THE AMERICAJ^ BEE JOURNAL. 



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hives with l)('(>s and honey ; I have had to 

 use the extractor to keep them from crowding 

 tlie queens out of doors. Stoclvs in small 

 hives are preparinjj: to swarm, raising ([ueens, 

 drones, etc., while those with movahle divi- 

 sion boards, where we can give them i)lenty 

 of empty comb, seem to be t'ontent with rais- 

 ing lots of brood and lugging in the honey for 

 us to sling out. Have nuide some new stocks 

 and soon will have some more. AVe are hav- 

 ing plenty of rain, so that bees have all they 

 want to do to tend to their knitting ; but 

 yesterday was so diunp they could get no 

 honey from tlu^ tlo\VL*rs, so they pitcheil into 

 I'verything that had sweet to it, by thousands, 

 and were so cross one couldn't touch them 

 with a ten foot pole. 



On page 142 Wm. Morris asks, "are large 

 hives less liable to be atfected with dysentery 

 than small ones?' With our bees that died 

 otf in the spring of 'To, they did not get the 

 dysentery till they were reduced to about a 

 liint of bees, none of the stocks in large hives 

 having it, till weak in bees, or the small hives 

 either, for tliat matter. For my part 1 do not 

 think it makes nnich ditfercnce in the size of 

 the hive, if they have plenty of bees ; and as 

 U) the cause of the disease here, we think it is 

 to b(? laiil to the long continued cold rains 

 and winds, keeping the bees from breeding, 

 and what few were left iuul to gorge them- 

 selves so with honey to keep up sufficient 

 warmth, and then being conlined to the hives, 

 gave them the dysentery. 



D. D. Palmer (page U8) speaks of the ' in- 

 genious bent wire ' that Mr. Dadant uses to 

 secure franuis at the bottom of the hive in 

 shipping, but leaves us with our curiosity 

 unsatisfied. Friend Palmer, can't you give 

 us a description of it so we all can have the 

 benefit of it ? or is it a:patented article '.' If it 

 is, of course we'll fhave to pay for the nse of 

 it." 



M. Np:vins. Cheviot. Ohio, writes:— "My 

 ;>4 stocks of Italians are doing finely. They 

 have worked nxjre freely on red clover during 

 1 he past two weeks than 1 ever knew tliem to 

 do before. One swarm, from which I took 4 

 frames of brood in March. April, and May, 

 has now nuide oO lbs. of comb honey in the 

 small franu's, and ."iO lbs of extracted. This 

 liivejhas been weighed every day since the 

 4th iust., and on 4 of these days has made 4 

 lbs. per day of comb honey, and almost 

 entirely from red clover. 



I see some imiuirv is made through the dif- 

 ferent journals for a con\enient plan for 

 weighing. 1 have a fixture which is conveni- 

 ent. Take three strips of sawed stuff, 2 in. 

 wide by I14 in. thick, (or round poles will do) 

 and .s or ;> ft. long. 8have the top of each so 

 they will fit together when the lower enrls 

 are spread some ."> ft. apart. Fasten the toj) 



ends together with an iron bolt. Now you 

 liave a tripod. 41^ ft. from the foot fasten a 

 cross piece from leg Xo. 1 to leg Xo. 2 of suf- 

 ficient strength to bear the weight in the cen- 

 tre, of anything you desire to weigh. Across- 

 the centre of this cross piece attach a lever, 

 letting the inside end project just far enough 

 to reach past leg No. :j, fasten a cleat to i-est 

 the end of the lever on. Attach a ring to the 

 lever about midway between the cross bar 

 that supports the lever and leg No, 1]. Take- 

 a piece of rope, tie tin; two ends together and 

 you have it long enough to go under the hive 

 double and come up on each side near the top 

 ot the hive. Tie a spreader to the rope on 

 each side of the hive near the bottom to keei*- 

 the rope sufficiently spread on the bottom of 

 the liive. I nse a leather strap over the top 

 of the hive, and through the rope on each 

 side of the hive to hook the steelyard into so 

 that it can readily be adjusted by a buckh; to 

 the right length to just swing the hive clear, 

 when the lever comes to a horizontal position 

 and rests upon the cleat on leg No. 3, I fre- 

 quently leave the hive suspended there fron» 

 day to day. The outer end of the lever pro- 

 jects over the cross bar far enough to give 

 sufficient leverage to raise the hive easily by 

 bearing down on it. The ring on the lever is 

 for the upper hook of the steelyard. 



All bee-keepers will readily see the great 

 advantage of weighing a sample hive every 

 day so as to know just what calculation to 

 make about supplying additional storage 

 room etc. etc., without having to open and go 

 through the hives, which is always an inter- 

 ruption to them when storing honey rapidly. 



The above apparatus is a great convenienc<? 

 on a farm, and for many piu'poses aside from 

 weighing bee hives. 1 once had a lot of 40 or 

 50 beeves on the farm, which I desired to 

 slaughter. 1 nuide a tripod 12 ft. high with a 

 light tackle-block attached at the top, and a 

 pole accross two of the standards near the 

 foot with a crank on one end for a windlass, 

 Shoot down a steer in the lot or any place 

 where you could have a fair swing in the 

 ail-, set the tripod over it and with one hand 

 1 could lift it into any desired position for 

 dressing, or. raise it clear from the ground. 

 When dressed it could be run up out of the 

 way of dogs, to hang over night, or a wagoii" 

 backed under to take it away. This appara- 

 tus was made of tamarac poles and was so 

 light that a man could easily carry the whole 

 rig half i; mile on his shoulder. 



My hives all stand on little posts driven m 

 the groinid. one at each corner of the hive. 

 Old broom handles, sawed off s or 10 in. long 

 are sufficient if the groun<l is hard. Let the 

 hive come within 2 or o in. of the ground. 

 This plan affords no harbor for ants, spiders, 

 rotton-wood, lice^ etc., and is very nice, 1 

 bank u]i in the trout of my hives with coai 

 ashes, even with the alighting board, to keep 

 the grass and weeds down and giv(! the bee.'* 

 a smooth and easy i)assa>je. 



