THE A-MERIGAN BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cost of Erocd. 



Mr. Editor : — I would like to get the opin- 

 ion of some who have experience with frame 

 hives, ahout the amount of honey it takes to 

 raise a thousand young bees from the egg till 

 they are capped over. 



My bees lost iu weight, from August 4th to 

 24tb, or in sixteen days, eleven pounds each, or 

 eleven ounces per day, viz : 



No. 1, with about 7,000 drones, 1H lbs. 



No. 2, with a young queen and 1,000 drones, 

 9 lbs. 



Nos. 3 and 4, with 5,000 drones, each, 11 lbs. 



They had gained, from July 2 to August 1, 

 over thirty pounds each, and probably had a 

 large amount of brood to feed. The number of 

 drones was estimated from the brood previous- 

 ly in the combs. From appearances outside the 

 hive, I should not have judged there were over 

 four or five hundred drones in each. From the 

 difference of two pounds, in sixteen days, in 

 favor of the hives with few drones, it would ap- 

 pear that the usual number cost the apiarian 

 two ounces per day, or twelve pounds of honey 

 for three months to each hive, besides the cost 

 of raising the brood, and the value of the 

 workers that might have been raised instead. 

 I will guess, till some one gives me reliable in- 

 formation, that it takes two pounds of honey 

 and pollen to carry one thousand young workers 

 through their first ten clays. 



The average weight of my stocks, deducting 

 hives, honey taken, &o, was 48-j lbs. on the 

 8th of August, and 37i lbs. on the 24th of that 

 month. On the 16th of November, when they 

 were put in the cellar, they weighed 25 lbs. 

 each. On the 29th of January, I weighed two 

 hives, the lightest and the heaviest, and found 

 they had lost 4| lbs. each, or sixty-eight ounces 

 in seventy-four days. The honey -boards were 

 raised one-fourth of an inch on small blocks, 

 and the entrance holes stopped with cotton. 



According to A. Brown's account of Winter- 

 ing Bees, in the Bee Journal, vol. 3, page 225, 

 his bees consumed in the cellar from 100 ounces 

 to 268 ounces iu 120 days, or from one to two 

 and a half ouuees per day. The amount over 

 one ounce a day, was probably used in February 

 and March, in raising brood. Now if any ob- 

 server can tell how much brood his bees had in 

 February and March, till they were set out, 

 counting fifty to the square inch, and how much 

 they lost in weight more than in the first half of 

 the winter, wc could calculate very accurately 

 what a thousand young bees cost. 



Last year, March 7th. my frame hive had 3G0 

 brood, some capped over when I set them out. 

 April 20th, they had no eggs or brood of any 

 age. They had lost two ounces a day from 

 Feb. 13th, or 8^ lbs. in sixty-seven days, leav- 

 ing 11 lbs. in hive. On the 1st of May, when 

 eleven days out, they had 1,300 bees capped 

 over, showing that liberty hastens brseding. If 

 it takes two pounds of honey to a thousand, a 

 hive that has 30,000 brood in the comb when 

 they swarm, as some have, besides as many 



previously hatched, to make two stocks, they 

 must have used 120 pounds, perhaps half 

 pollen. When the amount is known, we can 

 judge better how long to set our bees out, be- 

 fore we expect them to find houey — according 

 to the weight of hive, and what we could afford 

 to feed. 



Henry D. Miner. 

 Washington Harbor, Wis. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A New Style Langstroth Hive. 



Mr. Editor : — Several correspondents, iathe 

 Journal for April, describe hives wdiich they 

 have devised, claiming for them a large amount 

 of room for surplus honey boxes. Now I have 

 a new style of the Laugstroth hive, (I call it 

 the Laugstroth hive, because I use the Langs- 

 troth movable comb frames in it,) which has as 

 much, if not more, room for honey boxes than 

 either Mr. Quinby's or Mr. Hazen's. At any 

 rate all that is necessary to increase the box 

 room to any desired extent, is to make the cap 

 large enough to cover all the boxes that can be 

 placed about the brood chamber. I have so ar- 

 ranged the frames that the boxes, when in, are 

 only three-fourths of an inch from the brood 

 comb; and, by removing the honev-board, they 

 can be placed half an inch nearer the brood, 

 thus giving the bees a clear passage to them. 



The hive is simply this— a brood chamber 

 seventeen inches deep by fourteen inches from 

 front to rear, and nine inches from side to side, 

 is placed on a movable bottom board. The 

 boxes are placed on the sides of the brood 

 chamber ; and, if desired, can be placed on the 

 top also. The frames run crosswise of the hive, 

 and not from front to rear, as they do in all 

 other movable comb hives. As the boxes are 

 on the sides of the hive, it will be seen that 

 when the bees return from the field, they will 

 not have to crowd up through the combs to 

 reach the boxes, but can pass up the sides of 

 the hive, and enter any box they wish to. I 

 use thirty-six three pouud boxes on this hive at 

 one time, and place them only on the sides. I 

 consider that this number of boxes is enough 

 for a stock of bees at one time, and do not use 

 any on the top, as the full ones can be taken off 

 and replaced by empty ones. 



This hive winters bees well on their summer 

 stands ; and, as it is double, it needs no protec- 

 tion from the weather, summer or winter. Bees 

 in this hive did not cluster on the outside dur- 

 iug the hot weather we had at the last of June 

 and the first of July, last season. 



I will not describe this hive more minutely 

 now ; but will do so at some time when I have 

 cuts to illustrate it. 



H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass. 



There is scarcely a village in the country 

 that might not readily keep as many hives ot 

 bee? aa there are dwelling houses in it. 



