28 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



position have as much to do with develop- 

 ment as space? Is it not the food only 

 wliicii develops, and space and position 

 secondary matters, not essentials? 



J. E. R. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



A Visit to a Neighbor's Apiary. 



An account of what we saw by a visit to 

 the apiary of T. S. Bull, 5 miles north of 

 Valparaiso, will, we think, be of interest. 



South Liberty Apiary, named from the 

 neighborhood, is not large; it contains but 

 about 140 stocks. But it is not of the ex- 

 tensiveness of the apiaty that we wish to 

 speak, but of the system of its management. 

 Mr, Bull did not commence bee-keeping till 

 1871, but being a hard student in apiculture, 

 has already won the reputation of a veteran. 

 Study, exi^eriment, and exi)erience, with a 

 natural talent for the calling, have given 

 him a knowledge possessed by few, while 

 his success is established by the effects of 

 his work. As a matter of course, then, Mr. 

 Bull's plans and opinions are valuable. 



We first entered, on the occasion of our 

 visit, the workshop. We found this very 

 convenient and well furnished. At present 

 it serves the purpose of store-room also, 

 though Mr. Bull intends building especially 

 for this in a short time. Underneath the 

 shop is a good, well-ventilated cellar with a 

 substantial stone wall. It is supplied with 

 a stove in which, in severest weather, a fire 

 is kept. All the bees are placed in this cel- 

 lar for the winter, and thus Mr. Bull never 

 loses a stock of bees by cold. 



His hive, whenever seen, attracts atten- 

 tion and excites comment. It certainly has 

 few superiors. One feature is the bottom, 

 furnished with hooks and hinges; the ad- 

 vantages of this are apparent to all. 



Mr. Bull has partly replaced the black 

 bees with Italians, and will likely complete 

 the change during the next season. He, 

 like others who have tried the Italians, sees 

 their superior merits, and will profit by the 

 knowledge. M. L. P. 



Valparaiso, Ind. 



[One of Mr. Bull's hives is on exhibition 

 at this office, and it attracts as much atten- 

 tion as all the others, by its side. It has 

 many good points which may be followed 

 by others, as there is no patent on it.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Jo umal 



Surplus Honey. 



This subject is one that can hardly be 

 written about too much, especially as it is 

 the only source of profit to the great ma- 

 jority of bee-keepers. Of course there are 

 a few who make a specialty of rearing 

 queens and bees for sale; but to the aver- 

 age bee-keeper this is his only hope of 

 profit. And as comb honey, as a rule, finds 

 the readiest sale, I will give some of my ex- 

 perience in that line. 



In the first place, I am one of that num- 

 ber who believe the hive has very much to 

 do with our obtaining the best results. For 

 the past two seasons I have been using a 

 frame 7 inches deep, and it has given far 

 better results than the deep frame I had al- 

 ways used before. .\nd so far as mv ex- 



perience goes it has shown me that the bees 

 choose to store their honey as near the 

 brood as possible. Now this frame is so 

 shallow that there is very little honey be- 

 tween the brood chamber aiul the surplus 

 boxes in my deep frames, in the fall 

 months (and that is when we get our sur- 

 plus here), there would be 3 or 4 inches of 

 honey at the top of the frames. Then, too, 

 these shallow frames are so convenient to 

 get out of the hive, you scarcely begin to 

 lift before they ar-e out. 



Honey men in New York get large 

 amounts of box honey in deep frames, but 

 they get it in hot weather, in June and 

 July. 



And now a few words as to the mode of 

 having our surjilus stored. The rack I use 

 to hold the section boxes, is similar to that 

 used by J. P. Moore. For my hives I make 

 them this way: two pieces of 3^ inch stuff, 

 213^ long by 2 in. wide, these are for side 

 pieces. Now get out 4 pieces, 16 in. long by 

 % in. thick, 2 in. wide, nail through sides 

 into the ends and nail the other two pieces 

 crosswise in the frame at equal distances 

 apart, so there will be three equal open 

 spaces. Now get two pieces hoop iron, 1 

 in. wide, 213^ in. long; nail them on the un- 

 derside of >^ inch strip, letting them pro- 

 ject in 3^ inch. Now, two pieces same kind 

 of iron, 15 in. long, nail on ends projecting 

 in same as sides. For middle cross pieces 

 get hoop iron, 13^ in. wide, 15 in. long, nail 

 on underside, letting them project equally 

 on both sides. 



The section boxes are made thus: tops of 

 boxes, 13i in. wide, 53| in. long; sides. 1% 

 in. wide, 5 in. long, using stuff' }^ in. tliick. 

 Bottom piece }4 i»- square, .53^ in. long; 

 nail through sides into top and bottom 

 pieces. The bottom jjiece is set so that one 

 of the corners are up. Set nine of these to- 

 gether (they should be made exact, so that 

 they will fit) and get 4 pieces thin tin, 1 in. 

 wide, 15 in. long; place them on the sides 

 near top and bottom, and nail through into 

 frames with % in. tinned tacks; a piece of 

 glass, 5x6 in. is tacked on each end. This 

 makes a box lh% in. long, 6 in. wide, by 5 

 in. deep, and will hold about 15 ft>s. The 

 object in using tin at the sides is to make it 

 convenient for the retailer, as he can use a 

 knife to cut the tin, leaving the other 

 frames compact. The rack holds three of 

 these boxes. I make the caps of my hives 

 12 in. deep, so I can tier them up. The first 

 set of boxes put on may have the tops made 

 tight-fitting, that is 1% wide. 

 *Henry Co., 111. J. V. Caldwell. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Bees. 



Aug. 12, I left the city to remain per- 

 manently in the country; glad to get away 

 from piles of brick walls to where I could 

 see my bees every day. I extracted what 

 honey I thought was in the bees' way, 

 made a few swarms and had 1 or 2 natural 

 swarms. The total number of colonies 

 reached an even 100, but I felt some anxiety 

 about some of the last ones, as the queens 

 were slow about commencing to lay. Final- 

 ly eggs were found in all but two of the 

 hives, and these two I concluded to unite 

 with others, and late in the fall I proceeded 

 to unite them, when I found in one of thenr 

 eggs and a handsome young queen, and in 



