THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 2, 



Let us now turn a leaf and see what the result will be in the 

 spring. 



In the first place, the small-hive apiary will be reduced in 

 numbers, more than the large, owing to the fact that the colo- 

 nies, having less honey, will have bred less in the fall ; there- 

 fore being weaker — or, if you prefer to say, less populous — 

 they will be less able to withstand the extremes of tempera- 

 ture. The large-hive colonies are better fitted for winter; 

 having more bees they keep up a good heat. Their honey, which 

 the bee-keeper would have sold, had they been in a small hive, 

 is more likely to be well sealed than that of the others, and if 

 of the early crop, it will be of better quality for wintering, be- 

 ing whiter than that which is harvested the latest, and the 

 bees can stay a long while without having to take a cleansing 

 flight. 



In the early spring, those colonies which are well supplied, 

 breed without stint ; tbey know that their stores will last, and 

 are not afraid of a few backward days. Those of the small hives 

 soon see the end of their stores, and if they are not constantly 

 watched and fed back by the apiarist, they suffer. The result 

 is a better crop from the large hives, and if the season happens 

 to be an early one, the result may be more than a double crop 

 from the hives that are best supplied. 



We discovered the great difference in results between 

 colonies in a hive that has to be fed in the spring, and one that 

 has plenty, in the following manner : 



In 1877, we had three or four apiaries away from home, 

 one of which was located on the farm of an old countryman of 

 ours, five miles north of our home. A part of the hives in this 

 apiary had been placed by him in the front wall of a hot-house. 

 These colonies were exceedingly strong, and as they had a 

 large amount of honey which could not be extracted, owing to 

 their situation, they swarmed over and over, and we found our- 

 selves rather crowded for hives. We were not then, as yet, 

 using comb foundation for the frames, and a few of the hives 

 were not even supplied with the triangular top-bar frames. 

 The result was that a number of our swarms — probably 15 or 

 20 — built their combs in the 10-frame Quinby hives crosswise 

 instead of lengthwise of the frames. Any one who has had to 

 transfer bees knows that it is much more difficult to transfer 

 them from a movable-frame hive when the combs are built in 

 this way, than from a plain box-hive. 



As we were very busy all that season, we left the hives in 

 this condition. It was then our custom to take two or three of 

 the outside combs, in those large hives, every fall, and extract 

 the honey out of them, taking it for granted that 20 or 25 

 pounds were sufficient to winter any colony. These hives, 

 having no combs that could be taken out without transferring 

 the entire lot, were left with all the extra honey. We fully in- 

 tended to transfer them the following spring early, but it was 

 such an ugly job that we delayed it until it was too late. 



These colonies had plenty and to spare. They needed no 

 feeding, and gave nearly twice as much as the others. But we 

 did not think about this extra supply as being the cause of 

 their greater yield, and it was not until we had transferred a 

 few of them that we noticed that evidently the cause of their 

 greater crop was due to their more prosperous condition. 

 What had been procrastination on our part, turned to be a 

 very good test. After that we ceased extracting honey from 

 the lower story of those large hives, except when the bees are 

 altogether too much crowded with honey. 



And please take note : It is only with large experiments 

 that one can make sure of the advantage of one method over 

 another. For example : When we heard of the chafl hives, 

 made with a wall three inches thick, some 20 or 25 years ago, 

 we were struck with the advantage claimed for them. We 

 tried about a half dozen, and succeeded so well that we had a 

 lot of 80 of these hives made for our apiaries. We have since 

 ascertained that the chaff hives were not suitable here, for 

 whatever they save during the cold of winter, they lose in 

 early spring, as the same wall that keeps the cold out also 

 keeps the rays of the sun from warming the hive at a time 

 when the bees need to be induced to take flight. 



Last, but not least, among the advantages of large hives 

 is the decrease of swarming. With our present methods, we 

 have no swarms worth mentioning; but when the bees do 

 swarm, these swarms are of very large size. We find that it 

 does not require a constant watch during the swarming sea- 

 son, for the few swarms that issue make enough noise to at- 

 tract attention. 



How often this question is repeated in the Bee Jour- 

 nal? " How can I prevent swarming ?" It is impossible to 

 prevent it altogether, but large hives will very materially re- 

 duce it, for the reasons already mentioned. There is one 

 cause of natural swarming which cannot be very well prevent- 

 ed. It is the superseding of the queen during the honey crop. 

 If the queen seems to weaken, the bees will at once rear a 



number of young queens, and swarming will result. This will 

 happen in hives of any size, and we do not see that it may be 

 prevented. But the excessive swarming — so annoying in api- 

 aries with small hives — is done away with when sufficiently 

 large hives are used. 



Many bee-keepers will say that the production of swarms 

 is profitable. This is so ; but I much prefer " making the 

 swarms " myself, artificially, because I rear queens from the 

 best bees, and can take the "swarms" from those colonies 

 which would not produce any surplus honey. 



There are many points to consider in the selection of 

 breeding-queens for reproduction. These are prolificness, 

 gentleness, activity, endurance in winter, etc. 



Hamilton, 111. 



No bee-keeper worthy the name, will allow his bees 



to go into winter quarters short of stores. — Hutchinson. 



The Ventilation of Bee-Cellars. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that he has his bees in the cellar, 

 all in nice shape, but he has fears about his having ventilation 

 enough for his cellar, in the two six-inch pipes he is using, 

 and wishes me to give an article in the American Bee Journal 

 on the subject of ventilating bee-cellars. 



When I first built my bee-cellar (which is a hole dug into 

 a hillside, 24 feet back by 7 feet wide and 6K feet deep, with 

 mason-work walls, and covered with flag stone, with three to 

 four feet of earth over all, and a board roof covering the 

 earth), no one could have made me believe but that any place 

 in which bees were to be kept, should have means provided 

 for a direct draft of air through it, at any or all times when 

 the weather was mild enough to admit of it, without running 

 the temperature of the cellar down too low. For this reason 

 I prepared for what I considered the best possible ventilation 



Fig. i— Outside View of Doolittle's Bee-Cellar. 



of this bee-cellar when I built it, the ventilation being done by 

 putting in a sub-earth ventilator, something over 100 feet 

 long, this to carry in pure warmed air from the outside. At 

 the top, in the opposite end, was the ventilator to carry off 

 the impure air, a regulator or damper being provided, so that 

 the amount of air could be adjusted to any amount required, 

 from the whole amount, which was 50 square inches, to none 

 at all. 



