THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



549 



Rxphiiiatury — The figures before the 

 names indiciite llie number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of eolonies the writer had in the 

 previous sprinj^ and fall, or fall and spring-, 

 as the time of the j'ear may require. 



This marli O indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

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

 *Owest: and this 6 northeast; X) northwest; 

 "^southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State meutioned. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Introducing Valuable ftueens. 



KEY. L. L. LANGSTKOTH. 



The following facts will show what 

 great caution is needed in introducing 

 valuable queens : 



On July 22 a queen was removed 

 from a strong colony, and the next 

 day a caged queen was given them. 

 Tlie third day, judging from ttieir 

 quiet motions on the cage, that they 

 were ready to receive lier, I arranged 

 to have them liberate her. Upon ex- 

 amining tliem on July 27, the queen 

 was well circled, butliHd not begun to 

 lay. The bees were building a num- 

 ber of queen-cells, which I destroyed. 

 On July 2S, I destroyed many queen- 

 cells. The queen was well attended, 

 but there were no eggs. On the 29th I 

 destroyed a drone-lar'^ato which they 

 were giving the royal treatment; 

 there were only three eggs. On the 

 SOth I found many eggs laid, but no 

 queen cells. 



Now suppose that I had neglected 

 to examine this colony and destroy 

 these queen-cells — the bees would 

 have gone on with them, and in due 

 time the queen I had given them 

 would have led off a swarm, or would 

 have been compelled to tight a rival, 

 or would, for a time at least, have 

 shared her rights with another. Such 

 occurrences are by no means rare. 

 When largely engaged in queen-rear- 

 ing, they were witnessed many times 

 in my apiary. 



Another experience will show more 

 fully how unsafe it is to infer that all 

 will go on right, if only the new queen 

 has been accepted by the bees. A 

 queen caged 2-1 hours was prepared 

 for liberation, and the only comb 

 from wliich they could rear queens, 

 removed. They acted just as though 

 they were black bees made hopelessly 

 queenless— some running in a dis- 

 tracted manner over the front of the 

 hive, and others taking wing.* 



Supposing that the presence of a 

 queen, tliough caged, would soon rec- 

 oncile them to the loss of their brood, 

 1 left tliem for a short time. Upon 

 my return the air was filled with rob- 

 ber bees, against wliich the nucleus 

 made no defense. Covering it with a 



* I have of ton noticed that bees will care more 

 for lnrvte from which they can rear queens, than 

 for a ca^ed strange queen. 



sheet, and removing it to a new loca- 

 tion, the robbers were allowed to es- 

 cape, and the brood restored, to the 

 great delight of the bees. 



Fresh honey was now given them, 

 as the robbers had stolen nearly all 

 that tliey had. Finding that they de- 

 fended their stores, they were re- 

 stored to their old stand. Royal cells 

 were found well under way, next day, 

 but no signs of the queen. Six days 

 later the queen was found destroying 

 the cells of rival queens. She had 

 not laid a single egg ! but 12 hours 

 after having lier own way, she laid 

 freely. If the colony had been a large 

 one, she might not have been allowed 

 to destroy these queen-cells. 



When the introduced queen is lost 

 in this way, the one that supplants 

 her may be black or hybrid, and its 

 owner, ignorant of the real facts, may 

 lay all the blame upon the innocent 

 queen-dealer 1 It is not always the 

 case that a queen, when well received, 

 will refuse to lay, because the bees 

 are bent on building royal cells ; often 

 they will lav quite freely. 



Every years experience only im- 

 presses liie more forcibly with the 

 truth of what I said at some length 

 to the Cincinnati Convention in 1871, 

 that it was not safe to assert of bees, 

 any more than of human beings, that 

 under what seems to us to be precisely 

 similar circumstances, they will in- 

 variably do the same thing. 



Oxford,? Ohio, Aug. 15, 1885. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Eight or Ten Frame Hives? 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I have read Mr. C. P. Dadant's arti- 

 cle on page 535, and I am considerably 

 surprised that so practical a producer 

 of honey should entertain views so 

 widely differing from so many of our 

 best and most experienced honey- 

 producers. Looking at the matter in 

 the light of my own experience, I can 

 account for these wide differences of 

 opinion in the following three ways : 



1 . Location and climate may have 

 nauch to do with it. 



2. Smaller brood - chambers con- 

 tracted to even less capacity, during 

 that period when the production of 

 honey rather than brood, is desirable, 

 have their special advantages in the 

 production of comb honey ; and as Mr. 

 Dadant is a producer of extracted 

 honey almost exclusively, 1 presume 

 lie has never given the smaller brood- 

 chainbers a fair trial. 



H. It is not impossible that he is 

 mistaken, lie favors the production 

 of extracted as more profitable than 

 that of comb honey, which, in my 

 location, and I believe in my latitude, 

 is a decide 1 mistake, and I feel con- 

 fident that the future will sustain me 

 in this opinion. 



In my former article I tried to show 

 why there was little or no more capi- 

 tal invested in five 8-frame than in 

 four 10-frame Langstroth hives. As 

 Mr. D. only asserts to the contrary. I 

 need say nothing further regarding 

 it. In my personal experience with 

 many hundred colonies in 8 and 10- 



frame hives, I find not the least dif- 

 ference in the number of swarms cast 

 from them. 



I hardly know what Mr. D. means 

 by colonies going "without queens 

 for 30 days." Tiiere exists no such 

 queenlessness in my system of man- 

 agement. Neither does the system 

 necessitate the buying of aqufenat 

 all ; nor special efforts in rearing 

 them, and I keep my combs, as a 

 whole, better occupied with brood, and 

 get more surplus by so doing than I 

 ever could, or believe any one can get 

 with any 10-frameJiive, in any place. 



Mr. Dadant conveys the idea that 1 

 should use hives holding combs equal 

 to the capacity of my queens. If I 

 should do so. I should have to place 

 about 20 to 30 Langstroth combs with 

 most of my queens, at certain sea- 

 sons of the year. lie says tliat Mr. 

 Adam Grimm aimed to sell bees, so 

 adopted a smaller hive. His son, 

 when here, said that he changed 

 to S-frame hives because he liked 

 them much better for the production 

 of comb honey. 



I do not know that Mr. Langstroth 

 is now a producer of honey of any 

 kind ; or if lie is, it may be extracted 

 honey, the same as Mr. Muth ; and as 

 to 8 or 10-franie brood-chambers for 

 extracted honey, the question may be 

 said to hinge upon how much one is 

 inclined toward the horizontal vs. tlie 

 " tiering-up " system. I have twice 

 tried both extensively, and I dhoose 

 the latter decidedly." For the last 

 two years my colonies in brood -cham- 

 bers containing 19 frames 12x12 

 incites, have swarmed fully as much 

 as those in 8-Langstroth-frame hives. 



Mr. Dadant says that my contrac- 

 tion plan limits the queen to a capac- 

 ity of 1,600 eggs per day, and it looks 

 as though I tluuight that tlie less bees 

 I had, the better. Certainly ttiere are 

 times when the less bees we have 

 hatching, the better ; and during the 

 period that I contract the hive I do 

 not care to furnish combs, food, and 

 nurse bees to lu'oduce nnn-e than a 

 good swarm of bees every 21 days, 

 which the 5 reversible combs will do. 



There are yet left such comb honey 

 producers as Mr. Doolittle and Mr. 

 Bingham, using hives whose brood- 

 chambers contain considerably less 

 capacity than the 8 Langstroth combs. 

 There are also nisiny others besides 

 Mr. Iliitchinson and myself whose 

 works argue in favor of the superi- 

 ority of small brood chambers for 

 comb honey production. I need not 

 say anything of the comfort of hand- 

 ling these less cumbersome hives. 

 Mr. D. says that he states facts, not 

 theories— facts long and thoroughly 

 tested, and the tests still going on. 

 The same may be said of those who 

 adhere to tlie smaller brood-chambers, 

 except that their tests have shown 

 them that they cannot afford to go on 

 testing any farttier in this direction. 



I heartly agree with Mr. Dadant, 

 that beginners should not blindly imi- 

 tate any one's favorite methods, but 

 adopt such as look reasonable, and test 

 them as far as they are able, holding 

 fast to all that they find valualile. 



The philosophy of the superiority of 

 small brood-chambers may be found 



