8(3 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



Hi i 



Editor American Bee-Keerer, 

 Dear Sir:— Last November we left 

 sixty stocks of bees on their summer 

 stands, ten of them were in Falcon 

 chaff hives, twenty-five in single 

 walled hives with outside cases, pack- 

 ed between with leaves, and fifteen in 

 single walled hives with no outside 

 protection. A portion of the last 

 were double tiered with six to eight 

 frames in each tier or hive. All were 

 protected on top of frames with quilts 

 and absorbents of moisture, with pass- 

 age ways over top of frames. Out of 

 the 60,none of which had any attention 

 from that time until the first of April, 

 (as we were away from home,) thirteen 

 died. In putting on the outside cases 

 no selectionswere made but all were ex- 

 pected to be in condition to winter, aud 

 cases were put on promiscuously over 

 the entire lot. Now for the result or 

 percentage of loss between those in 

 chaff and closed hives and those in 

 single walled hives. The figures 

 showed that the entire percentage of 

 loss was about 21 per cent., and that 

 the loss in cased hives exceeded that 

 of the single walled by about seven 

 per cent, and I have had the same ex- 

 perience for the past three years of 

 which I have noted results. Had I 

 been at home and cared for them 

 during the month of March, when the 

 warm weather was, undoubtedly I 

 could of saved a number of them as I 

 judged some of the weaker had been 

 robbed and then starved. 



The weather here last fall was un- 

 favorable, being dry, so that my bees 

 scarcely made their living after clover 

 bloom in July — hence not many young 

 bees to go into winter quarters. Dur- 

 ing fruit bloom this spring the weather 

 was favorable and bees have built up 

 rapidly, and with the copious rains of 

 the past few days, the clover harvest 

 looks favorable. We have never had 

 any foul brood iu this locality, and 

 buy but few queens ; but for increase 

 save the queen cells from first swarms, 

 build them up upon the nucleus plan, 

 or jump the nucleus, when a laying 

 queen is obtained, with a strong stock. 

 We think this breeding of queens from 

 first swarms cells of great value in se- 

 curing a good working bee and im- 

 proving our stock and we find that our 

 bees excel in many points any pro- 

 duced from boughten queens. As to 

 excessive swarming we are not trou- 

 bled with that. We use the ten frame 

 Langstroth hive, leaving in usually 

 about eight frames in the fall, then in 

 in the spring take out all empty unoc- 

 cupied ones. Then as warm weather 

 advances, add empty frames from time 

 to time as brood rearing progresses, 

 looking well that the queen has empty 

 cells at all times until the clover bloom, 

 then out comes the two dummies 

 from the outside spaces and in goes 

 two empty brood frames near the mid- 

 dle, and on goes the supers with some 

 drawn out sections in it for bait. Thus 

 all that are in condition are treated, 

 unless I have some special stocks that 

 I desire to have swarm for increase, 

 those I leave with the dummies in, 

 and without supers unless the bees be- 

 gin to cluster outside, then give a lit- 

 tle more room by adding supers, by- 

 this mode of always keeping the hives 

 with plenty of open room. 



