270 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[June, 



proper age, and they will store as good quality of 

 honey for winter food as the largest stock in the 

 apiary, and when properly ventilated in a special 

 repository will not consume one particle more 

 honey in proportion to their numbers than the 

 large stock. We are not wiiting theory but 

 actual practice. We have wintered less than 

 a pint of bees and they scarcely stirred all win- 

 ter. Nuclei and spare queens can be wintered 

 just as successfully as full stocks. If you do 

 not know how to manage them so they can 

 make their own honey, then take combs from 

 standard stocks containing good honey and the 

 necessary amount of empty cells for them to 

 cluster in. Their honey should be above them 

 instead of at the side of the cluster. Six or 

 eight of our combs with empty cells below and 

 honey above will winter our largest stock in the 

 cellar, if of the right quality ; while 30 filled 

 with improperly evaporated honey is not suffi- 

 cient. 



In extracting honey from our large hives, we 

 ceased to extract from the end the queen was in 

 as soon as the great flush of honey was over. 

 It is so constructed that as soon as the great breed- 

 ing is over and the stock decreases in numbers, 

 the bees condense themselves or withdraw to one 

 end. Now close the other entrance and the 

 animal heat is still concentrated the same as in 

 a single hive, yet they have full access to the 

 surplus end as long as Ihe honey harvest lasts, 

 and we can keep extracting from that end with- 

 out disturbing the other. Not so with a two 

 *;tory hive, for we must take off the upper story 

 in order to condense the bees to the lower story, 

 as soon as the flush of honey is over, or we may 

 get improperly evaporated honey in tlie brooding 

 apartment for winter food. New beginners must 

 be very cautious about this. We have had a 

 strong swann of bees come out as late as the 

 20th of September, and by condensing them in 

 our hive by the use of the division board, they 

 stored an excellent quality of honey for winter, 

 and wintered as well as any stock in our apiary ; 

 whereas if we had not condensed them we should 

 in all probability have lost them by their storing 

 improperly evaporated honey. We got bit some 

 20 years ago by not understanding this, and a 

 burned child is careful of going too near the 

 fire. In a cool, wet season we should not hesi- 

 tate to extract and evaporate by heat and return 

 to the bees for winter food. 



E. Gallup. 



[For Waguer's American Bee Journal] 



Italianzing Black Bees. 



Mk. Editor; — I will give to the American 

 Bee Journal my mode of Italianizing black bees 

 and giving them all good, natural queens of the 

 best grade. 



First. I get my Italian stock in a good strong 

 condition. About tlie last of May or first of 

 June have a good natural swarm to come off 

 Two or three days after the swarm has come off, 

 examine tlie hive and see how many queen cells 

 you have got. 



Seven or eight days after the swarm comes off, 

 make as many artificial swarms as you have 

 queen cells for, cut out your queen cells and put 

 one in each hive, that you have taken a swarm 

 from. They will hatch in two or three days and 

 your hive will have a good natural queen. This 

 I have found to be the best way of Italianizing 

 black stocks. I have on several occasions taken 

 queen cells ready to hatch and put them on ihe 

 lighting board of a black stand which had their 

 queen, and in a few minutes it would come out 

 of the cell, and the bees would invariably treat 

 her well, and the bees either killed the black 

 queen, or the young queen killed the black queen. 

 I have Italianized several stands of black bees 

 in that way. I have found on a trial of three 

 years, that artificial queens are as a rule but of 

 very little account. Out of 20 queens raised 

 artificially in 1870, 12 died before the first of 

 May, 1871, the balance died during the swarm- 

 ing season. 



I have found to my satisfaction that good 

 natural queens are the only safe and reliable 

 ones. 



R Miller. 



Malu gill's Grove, III. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Tlie Eureka Hive. 



In the American Bee Journal for April, 1872, 

 p. 240, I find a communication signed D. C. 

 Hunt, North Tunbridge, Vermont. He says : " I 

 told him I wished to see his much lauded non- 

 swarming hive about which I had seen so much 

 figuring to prove it the best of all hives made." 

 He had five old stocks in the spring ; but as the 

 season advanced they all cast swarms ! Facta. 

 I had but four colonies in my Eureka hives in 

 the spring of 1867. Three of them were native 

 bees, and one of them Italian. Two of the na- 

 tive colonies gave no swarm ; one of these gave 

 174 pounds of sui'plus honey, the other 124 

 pounds. 



The Italian colony gave 46 pounds. Its first 

 swarm gave 56| pounds, second swarm 40 pounds, 

 amounting to 106:1 pounds. The other native 

 colony gave 36j pound. Its first swarm gave 

 61 pounds ; amount from both colony and first 

 swarm, 97j pounds. From the two that gave 

 no swarms, 298 pounds. Product of the two 

 that swarmed, four new swarms and 204 pounds 

 of honey. It will be seen from the above how 

 much credit is due to his assertions that I had 

 five colonies in the spring, and that they all cast 

 swarms. He says, "I noticed however, to my 

 surprise, that he was appropriating Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's invention without due credit, and evi- 

 dently with a disposition to detract from his 

 claims as inventor and patentee." I believe Mr. 

 Langstroth's liberality in giving to preachers of 

 the Gospel the privilege of nsing his patent 

 without charge is generally known. Having 

 been in the ministry some fifty-six years, I can 

 hardly see how the use of movable comb frames 

 is "use without due credit," or evinces "a dis- 



