62 



February, 19] 3 



American ISee Journal 



large it, and only when the colony is 

 crowded with stores. 



In cases where the bees were not 

 properly prepared for winter, it may be 

 neccessary to feed some colonies, such 

 colonies should be given a feeder 

 placed in the super on top of the brood- 

 frames. 



I have never found it necessary to 

 feed for the sole purpose o£ stimulating 

 brood-rearing, as in most locations 

 there is plenty of pollen and enough 

 early nectar for this purpose. Besides 

 it would incite swarming at too early a 

 period. 



I do not advocate feeding bees any 

 way, and would never do it if it were 

 not for utilizing some inferior honey 

 which I do not care to put on the 

 market. 



Hive Making 



It is customary with some bee-keep- 

 ers to make their own bee-supplies, es- 

 pecially the e.xterior parts, such as 

 bottom-boards, hive bodies, supers and 

 covers. It is a very good practice 

 where a bee-keeper happens to be a 

 good mechanic, with plenty of tools 

 and time, and good soft lumber to 

 work, such as cypress or white pine. 

 Yellow pine is not very good for this 

 purpose, as it is .too hard and warps, 

 and splits too much. 



As this is the time of year when such 

 work can best be done, we bring the 

 matter up and produce a photograph 

 illustrating how the bodies can be cut 



The Right Way to Nail Hive-Bodies. 



out and set up with accuracy and dura- 

 bility. The ends are beveled or rab- 

 beted by machinery or by hand with a 

 rabbet plane on three edges; the top 

 edge is to receive a regular tin rabbet, 

 such as those that are sent out with 

 regular dovetailed hives, which makes 

 by far the best frame rest. The rabbet 

 should be ^s of an inch deep all around 

 and as wide as the material is thick, so 

 when nailed up there would be no pro- 

 jections. For the supers the rabbet 

 should be but K inch wide on the top 

 edges, so the shallow frames may rest 

 on it, and the same for comb lioney 

 supers, as no tin rabbets are used with 

 supers. The inside dimensions for the 

 ends should be 12 'i inches. To get the 

 outside dimension add twice the thick- 

 ness of the material. The sides are cut 

 off square 18-'+ inches long. The ma- 

 terial should be gotten out or bought 

 dressed all around, and about thirteen- 



sixteenths of an inch thick, which is 

 now the standard thickness, and 9V 

 inches deep for hive bodies, 5U for 

 shallow extracting supers or for supers 

 for tall sections, and 4-I4 inches wide 

 for low or square sections. Short or 

 narrow blocks may be nailed on the 

 sides and ends for grip. The manner 

 of nailing up is well illustrated by the 

 cut. Nail from both ways, using as 

 many nails as necessary' for a good, 

 durable body; 8 d flat-headed cement- 

 coated nails are best. 



A Bee-Producer 



Dear reader, I want you to turn back 

 with me to Mr. J. K. Isbell's article on 

 bee-production in our department, page 

 367 of the December number, read and 

 re-read it until we have his method of 

 bee-production well fixed in our minds 

 so we can take it up step by step just 

 as he outlines and carries it out. 



Now is the time to take the first step 

 in this management. It is needless for 

 me to state what the results will be if 

 all our colonies are boiling over with 

 bees at the beginning of the first honey- 

 flow, and this will be the case if we 

 carry out his plan, which is simple. 

 Large crops of honey will be harvested 

 by every one who will do it. Besides. 



a large amount of increase will be 

 made. 



I have traveled extensively over 

 Dixie, visiting hundreds of our bee- 

 keepers, and I find that there are but 

 two methods of production employed. 

 One is the "let alone" plan and the 

 other is Isbell's, or a similar one. The 

 former is carried out more generally, 

 and can we wonder at dissatisfaction ? 

 No, indeed. 



Bees will never populate their hives 

 properly without aid. It has been pro- 

 nounced folly by some of our pro- 

 moters to "pull back" great colonies 

 in order to build up weaker ones, but 

 it is logic to do it if it is done in time, 

 when all colonies can be built up to 

 something like uniform strength under 

 which our greatest crop of honey is 

 gathered. 



I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. 

 Isbell during the honey-flow, and saw 

 his bees storing honey under uniform 

 strength. No weak ones, and none 

 ahead of the others, but all at work 

 together. It was magic. 



Mr. Isbell is the most wide-awake 

 and practical bee-keeper I ever had the 

 pleasure to meet. He has made a great 

 success with but a small amount of 

 capital, and we expect to hear more 

 from him on bee-culture from now on. 



Conducted by J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ontario. 



Effect of Size of Hive on Spring Brood- 

 Rearing 



P. C. Chadwick, writing in Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture in defense of using 

 smaller entrances in hives than is ad- 

 vocated by many bee-keepers, inci- 

 dentally touches upon the size of hives 

 and their relative merits for brood- 

 rearing in the spring. He says, " Here 

 is also the secret of an 8-frame hive. 

 Warmth is more easily preserved, and, 

 in consequence, breeding is more rapid, 

 thus filling the hive much sooner." 

 While there must be a /imtV to the size 

 of a hive for the economics of "bee 

 house-keeping," in my limited experi- 

 ence it has been conclusively proven 

 to me that the difference between a 10- 

 frame and an 8-frame hive, the two 

 sizes, friend C, is comparing, is not 

 enough to allow the effect of heat on 

 brood-rearing to be taken into consid- 

 eration. By force of circumstances I 

 have almost all sizes of hives in com- 

 mon use, from the 8-frame Langstroth 

 to the 10 and 12 frame Jumbo, and every 

 spring, XLnthout cxci-flion, the bees in 

 the 8-frame hives are the last to be 

 ready for the supers. 



While, as I have intimated, there 

 must be a limit somewhere on the size 

 of a hive that the bees can use and not 

 suffer in conservation of heat; just 

 what that limit is I am not prepared to 

 say, but it is a fact, in my case at least, 

 that the colonies in the large hives are 

 always ready for the supers first. The 

 only e.xplanation I can give is that the 

 colonies with the large brood-nests 



always go into winter quarters with 

 much larger clusters than, the smaller 

 ones. Given a large force of well win- 

 tered bees in the spring, it is surprising 

 how they manage to overcome all ob- 

 stacles in the way of cold, and proceed 

 to build their brood up rapidly. 



" Locality " can hardly help to ex- 

 plain the difference between Mr. Chad- 

 wick's experience and my own ; fori 

 would naturally expect less cool weath- 

 er in California than in Ontario, at the 

 time brood-rearing is going on at its 

 most rapid pace. 



Suggestions on Winter Work 



"What to Do Each Month," is the 

 heading of a new department in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, said department 

 to be conducted principally for the 

 benefit of bee-keepers. Here in Onta- 

 rio, during the months of January and 

 February, the bee-keepers do about the 

 same thing as their bees— practically 

 nothing, in so far as real work in the 

 apiary is concerned. 



During February, if mild weather 

 should prevail to any extent, cellar- 

 winterers should look after their cel- 

 lars more carefully than earlier in the 

 season, provided, of course, their cel- 

 lars are not self-regulating enough, so 

 as not to need attention during any 

 part of the winter. Mr. Sibbald, who 

 used to winter hundreds of colonies in 

 the cellar, has more than once not 

 seen his bees from the time they were 

 placed into the cellar until he took 



