880 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Fur the Amerlcun Bee Journal. 



That "Long Idea" Hive. 



G. M. noOLlTTLE. 



On page 223, A. W. R. asks why I 

 do not adopt and practice the method 

 used in getting tlie 506 pounds of ex- 

 tracted lioney spoken of on page llo. 

 Ten or more years agoD. L. Adair, of 

 Kentucky, was quite a prominent bee- 

 keeper and writer for the bee papers. 

 He used and advocated a long liive to 

 be used on the principle of spreading 

 the frames out horizontally instead of 

 tiering one hive above the other, 

 claiming that, thereby, a colony of 

 bees could be kept in a normal condi- 

 tion, and wliile in said condition no 

 swarming would be the result. This 

 hive lie termed the " long idea" hive. 

 Being always ready to test all the 

 " new ideas," I made two hives four 

 feet long, during the winter of 1873, 

 but did not put them in use until the 

 summer of 1877. One of these 1 

 worked for extracted honey, as given 

 on page 11.5. and the other for comb 

 honey, on Mr. Adair's plan. 



The one worked for comb honey 

 swarmed, and after repeated trials to 

 keep them at work in the 4-foot hive, 

 I let them 'lave their own way wlien 

 they had swarmed for tlie fifth time, 

 and hived them in an empty hive. 



The one worked for extracted honey 

 did splendidly, but anotlier worked 

 on the "tiering up" plan did nearly as 

 ■well, and by practical knowledge I 

 learned that I could work a two or 

 three story hive much more easily 

 than I could this long one. To take 

 the frames out, the person's back must 

 be bent just enough to make it the 

 l|ardest kind of work, and the bees 

 which were shaken off the combs 

 would crawl all over the sides and 

 top of the hive in such numbers as to 

 make it almost impossible to close it 

 again. With the two story hive the 

 bees could be shaken on top of the 

 frames in the lower hive, when they 

 would crowd below until the hive was 

 closed, and tlie operator could stand 

 erect while at work attheliive. But 

 the worst thing about it was that I 

 lost both colonies during the next 

 winter, after fixing them in good 

 shape for winter, as I considered. I 

 have tried the hives since with no 

 better success, so have torn them to 

 pieces and made others of them. 



A. \V. R. fiuther wants to know 

 " what became of the 70,000 workers 

 in winter." As tlie honey season 

 drew to a close, or about the first of 

 August, the queen ceased to lay in 

 all but about six of the central 

 frames, so that by the first of Novem- 

 ber the hive contained no more bees 

 tlian others having only nine frames 

 during the season. The worker bee 

 lives but about 4.5 days during the 

 summer months, hence it comes to 

 pass, as soon as the queen ceases her 

 extra proliticness, that the workers 



rapidly diminish, till but an ordinary 

 colony exists for winter. He tliat 

 over-rules all things made the honey 

 bees so that as summw approaches 

 their instinct leads tliem to usher a 

 host of bees into existence to gather 

 the honey about to be secreted, and 

 as tills passes by, the same instinct 

 leads them to piepare for winter, by 

 decreasing their numbers. In this, 

 as well as in many other things, we 

 see how perfect was the work of the 

 Creator. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Mlchlifun Farmer. 



Selecting Location Before Swarming. 



rilOF. A. J. COOK. 



I send you this interesting letter of 

 Mr. F. E. Delano's, one of our grad- 

 uates, and a farmer at Oxford, Mich. 

 A case almost identical is reported 

 from England. This seems to prove 

 that scouts are sent out before swarm- 

 ing to pre-empt the future home, and 

 that clustering just after the swarm 

 issues, is not to give time to look up a 

 home, but more probably to give the 

 queen, which has not tried her wings 

 for months — probably years — a brief 

 rest after tlie short flight, from hive 

 to cluster, before the longer one is 

 commenced. 



OxFOKD, June 24. 1883. 

 To Prof. A. J. Cook. 



As you are now interested in im- 

 parting what is known about the 

 " little busy bee " to those who are 

 still nervous about shaking hands 

 with them, and still more so about 

 having them tenants of the same 

 house. I will tell you of an interest- 

 ing occurrence that has taken place 

 here, and in which a swarm of bees 

 are especially interesfed. We are en- 

 gaged in rebuilding a part of our 

 house ; the upright has not been torn 

 down, and on the side where we are 

 putting up the new part the joists run 

 througli the wall. There happened to 

 be some holes next to the ends of two 

 or three. Friday afternoon it was 

 very warm ; for a long time I had 

 noticed that there were bees around 

 the house, and had made some casual 

 remarks concerning them, but paid 

 no attention otherwise to their cim- 

 tinual hmn. Finally we looked 

 around, and found that to all appear- 

 ances a swarm of bees had gone into 

 the house under the chamber Hoor. 

 As a swarm of bees make considerable 

 noise when tliey fly, and as we had 

 heard no unusual or increased amount 

 of humming, we concluded that they 

 must have come when we were at 

 dinner. Again, we could hardly 

 credit that conclusion, for it was halt- 

 past three before we had heard a bee 

 at all. That night all we could do 

 was to make conjectures concerning 

 their arrival. The mystery was sat- 

 isfactorily explained about 9 o'clock 

 Saturday morning. About half-past 

 eight we noticed that there was not a 

 bee around, so did not know but that 

 they had left. Well, they had, but 

 not for good, for about nine the 

 swarm really came, and this time 

 they made noise enough. It was a 



big swarm, too. Now, for the con- 

 clusion : The bees that came Friday 

 were either a scouting party sent in 

 advance, or else they came to clean 

 out and make ready,' which, I do not 

 know ; but think probably the place 

 had been selected before, and that 

 this regiment had been sent on to 

 make ready for the swarm, for they 

 were very busy until nijjlit. Then 

 Saturday morning the regiment went 

 back and piloted the swarm to the 

 new found home. 



Whether the swarm came direct 

 here from the hive or not, I do not 

 know. • There are bees kept three- 

 quarters of a mile south of here. I 

 shall go and see if a swarm left there 

 Saturday morning. 



This is positive proof in this case, 

 and I suppose it is so in all, or most 

 at least, that the place is selected be- 

 fore the swarm go to it. I have been 

 minute in my description because the 

 circumstance was interesting, and I 

 never remember of reading or hear- 

 ing anything positive in regard to the 

 matter before. 



Fred E. Delano. 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



The Traffic in Queens. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Some 20 years ago a new race of 

 bees was introduced to American 

 apiarists. This race was called Ital- 

 ian. They were plainly and distinctly 

 marked physically, and possessed also 

 distinct traits of character. Some of 

 their characteristics were, when com- 

 pared with our old-time tried Ger- 

 mans, found to be superior, and some 

 inferior. The common voice of the 

 majority of apiarists pronounced 

 them best, all points considered. Then 

 came a demand for these bees. It 

 was found that they readily lived and 

 mingled with our Germans, and that 

 to put an Italian queen in the place 

 of a German queen, would change 

 the whole colony in a few weeks. 

 Then there came a demand for 

 queens. 



The rearing of queens to fill that 

 demand was the next effect. The 

 breeder began to select colonies of 

 pure Italians to breed from, and as 

 lie had more than one pure colony, 

 lie began to look about for some way 

 to decide which colony he should use. 

 There is not on record a case where a 

 cent was thrown up, " heads or tails," 

 to settle on the colony to select eggs 

 or cells from. Quicker than a flash 

 the master's good sense said, " this 

 one gathers the most honey, and be- 

 haves the best, and, of course, I shall 

 use it." Then and there a new sys- 

 tem of breeding was born. "Spon- 

 taneous generation." Breeding for 

 qualities began, never to cease as 

 long as man and bees remain in 

 iiartnership in the production of 

 iioney. Years rolled on, and no one 

 thought of improving any race of 

 bees except the Italian. 



Quite often controversies came uf 

 as to which race was, " taken all in 

 all," the best. Then the go»d and 

 bad qualities of both were ably shown 



