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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



scarcely a better fix, for the nursing 

 bees are left to crowd it, and the pollen 

 gatherers will not store the bee-bread 

 away from the brood nest, but near to 

 the larvfe to be fed ; and as they will 

 gather more than can be used in rear- 

 ing the limited brood that can be hatch- 

 ed in so small a space, the comb soon 

 becomes j)acked full of it. The bees 

 will remove the honey from the cells in 

 the brood chamber to make room for it, 

 and the bee-keeper will be j^leased that 

 his boxes are being so rapidl}^ filled. 

 But the bees swarm. Not a bee is left 

 in the boxes. They are taken off", full 

 of honey perhaps. He looks into his 

 brood chamber, and what does he find? 

 Somewhere he finds a few patches of 

 brood mixed in with cells full of bee- 

 bread, and perhaps the greater part of 

 the comb stuffed full of bee-bread, — 

 there is bee-bread everywhere, enough 

 to feed a hundred thousand larvtie, in- 

 stead of the few thousand that they 

 have left cradles for. The melipult 

 will not extract it, and perhaps it is left 

 in during winter, excluding the weak 

 colony from the cells, and they have to 

 live as best they can between the cold 

 sheets of pollen, or more likely entirely 

 die out before spring, from cold and 

 starvation. 



This j^icture is not overdrawn, for 

 every experienced bee-keeper has seen 

 hives in that condition, without being 

 aware of the fact that it w^as the fault 

 of the hives, and not of the bees. 



A Member. — What is the shape and 

 size of the hives you use. 



Adair. — The hive should be long, and 

 as wide as the length of the frames. — 

 The frames to set in it crosswise. If 

 the frames are large the hive need not 

 be so long. The entrance should be at 

 only one end. This is inqjortant. But 

 there should be two holes, three-eighths 

 of an inch by three inches, and about 

 five inches apart. The brood nest 

 should be in the middle of the hive, and 

 in no event should the bees be allowed 

 to fill the hive, so as to reach either end, 

 for as soon as they do, they will double 

 back the honey and crowd the brood 

 nest. 



Murray. — Will a queen that lays so 

 abundantly live long? Will she not 

 soon become exhausted ? 



Adair. — She will not live long. At 

 the end of the second season she will 

 likel}^ be worthless. The ovaries of the 

 queen have the germs of a certain num- 

 ber of eggs in them, and, when they are 

 laid, no more can be produced, and she 

 should be superseded whenever she be- 

 gins to decline in fertility, for when she 

 begins to fail, preparations will invaria- 

 bl_y be made for swarming. 



Murray. — What do you gain then if 

 it shortens the life of the queen? 



Adair. — You gain a great deal. A 

 hive so managed produces as much in 

 one year as, under the swarming sys- 

 tem, it might produce in four or five^ 

 and it is but little trouble to have young 

 queens to supply the places of the old 

 ones. 



A Member. — In Avhat shape do you 

 get your surplus honey; in the comb or 

 extracted. 



Adair. — Some of both ; but coml) hon- 

 e}' is the most pi'ofitable, and the bees 

 will make more dollars' worth of it, in 

 most seasons, but he would not be with- 

 out the melipult, as it could hardly be 

 dispensed with. 



A Member. — How do you get your 

 brood nest in the middle of the hive ? 

 Will the bees locate it there? 



Adair. — The bees will locate it as near 

 to the entrance as they can. In the 

 hive he uses, the frames are closed at 

 top, bottom and sides. He can hook 

 together any number of them, closing 

 the ends with glass in the summer, so 

 that the hives can be easily examined. 

 In winter, he closes them with straw 

 or shuck mats. He hooks together, at 

 first, enough to accomodate the bees- 

 with room for a few days, and until the 

 brood nest is established. When the 

 bees fill them too near either end, he 

 adds more on the ends to give room for 

 the workers and in the centre to enlarge 

 the brootl nest, and afterwards, as oftea 

 as demanded, so that the queen never 

 Avants for room, nor the workers for 

 space to biiild comb and store all the 

 honey they can gather. 



A Member. — How long is your hive? 



Adair. — At first he thought that a 

 hive three feet long would be sufficient, 

 but found it too small. He then made 

 them four feet long, holding thirty-two 

 frames ten by thirteen inches inside. — 



