170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 14, 



the generation to follow us will be as far in advance of us as 

 we are in advance of our predecessors, for such is the law God 

 hath given to govern the human race. We cannot remain 

 where we are — we must either advance or retrograde. 



Dr. Marshall's address before the Southwest Texas Bee- 

 Convention brought fresh to my mind the ideas of my child- 

 hood. Dr. Marshall is 14 years my senior, yet I distinctly 

 remember those old superstitions. It is a long time since I 

 have heard any reference to a king-bee, and I should be 

 pleased to meet the "king-bee of Texas." I would also be 

 pleased if I had a picture of Dr. C. C. Miller hung in my 

 house. I think a pleasant face, such as the Doctor has, would 

 cheer a man when the cares of life press heavily upon him. 



I am amused when I read the difference of opinion on the 

 hive question. I think the hive to be used depends largely 

 upon location. Where bees can be wintered on the summer 

 stands, I should prefer the Langstroth hive, but in this cold 

 climate I think a deep hive is better for wintering, but there 

 are so many objections to a deep hive that the advantage in 

 wintering will not overcome those objections. A deep hive 

 that is so constructed as to contain the same number of cubic 

 inches as the Langstroth hive places the sections too far from 

 the entrance and makes extra work for the bees to crawl up 

 through, and there cannot be as many sections on such a hive 

 and they must Ije taken off oftener, and this disturbs the bees ; 

 besides, they do not store as much honey. 



Last spring I was obliged to take my bees out of the cellar 

 in March; the weather was warm for about a week, and then 

 turned very cold for about three weeks, and when it became 

 warm again I found one of my best colonies dead. As there 

 is no timber here for a wind-break, I have built a kind of shed 

 as a shelter for my bees, open only to the south, and I found 

 the bees in this dead colony all clustered at the top of the 

 brood-combs, and no honey where they were, but there was 

 nearly honey enough in the back part of the hive where the 

 sun did not shine on it to winter a good colony. Now, if I 

 had had that colony in a tall or deep hive, I would not have 

 lost them ; and yet, for all purposes I like the Langstroth 

 10-frame hive the best ; but the best hive is the one that any 

 bee-keeper likes the best and has the best success with. Thus 

 far (Feb. 2) the winter has not been very severe, and my bees 

 are wintering well. Keeville, Minn. 



CONDUCTED BY 



AIRS. JENNIE A.TCHLEY. BEEVILLE. TES.. 



Transferring and Building Up for the Honey-Flow. 



I have purchased quite a lot of bees in box-hives. Our 

 fruit blooms the last of March, and poplar the first week in 

 April, basswood June 10 to July 15, sourwood July 1 to the 

 15th, then comes the celebrated mountain or black sumac 

 that always supplies our bees with winter stores. If I trans- 

 fer the bees the last week in March, dividing them up into 

 2-frame nuclei, giving each nucleus about a quart of bees and 

 a queen, adding frames of comb or foundation, will they build 

 up in time to catch the basswood or linden honey-flow? 



Tracy City, Tenn. W. M. Scruggs. 



Friend Scruggs, I think you can build up your bees from 

 March 20 to June 10, ready for the basswood flow, especially 

 ff you will feed right along, should the bees fail to get honey 

 enough to breed up on. 



Eight or Ten Frame Hives ? 



As many beginners are now asking which is best, the 8 or 

 10 frame hive, I will say that I do not believe it will matter 

 very much which you use of the two, but as the 8-frame hive 

 is fast coming into general use, and may soon be a standard, 

 and as standard goods are cheaper, as a rule, I will say use 8- 

 frame hives, and if you can't get room enough on the ground 

 floor, put on an up-stairs, or two stories if need be, and you 

 will have all the room needed. 



It is best to settle down on some hive as you start, and as 

 locality has something to do with large or small hives, I would 

 suggest that you lind out, if possible, what kind of a hive, or 

 size, the nearest bee-keeper to you is using and making a suc- 

 cess with, and use that size, and you will not go far wrong. 



The time has now arrived when we see plainer than ever 



the necessity of a uniform frame, as the trade and traffic in 

 bees is growing more and more every year, and those who 

 have to sell get more for their bees if they are in the regular 

 standard Hoffman or Langstroth Simplicity frame. Whatever 

 hive you use, I would advise the use of the standard frame. 



I will venture to add here what I have often said, that it 

 is not the hive altogether that is to be depended upon for a 

 crop of honey, it is the bee-keeper ; and if you use a hive that 

 you can contract and enlarge when you choose, and use the 

 standard frame, you are all right as far as the hive goes. But 

 it won't go far without bees and a bee-master. 



My advice would be : Get your bees in condition to catch 

 your honey-flow ; use a hive that you can catch a big crop in, 

 if it should suddenly run upon you; and then smile while you 

 take it off the hives. That is what I call real enjoyment. 



Jennie Atchley. 



A Report for 1894. 



Mr.s. Atchley: — My report for 1894 is 7 colonies in the 

 spring, increased to 11, and extracted 430 pounds of honey, 

 60 pounds of it being comb honey. I sold about half of the 

 extracted for 10 cents per pound, the rest for 8% cents. Bees 

 are doing well. I don't think I will have to feed any this sea- 

 son, as my bees have plenty of stores yet, though we are hav- 

 ing some pretty cold weather now (Jan. 30). We have had 5 

 inches of snow on the ground for three days. 



Grandview, Tex. W. E. Waggoner. 



Time Necessary to Rear a Queen. 



Mrs. Atchley : — Speaking about the queens, you have 

 said the following : " Three days in the egg, one day larva, 

 12 days a hatched queen. Now count and see if this is not 

 16 days." American Bee Journal, Vol. XXXIII, page 652. 

 On page 815, you repeat the same theory, which either I did 

 not understand clearly, or, if I understood it aright, I can 

 with difficulty accord it with the theory that is taught in 

 Europe. Our theory is : Three days in the egg, 5 J^ larva, 

 and 8 J^ days chrysalis; that gives our hatched queen the 

 17th day. Jaak M. von Emelen. 



Belgium, Europe. 



Friend E., I think you musthave misunderstood my mean- 

 ing. I was giving instructions on queen-rearing, and of 

 course did not carry out the different periods, etc., in the de- 

 velopment of the queen-bee. I meant 3 days in the egg, using 

 a larva one day old to rear queens with, or graft with larva 

 only one day old, making 4 days, and 12 days more a hatched 

 queen, making 16 days in all. I did not mean that we could 

 expect a perfect hatched queen in 12 days from the egg, but 

 16 days. I ought to have been more definite in these state- 

 ments. Sixteen days is about right. But we have it on rec- 

 ord here where we have perfect hatched queens in 15}^ days 

 from the egg in warm weather. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Lm. C. C. JUILLER. M:j\.RENGO, ILl^. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.1 



Wintering Bees Under Snow — Black Bees. 



In the American Bee Journal for Jan. 24, you state that 

 if bees are buried under snow more than a week or two it 

 works mischief. We do not find it so here. In fact, we con- 

 sider it a blessing to have them buried under the snow during 

 the cold part of the winter, which is over two months ; but in 

 March it is not safe, unless the snow is removed from the en- 

 trance, in case it should get warm enough for a flight. I have 

 wintered them on the summer stands for the last five winters, 

 packed in oat chaff, and buried under two to three feet of 

 snow from two to three months at a time. We are having a 

 severe winter here in northern Wisconsin. It has been from 

 103 to 30-' below, off and on, for the last three weeks— Feb. 

 1, 48", Feb. 2, 41°, Feb. 3, 46° below zero at 7 o'clock a.m., 

 and 91 colonies of bees on the summer stands, which seem to 

 winter splendidly. They weighed from 60 to 90 pounds per 

 hive when i)acked last fall, being in 10-frame dovetailed 

 hives. 



