216 



THiE mmmmiGMm be® jQ'Ipkmme,. 



CONTRACTION. 



Experience with Contracting 

 Hives — Toads and Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY s. H. HOVIS. 



Two years ago I purchased my first 

 movable-frame hives ; at that time the 

 subject of contraction of the brood- 

 chamber was being discussed, and I 

 thought surely this is just what I want, 

 when so many bee-keepers are advo- 

 cating it in the bee-papers ; so I adopt- 

 ed the contraction theory, having 10 

 colonies in box-hives. I transferred 

 about half of them, giving them about 

 5 or 6 frames, and leaving the hirgest 

 and best looking boxes, to see which 

 would come out the best. 



During the summer the bees in box- 

 hives swarmed, and I put the swarms 

 on 6 frames, and these with the others 

 on movable-frames. I gave the best 

 of care ; and in return for my care and 

 trouble, I expected the supers filled 

 with nice honey in one-pound sections; 

 but, alas, I was disappointed — not one 

 gave me a pound of surplus, while, on 

 the other hand, those in box-hives had 

 the pleasure of taking care of them- 

 .selves, which tliey did nobly, besides 

 giving me some surplus, and were 

 strong colonies when put into win- 

 ter quarters. 



With the above results I was not satis- 

 fied, but I placed the hives all in a row 

 facing the southeast, with a shed over 

 them, boarded up on the north side 

 and at the ends, and packed all around 

 with straw. I hoped that the reverse 

 might be true in the spring. 



All the colonies wintered, apple- 

 bloom came, etc., and those, in box- 

 hives were strong and vigorous, and 

 three of them stored some surplus in 

 fruit-bloom ; but the others were weak, 

 and did not increase in strength like 

 the former. After fruit-bloom the con- 

 tracted colonies were so weak that a 

 neighbor's bees robbed 4 colonies of 

 them — they were too weak to defend 

 themselves, so I gave them a thorough 

 examination ; one had a handful of 

 bees and a queen, while others had in- 

 creased to be fair colonies. I looked 

 at the box-hives, and they were full of 

 bees. 



With these results, I took in the 

 situation, and I said to the contraction 

 theory, " Get thee hence ; thou art an 

 oflfense unto me ;" and I cast the 

 " demon" out, by tearing out division- 

 boards, uniting colonies, and giving to 

 each colony 8 or 9 frames ; the result 

 of this was that last fall, when buck- 

 wheat and fall flowers came, I had 

 strong colonies, which gave me from 

 16 to 50 pounds of surplus each, with 

 the brood-chamber full of winter stores. 



I wish to add that the 2 colonies 

 which gave the largest yield, were in 

 box-hives, the honey being taken in 

 one-pound sections. I use the Sim- 

 plicity or Langstroth frame, and I am 

 now making the hives with the brood- 

 chamber just 12 inches inside, which 

 is just right for 8 Langstroth frames, 

 and I think that it will admit of 9 

 frames for brood-reai'ing. 



The weather the last week has been 

 verj' pleasant, and the bees have flown 

 nicely for four or five days, although 

 the snow is not all off yet along the 

 fences and roadsides where it drifted ; 

 notwithstanding this, to-day (March 

 18) my bees were not onh' busy at 

 work cleaning house, but they were 

 busy carrying in pollen, which was 

 beautiful, light yellow, and they came 

 in well loaded with it. This surprised 

 me, for I did not expect to see it for a 

 month j-et. It is certainlj' early for 

 this latitude — the northwest corner of 

 Pennsylvania. 



Experience -tritli Xoads. 



On a warm, moonlight night last 

 August, about 10 o'clock, I walked 

 around my hives to see if all was right. 

 I lean a board from the ground to t^ie 

 edge of the stand of all my hives, .so 

 that heavity loaded and old bees can 

 crawl up when they drop down before 

 they reach the entrance. One hive 

 was lower than the rest — about four 

 inches from the ground, with a board 

 in front ; I noticed that a large toad 

 had stationed itself on the board just 

 in front of the entrance, and about foiu- 

 inches from it. My presence did not 

 annoy it in the least, so I stooped down 

 close to see what was going on. The 

 bees were frightened, running up and 

 down the front of the hive ; the toad 

 did not move, but every little while I 

 could hear a kind of a smack, as is 

 made with a person's lips. 



The hive being shaded a little, and 

 the toad one of those independent 

 creatures that had things its own way, 

 I went to the house and got a lantern ; 

 I turned the light on it when I was 

 some distance off, then approached 

 quietly until I was in close proximity 

 and watched closely. 



The bees were running and buzzing 

 around, and I could hear that smack 

 very often, and see the toad's mouth 

 open a little, and the bee directly in 

 front of the toad would disappear, but 

 so quickly that I could not account for 

 it. All at once a bee came running 

 out past the toad, and halted by its 

 side ; this was my opportunity to see 

 where the bee went. The toatl turned 

 half around, bowed his head (I heard 

 the same sound as before), its mouth 

 opened a little, and the bee went some- 

 where, but I was still in doubt, unless 

 the toad has a long tongue that it can 

 use with lightning speed. 



I cannot say where the bees went, 

 for the toad did not spring at them, as 

 the toad did that Mr. Smith mentioned 

 on page 171 ; neither did it take the 

 bees off the board with its mouth. Will 

 some one please tell why toads act so 

 differently ? or was I deceived in my 

 observations ? 



Pearl, Pa. 



INTERNATIONAL. 



The Neiv Constitution, and the 

 IMeeting; at Branlford. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY R. F. HOLTEEMANN. 



I was almost afraid that the discus- 

 sion on the new Constitution and By- 

 Laws of the International Bee-Associa- 

 tion was about to drop, for the time 

 being. I believe that by a proper in- 

 terest being taken now in the matter, 

 we can meet at Brantford ready with 

 all necessary changes, not occupj' time 

 which can be more profitably spent, 

 and come to conclusions likely to be 

 such as to require no further i-evision. 



Dr. Miller objects to simply " Inter- 

 national," yet thinks that " American " 

 will screen him from anything bejond 

 Canada and the United States. What 

 about South America ? I have no 

 great objection to International, but if 

 a departure from North American Bee- 

 Association is advisable (and after re- 

 consideration I doubt it), I think that 

 International Bee-Association will do, 

 and the next International will have to 

 call theirs No. II. We have the field. 



I like Dr. Miller's suggestion about 

 fixing the time and place at the annual 

 meeting, and giving "the executive 

 power to change within a given time, 

 if they saw sufficient reason for doing 

 so." 



But let me say right here, that Art. 

 VII of the Constitution says that the 

 President, Secretary and Treasurer 

 shall constitute the executive commits 

 tee ; so the Doctor need not think that 

 he is going to get out of his duties in 

 that way. 



Art VIII of the By-Laws, says : "A 

 committee of five may be elected who 

 shall have power, etc." I wonder 

 where Dr. Miller is quoting from. I 

 have the bound report ,as published by 

 Mr. Newman, and doubtless this is 

 correct. 



Essays at Conventions. 



I believe in them, to a certain ex- 

 tent. I shoidd not like to see a meet- 

 ing taken up by essays, and crowding 

 out di.scussions. Essays can be boiled 

 down — take about 8 to 10 minutes 

 . each — and lead up to a discussion. 



