No. 11. 
s rp : have just returned from a visit lo 
Jj'-ll a friend who wished us to put his 
bees in winter trim ; and to illustrate how 
little eare is really necessary for moder- 
ate success we will mention that we sold 
him two colonies of Italians in l.ang- 
slroth hives about April 1st, 1*72. At 
the same lime lie purchased a third in a 
hive labelled “Prof. Flanders" and some- 
thing clsp, we can’t remember what, but 
the frames were triangular. We located 
them at. the time as we thought most fa- 
vorably, and saw them no more until 
sometime in .Tune, when we occupied 
about an hour in swarming the three arti- 
ficially. We did this with two of them, by 
simply giving a new hive placed on a new 
stand, two frames of brood and the ad- 
hering bees, with perhaps five empty 
combs from the upper story (the two hives 
we sold had a. full set of combs above as 
well as below) ; the Flanders hive we 
swarmed by shaking about half the bees 
only in a new hive, and giving them, as 
with the others, two combs of brood and 
five empty combs from the l.angstroth 
hives. 
All three made good strong colonies, 
and in October (same year) we prepared 
the six for winter, and took out over 10(1 
lbs. ol comb honey in frames, after giving 
an ample supply for winter. As no he* 
cholera has ever been known in that lo- 
cality, we were not surprised lo learn that 
all ol the six wintered finely. They 
Mood out doors oil the summit of a hill, 
within half a mile of l.ake Frio, and the 
wind was often such that the covers of 
'he hives required to he fastened on ; yet 
'hey had no covering except the cloth 
*iuilt we used, they of course being confined 
io the lowcrslory. They did well, because 
'heir food, although natural stores, proved 
to be wholesome. 
I his season our friend, finding artificial 
swarming so simple, decided to do it him- 
scll, and would doubtless have done it all 
right, had not the six ‘‘simplicity" hives !l 
we sent got delayed somehow, so (hat 
four swarms came out and at least 
went off. However, he made swarms 
Horn tour ol them, and three of these \v p 
have just examined and found in nice* 
condition, hut the fourth contained no 
queen, and only a handful of bees, and as" 
the greater part of these were drones, we 
presume they failed in rearing a queen 
and the drones came here from other col- 
onies. With these few Italians, however, 
We found the combs clean and no’ 
trace ot the moth miller. W c saved out 
some comb honey after giving the nine 
colonies an ample supply, and learned 
they had extracted about 2(10 pounds, 
which had been sold for 25c., making an ' 
income ol lf.»0 besides the value of thd-' 
three new colonies, which were fine Ital- 
ians; all the result of our friend's own 
management, entirely. 
W'e were amused to find that pur 
friend had used the bottom hoards to the 
simplicity hives upside, down. No harm, 
had resulted, except that a few pieces of 
comb were built, below the bottom bars. 
Now we have an idea that this would he' 
most an excellent arrangement for win 
tering. for all dead hoes would fall into 
this space and he easily llirowu out in’ 
the spring, and we should also ho relieved 
of the necessity of having our shelves' 
more than a foot wide in the bee house 
(see page 2ti, April No..) which would 
give us more room ami greater ease :■ 
handling the hives. 
As the bottom boards are usually more 
or less soiled, and the covers are not 
needed in-doors, we can simply put them 
under the hives instead, so that ou-r Kol- 
tom board can remain on the summer 
stand all winter, and will be ready when 
we set them out in the spring, door step 
and all. In this case it would probably 
be well to paint the upper side of the 
bottom board as well as cover, but we re- 
ally don’t know from experience whether 
the painting ol the bottom board would 
assist or retard the ell'orts of the bees al 
tidy housekeeping. Wc have always 
found them quite ready to appreciate all 
cflorts at tidiness, such as sweeping the 
dead bees away from the front of their 
Or how to Realize the Most Money with the Smallest Expenditure of Capital 
and Labor in the Care of Bees, Rationally Considered. 
l'UBXASIIEl) MONTHLY. 
I- MEDINA, ()., NOV. 1, 1H73. No. I I 
NT A HTI.VO AS APIARY. 
