THE AMERICAISI BEE JOURNAL. 



371 



least 3 fe?t in hight. Of course such 

 a hive is out of all proportion. Some 

 may not wish to " tier up," but many 

 of us do, and it is a question of " all 

 purposes " we are discussing, and 

 adaptability to the " tiering up " sys- 

 tem is an important point in the " all 

 purposes." 



EAST AND RAPID MANIPULATION 



is a matter of the greatest impor- 

 tance in a large apiary. Every skill- 

 ful manipulator of "bees who has 

 experience with the two forms of 

 frames in use, can appreciate the 

 Langstroth or shallow frame for ease 

 and rapid handling. A shallow frame 

 is quicker removed from its position 

 in the hive than a deeper one is. Tlie 

 operator can see better what he is 

 doing to the shallow brood depart- 

 ment. Tlie bees are less liable to be 

 crushed or injured when manipulating 

 the frames, and hence less liable to 

 become irritated by rough handling. 



The queen is now readily found in a 

 shallow brood nest ; in fact it is not 

 unfrequently the case that the opera- 

 tor can tell just where the queen is 

 by the movement of the bees when he 

 first turns back the quilt. 



A hive made to accommodate a long 

 and shallow frame, like the Langs- 

 troth frame, successfully, gives a 

 larger surface at the top of the brood 

 nest for storing comb lioney, and 

 right at the point where bees do their 

 best work. 



A shallow frame, when used for 

 extracting, is sooner sealed by the 

 bees w|j^n full of honey, i.e., the bees 

 will sem a given number of square 

 inches sooner in a shallow long frame 

 than they will or can on a deeper one. 

 It will be admitted that bees invaria- 

 bly commence to seal the honey at 

 the top of the frames. There must be 

 good reasons for this, and I judge the 

 reason is, that evaporation goes on 

 more rapidly at this point, and hence 

 the lioney is ready to seal sooner at 

 the top of the apartment. So great 

 are the advantages to be gained by 

 the use of a shallow frame for ex- 

 tracting honey — for the reason given 

 above — I have been induced to use a 

 large number of frames just half the 

 depth of the Langstroth frame, and 

 of the same length, and these are 

 used in tiers in the upper story, and 

 so manipulated that the full ones are 

 kept in the top tiers where they are 

 sealed with the greatest dispatch. So 

 good has been the results of this 

 system of management in my apiary 

 that I feel justifiable in the digression, 

 if I have digressed. So strong a point 

 do I consider the above in favor of a 

 shallow frame for extracting pur- 

 poses, that I believe no number of 

 __ good points in a deeper frame can 

 ' out-weigh it. 



ADAPTABILITY FOR WINTERING BEES. 



In my estimation too much has been 

 conceded by the admirers of the 

 Langstroth form of movable frame to 

 the claims of those who advocate the 

 use of a square or deep frame as best 

 adapted for wintering purposes. I 

 take the grounds that no form of 

 frame yet invented is so well adapted 

 to safe wintering of bees as the 



Langstroth form of frame is. It 

 needs no philosophy to make it com- 

 prehensible that a room witli a low 

 ceiling is more easily and cheaply 

 heated than one with a" higher ceiling. 

 The brood department of the Langs- 

 troth hive has this important advan- 

 tage over a deeper one. The instinct 

 of the bees lead them to store their 

 honey at the highest point in the 

 hive ; they do this because nature has 

 taught them that it is the best place 

 for its prepervation, as well as the 

 safest place from their enemies. 



iSTow, in a deep brood nest, if the 

 combs are well filled with sealed 

 stores, the bees must cluster on the 

 sealed honey at the top of the frames, 

 or they must dwell below the warmest 

 part of the chamber until tliey eat 

 their way up to the top, and if any of 

 the stores are left below them in their 

 upward march, the chances are against 

 their ever returning for it during cold 

 weather, if the supply should be ex- 

 hausted above. When bees are win- 

 tered on the Langstroth frame, the 

 cluster moves in a horizontal direction 

 with the spaces between the combs, 

 and pass the entire winter in the most 

 congenial part of the hive. Bees 

 winter better in a shallow brood nest 

 than they do in a deeper one, simply 

 because their stores are located in the 

 warmest part of the hive, and in a 

 room with a low ceiling, which is al- 

 ways warmer than a room with a high 

 ceiling. 



CONCLUSION. 



I wish to conclude by saying that I 

 have given my reasons for preferring 

 a shallow frame, gleaned from per- 

 sonal experience with both forms of 

 frames in use. The "movable frame" 

 is as much an '' implement " in api- 

 culture as tlie plow or pitch fork are 

 implements in agriculture, and, hence, 

 each apiarist should act just as every 

 intelligent farmer acts, viz. : use that 

 which is best adapted to his branch of 

 the business to his locality, etc., 

 always guided by the light of his 

 experience. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Do dueens Mate More than Once ? 



I. p. WILSON, D. D. S. 



The above question I supposed to be 

 settled beyond dispute, and I was a 

 little surprised at Mr. Ilinman's arti- 

 cle on page 357 of the Bee Journal, 

 claiming that cjueens do sometimes 

 mate a second time. 



That Mr. H. is mistaken about his 

 queen mating with a drone after the 

 first fertilization, I think there can be 

 no doubt. 



I will relate an incident that oc- 

 curred in my own apiary, a month or 

 two ago. which will show how easily 

 one may be deceived, as Mr. H. 

 doubtless has been. 



I opened one of my best colonies, 

 for the purpose of removing the queen 

 to another colony. I found, on the 

 second frame, that I removed a beau- 

 tiful young queen, evidently about 3 

 or 4 days old. I felt greatly disap- 



pointed, as my choicest queen had 

 been in this hive. I said to myself, 

 " they have superseded her; what can 

 it mean V" To determine how long 

 she had been missing, I proceeded to 

 examine the comb, and found, to my 

 surprise, that eggs and larv.e were 

 abundant. The old queen was still on 

 duty, and I found her depositing eggs, 

 here and there, as she quietly moved 

 along over the comb. She was too 

 busy to notice me or the rival queen. 

 There was only one queen cell in the 

 hive, and that was the one from wliich 

 the young queen had hatched. Why 

 they reared thisyoungqueen,andwhy 

 the old queen did not object to the 

 procedure is, to me, unaccountable. 

 I removed the old queen to another 

 colony, and left the young queen to 

 take her place. A few day later, she 

 mated. I saw her leave the hive, and 

 in 22 minutes she returned with the 

 unmistakable evidence of having made 

 a successful " bridal trip." Now sup- 

 pose I had not discovered tliis virgin 

 queen when I did, but had opened the 

 hive the day she mated, found the evi- 

 dence of her just having mated, found 

 also the eggs and the larvse, and had 

 not discovered the old queen, I might 

 possibly have been deceived as Mr. 

 Hinmau doubtless was. 

 Burlington, Iowa, July 18, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journnl- 



Few Items from the Pacific Coast. 



J. D. enas. 



Since 1 wrote about the young bees- 

 dying, or rather going away from the 

 hives wingless, etc., we had a honey 

 spurt, and the hives are getting filled. 

 Bees preferred to fill the combs with 

 honey instead of having them filled 

 with eggs. Whether sections were 

 on or not, they would fill the combs 

 in the lower story to the detriment of 

 the queen. I think they must have 

 gnawed the young bees out, as they 

 were not completed, wings not half 

 formed ; some were more perfect than 

 others. No matter how often the 

 bees were placed on the bottom board, 

 they would go away from the hive. 

 If they were put in at the top, they 

 would soon be at the entrance. On 

 one hive I had Root sections at the 

 sides, not commenced on, two empty 

 combs for eggs, the balance filled with 

 brood and stores, but they preferred 

 to fill the empty combs with honey, 

 instead of letting the queen fill them 

 with eggs, and would not go into the 

 side sections, though they all had 

 starters. I removed the side sections 

 and gave more empty combs, and 

 they are satisfied for the present. 

 There are no more young bees 

 crawling. 



I saw a laying worker in the act of 

 laying, to-day. I have a young queen 

 in a hive that should have young bees 

 hatching, but she is backward. To- 

 day, on looking for her. I saw a 

 worker, with its head in a cell, sip- 

 ping honey, and from it came an egg 

 just like as tliough it came froui a 

 queen. I watched it until the egg 

 dropped on to the comb. I caught 

 and caged her before she could es- 



