236 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



without a few hives of bees. The pleasure 

 of seeing them toil, and in caring for them, 

 (to say nothing of their influence) is with 

 many people far greater than in the care 

 and observation of the habits of any of the 

 animals that are attached to the farmer's 

 house. Yet the knowledge concerning the 

 bee, and its care, is far less general than it 

 should be. A family of bees consists of the 

 queen, who is capable of laying from 2,000 

 to 3,000 eggs per day, many times her bulk; 

 the workers which are neither male nor fe- 

 male; and the drones, which are male bees. 

 When the family becomes too large the 

 workers take a common worker egg and 

 place it in a queen cell, or enlarge three 

 worker cells into one, and when the egg is 

 developed into a grub, they feed it a differ- 

 ent kind of food, and the result is a queen. 

 What that food is I believe is not known. 

 When there is more than one queen, which 

 an experienced ear can detect by the piping 

 sound they give, the bees do not appear to 

 do much else than keep the queens apart, as 

 they will destroj' one another, and if tiiere 

 chances to come two or three rainy days 

 in succession, they will destroy one; and 

 when the weather becomes fair raise 

 another. 



The old queen goes with the first swarm 

 of the season, and lives a number of years, 

 as I know from one that I had which was 

 disabled. The workers during the busy 

 season do not live on an average of over 

 two months, as once I tested by taking a 

 queen from a black swarm, that had been 

 hived ten days, and introducing an Itatian 

 queen. In ten days the young Italians be- 

 gan to show themselves, and in four weeks 

 there was not a black bee left. Their 

 method of calling each other, with the 

 power to lead where they can get honey, or 

 have found a new home, with many other 

 interesting things, must be omitted for 

 want of time. I have never failed to secure 

 a fair crop of surplus honey, by following 

 these simple rules: The hive should con- 

 tain about 1,800 square inches; if larger, 

 saw through comb and all, some cold day, 

 to make smaller. 



If the swarms are strong raise them from 

 the stool in winter not less than a half inch 

 on the side, least exposed to the wind, as it 

 will prevent their freezing to death. The 

 cause of their freezing is, their breath con- 

 densing, making the poor things look as if 

 they had come out of water, which is really 

 the truth. Plenty of air will always pre- 

 vent it. Weak swarms, or those with little 

 honey, should be turned upside down in a 

 cellar. Never use an old hive for a new 

 swarin, without first taking oif the top 

 board and planing it; also the inside. If a 

 swarm has not enough of honey to winter 

 through with, feed with good sugar, of 

 which take two pails to one of boiling 

 water; when cool put some empty comb on 

 the top of the hive, covering it \vith a top 

 box, after putting the liquid on, and opening 

 a hole for the bees to get to it. If bees rob, 

 close the aperture of the hive being robbed, 

 so as to admit of but one bee at a time. The 

 boxes for surplus honey, should be made 

 with four sides of glass; being very easily 

 made, and makes a neat package. Put in 

 the boxes pieces of comb about two inches 

 square; the bees will then have something 

 to start from, and you will have as many 

 combs as you put pieces. Put on tlie boxes 

 in the spring as soon as they begin to carry 



honey, if you would secure much from the 

 old swarms, and on the new swarms about 

 three days after they are hived. Boxes that 

 have been on a hive once must be taken 

 apart and thoroughly cleaned before using, 

 or they will not work in them.* The comb 

 is secured to the boxes by melting a little 

 beeswax and dipping the comb in it. To 

 remove surplus boxes I have found nothing 

 so good as two pieces of heavy sheet iron, 

 3 in. wide and 7 in. long; ]4 in. of one end 

 turned at right angles with the left; run 

 both under the box, leave one on the hive 

 the other draw off with the box; and not a 

 bee can escape from either. Plug the holes 

 with twisted grass, as it is next to impossi- 

 ble to get anything else out after they have 

 waxed it over.t 



Put the box with honey and bees in a 

 dark place letting in just a little light 

 which will enable them to find their way 

 out, and not back which they will try to do. 

 Do not examine them often when they are 

 storing honey, or they will stop. The box 

 covering the honey boxes should be well 

 made, and fitting the hive tight enough to 

 exclude light; but be sure to have them 

 well shaded in hot weather, or you will fail 

 to get much else but swarms, of which there 

 will be plenty. There should be at least 

 two thicknesses of boards over the surplus 

 boxes. In the treatment of them most 

 people have to be protected, so that they 

 can harm and handle them without ner- 

 vousness and fear, which always makes 

 them worse, or let them severely alone; 

 like many sinful sweets they carry a sting 

 behind; and most of us, as our worthy sec- 

 retary remarked last week, "have a world 

 of respect for a bee's business end," which 

 end he referred to, 1 do not know; perhaps 

 both, as both are busy ends occasionally. 

 With a yard and a half of mosquito netting 

 thrown over the head, and the sides button- 

 ed under a thin coat,t and a pair of harvest 

 gloves on, they will not attempt any busi- 

 ness transactions with you, for they know 

 they cannot. Marvin Snell. 



[* Unless some filth has accumulated in 

 the boxes, we doubt the necessity of clean- 

 ing them, and if the bees have before used 

 them, some bits of comb being left in, they 

 will be used more readily than new boxes. 



+ The holes may easily be closed by lay- 

 ing a block or bit of board on them. 



X On a hot day we should rather be ex- 

 cused from being buttoned up in even a 

 thin coat. All the protection needed is a 

 light veil ready to be pulled down whenever 

 the bees show anger, or for a timid person 

 it may be kept down all the time. Gloves 

 are much in the way, and bees will very 

 rarely sting the hands, even when angry 

 enough to sting the face.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Reply to Friend Roop. 



There you go, friend Hiram, off the han- 

 dle again. It was after 1 thought it strange 

 that you should contract for lOc. (and I am 

 informed you paid the freight clear to Cin- 

 cinnati and threw in the packages) that I 

 concluded to look the thing fair in the face, 



