1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



153 



time, and none when there is a honey 

 flow. 



One of my neighbors has a hive of 

 bees. One day he pried the cover of 

 the hive and jarred their nerves. 

 Those bees went "over the top" with 

 bayonets ready. He blew a lot of 

 hot smoke in their eyes. They got 

 excited and flew around, crawled out 

 of the hive, on the ground, up his 

 pants legs, and he got stung and got 

 hot, and after six hours looking for 

 the queen he gave it up and quit. The 

 bees were still hot the next day, 

 when I went to his place and found 

 the queen on the first frame I lifted 

 out. 



Moral. — A nice quiet beeyard. 

 Everybody attending to his own busi- 

 ness. No one blowing hot smoke in 

 anybody's eyes. This is the time to 

 mix them up. 



Gallberry in bloom. 



the result of experience. Reading 

 won't give a man experience, but is 

 of great help to all of us. There are 

 many things that I don't know about 

 bees, but I know a great deal of their 

 language and how to mix them with- 

 out their fighting. 



It is as necessar}' to know how to 

 unite bees as to know how to divide 

 them when in need of increase. I 

 will tell my way in as few words as 

 possible. 



In the spring of 1918, a yard of 55 

 colonies was reduced to 25 very 

 strong by uniting. This yard was ar- 

 ranged in the "four-in-a-group" plan, 

 two facing east and two facing west. 

 back to back. All the queens were 

 caught, caged and removed, each 

 colony reduced to one story and 

 pried loose from its bottom so as to 

 be lifted up without jarring. The 

 next day each pair that faced in the 

 same direction was united, by care- 

 fully lifting one and gently setting it 

 on top of the other brood-chamber. 

 A queen was introduced, via the can- 

 dy route, at the same time. 



Tlu- extra live colonies were car- 

 ried from 10 to 20 feet and their best 

 combs divided up among the other 

 colonies. 



While carrying one of these colo- 

 nies, my foot and a big rock had a 

 head-on collision, which started a big 

 roar in the hive. So it was set back 

 on its own bottom till it got quiet 

 again. 



If there is any robbing going on, 

 don't try this, for it won't work. Ail 

 depends upon the bees being quiet, 

 no excitement and no robbing. It 

 seems to me that some people use too 

 much smoke. I use very little at any 



Making Big Hives From Small Ones 



By W. C. Rossinck 



I HAVE become very much inter- 

 ested in the articles in the 

 American Bee Journal on larger 

 hives. The great question that con- 

 fronts me is, how can I get them 

 the cheapest when supplies are so 

 high? Last December I bought some 

 new 10-frame (Langstroth) double- 

 wall hives, for I am highly in favor 

 of them, even though I winter my 

 bees in the cellar, because the 

 weather here in Michigan is too 

 changeable in early spring; but since 



I want a larger hive, I take the 

 frames out of the original brood- 

 chamber and place a No. 1 super, 10- 

 frame size, on top of this brood- 

 chamber and use the top and bottom- 

 bar of the Langstroth frames with 

 new end-bars 14J4 inches long 

 throughout, and nail these up to hang 

 in this super, piercing six holes in 

 each of these end-bars for wiring. 

 Then I take 1J4 sheets of foundation 

 and lay these on the table or bench 

 before me, just lapping the two edges 

 about one-eighth of an inch, and 

 run over these edges with a hot little 

 piece of iron, melting the two into 

 one large and nearly square sheet, 

 and put this into the frames. This 

 foundation then reaches within 2 

 inches of the bottom-bar. 



This spring, when the queens com- 

 mence laying in a few of the center 

 frames in their old hives I expect to 

 lift out these frames with bees, put 

 on my No. 1 super and put about 7 

 of the 10-frames and all the bees 

 back into this super and then scatter 

 three of these new deep frames be- 

 tween them. Then, as the bees draw 

 out this foundation, I will keep tak- 

 ing out the old Langstroth frames 

 and placing the new deep frames in 

 their place. Thus the expense is very 

 small and I can continue using all the 

 old supers for extracting. 



Besides, I also think that this deep 

 frame will suit the queen better than 

 any other, owing to the fact that a 

 queen always likes to lay in a circle. 



Typical Black Mangrove tree in South Florida. 



