160 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



old, I am as much interested as ever/ I 

 have owned and handled bees at different 

 times more than 30 years. The best Ital- 

 ians I liave seen came from H. Alley. I say 

 this in justice to him, as I see some one is 

 'kind o'pitching into him.' That is my ex- 

 perience. Just please tell us all about that 

 nursery." H. S. Heath. 



[ It seems to us that Mr. Davis has made 

 the matter plain. If there is any particular 

 point upon which you wish information, 

 the better plan will be to write to Dr.Jewell 

 Davis, Charleston, 111, and he will no doubt 

 supply it.— Ed.] 



Schoharie Co., N. Y., March .5, 1877.— "I 

 should like to see a description of the 

 Langstroth hive, with the dimensions of 

 hive, framesj etc. Do they winter well ? 

 Will bees waiter as well in a frame 14 in. 

 long as in one 18 in. long, the amount of 

 comb being equal in each hive ? It is a 

 great advantage for me to use the frame 

 193^ in. long, if it will winter as well, but 

 my loss has been greater since using the 

 short frame with 10 in a hive, than when I 

 used the long frame with 8 in a hive." 



N. D. West. 



[ The dimensions of the standard improv- 

 ed Langstroth hive is as follows : The 

 body of the hive is made of inch boards, 

 and should be dressed on both sides; and is 

 13x183^ in. inside, 10 in. deep; % in. being 

 taken off one end for entrance; portico in 



LANGSTIlOTll HIVE. 



front, 4 in. The bottom is nailed on to the 

 sides; a 1-in. strip nailed on to the body, 1 

 in. from top around the hive, to support the 

 second story or cap ; cap is 7 in. deep, and 

 the second story is 10 inches deep. 



The top bar of frame call be made of %\n. 

 stuff, and beveled K i'i-» furnishing the 

 comb guide; whole length 19}i^x% in.; end 

 pieces 8?^x% in.; bottom pieces 1758xM' in. 



As to wintering— the fall management 

 has more to do with it than the style of 

 hive used. If they have sufficient good 

 honey, and are protected on the summer 

 stands, or placed in a good and dry winter 

 repository, with the temperature kept at 

 about 4.5 deg., it is safe to expect them to 

 winter well.— Ed.] 



Starkville, N. Y., April 7, 1877.— "I notice 

 in the report of the N. E. B. K, Association 



that I am repoi'ted as saying: 'It is stated 

 in the bee books that bees begin to labor at 

 two weeks of age; — he thought much 

 younger.' What 1 really said was that it is 

 stated in the bee books that bees be^in to 

 labor in the field at from 2 to 3 weeks of 

 age. While taking no exception to this as 

 a rule, I further stated that they sometimes 

 begin their field work much younger. The 

 error is too great to allow it to stand uncor- 

 rected." P. H. Elwood. 



Winnebago Co., 111., April 2, 1877.— "My 

 bees increased to 200 colonies last summer, 

 and gave 6,000 lbs. of honey. I put them 

 into winter quarters on Dec. 12th, and took 

 them out Feb. 28th. I lost 3; the rest are 

 all right." H. W. Lee. 



Lee Co., Iowa, Apl. 4, 1877.— "Last spring 

 I had no bees. I had some Langstroth 

 hives in the yard and a couple of swarms 

 came and took possession of them. One 

 was black, the other an Italian swarm. I 

 have now 5 swarms. None of my neighbors 

 keep bees. I intend to Italianize them." 

 IIenky J. Alvis. 



[It was really good of you to place those 

 hives out, where these poor fugitives may 

 find rest and make themselves at home. 

 When they lay up good " stores," and you 

 go around to collect house-rent of them, 

 then you will probably find that they pay 

 more rental according to cost of the build- 

 ing than any other tenants you have.— Ed.] 



Georgiana, Ont., March 15, 1877.— " Dur- 

 ing the winter of 1873 one of my congrega- 

 tion gave me a hive of Italian bees, placing 

 it for me in a nice dry and warm part of the 

 cellar; it came through the winter in good 

 condition, while my kind friend had the 

 misfortune to loose all he had. Hence, I 

 resolved to assist him in return, after I had 

 gotten a fair start. At the end of 2 years, 

 when I had increased to 6, 1 gave him the 

 same hive back again, but he lost it through 

 spring dwindling and by taking it some 50 

 miles distant. During the summer of 1875 I 

 succeeded in trebling my stocks and obtain 

 ed 3 cwt. of extracted honey. But, like 

 many other young bee-keepers, I was over- 

 anxious in obtaining large results, and ex- 

 tracted once too often to my sorrow, tor the 

 honey season having suddenly closed, and 

 cold weather setting in, which prevented 

 feeding, I was obliged to go into winter 

 quarters with most of my hives badly pro- 

 visioned with unsealed honey, which pro- 

 duced dysentery. So that out of 11 I came 

 down to 4, which was rather discouraging, 

 but knowing what was the cause of my loss 

 I willingly proceeded with the determin- 

 ation to guard against such a mistake in 

 future. Consequently from the 4 stocks 

 with which I started last spring, I increas- 

 ed to 9, taking 2 cwt. of honey; the 9 are at 

 present in good condition with the prospect 

 of coming out all right in the spring. Gave 

 them a cleansing tiight on that beautiful 

 warm day here on the 1st of March, and 

 now I will not disturb them again till the 

 1st of May, when all chance of spring 

 dwindling will be past, if the weather be 

 favorable. I use a hive and extractor got- 

 ten up by Mr. D. A. Jones, of Beeton, Out., 

 I think our greatest Canadian bee-keeper, 

 and to whose kindness and willingness to 



