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no further attention, but allows the 

 weeds to grow arcjund them, and the 

 moths to get into them, and then com- 

 plains that bees don't pay. How could 

 he expect anything to pay treated in 

 this way ? 



An apiary properly kept and nicely 

 arranged with good hives, well 

 painted, is as much of an ornament as 

 nicelj' painted and arranged houses 

 and tarns, and deserves a better place 

 than an out-of-the-way corner. They 

 should have a good, warm, double- 

 walled hive, whicii is necessary either 

 in summer or winter, and they deserve 

 as much care as other stock. They do 

 not require one-fourth as much, but 

 what they do require they richly de- 

 serve. Hives should be so arranged 

 that we can contract the brood-nest 

 and enlarge it at pleasure. 



B}' giving bees too much room in 

 the brood-nest, thej' soon build more 

 comb than the queen can fill with 

 eggs, then they will build drone-cells 

 intending to provide stores for winter 

 use ; but when the queen has filled the 

 worker-cells with eggs, they will com- 

 mence to lay in the drone-cells, and 

 and then instead of workers, we shall 

 rear a lot of drones, to eat what the 

 workers provide. The bees seem to 

 tolerate an over-production of drones 

 in the honey season, but as soon as the 

 harvest is over, they are driven from 

 their homes, and perish by cold and 

 hunger. 



For producing extracted honey more 

 room may be given in the brood-cham- 

 ber, as we can shave off the heads of 

 the drone-brood when uncapping the 

 cells for the extractor ; but for comb 

 honey four or five frames is ample. 

 We can place wide friimes tilled with 

 sections at the sides of the brood-nest 

 with a queen-excluding honey-board 

 betvve(!n. By thus contracting the 

 brood-nest, we force the bees to com- 

 mence work sooner in the sections 

 than tlKiy would do if they liad all the 

 room they wanted below. 



Reversing the frames is of much im- 

 portance in the culture of bees for 

 profit ; it pays to have frames that will 

 reverse if onlj- for one inversion, for 

 thereby we can secure our frames 

 built solidly full of comb from top to 

 bottom, making them much stronger, 

 and giving them a third moi-e room in 

 each frame. We can control swarm- 

 ing to a great extent, as we completely 

 upset all their arrangements for 

 swarming, and they at once commence 

 to take tlie honey now at the bottom 

 of the frame up into the sections, thus 

 securing more surplus honey, and 

 leaving nice, clean empty cells at the 

 bottom that the queen will at once oc- 

 cupy and fill with eggs ; and having 

 plenty of room to deposit eggs, and 

 the workers all the work they can do 



filling out the empty space at the top 

 of the frames with coml), they will 

 nine times out of ten forget all about 

 swarming, for the time lieing. The 

 queen-excluding honey-board is an im- 

 portant invention, and very necessary 

 in reversing frames. 



To winter our bees successfully on 

 the summer stands, requires care and 

 attention at the proper time. As soon 

 as the honey harvest is over I remove 

 all the sections and surplus cases, and 

 examine the brood-nest ; if they have 

 not Ave brood-frames well filled with 

 honey and brood, I at once feed them 

 sugar syrup made of two parts of 

 granulated sugar to one part of water. 

 I would prefer five well-filled frames 

 for an average swarm to winter on, to 

 a large number. 



When I am sure that they have a 

 sufficient amount of winter stores, I 

 provide them a passage way through 

 each frame by making a small hole 

 through each comb near the centre, or 

 by placing a Hill's device or a small 

 wooden butter dish over the frames, 

 so that the bees can pass from one 

 frame to another over the top-bars, 

 then I cover all with a woolen quilt, 

 or pieces of burlap, and pack around 

 the sides and over the top with 3 or 4 

 inches of chaff. After being thus pre- 

 pared they should not be disturbed 

 until settled warm weather has come 

 in the spring to stay ; when they 

 should be united with some weak 

 colony having a queen, or another 

 cpieen procured for them at once. 



Prof. Cook says that, " the study of 

 rural pursuits helps to make home 

 pleasant.and binds together the family, 

 and finally it may be made a source 

 of profit. I may be mistaken ; but I 

 thoroughly believe in bee-keeping on 

 the farm." 



New Castle, Fa. 



REVERSING. 



Experinienliiig with Circassian 

 Bees and Reversible Frames. 



Written for the American BeeJoivmal 



BY JAMES W. TEFFT. 



Early in April I received 2 colonies 

 of Circassian bees, In Gallup hives, 

 each having 8 frames 12x12 inches. 

 They were piu'chased for experiment. 

 I liad heard that these bees were of no 

 earthly use, as it was impossible to 

 keep them together in large, strong 

 colonies ; they would swarm, and 

 swarm, which broke up the working 

 force into small " squibs ;" they would 

 build queen-cells by the quart, and yet 

 they were hardy bees, very gentle, not 

 stingers, and would gather honey after 

 swarming equal to other races of bees, 



all of which I found to be true ; for it 

 is impossible to manage them with any 

 degree of success with hanging or sus- 

 pended frames. 



Swarm they would, in spite of all 

 that could be done. They were re- 

 turned to their hives three times each, 

 cut out a quart or more of queen-cells 

 the queens' wings being clipped, 

 whicli. made it easy to get them. 

 When I returned the last swarm, and 

 while closing up the hive, a swarm 

 came out. They did not stop a min- 

 ute, but away they went for the woods 

 a mile off. I opened the hive, and 

 almost the first bee that I saw was the 

 old queen. Why did those bees depart 

 frimi nature's laws ? 



Alsike clover was in fnll bloom, yet 

 these Circassian bees would build no 

 comb, neither would they go into the 

 sections. Their reputation was well 

 established, as being of no value. I 

 was disgusted with them, and also 

 with the suspended frame. At that 

 time I would have given them to any 

 one — my patience was exhausted. 



But about June 1 I transferred their 

 combs to good reversible frames. On 

 placing the combs in the hive, the 

 honey part was all dovvn (reversed), 

 and tlie brood up at the top-bar. The 

 sections were put on, and the hives 

 closed. 



The next morning the bees were in 

 the sections. Three days after, they 

 had taken all the honey from the 

 brood-frames, and the queens were 

 busy. The sixth day I found any 

 quantity of queen-cells just started in 

 both hives, and they had considerable 

 honey in the sections. I then reversed 

 the frames that had the queen-cells 

 (but not those that had hatching bees), 

 which operation was departing from 

 nature's laws, and the old theory prac- 

 tices of ages. 



The next daj' not a sign of a queen- 

 cell could be found. The side-storing 

 sections were then put on, and from 

 that time to tlie close of the season the 

 brood-frames were i-eversed every 

 sixth day. I seldom reverse combs 

 with hatching bees — only at such 

 times that the queen is again laying in 

 them — and I have no more swarming. 

 By July 1 I had in each of the hives a 

 working force of at least 120,000 bees 

 when they were divided. 



I have come to the conclusion that 

 nature's laws, with bees, has notliing 

 to do with their swarming, as I under- 

 stand it. Nature's laws are to build 

 comb, gather honej% nurse baby bees, 

 hatch and feed the brood, clean house, 

 and guard the hive. Nature's law as 

 regards the queen is the one which I 

 try to study and manage. It makes a 

 great difference to reverse the frames 

 at the proper time. The advantages 

 are four to one in favor of revei'S'ug, 



