes  are 
If  in  diameter  by  M  deep.  These  dimen- 
sions conform  to  the  postal  regulations  of 
foreign  countries.  Where  queens  are  sent 
to  New  Zealand,  xVustraliii,  and  other  like 
distant  countries,  letter  postage  must  be 
attached. 


.IKNKISS     CAGK. 

The  acc^inipanyi  ig  engraving  illustrates 
the  cage  i  sid  l^y  J  M.  Jenkins.  It  has  tlie 
same  kphp''*!  fe.itures  about  it,  only  it  has 
oiu'  hole  ins,e;.d  of  three.     The  method   of 


IXTRODUCIXU  QUEENS. 


188 


INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 


introducing  is  the  f-auie.  Ti  is  goes  for  one 
cent  postage;  and.  perluips.  for  short  dis- 
tances )t  will  do  as  well  as  the  Benton. 

There  is  another  cage  which  deserves  at 
least  a  passing  notice,  although  it  is  not 
used  very  largely  as  yet.  The  accompany- 
ing engraving  will  make  the  plan  of  the 
cage  self-explanatory. 


I  "         2 ^  3 

MO  K K  i  SOX 'S  CAGE. 

This  is  considerably  more  expensive  than 
the  Benton,  and  is  not  as  well  adapted  to 
sending  queens  long  distances,  although 
perhaps  better  for  introducing.  To  intro 
duce.  remove  the  cage  proper  from  the 
wooden  case.  Revolve  the  tin  slide  at  right 
angles,  and  set  the  cage  down  between  the 
combs.  As  with  the  Benton,  the  bees  eat 
the  candy  out.  and  release  the  queen  auto- 
matically. 


MILLER'S   INTKODUCING-CAGE. 

It  is  very  convenient  to  have  in  the  apia- 
ry small  cages  for  introducing,  as  well  as 
for  caging  and  holding  queens  that  come 
out  with  swarms  until  they  can  be  intro- 
duced or  disposed  of.  The  one  above  illus- 
trated is.  perhaps,  as  good  as  any.  In  fact, 
if  the  apiarist  is  in  a  hurry  all  he  has  to  do 
is  to  slide  this  in  at  the  entrance,  without 
even  removing  'the  cover  of  the  hives,  and 
the  bees  will  release  the  queen  by  the  can 
dy  method.  I  copy  its  manner  of  construc- 
tion from  Dr.  Millers  own  words: 

Take  a  Ijlock  3  inches  long-.  Mi  wide,  and  U  tliick; 
two  blocks  1  inch  by  ffiX^g;  two  pieces  of  tin  about 
an  inch  square;  a  piece  of  wire  clotli  4%x3^;  two 
pieces  of  fine  wire  about  9  inches  long,  and  four 
small  wire  nails  ^  or  ■%  long.  That's  the  bill  of  ma- 
terial. La.v  down  the  two  small  blocks  parallel.  % 
of  an  incli  apart,  one  piece  of  tin  under,  and  one 
over  them.  Nail  tofj-elliei-  and  clincli.  These  two 
bloek.s,  being  %  inch  a])art,  make  the  hole  to  fill  with 
Good  candy,  through  wliicli  the  queen  is  lilierated. 
A  good  way  to  make  sure  of  having  tliis  hole  all 
right  is  to  lay  between  tiietwo  blocks,  when  nailing, 
a  third  block  %  square.  Put  this  nailed  piece  at  tlie 
end  of  the  large  block,  and  wrap  the  wire  cloth 
around  it,  letting  it  come  flush  with  tlie  end  of  the 
small  piece,  and  it  will  come  within  about  half  an 
inch  of  the  end  of  the  large  piece.  WMnd  one  piece 
of  wire  within  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  of  one  end 


of  the  wire  clotli,  and  fasten  by  twisting,  and  wind 
tlie  otlier  wire  at  the  other  end.  Plaj-  tlie  large 
block  back  and  forth  a  few  times,  so  it  will  work 
easily  in  the  wire  cloth,  and  trim  otf  the  lea.st  bit  of 
the  cornel's  at  the  end  of  the  block  so  it  will  enter 
easily.  To  provision  it,  let  the  large  block  be  pushed 
cleai'  in:  fill  the  hole  with  candy,  and  tamp  it  down. 
W^ hen  to  be  n.sed,  after  jjutting  in  the  queen,  pusii 
the  block  in  far  enough  to  allow  the  queen  a  room 
about  154  inches  long.  After  the  bees  have  had  it 
for  .some  time  it  will  be  so  glued  that  the  plug  must 
be  .scraped  off  before  using  again. 

Another  excellent  introducing  -  cage  is 
the  one  devised  by  J.  F.  Mclntyre.  As  to 
how  it  is  managed,  I  copy  from  Mr.  Mc- 
Intyre's  article  in  Gleanings  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture, page  880,  1890: 

I  take  a  piece  of  wire  cloth  .53^  inches  sqware.  cut 
little  pieces  ?^  of  an  inch  square  out  of  each  corner, 
and  bend  the  four  sides  at  right  angles,  making  a 
box  4  inches  square  and  U  Inch  deep.  In  one  corner 
I  fasten  a  tube  of  wood  or  tin  H  inch  in  diameter, 
and  two  iiu^hes  long,  which  is  tilled  with  Good  cand.v. 
for  the  bees  to  e  it  out  and  liberate  the  queen. 


mcintyre's  cage. 

I  use  this  cage  altogether  in  my  apiary,  for  eiiang- 
ing  laying  queens  from  one  hive  to  another.  1  kill 
my  old  queens  when  they  are  two  years  old,  and  in- 
troduce .voung  laying  queens  in  their  place.  My 
practice  Is  to  go  to  the  nucleus  with  the  young  lay- 
ing queen;  lift  out  the  comb  with  the  queen  on,  and 
press  one  of  these  cages  into  the  comb  over  the 
queen,  and  what  bees  may  be  around  her.  Carr.v 
this  comb  to  the  hive  with  the  old  queen;  find  and 
kill  the  old  queen,  and  place  the  comb  with  the 
young  queen  caged  on  it  in  the  center  of  the  hive, 
taking  one  comb  from  the  hive  back  to  the  nucleus. 
In  a  week  I  go  and  take  the  cage  out  and  find  the 
.voung  queen  laying.  When  I  receive  a  valuable 
queen  from  a  distance  I  liberate  her  at  once  on  a 
comb  of  liatching  brood,  with  some  young  bees;  and 
when  slie  commences  to  lay  I  introduce  her  as  above. 

Fillmore,  Cal.,  Oct.  21.  J.  F.  McIntyre. 

The  great  feature  of  this  cage  is,  that  it 
can  be  set  right  down  over  a  nice  queen, 
and  the  whole  carried,  comb  and  all,  to  a 
hive  where  you  wish  to  introduce  the 
queen. 'li'IIer  laying  can  go  right  on  without 
let  or  hindrance,  just  the  same,  until  the 
bees  have  eaten  her  out  and  released  her. 

HOW^    TO  TELL   WHETHER   A   COLONY   IS 
QUEEN  LESS  OR   NOT. 

Having  discussed  mailing  and  introduc- 
ing cages,  it  may  be  pertinent  at  this  point 


INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 


189 


INTRODUCING  QUEENS. 


to  give  one  of  the  prime  essentials  to  siic- 
cessful  introducing.  The  very  first  thing 
to  be  determined  before  you  attempt  to  in- 
troduce at  all,  is  that  your  colony  is  certainly 
queeuless.  The  fact  that  there  may  be  no 
eggs  nor  larvae  in  the  hive,  and  that  yoii 
can  not  find  the  queen,  is  not  sufficient  evi- 
dence that  she  is  absent,  although  this  state 
of  affairs  points  that  way.  But  during  the 
earlier  part  of  the  summer  there  should  be 
either  brood  or  eggs  of  some  kind  if  a  queen 
is  present.  Yes,  there  should  be  eggs  or 
brood  clear  up  until  the  latter  part  of  sum- 
mer. In  the  early  fall,  queens  very  often 
stop  laying,  and  shrivel  up  in  size  so  that  a 
beginner  might  conclude  that  the  colony  is 
queeuless,  and  therefore  he  must  buy  an- 
other. In  attempting  to  introduce  the  neW' 
queen,  of  course  he  meets  with  failure, 
and  the  new  arrival  is  stung  to  death,  and 
probably  carried  out  at  the  entrance.  As  a 
general  thing,  if  you  can  not  find  eggs  or 
larvae  at  that  season  of  the  year  when  other 
stocks  are  breeding,  and  the  supposedly 
queenless  colony  build  cells  on  a  frame  of 
unsealed  larvse  that  you  give  them,  you 
may  decide  that  your  colony  is  surely 
queenless,  and  it  will  be  safe  then  to  intro- 
duce a  new  queen.  If  you  find  eggs,  larvse, 
and  sealed  worker  brood,  the  presence  of 
queen-cells  simply  indicates  that  the  bees 
are  either  preparing  to  supersede  their 
queen,  or   making   ready  to   sw^arm.    See 

SWAHMING. 

HOW    LONG    SHALL  A   COLONY    BE    QUEEN- 
LESS  BEFORE   ATTEMPTING  TO  INTRO- 
DUCE V 

The  worst  colony  to  introduce  a  laying 
queen  to  is  one  that  has  been  queenless  long 
enough  so  that  there  is  a  postiibility  of  one 
or  more  virgin  queens  being  in  the  hive.  It 
is  hard  to  decide  definitely  in  all  cases  when 
such  colonies  are  queenless.  The  young 
virgins,  after  they  are  three  or  four  days 
old,  are  very  apt  to  be  mistaken  for  work- 
ers, especially  by  a  beginner.  It  is  not  al- 
ways practicable  to  wait  until  they  will 
build  queen-cells,  especially  if  you  happen 
to  have  a  nice  surplus  of  laying  queens 
which  you  wish  to  find  room  for.  We  pre- 
fer colonies  that  have  not  been  (lueenless 
more  than  a  couple  of  days— just  long 
enough  to  see  cells  start,  and  just  long 
enough  so  the  bees  begin  to  recognize  their 
loss,  but  not  long  enough  for  them  to  get 
cells  under  way.  Cells  nicely  started  or 
capped  over  are  quite  apt  to  make  the  col- 
ony act  as  if  it  wanted  somctliing  of  their 
own ;   Jind  w'hen  a  laying  queen   is  intro- 


duced to  them  they  take  a  notion  sometimes 
that  they  uoivt  have  a  strange  mother. 

WHAT  TO   DO   IF   ISEES   BALL  THE   QUEEX. 

When  we  intn  duce  queens  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way— that  is,  before  cages  were 
constructed  so  as  to  release  queens  auto- 
matically, we  used  to  experience  much 
trouble  by  bees  balling  qiieens.  If  the 
liees  were  not  ready  to  accept  her  when  she 
was  released  by  the  apiarist,  they  were 
pretty  apt  to  ball  her.  But  here  is  a  point 
that  it  is  well  to  observe:  When  the  bees 
let  the  queen  out  they  will  rarely  ball  her. 
But  when  it  is  necessary  for  the  apiarist  to 
release  the  queen,  the  opening  of  the  hive, 
accompanied  by  the  general  disturbance,  is 
apt  to  cause  the  bees  to  ball  her  as  soon  as 
she  is  released.  W^ell,  suppose  they  do  V)all 
her.  Lift  the  ball  out  of  the  hive  and  blow 
smoke  on  it  until  the  bees  come  off  one  by 
one.  When  you  can  see  the  queen,  get  hold 
of  her  wings  and  pull  the  rest  of  the  bees 
off  from  her  by  their  wings.  Do  not  be  nerv- 
ous about  it,  and  you  can  get  her  loose  and 
cage  her  again.  Put  more  candy  in  the 
opening,  and  give  her  another  trial.  Some 
one  —  I  do  not  remember  w'ho  —  advised 
dropping  the  queen,  when  she  is  balled,  into 
a  vessel  of  w^ater.  The  angry  bees  will  im- 
mediately desert  her,  when  the  queen  can 
be  easily  taken  out  of  the  water,  and  re- 
caged.  We  have  never  tried  it,  but  I  be- 
lieve we  shoidd  i)refe]'  the  method  we  first 
described. 

WHAT  TO  DO   WHEN  THE   QUP:EN   FLIES 
AW^\Y. 

Sometimes  a  beginner  is  very  nervous, 
and  by  a  few  Viungliug  motions  may  manage 
to  let  the  queen  escape  from  the  hive  where 
he  expects  to  introduce  her.  Or  this  may 
happen:  The  queen  may  take  wing  right 
off  from  the  frame — become  a  little  alarmed 
because  there  are  no  bees  about  her,  and 
fly.  In  either  case,  step  back  immediately 
after  opening  the  hive,  and  in  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes  she  is  quite  likely  to  return 
to  the  same  spot,  and  you  must  not  be  sur- 
prised if  you  find  her  again  in  the  hive.  If 
you  do  not  discover  her  in  the  hive  near 
where  you  are  standing,  in  about  half  an 
hour  look  in  other  liives  near  by.  If  you 
see  a  ball  of  bees  somewhere  down  among 
the  frames,  you  may  be  quite  sure  that  she 
is  the  (pieen  that  flew  away,  and  that  she 
has  made  a  mistake,  and  entered  the  wrong 
hive. 

WHAT  TO   DO   WHEN    A    COLONY   REFUSES 
TO   ACCEI'T   A   (iUEEN. 

Inunediately  after  the  honey  season  the 
bees  are  apt  to  be  out  of  sorts  with  every- 


INTRODUCING  Ql'EKNS 


ii;o 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


body  and  with  eveiy  thing:  and  at  xuch 
times  it  is  pretty  hhid  to  make  ihem  accept 
a  qneen  If  tl:e  (nd:nai>  nietliods  tail,  give 
them  a  liltle  to  )acCw  smoke— jusl  enough  to 
intoxicate  thetn  a  little.  This  gives  all  one 
scent — including  the  (jueen — so  much  so  that 
they  do  not  knuw  which  from  t'other.  I>ut 
immediatel.N  after  smoking  them  you  must 
be  careful  th;it  no  robbers  get  started  ;  for, 
after  being  into.sicated  with  tobacco,  rob- 
bers can  get  in  and  steal  every  bit  of  honey 
they  have,  and  they  will  make  almost  no 
resistance.  Tobacco  seems  to  have  the 
property  of  taking  the  lighting  dispo'^ition 
out  of  them.  I  remember  one  year  we  re- 
ceived an  importation  of  tifty  queens.  Half 
of  them  were  given  to  neighbor  H.  to  intro- 
duce, while  we  retained  the  other  half. 
Neighbor  II.  had  entire  success  in  introduc- 
ing all  of  his,  while  we  lost  some  four  or 
five  of  ours.  We  used  the.  same  methods, 
and  our  colonies  were  all  queenless  not  over 
three  or  four  days.  The  dilTerence  was, 
that  Mr.  H.  used  a  little  tobacco  smoke  on 
every  queen  he  attempted  to  introduce, 
while  we  used  ncme.  But  while  tobacco 
may  sometimes  be  used  advantageously  in 
the  apiary  I  do  not  wish  any  of  our  readers 
to  understand  that  I  am  a  user  of  it,  or  th.it 
I  recommend  it  for  any  human  being  for 
use  on  himself.  It  is  a  bad  poisonous  weed, 
but  sometimes  bad  things  have  a  legitimate 
use. 

A   SURE  AVAY  OF   INTRODUCING. 

There  is  one  perfectly  sure  way  of  intro- 
ducing a  very  valuable  queen,  such  as  an 
imported  one,  if  we  only  observe  the  condi- 
tions carefully.  Remove  frames  of  hatch- 
ing brood  from  several  hives,  and  shake  off 
every  bee;  put  these  in  an  empty  hive,  clos- 
ing it  down  to  a  small  space:  and  if  the 
weather  is  not  very  warm,  place  the  whole 
in  a  warm  room ;  let  the  queen  and  her  at- 
tendants loose  in  this  hive,  and  the  young 
bees,  as  they  hatch  out,  will  soon  make  a 
swarm.  As  several  who  have  tried  this 
plan  have  been  so  careless  as  to  leave  the 
entrance  open  and  let  the  queen  get  out,  I 
would  warn  you,  especially,  to  have  yout 
hive  so  close  that  no  bee  can  by  any  possi-. 
bility  get  out.*  If  the  frames  you  have 
selected  contain  no  unsealed  brood, 
you  will  have  but  little  loss;  but  other- 
wise, the  larvae,  having  no  bees  to  feed  them, 
will  mostly  starve.  As  soon  as  a  few  hun- 
dred bees  are  hatched,  the  queen  will  be 
found  with  them,  and  they  will  soon  make 

*The.v  can  be  set  out  and  allowed  to  fly  in  two  or 
three  days. 


a  cluster ;  if  the  combs  have  been  taken 
from  strong  colonies,  where  the  queen  is 
laying  hundreds  of  eggs  in  a  day,  in  a  week 
or  two  the  swarm  Mill  be  a  very  fair  one. 
Three  frames  will  do  veiy  well  at  first,  and 
one  or  two  more  may  be  added  in  the  course 
of  a  week  or  moi-e.  Remember,  rio  live  bee  is 
to  be  given  to  the  queen.  A  queen  is  sel- 
dom lost  by  the  first  plan  given,  if  you  are 
careful,  and  watch  them  until  they  are 
safely  received. 

HOW  SOON  SHOULD  AN  INTRODUCED  QUEEN 
BEGIN  TO  LAYV 

As  a  general  thing,  we  may  expect  her  to 
begin  laying  next  day  ;  but  sometimes,  es- 
pecially if  the  queen  has  been  a  long  time 
prevented  from  laying,  as  in  the  case  of  an 
imported  queen,  she  may  not  lay  for  three 
or  four  days,  or  even  a  week.  If  introduced 
in  the  fall  of  the  year,  she  may  not  com- 
mence laying  at  all  until  spring,  unless  the 
colony  is  fed  regularly  every  day  for  a  week 
or  more.  This  will  always  start  a  queen  that 
is  good  for  any  thing. 

INVZjRTISTG.    See  Reveksing. 

ITAZiIAK'  SEES.  At  present,  the 
Italians  are  by  far  the  most  profitable  bees 
we  have;  and  even  the  hybrids  have  shown 
themselves  so  far  ahead  of  the  common  bee 
that  I  think  we  may  safely  consider  all  dis- 
cussions in  the  matter  at  an  end.  Many 
times  we  find  colonies  of  hybrids  that  go 
ahead  of  the  pure  stock;  but  as  a  general  thing 
(taking  one  season  with  another),  the  pure 
Italians,  where  they  have  not  been  enfeebled 
by  choosing  the  light-colored  bees  to  breed 
from,  are  ahead  of  any  admixture.  There 
has  been  a  great  tendency  with  bees,  as  well 
as  other  stock,  to  pay  more  attention  tO' 
looks  than  to  real  intrinsic  worth,  such  as 
honey-gathering,  prolificness  of  the  queens,, 
hardiness,  etc. ;  and  I  think  this  may  have  had 
much  to  do  with  the  severe  losses  we  have 
sustained  in  winters  past.  Since  the  recent 
large  importations  of  queens  direct  from 
Italy,  and  a  disposition  to  be  satisfied  with 
bees  that  are  not  all  golden  yellow,  we  have 
certainly  met  with  much  better  success  in 
wintering  as  well  as  honey-gathering. 

Even  if  it  were  true,  that  hybrids  produce 
as  much  honey  as  pure  Italians,  each  bee- 
keeper would  want  at  least  one  queen  of  ab- 
solute and  known  purity;  for  although  a 
first  cross  might  do  very  well,  unless  he  had 
this  one  pure  queen  to  furnish  queen-cells- 
he  would  soon  have  bees  of  all  possible 
grades,  from  the  faintest  trace  of  Italian 
blood,  all  the  way  up.    The  objection  to  this. 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


191 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


course  is,  that  these  blacks,  with  about  one 
band  to  show  trace  of  Italian  blood,  are  tlie 
wickedest  bees  to  sting  that  can  well  be  im- 
agined, being  very  much  more  vindictive 
than  either  race  in  its  purity;  they  also  have 
a  very  disagreeable  way  of  tumbling  off  the 
combs  in  a  perfectly  demoralized  state,  when- 
ever the  hive  is  opened,  except  in  the 
height  of  the  honey-season,  and  of  making  a 
general  uproar  when  they  are  compelled,  by 
smoke,  to  be  decent.  In  attempting  to  in- 
troduce some  queens  to  hives  of  this  class, 'a 
few  days  ago,  tliey  uncapped  nearly  all  the 
honey  in  the  hive,  and  gorged  themselves 
every  time  I  looked  them  over.  The  conse- 
quence was,  that,  after  they  had  been  looked 
over  several  times  for  their  queen,  queen- 
cells,  etc.,  a  large  part  of  their  winter  stores 
was  uselessly  consumed ;  for  the  honey  they 
had  gorged  themselves  with  started  them 
to  building  comb  at  a  season  when  it  Avas 
not  wanted,  and  so  stirred  them  up  that 
they  were  boiling  out  at  the  entrance  at  a 
time  when  ''  honest  bees  "  shcnild  have  been 
snugly  tucked  away  in  their  winter  doze. 

Our  pure  Italian  stocks  could  have  been 
opened,  and  their  queens  removed,  scarcely 
disturbing  tlie  cluster,  and,  as  a  general  thing, 
without  the  use  of  any  smoke  at  all,  by  one 
who  is  fully  conversant  with  the  habits  of 
bees.  Neither  will  this  class  of  hybrids  re- 
pel the  moth,  as  do  the  half-bloods  and  the 
pure  Italians.  For  these  reasons  and  several 
others,  I  would  rear  all  queens  from  one  of 
known  purity.  If  we  do  this,  we  may  have 
almost  if  not  quite  the  full  benefit  of  the  Ital- 
ians as  honey-gatherers,  even  tliough  tliere 
are  black  bees  all  about  us. 

Suppose  you  get  an  imported  queen,  and 
rear  queens  from  her  eggs  for  all  your  other 
hives,  and  all  increase  you  may  have  during 
the  first  season.  None  of  yoiir  worker-bees, 
the  next  season,  will  be  less  than  half  bloods, 
and  all  your  drones  will  be  full-bloods.  See 
Drone  and  Queen.  The  queens  that  are 
reared  now,  will,  many  of  them,  prove  pure; 
and  by  ])ersistence  in  this  course,  year  after 
year,  Italians  will  soon  be  the  rule  instead 
of  the  exception.  This  is  no  theory,  but  has 
been  the  result,  practically,  in  hundreds  of 
apiaries. 

Now  this  is  all  very  clear,  plain  sailing;  but 
we  must  take  into  consideration  that  our 
drones  are  all  the  time  meeting  the  queens 
from  our  neighbors'  hives,  and  from  the  for- 
ests. This  will  have  no  other  effect  the  first 
season  than  to  produce  liybrid  workers, 
without  changing  the  drone  progeny;  but 
wlien  these  hybrid  .stocks  begin  to  send  out 


swarms,  these  swarms  will  furnish  hybrid 
drones,  and  soon  will  come  all  sorts  of  mix- 
tures. 

Well,  we  shall  have  to  let  them  mix,  I  sup- 
pose, and  I  do  not  know  that  it  does  any 
particular  liarm,  for  any  admixture  of  Ital- 
ian blood  improves  the  common  stock. 

But  if  we  are  going  to  buy  or  sell  bees,  we 
want  to  know  what  to  charge  for  them,  and 
also  what  to  sell  them  for ;  we  also  wish  to 
know  which  queens  to  remove,  when  Ave  are 
Italianizing  our  apiary  throughout ;  hence 
it  becomes  very  important  to  know  which 
are  Italians  and  which  are  not.  To  be  can- 
did, I  do  not  believe  it  is  possible  always, 
to  tell ;  but  I  think  we  can  come  near  enough 
for  all  "  practical  purposes,"  as  they  say  in 
making  astronomical  computations. 

The  queens,  and  drones  from  queens  ob- 
tained direct  from  Italy,  vary  greatly  in  theii 
markings,  but  the  worker  bee  has  one  pecul- 
iarity that  I  have  never  found  wanting ; 
tliat  is  the  three  yellow  bands  we  liave  all 
heard  so  much  about.  Unfortunately,  there 
has  been  a  great  amount  of  controversy 
about  these  yelloAv  bands;  and  to  help  restore 
harmony,  I  have  been  to  some  expense  for 
engravings.  As  is  often  the  case,  I  failed  to 
get  our  city  friends  to  understand  just  what 
I  Avanted  the  engraving  for,  so  Ave  have  made 
a  sketch  of  the  body  of  the  bee  ourselves, 
as  shoAvnon  next  page. 

Every  Avorker  -  bee,  whether  common  or 
Italian,  has  a  body  composed  of  six  scales, 
or  segments,  one  sliding  into  the  other,  tele- 
scope fashion.  When  the  bee  is  full  of  honey 
these  segments  slide  out,  and  tlie  abdomen 
is  elongated  considerably  beyond  the  tips  of 
the  Avings,  which  are  ordinarily  about  the 
length  of  the  body.  Sometimes  Ave  see  bees 
swollen  Avith  dysentery,  so  much  that  the 
rings  are  spread  to  their  fullest  extent, 
and  in  that  condition  they  sometimes  Avould 
be  called  queens,  by  an  inexperienced  person. 
On  the  contrary,  in  the  fall  of  the  year 
when  the  bee  is  preparing  for  his  Avinter  nap, 
his  abdomen  is  so  much  draAvn  \\\)  that  he 
scarcely  seems  like  the  same  insect.  The  en- 
graving on  the  right  sIioavs  the  body  of  the 
bee  detached  from  the  shoulders,  that  we  nuiy 
get  a  full  vieAV  of  tlie  bands  or  markings 
that  distinguish  the  Italians  from  the  com- 
mon bees.  NoAv  I  Avish  you  to  observe  par- 
ticularly, tliat  all  honey  -  bees,  common  as 
Avell  as  Italian,  have  four  bands  of  bright- 
colored  doAvn,  J,  K,  L,  M,  one  on  each  of  the 
four  middle  rings  of  tlie  body,  but  none  on 
the  first,  and  none  on  the  last.  These  bands 
of  doAvn  are  very  bright  on  yoimg  bees,  but 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


192 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


may  be  so  worn  off  as  to  be  almost  or  entire- 
ly wanting?  on  an  old  bee,  especially  on 
those  that  have  been  in  the  habit  of  robbing 
very  ninch.  This  is  tlie  exi)lanation  of  the 
glossy  blackness  of  robbers  often  seen  dodg- 
ing abont  the  hives.  Perhaps  sqneezing 
through  small  crevices  has  thiis  worn  off 
the  down,  or  it  may  be  that  pnshing through 
dense  masses  of  bees  has  something  to  do 
with  it ;  for  we  often  see  such  shiny  black 
bees  in  great  immbers,  in  stocks  that  have 
been  nearly  suffocated  by  being  confined  to 


plainer  than  before.  A,  B,  C,  are  the  yellow 
bands  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much, 
and  they  are  neither  down,  plumage,  nor 
anything  of  that  sort,  as  youM'ill  see  by  tak- 
ing a  careful  look  at  an  Italian  on  the  win- 
dow. The  scale,  or  horny  substance  of  which 
the  body  is  composed,  is  yellow,  and  almost 
transparent,  not  black  and  opaque,  as  are 
the  rings  of  the  common  bee,  or  the  lower 
rings  of  the  same  insect. 
The  first  yellow  band,  A,  is  right  down  next 
the  waist;  now  look  carefully.    It  is  very 


HOW   TO  TELL  HYBRIDS  FROM   PLTRE   ITALIANS. 


their  hives,  in  shipping,  or  at  other  times. 
These  bands  of  down  differ  in  shades  of 
color,  many  times,  and  this  is  the  case  with 
the  common  bee,  as  well  as  with  the  Italian. 
Lender  a  common  lens,  the  bands  are  sim- 
ply fine  soft  hair,  or  fur.  and  it  is  this  prin- 
cipally which  gives  the  light  -  colored  Ital- 
ians their  handsome  appearance.  You  have, 
perhaps,  all  noticed  the  progeny  of  some  par- 
ticular queen  when  they  first  came  out  to 
play,  and  pronounced  them  the  handsomest 
bees  you  ever  saw ;  but  a  few  months  after, 
they  would  be  no  better  looking  than  the 
rest  of  your  bees.  This  is  simply  because 
they  had  worn  off  their  handsome  plumage, 
in  the  "  stern  realities  "  of  liard  work  in  the 
fields.  Occasionally  you  will  find  a  queen 
whose  bees  have  bands  nearly  white  in- 
stead of  yellow,  and  this  is  what  has  led  to 
the  so-called  albino  bees.  When  the  plum- 
age is  gone,  they  are  just  like  other  Ital- 
ians. Now,  these  bands  of  down  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  yellow  bands  that  are 
characteristic  of  the  Italians  ;  for,  after  this 
has  worn  otf,  the  yellow  bands  are  much 


plain,  when  you  once  know  what  to  look  for, 
and  no  child  need  ever  be  mistaken  about  it. 

At  the  lower  edge  is  the  first  black  band ; 
this  is  often  only  a  thin  sharp  streak  of  black. 

The  second,  B,  is  the  plainest  of  all  the 
yellow  bands,  and  can  usually  be  seen  in  even 
the  very  poorest  hybrids.  The  first  band  of 
down  is  seen  where  the  black  and  yellow 
join,  but  it  is  so  faint  you  will  hardly  notice 
it  in  some  specimens. 

We  have  at  the  lower  edge  of  the  scale,  as 
before,  a  narrow  line  of  black;  when  the 
down  wears  off,  this  shows  nearly  as  broad 
as  the  yellow  band. 

N  ow  we  come  to  disputed  ground ;  for 
the  third  band,  C,  is  the  one  about  which 
there  is  so  much  controversy.  Some  con- 
tend that  a  pure  Italian  should  show  it 
whether  he  is  filled  with  honey  or  not; 
others,  among  whom  was  our  friend  Quinby, 
admit  that  a  part  of  the  bees  would  show  it 
only  when  filled  with  honey.  Now  there  are, 
without  doubt,  hives  of  bees  that  show  this 
third  band  at  all  times,  but  it  is  i)retty  cer- 
tain that  a  small  part  of  the  bees  of  Italy 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


193 


ITALIAN  BEES. 


do  not.  The  conclusion,  then,  is  that  all 
the  bees  of  Italy  are  not  pure.  Now,  I  think 
we  should  be  careful  about  going  to  extremes 
in  these  matters,  for  it  is  honey,  and  not  yel- 
low bands,  that  is  the  vital  point.  The  bees 
from  Italy  are  better  honey-gaiherers,  etc., 
than  ours  are;  and  if  we  import  from  Italy, 
I  think  we  should  be  satistied  to  gei  such  as 
they  have,  especially  so  far  as  the  markings 
are  concerned. i-i*  My  advice  is  just  this :  If 
you  are  undecided  in  regard  to  a  queen,  get 
some  of  the  bees  that  you  are  sure  were 
hatched  in  her  hive,  and  feed  them  all  the 
honey  they  can  take ;  now  put  them  on  a 
window;  and  if  the  band  C  is  not  plainly 
visible,  call  them  hybrids.  I  advise  you  to 
put  them  on  the  window,  because  you  may 
mistake  the  band  of  down,  which  is  often 
very  plain  and  yellow,  for  the  permanent 
yellow  biiud,  C.  Now,  the  be^s  from  Italy 
are  not  all  alike,  and  the  yellow  bands  have 
different  shadings,  as  well  as  the  bands  of 
down;  but  they  are  always  found  there,  so 
far  as  my  experience  goes,  if  examined  with 
sufficient  care. 

When  we  come  to  hybrids,  we  shall  find  a 
greater  diversity;  for  while  the  bees  from 
one  queen  are  all  pretty  uniformly  marked 
with  two  bands,  another's  will  be  of  all  sorts; 
some  beautifully  marked  Italians,  some  pure 
black,  others  one  or  two  banded.  Some 
will  sting  with  great  venom,  while  others 
with  only  one  or  two  bands  will  be  as  peace- 
able as  your  best  Italians.  Without  a 
doubt,  many  queens  have  been  sent  out  as 
pure,  that  produced  only  hybrids ;  but  since 
my  recent  studies  in  the  matter,  I  am  pretty 
well  satisfied  that  I  have  sold  several  queens 
as  hybrids,  that  were  really  full-bloods.  A 
very  slight  admixture  of  black  blood  will 
cause  the  band  C  to  disappear  on  some  of 
the  bees,'""  but  we  should  be  very  careful  in 
such  matters  to  be  sure  that  the  bees  in 
question  were  really  hatched  in  the  hive ; 
for  bees  of  adjoining  hives  often  mix  to  a 
considerable  extent.  If  you  examine  a  col- 
ony of  blacks  and  one  of  hybrids  that  stand 
side  by  side,  you  will  find  many  Italians 
among  the  blacks,  and  many  blacks  among 
the  Italians.  Take  young  bees  that  you  are 
sure  have  hatched  in  the  hive,  and  you  will 
be  pretty  safe,  but  you  can  not  readily  distin- 
guish the  third  band  until  they  are  several 
days  old. 

FOUK   AND    FIVE    HANDED   ITALIAXS. 

In  ISitO  and  the  present  year  ('91)  there  is 
quite  a  rage  for  four  and  five  banded  Ital- 
ians. These  are  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
Italians  bred  for  bands  by  selection.    For 


instance,  you  may  take  a  lot  of  black  fowls, 
and  from  one  liaving  a  few  white  feathers 
yon  may,  by  selection,  breed  fowls  tliat  are 
entirely  white,  at  each  generation  selecting 
the  whitest  fowls  to  breed  from.  Some  Ital- 
ians show  a  tendency  toward  the  fourth 
band.  Perhaps  some  of  the  daughters  of 
the  mother  of  these  bees  will  show  in  their 
bees  a  greater  tendency  toward  the  fourth 
band.  Again,  you  breed  from  the  last- 
named  queen,  and  select  from  her  another 
breeding  queen  win  se  bees  show  quite 
clearly  the  fourth  band  with  a  glimmering 
of  the  fifth.  By  continued  selection  you 
may  be  able  to  get  the  fifth.  But  after  all, 
when  you  have  bees  with  four  and  five  yel- 
low bands,  you  have  bees  for  color  and  not 
for  business  i-«  It  is  possible  to  develop  any 
trait  that  you  may  wish  to  liave  charactei  is- 
tic  in  your  bees.  In  the  same  way  it  is  pos- 
sible to  breed  bees  that  are  very  energetic. 
But  as  a  general  rule  you  will  have  to  lose 
sight  of  fancy  colors.  Mr.  A.  E.  Manum,  of 
Bristol.  \'t.,  has,  by  careful  selection,  reared 
a  very  hardy  race  of  bees  for  wintering,  and 
they  are  also  extra  honey-gatherers.  !)ut 
these  bees  are  leather- colored— that  is.  the 
yellow  bands  are  not  strikingly  prominent. 
It  mny  be  possible  to  secure  both  beauty 
and  utility,  but  the  tendency  in  such  breed- 
ing is  to  ignore  utility  and  run  for  exhibi- 
tion bees. 

HOLY-LAND   AND   CYPRIAN  BEES. 

In  lS8:i  considerable  excitement  arose  over 
two  new  races  of  bees  brought  over  from  the 
Old  World  by  our  most  enterprising  and 
philanthropic  friend  I).  A.Jones,  of  Beeton, 
Ontario,  Canada.  They  are  called  Cyprian 
and  Holy-Land  bees,  from  the  places  where 
he  found  them.  The  former,  from  the  Isle 
of  Cyprus,  seem  to  have  been  for  many 
years  isolated,  and  are  a  very  distinct  and 
uniform  race.  I  at  first  glance  called  them 
very  nice  Italians  ;  and  after  seeing  them 
the  third  season.  I  am  strongly  tempted  to 
call  them  very  nice  Italians  still.  They  have 
a  few  distinctive  marks  that  enable  an  ex- 
pert to  distinguish  them,  however,  and  their 
traits  of  temper  are  also  different.  I  believe 
they  have  been  mostly  objected  to  on  ac- 
count of  the  vindictive  temper  displayed  by 
the  progeny  of  some  of  the  queens.  We  had 
handled  them  in  our  apiary  several  months 
before  I  discovered  any  difference ;  but  on 
opening  tlie  hive  one  day  toward  dusk,  and 
being  a  little  careless  in  handling  the  frames, 
I  found  I  had  a  job  on  my  hands  (or,  rather, 
in  my  face  and  hair)— a  lot  of  enraged  bees 
that  even  smoke  did  not  bring  into  subjee- 


ITALIAN  BEES, 


194 


ITALIANIZING. 


tiou.  The  Holy-Lands  seem  quiet  enough, 
and  the  queens  are  enormously  prolific;  but 
for  some  reason  or  other,  at  the  present  writ- 
ing quite  a  number  of  the  friends  are  getting 
rid  of  them,  and  going  back  to  the  Italians 
again,  as  mere  gentle.  The  queens  are  ex- 
ceedingly prolific,  generally  filling  one  frame 
complete  with  eggs  before  beginning  on  an- 
other, giving,  when  sealed,  a  solid  mass  of 
brood.  If  in  any  case  a  Holy-Land  colony 
becomes  queenless  they  will  build  a  number 
of  cells,  exceeding  by  far  that  of  any  other 
known  race.  The  queens  that  hatch  from 
these  are  as  strong  and  robust ;  we  have  had 
them  fiyi-'iimmediately  on  emerging  from  the 
cells. •'■•'"  One  of  their  peculiar  characteristics 
is,  that  the  cells  all  hatch  at  or  about  the 
same  time.  Several  years  ago  we  had  twen- 
ty-five queens  hatch  within  thirty  minutes 
from  one  frame.  Other  cases  of  like  nature 
have  been  reported.  Now,  the  fact  that  the 
Holy-Lands  will  raise  such  an  abundance  of 
cells  is  of  great  value  to  queen-breeders. 
For  instance,  if  we  desire  a  great  quantity 
from  some  choice  Italian  stock,  we  can 
exchange  their  unsealed  larvse  for  that  of  a 
queenless  Holy-Land  colony.  The  stock,  if 
left  to  itself,  would  probably  not  raise  over 
six  or  eight  cells'"'i ;  whereas  the  Holy-Lands 
would  very  likely  raise  five  or  possibly  ten 
times  that  number.  Thus  we  greatly  reduce 
the  number  of  cell-raising  colonies  required, 
at  the  same  time  allowing  the  rest  to  go  on 
with  their  regular  work.i-''^  In  fact,  we  can 
use  them  much  as  poultry-breeders  use  a 
few  select  sitting  hens  for  raising  the  young 
chicks  from  non-sitters. 

ITAZiIArJIZING-.  Few  questions  are 
asked  oftener  than,  "How  shall  I  Italianize? 
and  when  shall  I  do  itV"  There  is  always  a 
loss  in  removing  a  queen  and  substituting 
another,  even  where  we  have  laying  queens 
on  hand ;  and  where  we  are  to  use  the  same 
colony  for  rearing  a  queen,  there  is  a  still 
greater  loss.  Under  the  head  of  Artificial 
Swarming  and  Queen  -  rearing,  these 
points  are  fully  discussed.  Where  one  has 
an  apiary  of  black  bees,  his  cheapest  way, 
especially  if  he  has  plenty  of  time  to  devote 
to  the  subject,  is  to  purchase  a  choice  tested 
queen,  and  rear  his  own  queens  from  her. 
If  he  has  as  many  as  a  dozen  colonies,  and 
proposes  to  continue  to  increase  the  number, 
it  may  be  his  best  and  surest  way,  to  pur- 
chase an  imported  queen.  If  the  choice 
queen  is  purchased  in  the  spring  or  summer 
months,  I  would  not  remove  the  old  queens 
until  the  summer  crop  of  honey  is  over;  but, 


instead  of  allowing  natural  swarming,  take 
two  or  three  frames  from  each  old  stock 
about  swarming  time,  and  make  nuclei, 
giving  them  (|ueen  -  cells  from  the  Italian 
brood.  "When  these  queens  are  hatched  and 
laying,  build  the  nuclei  up,  with  frames  of 
brood  given  one  at  a  time,  until  they  are  full 
stocks.  By  such  a  course,  you  have  the  full 
benefit  of  your  old  queens  during  the  honey- 
season,  imtil  the  new  ones  are  ready  to  take 
their  places.  After  the  honey-yield-  has  be- 
gun to  cease,  you  can  remove  the  old  queens, 
and  give  the  now  small  coloniies  queen-cells, 
as  you  did  the  nuclei  at  first.  This  does  the 
swarming  for  the  season,  and  the  Italian- 
izing, atone  and  the  same  time. 

If  you  have  more  money  than  time  to 
spare,  and  wish  to  have  the  work  done  up 
quickly,  purchase  as  many  queens  as  you 
have  colonies,  and  introduce  them  at  any 
season  of  the  year,  as  directed  in  Intro- 
ducing Queens.  You  can  purchase  all 
tested  queens  if  you  wish,  but  I  would  ad- 
vise taking  the  dollar  queens,  while  there  is 
any  great  difference  in  price. 

After  your  stocks  have  all  been  provided 
with  Italian  queens,  by  either  of  the  plans 
given  above,  if  you  wish  your  bees  to  be 
pure  Italians,  you  are  to  commence  replac- 
ing all  queens  that  prove  to  be  hybrids,  as 
soon  as  the  young  bees  are  hatched  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  to  enable  you  to  decide.  See 
Italian  Bees.  Now,  if  honey  only  is  your 
object,  I  would  not  replace  these  hybrids, 
until  they  are  one  or  two  years  old ;  for  they 
will  average  nearly  as  well  as  honey-gather- 
ers, and  will  raise  just  as  pure  drones,  as  full 
blood  Italians.  If  you  should  find  the  bees 
of  any  particular  queen  too  cross  to  be  en- 
durable, replace  her  with  another,  at  any 
time.  Be  careful,  however,  that  these  hy- 
brid colonies  are  not  allowed  to  swarm 
natiu-ally,  for,  if  they  raise  a  queen,  she  will 
produce  hjbrid  drones*;  and  this  is  some- 
thing we  wish  scrupulously  to  guard  against. 
It  will  be  better  to  raise  all  the  queens  your- 
self, and  practice  artificial  swarming  exclu- 
sively, while  you  are  seeking  to  Italianize, 
especially  if  you  are  surrounded  with  com- 
mon bees.  If  you  practice  in  the  manner 
given  above,  you  can  reap  the  full  benefit  of 
the  Italian  blood,  even  though  there  are 
hundreds  of  stocks  of  the  common  bees 
within  the  range  of  your  apiary.  But,  if  you 
are  going  to  raise  queens  for  the  market, 
you  should  buy  up  or  Italianize  all  the  com- 
mon bees  within  two  or  three  miles  of  you, 

*To  get  rid  of  black  and  hybrid  drones,  see 
Drones. 


ITALIANIZING. 


195 


ITALIANIZING. 


in  every  direction.  The  more  faithfully  you 
do  this,  the  better  satisfaction  will  you  give 
your  customers.  Your  neighbors  will  very 
soon  be  converted  to  the  Italians,  if  you 
keep  right  along  and  let  crops  of  honey, 
rather  than  talk,  decide  the  matter,  and 
then  they  will  be  quite  willing  to  pay  you 


for  introducing  Italian  queens  into  their 
colonies.  Be  sure  you  do  not  quarrel,  and 
foster  any  bad  spirit  in  the  matter,  but  let 
them  have  their  own  way,  even  if  it,  at 
times,  is  aggravating ;  and,  in  a  very  few 
years,  you  will  succeed  in  having  your  whole 
neighborhood  Italianized. 


MR.  ir.  n.  ish.vm's  hke-vaud  .vnd  poultry-iiol>e,  neav  ha  vex,  vt. 


K. 


KZIVG- BIRDS.  Quite  a  number  of 
the  feathered  tribes  have  a  fashion  of  eating 
bees.  Even  our  common  fowls  sometimes 
get  into  the  habit  of  gobbling  them,  with  as 
little  fear  of  consequences  as  if  they  were 
the  most  harmless  insects  in  the  world.  It  is 
quite  likely  that  birds  have  a  way  of  crush- 
ing their  prey  with  their  bills  so  as  to  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  the  bee's  using  its 
sting.  It  has  been  siiggested  that  the  birds 
and  fowls  eat  only  the  drones  ;  but  several 
examinations  of  their  crops  show  that  it 
is,  without  question,  the  Avorkers,  and  it  is 
quite  probable  that  the  honey  contained  in 
the  honey-sac  is  the  principal  inducement. 

Mr.  T.  L.  Waite,  of  Berea,  Ohio,  furnish- 
es some  very  positive  evidence,  and  also 
meniions  a  habit  of  the  king-bird  not 
generally  known  to  naturalists.  During  the 
month  of  June,''72,  a  flock  of  seven  of  these 
birds  were  making  such  regular  and  con- 
stant visits  to  his  apiary  that  his  suspicions 
were  aroused,  and,  concealing  himself,  with 
watch  in  hand,  he  observed  a  single  bird 
snap  up  o  to  8  per  minute.  After  having 
pursued  this  "innocent''  amusement  for  a 
sufficient  interval,  his  birdship  was  in  the 
habit  of  taking  a  rest  on  a  neighboring  tree, 
where,  after  a  short  meditation,  he  com- 
menced a  series  of  muscular  contortions  of 


the  head  and  neck,  that  finally  resulted  in  his 
opening  his  mouth  wide,  and  "heaving  up" 
a  wad  of  some  strange  black-looking  sub- 
stance. By  chance  his  perch  was  close 
over  a  bed  of  rhubarb,  or  pie-plant,  and  our 
friend  secured  a  number  of  these  wads  as 
they  fell,  and  thus  settled  the  point  of  their 
being  nothing  more  nor  less  than  crushed 
bees.  After  he  had  "squeezed"  out  all  the 
honey,  there  being  probably  no  further  use 
for  the  "pumace,"  it  was  unceremoniously 
cast  aside,  while  his  worship,  with  a  keen  ap- 
petite and  zest  for  the  sport,  went  "  bee- 
hunting"  again.  They  came  regularly  for  a 
"  meal  "  two  or  three  times  a  day.  I  think 
we  had  better  use  our  rifles  and  shot-guns  in 
such  a  way  as  to  teach  them  that  apiaries  are 
"  unhealthy  "  localities  for  such  boarders. 


The  foregoing,  in  reference  to  king-birds, 
was  written  some  ten  years  ago.  Consider- 
able discussion  arose  in  1887,  in  Gleanings  in 
Bee  Culture,  as  to  whether  the  king-bird  did 
or  did  not  swallow  its  victims.  Several  in- 
sisted that  the  Vjirds  did  not  do  so — that  they 
simply  crushed  the  bees,  extracted  the  hon- 
ey from  their  sacs,  and  then  dropped  the 
bee.  But  the  testimony  of  the  majority, 
however,  was  to  the  effect  that  the  king- 
birds did  actually  swallow  their  victims. 


L. 


LASOF  SnrXLSXSRV.  Many  have  ob- 
served that,  in  hot  weather,  if  queen-cells 
are  taken  out  just  before  they  are  ready  to 
hatch,  the  queens  will  sometimes  gnaw  out 
just  as  well  as  if  they  were  with  the  bees. 
It  is  also  known,  that  queens  just  emerging 
from  the  cell  may  generally  be  allowed  to 
crawl  among  the  bees  of  any  hive,  and  will, 
as  a  rule,  be  well  received.  Taking  advan- 
tage of  these  two  facts,  our  neighbor,  Mr. 
F.  R.  Shaw,  of  Chatham,  Medina  Co.,  O.,  in 
the  fall  of  1873,  constructed  the  first  lamp 
nursery.  This  first  machine  worked  well 
enough  to  demonstrate  the  feasibility  of  the 
plan,  but,  as  he  depended  entirely  on  hot  air 
to  keep  up  the  requisite  temperature,  it  was 
quite  liable  to  destroy  the  cells  by  the  un- 
evenness  of  the  temperature.  The  day  after 
I  visited  him,  T  noticed  that  the  copper  res- 
ervoir on  our  Stewart  stove  was  sufficiently 
warm  to  hatch  queens,  although  no  fire  had 
been  in  the  stove  for  more  than  15  hours, 
and  the  last  night  had  been  cool.  This  gave 
me  the  idea  of  using  a  considerable  body  of 
water  ;  and  before  night,  I  had  a  hive  made 
with  double  walls  of  tin,  as  shown  in  the  cut 
below. 


LAMP  NUKSERY. 


The  space  between  the  two  walls  is,  per- 
tiaps,  one  inch,  and  extends  under  the  bot- 
tom, as  well  as  around  the  sides,  that  the 
body  of  water  may  entirely  surround  the 


contents  of  the  nursery,  except  on  the  top. 
The  top  is  to  be  covered  with  a  quilt,  or  a 
warm  blanket.  The  whole  should  be  used 
in  a  room  Avell  protected  from  the  changes 
of  the  weather.  It  may  be  kept  in  a  large 
box,  but  it  is  not  nearly  as  convenient  as  a 
room.  As  accidents  sometimes  happen  to 
lamps,  I  would  set  the  lamp  in  a  tall  stove, 
one  of  the  kind  that  will  admit  of  the  top's 
being  taken  off,  and  set  the  nursery  over  it. 
The  top  of  the  lamp  chimney  should  be 
about  a  foot  below  the  nursery.  A  second- 
hand stove,  such  as  was  mentioned  for  mak- 
ing Candy  for  Bees,  will  answer  every 
purpose.  Such  a  body  of  water  between  two 
sheets  of  tin  will  cause  them  to  bulge  badly 
unless  we  put  a  brace  across  from  one  to  the 
other  in  the  center  on  each  side  ;  the  posi- 
tion of  these  braces  is  sho^\^l  by  the  tin  cap 
that  covers  them  in  the  cut.  Light  your 
lamp,  turn  on  a  strong  blaze,  and  watch  un- 
til the  thermometer,  which  should  be  kept 
inside  the  nursery,  shows  between  90  and 
100^,  then  turn  down  the  wick,  until  the 
temperature  remains  about  there.  If  it  gets 
much  above  100,  the  cells  may  be  injured ; 
and  it  should  not  be  allowed  to  fall  much 
below  80.  We  are  now  ready  for  our  queen- 
cells. 

HOW    TO    GET    CELLS    FOR    THE     NURSERY. 

You  can  cut  out  queen  -  cells  from  any 
place  in  the  apiary,  and  lay  them  in  the  nur- 
sery; but  as  we  wish  to  avoid  cutting  such 
unsightly-looking  holes  in  our  combs,  it  is 
better  to  take  the  whole  frame,  cells  and  all. 
Brush  (don't  shake]  oS  every  bee,  and  hang 
the  frame  in  the  nursery  as  you  would  in 
the  hive.  Get  frames  from  different  hives, 
until  you  have  the  nursery  full,  if  you  like. 
The  reason  we  have  the  nursery  so  large,  is 
that  it  may  contain  a  great  number  of 
frames  having  queen-cells.  Xow  you  find  a 
trouble  riglit  here ;  the  worker  -  bees  will 
hatch'  and  bite  out  in  this.warm  temperature 
just  as  well  as  the  queens  ;  and  very  soon 
we  shall  have  a  smart  hive  of  bees,  and  be 
no  better  off  than  in  an  outdoor  hive.    You 


LAMP-NURSERY. 


198 


.    LOCUST. 


can  take  out  these  young  bees  as  fast  as 
they  hatch  and  give  them  to  some  colony 
that  needs  them,  or  start  nuclei  with  them; 
but  this  is  so  much  trouble,  I  would  advise  a 
better  way. 

AN   UPPKR  STORY   IN   PLACE  OF  THE   LAMP- 
NURSKKY. 

During  the  summers  of  1S90  and  18^)1  we 
tried  using,  in  lieu  of  a  lami)-nursery,  the 
upper  story  of  a  strong  colony,  with  a 
queen  excluding  honey  board  between  the 
two  stories  Whenever  we  found  a  frame 
having  nice  cells  on  it— cells  that  were 
merely  started  or  capped  over,  we  gently 
bruslied  the  bees  off  the  frame  and  inserted 
it  in  the  upper  slory  of  the  colony  referred 
to.  We  find  that  cells  will  be  nicely  built 
out,  and  they  can  be  cut  out  and  put  inio  a 
queenless  colony,  or  can  be  allowed  to 
hatch,  and  the  young  queens  disposed  of 
accordingly.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the 
bees  in  the  upper  story,  although  there  is  a 
reigning  queen  below,  will  complete  and 
take  care  of  all  such  cells  given  them,  and 
will  not  molest  young  queens  that  happen 
to  hatch  out  before  the  apiarist  discovers 
them.  The  lamp  nursery  is  open  to  the  ob- 
jection that  the  heat  is  artificial,  and  some- 
times the  temperature  goes  up  to  over  100 
or  below  80,  in  either  case  resulting  in  a 
loss  of  all  the  cells  in  the  nursery.  This 
trouble  is  entirely  obviated  in  the  upper 
story  of  a  colony.  The  lamp  nursery  is  not 
used  by  us  now,  as  we  prefer  the  upper  sto- 
ry instead,  as  being  both  cheaper  and  bet- 
ter For  further  particulars  in  regard  to 
this,  see  Doolittle's  method,  under  Queen- 
re  a  rixg. 

introducing  virgin  queens. 

Although  these  young  queens,  like  newly 
hatched  cliickens,  or  young  puppies  and  kit- 
tens, are  disposed  to  take  up  with  the  first 
animated  object  they  set  their  eyes  on,  yet 
there  has  been  considerable  trouble  in  intro- 
ducing them.  With  weak  stocks  or  nuclei, 
that  have  been  a  day  or  two  queenless,  there 
is  little  trouble;  and,  in  fact,  the  bees  of  a 
large  colony  will  allow  these  yoimg  queens 
to  crawl  in  without  a  word  of  objection  at 
the  time,  in  the  majority  of  cases;  but  when 
they  get  a  day  or  two  older,  then  comes  the 
difficulty.  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover 
how  the  trouble  comes  about;  but  so  many 
of  them  are  found  in  front  of  the  hive,  either 
dead  or  just  able  to  crawl,  that  I  have  rath- 
er given  up  introducing  them  to  full  stocks, 
unless  they  have  been  some  time  queenless. 

It  may  be  well  to  remark,  that  these  vir- 
gin queens  are  introduced  to  full-blood  Ital- 


ians, with  much  less  trouble  than  to  either 
blacks  or  hybrids  ;  they  are  also  accepted  by 
a  small  colony  or  nucleus,  better  than  by  a 
full  hive  ;  and  by  any  hive  that  has  been  a 
day  or  two  queenless,  better  than  by  one 
from  which  a  laying  queen  has  just  been 
taken.  With  the  lamp-nvu-sery  or  an  upper 
story  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  raise  queens  bj^ 
the  thousand,  at  a  cost  generally  not  ex- 
ceeding 25  cts.  each  ;  but  the  most  expen- 
sive part  of  the  work  comes  afterward  — 
getting  them  fertilized.  At  present  I  know 
of  no  better  way  than  the  one  given  in 
Queen-rearing  and  Artificial  Swarm- 
ing (giving  each  queen  a  small  colony). 
A  queen-hatcher. 
An  arrangement  has  been  used  to  some 
extent,  called  a  "•hatcher,"  for  short.  It  is 
simply  a  series  of  cages,  laid  over  the  top  of 
the  brood-nest  of  a  strong  colony.  When 
the  weather  is  cool  the  hatcher  should  be 
covered  with  a  chaff  cushion.  A  cheap  way 
of  making  the  cages  is  to  bore  holes,  about 
1*  inches  in  diameter,  in  a  piece  of  thick 
board  or  plank,  and  cover  the  under  side 
with  wire  cloth.  A  queen-cell  nearly  ready 
to  hatch  is  put  into  one  of  these  holes,  tlie 
heat  of  the  colony  below  giving  it  the  requi- 
site temperntnre  ;  and  by  frequent  examina- 
tions, so  that  the  queens  are  taken  out 
shortly  after  they  hatch,  no  provision  is 
needed  for  food.i-" 

LOCTTST.  This  tree  is  so  well  known  as 
scarcely  to  need  a  description.  It  grows 
very  rapidly,  and  bears  blossoms  at  a  very 
early  age;  and  could  we  be  assured  of  hav- 
ing every  year  the  crop  of  honey  that  the  lo- 
cust bears  (perhaps  one  year  in  five),  I  should 
at  once  plant  a  locust-grove  exclusively  for 
honey.  It  blossoms  profusely  almost  every 
season;  but  the  bees  often  pay  no  attention 
at  all  to  the  flowers. 

The  honey  comes  at  a  time  when  it  is  very 
much  needed,  as  it  is  a  little  later  than  the 
fruit-bloom,  and  a  little  earlier  than  white 
clover.  If  any  thing  could  be  done  by  a  se- 
lection of  different  varieties,  or  by  cultiva- 
tion, to  make  it  bear  honey  every  season, 
a  locust-grove  would  be  a  very  valuable  ad- 
dition to  the  honey-farm. 

The  leaf  of  the  locust  much  resembles  the 
leaf  of  the  clover,  only  it  has  a  great  number 
of  leaves  on  a  stem  instead  of  only  three ; 
the  blossom  is  mucli  like  that  of  the  common 
pea,  both  in  appearance  and  size.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact,  that  the  locust,  pea,  and 
clover,  all  belong  to  the  same  order,  Legumi- 
nosce. 


M. 


IMEANIFUIiATirra  FRAnaXSS.  See 

Frames.  JIoan'  to   Manii'Ulaie  ;  also  Ke- 

VERSIN'Ct. 

IWEIG-IirONlMli'l'TIi  [Beseda  odoyata). 
We  have  had  little  practical  experience  with 
this  plant,  beyond  a  small  patch  of  the  tall 
variety  in  the  garden.  Although  this  kind 
did  not  have  the  perfume  of  the  ordinary 
small  kind,  it  was  humming  with  bees  for 
months  ;  and,  as  they  work  on  it  all  day,  it 
will  prove  valuable  for  keeping  them  busy 
during  the  fall  months.  The  following  we 
extract  from  Lane's  catalogue: 

"If  cultivated  to  that  extent  that  it  might  or  ought 
to^e,  it  would  certainly  furnish  a  rich  pasturage  for 
bees.  A  small  patch  of  it  will  perfume  the  air  for 
quite  a  distance;  and  were  it  cultivated  by  acres  for 
bee-pasturage  alone,  we  should  be  favored  with  a 
fragrant  atmosphere  that  would  vie  with  the  spicy 
breezes  of  Ceylon,  and  a  honey  that  would  fmtdothe 
famed  honey  of  Hymettus  for  aromatic  flavor. 

"It  blossoms  in  the  latter  part  of  June,  and  contin- 
ues in  bloom  until  cold  weather  (heavy  frosts  do  not 
injure  it);  indeed,  we  are  informed  by  our  Southern 
friends  that  with  them  it  continues  in  full  bloom 
during  the  entire  winter.  There  are  manj'  varieties, 
but  we  think  all  are  inferior,  for  field  culture,  to 
Parson's  New  Giant.  The  seeds,  which  are  very 
small,  should  be  sown  in  the  spring,  sowing  thinly 
and  covering  lightly,  in  drills  at  least  three  feet 
apart.    Would  not  advise  sowing  broadcast." 

December,  1879. — We  have  had  a  half -acre 
on  our  honey  -  farm,  of  different  vai'ieties, 
during  the  past  season.  Although  visited 
by  the  bees  for  several  months,  at  all  hours 
in  the  day,  it  has  not  compared  at  all  with 
the  Simpson  honey-plant.  A  small  patch  in 
the  garden,  on  very  rich  soil,  did  very  much 
better. 

1WIILK1VEED(-I.sc?epw<.s  Comuti).  This 
plant  is  celebrated,  not  for  the  lioney  it  pro- 
duces, although  it  doubtless  furnishes  a 
good  supply,  but  for  its  (lueer,  winged  mass- 
es of  pollen,  which  attach  themselves  to  the 
bee's  feet,  and  cause  him  to  become  a  crip- 
ple, if  not  to  lose  his  life.  Every  fall,  we 
have  many  iiujuiries  from  new  subscribers, 
in  regard  to  this  (jueer  i)lienomenon.  Some 
think   it  a  parasite,  others  a  protuberaiUM' 


growing  on  the  bee's  foot,  and  others  a 
winged  insect-enemy  of  the  bee.  We  give 
below  an  engraving  of  the  curiosity,  magni- 
fied at  o  ,•  and  also  of  a  mass  of  them  attached 
to  the  foot  of  a  bee. 

It  is  the  same  that  Prof.  Riley  alluded  to, 
when  he  recommended  that  the  milkweed 
be  planted  to  kill  off  the  bees  when  they  be- 
come troublesome  to  the  fruit-grower.    The 


(POLLEN  OF  THE  MILKAVEJED,  ATTACHED  TO 
A  bee's  FOOT. 

folly  of  such  advice— think  of  the  labor  and 
expense  of  starting  a  plantation  of  useless 
weeds  just  to  entrap  honey-bees— becomes 
more  apparent  when  we  learn  that  it  is  per- 
haps only  the  old  and  enfeebled  bees  that 
are  unable  to  free  themselves  from  these  ap- 
pendages, and  hence  the  milkweed  can 
scarcely  be  called  an  enemy.  The  append- 
age, it  will  be  observed,  looks  like  a  pair  of 
wings,  and  they  attach  themselves  to  the  bee 
by  a  glutinous  matter  which  quickly  hard- 
ens, so  that  it  is  quite  difficult  to  remove,  if 
not  done  when  it  is  first  attached. 

IWEOTZXZUl^XrOILT  {Leomirus  Cardi- 
uca.)  Quite  a  number  of  the  bee-folks  in- 
sist that  motherwort  is  superior,  as  a  honey- 
idant,  to  either  catnip,  hoarhound,  balm, 
wild  bergamot,  or  any  of  the  large  family 
of  Labiatfc,  and  I  presume  such  may  be  the 
case  under  some  circumstances,  or  in  favor- 
able localities.  In  comparing  plants,  it 
should  be  remembered,  that  those  which 
usually  bear  much  honey  may,  at  times, 
furnish  none  at  all ;  and  also  those  which 
usually  furnish  none  may,  under  very  favor- 
aide  circumstances,  yield  largely.'*" 


MOVING  BEES. 


2(H) 


MOVING  BEES. 


MOTHERWORT. 

This  plant  often  flourishes  about  fence- 
corners,  and  around  the  ruins  of  old  dwell- 
ings, sheds,  or  even  hog-pens.  The  large 
leaf,  taken  by  itself,  much  resembles  the 
cuiTant ;  the  stalk  is  much  like  catnip  ;  and 
the  little  flowers  are  in  tufts,  close  to  the 
stalk.  It  remains  in  blossom  a  long  time, 
and  may  be  as  worthy  of  cultivation  as  any 
of  the  plants  of  its  class. 

IMEOVirTG-  BXiES.  Perhaps  about  as 
many  mishaps,  especially  with  beginners, 
have  come  about  from  moving  bees  unwise- 
ly, as  from  any  other  one  cause.  A  little 
thought  in  regard  to  the  habits  and  ways  of 
bees  would  save  much  of  this.  Bees  fly  from 
their  hives  in  quest  of  stores,  perhaps  a  mile; 
sometimes  a  mile  and  a  half  or  two  miles; 
but  they  will  seldom  go  beyond  these  limits, 
unless  at  a  time  of  great  scarcity  of  pastm-- 
age.i"Well , after  a  bee  has  once  fixed  his  lo- 
cality, he  starts  out  in  the  morning  on  a  run, 
and  never  stops  to  take  the  points,  as  he 
does  the  first  time  he  sallies  out  from  a  new 
locality.  The  consequence  is,  if  you  have 
moved  his  hive,  either  in  the  night  or  day 
time,  and  have  not  moved  it  more  than  a 
mile,  he  will,  when  he  goes  back,  strike  di- 
rectly for  his  old  locality.  On  reaching  there 
and  finding  his  hive  gone,  he  is  lost  and 
helpless;  and  even  though  the  hive  may  be 
but  a  few  rods  away,  he  will  never  find  it  in 
the  world.  New  hands  frequently  move 
their  hives  close  together  at  the  approach  of 
winter,  that  they  may  better  protect  them 
with  chaff  or  straw.  I  do  not  know  how 
many  times  mishaps  resulting  from  this  kind 
of  proceeding  have  been  related  to  me.  All 
goes  very  well,  perhaps,  until  we  have  a 
warm  day;  then  the  bees  start  out  for  a  fly, 
and  very  naturally  return  to  their  home  just 
as  they  have  been  doing  all  summer;  if  no 
one  is  near  to  restore  their  hive  to  its  former 
location,  they  fly  helplessly  around  for  a 
while,  and  then  alight  on  the  trees  and  fenc- 
es, scattered  about,  and  finally  perish.  If 
other  hives  are  near,  they  will  get  into  the 
wrong  hives  and  get  stung;  or,  if  their  num- 


bers are  great  enough,  they  will  sting  the 
queen,  because  she  is  a  stranger  to  them. 
Sometimes  the  bees  of  the  Avhole  apiary  will 
become  so  mixed  up  that  they  have  a  gen- 
eral melee  and  fight,  resulting  in  great  dam- 
age, if  not  in  the  destruction,  of  many  of  the 
colonies.  Moving  hives  short  distances  dur- 
ing the  working  season  is  almost  always 
done  with  loss  of  more  or  less  bees,  and  con- 
sequently honey. 

It  is  true,  bees  may  sometimes  be  moved 
without  loss,  for  there  is  quite  a  difference 
in  the  disposition  of  colonies;  and  where  one 
may  be  moved  all  about  the  yard  without 
any  apparent  loss,  the  next  may  suffer,  if 
moved  only  a  few  feet.  I  once  purchased  a 
very  strong  colony  of  blacks  of  a  neighbor, 
and,  to  be  on  the  safe  side,  moved  them  on 
a  cold  day  in  December.  I  think  it  was  a 
week  afterward  when  it  became  warm,  and 
the  bees  went  back  to  their  old  home  in  such 
numbers  that  the  first  cold  night  froze  out 
the  remaining  ones,  and  I  lost  my  stock  en- 
tirely.i*'-  At  another  time,  a  neighbor  wished 
me  to  take  a  swarm  from  a  very  strong  stock 
of  blacks.  As  I  had  but  little  time,  I  set  an- 
other hive  in  its  place,  containing  a  frame 
of  brood  and  a  queen  -  cell,  and  moved  the 
old  one  several  rods  away.  He  told  me  next 
day  that  the  bees  had  all  found  their  old 
home,  and  deserted  the  brood-comb  entirely. 
I  directed  him  to  move  it  again,  and  place 
it  the  other  side  of  the  orchard;  but  it  seems 
these  wily  blacks  had  learned  the  trick,  for 
they  all  found  it  even  there. 1*2  Italians,  as  a 
general  thing,  are  more  ready  to  take  up 
with  a  new  location  than  the  blacks,  and  stick 
more  tenaciously  to  their  home  and  brood. 

Sometimes,  shaking  the  bees  all  in  front 
of  the  hive,  and  letting  them  run  in  just 
like  a  natural  swarm,  will  answer  to  make 
them  stick  to  their  new  locality ;  at  other 
times,  moving  the  hive  away  for  an  hour  or 
two,  until  they  get  really  frightened  at  the 
loss  of  their  home,  will  have  the  same  effect, 
after  it  is  once  brought  back  to  them.  In 
this  case  they  seem  so  glad  to  get  their  dear 
old  home  again,  that  they  will  adhere  to  it 
wherever  it  is  placed.  Neither  of  these  plans 
can  be  relied  on  implicitly,  and  I  really  do 
not  know  of  any  that  can.*  Sometimes  we 
succeed  by  leaving  a  comb  for  the  returning 
bees  to  cluster  on,  and  then  take  them  to  the 
new  stand  just  at  nightfall.  When  allowed 
to  run  in,  they  exhibit  their  joy  by  loud 
notes  of  appro  s'al,  but,  just  as  likely  as  not, 

*  Placing  a  board,  or  other  object,  over  the  en- 
trance so  as  to  hinder  the  bees  a  little  as  they  come 
out,  is  sometimes  practiced  to  make  them  return. 


MOVING  BEES. 


201 


MOVING  BEES. 


they  will  be  back  at  the  old  spot  the  next 
day,  just  the  same.  With  patience,  we  can 
by  this  means  save  most  of  them.  As  a 
natural  swarm  will  stay  wherever  they  are 
put,  any  thing  that  reduces  a  colony  to  the 
condition  of  a  natural  swarm  will  accom- 
plish our  object.  Bees  depend  very  much 
on  the  surrounding  objects,  in  taking  their 
points ;  and  I  have  known  a  whole  apiary  to 
be  successfully  moved  a  short  distance,  by 
moving  all  the  hives  and  preserving  their 
respective  positions  with  reference  to  each 
other.  Carrying  bees  into  the  cellar  for  sev- 
eral days  or  a  week  will  usually  wean  them 
from  their  location,  so  that  they  may  then 
be  located  anywhere;  but  this  plan  is  ob- 
jectionable, inasmuch  as  the  colony  is  pre- 
vented, for  that  length  of  time,  from  doing 
any  work  in  the  field,  and  this  is  quite  an 
item  in  the  height  of  the  season.  Where 
we  wish  to  divide  a  swarm,  the  matter  is 
very  easy,  for  we  can  caiTy  our  stock  where 
we  wish,  and  start  a  nucleus  of  the  return- 
ing bees.  The  usual  way,  and  by  far  the 
easiest  where  it  can  be  done,  is  to  wait  until 
winter,  and  move  them  after  they  have 
been  confined  to  the  hive  for  several  weeks 
by  cold  weather.  Bees  moved  in  the  spring 
seldom  go  back  to  their  old  quarters,  for 
they  generally  n)ark  their  location  when  they 
take  their  first  flight,  whether  they  have 
been  moved  or  not.  Bees  can  also  be  moved 
short  distances,  in  warm  weather,  by  taking 
them  a  mile  or  more,  leaving  them  a  couple 
of  weeks,  and  then  bringing  them  back  to 
the  spot  where  you  wish  them  to  remain. 
This  plan,  would  be  too  muchtioub'.e  and 
expense  to  be  practicable  generally. 

SHIPPING    BEES    LONG    DISTANCES    BY    EX- 
PRESS. 

During  hot  weather,  great  care  should  be 
exercised  that  the  l)ees  be  not  smothered, 
nor  their  comljs  melted  down  by  the  intense 


After  a  large  experience,  and  many  mishaps 
in  shipping  bees  in  the  summer  time,  we 
have  now  decided  on  covering  both  the  top 
and  bottom  of  the  hive  Avith  wire  cloth. 
For  short  distances,  and  more  moderate 
weather  in  summer,  a  piece  of  wire  cloth 
tacked  over  the  entrance,  a  id  a  single  wire- 
cloth  cover,  will  answer ;  but  the  entrance 
itself  should  not  be  closed,  for  it  affords  a 
draft  that  passes  up  through  the  cluster,  to 
the  wire  cloth  above.  The  preceding  cut 
illustrates  the  method  we  have  used  for 
shipping  bees  with  success  with  the  Dove- 
tailed hive,  described  elsewhere. 

A  couple  of  screws,  B  B,  fasten  the  wire 
screen  to  the  hive.  The  bottom  is  similarly 
secured.  To  move  the  screen,  no  prying 
nor  pounding  is  necessary.  Simply  loosen 
the  screws,  and  the  screen  will  lilt  off  with- 
out a  jar. 

To  secure  the  frames  so  that  they  will  not 
shuck  about,  we  use  a  notched  stick,  as 
shown  in  A  A,  of  the  accompanying  cut,  the 
notches  passing  down  between  the  frames 
just  over  the  rabbet  in  the  hive. 


THE     DOVETAILED     HIVE,    PREPARED     FOR 

SHIPi'INO    BEES. 

heat  that  is  generated  where  they  liave  an 
insufficient  quantity  of  air  during  shipment. 


A  conple  of  wire  nails  hold  it  secure.  A 
similar  notched  stick  is  nailed  to  the  bot- 
tom-board, notches  upward,  transversely 
through  the  center.  This  keeps  the  bottoms 
of  the  frames  from  jarrfng  against  each  oth- 
er. After  the  wire  cloth  has  been  tacked  to 
the  entrance,  the  combs  put  in  the  hive,  and 
secured  by  the  notched  sticks,  the  wire 
screen  screwed  down,  the  whole  arrange- 
ment is  ready  for  shii)ment. 

Of  course  if  your  bees  are  on  fixed  frames 
—that  is.  either  the  Hoffman  or  the  closed- 
end,  referred  to  and  described  under 
Frames,  Manipulating  ;  Fixed  Frames, 
and  under  Hive-makixg,  no  notched  spac- 
ing-strips wil  be  necessary.  The  frames 
are  already  fastened  for  moving  or  sliip- 
ping  ;  and  the  beauty  of  it  is,  no  time  need 
be  lost  in  preparing  tliem  for  that  purpose. 

It  is  almost  absolutely  necessaiy  that  the 
combs  themselves  be  wired,  or  at  least  that 
they  be  old  and  tough,  and  seciu'ely  attached 
to  the  bottom-bar  if  not  wired.  It  is  always 
risky,  however,  to  ship  in  combs  when  not 
wired. '^*  It  is  impossible  to  tell  what  sort  of 
rougii  usage  they  will  receive  at  the  hands 
of  careless  or  indifferent  express  agents  ; 


MOVING  BEES. 


202 


MOVING  BEES. 


and  while  we  should  not  be  too  hasty  in 
condemning  raihoad  officials  for  careless 
handling,  we  should  take  every  precaution. 
The  bees  buzzing  around  the  wire  cloth  is 
usually  enough  to  guarantee  safe  handling ; 
but  as  many  do  not  know  how  to  handle  and 
take  care  of  bees,  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
printing  in  large  letters,  in  red,  on  a  piece 
of  cardboard,  as  follows  : 

KILLED! 

This  Hive  contains  Live  Bees,  and  they  will 
be  "Killed"  if  roughly  handled,  or  left  in  the 
Sun,  or  not  kept  This  Side  Up.  "Will  you 
please  be  careful  of  the  little  fellows? 

A.  I.  ROOT,  Medina,  O. 

This  card  is  tacked  on  one  corner  of  the 
wire  -  cloth  screen.  Of  course,  the  word 
"  killed  ■■  is  to  command  attention;  and 
there  are  very  few  railroad  officials  who  will 
not  heed  the  instructions.  Bees  should  al- 
ways lie  sent  by  express.  Although  I  have 
sent  them  safely  by  freight  as  far  as  Massa- 
chusetts, I  would  by  no  means  recommend  it. 

If  bees  are  to  be  sent  long  distances,  be 
sure  that  they  have  plenty  of  stores,  for  the 
excitement  attendant  upon  confinemenliand 
jolting  about  sometimes  causes  them  to  con- 
sume honey  enormously. 

MOVING    BKES    8HORT    DISTANCES,   TO    AND 
FROM    OUT-APIARIES,    ETC. 

If  you  wash  to  move  bees  during  the  day- 
time, while  many  are  in  the  fields,  you  can 
get  them  nearly  all  in  by  smoking  them  at 
intervals  for  about  half  an  hour.  This  wili 
give  those  that  are  out  time  to  come  in,  and 
the  smoking  will  prevent  any  more  going 
out.  If  the  colony  is  a  very  strong  one,  leave 
a  hive  with  a  comb  of  brood  on  the  old  stand, 
and  the  owaier  can  start  a  nucleus  very  con- 
veniently with  the  retvirning  bees. 

In  very  hot  weather,  the  wire-cloth  screen 
before  illustrated  should  be  put  on  in  lie)i  of 
the  cover,  and  the  entrance  should  be  like- 
wise closed  with  wire  cloth.  In  cooler  wea- 
ther, say  toward  fall,  it  will  not  be  necessa- 
ry to  remove  the  cover,  because  the  bees  will 
have  ventilation  enough  from  the  entrance, 
providing  it  is  not  closed  with  any  thing  but 
wire  cloth. 

Most  bee-keepers  have  the  bottoms  of  their 
hives  movable.  When  it  becomes  necessary 
to  move  the  bees  from  the  out-apiary  to  the 
home  apiary,  some  means  should  be  used 
whereby  the  cover  and  bottom  can  be  se- 
cured quickly  and  safely.  We  can  not  nail 
the  cover  down,  because  that  would  take  too 
long,  and  mar  the  cover  besides.  Neither 
can  we  afford  to  lift  the  hive  up  while  an 


assistant  screws  tlie  bottom  fast  while  the 
bees  are  in.  About  as  satisfactory  a  w^ay  as 
any  we  have  found,  to  fasten  both  cover  and 
bottom  simultaneously,  is  to  cut  a  couple  of 
lengths  of  strong  twine,  each  just  long 
enough  to  tie  aromul  the  body  of  the  hive 
transversely,  in  a  bow-knot.  Pass  one  of 
these  lengths  around  under  the  bottom,  near 
the  front  end,  then  over  the  top  of  the  cov- 
er. Draw  it  as  tight  as  possible,  and  tie  it 
in  a  bow-knot.  In  like  manner  loop  the 
rear  end.  Draw  these  cords  as  tight  as  you 
can,  and  they  will  still  be  comparatively 
loose  —  enough  so,  so  that  the  cover  may  be 
able  to  slide  a  small  trifle.  To  draw  these 
cords  taut,  take  a  hammer  and  drive  the 
upper  part  of  the  loop,  which  passes  over 
the^  cover,  toward  the  center  of  the  hive. 


HOW  TO   FASTEN    BOTTOM-BOARD  AND  COVER. 

Do  likewise  with  the  other  cord.  The  result 
will  be,  tliat  the  strands  passing  over  tlie 
cover  will  be  closer  together  than  the  strands 
passing  around  the  bottom  of  the  hive  ;  and 
you  will  find  that  the  cover  is  fastened  al- 
most as  tight  as  if  it  were  nailed.  To  save 
time  and  labor,  get  out  just  enough  strands 
to  accommodate  as  many  hives  as  you  can 
carry  at  one  load.  With  the  strands  thrown 
over  your  shoulder,  after  you  have  hitched 
your  horses  at  a  safe  distance  froni  the  api- 
aiy,  and  after  you  have  tacked  wire  cloth 
over  the  entrances,  lift  the  front  end  of  the 
hive  up ;  tie  the  front  strand  as  described, 
and  then  the  rear  one  ;  stretch  them  taut, 
in  the  manner  described.  In  like  manner 
treat  the  rest  of  the  hives.  The  laljor  of 
l)reparing  the  bees  for  moving  will  be  re- 
duced to  a  minimum. 

Another  very  ingenious  method  of  fasten- 
ing the  cover  and  bottom  is  to  take  a  very 
heavy  cord,  pass  it  transversely  around  the 
hive,  and  tie  it  loosely.  With  a  stick  about 
an  inch  square,  loop  it  under  the  string,  and 
then  twist  the  stick  until  the  cord  is  taut. 
This  is,  perhaps,  a  quicker  way  than  the 
other  one ;  but  one  cord  is  surely  not  as  safe 
as  two.  We  liave  secured  the  cover  and 
bottom  both  ways,  but  we  like  the  double- 
loo])  plan  Itest. 


MOVING  BEES. 


203 


MUSTARD. 


A  LOAD  OF  BEES  TO  OLTK  OUT-AllAKY. 

Our  wagon,  a  platform  spring,  will  hold 
45  empty  hives ;  and  on  smooth  roads  we 
carry  that  number  of  hives  containing  colo- 
nies. Ordinarily  80  to  8o  make  a  good  load, 
because  we  seldom  have  roads  in  such  per- 
fect condition  that  we  dare  risk  such  a 
weight.  The  box  of  the  wagon  will  take  12 
hives,  and  the  raised  platform  will  caiTy  the 
remainder.  The  hives  will  probably  stay  in 
their  place  ;  but  to  prevent  accident  they 
are  secured  with  ropes,  as  shown  in  the  cut. 
The  driver  sits  in  the  middle  of  the  load,  so 
that  he  can  watch  for  and  prevent  any  un- 
expected develoi)ments. 

HOW  TO  PREPARE  A  CARLOAD  OF  P.EES. 

If  you  use  loose,  hanging  frames,  fix  them 
with  the  spacing  strips  illustrated  on  a  pre- 
vious page.  If  your  frames  are  t)f  the  fixed 
type,  of  course  no  spacing  device  will  be 
necessary.  Remove  tlie  cover,  and  cover  the 
top  of  the  hive  with  wire  cloth.  The  best 
way  will  be  to  make  a  two  inch  rim  and 
nail  the  wire  cloth  on  top  of  this,  as  explain- 
ed on  a  previous  page.  There  should  be 
about  two  inches  between  the  brood-frames 
and  the  wire  cloth  ]5efore  loading  them  in 
the  car.  strew  about  foin-  or  live  inches  of 
loose  straw  on  the  car  l!oor  and  then  place 
your  colonies  upon  this,  four  or  live  inches 
apart.  After  the  car  bottom  is  covered  put 
some  2x4  pieces  across  the  tops  of  the 
hives,  and  then  your  next  tier  of  hives  on 
top  of  these.  For  convenience  in  loading, 
leave  a  passageway  through  the  center  of 
the  car,  and  then,  if  you  accompany  your 
bees,  you  cm  easily  get  at  any  of  the  colo- 
nies The  purpose  of  the  straw  is  to  give  a 
spring  to  soften  the  heavy  concussions, 
One  thing  more  that  is  important :  IJe  sure 
to  load  the  hives  so  that  the  frames  are  par- 
allel with  tlie  rails  ;  and,  don't  pile  them  up 
more  than  two  or  three  tiers  high.  In  load- 
ing on  tlie  wagon,  put  the  frames  so  that 
they  are  parallel  with  the  axletree. 


CAT'TION. 

Before  closing,  let  me  add  a  caution.  In 
moving  bees,  be  sure  that  you  have  fixed  all 
the  entrances  so  that  not  a  bee  can  by  any 
possibility  escape.  Do  not  have  your  wire 
cloth  too  short,  and  then  splice  it  out  with 
leaves.  Be  sure  to  have  it  cut  exactly  the 
right  length.    For  further  particulars,  see 

OUT-AL^IARIES. 

IMEUSTAXLD    {Sincqiis  airensis.)     This 
i  belongs  to  the  same  family  as  the  turnip, 
;  cabbage,  rape,  etc.,  all  of  which,  I  believe, 
[  almost  invariably  furnish  honey  while  they 
[  are  in  bloom.     We  have  a  good  opportunity 
i  of   testing  these  plants,  because  acres  of 
I  them  are  raised  for  other  purposes  besides 
!  the  honey.    It  will  be  a  hard  matter  to  de- 
termine which  is  best  for  your  locality,  with- 
out trying  some  of  each.    Find  out  what 
kind  of  a  market  you  have  for  your  seed,  and 
then  proceed  to  raise  it,  as  if  you  were  going 
to  depend  on  the  seed  alone  to  pay  expenses. 
Should  you  secure  a  good  crop  of  honey  from 
it,  you  will  then  be  so  much  ahead,  and 
there  is  little  chance  of  any  great  loss. 

The  honey  from  these  plants  is  said  to  be 
very  light,  equal  to  any  in  flavor,  and  to 
command  the  highest  price  in  the  market. 
The  seed  should  be  sown  very  early  in  the 
spring,  either  in  shallow  drills  so  far  apart 
that  the  cultivator  can  be  used  between 
them,  or  broadcast.  The  former  plan  is,  of 
course,  the  better  one  for  nearly  all  honej'- 
plants,  but  is  more  trouble.  From  6  to  10 
lbs.  per  acre  will  be  needed,  if  sown  in  drills, 
and  from  lo  to  20,  if  sown  broadcast.  If 
you  wish  to  save  the  seed,  it  should  be  sown 
not  later  than  July  1st.  When  the  greater 
part  of  the  pods  are  ripe,  the  stalks  are  to  be 
cut  and  carefully  dried.  A  cloth  should  be 
spread  in  the  bottom  of  the  wagon,  when 
gathering,  for  the  seed  will  shell  out  consid- 
erably, if  it  is  in  proper  condition  to  thrash. 
I  presume  we  have  machines  especially 
adapted  for  cleaning  and  thrasliing  the  seed, 
but  I  have  always  seen  a  flail  and  fanning- 
mill  used.  Of  course,  it  should  be  thrashed 
on  a  tight  floor,  or  on  a  floor  made  tight  by 
a  large  piece  of  canvas.  The  seed  of  tlie 
common  kinds  of  mustard  brings  four  or  five 
dollars  per  bushel.  I  do  not  know  how 
many  bushels  are  raised  per  acre.  The  Chi- 
nese variety  has  been  highly  extolled  for 
bees  ;  but  we  have  found  the  connnon  black 
mustard  that  grows  almost  of  itself  to  thrive 
better,  and  be  more  visited  by  the  bees. 
Who  will  give  us  the  results  of  some  practi- 
ciil  experiments? 


N. 


MTJCLISUS.    This  word,  applied  to  bee 
culture,  siguities  a  small  swarm  of  bees,  per- 
haps from  one-fourth  to  one-tenth  of  a  full 
colony.    The  plural  of  the  word  is  nuclei;  it 
were  well  to  bear  this  in  mind,  for  there  is 
much  confusion  in  the  use  of  the  terms,  even 
in  printed  circulars.    If  you  remove  a  dozen 
bees  from  the  hive,  take  them  so  far  away 
that  they  are  homeless,  and  then  let  them 
fly,  they  will  after  a  time  come  pretty  nearly 
back  to  the  place  from  which  you  released 
them:  but  unless  they  have  a  queen  with 
them,  they  will  soon  wander  away  and  be 
lost.    If  you  give  them  a  queen,  they  will 
come  back  to  where  they  left  her,  and  will 
probably  remain  if  she  does  not  stray  away. 
She,  like  the  rest,  must  fulfill  her  destiny,  or 
she  will  wander  away;   we  shall  therefore 
have  to  provide  her  a  comb  wherein  to  lay 
■  eggs.    The  bees  would  build  the  comb  them- 
selves, if  there  were  enough  of  them,  and 
they  had  plenty  of  food.    A  dozen  would 
never  build  any  comb;  neither  would  they 
make  any  attempt  to  rear  and  hatch  her 
eggs,  if  the  comb  were  given  them.    Per- 
haps a  hundred  bees  put  in  a  suitably  small 
box,  with  a  fertile  queen,  might  start  a  col- 
ony, and  this  is  what  we  call  a  nucleus.'"  It 
is  the  center,  about  whidh  a  colony  of  bees 
may  in  time  be  formed.    If  they  should  be 
built  up  to  a  full  colony,  the  building  -  up 
would   be   done  by  the  queen's  filling  her 
combs  with  eggs,  which ,  when  cared  for  by  the 
nursing  bees  (see  Bees),  would  be  converted 
into  larvae,  and  in  21  days  would  be  hatched 
into  perfect  bees.    These  bees  would  then 
help  the  original  hundred,  and  the  queen 
would  fill  a  still  larger  area  with  eggs,  which 
would  be  hatched  in  the  same  way,  and  so 
on.    The  difficulty  in  the  way  of  building  up 
from  such  small  beginnings  seems  to  be  that 
the  queen  will  lay  all  the  eggs  a  hundred 
bees  can  care  for,  perhaps  in  an  horn*  or  two, 
and  then  she  has  to  sit  or  loaf  around  for  the 
whole  21  days,  until  she  can  have  another 
"job."    Before  the  21  days  are  up,  she  will 
be  very  likely  to  get  disgusted  with  such 


small  proceedings,  and  swarm  out,  or  at 
least  induce  the  bees  with  her  to  do  so. 
See  Absconding  Swarms.  If  we  should 
increase  the  number  of  bees  to  500  or 
1000,  we  shoixld  get  along  very  much 
better,  and  there  s'lould  be  little  danger  of 
swarming  out,  unless  the  hive  given  them 
were  too  small.  A  very  spry  and  ambitious 
queen  might  fill  all  the  cells  the  bees  had 
prepared  for  her,  then  set  about  filling  them 
the  second  time,  as  they  sometimes  do,  and 
then  swarm  oiit;  but,  with  a  quart  of  bees — 
about  3200,  if  I  have  figured  rightly— things 
will  generally  go  along  pretty  well. 

If  we  are^  have  this  quart  of  bees  work 
to  the  best  advantage,  something  depends 
upon  the  sort  of  hive  they  are  domiciled  in. 
A  single  comb,  long  and  narroAV,  so  as  to 
string  the  bees  out  in  one  thin  cluster,  is 
very  bad  economy.  Two  combs  would  do 
very  much  better,  but  three  would  be  a  great 
deal  better  still.  It  is  like  scattering  the 
firebrands  widely  apart;  one  alone  will  soon 
go  out ;  two  placed  side  by  side  will  burn 
very  well ;  and  three  will  make  quite  a  fire. 
It  is  on  this  account  that  I  would  have  a 
nucleus  of  three,  instead  of  one  or  two 
frames.  The  bees  seem  to  seek  naturally  a 
space  between  two  combs  ;  and  the  queen 
seldom  goes  to  the  outside  comb  of  a  hive, 
unless  she  is  obliged  to  for  want  of  room. 
Is  not  the  Langstroth  frame,  then,  a  poor 
shape  for  building  up  nucleiV  and  would  not 
the  small  Gallup  be  better?  The  L.  frame  is 
a  bad  shape  for  two  or  three  frame  nuclei, 
and,  for  tliat  matter,  I  think  the  Gallup  is 
also."''  The  one  is  too  long,  and  the  other  too 
deep  ;  in  one  case  we  have  the  ends  extend- 
ing beyond  the  cluster,  unless  we  contract 
the  hive  so  as  to  crowd  the  bees  out  to  the 
ends,  and,  in  the  other  case,  the  bottom  of 
the  frame  extends  below  the  cluster,  i*^  This 
matter  of  deep  and  shallow  frames  seems 
not  to  be  very  well  understood,  if  I  may  be 
excused  for  saying  so  much.  If  you  will  ex- 
amine bees  at  the  approach  of  frosty  weath- 
er, you  will  see,  from  the  way  in  which  they 


NUCLEUS. 


205 


NUCLEUS. 


draw  up  and  condense,  how  their  combs 
need  to  be  proportioned.  To  have  them 
stand  the  rigors  of  severe  winter  weather, 
they  should  fill  their  hive  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble, and  there  should  be  no  cold  unfilled 
spaces,  either  at  the  ends  or  underneath  the 
cluster.  If  their  hive  is  so  full  that  bees  are 
standing  in  the  doorway,  even  during  severe 
cold  weather,  we  need  have  little  fear  of 
their  suffering.  Now,  with  a  shallow  hive 
they  will  come  clear  down  to  the  bottom- 
board,  and  keep  that  warm  as  well  as  the 
ceiling  overhead.  With  a  frame  as  deep  as 
the  Gallup,  I  have  not  succeeded  so  well  in 
making  them  do  it.  Nor  can  I  succeed  so 
well  with  any  frame,  whose  depth  is  as  great 
as  the  width.  The  warm  combs  are  at  the 
sides  of  the  bees,  and  the  open  ends  between 
the  combs  are  at  the  ends  of  the  cluster. 
The  diagram  below  will  help  to  make  it 
plain. 


LANGSTROTH. 


It  is  very  plainly  evident,  that  the  sides  of 
the  clusters,  A,B,  and  C.  D,  are  much  better 
protected  than  the  sides G,H,  and  E,F;  and 
also  that  the  long  frames  protect  the  center 
of  the  brood-nest  much  better  than  the  short 
ones.  Taking  this  fact  into  consideration, 
in  connection  with  what  has  been  said  of 
the  importance  of  a  shallow  frame,  and  we 
shall  have  just  about  the  dimensions  of  hive 
and  frame  given  us  by  Mr.  Langstroth;  and, 
if  I  am  correct,  all  tliese  things  were  taken 
into  consideration  when  he  settled  down  on 
his  frame  and  hive,  after  years  of  careful  ex- 
periment in  regard  to  different  sizes. 

Well,  if  the  L.  frame  is  the  best  economy 
for  the  average  progeny  of  a  queen,  we  must 
have  a  smaller  frame  in  just  about  the  same 
proportions,  if  we  wish  to  work  with  nuclei 
to  the  best  advantage.  As  we  can  not  well 
have  a  fr;ime  for  a  pint  of  bees,  and  another 
for  a  quart,  and  so  on,  on  account  of  the 
complication  it  would  make  in  an  apiary,  it 
behooves  us  to  discuss  well  what  sizes  we 
shall  use,  if  any,  less  tlian  our  regular  frame. 
A  frame  as  deep  as  the  usual  one,  and  as 
wide  as  the  ivklth  of  our  hive,  makes  a  very 
pretty  frame  for  queen-reflriug.    See  first 

page  of   HiVK-MAKINCi. 

The  Gallup  frame  would  do  nicely,  and, 


in  fact,  is  much  used  for  this  purpose,  but  it 
is  too  deep ;  were  it  cut  down  to  the  depth  of 
the  L.  frame,  I  should  like  it  much  better. 
A  frame  has  been  suggested,  and  I  believe 
somewhat  used,  for  a  nucleus  hive,  of  the 
depth  of  the  L.,  and  just  wide  enough  to  go 
crosswise,  in  the  Simplicity  hive.  An  ordi- 
nary hive,  with  a  rabbet  along  the  sides,  as 
well  as  across  the  ends,  will  hold  these 
frames  or  the  usual  L.  frames,  as  may  be  de- 
sired. If  it  should  be  desired  to  use  this 
small  frame  entirely  in  an  apiary,  the  size  is 
exactly  right  to  hold  6  of  the  1-lb.  sections. 
When  used  for  queen-rearing,  three  of  these 
small  frames  will  make  a  very  comfortable 
nucleus.  One  of  the  prettiest  queen-rearing 
apiaries  I  have  ever  seen  was  composed  of 
about  50  three-frame  hives  of  this  descrip- 
tion. 

Although  I  have  described  this  small 
frame,  and  spoken  of  its  advantages,  please 
do  not  understand  that  I  would  advise  you 
to  adopt  it.  If  I  were  going  to  have  t^^o- 
sizes  of  frames  in  my  apiary,  I  would  adopt 
just  these,  without  question— the  large  one 
for  honey,  and  the  small  one  for  queen-rear- 
ing. But,  can  we  afford  to  have  these  two 
sizes,  even  if  they  do  both  hang  in  the  same 
hiveV  Before  answering,  I  would  state  that 
I  have  worked  for  years  with  two  or  more 
kinds  of  frames  in  the  same  apiary,  and 
have  multiplied,  divided,  and  united  again, 
until  I  think  I  have  had  experience  in  near- 
ly all  the  changes  that  come  about,  and  each 
year  I  grow  more  determined  that  I  Avill 
have  but  one  size  of  frame  in  the  apiary,  and 
no  odd  ones  any  more  under  any  circumstanc- 
es. This  one  size  shall  be  the  L.  frame  I 
have  given  you;  and  if  I  should  sell  all  my 
bees  to-day  and  start  anew,  I  would  use  this 
without  hesitation.  If  this  is  our  determi- 
nation, it  behooves  us  to  see  what  can  be 
done  toward  ameliorating  the  objections  to 
the  long  and  large  L.  frame.  Strong  nuclei 
will  do  it  without  question;  and  if  one  wish- 
es to  make  his  queen  business  a  sure  thing, 
without  the  vexations  of  swarming  out,  rob- 
bing, etc.,  there  is  nothing  like  strong  nu- 
clei, to  take  care  of  themselves.  For  queen- 
rearing.  I  would  have  the  Dovetailed  or  s- 
fraiue  hive,  one  story,  with  a  division-board, 
and  then  the  increase  can  readily  be  accom- 
modated, and  all  that  increase  to  a  full 
swarm  are  all  right,  without  any  changing 
ami  shitting  of  liives.  If  desired,  two  nuclei 
can  be  put  in  one  hive,  by  using  a  tight  di- 
vision-board, and  making  the  entrances  at 
either  end.*'"'  Of  course,  when  we  use  hives 
with  a  division-board  between  two  colonies, 


OUT-APIARIES. 


206 


OUT-APIARIES. 


great  care  should  be  used  in  making  the  di- 
vision-board tight.  I  do  not  know  how  many 
failures  have  resulted  from  having  the  board 
shrink  or  warp,  and  thus  let  the  bees  through. 
Although  wire  cloth  has  been  made  to  do  in 
a  few  cases,  it  will  not  do  to  depend  on  it. 
Sooner  or  later  the  bees  will  kill  one  of  the 
queens,  and  behave  themselves  as  one  colo- 
ny. I  have  raised  queens,  one  in  each  side 
of  a  hive,  both  nuclei  using  a  common  en- 
trance, with  no  division  -  board  at  all,  but 
such  cases  are  exceptional. 

The  above  arrangement  does  very  well  so 
far  as  queen-rearing  is  concerned;  but  where 
nucleus  colonies  are  to  be  sold  and  shipped, 
we  must  have  a  little  3-frame  hive  on  pur- 
pose. These  are  to  be  as  light  as  possible, 
consistent  with  strength,  to  save  express 
charges,  and,  to  save  expense,  should  be  as 
simple  as  possible. 


THREE-FRAME    NUCLEUS    HIVE. 

A  sheet  of  enameled  cloth,  hemmed  at  the 
sides  and  ends,  is  made  to  lie  over  the 
frames,  as  in  the  large  hives,  but  the  cover 
is  made  to  shut  over  the  hive.  These  hives 
answer  perfectly  for  rearing  queens  during 
the  warm  months  of  July  and  Aug.,  and  one 
of  them  will  be  found  on  a  shelf  attached  to 
the  trellis,  in  the  engraving  given  under 
Queen-rearing.  No  bottom  is  used  to  the 
hive,  the  shelf  that  it  rests  on  being  bottom 
enough ;  the  front  board  is  made  i  inch 
shorter  than  the  sides  and  back  end,  to  form 
the  entrance.  When  the  bees  are  to  be  ship- 
ped, the  cover  is  placed  under  the  hive,  clos- 
ing the  entrance,  and  a  piece  of  wire  cloth 
is  tacked  over  the  top,  after  having  fastened 
the  frames  by  pushing  sticks  of  proper  size 
between  them,  or  l>y  the  use  of  spacing- 
boards.  See  Moving  Bees.  In  these  small 
hives,  this  gives  ventilation  enough.  For  3 
frames,  the  hive  should  be  41  in.  wide  inside. 

There  is  still  another  reason  for  using  a 
nucleus  hive  with  full-sized  frames,  and  it  is 
that  those  who  purchase  valuable  queens  in 
a  nucleus,  to  save  the  risk  of  introducing, 
usually  wish  to  build  them  up  at  once  to  full 
colonies ;  with  an  odd  -  sized  frame,  this 
w'ould  be  very  inconvenient. 

OUT-APIAKIBS.— Within  late  years 
this  term  has  been  used  to  apply  to  bee- 
yards  remote  or  distant  from  tlie  home  yaixl 


by  some  two  or  three  miles.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact,  that  only  a  limited  number  of 
colonies,  comparatively,  can  be  accommo- 
dated in  any  one  locality,  different  localities 
being  able  to  support  a  wide  difference  in 
the  number  of  colonies.  Not  having  had 
any  very  large  experience  ourselves  in  man- 
aging and  running  out-apiaries,  in  order 
that  I  might  present  to  my  readers  the  best 
there  is  on  tlie  subject  I  have  asked  Dr. 
C.  C.  Miller,  of  Marengo,  111.,  to  write  it  up. 
He  is  one  who  has  kept  and  managed  out- 
apiaries  successfully  for  several  years,  and 
he  has  written  considerably  on  the  subject. 
Although  the  space  is  limited,  the  doctor 
has  covered  the  subject,  pointing  out  some 
of  its  difficulties  as  well  as  its  advantages, 
in  an  admirable  manner.  Without  going 
into  preliminaries  he  plunges  directly  into 
the  subject  as  follows  : 

NUMBER  OF  COLONIES  IN  AN  APIARY. 

The  number  of  colonies  of  bees  that  can  be  profita- 
bly kept  in  one  locality  is  limited  by  the  amount,  of 
pasturage.  Of  late  years  quite  a  number  of  bee- 
keepers have  established  one  or  more  out-apiaries, 
for  the  sake  of  keeping-  more  bees  than  the  home 
pasturage  would  support.  .lust  how  many  bees  can 
be  supported  in  a  single  locality  has  probably  never 
been  ascertained,  and  it  is  just  as  probable  that  it 
never  will.  One  field  may  support  five  times  as  many 
as  another,  and  the  same  field  may  support  five 
times  as  many  this  year  as  last.  Most  bee-keepers, 
however,  think  it  not  advisable  to  keep  more  than  75 
to  100  in  one  apiary,  whilst  a  few  think  tlieir  locations 
so  good  that  300  or  more  can  be  profitably  kept  to- 
gether. The  man  who  has  only  a  few  more  colonies 
than  he  thinks  best  to  keep  in  one  apiary  may  find  it 
better  to  have  his  bees  just  a  little  crowded  at  home 
before  he  goes  to  the  extra  expense  of  an  out-apiary. 
Indeed,  it  depends  somewhat  upon  the  man,  whether, 
having  been  successful  with  one  apiary,  he  will  find 
any  profit  in  the  second.  But  liaving  gone  so  far  as 
to  have  one  or  more  apiaries  away  frcjm  home,  it  is 
not  best  for  him  to  have  any  crowding  in  tlie  least. 
If  100  colonies  will  do  well  in  each  apiary,  the  proba- 
bility is  that  75  will  do  better;  and  while  there  is  un- 
occupied territory  all  about  him  he  would  better 
keep  on  the  safe  side  and  have  so  few  in  each  place  as 
to  feel  sure  of  no  overstocking.  His  own  conven- 
ience would  have  much  to  do  in  deciding.  For  in- 
stance, if  he  has,  in  all,  3(10  colonies,  and  thinks  that 
ICO  can  find  enough  to  do  in  a  place,  but  can  get 
through  the  work  of  only  75  in  a  day,  then  he  will 
keep  the  300  in  4  apiaries  of  75  each,  rather  than  in  3 
apiaries  of  100  each.  Foi-  it  will  make  him  less  trav- 
el to  have  in  each  apiary  .lust  what  he  will  do  in  a 
day's  work.  If  he  can  do  .50  in  a  day,  tlien  he  may 
just  as  well  have  100  in  two  apiai-ies  as  in  one,  tor  in 
either  case  he  must  make  two  trips  to  get  through 
with  them. 

DISTANCE    BETWEEN    APIARIES,    AND    liOCATION 
THEREOF. 

A  location  for  an  out-apiary  must,  of  course,  be  far 
enough  distant  from  the  home  apiary  not  to  interfere 
much;  but  just  how  far  is  best,  it  is  not  easy  to  de- 
cide. Perhaps,  all  tilings  considered,  a  good  distance 
is  something  like  three  miles  apart.    As  the  area  of 


OUT-APIARIES. 


207 


OUT-APIARIES. 


flig-ht  is  a  circle,  tlie  ideal  plan  of  locating'  out-apia- 
ries so  as  to  fully  oceupj-  all  adjoining-  territorj'.  is  to 
put  them  in  hexagonal  form,  in  which  case  a  circle 
of  six  will  surround  tlic  home  apiary. 


In  the  diagram,  A  represents  the  home  apiary,  and 
B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  G,  the  out-apiaries,  at  equal  distances 
from  A  and  f i-om  eacli  other.  If  more  than  seven 
axe  needed  then  a  second  series  may  be  started,  as  at  K, 
M,  L,  indicated  by  the  letters.  Tlie  circles  represent- 
ing the  area  of  tlight  from  each  apiary  are  seen  to 
overlap  eacli  other;  but  this  is  at  the  outer  parts, 
where  tlie  ground  is  more  spar-sely  occupied,  and  the 
doubling  on  the  same  ground  is  compensated  by  the  i 
convenience  of  the  shorter  distance  to  go  from  one 
apiary  to  another.  But  tliis  ideal  plan,  although  a 
good  thing  to  work  from  as  a  basis,  is  not  likely  ever 
to  be  fully  carried  out.  Many  reasons  will  make 
it  desirable  to  vary.  The  roads  may  run  in  such  di- 
rections as  to'make  a  difference;  no  good  place  may 
be  found  for  an  apiary  :;+  some  of  the  points,  etc.  It 
may  be  remarked,  tliat  the  area  of  flight  is  not  al- 
ways a  circle.  An  apiary  placed  in  a  valley  between 
two  ranges  of  Iiills  might  have  an  oblong  area,  the 
bees  perhaps  flying  twice  as  far  along  the  line  of  the 
valley  as  in  the  other  direction.  If  only  a  single  out- 
apiary  is  to  be  planted,  it  is  probably  best  to  go  in  the 
direction  of  the  best  pasturage  —  a  tiling  not  always 
ea.sy  to  determine.  Sometimes  one  location  prov(>s  to 
be  better  than  another,  year  after  year,  although  no 
ai)i)arciit  rea.son  for  it  can  be  seen.  It  may  even  be 
worth  while  to  vary  a  location  a  mile  or  more  for  the 
sake  of  having  it  where  pleasant  people  live.  But 
you  can  do  much  toward  making  the  people  plca.sant 
by  being  pleasant  j'ourself .  See  to  it  that  you  make 
as  little  trouble  as  possible,  and  be  still  more  careful 
than  at  home  to  avoid  every  thing  that  may  incite 
robbing,  for  robbing  begets  ci'oss  bees  on  tlie  place. 

RENT   FOH   OUT-APIAHIES. 

The  agreement  between  the  l>ee-k(.'eper  and  his 
landlord,  for  rent,  is  as  varied  as  the  cases  that  occur. 
Some  pay  a  fixed  sum,  five  or  ten  dollai's  per  year; 
soineagi-ee  to  \my  a  per  cent  of  the  croj);  some  make 
a  bargain  to  ijay  so  much  for  every  swarm  hived  by 
Bunie  one  of  the  landlord's  family,  and  so  on,  while 
some  can  not  get  the  landlord  to  agree  t(j  take  any 
rent  whatever.  In  this  latter  case  it  is  onlj*  i-ight  to 
make  sure  that  the  landlord  have  a  good  sui)ply  of 
honey  for  his  family  to  use  during  the  coining  year. 
Ill  any  ca.se,  make  sure  to  do  a  littU'  hitter  than  is  ex- 
pected of  you. 


HAULING   BEES. 

AVhenever  you  decide  to  start  a  .second  apiary,  you 
must  give  some  attention  to  the  matter  of  hauling. 
If  j^ou  wintei'  on  summer  stands,  there  will  be  less 
hauling  than  if  j'ou  bring  all  your  bees  home  to  win- 
ter in  the  cellar  and  then  take  them  back  again  in  the 
spring.  If  j-ou  use  chaff  hives,  you  can  liave  light 
cases  made  to  carry  merely  the  brood-frames  with 
the  bees.  The  first  thing  to  see  to  is  to  make  very 
sure  that  no  bees  can  get  out  to  sting  the  horse  or 
horses.  Of  cour.se,  j'Ou  think  you  are  careful,  and 
that  there  is  no  need  of  anxiety  in  your  case;  but, 
wait  and  see.  The  probabilities  are,  that,  with  all 
your  care,  one  of  your  first  experiences  in  hauling 
bees  will  be  to  get  your  horse  stung;  and  you  maj' 
be  thankful  if  you  get  oft'  without  a  runaway  and  a 
general  smashup.  Some  little  leak  evaded  your  no- 
tice, from  which  the  bees  escaped,  or  j'Ou  drove  your 
horse  too  close  to  the  apiary,  or  in  some  other  way 
you  will  have  got  yourself  into  such  a  scrape  that 
you  will  wish  you  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  bees. 
A.  E.  Mauum  puts  on  his  horses  a  covering  of  cotton 
cloth  which  completely  covers  head  and  body,  and 
this  is  kept  on  till  some  half  a  mile  distant  from  the 
apiary. 

You  may  haul  bees  on  almost  any  kind  of  vehicle. 
Some  use  wagons  with  springs;  some  use  a  hay-rack 
with  two  or  three  feet  of  hay  on  it,  while  others  use  a 
common  lumber-wagon,  or  a  hay  rack  with  neither 
hay  nor  springs,  leaving  the  frames  with  no  other 
fa.stening  than  the  propolis  and  brace-combs.  With 
smooth  roads  this  latter  plan  is  very  satisfactory; 
but  f  I'ames  with  metal  corners,  or  otherwise  easily 
moved,  should  be  fastened  in  some  way.  With  good 
smooth  roads  it  nnij'  be  best  to  have  the  brood-combs 
running  across  the  wagon,  as  most  of  the  shaking 
comes  from  the  wagon  rocking  from  side  to  side, 
while  a  road  very  rough  may  make  it  best  to  have  the 
combs  running  parallel  to  the  line  of  travel.  If  tlie 
combs  are  secure  enough,  it  will  matter  little  how 
they  are  placed.    To  carry  colonies  of  bees  to  advaii- 


KACK    O.N    WA(iON-KOX,    F(1H     HAULING    BEES- FOK    A 
ONE-HOUSE   WAGON. 

tage,  some  sort  of  rack  Is  necessary.  As  1  am  not  a 
farmer  1  iiad  to  extemptirize  a  rack  for  my  one-lmrse 
wagon.  It  is  mafleof  fenci'-boards.  Two  side-boa rds 
rest  on  the  side-boards  of  the  wagon-box,  and  at  or 
near  each  end  two  pieces  are  nailed  in,  foriniiig  an 
oi)eii  bo.\  without  top  or  bottom.  Then  five  cros>- 
piecesare  nailed  on  top,  and  blocks  nailed  on  these 
to  hold  the  hives  in  jilace.  Two  pieces  are  nailed  on 
each  side  (as  seen  in  the  cut),  which  slip  down  on  the 
wagon-box  and  keep  the  rack  from  slipiiing  off.  A 
loose  lioard  in  fi'Oiit  answers  for  a  seat.  The  hind 
end  of  tlu'  rack  is  projiped  up,  at  the  time  of  loading, 
till  three  hives  are  slid  undi'r  from  behind,  then  the 
lai-k  i-  let  <iown,  anil  the  eight  hives  loaded  on,  mak- 


OUT-APIARIES. 


208 


OUT-APIARIES. 


ing  eleven  hives  for  the  full  load.  I  have  a  similar 
rack,  only  larger,  to  fit  Jack  Wilson's  milk-wagon,  on 
which,  drawn  by  two  horses.  I  can  haul  seventeen 
hives.  Jack  is  one  of  the  brothers-in-law  worth  hav- 
ing, for  generally  about  the  time  I  want  to  haul  bees 
he  seems  to  have  things  happen  so  as  to  say  that  he 
has  an  idle  team  that  I  can  have  just  as  well  as  not. 
Tlius  I  can  take  28  colonies  at  each  trip.  Tliis  refers 
to  10-frame  hives.  With  8-frame  hives  and  racks  to 
corresjiond,  the  same  wagons  will  carry  respectively 
14  and  '~Z  hives.  These  are  both  spring  wagons,  and, 
although  not  absolutely  necessary,  I  like  si>rings,  for 
then  you  don't  need  to  drive  so  carefully.  Bj-  using 
a  k)nger  wagon,  or  by  piling  up,  some  have  carried 
as  many  sis  50  hives  on  one  wagon. 

Whatever  the  kind  of  hive  you  may  decide  to  use, 
st)uie  plan  must  be  adopted,  in  fastening  in  the  bees, 
that  they  may  have  abundance  of  ventilation  while 
being  liauled.  As,  however,  the  hauling  is  done  in 
spring  and  fall,  less  ventilation  is  needed  than  in  hot 
weather.  The  ordinary  entrance,  say  1-i  inches  by  %, 
covered  liy  wire  cluth,  will  answer,  as  that  gives  a 


dashing  in  some  cold  water;  or,  if  unloaded  too  late 
in  the  evening  to  fly,  they  may  be  left  till  the  next 
morning,  when  they  will  be  quietly  settled  down; 
and  if  carefully  opened,  no  smoke  need  be  used. 

TOOL.S    FOR    OUT- APIARIES,    AND    WHERE     TO    KEEP 
THEM. 

Whatever  tools  you  use  in  the  home  apiary,  you  ai-e 
likelj'  to  need  tlie  same  in  each  out-apiai-y.  If  a  dif- 
ferent pei'scjn  is  in  chai-ge  of  each  apiary,  then  each 
one  must  have  his  own  set  of  tools;  and  even  if  the 
same  force  go  in  succession  from  one  apiary  to  an- 
other, it  may  be  the  most  convenient  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate outfit  kept  at  each  place.  I  do  not  think  just 
now  of  anything  in  the  line  of  tools  needed  for  an 
out-apiar.v,  different  fiom  those  that  are  needed  at 
home,  unless  it  be  a  robber-cloth.  I  should  not  like 
to  be  without  one  of  these  in  the  home  apiary,  but 
they  are  specially  valuable  in  out-apiai-ics  where, 
sometimes,  notwithstanding  robbers  are  troublesome, 
your  plans  ai'e  sucli  that  you  want  to  force  through  a 
certain  amount  of  work.  By  having  two  or  three 
robber-cloths  T  have  sometimes  been  able  to  go  on 


E.   MANUM'S   RIG     FOR  HAULING   BEES  AND  HONEY  TO  AND  FROM  OUT-APIARIES. 


ventilating  surface  of  about  -5  inches,  although  more 
will  be  better,  and  it  might  be  bad  to  have  so  little  if 
tlie  day  should  be  warm.  Of  course,  the  bees  must 
be  shut  in  when  not  flying,  and  in  spring  it  is  a  good 
plan  to  shut  up  in  the  evening  all  that  are  to  be 
hauled  the  next  day.  In  the  fall  the  weather  may  be 
such  that  bees  will  not  fly  at  any  time  in  the  day, 
otherwise  you  must  get  to  the  out-apiary  early 
enough  in  the  morning  to  shut  in  all  the  bees  you 
will  haul  that  day.  If  you  are  to  take  bees  to  an  out- 
apiary  in  the  spring,  the  sooner  it  is  done  the  better, 
as  pasturage  is  then  apt  to  be  rather  scarce  at  best. 
If  bees  are  to  be  brought  home  in  the  fall  to  be  cel- 
lared, they  may  as  well  be  brought  just  as  soon  as 
heavy  frost  occurs,  or  as  soon  as  they  stop  gather- 
ing; at  least,  they  should  be  brought  early  enough  to 
have  a  g(K)d  fly  before  going  into  winter  quarters. 
After  being  unloaded  from  the  wagon  the  bees  may 
be  liberated  at  once  by  blowing  in  a  little  smoke  or 


with  my  work  when,  without  them,  I  should  have 
been  obliged  to  desist.  I'll  tell  you  how  to  make  one. 
Take  about  a  square  yard  of  stout  sheeting  or  cotton 
cloth:  if  your  hives  are  small,  less  will  do.  Lay  one 
of  the  cut  edges  on  a  piece  of  lath,  about  the  length 
of  your  hive.  Lay  a  similar  piece  of  lath  on  top  of  it, 
and  drive  wire  nails  through  both,  at  a  distance  of 
perhaps  three  inches  apart.  Let  the  nails  be  long 
enough  to  reach  through  and  clinch.  Then  treat  the 
opposite  edge  the  same  way,  and  your  robber-cloth  is 
complete. 

This  robber-cloth  is  exceedingly  convenient  to  throw 
quickly  over  any  hive  or  super  that  you  want  to  cov- 
er up  temporarily.  You  can  grasp  the  lath  at  one 
side  with  one  hand,  and,  with  a  single  fling,  throw  it 
over  a  liive  and  it  is  instantly  bee-tight.  It  does  not 
kill  bees,  if  any  happen  to  get  under  it.  If  you  have 
one  hand  occupied  with  something  else,  you  can  very 
quickly  uncover  and  cover  with  the  other.    I  have 


OUT-APIARIES. 


209 


OUT-APIARIES. 


sometimes  worked  with  :i  colony  when  robbers  were 
so  bad  they  would  pounce  into  eA'erj-  opening:  but  a 
I'Obber-clotli  covering-  the  frames  at  each  side  al- 
lowed me  to  have  an  opening  at  the  frame  I  wished 
to  take  out.  As  a  g-eneral  rule,  of  course  I  would  try 
to  manag'e  not  to  work  at  bees  at  such  times. 

But,  to  return.  It  would  be  very  convenient,  if 
you  g'o  about  from  one  apiary  to  another,  to  have  a 
little  tool-house  at  each.  I  am  not  sure,  however, 
that  it  would  pay.  A  hive  or  box  covered  over  with 
u  water-tight  cover  (I  use  a  tin  hive-cover)  answers 
very  well.  I  would  have  one  or  more  of  these  at  each 
upiary^  in  any  case,  for  there  are  some  things  you 
want  to  be  sure  of  having  on  hand,  as  smoker  fuel. 
Matches  should  also  be  kept  under  cover  in  such  a 
place,  in  a  tin  box.  A  baking--powder  box  does  well. 
Bee-hats,  smokers— in  fact,  a  full  set  of  every  thing, 
may  be  kept  in  the  same  way. 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  get  on  very  well  by  al- 
ways taking  your  tools  with  you,  provided  you  never 
forget  them.  One  day  we  went  to  tlie  Hastings  apia- 
ry, without  any  smoker,  and  we  realized  then  how 
important  a  smoker  is.  Don't  tru.st  to  memory.  In 
your  record-book  have  a  list  of  the  things  j-ou  gener- 
ally need  to  take;  and  aftci'  you  are  all  in  the  wagon, 
or  ready  to  get  in,  read  aloud  the  list  and  be  sure  that 
every  thing  is  in  the  wagon,  as:  Hats,  smokers,  din- 
ner (we  never  forgot  our  dinner),  chisel,  etc.  ily  own 
practice  has  been  a  kind  of  compromise  between  hav- 
ing a  full  kit  of  tools  at  each  apiary  and  taking  every 
thing  along.  If  a  buggy  is  used,  it  is  not  convenient 
to  have  veiy  much  bulk.  By  the  waj-,  a  bad  season 
is  not  without  its  compensations.  I  have  had  two 
years  of  such  dead  failure  that  we  could  make  almost 
every  trip  the  entire  season  in  a  buggy,  for  there  was 
no  honey  to  haul,  and  little  in  the  way  of  supplies. 

GENERAL    MANAGEMENT    OF    OUT-APIARIES. 

The  ways  of  managing  out-apiaries  will  be  just  as 
many  as  the  men  who  manage  them;  but  tlie  general 
management  will  be  about  the  same  as  at  the  home 
apiary.  There  will  always  be  the  advantage  of  mov- 
ing at  any  time  a  colony  or  part  of  a  colony  from  one 
apiary  to  another,  and  feeling  sure  that  the  bees  will 
stay  where  they  are  put.  The  more  j"Oii  are  interest- 
ed in  out-apiaries  the  more  you  are  likely  to  be  in- 
terested in  the  prevention  of  swarming;  and  if  you 
have  been  in  the  haViit  of  wintering  in  the  cellar,  an 
out-apiary  will  make  you  deliate  somewhat  the  ques- 
tion whether  you  maj-  not  find  some  way  of  safely 
wintering  outdoors.  Some  practice  having  a  compe- 
tent assistant  in  charge  of  each  ai)iary,  remaining 
there  all  the  time;  while  others  have  a  sufficient 
force  of  helpers  to  go  from  one  apiary  to  another,  do 
ing  the  work  of  each  apiary  as  often  as  convenient, 
perhaps  every  six  days  or  ofterier. 

On  page  883, 1890,  of  Gleanings  in  Bee  Cul- 
ture, appeared  an  article  from  Mr,  E. 
France,  of  Platteville,  Wis.  (see  liiographi- 
cal  Sketches);  and  as  it  contains  so  many 
valuable  suggestions,  we  are  glad  to  repro- 
duce it  here  entire,  with  the  diagram.  It 
very  nicely  supplements  what  Dr.  Miller 
lias  already  said  on  the  subject : 

I  have  taken  pains  to  make  a  correct  diagram  of 
the  territory  tliat  we  occupy  witii  our  bees;  and  I 
must  say  that  I  was  surpi'lsed  myself  wlien  I  saw  the 
«xact  position  of  each  yard.  They  are  clustered  to- 
gether more  than  I  liad  supposed.  The  accompany- 
ing diagram   will   show   how  they  stand,  and  I  will 


give  .some  facts  and  figures  that  will  make  quite  an 
interesting  study  al)out  setting  out  out-apiaries  and 
overstocking  our  pasture.  Of  course,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  locate  a  set  of  out-apiaries  just  so  far  from 
the  home  apiary,  in  a  circle,  each  one  in  its  proper 
place,  just  as  nicely  as  we  could  make  it  on  paper. 
We  have  to  take  such  places  as  we  can  get,  and 
many  of  the  places  that  we  can  get  won't  do  at  all, 
for  some  reason  or  other;  and  when  you  have  six  or 
eight  yards  planted  you  will  be  likely  to  find,  as  in 
our  case,  some  of  them  badlj-  crowded — too  much  so 
for  profit. 

The  circles  in  the  diagram  are  three  miles  each,  or 
IK  miles  from  center  to  the  outside,  which  is  a  very 
short  distance  for  a  bee  to  go  in  search  of  honey. 
If  the  bees  fly  three  or  four  miles,  as  I  think  they  do 
in  poor  seasons,  it  is  plain  to  see  how  it  works  in  a 
poor  season.  The  out.side  apiaries  may  be  getting  a 
fair  living,  while  the  inside  yards  are  nearly  starv- 
ing. In  first-class  seasons,  wlien  honey  is  plentiful 
everywhere,  and  very  few  bees  go  over  one  mile, 
there  is  enough  for  all.  I  here  give  the  numlier  of 
bees  In  each  yard  this  spring,  the  amount  of  honey 
taken,  and  the  amount  of  feeding  this  fall  to  put  the 
bees  in  trim  for  winter. 

Atkinson  yard.    Colonies,  spring  count,  100 

Cravin  "  "  "  "  90 

Kliebenstein  yard.    "  "■  "  96 

Waters  "       "  •'  "  88 

Jones  "        "  "  "  BO 

Gunlauch  •'       "  "  "  90 

Home  "        ■'  ■'  "  105 


Total 


649 


No  increase  to  speak  of. 
Honey  extracted : 

Atkinson    yard 

Cravin  "    

Kliebenstein  "    

Waters  "    

Jones  "    

Gunlauch       "    

Home  "    


.190 
.3  JO 
740 
.497 
.600 
.350 
..540 


Total 


Fed  back: 
Atkinson 
Cravin 
Kliebenstein 
Waters 
Jones 
Gunlauch 
Home 


yard. 


3125 

.  000 
..336 

.  .uoo 
.  .uoo 

..210 
..4^*6 
.  .900 


1932 


Total 
Surplus  after  feeding,  1193 

Now,  notice  the  Kliebenstein  yaid,  how  it  is  locat- 
ed, away  by  Itself,  as  for  di.stance,  fiom  other  yards. 
It  has  a  great  advantage;  and  then  there  is  plenty 
of  basswood  all  around  it.  It  has  no  bees  belonging 
to  other  parties  on  its  territory.  It  gave  the  most 
honey,  no  feeding,  and  is  in  the  best  condition  of 
any  yard  for  winter  stores. 

We  will  now  notice  the  Atkinson  yard.  It  is  pretty 
well  hemmed  in  on  the  north  and  east  sides  by  the 
otiier  yards,  but  it  has  an  unlimited  field  on  the 
west,  of  good  pasture.  We  took  but  little  honey 
thei'e,  but  it  is  in  good  condition  for  winter,  without 
feeding. 

Now,  away  over  on  the  east  side  we  have  the  Wa- 
ters yanl.  It  is  two  miles  from  l)a6sw<RKl,  but  a 
si)leiidid  white-clover  lange  —  i)lenty  of  basswood 


OUT-APIARIES. 


210 


O  IT- API  ARIES. 


two  miles  north  and  east.  Tlii>i  yard  ^ave  some  hon- 
ey, and  required  no  feeding  for  winter. 

Then  tliere  are  tlie  Cravin  andtlie  Gunlauch  yards, 
eacli  90  colonie-s  in  spring-,  only  IH  miles  apart— too 
close,  with  very  little  basswood  north  of  them.  Botli 
of  these  yards  were  fed  more  honey  than  we  took 
from  them.  There  were  a  few  acres  of  buckwheat 
near  them  that  helped  tliem  some.  Tlie  Jones  yard 
did  fairly  well,  considering  its  surroundings.  It  had 
the  least  number  of  bees,  an  abundance  of  bass- 
wood  near,  and  then  had  eleven  acres  of  buckwheat 
just  over  tlie  fence. 

We  will  now  notice  tiie  home  yard.  There  were 
10.5  colonies.  The  Jones  yard  is  rather  too  close. 
Then  there  is  an  apiary  of  30  colonies  a  little  over 
half  a  mile  east,  at  a  point  marked  Beihls;  another 
apiary  m  miles  east,  30  colonies,  mai'ked  Nails;  an- 
other apiarj-  southeast,  marked  W,  about  40  colonies. 
Another  apiary  still  further  to  the  east,  and  a  little  to 
the  north,  marked  W.  about  40  colonies.  So  you  see 
the  home-yard  territory  is  (overstocked  the  worst  of 
all,  and  had  to  be  fed  360  lbs.  more  than  was  taken 


Home  "      61  •  ••  '  

Jones  yaid  not  planted  then. 
FOR    1885. 
Atkinson      yaid,  .56  cols.:   average  lbs.  jier 


Cra%in 

Kliebenstein 

Waters 

Gunlauch 

Home 


46 
57 
46 
62 


FOH   1884. 
Atkinson     yard,  .51  cols. ;  average  lbs.   per 


Cravin 
Kliebenstein ' 
Waters 
Gunlauch 
Home 


41 
51 
41 
41 
61 


IIT 


col.,  90 
"  74 
"  62 
"       .57 

77>2 
"       71  >^ 

col.,  107 
"  113 
"  ]I9 
"       1.30 

"     laey, 

"  113>2 


FOR   1883. 

Four  yards,  average  for  the  whole 

Number  of  colonies,  a5,  48,  33,  60. 

In  1887  we  kept  no  record.    It  was  a  very 
s(jn,  and  we  got  but  little  honey. 

The  yeai'  18^4  was  a  very  poor  year  also. 


...105  lbs. 

pool-  St.H- 


E.    FUA>X'E'S   system   of  OUT-APIAKIES. 


from  them.  Tlie  home  yard  has  the  best  clover  field 
of  any,  but  bassw(X)d  is  .scarce  within  two  miles.  In 
looking  at  the  diagram,  one  not  acquainted  witli  the 
ground  would  naturally  ask,  "  Why  don't  you  use 
that  open  space  .southeast  of  the  home  yard  ?  "  It  is 
all  prairie  land.  Corn  and  oats  don't  yield  much 
honey. 

We  will  now  just  hjok  back  to  the  record  of  a  year 
of  plenty,  1886.  and  see  how  the  yards  averaged  up 
then. 

COLONIES,   SPRING   OF  1886. 

Atkin.son    yard,  72  cols. ;  average  lbs.  per  col.,  106 

Cravin  "      80    "  "         "       "     "  106}i 

Kliebenstein"      60    "  "         109 

Waters  "      72     '  "         "       "     "  107 

Gunlauch      "      ,50    "  "         "       "     "  100>i 


Atkinson 

Cravin 

Kliebenstein 

Waters 

Gunlauch 

Home 


Cols,  in  sirring, 
yard,    76 


Avei 


col . 


Atkin.son 

Waters 

Kliebenstein 

Gunlauch 

Ci'a\'iM 

Wliig 

Home 


FOB   1889. 
Cols.  In  spring. 

yard,    72 

79 


iige  pe 

23 

20 

31 

32 

21% 

37X 

Average  per  col. 

40 

40 


.47 
49 

.40 
52 


OUT-APIARIES. 


211 


OUT-APIARIES. 


Now,  friends,  you  have  the  flgxires  and  the  map  of 
tlie  g-round  that  our  hees  are  on.  Studj-  it  for  youi'- 
Melves.  But  if  you  plant  out-apiaries,  don't  put 
them  less  tluin  five  miles  apart  if  you  can  help  it.  If 
you  are  going  to  keep  help  at  the  separate  yards,  to 
run  the  bees,  six  miles  apart  is  near  enough;  then,  if 
the  pasture  is  good,  you  can  keep  from  100  to  l.")0  col- 
onies in  eacli  place.  If  you  go  from  lu)me  with  your 
help  every  day,  then  you  want  to  gauge  the  nimiber 
of  colonies  so  as  to  work  one  whole  yard  in  one  day; 
or  if  you  have  but  three  or  four  apiaries  in  all,  you 
will  have  time  to  work  two  days  in  eaeli.  But  don't 
go  over  the  roads  for  less  tlian  a  full  day's  work 
when  you  get  there;  and  remember,  when  you  are 
locating  an  apiary,  tliat,  when  you  are  hitched  up 
and  on  the  i-oad,  one  or  two  miles  further  travel  will 
pay  you  better  than  to  crowd  your  pasture.  Don't 
overstock  your  ground.  E.  France. 

Platteville,  Wis.,  Nov.,  1889. 

Soon  after  the  appearance  of  Mr.  France's 
diagram,  there  appeared  in  Gleanings,  page 
60, 1891,  another  valuable  article  from  the 
pen  of  C.  P.  Dadant,  of  the  firm  of  V.  Da- 
dant  &  Son  (see  Biographical  Sketches). 
It  substantiates  what  Mr.  France  has  said, 
and  shows  the  relation  that  apiaries  bear  to 
each  other  along  on  the  banks  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. 

Tlie  very  interesting  article  of  Mr.  France,  on  out- 
apiaries,  hiis  induced  us  to  give  .you  our  experience 
ill  this  matter,  not  because  we  can  thi'ow  any  more 
light    on   the    question,   but  because  oni'  practice, 


The  Grubb  apiary  is  owned  by  D.  W.  McDaniel,  who 
has  had  charge  of  our  apiaries  also  for  a  few  years 
past.  Of  all  tliese  apiaries,  tlie  Sherwood  is  the  best 
in  the  productof  l)otli  spring  and  .^all  crops, although 
there  are  seasons  like  the  past  when  the  fall  crop 
fails  there  altogether. 

The  Villemaiii  apiary  has  the  poorest  location,  to 
all  appearances;  but  it  is  located  near  the  only  bass- 
wood  gi'ove  there  is  in  the  country,  and  has  also 
quite  a  fall  pasture  from  blossoms  that  grow  on  the 
islands  near  it.  But  wliat  will  you  think  of  the  Sack 
apiary,  which  is  located  a  little  over  two  miles  south 
of  the  Lamet  apiary,  with  another  apiary  close  to 
the  latter,  and  not  shown  on  the  diagi-am,  and  (mly 
one  mile  and  a  quarter  north  of  another  apiary  of  60 
colonies,  owned  by  A.  Dougherty?  Yet  this  Sack 
apiai'j'  gives  us  the  best  average  of  honey  of  all,  ex- 
cepting the  Sherwood  apiary.  Tlie  reason  of  it  is, 
that  the  pasturage  is  all  west  of  it  on  the  liver  bot- 
toms, and  verj'  abundant.  It  is  probable  that  the 
bees  in  this  ajtiarj'  go  as  far  west  as  the  river,  about 
three  miles,  while  they  perhaps  do  not  travel  over  a 
mile  east  on  the  bluffs.  Tlieir  course  north  and 
south,  in  the  direction  of  those  other  apiaries,  is  over 
a  hillj'  country  covered  more  or  less  with  timber, 
which  makes  their  fligiit  more  difHcult. 

The  two  small  circles  in  the  north  part  of  the  dia- 
gram show  spots  on  which  we  have  had  apiaries 
formerly,  and  which,  you  will  perceive,  were  further 
away  from  h(mi^  than  the  present.  At  that  time  the 
Sherwood  apiaiy  did  not  exist,  nor  did  the  Grubb 
apiary;  and  yet  we  must  say  that  we  can  see  no  dif- 
ference in  the  yield  of  the  liome  apiary.  We  are 
satisfied  that  the  Grubb  bees  go  east,  the  Sherwood 


o 

TO 

-i 


THE   DADANT  SYSTEiM  OF  OL"r-API.\UIES   .\UON(;  THE   MISSISSIPPI  RIVEK. 


which  extends  back  to  1871,  in  the  mattei'  of  out- 
sipiaries,  c(jnfli'ms  the  views  of  Ijotli  Mr.  France  ;in(l 
Dr.  Miller,  and  will  add  weiglit  to  their  statenu'uts. 

Under  ordinary  eii-cumstances  it  is  not  iidvisable 
to  place- ai)iaries  nearej' than  four  miles  apart;  but 
[)r.  Miller  is  undoubtedly  right  wlien  lie  says  tliat 
the  configuration  of  the  land  has  a  great  di'al  to  do 
with  the  greater  or  lesser  distani'c  tli;it  the  bees  will 
travel  in  certain  dii-eetioiis. 

In  tlie  accompanying  diiigraiii  you  will  iierccivi^ 
that  these  ai)iaries  are  all  located  on  land  sloping 
toward  the  Mississippi  Kiver,  and  are  separated  from 
one  another  by  creeks,  and   gi'oves  of   tliiilici-   land. 


bees  and  the  home  bees  northea.st,  for  their  crop. 
When  we  say  the  bees  go  in  a  certain  direction,  we  do 
not  me:in  all  the  bees,  but  tlie  greater  part  of  tlieni. 
We  can  give  you  one  convincing  instance  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  opinion. 

By  glancing  at  the  diagram  you  will  notice  that 
tlu'  hoiiic  apiary  is  just  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
the  iioith  point  of  an  island  in  the  ri\er.  In  certain 
seasons  the  islands  are  covered  with  water  in  June; 
and  after  the  waters  recede  they  become  covered 
with  a  luxuriant  vegetation,  and  the  yield  of  honey 
from  them  very  large.  In  one  of  these  seasonswe 
found   a   i-oloiiv,  lielonging  to  a   neighbor,   located 


OUT-APIARIES. 


212 


OUT-APIARIES. 


half  way  between  us  and  the  river,  harvesting  a 
large  yield  of  honey  frtim  this  source,  while  our  bees 
harvested  nothing.  Is  it  not  evident  that  our  bees 
Lad  not  gone  that  far?  Yet  we  have  seen  tlieni  two 
miles  and  more  from  home  in  another  direction. 
Hamilton,  111.  C.  P.  Dadant. 

In  the  summer  of  1K90  I  visited  a  number 
of  extensive  apiarists  in  the  States  of  Xew 
York  and  Vermont.  Among  others  whom 
I  called  upon  was  Mr.  P.  H.  Elwood,  who 
occupies  a  territory  for  his  system  of  out- 
apiaries  not  many  miles  from  that  formerly 
occupied  by  Mr.  Quinby.  Mr.  E.  runs 
about  10()0  colonies  in  a  series  of  eight  or 
ten  out-yards,  and  they  are  located  in  the 
valleys  in  the  midst  of  those  York  State 
hills.  These  hills  are  anywhere  from  500  to 
1000  feet  high,  and  are  covered  with  bass- 
woods  and  clover.  As  the  former  are  scat- 
tered over  the  hills  from  top  to  bottom,  the 
duration  of  the  honej'^-flow  is  very  consider- 
ably prolonged.  Instead  of  there  being 
only  ten  days  or  two  weeks  of  basswood, 
it  sometimes  lasts  a  whole  month.  The 
first  basswoods  that  blossom  are  at  the  foot 
of  the  hills ;  and  as  the  season  advances, 
those  higher  up  come  in  bloom ;  and  the 
flow  does  not  cease  entirely  until  the  trees 
at  the  very  top  of  the  hills  have  gone  out  of 
bloom.  The  bees  will  first  commence  fly- 
ing on  the  horizontal ;  and  as  the  season 
progresses,  they  will  keep  flying  higher  and 
higher,  until  they  have  scaled  the  top  of 
the  hills.  Bee-keepers  Avho  are  situated  in 
such  a  country,  or  in  swamp  land,  are  in 
the  best  of  localities  for  honey.  It  might  be 
well  to  observe,  in  this  connection,  that  these 
hills  form  excellent  windbreaks  for  apia- 
rists in  the  valleys.  In  \'ermont,  in  a  cold- 
er climate,  this  feature  cuts  quite  a  figure. 
Mr.  Manum"s  apiaries  are  also  located 
among  the  hills,  and  in  some  cases  on  the 
sides  of  the  mountains  ;  but,  unlike  Mr. 
Elwood,  he  has  no  basswood  on  the  moun- 
tains 

3iovai;le  apiaries.     . 

Experience  has  shoun,  in  many  instances, 
that  a  yard  that  has  in  years  gone  by  fur- 
nished tons  of  honey  is  now  practically 
worthless,  or  so  nearly  so  tiiat  the  moving 
of  the  bees  to  some  location  more  favorable 
is  a  necessity.  For  instance,  four  or  five 
years  ago  an  apiary  furnished  an  abundance 
of  basswood  honey;  but  the  basswoods 
have  all  been  cut  off ;  there  is  no  clover, 
and  the  field  is  worthless  Again,  a  locality 
has  once  furnished  immense  quantities  of 
white  clover;  but  extensive  agriculture 
has  set  in,  and  clover  pasturage  has  given 
way  to  immense  wheat-fields.    The  inroads 


of  civilization  sometimes  cut  off  the  honey- 
resources  of  a  locality  ;  and,  conversely,  aug- 
ment them  very  considerably.  There  are  a 
few  locations  in  York  State  that  formerly 
gave  but  very  little  honey  ;  but  the  farmers, 
in  recent  years,  have  introduced  buckwheat 
to  such  an  extent  that  these  are  now  splen- 
did buckwheat  countiies;  and  the  yield  of 
this  dark  rich  honey  plays  a  considerable 
part  in  the  net  profits  of  the  season.  In  a 
word,  we  want  our  apiaries  so  we  can  load 
them  up  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  move 
them  at  practically  little  expense  to  any 
new  field  that  may  be  more  inviting.  We 
can  not  always  tell  at  first  whether  it  will 
be  a  favorable  location  or  not.  If  it  does 
not  come  up  to  our  expectations,  we  can 
'■  pull  up  stakes  "  and  try  elsewhere  again. 
How  are  we  to  make  our  apiaries  movable  ? 
Keep  them  on  fixed  frames,  to  be  sure. 
Neither  Mr.  Elwood,  Captain  Ilethering- 
ton,  nor  Mr.  Hoffman  fusses  with  fastening 
frames.  When  it  becomes  desirable  to 
move  a  yard,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  close 
the  entrance  and  load  up  the  bees.  See 
Fixed  Frames. 

A  scale  hive  for  an  out- yard 

It  is  a  well  knoAvn  and  establishod  fact, 
that  one  yard  may  yield  quite  a  crop  of  hon- 
ey while  another  one,  only  a  few  miles  dis- 
tant, may  require  to  be  fed.  It  is  highly 
important  to  be  able  to  tell  just  what  bees 
are  doing  at  stated  periods  during  the  sea- 
son. Mr.  Manum  keeps  a  hive  on  scales  in 
each  yard  ;  and  every  time  he  visits  one  he 
consults  the  scales.  If  they  indicate  an  in- 
crease of  several  pounds,  he  knows  then  that 
the  lees  in  this  apiary  need  more  room,  and 
they  are  also  liable  to  swarm  ;  but  if  they 
indicate  a  loss  of  several  pounds,  he  infers 
that  the  whole  yard  is  losing  likewise,  and 
that  some  colonies  may  need  to  be  fed.  Of 
course,  the  hive  on  the  scale  should  contain 
a  fair  average  coU)ny.  In  many  cases  it  is 
not  always  possiljle  to  visit  yards  at  regular 
periods,  and  so  Mr.  Manum  has  some  resi- 
dent near  the  apiary  to  watch  the  scale,  and 
report  any  unexpected  developments  by  a 
postal  card, 

A   CAUTIOX    ABOUT     ENTERING     INTO     THE 
OUT-APIARY'  BU.SINESS. 

^\'e  have  already  gone  over  the  gi  ound  ( f 
the  general  subject  of  out-apiaiie.s,  and 
what  coiitiibiites  toward  making  their  man- 
agement a  success.  While  there  aie  many 
l;ee  keepers  who  have  brains  and  capacity 
enoujih  to  manage  a  series  of  out-apiaiies. 


OUT-APIARIES. 


218 


OUT-APIARIES. 


there  are  also  many  who  had  better  never 
think  of  entering  into  the  project.  To  be  a 
keeper  of  several  out-apiaries  means  great 
perseverance  and  a  good  deal  of  system,  be- 
sides ability  to  manage  not  only  the  bees, 
but  the  help  who  are  to  take  care  of  them. 
If  you  can  not  make  fifty  or  sixty  colonies 
pay  in  one  location,  do  not  delude  yourself 
by  the  idea  that  you  can  make  bees  pay  if 
you  establish  a  series  of  out  apiaries.  A 
man  who  can  not  make  a  small  business  pay 
will  not  probably  make  a  large  one  do  so. 
If  you- can  manage  successfully  your  home 
apiaiy,  it  may  be  profitable,  as  soon  as  the 
increase  is  sufficient,  to  take  a  part  of  it  to 


an  out-jard.  If  you  have  the  ability  to 
manage  both  yards  successfully,  you  may 
then  with  propriety  establish  another.  But 
do  not  go  and  buy  up  a  lot  of  bees  to  do  so. 
Your  better  way  is  to  increase  from  your 
own  original  stock.  Your  experience,  abil- 
ity, and  judgment,  will  probably  keep  pace 
with  the  increase  in  the  number  of  stocks— 
that  is,  providing  you  make  them  pay  their 
way.  For  further  particulars  on  the  sub- 
ject of  moving  bees,  out-yards,  etc.,  see 
MoviXG  Bees  ;  also  Gleanings  for  1889, 
where  Dr.  Miller  has  a  serie.s  of  articles  on 
the  subject,  beginning  Feb.  1,  and  continu- 
ing throughout  the  year. 


A.    K.    MANL'M  S  SYSTEM  OF   <  UT-.\  I'l  AKIHS. 


p. 


FOISOXrOUS  HOmSV.  Honey  may  I 
be  poisonous  in  two  ways.  It  may  be  poi- 
sonous for  human  beings,  and  not  for  the  I 
bees,  or  it  may  be  poisonous  to  both  bees 
and  humanity ;  in  the  latter  case,  it  could 
not  well  happen  that  Ave  should  suffer  very 
much,  for  the  bees  would  die  before  they 
could  make  any  accumulation.  It  has  been 
reported  that  the  honey  from  certain  blos- 
soms, such  as  the  ailanthus,  poisons  the 
bees,  even  before  they  can  get  away  from 
the  tree ;  but,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  this  is  a 
mistake. 

The  wild  honey  of  the  Southern  States,  in 
many  localities,  is  quite  liable  to  produce 
sickness,  and,  in  some  instances,  this  sick- 
ness has  been  so  sudden  and  violent  as  to 
give  good  grounds  for  thinking  that  the 
honey  Avas  obtained  from  poisonous  flowers. 
The  following  is  from  Feb.  Gleanings, 
for  1875: 

Wherever  the  mountain  laurel  grows,  the  bees 
are  very  fond  of  it,  and  laurel  honey  is  not  confined 
to  the  ii'ikl  bees,  for  the  tame  ones  will  also  resort 
to  the  flowers,  and  it  is  dang-erous,  for  any  one  un- 
able to  detect  the  taste,  to  eat  the  honey.  It  has  a 
highly  poisonous  effect,  being  an  extremely  dis- 
tressing narcotic,  vai-ying  in  its  effects  in  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  eaten.  During  the  war,  as  a 
surgeon  in  the  Confederate  armj%  and  campaigning 
a  good  deal  in  the  VnUey  (as  we  call  it),  l-had  many 
opportunities  of  witnessing  its  effects,  and,  on  one 
occasion,  personal  experience  gave  me  the  right  to 
say  that  I  know  something  about  it,  as  well  as  your 
correspondent.  He  says  he  only  tasted  it,  but.  not 
being  forewarned,  or,  rather,  not  being  acquainted 
with  the  taste  of  the  "laurel  honey,"  I  ate  a  small 
quantity  of  it,  and  was  prevented  by  the  disagreea- 
ble taste  from  eating  more.  My  comrades,  equally 
ignorant,  and  not  quite  so  fastidious,  indulged 
more  freely,  and  consequei-tly  suffered  in  propor- 
tion. I  do  not  remember  very  distinctly  the  symp- 
toms; but  as  nearly  as  I  can  recall  them,  my  sensa- 
tions were  these  :  Some  time  after  eating,  a 
queerish  sensation  of  tingling  all  over,  indistinct 
vision,  caused  b.v  dilation  of  the  pupils,  with  an 
empty,  dizzy  feeling  about  the  head,  and  a  horrible 
nausea  that  would  not  relieve  itself  by  vomiting. 
In  my  case  this  lasted  perhaps  an  hour;  but  my  com- 
panions were  Avorse  off,  and  complained  of  the 
symptoms  two  or  three  hours.  They,  however,  had 
not  eaten  enough  to  suffer  as  much  as  I  have  seen 
others.  The  first  cases  that  1  saw  were  entirely 
overpowered  by  it,  and  their  appearance  was  exact- 
ly as  if  they  were  dead  drunk,  and  T  should  certainly 
have  pronounced  them  so,  had  not  their  messmates 
assured  me  to  thecontrary,  and  had  I  not  discovered 


that  they  were  rational  and  sensible  of  their  condi- 
tion, as  shown  by  their  Imperfect  efforts  to  articu- 
late. To  speak  technically,  the  innervation  of  all 
the  voluntary  muscles  was  completely  destroyed. 
The  use  of  the  usual  remedies,  or  antidotes  for 
narcotics,  partially  restored  them  in  a  few  hours, 
but  the  effects  did  not  entirely  wear  off  for  two  or 
three  days,  and  I  was  assured  that  fatal  conse- 
quences have  been  known  to  follow  a  too  free  in- 
dulgence in  the  sweet  but  treacherous  product  of 
the  "  models  of  industry." 

Where  there  is  no  mountain  laurel  to  poison  their 
honey,  the  wild  bees  of  Virginia  can  make  as  good 
honey  as  any  others.  Of  course,  the  quality  of  the 
honey  varies  with  the  character  of  the  flowers  from 
which  it  is  made,  and  I  have  seen  as  good  honey 
from  a  bee-tree  on  the  edge  of  a  field  of  clover  as 
perhaps  the  bees  of  Hymettus  ever  made. 

Halifax  C.  H.,  Va.  J.  Grammer,  M.  D. 

FOLLXiriT.  Doubtless,  you  have  all 
heard  bees  humming  about  hollyhock  blos- 
soms, but  perhaps  most  of  you  have  passed 
on,  thinking  that  it  was  nothing  strange, 
for  bees  ai-e  always  humming  about  flow- 
ers. Suppose  we  stop  just  a  minute,  and 
look  into  the  matter  a  little.  The  bee,  al- 
though on  the  wing,  is  almost  motionless  as 
he  hovers  about  the  dust  in  the  center  of 
the  flowers,  and,  by  careful  watching,  we 
may  see  that  his  tongue  is  extended  to  a  con- 
siderable length.  Tliis  tongue  looks  much 
like  a  delicate  pencil-brush  as  he  SAveeps  it 
about  among  the  grains  of  pollen;  and  as  the 
pollen  adheres  to  it  and  is  from  time  to  time 
put  away  somehow,  Ave  are  led  to  infer  that 
there  must  be  something  adhesive  on  it.  I 
believe  the  bee,  when  he  starts  out  to  gather 
pollen,  does  carry  some  honey  if  he  finds  some 
in  the  blossom.  Well,  we  Avill  stippose  he 
has  moistened  his  long,  flexible,  brush-like 
tongue  Avitl)  honey,  has  spread  it  out  and 
brushed  it  among  the  pollen-grains  and  then 
—I  rather  think  I  shall  have  to  give  you 
some  pictures  before  I  can  well  explain  to 
you  Avhat  happens  next.    See  next  page. 

Fig.  1  is  a  collection  of  pollen-grains  high- 
ly magnified,  and  A  is  exactly  the  kind  the 
bee  finds  in.  the  hollyhock.  Fig.  2  is  the 
tongue  of  the  bee,  and  Fig.  3  is  one  of  his 
fore  feet,  just  to  shoAv  you  what  a  funny  ma- 
cliine  he  is  provided  with,  for  getting  the  pol- 
len off  his  tongue.  There  are  bristles  form- 
ing a  sort  of  brush  on  the  under  side  of  the 
foreleg  just  above  the  claws.    Tlie  bee,  when 


POLLEN. 


215 


POLLEN. 


his  tongue  is  well  loaded,  just  claps  it  be- 
tween bis  two  fore  legs,  and  in  some  way 
wbich  I  can  not  determine  to  my  full 
satisfaction,  tbe  bristles,  in  conjunction 
with  the  claws  or  hooks,  catch  the  pol- 
len so  quickly  that  he  leaves  sleight-of- 
hand  performers  all  far  in  the  shade.  I  be- 
lieve he  generally  wipes  his  tongue  with 
both  fore  feet  at  once;  and  when  he  does 
this,  his  appearance,  viewed  through  a  glass, 
is  comical  in  the  extreme.  Now  it  is  anoth- 
er "knack  "he  has,  of  getting  it  into  his 
pollen-baskets,  after  he  gets  it  off  his  tongue. 


kinds  ol*  traps  and  rigging,  to  prevent  the 
drones  and  queens  from  going  out  and  in 
with  the  workers,  have  been  objectionable 
on  this  very  account. 

Well,  between  the  pollen-gathering  legs 
and  the  pollen-basket  legs  is  another  pair. 
These  play  a  very  important  part  in  getting 
the  pollen  into  the  pollen-baskets.  "With  the 
tongue,  fore  leg,  and  middle  leg,  the  bee 
pads  up  the  pollen  and  honey  until  there  is 
quite  a  wad  of  it,  and  then,  with  a  very  pret- 
ty sleight-of-hand,  he  carries  this  little  cake, 
scarcely  so  large  as  the  head  of  a  small  pin, 


Fig.  1 


Fig.  3* 


Fis 


D  mm 

HOW  THE  BEE  GETS  THE  POLLEN  FROM  THE  FLOWERS. 


Bear  in  mind  that  a  bee  has  six 
the  first  two  legs  remove  the  pollen  from 
the  tongue  ;  the  last  two  1  ear  the  pollen- 
baskets.  They  are  called  baskets,  and  en- 
close the  si^ace  marked  by 
F.  B.  C,  F,  and  they  con- 
sist of  a  flat  place,  or 
slight  depression  as  at  A, 
on  the  side  of  the  leg,  and 
a  number  of  short  stiff 
hairs  to  hold  the  pollen 
from  tumbling  off.  The 
engraving  will  give  you 
a  good  idea  of  it.  Ob 
serve  the  pollen  is  carried 
in  the  iii)i»er  joint  of  tlie 
leg. 

You  will  see  that,  should  he  not  moisten 
the  pollen  into  a  kind  of  paste  or  dough,  he 
would  never  be  able  to  make  it  stick  in  such 
a  place.  Well,  it  does  sometimes  tumble 
off,  especially  if  he  takes  very  heavy  loads, 
or  has  an  inconvenient  entrance  into  his  ' 
hive.  I  have  seen  quite  a  large  heap  of  ])ol- 
len,  just  in  front  of  a  hive,  when  the  en- 
trance was  so  l)adly  arranged  as  to  cause  the 
bee  to  scrape  it  off  when  going    in.     All 


POI.LKN-BASKKT. 


between  the  middle  and  fore  legs,  back  to 
the  pollen-basket.  When  in  place,  it  is  firm- 
ly pressed  into  the  basket,  and  then  neatly 
patted  down  with  the  middle  leg.  much  as 
a  dextrous  butter-woman  gives  her  neat  rolls 
the  finishing  taps.  This  motion  seems  to  be 
a  sort  of  automatic  movement;  for  the  bee 
is  the  while  intently  engaged,  with  tongue 
and  fore  feet,  in  gathering  more  pollen  from 
the  flowers.  The  operation  may  be  wit- 
nessed easily,  by  taking  on  your  finger  a  bee 
that  is  gathering  propolis  from  some  old 
quilt  or  hive.  As  lie  i)ieks  and  pulls  off  bits 
of  wax  witli  his  mandibles,  he  will  cimvey 
them  Ijack  to  the  pollen-basket  much  more 
leisurely  while  he  stands  still,  and  you  can 
easily  follow  the  whole  proceeding.  Even 
on  a  cool  day,  when  his  motions  are  sluggish, 
you  will  be  astonished  at  the  wonderful 
celerity  and  swiftness  with  which  these  fun- 
ny little  legs  move.    When  he  has  a  load 

*C  Is  a  groove  in  tlie  fore  leg-,  a i id  B  is  a  sort  of 
finger  or  spur  wliich  closes  over  it.  When  a  liee  gets 
lii-i  uiiteniise,  or  feelers,  dnsteii  over  with  pollen,  lie 
uses  this  little  mei'h;inic;il  device  foi'  cleaning  them 
oti' much  as  joii  would  clean  ott'  a  miidd\-  roi)e  or 
round  St  ick  h.v  passing  it  between  the  thumt)  and 
f()it>tlngi'i'.  'I'o  wit  iie^s  the  operation,  du--I  the  ali- 
teiinte  of  a  hee  with  tloiir,  ami,  with  a  glass,  watidi 
his  beeshii). 


POLLEN. 


21« 


POLLEN. 


that  he  deems  sufficient,  he  spreads  his  wings 
and  soars  aloft;  biit,  if  the  field  is  a  new 
one,  he  will  circle  abo\it  and  take  his  points, 
returning  again  and  again,  that  he  may  not 
mistake  where  to  come  back,  his  plump  lit- 
tle load  being  plainly  visible  while  he  is  on 
the  wing. 

AVhen  lie  gets  into  the  hive,  if  a  young 
bee,  he  has  to  go  through  with  a  series  of  re- 
joicings—see Bees;  but  if  a  regular  laborer, 
he  proceeds  at  once,  or  at  least  as  soon  as  he 
has  had  a  breathing-spell  (for  carrying  large 
loads  of  pollen  is  like  carrying  a  hod  of  brick 
to  the  top  of  a  three-story  brick  building),  to 
deposit  the  pollen  in  the  cells.  This  is  done 
very  quickly,  by  crossing  his  pollen -legs 
while  they  are  thrust  to  the  bottom  of  the 
cell,  and  then  kicking  the  loadsoff,  very  like 
the  way  in  which  our  blue-eyed  baby  kicks 
otf  her  shoes,  when  she  takes  a  notion  to  go 
barefooted.»56  After  the  load  is  off,  he  starts 
out  again,  without  paying  any  further  at- 
tention to  the  matter.  The  question  keeps 
coming  up  to  me,  Does  the  bee  that  brings 
the  pollen  never  stop  to  pack  it  in  the  cells 
or  eliminate  it  for  the  young  larvjeV  I  am 
convinced  that  he  usually  does  not;  but 
where  the  hive  is  deprived  of  young  bees,  I 
think  almost  any  bee  can  do  this  work.  If 
there  are  plenty  of  young  bees  in  the  hive, 
he  probably  concludes  he  has  nothing  fur- 
ther to  do  with  it. 

After  the  pollen  is  dropped  in  the  cells,  it 
will  fall  out  if  the  comb  is  turned  over;  and 
when  the  maples  are  first  out  in  the  spring, 
I  have  heard  and  seen  the  pollen  rattle  out 
like  shot,  in  turning  the  combs  horizontally 
to  look  at  the  queens.  Very  soon  after  the 
pollen  is  thus  deposited,  the  nursing  -  bees 
come  and  mash  it  down  into  a  hard  cake ;  I 
have  not  been  able  to  discover  how  they  do 
this,  unless  it  is  done  Avith  the  head.  The 
British  Bee  Journal  for  May.  1876,  graphical- 
ly describes  the  whole  operation  as  follows : 

The  pollen-laden   bee,   upon    entering-  the  hive, 
makes  directly  for  the  brood-nest;  and   where  its 
load  is  required,  it  quickly    disencumbers   itself,  j 
Sometimes  the  nurse-bees  are  in  want  of  the  all- 
necessary  pollen,  and  nibble  it  from  the  legs  of  the  j 
worker  without  ceremony  :  but  more  often  the  bee 
goes  to  a  cell  devoted  to  pollen-storing-,  and  hangs 
by  its  first  pair  of  legs  to  another  cell  immediately 
above,  and  by  the  aid  of  its  middle  pair  of  legs  it  un- 
loads its  hindmost,  and  (as  it  were)  kicks  the  balls 
of  pollen  into  the  proper  receptacle.    Here  they  are 
mixed  with  a  little  honey,  and  kneaded  into  a  stiff  , 
paste,  which  is  then  rammed  hard  against  the  bot-  ' 
tom  of  the  cell,  for  future  use,  the  bee  using  its 
bead  as  a  battering  -  ram  ;  these  operations  are  re- 
peated until  the  cell  is  almost  filled  with  the  knead- 
ed dough,  when  a  little  clear  honey  is  placed  on  the 


top,  and  it  is  sealed  over  and  preserved  as  bee- 
bread.  If  a  cell  full  of  pollen  be  cut  in  two,  longi- 
tudinally, its  contents  will,  as  a  rule,  be  found  of 
many  colors,  stratified,  the  strata  of  varied  thick- 
ness standing  on  edi^e,  as  if  the  bees,  instead  of  stor- 
ing bread,  had  stored  pancakes. 

14*6  principal  supply  of  pollen  in  our  locali- 
ty is  from  maple  in  the  spring,  and  from  corn 
in  the  latter  part  of  summer  and  fall.-'^s-  Al- 
most all  flowers  that  yield  honey  yield  pol- 
len also,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  and 
when  the  bee  comes  in  laden  with  the  one, 
he  almost  always  has  some  of  the  other.i-^o 
Red  clover  yields  a  peculiar  dark-green  pol- 
len that  i)retty  surely  indicates  when  the 
bees  are  gathering  honey  from  it.  They  oft- 
en get  a  considerable  load  of  honey,  with 
but  a  very  small  one  of  pollen  ;  but  if  you 
did  not  notice  very  carefully,  you  would  quite 
likely  declare  that  they  had  gathered  no  pol- 
len at  all. ■'■"'«,  i-'i 

The  pollen  from  corn  is  generally  gather- 
ed early  in  the  morning;  when  it  is  first 
coming  into  bloom,  I  have  seen  them  start 
out  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day,  much  as  they 
do  for  a  buckwheat-field. 

For  fiu-ther  information  in  regard  to  the 
offices  of  pollen  in  the  hive,  see  Bees. 

NECESSITY      OF      POLLEN     FOR    BROOD- 
REARING. 

We  are  interested  about  pollen,  because 
bees  can  not  rear  brood  without  either  it, 
or  some  substitute  for  it.  Bees  kept  in 
confinement,  and  fed  on  pure  sugar  and 
pure  water,  will  thrive  and  void  little 
or  no  excrement;  but  as  soon  as  pollen, 
or  food  containing  the  farinaceous  ele- 
ment, is  given  them,  their  bodies  will 
become  distended;  and  instead  of  a  trans- 
parent fluid,  they  will  void  a  fluid  of  a 
darkish  tint,  which  will  soil  their  hives,  and 
emit  quite  an  unpleasant  smell.  I  once  kept 
about  300  bees  in  a  cage  with  a  queen,  and 
gave  them  only  pure  sugar  and  water.  They 
built  comb,  and  seemed  quite  contented,  the 
cage  emitting  no  smell  whatever.  In  order  to 
start  brood-rearing,  I  gave  them  some  sugar 
candy  containing  flour,  and  they  got  uneasy 
very  soon,  and  tried  in  vain  to  get  out.  At 
this  time  the  cage  gave  off  quite  an  un- 
pleasant smell,  and  so  they  were  allowed  to 
fly  ;  had  the  pollen  element  not  been  given 
them,  I  presume  they  would  have  stood  the 
confinement  for  a  month  or  more.  I  once 
wintered  a  fair  colony  of  bees,  on  stores  of 
pure  sugar  syrup,  and  when  they  flew  in  the 
spring  there  was  no  perceptible  spot  on  the 
white  snow  about  their  hives.  They  had  no 
pollen,  and,  of   course,  no  brood  -  rearing 


POLLEN. 


could  go  on  without  it.  A  few  years  ago 
I  made  some  experiments  with  bees  confined 
in  a  large  room  under  glass.  As  it  was  late 
in  the  fall,  after  brood-rearing  had  ceased,  I 
did  not  know  whether  I  should  succeed  in 
starting  them  again.  After  feeding  them 
for  about  a  week,  eggs  were  found  in  the 
cells,  but  none  of  them  hatched  into  larvae. 
A  heap  of  rye  meal  was  placed  in  the  center 
of  the  room  near  the  feed,  and  anxiously  I 
waited  to  see  them  take  notice  of  it.  After 
several  days,  a  bee  was  seen  hovering  curi- 
ously about  it.  In  breathless  suspense  I 
watched  him,  until  he  finally  began  to  dip 
his  tongue  into  the  heap,  and  then  to  pad  it 
on  his  legs.  He  carried  home  a  small  load. 
I  had  the  hive  open,  and  the  frame  out.  as 
soon  as  he  was  among  his  comrades,  and 
watched  the  behavior  of  the  rest  while  he 
shook  himself  among  them,  until  he  depos- 
ited his  treasm-e  in  a  cell,  and  hurried  away 
for  another  load.  Very  shortly  some  of  the 
rest  followed  him,  and  buzzed  about  the 
room,  until  they  found  where  he  was  loading 
up,  and  soon  they  were  at  work  on  the  meal, 
as  merrily  as  in  the  spring.  Of  course,  the 
eggs  were  very  soon,  now,  transformed  into 
unsealed  larvae,  tlien  into  capped  brood,  and, 
in  due  time,  I  had  young  bees  liatched  out 
in  the  month  of  December. 

By  warming  the  room  with  a  stove  for  sev- 
eral days  in  succession,  I  found  I  could  start 
brood-rearing  and  pollen-gathering  even  in 
the  month  of  January.  It  may  be  well  to 
state  here,  that  although  I  succeeded  in 
rearing  bees  in  midwinter,  as  strong  and 
healthy,  apparently,  as  those  raised  iii  sum- 
mer time,  the  experiment  was  hardly  a  suc- 
cess after  all;  for  about  as  many  bees  died 
from  what  I  suppose  was  the  effect  of  con- 
finement, as  were  hatched  out.  It  was  a  de- 
cided success,  in  determining  many  un- 
known points  in  regard  to  bees,  aside  from 
the  office  of  pollen,  and  I  presume,  if  it  ever 
should  be  necessary,  we  could  overcome  the 
difficulties  of  flying  bees  imder  glass. 

AHTIFICIAL  SUBSTITUTES  FOR   POLLEN. 

It  has  been  known  for  many  years,  that  in 
the  spring  time,  bees  will  make  use  of  the 
fiour  or  meal  of  many  kinds  of  grain,  and 
many  bee-keepers  feed  bushels  of  it  every 
season.  The  favorite  seems  to  be  rye  ;>••' 
and,  as  the  bees  are  apt  to  fall  into  it  and 
sometimes  get  so  covered  as  to  perish,  I  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  having  the  rye  ground 
up  with  an  equal  quantity  of  oats.  A  great 
many  plans  have  been  devised  for  feeding  it 
without  waste;  but,  after  all  our  ex])eri- 
ment8,a  heap  of  meal  on  the  ground  is  about 


217  POLLEN. 

as  satisfactory  as  any  way.^^a  Of  course, 
it  should  be  protected  from  rain;  and  as 
there  is  usually  much  high  wind  in  the 
spring,  which  is,  to  say  the  least,  very  an- 
noying to  the  bees,  it  is  well  to  have  it  in  a 
spot  sheltered  as  much  as  possible,  always 
aiming  to  give  them  as  much  sunshine  as 
may  be.  By  way  of  experiment,  I  have  con- 
centrated the  rays  of  the  sun  on  the  meal 
heap,  by  mirrors,  that  the  bees  might  work 
on  days  otherwise  too  cold  ;  I  have  also 
made  glass-covered  structures  for  the  pur- 
pose ;  and  have  even  kept  their  meal  hot  by 
means  of  a  lamp  nursery  ;  all  these  plans 
have  succeeded,  but  I  am  inclined  to  doubt 
whether  stocks  pushed  along,  in  brood  rear- 
ing, by  such  means,  were  really  in  advance 
of  some  that  were  left  to  take  their  chances. 
It  is  amusing  to  see  the  little  fellows  start 
from  their  hives  on  days  so  cold  that  they 
would  not  otherwise  stir  out,  hie  to  the 
warm  meal  and  load  up,  and  then  go  home 
so  quickly  that  they  do  not  have  time  to  get 
chilled. 

Is  there  any  danger  of  feeding  them  too 
much  mear:'  In  our  own  apiary,  I  have  nev- 
er known  them  to  take  so  much  that  it  was 
not  used  at  once  for  brood  -  rearing ;  but  I 
purchased  of  a  neighbor  some  hives  which 
contained  flour  in  the  cells,  dried  down  so 
hard  as  to  make  it  necessary  for  the  bees  to 
cut  it  out,  comb  and  all,  as  the  only  means 
of  getting  rid  of  it.  I  presume  this  came 
about  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  natural 
pollen,  when  they  had  laid  in  a  pretty  good 
supply  of  the  flour  ;  it  is  well  known,  that 
as  soon  as  the  natural  pollen  can  be  obtained, 
they  at  once  abandon  all  artificial  substitutes. 
I  think  there  is  but  little  danger  of  giving 
them  too  much  rye  and  oat  meal,  but  I 
would  not  risk  giving  them  great  quantities 
of  fine  wheat  flour. 

Not  a  few  of  our  readers  have  been  per- 
plexed and  astonished,  doubtless,  by  seeing 
the  bees,  in  early  spring,  greedily  appro- 
priating sawdust,  just  as  they  do  rye  meal.  I 
have  seen  them  at  the  sawmills,  so  thick  on 
a  large  heap  of  fresh  sawdust  as  to  attract  a 
large  crowd  of  people;  and  when  I  caught 
them,  and  tasted  of  the  pollen  from  their 
legs,  I  was  somewhat  amazed  to  find  it  sweet 
and  very  nuich  like  the  pollen  from  the  flow- 
ers. I  presume  they  had  plenty  of  honey 
but  no  pollen,  and  that  these  fine  particles 
of  wood  contained  emmgh  of  the  nitrogen- 
ous element  to  answer  very  well,  mixed  with 
honey,  as  they  have  it.  when  packed  in  their 
pollen-baskets.  The  pollen  from  green  tim- 
ber contains  an  essential  oil.  besides  some 


rOLLEN. 


218 


i'OLLEN. 


gummy  matter,  that  gives  an  odor  doubtless 
reminding  the  bees  of  the  aroma  of  the  open- 
ing buds.  Not  only  do  they  thus  collect  the 
(to  us)  tasteless  sawdust,  but  they  have  been 
found  at  different  times  on  a  great  variety 
of  substances.  A  friend  in  Michigan,  at  one 
time  found  them  loading  up  with  the  fine 
black  earth  of  the  swamps,  and  they  have 
been  known  to  use  even  coal-dust ;  but  the 
strangest  thing  of  all  was  told  me  by  the 
owner  of  a  cheese-factory,  near  by.  He  said 
the  bees  were  one  day  observed  hovering 
over  the  shelves  in  the  cheese-room,  and,  as 
their  numbers  increased,  they  were  found  to 
be  packing  on  their  legs  the  fine  dust  that 
had  accumulated  from  handling  so  much 
cheese.  Microscopic  investigation  showed 
this  dust  to  be  embryo  cheese-mites,  so  that 
the  bees  had  really  been  using  animal  food 
as  pollen,  and  living  animals  at  that.  If  one 
might  be  allowed  to  theorize  in  the  matter, 
it  would  seem  this  should  be  a  rare  sub- 
stance to  crowd  brood-rearing  to  its  utter- 
most limit.  As  cheese  can  be  bought 
here  for  6  or  8  cts.  by  the  quantity,  it  might 
not  be  so  very  expensive  for  bee-food  after 
all. 

Bees  can  be  taught  to  use  a  great  variety 
of  articles  of  food  in  this  way,  when  they  are 
in  need  of  pollen,  and  therefore  the  story  of 
giving  a  hive  of  bees  a  roasted  chicken,  to 
promote  their  comfort  and  welfare,  may  be 
not  entirely  a  myth.  Ground  malt,  such  as 
is  used  in  making  beer,  has  been  very  highly 
recommended  in  place  of  rye  meal;  but  as  I 
have  never  succeeded  in  getting  any  of  it  I 
can  not  speak  from  practical  experience. 

THE  AGENCY  OF  THE  BEES  IN  FERTILIZING 
PLANTS,  BY  MINGLING  THE  POLLEN. 

This  is  too  wide  a  subject  to  be  discussed 
at  full  length  here,  but  I  will  give  you  a  few 
examples,  to  start  you  on  the  track.  A  per- 
fect blossom  contains  both  stamens  and  pis- 
tils, the  male  and  female  organs  of  repro- 
duction ;  but  sometimes  we  find  flowers  hav- 
ing stamens  only,  and  others  having  i)istils 
only  ;  and  these  two  blossoms  may  be  borne 
by  the  same  plant  or  by  different  plants. 

If  I  am  correct,  the  plant  is  fertilized  by 
the  pollen  from  the  stamens  falling  on  the 
stigma  at  the  summit  of  the  pistil.  Unless 
this  is  done,  the  plant  ripens  no  seed.  Na- 
ture has  adopted  a  multitude  of  devices  for 
carrying  this  pollen  from  one  blossom  to  the 
other;  but  perhaps  tlie  most  general,  and  the 
one  with  wliich  we  have  to  do  principally,  is 
the  agency  of  the  bees.  Common  corn  is  an 
illustration  of  a  class  of  plants  that  bear 
both  kinds  of  blossoms  on  the  same  stalk. 


The  blossom  that  bears  the  seed  is  low  down, 
and  is  what  we  commonly  term  the  silk  of 
the  ear.  The  one  that  bears  the  pollen  is  at 
the  very  summit  of  the  stalk,  and  the  pollen, 
wlien  ripe,  is  shaken  off  and  falls  on  the  silk 
below ;  or,  what  is  still  better,  it  is  wafted 
by  the  wind  to  the  silk  of  the  neigliboring 
stalks,  thus  preventing  in-and-in  breeding, 
in  a  manner  strikingly  analogous  to  the  way 
in  which  the  drones  fly  out  in  the  air,  that 
the  chances  may  be  greatly  in  favor  of  their 
meeting  queens  other  than  those  from  their 
own  hives.  You  may  object,  that  the  silk 
from  the  ear  of  corn  is  not  properly  a  flower, 
so  I  will  give  you  a  more  striking  instance. 
The  common  ragweed.  Ambrosia  artemisoe- 
foUa,  also  sometimes  called  bitterweed,  or 
hogweed,  bears  two  distinct  and  entirely 
unlike  flowers. 


r  3^ 

&  ^ 

^~j]i 

\ 

.^=^^^^ 

C 

RAGWEED  AND    CORN,   SHOWING    THE  TW^O 
KINDS  OF  BLOSSOMS  ON  ONE   STALK. 

On  the  ends  of  the  tall  racemes,  as  at  B, 
the  pollen-bearing  blossoms  are  seen  very 
conspicuously;  and  many  of  you  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  the  weed,  perhaps  never  imag- 
ined that  it  had  any  other  blossom  at  all :  if 
so,  will  you  please  go  outdoors  and  take  a 
look  at  them  again?  Right  close  to  the  main 
stem,  where  the  branches  all  start  out,  you 
will  find  a  very  pretty  little  flower,  only  that 
it  possesses  no  color  except  green,  and  it  is 
here  where  ail  the  seeds  are  borne,  as  you 
will  see  on  some  of  the  branches  where  they 
are  matured.  Now,  if  you  will  get  up  early 
in  the  morning,  you  will  find  that  these 
plants,  when  shaken,  give  off  a  little  cloud 
of  fine  green  dust,  and  this  is  the  pollen  of 
the  plant.  Before  I  knew  what  it  was,  I  used 
to  find  it  annoying  on  account  of  the  way 
in  which  it  soiled  light  clothing.  As  this 
plant  is  in  no  way  dependent  on  the  bees  for 
the  fertilization  of  its  blossoms,  they  con- 
tain no  honey,  or  at  least  I  have  never  been 


POLLEN. 


219 


POLLEN. 


able  to  detect  any  ;  although  I  have,  during 
two  seasons,  seen  the  bees  quite  busily  en- 
gaged gathering  the  pollen.  It  is  said  that 
corn  sometimes  bears  honey  as  well  as  pol- 
len, although  I  have  never  been  able  to  get 
proof  of  it.  These  two  plants,  as  I  have  be- 
fore remarked,  seem  to  insure  crossing  the 
seed  with  other  plants  of  the  same  variety, 
by  bearing  the  pollen-bearing  flowers  aloft, 
on  slender  spines ;  also  by  furnishing  a 
great  preponderance  in  numbers  of  these 
blossoms,  for  precisely  the  same  reason  that 
a  thousand  or  more  drones  are  reared  to  one 
queen.  A  stalk  that  succeeds  in  piishing 
itself  above  the  others,  and  in  bearing  a  pro- 
fusion of  pollen-flowers,  will  probably  be  the 
father,  so  to  speak,  of  a  multitude  of  the  ris- 
ing generation,  and  this  process,  repeated 
for  generations,  would  develop  just  the  ten- 
dency of  corn  and  ragweed,  to  shoot  up  tall 
spires,  clothed  with  an  exuberance  of  the 
pollen-bearing  blossoms.  As  the  plants  that 
give  the  greatest  distance  on  the  stalk  be- 
tween the  lower,  or  seed-blossoms,  and  the 
upper  ones,  are  most  likely  to  shed  the  pol- 
len on  neighboring  plants,  this,  too,  fosters 
the  tendency  mentioned. 

But,  what  shall  the  great  multitude  of 
plants  do,  that  have  no  tall  spines  with 
which  to  shake  their  pollen  to  the  breezesV 
Here  is  where  the  bees  come  in,  and  fulfill 
their  allotted  task,  in  the  work  of  animal 
and  vegetable  life.  They  would,  it  is  true, 
visit  many  plants  for  the  pollen  alone  ;  but 
with  by  far  the  greater  part  of  them,  the 
pollen  is  only  a  secondary  consideration,  or 
not  sought  for  at  all.  In  vieing  with  each 
other,  or  in  the  strife  to  perpetuate  their 
.species,  what  shall  the  plant  do  to  otter  the 
greatest  attraction  to  the  bees  to  visit  them, 
and  carry  the  precious  pollen  to  the  neigh- 
boring blossoms,  for  the  piu-pose  we  have 
menlionedV  Suppose  we  wish  to  gather  a 
group  of  school-cliildi'eu  about  us,  wliat  will 
be  the  surest  and  most  ett'ectual  method  of  do- 
ing itV  Coax  them  with  candy,  maple  sugar, 
and  the  like,  of  course;  and  that  is  just  what 
the  plant  does;  or  it  does  still  more,  for  it 
ransacks  its  storehouse,  and,  I  dare  say, 
sends  its  roots  abroad  througli  the  soil,  with 
untiring  ett'orts,  to  steal  a  more  delicious 
and  enticing  nectar,  more  wonderfully  ex- 
(luisite  than  even  tlie  purest  and  most  trans- 
parent maple-sugar  syrup  ever  distilled,  or 
"  boiled  bown,"  by  the  skill  of  man,  for  the 
sole  i)uri>()se  of  coaxing  the  bees  to  come  and 
dust  themselves  in  their  precious  pollen,  or 
to  bring  from  some  other  blossom  the  i>ol- 
len  they  have  previously  been  dusted  with. 


Now,  this  honey  is  precious,  and  it  must  tax 
the  plant  to  its  utmost  to  produce  it.  Nature , 
therefore,  who  is  a  most  careful  economist, 
not  only  deals  it  out  in  small  doses,  but  she 
places  it  in  the  most  cunning  nooks  and  cor- 
ners, that  the  bee  may  be  obliged  to  twist 
himself  into  all  possible  shapes,  around  and 
among  the  stamens,  until  the  pollen  is  most 
surely  dusted  all  over  him.  Observe,  that 
the  flower  secretes  no  honey  until  the  pol- 
len is  ripe,  and  ready  to  do  its  work;  that 
the  honey  slowly  exudes  into  the  nectaries, 
that  the  bees  may  be  kept  coming  and  lick- 
ing it  out  every  hour  in  the  day;  and  that 
the  flow  of  honey  ceases  just  as  soon  as  the 
pollen  is  ripened  and  gone.  A  lady  has  sug- 
gested a  beautiful  experiment,  to  determine 
the  amount  of  honey  yielded  by  the  spider- 
flower,  Clcome.  She  tied  lace  over  the  stalk, 
to  keep  away  the  bees  that  were  constantly 
visiting  it.  The  honey  collected  in  quite  a 
large  drop.  I  presume  we  could  measure 
the  amount  with  many  other  plants  in  a 
similar  way.  The  little  cups  on  the  flower 
of  the  FiGWOKT,  I  have  seen  full  to  the  brim 
with  honey,  when  found  standing  alone  out 
in  the  woods.    Truly : 

"  Full  many  a  flower  is  born  to  blush  unseen,  ^ 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

Did  you  ever  notice  the  spot  of  fur,  or 
down,  on  the  back  of  the  bee,  just  between 
the  wings  V  Well,  bee -hunters  sometimes 
put  a  small  drop  of  white  paint  on  this  spot, 
that  they  may  know  a  bee  whtn  he  comes 
back.  Several  years  ago  bees  were  going 
into  many  of  the  hives,  with  a  spot  of  white 
on  this  fur  that  looked,  at  first  sight,  al- 
most like  white  paint.  For  several  seasons 
in  succession  I  hunted  in  vain  to  see  where 
they  got  this  white  spot.  At  one  time  it 
seemed  to  come  from  working  on  thistles ; 
but  I  was  obliged  to  give  thisup,for  I  found 
it  most  on  the  bees  one  season  when  they 
did  not  notice  tliistles  at  all.  One  swarm  of 
beautiful  Italians  liad  filled  their  hive  nice- 
ly in  September,  and  almost  every  bee  had 
a  white  back.  I  lined  them  from  the  hive, 
and  followed  tliem.  They  went  toward  a 
large  piece  of  wild  woodland,  and  I  scanned 
the  tops  of  the  trees  in  vain ;  finally,  over 
between  the  liills,  beside  a  brook,  I  found 
acres  of  the  wild  touch-me-not  (Imputkus), 
the  same  i)laiit  tliat  we  have  often  played 
witli  in  childhood,  because  the  queer  little 
seed-pods  will  snap  all  to  pieces  when  ripe, 
if  they  are  touched  ever  so  carefully.  The 
honey  is  secreted  in  the  spm-  to  the  flow- 
er, shown  next  page  at  15. 

The  bee  can   reach   this   only  by  diving 


POLLEN. 


220 


POLLEN. 


do^^'n  into  it  almost  out  of  sight:  and  when 
the  coveted  treasure  is  obtained  he  backs 
out  with  a  ludicrous  kicking  and  sprawling 


FLOWER  OF  THE  WILD  TOL'CH-ME-NOT, 

SHOWING  THE  AVAY  THE  BEE  GETS 

THE  POLLEN  OX  HIS  BACK. 

of  his  legs,  and  in  so  doing  the  down  on  his 
back  is  ruffled  up  the  wrong  way.  Now, 
this  would  be  pretty  certain  to  get  the  pol- 
len dusted  all  over  him;  but  nature,  to  make 
sure,  has  planted  a  little  tuft  that  bears  the 
pollen  just  on  the  upper  side  of  the  entrance 
to  the  flower,  at  A,  and.  in  his  struggles  to 
get  out.  the  white  pollen  is  brushed  all  over 
his  back  most  effectually,  to  be  carried  to 
the  next  flower,  and  so  on. 

A  year  or  two  after  this,  I  took  a  friend  of 
mine  to  the  spot  to  show  him  my  wonderful 
discovery:  but.  lo  and  behold!  the  sharp- 
witted  Italians  had  taken  a  short  cut  to  the 
honey  by  biting*  through  the  spur,  and  in- 
serting their  tongues,  without  the  laborious 
operation  of  crowding  down  into  the  flower. 
I  really  can  ^lot  say  how  many  years  it  will 
take  the  plant  to  discover  that  it  is  secret- 
ing the  honey  in  that  little  spur  in  vain,  or 
whether  it  will,  for  self  -preservation,  make 
the  spur  so  thick  and  hard  that  the  bees  can 
not  bite  through  it.  or  put  the  honey  some- 
where else,  or  do  some  other  way.  It  seems 
very  certain,  that  it  must  soon  become  ex- 
tinct, unless  something  is  done ;  for  not  a 
seed  can  mature  so  long  as  the  bees  bite 
through,  instead  of  pushing  past  the  pollen 
as  they  have  formerly  done. 

But  will  there  really  be  no  seed,  unless  the 
bees  visit  the  blossoms?  I  will  give  you 
some  well  -  known  facts,  and  leave  you  to 
judge. 

Common  red  clover  was.  a  few  years  ago, 
introduced  to  Australia,  and  it  made  a  most 
excellent  growth  in  that  warm  rich  soil, 
but  not  a  bit  of  seed  could  they  raise.  Aft- 
er trying  in  vain,  it  was  suggested  that 
bumble-bees  were  required  to  fertilize  the 
blossoms.     Some  nests    were    accordingly 

*  This  point  was  calicfl  in  inicstioii  in  Gteani)H/>i  in 
BecCultuie;  hut  so  many  Loii'<)l)oratinjf  testimonies 
from  eye-witnesses  came  in.  to  the  effect  that  Italians 
do  bite  thi-oug-h  the  spur,  tliat  tlie  jjoint  is  now  better 
establislied  tlian  evei-. 


shipped  from  the  New-England  States,  and 
the  result  was  perfectly  satisfactory ;  for 
seed  was  raised  then,  without  trouble.  I 
presume  a  few  colonies  of  Italian  bees  would 
have  answered  equally  well;  but  as  bad  luck 
has  attended  their  efforts  at  importing,  I  do 
not  know  that  the  experiment  of  substi- 
tuting Italians  for  the  bumble-bees  has  yet 
been  tried.  Darwin  noticed,  long  ago,  that 
bumble-bees  were  necessary  for  a  good  crop 
of  clover  seed,  and  suggested  the  following 
reason  why  better  clover  seed  could  be 
raised  in  the  vicinity  of  towns  than  else- 
where: The  greatest  enemy  of  the  bumble- 
bee is  the  field-mouse,  that  preys  upon  their 
nests;  therefore,  if  the  mice  aie  kept  at 
bay,  the  bumble-bees  will  flourish.  In  the 
vicinity  of  towns  more  cats  are  kept  than 
in  the  country,  for  every  family,  generally, 
keeps  a  cat,  and  some  fearless  individual 
has  gone  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  a  town 
which  contains  an  unusual  number  of  maid- 
en ladies,  who  are  said  to  favor  cats  especial- 
ly, will  prove  the  most  profitable  neighbor- 
hood for  raising  clover  seed.i '^ 

A  few  jTars  ago.  the  people  in  some  part 
of  Mass.  got  an  idea  that  the  bees,  which 
were  kept  there  in  large  numbers,  were  in 
some  way  prejudicial  to  the  fruit ;  after 
some  controversy,  the  bees  were  banished 
from  the  town.  In  a  year  or  two  they  found 
the  fruit  not  only  no  better,  but  decidedly 
the  reverse ;  for  the  trees  blossomed  pro- 
fusely but  bore  no  crops.  By  a  unanimous 
request,  our  friend  was  persuaded  to  return 
with  his  bees,  and  since  then  the  trees  have 
not  only  blossomed,  but  have  borne  fruit  in 
profusion.  It  is  well  known  to  those  who 
raise  the  earliest  cherries,  that  unless  the  sun 
comes  out,  when  they  are  in  bloom,  long 
enough  to  allow  the  bees  to  visit  the  blos- 
soms, no  fruit  will  be  produced.  As  the 
very  earliest  varieties  blossom  before  the 
weather  has  really  got  settled  and  warm, 
this  is  one  great  drawback  to  their  culture. 

The  Catawba  is  a  very  desirable  variety  of 
grape,  as  is  also  the  Delaware  ;  but  the  for- 
mer is  very  late,  and  the  latter  very  small. 
Dr.  jirant  originated  the  lona  by  fertilizing 
the  blossoms  of  the  one  with  the  pollen  of 
the  other ;  but  in  his  first  attempts  he  fail- 
ed repeatedly,  because  the  bees  were  sure  to 
upset  all  his  experiments  by  their  intermed- 
dling.'^* "When  he  thought  of  the  idea  of 
covering  the  flowers  from  which  he  wished 
to  produce  the  hybrid  seed  with  lace,  or 
something  of  a  similar  nature,  to  keep  the 
bees  away,  he  succeeded  at  once,  and  we 
now  have  the  lona,  as  the  result,  a  grape 


POLLEN. 


2-21 


POLLEN. 


that  is  just  about  half  way  between  the  Del- 
aware and  Catawba,  having  very  olistinctly 
the  flavor  of  each. 

Throughout  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms  there  seems  to  be  a  constant  strug- 
gle for  the  perpetuation  of  their  species, 
which  is  secured  only  by  ripening  perfect 
seeds.  Notice  how  the  weeds  in  our  garden 
will  struggle  and  fight,  as  it  were,  to  get  a 
foot-hold  until  they  can  get  a  crop  of  seeds 
ripened,  and  then  notice  the  numerous 
ways  they  adopt  to  scatter  this  seed  as 
widely  as  possible.  If  the  plants  were 
animated  beings,  we  might  almost  call  it 
tricks  and  sharp  practice ;  some  of  the  seeds 
have  wings,  and  fly  like  grasshoppers  ;  oth- 
ers have  hooks,  and  catch  on  our  clothing, 
and  on  the  fur  of  different  animals,  in  the 
hope  of  being  carried  to  some  spot  where 
they  may  have  a  more  favorable  place  to 
germinate.  Fruits  and  berries,  instead  of 
clothing  themselves  in  the  sober  green  of 
the  foliage  surrounding  them,  when  the 
seeds  are  fully  ripened  affect  scarlet  red  and 
other  bright  colors,  and,  sometimes,  fancy 
stripes,  just  to  induce  the  birds  to  take  them 
in  preference  to  the  fruit  of  other  trees. 
Why  do  they  want  their  fruits  to  be  eaten 
by  the  birds,  if  it  is  their  purpose  to  se- 
cure a  place  for  their  seed  V  Well,  if  you 
examine,  you  will  find  that  the  seed  is  en- 
cased in  a  horny  shell  that  is  proof  against 
the  digestive  organs  of  the  bird,  and  these 
seeds  and  stones  are,  therefore,  voided  fre- 
quently, if  not  invariably,  while  on  the  wing, 
in  just  the  condition  to  take  root  in  the 
soil  wherever  they  may  be  cast.  Bear  this 
in  mind  while  we  go  back  a  little  to  the  bees 
and  flowers. 

I  have  suggested  that  the  honey  is  i)laced 
in  the  flowers  to  attract  the  bees ;  after  a 
bee  has  found  honey  in  one  flower  he  will 
be  very  likely  to  examine  others  of  a  similar 
kind  or  appearance.  If  the  flowers  were  all 
green,  like  the  leaves  of  the  plant,  the  insects 
woixld  find  much  more  trouble  in  hunting 
them  up  than  they  now  do,  because  the 
-contrasting  color,  such  as  the  white  or  red 
.of  the  clovers,  makes  them  conspicuous. 
If  you  look  back  to  what  I  said  about  corn 
and  ragweed  you  will  see  that  the  flowers 
of  both  are  a  plain  green,  for  they  have  no 
■need  of  bees  to  insure  their  fertilization. 

It  is  easily  proven,  that  bees  have  a  sort  of 
telescopic  vision  that  enables  them  to  per- 
ceive objects  at  long  distances  ;  when  a  bee 
starts  out  in  the  morning,  he  circles  up 
aloft,  then  takes  a  view,  and  starts  out  for 
business.    If  one  field  of  clover  should  be 


more  conspicuous  than  the  rest,  he  would 
probably  give  it  the  preference— at  least,  so 
far  as  to  make  an  examination.  If  he  has 
been  at  work  on  a  profitable  field  the  day 
before,  he  will,  doubtless,  strike  for  it  again 
without  any  preamble.  That  bees  look  for 
honey,  and  hunt  it  out,  I  have  proven  to  my 
full  satisfaction ;  and  I  am  well  convinced 
that  what  is  often  called  instinct,  and  al- 
lowed to  drop  there,  is  only  profiting  by  ex- 
perience, and  an  excellent  memory  of  past 
events,  much  in  the  same  way  human  beings 
do.  We  say  that  bees  instinctively  go  to  the 
flowers  for  honey ;  I  have  watched  them  in 
the  spring  when  the  blossoms  first  open, 
and  many  a  one,  very  likely  a  young  bee 
that  has  never  before  seen  a  blossom,  will 
examine  the  leaves,  branches,  and  even 
rough  Avood,  of  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  intent- 
ly smelling  and  snitfing  at  every  part,  until 
he  finds  just  where  the  coveted  treasure  is 
located.  After  he  has  dived  deep  into  one 
blossom,  and  tasted  the  nectar,  he  knows 
pretty  well  where  to  look  next. 

One  afternoon  the  door  of  the  honey-house 
was  left  open,  and  the  bees  were  doing  a 
"  land-oflice''  business,  before  the  mischief 
was  stopped.  After  closing  the  door  until 
they  had  clustered  on  the  windows  in  the 
room,  it  was  opened,  and  the  process  re- 
peated until  all  were  out ;  but,  all  the  rest  of 
the  afternoon  they  were  hovering  about  the 
door.  Toward  night  they  gradually  disap- 
peared; and  when  I  went  down,  about  sun- 
down, to  try  a  new  feeder,  not  a  bee  was  near 
the  door.  I  put  the  feeder  in  front  of  a  hive 
where  the  bees  were  clustered  out;  and  as 
soon  as  a  few  bees  had  got  a  taste,  and  filled 
themselves,  they  of  course  went  into  the 
hive  to  unload.  I  expected  a  lot  to  come 
out,  as  soon  as  these  entered  with  their  pre- 
cious loads,  but  was  much  astonished  to  see 
an  eager  crowd  come  tumbling  out,  as  if 
they  were  going  to  swarm,  and  still  more 
when  they  rushed  right  past  the  feeder  and 
took  wing  for—  where  do  you  suppose  V  the 
honey-house  door,  of  course.  How  should 
they  reason  otherwise,  than  that  it  had  again 
been  left  open,  and  that  was  where  these  in- 
comers had  found  their  ricli  loads?  On  find- 
ing it  closed,  back  to  the  hive  they  came,  to 
repeat  the  manoeuvre  over  and  over.'^^ 

HOW    TO    START    HEES    AT    WORK    ON     RYE 
MEAL. 

A  beginner  hears  the  feeding  of  oatmeal 
highly  recommended  as  a  substitute  for  pol- 
len. He  places  some  near  the  entrances  of 
the  hives,  but  not  a  bee  touches  it.  He  is 
told  again  to  wait  until  early  spring,  before 


l^OLLEN. 


POLLEN. 


the  bees  have  access  to  natural  pollen,  and 
then  they  will  take  it.  lie  does  so,  but,  as 
before,  not  a  bee  notices  it.  He  is  next  told 
to  put  a  heap  of  it  in  the  sun,  a  few  rods  dis- 
tant from  the  hives.  This  time  he  may  suc- 
ceed; but  it  would  not  be  strange  if  he 
should  once  more  report  that  his  bees  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Finally  he  is 
directed  to  take  a  piece  of  honey  and  get 
some  bees  to  feeding  on  it.  then  to  set  It  on 
the  heap  of  meal.  The  bees  soon  gather 
over  it  in  great  numbers;  those  who  go 
home  loaded  start  out  many  more  searching 
all  about  the  vicinity,  to  see  where  the  trea- 
sure comes  from.  The  hum  of  the  busy  ones 
on  the  honey  soon  attracts  them,  and,  in 
snuffing  about  the  pile  of  meal,  some  bee  dis- 
covers that  it  can  be  used  as  a  substitute  for 
pollen ;  the  others  soon  follow  suit,  and,  in 
a  little  time,  both  the  bees  and  their  owner 
are  happy,  and  the  pile  of  meal  quickly  dis- 
appears. After  this  he  never  has  any  more 
trouble  in  getting  the  bees  to  work  on  meal, 
for  he  knoics  hov.  The  bees  and  their  own- 
er have  both  learned  a  valuable  lesson  about 
pollen.  Is  there  any  very  great  difference 
in  the  way  they  have  been  taught?  Did  they 
not  both  learn  by  practical  experiment?^'" 

The  touch-me-not  has  learned,  by  ages  of 
experiment,  to  produce  a  bright  orange  flow- 
er, to  secrete  honey  in  the  spur,  to  place  the 
pollen-bearing  stamens  at  the  point  where 
the  bee  must  rub  against  them  in  getting 
the  honey,  to  construct  those  wonderful  seed- 
pods,  which  explode  and  scatter  the  seed  far 
and  wide,  just  that  it  may  reproduce  and 
multiply  its  species.  I  should  judge  it  had 
succeeded  pretty  well  in  a  waste  piece  of 
woodland  near  my  home,  for  there  are  now 
acres  of  it  as  high  as  one's  head,  and  it  is 
quite  a  valuable  acquisition  to  our  apiary. 
As  nearly  as  I  can  make  out,  the  plant  has 
much  increased  since  the  advent  of  the  Ital- 
ians, as  might  be  expected ;  and  instead  of 
having  a  dearth  of  pasturage  for  several 
months  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  we  not  only 
have  honey  enough  so  that  the  bees  trouble 
the  houses  and  groceries  very  little,  but  they 
amass  sufficient  stores  to  carry  them  through 
the  winter,  with  little  if  any  feeding.  This 
is  true  of  dandelions  as  well;  and  the  large, 
brilliant,  showy  blossoms  that  now  line  our 
roadsides  and  waste  places,  instead  of  un- 
sightly w^eeds,  should  remind  one  of  how 
much  an  apiary  of  bees  contributes  to  fulfill 
the  words  of  sacred  prophecy: 

The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad 
for  them  ;  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice,  and  blossom 
as  the  rose.— Inakth  35  :  1. 

Now,  I  can  not  positively  affirm  that  the 


flowers  were  given  their  gaudy  colors  by  the 
bees'  selecting  the  brightest  and  most  con- 
spicuous, thereby  inducing  such  blossoms  to 
bear  seed  in  preference  to  those  less  gaudily 
attired,  neither  do  I  know  that  cherries  be- 
came red  because  the  birds  selected  those 
that  showed  a  disposition  to  that  color, 
year  after  year,  for  many  centuries;  nor 
can  I  prove  that  the  bright  plumage  of  male 
birds  came  about  in  the  course  of  time,  sim- 
ply because  the  female  encouraged  the  at- 
tentions of  and  showed  a  preference  for 
those  most  handsome.  I  can  only  suggest 
that  the  actions  of  birds,  bees,  flowers,  and 
frviits,  seem  to  point  that  way.  You  alt 
know  how  quickly  we  can  get  fancy-colored 
flow^ers,  yellow  queen-bees,  or  birds  of  al- 
most any  shade  or  color,  by  careful  selection 
for  several  generations.  Have  not  the  bees 
so  colored  the  flowers,  and  birds  the  berries, 
etc.,  although  they  did  it  all  unconsciously  i^ 
My  friend,  before  you  again  complain  be- 
cause you  have  found  a  cell  or  two  of  bee- 
bread  in  your  comb  honey,  would  you  not 
better  ponder  on  the  wonderful  agency  which 
those  simple  grains  of  pollen  exert  on  the 
plant  life  that  is  yet  to  come,  years,  per- 
haps, after  we  have  faded  away  and  gone? 

POLLEN     IN      SECTION     BOXES     ANI)     COMB 
HONEY. 

I  do  not  mean  to  convey  the  idea  that  we 
'  should  be  satisfied  with  pollen  in  our  honey, 
for  a  very  good  and  useful  thing  is  some- 
times a  very  bad  one,  if  out  of  place.  When 
pollen  or  meal  is  brought  into  the  hive,  it  is. 
taken,  at  once,  very  near  to  the  brood;  in 
fact,  it  is  placed  in  the  comb  opposite,  if 
possible.  When  opening  hives  in  the  spring, 
we  find  pollen  scattered  all  through  the 
brood-combs  to  some  extent;  but  the  two 
combs  next  to  the  two  outside  brood-combs 
are  often  a  solid  mass  of  pollen.  Should  a 
few  stormy  days  intervene,  however,  this 
will  disappear  so  quickly  that  one  who  has 
not  witnessed  the  rapidity  witli  which  it  is- 
used  in  brood-rearing  would  not  know  how 
to  account  for  it.  When  it  is  gone,  of 
course  the  brood  -  rearing  must  cease, 
although  the  queen  may  continue  to  lay. 
The  amount  of  brood  that  may  be  reared  by 
keeping  a  stock  supplied  with  pollen  artifi- 
cially, during  such  unfavorable  weather,  is  a 
very  important  item,  wiiere  rapid  increase 
of  stock  is  desired. 

Using  the  candy  slabs  with  \  or  ^  wheat 

flour  is,  perhaps,  the  surest  way  of  doing 

this.    See  Candy  for  Bees. 

!     A  friend  has  a  house-apiary,  where  the 

'  combs  are  pretty  deep,  and  no  upper  story 


POLLEN, 


23 


PROPOLIS. 


is  used.  His  comb  honey  was- all  secured  in 
frames  containing  sections  at  the  side  of  the 
brood.  When  asked  if  the  bees  did  not  de- 
posit pollen  in  the  sections  when  used  in 
that  way  he  replied,  "  Not  if  a  comb  is  in- 
terposed between  the  brood  and  the  hon- 
ey." This  is  because  they  always  want  the 
pollen  next  the  brood.  Now,  we  can  get 
more  comb  honey  by  having  it  near  the 
brood  than  in  any  other  way  •,  what  shall  we 
do  to  keep  out  the  pollen,  and  to  keep  the 
queen  from  laying  eggs  in  our  surplus-honey 
sections V  The  remedy  I  have  adopted,  and 
advised  through  this  work,  is  the  use  of 
separators,  with  the  small  one-pound  section 
boxes ;  for  it  is  well  known  that  the  queen 
is  averse  to  using  small  pieces  of  comb,  or 
comb  near  much  wood.  In  our  own  apiary, 
I  have  never  known  the  queen  to  deposit 
eggs  in  these  sections,  when  thus  prepared, 
even  if  they  are  placed  next  the  brood- 
combs  ;  but  others  have  WTitten  that  they 
are,  at  times,  filled  with  both  brood  and  pol- 
len, even  when  thus  prepared.  If  I  could 
see  the  hives,  I  think  I  could  find  the  trou- 
ble, yet  there  may  be  exceptional  cases.  The 
frames  or  sections  used  in  the  lower  story 
are  more  likely  to  be  filled  with  pollen  than 
those  in  the  upper  story;  for  if  the  wide 
frames  and  sections  are  so  made  that  but 
about  i-inch  space  is  left  for  the  bees  to  go 
up  into  them,  the  queen  is  very  unlikely  to 
attempt  to  go  up.i"''  An  occasional  cell  of 
pollen  will  sometimes  be  fov;nd,  which  I  re- 
gret the  more,  because  such  combs  are  much 
more  likely  to  contain  worms,  if  taken  out 
in  warm  weather.  If  it  were  not  for  this 
small,  accidental  quantity  of  pollen,  I  am 
not  sure  we  should  ever  find  worms  in  the 
comb  honey.    See  Bee-moth. 

POLLEN   IN   THE   SECTIONS    AS   THE   RESULT 

OF    CONTRACTING     THE    UHOOD-CHAMBEB 

TOO    MUCH. 

Pollen  will  be  forced  into  the  surplus 
ai)artment  if  contraction  (see  Comb  Honey) 
be  carried  too  far.  The  brood  -  chamber 
should  not  be  reduced,  ordinarily,  to  more 
than  two-thirds  its  former  cai)acity.  During 
one  season,  when  tlie  honey-How  was  ratlier 
meager,  desiring  to  get  all  the  lioney  into 
the  sections  tliat  was  gathered,  we  conti'act- 
ed  tlie  lnood-nest  of  two  or  three  of  our  liest 
colonies  down  to  two  or  three  frames.  Tliis, 
of  course,  left  tlie  bees  very  little  room  for 
the  storage  of  iioney  Ix'low,  and.  as  we  rea- 
soned, the  ovei'itlus  of  lioney  would  go  above 
right  speedily,  which  it  did.  Tlie  bees  went 
to  work  in  the  sections,  without  any  trouble. 
The  supers    of    these  colonies  were   filled. 


while  colonies  whose  lirood-chambers  were 
moderately  contracted  made  no  demonstra- 
tion above.  When,  however,  we  came  to 
take  off  the  honey  at  the  close  of  the  season, 
from  the  first-mentioned  colonies,  we  found 
that  it  contained  more  or  less  pollen.  The 
sections  from  the  colony  which  liad  only  two 
brooil-frames,  contained  the  most  pollen. 

A  fair  average  colony  will  bring  in  just  so 
much  pollen,  and  they  will  put  it  somewhere. 
They  prefer  to  put  it  in  and  around  the 
lirood ;  but  if  this  is  denied  them  they  will 
put  it  '•'■upstairs,"  just  where  we  don't  want 
them  to  put  it,  especially  when  running  for 
comb  honey.  Had  not  queen-excluding  hon- 
ey-boards been  placed  between  the  upper 
and  lower  stories,  the  queen,  no  doubt,  would 
likewise  have  deposited  eggs  in  the  sections; 
for,  of  course,  her  field  of  labor  was  consid- 
erably reduced.  Indeed,  reports  have  been 
received  wliere  such  excessive  contraction 
has  resulted  in  depositing  eggs  in  the  sec- 
tions, when  the  slatted  honey-board  was  not 
queen-excluding.  In  view  of  the  foregoing, 
if  you  desire  to  keep  brood  and  pollen  in 
their  i)roper  places,  do  not  contract  the 
brood-nest  to  less  than  H  Langstroth  frames. 

queen - EXCLUDING     HONEY - BOARDS     NOT 
NECESSARILY  AN  EXCLUDER  OF  POLLEN. 

It  is  said,  that  the  strips  of  perforated 
zinc  in  the  slatted  honey-board  will  largely 
prevent  the  storage  of  i)ollen  above.  From 
what  exj)erien('e  we  have  had,  I  am  inclined 
to  think  the  zinc  will  discourage  it  to  some 
extent ;  but  from  the  incident  above  related 
it  will  be  observed  that,  if  contraction  Ije 
carried  too  far,  the  bees  will  put  tlie  pollen 
where  they  please,  zinc  or  no  zinc. 

PROPOLIS.  This  is  the  gum  or  var- 
nish that  bees  collect  for  varnishing  over 
the  inside  of  their  hives,  filling  cracks  and 
crevices,  cementing  loose  pieces  of  the  hive 
together,  and  for  making  things  fast  and 
close  generally.  It  collects,  in  time,  on  old 
hives  and  combs,  so  as  to  add  very  material- 
ly to  their  weight.  It  is  not  generally  gath- 
ered in  any  great  quantity  until  at  tlie  close 
of  the  season,  and  it  seems  to  be  collected 
in  response  to  a  kind  of  instinct  that  bids 
them  prepare  for  cold  weather.  I  wish  I 
were  able  to  tell  you  UKu-e  definitely  wliere 
they  get  it;  it  has  been  suggested  that  it  is 
collected  from  the  resinous  buds  of  thebalm- 
of-gilcad,  and  trees  of  a  like  nature;  but  to 
tell  the  truth,  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  saw 
bees  collecting  fresh  lu'opolis  at  all.'-''*  I  see 
them  almost  every  day,  collecting  propolis 
from  old  hives,  old  quilts,  and  pieces  of 
refuse  wax,  wlien  we  are  so  wasteful  and 


I'ROPOLIS. 


224 


PROPOLIS. 


untidy  as  to  leave  any  such  scattered  about. 
That  the  principal  part  of  it  comes  from 
some  particular  plant  or  class  of  plants,  or 
tree,  lam  pretty  well  satisfied,  for  almost 
the  same  aromatic  resinous  flavor  is  notice- 
able, no  matter  what  the  locality  or  season 
of  the  year.  Bees  gather  propolis  with  their 
mandibles,  and  pack  and  carry  it  precisely 
as  they  do  pollen.  It  is  never  packed  in  the 
cells,  however,  but  is  applied  at  once  to  the 
place  wanted.  It  is  often  mixed  with  wax, 
to  strengthen  their  combs,  and  is  applied  to 
the  cells  as  a  varnish,  for  the  same  purpose. 
In  the  absence  of  a  natural  supply,  the  bees 
frequently  resort  to  various  substances,  such 
as  paints,  varnishes,  resins,  pitch,  and  the 
like;  and  the  superstition,  popular  in  some 
sections,  that  bees  follow  their  owner  to  the 
grave,  after  his  death,  probably  obtained 
credence  from  seeing  the  bees  at  work  on 
the  varnish  of  the  coflin.  To  save  the  bees 
the  trouble  of  waxing  up  the  crevices  in 
their  hives,  it  has  been  suggested  that  a 
mixture  of  melted  wax  and  resin  be  poured 
into  the  hive  and  made  to  flow  along  the 
cracks  and  corners.  This  may  do  very  well, 
although  I  fancy  the  bees  can  do  this  better 
and  cheaper  than  we  can.  Our  principal 
trouble  has  been  to  get  rid  of  the  surplus 
propolis,  and  I  should  much  rather  hear  of 
some  invention  to  keep  it  out  of  the  way, 
than  to  add  more. 

It  has  been  recently  suggested,  that  we 
paint  our  hives  both  inside  and  out,  and 
also  the  frames,  except  where  we  wish  to 
have  the  comb  attached.  From  what  ex- 
perience I  have  had  with  painted  bottom- 
boards,  I  am  inclined  to  favor  the  idea,  for, 
even  if  propolis  is  attached  to  the  paint,  it 
cleaves  off  much  more  readily  than  from 
the  plain  wood.  By  keeping  the  surface  on 
any  wood-work  on  the  inside  of  the  hives 
well  oiled,  or  even  rubbed  with  tallow,  we 
may  almost  entirely  prevent  the  accumula- 
tion of  propolis.  Many  inventors  of  hives, 
and  arrangements  to  be  used  inside  of  hives, 
seem  utterly  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  eve- 
ry thing,  in  the  course  of  time,  is  not  only 
waxed  over  with  this  gum,  but  all  holes, 
cracks,  and  interstices,  where  the  bee  can 
not  crawl,  are  filled  and  covered  up  with 
it.  Many  new  aixangements  work  nicely 
the  first  season,  but  after  a  year  or  two 
more  are  so  clogged  and  fastened  up  as  to 
be  utterly  impracticable. 

HOAV    TO    KEEP    PROPOLIS    FROM    SURPLUS 
IIOXEY. 

Of  course,  th6  readiest  means  is  to  remove 
all  sections  just  as  soon  as  a  single  one  is 


capped  over;  and,  as  but  little  propolis  is 
gathered  during  a  strong  yield  of  honey, 
but  little  will  be  found  on  the  honey,  unless 
it  is  left  until  the  yield  has  ceased.  The 
bees  not  only  cover  all  the  wood-work  of  the 
sections  if  left  on  too  long,  but  they  also 
varnish  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  white 
capping,  almost  spoiling  the  looks  and  sale 
of  the  honey. 

It  is  next  to  impossible  to  keep  propolis 
from  the  sections  entirely.  Bees  will  depos- 
it at  least  some  in  the  interstices  between 
the  sections.  As  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum, 
so  bees  seem  to  abhor  a  crack  or  crevice. 
The  nearer  we  can  get  surplus  arrangements 
so  as  to  leave  but  few  crevices  or  places  of 
contact  accessible  to  bees,  the  less  propolis 
will  be  deiwsited.  Some  surphxs  arrange- 
ments are  made  so  as  to  produce  comin-es- 
sion  upon  the  sections,  thus  reducing  the 
space  formed  by  contact  with  sections  to  a 
minimum.  Some  prefer  to  have  the  outside 
of  the  sections  covered  entire.  This  can  be 
accomplished  either  with  the  wide  frames  or 
with  surplus  arrangements  having  the  top 
and  bottom  so  as  to  cover  the  outsides  of  the 
sections.  For  removing  propolis  from  sec- 
tions, see  Comb  Honey. 

HO"\V  TO  REMOVE  PROPOLIS  FROM  THE  FIN- 
GERS. 

A  variety  of  substances  have  been  sug- 
gested. Alcohol  is  perhaps  the  neatest,  but 
is  rather  expensive ;  benzine  answers  near- 
ly as  well,  but  has  an  objectionable  odor; 
soap  will  answer,  if  a  little  lard  be  rubbed 
on  the  hands  first,  but  will  have  little  effect 
on  it  otherwise.  A  friend  down  South  says 
he  has  a  pair  of  light  cotton  gloves,  which 
he  slips  on  when  handling  the  waxy  frames, 
and  his  hands  are  left  clean  whenever  he  is 
obliged  to  stop  work.  For  removing  it 
from  glass,  etc.,  alcohol  is  perhaps  best. 
When  we  have  much  glass  soiled,  it  can 
often  be  cleaned  most  expeditiously  by  boil- 
ing it  in  a  kettle  of  water  with  a  quantity  of 
wood  ashes. 

DO  THE  BEES  NEED  PROPOLIS  ? 

Much  discussion  has  arisen  in  regard  to 
the  habit  of  the  bees,  of  making  all  openings 
tight  with  propolis.  Theory  says,  if  allowed 
to  follow  his  bent,  or  instinct,  he  will 
smother  himself  to  death.  Practice  says, 
he  does,  at  least  at  times,  so  prevent  the  es- 
cape of  moisture,  that  his  home  gets  damp 
and  wet,  filled  with  icicles,  etc.,  so  that  he 
suffers;  or,  at  least,  such  is  the  case  in  the 
hives  we  have  provided  for  him.  Who  is 
right— the  bee  or  the  enlightened  bee-keep- 
er y    Well,  I  think  the  greater  part  of  the 


PROPOJ.IS. 


PKUPOLLS. 


fault  lies  In  the  hive  we  hive  given  him. 
The  enameled  cloth  which  Ihavehitelybeen 
using  for  covering  bees  is  as  imijervious  to 
air  and  moisture  as  the  propolis  he  collects 
with  so  much  pains  and  trouble.  If  the 
outside  of  this  is  allowed  to  get  frostj-.  it 
will,  most  assuredly,  condense  the  breath  of 
the  bees  on  the  inside;  and  if  the  outside  is 
but  thinly  protected  from  the  weather,  ici- 
cles will  certainly  form  on  the  inside,  and 
freeze  the  bees  all  fast  in  a  lump.  Xow  I 
would  have  no  fear  at  all  in  having  the  bees 
wax  up  every  thing  as  tight  as  they  wished, 
if  I  could  have  their  winter  apartment  made 
so  small  that  they  completely  filled  it— filled 
it  so  full,  indeed,  as  to  be  crowded  out  at 
the  entrance,  unless  in  very  cold  weather — 
and  have  the  entire  outside  protected  with 
some  non-conductor  that  would  enable  the 
bees  to  keep  the  inner  walls  warm  at  all 
times,  I  think  then  we  should  have  no  damp- 
ness. With  chaff  packing  and  chaff  cush- 
ions, I  have  succeeded  so  well  that  I  am 
perfectly  willing  the  little  fellows  shall  fix- 
up  just  as  snug  for  winter  as  their  instinct 
prompts  them  to  do. 


VALUE  OF  PROPOLIS. 

Although  this  gum  has  been  used  to  some 
extent  in  medicine,  I  believe  it  possesses  no 
particular  value  over  burgundy  pitch  and 
other  cheap  gum  resins. 

REilOVlNG  AVAX  AND  PROPOLIS  BY  STEAM. 

A  friend  sends  us  the  following,  which 
will  prove  very  serviceable  when  one  has  a 
steam-boiler  convenient: 

I  have  tried  all  the  formulas  for  cleaning  wax 
from  utensils,  and,  in  my  experience,  have  found 
that  concentrated  lye  cleans  it  off  faster  and  more 
thoroughly  than  any  thing  else.  All  the  methods  are 
troublesome,  and  it  takes  time  to  clean,  especially 
the  perforations.  My  plan  of  cleaning  wax  from  the 
perforated  basket  of  the  wax-extractor  is,  to  have 
two  pieces  of  gas-pipe,  each  one  foot  long,  just  large 
enough  to  screw  into  the  sprinkler  of  the  fountain 
pump.  Attach  the  sprinkler  to  one  end  of  the  pipe, 
procure  a  globe  valve,  and  screw  this  on  the  other 
end;  screw  one  end  of  the  other  piece  ofjpipe  on  the 
globe  valve,  and  the  other  end  into  the  steam-boiler, 
about  one  or  two  inches  below  the  water-line.  Open 
the  valve,  and  spray  the  articles  covered  with  wax, 
with  steam  and  hot  water.  You  will  be  astonished 
to  find  how  quickly  it  makes  things  look  like  new. 

St.  Gabrielle,  La.,  Aug.  8,  '79.     J.  A.  Pritchard. 


•o3"&iVJ 


1 


THE  gUEEN  AND  HER  RETINUE. 

(Sec  fi)U(iwiiig  page.) 


Vi^* 


QUISXjlNrS.  The  most  important  person- 
age in  the  hive  is  the  queen,  or  mother-bee. 
She  is  called  the  mother-bee  because  she  is, 
in  reality,  the  mother  of  all  the  bees  in  the 
hive.  So  much  has  already  been  said  of 
queens,  in  Artificial  Swarming,  Drones, 
and  Queen-rearing,  that  I  presume  our 
ABC  class  are  already  pretty  well  acquaint- 
ed with  her  majesty,  as  she  is  frequently 
designated. 

If  you  deprive  a  colony  of  their  queen,  the 
bees  will  set  to  work  and  raise  another,  so 
long  as  they  have  any  worker-larvae  in  the 
hive  with  which  to  do  it.  This  is  the  rule, 
but  there  are  some  exceptions  :  the  excep- 
tions are  so  few,  however,  that  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  a  queen  of  some  kind  is  present 
in  the  hive,  whenever  they  refuse  to  start 
queen-cells  from  larvae  of  a  proper  age. 

What  do  I  mean  by  a  queen  of  some  kindV 
Well,  I  shall  have  to  tell  you  that  bees,  es- 
pecially when  deprived  of  their  queens  un- 
naturally, and  broken  up  into  small  colonies 
or  nuclei,  as  beginners  are  very  apt  to  have 
them,  in  order  to  raise  a  queen,  often  select 
a  worker-larva  so  old  that  the  queen  raised 
from  it  is  about  half  worker  and  half  queen. 
imperfectly  developed  queens. 

Such  queens  are  small,  usually  dark  in  col- 
or, and  will  sometimes  become  fertilized,  and 
lay  eggs  for  a  little  while  (all  the  way  from 
a  week  to  several  months),  but  they  are  nev- 
er profitable.  Sometimes  they  will  not  lay 
at  all,  but  will  remain  in  a  colony  all  through 
the  season,  neither  doing  any  good  nor  per- 
mitting any  other  queen  to  be  either  intro- 
duced or  reared.  A  wingless  queen,  or  one 
with  bad  wings,  will  produce  the  same  re- 
sult. The  remedy  is  to  hunt  them  out  and 
remove  them.  Where  they  are  so  near  like 
a  worker-bee  as  to  make  it  hard  to  distin- 
guish them,  they  may  often  be  detected  by 
the  peculiar  behavior  of  the  bees  toward 
them.  See  Introducing  Queens,  also  cut 
on  preceding  page. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  make  out, 
these  half-worker  queens  are  the  result  of 
trying  to  raise  a  queen  when  there  are  too 


few  bees,  or  when  the  larvse  with  which  they 
are  obliged  to  rear  a  queen  are  too  old  ;  that 
is,  too  nearly  ready  to  seal  up.  Where  they 
can  do  no  better,  they  will  undertake  to  rear 
a  queen  from  a  larva  only  one  day  before 
sealing  up;  it  will  be,  at  this  age,  almost  full 
size,  being  8  days  from  the  time  the  egg  was 
laid.  They  enlarge  the  cell,  dose  it  with  the 
royal  jelly,  and  from  that  time  onward  it 
has  the  care  given  a  queen  from  the  egg.  I 
have  watched  such  queens  when  they  first 
came  from  the  cell,  and  some  of  them  were 
little,  if  any,  different  from  a  common  work- 
er; others  would  have  the  body  a  little  more 
elongated,  and  a  peculiar  taper,  or  slimness, 
that,  to  a  practiced  eye,  invariably  distin- 
guishes the  queen  from  the  worker. 

HOW'   A  worker-egg  IS  MADE  TO   PRODUCE 
A   QUEEN. 

This  is  a  question  often  asked,  and  it  is 
one  that  puzzles  me  about  as  much  to  an- 
swer as  any  question  a  visitor  can  ask.  I 
cannot  promise  to  tell  you  all  about  it,  but  I 
will  tell  you  all  I  know  about  it.  We  will 
first  get  a  frame  of  eggs,  as  we  did  in  study- 
ing Bees,  but  we  will  vary  the  experiment 
by  putting  it  into  a  colony  having  no  queen. 
The  minute  eggs  will  hatch  into  larvae  as  be- 
fore ;  but  about  as  soon  as  they  begin  to 
hatch,  if  you  look  carefully  you  will  see 
some  of  the  cells  supplied  with  a  greater 
profusion  of  the  milky  food  than  others. 
Later,  these  cells  will  begin  to  be  enlarged, 
and  soon  at  the  expense  of  the  adjoining 
ones.  These  are  queen-cells,  and  they  are 
something  like  the  cup  of  an  acorn  in  shape, 
and  usually  occupy  about  the  space  of  three 
ordinary  cells.  In  the  drawing  given,  you 
will  see  cells  in  different  stages  of  growth. 

At  A,  is  a  cell  just  being  converted  into  a 
queen-cell ;  at  B,  one  where  the  thin  walls 
are  extended  so  as  to  form  a  queen-cell  prop- 
er, almost  ready  to  seal  up.  This  occurs  at 
just  about  9  days  from  the  time  the  egg  Avas 
laid.  In  7  days  more,  16  days  in  all  from 
the  time  the  egg  was  laid,  the  queen  will 
hatch  out,  a  perfect  insect.  C  is  a  cell  just 
vacated.    Now  bear  in  mind  exactly  what  1 


QUEERS. 


227 


QUEENS. 


say,  or  you  will  get  confused.  If,  instead  of 
eggs,  larvae  3  days  old  are  given  the  bees,  they 
will  rear  a  queen,  and,  in  this  case,  she  will 
hatch  in  only  ten  days  after  the  larvae  were 
given  them.  These  ten-day  queens  may  be 
just  as  good  as  any;'*^"  but  to  be  on  the  safe 
side.  I  would  prefer  giving  them  larvte  one 
or  two  days  younger,  that  they  might  have 
the  benefit  of  this  excess  of  food  and  larger 
cell,  during  the  whole  of  their  larval  period. 
The  six-day  larvje  are  quite  large  fellows,  as 
you  will  see  by  the  cut  at  F. 


QUEEX-CELLS. 

There  are  some  queer  things  about  queen- 
cells,  as  you  will  notice.  After  the  cell  is 
sealed,  they  go  and  put  a  great  excess  of 
wax  on  it,  give  it  a  long  tapering  point,  and 
corrugate  the  sides  something  like  a  thim- 
ble, as  shown  at  C  This  corrugation,  or 
roughness,  when  closely  examined,  will  be 
seen  to  be  honey-comb  on  a  very  small  scale. 
Now  right  here  is  a  point  that  you  will  not 
fail  to  observe  :  Bees,  like  other  folks,  some- 
times make  mistakes  ;  for  they  do  not  seem 
to  know  any  better  than  to  use  a  drone-lar- 
va for  rearing  a  queen,  if  such  happens  to 
be  present.  Therefore,  when  selecting  eggs 
for  this  purpose,  be  sure  you  do  not  give 
them  any  contained  in  drone  comb.  They 
will  go  right  on,  and  dose  the  poor  drone 
with  the  royal  jelly,  but  the  poor  fellow  usu- 
ally dies  before  it  is  time  to  hutch  out,  and 
then  the  bees  and  their  owner  wait  in  vain 
for  the  cell  to  hatch.  It  has  been  reported 
of  late,  that  the  inmate  of  sucli  a  cell  some- 
times hatches,  but  he  is  only  a  drone,  even 
then,  and  not  a  queen.  Well,  I  am  glad  to 
be  able  to  tell  you  that  you  never  need  waste 
time  on  this  kind  of  cells,*  for  the  bees  have 

*  Once  in  a  great  while  there  is  an  exception  to 
pven  this  rule:  it  is  when  the  bees  tmild  nn  nnusunl- 
ly  Irtrire  queen-cell  with  corrujration*  sn  laive  and 
fanciful  that  it  is  really  miniature  hdney-cnib  over 
the  surface  of  the  (lueen-cell.  The  only  rea-on  I 
can  suggest  for  this  is,  that  U  i^  bee  nis<'  they  are 
out  of  work,  and  want  something  to  do. 


a  way  of  marking  them,  unconsciously,  it 
would  seem.  Queen-cells  containing  drone- 
larvae  (see  D  in  cut)  are  always  smooth, 
without  corrugation,  so  you  can  detect  and 
remove  them  before  valuable  time  is  wasted. 

Now,  it  is  very  handy  to  be  able  to  tell 
about  when  any  queen-cells  you  may  happen 
to  find  unexpectedly  will  be  likely  to  hatch  ; 
and  the  bees  are  very  accommodating  in  this 
respect  also ;  for,  about  the  day  before  the 
queen  hatches,  or  it  may  be  two  days,  they 
go  and  tear  down  this  long  peak  of  wax  on 
the  tip  of  the  cell,  and  leave  only  a  very  thin 
covering,  similar  to  D.  I  do  not  know 
what  this  is  for,  unless  it  is  because  they  are 
anxious  to  get  a  peep  at  their  new  mother. 
It  has  been  said,  they  do  it  that  she  may  be 
better  able  to  pierce  the  capping;  biit  some- 
times they  omit  the  proceeding  entirely, 
and  I  have  not  been  able  to  see  that  she  has 
any  difficulty  in  cutting  the  cap  off.  If  the 
cell  is  built  on  new  comb,  or  on  a  sheet  of 
fdn.,  and  it  be  held  up  before  a  strong  light, 
at  about  the  loth  day.  or  a  little  later,  you 
will  see  the  queen  moving  about  in  the  cell. 
A  little  later,  by  listening  carefully,  you  can 
hear  her  gnawing  her  way  out.  Pretty  soon 
the  points  of  her  sharp  and  powerful  mandi- 
bles will  be  seen  protruding,  as  she  bites  out 
a  narrow  line.  Since  she  turns  her  body  in 
a  circle  while  doing  this,  she  cuts  out  a  cir- 
cle so  true  that  it  often  looks  as  if  cut  out 
by  a  pair  of  compasses.  Now  observe,  that 
the  substance  of  which  the  cell  is  made  is 
tough  and  leathery, ^^  and,  therefore,  before 
she  gets  clear  around  her  circle,  the  piece 
springs  out  in  response  to  her  pushing,  and 
opens  just  about  as  the  lid  of  a  coffee-pot 
would,  if  a  kitten  should  happen  to  be  inside 
crowding  against  the  lid.  I  have  often  seen 
them  push  the  door  open  and  look  out,  with 
as  much  a])parent  curiosity  as  a  child  exhib- 
its when  it  first  creeps  to  the  door  on  a  sum- 
mer morning:  often,  after  taking  this  look, 
they  will  back  down  into  their  cradle,  and 
stay  some  time.  This  is  especially  the  case 
when  other  queens  are  hatching,  and  there 
is  a  strife  as  to  wlio  shall  be  sovereign. 

We  will  now  consider  the  strange  sulistauce 

KOYAL  JELLY. 

The  milky  food  before  described,  which  is 
given  to  the  young  larvte,  and  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  mixture  of  pollen  and  honey 
partially  digested,  is  very  similar,  if  not 
identical,  in  C()nii)Osition  with  the  royal  jel- 
ly. Tlie  bees  are  not  tlie  only  examples  in 
tlie  animal  kingdom,  where  the  food  is  taken 
into  tlie  stomacii  by  the  parent,  and,  after  a 
partial  digestion,  is  thrown  up  for  the  use  of 


QUEENS. 


::28 


QUEENS. 


the  offspring.  Pigeons  feed  their  young 
precisely  in  this  way.  until  they  are  able  to 
digest  the  food  for  themselves.  It  has  been 
stated  that  bees  use  a  coarser  food  for  the 
worker-larvfe,  after  they  are  a  few  days  old, 
and  also  for  the  drone  -  larvfe.  during  the 
whole  of  their  larval  state.  What  I  mean 
by  a  coarser  food  is,  a  food  not  so  perfectly 
digested ;  in  fact,  drones  are  said  to  be  fed 
on  a  mixture  of  pollen  and  honey,  in  a  state 
nearly  natural.  This  may  be  so,  but  I  have 
no  means  of  proving  it  to  my  satisfaction. 
It  has  also  been  said,  that  the  qiieens  receive 
the  very  finest,  most  perfectly  digested,  and 
concentrated  food  that  they  can  prepare. 
This  I  can  readily  believe,  for  the  royal  jelly 
has  a  very  rich  taste— something  between 
cream,  quince  jelly,  and  honey — with  a 
slightly  tart  and  a  rank,  strong,  milky  taste 
that  is  quite  sickening,  if  much  of  it  be  tak- 
en. I  am  much  inclined  to  think  that  the 
same  food  that  is  given  the  young  larvse  at 
first  will  form  royal  jelly,  if  left  exposed  to 
the  air.  as  it  is  in  the  broad,  open  queen- 
cells.  After  a  queen  has  hatched  it  is  some- 
times found  dried  do^\Ti  hard,  and  looks 
much  like  stiff  fruit-jelly.  Whether  this  is 
the  product  of  the  milky  food  when  allowed 
to  stand,  as  I  have  suggested,  is  a  question 
to  be  decided.  The  bees,  when  rearing 
queens,  furnish  this  food  in  profusion,  and  I 
have  seen,  during  the  swarming  time,  single 
combs  that  contained  a  good  spoonful,  de- 
posited, of  course,  in  queen  -  cells.  See 
Anatomy  or  Bees. 

WHAT  DOES  THE  QUEEN  DO  W^HILE   SEALED 
UPV 

Candidly.  I  do  not  know  very  much  about 
it,  although  I  have-  opened  cells  at  every 
stage  after  they  were  sealed,  until  they  were 
ready  to  hatch.  One  day  after  being  sealed, 
they  are  simply  ordinary  larvae,  although 
rather  larger  than  worker  larvae  of  the  same 
age;  after  two  or  three  days,  a  head  begins 
gradually  to  be  '•  mapped  out,''  if  that  is  the 
proper  expression,  and  later,  some  legs  are 
seen  folded  up;  last  of  all,  a  pair  of  delicate 
wings  come  from  somewhere,  I  hardly  know 
how.  Two  days  before  hatching  I  have  tak- 
en them  out  of  the  cell,  and  had  them  ma- 
ture into  perfect  queens,  by  simply  keeping 
them  in  a  warm  place.  I  have  also  taken 
them  out  of  the  cell  before  they  were  ma- 
ture, held  the  white,  still,  corpse  -  like  form 
in  my  hand  while  I  admired  it  as  long  as  I 
chose,  then  put  it  back,  waxed  up  the  cell 
by  warming  a  bit  of  wax  in  my  fingers,  and 
had  it  hatch  out  three  days  after,  as  nice  a 
queen  as  any.     Mr.  Langstroth  mentions 


having  seen  the  whole  operation  by  placing 
a  thin  glass  tube,  open  at  both  ends,  into  the 
cell,  so  as  to  have  it  inclose  the  queen,  the 
bees  being  allowed  to  cap  it  as  usual.  If  I 
am  correct,  this  experiment  Avas  first  made 
by  Huber.  With  several  such  glass  queen- 
cells,  and  a  lamp  nursery,  I  presume  the 
whole  operation  could  be  watched  from  be- 
ginning to  end. 

DAVIS'  TRANSPOSITION   PROCESS. 

In  the  month  of  August,  1874,  after  I  had 
discovered  how  to  send  larvae  for  queen-rear- 
ing safely  by  mail  for  short  distances,  our 
friend  J.  L.  Davis,  of  Delhi,  Ingham  Co.,' 
Mich.,  wrote  that  he  should  get  a  large  num- 
ber of  queens  from  the  piece  I  sent  him,  for 
he  was  going  to  remove  the  larvae  from  the 
cells  and  place  them  in  queen  -  cells  already 
started  in  his  hives ;  of  course,  removing  the 
original  larvae  first.  I  caught  at  the  idea  at 
once,  and  went  to  some  hives  of  hybrids  that 
had  persisted  in  tearing  down  all  che  cells 
given  them,  and  building  others  from  their 
own  brood,  and  removed  the  larvae  from  all 
the  cells,  substituting  larvae  from  the  im- 
ported queen  in  its  stead.  I  used  a  quill 
toothpick  for  making  the  transposition. 
Almost  every  cell  was  built  out  and  capped, 
just  as  well  as  if  they  had  kept  their  own 
black  stock.  In  due  time  I  had  as  nice  a 
lot  of  fine  yellow  queens  as  I  ever  reared. 
We  have  practiced  this  method  almost  ev- 
ery year  since. 

Mr.  Davis  described  his  invention  in  the 
Sept.  No.  of  Gleanings  for  1874,  and  it 
has  been  commented  on,  and  suggestions 
added,  in  almost  every  volume  since.  "From 
letters  received  from  other  parties,  it  seems 
that  he  may  not  have  been  the  first  person 
to  make  the  discovery  that  larvae  could  be 
thus  safely  transposed;  but  as  he  was  the 
first  one  who  made  the  discovery  known  to 
the  public,  and  put  it  into  practical  and  prof- 
itable use,  he  certainly  deserves  all  credit 
and  honor  for  his  discovery,  and  a  vote  of 
thanks  for  generously  giving  it  to  the  world 
at  once,  without  any  thought  of  reserving  it 
for  his  own  private  benefit,  as  he  might  have 
done. 

We  have  used  a  tiny  silver  spoon,  made 
on  purpose  for  removing  the  larvae,  and  as 
much  of  the  milky  food  as  possible.!"  I 
need  hardly  caution  you  that  these  small 
larvae  are  very  tender  and  delicate,  and  will 
hardly  bear  so  much  as  a  touch,  without  in- 
jury- 

WHAT  BEC03IES  OF  THE  QUEEN  AFTER   SHE 
LEAVES  THE  CELL? 

I  am  glad  to  say,  that  I  can  tell  you,  by 


QUEENS. 


229 


QUEENS. 


personal  observation,  pretty  nearly  what  a 
queen  does  after  she  pushes  open  that 
hinged  door  that  I  told  you  of,  and  which 
you  will  find  illustrated  under  the  head  of 
QuEEX-KEARiNG.  She  generally  begins  to 
put  her  head  into  the  cells  until  she  finds 
one  containing  unsealed  honey,  from  which 
she  takes  a  sup  that,  at  least,  indicates  that 
she  likes  that  kind  of  provision.  May  I  di- 
gress enough  here  to  ask,  if  it  does  not  al- 
most seem  proper  to  say  that  she  remembers 
where  honey  is  to  be  had  V  She  never  exist- 
ed before,  it  is  true;  but  are  you  sure  she 
does  not  remember  at  all  what  her  mother 
and  grandmother  did  ages  and  ages  before 
her?  It  may  be  as  well  to  say  she  does  it  by 
instinct,  but  I  confess  that  term  hardly  sat- 1 
isties  me.  \ 

After  she  has  had  her  supper  she  begins 
to  crawl  about,  partly  to  enjoy  using  the  long 
strong  legs  God  has  given  her,  and  perhaps 
because  she  "remembers''  that  it  is  her  allot- 
ted task  to  tear  down  the  remaining  queen- 
cells,  if  such  there  are.    If  other  queens  have 
hatched  before  her,  it  is  one  of  her  first  and 
foremost  duties  to  look  them  up,  and  either 
reign  supreme  or  die  in  the  attempt."''-  If  all 
the  other  cells  have  been  removed,  as  they 
usually  are  where  queens  are  wanted  for 
other  purposes,  she  has  nothing  to  do  but  to 
promenade  over  the  premises,  monarch  of 
all  she  surveys.    If  she  ever  sits  down  to 
take  a  rest,  or  takes  a  rest  in  any  other  po- 
sition, during  the  fir'st  week  of  her  life,  I 
have  never  been  able  to  discover  it.    She  is 
always  traveling  about,  and  this  is  one  rea-  i 
son   why   I    am   averse   to   caging   young  I 
queens,  in  order  that  we  may  allow  several  I 
to  hatch  in  the  same  hive.    It  seems  to  be 
natural  for  them  to  run  about,  and  I  believe 
it  is  necessary  for  their  well-being.    Several  I 
years  ago  I  thought  I  had  made  a  brilliant 
discovery  when  I  succeeded  in  hatching  all 
the  queen-cells  in  the  hive,  under  cups  made 
of  wire  cloth.    The  first  hatched  was  al- 
lowed to  run  imtil  she  became  fertile,  and 
began  laying ;  she  was  then  removed,  and 
the  next  released,  and  so  cm.    I  think  I  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  four  laying  queens  from 
tlie  single  lot  of  cells,  all  in  the  one  hive,  but 
the  bees  made  such  desperate  efforts  to  get 
tlie  obnoxious  cages  out  of  the  way,  and  the 
inmates  of  the  cages  to  get  out,  that  I  gave 
up  the  plan,  after  seeing  several  fine  queens 
die  of  nothing  else,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  than 
confinement. 

I>ut  suppose  she  does  find  another  cell ; 
what    thenV     Well,    slie    sometimes    runs 
around  it  awhile;  sometimes  the  bees  tear 
8 


it  down,  and  sometimes  she  tears  it  down 
herself,  with  the  same  strong  mandibles  that 
she  used  to  cut  her  way  out  of  the  cell  at 
first.  She  usually  makes  the  opening  in  the 
side  of  the  cell,  as  shown  at  E  in  cut  on 
page  227. 

Now,  it  is  said  that  tlie  queen  immediately 
stings  her  helpless  immature  sister,  to  make 
a  sure  thing  of  her  destruction  ;  but  of  this 
I  am  not  certain,  for  I  never  saw  her  in  the 
act  of  so  doing.    I  have  seen  spots  in  the 
side  of  the  queen  that  looked  much  as  if  she 
had  been  stung,  but  I  have  also  rescued  cells 
and  put  them  in  the  lamp-nursery  after  they 
had  been  torn  open,  and  had  them  mature 
into  nice  queens.    As  these  immature  queens 
are  very  soft,  the  workers  will  soon  pick 
them  out  of  the  cell,  piece  by  piece,  and  I 
have  sometimes  placed  them  in  the  lamp- 
nursery  and  had  them  mature,  minus  a  wing 
or  leg,  or  whatever  portion  the  mischievous 
worker   had   pulled  away.     I  judge  from 
many  such  observations  that  the  queen  gen- 
erally tears  a  hole  in  the  cell,  or  bites  into  it 
in  such  a  way  that  the  workers  take  hold  of 
it,  and  tear  it  all  doT\Ti,  much  in  the  way 
they  do  any  mutilated  or  broken  piece  of 
comb."53  ^Yhen  queen-cells  have  been  cut  out, 
all  the  larvse  that  are  in  any  way  injured  are  at 
once  thrown  out,  and  none  but  the  perfect 
cells  preserved.    Bees  never  fuss  Avith  crip- 
ples,  or    try   to   nurse   up  a  bee    that    is 
wounded  or  maimed.    They  have  just  the 
same  feeling  for  their  fellows  that  a  locomo- 
tive might  be  expected  to  have  for  a  man 
whom  it  had  run  over.    They  battle  against 
anything  that  threatens  the  extinction  of 
the  colony,  it  is  true;  but  I  have  never  been 
able  to  discover  any  signs  of  their  caring  for 
one  of  their  number,  or  even  having  com- 
passion on  their  helpless  brood,  when  it  is 
wounded  and  suffering.    If  a  hole  is  made 
in  a  queen-cell,  by  the  queen  or  anybody 
else,  they  are  very  likely  to  tear  it  down  and 
throw  it  away.    When  a  queen  hatches,  the 
remaining  cells  are  very  soon  torn  down,  as 
a  general  thing,  but  there  are  many  excep- 
tions.   AVhen  two  queens  liatch  out  at  about 
the  same  time,  they  also  generally  attempt 
to  kill  each  other;  but  I  have  never  heard  of 
both  being  killed.     This  probably  results 
from  the  fact  that  they  can  sting  their  rivals 
only  in  one  certain  ;  way  and  the  one  that, 
by  strength  or  accident,  gets  the  lucky  posi- 
tion in  the  combat,  is  sure  to  come  off  vic- 
tor.   This  explains  how  a  very  inferior  vir- 
gin queen,  that  lias  got  into  the  hive  by  ac- 
cident, may  sometimes  supplant  an  old  lay- 
ing queen.    Two  queens,  when  thus  thrown 


QUEENS. 


230 


QUEENS. 


together,  generally  fight  very  soon,  but  this 
is  not  ahvays  the  case.  Several  cases  are  on 
record  where  they  have  lived  in  peace  and 
harmony  for  months,  even  when  hatched  at 
about  the  same  time,  and  it  is  quite  common 
to  find  a  young  queen  helping  her  mother 
in  the  egg-laying  duties  of  the  hive,  espe- 
cially when  the  mother  is  two  or  three  years 
old.  If  the  season  is  good,  and  the  hive  pop- 
ulous, very  often,  instead  of  a  fight,  they  di- 
vide up  their  forces  in  some  way,  and  we 
have  After-swarmixg,  which  see.i" 

Sometimes  the  queen  will  pay  no  attention 
to  the  remaining  cells,*"'-  but  will  let  them 
hatch  out,  and  then  their ''little  differences" 
are  adjusted  afterward,  either  by  swarming 
or  by  the  usual  '•hand-to-hand'"  conflict '■'un- 
til death."  I  once  looked  for  a  queen,  and, 
not  finding  her.  concluded  she  was  lost. 
Another  cell  was  inserted,  and  in  due  time 
hatched  out.  I  was  much  surprised  to  find 
my  new  queen  laying  when  only  one  day 
old:  but  a  little  further  looking  revealed  the 
two.  both  on  the  same  comb.  Many  losses 
in  introducing  queens  have  resulted  from 
two  queens  being  in  the  hive,  the  owner  be- 
ing sure  his  hive  was  queenless,  because  he 
had  removed  one. 

queens'  voices. 

When  a  colony  swarms  naturally,  the 
young  queens  of  the  after-swarms  have  a 
queer  way  of  calling  to  each  other,  when 
about  to  hatch  out,  I  suppose,  or  when  they 
have  their  cell-doors  open,  and  are  afraid  to 
emerge. >**^  The  note  they  utter  is  more  like 
"zeep.  zeep,  zeep,"  than  anything  else  I  can 
spell,  and  their  tones  are  so  different  that  it 
is  really  amusing  to  hear  them  call.-'''^  It  is 
common  to  hear  them  where  there  are  two 
queens  in  the  same  hive,  in  a  fighting  mood, 
or  stirred  by  jealousy  ;  and  I  often  hear  this 
call  when  simply  passing  by  the  hives  in 
swarming  season.  The  queen  sometimes 
utters  this  call  at  other  times,  though  not 
often.  When  a  young  queen  is  being  intro- 
duced she  will  frequently  utter  a  similar 
note  of  alarm,  and  some  of  our  friends  have 
called  it  '•  squealing."  The  bees  are  almost 
always  stirred  by  these  notes  of  the  queen, 
and  they  will  often  turn  and  run  after  her 
and  cling  around  her  like  a  ball,  when  they 
would  have  paid  no  attention  to  her  had  she 
not  uttered  this  well-known  note.  After 
you  have  once  heard  it,  you  will  recognize  it 
ever  afterward.  Queens,  when  placed  near 
together  in  cages,  will  often  call  and  ans- 
wer each  other,  in  tones  that  we  have  sup- 
posed might  be  challenges  to  moi'tal  combat. 

Some  queens  received  one  summer  from 


"W.  P.  Henderson,  of  Murfreesboro,  Tenn., 
called  so  loudly,  when  placed  on  our  table, 
that  they  could  be  heard  clear  across  a  long 
room.  One  voice  would  be  on  a  high,  shrill 
key,  and  another  a  deep  bass,  while  others 
were  intermediate.  On  watching  closely,  a 
tremulous  movement  of  the  wings  was  no- 
ticed while  the  queen  was  uttering  the 
note,  from  which  I  infer  that  the  sound  is 
produced  by  the  wings,  in  a  manner  similar 
to  that  in  which  katydids  and  locusts  pro- 
duce their  peculiar  notes.  The  fact  that  a 
queen  may  be  prevented  from  "  squealing  " 
while  being  introduced,  by  daubing  her 
wings  with  honey,  is  also  conclusive  that 
the  sound  is  produced  by  the  wings."*  That 
these  sounds  from  the  queen  have  the  power 
of  controlling  certain  movements  of  the 
bees  I  am  well  aware,  but  I  do  not  know 
just  how  or  to  what  extent  this  influence 
works. 

VIRGIN  QUEENS. 

The  newly  hatched  queen  is  termed  a  vir- 
gin queen  to  distinguish  her  from  queens 
that  have  been  fertilized  by  the  drone,  and 
are  laying.  Virgin  queens,  when  first 
hatched,  are  sometimes  nearly  as  large  as  a 
fertile  queen,  but  they  gradually  decrease  in 
size:  and  when  three  or  four  days  old  they 
often  look  so  small  and  insignificant  that  a 
novice  is  disgusted  with  their  appearance, 
and,  if  he  is  hasty,  pronounces  them  good 
for  nothing.  For  the  first  week  of  their 
lives  they  crawl  about  much  as  an  ordinary 
young  worker  does,  and  it  is  often  very  ditfi- 
cult,  if  not  almost  impossible,  to  find  them, 
unless  an  amount  of  time  is  taken  that  is 
more  than  a  busy  apiarist  can  well  afford  to 
spare.  In  Queen-rearing  I  have  advised 
not  to  look  for  them,  but  to  insert  a  small 
piece  of  comb  containing  larvae,  and,  if  no 
cells  are  started,  you  can  decide  the  queen  is 
there,  without  looking.  This  piece  of  lar- 
vae answers  a  threefold  purpose.  It  tells  at 
a  glance  whether  the  queen  is  in  the  hive 
all  right  or  not;  for  the  very  moment  she  is 
lost,  they  will  start  more  queen  cells  on  it ; 
it  enables  the  bees  to  start  another  cjueen,. 
in  case  the  queen  is  lost  by  any  accident  in 
her  wedding-flight,  which  is  frequently  the 
case:  and,  lastly,  it  serves  as  a  sort  of  nucleus 
to  hold  the  bees  together,  and  to  keep  them 
from  going  out  with  the  queen  on  her  wed- 
ding-trip, which  they  are  much  disposed  ta 
to  do,  if  in  a  small  nucleus  containing  no- 
brood.  Unsealed  brood  in  a  hive  is  a  great 
safeguard  against  accidents  of  all  sorts,  and 
I  have  often  started  a  young  queen  to  lay- 
ing by  simply  giving  the  bees  some  eggs 


quee:ns. 


232 


QUEENS. 


and  unsealed  brood.  AVhether  it  caused  her 
to  rouse  up  and  take  her  Avedding-tlight,  or 
whether  she  had  taken  it,  but  was  tor  some 
reason  idle,  I  can  not  say;  but  this  I  know, 
that  young  queens  that  do  not  lay  at  two 
weeks  of  age  will  often  commence,  when 
eggs  and  larva^  are  given  to  their  colonies. 
It  may  be  that  the  sight  of  eggs  and  larvae 
suggests  to  them  the  next  step  in  aifairs,  or 
it  may  induce  the  workers  to  feed  them,  as 
they  do  a  laying  queen,  an  unusual  quantity 
of  food. 

AGE  AT  WHICH  VIRGIN  QL^EENS  TAKE  THEIR 
WEDDING-FLIGHT. 

Our  books  seem  to  disagree  considerably 
on  this  point,  and  I  am  afraid  that  many  of 
the  book-makers  find  it  easier  to  copy  from 
the  sayings  of  others  than  to  make  practi- 
cal experiments.  It  has  been  variously  stat- 
ed, at  from  two  to  ten  days  :  some  go  as  far 
as  to  say  that  the  queen  goes  out  to  meet  the 
drones  the  day  after  leaving  the  cell.  It  is 
quite  likely  that  some  difference  arises  from 
the  fact  that  queens  often  stay  in  the  cell  a 
day  or  two  after  they  are  strong  enough  to 
walk  about.*  Sometimes  a  queen  will  be 
found  walking  about  the  combs  when  she  is 
so  young  as  to  be  almost  white ;  I  have  oft- 
en seen  beginners  rejoice  at  their  beautiful 
yellow  queens,  saying  that  they  were  yellow 
all  over,  without  a.bitof  black  on  them;  but 
when  looked  at  again,  they  would  be  found 
to  be  as  dark  as  the  generality  of  queens. 
At  other  times  when  they  come  out  of  the 
cell  they  will  look,  both  in  color  and  size, 
as  if  they  might  be  three  or  four  days  old. 
The  queens  in  our  apiary  generally  begin  to 
crawl  about  the  entrance  of  the  hive,  possi- 
bly looking  out  now  and  then,  when  .5  or  6 
days  old.  The  next  day,  supposing  of  course 
we  have  fine  weather,  they  will  generally  go 
out  and  try  their  wings  a  little.  These  flights 
are  usually  taken  in  the  warmest  part  of  the 
afternoon.  I  know  of  no  prettier  or  more 
interesting  sight  to  the  apiarist  than  the 
first  rtight  of  a  queen.  Perhai)S  a  few  hours 
before  he  had  looked  at  her.  and  been  dis- 
appointed at  her  small  and  insignificant  ap- 
pearance ;  but  now,  as  she  ventures  out  cau- 
tiously on  the  alighting  -  board,  with  her 
wings  slightly  raised,  her  tapering  body 
elongated  and  amazingly  increased  in  size, 
he  looks  in  wonder,  scarcely  believing  she 
can  be  the  same  insect.  She  runs  this  way 
and  that,  something  as  does  a  young  bee, 
only  apparently  much  more  excited  at  the 
prospect  of  soaring  aloft  in  the  soft  summer 

♦Recent  reports  state  that  queens  were  confined 
in  cells  4  or  5  days  after  they  should  have  hatched. 


air.  Finally  she  tremblingly  spreads  those 
long  silky  wings,  and  with  a  graceful  move- 
ment that  I  can  not  remember  to  have  seen 
equaled  anywhere  in  the  whole  scojie  of  an- 
imated nature,  she  swings  from  her  feet^ 
while  her  long  body  sways  pendulously  as 
she  hovers  about  the  entrance  of  the  hive. 
When  I  first  beheld  one  on  the  wing  there 
was  a  queer  feeling  of  having  seen  some- 
thing similar,  years  ago,  and  I  might  have 
reasoned  that  I  was  remembering  something 
my  father  or  grandfather  had  seen,  did  I  not 
know  that  none  of  them  were  ever  bee-kee])- 
!  ers.  Below  I  have  tried  to  give  you  a  pic- 
ture of 


A   VIRGIN  "QUEEN   UPON   THE  AVING. 

A  worker-bee  hovers  about  the  entrance 
and  carefully  takes  his  points  when  he  tries 
his  wings  for  the  first  time;  but  she,  seem- 
ing to  feel  instinctively  that  she  is  of  more 
value  to  the  colony  than  many,  many  work- 
ers, with  the  most  scrupulous  exactness 
notes  every  minute  point  and  feature  of  the 
exterior  of  her  abode,  often  alighting  and 
taking  wing  again  and  again,  to  make  sure 
she  knows  all  about  it.  I  remember  that,, 
when  I  saw  one  for  the  first  time  go  through 
with  all  these  manceuvres,  I  became  impa- 
tient of  so  much  circumlocution,  and  if  I  did 
not  say.  I  felt  like  saying,— 

''There!  there!  old  lady;  you  certainly 
know  where  you  live  now;  do  you  suppose  a 
fellow  can  stay  here  all  the  afternoon,  neg- 
lecting his  business,  just  to  see  you  start  oif 
on  your  first  journey  in  life?''' 

By  and  by  she  ventures  to  circle  a  little 
way  from  home,  always  bringing  back  soon, 
but  being  gone  longer  and  longer  each  time. 
She  sometimes  goes  back  into  the  hive  sat- 
isfied, without  going  out  of  sight  at  all ;  but, 
in  this  case,  she  will  be  sure  to  take  a  longer 
flight  next  day,  or  a  half-hour  later  in  the 
same  day.    During  these  seasons  she  seems 


QUEENS. 


QUEENS. 


to  be  so  intent  on  the  idea  slie  has  in  her  lit- 
tle head,  that  she  forgets  all  about  surround- 
ing things,  and,  instead  of  being  frightened 
as  usual  at  your  opening  the  liive,  she  will 
pay  no  attention  to  you;  but  if  you  lift 
up  the  comb  she  is  on  she  will  take  her  flight 
from  that  as  well  as  from  anywhere  else.  I 
have  caught  them  in  my  hand  at  such  times, 
without  their  being  frightened  at  all;  but  as 
soon  as  they  were  allowed  to  go,  they  were 
off  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  After  she 
is  satisfied  that  she  will  know  the  place,  she 
ventures  out  boldly;  and  from  the  fact  other 
circling  right  up  in  the  air,  we  have,  until 
lately,  supposed  that  fertilization  took  place 
above  the  ken  of  hiunan  eyesight.  This  has 
recently  been  sho^^^l  to  be  a  mistake,  I  think. 
After  a  successful  flight,  she  returns  with  the 
organs  of  the  drone  remaining  attached  to 
her  body.  See  Drones.  This  is  a  white 
substance,  and  is  frequently  so  large  as  to 
be  plainly  seen  while  she  is  on  the  wing.  I 
should  think  a  queen  is  usually  gone  half  an 
hour,  but  I  have  seen  them  return  fertilized 
after  an  absence  of  not  more  than  10  or  15 
minutes.  This  accomplished,  she  goes  qui- 
etly into  the  hive.  The  bees  are  much  in- 
clined to  chase  after  her,  and  they  some- 
times pull  at  the  protruding  substance  as  if 
they  would  drag  it  away,  but  I  am  inclined 
to  think  it  is  eventually  absorbed  into  the 
body  of  the  queen.  In  looking  at  her  the 
day  after,  all  the  trace  of  it  you  will  observe 
will  be  possibly  a  shriveled  thread.  In  one 
day  more  you  will,  as  a  general  rule,  find 
her  depositing  eggs.  I  presume  the  average 
age  at  which  our  queens  are  laying  is  about 
9  days;  we  generally  wait  10  days  from  the 
date  of  hatching,  and  are  then  pretty  sure 
of  finding  them  ready  to  send  off.  Between 
the  fertilization  and  the  time  tlie  first  egg  is 
laid  a  remarkable  change  takes  place.  Aft- 
er the  queen  has  been  out  and  fertilized, 
her  appearance  is  much  the  same  as  before. 
She  runs  and  hides  when  the  hive  is  opened, 
and  looks  so  small  and  insignificant, 
one  would  not  think  of  calling  her  a  fer- 
tile queen.  A  few  hours  before  the  first  egg 
is  laid,  however,  her  body  increases  remark- 
ably in  size,  and,  if  an  Italian,  becomes 
lighter  in  color,  and,  instead  of  running 
about  as  before,  she  walks  slowly  and  se- 
dately, and  seems  to  have  given  up  all  her 
youthful  freaks,  and  come  down  to  the  so- 
ber business  of  life,  in  supplying  the  cells 
with  eggs. 

HOW  OLD  A  QUEE:<J  MAY  UK  AND  STILL    HE- 
COME  FERTILIZED. 

As  I  have  said  before,  our  queens  usually 


begin  to  lay  when  8  or  10  days  old,  on  the 
average ;  but,  during  a  dearth  of  pasturage, 
or  when  drones  are  scarce,  they  may  fail  to 
lay  until  three  weeks  old.  The  longest 
period  I  have  ever  known  to  elapse  between 
the  birth  of  a  queen  and  laying,  when  she 
produced  worker-eggs,  was  25  days.  I  think 
I  would  destroy  all  queens  that  do  not  lay  at 
the  age  of  20  days,  if  the  season,  flow  of  hon- 
ey, flight  of  drones,  etc.,  is  all  right.  There 
is  one  important  exception  to  this.  Many 
times,  queens  will  not  lay  in  the  fall  at  all, 
unless  a  flow  of  honey  is  produced  either  by 
natural  or  artificial  means.  Queens  intro- 
duced in  Sept.  and  Oct.  will  often  not  lay 
at  all  until  the  ensuing  spring,  unless  the 
colony  is  fed  regularly  every  day  for  a  week 
or  10  days.  Also  young  queens  that  are  fer- 
tilized late  in  the  season  will  often  show  no 
indications  of  being  fertilized  until  the  col- 
ony is  fed  as  I  have  indicated.  A  lot  of 
young  queens  that  I  thought  might  be  fer- 
tilized but  did  not  lay.  I  once  wintered  over, 
just  to  try  the  experiment;  and  although 
they  went  into  winter  quarters  looking  very 
small,  like  virgin  queens,  they  nearly  all 
proved  fine  layers  in  the  spring. 

DRONE-LAYING  QUEENS. 

If  a  queen  is  not  fertilized  in  two  weeks 
from  the  time  she  is  hatched,  she  will  often 
commence  laying  without  being  fertilized  at 
all.  She  is  then  what  we  call  a  drone-laying 
queen.  Usually  her  eggs  are  not  deposited 
in  the  regular  order  of  a  fertile  queen, 
neither  are  there  as  many  of  them ;  but.  by 
these  marks,  we  are  able  only  to  guess  that 
she  may  not  be  all  right,  and  so  keep  her 
until  some  of  the  brood  is  capped,  when  tlie 
extra  height  of  the  cappings,  as  I  have  ex- 
plained under  Drones,  will  tell  the  story. 
At  times,  however,  the  eggs  are  deposited 
so  regularly  that  we  are  deceived,  and  the 
queen  may  be  sold  for  a  fertile  queen,  when 
she  is  only  a  worthless  drone-layer;  but  we 
always  discover  it  after  the  brood  is  capjted, 
and  send  our  customer  anotlier  queen.  Such 
a  case  occurs,  perhaps  once  in  a  hundred. 
Whether  these  drone-layers  are  just  as  good 
to  furnish  supplies  of  drones  for  the  apiary 
as  the  drones  reared  from  a  fertile  queen,  is 
a  point,  I  believe,  not  fully  decided;  but  if 
you  care  for  my  opinion,  I  should  say,  if  tlie 
queen  lays  the  eggs  in  drone-comb,  and  the 
drones  are  large,  fine,  and  liealthy,  I  believe 
them  to  be  just  as  good.  I  should  not  want 
to  use  drones  reared  from  fertile  workers,  or 
drones  reared  in  worker-cells,  as  those  from 
drone-laying  queens  sometimes  are. 


QUEK.\8. 


lU 


QUEENS. 


THE  MEETING  BETWEEN  THE  QUEEN  AND 
DRONE. 

It  seems  that  the  drones  soon  spy  out 
the  queen  as  slie  is  circling  about  among 
them,  and  pursue  her,  much  in  the  way  you 
have  seen  bumble-bees  chase  each  other 
about  in  the  air.  As  the  queen  starts  out, 
she  curves  her  body  backward  in  a  rather 
unusual  way,  as  you  see  by  the  cut  of  the 
queen  upon  the  wing.  I  have  long  supposed 
that  there  Avas  some  especial  purpose  in 
this,  and  recent  events  seem  to  corroborate 
the  idea.  The  meeting  of  the  two  insects 
takes  place  while  they  are  on  the  wing;  and 
as  they  are  always  seen  whirling  rapidly 
about  each  other,  it  seems  rather  difficult  to 
determine  just  how  fertilization  is  accom- 
plished, unless  the  bodies  of  both  are  curved 
considerably  out  of  the  usual  position.  The 
drone  probably  takes  much  the  attitude 
of  a  worker  -  bee  in  the  act  of  using  his 
sting,  the  peculiar  curve  of  the  lower  part 
of  the  queen's  body  favoring  this.  The  act  i 
accomplished,  both  insects  use  their  wings  | 
in  such  a  way  that  they  revolve  in  opposite 
directions,  and  the  separation  is  thus  effect- 
ed in  much  the  same  way  as  a  worker  -  bee 
withdraws  his  sting,  when  allowed  to  do  so 
at  his  leisure,  by  twisting  around  continu- 
ously, as  if  he  were  unscrewing  it  from  a 
board.  The  organ  of  the  drone  is  so  firmly 
implanted  in  the  body  of  the  queen  that  it 
is  torn  from  his  body,  with  all  attachments, 
very  like  the  way  in  which  a  bee  loses  i'  s 
sting. 

Xow,  n  iture  has  provided  two  queer-shap- 
ed horns  that  project  from  the  male  organ, 
fitting  the  interior  organ  of  the  queen ;  these 
are  seen  distinctly  when  the  drone  is  pressed, 
as  mentioned -under  Drone-.  These  horns 
alone  would  seem  to  be  enough  to  prevent 
withdrawal;  but  nature,  to  make  sure,  has 
furnished  them  on  their  outer  surfaces  with 
a  sort  of  homy  scales,  or  minute  hairs,  that 
stand  something  like  the  beard  on  a  head  of 
wheat ;  they  can  go  forward  but  never  back- 
ward, and  therefore  there  is  no  way  but  for 
the  poor  drone  to  lose  his  life  by  having  it 
torn  out  of  him,  in  an  instant.  Xatiu'e  has 
also  made  provision  for  the  easy  separation 
of  these  organs  by  placing  them  loosely  in 
his  body,  and  so  that  after  they  are  thrown 
out  by  a  no  very  great  pressure,  the  attach- 
ments, which  are  only  a  membrane,  give  way 
readily,  by  the  twisting  process  I  have  de- 
scribed. 

Why  is  nature  thus,  as  it  would  seem  to 
us,  needlessly  cruel?  Well,  I  presume  there 
is  some  very  good  reason,  even  if  we  can 


not  now  see  it.  The  single  .  fertilization  of 
the  queen  must,  for  very  good  reasons,  last 
for  years,  if  not  for  the  whole  of  her  life. 
This  being  the  case,  it  would  not  be  strange 
if  such  a  draft  on  the  constitution  of  the 
male  were  greater  than  he  could  stand,  and 
be  serviceable  afterward  for  the  purpose  for 
which  he  was  created.  Nature,  to  make  all 
things  sure,  seems  to  have  found  it  fitting 
that  he  should  expire  in  the  act :  as  he  has 
no  other  purpose  of  existence,  so  far  as  we 
know,  is  it  not  just  as  well? 

The  following  article,  whc'i  appeared  in 
Gleaniii^/fi  in  Bef.  Culture  for  Nov.  1,  1889,  is 
so  valuable  that  I  have  thought  best  to  re- 
l)roduce  it  here.  In  addition  to  the  testimo- 
ny imder  Drones,  which  see,  it  will  also  be 
found  to  contain  supplementary  informa- 
tion.   It  is  as  follows : 

In  1883  I  gave  a  mature  queen-cell  to  a  small  lui- 
fleus  of  about  liK)  bees.  With  so  small  a  nucleus  I 
could  more  easily  see  the  quee  i  go  out  and  return, 
and  could  witness  her  manoeuvres  better.  On  the 
eighth  day  after  emerging  from  the  cell  she  came 
forth  arrayed  for  her  wedding-trip,  about  4  P.  M. 
She  went  through  the  general  manoeuvres  to  lo:-ate 
her  home,  then  flew  away.  I  could  follow  her  with 
the  eye  for  some  time,  as  she  hovered  over  the  apia- 
ry. Ill  eight  minutes  she  returned  witliout  accom- 
plishing her  purpose.  Next  day  she  came  forth  at  3 
p.  M.  There  were  thousands  of  drones  flying  at  this 
time.  She  slowly  circled  over  the  apiary  a  while, 
about  flfieen  feet  high.  Three  or  four  drones  fol- 
lowed. They  finally  clinched  and  gradually  settled 
to  the  earth,  dropping  into  a  piece  of  sweet  corn  in 
■the  garden.  I  was  there  as  soon  as  they  dropped. 
The  queen  had  clung  to  a  fallen  cornstalk,  while  the 
d  one  was  tryitig  to  get  away.  They  finally  separat- 
e  1,  the  drone  dying  ins'.antly.  I  went  back  to  the 
liivo.  and  in  about  two  minutes  the  queen  returned, 
with  the  drone  organs  attached.  The  bees  on  the 
alighting-board  spread  their  wings  in  glad  delight 
I  that  she  had  returned. 

I      Again,  this  past  season,  1889.  I  was  pa.ssing  a  hive. 

No.  29,  which  contained  a  very  i)roliflc  queen  one 

I  year  old.    What  should  I  discover  but  two  bees  slow- 

I  ly  settling  downward,  going  back  and  over"?    When 

I  they  got  on  a  level  with  my  face  I  saw  it  was  a  virgin 

queen  and  a  drone.    The  queen  was  trying  with  all 

her  might  to  gain  the  entrance  of  the  hive,  and  the 

drone  was  going  the  other  way  with  all  his  might, 

1  The  queen  being  the  stronger,  she  drew  him  down  to 

the  alighting-board.    She  grabbed  on  with  her  feet, 

crawling  toward  the    entrance.     They  then  broke 

apart,  the  drone  dying  instantly. 

Two  days  before  basswood  ceased  to  yield  honey, 
as  I  was  passing  a  hive  I  noticed  a  large  bee  trying 
j  to  fly  from  the  alighting-board ;  but  every  time  she 
1  rose  two  feet  in  the  air,  down  she  came  again.  It 
proved  to  be  a  virgin  queen.  Her  wings  were  too 
short  to  carry  her  body.  They  were  perf  ec;t  in  every 
way,  with  the  single  exception  of  being  shorter  than 
the  wings  of  a  virgin  queen  usually  are.  She  would 
get  perhaps  four  feet  from  the  hive,  and  crawl  back 
into  the  hive,  and  immediately  come  out  again  and 
try  again  to  fly  away.  I  watclied  her  manoeuvres  for 
two  days.    I  then  thought  of  a  plan  to  have  her  fly 


QUEENS. 


235 


QUEENS. 


and  not  get  scared  by  handling.  I  made  a  cone  of 
wire  screen  around  the  ho£^hilndle,  a  foot  in  lengtli. 
I  plugged  up  one  end,  and  tied  it  to  the  tip  end  of  an 
eigliteen-foot  cane  flsh-iK)le.  At  two  o'cloclc,  wlien 
thousands  of  drones  were  flying,  1  gently  dropped 
her  into  the  cone  and  quickly  raised  it  high  in  air,  and 
kept  watcli  of  the  tip  of  the  pole.  In  about  two  min- 
utes slie  took  wing  and  slowly  circled  over  the  apia- 
ry, gradually  settling  downward.  When  within  nine 
or  ten  feet  <rf  the  ground,  several  drones  rushed  aft- 
er her,  and  clinched,  and  immediately  dropped  to  tlie 
gi-ound.  I  was  on  hand  instantly.  The  queen  and 
drone  were  in  a  .seemingly  deadly  embrace.  After 
two  or  three  miiuites  they  tore  asunder,  but  the  drone 
died  instantly.  I  returned  tlie  queen  to  her  hive,  and 
in  due  time  she  filled  her  hive  with  brood.  I  had 
.supposed  this  liive  had  a  fine  queen.  J.  R.  Reed. 
Milford,  Wis.,  Oct.  7,  1889. 

Instances  have  been  observed  when  the 
meeting  took  place  where  the  insects  were 
confined,  yet  had  liberty  enough  so  they 
could  buzz  about  or  whirl  about  each  other ; 
but  as  a  general  thing,  unless  the  parties 
have  the  liberty  of  the  open  air,  and  have 
perfect  wings,  fertilization  is  impossible. 
Where  you  have  reason  to  think  the  wings 
of  a  queen  are  not  absolutely  perfect,  you 
can  test  the  matter  by  throwing  her  up  in 
the  air  in  front  of  her  hive.  I  have  done 
this  many  times  with  queens  that  did  not 
lay  when  about  two  weeks  old,  and  they  are 
almost  invariably  found  to  be  unable  to 
rise  easily  in  the  air.  It  has  been  said,  that 
queens  with  bad  wings  are  sometimes  found 
producing  worker  -  brood.  I  have  never 
found  such  a  case,  but  the  testimony  from 
careful  and  reliable  parties  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  it  does  sometimes  happen.  One 
who  is  inexperienced  in  these  matters  would 
hardly  think  of  the  many  chances  there  are 
to  be  mistaken  :  it  is  now  found  to  be  a  rath- 
er common  occurrence  for  two  queens  to  be 
in  the  same  hive,  and  the  worker-brood 
credited  to  the  queen  with  imperfect  wings 
from  birth  may  easily  belong  to  another. 
Again,  the  bees  often  attack  a  queen  when 
returning  from  her  bridal-trip,  and,  if  they 
do  not  kill  her,  maim  her  by  biting  off  a 
wing,  a  leg,  or  perhaps  both.  If  you  should 
find  a  young  queen  w  ith  half  a  wing,  or  per- 
haps only  a  stump,  producing  workers,  how 
many  of  you  w^ould  not  decide  at  once  that 
she  must  have  been  fertilized  in  the  hive? 
I  once  had  an  Italian  queen  nearly  black, 
that  produced  beautiful  yellow  workers. 
She  was  missed,  and  finally  turned  up  in  a 
neighboring  hive,  which,  to  my  astonish- 
ment, was  found  to  be  Italians,  instead  of 
hybrids.  She  was  found  busily  at  work,  but 
possessed  scarcely  the  vestige  of  a  wing. 
Bees  often  mutilate  the  wings  of  queens 
which  are  being  introduced,  and  sometimes, 


during  a  scarcity  of  honey,  attack  their  own 
queens,  and  mar  their  appearance  in  this 
way.  I  think,  before  deciding  it  will  be 
w^ell  to  await  further  facts  and  investiga- 
tion.   See  Artificial  Fertilizatiox. 

SHALL   WE  CLIP  THE  QUEEN'S   WaNGsV 

At  one  time  I  was  strongly  in  favor  of 
clipping  the  wings  of  all  queens,  just  as  soon 
as  they  were  found  laying.  As  they  often 
got  out  in  the  grass  during  swarming-time, 
and  got  lost,  wiien  they  w^ould  probably 
have  been  saved  if  they  had  had  their  wings, 
I  afterward  concluded  that  I  did  not  want 
the  wings  of  my  queens  clipped.  In  selling 
queens  since  then,  very  many  of  them  have 
flown  away  while  being  introduced,  and  I 
have  begun  to  decide  that  clipping  them  is 
perhaps  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils.  To  pre- 
vent them  from  flying,  it  has  been  suggested 
that  they  be  daubed  with  honey,  which  the 
bees  will  soon  lick  off ;  this  did  very  well 
until  some  one  reported  a  queen  that  had  to 
be  re-caged.  The  honey  dried  on  her  body, 
and  killed  her.  It  has  also  been  a  query  as  to 
whether  a  laying  queen  ever  leaves  the  hive 
for  a  second  fertilization.  The  facts  indi- 
cate very  strongly  that  imported  queens, 
and  others  that  have  been  a  long  time  con- 
fined so  that  they  can  not  lay,  sometimes  do 
this.  Clipping  will  certainly  prevent  this, 
although  it  may  result  in  the  loss  of  the 
queen.  I  think  I  prefer  the  chance  of  loss, 
rather  than  that  of  a  tested  queen  turn- 
ing hybrid;  but  I  dislike  the  idea  of  clipping 
a  queen  just  before  starting  her  off  on  a 
journey.  To  make  it  sure  that  there  can 
be  no  flying,  I  w\iuld  clip  the  greater  part  of 
both  large  wings;  the  small  wings  being 
perfect,  although  smaller,  will  give  her  a 
symmetrical  appearance,  w'hile  cutting  off 
both  wings  on  one  side  always  makes  her 
look  ever  afterward  very  much  like  a  crip- 
ple.:*«5  If  a  queen  is  ever  so  fine,  few  people 
can  see  her  beauty  when  she  has  two  long 
wings  on  one  side  and  none  on  the  other. i'-'-' 

CLIPPING   QUEENS'   WINGS. 

For  this  purpose  you  want  a  pair  of  slen- 
der -  pointed  embroidery  scissors.  They 
must  be  just  as  keen  and  sharj)  at  the  points 
as  they  can  be  made ;  for  it  will  never  do  to 
have  the  wing  of  a  valuable  queen  double 
up,  or  catch  so  as  to  frighten  her  out  of  her 
little  senses.  With  good  scissors  you  can 
lift  a  wing  and  clip  it  off  without  her  hardly 
knowing  it ;  but  where  two  are  to  be  clipped, 
it  may  be  well  to  adopt  the  plan  given  by 
one  of  our  lady  contributors  (especially  if 


QUEE^'.S. 


23G 


QUEENS. 


you  are  nervous,  and  inclined  to  be  fidgety 
in  doing  sucli  work),  as  follows: 

CLIl'PINO  QUEENS'   WINfiS. 

While  it  may  be  ertsy  for  ;/oi<  to  open  the  Simplic- 
ity hive,  lift  the  riisrht  tin-cornered  frame,  and  clip 
the  queen  before  fhe  knows  you  are  around,  I  be- 
lieve most  of  your  readers,  especially  those  who 
have  other  hives,  other  frames,  and  less  steady 
hands,  would,  99  times  in  100,  bv  some  slip  or  jar, 
apprise  her  majesty  of  dane-er.  Then,  by  following 
your  ad\ice,  to  close  the  hive  and  be  more  careful 
next  time,  I  believe  they  would  still  fail  98  times  in 
100.  At  this  rate  of  progress,  how  many  times 
would  ICO  hives  need  to  be  opened  to  clip  1(  0  queens? 

After  the  queen  has  taken  alarm,  she  can  be  clip- 
ped by  following  her  with  the  open  scissors  all  about 
the  comb,  all  over  your  lap,  all  up  your  sleeve,  etc., 
till,  in  some  favorable  instant,  j'ou  dare  to  close  the 
scissors  upon  the  coveted  lace  wing.  But  this  oper- 
ation is  the  most  trying  to  the  ner\-es  of  any  that 
I  ever  did,  and  1  could  not  advise  beginners  to  prac- 
tice it.  Because  my  queens  must  be  clipped,  I  had 
to  find  a  better  way;  and  because  I  pinched  and 
maimed  my  first  queen  while  clipping  her,  so  that 
she  was  useless  and  had  to  be  replaced,  I  have  never 
toucJied  another.  How  many  queens  have  been  in- 
jured by  handling  no  one  knows.  I  like  to  know 
that  mine  are  not  thus  injured,  because  absolutely 
untouched.  I  set  a  small  wire  cage  over  the  queen 
on  the  comb;  when  she  runs  up  into  It  (she  will 
sooner  run  up  into  a  small  cage  than  a  large  one)  I 
lift  it,  pick  off  two  or  three  bees  by  the  wing  and 
put  in  for  company,  carry  them  into  the  house,  and 
let  them  loose  on  a  clean  window. ^^W'  She  can  be  clip- 
ped here,  in  motion,  better  than  on  the  comb;  but 
after  allowing  them  to  run  awhile,  guide  them  near 
each  other,  and  the  bees  will  feed  the  queen,  when 
the  work  can  be  easily  done.  I  have  since  found 
out  a  more  expeditious  way.  While  the  queen  is 
passing  from  the  cage  to  the  window,  let  her  back  or 
wing  gently  brush  a  drop  of  honey  on  the  end  of  the 
finger,  and  she  will  soon  stop  to  clean  it  otf.  I  have 
had  queens  fly  after  being  clipped;  but  when  I  cut 
off  the  large  wing  on  only  one  side,  just  deep  enough 
to  take  the  tip  of  the  small  one  in  the  same  clip,  she 
never  flies  again.  It  wounds  her  but  little,  as  I  give 
a  slanting  cut,  taking  more  of  the  lace  than  of  the 
fleshy  part.  Set  the  cage  over  her  as  before,  carry 
her  to  the  hive  at  once,  and  let  her  run  down  among 
the  combs,  not  in  at  the  entrance.  If  all  the  mum 
old  bee-keepers  haA'e  known  all  about  this,  all  these 
years,  you  are  not  the  only  man  that  ought  to  have 
a  troubled  conscience. i''*  Mrs.  A.  L.  Goold. 

Ridgeville,  Iroquois  Co.,  111.,  April  13, 1878. 


How  to  manage  during  swarming-time 
with  clipped  queens,  will  be  considered  un- 
der Swarming. 

CAUTION  ABOUT  CLIPPING  QUEENS'  WINGS. 

Although  it  would  seem,  after  what  has 
been  said,  that  nobody  would  ever  think  of 
clipping  a  queen  before  she  has  begun  to 
lay,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  several  of  the  A 
B  C  class  have  been  so  thoughtless  as  to  clip 
virgin  queens.  Of  course,  such  a  queen 
would  be  about  as  worthless  as  if  it  had  been 


her  head  instead  of  lier  wing  that  was 
clipped  off;  for  she  could  never  meet  the 
drones  at  all.  It  has  usually  been  done 
where  a  queen  of  an  after-swarm  has  been 
caught,  an(,l  it  should  be  remembered  that 
such  are  always  virgin  queens. 

now   QUEENS   LAY  TWO   KINDS  OF  EGGS. 

That  they  do  lay  two  kinds  of  eggs,  I 
think  few  are  inclined  to  dispute,  since  the 
experiments  with  the  microscope  have  de- 
cided the  matter  so  clearly,  as  given  under 
Drones.  Suppose  a  young  queen  goes  out 
to  meet  the  drones  so  late  in  the  fall,  or  so 
early  in  the  spring,  that  there  are  none ; 
what  is  the  consequence?  Well,  sometimes 
she  will  never  lay  at  all;  but  frequently 
she  commences  to  lay  when  3  or  4  weeks 
old,  and  her  eggs  produce  only  drones.  In 
fact,  she  can  produce  no  other  eggs,  having 
never  been  fertilized.  How  shall  we  dis- 
tinguish such  queens  from  fertile  ones? 
You  can  not  decide  positively  concerning 
them,  by  any  means  that  I  know  of,  until 
their  brood  is  ready  to  seal  up ;  then  you 
will  know  by  the  round,  raised  caps  of  the 
brood,  like  bullets  laid  on  a  board,  as  I  ex- 
plained under  Drones.  You  can  give  a 
pretty  good  guess,  by  noticing  the  way  in 
w^hich  she  lays  the  eggs ;  if  they  are  few  and 
scattering,  and  sometimes,  or  often,  in 
drone-cells,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  she 
did  not  commence  laying  until  two  weeks  or 
more  old,  you  would  better  not  send  her  off 
as  a  dollar  queen,  until  some  of  her  brood  is 
sealed  over.  A  young  queen,  if  properly 
fertilized,  never,  or  very  rarely,  lays  an  egg 
in  a  drone-cell;  and  when  she  commences  to 
lay,  she  fills  cell  after  cell  in  regular  order, 
as  men  hoe  a  field  of  corn ;  her  work  also 
has  a  neat  and  finished  appearance  that  says 
at  once  to  the  practiced  eye,  "You  are  all 
right." 

Now,  my  friends,  do  not  think  me  contra- 
dictory when  I  tell  you  that  a  young  queen 
sometimes  commences  with  all,  or  nearly 
all,  drone-eggs,  and,  after  awhile,  lays  en- 
tirely worker-eggs  as  regularly  as  one  might 
wish.  I  do  not  know  why  this  is :  perhaps 
she  has  not  yet  got  used  to  the  "machinery," 
or  does  not  "remember"  distinctly  just  how 
her  grandmother  did  it.^*''-  Once  more,  my 
friends :  you  must  bear  with  me  when  I  tell 
you  that  any  queen,  the  best  one  you  ever 
saw,  is  liable,  at  any  day  of  her  life,  to  com- 
mence, on  a  sudden,  laying  drone-eggs  alto- 
gether, or  only  in  part.  I  wish  you  to  re- 
member this,  that  you  may  be  more  charita- 
ble toward  each  other  in  your  dealings.  A 
nice  laying  young  queen,  taken  from  a  hive. 


QUEENS. 


237 


QUEEXb. 


and  shipped  to  a  distance,  maj-  prove  to  be  a 
drone -layer  shortly  after,  or  immediately 
after,  she  is  received.  Such  things  are  not 
very  common,  but  they  do  occur.  In  an 
apiary  of  50  or  100  hives  I  should  expect  to 
find  one  drone-layer,  on  an  average,  each 
spring.  During  the  summer,  perhaps  one 
more  will  be  found.  It  may  be  that  the 
queen  was  not  fertilized  sufficiently,  if  I 
may  use  the  term,  and  that  the  supply  of 
spermatozoa  gave  out  while  she  was  in  full 
vigor,  thus  reducing  her  to  the  condition  of 
a  virgin  queen.  Microscopic  examination 
has  shown  an  entire  absence  of  spermatozoa 
in  at  least  one  or  two  instances,  where 
queens  of  this  kind  were  killed  and  dissect- 
ed. Similar  experiments,  given  by  Lang- 
stroth,  show  that  the  spermatozoa  may  be 
chilled  beyond  recovery,  by  chilling  the 
queen,  and  yet  the  queen  herself  may  be  re- 
suscitated. I  'think  it  likely  that  hardship 
and  being  shipped  long  distances  may  pro- 
duce the  same  results.  Do  not  think  I  am 
going  to  excuse  those  who  sell  queens,  and 
let  the  blame  for  unprofitable  queens  slip  off 
their  shoulders ;  on  the  contrary,  I  think 
they  had  better  make  up  their  minds  to  ren- 
der a  full  equivalent  for  all  the  money  they 
receive.  If  a  queen  proves  a  drone-layer  be- 
fore the  purchaser  can  receive  any  benefit 
from  her,  I  think  another  should  be  sent. 
Of  course,  I  can  not  give  a  rule  for  settling 
all  such  matters,  but  I  would  most  earnestly 
advise  that  you  all  try  to  do  as  you  would  be 
done  by,  and  be  each  one  ready  to  bear  a  lit- 
tle more  than  yovir  share  of  such  losses  as 
may  come  up.  Try  to  feel  for  each  other, 
and  beware  of  that  great  besetting  sin  of  all 
mankind,  selfishness.  It  is  certainly  one  of 
my  great  besetting  sins,  if  I  do  not  look  out. 

Well,  queens  not  only  turn  suddenly  to 
drone-layers,  but  they  sometimes  produce 
about  an  equal  number  of  each  kind  of  eggs. 
In  all  these  cases,  where  the  queen  lays 
drone-eggs  when  she  evidently  intended  to 
lay  worker-eggs,  they  are  in  worker-cells; 
also  the  number  of  eggs  laid,  usually  rapid- 
ly decreases.  The  bees,  as  well  as  queen, 
evidently  begin  to  think  that  something  is 
wrong ;  queen-cells  are  so<m  started,  and  aft- 
er the  young  queen  is  hatclied  she  becomes 
fertile,  and  begins  to  lielp  her  mother.  All 
hands  evidently  think  that  any  kind  of  a 
queen  is  better  than  no  queen,  hence  a  queen 
is  seldom  dragged  out  of  the  hive,  as  a  work- 
er-bee is,  because  she  is  ailing. 

Very  early  in  the  spring,  or  late  in  the  fall, 
or  at  any  time  when  forage  is  not  abuiulant, 
a  queen  will  pass  right  by  drone  -  cells,  tak- 


ing no  notice  of  them.  I  have  often  tried  to 
get  eggs  in  drone-cells  by  feeding,  and  can 
but  conclude  that  the  queen  knows  when  an 
egg  will  produce  a  drone,  and  knows  just 
what  "wires  to  pull"  to  have  every  egg  laid 
in  a  drone-cell  produce  a  drone.  I  think  it 
very  likely  the  workers  have  something  to 
do  with  this  matter,  but  I  have  never  been 
able  to  make  out  by  what  means  they  signi- 
fy to  the  queen  that  some  eggs  in  drone-cells, 
or  even  queen  -  cells,  would  be  desirable. 
There  seems  to  be  a  constant  understanding 
in  the  hive  as  to  what  is  going  to  be  done 
next,  and  consequently  there  is  no  clashing. 
I  wish,  my  friends,  the  human  family  could 
understand  each  other  as  well.  In  our  api- 
ary, there  seems  to  be,  in  strong  stocks,  a 
kind  of  understanding  that  eggs  shall  be  laid 
in  drone-cells  about  the  last  of  March,  and 
we  have  drones,  therefore,  some  time  in 
April,  ready  for  the  first  queens  that  may, 
by  any  accident,  make  their  appearance. 
Those  who  insist  that  there  is  only  one 
kind  of  eggs  can  satisfy  themselves  easily, 
by  cutting  out  a  piece  of  comb,  eggs  and  all, 
from  either  a  drone  or  worker  cell,  and  set- 
ting it  in  the  bottom  of  a  cell  of  the  other 
kind.  They  will  get  a  drone  in  a  worker- 
cell,  or  a  worker  in  a  drone-cell.  Again  :  If 
you  give  a  youug  laying  queen  a  hive  sup- 
plied only  with  drone  -  combs,  she  will  rear 
worker  -  brood  in  these  drone  -  cells.  The 
mouth  of  the  cells  will  be  contracted  with 
wax.  as  mentioned  in  Honey-co3Ib. 

When  they  get  ready  to  swarm  they  build 
shallow  queen-cells,  and  the  queen  then  lays 
a  worker-egg  in  these  queen-cells.  Although 
I  never  saw  her  lay  an  egg  in  a  queen-cell. 
I  am  satisHed  that  she  does  it.  from  the  way 
in  which  it  is  put  in.  Like  the  rest  of  the 
eggs,  it  is  fastened  to  the  center  of  the  bot- 
tom of  the  cell  by  one  of  its  ends,  and  I  sup- 
pose, when  first  deposited,  it  is  covered  with 
a  sort  of  glutinous  matter  that  makes  it  stick 
firmly,  where  it  first  touches.  I  know  that 
bees  have  the  skill  to  remove  both  eggs  and 
larvje,  for  I  liave  several  times  known  of 
their  taking  eggs  and  brood  to  an  old  dry 
comb,  when  no  queen  was  present  in  the 
hive.  Occasionally  a  queen  is  fouiul  that 
will  never  lay  at  all ;  again,  ([ueens  that  laid 
eggs  which  never  hatched  into  larva',  have 
been  several  times  reported.  We  have  had 
several  such,  and  they  were  in  aitpearance 
fine  nice-looking  queens. 

After  having  told  you  thus  much  of  the 
faults  and  imperfections  of  queens.  I  would 
add.  for  their  credit,  that  when  once  proper- 
ly installed  inastri>ng  colony  they  are  about 


C^UEENS. 


238 


QUEENS. 


as  safe  property  as  any  thing  I  know  of,  for, 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  they  live  and 
thrive  for  years.  I  have  never  heard  of  any 
disease  among  queens,  and,  while  a  worker 
lives  only  a  few  months,  they  often  live  3  or 
4  years.  One  that  was  imported  from  Italy 
by  Dadant  furnished  us  brood  and  eggs  for 
queen-rearing,  for  four  summers.  I  then 
sold  her  for  $2.00,  and  she  died  in  being  sent 
less  than  50  miles.  She  was  very  large  and 
heavy,  and,  probably,  being  so  old  could  not 
cling  to  the  sides  of  the  cage  like  a  younger 
one.  I  have  never  heard  of  queens  being 
troubled  with  any  thing  but  an  Italian  para- 
site, and  these  quickly  disappeared  when 
they  were  introduced  into  our  own  apiaries. 
See  Enemies  of  Bees. 

LOSS  OF   QUEEN. 

It  is  a  very  important  matter,  to  be  able  to 
know  at  once  when  a  queen  is  lost.  During 
the  months  of  May  and  June,  the  loss  of  a 
queen  from  the  hive  a  single  day  will  make 
quite  a  marked  difference  in  the  honey-crop. 
If  we  assume  the  nvimber  of  eggs  a  queen 
may  lay  in  a  day  to  be  3000,  by  taking  her 
away  a  single  day  we  should,  in  the  course 
of  events,  be  just  that  number  of  bees  short, 
right  during  a  yield  of  honey.  To  put  it 
very  moderately,  a  quart  of  bees  might  be 
taken  out  of  the  hive  by  simply  caging  the 
queen  for  a  single  day.  Beginners  should 
remember  this,  for  their  untimely,  or,  rather, 
inconsiderate  tinkering,  just  before  the  flow 
of  honey  comes,  often  cuts  short  their  in- 
come to  a  very  considerable  degree.  What- 
ever you  do,  be  very  careful  you  do  not  drop 
the  queens  off  the  combs  when  handling 
them  at  this  time  of  the  year,  and  do  not 
needlessly  interrupt  the  queen  in  her  work 
by  changing  the  combs  about  so  as  to  ex- 
pose the  brood  or  upset  their  little  house- 
hold matters  in  the  hive.  With  a  little  prac- 
tice you  will  be  able  to  detect  a  queenless 
hive,  simply  by  the  way  the  bees  behave 
themselves  on  the  outside.  Where  they 
stand  around  on  the  alighting-board  in  a 
listless  sort  of  way,  with  no  bees  going  in 
with  pollen,  when  other  colonies  are  thus  en- 
gaged, it  is  well  to  open  the  hive  and  take  a 
look  at  them.  If  you  find  eggs  and  worker- 
brood,  you  may  be  sure  a  queen  is  there;  but 
if  you  do  not,  proceed  at  once  to  see  if  there 
is  not  a  queen  of  some  kind  in  the  hive,  that 
does  not  lay.  If  you  do  not  find  one,  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  give  them  a  frame  contain- 
ing brood  and  eggs,  and  see  if  they  start 
queen-cells.  You  ought  to  be  able  to  find 
incipient  queen-cells  in  about  12  hours,  if 


the  bees  have  been  some  little  time  queen- 
less.  As  soon  as  you  see  these,  give  them  a 
queen  if  possible.  If  no  queen  is  to  be  had, 
they  may  be  allowed  to  raise  one,  if  the  col- 
ony has  bees  enough.  If  it  has  not,  they  had 
better  be  united  with  some  other  stock. 

ODOR  OF  A  LAYING  QUEEN. 

After  bees  have  been  some  time  queenless, 
they  usually  become,  if  no  fertile  workers 
make  their  appearance  (see  Fertile  Work- 
ers), very  eager  for  the  presence  of  a  queen; 
and  I  can  in  no  way  describe  this  eager  be- 
havior, if  I  may  so  term  it,  so  well  as  to  de- 
scribe another  way  of  testing  a  colony  you 
have  reason  to  suspect  is  queenless.  Take  a 
cage  or  box  containing  a  laying  queen,  and 
hold  either  the  cage,  or  simply  the  cover  of 
it,  over  the  bees,  or  hold  it  in  such  a  way  as 
to  let  one  corner  touch  the  frames.  If  queen- 
less, the  first  that  catch  the  scent  of  the  piece 
of  wood  on  which  the  queen  has  clustered 
will  begin  to  move  their  wings  in  token  of 
rejoicing,  and  soon  you  will  have  nearly  the 
whole  swarm  hanging  to  the  cage,  or  cover. 
When  they  behave  in  this  manner  I  have 
never  had  any  trouble  in  letting  the  queen 
right  out  at  once.  Such  cases  are  generally 
where  a  colony  is  found  without  brood  in 
the  spring. 

There  is  something  very  peculiar  about 
the  scent  of  a  laying  queen.  After  having 
had  a  queen  in  my  fingers,  I  have  had  bees 
follow  me  and  gather  about  my  hand,  even 
when  I  had  gone  some  distance  from  the 
apiary.  By  this  strange  instinct  they  will 
often  hover  about  the  spot  where  the  queen 
has  alighted  even  for  an  instant,  for  hours, 
and,  sometimes,  for  a  day  or  two  afterward. 
Where  clipped  queens  get  down  into  the 
grass  or  weeds,  or  crawl  sometimes  a  consid- 
erable distance  from  the  hive,  I  have  often 
found  them,  by  watching  the  bees  that  were 
crawling  about,  along  the  path  she  had  tak- 
en. When  cages  containing  queens  are  be- 
ing carried  away,  bees  will  often  come  and 
alight  on  the  cage,  making  that  peculiar  shak- 
ing of  the  wings,  which  indicates  their  joy 
at  finding  the  queen. 

QUEENS'  stings. 

There  is  something  very  strange  in  the 
fact  that  a  queen  very  rarely  uses  her  sting, 
even  under  the  greatest  provocation  possi- 
ble, unless  it  is  toward  a  rival  queen.  In 
fact,  they  may  be  pinched,  or  pulled  limb 
from  limb,  without  even  showing  any  symp- 
toms of  protruding  the  sting  at  all;  but  as 
soon  as  you  put  them  in  a  cage,  or  under  a 
tumbler  with  another  queen,  the  fatal  sting 


QUEEN-REARING. 


239 


QUEEN-REARING. 


is  almost  sure  to  be  used  at  once.  There 
seems  to  be  a  most  wise  provision  in  this: 
for  if  the  queen  used  her  sting  at  every  pro- 
vocation as  does  the  worker,  the  prosperity 
of  the  colony  would  be  almost  constantly  en- 
dangered. It  is  true,  that  instances  are  on 
record  where  queens  have  stung  the  fingers 
of  those  handling  them ;  but  these  cases  are 
so  very  rare  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  queens 
never  sting.  I  am  inclined  to  think  the  cases 
mentioned  (although,  of  course,  it  must 
be  only  a  surmise)  were  with  queens  that 
w^ere  not  fully  developed ;  for  I  have  often 
seen  the  dark  half-queen  and  half-worker, 
mentioned  some  time  back,  show  its 
sting  when  handled  as  we  usually  handle 
queens.  It  is  said,  that  a  queen  has  been 
known  to  lay  eggs  after  having  lost  her 
sting;  but  as  they  never  lose  their  stings,  so 
far  as  I  know,  at  least,  when  they  sting  rival 
queens,  we  must  consider  this  as  a  very  un- 
usual occurrence.  When  you  wish  to  pick 
queens  from  a  comb,  you  can  do  it  with  just 
as  much  assurance  of  safety  as  if  you  were 
picking  up  a  drone.  It  is  true,  the  queen 
often  bites  with  her  powerful  mandibles, 
and  she  does  this  so  viciously  that  a  novice 
might  be  almost  excusable  for  letting  her 
get  away  in  affright. 

CAUTIOX  IN  REGARD  TO  DECIDIXG  A  STOCK 
TO  BE  QUEENLESS. 

As  a  rule,  we  may  say  that  absence  of 
brood  or  eggs  is  a  pretty  sure  indication  of 
queenlessness ;  but  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  all  hives,  as  a  rule,  are  without 
eggs  and  brood  in  the  fall  and  early  winter 
months,  or.  in  fact,  at  any  time  when  there 
is  a  considerable  deartli  of  pasturage.  At 
si;ch  seasons,  beginners  are  more  apt  to 
think  their  hives  are  queenless.  because  the 
queens  are  much  smaller  than  when  they  are 
laying  profusely.  In  weak  colonies  queens 
often  cease  laying  during  the  whole  of  the 
winter  months. 

QTTZSESr  -  REARING.  It  has  been 
said,  that  wax  and  honey  are  the  merchant- 
able i»roducts  of  the  apiary,  but  ever  since 
the  advent  of  the  Italians  there  has  been  a 
constant  call  for  queens,  far  ahead  of  the 
sui)ply;  and  if  we  were  asked  what  product 
of  the  apiary  would  bring  cash  quickest  and 
surest,  I  would  unhesitatingly  say, untested 
queens.  It  may  lie  well  to  exjilaiu  here 
that  an  untested  queen  is  one  that  has  been 
reai'ed  from  a  pure  mother,  and  has  just  com- 
menced to  lay.  She  may  prove  to  be  piirely 
fertilized,  and  she  may  not;  but  the  ai)iarist, 
for  this  low  price,  guarantees  nothing  more 


than  that  she  has  been  raised  from  a  pure 
mother.  The  transaction  of  the  sale  is 
supposed  to  be  something  as  if  you  were 
standing  by  his  side,  and  he  should  open  a 
hive  and  say : 

"There  is  a  queen  that  was  reared  from 
brood  from  a  pure  mother;  she  has  com- 
menced laying,  as  you  see,  but  I  know  noth- 
ing of  the  kind  of  bees  she  may  produce. 
You  can  take  her  just  as  she  is  for  31.00,  but 
at  that  price  I  can  be  in  no  way  responsible 
further." 

As  the  demand  is  usually  far  in  advance 
of  the  supply,  the  conscientious  apiarist  can 
fill  orders  only  in  their  turn,  and  this  has 
been  another  cause  for  dissatisfaction,  on 
account  of  the  delays  that  seem  unavoidable, 
especially  in  the  spring,  when  everybody  is 
wanting  them  right  away.  I  do  not  mean  to 
blame  those  who  want  them  at  once,  for  it  is 
my  disposition  exactly,  to  want  a  thing  as 
soon  as  I  have  paid  for  it. 

If  you  can  raise  good  untested  queens,  you 
can  certainly  raise  good  tested  ones,  for  a 
tested  queen  is  nothing  more  than  one  that 
has  proved  herself  prolific  and  purely  fertil- 
ized. The  test  of  piu'ity  generally  recog- 
nized is,  that  the  workers  show  plainly  the 
three  yellow  bands  that  are  characteristic  of 
the  Italians,  and  are  gentle.  Queens  them- 
selves n  ay  be  all  the  way  from  a  black  to  a 
light  yellow. 

There  are  ever  so  many  ways  of  formuig 

nuclei  for  queen-rearing,  but,  after  having 

tried  pretty  thoroughly  almost  or  quite  all  of 

them,  I  shall  advise  separate  hives  for  each 

nucleus.    If  you  are  simply  increasing  your 

i  stock,  use  a  new  hive  for  each  colony;  but  if 

you  wish  to  add  to  your  income  by  rearing 

queens  for  sale,  I  would  advise  a  two-comb 

hive  for  the  purpose.    These  are  made  much 

like  the  Dovetailed,  only  that  they  are  Si 

inches  wide  inside  instead  of  V2\.    For  light- 

;  ness,  we  will  make  the  sides  of  I  stuff.    For 

reasons  to  be  explained  we  will  have  the 

cover  shut  over  the  hive  like  the  cover  of  a 

tool-chest,  and  loose  enough  to  slip  over  the 

bottom  also,  without  sticking,  for  we  can 

j  have  no  pulling  and  jerking  about  bee-hives, 

■  even  though  they  are  "  little  ones." 

'     Those  who  have  tried  queen-rearing  have 

perhaps  found  it  tiresome  business  to  stoop 

so  much  as  is  required  in  looking  over  so 

many  little  liives.    To  remedy  this  we  will 

have  them  fastened  to  tlie  grapevine  trellises, 

or,   better,  elevate  them  on  a  hive-stand. 

These  can  be  made  very  cheaply. 

This  l)rings  them  at  a  convenient  height 
to  work    easilv :    we   certainly   wt)uld    not 


QUEEN-REARLNG. 


240 


QUEEN-REARING. 


wish  to  encourage  any  one  in  being  lazy,  but 
apiarists  do  sometimes  get  tired,  and  find  it 
quite  a  relief  to  sit  down  for  a  moment  or 
two.  and  the  hive  right  below  the  nucleus, 
we  tind  very  convenient. 

In  inserting  queen-cells,  putting  in  brood, 
etc.,  we  also  tind  the  top  of  the  hive  quite  a 
convenience.  These  nuclei  are  shaded  by 
the  broad  leaves  of  the  grapevines,  and  are 
held  from  being  blown  down  by  the  wind  by 
a  screw  put  through  the  upper  strip  into  the 
side  of  the  hive. 

When  you  have  your  nuclei  all  fixed,  each 
one  neatly  painted  white,  and  supplied 
with  a  queen-register  card,  or  a  little  slate, 
you  are  to  set  about  peopling  the  little 
boxes.  If  you  commence  this  work  during 
a  good  yield  of  honey,  you  will  very  likely 
get  along  finely;  but  if  at  a  time  when  the 
bees  are  disposed  to  robbing,  you  may  have 
all  sorts  of  trouble.  You  can  have  your 
queen-cells  raised  in  these  little  hives  if  they 
are  well  peopled  with  bees;  but  as  a  general 
thing  I  would  prefer  having  it  done  by  a 
strong  colony. 

HOW  TO  GET  GOOD  QUEEX-CELLS. 

.  To  rear  good,  healthy,  long-lived  queens, 
we  want  the  larvae  to  have  an  abundance  of 
the  milky  food  prepared  by  the  nui'se-bees, 
and  we  wish  them  to  have  it  from  the  time 
they  are  first  hatched  from  the  egg,  until 
they  are  sealed  up  as  a  queen -cell.  If  you 
will  examine  the  minute  larvse  of  different 
hives,  you  will  discover  a  vast  difference  in 
the  amount  of  food  given  to  the  infant  bees. 
With  a  new  swarm,  we  will  find  the  first  lar- 
vae that  hatch  are  fed  so  profusely  that  they 
look  almost  like  the  inmates  of  queen-cells, 
because  the  nurse-bees  are  far  in  excess  of 
the  work  that  is  to  be  done  by  them ;  but 
after  the  combs  are  filled  with  eggs,  such  is 
not  the  case.'"-  We  can  bring  about  this  re- 
sult at  any  time  by  taking  all  the  brood  away 
from  any  colony,  and  giving  them  only  one 
comb  containing  these  small  larvse,  and  this 
is  just  what  we  Avant  for  queen-rearing. 
The  secret  of  being  able  to  send  larvae  for 
queen  -  rearing  safely  by  mail,  consists  in 
sending  such  as  have  this  excess  of  food  in 
the  cells ;  for  if  the  weather  is  not  too  cool 
they  will  grow  and  thrive  for  two  or  three 
days,  just  as  well,  for  aught  I  know,  as  if 
they  were  in  the  parent  hive  :  when  tlie  food 
is  all  consumed  they  must  starve,  and  this 
illustrates  the  necessity  of  getting  them  into 
a  hive  of  bees  just  as  soon  as  they  are  re- 
ceived. It  has  been  said,  that  queens  reared 
during  the  time  of  natural  SAvarming  are  su- 
perior; but  I  think,  by  securing  this  abund- 


ance of  food  in  the  way  indicated,  we  can 
have  them  equally  good  at  any  season 
when  bees  are  flying  freely.  True,  it  is  some 
trouble  to  remove  all  the  brood-combs  from 
a  strong  colony,  and  we  therefore  move  the 
colony,  hive  and  all,  putting  a  new  hive 
Avith  our  choice  larvae  in  its  stead. ^'''S-i'^  This 
plan  has  never  failed  to  give  us  fine  queen- 
cells,  and  queens  that  Avere  prolific  and  long- 
lived  ;  and  it  is  so  quickly  done  that  a  lot  of 
cells  may  be  started  every  feAv  days  during 
the  season.  Unless  the  new  hive  looks  much 
like  the  old  one,  the  bees  may  but  few  of 
them  go  into  it,  especially  if  the  old  one  is 
set  so  near  at  hand  that  they  succeed  in  find- 
ing it.  This  is  an  additional  reason  for  haA^- 
ing  your  hives  all  jiist  alike.  We  usvially 
place  the  removed  hive  at  an  opposite  side 
of  the  apiary. 

Bees  usually  prefer  to  rear  queen  -  cells 
around  the  bottom  edges  of  a  comb.  If  it 
has  a  hole  in  it,  or  is  deformed  in  some  way, 
they  are  pretty  apt  to  build  cells  along  in 
these  places.  Taking  advantage  of  this  fact, 
Ave  have  frequently  secured  a  large  number 
of  cells  by  mutilating  a  frame  of  unsealed 
larvae.  When  we  have  larvae  from  an  extra 
choice  queen,  and  desire  to  get  as  many  cells 
as  possible,  we  cut  longitudinal  strips,  one 
inch  wide,  and  an  inch  apart  throughout  the 
whole  comb.  In  the  comb  mutilated  there 
will  be  a  large  number  of  cells  built.  The 
longitudinal  strips  cut  out  are  next  cut  into 
strips  about  i  inch  wide.    We  then  destroy 


HOAV  TO   RAISE   GOOD  QUEEN-CELLS. 

all  the  eggs  or  larvae  except  those  where  we 
want  cells  built,  in  order  that  we  may  get 
them  in  shape  to  cut  apart.  To  do  this  we 
fasten  two  horizontal  strips  of  wood,  i  inch 
thick  and  I  wide, lengthwise  of  the  frame,  as 
shown  above.  We  now  take  the  narrow 
strips  of  comb  and  fasten  them  by  means  of 
several  large  pins  to  the  under  side  of  the 
top-bar  and  of  the  two  lengthwise  strips. 
We  have  tried  this  plan,  and  have  secured  a 
very  large  number  of  cells,  and  the  plan 
works  perfectly.  We  thus  secure  a  large 
number  of  cells,  both  from  the  comb  and 
from  the  frame.    To  get  a  frame  full  of  cells 


QUEEN  REARING. 


241 


QUEEN-REARING. 


like  the  cut,  we  succeed  best  with  a  colony 
having  a  dash  of  Holy-Land  blood.  See 
IIoLY  Laxds,  under  Italians. 

doolittle's  method  of  keaking  cells 
in  colonies  not  (^ukenlkss. 

It  is  well  known,  that  stocks  about  to  send 
forth  a  swarm  will  lear  queen-cells.  Mr. 
G.  M.  Doolittle,  of  Borodino,  N,  Y.,  how- 
ever, has  perfected  a  nietliod  of  rearing  cells 
in  colonies  already  having  a  queen,  not  un- 
der the  swarming  impulse.   It  is  as  follows : 

lie  takes  an  ordinary  wooden  rake-toofh', 
and  whittles  and  sandpapers  the  point  so 
that  it  is  the  size  and  sliai)e  of  tlie  bottom  of 
a  queen-cell.  After  dipping  this  into  a  cup 
of  water  he  plunges  it  to  a  depth  of  about 
half  an  inch  into  a  small  vat  of  wax  brought 
to  the  melting-point.  It  is  next  dipped 
again,  but  at  a  trifle  less  depth.*  After  each 
dipping  it  is  cooled,  and  the  process  is  con- 
tinued some  seven  or  eight  times.  At  the 
next  to  the  last  dip  he  loosens  the  little  wax 
-cup  so  that  it  just  adheres  to  the  rake-tooth. 
He  then  dips  again,  and  immediately  sticks 
it  on  to  a  top-bar.  Another  cell-cup  is  made 
and  deposited  a  short  distance  from  the  tirst 
•one,  and  so  on  until  he  has  a  coui)le  of  rows 
of  cell-cups,  each  cell  being  far  enough 
apart  so  that  it  can  be  easily  removed  when 
■capped  over  by  the  bees,  into  each  one  of 
the  cups  he  now  deposits  a  little  of  the 
milky  part  of  royal  jelly,  and  in  this  milky 
fluid  he  sets  a  little  larva,  from  24  to  3(5  hours 
old  ;  or,  in  other  words,  he  grafts  each  cell, 
as  described  elsewhere. 

From  the  center  of  a  comb  more  or  less  dis- 
figured he  cuts  out  a  longitudinal  strip  about 
two  inches  wide,  and  in  its  i)lace  fastens  the 
top-bar  in  a  horizontal  position,  with  the 
■cell-cups  pointing  downward.  This  comb, 
instead  of  being  put  into  a  queenless  colony, 
to  carry  on  and  complete  the  cells  that  have 
been  started,  is  put  into  the  upper  story  of 
a  strong  populous  stock,  with  a  queen-ex- 
cluding honey-board  ia  between  the  upper 
and  the  lower  stories.  Two  combs  contain- 
ing larvae  should  be  put  into  the  u])per  story, 
and  the  prepared  frame  placed  between 
them,  so  that  mant/  nurse  bees  may  come  \^^ 
to  take  c  ire  of  them.  The  queen,  of  course, 
is  kept  below  by  the  perforated  metal.  The 
bees,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  will  complete 
the  cells  They  may  then  be  removed,  and 
another  similar  frame  be  given,  and  the  op- 
eration be  continued  several  times. 

The  principal  advantage  of  this  plan  is, 
that  colonies  may  l)e  kejtt  rearing  (jueen- 
I'ells  which  already  have  a  (|ueen,  and  a 

*  While  cooling,  it  slioiiUI  be  whirled  lioii/.oiitally. 


large  number  of  cells  can  be  reared  without 
a  single  colony  being  queenless.  There  are 
a  number  of  features  that  commend  them- 
selves to  the  iiractical  apiarist.  Our  boys 
have  so  far  tested  them  two  seasons  with 
success. 

Perhaps,  while  I  am  about  it.  I  should  re- 
mark that  Mr.  Doolittle  has  partially  suc- 
ceeded in  having  queens  fertilized  in  the 
upi)er  story  of  one  of  these  strong  colonies 
over  perforated  metal,  while  an  old  queen 
reigns  l)elow.  Dr.  G.  L.  Tinker,  of  New 
Philadelphia,  Ohio  ;  H.  Alley,  of  Wenham, 
Mass.,  and  others,  have  likewise  attained 
some  success  in  the  same  direction.  For 
particulars  you  are  requested  to  see  Doolit- 
tle's work  on  the  subject.  However,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  this  method  of  fertilization 
more  labor  than  having  individual  nuclei 
where  queens  can  be  fertilized,  because  a 
good  many  who  have  tested  the  thing  have 
reported  failure. 

AVHEN  TO  CUT  OUT  THE  QUEEN-CELLS. 

A  queen  is  hatched  in  just  16  days  from 
the  time  the  egg  is  laid,  as  a  general  rule ; 
therefore  we  must  take  measures  to  have  the 
cells  cut  out  before  this  time.  The  eggs 
hatch  into  the  minute  larvte  in  just  about 
three  days,  and,  if  you  have  used  these,  you 
are  to  cut  out  your  cells  on  the  12th  day  after 
you  moved  the  colony.  If  you  use  a  comb 
containing  larv?e  of  all  ages,  the  bees  will  be 
pretty  sure  to  use  some  that  are  6  days  old, 
in  which  case  you  may  have  queens  hatching 
by  the  10th  after  the  larvte  were  given  them, 
and  they  may  get  out  a  young  queen  as  soon 
as  the  9th.  It  is  these  queens  that  are 
hatched  on  the  9th  or  10th  day  that  we  have 
reason  to  fear  may  be  short-lived ;  hence  our 
warning  to  give  them  nothing  for  starting 
queen-cells  but  larv»  so  small  as  to  l)e  just 
visible  to  the  naked  eye. ■*•''••' 

HOW    TO    CUT    OUT    THE    QUEEN-CELLS. 

Provide  yourself  with  a  very  thin,  narrow- 
bladed  penknife,  and  be  sure  that  it  is  just 
as  sharp  as  you  can  make  it.  If  you  have  a 
dull  knife,  and  it  is  necessary  to  cut  between 
two  cells  that  are  very  chise,  you  will  very 
likely  break  one  or  both  open,  and  then  tlie 
bees  will  be  very  apt  to  tear  them  down.''' 
Cut  them  all  out  but  one,  and  do  it  nicely. 
If  they  are  not  too  close  together,  give  con- 
siderable room  around  the  base  or  part  that 
is  attaclied  to  the  comb. 

We  will  suppose  you  have  secured  a  tine 
lot  of  cells,  have  succeeded  in  cutting  them 
out  nicely,  and  have  them  all  shut  up  in  a 
little  box  where  lobher-bees  may  not  be  try- 


QUEEX-EEARIXG. 


242 


QUEEN-REARING. 


ing  to  steal  the  honey  that  may  have  been 
started  running  in  the  operation  of  cutting 
them  out.  Do  not  let  the  robbers  discover 
that  honey  may  be  pilfered  by  following  you 
around,  or  you  may  receive  some  stinging 
lessons  as  a  punishment  for  not  being  neat 
and  cleanly  in  your  work. 

HOAV   TO   FORM   THE   NUCLEI. 

Go  to  any  strong  good  colony  and  gently 
lift  out  one  of  the  central  combs.  This 
you  can  do  by  sliding  the  frame  on  each 
side  a  little  away  from  it,  or,  if  the 
combs  are  crammed  with  honey,  you  may 
find  it  necessary  to  push  a  se-ond  or  a 
third  one  back  a  little.  You  can  make  room 
to  take  out  the  first  one  quietly,  in  almost 
any  hive,  if  you  manage  properly.  Now,  we 
rather  wish  to  find  the  queen,  if  we  can  by 
not  taking  too  much  time,  and  so  we  carefully 
look  over  every  comb  as  we  lift  it  out. 
If  you  do  not  find  her  on  the  first  comb,  put  it 
in  one  of  the  nucleus  hives  and  take  another. 
Proceed  in  this  way  until  you  have  removed 
all  the  brood-combs.  As  soon  as  you  have 
found  the  queen,  you  are  to  put  her  with  the 
comb  she  is  on,  in  an  empty  hive.  If 
the  comb  contains  hatching  brood,  the  one 
will  be  sufl^cient;  but  if  the  brood  is  partly 
unsealed  you  had  better  put  another  beside 
it,  or  the  brood  may  be  chilled  during  cool 
nights. 

You  will  probably  make  4  good  nuclei  out 
of  a  fair  colony,  the  bees  that  are  in  the  fields 
will  make  another  good  one,  and  the  old 
queen  with  her  one  comb  still  another.  The 
old  original  stand  should  be  given  one  frame 
of  brood,  and  that  unsealed  larvae  or  eggs 
To  this  should  be  added  two  or  three,  pos- 
sibly four,  empty  combs  or  frames  of  foun 
dation.  The  flying  bees  returning  from  the 
fields  and  from  the  other  nuclei  will  make 
plenty  of  bees,  so  that  it  will  not  be  neces- 
sary to  give  any  bees  in  the  fiist  place  as  you 
did  the  rest. 

If  you  do  not  find  the  old  queen,  divide  the 
hive  all  the  same,  but  do  not  insert  any 
queen-cells  until  you  find  her.  If  you  are  so 
unlucky  as  not  to  find  her  at  all,  wait  until 
the  next  morning,  and  then  insert  queen- 
cells  in  all  that  have  started  some  of  their 
own,  for  it  is  a  sure  indication  of  queenless- 
ness  to  find  a  nucleus  building  queen-cells. 
Mark  this,  for  I  shall  refer  to  it  again. 
Whether  you  find  her  or  not,  it  is  a  little 
safer  to  insert  the  cell  24  hours  after  you 
made  them  queenless,  although  I  have  done 
so  a  gi'eat  many  times  without  having  them 
torn  down,  immediately  after  removing  the 
old  queen.    It  is  better  to  let  the  bees  be- 


come thoroughly  aware  of  their  queenless-' 
ness,  and  consequently  to  start  small  spurs 
of  cells.  AVhen  these  are  started,  the  bees^ 
will  usually  accept  the  cells  given  them. 
Perhaps  it  should  be  remarked,  that,  at  cer- 
tain seasons  of  the  year,  during  a  dearth  of 
honey,  for  instance  tlie  bees  will  tear  down 
the  first  one  or  two  cells,  no  matter  how  you 
treat  them.  Hybrids  and  blacks  are  more 
apt  to  behave  this  way  than  pure  Italians. 

HOW  TO   INSERT   QUEEN-CELLS. 

Some  years  ago  we  practiced  and  advocat- 
ed fitting  a  cell  into  a  hole  previously  cut 
out  of  a  selected  comb.  This  not  only  took 
a  good  deal  of  time,  but  it  mutilated  brood 
and  otherwise  nice  combs.  Cutting  into  the 
brood,  I  imagine,  sometimes  caused  the 
bees  to  regard  the  foreign  cell  with  disfavor, 
and  consequently  it  was  sometimes  torn 
down".  My  neighbor,  Mr.  Harrington,  who 
is  an  extensive  queen-breeder,  thinks  that 
the  cells  so  inserted  are  more  likely  to  be 
torn  down  than  if  inserted  in  the  manner 
which  I  shall  now  describe.  In  the  first 
place,  I  assume  that  you  have  cut  out  a 
!  number  of  cells.  Having  queenless  colonies 
I  into  which  you  now  propose  inserting  these 
;  cells,  you  approach  a  hive  and  remove  the 
I  cover.  With  the  smoker  in  the  right  hand, 
puff  a  few  wliiffs  of  smoke  over  the  bees, 
while  you  proceed  slowly  with  the  other 
hand  to  lift  up  the  enamel  sheet  or  quilt. 
When  rolled  about  half  way  back,  space  the 
two  ends  of  the  two  central  combs,  not  cov- 
ered by  the  quilt,  as  far  apart  as  you  can 
conveniently.  Having  done  this,  place  a 
cell  between  the  forefinger  and  the  middle 
finger,  and  insert  it  point  downward  between 
the  two  frames  which  have  been  spread  a 
little  at  the  ends.  Push  the  cell  down  as 
near  the  center  of  the  cluster  as  you  can 
reach  with  the  two  fingers.  Hold  it  in  posi- 
tion, then  with  the  other  hand  draw  togeth- 
er the  two  ends  which  have  been  spread,  un- 
til both  combs  hold  the  cell  suspended.  Be 
careful  not  to  crowd  together  too  hard,  oth- 
erwise you  will  crush  the  cell.  Roll  back 
the  enamel  sheet,  put  on  the  cover,  and  the 
operation  is  completed,  and  without  any  mu- 
tilation of  combs. 

There  is  one  other  way  of  giving  a  cell, 
and  that  is.  laying  it  on  top  of  the  brood- 
nest,  between  the  frames.  With  nuclei, 
however,  this  wouLI  not  do  as  well,  and  I 
should  therefore  recommend  inserting  cells 
in  these,  as  I  fiist  described.  With  strong 
colonies  it  does  not  matter  so  much  either 
way.  The  latter  plan  has  this  advantage: 
It  is  very  easy  to  see  whether  a  cell  is  hatch- 


QUEEN-RE  AKING. 


243 


QUEEN-REARING. 


ed— simply  rai-^e  the  enamel  cloth,  and  the 
cell  is  before  Toii.  A  glance  tells  you  very 
quickly  whether  her  majesty  has  emerged. 

THE    DOOLITTLE    QUEEN-CELL    PROTECTOR. 

Some  time  ago  G.  M.  Doi^little  got  out 
what  is  called  his  queen-cell  protector.  The 
accompanying  engraving  represents  a  cone 
made  by  forming  a  square  piece  of  wire 
cloth  over  a  wooden  cone. 


DOOLITTLE  S    QUEEN-CELL  PROTECTOR 


At  the  apex  a  hole  is  made,  large  enough 
to  permit  the  passage  of  a  hatched  queen.  A 
cell  is  put  into  one  of  these  i)rotectors,  the 
apex  of  the  cell  closing  the  mouth  of  the 
protector.  The  four  corners  of  the  wire 
cloth  are  gathered  together,  and  the  strands 
of  wire  are  twisted.  This  closes  the  cell 
entirely  in  wire  cloth,  leaving  only  the  end 
of  the  cell  exposed. 

The  accompanying  engraving  is  one  that 
was  made  on  tlie  plan  of  a  spiral  spring,  and 
it  is  the  invention  of  Mr.  N.  D.  West,  of 
Middlebnrg,  N.  Y. 


west's   spiral   (^UKKN-CKLL  IMJO'JKCTOH. 

This  is.  perhaps,  superior  to  Doolittles, 
in  that  this  protector  adapts  itself  more 
readily  to  the  size  of  the  cell,  tlie  spirals 
stretching  or  contracting  as  the  case  may 
be.  A  little  square  tin  slitle  slips  between 
the  spirals  at  the  top,  as  shown  in  the  il- 
lustration. One  troulile  we  experienced 
with  the  Doolittle  queen-cell  protector,  was, 
that  the  bees  Avould  sometimes  push  the  cell 
up,  get  behind  it,  and  gnaw  int.»  the  sides 
of  the  cell.  In  the  West  protector, the  little 
square  of  tin  crowds  the  cell  so  that  the  apex 


is  i)ushed  against  the  apex  of  the  spiral 
cone. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact,  that  bees,  when 
they  tear  down  cells,  make  their  openings 
at  the  side,  but  rarely  if  ever  cut  through 
the  end  of  the  cell.  The  protector  com- 
pletely inotects  the  sides  of  the  cell ;  and 
when  the  young  queen  hatches  she  sim- 
ply emerges  in  the  natural  way ;  and  the 
bees  that  would  have  torn  down  the  cell 
will  now  let  her  go  unmolested.  During 
certain  times  of  the  year,  when  bees  are  dis- 
posed to  tear  down  cells  we  give  them,  we 
put  them  in  the  protectors  and  all  is  well. 
Sometimes  when  a  cell  unprotected  is  pushed 
down  between  two  combs,  and  left  there  for 
a  day  or  so,  it  becomes  attached  to  both, 
which,  on  being  separated  for  the  purpose 
of  examination,  tear  the  cell  open ;  and  if 
the  young  queen  is  not  hatched  it  destroys 
her.  The  protector  prevents  any  mishai  s  of 
this  sort. 

Mr.  West  is  one  of  those  bee-keepers  who 
believe  in  requeening  an  apiary  every  two 
years— that  is,  that  the  average  queen,  after 
two  years,  should  be  removed,  and  a  young 
queen  take  her  place.  During  the  swarm- 
ing season,  when  cells  are  plentiful,  while 
Mr.  West  is  working  among  the  bees  he 
cuts  out  the  cells  as  fast  as  he  comes  to  them 
from  his  picked  colonies,  and  inserts  them 
in  the  protectors.  Then  he  goes  around  to 
colonies  having  two-year-old  queens,  pinches 
the  queen's  head  off.  and  affixes  the  protect- 
or containing  a  cell  on  the  side  of  the  comb. 
All  this  is  done  during  swarming  time,  when 
the  bees  can  best  spare  the  queen.  At  the 
same  time,  it  prevents  swarms  from  going 
off  in  the  absence  of  a  queen  or  until  one 
hatches,  and  this  checks  increase  at  a  time 
of  year  wlien  least  desired,  and  at  the  same 
time  reciueens  the  apiary  with  young  queens 
at  practically  little  expense.  c: 

HUXTIXCi     FOR     YOUNG     QUEENS  A    WASTE 
OK  TniE. 

When  I  first  commenced  queen-rearing  1 
thought  it  necessary  to  hunt  up  the  young 
queens  every  time  a  cell  was  found  open,  or 
every  time  I  looked  into  their  hives,  which, 
by  the  way,  was  about  every  day,  and  some- 
times oftener.  If  you  are  keeping  bees  just 
for  the  fun  of  it,  it  may  do  to  spend  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  looking  for  a  (pieen  just  to 
see  if  she  is  a  nice  one;  but  if  you  are  trying 
to  show  your  friends  who  worry  about  the 
time  you  "'fuss  with  your  bees"  that  there 
are  dollars  in  the  business,  you  need  never 
see  your  queens  at  all  until  you  wish  to  send 
them  off.     After    inserting  tlie  cells   you 


QUEEX-REARIXG. 


244 


QUEEN-REARING. 


have  nothiug  more  to  do  with  them  for  about 
three  days,  and  then  you  should  provide 
yourself  with  a  fresh  lot  of  cells,  and  also 
with  some  pieces  of  comb  containing  larvae 
just  right  for  queen-rearing.  Take  the  hives 
in  regular  order,  and  do  not  skip  about.  If 
you  find  a  cell  open  at  the  end,  your  queen 
is  probably  all  right,  and  if  there  are  no  lar- 
vae in  the  hive,  insert  a  piece;''''  as  soon  as 
any  thing  happens  to  a  queen  they  will  start 
queen-cells  on  this  brood,  and  therefore  we 
always  look  at  this  piece  of  brood  instead  of 
looking  for  the  queen.  Should  they  by  any 
possibility  rear  a  queen  of  their  own,  it  will 
always  be  from  yoiu-  choice  brood.  When 
in  your  examinations  you  find  eggs  in  the 
cells— your  eyes  will  soon  become  sharpened 
for  these  indications  of  greenbacks— you 
will  turn  the  queen-register  to  laying,  and 
use  her  the  first  time  you  send  off  queens. 
As  we  wish  to  keep  up  the  population  of 
these  little  hives,  it  may  be  well  to  allow  her 
to  fill  up  her  two  combs  pretty  well  before 
taking  her  out.  When  she  is  removed,  in- 
sert a  cell,  and  if  all  goes  well  you  may  have 
another  queen  in  the  hive  the  next  morning. 
Always  keep  your  queen  register  set,  that  it 
may  show  the  state  of  affairs  within,  and  be 
sure  the  bees  always  have  brood  in  their 
combs,  by  giving  them  a  fresh  piece  every 
three  or  four  days.  If  you  are  faithful  in 
this,  you  will  never  know  any  thing  about 
fertile  workers,  those  pests  of  queen-rearing. 

CAUTION. 

In  selecting  Ijrood  for  queen  rearing,  be 
sure  you  have  no  drone  larvte,  for  the  bees, 
by  some  strange  perversion  of  instinct,  will 
vei-y  often  build  queen-cells  over  them,  re- 
sulting usually  in  nothing  but  a  dead  drone. 
The  poor  drone  seems  unable  to  stand  the 
powerful  dose  of  concentrated  food  that  is 
required  to  perfect  a  queen  from  a  worker 
larva,  and  so  dies  when  he  is  about  half 
grown.  Should  a  queen-cell  have  been  start- 
ed over  a  drone  larva,  you  can  always  tell 
it  from  a  good  one  by  its  smooth  exterior, 
while  a  genuine  cell  has  a  roughened  sur- 
face like  the  drawing  we  have  given. 

If  vou  suspect  a  cell  is  not  going  to  hatch,'**" 
do  not  tear  it  down,  Ijut  insert  another  one 
beside  it.  If  you  have  two  or  more  cells  so 
close  together  that  they  can  not  be  separated, 
insert  the  whole,  and  look  often  to  them: 
you  can  very  often  find  the  first  one  while 


she  is  biting  out,  or  so  soon  after  slie  has 
come  out  as  to  save  the  others.  We  have 
often,  by  this  means,  saved  all  of  three  that 
were  biiilt  close  together. 

For  convenience  in  inserting  brood  so 
many  times,  we  use  a  square  "  cake-cutter, " 
as  it  were;  this  is  made  of  tin,  with  the 
edges  very  sharp.  Press  it  into  the  comb  far 
enough  to  mark  it,  and  then  you  can  cut  out 
pieces  all  of  a  size.  As  one  piece  always 
goes  in  where  another  comes  out,  you  can 
keep  all  unsightly  holes  in  your  combs  closed 
up,  and  have  no  odd  bits  of  comb  lying  about 
the  apiary. i*<^ 

HOW  TO  CAGE  THE  BEES  AND  QUEEN. 

Open  your  hive  without  smoke  if  you  can  ; 
if  you  can  not,  use  aslittle  smoke  as  possible. 
Wlieu  the  bees  have  become  quiet,  lift  out 
the  frames  until  you  find  the  one  containing 
the  queen,  and  stand  it  in  the  hive  in  the 
position  shown  in  the  diagram. 


Set  the  frame  so  that  the  queen  is  on  the 
part  projecting  out  of  the  hive.  Open  the 
cage  enough  to  let  one  bee  in  at  a  time,  and 
hold  it  in  your  left  hand,  while  your  thumb 
covers  the  entrance.  Now  pick  the  queen 
up  by  both  wings,  or  by  her  shoulders,  while 
you  put  her  into  the  cage.  Put  your  thumb 
over  the  entrance  at  once,  or  she  will  crawl 
out  in  a  twinkling.  Now,  we  want  none  but 
young  bees  to  put  with  her,  so  we  will  look 
on  the  frame  for  those  that  are  dipping  their 
noses  into  the  unsealed  honey.  As  their 
bodies  are  bent,  we  have  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity to  ]nck  them  up  by  the  wings,  and 
with  a  little  practice  you  should  be  able  to 
put  them  into  the  cage  about  as  fast  as  yon 
would  grains  of  corn.  Young  bees  will  nev- 
er sting  your  thumb,  unless  they  liappen  to 
be  very  bad  hyljrids;  but  old  ones  will  some- 
times venture  to  do  so,  if  you  liappen  to 
handle  them  too  roughly. 


R. 


RAFZi  [Bnitisica).  This  plant  is  a  near 
relative  of  the  turnip,  cabbage,  mustard, etc. 
All  of  them  yield  honey  largely,  where 
grown  in  sufficient  quantities.  As  rape  is 
the  only  one  of  which  the  seed  is  utilized  for 
purposes  other  than  for  increase,  it  should 
play  a  prominent  part  on  the  honey  -  farm. 
It  would  seem,  in  fact,  that  it  is  almost  the 
only  plant  that  should  stand  beside  Buck- 
wheat, or  rather,  perhaps,  above  it,  for  the 
honey  from  the  rape  is  very  much  superior 
to  buckwheat  honey.  The  great  drawback 
is  the  lack  of  hardiness  of  the  young  plants, 
when  they  first  come  up.  In  our  locality 
the  black  flea  is  almost  sure  to  eat  the  ten- 
der green  leaves  when  they  first  make  their 
appearance.  Our  neighbors  have  several 
times  tried  considerable  tields  of  it ;  but 
though  it  would  come  up  nicely,  this  flea 
would  take  off  almost  every  plant.  In  other 
localities  we  have  had  reports  of  bountiful 
crops  of  seed,  and  honey  enough  so  that  the 
bees  worked  beautifully  in  the  surplus  re- 
ceptacles. Like  buckwheat,  it  conuiiences 
to  blossom  when  quite  small,  and  continues 
in  bloom  until  the  plant  has  gained  its  full 
height.  x\.s  it  will  bloom  in  20  days  after 
sowing,  it  may  be  sowed  almost  any  time  in 
the  summer;  and  it  is  said  to  escape  the  rav- 
ages of  the  flea  best,  when  sown  late. 
We  have  had  it  yield  honey  flnely  when 
sown  the  flrst  of  August.  The  ground 
should  be  very  flnely  pulverized,  for  the 
seeds  are  very  small.  It  is  sown  broadcast. 
three  pounds  of  seed  to  the  acre.  There  is  a 
steady  and  good  demand  for  the  seed,  for 
feeding  canary  birds,  as  well  as  for  the  m;m- 
ufacture  of  oil.  Bee-keepers  should  contrive 
to  induce  seedsmen  to  have  all  these  seeds 
raised  near  them,  or  on  their  own  grounds 
Dealers  in  bird-seed  should  also  be  furnished 
in  the  same  way,  for  these  things  are  often 
raised  in  large  quantities,  where  there  are  • 
few,  if  any,  bees  to  gather  the  honey. 
From  what  I  have  said  on  Pollen,  you 
will  understand  that  both  parties  would  be  , 
benefited  by  the  arrangement.  ' 


RASFSERRV.  Where  this  fruit  is 
raised  largely  for  the  market,  it  is  quite  an 
important  honey- plant ;  but  it  would  hardly 
be  advisable  to  think  or  raising  it  for  honey 
alone.  The  bees  work  on  it  closely  in  our 
locality,  but  we  have  not  enough  of  it  to 
judge  of  the  honey.  If  bee-keepers  and 
growers  of  small  fruits  could  manage  to  lo- 
cate near  each  other,  it  would  probably  be 
an  advantage  to  both.  Langstroth  says  of 
the  raspberry  honey:  ■••  In  flavor,  it  is  supe- 
rior to  that  from  white  clover,  while  its  deli- 
cate comb  almost  melts  in  the  mouth. 
"When  it  is  in  blossom,  bees  hold  even  white 
clover  in  light  esteem.  Its  drooping  blos- 
soms protect  the  honey  from  moisture,  and 
they  work  upon  it  when  the  ^^■eather  is  so 
wet  they  can  obtain  nothing  from  the  up- 
right blossoms  of  the  white  clover." 

In  our  locality  it  comes  in  bloom  just  aft- 
er fruit  blossoms,  and  just  before  clover,  so 
that  large  fields  of  it  would  be  a  great  acqui- 
sition indeed.  The  red  varieties  (especially 
the  Cuthbert)  are  said  to  furnish  most  hon- 
ey. We  have  now  (188B)  about  two  acres  of 
the  best  raspberries  for  honey  on  our  honey- 
farm. 

RiLTAiXT.  This  plant  has  been  several 
times  spoken  of  by  our  Southern  friends,  and 
it  is  probably  quite  an  important  honey- 
plant.  Some  seed  has  been  sent  me.  but  no 
plants  have  as  yet  been  raised. 

RECORD    KEEPING    OF   HIVES.     Al- 

iiKist  every  apiarist  has  a  )>htn  of  his  own. 
whereby  he  can  record  the  condition  of  the 
iiive  at  the  time  of  the  examination,  so  that, 
in  future,  without  depending  on  memory,  he 
may  tell  at  a  glance  what  was  its  condition 
wiien  last  examined.  There  are  several 
good  systems,  but  I  will  describe  only  two 
or  three  of  the  l^est. 

Many  of  the  large  honey-iiroducers.  Dr. 
Miller  among  them,  have  what  they  call  a 
"record-book."  This  book  lias  a  page  for 
each  colony,  the  number  of  the  page  cor- 
responding witli  the  number  of  the  colony. 


RECORD  KEEPING  OF  HIVES.        246        RECORD  KEEI  ING  OF  HH^ES. 


The  book  should  be  small  and  compat-t, 
just  about  right  to  carry  in  the  hip-pocket, 
and  securely  bound.  It  should  always  be 
carried  when  at  work  among  the  bees.  On 
eacli  page  is  supposed  to  be  a  record  of  each 
colony's  doings  within  a  year— when  it  be- 
came queenless,  when  it  had  cells  or  brood, 
when  it  swarmed,  and,  toward  winter, 
strength  and  quantity  of  stores  it  had  when 
last  examined.  The  page  may  contain  a 
very  few  memoranda,  but  nothing  else 
should  be  put  on  that  page. 

There  is  an  advantage  in  the  book  meth- 
od—that is.  the  book  can  be  consulted  in  the 
house,  and  the  work  can  be  planned  before- 
liand  for  the  day.  If  the  record-book  be  for 
an  out-apiary,  the  work  can  be  planned  while 
riding  to  the  yard  ;  and  upon  arrival,  the 
plans  formulated  can  be  executed.  You 
will  know  in  advance  just  where  you  are 
going  to  get  cells  to  give  to  queenless  colo- 
nies; just  what  colonies  will  be  likely  to 
have  laying  queens ;  Avhat  ones  may  cast 
swarms,  and  what  ones  will  be  likely  to 
need  more  room  in  the  way  of  sections  or 
surplus  combs.  There  is  an  objection  to 
the  record-book,  however.  It  is  liable  to  be 
lost,  or  to  be  left  out  in  the  rain  ;  for  if  the 
book  is  lost,  the  whole  knowledge  of  the 
apiary,  except  so  far  as  the  apiarist  can  re- 
member, is  gone.  Another  thing,  only  one 
can  use  the  book  at  a  time.  If  there  are  two 
in  the  yard  this  will  sometimes  be  quite  an 
inconvenience. 

RECORD  -  KEEPING    W^ITH    SLATE    TABLETS. 

The  plan  we  prefer  is  to  attach  the  record 
right  on  tlie  hive  itself,  or,  what  is  better,  to 
a  slate  belonging  to  the  hive.  These  are 
made  expressly  for  the  ijurpose,  and  cost 
only  .Si .25  per  100,  and  they  are  larj^e  enough, 
if  the  records  are  abbreviated,  to  give  the 
history  of  the  colony  for  a  year.  Still  fur- 
ther, the  position  that  these  slates  occupy 
on  the  cover  or  on  the  side  of  the  hive  indi- 
cates at  a  distance  the  general  condition  of 
the  colony,  without  so  much  as  even  reading 


G^^     (UJf9 


panying  cut  shows 
one  of  these  little 
slates.  For  w^riting 
tlie  records,  a  slate- 
pencil,  a  common 
lead-pencil,  or  a  red 
lead-pencil,  may  be  used.  The  slate-pencil 
marks  wash  out  a  little  too  easily  by  the  rain, 
so  we  prefer,  as  a  general  thing,  a  lead- 
pencil,  which  does  not  erase,  except  when 
you  rub  the  slate  with  moistened  fingers. 
By  tilting  it  a  little  to  the  light,  the  marks 
show  quite  plainly.  In  the  slate  above  I 
have  given  an  example  of  the  records  we  put 
on.  Perhaps  it  may  not  appear  very  intelli- 
gible to  you.  Cell  h/u)  means  that,  on  the 
19th  of  June,  a  best  imported  queen  was 
given  them.  *■'  lit  22 ''  means  that  the  queen 
hatched  on  the  22d  of  that  month.  .July  2d 
she  was  laying,  and  August  loth  she  was 
found  to  be  a  pure  tested  Italian  queen. 
You  will  notice  a  large  9  inS'  ribed  over  the 
whole.  This  means  that,  on  the  'jth  of  Sep- 
tember, the  queen 
was  sold.  The  ac- 
companying cut  il- 
lustrates still  anoth- 
er slate,  which,  in- 
terpreted, signifies 
that,  on  the  18th  of 
June,  a  best  imported  queen  was  caged.  On 
the  20th  she  was  out  and  laying  ;  and  on  the 
loth  of  the  following  month  she  was  sold. 

Every  apiarist  can  formulate  a  system  of 
short  longhand  that  will  be  intelligible  to 
himself  and  workmen  It  takes  too  much 
time  to  write  the  whole  history  of  the  affair, 
so  it  is  better  to  use  a  system  of  abbrevia- 
tions ;  and,  besides,  it  saves  room. 

Now,  in  order  to  save  time  in  running  up 
to  a  slate  to  see  what  it  says,  it  is  desirable 
to  indicate,  so  far  as  possible,  the  last  rec- 
ord on  the  slate  by  its  position  on  the  cover. 

The  accompanying  diagram  shows  a  few 
of  the  positions  that  may  be  used  ;  and  this 
number  may  be  extended   indefinitely  by 


1       1 

™ 

1 

% 

1 

1 

-  j 

- 

1 

% 

\ 

1 

1  1  1 

2 

3 

4 

:, 

6 

7 

8 

9 

111          1 

POSITION  or   SLATE  TO   INDICATE  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE   COLONY. 

1.  Queenless;   2.  Cell;  :i.  Hatched  virgin;  4.  Laying  queen;  5.  Tested  queen;  6.  Caged  queen  to  be  introduced;  7.  Caged  queen 
out;  8  Son;eihing  wrong;  9.  Hive  needs  supers  and  more  room:  10.  No  slate— hive  with  empty  combs,  ready  for  a  swarm. 


the  record  on  the  slate.  These  slates  are  21 
by  If  inches,  and  they  have  a  hole  punched 
near  one  end,  so  as  to  admit  of  their  being 
hung  on  the  side  of  the  hive.    The  accom- 


putting  the  slate  cornerwise,  endwise,  etc., 
in  the  different  positions  shown.  But  it  is 
desirable  not  to  have  too  many,  or  else  you 
or  your  help  will  be  confused. 


RECOKD-KEEPIXG  OF  HI\'ES.        247        RECORD-KEEPIXG  OF  HHES. 


The  code  above  is  one  we  use  in  our  apia- 
ry, and  it  is  one  that  can  be  used  in  most 
apiaries.  To  make  it  really  valuable,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  memorize  the  meaning  of 
each  position.  In  the  diagram  above,  10 
positions  are  shown  ;  and  these  have  been 
proved  by  actual  practice  to  answer  our  re- 
quirements. To  aid  the  memory  we  will 
make  use  of  a  simple  analogy.  You  have 
heard  about  cross-grained  people— people 
who  are  always  out  of  sorts,  and  with  whom 
something  is  always  wrong.  For  conven- 
ience we  will  call  a  colony  not  in  its  normal 
condition,  "  cross-grained.''  A  colony  that 
is  queenless  is  apt  to  be  crosser  than  one 
having  a  queen.  Such  a  colony,  as  a  rule, 
never  does  as  well  as  one  that  has  a  queen. 
It  is  true,  also,  to  a  lesser  extent,  that  a  col- 
ony having  a  virgin  queen  is  not  doing  as 
well  as  one  having  one  that  is  laying.  Well, 
now  we  start  with  Xo.  1,  in  the  diagram  as 
above.  The  slate  is  put  across  the  grain,  in 
the  center  of  the  hive.  This  means  that  it 
is  queenless.  Xo.  2,  the  slate  is  still  across 
the  grain,  but  near  the  edge  of  the  hive  ;  but 
this  one  has  a  cell.  Xo.  3,  the  cell  is  hatch- 
ed, and  has  a  virgin  queen  ;  but  as  the  colo- 
ny has  not  yet  reached  its  normal  condition, 
the  shite  is  still  laid  across  the  grain  at  the 
end  of  the  cover.  In  eight  or  ten  days,  if  all 
goes  well,  the  virgin  will  be  laying,  and 
then  we  turn  the  slate  ijarallel  with  the 
grain,  as  shown  at  4.  If  the  virgin  queen 
should  be  lost,  the  slate  is  jiut  back  as  shown 
in  Xo  1 — across  the  grain.  But  we  will 
suppose  that  our  queen  is  laying,  and  in  a 
month's  time  she  proves  to  be  tested,  and  an 
Italian.  The  condition  of  the  colony  has 
imi)riived,  as  regards  the  value  of  the  queen, 
so  the  slate  is  moved  to  the  center  of  the 
hive,  parallel  with  the  grain. 

So  far  the  first  five  positions  would  cover 
the  time  of  qireen-rearing.  But  suppose  we 
wish  to  introduce  a  queerr— how  shall  we  in- 
dicate it  y  The  colony  with  a  caged  queen 
is  neither  queenless  nor  is  it  possessed  of  a 
queen,  because  they  may  take  a  notion  to 
kill  her  as  soon  as  slie  is  released.  To  ( arry 
out  tlie  Jigure.  the  colony  is  about  half  way 
between  the  normal  and  abnormal  condi- 
tion. So  we  turn  the  slate  to  a  diagonal. 
Position  0  means  that  the  colony  lias  just 
had  a  queen  caged.  No.  7  means  that,  a 
(liiy  or  two  afterward,  she  was  found  to  be 
out.  A  few  days  later,  if  she  is  laying, 
the  slate  is  ];ut  in  position  4.  But.  sui)pose 
she  is  missing.  Then  the  slate  is  tinned  in 
the  ])Osition  of  K.  In  general,  position  8  sig- 
nifies that  tliere  is. something  radically  wrong 


with  the  colony.  It  may  mean  that  it  has  a 
fertile  worker,  or  that  it  is  very  short  of 
stores,  and  will  require  to  be  fed  at  once. 

"We  have  so  far  covered  the  history  of  a 
colony  as  touching  the  rearing  and  intro- 
ducing of  queens.  "When  honey  is  coming 
in,  it  is  desirable  to  know  by  the  slates 
which  ones  will  be  likely  to  need  supers 
soon.  In  9,  again,  the  slate  is  parallel  with 
the  cover.  This  means  that  it  is  overflow- 
ing with  bees  and  honey,  and  will  need,  in  a 
day  or  two,  if  not  immediately,  more  room 
in  the  shape  of  sections  or  surplus  combs. 
Xo.  10,  without  any  slate  on  the  hive,  means 
that  the  hive  in  question  is  empty,  having 
only  frames  of  foundation  or  empty  comb  , 
and  is,  therefore,  ready  for  the  reception  of 
a  swarm. 

We  used  to  hang  the  slates  on  a  nail  on 
the  side  of  the  hive.  Then  when  we  desired 
to  find  a  select  tested  queen,  we  will  say  for 
an  order,  we  were  required  to  read  the  writ- 
ing on  the  slates  of  a  good  many  hives  before 
we  found  what  we  wanted.  What  do  we  do 
now  y  We  stand  upon  a  hive,  take  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  hive  covers,  and  then  make 
a  bee  line  for  the  hive  we  want. 

The  code  above  can  be  extended  indefi- 
nitely, or  be  slightly  modified,  to  suit  the 
reqnirements  of  different  bee-keepers.  Bear- 
ing in  mind  the  "  cross  grained  "  analogy,  I 
think  there  will  be  no  trouble  in  memorizing 
the  few  positions.  It  shoiild  be  observed, 
that  a  good  many  use  bricks  to  indicate  the 
condition  of  the  colony.  Of  cotn-se,  instead 
of  slates  you  may  use  bricks  ;  but  in  that 
case  you  can  not  very  well  indicate  the  date, 
besides  other  memoranda  that  you  can  not 
readily  indicate  by  position. 

One  great  featru-e  of  having  slates  on  the 
top  of  the  hive,  to  indicate  its  condition,  is. 
that,  just  as  soon  as  we  go  out  into  the 
apiary,  we  can  single  out  colonies  that  need 
attention  first;  and  that,  too,  without  hunt- 
ing for  them.  For  instance,  to-day,  June 
19, 1  noticed  that  the  bees  were  hanging  out 
of  a  large  chaff  hive.  "  I  wonder  whether 
they  will  swarm,"  I  thought.  The  hive  was 
perhaps  thirty  yards  from  wheie  I  stood. 
Glancing  at  the  top  of  the  hive,  the  slate 
across  the  grain,  on  the  edge  <if  the  cover, 
showed  that  tlie  colony  had  only  a  queen- 
cell,  and  there  was  not  much  danger  that  it 
would  cast  a  swarm  that  day.  liy  standing 
upon  one  of  our  hives  I  can  read  the  condi- 
tion of  every  colony  in  our  apiary  of  some 
300  queen-rearing  colonies,  and  that  without 
moving  a  step. 

Some  bee-keepers,  instead  of  using  slate 


REVERSING. 


:i4s 


ROBBING. 


tablets,  write  with  a  lead-pencil  on  the  top 
of  the  cover;  then  as  the  cover  is  .to  be 
painted  about  every  two  years,  the  records 
are  obliterated,  and  new  ones  are  started. 
To  indicate  the  condition  of  the  colony  at  a 
glance,  bricks  are  used  in  much  the  same 
Avay  as  the  shites  are  above— that  is,  by 
placing  them  in  various  positions  on  the 
cover  of  the  hive. 

QUEEX-KEGISIEK   CARDS. 

Another  system  of  record-keeping  that  is 
popular  with  some  is  what  are  called  regis- 
ter-cards.    The   accompanying   cut   shows 

1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    »     Q^XQQn     HegiStCF. 

I  vz  EGUS. 

•^9  O  13         MISSING. 

28  U 

27  15  TESTED.  O  CELL. 

M  IG 

•s  2i  2.3  22  21 20  19 18  17     SELECT  Testfd.         Hatclied. 


Si,  

BKOOD. 


MARCH. 

OCT.     APRIL. 

SEPT,    O      MAY. 

AUG.      JCNE. 

.JULY. 


LAYING. 


DIRECTIONS.— Tack  the  card  on  a 
conspicuous  part  of  the  hire  or  nu- 
cleus; then,  with  a  pair  of  plyers.  force 
a  common  pin  into  the  center  of  each 
circle,  after  which  it  is  bent  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  head  will  press  se- 
curely on  anj'  figure  or  word. 


how  they  are  used.  To  indicate  the  date, 
the  pill-points  are  revolved  so  as  to  point  to 
the  proper  place.  There  is  no  writing,  and 
nothing  to  do  except  to  turn  the  pointers  to 
the  right  place.  This  is  preferred  by  W".  Z. 
Hutchinson  and  others. 

HZSVERSING.  This,  as  the  term  sig- 
nifies, is  the  process  of  inverting,  or  turning 
over,  the  combs.  The  subject  began  to  be 
discussed  in  earnest  in  '84.  Its  f)bject  is  two- 
fold :  First,  by  so  taking  advantage  of  the 
natural  instinct  of  bees  as  to  cause  them  to 
complete  combs  only  partially  built  out,  or 
to  fill  said  frames  completely  with  comb ; 
second,  to  force  the  bees  to  carry  the  honey 
from  the  brood-chamber  into  the  surplus- 
receptacle  above,  where  it  is  wanted.  Revers- 
ing is  accomplished  by  inverting  the  combs 
singly  or  collectively.  By  the  latter  method 
the  whole  hive  with  contents  is  inverted  at 
one  operation.  By  the  former,  each  frame 
is  provided  with  reversible  supports,  so  that 
the  frame  can  be  placed  in  the  hive  bottom 
upward,  and  vice  verso..  Perhaps  a  score  or 
more  of  devices  for  the  reversing  of  frames 
have  been  submitted  to  me.  The  one  figured 
aliove  is  a  good  one,  and  it  is  also  a  fixed 
frame.  The  cut  given  will  make  its  use 
]»lainwhen  it  is  understood  that  it  is  a  stand- 
ing frame.    It  rests  on  strips  of  tin  nailed  to 


the  bottom  inside  edge  of  the  ends  of  the 
hive. 


'IHE    VAN    DEUSEN    REVEKSIItLE    FRAME. 

These  frames  are  used  quite  extensive- 
ly by  Captain  J.  E.  Hetherington  (see  Bio- 
graphical Sketches  at  the  back  of  this  vol- 
ume) ;  also  by  his  brother,  O.  J.  Hethering- 
ton. They  are  really  an  excellent  frame, 
and  have  several  good  features  aside  from 
reversing. 

THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    REVERSING. 

It  is  a  natural  instinct  of  the  bees  to  store 
their  honey  next  to  and  just  above  their 
brood-nest.  The  consequence  of  this  is,  that 
the  upper  part  of  the  combs  is  bulged  out, 
often  full  of  honey,  while  the  lower  part,  or 
that  just  below  the  brood,  is  apt  to  be  built 
out  sparingly,  and  oftentimes  not  touching 
the  bottom-bar.  If  the  frame  be  now  re- 
versed, the  energy  of  the  bees  will  be  equal- 
ized, in  a  certain  sense,  and  the  comb  will 
entirely  fill  the  fi'ame,  the  result  being  an 
even  card  of  comb.  Now,  by  the  process  of 
reversing,  the  honey  which  was  placed  be- 
low the  brood-nest,  according  to  the  votaries 
of  inverting,  will  be  stored  in  the  sections, 
where  it  is  wanted.  I  believe,  however,  that 
this  practice  is  not  always  profitable,  as  dark 
honey  sometimes  by  this  means  is  put  into 
sections.  Another  advantage  is  claimed  by 
the  advocates  of  inversion ;  namely,  the 
completing  of  sections  only  partially  filled 
out.  Many  times  the  upper  part  of  sections 
is  filled  out  when  the  lower  part  is  only  par- 
tially so.  To  force  the  bees  to  finish  the 
sections,  top  and  bottom  alike,  the  whole  su- 
per is  inverted  at  the  proper  time  to  secure 
these  results. 

The  majority  of  large  honey-producers  do 
not  practice  inverting,  because  it  is  argued 
that  the  advantages  derived  therefrom  are 
not  sufficient  to  cover  the  additional  expense 
incumbent  on  supers,  frames,  hives,  etc., 
made  reversible ;  but  as  the  majority  of 
honey-producers  have  been  using  the  loose 
frame  (i.  e  ,  frames  not  fixed),  no  Avonder 
they  would  look  with  disfavor  on  reversing, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  loose  frames  can 
not  very  well  Ijc  inverted  ;  but  where  hives 
with  fixed  frames  are  used,  such  as  the  Hoff- 
man or  the  closed-end,  hives  may  be  invert- 
ed as  a  whole. 

The  principal  and  foremost  advantage  of 
reversing,  in  my  mind,  is  the  securing  of 
perfect  comb.s— combs  built  out  solid  to  the 


ROBBING. 


249 


ROBBING. 


bottom-bar;  and  this  can  be  accomplished 
in  no  way  so  perfectly  as  by  reversing.  It  is 
a  great  nuisance  to  have  combs  Imilt  down 
to  within  a  qnarter  of  an  inch  or  so  of  the 
bottom-bar,  and  there  left,  season  after  sea- 
son. It  is  a  nuisance,  becanse  queens  liide 
in  tliese  places,  and  because,  in  shaking 
frames  for  extracting,  it  is  a  good  place  for 
the  bees  to  cling.  It  is  desirable  to  have  all 
our  combs  as  straight  and  true  as  boards. 
This  is  a  decided  advantage  in  uncapping. 

A  hive  with  the  Hoffman  frames  may  "be 
reversed  very  easily.  Take  one  of  the  eight- 
frame  hives  containing  this  kind  of  frames, 
deseiibed  under  IIiVE-MAKiN(i,  and  lay  a 
couple  of  i-inch-square  strips  on  top  of  the 
frames,  and  as  long  as  the  hive  is  wide  in- 
side. Instead  of  putting  on  the  hive-cover, 
put  on  an  extra  bottom-board.  Now  turn 
the  hive  upside  down,  and  put  on  the  cover. 
Leave  the  hive  this  way  during  the  honey 
season  for  a  few  davs,  or  while  they  are  be- 
ing fed,  until  they  build  the  combs  up  to  the 
bottom -bar  once,  now  uppermost ;  then  put 
the  hive  back  in  its  normal  shape — bottom- 
bars  downward. 

I  do  not  believe  it  pays  to  go  to  the  ex- 
])enseot  having  reversible  hives  or  reversible 
frames  on  purpose  for  reversing.  With  the 
Hoffman  frames  it  assuredly  does  pay  to 
practice  it  once,  at  least,  to  get  the  combs  tilled 
out  clear  to  the  bottom-bars,  because  there 
is  no  additional  expense  for  fixtures. 

ROBBISra.    Paul  says,  "The  love  of 
money  is  the  root  of  all  evil."    I  should  be 
inclined  to  state  it  in  this  way :  The  disposi- 
tion  to    get  money  without  rendering  an 
equivalent,  is  the  root  of  all  evil.    Well,  the 
root  of  a  great  many  evils  in  bee-keeping 
is  the  disposition  of  the  bees  to  gain  honey  i 
without  rendering  any  equivalent.     Some 
one  of  our  ABC  class  has  said  that  he  found  j 
bees  making  visits  to  over  100  clover-heads  | 
before  they  obtained  a  load  sufficient  to  car- 
ry to  their  hives.    I  think  it  very  likely,  that ' 
during  a  great  part  of  the  season  a  bee  will 
be  absent  a  full  hour,  or,-  it  may  be,  dining 
unfavorable  spells,  as  much  as  two  hours,  in  [ 
obtaining  a  single   load.    Is  it  at  all  strange 
that  a  bee,  after  having  labored  thus   hard 
•during  the  fore  part  of  the  day,  should,  in 
the  afternoon,  take  a  notion  to  see  if  he 
could  not  make  a  living  in  some  easier  way? 
Would  he  be  very  much  worse  than  numy 
types   of   humanity?     Well,  as  he   passes 
around  to  otlier  hives,  he  catches  the  per- 
fume of  the  clover  honey  they  have  gatliered 
in  a  like  manner,  and,  by  some  sort  of  an  op- 


eration in  his  little  head,  he  figures  out  that, 
if  he  could  abstract  some  of  this,  unper- 
ceived,  and  get  it  safely  into  his  own  hive, 
he  would  be  so  much  the  richer.  I  presume 
he  has  no  sort  of  care,  whether  these  other 
folks  die  of  starvation  or  not.  That  is  no 
concern  of  his. 

With  all  of  their  Avonderful  instincts,  I 
have  never  been  able  to  gather  that  the  bees 
of  one  hive  ever  have  any  spark  of  solicitude 
as  to  the  welfare  of  their  neighbors.  If,  by 
loss  of  a  queen,  the  popidation  of  any  hive 
!  becomes  w^eak,  and  the  bees  too  old  to  de- 
'  fend  their  stores,  the  very  moment  the  fact 
J  is  discovered  by  other  swarms,  they  rush  in 
and  knock  down  the  sentinels,  with  the  most 
perfect  indifference,  plunder  the  ruined  home 
of  its  last  bit  of  provision,  and  then  rejoice 
in  their  own  home,  it  may  be  but  a  yard 
away,  while  their  defrauded  neighbors  are 
so  weak  from  starvation  as  to  have  fallen  to 
the  bottom  of  the  hives,  being  only  just  able 
to  feebly  attempt  to  crawl  out  at  the  en- 
trance. Had  it  been  some  of  their  own 
flock,  the  case  would  have  been  very  differ- 
ent indeed ;  for  the  first  bee  of  a  starving  col- 
ony will  carry  food  around  to  his  comrades, 
as  soon  as  he  has  imbibed  enough  of  the  food 
furnished  to  have  the  strength  to  stagger  to 
them. 

Well,  siappose  the  bee  mentioned  above,  in 
prowling  around  in  the  afternoon  or  some 
other  time,  should  find  a  colony  so  weak,  or 
so  careless,  that  he  could  slip  in  unobserved, 
and  get  a  load  from  some  of  the  unsealed 
cells,  and  get  out  again.  After  he  has  passed 
the  sentinels  outside  he  will  usually  run  biit 
little  danger  from  those  inside,  for  they  seem 
to  take  it  for  granted  that  every  bee  inside 
is  one  of  their  number.  There  is  danger, 
though;  for  should  he  betray  too  great  haste 
in  repairing  to  the  combs  of  honey,  they  will 
often  suspect  something ;  so  he  assumes  an 
indifference  he  is  far  from  feeling,  and  loi- 
ters about  very  much  as  if  he  were  at  home, 
and  finally,  with  a  very  well-assumed  air  of 
one  who  thiidvs  he  will  take  a  lunch,  he  goes 
to  the  cells,  and  connnences  to  till  up.  Very 
often,  wlien  lie  gets  pretty  well  "'podded  out"" 
with  his  load,  some  bee  ai)proaches,  appar- 
ently to  see  if  all  is  right.  When  the  robber 
once  gets  his  head  into  a  cell,  however,  he 
seems  to  have  lost  all  sense  or  reason;  and  if 
he  is  discovered  at  tliis  stage  to  be  a  sti-anger 
and  a  thief,  he  is  often  pounced  upon  and 
stung  with  very  little  ceremony.  How  do 
they  know  a  stranger  from  one  of  their  own 
number,  where  tliere  are  so  manyV  It  is 
said,  they  know  by  the  sense  of  smell;  this 


ROBBING. 


2.50 


ROBBING. 


may  be  the  principal  means,  perhaps,  but  I 
think  they  depend  greatly  on  the  actions  and 
behavior  of  a  bee,  mvich  as  we  do  when  judg- 
ing of  the  responsibility  of  a  man  who  asks 
to  be  trusted.  We  can  give  a  very  good  guess, 
simply  by  his  air  or  manner,  or  even  by  the 
sort  of  letter  he  writes.  If  a  robber  is  sus- 
pected, and  a  bee  approaches  for  the  purpose 
of  satisfying  himself,  it  is  a  very  critical  mo- 
ment, and  one  becomes  intensely  interested 
in  watching  the  performance.  The  robber 
will  stand  his  ground,  if  he  is  an  old  hand, 
and  permit  himself  to  be  looked  over  with  a 
wonderful  indifference:  but  one  who  has 
watched  such  scenes  closely  will  detect  a 
certain  uneasiness,  and  a  disposition  to  move 
slowly  toward  the  entrance,  that  he  may  be 
the  better  able  to  get  out  quickly,  when  he 
discovers  things  to  be  too  hot  for  him  inside. 
If  the  bee  who  tirst  suspects  him  concludes 
he  is  an  interloper,  he  begins  to  bite  him, 
and  grab  hold  of  his  wings  to  hold  on  until 
others  can  come  to  help.  The  thief  has  now 
two  chances  to  escape,  and  sometimes  he 
seems  meditating  which  to  adopt ;  one  is  to 
brave  it  out  until  they  shall  perhaps  let  him 
alone,  and  then  slip  out  unobserved.  The 
other  is  to  break  away,  and  trust  to  his  heels 
and  wings.  The  latter  plan  is  the  one  gen- 
erally adopted,  unless  he  is  a  very  old  and 
''  hardened  sinner"  in  the  business.  One 
who  has  been  many  times  in  such  scrapes 
will  usually  get  away,  by  the  latter  plan,  by 
an  adroit  series  of  twists,  turns,  and  tum- 
bles, even  though  three  or  four  bees  have 
hold  of  him  at  once.  Some  of  these  fellows, 
by  a  sudden  and  unexpected  dash,  will  liber- 
ate themselves  in  a  manner  that  is  also  won- 
derful, and  then,  as  if  to  show  their  audaci- 
ty, will  wheel  about  and  come  back  close  to 
the  noses  of  their  retainers  of  a  minute  be- 
fore. 

But  in  case  the  bee  gets  his  load,  and 
makes  his  way  out  unobserved,  he  gets  home 
very  quickly,  you  may  be  sure,  and,  under 
the  influence  of  this  new  passion  for  easily 
replenishing  his  hive  with  the  coveted 
sweets,  he  rushes  out  with  a  vehemence  nev- 
er known  under  any  other  circumstances. 
Back  he  goes  and  repeats  the  operation,  with 
several  of  his  comrades  at  his  heels.  Does 
he  tell  them  where  to  go  y  I  wish  to  digress 
enough  here  to  say,  that  I  do  not  believe  in 
a  so-called  language  among  bees,  or  animals 
in  general,  further  than  certain  simple 
sounds  which  they  utter,  and  which  we  may 
learn  to  interpret  almost  if  not  quite  as  well 
as  they  do.  When  a  bee  comes  into  the  hive 
in  such  unusual  haste^  podded  out  with  his 


load  in  a  way  also  rather  unusual  where  it  is 
obtained  from  ordinary  stores,  his  comrades 
at  once  notice  it,  and,  either  from  memory  or 
instinct,  they  are  suddenly  seized  with  the 
same  kind  of  passion  and  excitement.  Those 
who  have  had  experience  at  the  gambling- 
table,  or  in  wild  speculations  of  other  kinds, 
can  understand  the  fierce  and  reckless  spirit 
that  stirs  these  little  fellows.  Patent  hives 
illustrate  the  matter  very  well.  A  man  who 
afterward  became  editor  of  a  bee  -  journal 
once  held  up  before  my  vm tutored  eyes  a 
right  to  make  a  patent  hive,  saying  : 

"Mr.  Root,  I  get  $5.00  for  these  rights,  and 
they  do  not  cost  me  more  than  the  paper 
they  are  printed  on— less  than  half  a  cent 
apiece." 

The  idea  that  $5.00  bills  could  be  picked 
up  in  that  way,  compared  with  the  slow  way 
I  was  in  the  habit  of  earning  them,  so  im- 
pressed itself  on  my  mind  that  I  could  hard- 
ly sleep  nights ;  but  after  I  had  taken  that 
amount  from  several  of  my  friends  and 
neighbors  for  the  "right,"  I  concluded  that 
money  without  a  clear  conscience  is  not  just 
the  thing  after  all.  Can  we  blame  the  poor 
bees  for  being  so  much  humanV  Well,  the 
bees,  when  they  see  a  comrade  return  in  the 
way  mentioned,  seem  to  know,  without  any 
verbal  explanation,  that  the  plunder  is  sto- 
len. Anxious  to  have  "a  finger  in  the  pie," 
they  tumble  out  of  the  hive,  and  look  about, 
and  perhaps  listen,  too,  to  find  where  the 
spoil  is  to  be  had.  If  they  have,  at  any  for- 
mer time,  been  robbing  any  particular  hive, 
they  will  repair  at  once  to  that ;  but  if  it  is 
found  well  guarded,  those  used  to  the  busi- 
ness will  proceed  to  examine  every  hive  in 
the  apiary.  As  an  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  they  communicate,  or,  rather,  observe 
the  movements  of  each  other,  see  account  of 
bees  getting  into  the  honey-house,  given  in 
Pollen. 

Of  course,  they  have  particular  notes,37n  as 
of  joy,  sorrow,  anger,  despair,  etc.,  which  are 
produced  by  the  wings,  usually  when  on  the 
wing,  but  I  am  quite  sure  they  are  i;nable  to 
communicate  to  each  other  more  than  a  sin- 
gle idea.  In  other  words,  they  have  no  fac- 
ulty of  telling  their  fellows  that  a  lot  of  hon- 
ey is  to  be  had  in  a  feeder  at  the  entrance, 
and  that  it  would  better  be  brought  in  quick- 
ly,  or  other  bees  may  find  it.  A  bee  goes 
out  in  the  spring,  and  by  smelling  around 
the  buds,  discovers  honey  and  pollen ;  when 
he  comes  into  the  hive,  the  others  see  it  and 
start  out,  and  hunt  it  up  in  a  similar  way. 
For  further  inf(^rmation  on  this  subject,  see 
Swarming. 


m>BBING. 


251 


RUBBING . 


If  you  will  turn  back  and  read  Axger  of 
Bees,  you  will  get  a  very  good  idea  of  the 
causes  that  start  bees  to  robbing.  Bead,  al- 
so, Bee-huxtixg,  Feedixg,  etc.  As  a  gen- 
eral thing,  bees  will  never  rob  so  long  as 
plenty  of  honey  is  to  be  had  in  the  fields. 
During  a  bountiful  flow  I  have  tried  in  vain 
to  get  bees  to  take  any  notice  of  honey  left 
around  the  apiary.  At  such  times  we  can 
use  the  extractor  right  in  the  open  air,  close 
to  the  sides  of  the  hives,  if  need  be.  On  one 
occasion  I  remember  leaving  a  comb  of  un- 
sealed honey  on  the  top  of  a  hive,  from  morn- 
ing until  noon,  and  not  a  bee  had  touched 
it.  It  seems  they  preferred  to  go  to  the  clo- 
ver-fields, in  the  regular  way,  rather  than  to 
take  several  pounds  from  the  top  of  a  neigh- 
boring hive.  I  can  readily  suppose  that  they 
did  not  have  to  visit  anything  like  a  hundred 
blossoms  at  this  time,  and  perhaps  they  se- 
cured a  load  in  going  to  not  more  than  a 
half  -  dozen.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  is  not 
very  usual  in  our  locality.  We  have  very 
few  days  during  the  season,  when  it  would 
be  safe  to  use  the  extractor  for  a  whole  day 
in  the  open  air ;  the  bees  will  generally  learn 
to  follow  the  freshly  uncapped  combs  about, 
and  that  it  is  easier  than  going  to  the  fields. 
The  first  indication  of  robbing  which  you 
will  have,  will  probably  be  the  cool  and 
wicked  way  of  stinging,  that  I  have  de- 
scribed in  Anger  of  Bees. 

After  the  season  begins  to  fail,  you  may 
■expect  that  every  colony  in  your  apiary  will 
be  tried.  As  a  rule,  any  fair  colony  will 
have  sentinels  posted  to  guard  the  entrance, 
as  soon  as  there  is  a  need  of  any  such  pre- 
cautions. The  bee  that  presumes  to  think 
he  may  enter  for  plunder  will  be  led  off  by 
■"  the  ear,''  if  I  may  so  express  it,  and  this 
will  be  repeated  until  he  learns  that  there  is 
110  chance  for  speculation  at  that  house.  At 
the  close  of  the  honey  harvest  we  should  be 
sure  that  there  ai'e  no  feeble  hives  that  may 
be  overpowered,  for  one  such  may  start  the 
fashion  of  robbing,  and  make  it  a  much 
Iiarder  matter  to  control  this  propensity. 
An  ai)iary,  like  a  community,  may  get  so  de- 
moralized that  thieving  becomes  a  univer- 
sal mania.  ''A  stitch  in  time  will  save"  a 
great  many  more  th;ln  nine,  in  this  case.  Be 
sure  that  each  colony  has  the  entrance  con- 
tracted, and,  in  fact,  the  space  occupied  by 
the  bees  also,  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers. Give  them  only  so  many  combs  as 
they  can  cover,  if  you  wish  them  to  defend 
them  properly  from  either  moths  or  robbers. 
A  colony  without  either  queen  or  brood  is 
not  apt  to  fight  for  their  stores  very  vigor- : 


ously,  so  it  will  be  well  to  see  that  they  have 
either  one  or  both,  should  there  be  an  attack 
made  on  them.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  re- 
peat what  has  been  said  about  Italians  be- 
ing better  to  defend  their  stores  than  the 
common  bees.  A  few  Italians  will  often 
defend  a  hive  better  than  a  whole  swarm  of 
black  bees. 

COLONIES    THAT  AVILL    MAKE  NO  DEFENSE. 

Although  this  is  contrary  to  the  rule  when 
the  queen  and  number  of  bees  are  all  right, 
yet  such  cases  do  sometimes  come  up.  I 
have  found  that  colonies  which  have  been 
wintered  indoors  are  most  liable  to  get  into 
that  peculiar  state  where  they  will  allow 
bees  from  other  colonies  to  come  in  and  help 
themselves  without  molestation,  yet  it  is  not 
always  the  case.  When  they  can  not  be 
stirred  up  so  as  to  show  a  particle  of  spunk 
or  resentment,  the  temptation  is  sometimes 
very  strong  to  say,  "  It  is  good  enough  for 
them;  they  ought  to  starve."  This  might 
be  gratifying  to  one's  feelings  for  the  time, 
but,  on  the  whole,  it  would  not  pay.  I  have 
cured  them  of  it  in  various  ways:  some- 
times by  giving  them  some  good  fighting 
bees  from  another  hive,  and  sometimes  they 
got  over  it  themselves  after  being  shut  up  a 
while.  I  have  tried  scenting  the  robbers 
with  some  strong  odor,  like  camphor  or  pep- 
permint. Do  this  just  at  night,  and,  by  the 
next  morning,  the  bees  from  each  colony 
have  an  odor  so  distinct  that  the  sentinels 
have  no  trouble  in  telling  their  own  bees 
from  the  others.  This  has  seemed  to  an- 
swer ;  but  as  they  might  have  been  all  right 
anyway,  I  am  not  quite  certain  that  chang- 
ing the  scent  was  the  cause  of  the  cure. 
Contracting  the  entrance  and  closing  all 
cracks  and  crevices  are  always  very  import- 
ant in  stopping  robbers. 

HOW   TO   KNOW  ROBBER-BEES. 

It  sometimes  puzzles  beginners  exceed- 
ingly, to  know  whether  the  bees  that  come 
out  are  robbers,  or  the  ordinary  inmates 
of  the  hive. 

A  robber-bee,  when  he  approaches  a  hive, 
has  a  sly,  guilty  look,  and  flies  with  his  legs 
spread  in  a  rather  imusual  way,  as  if  he 
wanted  to  be  ready  to  use  his  heels  as  well 
as  wings,  if  required.  He  will  move  cau- 
tiously up  to  the  entrance,  and  quickly  dodge 
back,  as  soon  as  he  sees  a  bee  coming  toward 
him.  If  he  is  promptly  grabbed  for  as  soon 
as  he  attempts  to  go  in.  you  need  have  but 
little  fear.  If  a  bee  goes  in  and  you  can  not 
well  tell  whether  he  was  a  robber  or  not.  you 
must  keep  a  close  watch  on  the  bees  that 


ROBBING. 


252 


ROBBLNOr. 


come  out.  This  is  a  very  sure  way  of  telling 
when  robbers  have  got  a  start,  even  at  its 
first  commencement.  A  bee,  in  going  to  the 
fields,  comes  out  leisurely,  and  takes  wing 
with  but  little  trouble,  because  he  has  no 
load.  His  body  is  also  slim,  for  he  has  no 
honey  with  him.  A  bee  that  has  stolen  a 
load  is  generally  very  plump  and  full,  and,  as 
he  comes  out,  he  has  a  humed  and  guilty 
look;  besides,  he  is  almost  always  wiping  his 
mouth,  like  a  man  wlio  has  just  come  out  of 
a  beer-shop.  Most  of  all.  he  finds  it  a  little 
difficult  to  take  wing,  as  bees  ordinarily  do, 
because  of  the  weight.  In  Bee-huxting  I 
told  you  how  a  bee,  laden  with  thick  undilut- 
ed honey,  would  stagger  several  times  under 
his  load  before  he  could  take  wing  for  his 
final  trip  home.  Well,  the  bee,  when  he 
comes  out  of  the  hive  with  the  honey  he  has 
very  likely  just  imcapped,  feels  instinctively 
that  he  will  be  quite  apt  to  tumble  unless  he 
can  take  wing  from  some  elevated  position, 
and  therefore  he  crawls  up  the  side  of  the 
hive  before  he  launches  out.  When  he  first 
takes  wing  he  falls  a  little  by  the  weight  of 
his  load,  before  he  has  his  wings  fully  under 
control,  and  therefore,  instead  of  starting  out 
as  a  bee  ordinarily  does,  he  takes  a  down- 
ward curve,  coming  quite  near  the  ground 
before  he  rises  safely  and  surely.  With  a 
little  practice  you  can  tell  a  robber  at  a 
glance,  by  his  way  of  coming  out  of  the  hive, 
particularly  by  that  fashion  of  running  up 
the  side  of  the  hive  before  taking  wing,  in 
the  way  I  have  mentioned. 

HOW    TO    TELL    WHERE    THE    ROBBERS    BE- 
LONG. 

If  you  are  a  bee-hunter  you  will  probably 
line  them  to  their  hive  without  any  trouble; 
but  if  you  are  not,  you  can  easily  find  from 
which  hive  they  come,  by  sprinkling  them 
with  flour  as  they  come  out  of  the  hive  being 
robbed.  Now  watch  the  other  hives,  and  see 
where  you  find  the  floured  bees  going  in.  I 
can  generally  tell  in  a  very  few  minutes,  by 
the  excited  actions  of  the  robbers,  already 
mentioned. 

HOAV  TO    STOP    ROBBERS. 

It  depends  a  great  deal  on  what  particular 
stage  of  proceedings  they  have  reached.  If 
they  are  fighting  briskly,  and  stinging  one 
occasionally,  they  will  usually  take  care  of 
themselves,  if  there  are  plenty  of  bees  in- 
side, and  their  entrance  is  contracted.  I 
have  known  the  robbers  to  get  up  so  early 
on  a  cool  morning  that  the  regular  inmates 
were  not  stirring;  and  before  they  were 
roused,  and  could  put  a  stop  to  it,  the  rob- 
bers had    quite    a  lively  "trade"  started. 


This  is  a  bad  fashion  for  an  apiary  to  learn^ 
but  it  will  usually  cure  itself,  if  the  colonies- 
are  all  strong.  If  the  bees  are  going  in  and 
out  very  rapidly,  and  running  over  the  sen- 
tinels in  a  way  indicating  that  they  are  over- 
powered, you  must  shut  up  the  hive  at  once. 
Now  be  sure  you  shut  it  up  so  it  will  stay.'*'' 

Be  sure  you  remember  the  caution  I  am 
going  to  give  you  in  regard  to  this.  Should 
the  hive  be  standing  in  the  sun,  during  a 
very  hot  day,  and  be  full  of  bees,  they  would 
be  very  likely  to  smother,  without  a  good 
deal  of  air.*  We  have  used  with  success  an 
ordinary  Reese  bee  escape  (see  Co.mb  Hon- 
ey). The  same  is  so  attached  to  the  en- 
trance that  bees  may  come  out  but  can  not 
get  back.  If  this  is  left  on  for  a  time,  and 
then  removed,  and  the  entrance  contracted, 
all  will  h?  quiet  again. 

If  there  are  not  many  of  them,  there 
will  be  no  danger  of  suifocation.  It  is 
the  bees  gorged  with  honey  that  are  most 
apt  to  suffocate,  for  they  are  much  like  an 
individual  who  has  eaten  too  large  a  dinner, 
and  they  can  not  stand  close  confinement. 
When  near  suffocation  they  will  disgorge 
the  honey,  and  the  quantity  is  often  sufficient 
to  wet  the  whole  mass  almost  as  thoroughly 
as  if  they  had  been  dipped  in  honey.  The 
heat  given  off  by  the  damp  crowd  is  often  so 
great  as  to  melt  down  the  combs  into  a  sticky 
mass,  and,  when  touched  by  the  hand,  it  oft- 
en feels  almost  scalding  hot.  The  bees  soon 
die  in  this  condition,  for  their  breathing- 
pores  are  closed;  and  unless  they  can  be 
speedily  licked  off  by  other  bees,  or  washed, 
they  will  be  " no  good."  If  they  are  found 
in  this  condition,  with  life  enough  to  move, 
they  may  be  saved  by  giving  them  to  clean 
bees  to  lick  off;  but  they  should  be  confined 
so  that  they  can  not  readily  crawl  out  of  the 
hive  in  the  dirt ;  they  will  always'do  this  if 
they  can,  for  they  seem  to  consider  them- 
selves of  no  use,  and,  like  any  ailing  bee,  try 
to  get  off  out  of  the  way  of  those  that  are 
healthy  and  well.  I  have  often  saved  almost 
every  one  by  dipping  a  teacupful,  or  even  a 
pint,  with  a  spoon,  and  placing  them  right 
over  the  frames  of  a  strong  colony.  If  you 
do  not  give  each  hive  too  many  at  once,  they 
will  soon  clean  them  off  as  bright  as  them- 
selves. Letting  the  outside  robbers  get  at 
the  mass  will  do,  but  it  may  result  in  more 
trouble,  unless  you  are  master  of  your  busi- 
ness. One  of  our  lady  friends  reported, 
at  one  time,  saving  such  a  colony  by 
washing  the  bees  in  warm  water,  and  then 

*  If  you  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  one,  cover  the 
hive  with  a  bee-tent;  see  elsewhere. 


ROBBING. 


2.5." 


ROBBING. 


drying  them   in  the  sun.  in   a   box  covered 
with  wire  cloth. 

There  are  several  ways  of  preventing  bees 
from  smotliering,  when  the  hive  is  closed, 
and  a  very  common  one  is  to  give  them  air. 
by  means  of  an  opening  closed  with  wire 
cloth.  Cnless  this  is  quite  large  they  will 
often  pack  so  densely  over  it  as  to  exclude 
every  particle  of  air.  and  thus  defeat  its  pur- 
pose. If  an  upper  story  can  be  put  on,  and 
this  covered  with  wire  cloth,  it  will  do  very 
well;  but  even  then  the  robbers  inside  make 
such  a  fuss  as  to  call  the  robbers  outside  to 
them,  and  keep  up  a  disturbance  in  the  api-  | 
ary  all  day.  But  a  still  worse  objection  is, 
that  the  robbers  will  sometimes  make  an  ar- 
rangement with  those  inside,  by  which  they 
Avill  pass  the  honey  out.  and  thus  clean  out 
the  hive,  in  time,  as  effectually  as  if  they 
were  allowed  admittance.  Our  neighbor 
Shaw  used  a  double  wire  cloth,  with  a  half- 
inch  space  between  the  sheets,  for  his  small 
nucleus  hives,  just  to  prevent  this  kind  of 
sharp  practicing.  I  have  several  times  seen 
bees  pass  honey  through  the  wire  cloth  in 
this  way,  but  have  always  stopped  the 
fun,  before  the  insiders  had  passed  it  all  out. 
A  correspondent  in  Gleanings  for  Jan., 
1879,  gives  an  instance  where  the  whole  of 
the  honey  was  handed  out  to  the  robbers, 
leaving  the  insiders  so  destitute  that  they 
actually  starved  to  death,  the  whole  of  them. 
These  fellows,  it  seems,  were  a  little  too 
sharp,  and  in  their  greed  for  ill  gotten-gains 
rather  overstepped  themselves. 

Well,  if  we  can  not  give  them  ventilation 
through  wire  cloth,  what  shall  we  do  V  I 
would  let  the  robbers  out,  without  letting 
any  of  the  outsiders  in  ;  I  generally  do  this 
by  brushing  away,  with  a  little  bunch  of  as- 
paragus-tops, all  the  bees  which  are  around 
the  entrance,  and  then  keeping  them  away  ; 
until  all  get  out  that  wish  to.  You  can  then 
close  the  hive  with  very  little  danger.  If 
the  colony  is  a  large  one  (it  is  very  seldom  a 
large  colony  is  caught  being  robbed),  you 
would  better  shade  the  hive,  to  be  on  the  safe 
side.  It  will  also  be  a  good  idea  to  set  on  an 
upper  story,  and  let  them  go  up  into  that. 
If  you  have  got  the  robbers  all  out,  it  will 
often  do  to  give  them  their  liberty  the  next 
morning;  but  if  they  will  not  defend  them- 
selves then,  I  would  shut  them  up  and  let ' 
them  remain  H  days."*'  By  this  time  all  the 
bees  that  remained  in  the  hive,  or  a  large  part 
of  them,  even  if  they  are  robbers,  will  adhere 
to  the  stand  as  if  it  had  always  been  their 
own.  I  hardly  know  why  this  is,  for  a  bee 
remembers   things   that    happened   several 


weeks  before.  Perhaps  they  get  interested 
in  the  ways  of  their  new  home,  and  conclude 
to  cast  their  lots  there.  I  know  that  bees 
remember  more  than  3  days,  because  I  once 
carried  a  stock  away  to  a  swamp  and  kept 
them  there  about  a  month.  AVhen  I  brought 
them  back  I  placed  them  on  a  new  stand, 
and  jostled  them  a  little  in  opening  the  en- 
trance. At  this  they  sallied  out  in  qixite  a 
body ;  but  when  they  tried  to  return  to  their 
hive,  they  all  went  directly  to  their  old  stand. 
Bees  have  been  known  to  do  the  same,  after 
being  in  a  bee-house  over  winter. 

After  a  colony  has  been  confined  a  day  or 
two,  Ijecause  they  would  not  repel  robbers,  I 
would  let  them  out  just  about  sundown,  and 
watch  them  closely.  To  be  on  the  safe  side, 
you  would  better  get  up  next  morning  be- 
fore they  begin  to  fly,  and  see  if  they  are  all 
right. 

It  has  been  often  recommended,  that 
the  combs  be  broken  and  the  honey  set 
running  in  the  robbers"  hive,  that  they  may 
be  induced  to  stay  at  home ;  this  will  some- 
times check  them  i  but  as  these  colonies  are 
almost  always  extra  spry  and  active,  they 
will  have  things  fixed  up  in  a  trice,  and  be 
out  at  their  old  trade  again.  In  trying  to 
peoi)le  our  house  apiary  in  the  fall,  when  it 
was  first  built,  I  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
with  one  certain  colony.  In  fact,  if  any  rob- 
bing was  going  on  anywhere,  it  was  sure  to 
be  these  hybrids  who  were  at  the  bottom  of 
the  mischief.  After  I  had  tried  every  plan  I 
had  heard  recommended,  and  still  these  fel- 
lows would  persist  in  pushing  into  every 
new  colony  I  started,  the  idea  occurred  to 
me  that,  on  the  principle  that  it  takes  a  rogue 
to  catch  a  rogue,  it  would  be  well  to  try  to 
see  how  they  would  repel  robbers.  I  simply 
took  the  greater  part  of  the  combs  from  the 
robbers,  bees  and  all,  and  carried  them  into 
the  house-apiary,  and  put  them  in  place  of 
the  colony  which  they  had  been  robbing. 
The  effect  was  instantaneous.  Every  laden 
robber-bee  that  came  home  with  his  load,  on 
finding  the  queen  and  brood  gone,  at  once 
showed  the  utmost  consternation,  and  the 
passion  for  roblung  was  instantly  changed  to 
grief  and  moaning  for  the  lost  home.  The 
weak  colony  which  they  had  been  robbing, 
and  which  had  only  a  queen-cell,  was  placed 
with  them,  and  they  soon  took  up  with  it, 
and  went  to  work.  The  robbers  newly  dom- 
iciled in  the  house-apiary  repelled  all  invad- 
ers with  such  energy  and  determination  that 
the  rest  seemed  to  abandon  the  idea  which 
tliey,  doubtless,  had  previously  formed;  viz.. 
that  the  honse-apiary  was  a  monster  hive  but 


RUBBING. 


254 


ROBBINli. 


ill  garrisoned,  and  I  had  but  little  trouble 
afterward.  Before  I  swapped  them,  as  I 
have  mentioned,  I  had  serious  thoughts  of 
destroying  the  queen,  simply  because  they 
were  such  pests;  but  the  year  afterward, 
this  colony  gave  nie  in  the  house-apiary  over 
100  lbs:  of  comb  honey. 

The  practice  of  clianging  colonies  is  not 
always  a  very  safe  one,  on  several  accounts, 
although  an  experienced  or  a  careful  hand 
will  often  make  it  serve  an  excellent  pur- 
pose. Sometimes  the  queen  of  the  weaker 
colony  may  be  attacked  and  destroyed;  and, 
again,  bees  from  other  hives  may  strike  in, 
and  both  being  demoralized  by  the  unexpect- 
ed transition,  and  unfitted  to  repel  intruders, 
robbing  may  be  started  on  a  much  larger 
scale  than  before.  Instead  of  exchanging 
hives  and  all,  I  think  by  far  the  better  way 
is  to  leave  the  hives  on  their  old  stand,  and 
simply  exchange  the  greater  part  of  the 
combs,  with  the  bees  adhering.  With  the 
fingers  between  each  two  combs,  with  both 
hands  we  can  raise  four  combs  with  all  the 
adhering  bees,  and  carry  them  all  together. 
If  done  in  this  way,  enough  of  the  original 
inmates  will  be  left  in  the  strong  hive  to  pro- 
tect it,  and  enough  will  also  be  carried  to  the 
weaker  hive  to  make  it  perfectly  safe.  The 
queen  of  the  stronger  hive  will  be  in  no  dan- 
ger, but  the  queen  of  the  weaker  one  may 
have  to  be  caged,  although  I  have  seldom 
found  this  necessary. 

WHAT  HAPPENS   IF    ROBBING   IS   NOT   STOP- 
PED. 

Well,  when  the  work  is  under  real  head- 
way, the  honey  of  a  strong  colony  will  disap- 
pear in  from  2  to  12  hours ;  the  bees  will  then 
starve  in  the  hive,  or  go  home  with  the  pil- 
lagers, o]-  scatter  about  and  die.  This  is  not 
all :  when  the  passion  is  fully  aroused,  they 
will  not  hesitate  to  attack  the  strongest 
stocks,  and  you  will  find  your  bees  stung  to 
death  in  heaps,  before  the  entrances.  This 
may,  after  a  spell,  put  a  stop  to  it,  but  I  have 
seen  them  push  ahead  until  every  hive  in  the 
apiary  was  in  an  uproar,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
every  bee  had  gone  crazy,  sure.  At  such 
times  the  robbers  will  attack  passers-by  in 
the  streets,  and  even  venture  an  attack  on 
cats,  dogs,  aye,  and  hens  and  turkeys  too. 
Like  the  American  Indians  when  infuriated 
at  the  sight  of  blood,  every  bee  seems  to 
have  a  demoniacal  delight  in  selling  his  life 
by  inflicting  all  the  torments  he  possibly  can, 
and  feels  sad  because  he  cannot  do  any  more 
mischief.  !«■'' 

The  account  below,  taken  from  page  224  of 


Gleanings  for  1877,  illustrates  very  vividly 
what  I  have  tried  to  describe. 

I  send  you  a  paper,  the  Valley  Herald,  published  at 
our  county  seat,  which  has  a  little  article  on  "Bees 
on  a  Rampage."  I  sliould  be  glad  to  hear  your  views 
on  the  subject.  What  caused  those  bees  to  act  so, 
etc.?  John  W.  Hoodenpyi.e. 

Looney's  Creek,  Tenn.,  July  10, 1877. 

BEES  on  a  RAMPAOE. 

Mr.  Elisha  Tate,  who  lives  some  tifteen  miles  from 
this  place  on  the  head  of  Battle  Creek,  met  with 
quite  a  singular  misfoi-tune  on  the  19th  inst.  He 
has,  or  did  have  al  that  time,  about  twenty  hives  of 
bees,  and  on  that  day,  while  all  wei-e  away  from  the 
house  except  a  daughter  and  the  baby,  the  bees  be- 
came mad  from  some  cause  or  other,  left  the  hives  in 
large  swarms  and  commenced  to  sting  every  living 
thing  on  the  place.  They  attacked  the  daughter, 
who  fled  from  the  house,  leaving  the  babe  on  the 
bed.  A  fine  jack  was  stung  to  death  in  the  stable; 
all  the  chickens  were  killed,  and  a  sheep,  that  was 
around  the  house,  was  stung  so  badly  on  the  nose 
that  that  organ  swelled  to  huge  dimensions,  causing 
death  bv  suffocation.  The  cries  of  the  daughter 
brought  Mr.  Tate  to  the  house,  and  he  proceeded  to 
rescue  his  babe,  which  he  found  literally  covered 
with  bees;  and  we  understand  that  it  was  with  great 
difficulty  that  its  life  was  saved.  Mr.  T.  attempted 
to  destroy  the  bees  at  night  by  piling  fodder  on  the 
hives  and  setting  Are  to  it,  but  it  only  served  to 
again  arouse  them,  and  they  attacked  the  family 
and  compelled  thom  to  abandon  their  house  and  go 
to  a  neighbor's. 

No  one  can  account  for  the  strange  occurrence. 
Some  think  that  a  snake  must  have  visited  the 
hives,  as  it  is  known  that  bees  have  the  greatest  an- 
tipathy toward  snakes. 

In  all  probability  the  account  is  consider- 
ably exaggerated,  as  such  things  usually  are 
before  they  get  into  the  papers,  but  it  affords 
an  excellent  lesson,  nevertheless,  on  the  re- 
sults of  letting  bees  get  into  a  habit  of  rob- 
bing each  other,  or  of  finding  honey  scattered 
about  the  premises.  I  tried,  in  Anger  of 
Bees,  to  illustrate  it,  but  the  above  does  it 
still  better.  The  worst  season  seems  to  be 
after  basswood  is  over,  and  the  bees  seem  to 
get  especially  crazy,  if  they  even  get  a  smell 
of  this  aromatic  honey  left  carelessly  about 
the  hives.  One  who  has  never  seen  such  a 
state  of  affairs  can  have  but  little  idea  of 
the  furious  way  in  which  they  sting  every 
thing  and  everybody.  The  remedy  is  to  get 
a  kettle  of  coals  and  put  in  enough  chips  or 
sawdust  to  make  a  "•  big  smoke ;"  carry  this 
out  among  the  hives  and  proceed  to  close 
every  hive  that  shows  any  symptoms  of  be- 
ing robbed.  Shut  up  every  bit  of  honey 
where  not  a  bee  can  get  at  it  and  do  your 
work  well;  for  at  such  times  they  will  wedge 
into  and  get  through  cracks  that  would 
make  one  think  inch  hoards  were  hardly  pro- 
tection enough.  Just  before  dark,  let  all  the 
robbers  go  home,  and  be  up  betimes  next 


ROBBING. 


ROBBING. 


morning  to  see  that  all  entrances  are  close 
and  small,  and  that  all  the  hives  are  bee- 
tight.  An  experienced  hand  will  restore 
peace  and  quietness  in  a  very  short  time,  in 
such  a  demoralized  apiary.  Black  bees  are 
much  worse  than  Italians,  for  the  latter  will 
usually  hold  their  stores  against  any  number 
of  assailants;  good,  strong,  well-made  hives, 
filled  with  Italians,  with  plonty  of  brood  in 
each,  will  be  in  little  danger  of  any  such 
"raids,'"  although  we  have  seen  the  wounded 
and  slain  piled  up  in  heaps,  before  robbers 
•  would  desist  and  give  up  trying  to  force  an 
entrance. 

The  love  of  honey,  my  friends,  is  by  far 
more  potent  than  '•  snakes  ''  in  demoralizing 
an  apiary.  I  do  not  think  bees  have  any  par- 
ticular enmity  to  them.iso 

There  is  one  more  point :  If  in  uncapping 
•drone-brood,  or  in  cutting  oi;t  brood  to  rear 
queens,  you  leave  the  cappings  or  bits  of 
comb  scattered  about,  the  bees  will  get  a 
taste  of  the  milky  fluid  and  juices  of  the 
brood,  and  it  seems  to  craze  them  worse  than 
honey  even,  if  that  is  possible.  Below  is  a 
letter  illustrating  it. 

CROSS   BEES. 

I  had  some  of  the  Grossest  bees  this  summer  that 
were  ever  heard  of.  They  would  light  the  top  of  a 
•stovepipe  that  runs  up  through  a  shed  roof:  there 
would  be  50  or  100  bees  at  once,  just  whacking- 
against  that  pipe,  and  very  many  fell  into  it.  and 
burned  to  death.  They  would  dive  into  my  smoke- 
pan,  and  burn  up  in  that,  and  sting  folks  along  the 
road.  What  the  cause  was  I  could  not  imagine,  but 
at  last  I  happened  to  think.  I  had  been  destroying 
•drone-brood,  and  when  it  was  in  a  milky  state  I 
•could  not  shake  it  out  of  the  combs;  the  bees  would 
eat  it  and  it  just  made  them  crazy  and  ugly.  Well, 
I  always  want  to  be  sure  about  any  thing,  so  1  left  It 
off  for  awhile  and  they  became  peaceable  again.  On 
again  giving  them  access  to  the  milky  brood,  the 
same  result  followed.  I  suppose  you  will  laugh,  but 
I  am  well  satisfied  that  this,  and  this  only,  was  the 
cause  of  The  fierceness  of  the  bees.     D.  Gardner. 

Carson  Citj',  Mich.,  Nov.  9, 1S77. 

PREVENTION  OF  ROBBING. 

Beginners  are  very  apt  to  say  that  the  bees 
must  rob  some  —  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  preventing  it  absolutely.  They  say  honey 
will  get  daubed  about  on  the  door-knobs,  on 
the  posts,  and  on  the  ground,  and  that  it  can 
not  be  helped ;  that  the  bees  will  rob  after 
the  honey  -  yield  has  ceased,  for  they  will 
-crowd  into  the  hives  when  they  are  opened 
to  cut  out  queen-cells,  etc.  Is  this  so,  my 
friends  V  To  be  sui'e,  it  is  not.  You  can 
have  your  honey  -  house  as  clean  as  your 
kitchen,  and  you  can  have  every  particle  of 
Iioney  cleaned  up.  You  can  have  a  wash- 
basin and  cloth,  and,  just  the  moment  a  drop 
falls,  you  can,  if  you  have  a  mind  to,  get 


right  do\Ani  on  your  knees  and  clean  it  up. 
You  can  not  afford  to  take  so  much  time?  I 
verily  believe  it  will  take  less  time  to  have 
every  thing  neat,  and  always  in  place,  than  it 
will  to  have  such  scenes  of  disorder.  I  could 
sit  doA\ni  and  cry,  many  times,  if  I  thought  it 
would  do  any  good,  when  I  see  young  people 
defeat  themselves,  and  make  themselves  un- 
happy too.  by  their  heedless,  careless  way  of 
doing  things.  Is  it  because  they  have  not 
been  trained  differently?  Perhaps  so,  and 
perhaps  experience  is  the  best  teacher.  Ex- 
perience is  a  very  slow  teacher,  and  I  should 
like  to  stir  you  all  up,  and  have  you  get  along 
faster  in  habits  of  neatness,  for  I  know  you 
all  admire  a  neat  apiary  nearly  if  not  quite 
as  much  as  I  do. 

WORKING  W^ITH  BEES  BY  LAMPLIGHT  WHEN 
ROBBERS  ARE  TH()UBLES03IE  DUR- 
ING  THE   DAY. 

I  believe  I  have  before  mentioned  my 
troubles  in  trying  to  people  the  house-apiary, 
in  the  fall.  Queens  were  already  hatched  in 
the  lamp  nursery,  and.  unless  the  colonies 
were  divided  at  once,  so  as  to  make  use  of 
them,  all  would  be  lost.  The  surplus  combs 
for  making  these  late  swarms  were  in  the 
upper  stories,  and  the  robbers  knew  it ;  for 
no  sooner  was  a  cap  raised  than  they  were  on 
hand;  and  before  I  could  get  the  brood-combs 
to  go  with  them  (I  found  that  the  bees  would 
not  adhere  even  to  their  own  combs,  unless 
some  of  them  contained  unsealed  brood),  a 
smart  traflic  would  be  under  way.  It  came 
night,  and  my  hives  and  queens  were  in  all 
sorts  of  bad  shapes.  I  was  glad  to  have  it 
come  night,  I  assure  you,  for  I  longed  for 
the  time  when  the  robbers  would  be  com- 
pelled, by  the  gathering  darkness,  to  go 
home.  I  presume  many  of  you  have  had. 
cause  to  repent  trying  to  work  with  bees 
when  it  began  to  grow  dark,  but  I  got  the 
idea  into  my  head  that,  with  some  good 
lamps  with  nice  shades  on  them,  I  could  do 
my  work  in  the  evening.  I  went  at  once  and 
got  a  lamp,  and  walked  around  the  apiary 
viewing  the  inmates  of  the  different  hives 
that  were  clustered  out  at  the  entrances, 
humming  merrily,  I  presume  in  remem- 
brance of  the  ricli  loads  they  had  but  an  hour 
before  snatched  from  me.  Scarcely  a  bee 
took  wing,  and  I  then  ventured  to  open  a 
hive.  AYitli  tlie  lamp  on  one  of  the  posts  of 
the  trellis,  I  found  I  could  handle  tlie  bees 
almost  as  well  as  in  daylight,  and,  to  my  in- 
tense relief,  not  a  bee  would  leave  his  hive, 
no  matter  how  many  combs  were  held  tempt- 
ingly under  their  very  noses.  I  went  to 
work,  divided  my  hives,  caught  the  queens, 


ROBBING. 


256 


ROBBING. 


and  even  handled  vicious  hybrids,  with  less 
stings  than  I  could  possiblj'  have  got  along 
with  in  the  daytime.  As  I  passed  again  and 
again  the  hives  of  the  robbers  who  were  clus- 
tered out  viewing  proceedings,  I  could  hard- 
ly resist  the  temptation  to  place  my  thumb 
at  the  side  of  my  nose,  to  let  them  know  how 
much  I  enjoyed  having  completely  outwitted 
them.  The  last  hive  in  the  house-apiary  was 
filled,  luisealed  brood  and  a  queen-cell  given 
to  all,  and  all  were  fixed  so  that  they  could 
repel  robbers  by  morning,  without  trouble. 
Of  course,  I  had  a  good  smoker,  and  this  did 
much  toward  preventing  them  from  taking 
wing.  If  the  lamps  were  placed  very  near 
the  bees,  occasionally  a  bee  would  buzz 
against  the  light;  but  when  placed  off  at  a 
distance  of  6  or  8  feet,  they  rarely  approached 
it.  I  have  extracted  honey  late  in  the  fall 
by  moonlight,  when  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible to  do  it  in  the  daytime,  on  account 
of  the  robbers.  You  will  probably  find  the 
pure  Italians  much  more  easy  to  handle  by 
lamplight  than  blacks  or  hybrids.*  "*' 

HO'W  TO   CIRCUMVKNT   ROBBERS. 

During  the  summer  of  1879  the  basswood 
season  failed  us  suddenly  about  the  20th 
of  July,  and  left  us  with  something  like 
2.50  queen-rearing  colonies.  Now,  bees  were 
coming  in  daily,  and  bees  were  going  out 
daily.  Queens  and  pounds  of  bees  were  or- 
dered by  every  mail,  and  must  go  by  first 
express,  especially  if  we  hoped  to  hold  our 
customers,  and  so,  even  if  robbers  did  in- 
cline to  dip  into  every  hive,  business  could 
not  be  stopped.  I  instructed  the  boys  to 
make  a  wire-cloth  house,  to  set  over  a  hive 
when  they  wanted  to  open  it.  This  answered 
excellently:  but  as  it  was  so  heavy,  requiring 
two  men  to  handle  it,  our  boys  devised  the 
following  very  ingenious  contrivance.  It  is 
capable  of  being  folded  up  into  a  bundle,  or 
spread  out  as  seen  in  the  cut  on  next  page. 

FOLDING  BEE-TENT. 

It  is  made  by  taking  four  basswood  sticks, 
about  8i  feet  long,  and  fastening  them  to- 
gether like  letter  X's,  with  a  good  strong 
screw  where  they  cross.  A  piece  of  good 
strong  tarred  twine,  or  small  rope,  makes 
the  ridge-pole,  as  seen  in  the  engraving,  and 
this  same  twine  unites  the  sticks  at  their 
tops.  The  mosquito-bar  is  sewed  into  a  sort 
of  bag,  having  the  same  strong  twine  all 


*  Since  the  above  was  written  we  have  found  that 
a  good  lantern  is  preferable  to  a  lamp.  The  latter 
is  apt  to  he  affected  by  light  breezes,  and  is  often 
blown  out.  The  former,  while  not  open  to  this 
objection,  will  receive  rougher  handling.  During 
the  season  of  1886  we  used  the  lantern  in  the  apiary 
with  entire  success. 


round  its  lower  edges,  and  down  each  of  the 
four  corners.  At  these  corners  are  also 
sewed  metal  rings,  and  these  rings,  when 
pulled  down  strongly,  will  loop  over  screw- 
heads,  near  the  lower  ends  of  the  four  sticks. 
When  thus  looped  over,  the  sticks  are  bent, 
or  bowed,  so  as  to  give  room  in  the  top  of 
the  tent.  The  whole  structure  weighs  less 
than  five  pounds,  and  yet  it  gives  room  inside 
for  a  hive,  and  to  do  all  necessary  work. 
The  basswood  sticks  are  1  x  f  at  the  lower 
end,  and  tapered  to  1  x  I  at  their  upper  end, 
with  the  corners  taken  off,  to  make  them  as 
light  as  possible.  Where  the  bend  comes, 
they  are  scraped  a  little  thinner. 

In  the  small  cut  below  at  A  is  shown  the 
way  the  ring  is  looped  over  the  screw-heads, 
and  just  below  is  seen  the  end  of  a  2i-inch 
wire  nail,  bent  so  it  can  be  (when  turned 
with  the  point  downward)  used  as  an  anchor 
to  keep  the  tent  from  blowing  over.  If  the 
sticks  are  spread  a  little  when  the  anchors 
are  pushed  into  the  ground,  the  tent  stands 
very  securely. 

When  it  may  be  desirable  to  store  it  away, 
it  may  be  quickly  folded  into  a  bundle,  as 
represented  below. 

The  tent,  as  thus  folded,  we  shove  into  a 
couple  of  loops  four  feet  apart,  made  by  U- 
shaped  cords,  attached  to  screw-eyes  in  the 
ceiling  of  the  work-shop  adjoining  the  apia- 
ry. The  tents,  as  they  hang  suspended  in 
our  work-shop,  are  just  above  our  heads, 
and  yet  within  easy  reach  of  the  hands,  for 
immediate  use  as  occasion  may  require. 

The  uses  to  which  this  tent  may  be 
appled  to  advantage  are  numerous.  We 
will  first  consider 

ITS  USE   IN   STOPPING   ROBBING. 

To  do  this  I  can  not  do  better  than  to 
mention  the  following  incident : 

One  Sunday  morning  it  was  somewhat  wet 
and  rainy,  but  for  all  the  wet,  the  bees 
seemed  starting  off  with  quite  a  roar,  which 
I  at  first  thought  must  be  the  remnants  of 
basswood  -  bloom.  Pretty  soon,  however,  I 
decided  the  roar  was  on  too  high  a  key ;  and 
by  the  time  I  saw  a  few  V)ees  hanging  about 
the  ventilators  of  the  chaflf  hives,  I  conclud- 
ed it  was  robbing  somewhere.  I  passed  one 
apiary  after  another,  glancing  up  the  ave- 
nues of  grapevines  (which  are  now  quite 
bushy,  and  are  about  six  feet  high  or  more). 
"Oh,  yes!  here  they  are."  It  w^as  one  of 
the  last  artificial  colonies  made,  and  all 
about  it  was  a  perfect  hubbub  of  activity, 
while  the  other  four  hundred  colonies  were 
comparatively  still.  The  apiarist,  Mr.  K., 
soon  got  a  bee-tent,  by  my  instruction,  and 


ROBBING. 


2-57 


ROBBIXG. 


placed  over  the  hive.  He  remarked  that  it 
had  a  hole  in  the  top,  but  I  told  him  I 
thought  it  would  do  no  harm.  The  robbers 
collected  in  large  numbers  in  the  top  of  the 
tent.  As  soon  as  they  found  the  hole  they 
buzzed  out  and  started  homeward,  rejoicing 
over  their  heavy  load  of  ill-gotten  gains. 
The  question  was.  Did  they  take  their  point 
to  come  back  and  get  in  at  this  hole?  I  told 
Mr.  K.  what  had  been  reported  in  the  jour- 
nal, that  a  tent  was  better  with  such  a  hole 
in  it,  and  we  found  that  it  worked  all  right. 
Of  course,  the  great  body  of  bees  came  back 
and  besieged  every  hive  in  thai  vicinity,  but 


suddenly  stopped,  and  in  going  over  the  hives 
we  discover  that  robbers  are  just  beginning 
to  show  their  annoying  presence.  They  fol- 
low us  about,  and  just  as  soon  as  the  hive-cov- 
er and  enameled  cloth  are  removed  they  com- 
mence their  pillaging.  If  we  proceed  thus  all 
day.  toward  the  latter  part  of  it  we  shall  find 
quite  a  little  swarm  of  robbers  making  re- 
peated raids  into  the  hives.  We  are  then 
obliged  to  contract  the  entrances  of  all  nu- 
clei •,  and  if  we  continue  in  this  way,  the 
next  day  we  will  unhesitatingly  affirm  tliat 
the  bees  are  ''  unusually  cross."" 
♦  Xow.    it    would    lie    very   desirable     to 


TENT  FOLDED.  FOLDING  BEE 

not  a  bee  had  sense  enough  to  go  to  the  top 
of  the  tent  and  crawl  in  that  hole  out  of 
which  the  robbers  were  coming.  After  they 
had  satisfied  themselves  that  no  more  plun- 
der was  to  be  had,  either  by  hook  or  crook, 
they  one  after  another  went  quietly  back  to 
their  homes  ;  and  when  I  came  home  from 
meeting,  there  stood  the  tent  without  a  rob- 
ber-bee inside  of  it.  for  they  all  got  out  at 
the  hole  in  the  top  :  and  neither  was  there  a 
robber-bee  inside  of  it,  or  anywhere  about 
the  apiary.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  put 
such  a  tent  over  the  bees  being  robbed,  and 
go  back  about  your  other  work.  No  bees 
will  buzz  their  wings  off  inside  of  the  tent, 
or  die  of  suffocation. 

You  observe,  therefore,  that  it  is  a  great 
advantage  to  have  a  hole  or  slit  in  the  peak 
of  the  tent.  As  the  old  adage  runs,  preven- 
tion is  better  than  cure,  I  value  it  cliiefiy  as 

A   PREVENTIVE  OF  ROBBING. 

We  will  suppose  that  the  honey-flow'  has 

*Our  artist  has  shown  the  bottom  fringe  of  the 
tent  as  common  clotli;  it  is  iiothinfr  but  a  continua- 
tion of  mosquito  bur. 


-te;nt.  ready  for  use.* 
avoid  all  this;  hence  we  will  take  our 
"stitch  in  time.""  We  proceed  to  the  work- 
shop, draw  out  the  tent  from  its  two  loops, 
which  I  described,  and  set  it  on  end  outside. 
We  spread  apart  the  basswood  strips  until 
each  pair  forms  a  letter  X.  We  next  grasp 
one  of  the  rings  on  one  corner  of  the  tent, 
and  draw  it  over  the  screw-head  situated  at 
the  base  of  the  strip,  as  seen  at  A.  previous 
page.  In  like  manner  we  adjust  the  otlier 
three  rings.  The  tent  is  now  set  up.  and 
each  of  the  strips  will  be  bent  in  the  form 
of  a  bow.  as  seen  in  the  large  cut. 

Having  lighted  our  smoker,  we  grasp  it 
with  the  light  hand— the  nearest  corner  of 
the  bellows  between  the  thumb  and  fingers. 
We  now  lift  up  one  end  of  the  tent  and  step 
inside.  We  grasp  the  two  intersections  of 
the  cross-piece,  at  the  same  time  holding  the 
bellows  of  the  smoker  between  the  tliunib 
and  lingers.  If  you  try  a  few  times  in  dif- 
ferent ways  you  will  soon  learn  tlie  knack  of 
holding  one  side  of  the  tent  and  the  smoker 
at  once,  witli  ease.  We  can  now  cage  our- 
.selves  and  the  hive  together:  take  all  the 
time  we  want  to  examine  the  hive,  robbers 


ROBBING. 


2.58 


ROBBING. 


or  no  robbers.  The  latter  will  buzz  around 
the  outside;  but  if  we  continue  to  examine 
the  hive  thus  in  rotation  all  day  they  will 
give  it  up  as  a  bad  job.  If.  on  the  other 
hand,  the  robbers  have  got  started,  they  will 
be  likely  to  follow  the  cage  about  for  two  or 
three  days,  even  though  they  do  not  get  in- 
side. But  if  we  are  careful  not  to  give  them 
a  "sip"  of  stolen  sweets,  they  will  finally 
let  us  alone. 

Where  there  are  no  grapevine  twigs  to 
stick  out  and  hinder,  the  tent  will  cause 
but  little  more  trouble  than  the  non-use  of 
it;  and  if  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact 
that  the  use  of  the  tent  prevents  the  annoy- 
ing presence  of  robbers,  the  time  and  trouble 
saved  will  vastly  more  than  compensate  any 
possible  inconvenience  it  may  occasion. 

Right  here  I  will  say,  before  I  forget  it,  if 
you  use  the  tent  awhile  until  the  robbers 
have  ceased  buzzing  about,  then  lay  it  aside 
for  an  hour  or  so,  you  will  get  the  robbers 
started  again,  and  then  when  you  resume 
the  use  of  the  tent  you  are  right  where  you 
started.  If  you  wait  too  long  before  you  re- 
sort to  the  tent,  the  robljers  may  be  out  in 
such  strong  force  as  to  make  even  the  tent 
fail  of  its  oliject  -.  for  wlien  the  work  with 
the  hive  is  finished,  and  the  tent  is  lifted  off, 
the  swarm  of  robbers  will  pounce  into  the 
entrance  in  such  force  as  to  make  a  real 
case  of  robbery ;  and  before  the  inmates  of 
the  hive  are  aware  of  what  is  going  on  they 
have  an  *•' elephant  on  their  hands."'  It  is 
true,  you  may  contract  the  entrance,  but 
the  bees  will  boil  around  every  crack  of  the 
hive  like  mad  hornets.  When  there  are 
many  queen-rearing  nuclei  in  the  apiary  it 
doesn't  pay  to  let  things  go  so.  It  is  and 
has  been  a  standing  rule  in  our  apiary,  that 
as  soon  as  the  bees  show  a  disposition  to  rob, 
either  quit  work  or  use  the  tent — the  latter 
alternative  being  the  one  most  frequently 
adopted. 

The  tent  is  invaluable  for  getting  bees  out 
of  sections.  See  article  on  Comb  Honey 
relative  to  this  subject. 

BORKOAVING. 

Before  closing  this  subject  of  robbing 
there  are  a  few  more  points  to  be  mentioned. 
There  is  a  kind  of  pillaging  called  borrow- 
ing, where  the  bees  from  one  hive  will  go 
quietly  into  another,  and  carry  away  its 
stores  as  fast  as  gathered;  but  this  usually 
happens  where  the  robbed  stock  is  queenless, 
or  has  an  unfertile  queen.  As  soon  as  they 
have  eggs  and  brood,  they  begin  to  realize 
what  the  end  of  such  work  will  be.  This 
state  of  affairs  seldom  goes  on  a  great  while. 


It  either  results  in  downright  robbing,  or  the 
bees  themselves  put  a  stop  to  it. 

Cdution  to  Beginners:  —  The  first  year  I 
kept  bees  I  was  in  constant  fear  that  they 
would  get  to  robbing,  as  I  had  read  so  much 
about  it  in  the  books.  One  afternoon  in 
May  I  saw  a  large  number  of  bees  passing 
rapidly  out  and  in,  at  a  particular  hive,  and 
the  more  I  examined  them  the  more  I  was 
persuaded  that  they  were  being  robbed.  I 
contracted  the  entrance,  but  it  seemed  to 
make  little  difference.  I  finally  closed  it  al- 
most entirely,  compelling  the  bees  to  squeeze 
out  and  in,  in  a  way  that  must  have  been 
quite  uncomfortable,  at  least.  After  awhile 
they  calmed  down,  and  we  had  only  the  or- 
dinary number  of  bees  going  out  and  in. 
"  There,''  thought  I,  "  if  I  had  not  read  the 
books  and  known  how,  I  might  have  lost  my 
bees,"  and  I  presume  I  felt  very  wise  if  I 
did  not  look  so.  On  turning  my  head,  behold, 
the  robbers  were  at  another  colony,  and  they 
had  to  be  put  through  the  same  programme; 
then  another,  and  another;  and  I  concluded 
a  host  of  robbers  had  come  from  somewhere, 
and  made  a  raid  on  my  apiary,  and  that,  had 
I  not  been  on  hand,  the  whole  of  them  would 
have  been  ruined.  I  had  got  very  nervous 
and  fidgety,  and,  when  I  found  the  whole 
performance  repeated  the  next  day,  I  began 
to  think  bee  culture  a  very  trying  pursuit. 
Well,  in  due  course  of  time  I  figured  out 
that  there  was  no  robbing  at  all,  but  that  it 
was  just  the  young  bees  taking  their  after- 
noon playspell.  Since  then  I  do  not  know 
how  many  of  the  ABC  class  have  gone 
through  the  same  or  a  similar  experience, 
and  it  is  but  a  few  days  since  I  saw  our  min- 
ister and  his  wife  out  by  a  hive,  closing  it  up, 
to  stop  the  robbers  that  were  making  a  raid 
on  it.  On  my  suggesting  that  they  were 
mistaken,  they  replied,  "  Why,  the  air  was 
full  of  them,  and  we  could  see  them  circling 
about  away  up  in  the  air,"  proving  conclu- 
sively to  me  that  it  was  the  young  bees  play- 
ing, as  I  have  said  before.  The  directions  I 
have  given  for  distinguishing  robbing  -  bees 
from  the  ordinary  inmates  of  the  hive,  will 
enable  you  to  tell  whether  it  is  pjaying  or 
robbing;i«8  but  as  the  books  had  not  described 
the  afternoon  playspell  that  young  bees  al- 
ways tiike  in  suitable  w^eather,  I  was  some- 
what excusable. 

ROCKY  -  MOUNTAIN  BEE  -  PLANT 

( Cleonip.  Integrifolia).  This  is  a  beautiful  plant 
for  the  flower  -  garden,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  honey  it  produces.  It  grows  from  two 
to  three  feet  in  height,  and  bears  large  clus- 


ROCKY-MOUNTAIN    BEE-PLANT.    '2o'.i      ROCKY-MOUNTAIX  BEE-PLANT. 


ters  of  bright  pink  flowers,  as  shown  in  the 
cut. 

It  is  a  near  relative  of  the  Spider-plaxt. 
which  see.  It  grows  naturally  on  the  Kocky 
Mountains,  and  in  Colorado,  where  it  is  said 
to  furnish  large  quantities  of  honey.  Al- 
though it  succeeds  easily  under  cultivation, 
in  our  locality  I  can  not  learn  that  it  has  ever 
been  a  success  pecuniarily.  With  this,  as 
well  as  with  all  other  plants,  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that,  to  yield  honey  enough  to  give 
it  a  fair  test,  acres  are  needed,  instead  of  lit- 
tle patches  in  the  garden.  The  seed  has  been 
offered  for  sale  for  several  years  past,  aS  a 
plant  to  be  cultivated  for  honey ;  even  if  it 
does  not  pay  for  honey,  it  will  pay  to  have  a 
bed  of  it  on  account  of  its  beautv. 


ROCKY-MOUXTAIX    BKK-PLAXT. 

The  engraving  was  copied  from  a  larger- 
sized  picture,  in  Prof.  Cook's  ■•  Manual  of 
the  Apiary.''  During  the  past  season  of 
1879  we  have  had  a  number  of  the  plants 
growing  in  our  honey-garden.  It  is,  how- 
ever, so  much  inferior  in  looks,  as  well  as  in 


the  amount  of  honey  produced,  to  the  spider- 
plant,  that  we  have  not  taken  pains  to  save 
the  seed.  The  two  plants  very  mnch  resem- 
ble each  other,  but  the  latter  is  a  much 
stronger  and  finer-looking  plant,  and  has  a 
rank  luxuriance  of  growtli  that  the  Rocky- 
^lountain  bee-plant  has  not. 

To  have  them  do  well  in  our  gardens,  that 
is.  give  us  a  good  yield  of  honey,  the  seeds 
would  better  be  planted  in  a  box  indoors, 
say  in  February  or  March.  Set  them  out 
when  all  danger  of  frost  is  past,  and  give 
them  good  rich  soil,  with  about  the  same 
cultivation  you  would  give  your  cabbages. 
They  should  stand  about  as  far  apart  as  hills 
of  corn.  If  you  have  many  plants,  it  will  be 
a  good  plan  to  cultivate  them  as  you  do  field 
crops.-'  It  should  be  remembered,  the  better 
the  soil  and  cultivation,  the  better  will  be 
the  yield  of  honey.  These  remarks  will  ap- 
ply to  either  Rocky-Mountain  bee-plant,  .spi- 
der-flower, or  the  Simpson  honey-plant.  The 
first  two  blossom  the  first  year ;  the  last, 
sparingly  the  first  year,  but  abundantly  the 
second  year. 

June,  iS9l.—iimce  the  abuve  was  written, 
the  Michigan  Agricultural  College  has  ex- 
perimented with  several  acres  of  the  plants, 
with  the  special  point  in  view  of  testing  its- 
honey-producing  qualities.  They  found  It 
exceedingly  difficult,  however,  to  get  a  good 
.stand  of  plants.  In  fact,  I  do  not  know  how 
a  perfect  stand  can  be  (jbt. lined  without 
transplanting;  and  as  this  makes  the  ex- 
pense equivalent  to  a  field  of  cabbages  or 
strawberries,  of  course  the  honey  produced 
did  not  come  anywhere  near  paying  ex- 
penses. Some  of  our  seed  catalogues  have 
described  it  in  glowing  terms,  and  greatly 
exaggerated  its  honey-producing  qualities. 
Flaming  colored  prints  of  the  flower  covered 
with  lioney  have  also  been  given,  and  I  sup- 
pose many  people  have  been  dehuled  into 
the  belief  that  these  plants  could  thus  be 
grown  in  small  patches  .so  as  to  produce 
honey  profitably.  It  lias  been  advertised 
under  various  fanciful  names,  such  as  '•  The 
Great  Mexican  honey-plant,"'  etc. 


^^>f0^^^-     '^i§^Mm\n  '  rm^^-'^ 


THE  PLANT  THAT   PRODUCES  THE   CPiLEBRATED   SAGE   HONEY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 


s. 


SAG-Zi  (ISalvia).  This  plant  also  belongs 
to  the  great  family  of  Labiatce,ov  the  mint 
family.  Labiate  means  lip-shaped  ;  and  if 
you  look  closely  you  will  see  that  plants  be- 
longing to  this  family  have  blossoms  with  a 
sort  of  lip  on  one  side,  something  like  the 
nose  to  a  pitcher.  Many  of  this  family,  such 
as  Catnip,  Motherwort,  Figwort,  Gill- 
ovER-THE-GROUiSrD,have  already  been  men- 
tioned as  honey  -  plants,  and  the  number 
might  be  extended  almost  indefinitely.  The 
sage  we  have  particularly  to  do  with  is  the 
white  mountain  sage  of  California ;  and  I 
do  not  know  that  I  should  be  far  out  of  the 
way  in  calling  this  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant honey  -  plants  in  the  world.  The  crops 
of  honey  secured  from  it  within  the  past  ten 
years  have  been  so  immense  that  the  sage 
honey  is  now  offered  for  sale  in  almost  all 
the  principal  cities  in  the  world,  and  a  nice 
sample  of  well -ripened  California  honey, 
whether  comb  or  extracted,  is  enough  to  call 
forth  exclamations  of  surprise  and  delight 
from  any  one  who  thinks  enough  of  some- 
thing good  to  eat,  and  pleasant  to  the  taste, 
to  commit  himself  so  far.  I  well  remem- 
ber the  first  taste  I  had  of  the  mountain- 
sage  honey.  Mr.  Langstroth  was  visiting  me 
at  the  time,  and  his  exclamations  were  much 
like  my  own,  only  that  he  declared  it  was  al- 
most identical  in  flavor  with  the  famed  hon- 
ey of  Hymettus,  of  which  he  had  received  a 
sample  some  years  ago.  Well,  this  honey  of 
Hymettus,  which  has  been  celebrated  both 
in  poetry  and  prose  for  ages  past,  was  gath- 
ered from  the  mountain  thyme,  and  the  bot- 
any tells  us  that  thyme  and  sage  not  only  be- 
long to  the  same  family,  but  are  closely  re- 
lated. Therefore  it  is  nothing  strange  if 
Mr.  Langstroth  was  right,  in  declaring  our 
California  honey  to  be  almost  if  not  quite 
identical  in  flavor  with  the  honey  of  Hymet- 
tus. This  species  of  sage  grows  along  the 
sides  of  the  mountain,  and  blossoms  success- 
ively as  the  season  advances ;  that  is,  the 
bees  first  commence  work  on  it  in  the  val- 
leys, and  then  gradually  fly  higher  up,  as  the 
9 


blossoms  climb  the  mountain  -  side,  giving 
them  a  much  longer  season  than  we  have  in 
regions  not  mountainous. 

There  are  several  varieties  of  mountain 
sage,  and  there  has  been  some  discussion  as 
to  which  one  furnishes  the  largest  amount 
and  the  finest  honey.  The  one  figured  below 
was  sent  us  by  a  friend  in  California,  who  as- 
sures us  it  is  the  veritable  mountain  sage, 
and  produces  the  celebrated  honey  that  has 
made  California  famous. 


CALIFORNIA  WHITE  MOUNTAIN  SAGE. 

A  peculiarity  of  this  honey  is,  that  it  is 
not  inclined  to  candy,  but  remains  limpid, 
during  the  severest  winter  weather.  I  have 
taken  a  sample  so  thick "  that  the  tumbler 
containing  it  might  be  turned  bottom  up- 
ward without  its  running  at  all,  and  placed 
it  out  in  the  snow,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  and 
failed  to  crystallize  it.  This  is  a  very  valua- 
ble quality  of  it,  l»ut  it  is  not  invariably 
the  case.  I  presume  the  honey  should 
be  fully  ripened  in  the  hive,  to  have  it 
possess  this  property,  as  it  is  well  knt)wn 


SMOKE  AND  SMOKERS 


^62 


SMOKE  AND  SMOKERS. 


that  perfectly  ripened  clover  honey  will  often 
possess  this  same  properly  liere,  while  un- 
ripenecl  honey,  of  any  kind,  is  much  disposed 
to  candy  at  the  approach  of  cool  weather.  I 
believe  some  effort  has  been  made  to  culti- 
vate this  plant ;  perhaps  a  soil  that  raises 
pennyroyal  naturally  would  suit  it,  as  they 
are  nearly  allied,  and  I  have  been  told  that 
pennyroyal  yields  considerable  quantities  of 
lioney  on  the  waste  lands  of  Kelley"s  Island, 
in  Lake  Erie. 

It  has  been  said,  that  one  soon  tires  of  this 
beautifid  aromatic  flavor  of  the  mountain 
sage,  and  that,  for  a  steady  diet,  the  white- 
clover  honey  of  the  Western  Reserve  far  out- 
rivals it.  This  may  be  so  ;  for,  as  a  general 
thing,  I  believe  people  usually  tire  of  these 
strong  and  distinct  flavors  in  honey,  like 
those  of  basswood  and  mountain  sage.  For 
all  that,  dear  reader,  if  you  have  never  tast- 
ed mountain-sage  honey,  and  are  a  lov- 
er of  honey,  there  is  a  rich  treat  in  store 
for  you  when  you  do  come  across  some. 

We  have  tried  raising  the  plant  <»n  our 
honey-farm,  but  it  seems  to  nt^ed  a  little 
coaxing  in  our  climate,  and  I  have  not  been 
able  to  discover  that  the  blossoms  furnish 
more  honey  here  than  many  other  plants. 
Tlie  secret  of  tlie  immense  yields  fiom  it  in 
California  is  piobably  on  account  of  the 
vast  areas  that  it  coveis.  The  large  cut  on 
the  preceding  page  shows  another  variety  of 
the  California  sage. 

SIZE  or  FRAIVZISS.  See  Hive- 
making,  also  Nucleus. 

SIllIOKi:  AND  SnaOKERS.  We  can 

drive  cattle  and  horses,  and,  to  some  extent, 
drive  even  pigs,  with  a  wliip;  but  one  who  un- 
dertakes to  drive  bees  in  any  such  way  will 
find  to  his  sorrow,  that  all  the  rest  of  the  ani- 
mal kingdom  are  mild  in  comparison,  espe- 
cially as  far  as  stubbornness  and  fearlessness 
of  coufjequences  are  concerned.  You  may 
kill  them  by  thousands  ;  you  may  even  burn 
them  up  with  tire,  but  the  deatli  agonies  of 
their  comrades  seem  only  to  provoke  them 
to  new  fury,  and  they  push  on  to  the  com- 
bat with  a  relentlessness  which  I  can  com- 
pare to  nothing  better  than  to  a  nest  of  yel- 
low-jackets that  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  die,  and  to  make  all  the  mischief  tliey  pos- 
sibly can  before  dying.'**!'  it  is  here  that  the 
power  of  smoke  comes  in  ;  and  to  one  who 
is  not  conversant  with  its  use,  it  seems 
simply  astonishing  to  see  them  turn  about 
and  retreat  in  the  most  perfect  dismay  and 
fright,  from  the  effects  of  a  puff  or  two  of 
smoke,  from  a  mere  fragment  of  rotten 
wood.    AVhat  would  we  bee-keepers  do  with 


bees  at  times,  were  no  such  potent  power  as 
smoke  known  V 

There  have  been  various  devices  for  get- 
ting smoke  on  to  the  bees,  such  ;'s,  for  in- 
stance, a  common  tin  tube  with  a  mouth- 
piece at  one  end,  and  a  removable  cap  with 
a  vent  at  the  other  end,  for  the  issue  of 
smoke.  I^y  lilowing  on  the  month-piece, 
smoke  can  be  forced  out.  Otheis,  again, 
have  used  a  tin  pan  in  which  was  some 
burning  rotten  wood.  This  is  ]»ut  on  the 
windward  sida  of  the  hive,  so  as  to  blow 
smoke  over  the  frames.  All  of  these,  how- 
ever, were  iniseralile  makeshifts  in  compari- 
son with  the  smokers  of  to-day. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  Moses  M.  Quinby  for 
first  giving  us  a  bf.llows  bee-smoker.  This 
was  a  gieat  step  in  advance  over  the  old 
methods  of  introducng  smoke  among  the 
bees.  In  principle  his  original  smoker  did 
not  differ  essentially  from  the  Bingham  or 
the  L.  C  Root,  that  were  introduced  later. 
It  had,  howevei-,  one  serious  defect ;  and 
that  was,  it  would  go  out,  the  tire-pot  not 
being  properly  ventilated  to  insure  a  good 
draft.  Some  years  after,  Mr.  T.  F.  Bing- 
ham, of  Abronia,  Mich.,  and  Mr.  L.  C. 
lioot.  son-in-law  of  CJumby,  then  of  Mo- 
hawk, N.  Y.,  but  now  of  Stamford,  Ct., 
introduced  bee-smokers  to  the  world  on 
the  principle  of  the  original  Quinby  bel- 
lows smoker,  but  with  several  added  im- 
provements. The  fire-cups,  nt  the  same  time, 
were  made  rather  larger,  and  were  venti- 
lated in  such  a  way  that  a  continuous  draft 
covdd  be  maintained,  even  when  the  smoker 
was  not  in  use,  thus  preventing  them  from 
going  out  like  the  old  original  (Juinby.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  both  smokers  ire 
excellent,  and  both  have  their  peculiar 
merits.  The  Bingham  is  used  very  largely 
in  the  West,  while  the  L.  C.  Root  is  used 
more  generally  in  the  East. 


BINGHAM   SMOKER. 

Both  smokers  employ  what  is  known  as 
the  hot-blast  principle— that  is,  the  blast  of 
air  from  tlie  l)ellows  is  blown  through  the  fire. 
This  makes  a  heavy  volume  of  smoke- 
volume  enough  with  tlie  proper  kind  of  fuel 
to  subdue  the  worst  kind  of  hybrids,  and 


SMOKE  AXD  SMOKERS. 


2>ys 


SMOKE  AXIy  SMOKERS. 


sometimes  overcome  the  apiaiist.  The 
tendency  of  these  hot-blast  smokers  is  to 
bm'n  out  too  rapidly,  and  occasionallj^  to 
blow  sparks  among  the  bees. 

COLD-BLAST  SMOKERS. 

Parth'  to  remedy  these  defects  and  partly 
for  one  or  two  other  reasons,  smokers  were 
constructed  upon  the  "  cold-blast''  princi- 
ple ;  that  is,  the  air  is  conducted  directly 
from  the  bellows  by  means  of  a  tul)e  to  a 


€LAKK   bMOKER,  SIIUW^ING  INTERNAL   CON- 
STRUCTIOX. 

point  inside  the  fire-box  above  the  fire  (not 
through  it) ;  making  it  possible  to  send  cold 
air  charged  with  smoke,  upon  the  bees. 
This  principle  was  invented  almost  simulta- 
neously in  1879  by  J.  G.  Corey,  of  Santa 
Paula,  Cal.,  and  Norman  Clark,  of  Sterling, 
111.,  each  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other. 
Of  the  two  smokers  the  Clark  had  the  bet- 
ter principle,  and  this,  after  many  improve- 


the  bellows  into  the  curved  tube.  Thence 
it  is  forced  through  the  nozzle  of  the  tire-box 
itself.  The  rush  of  air  from  the  latter  pro- 
duces a  partial  vacuum,  and  consequently  a 
suction  at  the  opposite  end.  As  the  sliding- 
door  by  whicli  the  smoker  is  replenished 
does  not  fit  air-tight,  the  air  rushes  in  be- 
tween the  door  and  the  end  of  the  smoker. 
The  smoke,  thus  forced,  passes  through  the 
perforations  in  the  circular  grate,  and  thence 
out  of  the  nozzle.  The  blast  is  cold  air; 
and  the  smoke  being  brought  up  is  mixed 
with  the  discharge  of  air  from  the  curved 
tube.  With  the  hot-blast  principle  already 
described,  the  blast  must  necessarily  pass 
through  the  fire.  Here  it  is  not  only  im- 
necessarily  heated,  but  it  encovmters  so  much 
obstruction  through  the  burning  fuel  that 
its  force  is  very  materially  weakened.  The 
cold  -  blast  smoker  will  therefore  send  a 
stream  of  cold  smoke  six  or  eight  feet ; 
whereas  the  hot-blast,  with  an  equal  effort 
of  the  bellows,  will  not  send  it  more  than 
two  or  three  feet,  and  hot  at  that. 

When  it  is  necessary  to  fill  the  new  Quin- 
by  smoker,  or  even  the  Bingham  smoker, 
the  top  has  to  be  removed ;  there  is,  conse- 
quently, considerable  danger  of  burning  the 
fingers,  both  in  pulling  off  the  top  and  in 
adjusting  it  on  again  properly.  In  the  Clark 
smoker,  as  illustrated  below,  you  observe 
that  it  is  made  so  that  it  can  be  replenished 
from  the  end,  or.  in  other  words,  it  is  a 
•' breech -loading"  smoker.  You  notice 
that  the  revolving  door  is  riveted  at  one  end, 
so  that,  when  it  is  necessary  to  open  the 


CLARK'S    COLD-BLAST    S3I0KER. 


ments  suggested  by  careful  ai)iarists,  was 
finally  i)erfected  into  the  Clark  of  to-day. 
So  iiopular  is  it  that  lifteen  to  twenty  thou- 
sand are  sold  annually. 

The  action  of  the  cold-blast  ])rinciple  will 
be  made  i»lain  by  the  cut  above.  It  repre- 
sents a  Clark  smoker,  with  a  jKirtion  of  the 
bellows  and  fire-box  torn  away,  to  sliow  its 
internal  arrangement.    The  air  passes  from 


door  for  replenishing,  you  simply  slide  it 
around,  and  a  light  touch  of  the  fingers  re- 
volves the  door  back  again  to  its  place. 
There  is.  therefore,  not  a  particle  of  danger 
of  burning  the  fingers  in  opening  and  clos- 
ing the  door. 

WIiICIl    S.MOKEU     IS    THE    BKTTKR — MOT    OR 
COLD    BLAST? 

The  answer  to  this  question  depends  some- 


SMOKE  AND  SMOKERS. 


264 


SOLDERING. 


what  upon  circumstances.  For  real  solid 
subduing  smoke,  the  hot-blast  principle  is 
better ;  but  in  most  cases  such  quantities  of 
smoke  are  unnecessary,  especially  with 
Italians,  and  exceedingly  unpleasant  to  the 
bee-keeper.  Many  prefer  the  cold-blast 
principle  because  one  tilling  will  last  longer, 
and  at  the  same  time  give  all  the  smoke  that 
is  required  for  ordinary  operations,  besides 
sending  a  stream  of  smoke  to  a  greater  dis- 
tance. The  Clark  costs  less  than  half  the 
price  of  the  others.  There  are  a  few  cases, 
however,  when  I  prefer  the  hot-blast  prin- 
ciple ;  for  instance,  with  cross  hybrids,  or 
with  any  bees,  after  a  cold,  wet,  rainy 
morning,  or  when  there  has  been  a  heavy 
honey-flow,  and  it  has  suddenly  stopped; 
ihen  we  need  to  use  quite  a  volume  of  smoke. 
But  with  the  proper  tilling  of  the  Clark,  you 
will  be  able  to  make  nearly  as  heavy  a 
volume. 

FUEL   FOR   SMOKEKiS. 

It  will  be  unnecessary  to  give  directions 
how  to  use  these  hot  or  cold  blast  smokers, 
as  printed  directions  accompany  all  smokers 
sent  out  by  each  manufacturer ;  but  it  may 
be  well  to  allude  to  the  ditf  erent  kinds  of 
fuel  that  have  been  used.  Rotten  wood  is 
good,  and  accessible  to  all,  but  it  burns  out 
too  rapidly.  In  the  Clark  we  prefer  a  kind 
of  stringy  sawdust  packed  solid  that  comes 
from  the  hand-holes  made  in  making  hives. 
Mr.  Bingham  recommends  sound  hard 
wood  for  his  smoker.  Dr.  Miller  and  some 
others  prefer  turning-lathe  hard- wood  shav- 
ings, or,  if  these  are  not  available,  jtlaner 
shavings.  In  certain  localities  i)eat  can  be 
obtained  very  cheaply,  and  it  makes  an  ex- 
cellent fuel.  In  some  parts  of  the  South, 
dry  pine  needles  are  used.  Your  locality  as 
well  as  your  own  notions  will  deiide  what 
fuel  you  will  use.  You  want  something 
that  will  give  good  smoke,  and  at  the  same 
time  be  lasting. 

HOAV   TO   LIGHT   .V   SJIOKEK. 

To  save  time  in  lighting  the  smoker,  our 
boys  use  an  ordinary  spring-to])  oiler.  This 
is  filled  with  kerosene.  After  putting  the 
fuel  into  the  smoker  we  send  a  few  spurts  of 
oil  on  the  fuel,  light  it,  and  tlien  we  soon 
have  a  bla/ing  tire.  Dr.  Miller  u«es  a  pre- 
pared rotten  wood.  This  will  light  readily, 
and  burns  under  circumstances  when  other 
material  would  go  out.  His  manner  of  pre- 
paring it  is  as  follows  : 

In  a  gallon  of  water  he  dissolves  a  pound 
of  saltpeter.  Into  this  he  drops  some  dried 
rotten  wood, and  allows  it  to  soak  for  a  little 


while.  It  is  then  taken  out,  after  which  it 
is  dried.  This  leaves  tlie  saltpeter  in  the 
tiber  of  tlie  wood,  wliich  in  consequence  is 
made  quite  inflammable.  The  doctor  then 
takes  a  piece  of  this  prepared  rotten  wood, 
lights  it,  and  drops  it  upon  the  grate  in  the 
smoker-barrel.  When  it  is  going  well  he 
covers  it  over  with  planer  shavings,  and 
packs  them  down  quite  tightly.  Into  the  noz- 
zle he  stuffs  a  wad  of  green  grass  to  prevent 
sparks.  As  the  rotten  wood  will  burn  under 
unfavorable  circumstances,  there  is  little 
danger  of  the  smoker  going  out  by  packing 
the  shavings  down  tightly.  The  shavings  are 
not  as  dense  as  the  sawdust,  hence  the  smoker 
will  need  replenishing  about  every  hour. 

SOLDERIIVa.    About  the  year  I808— 

is  it  possil)le  that  it  is  really  so  longV — there 
appeared  in  the  Scientific  American,  and  sev- 
eral other  papers,  an  advertisement,  headed 
"  Mend  Your  Own  Tinware,"  and  to  the 
effect  that  the  implements,  with  full  printed 
instructions,  would  be  sent  by  mail  for  30  c. 

The  signature  to  the  advertisement  was 
Amos  I.  Root  &  Co.,  Medina,  O.  The  Amos 
I.  Root  was  myself  ;  but  the  "  Co."  existed 
only  in  my  fertile,  but  (I  fear)  unscrupulous- 
brain.  Many  30  "centses"  were  sent,  and  I 
drove  quite  a  thriving  business,  for  a  boy  of 
only  18.  I  believe  the  implements  generally 
gave  good  satisfaction. 

It  was  just  aboiit  this  time  that  the  Amer- 
ican Agriculturist  began  to  do  a  thriving 
business  exposing  humbugs  and  swindles, 
and,  the  first  I  kne  >v,  they  had  my  soldering- 
implements  held  up  to  view.  My  little  sol- 
dering iron,  or  brass,  rather,  they  laughed  at,, 
and,  without  even  reading  the  printed  direc- 
tions, they  pronounced  the  little  metal  case 
of  chloride  of  zinc,  with  the  few  strips  of 
solder,  entirely  worthless  for  mending  tin- 
ware; and  so  I  dropped thatspeculation,  not, 
however,  without  something  of  a  protest 
that  I  was  right,  and  they  wrong.  A'ery 
soon  after,  they  got  up  some  soldering-im- 
plements  of  their  own,  which  they  sold  for 
$1.00.  They  gave  a  full-sized  soldering-cop- 
per,  a  box  of  rosin,  and  quite  a  bar  of  solder. 
As  bee-keepers  find  a  great  many  uses  for 
tin  and  tinwork  about  the  apiary,  it  has  oc- 
curred to  me  that  I  might  get  up  a  little 
"kit  of  tools"  that  would  help  you  a  great 
deal,  or,  rather,  might  tell  you  how  to  get  up 
your  own.  Well,  here  we  are,  ready  to  talk 
about  soldering. 

A  1-lb.  soldering-copper  will  cost  you  about 
3.5c.,  and  a  handle  for  the  same,  perhaps  10c. 
It  may  not  be  in  order  when  received,  and 
to  put  it  in  working  trim  will  be  your  first 


SOLDERING. 


265 


SOLDERING. 


job.  File  each  of  the  four  sides  bright  and 
smooth,  and,  either  with  tile  or  hammer, 
make  a  nice  sharp  point  to  the  tool.  Solder- 
ing-irons, like  lead-pencils  and  a  great  many- 
other  things,  should  be  kept  sharp,  to  do 
good  work.  Get  a  piece  of  brick,  some  sol- 
der, and  some  rosin.  Heat  your  iron  hot, 
but  not  red  hot,  and  rub  it  in  the  rosin  and 
brick-dust.  This  should  be  placed  in  a  small 
cavity,  in  a  piece  of  wood.  If  you  rub  the 
point  of  the  iron  hard  against  the  wood,  the 
brick  will  scour  it  bright,  and  the  rosin  will 
coat  it  so  that  no  air  can  oxidize  the  copper. 
If  you  now  melt  a  little  from  your  bar  of  sol- 
der, in  the  cavity  in  the  wood,  it  will  readily 
unite  with  the  copper  and  cover  the  surface 
as  if  it  were  dipped  in  quicksilver.  When 
it  is  tinned  all  over,  it  is  in  working  trim. 
Every  time  you  forget  and  let  the  iron  get 
red-hot,  it  will  burn  the  solder  off,  and  it 
must  be  tinned  over  again,  in  the  same  way. 
If  you  wish  to  solder  on  bright  tin,  you 
have  only  to  fasten  the  pieces  securely  where 
you  want  them,  and  then  just  solder  it.  If 
you  look  at  a  tinsmith  you  will  think  it  is 
just  as  easy  as  can  be,  to  make  the  bright 
melted  tin  run  down  the  joint  so  smoothly 
that  it  looks  like  one  continuous  piece;  but 
when  your  own  inexperienced  hands  under- 
take the  task — oh  dear !  oh  dear  !  You  are 
awkward,  without  doubt;  but  perhaps  the 
greatest  trouble  is.  that  you  have  not  all  the 
necessary  appliances  at  hand.  To  do  a  nice 
job,  and  do  it  conveniently,  you  will  want  a 
soldering-board.  something  like  this  : 


SOLDKKING-BOARD. 

It  should  be  about  12x18  inches,  and  the 
sides  about  an  inch  high.  The  two  staples 
are  for  resting  your  iron,  to  i)revent  its  burn- 
ing the  wood  when  not  in  use,  and  for  hold- 
ing the  bars  of  solder,  when  the  iron  is 
touched  to  them.  On  the  right  hand,  a  bar 
of  solder  is  shown,  ready  for  use.  You  can 
never  do  any  thing  with  your  solder  laid  flat 
on  a  board.  On  the  left  are  two  little  boxes ; 
one  is  to  hold  a  wet  rag,  on  which  the  iron 
is  to  be  wiped  ex'ery  time  vou  take  it  from 
the  tire,  that  we  may  have  a  bright  clean 
SI  rface.  The  other  is  to  liold  the  powdered 
rosin  ;  and  if  you  wish  to  work  with  satis- 
faction, I  would  advise  you  not  to  get  the 
rosin  on  your  fingers  or  clothes.  For  a 
brush  for  ajjplying  the  rosin,  draw  some 
candle-wickiug  into  a  tin  tube.    You  can 


do  a  cleaner  job  by  having  the  rosin  mixed 
with  oil,  for  all  that  is  left  after  soldering 
may  be  wiped  off  with  a  soft  cloth.  Our 
girls  use  the  rosin  and  oil  for  making  the 
inside  work  to  extractors.  The  ability  to  do 
smooth  nice  work,  and  do  it  rapidly,  comes 
by  practice. 

Below  I  give  you  a  cut  of  the  soldering- 
iron,  the  bar  of  solder,  the  box  of  rosin,  and 
the  printed  directions,  such  as  are  sent  by 
mail  for  $1.00.  Common  solder  is  worth 
about  20c.  per  lb.;  but  for  fine  nice  work,  we 
use  a  larger  proportion  of  tin.  About  equal 
parts  of  lead  and  tin  is  the  general  rule. 


SOLDKKINti-lKON  AND  I3IPLEMENTS. 

You  will  probably  get  along  very  Avell 
with  bright  new  tin  ;  but  when  you  come  to 
try  repairing,  or  mending  old  breaks 
where  the  metals  are  old  and  rusty,  much 
more  skill  will  be  required  to  make  a  strong 
job.  You  will  also  find  that  something 
more  than  rosin  is  needed  for  iron,  brass,  and 
copper,  and  ror  rusty  tinware.  This  was 
where  my  soldering  implements  came  in, 
years  ago.  I  got  hold  of  the  idea  in  this  way: 
One  dull  day  in  the  winter,  a  stranger  called, 
asking  if  we  had  any  tinware  we  would  like 
repaired,  free  of  charge.  You  may  be  sure 
that  he  and  I  were  friends  at  once,  and  we 
gathered  up  the  tin  pans,  and  set  him  at 
work.  He  took  a  pretty  little  camphene- 
lamp  out  of  his  pocket,  then  a  bottle  of  some 
liquid,  next  an  old  file,  and  some  little 
lumps  of  solder.  A  pan  had  a  hole  in  the 
bottom  ;  he  scraped  around  tlie  hole  with 
his  file,  then  punched  the  hole  a  little  larger, 
so  as  to  raise  a  slight  burr,  held  the  place 
over  the  lamp,  wet  the  metal  with  thelitjuid, 
and  droi)ped  on  a  bit  of  solder,  which  melted 
and  filled  u])  the  hole  in  a  twinkling ;  then 
another,  and  another,  until  all  were  done. 

"•  How  much  for  your  workV" 

"•  Nothing. ■■ 

"•  NothingV  But  what  do  you  want  us  to 
do  V^' 

''  Buy  that  little  bottle  of  soldering-fiuid." 

"For  how  much  V" 

''  Twenty-five  cents." 

I  i)ut  down  the  money  very  quickly,  and  . 
he  i)rei)ared  to  go.  But  I  was  full  of  ques- 
tions about  the  contents  of  that  bottle.  I 
was  chemist  enough,  and  Yankee  enough,  to 
make  him  own  uj),  before  he  got  out  of  the 
gate,  that  it  was  nothing  but  sal-ammoniac 
and   chloride  of  zinc,  in   solution.    In    re- 


SOUllWOOl). 


2(56 


SOURWUOiJ. 


turn,  lie  made  me  i)n)mise  not  to  sell  any  of 
it  inside  of  onr  county,  under  one  year.  The 
next  week  found  me  in  a  neighboring  coun- 
ty mending  tinware,  yrntis  ;  and  before  Sat- 
urday night,  I  was  back  with  between  $10 
and  S12  clear  profit,  which  was  quite  a  spec- 
ulation in  those  days.  To  make  tliis  won- 
derful soldering  -  fluid  which  will  cause  the 
solder  to  tlow  on  copper,  zinc,  iron,  or  brass, 
you  are  to  get  i  of  a  lb.  of  muriatic  acid,  of 
a  druggist,  set  it  in  a  glass  jar  or  tumbler, 
out  of  doors,  and  slowly  drop  in  pieces  of 
zinc,  until  it  will  "  eat ''  no  more.  Dissolve 
2  oz.  of  sal  -  ammoniac  in  a  glass  of  water, 
and  add  this  to  the  acid  and  zinc.  Strain 
the  liquid  into  a  glass  bottle,  and  keep  it 
out  of  the  way  of  the  children.  When  you 
mend  the  tinware  for  •'  nothing,"  a  half-oz. 
bottle  of  it  is  sold  for  25c.  Keep  it  off  your 
clothes,  and  especially  off  your  tools,  for  it 
rusts  every  thing  badly.  When  you  solder 
any  thing  with  it.  carefully  wash  the  article 
in  clean  water,  or  rub  it  off  well  with  a  wet 
cloth.  If  iron  or  steel,  tinish  off  with  some 
oil  on  a  cloth.  If  you  are  careless  with  such 
things,  you  would  better  let  it  alone  entirely. 
Always  use  rosin  when  you  can  make  it 
work,  as  the  fluid  destroys  the  tinning  on 
the  soldering-iron  very  rapidly. 

SOUILWOOD  (Oxydendrum  Arboreum.) 

This  is  considered  a  great  honey  -  bearing 
tree  in  some  localities,  especially  in  the 
South  ;  but  as  I  have  had  no  personal  expe- 
rience with  it,  I  submit  a  description  froui 
one  of  our  friends  who  has  furnished  us 
with  the  specimen  of  the  leaves  and  flowers, 
from  which  our  engraving  was  made. 

The  sourwood,  sometimes  called  the  sorrel,  is  a 
fine  tree  from  40  to  60  feet  in  height,  and  about  a 
foot  iu  diameter;  although  it  sometimes  reaches  70 
feet  in  height  and  a  foot  and  a  half  through.  The 
popular  name,-  ourwood,  is  derived  from  the  odor 
and  the  peculiar  sour  taste  of  the  leaves  and  small 
twigs. 

It  is  entirely  distinct  from  the  lilack-gami  and 
sour-gum,  or  pepperidge,  with  which  it  has  been  un- 
wittingly classed  by  some  writers  on  honey  -  plants, 
much  to  the  injury  of  Sourwood.  The  former  are 
honey  -  producers  to  a  small  extent,  but  are  not 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  sourwood,  which,  we 
are  convinced  after  living  where  basswood,  poplar, 
clover,  buckwheat,  goldenrod.  persimmon,  and 
aster  abound,  has  not  its  superior  among  the  honey- 
producing  plants  of  America,  either  in  the  amount 
of  yield,  or  in  its  beautiful  appearance.  Hasswood 
is  more  important,  only  because  of  its  widely  extend- 
ed growth.  We  write  this  article,  to  call  attention 
more  directly  to  this  tree  as  a  honey-producer.  I'>ee- 
masters  are  familiar  with  other  flora  which  abound 
where  thf)sc  who  have  written  our  books  on  bee  cul- 
ture reside,  yet  few  are  aware  of  the  merits  of  sour- 
wood, outside  of  the  regions  where  it  is  found. 

We  are  not  familiar  with  the  extent  of  its  growth. 


but  know  this  much:  It  abounds  in  the  native  for- 
ests from  Southern  Pennsylvania  into  Georgia  and 
Mississippi.  It  seems  to  be  more  abundant  along 
the  whole  moimtainous  tract  of  country  on  both 
sides  of  the  AUeghanies  and  the  Blue  Ridge,  reach- 
ing, in  places,  even  as  far  as  the  tide-water  on  one 
side,  and  to  Central  Tennessee  on  the  other.  In 
many  sections  where  poplar  abounds  and  much 
buckwheat  is  raised,  .sourwood  is  considered  f7ie  han- 
Kli-plant,  and  yields  the  largest  amount  of  surplus 
honey.  It  seems  to  flourish  best  on  high,  dry  soil, 
and  often  abounds  on  poor  woodland  ridges,  which 
can  be  purchased  at  a  nominal  price:  though  the 
forests  along  the  rivers,  in  rich  cultivated  soil,  are 
often  beautifully  checkered  with  the  white  blossoms 
in  .Tuly.  Being  a  tree,  the  growth  is  tall  and  gener- 
;illy  spare  f)f  branches  along  the  trunk,  except  when 
it  grows  in  the  edges  of  fields,  where  it  yields  the 
greatest  amount  of  honey.  The  trunk  preserves  its 
uniformity  of  size  for  some  distance  up  from  the 
ground.  The  wood  is  white,  with  straight  grain, 
which  splits  nicely.  It  is  brittle  and  quite  fine 
grained,  and  is  used  for  posts  by  cabinet-makers. 


SOURWOOD  LEAF,  FLO  rt'ERS,  AND  SEED-PODS. 

The  flowers  (see  engraving)  are  produced  on 
.spikes  five  or  six  inches  long,  which  hang  in  clusters 
on  the  ends  of  branches.  Many  of  these  flower- 
bearing  spikes  are  thrown  out  from  one  central 
spike,  and  are  all  strung  with  white,  bell  -  shaped 
flowers,  rich  in  honey.  The  flower  is  midway  in 
size  and  appearance  between  the  whortleberry  blos- 
som and  the  lily  of  the  valley.  Unless  there  is  a 
failure  of  the  blossom,  the  honey-j'ield  is  sure  to  be 
abundant;  for,  being  in  the  woods  with  good  I'oots, 
the  flow  is  not  checked  by  ordinary  droughts,  nor  do 
the  rains  wash  out  the  honey  from  the  pendant,  cup- 
shaped  flowers.  Often  have  we  regaled  ourselves, 
while  riding  along  the  road,  by  breaking  a  bunch  of 
the  blossoms,  shaking  out  the  honey  in  the  hand, 
and  licking  up  the  delicious  nectar.  It  bears  no 
fniit;  but  each  flower,  as  it  dries  up,  produces  a 
brown  seed-pod  about  the  size  of  a  large  grain  of 
wheat,  which  separates,  when  ripe,  into  five  parts, 
and  permits  the  very  tine  .seed  to  fall  to  the  earth. 

We  omitted  to  state  that  the  tree  commences  to 
bloom  the  latter  part  of  June,  and  the  harvest  from 
this  source  lasts  until  the  middle  of  Julj'. 

We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  tree  would 
thrive  in  our  more  northern  latitudes  ;  perhaps 
anywhere  in  our  land.  It  is  found  abundantly  in 
many  parts  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  where  it  is 


SPACING  FRAMES. 


2H7 


SPACING  FRAMES. 


very  cold,  the  thermometer  often  indicating  several 
degrees  below  zero.  James  W.  Sheareb. 

Liberty  Corner,  N.  J.,  July  4, 1S78. 

The  following  is  from  Feb.  No.  of  Glean- 
ings for  1880 : 

SOURWOOD   HONEY,   ETC. 

I  send  you  to-day  a  sample  of  sourwood  honey. 
Examine  it  and  let  us  know  what  you  think  of  its 
quality.  I  g-ot  more  of  it  than  of  any  other  kind.  I 
took  about  8110  ft)S.  last  year  from  the  poplar,  and 
something  more  than  l^On  from  the  sourwood,  all  ex- 
tracted. 

Now,  Mr.  Novice,  nearly  all  of  you  bee  -  men  up 
North  say  that  all  pure  honey  will  candy  in  cold 
weather;  and  I  want  you  to  keep  th(!  sample  I  send 
you  through  the  winter,  and  report  if  cold  weather 
candies  it.  I  know  you  have  colder  weather  than 
we  have  down  here,  but  I  don't  believe  it  will  get 
cold  enough  to  candy  sourwood  honey. 

J.  F.  Montgomery. 

Lincoln,  Tenn.,  Jan.  5, 1880. 

Thanks.  You  will  see  under  Extracted 
Honey  and  Sage  that  I  do  not  claim  that 
all  pure  honey  will  candy.  If  sourwood 
honey  never  candies,  it  will  be  a  great  point  \ 
in  its  favor,  and  I  would  pay  a  good  price 
for  a  ban-el  of  it  now,  just  on  account  of  this  , 
one  peculiarity.  The  sample  is  at  hand,  and, 
although  it  is  not  as  light  as  our  clover  and 
basswood,  the  color  is  fair,  and  the  flavor  is 
beautiful.  Its  aroma  is  delightful,  and  has 
a  suggestion  of  timber  and  forest-trees. 

SFACISra   FB.A1MES.      In    nature 

we  find  combs  spacr-d  all  tlie  way  from   If,  I 
li,  II,  and    sometimes  up    to    two  inches 
apart,  from  center  to  center.     Uzierzon,  the 
first  one  to  conceive  the  idea  of  a  movable  | 
comb,  gave  U  as  the  right  distance   until  j 
"Wyprecht  made  accurate  measurrments  on  [ 
straw  hives  having  str;>iglit  combs  built  in  { 
them.     Out  of  49  ni'  asurements,  the  average  [ 
distance  was  scant   1|  in  hes     I3aron  von 
l^eilepsch,  in  49  other  measurements,  veri- 
fied this  result.    In  the  United  States,  prom-  [ 
inent  apiarists  have  found  the  distance  of 
natural- built  combs  averaged  H  inches  fiom 
center  to  center     It  has  been  ob.served,  that, 
in  the  center  of  the  brood-nest,  the  couibs  j 
are  spaced  more  closely  than  tho,-e  on  the 
outside,  the  latter  ranging  aiiywher  ■  from 
H  to  :.:  inches  ai)art.  ! 

It  lias^jeen  urged  that  we  follow  nature  | 
in  tht'  spacing  cf  our  brood-frames.  Rut  it 
seems  to  me  that  nature  is  a  very  itoor 
guide,  inasmuch  as  we  lind  such  a  diversity 
of  me  isurements.  The  1)  e-keeper  should 
adopt  that  spacing  which  will  give  liim  the 
be.st  results— the  must  brood  and  the  mo.st 
lioney  in  the  suri)lus  aiiangements  (^uite 
a  number  of  bee-kcei  eis  are  using  U  si)ac 
ing  for  tiieir  frames  The  reason  for  this  is, 
principally,  because  they  hapiiened  to  start 


with  this  spacing.  Rut  those  who  have  given 
special  attention  to  the  matter,  trying  both 
.^pacings,  agree  almost  uniformly  that  the 
right  distmce  is  If,  or,  if  any  thing,  a  trifle 
sc.mt.  Many,  indeed,  who  had  fixed-dis- 
tance frames  adapted  for  U  inches,  have 
gone  to  the  enormous  expense  of  changing 
over  to  If.  The  advantages  of  this  latter 
spacing  are  so  evident  that  very  few  deny 
that  better  results  may  be  obtained  with  it. 
Rrood  comb  is  found  to  be,  on  an  average, 
I  inch  thick;  capped  brood,  one  inch  thick. 
On  If  spacing,  th's  will  allow  i  inch  be- 
tween uncapped  comli  and  f  between  the 
capped  comb. 

The  following  paragraph  I  take  from  an 
article  published  in  (Tkavnugs  in  Bee  Culture, 
l)age  H73,  \'ol.X\'III.,  written  by  Mr.  Julius 
Hoffman.    It  applies  right  here  exactly : 

If  we,  for  instance,  space  the  combs  from  center  to 
center  so  as  to  measure  1^  instead  of  1?^  inches,  then 
we  liave  an  em])ty  space  of  %  inch  between  two 
combs  of  brood  instead  of  %,  as  it  (jught  to  be;  and  it 
will  certainly  require  more  bees  to  fill  and  keep 
warm  a  %  than  a  %  space.  In  a  J-inch  space,  the 
breeding-  bees  from  two  combs  facing  each  other  will 
join  with  tlieir  backs,  and  so  close  up  the  space  be- 
tween the  two  lirood-combs ;  if  this  space  is  widened, 
however,  to  ?a,  the  bees  can  not  do  this,  and  more 
bees  will  be  required  to  keej)  up  the  needed  l)rood- 
ing  tenii>erature.  What  adiawljack  this  would  lie  in 
cool  spring  weather,  when  our  colonies  are  weak  in 
numbers  yet,  and  breeding  most  desirable,  can  read- 
ily be  understood. 

Where  wider  si)acing  is  adoi)ted,  there  is 
apt  to  be  more  honey  stored  in  the  combs, 
and  less  of  worker  brood,  but  more  dri>ne 
brood  Close  spacing,  on  the  contrary  (1|), 
tends  to  encourage  the  rearing  of  more 
worker  brood,  the  exclus  on  of  drone  brood, 
and  the  st(  rage  of  less  honey  below.  This 
is  exactly  as  we  would  iiave  it.  I  said,  there 
is  ^  inch  between  the  uncapped  brood.  The 
bees  need  a  little  more  room  in  b  eking  in 
j'Ud  out  of  th;'  cells  for  the  purjiose  of  feed- 
ing the  larva'  than  they  do  after  these  cells 
are  c  ipped  ovtr  into  sealed  brood.  Sealed 
brood,  requiring  less  attention  from  the 
be.  s,  and  k  ss  heat  from  the  cluster,  is  spac;d 
f  apar.,  and  this  is  ample  For  further 
hints  on  ths  subject,  see  Fixed   Frames, 

also  IIlVK-MAKINO. 

SFANISH  N  EDIir.  This  ])lant 
yields  immense  quantities  of  honey  aU>ng 
the  low  bottom  grounds  of  the  Mississippi 
and  Illinois  Rivers.  The  f(»llowing  from 
(iLEANiNCiS,  p.  1<)2,  \'()1.  X\I  ,  is  from  the 
Hon.  J.  M.  Ilambaugh,  and  tells  all  abi»ut 
the  plant,  and  the  immense  quantities  of 
honey  that  are  often  produced  by  it. 
Something  over  a  year  ago  1  wrote  a  letter  for 


SPANISH  NEEDLE. 


268 


SPIDER-FLOWEK. 


Gleanings,  claiming-  that  the  honey  gathered  from 
tills  phmt  is  snperior  to  that  proiiuci'rt  from  other 
fall  Uowers,  and  that  it  t^lioull  rank  among  the 
very  best  grades,  and  command  tht?  same  price  in 
the  markets  as  clover  and  linden  honey.  My  pecu- 
liar location  has,  fortunately,  placed  me  in  a  posi- 
tion to  pretty  thoroughly  uudeistand  the  nature  of 
this  plant,  and  the  quality  of  the  honey  it  produces. 
Located  at  the  foot  of  the  bluffs  of  the  Illinois  Riv- 
er, there  is  a  broad  expanse  of  low  marshy  lands  to 
the  east  and  south,  from  three  to  five  miles  in  width. 
These  lands  are  subject  to  overflows  from  the  river 
once  a  year,  which  usually  take  place  in  early 
spring.  This  renders  a  large  portion  of  the  soil  un- 
fit ftn-  tilling  purposes;  and  the  consequence  is,  the 
Spanish  needle  has  secured  a  permanent  foothold, 
almost  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  plants;  and 
early  in  September  they  begin  to  open  their  beauti- 
ful petals,  and  in  a  short  time  M'hole  districts  are 
aglow,  and  their  dazzling  bi-illiancy  reminds  one  of 
burnished  sheets  of  gold.  It  is  now,  should  the 
weather  pi-ove  favorable,  that  the  bees  revel  in 
their  glory,  and  the  honey  comes  piUny  in;  and  the 
beauty  about  this  kind  of  honey  is,  it  needs  but  lit- 
tle "boiling  down,"  and  the  bees  no  sooner  fill  their 
cells  than  they  are  cured  and  ready  to  seal.  This  is 
one  great  advantage,  and  saves  the  bees  lots  of  la- 
bor, and  makes  the  storage  of  honey  more  rapid. 
I  had  one  colony  of  bees  that  stored  63)^  lbs.  of  hon- 
ey in  six  days;  another  one,  86  lbs.  in  nine  day.s, 
and  43  producing  colonies  netted  me  2021  lbs.  in  ten 
days— an  average  of  47  lbs.  to  the  colony.  This  hon- 
ey, though  not  quite  as  clear  as  clover  or  linden,  is 
of  a  golden  hue,  exquisite  flavor,  and  very  fine 
body,  weighing  fully  12  lbs.  to  the  gallon,  and,  as 
previously  stated,  I  can  not  see  why  it  should  not 
i-ank  in  grade  and  price  on  the  market  with  clover 
and  linden  honey. 

So  far  as  my  market  is  concerned,  there  is  no  hon- 
ey so  univei-sally  liked  by  the  consumei-s  as  my 
"golden  coreopsis;"  in  fact,  not  one  word  of  com- 
plaint has  ever  come  back  to  me  from  this  honey, 
save  one.  A  neighbor  ceased  buj'ing  it;  and  when 
questioned  as  to  why,  he  .stated,  "  My  children  eat 
It  up  too  fast."  I  am  now  running  a  peddling-wag- 
on, and  my  salesman  states  he  can  sell  more  honey 
going  over  territory  he  has  previously  canvassed 
than  to  hunt  up  new  routes.  This  certainly  speaks 
well  for  this  kind  of  honey.  I  have  sold  over  4000 
lbs.  in  my  home  market  this  .season,  and  the  de- 
mand seems  to  be  on  the  increase;  and  I  believe  if 
apiarists  will  locate  their  bees  so  as  to  get  the  bene- 
fit of  these  large  areas  of  coreopsis  they  will  not 
only  be  conferi'ing  a  boon  on  their  fellow-man,  but 
will  reap  a  financial  reward  for  themselves.  An- 
otlier  word  in  favor  of  the  coreopsis  honey:  It  is 
less  inclined  to  granulate;  and  at  this  date  there  is 
taut  little  sign  of  granulation,  while  my  two  barrels 
of  linden  honey  is  as  hard  as  New  Orleans  sugar. 

J.  M.  Hambaugh. 

Spring,  Brown  Co.,  111.,  Jan.  21,  1889. 

In  1891  Mr.  Hambaugh  wrote  another  ar- 
ticle on  the  subject,  from  which  we  make 
the  following  extract : 

The  "golden  coreopsis,"  or  Spanish  needle,  stands 
at  the  head  of  all  the  honey-producing  plants  with 
which  1  have  had  any  experience.  It  is  not  only  the 
richest  in  nectar,  but  the  quality  is  par  excellence, 
and  sells  in  my  home  market  equal  to,  if  not  better. 


than  clover  honey.  Its  weight  is  fully  12  lbs.  to  the 
gallon,  and  it  seems  to  need  Utile  if  any  curing  by 
the  bees  when  gathered.  1  have  never  yet  seen  any 
ci'ude  or  utu'ipe  Spanish-needle  honey,  notwith- 
standing I  have  extracted  it  from  the  same  supers 
three  times  in  two  weeks,  and  on  one  occasion  twice 
in  five  and  six  days.  One  colony  netted  73  lbs.  in  5 
days,  and  the  apiary  of  43  producing  colonies,  in  8 
days,  produced  2033  lbs.,  being  upward  of  47  lbs.  per 
colony;  and  this  is  not  true  of  that  particular  year 
only,  but  it  has  i)r()ven  the  surest, honey-producing 
plant  we  have  in  this  locality.  Nothing  short  of 
cold  rainy  weather  will  spoil  the  harvest  from  this 
plant. 

SFIDER  -  FIiOWEB.  [Cleome  Pun- 
gens).  This  has  but  recently  been  brought 
into  notice  as  a  honey-plant.  It  belongs  to 
the  same  family  as  the  Rocky-Mountain 
Bee-plant,  which  it  much  resembles. 

Early  in  1878,  Mollie  O.  Large,  of  Pine- 
Hill  Apiary,  Millersville,  111.,  sent  me  some 
seeds,  which  I  had  started  in  a  flower-pot, 
in  the  house,  but  transplanted  them  to  the 
garden  some  time  in  May.  Aug.  16th  they 
were  in  full  bloom,  and  the  bees  were  at 
work  upon  them ;  but,  strange  to  say,  the 
blossoms  opened  only  at  about  sunset;  ac- 
cordingly, after  the  time  when  the  bees 
have  usually  stopped  flying,  they  were  seen 
eagerly  hovering  over  this  strange  but 
beautiful  plant. 

The  petals,  which  are  of  a  lovely  deep 
pink,  are  all  on  one  side  of  the  blossom  ;  and 
on  the  other  side  we  see  what  resembles 
the  long,  sprawling  legs  of  the  spider.  The 
foliage  is  also  quite  ornamental,  and  we 
have  decided  to  have  a  bed  of  it  on  our  hon- 
ey-farm. 

In  September  of  the  same  year.  Mrs. 
Large  wrote  ;is  follows: 

Our  experience  with  the  spider-plant,  this  season, 
is  this:  It  commenced  to  bloom  about  the  25th  of 
June,  and  the  bees  have  worked  on  it  every  fit  day 
since.  They  commence  about  5  o'clock  p.  m.,  and 
work  until  dark.  I  used  to  think  bees  went  home 
with  the  sun,  but  I  have  heard  them  on  this  plant 
when  too  dark  to  see  them  at  any  distance,  and 
found  them  again  in  the  morning  as  soon  as  it  was 
light,  and  for  a  while  after  sunrise.  If  you  tie  a 
piece  of  mosquito-bar  over  a  bunch  of  Ihe  flowers, 
in  the  afternoon,  and  examine  it  about  sundown, 
you  can  see  the  honey  for  yourself.  We  have  about 
I'll  of  an  acre  this  year,  but  expect,  next  season,  to 
plant  several  acres,  as  we  consider  it  ahead  of  any 
thing  that  we  have  tried  for  honey. 

MoLLiE  0.  Large. 

Pine-Hill  Apiary,  Millersville,  111.,  Sept.  11, 1878. 

Acting  upon  her  suggestion,  we  tied  a 
piece  of  lace  over  one  of  the  blossoms  on 
our  plants,  to  keep  the  bees  from  it,  and  the 
drop  of  honey  that  collected  was  so 
large  that  I  had  a  fair  taste  of  it.  It  was 
very  white  and  limpid,  but  had  a  slightly 


SPIDER-FLOAVER. 


269 


SPIDER-FLOWER. 


raw,  unripened  taste,  which  I  presume  the 
bees  would  know  how  to  remedy. 

LATER. 

To-day  is  the  1 1th  of  October,  1879.  This 
morning  I  got  up  before  6  o'clock.  I  had 
been  reading,  the  night  before,  in  MuUer's 
book.  *'  The  Life  of  Trust,''  and  I  was  par- 
ticularly impressed  with  what  he  says  about 
early  rising,  and  the  blessings  (Jod  sends  to 
those  who  make  it  a  point  to  rise  early  and 
give  their  best  and  freshest  thoughts  to  him. 
I  put  the  book  away,  and  went  right  to  bed, 
that  I  might  get  up  early.    The  gray  of  ap- 


SPIDEK  -  PLANT. ^ 

proaching  daylight  heralding  in  this  warm 
autumn  day  met  my  gaze  as  I  sallied  forth 
toward  the  factory.  I  opened  my  mouth  and 
took  in  the  fresh  pure  air,  and,  as  I  opened 
my  eyes  to  the  beauty  of  the  world  we  dwell 
in,  I  opened  my  heart  in  thankfulness  to 
II im  who  gave  it  all.  As  I  came  near  the 
garden,  I  was  surprised  to  hear  a  loud  hum- 
ming so  early.  It  was  not  robbing,  but  it 
was  a  hum  of  rejoicing.  I  low  strange  it  is, 
tliat  bees  will  make  this  hai>py  hum  over  the 
honey  from  the  llowers.  but  never  over  syrup 
from  any  kind  of  a  feeder.  The  sound  led 
me  to  the  si)ider-plant.  It  had  been  bearing 
honey  a  couple  of  months,  at  night  and  ear- 
ly in  the  morning,  but  I  had  no  idea  tiiat 

•The  picture  above  was  reproduced  from  W.  Atlee 
Burpee's  catalog^ue. 


they  ever  made  so  much  noiseover  itas  now. 
I  approached  leisurely,  but  was  startled  to 
find  that  each  floweret  contained  a  large 
drop  of  some  liquid,  so  large,  in  fact,  I 
thought  it  must  be  dew,  and  not  honey.  I 
touched  my  tongue,  and.  behold,  it  was  fair 
honey,  of  a  beautiful  limpidity  and  taste, 
and  then  I  understood  the  humming.  As  a 
bee  alighted,  and  made  his  way  down  be- 
tween the  stamens,  I  watched  until  he  spread 
out  that  delicate,  pencil-like  tongue,  and  be- 
gan to  draw  in  the  nectar.  Surely  no  bee 
can  take  in  so  larire  a  drop;  and  so  it  proved. 
He  lapped  as  long  as  he  could  and  then  rest- 
ed awhile  ;  again  he  sipped  the  "  sparkling 
ambrosia,"'  and  again  he  stopped.  I  could 
imagine  him  soliloquizing  as  he  dipped  into 
it  a  third  time. 

"  Did  anybody  ever  before  hear  of  a  sin- 
gle floweret  containing  more  than  a  bee 
could  caiTvV" 

He  finally  spread  his  wings,  and  essayed 
to  fly;  but  his  greed  had  been  too  great;  and 
when  he  bumped  agamst  a  8impson-plant, 
which  is  now  out  of  bloom,  down  he  went  on 
his  back  in  the  dirt.  Others  did  the  same 
way,  but  soon  they  tried  again,  and  I  presume 
created  a  commotion  in  the  hive,  by  coming 
in,  podded  out  with  such  loads. 

This  plant  is  strikingly  like  the  Rocky- 
Mountain  bee-plant,  of  which  I  have  given 
you  a  picture  already,  but  it  is  so  much  larg- 
er, and  bears  so  much  more  honey,  that  I  can 
hardly  think  it  worth  while  to  raise  the  lat- 
ter for  honey.  Our  engraver  has  given  you 
a  picture  of  the  blossom  and  leaf. 

The  picture  scarcely  needs  explanation. 
On  one  side  is  the  beautiful  leaf  of  the  plant; 
on  the  other,  one  of  the  flower-stalks,  of 
which  there  are  from  V2  to  20  to  each  plant. 
As  the  flowerets,  shown  in  the  center,  keep 
blossoming  each  evening,  the  stem  grows 
out  in  the  center,  until  it  becomes,  finally, 
two  feet  long  or  more,  and  lined  with  seed- 
pods  its  whole  length.  These  seed  -  pods, 
when  ripe,  break  open,  and  the  seed  must  be 
gathered  daily,  or  it  is  lost.  Each  floweret 
opens  twice,  but  the  honey  is  yielded  only 
from  tlie  first  blooming.  In  the  center  of 
the  picture,  a  single  floweret  is -shown,  with 
its  load  of  honey  sparkling  in  the  rays  of  the 
rising  sun.  The  sight  of  a  whole  plant 
bending  beneath  a  sparkling  load  of  nectar 
like  this  is  enough  to  set  any  bee-keeper 
crazy,  let  alone  your  enthusiastic  old  friend 
2s'ovice.  Our  plants  are  on  ground  made  by 
piling  up  the  sods  taken  trom  wJiere  the 
factory  stands;  this  nuiy.  in  part,  account 
for  the  great  yiehl  of  lioney. 


SPIDER  FLOWER. 


270 


Spider  flower. 


3IORE    ABOUT    THAT   AVONDERFUL   SPIDER- 
PLANT. 

Oct.  Wth.  —  Yesterday  morning  Mr.  Gray 
came  down  before  sunrise,  to  verify  my  ob- 
servation and  see  that  there  was  no  mistake 
about  that  large  drop  of  honey,  the  product 
of  a  single  night.  There  is  no  mistake. 
Not  only  does  a  single  floweret  produce  a 
large  drop,  but  some  of  them  produce  a 
great  many  drops.  Last  evening  we  made 
ob.servations  by  lamplight ;  and,  before 
nine  o'clock,  the  globules  of  honey  were  of 
the  size  of  large  shot.  The  crowning  exper- 
iment of. all  took  place  this  morning.  I  was 
up  a  little  after  .5  o'clock,  and.  with  the  aid 
of  a  teaspoon,  I  dipped  honey  enough  from 
3  or  4  plants  to  fill  a  2-dram  vial,  such  as  "we 


ENLARGED    VltW   OF   i^PIDEK  PI  ANt. 

used  in  the  queen-cages,  a  little  more  than 
half  full .  The  honey  in  some  of  the  flowerets 
had  collected  in  a  quantity  so  large  that  it 
spilled  out  and  actually  streamed  on  the 
ground.  I  have  called  this  honey,  but  it  is, 
in  reality,  the  raw  nectar,  such  as  is  found 
in  clover  and  other  flowers.  The  taste  is  a 
pure  sweet,  slightly  dashed  with  a  most  beau- 
tiful, delicate  flavor,  resembling  somewhat 
that  of  the  best  new  maple  molasses.  The 
honey  will  be  as  white  as  the  wiiitest  linden, 
so  far  as  I  can  judge.  AVith  the  aid  of  a 
lamp  I  evaporated  the  nectar  down  to  thick 
honey.  You  can  see  something  of  wliat  the 
bees  have  to  do,  wlien  I  tell  you  that  I  had 
in  bulk  only  about  a  lifth  as  much  as  when 
I  commeiice'd.  Yon  can  also  see  that  we 
now  have  some  accurate  figures  with  whicli 
to  estimate  tlie  araonnt  of  honey  which  may 
be  obtained  from  an  acre  of  honpy-platits. 

HOW  MUCH   HONEY  AVILL   AN   ACRE  OF 
PLANTS   YIELD? 

I  think  I  visited  with  my  spoon,  four  plants. 
Perhaps  half  of  the  nectar  was  wasted,  either 


by  overflowing  before  I  got  there,  or  in  my 
attempts  to  spoon  it  out.  This  will  give  a 
half-dram  of  nectar  to  each  i)lant,each  morn- 
ing. We  shall  set  the  plants  h  feet  apart  each 
way.  At  this  rate,  we  have  nearly  -5000 
plants  to  the  acre,  and  th.ey  would  yield  every 
morning,  perhaps  5  gallons  of  nectar,  or  one 
gallon  of  ripe  honey.  The  plant  has  been  in 
bloom  in  our  garden  for  the  astonishing 
length  of  time  of  about  8  montlis  ;  tliis  would 
give,  counting  out  bad  weather,  perhaps  BO 
gallons  of  honey,  worth  —  say  $60.00.  I  have 
known  a  single  colony  of  bees  to  gather  a 
gallon  of  raw  honey  in  a  day,  from  the  clover; 
but  HS  the  bees  seldom  work  on  the  spider- 
plant  after  9  or  10  o'clock  in  tlie  morning,  an 
acre  might  require  5  or  10  colonies,  to  go  all 
over  it  every  morning.  How  many  acres  of 
our  best  honey-plants  will  be  required,  to  keep 
100  colonies  out  of  mischief?  As  the  Sinipson 
honey-plant  yields  honey  all  day  long,  the 
two  would  go  very  well  together  ;  and  I  am 
inclined  to  think  5 acres  of  each  (yoocZ  soil, 
xcell  cultivated)  would  keep  100  colonies  of 
bees  busy,  and  out  of  mischief  at  least,  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  fall  months  when  bees 
have  nothing  to  do. 

After  a  more  extended  and  thorough 
trial  I  will  further  state  that  the  spider- 
.  plant  does  not  yield  honey  pr<>fusely  unless 
it  has  a  deep  rich  soil.  On  our  creek  bottom 
the  stalks  made  a  tremendous  growth,  and 
the  blossoms  were  full  of  nectar;  but  anoth- 
er plantation,  on  higlier  ground,  yielded, 
comparatively,  but  little  lioney  ;  and  during 
a  dry  spell,  scarcely  any  nectar  would  be 
found  in  the  blossoms.  Tlie  Simpson  honey- 
plant  has  turned  out  in  much  the  same  way. 

i      STXHTG-S.    It  is  true,  that  bees  can  not 

j  bite  and  kick  like  horses,  nor  can  they  hook 

like  cattle;  but  most  people,  after  having  had 

an  experience  with  bee-stings  for  the  first 

I  time,  are  inclined  to  think  they  w^ould  rath- 

I  er  be  bitten,  kicked,  and  hooked,  all  togeth- 

:  er,   than   risk   a   repetition    of   that    keen 

and  exquisite  anguish  which  one  feels  as  he 

receives  the  full  contents  of  the  poison-bag, 

from  a  vigorous  hybrid,  diu'ing  the  height 

of  the  honey-season.    Stings  are  not  all  alike, 

by  any  means;   and  while  I  can  stand  the 

greater  part  of  them  without  even  wincing, 

or  stopping  my  work,  I  occasionally  get  one 

that  seems   as  if  it  covdd   not  possibly  be 

borne.    As  I  always   find   myself  obliged  to 

bear  it,  however,  I  try  to  do  so  as  best  I 

CJin. 

i      I  have  often  noticed  that  the  pain  is  much 

harder  to  bear,  if  I  stop  and  allow  my  mind 

to  dwell  on  it ;  or  after  being  stung,  if  I  just 


STING«. 


271 


STINGS. 


think  of  former  times  when  I  have  received 
painful  stings,  at  tlie  mere  thought  a  sud- 
den pang  darts  along  tlie  wounded  part.  I 
do  not  know  why  tliis  is,  unless  it  is  the  ef- 
fect of  the  imagination  ;  if  so,  then  it  is  clear 
to  my  mind  that  even  imaginary  pains  are 
very  hard  to  bear.  I  have  sometimes  pur- 
posely, by  way  of  experiment,  allowed  my 
mind  to  dwell  on  the  pain  of  the  sting  the 
moment  it  was  inflicted,  and  the  increase 
would  be  such  that  it  would  almost  make 
me  scream  with  pain.  If  you  doubt  this,  the 
next  time  your  feet  get  very  cold,  just  think 
of  wading  barefooted  in  the  frozen  snow,  at 
a  zero  temperature.  Perhaps  my  imagina- 
tion is  unusually  active,  for  it  sometimes 
makes  tlie  pain,  when  riding  in  the  cold,  al- 
most unbearable,  while  I  get  along  very  well 
if  thinking  of  something  else.  Well,  if  oth- 
ers have  had  a  similar  experience,  and  I  pre- 
sume you  all  have,  you  can  see  why  I  have 
so  often  given  as  a  remedy  for  stings,  simply 
keeping  on  with  your  work,  and  paying  no  at- 
tention to  the  stings  whatever. 

Of  course,  where  stings  swell  on  one  so 
badly  as  to  shut  an  eye,  or  the  like  of  that, 
I  presume  you  might  be  obliged  to  stop  work 
awhile;  but  even  then.  I  would  advise  pay- 
ing as  little  attention  to  the  matter  as  it  is 
possible  to  do,  and  by  all  means  to  avoid 
rubbing  or  irritating  the  affected  part.  I 
have  known  stings  to  be  made  very  painful 
by  rubbing  and  fussing  with  them,  which  I 
have  good  reason  to  think  would  have  given 
little  if  any  trouble  otherwise.  You  all  know 
that  when  you  get  warmed  up  with  hard 
work,  a  bruise,  a  bum]),  or  a  slight  flesh 
wound,  gives  little  if  any  pain;  but  to  sit 
down  calmly  and  cut  into  one's  flesh  gives 
the  most  excruciating  pain.  When  a  lad,  I 
have  repeatedly  cut  great  gashes  in  my  fin- 
gers with  my  jack-knife,  and  felt  but  little 
pain  at  the  time;  but  when  it  became  neces- 
sary to  lance  the  flesh  to  get  a  sliver  out  of 
the  foot,  or  to  cut  oi)en  a  stone-bruise,  the 
pain  was  the  most  intense  I  can  imagine. 
To  i)are  away  with  the  razor  until  you  get 
through  the  skin,  and  see  the  blood  start- 
why,  it  makes  my  flesh  creep  to  think  of  it 
now;  but  the  clips  that  came  unawares  with 
the  dull  jack-knife  were  scarcely  heeded  at 
all,  more  than  to  tie  up  the  wound  to  keep 
the  blood  from  soiling  my  work. 

Well,  the  point  is,  we  are  to  take  stings 
just  as  we  used  to  take  the  cuts  with  those 
jack-knives,  in  our  boyhood  days.  Of  course, 
we  are  not  to  rush  needlessly  into  danger; 
but  when  it  comes,  take  it  i)hil()S(t])liicaIIy. 
I  would  pull  the  sling  out  as  quickly  as  pos- 


sible, and  I  would  take  it  out  in  such  a  way 
as  to  avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  squeezing 
the  contents  of  the  poison -bag  into  the 
wound.  If  you  pick  the  sting  out  with  the 
thumb  and  finger  in  the  way  that  comes  nat- 
ural, you  will  probably  get  a  fresh  dose  of 
poison  in  the  act,  and  this  will  sometimes 
prove  the  most  painful  of  the  whole  opera- 
tion, and  cause  the  sting  to  swell  when  it 
otherwise  would  not  have  done  so. 

I  have  sometimes  tliought  it  might  be  near- 
ly as  well  to  leave  the  sting  in  the  woimd.  I 
have  frequently  found  them  when  washing, 
and  the  presence  of  the  sting  was  the  first 
indication  I  had  that  I  had  been  stung ;  but 
I  presume  I  knew  at  the  time  that  a  sting 
had  been  inflicted. 

THE  PROPER  WAY  TO  REMOVE  A  BEE-STING. 

The  blade  of  a  knife,  if  one  is  handy,  may 
be  slid  under  the  poison- bag,  and  the  sting 
lifted  out,  without  ])ressing  a  particle  more 
of  the  poison  into  the  wound.  When  a  knife- 
blade  is  not  handy.  I  would  push  the  sting 
out  with  the  thumb  or  linger  nail  in  much 
the  same  way.  It  is  quite  desirable  that  the 
sting  shoidd  Ije  taken  out  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible, for  if  the  barbs  (to  be  described  fur- 
ther along)  once  get  a  hold  in  the  flesh,  the 
muscular  contractions  will  rapidly  work  the 
sting  deeper  and  deeper.  Sometimes  the 
sting  separates,  and  a  part  of  it  (one  of  the 
splinters,  so  to  si)eak)  is  left  in  the  wound; 
it  has  been  suggested  that  we  should  be  very 
careful  to  remove  every  one  of  these  tinj' 
points;  but  after  trying  many  times  to  see 
what  the  effect  would  be,  I  have  concluded 
that  they  do  but  little  harm,  and  that  the 
main  thing  is,  to  remove  the  part  containing 
the  poison-bag,  before  it  has  emptied  itself 
completely  into  the  wound.  When  I  am  very 
busy,  or  have  something  in  my  other  hand 
making  it  inconvenient  to  remove  the  sting 
with  my  knife  or  finger-nail,  I  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  rubbing  the  sting  out  against 
my  clotliing.  in  such  a  way  as  to  push  the 
poiso]i-l)ag  off  sidewise;  and  although  this 
plan  often  breaks  off  the  sting  so  as  to 
leave  splinters  in  the  wouiul,  I  have  found 
little  if  any  more  trouble  from  them  than 
usual.'"' 

REMEDIES  FOR    BEE-STINGS. 

For  years  past  I  have  taken  the  ground 
that  remedies  of  all  kinds  are  of  so  little 
avail,  if  of  any  avail  at  all,  that  the  best  way 
's  to  pay  no  attention  to  any  of  them.  This 
has  awakened  a  great  deal  of  arguing,  I 
know,  and  tlie  remedies  that  have  been  sent 
me,  which  the  writers  knew  were  good,  lie- 
cause  they  ha«l  tried  them,  have  been  enough 


STINGS. 


272 


STINGS. 


to  till  pages  of  this  book.  I  have  tried  a 
great  many  of  them,  and,  for  a  time,  have 
imagined  they  "  did  good;"  but  after  giving 
them  a  more  extended  trial,  I  have  been 
forced  to  conclude  that  they  were  of  no  avail. 
Nay,  further  :  they  not  only  did  no  good,  but 
if  tlie  directions  with  the  remedy  were  to  rub 
it  in  the  wound,  they  did  a  positive  harm ; 
for  the  friction  diffused  the  poison  more  rap- 
idly into  circulation,  and  made  a  i)ainful 
swelling  of  what  would  have  been  very  tri- 
fling, if  let  alone.  Please  bear  in  mind  that 
the  poison  is  introduced  into  the  flesh  through 
a  puncture  so  minute  that  the  finest  cambric 
needle  could  by  no  manner  of  means  enter 
where  the 'sting  did,  and  that  the  flesh  closes 
over  so  completely  after  it,  that  it  is  practi- 
cally impossible  for  the  remedy  to  penetrate 
this  opening;  now,  even  if  you  have  a  reme- 
dy that  will  neutralize  the  poison,  in  some- 
thing the  same  way  that  an  alkali  neutral- 
izes any  other  acid,  how  are  you  to  get  it 
in  contact  with  the  poison  V  I  know  of 
no  way  of  doing  it,  unless  we  resort  to  a  sur- 
gical operation  ;  and  if  you  will  try  that  kind 
of  "  tinkering"  with  one  bee-sting,  you  will 
probably  nev^er  want  to  try  another.  I  tell 
you,  there  is  no  remedy  in  the  world  like  let- 
ting it  alone,  and  going  on  with  your  work 
without  even  thinking  about  it.  But,  sup- 
pose we  get  a  sting  under  the  eye,  that 
closes  up  that  very  important  organ ;  shall 
we  go  on  with  our  work  still  ?  Well,  I  be- 
lieve I  would  go  on  with  my  work  still,  and 
do  the  best  I  could  do  with  one  eye.  If  both 
Avere  closed  at  once,  I  do  not  know  but  I 
would  wait  awhile  until  they  should  get 
open  again.  I  would  not  resort  to  medicine 
and  "  tinkering,"  even  then,  but  would  let 
the  eyes  alone,  until  they  came  open  of 
themselves. 

If  the  wound  is  feverish,  or  if  a  person  has 
received  a  great  number  of  stings  at  one 
time,  an  application  of  cold  water,  or  cloths 
wet  in  cold  water,  may  prove  a  relief ;  but 
even  in  using  this  simple  means,  I  would  lay 
the  cloth  on  very  quietly,  and  carefidly  avoid 
rubbing  or  ii-ritation.  I  have  often  dipped 
my  hand  in  cold  water  after  having  a  pain- 
fid  sting  ;  but  as  my  hand  ached  just  as  bad 
under  the  water  (it  really  ached  worse,  be- 
cause I  had  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  stand 
there  and  think  about  it),  I  soon  dropped  that 
remedy  also.  A  year  or  two  ago,  kerosene 
oil  was  suggested  as  a  remedy,  and  two  of 
our  friends  i-egarded  it  of  such  importance 
that  they  almost  got  into  a  controversy  about 
which  was  entitled  to  the  honor  of  the  dis- 
covery.   Well,  I  had  a  very  bad  sting  on  my 


hand,  and  I  went  for  the  oil-can,  and  dropped 
oil  on  the  spot  for  some  time ;  as  kerosene 
will  remove  a  rusty  bolt  or  screw  when  noth- 
ing else  will  avail,  and  as  it  seems  to  have  a 
wonderful  power  of  penetrating  all  cracks 
and  crevices,  I  began  to  have  faith  that  it 
might  follow  the  sting  of  the  bee,  and  in 
some  way  neutralize  the  poison  I  had  the 
satisfaction  of  having  one  of  the  most  pain- 
ful and  lasting  stings  I  ever  got;  and,  togeth- 
er witli  the  offensive  smell  of  the  oil,  it  quite 
sickened  me  of  that,  as  a  remedy.  I  pre- 
sume the  oil  made  it  no  worse,  but  it  really 
seemed  to  me  that  it  must  have  done  so. 

In  discussing  this  matter  of  bee-sting  i-em- 
edies,  we  should  remember  that  tlie  pain  of 
a  sting  very  often  ceases  suddenly,  with  no 
application  whatever ;  those  who  have  been 
stung  a  great  deal  will  all  tell  you  that  this 
is  the  case.  Well,  the  beginner  wlio  carries 
his  saleratus-water  or  hartshorn,  and  always 
makes  an  application  of  some  kind,  will  tell 
you,  and  truthfully  too,  that  the  pain  stopped 
the  very  moment  the  remedy  was  applied. 
Again,  some  stings  swell  very  badly,  while 
others  do  not  swell  at  all.  Well,  if  an  appli- 
cation is  made,  and  no  swelling  results,  he 
will  remember  how  former  stings  had 
swelled,  and  at  once  ascribe  the  difference 
to  the  remedy  applied.  You  will  see  from 
this,  that  it  is  only  by  repeated  trials,  ex- 
tending through  a  considerable  period  of 
time,  that  we  can  arrive  at  the  truth.  There 
is  one  rule  that  will  apply  to  this,  and  to  a 
great  many  other  similar  matters.  If  a 
thing  is  really  good,  it  will  come  into  general 
use,  and  stay  there,  not  only  for  a  few  weeks 
and  months,  or  for  a  single  season,  but  will 
be  in  demand  year  after  year.  If  I  am  cor- 
rect, not  one  of  the  bee-sting  remedies  has 
stood  this  test.  Sooner  or  later  they  have 
all  been  dropped,  and  old  bee-keepers  get 
along  in  the  way  I  have  advised — picking 
the  sting  out,  if  they  are  not  in  too  much  of 
a  hurry,  and  thinking  no  more  about  it. 

WHAT  TO  DO  WHEN    STUNG   A   GREAT  NUM- 
BER OF  TIMES,  ALL  AT  ONCE. 

There  is  verv  seldom  any  need  of  such  a 
catastrophe;  but  as  such  an  event  may  come 
about,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  the  matter. 
In  hiving  hybrids,  under  certain  conditions, 
I  have  known  them  to  attack  the  operator  in 
a  mass,  and  sting  him  most  unmercifully. 
A  neighbor  of  ours  was  stung  in  this  way 
until  he  fainted,  and  had  to  be  carried  into 
the  house.  In  such  cases,  I  would  resort  to 
the  usual  means  to  restore  the  person  from 
the  fainting-flt,  and  then  extract  the  stings 
as  speedily  as  possible,  and  treat  with  wet 


STINGS. 


273 


STINGS. 


cloths.  It  is  true,  that  death  may  result  from 
the  stings  of  bees,  and,  if  report  is  correct,  a 
single  sting  has  been  known  to  result  in 
death,  in  very  rare  instances.  Shall  we  stop 
keeping  bees  on  this  account?  People  are 
killed  by  horses  almost  every  day,  and  such 
cases  are  comparatively  frequent;  but  did 
any  one  ever  advocate  giving  up  the  use  of 
horses  on  that  account?  Cases  that  have  re- 
sulted fatally,  or  in  laying  a  person  up  for  a 
time,  or  have  produced  fainting,  ai'e  usually 
where  the  person  is  stung  for  tlie  first  time ; 
after  the  system  gets  inured  to  the  poison, 
its  etfects  are  comparatively  harmless. 

GETTING   HARDEXED   TO   THE    EFFECTS    OF 

STINGS. 

When  I  first  commenced  bee  -  keeping, 
stings  swelled  so  badly,  and  were  so  painful, 
that  I  had  either  my  hands  or  eyes  swelled 
up  most  of  the  time,  and  I  seriously  contem- 
plated giving  up  the  business,  just  on  this 
account  alone.  After  I  had  had  a  little  more 
practice,  I  discovered  that  there  was  very 
little  need  of  being  stung  at  all,  if  one  was 
careful  not  to  provoke  the  ire  of  the  little  in- 
sects. Still  further.  I  found  the  swelling  to 
be  gradually  less  and  less  ;  and  before  my 
first  summer  was  over,  I  very  seldom  felt  the 
effects  of  any  sting,  the  day  afterward. 
When  first  commencing,  if  my  eye  was 
swelled  so  as  to  be  closed  by  a  sting,  it  often 
took  until  the  third  day.  to  have  it  go  down 
entirely.  The  ABC  class,  almost  without 
exception,  corroborate  this  experience. 

HOW  TO  AVOID  BEING  STUNG. 

Some  may  imagine,  from  the  foregoing, 
that  it  is  necessary  for  one  who  keeps  bees 
to  submit  to  the  pain  of  being  stung  several  '< 
times,  every  day.  A  short  time  ago  a  lady 
said  that  she  could  never  stand  it  to  have 
her  husband  keep  100  swarms,  for  she  got 
stung  four  or  five  times  a  day  with  only  a 
dozen,  and  30  or  40  stings  a  day  would  be 
more  than  she  could  possibly  bear.  Now, 
my  friends,  I  think  lean  take  any  one  of  you 
into  an  apiary  of  100  colonies,  and  have  you 
assist  me  all  day  long,  without  your  getting 
a  single  sting.  Nay,  further :  if  you  are  very 
timid,  and  cannot  bear  a  single  sting,  by  tak- 
ing some  i)ains  you  may  be  able  to  work  day 
after  day,  without  being  stung.  The  ai)iary 
must  be  properly  cared  for,  and  no  robbing 
allowed,  and  you  must  do  exactly  as  I  tell 
you.  See  Angeu  of  Bees.  It  nuiy  be  a 
hard  matter  to  tell  you  in  a  l)ook  how  to  be- 
have without  being  slung,  but  I  will  try.  In 
the  first  place,  avoid  standing  right  in  front 
of  any  hive.  I  am  often  very  much  tried 
with  visitors  (some  of  them  bee-keepers,  too,  I 


who  ought  to  know  better),  because  they  will 
stand  right  before  the  entrance  until  they 
have  a  small  swarm  scolding  around  them 
because  they  cannot  get  out  and  in,  and  then 
wonder  why  so  many  bees  are  buzzing  about 
in  that  particular  spot.i^'^  If  you  should  go 
into  a  factory,  and  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
workmen  until  a  dozen  of  them  were  blocked 
up  with  their  arms  full  of  boards  and  finish- 
ed work,  you  would  be  pretty  apt  to  be  told 
to  get  out  of  the  way.  Now,  you  are  to  exer- 
cise the  same  common  sense  in  an  apiary. 
By  watching  them  you  can  tell  at  once 
their  path  through  the  air,  and  you  are  to 
keep  out  of  their  way.  Riglit  back  of  any 
hive  is  a  pretty  safe  place  to  stand. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  learn  is  to  know 
whether  a  bee  is  angry  or  not,  by  the  noise  he 
makes.  It  seems  to  me  you  should  all  know  by 
the  hum  of  a  bee,  when  it  is  gathering  honey 
from  the  heads  of  clover  in  the  fields,  that  it 
has  no  malice  toward  any  living  thing:  it  is 
the  happy  hum  of  honest  industry  and  con- 
tentment. People  sometimes  jump  when  a 
bee  hums  thus  harmlessly  along,  and  it 
seems  to  me  they  should  know  better,  but  I 
presume  it  is  because  bees  are  not  in  their 
line  of  business,  and  they  don't  know  ''  bee 
,talk."" 

Well,  when  you  go  in  front  of  a  hive,  or 
even  approach  hives  that  are  not  accustomed 
to  being  worked  with,  one  of  the  sentinels 
will  frequently  take  wing,  and.  by  an  angry 
and  loud  buzz,  bid  you  begone. i'"  This  note 
is  quite  unlike  that  of  a  bee  upon  the  flow- 
ers, or  of  the  ordinary  laborer  upon  the 
wing;  it  is  in  a  high  key,  and  the  tone,  to 
me,  sounds  much  like  that  of  a  scolding  wo- 
man, and  one  who  will  be  pretty  sure  to 
make  her  threats  good,  if  you  do  not  heed 
the  warning.  When  one  of  these  bees  ap- 
proaches, you  are  first  to  lower  your  head,  or, 
better  still,  tip  down  your  hat-brim;  for 
these  fellows  almost  always  instinctively  aim 
for  the  eyes.  He  will  often  be  satisfied,  and 
go  back  into  his  hive  if  you  move  away  a  lit- 
tle; but  you  do  not  want  to  give  him  to  im- 
derstand  that  you  admit  yourself  a  thief, 
and  that  he  has  frightened  you.  If  he  gets 
very  threatening,  and  you  are  timid,  you 
would  better  go  into  some  building.  I  am 
in  the  habit  of  opening  the  door  of  the  honey- 
house,  and  asking  visitors  to  go  in  there, 
when  an  angry  bee  persists  in  following 
them,  ^''ery  many  times  I  can  hardly  get 
them  to  go  in  as  I  direct,  because  they  can 
not  see  why  the  bee  will  not  follow  tlieu), 
and  thus  have  them  cornered  up  aiul  a  sure 
prey.     I  do  not  know  wliy  it  is,  but  a  bee 


JSTI^'GS. 


274 


STINGS. 


very  seldom  ventures  to  follow  one  indoors.  |  neighbors'  homes.  This  is  one  reason  why 
A  single  bee  never  does,  if  I  am  correct;  but  bystanders,  or  tliose  who  are  off  at  a  little 
a  very  vicious  colony  of  hybrids,  when  fully  distance,  are  so  much  more  apt  to  be  stung 
aroused,  may  do  so.^'*  i  than  the  apiarist  who  is  right  among  them. 


AVIIAT  TO  DO  WHEN  A  SINGLE  HEE  FOLLOWS 
YOr   AHOUT  BY  THE   IIOliR. 

It  not  unfrequently  happens,  especially  in 
an  apiary  where  there  are  hybrids,  that  a 
gO()(l-for-notliing  rascally  bee  (of  this  race) 
will  follow  you  aboiit  the  apiary  for  hours, 
poising  himself  just  before  your  eyes,  mak- 
ing believe  to  sting.  It  does  not  pay  to  be 
humane  with  such  fellows.  While  your  of- 
fender is  holding  himself  aloft  before  your 
face  in  a  menacing  manner,  smash  him  be- 
tween your  hands,  or,  with  a  stick,  give  him 
a  smart  rap  ;  but  take  care  that  you  don't 
miss  him,  or  he  will  stop  his  dallying  and  de- 
liver his  sting. '^^ 

HOAV    TO    SAVE    YOURSELF    FROM  A   STING. 

Sometimes  a  bee  will  be  in  the  act  of  in- 
serting his  sting  in  your  hand.  If  the  other 
hand  is  not  holding  a  frame,  or  is  not  other- 
wise engaged,  bring  it  to  the  rescue  by 
smashing  the  bee  before  he  succeeds.  If,  as 
is  sometimes  the  case,  the  other  hand  is 
holding  a  frame,  slap  the  hand  which  is  be- 
ing attacked,  against  your  person.  If  you 
do  it  right  you  can  both  smash  the  bee  and 
also  rub  out  the  sting,  if  its  owner  has  suc- 
ceeded in  plunging  it  into  the  flesh.  Never 
slap  the  hand  directly  against  yourself,  but 
give  it  a  sort  of  sliding  motion.  You  will 
thus  accomplish  the  double  purpose.  If  a 
bee  strikes  you  in  the  back  of  the  neck  (and 
you  liave  no  veil  on),  lodging  in  your  hair, 
smash  him  by  that  half-slap  and  half-rub- 
bing motion.  I  recommend  killing  bees  as 
above,  when  they  have  actually  l}egun  to  in- 
sert their  sting,  because  they  are  then,  so 
far  as  I  am  al^le  to  observe,  determined  to 
accomplish  their  puri)0se  or  die.  If  it  is  m 
my  power,  \  usually  prefer  to  have  them  do 
the  latter ;  for  if  a  bee  is  foiled  after  he  has 
got  so-  far,  he  will  carry  out  the  principle 
most  persistently  of  the  little  adage,  "  If  at 
first  you  don't  succeed,"  etc.  See  Anger 
OF  Bees. 

^Yhere  there  has  been  no  robbing  going  on, 
one  has  usually  warning  enough,  and  in  am- 
ple time,  to  take  precautions.  Where  the 
bees  are  quietly  at  work,  that  is,  during  the 
working  season,  there  is  but  little  danger 
from  bees  in  the  air.  When  you  are  work- 
ing with  a  liive,  bending  right  over  the  un- 
covered frames,  you  are  comparatively  se- 
cure from  the  bees  of  other  hives;  for  when 
there  is  no  robbing,  bees  seem  to  have  no 
disposition  to  meddle  or  hang  arovjnd  their 


JERKINC4    THE    HANDS    BACK. 

A  good  many  times,  especially  if  the  bees 
are  inclined  to  be  a  little  cros's,  three  or  four, 
as  you  proceed  to  lift  the  frame,  will  strike 
against  the  hands  as  if  about  to  sting.  The 
natural  tendency,  of  c(;urse,  is  to  jerk  the 
hand  back.  This  is  the  worst  thing  that 
you  can  do.  You  will  be  almost  sure  to  be 
stung  then,  while,  if  you  hold  your  hands 
motionless,  and  let  the  bees  see  that  the  new 
objects  are  not  afraid  of  them,  they  will 
rarely  if  ever  go  beyond  a  pretense  of  using 
their  weapon.  I  am  sure  that  a  large  num- 
ber of  stings  received  by  beginners  on  the 
hands  are  attributable  to  this  jerking-back 
of  the  hands.  The  same  is  true  with  refer- 
ence to  the  face,  if  not  protected  by  a  veil. 
Nine-tenths  of  the  bees  which  make  such 
demonstration  will  not  sting,  if  you  can  con- 
trol your  nerves,  letting  your  tormentors 
know  that  you  are  not  to  be  frightened. 

HOW^    TO    OPEN    A    HIVE,     WITHOUT    BEING 

STUNG. 

Have  your  smoker  lighted,  and  in  good 
trim,  and  then  set  it  down  near  the  hive  you 
are  going  to  work  with.  Now,  I  would  nev- 
er use  smoke  with  any  hive  of  bees,  imless 
they  need  it  to  subdue  them;  for  why  should 
we  disturb  and  annoy  the  little  fellows  while 
quietly  going  about  their  household  duties, 
unless  we  are  obliged  toV  I  frequently  open 
hive  after  hive,  with  no  kind  of  use  for 
smoke  at  all,  and  yet  I  often  see  bee-keepers 
drive  the  poor  little  chaps  down  to  the  bot- 
toms of  their  hives  with  great  volumes  of 
smoke,  when  they  have  not  shown  the  least 
symptom  of  any  disposition  but  the  most 
friendly  one.  It  is  true,  where  the  colony  is 
very  large,  the  bees  sometimes  pile  u])  in  the 
way,  on  the  rabbets  and  ends  of  the  frames, 
so  that  it  becomes  desirable  to  drive  them 
away  for  their  own  safety.  For  this  pur- 
pose, very  little  smoke  is  needed;  and  if  you 
are  in  no  great  hurry,  they  will  clear  out  of 
the  way,  if  you  just  pat  them  on  the  backs 
gently  with  a  weed  or  bit  of  grass. '"^  If  the 
bees  are  disposed  to  be  cross,  and  to  show 
hght,  you  will  readily  discover  it  the  minute 
you  turn  up  the  first  corner  of  the  cloth  cov- 
ering; and  if  it  takes  smoke  to  make  them 
beg  pardon,  give  them  smoke,  but  only  in 
small  quantities  until  you  are  sure  more 
is  needed.    See  Frames,  How  'io  Maxip- 

UI-A.E 


6TIXGS. 


STI2^GS. 


AVHAT    KIND    OF    BEES    STING  AVORST. 

The  general  decision  is,  that  the  pure  Ital- 
ians are,  as  a  rule,  the  most  easily  handled.* 
Not  only  do  they  sting  less,  but  as  they  keep 
their  places  on  the  combs  without  getting 
excited,  when  hives  are  properly  opened, 
they  are  far  less  liable  to  get  under  one's 
clothing  than  the  common  bees.  A  great 
many  stings  are  received  from  bees  that  are 
in  no  way  badly  disi)osed  at  all,  simply  by 
their  getting  pinched  accidentally,  while  on 
the  person  of  the  bee-keeper.  Pure  Italians 
may  be  handled  all  day,  with  no  such  mis- 
hap ;  but  after  working  among  blacks  or  hy- 
brids, I  often  find  a  dozen  or  more  under  my 
coat,  up  my  sleeves,  if  they  can  get  up,  and, 
worst  of  all,  up  my  trousers,  if  I  have  not 
taken  the  precaution  to  tuck  them  into  my 
boots,  or  stockings  when  I  wear  low  shoes. 
See  Bee-dress.  Well,  I  believe  this  one 
thing  alone  would  decide  me  in  favor  of  the 
Italians,  if  they  were  simply  equal  to  the 
blacks  in  other  respects.  The  hybrids,  as  I 
have  before  stated,  are  much  worse  to  sting 
than  either  of  the  races  when  pure. 

It  may  be  well  to  add,  that  we  find  many 
exceptions  to  these  rules ;  a  hive  of  blacks 
will  sometimes  be  much  easier  to  handle 
than  a  hive  of  Italians  in  the  same  yard,  and 
the  progeny  of  a  queen  that  we  may  have 
every  other  reason  to  call  pure,  may  be  as 
cross  as  the  worst  hybrids.  Still  further :  A 
very  cross  swarm  of  bees  may  be  so  educat- 
ed, by  careful  treatment,  as  to  become  very 
gentle,  and  vice  versa.  The  colony  in  front 
of  the  door  of  the  honey-house  is  always  a 
gentle  one,  season  after  season;  the  explana- 
tion of  it  is,  that  they  become  accustomed  to 
the  continual  passing  and  repassing  of  the 
bee-keeper  in  front  of  their  hive,  and  learn 
to  be  dodging  past  some  one  almost  all  the 
time.  On  the  contrary,  those  bees  that  are 
in  the  remote  corners  of  the  apiary  are  very 
apt  to  sting  yoii,  if  you  just  come  roiuid  to 
take  a  view  of  their  entrance.  The  Egyp- 
tian bees  are  said  to  be  very  much  worse 
than  any  of  the  other  races ;  and  as  they  do 
not  yield  to  smoke,  as  do  others,  they 
have  been  discarded,  principally  on  account 
of  this  unpleasant  feature. t 

The  Cypiians  and  Syrians  are  more  vin- 
dictive than  Italians,  and  UKU'e  nervous  than 
a  cross  between  the  blacks  and    Italians. 

+  CarniolHns  have  the  reputation  of  beinjf  very 
gentle,  l)ut  I  think  are  no  more  so  than  Italians. 

*Queenless  bees  are  almost  always  much  worse; 
it  may  bo  because  they  seldom  w»)rk  with  enerjfy, 
and  have  therefore  no  fresh  acciimiiliitioii  of  stores, 
that  tend  so  much  to  put  bees  on  their  irood  be- 
havior. 


Still,  the>e  Eastern  races  can  be  handled  if 
rightly  managed. 

THE  BEE-STING  POISON. 

When  bees  are  very  angry,  and  elevate 
that  portion  of  thetr  bodies  containing  the 
sting,  you  will  often  see  a  tiny  drop  of  some 
transparent  liquid  on  the  point  of  the  sting. 
This  liquid  is  the  poison  of  the  bee-sting.  It 
has  a  sharp,  pungent  taste;  and  when  thro\Mi 
in  the  eyes,  as  often  ha])pens,  it  has  a  sting- 
ing, acrid  feeling,  as  if  it  might  be  a  com- 
pound of  cayenne  pepper,  onion  -  juice,  and 
horseradish  combined;  and  one  who  tastes  it 
or  gets  it  in  his  eyes  concludes  it  is  not  so 
very  strange  that  such  a  substance,  intro- 
duced into  the  circulation,  produces  such  ex- 
quisite pain.  The  poison  of  the  bee-sting 
has  been  shown  to  be  similar  in  composition 
to  that  of  the  viper  and  scorpion  ;  but  at  the 
present  writing  I  can  not  learn  that  any 
chemist  has  ever  given  us  an  analysis  that 
would  tell  us  just  what  the  poison  is.  The 
acid  obtained  from  ants  is  called  formic  acid, 
and  I  have  wondered  whether  that  from  bee- 
stings is  not  similar,  if  not  the  same.  It  is 
probably  a  vegetable  acfd,  secreted  from  the 
honey  and  pollen  that  constitutes  their  food, 
and  it  is  well  kno-wai  that  the  poison  is  much 
more  piuigent  when  the  bees  are  working  in 
the  fields,  and  accumvdating  stores  largely, 
than  it  is  when  tliey  are  at  rest  in  the  winter 
months.  It  is  generally  during  basswood- 
bloom  that  we  get  those  severe  stings  which 
draw  the  blood  and  show  a  large  white  spot 
around  the  wound. 

HOW  IT  IS  DONE. 

It  is  quite  an  interesting  experiment  to 
let  a  bee  sting  you  on  the  hand,  and  then 
coolly  observe  the  whole  performance,  with- 
out disturbing  him.  When  a  boy  wislfes  to 
jump  across  a  brook,  he  usually  goes  back  a 
few  feet,  and  takes  a  little  run ;  well,  a  bee, 
Avhen  he  introduces  the  point  of  his  sting, 
prefers  to  make  a  short  run  or  dash,  or  he 
may  fail  in  lodging  tlie  barbs  of  the  sting  se- 
curely in  the  flesh.  I  do  not  believe  a  bee 
can  very  well  get  up  the  necessary  energy  to 
sting,  unless  he  is  under  the  influence  of 
some  excitement.  I  have  sometimes,  in  try- 
ing to  see  how  far  I  could  go  with  an  angry 
colony  of  bees  without  tlie  use  of  smoke,  had 
a  lot  of  them  strike  my  face  with  a  sudden 
dash;  but  as  I  kept  perfectly  still,  they  would 
aliglit  without  stinging.  Now.  the  slightest 
movement,  even  an  incautious  l)reath,  would 
result  in  some  ])retty  severe  stinging ;  but  if 
I  kept  cool  and  quiet,  and  carefully  walked 
away,  I  might  escai)e  without  any  stings  at 
all.     Very  often,  a  single  bee  will  work  him- 


STINGS. 


276 


STINGS. 


self  up  to  a  sufficient  passion  to  try  to  sting  ; 
but  to  commence  while  standing  still,  I  Uave 
always  found  to  be  rather  difficult  work  for 
them;  and  although  they  sometimes  prick 
slightly,  and  give  one  a  touch  of  the  poison, 
they  seldom  sting  very  severely,  without 
taking  wing  again.  To  go  back :  After  the 
bee  has  penetrated  the  flesh  on  your  hand, 
and  worked  the  sting  so  deeply  into  the 
flesh  as  to  be  satisfied,  he  begins  to  find  that 
he  is  a  prisoner,  and  to  consider  means  of 
escape.  He  usually  gets  smashed  at  about 
this  stage  of  proceedings,  unless  he  succeeds 
in  tearing  the  sting  —  poison-bag  and  all 
— from  the  body;  however,  if  allowed  to  do 
the  work  quietly,  he  seldom  does  this,  know- 
ing that  such  a  proceeding  seriously  maims 
him  for  life,  if  it  does  not  kill  him.  After 
pulling  at  the  sting  to  see  that  it  will  not 
come  out,  he  seems  to  consider  the  matter  a 
little,  and  then  commences  to  walk  around 
it,  in  a  circle,  just  as  if  it  were  a  screw  he 
was  going  to  turn  out  of  a  board.  If  you 
will  be  patient  and  let  him  alone,  he  will  get 
it  out  by  this  very  process,  and  fly  off  un- 
harmed. I  need  not  tell  you  that  it  takes 
some  heroism  to  submit  patiently  to  all  this 
manoeuvring.  The  temptation  is  almost  un- 
governable, while  experiencing  the  intense 
pain,  to  say,  while  you  give  him  a  clip, 
"There,  you  little  beggar,  take  that,  and  learn 
better  manners  in  future." 

Well,  how  does  every  bee  know  that  he 
can  extricate  his  sting  by  walking  around  it  i* 
Some  would  say  it  is  instinct.  Well, I  guess 
it  is;  but  it  seems  to  me,  after  all,  that  he 
"sort  o'  remembers""  how  his  ancestors  have 
behaved  in  similar  predicaments  for  ages 
and  ages  past. 

ODOR   OF   the]  bee-sting    POISON. 

After  one  bee  has  stung  you,  if  you  use  the 
hand  that  has  been  stung  among  the  bees  in 
the  hive,  the  smell  of  the  poison,  or  some- 
thing else,  will  be  pretty  sure  to  get  more 
stings  for  you,  unless  you  are  very  careful. 
Also  after  one  sting  has  been  inflicted,  there 
seems  a  much  greater  chance,  when  about 
in  the  apiary,  of  getting  more  stings.  Mr. 
Quinby  has  suggested  that  this  is  owing  to 
the  smell  of  the  poison,  and  that  the  use  of 
smoke  will  neutralize  tliis  scent.  This  prob- 
ably is  so,  but  I  am  not  fully  satisfied  of  it. 

THE  POISCJN   OF   THE  HEE-STING  AS  A  REME- 
DIAL  AGENT. 

For  some  years  past  there  have  been  run- 
ning through  our  journals  many  reports  in 
regard  to  the  agency  of  bee-stings  in  the 
cure  of  certain  forms  of  diseases,  especially 
rheumatism.    From  the  facts  put  forth,  I 


think  any  candid  reasoner  will  liave  to  ad- 
mit, that  being  stung  frequently  does  certain- 
ly have  the  effect  of  relieving  certain  forms 
of  rheumatism,  paralysis,  and  perhaps  drop- 
sy. It  is  true,  the  open-air  exercise  may 
have  something  to  do  with  it ;  but  I  believe 
the  poison  of  the  sting  itself  often  gives  al- 
most immediate  relief  in  the  diseases  above 
mentioned.  I  may  add  here,  that  it  is  well 
known  that  homeopathists  use  bee-sting  poi- 
son as  a  remedial  agent,  under  the  name  of 
Apis  melUfica.  In  their  hands  it  is  one  of 
the  most  useful  of  all  remedies  in  the  treat- 
ment of  oedematous  and  dropsical  conditions 
of  the  cellular  tissue,  skin,  serous  and  mu- 
cous membranes,  and  the  glandular  system. 
C.  F.  Muth,  of  Cincinnati,  has  sold  a  good 
many  colonies  of  live  Italians  to  doctors,  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  extracting  the  poison. 
If  I  am  correct,  they  extract  the  poison  by 
means  of  alcohol.  We  have  also  sold  bees 
by  the  pound  for  the  same  purpose.  During 
the  summer  of  1889  we  furnished  10,000 
stings  to  a  prominent  pharmaceutical  es- 
tablishment, and  have  since  furnished 
stings  in  smaller  lots  for  other  parties. 

DOES    THE    BEE    DIE    AFTER    LOSING    HIS 

STING  V 

This  is  a  question  that  remained  long  in 
uncertainty.  While  I  am  luiable  to  give 
any  positive  information  in  regard  to  it 
now,  I  can  give  something  more  definite.  It 
has  been  ascertained  by  experiment,  by  re- 
peated trials,  that  a  few  bees  caged  (a  dozen 
or  so)  deprived  of  their  stings  willingly  or 
unwillingly,  will  die  in  from  24  to  72  hours, 
but  rarely  ever  live  longer.*  It  is  stated, 
that  a  whole  colony  of  bees  which  have  lost 
their  stings  will  live  and  prosper,  the  same 
as  if  the  absent  members  were  present.  One 
of  our  coiTespondents  relates  the  following 
incident.  Through  a  piece  of  carelessness 
he  allowed  a  certain  one  of  his  colonies  to 
become  so  infuriated  as  to  sting  everybody 
and  every  thing  within  their  reach.  He  de- 
clared, upon  a  subsequent  examination,  that 
there  was  scarcely  a  bee  in  that  whole  colo- 
ny which  did  not  show  unmistakable  evi- 
dence of  having  lost  its  sting  in  the  uproar 
just  mentioned.  Now,  the  singular  fact  was 
that  these  bees  actually  lived,  gathered  hon- 
ey, and  i)rospered.  Were  it  not  for  some  par- 
tially substajitiating  testimony  to  the  same 
effect,  we  could  liardly  credit  it.  It  may  be, 
liowever,  tliat  those  bees  were  not  made 
stingless  after  all,  and  tliat  our  good  friend 
was  deceived.  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from 
others  in  the  same  line. 


*A  dozen  bees  uninjurcrt,  so  caged,  will  live  10  days. 


STINGS. 


27 


STINGS. 


SMOKE    NOT    ALWAYS   A    PREVENTIVE   OF 
BEE-STINGS. 

Although  smoke  is  our  great  reliance  as  a 
security  against  stings  while  working  among 
bees,  there  are  sometimes  colonies,  or  sea- 
sons of  the  year,  I  scarcely  know  which, 
when  one  can  get  along  better  without  it.  I 
remember  trying  to  open  a  colony  of  hybrids 
in  the  fall  of  the  year,  to  show  them  to  my 
wife.  As  a  safeguard,  I  first  gave  them  a 
good  smoking ;  but,  to  my  surprise,  they  got 
into  a  perfect  panic,  and  poured  out  of  the 
hive  and  showed  fight,  in  great  numbers.  It 
is  true,  I  could  drive  them  dowTi  ;  but  the 
minute  I  ceased  smoking  them,  to  lift  out  a 
comb,  they  became  perfectly  infuriated;  and 
although  driven  down  to  the  bottom  -  board 
repeatedly,  they  were  up  and  ready  for  an 
attack,  almost  as  soon  as  the  smoker  was 
turned  away  from  the  hive.  I  let  them  go, 
without  half  making  the  examination  I 
wished.  The  next  day,  in  passing  the  hive 
I  thought  I  would  look  in  and  see  if  they 
were  of  the  same  opinion  still.  I  had  no 
smoker,  and  so  raised  the  corner  of  the  cloth 
over  the  frames  cautiously.  They  kept  on 
with  their  work,  and  seemed  to  care  nothing 
about  the  intrusion.  I  took  the  cloth  clear 
off,  lifted  frame  after  frame,  but  not  a  bee 
showed  the  least  sign  of  hostility.  In  sur- 
prise, I  carried  a  frame  with  the  queen  on  it 
into  the  house  and  showed  it  to  my  wife,  and 
told  her  it  was  the  same  swarm  that  acted 
so  wickedly,  just  the  day  before.  The  only 
trouble  seemed  to  be  that  they  very  decided- 
ly objected  to  having  their  hive  deluged  with 
the  offensive  smoke,  and  I  am  sure  it  must 
be  very  painful  to  them  in  its  effects.  I  took 
the  lesson,  and  have  since  often  found  that 
I  could  get  along  even  better  without  smoke. 
Have  your  smoker  in  readiness;  and  if  you 
are  obliged  to  use  smoke,  use  a  very  little,  as 
circumstances  seem  to  decide  best.  Some- 
times the  only  way  seems  to  be  to  use  it  in 
considerable  quantities,  but  I  Avould  never 
smoke  the  poor  little  fellows  needlessly. -"i 

MECHANICAL  CONSTRUCTION    AND    OPERA- 
TION OF  THE  STING. 

After  a  bee  has  stung  you,  and  torn  him- 
self away  from  the  sting,  you  will  no- 
tice, if  you  look  closely,  a  bundle  of  muscles, 
near  by  and  partly  enveloping  the  poison- 
bag.  Well,  the  curious  part  of  it  is,  tliat,  for 
some  considerable  time  after  the  sting  has 
been  detached  from  the  body  of  the  bee, 
these  muscles  will  work  with  a  kind  of  i)ump- 
like  motion,  working  the  sting  further  into 
the  wound,  as  if  they  had  a  conscious  ex- 
istence, and  burned  with  a  desire   to   wreak 


vengeance  on  the  party  attacked.  Nay,  fur- 
ther, after  the  sting  has  been  pulled  from 
the  flesh,  and  thrown  away,  if  it  should  stick 
to  your  clothing  in  such  a  way  that  your 
flesh  will  come  in  contact  with  it,  it  will 
commence  working  again,  pulling  itself  into 
the  flesh,  and  emptying  the  poison  into  the 
wound,  precisely  as  if  the  living  bee  were 
himself  working  it.  I  have  been  stung  a 
great  many  times  from  a  sting  without  any 
bee  about  it  at  all.  Without  any  precise  fig- 
ures. I  should  say  a  sting  would  hold  life 
enough  to  give  a  very  painful  wound,  as  long 
as  full  five  minutes,  and  it  may  be,  in  some 
cases,  even  ten  minutes.*^*  This  phenome- 
non is  wonderful,  and  I  have  often,  while 
watching  the  sting  sink  into  the  rim  of  my 
felt  hat,  pondered  on  that  wonderful  thing, 
animal  life.  Why  should  that  isolated  sting 
behave  in  this  manner,  when  the  bee  to 
which  it  belonged  was  perhaps  far  away, 
buzzing  through  the  air?  Why  should  this 
bundle  of  fibers  and  muscles  behave  as  if  it 
had  a  life  to  throw  awayV  I  do  not  know. 
This,  however,  I  do  know ;  when  you  pull  a 
sting  from  the  wound,  you  should  throw  it 
far  enough  away  so  that  it  will  not  get  back 
on  your  face  or  hands,  or  into  your  hair,  to 
sting  you  again. 

In  giving  the  following  description  of  a 
bee-sting,  I  am  much  indebted  to  the  draw- 
ings and  description  given  by  J.  R.  Bledsoe, 
of  Natchez,  Mississippi,  in  the  Aviencan  Bee 
Jourmd  for  August,  1m70.  I  am  also  in- 
debted to   Prof.   Cook's  excellent  Manual. 

Under  the  microscope  the  sting  is  found 
to  be  a  beautifully  fashioned  and  polished 
instrument,  whose  delicate  taper  and  finish 
make  a  most  surprising  contrast  with  any 
instrument  man  has  been  able  to  produce. 
In  shape  it  appears  to  be  round  ;  but  it  is, 
in  reality,  egg  -  shaped,  and  is  of  a  dark 
red  color,  but  transparent  enough  so  that 
we  may  see  the  hollow  that  runs  through 
the  center  of  each  of  its  parts.  These  hol- 
lows are  probably  to  secure  lightness  as 
well  as  strength. 

I  have  given  you  three  views  of  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  sting,  like  letters  represent- 
ing like  parts  in  all.  Hear  in  mind  that  the 
sting  proper  is  composed  of  three  parts— the 
outer  shell,  or  husk,  D.  and  two  barbed  spears 
that  slide  partly  inside  of  it.  In  Fig.  2  I 
have  shown  you  the  spears.  The  barbs  are 
nuicli  like  the  barbs  on  a  fish-hook;  and 
when  the  point  of  one  spear.  A,  juMietrates 
far  enough  to  get  one  barb  under  the  skin. 


♦Muscular  contriiction  of  the  stinsi:  hiis  taken 
j>hu't'  under  the  tleld  of  tlie  nufrose<)pe  ^Z^  minutes 
after  lieinjr  (Iclaelicil  from  the  l>ee. 


STINCJS. 


278 


STINGS. 


the  bee  has  made  a  hold,  and  has  no  difficul- 
ty in  sinking  his  sting  its  whole  length  into 
the  wound ;  for  the  pumiJing  motion  at  once 
commences,  and  the  other  spear,  B,  slides 
down  a  little  beyond  A,  then  A  beyond  B, 


BEE-STIXG   MAGNIFIED. 

and  so  on.  The  manner  in  which  these 
spears  are  worked  is.  as  near  as  I  can  make 
out,  by  a  pair  of  sometliing  like  pump-han- 
dles, operated  by  small  but  powerful  mus- 
cles. I  have  shown  you  the  arrangement  of 
these  handles  at  J  and  K,  Fig.  1,  as  nearly 
as  I  could  conjecture  what  it  must  be,  from 
watching  its  workings  under  the  microscope. 
These  muscles  will  work,  at  intervals,  for 
some  time  after  the  sting  has  been  torn  from 
the  bee,  as  I  have  explained.  They  work 
with  sufficient  power  to  send  the  sting 
through  a  felt  hat,  or  into  a  tough  buckskin 
glove.  I  have  often  watched  the  bee  while 
attempting  to  get  his  sting  started  into  the 
hard  cuticle  on  the  inside  of  my  hand.  The 
spears  will  often  run  along  the  surface  diag- 
onally, so  that  you  can  see  how  it  works  down 
by  successive  pumps.  The  hollow  in  these 
spears  is  indicated  at  G  and  F,  in  Figs.  2 
and  3  ;  O,  O.  ducts  leading  from  G  and  F. 

I  am  not  certain  as  to  what  the  real  office 
of  these  ducts,  O,  O,  is.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  that  they  were  for  the  purpose  of 
conducting  the  poison  to  the  wound  from 
the  canals  G  and  F,  the  latter  communir-at- 


iug  directly  with  the  poison-bag  itself.  In- 
deed, Frank  Cheshire  says,  they  afford  the 
only  means  of  exit  for  the  poison,  and  he  is 
1  robab  y  i  ight. 

Fig.  3  is  a  transverse  section,  sliced  across 
the  three  parts,  at  about  the  dotted  line  D. 
A  and  B  are  the  barbed  spears;  F  and  G, 
the  hollows  to  give  them  lightness  and 
strength;  H,  II,  the  barbs.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  the  husk,  D,  incloses  but  little 
more  than  i  of  them.  Now,  the  purpose  of 
this  liusk  is  to  hold  the  barbs  in  place,  and 
to  allow  them  to  slide  easily  up  and  down, 
also  to  direct  them  w^hile  doing  this  work. 
To  Siold  all  together,  there  is  a  groove  like  a 
chopping-kiiife  in  both  spears,  and  a  corres- 
ponding projection  in  the  husk,  which  fit  each 
other,  as  shown.  This  allows  the  barbs  to 
project  to  do  their  work,  and  yet  holds  all 
together  tolerably  firm.  I  say  tolerably  firm, 
for  these  spears  are  very  easily  torn  out  of 
the  husk  ;  and  after  a  sting  is  extracted,  they 
are  often  left  in  the  wound,  like  the  tiny 
splinters  I  have  before  spoken  of.  When 
torn  out  and  laid  on  a  slip  of  glass,  they  are . 
scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye ;  but  under 
the  microscope,  they  show  as  seen  in  Fig.  2. 

Stings  do  not  all  have  the  same  number 
of  barbs.  I  have  seen  as  few  as  7  and  as 
naany  as  9.  The  two  spears  are  held  against 
each  other,  as  shown  in  Fig.  3,  and  you  will 
observe  that  the  shape  and  the  arrangement 
of  the  3  parts  leave  the  hollow,  E,  in  their 
center.  The  hollows  are  the  channels  for  this 
wonderful  vegetable  poison.  The  working 
of  the  spears  also  pumps  down  poison,  and 
quite  a  good-sized  drop  collected  on  the 
points  of  the  spears  while  I  saw  them  work- 
ing under  the  microscope.  Friend  Bledsoe 
found  a  valve  that  let  the  poison  out  of  the 
poison-bag  into  this  wonderful  little  pump, 
but  prevented  it  from  returning.  1  have 
not  been  able  to  see  this,  but  have  no  doubt 
that  it  is  there.  The  drop  of  poison,  after 
it  has  lain  on  the  glass  a  few  minutes,  dries 
down,  and  seems  to  leave  a  gummy  sub- 
stance, that  crystallizes,  as  it  were,  into 
strange  and  beautiful  forms.  I  have  tried 
to  show  it  to  you  in  Fig.  4. 

I  can  not  close  the  subject  of  stings,  with- 
out speaking  of  the  wonderful  similarity  be- 
tween thp  mech;misni  of  the  stiug  of  the 
bee,  and  the  apparatiis  fiu"nished  many  in- 
sects for  sawing  and  boring  into  wood  and 
other  substances,  for  the  puri)Ose  of  deposit- 
ing their  eggs.  Almost  precisely  the  same 
apparatus  is  used,  but  the  barbs  on  the  ex- 
tremities are  saws  instead  of  the  sharp 
hooks.    If  you  will  look  at  the  cut  you  will 


iSUMAC. 


zT.) 


SUNFLOWER. 


see  that  but  very  little  change  need  be  made 
in  these  barbs  to  convert  them  into  saw- 
teeth, and  then  we  should  have  an  engine 
for  cutting  and  boring  holes,  that  might  eas- 
ily be  patented,  if  old  dame  Nature  were  so 
disposed.  Now  listen.  If  the  insect  had 
but  one  saw,  even  though  he  had  strength  to 
draw  it  back  and  forth,  his  light  body  would 
not  give  him  purchase  enough  to  do  much 
execution  with  it.  It  is  true,  he  might ''  dig 
in  his  toe-nails,"  and  hold  himself  down  so 
that  he  could  work  it  to  some  extent ;  but 
then  he  could  not  change  his  position,  ac- 
cording to  his  work,  etc.  When  the  saw  was 
worked,  instead  of  its  cutting  into  the  hard 
timber,  his  light  body  would  be  simply  slid 
to  and  fro;  but  with  two  saws,  like  the 
barbed  spears  of  the  bee-sting,  working  in  a 
sheath  to  hold  them  together,  he  can  stand 
his  ground  and  use  his  enormous  muscular 
strength  to  do  rapid  cutting,  even  if  his  body 
does  weigh  only  half  a  grain,  or  less. 
While  one  saw  goes  forward,  the  other  goes 
backward ;  and  tlie  rapidity  with  which  these 
insects  work  them  enables  them  to  make  as- 
tonishing progress,  even  in  substances  so 
hard  that  one  would  not  suppose  they  could 
make  any  impression  at  all.  Now  here 
comes  in  again  the  wonderful  law  I  have 
spoken  of  so  many  times,  on  these  pages. 
The  insect  that  has  the  most  elfective  and 
perfect  set  of  tools  will  lay  most  eggs  and 
have  them  most  secure  from  the  depreda- 
tion of  enemies,  and  his  species  will  stand  a 
better  chance  of  survival  than  the  individ- 
ual or  class  with  poorer  tools.  By  giving  a 
constant  preference  to  the  best  workers,  and 
taking  into  account  how  nature  sports  and 
varies,  would  it  be  strange,  if,  after  the  lapse 
of  ages,  the  result  should  be  the  beautifully 
finished  work  we  see  through  the  micro- 
scope? I  do  not  know  that  bee-stings  could 
develop  into  saws,  or  saws  into  l)ee-stings; 
but  if  an  insect  should  be  found  using  its 
ovipositor  as  a  weapon  of  defense,  as  well  as 
for  the  purpose  of  egg-laying,  it  miglit  look 
as  though  the  thing  were  possible.  I  am 
not  an  entomologist,  and  I  do  not  know  that 
any  such  insect  has  ever  been  discovered. 
Who  will  enlighten  us? 

SUIMCAC   [Rhus).      Tliis    is    a     sort    of 
slinil),  or  siiiall  tree,    readily   known    by  its 
bunches  of  bright  red  fruit,  having  an   in-  I 
tensely  sour  taste.    The  acid  property,  how-  ; 
ever,  seems  to  be  only  on  the  surface  of  tlie  j 
fruit,  in  the  red  dust  that  may   be   brushed 
otf.    I  have  had  no  experience  with  the  hon- 
ey, which  the  bees  sometimes  get   in   large 
quantities  from  the  small  ;;reenisii   flowers. 


but  give  the  following  from  page96,GLEAN- 
iXGs  for  1S74 : 

June  22,  1871.—  Contrary  to  expectations,  we  are 
now  in  the  height  of  a  wonrlerful  tiow  of  honey  from 
sumac,  which  of  late  years  has  not  yielded  much. 
Every  thing  in  the  hives  is  filled  full,  and  1  am  kept 
busy  hi%"ing'  swarms,  as  it  has  become  too  much  of  a 
job  to  keep  them  from  swarming  by  removing 
frames  of  brood.        G.  F.  Mekriam,  Topeka,  Kan. 

SUNTZiOWEB.  [Helianthus).  This 
plant  embraces  a  very  large  family;  but  the 
principal  ones  for  honey  are  the  common 
sunflower  and  the  Jerusalem  artichoke. 
During  some  seasons  and  in  some  localities, 
the  bees  seem  to  be  very  busy  indeed  on 
these  plants,  all  tlie  day  long.  The  mam- 
moth Russian  sunflower  bears  flowers  of 
enormous  dimensions;  and  from  the  way 
the  bees  crowd  each  other  about  the  necta- 
ries, one  would  suppose  they  yielded  much 
honey.^"»  The  seed,  which  is  yielded  in  large 
quantities,  would  seem  almost  to  pay  the  ex- 
pense of  cultivation.  The  following  is  taken 
from  page  36,  Vol.  III.  of  Gleanings: 

My  boy  had  a  small  box  of  sunflower  seeds,  which 
he  kept  as  one  of  his  playthings.  Last  spring  he  ac- 
cidentallj-  spilt  them  in  the  garden  hy  the  fence, 
and,  old  as  they  were,  they  came  up  profusely.  They 
looked  so  thrifty,  I  took  it  into  mj-  head  to  trans- 
plant them.  I  set  them  all  around  in  the  fence,  out 
of  the  waj',  where  nothing  else  would  grow  to  advan- 
tage, and,  if  you  will  believe  me,  I  had  an  enormous 
crop.  When  they  blossomed  the  bees  went  at  them 
in  earnest ;  and  after  the  bees  got  through  with  them 
there  were  several  quarts  of  seed.  I  sold  a  dollar's 
worth  to  my  druggist,  and  the  remainder  1  fed  out  to 
my  hens,  and,  as  a  writer  of  old  has  said,  I  found 
nothing  so  good  and  nourishing  for  laying  hens  as 
sunflower  seeds.  Then  I  cut  off  the  empty  heads, 
place  them  near  the  bee-hives,  fill  them  with  sugar 
and  water,  and  that  suits  the  bees  to  a  T.  So  you 
see  I  was  at  no  expense,  and  they  paid  well.  I  write 
this  that  others  may  be  benefited  as  well  as  myself. 
Dr.  R.  Hitchcock. 

South  Norwalk,  Conn.,  Feb.  2, 1875. 

SWARI^irrC  All  animated  nature 
seems  to  have  some  means  of  reproducing 
its  like,  that  the  species  may  not  become  ex- 
tinct ;  and,  especially  among  the  insect 
tribes,  we  find  a  great  diversity  of  ways  and 
hieans  for  acconi])lishing  this  object.  In  the 
micn)sc()i)ic  world  we  lind  simi)le  forms  of 
animal  life  contracting  themselves  in  the 
middle  until  they  break  in  two.  and  tlien 
each  sei)arate  i)art,  after  a  time,  breaks  in 
two,  and  so  on.  With  bees  we  have  a  some- 
what similar  phenomenon.  Wlien  a  coUuiy 
gets  excessively  strong,  the  inmates  of  tlie 
hive,  by  a  sort  of  preconcerted,  mutual  agree- 
ment, divide  themselves  off  into  two  parties, 
one  party  remaining  in  the  old  hiVe.  and  the 
other  starting  out  to  seek  their  fortunes  else- 
where.-'"-' 


SWAEMING. 


280 


SWARMING. 


I  have  carefullj'  watched  this  proceeding, 
■with  a  view  of  determining  how  the  matter 
comes  about,  that  is,  whether  it  is  because  a 
part  of  the  bees  become  dissatisfied  with  ; 
their  old  home,  and  seek  to  better  their  con- 
dition, or  because  the  queen  leaves,  for  some 
reason  of  her  own  (because  she  has  not  room 
to  lay  her  eggs,  for  instance),  and  the  bees 
simply  follow  from  a  sort  of  natural  instinct, 
since  she  is  the  mother  of  the  colony,  and 
an  absolute  necessity  to  their  prosperity. 
After  seeing  a  number  of  swarms  issue,  and 
finding  that  the  queen  was  among  the  last  to 
leave  the  hive,  I  concluded  that  the  bees 
take  the  lead,  and  that  the  queen  simply  fol- 
lowed <is  a  matter  of  course,  in  the  general 
melee.'''"'  Suppose,  however,  that  the  queen 
should  not  take  a  notion  to  join  the  new  ad- 
venture ;  well,  swarms  do  often  start  out 
with  no  queen  accompanying  them,='''  and 
they  usually  go  back  to  the  hive  after  a  time, 
to  try  it  again  next  day.  If  she  does  not  go 
then,  nor  at  the  next  attempt,  they  often 
wait  until  they  can  rear  a  new  queen,  and 
then  go  off  with  her.  After  I  was  pi-etty 
well  satisfied  that  this  is  the  correct  idea  of 
their  plan,  a  little  circumstance  seemed  to 
upset  it  all.  A  neighbor,  wanting  to  make 
an  observatory  hive,  drummed  perhaps  a 
quart  of  bees  from  one  of  his  old  hives.  As 
he  had  no  queen,  I  gave  him  a  black  queen 
taken  from  a  hive  purchased  several  miles 
away.  I  mention  this  to  show  that  the  queen 
had  never  been  out  of  the  hive,  in  the  loca- 
tion which  it  then  occupied.  After  a  day  or 
two,  this  neighbor  informed  me  that  I  had 
played  a  fine  trick  on  him,  for  my  queen  had 
gone  home,  and  taken  his  quart  of  bees  with 
her.  I  told  him  it  was  impossible,  for  she 
had  never  been  out  of  the  hive,  only  Avhen  I 
carried  her  over  in  the  cage. 

We  went  and  looked  in  the  hive  she  came 
from,  and  there  she  was,  true  enough,  with 
the  bees  she  had  brought  with  her  stung  to 
death,  in  front  and  on  the  bottom-board.  It 
is  possible  that  the  bees  swanned  out  first : 
but  even  if  they  did,  they  certainly  followed 
the  queen  in  going  back  to  her  old  home. 
We  also  know  that  bees  sometimes  follow 
a  young  queen  when  she  goes  out  to  take 
her  wedding-flight. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  it  is  neither  the  queen 
nor  the  workers  alone  that  make  the  first 
start,  but  that  all  hands  join  together  and 
act  in  concert. 

WHY    BEES    SWARM. 

If  you  caji  contract  the  size  of  the  hive 
when  honey  is  coming  in  bountifully,  the 
bees  will  be  very   apt   to   take    measures 


toward  swarming,  about  as  soon  as  the 
combs  are  full  of  brood,  eggs,  pollen,  and 
honey.  They  will  often  wait  several  days 
after  the  hive  is  seemingly  full,  and  this 
course  may  not  cause  them  to  swarm  at  all, 
but  it  is  very  likely  to.  As  soon  as  it  has 
been  decided  that  the  hive  is  too  small,  and 
that  there  is  no  feasible  place  for  storing  an 
extra  supply  of  honey  where  it  can  be  pro- 
cured in  the  winter,  when  needed,  they  gen- 
erally connnence  queen-cells.  Before  doing 
this  I  have  known  them  to  go  so  far  as  to 
store  their  honey  outside  on  tlie  portico,  or 
even  underneath  the  hive,  thus  indicating 
most  clearly  their  wants  in  the  shape  of  ex- 
tra space  for  their  stores,  where  they  could 
protect  them.-^"* 

I  believe  want  of  room  is  the  most  general 
cause  of  swarming,  although  it  is  not  the 
only  cause  ;  for  bees  often  swarm  incessant- 
ly, when  they  have  a  hive  only  partly  filled 
with  comb.  First  swarms  usually  come 
about  from  the  cause  I  have  mentioned;  but 
After-swarming  (which  see)  often  gets  to 
be  a  sort  of  mania  with  the  bees,  and  they 
swarm,  apparently,  without  a  reason. 

AT  WHAT   SEASON   BEES    USUALLY   SWARM. 

The  old  adage  runs,— 

"  A  swarm  of  bees  in  May 
Is  worth  a  load  of  hay; 
A  swarm  of  bees  In  June 
Is  worth  a  silver  spoon; 
A  swarm  of  bees  in  July 
Is  not  worth  a  fly." 

There  is  much  truth  in  this,  especially  if 
managed  on  the  old  plan ;  but  with  modern 
improvements,  a  swarm  in  July  may  be 
worth  a  silver  spoon,  or  even  a  load  of  hay, 
possibly,  both  together.  See  After-swarji- 
ING.  A  colony  that  was  very  populous  in 
the  fall,  and  has  wintered  finely,  may  cast 
the  first  swarm  in  May,  in  this  latitude  *  but 
svich  events  were  very  unusual  before  the 
advent  of  Italians.  The  latter  often  swarm 
during  fruit-bloom,  and  in  some  cases  even 
earlier.  In  our  locality,  swarms  do  not  usu- 
ally issue  until  the  middle  or  last  of  June. 
If  the  season  is  a  little  late,  sometimes  the 
greater  part  of  them  will  come  in  July,  and 
we  almost  always  have  more  or  less  swarm- 
ing going  on  during  our  national  holiday. 
At  this  time,  basswood  is  generally  at  its 
height,  and  we  frequently  have  quite  a  yield 
from  clover,  after  basswood  is  gone.  On 
this  account,  swarms  that  come  out  during 
the  first  week  in  July  usually  get  enough  to 
winter,  and  are  therefore  worth  the  price  of 
a  swarm  of  bees  any  way.  I  presume  the  old 
adage  refeiTed,  principally,  to  the  amount  of 
honey  they  would  store ;  if  the  July  swarms 


SWAKMING. 


2S1 


■did  not  secure  enough  to  winter  over,  and 
were  allowed  to  starve,  they  would  not  be 
worth  the  trouble  of  hiving  them,  and  so 
they  might  be  rated  as  of  less  value  than  a 


SWARMING. 


start  in  May  would  have  the  whole  season 
before  them;  and  if  they  did  not  get  set  back 
before  white  clover  came  out,  would  very 
likely  make  a  surplus  worth  $5.00,  the  mar- 


fly.^'-'^  Swarms  that  come  out  in  June  would 
fill  their  hives,  and  i)erhai)s  make  a  surplus 
that,  on  an  average,  would  bring  at  least  a 
dollar,  the  old  price  of  a  silver  spoon  ;  while 
those  that  were  so  thrifty  as  to  be  able  to 


A    S3IALL    Sl'A  It  V  ED-OUT    SWARiM. 


ket  price  of  a  load  of  hay.  In  some  locali- 
ties, bees  seem  to  swarm  in  the  latter  part  of 
Jidy  and  Aug.,  and  reports  seem  to  indicate 
thatthey  do  it  when  little  or  no  honey  is  to 
be  had,  and  when  tlie  bees  are  tlisi)oseil  to 


SWARMING. 


282 


SWARMING. 


rob ;  but  such  is  Certainly  not  the  case  here, 
for  our  bees  give  up  all  preparations  for 
swarming,  some  little  time  before  the  honey- 
crop  has  ceased.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to 
have  seen  a  natural  swarin  issue  here  later 
than  July;  but  in  some  localities,  buckwheat 
swarms  are  a  very  common  thing.  AVhere 
the  apiarist  has  plenty  of  extra  combs  filled 
with  stores,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  care  for 
and  make  valuable  stocks  of  swarms  that  is- 
sue at  anv  time. 


SYMPTOMS  OF  SWARMING. 

Although  we  can  sometimes  tell  when 
bees  are  going  to  swarm,  I  do  not  think  it 
will  be  safe,  by  any  means,  to  assume  that 
we  can  always  do  so.  It  has  been  said,  that 
the  bees  which  have  been  clustering  outside 
will,  all  the  morning  of  the  day  they  are  in- 
tending to  swarm,  go  inside  the  hive ;  but 
this  can  not  always  be  so,  for  I  have  seen  a 
swarm  issue  while  the  loafers  were  hanging 
on  the  outside  as  usual ;  and  at  the  sound  of 
the  swarming-note,  they  took  wing  and  join- 
ed in.  Where  a  colony  is  intending  to  swarm, 
they  will  not  be  working  like  the  rest,  as  a 
general  thing ;  and  quite  likely,  on  the  day 
they  are  intending  to  swarm,  very  few  bees, 
comparatively,  will  be  seen  going  out  and  in 
at  the  hive.-'"*  With  movable  combs  we  can 
generally  give  a  very  good  guess  of  the  dis- 
position to  swarm,  by  opening  the  hive. 
Bees  do  not,  as  a  rule,  swarm  until  they  have 
got  their  liive  pretty  well  filled  up,  and  have 
multitudes  of  young  bees  hatching  out  daily. 
The  presence  of  queen-cells  is  generally  con- 
sidered an  indication  of  the  swarming  fever, 
and  it  used  to  be  supposed  that  there  was  no 
danger  of  swarming  unless  these  were  pres- 
ent in  the  hive  ;'"■  but  since  so  many  stocks  of 
Italians  have  swarmed  when  nothing  in  the 
shape  of  a  queen-cell  was  to  be  found  in  the 
hive,  the  idea  of  removing  queen-cells,  to 
arrest  or  prevent  swarming,  has  been  to  a 
great  extent  abandoned. 

Many  think  that  the  clustering  of  the  bees 
on  the  outside  of  the  hives  is  an  indication 
that  they  are  going  to  swarm.  To  a  certain 
extent  this  may  be  the  case,  but  it  is  by  no 
means  an  indication  that  they  are  going  to 
swarm  very  soon.  I  knew  a  colony,  belong- 
ing to  a  neighbor,  that  hiuig  out  in  great 
masses  nearly  a  month,  before  the  bees  came 
out.  His  new  hive  was  in  readiness,  and  he 
stayed  at  home  and  vvatclied  day  after  day, 
until  clover  and  basswood  both  were  almost 
gone,  and  finally  they  cast  a  truly  large,  fine 
swarm. 


NEVER    ALLOAV    BEES    TO    HANG    OUTSIDE 
I  HE    HIVE. 

This  swarm  had  hung  outside  the  hive 
during  the  great  honey-harvest  of  the  sea- 
son; and  as  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  a  colo- 
ny to  store  10  lbs.  a  day,  during  the  height 
of  the  season,  they  had  lost  at  least  100  lbs. 
of  honey,  for  the  swarm  was  an  unusually 
strong  and  fine  one.  I  think  they  could  eas- 
ily have  secured  this  amount  if  they  had 
worked,  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
they  could  have  been  made  to  go  to  work 
as  they  did  after  they  swarmed  and  were 
put  into  a  new  hive.  Within  two  or  three 
weeks  after  they  swarmed,  if  I  remember, 
they  filled  their  hive,  and  gave  about  25  lbs. 
of  surplus.  How  shall  we  deal  with  such 
bees?  VYell,  it  will  be  an  excellent  problem 
for  our  ABC  class  to  work  out  by  actual 
practice.  One  way  is  to  put  section  boxes 
on  the  top,  and  then  drive  the  bees  inside 
with  your  smoker,  and  thus  make  them  go 
to  work— that  is,  if  you  can.  If  they  will 
not  do  so,  get  from  some  other  hive  some 
sections  partly  filled,  and  this  will  generally 
accomplish  the  object.  If  the  bees  are  in  a 
box  hive,  and  you  can  not  at  the  time  trans- 
fer them  (it  is  rather  unsafe  to  transfer  dur- 
ing a  great  honey-yield,  with  the  hive  full  of 
honey,  you  know),  fix  a  new  hive  all  right, 
move  away  your  old  box  hive,  brushing  all 
the  bees  off  on  the  ground,  and  then  give 
them  a  queen  or  a  frame  of  brood  in  the  new 
hive,  as  in  Artificial  Swarming,  and 
make  them  go  to  work  at  something.  You 
can  do  it  every  time,  although  it  may  be  a 
few  days  before  they  get  over  tlieir  stub- 
bornness, and  get  to  work  fully.  Sometimes 
a  very  large  new  swarm  will  hang  out,  and 
refuse  to  work.  If  bees  hang  out  during 
the  hot  weather  of  August,  after  honey  has 
ceased  coming,  you  can  still  set  them  to 
work  by  feeding  ;  but  unless  you  want  more 
colonies,  more  combs  built  out,  or  can  rear 
queens  for  sale,  it  may  not  pay  to  try  to  keep 
them  at  work.  Toward  night,  after  very 
sultry  days,  bees  will  sometimes  hang  out  so 
as  to  cover  their  hives,  and  there  may  be  no 
harm  in  allowing  them  to  do  this,  although  I 
should  prefer  to  have  them  better  occupied 
by  doing  something  indoors.  A  really  en- 
ergetic colony  will  often  be  at  work  rearing 
brood  at  such  a  time,  if  they  are  gathering 
honey  enough.  Bees  should  always  have 
room  enough  during  the  working  season,  to 
prevent  their  being  crowded  out;  but  we 
should  not  go  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
give  them  so  much  that  they  feel  cold  drafts, 
in  their  hive,  and  can  not  keep  up  sufficient 
heat  for  comb-building  and  brood-rearing. 


SWARMING. 


283 


SWARMING. 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  SWARMING.  TO  BE  MADK 
BY  THE  BEE-KEEPER. 

Every  apiarist,  even  if  he  have  but  a  cou- 
ple of  hives,  should  make  preparations  for 
swarming,  at  least  to  some  extent ;  for,  even 
though  artificial  swarming  is  practiced,  and 
the  utmost  care  used  to  i>revent  any  other, 
there  will  always  be  a  chance  that  swarms 
may  come  out  unexpectedly.  Hives  should 
be  in  readiness,  and  at  least  one  should  be 
fixed  on  the  stand  wliere  you*Avish  your  next 
colony  placed.  Bank  it  round  with  cinders 
and  sand,  and  fix  as  nice  and  level  as  if  it  con- 
tained bees.  Have  some  extra  combs  if  pos- 
sible, and  have  them  placed  in  the  honey- 
house  where  you  can  put  your  hand  on 
them  at  any  minute.  I  would  also  have  some 
hives  where  I  could  get  a  comb  of  unsealed 
larvae,  without  very  much  trouble  ;  that  is, 
make  up  your  mind  what  hive  you  are  to  go 
to,  in  case  you  should  want  such  a  comb  in 
a  hurry.  Bees  will  often  swarm  on  Simday; 
and  as  we  would  not  wish  to  work  with  our 
bees  on  the  Sabbath  more  than  is  absolutely 
necessary,  it  behooves  us  to  be  at  all  times 
prepared  to  take  care  of  a  swarm,  should  it 
•come,  with  very  little  trouble.  I  can  re- 
member having  swarms  on  Sunday,  when  it 
became  necessary  to  hunt  up  a  hive,  decide 
■on  its  location,  hunt  up  some  empty  combs, 
and  then  look  over  ray  hives  to  see  where 
there  was  one  with  no  surplus  boxes  on,  that 
I  might  get  at  a  brood  -  comb  with  as  little 
trouble  as  possible,  to  put  in  the  new  hive, 
to  prevent  them  from  decamping.  All  these 
things  take  time,  and  more  than  one  swarm 
have  departed  while  a  hive  was  being  made 
ready  to  receive  them.  If  you  keep  the 
wings  of  your  queens  clipped  as  I  have  ad- 
vised, you  will  need  some  queen-cages  where 
you  can  lay  your  hands  on  them  at  a  min- 
ute's notice,  for  there  are  times  when  you 
need  to  step  about  as  lively  as  you  would  if 
a  house  were  on  fire,  and  you  do  not  want  to 
be  bothered  by  hunting  for  things. 

MILLER   QUEEN-CATCHER. 

Tlie  l)e.st  queen-catcher,  or,  ratlier,  a  cage 
for  confining  tlie  ([ueen,  duriug  tlie  swarm- 
ing season,  is  the  ^Miller  iiitroilu<'ing-cage.  a 
cut  of  whicli  will  l)e  found  under  Introduc- 
lX(i.  We  will  sn])posH  that  a  swarm  lias 
just  issued,  and  that  your  clipped  qneeti  is 
hopping  around  the  entrance  of  yonr  hive. 
Yo in- wife  or  attendant,  feeling  s^-nie  lu-si- 
tancy  about  picking  up  so  delicate  an  object 
by  her  silken  wings,  can  take  a  cage  of  this 
kind  and  place  the  mouth  directly  over  her. 
In  a  moment,  fiinling  herself  confined,  she 
will  ascend  into  the  cage.    The  little  wood- 


en plug  is  now  inserted,  and  your  captive 
queen  can  be  placed  among  the  flying  bees, 
and  the  swarm  hived  as  described  elsewhere. 
The  cage  is  also  used  for  intnducing.  See 
Introducing. 

swarming-devices.  variously  con- 
structed. 

Almost  every  apiarist  has  his  own  peculiar 
notion  as  to  how  a  swarining-device  should 
be  constructed.  Some  of  these  implements 
are  very  ingenious,  and  valuable  assistants 
during  the  swarming  season.  Their  partic- 
ular use  is  to  remove  a  swarm  after  it  has 
clustered,  and  jdace  it  in  the  hive  where  it  is 
desired  that  the  new  swarm  shall  take  up 
its  new  abode.  The  first  one  to  which  I  call 
your  attention,  not  because  it  is  the  best, 
but  because  it  is  the  simplest,  is  a  sort  of 
butterllv-ratcher. 


The  hoop  is  made  of  stout  wire,  and  is 
about  -^0  inches  in  diameter.  The  ends  are 
soldered  into  a  tin  socket  that  will  receive  a 
rake-handle. or,  for  tall  trees,  something  still 
longer.  The  bag  is  to  be  put  up  under  the 
swarm,  and  the  hoop  is  then  made  to  gently 
cut  off  the  cluster  so  that  the  bees  will  fall 
into  the  bag.  It  is  then  turned  edgewise,  so 
as  to  confine  them  while  it  is  taken  down 
and  carried  to  the  hive.  As  the  bag  is  made 
of  cheese-cloth,  they  have  plenty  of  air.  To 
get  the  bees  out,  turn  it  inside  out.  The 
bag  has  the  same  diameter  as  the  hoop,  and 
is  about  four  feet  long. 

This  implement  is  very  light  and  liaiuly 
where  the  swarm  is  conveniently  situated ; 
but  if  it  is  necessary  to  reach  thg  swarm  by 
holding  the  pole  perpendicularly,  the  hoop 
is  not  properly  set.  Mr.  W.  F.  Clarke,  for- 
mer etlitor  of  the  American  Bee  Journal,  now 
of  Guelph.  Ontario.  Canada,  has  suggested 
and  i)Ut  into  i>ractice  the  folloAving  modifi- 
cations, as  sliown  opi)osite. 

You  will  observe  tliat  the  lioop  is  attaciied 
so  as  to  be  at  right  angles  to  the  pole:  this. 
(■onse(iuently.  liermits  the  sack  to  hang  per- 
pendicularly, with  wide-ojten  numth  ready 
for  the  receiitioii  of  the  swarm,  even  when 
the  i>ole  itself  is  held  i»erpendicnlarly.  as 
shown  in  tiie  accompanying  cut.  Mr.  Clarke 
has  the  pole  also  made  in  joints,  to  accom- 
modate the  varying  distances  of  a  swarm 


SWARMING. 


384 


.SWARMING. 


from  the  ground.  For  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing lightness  it  is  made  <  f  bamboo.  Such  a 
pole  can  be  very  easily  made  in  joints.  The 
pith  can  be  bored  out  at  the  two  ends  (which 
are  to  be  joined)  to  a  distance  of  a  couple  of 
inches.  In  the  end  of  one  of  the  joints  can 
be  driven  a  sliort  piece  of  iron,  of  suitable 
lengtli  and  size.  The  other  end  can  now 
slip  over  and  make  a  good  strong  service- 
able union.  To  obviate  the  possibility  of 
splitting  near  the  ends,  I  Avould  suggest 
driving  on  an  ordinary  brass  ferule,  which 
can  be  obtained  at  any  of  the  hardware 
stores. 


"W.  F.  CLARK K 


■WAK.MINii-DEVICE. 


So  much  for  the  construction.  We  will 
suppose  that  the  old  gentleman  who  seems 
to  be  taking  things  pretty  easy  has  pushed 
his  bag  up  gently  around  the  bees.  A  gentle 
thump  of  the  rod  or  pole  against  the  body  of 
the  limb  will  jar  the  bees  into  the  sack.  Of 
course,  he  wishes  to  retain  every  bee,  and  so 
he  revolves  the  pole  in  such  a  way  as  to 
close  the  mouth  of  the  sack. 

It  does  not  nuitter  particularly  if  he  does 
not  have  the  hive  readv.  for  the  bees  can  not 


1:0 


A 


get  out  or  smother.  As  soon  as  the  new 
domicile  is  provided,  the  mouth  of  the  appa- 
ratus is  placed  before  the  entrance,  and  the 
bees  are  allowed  to  enter  their  new  home. 

There  is  fue  defect  in  this  apparatus  —  in 
fact,  with  all  such  implements  which  make 
use  of  a  bag.  A  great  many  times  swarms 
are  not  so  ace  inunodating  as  to  locate  in  a 
convenient  position,  as  shown  in  the  en- 
graving, and  it  is  lheref(n-e  necessary  to 
shove  the  swarmi tig-device  up  and  between 
the  limbs  and  twi.iis.  It  is  almost  impossi- 
ble to  secure  a  swarm  thus  situated,  with  a 
device  having  a  sack  attached  to  it,  for  the 
reason  that  the  sack  will  catch  and  tangle  in 
the  limbs. 

MORRISON'S   SW ARMING-DEVICE. 

The  at'companying  cut  represents  this  de- 
vice, and   Mr.  Morr;Son's  de- 
scription of  it  is  ;;s  follows: 

It  Is  made  of  two  pieces  of  pine. 
16  ft.  long'.  3x:J'/4  inches.  One  side 
of  each  is  made  tiat,  and  a  groove 
for  a  rope  is  made  in  the  center  of 
each,  from  t<'p  10  bottom.  The  oth- 
er side  of  each  pole  is  rounded.  At 
3  is  a  pulley:  si  t  in  ar  1  is  a  narrow 
band  of  iron  encircling-  the  other 
pole;  at  2  is  another;  ar  4  is  a  ring 
staple  on  which  a  peach-basket  is 
tied.  The  rope  is  fastened  at  1,  and 
runs  over  pulley  ar  3  Vou  see  thr- 
rest.  A  swarm  35  feet  above  the 
ground  can  be  reached  by  it,  and  a 
little  ,iar  under  the  cluster  secures 
the  bees  in  the  basket.  It  is  very 
easily  made,  inexpensive,  and  I  am 
sure  then^  can  be  none  better.  I 
have  used  it  two  seasons  very  many 
times.  S.  VV.  MoHBiso.v,  M.  D. 

Oxford.  Pa. 

There  is  considerable  ma- 
chinery about  this  device  ;  but 
in  some  localities,  in  the  hands 
of  certain  bee-keepers,  it  will . 
no  doubt  prove  quite  an  assist- 
ant. Observe  that  Mr.  Morri- 
son says  that  a  swarm  can  be 
rea  bed  H.5ft  fiom  the  ground. 
No  other  device  with  which  we 
are  acciuainted  will  secure  a 
swarm  that  distance,  without 
climbing.  With  this  the  apia- 
rist is  supposed  to  stand  direct- 
ly bene;ith  the  swarm.  By 
drawing  on  the  rope,  at  3,  the 
peach-basket  can  be  elevated  to  the  desired 
Height.  Where  the  swarm  is  so  situated  as 
to  permit  jarring  it  right  in  the  mouth  of  the 
basket,  perhaps  the  position  of  the  basket  is 
about  right.  Sometimes  a  swarm  will  refuse 
to  enter  the  open  mouth  of  a  basket ;  but  if 
the  same  be  inverted,  the  bees  will  crawl 


SWARMiiSG. 


285 


SWARMING. 


through  the  splints.  During  times  of  swarm- 
ing, bies  seem  to  be  partial  to  cavities  per- 
forated by  holes.  This  is  the  peculiar  fea- 
tme  of  the  Shepard  box  already  described ; 
but  the  basket  device,  while  possessing  tliese 
features,  is  lighter. 

Such  an  implement  as  the  one  above  rep- 
resented would  hardly  be  of  very  great  ad- 
vantage in  those  apiaries  where  there  is 
only  low-growing  shrubbery,  or,  at  most, 
small  fruit-trees  in  the  vicinity.  In  such 
apiaries  we  want  sometliing  a  little  lighter 
and  a  little  easier  to  handle. 

A.   E.   MANUilS   SAVAKMING-DEVICE. 

The  engraving  given  below  shows  a  tri- 
pod, one  leg  of  which  projects  beyond  tlie 
rest,  so  as  to  hold  the  swarm  of  bees,  as 
shown.  Mr.  Manum.  of  Bristol,  Vt.,  clips 
allot  his  queens.  His  desciipti')n  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

It  is  simply  a  wirc-clotli  csig-e  fastened  to  a  i)<)le 
with  two  legs,  so  attached  to  the  pole  that  they  can 
be  set  out  or  in,  something  like  a  tripod.  The  lower 
end  of  the  pole  may  be  sharpened,  to  stick  in  the 
gi'ound,  in  order  to  steady  the  catcher,  and  to  pre- 
vent it  from  being  tipped  forward  by  the  weight  of 
the  bees. 


A  TRIPOD  SAVAKMING-AI'PARATUS. 

The  head,  or  cage,  is  10  X  10  inches  s(iiiar(!  by  lii 
thick,  and  is  covered  on  each  side  with  wire  cloth. 
It  is  made  in  two  parts,  and  liinged  togotiicr  so  as 
to  open  and  close.  Wiien  closed  it  is  held  together 
by  a  small  hook.  One  of  the  parts  of  the  head  4s 
fastened  to  the  pole,  forniing  a  catcher,  as  may  be 
imagined  by  referring  to  the  cut. 

The  head  is  made  of  \X-'i  stufl'.  hence  is  very 
light.  I  usually  furnish  eight  or  ten  of  these  catch- 
ers to  each  of  my  apiaries. 


Now,  as  we  have  our  catchers  all  made  and  ready 
for  use,  by  having  them  distributed  through  the 
apiary  in  order  to  have  them  handy,  we  will  pro- 
ceed to  catch  that  sw'arm  that  is  just  coming  out. 
We  will  take  this  catcher  here,  and  open  it;  hold  it 
to  the  entrance,  and  catch  what  bees  we  can.  Close 
it  and  lay  it  on  the  ground  near  by,  and  watch  for 
the  queen.  As  she  comes  out,  catch  and  i)ut  her  in 
the  catcher  with  the  bees.  Now  set  up  the  machine 
in  some  shady  place,  if  convenient.  The  buzzing  of 
the  bees  and  the  scent  of  the  (jueen  will  soon  atti-act 
the  swarm,  when  all  will  alight  on  the  catcher, 
where  they  may  remain  until  we  are  ready  to  hive 
them;  and  if  we  fear  another  swarm  may  issue  be- 
fore these  are  hived,  they  nuiy  be  covered  with  a 
sheet. 

See!  there  comes  another  swarm  I  run  with  an- 
other catcher,  and  proceed  as  before,  and  set  this 
catcher  some  distance  from  the  first,  if  we  wish  to 
hive  the  swarms  separately. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  practical  imple- 
ments in  the  whole  bst.  It  is  very  simple, 
cheap,  easily  C(.»nstructed,  and  easily  operat- 
ed. Like  the  wire-cloth-cage  swarraer,  it 
will  c;itch  ami  cage  a  larger  part  of  the  bees 
and  the  queen.  Above  all.  it  stands  alone, 
and  accomplishes  the  rest  of  the  swarming 
automatically. 

THE   DEVICE  WE   PREFER. 

Mr.  Manum  clips  all  his  queens'  wings. 
As  we  sell  bees  by  the  i)Ound,  and  send  off 
a  good  many  queens  by  mail,  we  do  not 
practice  clipping.  As  the  Manum  device 
seems  to  possess  so  many  decided  avantages, 
we  decided  to  modify  it  somewhat,  so  as  to 
be  adapted  to  an  apiary  where  (jueens"  wings 
are  not  clipped.  The  device,  as  moditied  by 
us,  differs  from  the  one  just  described,  in 
that  we  use  a  large  wire-cloth  cage.  Mr. 
Manum's  will  hold  perhaps  a  quart  of  bees, 
while  ours  will  hold  several.  The  engraving 
opposite  -will  serve  to  give  you  an  idea  of  its 
construction. 

Fig.  2  represents  the  wire-cloth  cage  or 
basket;  Fig.  8,  the  device  in  position,  re- 
ceiving the  bees  as  they  cluster  on  the  out- 
side of  the  cage.  Fig.  1  shows  the  bees  after 
they  have  clustered,  and  the  apiarist  in  the 
act  of  walking  off  to  the  hive. 

METHOD  OF   CAPTURING   SWAR:MS. 

Instead  of  looking  for  the  clipped  queen 
as  soon  as  the  sw  aim  issues,  we  wait  until 
it  begins  to  cluster.  As  soon  as  a  cluster  is 
half  or  wholly  completed,  we  run  the  basket 
u]^  to  and  around  the  cone  of  bees.  An  assist- 
ant, if  present,  gives  the  lind)  a  jar,  so  as  to 
disengage  the  bees  into  the  basket.  In  case 
no  one  is  ready  to  assist,  a  sliding  move- 
ment will  precipittite  the  cluster  into  the 
wire-cloth  cage,  when  it  is  quickly  lowi-red. 
This  operation,  in  passing  dtnvn  through  the 
limbs,  will  usuiilly  catch  the  wire-doth  lid, 


S\VAUM[X(i 


28t> 


SWARMING. 


and  close  it  with  a  slain.  In  case  it  is  not 
closed,  the  apiarist  steps  forward  and  does 
it  himself.  Half  or  two-tliirds  of  the  bees 
are  generally  confined.  In  all  probability 
the  queen  is  tliere  also.  As  the  bees  can  not 
get  out,  those  still  flying  in  tiie  air  will  very 
readily  cluster  on  the  wire  cloth,  surround- 
ing the  majority  of  their  companions  inside. 
To  make  this  more  expeditious,  the  tripod 
is  adjusted,  and  the  cage  is  suspended  in  the 
air,  as  shown  in  Fig.  3,  right  where  the  bees 
are  flying  thickest.  In  two  or  three  min- 
utes the  remainder  cf  the  bees  will  be  clus 


MANUMS   .-MODIFIED   SWARMING-DEVICE. 


tered  on  the  outside.  At  this  stage  of  the 
proceeding  the  apiarist  comes  forward,  folds 
the  two  short  legs  against  the  pole,  grasps  it 
at  its  centt-r  of  gravity  (see  Fig.  1),  and  walks 
off  to  the  hive,  which  he  has  i)reviously  pre- 
pared. The  wire  fork  is  made  of  steel,  and 
is  light  and  springy.  The  walking  of  the 
apiarist  has  no  tendency  then  to  jar  the  bees 
off  from  tlie  basket. 

One  of  the  special  features  of  the  Manum 
arrangement  is.  that  the  basket  can  be  ad- 
justed to  almost  any  position,  all  the  way 
from  2  to  10  feet  from  the  ground.  All  that 
is  necessary  is  to  spread  the  tripod  legs, 
catch  them  into  the  ground,  and  leave  them 
standing.  In  the  mean  time,  if  the  hive  is 
not  prepared,  the  apiarist  has  ample  time  to 
get  it  ready.  After  this  he  can  return  to 
the  swarm  just  now  clustered.  Most  of  the 
devices  require  to  be  held  until  the  cluster 
has  settled.  It  is  a  tedious  job  to  hold  a 
pole  at  arms"  length,  with  face  upturned.  If 
the  swarm  clusters  very  Jiigh.  some  other 
arrangement,  perhaps,  would  be  better  than 


the  Manuni ;  but  for  low  shrubbery  it  is  just 
the  thing.  The  other  si)ecial  feature  of  the 
device  is,  that,  after  you  have  gotten  about 
half  or  two-thirds  of  the  bees  into  the  bas- 
ket, they  can  not  escape  and  seek  their  orig- 
inal point  of  attachment. 

THE   SW ARMING-HOOK. 

With  most  of  the  swaiming-devices  I  have 
illustrated,  what  might  be  called  a  swarm- 
ing-hook  can  be  used  to  considerable  advan- 
tage at  times.  It  is  simply  an  iron  hook, 
large  enough  to  compass  an  ordinary  limb 
on  whicii  swarms  cluster,  mounted  on  the 
end  of  a  long  pole,  therefore  lesembling, 
somewhat,  a  shepherd's  crook.  One  of  the 
swarming-devices  is  passed  beneath  the 
swarm.  Tliis  hook  can  reacli  over,  grasp 
the  limb  on  which  the  swarm  is  clustered, 
and  one  or  two  smart  jerks  will  jar  the  bees 
into  the  basket,,  bag,  or  box,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

SWAR>IING-LADDEU. 

Swarms  usually  alight  low.  so  that  the  or- 
dinary swarming- implements  previously 
described  will  reach  them  from  the  ground. 
But  there  are  times  when  they  will  settle  on 
pretty  higli  limbs.    It  is  then  that  a  ladder 


STRIJIPL'S    SW ARMING-LADDER. 

is  called  into  requisition .  If  it  will  not  reach 
the  swarm  it  will  at  least  land  the  climber 
among  the  upper  limbs,  so  that  he  can  step 
from  one  limli  to  tlie  other,  and  finally  reach 
the  bees.  But  it  is  difficult  to  stand  an  or- 
dinary ladder  againsta  limb  of  a  tree  so  that 
it  will  be  secure  for  climbing,  on  account  of 
the  unevenness  of  the  limbs.  A  Bohemian 
by  the  name  of  R.  Strimpl,  of  Schetschan, 
Bohemia,  sent  us  a  drawing  of  a  ladder  that 


SWARMING. 


287 


SWARMING. 


can  be  lodged— that  is,  the  upper  i)art  of  it — 
securely  on  some  limb  above.  Tlie  engrav- 
ing illustrates  its  ]irinciple  of  application. 

The  two  side  arms,  or  forks,  prevent  the 
ladder  from  revolving ;  and  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  the  ladder  terminates  in  a  single 
pole,  which  can  be  very  easily  lodged  in  the 
fork  of  a  limb,  Avhere  a  two-pronged  ladder 
would  not.  The  three  jirongs  l)elow  the  lad- 
der are  sharpened  at  the  ends,  and  securely 
pushed  into  the  ground ;  and  the  perfect 
lodgment  of  the  other  end  in  the  crotch  of 
the  limb  makes  it  a  safe  means  of  ascent. 
Aside  from  this,  the  ladder  will  be  lighter. 
ikit  it  is  desirable  to  prevent  swarms  from 
going  beyond  our  reach — at  least  clustering 
on  elevated  limbs.  The  following  is  one  of 
the  indi.spensables,  especially  if  the  queen's 
wings  are  not  clipped. 

THE    FOUNTAIN    PUMP,   FOR    CONTROLLING 
SWARMS   WHILE   IN   THE   AIR. 

One  of  the  most  useful  implements  for  the 
apiary,  during  the  swarming-time,  is  a  good 
hand  force-pump.  The  Whitman  Fountain 
pump,  sold  by  supply-dealers  for  $6.00,  is  the 
best  implement  for  the  purpose.  A  swarm 
of  bees  in  the  air,  that  might  otherwise  cir- 
cle about  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  may 
usually  be  made  to  cluster  in  from  two  to 
five  minutes  by  its  use.  Whether  the  fine 
l)articles  of  water  dampen  the  wings,  and  so 
impede  their  flight,  or  cause  tiie  bees  to 
think  it  is  raining,  and  that  therefore  they 
had  better  cluster  at  once,  or  both,  I  will  not 
say;  but  certain  it  is,  the  spray  has  a  very 
decided  effect.  One  who  has  become  mod- 
erately exi)ert  will  be  able,  n  t  only  to  make 
the  bees  settle,  but  to  compel  tliem  to  cluster 
on  some  point  easily  accessible  to  any  of  the 
ordinary  swarming-devices  just  described. 
Occasionally  a  swarm  will  make  for  the  top 
of  a  tall  tree.  Witli  the  pumj)  you  can  head 
them  off,  and  cause  them  to  settle  on  a  low- 
er branch.  Even  when  a  swarm  is  clustered 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  from  the  ground,  by 
adjusting  the  stream  nozzle,  and  letting  it 
l)lay  directly  on  the  swarm  itself,  you  can, 
many  times,  dislodge  them,  cause  them  to 
take  wing,  and  finally  to  settle  again  upon  a 
lower  point  of  attachment.  Again,  several 
swarms  will  come  out  simultaneously,  two 
or  more  of  which  will  be  likely  to  cluster. 
By  the  timely  use  of  the  spray,  each  swarm 
can  be  kei)t  separate  by  keeping  tlie  wings 
of  the  stragglers  of  tiie  two  swarms  about  to 
come  together  dampened.  A  good  many 
times,  a  swarm  that  is  about  to  aljscond  can 
be  headed  off  and  made  to  cluster;  in  fact, 
our  boys,  during  the  summer  of  1889,  could 


drive  a  swarm  about  like  a  fiock  of  sheep. 
It  is  very  annoying  and  inconvenient  to 
have  a  swarm  pass  from  our  iiremises  over 
to  those  of  a  neighbor.  During  the  summer 
of  1889  we  had  something  like  eight  or  ten 
swarms  come  out  every  day,  for  about  one 
week,  and  yet  in  only  one  or  two  cases  did 
they  leave  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  api- 
ary; and  had  it  not  lieen  for  the  pump,  we 
should,  in  all  probability,  have  had  to  chase 
all  over  the  neigliljorhood,  to  say  nothing 
about  climbing  tall  trees. 

After  a  swarm  begins  to  cluster  on  a  de- 
sirable i)oint.  stop  sju-aying  in  this  direction. 
Retreat,  and  drive  the  stragglers  toward  it, 
but  be  careful  not  to  spray  the  place  where 
they  are  clustering.  As  a  general  rule,  there 
will  be  two  or  three  small  clusters  forming 
at  once.  Spray  the  undesirable  ones,  and 
keep  them  sprayed  until  these  points  of  at- 
tachment are  abandoned. 

During  the  swarming-season  it  is  a  good 
idea  to  keep  several  barrels  of  water  in  and 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  tlie  apiary,  so 
as  to  have  the  water  right  handy.  If  you 
run  to  the  inunp  every  time  you  use  a  pail 
of  water,  a  swarm  "may  get  away  from  you, 
or  cluster  in  the  top  of  a  tall  tree.-"* 

HOW  TO   HIVE    SWARMS   WITHOUT    SPECIAL 
SWARMINCi-DEV'ICES. 

If  your  apiary  be  located  in  a  locality 
where  there  are  no  tall  trees,  with  only  low- 
growing  shrubbery,  or,  at  most,  low-grow- 
ing fiuit-trees,  the  special  tools  I  have  al- 
ready described  will  not  be  found  absolutely 
necessary,  and  perhaps  not  even  a  conven- 
ience, if  we  except  Manum's  arrangement. 
Our  own  apiary,  illustrated  at  the  frontis- 
piece, you  will  notice  has  no  large  trees. 
Outskirting  it  are  rows  of  low-growing 
bushy  evergreens.  There  is  absolutely  no 
place  for  the  bees  to  cluster  in  the  immedi- 
ate vicinity  of  the  apiary,  except  on  one  of 
these  evergreens,  or  else  on  one  of  the 
grapevines  in  the  apiary  itself.  Rarely  do 
we  have  swarms  cluster  elsewhere.  If  one 
alights  on  one  of  the  two  places  just  men- 
tioned we  select  a  frame  of  unsealed  larvse, 
the  use  of  which  has  l)een  previously  antici- 
pated. As  the  swarm  is  rarely  ever  above 
four  or  five  feet  from  the  ground,  this  frame 
is  gently  thrust  among  the  bees.  A  large 
majority  of  them  will  very  soon  lodge  upon 
the  frame.  This  together  with  the  adhering 
bees  is  placed  in  a  hive  on  the  shady  side  of 
the  evergreen  or  grapevine,  in  company 
with  three  or  four  more  frames.  Those 
bees  which  have  already  clustered  on  the 
frames  will  begin  to  call  their  companions. 


SWA  li  MING. 


2«8 


SWARMING. 


As  soon  as  a  few  b  -es  have  discovered  the 
entrance,  a  fev  will  iiid.cate  tlieir  discovery 
by  the  usual  h!:mini"ff  of  tlir  wintrs.  An 
enamel  sheet  can  be  iilaced  over  the  cluster. 
A  bunch  of  grass  will  now  brush  the  bees 
out  of  the  \A  ay  so  tlie  c  )ver  can  be  shiit 
down  without  smashing  an>  bees.  The 
hive  is  left  until  the  bees  havi-  all  entered  it. 
Before  they  have  had  time  to  fix  a  location, 
they  are  removed  to  their  per;nanent  L 'ca- 
tion in  the  apiary. 

You  will  scarcely  appreciate  the  absence 
of  large  trees  and  the  presence  of  sm  11  un- 
dergrowth, until  yo'i  have  had  an  apiary  S) 
circumstanced.  Swarming  does  not  have 
half  the  terrors  to  the  bee-keeper  that  it 
does  when  the  clusters  are  just  as  likely  as 
not  to  attach  themselves  to  elevated  posi- 
tions. 

The  method  I  have  just  described  ap- 
plies when  the  queen's  wings  are  not  clip- 
ped, either  because  we  do  not  wish  to  muti- 
late her  fair  proportions  or  because  she  hap- 
pens to  be  a  young  queen.  But  a  great 
many  times  apiarists  prefer  to  clip  their 
queens"  wings.  Perhaps  I  might  say  a  ma- 
jority do  so.  The  following  is  the  modus 
operandi  usually  employed  : 

HOAV  TO     HIVE   A   SAVARM   WITH    A  CLIPPED 
QUEEN. 

By  turning  to  Queens,  you  will  see  what 
I  say  about  clipping  the  wings  of  every 
queen  as  soon  as  she  becomes  fertile ;  if  we 
do  this,  our  queen  can  not  take  wing,  as  she 
usually  does  as  soon  as  she  gets  out  of  the 
hive  (she  is  generally  nearly  the  last  to  come 
out),  but  hops  helplessly  on  the  ground.  If 
you  are  on  hand,  pick  her  up  as  soon  as  she 
makes  her  appearance,  and  cage  her.  As 
soon  as  the  bees  are  all  out,  move  the  hive 
to  a  new  stand,  put  a  new  hive  in  its  place, 
and  lay  the  caged  queen  down  close  by  the 
entrance.  The  bees,  as  soon  as  they  discov- 
er that  the  queen  is  not  with  them,  will 
come  back  to  their  old  stand,  and  enter  the 
new  hive.  When  they  are  going  in  nicely, 
release  the  queen  and  let  her  go  in  with 
them.  All  this  is  very  simple,  and  we  have 
practiced  the  plan  quite  extensively.  To 
let  the  new  swarm  go  to  work  at  once,  and 
prevent  any  probability  of  absconding,  we 
give  them  a  single  comb  containing  eggs 
and  larvae,  and  till  out  the  rest  of  the  hive 
with  frames  of  fdn.  The  bees  usually  com- 
mence coming  back  in  about  5  or  10  min- 
utes ;  but  they  may  cluster  and  remain  away 
15  minutes,  or,  in  extreme  cases,  as  much  as 
a  half-hour. 

They  will  always  come  back  sooner  or  lat- 


er, so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  un- 
less they  have  an  extra  queen,  or  get  another 
(lueen  by  uniting  witli  another  colony,  or 
something  of  that  sort.'""  See  Absconding 
Swarms.  If  you  do  not  tind  the  queen  as 
she  comes  out  of  the  hive,  and  she  has  a 
clipped  wing,  you  may  be  pretty  certain  that 
she  will  come  back.  After-swarms  (which 
see)  have  unfertile  queens,  and  consequent- 
ly their  wings  can  not  be  clipped.  If  you 
see  them  when  they  come  out.  and  succeed 
in  catching  them,  you  can  often  hive  the 
swarms  in  the  same  way;  but  the  young^ 
queen  will  sometiujes  put  right  out  again, 
and  you  must  exi^ect  her  to  show  all  sorts  of 
eccentric  manoeuvres. 

If  you  do  not  wish  to  move  the  old  stock 
aw^ay,  you  can  tie  the  caged  queen  to  the 
end  of  a  pole,  with  some  leafy  twigs  near 
her,  and  usually  succeed,  without  much 
trouble,  in  getting  the  bees  to  cluster  around 
her.'-' « We  have  usually  kept  on  hand  for  this- 
purpose,  a  common  rake,  with  a  bush  tied 
to  the  end  of  it.  If  they  commence  cluster- 
ing on  a  limb,  hold  it  near  them  while  you 
shake  the  limb  and  keep  it  in  motion,  and  you 
will  soon  have  them  on  your  rake,  to  be  car- 
ried where  you  please.  If  your  hive  is  al- 
ready fixed,  lay  the  rake  on  the  ground  in 
front  of  the  hive,  and  the  bees,  finding  the 
cavity,  will  at  once  commence  to  travel  in. 
If  they  do  not  discover  the  entrance  at  once^ 
guide  them  to  it  with  a  twig ;  after  they  are 
going  in  nicely,  release  the  queen,  and  watch 
to  see  that  she  goes  in  with  them,  and  not 
under  the  bottom-board. 

Very  often  the  readiest  way  of  getting  a 
swarm,  especially  if  you  are  away  from  home 
and  without  tools,  is  to  cut  off  the  limb  on 
which  they  are  clustered,  and  carry  them; 
where  you  like.  If  the  limb  is  small,  you 
can  cut  it  with  a  stout  knife ;  but  if  large,  a 
saw^  will  be  needed.  The  teeth  should  be 
fine,  that  there  be  not  too  much  jarring,  and 
it  would  be  well  to  make  a  slight  cut  first  on 
the  under  side,  that  the  bark  may  not  hang 
when  you  get  it  nearly  off. 

two  or  more  sw^arms  coming  out  and 

UNITING. 

When  the  sw^arming-note  is  heard  in  the 
apiary,  it  seems  to  carry  with  it  an  infec- 
tion ;  this  may  be  a  mistake,  but  in  no  other 
way  can  I  account  for  sw^arms  issuing  one 
after  another,  while  the  first  is  in  the  air, 
unless  they  hear  the  sound ,  and  haste  to  go 
and  do  likewise. -i"  Of  course,  they  will  all 
unite  in  one,  and  as  many  as  a  dozen  have 
been  known  to  come  out  in  this  w^ay,  and  go 


SWARMING. 


2S9 


SWARMING. 


off  to  the  woods  in  a  great  army  of  bees,  be- 
fore any  thing  could  be  done  to  stop  them. 
If  your  queens  are  clipped,  and  you  "hustle 
around,'"  and  get  them  all  in  cages  deposited 
in  front  of  the  hives,  they  usually  separate 
and  each  bee  go  where  he  belongs. ■'«*",  -n  Un- 
less you  have  plenty  of  help,  you  will  be  un- 
able to  get  the  hives  all  moved  away,  and  a 
new   hive  fixed  for  each  one  before  they 
come  back.    In  this  case  they  will  go  back 
into  their  old  hive,  and.  if  the  queen  is  re- 
leased, will  sometimes  go  to  work:  but  often- 
er  they  will  swarm  out  again  within  a   few 
hours,  or  the  next  day:  and  if  you  keep  put- 
ting them  back  they  will  soon  attack  and 
kill  their  queen,  and  loaf  about  until  they 
can  rear  a  new  one,  and  then  swarm.-'-  This 
is  very  poor  policy,  and  we  can  by  no  means 
afford  to  have  such  work.    If  they  swarmed 
for  want  of  room,  they  may  go  to  work  all 
right,  after  having  room  given  them.'si    If 
they  come  out  the  second  time.  I  should  give 
them   a  new  location,  divide  them,  or  do 
something  to  satisfy  their  natural  craving 
for  starting  a  new  colony,  otlieiwise  they  may 
loaf,  even  if  they  do  not  try  to  swarm  a^a'n. 
To  go  back  :  Suppose  they  get  a  queen  or 
queens  having  wings,  and  cluster  in  one 
large  body.    In  this  case  you  are  to  scoop 
off  bees  from  the  cluster,  with  the  swarm- 
ing-bag,  a  tin  pan.  or  a  dipper,  as  may  be 
most  convenient,  and  apportion  parts,  made 
about  as  nearly  of  the  size  of  a  swarm  as 
may  be.  about  in  different  hives.    Give  each 
hive  a  comb  containing  eggs  and  larvae  as 
before,  and  then  get  a  queen  for  each  one  if 
you  can.     In  dividing  them  up,  should  you 
get  two  or  more  queens  in  a  hive,  they  will 
be  balled  as  I  have  before  described,  and 
you  can  thus  easily  find  them.    If  more  than 
one  queen  is  in  a  hive,  you  will  find  a  ball  of 
bees,  perhaps  the  size  of  a  walnut  or  hen"s 
egg.  about  them,  and  this  can  be  carried  to 
the  colony  having  none.     If  you  can  not  tell 
at  once  which  are  queenless.  you  will  be  able 
to  do  so  in  a  few  hours  by  the  queen  -  cells 
they  have  started.    If  you  are  more  anxious 
for  honey  than  bees,  you  may  allow  two 
swarms  to  work  together  :  and  if  you   give 
them  sufficient  room,  you  will  probably  get 
a  large  crop  of  honey  from  them  ;  but  this 
I)lan  does  not  pay,  as  a  general  thing,  be- 
cause the  extra  bees  will  soon  die  off  by  old 
age.  and  your  colony  will  be  no  larger  than 
if  the  queen  had  had  only  her  ordinary  num- 
ber of  bees.  j 

PREVENTION   OF   SWAIOIING.  ! 

If  we  can  entirely  ])revent  swarming,  and 
keep  all  the  bees  at  home  storing  honey  all  , 


the  season,  we  shall  get  enormous  crops  from 
a  single  hive.  Whether  we  shall  get  more 
in  that  way  than  from  the  old  stock  and  all 
the  increase,  where  swarming  and  after- 
swarming  is  allowed,  is  a  matter  asyethard- 
,  ly  decided.  If  a  swarm  should  come  out  in 
May,  and  the  young  queens  get  to  laying  in 
their  hives  by  the  first  of  .June,  their  work- 
ers would  be  ready  for  the  basswood  -  bloom 
in  July,  and  it  is  very  likely  that  the  workers 
from  .S  queens  or  more  would  gather  more 
honey  than  those  from  the  old  queen  alone. 
But.  another  point  is  to  be  considered.  The 
two  or  three  new  colonies  must  have  stores 
for  winter:  and  as  it  takes  nearly  2-5  lbs.  to 
carry  a  colony  through  until  honey  comes 
again,  this  amount  would  be  saved  by  the 
prevention  of  swarming.  Where  one  has 
plenty  of  bees,  and  desires  honey  rather  than 
increase,  a  non-swarming  apiary  would  be 
quite  desirable. 

This  subject  is  a  mooted  one.  and  some  of 
our  best  and  most  experienced  bee-keepers 
—Dr.  Miller  among  the  number— confess 
they  have  been  baffled  in  their  efforts  to 
confine  swarming  within  reasonable  limits. 
Usually  it  is  not  desirable  to  prevent  first 
swarms.  Second  swarms  or  after-swarms 
are  the  ones  we  should  like  to  control.  Some 
1  rominent  bee-keepers  practice  cutting  out 
all  queen-cells  but  one,  eight  days  after  the 
issue  of  the  first  swarm  :  that  is,  they  allow- 
all  the  unsealed  larva-  to  become  capped 
over,  leaving  no  opportunity  for  further 
building  of  cells.  If  only  one  cell  is  left  in 
the  hive,  of  course  only  one  queen  can  be 
hatched  and  reared.  If  she  is  successfully 
fertilized  the  colony  will  generally  settle 
down  to  business.  Excessive  swarming  is 
often  brought  about  because  a  number  of 
young  (lueens  are  allowed  to  mature  about 
the  same  time.  These  unfertile  queens  will 
be  pretty  a^'t  to  keep  up  swarming  in  the 
hive  so  long  as  there  is  a  sui  plus  of  queens. 
See  Afteij->warms. 

PREVEXTIOX   OF   SWARMING  BY  CAGING  OR 
REMOVAL  OF   QUEEN. 

Iletherington,  El  wood,  and  some  others, 
have  practiced  caging  or  removing  the 
queen  during  the  honey  harvest.  Of  course, 
no  sw.>rm  will  issue  regularly  v.ithout  a 
queen  in  the  hive;  and  if  no  cells  are  allow- 
ed to  hatch,  the  i)revention  is  accomi»lished. 
When  the  harvest  lias  commenced,  bef  re 
giving  tlie  bees  a  chance  to  swarm,  the 
queen  is  caged  in  the  hive,  or,  perhaps, 
preferably  given  to  a  nucleus.  If  queen- 
cells  are  not  already  started  they  will  cer- 


S\\  ARMING. 


3.0 


SWARMING. 


tainlj'  lie  started  on  removal  of  the  queen  ; 
antl  if  the  queen  is  caged  they  will  just  as 
certainly  be  started  in  a  short  time.  In  any 
ca-;e  they  must  be  cut  out  before  any  possi- 
ble danger  of  hatching  out.  If  all  cells  are 
detroyed  at  the  time  of  rt-moving  the 
queen,  then  a  second  time,  eight  days  later, 
and  a  third  time  eight  days  later  still,  there 
will  be  no  possibility  of  any  swarming.  The 
advocates  of  this  ])lan  claim  that  the  bees 
that  would  be  raised  from  eggs  laid  at  the 
time  during  which  the  ciueen  is  caged  or  re- 
moved would  be  too  late  to  be  of  any  ser- 
vice in  gathering  the  harvest,  hence  only 
consumers. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  those  who 
question  whether  the  bees  work  just  as  in- 
dustrio  isly  without  a  laying  queen  in  the 
hi'  6.  One  difficulty  about  the  plan  is,  that 
it  is  about  impossible  to  be  sure  that  no 
queen-cell  has  been  missed  ;  and  a  missed 
queen  cell  gives  rise  to  very  undesirable 
complications. 

Some  do  not  desire  even  first  swarms. 
When  running  for  comb  honey  it  is  nearly  im- 
possible, under  the  present  methods  of  con- 
traction, to  prevent  it  altogether— see  Con- 
traction. Many  times  bees  swarm  because 
the  apartment  for  brood-rearing  is  limited. 
Contraction  and  the  queen-excluding  honey- 
board  give  the  queen  only  a  limited  amount 
of  room,  and  swarming  is  the  consequence. 
For  this  reason  it  is  desirable  not  to  reduce 
the  brood-chamber  too  much.  But  whether 
contraction  is  practiced  or  not,  the  fever 
may  be  greatly  allayed,  and  perhaps  prevent- 
ed altogether,  by  giving  an  abundance  of 
sui'plus  room  on  the  plan  of  tiei  ing  up.  Do 
not  let  the  colony  at  any  time  feel  crowded 
for  space.  Judicious  tiering  up,  as  described 
under  Co^ib  Honey,  will  not  only  secure 
more  honey,  but  it  will  largely  discourage 
natural  inciease  when  not  desired.  When 
running  for  extracted  honey,  the  problem  is 
much  easier.  Mr.  E.  France,  of  Platteville, 
Wis.,  who  produces  enormous  crops  of  hon- 
ey, says  he  is  very  little  troubled  by  exces- 
sive SAvarming.  He  does  not  practice  con- 
traction, but  allows  the  queen  and  bees 
plenty  of  room.  If  the  queen  desires  to  go 
above,  she  is  allowed  that  privilege.  Cliarles 
Dadant  &  Son  keep  about  500  colonies  in 
large  Quinby  hives.  These  hives  are  so 
large  that  the  bees  are  but  little  inclined  to 
swarm.  In  fact,  Mr.  Dadant  says,  in  the 
American  Bee  Journal,  page  311,  Vol.  XXV., 
"  For  more  than  fifteen  years  we  have  dis- 
pensed with  watcliiiig  the  bees  of  our  home 
apiary,  numbering  from  80  to  100  colonies. 


As  the  yearly  number  of  natural  swarms 
does  not  exceed  two  or  three,  the  expense 
of  such  watching  would  l)e  far  above  the 
l)rofit  "  While  large  hives  filled  with  combs 
or  foundation  tend  to  iirevent  if  not  dis- 
courage swarming  altogether,  for  other  rea- 
sons other  bee-keepers  seem  to  prefer  small- 
er sizes,  such  as  the  Laiigstroth.  See  IIive- 

.MAKING. 

PREVENTION    OF    SAVARMING    BY    THE   USE 
OF  THE   EXTRACTOR. 

Without  doubt,  the  greatest  reason  for 
swarming  is,  that  the  bees  have  got  their 
hive  full  of  honey,  and  there  is  no  more 
room  for  them  to  labor  to  advantage ;  ac- 
cordingly queen-cells  are  started,  and  other 
preparations  made,  and  they  get,  as  we  say, 
the  swarming  fever.  Now,  if  their  honey  is 
taken  away,  and  more  room  given  them  be- 
fore they  have  begun  to  feel  cramped  for 
room,  they  will  seldom  get  this  swarming 
fever.^iB  This  room  may  be  given  by  taking 
out  combs  filled  with  sealed  honey,  and 
substituting  empty  combs  or  frames  of  fdn., 
or  it  may  be  done  by  extracting  the  honey. 
This  latter  plan,  I  believe,  is  most  effectual, 
for  almost  every  drop  of  the  honey  can  be 
taken  away  by  extracting.  We  extract  from 
the  brood-combs  as  well  as  from  the  rest, 
and  this  can  be  done  without  any  injury  to 
the  brood,  if  we  are  careful  not  to  turn  so 
fast  as  to  throw  out  that  which  is  unsealed. 
I  would  do  this,  however,  only  in  extreme 
cases,  where  the  bees  will  not  w^ork,  and  are 
determined  to  swarm.  The  honey  around 
the  brood  is  generally  needed  there,  and 
would  better  not  be  removed.  It  should  be 
remembered  that  this  remedy  to  prevent 
swarming  is  not  infallible,  and  I  do  not 
know  that  any  one  is,  at  all  times.  I  have 
known  a  swarm  to  issue  the  day  after  ex- 
tracting all  the  honey  I  could  get  from  the 
hive,  but  they  had  probably  got  the  swarm- 
ing fever  before  any  extracting  was  done. 
At  another  time,  the  bees  swarmed  while  I 
was  extracting  their  honey. 

PERFORATED    ZINC   TO   RESTRAIN    QUEENS. 

Under  Drones,  an  incident  is  given  in 
regard  to  the  matter  of  entrapping  the 
queen  when  she  issues  with  the  sw^arm.  The 
employment  of  perforated  zinc  will  not  pre- 
vent swarming,  but  it  prevents  the  bees 
from  accomplishing  their  purpose ;  that  is, 
swarming  out  and  taking  their  queen  with 
them.  In  other  words,  the  perforated  zinc 
simply  takes  the  place  of  clipping  the  queen's 
wdngs.  In  some  cases  it  may  be  desirable 
to  use  the  zinc  instead  of  clipping.  Usually, 
from  what  experience  I  have  had,  I  should 
say  it  is  preferable  to  clip  the  queen's  wings 


SWARMIXG. 


291 


SWARMING. 


rather  than  to  cause  the  bees  the  inconven- 
ience of  crawling,  during  the  continuance  of 
the  honey-rtow,  through  narrow  ]!erf'orations 
of  zinc,  simply  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
the  issue  of  the  queen  should  the  swarm 
come  forth. 

XOX-i^AVAKMIXG   HIVES 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  quite  common  to 
talk  of  non-swarming  hives,  and  there  were 
many  inventors  who  claimed  to  have  accom- 
plished the  end  desired.  The  most  of  these 
hives  were  covered  by  a  patent,  and  they 
have  gone  the  way  of  most,  if  not  all.  patent- 
ed bee-hives.  Giving  the  bees  abundant 
room,  both  over  the  cluster  and  at  its  sides, 
will  do  very  much  toward  making  a  non- 
swarming  hive  ;  but  they  will  swarm  occa- 
sionally, in  spite  of  us.  Keeping  the  hive 
well  shaded,  or  having  the  walls  entirely  pro- 
tected from  the  sun,  will  do  much  to  discour- 
age swarming,  and  the  chaff  hive  has  for 
this  reason  proved  about  as  good  a  non- 
swanuer  as  any  brought  out. 

ArXOMATIC    SWAKM-HIVING. 

Henry  Alley  has  invented  an  arrange- 
ment that  is  intended  to  hive  a  swarm  of 
bees  in  an  empty  hive,  and  set  them  to  work 
all  right,  even  if  no  one  is  within  a  mile  of 
them.  A  properly  shaped  queen-excluder 
connects  the  entrance  of  the  hive  contain- 
ing the  colony  with  the  entrance  of  the  hive 


THE  ALLEY   AUTO^IATIC   SAVAKMEiv. 

to  receive  the  swarm.  When  the  swarm  is- 
sues, the  queen  can  not  get  through  the  per- 
forated zinc,  but  can  easily  get  into  the 
empty  hive,  where  she  will  be  found  by  the 
returning  swarm.  As  yet  it  has  not  been 
sufficiently  tried  to  establish  it  as  a  reliable 
plan. 

THE   ALLEY   TKAl'   IN    HIVING    SWAKMS. 

When  a  swarm  issues  (see  cut  under 
Drones),  the  bees  will  pass  the  guard  ;  but 
the  queen,  on  tindingherself  shut  in,  will  pass 
'•  up  stairs  "  in  the  same  way  as  the  drones. 
Sometimes,  however,  instead  of  going  above 
she  will  return  into  the  hive.  In  live  or  ten 
minutes,  the  bees,  on  discovering  the  ab- 
sence of  their  queen,  will  go  back  to  the 
hive.  The  bees  should  not  be  allowed  to 
make  more  than  one  attvinpt  to  swarm  in 


this  way.  for  failing  in  the  attempt  to  swarm 
again  with  the  queen  they  will  be  likely  to 
kill  hnr.  The  bees  may.  however,  cluster 
without  the  queen. 

If  the  queen  enters  the  ujjper  apartment, 
the  entire  trap  can  be  detached,  fastened  to 
a  rake  or  some  other  object,  and  placed 
among  the  living  bees.  Of  course,  they  will 
readily  cluster  about  the  cage,  Avhen  they  can 
be  hived ;  but  keeping  an  Alley  trap  at- 
tached to  all  hives  that  are  likely  to  send 
out  a  swarm  during  the  ensuing  ten  or  twen- 
ty days  would  be  rather  expensive,  both  be- 
cause of  the  cost  of  the  trap  itself,  and  Ije- 
cause  of  the  inconvenience  to  the  laden 
workers  coming  home.  The  same  or  very 
nearly  the  same  result  can  l)e  attained  by 
clipping  the  queen's  wing,  at  no  expense 
whatever ;  and  at  the  same  time  "the  bees 
have,  lip  to  the  time  of  swarming,  a  free  and 
unobstructed  entrance. 

KEEPIXG  BEES  IK  UPPER  ROOMS   AND   GAR- 
RETS. 

This  plan  for  keeping  a  single  colony,  to 
furnish  honey  for  the  table  simply,  has  been 
in  vogue  for  perhaps  centuries  back.  If  the 
room  is  small,  and  made  perfectly  dark,  the 
hive  being  placed  back  a  few  feet  from  the 
entrance  in  the  wall,  the  bees  will  seldom 
swarm.  One  or  more  sides  of  the  hive  are 
generally  removed,  and  the  bees  build  their 
combs  on  the  outside  of  the  hive,  or  against 
the  walls  of  the  room,  where  the  owner  can 
go  with  knife,  plate,  and  smoker,  and  cut 
out  a  piece  for  the  table,  without  opening 
any  hive,  or  disturbing  anybody.  In  fact, 
he  can  consider  this  his  "  honey-room,"  and 
leave  the  honey  stored  there  year  after  year, 
if  he  chooses.  When  a  friend  calls  he  can 
say,  "  AVill  you  have  a  slice  of  new  honey? 
or  will  you  have  one  a  year  old?  or  two  years 
old?"  He  might  even  have  it  ten  or  a  dozen 
years  old,  for  aught  I  know,  if  he  has  a  taste 
for  antiquated  honey.  Would  not  such  a 
honey-rooin  be  niceV  While  writing  about 
it.  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  a  room  of  this 
kind,  titled  uit  with  all  modern  ai)pliances. 
might  be  a  very  i)retty  and  a  very  useful 
thing.  With  the  exi)erience  I  have  had  in 
the  house-apiary,  however,  I  am  inclined  to 
I  think  that,  where  there  is  so  mucli  room, 
there  would  be  a  great  disposition  in  the 
bees  to  loaf  and  cluster  on  the  sides  of  the 
room,  in  the  shade,  instead  of  going  to  work. 
Now  for  the  objections. 

If  the  hive  and  honey  are  close  by  the  en- 
trance, the  bees  will  swarm  as  much  as  in 
J  the  house-apiary.  If  it  is  a  yard  or  more 
back  from  the  wall,  the  bees,  not  being  able 


SWARMING. 


292 


SWARMING. 


to  take  wing  in  the  dark,  will  crawl  all  this 
distance  on  foot,  which  wonkl  prove  a  great 
loss  of  time  and  strength,  and,  consequently, 
of  hone}'.  Providing  the  plan  succeeds,  you 
get  a  good  crop  of  honey  year  after  year,  it 
is  true  ;  but  you  have  all  the  time  the  efforts 
of  only  a  single  queen.  While  your  honey 
increases,  yoiu-  gathering  force  is  no  more, 
after  the  lapse  of  ten  years,  than  it  was  be- 
fore. If  one  colony  is  all  you  want,  this  may 
be  all  right.  The  queen  can  not  live  more 
than  three  or  four  years,  and  at  her  demise  a 
new  one  must  be  reared  and  fertilized.  For 
some  reason,  I  know  not  what,  she  is  very 
often  lost  in  these  garrets,  and  the  colony 
dies  of  queenlessness.  Worst  of  all,  they 
will  often  swarm,  and  keep  swarming,  until 
nothing  is  left  of  them ;  but  I  believe  swarm- 
ing is  rather  the  exception,  and  not  the  rule. 

DO     BEES     CHOOSE     A     LOCATION     BEFORE 
SWARMING  V 

We  have  ample  proof  that  they  sometimes 
do  ;  but  whether  such  is  always  the  case  or 
not.  we  have  no  means  of  determining  posi- 
tively, so  far  as  I  can  see.  It  is  my  opinion, 
that,  although  they  usually  do  so,  there  are 
many  exceptions.  When  a  swarm  of  bees 
catches  the  fever  by  hearing  the  swarming- 
note  of  a  neighboring  colony,  it  seems  diffi- 
cult to  understand  that  they  could  have  se- 
lected their  tree,  and  made  the  same  provi- 
sion for  housekeeping  that  the  first  one  may 
have  done.  The  proof  of  this  has  been  giv- 
en many  times  through  our  journals.  A 
neighbor  of  ours  once  saw  bees  going  in  and 
out' of  a  tree,  and  supposing  that  it  of  course 
contained  a  colony,  went  with  his  boys  the 
next  day.  and  cut  it  down.  It  contained  no 
sign  of  a  bee.  While  they  were  standing 
still  and  wondering  at  this  strange  state  of 
affairs,  the  boys,  doubtless  joking  their  fa- 
ther about  his  seeing  bees  where  there  were 
none,  lo  and  behold!  a  swarm  appeared  in 
the  air.  They  came  to  the  very  spot  where 
the  now  prostrate  tree  had  stood,  and  seemed 
as  much  astounded  as  a  colony  whose  hive 
has  been  moved  away.  After  some  circling 
around  they  clustered  in  a  neighboring  tree, 
and  were  hived.  They  had  selected  this  as 
their  home,  it  seems,  and  an  advance  party 
had  gone  ahead  the  day  before,  to  clean  out 
and  fix  the  hollow  ready  for  the  swarm,  and 
it  was  these  house-cleaners  that  my  friend 
saw  at  work.  I  gave  the  above  in  Glean- 
ings a  few  years  ago,  and  a  large  number 
of  corroborating  instances  were  furnished 
by  our  readers.  The  number  of  bees  that  go 
out  to  look  up  a  location  is  not  usually  great, 
but  they  may  often  be  seen  about  swarm  ing- 


time  prowling  about  old  hives,  and  hollows 
in  trees,  as  if  they  were  looking  for  some- 
thing. After  awhile,  swarms  come  and  take 
possession  of  these  places,  if  they  seem  suit- 
able, and  of  late  a  hope  has  been  expressed, 
through  the  journals,  that  we  might  take  ad- 
vantage of  this  disposition,  and  fix  hives  so 
attractive  that  the  bees  Avill  come  out,  se- 
lect the  "house  and  lot"  that  suits  their  taste 
best,  and  then,  when  they  get  ready,  "move 
in."  When  this  is  accomplished  we  shall 
have  automatic  hiving. 

DECOY  hives. 

Many  of  the  friends  have  followed  out  the 
idea  given  above,  by  locating  hives  in  the 
forests,  in  the  trees,  and  such  hives  have  in 
many  cases  beep  quickly  accepted  and  ap- 
propriated. I  believe  we  are  indebted  to  Mr. 
J.  H.  Martin,  Hartford,  N.  Y.,  for  first  sug- 
gesting the  idea.  Hives  left  standing  on 
the  ground  in  the  apiary  have  many  times 
been  selected  by  swarms,  and,  if  I  am  cor- 
rect, the  bees,  in  such  cases,  often  come  out 
of  the  parent  hive,  and  go  directly  to  these 
hives  without  clustering  at  all. 

One  of  our  bee-keepers  in  California,  by 
trading  and  otherwise,  had  something  over 
a  dozen  empty  hives.  Having  no  immedi- 
ate use  for  them  he  packed  them  uj)  in  a 
couple  of  tiers,  about  six  high  each.  Each 
hive  contained  four  or  five  combs,  spaced  so 
as  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  the  moth  mil- 
ler. One  day,  by  accident  he  discovered 
some  bees  going  into  one  of  these  empty 
hives.  On  examination  he  found  that  a 
swarm  of  bees  had  taken  possession.  His 
curiosity  being  now  aroused,  he  examined 
some  of  the  other  emi)ty  hives.  He  kept  on 
until  he  found  six  good  swarms,  each  nicely 
housed,  without  any  effort  or  expense  on  his 
part.  In  a  few  days  more,  the  remaining 
hives  were  filled  with  absconding  swarms. 
When  the  swarming  season  closed  he  had  17 
colonies  secured.  The  point  is  this  :  By  ac- 
cident he  had  stacked  up  his  empty  hives  in 
tiers,  so  that  they  resembled  trees  in  the  for- 
est. Having  combs  in  them,  and  entrances 
open,  they  were  an  inviting  place  for  a  pass- 
ing swarm.  My  brother,  Mr.  M.  S.  Root,  of 
California,  had  a  similar  experience,  and  I 
believe  that  others  else%vhere  have  become 
possessors  of  swarms  in  the  same  way.  In 
view  of  this  I  would  suggest  having  a  few 
hives  scattered,  say,  through  an  apple-or- 
chard, in  the  shade  of  trees,  each  of  these 
hives  to  be  equipped  with  dry  combs  and  a 
wide-open  entrance  ready  for  the  reception 
of  a  possible  swarm.  Perhaps  it  might  be 
advisable  to  have  one  or  two  hives  perched 


8WARMIXG. 


293 


SWARMING. 


in  the  limbs  or  the  crotch  of  one  of  tlie  hirge 
trees.  If  the  combs  are  syiaced  two  inches 
apart  there  will  be  no  trouble  from  moth 
millers,  in  case  the  hives  slioiild  not  be  lucky 
enough  to  secure  a  swarm. 

RINGING     BELLS     AND     BEATING    PANS    TO 
BRING  DOWN  A  SWARM  OF  BEES. 

The  books,  of  late  years,  have  seemed  to 
teach  that  this  practice  is  bnt  a  relic  of  su- 
perstition, and  that  no  real  good  was  accom- 
plished by  the  '•  tanging,''  as  it  is  often 
called.  Perhaps  it  usually  has  no  effect  in 
causing  them  to  alight:  but  from  watching 
the  habits  of  swarms,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
•otherwise.  Those  in  the  habit  of  seeing 
queens  on  the  wing  are  generally  aware  that 
the  note  they  give  when  flying  is  quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  a  worker  or  drone  ;  and 
many  times,  when  a  queen  has  escaped  while 
being  introduced,  I  have  detected  her  where- 
abouts by  the  sound  of  her  wings,  before  I 
had  any  glimpse  of  her  at  all.  With  a  little 
practice  we  can  distinguish  this  note  amidst 
the  buzzing  of  a  thousand  bees  tlying  about, 
so  as  to  turn  our  eyes  upon  her  when  she  is 
quite  a  distance  away.  Is  it  not  likely  that 
the  bees  composing  a  swarm  know  this 
sound^"*!  as  well  as  we  do.  or  much  better? 
Again,  a  swarm  of  bees  usually  has  scouts 
to  conduct  them  to  the  tree,  or  other  place  of 
their  chosen  abode,  and  it  is  quite  likely 
they  follow  these  scouts,  and  know  of  their 
presence  as  they  do  their  queen,  by  the 
«ound  they  emit  from  their  wings.  A  noise, 
if  loud  enough,  would  be  likely  to  drown 
these  sounds,  and  thus  produce  disorganiza- 
tion. Throwing  dirt  or  gravel  among  them 
will  bring  them  down  generally  quite  speed- 
ily, and  I  suppose  it  is  because  it  produces 
•disorganization  much  in  the  same  way. 

In  concluding  tlie  subject  of  swarming  I 
would  ask  the  reader's  attention  to  an  ex- 
cellent article  on  the  subject,  written  by 
G.  B.  Peters,  of  Council  Bend.  Ark.,  given 
below. 

NATURAL  SWARMING,  AND  ITS    ATTENDANT  CLUS- 
TERING. 

When  bees  swarm  naturally,  why  do  they  collect 
together  on  some  object,  and  not  fly  directly  to  the 
woods  after  leaving  the  parent  hive?  This  was  a 
question  which  excited  my  juvenile  attention  when 
I  was  ten  years  of  age. 

The  ancient  and  honored  custom  of  ringing  bells, 
beating  on  tin  pans  and  other  sounding  things,  1  had 
often  noticed,  and  to  my  childish  mind  it  appeared 
to  be  all-important  in  stopping  the  swarm  when  cm 
tne  wing.  It  happened  that  the  family  were  absent 
at  church,  on  one  occasion,  and  I  at  home  lolling  on 
the  greensward,  or  playing  among  fruit  -  trees  and 
Toses,  when  the  bees  swarmed  and  clustered  as  readi- 
ly as  they  could  have  done  if  all  the  Callithumpian 
iroupc  bad  been  there  on  dutv;  and  I  had  the  plca- 
10 


sure  afterward  of  boasting  to  papa  that  I  had  hived 
the  bees  without  noise  or  assistance.  He  said  some 
persons  borrowed  excitement  from  the  agitation  and 
roaring  of  the  swarm,  and  rang  bells  more  from  an 
ecstatic  impulse  than  frfim  a  sense  of  its  necessity; 
and  he  had  no  objection  to  such  persons  thus  enjoy- 
ing themselves,  but  that  it  had  about  as  much  to  do 
in  settling  bees  as  the  jargon  of  trumpets,  gongs,  and 
horns,  used  by  the  ancient  heathen,  had  in  fright- 
ening away  the  evil  genius  that  eclipsed  the  sun,  as 
they  supposed.  It  was  manifest  to  my  young  mind, 
that  there  was  a  cause  for  bees  fixing  on  bushes  or 
other  objects,  and,  after  observation,  I  established 
the  fact,  long  before  Langstroth  threw  out  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  reconnoitering  party. 

The  bee  is  impelled  in  all  its  operations  by  instinct 
alone,  which  in  some  cases  is  so  remarkable  that 
some  authors  have  attributed  to  it  the  power  of 
rational  conception. 

When  a  swarm  issues  from  a  parent  hive,  either 
with  an  old  or  a  youns  queen,  they  appear  confused 
until  they  cluster,  when  they  become  docile  and 
quiet.  Why  did  they  cluster  there?  Because  they 
were  homeless  little  wanderers,  and  instinct  directs 
them  to  soj^mrn  awhile  until  a  set  of  explorers 
shall  have  discovered  some  cavity  in  cliff  or  tree, 
suitable  for  a  future  habitation.  A  number  of 
scouts,  varying  from  30  to  .50,  leave  the  swarm  be- 
fore it  is  fairly  settled,  to  explore  the  country  in 
search  of  a  cavity  suitable  for  the  propagation  of 
their  species,  which  is  the  end  and  aim  of  all  insect 
creation.  If  these  scouts  are  not  successful,  the 
swarm  may  be  hived  and  permitted  to  remain  in 
the  same  place  and  do  well;  but  if  they  are  success- 
ful, and  on  returning  find  the  swarm  where  they 
left  it,  or  near  the  place,  they  will  immediately  lead 
it  away.  Queen,  workers,  drones,  all  take  wing, 
rise  high  in  the  air,  and  abandon  old  home,  kip.  and 
every  thing, forever,  and  no  effort  of  the  bee-keeper 
can  arrest  them.  This  result  of  a  successful  scout 
is  as  sure  to  transpire  as  night  to  follow  the  day. 
Perhaps  one  in  a  hundred  will  go  straight  to  the 
forest  without  fixing  on  anything;  but  in  such  cases 
they  have  been  delayed  from  some  unknown  cause 
in  swarming,  been  Ijing  outside  the  parent  hive, 
and  have  selected  their  home  before  issuing  forth. 
I  have  seen  that  occur  three  times  myself,  and  they 
move  differently  from  the  absconding  bees  that 
have  clustered  before  starting.  Now,  those  runa- 
ways went  straight  out  of  the  hive  to  a  hollow  tree, 
moving  slowly  and  near  the  ground,  scarcely  above 
your  head,  and  I  followed  all  of  them  to  their  place 
of  abode,  once  on  foot,  twice  on  horseback,  and  very 
easily  kept  pace  with  them;  they  took  a  "bee-line" 
from  the  hives  to  the  hollow  trees  not  exceeding  a 
half-mile  off.  I  suppose  all  such  have  found  a  hol- 
low near  by.  I  noticed  a  revolving  lot  of  bees  in 
each,  about  five  feet  through,  leading  the  van  with 
a  hissing  sound  not  unlike  the  sound  of  bees  when 
exasperated.  That  sound  is  in  plain  contrast  with 
the  roaring  of  the  great  body  of  bees  that  follow  in 
the  rear,  and  it  is  that  peculiar  sound  that  makes 
bees  frantic  with  the  Impulse  to  follow  it,  so  that 
they  can  not  be  prevented  short  of  actual  destruc- 
tion. 

I  will  remind  the  reader  here  that  bees  have  differ- 
ent sounds  to  accomplish  different  ends.  The  only 
natural  sound  of  bees  on  the  wing  is  that  produced 
by  the  returning  laborer  when  she  comes,  at  even, 
laden  with  spoils  collected  from  some  flowery  field. 
Who  has  not  been  charmed  by  such  industrio\i8  en- 


SWARMIXG. 


2H4 


SWARMING. 


ergy,  as  those  mellow  tones  died  in  the  entrance  of 
the  hive?  The  shrill  note  of  the  pugnacious  defend- 
er of  the  hive  is  familiar  to  every  child.  The  sharp 
sound  of  bees  just  beginning-  to  lead  out  a  swarm 
heralds  its  advent  to  the  apiarist,  and  is  very  differ- 
ent from  thp  two  former  sounds.  The  coarse  bass 
roaring  of  the  swarm  before  it  begins  to  cluster  is 
heard  only  when  they  are  in  search  of  the  queen, 
and  is  kept  up  by  both  workers  and  drones;  then 
follows  the  sharp  cutting  sound  as  they  begin  to 
cluster,  to  call  the  colony  together,  which  is  well 
known  to  the  bee-keeper  as  the  signal  of  congregat- 
ing. Then  the  shrill  hissing  sound  of  the  escort 
that  leads  them  to  the  woods  blends  with  the  roar 
of  the  rear  part  of  the  swarm,  making  a  strange 
compound  heard  only  from  absconding  bees.  Then 
again,  in  that  "happy  hour"  when  they  have  found  a 
house,  we  hear  the  happy  hum  made  by  a  peculiar 
position  of  body,  and  indicating  peace  and  content- 
ment. Also  a  sound  of  distress,  when  annoyed  by 
smoke  or  enemies,  rings  through  the  hive,  and  no 
wail  of  misery  from  any  other  insect  tribe  can  equal 
it.  Finally  we  have  the  ventilating  sound  at  the 
entrance  and  all  through  the  hive,  which  in  hot 
weather  may  be  heard  quite  a  distance.  All  these 
different  sounds  are  instinctively  associated  with 
certain  purposes,  and  the  movements  of  the  queen 
are  generally  governed  by  them.  She  thus  follows 
certain  sounds  as  do  the  whole  colony.  She  never 
leads  the  swarm,  but  is  attracted  by  the  roaring  mass ; 
and  when  she  enters  a  new  hive  there  follows  an  air 
of  quiet,  which  security  induces.  If  she  is  lost,  or 
has  stayed,  after  awhile  her  faithful  children  will 
leave  the  hive,  and  in  wild  confusion  look  for  their 
"  mother,  giving  out  a  sound  of  despair  differing  from 
all  other  sounds. 

In  settling  this  dense  forest  country  (Mississippi- 
River  bottom)  I  deadened  large  tracts  of  land  for  fu- 
ture cotton-fields.  I  found  many  bee-trees  in  these 
deadenings  when  divested  of  foliage.  In  wiuter 
time  I  would  cut  them  down,  saw  out  a  segment  of 
the  tree,  including  the  hive  when  it  was  not  smashed 
by  the  falling,  place  them  upright  as  they  originally 
stood,  and  leave  them  to  swarm  next  spring.  Hav- 
ing 40  or  .50  such  stands.  I  made  a  specialty  of  see- 


ing them  every  day  between  10  and  2  o'clock,  during 
swarming-tirrie,  and  saved  many  new  colonies.  In 
riding  one  day  through  the  deadening,  I  heard  the 
shrill  noise  of  ej^cort  bees,  and  soon  discovered  about 
.50  circling  about  a  tree,  ascending  to  the  branches, 
then  going  to  the  nearest  tree,  and  circling,  descend- 
ing to  the  very  roots,  and  continuing  ascending  and 
descending  from  one  tree  to  another,  taking  in  sap- 
lings even,  until  I  was  led  by  them  unconsciously  to 
one  of  my  bee-tree  colonies,  and  there  hunga swarm 
in  the  bough  of  a  small  tree,  and  into  that  swarm 
they  went.  I  was  sure  that  was  a  band  of  bee-scouts,, 
and,  believing  they  had  returned  without  finding  a 
hollow  tree,  I  hived  them,  and,  to  test  my  theory,  let 
them  remain  on  the  spot.  They  did  well.  Thus  I 
deduce  the  following  conclusions  which  I  know  to  be 
practically  useful  to  the  bee-keeper  who  prefers 
natural  swarming:  1.  They  cluster  to  afford  oppor- 
tunity for  the  explorers  to  find  a  new  habitation. 
Many  times  they  fail  to  find  one,  and  in  that  case 
alone  the  new  hive  may  be  permitted  to  remain 
where  they  clustered;  but  if  the  explorers  find  a 
home,  they  conduct  the  whole  colony  directly  to  it. 
2.  As  the  swarm  is  watching  for  the  return  of 
scouts,  it  is  necessary  to  hive  them  without  delay; 
and  as  soon  as  they  are  quiet,  remove  them  a  dis- 
tance from  that  place  so  as  to  thwart  the  returning 
scouts.  3.  The  new  colony  will  never  flee  to  the 
woods  unless  the  scouts  conduct.  I  have  kept  a 
regular  account,  running  up  to  one  hundred  and 
eighty-two  colonies  thus  ti-eated,  and  never  had  one 
to  leave  the  hive.  There  are  apparent  exceptions; 
for  instance,  a  colony  clustering  in  the  full  rays  of 
the  sun  on  a  hot  day  will  be  driven  off  by  its  scorch- 
ing rays  to  seek  a  more  congenial  resting-place. 
Another  exception  is  where  bees  in  a  dry,  sterile 
country,  if  they  ever  swarm  at  all,  are  almost  sure 
to  take  wing,  in  order  to  find  a  more  favored  region 
where  their  instinct  suggests  that  the  pabulum  of 
bee-life  may  be  more  abundant.  G.  B.  Peters. 
Council  Bend.  Ark..  Sept.  22, 1876. 


SVHIAKS. 

imder  Italians. 


See    IIOLY-LAND   Beks, 


T. 


TiSiLSSIi  [Dipsacuti).  The  Greek  name 
of  this  plant  signifies  to  thirst;  because  the 
heads,  after  flowering,  are  of  a  porous  nature, 
and  ''drinli"  large  quantities  of  rain  water. 
On  account  of  this  property,  the  heads  are 
often  used  to  sprinkle  clothes,  before  iron- 
ing. They  take  up  the  water,  and,  when 
shaken,  throw  it  out  in  a  spray. 


I    \ 


TEASEL  {Bipsacus  Fullomim). 

The  variety  that  produces  hoiiey  is  the  one 
used  by  fullers  in  flnishing  cloth,  and  lience 
its  name,  D.  Fullonum,  or  fullers'  teasel. 
This  plant,  like  the  buckwheat  and  clover, 
is  raised  for  another  crop  besides  the  honey, 
and  therefore  may  be  tested  by  the  acre 
without  so  much  danger  of  pecimiary  loss, 
should  the  honey-crop  prove  a  failure.  Our 
friend  Doolittle  pronounces  the  honey  re- 
markably white  aiul  One,  but  some  others 
have  given  a  somewhat  different  opinion. 

From  what  I  can  learn,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  teasel  does  not  yield  honey  every 
year;  it  grows  in  considerable  quantities  by 
the  roadsides  and  in  waste  places  in  our  lo- 
cality, but  I  very  seldom  see  bees  on  it. 
Perhaps  acres  of  it  under  high  cultivation 
might  make  a  great  difference,  as  it  does 
with  any  other  plant.-'**  The  following  letter 
from  G.  M.  Doolittle,  of  Borodino,  N.  T., 


gives  a  very  full  account  of  the  method  pur- 
sued in  its  cultivation. 

The  plant  is  biennial  as  a  rule,  although  a  part  of 
the  plants  (the  smaller  ones)  may  not  produce  heads 
till  the  third  year,  and  in  that  case  they  are  called 
"  voors."  The  ground  is  prepared  much  the  same 
as  for  corn,  being  marked  but  one  way,  the  rows 
being  from  3  to  314  feet  apart.  The  seed  is  then 
sown,  and,  as  a  rule,  left  for  the  rains  to  wash  the  dirt 
over  it,  as  it  is  sown  as  early  in  the  spring  as  the 
ground  can  be  worked.  Some,  however,  slightly 
brush  the  seed  in.  The  plants,  when  they  first 
come  up,  are  very  small,  and  the  first  hoeing  is  a  te- 
dious operation,  being  about  the  same  as  that  re- 
quired for  beets  or  carrots.  The  plants  are  hoed,  or 
sJiould  be,  thi-ee  times.  Farmers  usually  raise  a  part 
of  a  crop  of  beans  or  turnips  with  them  the  first 
year.  One  heavy  drawback  on  teasel  culture  is, 
that  they  are  very  liable  to  winter  -  kill  by  having  a 
thaw,  and  the  weather  turning  cold  suddenly,  so  as 
to  freeze  the  plant  when  there  is  water  in  the  crown, 
which  entirely  destroys  it.  An  open  winter  is  very 
bad  for  teasels.  The  second  year,  during  the  month 
of  May,  thej'  are  passed  through  with  a  cultivator, 
and  slightly  hoed,  when  they  are  left  to  run,  as  it  Is 
termed.  The  "kings,"  as  they  are  commonly  called, 
are  heads  at  the  top  of  the  stalks,  and  commence  to 
blossom  about  Julj-  10th,  continuing  in  bloom  about 
a  week  or  10  days,  opening  first  in  the  center  of  the 
head,  blossoming  toward  the  tip  and  base,  and  end- 
ing ott'  at  the  base.  As  soon  as  the  blossoms  fall  off 
they  are  cut,  cured,  and  shipped  to  manufacturers 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  nap  from  cloth.  The 
"middlings,"  as  they  are  termed,  commence  to  blos- 
som when  the  kings  are  about  half  through,  and  the 
"buttons"  come  last,  making  from  20  to  25  days  of 
bloom  from  the  commencing  of  the  kings  to  the  end- 
ing of  the  buttons.  The  middlings  and  buttons  re- 
ceive the  same  treatment  as  the  kings,  aiid  all  are 
mixed  and  sold  together.  They  are  sold  by  the 
thousand,  10  lbs.  making  a  thousand.  An  acre  will 
yield  from  100  to  250  thousand.  At  present  they 
bring  about  T5c.  per  thousand,  but  years  ago  the 
price  was  from  S2  to  J!5.00.  Bees  work  on  them  all 
hours  of  the  day,  and,  no  matter  how  well  basswood 
may  yield  honey,  you  will  find  them  at  work  on  the 
teasel  at  all  times  ;  and  I  have  never  known  teasel 
to  fail  to  secrete  honey,  except  in  18T6. 

The  honey  is  very  thin,  and  much  e\-aporation  is 
required  to  bring  it  to  the  consistency  of  basswood 
honey  when  first  gathered.  We  have  many  times 
thought,  if  teasel  could  comejust  after  basswood  it 
would  be  of  great  value:  b\it,  coming  as  it  does  loith 
basswood,  it  is  of  no  great  advantage,  except  that  It 
usually  lasts  from  6  to  8  days  after  basswood  is 
past.  G.  M.  Doolittle. 

Borodino,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  10,  1877. 


TOADS. 


296 


TRANSFERRING 


TOABS.  These,  without  question,  are 
an  enemy  to  the  honey-bee.  They  usually 
plant  themselves  before  the  entrances  of 
the  hives  about  night-fall,  and,  as  the  heav- 
ily laden  bees  come  in  they  are  snapped  up 
with  a  movement  that  astonishes  one  who 
has  nevei  witnessed  it.  His  toadship  sits 
near  the  alighting-board,  with  an  innocent. 
unconcerned  look,  and,  although  you  see  a 
bee  suddenly  disappear,  it  is  only  after  you 
have  repeatedly  witnessed  the  phenomenon 
that  you  can  really  believe  the  toad  had  any 
thing  to  do  witli  it.  By  observing  very 
closely,  however,  you  will  see  a  sort  of  flash, 
as  the  bee  disappears,  accompanied  by  a 
lightning-like  opening  and  shutting  of  his 
mouth.  The  bee  is  taken  in  by  his  long 
tongue,  and  I  should  judge  that  he  is  capa- 
ble of  striking  one  with  it  when  as  much  as 
two  inches  distant.  I  do  not  know  how 
many  bees  it  takes  to  make  a  meal,  but  I  do 
know  that  toads  will  often  become  surpris- 
ingly thick  about  the  hives  during  the  hon- 
ey-season, if  tliey  are  not  driven  away  by 
some  means.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
killing  them  ;  but  1  must  confess,  my  feel- 
ings revolt  at  such  severe  measures,  and  I 
much  prefer  the  plan  given  by  a  friend,  as 
follows: 

During  last  season  I  noticed  large  numbers  of 
toads  htipping  about  my  apiary;  and  having  often 
seen  them  eat  bees,  I  devised  a  plan  to  dispose  of 
them  as  follows:  I  made  a  pair  of  wooden  tongs,  and, 
with  a  deep  tin  pail,  I  went  into  the  apiarj'  just 
after  sundown  one  evening,  and  in  a  short  time 
picked  up,  with  the  tongs,  32  toads;  and  it  was  not  a 
good  day  for  toad-hunting  either.  Well,  what  shi  luld 
I  do  with  them?  I  did  not  really  like  to  kill  them, 
so  I  took  I  hem  on  to  the  bridge  and  dumped  them 
into  the  Tuscarawas  River,  telling  them  to  swim  for 
life.  About  a  week  alter  that,  I  disposed  of  IB  more 
in  the  same  waj'.  A.  A.  Fradenburg. 

Port  Washington,  O.,  Nov.  3,  18T9. 


TRAM'SrXiRRING.  I  firmly  believe 
that  all  of  our  readers  can  do  their  own 
transferring,  and  do  it  nicely,  if  they  will 
only  make  up  their  minds  that  they  roill  suc- 
ceed. If  you  are  awkward  and  inexperi- 
enced it  will  take  you  longer,  that  is  all. 

It  has  so  often  been  said,  that  the  best 
time  is  during  the  period  of  fruit-blossoms, 
that  it  seems  almost  needless  to  repeat 
it.  Be  sure  that  you  have  cleared  away  all 
rubbish  from  about  your  box  hive  or  gum, 
for  a  space  of  at  least  6  feet  all  round.  I 
would  decidedly  prefer  to  have  the  hive 
stand  directly  on  the  ground  with  all  I'ough 
and  uneven  places  filled  up  with  sawdust 
nicely  stamped  down.    Make  it  so  clean  and 


tidy  that  you  can  find  a  needle  if  you  should 
dro])  it,  and  be  sure  you  leave  no  cracks  or 
crevices  in  which  the  queen  or  bees  may 
hide  or  crawl.   Make  all  these  arrangements 
several  days  beforehand  if  possible,  so  that 
the  bees  may  be  fully  acquainted  with  the 
surroundings,  and  be  all  at  work  ;  remember 
we  wish  to  choose  a  time  when  as  many  bees 
as  possible  are  out  at  work,  for  they  will 
then  be  nicely  out  of  the  way.    About  10 
o'clock  A.  M.  will  probably  be  the  best  time, 
if  it  is  a  warm,  still  day.    Get  all  your  a])pli- 
!  ances  in  readiness,  every  thing  you  can  think 
of  tliat  you  may  need,  and  some  other  things 
i  too,  perhaps.    You  will  want  a  tine-toothed 
1  saw,  a  hammer,  a  chisel  to  cut  nails  in  the 
j  old  hive,  tacks  and  thin  strips  of  pine  (un- 
less you  have  the  transferring-clasps),  a  large 
[  board  to  lay  the  combs  upon  (the  cover  to  a 
Simplicity  hive  does  "  tiptop"),  an  old  table- 
!  cloth  or  sheet  folded  up  to  lay  under  the 
i  combs  to  prevent  bumping  the  heads  of  the 
unhatched  brood  too  severely,  a  honey-knife 
or  a  couple  of  them  (if  you  have  none,  get  a 
;  couple  of  long  thin-bladed  bread  or  butch- 
er knives),  and  lastly  a  basin  of  water  and  a 
towel  to  kee])  every  thing  washed  up  clean. 
Now,  as  I  have  said  before,  this  is  really,  a 
great  part  of  it,  women's  work  ;   and  if  you 
can  not  persuade  your  wife  or  sister,  or  some 
I  good  friend  among  the  sex  to  help,  you  are 
!  not  fit  to  be  a  bee-keeper.    In  saying  this  I 
j  take  it  for  granted  that  women,  the  world 
;  over,  are  ready  and  willing  to  assist  in  any 
useful  work,  if  they  are  treated  as  fellow- 
beings  and  equals.    The  operation  of  trans- 
ferring will  afford  you  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity to  show  your  assistant  many  of  the 
wonders  of  the  bee-hive ;  and  in  the  role  of 
teacher,  you  may  discover  that  you  are  stim- 
ulating yourself  to  a  degree  of  skill  that  you 
would  not  be  likely  to  attain  otherwise. 

A  good  smoker  will  be  very  handy ;  but 
if  you  have  not  one,  make  a  smoke  of  some 
bits  of  rotten  wood  in  a  pan  ;  blow  a  little 
smoke  in  at  the  entrance  of  the  hive,  tip  the 
old  hive  over  backward,  and  blow  in  a  little 
more  smoke  to  drive  the  bees  down  among 
the  combs ;  let  it  stand  there,  and  place  the 
new  hive  so  that  the  entrance  is  exactly  in 
the  place  of  the  old  one  ;  put  a  large  news- 
paper in  front  of  the  new  hive  and  let  one 
edge  lie  under  the  entrance.  The  returning 
bees,  laden  with  pollen  and  honey,  are  now 
aligliting  and  going  into  the  hive,  and 
rushing  out  again  in  dismay  at  finding 
it  empty ;  we  therefore  want  to  get  one 
comb  in  for  theni,  to  let  them  know 
that  it  is  their  old  home.    Move  tlie  old 


TRANSFERRING 


hive  back  a  little  furtlier.  in  order  to  get 
all  roiuKl  it,  and  give  them  a  little  more 
smoke  whenever  they  seem  disposed  to  be 
"obstreperous  ;'"  and  now  comes  the  trial  of 
skill  and  ingenuity.  The  problem  is,  to  get 
those  crooked,  irregular  combs,  out  of  that 


297  TRANSFERRIN!  i . 

down  over  them  closely  for  a  day  or  two.    I 
would  look  them  over  carefully  every  day  or 
two.  and  as  fast  as  they  get  the  combs  fast- 
ened, remove  the  clasps  or  other  fastenings 
and  bend  the  combs  into  i^lace. 
Each  operation  is  very  simple  and  easy  in 
old  hive,  and  then  to  tix  them  neatly  in  the    itself,  if  you  go  about  it  at  the  proper  time 
movable  frames  as  in  the  cut  on  next  page,      and  in  the  right  way.    Bear  in  mind  that 
Your  own  good  sense  will  have  to  dictate    ^^'^  bees,  from  first  to  last,  are  to  Ije  kept 


much  in    this  matter.    Saw  off  tlie   cross- 
sticks,  if  such  there  be,  and  with  your  thin 
knife  cut  the  combs  loose   from  one  side ; 
cut  off  the  nails  and   pry  off  this  side,  but 
don't  get  the  honey  running  if  you  can  hel]) 
it,  so  as  to  start  robbers.    When  the  side 
is  off,  you  can  probably  get  one  comb  out. 
Lay  it  on  the  folded  table-cloth,  take  out  the 
comb-guide,  lay  the  frame  on  the  cloth,  and 
let   some  one  eli^e  cut  it  so  as  to  require 
that  the  frame  be  sprung  slightly  to  go  over 
it.    With  the  cbisjts  he  can  cut  and  fasten 
the  combs  in  as  fast  as  you  can  take  them 
out ;   if  sticks  and  tacks,  strings  or  rubbers 
be  used,  it  will  take  some  longer.   When  the 
frame  is  to  be  lifted  into  a  horizontal  po- 
sition, the  board,  cloth  and  all,  is  to  be  rais- 
ed with  it.     With  the  wash-basin  and  towel, 
keep  the  honey  neatly  wiped  up.    If  robbers 
begin  to  annoy,  cover  both  hives  with    a 
cloth  while  you  are  fitting  the  combs,  and 
keep  the  brood  in  your  new  frames  in  a 
compact  cluster,  as  it  was  in  the  old  hive, 
or  some  of  it  may  get  chilled.     When  you 
get  near  the  central  combs,  you  will  proba- 
bly lift  out  large  clusters  of  bees  with  the 
comb ;  "2  these  are  to  be  shaken  and  brushed 
off  on  the  newspaper.    If  they  do  not  seem 
disposed  to  crawl  into  the  hive,  take  hold  of 
the  edge  of  the  paper  and  shake  them  up 
toward  the  entrance  ;  they  will  soon  go  in. 
A  paper  is  better  than  a  cloth,  for  they  can 
not  stick  fast  to  it.    If  you  carefully  fixed 
things  before  commencing,  so  there  was  no 
crack    or   crevice  into  which  a  bee  could 
crawl,  except  into  the  entrance  of  the  new 
hive,  and  if  you  have  been  careful — as  you 
always   should   be — to  avoid    setting  your 
(clumsy)  feet  on  a  bee,  you  certainly  have 
not  killed  the  queen,  and  she  is  in  one  hive 
or  the  other.    To  be  sure  she  is  in  the  new 
hive,  shake  all  before  the  entrance  when 
you  are  done,  and  see  that  every  bee  goes  in- 
to the  hive.    Save  out  the  drone  comb,  and 
melt  it  up.  unless  fit  to  be  used  in  sectinns. 
At  any  rate  we  don't  want  it  in  the  brood- 
chamber.    Utensils  and  bits  of  comb  that 
have  much  honey  daubed  on  them  may  be 
put  in  the  upper  story  for  the  bees  to  clean 
uj) ;  but  if  the  weatlier  is  oool,  keep  the  quilt 


:  constantly  in  subjection,  by  use  of  the 
smoke,  and  that  you  must  never  let  them 
get  the  faintest  idea  that,  by  any  possibility, 
they  can  become  master.  Send  them  back 
among  the  combs  as  often  as  they  poke 
their  heads  out,  until  they  are  perfectly  sub- 
dued, and  hang  in  quiet  clusters,  like  bees 
at  swarm  ing-time. 

It  makes  no  difference  which  side  up  the 
brood-combs  are,  in  transferring ;  turn  them 
horizontally  from  their  original  position,  or 
completely  upside  down,  as  you  find  most 
convenient.  Store  comb,  in  which  the  cells 
are  built  at  an  angle,  would  perhaps  better 
be  as  it  stood  originally  ;  but  if  you  do  not 
get  it  so,  it  makes  very  little  difference ;  the 
bees  have  a  way  of  fixing  all  such  matters 
very  quickly. 

WHEN  TO  TRANSFER. 

Several  inquire  if  I  would  advise  them 
to  transfer  bees  in  the  months  of  June,  July, 
August,  etc.  I  really  do  not  see  how  I  can 
answer  such  a  question,  not  knowing  the 
persons.  Among  our  neighbors  there  are 
those  who  would  work  so  carefully  that  they 
would  be  almost  sure  to  succeed  ;  and  again, 
there  are  others  who  would  be  almost  sure 
to  fail,  r  am  inclined  to  think  those  who 
make  these  inquiries  would  be  quite  a])t  to 
fail,  for  the  careful  ones  would  go  to  work 
without  asking  any  questions,  and  do  it  at 
any  season,  if  they  were  sufiiciently  anxious 
to  have  it  done.  Bees  can  be  transferred  at 
any  month  in  the  year.  If  in  June  or  July, 
you  will  need  an  extractor  to  throw  out  tlie 
honey  from  the  heaviest  pieces,  before  fast- 
ening them  into  frames.  The  spring  has 
been  decided  to  be  the  best  time,  because 
there  are  then  less  bees  and  less  honey,  as  a 
general  thing,  than  at  other  tinu^s.  The 
bees  will  fix  up  the  comb  better,  wlien  honey 
enough  is  being  gathered  to  induce  them  to 
build  comb  to  some  extent,  and  the  period  of 
fruit-blossoming  seems  to  secure  all  of  the 
above  advantages  more  fully  than  any  other 
season. 

APPLIANCES   FOR    FASTENING    IN    THE 
COMB. 

We    generally   use    transferring  -  clasps. 
These  are  made  of  pieces  of  tin  of  various 


TRANSFERRING. 


298 


TRANSFERRING. 


sizes,  from  2*  to  5  in.  in  length,  and  from  i  to 
f  in.  in  width.  They  are  bent  twice,  at  right 
angles,  so  as  to  slip  over  the  top-bars. 
Thin  slips  of  wood,  something  like  comb- 
guides,  are  sometimes  used  by  tacking  them 
to  the  bars  of  the  frame.  Others  wind  tine 
binding  wire  clear  around  the  frames. 
There  is  still  another  plan,  by  the  use  of 
bent  wires,  which  I  shall  call  transferring- 
wires.  The  wires,  and  the  manner  of  put- 
ting them  on,  are  shown  in  the  cut  below. 


TKAXSFERRING    CLASPS,    WIRES,    AND 
STICKS,  AND    THE   MANNER   OF 
•      USING  THEM. 

These  wires  ha\e  one  advantage  over  the 
clasps,  from  the  fact  that  they  can  be  re- 
moved without  lifting  the  frames  from  the 
hive.  Just  slip  off  the  top  and  twist  the 
wire  half  around,  and  it  can  be  draw-n  right 
up.  They  also  possess  another  very  decided 
advantage.  They  support  the  lightest  bot- 
tom-bar until  the  comb  is  all  firmly  waxed 
into  the  frames,  and  hanging  from  the 
top-bar  like  a  comb  built  on  it  naturally. 

This  cut  is  not  presented  as  a  model  of 
transferring,  but  only  to  show  how  the  vari 
ous  wires,  clasps,  and  sticks  may  be  used. 
Indeed,  it  does  not  pay  to  fuss  with  such 
>mall  pieces  of  comb  ("ombs  made 
from  foundation  wired  into  the  brood- 
frames  are  so  far  superior  that  it  is  poor 
policy  and  false  economy  to  use  any  thing 
but  the  largest  and  best  pieces  of  worker 
comb.  It  certainly  does  not  pay  to  use  such 
small  and  irregular  pieces  as  are  shown  in 
the  cut. 

We  always  use  and  recommend  frames 
wired  with  two  diagonal  wires ;  i.  e.,  a  wire 
passing  from,  say,  the  upper  right-hand 
corner  to  the  center  of  the  bottom-bar; 
thence  to  the  upper  left  hand  corner.  After 
the  comb  or  combs  are  cut  to  the  right  size, 
crowd  the  frame  over  as  far  as  the  wire 
will  let  it.  With  the  end  of  the  transfer- 
ring-knife  follow  the  path  of  the  wire,  cut- 
ting down  to  the  midrib  or  base  of  the  comb. 


Imbed  the  wire  in  the  knife  track,  and  then 
put  in  the  clasps  or  other  fastenings  if  nec- 
essary. If  the  combs  are  well  fitted,  the 
diagonal  \\  ires  will  be  sufficient.  Such  trans- 
ferred combs  are  good  and  strong,  and, 
while  not  as  strong  as  the  wired  frame 
shown  under  Foundation,  they  do  very 
well. 

If  you  have  many  w-eak  colonies  in  your 
apiary  you  may  transfer  a  colony,  and  di- 
vide the  combs  and  bees  around  among 
those  needing  it.  In  this  way  you  can  have 
the  combs  all  fixed  and  disposed  of  very 
quickly. 

One  who  is  expert  in  the  business  should 
transfer  a  colony  in  an  hour,  on  an  average ; 
I  have  taken  a  heavy  one  from  a  box  hive, 
and  had  it  completely  finished  in  40  minutes. 
Where  the  apiarist  goes  away  from  home  to 
do  such  work,  the  usual  price  is  $1.00  for  a 
single  colony,  and  less  for  more  than  one,  ac- 
cording to  the  number. 

Some  bee-keepers  drum  out  the  bees  be- 
fore transferring.  The  drumming  is  done 
by  placing  a  box  or  hive  over  the  old  one, 
and  drumming  on  the  sides  of  the  latter, 
until  the  greater  part  of  the  bees  are  up  in 
the  box  and  can  be  lifted  off  .^^^  After  having 
practiced  both  ways,  I  can  not  but  think  the 
drumming  a  waste  of  time,  and  a  needless 
annoyance  to  the  bees.  If  you  work  properly 
the  bees  should  keep  bringing  in  pollen  and 
honey  during  the  whole  time;  and  if  you 
place  their  brood-combs  in  the  same  relative 
position  to  each  other,  they  need  scarcely 
know  that  their  outer  shell  has  been  ex- 
changed for  a  different  one.  Should  the 
bees  seem  troubled  by  the  different  appear- 
ance of  their  new  home,  the  front  board  to 
the  old  hive  may  be  leaned  up  over  the  en- 
trance for  a  few  days. 

TRANSFEKRING  AVHEN  THE  BEES   ARE  DIS- 
POSED TO   ROB. 

I  have  recommended  the  period  during 
fruit-bloom,  because  at  such  a  time  the  bees 
usually  get  honey  enough  to  prevent  rob- 
bing. Should  it  be  necessary,  however,  to 
do  it  a  little  later,  say  between  fruit-bloom 
and  clover,  use  a  mosquito-bar  folding  tent. 

Bring  your  bee-tent  and  all  the  necessary 
tools  for  transferring,  and  stand  them  near 
the  old  box  hive.  Lay  on  its  side  the  box 
hive  to  be  transferred ,  and  with  a  cold-chisel 
cut  the  nails  so  that  one  side  can  be  remov- 
ed.•■sso-aaR  After  the  side  is  taken  off,  arrange 
every  thing  into  as  compact  a  space  as  possi- 
ble. This  done,  step  inside  the  tent  and 
grasp  the  intersections  and  ''spread"  your- 
self, as  it  were,  over  your  work.    You  will 


TRANSFERRING. 


299 


TRANSFERRING. 


then  appear  like  the  apiarist  in  the  folding 
bee- tent  shown  below. 


TRANSFERKING    WITH    THE    TEXT 

The  operator  inside  has  the  old  hive  from 
which  he  is  transferring,  together  with  the 
new  hive  and  all  necessary  fixtures  for  hold- 
ing the  combs  in  the  frames.  Besides  these 
he  has  a  saw,  chisel,  uncapping-knife,  smo- 
ker, bee-brush,  a  large  shallow  drip-pan  to 
catch  drippings  of  honey,  and  clean  wired 
frames.  To  make  his  work  as  easy  as  possi- 
ble, he  sits  on  a  tool-box.  In  case  he  wants 
a  frame  or  tool  which  by  oversight  he  does 
not  happen  to  have,  an  assistant,  who  may 
be  engaged  elsewhere  in  the  apiary,  at  a  call 
brings  him  whatever  he  desires.  In  the  en- 
graving yon  observe  the  assistant  is  in  the 
act  of  passing  an  empty  comb  under  the 
mosquito-netting. 

You  may  think  that  transferring  in  this 
tent  is  in  pretty  close  quarters,  but  I  have 
transferred  in  this  way  a  number  of  times 
easily  and  successfully,  and  the  tent  proved 
no  real  hindrance. 

TRAXSFEKKIXG   INDOORS. 

If  the  weather  is  bad  or  you  have  no  trans- 
fernng-tent,  you  can,  if  you  choose,  carry 
the  hive  and  all  into  some  convenient  out- 
building, or  into  your  honey-house,  to  do  the 
transferring.  If  you  can  work  before  a  door 
with  a  window  in  it,  all  the  better ;  but  if  no 
such  door  is  at  hand,  do  the  work  before  a 
window.  When  you  are  through,  place  the 
new  hive  with  its  combs  on  the  old  stand, 
take  out  the  window,  and  shake  the  bees 
on  to  the  newspaper  l)efore  the  entrance  and 
they  will  all  go  in. 

A    SHORT    WAY    OF     TRANSFERRING     FROM 
ROX   HIVES. 

A  little  before  swarming-time,  pry  the  top 


from  your  box  hive  and  set  a  single  story 
hive  over  it,  making  all  the  joints  bee- 
tight.  Now  hang  frames  filled  with  fdn.  in 
this  new  hive,  and  the  bees  will  soon  work 
up  into  it.  After  the  queen  gets  to  laying 
in  these  combs  the  bees  will  soon  all  move 
up  into  it  and  you  can  lift  it  off.  and  trans- 
fer, or  do  what  you  please  with  the  old  hive 
and  combs.  When  you  are  hurried,  this 
plan  gets  your  stock  gradually  into  im- 
proved hives,  without  very  much  trouble, 
and  no  mussing  with  dripping  honey. 

HEDDONS   SHORT  AVAY  OF  TRANSFERRING. 

Where  we  have  a  good  many  colonies, 
and  can  afford  foundation,  Ileddon's  meth- 
od will  commend  itself  as  being  much  more 
expeditious  and  more  easily  performed,  al- 
though at  the  expense  of  some  otherwise 
good  combs  and  drone  brood.  The  loss  of 
the  latter  will  be  welcomed  in  most  apia- 
ries. In  two  or  three  days,  instead  of 
patch-  d  and  uneven  combs,  we  shall  have 
nice,  straight  well-wired  and  all- worker 
combs.  There  are  no  transferring-clasps, 
sticks,  etc.,  to  remove.  Tlie  method  as  pub- 
lished in  Gleayiings  in  Bee  Culture,  Vol. 
XIII.,  page  -562,  is  ;iS  follows: — 

About  swarming--time  I  lake  one  of  my  Lang- 
stroth  hives,  containino:  eight  Given  pressed  wired 
frames  of  foundation,  and,  with  smoker  in  hand,  I 
approach  the  hive  to  be  transferred.  First,  I  drive 
the  old  queen  and  a  inajoritj"  of  the  bees  into  ray 
hiviug-box.  I  then  remove  the  old  hive  a  few  feet 
backward,  reversing  the  entrance,  placing  the  new 
one  in  its  place,  and  run  in  the  forced  swarm.  In 
two  days  I  find  eight  new  straight  combs  with  every 
cell  worker,  and  containing  a  good  start  of  brood. 
Twenty-one  days  after  the  transfer  I  drive  the  old 
hive  clean  of  all  its  bees,  uniting  them  with  the 
former  drive,  and  put  on  the  boxes  if  they  are  not 
already  on.  If  there  is  any  nectar  in  the  flowers, 
this  colony  will  show  you  box  honey.  I  run  them 
together  as  I  would  one  colony  in  two  parts.  Now 
to  the  old  beeless  hive.  Of  course,  there  is  no 
brood  left,  unless  a  little  drone-brood,  and  we  have 
before  U8  some  combs  for  wax,  for  more  founda- 
tion, and  some  flrst-class  kindling-wood. 

If  you  have  no  method  by  which  you  can  use  a 
full  hive  of  frames,  of  full  sheets  of  foundation, 
running  a  full  swarm  into  them  at  once,  by  all 
means  procure  it  without  delay.  But  if  anyone 
has  a  mania  for  cutting  up  combs  and  fitting  them 
into  frames,  013'  method  pi\-cn  above  does  not  pro- 
hibit them  from  usinsr  all  the  straight  worker- 
combs  the  old  hive  contains,  after  first  extracting 
the  honey  from  them.  .Should  any  one  wish  to  in- 
crease his  colonies  at  the  same  time  he  transfers, 
only  the  following  deviations  from  the  above  are 
necessary:  Run  the  second  drive  into  another 
hive  of  full  frames  of  foundation,  and  use  the  old 
hive  as  before.  Now  that  we  have  foundation  per- 
fected, so  that  the  bees  will  draw  the  lines  or  side 
walls  to  full  breeding  denth,  in  from  two  to  three 
days,  why  fuss  with  the  old  comb  from  the  old  hive? 
Having  once  experienced  the  advantages  to  be  at- 


TURXIK 


300 


TURNIP. 


tained  by  iisiiifr  the  above  method.  I  shall  certainly 
never  g^o  back  to  the  old  one.  All  of  you  know 
what  a  nuisance  a  few  odd-sized  hives  are  in  the 
apiary;  also  some  who  have  just  started  wish  they 
had  adopted  some  other  styie  of  hive.  The  above 
method  of  transferring  will  get  all  such  out  of  their 
trouble. 

The  cost  of  foundation  and  new  hives  is  fully 
made  up  by  the  better  combs,  and  you  have  the 
change  to  better  style  of  hive  thrown  into  the  bar- 
gain. I  have  thoroughly  tested  the  results  of  the 
plan  hen  in  described,  and  am  speaking  from  ex- 
perience. 

We  have  just  practiced  the  above  upon  72  col- 
onies, and  without  a  failure  or  mishap  of  any  sort. 
I  purchased  16  colonies  of  bees:  that  is,  I  purchased 
the  bees,  brood,  and  honey,  with  the  agreement 
that  I  should  return  the  hives  and  empty  combs, 
which  I  have  done.  We  made  each  one  cover  two 
sets  of  combs  in  two  brood-chambers,  with  two 
queens,  besides  the  surplus  sets  used  above  for  ex- 
tracting, and  all  are  rousing  strong.  When  you 
plan  to  double  your  colonies,  you  remove  the  old 
colony  to  an  entirely  new  location,  when  you  make 
the  first  drive.  It  is  now  my  opinion,  that,  even 
without  the  use  of  comb  foundation,  in  the  days 
■when  we  had  none  this  plan  of  transferring  would 
have  been  the  preferable  one.  As  we  are  cutting 
out  the  old  combs  for  wax,  we  transfer  any  that  we 
find,  that  are  perfect,  now  that  they  are  all  clear 

from  bees  and  brood. 

James  Heddon. 
Dowagiac,  Mich.,  ^  ag.  6, 188.5. 

TUHZflF.  The  turnip,  mustard,  cab- 
bage, rape,  etc.,  are  all  membersof  one  fam- 
ily, and,  if  I  am  correct,  all  bear  honey, 
when  circumijtances  are  favorable.  The 
great  enemy  of  most  of  these  in  our  locality 
(espi  dally  of  the  rape),  is  the  little  black  cab- 
bage-flea. The  turnip  escapes  this  pest  by 
being  sown  in  the  fall ;  and  we're  it  not  that 
it  comes  in  bloom  at  almost  the  same  time 
that  the  fruit  -  trees  do,  I  should  consider  it 
ojie  of  the  most  promising  honey-plants. 

1  n  the  summer  of  1877,  Mr.  A.  W.  Kaye, 
of  Pewee  Valley,  Ky.,  sent  me  some  seed  of 
what  is  called  the  ''  Seven -top  turnip,'"  say- 
ing that  his  bees  had  gathered  more  pollen 
from  it,  in  the  spring,  than  from  any  thing 
else.  I  sowed  the  seed  about  the  1st  of  Oct., 
on  ground  'where  early  potatoes  had  been 
dug.  In  December  they  showed  a  luxuri- 
ance of  beautiful  green  foliage,  and  in  May, 
following,  a  sea  of  yellow  blossoms,  making 
the  i^rettiest  "  posy-bed,"  I  believe,  that  I 
ever  saw  in  my  life,  and  the  music  of  the 
bees  humming  among  the  branches  was  just 


"  entrancing,"  to  one  who  has  an  ear  for 
such  music.  I  never  saAV  so  many  bees  on 
any  patch  of  blossoms  of  its  size  in  my  life, 
as  could  be  seen  on  them  from  daylight  until 
dark. 

Friend  K.  recommended  the  plant  partic- 
ularly for  pollen;  but,  besides  this,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  it  will  give  a  large  amount 
of  honey  to  the  acre.  We  have  much  trouble 
here  in  raising  rape  and  mustard,  with  the 
small  turnip  beetle,  or  flea  ;  but  this  turnip- 
patch  has  never  been  touched;  whether  it  is 
on  account  of  sowing  so  late  in  the  fall,  or 
because  the  flea  does  not  fancy  it.  I  am  un- 
able to  say.  The  plants  seem  very  hardy, 
and  the  foliage  is  most  luxuriant,  much 
more  so  than  either  the  rape  or  Chinese  mus- 
tard, which  latter  plant  it  much  resembles, 
only  having  larger  blossoms.  As  our  patch 
was  sown  after  the  first  of  Oct.,  and  the 
crop  could  easily  be  cleared  from  our  land  by 
the  middle  of  June,  a  crop  of  honey  could  be 
secured  without  interfering  with  the  use  of 
the  land  for  other  purposes. 

Friend  K.  also  recommends  the  foliage 
for  "greens,"  and  says  that  he  sows  it  in  his 
garden  for  spring  and  winter  use.  We  tried 
a  mess  of  greens  from  our  patch  in  Decem- 
ber, and  found  them  excellent.  Our  seed  was 
sown  very  thickly,  in  drills  about  one  foot 
apart.  This  turnip  bears  only  tops,  and  has 
no  enlargement  of  the  root.   • 

If  I  could  get  a  ten-acre  lot  covered  with 
such  bloom  during  the  month  of  August,  I 
should  not  hesitate  an  instant  to  hand  over 
the  money  for  the  necessary  expenses.  If 
we  can  not  get  the  blossoms  in  August,  we 
can  certainly  have  an  abundant  supply  be- 
tween fruit-bloom  and  clover. 

Turnip  seed  is  valuable  for  the  oil  made 
from  it,  and  also  as  a  food  for  canary  birds. 
If  sown  on  corn-ground  at  tlie  last  cultivat- 
ing, the  plants  will  gain  a  good  liold  before 
winter,  and  in  the  spring  blossom  profusely. 
If  they  are  turned  under  just  before  going 
out  of  bloom  they  make  one  of  the  most  val- 
uable of  soiling  crops.  Thus  a  good  turnip 
pastiuage  may  be  obtained  with  no  extra 
work,  except  sowing  the  seed,  and  the  crop 
would  be  an  actual  benefit  to  the  soil  if 
turned  under. 


u. 


UrrXTING-  BEES.  Uniting  colonies 
is  much  like  introducing  queens,  inasmuch 
as  no  fixed  rule  can  be  given  for  all  cases. 
It  is  a  verj'  simple  matter  to  lift  the  frames, 
bees  and  all,  out  of  one  hive  and  set  them 
into  another,  where  the  two  are  situated  side 
by  side.  Usually  there  will  be  no  quarrel- 
ing, if  this  is  done  when  the  weather  is  too 
cold  for  the  bees  to  fly,  but  this  is  not  al- 
ways the  case.227  if  one  colony  is  placed 
close  to  one  side  of  the  hive,  and  the  other 
to  the  other  side,  and  they  are  small  enough 
for  a  vacant  comb  or  two  between  them, 
they  will  very  rarely  fight.  After  two  or 
three  days,  the  bees  will  be  found  to  have 
united  themselves  peaceably,  and  the  brood 
and  stores  may  then  be  placed  compactly  to- 
gether, and  your  chaff  cushions  put  in  at  each 
side.  If  there  are  frames  containing  some 
honey,  that  can  not  be  put  in,  they  should  be 
placed  in  an  upper  story,  and  the  bees  al- 
lowed to  carry  it  down.--*'  You  should  always 
look  to  them  20  minutes  or  half  an  hour  after 
they  are  put  into  one  hive,  to  see  if  every 
thing  is  amicable  on  "  both  sides  of  the 
house."  If  you  find  any  bees  fighting,  or 
any  doubled  up  on  the  bottom  -  board,  give 
them  such  a  smoking  that  they  can  not  tell 
"  which  from  t'other,''  and  after  15  or  20 
minutes,  if  they  are  fighting  again,  give 
them  another  '•  dose,"  and  repeat  until  they 
are  good  to  each  other.  I  have  never  failed 
in  getting  them  peaceable  after  two  or  three 
smokings. 

If  you  wish  to  unite  two  colonies  so  large 
that  a  single  story  will  not  easily  contain 
them,  which,  by  the  way,  I  feel  sure  is  always 
poor  policy,  or  if  th^ir  honey  is  scattered 
through  the  whole  ten  combs  in  each  hive, 
proceed  as  before,  only  set  one  hive  over 
the  other.  If  this  is  done  on  a  cool  day, 
and  the  bees  are  kept  in  for  two  or 
three  days,  few,  if  any,  will  go  back  to  the 
old  stand.  If  the  hives  stood  within  six  feet 
of  each  other,  they  will  all  get  back  without 
any  trouble  anyway,  for  they  will  hear  the 


call  of  their  comrades  who  have  discovered 
the  new  order  of  things.  .Sometimes  you 
can  take  two  colonies  while  flying,  and  put 
them  together  without  trouble,  by  making 
the  lost  bees  call  their  comrades.  Only  actual 
practice,  and  acquaintance  with  the  habits 
of  bees,  will  enable  you  to  do  this;  and  if 
you  have  not  that  knowledge,  you  must  get 
it  by  experience.  Get  a  couple  of  colonies 
that  you  do  not  value  much,  and  practice  on 
them.  As  I  have  said  all  along,  beware  of 
robbers,  or  you  will  speedily  make  two  col- 
onies into  none  at  all,  instead  of  into  one. 

WHAT    TO    DO   WITH    THE    QUEENS. 

If  one  of  the  colonies  to  be  united  has  been 
several  days  queenless,  all  the  better ;  for  a 
queenless  colony  will  often  give  up  its  local- 
ity and  accept  a  new  one,  if  simply  shaken 
in  front  of  a  hive  containing  a  laying  queen. 
From  a  hive  containing  neither  queen  nor 
brood,  I  have  induced  the  whole  lot  to  de- 
sert, and  go  over  to  a  neighboring  colony, 
by  simply  shaking  some  of  the  bees  in  front 
of  it.  They  were  so  overjoyed  at  finding  a 
laying  queen,  that  they  called  all  their  com- 
rades to  the  new  home,  and  all  hands  set  to 
work  and  carried  every  diop  of  honey  to  the 
hive  with  the  fertile  queen.  By  taking  ad- 
vantage of  this  disposition  we  can  often 
make  short  work  of  uniting.  If  you  are  in 
a  hurry,  or  do  not  care  for  the  queens,  you 
can  imite  without  paying  any  attention  to 
them,  and  one  will  Ije  killed  ;  but,  as  even  a 
hybrid  queen  is  now  worth  50  cts.,  I  do  not 
think  it  pays  to  kill  them.  Remove  the 
poorest  one  aufl  keep  her  safely  caged  until 
you  are  sure  the  other  is  well  received  by 
the  bees.  If  she  is  killed,  as  is  sometimes 
the  case,  you  have  the  other  to  replace  her.--'-' 
Where  stocks  are  several  rods  apart,  they 
are  often  moved  a  couple  of  feet  a  day  while 
the  bees  are  flying  briskly,  until  they  are 
side  by  side,  and  then  united  as  we  have  di- 
rected. This  is  so  much  trouble,  that  I 
much  prefer  waiting  for  cold   weather.     If 


UNITING  BEES. 


802 


UNITING  BEES. 


your  bees  are  in  box  hives,  I  should  say  your 
first  job  on  hand  is  to  transfer  them.  If 
you  have  several  kinds  of  hives  in  your 
apiary  you  are  about  as  badly  off,  and  the 
remedy  is  to  throw  away  all  but  one.  My 
friends,  those  of  you  who  are  buying  every 
patent  hive  that  comes  along,  and  putting 
your  bees  into  them,  you  little  know  how 
much  trouble  and  bother  you  are  making 
yourselves  for  the  years  to  come. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  advise  deferring 
tlie  uniting  of  your  bees  until  we  have  sev- 
eral cold  rainy  days,  in  Oct.,  for  instance,  on 
which  bees  will  not  fly.-^*"  Then  proceed  as 
directed.  If  you  have  followed  the  advice  I 
have  given,  you  will  have  little  uniting  to 
do,  except  Avith  the  queen-rearing  nuclei  ; 
and  with  these,  you  have  only  to  take  the 
hives  away  and  set  the  frames  in  the  hive 
below,  when  you  are  done  with  them.  If 
the  hive  below  is  a  strong  one,  as  it  should 
of  course  be,  just  set  the  frames  from  the 
nucleus  into  the  upper  story,  until  all  the 
brood  has  hatched.  If  you  wish  to  make  a 
colony  of  the  various  nuclei,  collect  them 
during  a  cold  day,  and  put  them  all  into  one 
hive.  If  you  have  bees  from  3  or  4,  they  will 
unite  better  than  if  they  came  from  only  two 
hives,  and  you  will  seldom  see  a  bee  go  back 
to  his  old  home.  A  beginner  should  beware 
of  having  many  weak  colonies  in  the  fall,  to 
be  united.  It  is  much  safer  to  have  them 
all  strong  and  ready  for  winter,  long  before 
winter  comes. 


UNITING  NEAV   SWARMS. 

This  is  so  easily  done  that  I  hardly  need 
give  directions ;  in  fact,  if  two  swarms  come 
out  at  the  same  time,  they  are  almost  sure 
to  unite,  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  heard 
of  two  such  swarms  quarreling.  One  of  the 
queens  will  very  soon  be  killed,  but  you  may 
easily  find  the  extra  one  by  looking  for  the 
ball  of  bees  that  will  be  found  clinging  about 
her,  very  soon  after  the  bees  have  been  join- 
ed together.  A  swarm  can  almost  always 
be  given  without  trouble,  to  any  swarm  that 
has  come  out  the  day  previous  ;  and  if  you 
will  take  the  trouble  to  watch  them  a  little, 
you  may  unite  any  swarm  with  any  other 
new  swarm,  even  if  it  came  out  a  week  or 
I  more  before.  Smoke  them  when  inclined  to 
i  flght,  as  I  told  you  before,  and  make  them 
be  good  to  the  new  comers. s'ii 

i  UNITING    BEES    IN    THE    SPRING. 

I  During  our  spring- dwindling  troubles, 
some  years  ago  we  used  to  unite  a  stock  that 
has  become  queenless  to  one  having  a 
queen,  or  to  unite  two  or  more  weak  stocks, 
to  enable  them  to  go  through  the  spring 
months.  The  process  is  much  like  uniting 
in  the  fall.  Lift  out  the  frames  and  put 
them  together,  watching  to  see  that  they 
are  friendly  to  the  new  comers.  Bees  are 
often  united  in  the  spring  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  great  results  in  honey;  and  by  unit- 
ing the  bees  and  brood,  great  amounts  may 
be  obtained  from  what  might  be  called  a 
single  swarm. 


V. 


VEZIiS.  The  necessity  of  using  face 
protections  will  depend  very  largely  upon 
the  race 'of  bees  to  be  handled.  If  you  are 
to  deal  with  hybrids,  Cyprians,  or  Holy- 
Lands,  I  would  recommend  you  to  wear  a 
veil.  With  pure  Italians  it  is  not  .so  neces- 
sary, still  I  always  prefer  to  have  one  handy. 
Its  tise  will,  in  any  case,  give  the  apiarist 
a  sense  (<f  security  that  will  enable  him  to 
work  to  much  better  advantage  than  he 
would  if  continually  in  fear  or  every  cross 
bee  that  chanced  to  buzz  near  his  eyes. 

There  are  two  great  objections  to  the  use 
of  veils ;  one  is  that  they  necessarily  obstruct 
the  vision  more  or  less,  and  the  other  is  that 
they  obstruct  the  free  circulation  of  air, 
which  is  so  desirable  in  hot  weather,  and 
thus  tend  to  make  the  wearer  SAveaty,  un- 
comfortable, and  perhaps  nervous. 

The  very  nic'-st  veil  is  one  made  entirely 
of  silk  tulle.'*- although  it  is  '^oniewhat  more 
expensive.     The  m.itoiial  is  so  hne  that  a 


'Ifi 


S\ 


I5KE    \'EIL   AND    HAT    I'llKKERREU    JJY   THE 
BOYS  AT  THE  HOME  OF  THE  HONEY-BEES. 

whole  veil  of  it  may  be  folded  so  as  to  go  in 
a  small  vest  pocket.  I  carry  one  of  these 
constantly  during  the  working  season  of  the 
bees,  and  it  is  alwiiys  ready  for  an  emergen- 
cy. It  neither  obstructs  the  vision  nor  pre- 
vents the  free  circulation  of  air  on  hot  days. 
A  cheaper  one,  though  not  so  light  or  cool,  is 
made  of  grenadine  with  a  facing  of  silk 
tulle  net  sewed  in.    It  is  a  stronger  veil. 


but  little  if  any.  The  top  of  the  veil  is  gath- 
ered Avith  a  rul)ber  cord,  so  that  it  may  be 
made  to  fit  chsely  around  the  crown  of  the 
hat. 

Our  boys  wear  a  bro:id-brinimed  clolh  liat, 
costing  about  liO  cents  each.  These  hats  are 
very  light,  and  will  fit  any  head,  and  can  be 
folded  so  as  to  put  in  a  coat-pocket.  The  under 
side  of  the  brim  is  green.  The  upper  side 
of  the  crown  is  of  a  drab  color.  This  broad 
brim  is  supported  and  held  out  by  means  of 
a  steel  h<  'op ;  and  when  the  veil  is  placed 
over  the  hat,  if  properly  drawn  down  it  can 
not  touch  the  face  or  neck,  and  hence  leaves 
no  possible  chance  for  stings.  During  liot 
days,  when  bees  require  the  most  attention 
in  the  apiary,  a  coat  or  vest  is  simply  intol- 
erable. Jn  the  absence  of  either  one  of  these 
the  corners  of  the  veil  are  drawn  under  the 
suspenders,  as  shown.  This  is  much  cooler 
than  coat-ctllar  fashion,  and  just  as  secure 
from  the  attacks  of  bees.  When  the  bees 
become  (piieted  down  you  can  lift  the  veil 
up  out  of  the  way.  ShoJild  you,  by  a  care- 
less movement,  arouse  the'ire  of  voiu-  pets, 
you  can  quickly  draw  the  veil  down  and  pull 
it  under  the  suspenders  in  a  twinkling.  But 
this  could  not  be  done  as  quickly  with  tlie 
coat-collar.  As  the  crown  of  the  hat  is  only 
cloth,  on  Aery  hot  days  the  boys  are  in  the 
habit  of  putting  plantain  or  grai)evine  leaves 
in  the  toj).  These  are  an  additional  pro- 
tection, and  keep  the  top  of  the  head  cool. 


nOPATCONG   HAT   AM)    VEIL. 


One  of  our  bovs  has  used  with  much  satis- 


but  not  as  cool  as  the  one  made  entirely  of  faction  what  is  called  tli(>  Ilopatcong.  It  is  a 
silk  tulle.  The  grenadine  is  strong,  and  iial  that  is  worn  in  India  and  other  hot  coun- 
the  brussels-net  facing  olistrncts  the  vision  I  tries,  and   is  slowly  workinu-  its   wav   into 


VEILS. 


304 


VEILS. 


this  couiitiN ,  iiaitifiilaily  in  the  South.     It  1 
is  made  of  pahn-leaf ,  and  it  is  supported 
above  the  head  in  the  manner  ilhistrated 
on    iireceding   page.    The  cut  will  render  | 
furtiier  description  unnecessary. 

As  light  breezes  can  circulate  above  and 
around  the  liead,  it  is  perhaps  the  coolest 
sim-shade  of  any  herein  illustrated  and  de- 
scribi  d.  If  you  can  not  secure  one  of  these, 
and  would  like  to  get  the  ventilating  feature, 
take  an  ordinary  palm-leaf  hat  several  sizes 
too  large.  On  the  inside  of  the  liat-l)and 
sew  four  or  five  Much  (orksthat  have  been 
cut  in  halves  lengthwise.  These,  if  space.d 
at  regular  distances,  will  keep  the  hat  from 
the  head,  and  permit  ventilation. 
There  are  several  descriptions  of  bee-veils. 
I  will  now  de- 
scribe some  of 
the  bee  -  hats 
that  have  been 
suggested  b  y 
^/I'^ife^jW  some   of   the 

subscribers  of 
Gleanings.  I 
have  before  re- 


colonies  of  bees,  isn't  an  engineer,  wlio  else,  Indeed,  is 
worthy  of  the  name?  When  extracting  lioney,  or  at 
work  witli  stickiness  that  is  cci-tain  to  get  on  my 
ai'ms,  I  put  on  an  additional  set  of  sleeves. 


/F^ 


•T.   H.   MARTIN'^  BEE-SUIT. 


marked,  that 
one  objection  to 
bee-veils  is  the 
obstruction     to 


For  head-wear  I  prefer  a  stiff  straw  hat,  witli  a  3Vi- 
inch  brim,  over  which  a  silk  iji'ussels-net  veil  is  worn 
in  the  ordinary  way.  To  hold  the  veil  snug  around 
the  neck,  I  piefer  a  stout  cord  with  a  slip  noose. 

Mr.  W.  L.  Coggshall,  of  West  Groton,  N. 
Y.,  an  extensive  bee-keeper,  having  600  col- 
onies,  in  Gleanings  for  June  1, 1889,  describ- 

the  eyesight  To      ^^  ^  similar  suit.    He  says  of  it : 

this,  ' 

My  idea  of  a  bee-veil 
is  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying photograph.  It 
is  simply  a  wide-rim- 
med straw  or  leghorn 
hat,  with  a  stiff  rim — I 
right  here  went  and  got 
my  hat  to  give  you  the 
measurements.  Tlierim 


<  APEHART'S  GLASS-FRONT  VEIL.    QyerCOme 

Mr.  .John  C.  Capehart,  of  St.  Albans,  West 

Ya.,  has  glue  1  a  piece  of  glass  in  front  of 

the  veil.    The  difficulty  with  this  was,  that 

tlie  glass  would  harldly  ever  be  in  range 

with  the  eyes,  on  accotmt  of  its  weight,  anu 

then  it  would  be  covered  with  steam  from 

the  breath ;  and,  worse  than  all,  it  would 

get  broken.    The  Ijrussels  net  is  open  to    of  the  hat  is  4  in.  wide; 

none  of  these  objections,  and  it  is  almost  as  i  t'le  length  (jf  veil,  up 

transparent  as  glass  itself.  \  '^"^  ^""^"-  /.«  !"•; .  ^""^ 

I  the  material  IS  bob)  net, 

Mr.  J.  II.  Martin,  of  Hartford,  N.  Y.,  in  '  or  miiiinet,  black,  i 
Gleanings  for  March  1, 1889,  illustrated  and  sew  the  veil  on  the  un- 
described  not  only  his  bee-hat,  but  his  bee-  fi^'i"  ^'•le  "^  «'*-'  "™  "^' 
suit.  His  description  and  illustiation  are 
as  follows : 


In  a  clotliing-store  I  found  what  is  called  an  engi- 
neer's suit  —  overalls  and  sliort  coat,  or  blouse,  made 
of  blue  and  wliite  cheeked  cott<)n  cloth,  the  wliole 
weighing  only  154  lbs.— cost  "zhust  von  toUar,  zhust 
a  fit,  and  zliust  the  thing."  The  beauty  of  this  .suit  is 
the  ceilalnty  (jf  c<jmplete  protection  to  your  Sunday 
clothes  if  you  clKK)se  to  wear  them;  and  the  price  en- 
ables you  to  own  two  suits,  and  wash  often,  and  to  be 
always  clean.  Then  the»e  are  i)lcnty  of  i)ockets,  fore 
and  aft.  for  pencils,  jack-knives,  screw-drivers,  queen- 
cages,  t<K)thpicks,  etc.  There  are  tliose  who  may  pos- 
sibly object  to  aijpropriating  or  adapting  an  engi- 
neer's suit  to  bee-keeping;  but.  friends,  if  a  mortal 
man  or  woman,  conducting  an  apiary  of  two  hundred 


the  hat,  3  in.  from  the 
outer  edge  of  the  rim, 
thus  giving  a  2-in.  pro- 
jection   to    shade    the 
veil,  so  that  I  can  see 
at  anytime;  for  if  the 
sun  strikes  the  veil,  I 
can  not  .see  eggs  in  the 
cells.     I  use  a  flat  shoe- 
string for  a  shir.or  take- 
up,    around    the    neck, 
and  have  all  of  the  gath- 
ering in  the  sides  and    coooshall's  bee-dress. 
back  of  the  veil.    I  sew  the  veil  fast  to  the  string. 
Tlie  .sluK'striiig  is  long  enougli  to  tie  under  tlie  collar, 
so  It  is  imijossible  for  a  bee  to  get  at  your  face.  Tliere 
is  not  much  gathering  in  front  to  obstruct  the  vision. 


VEILS. 


3()o 


VENTl  LATION. 


When  I  am  not  in  the  bee-yavd,  (ir  g'oing'  fi'oni  one 
•;ii)iary  to  another,  I  untie  and  tuck  it  in  tlie  en)wn  of 
tlie  hat,  and  it  is  out  of  tlie  way,  and  all  ready  at  a 
moment's  notice,  which  we  all  know  is  very  conven- 
ient sometimes. 

Foi' liand-g-ear  or  false  sleeves  I  use  colored  si lii-t- 
hifr.  Aftei'  they  are  made,  dip  tliem  in  linseed  oil; 
lianK' them  in  the  sun  till  dry.  then  the  hees  tan  not 
sting'  throug^h  them.  I  liave  a  ruVjlier  elastic  in  the 
upper  end  above  the  elbow,  also  the  one  that  is  around 
the  liand.  Have  a  tiiumb-liole  woi'ked  in  above  the 
ela.stic,  so  that  the  hand  is  all  covered,  except  the  fin- 
gers and  tliumb  (like  a  mit),  only  tiie  fingers  are  all 
together.  With  sleeves  made  in  that  way.  bees  do 
not  crawl  up  my  ai-ms  and  make  me  uncomfortable, 
and  give  me  pain.  W.  L.  Coggshalii. 

West  Groton,  N.  Y.,  April  21.  1H89. 

Mr.  Martin  and  Mr.  CoggshaL  botli  make 
use  of  sleeve-protectors.  Both  will  be  found 
exceedinglj'  useful  for  protecting  the  hands 
and  wrists,  and  they  i)revent  them  getting 
daubed. 


sewed  to  its  lower  edge  and  to  its  front. 
For  the  face,  a  piece  is  cut  out  large  enough 
ti)  receive  a  piece  «»f  wire  cloth. 


BEE-HATS  FOR  WOyiEN. 

Mrs.  L.  Harrison,  of  Peoria,  111.,  uses  a 
bee-hat  like  the  one  illustrated  above.  The 
hat  is  made  of  green  wire  cloth  ;  the  top  of 
pasteboard,  and  the  bottom  of  calico. 

Mrs.  L.  C.  Axtell,  of  Roseville,  111.,  anotli- 
er  one  of  our 
pro  m  i  n  e  n  t 
lady  bee- 
keepers, one 
wlio  produces 
large  crops  of 
honey,  uses  a 
iiead  -  wear 
like  the  om 
shown  in  tlic 
cut.  It  is 
simply  a  bon- 
net having  a 
calico     cape 


.-^IKS.  U.  II.  nOLMES'  BEE  HAT. 

Mrs.  R.  11.  Holmes,  of  Shoreham.  Vt., 
uses  a  bee-hat  like  that  shown  in  the  above 
cut.  It  is  simply  a  straw  hat  with  a  broad 
rim,  the  veil  being  made  of  mos(iuito  bar, 
and  the  facing  of  lirussels  net.  A  strip  of 
clotli  lines  the  lower  edge  of  tlie  veil,  and  is 
made  just  large  enough  to  fit  snugly  around 
the  shoulders.  A  cou])le  of  cloth  straps 
hitched  to  buttons  pass  under  the  arm-pits, 
and  button  on  behind.  Of  the  veils  for  wo- 
men which  we  have  shown,  this  one  seems 
to  me  to  be  more  desirable.  Mrs.  Harri- 
son's hardly  gives  protection  enough  from 
the  siui.  Mrs.  Axtell's  would  be  too  warm. 
Mrs.  Holmes"  is  free  from  both  objections, 
or,  at  least,  to  a  great  extent. 


MKS.  AXTEI, 


A  liEE-.Vl'KoN    KOK    1,AD1K>. 


VENTILATION. 


30(5 


VENTILATION. 


The  cut  represents  an  apron  preferred 
by  Miss  Emma  Wilson,  of  Marengo,  111.  It 
has  two  large  pockets.  The  pattern.  No. 
o6i)6,  can  be  obtained  of  the  liutterick  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  of  New  York.  This  apron  is 
large  enough  to  cover  the  whole  dress,  with 
the  exception  of  the  sleeves.  But  detachable 
sleeves,  something  like  those  used  by  Mr. 
J.  II.  Martin,  or  Mr.  Coggshall,  as  shown  in 
the  engraving  just  opposite,  are  preferred. 
Miss  Wilson  prefers  to  wear  gloves,  as  does 
Mrs.  Harrison.  The  gloves  which  seem  to 
be  preferred  are  something  in  the  kid  or  dog- 
skin line.  Rubber  gloves  do  not  seem  to 
answer  the  purpose  very  well. 

now    TO    GET    ALOXG    WITHOLT    A    VEIL. 

It  is  a  very  great  convenience  to  be  able  to 
dispense  with  a  veil  altogether,  when  cir- 
cumstances call  for  or  permit  it.  The  only 
obstacle  in  the  way  is  a  natural  dread  that  a 
bee  may  possibly  sting  in  the  face  if  he  had 
a  chance.  This  diead  has  usually  to  be 
worn  off  as  you  become  more  and  more  ac- 
customed to  handling  and  working  with 
bees.  When  you  are  without  a  veil,  if  a  bee 
comes  up,  and,  by  his  hum.  you  detect  that 
he  is  angry,  do  not  dodge  or  strike  at  him, 
but  control  the  muscles  of  the  face  as  per- 
fectly as  though  you  were  not  at  all  aware 
of  his  presence.  A  little  wince  c.f  the  cheek 
or  of  the  eye  will  encourage  his  fighting 
qualities.  A  careless,  indifferent  behavior, 
on  the  other  hand.  sho\^s  him  you  are  not 
afraid  of  him,  and  he  therefore  very  sensi- 
bly (  oncludes  that  there  is  no  use  in  wasting 
a  sti'ig  for  uothing.  Sometimes  I  put  my 
hand  up  to  my  face  when  one  of  these  ras- 
cals persists  in  his  annoyance.  Should  he 
actually  begin  to  sting,  I  smash  him.  In 
your  community  you  will  probably  acquire 
the  reputation  of  a  bee-keeper,  and,  as  such, 
when  yon  are  suddenly  called  upon  to  hive  a 
swarm  of  bees  without  prei)aration,  for  a 
neighbor,  it  would  be  a  little  unbecoming, 
and  peihaps  a  little  humiliating,  for  you  to 
show  signs  of  fear.  You  should  learn  to 
'•  astonish  the  natives"'  tiarelianded  and  bare- 
faced, and  you  need  not  incur  risk,  either,  if 
you  maiuige  rightly. 

VISSTTZZiATIOIO'.  Bees  get  it,  ordi- 
narily, through  the  entrance,  and  through 
the  cracks  and  crevices  which  are  generally 
found  in  even  the  best-made  hives,  providing 
the  hive  is  properly  constructed  in  other  re- 
spects considered  under  the  head  of  Winter- 
ing. I  do  not  believe  in  holes  made  in 
different  portions  of  the  hive,  and  covered 
with  wire  cloth,  because  the  bees  persistently 


wax  the  wire  cloth  over,  just  as  soon  as  they 
get  strong  enough  to  be  able  to  do  so.  If 
we  omit  the  wire  cloth,  they  will,  in  time, 
build  the  holes  up,  by  much  labor,  with  Avails 
of  propolis,  until  they  have  effectiudly  stop- 
ped the  inconvenient  drafts  that  the  improv- 
ed (V)  ventilators  would  admit  at  all  times 
through  the  hive.  During  extremely  hot 
weather,  a  powerful  colony  may  need  more 
air  than  is  afforded  by  an  ordinary  entrance, 
especially  it  the  hive  stands  fully  in  the  svm. 
Ill  such  a  case  I  should  much  prefer  giving 
the  bees  shade,  to  cutting  ventilation-holes, 
which  the  bees  will  soon  begin  to  use  as  en- 
trances ;  and  when  the  hot  weather  is  over, 
and  it  is  desirable  to  close  these  entrances, 
you  confuse  and  annoy  the  bees  by  so  doing.* 
On  this  account  I  would  give  all  the  venti- 
lation that  a  strong  colony  might  need  to 
keep  them  inside  at  work  in  the  boxes,  by 
simply  enlarging  the  entrance.  This  can  be 
done  very  readily  with  the  Simplicity  hives, 
and  I  have  frequently  given  them  an  en- 
trance, under  such  circumstances,  the  whole 
width  of  the  hive,  and  as  much  as  two  or 
three  inches  broad.  The  chaff  hive  with  its 
entrance  8  inches  by  I  has  always  had  all  the 
ventilation  it  seemed  to  require,  because  the 
sun  can  never  strike  directly  on  the  walls  of 
the  apartment  containing  the  bees  and  honey. 
For  the  same  reason,  the  house-apiary  with 
its  two-inch  auger-hole  entrance  has  never  re- 
quired any  further  provision  for  ventilation. 
The  chaff  cushions  placed  over  the  bees  in 
winter  are  kept  over  the  surplus  frames  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  time  in  summer,  to 
confine  the  heat  during  cool  nights;  and  from 
their  porous  nature  they  allow  of  the  escape 
of  more  or  less  air  that  comes  in  slowly 
through  the  entrance,  the  honey-boxes  hav- 
ing no  other  covering  than  the  wide  frames 
that  hold  the  sections  and  these  same  chaff' 
cushions.  I  have  obtained  more  siuplus  hon- 
ey with  this  arrangement  than  with  any  oth- 
er, and  am  firmly  persuaded  that  a  great  loss 
of  honey  often  results  from  allowing  such  a 
draft  of  air  through  the  hive  that  the  bees 
can  not  w'ork  the  wax,  unless  during  the  ex- 
tremely warm  weather.  To  test  this  matter 
I  covered  a  large  colony  in  the  house-apiary 
with  w^oolen  blankets  while  they  were  gath- 
ering clover  honey,  to  induce  them  to  remain 
in  the  boxes,  even  after  the  weather  had 
turned  quite  cool.  So  long  as  tlie  blankets 
remained  on,  the  bees  would  remain  in  the 
boxes  working  wax;  but  as  soon  as  the  blan- 
kets were  removed,  at  each  time  the  experi- 


*A  colony  in  a  chaff  hive  with  a  full-width  en- 
trance winters  best. 


VENTILATIOX. 


307 


VIXEGAR. 


ment  was  tried,  they  retreated  to  the  body  of 
the  hive.  Tlie  same  thing  was  tried  witli 
thin-walled  hives  nut  of  doors.-''-' 

SMOTHEKING    BEES    BY  CLOSING    THE 
EXTRAXCE. 

Although  bees  will  make  out  to  get  along, 
€veii  with  a  very  small  entrance,  we  should 
be  very  careful  about  closing  the  entrance 
entirely,  in  M'arm  weather,  even  for  only  a 
few  minutes.  Many  are  the  reports  we  get 
almost  every  season,  of  bees  destroyed  by 
simply  closing  their  entrance,  while  undej^ 
taking  to  stop  their  swarming  for  a  few 
minutes,  until  some  other  colony  can  be  at- 
tended to.  See  Swarming,  Entrances. 
and  Robbing,  especially  the  last  head,  Hoio 
to  Stop  Bobbing. 

When  bees  have  the  swarming  fever,  as  a 
general  thing  they  are  gorged  witli  honey, 
and  in  a  feverisli  state.  They  are  like  a  man 
who  has  been  taking  violent  exercise  after  a 
hearty  meal,  and  require  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary amount  of  air.  Their  breathing-tubes 
are  in  different  parts  of  the  body,  principally 
under  the  wings;  and  as  soon  as  the  entrance 
is  closed,  they  crowd  about  it;  and  when  the 
heat  of  so  many  becomes  suffocating,  as  it 
will  in  a  very  few  minutes,  the  honey  is  in- 
voluntarily discliarged,  wetting  themselves 
and  their  companions,  and  most  effectually 
closing  their  breathing-tubes,  in  a  way  that 
eauses  death  to  ensue  very  quickly.  I  have 
known  of  heavy  swarms  being  killed  in  the 
short  space  of  fifteen  minutes,  when  the  hive 
was  thus  closed  on  them.  The  heat  gener- 
ated by  the  smothering  mass  will  often  be 
great  enough  to  melt  down  the  combs,  en- 
veloping bees,  brood,  honey,  and  all,  in  a 
mass  almost  scalding  hot.  Bees  are  some- 
times smothered  in  this  way,  in  extremely 
hot  weather,  even  when  tliey  have  very  large 
openings  covered  with  wire  cloth.  In  fact. 
I  have  once  or  twice  had  bees,  when  shipped 
by  railroad,  in  July  and  August,  get  hot  and 
smother,  wlien  the  whole  top  of  tlie  hive  was 
covered  witli  wire  cloth.  I  took  a  lesson 
from  this,  and  put  wire  clotli  over  both  top 
and  bottom  of  the  hive,  and  then  put  inch 
strips  across,  so  the  hive  could  not  be  set 
down  in  sucli  a  way  as  to  cover  the  bottom. 
When  thus  prepared,  I  have  sent  tlie  lieavi- 
est  colonies,  during  tlie  hottest  of  summer 
weather,  with  hives  full  of  honey,  and  had 
no  trouble.    See  Moving  Rees. 

now   THE   BEJCS   DO   THEIR  OWN 

ventilating. 
If  you  watch  a  colony  of  bees  during  a 
warm  day,  you  will  see  rows  of  bees  standing 
around  the  entrance,  and  clear  inside  of  the  1 


hive,  with  their  heads  all  one  way,  all  mak- 
ing their  wings  go  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
much  as  they  do  in  flying ;   but  instead  of 
propelling  their  bodies  along,  they  propel 
the  air  behind  them,  and  a  pretty  strong 
"  blow  "  they  get  up  too.  as  you  may  tell  by 
holding  your  hand  near  them.    Well,  if  the 
air  is  very  hot  and  close  inside  the  hive,  so 
much  so  that  there  is  danger  of  the  combs 
melting  doAvn,  they  will  manage  so  as  to 
send  cooling  currents  clear  to  the  furthest 
parts  of  the  hive,  and  even  up  a  small  hole 
into  honey  -  boxes,  where  honey  -  boxes  are 
made    after  such  old  -  fashioned  patterns. 
This  idea  is  not  by  any  means  new,  and 
those  who  have  invented  patent  ventilators 
will  tell  us,  with  a  very  fair  show  of  reason, 
how  many  bees  are  thus  employed   blowing 
through  the  hive,  that  might  just  as  well  be 
out  in  the  fields  gathering  honey.    I  once 
thought  so,  and  that  ventilators  were  needed; 
but  after  watching  the  matter  longer.  I  con- 
cluded the  harm  done  by  excessive  heat  was 
far  less  than  that  from  cold  drafts  when  they 
were  not  needed,  and  that  it  is  better  to  let 
a  few  of  the  bees  waste  some  time  in  the 
middle  of  the  day,  than  to  have  comb-build- 
ing stopped  entirely  at  night,  on  account  of 
the  drafts  given  by  these  thoroughly  venti- 
lated hives.    The  most  prosperous  colony  I 
ever  owned  was  one  that  was  so  completely 
enveloped  in  chaff  that  they  sent  a  stream 
of  warm  air  out  of  their  hive  during  frosty 
nights  in  March,  strong  enough  to  melt  the 
frost  about  one  side  of  the  entrance.     Of 
course,  a  stream  of  cold  air  went  in  at  the 
opposite  side,  as  fast  as  the  warm  air  went 
out.    When  I  can  get  a  hive  into  this  condi- 
tion of  things,  they  always  prosper:  and  it  is 
on  this  account  that  I  would  have  no  other 
arrangement  for  ventilation  than  that  fur- 
nished by  the  entrance.    See  Wintering. 

ventilating  queen  -  cages  during 
shipment. 

This  is  a  very  simple  matter,  during  quite 
warm  weather,  for  all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
have  a  broad  surface  of  wire  cloth,  and  they 
will  then  be  sure  to  have  enough  air.  When 
queens  are  to  be  shipped  during  cool  weather, 
it  is  desirable  to  have  them  tucked  up  as 
warmly  as  may  be,  and  still  have  all  the  air 
tliey  need.  Wood  for  cages  is  much  better 
than  metals,  because  it  is  a  non-conductor 
of  heat,  and  also  because  it  prevents  stick- 
iness from  their  food,  by  absorbing  portions 
that  the  metal  would  not  absorb.  If  the 
bees  or  (jueens  become  daubed,  they  very 
quickly  suffocate,  for  the  reasons  I  have 
given  above. 


VINEGAR. 


•ciUb 


VINEGAR. 


VI9f£G-AZl.  This  seems  to  merit  a 
place  in  our  book  as  being  one  of  the  legiti- 
mate products  of  honey,  and,  doubtless,  in 
many  localities  it  may  be  profitably  manu- 
factured, and  sold  as  honey  vinegar  —espe- 
cially since  the  recent  low  prices  of  extracted 
honey.  As  I  have  had  but  little  practical 
experience  in  making  vinegar  from  honey,  I 
give  you  the  following  letters  which  have  ap- 
peared in  the  back  volumes  of  Gleanings: 

We  make  several  barrels  of  vinegar  every  year,  and 
sell  it  to  the  folks  In  town,  at  25  cts.  per  gallon,  and 
have  had  no  trouble  so  far  to  sell  all  we  had.  The 
demand  is  increasing  every  year,  selling  to  some  of 
our  merchants'  families  who  are  selling  vinegar  at 
their  stores,  which  they  buy  of  the  trade  in  Chica- 
go. I  asked  one  merchant's  wile  why  she  bought 
my  vinegar.  "Oh I"  he  said,  "the  store  vinegar 
eats  up  my  pickles."  It  takes  two  pounds  of  honey 
to  make  a  gallon  of  vinegar,  and  two  years'  time 
to  make.  We  make  the  most  of  ours  out  of  refuse 
honey,  or  honey  that  we  can  not  use  for  any  other 
purpose,  and  would  otherwise  be  lost  or  wasted. 
We  retail  a  large  quantity  of  honey;  and  when  the 
honey  is  candied  there  will  be  considerable  left 
sticking  to  the  sides  of  the  barrels.  We  always 
wash  out  all  the  barrels  we  expect  to  use  again. 
The  first  washing  that  takes  off  the  honey,  we  put 
in  the  vinegar.  It  is  clean;  it  is  nothing  but  honey 
and  water.  Then,  again,  when  we  are  extracting 
honey  we  have  a  box  with  a  wire-cloth  bottom 
which  we  set  over  a  barrel  that  has  the  upper  head 
out.  Into  this  box  we  put  what  cappings  we  have 
to  drain  out  the  honey.  In  24  hours  we  empty 
those  cappings  into  a  barrel  that  has  some  water 
in  it,  to  soak  out  what  honey  remains,  straining 
them  once  or  twice  a  day.  The  barrel  will  hold 
what  cappings  we  get  in  a  week.  About  once  a 
week  we  strain  out  the  water  and  put  it  in  the 
vinegar  and  melt  the  cappings  into  wax,  so  there  is 
nothing  lost.  I  don't  like  to  see  any  thing  thrown 
awaj-  that  we  can  use.  Again,  there  is  always 
more  or  less  honey  that  can  be  made  into  good 
vinegar  that  is  not  just  fit  to  sell  for  nice  honey. 
In  that  way  it  is  saved. 

To  know  when  the  water  is  sweet  enough  for 
vinegar,  put  in  a  good  fresh  egg,  and  make  the 
■water  sweet  enough  to  float  the  egg  so  there  will 
be  a  patch  of  the  shell  out  of  the  water  about  as 
bigasasilver  lO-cent  piece;  then  it  is  about  right. 
We  keep  ours  standing  in  barrels,  with  one  head 
out,  to  give  it  air;  for  air  it  must  have  to  make  vin- 
egar. Tie  a  square  yard  of  cheese-cloth  over  the 
top  of  the  barrel,  to  keep  out  dirt  and  flies,  and 
other  insects.  Keep  under  cover  out  of  the  rain, 
in  a  warm  dry  airy  place.  We  keep  ours  standing 
in  one  corner  of  our  shop  through  the  summer, 
and  put  it  down  in  the  cellar  through  the  winter, 
and  take  it  up  again  when  spring  comes.  When  we 
are  changing  either  in  the  fall  or  spring,  we  find 
some  that  is  fit  for  sale.  We  take  it  into  our  dwell- 
ing-house cellar  and  put  it  into  our  retailing  bar- 
rels, which  we  keep  there  for  that  purpose.  I  have 
been  thinking  of  late  whether  it  would  not  be -a 
good  plan  to  make  up  all  our  cheap  honey  into 
vinegar;  but  I  don't  know  how  much  it  could  be 
sold  for  at  wholesale.  I  must  look  this  matter  up. 
It  may  be  that  we  can  do  something  in  this  direc- 
tion to  relieve  the  market  of  our  low-priced  honey. 


Honey  is  getting  to  be  so  plentiful  and  cheap  that 

we  must  turn  it  into  every  channel  that  w:il  take  it. 

Platteville,  Wis.  E  Fuanck. 


I  can  give  my  testimonj'  in  favor  of  honey  vinegar. 
We  have  used  no  other  for  two  years;  and  nearly 
every  one  who  tastes  our  pickles  asks  my  wife  for 
her  recipe  for  making  them.  When  told  that  we 
used  nothing  but  honey  vinegar,  they  are  surprised, 
and  say  that  they  have  always  heard  it  would  not 
keep  pickles.  The  only  trouble  that  we  have  had  is, 
it  keeps  getting  stronger  and  stronger,  and  we  have 
to  occasionally  put  in  some  water.  As  we  have  used 
only  the  waste  honej-  from  extracting,  we  can  not 
give  the  proportions  of  honey  and  water,  but  usual- 
ly have  it  too  sweet  at  first,  and  have  to  add  more 
water.  If  it  does  not  sour  enough,  we  put  it  in  a 
keg  and  set  it  in  the  sun  with  a  black  junk-bottle  in 
the  bung.  G.  W.  Gates. 

Bartlett,  Tenn.,  May  29,  1876. 

The  following,  which  we  extract  from  the 
American  Bee  Journal  for  1883,  page  14.3, 
contains  several  hints  in  regard  to  the  mat- 
ter of  making  vinegar  from  honey: 

"  The  cappings  should  be  put  into  a  dripper  and 
allowed  to  remain  about  24  hours,  then  put  into  as 
much  water  as  you  may  reasonably  expect  to- 
sweeten  a  little  sweeter  than  good  new  cider,  with 
the  cappings  that  j'ou  expect  to  have.  I  fill  an  or- 
dinary whisky-barrel  with  water,  and  the  honey 
from  the  cappings,  in  extracting  1000  of  honey,  usu- 
allj'  makes  it  sweet  enough.  The  cappings  are  left, 
in  the  water  an  hour  or  two,  then  skimmed  out  and 
put  into  a  strainer  to  drip  dry,  which  they  will  do 
in  10  or  12  hours.  The  drippings  are,  of  course, 
saved  and  put  into  the  barrel. 

"  This  slightly  sweetened  water  soon  begins  to 
'  work,'  and  the  scum  may  be  taken  ofl"  with  a  wire 
cloth,  or  other  skimmer,  as  often  as  necessary,  until 
nothing  rises.  This  sweetened  water  passes  through 
allthe  stages  of  fermentation,  the  same  as  cider,  until 
it  reaches  the  point  called  vinegar.  One  year,  perhaps 
less,  makes  it  such  vinegar  as  you  saw  at  Kalama- 
zoo. We  have  used  no  other  vinegar  in  our  family 
for  20  years,  except  a  year  or  two  when  we  first 
came  to  Michigan,  14  years  ago,  when  I  had  no  bees. 

"There  is,  probably,  no  profit  in  making  honey 
vinegar  from  good  salable  honey,  but  in  keeping 
bees  there  is  often  waste  honey  that  is  of  little  value. 
I  know  of  no  manner  of  getting  cappings  ready  for 
making  into  wax  that  is  so  convenient  and  profita- 
ble, and  the  vinegar  is  known  to  be  pure. 

"  I  keep  the  barrel  covered  with  a  cotton  cloth, 
and  there  is  not  much  danger  of  getting  the  water 
too  sweet.  If  very  sweet,  it  takes  longer  to  get  it 
to  vinegar;  but  it  is  better  when  it  does  get  there." 

Abronia,  Mich.  T.  F.  Binoham. 


Hf)W  TO  MAKE   A   HONEY-VINEGAK    HOUSE. 

In  Glmninijx  for  April  1st,  1887,  page  267,  there  are 
two  articles  on  making  honey  \inegar.  I  have  made 
and  sold  honey  vinegar  for  the  last  four  or  five 
j'cars,  but  I  have  never  used  good  salable  honej-  in 
its  manufacture.  I  sell  about  lUO  gallons  a  j'ear  to 
my  neighbors,  and  the  reputation  of  my  vinegar  is 
such  that  some  of  my  customers  have  driven  out  to 
my  apiarj',  three  miles  from  Brandon,  rather  than 
buy  vinegar  at  the  stores. 

When  I  read  the  ailicles  mentioned,  I  noticed  that 
there  wa.s  quite  a  difference  ot  opinion  between  the 
two  authors.    Since  then  I  have  been  experimenting. 


VIXEGAR. 


;s09 


VIXEGAR. 


I  Imilt  what  I  call  mj-  vineg'ar-t'actdry.  It  is  not  a 
veiy  large  or  pretentious  building',  but  it  is  able  to 
turn  out  200  gallons  of  Xo.  1  vinegar  in  a  season.  The 
building  is  5  x  7  ft.  high  on  the  south  side,  and  6  ft. 
on  the  north,  with  shed  roof  sloping  to  the  nortli. 
The  roof  and  sides  are  painted  dark  brown.  There 
should  be  no  .shade  to  keep  the  sun  from  shining  on  it 
all  daylong.  The  sides  are  made  of  sliiplap,  which 
gives  plentj-  of  ventilation,  and  is  bee-|)roof.  Tlicre 
is  a  window.  2x7  ft.,  extending  across  the  south  side, 
4  ft.  from  the  bottom.  The  building  cost  about  $6.00. 
On  the  inside  there  is  a  shelf  20  inclies  wide,  one  f(K)t 
high,  on  which  to  set  three  barrels  so  that  their  tops 
will  be  even  with  tlie  bottom  of  the  window,  and  to 
permit  the  vinegar  being  drawn  through  faucets 
near  the  bottom  of  the  barrels.  The  slielf  is  sup- 
ported on  stakes  driven  in  the  ground.  Tliere  is  a 
door  in  the  north  side,  wide  enough  to  admit  a  bar- 
rel. The  barrels  are  covered  with  a  piece  of  cheese- 
cloth, and  on  tliat  a  cover  of  thin  boards  is  made. 

For  convenience  in  describing  operations  we  will 
number  the  barrels  in  tlie  vinegar-house  1,  2,  and  3. 
I  generally  have  about  a  bairel  of  partly  made  vin- 
egar in  the  fall,  which  I  keep  in  the  <  ellar  dujing  the 
winter.  In  the  spring,  when  the  weather  becomes 
warm,  I  put  about  half  of  tliis  in  barrel  No.  3.  one- 
third  in  No.  2,  and  the  remainder  in  No.  1.  When  I 
have  any  waste  honey  or  washings  from  honey-cans, 
or  candied  honey  soaked  from  combs,  it  is  put  in  No. 
1.  I  test  the  sweetened  watei'  in  No.  1  with  the  3.T-cent 
hydrometer.  When  it  sinks  to  11  on  the  scale  it  is 
about  riglit  when  it  is  not  soured,  and  contains  about 
3  lbs.  of  honey  to  the  gallon.  If  the  sweetened  water 
is  soured  some,  the  hydrometer  should  sink  to  8  or  9. 
Good  vinegar  tests  about  3  on  the  scale  of  the  hydro- 
meter.   When  that  in  No.  3  becomes  gcKKl  vinegar  it 


is  diawn  off'  and  |nit  in  the  cellar,  and  that  fitjni  No. 
2  is  transferred  to  No.  .3,  with  enough  from  No.  1  to 
fill  the  barrel  about  half  full.  No.  2  is  flUefl  half  full 
from  No.  1.  To  obtain  the  best  results,  the  barrels 
should  be  ke\>t  about  half  full.  If  ihe  vinegar  in  the 
cellar  is  kept  cool,  and  the  barrels  bunged  tight, 
mother  will  not  foi-m  on  it,  and  it  will  keep  almost 
any  length  of  time.  One  pound  of  honej-  will  make 
one  gallon  of  vinegai',  as  good  as  most  of  the  cider 
and  white-wine  vinegar  that  is  sold;  but  to  make 
strong  No.  1  vinegar  it  reguires  2  lbs.  of  honey  to  the 
gallon.  Most  of  the  honey  that  I  use  for  making  vin- 
egar is  the  thin  honey  which  I  skim  from  the  toj)  of 
my  e.xti-acted  honey  dire(  tly  after  extracting. 
Brandon,  la.  G.  D.  Ulack. 

Some  one  inquired  whether  honey  vinegar  is 
good  or  not.  I  will  say  yes;  the  best  there  is  made. 
It  will  not  die  nor  lose  its  strength  like  most  other 
vinegars,  and  you  can  have  light  or  dark  vinegar  as 
you  take  light  or  dark  honey  to  make  it  from.  You 
can  make  what  are  called  sweet  pickles  with  it,  with- 
out any  fear  of  spoiling.  Last  season  a  neighbor's 
family  bought  honey  vinegar  of  me  to  do  their 
choice  pickling  with  when  they  had  cider  ^■^negar  of 
their  own  make,  as  it  was  so  much  better,  they  said, 
than  cider.  I  can  not  give  any  rule  for  making  it, 
as  I  have  made  it  from  the  washings  of  vessels  used 
in  extracting,  and  of  the  cappings  after  the  honey 
was  pretty  well  drained  out.  R.  K.  Murphy. 

Fulton,  Ills.,  May  6, 1876. 

Ajiother  friend.  H.  A.  Palmer, of  Madora. 
Iowa,  says,  "  One  pound  of  honey  will  make 
tliree  gallons  of  better  vinegar  than  one  can 
buy.'''« 


w. 


UTATER  FOB.  SEES.  Tliat  bees 
need  water,  has  been  pretty  well  demonstrat- 
ed ;  bnt  the  best  means  of  snpplying  them 
has  not  been  very  satisfactorily  settled. 
The  anionnt  of  water  needed  depends  much 
on  whether  they  are  rearing  brood  in  consid- 
erable quantities  or  not,  and  whether  their 
food  is  old,  thick  (possibly  candied)  honey, 
or  new  honey  right  from  the  fields.  If  the 
latter,  it  contains  usually  a  large  quantity 
of  water  that  must  be  expelled  before  the 
honey  can  be  considered  ripened.  See  Ven- 
tilation. Well,  while  the  bees  are  gather- 
ing this  thin,  raw  honey,  as  a  matter  of 
course  they  will  not  need  much  water,  if 
any  at  all,  besides  what  the  honey  affords 
them.  This  new  honey  is  frequently  so  thin 
that  it  runs  out  of  the  combs  like  sweetened 
water,  when  they  are  turned  horizontally; 
and  when  tasted,  it  seems,  in  reality,  but 
sweetened  water.  The  excess  of  moisture 
is  probably  —  I  say  probably,  for  I  do  not 
know  that  Ave  have  positive  proof  on  the 
matter  —  expelled  by  the  strong  currents  of 
air  the  bees  keep  circulating  through  the 
hive,  which  takes  up  the  watery  particles, 
and  speedily  reduces  the  honey  to  such  a 
consistency  that  it  will  not  sour.  If  you  will 
examine  a  hive  very  early  in  the  morning 
during  the  height  of  the  honey-season,  you 
will  find  the  blast  of  air  that  comes  out, 
quite  heavily  charged  with  moisture;  and 
when  the  weather  is  a  little  cool,  this  mois- 
ture often  condenses  and  accumulates  on 
the  alighting  -  board,  until  it  forms  a  little 
pool  of  water.  Where  the  alighting -board 
was  of  the  right  shape  to  retain  the  water,  I 
have  seen  it  so  deep  as  to  drown  bees  in 
passing  out.  These  bees,  it  would  seem, 
wei'e  at  least  in  no  need  of  having  water 
supplied  them.  While  I  am  on  the  subject, 
I  will  mention  another  way  which,  as  I  have 
discovered,  the  bees  have  of  expelling  the 
liquid  portions  from  very  thin  honey.  I 
guess  I  will  say  it  is  the  way  in  which  I 
think'-^*'  they  do  it,  for  I  may  be  mistaken.    I  i 


had  several  colonies  in  a  small  greenhouse 
for  experiment.  They  were  fed  on  sweet- 
ened water  until  they  stored  a  large  amount 
in  their  combs.  When  the  sun  warmed  up 
the  air  in  the  morning,  they  would  come  out 
in  great  numbers  and  sport  in  the  sunshine; 
and  by  taking  a  post  where  they  came  be- 
tween my  eye  and  the  sun,  I  distinctly  saw 
them  discharge  from  their  bodies  what 
seemed  to  be  only  pure  water.  These  bees 
had  been  fed  until  they  had  their  hives  so 
full  of  the  thin  syrup  that  they  had  even 
crowded  out  the  eggs.  When  coming  out  of 
their  hives,  they  seemed  heavily  laden  ;  but 
those  returning  were  so  much  reduced  in 
size  as  to  make  quite  a  contrast  to  those 
going  out.  By  watching  the  matter,  it 
seemed  quite  plain  that  they  took  the  thin 
food  into  their  stomachs,  and,  after  a  time, 
longer  or  shorter,  were  able  to  expel  the 
liquid  portion  while  on  the  wing,  and  then 
return  the  thick  portion  to  the  cells.  If  I 
am  in  error  in  this,  I  should  like  to  be  cor- 
rected. It  may  be  well  to  state  in  this  con- 
nection, that  honey,  no  matter  how  thin,  will 
never  sour  while  in  the  hive,  under  the  care 
of  a  sufficient  ni;mber  of  bees;  but  if  a  comb 
of  this  thin  honey  be  taken  away  from  them, 
and  kept  outside  of  the  hive,  it  will  sour 
very  quickly. 

OPEN-AIR   FEEDER. 

Get  a  board  about  a  foot  square,  and  with 
a  saw,  or  saws,  such  as  we  use  for  grooving 
the  ends  of  the  pieces  composing  the  section 
boxes,  plow  grooves  from  one  end  of  the 
board  to  the  other,  being  careful  that  they 
do  not  run  quite  out.  Now  with  a  single 
saw,  cut  a  groove  from  each  corner  to  the 
opposite  one,  and  a  couple  more  across  the 
grain  of  the  wood,  near  the  middle,  and 
the  board  is  done.  These  grooves  should 
be  about  i  inch  deep,  and  about  the  same 
distance  from  each  other.  Invert  the  jar 
of  water  on  the  center  of  the  board,  and 
the  grooves  will  keep  just  full  of  water,  as 
long  as  any  remains  in  the  jar,  and  yet 


WATER  FOE  BEES. 


311 


WATER  FOR  BEES. 


they  will  never  run 
over.  The  bees  can 
stand  on  the  walls  of 
wood  that  separate  the 
grooves,  as  well  as  on  a 
sheet  of  their  own  comb, 
and  with  as  little  danger 
of  getting  daubed  or 
wetted.  Xow,  this  ar- 
rangement makes  per- 
haps the  best  feeder 
ever  invented,  for. open- 
air  feeding  (see  Fejjd- 
iNG  and  Feeders)  ;  for 
all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
use  sweetened  water, 
instead  of  water  only. 
Put  a  pound  of  gran- 
ulated sugar  in  the  jar, 
fill  up  with  water,  cover 
your  hand,  and  shake  briskly,  and 


W  A  T  E  K 1  N  G  -  J  A  11 

AND  BOARD.  OR 

OPEN-AIR 

FEEDER. 

it  with 


it  is  ready  for  business, 
the  mouth   of   the   jar,  ; 
it  on  the   center  of  the 
grooves   cross,  draw  out 


Lay  a  paper  over 
IS  before,  invert 
board  where  the 

the   paper,  and, 


if  it  is  at  a  time  when  robber  bees  are 
hovering  about,  some  one  will  soon  find  it. 
After  the  first  bee  has  gone  home  with  one 
load,  he  will  bring  others  back  with  him, 
and  pretty  soon  the  board  will  be  covered 
with  tliem,  sipi)ing  like  a  lot  of  pigs  out  of  a 
trough.  As  the  syrup  goes  down  in  the 
grooves,  air  will  be  allowed  to  come  in.  and 
you  can  see,  by  the  bubbles  rising  in  the 
jar,  just  how  fast  they  are  taking  the  syrup. 

After  the  bees  get  well  at  work,  a  bubble 
will  be  on  its  way  to  the  surface  in  the  jar  al- 
most constantly,  and  the  liquid  is  carried  off 
by  the  little  fellows  at  the  rate  of  about 
1  inch  in  10  minutes.  This  empties  the  l-gal- 
lon  jar  in  about  an  hour  and  a  half.  Xot  a 
bee  is  daubed,  and  they  flit  away  to  their 
hives  as  easily  as  if  they  had  loaded  up 
from  the  blossoms  on  the  trees.  This  feed- 
er answers  admirably  for  feeding  grape 
sugar;  for  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  fill  tlie  jar 
with  lumps  of  it,  and  pour  in  water  until  it 
is  filled,  and  then  invert  as  described.  The 
passage  of  the  bubbles  upward  tends  to  dis- 
solve the  sugar  rapidly.  Old,  thick,  or  can- 
died honey  may  be  fed  in  the  same  way;  and 
when  the  bees  stop,  the  feed  stoi)s  coming 
down  into  tlie  grooves.  This  will,  perhaps, 
be  the  best  arrangement  we  can  have  for 
feeding  sugar  to  keep  brood  -  rearing  going 
on,  during  a  season  of  drought  or  scarcity. 

If  you  wish  to  give  a  supply  of  water  that 
will  last  them  a  month  or  more,  it  may  be  well 
to  get  a  large  glass  bottle  or  carboy,  at  the 


drug  -  store,  and  your  bees  will  then  have 
water  during  the  season,  all  they  can 
use.  Where  there  is  a  spring  near  you 
that  can  be  conducted  to  the  apiary,  a  very 
pretty  watering  -  place  can  be  made.  Be 
sure  that  it  is  so  arranged  that  the  bees  can 
not  get  drowned.  A  little  fountain,  where 
the  spring  is  high  enough  to  allow  it,  is  a 
very  pretty  addition  to  the  apiary.  I  once 
had  one  made  with  an  iron  vase,  perhaps 
eighteen  inches  across.  This  basin  was  al- 
ways full,  and  overflowing  slightly;  and  dur- 
ing the  warm  weather  all  summer  long,  bees 
would  be  sipping  the  water  around  the  edge; 
sometimes  they  stood  side  by  side  clear 
around  the  edge  of  the  vase,  making  a  sight 
that  was  enough  to  call  forth  exclamations 
of  surprise  from  almost  anybody,  bee-keep- 
er or  not.  The  fountain  was  supplied  with 
water  from  a  large  pine  box,  placed  on  the 
roof  of  the  wood-house,  the  former  supplied 


FOUNTAIN    FOR    GIVING    BEES    ACCESS    TO 
WATER. 

by  the  eave-spout  from  the  upright  part  of 
the  building.  When  tlie  box  was  full  it  ran 
over  on  the  roof  and  down  into  the  cistern 
as  usual,  so  the  arrangement  required  no 
special  supervision,  so  long  as  we  had  rain 
as  often  as  once  a  week.  The  connection 
between  the  box  and  the  fountain  near  the 
apiary  was  by  ^-inch  ii'on  pipe.  The  bees 
never  drowned  in  this  fountain,  because  the 
vase  was  always  full  and  overtlowing.  If  a 
bee  flew  in,  or  got  pushed  in  by  his  compan- 
ions, he  soon  buz/ed  over  to  tlie  side,  and 
walked  out,  having  no  perpendicular  sides 
to  climb  up. 

A  stop-cock,  not  shown  in  the  cut,  is  at 
the  lower  part  of  the  jet.  This  is  to  regu- 
late the  supply  of  water.  During  a  dry 
time  it  is  to  be  turned  so  as  to  just  keep 


WATER  FUR  BEES. 


312 


WATER  FOR  BEES. 


the  vase  full,  and  the  same  during  windy 
days,  when  the  water  would  be  blown  away. 
When  we  had  still  evenings,  the  jet  was 
opened  so  as  to  throw  a  stream  perhaps  six 
feet  high.  Around  the  fountain  we  had 
dowers  of  different  kinds.  It  is  hard  to  I 
imagine  a  prettier  adjunct  to  an  apiary  than 
a  watering-fountain  surrounded  with  tlowers 
humming  with  busy  laborers. 

During  some  experiments  in  the  same 
greenhouse  I  have  mentioned,  I  put  a  small 
colony  into  the  lamp-nursery,  and  warmed 
it  up  until  their  hive  indicated  over  100  de- 
grees. The  bees  then  went  out,  and  began 
flying  around  the  room  as  if  in  quest  of 
something.  I  fixed  the  same  watering-jar  I 
have  mentioned  in  one  corner  of  the  room, 
and  they  pretty  soon  found  it  and  were  busy 
carrying  water  into  the  hive  as  fast  as  they 
could  load  up  and  unload.  By  turning  the 
lamp  up  or  down  so  as  to  increase  or  dimin- 
ish the  temperature,  I  could  easily  make 
them  stop  and  commence  carrying  water,  at 
pleasure.  Does  not  this  seem  to  indicate 
that  hives  should  be  shaded,  during  the  ex- 
treme heat  of  the  summer  weather?  Colo- 
nies in  the  same  room  whose  hives  were  not 
warmed  showed  no  disposition  to  gather  wa- 
ter at  all,  although  they  were  rearing  brood 
in  considerable  quantities. 

SALT    WATER    FOR    BEES. 

At  times,  bees  unquestionably  show  a 
fondness  for  salt  water,  and  I  presume  they 
should  have  access  to  salt  in  some  way,  as 
well  as  others  of  the  animal  kingdom.  It  is 
generally  agreed,  I  believe,  that  horses,  cat- 
tle, sheep,  etc.,  must  have  salt,  or  they  will 
suffer.  I  know  of  no  reason  why  bees 
should  not  come  under  the  same  law.  They 
seem  to  have  a  preference  for  it  in  a  much 
diluted  form,  and  are  very  often  seen  eager- 
ly hovering  over  barrels  containing  refuse 
brine.  I  have  seen  them  eagerly  digging  in 
the  sawdust,  where  brine  had  been  spilled 
or  thrown  out.  showing  their  craving  for  it. 
During  the  preceding  years,  a  great  many 
plans  have  been  given  for  feeding  bees  salt, 
but  none  of  them  are  any  simpler  or  easier 
than  the  one  for  giving  them  water,  which  I 
have  already  illustrated.  It  may  be  well  to 
have  two  watering-places,  one  with  the  wa- 
ter salted,  and  the  other  of  pure  water. 

If  no  place  is  furnished  for  the  bees  to  get 
water,  they  usually  go  to  creeks  or  puddles 
near  by.  Our  own  have  quite  a  fashion  of 
congregating  about  the  kitchen  pump,  and 
Mrs.  R.  says  she  knows  they  hear  the  pump; 
for  just  after  water  has  been  drawn,  they 
come  in  considerable  numbers,  and  sip  the 


water  that  is  spilled  around  on  the  stones. 
A  good  many  times  this  is  quite  a  nui- 
sance, and  has  been  the  cause  in  several  in- 
stances of  trouble  between  the  bee-keeper 
and  his  neighbors*  Mr.  A.  X.  Draper,  of 
Upper  Alton,  Ills.,  says  that  a  weak  solu- 
tion of  carbolic  acid  painted  around  the 
place  where  bees  congregate — that  is,  around 
the  edges  of  Avatering- troughs  and  the  like, 
will  keep  the  bees  away  entirely,  and  finally 
tliey  will  get  out  of  the  habit  of  coming.  I 
have  not  yet  tried  the  experiment,  but  be- 
lieve it  will  work. 

VTAX.  AVhether  bees  make  honey,  or 
simply  collect  it,  may  be  a  subject  of  discus- 
sion ;  but  we  believe  there  is  no  question  in 
regard  to  wax,  for  bees  do  assuredly  make  it. 
If  you  have  your  doubts,  however,  just 
watch  them  closely  during  the  height  of  the 
honey  -  harvest,  or,  what  is  perhaps  better, 
feed  a  colony  heavily  on  sugar  syrup  for 
about  3  days  during  warm  weather.  At  the 
end  of  the  second  or  third  day,  by  looking 
closely,  you  will  see  little  pearly  disks  of  wax, 
somewhat  resembling  fish-scales,  protruding 
from  between  the  rings  on  the  under  side  of 
the  body  of  the  bee  ;  and,  if  you  examine 
with  a  magnifier,  you  will^  find  these  little 
wax  cakes  of  rare  beauty.  Sometimes,  es- 
pecially when  the  bees  are  Iseing  fed  heavily, 
these  wax  scales  will  fall  dow^n  on  the  bot- 
tom-board and  may  be  scraped  up  in  consid- 
erable quantities,  seeming  for  some  reason 
to  have  been  unwanted.  During  the  sea- 
sons of  the  natural  secretion  of  the  w^ax,  if 
the  colony  has  a  hive  affording  plenty  of 
room  for  surplus,  we  believe  these  wax 
scales  are  seldom  wasted.  At  the  swarming- 
time,  there  seems  to  be  an  unusual  number 
of  bees  provided  with  these  wax  scales ;  for, 
if  they  have  remained  clustered  on  a  limb 
for  only  a  few  minutes,  bits  of  wax  are  found 
attached,asif  they  were  going  to  start  comb. 
When  they  are  domiciled  in  their  new  hive, 
comes  the  time,  if  the  hive  pleases  them, 
for  them  to  show  their  astonishing  skill  and 
dexterity  in  fabricating  the  honey-comb. 

In  the  attempts  that  have  been  made  to 
supply  material  for  artificial  comb,  we  have 
had  a  view^  of  the  wondrous  skill  with  which 
nature  supplies  just  what  is  needed  for  the 
safety  and  well  -  being  of  her  creatures. 
Many  substances  seem,  at  first  view,  to  have 
all  the  requirements  needed  ;  but  when  we 
discover  that  the  material  must  be  suflScient- 
ly  soft  to  be  readily  molded  at  the  ordinary 
temperature  of  the  hive,  and  yet  be  in  no 
danger  of  melting  down  during  the  intense 
heat  of  midsummer,  we  see  that  perhaps  no 


WAX. 


313 


WAX. 


other  material  than  just  the  wax  they  secrete 
<;an  come  anywhere  near  answering  the 
purpose.  Wax  melts  at  about  145^  in  its 
natural  yellow  state,  but  becomes  so  soft 
that  it  may  be  molded  by  pressure  at  a  tem- 
perature of  about  100-  or  less.  When  this 
yellow  wax  is  exposed  to  the  sun  and  mois- 
ture in  tlie  shape  of  thin  ribl)ons.  it  gradual- 
ly loses  its  yellow  color,  and  becomes  white. 
Its  melting-point  is  also  raised  by  this  change 
about  12^,  yet  it  is  still  readily  worked  into 
comb  if  given  to  the  bees  during  hot  wea- 
ther; and  when  raised  up  into  cells,  it  has.  a 
most  beautiful  appearance  of  snowy  white- 
ness. This,  however,  is  soon  soiled  and  col- 
ored, if  left  in  the  hive;  for,  neat  as  bees  are 
said  to  be,  they  have  a  habit  of  running  over 
the  clean  white  combs  with  muddy,  or  at 
least  dirty  feet.  With  old  and  dark  combs 
this  might  be  unnoticed  ;  but  in  a  hive  fur- 
nished with  combs  made  from  bleached 
foundations,  it  becomes  very  apparent. 

Like  other  folks,  the  bees  seem  more  care- 
ful of  their  best  rooms,  for  the  suri)lus-hon- 
ey  boxes  are  kept  much  cleaner  than  the  or- 
dinary working-room,  or  brood-apartment, 
though  this  may  not  be  intentional  after  all, 
for  it  is  principally  the  young  bees  that  have 
never  been  out  in  the  fields,  that  work  at 
•comb-building  and  in  the  boxes.  On  this 
account,  clean  yellow  wax,  when  used  for 
foundations,  will  give  very  nearly  as  fine 
box  honey,  when  filled  and  capped  over,  as 
<loes  the  bleached.  As  the  latter  is  consid- 
erably harder  than  the  yellow,  it  is  not 
worked  into  comb  as  rapidly.  \Vhen  the 
bees  are  needing  room  they  will  fre- 
quently raise  a  whole  sheet  of  yellow  fdn. 
into  very  fair  comb  in  a  single  night,  while 
it  would  require  nearly  double  the  time,  per- 
haps, to  do  the  same  with  the  bleached. 

Until  somebody  shall  discover  a  use  for 
propolis,  we  shall  have  to  consider  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  apiary  but  two  in  number,  wax 
and  honey.  It  is  true,  bees  and  queens  are 
now  quite  marketable  commodities  ;  but  as 
they  are  bought  only  for  the  wax  and  honey 
they  may  produce,  they  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered as  legitimate  apiarian  products. 

The  manner  of  getting  the  honey  into  a 
marketable  shape  has  been  very  fully  dis- 
•cussed,  aud  great  imi)rovement  has  Ijeen 
made  in  this  particular,  within  the  i)ast  few 
years;  but  the  operation  of  rendering  the 
■combs  into  clean  nice  wax,  so  as  to  be  at- 
tractive to  the  eye  of  i)urchasers,  has  been 
very  little  improved  since  the  time  when 
our  grandmothers  used  to  boil  them  in  a 
large  kettle,  and  squeeze  the  wax  from  the 


melted  mass  through  a  cloth  or  bag,  much 
in  the  way  lard  is  expressed. 


THE   IMPROVED    SWISb   AVAX-EXTRACTOR. 

Our  engraving  given  shows  one  of  the  best 
implements  that  was  ever  olfered  for  sale. 
It  is  a  modification  of  the  original  Swiss 
wax-extractor  with  the  Jones  improvement. 
The  basket  is  made  of  perforated  tin, 
and  it  is  into  this  that  the  pieces  of  comb, 
cappings,  etc.,  are  to  be  put,  and  allowed  to 
drain  into  a  pan  or  some  convenient  vessel. 
It  is  true,  you  can  put  them  into  the  ex- 
tractor, honey  and  all,  and  then  the  spout 
will  deliver  both  wax  and  honey  into  the 
pan  or  other  vessel  set  to  catch  it;  and  when 
the  wax  is  cold,  it  may  be  lifted  from  the 
honey  below,  in  a  solid  cake  ;  but  the  honey 
is  then  dark,  and  fit  only  for  vinegar,  or  for 
feeding  bees  ;  whereas,  if  drained  before 
being  subjected  to  heat,  we  get  the  very 
best  and  nicest  liquid  honey,  especially  if  it 
is  cappings  that  are  to  be  rendered ;  be- 
cause the  honey  that  adheres  to  the  cap- 
pings. is  always  that  which  has  been  sealed 
up.  When  the  basket  is  filled  with 
drained  cappings,  or  bits  of  comb,  the 
cover  is  to  be  removed,  and  the  basket 
placed  inside,  resting  on  a  conical-shaped 
piece  of  tin  with  a  spout  in  the  top.  This 
funnel-shaped  piece  of  tin  (as  shown  where 
the  side  is  cut  away)  is  supported  about  an 
inch  from  the  bottom  by  means  of  short  legs. 
The  wax  dripping  from  the  basket  over  the 
cone  runs  down  into  the  shallow  apartment 
below  and  out  at  the  spout. 

Now,  to  set  the  machine  working  we  have 
only  to  supply  steam  through  tlie  basket. 
We  do  this  by  setting  it  over  a  pan  or  ket- 
tle of  boiling  water,  or,  what  is  better,  a  cop- 
per-bottomed steam-generator,  often  sold 
with  the  apparatus.  The  latter  utensil  will 
do  very  well  to  catch  the  drippings  of  the 
honey,  if  a  cork  is  fitted  tightly  in  the  spout. 
I  would  advise  you  to  keep  the  cover 
on  and  this  tube  corked  at  all  times,  if  you 
do  not  wish  robl)er-bees  to  leani  that  the 
machine  is  almost  always  a  nice  place  for 
their  dejjredations.      If  you  do  this,  you  can 


WAX. 


314 


WAX. 


keep  it  in  the  apiary,  and  throw  every  bit  of  ; 
comb  into  it,  as  soon  as  found. 

GALVANIZED  IRON  INJURIOUS  TO  AVAX.      [ 

In  making  extractors,  be  sure  there  is  no  j 
galvanized  iron  used.  Tliis,  we  have  found 
l)y  experience  and  to  our  sorrow,  discolors 
the  nice  yellow  wax,  making  it  a  greenish 
yellow  instead  of  a  bright  color.  I  do  not 
know  that  this  discoloration  renders  it  unlit 
for  the  bees;  but  you  can  never  make  nice 
yellow  sheets  of  foundation  of  such  wax. 
When  melted  into  cakes,  it  does  not  present 
that  nice  pretty  appearance  that  pure  wax 
usually  has. 

GARY'S    WAX-PRESS.  | 

Mr.  Wm.  W.  Cary.  of  Colerain,  Mass., 
sends  us  the  following  description  of  a  plan 
similar  to  the  cider-press,  which,  I  think, 
might  prove  of  much  value,  if  a  large  quan- 
tity of  wax  is  to  be  got  out,  as  is  often  the 

case  w^here  many  stocks  are  transferred: 

j 

Make  a  boiler  of  good  heavy  tin,  18  in.  square  by 
13  in.  high,  inside  measure.  Solder  stout  handles  on 
two  of  the  sides,  and  put  a  spout  on  one  of  the  other 
sides,  about  i  inches  from  the  top.  The  spout  con- 
sists of  a  tunnel,  3  in.  in  diameter  at  the  top  and  1  in. 
at  the  small  end,  and  about  3  in.  long,  flattened  at 
the  large  end  so  as  to  make  it  oval-shaped.  This  is 
for  running  off  the  wax,  and  the  mouth  of  it  should 
be  3  or  4  in.  wide  by  1  high  on  the  inside  of  the  boil- 
er. Now  cut  out  a  hole  on  one  side  of  the  boiler,  and 
solder  on  the  spout,  which  will  need  a  brace  to  hold 
it  steady.  Perhaps  one  of  your  molasses-gates  for 
extractors  would  be  a  good  thing  soldered  to  this 
spout;  we  use  a  cork,  however. 

Now  make  6  racks  of  pine  strips,  '/2  inch  wide  by 
%  thick.  The  slats  should  be  planed  on  all  sides. 
Cut  them  IT'4  in.  long,  and  take  2  strips  %  thick  by 
1  in.  wide  and  lT!i  in.  long,  and  nail  the  other  strips 
on  crosswise,  leaving  Jg  in.  plump  between  them. 
Next,  make  a  box  loYiXloVi,  without  top  or  bottom, 
and  make  it  of  ',4-inch  boards,  3  inches  wide.  This 
is  what  cider-makers  call  a  form,  or  hoop,  and  is 
used  for  laying  up  the  cheese.  Now  get  burlap, 
such  as  the  factories  use  for  baling  their  cloth.  Cut 
it  into  pieces  28  or  30  in.  square.  Five  of  these  are 
enough,  as  5  layers  will  fill  the  boiler.  Now  take  the 
old  comb  and  pound  it  up  fine,  lay  down  a  rack,  put 
on  the  form,  spread  on  a  burlap,  and  fill  up  with 
the  comb;  then  double  in  the  sides,  raise  all  from 
the  form,  and  place  in  the  boiler.  Fill  .5  racks  in 
this  way,  and  put  the  6th  on  top,  and  a  board,  for  a 
follower,  on  top  of  this,  with  a  block  6  or  8  in.  square 
which  should  be  fastened  to  the  follower.  Perhaps 
all  this  will  make  the  boiler  more  than  full,  but  it 
will  soon  settle  down  when  it  comes  to  a  boil.  A 
better  way  is  to  put  the  boiler  on  the  stove,  with  2 
pails  of  water  in  it,  before  you  commence.  This 
saves  time  in  heating,  and  the  layers  can  be  lowered 
in  wiih  hooks  made  of  wire. 

As  soon  as  it  has  boiled  1.5  or  20  minutes,  it  is  ready 
to  press,  which  I  do  with  a  small  jack  -  screw.  You 
need  a  small  frame,  of  course,  to  press  in;  this  can 
be  made  with  a  screw  in  the  upper  beam,  if  desired, 
but  the  jack  -  screw  does  just  as  well.    Now  when 


your  wax  has  boiled  enough,  take  the  boiler  from 
the  stove,  place  it  under  the  press,  and  turn  down 
your  screw,  and  you  will  soon  find  the  wax  on  top  of 
the  water.  Proceed  to  draw  it  off  by  the  spout. 
You  will  need  a  pailful  or  two  of  hot  water  to  fill 
up  with  as  the  wax  runs  off.  The  wax  should  be  all 
removed  before  the  screw  is  loosened  up,  as  it  will 
stick  to  the  racks  and  burlap.  Skim  the  wax  off 
with  a  paddle  made  of  thin  board  or  tin.  If  the 
screw  is  loosened  once  or  twice,  and  the  water  al- 
lowed to  soften  up  the  pumice,  it  will  get  it  out 
cleaner. 

You  need  not  be  more  than  15  or  20  minutes  in 
pressing  out  a  cheese,  after  it  is  boiled.  A  press  of 
the  size  [  have  described  will  get  out  from  10  to  20 
lbs.  to  a  pressing,  of  as  nice  wax  as  you  ever  saw. 
If  you  have  a  good  stove  to  heat  on,  you  need  not  be 
more  than  an  hour,  or  I'i  hours  to  a  pressing,  which 
gives  a  capacity  of  from  "5  to  150  lbs.  per  day,  more 
than  10  times  the  capacity  of  the  steamer  process; 
and  again,  it  gets  the  wax  out  much  cleaner.  If  j'ou 
do  not  believe  this,  run  some  through  the  steamer, 
and  then  put  it  through  a  press  of  this  kind.  We 
had  the  bottom  of  a  bee-hive  full  of  pumice  which 
had  been  through  the  steamer,  and  all  the  wax  had 
been  removed  that  we  could  get  out  by  that  process; 
then  we  put  it  through  the  press  and  got  out  10  lbs. 
more.  I  tried  the  steamer  for  3  or-i  weeks,  and  be- 
came disgusted  with  it,  as  it  worked  so  slow.  I  got 
out  more  wax  the  first  day  after  I  made  the  press 
than  I  could  in  10  days  with  the  steamer. 

(Jolerain,  Mass.,  1878.  Wm.  W.  Gary. 

SOME    KURTHER    SUGGESTIONS    ON    AI?0\'E. 

Perhaps  you  may  remember  I  have  alwaj'S  advo- 
cated the  Gary  wax-press  as  the  best  thing  to  get  rtU 
the  wax  out  of  combs,  espeeiallj'  if  they  are  old.  If 
anj-  one  has  100  lbs.  of  wax  to  render,  the  press  will 
almost  pay  for  itself  on  old  combs;  and  for  cappings 
and  scraps  of  new  comb  it  has  the  advantage  of 
speed,  as  two  hands  can  make  from  '200  to  3bO  lbs.  in 
one  day,  while  an  extractor  is  crowded  to  make  over 
20  lbs.  a  day,  with  much  fussing  and  annoyance  to 
the  women-folks.  The  press  also  has  this  advan- 
tage, that  the  wax  is  left  in  solid  cakes,  while  the  ex- 
tracted wax  must  be  caked  after  making,  incurring 
another  fussing  job. 

Last  season  I  made  my  wax  and  some  for  my 
neighbors,  on  an  improved  press,  which  gave  good 
satisfaction.  I  send  you  drawings,  so  you  can  give 
it  to  your  readers  if  you  like. 

There  all  the  combs  ai'e  to  be  melted  in  the  press- 
tank,  which  makes  it  very  slow.  My  method  is  to 
melt  the  combs  in  another  vessel,  in  mj'  case  a  large 
kettle,  out  of  doors,  and  then  dip  the  melted  combs 
and  all  that  rises  to  the  top  of  the  kettle  into  the 
forms,  and  press  at  once.  This  makes  the  work 
continuous;  for  by  the  time  one  pressful  is  run  out, 
another  is  melted  in  the  kettle.  Three  oi-  tour  pail- 
fuls  of  water  are  kept  in  the  kettle  all  the  time;  and 
when  this  once  gets  hot,  wax  soon  melts  in  it.  So 
much  for  the  manner  of  working. 

The  improvement  in  the  press  consists,  1,  in  dis- 
pensing with  the  tank  entirely,  a  tray  with  a  "lip"' 
taking  its  |>lace,  being  only  two  inches  deep;  2.  the 
i  rigid  side-pieces  to  the  frame  are  hinged  at  the  bot- 
tom so  as  to  turn  to  one  side  out  of  the  way  while 
filling  the  press— two  eyes,  united  at  the  bottom, 
making  the  hinge.  In  usingthe  press  in  cold  winds- 
weather,  an  outside  shell  of  boards  to  slip  down 
1  over  the  "  cheese  "  before  pressing  would  be  a  help. 


WAX. 


315 


WAX. 


for  cold  winds  might  cause  the  wax  to  congeal  be- 
fore running-  into  the  molds.  Eighteen  inches 
square  is  a  good  size  for  the  tray,  and  15x15  for  the 
"forms."  The  form  is  made  of  ^e-inch  stuff,  4  inches 
wide.  The  racks  are  made  of  three-cornert  d  top- 
bars.  The  cloths  are  of  burlaps,  such  as  bran-sacks 
are  made  of.  Wire  nails,  i)i  inches  lon^-,  are  used 
to  pin  Ihe  cloth  together  wht-n  building  the 
"ch;'esL'."  The  screw  is  a  common  iron  l)ench- 
screw,  such  as  can  be  had  at  any  haidware  store. 


hatch's  improvement  on  cary  s  wax-press. 
Material  to  make  a  press  should  not  cost  over  $1.75, 
or  if2.01  at  the  outside.  I  am  sure,  if  you  would 
make  one  and  use  it  on  old  combs,  especially  on 
scraps  having  much  propolis  among  it,  you  would 
never  want  to  "fuss  "  with  a  wax-extractor  again. 

Ithaca,  Wis.,  Jan.  28, 1889.  C.  A.  Hatch. 

HOW     TO      RENDER      WAX    WITHOUT     PUR- 
CHASIXG   AN  EXTRACTOR. 

Get  an  ordinary  wash-boiler  that  sinks  in- 
to the  hre  -  place  of  the  stove.  Put  some 
strips  of  wood  across,  to  keep  the  bags  of 
wax  from  resting  on  the  bottom,  and  burn- 
ing. These  strips  are  to  be  of  such  length 
that  their  ends  rest  on  the  ledge  of  the  bot- 
tom part  of  the  boiler.  A  frame  similar  to 
that  mentioned  by  Mr.  Gary  would  be  very 
convenient ;  we  have  been  using  one  made 
of  wire  cloth,  but  it  is  hardly  stiff  enough. 
Now,  have  some  bags  made  of  coarse  strain- 
er cloth,  such  as  is  known  in  the  dairy  re- 
gions as  cheese  -  cloth.  These  should  be 
about  the  size  of  grain-bags,  but  not  as  long. 
Squeeze  your  wax  into  balls  in  the  hands, 
getting  it  into  as  small  a  compass  as  may  be, 
and  put  it  in  the  bags.  Have  bags  enough 
to  contain  all  the  wax.  These  bags  cost 
very  little,  as  the  cloth  is  only  8c.  per  yard. 


When  you  have  as  many  packed  into  your 
boiler  as  you  can  get  in.  while  the  water  is 
boiling,  put  on  a  board,  with  a  heavy  piece 
of  iron  on  it.  When  the  wax  is  all  pressed 
out  of  the  bags,  the  iron  should  be  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  liquid ;  if  it  is  not,  add 
more  water,  or  make  the  weight  sink  deep- 
er. The  wax,  of  course,  is  found  swimming 
on  the  surface,  and  may  be  dipped  off,  or, 
if  much  is  to  be  worked  in  this  way,  it  will 
pay  to  have  a  spout  or  gate,  as  suggested  by 
friend  Cary.  It  is  so  difficult  to  clean  the 
bags  from  the  gum  and  propolis  always 
found  with  old  black  combs,  that  I  think  I 
should  throw  them  away,  and  use  new  ones 
each  time.  The  more  compactly  the  wax  is 
put  into  the  bags,  the  less  number  of  bags 
will  be  needed. 

Where  one  has  cappings  from  the  extract- 
or, they  should  not  be  put  with  old  dark 
combs,  but  worked  by  themselves,  for  they 
are  almost  pure  wax.  I  have  seen  cappings 
from  new  white  combs  produce  wax  so  near- 
ly white  that  it  would  readily  sell  for 
bleached  wax.* 

The  wax  of  commerce,  when  it  is  bought 
in  quantities,  is  composed  of  cakes  of 
all  sizes  and  of  all  colors,  from  nearly 
white  to  nearly  black,  the  intermediate 
shades  comprising  almost  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow.  Where  it  contains  much 
refuse,  it  can  be  improved  by  putting  it 
through  either  of  the  presses  described 
above,  and,  in  fact,  almost  any  wax  can  be 
made  cleaner  and  brighter  by  being  put 
through  the  extractor  two  or  three  times. 
It  has  been  our  practice,  in  using  it  for  fdn., 
to  select  the  cleanest  and  nicest  cakes  for 
the  thin  fdn.,  to  be  used  in  the  honey-boxes, 
and  the  darker  for  the  brood  fdn.,  for  the 
latter,  I  think,  is  less  liable  to  sag  and 
stretch  than  the  very  light  yellow.  Wax,  as 
it  comes  from  the  hives,  varies  greatly  in 
hardness.  Some  specimens  are  so  soft  that 
it  seems  as  if  they  could  not  stand  the 
weight  of  the  bees  at  all,  when  made  into 
sheets  of  fdn.,  while  others  are  so  hard  that 
it  is  difficult  to  roll  them  at  ordinary  temper- 
atures. If  I  am  correct,  the  soft  wax  can 
often  be  worked  into  comb  better  than  the 
hard.     This  is  because  it  does  not  continue 

*  June,  18H1.— We  have  just  adopted  a  plan  for  ren- 
dering old  combs  by  the  use  of  steam,  that  is  vastly 
ahead  of  all  these  given,  lioth  in  quality  of  wax  and 
rapidity  of  work.  It  is  simply  a  large  honey-barrel 
having"  a  basket  made  ot  the  pertorated  zine  sus- 
pended in  it  by  a  hoop  that  rests  on  the  tup  of  the 
liariel.  A  steam-pipe  throws  a  strong  jet  of  steam 
into  this  basket,  and  all  one  has  to  do  is  to  shovel  in 
the  old  comb  in  any  quantity.  The  wax  is  found  in 
the  water  below,  an'd  the  rotiise  matter  remains  In 
the  basket.  The  idea  was  parth  furnished  me  by  my 
friend  I).  A.  Jones,  of  Beeton,  Canada. 


WAX. 


316 


WAX. 


to  soften,  in  the  same  proi)ortion.  as  the 
temperature  is  raised.  As  an  illustration, 
take  paraffine.  It  is  too  hard  to  be  worked 
ordinarily  ;  but  if  warmed  to  the  right  de- 
gree, it  makes  beautiful  -  looking  fdn.  If 
given  to  the  bees  during  moderate  spring 
weather,  it  is  worked  out  into  beautiful 
comb,  and  filled  with  honey ;  but  when  the 
extreme  heat  of  midsummer  comes,  these 
beautiful-looking  combs,  with  their  precious 
load  of  sweets,  will  soften  and  fall  down  in- 
to a  heap.  This  fact  I  learned  by  expe- 
rience that  cost  me  a  hundred  dollars  or 
more.  The  admixture  of  the  least  particle 
of  paraflSne  is  sure  to  give  the  wax  a  tenden- 
cy to  stretch  and  sag,  and,  on  this  account, 
I  would  not  advise  it;  for  it  is  a  serious 
matter  to  send  out  fdn.  that  may  endanger 
the  life  of  a  colony,  by  breaking  down  when 
heavily  filled  with  honey.  I  have  been  told 
that,  with  wires  stretched  at  frequent  inter- 
vals, say  every  inch  through  the  frame,  it 
can  be  used  without  danger ;  but  too  many 
wires  in  a  brood-comb  are  objectionable. 

SOLAK   WAX -EXTRACTORS. 

For  several  years  past,  quite  favorable  re- 
ports have  been  received  in  regard  to  an  ar- 
rangement for  using  the  sun's  heat.  It  is 
said,  the  idea  first  originated  in  California 
ab>iit  the  year  1862.  At  this  time  it  was 
used  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  honey 
from  the  combs.  The  honey-extractor  of 
to-uay  was  then  unknown,  and  so  it  is  relat- 
ed that  the  early  Californians  extracted 
their  honey  largely  by  means  of  the  sun's 
heat.  They  simply  placed  their  cards  of 
comb  in  large  trays  covered  with  glass, 
where  old  Sol,  by  the  mere  beaming  of  his 
countenance,  did  the  work.  As  the  combs 
melted,  the  honey  and  wax  ran  together, 
into  a  receptacle.  In  the  evening,  the  wax, 
by  reason  of  its  lighter  weight,  is  hardened 
and  floating  on  the  surface  of  the  honey. 
The  Californians  thus  practically  accom- 
plished two  objects  at  one  and  the  same  op- 
eration, the  extracting  of  botli  honey  and 
wax — the  latter  alieady  in  marketable  shape. 
As  to  the  qualit>  of  the  honey  so  separated 
from  the  combs,  it  is  mucli  better  than  one 
would  suppose,  being  very  nearly  equal  to 
the  ordinary  extracted. 

Recently  the  use  of  the  solar  wax-extract- 
or has  been  restricted  to  the  melting  of  wax 
only.  Among  those  who  have,  within  a  few 
years  past,  demonstrated  the  possibility  and 
advantages  of  rendering  old  combs  into  wax 
by  means  of  tiie  sun's  heat  are  J.  P.  Israel, 
O.  O.  Poppleton,  |J.  A.  (Jreen,  and  G.  M. 
IJo.ilittle. 


[  To  a  casual  observer  it  seems  almost  in- 
credible that  wax  can  be  melted  by  the  aid 
of  old  Sol.  It  is  well  known  to  the  bee- 
keeper, that  little  scraps  of  wax  iji  summer 
weather  will  melt  on  a  hive-cover  exposed 
to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  If.  therefore, 
we  cover  a  shallow  box  with  a  sheet  of  glass, 
and  place  therein  a  piece  of  comb,  said  piece 
will  utilize  a  much  larger  percentage  of  heat. 
Still  further,  if  we  collect  more  rays  of  the 
sun,  and  cast  them  into  the  box  by  means  of 
a  reflector  (a  sheet  of  tin,  for  example)  a 
correspondingly  greater  increase  of  temper- 
ature may  be  expected. 

These,  then,  are  practically  the  principles 
of  the  solar  wax-extractor,  which  I  will  now 
proceed  to  describe  more  at  length.  As  the 
one  devised  by  G.  M.  Doolittle,  of  Borodino, 
N.  Y..  seems  to  be  the  simplest,  I  will  de- 
scribe this  one. 


doolittle's  solar  wax-extractor. 

As  glass  14x28  is  a  convenient  size,  and  can 
be  obtained  of  most  hardware  dealers,  we 
will  make  tlie  Ijox  to  conform  to  it.  There- 
fore we  will  make  a  plain  box  whose  inside 
dimensions  shall  l)e  14  inches  wide,  29  inches 
long,  and  7  inches  deep.  The  sides  of  said 
box  (not  the  ends)  are  to  be  rabbeted  i  deep 
and  about  i  inch  wide  to  receive  the  glass 
frame.  The  cover  should  be  a  similar  box, 
but  only  H  inches  deep,  of  the  same  dimen- 
sions otherwise,  and  is  likewise  rabbeted  on 
the  side  rims.  You  will  thus  observe  that 
the  glass-frame  29  in.  long  and  14|  in.  wide 
can  be  let  down  into  the  rabbets  in  the  box, 
and  that  the  cover  slips  over  the  whole 
thing,  and  makes  a  complete  and  neat  box. 
The  legs  are  174  inches  long,  and  are  pivot- 
ed with  a  screw,  as  shown  in  the  engraving. 
The  pan  is  simply  a  trough  made  of  Russia 
iron,  one  end  of  which  is  closed  up,  and  the 
sides  are  bent  over  a  little  bit  so  as  to  rest 
on  the  rabbets  in  the  sides  of  the  box.    The 


WAX. 


yl7 


W  AX. 


wire  screen  is  fastened  about  i  of  the  way 
down,  as  shown  in  the  engraving,  or  just  far 
enough  to  ndmit  of  a  Langstruth  frame. 

This  exti'actor  doesn't  clog  up.  and  tlie 
wax,  when  it  melts,  runs  down  an  inclined 
plane,  runs  through  the  screen,  and  rinally 
into  Ihe  pan.  and  tliepan  is  allowed  to  stand 
in  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  the  wax  is  kept 
liquid  during  the  entire  day,  so  that  all 
foreign  substances  will  settle  to  the  bottom. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  interesting 
for  my  readers  to  know  what  temperature  we 
are  able  to  get.  By  use  of  Green's  extractor, 
in  Feb.,  1886,  with  an  outside  temperature 
in  the  shade  of  oO-  I  obtained  a  temperature 
of  180  .  On  the  15th  of  Marcli,  with  a  some- 
what warmer  sun,  the  thermometer  in  the 
open  air  registered  bo  •,  inside  the  extractor, 
213- — 1  degree  above  the  boiling-point.  In 
the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  I  placed  in  a 
pan  an  egg  wliich  had  been  broken.  A  few 
minutes  after,  the  egg  was  fried,  but  too 
hard  and  leathery  to  be  fit  to  eat.  Not  be- 
ing an  experienced  cook.  I  presume  I  left  it 
too  long. 

With  these  facts  before  us,  when  we  rec- 
ollect that  the  temperature  at  which  wax 
melts  is  from  145  to  150-,  we  can  no  longer 
doubt  the  efficiency  of  the  sun  in  melting 
wax. 

HOW  TO  USE  THE   SOLAR  W^AX-EXTUACTOK. 

Locate  in  a  convenient  place  (protected 
from  wind)  in  the  apiary  remote  from  any 
possible  shade,  where  it  will  not  be  neces- 
sary to  go  much  out  of  the  way  to  throw  in 
scraps  of  wax  as  they  accumulate  while 
working  with  the  bees  Pos-ibly  it  may 
be  desirable  to  revolve  the  extractor  that  it 
may  keep  pace  wnth  and  face  the  sun  as  it 
advances  across  the  sky.  During  liot  weath- 
er, however,  this  precaution  will  hardly  be 
necessaiT,  as  the  heat  of  the  summer  sun  is 
found  to  be  sufficient  for  all  p:irposes  of 
melting  wax. 

Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant points  of  excellfnce  in  the  sun  wax- 
extractor  as  contrasted  with  tiiose  operated 
with  artihcial  heat.  With  tlie  former  tliere 
is  no  daubing  of  your  wife's  stove  oi-  lier 
floor,  which  she  is  so  particular  to  keep 
scrupulously  clean,  nor  is  tiiere  any  getting 
ready  or  building  of  tires.  Again,  it  is  cheaj)- 
er  to  run  it.  ()k\  SdI  never  cliarges  any 
thing  for  his  heat— he  boards  himself  and 
works  for  nothing.  The  scraps,  burrs,  and 
cappings  from  combs  when  working  among 
bees  may  be  rendered  out  eacli  day  as  they 
come  (if  the  sun  sliines).  Whenever  you 
happen  to  pass  by,  throw  in  the  pieces  of 


comb  you  happen  to  liave  with  you.  and 
thus  save  general  litter.  Lastly, the  quality 
of  the  wax  rendered  by  means  of  the  sun's 
heat  is  generally  conceded  to  be  superior  to 
that  taken  by  other  means.  I  have  taken 
some  old  dark  tough  combs,  and  have  secur- 
ed from  them,  with  the  sun  wax-extractor, 
as  nice  and  clean  yellow  wax  as  I  ever  saw. 
The  action  of  tlie  sun  is  to  bleach  as  well  as 
to  render  out  the  wax. 

I  have  briefly  considered  the  good  features 
of  the  solai'  wax-extractor;  and  while  I 
think  there  is  nothing  better  for  trying  out 
small  lots  of  ohl  comb,  yet,  when  it  is  desir- 
able to  melt  a  large  quantity  of  wax  at  a 
time,  those  arrangements  operated  by  arti- 
hcial heat,  I  think,  are  the  better,  such  as  I 
have  previously  described,  both  under  Wax 
and  FouxDATiox. 

CLEANING    WAX    FROM    CTENSILS. 

Perhaps  the  readiest  means  is  to  immerse 
them  in  boiling  water  until  all  the  wax  is 
thoroughly  melted  off,  then  drain,  while 
kept  hot.  until  the  wax  which  adheres  to 
them  when  being  lifted  from  the  water  is 
thoroughly  melted,  and  can  be  wiped  off 
with  soft  newspaper.  Where  the  article 
can  not  be  easily  immersed,  benzine  or  a  so- 
lution of  sal-soda  will  readily  dissolve  the 
wax,  so  it  may  be  cleaned  off  with  a  cloth. 
Benzine  dissolves  wax  almost  as  readily  as 
water  dissolves  sugar. 

Caution  in  handling  wax. — I  have  spoken 
about  order,  care,  and  cleanliness,  in  hand- 
ling honey,  candy,  etc.;  now,  my  friends,  it 
is  a  much  more  serious  thing  to  daub  melted 
wax  about  the  house,  on  the  carpets  and  on 
your  clothes,  than  it  is  to  daub  either  honey 
or  candy.  You  can  very  easily  spoil  a  dol- 
lar's worth  of  clothing  while  fussing  with  10c 
worth  of  wax,  as  I  know  by  experience. -s* 
When  you  commence,  bear  this  in  mind, 
and  resolve  that  you  are  going  to  have 
things  clean  and  neat  at  every  step,  no  mat- 
ter what  the  cost.  Newspapers  are  very 
cheap,  and  it  takes  but  a  minute  to  spread 
them  all  around  the  room  where  your  wax 
may  be  dropped.  Have  every  thing,  at 
every  stage,  in  such  order  that  you  would 
not  be  ashamed  of  your  work,  should  vis- 
itors call  unexpectedly.  The  greatest  trials 
I  have  ever  had  with  boys  and  girls,  in  try- 
ing to  teach  them  neatness  and  order^  has 
been  with  those  in  the  wax-room;  they  will 
drop  little  bits  of  wax,  and  step  on  them. 
My  friend,  if  you  can  not  learn  to  avoid  step- 
ping on  bees,  or  dropping  and  stepping  on 
wax  and  honey  wliile  you  are  at  work,  you 
would  better  stoj)  right  here,  and  give  up  try- 


WAX. 


318 


WAX. 


ing  to  be  a  bee-keeper.  I  do  not  know  but 
you  might  also  give  u])  all  thouglits  of  ever 
trying  to  be  happy  anywhere.  You  certainly 
can  not  be  wanted  in  this  world,  and  I  am 
not  sure  you  will  be  wanted  in  lieaven,  if 
you  go  about  carelessly  treading  on  things, 
and  sticking  and  daubing  honey  and  bees- 
wax everywhere  you  go. 

The  article  below,  from  the  American  Bee 
Journal  of  Oct.,  1867,  covers  so  many  impor- 
tant facts  in  regard  to  wax,  that  I  copy  it 
entire  : 

WAX. 

This  is  an  organic  product  of  brth  animal  and 
vegetable  origin,  and  occurring  even  as  a  mineral, 
though  in  this  case,  also,  its  original  source  is  un- 
doubtedly vegetable.  The  common  properties  of 
the  substances  included  under  this  name  are  fusi- 
bility at  a  moderate  heat;  burning  with  much  flame: 
insolubility  in  water  and  alcohol ;  solubility  in  alka- 
line solutions  and  ether;  and  in  most  cases  a  pecul- 
iar luster,  to  which  the  name  of  "  waxy  "  has  been 
given.  The  most  important  of  these  substances  is 
beeswax,  which  was  for  a  long  time  supposed  to  be 
simply  collected  by  the  bees  from  flowers,  bit  has 
proved  by  the  experiments  of  Huber  and  the  Hunt- 
ers, to  be  secreted  by  them.  It  is  obtained  in  the 
cakes  in  which  it  appears  in  commerce,  by  boiling 
the  comb,  from  which  the  hcmey  has  been  drained  or 
pressed  out,  in  water,  with  frequent  stirring,  that 
the  wax  may  not  burn.  When  completely  melted, 
the  wax  is  strained  by  pressing  thiough  hair  bags, 
and  received  in  a  vessel  of  cold  water,  which  serves 
to  cool  it  and  prevent  it  from  sticking.  This  is  re- 
peated two  or  three  times,  the  bags  increasing  in 
fineness,  and  the  wax  is  finally  melted  without  wa- 
ter, and  poured  into  molds  wider  at  the  top  ihan 
at  the  bottom,  and  wetted  to  prevent  sticking. 
After  being  filled,  the  molds  are  kept  in  a  warm 
room  till  the  wax  has  solidified,  as  otherwi-e  the 
cakes  are  apt  to  crack  in  the  middle.  This  process 
is,  however,  tedious  and  somewhat  wasteful,  and 
various  attempts  have  been  made  to  find  a  more  ex- 
peditious one,  of  which  Mr.  Bagster's  appears  the 
most  simple.  The  combs  are  placed  in  a  conical 
earthen  vessel  filled  with  a  mixture  of  one  ounce  of 
nitric  acid  to  a  quart  of  water.  This  is  set  over  an 
open  fire  till  the  wax  is  completely  melted,  when  it 
is  removed  from  the  fire,  and  allowed  to  cool  gradu- 
ally. The  product  becomes  divided  into  three  lay- 
ers, the  upper  one  pure  wax,  the  lowest  chiefly  im- 
purities, and  the  middle  containing  sufficient  wax 
to  be  worth  adding  to  the  next  melting.  A  market- 
able wax  is  tnu6  obtained  at  a  single  operation, 
without  straining  or  pressing.  Beeswax  obtained 
by  either  of  these  processes  is  yellow;  has  an  agree- 
able, somewhat  aromatic  odor,  and  a  slight,  but  pe- 
culiar taste;  is  rather  soft  and  unctuous,  though 
firm;  has  a  granular  fracture,  but  when  cut  shows 
the  characteristic  wax V  luster;  does  not  adhere  to 
the  fingers,  or  to  the  teeth  when  chewed;  is  render- 
ed soft  and  tenacious  by  a  moderate  heat ;  melts  at 
about  142^  F.;  and  has  a  specific  gravity  of  0.960  to 
0.96.5. 

Wax  is  often  adulterated  with  earth,  meal,  rosin, 
etc.  The  two  first  render  it  brittle  and  grayish,  and 
may  be  detected  and  separated  by  melting  the  wax, 
when  the  impurities  may  be  strained  out.  Rosin 
makes  the  fracture  smooth  and  shining  instead  of 


granular,  and  may  be  dissolved  in  cold  alcohoU 
while  the  wa.\  remains  untouched.  Tallow  or  suet 
renders  the  wax  softer,  and  gives  it  an  unpleasant 
odor  when  melted. 

Wax  is  bleached  by  causing  it,  when  melted,  to 
pass  through  a  perforated  trough  vipon  the  surface 
of  revolving  wooden  cylinders  half  immersed  in  wa- 
ter, by  which  it  is  formed  into  films,  which  are 
then  placed  on  webs  of  canvas  raised  from  the 
ground,  nd  exp-sed  to  the  action  of  the  weather 
until  perfectly  white.  It  is,  however,  generally  nec- 
essaiT  to  repeat  the  process  so  as  to  expose  fresh 
surfaces  before  the  wax  can  be  completely  bleach- 
ed; and  care  must  be  taken  to  finally  remove  the 
wax  from  the  webs  of  canvas  only  in  dry  weather, 
as  if  it  is  done  in  damp  weather  it  retains  a  grayish 
tint,  which  much  impairs  its  value.  The  films  are 
finally  melted  and  cast  into  thin  circular  cakes, 
known  commercially  as  "  virgin  wax."  When 
bleached  by  means  of  chlorine  or  its  compounds, 
the  color  is  destroyed,  but  the  wax  is  rendered  unfit 
for  many  purp  >ses,  and  especially  f >  rr  candles. 
Another  method  of  bleaching  is  to  add  one  pound  of 
melted  wax,  two  ounces  pulverized  nitrate  of  soda, 
and  stir  in  by  degrees  a  mixture  of  one  ounce  sul- 
phuric acid  and  nine  ounces  if  water.  When  all  the 
acid  is  addf^d,  it  is  allowed  to  partially  cool,  and  the 
vessel  is  then  filled  up  with  boiling  water,  to  remove 
the  sulphate  of  soda  and  acid;  it  is  then  quite  white, 
translucent  in  thin  slices,  shining,  harder  and  less 
unctuous  than  the  yellow,  without  taste  or  smell; 
becomes  soft  enough  to  be  kneaded  at  8.5°  to  9.5°  F., 
and  fuses  at  1.50°  to  ].5.5°  F.,  though  it  will  remain 
liquid  at  a  somewhat  lower  temperature;  by  great 
heat  it  i<  partially  volatilized  and  partly  decompos- 
ed, the  vapor  burning  with  a  clear  bright  flame;  it 
is  insoluble  in  water,  b\it  slightly  soluble  in  boiling 
alcohol  and  ether,  which  deposit  most  of  it  on  cool- 
ing; easily  so  in  the  essential  and  fixed  oils;  and 
can  readily  be  combined  with  rosin  by  fusion.  It  is 
very  frequently  adulterated  with  spermaceti,  which 
destroys  its  peculiar  luster,  and  renders  it  softer 
and  more  fusible;  it  is  also  adulterated  with  stea- 
rine,  which  may  be  detected  b.y  the  odor  of  fat  or 
tallow  evolved  when  the  wax  is  highly  heated,  and 
by  the  crumbly  texture  which  it  imparts. 

White  wax  is  composed  of  two  principal  sub- 
stances: myricine,  which  is  grayish-white  without 
crystalline  texture,  fusible  at  127°  F.,  and  almost  in- 
soluble in  boiling  alcohol;  and  cerine  or  cerotic  acid, 
which  crystallizes  when  pure,  in  delicate  needle-like 
crystals,  fuses  at  172°  F.,  is  much  more  soluble,  con- 
stitutes about  twenty-two  per  cent  of  the  entire 
weight  of  the  wax,  and  has  for  its  formula  C°%  H 
"■■,0'.  Wax  also  contains  four  or  five  per  cent  of  a 
substance  called  ceroleine,  which  is  soft,  very  solu- 
ble in  cold  alcohol  and  ether,  and  melts  at  83°  F. ; 
and  by  dry  distillation,  and  by  the  action  of  acids 
and  alkalies  on  cerene  and  myricine,  a  large  num- 
ber of  peculiar  organic  compounds  may  be  derived 
from  it.  A  specimen  of  beeswax  from  Ceylon  was 
found  by  Mr.  Brodie  to  consist  almost  exclusivelj' of 
myricine. 

Beeswax,  though  produced  in  almost  every  coun- 
try in  the  temperate  and  tropic  zones,  is  an  article 
of  foreign  commerce  in  comparatively  few.  The 
European  supply  is  principally  derived  from  the 
Baltic,  the  Levant,  Africa,  India,  and  the  United 
States.  The  Portuguese  province  of  Angola,  in  Af- 
rica, annually  sends  to  Europe  about  1,500,000  arro- 
bas,  or  47,772,000  fts.    Japan  also  exports  much.    In 


WAX. 


819 


WAX. 


the  United  States  it  has  long  been  an  important 
article  of  production  and  export.  The  census  of 
1840  gives  the  value  of  the  product  at  $028,303.  which 
would  be  about  2.000.000  ms. ;  that  for  1H50  states  the 
amount  of  wax  and  honey  to  have  been  14,8,53,790  lbs., 
worth  $2,736,606;  and  that  for  1860  gives  1,357,864  lbs. 
of  wax  alone.  The  exports  in  18.59-60  were  362,474 
lbs.,  worth  $131,803.  In  1861,  238,.5.53  lbs.  were  export- 
ed from  New  Yoi-k.  In  1860  more  than  flve-si.xths  of 
the  exports  were  to  France,  England,  and  Brazil. 

Besides  beeswax,  two  kinds  of  wax  ot  animal  ori- 
gin enter  into  commerce.  The  first,  the  insect  wax 
of  China,  is  found  coating  the  surface  of  the  Rhus 
succedaneuin  and  some  other  trees.  It  is  the  product 
of  a  very  small  white  hemipterous  insect  f Coccus 
SinensisJ,  which  about  the  beginning  of  June  climbs 
up  the  plant  and  feeds  upon  it,  depositing  the  wax 
upon  the  branches  as  a  coating  which  resembles 
hoar  frost.  This  is  scraped  off  toward  the  end  of 
August,  melted  in  boiling  water,  and  strained 
through  a  cloth.  It  is  white  and  crystalline,  re- 
sembling spermaceti,  but  harder,  more  brittle,  and 
more  fibrous,  fuses  at  181°  F.,  is  but  slightly  soluble 
in  alcohol  or  ether,  dissolves  readily  in  naphtha,  and 
has  for  its  formula  C'"",  H'"^,  O*.  It  does  not  con- 
tain cerotic  acid  ready  formed,  but  by  fusion  with 
potash  is  decomposed  into  a  mixture  of  it  with  a 
substance  C'lUed  cerotine  (C'',  H"-,  O.)  The  Chi- 
nese call  it  fe-la,  and  employ  it  for  making  candles, 
sometimes  alone,  but  more  commonly  mixed  with 
softer  fats,  and  as  a  coating  for  other  more  easily 
fusible  material,  in  order  to  prevent  guttering.  It 
is  often  colored  red  with  alkanet  root,  or  green  with 
verdigris.  It  has  been  introduced  into  England  for 
the  manufacture  of  composite  candles,  and  is  found 
to  answer  the  same  purpose  as  beeswax,  of  destroy- 
ing the  crystalline  structure,  or  "  breaking  the 
grain"  of  stearic  acid.  In  China  it  is  also  employed 
as  a  medicine.  The  French  have  introduced  the  in- 
sect into  Algeria.  The  price  of  wax  at  Ningpo  some 
years  ago  was  22  to  25  cents  per  poimd,  and  the  an- 
nual prfiduction  was  estimated  at  400,000  lbs.  Anoth- 
er wa.Y  of  animal  origin  is  the  Andaijuiss  wax  of 
South  .\merica,  which  is  produced  by  a  small  insect 
called  avrsa.  It  melts  at  iTl"  F.,  has  a  specific  grav- 
ity of  0.917,  and,  according  to  M.  Lewy,  contains  fifty 
per  cent  of  ceroxyline.  or  palm  wax,  forty-five  per 
•cent  of  ceroxine,  or  sugar-cane  wax,  and  five  per 
cent  of  an  oily  substance. 

Of  the  vegetable  waxes,  the  JiipHuese,  the  palm 
wax  of  New  Granada,  and  the  myrtle  wax  of  the 
United  States  ai"e  the  principal  varieties.  The  first 
is  as  white  as  bleached  beeswax,  more  brittle,  less 
ductile,  and  breaks  with  a  smoother  and  more  con- 
choidal  fracture;  its  specific  gravity  is  rather  less; 
and  its  melting-point  is  about  127°  F.  Its  chemical 
composition  is  not  definitely  known.  The  berries 
yielding  it  grow  in  clusters,  like  grapes,  on  trees 
from  15  to  twenty-five  feet  high,  and  when  gathered 
are  roughly  washed  and  boiled  in  water,  when  the 
wax  rises  to  the  surface,  is  skimmed  off,  and  formed 
into  cakes  weighing  about  thirty  pounds.  It  is  said 
to  require  protracted  bleaching  before  it  is  fit  for 
market.  Small  quantities  ha\e  been  shipped  to  Eu- 
rope for  many  years  past,  t)ut  it  is  only  within  four 
or  five  years  that  it  has  been  exclusively  employed 
for  candles,  etc.  The  amount  exported  is  large  and 
continually  increasing.  In  18,59  a  single  cargo  of 
1,170,000  lbs.  arrived  in  England.  In  I860  the  price  at 
Nagasaki  was  $11  to  $12  per  pecul,  or  8'4  to  914  cents 
per  pound.    The  palm  wax  of  New  Granada  (cerox- 


yline) is  obtained  from  the  Ceroxylon  andicnla.  The 
scrapings  from  the  exterior  of  the  tree  are  boiled 
by  the  Indians,  and  the  wax  rises  to  the  surface.  It 
is  grayish  white  when  crude,  and  after  purification 
by  digestion  in  alcohf)l  is  yellowish  white,  almost  in- 
soluble in  alcohol,  and  fuses  at  16114°  F.  The  tree 
has  been  introduced  into  Algeria.  Carnauba  wax  is 
derived  from  a  palm  growing  in  northern  Brazil. 
It  is  soluble  in  alcohol  and  ether,  and  fuses  at  182°  F. 
The  ocuba  wax  of  Brazil  is  derived  from  kernels  of 
the  fruit  of  several  species  of  myristica,  especially 
the  M.  ocuba.  It  is  yellowish  white,  soluble  in  boil- 
ing alcohol,  and  melts  at  98°  F.  The  Bicuhiba  wax, 
also  from  Brazil,  comes  from  the  M.  Bicuhiha,  is 
yellowish-white,  soluble  in  boiling  alcohol,  and  fusi- 
ble at  95°  F.  The  myrtle  wax,  which  for  many  years 
has  been  an  article  of  commerce  in  the  United 
States,  also  known  as  "  candleberry  wax  "  and  as 
"  bayberry  tallow,"  occurs  as  an  incrustation  on  the 
berries  of  the  wax-myrtle  or  bayberry.  The  berries 
are  inclosed  in  bags  of  coarse  cloth,  and  kept  im- 
mersed in  boiling  water  until  the  wax  collects  on 
the  surface,  which  is  then  cast  into  molds,  and  sold 
without  further  preparation.  It  varies  in  color 
from  grayish-yellow  to  deep  green,  has  a  balsamic 
and  slightly  aromatic  odor,  a  specific  gra^-ity  of  1.004 
to  1.006,  fqses  between  117°  and  120^  F.,  and  is  much 
harder  and  more  btittle  than  beeswax.  It  is  com- 
posed, according  to  Mr.  G.  E.  Moore,  of  one-fifth 
part  of  a  substance  called  palmatine,  which  exists 
in  palm  oil,  Japanese  wax,  etc.,  and  four-fifths  of 
palmitic  acid,  with  a  small  quantity  of  lauric  acid. 
This  wax  appears,  as  a  candle-making  material,  to 
be  w<irthy  of  more  attention  than  it  has  hitherto  re- 
ceived. Its  illuminating  power  is  scarcely  inferior 
to  that  of  the  best  beeswax;  it  costs  hardly  one- 
quarter  as  much,  can  be  obtained  more  free  from 
color,  is  easily  bleached,  and  from  its  superior  hard- 
ness can  be  cast  instead  of  being  molded  by  hand 
like  beeswax.  The  plant  grows  abundantly  on  the 
poorest  soils  along  the  coast  of  New  England. 
Plantations  of  it  have  long  existed  in  Europe,  and 
its  cultivation  has  lately  been  tried  in  Algeria.  The 
berries  of  myrica  qnercifolia,  natives  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  growing  on  dry  sandy  plains  along  the 
coast,  also  yield  a  greenish  wax,  which  can  be 
bleached,  and  when  made  into  candles  gives  a  very 
good  light.  The  sugarcane  yields  a  wax  called  cer- 
osine,  which  is  soluble  in  boiling  alcohol,  and  slight- 
ly so  in  boiling  ether.  The  sorghum  also  secretes  on 
the  surface  of  the  native  stalks  a  white  resinous 
powder,  from  which  candles  could  be  made.  A 
wa.xy  substance  called  suberine  has  likewise  been 
obtained  from  cork. 

Several  mineral  substances  resemble  wa.x  in  phy.s- 
ical  properties,  the  principal  of  which  are  ozocerite 
and  hatchettine.  The  principal  use  of  the  different 
kinds  of  wax  are:  1.  For  the  manufacture  of  candles, 
either  from  pure  wax,  the  consumption  of  which  is 
especially  great  in  Uoman-Catholic  countries,  or  of 
wax  mixed  with  stearic  acid,  palm  oil,  etc.,  as  in 
composite  candles;  to  which  purpose  every  variety, 
whether  animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral,  seems  to 
have  been  employed  in  different  coiuitrics;  2.  As  a 
vehicle  for  colors  in  certain  kinds  of  painting,  and 
as  a  protecting  coat  for  them;  3.  For  giving  a 
polish  to  furniture  and  Hoors,  for  both  which  pur- 
poses it  is  generally  used  in  France  and  other  parts 
of  southern  Europe;  4.  In  medicine,  in  which  bees- 
wa.x  is  employed  as  an  internal  remedy  against 
diarrh(ea  and  dysentery,  as  an  ingredient  in  almost 


WAX. 


;s2(» 


VVHITEWOOD. 


all  ointments,  cerates,  and  plasters,  and  also  for  flll- 
injf  carious  teeth;  5.  As  a  lute  or  cement  of  much 
utility  for  chemical  and  other  purposes,  and  also  as 
an  impervious  coating  for  vessels  formed  of  porous 
materials;  6.  As  a  material  for  modeling;  and  7, 
formerly  for  seals  instead  of  sealing-wax. 

The  process  given  above,  of  bleaching  by 
the  use  of  chemicals.  I  have  tried  repeated- 
ly :  but  although  I  procured  the  purest  arti- 
cles, and  used  the  utmost  care,  I  have  never 
been  able  to  get  wax  enough  whiter  to  make 
it  any  object,  to  say  nothing  of  making 
white  wax  of  it.  The  sun  bleaching  is  the 
plan  generally  used,  if  I  am  not  mistaken  ; 
but  as  I  have  said  before,  we  certainly  do 
not  want  white  wax  for  use  in  the  apiary. 
The  plan  of  cleansing  wax  by  the  use  of 
acids  or  vinegar  is  well  known,  I  believe; 
but,  as  a  general  rule,  I  think  it  is  more 
trouble  than  the  plans  I  have  given.  Our 
friend  Doolittle  seiit  us  some  remarkably 
pretty  wax,  that  he  said  was  cleansed  by  the 
following  process,  which  is  taken  from  Quin- 
by's  Bee-Keeping,  edition  of  1866,  page  283: 

By  adding  an  acid  to  the  water  in  which  the  wax 
is  melted,  it  may  be  separated  much  more  readily. 
A  quart  of  vinegar  to  a  gallon  of  water,  or  a  small 
spoonful  of  nitric  acid,  is  sufiBcient. 

ADULTERATION  OF  W^AX. 

The  white  wix  of  ccmimerce.  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  is  to  some  extent  adulterated  with 
paraffine,  which  very  much  injiu-es  it  for 
making  fdn.,  as  I  have  before  explained. 
Within  the  past  few  years,  another  sub- 
stance, called  ceresin,  has  been  imported  in 
large  quantities,  and  bids  fair  to  take  the 
place  of  wax  to  a  great  extent  for  many  pur- 
poses. It,  however,  like  paraffine,  when 
used  for  combs,  stretches  so  much  as  to 
make  it  worse  than  useless.  Both  of  these 
substances  can  readily  be  mixed  with  wax, 
and  the  problem  is  to  determine  when  there 
is  such  admixture.  My  method  has  been 
simply  to  chew  a  piece  of  the  suspected  wax  ; 
if  adulterated,  even  slightly,  with  either,  the 
wax  will  chew  like  gum ;  whereas,  if  pure  it 
will  soon  crumble  and  break  to  pieces  in  the 
mouth,  and  will  not  make  gum  at  all.  In 
buying  the  ordinary  cakes  of  wax  of  com- 
merce, we  are  pretty  safe  from  adulteration 
with  either  of  these.  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
that  there  is  a  species  of  fraud  practiced  by 
the  country  people  themselves,  by  adding 
tallow  to  their  cakes  of  beeswax,  but,  hap- 
pily, this  is  not  very  common.  The  pres- 
ence of  tallow  is  detected  by  both  taste  and 
smell,  and  especially  by  chewing,  for  a 
very  small  per  cent  of  tallow  softens  the  wax 
quite  perceptibly,  and  makes  it  like  grafting- 
wax.    Where  we  suspect  a  cake  of  wax,  I 


have  sometimes  made  a  little  of  it  into  a 
piece  of  fdn.,  and  hung  it  in  a  hive.  If  the 
cells  made  are  regular,  and  do  not  stretch 
out  so  as  to  give  the  oblong  appearance,  I 
pronounce  it  pure  wax ;  for,  so  far  as  I 
know,  there  is  no  other  substance  known 
that  will  stand  the  heat  of  the  hive,  as  will 
wax,  without  bulging  and  stretching.'^'' 

IVKZTZSWOOD  {Liriodendron  Tulip- 
ifera).  This  is  often  called  the  tulip-tree,  I 
suppose  from  its  tulip-shaped  flowers. 

After  I  had  written  the  above,  I  concluded 
I  did  not  know  very  much  about  the  white- 
wood,  especially  the  blossoms.  So  T  travel- 
ed off  into  the  woods.  At  length  I  found  a 
tree,  but  there  were  only  buds  to  be  seen, 
not  blossoms.  It  must  be  too  early  in  the 
season ;  but,  hark !  whence  come  those 
sounds  of  humming  -  birds  and  humming 
beesV  Whence,  too,  comes  that  rare  and  ex- 
quisite perfume?  I  looked  higher, and, away 
in  the  misty  top  of  the  tree  I  thought  I  dis- 
cerned, by  the  light  of  the  setting  sun,  mul- 
titudes of  bees  flitting  about.  Oh  that  I  were 
just  up  there  I  I  looked  at  the  rough  trunk 
of  the  tree,  and  meditated  that  I  was  a  boy 
no  longer,  but  a  man  of  40,  or  would  be  in  a 
few  months  more.  I  might  get  up  to  that 
first  limb  :  after  a  good  deal  of  kicking  and 
puffing,  I  got  up  there.  The  next  was  a 
harder  pull  yet;  but  soon  the  limbs  were 
thicker,  and  finally  I  began  to  crawl  up- 
ward with  about  as  much  ease  as  our  year- 
and-a-half-old  baby  goes  up  stairs,  whenever 
she  can  elude  maternal  vigilance.  Up,  up, 
I  went,  until,  on  looking  do^^^l,  I  really  be- 
gan to  wonder  what  that  blue-eyed  baby  and 
her  mamma  would  do,  should  my  clumsy 
boots  slip,  or  a  dead  limb  break  unexpected- 
ly. Xow  I  was  in  the  very  summit  of  the 
tree,  and,  oh  what  a  wonderful  beauty  I  saw 
in  those  tulip  -  shaped  blossoms  that  peeped 
from  the  glossy-green  foliage  all  about  me  ! 
No  wonder  there  was  a  humming.  Bumble- 
bees, gaudy-colored  wasps,  yellow  Italians, 
and  last,  but  not  least,  beautifully  plumaged 
humming-birds,  were  all  rejoicing  in  a  field 
of  sweets.  Every  now  and  then  one  of  the 
latter  paused  before  my  very  face,  and,  as 
he  swimg  pendulously  in  mid  air,  winked 
his  bright  little  eyes,  as  much  as  to  say, 
"Why,  what  on  earth  can  you  be  doing  away 
up  here  in  our  domain  V" 

I  picked  off  the  great  orange-colored,  mot- 
tled blossoms,  and  looked  for  the  honey.  2401 
presume  it  was  the  wrong  time  of  day  to  ex- 
pect much;  but  the  inside  of  those  large  pet- 
als seemed  to  be  distilling  a  dark  kind  of 


WHITEWOOD. 


321 


WHITEWOOD. 


dew  that  the  birds  and  insects  were  licking 
off.  It  tasted  to  me  more  like  molasses  than 
honey.  In  the  cut  below  our  engraver  has 
tried  to  show  you  what  I  saw  in  the  tree-top. 

As  the  sun  had  gone  down,  I  commenced 
in  a  rather  undignified  M^ay  to  follow  suit, 
and.  after  resting  a  little,  limped  home. 
Although  I  was  stiff  and  sore,  I  carried  an 
armful  of  white  wood  blossoms  to  surprise 
the  good  folks  who,  probably,  had  never 
dreamed  of  the  beauties  to  be  seen  only  in 
the  tree-tops. 

Our  friends  in  the  South  have  a  great  deal 
to  say  about  what  they  call ''  poplar  honey;'' 
and.  if  I  am  correct,  the  poplar  is  the  same 


autumn.    The  figure  shows  a  single  seed 

as  it  appears  when  separated  from  the 

mass.    It  blooms  in  May  and  June,  and 

the  seeds  ripen  in  late  summer  or  early 

autumn,  and  should  be  sown  as  soon  as 

ripe,  in  g-ood,  moderately  drj'  soil.    They 

may  remain  in  the  seed  -  bed  two  years. 

if  desirable,  but  should  receive  a  slifrh' 

protection  the  first  winter;  tree  of  laryi 

size,  sometimes  IJJO  feet  high,  with  a  very 

straight  stem;  wood  light  color,  greenish 

white,  soft  and  light,  not  hard  enough  to 

receive  a  polish.    It  is  much  used  in  cabinet  work, 

and  for  making  panels  for  carriages,  and  for  any 

inside  work  where  toughness  or  a  hard  surface  is 

not  required.    There  is  perhaps  no  native  wood  that 

will  shrink  more  in  seasoning  than  whitewood,  for 

it  not  only  shrinks  sidewise,  but  endwise  as  well; 


^ 


LEAF,  BUD,  AND  BLOSSOM  OF  THE  AVHITEWOOD,  Oil  TULIP-TREE. 


tree  which  we  call  whitewood.  It  blossoms 
with  them  in  April  and  May.  I  know  what 
time  it  blossoms  here,  for  I  thought  about 
its  being  the  27th  of  -May,  when  sliding 
down  out  of  that  tree.  Shortly  after,  I 
received  some  bees  from  G.  W.  Gates,  of 
Bartlett,  Tenn.  The  combs  were  tilled  and 
bulged  out  with  a  dark  honey,  such  as  I 
have  described,  and  the  bees  had  built  fins 
of  snow-white  comb  on  the  cover  of  their 
shipping-box.  From  this  I  infer  the  honey 
must  be  yielded  in  great  abundance  in  those 
localities.  I  have  seen  it  stated,  that  the 
large  flowers  sometimes  yield  a  spoonful  of 
honey  each.  As  the  tree  is  often  used  for 
ornament,  I  make  the  following  extract  from 
Fuller's  Forest-Tree  CidUtrisl: 

LIRIODENDKON  TULIPIFER\   CTuKlJ-tvce  WllitCWiiodJ. 

Leaves  smooth,  on  slender  petioles,  partially 
three-lobed,  the  middle  one  appearing  as  though 
cut  off  ;  Hfjwcrs  about  two  inches  broad,  bell-shaped, 
greenish  yellow,  marked  with  orange;  seeds  winged. 
in  a  large  cone-shape  cluster,  which  falls  apart   in 


but  when  once  thoroughly  seas(med,  it  remains 
tixed.  and  does  not  warp  or  wist  like  many  of  the 
hani  and  tough  kinds  of  wood.  There  is  also  much 
ditference  in  character  of  the  wood  coming  from 
different  sections  of  the  country,  and  mechanics 
who  are  conversant  with  the  various  kinds  and  lo- 
caliti-s  will  readily  tell  whether  specimens  came 
from  the  West  or  East.  The  latter  is  of  a  light 
greenish  color,  grain  not  so  smooth  and  soft,  and 
sometimes  rather  tough.  The  wood  is  but  little 
used,  except  for  the  purposes  mentioned  above, 
consefiueiitly  it  is  •)nly  large  trees  that  will  be  of 
much  Viiiue.  It  is  one  of  the'  most  beautiful 
ornatiieiital  trees  we  possess,  growing  in  a  conical 
form,  and  producing  an  abundance  of  its  beautiful 
tulip-shaped  flowers  in  spring.  The  roots  are  soft 
and  sponge-like,  and  it  reijuires  great  care  in  re- 
moving to  insure  success. 

Tlie  <|uestion  is  often  asked,  "Is  wliite- 
wood  good  for  bee-hivesV"  It  may  do  for 
sections  and  brood-frames,  but  it  is  very  un- 
satisfactory for  hives,  for  the  reasons  given 
in  this  extract. 

WILZiO^tr.  As  I  have  had  liltle  or  no 
expeiiencf  with  this  shrub,  and  as  it  does 


WILLOW. 


WILLOW. 


yield  lioney  jiiul  pollen  in  some  localities,  I 
can  do  no  better  than  to  copy  an  article  with 
the  engravings,  from  the  pen  of  G.  M.  Doo- 
litile.  as  given  in  Gleanmgftin  Bee  Culture, 
p.  486,  \'ol.  X\'IL: 

Among:  the  poUen-bearers  we  have  several  kinds 
of  what  is  known  here  as  "pussy  willow"  (Sa/ir) 
which  puts  out  their  blossoms  quite  irregularly. 
Some  are  a  month  earlier  than  others,  and  some  of 
the  buds  on  the  same  bush  are  ten  days  later  than 
others.  The  kinds  whicli  seem  to  atti-act  the  bees 
most  are  the  black  willow,  upon  which  the  kilmai- 
noek  is  budded,  and  those  which  produce  a  long 
cone-like  flow'er  similar  to  the  Ijlack  willow,  tlie  ac- 
companying cut  a-iving  a  fair  representation  of  the 
latter,  a  week  or  so  after  it  is  through  lilossoming 
and  has  paitially  gone  to  seed.  From  these  two 
kinds  the  bees  obtain  huge  quantities  of  pollen,  but, 
so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  no  lioney.  As  tliis  pollen 
conies  the  first  of  any  which  we  have  which  amounts 
to  any  thing,  I  esteem  it  of  great  value  to  the  bees. 
Skunk-cabbage  gives  pollen  a  little  earlier,  but  we' 
do  not  have  enough  of  it  to  amount  to  much,  com- 
pared with  what  tliese  willows  give.  The  flowers  are 
of  a  rich  orange  celor,  and  consist  of  a  center  out  of 
which  spring  hundreds  of  little  thread-like  fllaments, 
upon  which  the  pollen  is  supported.  It  is  very  in- 
teresting to  see  the  bees  work  on  these  flowers,  as 
yon  can  see  their  motions  so  plainly,  for  the  tree  or 
bush  docs  not  grow  so  higli  but  that  some  of  the 
lower  limbs  are  about  on  a  level  with  the  eye.  Here 
is  a  peculiarity  of  the  willows,  for  all  those  in  this 
section  which  give  pollen  growin  a  bush  form,  while 
all  of  those  which  yield  honey  grow  to  be  quite 
large  trees,  often  reaching  six  feet  in  circumference. 


j  sacs.    This  way,  if  used  when  the  bees  are  at  work 
on  any  of  the  honey-bearing  flowers,  never  fails  to 
:  reveal  lioney  accumulating  in  their  sacs. 

HONEV-PRODUCERS. 

I  Of  these  we  have  three  kinds- the  golden  willow, 
tlie  white  willow,  and  the  weeping  willow,  and  they 
are  of  value  as  honey-producers  in  the  order  named, 
although  the  weeping  willow  blossoms  alxiut  three 
days  earlier  than  the  others.  This  would  make  it  of 
more  value  to  the  bees,  even  did  it  not  yield  honey 
quite  so  profusely,  if  theie  were  enougli  trees  to 
keep  tlie  bees  busy;  but  as  there  are  verj'  few  trees 
of  this  kind  about  here  there  is  not  enough  to  make 
any  account  of.  None  of  the  three  willows  men- 
tioned here  give  any  pollen  that  I  ever  could  dis- 
cover, for  none  of  tlie  bees  at  work  on  these  trees 
ever  have  any  pollen  in  their  pollen-baskets.  If 
there  is  any  species  of  willow  which  yields  bothhon- 
ej-  and  pollen,  I  am  not  acquainted  with  it.  The 
flowers  are  similar  to  those  which  grow  on  the  birch 
and  poplar,  lieing  of  a  iong  tag-like  shape,  as  large 
as  a  slate  pencil,  and  from  one  to  two  inches  long. 
Those  on  the  golden  willow  are  the  longest,  and 
yield  honey  abundant^'. 


PUSSY  WILLOW. 

The  pussy  willow  naturally  grows  on  low  swampy 
gi-ound;  but  with  alittlecultureto  start, it  will  grow 
readily  on  dry  ground.  They  giow  readily  from  cut- 
tings put  in  the  ground  in  early  spring,  as  does  all  of 
the  willow  tribe.  The  above  are  often  set  down  as 
"honey-plants;"'  but  according  to  Quinby  and  my 
own  observation,  they  produce  n(j  honey.  As  they 
grow  very  plentifully  about  here,  I  have  had  much 
observation  regarding  them.  To  be  .sure,  the  bee  is 
continually  poking  its  proboscis  into  the  blossoms, 
the  same  as  they  do  when  sucking  for  honey;  but 
after  killing  many  bees  and  dissecting  them,  I  have 
been  unable  to  find  the  least  bit  of  honey  in  their 


GOLDEN   WILLOW. 

The  engraving  presented  herewith  so  nearly  rep- 
resents the  golden  willow  that  any  one  should  know 
it  in  connection  with  its  yellow  bark,  which  dis- 
tinguishes it  from  tlie  other  kinds  of  himey-yielding 
willow,  as  all  of  the  rest,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  a 
lightgieen  hark.  WTieii  these  willows  are  in  bloom, 
and  the  weather  is  warm,  the  bees  rush  out  of  their 
hives  at  early  dawn,  and  work  on  it  all  day  long  as 
eagerly  as  they  do  on  clover  or  basswood.  The  blo.s- 
snms  often  secrete  honey  so  profusely  that  it  can  lie 
seen  glistening  ill  the  morning  sun,  by  holding  the 
blossom  between  you  and  that  orb,  while  the  trees 
resound  with  that  dull  busy  hum,  so  often  heard 
when  the  bees  are  getting  honey,  from  morning  till 
night.  As  this  is  the  very  first  honey  of  the  season, 
I  coni-ider  it  of  the  greatest  of  value  to  the  bt?es,  for 
the  brood  is  now  crowded  forward  with  great 
"vim,"  which  brood  gives  us  the  liecs  which  work  on 
the  white  clover,  while  the  honey  often  helps  very 
great  Ij'  in  piecing  out  the  depleted  stores  t)f  the  hive. 
These  willows  blo.ssom  a,  little  in  advanceof  the  hard 
maple,  ai.d  hold  out  as  Ijngasthey  do;  and  from  the 
fact  that,  when  I  kill  a  bee  at  work  on  tliese  willows 
I  always  find  honey  in  its  sac,  while  when  I  do  the 
same  with  a  bee  which  is  at  work  on  the  maple  I 


WIXTERIXG. 


328 


WIXTERING. 


never  find  any  hDnt-y,  I  have  been  led  to  think  tliat 
perhaps  tliose  reporting-  honey  might  be  mistaken, 
and  tliat  tlie  lioney  really  t-anie  from  the  willows. 
Again,  maple  blossoms  (mly  evei-y  other  year  with 
us,  while  the  willows  never  fail;  and  I  have  noticed 
for  years  that  I  got  fnlly  as  much  honey  in  the 
j"ears  when  the  maples  did  not  bloom  as  I  did  the 
j-ears  when  they  did.  From  the  few  trees  along  a 
small  creek  near  here,  my  bees  frequently  make  a 
gain  of  from  six  to  ten  pounds  of  honey  while  the 
willows  are  in  bloom,  and  one  sea.son  they  made  m 
gain  of  15  pounds.  This  present  spring  some  of  my 
best  colonies  gained  8  pounds,  while  on  apple-bloom 
they  did  not  get  more  than  a  living,  with  apple-or- 
chards white  with  bloom  all  about.  The  honey 
from  the  willow  is  quite  similai'  to  that  from  the 
apple-bloom,  and  of  a  nice  aromaiie  flavor.  As  the 
willows  gave  the  first  pollen,  and  also  the  first  hon- 
ey each  season.  It  will  be  seen  what  a  great  help 
they  are  to  all  who  have  them  in  profusion  near 
their  bees.  The  only  drawback  there  is,  Is  in  the 
weather  often  being  unfavorable,  for  I  do  not  think 
that  more  tlian  one  year  in  three  gives  good  weather 
all  thi'ough  the  time  the  willows  are  in  blossom.  So 
far  as  I  know,  honey  and  pollen  ai-e  always  present 
In  the  respective  kinds  when  they  are  in  bloom;  but 
the  trouble  is.  that  it  is  so  c:)ld.  rainy,  cloudy,  or 
windy  for  the  bees  to  get  tuythe  trees  so  much  of  the 
time,  at  this  sea.son  of  the  year,  that  honey  or  pollen 
from  this  source  is  not  at  all  certain. 
Bt)rodino,  N.  Y.  G.  M.  Doolittle. 

IVirrTERINC  .  My  friends,  if  you 
have  been  over  faithfully  what  I  have  writ- 
ten in  the  preceding  pages,  you  are  nearly 
ready  to  sum  up  the  matter  of  wintering 
with  me,  with  but  few  additional  remarks. 
Under  the  head  of  Absconding  Savarms,  in 
the  opening  of  the  book,  I  cautioned  you 
against  dividing,  and  trying  to  winter  weak 
colonies.  See  Absconding  in  Early  Spring, 
under  the  head  mentioned.  Also  see  House- 
Apiary,  under  head  of  Apiary.  In  regard 
to  keeping  bees  warm  through  the  winter 
with  Artificial  Heat,  see  that  head.  In 
regard  to  the  effect  of  different  kinds  of  food 
or  stores  on  the  welfare  of  bees  dui-ing  win- 
ter, see  Dysentery,  Feeding  and  Feed- 
ers, Candy  for  Bees,  aiid  IIoney-dew. 
In  regard  to  fixing  the  size  of  the  entrances 
to  hives,  and  keeping  them  from  getting 
clogged  with  dead  bees,  see  Entrances  to 
Hives,  \''entilation,  and  Propolis.  In 
regard  to  starving  bees,  and  taking  away 
their  sealed  stores,  allowing  them  only  un- 
sealed, late  fall  honey,  see  Extractors. 
For  a  consideration  of  the  different  sizes  and 
shapes  of  frames  for  wintering,  see  Nu- 
cleus. 

WHEN    to    commence    PREPARING    UEES 
FOR  WINTER. 

If  eitlier  bees  or  stores  are  lacking,  they 
should  be  supplied  during  warm  weather,  so 
that  all  may  be  quiet  and  ready  for  the  win- 


ter doze  which  nature  intends  them  to  take, 
long  enough  before  winter  weather  has  act- 
ually set  in.  In  this  latitude  I  should  ad- 
vise examining  all  hives  the  first  of  Sept. 

In  the  first  place,  be  sure  that  you  have 
bees  enough  in  each  hive  to  winter ;  if  you 
have  not.  unite  until  every  colony  is  strong. 
I  would  not  undertake  to  winter  any  colony, 
unless  it  would  cover  well  as  many  as  4  L. 
frames.  If  your  colony  has  not  as  many  as 
4  good  combs,  they  must  be  supplied  with 
fdn.,  and  made  to  build  them  out.  If  they 
are  to  do  it  in  Sept.,  you  and  the  bees 
both  must  stir  yourselves,  I  tell  you.  There 
must  be  no  forgetting  them,  and  you  must 
be  at  home  every  day,  to  attend  to  it.  Close 
the  space  up  by  chaff  division-boards,  until 
there  is  just  comfortable  room  for  the  4 
frames,  put  in  your  fdn.  where  the  combs 
are  lacking,  and  then  feed  them  every  night, 
from  half  a  pint  to  a  pint  of  food.  Open  the 
hive  every  day  or  two,  and  see  how  things 
get  along.  You  want  a  good  queen  and  lots 
of  brood  started.  Make  them  prosper,  and 
buifd  up.  You  will  soon  learn  to  know 
what  prosperity  means.  They  should  be 
rearing  brood,  building  comb,  and  getting 
full  of  bees,  precisely  as  they  do  in  June.-^" 
For  winter  stores,  I  would  use  granulated  su- 
gar (see  Feeders  and  Feeding  ;  feed  them 
about  20  lbs.  of  syrup  in  one  or  two 
feeds.  If  you  have  the  four  combs  av- 
erage aljout  -5  lb.s.  each,  you  will  be  on  the 
safe  side.  If  your  colony  is  heavy  enough  to 
cover  6  combs,  clear  out  to  the  ends,  diuTug 
a  cool  night,  they  will  perhaps  need  6  combs 
filled  so  as  to  average  5  lbs.  each.  When 
you  get  the  bees  and  the  stores,  with  the 
chaff  cushions  on  each  side,  they  are  all 
ready  to  winter,  by  simply  putting  a  thick 
chaff  cushion  over  them.  This  arrangement 
is  not  as  good  as  a  regular  chaff  hive,  but  it 
has  answered  for  several  seasons  past,  quite 
well.  If  the  winter  is  very  severe,  a  colony 
tliat  would  cover  densely  5  or  6  combs  woidd 
be  mucli  safer  than  a  smaller  one.  The 
main  points  are,  a  brood  -  apartment  closely 
packed  with  bees,  and  plenty  of  good  sealed 
stores.  With  these  two  conditions  alone, 
the  bees  Avill  generally  winter  all  right,  even 
in  a  hive  made  of  inch  boards.  If  the  bees 
are  not  enough  to  fill  tiie  hive,  reduce  the 
size  of  the  apartment  until  they  do  fill  it. 
This  is  usually  done  by  a  division-board.  If 
the  walls  of  this  wintering  apartment  are 
made  of  thin  wood,  the  bees  will  then  keep 
the  thin  walls  of  the  hive,  as  well  as  them- 
selves, warm  all  winter,  and  we  shall  then 
avoid  the  loss  that  often  ensues  by  bees  con- 


WINTERING. 


324 


WINTERING. 


tinually  freezing  in  the  outside  combs. 
This  is  tlie  purpose  of  the  chaff  hive ;  it  is 
of  about  as  much  use  to  put  chaff  and  straw 
over  tlie  outside  of  great  heavy  hives,  as  it 
would  be  to  put  your  bed  clothes  on  the  roof 
of  ycuir  house,  instead  of  next  to  your  body, 
on  a  cold  winter  night. 

VKNTILATION,  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO  FROST 
AND  DAMPNESS. 

1  think  the  subjects  of  chaff  packing  and 
ventilation  are  not  clearly  understood.  Bees 
become  damp  because  the  walls  of  the  hive 
are  so  cold  as  to  condense  the  moisture  from 
their  breath.  If  these  walls  did  not  become 
cold,  no  moisture  would  condense  on  them, 
and  no  dampness  would  accumulate  in  the 
hives.  On  a  cold  winter  night,  frost  some- 
times accumulates  on  our  windows  until  it 
may  be  i  inch  in  thickness.  The  amount 
of  ice  depends  on  the  difference  in  the  tem- 
peratures of  the  air  on  the  two  sides  of  the 
glass.  If  the  air  outside  should  be  below 
zero,  while  that  inside  is  70  or  80,  and  at  the 
same  time  is  fully  charged  with  moisture 
from  the  kitchen,  perhaps,  as  is  the  case  fre- 
quently on  washing-days,  or  even  from  the 
breath  of  many  persons,  the  accumulation 
of  ice  on  the  glass  will  be  very  rapid.  If  the 
room  is  kept  warmed  up,  the  ice  will  melt, 
and  the  water  will  run  down  until  the  floor 
becomes  quite  wet.  While  running  a  small 
engine  one  winter,  in  a  room  having  large 
glass  windows,  the  water  accumulated  so 
rapidly  on  the  glass  that  we  had  to  attach  a 
tin  trough  to  the  window-sill  to  catch  it,  and 
in  a  little  time  we  caught  a  pailful  from  the 
end  of  the  spout.  The  cause  is  this :  Warm 
air  takes  up  and  holds  in  solution  a  large 
quantity  of  water.  This  water  is,  of  course, 
invisible,  and  we  have  scarcely  any  means 
of  detecting  it  so  long  as  the  temperature  of 
the  air  is  unchanged  by  coming  in  contact 
with  colder  substances,  or  currents  of  air  of 
a  lower  temperature.  If  the  walls  of  the 
room  are  kept  warm,  there  will  be  no  per- 
ceptible dampness.  Let  them  be  chilled,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  window-pane,  however, 
and  we  shall  have  the  warm  air  dropping  its 
water  the  very  minute  it  comes  in  contact 
with  the  cold  surface,  in  exactly  the  same 
way  that  dew  is  deposited  on  a  hot  summer 
day ,  on  the  outside  of  a  pitcher  containing 
cold  water.  The  process  with  the  window 
goes  on,  because  currents  of  air  are  started 
both  on  the  outside  and  inside  of  the  glass, 
by  the  heat  that  passes  through  the  glass. 
To  make  this  plain,  let  A,  in  the  cut  above, 
represent  the  pane  of  glass. 


The  arrows  represent  the  course 
of  the  currents  of  air.  The  great- 
er the  difference  in  temperature 
between  the  outside  and  inside, 
the  more  active  are  these  currenis, 
and  the  greater  is  the  deposition 
of  dew  or  ice  on  the  surface  of  the 
glass  on  the  inside. 


HOW  BEE-HIVES  BECOME  DAMP. 

In  the  warm  room  you  will  see  that  the 
air  is  chilled  as  it  strikes  the  window,  and 
then  falls  because  it  is  heavier ;  this  gives 
place  to  more  warm  air,  and  keeps  up  the 
circulation.  On  the  outside,  the  cold  air 
next  tlie  window  becomes  warmed,  and  ris- 
es on  account  of  being  lighter,  and  this 
keeps  up  a  similar  action  on  the  inside,  the 
direction  of  the  currents  being  reversed. 
When  the  temperature  of  the  air  is  lowered 
it  discliarges  its  moisture.  When  the  tem- 
perature is  increased,  the  capacity  of  the 
air  for  holding  moisture  is  increased  also. 
Thus  you  see  how  the  water  from  the  air  is 
condensed  on  the  windows,  and  goes  down 
into  the  pail.  The  air  in  the  room  would 
soon  lose  its  moisture,  were  not  more  sup- 
plied from  the  breathing  of  living  persons, 
or  from  the  kettles  on  the  stove,  from  damp 
air  rising  from  the  cellar,  or  from  something 
of  that  kind.  I  need  hardly  state  that  the 
same  operation  goes  on  in  the  bee-hive,  es- 
pecially if  the  walls  are  thin,  and  the  hive 
at  all  tight.  If  the  top  of  the  hive  is  a  thin 
honey-board,  with  cold  air  above  and  warm 
air  below,  ice  will  be  sure  to  collect  over  the 
cluster,  and  when  it  melts  will  dampen  the 
bees.  The  sides  of  the  hive  will  be  covered 
with  frost,  and  perhaps  a  heavy  coat  of  ice, 
by  the  circulation  of  currents  of  air  as  I  have 
explained.  Now  let  us  go  back  to  the  win- 
dow, and  place  one  of  the  chaff  cushions  I 
have  advised  for  wintering,  close  against  the 
window-glass,  on  the  outside.  This  will 
stop  the  outside  circulation,  and  the  light  of 
glass  will  soon  become  warmed  through  to 
such  an  extent  that  no  ice,  or  dew  either, 
will  condense  upon  it.  To  make  a  further 
protection,  suppose  we  put  glass  or  boards 
on  the  outside  of  the  cushion,  or,  in  fact, 
make  two  walls,  with  chaff  between  them  as 
in  the  chaff  hive.  A  good  colony  of  bees 
would  warm  up  the  thin  walls  next  to  them, 
sufficiently  to  prevent  either  frost  or  mois- 
ture from  accumulating  on  them  at  all. 
Now,  if  the  walls  all  around  the  bees  are 
thus  protected  with  chaff  cushions,  they  can 
not  well  get  frosty  on  the  outside,  and  thus 
accumulate  either  moisture  or  dampness  on 


WINTERING. 


325 


WINTERING. 


the  inside.  As  a  proof  of  this  I  have  win- 
tered a  colony  nicely,  with  a  covering  of  en- 
ameled cloth  over  them,  that  was  almost  ab- 
solutely impervious  to  air.  To  be  sure,  a 
thick  chaff  cushion  was  over  this  enameled 
•cloth,  or  it  would  have  been  wet  very  quick- 
ly with  the  condensed  moisture:  in  fact,  sev- 
eral colonies  became  quite  wet  during  frosty 
nights  in  the  fall,  before  the  chalf  cush- 
ions were  put  on.  Now,  if  the  bees  are  to 
keep  these  walls  about  them  so  warm  that 
moisture  cannot  condense  onthem,the Wcills 
must  be  close  to  the  cluster  of  bees,  and  cer- 
tainly the  material  for  them  should  be  a 
non-conduct<«r  of  heat,  and  they  should  be 
so  thin  that  they  will  readily  warm  through. 
Although  it  may  not  be  absolutely  necessary 
that  the  walls  and  covering  should  be  of 
some  porous  material,  which  will  absorb  any 
chance  moisture  from  the  breath  of  the  bees, 
it  will  perhaps  be  better  that  they  should  be 
so,  and  many  experiments  seem  to  indicate 
that  straw  or  chaff  is  the  best  material  for 
this  purpose.  For  the  reasons  I  have  named, 
the  old-fashioned  straw  hive,  which  has  for 
ages  been  emblematical  of  the  honey-bee, 
seems  to  be  very  nearly  what  is  Avanted  to 
protect  them  in  the  way  they  seem  to  de- 
mand. The  straw  next  to  them  is  warm,  and 
therefore  proof  against  condensation  ;  it  is 
thin,  and  hence  easily  warmed;  is  a  non- 
conductor of  heat;  and  while  it  may  permit 
the  air  to  pass  through  the  porous  walls 
slowly,  it  does  not  admit  of  a  draft  of  cold  air 
through  the  hive,  as  does  a  badly  made  wood- 
en hive,  or  one  that  has  cracks  or  fissures 
here  and  theie. 

STRAW   HIVES. 

Ever  since  the  advantages  of  straw  hives 
for  wintering  have  been  fully  demonstrated, 
attempts  have  been  made  to  make  hives  of 
straw,  to  hold  the  movable  frames  in  com- 
mon use.  Such  hives  have  answered  the 
pm'pose  very  well,  but  they  are  inconvenient, 
untidy,  expensive  to  make,  and  not  durable 
after  they  are  made.  As  they  can  not  well 
be  painted,  they  are  soon  destroyed  by  the 
weather ;  and  if  we  make  an  outer  sliell  to 
protect  the  straw,  we  have,  virtually,  a  chaff" 
hive,  such  as  I  have  described.  It  is  true, 
we  might  have  straw  next  to  tlie  bees ;  but 
straw  does  not  present  a  clean,  smooth  sur- 
face such  as  we  wish  to  have  next  to  combs 
to  have  them  built  true,  and  I  can  not  discov- 
er, by  experiment,  that  the  straw  is  any  the 
less  effective  with  a  thin  board  interposed 
between  it  and  the  bees,  and  a  thin  board 
on  tlie  utensil  to  outside  it  from  the 
weather. 

11 


I  HOW   TO  WINTER  BEES  OUTDOORS 

PACKED  IX  CHAFF. 
I      Tlie  majority  of    bee-kee])ers    winter  on 
I  summer  stands.     The  reason  for  this  is  evi- 
;  dent.     It  requires  less  skill ;   and  while  one 
;  migiit  make  an  utter  failure  in  the  cellar  or 
j  in  some  special  repository,  he  will  quite  like- 
ly be    successful    outside    l>y  the    method 
I  w.iich  I  will  now  proceed  to  descril»e. 
j     I  have  already  liiuted  at  some  of  the  es- 
I  seutials,  and  it  will  be  in  order  now  to  give 
I  some  of  the  details  of  the  method  that  we 
liave  employed  successfully  for  nearly  ten 
years  back— yes,  during  times  when  almost 
every  one  else  has    met  with  failure,  not 
only  indoors  Vnit  outdoors  as  well.     Particu- 
larly was  this  true  during  the  winter  of  1884 
and  '8.5. 

One  of  the  requisites,  though  not  neces- 
sarily an  essential,  is  early  preparation.  If 
I  had  every  thing  to  my  liking  I  would  have 
all  colonies  i)repared  for  winter  by  the  first 
of  October  for  our  latitude.  41.  For  a  little 
further  north,  about  the  middle  or  first  of 
September.  A  good  many  Ijee-keepers  be- 
gin preparations  as  soon  as  the  honey  sea- 
son is  over;  that  is.  in  the  middle  of  Au- 
gust. Tliis  preparation  means  early  feed- 
ing to  induce  Ijrood-rearing.  so  that  the  colo- 
nies may  begin  the  rigors  of  winter  with  a 
large  force  of  l)ees,  the  majority  of  which 
are  pi obaV)ly  young,  and  not  old  worn-out 
fellows  tliat  will  die  in  a  month  or  so. 
Many  times  circum.stances  are  such  that  we 
aj-e  not  able  to  begin  preparations  before 
November.  We  have  fed  our  bees  as  late  as 
the  first  of  November,  and  packed  them,  and 
then  had  them  winter  successfully.  But  l)e- 
cause  we  have  done  so  one  year,  two  years, 
or  more,  successfully,  is  no  reason  wliy  we 
would  urge  beginners  and  others  to  put  it 
off  until  that  time.  For  i)articxilars  in  re- 
gard to  feeiling,  you  are  referred  to  that 
heading  in  the  fore  part  of  this  work. 

HOW   .AIANY    POl'XDS  OF     STORES    FOR  OUT- 
DOOR   WINTERING. 

Before  the  final  packing.  I  would  see  that 
every  colony  liad  from  20  to  i5  ll)s.  of  sealed 
stores,  the  same  distributed  on  from  four  to 
six  combs.  Some  colonies  are  strong  enough 
to  cover  eight,  l)ut  usually  almo.st  all  colo- 
nies can  l>e  contracted  to  six  L.  frames.  As 
a  general  rule,  give  the  bees  as  many  combs 
of  sealed  stores  as  they  will  cover  by  the 
time  we  have  frosty  nights,  and  tlie  days 
are  just  a  little  too  cool  for  bees  to  fly  very 
much— at  least,  before  the  latter  part  of  the 
day. 

Flit  in  a  divisioii-iioard,  as  tlescribed   un- 


WINTERING. 


326 


WINTERING. 


der  that  liead  elsewhere,  to  take  up  the 
space  of  the  combs  taken  out ;  and  this  di- 
vision-l)oard  should  be  put  in  before  feeding- 
has  been  entirely  finished,  and  should  be,  if 
possible,  i)ut  on  the  north  side  of  the  brood. 

FULL-WIDTH    ENTRANCE   FOR  WINTERING. 

Always  give  the  bees  in  chaff  hives  the 
full  w^idth  of  entrance.  Years  ago,  liee- 
keepers  thought  it  an  advantage  to  contract 
the  entrance  at  the  approach  of  cold  weath- 
er, to  "  keep  in  the  warmth,'''  as  they  said  ; 
but  later  years  have  demonstrated  that  this 
is  a  most  fatal  mistake.  Ever  since  we 
have  given  a  full  entrance  we  have  lost 
scarcely  a  colony  in  chaff  hives.  It  has 
been  ascertained  that  bees  need  plenty  of 
bottom  ventihition.  Some  of  the  box  hives 
that  used  to  winter  the  most  successfully, 
year  in  and  year  out,  were  raised  an  inch 
from  the  bottom  by  means  of  a  block  under 
each  corner.  Again,  the  entrance  will  clog 
with  dead  bees,  if  contracted. 

.  SHALL   WE     SPREAD  THE  BROOD-NEST  V 

A  good  many  of  those  w])o  winter  suc- 
cessfidly,  urge  that,  l)ef()re  the  final  pack- 
ing, the  brood-frames  should  be  sprq^id 
from  the  regular  breeding  distance,  that  is. 
If  or  H  inches  from  center  to  center,  to 
about  If.  We  formerly  spread  our  brood- 
frames  ;  but  in  later  years,  after  trying  both 
ways  we  can  see  no  difference  in  result.a*^ 
We  now  leave  the  frames  spaced  just  as 
they  were  in  summer. 


the  Ijees  an  opportunity  to  pass  from  one 
comb  to  another.  With  a  shallow  frame 
like  the  Langstroth,  the  cutting  of  holes  is 
entirely  unnecessary  if  the  Hill  device  is 
used.  With  a  deei)  frame  it  may  possil)ly  be 
an  advantage. 

The  sticks  are  sawed  on  a  circle,  from 
half-inch  bassw^ood.  They  are  sawed  on  a 
curve  that  would  make  a  circle  of  about  11 
inches  in  diameter.  The  stuff  is  held  at  an 
angle  when  sawed,  so  the  outer  surface  is 
something  like  the  surface  of  a  sphere.  The 
tw^o  inside  sticks  are  9  inches  in  length  ;  the 
two  outside  ones,  only  S.  The  back-bone,  as 
it  were,  is  a  strip  of  very  light  hoop  iron,  like 
that  used  to  hoop  pails.  It  is  about  a  foot 
long,  which  holds  the  ribs  about  four  inches 
apart.  Two  wire  nails  are  put  through  and 
clinched,  at  each  stick. 

WHAT  TO   COVER  THE    FJIAMES   WITH. 

We  have  tried  various  quilts,  enameled 
cloths,  carpets,  etc.,  but  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  nothing  cheajier  or 
better  than  a  large  piece  ef  l)urlap  cut  in  the 
form  of  a  square,  and  hemmed  at  the  edges. 
This  should  be  at  least  as  large  as  the  inside 
of  the  hive  ;  and  after  the  Hill  device  is  put 
over  the  center  of  the  brood-nest,  the  bur- 
lap is  put  on  top,  and  carefully  tucked  down 
at  the  edges.  On  top  of  this  we  put  a  large- 
chaff  cushion  which  likewise  should  be  a  lit- 
tle larger  than  the  inside  dimensions  of  the 
hive,  so  that,  w^hen  it  is  laid  over  the  brood- 
frames,  it  will  crowed  iip  into  the  corners  and 
shut  out  all  possibility  of  draft.  The  whole 
top  of  the  brood-nest  will  be  made  tight ;, 
for  whatever  air  or  moistiu-e  passes  from  the 
cluster  must  rise  slowlv  through  the  chaff". 


HILL  S  DEVICE  FOR  COVERING  THE  FRAMES 
IN  WINTER. 

Some  ten  years  ago  we  lost  quite  heavily 
one  winter,  and  we  attributed  the  cause 
largely  to  a  lack  of  something  over  the 
brood-nest,  to  give  the  bees  clustering  sjjace. 
At  the  suggestion  of  L.  L.  Langstroth,  who 
at  the  time  wrote  us  an  article  on  the  sub- 
ject for  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture,  we  put 
over  each  brood-nest  a  Hill  device,  shown  in 
the  cut  above,  and  wintered  successfully  the 
following  winter.  It  gives  the  bees  an  op- 
portiuiity  to  i)ass  from  one  coml)  to  another 
as  fast  as  the  stores  are  consumed  ;  and  dur- 
ing the  winter,  if  you  lift  up  the  burlap  you 
will  find,  as  a  general  rule,  the  bees  are  di- 
rectly beneath  the  device.  Some  have  advo- 
cated, in  lien  of  a  Hill  device,  cutting  holes 
or  passageways  through  the  comics  to  give 


CHAFF  CUSHION. 

Take  two  pieces  of  burlap,  mentioned! 
above,  20  inches  wide,  and  the  other  way 
clear  across  the  roll.  As  the  burlap  is  40  in. 
wide,  our  two  pieces  will  be  each  20  x  40. 
Well,  these  two  make  the  cushion  by  sewing 
them  together  in  sucli  a  way  as  to  make  one 
single  endless  seam,  and  I  think  that  a  look 
at  the  cut  above  will  tell  you  how  it  is  done, 
without  any  further  explanation. 

In  sewing  it,  leave  the  last  corner  open 
until  the  chaff  is  put  in.  It  is  not  to  be 
packed  in  tight,  but  j  ust  loosely  ;  and,  in  fact,. 


WINTERING. 


327 


WINTERING. 


we  prefer  them  with  the  cushion  not  quite 
full.  Recent  experiments  seem  to  indicate 
that  6  inches  of  chaff  over  the  cluster  may 
be  better  than  a  foot  or  more.  It  is  pretty 
sure  that  bees  have  many  times  died  from 
being  too  heavily  "•  blanketed,"  as  it  were. 
The  cushions  should  at  all  times  be  per- 
fectly protected  from  wet  or  dampness,  for 
this  very  soon  rots  and  destroys  the  cloth. 

A  few  years  ago  we  were  in  the  habit  of 
putting  in  about  two  inches  of  loose  chaff 
on  top  of  the  Ijurlap.  We  dished  out  the 
center  so  that  the  convex  side  of  the  cushion 
would  fit  down  into  it.  But  the  loose  chaff 
was  a  nuisance,  in  packing  and  unpacking, 
so  we  have  latterly  al)andoned  its  use,  and 
find  we  winter  just  as  well  without  it.  If 
your  cusliion  is  too  small,  and  does  not  till 
out  the  iii)per  story  of  the  hive,  it  would  be 
advisable  to  use  loose  chaff  to  make  up  for 
its  deficiency.  We .  have  several  times  lost 
colonies  because  the  cushion  was  too  small 
— tlie  cold  air  circulating  around  the  edges 
near  the  bees. 

BEST   KIND   OF   CHAFF. 

After  trying  a  great  many  kinds  I  have 
decided  in  favor  of  soft  wheat  chaff  .-"To  get 
it  free  from  dirt  and  the  harder  portions,  I 
have  had  it  run  through  a  fanning-mill,  and 
collected  that  portion  which  was  blowai  fur- 
thest from  the  mill.  This  is  soft  and  warm 
to  touch,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  how  bees, 
mice,  or  any  thing  else,  snugly  tucked  up  in 
it,  might  pass  the  winter  dry,  w^arm,  and  in 
comfort.  To  Mr.  J.  H.  Townley,  of  Tomp- 
kins, Mich..  I  am  indebted  for  the  idea  of 
using  chaff"  for  a  protection  in  wintering. 

Now.  then,  if  you  have  four  or  six  combs 
of  sealed  stores,  and  bees  enough  to  cover 
them,  and  a  Hill  device  to  put  over  the  top, 
over  this  a  burlap  sheet,  and  over  this, 
again,  a  large  chaff  cushion  made  of  burlap 
carefully  i)acked  down  at  the  corners,  you 
may  consider  }'<mr  bees  as  in  fit  conditicm  to 
enter  into  winter,  and  I  would  not  give  ten 
cents  to  have  tiiem  insured.  For  the  past 
nine  years  we  have  so  prepared  our  colo- 
nies, and  our  losses  have  amounted  to  only 
two  or  three  per  cent,  and  latterly  less  than 
one  per  cent.  In  giving  these  directions  I 
have  assumed  that  you  use  the  chaff  hive, 
descril)ed  under  IIive-making,  elsewliere. 
I  do  not  consider  that  this  is  the  only  hive 
that  will  winter  bees  successfully.  Almost 
any  double-walled  hive  will  answer  as  well. 
Indeed,  it  is  l)arely  possible  that  the  space 
between  the  <loul)le  walls  of  the  liive  does 
not  need  to  be  i)a('ked.  A  couple  of  years 
ago,  while  we  were  renovating  .some  of  tmr 


chaff  hives,  we  found  two  that  had  never 
been  packed  with  chaff  ;  and  as  we  liapi)en- 
ed  to  remember  the  location  which  the  hives 
occupied,  we  saw  that  eacli  of  these  had 
wintered  perhaps  just  as  well  as  the  others. 
After  all,  these  exiieriments,  being  on  so 
small  a  scale,  would  not  be  conclusive 
enough  to  prove  that  hives  with  double 
walls,  with  nothing  but  a  dead-air  space, 
would  be  equal  to  the  same  hives  with  the 
space  filled  with  chaff.  Until  we  do  know, 
I  would  advise  all  beginners  to  use  the  chaff. 
A  good  many  winter  successfully  by  hav- 
ing common  single-walled  hives,  and  put- 
ting over  them  a  dry-goods  box  under  which 
has  been  put  a  quantity  of  straw^  or  chaff. 
Indeed,  there  are  a  numljer  of  prominent 
bee-keepers  who  use  an  outside  wintering- 
case  (see  H1VE-MA.XING)  that  comes  down 
over  the  hive.  Good  wintering  results  are 
reported.  Mr.  Erancis  Danzenbaker,  of 
Washington,  D.  C,  instead  of  using  chaff, 
uses  several  layers  of  old  newspai)ers.  His 
hive  is  telescopic,  after  the  manner  of  the 
old  American  ;  that  is,  the  upper  story  is 
just  about  half  an  inch  larger  than  the  low- 
er one.  Several  layers  of  pa})er  are  laid  ui)- 
on  top  of  the  Ijrood-nest.  and  the  upi)er  sto- 
ry is  slid  down  over  it.  In  the  latitude  of 
Washington,  latitude  39,  he  has  wintered 
successfully,  and  perhaps  such  packing  will 
be  sufficient  for  Avarmer  climates  ;  but  in  the 
latitude  of  Minnesota  and  Michigan,  a 
thicker  wall  will  doubtless  be  needed.  This 
much  we  do  know,  that  the  chaff  hive  spok- 
en of  under  the  head  of  Hive-ma  king  win- 
ters bees  successfully  even  as  far  north  as 
the  latitude  of  Southern  Minnesota,  lati- 
tude 44°,  and  in  Canada.  Mr.  G.  Stiu'geon. 
of  Kincardine.  Out.,  in  the  latitude  of  44, 
uses  the  Simi)licity  chaff,  and  has  wintered 
successfully  200  colonies  some  seven  or'eight 
winters.  He  tried  the  indoor  plan,  and  met 
with  failure  almost  every  time. 

WHAT  TO   DO   when  COLONIES    Hl'N   SHOKT 
OF    STORES. 

We  will  suppose  that,  from  some  cause  or 
other,  some  colony  has  run  short  of  .stores. 
You  a.sk,  "How  are  we  to  know  what  ones 
are  short  V  "  Sometimes  in  filling  orders  for 
bees  and  queens,  late  in  the  fall,  we  are 
obliged  to  keep  our  colonies  running  till  very 
near  November,  and  we  have  to  do  our  feeil- 
ing  on  short  notice.  When  it  comes  on  cold 
weather,  and  we  are  unable  to  feed  any 
more,  we  put  a  little  stone  on  the  cover,  or 
some  mark  to  indicate  that  tliis  or  tliat 
cohmy  may  run  short  of  stores.  On  the  first 
warm  sunny  tlay  in  mid-winter— when   it  is 


W'l^'T  EKING. 


828 


WINTERING. 


warm  eiKiuj^li  so  the  bees  cjin  liy— we  go 
through  tl.e  whole  apiary.  We  siniply  lift 
the  cushion,  pull  back  the  burlap,  and  peer 
ilowu  into  the  cluster.  If  tliey  apiiear  quiet, 
and  there  seems  to  be  an  abundance  of  seal- 
ed stores,  we  close  the  hive  up  ininiediatety, 
and  so  on  until  we  come  either  to  a  weak 
colony  tliat  needs  uniting  with  another 
weak  one.  or  a  strong  stock  that  has  con- 
sumed so  many  stores  in  l)rood-rearing  that 
they  need  feeding.  As  the  w^eather  may 
turn  cold  suddenly,  we  pick  out  of  the  hon- 
ey-house a  good  comb  of  sealed  honey,  and 
lay  it  horizontally  alxjve  the  frames,  with  a 
Hill  device  under  it,  so  as  to  keep  it  from 
closing  up  the  passageway  over  the  frames. 
We  cover  the  whole  with  a  burlap  sheet ;  re- 
place the  cushion,  and  let  them  go  until  the 
next  warm  day,  when  we  again  make  an  ex- 
amination ;  and  if  a  little  short,  we  turn  the 
comb  over  and  give  them  the  benefit  of  the 
other  side.  It  we  do  not  hajjpen  to  have  the 
sealed  combs,  we  give  them  a  cake  of  maple 
sugar  or  candy  (see  Candy),  on  to])  of  the 
brood-frames,  and  all  will  go  well  ;'-*5but,  as  I 
stated  before,  it  should  not  Ije  necessary  to 
feed  colonies  during  mid-winter.  They 
should  have  enough  stores,  say  20  or  25  lbs., 
to  last  them  from  October  until  tlie  first  or 
middle  of  May. 

ADVANTAGES    AND     DISADVANTAGES    OF 
OUTDOOR    WINTERING. 

(1)  Outdoor  colonies  cttd  ?)e prepared  in  Oc- 
tober, and  left  without  examination  until 
the  first  part  of  May,  if  i)repared  as  they 
should  be,  providing  you  do  not  fill  orders 
for  bees  and  queens  in  the  fall.  (2)  If  the 
bees,  from  a  long  spell  of  cold,  have  con- 
tracted dysentery,  the  first  warm  day  gives 
them  an  opportunity  for  a  cleansing  llight.2*6 
(3)  Beginners  and  others  who  may  not  pos- 
sess the  requisite  skill  for  indoor  wintering 
will  ordinaiily  1)e  successful  with  the  out- 
door plan.  (4)  The  colonies  of  the  home 
apiary  can  remain  year  after  year,  and  win- 
ter upon  t  e  same  stand ;  and  where  one 
can  afford  it,  an  out-apiary  of  chaff  hives 
does  away  with  hauling  bees  in  the  spring 
and  fall.  (5)  The  chaff  hive  is  always  pre- 
ferred, even  for  a  cold  day  in  late  spring 
or  early  simimer ;  whereas  single  -  walled 
hives  sometimes  give  rather  meager  pro- 
tection after  setting  out.  The  outdoor  colo- 
nif^s  in  chaff  hives  have  Ijeen  used  to  the 
rigors  of  winter ;  but  the  indoor  colonies,  be- 
ing set  out  al)Out  the  middle  of  April  or  first 
of  May,  mmy  times  receive  a  setljack  that 
takes  them  all  summer  to  get  over,  by  an 
unexi  e;-ted  cold  wave. 


The  disadvantages  are:  (1)  The  first  cost 
of  hives.  Every  begiimer,  not  knowing 
whether  he  can  make  the  business  success- 
ful or  not,  wishes  to  start  out  as  economi- 
cally as  possible,  and  accordingly  is  in  a 
qiumdary  as  to  whether  he  shall  go  to  a  great- 
er exi)ense  and  purchase  chaff  hives,  or  be 
more  moderate  and  i)urchase  the  single- 
walled  hives.  (2)  It  seems  to  be  generally 
agreed,  that  colonies  indoors  consume  less 
stores  than  those  out— just  how  much  less, 
no])Ody  seems  to  know  exactly  ;  some  think 
half  the  stores  or  over ;  others,  a  third.  The 
latter  estimate  is  probably  nearer  correct. 
(3)  Chaff  hives,  as  I  have  already  stated,  are 
rather  heavy  and  unwieldy  ;  and  in  swarm- 
ing, too,  it  becomes  necessary  many  times 
to  change  the  location  of  the  hives.  One 
person  can  hardly  handle  a  chaff  hive  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  wheelbarrow%  while  he  can, 
with  comparative  ease,  carry  a  single-wall- 
ed hive  wherever  he  pleases.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  a  bee-keeper  discovers  that  a 
certain  district  is  yielding  for  a  time  con- 
siderable nectar,  while  at  home  his  bees 
are  doing  nothing.  He  desires  to  carry  a 
large  numljer  of  colonies  to  the  i)lace  in 
question  as  soon  as  possil)le,  to  catch  the 
flow.  If  he  has  chaff  liives,  he  can  jiot  very 
well  carry  more  than  five  or  six  at  a  t'me  in 
a  wagon  ;  whereas  he  can  load  twenty-five 
or  thirty  single-walled  hives  ;  and  when  the 
flow  has  ceased,  he  can  take  them  to  anoth- 
er place.  In  these  days  of  out-aj  iaries, 
chaff  hives  have  the  very  disagreeable  fea- 
ture of  being  non-portable,  <ir  practically  so. 
Experienced  bee-keepers  will  winter  in  the 
cellar  with  perhaps  less  loss  of  bees  and  less 
consiunption  of  stores  than  outdoors ;  and 
this  brings  us  to  the  subject  of 


WINTERING  IN  CELLARS   OR  SPE- 
CIAL REPOSITORIES. 

Years  ago,  bee  cellars  and  special  repos- 
itories became  all  at  once  very  popular,  und 
bee-keepers  all  over  our  land,  especially  in 
the  northern  localities,  invested  much  la- 
bor and  money  in  constructing  good  frost- 
proof cellars,  or  sawdust  -  packed  buildings 
above  grouiid.  In  1868  I  put  up  such  a 
building,  and  packed  the  walls  with  8  inches 
of  sawdust,  and  also  put  sawdust  between 
the  floors  and  overhead,  and  wintered  48 
colonies  in  it  without  losing  a  single  one. 
A  neighboring  bee-keeper  who  used  one 
similarly  constructed  had  wintered  in  his 
for  nearly  a  dozen  years,  and,  at  that  time, 
had  never  lost  a  colony  in  it.  These  results 
seemed  pretty  nearly  conclusive ;  but  a  few 


WINTERING. 


329 


WINTERING. 


years  later,  when  the  spring  dwindling,  as 
it  has  been  called,  made  its  appearance,  my 
neighbor  and  I  both  made  the  discovery, 
that  bees  taken  out  in  March,  in  fair  order, 
would  olten,  in  spite  of  us,  be'come  reduced, 
before  the  end  of  April,  to  a  mere  handful, 
and  then  perish  outright,  or  leave  their 
hives  and  swarm  out  as  I  have  mentioned 
under  the  head  of  Absconding  Swar3is  ; 
while  at  the  same  time,  good  strong  colo- 
nies left  outdoors,  without  any  especial 
care,  would  often  be  full  of  bees,  and  read,y 
to  swarm.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  such 
was  generally  the  case,  but  there  were  al- 
ways more  or  less  in  the  neighborhood  that 
would  winter  finely  without  care,  while 
many  so  carefully  housed  would  turn  out 
disastrously.  2\  neighbor  who  had  devoted 
almost  his  whole  time  to  liis  bees  would  be 
obliged,  in  spite  of  his  well-made  bee-house, 
to  buy  black  bees  in  the  spring  to  keep  his 
Italians  alive,  and  the  strong  colonies  of 
black  bees  were  invariably  wintered  almost 
without  loss,  in  an  open  shed,  in  cheap,  un- 
painted  box  hives. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  howe  er,  win- 
ter repositories  have  given  better  results. 
Instead  of  bee-keepers  losing  almost  every 
winter,  and  having  troubles  from  dysentery, 
bee-journals  and  bee-conventions  have  so 
disseminated  information,  and  the  records 
of  careful  experiments  from  bee-keepers  all 
over  our  land,  that  indoor  repositories  are 
now  wintering  bees  as  successfully — per- 
haps more  so— than  outdoors,  if  we  consider 
the  matter  of  a  lesser  consumption  of  stores. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  a  sad  comment  on  bee 
journals  and  conventions  if  bee-keepers  did 
not  finally  discover  means  whereby  they 
could  winter  successfully,  both  indoors  and 
out.  Among  the  very  first  who  were  able  to 
announce  to  the  bee-keeping  world  that  i  hey 
wintered  every  ye  r  without  loss  was  H.  R. 
Bondman,  of  East  Townsend,  Oii  o.  At 
the  time  it  seemed  a  little  remarkable. 
Very  soon  after,  others  began  to  report  suc- 
cess. \\  hether  these  latter  followed  in  the 
wake  of  our  I  dno  man,  or  from  their  own 
investigation  were  able  to  winter  witliont 
loss,  1  am  luiable  to  say.  It  will  be  in  order, 
then,  to  in(iuire  wliat  are  the  elements  that 
contribute  to  successful  wintering  indoors, 
and  at  the  same  time  glance  brieriy  at  some 
of  the  causes  that  contributed  to  failure 
years  ago. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  important  causes 
was  taking  the  bees  out  too  early.  As  a 
general  thing,  the  heavy  losses  came  after 
setting  the  hives  out,  which  was  usually 


done  some  time  in  March  ;  and  March  is  a 
month  in  our  locality  that  may  be  any  thing 
from  a  briglit,  almost  summer  day,  to  a 
boisterous  zero  weather.  Bees  that  have 
wintered  successfully,  and  have  been  set 
out  too  early,  are  pre^^ty  apt  to  succumb  be- 
fore actual  warm  weather  in  May  has  set  in. 
The  reason  bees  were  set  out  early,  was  be- 
cause bee-keepers  were  unable  to  keep  them 
quiet  in  the  cellar  ;  and  if  they  seemed  dis- 
posed to  dysenteiy,  the  only  thing  to  do  was 
to  set  them  out.  The  problem,  then,  re- 
mained to  find  some  means  to  keep  them 
(luiet  until  the  middle  of  April  or  to  the 
first  of  May.  It  is  generally  agreed  that 
there  are  thr  e  or  four  essentials  to  accomplish 
tli-  end.  First,  a  temperature  of  about  4-5. 
a  1(1  not  varying  very  considerably  either 
wav  throughout  the  winter;  second,  plenty 
ot  bottom  ventilat  on,  no  top  ventilation  : 
third,  though  not  nearly  so  important  as  the 
others,  sealed  stores ;  fourth,  a  cellar  com- 
paratively dry.  A  few,  and  a  very  few, 
claim  that  they  can  winter  successfully  in  a 
cellar  reeking  with  dampness  if  only  the 
food  is  right ;  -*'  but  these  claims  have  been 
very  speedily  set  at  naught  by  the  fact  that 
they  who  strenuously  urged  them  have  been 
among  the  heaviest  losers. 

Having  outlined  briefly  some  of  the  es- 
sentials to  indoor  wintering,  I  will  now  pro- 
ceed more  in  detail.  As  with  outdoor  win- 
tering, early  feeding  is  important.  It  will 
not  be  necessary  to  give  the  bees  as  large 
an  amount  of  stores.  Ten  or  fifteen  pounds 
will  answer  very  well ;  though,  if  convenient. 
I  shoidd  prefer  to  let  them  have  more.  If 
the  winter  should  be  an  open  onc-^**  some  of 
the  stronger  colonies  will  rear  brood  during 
spring  quite  heavily,  and  consume  all  or 
nearly  all  their  stores.  W  hat  bee-keeper  is 
there  who  likes  to  admit  that  his  bees  died 
from  starvation?  Starvation  means,  as  a 
general  thing,  pure  neglect. 

WHEN   TO   lUT   INTO  THE  CKLI.AK. 

In  November,  in  the  latitude  of  40  or  41. 
the  bees  should  be  prei)ared  to  be  set  into 
the  cellar  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  covers 
shoidd  be  sealed  down  with  i»roitolis.  to 
make  the  top  of  the  hive  air-tight.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  there  be  a  Hill  device  or 
any  thing  else  over  the  frames,  to  give  a 
passageway  —  simi)ly  the  cover  over  the 
brood-nest  is(luitesufl^cient.•-^«.■^()me  few  bee- 
keepers remove  it  and  leave  on  an  enamel 
cloth  or  quilt.  If  the  cloth  or  quilt  is  sealed 
down  tight,  it  will  answer,  pe  haps,  a-*  well. 
But  for  reasons  presently  to  be  given,  I 
would    leave    the    cover  on.    Weil,  along 


WINTERING. 


aou 


WINTERING. 


about  the  i5th  of  November,  in()i.r  locality,  i 
we  put  our  bees  into  the  cellar,  the  time  be- 
ing varied,  of  cour^e,  according  to  the  pe- 
Ci'liarity  of  the  season.  Whenever  it  turns 
cold  and  begins  to  snow,  and  the  propects 
seem  pretty  good  for  a  continuance,  we 
open  up  our  cellar  and  proceed  to  carry 
them  in.'^'^o  Before  doing  so,  however,  with  a 
screwdriver  or  cold-chisel  we  go  around  to 
each  hive,  puff  a  little  smoke  in  at  the  en- 
trance, and  pry  the  body  loose  from  the  bot- 
tom-board, as  it  will  always  be  stuck  down 
with  propolis.'-^'  It  may  yield  with  a  little 
snap,  and  it  will  be  necessary  tu  use  a  little 
smoke  to  make  the  bees  behave.  The  bot- 
tom-bi-ards  all  loosened,  with  an  assistant 
and  a  couple  of  hive-carriers  we  proceed  to 
carry  the  bees  into  the  cellar. 


MANNER     or     CARRYING     BEES     INTO    THE 
CELLAR  WITH    HIVE-CARRIERS. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  our  hive-carriers 
are  simply  a  couple  of  lengths  of  wire  bent 
in  the  shape  of  a  letter  V,  an  ordinary 
wooden-pail  handle  being  slipped  through 
to  the  middle  of  the  wire.  Both  ends  are 
bent  down  in  the  shape  shown  in  the  cut  in 
the  enlarged  view.  The  ends  are  then  bent 
in  the  form  of  a  hook,  and  sliarpened  so  as 
to  catch  on  the  bottom -board. 


Where  hives  are  carried  to  any  distance, 
and  help  is  scarce,  the  yoke  will  Ije  better. 
One  num  can  carry  two  heavy  hives  quite 
easily;  ascend  cellar-steps,  and  go  through 
doors.  The  ojily  objection  is  the  rigging, 
and  loading  and  unloading.  For  sliort  dis- 
tances we  i)refer  the  bails  first  illustrated. 
After  you  are  once  harnessed  and  loaded, 
the  McFarland  device  is  excellent. 

Having  picked  up  the  hive  or  liives  we 
proceed  to  the  cellar,  and  deposit  the  hive 
near  the  place  where  it  is  supposed  to  stay 
through  the  winter.  Along  on  two  sides  of 
the  cellar  we  have  previously  laid  scantling, 
say  14  or  15  inches  apart,  depending,  of 
course,  upon  the  length  of  the  hive.  We 
then  pick  the  hive  (just  brought  in)  up  by 
the  hand-holes,  lift  it  off  its  bottom,  and  lay 
it  at  one  end  on  top  of  the  scantling,  and  lay 
the  bottom-board  in  one  corner  of  the  cellar. 
In  like  manner  we  bring  in  another  colony, 
lift  it  off  the  bottom-board,  and  deposit  it  by 
the  side  of  the  other  colony,  leaving  four 
inches  between,  and-  so  on.  We  bring  in 
other  co'onies  initil  the  scantlings  are  cov- 
ered with  hives  four  inches  apai't.  We  are 
now  ready  to  coinmence  another  tier  on  top. 
The  next  hive  that  is  brought  in  is  piled  on 
top  of  two  otheis,  in  such  a  way  that  the 
bottom  covers  tie  space  between  two  hives 
below,  and  so  on  we  pile  the  rows  of  the 
hives.  The  next  tier  is  followed  up  in  the 
same  manner,  until  we  have  three  or  more 
tiers  high,  each  hive  placed  over  the  inter- 
vening space  between  the  two  below.  When 
I  visited  H.  R.  Boardman  in  1889  I  took  a 
photograph  of  his  winter  repository,  an  en- 
graving of  which  I  submit  below. 


M  FARLAND'S 


NECKYOKE    FOR    CARRYING 

HIVES. 


fNSIDE  VIEW  OF  BOARDMAN'S  REPOSITORY. 

You  \A  ill  observe  that  his  hives  are  piled 
up  in  the  manner  I  have  already  described  ; 


WINTERING. 


331 


WINTERING. 


namely,  each  hive  Cdvering  the  space  be- 
tween two  below.  The  reas;.n  for  this  man- 
ner of  piling  is.  convenience  in  the  first 
place  ;  and  in  the  second  place,  to  give  am- 
ple bottom  ventilation  You  will  now  see  an 
additional  reason  fur  leaving  the  cover  on.  If 
we  removed  the  cover  we  could  not  piie  the 
hives  one  upon  the  otlier  so  well. 

Before  I  proceed  further  I  wish  to  de- 
scribe another  method  of  carrying  bees  into 
repositories,  where  one  person  alone  does 
the  moving.  The  engraving  below  will 
fully  explain  itself. 

In  the  engraving  it  is  plain  that  it  is  sim- 
ply an  iron  axle  and  a  couple  of  cart-wheels. 
These  are  attached  to  a  couple  of  2  x  4 
scantling,  as  shown  above.    The  operator 


many,  however,  leave  their  bottom-boards 
out  on  their  sunnner  stands  the  year  round. 
The  hives  are  carried  in  without  the  bot- 
tom-board, and  piled  up  as  described.  But 
some  have  complained  that  the  bees  fly  out 
and  bother.  While  we  have  succeeded  per- 
fectly in  carrying  them  in  without  bottom- 
boards,  yet  we  very  much  prefer  to  carry 
the  bottom-boards  in  with  the  hives ;  first, 
because  the  bees  are  less  liable  to  fly  out  and 
annoy  ;  and,  second,  because  the  bottom- 
boards  are  protected  from  the  action  of  the 
weather. 

i^HALL   WE   PUT  THE     HIVES    HACK   ON   THE 
OLD   STAND   IN   SPRING  V 

There  is  this  advantage  in  leaving  the 
bottom-board  out :  Mr.  II.  R.  Boardman  let- 


II.  K.   B0ARDMAN"S  HIVE-CAHT,  AND  METHOD  OF  I  AKRYING  BEES   INTO  THE  CELLAR. 


lifts  the  handles  up,  pushes  them  gently 
under  the  edge  of  the  hive,  and  I  ears  down 
until  the  same  is  suspended.  He  then  push- 
es it  to  the  door  of  his  winter  repository, 
when  he  afterward  stations  it  where  he 
wants  it.  This  same  device  can  be  attached 
to  hives  with  hand-holes  when  necessary. 

From  this  digression  we  will  return  to  the 
bees  in  tlie  cellar. 

They  have  been  piled  u])  as  illustrated 
and  described,  and  i»rovided  with  ample 
ventilation  from  tlie  Itottom.  The  bottom- 
boards,  as  they  are  brought  in.  are  piled  up 
in  any  place  convenient  in  the  cellar,  and 
lire  left  to  remain  until  it  is  again  necessa- 
ry to  remove  them   in  the  spring.    .\  good 


ters  each  row  in  his  apiary,  and  numbers 
each  .hive,  each  body  and  bottom-board 
bearing  the  nimiber  and  the  letter  of  its  re- 
spective position.  In  the  spring,  in  carrying 
bees  out  he  is  able  to  deposit  iiishive  right 
where  it  was  the  preceding  fall.  ''  C6,''  we 
will  say,  is  to  go  directly  to  the  C  row,  and 
on  arrival  it  is  replaced  on  bottom  No.  6. 
Mr.  IJoardman  does  not  attach  very  much 
importance  to  bees  being  put  back  upon 
their  old  stands  ;  though  if  he  can  do  it  just 
as  conveniently,  he  prefers  doing  so,  be- 
cause there  will  l)e  some  old  bees  that  will 
go  back  to  where  they  were  the  previous 
fall. 

If  one    should    ilesirc    to    carry  out    Mr. 


WINTERING. 


332 


WINTERING. 


Boarduian"s  plan  of  putting  them  upon  the 
old  location,  and  he  should  still  like  to  car- 
ry his  hives  in  witli  the  bottom-boards,  he 
can  do  so  ;  but  when  he  returns  for  another 
colony  he  is  to  curry  the  bottom  back  and 
deposit  it  in  the  same  place  wlience  he  had 
just  removed  it  a  few  minutes  before.  In 
the  spring,  before  he  goes  in  to  get  a  colony, 
he  is  to  take  along  Avith  him  a  bottom,  de- 
posit the  colony  upon  it,  and  carry  it  to  the 
si)Ot  where  the  bottom-board  had  just  been 
removed,  and  no  time  will  be  lost.  On  the 
whole,  I  should  prefer  to  leave  the  bottom- 
boards  in  the  cellar,  piled  up  by  themselves^ 
and  put  the  bees  where  it  is  most  conven- 
ient. As  most  of  the  bees  lose  their  old 
points  of  the  compass,  it  does  not  make 
much  difference  where  they  are  put  the  fol- 
lowing spring.  If  they  do  not  go  back  into 
their  old  hive  it  will  not  matter  very  much. 

BOTTOM    VENTILATION.   AND    HOW    TO    SE- 
CURE IT. 

One  of  the  prime  causes  of  unsuccessful 
winteiing  in  repositoiies  is  in  leaving  c-n 
the  bottom-boards  as  they  are  in  summer. 
The  bees  have  only  just  what  ventilation 
they  can  get  through  the  entrance,  f  inch 
wide.  The  majority  if  not  all  of  those  who 
winter  successfully  in  the  cellar  leave  the 
bottom-boards  off  entirely. 

OTHER   METHODS   OF   GIVlNCf    BOTTOM  VEN- 
TILATION. 

I  have  given  you  our  general  plan  of  win- 
tering Ijees  in  the  cellar.  Perhaps  it  would 
now  be  well  to  give  you  some  of  the  meth- 
ods employed  successfully  by  others.  Capt. 
J.  E.  Iletheringtou,  of  Cherry  YaUey,N.  Y., 
the  most  extensive  bee-keeper  in  the  world, 
owning  some  3(Xj()  colonies,  I  believe  has  a 
square  liole  cut  in  the  Ixjttom-board  of  his 
hive.  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller  uses  a  reversible  Ixjt- 
tom-board,  as  shown  in  the  cut  below. 


l^ 

V 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\  \\ 

1 

DR.   miller's  reversible  BOTTOM-BOARD. 

The  drawing  al)ove  will  make  the  whole 
matter  i)lain.  By  using  one  side  of  it  he 
lias  simply  a  |  space  under  the  brood-frame 
for  summer  use.  Eor  winter  use  the  bot- 
tom Ijoard  is  reversed,  and  this  gives  him 
two  inches,  or  thereabouts,  under  the  brood- 
frames,  with  entrance  two  inches  deep,  and 
the  full  width  of  the  hive.  The  doctor  likes 
this  bottom-board,  and  during  the  i^ast 
winter  of  18S9  he  has  had  success  with  it. 
The  only  objection  I  have  to  it  is,  that  it  le- 


quires  a  more  expensive  liottom-board,  and 
I  am  not  sure  that  the  change  is  worth  the 
extra  expense.  If  we  can  winter  success- 
fully and  uniforndy  without  bottom-])Oar(ls, 
as  practiced  by  II.  W.  Boanlman  and  others 
—ourselves  being  included — I  see  no  reason 
for  adopting  the  reversible. 
cellars  versus  special  repositories. 
Cellars  are  more  generally  used  than  up- 
ground  buildings.  One  reason  is,  that  al- 
most everybody  has  a  cellar  under  his  house. 
If  the  same  can  be  darkened,  and  during 
warm  days  will  not  go  much  above  .50  de- 
grees, and  cool  off  as  much  if  any  below  -40, 
is  perfectly  dry,  and  can  be  partitioned  off 
from  where  vegetables  are  kept,  we  have  all 
that  can  be  really  desired. 252  But  a  good 
many  may  have  f)nly  a  damp  cellar;  or  if 
they  do  not  have  that,  it  is  so  small  that  it 
can  liardly  be  spared  for  the  bees.  Special 
ui)-gToun(l  or  partially  up-groimd  cellars  are 
then  usually  constructed.  The  accompany- 
ing engravings  show  the  repository  that  G.  M. 


FIG.  I— OrxSlDE   A'lEW  OF  D()()r,lTTI,B'S  BEE-CELLAR. 

Doolittle  has  used  for  a  number  of  years  with 
gi.od  success.  It  occupies  a  partial  side  hill. 
A  fence  is  put  in  the  rear  so  that  snow  will 
1  lank  over  the  roof.  Fig.  2  shows  exactly 
the  inside  of  the  structure.  You  will  no- 
tice  that    Mr.    Doolittle   has   three    doors. 


WIXTERIXG. 


333 


WINTERIXG. 


Two.  I  think,  are  sufficient.  The  ventila- 
tion at  6  give.s  what  little  ventilation  is 
needed. ■'•■>*  The  following  is  a  description, 
taken  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Doolittle. 

Fig'.  1  represf  iits  tlie  outside  aitpearaiiet'  of  the  cel- 
lar, as  viewed  from  tlie  soutlieast.  Tlie  gnniiid  should 
rise  gradually  from  the  foreground  up  to  the  fence, 
the  back  end  of  the  r<H>f  at  the  peak  being  lower,  or 
as  low,  as  the  gmund  opposite  to  it,  on  each  side. 
The  outer  roof  is  liemloek  boards  battened.  In  Fig.  2, 
1  represents  the  window  in  the  gable  end  of  the  ante- 
r(Kjm,  so  1  can  have  a  little  light  at'tei'  I  go  in  and 
sliut  the  fli-st  door.  In  this  ante-r(X)m  (see Figs.  2  and 
3)  I  light  my  candle,  have  the  sawdust  to  carry  in  to*' 
spread  on  the  floor,  etc.  In  Fig.  3.  4  is  the  upper 
drain,  or  water-course,  to  carrj-  off  all  surplus  water 
coming  fnjm  the  roof  and  elsewhere.  It  being  made 
in  a  large  sc<Jop  form  by  taking  dirt  out  to  go  between 
the  two  ro<jfs,  as  illustrated  in  Fig.  1.  Tlie  fence  is 
sliown  in  the  rear.  This  causes  the  snow  to  drift  on 
the  roof.  In  Fig.  3,  6  shows  the  ventilator  at  the 
back  end  of  the  cellar. 

Fig.  2  represents  the  front 
view,  also  the  ground-plan 
of  the  ante-room  and  doors. 
1  is  the  ca.singthat  the  outer 
door  hangs  on,  and  against 
which  it  shuts;  2  is  the  out- 
er doof  which  swings  in  and 
around  against  the  south 
side  of  the  ante-room;  3  is 
:  the  first  do(jr  toward  enter- 
g  the  cellar;  and  in  open- 
ing, it  swings  out  and  round 
the  north  side  of  the  ante- 
room, finding  the  position 
when  open  as  represented;  I 
4  is  the  next  door,  two  feet 
furthei'in,  which  in  opening 
also   swings  around  against 

GROU.VD-PLA.V  OF  BEECELLAR.  j;,,_  3^  aS  sllOWI)  ;  5  isthC  doOr 

entering  the  cellar;  and  in  opening,  it  swings  into  | 
the  cellar  around  against  the  south  wall,  unless  the  j 
cellar  is  full  of  bees,  in  which  case  a  stop  is  so  placed  j 
that  it  will  not  hit  the  hives.  i 

In  entering  the  cellar  I  first  go  into  the  ante-room 
and  shut  the  door,  as  I  have  explained;  then  I  open 
Nos.  3  and  4,  and  step  into  the  last  dead-aii-  space,  ' 
closing  No.  4  after  me.  but  allowing  No.  3  to  remain 
open.  I  now  open  No.  5  and  quickly  step  into  the  cel- 
lai-,  closing  o  after  me.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  very  ^ 
little  change  of  air  can  take  place  by  my  entering, 
especially  when  I  say  that  all  is  covered  overhead 
and  on  all  sides  with  dirt,  except  the  ante-room. 

Fig.  3  repivseiits  the  inside  of  the  cellar'.    1  rei)re- 
senls  the  floor,  or  cellar-liottom.    This  is  always  quite  j 
di'y,  as  there  is  a  drain  under  the  wall,  and  below  the  I 
bottom  all  around,  being  8  inches  deep  at  the  south- 
west corni'i-,  and  20  inches  deep  at  the  northeast  cor- 
ner,  or  outlet.    2   represents  the  south   wall.     The  ! 
hives  are  put  up  along  both'  walls  and  west  end,  put-  . 
ting  one  on  top  of  the  other  ones  four  deep,  as  seen 
at  8;  also  by  H,  H,  etc.,  in  Fig.  2.  '■ 

III  Fig.  3,3  is  the  imur  roof,  which  is  made  by  using 
2x6  stuff  for  niftei-s  (which  are  a  foot  apart),  with  1-  [ 
inch  boards*  nailed  on  them  at  the  top.    4  is  the  3  ft. 

*  In  the  summer  of  185K)  these  boards  had  become 
rotted  so  much  that  the  roof  caved  in.  To  prevent 
a  i-ecurreiice  of  this,  Mr.  Doolittle  uses  stone  flag- 
ging instead  of  the  boards.    If  the  latter  were  cov- 


of  dry  eai'tli  between  the  two  i-oofs.  .5  representing 
the  outside  njof.  B  is  the  ventilator,  showing  the  two 
elbows,  which  effectually  exclude  all  light.  The  hole 
in  it  is  6 -v  8  inches  square.  7  is  the  sut>-eaith  venti- 
lator, which  is  4  feet  dee]),  as  far  as  may  be.  and  KJd 
feet  long;  but,  as  I  have  said  before,  this  and  the  ui)- 
per  one  are  closed  of  late,  winters,  while  the  bees  are 
in  the  cellar.  As  I  have  often  expressed,  I  believe 
this  is  the  best  underground  arrangement  possible 


FIG.  3— BEE-CELLAK  WITH  ROOF  TORN  AW.A.Y. 

for  winteiTiig  bees,  and  1  have  tried  to  make  it  all 
plain,  so  ^ly  person  can  build  one  who  desires.  The 
cost  to  me  was  not  far  from  .*80.(K);  but.  of  course, 
prices  of  lumber,  stone,  and  labor,  vary  in  different 
localities. ^"^  G.  M.  Doolittle. 

Borodino.  X.  Y.,  Jan.  7, 1888. 

Mr.  H.  R.  Boardman  uses  a  repository 
like  that  shown  in  the  engraving  with  the 
hive-cart.     The  diagram  below  will  give  the 


B 


I \\-  «   "  I  C     _ 

OROrXD-l'L-VN. 

plan  of  tlie  building.  It  is  divided  off  into 
three  compartments.  A  is  an  entryway; 
B  B  are  places  where  the  bees  are  kei>t.  It 
is  doul)le-walled.  -jO  x  12  feet. one  story,  with 
walls  14  inches  thick,  packed,  ('is  a  door- 
way. T(j  enter,  you  pass  througii  (',  clo.se 
the  door,  and  then  enter  the  sjiecial  com- 
partments at  1)1).  The  entryway  is  1(»  x  U> 
sJiuare,  leaving  B  B  eacli  to  lie  aliout  24  x  1(», 
each  being  calculated  to  liold  from  To  to  UK> 
colonies.    The  diagram   shown  above  gives 

ered  with  tarred  paper  above  end  below,  it  might 
answer  equally  well,  jind,  at  the  same  time,  be 
cheaper.— El). 


WINTERING. 


884 


WINTERINU. 


;ni  inside  view  of  one  of  the  comp-.iitnieiits. 
W.  W,  W,  etc.,  are  windows  liiiiged  at  tlie 
middle  in  such  a  way  that,  by  reversing  to  a 
horizontal  plane,  bees  that  are  collected  on 
the  inside  can  easily  pass  out.  An  inside 
close  wooden  blind  serves  the  purpose  of 
darkening,  as  well  as  keeping  out  the  ex- 
treme cold. 

WHEN  TO  TAKE    BEES    FROM  THE  CELLAR. 

If  they  do  not  get  too  restless,  I  Avould  al- 
low tliem  to  remain  until  the  soft-maples,  or 
willow  and  alder,  begin  to  furnish  pollen. 
Put  them  out  very  early,  in  the  morning  of 
a  warm  pleasant  day,  if  you  can  tell  what 
morning  will  develop  into  a  pleasant  day. 
Set  each  hive  out  so  quietly  that  none  of  the 
rest  will  be  disturbed,  if  you  can.2">>* 

After  they  are  all  out,  and  nicely  fixed  as 
they  were  the  fall  before,  keep  a  close  watch 
that  the  weak  ones  do  not  swarm  out,  as 
they  are  quite  prone  to  do,  after  their  long 
continement."J59 

DEAD    BEES    IX    THE    CELLAR. 

Do  not  be  alarmed  if  dead  bees  get  on  the 
cellar  bottom.  They  may  accumulate  to  the 
depth  of  half  an  inch,  or  possibly  more,  if 
you  leave  them.  I  would  ad\  ise  sweei)ing 
them  up  two  or  three  times  during  the  win- 
ter.-''" Those  bees  that  come  out  are  usually 
superannuated.  They  have  served  out  the 
length  of  their  days ;  and  to  rid  the  colony 
of  their  presence,  they  fly  out  on  the  floor 
and  die.  If  you  see  bees  on  the  floor  that 
are  swollen  or  distended,  it  indicate!?;  dysen- 
tery, or  that  something  is  wrong.  Upon  the 
other  hand,  if  they  are  dry,  all  is  well. 

WHAT  TEMPERATURE  TO  KEEP  CELLARS. 

While  these  special  repositories  are  more 
convenient  for  carrying  bees  in  and  out  (no 
cellar  stairs),  they  have  the  one  disadvan- 
tage of  being  subject  to  considerable  range 
of  temperature,  those  only  partially  under 
ground  being  perhaps  excepted ;  and  while 
those  Avho  use  them  winter  successfully,  yet 
it  is  more  or  less  annoying  to  be  obliged, 
during  warm  weather,  to  be  continually 
opening  and  shutting  doors  to  regulate  the 
temperatui-e.  When  I  visited  Mr.  Board- 
man  in  February,  1889,  he  had  to  oi)en  the 
doors  to  lower  the  temperature  to  quiet  the 
bees.  A  good  cellar,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  be  less  affected  by  outside  tempera- 
ture. The  (^llar  tnat  we  used  during  the 
past  winter  (1889-'vi())  is  shaded  on  thiee 
sides  by  a  porch  closely  latticed  under  the 
floor.  The  temperature  has  never  gone 
above  -oC,  and  rarely  below  40  ;  4-5  seems  to 
be  the  average  temperature,  and  most  bee- 
keepers would  have  this  temperature  if  they 


could,  and  m  lint'un  it.  Some  go  so  far  as 
to  argue  that  the  temper.iture  should  not 
vary  one  degree.  Our  own  experience,  as 
also  that  of  Mr.  II.  H.  Boardman,  seems  to 
prove  that  an  absolutely  uniform  tempera- 
ture is  not  essential,  but  that  extremes  are 
detrimental.  I  would  not  have  the  tempera- 
ture go  above  50  or  5.5,  if  I  coidd  help  it,  nor 
below  40.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  sub- 
ject of 

ARTIFICLVL   HEAT    IN  CELLAKS. 

A  good  many  formerly  used  stoves  in  the 
cellar.  G.  M.  Doolittle  and  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller 
both  used  them  pretty  thoroughly.  Mr. 
Doolittle  has  abandoned  their  use  altogether. 
Dr.  JSliller  still  uses  one,:«'2  and  I  am  not  so 
sure  but  they  are  a  real  benefit  at  times. 
When  the  temperature  remains  several  de- 
grees below  zero,  as  is  the  case  with  Dr. 
Miller,  and  that  continuously  for  a  week  or 
more,  it  is  advisable  then  to  raise  the  tem- 
perature, if  it  is  below  38,  by  the  use  of  ar- 
tificial heat.  As  it  will  be  inconvenient  for 
many  to  make  use  of  a  common  stove  in 
their  cellar,  an  ordinary  coal-oil  stove  or  a 
couple  of  good  lamps  will  answ^er  very  well 
in  lieu  of  it.  The  lamps  or  stoves,  however, 
should  be  shaded  by  something  on  all  four 
sides,  so  as  to  shut  off  the  light.  Instead  of 
using  lamps,  some  use  ordinary  square  cans 
filled  with  hot  water.'  If  these  are  left  in 
the  middle  of  the  cellar  over  night,  they  w^ill 
make  quite  a  difference  in  the  temperature. 
On  the  whole  I  would  dispense  with  artifi- 
cial heat  if  possible ;  and  I  am  not  so  sure 
that  it  is  necessary,  even  when  the  tempera- 
ture does  go  down  as  low  as  35.  Stoves  in 
the  cellar  have  proljably  done  more  harm 
than  goo(l.-«i  But  from  what  I  am  able  to 
gather  now  from  a  large  correspondence,  and 
our  own  experience,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  it  is  beneficial,  but  only  when  the  tem- 
perature has  been  Ijelow  38  for  several  days. 

SUB-EARTH   VENTILATORS. 

The  sub-ventilator  should  be  from  four  to 
six  inches  in  diameter,  made  of  tile,  about 
100  feet  long,  and  from  four  to  six  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  outer  end  is 
brought  to  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and 
the  inside  end  opens  near  the  bottom  of  the 
cellar.  The  cold  air  entering  the  ventilator 
is  warmed  while  in  its  passage  under  the 
ground  ;  and  when  it  enters  the  cellar  it  not 
only  supplies  the  latter  with  pure  air,  but  at 
the  same  time  raises  its  temperature  several 
degrees. 

Almost  all  bee-keepers,  though,  who  once 
used  sub-earth  ventilators  have  abandoned 
their  use.    It  is  generally  considered  now 


WINTERING. 


335 


WINTERING. 


tliat  they  are  a  uselee-s  exj  ense  ;  and  while 
they  may  be  ot  advantage  at  times,  they  are 
more  apt  to  be  detrimental.  Bees  do  not  re- 
quire HO  much  cellar  ventilation  as  was  for- 
merly supposed.  If  the  temperature  is  a 
little  high,  and  bees  are  restless,  open  the 
windows  at  night  and  close  in  the  morning. 
The  larger  the  number  of  colonies  in  the 
cellar,  the  more  ventilation  will  be  required. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  too  much 
cellar  ventilation  is  detrimental. 

DOES   IT  DI^TUKU  BEES  TO  ENTER  THE   RE- 
POSITORY  WITH   A   LIGHTED    LAMP  V 

Thi.s  question  is  often  asked.  At  times  it 
evidently  does  create  some  disturbance ; 
but  usually,  if  you  enter  the  room  quietly, 
being  careful  about  making  unnecessary 
jarring,  and  avoiding. loud  talking,  and  re- 
maining for  only  a  short  time,  little  if  any 
harm  will  result.  I  would  not  enter  the  cel- 
lar or  repository  unless  necessary.  If  the 
temperature  goes  down  ouUide  to  or  about 
zero  I  would  ascertain  the  temi)erature  in 
the  repository.  If  below  3o  I  w'ould  raise 
the  temperature  by  artificial  heat.  If  very 
warm  outside,  and  the  temperature  is  above 
50  in  the  cellar,  and  the  Ijees  seem  to  be  rest- 
less, ventilate  at  night,  when  it  is  cooler. ^^^^ 

HOW   TO    EXAMINE  COLONIES    IN    THE  CEL- 
L.\E.,   WITHOUT   BOTTOM-BOARDS,  WITH- 
OUT OPENING   A   HIVE. 

With  a  small  hand-glass  aiid  a  lamp,  en- 
ter the  cellar  quietly.  Hold  the  glass  1)6- 
neath,  and  a  little  in  front  of  one  of  the 
hives  which  are  to  be  examined.  With  the 
other  hand,  hold  the  lamp  so  that  the  light 
strikes  the  bottom  of  the  hive.  Now^  tilt  the 
glass  at  such  an  angle  that  the  bottom  of 
the  hive  can  bs  seen  in  the  glass.  The  con- 
dition of  the  bees  can  be  very  easily  learn- 
ed. If  they  are  in  a  nicely  compacted  clus- 
ter you  may  rest  assured  that  they  are  as  i 
they  should  be.  As  a  general  thing  you  will  ] 
find  them  in  plain  sight  on  tlie  central 
frames,  just  over  the  openings.  Sometimes 
the  Imll  will  be  hanging  a  little  below. 
With  a  hand-lamp  and  a  glass  I  find  I  can 
generally  see  nearly  all  i)arts  of  the  hive  in- 
side. A  dark  lantern  is  much  better  than  a 
hand-lamp  ;  for  with  this  you  can  shoot  the 
light  just  wiiere  you  want  it.  As  the  light 
is  concentrated  in  one  place  only,  it  is  less 
liable  to  disturl)  the  bees  elsewhere. 

WHAT  KIND  OF  STORES  AKE    PREFERRED? 

I  ])refer  stores  made  of  granulated-sugar 
syrup  sealed;  but  good  combs  of  sealetl 
white  honey  are  nearly  as  good.  As  a  gen- 
eral thing,  Itees  will  wintei'  on  dark  honey, 
if    well   ripened    and    scaled.      I    certainly  : 


should  not  go  to  the  expense  of  extracting 
it  and  then  feeding  syrup.    Dark  honey  is  a 
little  more  apt  to  give  dysentery,  but  usual- 
I  ly  it  does  not. 

J  ONE  MORE  HINT  IN  REGARD  TO  WINTERING. 

I  Sometimes  a  colony  may  run  out  of  stores 
unexpectedly,  and.  to  all  appearances,  be 
dead  from  starvation,  the  greater  part  of  the 
bees  on  the  bottom-board,  and  others  with 
their  heads  in  the  cells.  Now,  if  they  have 
not  been  in  this  condition  more  than  three 
or  four  days,  they  can  often  be  revived  by 
taking  them  into  a  warm  room.  As  soon  as 
they  begin  to  show  signs  of  life,  sprinkle 
them  with  diluted  honey  or  sweetened  water. 
In  the  course  of  2  to  6  or  8  hours  they  will 
come  to  life,  as  it  w'ere,  crawl  up  on  the 
combs,  and  be  nearly  as  well  as  if  their  mis- 
hap had  never  happened.  Such  cases  occur 
most  frequently  in  the  apiary,  when  the 
nights  are  not  very  cold.  Valuable  queens 
may  often  be  saved  when  but  few  or  none  of 
the  worker-bees  can  be  resuscitated :  for  it 
is  a  strange  fact,  that  tlie  queen"s  tenacity  of 
life  is  greater  than  that  of  any  of  the  work- 
ers. 

In  my  earlier  experience  I  was  trying  very 
hard  one  year  to  winter  my  whole  apiary,  of 
48  colonies,  without  any  loss.  I  did  it,  but 
one  of  them  came  so  near  being  lost  that  it 
was  saved  only  by  the  above  treatment ; 
therefore,  friends,  don't  be  in  a  hurry  to  de- 
cide that  a  colony  is  lost  irretrievably. 

SUM3IING  UP  THE  MATTER   OF  WINTERING. 

Taking  all  things  into  consideration,  my 
advice  to  the  ABC  class,  and  to  all  others 
who  have  not  large  apiaries  and  large  ex- 
perience, is  to  winter  in  chaff-packed  hives, 
in  the  open  air,  on  their  summer  stands. »''slf 
it  were  as  pleasant  and  con^■enient  to  handle 
bees  in  the  house-apiary  as  in  the  open  air,  I 
should  say,  have  a  house-apiary. 

SPRING   DWINDLING. 

I  do  not  know  whether  to  style  this  a  dis- 
ease, or  a  condition  of  things  that  comes 
about  naturally  during  cold  and  backward 
springs.  I  sliould  incline  to  the  latter,  were 
not  its  ravages  so  uncertain ;  tliat  is,  it 
seems  to  affect  a  part  of  an  apiary  and  not 
another  part:  and.  at  times,  it  will  go  all 
through  one  apiary,  while  another,  a  few 
mih'S  away,  will  be  entirely  free  from  it.  It 
is  very  certain  that  it  atllicts  weak  colonies, 
as  a  general  thing,  more  than  strong  ones, 
but  there  are  exceptions  even  to  this.  It  is 
much  worse  after  a  long,  hard  winter,  and 
it  disappears  always  at  the  apiu'oach  of  set- 
tled   warm    weather  and    new    honev.     Al- 


WINTERING. 


330 


WINTERING. 


though  it  does  not  generally  seem  to  affect 
stocks  before  March,  I  have  seen  them  af- 
fected by  it  from  Feb.  until  June.  I  have 
even  known  colonies  to  be  listless  and  life- 
less from  its  effects,  until  others  in  the 
ai)iary  were  sending  out  rousing  swarms. 
Strong  colonies  that  are  raising  brood  vig- 
orously seldom  seem  affected  by  it;  but  I 
suspect  they  are  affected  more  or  less  by  it, 
or  by  the  condition  of  things,  but  have  suf- 
ficient vigor  and  strength— animal  heat,  if 
you  please— to  pull  through  until  there  is 
plenty  of  warm  weather,  new  pollen,  and 
new  honey. 

It  made  us  but  little  if  any  trouble  in 
our  apiary,  during  the  spring  of  1878;  but 
we  had  such  a  siege  of  it  in  1879  that  an  ex- 
tract from  Gleanings  of  that  year,  for 
May,  will  make  a  very  good  description  of  it. 

SPRING  DWINDLING. 

A  Report  from  the  Battle- Field,  by  an  '■'■Eye- 
witness.''^ 
To-day  is  the  15th  of  April,  and  scarcely  a 
bit  of  pollen  has  been  gathered.  The  buds 
of  the  soft  -  maple  are  open;  but,  for  some 
reason  which  I  can  not  give,  not  a  bee  is  to 
be  seen  hovering  near  them ;  the  slippery 
elm  is  also  in  bloom,  but,  strange  to  say, 
not  a  bee  hums  about  it  either.  The  weath- 
er has  not  been  very  warm,  and  there  is  a 
cool  north  wind  which  may  account  in  part 
for  the  seeming  indifference  of  the  bees  to 
blossoms.  Last  month  I  reported  85  col- 
onies left.  Since  then,  one  after  another, 
they  have  been  dwindling  down  in  a  won- 
derfully short  space  of  time,  and  stocks  that 
were  called  fair,  having  brood  on  several 
combs  a  week  ago,  are  now  found  with  only 
a  handful  of  bees,  the  brood  dead  by  expos- 
ure, the  unsealed  larvae  starving  and  drying 
up  in  the  cells,  and  a  general  air  of  discour- 
agement all  about  the  hives.  Some  colonies 
bring  in  a  little  pollen  now  and  then,  but 
the  great  part  of  them  seem  to  have  sus- 
pended work,  and  the  bees  are  loafing  idly 
about  on  the  combs.  Usually  we  find  a  row 
of  cells  of  unsealed  honey  around  the  young 
brood,  but  now  the  heavy  combs  of  sealed 
stores  remain  untouched,  and  not  a  cell  of 
honey  is  placed  close  to  the  brood  for  imme- 
diate'^ use,  and  every  bee  seems  to  have  stop- 
ped work.  When  we  open  hives  there  is 
no  need  of  a  smoker,  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  bees  seem  too  listless  to  care  to  show 
fight.  Some  cases  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
black  bees  are  less  affected  than  the  Ital- 
ians; but,  again,  we  find  heavy  stocks  of 
blacks,  in  box  hives,  bought  of  some  of  our 
neighbors,  all  at  once  reduced  to  a  handful, 
the  queen  gone,  and  the  whole  establish- 
ment an  easy  prey  to  robbers,  if  the  robbers 
had  energy  enough  to  appropriate  it.  The 
dwindling  is  not  in  my  ai)iary  alone.  ])ut  is 
also  lessening  the  stocks  of  the  farmers  and 
other  bee  -  keepers  in  our  vicinity,  and,  in 
fact,  all  over  our  land.  Not  that  everybody 
has  lost  thus,  for  many  wliole  apiaries  seem 
to  have  wintered  as  well  as  they  ever  did, 


but  the  losses  seem  to  extend  so  widely 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  ascribe  it  to- 
any  si)ecial  locality,  or  kind  of  stores.  The 
chaff'  hives,  it  is  true,  were  all  right  when 
tlie  others  were  dying  off  at  a  rapid  rate;  but 
within  the  past  week  they,  too,  have  begun 
to  follow  the  rest,  at  a  rate  that  is  alarming. 

The  house-apiary,  somewhat  to  my  aston- 
ishment, seems  almost  unaffected,  only  that 
they  are  making  very  slow'progress  in  brood- 
rearing,  and  a  very  few  stocks  show  signs  of 
the  universal  dwindling.  Even  the  flour 
candy  seems  to  have  lost  its  potency  to  start 
brood  -  rearing.  I  have  had  experience  in 
this  same  line  before,  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  nothing  but  new  honey  and  new  pollen 
can  revive  the  drooping  coiirage  of  our  little 
pets.  The  bees  have  died  close  up  to 
combs  of  sealed  clover  honey.  No  symp- 
toms of  dysentery  are  to  be  seen.  Meal  has 
been  given  them  in  fine  weather,  but  their 
zeal  for  it  has  been  nothing  like  what  it  is 
usually.  There  are  now  55  "hives  with  bees 
in  them,''  in  our  apiary.  Perhaps  a  dozen  of 
these  have  queen-cells,  instead  of  queens. 
Four  whole  colonies,  9  nuclei,  and  35  queens 
(48  in  all)  have  been  sold.  I  am  thus  partic- 
ular in  giving  these  details,  because  I  think 
all  who  embark  in  bee  culture  should  have  a 
fair  view  of  the  obstacles  they  may  have  ta 
contend  with.  We  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters with  166  colonies. 

The  following  describes  vividly  the  condi- 
tion of  my  bees,  except  those  in  the  house 
apiary. 

Well,  I  went  into  winter  with  about  130  colonies  of 
bees.  To-day  I  think  I  can  house  all  I  have  left,  in  a 
one-half  bushel  measure— yes,  I  believe  I  could  put 
them  in  a  peck  basket.  It  would  cost  me  about  fSOO 
to  replace  them.  J.  B.  Bray. 

Lynnville.  Tenn..  Mar.  28. 1879. 


April  25.  —  We  have  now  had  nearly  a 
week  of  beautiful  weather,  and  the  troubles 
are  all  over.    The  bees  are  at  work  on  the 


an  experience  that  ''  blessed   bee 
didn"t  tell  of. 

maples;  and  under  the  influence  of  new  hon- 
ey  and  pollen,  every  thing   is   promising. 


WINTERING. 


387 


WINTERING. 


The  weak  colonies  have  still  quite  a  propen- 
sity to  swarm  out. and.  for  some  strange  rea- 
son .our  queens  most  unexpectedly  tiu-n  up 
missing  every  day  or  two.  This  trouble 
seems  mostly  confined  to  the  black  queens 
in  hives  I  have  purchased,  so  we  can  not 
well  ascribe  it  to  artificial  ways  of  manag- 
ing. The  farmers  in  the  country  round 
about  us  have  lost  most  heavily.  Our 
neighbor  Shaw,  of  Chatham,  strange  to  tell, 
has  come  through  again  this  winter,  without 
the  loss  of  a  single  colony.  His  hives  are 
not  chaff-i)acked,  but  are  double,  with  a  dead- 
air  space  between  the  walls.  Those  of  our 
neighbors  who  reared  queens  for  sale  last 
season  have  generally  lost  badly.  Our  en- 
graver, who  had  quite  a  fine  little  apiary  in 
the  fall,  has  now  but  two  colonies  left.  His 
imported  queen  went  with  the  I'est,  and  it 
was  perhaps  his  sad  experience  that  prompt- 
ed the  cartoon  given  al)ove. 

Mid  of  extract. 

It  may  be  well  to  state  that  the  bees  m 
1879  were  not  as  well  protected  as  in  the 
former  year;  but  the  fact  that  colonies  in 
the  chaff  hives  were  eventually  affected, 
proves  that  chaff,  with  all  our  pains,  is  not 
a  positive  preventive. 

CURE    FOR    SPRINCt    DWINDLIXG. 

As  I  have  said  before,  I  know  of  no  posi- 
tive cure  except  warm  weather,  and  this 
always  does  away  with  it  entirely ;  were  this 
not  the  case,  I  should  hardly  be  willing  to 
class  this  great  drawback  to  successful  bee 
culture,  under  the  head  of  wintering.  The 
question  now  arises,  Can  we  not,  by  the  use 
of  artificial  heat,  bring  about  such  a  state 
of  affairs  as  is  produced  by  warm  weather  V 
In  other  words,  can  we  not,  by  going  to  the 
necessary  expense  and  trouble,  save  our 
bees  and  queens,  even  though  seasonable 
weather  does  not  come  V  Many  experiments 
have  been  made  in  the  matter,  and  some  of 
them,  apparently,  have  succeeded;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  many  of  them  have  signally 
failed.  I  have  started  healthy  brood-rearing 
in  every  month  in  the  year,  by  means  of  ar- 
tificial heat;  but  to  take  a  whole  apiary  that 
is  running  down,  in  the  month  of  April,  and 
build  it  up,  prevent  the  colonies  from 
swarming  out,  and  the  queens  from  desert- 
ing and  dying,  is  something  I  have  never 
succeeded  in  doing. 

WHAT    TO    DO    WHEN    YOUR    15EES    GET 
"  SPRING  DM'INDLIXG." 

,  Look  them  over  every  other  day,  if  neces- 
sary, and  close  up  the  division-boards,  tak- 
iiig  t'Ut  all  combs  they  can  not  cover.  We 
used  to  advocate  uniting  when  they  became 
so  weak ;  but  we  luive  found  that  uniting 
several  weak  ones  does  little  if  any  got)d. 
Both  Dr.  .Miller  and  (i.  M.  Doulittle  agree, 
as  you  will  see  by  tlie  comment,-''- 1'''-*-'.  If  you 


have  the  real  dwindling,  you  will  find  queen- 
cells  started  and  queens  missing,  at  almost 
every  round  you  take  among  the  hives. 
This  is  because  the  colonies  have  become 
disheartened  and  demoralized;  and  the  only 
thing  that  will  prevent  this  demoralization 
is  to  contract  them  until  there  are  num- 
bers enough  to  repel  the  frost. 

It  may  be  asked.  What  becomes  of  the  bees? 
I  believe,  generally,  they  fly  out  of  the  hives, 
and  never  get  back  again.  Daring  cool  sun- 
shiny days  they  may  be  seen  on  the  fences 
and  sidewalks,  on  the  grass  and  like  places, 
often  laden  with  pollen,  showing  clearly 
that  they  are  trying  to  make  a  live  of  it,  and 
doing  the  best  they  can.-es  I  have  sometimes 
thought  they  became  so  chilled  in  their  mea- 
ger clusters  at  home,  that  they  had  not  suf- 
ficient vigor  to  withstand  the  chilly  spring 
winds  as  a  bee  from  a  powerful  and  prosper- 
ous colony  would.  As  the  Italians  are  more 
eager  for  stores  than  the  common  bees,  it 
may  be  that  this  is  one  reason  why  they  are 
often  said  to  be  more  liable  to  this  dwindling 
than  the  common  bees. 

As  explained  in  the  extract,  those  who 
rear  queens  and  bees  quite  largely  late  in 
the  season  are  apt  to  suffer  more  from  spring 
dwindling  than  those  who  let  their  bees 
a'one  after  the  honey  liarvest,  i)roviding  that 
they  were  good  and  strong  along  in  August 
and  September.  A  good  many  contend  that 
we  must  go  into  winter  quarters  with  young 
bees.  If  it  is  the  old  bees  tluit  die  off  so 
rapidly  on  account  of  the  loss  of  vitality, 
then  the  advice  (that  we  should  have  young 
bees)  is  good.  We  have  wintered  bees  well 
with  only  old  bees,  and  that  200  colonies,  one 
winter,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  one. 
But  the  winter  was  favorable,  and  so  per- 
haps that  may  not  influence  the  argument 
one  way  or  the  other.  However.  I  think  it 
is  safer  to  have  as  many  young  bees  to  go  in- 
to winter  qitnrters  as  i)ossible.  What  I 
mean  by '•  young"  bees  is  those  tluit  have 
not  borne  the  toil  of  the  seastm,  or  at  least 
the  latter  end  of  it. 

NO   .SPRING   DWINDLINCt   SINCE    ISSl. 

I  have  taken  considerable  space  in  regard 
to  spring  dwiiuUing,  because  it  is  a  trouble 
that  might  recur  again  as  it  did  during  the 
springs  of  l.s7i»  and  1.S81.  Since  the  latter 
date  we  have  had  none  of  any  appreciable 
account  in  our  own  apiaries,  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  very  little  in  otlier  lo- 
calities. In  Wisconsin  and  York  State  they 
liave  had  some  trouble  with  it,  but  n«)thing 
as  it  was  in  issi. 


WIXTEliING 


SHS 


WINTERING. 


WHAT     TO     DO    WITH     COMBS    FROM    HIVES 
WHERE    THE    BEES    HAVE    DIED. 

Put  them  safely  out  of  the  way  of  bees, 
eithei-  in  tight  hives  or  in  a  bee-proof  room  ; 
and  if  you  have  not  bees  enough  to  cover 
tliem  by  the  middle  of  June,  or  at  such  a 
time  as  you  shall  find  moth  worms  at  work 
among  them,  be  sure  that  all  the  combs  are 
spread  at  least  two  inches  apart,  as  recom- 
mended in  Kee-moth.  Now,  whatever  oth- 
er precautions  you  take,  you  must  look  after 
these  emi)ty  combs  occasionally.  They  are 
very  valuable,  and  must  not  be  allowed  to 
be  destroyed.  A  very  good  way  to  keep 
them  is  to  put  them  in  empty  DcjvetaiJed 
hives,  piled  one  over  the  other.  This  keeps 
them  perfectly  protected,  and  yet  you  can 
quickly  look  them  all  over  as  often  as  once 
a  week  at  least,  until  they  are  used.  But, 
suppose  they  do  get  moldy,  or  full  of  worms, 
what  then  ? 

WHAT    TO    do    AVITH  CO^rBS  THAT    ARE 

SOILED,   MOLDY,   AND   FILLED 

WITH   DEAD   BEES. 

When  I  wrote  the  article  on  Dysentery 
I  forgot  to  mention  what  should  be  done 
with  the  combs  after  the  bees  had  died. 
Many  times  you  will  find  the  cells  full  of 
dead  bees;  and  anyone  who  has  tried  it  will 
know  what  an  endless  task  it  is  to  try  to 
pick  them  out.  Well,  do  not  try;  but  just 
take  these  combs  and  set  them  away  until 
you  want  empty  combs  to  build  up  stocks, 
and  then  hang  them,  one  at  a  time,  in  the 
center  of  a  populous  colony.  After  a  few 
hours,  just  take  a  peep  at  your  comb,  and 
see  how  the  bees  do  it.  If  it  is  at  a  season 
when  honey  is  coming  in,  it  will  have  un- 
dergone such  a  transformation  that  you  can 
scarcely  believe  your  eyes,  when  you  come 
to  take  a  look  at  it.  I  have  put  in  combs 
that  were  full  of  dead  bees,  filthy  from  the 
effects  of  dysentery,  and  moldy  besides,  and 
found  them  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same 
day,  clean,  bright,  and  sweet,  holes  patched 
up,  and  partly  filled  with  eggs,  honey,  and 
pollen.  In  one  case  I  hunted  the  hive  all 
over  for  my  bad  comb,  and  then  came  pret- 
ty near  declaring  somebody  had  taken  it 
aw^ay;  there  was  no  comb  there  that  could 
be  identified  as  the  bad  one.  Do  not  ex- 
tract the  honey,  pick  out  the  bees,  or  fuss  to 
wash  them  off  with  water;  just  let  the  bees 
try  their  hand  at  it,  and  see.  Do  not  give 
them  too  many  bad  combs  at  once,  or  they 
may  get  discouraged,  and  swarm  out.  Give 
them  one ;  after  a  few^  hours,  another ;  and 
you  will  very  soon  have  them  all  right. 
How  do  they  do  it  so  quickly?    Well,  each 


bee  takes  a  cell ;  and  when  he  has  his  cell 
finished,  they  are  all  done.  Suppose  you 
had  as  many  boys  as  there  are  hills  of  corn 
in  the  Held.  If  all  went  to  work,  the  field 
w'ould  soon  be  clean.  Combs  infested  with 
moth-webs,  and  even  live  worms,  may  be 
fixed  up  in  a  twinkling,  in  the  same  way. 
If  you  stand  in  front  of  the  hive,  you  may 
have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  worms 
led  out  by  the  nape  of  the  neck ;  to  do  this, 
you  want  a  strong  vigorous  colony  of  Ital- 
ians. See  Bee-moth.  A  new  swarm  will 
usually  clean  out  a  hive  of  bad  combs  in 
the  same  way;  but  if  too  bad  they  may 
swarm  out.  Better  take  them  in  the  way  I 
have  mentioned.  To  be  sure,  it  pays  to  save 
such  combs. 26* 

THE    LOSSES    DURIKG    THE    WINTEU     OF 

1880-'81. 
The  winter  of  1880  and  '81  was  the  most 
disastrous  in  the  way  of  spring  dwindling 
ever  known.  Probably  three-fourths  of  all 
the  bees  in  the  Northern  States  were  lost, 
and  a  great  part  of  them  were  in  pretty 
fair  condition  until  April,  when  a  very  severe 
spell  of  winter,  with  a  temperature  below 
zero,  was  the  occasion  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  losses.  Bees  that  were  in  good  warm 
and  dry  cellars  during  this  siege  fared  bet- 
ter ;  but  some  very  bad  losses  were  reported, 
even  with  cellar  wintering.  While  bees  in 
the  chaff  hives  suffered  more  than  they  ever 
did  before,  the  testimony  in  favor  of  chaff 
hives  over  those  unprotected  has  settled  the 
matter  of  their  superiority,  beyond  all  ques- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  a  great  number  of 
reports  pointed  strongly  to  the  importance  of 
more  and  better  ventilation  than  we  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  giving.  Hives  where 
the  section  boxes  were  carelessly  left  on  all 
winter,  in  many  cases  came  through  in 
good  condition,  while  those  closely  packed 
with  chaff'  cushions  above,  died.  In  our 
own  apiary,  we  started  into  winter  with 
about  140  colonies,  and  saved  less  than  a 
dozen.  It  is  proper  to  say,  however,  that 
few^  or  none  of  these  were  really  strong,  first- 
class  colonies.  The  young  bees  were  shaken 
from  the  combs  in  the  fall,  and  used  to  fill 
orders  ;  and  our  trade  in  queens  also  kept 
many  of  the  colonies  queenless  when  they 
should  have  been  rearing  brood  to  stand  the 
winter.  Again,  a  part  of  the  bees  had  been 
fed  a  mixture  of  grape  and  cane  sugar.  It 
has  been  demonstrated,  in  more  recent 
years  that  such  food  is  bad  for  winter. 
Still  again,  we  made  no  use  of  the  Hill  de- 
vice, or  something  similar.  This  last,  prob- 
ably more  than  the  other  cause,  contributed 


WIXTERING, 


H8<) 


WIXTERIXG. 


largely  if  not  altogether  towar.l  the  severe 
loss. 

For  the  winter  of  1881  and  "82  we  prepared 
about  200  colonies,  using  the  Hill  device 
(see  p.  294),  and  they  came  through  almost 
without  loss,  but  the  winter  was  a  much 
milder  one  than  the  precetling. 

In  the  winter  of  1888-'84  we  carried  KiO  col- 
onies through  the  winter,  with  a  loss  of  only 
two.  They  were  on  natural  stores,  in  chaff 
hives.  Hill's  device  over  the  combs.  The 
combs  were  spread  more  than  we  ever  spread 
them  before,  many  being  fully  two  inches 
from  center  to  center.  We  used  a  smaller 
number  of  combs  in  consequence,  but  these 
were  filled  almost  solid  with  sealed  clover 
and  basswood  honey. 

Through  the  unusually  severe  winter  of 
1884- \So  we  again  succeeded  in  wintering  to- 
ward 200  colonies,  with  a  loss  not  exceeding 
five  per  cent;  and  the  losses  during  the 
winter  above  mentioned  were  perhaps  great- 
er throughout  the  land  than  any  winter  be- 
fore on  record.  Our  bees  were  prepared  ac- 
cording to  the  instructions  given  in  the 
preceding  pages,  in  chaff  hives,  out  of  doors, 
on  their  summer  stands,  though  the  greater 
part  of  their  stores  was  sugar  syrup  fed  be- 
fore the  cold  weather  came.  One  cause  of  the 
heavy  losses  during  the  winter  of  1884-''8.5  was 
the  great  amount  of  honey-dew  gathered ; 
in  fact,  the  amount  was  larger  than  in 
any  other  one  season  before  on  record ; 
and  coupled  with  the  extreme  cold  weather 
it  made  bad  work.*  Having  so  many  as  we 
do  in  one  locality  caused  the  bees  to  con- 
sume the  greater  part  of  these  honey-dew 
stores,  so  we  were  obliged  to  feed  as  above 
mentioned. 

During  the  winter  of  188-)-''86  we  lo.st  less 
than  three  per  cent  of  tlie  181  colonies  win- 
tered on  their  summer  stands.  They  liiid 
nothing  but  natural  stores,  but  were  packed 
carefully  in  chaff. 

During  the  winter  of  1886-"87  we  wintered 
200  colonies  without  the  loss  of  a  single  col- 
ony.   They  were  packed  on    our    summer 


*  During  tho  sprinj?  and  summer  of  1884,  honey- 
dew  WHS  Kfithered  so  largoly  in  some  localities  near 
us  that  it  was  thrown  out  with  the  extractor  to  the 
amount  of  several  tons.  While  the  uiiijority  of  |)eo- 
ple  objected  to  this  dark,  (jueer-tiisfiim'lKMiev,  there 
were  a  lew  who  liked  it.  so  that  ic  had  a  limited  sale 
at  4  or  .')  cts.  a  jwund.  .As  a  rule,  however,  it  did 
Kreat  damaRe  to  the  sale  of  amth  honey,  for  the 
bees  would  now  and  then  i)ut  in  a  few  cells,  damag- 
ing- the  sale  of  the  whole  section. 


stands  as  recommended  in  the  foregoing 
pages.  In  consequence  of  the  ravages  of 
foul  brood  during  the  summer  previous,  and 
in  consequence  of  the  treatment  we  gave 
them  as  described  under  the  head  of  foul 
brood,  our  colonies  were  greatly  reduced  ; 
some  of  them  were  very  weak.  These  weak 
ones  we  coidd  Jiot  unite,  because  they 
each  had  valuable  queens,*  and  to  unite 
would  have  meant  the  sacrifice  of  one  queen, 
as  we  could  not  and  would  not  sell  queens  to 
customers  from  diseased  colonies.  In  spite 
of  all  these  unfavoring  circumstances,  the 
bees  wintered  as  above.  Perhaps  you  would 
inquire  how  we  made  them  come  out  so  well. 
We  simply  followed  the  directions  for  out- 
door wintering  given  in  the  foregoing  pages, 
and  did  the  very  best  ice  kneiv  how.  1  would 
say,  however,  that  almost  every  one  was  suc- 
cessful in  wintering  tlieir  bees  in  almost  all 
localities  during  the  winter  mentioned. 

During  the  winter  of  1887- \88,  we  lost,  in 
the  chaff  hives,  only  five-sixths  of  one  per 
cent,  and  that  out  of  a  total  of  240  colonies. 

In  the  spring  of  1889,  out  of  200  colonies 
in  chaff  we  lost  only  two,  making  only  one 
per  cent. 

In  1889  and  '90  we  lost  one  out  of  150  col- 
onies outdoors,  though  three  or  four  others 
were  weak  and  queenless.  The  rest  were  in 
excellent  condition.  In  the  fall  of  1889  we 
put  42  in  the  cellar.  We  lost  three.  One 
starved,  and  the  others  were  too  weak  to  pull 
through,  one  of  them  being  very  weak  and 
practically  queenless,  when  set  out. 

In  1890  and  '91  we  had  a  touch  of  spring 
dwindling,  and  lost  15  per  cent  of  those  out- 
doors. In  the  cellar  we  lost  2  per  cent,  as 
we  kept  the  bees  in  the  cellar  till  after  the 
bad  weather. 

I  mention  these  instances  to  show  that  the 
directions  which  we  have  given  for  winter- 
ing colonies  on  their  summer  stands  packed 
in  chaff  hives  have  stood  the  test.  Hosts  of 
A  B  C  scholars,  since  the  first  few  editions 
of  this  work  were  out,  who  have  followed  my 
directions,  have  reported  success.  But  if 
such  a  winter  and  spring  as  distinguished 
1880  and  '81  should  come  with  spring  dwin- 
dling, neither  you  nor  I  must  be  surprised  if 
we  lose  half  our  bees.  I  do  not  yet  regard 
the  wintering  problem  as  entirelt/  solved. 
Some  of  those  who  so  constantly  asserted 
it  was,  lost  during  the  winter  of  1887-'88, 
very  heavily. 


CHAFF   HIVE   APIAKY   OF   J.   H.   TO\VNLEV,   TOINIPKIN!?,  31icn. 


The  next  16  pages  were  by  oversight  xiciged  wrong.    So  to  make  it  right  add  16  to  them. 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


.J^C^Nx^o 


Believing  that  many  of  the  ABC  schol- 
ars  would  be  interested  in  seeing  the  por- 
traits, and  in  reading  the  biographical 
sketches  of  some  of  the  prominent  bee-men 
— men  wiio  have  distinguished  themselves 
in  their  line  of  apiculture — it  is  witli  no 
little  pleasure  that  I  now  introduce  them  to 
you  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so  on  paper. 
Dr.  Miller,  who.  by  reason  of  his  natural 
fitness  for  the  task,  and  who  for  long  years 
has  been  more  or  less  acquainted  with  the 
writings  and  doings  of  these  men,  has  been 
detailed  to  write  the  sketches.  The  por- 
traits executed  by  the  Ives  direct  process 
of  engraving  are,  I  am  happy  to  say,  true 
to  life,  and  have  been  so  pronounced  by 
those  intimately  acquainted  with  the  sub- 
jects. Most  of  the  wood-cuts  are  good.  I 
now  present  to  you  a  very  natural  likeness 
— an  Ives  rei)roduction  —of  the  Rev.  L.  L. 
Langstroth,  the  father  of  American  bet- 
keeping. 

LORENZO  LORRAINE  LANGSTROTH. 

Lorenzo  Lonaine  Langstroth  was  born  in  Philadel- 
phia, Pa  ,  Dec.  :i.i,  1810.  He  graduated  at  Vale  College 
in  1831,  in  which  college  he  was  tutor  of  mathematics 
from  183i  to  183*>.  After  his  graduation  he  pursued 
a  theological  course  of  studj',  and  in  May,  l>Ni6,  be- 
came pastor  of  t  e  Second  Congregational  church 
in  Andover,  Mass.,  which  position  ill  health  compel- 
led him  to  resign  in  l&\  He  was  principal  of  the 
Abbot  Female  Academy  in  Andover  in  ls::i~-'9,  and  in 
18:39  removed  toGreentield,  Mass  ,  where  he  was  prin- 
cipal of  the  High  School  for  Young  Ladies,  from  IhSi* 
to  IXH.  In  1844  he  became  pastor  of  the  Second  Con- 
gregational church  in  Greenfield;  and  after  four 
years  of  labor  here,  ill  health  compelled  his  resigna- 
tion. In  1«48  he  removed  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
was  principal  of  a  school  for  young  ladies  from  184S 
to  l^S-.  In  1.S52  he  returned  to  Greenfield;  removed 
to  Oxford,  O.,  in  18.58,  and  to  Dayton,  O.,  in  18>>7.  I 

At  an  earlj'  age  the  boy  Lorenzo  showed  a  fondness  ' 
for  the  study  of  insect-life;  but  "idle  habits"  in  that 
direction  were  not  encouraged  by  his  matter-of-fact 
parents.  In  18:iS  began  his  real  interest  in  the  honey- 
bee, when  he  purchased  two  stocks.  No  such  helps 
e.\isted  then  as  now,  the  first  bee-journal  in  America 
being  issueil  more  than  twenty  years  later,  and  Mr. 
Langstroth  at  that  time  had  never  seen  or  heard  of 
a  book  on  bee  culture;  but  before  the  second  year 
of  his  bee-keeping  he  did  meet  with  one,  the  author 
of  which  doubted  the  existence  of  a  queen !  Hut  the 
study  of  bees  fascinated  him,  and  gave  him  the 
needed  outdoor  recreation  while  engaged  in  literary 
pursuits,  and  in  the  course  of  time  he  became  pos- 
sessed with  the  idea  that  it  might  be  possible  to  so  , 


construct  a  hive  that  its  contents  in  every  part 
might  be  msilu  examined.  He  tried  what  had  been 
invented  in  this  direction,  bars,  slats,  and  the  "leaf- 
hive"  of  Huber.  None  of  these,  however,  were 
satisfactory,  and  at  length  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
sun-oundingeach  comb  with  a  frame  of  wood  entirely 
detached  from  the  walls  of  the  hive,  leavine  at  all 
parts,  except  the  points  of  support,  space  enough 
between  the  frame  and  the  hive  for  the  passage  of 
the  bees.  In  IsV.'  the  invention  of  the  movable-comb 
hive  was  completed,  and  the  hive  was  patented  Oct. 
5  of  that  year. 


LORENZO   LORRAINE  LANC.STROTH. 

It  is  well  known,  that,  among  the  very  many  hives 
in  use,  no  other  make  is  more  popular  than  the 
Langstroth;  but  it  may  not  be  so  well  known  that, 
in  a  very  important  sense,  every  hive  in  use  among 
intelligent  bee-keepers  is  a  Langstroth:  that  is,  it 
contains  the  most  important  feature  of  the  Lang- 
stroth—the  movable  comb.  Those  who  have  entered 
the  field  of  apiculture  within  a  few  years  may  faintly 
imagine  but  can  hardly  realize  what  beekeeping 
would  be  to-day,  if,  throughout  the  world,  in  every 
bee-hive,  the  combs  should  suddenly  become  im- 
movably fixed,  never  ayain  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
hive,  oniy  as  they  were  broken  or  cut  out.  Vet 
exactly  that  condition  of  affairs  existed  through  all 


326 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS- 


the  centuries  of  bee-keeping  up  to  the  time  when,  to 
take  out  every  comb  and  return  ajjain  to  the  hive 
without  in.iurj-  to  the  colony,  was  maiie  possible  by 
tlie  inventive  g-enius  of  Mr.  Lanfrstroth.  It  is  no 
small  compliment  to  the  far-seeiug-  inventive  powers 
of  Mr.  Langstroth,  that,  although  flames  of  flitterent 
sizes  have  been  devised  and  tried,  and  improve- 
ments, so-called,  upon  his  hive  have  been  made  by 
the  hundred,  yet  to-day  no  other  size  t)f  frame  is 
more  popular  than  that  settled  ui>oii  by  him,  and  in 
general  the  so-called  impi-ovemeuts  are  one  after 
another  dropped  into  oblivion,  and  thousands  of 
hives  are  to-day  in  use  among  the  best  bee-keepers, 
scarcely  varying,  if  varying  at  all,  from  the  Lang- 
stroth  hive  as  first  sent  out. 

-As  a  writer,  Mr.  Langstroth  takes  a  high  place. 
"LangstrothontheHiveand  Honey-Bee,"  puljlished 
in  Maj-,  1853,  is  considered  a  classic;  and  an.v  contri- 
bution from  the  pen  of  its  author  to  the  columns  of 
the  bee-journals  is  read -with  eagerness.  Instead  of 
amassing  the  fortune  one  would  think  he  so  richly 
deserves,  Mr.  Langstroth  is  to-day  not  worth  a  dollar. 
He  sowed,  others  reaped.  At  the  date  of  his  inven- 
tion he  had  about  3a  colonies  of  bees,  and  never 
exceeded  125. 

In  August.  1836,  Mr.  Langstroth  was  married  to 
Miss  Anna  M.  Tucker,  who  died  in  .Jan  ,  1873.  He 
has  had  three  children.  The  oldest,  a  son,  died  of 
consumption  contracted  in  the  army.  Two  daugh- 
ters still  survive. 

Since  his  20th  year,  Mr.  Langstroth  has  suffered 
from  attacks  of  "head  trouble"  of  a  strange  and 
distressing  character.  During  these  attacks,  which 
have  lasted  from  six  months  to  more  than  a  year 
(in  one  case  two  years),  he  is  unable  to  write  or  even 
converse,  and  he  views  with  aversion  any  reference 
to  those  subjects  which  particularlj-  delight  him  at 
other  times.  Mr.  Langstroth  is  a  man  of  fine  pres- 
ence, simple  and  unostentatious  in  manner,  cheer- 
ful, courteous,  and  a  charming  conversationalist. 

In  i-eply  to  a  question,  he  writes,  under  date  of 
March  26, 1888:  "  I  am  now  a  minister  in  the  Presby- 
terian church.  Although  not  a  settled  pastor,  I 
preach  occasionally,  and  delight  in  nothingsomuch 
as  the  Christian  work.  Mj^  parents  were  members 
of  Mr.  Barnes'  church,  in  Philadelphia,  the  mother 
Presbyterian  church  in  the  United  States." 


MOSES  QUINBY. 

Moses  Quinby  was  born  April  16,  1810,  in  West- 
chester Co.,  N.  T.  While  a  boy  he  went  to  Greene 
Co.,  and  in  18.53  from  thence  to  St.  Johnsville,  Mont- 
gomery Co.,  N.  Y.,  where  he  remained  till  the  time 
of  his  death.  May  27,  1875. 

Mr.  Quinby  was  reared  among  Quakers,  and  from 
ins  earliest  years  was  ever  the  same  cordial, 
straightforward,  and  earnest  person.  He  had  no 
special  advantages  in  the  way  of  obtaining  an  ed- 
ucation, but  he  was  an  original  thinker,  and  of  that 
investigating  turn  of  mind  which  is  always  sure 
to  educate  itself,  even  without  books  or  schools. 
When  about  20  years  old  he  secured  for  the  first 
time,  as  his  own  individual  possession,  sufficient 
capital  to  invest  in  a  stock  of  bees,  and  no  doubt 
felt  enthusiastic  in  looking  forward  hopefully  to  a 
good  run  of  "luck"  in  the  way  of  swarms,  so  that 
he  could  soon  "take  up"  some.'by  the  aid  of  the 
brimstone  pit.  But  "  killing  the'goose  that  laid  the 
golden  egg"  did  not  commend  itself  to  his  better 
judgment,  and  he  was  not  slow  to  adopt  the  better 


way  of  placing  boxes  on  the  top  of  the  hive,  with 
holes  for  the  ascent  of  the  bees,  and  these  boxes  he 
improved  by  substituting  glass  for  wood  in  the 
sides,  thus  making  a  long  stride  in  the  matter  of 
the  appearance  of  the  marketable  product.  .With 
little  outside  help,  but  with  plenty  of  unexplored 
territory,  his  investigating  mind  had  plenty  of 
scope  for  opei'ation,  nnd  he  made  a  diligent  study 
of  bees  and  their  habits.  All  .the  books  he  could 
obtain  were  earnestly  sruilied,  and  every  thing 
taught  therein  carefully  test<d.  The  many  crudi- 
ties and  inaccuracies  contained  in  them  were  sifted 
out  as  chaff',  and,  after  17  years'  practical  experi- 
ence in  handling  and  studying  the  bees  themselves 
as  well  as  the  l)0(.)ks,  he  was  not  merel.v  a  bee-keep- 
er but  a   bee-master:  and  with  that  iiliilanthropic 


MOSES  QUINBY. 

character  which  made  him  always  willing  to  impart 
to  others,  he  decided  to  give  them,  at  the  expense 
of  a  few  hours'  reading,  what  had  cost  him  years  to 
obtain,  and  in  18.53  the  first  edition  of  "Mysteries 
of  Bee-Keeping  E.\plained"  made  its  appearance. 
Thoroughly  practical  in  character  and  vigorous  in 
style,  it  at  once  won  its  way  to  popularity.  From 
the  year  18.53,  excepting  the  interest  he  took  in  his 
fruits  and  his  trout-pond,  his  attention  was  wholly 
given  to  bees,  and  he  was  owner  or  half-owner  of 
from  600  to  1200  colonies,  raising  large  crops  of 
honey.  On  the  advent  of  the  movable  frame  and 
Italian  bees,  they  were  at  once  adopted  bj'  him,  and 
in  1862  he  reduced  the  number  of  his  colonies,  and 
turned  his  attention  more  particularly  to  rearing 
and  selling  Italian  bees  and  j^ueens.  In  1865  he 
published  a  revised  edition  of  his  book,  giving 
therein  the  added  experience  of  12  years.  He  wrote 
much  for  agricultural  and  other  papers,  his  writ- 
ings being  always  of  the  same  sensible  and  practis 
cal  character.  The  Northeastern  Bee-Keepers' As- 
sociation, a  body  whose  deliberations  have  always 
been  of  importance,  owed  its  origin  to  Mr.  Quinby, 
who  was  for  years  its  honored  ])resident— perhaps 
it  is  better  to  saj-  its  honoring  president,  for  it  was 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  XOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


327 


no  littlf  lionor,  even  to  so  important  a  society,  to 
have  such  a  in«n  as  president.  In  1S71  .Mr.  Quinby 
was  president  of  the  N.  A,  B.  K.  A. 

It  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  the  fact  that  so 
many  intellig-ent  bee-keepers  are  found  in  New 
i'"ork,  is  larj^ely  due  to  there  being-  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Quinby  in  their  midst.  The  high  reverence  in 
which  he  was  always  held  by  the  bee-keepers,  par- 
ticularly those  who  knew  hiui  best',  says  much,  not 
only  for  the  bee-master,  but  for  the  man. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  first  meeting-  of  the  North- 
eastern Society,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Quinby, 
Capt.  .1.  E.  Uetherington  said,  in  his  address,  in  a 
well-merited  eulogium  on  Mr.  Quinby:  "Of  the 
g-reat  amount  of  gratuitous  labor  performed  by 
him.  to  advance  the  science  of  bee  culture,  the  fra- 
terniij-  as  a  whole  will  never  know,  nor  can  they 
realize  the  information  imparted  to  the  numbers 
who  tlocked  to  see  him  personally,  especially  in  the 
busy  season." 

"  His  life  has  been  in  every  sense  a  life  of  useful- 
ness, and  not  wholly  devoted  to  the  interests  of  bee 
■culture,  for  he  took  a  living  interest  in  any  move- 
ment he  thought  would  benefit  society;  and  as  an 
advocate  and  helper  in  the  temperance  work  he  did 
no  mean  service.  He  possessed  true  kindness  of 
heart,  and  regarded  it  as  a  religious  dutj*  to  make 
all  better  and  happier  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact, and  regarded  that  life  a  failure  that  did  not 
leave  the  world  the  better  for  having  lived." 


ADAM  GRIMM. 

Adam  Grimm  was  born  In  Germany,  in  1824.  His 
father  kept  a  few  hives  of  bees,  in  which  Adam  took 
deep  interest,  and  did  not  re.st  satisfied  till  he  him- 
self became  the  owner  of  a  few  colonies.  He  emi- 
grated to  this  country  in  1849,  settling  at  Jefferson, 
Wis.,  on  a  farm  where  he  remained  until  his  death, 
which  occurred  April  10,  1876.  Soon  after  settling  at 
Jefferson  he  obtained  a  few  colonies  of  bees,  and  was 
.so  successful  with  tliem  that  at  one  time,  when  all 
other  crops  failed,  his  bees  came  to  the  rescue  and 
helped  him  ovei-  the  most  critical  time  of  his  life. 

In  l>-'63  he  had  increased  his  apiary  to  60  stocks  of 
black  bees  in  all  sorts  of  box  hives,  and  in  1864  he 
commenced  to  use  frame  hives,  and  transferred  all 
his  bees  into  them.  In  the  same  year,  1864,  he  bought 
his  first  Italians,  and,  as  rapidly  a.s  possible,  Italian- 
ized his  apiary,  and  then  sold  large  numbers  of  Ital- 
ian (iiieens  all  over  the  country. 

About  1869  or '70  he  imported,  personally,  100  Ital- 
ian queens,  69  of  which  were  alive  on  their  arrival  at 
New  York.  Of  this  number  he  introduced  40  in  his 
own  apiaries.  He  increased  his  stock  regardless  of 
cost,  ever}-  year,  but  had  larger  returns  especial- 
ly in  late  years,  both  from  the  sale  of  honey  and 
bees.  Queen-rearing  he  thought  unprofitable.  He 
had  an  intense  enthusiasm  in  the  business,  and 
worked  so  hard  in  the  apiary  as  probably  to  shorten 
his  life.  His  success  was, the  cause  of  many  others 
engaging  in  the  business. 

He  established  a  bank  at  Jefferson,  of  which  he 
Wivs  cashier  (liis  bees  having  provided  tlic  ca|>itall; 
l)Ut  dtiring  the  honey  harvest  lie  left  his  bank  to  the 
<;are  of  employes  and  went  from  one  apiary  to  an- 
other, personally  supervising  all  that  was  done. 

We  shall  not  soon  forget  two  or  three  pleasant  vis- 
its which  we  made  at  his  home,  with  his  interesting 
family.  He  told  us  that  his  wife  remonstrated  with 
him  for  working  so  hard,  telling  him  that  he  now 


had  a  competence,  and  could  give  up  his  bees  with 
the  laborious  care  of  so  many;  but  he  seemed  to 
think  the  returns  were  large  lor  the  amoun£*6f- la- 
bor, making  the  work  still  a  plea.sure,  although  no 
longei-  a  necessity.  He  reached  the  number  of  14<jO 
colonies;  and  on  one  of  our  visits,  when  he  had  uear- 
ly  lOi  0  colonies,  he  said,  with  a  half-comical  expres- 
sion, "What  w(mld  I  do  if  all  should  die  in  the  win- 
ter?" And  then,  the  comical  look  giving  way  to  one 
of  German  determination,  he  said,  "I  would  buy 
some  more;  and  with  so  many  hives  full  of  empty 
comb  I  would  show  you  how  soon  I  would  fill  them 
up  again." 


AD  Ail  GKIM.M. 

His  daughters,  Katie  and  Maggie  (both  since  mar- 
lied),  were  his  able  and  faithful  assistants;  and  the 
son,  George,  since  his  father's  death,  has  assumed 
the  principal  care  of  the  bees,  for  which  he  is  well 
fitted  by  his  previous  training. 

Mr.  Grimm  was  trim  built,  of  medium  size,  pleas- 
ant in  manner,  but  especially  impressing  one  as  of 
great  earnestness.  He  was  vei-y  methodical,  and 
kept  an  e.xact  account  of  his  business,  showing,  in  a 
single  year,  .f  10,000  as  the  result  of  his  bee-keeping. 


CAPT.  J.  E.  HETHEBINGTON. 
The  reputation  of  being  the  most  extensive  bee- 
keeper in  the  world— a  reputation  which  no  one  in 
the  fraternity  would  lightly  esteem  —  belongs  to 
Jolm  E.  Hetherington,  better  known  as  Captain  J 
E.  Hetherington.  He  was  born  Jan.  7.  1S40,  and  is 
one  of  the  verj-  few  who  have  never  had  any  other 
residence  than  the  place  of  birth— Cherry  Valley, 
N.  Y.  His  bee-keeping  career  commenced  at  the 
early  age  of  twelve  years,  when,  with  ?5.00  earned 
for  that  special  purpose,  he  bought  a  colony  of  bees, 
and  at  seventeen  had  marketed  honey  by  the  ton, 
averaging  nearly  60  lbs.  per  colony,  and  this  was  se- 
cured in  glass  bo.xes,  although  box  hives  and  the 
brimstone-pit  were  then  in  vogue.  .■Vt  this  same 
time,  in  1H.57,  he  invented  a  double-walled  hive,  with 
confined  air-space  between  walls,  applying  for  a 
l)atent  on  it;  but  after  using  tw<i  or  three  humlred 
of  them  he  had  the  unusual  good  sense  to  discard 
his  own  invention  wlien  he  found  it  did  not  come  up 
to  his  expectations.  He  then  used  very  successful 
ly  a  straw  hive,  having  at  one  time  12<X)  of  them 
With  these  hives  he  devised  a  system  of  artificial  in 
crease,  not  requiring  the  use  of  movalile  combs,'ttnd 


328 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE  KEEPERS. 


■was  so 
passed 


successful  therewitli    that   whole    apiaries 
throujrh  tlic  season  without  a  sing-le  swarm. 


CAPT.   HETHERINGTOX  DL'ItlXG  WAR  TIMES. 

In  1861,  at  his  country's  call  lie  took  up  the  life  of 
a  soldier,  abandoning  what  was  tlien  the  most  ex- 
tensive bee-business  in  the  country.  He  enlisted  as 
a  private  in  Company  D,  1st  Regiment  U.  S.  Sharp- 
shooters, and  advanced  to  the  position  of  captain. 
HLs  record  shows  tliat  tlie  position  was  fairly  and 
honorably  earned  by  his  bravei-y.  Three  times  he 
was  wounded,  and  in  18t)4  was  dischar{?ed  from  ser- 
vice on  account  of  disability  from  his  wounds.  His 
army  life  broke  down  his  health  so  completely  that, 
for  two  years,  the  question  of  his  life  was  one  of 
great  uncertainty.  However,  he  took  up  bee-keep- 
ing with  his  old-time  zest.  Wide  awake  to  the  mat- 
ter of  improvements,  always  on  the  lookout  for  any 
thing  better,  a  trial  of  movable  frames  soon  con- 
vinced him  thev  were  indispensable,  tlie  new  Quin- 
by  hive  being  adopted.  The  problem  of  preventing 
increase  engaged  his  deepest  attention.  Every  de- 
vice heard  of  or  thought  of  was  tried,  only  to  be 
condemned,  until  he  settled  down  upon  the  plan  of 
removing  the  queen  at  swarming  time. 

After  a  good  many  years'  experience  with  out- 
door wintering,  with  different  hives,  with  and  with- 
out packing,  he  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  severity  of  his  winters  made  outdoor  wintering 
a  risky  business,  and  he  abandoned  it.  Although 
more  generally  known  as  a  producer  of  comb  hon- 
ey, lie  was  one  of  the  first  to  use  tlie  extractor,  and 
considers  it  a  great  boon  to  bee-keepers.  He  be- 
lieves in  producing  lioney  of  whatever  kind  and  in 
whatever  style  the  market  demands.  Two  years  be- 
fore the  date  of  Wagner's  patent  he  began  experi- 


menting with  comb  foundation,  entering  into  the 
matter  with  great  enthusiasm.  To  prevent  the 
foundation  from  sagging,  lie  tried,  in  turn,  cloth, 
paper,  and  wood,  as  bases.  None  of  these  were  sat- 
isfactory, and  finally,  in  1875.  he  experimented  with 
wire.  The  difficulty  of  impressing  sheets  of  wax 
with  wire  imbedded,  without  laying  bare  the  wires  in 
some  places,  suggested  to  Iiim  the  feasibility  of  hav- 
ing the  base  flat  instead  of  rhomboidal,  as  in  natural 
comb.  Perhaps  he  was  led  to  this  partly  from  the 
fact  that,  several  years  previous,  Mr.  Quinby  and  he 
had  made  complete  comb  of  thin  metal  coated  with 
wax;  and  he  was  the  more  ready  to  adopt  tliis,  be- 
cause, in  his  experiments  with  metal  combs,  the  bees 
had  used  the  cells  with  flat  base.  Having  abstained 
from  the  use  of  foundation  in  raising  comb  lioney  on 
account  of  the  objectionable  "fishbone,"  he  now 
saw  that,  with  flat-bottom  foundation,  he  could  keep 
up  his  well-earned  reputation  for  producing  comb 
honey  of  the  finest  quality;  for  with  such  founda- 
tion the  finished  product  had  a  base  even  more  deli- 
cate than  that  produced  wholly  by  the  bees.  Upon 
this  invention  the  captain  secured  a  patent,  covering 
all  kinds  of  wire  supports  for  foundation,  including 
wired  frames.  He  receives  a  royalty  upon  flat^bot- 
tom  foundation  from  the  manufacturers,  Messrs.  J. 
Vandeusen  &  Sons;  but  tlie  very  valuable  use  of 
wired  frames  is  freely  given  to  the  public;  and  for 
this,  grateful  recognition  .should  be  clieerfulij- grant- 
ed to  the  inventor. 


CAPT     .J.   E.    HETHEHINGTON. 

Capiain  Hetherington  is  an  excellent  mechanic, 
making  all  his  own  supplies,  extractors,  box  making 
machines,  etc.,  even  to  the  dozen  or  more  wheelbar- 
rows used  in  his  different  apiaries.  At  the  Centen- 
nial, his  exhibit  took  the  first   prize.    Previous  to 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  EEE-KEEPEES. 


329 


this  he  had  made  a  hirgc  shipment  of  comb  honey  to 
England  —  no  sucli  extensive  shipment,  probably, 
having  been  made  before.  His  bees  liave  been  in- 
creased to  about  3J00  colonies,  kept  in  twenty-one 
apiaries,  from  two  to  twelve  miles  distant  from  his 
home.  He  hires  the  g-rouud  and  takes  all  care  of  the 
bees,  visiting  them  as  often  as  may  be  necessary, 
whether  ids  visits  be  two  days  or  two  weeks  apart, 
althougli  in  the  busy  season  it  is  a  rare  thing  that 
each  apiary  is  not  visited  each  week.  In  the  fall,  all 
the  bees  are  hauled  home,  weighed,  equalized  in 
stores,  and  prepared  for  winter. 

Capt.  H.  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New  York 
State  Bee-Keepers'  Association,  at  that  time  called 
Northeastern,  and,  after  Mr.  Quinby's  death,  was  its 
president.  He  was  one  of  tlie  original  members  of 
the  National  Society,  and  was  one  year  elected  presi- 
dent, an  honor  winch  lie  declined,  on  account  of 
poor  health. 

The  captain's  personal  appearance  is  in  keeping 
with  his  title,  tall  and  commanding.  He  is  an  ear- 
nest temperance  worker,  an  officer  and  worker  in 
the  Sabl:iath-school,  which  his  children — two  boys 
and  a  girl— attend,  and  is  a  regular  attendant  of  the 
Presbyterian  church,  of  which  his  wife  is  a  member. 
He  has  a  dislike  for  notoriety,  and  some  have  an  im- 
pression tliat,  like  a  turtle  in  its  sliell,  he  holds  him- 
self sullenly  aloof,  keeping  valuable  secrets  to  him- 
self. Nothing  can  l)e  further  from  the  fact.  He  is 
remarkably  genial  and  social,  and  has  no  secrets  of 
any  kind  pertaining  to  bee  culture  that  he  would  not 
gladly  give  to  any  one  whom  they  might  benefit.  It 
Is  to  be  regretted  that  so  little  is  seen  from  liis  pen. 
Possessed  of  an  easy  and  pleasant  style,  and  with  an 
experience  exceptionally  extensive,  whatever  ho 
does  write  is  of  value,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  he 
may  give  fuller  scope  to  his  gift  in  that  direction. 


PnOF.  A.  J.  COOK. 

Albert  J.  Cook  was  born  Aug.  31,  1842,  at  Owosso, 
Mlcli.  Those  who  are  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  man  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  his  pa- 
rents were  thoroughly  upright  Christians.  The  dai- 
ly reading  of  tlie  Bible,  with  comments  bj'  the  fa- 
ther, I'e-enforced  by  the  constant  example  of  a 
chaste,  honest,  and  industrious  daily  life,  left  its  im- 
press for  life  on  the  cliaracter  of  tlie  son. 

At  tlie  age  of  1.5  he  entered  Michigan  Agricultural 
•College,  where  he  graduated  at  20,  having  been 
obliged  during  his  course  to  suffer  the  sharp  disap- 
pointment of  suspending  study  a  whole  year  on  ac- 
count of  sickness,  his  liciilth  nlwa.\s  having  t)een 
rather  delicate  during  his  earlier  years.  Upon  his 
graduation  he  went,  on  account  of  poor  health,  to 
California,  where  for  three  years  he  labored  very 
successfully  as  a  teacher.  He  then  studied  a  por- 
tion of  two  years  at  Harvard  University  and  Har- 
vard Medical  College  with  Agassiz.  Hazen,  and  Dr. 
O.  W.  Holmes  as  teachers.  In  1866  he  was  appoint- 
ed instructor  at  Michigan  Agricultural  College,  and 
in  1H68  Professor  of  Entomology  and  Zoology  In  the 
same  college. 

He  has  done  and  Is  doing  a  work  unique  in  charac- 
ter, for  he  instructs  the  students,  not  only  about  in- 
•sects  In  general,  but  about  bees  In  particular. 
Every  student  that  graduates  goes  all  over  the  the- 
ory of  bees,  studies  the  l)ee  structurally  from  ti))  of 
tongue  to  tip  of  sting,  an<l  goes  through  with  all  the 
manipulations  of  tlio  aj)lary— that  is,  if  there  Is  any 
^loney  to  manipulate;  handles  the  bees,  clips  queens, 


prepares  and  puts  on  sections,  extracts,  etc.  Prob- 
ably in  no  other  institution  In  the  country,  if  in  tlie 
world.  Is  this  done. 

Prof.  Cook  Is  an  active  and  influential  member  of 
the  North  American  Bee-Keepers'  Association,  of 
which  he  has  Ijeen  president;  was  one  of  the  origi- 
nators of  the  Michigan  State  Bee-Keepers'  Associa- 
tion, of  which  he  was  president  for  a  number  of 
years,  and  helloed  start  the  State  Hoi-tlcultural  So- 
ciety, being  a  member  of  its  board  for  some  years. 
He  is  widely  know-n  as  a  writer.  His  "Manual  of 
the  Apiary"  has  reached  a  sale  of  1.5,000  copies,  and 
"  Injurious  Insects  of  Michigan  "  3000  copies.  He  is 
also  the  author  of  "Maple  Sugar  and  the  Sugar- 
Bush,"  of  which  5(K)0  copies  liave  been  published. 
He  has  written  much  for  bee-journals,  as  also  for 
the  general  press.  He  is  a  clear,  practical  writer, 
with  a  liappy  style. 


I'HOF.    A.    J.    COOK. 

In  the  1  uttle  waged  against  insect  fots,  he  has 
rendered  \alual:ile  service.  Kcmedles  which  lie  first 
advised  are  now  common,  and  he  was  probably  the 
first  to  demonstrate  the  efticacj  and  safely  of  Paris 
green  for  codlin  moth. 

Prof.  Cook  is  of  average  height  and  weight,  a 
charming  conversationalist,  and  an  Intensely  inter- 
esting lecturer.  His  very  jileasant  manner  is  only 
a  fair  index  of  a  genial  and  loving  spirit  that.  In  an 
unusual  degree,  strives  to  put  tlie  best  construction 
on  the  conduct  and  motives  of  every  one,  and 
throws  a  mantle  of  charity  over  tlieir  faults.  His 
sitirlt  of  kindness  extends  to  the  brute  creation; 
and  on  his  farm,  in  which  he  Is  much  Interested,  he 
has  some  fine-blooded  stock;  and  in  attempting  to 
engage  a  hand  to  work  upon  the  farm,  the  writer 
once  heard  lilm  stipulate  as  essential  that  the  eni- 
ployO  must  be  kind  to  animals,  and  free  from  the 
use  of  liquor,  tobacco,  and  profane  language. 

Prof.  Cook  Is  a  great  home  lover,  and  proud  of  his 


330 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  XOTED  BEE  KEEPERS. 


wife  and  two  cliilflren.  An  earnest  Cliristiau  work- 
er, lie  lias  for  a  number  of  years  done  a  most  impor- 
tant work  in  conductinfr  a  Salibatli-scliool  class  cou- 
tainin^r  thirty  or  forty  coUejio  students.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  tliat  excessive  work  lias  told  unpleasant- 
ly on  Ills  liealth. 


LYMAN  C.  ROOT. 

Lyman  C.  Root  was  born  in  St.  Lawrence  Co..  N.  Y., 
Dee.  19tli,  1840.  The  better  part  of  liis  education  was 
obtained  in  "brush  coUeg-e;"  but  before  entering 
this  he  had  two  terms  in  the  academy,  two  in  St. 
Lawrence  University,  and  a  course  in  Eastman's 
Business  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1865.  The 
eight  years  following  he  was  with  Mr.  Quiubj-,  for 
the  last  five  years  his  partner.  It  was  his  high  privi- 
leg-e  to  be  associated  with  him  during  what  may  be 
called  the  transition  period  of  modern  bee-keeping; 
during  the  time  of  the  most  rapid  changes  from  box 
to  frame  hives;  the  time  of  the  dissemination  of  the 
Italian  bee.  the  introduction  of  the  honey-extractor, 
the  invention  of  the  Quinby  bee-smoker,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  one-comb  section,  and  the  perfecting  of 
the  new  Quinby  frame  and  hive.  Tlie  various  exper- 
iments that  ended  in  the  adoption  of  comb  founda- 
tion were  then  in  progress,  and  Mr.  Quinby  could 
have  had  no  young  man  with  him  more  enthusiastic 
and  more  helpful  than  the  energetic  L.  C.  Root,  who 
released  him  from  business  cares,  and  gave  him  the 
needed  leisure  for  study  and  invention.  Tliese  were 
golden  days  for  Mr.  Quinby,  well  improved;  and  for 
Mr.  Root  notliing-  less,  as  he  recalls  the  results  ob- 
tained. Tlieir  supply-business  rapidly  grew  to  large 
proportions,  and  it  was  common  for  them  to  buy 
from  three  to  five  hundred  colonies  in  box  hives  in 
the  spring,  transfer  them  to  the  new  hive,  and  sell 
them  to  their  customers  in  the  different  States. 
Tills  necessitated  a  very  large  amount  of  exhausting- 
work;  but  at  this  time  Mr.  Root  knew  nothing  of 
sparing  himself,  and  often  did  in  one  day  what  the 
average  man  would  have  taken  two  days  for  accom- 
plishing. 

In  1873  it  was  discovered  that  a  rest  was  needed, 
and  in  the  fall  of  that  year  he  retired  from  the  part- 
nership and  removed  to  Mohawk.  But  it  seems  im- 
possible for  a  man  of  his  temperament  to  rest,  and 
we  shortly  find  him  extending  liis  bee-business,  go- 
ing out  in  the  early  morning  with  his  assi.stants  to  ii 
bee-yard  half  a  dozen  miles  away,  and  returning  laic 
at  night  with  from  two  to  three  or  more  thou.«and 
pounds  of  extracted  honey— the  same  process  to  be 
rejieated  the  next  day. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Quinby,  Mr.  Root  took  his 
supply-business.  To  all  of  this  must  be  added  his 
literary  work  as  regular  contributor  to  the  American 
AgriculturiHt  and  the  Counti-y  Gentleman,  with  fre- 
quent articles  to  all  the  bee-journals  of  the  country; 
his  presidency  of  the  North  American  Bee-Society, 
and  of  the  Northeastern  Association,  with  his  long 
and  laborious  exertions  in  establishing  the  latter, 
and  finally  his  re-writing  Mr.  Quinby's  book— a  task 
on  which  lie  expended  a  greater  amount  of  careful, 
conscientious  work,  and  which  caused  him  greater 
anxiety,  tlian  though  it  had  been  entirely  his  own. 
For  this  last  work  Mr.  Root  was  peculiarly  fitted  by 
his  long  residence  with  Mr.  Quinby,  and  knowledge 
of  his  methods. 

In  keeping  bees  Mr.  Root  has  preferred  to  raise  ex- 
tracted honey,  and  to  keep  about  forty  colonies  in  a 
yard.  His  crop  was  usually  as  much  per  yard  as  his 
neighbors'  wlio  kei)t  twice  the   riumVier  in  a  place. 


The  most  of  this  success  was  due  to  skillful  manipu- 
lations, improved  honey-gatherers,  and  wise  selec- 
tion of  locations;  but  after  suV)traeting  all  these 
there  probablj-  remains  something  to  be  credited  to 
moderate-sized  yards.  One  fall  he  put  into  the  cel- 
lar at  the  Hildreth  yard  forty  stocks,  took  the  same 
out  in  the  spring  without  the  loss  of  a  single  colony, 
and  produced  from  them  9727  lbs.  of  extracted  hon- 
ey, 4103  lbs.  of  which  was  gathered  in  just  seven 
days.  Is  better  evidence  needed  that  the  autlior  of 
the  "New  Bee-Keepiug"  is  a  practical  bee-keeper? 


LYMAN  C.   ROOT. 

Mr.  Root  takes  an  active  part  in  e^"erJ•  good  work 
in  the  community  in  which  he  lives,  and  he  is  ready 
to  make  anj'  possible  .sacrifice  in  working  to  elevate 
humanity.  He  takes  great  interest  in  temperance 
work,  and  has  been  an  active  member  of  the  Good 
Templars  since  1865.  My  first  knowledge  of  Mr. 
Root  came  from  his  making  a  ten-mile  trip  and  back 
after  dark,  over  almost  impa.ssable  roads,  to  our  lit- 
tle village,  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  lodge  of 
Good  Templars.  Mr.  Quinby  and  himself  were  two 
of  those  who  voted  the  first  Prohibition  ticket  in  St. 
Johnsville,  and  he  has  been  an  active  supporter  of 
that  party  ever  siuce. 

In  1869  he  was  married  to  Mr.  Quinby's  onlj' daugh- 
ter, and  his  home  is  one  in  which  intelligence,  refine- 
ment, and  happiness  reside.  I  never  met  any  one 
who  appreciates  his  home,  family,  and  friends,  more 
than  does  Mr.  Root.  His  wife  has  been  a  true  help- 
meet to  him;  and  in  the  re-writing  of  Mr.  Quinby's- 
book  she  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  composition 
of  the  same  — a  .service  she  had  also  rendered  her  fa- 
ther in  his  last  revision.  Mrs.  Root  has  had  entire 
charge  of  the  education  of  their  two  daughters,  the 
elder  of  whom  has  just  passed  from  the  home  in- 
struction into  the  high  school,  while  the  younger  will 
take  another  year  to  graduate  in  the  home  course. 

There  are  very  few  men  who  have  had  the  large 
and  varied  experience  with  bees  siich  as  has  fallen 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  XOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


331 


to  the  lot  of  Mr.  Koot.  I  suppose  all  such  could  be 
counted  upon  tlie  finjrers  of  one  liand,  for  there  is 
no  branch  of  bee  culture,  eitlier  tlieoretical  or  prac- 
tical, with  which  he  is  not  familiar.  He  has  been  an 
extensive  producer  of  both  comb  and  extracted  liou- 
ey;  is  tlioroug-hly  familiar  with  the  details  of  a  large 
supply-business,  including  the  purchasing-  of  bees  in 
box  hives,  and  transferring-  and  Italianizing  the 
same;  the  rearing  and  shiitping  of  queens,  together 
with  a  large  experimental  knowledge  and  a  large  ex- 
perience as  writer  and  author.  For  the  past  year  he 
has  resided  at  the  sea-shore,  and,  his  numerous 
friends  will  be  glad  to  learn,  with  health  much  im- 
proved; and  we  all  unite  in  wishing  that  he  maj'  be 
spared  to  tlie  bee-keeping  fraternity  for  many  years. 
P.  H.  Elwood,  Gleanings,  June,  1888. 


DR.  A  B  MASON. 
Dr.  A.  B.  Mason  was  born  in  the  town  of  Wales, 
Erie  Co.,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  18,  1833.  His  father  and  mater- 
nal grandfather  were  .soldiers  in  the  war  of  1812.  Dr. 
M.  was  raised  on  a  farm,  and  all  six  of  his  brothers 
are  farmers.  At  17  j-ears  of  age  he  taught  success- 
fully a  school  in  DeKalb  Co.,  111.,  for  $U  00  a  month, 
and  "boai-ded  around."  At  the  close  of  this  school 
he  attended  several  terms  at  Beloit  (Wisconsin)  Col- 
lege. He  then  commenced  the  study  of  medicine, 
attending  lectures  during  the  winters  of  1857  and  18,58 
at  the  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor.  In  '63 
he  moved  to  Waterloo,  la.,  and,  the  practice  of  med- 
icine not  being  to  his  taste,  he  adopted  dentistry  as 


1>H.    A.    H.    .MASON. 


his  life  profession,  having  studied  it    in  connection 
with  medicine.     He  was  president  of  the  Northern 
Iowa  Dental  Association  for  two  ycai-s. 
In  his  19th  year  he  uniic  I  wiih  i  lnM-lnircii,  and  is  an 


earnest  Christian  worker.  For  years  he  was  an  act- 
ive, if  not  the  most  active,  member  of  the  church  to 
which  lie  belonged,  being  at  one  time  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sabbath-school,  church  clerk,  a  trustee, 
and  clerk  of  the  board  of  trustees.  He  was  a  leader 
in  Sabbath-school  work  at  home  and  in  adjoining 
counties.  One  year  he  was  secretary  of  eight  differ- 
ent organizations,  four  of  them  religious.  Dr.  Ma- 
son has  always  been  an  earnest  temperance  worker, 
neither  he  nor  any  of  liis  children  using  tea,  cottee, 
tobacco,  or  liquor  in  any  form. 

In  1869,  a  brother  left  in  his  care  two  colonies  of 
bees  till  convenient  to  move  them.  Watching  these 
aroused  an  interest  in  bees,  and,  as  usual,  the  way  to 
bee-keeping  in  full  was  not  long.  In  1873,  frequent 
and  severe  attacks  of  rheumatism  obliged  him  to 
give  up  the  office  practice  of  dentistry,  and  he  has 
since  made  a  specialty  of  bee-keeping,  making  it  a 
source  of  revenue. 

In  1874  he  moved  to  Ohio,  where  he  has  always 
been  prominent  in  apicultural  matters.  Through 
his  efforts  the  Tri-State  Fair  Association  at  Toledo 
was  induced  to  offer  premiums  for  the  display  of  the 
products  of  the  apiary,  and  this  display  has  increas- 
ed in  attractiveness  each  year  since.  He  was  ap- 
pointed superintendent  of  the  department  the  first 
year,  and  still  holds  the  position.  He  was  chosen  su- 
perintendent of  the  Apiarian  Department  of  tlie 
Ohio  Centennial  Exposition,  held  at  Columbus  in 
1888.  In  1883  and  '3  his  apiary  of  75  colonies  suffered 
from  foul  brood,  nearly  every  colony  being  infested 
in  the  latter  year;  but  he  cured  it,  and  has  had  no 
return  of  the  disease.  Dr.  Mason  is  a  poultry- fanci- 
er, and  was  for  four  years  secretary  of  the  Buckeye 
Union  Poultry  Association. 

Large  in  size,  and  of  fine  form,  Dr.  Mason  is  always 
prominent  at  conventions,  where  he  is  still  more 
conspicuous  by  his  never-failing  joviality  and  good 
nature.  In  1887  he  was  made  president  of  the  North 
American  Bee-Keepers'  Society.  He  was  re-elected 
to  that  position  for  1888-89. 


A.  E.  MANUM. 

Augustin  E.  Maiuim,  whose  picture  is  lierewith 
pi-esented,  was  born  in  Waitsfleld,  Vermont,  Mareh 
18,  1839.  When  the  war  broke  out  he  enlisted  in  Co. 
G,  14th  Vermont  regiment,  as  a  nine-months'  man. 
He  .served  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  wliere  hi^ 
eonirades  in  line  on  either  side  were  killed;  his  own 
gun  was  shattered,  and  he  was  hit  four  times. 

In  March,  1870,  a  friend  desired  to  lend  him  "Ouin 
by's  Mysti'ries  of  Bee-keeping."  Beading  the  book, 
his  enthusiasm  upon  the  subject  was  kindled,  and  he 
inunediately  purchased  four  colonies  of  bees  and  be- 
gan the  study  of  apiculture.  Having  a  natural  apti- 
tudi'  for  tlie  busini'ss,  and  a  love  for  the  bees,  hi-  wa> 
successful  from  the  first.  His  apiary  .so  rapidly  in- 
creased, that,  at  liiiMMid  of  four  years,  when  lu'  iiail 
165  eolonii-s,  lie  sold  out  his  harness-business  and  be- 
gan the  jjuisuit  as  a  six'cialist. 

Since  1884  Mr.  Maiiuiii  has  devoted  all  his  energies 
to  the  production  of  comb  honey,  increasing  his 
plant  until  his  bees  now  number  over  700  colonies  in 
eight  apiai'ies.  He  always  winters  his  bees  out  of 
doors,  packed  in  the  "Bristol"  chaff  hive.  For  the 
i-iglit  years  pi-evioiis  to  1887,  his  average  loss  in  wiii- 
tt'i-iiig  for  the  entire  time  was  only  3>^  pe)-  cent.  He 
uses  e.xciusivelj- a  frame  about  13-*i  .\  10  inches,  out- 
side measure,  which  he  considers  the  b(>st  for  prae- 
IIcmI    puipnses   ill    his  ,-ipiaries.     His   liive,  tin- "  llris- 


332 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEFEES. 


tol."  is  almost  entirely  his  own  invention,  being 
specially  adapted  to  tlie  perfect  working  of  the  sys- 
tem upon  which  his  bees  are  managed.  In  1885  his 
pi-odiictioii  was  44.000  pounds  of  comb  honey,  an  av- 
erage of  93  )i  pounds  per  colony,  all  made  In  twelve 
davs  from  hasswood. 


A.   E.    JiAKFM. 

Because  of  the  failure  of  the  honcj  sources  the 
past  se:isoii,  aboui  14,000  pounds  of  sugar  syrup  was 
fed  the  bees  to  prepare  them  for  winter.  He  still  has 
much  faith  in  the  pursuit,  although  the  past  three 
successive  poor  honey  years  have  tt.lcl  heavily  upon 
his  enthusiasm. 

Mr.  M.  is  of  medium  height,  with  dark  complexion, 
hair,  and  eyes.  A  kind  friend,  an  upright  gentle- 
man, and  a  thorough  business  man,  he  has  attained 
an  enviable  position  amcmg  the  bee-keepers  of  Ver- 
mont, whei-e  he  is  so  universally  known.  His  exten- 
sive operations,  his  uniform  success,  and  his  prac- 
tical writings,  have  also  given  him  a  national  reputa- 
tion. J.  H.  Larrabee. 

In  Gle'ftiinijK.  paue  301,  r,d.  XVH. 


At  the  age  of  33  he  took  the  "  Western  fever,"  and 
settled  on  a  200-acre  prairie  farm  in  HumV)oldtCo., 
Iowa,  mari-ying  and  taking  with  him  a  wife,  leaving 
liis  mother  in  care  of  her  older  brother,  a  single 
man,  amply  able  to  care  for  her.  Here  again  he 
kept  a  tew  bees.  He  lived  here  six  years,  farming 
summers  and  trapping  winters,  when  the  breaking- 
out  of  the  war  brought  prices  of  farm  products  down 
to  a  ruinous  point,  and  he  went  on  a  visit  to  Platte- 
ville,  Wis.,  intending  to  return  when  times  bright- 
ened. Desiring  some  emi)loyment,  he  answered  an 
advertisement,  "  Agents  wanted,  to  sell  patent  bee- 
hives," aud  was  soon  the  owner  of  the  patent  for  his 
county.  He  made  the  liives  himself;  and  as  at  that 
time  nearly  every  farmer  kept  bees,  the  business 
paid  well,  and  he  soon  bought  two  more  counties. 
In  ills  trades  he  got  some  bees,  liis  starting-point  as 
a  bee-keeper.  Tliese  he  increased  '.mtil  in  1871,  when 
he  went  into  winter  quarters  wi:  h  123  colonies,  bring- 
ing out  25  in  tiio  spring,  and  14  in  the  spring  follow- 
ing. Enlarging  his  hives,  and  studying  tlie  wants  of 
the  bees,  led  to  better  success,  reaching  .5(0  colonies 
in  the  spring  of  1888,  kept  in  six  apiaries.  In  1886, 
from  395  colonies  he  took  42,4F9  lbs.  of  honey,  increas- 
ing to  537.  In  1885  his  33)  colonies  avei-aged  113  lbs. 
each,  and  his  410  colonies  In  1887  averaged  12  lbs. 
each.  He  owns  eleven  acres  in  the  city  limits  of 
Platteville.  devoted  to  garden  truck  and  berries. 


m^mimiw!^? 


EDWIN  FRANCE. 
Edwin  France,  of  Platteville,  Wis.,  is  noted  as  a 
producer  of  extracted  honej'  on  a  large  scale.  He 
was  born  in  Herkimer  Co.,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  4,  1834.  His 
father  was  a  furnace-man,  molding  and  melting 
iron;  and.  having  a  large  family  to  support,  had  dif- 
flcvilty  in  making  both  ends  meet.  At  the  age  of 
eiglit,  young  Edwin  was  sent  to  live  with  his  moth- 
er's brotlier,  returning  home  at  16.  He  then  served 
an  apprenticeship  of  four  years  at  the  furnace,  wlien 
his  father  bought  forty  acres  of  timber,  which  they 
cleared  up  as  a  farm,  working  at  the  furnnce  win- 
ters. At  the  age  of  24  his  fatlier  died,  leaving  him  , 
themainstavof  the  family.  He  gave  up  the  fur-  Mr.  France  and  his  son  do  all  the  work,  except 
nace.  and  worked  part  of  the  time  making  salt-bar-  I  dming  a  few  weeks  in  tlie  busy  season,  when  he 
rels  summers,  and  cutting  sawlogs  winters.  About  hires  eiglit  assistants  f.om  13  to  18  years  old.  The 
this  time  he  got,  and  kept  on  this  little  place  in  the  ^'lo'e  ten  go  to  one  of  the  different  apiaries  each 
woods,  a  few  hives  of  bees.  i  *^">''  making  a  sort  of  picnic,  and  rcti.r  ing  at  night. 


EDWIN   FRANCE. 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


333 


3Ir.  F.  Jias  uot  writteu  much  for  the  presss;  but  what 
he  has  written  bears  the  marks  of  ripe  experience. 


PHILIP  llEjyRT  ELWOUD. 
Pliilip  Heur.i  Elwood  is  a  good  lllustriiiiuii  of  the 
healtlifuiiiess  of  bee-keepiufr  as  a  \ocaiiuu.  At  the 
age  of  '£i  lie  wiis  advised  by  his  pliyj'iciaiis  to  aban- 
don a  college  course  and  choose  some  outdoor  occu- 
pation, and  now  P.   H.  Elwood  the   bet -keeper  is 


p.   H.  ELWOOD. 

known  a.s  a  man  who  tips  the  scales  at  2^.5  lbs.  Soon 
after  leaving- school  he  was  offered  a  desirable  posi- 
tion as  teacher  of  natural  sciences  in  a  high  school 
in  Michigan,  but  the  offer  was  refused.  In  1872,  at 
the  age  of  25.  he  commenced  bee  keeping  as  a  part- 
ner of  Captain  Hetheriugton.  This  partncrsliip  was 
profitably  continued  for  five  j'cars.  when  he  removed 
a  distance  of  ten  miles  to  Starkville,  Herkimer  Co., 
N.  Y.,  wliere  lie  has  since  remained,  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  rnisiug  houcy.  He  was  happily  married 
in  1879.  Mr.  E  is  a  conservative  bee-keeiier.  little  in- 
clined to  rush  .'iftcr  new  things  simply  beciiuse  they 
are  new.  iind  is  sometimes  .■ictiised  of  1  eing  at  fault 
in  not  placing  sufl^cii'iit  contldence  in  the  recom- 
menthitions  of  othei"s  He  cares  more  to  be  sure 
tliat  his  plans  :ind  implements  are  such  as  experi- 
ence proves  the  1  est,  than  to  be  constantly  trying  to 
Invent  something  new.  Tie  uses  the  siTiall  Quiiiby 
liive.  and,  after  giving  a  thorough  trial  to  outdoor 
wintering,  he  winiers  exclusively  in  cellars.  The 
hirger  part  of  his  co  iib  honey  is  put  up  in  two-pounil 
glassed  boxes,  iind  it  «as  his  honey  that  took  the 
first  premium  at  the  Paris  Worlil's  Expr  sltioii.  ex- 
hil)ited  in  the  same  packing-ciises  in  wliieh  it  was 
shipped  fi-om  Ids  apiary.  He  prefers  Italian  hy- 
brids, and  kcepi  alxjut  130)  colonies. 

("onsei-valive  in  most  things,  he  was  the  first    tnaii 
in  his  covnity  to  cast  a  Prohibit  ion  vote,   and   in   1887 


was  run  for  member  of  tlie  Assembly.  However 
Ciirnest  he  may  be  in  other  things,  lie  believes  that 
the  preparation  for  tlie  life  to  come  is  of  infinitely 
more  importance  than  any  thing  else  in  tliis  life. 


GILBERT  M.  DOOLITTLE. 
Gilbert  M.  Doolittle  was  horn  Apr.  14,  ])-46,  in 
Onondaga  Co.,  N.  Y.,  not  far  from  the  home  of  his 
later  years  at  Borodino,  N.  Y.  During  his  childhood 
he  often  did  dutj-  by  watching  swarms  from  10  to  3 
o'clock,  and  at  the  age  of  eight  was  given  a  second 
swarm  for  the  hiving.  A  thief,  however,  emptied 
the  hive  of  its  contents;  and  as  foul  brood  prevailed 
in  that  region  during  several  of  the  succeeding 
years  it  was  not  till  the  spring  of  1869  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  present  apiary  bj-  purchasing  two 
colonies  of  bees.  Like  many  others  he  commenced 
with  great  enthusiasm,  diligently  studj-ing  all  the 
l>n(iks  and  papers  obtainable,  but,  unlike  many 
others,  he  has  never  allowed  his  enthusiasm  to  die 
out,  and  is  to-day  a  diligent  student  of  the  ways  of 
the  busj"  bee.  It  is  rare  to  find  any  one  so  familiar 
with  what  has  been  done  and  written  relative  to 
bee-keeping.  As  a  business.  Mr.  D.  has  made  bee- 
keeping a  success,  although  he  has  never  kept  a 
large  number  of  colonies,  principally  if  not  wholly 
because  he  prefers  to  keep  no  more  than  he  can 
manage  without  outside  help.  In  1886  he  wrote  in 
the  Aineiican  Bee  Journal,  "From  less  than  .50  colo- 
nies of  bees  (spring  count 1 1  have  cleared  over  ?1COO 


O.   .M.    UOOI^lTTI.E. 

each  year  for  the  past  13  years,  taken  as  an  average. 
I  have  not  hired  13  days'  lab<n-  in  that  time  in  the 
apiary,  nor  had  any  apprentices  or  students  to  do 
the  work  for  me,  although  I  hiive  had  numy  applica- 
tions from  those  who  wished  to  s|>end  a  season  with 
me.  Besides  my  hil  or  withthe  bees.  1  take  care  of 
my  garden  and  a  small  farm  (29  acres);  have  ehargre 
of  my  father's  estate,  run  my  own  shop  and  steam- 


334 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


engriiie,  sawing-  sections,  hives,  honey-crates,  etc., 
for  myself  and  my  neig-hbors;  write  for  seven 
different  papers,  and  answer  a  host  of  correspon- 
dence." Mr.  D.  works  for  comb  honey,  and  also 
makes  quite  a  business  of  rearing  queens  for  sale. 
Although  a  prolific  writer,  his  fund  of  information 
never  seems  exhausted,  and  he  is  uniformly  practi- 
cal and  interesting.  His  writings  yive  evidence  of 
the  close  and  careful  thinker.  In  personal  appear- 
ance Mr.  D.  is  of  coininanding  presence,  being  large 
and  well  formed,  of  sandy  complexion,  and  in 
manner  he  is  a  genial  Christian  gentleman. 


CHARLES DADANT& SON. 
Charles  Dadant  was  born  in  a  village  of  the  old 
province  of  Champagne  (now  department  of  Hauie 
Marne),  France,  May  23d.  1817.    When  a  joung  man 


CHARLES  DADANT. 

he  was  a  traveling  agent  for  a  dry-goods  firm,  and 
afterward  became  a  wholesale  dry-goods  merchant 
himself,  subsequently  leaving  this  business  to  asso- 
ciate himself  with  his  father-in-law  in  the  manage- 
ment of  a  tannery.  In  1863  he  came  to  the  United 
States,  intending  to  make  a  business  of  grape-grow- 
ing, with  which  business  he  had  been  familiar  from 
childhood,  as  it  was  the  leading  business  of  his  na- 
tive place.  He  did  not  know  a  word  of  English  at 
this  time;  but  by  tlie  aid  of  a  dictionarj-  he  became 
acquainted  witli  it,  so  that,  four  years  later,  he 
could  write  articles  for  the  papers,  but  he  never 
learned  to  pronounce  English  correctly. 

In  1864,  a  love  for  bees,  which  had  shown  itself  in 
childhood,  a.s.serted  itself  anew,  and  he  obtained  two 
hives  of  bees,  from  a  friend.  After  trying  movable- 
frame  hives  side  by  side  with  the  old  European 
"eke"  hori7,(int:il!y  divided  hives,   the   latter  were 


cast  aside,  and  in  1868  he  tried  to  get  tiie  Frencii  api- 
arists to  try  the  Langstroth  system,  but  was  re- 
buked by  M.  Hamet,  the  editor  of  a  French  bee- 
journal,  who  has  never  ceased  trying  to  fight  against 
the  invading  progress  of  movable  frames,  altiiough 
other  bee-magazines  have  started  in  Frauce  wliich 
have  done  the  work  lie  miglit  so  well  have  done. 
About  this  time  Mr.  D.  tried  to  import  bees  from  It-- 
aly.  In  1873  lie  went  in  person  to  Italy,  but  was  not 
entirely  successful  till  1874,  when  he  succeeded  in 
importing  2-')0  queens.  These  importations  were 
kept  up  for  years.  In  1871  he  started  an  out-apiary, 
and  .steadilj'  increased  the  number  of  his  colonies- 
from  year  to  year.  In  1874  he  took  into  partner.ship. 
his  son,  Camille  P.  Dadant,  then  23  years  old,  who 
had  been  raised  in  the  business.  Since  1876  they 
have  kept  five  apiaries,  of  6J  to  120  colonies  eacli. 
They  have  built  up  a  large  trade  in  extracted  honej-^ 
—the  product  of  their  bees  in  I8-t4  having  been- 
36,0U0  lbs.  Messrs.  Dadant  &  Son  are  auioug  the- 
largest,  if  not  the  largest,  manufacturers  of  comb 
fouudatiou  in  the  world.  Coiuuicuciug  with  5JU  Ibs- 
in  1878,  they  readied  in  1884  the  enormous  amount  of 
.i9,lX)0  lbs.  Both  father  and  son  have  written  no  lit- 
tle for  the  American  press.  Mr.  C.  Dadant  is  better 
known  as  a  writer  for  European  publications,  and 
has  been  one  of  the  main  expounders  of  American 
methods  in  Europe;  and  the  Langstroth-Quinby- 
Dadant  hive,  introduced  by  him  into  the  Old  World, 
is  largely  used  under  the  name  of  the  Dadant  hive. 


CAMILLE  p.   DADANT. 

He  published  a  Petit  Cours  d' Apiculture  Pratique  in 
1874,  in  France.  To  him  was  committed  the  task  of 
preparing  a  revised  edition  of  Langstroth's  book, 
and  this  he  has  also  translated  for  publication  in  the 
French  language.  The  English  editicm  contains  520 
pages,  and  has  been  fully  brought  up  to  the  times. 
For  furihir  particulars  st'c  b:)()k  notices  elsewhere. 


BlOGKAPillEiS  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


335 


JAMES  HEDDON. 
James  Heddou  was  born  Aug.  :.'8,  184.5,  in  tlie  Gene- 
see Valley,  New  York.  Early  in  lite  he  removed  to 
tlie  West;  and  for  years  Dowagiac.  Midi.,  lias  been 
a  name  well  known  to  bee  keepei-s.  because  it  is  the 
home  of  James  Heddon.  Endowed  by  nature  with  a 
mind  of  remarkable  vijror  lie  lacked  the  ad\antaf,'es 


J.\MES   HEDDOX. 

of  much  training  in  .seiiools,  and  possibly  also  its 
disadvantages.  His  entrance  into  the  ranks  of  bee- 
keepers, about  the  year  1869,  may  probably  be  traced 
to  the  fact  that  he  maiTicd  Mi.ss  Hastings,  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  bee-keeper,  serving  a  year's  apprenticeship 
witii  the  father.  Few  liave  shown  such  faith  in  bee- 
keeping, for  Mr.  H.  was  the  first  in  tlie  State,  and 
one  of  the  first  in  the  country,  to  make  a  specialty 
of  that  pursuit,  and  few  liave  sliown  tliat  their  faith 
was  so  well  founded;  for,  commencing  with  nothing, 
he  credits  his  capital,  amounting  to  thousands,  en- 
tirely to  the  aid  of  the  little  busy  bee.  His  apiaries 
have  some  years  contained  between  .')O0  and  600  colo- 
nies.   In  1879  he  added  the  supply-business. 

Mr.  Heddon  is  slight  and  wiry  in  figure,  below  the 
medium  size,  of  sandy  complexion,  and  intensely 
nervous  in  temperament.  Tliis  nervous  tendency 
leaves  its  strong  impress  on  his  writings,  and  more 
especially  on  his  speaking.  To  thiit.  and  to  the  state 
of  health  resulting  from  it.  nray  pei'haps  be  attrib- 
uted a  fierceness  in  controversy,  esjiecially  in  his 
earlier  writings,  that  would  hardly  allow  one,  who 
had  never  seen  him,  to  give  him  credit  forthcafl'a- 
bilily  that  he  really  possesses.  As  might  be  expect- 
ed, both  in  writing  and  speaking  he  is  possessed  of 
great  vigor.  Ho  is  a  prolific  writer,  and,  when  not 
too  much  carried  away  by  coiiti-ovei-sy.  cininently 
practical.  In  Iks.')  he  published  "Success  in  Bvc  Cul- 
ture," a  practical  work,  giving  his  plans  of  l)f'e- 
managoment,  as  also  a  description  of  the  Heildon 
hive  invented  by  him— a  hive  having  the  brood- 
chambei'  liorizonially  divided  in  two  sections,  with 
the  intention  of  making  m:miiMil:it  ion  by  hives  ratli- 


er  than  by  frames.    He  is  also  editor  and  publisher 
of  the  Dowagiac  Times. 

Among  his  inventions,  aside  from  the  Heddon 
hive,  are  the  Heddon  surplus  case  and  the  slat  hon- 
ey-board, so  extensively  u.sed.  He  is  llie  father  of 
the  "Pollen  Theory."  Mr.  Heddon  is  by  no  means 
guided  by  what  is  merely  popular,  seeming  rather  to 
take  a  delight  in  the  opposite,  and  for  a  time  cham- 
pioned box  hives  and  black  bees  after  their  general 
abandonment.  He  now  prefers  a  carefully  bred 
cross  of  Italians  and  blacks. 


D.  A.  JUNES. 
Most  prominent  among  the  bee-keepers  of  Can- 
ada is  Mr.  D.  A.  Jones,  of  Beeton,  Ontario.  If  for 
no  other  reason,  bis  name  deserves  a  place  in  the 
history  of  bee-keeping  as  the  man  who  undertook  to 
scour  foreign  lands  and  the  isles  of  the  seas  for  new 
races  of  bees.  Few  would  have  undertaken  such  a 
daring  enterprise  as  that  of  Mr.  Jones,  when,  in  1879. 
he  set  out  in  person,  at  great  expense,  and  amid 
dangers  and  exposures,  Wsited  Cyprus  and  Pales- 
tine in  search  of  the  races  of  bees  which  he  not  only 
sought  but  found.  As  a  fitting  adjunct  to  this 
undertaking  he  established,  on  separate  islands  In 
the  Georgian  Bay,  apiaries  where  the  different  races 
might  be  kept  in  purity,  or  crossed  at  will.  Such 
things  as  these,  of  which  the  public  enjoys  the 
benefit,  are  usually  undertaken  bj-  govei-nment; 
but  Mr.  Jones  drew  on  his  private  purse,  and  esti- 
mates that  he  was  poorer  by  several  thousand 
dollars  for  the  operation. 


D.  A,  JONES. 

Oct.  9,  1836,  D.  A.  Jones  was  born  iie.ir  Toronto, 
Canada.  Until  of  age  he  worked  on  the  farm  with 
his  father.  He  then  engaged  in  different  occupa- 
tions, bringing  uj)  in  Illinois  about  1861),  where  he 
worked  a  few  months  with  a  stockman.  In  the  fall 
of  the  same  year  he  attended  a  large  exhibition  at 
Chicago,  where  he  was  intenscl.v  Interested  in  seeing 
a  man  exhibiting  the  I<aiigstroth  hive,  manipulating 
the  conilis  covered   with  bees,  and  expliiinuig  the 


336 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


advantag-es  of  movable  combs.  Mr.  Jones  took 
measurements  of  the  parts  of  the  hive,  a  fresh  in- 
terest being  awakened,  for  his  father  bad  been  a 
bee-keeper,  and  amouK  his  earliest  n-collectlons  was 
that  of  being'  carried  by  hi.-*  father  to  the  hives  to 
•watch  the  bees.  At  the  age  of  five  he  was  fairly 
versed  in  what  was  then  generally  known  as  to  the 
habits  of  bees;  and  before  the  age  of  fifteen  he 
hunted  and  captured  bees,  without  the  aid  of  his 
father. 

Mr.  Jones  married  and  settled  in  Beeton,  where 
he  engaged  in  merchandising,  afterward  becoming 
so  much  interested  in  real-estate  atfnirs  and  improve- 
ment of  his  village  that  he  sold  out  his  store,  and 
thus  liad  leisure  to  gratify  his  taste  for  bees,  and 
commenced  with  two  colonies  in  Langstroth  hives. 
Afterward  he  established  a  much  larger  store, 
became  profitably  interested  in  railroads  and  other 
matters,  but  still  found  time  to  give  attention  to 
bees,  until  his  two  colonies  became  several  apiaries. 
He  has  built  up  a  large  trade  in  extracted  honey, 
and  has  given  great  impetus  to  exhibitions  of  honey 
at  fairs,  especially  in  very  small  packages. 

In  1878  he  commenced  in  a  small  way  to  manufac- 
ture supplies,  and  about  six  years  later  built  a  large 
factory.  In  ISf-'fi  the  business  had  grown  to  such 
proportions  that  a  company  was  chartered,  with  the 
title,  "The  D.  A.  Jones  Co.,  Limited,"  and  a  capital 
of  S-tJ,000. 

The  Canadian  Bee  Journal,  the  first  dollar  weekly 
in  the  world,  is  another  child  of  Mr.  Jones,  in  which 
he  may  justly  take  pride. 

Mr.  Jones,  in  spite  of  his  earnestness  and  energy, 
is  a  very  sociable  and  jovial  person,  always  readj'to 
communicate  to  others  the  result  of  his  investiga- 
tions He  is  of  medium  size,  rather  inclined  to 
stoutness,  and  of  sandy  complexion.  He  is  still 
active  in  public  affairs,  but,  better  than  all,  is  a 
professing  Christian. 


IF.  Z.  HUTCHINSON. 
W.  Z.  Hutchinson  is  one  of  the  many,  who,  al- 
though born  in  the  Rust,  have  spent  in  the  West  all 
of  life  that  can  be  remembered.  Born  in  Orleans 
Co.,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  17.  1«.51,  he  was  taken,  four  years 
later,  with  his  father's  family,  to  the  dense  forests 
of  Genesee  Co.,  Michigan,  where  his  father  literally 
hewed  out  a  farm.  W.  Z.  had  the  full  benefit  of 
pioneer  backwoods  life;  and  although  hunting, 
trapping,  etc.,  had  a  full  share  of  his  time,  his  natu- 
ral bent  was  toward  machinery.  This  passion  for 
machinery  was,  as  he  advanced  in  his  "teens,"  put 
to  practical  use  by  building  a  turning  lathe,  and  be- 
^nning  the  manufacture  of  spinning-wheels  and 
reels.  These  he  continued  to  make  for  seveiul 
years,  peddling  them  out  in  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. At  eighteen  lie  began  teaching  school  wintei-s. 
While  thus  "boarding  around."  a  copy  of  King's 
"  Text-Book"  fell  in  his  way.  It  was  to  him  a  reve- 
lation. He  learned  that  the  owner  had  about  fifty 
colonies  of  bees  down  cellar,  which  he  was  not  long 
in  asking  to  see,  and  for  the  first  time  he  looked  upon 
a  movable-comb  hive— the  American.  The  next  sea- 
son, in  swarming  time,  he  visited  this  friend,  and 
the  charms  of  bee-keeping  appeared  greater  than 
those  of  any  other  business.  Althr)ugh  not  really 
owning  a  bee  till  the  lapse  of  many  months,  he  be- 
came then  and  there  in  spirit  a  bee-keeper,  reading 
ail  he  could  find  on  the  subject,  and  visiting  bee- 
keepers. The  introduction  of  woolen-factories  com- 
pelled him  to  abandon   the  spiiuiing-wbeel    trade; 


and  one  afternoon  in  June,  while  peddling  out  liis 
last  lot,  he  made  a  sale  to  a  farmer  about  16  miles 
from  home;  and  although  it  was  only  about  four 
o'clock,  ho  bcggeil  to  be  allowed  to  stay  all  night, 
urged  thereto  by  the  sight  of  a  long  row  of  brightly- 
painted  hives.  This  bee-keeper  had  an  only  daugh- 
ter, and  the  reader  can  weave  his  own  romance, 
upon  being  told  that  the  father,  Mr.  Clark  Simpson, 
became  the  father-iu  law  of  Mr.  Hutchinson. 

In  1877  he  began  bee-keeping  with  four  colonies, 
iind  an  exce'.leut  theoretical  knowledge  of  the  busi- 
rnrss.  Mr.  H.  has  never  kept  a  very  large  number  of 
colonies,  tiut  has  uiade  a  comfortable  living  by  the 
sale  of  comb  honey.  In  187  he  removed  from  Kog- 
ersville  to  Flint.  .Mich.,  where  he  established  the 
liee-Kcepos'  Reciew.  wliit-h  fills  a  place  not  previous- 
ly occupied,  and  is  c.liled  with  the  ability  that 
iiiiglit  be  expected  from  one  who  has  been  so  favor- 
ably known  tliiough  his  many  articles  published  in 
the  bee  jnuninis  m  rid  o'  her  piipci-s. 


W.   Z.    HUTCH INSUN. 

In  appe.trance,  Mr.  11.  might  more  readily  be  tak- 
en for  a  professional  man  than  for  a  farmer  or  bee- 
keeper. Tiill,  straight  as  an  arrow,  with  side  whis- 
kers, and  ratlier  dark  com])'e.\ioii,  he  presents  a 
conspiciK  us  figure  at  th  "  gatherings  of  bee-keepers, 
where  he  is  always  in  office,  wlic  h"r  the  gathering 
be  local  or  natiomil. 


CHARLES  F  MUTH. 
Charles  F.  Muth  is  one  of  our  veterans  in  bee  cul- 
ture. Years  ago.  when  we  first  began  to  talk  about 
movable-frame  hives  tind  Italian  bees,  he  was  one 
among  us.  and  a  man  always  posted.  Of  late  yi  ars 
he  lias  been  pretty  well  known  by  his  articles  on  the 
treatment  of  foul  brood;  and  as  he  succeeds  in  cur- 
ing it  in  his  own  apiary,  we  think  it  fair  to  presume 
he  would  in  any  ajiiary.  if  he  had  proper  facilities. 
Although  for  many  years  friend  Muth's  apiary  was 
on  the  roof  of  his  store,  or.  rather,  store  and  dwell- 
ing, it  is  now  situated  in  a  sort  of  open  veriinda,  the 
open   side  being  next  to  the  river.    Through  this 


BIOGR  VL^IILES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


337 


open  side  the  bees  y'o  out  aud  in.  The  hives  are 
placed  a  convenient  distance  troni  ilie  Koor,  aud  ar- 
rang'ed  with  alleys  between  them.  Altliougb  he  has 
some  thirty  or  forty  colonies  grouped  together  quite 
closely,  they  seem  to  go  out  and  in,  aud  And  their  re- 
spective hives  just  as  well,  for  aught  we  could  see,  as 
those  located  in  the  open  air.  The  bees  we  saw  there 
in  1882  were  beautifully  marked,  and  very  docile. 
We  herewith  present  3"ou  his  picture. 


CHAKlLiES 


Friend  Mutli  has,  of  late  years,  been  more  widely 
known  as  a  great  honey  buyer,  than  as  a  producer  of 
honey  on  a  large  .scale.  Perhaps  no  man  in  the 
world  has  bought  and  .sold  more  honey  than  he  has; 
and  one  very  pleasant  thing  about  it  is,  that  in  all 
these  large  business  transactions  all  his  customers 
seem  to  be  warm  personal  friends. 

While  at  the  convention  la.st  fall,  thesubject  of  the 
palmetto  honey  of  the  South  came  up.  Friend  Mulh 
was  called  upon  to  tell  what  he  knew  al  out  it.  In 
order  to  impress  upon  us  that  the  honey  was  of  ex- 
cellent quality,  he  made  the  remark  that  on  one 
.  shipment  which  he  had  engaged  for  8  cents  a  pound, 
he  afterward  paid  the  man  10,  because  it  went  so 
much  beyond  his  expectations.  At  this  point  Prof. 
Cook  arose  and  intei-rupted  him. 

"Friend  Muth,"  said  be,  "I  wish  to  ask  just  one 
question  right  here." 

"Very  well,  go  on,"  said  our  jovial  friend. 

"  I  want  to  know,"  said  fi'icnd  Cook,  "if  the  con- 
vention are  to  understand  that  this  Is  the  kind  of  a 
man  you  are." 

"  It  is  the  kind  of  a  man  I  was  that  time,"  was  the 
prompt  reply.  And  we  really  believe  t  iiat  that  U  the 
kind  of  a  man  friend  M.  has  always  been,  and  we 
trust  always  will  be.  Gleauiims,  June,  18S3. 


H.  B.  BUAIiDMAN. 

H.  R.  Boardman  was  born  Apr.  2,  1834.  in  Swanzey, 
N.  H.,  and  at  about  one  year  of  age  he  was  taken  to 
what  was  then  the  wilderness  West,  and  during  near- 
ly all  his  life  his  present  place  of  residence.  East 
Towusend,  Ohio,  has  been  his  liome.  Tlie  district 
school  was  his  only  college,  unless  we  take  into  ac- 
count the  opportunities  for  development  afforded  by 
an  acquaintance  with  the  wild  woods,  abounding  in 
deer,  turkies,  and  other  wild  game.  Mr.  Boardman 
says,  "The  wild  woods  have  ever  possessed  a  charm 
for  me.  The  pages  of  Nature's  great  oiien  book 
have  furnished  me  much  with  wliicli  to  make  life 
pleasant;  and  it  is  this  aesthetic  taste,  no  doubt,  that 
has  led  me  to  my  present  occupation  of  bee-keep- 
ing." Mr.  B.  has  a  cabinet  of  mounted  specimens  of 
birds,  prepared  by  his  own  hands,  in  wliich  be  takes 
a  pride  next  to  that  which  he  takes  in  his  apiaries. 

Mr.  Boardman's  training  as  a  bee-keeper  com- 
menced at  a  very  early  age.  His  father  was  a  bee- 
keeper of  the  old  school,  and  a  very  successful  one. 
By  means  of  box  hives  and  the  brimstone-pit  be  se- 
cured honey  for  the  family  table,  and  also  .some  to 
sell,  nearly  every  season.  Later  on,  boxes  were  put 
on  top,  the  boxes  sealed  around  with  lime  mortar  or 
moist  clay,  to  exclude  the  light  entirely,  in  order  to 
induce  the  bees  to  commence  work  in  them.  One 
year  his  father  bought  25  colonies  ol'  l.ees  earlj^  in 
the  season,  away  from  home;  and  as  there  was  no 
one  to  watch  them  at  swarming  time,  lie  tiered  them 
up  by  putting  an  empty  lii\e  over  each  colony,  there 


H.   R.   BOARDMAN. 

being  a  hole  through  which  the  bees  could  pass  Into. 
the  hives  above.  In  the  fall  the  bees  were  brim- 
stoned,  an<l  the  lioncy  hauled  home,  nearly  a  loni 
Considerable  wild  honey  was  aLso  obtained  from  the 
trees.  The  abundance  of  these  wild  bees  before 
tame  bees  were  abundant,  suggested,  Mr.  B.  thinks, 
that  they  were  native. 

Mr.  Boardman  is  a  eai'cful  observer,  <loing  his  own 
thinking,  and  adhering  to  plans  whicli  be  has  found. 


'sm 


JJIOGRAPIIIES  OF  XOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


successful.  He  produces  comb  honey,  and  keei)s  400 
or  5J0  colonies  in  four  apiaries.  He  is  remarkably 
succe.ssful  in  wintering-.  He  aims  to  secure  a  mod 
erate  yield  with  moderate  increase,  and  ha.s  thus  car- 
ried on  a  jirofltable  and  increasing-  business. 

Mr.  B.  is  of  spare  flgnre,  hardly  up  to  medium 
size,  earnest  in  manner,  sug-gesting  a  person  of  great 
decision  and  activity.  Although  not  a  prolific  writ- 
er, whatever  has  come  from  liis  pen  is  practical  and 
valuable. 


THOMAS  a.  NEWMAN. 
For  fifteen  years  the  Ameincan  Bee  Journal  has  re- 
mained under  the  management  of  one  man;  and, 
aside  from  being  edited,  its  general  make-up  and 
clean  tyi)OgraphiL'al  appearance  impress  one  strong- 
ly, that,  somewhei-e  connected  with  it,  is  a  man  who 
is  well  up  in  the  art  preservative  of  all  arts.  The  se- 
cret of  it  is,  that  Thomas  Gabriel  Newman,  its  pro- 
prietor, is  himself  a  thorough  pi-actical  prhiter.  Born 
near  Bridgewater,  in  Southwestern  England,  Sept. 
26, 1833,  he  was  left  fatherless  at  ten  years  of  age, 
with  three  oldei-  brothers  and  a  sister,  the  mother 
being  a  peimiless  widow  by  reason  of  the  father's  en- 
dorsing for  a  large  sum. 


TUOM.AS  O.   NEWMAN. 

The  buys  were  all  put  out  to  work  to  lielp  support 
the  family.  Thomas  G.  chose  the  trade  of  printer 
and  b(X)k-binder,  serving  an  apprenticeship  of  seven 
years,  and  learning  thoroughly  every  inch  of  the 
business  from  top  to  bottom,  in  both  branches. 

Early  in  18."4  he  came  to  Koche»ttr,  N.  Y.,  where 
he  had  relatives ;  and  before  noon  of  the  day  of  his 
arrival  he  secured  a  permanent  situation  in  the  job- 
room  of  the  ^mcHc-a/i.  Within  two  months  betook 
the  position  of  a.ssislaiit  foreman  on  the  Ruchestcr 
Democrat,  then  the  leading  Republican  paper  of 
Western  New  York.  Later  on  he  spent  seven  years 
editing  and  pulilisliing  a   i-eligious  papei-.  called  the 


••  Bible  E.vpositor  and  Millennial  Harbinger,"  in  New 
York,  and  published  a  score  or  more  of  theological 
works,  some  written  by  himself.  In  18fi4  he  moved 
it  to  Illinois,  sold  out  the  business,  and,  for  a  "  rest." 
took  his  family  to  England.  Returning  in  1869  he 
located  at  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  where  he  published 
and  edited  its  first  daily  paper.  In  1872  he  suld  this 
and  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  embarked  in  the 
business  of  i)ublisliing  The  Illuntratcd  Journal,  a  lit- 
erary serial  ijrintcd  in  the  highest  style  of  the  art, 
and  magnificently  emhi-llished.  The  panic  of  1873 
ruined  this  luxury,  brinjiiiig  upon  him  a  loss  of  over 
?!20,(K)().  It  was  revived  in  1889  under  the  name  of  the 
Illustrated  Home  Journal. 

In  1879  he  went  to  Europe,  at  his  own  expense,  as 
Aniei-iean  representative  to  the  various  bee-keepeis' 
societies,  and  attended  conventions  in  England, 
Franue,  Italy,  Austria,  Germany,  etc.,  and  was 
awarded  several  gold  medals  for  exhibitions  of 
American  apiarian  implements.  He  has  been  elected 
an  honorary  member  of  14  bee-keepers'  associations, 
and  is  also  life  member  of  the  North  American  Bee- 
Keepers'  Society  (of  which  he  was  twice  elected  presi- 
dent), and  treasurer  of  tlie  Northwestern  Bee-Keep- 
ers' Association. 

In  1885  he  was  elected  the  first  manager  of  the 
National  Bee-Keepers'  Union,  which,  under  his  man- 
agement, has  successfully  defended  a  number  of  bee- 
keepers in  suits  at  law  brought  against  them.  His 
successive  re-election  each  year  gives  evidence  of 
the  satisfactory  manner  in  which  he  has  performed 
the  duties  (jf  his  office. 

He  has  been  twice  elected  Grand  Commander  of 
Illinois  of  the  "American  Legion  of  Honor,"  and  is  an 
officer  of  some  ten  different  societies  in  Chicago,  so- 
cial, fraternal,  insurance,  etc.,  and  spends  much  time 
in  visiting  the  sick  and  relieving  the  distress  of  those 
in  fraternal  and  social  i-elations  with  him,  thus  ful- 
filling the  injunctions  of  the  Book  of  all  books,  of 
which  he  is  a  diligent  student. 


MRS.  LUCINDA  HARRISON. 

Among  women,  no  bee-keeper  is  more  widely  or 
favorably  known  than  Mrs.  Lucinda  Harrison.  Born 
in  Coshocton,  O.,  Nov.  21.  1831,  .she  came,  in  1836,  to 
Peoria  Co.,  111.,  her  parents,  Alpheus  Ricliardson  and 
wife,  being  pioneer  settlers.  Public  schools  in  Peo- 
lia  at  tliat  time  were  undeveloped,  and  educational 
advantages  few;  but  her  parents  gave  her  the  best 
that  could  then  be  had  in  private  schools.  Her 
brother  Sanford  was  a  member  of  the  first  class  that 
graduated  from  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  111.,  and 
she  then  spent  a  year  at  an  academy  taught  by  him 
at  Granville,  111.  She  taught  school  from  time  to 
time  till  18.55,  when  she  married  Robert  Dodds,  a 
prosperous  farmer  of  Woodfoi-d  Co.,  111.,  who  died 
two  years  later,  leaving  her  a  widow  at  25.  In  1866 
she  married  Lovell  Harrison,  one  of  the  substantial 
citizens  of  Peoria,  from  that  time  making  Peoria 
her  home. 

Mrs.  Harri.son  thus  describes  her  entrance  into  the 
ranks  of  bee-keepers : 

"In  1871,  while  perusing  the  Reports  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  I  came  across  a  flowery 
essay  on  bee  culture,  from  the  graceful  pen  of  Mrs. 
Ellen  Tupper.  I  caught  the  bee-fever  so  badly  that 
I  could  hardly  survive  until  the  spring,  when  I  pur- 
chased two  colonics  of  Italians  of  tlie  late  Adam 
Grimm.  The  bees  were  in  eight-frame  Langstroth 
hives,  and  we  still  continue  to  use  hives  exactly  sim- 
ilar to  those  then  imrchased.    I    bought  the  bees 


BIOCUiAPIIIES  OF  XOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


339 


•vvitliout  uiy  liusLaud's  knowledge,  knowiuj;-  lull  well 
tliat  he  would  forbid  nie  it  lie  knew  it,  and  uiauy 
wei-e  the  eurtaiu  lectures  I  received  tor  pureliasing- 
such  troublesome  stock.  One  reason  I'or  his  hostili- 
ty was  that  I  kei)t  continually  pulling-  the  hives  to 
pieces  to  see  what  the  Ijees  were  at.  and  kept  them 
on  the  war-path.  Oui-  home  is  on  three  city  lots, 
and  at  the  time  I  commenced  bee-keeping-  our  trees 
and  vines  were  just  coming-  into  bearing,  and  Mr. 
Harrison  enjoj-ed  very  much  being  out  among-  his 
pets,  and  occasionally  had  an  escort  of  scolding- 
bees.  Meeting  with  opposition  made  me  all  the 
more  determined  to  succeed.  'Nothing  succeeds 
like  success.'  I  never  wavered  in  my  fixed  deter- 
mination to  know  all  there  was  to  know  about 
honey-bees;  and  I  was  too  inciuisitive,  prying- into 
their  domestic  affairs,  which  made  them  so  very 
irritable." 


.MRS.    IvUCIND.4    H.\KRIS(>N. 


Her  perseverance  was  i-ewarded.  In  time  Mr.  H. 
ceased  opposition,  became  him.self  interested  in  the 
bees,  and  helped  take  care  of  them,  saying  he  be- 
lieved that  hce-kee])ing  would  add  ten  years  to 
their  life.  For  a  number  of  years  her  apiai-y  has 
contained  alwnit  lOU  colonies,  she  being  prevented 
from  doing-  as  much  with  the  bees  as  she  otherwise 
would,  liy  ill  health  and  family  cares;  for,  all  hough 
childless  herself,  she  hits  been  a  mother  to  several 
oi-phan  children. 

Mrs.  H.  is  liest  known  as  a  writer,  her  numy  con- 
tributions to  the  press  lieing-  niarlicd  by  vigor  and 
originality,  with  a  blunt  candor  that  assures  one  of 
her  sinceiit.v.  She  has  been  bee-editor  of  the /'/ni- 
rie  Fnrnifr  since  1H76,  and  lias  wi-itten  for  Colman's 
Riir-al  iric/ff,  and  occasionally  for  other  i)Hpers.  She 
has  held  important  ofHces  in  the  N.  A.  H.  K.  A.,  and 
also  in  i)t  iK-r  sociel  ies.   Slie  ci-e  lits  bce-keejiing-  with 


making-  life  more  enjoyable,  opening:  up  a  new 
world,  and  making-  her  more  observant  of  plants 
and  tlowei-s. 


MRS.  SARAH  J.  AXTELL. 
Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Axtcll  is  one  of  the  women  i)ronii- 
nently  known  among-  bee-keepers,  althoug-h  she  pro- 
tests that  liei-  husband,  Linus  C.  Axtell,  rather  than 
herself,  should  have  the  pi-ominence.  Mr.  Axtell  is 
a  farmer  living  at  Roseville,  Warren  Co.,  III.,  his 
wife  having- been  an  invalid  most  of  her  life.  In  1871 
they  got  their  lirst  colony  of  bees.  As  tlie.se  in- 
creased, Mrs.  Axtell's  interest  in  them  inerea.sed,  and 
with  increase  of  interest  in  the  bees  came  increase  of 
health,  Mrs.  A.  finding  that,  after  a  summer  spent  in 
the  open  air  with  her  bees,  her  health  is  so  much  im- 
proved that  she  is  able  to  withstand  the  winter  con- 
finement to  which  she  might  otherwise  succumb. 
Since  18TT  the  bees  have  been  kept  in  two  apiaries. 
Mr.  A.  hires  help  to  do  the  work  of  the  farm,  which 
he  superintends,  but  spends  most  of  his  time  in  api- 
culture. At  the  beginning-  of  the  .season  he  g-oes 
daily  to  the  out-apiary,  doing-  the  work  there;  comes 
liack  in  the  evening-,  and  makes  preparations  for 
both  apiaries  for  the  next  day.  Mrs.  A.,  with  the 
help  of  the  hired  gii-1,  takes  care  of  the  home  apiary, 
puts  starters  in  .sections,  and  does  other  light  work 
pertaining  to  the  business.  By  harve.st-time,  swarm- 
ing is  nearly  over  and  the  work  is  reversed.  Mrs.  A. 
going  daily  to  the  out-apiarj',  while  Mr.  A.  takes 
care  of  the  home  apiary  and  helps  harvest  the  farm 
crops.  Their  success  has  been  varied,  the  jield  per 
colony  ranging- from  almost  nothing  to  more  than  216 
lbs.  per  colony  in  1882,  when  from  183  colonies  were 
taken  39,000  lbs.  of  comb  honey.     Mrs.  A.  is  deep- 


MHS.   SAI(.\1I   .1.    .\XTKI.I.. 

ly  interested  in  the  work  of  missions,  and  an  addi- 
tional rea.son  for  the  beneficial  etfecls  of  bee-work 
upon  her  health  lies  in  the  tact  that  she  has  constantly 
with  her  tlie  delightful  stimulus  of  the  thought  tliat 
evfi-y  pound  ol    liunev  sccnrcil  all<iw>  her  H)  devote 


340 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  NOTED  BEE-KEEPERS. 


an  additional  amount  to  the  cause  so  dear  to  her 
heart.  Altliougli  uol  a  iiroliflc  writer,  Mrs.  Axtell  is 
practical  and  interesting'. 


DR.  C.  l\  MILLER. 
One  among-  tlie  very  tew  wlio  inalte  l)t>e  keeping 
their  sole  business  is  Dr.  C  C.  Miller,  of  Mtirenfi^o.  III. 
He  was  born  June  1 1.  IKll.  at  Li}>onier,  Pa.  With  a 
spirit  of  indepeuilenee,  and  a  Rood  deal  of  self-deuial 
sometimes  borderiiiff  ui)on  hardship,  young-  Miller 
worked  his  way  through  school,  g-raduating  at  Union 
Colleg-e,  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  at  the  age  of  22.  Unlike 
many  boys  who  go  through  college  s(!lf  supported, 
running  into  delit  at  the  end  of  their  course,  our 
young  friend  graduated  with  a  surplus  of  some 
seventy  odd  dollars,  over  and  aliove  his  current  ex- 
penses at  school:  hut,  as  we  sluill  presently  see,  it 
wius  at  the  expense  of  an  otherwise  strong  constitu- 
tion. He  did  not  kr.ow  then,  as  he  does  now,  the  im- 
portance of  o I  serving-  the  laws  vX  health.  Instead  of 
taking  rest  he  immediately  took  a  course  in  medi- 
cine, graduating  from  the  Universitj'  of  Michigan  at 
the  ag-e  of  25.    After  settling-  down  to  practice,  poor 


DR.   C.   C.  MILLER. 

health,  he  says,  coupled  with  a  ii<'i-\-(ius  anxiety  as  to 
his  fitness  for  the  position,  drove  him  from  the  field 
in  a  year.  He  then  clerkeil,  ti-aveled,  and  taug-ht. 
He  had  a  natural  talent  for  music,  which  by  hard 
study  he  so  developed  that  he  is  now  one  of  the  fin- 
est musicians  in  the  cotuitry.  If  you  will  refer  to 
the  preface  to  Root's  Curriculum  for  the  Piano  (a 
■work,  by  the  way.  which  is  possessed  oi-  known  in 
almost  every  liouseiiold  where  music  is  ai)preciatedi, 
you  will  see  that  this  same  Ur.  Miller  rendered 
"much  and  imjiortant  aid"  to  the  author  in  his 
■work.  In  this  lie  wrote  much  of  the  fingering;  and 
before  the  Curriculum  was  given  to  the  printers  for 
the  last  time,  Mr  Ro(ji  submitted  the  reviswl  proofs 
to  the  doctor  foi-  final  correction. 


His  musical  compositionsaresimpleand  delightful 
and  you  would  be  surprised  to  learn  that  one  or  two 
of  the  songs  which  are  somewhat  known  were  com- 
posed l)y  Dr  Miller.  Speaking-  of  two  songs  com- 
|x)sed  by  friend  M  ,  especially  to  be  sung  at  a  bee- 
keepers' convention.  Dr.  Geo.  F.  Root,  than  whom  no 
one  now  living  is  better  able  to  judge,  said.  "They 
are  characteristic  an<i  good."  Di\  Miller  also  si>ent 
aboutayeaiasiruisicayent.  helping  to  gel  up  the  first 
Cincinnati  Musical  Festival  in  1  73.  under  Theodore 
Thomas  Di-.  M.  is  a  fine  singer,  and  delights  all  who 
hear  him.  U|)on  hearing-  and  knowing-  of  his  almost 
exceptional  talents  for  music,  we  are  unavoidably 
led  to  wonder  wliy  he  should  now  devote  his  atten- 
tion solel5'  to  bee  keeping;  and  this  wonder  is  In- 
creased when  we  learn  that  he  has  had  salaries  of- 
feri'd  by  musicijublishing  houses  which  would  daz- 
zle the  eyes  of  most  <jf  us  But  he  says  he  prefers 
God's  pure  air,  good  health,  and  a  good  appetite,  ac- 
companied with  a  smaller  income  among  the  bees,  to 
a  larger  salary  indoors  with  attendant  poor  health. 

As  has  been  the  case  with  a  good  many  others,  the 
doctor's  first  acquaintance  with  bees  was  through 
his  wife,  who,  in  isei,  secured  a  runaway  swarm  in  a 
sugar-barrel.  A  natural  hobbyist,  he  at  once  be- 
came iutcrestf  d  in  bees.  As  he  studied  and  worked 
with  them  he  gradually  grew  into  a  bee-keeper, 
against  the  advice  and  M'ishes  of  his  friends.  In 
isTs  he  made  bee-keei)ing  his  sole  business.  He  now 
keeps  from  2iJft  to  400  colonies,  in  four  out  apiaries. 
All  the  colonies  are  run  for  comb  honey,  and  his  an- 
nual products  run  up  into  the  tons  He  is  intensely 
practical,  and  an  enthusiast  on  all  that  pertains  to 
his  chosen  pursuit.  Though  somewhat  conservative 
as  to  the  practicability  of  "new  things,"  he  is  ever 
ready  to  cast  aside  the  old  and  adopt  the  new,  pro- 
viding it  has  real  merit.  Although  he  claims  no 
originality,  either  of  ideas  or  of  invention,  he  has 
nevertheless  given  to  the  bee-keeping  world  not  a 
few  useful  hints,  and  has  likewise  improved  devices 
or  inventions  otherwise  impracticable. 

As  a  writer  he  is  conversational,  terse,  and  right  to 
the  point.  Not  unfrequently  his  style  betrays  here 
and  there  glimmerings  of  fun,  which  he  seems,  in 
consequence  of  his  jolly  good  nature,  unable  to  sup- 
press. His  "  Year  Among  the  Bees"  (see  Book  No- 
tices!, his  large  correspondence  for  the  bee-journals, 
and  his  biographical  sketches  preceding  this,  as  also 
his  writings  elsewhere  in  this  work,  are  all  charac- 
teristic of  his  style. 

Of  hi)n  as  a  man,  a  personal  friend, and  a  Christian 
brother,  \i  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  speak.  Phys- 
ically he  is  rather  under  the  medium  height,  thick- 
set, and  of  an  exceptioimlly  pleasant  face.  To  know 
him  intimately,  and  to  feel  his  intense  friendship,  is 
to  know^  a  near  kinsman  indeed.  There  are  few 
more  devoted  Christians  than  Dr.  C.  C  Miller.  He 
has  always  been  active  in  Christian  work,  and  is 
now  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school  of  the 
church  which  he  attends  regularly  as  might  readily 
be  imagined.  He  uses  his  voice  and  his  talents  for 
music  to  the  glory  of  God,  in  a  way  which  would 
seem  sure  to  bring  conviction  to  the  unconverted.  I 
have  heard  him  sing  for  Christ,  and  I  know  whereof 
I  speak.  May  he  live  long  to  benefit  bee-keepers, 
and  to  glorify  Christ ! 

As  it  would  hardly  be  appropriate  for  the  doctor 
to  write  his  own  sketch,  he  has  requested  me  to  do 
so.  I  will  therefore  sign  myself  as  below.  If  jou 
wish  to  know  who  he  is,  see  preface. 

Ernest. 


ABC    PICTURE    GALLERY 


-OF- 


'^^, 


APIARIES  ^  BEE-EXHIBITS. 


During  the  years  since  our  journaL  Gleanings  in  BeeCidture.  was  started,  a  large  number 
of  fine  and  beautiful  engravings  of  apiaries  and  of  bee  and  honej^  exhibits  ha^e  been  pre- 
sented to  our  subscribers.  These  engravings  were  executed  at  considerable  cost ;  and  as 
they  are  instructive,  and  suggestive  of  many  ideas  in  regard  to  apiaries  and  exhibits,  I 
have  thought  best  to  put  the  better  part  of  them  in  permanent  form  right  after  our  bio- 
graphical sketches.  Instead  of  going  to  a  large  exiiense  in  visiting  dift'erent  ai)iaiies,  you 
can  see  how  different  bee-keepers  arrange  their  hives,  and  how  their  apiary  looks.  The 
apiary  beloAV  is  very  suggestive,  on  account  of  its  being  on  a  side  hill.  The  o\raer.  Mr- 
A.  E.  Manum.  can,  from  any  part  of  said  apiary,  see  whetlier  swarms  are  out,  or  whether 
robbers  are  attacking  a  weak  colony.  So  each  engraving  in  order  will  be  found  to  contain 
some  hint  or  distinctive  feature  which  I  trust  will  be  found  valuable.  As  our  sjiace  is 
limited  I  am  unable  to  give  even  a  Vnief  description  of  the  engravings  But  reference  to 
Gleanings,  at  the  bottom  of  the  page,  will  give  you  the  key.  If  you  do  not  happen  to  have 
the  required  back  number,  send  10  cents,  and  the  page  and  volume,  and  we  will  send  it. 


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A.  !•;.  manum's  sidk-iiii.i-  Ai'iAia';  see  gleanings,  i'age  665,  VOL.  xvir. 


F.  BOOMHOWER'S  apiary,  GALLUPVILLE,  N.  Y.;   see  gleanings,  page  83,  VOL.  XIII. 


APIARY  OF   W.   H.   SHIRLEY,   GLENVVOOD,   MICH.;   SEE  GLEANINGS,  P.  561,   VOL.  XI. 


:M.  H.  hunt's  chaff-hive  apiary,   bell   branch,   MICH.  ;    SEE   GLEANINGS,    PAGE  625, 

VOL.   XVII. 


•€APT.  J.  E.  HETHERINGTON'S  HOME,  CHEKKY  VALLEY,  N.  Y.,  WITH  LOAD  OF  32  COLONIES 

IN  THE  FOREGROUND. 


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R.    WILKIN'S    HEXAGONAL    APIARY,    SAN  BUENAVENTURA,    CAL.  ;     SEE    GLEANINGS,    P. 

340,    VOL.    VII. 


i.a**^'-V«5 


J.  archer's  BEE-RANCHE,   SANTA  BARBARA,  CAL,.;   SEE  GLEANINGS,   P.   113,   VOL.   VI. 


O.   M.  BLANTONS  APIARY,  GREENVILLE,  MISS.  ;    SEBIQLBANINGS,  PAGE  341,   VOL.  XIII. 


RAIi,R(>AD»APIAKV     IJELONGING    TO    M.     A.     AVIT.T.IAMS     &    C(;.,    BKKKSHIKE,     N.    Y. 

GLEANINGS,    IMGK  oiio.    VOL.    X. 


,1'IAKy    OF   .I/M..YOUNG,  UOCK    KAM.S.  NKH.;   SKE   (iLEANINGS,  l'A(;K  HOO,  VOL.  -W. 


A.  E.  MANUM'S  home  APIARY   IN   WINTER  ;    SEE  GLEANINGS,   PAGE  b85,  VOL.  XVII. 


A.   E.   MANUM   AND  HIS  HELPERS  IN    HIS    BEE-YARDS  ;     SEE    GLEANINGS,   PAGE    665, 

VOL.    XVII. 


L.  E.  mercer's  exhibit  AT  VENTURA,  CAL.;  SEE  GLEANINGS,  PAGE  16,  VOL.   XVIII 


T.    P.    ANDREWS'    APIARY,    FARINA,    ILL.  ;     SEE    GLEANINGS,    P.    14,    VOL.    XV. 


\V.  S.  HAKT's   Al'IAKY,   HAWKS    I'Ai:K,    FLOKIDA  ;   .SEE   GLfiANINGS,   P.   »>L'.'),  VOL.    XXIH. 


J.    H.    MAKTIIJ'S    APIARY,    HARTFORD,    N.    Y.  ;     SEE     GLEANINGS,    P.    424,    VOL.    VIII. 


C.   OLMSTEAD'S  SIDE-HILL   APIARY,   EAST    BLOOMFIELD,    N.    Y.;    SEE  GLEANINGS,    P.    423, 

VOL.  XIX. 


0  0  0  0  0  OOP  O  (?  O  O  O  O  .o  f>) 


J.   W.  KIMAN'S   exhibit,    spring    mill,   O.  ;    SEE   GLEANINGS,  PAGE  122,   VOL.   XVII. 


A  SCOTTISH  apiary;    see  GLEANINGS,  PAGE  179,  VOL.    IX. 


GLOSSARY. 


Abdomen  of  Bee.— The  terminal  division  of  the  in- 
sect, composed  of  a  variable  number  of  rings. 
Ahscondinu,  or  Ahuoj-mal  Su'arm. —One  that,  from 
any  cause,  leaves  its  hive  and  starts  for  parts  un- 
known, either  without  tirst  clustering-  or  because 
neglected  when  clustered. 
Afte7--Swarmg.— Those  issuing  after  the  first  swarm. 
Alighting-Buard.—A  board  in  front  of  the  entrance 

to  a  hive,  on  which  the  bees  alight. 
Apiarian.— An  adjective  of  or  relating  to  bees.    Oft- 
en incorrectly  applied    to    one  who  keeps  bees. 
Apiarist  is  preferable. 
Apiarist. See  Apiarian. 
Apiary.— A  spot  of  ground  where  bees,  hives,  and 

:il.  the  parjiphernalia  aie  kept. 
ApicuUure.—Ihe  culture  of  bees. 

Apis  (Latin).— The  family  to  which  bees  belong.  ' 

Aphi.i.  pi.  Aphides.— A  genus  of  plant-louse  that 
emits  a  liquid  sometimes  gathered  by  bees,  and 
called  honey -dew.    iSt-e  Aphides.)  j 

Artificial  Fertilization.— Impregnation  of  queens  in  ; 
confinement,  or  by  mechanical  means.  ' 

Artificial  Hea(.— Warmth  artificially  produced,  and  I 
applied  to  bees. 

Artificial  Pa-^turagc—Vlants  and  trees  cultivated  for 
the  honey  they  yield.  1 

Artificial  PuUen.—Rye  meal  or  other  substances  fed  ] 
to  bees  as  a  substitute  for  natural  pollen. 

Artificial  Swarm.— A  colony  made  by  the  division  of 
one  or  more  swarms.  ' 

Balling. — The  manner  in  which  bees  cluster  about  a 
queen,  in  attempting  to  sting  her. 

Bee-Bread.— See  Pollen. 

Bee  Culture.— The  care  of  bees. 

Bee-iyress.—A  suit  adapted  to  prevent  stingring  by 
bees. 

Bee-Escape. — A  device  forgetting  bees  out  of  supers. 
See  Comb  Honey  in  tlie  l)ody  of  the  work. 

Bee-C?Hm.— Term  applied  to  that  part  of  a  tree  or  log 
which  is,  or  has  been,  occupied  by  wild  bees.  Ap- 
plied, by  our  friends  in  the  South,  to  all  kinds  of 
bee-hives. 

Bes-Hivse.—A  box,  or  other  receptacle,  made  by  man, 
to  be  used  as  a  home  for  the  honey-bee,  and  usual- 
ly containing  but  one  swarm.  (See  Bee-Gum  and 
Skep.) 

Bee-House.— A  house  for  bee-hives.  Also  applied  to 
the  rude  sheds  seen  about  the  country,  where  one 
or  more  hives  are  crowded  together. 

Bee-Line.— The  most  direct  route  between  two  places. 

BeCrMoth. — A  grej'  miller,  ^  inch  long,  the  larvae  of 
which  feed  upon  and  destroy  combs. 

Bee^Plants. -Plant?,  which  are  valuable  as  honey-pro- 
ducers. 

Bee-Space.— '•'  A  space  that  will  admit  of  the  passage 
of  a  bee,"  and  "in  which  bees  are  least  apt  to 
build  burr-combs."    It  is  a  scant  '4  of  an  inch. 

Beeswax.— ^ee  Wax. 

Bee-Tree.— A  tree  occupied  by  a  swarm  of  bees. 

Black  Bees.— A  variety  of  the  species  Apis  melJifica, 
whose  color  varies  from  dark  brown  to  black.  They 

are  natives  of  Germany. 

Bottom-Board.— The  floor  of  a  hive. 

Box  Hive.— See  Hives. 

Box  Honey. — Honey  stored  in  old-fashioneii  glass 
boxes. 

B/vtce  -  Co/n/(8.  —  Often    incorrectly   called    "l)urr- 

combs."     Si)ui's  of  wax.  built  between  broiKl-frames 

during  the  honey-season. 

Brim.stonin(/.— Fumigating  with  sulphur.  See  Fumi- 
gate, and  Taking  up  Uei's. 

Broad  Frame.— A  frame  used  for  holding  section 
boxes — now  genei-ally  calleil  "wide  frame." 

Brood.— When  applied  to  bee  culture,  larvae  in  all 
stages.  Not  applied  to  bees  after  emerging  from 
the  cell,  however  young  they  may  be. 

Brood-Co»it>.— Either  worker  or  drone  comb  used  for 
breeding;   usually  applied  to  worker-comb. 

Brood-iVeot.— The  space  inside  the  hive,  occupieil  by 
eggs  and  brood,  extending  in  all  directions  froni 
the  center. 


Brood-Rearing. -Raising  bees. 

Bumhle-Bee,  or  Humhle-Bee,  a  large  noisy  Insect;  a 
species  of  the  genus  Bomhus. 

Bior-Co/nfe.— Bits  or  spurs  of  wax  built  on  the  top 
of  thin  top-b:irs.  t>ee  Thick-top  Frames,  under 
Hive-M;'king. 

Candied  Honey.— Koney  that  has  solidified. 

Capped  B/ood.— Brood  with  a  thin  tilm  of  wax  cov- 
ering the  cell  after  the  larva  has  assumed  the 
imago  state. 

Capped  Honey.— Honey  in  cells  that  are  sealed  with 
wax. 

Cappimjs  or  Caps.— The  covering  of  brood  or  honey 
in  cells. 

Carniolnns.—A  race  of  black  bees  from  the  region 
of  Carniola.  Austria.  Though  much  resembling 
the  black  bees,  they  are  perhaps  a  little  larger, 
and  are  said  to  be  very  sentle. 

Cell.— A  hexagonal  depository  for  honey,  and  apart- 
ment for  brood-rearing,  rnade  by  honey-bees,  of 
wax;  two  sizes.    See  Honey-Comb,  and  Wax. 

C/ia#JTuY.— A  hive  ha^^ng  double  walls  filled  with 
chaff  at  all  seasons. 

CTiry.sa?fe.— State  of  brood  in  transition  from  larva  to 
a  fully  developed  bee.  Termed,  also,  pupa  and 
nymph. 

Oimbcrs. —Apparatus  to  assist  one  in  climbing  bee- 
trees. 

Closed  End-Frame.— See  Fixed  Frames,  in  tlie  body 
of  tli>^  work. 

Closed  Top-Frame.— See  Hive-makins". 

Clu.ftering.—'Slanner  in  which  numbers  of  bees  cling 
together. 

Colony.— A  stock  of  bees,  consisting  principallj-  of 
worker-bees;  but  which  has,  when  perfect,  one 
queen  and  sometimes  a  number  of  drones. 

Comh. — See  Honey. 

Comh-Ba.^}!et.—A  tin  receptacle,  with  handles  and  a 
close-fitting  cover,  for  containing  combs,  or  carry- 
ing them  from  place  to  place. 

Comh  Foundation  (Abbreviated,  fdn.).— Thin  sheets 
of  wax,  which  have  been  passed  between  the  two 
rollers  of  a  fdn.  machine,  having  the  shape  of  the 
bottoms  of  cells,  with  their  edges  partially  raised. 
An  artificial  foundation,  or  partition,  upon  which 
bees  build  comb. 

Comh  -  Found'ition  Machine.— A  machine  consisting 
principally  of  two  metallic  rollers  engraved  with 
such  accuracy  that  thin  sheets  of  wax  passed  be- 
tween them  will  have  the  form  of  the  bottoms  of 
cells. 

Comb-Holder.- An  apparatus  to  hold  a  frame  or 
frames.    See  Stings,  in  the  body  of  the  book. 

Comb  Honey.— Honey  which  has  "not  been  removed 
from  the  comb;  i.e.   honey  in  its  natural  state. 

Comh-Gidde.—GeneraUy  a  wooden  edge,  or  a  strip  of 
comb,  or  fdn.,  in  the  top  of  a  frame,  or  box,  on 
which  comb  is  to  be  built. 

Cushi^m.— A  case  or  bag  filled  \vith  some  soft  and 
'      porous  substance,  as  chaff,  for   covering  brood- 
frames  on  top  or  side. 

Cyprian  Bee.— A  native  of  the  island  of  Cyprus. 

Davi.-<'  Tran.-'po.iition  P/ocfirSs.— See  Grafting  Cells. 

Decoy  Hive.—i)ne  placed  in  position  to  attract  and 
catch  i)assing  swai-ms. 
I  Du'uiint/.— Separating  a  colony  into  two  or  more,  by 

;      removal  o<'  combs  or  bees,  or  ttoth. 

DivMon-Board.—A  board,  of  the  same  length  and 
height  as  the  inside  of  hive,  used  for  contracting 
the  size  of  the  apartment. 

1  Dollar  QufCJi.— Fertile  iiueen,  not  necessarily  fertll- 

I      ized  by  a  pure  drone,  that  has  been  laying  less  than 

!      21  days,  and  reared  from  a  pure  Italian  mother. 

Drone.— A  male  bee,  larger  than  the  worker.    Useful 

for  nothing  except  filling  the  sexual  office. 
Drone-Brood.— Brood  in  drone-cells  (see  Cell),  from 

which  drones  are  hatched. 
Drone-Egg.— One  that   is  unimpregnatcd,  laid  by  a 

virgin  ijueen,  or  fertile  queen,  or  fertile  worker. 
Dri//nmi/i(/ Bf<vi.— Driving  from  hive,  by  pounding 
on  the  outside. 


374 


GLOSSARY 


Dyxenteru-  -A  disastrous  disease  affectinfbeesinthe 
prinj?;   a  diarrhcea. 

Dzierzim  Thforu  (pronounced  Tseer'-tsone).— The 
theory  of  Dzierzon,  formulated  into  13  proposi- 
tions," treating  mainly  of  (lueens,  their  virginity, 
fecundation,  and  fertility. 

E/ni'i/j/o.— The  rudiments  of  existence  of  any  plant 
or  animal. 

Entrance.— Xn  opening  in  the  hive  for  the  passage 
of  bees. 

E/itraticc-BJ/icto.— Three-cornered  pieces  of  board, 
for  regulating  the  size  of  the  entrance. 

Eyiiptinn  Bee— If  it  differs  from  the  Italian,  it  is  in 
being  lighter  colored,  and  exceedingly  cross. 

Extracted  Honey.— Honey  taken  from  the  comb  by 
means  of  an  extractor. 

Extractor.— See  Honey-extractor  and  Wax-extractor. 

Fdn. — Abbreviation  for  comb  foundation. 

Fcedfrs.— Arrangements  for  feeding  bees. 

Fe/a^f.— Productive,  laying;  as,  fertile  queen  or 
worker. 

Fi.rfd  Frame.— See  Fixed  Frames,  in  the  body  of  the 
work. 

Fertile  Worker.— A  worker  that  lays  eggs  which  pro- 
duce only  drones.    See  Worker. 

Fold  Brood.— A  malignant,  contagious  disease,  being 
a  species  of  fungoid  growth  which  affects  brood. 

Foundation.See  Comb  Foundation. 

Frame.— A  movable  structure  of  slats,  generally  four- 
cornered,  in  which  bees  build  comb  which  may, 
by  this  de^^ce,  be  changed  about  inside,  or  re- 
moved from,  the  hive  at  pleasure.  It  was  brought 
into  use  by  Rev.  L.  L.  Laugstroth,  In  1851.  See 
cut,  and  Hives. 

Fumigate.— To  expose  to  smoke;  to  apply  the  fumes 
of  sulphur. 

Gallup  Hive.— See  Nuclei,  in  the  body  of  the  work. 

Glucose.— See  Grape  Sugar. 

Graftinij  Cell.t.—A  process  of  exchanging  eggs  in  a 
queen  cell  for  the  purpose  of  raising  queens  from 
the  eggs  of  a  choice  queen.  See  Queen  Rearing 
in  the  body  of  this  work. 

Gramdated  Honey.— Honey  that  has  formed  into 
grains,  in  passing  from  a  viscous  to  a  candled  state. 

Grape  Sugar. — A  saccharine  substance  less  sweet 
and  less  soluble  than  cane  sugar,  made  principally 
from  Indian  corn;  is  called  Grape  Sugar  because 
it  is  identical  with  the  sugar  found  in  grapes.  It 
is  often  confounded  with  glucose,  with  which  it  Is 
nearly  identical,  but  glucose  contains  more  dex- 
trine than  grape  sugar,  which  renders  it  a  perma- 
nent liquid,  grape  sugar  being  a  permanent  solid. 
Both  substances  are  well  known  in  commerce,  and 
while  glucose  may,  by  chemical  means,  be  convert- 
ed into  grape  sugar,  grape  sugar  can  not,  by  any 
means  known* at  present,  be  converted  into  glu- 
cose. The  sweet  principle  of  both  substances  is 
known  under  the  general  term  of  grape  sugar,  to 
distinguish  it  from  cane  sugar,  and  as  the  manu- 
facture of  these  articles,  as  an  important  Industry, 
is  of  rather  recent  date,  our  dictionaries  and  cy- 
clopiedias,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  have  failed  to 
make  any  distinction  between  the  two. 

Green  Honey.— See  Unripe  Honey. 

Guide  Comb.— Pieces  of  wood  used  as  guides  for 
building  combs  in  brood  frames  or  surplus  boxes. 

Hatch  ingBrood.— Brood  just  emerging  fromthe  cells. 

Hiv:.—A  box  or  receptacle  tor  the  liabitation  of  a 
colony  of  bees.    See  Hive-making. 

Holy -Land  Bees.— A  race  of  bees  from  the  Holy 
Land.  They  are  very  prolific,  and  are  good  hon- 
ey-gatherers. As  they  are  so  very  vindictive,  and 
are  no  better  honey-gatherers  than  the  Italians, 
they  have  not  come  into  very  general  favor. 

Ho»cjy.- The  nectar  gathered  by  bees  from  flowers, 
and  brought  to  a  viscous  state,  by  evaporation  in- 
side the  hive,  after  being  deposited  in  the  cells. 

Honey  -  Bay,  or  Honey  -  Sac.  —  An  enlargement  of 
the  gullet,  or  first  stomach,  in  which  the  bee  car- 
ries the  nectar  gathered  from  flowers. 

Honey-Bce.—An  insect  of  the  species  Apis  MelUfica. 

Honey-Board. — An  arrangement  for  separating  the 
brood-chamber  from  the  surplus-apartment.  It 
may  be  one  plain  Vioard,  or  a  series  of  slats,  mak- 
ing a  honey-board  large  enough  to  cover  the 
whole  hive  or  brood-nest.  Its  object  is  to  prevent 
the  bees  from  gumming  together  the  upper  and 
lower  stories  with  brace-combs.  It  should  have  a 
bee-space  above  and  a  bee-space  below.  See  Bee- 
Space;  see  also  Honey-Boards,  under  the  head  of 
Comb  Honej-,  in  the  body  of  the  work. 

Honey-Box.— A  receptacle  for  surplus  honey,  closed 
on  all  sides,  but  with  entrance  holes  for  bees, 
mostly  discarded  now  for  the  section  boxes. 

Honey  -Comb.— A  sheet  of  hexagonal  cells,  the  same 


on  both  sides,  having  a  middle  wall,  or  partition. 
When  new,  weighs  \i  lb.  per  sq.  ft.,  requiring  for  its 
production  from  1  to  .5  lbs.  of  honey.  Brood-combs 
are  'a  to  ]  in.  thick;  but,  owing  to  the  shape  of  the 
bottoms,  each  cell  has  a  depth  a  little  greater  than 
half  the  thickness  of  the  comb.  Combs  of  this 
thickness  will  hold  3  lbs.  of  honey  per  sq.  ft. ;  but 
the  cells  may  be  lengthened  to  the  capacity  of  10 
lbs.  per  sq.  ft.  Worker-comb  contains  3x  cells  per 
sq.  in.,  on  each  side;  drone-comb,  16  cells  per  sq. 
in.,  on  each  side:  cells  of  both  are  of  the  same 
depth.  Sides  and  bottoms  of  cells  are,  when  new, 
1-180  in.  thick.  The  bottom  of  each  cell  is  formed 
of  3  rhombs,  so  united  as  to  make  the  center  of 
each  cell  the  lowest  part,  which  point  is  the  center 
of  three  cells  on  the  opposite  side.  The  bottom  of 
each  cell  thus  forms  a  fourth  part  of  a  rhombic 
dodecahedron,  and  a  third  part  of  the  bottom  of 
each  of  the  three  opposite  cells.  Honey-comb  is 
made  by  the  honey-bee,  from  scales  of  wax.  See 
Wax. 

Honey-Dew.— A  sweet,  saccharine  substance  found 
on  the  leaves  of  trees  and  other  plants  in  small 
drops,  like  dew.  Two  substances  have  been  called 
bj'  this  name — one  secreted  from  the  plants,  and 
the  other  deposited  by  a  small  insect  called  aphis, 
or  vine-fetter.—  Webster. 

Honey-Extractor.— A  very  ingenious  contrivance  by 
which  centrifugal  force  is  made  to  throw  the 
honey  from  frames  or  pieces  of  uncapped  comb. 

Honey-Gate.— A  cast-iron  fixture,  for  drawing  off 
honey  or  other  liquids  from  extractors,  barrels,  etc. 

Honey-House.— A  building  used  for  storing  honey, 
combs,  hives,  and  apiarian  implements;  also  for 
extracting  honey  and  doing  other  work  pertaining 
to  the  apiary. 

J7oJiejy-£r7ii/e.— A  two-edged  steel  blade,  with  inclined 
handle,  used  for  uncapping  honey  before  extract- 
ing. 

House-Apiary.  —A  double-walled  building,  usually  of 
octagonal  or  rectangular  form,  in  which  bees  are 
kept  both  summer  and  winter  in  separate  hives  as 
out  of  doors.    They  are  but  little  used  now. 

Hyhrid.—A  cross  between  two  species.  In  bee  cul- 
ture, generally  applied  to  a  cross  between  blacks 
and  Italians. 

Hymettus.—A  countrj^  of  Greece,  famed  for  the  su- 
perior quality  of  its  honey,  which  is  of  light  golden 
color,  and  gathered  from  mountain  thyme. 

Italian  or  Ligurian  Bee.— A  native  of  Italy,  charac- 
terized by  three  bands  of  yellow  across  the  upper 
part  of  the  abdomen  of  the  worker-bee. 

Zta?iaJ!(2ui(/.— Changing  from  any  other  species  of 
apis  to  the  Italian. 

Inf  rodwci (!(;.— Method  of  presenting  a  strange  queen 
to  a  colony  of  bees,  so  that  they  will  accept  her. 

Intrnducing-Cage.—A  cage  constructed  for  the  pur 
pose  of  introducing  queens. 

Trivet  ting — See  Rever>ing 

Lamp  Nurseri/. — A  device  used  in  rearing  queens; 
a  double-walled  tin  hive,  with  space  between  filled 
with  water  kept  warm  by  means  of  a  lamp. 

Lang.itroth  Hive.  —See  Hives. 

Larva  (x>l.  Larvce).— The  bee  in  the  grub  state,  from 
the  time  of  the  hatching  of  the  egg  until  the  cap- 
ping of  the  cell;    in  other  words,  unsealed  brood. 

L.  Frame.— Langstroth  frame.    See  Hives. 

L.  Hire. —Langstroth  hive     See  Hives. 

l/i(/urio>i  Bees.— The  name  used  by  the  English  for 
desitrnating  the  Italians     See  Italian  Bees. 

Lining  Bees.— Noting  the  direction  of  their  flight. 

Li  one  Frames. — See  Fixed Fiames. 

Mandihles.— Jaws  of  the  bee,  which  work  sidewise 
instead  of  up  and  down,  as  in  higher  animals. 

Manipulation.— The  handling  of  bees. 

Melextr  actor. — Honey-extractor. 

Metal  Corners.— Tin  fixtures  for  securing  the  corners 
of  frames,  and  for  forming,  on  the  upper  bar,  an 
edged  support,  which  can  not  be  made  fast  by 
propolis,  and  under  which  no  moth  worm  can  se- 
crete itself. 

MovaMe  Frame.— See  Hives. 

Natural  Swarm.— A  swarm  which  issues  spontane- 
ously from  the  pai-ent  stock. 

iVectari68.— The  lower  part  of  the  petals  of  flowers 
where  nectar  is  seci-eted. 

Neuter. — See  Worker-bee. 

Non-Swarming  Hive.— One  so  large,  or  so  construct- 
ed, as  to  control  the  desire  to  swarm;  an  end  never 
yet  satisfactorily  obtained. 

Nucleus  {pi.  Nuclei  or  Nucleuses}.— A  miniature  col- 
ony of  bees,  generally  used  for  rearing  queens 
or  new  colonies. 

Nurse-Bees.— Bees  that  care  for  brood:  generally, 
those  less  than  two  weeks  old. 


GLOSSARY. 


375 


Nurgery.—A  place  in  which  queens  are  reared.    See 

Lamp  Nursery. 
Ni/mph. — See  Chrysalis. 

Obsercatory  /f/rc.— A  hive  consti-ucted  partially  o. 
frlasK,  to  allow  examination  of  work  inside  without 
disturhintr  bees. 
Overatoching.  -Ha^'ing•   more   bees    in    one  locality 

than  there  is  pasturage  to  support. 
Paraffine.  —A  white,  translucent,  crystalline  sub- 
stance, tasteless  and  inodorous,  obtained  from  the 
distillation  of  mineral  and  vegetable  tar.  It  re- 
sembles spermaceti.  It  derives  its  name  from  its 
remarkable  resistance  to  chemical  action.— TTeb- 
Kter.  It  is  sometimes  used  as  a  substitute  for  bees- 
wax, for  coating-  barrels  and  other  utensils  for 
containing  honey. 
Paraiiitc.    A  species  of  louse  that  lives  on  the  bodies 

of  bees. 
Parent  Stock.— A  stock  from  which  a  swarm  issues. 
Parthenoyetiesis  (or  Virgin  Breeding.)— The  law  that 
life  is  imparted  by  the  mother  independently,  and 
that  every  egg,  as  originally  developed  in  the  ova- 
ries, is  of  "the  male  sex,  but  whenever  fertilized  it 
becomes  transformed  into  a  female. 
Perforated  ZiHc— Sheets  of  metal,  perforated  with 
oblong  holes,  just  large  enough  to  admit  a  bee, 
hut  not  a  rjueen  or  drone. 
P((??e«.— Fecundating  dust  of  the  antheral  part  of 
the  stameti  of  flowers,  gathered  by  bees,  and  when 
mixed  with  honey,  used  for  food  of  young  bees. 
After  being  mixed  with  honey,  and  stored  in  cells, 
is  sometimes  called  bee-bread. 
Pollen-Basket  .—A  slight  cavity  on  the  outside,  just 
above  the  second  joint,  of  each  of  the  two  hind 
legs,  in  which  the  pollen  is  carried. 
Propolis.— A  resinous  substance  gathered,  probably, 
from  the  buds  of  certain  trees,  by  bees,  and  used 
in  covering  rough  places,  and  cementing  and  fill- 
ing cracks  about  the  hive. 
Pupa.— See  Chrysalis. 
Q.  Frame —See  Fixed  Frames. 

Qiieen.—The  only  fully  developed  female  in  the  col- 
ony; the  mother  of  "all  the  rest. 
Qiieen-Cage.- An  inclosure  of  wire  cloth,  or  of  wire 
cloth  and  wood,  in  which  to  confine  a  queen  for  in- 
troduction or  shipping. 
Qitcc?i-Ce??.s.— Elongated  cells,  in  which  queens  are 

reared. 
Queeuin(/.— Introducing  a  queen  to  a  colony. 
Qiieenless. — Having  no  queen. 
Qiieeyi-Rearing.—B.a.ismg  queens. 
Queen-Register  .—A  printed  card  tacked   on  a  hive, 
having  an  index  which  the  apiarist  moves  from 
time  to  time,  to  indicate  the  condition  of  the  colo- 
ny or  queen. 
Queen's   Voice.— A   note    frequently    uttered    by  a 
queen,  probably  produced  by  her  wings,  often  call- 
ed piping. 
Quinhy  Fratne.—See  Fixed  Fiames,  In  the  body  of 

the  wmk. 
Quinhy  Hire.— See  Fixed  Frames,  in  tlie  body  of  the 

woi'k. 
Quilt. — A  cover  for  brood-frames  made  by  putting 
wool  or  cotton  between  two  pieces  of  cloth,  and 
sewing  them  together. 
Babbef.— Applied  to  a  narrow  strip  of  folded  tin,  to 
be  used  in  any  hive  where  frames  are  suspended 
by  the  top-bar,  either  with  or  without  metal  cor- 
ners, to  aid  in  making  frames  more  movable. 
RenOeritig  Wax.— Separating   the  wax  from  all  for- 
eign  substances  by  melting.     Usuallj-  applied  tcj 
the  oixTdtioii  of  converting  combs  into  wax. 
Reversing.— The  turning  over,  or  inverting  combs, 
in  order  to  bring  about  certain  results.     For  full 
oarticulars.  see  Reversing,  in  the  liody  of  the  work. 
Rhomb.— An  equilateral  parallek)gram,  having  two 
acute  and  two  obtuse  angles;    one  of  the  12  equal 
sides  of  a  rhombic  dodecahedron;    one  of  the  loz- 
enge-shaped parts  of  the  bottom  of  a  cell. 
Rhombic  Dodecahedron.— A  solid  having  12  rhomb- 
shaped  faces. 
Ripe  Honei/.—That  which    has  by  evaporation  be- 
come sutlicitiiitly  thick  to  be  sealed  in  the  cell. 
Robbing.— The  act.  on  the  i)art  of  the  bees,  of  pilfer- 
ing stores  from  another  hive,  instead  f)f  obtaining 
them  in  the  oi-dinary  way  from  the  fields.    It  oc- 
curs usually  when  no  honey  is  to  be  obtained  from 
the  fields. 
Royal  Cell.— See  Queen  Cells. 
Royal  JeUj/.— Food  nt'  queen-larvse. 
Sealed  Brood.— i>i't-  Capped  Ilrood. 
Sealed  Honey. -See  Capped  Honey. 
Scctiini  Bo.r,  or  .Section.-  A  small  box   for  surplus 

honey,  open  on  two  sides. 
Separator.— A  strip  or  piece  of  tin  or  wood,  placed 


between  section  boxes,  to  insure  straight  combs. 

Slh  et.—A  single  covering  of  cloth,  for  brood-frames. 

.  kep. — A  term  sometimes  appliert  to  any  sort  of  bee- 
hive.   The  term  is  used  (juite  1  irgely  in  England. 
•.  ..;■  '^'ax-exti  actor.—  A  device  for  melting  wax   by 
.-u   -heat. 

Spent  Queen.— One  that  from  old  age  becomes  in- 
competent to  lay  any  eggs,  or  but  few  which  pro- 
duce drones  only. 

Spermatozoon  (pi.  Speimatozoa). — One  of  the  animal- 
culirc  contained  in  the  generative  fluid  of  dmnes. 

Spring  ('mod  — Number  of  eolonii's  that  survive  the 
winter,  and  heneetlie  nuinlierstarted  in  the  se'ison. 

Spring  Dwindling.— Slow  decrease  in  size  of  stocks, 
in  early  spring. 

Starter.— Comh  or  fdn.  fastened  in  the  top  of  sur- 
plus boxes,  to  induce  work  therein. 

Sting.— A  weapon  of  defense,  contained  in  the  pos- 
terior part  of  the  abdomen  of  worker-bees  and 
queens,  composed  of  3  parts,  two  of  which  are 
barbed. 

Stock.— See  Colony. 

Storitying. — A  term  used  in  England  for  "tiering  up" 
in  this  country. 

Swpec.— Any  receptacle  for  surplus  comb  honey,  ap- 
plied, by  our  friends  across  the  water,  to  any  kind 
of  upper  story. 

Supersede  — To  replace  or  exchange  queens  in  a 
hive.  Bees  sometimes  kill  their  own  queen  and 
raise  another,  and  we  commonly  say  say  they 
"  supersede  "  her. 

Swarm.— A  large  number  of  bees  leaving  the  parent 
stock  at  one  time,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  up 
new  lodgings,  accompanied  by  one  queen  in  the 
first  swarm,  and  in  after-swarms  (see  Colony)  by 
one  or  more. 

Swarming  Secuwn.— The  time  of  year  in  which  bees 
are  most  inclined  to  swarm. 

Syrians. — See  Holy-Land  Bees. 

Taking  up  Bees.— Killing  bees  in  fall,  to  get  the 
honey.    A  practice  now  going  rapidly  out  of  use. 

Tested  Queen.— One  whose  progeny  has  been  exam- 
ined and  found  pure. 

Tiernig  up  — Piling  hives  or  supers  one  above  the 
other.     See  Comb  Honey,  in  the  body  of  the  work. 

Transferring. — Changing  bees  and  combs  from  one 
hive  to  another;  changing  comb  from  one  frame 
to  another.  Usually  applied  to  the  operation  of 
changing  bees  and  combs  from  box  hives  to  hives 
with  movable  frames. 

Transposition  Process.— See  Grafted  Cell. 

[7?j^tteeni?i{/.— Removing  queen  from  a  colony. 

Unripe,  or  Green  Honey.— Honey  which  has  under- 
gone but  little  change  by  evaporation,  and  con- 
tained in  unsealed  cells. 

Unsealed  Laiine .—Young  bees  in  the  maggot  form 
Tiot  capited  over. 

Virgin  Queen— A  queen  which  has  not  been  fertil- 
ized, by  mating  with  a  drone. 
Tra.r.— A  natural,  unctuous  secretion  of  honey-bees, 
formed  in  delicate  scales,  in  the  eight  wax  -  pock- 
ets, on  the  under  side  of  the  abdomen.  It  is 
formed  both  in  activity  and  in  repose,  but  in  much 
larger  quantities  while  the  bees  are  quietly  clus- 
tered inside  the  hive.  The  production  of  each 
pound  recjuires  about  20  lbs.  of  honey.  It  is  used 
by  the  bees  for  comb-building. 
Wax-E.r.tractor.—An  apparatus  by  means  of  which 

wax  is  rendered  by  application  of  heat. 
Wax  -  Pockets.— The  8  depositories  under  the  rings 
on  the  under  side  of    the 
abdomen  of  a  worker  bee, 
in  which   wax   scales    are 
secreted. 
W'l.r-Prrss.  —  A   device    for 
rendering  melted  wax  by 
pressure. 
nVd</i)i!/-/'7i(//it.  —  The  flight 
of  a  virgin  queen,  for  the 
purpose    of     meeting     a 
drone. 

Wild  Bees.— A  term  applied  to  honey-bees  that  live 
in  the  forest,  in  hollow  trees,  or  in  cavities  of 
lock-,  aw:'y  f'^m  ihe  abodes  of  men. 
Tri>id-Bren7f.i.— Tight  fences  or  close  hedges,  to  keep 

winds  from  the  apiary, 
iror/frr  Bee.— Erroneously  called  neuter;  an  unde- 
veloped female,  possessing  the  germ  of  nearly 
every  organ  of  the  (jueen,  which  may  at  any  time 
liecome  sulliciently  developed  to  allow  her  to  lay 
eggs,  but  only  such  eggs  as  produce  drones.  They 
do  all  I  he  work  in  the  hive  except  laying  eggs. 
Workir-Egg.-An  egg  which  is  impregnated,  and  is 
laid  only  by  a  fertile  (jueen:  will  produce  either 
worker  or  queen. 


WAX-POCKETS. 


DOOLITTLE'S  REVIEW  AND  COMMENTS 
ON  THE  ABO  BOOK. 


In  1880  I  offered  friend  Doolittle  $100.00  for 
a  careful  going-over  of  the  ABC  book,  that 
he  might  i)oint  out  its  faults,  and  add  such 
suggestions  as  his  large  experience  might 
dictate.  He  has  done  this  ;  and  his  remarks 
are  of  so  much  value  that  we  have  added 
them  here.  Where  obvious  errors  were  point- 
ed out.  of  course  nothing  remained  but  to  cor- 
rect them,  and  so  these  points  need  not  be 
given  here.  In  the  present  edition  (1891)  we 
employed  him  to  go  over  it  all  again  and 
l)ring'his  suggestions  up  to  present  date. 
In  some  cases  I  have  answered  his  objec- 
tions, but  generally  he  has  either  given  his 
indorsement  or  added  some  hint  or  fact  not 
in  the  body  of  the  book.  To  these  of  course  j 
I  make  no  answer.  The  figures  at  the  left 
con-espond  to  the  small  superior  figures  in- 
terspersed here  and  there  in  the  body  of  the 
work.  The  figure  at  the  right  gives  the 
page  from  which  the  comment  is  taken,  and 
to  facilitate  reference  to  point  at  issue. 

1— See  Introduction.  Rig-ht  liere  we  see  tlie  gi-eat 
advance  our  industry  has  made.  Not  a  single  paper 
could  afford  to  pay  any  tiling-  for  an  article  on  bees 
as  early  as  1>'6S  to  1873.  unless  it  mig-ht  be  by  g-iving- 
a  copy  of  tlie  paper  free  to  the  writer,  so,  as  you 
say,  a  correspondent  had  no  "compensation  of  any 
account  "  as  pay  for  articles  written,  or  the  necessa- 
ry correspondence  whicli  always  comes  to  tlie  one 
writing  aiticles.  Now,  however,  nearjy  all  the  live 
papers  pay  as  much  for  articles  on  bees  as  upon  any 
otiier  agricultural  subject,  so  that  the  writer  of  ar- 
ticles can  afford  to  answer  all  correspondents  free, 
excepting  the  stamps  inclosed. 

3— page  1.  Bees  that  work  hard  all  day,  in  my 
opinion,  do  not  "parade"  about  the  entrance  at 
night.  Tills  is  left  tor  the  guards  to  do.  These 
guaids  j)erform  no  duty  except  to  look  for  intru- 
ders, while  they  are  set  apart  for  this  work.  These 
guards  are  of  the  age  of  from  2U  to  30  days,  accord- 
ing to  the  belief  of  one  who  has  scrutinized  closely. 

6 — page  2.  Scaicely  a  queen  need  be  lost,  as  a  few 
bees  will  always  gather  around  the  queen;  and  by 
walking  over  the  j-ard,  and  looking  on  the  gi-ound, 
this  ball  of  bees  is  easily  seen,  and  the  queen  picked 
up.  It  is  not  S(j  easy,  however,  always  to  tell  where 
thevcanie  from;  but  this  can  be  done  by  keeping 
them  till  neiir  nigiit  and  tiikingtlie  queen  from  tlie 
bees,  when  thej-  will  return  home  to  their  own  hives. 

7_page  4.  lean  not  agree  liere.  With  tlie  after- 
swarms  goes  all  prospect  of  surplus  honey;  and,  if 
prevented,  the  old  stock  is  by  far  the  Ijetter.  Wait 
7^  days  after  the  first  swarm  leaves,  and,  as  a  rule, 
the  first  young  queen  is  liatclied  then.  Cut  all  cells, 
and  after-swarms  are  done  awaywiih.  Wheie  bees 
for  sale  are  desired,  they  can  be  had  at  much  less 
expense  by  niakii  g  colonies  b.v  the  nucleus  system 
than  by  fussing  with  these  after-swarnis. 

Possiljly  you  are  right  as  to  the  matter  of 
after-swarming;  but  many  extensive  bee- 
keepers, tlie  Dadants  among  the  number, 
insist  that  the  cutting-out  of  all  the  cells 
does  not  allay  subsequent  swarming. 

8_j,age  4.  I  find  that  a  iiiurality  of  queens  is  just 
as  common  in  second  swarms  as  in  third;  and  I 


have  liad  as  many  as  iialf  a  dozen  in  a  first  swarm, 
issuing  from  the  loss  of  the  old  queen  ten  or  more- 
days  previously.  During  the  height  of  swarming, 
the  cells  are  not  jiroperly  guarded,  and  thus  the 
young  queens  run  out. 

9— jjage  4.  I  never  knew  of  an  after-swarm  going 
off  wiih(jut  clustering,  and  never  heard  of  one  doing 
So.  After-swarms  are  forced  out  by  jealous  queens, 
the  queen  leading  the  way;  so  they  do  not  select  a 
home  befo)-e  leaving  the  old  hive,  as  does  the  prime 
swarm  sometimes,  for  the  bees  want  no  other  home 
at  this  time  than  the  old  hive.  After  the.v  are  out 
on  a  limb  of  a  tree,  then  they  send  out  scouts  the 
same  as  is  done  by  the  prime  swarm. 

14— page  .5.  They  will  live  4.5  days,  from  three  ex- 
periments I  have  tried.  Again,  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances  black  or  very  poor  hybrid 
bees  will  live  from  the  flnst  of  September  till  the 
fourth  of  the  next  July.  August  9,  1888,  I  intro- 
duced an  Italian  queen  to  a  colony  of  poorly  marked 
hybrid  bees,  and  saw  the  first  j'ellow  bee  hatched 
Sept.  1,  although  tlieie  were  few  yellow  bees  hatched 
that  fall.  As  the  bees  from  this  Italian  queen  were 
very  yellow,  I  took  pride  in  showing  them  to  many 
who  visited  me  the  next  year,  so  I  kept  more  than 
usual  track  of  this  colony.  July  4.  1S89,  there  were 
at  least  1000  hybrid  bees  in  this  colony;  and  as  I  had 
no  hybrid  bees  in  the  yard  except  those,  they  must 
have  been  the  same  bees  which  were  hatched  the 
August  before. 

1.5— page  5.  Twice  I  have  had  drones  live  over  the 
winter,  and  that  in  hives  which  had  good  prolific 
queens.  The  season  previous  had  been  .so  prolific  in 
honey  that  the  bees  in  a  few  hives  seemed  to  have 
no  desire  to  kill  oft'  the  drones  in  the  fall  as  is  usual- 
ly done.  The  hum  of  these  drones  on  wai'm  da.vs 
during  February  and  March  was  very  pleasant  "to 
hear,  to  say  the  least.  When  warm  weather  came 
for  good  these  old  drones  soon  disajipeared.  From 
this,  and  other  facts  which  I  will  not  take  space  to- 
relate  here,  I  have  an  idea  that  drones  will  live 
about  as  long  as  the  workers  under  similar  circum- 
stances, unless  their  life  is  prematurely  taken  bj^ 
the  workers. 

17— page  10.  The  quality  is  excellent,  as  you  state, 
but  the  color  of  al.sike  honey  in  this  localitj-  is  de- 
cidedly poor,  it  being  of  a  reddish  pink  shade. 
Where  clear,  or  when  it  is  mixed  to  any  degree  with 
our  first  basswood  hoiiey.  as  it  often  is.  such  honey 
has  to  go  as  second  quality  on  account  of  its  color. 
I  am  speaking  of  comb  honey. 

18 — page  10.  Alsike  invariablj'  dies  the  second  year 
in  this  locality;  and  as  it  does  not  yield  overoiie- 
halt  the  weight  of  hay  fo  the  acre  that  the  red  clo- 
ver does,  our  farmers  have  become  di.sgusted  with 
it.  so  that  there  is  not  nearly  as  much  sown  now  as 
formerly. 

19— iiMge  12.  Have  you  not  mad<- a  mistake  here 
somewheie''  During  a  heavy  j-leld  of  honey,  our 
bees  .seem  to  be  glad  of  a  rest,  and  it  takes  at  least 
24  hours  before  our  bees  think  of  robbing,  after  a 
full  flow  of  honey.  We  have  taken  (;ff  hone.v  after 
a  sliowcr,  as  you  sjieak  of,  when  each  bee  was  so- 
full  of  hi^ney  that,  if  Sfiueezed  a  little,  she  would 
throw  the  honey  out  on  the  tongue:  and,  if  jammed 
a  little,  the  iKiney-sHc  (filk'd  with  honev)  would' 
buist  through  the  sides  of  the  abdomen.  After  24 
hours  has  ehipsed,  or  the  .season  draws  to  a  clo.se, 
we  agree  with  all  you  say. 

I  hardly  think  I  have  made  a  mistake  in 

the  matter,  friend  D.;  but,  very  likely,  more 

1  time  had  elapsed  after  the  rain,  than  what  I 


DOOLITTLES  COMMENTS  ON  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


377 


have  given.  I  have  noticed  all  you  say,  im- 
mediately after  a  very  heavy  yield  ;  but  so 
many  others  have  spoken  of  having  trouble 
in  trying  to  extract,  after  a  storm,  that  1  can 
not  tint  think  my  caution  a  wise  one. 

20 — p.  13.  I  indorse  ;ill  you  say  about  being-  eai-e- 
ful  al)out  allowing  bees  to  get  a  taste  of  lioney 
in  times  of  scarcity,  and  know  that  such  "taste" 
often  makes  bees  cross  or  angry;  but  bees  are 
often  angered  by  some  unavoidable  accident, 
wlien  they  will  Ijuzz  about  one's  face  for  hours, 
as  }()U  here  describe.  Xo  matter  wliat  has  caused 
bees  to  follow  any  one  about  in  tliis  way.  they 
sliould  at  once  be  killed;  for,  according  to  my  e.\- 
pei-ietice,  if  they  aie  allowed  to  live  tliey'will 
kee|i  tliis  up  for  weeks,  or  by  spells  as  long  as  they 
live,  which  makes  them  of  little  or  no  value  as 
lionej'-gatherers.  Such  bees  are  dangerous  to  have 
around  when  friends  C(jme  into  the  apiary,  and  for 
this  reason  I  always  kill  them,  and  so  have  no  trou- 
ble afterward  till  some  mishap  hai>pens  again.  To 
be  ahvays  prepared  for  an  emergeni'y  of  this  kind  I 
carry  a  little  wooden  paddle  about  with  me  in  my 
tool-box  and  se;it.  the  center  of  which  is  composed 
of  wire  cloth.  This  lets  the  air  pass  through  the 
paddle  in  striking  at  tlie  bee,  .so  it  is  a  sure  liill  ev- 
ery time;  while  if  the  paddle  were  made  of  whole 
w(mk1,  the  air  would  often  blow  the  bee  to  one  side, 
so  that  several  efforts  might  be  required  before  hit- 
ting it. 

21 — p.  14.  What  j-ou  here  say  is  true  of  most  ants; 
but  there  is  a  kind  which  generally  live  in  trees,  bur- 
rowing all  through  tliat  part  of  the  wofxl  which  is 
partially  decayed,  that  get  into  our  chaff  hives  here, 
and.  aftei-  a  little,  burrow  through  the  sides  of  the 
hive  ne.xt  the  bees,  when  a  general  tight  ensues. 
The  bees  can  not.  or,  at  least,  do  not,  sting  these 
ants;  and  as  the.v  are  .so  large  and  strong,  the  bees 
<-an  not  carry  them  awaj-;  and  if  theyciiuld  they 
could  not  di'op  them  wlien  they  would,  for  the  ant 
fastens  hold  of  the  bee  with  its  jaws  with  such  a 
tiim  hold  that  the  bee  can  not  free  itself  from  the 
ant.  When  distui-bed  so  as  to  let  the  colony  of  ants 
and  bees  togethei,  each  ant  .seizes  a  bi'c  ;ind  holds  it 
fast,  often  holding  the  bee  thus  till  it  dies.  In  one 
case  I  had  a  p.iwerful  colony  of  bees  neiirlj'  ruined, 
while  many  colonies  have  bten  very  l)adly  annojed 
by  them.  As  they  live  in  the  ehatf  and  woodwork 
of  tlie  hive.  I  find  it  ver.v  difficult  to  get  rid  of  them. 

23— p.  19.  Only  look  out  that  we  do  not  get  .so 
many  "irons  in  the  fire"  that  we  neglect  both  the 
bees  and  the  grapevines,  and  perhai)s  nutcli  of  our 
other  business,  .so  that  we  become  a  "jack  of  all 
trades  and  master  of  none." 

24— p.  19.  I  now  use  chaff  hives  altogether  for  full 
colonies,  and  find  that,  after  knowing  how,  it  is  no 
rno!-e  troulile  to  work  with  them  than  it  is  with  sin- 
gle-walled hives;  while  the  prosi>ei-ity  (jf  the  bees, 
Ixtth  in  summer  and  winter,  is  insured  to  a  mucli 
greater  degree  than  possible  with  single -walled 
hives. 

2.i— p.  29.  After  carefully  testing  all  of  the  plans 
given  foi-  the  artificial  fertilization  of  queens  so  far 
made  iiublic,  and  not  meeting  with  ;i  single  success, 
I  am  sure  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  practical 
fjUm.  and  I  very  much  doubt  there  ever  being  such 
a  thing  as  a  single  queen  that  became  fertile,  only 
as  she  went  out  to  meet  tlie  drone  in  the  usual  way. 
In  other  words,  I  think  the  whole  thing  somethitig 
made  up  of  mistakes,  mi.s(;onceptions,  and  hopeful 
ideas. 

26 — p.  29.  I  can  not  agree  here.  I  have  had  three 
daughters  of  imported  queens  from  as  manj-  breed- 
ers, and  none  of  them  compared  with  the  stock  I 
had  taken  pains  to  breed  for  honey.  With  the  ma- 
joi-ity  of  apiarists,  probably  your  i-emarks  are  cor- 
rect: but  we  ha\c  a  few  breeders  whose  queens  are 
far  ahead  of  a  promiscuous  importation  from  Italy; 
at  least,  such  is  my  opinion.  Five  hundred  dollai-s 
would  not  hire  me  to  breed  all  my  (jueeiis  from  an 
inipf)rted  mother,  and  h-t  m\'  present  stock  go  down. 

If  better  honey-gatherers  can  be  obtained 
by  going  elsewhere  rather  than  Italy,  by  all 
means  let  us  have  them. 

2M— !>.  ;j<l.  To  this  I  say  amen,  after  having  tried 
the  matter  only  at  a  loss  in  eveiy  instance. 

29—1).  =51-  The  first-hatched  queen  will  destroy  all 
remaining  qu«-eu-i'ells,  pioviding  it  is  not  in  the 
beight  of  a  flow  of  honey.  If  it  is,  our  experience  is, 
tliey  will  swarm   instead.     I  think,  with   Dr.  Miller, 


tliat  many  ynunn  bees  are  important;  and  the  great- 
est objection  wh^ch  1  have  to  your  plan  i.s,  that  on 
most  occa.sions  you  have  only  old  or  field  bees  for 
rearing  queens. 

3ii— p.  35.  While  ln)ney  ccjntains  much  water, 
there  is  something  very  peculiar  about  none  of  the 
moisture  which  is  in  the  honey  ever  soaking  into 
the  wood.  In  other  words,  a  barrel  which  i.s  filled 
with  honey  will  apparently  become  just  as  drj- as 
the  .same  ban-el  would  if  no  honey  were  in  it.  After 
tlionmghly  drying,  tightening  the  hoops,  and  filling 
some  barrels  once  with  a  nice  thick  grade  of  bass- 
wood  honey,  they  were  alhjwed  to  stay  out  in  the 
sun  during  a  very  liot  drj-  time  during  the  fore  part 
of  September,  when  the  staves  of  the  barrels  shrank 
so  that  the  lioney  oozed  out  at  nearly  everj'  joint  in 
the  barrel;  and' I  have  kiKJwn  tlie  same  thing  to 
happen  where  the  bai-rels  were  wa.ved.  Barrels 
when  filled  with  honey  shovild  be  put  into  the  shade, 
and,  if  ijossible,  in  some  place  where  the  air  is  some- 
what moist. 

31— p.  3.5.  Duiing  a  pei-iod  of  22  years  I  have  never 
known  hasswood  to  fail  to  yield  honey,  the  very 
shortest  season  yielding  three  days,  and  the  longest 
29.  I  place  basswood  at  the  head  of  all  lioney-iiro- 
ducing  trees  oi-  plants  as  to  yield.  From  it  1  once 
obtained  66  lbs.  in  3  daj's,  from  lyne  hive.  Taking  the 
world  over,  white  clover  may,  as  you  say,  yield 
more  hone.v  than  basswood;  but  no  area  of  clover 
can  possibly  yield  t!ie  same  amount  of  honey  that 
the  same  area  of  ba.sswood  will. 

32 — p.  36.  This  is  a  picture  of  which  you  may  well 
be  proud;  for  a  better  picture  to  convey  to  the  mind 
just  what  basswood  is,  wa.s  never  e.veeuted. 

36— p.  43.  You  have  not  mentioned  the  best  way 
to  hunt  bees;  namely,  that  of  going  through  the 
woods  on  the  first  warm  days  of  spring,  while  there 
is  still  snow  on  the  ground,  and  finding  tlie  "bee- 
trees"  liy  listening  for  the  humming  of  the  bees  on 
tlieir  cleansing  flight,  :ind  by  seeing  dead  bees  on 
the  snow,  brought  out  in  "house-cleaning."  I  once 
found  two  ill  an  hour  in  tliat  way,  and  at  another 
time,  three  in  two  lioui-s  and  a  half. 

37— p.  44.  Xot  till  the  millennium  dawqs;  for 
there  always  will  be  careless  bee-keepers,  and  trees 
in  the  woods  where  moths  enough  will  be  bred 
to  remind  the  most  thorough  apiai-ist  that  they 
still  e.xist.  I  don't  believe  that  aiiiary  e.xists  in  the 
World,  wherein  a  pi  e  of  combs  can  be  thrown  to- 
gether in  a  pile  during  the  summer  sea.son  and  not 
have  them  soon  become  a  moth-nursery. 

39— p.  46.  You  may  be  right  about  this,  but  I  have 
always  understood  that  our  common  (or  tlack)  bees 
are  natives  of  the  Old  World.  I  can  not  say  where  I 
got  this  impression,  but  it  was  something  which  I 
read  some  twenty  or  moie  years  ago,  when  I  first 
began  to  keep  bees.  When  the.v  aie  called  by  their 
proper  name  they  are  always  called  "  German  bees." 
Can  you  give  any  history  regarding  them  to  pn>ve 
that  they  were  in  this  country  before  any  white  man 
came  hei-e'r' 

4IJ— p.  46.  With  me  the  Carniolans  are  breeders 
out  of  sea-on.  like  the  Syrians;  hence  they  are  poor 
honey  gatherers.  This,  together  with  the  imperfec- 
tionswliicli  you  have  named,  has  caused  me  to  get 
rid  of  them  entirely. 

42— p.  48.  You  do  not  mention  water  as  being 
mixed  with  the  honey  and  pollen  for  food.  If  water 
is  not  mixed  with  this  food,  why  is  it  so  eagerly 
sought  in  spring  and  summer,  and  not  at  all  in 
wai-m  days  in  October  and  November'/  Now,  I 
claim  that  many  things  point  to  water  being  one 
element  in  this  food;  and  one  of  these  "  pointers  " 
may  be  found  on  page  .5  of  this  A  B  C  lMX)k.  near  the 
toil  of  the  second  colunni.  where  you  tell  of  the 
hroiid  suffering  for  pollen  or  water. 

44— p.  .50.  Thirteen  yeai-s  have  now  passed  since 
my  bees  have  gotten  enough  honey  from  buckwheat 
togive  a  Singh-  jioundof  such  honey  throughout  tlie 
whole  of  any  single  hive,  so  that  I  have  ceased  to  ex- 
pect any  thing  more  fiom  it  than  some  pollen  and  a 
very  little  thin  nectai-  for  late  bi-o(Kl  and  queen  rear- 
ing! During  .some  of  these  years  there  has  been 
more  than  lUO  acres  within  easy  reach  of  my  bees. 

46.— p.  .58.  Sealed  hoiu-y  seldom  candies  in  the 
hive  as  vou  .say;  hut  I  never,  to  iiiy  recoIlecti(»n.  had 
sealed  lioney  "away  from  the  bees  over  winter  with- 
out its  candying,  unless  kept  in  a  temperature  as 
high  as  7t  to  9.")°.  When  kept  in  such  a  ti-mperature 
it  will  not  candy  or  deteriorate  for  years. 

49— p.  60.  If  1  understand  you  correctly  here,  you 
and  I  do  not  agree  at  all.    I   never  pulled  the  bios- 


378 


nOOLlTTLES  C0MME:NT8  on  the  ABC  BOOK. 


soms  from  a  head  of  red  clover  yet,  but  that  tliere 
was  lioney  is  them.  Hut  I  have  fretiueiitly  found 
the  corolla  .so  long-  tlie  l)ee  could  not  touch  the 
honey.  I  think  tlieie  is  nothing-  in  the  world  that 
secretes  a.s  much  honey,  year  after  year,  as  red  clo- 
ver; still,  it  is  of  little  use  except  to  the  bumble-l)ee. 
All  that  is  lacking-  is  a  bee  with  a  tong-uo  long- 
enoujrh  to  gather  or  reach  the  honey.  While  length 
of  toiigue  IS  lacking,  the  red  clover  l)lo(>nis  and  se- 
cretes honey  mostly  in  vain,  so  far  as  we  and  the 
honey-bee  are  concerned.  Why  1  say  "  mostly,"  is 
because  I  believe  fully  100(1  pounds  are  secreted  to 
■where  one  is  gathered  by  the  honey-bee. 

50— p.  61.  While  the  name  "  mammoth  "  would  de- 
note that  this  kind  of  clover  should  have  a  larger 
flower  than  the  other  red  clovei-.  yet  I  find  that  the 
corolla  is  really  shorter  than  that  of  the  small  kind, 
hence  the  bees  woi-k  on  it  to  much  better  advantage. 
Nearly  all  the  red-clover  honey  I  have  ever  obtained 
came  from  the  mammoth. 

51— p.  69.  The  good  honey-yield  is  the  cause,  not 
the  cool  weather.  This  good  honey-yield  causes  the 
bees  to  secrete  wa.\  in  such  quantities  that  tliey  do 
not  even  touch  the  foundation  at  all— simiily  add 
their  wax  on  to  the  side  walls  of  the  foundation,  st) 
that,  after  scraping  otf  the  honey  and  the  wax  the 
bees  added,  we  have  the  sheet  of  foundation  intact. 
This  is  a  thing  that  happens  here  to  a  large  extent 
during  the  height  of  our  basswood  bloom,  and  foi- 
this  reason  I  now  use  in  sections  onlj  the  Hat-bot- 
tomed foundation.  This  the  bees  have  to  manipu- 
late, no  mattei-  how  much  wax  they  are  .secreting; 
hence  we  never  have  any  "fishbone  "  where  such 
foundation  is  u.sed. 

52 — p.  71.  1  see  you  do  not  mention  foundation 
molds.  After  having  used  them  for  .seveial  years  I 
think  them  an  acquisition.  They  do  away  with  the 
larger  part  of  the  parapliernajin  used  with  the  other 
machines;  enable  any  one  to  use  up  the  last  nound 
of  wax  as  well  as  the  first  one  of  .5u  pounds;  m;ike  a 
foundation  that  is  more  readily  accepted  lij'the  bees 
than  that  made  on  i-oUeis.  and  the  molds  can  be 
operated  with  a  degree  of  .speed  that  will  en-able  any 
ordinary  individual  to  make  from  !f5  to  $1(1  a  day  in 
working  them  at  his  own  home.  For  all  persons 
having  one  hundred  ci  lonies  or  less.  I  think  them 
just  the  thing  to  use  in  working  up  the  wax  made 
in  such  an  apiary. 

Friend  D.,  we  have,  at  least  we  think  we 
have,  a  very  good  reason  for  omitting 
to  mention  t'oimdation  -  molds.  We  have, 
in  years  past,  spent  something  lil<e  $1000  in 
such  experiments.  In  fact,  we  advertised 
and  sold  molds  made  of  plaster  of  Paris,  and 
later  of  soft  rubber.  While  these  proved 
very  satisfactory  in  tlie  hadns  of  an  expert 
like  yourself,  nine  out  of  ten  of  our  custom- 
ers made  sucli  a  failure  of  it  we  preferred 
to  take  the  apparatus  back  again. 

57— p.  76.  I  say,  put  the  empty  super  on  to))  ever.v 
time.  Just  as  much  honej'  can  be  obtained  in  this 
way,  and  you  are  not  likely  to  get  caught  with  a  lot 
of  unfinished  sections  at  the  end  of  the  season.  Aft- 
er a  party  has  tiered  up  three  or  four  cases  high, 
and  found  nothing  but  partly  filled  sections  in  any 
of  them  at  the  end  of  the  season,  as  I  have  knowii 
in  several  cases,  he  will  be  likelj' to  put  the  empty 
cases  on  top  for  ever  afterward. 

.5.^— p.  76.  I  have  used  such  drone  lirood  many, 
many  times,  and  I  have  yet  to  see  the  first  section 
that  was  any  poorer  for  it,  except  the  one  which  had 
the  brood  in  it. 

60— p.  83.  This  applies  to  all  sections  as  well,  so  I 
do  not  see  that  it  is  any  more  of  an  objection  to  un- 
finished sections  tlian  to  those  finished. 

Yes ;  but  finished  sections  are  marketa- 
ble, and  hence  can  be  got  out  of  the  way. 

61 — p.  84.  There  is  no  question  in  my  mind  but 
that  this  "metallic  coldness"  and  bees  not  "  walking 
on  tin  separators"  exists  more  in  imagination  than 
in  actual  fact.  If  it  is  a  fact,  it  is  something  which 
my  closest  obsei-vation  has  failed  to  discover. 

63— p.  90.  I  do  not  have  any  pollen  in  one  section 
out  of  lOOO,  when  practicing  contraction. 

6.5— p.  92.  This  l)lossoms  just  with  fniit,  with  us. 
and  So  is  of  little  account,  excei)t  the  little  they  get 
before  and  after,  at  beginning  and  ending.    D-Ande- 


lion  honey,  after  it  is  a  year  or  two  o'.d,  is  just  S[)len- 
did. 

67— p.  '.'2.  Can't  you  manage  to  tell  us  why  bees 
did  not  siiring<lwindle  prior-  to  1870?  When  I  first 
commenced  to  keep  bees,  there  were  lOu  swarms 
around  me,  keijt  by  four  or  five  parties  th;it  had 
kept  bees  for  30  and  40  yeai-s;  and,  although  they 
kept  on  using  box  hives,  still  not  one  of  them  has  a 
bee  to-day.  Tell  us  what  did  it.  I  confess  I  can't 
see  through  it  all. 

To  come  right  down  to  the  point,  I  can't 
either,  friend  D.,  even  after  all  the  learned 
and  exhaustive  articles  we  have  had  on  the 
subject.  Once  they  lived  almost  without 
care,  and  now  they  don't. 

68— p.  96.  Fults,  of  Muscatine,  la.,  says,  in  A.  B.  J. 
foi-  January,  1880,  that  drones  live  only  24  daj's,. 
while  I  claim  they  live  to  about  the  same  age  as  a 
worker,  if  the  bees  allow  them  to  live  that  long.  See 
15,  or  Doolittle's  comments  on  age  of  drones. 

69— p.  98.  Are  you  sure  of  this  'f  So  far  as  my  ex- 
perience goes,  drones  from  fer-iile  worker-s,  if  reared 
in  drone-cells,  are  as  large  as  any  di-ones.  The  size 
of  the  cell  has  moi-e  to  do  with  the  size  of  the  drone 
than  the  parentage. 

7.>— p.  98.  If  you  had  said  "practically  pure,"  I 
would  not  have  said  a  word;  but  when  you  say  "ab- 
solutely pur-e,"  1  can  not  withhold  saying,  "  1  don't 
believe  it."  For  my  views  on  this  subject,  see  my 
book  on  queen-rearing,  beginning  page  107. 

73— p.  104.  My  experience  says  that  the  trouble  was 
not  in  the  patches  of  honey,  but  in  the  pollen  that 
was  under  the  honey.  Mice  are  very  fond  of  pollen 
thMt  is  fre.sh  from  being  preset-ved  with  honey. 

75— p.  105.     [  agree  with  you  here  exactly. 

76— p.  107.  I  am  jrrst  one  of  those  persons  who 
have  proven  to  their  entire  satisfaction,  that  there  i.s- 
no  ditfeience  between  honey  extr-acted  before  it  is 
sealed  and  i-ipened  in  an  ojjen  cask  or  can  irr  a  warm 
room,  and  that  sealed  by  the  bees,  aird  ripened  in 
the  hive. 

77— p.  IDS.  I  think  your  honey,  when  first  gathei-- 
ed,  must  be  very  poor  stutt:',  or  e  se  you  are  carryiirg 
this  thing  too  tar.  We  have  tiered  up  hives,  as  you 
tell,  and  left  t  II  October,  therr  used  in  the  comb, 
and  extr-acted  it  by  warming  the  combs  so  we  could, 
and  for  the  life  of  me  I  could  see  no  ditlerence  be- 
tween this  and  some  I  warmed  that  was  taken  be- 
fore it  was  sealed.  Both  were  so  thick  you  could 
turn  a  saucer  over-,  as  you  tell,  and  not  have  it  r-un 
out,  and  so  clear  you  could  re-id  through  it  si.x;  inch- 
es deep.  Just  tell  your  r-eaders  to  extract  when 
thej"  will,  but  riperr  in  open  cans  in  a  warm  room. 

78— p.  110.  Candied  honey  in  Dadant's  pails  is  sell- 
ing well  in  all  the  markets  we  have  tried,  and  it  is 
by  far  the  nicest  way  to  put  it  up.  I  have  sold  corrsid- 
erable  honey  in  wooden  boxes.  Make  boxes  to  hold 
ditt'e rent  amounts  to  suit  customers,  and  paratfine 
the  inside  of  the  boxes  as  you  do  barrels,  when  the 
honey  has  advarrced  so  far  in  candying  that  it  will 
scarcely  run,  fill  the  boxes;  and  when  fully  harden 
ed,  nail  on  the  cover  and  ship  to  any  part  of  the 
world  without  danger  of  leakage  or  of  having  the 
boxes  brokerr. 

79— p.  111.  Doir't  say  tin  cans  are  "next  best,"  but 
say,  the  waj'  to  keep  honey  is  in  tin  cans  holding  300 
lbs.,  in  a  warm  dr-y  room,  with  a  cover  made  of  your 
duck  cloth.  If  you  want  to  sell  it  in  that  shape,  fill 
the  Dadarrt  pails  just  befor-e  it  ceases  to  run,  and 
Set  them  awaj-.    I  store  all  extracted  honey  so. 

80— p.  111.  I  say  a  warm  dry  room — one  whose 
temper-ature  never  goes  lower  tharr  75°,  the  mean 
temperatur-e  of  which  is  90.  ]f  honej'  is  kept  in  so 
high  a  temperatui-e  it  will  grow  better  and  better  as 
the  years  go  by,  no  matter-  whether  comb  or-  extr-act- 
ed. green  or  ripe. 

81— p.  122.  This  with  me  proves  to  be  uirtrue  nine 
times  out  of  ten.  If  no  queeir-excluder  is  used,  the 
queerr  and  all  the  brood  will  often  move  up  stairs,  so 
that  there  will  not  be  a  single  pound  of  honey  below 
unless  the  season  is  an  extra  good  (me,  or  3wi  do  no 
extr-ac-ting  till  the  end  of  the  season;  and  if  the 
queen-excludei-  is  used,  the  lower  stor-y  will  be  filled 
with  brood  if  the  honej- is  kei)t  extracted  from  the 
combs  above.  This  is  with  the  L.  fr-ame  as  well  as 
the  Gallirp,  in  this  locality;  for  I  now  have  an  out- 
apiary  usiiis-  the  L.  frame.  To  overcome  this  I  set 
away  cnoujfh  framesof  nice  sealed  honey  dur-ing  the 
height  of  the  season  to  winter  the  bees'  oir,  atrd  set 
these  in  the  hives  where  needed  in  the  fall. 


DOOLITTLE'S  COMMENTS  ON  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


379 


83 -p.  122.  Wheie  both  can  be  had,  my  preference 
is  a  feed  made  upof  two  thirds  sugar  sj'rup  and  one- 
third  honey.  Bring  the  sugar  syrup  to  a  boll,  set 
from  tlie  stove,  stir  in  the  lioney.  aiicf  it  is  leady  for 
the  bees.  This  entiiely  prevents  the  feed  from 
either  crystallizing  oi-  candying,  and  makes  it  enjoy- 
able to  the  bees. 

83— p.  123.  I  feel  equally  sure,  tluit  from  one-tentli 
to  one-third  of  the  number  of  pounds  of  lionej' 
should  be  added  to  keep  tlie  syrup  from  crystalliz- 
ing, and  give  tbe  whole  a  relish  to  tlie  bees.  Tbe  in- 
side i)f  the  feeders  covered  with  sugar  cr>stals, 
bees  out  trying  to  fly  with  their  wings  covered  with 
tlie  s;ime,  to  sucli  an  extent  that  they  could  not  rise 
mori'  than  a  foot  in  the  air.  as  well  as  crystals  in  the 
syrup  after  ir  was  stored  in  the  cells,  taught  me  bet- 
ter than  to  attempt  to  follow  your  direct  inns  the  sec- 
ond time.  Whetherthe  atmosphere  is  different  here 
from  yours,  or  why  the  difference,  is  too  high  for 
me.  You  will  see  by  Dr.  Miller's  comments,  that  he 
also  is  troubled  with  cry.stallization.  I  re.i()ice  that 
so  simple  a  thing  as  honey  put  into  the  syruj)  while 
hot  remedies  the  matter  so  that  no  one  need  have 
any  fears  of  the  syrup  ever  cryst;dlizing. 

84 — p.  133.  A  sugar  is  damp  or  moist,  while  there 
is  prai'tically  no  moisture  in  the  granulated  sugar. 
Dry  tbe  A  sugar  so  there  is  no  moisture  in  it,  and  it 
will  shrink  in  weight  more  than  enough  to  overcome 
the  ciitference  in  price,  so  it  is  not  really  as  cheap  as 
the  granulated.  Otherwise,  I  consider  it  equal  in 
every  i-espect  for  feeding  bees  with  the  granulated. 

85— p.  124.  Jin  ordinary  frame,  witli  thin  stufl' 
nailed  on  either  side,  so  as  to  leave  room  for  the  bees 
to  pass  ill  at  the  toji,  bung  in  the  hive  the  same  as  any 
frame,  makes  the  best  feeder  of  anything  I  know  of, 
either  for  stimulative  feeding  or  for  feeding  winter 
stores. 

8ft— p.  127.  Haven't  you  changed  your  mind  on 
this  feeding  back  'f  I  have  again  tried  it  this  season, 
only  at  a  loss,  as  I  have  to  feed  3  lbs.  to  get  one  in 
the  boxes. 

I  agree  with  you  that  such  is  the  case  ex- 
actly until  the  brood  apartment  is  crammed; 
but  after  that,  there  are  not  more  losses  than 
I  have  mentioned. 

88— p.  130.  If  this  is  so,  how  came  \our  thin  honey 
from  basswood  you  told  us  about  a  little  while  be- 
fore on  these  pages';'  Why  did  they  not  tliiekeu 
this  in  the  same  way'/  I  still  believe  all  evaporating 
of  nectar  is  done  in  the  hive,  as  I  once  wrote.  I  be- 
lieve that  this  spra>-,  seen  to  fall  from  bees  while 
on  the  wing  in  summer  time,  is  simply  their  ex- 
crement and  nothing  more. 

I  should  explain  it  thus:  The  basswood 
yielded  in  such  quantities  that  they  carried 
it  right  to  the  hives.  The  Simpson  plant 
furnished  only  a  limited  amount  compar- 
atively. 

90— p.  133.  Yes,  and  many  times  the  cajjpiiigs  will 
have  the  sunken  appearance  with  minute  holes,  and 
still  the  brood  be  all  right.  This  I  know  is  so,  for  1 
have  found  hundreds  of  such  cells  in  my  own  apiary 
and  in  other  apiaries  where  I  know  the  brood  was  all 
right.  The  only  sure  test  is  in  opening  the  cells,  as 
you  say.  Then  if  the  puiui  is  found  to  be  white,  or 
whitish,  with  the  eyes  fornu-d  or  colored,  we  may 
know  the  colony  is  all  right,  no  matter  how  or  what 
is  the  appearance  of  the  cells. 

93— )).  140.  I  ai-Kue,  that,  if  we  had  the  same  iium 
bcr  of  bees  in  a  hive  in  apjile-bloom  that  we  do  in 
basswood,  and  if  tbe  weather  were  equally  good, 
the  yield  would  be  as  great.  But  the  trouble  is,  we 
do  not  usually  have  so  maii.v  bet'S;  and,  still  worse, 
the  ii>ual  weather  is  sucli  that  the  bees  rarely  have 
an  oi)portuni1j-  to  work  on  the  bloom  more  than 
enougii  to  encourage  brood-rearing.  Three  jcars 
out  of  twenty-one  seasons  f  have  had  lioney  stored 
during  aiijile-bloom  to  such  an  extent  that  the  hives 
were  tilled  with  this  honey  (one  season  the  bees  stor- 
ing as  much  as  8  lbs.  a  day);  but  in  the  other  18 
.sea.soii8,  scarcelj- a  single  pound  to  the  colony  has 
been  tin-  n-8ult, 

94— p.  141.  It  also  shows  how  gn-iit  tlie  shrinkage 
the  nectar  uiidi-rgoi's  during  the  process  of  evanora- 
tion.  Nectar  from  fruit-bloom  is  usually  at  least 
five-sixths  water. 

107— p.  172.  Sofaras  I  have  been  able  to  asct-rtain, 
olf  the  cells  which  the  cluster  of  bees  surround  are 
never  tilled  with  bees,  except  in  cases  of  starvation. 


At  all  other  times  it  is  onlj-  the  immediate  cells 
next  the  outside  of  the  cluster  which  are  filled. 
This  is  done  so  as  to  form  a  living  wall  or  ci-ust 
around  the  outside,  or  .so  as  to  retain  all  the  heat 
generated  by  the  active,  or  comparatively  active, 
bees  inside.  After  Chri.stmas  most  hives  have  brood 
inside  the  cluster  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  and 
surelj  bees  would  not  pack  themselves  away  in  cells 
containing  brood. 

108— p.  175.  Now,  really,  friend  Root,  do  you  think 
bees  build  comb  any  ditt'erently  than  they  did  when 
the  great  Creator  pronounced  all  his  works  good '/ 
That  there  is  a  difference  in  the  qualities  of  the 
bees,  I  know;  and  so  I  believe  there  was  then.  If 
God  knows  tbe  beginning  from  the  end,  he  knows 
just  what  is  wanted,  and  so  makes  it  good.  We 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  there  has  been  much 
improvement  made,  as  a  whole,  since  the  creation, 
if  any  thing;  for  instance,  man  has  perhaps  a  better 
intellect  to-day  than  he  had  30U(.)  years  ago,  but  he 
does  not  live  a  tenth  part  as  long.  So  with  our 
choice  breeds  of  our  cattle,  sheep,  etc. ;  the  more 
choice  they  are,  the  more  petting  it  takes  to  keep 
them  up,  while  the  lean,  uncouth  "  scalawag"  will 
live  and  thrive  anj'where. 

109— p.  175.  We  tried  to  so  improve  the  bee  as  to 
make  them  take  cells  i'A  to  the  inch,  but  we  had  to 
give  it  up,  and  believe  God  knew  best  when  he 
taught  them  that  five  is  right. 

113— p.  l>-'4.  I  have  been  looking  for  the  past  six- 
teen years  for  a  one  or  two  banded  bee,  and  I  have 
yet  to  see  one.  I  do  not  see  how  this  term  ever 
came  into  use,  for,  so  far  as  my  observation  goes, 
and  it  has  been  close  during  these  sixteen  years,  a 
bee  which  has  any  j'ellow  on  any  of  the  homy  seg- 
ments of  the  abdomen,  has  yellow  on  three.  Of 
course,  there  is  the  most  yellow  on  the  second  seg- 
ment; but  I  wish  to  repeat,  if  there  is  any  yellow 
of  any  account  on  this  sejiment  there  is  on  all  three 
of  the  first  segments,  .lust  till  one  of  your  one  or 
two  banded  bees  with  honey,  friend  Root,  and  place 
her  on  the  window,  and  see  if  I  am  not  right. 

113-p.  1''4.  The  first  segment  of  the  abdomen  is 
not  the  broadest  segment,  nor  does  it  show  the  most 
distinctly.  Tlie  segment,  or  band,  which  is  the 
most  broad,  and  shows  the  plainest,  is  the  second. 

114— p.  1F4.  .lust  because  anybody  and  everybody 
can  raise  plenty  of  hybrids  tliemselv3P,  if  they  have 
an  Italian  to  start  with;  but  if  they  have  a  queen 
producing  hybrid  workers,  they  soon  have  nothing 
but  blacks. 

116- p  184.  1  have  had  pure  Italians  that  were 
ordinarily  quiet  and  peaceable  get  so  roused  up  as 
to  sting  woise  than  any  hybrid  ever  thought  of 
stinging. 

117— p.  185.  I  would  say.  draw  one  of  the  outside 
brood-combs,  for  the  (lueen  is  oltener  found  on  the 
outside  brood-combs  during  the  day  than  she  is  on 
the  central  one. 

128— p.  193 —Can't  "swallow"  that  yet;  and  I  can- 
didlj-  believe  further  importation  Is  useless  for  the 
next  twenty  years. 

129— p.  193.  I  have  liad  Italian  bees  that  did  not 
show  a  particle  of  black  on  A,  B,  C,  and  only  as 
much  black  on  L  as  there  usually  is  on  B.  while  M 
showed  nearly  as  much  yellow  on  tbe  horny  scale 
as  most  Italians  show  on  C.  According  to  your  the- 
ory these  should  have  been  poor  workers:  but. 
sti'ange  to  say.  they  were  among  the  very  best  for 
honey-gathering. 

130— p.  193.  My  exiierience  says /to,  unless  it  also 
disappears  at  B.'  In  othei-  words,  if  thei'C  is  a  yel- 
low btind  at  B.  then'  will  always  be  more  or  less 
yellow  on  (',  if  the  bee  is  fl'lcd  with  hone.v  and  plac- 
ed on  a  window.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  the  seg- 
ments tele8c(  pe  so  that  the  yellow  on  C  is  usually 
hid  on  poor  specimens,  hence  the  term  "  one  and 
two  banded  bees." 

131— p  194.  Dr.  Miller's  comment  here  is  well  put 
in.  A  Sj'rian  or  Holy-Land  queen  can  no  more  tly 
at  maturity  than  any  other,  and  no  queen  can  Hy  at 
maturity.  "  Tbe  Syrians  arc  moif  liable  to  hold 
their  (pieens  in  their  cells  after  matuiit.v  than  are 
those  of  the  other  races,  and  tliat  is  the  reason  we 
have  so  many  Syriiiti  queens  flying  upin  hatching 
from  the  cells. 

132— p.  194.  If  queens  are  raised  as  given  in 
"Pcientitic  yiieen-iearing,"  all  colonies  go  on  with 
their  regular  work,  whether  rearing  queens  or  not. ^ 
This,  I  cliini,  is  of  much  value  to  the  queen-raiser' 
as  well  as  to  the  honey-producer. 


380 


DOOLITTLE'S  COMMENTS  ON  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


139— p.  198.  There  are  thousandsof  these  hatiheis 
now  In  use;  and  the  Good  candy  makes  just  the 
right  foi)d  to  provision  them  witli,  when  the  queens 
ran  remain  a  long-  time. 

1-Ut— p.  HO.  As  1  said  at  the  Chicajro  convention, 
so  T  say  now;  if  I  were  to  cultivate  any  plant  for 
honey,"  it  would  be  niotheiwort ;  for  our  bees  work 
on  it  "from  morning'  till  nijflit  for  weeks.  A  plant  of 
motherwort  is  covered  wit li  bees  from  morning:  to 
night  in  this  locality  while  in  bloom,  and  that,  too, 
every  year;  yet  notwithstanding  this,  I,  with  you. 
do  not  believe  that  it  will  pay  to  cultivate  any  plant 
for  honey  alone,  so  I  have  not  tested  it  by  the  acre. 

141— p.  200.  You  know  we  don't  agree  here,  as  I 
claim  they  go  from  3  to  6  miles  from  choice.  My 
bees  went  4  to  5  miles  to  work  on  teasel  the  past 
year,  without  any  teasels  within  3^  miles  on  tlie 
itirst  part  of  the  route.  This  I  know,  as  a  bee  work- 
ing on  teasel  is  always  partly  covered  with  a  whitish 
dust,  as  they  are  with  yellow  when  working  on 
pumpkin  and  squasli. 

Thanks ;  very  likely  I  have  put  the  dis- 
tance too  small.* 

142— p.  200.  This  is  something  I  do  not  understand. 
I  frequently  move  colonies  abcjut  in  late  fall,  and 
have  no  trouble.  The  bees  seem  disposed  to  mark 
their  location  over  again  if  they  chance  to  have  a 
fly  in  December  or  the  last  half  of  November,  so  I 
take  advantage  of  this  in  shifting  my  bees  where  I 
wish  them,  and  especially  in  doubling  up  nuclei.  A 
few  bees  always  liover  around  the  old  place  for  a 
little  time  on  the  first  pleasant  day;  but  from  the 
fanning  bees  at  the  entrance  of  the  moved  hive, 
and  the  disappearance  of  the  bees  about  the  place 
where  they  formerly  stood,  ti  gether  with  no  dimin- 
ishing of  their  numbers,  I  am  led  to  think  that  they 
found  their  way  back  all  right. 

144— p.  201.  I  have  shipped  many  colonies  of  bees 
during  the  past  five  years;  and  although  none  of 
the  combs  have  been  wired,  I  have  yet  to  hear  of 
the  first  injured  comb.  As  my  combs  are  deeper 
than  those  in  L.  frames  they  would  be  more  likelj* 
to  be  damaged  than  would  those  in  the  L.  frame. 

Perhaps  you  do  not  ship  bees  to  the  ex- 
tent that  we  do.  Nuclei  and  colonies  can 
he  shipped  many  times  on  unwired  combs  ; 
but  our  extensive  experience  has  shown,  be- 
yond any  question  or  doubt,  that  it  is  de- 
cidedly risky  for  us.  We  seldom  get  combs 
through  unwired  without  their  being  broken 
do^^^l,  and  when  they  are  wired  they  always 
go  through  in  good  shape. 

14.0 — p.  204.  We  once  had  a  colony  become  so  re- 
duced that,  Vjy  actual  count,  there  were  81  bees  and 
the  queen,  and  so  they  held  on  till  warm  weather, 
when  they  built  up  without  help,  and  actually  gave 
a  surplus'of  five  pounds  on  buckwheat,  in  sections, 
and  were  in  splendid  condition  for  winter.  The 
next  year  this  colony  did  the  best  in  comb  honey  of 
any  colony  in  the  .yard.  I  wish  to  do  away  with  the 
idea  which  prevails,  that  a  queen  from  a  colony 
which  has  "  spring  dwindled  "  is  good  for  nothing. 

146— p.  204.  I  don't  see  how  you  can  call  the  Gal- 
lup frame  deep,  when  it  is  only  two  inches  deeper 
than  the  L.  frame.  If  you  had  said  that  of  the  old 
American  and  Kidder,  that  were  14  inches.  I  could 
have  agreed.  The  Gallup  frame  is  the  best-propor- 
tioned frame  of  any,  all  things  considered.  So 
think  1.  It  must  be  always  borne  in  mind, 
that  the  bees  themselves  make  the  hive  proper,  at 
all  times,  till  they  become  strong  enough  in  num- 
iiers  to  reach  the  sides  of  the  hive.  This  might  ar- 
gue for  a  box  six  inches  square,  as  was  formerly 
used,  but  such  a  bo.*,  is  too  small  for  even  a  nucleus. 

147.— p.  204.  No  more  than  the  ends  do,  for  it  is 
exactly  square.  A  good  swarm  of  bees  in  tlie 
Gallup  frame  will  touch  the  bottom  and  top  of  the 
hive,  and  also  each  end  where  onl.y  9  frames  are 
used,  but  not  the  sides;  while  with  the  L.  frame 
thc.v  touch  the  l)ottom  and  top  only. 

Why,  friend  D.,  it  seems  to  me  our  bees 
don't  act  just  as  yours  do,  but  perhaps  we 
are  both  a  little  prejudiced. 

*.\n  article  in  April  No.  of  Glea.vings  for  1882,  shows  conclu- 
sivel.v  that  Italian  bees  will  dy  from  an  island,  under  favora- 
ble circumstances,  as  much  as  even  seven  miles.  We  have 
since  ha<i  coiToborating  testimony  of  such  long  rtiglits. 


1.50.— p.  216.  If  I  am  correct,  basswood  yields  no 
pollen  at  all.  Elm,  beech,  and  poplar  trees,  as  well 
as  sorrel,  buttercup,  etc.,  among  plants,  yield  large 
quantities  of  pollen,  but  no  honey. 

161— p.  216.  To  Dr.  Miller's  358  I  would  add :  That 
depends.  With  me,  when  the  dandelion,  hard  ma- 
ple, wild  grape,  and  sorrel,  are  in  blossom,  at  least 
half  the  bees  going  into  the  hives  have  loads  of 
pollen,  while  in  the  basswood-lioney  harvest,  not  one 
bee  in  200  has  any  pollen  in  its  pollen-baskets. 

1.52— p.  217.  After  using  nearly  all  kinds  of  meal, 
I  very  much  prefer  corn  ground  very  fine.  There 
are  enough  hulls  in  this  to  make  it  just  as  the  bees 
like  it  best,  and  what  the  bees  leave  can  be  fed  to 
the  chickens  or  stock. 

1.53-p.  220.  1  Vjclieve  this  to  be  all  "bosh."  The 
fleld-mouse  is  not  an  enemy  to  the  l)uml)le-bee,  but, 
on  the  coiitiaryis  its  friend;  i.  e..  seven-eighths  of 
the  queen  bumble-bees  crawl  into  the  deseited  nests 
of  the  mouse,  in  the  meadow,  in  the  barn,  under 
stumps,  stones,  etc.,  and  there  lay  the  foundation  of 
the  future  colony  of  l)umble-bees.  After  being 
once  estalilished.  a  mouse  has  no  show  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  tight  with  a  queen  bumble-bee,  much  less 
with  a  colony  of  these  bees;  for  each  one  can  sting 
at  least  twenty  times,  as  the  back  of  a  certain  boy 
I  once  knew  could  testify  to. 

154— p.  220.  Did  you  ever  see  a  bee  on  a  tame- 
grape  blossom'/  Although  they  get  pollen  freely 
from  the  wild,  oi'  frost  grape,  yet  I  never  saw  one  on 
a  tame  variety. 

I  have  many  bearing  \ines  of  diffen-nt  varieties  of 
grapes,  and  two  ver.v  laige  vines  of  the  Delaware 
variety;  yet  in  all  of  the  fourteen  years  that  they 
have  been  bearing  right  in  the  bee-yard  I  have 
never  seen  a  himey-bee  at  work  on  the  blossoms. 
Other  insects  work  on  them. 

Yes,  sir!  our  bees  work  on  our  Concords 
nearly  every  season. 

160— p.  227.  Impossible  according  to  my  way  of 
thinking.  A  larva,  fed  three  days  as  a  worker,  has 
the  female  organs  dwarfed  to  a  certain  extent;  and 
just  in  porportion  as  they  are  dwarfed,  in  that  pro- 
portion are  they  inferior  to  a  perfect  or  good  queen. 

161— p.  227.  No.  It  is  the  cocoon  which  the  queen 
spins  that  is  "tough  an  leathery."  The  material  of 
which  the  cell  is  made  is  little  if  any  more  tough 
than  that  of  the  ordinary  worker-cell.  But  here  is 
a  strange  thing  which  I  do  not  know  that  I  have 
ever  seen  mentioned :  The  worker  larva,  when  she 
spins  her  cocoon,  attaches  it  to  the  bottom  and  sides 
of  the  cell,  so  that,  at  the  point  where  she  bites  off  the 
covering  to  the  cell,  there  is  little  if  any  of  the  co- 
coon; while  the  queen-larva  spins  her  cocoon  right 
the  opposite,  having  the  thickest  part  of  the  cocoon 
right  where  she  must  bite  her  way  out,  the  bottom  of 
the  cell  having  no  cocoon  in  it  whatever.  Now,  wheth- 
er this  is  brought  about  for  the  purpose  of  making  it 
hard  work  for  a  rival  queen  to  bite  through  the  cell 
when  she  wishes  to  destro.v  the  inmate,  or  whether 
it  is  done  so  that  the  (lueen  larva  can  still  partake 
of  the  royal  jelly  while  she  is  spinning  her  cocoon,  I 
do  not  know;  but  I  do  know  that  the  facts  regard- 
ing the  position  of  the  cocoons  in  the  different  cells 
are  as  above  stated. 

162— p.  229.  The  first  hatched  queen  is  enthroned 
as  "ruler  "  of  the  colony,  .so  she  is  in  no  waj-  molest- 
ed by  the  next  queen  allowed  to  hatch,  hunting 
her  up  as  you  here  infer.  It  is  a  rare  thing  that  the 
.second  queen  is  allowed  to  hatch,  unless  the  bees 
intend  to  swarm  again,  in  which  case  the  second 
hatches  after  tlie  fii-st  lias  gone  out  with  the  swarm. 
Once  in  a  great  while  a  whole  lot  of  queens  are  al- 
lowed to  come  out  of  their  cells  and  walk  about  the 
comlis;  but  in  all  such  cases,  so  far  as  I  have  ob- 
served, the  first  (jueen  pays  no  attention  to  these, 
but  they  are  dragged  or  driven  out  of  the  hive  by 
the  workers,  and  tlie  first  one  becomes  the  mother 
of  the  colony. 

163 — p.  229.  As  far  as  my  experience  goes  on  this 
point,  the  workeis  do  thisde.stroying  of  the  cells.  I 
know  queens  do  tear  op^n  cells  but  believe  the 
workei-8  do  most  of  it  when  the  idea  of  swarming  is 
not  entertained. 

164— p.  230.  In  all  cases  of  after-swarming  there  is 
no  chance  for  a  fight,  as  all  but  the  first-hatched 
queen  are  keijf  in  their  cells. 

165— p.  230.  After  the  clo.sest  watching  on  my 
part  for  the  iiast  eighteen  years.  I  am  sure  that 
there  is  never  any  i)ipirig  till  after  one  queen  has 
hatched,  and  this  "hatched  queen  does  all  the  piping. 


DOOLITTLE'S  COMMENTS  ON  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


881 


she  being:  answered  by  those  tbat  are  miitiire,  o.nd 
lield  by  the  bees  their  in  cells  by  the  hoarser  note 
wiiich  Dr.  Miller  calls  "  quahking."'  Also  moi-e  than 
one  queen  is  never  allowed  liei'  libeity  before  the  sec- 
ond swarm  issues.  Wben  the  swarm  is  issuing-,  the 
cells  are  left  unjruarded,  and  several  of  the  mature 
queens  may  pusli  out  of  tlieir  cells,  and  run  out 
witb  the  last-issuing-  bees  of  the  swarm.  Where  a 
lot  of  queens  are  allowed  their  liberty  at  one  time, 
the  colony  thus  allowing  them  their  liberty  does  not 
calculate  to  swarm ;  hence  no  piping  is  heard. 

169  —p.  23.5.  Queens  having-  their  wings  clipped 
equally  on  both  sides,  unless  cut  very  short,  are  fre- 
quently able  to  fly  after  ridding-  themselves  of  egg-s, 
and  becoming  small  like  virgin  queens.  For  this 
reason  it  is  preferal)le  to  clip  only  one  side. 

170-p.  236.  This  is  too  rnucli  work.  With  the  left 
band,  using  the  tliumb  and  forefinger,  catch  the 
queen  hy  the  wings;  lay  tlie  sharp  small  blade  of  a 
jacK-knife,  held  in  the  right  hand,  on  tlie  wings, 
when  both  hands  ai-e  to  be  lowered  close  to  the  tops 
of  the  frames,  the  knife  drawn  a  little,  when  the 
queen  falls,  clipped,  on  the  bees  below,  and  you 
have  not  even  touclied  her  to  convey  any  foreign 
scent  to  her  ]ierson,  as  the  wings  you  have  touched 
are  left  in  your  hand. 

172— p.  240.  If  you  have  ever  seen  a  little  larva, 
36  hours  old  or  less,  that  did  not  have  more  or  less 
of  this  milky  food  surrounding  it,  you  have  seen 
someiiiing  which  I  never  did,  except  in  cases  where 
the  colony  was  bordering  on  staivation.  When  a 
colony  is  thus  starving  they  will  not  rear  good 
queens  any  way.  Well,  if  there  is  always  milky 
food  shiniiig  in  the  cells  about  the  larvte  which  are 
under  36  hours  old,  so  that  the  larvie  have  all  they 
can  eat,  tliis  is  just  as  good  as  if  they  had  ten  times 
as  much  in  the  coll,  and  they  are  certainly  progress- 
ing toward  "queenliood"  just  as  fast  in  one  case  as 
they  aie  in  the  other.  Where  the  trouble  comes,  is 
in  an  insufficient  supply  of  food  during  the  last  four 
and  a  half  days  of  larval  life,  this  being  the  time 
when  the  female  organs  of  the  workei-  are  dwaifed, 
thus  causing  it  to  hatch  out  a  worker  instead  of  a 
queen.  1  am  very  positive  that,  if  plenty  of  royal 
jelly  is  given  to  a  larva  from  the  time  it  is  36  hours 
old,"  till  it  is  sealed  up,  it  will  make  as  good  a  queen 
as  will  the  larva  which  swims  in  royal  jelly  all  its 
laival  life. 

173— p.  240.  Add  my  indorsement  to  Dr.  Miller's, 
368.     Field  bees  do  not  make  good  nurses, 

177— p.  241.  If  you  use  the  queen-cell  protectors, 
spoken  of  elsewhere,  the  bees  can  not  tear  the  cell 
down  unless  it  is  mutilated  near  the  point.  1  have 
often  used  cells  ii  these  protectors,  having  one  side 
all  open,  yet  they  hatched  out  as  perfect  queens  as 
they  would  had  tlie  cell  not  been  mutilated.  For 
this  one  purpose  alone  I  should  want  some  protect- 
ors in  my  yard,  as  many  valuable  queens  in  muti- 
lated cells  can  be  saved  by  tlieir  use. 

179— p  244.— I  think  this  unnecessary  where  full- 
sized  Irames  are  used;  besides,  alter  a  yesir  or  two 
we  should  have  none  but  mutilated  comlis  in  oui- 
nuclei  were  we  to  follow  out  tliis  plan  of  inserting  a 
jiiece  of  comb  containing  larvfe,  eveiy  little  while. 

180— p.  244.  If  you  suspect  a  cell  is  not  going  to  ' 
hatch,  cut  it  open  cai-efully  at  the  side  and  look  in. 
If  the  (jueen  is  of  the  right  form  and  color,  press  the  i 
cut  together;  insert  the  cell  in  a  (lueen-cell  i)r()tectr 
or.  and  the  queen  will  hatch  just  as  well  as  if  curious 
eyes  harl  not  peered  in  at  her.  This!  do  hundreds 
of  times  each  year. 

181— p.  244.  Yes,  and  have  cells  of  all  sizes  all 
along  the  lines  where  the  pieces  are  cutout  and  in- 
sei-ted,  in  which  many  drones  will  be  reared  when 
these  combs  are  used  in  full  colonies. 

182— p. 252.  I  covei-  the  hive  all  ui>  with  a  large 
sheet,  and  tlien  tlieie  is  no  chance  of  smotheiing; 
and.  also,  tlie  rolihers  are  not  confined  to  the  lii\e. 

IS}— p.  2.")3.  Yes;  and  while  so  confined  I  wotild 
carry  the  hivt?  to  the  cellar.  I  frequently  do  this, 
leaving  it  in  the  cellar  till  pollen  liecomes  plentilul, 
or  sotnet  hing  conies  about  that  causes  the  robbers 
t<i  be  interested  in  sometiiing  else. 

isti-p.  2r5.  I  had  plenty  of  snakes  live  under  my 
hives  one  season,  and  the  idea  that  bees  dislike 
8n;ikes  is  all  bosh.  I  have  seen  snakes  glicle  in  and 
out  of  the  enliance  of  dillereiit  hives,  but  the  bees 
paid  no  attention  to  them. 

Yes  ;  l»ut  snakes  pay  attention  to  the  l)ees. 
They  once  for  us  depleted  a  full  colony,  be- 


sides making  inroads  into  quite  a  number  of 
others.  The  bees  may  not  dislike  snakes, 
but  the  snakes  certainly  do  like  the  bees. 

187— p.  256.  You  do  not  say  a  word  about  the  bees 
crawling  all  over  one  when  working  by  lamp  or 
lantern  light.  This  I  find  to  be  a  perfect  nuisance 
with  me. 

If  you  work  right,  they  won't  crawl  all 
over  you.  Dont  get  too  clo.se  to  the  lamp  or 
lantern. 

188—1).  258.  The  only  sure  way  to  tell  about  rob- 
bers is  to  kill  a  bee  which  you  suspect  to  be  a  robber. 
If  you  find  its  sac  full  of  honey  you  may  know  that 
such  a  bte  was  a  robber,  for  bees  always  carry  honey 
ivtij  a  hive,  never /rom  it,  except  in  cases  of  iobbing 
or  swarming.  Young  bees  taking  a  jilayspell  often 
look  as  plump  as  robbers,  but  when  one  is  killed  it 
is  found  full  of  e.xcrementa,  not  honey. 

189— p.  262.  Smoke  will  drive  yellow-jackets  and 
bumble  bees  much  quicker  than  it  wil  bees,  so  the.y 
will  leave  their  nests  entirely— the  yellow-jackets 
rarely  returning,  but  the  bumblebees  will  return. 

191— p  271.  This  is  the  way  1  always  remove  them ; 
and  if  you  learn  by  instinct,  as  it  were,  to  strike 
your  hand  against  your  clothing  at  the  moment  you 
feel  the  strike  to  sting,  you  will,  in  nearly  all  cases, 
remove  the  wbole  sung,  and  sutt'er  scarcely  any 
pain.  I  always  wear  a  veil,  ;is  I  don't  want  them  in 
my  face  if  they  did  not  sting  at  all 

A  bee  must  always  ''  lay  hold,"  as  it  were,  with  its 
feet  before  it  can  siing;  and  after  practicing  strik- 
ing my  hands  down  on  my  clothing  to  rub  stings 
out,  for  ^  ears,  it  has  become,  as  it  were,  second  na- 
ture to  me,  so  that,  as  soon  as  I  feel  this  "'laying 
hold,"  my  baud,  or  the  part  the  bee  is  on,  comes  to 
the  clothing  without  thought,  so  that  not  one  bee 
in  five  which  intends  to  sting  me  succeeds  in  doing 
so.  When  I  go  out  into  the  nee-yard  without  a  veil, 
the  same  instinct,  or  second  nature,  brings  my 
sleeve  up  to  my  face  when  a  bee  alights  on  me  there 
to  sting,  so  that  I  can  safely  saj'  I  do  uot  get  stung 
once  now  to  where  I  used  to  ten  times  fifteen  years 
ag;o  I  also  know  in  an  instant  whether  a  bee  which 
alights  on  me  intends  to  sting  or  not;  and  when  it 
does  not,  no  inclination  comes  over  me  to  rub  it  off. 

193-p  273.  This  is  the  worst  trial  I  have,  and  I 
sometimes  feel  like  telling  such  persons  that  it 
seems  as  if  tliey  should  "know  sometliinsr;"  but 
instead,  I  request  them  to  come  back  where  I  am, 
only  to  repeat  it  when  I  open  the  next  hive,  and  so 
on.  Isn't  it  strange  that  some  folks  can  not  learn 
any  thing? 

194— p.  373.  This  is  more  common  with  the  blacks 
and  hybrids,  very  little  of  this  angry  buzzing  being 
done  by  the  Italians.  The  Cyprians  are  the  most 
vindictive  of  any  bees  I  ever  handled;  but,  sti-ange 
to  say.  they  would  allow  j^ou  to  stand  for  hours  at  a 
time  right  in  front  of  the  entrance,  turning  out  for 
you  or  putting  up  with  almost  any  inconvenience 
as  long  as  their  home  was  not  molested,  without  any 
of  this  angry  buzzing  or  giving  a  single  sting;  but 
let  some  little  mishap  occur  while  opening  the  liive, 
and  a  quart  of  angry  bees  would  be  on  you  in  a  mo- 
ment. 

19.")— p.  274.  1  never  had  any  bees  but  the  Cyprians 
that  would  follow  me  through  a  door;  but  these  fel- 
lows would  do  so,  and  sting  equally  bad  in  a  room 
as  anywhere  else.  It  was  after  a  tight  with. 'iO  to  75 
of  these  fellows  in  my  shop  (fighting  till  1  had  killed 
every  one  of  them,  because  tlie.v  insisted  on  coming 
into  the  shop  and  stinging),  that  I  decided  that  they 
must  go,  for  the  Cyprian  bees  are  the  best  honey- 
gatherers  of  anj-  of  the  races. 

196-1).  274.  I  eari-y  a  "  paddle,"  made  of  wood  and 
wire  cloth,  in  my  work-bo.\ ;  and  if  any  bee  insists 
on  following  me  two  rods  from  its  hive,  I  always 
kill  it  with  this  paddle,  and  thus  my  ai)iaiy  is  always 
kept  free  from  angi-y  bei-s.  The  wire  cloth  is  in- 
serted in  the  center  of  the  wood,  so  as  to  allow  the 
airtogo  thi-ough  the  padtUe,  thus  making  sui-e  of 
hitting  the  bee  every  time,  instead  of  blowing  it 
one  side,  as  is  often  the  case  where  only  solid  wood 
is  used. 

197  1).  274.  The  busy  man  has  no  time  for  this. 
Take  olf  the  cover  of  the  hive,  i-aise  one  corner  of 
the  quilt,  and,  as  you  "peel"  it  oflT.  gi\e  two  or 
thi-ee  gentle  puIVs  of  smoke  midei-  the  (luilt  and 
over  tlu'  tops  of  the  fi-anii's.  You  can  now  go  about, 
your  work  with  this  colony  of  bees  with  Tai)idity; 
while,  if  you   ti-y  to  jjet    along  without  aii\-  smoke. 


382 


DOOLITTLE'S  COMMENTS  ON  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


you  must  work  slowly;  and,  ten  chances  to  one, 
after  all  your  care  tlie  colony  will  get  aroused,  ten 
times  the  smoke  now  liaving;  to  be  used  that  would 
have  been  used  on  the  start  if  woikcd  as  I  sus'Kcst, 
and  many  cross  bees  be  following  you  around,  if 
not  killed.  Don't  let  us  g-et  too  sentimental  over 
any  practical  work  in  and  about  the  aiJiary. 

2()I— p.  277.  T  always  blow  a  little  smoke  under 
the  quilt  as  I  raise  it,  and  after  tliat  use  no  more  un- 
less they  show  signs  of  stinging.  In  this  way  no 
time  is  wa.sted  to  have  them  off  from  the  tops  of  tiie 
frames  out  of  the  way.  Any  colony  can  be  subdued 
by  blowing  in  a  little  smoke  at  the  entrance,  and 
closing  it,  and  then  rapping  on  the  hive  a  few  times. 
In  two  or  three  minutes  you  can  do  anything  with 
them. 

202— p.  279.  Why  not  saj'  bees  .swarm  because  it  is 
God's  plan  to  keep  them  from  becoming  extinct,  as 
much  as  it  is  his  plan  for  the  birds  to  return  to  us 
each  spring,  mate,  and  raise  their  young';"  With  an 
apartment  that  is  suited  to  the  l)ees  for  all  seasons 
of  theye;ii',  that  is  not  enlarged  or  coiiti'acted  by 
man,  the  bees  iii%'ariably  swarm  if  the  sea.son  is  i^ro- 
pitious,  and  all  the  combined  ideas  of  man  have  not 
as  yet  been  sufficient  to  pioduce  a  non-swaiming 
hive  when  worked  for  comb  honey,  that  was  leliable. 

204— p.  280.  Bees  have  been  known  to  swarm  many 
times  when  wintered  over  in  a  large  hive  that  they 
had  tilled  only  lialf  full  the  year  before,  without 
building  a  bit  of  comb  l)efore  swai'ming;  thus  prov- 
ing that  lack  of  I'oom  does  not  cause  swarming. 
Why  not  admit  the  real  cause  of  swarming,  which  is 
all  embraced  in  the  one  sentence  of  the  Creator  of 
all  things,  where  he  .said,  "Go  forth,  multiply,  and 
replenish  the  earth  "  '? 

20.5— p.  2S1.  How  about  the  comb  they  would 
build":'  At  present  prices  of  wax,  this  would  be 
worth  more  than  "  a  fly." 

206— p.  282.  I  never  could  see  a  bit  of  difference 
as  to  the  work  of  a  colony,  and  I  have  watched 
closely  to  see,  when  I  knew  a  colony  had  a  sealed 
queen-cell. 

207— p.  282.  I  do  iKjt  believe  that  the  first  swarm 
of  Vie  sca.ion,  in  any  apiary,  whether  containing  one 
colony  or  one  thousand,  ever  issued  until  the  first 
queen-cell  was  capped  over.  If  I  am  correct  in  this, 
and  no  one  has  shown  that  it  was  otherwise,  then 
there  is  no  need  of  watL-hing  for  swarms  till  queen- 
cells,  nearly  ready  to  seal,  are  found.  After  several 
swarms  have  issued  in  an  apiary,  then  it  is  that 
swarms  may  issue  without  any  preparations  in  the 
way  of  queen-cells. 

209— p.  287.  I  think  all  of  this  very  much  more 
work  than  to  keep  all  (jueens'  wings  clipped,  and 
hive  the  swarms  on  the  returning  plan.  Where 
an  apiary  is  worked  with  clipped  queens,  and  all 
after-swarming  is  prevented,  as  it  ahould  always  he, 
tall  trees,  absconding  swarms,  or  .several  swarms 
out  at  once,  give  no  anxiety  to  the  apiarist. 

2  9— p.  288.  Here  is  where  your  swarming-device 
comes  ill  well.  As  the  swarm  is  issuing,  open  the 
swarmer,  hold  it  in  front  of  the  hive  till  a  pint  or 
quart  of  bees  have  run  and  flown  in;  close  and  at- 
tach the  caged  queen  to  the  swarmer,  and  set  it  up 
anywhere  in  the  yard  for  bees  to  cluster  on.  When 
clustered,  hive  wherever  you  wish,  letting  the  queen 
run  in  with  the  bees,  when  about  half  have  gone  in. 

210— p.  288.  No  mistake  so  far  as  my  experience 
goes. 

211— p.  289.  The  hive  which  begins  to  "draw"  the 
bees  first  will  usually  get  the  larger  share  of  these 
bees.  To  ob\iate  this  I  use  two  plans,  the  first  of 
which  is  to  put  a  sheet  over  tlie  one  that  the  bees  go 
to  first,  as  s(jon  as  it  has  nearly  or  quite  its  projjor- 
tion  of  bees,  wliich  causes  the  re.st  of  the  bees  to  go 
to  the  other  location.  If  more  than  two  are  out,  a 
slieet  is  put  over  the  second  hive  when  bees  enough 
have  entered,  and  so  on  till  I  have  them  where  I 
wish.  The  other  plan  is  to  i)lace  a  caged  queen  with 
the  large  cluster  to  hold  it  till  all  get  settled,  and  I 
have  the  hives  all  prepared,  when  I  dip  a  certain 
number  of  measures  full  of  bees  to  each  hive,  let- 
ting each  .swarm  have  one  of  the  caged  queens,  and 
all  are  where  and  just  as  I  wish  them. 

212— p.  289.  I  never  knew  but  one  first  swarm  to 
issue  tlie  second  time  on  the  same  day — a  returned 
swarm.  I  mean. 

216— p.  290.  I  don't  agree;  your  extracting  reduces 
them,  for  the  time  Ijeing,  to  a  .state  of  poverty,  the 
same  as  a  dearth  of  forage;  lience,  all  idea  of 
swarming  is  given   uj)  the   same  as  it  is  when   the 


flowers  yield  no  honey,  on  the  principle  that  God 
has  given  them  knowledge  enough  to  know  that 
they  can't  prosper  outside  of  the  old  hive  without  a 
yield  of  honey.  The  above  holds  good  where  small 
hives  are  used.  Large  hives  filled  with  comb  or 
comb  foundation  tend  to  keep  from  swarming, 
whether  the  extractor  is  used  or  not. 

218- p.  29.5.  I  have  never  known  it  to  fail  but  one 
year  during  the  past  twenty-one  years,  the  time  I 
have  kept  bees.  Teasel  will,  in  all  [Jiobability,  soon 
be  a  thing  of  the  past,  as  the  price  is  now  down  to  25 
cts.  per  tlKJUsand,  on  account  of  new  machinery  be- 
ing introduced  to  take  its  place. 

222— p.  297.  Put  a  box  or  cap  to  a  hive,  over  the 
open  mouth  of  the  old  hive;  and,  dui'ing  the  tearing 
to  pieces  of  the  old  hive,  etc.,  the  bees  will  all,  or 
nearly  all,  run  up  into  this  and  be  out  of  tlie  way. 
When  through,  they  can  be  liived  into  the  new  hive. 

225— p.  298.  The  drumming  is  done  by  getting  off 
tlie  side  of  the  old  hive,  and  getting  tlie  nails  out  of 
the  cro.s.s-sticks  so  no  time  is  wasted. 

2i6— p.  298.  Don't  lay  the  hive  on  its  side  at  all, 
but  stand  it  with  its  itKJUth  up.  In  this  way  you  oaii 
cut  the  nails  just  as  well,  be  in  no  danger  of  injur- 
ing the  combs,  and,  by  putting  a  box  partly  or 
wholly  over  the  mouth  of  the  hive  while  doing  this 
work,  the  bees  will  all  run  up  into  the  box  out  of  the 
way. 

227— p.  3ol.  .Alternate  the  frames,  and  thus  mix 
the  bees  thorouglily,  and  tljey  will  never  tight  at 
any  time  of  the  year. 

But  they  do  sometimes,  friend  D,,  with  us, 
nevertheless.  I  wish  you  would  try  uniting 
Cyprians  in  that  way. 

228— p.  3  1.  The  honey  will  be  removed  much 
sooner  if  placed  under  the  bees. 

223— p.  3(11.    I  never  lost  one  in  my  life. 

230— p.  302.  I  don't  agree.  August  is  the  time  to 
unite  bees.  The  first  part  of  September  would  do, 
where  fall  flowers  are  abundant.  It  is  far  easier  to 
unite  bees  in  the  brood  form  in  August  than  in  the 
bee  form  in  October,  for  the  brood  tlie  last  of  Au- 
gu.st  are  the  bees  of  October. 

231— p.  3l2.  The  better  way  is  to  shake  tlie  swarm, 
that  has  been  hived  from  two  days  to  a  week,  out  of 
its  hive,  ill  front  of  the  Sd,me;  and  while  they  are 
running  in  again,  sliake  the  swarm  down  with  them. 
In  this  way  1  never  knew  any  fighting,  but  I  ha\'e 
had  nearly  all  of  the  swarm  killed,  in  spite  of  all  I 
could  do,  by  allowing  the  new  swai'm  to  run  in  with 
the  one  hived  a  few  days  before,  when  those  e.stab- 
lished  in  the  hive  were  not  disturbed  before  attempt- 
ing to  run  in  the  new  swarm. 

232 — p.  3  )3.  I  wear  it  all  the  while  when  I  make  a 
general  business  of  working  with  the  bees. 

233 — p.  307.  You  are  ju.st  "shouting"  here,  and 
this  is  one  great  secret  of  success  in  getting  box- 
honey.  To  keep  the  surplus  apartment  as  warm  and 
nice  as  it  should  be,  a  cap  or  hood  to  each  hive  is  al- 
most a  necessity. 

234— p.  309.  Vinegar  is  also  used  in  cleansing  wax. 
By  its  use  the  impurities  can  be  made  to  separate 
from  the  wax  nearly  as  fast  again  as  where  no  vine- 
gar is  used  in  the  water  the  wax  is  melted  in. 

236— p.  310.  I  am  glad  you  say  "I  think."  I  think 
that  what  you  saw  was  nothing  but  excrement  in  a 
very  thin  form.  But  why  did  you  not  prove  your 
"think"  by  killing  one  of  those  heavily  laden  bees 
as  thej'  went  out,  and  di.ssect  it,  .so  as  to  tell  us  just 
what  she  was  laden  with?  By  doing  this,  and  then 
dissecting  one  i>f  those  less  corpulent  that  went  into 
the  hive,  you  could  have  proved  to  us  positively 
whether  your  "think  "  was  right.  I  once  thought 
that  my  bees  were  getting  honey  quite  rapidly;  and 
wondering  what  it  came  from  I  dissected  one  of 
these  loaded  fellows,  and  found  that  the  contents  of 
the  honey-sac  was  brackish  water. 

You  may  call  it  excrement  in  a  very  thin 
form,  friend  D.,  if  you  choo.se  ;  but  to  show 
you  that  I  aiii  pmbably  right,  I  will  mention 
one  thing  I  did  not  think  proper  to  put  in 
print  till  you  called  it  out.  When  I  made 
the  experiment,  I  wanted  to  be  sure  it  was 
only  water,  and  not  sweetened  water,  that 
they  were  expelling,  so  1  borrowed  of  Mrs. 
Root  several  clean  dinner-plates  and  placed 


DOOLITTLE'S  COMMENTS  OX  THE  A  B  C  BOOK. 


3SS 


under  where  thej^  were  playing  in  the  sun- 
shine. Well,  this  substance  that  dropped 
on  the  plates  looked  exactly  like  clear  water, 
and  when  I  touched  it  with  my  hnger  and 
tasted  it  there  was  no  sweet  about  it  at  all. 

3:^8— p.  317.  Like  you,  I  know  it  is  ver.v  esisy  {ret- 
ting- tniiigs  daubed  with  \v;ix  wlieie  it  is  rendered  in 
tlie  old  way;  l)ut  with  tlie  sun  wax-exti'aetoi',  no  one 
can  get  wax  daubed  about,  as.  witli  tills,  wax  is 
never  liandled  in  its  melted  form.  Here  is  a  i)oint 
for  tlie  sun  wax-extractor  wliieli  you  did  not  score. 

239— p.  320.  Bean  meal  is  often  used  to  adulterate 
wax,  so  I  am  told. 

340 — p.  320.  The  reason  wlij-  you  did  not  see  tliat 
"spoonful"  of  lionej'  was  because  .vou  did  not  look 
in  the  right  place.  If  you  had  taken  a  bud  a  little 
more  advanced  than  the  one  In  the  left  of  the  cut, 
one  just  ready  to  blossom,  and  torn  it  open,  you 
would  have  ftiund  the  honey.  In  this  localitj-  the 
wasps  and  hornets  bite  into  these  buds  near  the 
middle,  so  as  to  get  at  the  honey  before  tlie  blossom 
opens;  and  after  they  sip  what  they  wish,  the  bees 
take  the  rest.  I  have  often  seen  as  much  as  a  tea- 
spoonful  ()f  thin  nectar  in  a  single  whitewood  bud. 

241— p.  32;}.  So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  there 
can  be  but  little  if  any  gain  in  bees  made,  in  this  lo- 
cality, by  thus  feeding  in  September.  The  bees  will 
not  breed  as  in  June,  and  the  exertion  in  carrying 
this  feed  and  keeping  up  the  temperature  for  brood- 
rearing  wears  out  the  bees  of  the  hive  about  as  fast 
as  the  young  ones  are  reared.  From  past  experience 
I  prefer  to  go  into  winter  quarters  with  mostlj'  old 
bees  rather  than  try  to  rear  young  ones  at  tliis  time 
of  year.  We  have  very  little  brood  in  the  hives 
after  the  2.5tli  of  August. 

24,3— p.  326.  After  trying  the  spreading  plan  on 
part  of  my  apiary  for  several  yeai's,  I  see  nothing  in 
its  favor;  so  I  now  leave  the  frames  during  the  win- 
ter just  the  same  as  in  summer. 

244 — p.  327.  I  consider  line  dry  basswood  sawdust 
just  a  little  better  than  any  thing  else  for  cushions, 
lia\nng  the  cushions  about  three  inches  thick. 

245 — p.  338.  The  Good  candy  is  best  for  winter 
feeding,  and  it  is  a  great  convenience  to  have  a 
piece  of  wire  cloth  over  the  frames  to  keep  the  bees 
out  of  the  way  while  you  are  putting  the  candy  on 
and  looking  after  things. 

246— p.  328.  If  that  warm  day  comes.  We  fre- 
quently have  from  130  to  160  days  here  in  wliich  the 
bees  can  not  flj':  and  in  such  ca.ses  they  are  better 
off  in  the  cellar. 

247— p.  339.  If  the  temperature  is  right.  A  damp 
cellar  needs  a  higher  temperature  than  a  dry  one, 
to  winter  bees  successfully. 

248 — p.  329.  If  the  cellar  is  a  proper  one,  an  open 
winter  should  make  no  difference  with  it,  hence  I  do 
not  si'e  any  logic  in  this  sentence.  If  the  bees  are 
short  of  stores  in  the  spring,  it  is  easy  feeding  them 
after  they  are  out  of  the  cellar. 

349— p.  339.  I  use  my  sawdust  cushions  on  the 
hives  which  are  i)ut  into  the  cellar,  just  the  same  as 
I  do  on  those  outdoors,  and  like  them  much.  Per- 
haps I  should  say  that  the  hives  which  are  put  into 
the  cellai-  are  chaff'  hives  also. 

2.50— p.  *30.    Don't    wait    foi-  snow.    Put    them    in 


.some  quiet  day  with  the  mercury  at  38  to  44  degrees, 
and  you  will  never  wait  for  snow  again. 

2.")1— 1>.  33'1.  I  I'emonstrate.  Pry  these  hives  u])  a 
week  in  advance,  slipping  a  shingle  nail  between, 
then  lift  the  bees  quietly  when  sitting  into  the 
cellar. 

3  3— p.  332.  I  should  consider  bees  better  oft'  on 
their  summer  stand  than  in  a  cellar  that  would  vary 
10  degiees  in  temperature.  Si.ch  a  variation  tend* 
to  make  the  bees  uneasy,  causes  them  to  go  to  breed- 
ing, and  often  results  in  diarrhea  and  spring  dwin- 
dling. My  liee-cellar  has  not  varied  four  degi'ees  be- 
tween the  hottest  and  coldest  temperature,  while 
the  liees  weie  in  it.  during  the  past  tilteen  years,  it 
usually  standing  at  from  43  to  43  degrees. 

2.54— p.  333.  In  re-covering  my  cellar  with  flag- 
stone 1  did  not  make  an.v  provision  for  ventilation, 
.so  the  A'entilator  shown  at  6  is  not  on  the  cellar  now. 
I  See  no  difference  in  the  behavior  of  the  bees,  now 
the  ventilator  is  off'. 

3.58— p.  334.  As  you  advise  waiting  till  pollen  is  plen- 
tiful (which  advice  is  good),  3-our  advice  as  to  the 
time  of  day  in  putting  out  is  bad,  as  it  is  so  warm  at 
this  season  of  the  year  that  robbing  will  likely  re- 
sult from  those  set  out  previously,  or  from  tliose 
wintered  on  summer  stands.  Commence  to  set  them 
out  about  four  o'clock,  not  setting  any  out  later . 
than  when  the  sun  is  an  hour  high,  on  a  warm  day, 
and  they  will  have  a  nice  fly,  and  protect  themselves 
the  next  morning. 

2.59— p.  334.  All  of  my  experience  says  weak 
swarms  fjom  the  cellar  are  no  more  liable  to  swarm 
out  than  are  tliose  of  the  same  strength  wintered  on 
their  summer  stands. 

260— p.  334.  I  put  half  an  inch  of  dry  basswood 
sawdust  on  the  floor  of  my  cellar  every  mimth  dur- 
ing the  winter,  which  answers  instead  of  sweeping 
the  dead  bees  up,  and  keeps  all  dry  and  sweet. 

261— p.  334.  I  never  used  a  stove  except  one  year, 
and  then  I  lo.st  nearly  all  of  the  bees. 

263— p.  337.  The  uniting  of  sprinsr-dwindliiig  colo- 
nies does  no  good.  If  the}"  will  pull  through  united, 
they  will  do  so  singly.  1  have  put  as  high  as  eight 
such  colonies  together,  and  at  the  end  of  two  weeks 
they  were  no  stronger  than  colonies  not  uidted, 
which  were  no  better  than  either  of  the  united  ones 
were  two  weeks  previously. 

363— p.  Sil.  I  believe  these  bees  die  of  old  age, 
caused  by  ii  used-up  vitality  from  holding  the  ex- 
crement so  long.  If  you  will  consider,  you  will  see 
that  all  evidences  point  that  way. 

364— p.  335.  This  sounds  better  than  what  you  say 
elsewhere.  I  bi'lieve  it  well  pays  to  sa^ve  all  pieces 
(if  worker  comb  6  inches  square.  This  you  save. 
while  foundation  costs  money. 


Frioid  R'liit: — Although  I  have  been  pressed  for 
time  and  hardly  knew  how  to  do  it,  I  have  thorough- 
ly read  the  preceding  liases,  and  criticised  what  I 
Considered  wrong.  1  may  not  have  clothed  my  lan- 
guage with  as  smooth  a  dress  as  some  would  have 
d(me;  but,  believe  me,  I  have  not  intended  to  be 
harsh,  and  if  you  tind  any  thing  that  so  siiunds,  please 
forgive.    I  did  not  intend  any  thing  but  kinilness. 

(i.  M.  DuOI.ITTI.K. 

Borodino,  N.  Y. 


MILLER^S  REVIEW  AND  COMMENTS  ON 
THE  ABC  BOOK. 


Recognizing  the  value  of  the  comments  of 
My.  Doolittle  in  previous  editions  of  this 
work.  I  have  thought  best  to  solicit  the  aid, 
in  a  similar  way,  of  a  no  less  practical  and 
prominent  bee-keeper.  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller,  of 
Marengo,  111.  Accoidingly,  in  1888  he  re- 
viewed most  caret ully  this  entire  work,  and 
I  here  append  the  comments  which  he  has 
made.  Although  we  differ  on  some  few 
points  it  will  be  interesting  to  the  reader 
to  notice  how  nearly  we  agree  in  our  experi- 
ences on  all  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  pursuit.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  Mr. 
Doolittle "s  comments  are  numbered  from  1 
to  303,  and  that  Dr.  Millers  begin  with  305 
and  include  all  successive  numbei  ings.  As 
before,  the  figure  at  the  right  indicates  the 
page  from  which  comment  is  made. 

305— p.  4.  The  third  objection  is  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  be  sure  that  no  queen-cell  has  escaped 
observation,  and  j-ou  might  nearly  as  well  leave  all 
as  to  leave  one. 

307— p.  8.  I  think  it  very  desirable  that  not  a  sin- 
gle bee  shall  be  hindered  in  its  work,  but  I  do  think 
the  amount  of  hindrance  is  often  overrated.  The  ex- 
periment here  given  is  striking-,  and  apparently 
conclusive,  but  there  may  have  been  other  reasons 
for  the  great  difference.  In  no  case  could  the  loss 
in  storing  be  greater  than  would  occur  from  taking 
away  as  many  bees  as  the  greatest  number  hinder- 
ed at  any  one  time.  Here  was  one-flfth  of  the  total 
storing  apparently  lost.  Have  you  the  slightest 
idea  that  one-flfth  of  the  field  force  were  lying  in 
front  of  the  entrance? 

For  the  time  being,  I  think  that  perhaps 
one-fifth  of  the  field  force  were  in  front  of 
the  entrance;  but  the  loss  in  the  aggregate 
wouhl  be  only  the  amount  of  time  these 
bees  were  hindered  in  getting  their  breath, 
and  taking  wing  again.  You  will  often  see 
weeds  or  grass  in  front  of  the  hive  bumped 
by  the  bees  until  the  leaves  are  torn  to 
shreds.  The  wings  of  our  little  workers 
are  also  torn  to  shreds  by  this  kind  of 
bumping:  and  I  do  think  it  quite  impor- 
tant that  the  owner  of  the  hives  should  by 
some  means  keep  weeds  and  grass  out  of 
the  path  of  the  worker-bees. 

308— p.  10.  Alsike  well  deserves  a  place  in  the 
flower-garden.  A  bouijuet  of  alsike  is  very  beau- 
tiful and  deliuhtfully  fragrant.  Like  some  others, 
however,  I  have  failed  to  make  it  a  profitable  crop. 

309— p.  10.  Unlike  red  clover,  the  stalks  of  hay 
from  alsike  clover  are  all  eaten  clean. 

311— p.  17.  I  can  transplant  successfully  at  any 
season  of  the  year  almost  any  thing  but  a  poppy, 
but  you  couldn't  get  metotransplaut  grapevines  in 
full  leaf.    Spring  or  fall,  always. 

312— p.  18.  Only  don't  forget  to  "  firm  "  the  ground 
well  after  planting,  by  trami)ing. 

313— p.  24.  Unless  my  figures  are  all  wrong  it  will 
cost  considerably  more  to  paint  the  building  than 
the  36  hives,  so  I  can't  see  the  advantage. 


314— p.  34.  Yes,  but  you  must  carry  it  to  some 
other  place  to  brimstone  it,  as  nearly  all  agree  is 
necessary. 

Friend  Miller,  I  can  not  agree  with  you 
in  this.  My  impression  is,  that  just  now 
nearly  all  the  honey  producers  agree  that 
brimstoning  is  unnecessary. 

315— p.  24.  Yes,  but  as  a  general  thing  bees  should 
not  l)e  touched  during  rainy  and  wet  weather. 
The  most  of  the  work  is  done  in  bright,  hot  weather, 
and  isn't  it  pretty  hot  work  in  the  house-apiary 
sometimes  with  the  doors  closed,  compared  with 
the  shade  of  an  old  apple-tree':' 

But  suppose  a  light  shower  comes  up 
when  you  are  busy  at  work  out  among  the 
hives.  You  can  go  into  the  house-apiary 
and  work  quite  comfortably  until  the  show- 
er is  over.  When  we  have  a  whole  rainy 
day,  I  agree  with  you  that  it  is  better  not  to 
handle  bees,  if  it  can  be  avoided. 

317— p.  26.  Perrine's  floating  apiary  was  aban- 
doned as  a  failure. 

318— p.  31.  I  think  it  important  to  shake  off  some 
young  bees  into  the  hive  where  the  queen  is  to  be 
raised. 

353— p.  .53.  I  prefer  one  which  sent  off  a  swarm  at 
the  last  swarming  season. 

33J— p.  77.  This  allows  too  few  supers  in  the  tent. 
I  have  practiced  p  utting  one  super  flat  on  the 
ground,  another  upon  this  crosswise,  then  another 
crosswise,  and  so  on  as  high  as  they  could  be  piled, 
and  as  many  piles  as  would  go  in  the  tent.  The 
bees  will  not  go  out  quite  so  soon  as  if  the  supers 
stood  on  end  separately,  but  you  get  through  with 
a  big  lot  at  once. 

332— p.  98.  I  doubt  it.  I  once  had  a  good  colony 
in  a  hive  almost  entirely  filled  with  drone  comb. 
They  swarmed  out  after  occupying  it,  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly,  only  a  few  days,  and  I  know  of  no  rea- 
son for  their  leaving,  except  their  having  so  much 
drone  comb.  After  changing  their  comb  for  work- 
er, they  remained  contented. 

3.33— p.  101.  Is  not "  diarrhea  "  a  better  name  than 
"  dysentery'"? 

3.34— p.  102.  Is  not  a  good  cellar  in  proper  condi- 
tion just  as  ready  a  means  at  the  command  of  some? 

A  good  cellar  is  probably  just  as  well 
where  cellar  wintering  is  found  to  be  ad- 
visable. 

38.5— p.  103.  I  am  not  sure  about  it,  but  I  have 
had  cases  that  looked  much  as  if  they  were  cured, 
simply  by  being  warmed  up  in  the  cellar;  that  is, 
running  the  temperature  of  the  cellar  up  as  high 
as  50°. 

336— p.  104.  Mice  are  not  so  apt  to  riddle  surplus 
combs  in  which  no  brood  has  been  raised,  as  old 
black  brood-combs.  These  they  will  chew  up  fine, 
perhaps  on  account  of  the  cocoons,  (may  they  not 
contain  a  trifle  of  sweetness?)  and  I  think  in  such 
combs  I  would  rather  have  occasional  batches  of 
honey,  or  honey  accessible  near  by,  in  hopes  that 
they  might  gnaw  the  combs  less.  One  year  mice 
were  plentiful  in  my  honey  -  room,  where  were 
thousands  of  sections,  and  scarcely  a  section  was 
touched,  because  extracted  honey  was  allowed  in 
daubs  on  the  floor.  Extremely  untidy,  but  it  saved 
dollars. 


MILLER'S  COMMENTS  OX  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


3«o 


337— p.  106.  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  more 
chance  of  clogging  in  single-walled  hives,  providing 
they  are  wintered  in  the  cellar. 

$38— p.  106.  The  entrances  to  my  hives  were  % 
inch,  full  width  of  the  hive.  I  found  it  so  difflcult 
to  clean  out  the  dead  bees,  in  the  cellar,  that  I  took 
a  3-inch  chisel  and  enlarged  all  the  entrances  to  i4 
inch.  I  think  I  like  this  better  for  all  times  of  the 
year.  In  early  spring  a  pine  stick  closes  up  the  en- 
trance so  only  a  few  bees  can  pass.  If  at  any  time 
this  seems  to  crowd  them  the  entrance  is  enlarged; 
and  when  hot  weather  comes,  the  whole  entrance  is 
left  open. 

3;J9-p.  106.  I  think  there  is  danger  that  the  en- 
trance would  be  worse  clogged  if  stopped  with  wire 
cloth.  Besides,  in  the  cellar  the  dead  bees  may 
need  cleaning  out  several  times  in  the  course  of  the 
winter,  and  the  wire  cloth  would  be  in  the  way. 

340— p.  lOV.  Neither  have  I,  if  it  is  to  be  bottled 
up  as  soon  as  extracted,  and  I  know  that  honey  im- 
proves in  the  keeping  of  the  bees;  but  I  also  know 
that  unsealed  honey  can  be  improved  after  being 
e.vtracted,  and,  if  rightly  managed,  may  it  not  equal 
that  ripened  by  the  bees? 

341— p.  110.  For  years,  when  I  wanted  any  extra 
nice  honey  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  draining  it 
off  and  melting  the  grain,  and  never  failed  with 
clover  honey;  but  linden  (I  don't  often  have  linden) 
I  can't  drain.  It  runs,  grain  and  all,  like  half-melt- 
ed lard.    Is  all  linden  the  same'/ 

I  do  not  think  all  linden  can  be  the  same, 
for  with  us  it  gives  the  very  nicest,  whitest, 
and  dr^^est  lumps  of  candied  honey.  In 
fact,  we  have  had  barrels  of  it  drained  off 
so  it  could  be  handled  much  like  sugar. 

343 — p.  123.  I  dislike  to  make  any  issue  on  this 
ground;  hut  after  having  had  syrup  with  no  acid 
which  had  been  boiled  granulate  in  the  feeder,  I 
hardly  dare  to  omit  the  tartaric  acid,  although  I  am 
a  little  afraid  the  acid  may  not  be  quite  so  good  for  | 
the  bees.  Notwithstanding  the  very  serious  results  ] 
that  would  follow  fidin  burning  the  sugar,  it  has 
been  with  me  sucli  slow  work  dissolving  ijrnnulated 
sugar  without  having  it  over  The  tire,  that  1  always 
boil  it.  At  tirst  I  always  stirred  constantly  from 
the  time  the  sugar  was  poured  in  till  the  syrup  was 
taken  off;  but  after  seeing  that  candy-makers  nev- 
er stir  at  all,  although  they  boil  down  syrup  much 
thicker  than  we  do.  I  allowed  it  to  cook  without 
stirring,  except  to  stir  when  the  sugar  is  tirst  pour- 
ed into  the  boiling  water,  so  as  to  be  sure  nothing- 
like  dry  sugar  can  settle  and  burn  on  the  bottom. 

34.T — p.  1T8.  Is  this  well  authenticated?  You  will 
find  manna  sold  in  the  drug  stores,  and  I  am  rather 
fond  of  it.  I  think  it  is  sometimes  used  as  food,  and 
is  the  dried  juice  of  the  Fiat<nxi>t  orjiux.  or  flower- 
ing ash  of  Southern  Europe;  but  I  think  it  never 
falls  from  the  air. 

3»6— p.  179.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  we  have  had 
reports  of  fields  of  wheat  stubble  covered  with  a 
kind  of  nectar,  and  I  think  it  is  quite  common  for 
corn-i)lants  to  secrete  nectar. 

349— p.  l'<8.  For  years  1  have  followed  this  plan: 
When  a  colony  shows  its  sense  of  queenlessncss  by 
starting  queen-ceils,  no  matter  if  theciuceii-cclls  are 
well  Hflvanced,  I  siniplj'  lift  a  frame  out  of  the  brood- 
nest  and  place  theciueen  right  amongthe  beeson  the 
brooil,  with  no  precaution  or  preparation  whatever. 
So  seldom  is  there  any  loss  that  I  much  prefer  this 
plan  to  caging,  although  the  plan  might  not  work 
so  well  when  honey  is  not  coming  in.  Latterly  I 
generallj'  follow  a  still  safer  plan,  original  with  me, 
but  discovered  by  others  as  well.  It  is,  to  merely 
lift  out  from  a  nucleus  the  frame  containing  the 
queen,  and  put  it,  bees  and  all,  into  the  queenless 
hive.  Probably  the  cages  are  best  for  Mr.  Root,  be- 
cause he  receives  his  queens  from  abroad  in  cages. 

I  liave  tried  both  plans  you  mention  for 
introducing  queens;  but  once  in  a  great 
while  tliey  are  both  liable  to  fail.  The  fail- 
ures are  so  few,  however,  that  I  would  let 
any  queen  loose  as  you  did,  that  does  not 
cost  over  a  dollar. 

3.50— p.  19i.  Will  not  any  <|ueen  do  so  if  held  in  the 
cell  some  time  by  the  bees'/  Will  a  Cypr-ian  do  so  as 
soon  as  she  is  old  enough  to  gnaw  out  of  tier  cell? 

3.51— p.  194.  Sonii'  insist  that,  the  moic  queens 
reared,  the  poorer  they  will  be.  and  that   not  more 


than  twelve  queens  to  the  colony  should  be  raised. 
How  is  this? 

I  do  not  agree,  friend  M.;  that  is,  where 
you  have  a  good  strong  colony  in  the  height 
of  the  season.  Such  a  colony,  I  think,  could 
rear  100  queens,  and  have  them  just  as  good 
as  if  they  reared  only  half  a  dozen.  Even 
with  natural  swarming,  I  have  seen  as 
many  as  from  fifteen  to  twenty  queens  come 
out  with  an  after-swarm  ;  and  for  experi- 
ment this  after-swarm  was  divided  up  into 
nuclei  so  as  to  save  nearly  all  the  queens, 
and  they  all  proved  to  be  excellent. 

152--P.  300.  The  first  year  I  kept  bees  they  were 
pure  blacks,  and  I  moved  a  colony  perhaps  2.5  feet, 
and  they  readily  found  their  hive,  and  I  think  there 
would  have  been  no  trouble  in  moving  them  100  ft. 
Last  summer  I  moved  a  colony  of  Italians  6  ft.,  and 
they  never  found  their  hive;  but  if  these  latter  had 
been  pure  blacks  they  would  have  found  their  hive, 
I  think,  no  better;  and  if  my  one  colony  had  been 
Italians  the  first  year,  they  could  have  been  moved 
with  safety  35  ft.  The  difference  is  not  in  the  blood, 
but  in  the  number  and  position  of  other  colonies. 
If  there  are  no  other  bees  about,  a  single  colony  can 
be  moved  quite  a  distance,  black  or  yellow. 

Very  likely  you  are  right,  friend  M.,  al- 
though it  is  something  I  had  never  thought 
of  before. 

3.55— p.  305.  I  have  wintered  many  colonies,  two  in 
a  hive,  with  «8-inch  division-board  between,  and  I 
have  always  found  the  two  colonies  practically  in 
one  cluster. 

356— p.  216.  Frank  Cheshire  says  a  spur  at  the 
termination  of  the  tibia  of  the  middle  leg,  acting 
like  a  crowbar,  pries  the  pollen-mass  loose. 

357— p.  316.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  it  were  much 
the  same  with  you  as  with  me.  There  is  a  great 
show  of  pollen  cari-ied  in  from  maple  and  corn,  and 
undoubtedl}^  a  great  deal  of  it;  but  I  suspect  much 
more  is  stored  from  clover  than  from  any  other 
source,  for  the  bees  work  so  much  longer  time  upon 
clover,  although  the  pellets,  as  carried  in,  are  not 
so  conspicuous.  Besides,  the  surplus  pollen  carried 
over  winter  is  nearly  all  of  the  brown  color  of  white- 
clover  pollen. 

358— p.  216.  I  may  be  mistaken  about  it,  and  the 
ground  is  covere<l  with  snow,  so  I  can  not  refer  the 
matter  to  the  bees;  but  as  memory  brings  the  matter 
up  before  me,  not  more  than  one  bee  in  three 
ever  bring  in  pollen,  and  often  not  more  than  one 
in  five  or  ten.  Possibly  they  had  small  loads  of 
pollen  when  I  thought  they  had  none. 

3.59— p.  317.  I  have  fed  many  bushels  of  grain  to 
bees  (generally  ground  corn  and  oats),  and  I  would 
never  think  of  feeding  it  on  the  ground.  The  best 
way  I  have  tried  is  to  take  hive  covers,  6  or  S  inches 
deep,  put  a  stone  under  each  near  the  middle;  and 
as  often  as  the  bees  work  down  the  feed,  turn  the 
cover  around  so  as  to  leave  the  feed  at  the  upper 
end. 

360— p.  223.  Years  ago,  doing  just  as  you  direct,  I 
couldn't  get  my  bees  to  touch  meal;  but  latterly  I 
have  no  difficulty,  without  using  any  honey,  simply 
settingout  the  meal.  The  explanation  is,  that,  witti 
a  very  few  colonies,  they  got  enough  natm-al  pollen 
and  didn't  want  horse-feed;  now  there  are  so  many 
that  pollen  Is  scarce,  and  they  are  glad  to  get  any 
substitute. 

362— ]).  231).  Instead  of  pajMng  no  atteiuion  in 
such  in.stances,  is  it  not  the  case  that  the  queen 
i  tries  to  destroy  the  cells,  but  is  hindered  by  the 
workers? 

I  do  not  think  the  queen  even  tried  to  de- 
stroy the  extra  cells  in  the  case  I  have  men- 
tioned. Once  it  was  an  observatory  hive, 
and  the  whole  family  watched  to  see  the 
queen  destroy  the  cell ;  but  she  was  never 
seen  to  pay  any  attention  to  it  whatever,  al- 
though she  often  crawled  right  over  it. 

IWW— p.  230.  There  are  two  k  I  mis  of  sounds  ma<ie  by 
queens;  pipi»i(/  or  trrtitin.  and  aiui/i/fi/iy.  .V  queen 
qiiahks  l)etore  coming  out  of  ttie  cell,  never  after 
emerging.  Sh(>  may.  and  perhaps  alwaysdoes,  (iinilik 
before  emerging,  even  if  no  other  queen  is  in  the 


886 


MILLER'S  COMMENTS  OX  THE  ABC  BOOK. 


hive.  After  enuTg-injr  she  pipes,  and  uo  (jueen  ever 
pipes  in  the  eell.  She  iiuty.  aud  perhai)s  always  does, 
j)ipe  while  yuiin;.'-.  even  it'  no  other  queen  is  in  the 
iii\-e.  Rarely  an  old  (jueen  iiipes,  j)robalily  trom 
alarm.  In  the  uiajorit.v  of  cases',  piping-  and  quahk- 
injr  are  heard  in  a  hive  where  a  youii^r  inieen  is  iit  lib- 
erty, and  several  others  in  tht-ir  cells.  Dzierzon  says 
the  piping.and  qnahkintrisfroin  sheer  jealousy.  The 
piping-  consists  of  a  prok)ntred  tone  followed  ity  sev- 
eral much  shorter,  and,  if  I  remember  rig-htly,  each 
tone  i.s  shorter  than  the  preceding-  one.  The  quahk- 
ing  consists  of -several  tones  of  ecjual  leng-th,  uttered 
in  a  lower  pitch  and  in  a  more  hurried  manner  than 
the  piping-.  Onl.v  one  (jueen  is  heard  piping-,  and 
immediately  after,  or  just  before  she  ceases,  one  or 
several  queen.s  are  heard  ijuahking-. 

364— p.  23i).  I  doubt  if  pqiing-  is  produced  by  the 
wings.  I  have  seen  the  wuigs  trembling-  during  pip- 
ing, and  so  have  I  seen  a  horse's  tail  shaking  during 
neighing,  but  tlie  horse  didn't  neigh  with  his  tail. 
Daubing  a  (lueen  witli  honey  might  prevent  her 
squealing  by  closing  u))  the  stigmatic  orifices 
whence  proceeds  the  voice.  Frank  Cheshire  thinks, 
that  from  these  orifices  more  than  from  the  wings 
proceed  the  tones  of  the  bee. 

:365— p.  ;i3.5.  When  it  comes  to  hunting  up  a  hun- 
dred or  more  (jueens  every  spring  to  see  wliether 
they  are  clipped,  I  very  much  prefer  to  have  both 
wings,  on  one  side  only,  cut;  then  I  can  tell  a  clip- 
ped queen  at  a  glance:  whereas  I  have  more  than 
once  caught  a  (lueen,  supposing  her  undipped,  be- 
cause only  the  large  wing  was  cut. 

366— p.  236.  I  haven't  time  to  carry  my  queens  into 
the  house  to  be  clipped,  especially  when  five  miles 
from  home,  and  I  can't  clip  them  while  free  on  the 
combs,  sol  just  catch  the  queen  and  hold  her  by  the 
shoulders  with  the  thuml)  and  finger  of  the  left 
band  while  I  cut  off  all  I  conveniently  can  from  the 
two  wings  on  one  side. 

367— p.  236.  Suppose  you  try  your  hand  at  this  sort 
of  "remembering,"  and  astonish  your  blessed  old 
mother  by  bringing  to  mind  an  incident  that  oc- 
curred in  her  earlj-  girlhood. 

.368— p.  240.  If  by  this  you  mean  to  put  in  an  empty 
hive  aframe  of  brood  with  no  bees,  and  set  this  hive 
in  place  of  a  removed  colony,  to  catch  the  returning 
bees.  I  can  not  approve  the  plan.  Field  bees  will  not 
make  the  best  nurses,  aud  you  will  have  no  others 
till  some  hatch  out.  Better  make  sure  there  are 
enough  nurses. 

369—241.  As  it  is  somewhat  diflScult  to  have  all 
larvie  just  at  this  stage,  1  generally  take  mostly 
eggs. 

370— p.  2.50.  Perhaps  more  sounds  are  produced  by 
the  true  vocal  apparatus  than  by  the  wings,  and  per- 
haps more  sounds  are  noticed  while  bees  are  on  the 
wing;  but  if  the  ear  be  held  hard  against  the  wall 
of  the  hive,  a  great  number  and  variety  of  sounds 
will  be  heard;  in  fact,  a  regular  jaiiber,  and  the 
nervous  novice  will  hear  a  queen  piping  sometimes 
when  no  queen  is  in  the  hive. 

371— p.  2.59.  I'm  afraid  the  honey  wouldn't  pay 
for  the  work,  even  if  the  land  cost  nothing. 

At  the  present  writing  1  qiiite  agree  with 
you. 

374 — p.  277.  Quite  likely,  muscular  action  may 
cease  in  five  oi-  ten  minutes,  but  by  no  means  the 
power  to  make  a  painful  wound.  One  winter,  toward 
spring,my  wifewascleaningwide  frames,  aud  came 
to  me  with  a  dried  bee-sting,  saying  it  got  into  her 
finger  from  a  wide  frame,  and  that  it  hurt.  To  see 
how  far  her  imagination  went,  I  thrust  the  sting 
into  nij'  hand,  and  there  was  no  (juestion  about  it.  I 
exjicrienced  the  genuine,  simon  -  pure  bee-sting 
pain— not  very  severe,  to  be  sure,  but  unmistakable. 
Her  pain  was  probably  greater  than  mine,  and  I  see 
no  way  that  the  stiug  could  have  belonged  to  a 
living  bee  any  time  within  six-  m(jnths. 

This  is  indeed  wonderful.  I  am  very 
glad  you  have  mentioned  it,  friend  M  ,  for 
something  of  the  same  kind  has  come  up  be- 
fore, and  I  assured  the  parties  thev  were 
mistaken ;  that  the  sting  nujst  have  come 
quite  recently  from  a  live  bee. 

375— p.  279.  One  year  I  had  about  a  (juarter  of  an 
acre  of  Russian  sunflower  in  a  .-olid  patch,  which 
was  nicely  cultivated.  It  did  not  aiipear  to  be  of  any 
value  to  the  bees;  and  although  it  will  produce 
more  quarts  of  seed,  they  are  mostly  shell   with 


very  little  meat.  I  suspect  the  common  variety  is  of 
more  value. 

376— p.  2Kil.  This  proves  nothing  either  way.  The 
<jueeu  miglit  stir  the  workers  up  to  swarniiug  ))itch, 
without  herself  leaving  the  hive  at  all.  She  might 
even  do  this  so  tliat  this  temper  would  continue  for 
some  time,  although  the  queen  were  taken  from 
the  hive.  I  onl.v  sa.v  miuht.  for  I  don't  know  any 
thing  positiveL.v  about  it.  There  is  important 
ground  here  for  the  A  B  C  class  to  work. 

377— p.  2S0.  I  once  had  a  swarm  issue  from  a 
hive  in  which  thei-e  was  no  (jueen  at  all.  I  had  tak- 
en her  from  the  hive  perhaps  an  hour  liefore,  and  I 
presume  the  bees  had  not  discovered  her  absence. 
In  this  case  the  queen  was  certainly  not  the  direct 
and  immediate  cause  of  the  swarm,  although  she 
may  have  started  the  fever  before  leaving. 

279 — p.  288.  If  there  is  in  the  apiary  a  hive  in 
which  a  swarm  has  been  put.  or  has  returned,  a 
shcn-t  time  before,  a  swarm  without  a  queen  will 
sometimes  enter  such  a  hive  instead  of  returning  to 
its  own. 

380— p.  289.  Too  often,  one  hive  may  receive  the 
greater  share  of  the  bees. 

381— p.  2-9.  I  have  less  faith  in  this  than  I  formerly 
had.  When  a  colony  gets  to  the  point  that  it  actually 
swarms,  it  takes  considerable  room  to  satisfy  it;  and 
the  oftener  it  is  balked  in  its  attempts,  the  more 
determined  it  seems.  I  once  had  a  colony  swarm, 
and  I  returned  the  bees,  giving  them  one  or  two 
frames  of  foundation.  Next  day  they  swarmed 
again,  and  I  gave  them  another  frame  of  foundation. 
Out  they  came  the  next  day,  and  went  back  with 
another  frame  of  foundation.  When  they  came  out 
again  I  put  them  back  and  decided  to  have  my  own 
way  by  leaving  in  the  brood-cliamber  nothing  but 
emptj'  foundation.  But  their  blood  was  up,  and 
they  came  out,  leaving  the  foundation  untouched 
except  one  incipient  queen-cell  with  an  egg  in  it! 
I  gav^e  in.  I  hived  them  on  a  new  location,  and  all 
was  "lovely."  Some  sections  of  honey  were  on,  and 
I  think  that,  without  these,  they  surely  would  not 
have  swarmed  the  last  time. 

384— p.  293.  If  I  understand  it,  your  reasoning  is 
that  bees  cluster  because  they  don't  hear  the  queen. 
Now,  when  a  swarm  issues  without  a  queen,  as  when 
the 'queen  is  clipped,  they  generally  do  not  cluster, 
but  go  back  to  the  hive  without  clustering.  If  not 
hearing  the  queen  in  one  case  makes  the  bees  clus- 
ter, why  doesn't  it  in  the  other"? 

Friend  M.,  I  can  not  answer.  You  must 
not  ask  such  hard  questions. 

389—]).  298.  Lay  the  box  hive  on  that  side  which 
will  allow  the  combs  to  stand  as  nearly  as  possible 
straight  up  and  down,  and  not  flat;  for  if  flatwise, 
the  combs  may  break  down. 

.391— p.  335.  In  actual  practice  I  have  not  found 
that  disturbing  bees  in  winter  bj'  entering  the  cellar 
or  jarring  the  hives,  so  long  as  the  hives  are  not 
o)>ened,  makes  an.v  thing  like  the  difference  it  seems 
to  me  it  ought  to  make. 

My  experience  has  been  exactly  like  yours. 
I  have  seen  bees  bumped  and  jarrecl  and 
disturbed  so  much  that  I  supposed  they 
must  be  about  used  up.  But  such  cases 
sometimes  turn  out  as  well  as  one  could  ask 
for. 

392— p.  334.  At  present  I  keep  fires  nearly  all  win- 
ter long;  but  I  am  looking  forward  to  the  time  when 
I  shall  have  cellars  good  enough,  and  when  I  know 
enough,  to  leave  m.y  bees  with  no  care  the  entire 
winter. 

398— p.  335.  I  presume  if  I  had  used  chaff'  hives  as 
Mr.  Root  has,  I  should  advise  as  he  does,  and  I  think 
likely  if  he  had  practiced  cellar  wintering  till  now, 
he  would  recommend  that.  My  advice  would  be  this: 
If  nearly  every  one  in  your  locality  succeeds  bet- 
ter with  a  certain  kind  of  wintering,  you  will  do 
well  to  try  that  kind;  if  the  matter  is  somewhat 
unsettled,  try  both  and  see  which  is  best  for  j/ou. 

399— p.  337.  Like  many  others  I  have  found  that 
two  or  more  "dwindlers"  united  last  no  longer 
than  one  separately,  so  I  never  unite  unless  I  am 
pretty  sure  a  queen  will  otherwise  be  lost.  The 
queens  of  those  colonies  too  weak  to  retain  them, 
are  put  in  cages  under  the  quilt  over  the  brood- 
frames  of  a  strong  colony.  This  colony  ma.v  lose  its 
own  queen  by  the  operation,  but  the  caged  queens 
will  be  kept  in  good  shape  till  needed  for  new  colo- 
nies. 


HOOKS  0>  BEJ:  CILTUHE. 


No  book  can  well  be  a  complete  substitute  for  our  bee-journals.  One  gets  a  better  view 
•of  any  science,  by  reading  the  exi)erience  of  a  great  number  of  individuals.  We  are  all 
liableto  draw  wrong  conclusions,  and  to  become  set  in  oiu"  own  way  ;  but  by  collecting  and 
comparing  facts  from  different  autliors,  we,  in  a  measure,  steer  clear  of  these  mistakes,  or 
errors  of  judgment. 

I  know  of  nothing  that  has  ever  Ijeen  written,  equal  to  Langstroth  on  the  Honey-Bee.  for 
all  general  purposes.  The  book  was  pleasantly  and  beautifully  written,  and  the  number 
of  mistakes  in  it  was  niarvelously  feAV  in  a  work  treating  on  any  one  suliject  so  tliorough- 
ly.  The  tirst  edition  was  issued  in  18-5;^.  A  later  edition  appeared  in  IS;/).  and  another  in 
18()o  ;  liut  on  account  of  ill  health  on  the  part  of  its  author.  L.  I..  Langstrotli.  it  was  not 
again  revised  and  ])ut  liefore  the  public  until  18s9.  At  the  suggestion  of  l^rof.  A.  J.  Cook, 
who  is  also  the  author  of  a  bee-book.  Mr.  Langstroth  placed  this  revision  in  the  hands  of 
Charles  Dadant,  of  IIaniilt(»n,  111.,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  extensive  honey-producers 
in  the  world.  By  him  it  has  been  most  thoroughly  revised,  the  obsolete  being  struck-out, 
and  many  of  the  beautiful  i)assages  from  Mr.  Langstroth  tliat  would  never  grow  old  were 
retained,  and  so  nicely  blended  with  the  new  matter  that  a  casual  observer  would  liardly 
think  that  it  had  been  written  by  two  eminent  bee-keepers.  It  is  plain,  ]iractical,  and  to 
the  point,  and  it  is  destined  to  remain  as  one  of  the  standard  l»ee-i)ul)lications.  It  is  nice- 
ly bound  in  cloth,  and  contains  something  over  500  pages,  the  whole  being  beautifully 
illustrated.  The  pictvu-es  were  executed  l)y  one  of  the  finest  wood  engi'avers  in  the  world 
—a  German.  In  fact,  Dadant  &  Son  have  imt  a  wonderful  amount  of  painstaking  care 
and  labor  u|)()n  the  book.  Having  jjroduced  many  tons  of  honey  every  season  for  many 
years,  Mr.  Dadant  is  fully  comjietent  to  place  before  us  a  Avork  which  every  practical  bee- 
keeper should  have  in  his  library.  Although  much  enlarged,  the  i)rice  is  .still  $2.00.  The 
work  is  also  published  in  French. 

The  book  that  comes  next  to  Langstroth,  and  in  fact  the  only  one  that  can  stand  beside 
it  at  all,  in  many  respects,  is  Quinby's  Mysteries  of  Bee- Keeping.  If  one  were  intent  on 
keeping  bees  solely  for  the  money  they  would  produce  (and  almost  all  of  us  take  that  view 
of  the  business  to  "a  greater  or  less  degree)  Quinby  would  be  the  man  to  follow,  for  he  made 
Ills  bees  pay,  and  pay  well,  before  movable-frame  hives  were  ever  known.  He  had,  in  fact, 
reduced  Dee-keeping  to  a  paying  business  with  a  certain  profit,  with  his  plain,  cheap  box 
hives.  After  reading  his  old  edition  over,  I  feel  as  if  it  would  be  rare  fun  to  keep  bees  in 
just  such  box  hives  now. 

In  the  year  1879,  the  son-in-law  of  the  late  Moses  Quinby,  Mr.  L.  C  Root,  formerly  of  Mo- 
hawk, Herkimer  Co.,  N.  Y..  now  of  Stamford,  Ct..  re-wrote  Mr.  Quinby  s  Mysteries  of  Bee- 
Keeping,  and  in  1884  revised  it.  Mr.  Root  might  very  properly  have  styled  himself  the 
author  of  the  book  ;  but  with  that  rare  modesty  which'is  characteristic  of  him  thorough- 
out  the  work,  he  gave  the  book  the  name,  Quinby' s  New  Be£ -Keeping.  That  you 
may  know  whether  Mr.  Root  is  competent  to  write  a  book  on  bees,  I  will  sav  that  he  has 
made  the  production  of  comb  honey  his  exclusive  business  ever  since  18()9.  Besides  that, 
he  worked  and  studied  with  Mr.  Quinby  during  the  closing  years  of  his  life.  As  an  evi- 
dence of  Mr.  Root's  ability  to  manage  bees  successfully,  I  remark,  further,  that  he  secured, 
from  40  colonies,  4103  lbs.  of  basswood  honey  in  only  seven  days.  Price  of  Quinby' s  New 
Bee-Keeping,  by  mail,  postpaid,  SL50. 

In  187(3  Prof.  A.  J.  Cook  gave  us  a  manual  of  bee-keeping,  at  30  cts.,  and  in  1878  a  much 
larger  one.  Since  that  time  The  Manual  of  the  Apiary  has  been  revised  several  times. 
It.  has  had  quite  a  large  sale,  the  last  edition  being  the  10th  thousand,  the  loth  being 
largely  rewritten.  The  author  is  Professor  of  Entomology  in  the  Michigan  State  Agri- 
cultural College.  He  has,  therefore,  given  us  material  aid  in  many  matters  not  touched 
on  by  others  —  not  only  in  entomology  and  the  physiological  structure  of  the  honey-bee, 
but  in  the  science  of  botany  directly  pertaining  to  apiculture  His  work  contains  about  460 
pages  and  230  illusti'ations.  It  is  very  full,  especially  in  the  scientific  department.  It 
covers  a  very  wide  field,  ajid  is  necessarily  l)rief  on  some  subjects,  many  of  which  are  not 
treated  in  aiiy  other  one  work.  The  author  is  well  versed  in  both  the  French  and  German 
works  pertaining  to  tlie  subject  in  liaud,  and  has  been  careful  in  all  cases  to  give  due  cred- 
it. He  is  a  writer  of  high  standing  ;  his  diction  is  classic,  and  his  style  pleasing.  He  is 
not  only  c(msidered  to  be  high  authority  on  bees,  but  also  on  a  great  many  kindred  sub- 
jects as  well.  We  feel  sure  that  every  bee-keeper  will  find  this  book  a  valuable  addition 
to  his  library  of  bee-literature.    Price  by  mail,  postpaid,  SI. 00. 

A  Year  Among  the  Bees  is  the  title  of  a  little  unpretending  work  of  KXt  pages. 
It  is  written  by  Dr.  C.  C.  Miller.  To  say  that  the  style  is  terse,  clear,  and  even  humorous 
in  some  places,  is  but  speaking  justly  in  its  praise.  In  the  introduction,  the  author  says  : 
^' I  shall  try  to  tell  honestly  just  liow  I  do;  talk  in  a  familiar  manner,  without  being 
obliged  to  say  v-e  when  I  mean  /.  Indeed,  I  shall  claim  the  privilege  of  i)utting  in  the 
pronoim  of  the  fir.st  person  as  often  as  I  please:  and  if  the  printer  runs  out  of  big  Is  to- 
ward the  last  of  the  book,  he  can  put  in  little  i's."  The  very  simplicity  of  his  manner  of 
writing  carries  the  reader  along.  He  begins  by  telling  about'taking  bees  out  of  the  cellar; 
and  for  every  successive  month  in  the  year  he  tells  wliat  he  does  and  how  he  does  it.  He 
lays  considerable  stress  upon  little  things,  just  such  as  beginners  ami  the  more  advanced 
bee-keepers  are  anxious  to  know.  He  explains  how  to  make  many  a  short  cut.  and  he 
•seems  to  be  especially  happy  in  discovering  short  ways  for  accomplishing  certain  results. 
Alomr  through  the  pages  of  this  work  he  speaks  familiarly  of  his  son  Charlie,  oi  his  sister 
Emma,  an<l  of  his  good  wife;  and  although  the  book  is  designed  primarily  to  instruct,  it 
has  almost  the  interest  of  a  romance.    Tlie  price  of  this  work  is  7")  cents. 


888  BOOKS  OX  BEE   CULTURE. 

The  Production  of  Comb  Homu  was  the  title  of  a  little  work  of  4o  pages,  by  W.  Z. 
Hutciunson,  ot  Flint.  Mich.  This,  th  mgh  written  i)rimarily  to  show  how  to  produce  the 
article  in  the  comb,  covered  in  detail  the  matter  of  the  use  and  abuse  of  comb  foundation. 
In  1891,  after  this  edition  was  exhausted,  Mr.  Hutchinson  entirely  rewrote  and  at  the  same 
time,  enlarged  it  greatly,  bringing  it  up  to  88  double-column  pages.  The  new  book  was 
christened  '•  Advanced  Bee  Culture,"  and  such  it  eminently  is.  While  useful  and  practic- 
al to  the  beginner,  it  is  invaluable  to  the  advanced  bee-keeper.  Though  it  does  not  enter 
into  the  details  ordinarily  sought  after  by  beginners,  as  is  given  in  our  own  ABC  and 
other  larger  works,  it  covers  sufficiently  the  important  subjects.  In  short,  it  contains  a 
condensed  summary  of  some  of  the  excellent  discussions  that  have  appeared  in  the  Bee- 
keepers" Review,  of  which  Mr.  Hutchinson  is  editor.  The  book  is  written  in  his  happiest 
style,  and  is  appropriately  and  neatly  bound  in  tinted  paper.    Price  50  cents,  prepaid. 

*G.  M.  Doolittle,  of  Borodino,  X.  1 ..  although  a  practical  and  prolific  writer  on  bees  for 
the  bee-journals,  covering  a  period  of  over  20  years,  never  wrote  a  book  until  1889.  when 
he  succeeded  in  developing  a  practical  systeiai  of  queen-rearing,  upon  which  he  had  been 
working  for  several  vears  prior  to  that  time  Although  the  system  is  not  strictly  original 
with  himself,  yet  the  credit  belongs  to  him  for  mrfeciiaq  a  plan  that  has  some  pretty  fea- 
tures about  it.  Among  other  good  things  he  tells  how  to  rear  queens  from  artificial  cells 
which,  after  being  grafted,  are  completed  and  capped  over  by  colonies  not  queenless  ;  how 
to  have  the  young  queens  when  hatched  from  these  cells  fertilized  likewise  in  non-queen- 
less  colonies.  In  short,  he  tells  how  to  rear  queens  extensively,  and  yet  not  have  a  single 
colony  queenless.  For  further  particulars,  see  Queen-reaking,  in  the  body  of  this  book. 
All  this,  and  more,  is  told  in  a  neat  cloth-bound  book  of  170  pages,  entitled  Scientific 
Queen-rearing.    Price,  $1  00,  postpaid. 

Success  in  Bee  Culture  is  the  title  of  a  work  written  by  James  Heddon,  Dowagiac,  Mich. 
Mr.  Heddon  is  a  terse,  able  Avriter,  and  has  originated  not  a  few  ideas  in  regard  to  hives 
and  hive  manipulation.  His  work  of  nO  pages  embraces  all  his  latest  ideas.  It  contains 
a  number  of  little  hints  which  will  be  found  valuable  to  the  bee-keeper.  In  this  work, 
also,  will  be  found  the  subjects  of  contraction,  inversion,  honey-boards,  and  surplus-cases, 
with  which  Mr.  Heddon  has  been  more  or  less  identified,  fully  treated.  In  the  writing  of 
the  book.  Mr.  Heddon  did  not  design  so  much  to  instruct  the  beginner  in  bee-keeping  as* 
to  instruct  the  veteran  bee-keeper  with  regard  to  some  of  the  recent  innovations  which  he 
has  brought  out.  One  of  the  special  features  of  this  book,  and  around  which  the  w^hole 
matter  centers,  is  his  new  hive,  and  how  to  use  it.  Mr.  Heddon  thinks,  and  so  do  some  of 
his  friends,  that  it  will  create  a  new  era  in  the  management  of  bees  ;  but  I  believe  that 
the  majority  of  bee-keepers  favor  the  old  style  of  hives,  not  only  because  they  are  cheaper, 
but  because  they  can  not  afford  to  change,  even  if  the  new  hive  is  better.  Price,  post- 
paid, 50  cents. 

Bees  and  Honey  is  the  title  of  a  work  on  bee  culture,  by  Thomas  G.  Newman,  editor  of 
the  American  Bee  Journal.  It  is  written  in  Mr.  Newman's  usually  vigorous  style.  Where 
one  has  little  time  to  read,  and  does  not  care  to  peruse  the  more  exhaustive  treatises  on 
the  subject  of  bees,  this  work  will  give  him  all  that  is  really  essential.  It  treats  both  of 
the  scientific  and  the  practical,  and  no  library  on  bees  would  be  complete  without  it. 
Price,  by  mail,  75  cents. 

Thirty  Ynirs  Among  tlie  Bees  is  the  title  of  an  80-page  book  on  queen-rearing  as  practiced 
by  Henry  Alley,  the  veteran  queen-breeder,  ot  Wenham,  Mass.  Mr.  Alley  has  worked  out 
an  excellent  system,  and  anv  one  who  rears  queens  should  have  a  copy.  It  very  nicely 
supplements  Mr.  Doolittle's  book  on  the  same  subject.  Price,  in  paper  cover,  50  cents 
postpaid. 

Every  one  who  aspires  to  become  a  successful  bee-keeper  should  take  one  or  moi-e  of 
our  bee-journals.  As  sample  copies  w'ill  be  furnished  by  the  editors,  I  need  not  attempt 
to  discuss  theu-  respective  merits  here.  A  sample  copy  of  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture, 
which  we  always  mail  on  application,  will  give  you  the  address  and  price,  not  only  of  any 
of  the  journals,  but  of  whatever  you  may  need  in  the  apiary. 

Foreign  Bools.— As  a  general  rule,  climatic  conditions  and  national  peculiarities  make 
foreign  works  on  bee  culture  of  little  practical  value  to  American  bee-keepers.  The  Euro- 
peans, in  practical  apiculture,  are  not  as  far  advanced  as  the  Americans ;  but  in  scientific 
research  they  are  considerably  ahead  of  us.  I  will  mention,  however,  two  or  three  of  the 
more  prominent  foreign  works :  Dzlerzon's  Rational  Bee-Keeping  {Gevmsin),hj  Dr.  Dzier- 
zon,  of  Carlsmarkt,  Germany;  The  Bee- Keeper's  Guide- Book.,  hy  Thomas  William  Cowan, 
ecWtor  of  the  British  Bee  Journal :  The  Wmeq-bee,  by  the  same  author.  This  is  purely  a 
scientific  work  detailing  the  physiology  of  the  honey-bee,  as  revealed  by  the  microscope. 
Though  hot  so  full  it  isj^roljably  more  accurate  than  any  other  purely  scientific  treatise  on 
bees.  Bees  and  Bee-Keeping.  Iiy  Frank  Cheshire,  is  issued  in  two  volumes— the  first 
scientific,  and  the  other  practical.  The  engravings  in  the  former  illustrate  the  physiological 
structure  of  the  bee,  and  are  probably  finer  than  any  ever  before  executed,  either  in  Ameri-  ^ 


INDEX. 


Absconding.   1,3 

"  Caused  bj' Dissatisfaction  with  Hive..  3 

Directions  for  Preventing  in  Spring-...  3 

"  First  Swarms,  Prevention  of 2 

"  From  Want  of  Food 2 

"  In  Early  Spring 2 

"  Nucleus  Swarms 3 

"  To  Prevent,  of  New  Swarms 1 

"  Prefer  to  Enter  other  Hives 2 

"  "  •'     Several  Unite 2 

Adulteration  of  Wax 320 

After-Swarming 3-5 

"  "  Cautions  about 4 

"  "  Prevention  of 4 

"  "  "  "   With  Box  Hives..  4 

"  "    Advantages  f )f 4 

"  "    Amusinsr  Features  of 4 

"    May  bo  Built  Up 4 

"    Number  of 3 

"  "    Size  of 4 

Age  of  Bees 5 

"  "    Affected  by  Brood-Rearing .5 

"  "    Cut  Short  by  Wearing  out  of  Wings 5 

"  "    How  to  Ascertain 5 

"  "    (See  Bees) 47 

Age  of  Queens  at  Wedding-flight 232 

A  if  alf  a 6 

Adaptability  of  to  soils 6 

Forage  for  Cattle 6,  7 

"       Roots,  Length  of 7 

"       Honey  from.  Quality  of 6,  7 

"       Honey,  Large  Yield  from 7 

"       Cultivation  of 7' 

"      Preference  of  for  Desert  Wastes 7 

Hayof 7 

"       Seed,  Price  of 8 

"       Honev,  Carloads  from 7 

Alighting-Boards 8-9  , 

"  "       For  House-Apiary 8 

"  "       Importance  of 8 

Alley's  Drone-excluder  iftid  Queen  trap 99,  291 

Alsike  Clover 9-12  , 

Amount  of  Seed  to  the  Acre 10 

Preparation  of  Ground  for 10 

Profit  from  Seed  of II 

Rank  o),  as  Honey-Plant Id 

for  Fai  mers . .  11 

Saving  Seed  of 10 

Sown  with  Other  Crops 10 

Time  of   Blossoming 10 

Time  of  Sowing 10 

Value  of.  for  Hay  and  Pa.sture.. . .  10,  II 

Weight  of  Seed  per  Bushel 10 

Anger  of  Bees 12,14 

"  "     Can  Generally  be  Avoided  by  Care.  12 

"  "     From  Colonies  Having  a  Habit  of 

Robbing 12 

"     HowExcited 12  1 

"     Indicated  by  High  Key-Note 13  | 

"  "     Intense ■ 251 

"             "     Occasioned  by  Feeding  Sweets  in       I 
the  Open  Air 12  : 


Ants 14 

"    How  Disposed  of  by  One  of  my  Colonies..  .•... 14 

"    How  to  Get  Rid  of,  Pleasantly  and  Easily 15 

"    Keeping  them  from  Barrels  of  Honey,  Su- 
gar, etc 14 

"    Kill  Young  Plants  and  Trees 14 

"    Meeting  of  Males  and  Females 97 

"    Not  Troublesome  to  Strong  Stocks 14 

Aphides 27.28 

"      Excrement  of 27 

Apiarist,  Definition  of Li 

Apiary 15,27 

"      Floating 26 

House,  Obiections  to  and  Advantages  of  .24,  25 
Apiary,  Lawn  or  Chaff-Hive,  Advantages  of  and 

Objections  to 19 

"      Railroad 25 

"     Vineyard,  Directions  for  Starting 16-17 

"      Wind-breaks  for 16 

"      Where  to  Locate 15 

"      Which  St\le  to  Adopt 25 

"      Mclntyie's  plan  for 19 

"      Millers,  C.  C,  plan  for 20 

"      Miller's,  S.  E.,  plan  for 21 

"      Sliade-boards  for 21 

Apple-tree  Honey 140 

Artificial  Comb,  Attempts  to  Produce  (See  COMB 

F()UND.A.T1(>N) 28 

"        Fertilization 29 

Heat 29, 167 

"  "    Much  Risk.  Experiments 29 

"    Often  Proves  a  Failure 30 

"        Pasturage,    Little    Encouragement    to 

such  Investments 30 

"         Pollen.  214 

"         Artificial  Ripening  of  Honey 108 

"        Swarming 31 

"  "         Caution 33 

"  "         Changing  Position  of  Hives... 31 

"  "         Fdn.  in  Place  of  Empty  Combs. 31 

"  "         Preventing  Death  of  Queen... 31 

"  "         Rearing  Queens  for 31 

"  "         Suggestions  to  New  Hand 31 

"  "         With     Combs     of    Hatching 

Brood 31,  33 

Asters,  Description  of 33 

Automatic  Swainiinjr,  Alley  plan  for 291 

HaET  for  Catching  Swarms 2&i 

Balling  Queens IW 

llarbs  ot  Mof'-sting 278 

HarehearU'd  Bees 48 

Barnes  Bros.;    Criticifjms,  Suggestions,  etc.,  on 

their  work 170 

"  "  Foot-Power  Saws 146 

Barrels,  Coating  with  Parafflne 35 

Cost  of 34 

"       Having  Returned 35 

"       Leaky 35 

"        Material  for 34 

Profitable  Size :J4 

"       Removing  Candied  Honey  from 35 

Basswood.  or  Linden 35 

"        Compared  with  White  Clover 3.') 


3Ul» 


INDEX 


"        Cultivation 37 

"        Description  of  Tree  and  Blossom 36 

of  Great  Value 37 

Our  Plantation  of  4000 4,  36 

Honey,  Taste  of 37 

"  "       Yield  of,  from  One  Hive  in  a 

Single  Day 37 

Bears 37 

"      Proverbial  Enemp  of  Hees 37 

"      Ant'Cdutes  of 37,  38 

"      Ste;i  ling  Honey 38 

Bear.  Pet  at  the  Mich.  Agricultural  College 38 

Beating  Pans,  etc..  for  Swarms  to  Cluster  293 

Bee-bread  (See  Pollen) 38 

Bee-brushes        116 

Bee-disease,  Nameless 94 

Bee-flress  (seo  iNTiiounciNG,  also  Veils) 3s 

('ogKShaU's 304 

"         "      for  Ladies 30.5 

"     Gloves,  etc 306 

"         '*     of  Mrs.  Harrison  305 

"         "      ofMrs.  Axtell 3(i.5 

"         "     Miss  Wilson 30,5 

•'      M;irlin's 304 

"     Veils 306 

Bee-escapes 38, 78,  79 

Bee-glue,  or  Propolis 223 

Bee-hats 303-305 

Bee-honse 2.5,328 

Bee-hunting  38 

Bee-Moth 43 

"       "    How  to  Keep  Combs  Secure  From 44,338 

"       "    How  the  Eggs  are  Deposited 45 

"        "    In  Lamp-nursery , 44 

"        "    In  Section  Boxes 223 

"       "    Italians  a  Preventive  of 46 

"       "    Kemoving  Worms  from  the  Comb 46 

"        "    Summing  Up 46 

"       "    Traps  for,  etc 43 

Bee-keepers  (See  Apiarist) 15 

Bee-keeping,  A  Hazardous  Business 336 

Bee-stings  (See  stings) 271 

Bees 46 

Bees,  Advantages  to  Fruit-raising  218,  220 

"    Age  of 5 

"    Albino 46 

"    Anuer  of 12 

"    Attachment  to  Home 1 

"    Attracted  by  Color  of  Flowers 221 

"    Breeding  in  Winter 217 

"    Bumble 230 

"    Buying  and  Selling 53 

"    By  the  Pound 54,  55 

"    Ciirnioliins 46 

"    Choosing  Location 292 

"    Cross 254, 35.=) 

"    Cyprian 46, 193 

"    Ditference  in  Color 46, 190, 193 

"    Diseases  of.  93 

"    Disposition  to  Rob 13 

"    Egyptian 46 

'•    Enemies  of 104 

"    First  Flight  of 48 

•'    Five-banded 193 

"    Food  of  Hatching 48 

"    For  Business 193 

"    Following  Their  Owner  to  the  Grave 334 

"    Getting  them  out  of  Sections 77-79 

"    Growth  of 47 

"    Hanging  Out .76,  3>-3 

"    Holy  Land 193 

"    How  they  Build  Comb 176 

"    How  they  Grow 46 

"       "       "  "     From  the  Egg  to  the  Time  of 

Hatching 47 

"    How  to  Dispose  of  Annoying 13 

"    Hunting  38 

"    Instinct  of,  vs.  Reason 221 

"    In  Upper  Rooms  or  Garrets 291 

"    Italian  (See  Italians) 190 

"    Kept  with  Profit  in  Large  Cities 14 

"    Lack  f)f  Compassion 229 

"    LeaTlicr  colored 193 

"    Length  of  Flight  (see  DooliK  le's  14Ist  co'm't).  .200 

"    Manner  of  Ventilating  the  Hives 307 

"    Mixing  in  Different  Hives 134 

"    M.  .ving 3(10 

"     Neeessarv  lo  Fertilize  Plants 320 

"    Need  of  Water 310 

"    Number  in  a  Quart 2J3 

"    On  Shares 49 

"     "       "       Disadvantages  of 49 

"    On  the  Rampage 2.54 

'•    Playspellof  Young 3.58 

"    Size  of  Worker  Cell'* 176 


"    "    Drone 176 

Study  of  the  Habits  of 46 

Telescopic  Vision  of 321 

Time  of  Hatching 47 

Uniting  in  Fall 3U3 

in  Spring 302 

"        N'>w  Swarms 303 

AVhat  Age  to  Have  (See  Age  of  Bees) 48 

AVonderful  Instinct  in  Building  Comb 177 

'l"o  Get  out  of  Sections 77 

Bee-tent,  Folding 77,  3.57 

'•        to  Stop  Robbing 256 

Bee-escapes,  Millei's 77,  78 

K.  es<''s 78,79 

"  Pourler's 78 

Porter's 79 

Bee-trees,  Cutting 41 

Bee-yards (se(^  Apiaries)  

Bee-house  (See  Repositories) 179 

Beeswax  (See  Wax) 313 

Bellows  Smokers  (See  Smokers) 363 

Benzine  to  Remove  Wax  from  Utensils 317 

Bnigham  &  Hetheringion  Honey-knife J18 

Bingham  Smoker 262 

Bingham,  T.  F.,  on  Vinegar SI'S 

Birds  Eating  Bees 196 

Black  Bees  Inferior  to  Italians 43,  44,  .53,  61. 194 

"         "     Longevity  of  Compared  with  Italians.    5 

"         "     Mixing  with  Italians 191 

"         "     Two  Varieties  of 46 

"        "     Will  not  Work  on  Red  Clover 61 

"         "     Work  on  Buckwheat  Better  than  Ital- 
ians   .53 

Bleaching  Wax 320 

"Blessed  Bees,"  an  Experience  He  Didn't  Tell  of  .,336 

Blossoms,  Do  B"hs  In.iurf-V 141 

Blue  Thistle,  Value  as  a  Honey-plant 49 

"  "       A  Nuisance 49 

Boraa-e 49 

Borax  for  Ants 14 

Borrowing,  Bees 2.56 

Bottom-Boards 1.52 

Box  Hives,  Short  Way  of  Transferring  from 399 

Breeding  In  and  In 97 

Brood,  Difference  Betw'n  Drone  and  Worker 96 

"      For  Nfw  Swarms 31 

"      Need  of  Pollen  for 216 

"      Uncovered 47 

"     (See  Bees) 46 

Brood-chamber,  ('ontracting 90 

Brushes  for  Getting  Bees  off  Combs 116 

Bucket,  Comb 63 

Buckwheat, Value  of  as  a  Grain  Product 52 

"  Better  for  Blacks  and  Hybrids  than 

for  Italians 61 

"  Cultivation  of 53,  53 

"  for  Enriching  Soil 50,  .53 

"  Honey  of,  Taste  and  Value 50 

"  Japanese.  Wonderful  Grain  Yields. ..  .52 

"  a  Preventive  of  Robbing 50 

Soil  for 50 

"  Value  of  as  a  Honey-producer 50 

"  Varieties  of ,51 

Bumble-bees,  Use   of   in  Fertilizing  Red  -  clover 

Blossoms 320 

Buying  Bees 53 

*'         "    Suggestions  about 55 

Buzz-saw,  Hand-power 147 

Table 164 

Cages,  Candy  for ,54 

"          "        lor  Sending  Queens  Across  the  At- 
lantic...   186 

"     for  Introducing 186 

"     for  Shipping  Bees .54 

"      Size  of 187 

California  White  Mountain  Sage 361 

Candied-Honey  Confectionery .59 

"  "      Extracted 110 

"  "      Prevention  of .59,110 

Candy  for  Bees  and  Queens  (see  Cages  for  queens)..57 

"      Burnt 58 

"      Feeding 58 

"      Introducing  Queens 186 

"      "Good" .57 

"      Honey  that  does  Not,  in  Brood-frames.. 59,  111, 
361,367 

"      When  to  Feed ?8 

Candying  of  Honev  Ft  d  Back 83,136 

Carniohin 46 

Gary's  Letter  Descriptive  of  Wax-press 314 

Cases,  Single  vs.  Dout)le  Tier 87 

Catal pa,  Honey  from  its  Leaves 179 

Catnip 59 

Caution  about  Clipping  Queens'  Wings 236 

"  "       Feeding  back 127 


JT 


INDEX. 


391 


"  '•       Foul  Brood 136 

"  "       Foundation-making- 67 

"  '■       Movinfr  Bees 203 

Kobbine: 258 

"  "       Out-apiaries    212 

"  '•       Tiering-  up • 76 

"  "       UMiisf    Brown  Sug-ar  and   Burnt 

Candj- 123 

Cellars  for  Wintering :328  ■ 

"       Advantages  of  Wintering  In 329  I 

"       CarrN  iiiK  Bees  into 330,  331  | 

"       Dead  Bees  in 334  | 

'*       Preparing  Stocks  for 329  i 

Removing-  from,  to  Old  Stands 331,  334  | 

"       Temperature  of 334  j 

"       When  to  Put  in 329  i 

"       Sub-earth  Ventilators 334  i 

Cells,  Different  Kinds  of 175 

'•    Doolitti.-'-j  Pro:ec  or  243  1 

"    Structure  of 173; 

"    Queen,  CurtinH- 227 

Chaff,  A  Remedy  for  Spring:  Dwindling 93 

"       "       "  "         "  "     not  Positive  337 

Chaff  Packina-  for  Winter 325,337  i 

What  Kind  to  Use 327  ' 

Chaff-Cushion  Division-Boards 95  j 

Chaff-Hive  Apiary 18  | 

"  "      Entrances  to 106' 

"      How  to  Make 153  | 

Changing  Position  of  Colonies  to  Stop  Robbing. .  .353  j 

Chapmiin  Hotiey-plant 59 

Choosing  Location,  Bees 392  1 

Cider  Unsealed  in  Cells 60  j 

"        Mill-,  a  Detriment 60 

"  "     How  to  Keep  Bees  from  access  to     . .  60  I 

Circular  Saws,  Putting  in  Order.  169 

Clark's  Foundation  Fastener 71 

Clamps  (Winter  Repositories) 332 

Clark  SniMker 263 

Cleaning-  Wav  from  Utensils 317 

Climbers  for  Bee-hunting     ...   41 

Clipped  Queen,  Swarm  with 288 

Clipping  Queens'  Wings 2,  3,  236 

Clover,  Alfalfa 6 

"      Alsike  (see  Alsike  Clover)     9 

"       Peavine,  or  Mammoth 61 

"       Bed 61 

"  '*  Bumble  Bees  Required  to  Fertilize 

Seed  of 220 

"■     Sweet,  or  Melilot;  Its  Value 61 

Trefoil,  White  and  Yellow 61 

White 60 

"     Dutch 60 

"  "     the  Best  Honey-producer 60 

"  "     Superiority  of  Honey  from 6'1 

C Ulster  in  Oallnn  nnd  Lang-stn.tli 205 

Clustering,  Duration  of 1 

Clustering,  Outsidethe  Hive,  Indicativeof  Swarm- 
ing  2^2 

"         *'       "      Never  Allow 2«2 

Comb-buckets 6 i 

Comb  In  Bee-trees 41 

Starting  in  Fruit-'iloom 141 

"       Straight.  How  to  Secure 63 

Foundation 62 

"  "  Fastening  in  Frames 7ii 

•'  "  Dipping  hoard,  to  Make 64 

"  •'  "  '•         to  Use 64 

"  •'  Fasteners  for 70 

"  "  frCom. Honey 69 

"  "  First  Mention  of 62 

"  "  Frames  for  Trimming 6-^ 

"  *•  (i ripper  tor  Holding 66 

•'  •'  How  lo  Roll  out 65 

"  "  Its  Great  Valvie 6-i 

"  ••  I,ye,  its  Use  on  Dipping-lioards.  65 

'  '-  Liitirieants  for  Making 65 

"  "  it-  Use  in    Obtaining    Straight 

Combs 6-i 

"  "  Machines  and  their  Invention...    62 

for  Making  Fdn    Holls.  63 

"  •  Mii-i-'iriM  Lnrire  Qmintities, . . .  67 

"  "  Making  Wax  Sheets  for 64 

P.oKi  w  Shi-.-isotr  Rolls 66 

U()llinK-theWa.v  Sheets....  65 

I'nw.  r  .Mill  f.ir  Mawinu- 68 

"  "  Sagging  of fi9 

"  Starih  Past'- in  Making 64 

"  •■  Soiip  fur  Makitiy- 66 

•'  "  5  Kin  Is— Heavy,  Light,  Thin....  65 

"  "  Trimming 68 

Comb  Fdundiition  Used  in  Rearing  Workers  and 

Drones 98 

"  "  Use  of  Wires  in  70 

Comb  Honey 72 


'•      Advantages  of  Single-tier  Shipping- 
cases  for 87 

"      Advantages  of  Open-side  Sections 

for 85 

"  "      Bee-escapes  for 77,79 

"       Best  Shipping-cases  for 88 

"  "       Cant iini  in  Tiering  up  for 76 

"  "       Conil)ined  Crate  for 74 

"  "      Doolittle's  Surplus  Ari-angem't  for.  73 

"  "      Davis'  Brush  tor  Getting  Bees  off  ..  77 

"  "       Emptying  T  Super  of 80 

"  "       Falsehoods  About 122 

for  AViriter  Feed 83 

"       Feeding- Back  for 83 

"  "       How  to  Pick  up  Sections  of 82 

"  "      How  to  Remove  Filled  Sections  of, 

from  Wide  Frames  or  Crateif. 82 

How  to  Get  Bees  out  of  Sections  of.  77 

•'  "      How  to  Secure ; 75 

Honey-rack  for 74 

Invention  of  Section  Honey-box  for.  73 

"       Keeping 89 

"  "      Manufactured  (?) 123 

Moore's  Crate  for 74 

"  "       Muddy  Feet  of  Bees  on 77 

"  "      Marketing 88 

Making  Comb  Honey  Sell 89 

"  "       Narrower  Sections  for 85 

"  "       Open-side  Sections  for 85 

Partly  Filled  Sections  of .   82 

"  "       Pasteboard  Boxes  for 88 

"  "      Reward  for  Manufactured 122 

"  "      Scraping-  Sections  of 8-2 

"  "      Sending- to  Commission  Houses 86 

"  "       Sturwold's  Showcase  for 89 

"  "      Section-Holder 89 

"  "      Sections  Partly  Filled  with  for  Bait.  82 

Size  of  Packages  for  87 

"  "      Tiering  up  for 76 

T  Super  for 74 

Two    Kinds    of    Surplus    Arrange- 
ments for  Holding  Sections  of 73 

"  "       W by  Preferred  to  Extracted 72 

"  *■       When  to  take  Sections  of 77 

Wood  Sei)arators  for  Comb  Honey; 

some  Reasons  for 84 

Wood  or  Tin  Separators  for 84 

What  Size  of  Section  for 84 

"  "       What  to  do  with  Unfinished  Sections 

for 82 

"           "      What  to  do  when  Bees  Refuse  to  en- 
ter Sections  of 76 

"  "      Wide  Frame  for,  why  Prefen-ed 73 

"  "      Wide  Frame  (Single  and  Doublet....  73 

Combined  Shipping  case  and  Honey-crate 74 

Concord  Grape\-ines,  Culture  of 17 

Confectionery  Made  of  Candied  Honey .59 

Contraction  (see  Contraction) 90 

Advantages  of 90 

*'  By  whom  Advocated 9J 

How  Practiced 90 

Purpose  of 90 

"  Qneen-exclud'g  Honey-board  for.  W,  91 

When  to 90 

Corn  .     218 

"    Why  it  Contains  no  Honey 219 

Corner  Joint  of  Hive 149,  166 

Covers  for  Chaff  Hives 1.57 

(Trate,  ('ombined 74 

''       Moore  s 74 

Crates  for  Holding  Sections  on  the  Hive 74 

•'      for  Shipping 87 

Cross  Bees 12,13,254,355,274 

Cultivation  of  Honey-Producing  Plants 30 

Cure  of  Dysentery 103 

Foirl  Brood i:i4 

Cushions,  Chafl 326 

<^ut-ott  Saw  table 165 

Cyprian  Bees 193 

Dadant's  Uncappinsr  can 117 

Damp.  How  Hives  Become     324 

Dandelion  as  a  Honey  and  Pollen  Producer 92 

Davis  Bee-  rush 116 

Davis'  Transposition  Process 228 

Decoy  Hives 292 

Desert'nif  Hivf's  in  Spring 2 

D' serting,  SwHrm-* 1 

Destruction  of  Bees  by  Milkweed 199 

"  "         "     (See  ENEMIES  OF  BEES) 104 

"  •'   Drones  in  Fall 101 

Development  of  IJee 47 

Diarrhea  («ee  mvsb.ntkuvi lOl 

Dirty  Coini.s,  How  to  Clean 3:W 

[  Diseases  of  Bees 92 

!  "        Other 94 


392 


INDEX, 


Diseases,  Prevention  of 92 

(See  Dysentery,  Foul  brood.  Spring 

DWINDMXG). 

Disease,  The  Nameless 141,94 

Distance  Traveled  by  Bees  (see  Dooltttle's  141th 

comment,  also  foot-note) :..  .SCO 

Dividing  (also  see  Artificial  swarming) 94 

Division-Boards,  Made  of  Lath  and  Chaff 95 

Of  Wire  Cloth aifi 

Dodecahedron,  Rhoml'ic It4 

Dooliitle  Solar  Wax-extractor 316 

Dovetailed  Hive— Ho«  to  Make 166 

HowtoCrate 166 

Dovetailing  Brood-trames ir.9 

"  Sections 167 

Dress  for  the  Apiarist  (see  Veils) 303 

"       "    Ladies 305 

Drone-Laying  Queens 233 

Drone  Egjrs 96 

"       Excluder 10(1 

Guard 99 

Meeting  Queen 97,  2:34 

Drones,  Age  of 5 

"       Brood  Distinguished  from  Worker 96 

"       Cells  of 96,  176 

"       Destruction  of  in  Fall 101 

"       From  the  Egg  to  Hatching 96 

"       From  Workers 8 

"       Have  but  One  Parent 97 

"       Larvae  of.  in  Queen-cells 227 

Mating  with  Queens 96,  67,  234 

Organs  of 9H,  234 

"       Rearing  Out  of  Season lOU 

"       Restraining  Undesirable 98 

"       Traj)  for  Getting  Rid  of lOU 

witli  Colored  Heads 101 

Drumming  Out  for  Transferring 298 

Dwindling  in  Spring  (>ee  Spkinu  dwindling) 92 

Dysentery 92,  Vj2 

"         Agency  of  Aphides  in  Producing 102 

Cure  of K3 

"  Prevention  of 112 

"  S.vmptoms  of 101 

Egg  of  Que*  n,  under  Microscope 46 

Eggs,  Ferrilized  and  Unfertilized 96 

"     Queen  Laying  Tsvo  Kinds 236 

Egyptian  Bees 46 

Euipty  Combs,  How  to  Keep 44,  322,  338 

Enemies  of  Bees,  Different  Kinds 104 

"  "       "      King-ldrds 196 

"       "      Mice 104 

"         "      "      Parasites Iil4 

"         "      "      Skunks 104 

"         "       "      Spiders 104 

"         "      "      Thieves  and  Patent-right  Ven- 
ders  1C5 

Entrances  to  the  Hives,  Auger-holes  for 1C6 

"         Clogging  of li  5 

"        Contracted  to  Prevent  Robbing 251 

"        For  A'entilation 3u7 

"        Number  of ]C6 

Position  of li  6 

Entrances,  Size  of  in  Winter H  6 

Evaiioration  of  Honey  by  Bees 108,  310 

Excluders,  Dn  ne  and  Queen KiO 

Expense  of  Sugar  Compared  with  Honey 123 

Experiments  in  Artificial  Heat 29,  3:34 

Extracted  Honey 107 

"  "      Candying  of  isee  Candikd  HON- 

F,v» 58,111 

"  "      First  Ton  of 107 

"  "      GIhss  Jars  for  Retailing 112 

"  "      "Green" 107 

"  •'      How  to  Keep Ill 

"     "  Seal  Up Ill 

"     "  Sell 109 

"      Pails  for  Retailing. 111,112 

"  "      Peddling ....JIO 

How  to  Ship Ill 

"  "      Yield  of.  Compared  with  Comb 

Honey 115 

Extracting  to  Pr'^veut  Swarming 290 

Extractor,  Honey,  Advantages  of 115 

Extractor,  Wax 313-317 

"  "    Solar 316 

Exudation  Theory  (see  Aphiuks) 178 

Evaporation  (jf  Honey  by  Bees 108, 310 

Fairs 122 

"    Educational  Effect  of 122 

"    Honev-piickiiges  for  Exhibit  at 121 

"    Model  Exliibii s  at 121 

"    Thousand-dollar  reward  at 122 

Fasteners,  Foundation 71 

Feeders 124 

"      For  Open  Air  and  Water 311 


Feeders.  Hains' 134 

"        Mi  lers 125 

"       Simplicity,  Description  of 134 

Feeding  at  N  igh  255 

"       Back  for  Sections 83,126 

Candy 57, 126 

"       Caution  Concerning 127 

"  "       In  Using  Brown  Sugar  and  Burnt 

Honey 123 

"       Fast  or  Slowly 126 

"       For  Broort-Rearins- 123 

"        For  Winter 135 

"       In  Winter ,57 

Meal 217,321 

"       Outside  or  Inside  of  Hive 124 

"       Sugar  or  Honey 122 

"       To  Procure  Drones 98 

"       To  Produce  Comb  Honey 83,  126 

"        When  to  be  done 124 

Fertile  Workers,  Cause  of 127 

"  '*         To  Detect  Presence  of 128 

"  "  ToGetRidof 137 

Fertilization,  In  Open  Air 96,  97,  234 

"  of  Ants 97 

"  of  Plants 318 

"  (See  queens) 234 

Figwort,  or  Simpson  Honey-plant 138 

Filing  Saws,  Cross-cut 173 

"       Rp 169 

"         "       Waste  in.  How  to  Avoid 171 

Filled  Section-,  How  to  Remove 80 

Finding  Queens 141, 189 

Fixed  Frames 130 

Advantages  of 130,133,139 

"  "        Bee-killers 133 

"  "       Closed-end  Qui  n  by 130 

"  "        Definition  of 130 

"  "       Handled  More  Riipidiv 130,132,139 

"        Hoffman 13(P,  139 

"  "       Hoffman,  How  to  Make ...131,160 

"  "       Proi'Olized 132 

"  "       Spuclugof    13u 

Flight  of  Bees,  Distance  of  (see  Doolittle's  141th 

comment 200 

Floating  Apiary 26 

on  the  Nile 26 

Flowers,  Colors  of 231 

Folding  Tent  for  Bees  out  of  Sections 77, 357 

"         "      for  Transferring,  etc 299 

Food  for  Larvae 238 

"       "    Queens 218 

"     of  Young  Bees 47 

Foot-power  Saws,  Barnes,  How  to  Use 146 

Foul  Brood,  Cause 136 

"  "         Caution ia5 

"         "        Communicated  to  Other  Colonies 135 

"         "        Description  of 133 

Foul  Brood.  Drug  Cures  for 135 

"         "        Remedies  for 134,135 

"         "        Symptoms  of 133 

Foundation  (see  Comb  Foundation) 62 

Fountain  for  Watering  Bees 298,  311 

"         Pump  for  Bringing  down  Swarms 287 

Four-piece  Sections 167 

Frames,  for  Hives 159 

"       Distance  from  Center  to  Center 130,  267 

"        Gauge  tor  Making 158 

Handling 136,  274 

"       Hoffman   see  HoFFMAN  Frame). 

"       How  Many  in  a  Hive? 145 

"       Langstroth,  Size  of 144 

"       Reversible 348 

Spacing  of 130.267 

Tall  and  Shallow 205 

"       Two  Sizes  in  Apiary 205 

Wired 70 

Frames.  How  to  Miininulate 136 

Foll"W.'isf(ir 137 

"  H(Av  10  Put  Back  in  the  Hive 137 

Hoffman, .to  Manipulate 138,139 

"  Quinbv,  to  Manipulate 139 

TwoKiids 136 

•'         Two  P<>-iti<n;s  for  Loose 137 

France,  E  ,  on  Vinegar 308 

Fruit-Blossoms,  Honey  from 140 

"  "  Imuortance  of 141 

Crop,  Do  Bees  Hinder? 141,  220 

Fuel  for  Smokers 264 

Galvanized  Ip  n  Not  Recommended  for  Honey 

or  Wax  Utensils 314 

Garrets,  Keecing  Bees  in 291 

Gill-over-the-Ground,  as  a  Honey-producer 143 

Given  Foundation-press 71 

Glass  Honey-jars 113 

"      Honey-pails 113 


INDEX, 


393 


Glass  Observatory  Hive 161  | 

Goldenrod,  Fifty-three  Varieties 142  i 

"  "     Quality  of  Honey 143' 

"  Good"  Candy  (Scholz)     57 

Graduated  Tin  Pails 112  ; 

Grapevines,  Concord,  Growth  and  Cultivation 17  ; 

Gravs  Machine  for  Makinir  Sections 1*59 

Grippers  to  Hold  Sheets  of  Foundation 66  j 

Hains  Feeder,  The 124; 

Handling  Bees  (see  Frames,  Manipulating) 274  i 

Italians 275 

Hand-power  Buzz-saw 147 

Hanging  Out 282 

"  "    Indication  of  Swarming 282  , 

"   To  Prevent 282  ' 

Hatcher,  Qunen 198 

Heat,  ArtiflciMl 29,  217,  »« 

Heddon  Shipping-case 88 

"       Way  f)f  Tiaiisferring 299 

Hill's  Device  for  Wintering 326 

Hive-making,  All  about 144,172 

Hives,  Chaff 153 

Corners 149 

Decoy 29,' 

"       Dovetailed 16ri 

"       Eight-frame 145 

"       Entrances  10 Iu5 

"       Frame- for 159 

"        How  They  Become  Da.np 324 

"     To  Open 136,274 

"        Lumber  fur 146 

*'        Making  I !}•  Steam  Power 163 

"        N<in-swaiiiiing 291 

"       ObservHtory 161 

"        Requisites  •  f 144 

Shade  boiirds  for 21 

"        Size  of i44 

"       D  iveiailed,  Ho.v  to  Make 145, 16ti 

"  "         Liigsr.i.h 166 

Storv  an<l  a  Hilf 145,152 

Nucie.iS 'ZOi 

"       To  Keep  Boards  from  Warping 148 

Hiving  apparatus,  Claik's      284 

"  "  Morri>ii'n's 284 

"  "  MMn'iriis.  -85 

"        Swarms  with  C  ipp'-d  Queens 28-* 

Hoffman  Fiames 137, 138,  139 

'•  '•        Han  iling  in  Pairs '39 

"  ••         How  to  Mcike 16ii 

"  "       Rever-in:i 242 

Holy-Land  Bees 178 

Honey,  Appl'- tree         141 

"      Basswood 3j,  107 

"      Bo.ird.90  .se.-  GlosSMiyi 

"  "       Queen  excluding      9. 

"      Bi'x- s,  SeciiOM 1-18 

"      Can,  58  pound 113 

"      Candi.d 58,107 

"      Cases  for  Storing  and  Shipping 74 

"      Clover 60 

"      Comii 72 

"  •'     IJt.xes  f>r  Sh.pping 87 

"    K.-ep.ng 89 

"     .Vlaik-iintr 87,88,89 

"     Sh  .w-.-M-.-  for 89 

Honey-comb,  Absolute  Perfection  of 175 

•'  '•        A  Famous  Problem 175 

*'  "       Agassiz's   Explanation 176 

Bis.-of  Cells l~i 

Different  Kinds  of  Cells 176 

How  Built 177 

*'  "       Mathematical  Accuracy  of 175 

"  "        Mathf  nuitics  of 173 

"       Size  of  C<'lls,  Drone  and  Worker  ...  176 

Tyndall's  Theory 176 

Honey-Dew  Emitted  by  Aphides.   27,178 

"  "    Manna 178 

"    On  Uasswood  Leaves 178 

"  '*    Produced  bv  Bark-Lice 27,179 

•'    The  Exudation  Theory 178 

Honey  Candied  (See  Candied  honey). 

Evaporation  of 310 

Extracted  (See  Extracted  Honey) 107 

Kedlii.k 83,12« 

"■        Flavored  with  Onion io8 

Hor-fii  iiii  IWi 

"        Houses 179 

Ho.»    IJ,..s  Make !•-'« 

"        In  Biirrels..  34 

In  Tin  Cans 113 

Jar  ,  Muths  112 

"        Knive-  U^ 

i.f  Hymettus 261 

\>,iU 112 

'•      GiM88 113 


Honey-Plant,  Chapman 39 

"  "       Simpson 128 

"       Plants 30,181 

"  "■        Poisonous 214 

"       Kipening  Artittcially 108 

"       Sealing  Up 59 

"       (See  Comb  Honey) 72 

"        Showcase  for 89 

"       that  does  ?iot  Candv 59,261 

"       To  Tell  When  the  Yield  Ceases 101 

"       Tumblers 113 

"       Unripe 108 

V.  Sugar  for  Feeding 122 

"       Why  Secreted  in  Flowers 221 

Honey-plants 181 

Listof  181,182,183 

Pi incipal  Plants 181 

"  Unimportant    188 

House-Apiary 22 

"  "      Advantages  of 24 

"  "      Description  of  Our  Own 23 

"  "      Entrances 106 

"  "      Help  for  Spring  Dwindling 336 

"      Mice  in 104 

House- Apiaii'-s,  Objections  to 25 

"  "      Protection  from  Thieves 24 

Hovisep,  Honey 179 

Huber's  Experiment 'i2S 

Hunger  Swarms 2 

Hunting  Bees,  Bait  for 39 

"      Box,  How  to  Use 39 

"  "      Capturing  the  Swarm 41 

"  "      Climbers 41 

"  "      Cross  Lines 40 

"  "      DoesitPayy 43 

"  "      In  Vicinity  of  Large  Apiaries . .  .38,  39 

"  "      Smudge,  Use  of  40 

"  "      Spy-Glass  for 40 

"  "      Starting  a  line 40 

"  "      To  Determine  Distance  from  Swarm.40 

Hunting  of  Queen  226 

Hybrids,  Cross  Between  Blacks  and  Italians 184 

"        Equal  to  Italians  as  Honey  Gatherers —  184 
Vindictive  Temper  of.  Extraordinary . . .  Isi 

Hymettus,  Honey  of 261 

Inserting  Queen-Cell 242 

Introducing  Queens  I87 

Balling 189 

Lenton  Cage  lor 1 86,  1x7 

Candv  for 186.187 

.186 


Gent-ral  Principles  for 

Jenkins  Cjisre  lor 187 

189 
.188 
.188 
.186 
.186 


McLityre'sCage  for 
Millers  Oge  for  .. 
Morrison's  Cage  fi 

Peet  Cage  for 

Peet  Process 


Invert  in 
Italianizing- 


Queenless,  liow  long  before,  i 

Sure  Wav  of 190 

Tobacco  for I90 

248 

194 

Italians,  Color  of  imported 190 

Docility  of 184.  191 

Five  banded 193 

How  loT'-ll  from  H.\  linil- 1»2 

"        Looks  and  Color     1^~ 

"         Leather-  olored 1!'3 

"         Markings  of 192 

"        Storing  Below -53 

"        Superiority  Compared  with  Hybrids .  .53, 193 

Jelly,  Koyai ~8 

.lones'  Honev-Pa'ts   HI 

Keeping  Bees  in  Upper  Rooms  or  Garrets 291 

Keeping  Coinl)  Honey 89 

Kegs  (see  Uaiihei-S) 

King-Birds '"6 

Knive-.  Hon-y ll': 

La.lies'   n<-e-Dres--  (see  Veii-S -^'o 

LampliirliT.  Handling  Hees  !).»  126,2.->5 

Lamp  Nursery 197 

To  Get  Cells  for 19i 

Langstroth  Frame  (se--  HiVE  making) 
"  Hive  (see  HivK-.M*Ki -til 

Larvte •  • *I 

"      Immature.  Why  Fimud  at  the  Entrance. . ..  4o 

Queens  from  Worker 228 

Laying,  How  to  Induce 1-3 

Worker.. '28 

Leak V  Barrels  .... ^ 

l.ice.  Plant  ^7 

Limlen  (see  Basswood) 

Locust.  A  Well-known  Tree '98 

Not  to  be  Depended  Upon  aa  a  Honey-pro- 
ducer  198 


394 


INDEX, 


Lucerne 6 

Lumber,  To  Prevent  Warping 148 

"       Whitewood 321 

Mailing  Queens 186,187 

Mandrel  for  Saw     I(i4 

Maple,  Hark  Louse 27 

Marketing  Comb  Honey  (see  Crate  for  Honey)85,  87 

Meal  Feeiling 217,221 

Melilot 61 

Mice 104 

Mignonnette 199 

MilkwfC'fl  Dostriictive  to  Bees 199 

Mixing  (if  Hces  in  Different  Hives 135 

Mc^th  and  Moth-worms  (^ee  Bee-moth) 

Motherwort 199 

Moving  Apiaries  North  and  South   .......... .26 

Moving  Bees,  Caution  Against  Smothering 200 

"  "     During  Working-Season 200 

"  "     Fastening  Frames  for 207 

"  "     Fixed  Frames  for    201 

"  "     Getting  All  into  the  Hive 202 

"  "     In  Spring 201 

In  Wagon  or  Buggy 203  2ii7 

"     Killed! 202 

"  "     Long  Distances 203 

"  "     Loss  by,  in  Floating  Apiary 26 

"     Northward  to  strike  Basswood   or 

Clover  Bloom        20 

"     On  Closed  end  Frames 130-201 

"  "     Securing  Combs 2(il 

''  "     Shipping 201 

'  "     Success  in  Moving  Whole  Apiaries.  .2(>2 

"  "     Supply  of  Stores 202 

"  "     To  Prepare  Carload  for 2ii3 

'  "     Ventilation 201 

Mustard 2i3 

"       Chinese ..203 

Quality  of  Honev "."  203 

Nectar  Not  Secreted  till  Pollen  is  Ripe 220 

Why  Secreted  in  Flowers 220,  221 

New  Swarms  (see  Swarms  and  Swarming). 

Non-swarminif  Hlve^ 291 

Nuclei  Ahpcondinsr 3 

Nuclei  For  Queen-Rearing. ...................... .  ^242 

'*       How  Small  They  May  Be !20.5 

"       L.  or  Gallup  Frame  ? 205 

"       Number  of  Combs  in 2<i6 

"       Shnpe  i.f  Hive 2  5 

Three-Frame  Hive  f  .r  Shippiner 2u6 

Number  of  B<  es  in  a  Quart      2(4 

Nursery,  Lamp     197 

Odor  of  Laying  Queen 23'< 

Observatory  Hives 161 

One-Piece  Sections 168 

Out-Apiaries 206 

"         "       Dadanfs 211 

•'        "       Distance  Between 207,209,210 

"         "       Hauling  tor 207 

"        Frames 210 

"        "       Manum's 213 

"         •'       Number  of  Colonies  in  an  Apiary  for 

206,  209,210 

"         "        Rent  for 207 

Scale  Hive  tor        212 

Tools  for 208 

Packages  for  Shippinsr  Extracted  Honey. Ill,  112, 113 

Packing  with  Ch-.ff 326 

Pails,  Honey 112 

Paraffine  for  Foundation 320 

*'  "    Waxing  Barrels 35 

Parasites 104 

Parker  Machine  for  Fastening  Starters 71 

Pastetioard  Boxes  for  Sections 88 

Pasturage,  Artificial 30 

Pasturasre,  How  to  lncreat.e 30 

Patent-Right  Venders  43,  46, 105,  250 

Peavine  or  Mammoth  Red  Clover  61 

Peet  Catre,  Introducing  with 186 

Pennvroyal 262 

Perforated  Zinc 90,  99,  290 

Perrine's  Floatinsr  A  piary 26 

Peters,  G.  B.  on  Swarming 293 

Pettit's  Honey-Evapurator I<i9 

Planer,  Gem 167 

Planing  with  a  Saw 172 

Plant-LicH 27 

Plants.  Fertilization  of 218 

Play-Spell  of  Young  Bees 258 

Poison  of  Bee  as  Medical  Agent 276 

of  Bee-Stings 275 

Poisonous  Honey,  Statement  from  Dr.  Grammer.214 

Pollen,  Agency  of  Bees  In  Fertilizing  Plants 218 

Animal  Food  Used  for 218 

Artificial  Substitutes 217 


"       Bee's  Adaptations  for  Collecting 215 

Effect  of,  on  Confined  Bees 216 

excluded  by  Zinc 223 

"       from  Maple  and  Corn 316 

"  "     Sawdust,  &c 217 

"       In  Comb,  Attracts  Moths 44 

"  Section  Boxes 222,223 

Milkweed 199 

Method  of  Gathering 215 

"       Setting  to  Work  on  Artificial 221 

Storing 217 

Preparinsr  Be'-s  for  Winter 323 

Press  for  Wax,  Gary's 315 

Preventing  After-Swarms 4 

Prevention  of  Dystnfer\- 102 

of  Kotihitiy 255 

"  of  Swarming 4,  290 

Propolis, : 234 

"         Do  Bees  need  it?    Theory  and  Practice. 224 

"         How  Gathered 223 

Paint  to  Keep  it  Off 224 

"         To  Keep  from  Surplus  Boxes 2'?4 

"         To  Remove  from  Fingers '224 

Queen-Cages  (see  Lntroducing). 

ExciiMl.  r 99,263 

"       Excluding  Honey-Board 99 

Hatcher 198 

"       How  to  Put  in  Cage 24v 

"      Laying  Two  Kinds  of  Eggs 237 

Meetiny  Krone 96.234 

"      Noise  Made  by,  in  Swarming 294 

"       Number  and  Kind  of  Bees  to  Accompany 

in  Transportation 244 

"       Sting  of 238 

Trap,  Alley's li)0,  291 

Queen-Cells 226,  227,  242 

"         "    Cutting  Out  to  Prevent  Swarming 289 

•    to  Use    241 

"         "    Destroyed  by  Young  Queens 26,27,214 

"         "    Good  Ones,  How  to  Procure 240 

"         "    How  to  Insert 242 

"         "    Large  Number  of 194,241 

"         "    Protectors  for 243 

"         "    To  Tell  When  They  Will  Hatch 227 

"    When  and  How  to  Cut  Out 241 

Queenlessness,  How  to  Detect 188 

Queens,  Age  of 5 

"  '•     "  On  Beginning  to  Lay 232 

"         and  Bees.  Caging 233 

"        Attempted  from  Drone-larvae,  a  Failure  .'244 
"  "  "  "  "       Distinction 

of  Cells 244 

"         BMliing    189 

Clipping  Wings  of 2,  3,  235,  288 

"  "  "       "  Danger  of  Loss  in 2 

"        Daily  Ni  mber  of  Eggs  Laid  by 238 

"        Drone-Laying 97,  23:3 

Queens,  Eggs  of.  Fertilized  and  Unfertilized 97 

"        Fertilization  of 96, 234 

"  "  "  In  Confinement  29 

Findine 189,226 

From  Italy 190 

"         How  Produced  from  Worker-Eggs '226 

"        Introduct'n  of,  Dif'nt  Methods 187 

OfVirgin 198 

Loss  of 238 

"         Longevity  of 5 

"         Mailing 187 

"        Meeting  Drones  On  the  Wing 96, 234 

"        Mutilation  of  Drones  on  Meeting 234 

"        Occupation  of,  While  Sealed  up "228 

Odor  of -239 

"        On  Leaving  Cells 228 

"        Rearing  (See  Rearing  Queens). 

Rivalry  of 230 

"        Several  in  One  Swarm 4 

to  Find  and  Remove  Old 189 

"        Transposition  Process 228 

"        Two  in  One  Hive  .   .   4.230 

"  "    on  Same  Comb 230 

"         Virgin 229 

"  "     Introducing 198 

"        Voices  of 330 

"         What  to  do  when  tliey  fly  away 189 

"        Wedding-Flight,  When  Taken '23? 

What  Kind  to  Rear 240 

"     to  do  with  when  Two  Weeks  Old 

and  do  not  Lav '^36 

"        What  to  Do  with  When  Uniting 301 

"         Wings,  Clipping 236 

"        Wings  of.  Imperfectly  Developed,  to  Test  220 

Queenlessness 188 

Quinby'sHive 131 

Ragweed  and  Corn  218 

Railroad  Apiary,  Description  of  25 


IXDEX, 


395 


Rape 

Raspberry- 
Ratan 


245 

245 

230 

Rearing'  Drones 87 

Record-keeping  of  Hives 245 

"  Books  for 245,246 

"  "  ('i)de  for  Position  for 247 

"  "  Individual  Plans  for  245 

"  Position  (if  Slate  for 24(i 

"  "  Kegister  Cards  for 248 

"  Slate  Tablets  for  24(i 

Repositories  for  Wintering 330 

(See  Wintering)  ....328 

Ventilating 334 

Restraining  Drones 96 

Reversible  Frames.  132.  248 

Philosophy  of ■ 24« 

"  Singly  or  Collectively 249 

Rhombic  Dodecahedron 174 

Ringing  Bells,  &c.,  to  Bring  Down  Swarms 293 

Ripening  Honey  Artiticially 10s 

Robbers,  How  to  Circumvent 253-256 

''  "       '"Distinguish         251 

Robbing 12, 126.  249 

"        Bee  Tent  to  Prevent  or  Stop 257 

"       Cause  of  the  Disposition 249 

Caution 126,  258 

"        Changing  Colonies 253 

"        During  Plentiful  Flow  of  Honey 251 

Effect  of,  if  not  Stopped 254 

"        Entrances  Contracted 2.51 

How  to  Stop     252 

Robbing.  Prevention  of 255, 257 

"        Stinging  When 254 

"       To  Distinguish  Robbers 251 

'*        Weak  Swarms 249 

"       Where  Robbers  Belong 252 

Working  by  Lamp-Light  to  Prevent 2' 5 

"  Moonlight 256 

Rockv  Mountain  Bee-Plant 2.58 

Rolling  out  Wax  Sheets 66 

Royal  Cells  (See  Queen-Cells) 227 

"     Jelly 227 

Sage.: 261 

"    California  White 261 

"     Qualityof 261 

Sagging  of  Foundation 69 

Salicylic  Acid 135 

Salt  Water  for  Bees  (see  Introduction) 312 

Saws,  Barnes  Bros' 146 

"      Compared  with  Cutter-head 169 

"      Cross-cut,  How  Filed  and  Set 172 

"      Filing 171 

"      Gang 167 

"      Hand  Power  Buzz ...147 

"      How  to  Wabble 151 

"      Mandrel  for 164 

••      Setting 171 

"     Shape  and  Angle  of  Teeth 171 

"      Sharpening  Without  Set 172 

*•      Speed  of  Circular 172 

"      Tables  for 164 

Working  Smooih  as  Planer 172 

Scent  of  Bees 249 

Scouts 292 

Section-bolder 75 

Section  Honey-Boxes,   All  About  Making,    One 

Pound 167-169 

"  "  Best  Size  for 84 

"  "  "  Crates  for  Holding 74 

"  "    .       Dovetailing 167 

"  *'  "  Fastening  Starters  in 71 

"  "  "  Filled,  How  to  Remove 

80,81 

' Filled  with  Honey 84 

"  **  "  Fou  r-Piece 167 

Getting  Bees  Out  of.... 77,  78 
"  "  "  How  to  Get  out  of  Wide 

Fratnes ..81 

' How  to  Handle 82 

How  to  Get  Out  of  T  Su- 
per      80 

"          "          '•          How   to    Use  With  Sep- 
arators   83 

"  "  "  Narrow  85 

'*  "  "  One  lb.,  Recommended.. .  84 

One-Piece    168 

Open  Side 85 

"  Pasteboard  Boxes  for...    88 

"  "  Putting  Foundation  into.  71 

Pollen  in 90,223 

Size  to  Use 84 

"  "  "  Scraping 82 

"  "  "  Surplus  Arranwements 

for.  Two  kinds 73 


Section  Honey-Boxes.    To  Induce  Working  in 76 

"           "           What  to  do  with  Unfin- 
ished   82 

Selling  Bees 53 

Selling  Extracted  Honey 109, 110 

*'      Comb  Honey 85 

Separators  or  None 83 

'*  Wood  or  Tin 84 

Shade  Better  than  Holes  for  Ventilation 306 

Shade-boa  rds  for  Hivi-s 21 

Shipping  Bees.  Cages  for 54 

"  "     Preparation  for 54.201 

Shipping  Case   87,88 

Show-Case  for  Honey,  Sturwold's 89 

Simplicity  Feeder  (see  Feeders) 124 

Simpson  Honey  Plant  (See  Figwort) 128 

Single-Tier  vs.  Double-Tier  Cases 88 

Skunks 1C4 

Slopinsf-Side  Pails Ill 

Smoke,  Not  AlwaA'S  a  Preventive  of  Stings 277 

Use  of,  in  Uniting  Bees 300 

"        When  to  Use 274 

Smokers,  Bingham's 262 

Clark's  Cold  Blast 263 

Fuel  for 264 

Quinbv's 262 

WhentoUse 274 

Solar  Wax-Extractor 316 

Soldering 264 

Fluid  for 265 

Implements  for 265 

Soarwood 266 

Spacing  Frames  isee  Fixed  Fkames) 267 

"  "         Nature's  Spacing  267 

Results  of  Wider 267 

Right  Spacing 130,267 

"            "        Two  Spacings  Used  by  Bee- 
keepers  267 

Spacing-sticks  for  Moving  Bees 201 

Spanish  Needle 267 

"  "        Amount  of  Honey  from 268 

Honey  of  268 

Where  Grown 268 

Spider  Flower,  Description  of 268 

Spiders 104 

Spring  Dwindling 92,  3:35 

Care     of     Combs    from    Dead 

Swarms 338 

Cure  for 93,337 

Loss  Immense 336 

Report  of '79 336 

What  Becomes  of  the  Bees 337 

What  Causes 337 

Standing  in  Front  of  Hives 273 

Starters  for  Sections ..71 

"         "    Fastening  them  in  71 

Starting  Bees  at  Work  in  Sections 76 

Starvation  Cure  of  Foul  Brood 134 

"  Swarms 2 

Stimulative  Feeding 123 

Stings,  Compared  with  Apparatus  Used  by  Other 

Insects  for  Boring  into  Bark,  etc 278 

"      Does  their  Loss  cause  Death  of  Bee 276 

"      Effects  of 272 

"      Great  Number  of  at  Once 272 

"      Hardened  to  the  Effects  of 273 

"      How  to  Open  Hive  without  Receiving 274 

•'      How  to  Save  Yourself  from  Stings 274 

"      How  to  Remove 272 

.Terkintr  ihe  Hands  B«ck  to  Avoid 274 

"      Magnified 278 

"      Mechanical  Construction  of 277 

"      My  Remedy 272 

"      Odorof 276 

"      Operation  of  Barbs  in 278,  279 

"      Poison  of 278 

"     Remedies  Discussed 271,272 

"      Severitvof 271 

"      SIngI"  Bee  Following  About 274 

"      Smoke  not  Always  a  Preventive 277 

"      To  Avoid 273,  274 

"      What  Bees  Give  Most  275 

Stores  Needed  (see  Wintering) 325 

Straw  Hives 325 

"     Packing 325 

Sturwold's  Show-Case  for  Honey 89 

Sub-Earth  Ventilation ;334 

Suffocation 252, 307 

Sugar,  For  Candy 57 

"         ••    Wintering 57 

"        Svrup,  How  to  Feed  (.see  Feeding). 

"  ■"  "     to  Make  122 

"         vs.  Honey  for  Feed  123 

"      (See  CANDY,    feeding,    wintering,  and 

grape  SUGAR.) 


396 


INDEX, 


Sulphur  to  Kill  Wax-Worms 46 

Sumac 279 

Sunflower 279 

Surplus  Honey  (see  comb  honey,  extracted 

HONEY,  and  SECTION  BOXES.) 

Swarm  Catchers ....263-285 

Swarming 1,  279 

After 3-5 

Artificial 31 

"         Automatic 291 

"        Cause  of 280 

"        Choice  of  Location  Before 292 

"        Does  the  Queen  Start  First? 280 

"        From  Upper  Rooms  and  Garrets 291 

"        Hook 2><6 

*'        Natural,  and  Its  Attendant  Clustering-. .  .293 

"        On  Sunday 283 

"        Preparations  for 283 

"        Prevention  of 289 

"  •'  "  by  Cutting  out  Queen  Cells  289 

"  "  '•  by  Removing-  Queen 289 

"        Prevention  of  by  Use  of  Extractor 290 

"        Season  of 280 

"         Sti-inipl's  Ladder  for 286 

Symptoms  of 280 

Swarms  Af^sconding 1 

"        After 3 

"        Apparatus  for  Catching 283-285 

"        Bringing  Down  by  Ringing  Bells,  &c 293 

"         Clarke's  Device  for  Hiving 284 

Clustering 1 

"         Hook  to  Assist  in  Taking  Down 286 

"         MHntim's  Device  for  Hiving 285 

Making  them  Clu.>.ter 287 

"         ^Morrison's  Device  for  Hiving 284 

"        Selection  of  Tree  Before  Swarming 1,  292 

"        To  Separate  When  Two  or  More  Unite.. 288 

Value  of  (Poetical) 280 

With  Clipped  Queens 288 

"        Sweet  Clover 61 

Teasel,  Cultivation  of 295 

Temperature  of  Cellar  or  Bee-House 334 

Tent.  F<  'Ming  Bee 77,  257,  299 

Thistle  Blue 49 

Three-Frame  Nvicleus  Hive 2o5 

Tinkering  \vlth  Bees  Unnecessarily 335 

Tin  Sepurators 84 

orWoofi 84 

Toads  Eating  Bees 296 

Touch-me-not,  Wild 220 

Transferring,  Appliances  for 298 

Drumming  Out 298 

How  to  Proceed 296 

"  In  Fruit-Bloom 297 

Price  for 298 

"  Success  of  Inexperienced  Apiarists. 298 

"  What  Amount  of  (.'omb  to  Save 29H 

"  "    Length  of  Time  Required 298 

Transposition  Process 228 

Trespassing  For  Wild  Bees 43 

TTins 161 

Tulip-Tree  (See  Whitewood)    320 

TSiiper.  74,161 

Turnip,  Attractive  to  Bees 30  i 

Seven-Top  Used  for  Greens 300 

Two-Frame  Nucleus  Hive 205 

L'ncMppin^  Cans.     .. 117 

Uniting  In  Spring 301,  337 

New  Swarms 302 

Two  Large  Coioisies .301 

When  to  Unite 3  2 

Untested  Queens X,39 

Veils 303 

"     AxteD's,  Mrs 3ii5 

"     Brussels  Net 3(i3 

"     CapehHTts 304 

"      Coggshall's  34 

Hai-rison's.  Mrs 3(5 

"      Holmes.  .Mrs   305 

•'      Mor'  n's  3,14 

"      H"w  to  Get  Alonsr  without  a 306 

"     Injurious  to  Eyes 3.il 

"      Net^essary  or  Unnecessary 3iil 

Ventilation 2.52.  306,  307 

How  Produced  by  Bees 3u7 

"  In   Winter 326 

"  Its  Relation  to  Dampness  and  Frost. .  .324 

of  Cellars 334 

"  of  Queen-Cages  During  Shipment 3i>7 

"  Suh-earth  Ventilators 334 

"  When  Shipping 201 

Vinegar.  A  Product  of  Honey 308 

Vineyard  Ajiary.  Directions  for  Starting 17 

Virgin  Queens  (See  Queens) 198,  :i28,  2.3ii 

to  Introduce 198 


Voices  of  Queens 230 

Warping  of  Lumber,  to  Prevent 148 

Water  for  Bees,  Amount  Needed 310 

"    New  Honey  a  Substitute 310 

Salt 312 

Watering  Bees  By  Means  of  Fountain 311 

"  "     Experiments  in 310 

"  "     Jar  for 311 

Wax,  Adulteration  of 320 

"toDetect 320 

"      Bleaching 318, 319 

"         By  Use  of  Acids 318 

"  In  the  Sun 318 

Clarifying 63 

"      Cleaning  from  Utensils 317 

"  ••  •'      Holls 67 

"      Exportationsfrom  Different  Countries 318 

"      Extractor 313-316 

"      Galvanized  LTtensils 314 

"      from  Other  Insects 319 

"     Vegetables 319 

"      Melting  point  of 313.  318 

Moth 43 

"      Press,  Gary's 315 

"      Refining  lor  Foundation 63 

"      Solar  Wax-extractor 316 

"       Sheets  to  Make 65 

"      To  render  without  an  Extractor 315 

"      To  Improve  the  Article  of  Commerce  63,  318, 320 
"      Use  of  Different  Kinds  .   .   .  .     .  .319 

",     Worms 43 

"*     Yellow  or  White  for  Fdn.? 64 

Waxing  Barrels  against  Leaking  (see  Barrels). 
White  Clover  (see  Clover.) 

"      Sage 261 

Whitewood.  or  Tulip  or  Poplar 320 

"  As  an  Ornamental  Tree. 320 

"  Flower  of 321 

Honey  of 321 

"  Lumber  for  Hives  and  Honey  Boxes  ..321 

Wide  Frames  for  Sections  73 

"  ■■  "      "  Use 73 

Wild  Bees  (see  Bee  hunting). 
Windbreak  for  Apiary  (Se^  Introduction.) 

Wintei-cuses  (See  Appendix) 157 

Winter  Feeding- 125 

Wintering  Amount  of  Honey  Needed  325 

"  Advantages  of  Outdoor 328 

•'    Indoor 328 

"  Artificial  Heat  in  Cellars  tor .i34 

"  Boardman's  Rep'  sitory  f  r 334 

Bottom  Ventilation  tor 332 

"  Carri  Ing  Bees  in  and  out  of  Cellar 

f.T 330,331 

"  Celbtrs  vs.   Repositories 332 

"  Chaff  Cushion  for .326 

"  "     Cushion  Division-Boards.  ...  95 

"  "     For  Out-door  Packing  .  327 

"  "     Packing,  Success  of    .     339 

"  Cutting  Wiiiter-pHssdges  in  theCombs.326 

"  Dead-air  ^-'paee  for 327 

Dead  Bee  -  ■  n  Cellar  Bottom 334 

Disturbing  Bees  in  Cellar 'S3o 

Doolittle  s  Cellar  for 332  333 

Eurl    P  e IV I  ration        325 

Etfectof  Different  Kinds  of  Food.  123 

"  Youni;  Queens  for ..323 

"  How  'o  Kx  mine  (,'olonies  in  Cellar 335 

"  In  Cellars  Temperature  of  .334 

"      When  to  Put  In 329 

"     "    Take  Out..   .  .334 

"  Main  Points .323 

Wintering  Miller's  Bottom-board  for 332 

■'  Paper  packing  tor 327 

Putting  Bees  on  Old  Stand  or  Not 332 

Slioit '  f  Stores  for 27 

'■  Size  of  Apartment 333 

•'  ■•     "  Entrance  for..  106.  3:i6 

"  Size  and  Shapes  of  Frames  for.     ..         205 

Spring  Dwindling 92,  335,  3:36,  337 

"  S>ores  Pre  e>  led  tor 335 

Sprlny  Dwindling  Cure  for 337 

Siih-earlh  ventilators 334 

.■<iiceesstul 339 

"  Sunnningiin ..335 

Taking  Hees  out  too  Early 329 

"  V^entilation,  Its  Relation  to  Frost  and 

Dampness .324 

Wired  Frames  for  Ffumdation 70 

Wood  Sei)aratots  vs.  Tin 84 

Worms.  Wax  43 

Yielrt  of  Honey  per  Acre 3i',  270 

Day 31 

YoiingBee.< 37 

Zinc,  Perforated 90.99,100 


APPENDIX. 


*>-9* 


So  rapid  is  the  progress  of  our  industry, 
that,  even  after  some  of  tlie  forms  in  the 
body  of  the  work  had  been  printed,  it  seem- 
ed necessary  to  add  an  appendix,  giving 
some  of  the  very  latest  developments  to- 
gether with  some  slight  changes  which 
could  not  be  incorporated  in  their  appropri- 
ate places  in  the  body  of  the  w^ork.  It  is 
proposed  to  print  only  short  editions  of 
this  appendix  so  that  it  may  be  revised 
every  few  months.  This  will  bring  the 
whole  work  up  to  the  very  latest  state  of  the 
industry. 

The  tigures,  where  they  are  used,  just  be- 
fore the  heading,  indicate  the  page  in  the 
body  of  the  work  to  which  the  matter  refers. 
Where  they  are  omitted  it  means  a  new 
article  that  will  in  the  next  edition  of  the 
book  be  incorporated  in  its  alphabetical  or- 
der. 

ANATOMY  or  THE  BEE.  Although 
I  have  spent  much  time  with  the  microscope 
in  dissecting  the  bee  and  studying  its  won- 
derful structure,  yet  for  the  main  facts  of 
this  article  I  am  indebted  to  that  admirable 
little  scientitic  work,  ••  The  Honey-bee.'  by 
Thos.  Wm.  Cowan,  a  microscopist  and  scien- 
tist of  the  front  rank,  as  well  as  editor  of 
the  Bi-ithh  Bt-e  .lournal.  Mr.  Covvan  is  so 
careful  and  candid  in  his  conclusions,  and 
so  well  posted  as  to  the  results  of  the  inves- 
tigations of  otlier  eminent  microscnpists. 
tliat  I  liave  no  hesitancy  in  accepting  his 
.statements.  All  I  shall' endeavor  to  do  is 
to  put  the  material  in  a  condensed  and  pop- 
ular form,  with  a  few  side-lights  thrown  in 
from  (tther  sources. 

I  will  tirst  call  youi-  attention  to  the  ali- 
mentary canal— that  is.  the  organs  of  diges- 
tion and  assimilation.  What  is  digestion  y 
Our  author  says, "'  It  is  the  separation  of  the 
nutrient  part  of  food  from  the  non-nutrient. 
and  tlie  con\"ersi<in  of  the  nutrient  into  a 
liquid  fit  to  mingle  with  the  blood,  and  thus 
nourish  the  Ijody  of  tlie  insect.'  We  all 
know  how  the  bee  gathers  up  her  food 
through  her  >vonderful  and  delicate  little 
tongue.  It  then  passes  into  a  little  tube 
just  below  the  point  A.  in  the  engraving, 
called  the  '•  o'sophauus."  or  •'gullet."  We 
tiiul  a  similar  organ  in  oui-  own  bodies,  lead- 
ing from  the  month  and  comuiunicating  di- 
rectly with  the  stomach.  This  o'sophagus 
passes  through  the  waist  of  the  bee.  oi'  tho- 
rax, as  it  is  called,  and  to  the  lioney-stoiuach 
(t  in  the  abdomen.  It  is  in  this  little  sac. 
althouL'h  it  can  hold  l)ut  a  tiny  drop  at  a 
time,  that  millions  and  millions  of  pounds 


of  nectar  are  carried  annuallv  and  stored  in 
our  combs.  This  sac  G  is  located  in  the 
fore  part  of  the  abdomen,  or  "  hinder  *'  part 
of  the  bee.  as  the  boy  said. 

Several  years  ago  I  had  a  curiosity  to 
know  what  the  bees  were  working  oii.  I 
suspected  that  they  were  gathering  juices 
from  over-ripened  raspberries  on  the  vines. 
In  order  to  satisfy  myself  I  grasped  a  bee 
by  her  wai.st  and"  abdomen,  and  pulled  un- 
til the  parts  were  separated,  and  then  was 
revealed  the  little  honey-sac.  which  had 
disengaged  itself  from  the  abdomen.  This 
contained  a  light  purple  or  wine  -  colored 
liquid-  The  size  of  this  honey-sac.  as  near- 
ly as  I  can  recollect  now.  wiis  a  good  big 
eighthof  an  inch  :  and  I  should  remark  that 
the  bee  had  all  she  could  contain  in  lier  little 
pocket.  Cheshire  says  that,  when  the  honey- 
sac  is  full,  it  is  }  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 
This  would  agree  with  my  observations. 

STOMACH-MOUTH. 

The  next  thing  that  engages  our  attention 
is  a  sort  of  valve,  which  has  been  called  the 
stomach-mouth,  and  is  located  between  the 
honey-stomach  and  the  true  stomach:  viz.. 
at  11.'  This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
organs ;  and  I  suppose  that  no  part  of  the 
internal  anatomy  of  the  bee  has  been  stud- 
ied more,  theorized  about,  dissected,  and 
examined,  than  this  delicate  and  beautiful 
little  valve.  At  II  its  true  structure  does 
not  appear.  It  has  bnen  likened  in  appear- 
ance to  a  bud  just  about  to  ojien.  It  is  a 
sort  of  valve,  fringed  on  the  inside  with 
rows  of  bristles,  or  hairs,  the  object  of 
which  seems  to  be  to  separate  the  pollen 
grains  from  the  nectar,  the  former  passing 
into  the  stomach  L. 

TRUE   STOMACH. 

This  corresponds  to  the  stomach  in  our 
own  bodies,  and  performs  the  same  function 
in  the  way  of  digestion  in  converting  the 
nutrient  particles  of  the  food  into  blood. 
The  inside  walls  of  the  stomach  have  cer- 
tain cells  wliich  perform  certain  otHces ; 
but  without  more  definite  engravings  it  will 
l)e  impossible  to  describe  them  in  detail. 

The  next  organ  is  the  small  intestine,  or, 
as  it  is  sometimes  called,  the  "  ileiun."'  In 
the  human  body  the  snu\ll  intestines  are 
much  more  elalVorate.  It  is  in  this  that  the 
food,  after  its  digestion.  i)asses.  and  where, 
by  absorption,  the  nutrient  particles  not  al- 
ready absorlied  jiass  into  the  blood,  and 
so  on  throughout  the  system. 

Vou  will  notice,  also,  at  L.  some  small 
radiating  tihiments.  These  are  called  the 
malphygian  tubes.  It  is  not  certain  what 
their  oflice  is.  but  it  is  thought  that  these 
are  the  urinary  «)rgans. 

At  the  end  of  the  small   intestine.  K.  you 


398 


APPENDIX. 


will  notice  an  enlargement.  M.  This  is 
what  is  called  the  colon.  Although  the 
appearance  of  the  colon  in  the  bee  is 
different  from  that  in  tli'-  human  liody,  yet 
its  functions  are  very  mucli  the  same;  and 
if  allowed  to  become  dammed  uj)  by  excreta 
(that  is, by  retention  during  winter)  it  is  lia- 
ble to  cause  disease  in  the  bee,  just  the 
same  as  in  the  human  body.  Mr.  Cowan, 
the  author  of  the  book  I  mentioned  at  the 
outset,  says : 

From  tlie  colon,  w)iat  roniaiiis  of  tlie  luidlgested 
food  is  expelled  by  tlie  anal  oi)eiiiiig.  For  this  pur- 
pose strong-  muscles  exist,  by  which  the  colon  is 
compressed  and  the  excreta  ejected. 


winter    it   is    retained   until    voided   on   tlieir  first 
fjigrht. 

So  you  see.  then,  that  bad  food  makes 
m  schief.  just  the  same  as  it  does  in  the  hu- 
man body,  and  it  is  in  this  tliat  the  over- 
plus of  faeces  is  stored  during  winter. 

HOW   THE   BEE   ''MAKES"   HONEY. 

After  the  nectar  is  gathered  it  is  then 
transferred  from  the  tongue  to  the  oesopha- 
gus and  thence  to  tlie  honey-stomach,  G.  It 
lias  been  shown  rei)eatedly  by  experiment 
that  there  are  many  more  pollen  grains  in 
the  nectar  tlian  in  honey  :  hence  the  little 
stomach-mouth  II  comes  into  play  in  sepa- 


HONEY-BEE  DISSECTED  :   AFTER  AVITZGALL. 


The  quantity  of  the  excreta  voided,  usually  of  a 
dark  brown  c(jlor,  is  regulated  by  the  nature  of  the 
food;  bad  honey,  an  improper  substitute  for  honey 
(such  as  g'lucose)  i)roducing'  a  larger  amount,  while 
good  honey  and  good  syrup  produce  less,  a  larger 
proportion  of  it  being  digested  and  absorbed.  It  is, 
therefore,  impoi'tant  that  bi-es  sliould  liave  good 
food,  as,  in  a  liealtliy  condition,  woi-kers  never  void 
their   fseces  in  the  hive,  but  on  tiie  wing.    In  the 


rating  the  grains  from  the  honey.  On  ar- 
rival at  the  hive,  the  bee  regurgitates— that 
is,  expels  tlie  contents  of  the  honey-sac  into 
the  cell ;  but  during  its  stay  in  the  honey- 
sac  the  nectar  has  imdergone  a  change ; 
that  is,  it  has  been  converted,  says  Mr.  Cow- 
an, from  the  cane  sugar  of  nectar  into  the 
grape  sugar  of  honey,  by  tlie  agency  of  a 
certain  gland.    This  sustains  the  position 


APPENDIX. 


399 


held  so  persistently  by  Piof.  Cook,  and  his 
view  is  doubtless  correct. 

But  the  bee  may  not  resurjfitate  the  hon- 
ey, for  it  may  pass  directly  into  tlie  chyle- 
stomach.  We  see,  therefore,  that,  when  a 
swarm  i-sues,  the  bees,  after  filling  their 
honey-sacs  to  their  full  cai)a!  ity  (a  very 
small  drop),  can  carry  with  them  a  supply 
of  food  to  last  them  for  sexeral  days  ;  and 
even  while  on  the  wiii^,  through  that  little 
stomach-mouth,  ir,  they  may  take  nourish- 
ment. So  much  for  the  alimentary  canal, 
its  otiice  in  digestinn,  and  the  honey-stom- 
ach. 

THK  NERVOUS   SYSTEM. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  nerv- 
oiis  system.  By  referring  t'>  the  engraving 
you  \\ill  see  parallel  and  medial  lines  pass- 
ing tlie  entile  length  of  the  bee.  and  finally 
communic  itiny-  with  the  brain  .\  Alouir 
at  irregul  ir  intervals  will  be  seen  thickened 
masses  called  •' ganglia."  Tht  se  aie  really 
little  brains,  and,  as  in  our  own  bodies,  pre- 
side over  the  involuntary  mu^cus.  Tiie 
largest  ganglion  is  tlie  brain,  at  A,  and 
is  the  seat  of  voluntary  action  and  intelli- 
gence. One  is  surprised  in  reading  through 
chapters  10  and  11  of  Mr.  Cowaii-s  work, 
how  thoroughly  scientists  have  stndied  the 
strnctnre  of  the  nervons  system  as  found  in 
the  bee.  Even  the  tiny  brain  has  been  dis- 
sected, and  its  various  functions  pointed 
out — that  is.  what  parts  communicate  with 
the  antennje,  what  part  with  the  eyes,  etc. 
T  was  greatly  interested,  in  looking  over  the 
sizes  of  different  brains  found  in  different 
insects.  I  quote  here  a  paragraph  found  on 
page  70  of  Mr.  Cowan's  book  : 

It  is  generally  admitted,  that  the  size  of  tlie  l)i'ain 
is  in  proportion  to  tlie  development  ot'  iiitellijrence; 
and  Dujardin,  who  made  eareful  measurement.s, 
gives  tlie  following  sizes:  In  the  worker  l)ee  the 
brain  is  the  ,f^  "f  the  body;  in  the  ant,  ^h,-.;  the  ich- 
neumon, j?,?,;  the  cockchafer,  ^Kt,;  the  dytiscus.  or 
water-lieetle,  jn'nn. 

In  man  the  proportion  is  1  to  40, 1  believe ; 
but  we  all  know  that  he  is  of  the  very  high- 
est order  of  intelligence.  However, We  are 
not  very  much  surprised  to  learn  that  the 
bee  has  the  largest  brain  of  any  of  the  in- 
sects, exceeding  by  far  even  that  of  the  ant. 
whose  intelligence  we  have  admired  over 
and  over  again. 

THE    liESPIKATOKY   SYSTEM. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  inquire  how  the 
bee  breathes,  iiy  referring  to  the  engrav- 
ing given,  we  observe  a  couple  of  large  air- 
sacs,  called  the  ''  trachea,"  corresponding 
somewhat  to  the  lungs.  These  are  located 
on  either  side  of  the  abdomen,  as  at  T. 
These  are  divided  and  subdivided  into 
smaller  trachea,  and  these  in  turn  ramify  all 
through  the  entire  body.  Instead  of  fresh 
air  being  received  in  at  the  mouth,  as  with  us, 
fresh  supi)lies  are  admitted  through  14  little 
mouths  called  "spiracles."'  Ten  of  these 
are  located  in  the  abdomen— five  on  each 
side— and  are  situated  just  about  on  the 
margin  of  the  scales,  between  the  dorsal 
and  ventral  segments.  Four  others  are  sit- 
uated on  the  thorax,  or  waist,  two  on  each 
side.  You  may.  therefore  decapitate  a  bee 
and  she  will  continue  breathing  as  before. 


If  you  place  a  pencil  dipped  -in  ammonia 
near  her  body,  the  headless  insect  will  strug- 
gle to  get  away ;  and  if  the  pencil  touches 
her  feet,  the  ganglia  already  spoken  of  com- 
municate the  sensation  to  the  other  ganglia, 
and  at  once  all  the  feet  come  to  the  rescue 
to  push  off  the  offending  object,  or.  it  may 
be,  to  take  closer  hold  so  the  sting  may  do 
its  work.  Besides  that,  if  bees  are  daubed 
with  honey  tliey  will  die  very  soon  from 
strangulation,  because  the.se  little  mouths 
or  spiracles  are  closed.  A  bee  may  swim 
around  in  a  trough  of  water,  and,  though 
her  head  be  entirely  out,  she  will  drown 
■j  just  the  same,  because  these  spiracles  or 
breathing  -  mouths  are  submerged  under 
water.  On  a  hot  day,  if  the  entrance  of  a 
hive  be  closed,  the  bees  will  soon  begin  to 
sweat ;  and.  thus  becoming  daubed,  the 
delicate  spiracles  are  closed,  and  the  bees 
die. 

ROY'AL  .TELLY,   AND   WHAT   IS  IT  V 

Cheshire  insists  that  it  is  a  fecrefion  from 
one  of  the  glands  ;  but  Prof.  Cook  has  main- 
tained tliat  it  is  the  product  of  the  chyle- 
stomach  ;  and  Mr.  Cowan  proves  conclu- 
sively that  this  is  the  riglit  view. 

This  chyle  is  produced  in  what  is  called 
the  chyle-stomach,  shown  at  L,  in  the  en- 
graving ;  and  worker  larvae  are  fed  on  this 
concentrated  food  for  three  days,  after 
which  they  are  weaned.  "On  the  fourth 
day  this  food  is  changed  and  larva  is  wean- 
ed ;  for  the  first  pap  has  a  large  quantity  of 
honey  added,  but  no  undigested  pollen,  as 
Prof.  Leuckhart  had  stated.  The  drone 
larvae  are  also  weaned,  but  in  a  different 
way;  for,  in  addition  to  honey,  a  large 
quantity  of  250HP71  is  added  after  the  fotirth 
day.'"  And  right  here  I  can  not  do  better 
than  quote  from  Mr.  Cowan  : 

Micro.scopic  examination  showed  that,  in  the 
queen  and  worker  larvie,  there  was  no  undigested 
pollen;  whereas  in  the  drone  larvte,  after  tlie  fourth 
day,  large  numbers  of  pollen  grains  were  found. 
In  one  milligram,  no  less  than  1.5,000  pollen  grains 
were  counted,  and  these  were  from  a  numl^er  of 
different  plants.  .  .  .  This  work  of  Dr.  Planta's. 
we  think,  conclusively  proves  that  the  food  is  not  a 
seci-etion.  and  that  the  nurses  have  the  power  of 
altering  its  constituents  as  they  mHy  require  for 
the  ditferent  bees.  .  .  .  Royal  jelly  is,  therefore, 
chyle  food,  and  this  is  also  most  likely  the  food 
given  to  the  queen-bee.  Schonfeld  has  also  recent- 
ly shown  that  drones  are  likewise  dei>endent  upon 
this  food,  given  to  them  by  workers,  and  that,  if  it 
is  withheld,  they  die  after  three  days,  in  the  iires- 
ence  of  abundance  of  honey.  This,  lie  thinks,  ac- 
counts for  the  (juiet  way  in  which  drt  lies  perish  at 
tin'  end  of  the  seiison.  It  will  now  be  easily  undei'- 
stood,  that,  if  weaning  of  the  worker  larva?  does 
not  take  place  at  the  proper  time,  and  that  the. first 
nourishing  food  is  continued  too  long,  it  may  be 
the  cause  of  develojiing  the  ovaries,  and  so  produce 
fertile  workoi-s,  just  as  tlie  more  nourishing  food 
Continued  during  the  whole  of  the  larval  e.vistence 
in  the  c;ise  of  a  queen  develops  her  ovaries,  or  even 
in  tlu'  absence  of  ii  (pieen  the  feeding  of  workers 
on  this  I'ich  food  may  tend  to  have  the  same  effect. 
This,  then,  is  the  solution  of  royiil  jelly  and  brood 
food. 

For  a  more  exhaustive  treatment  of 
the  whole  subject,  see  Cowans  work.  The 


400 


APPENDIX. 


IIonej[-Bee  ;  Cook's  Manual  of  the  Apiary,  or 
Cheshire's  Bees  and  Bee-keeping,  Vol.  1. 

PA«E   25 — LATEU    DEVELOPMENTS    ON  THE 
IIOUSE-AI'IAIIY. 

Since  printing  our  article  on  liouse-apia- 
ries  the  subject  lias  been  revived,  and  some 
of  the  objections  pointed  out  on  page  2.5,  in 
the  b(Hly  of  the  book,  have  been  overcome. 
We  have  again  put  bees  in  our  house-apiary, 
and  are  now  working  it  on  a  slightly  difter- 
ent  plan.  Tlie  windows,  althougn  darkened 
as  formerly,  are  made  so  as  to  hinge  and 
hook  at  the  top.  Tlie  outside  of  the  window- 
casing  is  covered  with  wire  cloth,  the  wire 
cloth  extending  some  four  or  five  inches 
above,  the  upper  part  of  the  casing  being 
cut  away.    The  following  cut  shows  how 


this  is  done  ;  and  if  you  will  turn  to  page  77 
vou  will  tind  a  cross-section  of  Dr.  Miller's 
bee-escape,  wliich  illustrates  tlie  same  thing. 
While  bees  and  rolibers  will  fly  toward  the 
wire  cloth,  they  will  never  think  of  going  to 
the  top  and  running  down  a  passageway 
four  or  five  inches  long,  to  get  into  the 
building.  But  the  liees  inside,  in  accord- 
ance with  tlieir  instincts,  crawl  "ptoard  and 
pass  out  readily.  Our  three  windows  are 
now  screened  with  wire  cloth,  in  the  man- 
ner above  described,  and  Reese  bee-escapes 
are  attached  to  some  of  the  entrances  of  the 
stands  not  ocupied  t)y  bees  ;  therefore  all 
bees  that  happen  to  collect  inside  can  easily 
go  out,  but  they  can  not  get  back  in.  In- 
stead of  having  the  bees  crawl  all  over  the 
floor  the  moment  you  open  the  door,  they 
will  readily  fly  toward  wliere  the  light  shines 
through,  where  tlie  bee  escapes  are  attached 
to  the  unoccupied  entiances. 

After  going  inside  we  raised  the  three 
windows  thai  have  tarred  paper  tacked  on 
the  sides,  to  keep  oul  the  liji,ht,  and  to  let  in 
all  the  light  we  need.  This  gives  perfect 
ventilation  ;  at  the  same  time,  the  bees  that 
happen  to  fly  off  the  combs  while  handling 
tiieni  in  the  house  collect  on  the  wire  cloth 
and  pass  out. 

To  further  add  to  the  convenience  of  the 
apiarist;  there  should  be  a  ventilating-shaft 
communicating  through  the  roof  ;  and  while 
the  smoker  is  not  in  use  it  should  be  set  un- 
der this  sliaft. 

We  have  discovered  that,  in  order  to  make 
the  house-apiary  a  success,  the  bees  must  be 
shut  u])  in  theii-  compartments  absolutely. 
These  com])artnients.  llieiefoi-c.  must  be  so 
made  that  not  a  bee  may  esca])e  and  crawl 
ciwt  upon  the  floor  <luring  the  time  you  are 
not  inside. 

We  have  always  observed  that  the  crossest 
bees  are  but  little  inclined  to  sting  mside  of 
a  building.  When  they  lly  from  the  combs 
that  you  are  handling,  tliev  find  themselves 
inclosed;  and  this  .•-o  disconcerts  them  that 
they  immediately  fly  to  the  screen  windows 


and  escape.  James  Heddon  says,  "  If  you 
have  a  cross  cok)ny,  put  it  in  the  house-api- 
ary and  see  how  tame  it  will  become." 

It  is  now  made  pos.sible,  by  the  bee  escape 
spoken  of  under  Comu  Honey,  to  take  off 
extracting  combs  or  comb  honey,  without  a 
single  bee  getting  on  the  floor;  and  the 
great  convenience  of  being  able  to  extract 
combs  without  shaking,  and  having  thirty 
(^r  forty  colonies  within  a  radius  of  six  feet 
of  the  extractor,  is  a  big  thing. 

page  70— wiring  frames. 
Since  the  form  for  Comb  Foundation 
was  printed,  we  find  that  it  is  very  much 
better  to  wire  frames  on  the  Keeney  plan 
the  other  side  up  from  those  shown  on  page 
70.  This  will  bring  the  horizontal  wire  at 
the  bottom,  and  tinng  the  loop  5  near  the 
to]).  The  plan  shown  on  page  70  has  given 
us  some  good  comljs,  though  we  found  there 
was  a  little  tendency  at  times  for  foundation 
to  bulge  l)etween  i)oints  1,  5,  and  2.  If  the 
wiring  is  turned  the  other  side  up,  and  the 
loose  edge  of  the  foundation  is  rubbed  on 
to  the  comb  -  guide,  the  results  are  very 
much  bftter. 

PAGE  70— AVIRING  FRAMES  HOKIZONTALLY. 

"We  have  recently  run  across  a  jilan  for 
wiling  that  pleases  us  even  better  than  the 
Keeney.  It  is  simply  the  one  that  has  been 
used  ijy  Dadant  &  Son  in  their  extensive 
apiaries,  and  by  George  E.  Hilton  and  oth- 
ers. In  our  earlier  experiments  with  wiring 
frames  horizontally,  the  foundation  would 
l)ulge  between  the  wires,  and  yet  the  Da- 
dants,  Hilton,  and  others,  assured  us  that 
they  secured  nice,  beautiful,  straight  combs. 
The  foundation  should  be  trimmed  one- 
fourth  inch  or  so  sh;illower  than  the  inside 
depth  of  the  frame.  Our  later  experiments 
have  shown  us  that  we  have  by  this  means 
secured  mcst  beautiful  frames  of  comb. 
We  are  of  the  opinion  now  that  it  is  far 
ahead  of  any  other  way  of  wiring.  Combs 
are  not  only  nicer  and  straighter,  but  the 
work  is  very  much  less.  The  end-bars 
should  be  pierced  about  2  inches  apart,  I 
inch  from  the  bottom-bar  and  1  inch  from 
the  top-bar.  This  will  make  four  horizon- 
tal wires. 

IMl'.EDDING   WIRE   BY'  ELECTinCITY. 

If  a  wire  is  too  small  to  carry  a  given  cur- 
rent of  electricity,  it  will  heat;  and  if  too 
great,  it  will  melt.  There  are  ju-t  00  inches 
of  No.  30  tinned  wire  u;-ed  on  the  four-wire 
horizontal  ])lan  mentioned  above.  It  re- 
mains, therefore,  to  secure  just  battery 
power  enough  to  heat  this  00  inches  its  en- 
tire length  to  a  temperature  of  about  140"^, 
or  hot  enough  to  sink  into  the  foundation 
when  a  sheet  is  pressed  on  the  wires.  To 
do  this  a  frame  is  laid  upon  a  form  in  such 
a  way  that  the  two  ends  of  the  No.  30  tinned 
wire  sticking  through  the  end-bavs  of  the 
frame  come  in  contact  with  the  two  poles 
or  Wires  of  the  battery.  The  poles  should 
be  a  couple  of  brass  springs  (fastened  lo  the 
battery  wires),  which  sIimII  jiress  against  the 
terminals  of  the  tinned  wire.  If  there  is 
sufficient  current  the  wire  will  heat  quite 
hot  while  you  are  laying  a  sheet  of  founda- 
tion on  tlie  wire.  Press  or  rub  the  sheet 
with   the   fingers  along  the  line  of  the  wires 


APPENDIX. 


401 


until  they  melt  half  way  through.  We  use 
a  wooden"  roller  like  that  sbown  in  the  cut 
below. l:  This,  passed  over  the  slieet,  pre^sses 
upon  all  four  wires  at  once  As  soon  as  the 
wires  are  imbedded  (it  ought  not  to  take 
more  than  ten  seconds),  remove  the  frame 
from  the  form  and  the  current  i-;  broken. 


HLOOD  S   ROLLER. 

We  get  our  cm-rent  from  three  cells  of 
what  is  called  the '' bichromate  of  ])otash'' 
plunge  battery.  This  battery  and  the  nec- 
essary outfit  can  be  bought  of  your  dealer 
for  about  S-.oO.  Unless  you  "have  more 
than  an  ordinary  knowledge  of  electricity 
you  would  not  be  able  to  make  one. 

Wiring  by  electricity  is  very  much  faster 
and  nicer  in  its  results,  and  we  have  used 
it  exclusively  of  late.  S^-s-^-i^ 

After  the  wires  have  been  imbedded"' to, 
say,  100  frames,  we  use  what  is  called  the 
Daisy  foundation-roller,  shown  below. 


the  foundation  melts,  the  pressure  of  the 
hands  being  released  allows  the  tongue  or 
plate  to  vNithdraw,  and  the  starter  is  allowed 
to  drop  on  to  the  section,  when  it  instantly 
cools  and  is  held  firm.  This  method  of 
fastening  foundation  is  not  only  more  rapid, 
but  it  does  much  nicer  work,  and  at  the 
same  lime  saves  foundation.  The  pressiu'e 
method  sj.oken  of  on  page  71  always  wastes 
an  edge  of  the  foundation  that  fs  bedded 
into  the  top  of  the  section.  This  waste 
amounts  anywhere  from  i  to  i  of  an  inch. 
All  this  is  saved  Ijy  the  method  above.  Its 
manner  of  construction  will  be  apparent 
from  the  engraving. 

PAGE   158— J  HE   XKW  HOFFMAN    FRA3IE. 

In  the  body  of  the  work  we  describe  how 
to  adapt  the  Hoffman  frame  to  tlie  Dove- 
tailed hive.  It  should  lie  borne  in  mind  that 
the  standard  Langstroth  toji-bar  is  U)i  in. 
long,  and  tlie  regular  Hoffman  toji-bar  is 
widened  at  the  ends.  This  would  make  a 
bearing  surface  in  the  rabbet,  ixlf  inches; 
in  other  words,  it  would  be  necessary  to  use 
a  rabbftt  i  inch  wide;  whereas,  w'th  the 
Hoffman  frame  it  should  be  only  i  in.  wide. 
Appreciating  this  difficulty— that  is.  that  so 
wide  n  bearing  surface  would  necessarily  kill 
bees — we  recommended,  on  i»age  iwi,  short- 
ening the  toi)-bar,  that  is,  making  it  181  in. 
kmg.  This  would  narrow  up  the  hive  ral»- 
bet  to  i  inch.  We  have  since  found  that  it 
is  imi)ossible  in  practice  to  change  the 
standard  length  because  the  short  top-bars 
would  not  work  well  in  old  standard  size 
hives,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary  for  us 
to  adhere  to  the  old  length— 19i  inches,  or, 
more  exactly.  19,\;.  To  avoid  crushing  liees 
we  use  a  straiyht  top-bar  and  a  tin  rabbet, 


DAISY   FOUNDATION-ROLLER. 

The  pressure  of  the  wooden  wheel  two 
or  three  times  will  stick  the  foundation  to 
the  comb  -  guide.  To 
prevent  the  wheel  from 
sticking  to  the  wax, 
dip  it  in  water  occa-'f^ 
sionally. 

PAOE  71— FASTENING 
STARTERS   IN   SEC- 
TIONS. 

We  very  nuudi  prefer 
to  put  our  foundation 
in  sections  with  the 
machine  shown  in  the 
adjoining  cut. 

The  princii)l('  of  the 
machine  is  this:  A  ptiet- 
al  plate  or  tongue  is. 
kept  heated  by  means 
of  a  lani])  liencath.  Thjs 
l)late,  by  a  slight  pres- 
sure of  the  hands  while 
holding  the  foundation, 
is  made  to  pass  directly 
under  and  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  bottom 
edge  of  the  starter.     Instantly  the  edge  of 


DAISY    K)l'M)ATl<)N 
KA'^TKSl-  l< 


as  shown  in  the  accompanying  diagrams, 
the    rabbet    being   made    a^r-~, 
shown  in  A,  B,  C'  With  sucIk 
a  rabbet  there  is  no  creasing  ' 
of  the  under  side  of  the  top- 
bars,  no  bending  over,  and  no 
cutting  of  the   lingers.     The 
edge  A,  being  folded,  allows  a 
perfect  lateral  motion. 

The  straight  top-bar  cheapens  tiie  con- 
struction of  the  frame,  and  at  tlie  same 
time  affords  a  little  advantage  in  allowing 
linger  rocnn  between  tlie  ends  of  the  top-bar. 
The  (/((M)ars  are  left  as  before,  only  oeing 
notched  at  the  top  so  as  to  receive  the  toj)- 
bar,  as  shown  in  the  cut.  We  have,  there- 
fore, tile  same  lateral  sliding  motion  and 
self-spacing  feature  of  the  old  Hoffman 
frame,  at  a  reduced   cost,  and.  morever,  the 


402 


ArrEXDix. 


dimensions  of  the  frame  are  standard 
throughout  witli  that  of  tlie  old  Langstroth. 
The  reader  may  follow  his  own  discretion 
as  to  tlie  style  of  Hoffman  frame  he  will 
prefer.  Should  he  choose  the  one  above 
ilhistrateti,  it  will  be  necessary  to  modify 
the  directions  slightly  for  cutting  out  the 
rabbets  of  the  hive  on  page  151. 


of  the  liive  come  together  as  square  joints, 
a  featuie  that  is  nowadays  so  much  prized 
by  bee  keepeis 


THE  NEW  H0FF3IAN    FRAME  FOR  THE  DOVE- 
TAILED  HIVE. 

We  might  add,  incidentally,  that  the  ma- 
jority of  bee-keepers  seem  to  prefer  the 
frame  modified  as  above;  and  if  you  de- 
sire to  keep  in  line,  perhaps  you  had  better 
decide  on  this  one. 


FIO.    4.      OUR    PERMANENT    DOUBLE- AVALL- 

ED   CHAFF-1  ACKED   DOVETAILED 

HIVE. 

A  one-story  chatf  hive  is  preferable  to  one 
made  of  two  stories.  First,  to  secure  light- 
ness; and  seccmd.  that  the  same  may  be  in- 
terchangeable with  the  Dovetailed  hive  or 
any  of  its  furniture.  Tlie  hive  above  se- 
cures both  of  these  advantages,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  weighs  but  a  triile  more  than 
the  permanent  single-walled  hives.  It  is 
made  of  f  inch  lumber,  also  dovetailed  at 
the  corners. 

The  inside  width  is  l?i,and  will  take  eight 
frames  and  a  division  board  with  wedge. 
This  sime  hive  may  mIsj  be  made  to  take  a 
full-depth  story.  The  water-table  has  a 
raised  projection,  so  that  the  separate  parts 


FIG. 


5.      DOVETAIIED   CHAFF  HI 
SINGLE-WALLED   UPPER  S 


VE  W 
rORY. 


The  space  between  the  walls  is  11  inches. 
There  is  also  a  double  bottom  and  tarred 
paper  to  prevent  rotting.  The  hive  may  be 
packed  or  not,  as  desired,  and  the  whole 
weighs  only  2  lbs.  more  than  the  single- 
walled  hive  with  bottom-board.  It  will  be 
observed  that  we  have  dispensed  with  the 
expensive  corner  posts,  and  use  instead  the 
cheaper  dovetailed  corners,  which  are  equal- 
ly strong.  Instead  of  having  the  hive  made 
of  a  lot  of  3-inch  slats,  the  sides  and  ends 
are  made  of  whole  pieces.  This  makes  it 
much  simpler  to  put  together,  and  also 
makes  the  two  sei)arate  walls  as  near  air- 
tight as  possiiile.  The  hive  in  inside  dimen- 
sions is  the  same  as  the  Dovetailed  hive, 
and  in  outside  dimensions  it  is  IHi  x  2o,  and 
can  be  luided  into  a  wagon  with  almost  as 
much  economy  of  space  as  the  single- walled 
hive.  Tins  makes  it  possible  to  secure  in 
this  hive  nearly  all  the  advantages  of  the 
single-walled  hive,  with  the  additional  ad- 
vantages of  a  winter  and  spring  hive.  Such 
a  hive  con  be  carried  into  the  cellar,  the 
projection  of  the  water-table  affording  an 
excellent  grip  to  hold  the  hive  by.  Then 
the  advantage  in  setting  out  a  doiible-wall- 
ed  hive  in  spring,  when  the  weather  is  so 
unceitain.  will  be  apparent,  but  we  intend 
this  hive  to  be  a  successful  outdoor  winter 
hive. 

PAGES  198  AND  241-.-THE  UPPER  STORY   FOR 
(iUEEN-REARING. 

During  the  summer  of  1S91  we  had  con- 
siderable troiible  in  getting  our  upper-story 
colonies  to  accept  the  Doolittle  cell- cups. 
Quite  by  accident  one  of  these  upper-story 
cjlonies  became  queenless,and  then  the  bees 


APPENDIX. 


403 


would  accept  and  build  out  nine-teuths  of 
the  cups  j?iven  them.  We  have  not  had 
very  good  success  in  getting-  the  upper-story 
colonies  having  a  queen  to  start  tlie  cups, 
although  they  will  complete  them  if  they 
are  first  started  in  a  queenless  (•ok)ny.  We 
now  give  the  cell-cups  to  a  two-story  queev- 
less  colony ;  and  after  this  two-story  colony  ; 
has  built  several  batches  of  cehs,  we  let 
them  have  one  of  the  cells  and  we  tlieu  pre- 
pare another  one.  These  artiticial  cups  are 
often  a  great  help.  During  the  summer  of 
1891  we  should  not  have  known  how  to  get 
along  without  them.  This  made  it  possible 
to  breed  most  of  our  queens  from  the  very 
best  breeding  mother  we  had,  after  we  dis- 
coveied  that  we  were  obliged  to  have  qiieerf-' 
less  colonies  in  order  to  make  the  bees  ac- 
cept the  cups. 

PAGE  268 — THE  NEW  OLARK  SMOKER. 

We  have  greatly  improved  tlie  new  Clark 
smoker  by  putting  a  set  of  perforations  on 
the  end  of  the  fire-cup  ns  w^ell  as  under  it. 
If  you  have  an  old  Clark  smoker  that  does 
not  work  very  well,  just  puncture  a  lot  of 
holes  immediately  in  front  of  the  grate,  with 
a  wire  nail,  and  see  how  much  better  it  will 
work. 

PAGES  63  A^TD  814  — SULPHURIC  ACID    FOR 
RENDEKIXG  AVAX. 

We  have  lately  come  across  a  method  for 
rendering  wax  in  connection  with  a  wax- 
press,  that  is  far  superior  to  any  thing  else 
we  have  ever  tried.  The  method  was  sug- 
gested to  us  by  F.  A.  Salisbury ;  and  as 
every  statement  that  he  has  made  in  an  ar- 
ticle on  the  subject  is  true  in  our  experience, 
we  publish  it  just  as  he  gives  it  in  Glean- 
ings: 

I  wiU  give  you  a  plan  that  will  make  dark-col- 
ored wax  into  as  nice  wax  as  any  you  ever  saw. 
It  will  be  so  clear,  that,  when  melted,  you  can  see 
to  the  bottom  of  a  dii)pert'ul,  looking  like  wine.  By 
this  plan  you  can  take  the  refuse  of  cakes  of  wax, 
that  which  is  scraped  off  the  bottom  after  cooling, 
and  looks  like  sand,  and  make  it  into  as  nice  wax  as 
can  be  made.  This  last  season  we  had  a  barrel  of 
this  dark  stuff,  which  looked  like  din,  and  you 
would  have  said  it  was  not  wiiitli  the  trouble;  but 
I  put  it  through  the  process,  and  got  fi-om  it  60  lbs. 
of  yellow  wax,  worth  at  least  $1.5. 

1  know  tliatii'on  or  galvanized  iron  will  turn  wax 
a  dark  color.  I  went  to  quite  a  little  expense  rig- 
ging up  steam-pipes,  and  tanks  of  galvanized  iron 
for  my  foundation  business.  The  first  melting  did 
not  show  much,  but  after  melting  tiie  scraps  over 
three  times  I  stopped  making  and  tried  to  find  out 
what  was  tlie  mattei-.  I  knew  the  wax  al  first  was 
all  light,  and  concluded  after  a  wliiic  it  wat;  either 
the  galvanized  iron  or  steam  of  too  liigh  pressure. 
I  then  went  to  work,  tore  down  all  tiie  fixtures,  and 
went  back  to  melting  in  a  large  wooden  tub.  This 
wa.x,  which  was  almost  a  dark  green,  I  i)ut  tlirougli 
my  process  of  melting,  and  liad  yellow  wax  again. 
My  plan,  whereby  I  can  render  1(10  lbs.  of  wax  from 
old  combs  in  three  hours,  is  as  follows:  Get  a  bar- 
rel that  is  good  and  strong,  and  I  steam-pipe,  long 
enough  to  reacii  from  a  steam-boiler  to  the  lioltom 
of  a  barrel.  Coi>pt'r  i)ipe  would  be  lielter.  liut  1 
find  the  small  sui'face  of  tlie  pipe  touching  the  wax 
does  not  make  any  appreciable  diHerencc.  You 
want  a  valve  to  shut  otf  tlie  steam,  four  pieces  of 


pipe  five  inches  long,  an  elbow,  a  cross,  and  three 
caps.  In  the  pieces  of  pipe  five  inches  long  drill 
three  rVi'ich  holes,  spaced  about  two  iiidies  apart; 
screw  an  elbow  on  the  bottom  of  the  pipe  coming 
from  the  steam-boiler;  then  one  of  the  short  pieces 
of  pipe  in  tlie  elbow;  now  screw  on  tiie  cross,  then 
the  three  pieces  of  pipe,  and  put  a  cap  on  the  end 


=oQo=ir; 

FROM    SOILE       '~ 


APPARATUS     FOR     RENDERING     REFUSE     WAX    WITH 
SULPHURIC  ACID. 

of  each.  Turn  the  pipes  until  the  small  holes  point 
all  one  way.  so  the  steam  in  issuing  will  set  the 
water  whiiling.  Now  fill  the  barrel  one-fourth  full 
of  clear  water.  Put  in  one  pound  of  sulphuric  acid; 
turn  on  the  steam,  and  wlien  boiling  put  in  the  old 
combs  Let  all  boil  until  heated  thoroughly,  and 
stir  with  a  large  stick  at  the  same  time. 

Now  you  will  want  a  press.  Mine  is  simply  a  box 
made  large  enough  to  hold  three  racks,  made  of 
pgx^-inch-square  sticks  1.5  inches  long,  nailed  to 
two  end  pieces  15  inches  long,  so  there  will  be  ^ 
inch  between  tlie  slats.  In  tlie  bottom  of  the  box  I 
have  a  tin  dish  one  inch  deep,  and  it  just  slips  down 
inside  nicely.  At  one  side  the  tin  is  turned  down, 
and  a  hole  is  made  in  the  bottom  of  the  box  for  the 
wax  and  water  to  run  out.  Get  a  rim  two  inches 
wide  and  twelve  inches  square  made  from  %-inch 
stuff,  and  three  pieces  of  burlap  three  feet  square. 
Lay  one  of  the  racks  in  the  tin  dish  in  the  bottom 
of  the  box;  on  this  the  two-inch  rim;  over  this  one 
of  the  pieces  of  burlap. .  Press  tlie  burlaps  down  in 
the  rim,  and  dip  the  melted  wax  over  into  it  until 
full  to  the  top  of  the  rim.  Bring  the  burlaps  over 
the  top;  take  out  the  rim;  lay  another  rack  on  top 
of  this,  and  so  proceed  until  you  have  the  three 
filled;  then  place  a  follower  on  top  of  all,  and  a 
common  jack-scri-w  on  top  of  the  follower.  Make  a 
fiame  out  of  2x4  scantling  to  go  under  the  box  and 
come  to  the  toi)  of  the  jack-screw.  You  will  want 
two  bolts  to  go  through  the  top  and  bottom  pieces 
of  the  frame.  Have  them  of  ■'u  round  iron,  and 
screw  the  nuts  up  tight.  Put  the  top  piece  of  the 
frame  over  the  jack-screw,  and  turn  the  screw 
slowly  so  as  to  give  a  chance  ftir  the  wax  to  run  out. 
After  it  has  stopiied  running,  take  out  the  refuse, 
and  you  will  find  the  wax  nearly  out.  You  could 
not  get  out  of  a  barrel  of  comb,  after  pres.siiig,  if  it 


404 


APPENDIX. 


were  possible  to  jret  it  out.  over  a  teacupful  of  wax. 
We  liave  tried  a  number  of  ways,  but  the  above  is 
the  best. 

I  tried  an  ariangemcnt  inside  of  a  barrel  to  con- 
tinually stir  the  comb;  and  over  the  comb,  un- 
der water  six  inches,  I  had  a  screen  to  keep  ref- 
use from  rising-.  I  thought  all  the  wax  would  in 
time  rl.se  to  the  toj).  but  more  stayed  under  the 
screen  than  came  to  the  top.  I  also  tried  keeping 
two  barrels  of  comb,  that  was  thoroughly  broken 
up,  moist  with  watei-  for  two  years,  to  see  if  I  could 
not  rot  the  cocoons  and  pollen  so  it  would  be  like 
dirt.  It  I  could  rot  it,  I  could  get  out  all  the  wax, 
and  not  make  me  a  press,  liut  simiily  melt  it  in  wa- 
ter, and  the  dirt  would  settle.  This  was  a  failure. 
The  smell  of  the  stuff  when  melting  would  fairly 
knock  a  man  down  at  ten  rods.  I  was  very  sick 
with  malaria  shortly  after.  Some  thought  I  caught 
it  from  that  bad-smelling  boiling  mixture.  The 
wax  I  did  get  out  of  it  was  all  riglit.  I  had  to  use 
tlie  press  to  finish  up.  No  more  jobs  like  that  for 
me.  I  can  take  cakes  of  wax  that  come  to  me  dark, 
and,  after  rendering,  they  will  be  a  nice  yellow 
color.  You  simply  want  to  melt  them  in  the  acidu- 
lated water,  cover  the  barrel  over  tiglit,  and  throw 
an  old  horse-blanket  over  the  whole;  let  it  stand 
five  hours,  and  then  dip  out  in  pans  carefully,  so  as 
not  to  disturb  the  dii't  at  tiie  bottom.  Save  all  the 
refuse  from  .scraping  the  bottom  of  cakes,  and 
put  through  the  same  process. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  .5,  1890.      F.  A.  Salisbury. 

In  the  summer  of  1891,  after  our  comb- 
foundation  season  ceased,  we  had  as  usual 
a  lot  of  dirt  from  wax  renderings,  wliich  we 
had  proposed  to  throw  away  ;  but  after  re- 
ceiving the  article  above  we  decided  to  keep 
it  and  try  the  acid.  Tlie  result  was,  we  se- 
cured many  dollars'  worth  of  wax,  more 
than  paying  for  a  man's  time  in  doing  it,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  valuable  experience  ob- 
tained. We  have  since  taken  cakes  of  com- 
mercial wax  that  were  as  black  as  ink, 
treated  them  to  sulphuric  acid  as  above,  and 
the  result  would  be  invariably  clear  and 
beautiful  yellow  cakes  of  wax.  In  the  bot- 
tom of  the'barrel  will  be  left  the  residue  of 
dirt  in  which  there  is  no  wax.  The  action 
of  the  acid,  in  conjunction  with  the  heat,  is 
to  carbonize  or  burn  the  organic  matter  held 
in  suspension   in   the  wax  while   cooling. 


This  frees  the  organic  matter,  causes  it  to 
sink,  and  leaves  the  pure  wax  on  top,  which 
may  afterward  be  dipped  oft'  after  standing 
four  or  five  hours,  as  explained  in  the  arti- 
cle. There  is  no  excuse  now  for  sending 
wax  to  market  with  a  dirty  color.  A  few 
cents'  worth  of  suljiliuric  acid  will  make 
your  wax  so  much  nicer  and  yellower  that  it 
will  bring  you  several  dollars  more  in  mar- 
ket price. 

HOAV  TO  REFINE  WAX   15Y  SULPHUKIC   ACID 
AVITHOUT   STEAM. 

There  are  very  few  bee-keei»ers  who  have 
access  to  steam.  They  can  refine  wax  with- 
out it,  in  a  smaller  way.  but,  of  course,  with 
proportionally  more  tioidjle.  Take  an  or- 
dinary earthenware  milk-crock  or  stew-i)an, 
such  as  is  used  on  the  farm.  Put  into  this 
about  a  quart  of  «vater,  and  then  add  a 
dram  or  two  of  sulphuric  acid.  Add  wax  un- 
til the  crock  is  full  to  within  an  inch  of  the 
top.  Set  this  on  the  stove,  and  allow  it  to 
boil  over  a  slow  fire  for  lo  or  20  minutes,  or, 
better,  an  hour.  Set  it  aside  and  allow  it  to 
cool  a  little,  and  then  dip  off  the  wax  from 
the  top,  being  careful  not  to  stir  up  the  dirt 
and  refuse  that  have  settled  to  the  bottom. 
If  you  have  very  much  wax  to  refine,  it  will 
pay  you  to  go  to' your  tinner  and  have  him 
make  you  a  ten  or  fifteen  gallon  copper 
boiler,  tin-lined  on  the  inside  (you  can't  use 
tin  or  iron).  If  your  wife  already  has  a  cop- 
per boiler,  you  are  so  much  better  off ;  but 
he  sure  to  return  it  to  her  clean  and  nice. 
After  it  has  been  used  for  rendering  wax 
with  sulphuric  acid,  clean  it  as  well  as  you 
can,  and  then  put  in  clear  water  and  let  it 
boil  for  an  hour  or  so,  after  which  pour  off 
and  rinse. 

CAUTION. 

In  pouring  the  siilphuric  acid  into  the  w^a- 
ter,  be  careful  not  to  pour  it  in  too  fast. 
Pour  slowly,  and  hold  your  head  away. 
There  is  danger  of  its  flying  ;  but  by  pour- 
ing it  in  very  slowly  you  will  have  no  trou- 
ble. Sulpliuric  acid  is  very  corrosive.  If 
you  get  any  on  your  fingers,  immediately 
plunge  tliem  into  water,  and  no  harm  will 
lesult.  If  any  spatters  on  your  clothing, 
dash  water  on" as  soon  as  you' can,  and  then 
apply  a  little  ammonia  to  arrest  the  further 
action  of  the  acid. 


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