May, 1908. 



American ^ee Journal 



Tennessee stump-field. As to the flying 

 bees, there was a tank (water-pool) 

 near by, and I recollected that it had 

 been several days since I had taken a 

 bath, and I found out that was just 

 what the bees were urging nie to do, 

 for they went home as soon as they had 

 me satisfactorily under the water. The 

 "Zips" are great, and I love them (most- 

 ly by telepathy). 



The above colony of Cyprians referred 

 to seem perfectly gentle as long as none 

 are injured, and the hive is not jolted. 

 I have several times gone through the 

 hive, handling every frame, and not got- 

 ten a sting, and transferred them once 

 and extracted the supers twice without 

 a sting. 



I have another colony from an im- 

 ported queen of "gentle strain," and I've 

 seen them fly out to investigate when 

 I have simply laid my hand on the hive. 

 And sometimes when I do not even 

 touch it. But if they fulfill their prom- 

 ise of honey gathering, I think Til keep 

 Cyprians. Some, anyway. It is largely 

 honey that I want, and I don't mind 

 a little fun and a good laugh. 



Santa Anna, Tex. J. E. McClellan. 



Xot More, but Better Bee-Keepers. 



I was pleased with the comments in 

 an editorial footnote to Mr. Edward 

 Corwin's letter, headed, "Making More 

 Bee-Keepers," in the March issue. It is 

 not more bee-keepers we want, but bet- 

 ter ones. That's the point exactly. I 

 should like to see the time come when 

 every man (and woman, too,) that keeps 

 as many as a half dozen colonies of 

 bees, is a constant reader of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, or some other bee- 

 paper, and keeps his bees in good, 

 movable-frame hives. It's not the prac- 

 tical bee-keeper that reads the bee-pa- 

 pers and looks after the needs and wants 

 of his bees that ruins our markets by 

 selling dark " honey-dew " for "good, 

 pure bees' honey." or that sells "bulk" 

 comb honey that has had several genera- 

 tions of brood reared in the combs, for 

 first-class "chunk" honey. It's the man 

 that won't read bee-papers that does this. 

 It is not always the farmer bee-keeper, 

 either. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue, Tex. 



Queen Behavior — 20 Days from Eggs 

 to Queens. 



I had 2 black colonies of bees that I 

 wished to requeen with Italian queens, 

 or kill in the effort, and had the fol- 

 lowing experience while doing it ; 



On March 19, I dequeened one black 

 colony to make it rear queen-cells for 

 both colonies, keeping the queen laying 

 in the other colony. On March 22, I 

 "budded" the cells, using larvae 2 days 

 old, making the queens 5 days on the 

 road, and were due to hatch on April 

 2. I dequeened the other colony 3 

 days before so as to give me one day to 

 play on. I put the cell in the dequeened 

 hive on the 15th days of their age, and 

 expected the queens to hatch on the i6th 

 day. Three days after they were due 

 to hatch I decided to see what kind of 

 Italian queens I had produced, and upon 

 opening the hives I discovered that I had 

 no queens at all. This was in the morn- 

 ing of the 19th day from the egg. In 



the afternoon 'if the same day I went 

 to one of the liives, opened it up, and 

 discovered that one of the cells had 

 hatched. I quickly closed the hive and 

 went to the olju-r hive containing the 

 cells, and found l)Oth cells unhatched. I 

 closed the hive for more waiting, feel- 

 ing sure of my liatched queen. 



The next afternoon at 2 o'clock I was 

 anxious for another examination. Go- 

 ing to the liivi- containing my hatched 

 Italian queen to look her up, I went 

 through the hive, but not finding her, I 

 concluded that I liad missed her, or that 

 she had been dec.ipitated, as black queen- 

 cells were present. I proceeded to go 

 through again, when I discovered a little 

 crippled-winged black queen present, and 

 the Italian queen killed, and nothing do- 

 ing ! I leisurely sauntered over to the 

 other hive containing 2 Italian cells, and 

 pulling out one frame I saw a young 

 Italian virgin turn down on the bot- 

 tom of the frame in the hive just in 

 front of me. I quickly jostled for the 

 cells to see if both had hatched, and to 

 my delight discovered that only one had 

 hatched, and that the queen in the other 

 was just about J4 cut out. 



Quickly taking the frame with the 

 hatching queen, bees and all, I started 

 for the other colony, and before I could 



reach the hive the queen was half out 

 of the cell and hung at the shoulders, 

 the worker-bees pulling at her with all 

 their might, making her squeal vehe- 

 mently. I quickly put in the frame and 

 closed the hive. Two days later I visited 

 the hives and found 2 beautiful virgin 

 queens playing over the combs. I was 

 successful with both black colonies 

 whose queens are laying at this writing. 



There is nothing wonderful about this 

 at all, except that it was 20 days from 

 eggs to hatched queens. Our orthodox 

 "bee-dads" tell us "kids" that it is 16 

 days from the egg to the queen, but here 

 is one instance positively and absolutely, 

 where it was 20 days. Do not accuse 

 me of juggling with dates or miscount- 

 ing — nothing of the sort occurred. Then 

 do not suppose that it is my first effort 

 at queen-rearing, for I have been rear- 

 ing them for years. 



In order to make a puzzle for Dr. 

 Miller, G. M. Doolittle, etc., I will allow 

 them to inform the bee-world why it 

 was 20 days from the egg to the hatched 

 queens. I have the reason in the dem- 

 onstration and will give it later if neces- 

 sary, in case the question is not an- 

 swered, and our "Grand(bee)papas" fail 

 to make a good guess. 



T. P. ROBINSOX. 



Bartlett, Tex., .\pril 13. 



!!^ 



bnfribufed 

 flrficlc^ 



Large vs. Small Hives 



BY .ADRI.^N GET.^Z. 



Some 15 years ago quite a discussion 

 took place in the bee-papers as to which 

 was the best size of hives to use. The 

 majority of writers strongly advocated 

 the 8-frame hive, and the rest the 10- 

 frame. The Dadants were almost alone 

 in advocating a brood-chamber larger 

 than 10 Langstroth frames. Remem- 

 ber that at that time nobody thought of 

 using 2 hives or 2 bodies, one upon the 

 otheV, for a brood-chamber. Comment- 

 ing upon the situation, Mr. Chas. Da- 

 dant wrote thus : 



"We are now alone in advocating a 

 brood-chamber larger than 10 Langstroth 

 frames, but we are in the right, and the 

 time will come when our position will 

 be vindicated." 



Well, Messrs. Chas. and C. P. Dadant 

 are now more than vindicated. With 

 one or two exceptions, every bee-keeper 

 of note now advocates the use of 2 hive- 

 bodies for the brood -chamber, and some 

 w'ant even 3. Two bodies of 8 frames 

 each make a brood-chamber larger than 

 the one used by Messrs. Dadant. 



So the question now has completely 

 changed. It is no longer a large or a 

 small brood-chamber, but it is. Shall we 

 use a large hive or pile up 2 or 3 small 

 ones together? 



The Two Systems Comp.^red. 



During the last 2 or 3 years, several 

 of our largest bee-keepers h&ve been in- 

 duced to give in detail their methods of 

 bee-keeping, or rather their systems of 

 management. I began writing this arti- 

 cle with the intention of giving a short 

 description of each one, but soon found 

 out that it would be an endless repeti- 

 tion, and that one description would 

 cover all. 



1. Beginning with the early spring we 

 find that nearly all have to feed their 

 bees more or less. It must be under- 

 stood that only one hive-body is used to 

 winter the bees. It does not take much 

 honey to feed the bees through the win- 

 ter, but it takes a whole lot of it to 

 feed the brood in the early spring. It 

 seems by what they say that an 8-frame 

 hive can not hold enough for both pur- 

 poses, and that a 10- frame has not room 

 enough for both the honey and the space 

 needed by the queen if she is to do her 

 best. The upshot is that the hive should 

 contain only a moderate amount of 

 honey, so as to give the queen sufficient 

 room, and the apiarist must feed enough 

 to make up what is necessary. Mr. Al- 

 exander goes even farther than that. He 

 extracts in the spring nearly all the 

 honey that may be in the hive, so as to 

 give the queen plenty of room, and feeds 

 the colony every 2 or 3 days what is 



