566 AMERICAN BEE JOURJSlAi-. 



mention the ability of the bee-keeper to understand his business, and to give to his 

 bees the necessary attention at the right time ; the location in which the hives will 

 be placed ; the kind of hives to be used, etc. A great many persons imagine that to 

 keep bees successfully it is but necessary to locate them on a quiet spot, to watoh 

 them during the swarming season, and to take the surplus of their harvest. Such 

 was, indeed, the only conditions required before the invention of the movable-frame 

 hives — an invention which afforded to the bee-keepers the means of studying more 

 carefully the habits of bees, to obtain larger crops with less risks of losing them in 

 winter. 



From the above it follows that a man who does not know the business of keeping 

 bees ought to begin cautiously with but a few colonies, say,(^wo or three, and study 

 the habits of bees in books first ; then, in verifying the teachings of the books, by 

 opening the hives and examining the combs, and by watching outside, the going in 

 and out of bees. Such a study will take at least one year. Then if the apprentice 

 bee-keeper finds some pleasure in the work, he can buy a few more colonies and 

 increase their number either by natural or artificial swarming, or by buying bees. 

 But I advise him to go slowly. 



The locality in which the bees are kept has also a large influence on the honey 

 crop, yet it is but a question of larger or smaller profits ; for an apiary surrounded 

 with lindens, white clover, or alfalfa, and bordered with cotton lands covered with 

 marshy flowers has better chance to succeed than any other ; but a skilled bee- 

 keeper can have some success, even in a poor location. 



Another stumbling block in bee-keeping is the kind of hive to use ; above all 

 advise a beginner not to buy patented hives, for most of these venders of patent 

 hives do not know the habits of bees, and sell inventions more injurious than useful. 

 As beginners are inclined to risk as little as possible, I think that I have to 

 warn them against the use of small hives, which require more work, more feeding 

 of bees for winter and spring, and do not give as good results as larger ones. To 

 my mind a lO-frame Langstroth hive is not even large enough. We prefer hives 

 containing ten or eleven Quinby frames. These frames are larger and longer than 

 the Langstroth, and although white clover is our only resource, our crop can com- 

 pete for quantity with those of bee-keepers using small hives located in more pros- 

 perous districts. 



The conditions of success in bee-keeping, after the selection of the hive, can be 

 summed up in a few words : To know what to do, and to do it in time. — Prairie 

 Farmer. Hamilton, 111. 



BRACH-COMBS AOAir«(— FRAI»IH CHAPiOBS. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I see by the different bee-papers that Doolittle has caused quite a commotion 

 on the smooth, placid waters of bee-keeping, by what he wrote on page 272 of the 

 "American Bee Journal" for Aug. 30th. That this commotion may not result in 

 harm to myself and the fraternity, with your leave, Mr. Editor, I will explain my 

 position a little more, to see if we may not have a little bettor understanding of the 

 matter at issue. 



Years ago, soon after I commenced bee-keeping, considerable difficulty was 

 experienced in getting bees to enter the sections readily to store surplus honey, 

 many colonies refusing to go into them during the whole season, where box-hives 

 were used, having an inch board for a top with holes cut through for the bees to 

 pass up into the sections. Few frame hives were then in use, when compared with 



