THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



93 



all filled the body of their hives, thirteen frames, 

 but j'ieUlcd no surplus. They were small 

 swarms Noae of them had any old combs 

 given to them, lor I had noneto give. 1 would 

 have paid a d»>llar a sheet for perfect empty 

 combs for their use, and would have made 

 money by the operation. The only swarm I 

 had lasLj^ear, hybrids, gave me this year twenty 

 dollars worth of surplus honej-; and one swarm 

 forced July 24th, has completely tilled its tliir- 

 teen frames, and, I believe, would have pro- 

 duced considerable surplus honey if bo.ves 

 had been given to it. Yet, notwithstanding 

 such success with black bees, I iuieud to Ital- 

 ianize my apiar}^ next season. 



4. From an inspection of the combs in all my 

 hives, I find a "general lule" of irregularity in 

 comb-building, namelj', the five or six central 

 combs are invariablv straight ami Avithin the 

 frames. Outside of those, on each side, they 

 are inclined to curve towards the middle of the 

 hive, and sometimes cross from one frame to 

 anotlier near the ends of the frames. In the 

 spring of the j'car, after the combs become hard- 

 ened with age, and are comparatively empty 

 of hone}'-, it is not a difficult matter to rectify all 

 this by straightening all the combs. To do it, 

 remove tlie hive from its stand, and set an 

 emi)ty hive, (presuming that all your hives are 

 of the same size, as they ought certainly to be), 

 in its place. Takeout all the straight combs 

 from the central part, and set them carefully in 

 their own order in the empty hive witli all the 

 adhering bees. We come now, perhaps, to two 

 frames joined together with comb. Cut away 

 the comb careful 1}' from the frame to which it 

 is least attached; remove the frame, brush off 

 the bees into or in front of the hive, being care- 

 ful in all the operations not to injure the cpieen 

 (there is in fact no necessity for injuring a sin- 

 gle bee); lay the frame on a board or table, and I 

 with a knife ci-owd the comb into the frame | 

 just where you want it. This is best done, not 

 by laying tlie knife on the comb and pushing, 

 but by placing the knife between the comb and 

 frame, and prying it into place gradually. A 

 common table knife is best. If tlie comb is 

 built too thick in certain places, as is often the 

 case, slice it off to the proper thickness with a 

 liot knife, lieated by holding it for a moment 

 against a hot flat-iron. Draw the knil'e rapidly 

 through tlie comb, and it will not bruise a sin- 

 gle ceil Heat it again as often as it cools. 

 You will be surprised to see how nicely even a 

 dull knife will cut under the circnmstances, if 

 you have never tried it before. I tliink, how- 

 ever, that a very simple expedient Avill secure 

 all straigiit comiis. I have never tried it, for I 

 have never had the meens at hand. In fact, it 

 has occurred to me only since seeing the combs 

 built in my hives this summer. I raise the 

 back end of the hives three or four inches higher 

 than the front, while the combs are building. 

 As above stated, several combs situated central- 

 ly are invariably straight. The irregularity 

 begins towards each side of the hive. Now my 

 idea is to place in the hive before hiving the 

 swarm, two straigiit combs, one at each point 

 Avhere the curved combs usually begin, say at 

 cue-third of the width of the hive from each 



side. This would divide the hive into three 

 equal parts or spaces, each so narrow that the 

 bees would hardly have room to deviate from 

 the straight line enough to carry one comb 

 across two frames. Will some one who has 

 spare straight combs try this next year, and re- 

 port the result? 



R. BlCKFORD. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 7, 18G7. 



Correspondence of the Bee Journal. 

 ITALIAN BEES IN TIIEIll NATIVE HOME. 



LETTER FKOM MH. ADAM GUIMM. 



Bellinzona, (Canton Trssin,) 

 September 12, lH(i7. 

 On my arrival on the European continent on 

 the night of the 27tli of August, T concluded to 

 visit Mr. Dathe, at Eystrup, near Hanover, who 

 is well-known as an expert and successlul cul- 

 tivator of Italian bees. My puri)o.se Avas fiist 

 to compare the Italian bees and queens which 

 I had brought with me across the ocean Avith 

 those of Mr. Dathe; secondly, to visit the heaths 

 ofLuneburg that I might personally examine 

 the bee-stations there; and tliirdly, to a.scertain 

 whether the Italinn bees there reared are less 

 disposed to sting than their native black bees — 

 conceiving that I should thus enjoy the best 

 opportunity to form a correct judgment on this 

 point. On arriving at his residence I found 

 Mr. Dathe so much occupied in sending off 

 queens, that he requested me to call again next 

 day, Avhen he expected to be more at leisure. 

 On the folloAving morning he called for me at 

 the hotel, and I accompanied him to his house, 

 Aviiere 1 opened the lAVO nucleus hives I had 

 brought Avith me, and gave the bees an oppor- 

 tunity to fly. Very few Avorkers had died on 

 the voynge; but I had the morlilication to see 

 one of the ([ueens, Aviiich I Avas showing to Mr. 

 Dathe on the comb, suddenly take Aving and 

 leave i'or ]iarts uuknoAvn. Alter minute inspec- 

 tion Mr. Dathe declared that my a\ orkers and 

 queens Avere fully equal to his own. He re- 

 niiirked further that I Avould not obtain e(inally 

 handsome queens and AVorkers from Pr(ites>or 

 Mona; thoutih he by no means intended that 

 the remark siiould imply that Prof. M.'s bees 

 Avere not of the pure Italian race. jMr. Dathe 

 then kindly showed me his arrangements for 

 queen-raising and several unfertilized J'ouug 

 (pieeus. I found these all of a beautiful yellow 

 color, there not being a dark or broAvn sh one 

 among them. After close comparison I could 

 perceive no difference betAveen his bees and 

 my own. In reply to my ([ueslion Avhether all 

 the young (picens produced Avere uniformly of 

 the same^color as the mother, he i-aid that such 

 was by no means the case. He, hoAvever. had 

 a queen last year, from Aviiich he reared a hun- 

 dred yelloAV young queens before he obtained a 

 dark one, and that one Avas nearly black; but 

 that I might calculate on finding nearly one- 

 half of Prof Mona's (pieeus dark. We then 

 proceeded to his heath ainary, situated at a dis- 



