can create a home market for all the honey 

 1 can raise. I shall try to get my neighbors 

 to put up honey in a more marketable shape, 

 for it will help the market. 



Franklin Hakdingeb. 



Port Gibson, Miss., Feb. 10, 1879. 

 The Bee Journal has been of great 

 help to me in managing my bees I could not 

 do without it. The year of 1878 was a hard 

 year on bees and bee-keepers in this section. 

 Early in the spring we had the fruit pros- 

 pects for a large honey harvest, but a sudden 

 change in the weather blighted all our 

 hopes. I had to leave my bees during the 

 epidemic of yellow fever, and on my return 

 home I found that I had lost several colonies. 

 The winter has been the coldest ever known 

 in this county, and most of the bees in this 

 county are dead. I am feeding daily. I see 

 that bees are gathering pollen. Nearly all 

 of my section boxes are full of nice, comb, 

 left over from last year, shall I leave them 

 on the hives, or take them off until later in 

 the season ? I am afraid if I leave the 

 boxes on full of comb, that the queen will 

 enter and deposit eggs in the section boxes. 

 I thought of putting empty boxes on so as 

 to get new comb in the sections. What 

 would you advise. R. M. Hastings. 



[Boxes should not be left on the hives 

 when the bees have no need of them for 

 storing honey. They will not build comb in 

 the boxes unless they need it.— Ed.] 



Shelby ville, Ky., Jan. 27, 1879. 

 Please give us some imformation about 

 taking honey from the Langstroth hive in 

 prize boxes. I see no trouble in these boxes 

 as used in the second story, or comb honey 

 racks, but all the devices that 1 have seen 

 without exception ignore the fact that a sec- 

 tion of prize boxes when suspended in the 

 lower story of a Langstroth hive, near the 

 brood nest, fails to reach the bottom by 

 several inches. I have thoughtof tilling this 

 space with a blcck of wood cut to fit, but I 

 think that all such expedients should be 

 avoided, if possible. In view of the fact 

 that the prize box seems to be accepted as a 

 standard, would it not be better to have the 

 frames in the Langstroth hive to run across 

 ratherthanin the direction of its length? 

 The reason of the suggestion arises out of 

 this fact, unless the colony is a large one it 

 is apt to fill one end, if not one corner of the 

 hive only — thus large spaces are left vacant 

 — and these vacancies in winter are very cold 

 —I have not obviated this objection by ad- 

 justable boards or cushions for the reason 

 that the stores contained upon a few combs, 

 perhaps imperfectly filled, would make the 

 chances of wintering hazardous. It seems 

 to me that a shorter frame with division 

 boards would compact a colony in better 

 shape for wilder, for breeding, and for the 

 formation of comb. I have during the past 

 year seen quite a number of colonies in 

 standard Langstroth hives, with whatever 

 comb they had built— at the ends of the 

 frames and extending one-half or at most 

 two-thirds of the full length of the frame — 

 thus leaving either in the front or rear a 

 large vacant space. Of course this should 



127 



not have been, but I suppose the colonies 

 being those of the current year (1878), and 

 the season being a poor one, the bees under 

 the circumstances could do no better; but if 

 the frames had been shorter, would they not 

 have done better ? The Langstroth hive in 

 this part of Kentucky is the standard. Is 

 not the subject of transplanting queens r 

 larvae a process of great practical import, 

 and would it not be well to bring it to the 

 front for a season's experiment ? Would 

 not a collection of the known facts upon the 

 subject of fertilizing queens in confinement 

 probably lead to a general effort in that line 

 during the season of 1879. W . M. Rogers. 



[We do not advise the use of surplus re- 

 ceptacles in the brood chamber. There are 

 better and simpler methods of applying 

 them. One, is that mentioned several times 

 in the Journal, by the use of the comb 

 honey rack. (See cut). 



Another is by the use of cases as illus- 

 trated on page 113, of this Journal. Seven 

 of these fill a story for the Langstroth hive, 

 and can be lifted on or off all at once with 

 ease. (.See cut). 



Seven-inch Story (or Seven Cases. 



Another plan may be seen illustrated in 

 our next Journal, as used by Mr. James 

 Heddon. 



Bees are in more danger of starving in 

 winter with plenty of stores in the hive, 

 where the frames run cross-wise, as they 

 cannot pass en m.asse from one range of 

 comb to another. We prefer the frames to 

 run lengthwise, but some use them as you 

 suggest with success. Among these we may 

 name Mr. G. M. Doolittle, Prof. Cook, 

 Messrs. Oatman & Son, Mr. Roop, &c, &c. 

 It is not possible, nor is it desirable, to 

 force all minds into one channel. There 



