1SS3 



GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



441 



likely that those who have bad luck in win- 

 tering will be very much safer if they do the 

 feeding without dividing. Go into winter 

 quarters with monstrous stocks crammed 

 with stores of granulated sugar.* As for 

 ourselves, we sell bees by the pound almost 

 every month in the year. Of course, we do 

 not want to sell old bees, nor try to winter 

 them, and therefore brood-rearing should be 

 kept constantly going, until October at least. 

 I know a great many are thinking about the 

 matter you suggest, for bees are offered me 

 at almost any price I see tit to give. 



OUR GOOD FRIEND li. li. LANGSTROTH. 



HE TALKS TO US ABOUT WOKKING CUB HIVES FOR EX- 

 TRACTED HONEY, AND OTHER MATTERS. 



^ THANK you for your kind comments on my let- 

 Jl|[ ter in the July No. Lest any of your readers 

 should give me credit for suggesting, more 

 than 31 years ago, the possibility of bees removing 

 the spermatic filaments before they enter the egg, I 

 will quote from my book : 



** In the summer of 1?52 I examined a brood-comb 

 which had been given to a queenless colony. It con- 

 tained eleven scaled queens, and numbers of the 

 cells were capped with a round covering, as though 

 they contained drones. Being opened, some con- 

 tained drone and others worker nj-mphs. The latter 

 seemed of a little more sugar-loaf shape than the 

 common workers, and their cocoons were of a coars- 

 er texture than usual. 1 had previously noticed the 

 same kind of cells in hives raising artificial cells, but 

 thought they all contained drones. It is a well- 

 known fact, that bees often begin more queen-cells 

 than they choose to finish. Jtseems to me probable, | 

 therefore, that, when rearing queens artificially, they 

 frequently give a portion of the royal jelly to larvo3 

 which, for some reason, they do not develop as lull- 

 grown queeus, and that such lar\tr; become fertile 

 workers." 



While I still think that many fertile workers are 

 thus raised, it seems almost certain that those rear- 

 ed in the normal way may, in the absence of a 

 queen, become fertile. 



Vou have such a multitude 9f matters constantly 

 pressing upon your attention, that, if you say any 

 thing about them, you can not, in some instances, 

 help "going off at half cock." In the proposed 

 changes in the upper story of your chaff hive, would 

 it not be better to give thtm an actual trial before 

 condemning them? Make the trial at my expense. 

 Bear in mind that, having tried such an arrange- 

 ment, I speak from experience; also that I have 

 tried strong-storing colonies in their upper stories 

 with great success. I now have chaff hives of this 

 kind, in which the bees never became overheated. 



UPPER ENTRANCES AND VENTILATION. 



Let me explain how, years ago, my bees were kept 

 so comfortable in the hottest weather, even without 

 the shade of trees, that they rarely clustered out- 

 side. I made large use of hives of my regular pat- 

 tern, having communicating holes in their bottoms, 

 and piled one on top of another until three and some- 

 times four or more stories were used by a single 

 strong colony. In hot weather, when the entrance- 

 regulating blocks were all removed, very few bees 

 left or returned, except by the lowest entrance, 

 making use of those in the upper stories only as 

 ventilators, for which nothing could serve better. 



During the last fortnight the thermometer has 

 often been above 90^ and even aa high as 94°, and I 

 have fully tested the sufficiency, with thin upper 



stories, of upward ventilation, in my double-story 

 chaff hives. To let a good ventilating draft through 

 hives which have no flight-holes in the upper story, 

 I propped up their roofs as though they were hinged, 

 the opening in the rear being some two or more 

 inches high. Even in play-time, and with the drones 

 in fullest flight, not enough bees came out from 

 above to give any annoyance, and none clustered 

 outside of the entrance proper. At the same time, 

 colonies without what 1 shall call upward summer 

 ventilation were distressed by the heat, clustering 

 before their flight-holes, and wasting much precious 

 time in laborious fanning. 



\yOKKING HIVE FOR THE EXTRACTOR. 



Friend Root, I hope at a future time to point out 

 some of the many ruts into which the wheels of api- 

 arian progress have so deeply sunk. Let it do for 

 the present, to say that great changes are needed in 

 many of our manipulations —more especially those 

 used in extracting honey. My cardinal principle, 

 not to require of bees or men the smallest unneces- 

 sary muscular effort, is specially important while ex- 

 tracting is carried on ; for at this season the work in 

 a large apiary is most exacting; therefore I condemn 

 the directions usually given, always to keep the 

 bees below the tops of the frames. While the ex- 

 tracting season lasts, I want nothing- over the frames 

 but the hive-roofs; to "work to the best advantage," 

 I must get access to the frames the moment the roof 

 is lifted. No time can be spared for tearing up pro- 

 polized coverings of any kind, however important 

 these may be in their proper season. A moment 

 suffices for lifting off the roof; another, for a few 

 putts of smoke, and I am lifting out the frames to be 

 set into a tight box, or on the ground around the 

 hive. I often remove the frames from several 

 hives before extracting, so that the bees en the first 

 set of frames having had time to gorge themselves 

 while the others are removed, are easily shaken or 

 brushed off, the others being ready in due succes- 

 sion. When all are emptied they are quickly re- 

 placed, not a second being wasted in driving the 

 bees down, and in replacing what keeps them down. 

 But I seem to hear some one cry out, "If the 

 frames have nothing over them but the propped-up 

 roofs, how can robbing be prevented?" By using 

 Italian bees, or such varieties as, in a full flow of 

 honey, can be tempted only by the grossest mis- 

 management to seek it anywhere except from the 

 natural sources of supply. 



1 know that these bees came to us with the reputa- 

 tion of being extra bad as robbers; also tiiat some 

 of the ablest European bee-masters still affirm that 

 this is their habit. But I found, very soon after try- 

 ing them, that they were far less inclined than the 

 blacks to rob during a full flow of honey, and so in- 

 formed our American bee-keepers. This point is 

 now so generally conceded among us, that there is 

 no occasion to argue it. 



" But," says another, " would you have the bees 

 propolizing every thing above the frames within 

 their reach?" Italian bees at least (I have never 

 given the blacks a trial) do nothing of the kind. 

 They seem to see at once that it would be far too 

 large a contract. Try them, and you will find them 

 gathering much less propolis than when, after each 

 rippiug-up of the coverings that coiiflne them below, 

 they strive the more to make them immovable. 



" But, who would have them clustering under the 

 roof, and comb-building wherever there is a vacant 

 space?" Friends, they leave this clustering for 



