184 



TllP] AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[For the American Boe Jouruiil.] 



The Vexed Questions. 



Mr. Edttok. — * ■••' * * * 

 The war of words to Avliich I refer is mostly 

 waged over two subjects, to wit : bee Jiives and 

 tlie purity of Italian tees — either of which is a 

 topic worth}' of being discussed witli less exhi- 

 tiou of temper, for tlicre arc none of us so verj'- 

 wise in these matters as to do any more than 

 " boast we know." Yet, in the face of tliis de- 

 plorable fact, some of your correspondents talk 

 as if they were the onlj^ qualified judges in 

 either case of what constitutes the true standard 

 of perfection, and proceed to set up tJieir te^ts 

 and iioint^ of excellence as if by an infallible de- 

 cree. We only wish that they were as Avise in 

 these matters as they would have us think they 

 are, for then we should have a starting point. 

 Whereas now, with all the light these great 

 luminaries in apiculture reflect, we are still look- 

 ing and hoping for something more tangible to 

 guide us. 



'• Give me ii pkice to stand,'' said Archimedes, 

 "and I will move the world!" So give us, 

 gentlemen, one single /ar< upon this question of 

 puriti/, adapted to aU parts of the country and 

 good' in all kinds of weather, and we will let 

 you shout '■' evrcJca!''' the rtmaindcr of your 

 days. I have no learned quotations to make j 

 from the dead languages for the benefit of my ' 

 punctilious friends, biit I Avill honor them with 

 one from a world renowned volume and a living 

 author. Here it is : " Mankind has been learn- 

 ing for six thousand yca;s, and yet how few 

 have learned that Ihc'ir fellow beings are as good 

 as themselves." Dr. Ayres' Almanac, 1868, 

 October page, paragraph 3. 



As this question of purity of Italian queens 

 has assumed a new aspect, from the late impor- 

 tations and observatbms of Mr. Grimm, I will 

 say, for the benefit of those who do not profess 

 to be experts in judging of blood, that it is to the 

 hybrid progeny of a queen that they are 1o look 

 for the safest test of purity. For instance, if 

 you get a queen which reproduces queen'^, that 

 in turn, after copulation with a black drone, 

 produce bees a larger proportion of which arc 

 light colored and have three yellow bands, jou. 

 can safely conclude that the grandmother of 

 such hijbrids is pure enough for all practical 

 purposes, let her daughters be of what color 

 they may. 



Mr. C. T. Adams, in the January number, 

 asks if it makes any difference in raising queens 

 from icorker eggs, whether they arc in ne^c or 

 old comb ? 



I will answer him that my experience is de- 

 cidedly in favor of new comb. As I have not 

 time to speculate upon the cause of his bees 

 failing to raise queens, I will give him the bene- 

 fit of my method, which I have never I^aown to 

 fail. I lake a standard hive and place in it, on 

 one side, a comb containing eggs and larvaj 

 from the queen I Avish to propagate from, I 

 then take the hive with its comb to a stand 

 having a strong swarm. This I open and take 

 from it an outside frame containing honey only 

 in the comb. I place this comb next to the 

 one containing the eggs and larvse. I then take 



frames from the centre of the hive containing the 

 strong; swarm, and, with a wing, brush a good 

 supply of young bees from the combs of the 

 strong swarm into the nucleus hive. I then 

 adjust the frames, and set the nucleus on the 

 stand of the strong sicarm, which I remove to a 

 goodly distance. 



In this V ay I have never failed to get from 

 six to ten S|)leudid queen cells ; and in case 

 drone-hrood, is inserted in the comb, the bees 

 Avill generally build as nice Avorker-comb as if 

 they had a fertile cjueen. My practice is, after 

 the cells are capped to remove all but one; and 

 Avhen the queen hatches and become fertile, I 

 build up the nucleus to standard strength with 

 brood from other hives. 



Osage, Ioava. G. A. Wright. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal. ] 



Size of Hives. 



A Querist, on page 128 of the January num- 

 ber of the Journal, doubts the size of hives 

 being best, as given by Quinloy and Langs- 

 troth. I Avish he had given us his objections, if 

 not his name; avc might perhaps have learned 

 something. Quinby and Langstroth Avould 

 have been wiser, I am quite sure — provided 

 Querist had demonstrated bej'oud a doubt, that 

 his new position Avilh regard to size, is better 

 than theirs. Whatever his favorite size may 

 be, I Avill give my reasons for accepting the 

 size given us by the above named ajjiarians, a'3 

 good enough at least ; and also some reasons 

 Avhj' either a larger or smaller hive may, and 

 often does, prove a failure to some extent, in 

 comparison with such as have up to tLis time 

 been most approved. 



I find that a moA'able comb hiA^e containing 

 two thousand cubic inches, contains also about 

 seventy -tAVO thousand Avorker cells, Avhen filled 

 Avith comb. These cells Avill contain fifty 

 pounds of stores Avhen lilled, more or less; but, 

 as Ave Avish to use a portion of these cells for 

 breeding purposes, Ave will substract from the 

 above number of cells twenty-eight thousand 

 eight hundred, which is lAvo-tiftliS of the Avhole 

 number, and Avhich keep the colony constantly 

 populous, as from twenty to forty thousaml 

 bees are, I believe, regarded as a good swarm. 

 This Avill also enable them to cast one strong 

 swarm each year in due season, and enable 

 them to lay up ample Avinter stor> s, and yield a 

 surplus when the season is lavorable for honey 

 gatliering. For their numbers increase very 

 rapidly from the last of March to the middle of 

 June, and they are found at this latter date to 

 number more than tAvice forty thousand. In 

 the time given and the number of cells allowed 

 they Avill raise three crops of bees, and increase 

 their numbers to eighty thousand four hundred. 

 In many cases they will, at this season of the 

 year, use a larger number of cells, at least in 

 reaving the tlnrd crop of bees given them 

 above, and consequently be more populous. 

 NoAV, I presume all Avill admit that they do not 

 die at this season of the year in numbers cor- 

 responding Avith the number hatched. If Ave 

 admit the loss of one-fifth the whole number 



