THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



105 



shoemaker's pegs, so that they can be 

 taken oil" easily with the hand. Close the 

 ends -with slats A inch square witli spaces 

 as in top and bottom, put on with pegs 

 also. 



The vacancies should correspond with 

 those of the frames. Boxes can be put 

 on top of each other. One tilled with 

 phoney and bees should be raised up, and 

 the empty one slipped under and left un- 

 til the bees work in the lower comb. 



The advantages are : the conveniences 

 of taking out the honey, and the perfect 

 view of the whole inside without the use 

 of glass. I had two boxes tilled the last 

 season 10 lbs. each, would have had more, 

 but had only two swarms to start with, 

 and that in the latter part of 3Iay. 



W. W. MOOKE. 



Gillett's Grove, Clay Co., Iowa. 



Reply to Dadant. 



Dadaut, in the March No. of the A. B. J., 

 says : In the last convention of the N. B. 

 K. A., a few bee-keepers have fired at the 

 importation of bees. He says, A. Bene- 

 dict was the first to begin the fire, and 

 says, he (A. B ) said that he supposed that 

 there were hybrid bees in Italy. Upon 

 reading this, I wrote to him (mt) to know 

 on what he had based his supposition. 

 But in his answer he could give nothing 

 definite. He had seen so called imported 

 queens, that were undoubtedly impure ; 

 and then says, but f(n- himself (meaning 

 me) all the imported queens he had re- 

 ceived were pure. Now if D., will read 

 my letter again, he will see that I did not 

 write him that all the imported queens I 

 received were pure, l)ut far from it. If I 

 am any judge, I have received queens, im-. 

 ported ones, that produced one and two 

 banded workers ; and I have received 

 queens that would produce queens, that 

 if mated with black drones would pro- 

 duce a majority of three banded workers; 

 and I have received queens, if there pro- 

 geny mated with black drones they would 

 produce a majority of black bees. Now, 

 fi lend D., why is this? If one is pure, 

 so is the other. i 



If 1 am not much mistaken, our friend 

 D. iu an article written a few years back, 

 for one of the Bee Journals, claimed that 

 there was a great difierence in the color 

 of the bees in ditlerent districts in Italy, i 

 He claimed that the dark ones were ! 

 claimed to be the best bees; the light 

 colored not so good. I sent friend Dadant I 

 some money a year or so ago, requesting 

 him to procure me a queen that produced 

 as light bees as could be found in Italy; 

 but he failed to go, and sent back the I 



money. The best and lightest colored 

 bees I ever saw, were produced from one 

 of six queens purcliased of S. B. Parsons, 

 Flushing, Long Island, several years ago. 

 Parsons had imported a full colony from 

 Italy; this colony was carried over the 

 mountains on mens' shoulders. Undoubt- 

 edly this colony was selected for its bright 

 color. The above ciueen produced workers 

 almost white; the drones were of a dark 

 red_ color; to stand a few paces from the 

 hive and look at the bees, they appear 

 almost white. And the drones look as 

 if they were entirely black, but on close 

 inspection, tliey were very glossy and 

 redish in color. 



These bees looked very singular, bask- 

 ing iu the sunlight, in front of the hive, 

 the bees so light and the drones so dark, 

 they were readily distinguished, the one 

 from the other. I have never seen but 

 the one queen that procuced exactly such 

 bees. 



Now, my opinion is, that just such bees 

 can be found iu Italy. I am not down on 

 importing bees. But I am in favor of 

 a careful and judicious selection of the 

 queen. 



I hope friend Dadant Avill attend our 

 convention, and if we say anything that 

 is not right, he can there correct it, and 

 tell us all about Italian bees. 



Aaron Benedict. 



Bennington, Ohio. 



For the American Bee -TDiiriiul. 



How to Make Hives. 



For the benefit of those who do not 

 know how to make bee hives, and who 

 would rather make them than to buy, I 

 will try to give directions a? plain as I can. 



In the first place get your lumber dress- 

 ed on both sides to exactly I of an inch. 

 Use lumber just 1 2 inches wide for the hive, 

 the frames should run from front to rear; 

 tlie front and back boards are 12x10 with 

 a rabbett |x| across the ends, and |x| 

 across the t'lp edge for the frames, the 

 side boards are 12xl5i, nail on a | board 

 for bottom and clamp, and one with a | 

 clamp [ on top ] for cover. Have an extra 

 wide cover to shade the hive in hot weath- 

 er, make a stand four inches high, with 

 the front board slanting to form an alight- 

 ing board or "down step." 



The frames are 11x14, top and end bars 

 are 7-lG inches thick, bottom i,top bar is 

 15i long', ends lOi, bottom 14 inches long. 



For comb honey place a case six inches 

 deep fiat upon the hive, except that the 

 end bars are only five inches long, of 

 course the cover or honey board must be 

 removed and placed upon the super. 



