776 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUllNAL. 



serious fault, for they are more easily 

 manipulated than most others. I 

 would rather handle 10 colonies of 

 Carniolans than one of hybrids. 



It is true that 1 got them rather late, 

 and could not test their honey-stor- 

 ing qualities— for I take all my sec- 

 tions off about the middle of July, 

 and do not care for fall honey, leaving 

 that for the bees to winter on ; but so 

 far as my experience goes, 1 am sure 

 that owing to their proliticness, do- 

 cility, beauty, and white-comb build- 

 ing they will play a prominent part in 

 the future. 



Next to Carniolans I find the 

 Syrians the best lioney-storers, but 

 they are so nervous— the least jar 

 will start them, and often make things 

 very unpleasant ; but of all the nasty, 

 vicious creatures under the sun, the 

 offspring of a Syrian queen mated 

 with a black or hybrid drone is the 

 worst. 



Easton,ot Pa. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



The Non-Sf armini System, 



VICTOR W. CLOUGH. 



It is just as natural for bees to 

 swarm as it is for birds to build nests 

 and rear their young. This is the 

 way rrovidence provided for bees 

 that they might not become extinct. 

 But I know by experience that bees 

 placed in a rightly constructed hive, 

 with a certain number of cubic inches 

 to fit its colony in the brood-chamber, 

 and plenty of surplus room on top 

 (never at the side), will not swarm. 



I am convinced that the cause of 

 swarming is mostly in the construc- 

 tion of hives. Kot one in a hundred 

 are made to produce the effect de- 

 sired. Hives should be constructed 

 with two entrances, one for the bees 

 to cluster at (if at any time the colony 

 becomes crowded from neglect to 

 place on surplus room), and the other 

 for the workers to pass in and out 

 without having to crowd through 2 or 

 3 inches of bees. I believe that the 

 brood-chamber should never be dis- 

 turbed after the season for honey- 

 gathering has commenced, if bees are 

 expected to gather a large surplus. It 

 disturbs and hinders the bees more 

 or less, the same as it would if we 

 had our home disturbed by a wind- 

 storm, consequently we would very 

 naturally stop our business and " fix 

 up;" just so with tlie home of the 

 bee. 



I use a non-swarming hive, and in 

 it I start the bees at work in a case of 

 40 sections. After the bees have this 

 case two-thirds full, 1 raise it up and 

 place under another case, and when 

 two-thirds full I raise the two cases 

 and place under another ; when this 

 case is two-thirds full, the top case 

 •will undoubtedly be all finished, and 

 can be taken off, but at the same time 

 the two remaining cases mu.st be 

 raised and under them placed another, 

 ("ontinue to do so all through the sea- 

 son, and when tlie season is overthere 

 will be a harvest of from 200 to 300 

 poundsof honey ,without any increase. 



Geneseo,xi Ills. 



For tne American Bee Joumau 



Views ou LcEislatioii for Bee-Keepers, 



DIl. C. C. 3IILLER. 



I send herewith a letter from Mr. 

 O. B. Barrows,of Marshalltown. Iowa, 

 giving his views on the matter of 

 legislation, for which he has my 

 thanks. I hope we shall hear from 

 others, and if they will send direct to 

 the editors, the general readers will 

 the sooner see their writings. The 

 following is Mr. B's letter to me : 



" I see on page 742 of the Bee 

 Journal you ask for bee-keepers' 

 views on the subject of legislation to 

 create a sort of pre-emption to certain 

 territory for bee-pasturage. I have 

 been keeping a few bees for a number 

 of years, but not having sense enough 

 to "increase my bees to use all the 

 pasturage, my neighbor, Mr. Pinker- 

 ton, stepped in, and being a smarter 

 man than I am, has outstripped me 

 in the race, and now has 170 colonies 

 of bees, which is nearly twice as 

 many as I have, and some otliers in 

 this town have a few, and still not 

 bees enough to gather all the nectar. 



Now the question is, because I 

 have been keeping bees longer than 

 my neighbor, and still have not 

 gumption enough to keep enough 

 bees to gather all the honey, should 

 Congess step in and debar him V or 

 should Congress say, ' Let the man 

 keep bees who can make a success of 

 it? Let him produce honey wlio can 

 produce it the cheapest ? Let him 

 who cannot enter a fair competition 

 with his neighbor, retire on the prin- 

 ciple of the survival of the fittest V 



" These are my individual opinions, 

 but I expect sooner or later complaint 

 will be made against my keeping 

 them within the corporate limits, on 

 the ground of their being a nuisance, 

 and while I do not believe that they 

 are a nuisance, I shall rather sell out 

 or move than contest it. Remember, 

 I only represent one. 



"I notice that some of the bee- 

 keepers are complaining of others 

 putting the price of honey down. It 

 seems to me that they might have 

 Congress pass a law similar to what 

 the general court did at an early day 

 in Connecticut, that persons living 

 within a certain distance of Norwich 

 should receive a certain price for 

 their wheat, and the further they 

 lived from that point the greater the 

 price, so as to compensate the remote 

 farmers for drawing their wheat to 

 market. 



" When I learned that one of our 

 grocers had bought 1,000 pounds of 

 good comb honey, and was retailing 

 it at 10 cents per pound, so that a 

 man who worked ten liours for .$1.50, 

 could take home 1.5 pounds of it for 

 his day's work, and say, ' Wife, this 

 is not a luxury, but is as cheap a 

 dessert as I can "buy ; let the children 

 have all I they want of it,' I was re- 

 joiced. And when two or three tons 

 were rapidly sold in this town (not to 

 a monopolist to hold) to poor laboring 

 people, to eat on their tables, I felt 

 glad that the bee-business had come 



to that state of perfection when this 

 could truly be called a ' Land flowing 

 with milk and honey ;' and when a 

 lawyer asked me if my honey would 

 keep, I was glad to say ' no,' they eat 

 it up and come back for more." 

 Marengo, 6 Ills. 



For the Amerlctm Bee JoumaJL. 



How to Build a Bee-Ca?e, 



.1. W. niTTENBENDER. 



Mr. Gates said at the meeting of 

 the Western Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion of Iowa, that it would cost $500 

 to build a cellar to properly winter 

 200 colonies of bees. As a cave is 

 much preferable to a cellar, and the 

 cost of it would be within the reach 

 of a great many bee-keepers, I will 

 give the way my cave is built, and 

 the cost of all the material in it. This 

 cave is made the same as Mr. B. F. 

 Woodcock's, who has wintered bees 

 very successfully, not losing a single 

 colony out of 70. 



My cave is 8x20 feet in the clear, 

 and was made by first excavating a 

 hole in the ground 10 feet wide, 22 

 feet long, and 3J^ feet deep, and an 

 entrance way 4 feet and 10 inches 

 wide, by feet long, and 3J^ feet deep. 

 The drain of not less than 3-inch tile 

 was then put in, and also a sub-earth 

 ventilator of not less than a 4-inch 

 tube or tile, and which is 60 feet long, 

 and S14 to 4 feet deep under ground, 

 coming up out of the ground at 60 

 feet. A stone wall a foot thick is 

 placed all around the cave, and a 10- 

 inch wall in the entrance way ; this 

 gives a 3-foot stairway. 



The side wall is .5 feet high, and on 

 a sill 0x8 inches square and 22 feet 

 long is the door-frame, made of 2x10 

 inch plank, with a top bearing 6x12. 

 The door-frame is to be 2 feet and 10 

 inches wide and G feet long in the 

 clear, and the door-cap to project (> 

 inches on each side. The gable ends 

 are built 3 feet higher than the top of 

 the sills; the side sills are to lay on 

 the side wall even with the outside 

 of the wall. The entrance front is to 

 be 4 feet high at the front, tapering 

 up to the lower edge of the door-cap. 

 A piece 2x10 inches and 4 feet long is 

 then laid on the front entrance wall, 

 and then pieces 4x8 from this piece to 

 the top door-cap, nailing and spiking 

 it well. 



Cut the rafters to fit on the inside 

 of the gable ends, and have the same 

 pitch as the wall, so the sheeting 

 reaches or lays on the wall. Cut the 

 end of the rafter to a point to rest on 

 the sill without a shoulder; set the 

 point of the rafter to the outside edge 

 of the sill, the rafters to be made of 

 12x6 inch lumber. If the rafters are 

 cut right the inside edge will project 

 inside 4 inches, even with the wall. 

 The wall will be 4 inches wider than 

 the sill, if the sill is placed as I have 

 directed. Brick is walled in this 

 space, set on the edge, which will 

 make a dead-air space of 2 inches to 

 prevent frost. 



Suppose the rafters to be placed 3 

 feet apart ; then nail collar pieces on 



