THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



311 



six to ten before she deposits eg^s, inakiiip; 

 about eighteen days that tlie hive does no 

 brood reariuf? equal to one generation of 

 brood, and reducing the bees about tiiirty 

 thousand,— equal to a eoninion swarm. 

 Again, the young queen may get lost on her 

 bridal trip and eause another long delay to 

 raise another, which they cannot do unless 

 suiiplied with eggs and brood. The swarm 

 is liable to gootf: and last but not least they 

 swarm too strongly and leave the mother 

 hive verv weak. In this state I have seen 

 them swarm to death, and at the first swarm- 

 ing too. The artificial mode is not so ob- 

 ieetionable as the natural swarming ; but 

 has enough to discourage its use. I nuich 

 prefer the nuclei mode of increase, which 

 will give greater success than either of the 

 other two, and I should not deem my spring- 

 ing successful without it. The natural or 

 artificial modes need no description as they 

 have been so oiten explained in tlie books 

 and journals. 



First, as soon as your hives become strong 

 and honey is gathered, take the queen 

 out of the hive in which you wish to raise 

 queens. If one hive is not sufficient, use 

 another; after your cells are eight days 

 old, then cut them all out and put them in 

 a queen nursery to be hatched. If you have 

 forty hives, then put nine cells into your 

 nursery, (always keep one extra), or for 

 twenty hives, put in five cells. Start 

 new cells every week as long as you wish 

 to increase, which can be done while the 

 bees gather plenty of honey. As soon as 

 your queens hatch, begin at one end of 

 your apiary and talve one frame of brood 

 from each liive, as nearly capped over as you 

 can get it, with adhering bees (be careful not 

 to take the queen out), nave ready an empty 

 comb to replace the one you take out, and 

 if an empty comb, then give them a frame. 

 Continue "in this manner until you have 

 taken five frames of brood, then put them 

 in a hive and place them where you wish 

 them to remain; now get a queen from your 

 nursery; put the queen in a cage and intro- 

 duce her to the nuclei; let her remain for one 

 day, then let her out as (luietly as you can. 

 Contiiuu' this operation until you have gone 

 through all ycmr strong hives, and continue 

 this operation every week as long as you 

 wish to increase and the bees are getting 



Elenty of honey. The hatched queen will 

 e laying eggs; in from six to ten days the 

 brood will be hatching, and by this time you 

 will have a good swarm. The parent hives 

 are not perceiitibly weakened; your nuclei 

 has its hive half full of comb, and in a week 

 or more will be full. You have lost no time 

 in the old hive by the absence of a queen; 

 the loss of brood is not missed, the yield of 

 honey is not lessened, and it gives the comb 

 builders a chance, and your nuclei at the end 

 of two weeks is in Just as good a condition 

 as by any natiu-al or artificial swarming. 



But springing is now over. I have shown 

 you a successful path through winter and 

 spring, and have led you into suii>nier, now 

 while you are looking over your fi)ie lot of 

 honey and rejoiciiig over yf)ur success, I 

 will, "with one explanation to"follow. ste]) out 

 and wait until you feel like offering a 

 greater jirize for summering and falling. 



KXPI>ANATION. 



It is presumed that a large majority of bee- 

 keepers have a full knowledge from books 

 and journals, experience, etc., so that it 

 would be in vain for me to take up their 



time in telling them, in this essay, how to 

 start cells, rear (lueens, introduce them, also 

 how to increase them during fall (that is the 

 number of bees in a hive), Ikjw to tell a 

 (pUMMiless iiive, moths in a hive, amount of 

 honey and a thousand and one things, ne- 

 cessary in the management of bees tliat are 

 not at "all called for in this essay. 

 Louisiana, Sept. :30tli, 1876. 



Wintering Bees. 



AN ESSAY READ HEFOUE THE NATIONAL 



BEE-KEEPEKS' ASSOCIATION, 



OCT. 2(). 1870. 



My plan of wintering and springing bees 

 is to put two swarms into one hive. Have 

 two or more swarms near together, and in 

 this latitude about the first of October ar- 

 range them for wintering. Make an out- 

 side case large enough to pack with chaff 

 between. I use a frame 103^x14 in. long, 

 and make the outer case 8 feet long by 20 in. 

 wide and 22 in. high. Then I get out two 

 boards 13 in. wide and as lone as the case, 

 and place them on the bottom board and the 

 right distance apart for the frames to hang 

 in. The next thing in order is to prepare 

 thi-ee division boards— one to be used in the 

 middle between the two swarms composed 

 in part of wire-cloth, so as to give each 

 swarm the heat of the other. The others 

 are to be placed outside of the bees so as to 

 admit a good quantity of chatf at each end. 

 Make the entrances in the side of the hive 

 according to the position of the bees before 

 they are transferred. Also make a bridge 

 like this r-^ and place on the bottom-board 

 for the bees to pass out under. After the 

 bees are in, pack with chaff all around and 

 on top, with quilts over the bees and two or 

 three small sticks over the frames. 



It is generally admitted that strong stocks 

 winter the best, and this arrangement 

 secures all the advantages of strong stocks 

 and some that do not exist in single stocks; 

 as for instance, if one uueen is lost it is 

 very easy to unite the bees. They will breed 

 faster in the spring than if separate. In 

 using the extractor 1 separate them when 

 they crowd their quarters the next season 

 and remove the chaff at the ends and 

 division-boards when necessary, and allow 

 the packing to remain at the sides continu- 

 ally. Wm. H. S. Grout, 



f'oland Center, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Introducing Queens. 



Mr. Editor:— We notice in the Septem- 

 ber number of the Journal that Mi\ Da- 

 dant criticises quite severely the method 

 for introducing queenSj which* you publish- 

 ed from our circular, in the July number. 

 We are not offended at this, as criticism and 

 discussion elicit truth. The method that 

 yon, Mr. Editor, al)stracte<l from our cir- 

 cular was published for the benefit of our 

 customers and ourselves, and of course, was 

 and still is the best method that we know 

 of. In fact we do not hesitate to say that if 

 properly done (and the conditions are 

 simple), not more than one out of two hun- 

 dred queens will be lost. 



We do not claim to be the inventors of the- 

 method, as Mr. Quinby recommended it 



