74 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
Jrr.v. 
even try to pull up grass as it makes its ap- 
pearance, so great is their love of order and 
neatness. That it will pay in a “dollar and 
rent” view can be seen from the following ex- 
tract from A. B. J. Vol. 7, page 28. It is an 
account of an experiment we then made with 
our spring scales. 
“To resume the scales: twelve ounces per 
hour is one ounce in every five minutes, and 
this was readily seen while we were standing 
before the hive. About nine o’clock we noticed 
a great many bees falling short of the alight- 
ing board, which they could not crawl upon, 
as the hive was suspended, but had to rest 
until they could again take wing; but they 
were so heavily laden that this had often to be 
repeated. By tacking a piece of cloth to the 
edge o ' the hive, so as to drop on the ground, 
they hummed in as merrily as you please; and 
the scales then showed fifteen ounces an hour, 
or one in every four minutes. Now, what do 
you think about suspended hives, or hives on 
benches? We took the hint and made an ex- 
amination, and found many of our hives, where 
the bees tumbled on the ground and rolled 
over in their attempts to crawl up the painted 
edge of the entrance to the hive. A three cor- 
nered piece of wood sawed rough, made a nice 
bridge for them. Mr. Langstroth’s book sug- 
gests the c oth entrance, and we are sure a 
little aid in that direction will be amply repaid. 
Give the little fellows every possible facility 
for unloading easily an 1 speedily, and remem- 
ber that their little atom of strength is of much 
importance to them, and that all needless steps 
or flights should be saved them, as you would 
save vour ow n.” 
WHAT I HAVJE DONE. 
J EAR NOVICE:— I propose to weary you with a 
jJ) little history of my experience with bees. In 
v the spring of 1^72, I got a box hive of Black 
bees; transferred into Buckeye hive ( Patent rights 
waste of money > and about middle ol' 'June, took *25 lbs. 
comb honey. No increase of bees or further yield of 
honey that year. In winter of .72 and ’7tf procured one 
other box hive, and two Buckeyes, all Black bees, 
having four colonies in all, about 1st Jan., 1873. My 
original stock in Buckeye, died out from cold- too 
much upward ventilation. Spring (h'3) lound me with 
two Buckeyes and one box nive, out the season was 
so poor that they barely made enough to live on; in 
fact late in the season, say about 1st of Aug. i discov- 
ered the box hive, which was the strongest in the 
early spring, to be entirely out of honey and having 
before that time procured some of your Simplicity 
frames and hives, 1 transferred from the box hive into 
the simplicity, and commenced feeding, and tin* result 
exceeded mv expectations ; for the Queen commenced 
laying immediately (she had no eggs in the box hive) 
and before the 1st Nov. 1873, the bees had increased 
largelv, and had stored and capped over about 25 lbs. 
A Codec sugar syrup. In the meantime, i had trans- 
ferred the combs from the two remaining Buckeyes 
into other Simplicities, and before cold weather, had 
them all in good condition, save one, which gave ev- 
idences of ociiig Queen less ; and it was for this hive 
that I ordered a dollar Queen of you last fall, whi*h 
Queen 1 had the misfortune to lose in introducing. 
Winter coining on, I made a hive 48 inches long, ami 
as wide as Simplicity is long; intending to remove the 
frames from small hives Into this long one, and put 
wire cloth frames between each colony ol bees, so as 
to secure all the heat in a body. I did so and they 
seemed to do well. The Queenless colony seemed the 
strongest in the lot, and there was no quarreling or 
robbing among them. 
The entrances to each section, were about 1(> inches 
apart, and 1 one day, alter cold weather set in well, 
observed very few * bees about the entrance to the 
Queenless stock, and on raising the quilt discovered 
the bees all gone, aud on raising the quilt over the 
adjoining colony, i judged from the quantity of bees 
there, that those ol the Queen less stock had united 
with their neighbors; so I removed the wire cloth 
frame, and substituted a close titling partition. There 
were now two colonies left, having a wire trame be- 
tween. This wire cloth did not fit tightly at the bot- 
tom. ami on examination one day, l failed to find u 
Queen in the side that had been next the Queenless 
colony, and there also seemed very few bees. 1 con- 
ceived the idea that the Queen had died or had passed 
under the wire frame into the other side, as tin* bees 
were ventilating or buzzing very intently down in one 
corner, w here 1 observed they were passing to and fro 
very readily. So. supposing they might remain quiet 
even if the'Queen was alive, and in the other aide, as 
I had read of such things, 1 removed the wire cloth 
frame entirely. The next morning I found a dead 
Queen in front of the hive, but the bees were quiet 
and friendly. 
I did not know then, whether I was without a Queen 
or not, but an examination discovered one all right. 
But in about a week, they killed her, and so I was 
then in a bad fix. I had plenty of good comb, and 
sealed syrup, and one very strong Queenless colony. 
1 failed to find a Queen anywhere here, and it was too 
cold to get one by mail, so I had to wait until I could 
get a weak swarm, which I finally did in Jan. last; 
and in a few days united them with my large colony, 
and they have been doing very well so far. They are 
Hybrids, and I have them still in my large hive, single 
story, and have 2*2 frames In, with brood on 15 of them ; 
and on the 3rd inst. I extracted 51)6 lbs- of black Lo- 
cust and Clover honey ; having extracted six lbs. ear- 
lier in the season. 
They are now storing again rapidly, and the Queen 
is doing her duty, having been badly crowded, before 
J extracted. I had my tinner make an extractor by 
directions in Gleanings at a cost of 87.50, and it 
works admirably. I extracted 18 frames, and did not 
receive a sting. ‘ I w ear a veil, but never use a smoker 
of any kind. My hive is low dow n and has saw -dust 
in front, and a step or alighting board. 1 intend divi- 
ding when I receive my Queen. 
Huving now conducted you over the ground I have 
traveled in Bee-Keeping for a little over two years, I 
am prepared to believe you are weary aud will close 
by wishing you better “luck” than you had last win- 
i ter. What Novice has done, he can do again, lam 
I well assured, and believe your disasters ot the past, 
will only serve as guide boards in the future. 
Yours truly, J. H. C KIDDLE. 
| Nashville, June 5th, 1874. 
We are not weary friend C., but on the con- 
trary tender our thanks, and request full par- 
ticulars of the future working of your mam- 
moth hive. Our experience with wire cloth 
for division boards has been quite similar, viz., 
that they sooner or later get together and you 
have one colony instead of more. 
WATCH FOIl BEES, 
(|(^^|PHEY are robbing the Quinby hive, 
now,” Mrs. N. had said to Novice who 
was suffering from a “tormented headache,” to 
use his own expression, one pleasant Sunday 
afternoon in May. lie had often boasted he 
didn’t have headaches, and seemed, so the 
women folks say, to regard the matter as a 
kind of feminine weakness that one should he 
ashamed of, but now he was making more of a 
row about it than a whole dozen of the weaker 
sex, and more than all some neighboring Black 
bees had just discovered that a quantity <>l 
combs of nicely sealed sugar syrup were but 
poorly guarded by a few miserably weak Italian 
stocks. Under the circumstances Mrs. N. and 
Master Ernest had been directed to close the 
entrances of such hives as failed to make a 
successful resistance, by banking the saw-dust 
up in front. They soon reported that the rob- 
bers were going out and in under the cover ot 
the Quinby hive, it having warped enough to 
allow this. In this dilemma Novice was again 
j consulted, and was obliged to cease rolling am 
