1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



185 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Introducing Queens ; or the Grand Modus 

 Operandi. 



Mk. Editor : — Having tried many of the 

 plans given in the Journal for introducing 

 queens, I found there would still be some fail- 

 ures occasionally. Now here is a way that has 

 proved sure every time : Make a box of the same 

 dimensions as the hive, six or seven inches deep ; 

 nail on a board for a bottom ; on the upper 

 edge tack on cloth to prevent the escape of 

 smoke ; bore a hole through one of the sides to 

 blow smoke through. AVhen operating, set the 

 hive on this box ; then load your fumigator 

 with puft-ball, and proceed as Mr. Quinby 

 directs, and drop the bees. Look out for the 

 queen, if she was not destroyed before you 

 smoked the bees. The better way is to kill the 

 black queen before smoking them, as then they 

 do not need to be smoked so much. Have 

 ready another box, about three inches deep, 

 with bottom, and inch holes through its sides, 

 covered with wire cloth, to let in fresh air. Put 

 the bees in this box and set the hive over them. 

 When the bees revive, and begin to climb up, 

 put in your Italian queen, and keep the bees 

 confined till next morning. They should also 

 have upward ventilation. 



Can some one tell me, through the Journal, 

 how to keep my bees from swarming ? I would 

 rather have honey than swarms. 



The past season was not as good as last year. 

 My bees made one-third less honey this year than 

 last. Peter Livingston. 



Nm Salem, N. Y., Dec. 28, 1871. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal,] 



Keport from Pratt's Hollow, Madison Go,, K". Y. 



Mr. Editor : — The commencement of our 

 season here was poor, but by the 20th of June 

 the bees began to get honey pretty freely, and 

 so continued until the first of August, as our 

 season ends early with the basswood bloom. 



I hived one large swarm on the 16th of July, 

 and in fifteen days they filled a common box hive 

 and six 5 lb. boxes. I think I never saw bees 

 get honey faster than they did this year from the 

 basswood blossoms. 



I began the season with twenty-five colonies. 

 They increased to forty-five, mostly by natural 

 swarming. I took from them — young swarms 

 and all — nine thousand eight hundred (9,800) 

 pounds of box honey, including weight of boxes, 

 and sold it in that form at an average of twenty 

 cents per pound. 



I doubled a good many of my young swarms. 

 I think that those I thus doubled averaged me 

 sixty pounds of box honey per hive, while those 

 that I hived singly did not average over fifteen 

 pounds to the hive. Will it not pay to double 

 young swarms, where they can be bought in the 

 fall for five dollars each ? I can buy plenty of 

 black bees in this county, in box hives for that 

 price. 



I think the golden willows are a great help to 

 bees in the spring. I was at my father's in 

 Oneida county, about the first of May. There 

 are a great many of those willows there, and I 

 think his bees came in as loaded from them as 

 they did here from the basswoods. This year 

 the bees got such a start from the willows, that 

 they commenced swarming as soon as the apple 

 trees came in blossom, or say the 18th and 2Uth 

 of May. 



My best colony, this year, of black bees in a 

 box hive, gave me one hundred and fifty (150) 

 pounds of box honey. A good many of the 

 boxes had a considerable amount of dry comb 

 in them. I think I can get one-third more honey 

 in that way than by single capping. My best 

 half-blood colony gave me one hundred and 

 twenty-five (125) pounds of box honey, with 

 only the natural start combs in the boxes. 



I had a few Italians and half-bloods. They 

 commenced swarming about one week earlier 

 than the blacks. 



My bees were mostly in box hives. I could 

 have got more from them if they had all been in 

 shallow Laugstroth hives. I am making a hun- 

 dred Langstroth and a hundred Quinby hives 

 for the coming season. 



Probably twenty of my swarms went to the 

 woods. One large swarm that I had trebled, 

 started work in the hive, and continued about 

 forty-eight hours, then left for the woods with- 

 out alighting. I expected a hundred pounds of 

 honey from it, if it had stayed. 



G. T. Fearon. 



Dec. 29, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queens, and Corresponding Hives, 



On ])age 114 of the November number of the 

 Journal, Mr. Benjamin says he feels sorry for 

 friend Grallup. Now, save your sorrow, friend 

 B., for we can stand any amount of such pitch- 

 ing in. But the amount of correspondence that 

 I had before I sent that article charging the 

 dollar, no live man could possibly stand. Those 

 same chaps that have done the pitching in, 

 would like to have Gallup devote his entire time 

 to correspondents, and then kick him for not 

 doing more. Still, this is not what we started 

 for in this article. It is about that queen's 

 laying herself to death in our Youreka, Back 

 Action, Extractor, Reversible, Revolvable, Mova- 

 ble Comb, Twin Bee Hive. It is a well known 

 fact, that some queens will lead out a swarm, 

 fill a standard hive, lead out another swarm, and 

 fill that hive, still lead out a third, and fill that 

 hive also. And with us, such prolific queens 

 are almost invariably long-lived. We have had 

 them retain their full prolificness the fourth 

 season, and do as well as a majority of queens 

 still in their fifth season. But, suppose your 

 figures are correct, and on my princii^le a queen 

 will produce the workers to gather eight hun- 

 dred (800) pounds of honey in one season ; or, 

 on the old plan, it takes her three years to pro- 

 duce the same result ; we say, let her spread 

 herself. There may be something more here 



