THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



453 



G. M. DooLiTTLE answers : "After 

 an experience of over 12 years with 

 queens having clipped wings, I cannot 

 see as they are any more liable to 

 supersedure than those not having 

 clipped wings. Probably the queens 

 spoken of were superannuated.'' 



Jamks Heddon replies : "I have 

 bad many queens whose wings were 

 clipped attempt to lead off, or I might 

 more properly say, go off with a 

 swarm. I have also noticed that bees 

 are more apt to supersede queens, and 

 also swarm, if such queens have 

 clipped wings." 



G. W. Dejiarre answers ; " In my 

 apiary, queens whose wings are clipped 

 have been superseded before and after 

 swarming. My queens' wings could 

 not be clipped for two-thirds of their 

 value in cash. The practice should 

 be discouraged." 



Producing Extracted Honey. 



Query, No. 90.— Which is the better for 

 producing extracted honey, an 8-frame or a 

 10-(rame Langstroth hive?— T. J. 



W. Z. Hutchinson says : " An 8- 

 frame hive," 



J. E. Pond, Jk., answers : "This 

 is a matter of opinion. I prefer, how- 

 ever, the 10-frame ; others I believe 

 prefer 8- frames ; but good results will 

 follow with either." 



Prof. A. J. Cook replies: "I do 

 not think that it makes any essential 

 difference." 



Dr. C. C. Miller remarks: "I 

 should prefer the larger hive, but I 

 have had little experience of late 

 years." 



G. M. DooLiTTLE says : " Neither 

 alone are adapted to producing ex- 

 tracted honey, but of course the 10- 

 frame is the best. For extracted 

 honey not less than 1.5 Langstroth 

 frames should be used, and 20 would 

 be better." 



Dadant & Son answer: "A 10- 

 frame Langstroth is better for all 

 purposes, and in fact hardly large 

 enough. We wish it understood that 

 we do not at all agree with some 

 apiarists in preferring a small hive. 

 We believe that the more bees we 

 rear, the more honey we get. Two- 

 thirds of the queens that are reared 

 are crowded for laying-room in an 8- 

 frame Langstroth hive, and the result 

 is too much natural swarming. We 

 speak not from theory, but from expe- 

 rience, after comparing the 10-frame 

 Langstroth with a larger hive, in lots 

 of 100 or more together in one apiary, 

 under the same treatment, for 8 or 10 

 years. We have them side by side 

 yet, and we can prove it every season." 



G. W. Demaree remarks : " Each 

 apiarist will have to test his own 

 locality if he would have the best re- 

 sults. In this climate the 10-frame 

 Langstroth hive gives the best re- 

 turns, as a general rule." 



Dr. G. L. Tinker says : " The 

 form and size of a hive iii producing 

 extracted honey does not matter, pro- 



vided that combs may be added by 

 tiering up the hives, or otherwise, as 

 fast as the bees will till them." 



James IIeddon replies : " I prefer 

 the 8-frame, because I have no need 

 to go down into the lower story for 

 honey. I much prefer it for all the 

 other manipulations necessary during 

 the year." 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring-, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named : 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; O* east ; 

 +0 west; and this 6 northeast; V3 northwest; 

 t>« southeast ; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tue Amencaa Bee Journal. 



The Peaceful Habits of the Bee. 



REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH. 



Friend Newman : Please enter 

 my name as a member of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, and charge the 

 fees to my account. Its formation is 

 a great step in the progress of Ameri- 

 can bee-culture. 



A few words about that lawsuit : 

 That bees will drive sheep or any 

 other animal from a pasture, will 

 never be credited by any one who is 

 well acquainted with their habits. 

 The following extract from my work 

 on the " Hive and IIoney-Bee,'' is im- 

 portant in this connection : 



" Tliose wlio are alarmed if a bee enters 

 the house, or approaches them in tlie gar- 

 den or fields, are ignorant of the impor- 

 tant fact, that a bee at a distance from its 

 hive, never volunteers an attack. Even if 

 assaulted, they seek only to escape, and 

 never stiug unless they are hurt. 



"If bees were as easily provoked away 

 from home, as when called to defend those 

 sacred precincts, a titlie of the merry gam- 

 bols iu which our domestic animals in- 

 dulge, would speedily brnig about them a 

 swarm of infuriated enemies ; we should 

 no longer be safe in our quiet rambles 

 amout; the ereen fields ; and no jocund 

 mower could whet or swing his peaceful 

 scythe, unless clad in a dress impervious 

 to stings. The bee, instead of being the 

 friend of man, would, like savage wild 

 beasts, provoke his utmost efforts for its 

 extermination." 



I would just as soon expect the 

 slieep in a white clover field to fly up 

 into the air against all the laws of 

 gravity, as to have them molested by 

 the bees. Instead of arguing further 

 on t^ie point, let me give a short ex- 

 tract from a work published by John 

 Mills, London, in 1776, page 70: 



" That the number of our colonies might 

 be greatly increased wherever there is 

 proper pasture for bees, appears evidently 



from Mr. Wheeler's narrative, and is con- 

 firmed by tlie following i)assaKe in the 

 account lately published of the slieep in 

 Spain: ' If slieep loved aromatic plants, 

 it would he one of the greatest misfortunes 

 which could befall the farmer in Spain. 

 The number of bee-liives there is Incredi- 

 ble. 1 am almost ashamed to give under 

 my hand, that 1 knew a parish priest who 

 had .5,000 colonies. The bees suck all 

 their honey and gather all their wax from 

 the aromatic flowers which enamel and 

 perfume two-thirds of the sheep-walks.' " 



It seems to me that the above set- 

 tles the matter in regard to bees in- 

 terfering with slieep while pasturing. 



Oxford, p Ohio, July 10, 1885. 



for tbe American Bee Journal. 



Introducing Queens. 



16— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (SO— .50.) 



As the best time in the whole year for 

 supplanting superannuated queens, is just 

 before the close of the honey harvest, and 

 as I hear so many complaints of the loss 

 of queens iu intioduciug, I thought that 

 an article on introducing queens would not 

 come amiss just at this time. In intro- 

 ducing queens, it should always be borne 

 in mind that a queen taken from one hive 

 in^he apiary, and introduced into another 

 in the same apiary, does not require one- 

 half the care that must be given a queen 

 coming from a distance by mail or ex- 

 press. The reason for this seems to be 

 that a queen taken from a hive in the 

 same yard is still heavy with eggs, and 

 will not run around provoking the ■bees to 

 chase her, as will a queen after having 

 had a long journey. 



In introducing all ordinary queenscom- 

 ing from my own apiary, I generally adopt 

 one of the two following plans : The first 

 of which is to go to a nucleus, or the hive 

 from which I wish to get the queen to 

 supersede the one that 1 do not want, and 

 when she is found I take the frame she is 

 on, bees and all, together witli another 

 frame from the same hive, carrying them 

 near the hive from which I am to take the 

 superannuated queen. I next hunt out 

 the poor queen, and after killing her, take 

 out two frames from this hive, and place 

 the two frames brought from the nucleus, 

 in their places, then closing the hive. 

 Now shake the bees off the two frames in 

 front of the hive, and carry them to the 

 nucleus, or carry bees and all, if you 

 ■prefer. 



The object hi taking two frames with 

 the queen is so that while waiting outside 

 of the hive, she and most of the bees may 

 get between them, so becoming quiet, and 

 when placed in the hive, both are put in 

 together, thus leaving the queen quiet 

 among her own bees. In this way t do 

 not lose one queen out of 50, and as the 

 operation is so simple, and the queeu so 

 quickly installed, the advantages more 

 than over-balance so small a loss. 



The next plan is to go to my nucleus 

 and get my young queen in a cage before 

 looking for the queen to be superseded. I 

 next look for her and kill her, when the 

 hive is closed. I now blow in at the en- 

 trance enough smoke to alarm the whole 

 colony, pounding with my fist on the top 

 of the hive until I hear a loud roaring 

 inside, which shows that the bees are 

 filling themselves with honey. 1 now 

 turn in the queen to be introduced, at the 

 entrance, smoking her in, while 1 still 

 keep pounding on the hive. In doing this 

 nothing but wood smoke should be used, 

 for if tobacco smoke were used, many of 

 the bees would be suffocated. If done 

 when there is danger of robbing, wait till 

 just at night. The idea is fo cause tlie 

 bees to fill themselves with honey, at the 



