Oct()l)lT, 1908. 



American Hea Journal 



when I in.'uk- kiinwn Uj him my wuii- 

 ilerfiil (hscovcry he- sinik-;l .mhI said: 

 "Tliat discovery was old when Confu- 

 cius was a boy." Mr. Brown is still 

 living, and very comfortable, although 

 I wo years have passed, and 1 attribute 

 his line condition partly to the use of 

 honey. — Xational Bee Keepers' .\ssocia- 

 tion. 



A Little Talk on Bee-Hives 



On the photographs 1 submit with this 

 article a good variety of hives can be 

 seen. There is the regulation dove- 

 tailed hive in front of the honey-house, 

 single-walled with 8 Hoffman frames. 

 This I call my e.xperiment station. 



On another view an old-fashioned 

 Langstroth-Simplicity vvitli the inevitable 

 portico is conspicuous. The large white 

 hives with inscriptions for distinguish- 

 ing marks are chaff-hives holding 10 

 Hoflfman frames. This style is "our 

 own make." There being no patent on 

 them as yet, any one is free to duplicate 

 them. The body rests on an inclined 

 bottom, and the cover is deep enough 

 to take in 3 supers. 



Now look at the view where you see 

 the covers trying to fall oflf. Don't think 

 for a minute that a cyclone had passed 

 over the bee-yard. Atmospheric condi- 

 tions were very agreeable in this neigh- 

 borhood. No, the trouble came from 

 putting standard supers on odd-sized 

 hives. Tar-paper and feed-sacks and oil- 

 cloth had to be used to keep out the 

 rain and the robber-bees. Of course, 

 one's esthetic sense is shocked when 

 looking at such a variegated arrange- 

 ment. But what of it? Let me whis- 

 per into your ear that I took twice as 

 many sections from some of those ante- 

 diluvian makeshifts as from the elegant 

 chafif-hives. One colony has not swarmed 

 in 3 years, doing good work every 

 season. Why should I condemn them 

 when I get what I w'ant from them? 



I am not opposed to new ideas. Now 

 would it matter if I were? But while I 

 am not against innovations that go to 

 make bee-keeping more enjoyable and 

 easier, I never go into hysterics over 

 them. I have read about the inany so- 

 called short-cuts, about the .great speed 



with which some of the professionals go 

 through th.eir hives; al)out the lightning 

 rapi<lily with which they can put a cover 

 from one hrvo to another; about the 

 great number of colonics they can feed 

 in a minute: aliout the marvelous celer- 

 ity exhibited wlicn pursuing the art of 

 scraping sections; aliout the mystifying 

 legerdemain when clipping queens — that 

 I felt as if some one stood in the bee- 

 yard with a stop-watch in hand, call 

 ing, "Ready Go ! ' 



According to American doctrine time 

 is money. Good thing; many of our 

 bee-keepers have a vast supply of this 

 species. VVe arc fast making a god of 

 speed in all our sports, professions, and 

 — bee-keeping. .Xs it is, when some of 

 the fast-timers reach the goal they have 

 only breath enough in their lungs to 

 give one cheer, and then drop. 



The long "hives" on one of the views 

 are made to take in 6 regulation hive- 

 bodies of lO-frame size. These can 

 be removed and shifted about when- 

 ever necessary. There is ample room 

 for packing around the colonies, and 

 they exceed anything I have tried in 

 wintering. 



Besides these regular hive-bodies 

 which I call the "visible," I experi- 

 mented with the so-called "divisible." As 

 yet I have not found enough advantage 

 in them to adopt them generally. Now, 

 I believe every well-regulated apiary 

 ought to have at least one or two "in- 

 visible" brood - chambers, . commonly 

 called box-hives. I keep a few of them 

 just for the fun of it. It is marvelous 

 what the bees can do when left to their 

 own devices. They beat some of those 

 over-manipulated hives all to pieces. 

 The bee-keeper is all in the dark as to 

 what is going on in the brood-nest : 

 well, so are the bees, and that is the 

 way they like it best. I don't think they 

 want the search-light o f inspection 

 turned upon them every 2 or 3 days. 

 This smacks a little of heresy. How- 

 ever, I am talking only about my bees, 

 and not about my neighbors. 



The difference between an old, weath- 

 er-beaten chaff-hive of 20 summers, and 

 a brand new factory hive, was demon- 

 strated to me during swarming time. 

 In order to be up-to-date I keep a few 

 clipped queens, of course. One day one 

 of them swarmed. Evervthing went off 



according to the regular program. The 

 queen was found and caged, the old hive 

 was removed, and set on another stand, 

 .1 new hive was put in its place, the 

 queen-cage placed on the aligliling 

 board close up to the entrance, the 

 swarm very promptly returned, and wem 

 into — the next hive that resembled the 

 old one, and my poor queen was de- 

 serted. The few bees that came over to 

 see her .seemed to act as a committee 

 that was sent to coax the old mother 

 over to the colony in the next hive. 



.'\ visitor to my apiary asked me 

 whether that curious-looking bee-hive 

 in yonder corner was perhaps the cele- 

 brated "dual-queen system" hive. 1 

 frankly admitted that it was not. It 

 was the proverbial nail-keg that I kept 

 for curiosity's sake. Of course, I en- 

 larged upon the subject of dual queens. 

 It ran thus : 



Take a colony of bees. Find and cage 

 the queen. Drive as many bees as pos- 

 sible into a box. Remove it and screen 

 it off on the bottom and on the top. 

 Starve the bees half to death, tlien feed 

 them until they nearly burst. Shake 

 the box until all the bees are in a state 

 of delirium tremens. Bring them back 

 to their hive, run in the old queen on 

 top and the new one below. Every- 

 thing being in a state of revolution, in 

 the hive the bees disregard all estab- 

 lished customs, don't care whether they 

 have one queen or a hundred. After 

 a while, however, the bees will return 

 to their old ways, and everything is run 

 on the single-queen plan as though noth- 

 ing had happened. The real modus pro 

 cedendi may be different, but this is the 

 way I understand it. 



Angelica, N. Y. 



How to Keep Empty, Combs 



liV LEO E. C.^TELEV. 



No matter whether his operations be 

 extensive, or if only a small number 

 of colonies are being handled, every bee- 

 keeper will occasionally have a number 

 of empty combs on hand which can not 

 be put into use at the time being. Such 

 combs are valuable, and should never 

 be permitted to become destroyed, as 

 they are sure to be needed in the near 

 future, if not before the season is ended. 



.\ Fkw Views 01 " Bf.i i.f.vif .Vi'iarv 



iii.in'i;er. 



