486 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey, all the time s<aying to the bees, 

 " Sting me as often as you please;" 

 and as they were gentle Italians, I 

 did not scruple by somewhat rough 

 treatment, to malje them do much 

 more than they naturally wished to 

 in the way of stinging. From the 

 very first I did not suffer nearly as 

 much as I had done every year since 

 I ceased to work with bees ! and little 

 if any more than I had done every 

 year when first handling them. In 

 about a week I was again bee-proof, 

 and launched out at once into a course 

 of experiments (all in vain) to control 

 if possible the impregnation of queens. 



However, I describe the delight I 

 felt in handling again the movable 

 frames ! In the apiary of a neighbor, 

 Rev. McGregor, I fully proved that 

 with small strips of foundation for 

 guides, I could use my comb-guides, 

 or guide-frames, and secure from 

 Italian bees the same perfect worker- 

 combs that I used to get with these 

 guides from the black bees, thus rea- 

 lizing a favorite idea of one of our 

 greatest bee-keepers, Doolittle, viz., 

 getting perfect worker-combs with 

 the least use of foundation. 



While handling frame after frame 

 of such corabs, and feeling as much 

 enthusiasm as I did in 1853, when I 

 first saw that the bees would follow 

 the triangular comb guide , I exclaimed 

 to the Rev. McGregor (apologizing for 

 the seeming play upon his name), I 

 must make those words of Rob Roy 

 in Scott's novel, my own : " My fool 

 is upon my native heath— and my 

 name is McGregor I" 



Oxford, P Ohio. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Bee-Keepers' Insurance, etc. 



6— W3I. DYKE, (44). 



On page 444, Mr. Chas. Follett says 

 that we ought to make the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union an insurance company, too. 

 "With over eight years experience in 

 fire and life insurance business, a por- 

 tion of which was in examination of 

 business at a general office, I must 

 enter an objection to tliis " rider." 

 We can organize for defense success- 

 fully, but if we undertake too much, 

 I fear we will fail. Insurance of bees 

 is not profitable to the company that 

 insures it, and nearly all companies 

 decline them entirely, how then can 

 we as bee-keepers with no insurance 

 experience, hope to make a success of 

 it V No 1 let us confine ourselves to 

 the emergency before us, and if we 

 wish to organize a Bee-Keepers' Mu- 

 tual Insurance Company, let it be a 

 separate organization with separate 

 management. 



We are having a very peculiar sea- 

 son here this year; my bees have done 

 finely, and were in excellent condition 

 at the commencement of clover bloom, 

 and a few colonies began storing in 

 sections ; but on June 1.5 the honey 

 flow ceased, with 20 colonies in 32 sec- 

 tions each, and one in C4 (two tiers), 

 and I got no more honey, though 

 white clover has been in abundant 

 bloom ever since, and we had frequent 

 showers. This is a feature in modern 



bee-keeping that I do not understand. 



I have increased my apiary by 7 

 colonies, and returned quite a number 

 of swarms, my increase being made 

 by division. All my colonies (44) are 

 crowded with bees, and by feeding I 

 am getting lots of eggs and brood for 

 our Spanish-needle crop which begins 

 here about Aug. 20 ; this never fails 

 us, and I think the bloom will be 

 abundant from the outlook now, but 

 what if it turns out as did the white 

 clover V If it does, I will have more 

 bees this fall than I will know what 

 to do with. 



Effingham, ? Ills., July 24, 1885. 



ror Ibe American Bee JoumaL 



Eight or Ten Frame Hives? 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Under Query No. 96, " Critic '' en- 

 tertains the same opinions that were 

 almost universal 15 years ago. I will 

 endeavor to make my ideas upon this 

 very important subject a little clearer. 



If John Smith orders me to rear a 

 queen for him. I have to go through a 

 series of manipulations to get her 

 hatched at will, and then when 

 hatched, to be sold, I must supply 

 her a hive and colony to remain in 

 some days before and after fertiliza- 

 tion before she is ready to be caged 

 and mailed to Mr. Smith. All this, 

 together with the labor of caging, 

 stamping, mailing, advertising, etc., 

 costs time and money ; but when Na- 

 ture induces a colony to rear a new 

 queen, when the owner is asleep, 

 then prompts the old queen to take 

 most of the bees and go to a new 

 hive, leaving behind a queenless col- 

 ony or nucleus in which to perfect the 

 new queen, how much does this new 

 queen cost the owner V How much 

 does a queen cost a man that never 

 saw one ¥ A man that says there is 

 no such bee ¥ A man who belives in 

 " kings V" And yet just such men 

 have been tlie recipients of more than 

 100 young, fertile queens per year. Is 

 it not clear that the value of the pro- 

 duct of this queen depends upon how 

 much capital it has used since the 

 queen evolved it ? When one has (by 

 accidental loss of colonies) on hand a 

 lot of idle capital in the way of empty 

 combs, eggs are of great value, not 

 per se, but for the reason that they 

 cause the idle, costly and valuable 

 combs and hives to become active 

 property. 



I use "the S-frame Langstroth hive. 

 Last spring one-half of the colonies 

 of my home apiary were dead. I 

 ma<ie my living queens do double 

 service till I could rear new ones. 

 When I was ready to divide a colony, 

 I had brood in abundance for both 

 colonies. Thus you see another point 

 of advantage in having a reserve 

 power in your queens. But this is 

 not the greatest gain in the use of 

 small hives. 



I do not think that I have yet men- 

 tioned the principle connected with 

 them, that caused Adam Grimm, T. 

 F. Bingham, G. M. Doolittle, and 

 many others to adopt small and 

 smaller brood-chambers. I think that 

 they found by carefully observing re- 



sults from different colonies in dif- 

 ferent sized hives, that the colonies 

 in the small hives paid them the 

 largest dividend upon the capital and 

 labor invested. I discovered this 

 about 10 or 12 years ago, and changed 

 from the 10 to the 8-frame Langstroth 

 hives. I have never regretted it, but 

 have always been glad of the change. 



The one great point of success in 

 the production of comb honey, is to 

 keep the combs of the brood-chamber 

 all as nearly full of brood and clear of 

 honey as is practically possible. Not 

 only that, but to have the tops of the 

 brood-combs filled with brood. It is 

 of vast importance that such a condi- 

 tion of the hive can be reached and 

 maintained without constant atten- 

 tion and manipulation. Argue and 

 theorize all we may, and yet the hive 

 that will bring about the required 

 conditions at the right time, with the 

 least attention and manipulation, will 

 be the hive of the future for all 

 classes of honey-producers. Nothing 

 can stop its adoption. The brood- 

 chamber that holds but 8 Langstroth 

 combs will much better accomplish 

 these requirements than one with a 

 greater capacity. It is better for win- 

 tering, as it holds the winter stores in 

 a more compact form ; (5 combs are 

 better still). It is much easier to 

 manipulate bodily. 



" Critic " asks which we would 

 rather take out of the hive at any 

 time in the breeding season, " two dry 

 combs or the queen." I unhesita- 

 tingly answer,the two dry combs ; and 

 as above stated, I did about 10 years 

 ago take them out to stay ; and on 

 page 437 I have told how and why I 

 remove 3 more at a certain time in 

 the breeding-season. " Critic '' says 

 that he believes that the stronger a 

 colony is, the more honey we get. I 

 suppose, of course, that he means the 

 more honey we get from that colony. 

 I agree with him, as a rule, other 

 things being equal. But that is not 

 the proposition. The proposition 

 with the specialist is tliis : Here is 

 an unoccupied honey-area. I have 

 some capital, physical strength, and 

 knowledge of apiculture. Now, how, 

 with what hive and system of man- 

 agement can I, with the least capital 

 and labor, get the most surplus honey 

 in the best marketable condition from 

 this field V 



With the beekeeper operating in a 

 field not fully stocked, the question 

 is, with wliat hive and system of 

 management can I realize the great- ' 

 est dividend on the capital and labor 

 invested and bestowed ? It seems 

 quite evident, that "Critic" is not 

 looking at apiculture in its broadest 

 sense — the kind of bee-keeping that 

 is going to supply the future markets. 

 Considering durability and the kind 

 of lumber needed, the cost of five 8- 

 fiame Langstroth hives, is not more 

 than that of four 10-frame hives. The 

 frames and combs number the same. 

 I much prefer placing five, rathei than 

 four queens, with this capital. So 

 placed, this extra queen will pay 10,000 

 per cent, on her cost in labor saved 

 and comfort enjoyed. 



For producing extracted honey, I 

 much prefer the 8-frame hive for rea- 



