THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



537 



I'or the American Bee JoumaL 



A Visit to a Large Apiary. 



DWIGHT FUKNESS. 



Knowing from experience that such 

 a visit is profitable in many ways, the 

 close of the basswood honej harvest 

 found me en route for Dowagiac, 

 Mich. As I journeyed on, I, of course, 

 watched closely from the car windows 

 for signs of our favorite pursuit, but 

 never a bee or a hive presented itself 

 to view. 



Dowagiac is an enterprising town 

 of some 3.000 inhabitants. The hard, 

 graveled streets, shaded by rows of 

 maples, elms, basswoods and other 

 trees, and the many beautiful lawns 

 immarred by fences, attract and 

 charm the eye of the visitor. 



A quarter-mile walk brought me to 

 Mr. Heddon's house, only to (ind that 

 that " spanking team," about which 

 we have been told, had taken Mr. and 

 Mrs. H. seven miles across the coun- 

 try to visit their Glenwood apiary. 

 Workmen were at the home apiary, 

 however, and thither we turned our 

 steps. 



A high and close board-fence sur- 

 mounted by two strands of barbed 

 wire shuts out the outside world, and 

 a notice on the gate reads, " No ad- 

 mittance except on business;" but 

 the " latch string is always out" for 

 the visiting bee-keeper. The yard 

 embraces about \}i acres of sandy 

 soil, with a slight southern slope, and 

 is entirely free from obstructions, 

 with the exception of several apple 

 trees oh the north side. 



The hives, about 3U0 in number, 

 face the east, and are spaced from 6 

 to 8 feet apart. Shade is secured by 

 means of wide boards, which extend 

 over the south sides of the hives, each 

 one held in place by the weight of a 

 stone. There is an air-space of % of 

 an inch between this board and the 

 hive-cover. This readily-movable 

 and controllable shade seems to be 

 generally favored by large honey-pro- 

 ducers. 



Only 120 of Mr. Heddon's colonies 

 survived the rigors of the past arctic 

 winter. To re-stock his apiaries he 

 invested some S700 in bees, and by 

 skillful management has increased, 

 in the two apiaries, to over 450 colo- 

 nies, all in Hue condition. The pur- 

 chased bees' being in all shapes and 

 styles of hives, and rapid increase 

 being desired, his apiaries were run 

 almost exclusively for extracted 

 honey. All are now on standard 

 Langstroth frames. 



Drones have been kept down 

 (chiefly by the use of the knife), colo- 

 nies transferred, the new stock re- 

 queened, queens reared for market, 

 and from 18,000 to 20,000 pounds of 

 white honey secured. To perform 

 this immense amount of work, two 

 men and a boy have been constantly 

 employed at the home apiary through- 

 out the honey harvest. The two men 

 removed and carried into the honey- 

 house 1,500 pounds of honey in one 

 day. 



Although but little honey was being 

 gathered at the time of the visit, the 

 bees were quiet and gentle, queen- 



rearing was going briskly forward, 

 and hives being constantly opened, 

 with little or no trouble from robber 

 bees, t^ueens are reared in full colo- 

 nies, having all other brood removed. 

 The date is marked on the frame con- 

 taining the eggs or freshly hatched 

 larva?, and just before the time for 

 queen-cells to hatch, the entire comb 

 is removed to the lamp-nursery. The 

 young queens are run into the en- 

 trances of hives containing queenless 

 colonies or nuclei, using some smoke, 

 with no appreciable loss. All records 

 are kept on the backs of the hives 

 with non-erasable crayon— a conven- 

 ient method, but not so neat as might 

 be desirable. Surplus honey registers 

 are used on all supers, and are con- 

 sidered necessary in so large an 

 apiary. Reversible frames are very 

 extensively used and thoroughly 

 tested ; with them perfect sheets of 

 comb and brood are secured, and thev 

 will remain a permanent Hxture of 

 these apiaries. 



One noticeable feature, and a very 

 important one, too, is the rapidity 

 with which all manipulations are per- 

 formed. Here the fact is recognized, 

 that labor is the chief cost of honey- 

 production, and every possible means 

 of lessening labor and meeting the 

 present and future demand for cheap 

 honey, adopted. 



Near the centre of the yard is a 

 screen-house into which colonies 

 manipulated during a honey-dearth, 

 are carried. Comb honey supers are 

 also placed here until free of bees. A 

 large portable tent is sometimes used, 

 but it is thought to be a poor substi- 

 tute for the screen-house. In the 

 southwest corner of the yard is the 

 old honey-house, now used for a shop 

 and the storage of articles and fixtures 

 not in use. A little house for smoker 

 fuel and swarming implements, on 

 the north side ; an underground cellar 

 in the soutliern, and the new honey- 

 house in the eastern part of the yard, 

 complete the buildings. 



The lioney-house is a very complete, 

 painted, two-story building, 18x.30 feet, 

 with a stone cellar full size, 9 feet 

 deep, cement floor, no ventilators, and 

 ceiled overhead with matched floor- 

 ing. The first floor is laid with nar- 

 row oak flooring, the walls and ceil- 

 ing covered with matched pine-floor- 

 ing, and the walls and floor filled in 

 with sawdust. Four large revolving 

 windows, two on each side, pivoted at 

 the top and bottom, give an abund- 

 ance of light' and ventilation. The 

 door-ways in opposite ends of the 

 building are provided with wire- 

 screen doors and a projecting semi- 

 circle of wire-cloth covers each win- 

 dow. In one corner of the room is a 

 driven well and pump, in another is a 

 large cook stove,'and in a third is the 

 honey-extractor, with comb-basket 

 large enough to take the Langstroth 

 frame in a horizontal position. At 

 either side of the room is a long work- 

 table. The upper story is reached by 

 an outside stairway, and is used for 

 storing suriilus receptacles, combs, 

 etc. The honey is stored in kegs hold- 

 ing from .50 to iOO pounds each. While 

 practicality is not sacrified to esthet- 

 ical notions, everything is kept clean 



and neat, and one is impressed with 

 the fact tliat here honey is produced 

 at present miuimuni cost. 



Upon Mr. Heddon's return we en- 

 joyed those long talks so dear to the 

 bee-man, and many new ideas were 

 met with. All possible means were 

 taken to make the visit pleasant, and 

 I returned liome feeling amply repaid 

 for the time and money expended. 



Furnessville,^ Ind. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Do Bees Steal Eggs? 



C. G. BEITEL. 



On page 4.59, Maria Hawkins, of 

 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, states a case in 

 which I feel some interest. 



On July 1, she says she put a swarm 

 of bees into a hive in which the bees 

 had died during the winter, and the 

 frames were filled with combs, all 

 ready for tliem to go to work ; and 

 that in some way the queen was lost 

 before they were put in. On the fifth 

 day thereafter she says that she found 

 three queen-cells, and nine days after, 

 she found they were still making 

 queen-cells, and she asks, where did 

 the bees get the eggs or larvie from 

 which to rear queen-cells ? 



A neighboring bee-keeper informs 

 me that having a queenless nucleus 

 for several weeks, he purchased an 

 Italian queen an introduced her. A 

 week after, he examined the nucleus 

 and found no trace of queen, eggs or 

 larvre. Two weeks later he introduced 

 another queen, which the bees killed 

 at once. He again waited two weeks, 

 when he proposed to introduce a third 

 queen, when, lo ! and behold, he, too, 

 found three queen-cells ! Now, where 

 did these eggs come from V 



These two cases I give as I heard 

 and read them, but the following is 

 my own experience, and I can vouch 

 for the facts : 



On .July 4, last, having a colony of 

 blacks, which was only medium 

 strong, having failed to cast a swarm, 

 and stored but S pounds of honey, I 

 concluded to supersede the queen. 

 To accomplish this, I carried the col- 

 ony to a new stand, took out 4 frames 

 of brood and honey, and after brush- 

 ing off all the bees, I put them into a 

 new hive and placed it on the old 

 stand. The consequence was, the 

 flying bees all came back to the hive 

 oil the old stand, while the queen and 

 young bees with 4 frames of brood and 

 honey remained in the old hive on the 

 new stand. After they had quieted 

 down, I cauglit tlie queen and de- 

 stroyed her. On July 9, 1 again ex- 

 amined both hives, and found seven 

 queen-cells in one and three in the 

 other. So far everything was accord- 

 ing to their nature. I cut all these 

 cells out, and the next day introduced 

 a queen to each of these half colonies. 

 One was accepted, and the other 

 destroyed. 



On July 22, 1 again examined the 

 queenless hive, and again found three 

 queen-cells. Now, where did they 

 get these eggs V It was too late to 

 attribute them to the old black queen, 

 and the only possible solution is, that 



