THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



233 



ing the brood before they can stand it. 

 Colonics are often injured or destroyed by 

 improper handling early in the spring. 

 Even if the position of the combs in the hive 

 is not changed the breaking of the sealing at 

 the top of the brood chamber allows heat, so 

 necessary at that lime of the year, to escape, 

 and many a colony has its life ventilated out 

 in this way. Instead of this, turn the hive 

 over and make your examination from the 

 bottom. Of course all hives cannot be 

 turned over, but even those with loose, 

 hanging frames, may be tipped back far 

 enough to get a good idea of the condition 

 of the colony. 



Queens are usually found by looking them 

 up on the combs. I usetliis method less and 

 less as I learn more of the various methods 

 of finding (lueeus without handling frames. 

 Queens may be smoked down and found on 

 the liottom board, as recommended by Hed- 

 don. This is a good way when there are not 

 too many bees. 



A better plan for ordinary use is to set the 

 hive on a queen excluding honey board 

 having several inches space under it and 

 then drive the bees down with smoke. 



With the Heddou hive, or any similar, the 

 queen may be shaken out of the hive as 

 meutioiied in your leader. 



These three metliods make a good comlji- 

 nation. < )r the bees may be driven upward 

 and the queen cauglit under a queen excluder 

 a Id Taylor. A nietliod that I use a great 

 deal, and that is api)licalile to any kind of a 

 hive, even box hives, is to drive the l)ees out 

 of the top of the hive by smoking and drum- 

 ming and catch the queen as she comes up. 

 Sometimes I lind a iiueeu in this way in less 

 time than I could remove a single frame, 

 and I have frequently found a (jueen, intro- 

 duced her successor, and had the hive closed 

 up within two minutes and without touching 

 a frame. For introducing queens in this 

 way I use a wire cloth cage %\%\h. A strip 

 of heavy paper 2,1.3 inches wide is rolled up 

 with tiie wire cloth making a tube half the 

 length of the cage, which is filled witii candy. 

 The other end is ck)sed with a wooden plug. 

 The cage is usually placed between the top 

 l>ars of the frames, though it will go almost 

 anywiiere in the hive. I have introduced a 

 gieat many <iueens tiiis way during the past 

 month, and have had only one queen killed. 



If bees are short of stores in the spring 

 tlie most convenient way of feeding is to 

 give them a comb of honey, but this is not 



necessary. There are other ways of feeding 

 almost as good. 



In (lueen rearing we must handle frames. 

 It is best to examine a colony in which a 

 queen has been reared or introduced to be 

 sure that the queen is laying i)roperly. Of 

 course this can be told in time by the pres- 

 ence or absence of sealed brood without 

 handling frames, but we must wait too long 

 to be sure, without looking for eggs. It is 

 very desirable to be able to give a frame of 

 brood or eggs to a colony suspected of being 

 queenless. 



There is just one other thing that makes 

 the handling of brood frames necessary, and 

 that is foul brood. We cannot detect this 

 without a close inspection of the combs, and 

 if it is in an apiary a great deal of handling 

 of frames is necessary. 



If it were not for the exceptions I have 

 noted bees could be kept just about as well 

 in pro[ierly made box hives as in the most 

 elaborate frame hives, if only the (luestion 

 of necessary manipulation was to be con- 

 sidered. We want to be able to handle 

 frames when it is necessary, but it is unne- 

 cessary to handle them as much as some do. 



Some hives are much better adapted to the 

 principle of handling hives without frames 

 than others, and the enterprising apiarist 

 who expects to make a living by producing 

 honey will do well to adopt them, but with 

 alm,,st any kind of a hive it is both possil)le 

 and i)rotitable to handle hives more and 

 frames less than is the general custom. 



Dayton, 111., Sept. 1, 1891. 



House Apiaries in Which the Bees Have 

 Access to the Inside.— Their Advantages. 



JOHN VANDEKVOKT. 



'OU ask for my experience with house 

 apiaries. It commenced in 1S77. My 

 object was to occupy a field where 

 bees were safer under lock than out of doors. 

 The results wei'c much better than I expected. 

 The next year I built two more, and later on 

 I adopted that system altogether. The ad- 

 vantages I found were, first, cheapness; they 

 costing about one dollar per colony. Second, 

 the convenience of having everything under 

 cover and at hand. I could do double the 

 work and there were no wet grass or weeds 

 to contend with. Third, the results in honey 

 were mueii better. Cool nights do not drive 

 the bees out of the; boxes as it does in hives. 

 My houses are 8x32 feet, 7 feet high in the 



