116 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Farmers about here, who wish to 

 move bees, always move them in the 

 winter. It is now a wonder to me, 

 since I have read up on improved bee- 

 culture, that any of the 9 lived 

 through the long and tedious winter, 

 and I hope no one will be so unwise 

 as to move bees until warm weather. 

 I, for one, shall not, at least until we 

 have a great deal more knowledge of 

 the " busy bee" and dysentery. 



New Philadelphia, O. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Central Illinois Convention. 



The Bee-Keepers' Association of 

 Central Illinois met according to pre- 

 vious announcement. 



A large number of bee-keepers of 

 McLean and adjoining counties as- 

 sembled at the surveyor's office, in the 

 Court House, in Bloomington, on the 

 10th inst. 



Officers elected for one year : Pres- 

 ident, J. L. Wolcott; Vice President, 

 Mrs. F. A. Bailer ; Secretary, James 

 Poindexter; Treasurer, O. Barnard, 

 all of Bloomington. 



Owing to the lateness of the hour 

 appointed for the meeting, the time 

 was principally occupied in perfecting 

 an organization and getting the Asso- 

 ciation in working order. 



Thirty-two names were enrolled. It 

 was decided to hold meetings quar- 

 terly. Adjourned to meet the second 

 Wednesday in May {9th), at 10 o'clock 

 a. m., in Bloomington, at same place. 

 .J AS. Poindexter, Sec. 



For the American Bee JouraaL 



The Eyes of a Bee. 



C. THEILMANN. 



130 colonies In the bee-house got a 

 little uneasy, these warm days, as the 

 temperature in it went up to 65° with 

 ventilator all open, and the main door 

 open, its whole width, one whole 

 night. Thismorningall isquiet,asitis 

 13° below zero outside ; no dysentery 

 appears in my bee-house yet. 

 Theilmanton, Minn., Feb. 17, 1883. 



[The large eyes which you saw with- 

 out the microscope, are the compound 

 eyes; the three small ones are the 



In examining the heads of bees with 

 the microscope, I found the sides, 

 which appear to the bareej'e as if the 

 high brown spots were the eyes, but 

 found these two spots, all thinly cov- 

 ered with hair, without any glassy, 

 bright or clear spot whatever, and the 

 skin or outside covering api)ears like 

 grained leathei- when looking with 

 the bare eye. Looking closer, with 

 head three little, round, glassy, skinny 

 the microscope, I found on top of the 

 spots, one is in the centre, a little 

 anead of the two, which are one on each 

 side ; there are no hairs close around 

 these spots, but a bunch of hair be- 

 tween the three, and the head has to 

 be held in a certain position, in order 

 to see all three at once. If these three 

 spots are not the eyes, where are they V 

 I have examined spiders heretofore, 

 and found from four to six of such 

 little glassy spots on their heads, 

 which I would call eyes. 



My bees have been closed up now 

 for over three months, ■ without a 

 ilight, as it has been cold ever since, 

 with over 2 feet of snow, and for the 

 last six weeks the mercury has regis- 

 tered from 10° to 40° below zero, in 

 the morning, except the last few days, 

 when it showed 32° above. My bees 

 outdoors (30 colonies) need a flight, as 

 some of them have the dysentery. My 



simple eyes, as shown in the accom- 

 panying engraving of the head of a 

 worker bee, magnified. — Ed.] 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



The Standard Langstroth Hive. 



M. M. BALDRID6E. 



Having shown on page 55 of this 

 Journal that the standard Langs- 

 troth frame is 18^3 inches long instead 

 of 185^ inches, outside measure, I now 

 desire to say a few words about the 

 standard Langstroth hive. The stan- 

 dard hive, as I understand the mat- 

 ter, should have 10 standard Langs- 

 stroth frames— no more and no less — 

 that being the number given and rec- 

 ommended by Langstroth in his work 

 on bees— the highest and only au- 

 thority tcf follow. Now, Langstroth 

 makes the hive, or outside case, to 

 hold 10 frames, precisely \i}i inches 

 wide, inside measure, but I find, in 

 practice, that it is not necessary to 

 make exactly that width of hive for 

 10 frames. I make the hive 14 inches 

 wide to avoid the fraction, and find 

 many times that I can use even 11 

 frames just as well as 10 in that width 

 of hive. In fact, the combs will, other 

 things being equal, be built straighter 

 and nicer with 11 frames than with 

 10. I therefore find that a hive 131^ 

 or even 13 inches wide, inside meas- 

 ure, will answer for 10 frames, but to 

 have Langstroth hives, of standard 

 size, we must adhere as closely as pos- 

 sible to the length, width, and depth, 

 inside measure, as given by Mr, 

 Langstroth, or else we may as well 

 quit talking about standard hives. 



But there are quite a number of 

 bee-keepers in the United States and 

 elsewhere, who are to-day far in ad- 

 vance of Mr. Langstroth, in some re- 

 spects, in practical experience (and 

 when I say this I mean no disrespect 

 to Mr. L.), who prefer the 8-frame 

 hive, with standard frames, to the 10- 

 frame hive. They have used both 

 sizes of hives, side by side, in the same 



apiary, and claim that they have uni- 

 formly secured better results from the 

 smaller hive. Now, that being the 

 case, it is folly and waste of time to 

 try to induce all bee-keepers to use the 

 Langstroth standard hive, although 

 they might be willing to use the stan- 

 dard frame. From what has now 

 been said, the reader will please ob- 

 serve that the standard hive and the 

 standard frame are by no means 

 synonymous terms. 



It has been suggested that bee- 

 keepers should hold a convention to 

 see if they cannot in some way agree 

 upon some standard hive to adopt. 

 Now, to simplify matters, let me sug- 

 gest that it miglit be far better, and 

 less expensive, for bee-hive makers to 

 agree among themselves to make the 

 standard Langstroth frame of the 

 same length and depth, both outside 

 and inside measure, and the outer box 

 or case of the same length, depth and 

 width, inside measure, the width de- 

 pending on the number of frames to 

 be used, whether that be 8 or 10, more 

 or less, the main object being to make 

 the frames interchangeable. Bee- 

 hive makers are the proper parties, 

 so it seems to me, to agree upon such 

 matters, as Tom, Dick, Harry and old- 

 man Bungler have no more business 

 to make bee hives, honey boxes, foun- 

 dation, hives, etc., of modern construc- 

 tion, than has the former to make 

 wagons, reapers, threshing machines, 

 etc. As a rule, every branch of busi- 

 ness is, or should be, carried on as a 

 specialty, and bee-culture is, or should 

 be, no exception. Bee-culture, how- 

 ever, has several distinct branches, 

 and there are men so organized as to 

 carry on two or more of them at the 

 same time very successfully. But, in 

 general, it will not pay bee-keepers to 

 try to run all the branches as special- 

 ties at the same time. That being the 

 case, the majority will find it better 

 and more profitable to purchase cer- 

 tain supplies for their apiaries from 

 specialists. I may be mistaken about 

 this, but think not ; it having been my 

 experience for nearly a quarter of a 

 century. And, to get the best results, 

 two or more bee-keepers should club 

 together in ordering, supplies, and 

 thus secure the lowest possible prices. 



As I am not now engaged nor inter- 

 ested in fui'uishing " supplies for the 

 apiary," and do not again expect to 

 be very soon, it will not, therefore, be 

 necessary for any one to impute im- 

 proper motives to any of the state- 

 ments set forth in this article. 



St. Charles, 111. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



System in the Apiary. 



A. E. FOSTER. 



" A place for everything, and every- 

 thing in its place." I know of no 

 place (unless it is in the family) where 

 this rule should be followed more 

 closely than in the apiary. The pros- 

 perous bee-keeper is always in a hurry, 

 needing different supplies as he ex- 

 amines different hives, and it is very 

 necessary that he should know just 

 where to find things as he needs them. 



