112 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



We will have a stone trough 3x5 feet with 

 bottom covered with i)ebl)les, and a water 

 vessel so arranged that the water in the 

 trough will stand just high enough for the 

 bees to alight on the pebbles and sip the 

 water. Also a zink pan 8x7 feet, 1)4 inches 

 deep, with lath lx>4 inch, standing on edge, 

 every 3 inches across the bottom of the pan, 

 so that when there is flour one half inch 

 deep in the pan, the bees can get up on the 

 lath to fake wing. The trough and pan will 

 be on a car that can be run into the bee- 

 Iiouse when the weather is unsuitable, out 

 of doors. 



We extracted the honey from the combs 

 fonr times during the season. Four persons 

 can take the combs out of the hives, extract 

 the honey and put it in barrels, at the rate 

 of 1500 Ihs. per day, and put the combs in 

 the hive again easily. Onr extractor is one 

 of our own make, and will take 4 combs at a 

 time. The can is stationary. Next year we 

 expect to have the machine arranged so that 

 the honey will run into the barrel as ex- 

 tracted, which will enable us to take out 

 2,000 lbs. per day. Our hive is the Langs- 

 troth Double IStory, 30 combs. 



P. W. McFatkidge & Son. 



Carthage, Indiana. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee Items. 



I notice in the ^Nfareh No. of the Journai. 

 an article on niunbering hives. I agree with 

 Mr. Wilson, and think it very necessary that 

 every hive should be numbered, and its 

 stand numbered to correspond, especially if 

 the bees are wintered in doors. I once con- 

 cluded to change the location of my nucleus 

 hives by setting them out in spring directly 

 on their new stands. They had been in the 

 cellar about four weeks and I thought would 

 not remember their old location. But I soon 

 found out different. The hees, in returning 

 to their hives, all went back to their old 

 stands, and I was compelled to set their hives 

 back again on the old stands. Now if there 

 had been other hives sitting on these 

 nucleus stands, I would surely have lost 

 all my nucleus swarm, as the bees would all 

 have went into the hives that were sitting 

 on their stands, and I should not have 

 noticed it; but as there were none there I 

 noticed the bees flying about hunting for 

 their hives, and I moved them in time to 

 save them. 



I raised an Italian Queen in a nucleus, 

 and as soon as she became fertile and lay- 

 ing, I attempted to ijitroduce her to a queen- 

 less stock in the farther end of the Apiary. 

 I caged h(r and waited the usual time, then 

 examined them but they would not accei^t 

 her. 1 kept her caged eight or nine days, 

 feeding her every day myself, but tliey 

 would not receive her. So i coiu'luded to 

 open the cage and let her out ou the comb 

 and see what they would do, but instead of 

 that, she took wing and was out of sight in 

 a twinkling. I st(')od still waiting for her to 

 return to the couih, but she did not come. I 

 gave her up for lost, but thought I would 

 look in her nucleus where she was hatched, 

 and sure enough. 1 found her imprisoned by 

 the bees, they liaving sealed (lueen eeil's 

 would not receive her. It has been said 

 that it makes no difference in sitting bees 

 out in spring if we do set them on one 



another's stands. • But I can't l>elieve it. 

 They will recollect their old stands a long 

 time, and it causes a disturbance among 

 them by having strange bees trying to get 

 into their hives. Besides a great many are 

 killed in entering the wrong hives, as they 

 ai'e taken for robbers. I have the entrance 

 blocks to my hives numbered and a corres- 

 ponding number on each stand. I carrying 

 my bees out of the cellar, I notice the num- 

 ber on the entrance block and set the hive 

 on its own stand. It is no more trouble or 

 work to set them outright, than it is to set 

 them wrong. "Have a place for everything, 

 and keep everyting in its place," 1 thiiik 

 should be applied to bees as well as any 

 thing else. J. M, Brooks. 



Columbus, Iiuliana. 



New System of Bee-Culture. 



"Coe's Apiary" is a Bee-House and Bee- 

 Ilives combined. The house is used as a 

 permanent receptacle, or summer and win- 

 ter stand, for the hives ; and is so construct- 

 ed, that the room containing the hives, is 

 i;)rotected on all sides by a series of dead-air 

 spaces. And, being warmed and ventilated 

 by the heat generated by the bees, the air 

 inside may. l)y the proper adjustment of the 

 ventilating Hues, be kept of an even temper- 

 ature — higher or lower as desired — quite in- 

 de^jendeiit of the atmosphere outside. 



It is not claimed specially for this system, 

 that It will produce fabulous amounts of 

 honey from individual hives, ininaturally 

 pushed for that purpose. But it is claimed, 

 that it reduces to a practical, well defined 

 method, all our present knowledge in bee- 

 culture ; by means of which, an average an- 

 nual product may be depended upon with as 

 much certainty as in any other branch of 

 industry. 



Among the many excellences of this sys- 

 tem the chief one perhaps, is, that It pos- 

 sesses in great perfection, all the conditions 

 necessary to wintering bees without loss, 

 with the smallest consumption of honey — 

 combining the desirable features of a sum- 

 mer stand antl special winter repository, 

 without the expense, labor, and trouble of 

 either. It is also specially adai)ted to the 

 necessities of bees during the changeable, 

 windy weather of early spring, when they 

 require a higher and even temperature to 

 facilitate breeding, and when the hives must 

 be frequently opened. 



As in winter the temperatiu*e of the room 

 may be kept above that of the outside at- 

 mosphere, so in sunuuer it may be kept b(>- 

 low ; thus protecting the bees from severe 

 extremes, both of heat and cold. 



Another valuable feature of this system 

 is. that it overcomes entirely that greatest of 

 all objections to bee-culture— the fear of 

 being stung. 



The hees adhere more closely to the combs, 

 and are less disturbed, than wiien a hive is 

 opened in the bright sun-light, and any that 

 do leave the combs lly directly to the win- 

 dow, and not into the face of the operator. 

 Veil and gloves are dispensed witii. and 

 visitors max stand l)\' and witness ail tlio 

 manipulations of a hi\c without the least 

 fear of l)eing stung. For all the operations 

 to be perfornu'd in an Apiary ; such as, 

 feeding, transferring, nuiking artificial 

 swarms, extracting, placing and remo\ing 

 surplus boxes, intnHlucing queens, queen- 



