56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



when left to themselves, in a compact mass 

 and shaped like an egg ; or to speak mathe- 

 matically, an oblons spheroid. Thirdly, 

 brood rearing in early spring, other things 

 being equal, tlepends on the temperature in- 

 side the hive. Fourthly, the brood must be 

 at that time of the year conform to the 

 shape of the cluster. For example, we will 

 take a frame say 10x15 inches ; lay it down, 

 n la Langstroth, and place your cluster of 

 bees on it. Now, 1 claim that if the cluster 

 preserves its normal shape the brood nest 

 will be nearer the stratum of cold air at the 

 bottom of the hive, than if the frame was 

 turned longest end u]i and down ; because 

 the bees will cluster in the highest portion 

 of the hive where the air is warmest. If 

 a cluster of bees belonging to me stays up 

 in the to]) of the hive where the air is warm, 

 and a similar cluster belonging to Mr. Bing- 

 liam spreads themselves out along the lower 

 portion of the hive, I don't believe that 

 even Mr. Bingham can ge< his bees to begin 

 rearing brood any earlier than mine will^ or 

 get more brood in the same time. 



I use a frame 12x12 and notice that my 

 bees, now in cellar, all get as high up in the 

 hives as they can. 



I have no doubt that for facility of hand- 

 ling the shallow frame is best ; but when 

 you have said that, you had better stop. In 

 the 12x12 frame I have struck, I think, be- 

 tween the extremes and can handle it easily 

 enough. R. J. Coi.BUKN. 



Chicago, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Some Items. 



If perchance somebody had been peeping 

 tiu'ough the cracks of our tight board fence, 

 about the last days of June, they might 

 have seen that yoiir humble servant was not 

 in a very pleasing mood, but was a fine sub- 

 ject "For Blasted Hopes" (see Gleanings in 

 IJee Culture.) And now we will try to tell you 

 what had'ruftled up our feathers. We 

 couldn't make those golden yellow-jacket 

 bees work in boxes. We determined in 

 April, that we would build up a given num- 

 ber of our stocks, so that their hives should 

 be running over with b< es by the time fruit 

 trees were in bloom. We did so, selecting 

 Italians, blacks and hybrids, as our apiary 

 contains uliout her equal number of three 

 banded blacks and hybrids. 



In May we had 3.3 swarms, so we built up 

 20 by removiu ■; brood from the rest, such as 

 could spare any. By the time white clover 

 T> If, -^ned our 20 swarms were ready for the 

 boxes; so we put them on— and now mark 

 the result : llylu'ids and blacks entered 

 them and commenced work immediately. 

 But those goklen beauties (as some one calls 

 them) preferred to lay out of doors. A few 

 l)ees would go into each box, and some of 

 them started small pieces of comb, always 

 building it upward and some built up and 

 down at the same time, making miserable 

 work. A black bee would have been 

 ashamed to turn out such a job. 



Sonu' one may say, this is no fair test. 



Well, for the last three years, our apiary 

 lias been stocked with the same kind of oees, 

 and the great bulk of our Honey has been 

 stored by the li\ brids and blacks, while all 

 luive rccciviHl tiu' same care and attention, 

 and for box honey I will give more for a 



black or Italian queen that has mated to 

 make a first cVoss, than for a pure Italian. 



And yet I do atlmire them and honestly 

 believe that they will store considerable 

 more honey than blacks, providing the ex- 

 tractor is used exclusively ; but Inuist have 

 bees that will store box honey, for you know 

 that is my hobby. 



Some one may say, your hive are not right 

 or the boxes are not adjusted so tliat the 

 bees can enter them without much trouble. 

 Our frames are 12xl2X ; we use from 8 to 13 

 in a hive ; we use glass .5x7 inches for ends 

 and tops of box scant 3^ inch thick for bot- 

 tom. We get pine lath dressed to 3-1(3 thick ; 

 we cut them to length, and put them on the 

 edge in mitre box and saw down ^and split 

 out the piece. After they are nailed on the 

 bottom you have 3 slots 5^' inches long 

 ^ wide "in each box. Our frames drop 3-K5 

 or nearly J4 Itelow the top, and wlien we put 

 on boxes, we lay on a strip 3-16 on top of 

 frames, right through the center, and then 

 put on the boxes, resting on the top of hive 

 and strip. The bees can then get into the 

 boxes from any ]ioint, without a guide post, 

 and if any one has anything that is better, 

 and will give better results in box honey, 

 send it at once to our good old A. B. J. for 

 we want all the best plans we can get. 



SIZE OF HIVE FOR BOX HONEY. 



After using 3 different sizes of hives, re- 

 spectively >^, 10 and 13 frames, we have come 

 to the conclusion that lo frames suit us the 

 best, for box-honey. This size will accom- 

 modate 6 boxes, about 40 jiounds. We some- 

 times wonder why some writers to the Jouis- 

 NAT. recommend box room for a hundred and 

 fifty pounds all put on the hive at one time. 

 Exjierience teaches us that no ordinary hive 

 will furnish bees enough to work in "more 

 than G or 8 boxes from 40 to 50 pounds, at 

 any time. We will admit that possibly they 

 mi^ht enter a dozen boxes and build" more 

 or less combs in all of them, at the same, 

 time, but we prefer to have on just as many 

 boxes as they can fill. If the flowers are 

 yielding honey •> boxes will be filled before 

 they send out a swarm, but if you had 12 

 boxes on, you would have more or less in 

 all, but none filled; neither will it prevent 

 swarnung. 



When we hive new swarms in our 10 frame 

 hive, if we ha\e no combs to furnish them, 

 at first we put two swarms in each new col- 

 ony, about 3 or 4 days apart ; and put on 

 boxes when we put in the last one. The 

 first swarm furnished just bees en(mgh to 

 carry on the labors of the main hive, and 

 the last swarm will furnish bees for the (i 

 boxes, and all will have i)lenty of room. If 

 honey is plenty you may ox' ct two setts of 

 boxes filled, and a radii >; "■ irm the lirst of 

 August. AVe had swarms last year that 

 gave us 18 six pound boxes, and swarmed in 

 Augu^^t. 



As 1 said before, the Italians have a fash- 

 ion of building upwards, through the slats in 

 the box, and guicfe combs must run the same 

 way or your combs will be in all sorts of 

 shapes. We always get dark or fall honey, 

 broadside to the glass, fortius reason it looks 

 ^nuich better than t^|^a|.wise. 



Many articles in the Joiikxai,, from vari- 

 ous sources, aftirm that black bees amount 

 to nothing in comparison with Italians. This 

 ctu-taiuly has not oeen my exju'rience, and 

 sometimes I am ahnost led to ask, if they 

 give them an equal chance with Italians. 



