122 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec. 



lapse of from two to three days, one feels a 

 burning sensation at the place uf the sting. 



The wasps last year did my apiary great in- 

 jury, namely, after they were unable to get tlie 

 honey. With the bountiful yield I had the 

 other year, I gladly gave the wasps a small por- 

 tion of the honey, and allowed them to clean 

 the dead bodies of the bees destroyed, iu re- 

 moving the honey ; but when they began to 

 attack and murder the living bees, my feelings 

 toward these marauders changed. With almost 

 fabulous activity they surrounded the hives and 

 attacked the largest and finest bees, with won- 

 derful speed gnawed off the wings and tore 

 open the bees, for the purpose of getting at 

 the honey bag. They flew with their plunder 

 to a neighboring tree, and there consumed it. 

 C. J. H. Gravenhorst. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cursory Eemarks. 



In preparation for swarming, the colony los- 

 es from one to two weeks' lime in comparative 

 idleness. A large body of the colony clusters 

 upon the outside of tlie hive. This iu a season 

 when honey abounds in the fields. 



When the swarm has issued, the working 

 force is greatly diminished, and finds employ- 

 ment in caring for the brood that is to replen- 

 ish the hive. If, at the end of two weeks, or 

 about that time, a second swarm issues, the old 

 colony is much reduced in numbers, but must 

 wait for the product of the new queen, delay- 

 ing honey gathering, by the newly hatched 

 brood, one or two weeks more. 



This will carry us so near through the month 

 of June, as to bring us near the close of the 

 white clover honey harvest. This has occurred 

 during the period in which white clover blos- 

 soms have been most abundant. In the two 

 weeks spent in idleness, during the preparation 

 for swarming, thirty to fifty pounds surplus 

 might have been stored. The two weeks lost, 

 from the weakened state of the colony, thirty 

 to fifty pounds more is lost. If, from the room 

 given, there had been no disposition to swarm, 

 and the energies of the whole working force 

 had been given to gathering and storing honey, 

 instead of three colonies, and no surplus honey, 

 there would have been one colony, with 100 

 pounds surplus. 



This surplus would be worth $25.00 or $30.00. 

 The two swarms might be worth $10.00. 



The second year we have again 100 pounds 

 of surplus in one hive, six new swarms from 

 the other hives, amounting now to nine. The 

 third year the large hive gives again 1 00 pounds 

 of surplus, and the product of the other is 

 eighteen swarms, amounting to twenty-seven 

 hives. Suppose each old colony has made $2.00 

 worth of honey annually, as Mr. Quimby esti- 



mates, we have $26.00 of surplus, and twenty- 

 seven hives of bees. 



The fourth year we again obtain in the one 

 hive 100 pounds surplus, $30.00. Of the twenty- 

 seven hives, some three or four starved in the 

 winter. But twenty-three or twenty-four start 

 pretty fair in promise, and double their number, 

 forty-six or forty eight colonies. Twenty seven 

 was a large stock. Now the field is so full, 

 that but a very small number get enough for 

 winter, and three-fourths or nine-tenths of them 

 starvie to death. In some cases, I have known 

 the whole apiary to perish. 



If tiiere was a full supply for the twenty- 

 seven, sixty pounds for the breeding and win- 

 tering of each colony, (1620 pounds,) besides 

 ninety pounds for surplus for the nine old col- 

 onies, ten colonies in the large hives would 

 have gathered it, and given 1000 pounds, in- 

 stead of ninety poimds in surplus. 



Your coi respondent. Novice, writes, " Please, 

 Mr. Hayes, tell us how many of your patent 

 hives you have known tried, that didn't give 

 'ary' pound of nice box honey. You are a 

 minister, and sh(mld be fair. Now, you have 

 told the bright side of the story so long, is it not 

 right you should give us the dark side, too? 

 And, while we think of it, do you know of no 

 way by which large yields of honey could be 

 secured without using your patent hive?" 



I find the above extract in the American 

 Bee Journal for November, in a conimunica- 

 from Novice. Notwithstanding the mistake in 

 the name, its connection with the Eureka hive, 

 and with the ill-concealed prejudice of the 

 writer, leave little room for doubt that Hazen 

 instead of Hayes was meant. 



Novice's including his word " ary " in quota- 

 tion marks, " that didn't gi^e 'ary' pound of 

 nice box honey," didn't and " ary " have their 

 origin with Novice, and noi with us. Novice 

 asks for the report of the unsuccessful, as well 

 as the successful colonies, in our patent hive. 

 If we give such report, and in comparison of 

 the successful with the unsuccessful, to make 

 our subject clear, will he not say of this article, 

 that it IS " like all of Jasper Hayes's,' with a 

 view of calling forth inquiry in regard to his 

 patent hive. 



Answer: the first four colonies in my Eureka 

 hives, were placed in the hives in 1866 They 

 gave me what I thought a large surplus the firs.t 

 year, 1866. In 1867, they gave 500^ pounds of 

 surplus, and two of them gave two swarms 

 each. The honey was mostly white clover, and 

 sold for about $150.00. This same year. 1867, 

 I took ten empty hives to a neighbor, three 

 or four miles distant, and he placed in them ten 

 swarms of what he called Italians, at $5.00 per 

 swarm, $50.00. I took from the ten new swarms 

 something more than 300 pounds of surplus, 

 enough to pay $6.00 per swarm, and nearly five 

 or over lour dollars each for the hives. So far 

 worked vei-y well. Come to so greatly increase 



