1S7G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



27 



the extractor, has been the trouble of gettiui^ 

 at the frames in the lower story. But suppose 

 we don't extract the lower story at all y The 

 bees may swarm "like the very mischief it is 

 true, but no worse than they do when comb 

 houey is raised. We last season, made some 

 experiments in the matter and quite agree with 

 friend Doolittle who writes as follows. When 

 the bees are nicely at work in the upper story, 

 very little honey will be found below among 

 the brood. 



EXTRACTING HONEY FROM THE BROOD COMBS. 



FRIEND NOVICE :— 5I:iny seem to suppose that soine- 

 thiutc rau.st be done in time of box honey, to dear the 

 brood combs of honey to fpvc the queoiiroom to lay ; and 

 I see by your remarks on pase 4. second cohimn and lifth 

 line from the top, tiiat you are liilile to fall into the same 

 error. Now we have been a careful observer and find that 

 when bees are at work best in boxes there will be scarce- 

 ly an ounce of honey in the body of the hive, if the hive 

 is no larger than size given on \):vxo <'.s, \'ol. .3. If any one 

 expects to get a large yield of box honey atid use the ex- 

 tractor on the brood combs at tlie same time, they cer- 

 tainly will not realize their expectations. After the bees 

 get thoroughly at work in boxes, let the brood combs 

 alone and you need have no fear of | the queen's being 

 crowded. If honey accumulates in the combs before tliey 

 get fairly into the boxes liave no fears for as soon as they 

 get to work in the boxes the.y will carr.v it all up into the 

 box and make abundant room for tlie queen. For in- 

 stance, take 9 Gallup frames well filled with capped hon- 

 ey, and have a good strong swarm of bees in them, put- 

 ting on the boxes at once, and in from 14 to IS days (if 

 honey is to be had in the fields,) every bit of it will be pat 

 in the boxes. 



Once more: If you let a first swarm issue from a hive 

 and keep them from swarming again, by the time the 

 .young queen gets fertilized, ever.y available cell in the 

 brood chamber will be tilled with honey, and still no st;irt 

 be made in the boxes ; but just as soon as she commences 

 to lay, the bees will commence in every box (if the box 

 room is of about 50 lbs capacity,) at once, and 1 have 

 known every box to be completeil in just S days from time 

 of comraoncin;;:, under such circumstancL's. Examine that 

 hive in 20 days and .you will And scarcely a cell of honey 

 in the brood comb, and as nice a lot of brood as you ever 

 witnessed, B.v the way, when you see the bees commence 

 in earnest in boxes where they have (as they should have) 

 a queen just fertilized, you may know the queen is there 

 and has commenced to lay, just as well as if you saw the 

 eggs in the combs. Now, we will suppose that just as this 

 queen was fertilized you had extracted all that honey from 

 brood combs, you would not have got a single box of honey 

 unless from buckwheat. Again I repeat it, if you want a 

 large yield of box honey keep prolilic queens, and let the 

 brood comb alone. 



Tell Mr. Pa,pi3 that toads do eat bees, and that by the 

 thousand, if the stands are so they can get on them and 

 hide under tliem, G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Jan. It, 'TO. 



We shall have to come 'round to IVIrs. Tap- 

 per's position somewhat, in regard to leaving 

 the brood combs it is true, but not for the rea- 

 son that the brood is injured by being put into 

 the extractor by any means, for hundreds of 

 those who keep bees largely have testified that 

 the brood is never harmed unless thrown out 

 of the cells, and even then the bees sometimes 

 put it back without injiiry. 



We need hardly say that if we only remove 

 the frames from the upper story for extract- 

 ing, a two-story hive is much handier than even 

 the Standard or any of the long hives; for 

 there need be no stooping, either in extracting 

 or using section boxes Well, suppo.sc we 

 should go back to a two-story hive; can we 

 afford to liave the unper and lower story un- 

 like? 



After racking our brains on this ])rob]em of 

 hi-v-cs, until we feared it woukl make us sick — 

 or crazy— after liuuling over heaps of letters 

 aud b.ick volumes of lice jouru;il-j and being 

 conslaiUly appealed lo meanwhile witli letters 



and postals, after having wasted heaps of lum- 

 ber in experiments — to say nothing of tin and 

 galvanized iron — besides telMng hands tha;, 

 have to be paid in hard money every Saturday 

 night, that they may use the stntl" they have 

 cut up for kindling-wood, perhaps several 

 times over; after having done all this, and 

 more in thc^ elfort to answer wisely the oft re- 

 peated question "What hive would i/ou recom- 

 mend':'" we for the first time in many days, feel 

 that we can tell the hands what to make, and 

 can pretty nearly tell all who enquire, what 

 we would advise to buy. 



If you are just commencing, or if you have 

 but few hives, and those of various sizes, use 

 Langstroth frame, and we are going to try 

 hard never to be led away from this decision 

 Aiiiim, unleas veri/ gtrat inducements come up. 

 If you think you must have a deeper frame us«j 

 the Standard, but we prefer the L., just be- 

 cause it is shallow. Have every hive so made 

 that it can be used either one or two-story, and 

 have both upper aud lower story alike by <dl 

 means. The difficulty of keeping the pi'opcr 

 distance between the frames of the upper and 

 lower story may be managed in the way given 

 on page 148, Dec. No., or by the very ingenious 

 plan given in the following : 



I use the standard fiame, 10 of which make a irood 

 sized breeding aiiartuii'ut. For box hone.v they are just 

 the thing. 1 make tliian exactly square, \i\ inches in.vide 

 the hive : they alw ays lit any where and any way, and if 

 R. L. .Joiner wauls his frames close together in uj.per and 

 lower stories lii^ can rabbet out for the frames on two of 

 the sides and h't them as low down as he pleases, and 

 when turned 'round the other way they are all right for 

 a lower story, if this style of hive is used. 



CiiAS. H. Rue, Manalapan, N, .1, 



We can also accomplish the same i-esult by 

 giving the edges of the hive a bevel or a slope 

 so sharp as to be the regular square mitre such 

 as is used in making frames, if our hive stuff 

 is not more than ^j, thick ; but to get a nice fit 

 at the corners these should also be titted with 

 a mitre joint. It may be thought by many 

 rather rash to advise hives of I4 or 3^^' jn 

 thickness, but if tliose who really seek' for 

 truth will dilligently collect facts, we think 

 they must conclude that straw, and rickety, 

 unpainted hives have fared full as well, if no 

 better, than those so carefully made and 

 painted, and that the gi'eat losses have occur- 

 red just as often, if no oftener, among those so 

 carefully protected, as with the farmers who 

 take no pains at all, if we leave starvation out 

 ot the question. The following letter i>i only 

 one among a gi eat number of similar ones in 

 our possession : 



My bees are this winter taking the weather as it comes 

 on ilieir summer stands. I ha\e for three winters i)a-it, 

 packed tliem with straw, chaff, paper, etc, as protection 

 agai^l^;.|^ frost, with but mod<'rate success. Nei^h'oor A. 

 entered last winter wiih one bc^x hive split from to;) to 

 liottom — cleft seijarate I aboid: \ inch and comb ■visible 

 through the apei-tiu-e— another box hive in the same 

 fence corner was so badly decayed at its base th.at it le:'.n- 

 od tovi-ards "Riley's barn," and was propi^ed with a fciic.' 

 rail to keep it frinii tuinl)liiig down. Both these stands 

 were abnud.inthi supplied with bees. Last spring I found 

 two of m.^• hives negative quantities and balance more or 

 less reduced. On a line day 1 went over to see neiglibor 

 A.'s tumble-down hives, expecting to see them minus bees, 

 but tom.v sau'prise tliey wore stronger in nmnbors thin 

 any of nuiie, thou'-'h I thoutiht the.v had no advaida^i! 

 that way in the fall. The only loss Mr. A. sustnined was 

 in a "Murned patent hive that he never h:ul any fdtli in." 

 The only [protection his bees have is .a wind-break in the 

 shipc (f a r.i:l fen!'(! on the north, and a pig st.y on the 

 e:isl. <;friursel don't favor hiie.s as above dc^crib 'd, 



