204 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Octobel" 



about my honey, either comb or ex- 

 tracted. 



I see that Mr. McNeal describes 

 the hive "he uses" in The American 

 Bee-Keeper, which is patterned al- 

 most exactly after my hive. He uses 

 the principles in construction of my 

 hive in his. For the last three years 

 I have been mailing him my cata- 

 logue, describing my hive and it seems 

 strange that he has not caught the idea 

 that a whole lot of the fussing and 

 tinkering with the bees are practices 

 that can be left off to the advantage of 

 both himself and his bees. Work them 

 ■on the "let alone" principle. I repeat 

 his advice, "don't tinker." 



I will describe my plan and if any 

 of my readers will tell me where and 

 how I can leave off any of the work I 

 will thank him for it. 



I use a divisible brood chamber hive, 

 cubical in form, with a capacity equiva- 

 lent to 13 Langstroth frames. Not 

 later than September 20th I see that 

 each colony is provided with a vigor- 

 ous and prolific queen and fully 40 

 pounds of sealed stores, the fullest 

 frames being placed in center of the 

 uoper story, the frames containing 

 brood in the center of the lower story. 

 I put the super cover, a thin board, 

 over the brood chamber for the bees 

 to seal down; on it place a cushion of 

 dry leaves and over all put a telescope 

 cover. In this condition I leave them 

 alone till about April 15 of the follow- 

 ing year — nearly 7 months. I then 

 go over each hive to see that each still 

 has a queen and plenty of stores to 

 run them till the honey flow comes 

 on. When the honey flow is on and 

 the hive getting full of bees I put on 

 my supers, the super cover being 

 placed a bee-space above the sections. 

 I use no enameled sheet or honey 

 board; and I put on supers before the 

 bees become crowded for room. Su- 

 pers are added as more room is need- 

 ed. If a colony swarms I hive the 

 swarm on the old location, in a sin- 

 gle brood chamber with two frames 

 of combs and the rest of good sized 

 starters; remove all surplus receptacles 

 from the old colony and put them on 

 the swarm. By this plan I scarcely 

 ever have any trouble by the queens 

 going up into my supers. When the 

 honey is ready to come off I take it 

 off by using a Porter escape, and, 

 when the honey flow is over, double 

 two swarms together which gi/es p'c 

 a good colony for winter. Now how 

 can I shorten my labors, either in 



plan of work or change in hives an 

 appliances? "Don't tinker." 



Mr. Geo. B. Howe, page 155 a 

 tempts to make a point against tl: 

 cubical form of hive by telling us < 

 bee trees with combs four or moi 

 feet long (I have seen them ov« 

 eight feet long.) Now let Mr. How 

 turn these long combs down in 

 horizontal position and see "where 1: 

 is at." He will then have a "long ideS' 

 hive and plenty of unoccupied comb 

 Heated air rises and the long com! 

 in the bee trees, standing in a pe 

 pendicular position, proves a point i 

 favor of the cubical form of hiv« 

 rather than against them. 



Tophet, W. Va., Aug. 25, 1905. 



A VENERABLE STUDENT. 



By Thomas B. Darlington. 



pDITORS AMERICAN BEI 

 •*-• KEEPER: I've been trying th 

 summer to learn something more abet 

 bees than I had known practical! 

 heretofore. First, that of bees movin 

 their eggs from one place to anothe 

 in the hive. I had a weak swarm th: 

 was queenless long enough to mal< 

 it sure there were no eggs in the hiv 

 I then gave them a piece of comb wit 

 eggs in the lower edge of outsic 

 frame. When in long enough to ha\ 

 cells capped I found on the uppt 

 edge a queen cell built and attached t 

 comb of next frame, so that in raisin 

 the frames I destroyed the cell; s 

 I had that trial to go over again, 

 replaced the piece of comb with ar 

 other having eggs in, and in due tim 

 they built a queen cell, but this tim 

 on the third frame and on its uppe 

 edge, which produced a fine queei 

 Now I am satisfied that bees can an 

 do move their eggs when they choos 

 to do so. 



There is another point about bee 

 that I am not so clear about, and tha 

 is about the queen mating. I had 

 hive of very yellow Italians, the moth 

 er of which was exceedingly yellow 

 and was introduced in August 1903. I: 

 due time the hive was filled witb thes 

 bright bees, all others having disap 

 peared. The summer of 1904 beinj 

 poor, they did not swarm, but in th 

 fall they were considerably darkei 

 This summer they swarmed on Ma; 

 3rd, and the new swarm swarme* 

 again on the 6th of June. The bees o 

 the old hive keep getting darker. Th 



