THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



65 



both nucleus hive and honey box. Put the 

 whole into a dark chamber for two days. 

 Meanwhile I had preserved one of those 

 slipped-out y<)unt>' (|ueens, put her into a 

 common feeding bdx, tot^elher with a little 

 honey ami a few l)ees and drones from the 

 same hive that the honey box was taken 

 from. After two days I found that the bees 

 had all descended to the honey comb in the 

 nucleus hive. After closing the inch hole 

 ui the feeding box with a thin sheet of bees- 

 wax, I removed the now empty honey box 

 and put the feeding box with the virgin 

 queen in its place, and put the whole back 

 into the dark room. Not ten minutes after 

 the bees made a noise that could be heard 

 all over the house. Getting afraid of my 

 experiment, I entered the dark closet and 

 found the upper box in which the queen 

 was, " chock inll" of bees. They had cut 

 through the wax in less than 15 minutes. 

 Next day I saw the (lueen walking in her 

 becoming way on the comb, and this 

 nucleus is now a strong liive. Next season I 

 shall follow this plan on an enlarged scale. 

 Sigel, III., Dec. 4, IsTtt. Cm. 8onnk. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Michigan B. K. Association. 



HiVKs IX liows.— 1 have kept my hives 

 in rows fronting south for 18 years The 

 hives stand at irregular distances, from 18 

 in. to o ft. apart, in the row; and the rows 

 are parallel, ft. apart. No two hives 

 painted the same color stand side by side in 

 a row; the fronts are also diversified that 

 no queen returning fi'oni her bridal tour 

 can mistake her own hive. Consetjuently 

 my loss of queens has been very slight, and 

 mainly conhned to winter. A few are kill- 

 ed during queen rearing, by birds and 

 toads. 1 have, to a great extent, if not en- 

 tirely, remedied the winter loss of (jueens 

 by re^jlacing all queens two years old, every 

 fall with choice queens reared from natural 

 cells — cells from choice hives that swarmed 

 naturally. f>iome choice, imported (lueens I 

 allow to live S years. If I had plenty of 

 space, my rows of hives should be -i ft. 

 apart in the row, and the rows 8 ft. apart. 



Box vs. Frame Hivks.— We all have our 

 theories how we would manage for box- 

 honey, but few of us are graduates from 

 '* Experience University." I do not claim 

 to be a graduate, but 1 do claim consider- 

 able experience with both box and frame- 

 hive cap honey, black and Italian bees. 

 Before I used the frame, and 2 years after, 

 I used a box-hive 12 in. square and 15 in. 

 deep, with 8 bars, 13^ in. space to each bar, 

 which was IxJ^ in. thick. These bars had 

 guide combs and were always built as 

 straight as an arrow. I frequently liad 

 eight 6-lb. caps on a hive at a time, all filled. 

 The only objection to these hives was the 

 difficulty of preventing swarming; besides 

 this I had found that I could prevent 

 swarming with the frame hive, and at the 

 same time get as much cap honey as with 

 the box-hive, designed for cap honey. I 

 had the care of a small number of Langs- 

 troth hives, 3 miles off, and as they were 

 run mainly for cap-honey, I never opened 

 one of them after the bees were put in. All 

 the care I had, was to put on and take off 

 caps. These hives did as well as any box- 

 hives I had ever known, nor have they ever 

 lost a queen dm-ing those several years. If 



I were raising my bees for box honey alone, 

 I would not give up the frame hive; as the 

 trouble to manipulate in case a stand gets 

 wrong is too great with box hives; besides 

 1 cannot equalize my bees that way. As to 

 using small frames instead of boxes, I pre- 

 fer the boxes, owing to the trouble of get- 

 ting the bees to build straight in the frames. 

 I prefer running mv bees for extracted 

 honey, because I can now sell at home 100 

 lbs. of extracted to 10 lbs. of comb, even at 

 the same price— 20 cts. So will all other 

 bee-keepers when people are fully satisfied 

 that they are buying the pure article. 



Layixg out of Bees.— In certain cases 

 bees will hang out, even in a flow of honey; 

 though it is not common with Italians. If 

 there is no honey to gather, it cannot be 

 helped; but while the flowers are yielding 

 honey it is in the power of any skilful 

 apiarist to prevent bees hanging out. 1 

 never allow my bees to hang out a single 

 day while there is a flow of honey; but 

 when I first commenced with the frame 

 hive, in 1806, 1 did not know how to prevent 

 it, and was compelled to let them hang out 

 in large clusters, until they would swarm, 

 and that for weeks at a time, and in a good 

 yield of honey. In that year I had one box- 

 hive that conunenced work in caps about 

 May 20th, and commenced hanging out to 

 swarm about the 25th; I added a cap, after 

 raising the first ones and slipping others 

 under, till I had caps on enough to hold 

 about 75 lbs. All other stands swarmed, 

 but this one persisted in hanging out till 

 June lo, at 2 o'clock; when a very large 

 swarm came out, leaving nearly all the caps 

 filled. They had hung out to the last, and 

 in such a large cluster during the last week, 

 as to half cover the hive. All other stands 

 were gathering honey rapidly at the time; 

 and to prove that they never hung out for 

 want of honey to gather, they filled their, 

 hive with new comb and honey in two 

 weeks after swarming. Now, had these 

 been in a frame hive and had I understood 

 how to manage them, I might have saved 

 about 100 lbs. of honey. My patience had 

 worn out waiting on them so long, so I had 

 been all the morning of the 13th till 3 

 o'clock, making preparations for the Hercu- 

 lian task of swarming them myself — a thing 

 I can now^ do in from 5 to 10 minutes. 



A few years ago a gentleman looking at 

 my bees, so hard at work, remarked that he 

 wished his bees would swarm and go to 

 work, saying they had been laying out two 

 weeks doing nothing; he thought there was 

 no honey to gather, or they were waiting to 

 swarm. I told him I could send them to 

 the field in 24 hours, whether I swarmed 

 them or not. I went to his house that eve- 

 ning, and sure enough they were black bees 

 in box and gum hives, and eveiy one laying 

 out in very large clusters. 1 raised the 

 hives at once on X in. blocks, cleaned away 

 the rubbish from the bottom boards, took 

 off the caps and found the holes stopped 

 up with cobs, and the bees had no wav to 

 get into them. I raised their bottom boards 

 6 in. above the ground— they were flat on 

 the ground and full of vermin. Next day 

 there was no cluster outside, all was right 

 after that. 



Bees never hang out without cause, and 

 the causes are many and various. In this 

 case the cause was, they had filled every 

 space insides the hives, and were unable to 

 get into the caps. Why then diil they not 



