1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



567 



nies of bees, in rather poor condition, owing to the past sea- 

 son's entire failure. He made new hives, and transferred 

 nearly half his bees so as to get them into a different hive, 

 on different sized frames, etc. He destroyed all the old, black 

 combs, and replaced with foundation, using altogether nearly 

 300 pounds of foundation. He made all his increase by build- 

 ing up nuclei, so as not to draw on his working force. He is 

 rather a slender young man, not extra strong, and he sums up 

 23 tons of honey, 200 colonies of bees in excellent condition, 

 and two tons more of honey yet in the hives to extract ; and 

 all this with the assistance of a young boy to chore about, 

 turn the extractor, etc. He let the bees get the start of him 

 in the forepart of the extracting season, and could not keep 

 up with them and extract as often as he should have done. 

 In my opinion, transferring, and giving the bees foundation, 

 was an advantage, as it gave the queens abundance of room 

 to spread themselves, right in the height of the breeding sea- 

 son. The consequence would be an extra-large force of 

 workers to gather the nectar when it came. 



Mr. .loplin's apiary is located in Bell canyon, protected 

 on all sides from winds. His apiary and Mr. Miller's, about 

 one mile south, are the only apiaries in that canyon, and it is 

 an excellent location. 



I had the 10-frame standard Langstroth hive, and S 

 frames in the super, and my plan was to have the whole 10 

 frames filled with brood, and all good and prolific queens, be- 

 fore putting on the supers. If a colony did not fill up with 

 brood soon enough to suit me, I would draw full frames of 

 brood from other colonies, and fill my extracting colonies with 

 brood, and let those that I drew from fill up at their leisure. 

 By this practice I secured 3}^ tons of honey the second season 

 in Ventura, when my neighbors got nothing, and in the fall I 

 had all my bees in excellent condition. I want an extra-large 

 force of workers, and on such a colony I can place two supers, 

 and have both filled, while an ordinary colony will only fill 

 one ; and in many cases I could extract twice from the large 

 colony to once from the other. When we have such an extra- 

 strong colony, they do not restrict the queen in breeding, but 

 take possession of the super at once, and let the queen spread 

 herself, and that suits me. Santa Ana, Calif., Aug 10. 



■^ 



What Dr. Miller Thinks. 



Capacity of Brood-Chambers. — There ought to be some 

 definite understanding as to the way of estimating the capacity 

 of brood-chambers. On page 534, C. W. Dayton says he has 

 arrived at 2,000 cubic inches as the proper size of a brood- 

 chamber. That's just what the lamented Quinby said years 

 ago, but his 2,000 inches meant a very different thing from 

 that of Mr. Dayton. Quinby estimated the space occupied, or 

 to be occupied, by the combs, and Mr. Dayton adds thereto 

 the space occupied by the frames and the space about the 

 frames. 



Mr. Dayton speaks of his 16-frame Gallup hives measur- 

 ing 24x12x12, and calls their capacity 3,466, a mistake of 



10 inches in figuring having probably been made. Now if you 

 estimate the top-bars, bottom-bars and end-bars of those 



11 Jixll^' frames at only \i inch thickness, I think you will 

 find that according to Quinby's way of computing, the cubical 

 contents will be more than 2,773, and you will see that Mr. 

 Dayton makes it about a fourth more than that. 



I believe the right way to measure the cubical contents is 

 Quinby's way, and the measuring should be done inside the 

 frames. If we take the measurement of the hive with no 

 frames in it, then we have no fair means of comparing the 

 contents of two different hives. For in two similar hives, if 

 one has thick and the other thin top-bars, then one will hold 

 less comb than the other. Suppose we take the common Dove- 



tail hive with %-inch thick top-bars, and compare with it 

 another of the same dimensions only >2 the height. Will the 

 smaller contain just ^ as much as the other ? Not by any 

 means, if rightly measured. It will only hold about % as 

 much. 



Brood in 8 and 10 Frame Hives.— On page 534, C. 

 W. Dayton applies the same conditions to the outside combs 

 of 8 and 10 frame hives. As a result of observing hundreds 

 of cases, I find my bees put very much more brood in the out- 

 side combs of the smaller hive, so that instead of figuring that 

 the smaller hive will have two frames less of brood, it will be 

 nearer the truth to say it has one frame less. 



Dark and Light Linden Honet. — In the well-written 

 article on page 535, Mr. Hahman speaks of two kinds of lin- 

 den honey, one of an amber shade, and one of lighter color 

 and inferior flavor. That's something new to me, and I'd like 

 to know whether there is no mistake about it. 



Preventing Swarming. — Kev. W. P. Faylor mentions on 

 page 536 three things he does to help in the prevention of 

 swarms. I have less faith than I formerly had in keeping out 

 drone-brood and in changing brood-frames, but I have a good 

 deal of faith in the plan of giving abundant ventilation under 

 the whole of the hive. Years ago it was a common practice 

 with box-hives, and this summer some of my hives have been 

 raised up and an inch block placed under each corner. 



Cutting Out Drone-Comb. — Isn't there a little misunder- 

 standing between P. A. and Dr. Brown on page 542 ? The 

 Doctor is talking about cutting out drone-comb in the brood- 

 chamber where it will be a detriment, and P. A. is talking 

 about it in a super over an excluder where it can do no harm. 



Strawberry Pollination. — " I want to suggest that it 

 is a little dangerous to tackle these botanical questions unless 

 you are keeping yourself well read up on the subject," says 

 Bro. Abbott, page 543. I well know that, and that's why I 

 am just a little careful about making positive statements, and 

 only ask questions, as in the case of the question I asked him 

 lately, whether a pear seed from a pear tree grafted on a 

 quince would produce a quince tree. I am watching with 

 some interest to see his answer, so as to know what is the up- 

 to-date practice of seeds nowadays. 



But when a man is Ignorant, and wants to keep himself 

 " well read up," 1 suppose he is always accorded the privilege 

 of asking questions of those who are well read up. I confess 

 ignorance ; I'm not well read up, and now I turn hopefully to 

 Bro. Abbott with a question to which I hope he will give a 

 direct answer, yes or no : Can you raise a crop of Crescent 

 strawberries with no staminate blossoms within a mile ? 



High-Geade Hybrid Bees. — James Wood writes that he 

 thinks the apparent clash between himself and B. T. Stone, 

 as commented on by me on page 519, may be reconciled by 

 supposing that by high-grade hybrids Mr. Stone means what 

 we call leather-colored Italians. It hardly would seem so 

 from his speaking of " 3 and 5 banded bees," and then saying 

 hybrids are better, that he could be confusing the two, but 

 Mr. Stone can say for himself whether he means 3-banded 

 leather-colored, pure Italians, or hybrids. Mr. Wood thinks 

 if I could see some of the apiaries of hybrids in eastern New 

 York, and then step over the mountains into Cary's Italian 

 apiary, and see him work without veil, and rarely get a sting, 

 and then see his bees work beside these hybrids, I would jump 

 at a conclusion pretty quick. Marengo, III. 



1®" See " Bee-Keeper's Guide" offer on page 575. 



