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Small Hires — On page 124, Mr. B. 

 Taylor, a Minnesota bee-keeper having 260 

 colonies of bees, stated that he had secured 

 7 tons of honey in the last poor season, and 

 credited his success to the small hives he 

 was using, and offered to describe them and 

 detail their management in the American 

 Bee Jouhnal. He has sent one of the 

 hives to our Museum, and has this to say 

 respecting it : 



The bee-keeper, like the farmer, secures 

 his harvest with a reaper— the hives and 

 fixtures are his harvester ; the log-gum is the 

 ancient "sickle;" the box-hive is the 

 "cradle;'' and the movable-comb hive is 

 the " self -raking reaper " of the apiarist. 

 The needs ot 18S9 now demand the "self- 

 binder."' . ^ ^ „ 

 It must combine all the good points of all 

 previous hives ; must be cheap, and easy to 

 make ; suitable for breeding bees in sum- 

 mer, and keeping them safely in winter ; 

 convenient for hiving swarms, and moving 

 in the home yard ; and always ready and 

 safe to move to out stations. It must be 

 suitable to liandle by whole hives, or by 

 single frames, without any loose parts or 

 complicated machinery ; equally suitable 

 for the securing ot either comb or extracted 

 honey, and to tliat end it must be capable 

 of easy contraction, and of tiering up to any 

 required height ; with a bee-space, and no 

 more, between the upper and lower frames 

 of such tiered hives, whether with or with- 

 out the queen-excluding honey-board be- 

 tween them. 



Mr. Editor, I send you a sample hive that 

 meets the above-mentioned needs. It is of 

 the right size (l.OuO inches of comb surface) ; 

 the beveled rabbet of the top and bottom of 

 the sides enables it to rest upon a plain 

 bottom-board, and to have a plain, smooth 

 board for a cover, without any J^-bee-spaces 

 or other evils. The fixed frames give all 

 the advantages of the closed-end frames, 

 and the manner of suspending tliem in the 

 hive avoids their faults, among which is, its 

 Inconvenience of handling by single frames. 

 1 can remove a frame in any part of the 

 brood-nest in this hive, with my naked 

 fingers, witliout any prying or other force 

 (after loosening the compressing screws), 

 and return them with equal ease, without 

 hearing the "bones" crack, as we do in 

 returning other closed-end frames in a pop- 

 ulous hive. 



This frame is right for any depth, but you 

 cannot reverse them. I once made them re- 

 versible, but soon found that, in the way I 

 used them, the bees would build the combs 

 solid in the frames, without reversing ; and 

 there is no other reason for reversing, as 

 alternating secures all desirable ends. 



I use the hives with two depths of frames, 

 8 inclies inside for the full size, and -i'i 

 inches for the double ones. They are ex- 

 actly alike, except as to depth ; and the 

 small size has its frames suspended on a 

 plain rabbet, as I do not expect to handle 

 single frames much in this si/e. 1 use them 

 large and small, in about the same way, and 

 sometimes the two sizes together. lamas 

 yet undecided as to which size is best, if but 

 one was used ; but I think 1 shall use the 

 small size in the home bee-yard, and the 

 large size in the out apiaries. 



I do not claim anything new in this hive, 

 only old things in new and improved ways. 

 I am just finishing 300 hives, and 600 eases, 

 for my own use the coming season, so it 

 will be seen that 1 intend to get some honey, 

 if there is any around. 



With the editor's permission, in a future 

 article, 1 will detail my way of using these 



hives, and handling my bees in these three 

 ways, viz : with fair increase, with small 

 increase, and without any increase. 



I see that nearly all bee-keepers object to 

 any kind of glass in supers. I shall offer no 

 apology for the peep-hole in my hive. Others 

 may remove a shade-board with its 15-pound 

 stone every time they take a squint at the 

 bees ; but I will see all I need to know in 

 ten hives, while they are uncovering one. 



Mr. Taylor does 7iot describe his manage- 

 ment in the above, but promises it in 

 another article. That is more like what was 

 wanted— the key to the production of the 

 "seven tons of honey in a poor season," 

 would interest our readers much more than 

 a description of the hive. 



For all that we can discover, the hive is 

 practically the same as other shallow hives, 

 and has a wood and zinc slatted honey-board. 

 It seems strange that he should have been 

 using it for eight years, and yet at least two 

 very similar ones have been invented and 

 patented within the past three years. 



This article is very appropriate under the 

 heading of " Gleams of News." 



Ivayinsr Workers.— Thos. M. Pierce, 

 of Wickford, R. I., asks for information, and 

 writes as follows : 



Last fall 1 united 2 good colonies, and left 

 the queens to settle their own claim ; and 

 this spring the hive contains a good, strong 

 colony ; but instead of a queen, a laying- 

 worker. I do not know what to do. 1 have 

 looked into all the books, etc., I have, and 

 cannot make up my mind what to do. The 

 thing is quite a conundrum to me. I am 

 sure it is a laying worker, as many cells 

 contain three eggs, and the brood is in all 

 frames, a few here and a few there. Young, 

 small drones are running around on the 

 comb, queen-cells are started, but the cells 

 are never capped, as the grubs all die after 

 a few days. All the capped brood in the 

 worker-cells is rounded up like drone-brood, 

 if anything more so. 



The conundrum can be solved in about as 

 good a way as any, by breaking np the col- 

 ony, giving a frame or two to weak colonies 

 to build them up. It would be difficult to 

 get those bees to accept a queen while hav- 

 ing these annoying pests— laying workers. 



i^tirserymen-— The Fourteenth An- 

 nual Meeting of the American Association 

 of Nurserymen will begin at Chicago, Ills., 

 June 5, 1889. Railroad tickets for the round 

 trip, from any part ot the United States and 

 Canada, may be secured by any person, 

 whether a nurseryman or not, at a rate of 

 one-third fare for the return trip ; a great 

 opportunity for all who would like to visit 

 the great metropolis of the West. Tickets 

 are good for any train, going or returning ; 

 no crowd, no jam. Reduced rates are also 

 secured at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, 

 the head-quarters of the society. 



This will be a notable gatliering of dis- 

 tinguished nurserymen and horticulturists, 

 and an interesting and instructive pro- 

 gramme is offered. June 5 will be the most 

 delightful season of the year for such an 

 excursion— cool weather, delightful views. 

 Nature adorned in her most attractive gar- 



ments. For circular giving full particulars 

 about securing reduced railroad fare, pro- 

 gramme, etc., apply to Charles A. Green, 

 Secretary, Rochester, N. Y. 



Xransrerrin;; Bees.- As many are 



now inquiring how to transfer bees from 

 box-hives, we give the following from the 

 American Agriculturist for May— just re- 

 ceived : 



A good bee-smoker is needed so that you 

 can have full control of the bees. They 

 should be smoked thoroughly before opera- 

 tions begin, and at trequeut intervals before 

 attempting to open the old hive. This will 

 allow ample time for them to fill themselves 

 with honey, which they never fail to do if 

 thoroughly smoked. Turn the hive bottom 

 side up, and with a cold chisel and hammer 

 pry open and cut the nails from two sides 

 of the hive. This will lay the combs bare, 

 so that they may be reached conveniently. 

 Lay the frame to receive the combs fiat 

 upon a board which has been previously 

 guttered out one-half by one-half inches on 

 every two inches ot surface. This will allow 

 a wooden needle to pass under the comb 

 after it is fitted into the frame. By this 

 means a cord of hard twine is drawn over 

 the comb and around the entire frame and 

 securely tied, spanning the frame every two 

 inches. After the combs have all been re- 

 moved, cut, fitted and tightly bound into the 

 frames, place them carefully into the new 

 frame hive and raise the old hive, which 

 contains the majority of the bees. With a 

 brush of soft material, or a stiff feather, 

 gently remove the bees into tho new hive, 

 or to its entrance. In arranging the combs, 

 place those containing the brood in the cen- 

 ter, and see that the brood occupies a com- 

 pact mass in the hive. In a day or two the 

 bees will have fastened the combs in the 

 frames, and will ultimately remove the 

 twine fastening. They cannot do this if 

 wooden strips or tin fastenings are used. 

 Only combs that are straight should be 

 used ; fill the remainder ot the frames with 

 foundation, which I would recommend 

 rather than crooked combs, but combs con- 

 taining brood should all be used. 



Making' Comb Foundation. — F. 



C. Erkel, of Le Sueur, Minn., asks these 

 questions : 



I keep 50 colonies of bees, and desire to 

 secure all the white honey possible (such as 

 basswood and clover) in tlie comb, and to 

 extract the dark and autumn-flower honey. 

 I have over 200 empty combs, and 10 combs 

 in each of my .50 Langstroth hives ; tlie 

 combs were built from starters, so that they 

 are not as straight as they might be, and 

 have some drone-comb in them. 1. With 

 that number of colonies, would it pay to 

 have a foundation-mill for my own use ? 3. 

 If I had a mill of my own, would it be ad- 

 visable to melt up those combs and use full 

 sheets with wired frames ? 3. It I had to buy 

 foundation, would it be advisable to melt up 

 the poorest of those combs ? 



1. We do not think it would pay to fuss 

 with and make foundation for 50 hives, 

 when the prices of it, already made, are as 

 low as at present. 



2. We should not advise the melting up of 

 any good combs— but the "crooked" and 

 black ones should go to the melting pot — 

 substituting comb foundation for them, 

 wired or not, as you choose. 



3. Our advice would be the same, no matter 

 whether you had a " mill " or not. 



