1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



155 



comb, or leave the hive for the collection of 

 honey. The bees built only a small quantity of 

 comb, and at the end of the season had stored 

 less honey than hives which I had only sup- 

 plied with boxes. I have since adopted dif- 

 ferent methods of making double hives. One of 

 these is the following: At the time when 

 the honey harvest commences, or about two 

 weeks previous, I select such stocks as 1 intend 

 to use as double hives. I do not choose the 

 strongest hives with very prolific queens, but 

 such as are only of medium strength, because 

 otherwise the colony might insist upon swarm- 

 ing, and thus spoil the game. For each of the 

 hives selected, I have one of the super hives 

 ready, into which I place all the brood and store- 

 combs but one, of a colony that has already 

 .swarmed naturally— after brushing off every 

 bee from those combs into the mother hive, 

 which remains on its old stand, and into which 

 the young swarm returns voluntarily, because 

 the queeii either would not fly, or is returned 

 by the apiarian. By doing so, the super hive is 

 at once filled with as many frames as I find it 

 desirable to have in it ;' the colony gets a large 

 access of workers from the daily hatching brood, 

 and the cells are filled with honey as fast as 

 the brood leaves, if the harvest is good. Only 

 in a few hives the queens will continue to breed 

 in these super hives, by refilling the middle 

 combs with eggs. In little more than a week, 

 tlie brood from the former queen will;^e sealed, 

 and the combs can be emptied of honey without 

 fear of throwing out the larva, or breaking the 

 combs, as brood combs and old combs are much 

 stronger than new ones. Of course, the apiarian 

 does not increase his stock any by this juethod ; 

 but he will not fail to get a large amount of 

 extracted honey from the super hive, and in 

 good season, a good yield of box honey from his 

 swarm, that received all the bees of the stock 

 it came from, and one frame with brood besides. 

 A second method is the following : About a 

 week before the honey harvest commences, I 

 will unite as many hives as have swarmed only 

 once, on the same day on which they swarmed, 

 making one of two, treating one as the main hive, 

 and using all the combs of the dther to fill up 

 the super hive, with all the bees of both stocks 

 that remained in them after the swarms left. 

 The new or double hive they created, I set on a 

 new stand, giving the young swarms the stands 

 of the old stocks. In this way I get an in- 

 crease of one stock from two. The young 

 swarms will be strong, supplying box honey in 

 a good season ; and the double hive thus formed 

 will in a few days have no unsealed brood in 

 any of the comb, and could all be emptied of 

 honey, if found desirable. But I advise bee- 

 keepers to clear out the super hive only every 

 three days, if full or nearly so. I have not had 

 any double hive that was formed in this manner, 

 give a second swarm, or that had not a large 

 amount of honey stored. In the double hive, 

 there will be a young queen in the fall. If de- 

 sirable, such a double hive can be separated 

 a little before the end of the honey season, 

 and the queenless part supplied witli a fertile 

 queen, if increase of colonies is wanted ; other- 



wise, the combs of the upper story may be emp- 

 tied and kept for future use, immediately after 

 the main honey season is over, and the bees will 

 store what little honey they still gather, in one 

 hive, which is more desirable than to have it 

 stored in two. 



A third way to make double hives, is this : 

 Put on a super hive, and furnish it with empty 

 combs, if you have them. The colony will oc- 

 cupy those combs immediately, if strong enough. 

 I use no honey-board between the hives, and 

 put one or two combs or frames less in the upper 

 story than in the lower, to keep the bees from 

 sealing over the honey as qui^fk as they would 

 do if they had the full number of combs. I have 

 had them lengthen the cells, so that some of the 

 combs contained twice as much honey as they 

 would otherwise do. 



I have extracted honey from the main hive 

 repeatedly, but find it much more difficult to 

 remove the bees. There is usually brood in 

 nearly every cell, and this is injured or thrown 

 out, if not very carefully handled. After two 

 years' trial, I recommend getting up double 

 hives for the extractor. 



And now, Mr. Editor, I hope that the forego- 

 ing will be plain enough to be understood by 

 beginners in the bee business. I am well aware 

 that I write nothing that is new to experienced 

 beekeepers, and would not even have thought 

 to write for beginners, if I had not received many 

 letters of inquiry, that I got tired of answering 

 and explaining separately. 



Adam Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wis., Nov. 25, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Hives. 



Mr. Editor :— The above caption is now one 

 of the "vexed question" ranking with that of 

 the "purity of Italian queens." After all that 

 has been written about the hive by the most 

 prominent bee-m^?i, I hate to add anything ; 

 but as the Journal is open to all, to give their 

 views and experience, I will candidly give mine 

 for what it is worth. Of all the hives I have seen 

 and tried, none have suited me better than the 

 regular Langstroth. But even that does not come 

 up to my view of what a good and useful hive 

 ought to be. In the April number of the Journal, 

 current year, page 240, J. L. Hubbard describes 

 just the hive tee want. I will give his words : 



" We want a hive which can be completely 

 closed and fastened, so that it can be set in a 

 wagon, or sent off by express, safely, whenever 

 it is deemed desirable. It should not take over 

 five minutes to fasten it securely, leaving suffi- 

 cient ventilation. It should be of such a shape 

 that it will pack to good advantage, for conveni- 

 ence of winter storage and transportation. The 

 frames should remain firm. In hives where the 

 frames are not fixed they will swing easily after 

 being used in the machine. I specify these needs, 

 because it is so often necessary to remove bees, 

 and with many kinds of hives packing is incon- 

 venient, taking up much time ; and also because 



