1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



275 



credited with the river and ocean steam palaces 

 of to-day. Mr. Langstroth made a great im- 

 provement, but he does not assume perfection. 

 He says, on pager 106 of his book, "I would, 

 however, utterly repudiate all claims to ha-ving 

 devised even a perfect hive." This is consistent, 

 and if another makes a still further improvement, 

 he is of course entitled to credit, and a ]iatent if 

 he wants it. All have the privilege of preferring 

 Mr. Langstroth's hive to any other. If somebody 

 finds one he considers nearer perfect, let him 

 prefer that. 



Let us have peace. *If we have the good of 

 bee-keeping at heart, instead of all dollars and 

 cents, we must sto}) quarrelling about honors, 

 and work for the good of all. I hope to do so. 



M-. QuiisBY. 



St. JoMsville, N. Y. 



* Certainly, let us have peare. There need be "no 

 quarrelU)ig'u.\>o\\\. liouois;" aud laborinif to ascertain liistoii- 

 cal I'acts is a very efficient mode of " working lor lUe good 

 of all."— Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



More Pacts and Fancies. 



So far as my limited time would allow for 

 such purposes, I have made some experiments 

 and observations in the bee business the past 

 season, and though I have developed nothing 

 new or strange, I propose to give some of my 

 experience, as such things from others are al- 

 ways interesting to me. 



EXPERIMEKTING. 



Seeing a new settler, who had built a new 

 house too late in the season for plastering, lining 

 the walls with a thick pasteboard-like paper, I 

 believe the idea struck me that it would make 

 an excellent lining for a hive, as I had seen 

 something about paper hives. I immediately 

 procured some of it and put a lining in two 

 hives, leaving a hollow space of one inch between 

 it and the board sides. It looked very nice, and 

 I thought I had a good thing of it. I also made 

 movable sides of paper for a hive, into which I 

 transferred a colony, being too impatient to 

 wait for the swarming season. To my surprise, 

 the little rascals commenced gnawing away the 

 paper sides and throAving it out in chips like 

 sawdust. I first thought that it was not possible 

 for them to cut through such solid stuff ; but on 

 examination found holes through both sides 

 nearly as large as my hand. I had to remove 

 them and- put in boards. But what should I do 

 with the two new hives with paj^er linings ? If 

 I put bees in them, they would soon eat them 

 out, and a fine place for moths it would be. 

 Putting boards in its place would make the 

 chamber too narrow. Seeing some china mat- 

 ting around an old tea-chest laying by, I thought 

 that would be too hard for their teeth, and the 

 quickest way to remedy it, would be to tack 

 some of this over the paper, which I did. I 

 have put in swarms, and they .seem to do well so 

 far. I have since seen it stated that this paper 

 will become damp and fall to pieces. I will 

 watch the result, but make no more paper hives. 



THE QUEEN YARD. 



Being anxious to prevent swarming in some 

 of my colonies, I made and applied to two hives 

 what Mr. Quinby calls a queen yard. It an- 

 swered the purpose of keeping the old queen 

 with wing clipped, from going off with the 

 swarm. 1 think it probable, as some corre-a 

 spondeut states, if the queen would try to get 

 Out she could. I saw her come out into the yard 

 on two occasions, and soon re-enter the hive ; 

 but she made no attempt to get over the sides of 

 the yard. The swarms, of course, returned to 

 the hive. The "swarming fever" would get 

 very high, and it lasted for several weelcs ; and 

 althougii sujiplied with a large amount of sur- 

 plus box room, they wovild neither build comb 

 nor store honey anything like in proportion to 

 their numbers, but lay idle in their boxes, wait- 

 ing for a young queen to hatch. The hive must 

 be carefully examined once a week, and ail 

 queen cells cut out. It is a nice job to examine 

 a large hive teeming with its thousands of in- 

 habitants, and be sure to get every queen cell. 

 I tried to be particular, but one day I found the 

 old queen and a fine large well-matured young 

 one lying dead in the yard. I could find no 

 young queen in the hive, but several cells nearly 

 matured, one of which I allowed to hatch and 

 supply the hive with a queen. Then the swarm- 

 ing fever ceased. The other old queen Avas also 

 lost, but I could never tell how. She may have 

 crawled over the sides of the yard, trying to fol- 

 low the swarm, or the bees may have killed her 

 and carried her off. I allowed a young one to 

 mature and hatch, and supposing she was doing 

 well, did not examine for some time, and then 

 found the colony queenless and without brood. 

 Whether lost on her bridal trip, or whether she 

 went off" with a swarm, I could not tell. 



By the way, I never knew a queen with wing 

 clipped, suffered to remain in a hive over twelve 

 or fifteen months ; sometimes destroyed in fall 

 or winter, too late for drones. How is it with 

 others ? I applied these yards to my 



QUINQTJEPLEXAL, DUPLEX, COMBINATION HIVE, 



an account of which I probably ought to give. 

 Well, I have made no big thing of it. April 

 21st, transferred a rather weak colony to it. 

 With a division board in and a little stimulating, 

 they did well, and I added other frames of 

 comb. June 4th, gave them their full comple- 

 ment of frames, by adding four frames full of 

 brood, and soon after put on the side boxes. 

 Swarmed .June 19th, and again June 25th, each 

 time returning. Clustered in the side boxes, but 

 did not make much honey in them. When six 

 boxes were nearly full, I put the top boxes on, 

 (capacity about 3.") lbs.,) going upon the prin- 

 ciple that the more box room you gave them, the 

 better they would work in them. They imme- 

 diately entered the top boxes and commenced 

 work, but did not make another inch of comb in 

 the side boxes. This does not prove that they 

 will work in the side boxes in prefei-ence to the 

 top ones ; nor do I take it as conclusive evi- 

 dence to the contrary. — Became queenless, and 

 ceased to work in boxes, but filled up the combs 

 in the body of the hive, some of which I emptied 



