1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



55 



outside. A colony becomes queenless, or weak in some way, 

 gets discouraged, and then the wax-moth comes in, and only 

 hurries up things a little in a colony that would go to the dogs 

 anyhow. That being the case, the thing to do is to keep 

 colonies strong by seeing that they never become queenless. 

 If a colony by any means becomes very weak, examination 

 will generally show that it is queenless, or perhaps, worse 

 still, that it has a bad queen, or a lot of laying workers. Very 

 often the best thing is to break it up, giving bees and combs 

 to other colonies. 



Sometimes, however, you may have a colony that seems 

 to be so lacking in ambition that they will allow the worms 

 to get the start of them, and in that case you would better 

 change their queen for one of better stock. Italians are much 

 better than blacks for keeping worms cleared out. 



Basswood Sprouts from Old Stutaps. 



If I cut basswood sprouts from the side of old stumps 

 (where they have started out), and set them out, will they 

 live and grow ? Or will I have to dig those from the ground, 

 which have roots ? Michigan. 



Answer. — I have some little trees that were started by 

 cutting sprouts away from the stumps, but as I didn't do the 

 work myself, I'm not sure how much root was with them. I 

 think, however, that no great amount of root is needed. If 

 there is but little root, cut away the top to correspond, for a 

 great bushy top makes too heavy a draft on a small amount 

 of root, and both may die. 



Questions About Alsike Clover. 



1. If I seed a certain piece of land to Alsike clover, year 

 after year, will the last crop be as good as the tirst, provided 

 the season is the same? 



2. Does Alsike clover benefit land any? 



Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. Not unless you add something to the soil 

 to make up for what is taken from it. 



2. All the clovers draw material from the air, and in that 

 way are beneficial ; besides, the roots loosen up the ground, 

 especially with such strong growing kinds as sweet clover, 

 which, when the roots decay, leave the ground full of little 

 canals running downward. 



Planting Basswood in Nebraska. 



There are no basswood trees in this part of the country. 

 Do you think they would grow here if planted ? Would you 

 advise me to get i to 8 inch trees, or some that are 4 to 6 

 feet high? J. C. K. 



Glenwood, Nebr. 



Answer. — I think basswood trees will grow in any part of 

 Nebraska where other trees will grow, and I certainly should 

 give them a fair trial. As to size, if I were setting out an 

 apple orchard, I would prefer trees three feet high to those 

 ten feet high, at the same price. Simply because with the 

 smaller trees I would be more likely to get roots proportioned 

 to the size of the tree. I have been told that the same rule 

 does not hold with basswoods, that large trees do as well or 

 better than small ones. Perhaps they do, if special pains be 

 taken to preserve all the roots. But the matter of price would 

 cut some figure in the case. The larger trees will cost much 

 more, and the transportation charges will be very much less on 

 little trees. So you see you must take all these things into 

 consideration. On the whole, I think you may run less risk 

 not to have very large trees. 



Catfzidmr) Bccdott}^ 



Conducted by "BEE-MASTER." 



Introduction of the Movable-Frame Hive Into 

 Canada. 



In his excellent essay on "Bee-Keeping in Canada," con- 

 tributed by Mr. McKnight to the last meeting of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Association, and published in the 



American Bee Journal of Dec. 20, 1894:, the following para- 

 graph occurs: 



"When the movable-frame first came into use in Canada 

 I am unable to say; nor do I know who introduced it. Both 

 it and the extractor were known of and their advantages un- 

 derstood, some years before either came into general use. D. 

 A. Jones was among the first to extensively employ them and 

 was unquestionably the tirst to demonstrate the honey-pro- 

 ducing capabilities of this country. In 1879 he placed on 

 exhibition, at the Toronto Industrial Fair, 10 tons of honey, 

 the product of his own apiary." 



I can state a few particulars of interest in regard to the 

 early history of the movable-frame hive in Canada, though 

 I am unable to say when it first came into use, nor who in- 

 troduced it. But in the Canada Farmer of April 15, 1864, 

 an illustrated article appeared under the heading, "A Good 

 Bee-Hive." Shortly after the appearance of this article, I 

 had an opportunity of seeing the hive in actual use on the 

 premises of the late James Lesslie, Esq., of Egliiiton, near 

 Toronto. This hive was made by Mr. P. A. Scott, an ingeni- 

 ous mechanic living in Yorkville, then a suburb of Toronto, 

 but now part of the city. I think Mr. Lesslie furnished the 

 patterns for it from an English book on bee-keeping. It stood 

 on a frame-work a foot and a half or so above the ground, 

 with an interior compartment of glass, and an outer case of 

 wood, having a lid hinged from behind. It was not adapted to 

 the climate of Canada, being too unwieldy to be carried into 

 the cellar, and not sutBciently protected for out-door winter- 

 ing. Besides these objections, it was too costly for common 

 use. 



The following fall, Messrs. J. H. Thomas (fe Bros, exhib- 

 ted their "Movable-Comb Observing Bee-Hive" at the Pro- 

 vincial Exhibition. It was a much more practical 

 hive than Mr. Scott's, and had many excellent 

 features. The movable-frame idea was copied from 

 the Langstroth hive, but it was much deeper than the Lang- 

 stroth, and was constructed on the principle of allowing the 

 bees to carry their stores from the entrance and at the 

 same time form a natural cluster without coming into contact 

 with the bottom-board. The comb-frame bearings were bev- 

 elled to a sharp edge to prevent the bees from glueing the 

 frames fast. The flat ends of the frames projected about an 

 inch beyond the sharp bevelled edges, enabling the bee- 

 keepers to get a hold of them without interfering with 

 the bees. Outside the ends of the frames there were revolv- 

 ing bands pivoted on cleats outside the hive, which facilitated 

 the removal of the frames, and served as upper alighting- 

 boards, giving the bees a short route to the honey-boxes 

 during the storing season. There was also a swinging and 

 adjustable bottom-board pivoted on screws at the front of the 

 hive, enabling dead bees to be cleaned out in spring without 

 taking out the frames. 



This was the first movable-frame hive I used, and on 

 adopting it in the spring of 1865, I soon transferred all my 

 box-hive colonies into it, and found great satisfaction in its 

 use as compared with the box-hive. Mr. J. H. Thomas, the 

 inventor of this hive, was a thorough bee-keeper, and did 

 much to promote the pursuit in Canadian beedom before D. 

 A. Jones had begun to keep bees at all. His brother, H. M., 

 was an enthusiast in regard to Alsike clover, and did much to 

 disseminate its culture as a honey-producing plant, both in 

 Canada and the United States. Both the Messrs. Thomas re- 

 moved ultimately to the United States, J. H. became a mag- 

 netic doctor, settled in Rochester, N. Y., and was present at 

 the North American Bee-Keepers' convention in Rochester, 

 some years ago, where I last met him. I do not know in what 

 part of the Union H. M. settled, but perhaps he will report 

 himself among other "lost sheep" referred to in the last 

 number of the American Bee Journal. 



Shortly after the introduction of the Thomas hive, Mr. 

 S. H. Mitchell, of St. Mary's, Out., produced a hive, with 

 frames on the Langstroth principle but deeper even than the 

 Thomas hive, and V-shaped at the bottom, to cause bees that 

 died during the winter to fall entirely outside the hive, so as 

 not to befoul the interior. Mr. Mitchell's hive was used by 

 many western Ontario bee-keepers. 



I fancy the Jones hive was the next to become widely used 

 in Canada. At the present time a great variety of hives is 

 here. Though the Langstroth hive, as to dimensions, is the 

 standard in the United States, I think it can hardly be re- 

 garded as the standard in Canada, for hives varying in depth 

 from the Heddon to the Jones, which, I think, is the deepest 

 now in use, may be found in the apiaries of Canadian bee- 

 dom. 



