Ib70.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



65 



[For tlie American Bee Joiirual.] 



Bee Letter from Middle Tennessee. 



Some weeks since, in company with a friend, 

 armed with a pint of strained honey and a bee- 

 box, we started for the edge of the cedars, 

 distant from my apiary, in a direct line, not less 

 than 2^ miles, whei'e we fonnd bees foraging. 

 We boxed and conrsed many, bnt fouiid none 

 that did not belong to my apiary. It was a very 

 warm day, and being wearied, without pushing 

 out a mile or two further, we returned home, to 

 renew our hunt in the fall. 



All the trees I ever saw, having bees in them 

 (and I have seen many) had the entrance hole or 

 crack on the south or southeast side. 



Native queens of colonies five miles distant 

 fi'om Italian stocks, in two instances that I 

 know of, mated with Italian drones. And in 

 this connection, speaking of distances, I will 

 mention the reception through the mail of two 

 Italian queens, accompanied by about one 

 dozen workers each, from Wenham, Massachu- 

 setts. Look on the map, and you will see it is a 

 long distance from here. 



Very little surplus honey has been stored here 

 this season, on account of continuous rains 

 during the spring and summer. Late swarms, 

 not fed, have gone up. I have endeavored to 

 keep my bees breeding, giving them relocated 

 small quantities of honey, and have succeeded 

 in doing so ; and buckwheat being now in bloom, 

 I hope to obta u a dividend for m , outlay and 

 trouble, leaving enough for the worthy laborers 

 when nature shrouds herself in snow. 



This is a great country to raise bees in, and I 

 would think more of them if they would swarm 

 less and store more honey. But swarm they 

 will, and they cannot be kept from it. Breaking 

 up an old hen from sitting when she has. fairly 

 made up her mind to sit, is an easy job compared 

 to keeping bees from swarming in this section. 

 Swarming commences in Middle Tennessee 

 about the 20th of xlpril, and becomes general 

 about the 5th of May. These new swarms often 

 cast a swarm in thirty days. Swarming is also 

 frequent in August if the season be a good one, 

 Our honey harvest is divided in two seasons — 

 the spring, embracing April and May ; and the 

 fall, embracing August and September. Very 

 little honey is stored outside those two dates, 

 except perhaps in the month of March, if the 

 spring is forward and fruit trees come in bloom ; 

 and in the month of October, if we liave a 

 favorable fall and frost is delayed. There has 

 been no fall of honey dew this year. 



Friend Novice's allusion to air castles in his 

 communication in the Bee Journal for August, 

 struck our flint. We read his communication to 

 our better half. "Don't believe a word of it ! 

 Do you think that's so?" Exclaimed she. "I 

 do. I have been following that Novice in print 

 some time, and always found him truthful," 

 Here's what's the matter. A spruce old aunt 

 was at our house a few days since, and something 

 was said about new dresses and the fall styles, 

 when our better half broke loose with — "Don't 

 expect to have anything new this year. Every- 

 thing we' vc made this year has been spent for 



bee-gums and paints ; and now the upstairs is 

 stored so full, there's no place for old carpets and 

 lumber. There's never been any money in that 

 here, yet, and I don't believe there ever will be," 

 &c., &c. H. 



Murfreesboro, Tenn., Aug. 8, 1870. 



[For the Americaa Bee Journal.] 



That Sliallow Form of Hive. 



Mr. Editok :— I see in the July number of 

 the Bee Journal, page 9, that,Mr. C. Rogers is 

 out on "the shallow Langstroth Hive." Mr. R. 

 and mi/ old friend Gallup are the only persons 

 that I "now recollect of, who complain of the 

 shallow form of hive, when wintered in a house 

 or cellar. Mr. Rogers saj^s it is not a "good" 

 hive "for the six or eight weeks between the 

 winter and warm weather," and leaves it thus, 

 without telling us why it is not. For my part, 

 I cannot see what the shape of the hive has to 

 do with the loss of bees in early spring. All bee- 

 keepers say that the bleak winds at that season 

 destroy a great many bees, regardless of the 

 kind of hive they may have been in. All the 

 pi-oof Mr. Rogers gives that this form of hive is 

 bad in early spring is, that "he has sometimes 

 thought that his hives contained less bees al'ter 

 being out a month or two, than when first put 

 out." Well, suppose it is so, is that the fault 

 of the hive? Every experienced bee-keeper 

 knows that when bees in any form of hive are 

 taken from their winter quarters, there is a 

 sudden decrea.se in numbers, from the simple 

 fact that many of them are old and ready to die 

 at any hour from sheer old age ; but having been 

 shut up all winter they live longer than they 

 would in tlie working season. 'Ilien, when taken 

 from their winter quarters and allowed to issue 

 in the open air, many of them never r'.-tain. 

 But is this the fault of thehive ? My experience 

 is that any form of hive, when wintered in a 

 cellar, will lose bees very rapidly when first set 

 out ; much more so than a colony that has been 

 wintered on its summer stand. I can account 

 for this in no other way, than that many of the 

 bees have lived to a good old age, and are ready 

 to die soon ; and a sudden change in the weather 

 being hard on them any how, weakens them 

 in numbers very fast. 



The Langstroth hive could be made deeper very 

 easily without Mi'. R.'s patchwork ; but would it 

 answer the purpose as well ? I have found no 

 other hive from which I can get the same results, 

 in surplus honey, as froin the "shallow" Lang- 

 stroth. Last summer I tried the experiment 

 with a hive with only six inches depth of comb, 

 adding one more frame (eleven instead of ten.) 

 The result was that I got some six pounds more 

 honey from that hive, than I did from the 

 common Langstroth hive, sitting witliin four 

 feet of it and the two colonies as near alike in 

 numbers as I could get them. Without doubt 

 the shallow form of hive is best for surplus 

 honey. 



Now a few words about wintering bees in the 

 Langstroth hive. Everything considered, I think 

 bees do somewhat better when wintered in a 



