THE AMEEICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



The Southern Buralist, published at Tangipa- 

 hoa, Louisiana, aud we believe the only agri- 

 cultural paper published in the south-western 

 section of the country, commences a new vol- 

 ume, much improved and enlarged. It is well 

 edited, and deserves to be liberally supported 

 in its efforts to make the southern people "self- 

 reliant, self-respecting, aud self-supporting," 

 by " an energetic, judicious, and prompt devel- 

 opment of their agricultural, manufacturing, 

 and mineral resources." 



Mr. Adam Grimm, of Jefferson, Wisconsin, 

 sent us by express, an Italian queen bee and a 

 few workers, in a box two and a half inches 

 long, two inches broa^, and one and a half 

 inches high, made of one-quarter-inch pine, 

 with four ventilating slits. The queen arrived 

 safe, and as it is stated that, though she lays 

 freely, her eggs do not hatch, we shall endeavor 

 to ascertain the cause of that peculiarity, if Ave 

 succeed in preserving her. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Upward Ventilation. 



In the March number of the Bke Jourkal, 

 yjuge 1G9, vol. 3, in the article "Water for 

 Bees," Mr. F. H. Miner condemns upward ven- 

 tilation. If he is right, will he explain the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Last fall I left a swarm out of doors to test 

 that very point. From Christmas to the 30th 

 of January, we had bitter and steady cold 

 weather. On the 20th I examined the swarm. 

 They were all right and lively. I then shut 

 them up, and closed the nine holes in the hon- 

 ej'-board, thus stopping all upward ventilation. 

 Four days after 1 examined them again, and 

 found my bees dead, with frost all over the 

 hive, comb, and bees. All the rest of my bees, 

 having upward ventilation in just as cold a 

 place, but not exposed to the winds, came out 

 safe, with very few dead in the hives this spring. 

 As my neighbors have lost half of the bees they 

 had last fall, from the same cause (or attributed 

 to it), will Mr. Miner inform us what killed our 

 bees ? John M. Pkice. 



Buffalo Gkove,Iowa. 



In the orchard-house of Stephen Morris, Esq., 

 near Philadelphia, where peaches are grown by 

 the bushel in fifteen inch pots and eighteen 

 inch tubs, the gardener attributes much of his 

 success to the agency of bees in fertilizing tiie 

 blossoms. He places a hive in the house as 

 soon as the tlowers begin to open, and the bees 

 are kept there till the flower leaves of the blos- 

 soms drop. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Somo of our Personal Observations. 



First. — Concernino more than one queen in a 

 hive. We notice that our fiiend J. H. Thomas, 

 of Brooklin, Ontario, seems to think that two 

 queens will not be permitted to live in one hive, 

 sirictly speaking ; but that the space, whether 

 in a hollow log or box, must be so constructed 

 by nature or art, as to be virtually two hives, 

 for the continued existence of two queens in 

 close proximity. 



As I have some experience in opi^osition to 

 this, I will relate it. About the year 18o3, I 

 purchased of a neighbor a colony of bees in a 

 very large box hive, say about eighteen inches 

 square and twenty -two inches long. This col- 

 ony he said was fifteen years old, and had never 

 failed to swarm annually two and and some- 

 times three times, during that term. I kept it 

 two years, but got no swarm, but such a mass 

 of bees layout upon it all summer the last year, 

 that I made up an artificial swarm by removing 

 the bees on its outside. At the close of honey 

 harvest in 1855, I took up the bees, which were 

 now few in number, and found in the hive 

 three living queens, that ajjpeared to be super- 

 annuated or slightly crippled, and one lively 

 smart queen (to appearance). How long these 

 queens had been there, I am not able to state ; 

 but that I found them there, is a fact witnessed 

 by several persons. 



Second. — Concerning Honey Boxes. I make 

 mine to hold from eighteen to twenty pounds 

 each, and without any bottom — taking off the 

 the honey-board when I put the boxes on. 

 Each box contains nine small frames, four of 

 which just fill one of the large frames in the 

 hive. I put a small piece of worker comb on 

 the underside of the top bar of each frame, be- 

 fore putting them into the boxes. In this way 

 I have had a swarm make forty pounds of box 

 honey in about eight days. 



The supers thus get the advantage, first, of 

 all the warmth of the hive, so that the bees will 

 work in boxes both earlier and later in the sea- 

 son, and are not checked by sudden changes of 

 weather. They also, second, have a perfectly 

 free pass from the hive to the supers ; as it is 

 virtually a simple ui^ward extension of the hive. 



Third, the honey being built in little frames, 

 four of which jnst fill one frame of the hive, 

 gives a chance to feed with box honey any 

 swarms that may need food. These little frames 

 are also just right to put into little nuclei hives 

 to raise queens with, aud thus save the cutting 

 up of larger combs ; for by simply filling two or 

 three big or hive frames, with the little frames 

 and inserting them in the bodj'^ of the hive, we 

 can soon have them filled with brood. Thej'' 

 can then be removed to the nuclei hives, putting- 

 one frame of brood to each nucleus, witli one of 

 honey and one empty or containing empty comb, 

 and we have a nucleus sufficient for a pint or a 

 quart of bees. Aud, fourth, by filling the two 

 outside on each side of the hive with the little 

 frames, and letting the bees fill them with hon- 

 ey and cap them, we can then remove them to 

 th« boxes for market ; an«I thuu very much in- 



