576 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Section boxes for comb honey are so 

 convenient and popular, tliat the best 

 possible system of usins^ them should 

 be adopted ; and be of a sufficient 

 number of different sizes to meet the 

 requirements of all — for home use and 

 market— which should be of such pro- 

 portionate dimensions as to be usable 

 m the same hive without change or 

 alteration of liives. 



Comb foundation of pure wax iu 

 botli brood and surplus departments 

 are too valuable to be neglected, and 

 interwoven wires to hold it lirmly in 

 place in the center of frames for brood 

 and extracting, are too useful to be 

 rejected until something better is 

 provided. 



D Cushions or packing of chaff, saw- 

 dust, moss or other porous std)stances, 

 or confined air, may be used to econo- 

 mize heat in cold seasons and climates, 

 and occupy space on the top and on all 

 sides of the brood chamber, used for 

 surplus storage in the honey season, 

 or gained by reducing the size of the 

 brood department to correspond tg the 

 contracted size of the cluster of bees 

 in winter and spring. 



I will here summarize some of the 

 essential points as follows : It must 

 be perfectly adapted to either large or 

 small colonies of bees, at all seasons 

 and in all climates. To secure this the 

 brood department must be deep and 

 capable of any required amount of 

 contraction or expansion, on all sides 

 alike, by removing or adding comb 

 frames. It must supply abundant 

 room for surplus storage as closely as 

 possible to the brood combs, with free 

 continuous passages. It must be 

 equally adapted to comb or extracted 

 honey"; using sections or frames for 

 surplus, as may be reciuired, without 

 change or alteration of parts. It must 

 be easy to manipulate for all purposes, 

 with the least possible danger of hurt- 

 ing or angering the bees. It must be 

 of simple construction, rejecting all 

 unnecessary parts and complications, 

 such as "entrance blocks, second 

 stories, division boards, separators, 

 honey boards, cases, clamps, racks, 

 crowders, etc. There are several 

 minor points that I will not stop to 

 enumerate, but all are in harmony 

 with the above. 



I am looking for the " coming hive." 

 and shall continue to do so until it 

 appears. To show that looking with 

 me is not idle watching and waiting 

 to see what others are iloing, I may be 

 allowed to state that I have at several 

 different times devised, constructed 

 and tested hives that embodied my 

 best ideas at the time, and now have 

 hives in use that seem to be right in 

 plan, and only require to be perfected 

 in the details. 

 South Northfield, Vt. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Shall we Clip our Queens' "Wings? 



W. H. STEWART. 



It may, perhaps, be thought by some 

 that enough has already been written 

 on the subject of the coming bee, but 

 when we consider that the question of 

 financial success or failure m bee cul- 



ture must eventually turn on this one 

 point, we realize that we cannot in- 

 vestigate the matter too closely. 



Wliat is the coming bee V It cannot 

 be the common brown bee ; the im- 

 portation of the Italian, and other 

 races of queens in such vast numbers 

 has fixed the fate of the old brown 

 bee. W]\i\t is left of the pure brown 

 blood must soon be superseded by the 

 various mixed breeds, and soon will 

 only be known in history. 



We are of the opinion that it will 

 not be the pure Italian, from the fact 

 that the 'new broom" has become 

 somewhat old and fails to "sweep 

 clean." The fever for bright yellow 

 stripes is fast cooling dbwn, and 

 honey producing bee-keepers are be- 

 ginning to leani that a cross between 

 the different races gives better workers 

 and more honey. Some (jueen breed- 

 ers are already awake on this import- 

 ant point, and are putting into the 

 market queens that are bred for pay- 

 ing (pudities rather than fancy colors ; 

 and there can be no doubt but the 

 coming bee will be much superior to 

 any that we now have, if we manage 

 wisely. 



It will be well, however, for us all 

 to be mindful that after all the most 

 careful and judicious crossings have 

 been made, we may, by other improper 

 management, defeat the very purpose 

 for which we are laboring. If the 

 bees were left to manage their own 

 affairs, in their own natural way, then 

 the law of natural selection would 

 dictate that none l)ut the fittest would 

 survive ; and that " survival of the 

 fittest " means " improvement of the 

 stock." That improvement would be 

 slow, yet it would be sm-e— all the 

 same. "The most prolific queens would 

 produce the most voung swarms, and 

 the best winged drones would meet 

 the most queens ; and also, the best 

 workers, would produce more combs 

 and store more honey for breeding 

 and winter supplies. But when we 

 take control of them and dictate what 

 shall be their conditions and sur- 

 rovmdings, then it is better that we go 

 a little slow and careful, lest we in 

 our eagerness to advance our own 

 present interest or convenience, do a 

 great injury to the bees ; for when 

 bees are injured, then it is that api- 

 culture suffers at a corresponding rate. 

 Longevity is a most desirable qual- 

 itv in the coining bee, and anything 

 tliat shortens up "the working days of 

 the bee is all the while sapping the 

 very foundation of bee-keeping. It is 

 well understood that our present bees 

 live from September until April or 

 ;May following, and be it understood 

 that it is during these cold months 

 that bees in the northern climate are 

 subject to disease consequent to cold 

 and confinement ; and yet while strug- 

 gling against these unfavorable con- 

 ditions, they are found living tJ or 

 even 8 montlis, yet in June and July, 

 and a part of Slay and August, they 

 only live about a weeks. Now, why is 

 this great difference in the longevity 

 of bees during the different seasons 

 of the year V it cannot be that proper 

 exercise in the open air is what 

 shortens up their life in summer, for 

 we know that when they are diseased 



in winter a good fly in the open air 

 restores health ana (juietude. This 

 fact alone is ample proof that out- 

 door exercise is not what shortens up 

 the life of the bee in summer. One 

 writer has expressed his belief that 

 bees in summer work themselves to 

 death. I cannot agree that this can 

 be true from tlie fact that natural law 

 dictates that all animals live by their 

 own efforts ; and we find them pros- 

 perous just in proportion as they are 

 able to surmount obstacles and over- 

 come difficulties that they encounter. 

 Labor promotes health, but indolence 

 weakens it. 



Each creature is endowed with fac- 

 ulties or members, the functions of 

 which are adapted to the performance 

 of the work ot procuring a livelihood, 

 and it any one or more of these mem- 

 bers are by accident or otherwise dis- 

 abled, then the creature labors to a 

 disadvantage, and its life is shortened 

 just in proportion to that disability 

 or inability to procure a livelihood. 

 A proper exercise of any one or more 

 of these members increases their 

 strength and dimensions, but inac- 

 tivity renders them weak and dwarf- 

 ed ; and long continued disuse reduces 

 them to mere rudimentary conditions. 



While the above is true, it is 

 equally true that over-work or exces- 

 sive strain would injure any member 

 of the bee or any other animal. I 

 hold that incompetent wings and 

 wing power is the chief cause of the 

 sliortness of the summer life of the 

 bee. The first indications that such 

 bees are failing in summer, is the torn 

 and ragged condition of their wings. 

 It would appear reasonable to any 

 rational man that if one bee having 

 perfect wings, and another having its 

 wings torn and ragged were at the 

 same locality and a long distance from 

 home, each equally loaded and having 

 to face an opposing wind, there 

 would be a survival of the fittest, while 

 the other would perish. 



We have no proof that the general 

 health of the worker bee, at the age of 

 .5 or 6 weeks in summer, is more im- 

 paired than that of the bee of the 

 same age, in inactive life, in fall or 

 winter ; or that the former would die 

 any yoimger in summer, if it could 

 have perfect wings, than would the 

 latter in confinement. It is true that 

 the former is exposed to birds and 

 storms, but it is equally true that the 

 latter suffers equally as much from 

 confinement and its attendant results. 



Let us consider for a moment what 

 we are doing with our bees. Some 

 are expending thousands of dollars 

 and years of valuable time in breeding 

 up bees that show the greatest num- 

 ber of and most brilliant stripes. 

 Others are striving to produce large 

 bodies; others trying to produce 

 tongues long enough to work on red 

 clover ; others trying to produce a red 

 clover having shallow tubes to fit the 

 tongue of the bee ; others (more prac- 

 tical) are working for the production 

 of bees that manifest the greatest 

 honey-gathering qualities. All seem 

 to be hopeful that they will attain to 

 those desirable ends. . 



Now please allow me to ask : What 

 would we think of a man that would 



