March, igii. 



American 'Bee JonrnaTj 



nies that would more than double the 

 amount of honey each year that others 

 would gather. At the close of one of 

 the best honey seasons I found that 

 some of my colonies had given me 

 nearly 300 pounds of section honey, 

 while' others had given less than 50 

 pounds. On thinking the matter over 

 while lying awake one night, I resolved 

 to bring those less-than-50-pound col- 

 onies up to the average of the apiary, 

 at least ; so, the next day I struck an 

 average of the number of pounds of 

 surplus honey produced in the whole 

 apiary, and then all colonies which did 

 not come up to this average were 

 marked. These marked colonies, where 

 it could be done at a profit, were united 

 (after killing their queens, either in the 

 fall or spring) with others which had 

 produced an average amount, or above. 

 Where all were not disposed of in this 

 way, I superseded the inferior queens 

 with those reared from the colonies 

 which had given the highest amount. 

 This required the keeping of a record 

 of each colony, but the keeping of such 

 a record was of much value in several 

 ways besides the desire for the im- 

 provement of stock. 



One thing is very certain, and that is, 

 that no great gain can be made along 

 any line of improvement unless a rec- 

 ord is kept which gives some data to 

 work from, and the breeders of all im- 

 proved stock learned this long, long 

 ago. And this record-keeping is not 

 so great a job, after all. I have a piece 

 of section for each hive, and on this is 

 jotted down the number of pounds of 

 honey taken each time (as well as 

 other matters) from the colony occu- 

 pying the same, and at the end of the 

 season an adding of the amounts gives 

 the yield from that colony. Then when 

 the season is through, and the long 

 winter evenings come on, these pieces 

 of sections, each bearing the number 

 of the hive they account for are gotten 

 together, and the matter which is on 

 them in a condensed form is trans- 

 ferred to a book. And as this book is 

 kept, and what each colony does the 

 next year added to it the next winter, 

 we soon have something telling what 

 colony No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and so on, 

 has done for a term of years, so that 

 the best strain can be bred from queens 

 which show the best traits through 

 their offspring. 



If each apiarist in the United States 

 would follow a course similar to this 

 our country would soon lead the world 

 in giving something of great value 

 along the line of honey-production. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



the bottom of the tray I leave an open 

 space of 6 inches or more the entire 

 length of the tray, and cover it with 

 wire-screen. 



A cleat %x2 inches is nailed on each 

 end flat on the under side of the tray; 

 this keeps the tray up ofif the floor of 

 the wagon, and admits a free circula- 

 tion of air from below. In moving the 

 bees have one such tray for each hive, 

 or as many as you want to move at 

 one time. 



Set the trays down beside the hives 

 and lift the hives over into the trays, 

 and see that they sit down well inside 

 the rims; then drive one nail in each 

 end through the rims of the tray to 

 keep the tray from dropping off the 

 hive in handling. 



I take the covers off and put a wire- 

 screen on top, with thin strips of wood 

 over the edges of the hives, and nail 

 down with ^^-inch nails. 



If the roads are very rough I use 

 springs on the wagon. I moved 30 

 colonies 20 miles over rough roads the 

 last days in August, and hived 2 large 

 prime swarms the next day after we set 

 them out at home, and 2 days later I 

 extracted 5 gallons of honey from the 

 heaviest of them. 



CoMB-Box FOR Extracting-Frames. 



Now, while I think of it, I will send 

 a rough sketch of my comtj-box which 

 I have found very handy in taking 

 honey from the hives to the extracting- 

 house. The box is 33 inches long and 

 20 inches wide ; has a division-board 

 in the middle, crosswise, and a 2-inch 

 strip nailed over the division securely 

 to the box. To this strip the 2 cover- 

 boards are hinged. 



At the back part of the covers are 2 

 iron levers 9 inches long, and secured 

 to the top of the covers with screws, 

 and so bent that when the cover is 



are on opposite sides of the box, so as 

 not to be one in the way of the other. 

 The sides of the box are rabbeted like 

 the ends of the hives, and the frames 

 hang crosswise in it. The bottom of 

 the box is lined with tin so as to hold 

 all the drip from the frames. It is 12 

 inches deep, and the tin comes up 2 

 inches on the sides and ends. 



This box works well on the Daisy, 

 or any other good wheelbarrow. 



San Benito, Tex. 



Moving Bees— Comb-Box 



BY GRANT ANDERSON. 



Moving bees in the heat of summer 

 is looked upon as a dangerous and dif- 

 ficult job, but not so if you only know 

 how to go about it. I have long since 

 quit moving bees in the night, and 

 when I have bees to move I move them 

 any day that suits my convenience, no 

 matter how hot. 



I make a shallow tray out of light 

 lumber, with a rim an inch high all 

 around, and large enough for the hives 

 to set down in and fit close enough to 

 prevent the bees from crawling out. In 



The Anderson Comb-Box. 



raised in front the lever will pass down 

 by the side of the box, as shown in the 

 sketch. To the end of the levers are 

 attached small ropes which are passed 

 under a 2-inch roller near the bottom 

 of the box, and carried forward and 

 over another roller and down to a 

 treadle which drags on the ground. To 

 lift the lid or cover press on the treadle 

 with the foot, and the cover lifts in 

 front, and you set in the comb, using 

 both hands to handle the frames, if you 

 wish. 



As soon as the foot is removed from 

 the treadle, the cover falls down and 

 closes the box, thus giving the robber- 

 bees no chance to get into the box. 



The box is carried crosswise on the 

 wheelbarrow, and each end of the box 

 will hold a full super of combs, so I 

 take 2 supers full at each load. 



The levers and ropes to the covers 



Value of Old Brood-Combs 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Some very interesting remarks are 

 made concerning old combs by Dr. C. 

 C. Miller, in Gleanings for Feb. 1st. 

 He says : 



"A very old brood-comb weighed 36H 

 ounces; a new one that had not been bred 

 in weighed 11 ounces. That means that there 

 might be a difference of about 16 pounds in 

 the weight of two lo-frame hives, each con- 

 taining the same amount of bees and stores. 

 Some colonies have probably starved be- 

 cause heavy old combs fooled the bee- 

 keeper into thinking they had stores 

 enough." 



On this subject, Mr. Langstroth said, 

 as early as 1859 (" Hive and Honey- 

 Bee," 3d edition, page 27.J) : 



"In movable-comb hives the amount of 

 stores may be easily ascertained by actual 

 inspection. The weight of hives is not 

 always a safe criterion, as old combs are 

 heavier than new ones, besides being often 

 overstored with bee-bread." 



No one, however, to my knowledge 

 has ever before taken the pains to 

 weigh 2 combs to ascertain the possi- 

 ble difference between old combs and 

 new ones. Each one of us old bee- 

 keepers has probably been deceived at 

 times by this difference. It is worth 

 while to draw the attention of the 

 practical apiarist to this short item. 

 Dr. Miller's statements are always 

 worthy of note, but information like 

 this should be underlined. We too 

 often depend upon superficial examina- 

 tion, and suffer accordingly. Not only 

 are old combs heavier than new ones, 

 but old combs are also oftener filled 

 with pollen, sometimes hidden under a 

 slight amount of sealed honey. The 

 conclusion to be drawn is that hives 

 containing very old combs should be 

 considerably heavier than new ones, if 

 we wish to be sure of a safe amount of 

 winter stores. 



On the other hand, and a little farther. 

 Dr. Miller shows us that old combs are 

 valuable. He says : 



"It will be 50 years next summer since I 

 began keeping bees, and I never yet melted 

 a comb because old. Do you suppose my 

 cells are too small ? How shall I tell ?" 



To this the editor replies, stating that 

 it is a good practice to melt up old 

 combs since brood-diseases have be- 

 come so prevalent in the United States. 



I wish in this connection to make a 

 statement. My experience has been 

 exactly similar to that of Dr. Miller. 

 For 40 years or more, or beginning in 

 1864, we made a practice to save all 

 worker-combs, whether old or new, if 

 they were straight. On the other hand, 

 we melted all the drone-combs as fast 

 as we could remove them, replacing 

 them with worker-combs immediately. 

 I have seen old worker-combs which I 

 deemed advisable to melt up, but it was 



