THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ble. Why not 'remove the honey as fast as 

 gathered, before it is sealed? We find the 

 most tedious part of the operation is shaving 

 off the caps of the cells. The honey is so nice 

 to ui c. or to keep, that we feel as if we hardly 

 wanted to use any more boxes. 



Though this article is getting- long, we will 

 not postpone what Ave have to say about our 

 long-neglected, hut not forgotten, Giantess. 



Well, we did get the bees down and into a 

 hive, all nicely, notwithstanding doubtful and 

 desponding surmises from a host of friends to 

 the contrary. We intended to cut the bee tree 

 in April, as a kind correspondent advised us to 

 do, as the tree v. as quite too large to let the 

 top down. Rut our business was such that we 

 really could not get time to think of or look 

 after them until the 25th of May. Then we got 

 our transferring tools all ready, and started 

 about five o'clock in the morning for the scene 

 of operations. By the way, we begin to think 

 ourselves quite an expert in transferring, not- 

 withstanding our first ludicrous attempt. We 

 have this spring transferred three heavy stocks 

 from box hives, and have done them all in tip- 

 top shape, and the bees are doing fully as well, 

 if not better than before. We did one in forty 

 minutes from the time of coming on the ground ; 

 all on the plan we gave last year — moving the 

 old hive back, putting the new one in its place, 

 cutting the comb out, and transferring just the 

 same as you would from one frame hive to 

 another, having plenty of thin pieces of pine 

 with small tacks in each end, all ready to press 

 down wdienever wanted. 



But we were on the way to the bee-tree, with 

 bee-hive, strips, transf'crring-board, tin pan, 

 &c., &c. It was a beautiful morning, a beauti- 

 ful location, and after a beautiful ride, we 

 planted our tools, w T hilc two beautiful choppers 

 plied their axes to one of the most beautiful 

 oak trees our wife's father possessed. Giantess 

 was certainly very obliging, we may remark, 

 to go two miles with her retinue and take up 

 her abode on the property of our relative 

 aforesaid. We directed the tree to be fallen, as 

 per advice from the Bee Journal, so as to 

 strike a couple of small hickories to ease its 

 fall ; and we succeeded so well that we could 

 take out almost every comb entire. After put- 

 ting the brood nicely into the hive, we ran the 

 bees in from a place near the opening where 

 they had clustered, as convenient as we could 

 have wished. But, Mr. Editor, there was one 

 I < tie trouble after all — Giantess teas not there ! 

 In her stead we found a host of gigantic queen 

 cells, and — what was stranger still — at least 

 half a dozen open, with the lids attached as 

 nice as could be ! Of course the bees had 

 swarmed, though the bee-hunter who found 

 them for us, maintained that they could not 

 possibly have swarmed, and still have such a 

 host of bees as we had there. But he did not 

 know Italians. They soon went to work, and 

 actually drove the robbers away from the old 

 tree and licked up the remnants and removed 

 them to the new hive. So well had they (and 

 we) fastened the combs in the frames, that we 

 carried the hive home in the evening without a 

 single accident ; and next morning, on looking 



them over, we found, not Giantess, but four of 

 her promising daughters, all in one hive, and 

 on peaceable terms, as far as we could discover. 

 Now, how is this to be explained ? They had 

 been together at least twenty-four hours, as we 

 had put no queeri cells whatever in the hive. 

 We divided the swarm into four parts to pre- 

 serve the queens, for whether hybrids or not, 

 we should be glad to find another queen that 

 could lay eggs and raise a colony at the rate 

 that our lamented Giantess did. And, Mr. 

 Editor, we hint it confidentially that we are 

 going to hunt her up again if it is a possible 

 thing ; and if we find her, we shall not wait 

 till the 25th of May next year before we go to 

 work, though black bees do not swarm for a 

 month later. 



We would like all the readers of the Bee 

 Journal en masse, to take a look at a two- 

 story Langstrorh hive of hybrids that we have 

 filling frames for our honey -emptying machine ; 

 and if the teeming thousands there at work did 

 not remind them that the novice of old was al- 

 most a novice now no longer, we should rest 

 content to sign ourselves, for all time to come, 

 simply Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Management. 



In an article headed " Criticism'' 1 in the April 

 number of the Bee Journal, by Mr. Quinby, 

 he calls for information, &c. ; and as I never 

 did make any charge for any information that 

 I could give, I do not propose to do so now in 

 this case. 



A number of years ago, I became acquainted 

 with an old gentleman from Holland, whose 

 name was Wellhuysen ; and I obtained the best 

 insight or instructions in bee-keeping from him 

 that I did from any other source whatever, un- 

 til I began using the movable comb hives. So 

 I propose to give his method of managing bees, 

 the kind of hives used, &c. The hive w r as made 

 of willows wove basket fashion, plaistered inside 

 and outside with a thick coat of cow manure, 

 and covered on tlie outside with straw tied on 

 with elm bark. The hive was small at the top, 

 and increased in size down from eight inches 

 to twelve inches in diameter. The portion 

 twelve inches in diameter was about fourteen 

 inches high. The entrance was a small hole on 

 one side, about eight inches from the bottom. I 

 used the hive some seven or eight years, to ex- 

 periment with. The hive was kept plaistered 

 up tight at the bottom. Now, put a very small 

 swarm in such a hive, it being small at the top 

 and warm, all the comb built would be worker 

 comb, and all occupied by brood as fast as built ; 

 and as warmth is necessary for bees to work 

 their wax, there was none lost or wasted. 

 Then, as the swarm needed strengthening, he 

 would drum out young bees from any hive that 

 could spare them, thus strengthening up by de- 

 grees. In filling hives with comb, he used 

 young queens ; and having only bees enough 

 to build comb as fast as the queen could occupy 

 the cells with brood, every hive was filled with 

 worker comb from top to bottom — except a few 



