154 



THE AMEEIOAN BEE JOURNAL. 



have found a swarm in the woods where the 

 hollow was below the entrance, the comb was 

 always briglit and clean, and the bees were al- 

 ways in the best condition; no dead bees in the 

 bottom of the log; and on the contrary when I 

 have j'ound a tree where the entrance was below 

 the hollow, there was always more or less mouldy 

 comb, dead bees, &c. 



Again, if you see a box hive with a crack in it 

 from top to bottom large enough to put youv 

 lingers in, the bees are fill right in nine cases out 

 often. The conclusion that I have come to is 

 this, that with upward ventilation without any 

 current of air from the bottom of the hive, your 

 bees will winter well without any cobs. 



Your cobs might be used on the top of the 

 chimney, to keep the moisture Irom the tire from 

 escaping into the air, with just as much sense, 

 but some patent right man or company has re- 

 commended corn cobs, fine hay, chopped straw, 

 &c. So people must pay five or ten dollars for 

 the right to be humbugged, and the more com- 

 plication and the more humbug there is about a 

 hive, the better the thing sells among the inex- 

 perienced; and as a general rule the agent is as 

 ignorant as those he sells to. A glass or pane 

 of glass fixed over the ventilator to condense the 

 moisture arising from the bees, is of the same 

 stripe as the corn cobs. What I would recom- 

 mend is this, that your corn cob advocate have 

 a bundle of corn cobs fixed over his mouth and 

 nose, to condense the breath instead of letting it 

 escape into the air. There would be just as much 

 sense in it, in my estimation. The old theory 

 that you must have a wutch pot hanging in the 

 chimney, ought to be exploded, along with the 

 idea that there is a great mystery about bee- 

 keeping. 



Enough on this head at present. 



Osage, Iowa. Elisha Gallup. 



[For tke American Bee Journal.] 



Numerical Force of Stocks. 



Pleasant Hill, Ivy. 

 Mr. Editor: — I have chanced to meet with a 

 portion of a discussion that has been so ably con- 

 ducted in the Country Gentleman, between our 

 two very worthy friends respecting the compara- 

 tive value of swarming and non-swarming hives. 

 Both are honorable and experienced apiarians, 

 and have presented the claims of their favorite 

 plans with tact and ability. But there is one 

 point which to me is an important one, that so 

 far as I have observed, has been entirely over- 

 looked, and that is the relative value of the res- 

 pective numerical force of the different forms of 

 hives; though as I have not been favored with a 

 perusal of the entire discussion it it may have 

 undergone investigation and not reached my eye; 

 if not, I would be pleased to see it discussed in 

 the Journal. If a section or plantation will 

 only produce forage enough for fifty stocks in 

 ordinary swarming hives, containing two thou- 

 sand cubic inches, the same number of non- 

 swarmers would probably contain treble the nu- 

 m(?rical force, overstock the place and not be able 

 to obtain more than their own support, leaving 



no sur^Dlus for their owner. Now the question 

 arises whether the proper numerical force would 

 prove most remunerative with the least expense 

 of fixtures and attention in fifteen or eighteen of 

 these, or of fifty of those. And, also, which form 

 would produce the best results at the least ex- 

 pense, with an equal numerical force and un- 

 limited resources. If experiments have satisfac- 

 torily demonstrated the superiority of either plan 

 in a numerical jDoint of view, I for one would 

 take it as a special favor to see the results stated 

 in your valuable journal. If bees were in de- 

 mand in the market and including the renewal 

 of the ciueens in the swarmers, they would doubt- 

 less prove the most proIital)le. Yet the non- 

 swarmers might be supplied with prolific queens 

 by rearing them on the nucleus plan. 



B. B. D. 



[For the Americau Bee Joarnal.] 



A, Singular Occurrence and a Query. 



In the autumn of 1860, on visiting a small 

 apiary which I had established several miles from 

 home, I found one large hive containing about a 

 pint of bees, and from seventy to eighty pounds 

 of honey and pollen. It was a young swarm, 

 and the only remarkable thing was the hive con- 

 tained beautiful white comb nearly all worker 

 size, but there had ')iot been a worker or drone 

 reared in the hive. I have never known a simi- 

 lar case in twenty years' experience. I there- 

 fore wish to record it as something out of the 

 usual course of bee-economy. 



I desire, also, to inquire in what condition was 

 the queen of said swarm during the amassing of 

 such abundant stores. The friend having charge 

 of them eould not tell whether they were ac- 

 companied by a fertile or virgin queen, or 

 whether two or more swarms had not united. 

 That they had had a queen was evident from the 

 kind of comb constructed; but she was not found 

 when the disconsolate remnant of a once power- 

 ful swarm was dislodged from the hive. The 

 combs were removed and fitted into frames and 

 given to other swarms and stocks, and were not 

 considered the less valuable for having a large 

 amount of pollen. AV. J. Davis. 



YouNGSViLLE, Pa., January, 1868. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Italian Bees and Red Clover Honey. 



Three hundred pounds of honey stored in 

 boxes by strong stocks of Italian bees, as there 

 were at work at different times a bee to every 

 four feet of surface, and no other fiowers in 

 bloom at the time to yield a surplus for storing. 



There must have been large quantities stored 

 in the hives during the yield, as the honey was 

 noticed by several bee-keepers in handling the 

 frames of their hives. The honey had the taste 

 of raisins. Its color was nearly white or slight- 

 ly shaded with pink. The season the driest of 

 the last twenty. White clover dried up in time 

 to allow basswood or linden honey to be stored 

 in boxes by itself. The number of stocks at 

 work within the radius of one mile was four 

 hundred and fifty. J. M. MARVIN. 



St. Charles, III. 



