American Bee Journal, 



DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEE CULTURE. 



Vol. XII. 



CHICAGO, JULY, 1876. 



No. 7. 



®xxx %3tc\xmxQts. 



GLEANINGS. 



Is as usual out in good time and in good 

 shape, but we cannot resist the temptation 

 to poke a little fun at Novice, who is so 

 free to criticize others, for advertising 

 amongst humbugs and swindles Gould & 

 Gillespie, and J. K. McAllister & Co. in 

 the year 1786. Why not make it a cen- 

 tennial affair by going back ten years 

 more? It may however be well to look 

 out in this century for these men. 



Hives. — Novice was formerly a staunch 

 advocate of the Langstroth. Then he 

 tried various things in the hope of settling 

 upon some standard size of frame which 

 all bee keepers would accept, as a com- 

 promise between the most shallow and 

 deep ; but a uniform size seems now to be 

 abandoned by most of its advocates as a 

 thing hardly attainable, (although they 

 have just commenced to agitate it in En- 

 gland). Novice now says : "We do believe 

 the L. frame is very soon to be the one of 

 all others." He advises making hives 

 with the heart side of the timber outwards 

 as the more they try to warp the tighter 

 will be the hive. 



Finding Queens. — G. M. Doolittle says : 

 "If the time of day is from one to three 

 o'clock, as a rule the queen will be found 

 on one of the outside brood combs, no 

 matter where the bees are thickest ; if from 

 seven to nine o'clock in the morning you 

 will find her on the center brood comb, or 

 if 6 to 8 combs are filled with brood, on 

 one of the three center brood combs. The 

 principle is that at from 1 to 3 A. M. the 

 queen is at the outside of the brood nest, 

 then returns to the center, getting there 

 about 8 A. M., and then continues on, 

 arriving at the opposite outside at about 

 2 P. M., then back again, getting on the 

 center comb about 8 P. M. Thus she 

 traverses the whole brood nest twice every 

 24 hours. This is when the colony is in 

 its normal condition." We should be 

 glad to hear whether others have verified 

 these conclusions. 



Thick Combs for the Extractor. — R. 

 S. Becktell asks about these and Novice 

 replies : "We have used thick combs with 



the extractor and have frequently advised 

 them. At the time we transferred our 

 American hives to the Langstroth, we 

 saved all the drone comb and put it in 

 frames by itself, and have almost every 

 season found these drone combs much the 

 most convenient when we succeeded in 

 preventing the queen from using them. 

 We can generally succeed in doing this by 

 placing them at a considerable distance 

 apart, being careful not to get them so dis- 

 tant at first as to allow them to build a 

 small comb in between. As the cells get 

 lengthened we can put them farther apart, 

 and we last season had one such comb 

 weighing, when filled, 11 lbs." 



Chaff. — This is Novice's latest hobby. 

 Not having succeeded to his satisfaction 

 with the House Apiary, he is now trying 

 oat chaff packed on all sides about the 

 hives. We shall look for the result with 

 interest. 



Comb Foundation. — He says : " We 

 are happy to inform our readers that we 

 not only have laid aside the movable type, 

 used by our friend Wagner, but have dis- 

 pensed entirely with beeswax; paraffine 

 being much cheaper, whiter, stronger, and 

 more rapidly worked by the bees. The 

 idea that the bees will not reduce the 

 thickness of the bottom of the cells is en- 

 tirely exploded ; no argument is needed, 

 for you can, any of you, test the matter in 

 your own hives." 



Bees and Flowers. — A London paper 

 says: "An interesting experiment is be- 

 ing made in the shipment of two nests of 

 humble bees, which have just left Ply- 

 mouth for Canterbury, New Zealand. 

 The principal object aimed at in the in- 

 troduction of these insects into the anti- 

 podes is the fertilization of the common 

 clover, the pollen of which the common 

 bee is generally unable to collect, while 

 the 'humble bee,' having a larger pro- 

 boscis and being much stronger, is able to 

 reach sufficiently deep into the flower to 

 collect the fertilizing dust. It is hoped 

 that by this means the plant will be more 

 generally fertilized, and its cultivation 

 largely extended in the colony. The bees 

 which have just left England for the anti- 

 podes were in two separate nests, which 

 had been procured by Mr. Frank Buck- 

 land, and packed in a suitable box, where 

 they were supplied with everything neces- 

 sary for the voyage, including honey, fa- 



