Chapter II: Part 2

My hives contain nine frames, 16¾ inches long and 8½ inches deep, inside. The frames run from front to rear. The hive is similar in shape to Langstroth’s shallow form. I obtain earlier swarms and more surplus honey than any other person in these parts using a deeper form of hive. While I put boxes on the top I would not use any other form of hive. I think that Alley’s new style of Langstroth hive is the best for obtaining surplus honey in boxes that was ever invented. I constructed two hives last year, as an experiment, similar to Mr. Alley’s. One of these gave me the sixty-six pounds before mentioned.

W. Baker, in the September correspondence of the Journal, says that his bees swarmed without making any preparation. Many of mine did the same thing this summer. In opposition to this, on examining a hive five days after a swarm left it, I found a laying queen, and from the number of eggs I saw, I should think she had been laying twenty-four hours at least.

In looking over the Bee Journal, I am surprised to see that so many bee-keepers still use a pan of chips, old rags, rotten wood, &c., with which to smoke their bees. I use a pipe, which for convenience and efficiency, I think cannot be surpassed, notwithstanding Mr. Thomas to the contrary. It consists of a tin tube, six inches long and one inch in diameter, having a funnel soldered to the inside, about 1½ inches from one end, as shown in the annexed figure:

The funnel or cone is punched full of small holes. Into each end of the tube a bored plug, _a_ and _b_, is nicely fitted. The plug _b_ is cut so as to be easily held between the teeth. To get the smoke, draw out the plug _b_, fill the space _c_ with some combustible material, then with the plug _a_ in the mouth, it may be lighted with a match, like a common pipe. When lighted, insert the plug _b_ in its place, and blow away. I have used cut tobacco till lately, but now find dry corn silk much better. The advantage of this pipe is, that it can be held in the mouth, and the smoke directed where it is wanted, while the hands are free to operate with. This is a great convenience, especially in taking off boxes.

GEORGE CORK.

_Bloomfield, Ontario._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Shallow Hives, or Deep?

Mr. EDITOR:--In the September number of the Journal, Dr. B. Puckett criticises an article of mine in the July number, and asks me to explain wherein the shallow Langstroth hive is lacking.

When I wrote the article referred to, my object was to show that the shallow hive could be altered to a different form, and that those who were using it, and considered it too shallow, need not throw their hives away. I said it was _not_ a good hive for wintering in the open air, or for early spring. I did not think it necessary to give my reasons in detail, why it was not good; for that matter I considered had been already fully discussed in the Journal. But as Dr. P. requests it, I will explain.

For wintering in a cellar, the hive is perhaps good enough. But I do not want to be _obliged_ to house my bees. Sometimes I have plenty of room in the cellar, and sometimes not. If the hives are of suitable form for wintering in the open air, I can let them remain out, when it is not convenient to carry them in. But the great objection to them is in early spring. Dr. P. asks if it is the fault of the hive that the _old_ bees die off, or that bees are destroyed by cold winds? Of course it is not. But if a swarm is not breeding enough to make up that loss, there must be a fault somewhere. When we take bees from the cellar, we expect that they will have brood in all stages, from the egg just laid to young bees just gnawing out. We expect too that the queen will continue to deposit eggs, even more rapidly, because of the excitement produced by the bees flying, and especially if they are fed rye meal, as mine always are. I said, after they had been out _a month_, there appeared to be fewer bees than when first carried out. We expect a loss the first day or two after taking them out, but soon afterward, the bees should be increasing; and at the end of a month, which brings it into April, there should be a decided increase. In deeper hives, according to my experience, it is so; and the deeper the hive the greater the increase.

The reason why the shallow hive is not good for early spring, as I understand, is this: as soon as severe weather is past, we want to confine the animal heat as much as possible to the hive, that the bees may breed rapidly. Consequently we shut off all upward ventilation. The coldest part of a hive is near the entrance and so along the bottom board. The farther the bees get from the bottom, the warmer they find the temperature. These hives being so low, before the bees get out of the way of the cold air coming in at the entrance, they are bumping their heads against the top. And, instead of spreading the brood in a circle, which is the best form to economise heat, they are obliged to carry it along horizontally, and after all work at a disadvantage.

In a tall hive they can draw up and get well out of the way of the cold air from the entrance. The top of the hive being small, _the animal heat_, _brood_, and bees are all compact, and in the best condition for rapid breeding. The faster they breed, the faster they can breed, as there are more bees to keep up the heat; and as it naturally ascends, the smaller the hive is across the top, the more compact the heat will be kept.

A friend, who for some years has been using a very tall hive, after trying for a long time to persuade me to use some of them, finally gave me one in the spring of 1868, and requested me to put a swarm into it. Says he--“You may let it stand anywhere through the winter; the bees will be sure to do well.” I have used it, and found that the bees increase in it nearly twice as fast in April and May, as in the shallow hive. The result is the same in his apiary.

Mr. Alley, who at one time so vigorously advocated the shallow hive, has since become convinced of his error, and invented what he calls the new style Langstroth hive. The shallow frames are set up endwise, which gives it extreme depth. In the September number of the Journal, 1869, page 54, he says--“I examined fifty stocks of bees in shallow hives last spring (and many of these were larger colonies than any I had); but none of them had as much sealed brood as mine.”

When he first got up this hive, and before any of them had been used, a friend of his had one, and was requested by Mr. A. to show it to me and get my opinion upon it, not letting me know where it came from. I refused to express an opinion, except on the point of wintering, in which I considered it could not be beat.

The great depth of combs, together with the protection given by the outer case, makes it one of the best hives for wintering that I have seen. It has a large amount of box room for surplus honey, which is needed for a swarm that has been well wintered, and that has increased well during the spring. But let him just turn the frames down to a horizontal position, making it a shallow hive, and I will guarantee that one-half of the box room will be ample.

I have attempted to explain wherein the shallow hive is lacking, and now have a favor to ask of Dr. P. He says: “The Langstroth hive could be made deeper very easily, without Mr. R.’s patchwork.” Will he tell us how it can be done, and still retain about the same number of cubic inches?

CALVIN ROGERS.

_West Newberry, Mass._, September 10, 1870.

* * * * *

Honey is the most elaborate of all vegetable productions.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Wintering Bees.

We republish the following from the A. B. J., Vol. IV., page 109, at the request of a number of new subscribers. We regard it as probably the least troublesome and most successful mode of out-door wintering yet devised.

It is settled beyond a doubt in my own mind, by the experience of others as related in the BEE JOURNAL, and by my own experience for several years in the apiary, that bees to winter well, must have sufficient ventilation to carry off the excessive moisture which accumulates in well stocked hives. This moisture arises partly from the exhalations from the bodies of the bees, but mostly, I think, from the surrounding atmosphere, which constantly holds in suspense a greater or less amount of moisture, according as its temperature is higher or lower. The warm atmosphere of the hive is capable of holding a considerable quantity, until it is condensed by coming in contact with the cold walls of the hive, at some distance from the cluster of bees. There it condenses, first into minute drops of moisture, and afterwards, if the cold increases, into frost. The constant accumulation of the quantity, by repeated thawing and freezing in a hive that has no efficient means of ventilation, gradually encroaches on the space occupied by the bees, finally reaching those on the outside of the cluster. These grow benumbed, cease to eat, lose their vitality, grow cold, the frost forms on their bodies, and they die where they stand. The frost continues to penetrate the cluster, if the cold weather is prolonged, until finally the last bee dies covered with frost. The warm days of spring then melt this frost, and on examination, the whole mass of bees are found dead and as wet as if just dipped from a basin of water. I found one hive in that condition last spring. The entrance to this hive was left open, but the honey-board was left on tight, without any upward ventilation, as an experiment. All my other colonies wintered well on their summer stands, having their entrances open three or four inches wide, and the front and rear openings in the honey-boards (half an inch wide, and extending the whole length of the hive) uncovered, but the middle opening closed.

For the coming winter I have adopted Mr. Langstroth’s plan with some modifications. I shall omit the outside covering of the hive, believing that it is better to have the hive of a single thickness of board, say seven-eighths of an inch, in order that the heat of the sun may easily penetrate it, and warm up the hive almost daily, thus giving the bees an opportunity to bring to the central part of the hive fresh supplies of food from the outer combs. This plan _may_ lead to a somewhat greater consumption of honey; but if a swarm of bees will give its owner from fifty to one hundred pounds of surplus honey in a season, as mine have done the past summer, he ought to be entirely willing to have them eat all they need during the winter. At all events, one of two things must be done, to winter bees successfully, in addition to their having a supply of food and thorough ventilation--they must either be kept in a repository where frost cannot enter, as a cellar, trench, ice-house, or the like; or they must be put where the sun can warm them up occasionally.

I have removed all the honey-boards, placed two one-half or three-quarter inch strips across the frames, and covered the whole top of the frames with any old woollen garments that could be found about the house.[3] These need no cutting or fitting. Pack them in as you would pack a trunk, (the roof or cover of my top box is movable, and I like it much better than the old plan of having it nailed on,) two, three, or half a dozen thicknesses will make no difference. The moisture will pass through as readily as the insensible perspiration of our bodies will pass through our bed covering. The hives will remain dry and the bees warm. I have no fear of losing a single swarm the coming winter, although several new ones which I bought are quite weak, owing to the sudden close of the honey harvest a month earlier than last year, in consequence of the drought.

R. BICKFORD.

_Seneca Falls, N. Y._, Oct., 1868.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Upward Ventilation.

MR. EDITOR:--I once found a bee-tree, with an excellent swarm in it. I cut it down Gallup-fashion, and moved it home, in the month of February. The entrance was a hole, about three inches in diameter, just at the top of the cavity. The tree was a green butternut. I sawed it off, short enough to handle easy, and set it up in the yard. The combs were bright and clean, and there were not over a dozen dead bees in it when found. It swarmed twice in June following, and next winter I stopped up the entrance at the top, and made another within six inches of the bottom, by boring a two-inch hole through the side. All this time I kept the top closed tight. The following winter I came near losing them with dampness and dysentery. Next winter, I closed up the auger hole, and opened the top entrance again. They wintered as nice as a pin--no dampness or dysentery. In April I thought I could still better their condition, by making the entrance smaller, and reduced the entrance to one inch in diameter. Within six days after, I came near losing them with dampness and mould. Experimenting still further, I noticed that the fanners or ventilating bees would, in hot weather, be arranged in this manner--one set at the lower edge of the entrance, with their heads outward; the other set at the top of the entrance, facing inward, driving out the hot air. I then reduced the size of the entrance still more, and found that in a very short time nearly the entire swarm would issue and cluster on the outside of the log or gum. Enlarging the hole to three inches again, the bees would soon return inside and resume work. I kept that log hive four years, and then sold it to a neighbor. Whenever I wintered it with the natural entrance open, there was no dysentery and no unnatural distention of the abdomen; and on their first flight in the spring, they would not even speck the snow.

In wintering bees in the Wellhuysen hive, made of willows and plastered with cow manure, they would never have the dysentery--not the least sign of it. The combs were always bright and clean, and the bees always in as good condition as they were in midsummer. I have wintered bees in Canada, in the old-fashioned straw hive, with the entrance, summer and winter, a two-inch hole in the centre at top; and they always wintered well, without the least sign of dysentery, even when they would not leave the hive from the 10th of October to the 1st of May--nearly eight months. In that climate they are nearly always confined from the 1st of November to the 10th or 20th of April, or about five months. When I lived there, there was scarcely ever any honey stored after the 15th of August, yet bee-keeping pays in that climate. To encourage our northern bee-keepers, I will say that, according to my experience, there and in the West, I think the flowers secrete more honey, in the same length of time, there than here. Our atmosphere is rather dry, while theirs is moist and humid--just right for the secretion of honey.

ELISHA GALLUP.

_Orchard, Iowa._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Alley’s Improved Langstroth Hive.

MR. EDITOR:--For twenty years I have had experience in bee-keeping, and had within that time as many different styles of bee-hives in my apiary; but, taking everything into consideration, the advantages derived from Mr. Alley’s, proves it to be the best I have yet seen. It has the best shape, the greatest amount of animal heat for wintering bees, and as for storing honey, it allows as much room for surplus honey as the largest stock would need.

These are only two among the many advantages it presents. Many more might be mentioned. I simply state these, as I consider them the most important. Brother bee-keepers, who are about to purchase, should not fail to give it a trial.

LEVI FISH.

_Danvers, Mass._, Sept. 10, 1870.

* * * * *

Intelligent practice is very different from blind practice; or, in other words, practice preceded by a sound theory is evidently far superior to practice without theory.--TALBOT.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Ventilating the Gallup Hive in a Damp Cellar.

The cellar of my house is nearly underground. Its size is 38 × 28 × 7 feet, inside measure. The temperature during the winter is usually 38° F., with occasional extremes of 35° and 41°. It is damp, and not specially ventilated. A stairway from the porch and one from the kitchen, furnish all the air; the latter being very much used during winter time. In this cellar I have usually wintered some of my bees, for many years--trying various methods and different kinds of hives, with the result always, till last winter, of more or less mouldy combs. I then had among the lot four strong stocks and Gallup hives. These I had setting up three feet from the ground, with caps and honey-boards removed, and the loose top cover laid directly on the hives; and by means of hard wood wedges pushed in between the lower edges of the hives and the bottom-boards, and also between the upper edges and the top covers, I gave them one-eighth of an inch air all round the hives, above and below, except six inches in length at the entrance, where I gave them one-fourth of an inch, so that the bees could get out. In this condition the hives were left all winter. The bees remained very quiet, humming almost inaudibly, and paying little attention to the light of a candle which was carried in many times a day. Scarcely any came out to die; and not over half a teacupful died in each hive. They consumed comparatively little honey, and when the hives were examined after being set out in the spring, the combs were all dry and free from mould. In my experience absorbents used on a hive in a cellar have always caused combs to mould. Who would think of laying on top of his hives a damp straw mat, or a pile of damp corncobs? And yet it is all about the same thing. Give the proper amount of air, and let it pass off unobstructed. I shall try a larger number of hives the coming winter. Many thanks to Gallup.

HENRY CRIST.

_Lake P. O., Stark county, Ohio_, Oct. 4, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bee Hives, and Shipping Honey in Frames.

There has been much said on hives in the columns of the Bee Journal. Some are said to be too deep, and others too shallow. But after all, profit in dollars and cents is the great object; and to secure this in the shape of surplus honey, three things are requisite--_first_, strong colonies of bees; _second_, a good season with plenty of pasturage; and, _third_, the placing your surplus honey boxes or frames as near as possible to the brood in the main body of the hive. There are two ways to accomplish this: _first_, by using the shallow form of hive, with frames say seven or eight inches in depth; and, _second_, by using the side gathering or storing hive. I prefer the latter, with frames twelve inches deep; and this for three reasons. _First_, if the apiarian has no repository for winter quarters, his bees are right in these for wintering in the open air. _Second_, the brood and cards of honey can be so adjusted as to bring the former next to your honey boxes, if necessary; as we never want more than one full frame of honey between the brood and the surplus honey boxes or frames. _Third_, in the manipulation of colonies there is no comparison between the side storing hive, and the top storing. With the former, when the lid is removed, we have access to the frames, without the intervention of surplus honey or other boxes. Top-storing hives are now behind the age.

Those using shallow frames must, in this latitude and climate, have a house for wintering their colonies, and when bees are removed to their summer stands in the spring, the lid that covers the second-story or surplus honey chamber, should fit on the brood chamber, that the honey chamber may be left off till the time comes for placing surplus honey boxes on your hives. By this means all the heat rising from the bees is secured and diffused through the main hive or brooding chamber for hatching the eggs; and the bees multiply as rapidly for aught I can see, and swarm as early as in the twelve inch frames. I have used one hundred shallow hives, with frames eight inches in depth, for three years; and when I suffer them to throw off natural swarms, they swarm as early, sending off as many and as large swarms as taller hives.

In 1869, I had gathered six thousand pounds of fine surplus honey in frames in the top receptacles of my shallow hives. A large proportion of this I shipped, in the frames, to C. O. Perrine & Co., Chicago, Ills. They paid me twenty-five cents per pound for it, frames and all. Should any honey raisers in the West wish to sell to a good man, I should recommend them to Mr. Perrine. I have trusted him with quite large amounts at a time, and always found all right at settlement day.

SHIPPING HONEY IN FRAMES.

To do this properly and safely make the box or case in which you ship only wide enough to receive the length of the top bar of your frames, and one and a half inch deeper than the depth of the frame. Make the case tight and pitch the inside with rosin and bees wax, so that the leakage of the combs will not be lost.

In packing the frame honey, first pierce the projection of the frames through with an awl, invert it and place in the holes one inch finishing nails, then place the top of the frame down and crossways in the case, and with a tack hammer drive your nails. Place the next frame by the side of this first, corresponding as built in the hive, if it can be; and place them so as slightly to touch. In filling the last end of the case, place an iron rod on the head of the nail to drive it, as you cannot play the hammer.

When the case is full, take two strips (common lath) just long enough and wide enough to fill the case tightly from end to end, and cover the ends of the frames and fit tightly against the sides of the case; drive an inch nail through the strips in the end piece of each frame, and the frames will be perfectly solid.

I shipped from one to two hundred pounds in a case, in this manner, and Mr. Perrine tells me the average was not over two frames broken down per case, and no loss from leakage, the boxes being pitched inside.

A. SALISBURY.

_Camargo, Ills._, Sept. 6, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The New Smoker.

I introduce to the notice of bee-keepers a new smoker for bees, believing it will be pronounced the best, until a better one is found.

It will be found the best for ease of lighting, and to retain fire, and as burning with equal facility, rotten wood, old rags, or a combination of wood and rags; and it will not annoy the operator every few minutes by going out.

To make one, procure a piece of wove wire; I use very fine wire cloth, but suppose that a coarser article will answer. The piece should be twelve inches wide and from twelve to eighteen inches long. Take of old rags a sufficient quantity to make a roll about 2 or 2½ inches thick and twelve inches long. Roll the rags evenly and firmly together, and then lay them at one end of the sheet of wove wire, and roll the wove wire over them pretty tightly, and bind with wire. Light at one end with a match; and your smoker, if nicely made, will burn from two to four hours. Or if it be only half filled with rags, then fill out lightly with damp rotten wood, and you will have a big smudge.

JOHN M. PRICE.

_Buffalo Grove, Iowa._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Reply to Mr. Worthington’s Inquiry.

MR. EDITOR:--I see in the June number, page 264, Mr. Worthington asks how to examine bee stores, &c., in the American hive. Here is the way I do. Remove the cap and honey box; blow a little smoke through the slot in the top bar of frames, to quiet the bees; remove the movable side, and with your pocket knife, you can easily run the blade between the top bars, loosening them; lift out the frames, placing them in a skeleton frame made to hold them; and in this way you see _exactly_ the condition of your bees. In returning the frames to the hive, you have only one place to watch to prevent killing bees, that is the top.

J. W. SALLEE.

_Pierce, Mo._

* * * * *

If asked how much such contrivances against the moth will help the careless bee-man, I answer not one iota; nay, they will positively furnish him greater facilities for destroying his bees. Worms will spin and hatch, and moths will lay their eggs, under the blocks, and he will never remove them. Thus, instead of traps, he will have most beautiful devices for giving effectual aid and comfort to his enemies.--_Langstroth’s “Hive and Honey Bee.”_

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bees in Bennington, Vermont.

MR. EDITOR:--The season in Bennington has been very good for bees, that is, considering that they were in poor condition last spring. Many colonies died last winter in this town, and I should think it safe to say that one half our bees then perished for want of honey. I was not at home in February to attend to mine, and lost five colonies before I was aware of their being so short of supplies, which I discovered only after losing my best stock of Italians. It was quite warm in January, and one day was so like spring that I carried my hives all out, and for a couple of hours it seemed like swarming time. The weather was so mild that my bees began to breed considerable, and so used up their honey. When I removed the dead bees from one of my hives, I found brood in three combs sealed over, a spot as large as my hand in each, besides eggs and larvæ.

February was very cold, and a terror to light swarms. I set my hives out again the last of March, and had then only fifteen stocks. Three of these I united with others, thus reducing the number to twelve. One of these got discouraged, and tried to form a partnership with another colony, but got killed in the operation. Thus, by the first of May, I had only eleven colonies remaining, and they were very weak. I fed them every day till I began to see they were getting stronger. Then, thanks to the Bee Journal, I knew enough to double their feed as they increased in numbers and the hives in weight of brood, for they could not of course get much honey till the first trees blossomed. The weather then became warm and pleasant, and the bees got a good start in life, so that when clover and red raspberries bloomed, they were soon ready to march out and take a limb of a tree on their own account. I soon had twenty-five swarms and began to think hives and all would swarm. Besides those we hived, four swarms took the wings of the morning. By the way, a great number of swarms ran away this year to the woods. I found a small swarm about three miles away from home. They came over a barn I was painting, and clustered near by. I hived them in a powder keg, and carried them home at night.

I have taken two hundred and twenty-five (225) pounds of box honey from my bees, besides ten six pound boxes partly filled, of which I take no account. I have twenty-one hives to winter. They are very heavy, too heavy, I fear, to winter well; but hope for the best. Bees within half a mile of mine have not done anything at all; because they had no care or feeding in the spring, and when summer came they were merely ready to begin their spring’s work. I think it pays to feed bees as well as other stock.

I have only two swarms of black bees, and some hybrids, the rest are pure Italians. I received two queens from Mr. Cary this season, and inserted them all right. They were, to all appearance, accepted and owned for four or five weeks, when one day I found one of them thrown out dead on the bottom board; and if it had not been for the Bee Journal on the superseding of queens, I should not have known what the trouble was. The other is all right so far, and the young bees from both queens are beauties. I never saw finer, and am well satisfied with them. My bees are all descendants of Mr. Cary’s stock, and another year I shall get some more from him and other breeders, to avoid breeding in and in.

I have never yet seen a honey extractor at work, but there is one within a few miles of me and I am going to see it. If it proves to be the one thing needful in my case, I shall go for one another year.

I have procured some of the Rocky Mountain bee plant seed from Mr. Green, and if it is good, as I have no reason to doubt it will be, I shall let you know all about it.

The season has been quite favorable here, not as dry as it was in some places; and our crops are very good, with an abundance of fruit. Taking every thing into consideration, I am well satisfied with my bees and their labors last summer. When I bought my bees, a man in the same business blowed a good deal and said it would not be a great while before I would run out with my Italian bees and wintering in the house. Last year (1869) he had in the summer sixty-six colonies. He fed two barrels of sugar this spring, as he says, and now has twenty or twenty-one colonies. Who has run out? I fed half a barrel or one hundred and twenty-five pounds of sugar. He don’t “fool away his money for Bee Journals, nor Italian queens.”

C. H. BASSETT.

_North Bennington, Vt._, Oct. 5, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Season in Massachusetts.

After reading the various accounts in the Journal as to how bees have done in other parts of the country, I think it will not be out of place to let its readers know what has been going on in Massachusetts, or rather in a part of that State.

About May 20th our bees commenced to collect honey rapidly, and from that time to June 7th, honey was very abundant, and I never saw bees put into the hives and surplus boxes faster. From June 7th until July 1st they did very little. In fact we had then ten days in succession when no honey was collected; and by the 1st of July pasturage failed altogether, as it generally does here in New England. I never knew bees to put honey into boxes later than July 12th, and that for only one year, since I have kept bees.

Perhaps it will be new to some of the readers of the Journal to know the fact that bees do not collect honey here, in Essex county, as a general thing, later than the first week in July; and this season they did not work later than the last day of June. Very little honey was put into boxes between June 7th and July 1st. Had the season held out as it gave promise in May, honey would have been plenty in Massachusetts.

I have a few hives that did very well, considering how short the honey harvest was, and to let some of your readers know that Alley can raise honey as well as queen bees, I enclose a short report that was intended to be shown to the “Honey Committee,” at the Essex County Fair; but as I was the only person who exhibited bees or honey (except four small boxes by Mr. Gould, of Ipswich,) I did not submit it. Of course Alley got the highest “premium,” under such circumstances. I suppose if I say that the stock that did best was in one of Alley’s hives, some one will think that this article is meant only for an advertisement. Well, I cannot help that; so here goes for the report, and all who do not want to believe it, can accommodate themselves in that line, and I will find no fault. I do not, myself, believe more than only just what I think is true, even when I see it in the A. B. J.:

HIVE No. 1, filled sixty-eight 2½lb. boxes, and cast one small swarm. The honey was sold at thirty-five cents per pound, box and all. Weight of boxes and honey 170lbs.; weight of the sixty-eight boxes empty 34lbs.; net amount of honey stored 136lbs., which, at 35 cents per pound,

is $47 60
One young swarm 3 00
------
Whole amount $50 60

HIVE No. 2. This was a stock transferred from a box hive to a movable comb hive, May 26th, 1870. It filled thirty 3lb. boxes, and the honey was sold at thirty-five cents a pound, without including the boxes. Net amount of honey stored 75lbs.; which, at 35 cents per pound, is $26 25

HIVE No. 3, filled two 15lb. boxes, and cast two swarms. The first of these swarms filled a new hive, from which I have taken twenty-five pounds of honey, and it now has enough to winter on, without feeding. The second swarm I used to rear queens, and it was worth five dollars to me.

Value of first swarm $7 00
Value of second swarm 5 00
55lbs. of honey at 35 cents per pound 19 25
------
Whole profit from Hive No. 3 $31 25

The profit from these three hives is one hundred and eight (108) dollars.

I omitted to say that I took twenty-five pounds of honey from Hive No. 2, as late as August 20th. That hive now has honey enough to winter well.

Since September 20th, the bees have put in a considerable amount of honey, but not in surplus boxes. Even my nucleus hives put in enough from September 20th, to keep them--making a saving to me of twenty-five (25) dollars.

If other bees in this vicinity have done as well as mine, few colonies will starve in this county next winter. My article is getting long. I will stop just here.

H. ALLEY.

_Wenham, Mass._, Oct. 3, 1870.

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Virgil recommends the hollowed trunk of the cork tree as a hive, than which no material would be more admirable, if it could only be easily and cheaply procured.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bees at Binghamton, N. Y.

MR. EDITOR:--Having gained so much instruction and pleasure from the perusal of your valuable paper, I think it no more than right to send you a report of the season’s operations here. But there are so many of your contributors so much more successful, that my account will appear tame in comparison; yet when compared with what has been done by my box and Kidder hive neighbors, it seems to be quite a success.

The season has been favorable in this locality, though rather dry for many crops, yet honey was more or less abundantly yielded all through the season. The weather has been such that the bees could gather honey almost every day, from the first of May until the present time.

We placed ten (10) swarms in the cellar in the fall of 1869, all of which wintered in good condition and came out strong in the spring. Four of them were Italians, and six blacks, seven in movable frames and three in box hives. Those in the box hives were transferred in April; the black queen killed about the first of June, and young, fertile Italian queens of my own raising substituted for them. One hive was broken up into nuclei in May, and also the first swarm. We have run from six to ten nuclei all through the season, to obtain, if possible, a pure queen for every hive; but we have not succeeded in getting all full marked workers in more than half of the stocks, as our box hive neighbors kept us flooded with common drones.

We have taken this season, as surplus, eleven hundred (1100) pounds of honey--eight hundred (800) pounds being comb or box honey, and three hundred (300) pounds extracted; and have increased our stock to fifteen (15) full swarms. Besides the surplus, we have forty Langstroth frames filled with comb and honey, averaging two pounds each. This is not counted as surplus, but reserved for next season’s operations.

After transferring last spring, and cutting out drone combs, our hives lacked from one to two frames each, from a full complement. Having constructed a _slinger_ this season, we are enabled to lay by a goodly store of combs for future use.

Our best stock gave us twenty-four six pound boxes, weighing one hundred and forty-four (144) pounds, and twenty-five (25) pounds of extracted honey; besides ten frames of brood and honey, taken from the body of the hive at different times in the season and replaced with empty frames. It is now in good condition.

This is the first season that we have practiced non-swarming on the true principle of making box honey, and had we had the knowledge and experience that we now have, we are confident we could have attained still more favorable results. We are no friend to increase, and would never increase more than is absolutely necessary. Nor can we understand how some men are so well satisfied with a large increase and a small amount of surplus. Yet we have not seen any feasible plan put forth whereby a large amount of surplus can be made without a slight increase.

After having tried both kinds to our entire satisfaction, we think we can get as much profit, and far more pleasure, from one Italian swarm in a Langstroth hive, than we can from twenty-five (25) swarms of black bees in box hives.

J. P. MOORE.

_Binghamton, N. Y._, Oct. 3, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bee Report from Champaign Co., Ills.

MR. EDITOR:--I write to let you know how bees have done here, this season. I had last spring fifty-one (51) stocks, nearly all in my own hive with frames, and on the top four glass boxes, holding ten pounds each, box and all. I sold two stocks for thirty-six dollars, and they earned for the man who bought them one hundred (100) dollars, in swarms and honey.

During the blooming of the trees in the spring, bees had a week to gather honey. Then they did not get any more until the white cover blossomed, and we had a rain on the 10th of June. From that time until the 25th of June bees did splendid; but after that to the 1st of August, they did not collect as much as they consumed. Then we had the fall flowers, and they have done very well.

I bought ten swarms on the 23d of June, but before they commenced work forage failed. I fed them and four of my own late swarms; one hundred pounds of sugar and two gallons of honey. I then stopped until the first of September. Then I fed them over one hundred pounds more of sugar, doubled up three colonies and broke up two. So I now have seventy-two (72) stocks, all of which I think will winter.

My bees have made about 800 or 900 lbs. of honey. To strengthen the weak ones, I took off boxes full of honey and bees, and gave them to weak swarms. Thus they got bees and honey at the same time. In doubling swarms, I open both hives and take five of the lightest frames from one, and five of the best from the other, put them in and brush all the bees out, and they will not fight.

Bees have done better in the country than in the village, as our village is nearly overstocked. The Spanish Needle is a good honey-producing plant; also a tall flower called Wild Artichoke.--It has been very dry here; but rains have gone in streaks. Two or three rains come in the right time, would have been worth a thousand dollars to me. The white clover dried up early. The bees visited the groceries and were lost by thousands. My bees are nearly all Italians, which I consider the best.

I gave a description of my hive in the Journal, last year. Every one uses it here. It costs about four dollars, and can be made for a little less.

We have had no frost yet, and the bees are collecting honey still, and will do so as long as the Wild Artichoke lasts. I feed my bees by taking off one of the boxes, and put on a saucer with some pieces of comb in it. Then dissolve sugar and fill the comb and saucer. They will take it up every night. Feed till you get them heavy enough.

I divided ten swarms, and they did well, though I divided them too late in the season. If one is going to divide, it should be done early.

Last year was a splendid season for honey. Thirty-two weak stocks gave eighteen swarms, and twenty-six hundred pounds of honey.

DR. H. CHAFFEE.

_Tolono, Ills._, Oct. 3, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

White Clover crop.--Buckwheat yielding no Honey.

MR. EDITOR:--I once more take up my pen to advocate bee-keeping. As I said in my last article that my apiary was increasing, I have now ten new swarms from eleven old colonies, and I am every day expecting some second swarms to issue, as queens in the hives that sent out swarms, can be distinctly heard uttering the word “peep! peep!” and according to more able apiarians than myself, that is the true sign that second swarms will issue in a few days, if the weather be favorable.

The other morning I was out where my bees are. I suppose you have a strong idea of what I saw, when I raised up one of my stands. There were a half dozen of the fattest full grown moth worms almost any one ever saw. They were lying back in all their glory, after gorging themselves with the rich feast on which they no doubt had luxuriated. I made short work of them, however. Those round, plump, greasy-looking fellows seem to think, from all appearance, that they are lords of creation. But I soon dislodged them from their snug quarters, by means of a sharp-pointed iron bar made for the purpose. “They slept rather late that morning, and were caught up with.”

The piping of the young queen was something new to me. I told some of my bee-raising friends of it, and they hooted at me, calling me a deceiver and impostor. I referred them to Mr. Langstroth’s book, and Mr. Quinby’s, and told them that they should subscribe for the American Bee Journal, or even read it, and they would find that what I said in regard to the young queen’s piping, was strictly correct. My friend Mr. K. (whom I converted) in a conversation with Mr. S., asked him why he did not take the American Bee Journal. “Why,” replied he, “they can print anything in a paper, and there are fools enough to believe it.” I have known Mr. S. for about fourteen years, and know that he has had bees all that time. Yet he has not any more stands now, than he had ten years ago. (It is no wonder.)

The honey product of this season seems to be good. Bees are storing great quantities of surplus honey. The weather has been very favorable for honey-gathering, for the past six weeks. White clover has been in bloom for the last fifteen days, and will probably continue till the middle of July. From it the best honey is gathered. In the spring the early flowers were cut off by sleet, which fell about the 18th of April.

I am now preparing to sow a large field with buckwheat, exclusively for my bees, though some writers in different papers state that the bees do not get any honey from this plant. Whether it is a honey-producing plant or not, the bees seem to visit it as regularly when in bloom, as if there was something about it they are very fond of. Perhaps I can throw some light on this subject. Last fall I had three hives of bees, that came late, while nearly all the other flowers were exhausted, and buckwheat was their only resource for supplies for winter. They worked like white-heads, as long as the blossoms lasted; and after that went through the winter safely, though they were weak the following spring.

I will now give my opinion on ventilation, for the benefit of Mr. A. Green. My mode is as follows: I leave the summer entrance open, and also upward ventilation all winter. I have always, heretofore, wintered my bees in the open air. If Mr. Green uses hives with movable caps, he can close the summer entrance and take off the surplus honey-boxes, substitute straw or fine shavings in their stead, and replace the cap as before. This is the best way that I have yet tried. I intend this for winter. In summer I give them all the ventilation needed--that is, I leave all the ventilators open.

I have drawn out this article longer than I intended, and close with greeting to all bee-keeping friends.

T. H. WOODY.

_Pleasant Valley, Mo._, June 18, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Honey-producing Plants.

MR. EDITOR:--Not having much to do, at present, I thought I would give your readers an account of my observation and trial of the different kinds of honey-plants around us here. It may be of some service to new beginners, as I have tried all kinds I could hear of and procure, that were reputed valuable for producing honey.

Among the best are Alsike clover, Melilot clover, White Dutch clover, Borage, and Buckwheat. These, with us, just fill out the season from June to October.

The plants named in the following list, I do not consider of any account here, for honey, viz.: White Mustard, Black Mustard, Rape, Chicory, Mignonette, Lucerne Clover, and the Rocky Mountain Plant. Kale did not come into blossom, and I cannot speak of its value as a honey-yielding plant.

R. MILLER.

_Rochelle, Ill._

👉 Some of the plants named as of no value for bees, are highly praised, in other localities.--ED.

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I once met with an individual whose breath, shortly after he was stung, had the same odor with the venom of the enraged insect.--_L. L. Langstroth._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Rocky Mountain Bee Plant.

(POLANISIA PURPUREA.)

MR. EDITOR:--About the middle of August, by invitation of Mr. Alfred Green, of Amesbury, a friend and myself visited his place to see the bees work on the Rocky Mountain bee plant. We arrived there about eight o’clock in the morning, and found the plants swarming with bees; one, two, and in some cases three bees upon the same flower.

Mr. Green informed us that they were still at work on it, the day before, at seven o’clock in the evening. It was amusing to see them gather pollen from it while on the wing, the stamens extending so far out that they could not reach them after alighting on the flower.

The plant was growing on a rather light soil, not highly manured, and stood from two to three feet high, branching out in all directions. Planted in the spring, it comes into blossom soon after the white clover disappears and continues until killed by the frost. If planted in the fall, as Mr. G. says it can be, it would blossom much earlier. I think this is the best plant to cultivate for bees, as it fills a vacancy, (in this locality) between the white clover and the fall flower.

Alsike clover I have raised, commencing in 1860; and find that, on my soil, bees prefer it to white clover. But as it begins and ends blossoming at the same time with white clover, it is not of so much value for bees, as it would be if it came a month or so later.

As the seed of the Rocky Mountain bee plant is valuable for poultry, and probably for swine and other farm stock, when made into meal, it would perhaps pay to raise it for the seed alone.

CALVIN ROGERS.

_West Newbury, Mass._, Sept. 12, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Silk Weed or Milk Weed.

Well, Mr. Editor, I saw in the Bee Journal for July something concerning the injuriousness of the silk weed or milk weed. After reading the article it struck me that there was some of this weed in the vicinity of my apiary, and next day set about to search for it. On going out west, on the low ground on the prairie, I found ten flowering stems of this weed, and seven of the ten had bees fastened on them. Some of these bees were dead, and some still living, though they could not leave the flowers, being fastened in them by their hind legs. The bees seemed to have been gathering honey.

Last Monday, as I was going to a neighbor’s, I saw one of these flowers, three quarters of a mile from my home. I stopped to see if I could find any bees on it, and found an Italian just alive. I am glad there are not many of this species of plants in this neighborhood.

R. MILLER.

_Rochelle, Ills._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Honey Dew.

MR. EDITOR:--I have at last caught the chaps that rain down what is called honey-dew. In localities where the common willow grows, I found the most. On the Missouri river bottom, which is literally covered with willows, I find in June and July they are covered with small insects, which at a certain age get wings and fly off in large swarms, going for miles. Sometimes they will stop in the air, over some trees, and fly around in a circle for an hour. If you get them between your eye and the sun, you will see them discharging the so-called honey-dew. They will stop in one place, the same as gnats or mosquitoes, which you have often seen about as high as a man’s head.