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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



where any attention is 'paid to the 

 culture of bees at all. He who will 

 take the time to run over the records 

 of this last thirty years, will very 

 soon discover some of the benefits 

 derived from such associations. No 

 single individual has ever been able 

 to discover all that can be found out 

 concerning any one thing. God never 

 designed that he should. Man's de- 

 pendency is one of the causes of his 

 sociability ; and should he become 

 independent in any one particular 

 thing, in that proportion will he be- 

 come reserve and selfish. And so the 

 benefits of sociability and meeting 

 with friends and neighbors, and the 

 exchange of opinions that come to the 

 members of every association are 

 found as well in this organization. 



But it is our purpose to ascertain 

 some of the special benefits derived 

 from a bee-keepers' association. 

 These benefits may be classed in two 

 divisions, viz : the immediate and 

 remote. I take the prime object of 

 bee-culture to be, the production of 

 honey ; and whatever relates espec- 

 pecially to that in this essay, I have 

 denominated as immediate benefits ; 

 and those things which relate to the 

 study of the bee as an animal or to 

 the development of the flora, I have 

 designatecl as remote benefits. 

 ~It was thought at first that the hive 

 most nearly like the one the bee used 

 in its wild state, would be best suited 

 for her demands ; so a portion of a 

 hollow log was used, and probably 

 received the name of "gum" from 

 the tree of the same name, from which 

 it was taken. When the tree could 

 not be obtained, a box opened at 

 one end, whose diameter was about 

 the size of the supposed tree, was 

 used. Where do you find such a hive 

 to-day ? Show me such a hive, and I 

 will show you a man who either does 

 not take much interest in bee-culture, 

 or else he has been compelled by 

 emergency to use it merely as a tem- 

 porary convenience. With such a 

 hive the colony was almost destroyed 

 every time the honey was taken ; and 

 then we called it " robbing " thehive ; 

 the word hardly expresses the act, 

 unless we tliink of it as highway 

 robbery, where the individual is 

 knocked down and left for dead. 

 To-day, with the aid of recent in- 

 ventions, we are enabled to take the 

 honey without either robbing the 

 hive or destroying the bees. 



The invention of the movable comb- 

 frames has added probably as much 

 to the real progressive spirit in bee- 

 culture as any other one thing. With 

 these the frames can be removed 

 with the comb, and the honey ex- 

 tracted without injury to either the 

 bees or the comb. This method of 

 removing the honey from the combs, 

 and then replacing them, is a great 

 saving, both in time and honey. Mr. 

 Milton, of Wisconsin, says that it 

 takes the bees as long to produce one 

 pound of wax as it does to procure 20 

 pounds of honey ; and Dr. Kirtland 

 says they consume 2.5 pounds of honey 

 in producing one pound of wax. Thus 

 you see that for every pound of wax 

 they produce it costs 45 pounds of 

 honey. All of this is saved to the 



farmer by the investment of a little 

 means in Improved hives and a cheap 

 apparatus by which the honey is 

 driven from the combs by means of 

 centrifugal force. 



Besides the increase in honey ob- 

 tained on account of the movable- 

 frame hives, they greatly aid in the 

 regulation of the breeding. The 

 drones are like some who go by the 

 same name in the human family, 

 eating much and doing little ; hence, 

 when the drone season is over the 

 workers kill the drones or drive them 

 out to starve. But if the workers 

 make a mistake and form too many 

 drone-cells, the drones will sometimes 

 be so numerous as to eat the honey as 

 fast as the workers can procure it ; 

 but with the improved hive contain- 

 ing the movable comb, the drones can 

 be removed and a comb for rearing 

 workers can be inserted in its place. 

 In fact the whole breeding depart- 

 ment can be regulated to suit the 

 convenience of the keeper. 



In the cross-fertilization and the 

 rearing of queens the movable-frame 

 hives, says Richard Colvin, of Balti- 

 more, are indispensable. He says 

 that without them he would despair 

 of Italianizing an apiary of even 

 moderate size. The inventions in 

 hives, during the last few years, have 

 been quite numerous; and it is the 

 design of these associations to take 

 up these different inventions and dis- 

 cuss their relative values, and select 

 the best from all. 



It is of great importance to know 

 just how to take care of bees through 

 the winter. Some farmers seem to 

 have excellent success with their 

 bees without any special care, while 

 others with all their care lose nearly 

 all. One will leave his hives stand- 

 ing during the winter just in the 

 same place and with no more protec- 

 tion than they had during the sum- 

 mer, while another places straw or 

 perhaps carpet around his, and a few 

 will put their hives in the cellar ; and 

 it frequently happens that each one 

 has some peculiar experience. In 

 these meetings these peculiarities are 

 made known, and their causes in- 

 quired into. These annual or semi- 

 annual meetings are fraught with 

 moi'e good than we at the time realize. 

 It not unfrequently happens that 

 many facts are recorded with all their 

 coincidences which at the time illumi- 

 nates nothing, but in the course of a 

 few years become of great interest. 



These meetings are to a great ex- 

 tent for the purpose of collecting and 

 comparing data ; and among the 

 abundance that will be collected there 

 will be not a little which will be 

 classed as " trash ;" but a great deal 

 of it will be of untold value to the 

 progressive bee-keeper. In making 

 our deductions from these data, we 

 should be very careful to make the 

 fullest examinations of all the facts. 

 No conclusions must be hurriedly 

 formed. It is not sufficient to say 

 that one man lost his bees because 

 they were left out-of-doors, for prob- 

 ably his neighbor never lost a single 

 colony, and to all appearances they 

 had the same things to encounter. It 

 is a common occurrence that two 



thermometers of the same make, and 

 only a short distance apart, will regis- 

 ter from P to 3^' differently. The 

 circumstances should be given in all 

 their particulars, as to the make of the 

 hive, the protection from the wind, 

 rain and snow, how near the ground, 

 etc. 



Bee-keepers in general, who have 

 tried it, recommend the wintering of 

 bees in the cellar, which should be 

 kept at a temperature of about 40°. 

 It has been found that the bees when 

 well protected in this way consume 

 about two-thirds less honey than 

 when left exposed to the weather. 

 The bee must be treated in a great 

 many respects as we treat other 

 domestic animals. They do not 

 hibernate during the winter as a great 

 many persons suppose. Two things 

 are obsolutely necessary, namely, food 

 and warmth ; without either they are 

 sure to die. It not unfrequently hap- 

 pens that colonies are very j)Oorly 

 supplied with honey for the winter, 

 and must be fed. To ascertain how 

 well the provision is lasting, exami- 

 nations must occasionally be made. 

 This can be accomplished with any 

 degree of satisfaction, only with the 

 use of the movable frames. 



Occasionally bees seem to die with- 

 out any apparent cause, and the ques- 

 tion is asked all over the country. 

 " W'hat was the matter with my bees r 

 They have all died while the combs 

 are full of honey. They could not 

 have starved to death, tor the hives 

 were found to contain an abundance 

 of honey. It is hardly probable that 

 they froze to death, for in former 

 years they withstood days of severer 

 cold." Such has been the reasoning 

 in respect to this puzzle. I remember 

 one year ago, some thought owing to 

 the drought in the fall, the bees had 

 been compelled to gather poisonous 

 honey, and therefore they had all 

 been poisoned. But all of the bees 

 did not die ; and if some colonies had 

 gathered this poison honey, would not 

 all in the same apiary have gathered 

 it 'i The theory of being poisoned 

 does not seem to me to be a reason- 

 able one. I remember at the same 

 time some reported a few hives 

 empty of both bees and honey, and 

 the conclusion reached was, that 

 these were weak colonies and poorly 

 supplied with honey, and did actually 

 starve to death. One bee-keeper 

 stated that a portion of his bees he 

 wintered in the cellar and another 

 portion were left out and were well 

 protected. Of those that were win- 

 tered out-of-doors, nearly all died, 

 while those in the cellar nearly all 

 lived. It seems to me that with the 

 evidence presented at that meeting, 

 the coroner would have been com- 

 pelled to render a verdict after this 

 form : The majority of the bees 

 which died during the winter of 1884- 

 85 came to their death by freezing, 

 but why they should not have frozen 

 during previous winters when the 

 weather was much colder, does not 

 come within the jurisdiction of this 

 case. But the question does arise in 

 the minds of every keeper, why did 

 they not die at any other time when 

 the winters were fully as severe V 



