28 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Reply to Questions Propounded by- 

 Querist. 



NO. 1 — STKAIGHT COMBS. 



It is not true in practice tliat elevating tlic 

 Langstroth liive will " a??o«i'.'?" cause the bees 

 to build combs straight and within the frames, 

 tliough they will build much straighter when 

 elevated than when not. " Always straight" 

 has never been and never will be true iu prac- 

 tice in any hive, except guide-frames are used ; 

 and in my practice guide-frames as a remedy 

 are worse than the disease. It is well remarked 

 by Elisha Gallup, on page 219 of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, volume ii, that if the top bars of comb- 

 frames are bevelled to the shape of a V, or, in 

 other words, wedge-shaped, it is all the comb- 

 guides that Querist will want. I only speak for 

 one when I say the reason why I discard guide- 

 frames is that in a properly constructed hive 

 they are worse than useless. I have no trouble 

 with crooked combs, or bees building across the 

 frames. There are many that understand if a 

 Langstroth hive is elevated that the combs are 

 in much better shape, and the bees are not so 

 likely to build across the frames. But none 

 with whom I have conversed seem to under- 

 stand w7^^ it is so. What is the reason ? Simp- 

 ly because elevating the hive has the same eli'ect 

 as shortening the top piece of the frames. The 

 shorter the frame, or the narrower the hive from 

 front to rear, the straighter the combs. It will 

 be observed that in a Langstroth hive when the 

 frames are level the bees generally commence at 

 three, and frequently four different points along 

 the top piece of the frame to build their combs. 

 The more points they commence at the more 

 likely to build crooked and across the frames. 

 In a frame with a top piece only twelve inches 

 long, bees will seldom commence at over two 

 points, and frequently only one, to build their 

 combs, which lessens greatly the liability to build 

 crooked. As already remarked, elevating the 

 hive has the same effect as shortening the top 

 piece of the frame, as it lessens the level or 

 horizontal portion uf the hive. Any person 

 wishing to prove it, may shorten the frames of 

 several Langstroth hives to ten or twelve in- 

 ches, and elevate the same number, and note 

 the results. 



NO. 2 — DESTROYING BROOD. 



I cannot see the advantage of destroying 

 worker brood, or eggs of a native colony, to 

 give place for an Italian progeny. An Italian 

 queen being safely introduced into a native 

 colony, the work is done — you virtually have 

 an Italian stock, as the native bees in a few 

 weeks at most will perish, and be replaced by an 

 Italian progeny. Making haste to destroy the 

 natives by destroying eggs and brood, is to de- 

 populate the hive for a time and lose the labor 

 of the natives, which if not so good is at least 

 better than no labor. True, it is desirable to 

 destroy native drone-brood, which I always do 

 by shaving off the caps of the cells deep enough 

 to disturb the larvf3e — the workers will do the 

 rest. 



KO. o — DIVIDING BEES. 



A plan that works well in the hands of a 

 novice, and does not require a search for the 

 queen, is as follows : In the morning of a fine 

 day, remove the stock which you wish to di- 

 vide from the stand ; subdue, by smoking and 

 rapping on the hive, until the bees are tilled 

 with honey, which will be in ten or fifteen 

 minutes. Now remove all the combs but two, 

 shaking or winging off the bees carefully into 

 the hive, and place the combs in a new hive in 

 the centre, putting an empty frame on each 

 side next to the walls of the hive, and set it on 

 the stand where the old hive had stood. Now 

 fill up the old hive with empty frames, putting 

 the two cards of comb near the center, say one 

 empty frame between them, and set on a new 

 stand some distance from the old one, and leave 

 it there until night, when they must be ex- 

 changed — the old hive placed on its stand and 

 the new one on the new stand, and the wovkis 

 done. Tlie above is a simple statement of the 

 movements to be made, presuming that a novice 

 who does not feel disposed to search for ;\queen 

 will not be disposed to enquire the reason. 

 That he has two good stocks in the place of one 

 is the end of his ambition. 



KO. 4 — RAISING QUEENS. 



My experience has been that queens raised 

 in full stocks Avere larger and longer, the bees 

 building a larger and longer cell. Whether 

 such ciueens are any better for breeding is a 

 question, but that they are more majestic and 

 better looking is a fact. 



I cannot speak from experience as to whether 

 bees can be made to raise a larger number of 

 queens than they do, by simply removing the 

 queen, and, therefore, will at present remain 

 silent. 



NO. 5. — BEE-PASTURAGE. 



I do not believe it would pay to cultivate any 

 plant expressly for honey. I consider bee-keep- 

 ing profitable from the fact that bees gather 

 from the bountiful flora of nature that which 

 would otherwise run to waste. The profit from 

 a crop taken from the ground which would be 

 occupied bj^ a plant expressly for honey, would 

 be larger than the profit arising from the extra 

 amount of honey obtained by planting express- 

 ly for that purpose — tlte pastiu'age iu many sec- 

 tions being already more than is required fo.r 

 the bees kept therein. Evidently, however, 

 in other sections it would be profitable for the 

 bee-keeper to plant that which, while it yields 

 a profitable crop, at the same time adds to the 

 lack of bee-pasturage in such sections. This, in 

 my opinion, is not properly looked after. 



J. H. Thomas. 



Brooklin, Canada. 



To stop bees from fighting and robbing ono 

 another, break the combs of the robbers, so that 

 the honey will run down among them, and they 

 will go to work at home. I had two hives of 

 bees destroyed by being robbed, and should 

 have had another robbed if I had not received 

 the above information. 



