THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



139 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Sundry Suggestions. 



Mr. Editor : — In a multitude of counsellors 

 there is wisdom. I wish to make some sugges- 

 tions through the columns of your most valu- 

 able Journal, in reference to hives ; but if on 

 examination you fiud this communication in any 

 way objectionable, cast it among your waste 

 paper. 



My suggestions may perhaps be considered by 

 some as based on new and novel ideas, but the 

 present and the future will satisfy practical bee- 

 keepers as to their correctness. In my expe- 

 rience, (which I think has been considerable,) 

 with all the various patent hives, I find they 

 each have their objectionable features. The 

 bee-keeping public have not got what they need 

 in a way of a hive. There are certain known 

 principles in the business, which experience has 

 fully demonstrated may not be departed from ; 

 and yet by the inexperienced the dividing line 

 between principles and the highway to destruc- 

 tion is not perceived. There are some common 

 sense practical ideas that should be well under- 

 stood for perfect success. Among these is 

 prominent the fact that a swarm of bees, with- 

 out the means of appropriating the animal heat 

 generated in the hive, are in - a helpless condi- 

 tion, in that they cannot manufacture the wax 

 into comb, nor cause the eggs to hatch, nor the 

 brood to mature in a temperature of less than 

 70° F. (See Langstroth on the Honey Bee.) 



The difficulty that I wish to speak of occurs 

 in making artificial swarms; which are made: — 

 First. Because the bees will not swarm na- 

 turally when they should. 



Secondly. Because it is not economy to take 

 the rest of their swarming when their queen is 

 not present (as they frequently do) and go to 

 the timber. 



As a matter of dollars and cents, then, we 

 are driven to the necessity of making swarms 

 artificially, which mode I think is much the 

 best. When so doing, and in order to induce bees 

 to stay, we generally transfer one or two combs 

 to the new hive. But now comes the trouble 

 in all the hives yet invented. Take first the 

 Langstroth, which is as good as any in this par- 

 ticular. When the comb or combs containing 

 young bees and honey is so transferred, to- 

 gether with mature bees in sufficient number to 

 make the usual sized swarm, they are placed in 

 and up to one side of the hive (which is the 

 most economical to the bees for preserving their 

 animal heat,) and the bees will cluster to the 

 side of the comb in the open space. This leaves 

 on open space opposite the side of the comb 12 

 by 18 inches and 9 inches high, except that 

 which is filled by the bees clustering. The 

 bees cluster in that form for the purpose of gen- 

 erating animal heat, to keep ihe young brood 

 now in the comb (which is the full size of the 

 frame) from being chilled. This is a very un- 

 natural condition for bees to cluster in. The 

 animal beat so generated escapes into the open 

 vacuum to the side of the comb and against the 

 large flat surface of the hive. Its effect is thus 

 almost entirely lost to the bees, and hence arti- 



ficial swarms are inclined to linger when just 

 made. 



This lingering of artificial swarms has been 

 observed by many, and has caused some to my 

 knowledge to abandon artificial swarming, be- 

 cause, as they say, natural swarms always 

 flourish better than artificial ones do. 



To recapitulate. Our position is this, that if 

 you should have a thousand swarms of bees in 

 different kinds of hives, they would perhaps 

 without exception all go to the top of the hive 

 to commence building their combs dowmward. 

 This seems to be the most natural with them; 

 yet they can build them vertically up or down. 

 They seem to go to the top, not because of any 

 knowledge of duty or economy, but driven 

 there to obtain the benefit of the animal heat, 

 which always tends upward to the top of the 

 hive. And if the hive is made tight, it will ac- 

 cumulate there in sufficient quantity for the 

 benefit of the bees. But still the bees cannot at 

 times generate it in sufficient quantity and tem- 

 perature to fill the hive (when the bees first be- 

 gin) more than \ or | full — beginning at the top 

 of course and building downward. Now it 

 naturally occurs that if the combs are suspended 

 the full length of the hive, and from top to bot- 

 tom, that the bees in clustering against the side 

 of said combs are in an unnatural cluster, and 

 are unable to bring out their full effective force, 

 either in the building of comb or gathering of 

 honey, and hence they linger. In the American 

 hive it is still worse on account of the increased 

 depth of the combs. 



Further — the bee-keeping public need some- 

 thing enabling them to take the surplus honey 

 from the main hive without damage to the hive 

 and brood, and thereby get nearly double the 

 amount of surplus honey. They also want a 

 better and unlimited control of the combs for 

 various manipulating purposes, rearing queens, 

 &c. 



We want a hive from which combs, brood, 

 and honey can be taken in proper shape for the 

 purpose of rearing queens in nuclei, and re- 

 turned without loss of comb or bees when the 

 season for rearing has passed. Small combs 

 cut out and inserted in small frames) which is the 

 custom) are generally eaten up by worms or 

 otherwise destroyed ; and many of the bees 

 used in nuclei for rearing queens are generally 

 lost. Every pound of comb so destroyed costs 

 the owner from sixteen to twenty pounds of 

 honey. 



In the present advancing tendency of bee- 

 culture, most bee-keepers (at least the practical 

 part) understand that they must keep on hand 

 a supply of reserve queens for emergencies; and 

 that it is not economy to allow a fuil stock of 

 bees to rear queens. The nucleus system is 

 therefore a necessity. 



Query. With honey-emptying machines, 

 where the operator wishes to empty the honey 

 from apiece of comb containing also brood in 

 all stages, does not the rapid revolution at which 

 the machine carries the comb produce as it were 

 a breeze of air within the machine, and thereby 

 chill or otherwise injure the unsealed brood, 

 especially that portion which has only been re- 

 cently hatched V If so, we want a hive to meet 



