1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



207 



at the time of swarming the bees are all in a fever 

 and excitement, and to a certain extent demoral- 

 ized, so that a stranger introduced then will not be 

 noticed, and by the time they are settled down she 

 will have the scent of the bees and be cheerfully 

 accepted. 1 found them invariable fertile and lay- 

 ing in a few days. The queen cells which are closed 

 should be removed from the parent hive, and trans- 

 ferred to the nuclei. They generally make better 

 queens than those raised in small hives. 



Wm. Baker. 

 Milford Station, Somerset Co., Pa. 



[For The American Bee Journal.] 



Bees in Minnesota. 



Editor Bee Journal. — When swarming com- 

 menced we had thirty stocks. The season, up to 

 July, was poor. We fed 600 pounds honey. Com- 

 menced extracting July 16th. We used super- 

 hives and empty comb in our Langstroth hives. 

 Our bees are hybrids. We had a continual yield of 

 honey up to about September 10th. We took 3,800 

 pounds with extractor, and have now 700 pounds 

 sealed in our surplus combs — 4,000 pounds total. 

 We increased our stock, mostly by dividing, from 

 thirty to fifty-six. We have now got our bees in 

 the cellar — Nov. 12th. Last year we took 2,800 

 pounds of honey from twenty-two old stocks, and 

 increased to thirty-two. We have beat " Novice," 

 and that is glory enough for us. We believe the 

 " old age theory" caused the death of nearly all the 

 bees here last winter and spring. 

 how we saved a queenless stock of bees from 



the Robbers after they had got well a 



GOING. 



We took out the combs of honey, shook off the 

 bees, carried the combs to the cellar till evening, 

 leaving in the hive one comb for the bees to cluster 

 on ; at night the robbers had all gone home, then 

 we brought back the combs of honey and gave the 

 stock some brood to raise a queen from, put on a 

 super to give air, closed the entrance to one-half 

 inch ; the next morning the robbers had to stand 

 back. This was a strong stock, and the day before 

 they had given up to the robbers and were not 

 fighting at all. 



We do all of our extracting in the shade of an oak 

 tree, only a few rods from our bees. We have no 

 trouble with the bees until after the yield of honey 

 stops. We run our honey from the extractor into 

 molasses barrels and set them in the barn ; by the 

 first of October it is grained ; then I take the barrel 

 head out and scoop out the honey with a sugar 

 scoop. The honey has a coarse grain, the size of 

 wheat kernels, the grain is soft and dissolves in 

 the mouth like ice cream. We retail our honey, 

 delivering anywhere within five miles, at only fif- 

 teen cents a pound. Our honey is mostly basswood 

 and golden rod. 



A word with "Novice." Do you use a ladder for 

 the bees to climb from the top of the frames in 

 lower hive to the bottom of frames in super — the 

 space being about two inches. We can't saw the 

 box apart with a bevel after it is nailed together, as 

 you propose — we can't pass the corner; your hive 

 and bottom being both beveled, when you move 



forward to enlarge the entrance the back part of 

 the hive raises up, and leaves a space open on both 

 sides, near the back end, large enough for moth 

 worms. How much cheaper, easier, and nicer the 

 Langstroth portico is than your lighting board, with 

 its hooks? How much easier to enlarge or close 

 the entrance with the entrance blocks than it is to 

 pry up your hive (for the bees will stick it fast) ; to 

 move it a little to enlarge the entrance, and then 

 have to stand on your head to see if the entrance is 

 'the size you wish? These opinions we form by 

 reading your article. L. B. Aldrich. 



Warsatv, Rice Co., Minn., Nov. 13, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Eisky Experiment. 



Mr. Editor: — Don't you think that we are too 

 generally given to sound our successes and laud our 

 actions as being mainly instrumental in the accom- 

 plishment thereof, while we ignore our failures and 

 the causes producing them ? Why we do so I know 

 not, unless it be that our innate selfishness is grati- 

 fied on the one hand, causing us to be more sociable 

 and communicative; on the other hand, our reverses 

 will cause us as it were to draw within ourselves, 

 making us more reticent. I have found as a rule 

 people do not like to expose their failures. If the 

 correspondents of our B. J. would be more particu- 

 lar in giving us the whys of their failures, we 

 might be able to guard, for instance, against such 

 seasons as the past. I knew in season last fall that 

 my bees would not do well, when they were put 

 away, from the fact that I was not able to overhaul 

 them. My practice is to take one or two frames 

 out of full hives, dividing the space equally amongst 

 the center combs, with the lower cells of the three 

 center combs empty for the bees to cluster in; 

 front entrance open three-quarters of an inch; 

 from two to four eightpenny fence nails under the 

 lids, according to strength of stocks, for upward 

 ventilation. I have hitherto found it quite suf- 

 ficient. My bees were put in the bee-house Novem- 

 ber 19th ; they had been then exposed to two weeks 

 frost with no upward ventilation, consequently the 

 combs were covered with frost and the bees on the 

 outside ranges of comb were then dead. The 

 change from the cold to the warm bee-house of 

 course thawed out the frost, causing dampness. 

 Bees in such a state become restless, eat honey, and 

 become gorged, not being able to fly out to dis- 

 charge their fasces, become diseased — in fact we 

 have the bee dysentery. The first thing I knew 

 the bees were clustered outside the hives, while the 

 floor was covered three or four inches deep. I 

 slipped back the cover about two inches ; that 

 answered very well for the large hive, but the 

 standard size would not be quieted. A tolerable 

 fine day coming, I had eleven of the strongest car- 

 ried out at night. The next day was too cool for 

 them to take flight. They came out, discharging 

 the fasces upon the hives, and at evening had gone 

 in and become quiet. This partial success gave me 

 hopes that I might save the balance, which still 

 remained uneasy, and in a few nights after I had 

 them all taken out and placed upon their perma- 

 nent stands. I knew that it was against all rule or 



