86 



THE AMERICA^^ BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct 



during which time there may be much done to 

 add to, or diminish from the otherwise natural 

 results, so the apiculturist may, at proper times, 

 by judicious stimulation, benefit his bees, or, by 

 trying to force nature against nature, do them 

 serious injury. 



From actual results we cannot claim, in our 

 experience, any great advantage for the double- 

 cased hives, over tight, single-cased ones. In 

 our opinion, the fact merely that a colony of 

 bees has one, two, or three walls on each side of 

 it is of minor consideration in successful out- 

 door-wintering. 



We have never lost any bees which were 

 managed in winter in accordance with the plan 

 herein partially indicated, and never have had 

 any of them to show signs of dysentery, but, on 

 the other hand, to come out vigorous in the 

 spring, ready to go to work. 



It is necessarily the case that during flights 

 in Manter many bees chill and never reach home ; 

 but there is little doubt that many such left 

 the hive under such impropitious circumstances, 

 because it was disease or death to remain longer 

 in the hive, and nature, the "kindest mother of 

 us all," thus secures to the remaining bees a 

 healthy home. 



In conclusion, upon this subject, we would 

 say that it it is one that requires more thought 

 than we have been able to give it, and we do 

 not feel extremely confident that we have even 

 stated all the main causes that have led to that 

 uniform success which we have had. 



Black Jack, Kansas. M. A. O'Neil. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Our Experience in the Bee Business. 



We liegan keeping bees in its rudest form, 

 that is in logs cut from the trees containing the 

 bees. Moved them direct from the woods to 

 our apiary. That was in the year 1847. The 

 swarms we put into common box hives. We 

 had good success for a time, getting as high as 

 168 pounds of white comb honey from some of 

 our swarms. Had "luck" until about 1854, 

 then we lost all the bees we had. And no 

 wonder, for at that time we knew but precious 

 little of the interior of a bee-hive. But you 

 must not think we knew it at the time, for at 

 that time we thought we were smart, (like most 

 all beginners,) and knew about enough. For 

 we knew there were two kinds of bees in a hive, 

 drones and workers, for we had seen them. But 

 as for a queen, who ever thought of such a thing 

 in a bee-hive. But since, we have found out 

 that there is an important bee in every swarm 

 of bees, some call it a king and some a queen. 

 But a king could not run domestic affairs so 

 well, so it must be a queen. At any rate not 

 having as many such bees as we had bee-hives, 

 we did not have as many swamis as we thought, 

 only hives instead of swarms. Well, we soon 

 stocked up again, box hives of course. But we 

 soon adopted the Langstroth hive, and have had 



bees ever since. Our success has been since 

 then controled by the care given to the bees. 

 For only one year in that time, twenty -six years, 

 did the seasons fail to give a surplus of honey, 

 that was the year '69. It was very wet and a 

 total failure. Out of 201 swarms in the summer 

 we lost fifty-two, during the year we lost 176, 

 so we had only twenty-five to start with in 1870, 

 increased them to eighty-four. Next year 1871 

 had seventy to start with increased to 128, got 

 extracted honey, 15,000 pounds, comb honey a 

 little over lOOO pounds. In spring of 1872 had 

 about eighty swarms, increased to 126, got 

 about 7,500 pounds honey, mostly extracted, in. 

 1873 began with seventy-two swarms, got a 

 little over 5,000 pounds extracted honey. Have 

 taken good care of them this year. Increased 

 them to 353 swarms. They are nearly all in 

 a good wintering condition. We will take from 

 heavy ones and give to light ones, and make all 

 strong. 



We winter in cellars, and find that when we 

 take time to get all of the swarms ready for 

 winter, and put them away as they should be, 

 all works well. But we had a great deal of 

 other business to see to, and have almost always 

 neglected to take care of the bees, only just 

 when we could rob them of their honey. But 

 we are in shape now to give the bees and the 

 bee business the necessary care. We keep our 

 bees in two places, two and a half miles apart. 

 In one place we have 160 acres of land and in 

 the other 235 acres, all of which we intend to 

 work for the interest of the bees, in cultivating 

 such crops as will pay independent of the bees' 

 and also pay in honey. In that way we make 

 it pay well. We first got the Italian bees m 

 the year 18G2. We paid Mr. Langstroth $20 00 

 for a queen, express $2.75, cost us $22.75. She 

 was a good one, and it was money well laid out- 

 We have had the Italians and natives side by 

 side for eleven years, and find the Italians to be 

 superior to the natives in several respects. And 

 in final results a great deal the best bee. That 

 is, one with another they get by far the most 

 honey. We have been weeding out the natives 

 this year, so next year we hope to get entirely 

 clear of them. 



As we keep only pure Italians in one apiary, 

 and raise queens in that apiary, we have found 

 that to give the bees the necessary care, 

 with fifty swarms of bees a man can make 

 more ready money from them than from an 

 eighty acre farm, for they work for nothing and 

 board themselves ; and the expense is a mere 

 trifle compared with other pursuits, and profits 

 of each. We have another good place to keep 

 bees, and intend to stock that up also next year, 

 and will make a thorough business of the bee 

 business. 



The market for honey is increasing from 

 year to year, so we think there is no danger of 

 overdoing the business. J. & I. Crowfoot. 



Hartford, Wis., Sept. 9, 1873. 



