70 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



lower stories, an S, which means 

 strong ; if I find tliem medium, an M ; 

 and if wealj, a VV. Those which need 

 feeding, I marlc witli an F ; if queen- 

 less, an X ; and the colonies having 

 good laying queens are marked O K. 



Kow, I can walk at the rear of the 

 hives and see at a glance in what con- 

 dition each colony was at the last ex- 

 amination. I also mark the date on 

 every hive when I get through ex- 

 amining it. For instance, I opened a 

 hive on May l,and marked it 5, 1, 

 1884 ; in this way I can always tell 

 when I last examined it. For the 

 surplus arrangements I keep an ac- 

 count on the caps or second story of 

 my i2-story Langstroth hives. I get 

 the bees to work in the one-pound 

 sections, in the lower story, by plac- 

 ing one wide-frame holding eight one- 

 pound sections on each side of the 

 brood-nest, and when the bees are 

 nicely to work in them, I remove 

 them to the second story and till in 

 their place with empty combs. 1 

 never spread the brood-frames. 



For the second story I place in these 

 two wide-frames with sections and 

 bees working in them, right in the 

 centre, and fill in the sides with wide- 

 frames with sections, or if for ex- 

 tracting, I fill in empty combs and 

 mark on the back of the second story, 



2, 1, 3, and the date, meaning two 

 wide frames with one pound sections, 

 and the 3 means extracting. If I fill 

 in all combs for extracting, I mark it 



3, and all wide-frames with sections, I 

 mark it 7, 1 . 



Xow as to hives with caps : On 

 some I put one-pound sections, and 

 some, two- pound sections. I put on 

 one row, then another, and so on just 

 as fast as the bees can work in them. 

 Suppose I put on one row of two- 

 pound sections, I mark on the back 

 of the cap 1x2, and if two rows of 

 two-pound sections, 11x2, and so on 

 till I get the cap full. Remember I 

 always mark on the date so that I can 

 always tell how the surplus arrange- 

 ments are inside of the hive without 

 opening. 



When I take off any honey, I al- 

 ways note it down in a book which I 

 carry with me. I use one page for 

 each hive, and keep an account of the 

 amount of honey taken therefrom. In 

 this way I can always tell how niucli 

 honey each colony produces. When I 

 take oif honey I take out only the 

 full capped sections. I simply pull 

 back the duck and see where the full 

 ones are, take them out, and replace 

 them with sections filled with comb 

 foundation ; and in the fall, when the 

 honey season is over, I take off all the 

 .sections and put on the honey-board. 

 My honey-boards are 4}4 inches in 

 width, and as long as the brood- 

 chamber is wide. In the spring I 

 take off only one honey-board, put on 

 one row of sections, and put duck on 

 the sections and the honey-board on 

 top of the duck ; this will keep in the 

 heat more, and the bees need it. 



The account of swarming I keep on 

 the same page as the honey account. 

 When a colony swarms, I mark it on 

 the lower story. Suppose that a 

 swarm issues from hive No. 13, on 

 July 2, and I put it in hive No. 19 ; I 



then mark on the lower story with 

 chalk, on hive No. 13, Sw. 7, 2, '84x19; 

 and on hive No. 19, 1 mark 7, 2, '84, 13, 

 and so on with every colony that 

 swarms. In this way 1 can keep a 

 strict account of every swarm, where 

 they came from and where they were 

 put. If I am away from home at 

 swarming time, and any swarms 

 come out, my wife hives them and 

 always puts down the numbers of the 

 colonies that swarmed ; and when I 

 get home it is an easy matter to put 

 it down in my book and mark the 

 hives. 



I can always keep account of the 

 queens, their age, what hive they 

 came from, and into what hive they 

 were put. In this way I can always 

 tell at a glance, when I walk at the 

 rear of my hives, how the bees are, 

 without opening the hives. I do not 

 like to open them any oftener than is 

 really necessary. I always carry with 

 me a basin of water, and a sponge, 

 when I am taking off honey or work- 

 ing around the hives. With the 

 sponge I can easily erase the chalk- 

 marks and put on others. I always 

 save the propolis when scraping the 

 old hives and cleaning sections or 

 honey boards, or any thing that has 

 propolis on it, and put it on a board, 

 and it is amusing to see the bees fix 

 it on their legs and carry it to their 

 hives. 



East Saginaw,© Mich. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Storing the Honey Crop, etc. 



F. WILCOX, (115— 16.")). 



Some of my honey which was stored 

 in a chamber over the work-shop, 

 froze during the first cold weather so 

 that the combs of about 1,000 sections 

 cracked, thus causing them to leak so 

 as to damage them. Next season I 

 shall prepare a store-room over a 

 kitchen with a chimney through it. 

 I think that artificial heat is useful 

 to perfect the curing or ripening of 

 honey in the fall, and also prevents 

 its freezing in winter. 



1 believe that it is a mistake to over- 

 stock the honey market in large cities. 

 Our markets here are governed to a 

 great extent by Chicago quotations. 

 I also believe that the honey can be 

 better stored by bee-keepers until it 

 is wanted by the trade. When I was 

 in Chicago I saw considerable honey 

 in the hands of commission men, 

 which was injured by improper stor- 

 age. It had been placed near the door 

 (inside or outside) in damp or rainy 

 weather, until it had absorbed moist- 

 ure, causing the honey to present a 

 dark and sweating appearance which 

 not only injures the looks but the 

 quality of the honey. 



The marketing of honey is by far 

 the most important branch of the 

 business just now ; and unless we can 

 increase the consumption of honey by 

 keeping the small towns supplied 

 with good honey, or by Some other 

 means, we shall soon be mired in our 

 own delicious productions, and wish 

 ourselves established in some other 

 business. 



My crop for 1884 was 6,500 lbs. of 

 comb honey, or about 56 lbs. per col- 

 ony, spring count, which is about th& 

 average for this locality. 



I am much interested in the dis- 

 cussions in the Bee Journal. I 

 have read it closely for about eight 

 years. There is one feature about 

 the Bee Journal which renders it 

 greatly superior to the agricultural 

 papers, or papers devotea to other 

 special pursuits, and that is, its con- 

 tributions are from men who have a 

 practical knowledge of what they are 

 writing about. Of course, opinions 

 and experiences differ in many things 

 and always will, but this only stimu- 

 lates thought and closer observations, 

 and in the end, benefits the intelligent 

 reader. 



Mauston, Q Wis. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



" The Langstroth Bee-Spaces." 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, (68—94). 



That bees will build brace-combs 

 between the top-bars of the brood- 

 frames and a honey-board placed bee- 

 space above them, no one will dis- 

 pute ; were it othervi'ise, honey-boards 

 would be of no use. unless they were 

 made queen-excluding; but, accord- 

 ing to my experience. Dr. Tinker, on 

 page 10,greatly exaggerates the extent 

 to which these brace-combs are built. 



If the Doctor should visit my api- 

 ary, he would see that the brood- 

 frames could be removed nearly as 

 easily as though no brace-combs were 

 built above them ; in fact, there is so 

 little trouble from this source that I 

 never even thought about it until 

 reading his article. I do not have 

 the bee-space Js "or % of an inch, it 

 is 5-16, and there is no trouble in 

 keeping it exactly that size. The 

 Doctor mentions the " changes liable 

 to take place in the material." IIow 

 much "change" will take place in a 

 painted piece of pine less than 94: ot 

 an inch in width V Not much. 



He speaks of the great amount of 

 time needed to cut and clean away 

 these brace-combs. But we do not 

 cut them away ; what would be the 

 use y The bees would build more. 

 There is another thing which we do 

 not do, and that is, open the hives 

 and pull out the brood-frames every 

 time we go into the apiary. When it 

 is time to put on boxes, a honey-board 

 is put on, and then the boxes, and it 

 makes no difference how many times 

 the boxes are taken off and changed 

 about, the honey-board is on to stay, 

 and usually is not disturbed until the 

 end of the season. This idea of pull- 

 ing the brood apartment to pieces 

 every few days is perfect nonsense. 

 What is the use of it V 



lie also speaks of the many bits of 

 comb that have to be cut away in 

 tiering- up section-cases. When the 

 bee-spaces are not more than 5-16 of 

 an inch wide, there is no building of 

 brace-combs, as a two-years' experi- 

 ence with hundreds of cases in my. 

 yard abundantly proves. 



That the black bees will enter the 

 sections more readily, I do not dis- 



