208 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



hives in pairs, as to place them singly. 

 Suppose a row of hives six feet apart. 

 Now you may place another hive beside 

 each hive in the row, having the pair of 

 hives almost touching each other, and 

 there will be no more danger of bees or 

 queens entering wrong hives than if you 

 had left them single. You see a bee will 

 never make the mistake of taking the 

 right hand hive for the left. 



I have said that under certain circum- 

 stances there might be trouble in an 

 apiary of a hundred colonies, if the hives 

 were placed a rod apart. I will now say 

 that the same hundred colonies might be 

 piled up in a solid block three high, and 

 yet be as safe as they were before a rod 

 apart. You will easily imagine that in 

 the present case they will not be in an 

 open plain with no objects to help mark 

 the localities of the respective hives, 

 but just the reverse. Of course, no one 

 would want to handle hives in such a 

 pile. 



But if, for any reason, it should be 

 desirable to have the hives occupy as 

 little room as possible, it would help 

 matters to have trees, bushes, posts or 

 other objects near to the hives. Eoom 

 can also be gained by placing the hives 

 in groups of four each — a plan that I 

 have practiced for several years. Two 

 hives are placed side by side with per- 

 haps a space of two inches between 

 them, facing east. Then another pair 

 faces west, the two pairs standing back 

 to back. One convenience in having 

 hives stand thus in twos or fours is, that 

 when working at a hive you can have 

 the hive standing nearest to be used as 

 a table on which to place the smoker or 

 other tool. 



The only objection against having 

 hives in pairs is that in a very few in- 

 stances when a hive has had all its 

 brood taken away, and has no queen, 

 the whole colony may make a stampede 

 for the adjoining hive, which they can 

 reach without flying. But I * do not 

 know that they would do this if they had 

 either brood or queen. 



HANDLING HIVES AND FRAMES. 



8. Much is said now-a-days about 

 " handling hives more and frames less," 

 and while I certainly do not want to 

 handle hives " more," I should like to 

 handle frames " less." Some day I may 

 know enough to handle frames less, but 

 at present most of my hives are over- 

 hauled about once a week. I do not 

 think it hurts them. Of course, if bees 

 are busy at work in the field, they are 

 hindered a little at their work, but I do 

 not think it counts for much. 



FIGHTING AMONG THE BEES. 



4. I have seen two bees of the same 

 colony fight, but except in the case of 

 queens, it was under very abnormal cir- 

 cumstances, and you may set'it down as 

 a rule that when you see two workers 

 clinched, they are fighting because one 

 of them is trying to steal from the hive 

 of the other. 



Marengo, Ills. C. C. Miller. 



The Development of Bee-Keening. Etc. 



A. E. JAMESON. 



The bee-industry in this locality has 

 grown wonderfully in the last few 

 years, and it is almost impossible to pass 

 a farm-house without seeing a lawn 

 dotted with a hive or two. Hive manu- 

 facturers and bee-papers have done 

 much toward bringing the old cracker 

 and soap boxes out of the weeds, to be 

 replaced on the lawn with movable- 

 frame hives, and convince people that 

 bees do pay. Fields and pasture land 

 are fast seeding down to white clover, 

 which, with the linden trees on all" 

 streams, added to large orchards now 

 growing and ranging in size from 5 to 

 160 acres (many of 20 and 25 acres), 

 make the future prospects bright for 

 bee-keepers. 



Now, when self-hiving arrangements 

 attain the acme point, the farmer bee- 

 keeper will be in the height of his 

 glory, as many swarms abscond, one 

 man catching eight this season, and 

 dozens going into houses, chimneys, etc. 

 One neighbor now has 3 swarms in his 

 dwelling, which he wishes to have taken 

 out immediately. He says they are 

 " big, fat bees," but are not Italians, as 

 he has heard that Italians are gentle. 



From my 30 colonies, spring count, I 

 have had one swarm to leave me, and it 

 (or one which I have good reasons to be- 

 lieve was it) came back next day, and is 

 doing nicely. Honey is very plentiful. 

 Fine comb honey is selling in the small 

 towns at 12 )4 cents per pound, and 

 owing to the abundant yield, it was 

 stored fast, and is very fine. The apple 

 crop here is light, although more than 

 will be used for home consumption. 



Weeping Water,Nebr., July 24,1892. 



Why Not send us one new name, 

 with $1.00, and get Doolittle's book on 

 "Scientific Queen-Rearing" as a premi- 

 um ? Read the offer on page 197. 



