98 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees and Top Boxes. 



Mr. Editor: — The present year has not been 

 a good honey-producing season in Massachu- 

 setts, and many bee-keepers have failed to in- 

 crease their stocks or procure surplus honey. I, 

 however, have doubled my stock, and obtained 

 honey enough for family use. 



I use mostly the Langstroth hive, of the pat- 

 tern made by W. W. Cary, of Coleraine, Massa- 

 chusetts, having a honey-board with H-inch 

 holes, and boxes of a capacity of about fifty 

 pounds. I prepare my boxes with a litrle empty 

 comb, but I find the bees are indisposed to as- 

 cend through these holes to the boxes to go to 

 work, and thousands and tens of thousands had 

 rather loaf than work under these circumstances. 



I madman experiment, to test their disposition 

 in this direction. In July last, there were sev- 

 eral colonies of Italians, strong in numbers and 

 rich in stores, all with boxes on the honey- 

 boards, but they did not work in the boxes. I 

 selected the weakest of these for an experiment — 

 a colony which lost its queen early in spring, 

 and ran down very low in numbers before a 

 new queen was raised and it began to replenish 

 its strength. From this stock I expected only 

 that it would repair its losses, and get in trim 

 for winter. I took from it one frame of honey, 

 removed the honey-board, and placed on the 

 frames six boxes without bottoms, which just 

 covered the top of the frames. The honey sea- 

 son was almost over, as it was about the middle 

 of July. The bees ascended to the boxes at 

 once, and soon began to work. They filled 

 three of the six boxes full, and one more nearly 

 lull, while seven other colonies by their side 

 s'ored but one box. This experience proves to 

 my mind that bees do not like to ascend through 

 small holes to the boxes, and will not work un- 

 der such circumstances with any zeal or in any 

 great numbers. 



The common plan of setting the surplus boxes 

 on honey-boards places great obstructions in 

 the way of the workers, and greatly rttards 

 their operations. Look at it, and think ! The 

 entrance to the boxes is from twelve to twenty 

 inches from the entrance of the hive. A bee 

 comes in, loaded with honey, which it wishes 

 to deposit in a box. The combs hang within 

 half an inch of each other, and the hive is full 

 (it bees, which cluster on the combs everywhere, 

 blocking up the passages on every side. This 

 busy worker must crowd and elbow its way 

 slowly along as best it can. By and by, it 

 reaches the box, empties its sack, and turns to 

 make another excursion, but is detained again; 

 jamming through a moving, surging crowd, it 

 at length finds the door, and departs. Here is 

 a tremendous detention, and waste of time and 

 energy. What is wanted is some arrangement 

 by which all workers w T ho will can go to work, 

 forty thousand of them simultaneously. No bee 

 should be detained a moment from its work, 

 either by finding a crow T d blocking up its path, 

 or for want of room to work. 



This difficulty is mostly overcome in the Eu- 

 reka hive, by the Rev. Jasper Hazen, of Alba- 

 ny, N. Y. In this hive there are eighteen 



boxes, with a capacity of one hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds. They form, when all on, 

 a kind of square arch around the central depart- 

 ment, and are so made and arranged that the 

 bees can enter freely to the right and left, as 

 they pass into the hive, without going up over 

 the combs; and all the boxes communicate with 

 each other, so that a bee entering a box near the 

 entrance, for instance, can pass into any box of 

 the nest, or it can enter the boxes from any part 

 of the sides or top of the central department. 



The desideratum to be secured is, free entrance 

 to the honey-boxes and unobstructed passage- 

 way, so that all the workers who will can simul- 

 taneously go to work, storing honey in the 

 boxes. The Eureka hive secures this- I have 

 one of these hives, and am satisfied that it se- 

 cures the bees an opportunity to work in boxes 

 which is not afforded by any other hive with 

 which I am acquainted, if I except, perhaps, 

 one gotten up by Henry Alley, of Wen ham, 

 Mass. He has made an improvement on Lang- 

 stroth's hive, by which he encircles the central 

 department with a nest of twenty -five boxes, 

 and he says that, on the 12th of July last, the 

 bees were at work in all of those twenty-five 

 boxes. P. R. Russell. 



Bolton, Mass. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Requeening. 



Mr. Editor: — In the August number of your 

 Journal there is an article from "Kohler" on 

 requeening, some points of which he seemingly 

 does not understand as I do. He says that all 

 young bees raised in the fall, which will not 

 participate in honey gathering;, are merely con- 

 sumers, and therefore unprofitable for that sea- 

 son. I beg to differ with him, and will give the 

 reasons. I think many who have Italianized 

 their stocks have observed the fact that nucleus 

 colonies formed from black bees at the same time 

 that Italian queens are introduced in large colo- 

 nies, continue to have black bees long after any 

 such can be found in the large colony. Another 

 fact: put an Italian queen in a colony, and make 

 another queenless for a time, and the queenless 

 one will have black bees longer than the one 

 Italianized. This proves that the mortality of 

 bees is brought about by outside labor, and also 

 that the young bees hatched after requeening, 

 take the place of the old ones which engage in 

 field labor. So the question is not whether the 

 young bee will itself have time to gather honey, 

 but w T hether it will have time to take the place 

 of older ones, which will certainly go to the field 

 if released from indoor labor. This view makes 

 at least a difference of one month in favor of re- 

 queening, and I think any one who has had the 

 chance to observe the above facts will agree with 

 my view. Of course, if no queen was at hand, 

 or if the colony was much reduced, I would 

 break it up; but if still numerous, and a queen 

 is at hand, I would just as soon break up any 

 other stout colony that has a queen. 



We have had a fine season for bees, and our 

 best stocks are sw T arming as in spring. 



A. G. WlLLEY. 



Murfreesboro\ Tenn., Aug. 31. 18G8. 



