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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



therein do a particle of harm. But one 

 thing I seldom neglect, which is, to keep 

 the dead bees swept up from week to 

 week, and removed from the cellar. This 

 prevents tramping on them, and thereby 

 avoids bad smells, or a tainted atmos- 

 phere. 



My hives while in the cellar occupy 

 but little room, as they are arranged in 

 tiers, five colonies in each tier, and the 

 tiers not more than six inches apart. 

 The bottom hive in each tier is kept 

 about a foot above the bottom of the 

 cellar. 



My hives are the "shallow things," 

 only seven inches deep inside the frames, 

 but I do not see but the bees winter as 

 well in them as in deeper ones, side by 

 side, and, in general, I think a little 

 better. But were it otherwise, I should 

 prefer to use such hives to deeper ones, 

 and for reasons too numerous to men- 

 tion here. I have now used the 7-inch 

 frames since 1876, the year I was keep- 

 ing bees in the city of Shreveport, La., 

 and 17 years' experience with them has 

 taught me that, whether North or South, 

 East or West, I would not use a deeper 

 frame. No, sir ; not if made a present 

 of as many hives as I might desire to 

 nse ! 



St. Charles, Ills. 



Bees Iffliiroviii£ Tkeiuselves, Etc. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



The second season after moving to 

 Iowa, I had occasion to go to Postville 

 on the stage. At Decorah we stopped 

 for dinner, and to change horses. I saw 

 a man in a back yard all bundled and 

 tied up from head to foot. As I ap- 

 proached to see what was up, he ordered 

 me away, saying that I would get stung 

 to death, etc. But seeing that he was 

 at work with bees, I still advanced, but 

 he said very excitedly, "You foolish 

 man ! I tell you to keep away from here, 

 or you will certainly get stung to death 1" 

 I remarked that bees very seldom stung 

 a fool, etc. 



On inquiry, I found that he was to re- 

 ceive $5.00 for destroying a very power- 

 ful colony that had been in a large hive 

 for a number of years, had never 

 swarmed, and had become so vicious and 

 strong in nu;ubers that it was danger- 

 ous to live in the neighborhood. 



Here was the largest honey-bees that 

 I ever saw, without an exception. They 

 looked as though they were a cross be- 



tween a common honey-bee and a bum- 

 ble-bee — large, light-grey, hairy bees, 

 with quite a flat and stubbed abdomen. 

 Their wings were more like a drone than 

 a worker, etc. The operator said that 

 they were vicious Italians. One thing 

 was certain, he went about the opera- 

 tion of destroying them in the most 

 awkward manner possible. ^ 



Now,fin this case, and all the cases 

 that I mentioned last week, were where 

 bees had improved themselves, especially 

 in size of colonies, working qualities, 

 etc. Thinking the matter over, and 

 dreaming of large bees, large hives, 

 large colonies, etc., for a long time, led 

 me to get up the large twin hive that 

 Mr. Doolittle mentions in one of his 

 articles. My standard hive contained 

 12 Gallup frames. My first large hive 

 contained 4 times 12, or 48 frames — 24 

 in front, and 24 in the rear. The bal- 

 lance of large hives that I made con- 

 tained 36 frames — 18 in each end. By 

 closing the passages between the two 

 apartments, I could work two colonies 

 in each hive, If my plan did not work to 

 suit. But I never worked two in a hive. 



My first and earliest natural swarm I 

 hived in the largest hive, confined them 

 to one end, and used a division-board. 

 As soon as they commenced building 

 drone-comb, I filled out with ready made 

 worker-comb, and just before basswood 

 bloom, opened the passage-ways, filled 

 up with comb, and spread the brood one- 

 half in one end and one-half in the 

 other. The queen was from my Grimm- 

 Hamlin stock, and extra prolific, and 

 she spread herself grandly in the laying 

 business. We had the best and longest 

 basswood bloom that I ever saw, and I 

 took from that hive, by extracting from 

 one end one day and the other end the 

 next day, 600 pounds of honey in 30 

 days — not by actual weight, but by 

 measure. It was so thick and matured 

 that it all candied in short order, that I 

 took out that season. I took in all about 

 750 pounds for the season, besides what 

 was left in the hive, and it was left com- 

 pletely full. This was all the product 

 of the bees of one queen. 



The following season none of my large 

 colonies swarmed, but all superseded 

 their queens. Their queen-cells were 

 extra large, and contained extra-large 

 queens, with the largest auiount of royal 

 jelly left in the cells that I had ever be- 

 fore observed. Now, you had better be- 

 lieve Gallup " hollowed " and swung his 

 old hat ! He had got a non-swarraer, a 

 great honey-yielder, etc. You could 

 hear him from Maine to California — 



