G66 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Last winter was a very cold one, ss 

 all well know, but the bees kept per- 

 fectly quiet and came out in tlie 

 spring fully as strong as they did the 

 year before; in fact they did not 

 speck the suow at all on their first 

 flight— a thing tliat rarely occurs in 

 this part of the country. They were 

 among the first to cast a swarm in the 

 spring of 188.5, stored more than an 

 average amount of surplus honey dur- 

 ing the summer, and are now the 

 strongest colony in bees and honey of 

 my 50 colonies. I think, could they 

 have been on the ea^it side of the 

 building, they would have done still 

 better, for they got no snnsliine until 

 the afternoon," which made them late 

 in flying on cool mornings. 



Wilcox,© Pa., Oct. 9, 1885. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Eight or Ten Frame Hives ? 



C. I'. DADANT. 



Mr. Ileddon says that my article on 

 page 58.5, is " but an aggregation of 

 assertions." Is it anything but an 

 assertion to say as he does tt)at " the 

 strongest colonies die of diarrhea r"' 

 Both Mr. Ileddon and Mr. Hutchin- 

 son seem to agree that there is more 

 profit in economizing the additional 

 combs we use in each hive and the 

 proliticuess of the queen. Mr. Iled- 

 don even says that I entirely ignore 

 his arguments based on the econ- 

 omy of capital. I did ignore them, 

 but siaiply because I thought ;SIr. II. 

 would see their fallacy without my 

 showing it. 



A beehive and its combs in ordi- 

 nary circumstances, and with a care- 

 ful owner, will last at least 15 seasons. 

 Now let us suppose, as Mr. Ileddon 

 thinks, tliat it is very costly. ^Ir. 

 Ileddon's hive with 8 frames will cost 

 say $2..50 ; tlie foundation for the 8 

 frames, say 80 cents, making a total 

 of S:;.30 fo'r 15 years' use. My liive 

 with 12 frames will cost for 6 feet of 

 hmiber more and i frames more, say 

 50 cents additional, and 4 combs of 

 foundation, 10 cents, making an extra 

 and extraordinary (V) outlay of fiO 

 cents more for 15 years" use. Can 

 Mr. Heddon and ;Mr. Hutchinson say 

 tliat this is worth mentioning against 

 the great loss caused by not allowing 

 the average queens their full capacity 

 in the spring when the most bees are 

 needed V This extra outlay will be 

 repaid in the very first year by the 

 extra number of bees liatched in 

 nearly every colony before the honey 

 crop. 



One restriction, however: Do not 

 understand me to say that each queen 

 will till every comb of a I2-frame hive 

 with brood before the honey crop, but 

 it is not a good hive unless it allows 

 each queen to exercise her utmost 

 prolificness in producing bees fur the 

 honey harvest. The 12-frame hive 

 allows itself to be contracted for the 

 needs of the queen and of the season ; 

 while the 8-lrame hive does not al- 

 low itself to t)e widened to suit the 

 prolificness of the queen ! 



Mr. Hutchinson thinks that the 

 yield of honey depends upon the area 



of the field and not upon the number 

 of colonies employed. If a farmer, 

 having 15 colonies with as many 

 queens, wishes them transferred into 

 movable-frame hives, asks which hive 

 is the best for the production of comb 

 honey, finds that he may not expect 

 more honey from 15 8-frame hives 

 than from 12 12 frame hives, he will 

 certainly adopt the latter; for the 

 question is, how to get the most 

 honey from what colonies we have, 

 and not how to gather all the honey 

 the country yields. 



Xow, let me make the assertion 

 that, a hire is too small if it does not al- 

 low the queen to lay to tlie utmost of her 

 breeding capacity previous to the honey 

 crop. Disprove' it, who can. 



Hamilton,*© Ills. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Bees Swarming Late. 



L. J. KEYES. 



Finding one of my colonies of bees 

 too liglit for wintering, on Oct. 1,1 

 placed in the cap a feeder filled with 

 sugar syrup, which at once tlie bees 

 commenced to take below. This was 

 at evening. At 11 a.m. the next day 

 a swarm issued from this hive and 

 clustered on an apple tree near by ; 

 but as I had noticed many robber bees 

 around the hive, my first conclusions 

 were that the bees had been driven 

 out by some means yet unknown to 

 me. After placing the swarm in a 

 paper hive, I carefully examined them, 

 but found no queen. Just before 

 putting them back I went to the old 

 hive where I found a bee taking from 

 the entrance a half-dead queen, 

 which I secured. 



Xever having read of anything like 

 this, and supposing that the robbers 

 had killed tlie queen, I replaced the 

 swarm that came out and closed up 

 the hive until evening, removing the 

 feeder from the cap. I then sought 

 out a weak colony and placed this 

 hive by it preparatory to transferring 

 them to the other hive, as a qu'eenless 

 colony would be of no account in 

 wintering. 



Three days from tliat time the 

 weather became warm and I com- 

 menced brushing the bees in front of 

 the other hive, after thoroughly 

 smoking them both. My surprise 

 may be imagined, when upon taking 

 out the last frame, I found a fertil- 

 ized queen upon the comli, as well as 

 two queen- cells. The bees had 

 actually swarmed at that late day, 

 but at the last moment the queen liad 

 refused to go, and had returned after 

 going, only to be killed by the remain- 

 ing bees or by the robbers. It was 

 the virgin queen that was killed. 



I have written the above for the 

 benefit of those who know as little 

 about bees as I do, that if they should 

 meet with such an experience, before 

 concluding that the colony is queen- 

 less, they would examine it and thus 

 save a good colony of bees. Probably 

 some of the prominent apiarists wliii 

 aiiswer queries, can explain this 

 curious freak in this colony of bees. 



Xora Springs, 6 Iowa, Oct. 10, 1885. 



Fredonia Censor. 



A Visit to Mr. U. E. Dodge's Apiary. 



A reporter of the Censor gives the 

 following account of his visit : 



Whether bees have reasoning 

 powers or not is still a debatable 

 question. Certainly their actions in- 

 dicate co-operaiive work under a dis- 

 tinct form of government, although 

 the system has not yet been found 

 out. It is a most interesting study, 

 and to talk with one who understands 

 it, brings to light many interesting 

 and peculiar facts. Such a oue is Mr. 

 U. E. Dodge, whose neat, perfect 

 farm of "ten acres enough " lies on 

 Spring Street, in Fredonia, and who, 

 besides producing delicious fruits and 

 perfect vegetables, keeps, for profit 

 and entertainment, 223 colonies of 

 bees. I do not believe that there are 

 many hundred-acre farms in the 

 county that yield more profit than 

 these ten acres that are scientifically 

 worked. He has a carpenter shop 

 with a foot-lathe and full equipment 

 of carpenter tools, where, on rainy 

 days and during the winter, the farm 

 tools are repaired, bee-hives con- 

 structed, and also boxes for honey and 

 crates for fruits are made ; there is 

 the house for extracting honey, and a 

 neat little office where Mr. Dodge has 

 his papers, and where he writes for 

 agricultural and bee papers, and 

 studies his books. On agriculture, 

 horticulture or bees, he is an encyclo- 

 poedia of information drawn from 

 practical experience. 



" I have kept bees," said Mr.Dodge, 

 " for tliirty years, but I did not know 

 anything about it until about six 

 years ago when I commenced making 

 a business of it. There is more about 

 bees that is interesting than anything 

 I have ever handled (not to speak of 

 the stings), and I have become in- 

 tensely interested in them. Besides, 

 they are the most profitable, and in 

 proportion to their size they produce 

 more than any animal that a farmer 

 can keep." 



Mr. Dodge has some colonies of pure 

 Italians and some of Syrian or Holy- 

 Land bees, but the larger part are of 

 mixed races which he says for honey- 

 producing are just as good. The 

 Italians are docile, but not as busy as 

 the Holy-Land bees, though the latter 

 have the name of being easily 

 irritated. The Syrians wear burn- 

 side whiskers down their sides ; they 

 are indefatigable workers, but breed 

 so fast that it is doubtful if they give 

 any more surplus, requiring more food 

 for the colony. 



Mr. Dodge keeps about 40 combs of 

 honey on hand for the winter to re-iu- 

 force colonies that run short of food 

 supply. Ttiey can be fed syrup and 

 water, but this does not produce 

 honey. Thev store it in cells- the 

 same, but it is only syrup after all. 

 " Bees do not make honey," says Mr. 

 Dodge; "that is the nectar of the 

 flowers. They simply gather it and 

 store it. I have now on liand, and 

 with that which is in the hives, ex- 

 clusive of the brood-chambers, about 

 5,000 pounds of honey." 



