1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



257 



hills between each two trees ; so we have the 

 corn in hexagon also, and intend to cultivate all 

 in three different directions, and if stirring the 

 soil will make them grow, grow they will, un- 

 doubtedly. One hundred chestnut trees are to 

 be planted in the centre of the grove, where the 

 apiary is to be located, sheltered by heavy tim- 

 ber from the north and west wind. In answer 

 to many inquiries, we would say that young 

 basswood may be found in any forest where 

 large trees abou.id and stock has been excluded. 

 Ours range from one to ten feet in height, and 

 no stock has been allowed in the woods for about 

 six years. 



We have really been so busy for the past two 

 weeks at the ranche, that we could not even 

 find time to get weiglied, but feel so exceedingly 

 well, that we think we must begin to have at- 

 tained about the solidity of any other good hon- 

 est farmer. 



Friend Gallup, we haven't got over that hitting 

 yet, and if it results in anything serious, who 

 knows what may turn up. In fact, we went and 

 bought a whole, nice, smootli pine board to 

 make a Gallup hive, or rather a hive with Gal- 

 lup frames ; we could not yet bear to think of 

 thirty-two such frames, or fifty-six in our hive, 

 but thought to transfer a stock, so you need not 

 say any more, we had not even tried one ; but 

 before we could made up our mind to spoil the 

 board iwe could have done it awful quick with 

 our p^ buzz saw run by the wind mill), we 

 remembered a friend who uses the unadulterated 

 Gallup hive, and we saddled that same colt 

 quick, and rushed tlirough seven miles of mud 

 and snow until we had found our friend, whom 

 we catechized thus : 



"Do you really think those small combs, less 

 than a foot square, enable you to build up colo- 

 nies quicker than the abandoned Langstroth 

 frames?" 



" Oh ! yes, sir." 



''And that the advantage is sufficient to pay 

 for handling so many frames '?" 



" Yes, indeed." 



"How many pounds of honey did you take 

 from six such liives in 1871 ?" 



"Over nine hundred, and almost my first at- 

 tempt." 



" And you used only a single story 20 inches 

 long outside, and containing thirteen combs 

 each, all that each hive had for brood or sur- 

 plus?" 



" Precisely " 



"And if you wanted more room, how would 

 you have it?" 



" In the second story." 



" And not in Gallup's New Idea ?" 



" No ; for I cannot see 7iow it could give any 

 greater yield." 



"Your hives are plain and simjile ; do you 

 like the movable bott(mi board?" 



"I do." 



"And see no sufficient advantage for making 

 a front portico?" 



" No great advantage to the bees, but a great 

 one for the spiders to spin their webs." 



Now, i^Ir. Gallup, if Mr. Penn is right, why 

 dou't you use long frames a la Quinby, when 



your colony is built up, or even eight long 

 combs in the second story in the place of thirteen 

 small ones. Or use a hive two feet long and one 

 broad, small frames on spring, and ' long ones 

 when we use the honey extractor, set in the 

 hive lengthwise, and thus make available the 

 amount of brooding space occupied with your 

 petition boards, ends of frames, etc. 



One frame 11 x 33 inches, would certainly be 

 more convenient for the queen than two small 

 ones with Ixtards and sticks to break the con- 

 tinuity of it. 



Where the extractor alone is used, we think 

 perhaps something miglit be gained by a frame 

 nearer square or a little deeper, bixt would not 

 Mr. Gallup find his larger number of frames per 

 hive in an apiary of one hundred stocks or more 

 rather tedious ? Novice. 



[Fortlie American Bee Journal.] 



How Gallup's Bees Wintered. 



Mr. Editok : — In order to throw some light on 

 this Bee Disease, we propose to answer Novice 

 by giving the results of our wintering both on 

 tlie summer stands and in the cellar. We started 

 with 10 stocks on the stands, one in the Bay 

 State hive and one in the Diamond hive, one in 

 a standard Gallup hive and seven in the large 

 Gallup. One of the swarms in the large hives 

 lost their queen the first of September, and we 

 introduced a young queen in the fiist week in 

 October, consequently they had none but old bees 

 and all died the first week in March with dysen- 

 tery. The stocks in the Bay State and Diamond 

 both died in February with Dysentery, yet they 

 had young queens and an abundance of honey. 

 The cause was evidently attributable to the form 

 of the hive ; as in long continued and steadily 

 cold weather in a tall hive, the bees cluster in a 

 few ranges of comb ; this brings the mass or 

 cluster in a wrong position, that is, the cluster 

 is tall up and down, the consequence is, tlie bees 

 at the top of the cluster are unnaturally warm, 

 providing those at the bottom are kept at the 

 right temperature, and dysentery has always 

 been the result with me in extremely and stead- 

 ily long continued cold weather. 



For this very reason I have heretofore cau- 

 tioned beekeepers against using a tall hive. A 

 medium size is always the best. The 7 other 

 stocks came through in splendid condition. I 

 undertook to explain this at the Cleveland Con- 

 vention, but was interrupted so much by Dr. 

 Bohrer that I sat down in disgust. Don't under- 

 stand me as saying that the form of the hive had 

 anything to do with the bees of Novice dying, 

 as they weie probably indoors. 



In my cellar I had 42 stocks and 5 nuclei. I 

 lost two of the nuclei on account of their being 

 all old bees; The three that wintered had all 

 young bees and came through in splendid condi- 

 tion with the consumption, of very little stores 

 and no signs of dysentery. 



Bees left to themselves stopped breeding 

 earlier last season than common on account of 

 the drouth. Old queens stopped laying from 



