colonies, may gather tons of the nectar, which may yield a larger profit than his fields. The meadows that entice the bee produce, in the shape of honey, a harvest ere the time comes to start the reaper and mower, thus doubling the products of your land.

From time immemorial honey has been one of the most .common sweets, and yet up to perhaps thirty years ago beekeeping was carried on in the rudest and most primitive manner, not securing a tithe of the amount of honey that the present improved methods enable the apiarist to obtain. The ancient bee gum, the hollow log, the box and the straw hive, were the rule, and the honey was taken by smothering the industrious servants, reducing the stocks down to the lowest number, and then starting afresh and depending upon the natural impulse to swarm. Swarming was uncontrolled, and often was so frequent that the bees did not gather enough for winter stores. Only in exceptional years when the flow of honey was more than ordinarily abundant, could the beekeeper find many of his hives heavy enough to warrant a slaughter of the innocents. But the invention of the movable comb hive has wrought a great change. We may appreciate the importance of this invention when we consider that most of the numerous improvements and appliances we now have are the outgrowth of the movable comb device.

To Rev. Mr. Langstroth is due the honor of this great invention. By the use of this hive in its various forms its internal economy is brought within the control of the beekeeper. He can at any time know the exact condition of his bees, and is able to make such changes as the exigencies demand.

Taking it for granted that some who hear me have not seen the inside of a movable comb hive, I will briefly describe one. It may be constructed of any desired dimensions, but the most common form is a box about twenty inches long, sixteen inches wide and ten inches deep, with eight or ten frames hanging inside lengthwise, reaching within one-half an inch of the ends and bottom of the chamber. At first, and before the invention of comb foundation, the bees were expected to build their combs from the

top bar of each frame, but they did not always do as they were expected, and often gave the beekeeper much trouble by building their combs across from one frame to another. Foundation, however, has remedied that difficulty. Frames are now filled with sheets of foundation, and all the bees have to do is to work out the impressions in the wax into full length cells thus forming beautiful, straight combs. This they accomplish in a very few days.

On top of this chamber above described, another is placed, in which are section boxes for comb honey, or for full-sized combs for extracting, of which we will soon speak.

By means of the movable comb hive many scientific facts in relation to their physiology have developed, enabling the apiarist to control and direct the various operations of the bees. Swarming is under his control to such an extent that he can artificially swarm them without limit, or entirely prevent swarming. Those who have had to watch their hives, being hindered in the work of the farm or shop and kept home from church on Sunday, can appreciate the importance of artificial swarming. By means of the artificial comb hive the weak colonies can be reinforced by giving them now and then a comb of brood and young bees from a strong colony, strengthening the former and checking any disposition to swarm in the latter, thereby equalizing the strength of all the colonies of the apiary.

There are many plans followed in artificial swarming; some apiarists preferring one and some another. Some beekeepers adhere to natural swarming, yet I believe our most successful bee masters follow artificial swarming. The plan called the nuclei plan of artificial swarming has been very satisfactory, which is about as follows: Select the best colonies to breed from, remove one or more combs from the center of the hive and insert new combs or frames filled with. foundation for the queens to lay in; select other strong colonies, from which take all unsealed larvæ and the queens, and after eggs have been laid in the new combs from which you wish to rear queens: in four days cut off about one inch from the entire bottom of the new comb, and insert the comb in the middle of the hive prepared to rear the cells. Select

as many cells as you desire to make nuclei and destroy the remainder. A day or so before the cells hatch, cut out the cells and fix in the combs, one cell to each nucleus. Beside each comb in the nucleus place a comb of bees and honey from a full colony, and beside these a division board, thus forming a colony or nucleus of two combs and a queen cell. In the course of a day or two each cell hatches a young queen and in another week the queen flies out to meet the drones, and is fertilized, and in a few days thereafter will be laying. From day to day as the old colonies fill up with brood, combs may be taken from them and given to the nuclei, soon building them into strong stocks. These nuclei may be kept engaged hatching queens by giving them a comb containing eggs from a full colony whenever deprived of their

queen.

The beekeeper often needs extra queens, either to supply an artificial colony or to supersede an old or defective one. About the first thing a person unacquainted with bee culture thinks of when speaking of bees, is the sting. Well that is a point worthy of consideration. No one ought to be heedless of them, and there are many to whom a bee sting is of serious consequence. Yet if ordinary prudence is observed, that is, quickly removing the sting and applying ammonia and water, a tea-spoonful to a tea-cupful, or a little wet clay, will soon relieve the pain and in a few hours the swelling will disappear.

Beginners may take comfort in the fact that after a year or two the poison of the bee has less effect, and in time a few stings are unnoticed. The liability to be stung depends a good deal upon the kind of bees kept, and the manner of handling. The most gentle bees will not continue to be gentle if roughly handled. They will not brook a jar of their abode, and will severely resent any quick or awkward handling of their combs. Be gentle. A skillful bee-keeper moves quietly among his hives, and if a bee happens to fly near his face, he does not nervously strike at it, nor take to his heels and run away. To those who have great fear of stings I would recommend the use of a bee-veil.

Allusion has been made to comb foundation. It is a sheet of pure beeswax, which has been passed between the rollers

of a foundation machine, which produce impressions somewhat like the bases of the cells of natural honey-comb. These foundations are worked out in a few days into fulllength cells, and generally the honey is placed in them as fast as the cells are lengthened. The advantage arising from the use of foundation is obvious, when it is considered that in the production of a pound of comb the bees consume about twenty-five pounds of honey. By the use of foundation, the bees have only to form the cells of the wax furnished them.

Soon after the invention of comb foundation came the extractor, which added immensely to the capacity of a colony to produce honey, by the use of which the combs are emptied of the honey as rapidly as it is gathered, and in some instances three or four hundred, yes, even a thousand pounds have been reported as the yield of some very strong colonies, and in localities where honey-bearing flowers were very abundant.

The honey extractor is usually a large tin can in which a wire frame basket is made to revolve by means of a crank. The combs, after being uncapped with a honey knife, are placed in the basket, two or four at a time, and by turning the crank with moderate rapidity, the honey is thrown from the cells, by the centrifugal force, against the sides of the can, and running down accumulates in the bottom underneath the basket, and is drawn off by means of a faucet. By the frequent use of the extractor during the honey flow, the bees are prevented from becoming crowded for room for storing honey, and the queen for laying, and consequent swarming out of the hive. While it is true, bees often swarm while they have plenty of unoccupied space in their hives, yet they most frequently swarm because of becoming crowded and the queen having no empty cells in which to lay, hence its importance as well to prevent swarming as to increase the yield of honey.

As to the comparative merits of comb and extracted honey, I must say I think the extracted preferable to comb honey. Many prefer the comb on account of its more attractive appearance, but when one has become accustomed to eating the extracted, it will look equally delicious. It is far

more easily digested and therefore more healthful. There is much to be said in regard to the appearance of honey with respect to its salableness in the market. I have time only to say that small, neat packages are most salable; half and one pound tumblers meet with a ready sale at a good price, and one and two pound combs sell better than boxes containing several pounds.

It may be thought by many who have not had bees, that bee-keeping is a very simple and easy matter, and requiring no more knowledge than the care of a brood of chickens; yet experience will correct such a misapprehension.

It has been said that bee-keepers are born, not made. However, I do not think that any man or woman with a fondness for those insects and the study of their wonderful habits a lover of Nature who finds

can fail of a large measure of success in its pursuit.

He who takes pleasure in watching their flight in and out of their hives, who soon learns to distinguish the different kinds of bees that make up a colony; the workers that carry on the work of the hive, who bring in from the field and flower the precious nectar, and the pollen in their tiny baskets on their hind legs, to feed the young larvæ, and with their fearful stings defend their sweet homes; the drones, those large, noisy males who toil not nor spin, nor gather honey, but seem to live only to have a good feast and to enjoy themselves, fit neither for offensive nor defensive service; the queen, the mother of all the colony, whose long, slender body distinguishes her from her children, moving about majestically over the combs depositing her six eggs a minute; taking out a frame from the hive, notes their condition. Among the mass of bees that cover the comb he seeks with wistful eye until he espies the queen; perhaps he observes her bands, her size, and conjectures as to the purity of her blood; is she Italian, Cyprian, Holy Land, Black or Hybrid? I say a man or woman thus inclined, who loves thus to handle and observe them, can with judicious management, succeed in bee culture.