iir4 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ing a full crop of honey. I recall some 

 of my experience of 30 years ago, when 

 I still used box hives; how the bees 

 would cluster outside, even if the fields 

 were white with clover. By raising the 

 fronts of the hives the bees would soon 

 all be at work again. This taught me 

 that, in warm weather, more air is nec- 

 essary than that afforded by the ordinary 

 hive entrance. 



I notice that in some of the late bee 

 papers, that it is advocated to put inch 

 blocks under the corners of the hive, and 

 thus give the bees a large entrance all 

 around the hive. Another plan advoca- 

 ted is that of placing wedge shaped strips 

 under the sides; thus making a large en- 

 trance in front only. Either plan will 

 afford the necessary ventilation ; but both 

 are more or less objectionable. In the 

 first place, I do not like to have the bees 

 coming out on all sides of the hive; and, 

 as I use the drone and queen trap, this 

 plan would not answer at all. With the 

 side-strips the trap could be used all 

 right, but in late autumn we do not 

 need so much entrance space, and, to re- 

 move the now-glued-down strips, and let 

 the hives down, is quite a job; and dis- 

 turbs the bees a good deal. Besides, I 

 find, as the space between the bottom- 

 board and the frames is increased ]j\- 

 raising the hives on blocks, the bees will 

 build up bumps of propolis to serve as a 

 sort of ladder; and when the hive is let 

 down again the whole weight will often 

 rest on these bumps, on the middle of 

 the frames. This is liable to either 

 break, or misplace the frames and make 

 bad work. 



The plan that I have followed with 

 satisfaction is as follows: Upon the 

 approach of hot weather, I place a queen- 

 excluding honey-board, having a ^ inch 

 strip nailed on the sides and back, on 

 the bottom board; thus making a doub- 

 le ■ entrance, one over the other. 

 I also nail a piece of tin on the front 

 side of the honey-board, letting it pro- 

 ject in front of the hive to form a narrow 

 alighting board. This also answers for 



a rest for my queen-trap when in use. 

 T' )lan gives all the needed ventilation; 

 ai in case of swarming, the queen is 

 compelled to enter the queen-trap, as she 

 cannot get through the excluder-zinc in 

 the honey-board. Such bees as desire 

 can dive through the queen-excluding 

 honey-board, without going through the 

 trap. 



This gives all the ventilation needed, 

 and, in my experience, very largely pre- 

 vents swarming, even with small, shallow 

 hives. Out of six very strong colonies 

 prepared before hot weather came, not a 

 single one swarmed; and, what is still 

 better, I secured al)out double the 

 amount of honey, that I did from other 

 colonies that swarmed quite generally. 



As the bee-spaces are not increased, 

 there is no building of propolis bumps to 

 vex andanno}'. 



M11.AN, Ills., Jan. 3, 1S9S. 



ood things 



'25^ From Ottier Jouroals, 



SEI/ECTED BY DR. A. B. MASON. 



GOOD OUEKNS M.\Y BE REARED BY 



.SIMI'I,Y REMOVING .\ 



LAVING yl'ElvN. 



Mr. Willie .\tchley, in writing about 

 queen rearing, in The Southlantl (Jueen, 

 says : 



The jovunals are full of such stuff about 

 queens being no good that are reared by 

 colonies when the queens are taken away, 

 but if I can get to take away the ciueens, 

 or select the cells after queens are taken 

 away, I would just as soon have queens 

 reared by taking away the cjueens from 

 good colonies as any others if tliere is a 

 honey flow on. One season we had an 

 order about the first of May for about 100. 

 tested queens, and at that time there was 

 a good honey flow and the apiary was in 

 a flourishing condition. I'^ach colony 

 dequeened reared its own cells; and, by 

 selection, we procured several hundred 



