May, igti. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



the surplus chambers for the warmer 

 precincts of the brood-nest. This is 

 rather an important feature in any late 

 fall flow. 



As showing how the germ idea of the 

 hive has gradually been developed, it 

 may be mentioned that Mr. Reid, the 

 inventor, beginning with single hives, 

 adopted a twin hive as seen in the illus- 

 tration, but now he has added a third 

 division so that the complete article is 

 made up of triplets. All manipulations 

 are carried out by means of a door at 

 the back, and the roof can be raised at 

 an angle, away from the operator, so 

 that he is working under cover, and 

 always at such a height as that he is 

 saved any bending of the back or 

 stooping to carry on his manipulations. 

 He calls them " Bee-houses," and, as in 

 the larger form, they may contain some 

 half dozen separate colonies»of bees, 

 the name is more appropriate than 

 " hives." 



The illustration shows a group of the 

 hives, including twins and triplets, as 

 they were turned out from the work- 

 shop ready for sale at Mr. Reid's place. 

 As will be noted, he has taken out a 

 patent, and gets them manufactured to 

 his order. He, himself, is an extensive 

 farmer, and carries on bee-keeping as 

 a side-issue, but he finds it pays him 

 well, and, needless to say, he has un- 

 bounded confidence in his own hive. 



Banff, Scotland. 



Shall We Clip the Queen's 

 Wings? 



BY C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



"I have never clipped the wings of my 

 queens, and have been wondering whether 

 it would nay to do so or not. as 1 see that 

 some of those who are considered good bee- 

 keepers do not clip. I wish you would give 

 us your views in this matter in the columns 

 of the American Bee Journal."— A CoRREs 



I'ONDE.NT. 



While I am aware that there are 

 some of our practical honey-producers 

 who do not advocate the clipping of 

 queens, yet I am of the opinion that 

 the one who does clip is on the side 

 looking toward the greatest success. I 

 have always contended that, by having 

 the wings of all queens clipped, we 

 have the bees under control to a much 

 greater extent than otherwise ; can 

 handle them as we wish ; separate them 

 with pleasure where two or more 

 swarms come out and cluster together 

 in case swarming is allowed; and hive 

 all swarms coming singly on the re- 

 turning plan. This returning plan is 

 one of the simplest ways of hiving 

 swarms of anything I know. All you 

 have to do when a swarm issues is to 

 step to the entrance of the hive, having 

 a little round wire-cloth cage with you, 

 and as soon as the clipped queen comes 

 out with the bees you can see her run- 

 ning around in front of the hive, climb- 

 ing any point a little higher than the 

 surrounding ground, and trying to fly 

 from it, which attracts the eye, so the 

 queen is seen more readily than any of 

 the other bees. As soon as seen, put 

 the open end of the cage down before 

 her, into which she will immediately 

 run if the cage is held so she can climb 

 up the inside of it, the same as she did 

 to the highest point in front of the 

 hive. As soon as she is in, the mouth 



of the cage is stopped with a cork or 

 piece of a corn-cob of the right size, 

 and laid in front of the hive. 



I have seen some apiarists pick up a 

 queen and push her into the cage, one 

 of which confessed to me that he had 

 killed one or two that way. Don't try 

 to do this. If you will watch the queen 

 a moment before you let her run into 

 the cage, you will see that she is all the 

 time trying to get on something to 

 climb up, apparently hoping thereby to 

 be better able to take wing, and on 

 your holding the cage in front of her 

 she will use the cage for the same pur- 

 pose, and you are to put the stopper in 

 while she is climbing to the top. 



Don't make the mistake of turniiig 

 the open end of the cage up to put in 

 the stopper, lest, perchance, she gets 

 there at the same time and you catch 

 her between the stopper and the cage 

 to her injury. 



Having the queen in the cage in 

 front of the bottom-board of the hive 

 she came out of, the old hive is picked 

 up and carried to a new bottom-board, 

 which had been previously placed 

 where you wish a colony to stand, and 

 a new hive which had been previously 

 fixed in readiness for the swarm, set 

 on this old bottom-board. In a few 

 minutes the bees will miss their queen, 

 the swarm often not clustering at all, 

 and as is always the case where any 

 queen can not accompany the swarm, 

 come back running into the hive with 

 fanning wings, telling as plainly as can 

 be that they are rejoicing over finding 

 their queen, which before this had been 

 put at the entrance to the hive. 



When about three-fourths of the bees 

 have gone in, the stopper is taken out 

 of the cage, when the queen will imme- 

 diately run in with them, the same as 

 she would have done had the swarm 

 clustered with an undipped queen in 

 some high and out-of-the-way place for 

 the bee-keeper to climb, cut off some 

 valuable limb of a tree and bring the 

 clustered swarm to the hive he wished 

 the swarm to enter. 



Then I have another reason for clip- 

 ping queens now that my eyes are get- 

 ing dim, which I did not consider at all 

 3.') to 4(1 years ago. In many of the 

 manipulations it is quite necessary that 

 the queen be found, so of late years in 

 clipping I cut the most of all the wings 

 off, so that she is always after that very 

 readily found. In making nuclei, 

 changing frames of brood and bees, 

 etc., if you find the queen you can al- 

 ways know that she is just where you 

 wish her, and not in some place she 

 ought not to be, thus often saving the 

 life of a valuable queen. By having 

 her wings cut short, you can see the 

 golden abdomen of an Italian queen 

 at once upon glancing over the frames 

 as you lift them. 



However, none of the above is the 

 main reason for clipping. The idea of 

 clipping originated through the losing 

 of swarms by having them abscond or 

 fly off to the woods before the bee- 

 keeper had time to hive them, or from 

 their leaving the hive within a few 

 hours to two days after they had been 

 considered safely housed in their new 

 home. Having the queen clipped, even 

 should the bees start off for the woods, 

 or some old hive or open space in some 

 building or rocky cave, we can always 



rest assured that they will come back 

 again as soon as they become aware 

 that "mother" is not with them, and 

 run into the hive fi.xed for them. 



Very few persons have kept bees for 

 any length of time without an experi- 

 ence of swarms leaving for " parts un- 

 known," where the queens of the api- 

 ary have been allowed the use of their 

 wings. It was this loss of swarms by 

 their leaving me in mj' early experi- 

 ence with bees that made me resolve 

 that no more should run away after I 

 had them safely in a hive, and though 

 40 years have passed since I made that 

 resolve, not a single swarm has " left 

 for parts unknown." 



Then there is another item that I 

 will speak of. While I believe that 

 winter is the time in which everything 

 should be gotten in readiness for the 

 coming season's activities, yet it will 

 sometimes happen, by some unexpected 

 calling away in swarming time, or some 

 swarm coming out when not expected, 

 that we must take a little time before 

 we can attend to their hiving. In such 

 an emergency, if the queen is clipped, 

 a swarm can be held out on a limb, 

 swarm-catcher, or even in an open box, 

 while we are making a dozen hives, or 

 preparing some special place for them. 

 Where it seems necessary so to hold a 

 swarm, as soon as the queen is in the 

 cage attach a short piece of wire to the 

 cage, and as soon as the bees begin to 

 cluster bend this piece of wire over the 

 limb, or by means of the same secure 

 the cage among the bees where wanted, 

 so that the caged queen will be where 

 the cluster will naturally hang, when 

 the rest of the swarm will alight and 

 cluster the same as they would had she 

 had her wings to go with them at her 

 " sweet will." 



We can now go about anything we 

 wish, resting assured that we will find 

 the bees there when we are ready to 

 care for them, no matter if it is not till 

 the next day. Several times have I 

 had the swarm uncluster from a queen so 

 fixed and fly away and be gone entirely 

 from sight or hearing for some time, 

 only to return and cluster about their 

 queen again, and, to the few bees, I 

 always allow to run in the cage with 

 her to care for her where I expect to 

 leave her caged for any length of time. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Thickness of Comb Foundation 



Read before French Societe Ccntrale d' Apiculture, 

 BY FOLOPPE FRERES. 



Comb foundation plays so important 

 a role in the modern apiary that every- 

 thing which concerns its use by the 

 bees seems to present an interest, not 

 only for the observer, but also, and we 

 might say especially, for the practi- 

 tioner. 



It is under this double interest that 

 we make bold to appear in this meet- 

 ing and exhibit to you the results of an 

 experiment made for a practical pur- 

 pose. 



Our object was the following: De- 

 termine if possible what should be the 

 preferable thickness to give to a sheet 

 of foundation, in order to get from it 

 all the advantages which it is possible 

 to secure. (The sheets upon which we 

 experimented were made with a press.) 



