60 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



From the New York Agriculturist. 



Bidwell Brothers' Experience in Bee- 

 Keeping the Past Season. 



Our aim ia the past season was to got our bees 

 into frame Lives, and Italianized, and lo secure 

 the largest possible amount of surplus honey. 



Ad-vantages of Frame Hives. — In frame hives 

 witli straight combs the bees are completely 

 under our control. If one stock is in need of a 

 queen, bees, bee-bread, or honey, it can be sup- 

 plied from one having an excess, and the condi- 

 tion of both be improved; a large gain can be 

 made in this way. In swarming, a comb from 

 the old hive containing honey and brood can be 

 given to the new swarm, keeping them from 

 Hying away and giving them a good start. We 

 are confident that at least one fourth of all na- 

 tural swarms in this State, usually the largest 

 and best, fly off and are lost. Drone combs 

 may be removed and worker combs given in- 

 stead, thereby increasing the yield one-fourth. 



To avoid the raising of black drones, early 

 last spring we removed the frames, containing 

 drone comb from twenty -five stocks, and twenty 

 Avhich were not used in raising Italian queens, 

 yielded nearly one third more than an equal 

 number with drones. Indeed, all stocks that 

 contain a large proportion of drones, yield com- 

 paratively very litiie, or often nothing. At the 

 commenx;ement of the season we had two hun- 

 dred and four stocks — ninety-seven of which 

 were in the Langstroth frame hive; sixty-six 

 were in square "Quinby" hives. Early in the 

 spring we made one new swarm out of two old 

 ones, as follows: After driving out the queen 

 with a majority of the bees, Ave placed them in 

 a frame hive on tlie stand of the old one, and 

 removed the pai'cut stock to the stand of another 

 stock which Avas removed to anew place. After 

 twenty days, if the stock last removed had be- 

 come populous and the season was fair, if it 

 was in a frame hive, Ave sAvarmed it, leaving 

 the ncAV one on the stand, placing the old one 

 in place of the one previously sAvarmed, remov- 

 ing that aAvay. If in a board or straAV hive we 

 droA'c out all the bees for a ncAv stock, and where 

 the combs in the old board or straAV hives were 

 straight worker combs, Ave cut them a trifle 

 larger than the frames and crowded them in 

 and gave them to the ucav swarm. The balance 

 of the old combs containing lioney, we strained 

 by breaking them up and placing tliem in a Avil- 

 low basket Avhich Ave set over a barrel and left 

 until all the )\oney ran out. The usual method 

 of rendering honey by heat ought to be dis- 

 carded. The scraps of Avax Ave placed in a 

 gunny sack and immersed them in a kettle 

 of Avatcr, under Avhich we kept a fire until 

 we thought the Avax avus all out, Avlien Ave let 

 the fire go down; and Avhen the wax on top 

 had cooled, we removed it in a solid cake. As 

 soon as the new SAvarms Avere full and populous, 

 we placed on our honey boxes, which are tight 

 open bottom boxes, six inches high and wide, 

 and eight inches long, holding Avhen full about 

 ten pounds. Four of these just, cover our hives, 

 each of which we place over four one-inch holeo 



two inches apart, on the honey board. If the 

 queen has plenty of room for laying, we remove 

 the honey board and place the boxes on the 

 frames. To enable us to ascertain Avhen the 

 boxes are full, we bore an inch hole in one side 

 of each, over which, inside the box, Ave place a 

 small bit of glass, secured Avith tacks. When a 

 box is filled v/ith honey, we iuA'crt it and place 

 over it a pane of glass cut to fit, and have a box 

 that will ship to any part of the country, and 

 thus secure the largest price in places where 

 honey is scarcest. When the box is emptied, 

 the purchaser has a box of some practical value 

 "for other purposes. 



The advantages to the bees are, they can 

 better secure their combs, are not disturbed as 

 in glass boxes by the heat of the day or coolness 

 of the night, Avill go up into them earlier in the 

 season and remain later. We are satisfied our 

 bees Avill make much more honey in them than 

 in boxes the sides of which are glass. After 

 our boxe-s were nearly filled, in the case of popu- 

 lous stocks, Ave raised up the honey boards 

 with the boxes, under Avhich and over the hive 

 Avc placed large boxes Avithout top or bottom 

 containing empty frames. In these the largest 

 possible amount of honey can be stored, which 

 Avill be of the best quality and may be sold in 

 bulk or by the single frame. Having become 

 confident that drones Avere the great cause of a 

 portion of our stocks refusing to Avork in boxes, 

 Ave resolved to remove all the drone combs from 

 our hives, and wishing to remove all our black 

 queens, being satisfied one Italian stock was 

 worth tA?o black ones, we removed all the combs 

 out of every hive, transferring them into clean 

 liiA^es, and also taking away all crooked combs. 

 We thus reduced the number of our stocks from 

 four hundred and one to tAvo hundred and fifty- 

 six, giving each an Italian queen and killing 

 all black queens. 



Bees have generally done poorly in our State 

 this season on account of wet weather. Our 

 statement for this year is as folloAVs: At the 

 beginning of the season we had 



97 swarms black bees ia frame hives @ $12 $1,164 



06 " " " board " @ $S o2S 



41 " " " straw " @ $8 328 



204 $2,020 



One year's interest at 10 per cent, on value bees 202 



" " " " " hives and appa- 

 ratus 120 



$2,342 



At the close of the season the account stands: 



7,021 lbs. honey sold in frames @ 25c $1,755 25 



3,117 " " " boxes, composed of dark 



and unsealed honey @ 23c 761 91 



2,0S0 lbs. on hand in boxes @ 30c 894 00 



810 " strained honey, 2d quality @ 22c 17S 00 



1,419 " " 1st " @ 25c 354 75 



10,347 lbs. $3,899 11 



252 lbs. wax® 35c 88 20 



250 swarms Italian bees worth $5,120 00 



$9,107 31 

 Deducting above amount 2,342 00 



Leaves profit $G, S05 31 



Wax produced l)y bees Ibragiug on buck- 

 wlieat blyssoms, is always of a superior quality. 



