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215 



^■^ ^j^ ^^'—^^-—•■■^'■^-^'■^'■^^^'■' 



of comb honey pass throun;h our hands, 

 our chance to become atMinaintetl with 

 all kinds of packages is second to 

 none, and our judgment, as to tlie best 

 package, ought to be competent. 



During the present winter, we had 

 among perhaps a dozen, only one ship- 

 ment of comb honey having 12 sections 

 in a crate, which arrived in bad con- 

 dition, while almost every other ship- 

 ment in larger crates arrived more or 

 less damaged. The damage in those 

 small crates was not great, and could 

 easily be seen, the broken combs taken 

 out and replaced by sound ones from 

 another crate. But no one unac- 

 quainted with it, can appreciate the 

 job of overhauling a large lot of comb 

 honey in large shipping-crates. One 

 is at a loss to know what to do with the 

 broken combs. So, it is our candid 

 and well-meant advice, that the large 

 shipping-case — " must go." 



[This is excellent advice, and should 

 be heeded by all who ship honey to 

 large markets. Small shipping-crates 

 holding 12 combs are large enough for 

 anything. They can be transported 

 more safelj', and sell more readily. — 

 Ed.] 



SWARM-HIVERS. 



Sugseslion!« in Regard to Self- 

 Hiving Arrangements. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. M. ALVES. 



Since self-swarming devices are now 

 so much occupying the attention of 

 bee-keepers, I have two plans to sug- 

 gest, neither of which would infringe, 

 in my opinion, those upon which 

 patents are now said to be pending. 

 My first suggestion is as follows : 



Make of wood a channel — say 3 

 inches long, and the same width as of 

 the hives used. Let the ends be open, 

 and the sides made of solid wood — say 

 one inch high. Let the top be formed 

 of three slats J of an inch wide, which 

 when fastened on the side pieces to 

 form the top, would leave two open- 

 ings at the top 3-16 of an inch wide. 

 We thus have a wooden channel one 

 inch high by three inches long, by the 

 width of the hives used. 



Now, at the proper time, put one 

 end of this channel against the front 

 of a hive, and against tlie front end 

 of the channel place the back of a 

 new hive ; we thus have the new hive 

 immediately in front of the old one, 

 with a space of 3 inches between, filled 

 by the channel. The sides of the new 

 hive throughout their length, should 

 rest upon pieces about one inch high, 

 and the front of the new hive should 



have its entranc(! (which .as now condi- 

 tioned should be about IJ inches higli) 

 covered with wire-netting. Hav(! I 

 ever tried the plan? No. Do I think 

 it will work ? Well, I believe it will ; 

 and, in any event, I have as much 

 faith in it as those heretofore reported. 

 It might sometimes work all right, and 

 at other times it might not. We can 

 only tell by ex])erime^its repeatedly 

 made. One swallow does not make a 

 summer. 



The 3-16 inch openings in the top of 

 the channel are large enough to readily 

 admit loaded workers, and although 

 the queen might pass through them, 

 yet in the excitement and pell-mell of 

 the swarming act, she and the large 

 majority of her followers would, in all 

 probability, take the most open route, 

 and follow the greatest light — hence 

 they would in all probability enter the 

 new hive. It miglit be better instead 

 of the wire netting, to cover the en- 

 trance of the new hive with queen-ex- 

 cluding zinc. 



My other suggestion is this : Hang 

 up about the bee-yard, nail-kegs or 

 light boxes about 7 or 8 inches square, 

 and about 20 inches deep, without 

 bottoms. To these attach at the bot- 

 toms, by means of short cords, any- 

 thing i-esembling a small swarm of 

 bees, such as can be made from a piece 

 of an old felt hat. A swarm will not 

 alwaj-s, but frequently it will, cluster 

 on these, from which they will crawl 

 up to the keg or box. They may then 

 be taken and emptied in front of the 

 hive intended for them. 



In conclusion, I wish to say a word 

 to beginners who desire to keep bees 

 for profit, and that is this : Let all 

 novel and untried devices and plans 

 severely alone, which require expense 

 and change of the hives and fixtures 

 that you now use. .Stick to those things 

 which the continued experiences of 

 others have proved to be valuable. 



There is no greater delusion, than 

 to think that because a thing is new, 

 therefore it is an improvement. Out 

 of the million and one ideas and de- 

 vices which have appeared before the 

 bee-keeping world, comb foundation, 

 movable-combs and honey-sections, 

 seem to be about the only things which 

 have come to staj'. Undoubtedly radi- 

 cal experiments are well in bee-keep- 

 ing, as in other things, but they almost 

 alwaj's are costly, and had best be 

 confined to the few. 



As a rule, improvements, when real, 

 do not come easily — they usually re- 

 quire such an expenditure of time and 

 money to make them practicable, and 

 to introduce them to the public, that 

 the time and money expended, if put 

 in conservative channels, would gen- 

 erally prove more remunerative. 

 Henderson, Ky. 



BEE-HIVES. 



Tlic Small IlivcN v*«. I./argc Hives 

 — Which { 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY fi. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In considering this subject of small 

 vs. large hives, there are some things 

 which are very essential, looking to 

 the profit to be derived from the api- 

 ary, which, as far as I have seen, the 

 advocates of large hives fail to men- 

 tion. The advocates of these large 

 hives base nearly all their supposed 

 superiority of such hives on the prin- 

 ciple that the larger the hive, the more 

 bees there will be reared, and the 

 more bees there are reared, the more 

 honej' the apiarist will have in the 

 fall. Now, did we have one contin- 

 uous yield of honey from the beginning 

 of May to the end of October, tliis 

 reasoning would be very nearly cor- 

 rect ; and I here wish to say, that for 

 those who are so lucky as to be situated 

 in such a localitj', this article will have 

 no special interest. 



But it so happens that 99 out of 

 every 100 are not blest with a contin- 

 uous yield of honey, and, in the ma- 

 jority of cases, the flowers of one plant 

 or tree give the main honey crop of the 

 season ; hence at all other times of the 

 year, except when this plant or tree is 

 in blossom, the bees only get, from 

 nothing (along the line of nectar) up 

 to just enough to keep brood-rearing 

 going on niceh'. In all such localities 

 as the last named, from my stand-point, 

 it is impossible to secure the best re- 

 sults from our bees while using a large 

 hive, and working for the production 

 comb hone}-. 



If bees sold for the almost fabulous 

 prices at which they used to, the large 

 hives might be profitable ; but at the 

 present prices, the bees themselves have 

 no value in the fall of the year, as they 

 will not sell for more in the spring 

 than the cost of the hives, value of the 

 combs, and stores consumed, allowing 

 such stores to have been placed in a 

 marketable shape the previous sum- 

 mer. For this reason, we are obliged 

 to look at the matter from a honey 

 stand-point. 



The first reason why the large hive 

 is not so good as the small one, in all 

 ordinary locations, lies in the fact that 

 the small hive gives greater warmth; or, 

 in other words, allows of a better 

 economizing of the heat of the cluster. 

 Hence we can secure more bees early 

 in the season, in time to take advan- 

 tage of the white clover honey crop, 

 with the small hive, as this crop comes 

 too early for the bees to build up of 

 their own accord, to work in that 

 harvest to the best advantage. 



