THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



131 



My bees have done well this season. I am 

 yet skeptical as to the general success of the Ital- 

 ian bee. I hope more from the northern China 

 bee and the bee of "All the Russias," or the 

 Russian bee, enduring the excessive cold of that 

 Empire as it does. But that is too large a ques- 

 tion to discuss now. 



S. J. Parker, M. D. 



Ithaca, N. Y., Nov. 14, 1868. 



[For the American Bee Journal. ] 



Various Itemsj 



Will Mr. Gallup please tell us how many 

 frames of comb his bees made, with the size of 

 frames, as I am also just commencing in bee- 

 keeping, this being my third season? He says 

 he had thirteen stocks, and increased to thirty- 

 five. My object was also an increase of stocks, 

 and I would like to compare results. 



I commenced with ten stocks, one being 

 queenless in April, and failing to raise a 

 queen all summer until September. I had at 

 one time fifty swarms, besides losing ten or more 

 that left for the woods. All had fertile queens. 

 I will here remark that every swarm raised its 

 own queen, with three or four exceptions, and 

 that forty of the young queens, more or less, 

 were from five to seven weeks old before I 

 found eggs or other evidence that a fertile queen 

 had been raised. Also, that my bees, early in 

 the spring as well as during the honey harvest, 

 and later during the drought, started and raised 

 only one queen at a time, with the following 

 exceptions, viz : One stock started thirteen; two 

 started five; two started three, and five started 

 two. My old stocks also — those from which I 

 had taken four or five frames of brood weekly to 

 make new swarms with, and to furnish brood 

 to such as failed to raise queens at first trial, 

 (and they were not a few,) and likewise to sup- 

 ply all young swarms till their own queens be- 

 gan to Lay — would have swarmed naturally if I 

 had allowed them to do so. 



I made new swarms as long as I had combs 

 to furnish them with. Then I kept up the 

 young swarms as long as there was honey in 

 any of their hives. It was a hard struggle for 

 either young or old stocks during August and 

 September to keep house. They seemed to de- 

 pend for their daily supply on an acre of buck- 

 wheat, sown about the first of June. It looked 

 a good deal as if I had overdone the thing. I 

 started to make ten from one as I did the year 

 before. Acting on the adage "nothing venture, 

 nothing have," I would not give np as long as 

 there was a chance of success to bring me out 

 all right 



acre of borage, but August and September 

 were so cold that it failed to bloom, and witli it 

 failed my last hope. 



The season being over, the following is the 

 result : An increase from nine stocks to twenty- 

 eight, with an abundance to winter, but no sur- 



of comb which they had to mend, patch, and 

 join to the frames. Lastyear I had an increase 

 of forty-five frames from the old stocks win- 

 tered. I have not the least doubt that if I had 



let those hives that furnished tip- 1 stormy 



new swarms, furnish the brood, and let the 

 others furnish the bees, the result would have 

 been a great deal better. It will be seen from 

 the above that, if the result is not up to expec- 

 tation, it is still satisfactory. 



I will also state the following observations ot 

 my hives: The double ones, facing south andin 

 the sun all day, did the best. The double hives 

 facing north, and the single hives facing south, 

 and set so that the sun shone on them all day 

 long, did next best. Double hives in the shade, 

 facing north or south, amounted to little or 

 nothing. And with regard to the time ot 

 flight of bees, from single hives or double, there 

 was not much difference between those facing 

 the same way. As regards the amount of bees 

 that can be taken from a hive, I will only say 

 that I generally moved a swarm once a week; 

 but one swarm I moved twenty times in three 

 months, and it gave bees enough to cover from 

 four to six frames most of the time. In that 

 case I would divide the young one in the 

 course of eight or ten days. 



Referring now to the article " Criticism,''' 1 on 

 page 188 of the April number ot the Bee Jour- 

 nal, " How to make all swarms equally p-os- 

 perous," I would ask, can it be done? Can a 

 man breed his cattle so that his cows will all 

 give even quarts of milk or the same number of 

 pounds of butter, or all weigh even pounds in the 

 scales? I think not. He may, with twenty or 

 more swarms greatly increase their average 

 yield; but there will still be a marked difference 

 between the individual hives, as there would be 

 between the product of his cows. I think tha 

 nearest to such a desirable result that can be 

 reached will be by judicious feeding and stimu- 

 lating during the spring to get strong stocks 

 early; and during August, or a dry period, to 

 have strong stocks on hand for fall pasturage. 

 This, and keeping the queens of about an asre, 

 and the removal of uuprolific queens, is all that 

 can be hoped for. 



WINTERING BEES ON THEIR SUMMER STANDS. 



Mr. J. T. Laugstroth says :— "Experience 

 teaches that there will not be found wanting 

 those who are ready to make indiscriminate at- 

 tacks upon anything and everything which has 

 our name connected with it — but those who 

 will "prove all things, and hold fast to that 

 which is good." In reference to his mode of 

 wintering, would it not be better to take off the 



legs ; cut off the portico, leaving it just two 

 On the^ 2011^01^ July 1^ planted &\\ I inches deep ; nail a half inch strip all around 



the bottom "under;" then place the hive in the 

 large outer case of his glass observing hive, al- 

 tering the entrance to suit ; knock off the cover, 

 and nail a rim or frame so that the cover will 

 fit the case like the cover of a pasteboard box — 

 making it convenient to pack the carpet and 



plus to take away; and an increase of one hun- | rags around the front, back, and sides" and on 

 dred and sixty frames of comb, each one foot the top ? It being already protected by three 

 square—an increase of lGh frames for each old ■ inch bottoms with two dead-air spaces, it needs 

 stock, besides this, I transferred sixty frames I no further protection there. How much more 



