PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK 



AT $1.00 PER ANNUM. 



SStli Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., DEC. 5, 1895. 



No. 49. 



Cot;)tnbuted /Vrticles^ 



On Iint>ortant Apiariaji Subjects. 



Hive-ContractioH — Wearing Bee-Veils. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent sends two questions to me, which he 

 says he wishes me to answer in the American Bee Journal. 

 The first is : 



"To how great a degree shall we contract our hives when 

 the surplus apartment is on '?" 



This is a question often asked of me, and perhaps a few 

 words regarding the matter may not be amiss, even though the 

 subject has often been discussed through the columns of this 

 and other bee-papers. Undoubtedly I have practiced contrac- 

 tion as long, if not longer, than most persons in the apicultu- 

 ral pursuit, yet I do not practice contraction of the brood- 

 chamber as soon as the sections are put on, as some do, for I 

 hold that there is a proper time for this part of our work, as 

 well as in all else we do ; and this time is governed by the time 

 our surplus comes in. If we contract too soon, we cut off the 

 supply of bees that we must have to gather our crop of honey; 

 and if too late, then we spend our crop of honey in rearing a 

 useless lot of consumers. 



I give the queen all the room she will occupy till the main 

 honey harvest commences, when the brood-chamber is con- 

 tracted down to about 61)0 or 700 square inches of comb 

 space, according as a given number of frames make it. I usu- 

 ally use but six Gallup frames in time of contraction, which 

 give 690 square inches of frame or comb space. These six 

 Gallup frames would about equal five Langstroth frames, and 

 were I using that hive ( the Langstroth ) I should use but five 

 frames, when practicing the contraction plan. Sometimes I 

 use but four, and often only five Gallup frames, this being 

 governed by the size of the colony, contracting all to suit their 

 numbers, so that the most honey may be obtained while the 

 honey harvest lasts. 



In taking away the extra brood, if a few bees are taken 

 with it, and the hives in which it is placed closed tight for a 

 few days, new colonies can be formed with it, or such can be 

 used in forming nuclei. 



Now, there is one thing that I do along this line of con- 

 traction that no one else practices, that I know of, still they 

 may do so and I not know it. As soon as the harvest of white 

 honey is over, 1 takeoff the surplus arrangement, take out the 

 dummies, and fill out the hives with combs the same as they 

 were when I was rearing bees for the harvest. This I do for 

 two reasons, viz : 



1st, honey has proven to be equally as good for my bees to 

 winter on as sugar syrup, and on the whole I prefer it to 

 the syrup ; so if any honey is stored after this, it is in the combs 

 where I want it for wintering purposes. 



2nd, the enlarging of the brood-nest at this time gives me 

 plenty of young bees for winter, and this is really necessary 

 where the contraction has been closer than six frames. Six 

 frames will give plenty of bees for winter, if the bees have not 

 crowded the queen with honey ; but as a general rule, there is 

 nearly honey enough to winter the colony on where that num- 

 ber of frames has been used, with the Italian bees. In this 

 case the empty frames are placed in the center of the hive, 



while if the frames are filled with brood they are placed on the 

 outside. If brood is lacking, and it is getting late in the sea- 

 son, I frequently take the brood from the nuclei I made with it, 

 when formerly taken away from the colony, and give all the 

 brood the nuclei have back to them, using the nuclei in rear- 

 ing queens, so that, when I get through queen-rearing in the 

 fall, the bees of the nucleus have nearly all died of old 

 age. In this way I get my bees in good condition for winter, 

 having very little uniting or feeding to do. 



THE WEARING OP BEE-VEILS. 



The second question is: "In my work with the bees 

 I wear a bee-veil, but a neighbor calls me a 'tender-foot' 

 for doing so, and says that I will never succeed unless I throw 

 away that veil. Do the successful bee-keepers wear veils, or 

 not?" 



A few of our fraternity seem to think that bee-veils can be 

 dispensed with ; but I think that the time has been in the life 

 of nearly every one when a veil would have been a great con- 

 solation, if they would own the real truth in the matter. I 

 can get along very well the most of the time without a veil, 

 but occasionally I want one very much; and in order to have one 

 just when I want it most, I generally wear one all the time 

 when at work in the bee-yard. Besides the stings, I am of a 

 peculiar nervous disposition, so that anything like something 

 crawling on my neck when I am warm and sweaty, irritates 

 me in the extreme, and even if bees never stung me I would 

 wear a veil on hot days when extracting honey, to keep the 

 young crawling bees and flies off my neck and face. 



Then, again, there is a certain feeling of safety from the 

 unexpected anger of bees that gives one great confidence when 

 with the bees, that is worth more to me than all the rest. 

 When my veil is on, I work with the bees with no more fear 

 of stings than I would feel of being kicked by my faithful 

 horse when cleaning him off with the brush ; but as sure as I 

 try to work with it off, I am on the lookout for what may hap- 

 pen, all the time. I have been stung very severely several 

 times in my life, getting over 100 stings in less than a minute 

 atone time; and when any one says it does not hurt to be 

 stung I am inclined to think that person has a strange way of 

 telling the truth. 



The veil, as I wear it, is little if any in the way, for it is 

 made throughout of bobinet sewed to the rim of an ordinary 

 chip hat. I prefer a hat of this kind, all things considered, as 

 the white color does not absorb the heat, and it is sufficiently 

 firm to resist the wind to a better degree than a hat of any 

 other subtsance and lightness. The bobinet which I use is 

 that whose mesh is made in a hexagonal form, for this seems to 

 obstruct the vision less than any other form, even though the 

 square form of mesh may be much coarser. 



To fasten around the neck, I throw the back part of the 

 veil back over the shoulders as far as may be, then run each 

 hand under the suspender in front, grasping the veil, when it is 

 drawn with the hands out under the suspenders at the sides. 

 This draws the veil out from the face all around, so it does not 

 touch the person at all, leaves a free circulation of air, and is 

 held as by a vise under the suspenders, if they are of the kind 

 which have rubber in them. Borodino, N. Y. 



E-very Present Subscriber of the Bee .lournal 



should be an agent for it, and get all 

 scribe for it. See offers on page 754 



rers possible to sub- 



