Jan. 21, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



43 



sibly mix. Then cover over the lop, first with a suitalile piece of some 

 kind of cloth. (I cover all ni.v hives with something under the wooden 

 cover.) Then as soon as these queen-cells hatch out, and tht-y are 

 fertilized and begin laying, I can dispose of them as I please — intro- 

 duce her to a colony of natives by removing first their queen and then 

 add another queen-cell to this same nucleus, and continue as long as 

 desired the same process, keeping an eye to removing the brood when 

 it accumulates too much in this nucleus. 



All my hives uoii' are I.angstroth size, with Laugstroth frames. I 

 have a few, however, of my old pattern, the frames of which are 

 14x8i.2, 'hat I thought of using for nuclei especially, instead of the 

 standard size. But here develops one trouble in that case; Suppose 

 colony No. 1, that we have been discussing thus far. is in a standard- 

 size hive, and it sent out a swarm, and I propose to form a nucleus 

 out of the parent colony after it has sent out a young swarm. In that 

 case won't I have to convert the colony (although of standard size) 

 into nucleus form, as above mentioned J 



2. My apiary is located in an orchard, and faces northeast, and is 

 nofth from my dwelling, say 100 yards. I desire to place 5 Italian and 

 one Carniolan colony south of the residence, facing southeast, with 

 the dwelling and some large trees between them and the apiary gener- 

 ally, so the natural flight of these will be southeast, and that of the 

 general apiary northeast. Out of these 5 Italians and 1 Carniolan I 

 wish to rear all the queens with which to Italianize the whole apiary. 

 Do you think these 6 colonies will furnish drones sufficient! and will 

 those drones not be most likely to meet those young queens on their 

 wedding-flight before the drones of the apiary would, with this condi- 

 tion of things? While I know it is not a certain thing, by any means, 

 would it not be very likt'ly, and somewhat safe, to think the drones of 

 these Bcolonies would meet the young queens first? 



3. Could nuclei be successfully formed out of the young swarm 

 that came out of hive No. 1, as soon as it can be hived, if so desired? 

 Which of the two is the best to form nuclei out of, the parent or the 

 young colony? , 



4. Could you successfully form nuclei out of a colony that has not 

 swarmed, but is getting ready to do so, by removing the old queen and 

 distributing the combs as above outlined, supposing, of course, they 

 have built queen-cells? 



5. Now comes the most important question to me of all. You 

 understand by now the situation. The 5 Italian and one Carniolan 

 are by themselves, separated by 100 yards from the apiary proper, and 

 that i wish to rear all my queens from these with which to rei|ueen 



and Italianize the entire apiary. Now, will you kindly outline a plan 

 —the most practicable for a man not exactly a beginner, but one 

 along in the junior or sophomore class in bee-culture, and one who 

 craves to graduate an up-to-date apiarist, some time in the future? In 

 this last question I won't make any suggestions, but listen to you, and 

 won't confuse you by asking any more questions on other subjects in 

 this letter. Mississii-i'i. 



Answers.— I. When you put your nucleus hive on the old stand, 

 the probability is that the nucleus entrance that comes nearest the old 

 entrance will receive so many bees that the nuclei in that apartment 

 will be undesirably strong. You may do better to set your nucleus- 

 hive on a new stand, and put the swarm on the old stand. With this 

 modification the plan ought to work satisfactorily. I don't see, 

 though, how you can carry out the plan by using frames of different 

 size in your nuclei. 



2. With a reasonable amount of drone-comb in the hives, the six 

 colonies would furnish an abundance of drones; but I'm afraid you're 

 counting too much on position. I don't know just what the chances 

 would be, but I should expect numbers to count for more than posi- 

 tion. But you could make the chances good by encouraging drones 

 in the six colonies (better use onefoniueens and theothers for drones) 

 and surpressing drone-comb in all others, providimj no other drones 

 are within a mile or two. 



3. You will not find a swarm a very good thing out of which to 

 form nuclei; the old colony is much to be preferred. 



4. Yes, by making such a colony queenless for two or three days 

 it could be nicely divided into nuclei ; only there would be a prepon- 

 derance of bees at the point where the old entrance was. You might 

 modify it in this way; When you find queen-cells about ready to seal, 

 take the queen with a frame of brood and a frame of honey together 

 with adhering bees and put in a hive on a separate stand. Two to five 

 days later take away the old hive and form your nuclei in a new place, 

 and let the hive with the queen take the place of the hive on the old 

 stand. 



5. The plans outlined in 1 and 4 ought to work well, and these 

 plans being your own gives them some advantage. If I should sug- 

 gest anything else it would only l)e to repeat what I have given in 

 " Forty Years Among the Bees," which you say you have, for I really 

 don't believe that the locating of those six colonies at a distance of 100 

 yards cuts any figure in the case, nor the directions in which the 

 entrances face; so I should proceed the same as if all were in the same 

 apiary. 



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3 



Good Season for Honey. 



I have had a good honey season this year. 1 

 started with 16 colonies, and increased to 33 by 

 natural swarming. I have taken off 42^ 

 pounds of extracted honey, all of which I 

 have sold to my home customers. 



Lewis Schmebtman. 



Will Co., 111., Jan. 9. 



Egg-Hatching Humbug on a Colony 

 of Bees. 



Simply putting hens' eggs over a colony of 

 bees and not having them hatch would not, 

 in every ease, prove that the whole pretense 

 of the possibility of incubating hens' eggs by 

 bees is a delusive lie, concocted out of noth- 

 ing but a guess by someone who knows but 

 little or nothingabout the incubation of chick- 

 ens, or bees either. For one missing link in 

 the business would spoil the whole chain; and 

 I concerning the business, "one fact is worth a 

 great deal of theory," so I will try to submit 

 such a fact. 



I resolved that I would not be rash in my 

 conclusions, but I would give it a fair test. 

 Now, I said. ■' If hens' eggs can be hatched 

 by the warmth that rises from a colony of 

 bees, I think that it would, evidently, have to 

 be under the most favorable circumstances, 

 and I resolved to give it the advantage of 

 every possible circumstance; and I claim 

 that the Common-Sense Bee-Hive has every 

 point of superiority in that direction, as it is 

 virtually a double-walled hive, having thick, 

 closed-end frames inside a body-box or case. 

 (Point 1 in favor of bee-hatched chickens.) 



Some of you will remember that I aa- 

 nouncd the plan of this bee-hive several years 

 ago, when a gentleman and scholar at Notre 

 Dame took it up and tested it, and eulogized 

 it. It has about 3000 square inches of comb- 

 surface, which every bee-master knows will 

 accommodate a good, large colony. (This 

 would be good point No. 3.) My plan, also, 

 joins the super-case directly to the brood- 

 chamber, so as to avoid the waste of heat 



