56 



TnE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of bees at one operation, when the frames are 

 filled with honey at lop, is greatly increased, 

 and bees of the common kind greatly infuriated, 

 whereas for Italians whose tenacity to the comb 

 has become, as it were, proverbial, certain 

 death to them is inevitable. 



Do you say that the " frame work and frames 

 (best made of cast iron)" with its bevels or 

 hinges or sacks or racks or what nots. constitute 

 the superiority of this hive ? We would respect- 

 fully inform you that this superiority of cast iron 

 over wood, is as j^et entirely problematic, and 

 that frames properly constructed and not more 

 than ten or eleven inches in depth will always 

 be found to hang true upon the rabbets, when 

 the hive is placed level, as it invariably should 

 be. A greater depth of comb than this is neither 

 desirable, nor in any way profitable to the bees 

 or their owner, when the hive is at least eigh- 

 teen inches from front to rear, containing at least 

 nine frames for Italians, or eight for the com- 

 mon bee. 



The expert bee-keeper, who understands how 

 to secure straight combs always, needs more- 

 over nothing to space the distances between the 

 frames, and this very nolMng likewise saves 

 thousands of busy workers during the spring 

 and summer months, always supposing that 

 they are handled as they should be ; and, if they 

 are not meant to be thus handled, the common 

 cottage hive is more desirable than any patent 

 that has yet been brought to light, unless it be 

 the simplest, and therefore "most perfect" pat- 

 ent hive — the Langstroth hive. By expressing 

 our sincere conviction that this hive, as descri- 

 bed by Mr Bennett, will never become popular, 

 we do not wish to detract from any of its sup- 

 posed merits over others, and sincerely trust 

 X\\a,t perfection 7ms already been reached. 



And now, my very dear and indulgent readers, 

 if what I have said should in any way give 

 offense to Mr. A. or B. or C, or any other alpha- 

 betical gentleman, the columns o'f our beloved 

 Bee Jouknal, are, I suppose, alike open to its 

 numerous intelligent and progressive subscri- 

 bers, and if Mr. B claims the right publicly 

 to exclaim Eureka ! with his Syracusan Brother 

 Archimedes, I trust he will not begrudge me 

 tlie ]ileasure of privately thinking with Cicero, 

 JVihil^ tarn absurde dici potest, quodnon dicatur 

 ab aliquo philosoplwrum, F. Vakuo. 



N. B. — No hives on sale. 



Delayed Fecundation. 



A QUEEN BECOMES FERTILE AFTER SHE IS FORTY- 

 ONE DAYS OLD. 



On the first of April I brought out the bees I 

 had kept under ground since the first of Novem- 

 ber. Next morning I examined a number of 

 liives, and found several dead young queens be- 

 fore one of them. On examination I found that 

 the bees had reared a young queen. I exam- 

 ined this hive repeatedly for eggs, but could 

 see none till the 19th of May, Avhen I found a 

 great number and likewise a few very small 



larvpe at the bottom of some of the cells. On 

 the 29th of May I made another examination, 

 and found a good deal of sealed worker-brood, 

 with some little drone-brood interspersed. I 

 never yet knew a queen become fertile after so 

 long delay as this. They would usually com- 

 mence laying drone eggs after the twenty-first 

 day from their hatching time, if that was in 

 warm summer weather. A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wisconsin. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A New Way to Italianize a Colony of 

 Native Bees. 



At one time last summer, I had so many 

 sealed queen cells ready to hatch, that I found 

 it difficult to find places for them, as all my 

 nuclei had either cells or queens, and some of 

 the latter just commencing to lay. Being 

 aware that the worker bees usually destroy a 

 queen cell, if introduced before the lapse of 

 twenty-four hours after the removal of their 

 queen, I concluded to try a different way. I 

 caged the fertile queens in a number of nuclei, 

 letting them remain with their little colonies. 

 I then inserted a queen cell into one of the combs 

 in each of these nuclei ; and I must say con- 

 trary to my expectation, every queen cell hatch- 

 ed, and the j^oung queen as well as the old 

 one, was nursed by the bees. In some of the 

 nuclei, both queens were left in, till the younger 

 one bad also become fertile. 



This success gave me the idea of trying the 

 same process with full-sized half-breed colonies. 

 I simply caged the queen and immediately in- 

 serted a ciueen cell that would hatch within 

 twenty-four hours. When hatched, I waited 

 till the young queen commenced laying, and 

 then killed the bastard old queen — running the 

 risk of having the young queen turn out a half- 

 bred also. 



This is a very safe way of changing queens, 

 and less damaging to the old stock, than when 

 the queen is taken away, and after the lapse of 

 nine days the combs cleared of queen cells, and 

 the queen then introduced. But if the bee- 

 keeper does not wish to lose the eggs which his 

 old queen would lay during the nine days (be- 

 fore the lapse of which no young queen ever 

 commenced laying with me,) he may cage his 

 young queen for about a week, and liberate 

 the old one ; and after the lapse of another 

 week, cage the old queen again and liberate the 

 young one — waiting till the latter becomes fer- 

 tile, before the old one is removed. 



Some bee-keepers may think it too much 

 trouble to do so much caging and liberating; 

 but I shall leave it to those who try it, to say 

 whether they would prefer to do as I advise 

 and do, or to insert queen cells in a nucleus 

 and wait till the queen becomes fertile, rather 

 than cage her and introduce her into another 

 stock from which the queen has been removed. 



A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wisconsin. 



