the workman did the work on the end 

 of the house where my bees were, early 

 in the morning, thinking lie would be 

 annoyed by the bees, if he waited until 

 they had commenced working very 

 rapidly, later in the day. He did not 

 finish until late in the morning, and 

 most of the bees were out at work. I 

 noticed that they did not go in at the 

 holes when they came back from work, 

 but Hew around in circles in front and 

 seemed very much distressed. I found 

 that the longer I waited the worse they 

 behaved, until there were at least two 

 swarms (in numbers) on the wing. I 

 threw water on them and waited some- 

 time, but it did no good, then I went to 

 my office, and cut live blocks of thin 

 wood, about 4 inches square, and 

 painted them all different colors; put a 

 ladder up to the end of the store and 

 nailed a block about 3 inches above each 

 hole and in less than ten minutes my 

 bees had settled down to their regular 

 stream of workers, going and coming 

 with their loads of honey and pollen. 



ISTow if any of the readers of the Bee 

 Journal are not convinced that a bee 

 can see, and can mark the hive in which 

 it belongs, let them try experiments and 

 see how quickly they become confused 

 and bewildered. 



Tuscaloosa, Ala. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Experience with a Large Hive 



JOHN HOOKER. 



I will give my father's plan of getting 

 honey. He got the idea of a large hive 

 from one that his father had a colony 

 do well in for over 20 years. The hive 

 was made of sections 7 or 8 inches high 

 and 2}i feet square. From 5 to 7 of 

 these sections were tiered up on each 

 other : forming the hive, with a bottom 

 made by nailing 2 boards together at a 

 right angle, the angle being placed up 

 making an entrance on both sides with 

 inclined bottom board. Slides were 

 used to contract them. The object was 

 to cast outthe wornisand litter. Sticks 

 were used in each section. This colony 

 never swarmed and always came 

 through the winter very, strong, and 

 gave from 100 to 200 lbs. surplus yearly, 

 except 1 or 2 seasons, when it was not 

 so rich. During this time my grand- 

 father had 1-5 or 20 colonies in box hives 

 but they all died. The rule for " rob- 

 bing " this large colony was to take off 

 the top sections down to the brood ; cut 

 out the honey, and put them back about 

 June 1st. 



From this, and our own experience, 



father and I tiered up some Langstroth 

 hives to three-stories, getting the two 

 lower stories full of nice worker combs 

 (21 combs) never taking anything out 

 of the stories, leaving room for the 

 queen and plenty of room to hold 30 or 

 40 lbs. of honey as a reserve through all 

 the honey drouths, always keeping the 

 colony strong. We often find 15 or 16 

 frames of brood in these u four bushel 

 hives. 1 ' 



If the third story is put on before the 

 colony gets the swarming fever, and 2 

 or 3 frames of comb be raised from the 

 second story just about the commence- 

 ment of the harvest, it will be filled 

 with a rush, and what is remarkably 

 pleasant, all the new comb will be 

 worker, or neai'ly so. They have no 

 swarming fever, and never get it, hav- 

 ing no use for drones, they build only 

 worker comb. My father has a three- 

 story colony that has been running 7 

 years ; it has wintered out of doors, and 

 always comes through strong, never 

 showing any signs of dysentery. We 

 examined it a few days ago ; it is very 

 strong. He cut out comb honey once 

 last summer, putting back empty frames 

 with two empty combs for starters ; this 

 they refilled in 5 days. We extracted at 

 one time 130 lbs. from one of these big 

 colonies; we are inclined to believe that 

 200 or 300 lbs. to the colony can be ob- 

 tained annually by this system of man- 

 agement, with the least amount of 

 trouble. 



To prepare them for winter contract 

 the entrance to one inch, and give just 

 a little upward ventilation. Just as 

 sure as the top ventilation is neglected 

 they will suffer with dysentery, and 

 perhaps die. The whole secret of suc- 

 cess depends on getting the colony to 

 breed up strong enough by the honey 

 harvest to fill the whole three-stories. 

 Once full there is no more trouble : no 

 more fussing with division boards or 

 breeding up in spring, or fussing with 

 sw r arms. 



Crates, prize boxes, frames, half- 

 stories or sections can be used in the 

 third story, and instead of the bees be- 

 ing reluctant about starting in the third 

 story, they take to it like lt young ducks 

 to water." Having no swarming fever 

 and never getting it. they readily go up 

 and keep at work. No stopping to pre- 

 pare for swarming, your bees idle in the 

 very best honey harvest. The queen 

 always having plenty of room below, 

 never enters the honey receptacles or 

 third story, and there is seldom any pol- 

 len in the surplus. 



We have not tested this system as 

 extensively as we intend to. but have 

 been experimenting with it for the past 



