120 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



the last ten years we have not exper- 

 ienced the least bit of trouble in this 

 direction. In fact I have to take ex- 

 tra care and make extra preparations 

 to induce swarms to issue in order to 

 get what young queens we need to 

 maintain our quota of hives. This 

 year out of 45 hives only five cast a 

 swarm. Whether or not this is due 

 to my strain of bees I do not know, 

 but I judge not, as the queens I buy 

 from time to time conform to this 

 same habit. We give plenty of room 

 for a queen to lay in during swarm- 

 ing preparation time, some shade to 

 the hive and ventilate by raising front 

 of hive half an inch or more. We 

 also give plenty of surplus room above 

 with sections or full frames for ex- 

 tracting. 



We have had considerable trouble 

 this season to get our queen cells to 

 hatch. We drove some three miles to 

 procure a number from a bee-keeper 

 friend. They were cells taken from 

 a hive that had swarmed and combs 

 lifted out and placed in the hive when 

 on the old stand, and remained there 

 for nearty a week. We took great 

 care in removing them and getting 

 them home .without jarring, but not 

 more than one third of them ever 

 hatched when placed in neuclei or 

 queen cages. We gue&sed that the 

 trouble was want of heat in the old 

 hive after the swarm had left and the 

 combs placed in the new hive with 

 but few bees to keep them warm. 

 We think to procure a good queen it 

 requires n high temperature from time 

 of egg to the hatching out of the bee. 

 Yours truly, 



Chester Belding. 



Middletown, N. ¥., July 10, 1894. 



THE BEST SIZE OF HIVES FOR USE IN 

 RAISING COMB HONEY. 



I see by the press of late that the 

 old questson of "size of hives" is 

 being revived. Although old, this is 

 yet an important subject and one that 

 the thinking mind will not put '"care- 

 lessly aside, for in this question lies 

 something that touches the financial 

 side of our pursuit to an extent great 

 enough to make it an object for us to 

 spend upon it some thought and ex- 

 periments. 



When I first began to keep bees, like 

 nearly every one else, I adopted 

 the hive used by those around me. 

 This was the ten- frame Langstroth 

 hive. Soon after this I became ac- 

 quainted with the writings of Elisha 

 Gallup, who figured largely in the bee- 

 keeping literature of twenty- five years 

 ago, and after an experiment of two 

 years, I changed from the Langstroth 

 to the Gallup hive, and am still using 

 the Gallup frame in my home yard. 

 Twenty-five years ago, Quinby , Lang- 

 stroth, Gallup, and nearly every one 

 else recommended a hive holding from 

 2,000 to 2.500 cubic inches, and sup- 

 posing that such size was the best for 

 profit 1 made my Gallup hives to hold 

 twelve frames, this giving about the 

 same room there was in the Quinby 

 and Langstroth. 



Of course it is to be understood that 

 this article is written from a comb 

 honey stand point, for at the time I 

 commenced keeping bees and for some 



