1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



218 



Produce. 100 lbs. of honey 



at 25 cents, $25 00 



100 swarms, at $5 each, . 50 00 



Net profit, 



or for each hive, .... 

 Now take the non-siDarmeri^. 

 One colony cost, . $5 00 

 One hive, " . 6 00 



$75 00 



47 30 



4 73 



-$11 00 



Interest on $11.00, . . . 

 ^'g cost of hive, .... 

 \ " " swarm, . . . 



Produce. 120 lbs. of honey, 

 at 25 cents, 



Net profit, . . . 

 or for 10 colonies. 



The swarmers give, . . $47 30 



" non-swarmers, . . . 288 80 



This is an immense difference in favor of the 

 latter. Bnt carry ont the calculation for ten 

 years, and look at the result : 



The 1st year tlie swarraer product; 



" 2d " " 



•• 3d " " " 



" 4lli " " " " 



" uth " " " 



" Gtli " " 



" 7tli " " " 



" Sth " " 



" 9th " " 



" 10th " " 



And besides this, each year should have added 

 to it the value of the new swarms, which is for 

 the second year $10, for the third $20, and so on 

 until the last year's produce should be $2421 70 



And the value of 512 swarms at $5 each 250 000 



$4981 70 

 Total produce of the non-swarmers, 



10th year, 288 80 



This is enough for me, as I expect to live 

 twenty or thirty years longer, and will therefore 

 make a few more swarms, while Mr. Hazen. be- 

 ing now over eighty, cannot look for many more 

 years of life and may do better for himself on 

 the non-swarming plan. H. W. S. 



Feb. 1871. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal.] 



Using Hives Without Bottom Boarls. 



During swarming time last summer I was 

 informed one day by the girl in attendance, that 

 she had no more hives witli bottoms, and no more 

 bottom-boards on which a super hive could be 

 set, to hive the sw\irms expected to come out 

 that day. Being then away from home seven 

 miles, it was too late that day to get the neces- 

 sary hives, and I concluded to make an experi- 

 ment by hiving all the swarms that came that 

 day in hives witliout bottoms. In the course of 

 the day four swarms issued, which united into 

 three. We removed three of the stocks that had 

 swarmed to new stands, and put a super hive 



without bottom on the old stand. These stands 

 have an opening in the rear, 3^ by 12 inches, 

 and this large space was left open as an entrance 

 for the bees. Of course I feared that the bees 

 would lose much wax by having the cool night 

 air coming in through so large an opening. But 

 on reijeated examinations, I found scarcely any 

 scales of wax on the ground, and the swarms 

 made remarkable progress in building comb and 

 storing honey, more so than some swarms quite 

 as strong which had been hived a number of 

 days before. Two of those swarms filled their 

 hives with nice combs and honey, and three ten 

 pound boxes besides, for surplus ; and the third 

 gave fifty-live pounds of surplus box honey. This 

 fact made it appear to me tliat, in hot weather, 

 bees would do better in hives that could be 

 cooled off by a large opening in the bottom. I 

 will, however, experiment more largely on that 

 point next summer. 



Number of Yards and Peet Contained in 

 iJifEerent Miles. 



I copy the above table as I found it in our local 

 paper a few days ago. It will, perhaps, serve to 

 explain the mystery how so large a number of 

 colonies of bees can be kept on a square mile in 

 some parts of the old country. It will be seen 

 that the Hungarian mile is the largest, the Swe- 

 dish and Danish the next, and the German the 

 third largest mile. 



A. Gkimm. 



Feb. 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal. 



War in a J'Tucleus House ! And other Items. 



Mr. Editor : — You occasionally want some- 

 thing to fill up your excellent Journal, therefore 

 I will give you and its readers some of my last 

 .summer's experience : 



On the first day of June last I formed four nu- 

 cleus hives to raise young Italian queens. On 

 the 23d of .luiie, I watched one of these nuclei 

 to see the young queen leave home to meet a 

 drone. At two o'clock in the afternoon she came 

 out, and off she went, four times in succession. 

 The fourth time she returned, she showed signs 

 of having met the drone. She entered the hive, 

 but came out again immediately, with two 

 worker bees after her. I heard her pipe twice, 

 and then she re-entered the hive. I watched 

 closely to see what would follow. In a few mo- 

 ments a bee came out, hobbling on its abdomen, 

 and acting as though it was stung. More bees 

 came out directly after, acting in the same man . 



