86 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



may be lowered and queen-cells 

 looked for by hand mirror between 

 the bottom-bars of the frames. 2. In 

 a double brood chamber, lifting the 

 back part of the upper half and 

 looking for the queen-cells between 

 the bottom bars. 3. having a slot 

 between two horizontal bars in one 

 of the combs on which cells will be 

 built. By treating only those colo- 

 nies that are preparing to swarm, 

 the loss of morale will be further re- 

 duced and the work of treatment re- 

 duced, and spread over a longer time. 

 Out of eighteen colonies that were 

 requeened at the central apiary by 

 the system method described above, 

 four swarmed or attempted to 

 swarm. It was found, however, that 

 in three of these cases there was a 

 third queen-cell that had been 

 missed when the cells were de- 

 stroyed, and in the other (attempt- 

 ed only) a drone pupa was found in 

 a third queen-cell. When the white 

 honey crop was removed in early 

 August ten colonies out of the 

 eighteen had young queens and 

 brood on both sides, four on one side 

 only, and four on neither side. In 

 some cases virgins were run in in- 

 stead of cells left or given, and in 

 four cases the old queen was placed 

 in the top super, with a separate en- 

 trance. Out of these four colonies 

 two failed to requeen on either side. 

 It is a question whether the old 

 queen is worth keeping unless she is 

 a particularly good one, except for 

 maintaining morale. 



Honey Produced at the Central 

 Apiary, 1919, Spring Count 



Six 10-frame hives, 2 queens, win- 

 tered in cellar, requeened by system, 

 average yield each, 189 pounds. 



Eleven 10-frame hives, 1 queen, 

 wintered in cellar, queen-cells de- 

 stroyed weekly, average yield each, 

 178 pounds. 



Eight 10-frame hives, 1 queen, win- 

 tered outside, queen-cells destroyed 

 weekly, average yield each, 167 

 pounds. 



Four 12-frame hives, 2 queens, win- 

 tered in cellar, requeened by sys- 

 tem, average yield each, 228 pounds. 



It is hardly expected that outside 

 ■wintering will be so satisfactory for 

 hives containing two queens as cel- 

 lar wintering, but it is being tried in 

 some specially designed 4-colony 

 cases. Another method of wintering 

 that is being tried and seems more 

 hopeful for outapiaries in the north, 

 is to place the colonies in a building 

 (it can be a portable honey-extract- 

 ing house about 10 feet by 12 feet), 

 surrounded with a thick layer of 

 straw, the windows to be left open 

 to prevent the sun from heating the 

 building in early spring, and 

 screened with cotton to keep out 

 snow and rain. The use of the ex- 

 tracting house as a house-apiary in 

 winter has been found a good plan 

 for a small apiary of regular colonies. 



The contention that this two- 

 queen system may not build up the 

 colonics strong enough for the 

 honey flow is met by the following 

 considerations: 1. A hive that has 

 been requeened with two queens in 



July goes into winter considerably 

 stronger in young bees than one 

 containing only one queen. 2. The 

 colonies in which the queen fails on 

 one side reach full strength for win- 

 ter and can spare bees or brood in 

 spring to strengthen the weakest of 

 the half colonies. 3. The half colo- 

 nies can be united at the be- 

 ginning of the honey flow if neces- 

 sary. This was done in four out of 

 the six 10-frame hives at the cen- 

 tral apiary in 1919. 4. The evidence 

 has shown that when the principal 

 honey flow does not begin until 

 about four weeks after the com- 

 mencement of the swarming season, 

 as at Ottawa in 1918, the half colo- 

 nies will build up plenty strong 

 enough for it. 



At present the two-queen system 

 is recommended only for localities 

 like Ottawa, that have the last- 

 named condition in average years 

 but some of its developments and 

 modifications are expected to have a 

 wider application. It is expected to 

 produce particularly good results in 

 places where the principal honey 

 flow comes from fireweed or other 

 July sources, and with the larger 

 hives that are now receiving in- 



creased attention, the 10-frame Jum- 

 bo and the 12-frame Langstroth. It 

 also includes the essential features 

 of the modern treatment of Euro- 

 pean foulbrood. 



(In the April, 1919, American Bee 

 Journal, Mr. Siaden describes this 

 system. The bees on the two sides 

 of the division board meet in the su- 

 pers through queen excluders until 

 the last super is removed in the fall. 

 From this time on the two divisions 

 are entirely separated. — Ed.) 



Bees in China 



Mr. Frank C. Pellett : 



Dear Sir : I am an amateur apiarist 

 with a colony of 20 hives of Chinese 

 bees. The native queen is, however, 

 not as good as the Italian, and I have 

 ordered six Italian queens from Cali- 

 fornia, but they have not been deliv- 

 ered yet. I intend to replace all my 

 Chinese queens with Italians next 

 year. 



I enclose two snapshots which may 

 interest you. One shows 4 of my 

 colonies housed in the English ("W. 

 B. C") hive. The climate here is sub- 

 tropical in summer and the ther- 

 mometer ranges from 80 to 106 de- 

 grees in the shade; so a shed is abso- 

 lutely necessary. Our winters are bit- 

 terly cold, but I do not move my 

 hives into a cellar — they remain in 

 the open the year around. 



All my colonies were purchased 

 from Chinese farmers and I had con- 

 siderable trouble in obtaining them, 

 as the natives regard bees as "joss 

 pidgin," i. e., symbols of good fortune. 

 They think whenever they sell bees 

 they are selling away their "good 

 luck." They keep bees in baskets 

 generally, suspended against a wall, 

 and one of my pictures shows a cou- 

 ple of these basket hives after I had 

 transferred the colonies. Occasionally 

 bees are housed in wooden tubs or 

 boxes. They know nothing about 

 modern beekeeping methods. 



The Chinese bee is the gentlest of 

 its species, rarely using its sting. I 

 never use a smoker, wear a veil or 

 gloves when handling my colonies. 



The first book I ever read on bee- 

 keeping was the one you wrote, "Pro- 

 ductive Beekeeping," one of the Lip- 

 pincott series. I purchased this in 

 China. 



C. G. GOLDING. 



Chinese basket hives. 



Wiring Frames 



In the June issue of the American 

 Bee Journal E. S. Miller gives a 

 method of wiring frames that ap- 

 pealed to me very much, and I found 

 on trial, that he was on the track of 

 a good thing. Ai'tcr a little experi- 

 menting, I believe I have evolved an 

 improvement of !iis method. 



I wire the frames in the usual man- 

 ner, leaving slack in the third wire 

 from the top, so that the wire can be 

 carried up to the center of the top- 

 liar and wound around the head of a 

 five-eighth inch cigar box nail that is 

 driven in at the edge of the large saw 

 kerf or wedge pocket, as the case 

 may be, as Mr. Miller does, and then 



