202 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to note that lie is inconsistent ; that 

 he lias not carefully read Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's writings, and, above all, that he 

 is not honestly nor respectfully seek- 

 ing information. 

 Kew Philadelphia, O. 



[We are quite confident Dr. Tinker 

 gives utterance to the sentiments of 

 many of our readers regarding this 

 class of commentators. Not only is it 

 calculated to wound the feelings of 

 the person criticised, but will have a 

 tendency to deter many eminent con- 

 tributors from communicating their 

 improvements, or ideas, through the 

 press columns, for fear of malevolent 

 or sarcastic criticism. So long as dis- 

 cussion is confined to courteous and 

 generous debate, much good may be 

 derived from it ; but when innuendoes 

 and sarcasm supplant argument and 

 reason, the article inspires disgust 

 rather than admiration. We have 

 exercised our prerogative to withhold 

 several such articles from publica- 

 tion, and are satisfied the writers 

 themselves will ultimately feel grate- 

 ful to us for so doing.— Ed.] 







Long Idea Hives.— On page 139, Mr. 

 Payette Lee, of Minnesota, asks you 

 which hive will give the best returns 

 — a long one, or a two-story hive V 

 and you answer : " A two-story 

 hive." I have 50 "long idea" chaff 

 hives in my yard to-day, and no two- 

 story hives. I have repeatedly tested 

 them by the side of the long hives for 

 extracted honey with results in favor 

 of the long ones every time. I will 

 give my mode of management. Tlie 

 hives are 36 and 40 inches long — 

 mostly the latter length — made double, 

 with slanting roof. I use a frame 13 

 inchesloiigby 11 deep, inside measure. 

 When the colony gets large enough to 

 occupy one-half the hive, if the forage 

 is good, I give tlieni the whole length, 

 spreading the brood and putting an 

 empty comb between the wliole 

 length of the hive, and when ripe 

 enough to extract, I empty every 

 comb that contains enough to pay for 

 handling, leaving one comb usually to 

 keep the bees quiet. My .50 hives will 

 hold 3,000 lbs., which is quite an item 

 when a person is hurried with other 

 business, as it can remain quite a 

 length of time frequently. My bees 

 last spring were reduced to mere 

 nuclei, and I did not extract at all till 

 they had finished their summer's labor, 

 and then the honey was nicely ripened 

 and mostly capped. Such hives 

 should remain on the summer stands, 

 as they would be quite heavy to move. 

 I would advise Mr. Lee to try both 

 sorts of hives until he is satisfied 

 which is best. But when you say to 



him that the two-story hive will give 

 the best returns you are much mis- 

 taken, in your humble servant's opin- 

 ion, as tar as extracted honey is con- 

 cerned. I do not see how the Bee 

 JouuNAL, can be improved from its 

 present shape — it is intensely interest- 

 ing now. No dwindling amongst bees 

 this winter. They have had several 

 flights since February 1. Brood-rear- 

 ing started some in February and no 

 loss to speak of. W. H. S. Grout. 

 Kennedy, N. Y., March 13,1882. 



[Our answer to Mr. Lee's interroga- 

 tory was intended for a hive for all 

 purposes — not comb honey alone, nor 

 for extracting exclusively. It was a 

 general question, and answered as 

 such.— En.] 



Buying and Smoking Bees.— Please 

 answer tlie following in the next issue 

 of the Bee Jouhnal : 



1. In buying bees, how early in the 

 spring should the purchaser get pos- 

 session of them V 



2. Do those handling bees usually 

 smoke them for all their manipula- 

 tions V J. R. Craig. 



Beatrice, Neb. 



[1. The delivery of bees depends 

 much upon locality and season. In 

 contracting, mention is usually made 

 of time for giving possession, as pur- 

 chasers frequently prefer taking the 

 risk of spring dwindling, in order to 

 have the bees sooner to assist in divis- 

 ions and strengthening. Then, again, 

 if in cellar, the vender will not give 

 possession till all are on the summer 

 stand, in order to give opportunity for 

 selecting average colonies. Some 

 dealers make a special point of not 

 shipping or delivering tillJune, unless 

 the contrary be specified, which gives 

 them the advantage of a first swarm, 

 or brood suflicient to nearly make 

 one, which they consider a compensa- 

 tion for risk in wintering and spring 

 dwindling. 



2. No ; unless quite vicious.— Ed.] 



Gatherhig Honey.— Bees are doing 

 finely, gathering honey from willow, 

 tame China, and locust. I notice in 

 the Journal of the 8th inst., that 

 Mr J. S. Tadlock, of Luling, Texas, 

 dated Feb. 2-5, says he will extract new 

 honey the first warm days. Now, will 

 Mr. T. please inform me what it is 

 that his bees gather so mucli honey 

 from, that he can extract so early V 

 My bees are in exactly the same lati- 

 tude as his, about 150 miles due east. 

 I have extracted about 1,000 lbs., but 

 it is honey gathered last fall. I leave 

 frames in the upper stories all winter, 

 and do not believe in taking all the 

 honey out to make a big report, and 

 then feed back sugar or glucose, and 

 lose half of my bees from starvation. 

 We all know that tlie old bees die off 

 very fast in spring, and it takes all 

 they can gather for brood-rearing 

 until the flow from linden, wild China 



and horsemint. I have no swarms 

 yet ; am looking out for them now. 

 Weather is fine ; peach trees are 

 nearly out of bloom ; corn is up ready 

 to plow. Have new potatoes and 

 English peas. Prospects are good for 

 honey. J. W. Eckman. 



Richmond, Tex., March 18, 1882. 



Early Drones.- Mb. Editor: I 

 send you a few Italian drones ; the 

 progeny of a daughter of my imported 

 queen, and the best marked drones I 

 ever saw. Are they as light colored as 

 the lightest V J. S. Tadlock. 



Luling, Texas, March 14, 1882. 



[We have the drones in a bottle of 

 alcohol, to compare with other speci- 

 mens we have in the museum. They 

 are very fine, but not as purely yellow 

 iis several specimens, some of which 

 have been here for 3 years. They are 

 not as fine as those we exhibited in 

 Italy in 1849.— Ed.] 



Clipping (Jiieeii's Wing.— Please in- 

 form me now and the proper time to 

 clip queens' wings ; also, how to pro- 

 ceed to Italianize an apiary ? I have 

 1 colony of Italians and 14 of blacks, 

 and wish them all Italians. 



Earlville, Iowa. A. L. Conger. 



[During fruit bloom, or early white 

 clover, we have found the most con- 

 venient time for clipping a queen's 

 wing. By lifting a frame gently from 

 the hive, so as not to frighten the 

 queen or anger the bees, with a small 

 pair of scissors and a steady nerve, 

 the wing can be clipped off without 

 the queen scarcely knowing it. If, 

 however, you are nervous in move- 

 ment, better lift the queen by grasp- 

 ing her gently at the fore part where 

 the wings join the body, and deliber- 

 ately cut off about one-third of one 

 wing. Care must be observed not to 

 grasp her by the abdomen. 



The great majority of your bees 

 being blacks, you will have to cut out 

 the drone comb very closely from the 

 blacks, then stimulate your Italian 

 colony rapidly, both by stimulative 

 feeding and giving sheets of worker 

 brood from your black colonies ; then 

 insert drone combs to get drone eggs 

 and brood as soon as possible. When 

 you have Italian drone brood capped, 

 remove the queen into a black colony, 

 and let the Italian colony build queen 

 cells. When these are ripe, remove 

 your black queens, or form queen- 

 testing nuclei from your black colo- 

 nies, and thirty-six or forty-eight 

 hours after graft in the queen cells. 

 If you have been successful in for- 

 warding Italian drones, and suppress- 

 ing those from the blacks, your work 

 will be easily accomplished ; other- 

 wise, it will be quite difficult.— Ed.] 



