PHICE THIRTY-FIVE CENTS. J-tii; ■mam 3^)'/=?3j,_3METCALF'S key d-ha /v^ 6Tr -KEEPING. r-:3 THE MICHIGAN BEE-HIVES. The inventor of these Hives has obtained two Patents, from wliicll we quote as follows : U. S. Patent Office. Letters Patent, No. 1,948, whole No. 32,952, dated July 30, 1861. The nature of my invention consists in the peculiar construction and em- ployment of the various parts which compose the hive, and also in the partic- ular mode of producing artificial swarming, to which purpose the parts here- inafter set forth are merely incidental. [See Fig. 19, p. 36. Claims.— 1st The employment of a revolving bee-hive, so arranged that artificial swarming m.iy be produced substantially in the manner specified. 2nd I claim the employment of the movable frames, D. D.. provided with cylinder M, when used in connection with a revolving bee-hive, in the manner and for the purpose set forth. TJ. S. Patent Office. Letters Patent, whole No. 34,157, dated Jan. 14, 1862. Fig. 1 is a perspective view, showing the construction of the frame. [Sea Pig. 23, p. 47 J Fig. 3, side view of frames in hive. [See Fig. 22, p. 45 ] These adjustable frames are intended to be used in the revolving bee-hive, patented to mc July 30, 1861, or in any rectangular box hive, having a mov- able front. Claim. — I claim constructing the top bar A, and side bars B, of adjustable frames for bee-hives, with the beveled ends a, b, in the manner described, when used in connection with a m.ovablo front, and in a rectangular box or hive. ITALIA?^ BEES, Put up securely, and forwcvrdcd 1)}^ express (C. 0. D.), and a safe delivery, and successful Italianization of the common hive guaranteed. PKIGB FEB Q,UBEIv", FIVE DOLLARS. MARTIN iSIETCALF, Grand Rapids. Mich. A KEY TO SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPaTr: BEING A TREATISE ON THE MOST PROFITABLE METHOD OF MANAGING BEES. INCLUDING THE AUTHOE's NEW SYSTEM OF ARTIFICIAL SWARMING, ALL WATCHINa FOR SWARMS DURING THE SWARMING SEASON IS DONE AWAY WITH, BY MARTIN METCALF. " Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell 1 Who bids her -oul with conscious triumph swell 7 With coa'^cions truth retrace the mazy clue Qi various scents that_chaiined her as she flew 1" N E W-Y R K : C. M. 8AXT0N, AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER. 1862. E 1125 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by MARTIN MET CALF, In the Clerk's OfEioe of the District Court of the United States for the District of Miahigan. J. J. Reed, Printer and Stereotj'per, 43 Centre Street. P R E F A (] E . The author of this little book and originator of the system of Bee-Keeping herein advocated, has endeavored to present the results of many years of careful observation, experiments and study in the form of a practical treatise, so concise and yet so plain, that even the inexperienced may, with, his book and his hive, enter upon the business of bee- keeping confident of success. He takes pleasure in acknowledging that in his study of the Bee he has derived much valuable aid from the labors of Bevan, Huber, Huish, Miner, Tay- lor, Munn,Bruckish,Quinby.Langstroth, Harbison and others. Bringing their conflicting theories to the only sure test— the Bee-hive itself, so constructed as to expose to the eye its entire operations — he has, by careful observation at all hours and all seasons, and continued through many years, demonstrated the truth of some and the error of others. Thus, little by little, under his own eye, have the natural laws governing these wonderful little creatures, ar- IV PREFACE. ranged themselves into a compact and beautiful sys- tem. His experiments were pursued simply as a pleasure, and his hive invented for his own private use : it was not until quite recently that he had any thought of offering to the public a new hive, or pub- lishing a book on Bees. He now does it at the re- quest of friends, and to supply what seems to be a public need. He has intended to give due credit in. his book. — • Its designed limits and chief aim forbade extensive copying ; for he has purposely excluded all spec- ulative hypotheses not yet brought from the field of experiment by repeated demonstrations, giving only the absolute and abundantly established truths on which the hive and system herein describe-d rest. He does not expect, in a day, to convince all of the truth of every statement made in his book, nor of the entire practicability ot his system. He asks for the former a careful study, and for the latter a fair trial — these granted, he has no fears for the result. The Authoe. Grand Rapids, Michigan, April, 1862. INTRODUCTION. " But these pursuits ■will honeyed fragrance bring Without the danger of a treacheroug sting." Bees suggest all that is beautiful, fragrant. and de- licious in the floral universe. Hence bee-keeping has been termed the " poetry of agriculture." A flower without a bee to sip its nectar and rolic in its pollen, hints too broadly the quasi bliss of " single blessedness." Types of toil, symbols of frugality, models of government — with Flora propitious, how extravagantly provident, and how cheerfully they fill our dish with a " Benjamin's mess " of their deli- cate fare. Whether bees are partial to good society, or man appreciates bees as he himself becomes refined — their temples have always marked the locum in quo of the highest style of human culture. Bees navi- gated the Nile in its palmiest days, to gather luscious wealth from her blooming fields. Phoenicia, precep- tor of the world, was graphically described to its " heirs of promise," as " a land flowing with milk and honey." Greece, " the land of scholars," had her Mount Hybla — " the empire of bees" — and Emelus cf Corinth, in 741 B. C, devoted a poem to their praise. Rome's most elegant poet, Virgil, sang the bee in the noon of her splendor. The learned Ger- mans, importing the bee from Italy, and copying VI INTRODUCTION. their hive from Greece, have in some cases a thou- sand colonies to the square mile, sustain a Journal and Associations in their interest, and government encourages their culture. Of the 202 species of the Apis genus, Hardie, in his America, says there are 111 in England, where they receive deserved atten- tion.* * The following anecdote from the Mark Lane Express, is iu point : A bishop was holding his first visitation of the clergy of his diocese, in a town in one of the midland countries. Among those assembled he soon discovered an old college acquaintance, whom he had not seen for a great number of years, but whom he greeted with all the warmth of a renewed friendship. On comparing notes with his friend, the bishop learned with regret that he was still a curate in a country village, at a stipend of one hundred pounds a year, and that he had a wife and large family to support. The worthy curate, however, invited the bishop to spend a day with him before he left the neighborhood, and the latter, not wishing to appear proud, accepted the invita- tion. On reaching the parsonage, he was surprised to find his friend's wife an elegant, well-dressed lady, who received him without any of the embarrassment which a paucity of means occasions in those who feel its pressure. The children, too, were all well-dressed, and looked anything rather than as hav- ing suffered from the pinching pains of unappeased hunger. But the good bishop's astonishment was still greater when he sat down to partake of a repast worthy of the traditional and cus- tomary fare of his order, and was invited to " take wine" of the purest flavor and aroma with his fair and graceful hostess. Knowing that his friend was originally a poor man, he consider- ed that he must have received a fortune with his wife. After therefore, the latter and the children had withdrawn, the bishop INTBODUCTIOJ?. VH Bees came with the Puritan fathers to the New World in 1670, and have long since become one of our economic necessities. They followed their de- scendants to California in 1853 and subsequent years, whence come fabulous accounts of their pro- digious thrift. With staple tribute for our tables and dollars for our pockets, they pass out of the realm of fine introduced the subject by expressing a fear that his friend had gone to an unusual and injurious expense to entertain him, and that it would entail privation upon him afterwards. " Not at all," replied the curate. '' I can well afford to enter- tain an old friend once in a while without any inconvenience." '"Then," rejoined the bishop, "I must congratulate you, I suppose, on having received a fortune with jour good lady." " You are wrong again, my lord," replied the poor curate. " I had not a shilling with my wife." More mystified than ever, the bishop resumed : " Then how is it possible for you to have those comforts around you that I see, out of a hundred a year ?" " Oh, my lord, as to that, I am a large manufacturer as well as clergyman, and employ many thousands of operatives, which bring me in an excellent living. If you will walk with me to the back of the premises, I will show you them at work." He ac- cordingly took him into the garden at the back of the house, and there was a splendid apiary, with a large number of bee-hives, the source of the curate's prosperity. The bishop never forgot the circumstance, nor did he ever fail to make use of it as an argument ; for when he afterwards heard some poor curate complain of the scantiness of his income, he would cut the matter short by eKclaiming ; " There, there, let's have no more grumbling. Keep bees, like Mr. ; keep bees, keep bees I" Vlll INTRODUCTION". arts, and assume a commanding place in the sober economies of life. Safer than bank, railroad, or gov- ernment stocks, and returning annually, with mode- rate attention, at least one hundred per cent, net on the capital invested, they might well claim a nitch in Wall-street. Adapting themselves to every sec- tion of our country, they will for only a quiet nook in the yard, make us independent of sorghum, or the cane, by gathering and storing away in sealed cans ready for our use, the wasting sweets of garden, field and forest — pure, healthful, and tempered to the palate beyond the most exquisite culinary art. " Eh ! oh ! — I like the honey and admire the bees, but " Never mind ; that sting was not made for you, and will not be used against you wTien you learn to treat them properly. But if 3'ou persist in rudely disre- garding their comfort and their rights, returning ever_v friendly salute with a blow, disturbing, crushing them ad. libitum — even murdering whole colonies for their stores when you can get them much easier without — you deserve to become more civil and consult your own interest if not theirs, for the coun- try needs a million bees where it has but one. Their sting was made for robbers, and for their insidious enemy, the moth, and will guard their stores and yours if you will give them a fair chance. *The moth breaks through at night sometimes, and steals after a very singu ar manner — namely, by giving. She lays her eggs in the hive, cuckoo fashion, and their voracious larvce de- INTEODUCTION. ix With modern improvements, bee-keeping is made a safe, sure, Immane and pleasant business. After the hives are made — artificially swarming hives of course — the ladies can swarm the bees and do all else that needs to be done in the apiary. With the modesty of real worth, and generous often to a fault, these wonderful little creatures commend themselves alike to the naturalist, the amateur, the moralist, and the " solid" man. ****. TOur the honey. [Beebread and wax ?] No wonder, then, that the bees fear moths — timent Danaos et dona ferentes^ [-'They fear the Greeks even bearing gifts"] a scholarly quotation which we have not often so good an opportunity of introducing. — ■ Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. A. SWABM OF BEES,— OF WHAT IT CONSISTS. A prosperous colony of bees, in - the midst of the swarming season, consists of a single queen, from fifty to five hundred drones, and twenty thousand to fifty thousand workers. The Queen, if fertile, is the only perfectly developed female in the hive. She is the mother of the whole colony, laying all the eggs, producing queens, workers, and drones. She has six abdominal rings, while workers ^ and drones have only five ; and she has over the thorax longitudinally a clearly defined 1. — Queen, line — a feature which the writer has never seen noticed by any author. Drones are the male bees, and are of no use whatever, except to impregnate the young queens. This is done upon the wing, in the air, and within the first twenty-one days of the queen's existence. 2. — Drone. The workers are undeveloped females ; and, unlike the queen, they are incapable of fertili- zation, by copulation with the drones ; yet are capable, under certain circumstances, of depositing eggs which will produce perfect 3. — AVorker. drones, difPering in no respect from those 12 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. hatched from eggs laid by either a fertile or an unfer- tile queen. The average time of maturity of a worker hee from the q^^ is twenty-one days ; drone twenty-four, queen about eighteen. Having thus glanced at the different classes of bees found in a hive, in its prosperous condition, we will now take a look at the interior of the honied temple, witness- ing their labors, noting the manner of their development, and the more prominent characteristics of each class. THE QUEBlSr. " rirst of the throng, and foremost of the whole, One stands confessed the sovereign and the soul." The queen lays all the eggs, and continues this labor the whole year round, the least brood, in our climate, being found in December. , In January the brood increases, and more and more rapidly as spring approaches. The great- est amount of brood is found in June or July, or exactly at that point of time when the old queen leads out the first swarm of the current year. Indeed, the lack of cells in which to deposit her eggs, appears to be one of the causes of the issue of the first swarm, for it is found that the queen becomes much agitated on finding the breeding cells all occupied, even though the hive be not half full of comb. The workers, however, instinctively prepare for the migration of the mother, by providing cells for the rearing of young queens to supply her place. These cells are constructed on the extreme edges of the combs, and are in appearance not very unlike small acorn cups, with their open ends downward, attached at the base or upper end to the worker cells, which are nearly horizontal. Whether the queen herself deposits the eo-o-s THE QUEEN. 13 directly in the royal cradles, is not known. I believe she has never been seen to do so. I have myself many ■times kept watch to see how, and by whom this is done, without determining it. But be this as it may, whether laid there by the queen, or carried thither by the work- ers, as some suppose, that they are found there, and the embryo queens capped over while the old queen yet re- mains in the hive, is conclusively established. Before this time, all the breeding cells are occupied, either with honey, bee-bread, or brood, and the queen, becoming restless, perhaps from this cause, day by day moves more and more rapidly over the combs. The workers, too, partaking of the excitement, at first a few, their numbers gradually increasing, are seen running rapidly over the combs, striking their antennae upon each other, until finally, as if by preconcert, rushing to the honey cells, unclosing many that have been sealed over, they fill themselves with their precious stores as eagerly as if they momentarily expected a writ of ejectment to be served upon them, and this was their last chance. During this scene within, all is unusually quiet loithout the hive ; while such bees as have been lying about the entrance, driven thither by the great heat or numbers within, now gradually wend their way back, whether to take their places in the old or new colony we will not stop to inquire. After each bee has taken on as large a load as it can carry, at the " appointed time, wind and weather permitting," they rush, pell-mell, from the hive, pouring out, and off the alighting board, like running water, many a greedy fellow falling to the ground from mere inability to fly with its too great self-imposed burden. Swarming. — The queen usually leads out the first swarm from the second to the fourth day after the work- 14 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. erg have commenced nursing the embryo queens. If the weather should then prove unfavorable for swarming, the young queens are destroyed. On the approach of a more congenial season, the work of queen rearing begins anew, to be repeated, it may be, again and again, and not unfrequently without swarming at all during the whole summer. From the ninth to the fourteenth day after the issue of the first swarm, the young queens will emerge from their cells, when, if the bees are still numer- ous, weather propitious, and the honey-yielding blossoms plenty, second, and third, or after swarms may be ex- pected. The bees having previously divided off into as many " squads" as there are queens maturing, the first queen that issues from her cell generally leads out a second swarm, and, in one, two, or three days at farthest, if bees are still in considerable numbers, with other cir- cumstances favorable, a third, fourth, and sometimes a fifth swarm issues. If the bees are not numerous at the time of the hatching of the first of the young queens, she is allowed her liberty, and will at once seek out and sting her rivals in their cells. If the hive be well filled with bees from the now rapidly maturing brood, those of each queen cluster will stand guard and prevent the queen from accomplishing her purpose, and others are allowed to hatch. Now may be heard the challenge of the queens to mortal combat, for one only can become fertile and remain in the hive. The "piping of the queens" may always be heard the morning or evening- preceding the issue of all swarms after the first. If it be not heard by the fourteenth day after the issue of the first, no after swarm need be expected, and swarming is done with that hive for a period of forty days. THE QUEEN. 15 The first fair day after the hiving of a second, or after swarm, if a close watch be kept just before and during the flight of the drones — from 12 M. to 4 P. M. — the young queen may be seen to issue from the iiive, and, taking wing, fly off into the air. This 4.— Unfertile, is Called her " bridal trip," and is sometimes repeated every day, and several times a day, for many days. When successful, she returns to remain perma- nently in the hive, fully competent to supply eggs for the whole colony ; and the bees, at once clustering about her as they have never before done, show that tkey s,re conscious of the fact and recognize her sovereignty. The practised eye of the experienced apiarian will at once detect this change in the affec- tions of the bees, as well as a decided differ- ence in the form and size of the queen herself the moment she touches the alighting-board. Before her departure they paid but little at- tention to her, running over her as freely as over each other ; after her return they treat her with the utmost deference — never clamber over her, always clear the way as she approaches, and with their antennas wave a " God save the queen" as she passes ; her every wish is anticipated, and her pleasure served with alacrity. So, also, a day or two later, a young queen flies from the parent stock for the same purpose ; and if, as is too often the case, these hives stand in close proximity to others similar in shape, size, and appearance, a mistake is sometimes made by the returning queen in seeking entrance at a neighboring hive containing a fertile queen. Instant death awaits her here, and the future 5.— Fertile. 16 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. destruction of her colony is rendered inevitable (unless the remedy be applied), for the reason that no eggs are now in the hive from which a queen can be reared, the old and fertile queen having left two weeks before. A month or two later in the season, a wonderfuldisplay of drones takes place every afternoon ; and toward autumn, if perchance the bee-keeper (?) happens to " heft" the hive to ascertain how the honey harvest progresses, he finds it wofully deficient in weight, that most essential requisite of a bee-hive at this season of the year. A closer inspection discloses the fact that the interior of the hive can boast of mo?-e worms than lees, if, indeed, some neighboring robber bees have not already discovered its condition and taken charge of the disconsolate orphans and their precious stores; while the bee-destroyer — fori shall call no such person a bee-keeper — goes straight to his neighbor and tells the old and oft-repeated story that " the rollers and moth have ruined his lees !" All stuff I Let such person get a hive giving perfect control of all its combs, and facilities for the ready inspection of its con- tents, and he may soon be convinced that the loss of his bees is justly chargeable only to himself. Having thus rapidly glanced at the prominent characteristics" of the queen, and incidentally seen something of the workers also, we will now turn our attention to the DRONES. " These lazy fathers of the industrious hive." They are the male bees, and are ordinarily the ofispring of the queen, although it sometimes happens, that in the absence of the queen, workers are found laying eggs that produce them. The drones are short lived, averaging but THE WORKERS. It about two months, even when not meeting with violent death at the hands of the workers, or by reason of their fulfilling the object of their existence, to wit, the impreg- nation of the young queen ; for the cohabiting drone im- mediately dies. When queen-rearing is done for the sea- son, the workers fall upon, and destroy them all. THE "WOBKEKS, *t " So work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature, teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom." These constitute the great bulk of every prosperous colony of bees. It is by their labors that the rich stores of honey are collected, the delicately wrought cells and Bystematically constructed combs are made, their tem- ple caulked and well plastered with propolis, the abun- dant collections of farina, or pollen, provided and stored away for food, and every want of the constantly matur- ing broods supplied. A guard of workers also attends the queen in her almost ceaseless rounds, feeding and watch- ing over her with sleepless vigilance, prepar- ing the tiny cells for the reception of her eggs, capping over, at the proper time, these cra- dles for their young, with thin scales of wax, elaborated from between their abdominal rings, — in short, (except the work of depositing eggs,) all the labor of the hive is carried on Fig. 6.* by them. When a young bee emerges from the cell, and the queen, passing along, refuses to place an egg therein, immediately, and without the least per- ceptible exchange of word or look of authority, by hint or deed, the industrious and provident workers set them- selves about repairing and fitting it up for another ten- *Abdoinen of a worker magnified, showing scales of wax. Ig SUCCESSFUL BEE-KE'EPl:S'Gf,- ant ; a new egg is soon laid, and at once the watchful workers keep vigil there. Four to five days elapse, and ^3"y?/rG. only rests within the royal cradle reared with so much so- licitude and care, while the disconsolate, cheerless flock, being rapidly decimated, hum listlessly in and out of the hive with coarse, rough voices, ungainly carriage, and murmurs plainly audible. Just place a queen among them — in an instant their voices change. The v/ell known hum of joy is heard within, and answering voices on the wing without, join in the chorus, while quick as thought, away flies many a winged messenger, to distant heath and forest flower, to return with bright golden pel- lets of pollen, and heavily laden with delicious nectar to proffer to their newly-found queen. ABILITY TO SUPPLY" THEMSELVES "WTTH A QUEEN. The ability of a swarm of bees to supply themselves with a queen from an egg which under pther circumstan- ces would have produced a worker, although not known to the mass of bee-keepers, even of the present day, is not a new discovery, but has been well known for many years, and various methods of artificial multiplication of colonies founded thereon have been proposed. Some of the most plausible of these methods we purpose here to notice, giving the claims of their inventors, and at the same time pointing out as briefly as possible their practical work- ings, while we shall also notice their defects and endeavor to show just wherein they have been, to a greater or less extent, failures, that the intelligent reader may contrast these various methods with our own system, and judge for himself of their comparative merits. First, then, let us notice the Piling, or "Nadir Hivivg'''' system, so called because it consists in placing a series of boxes, one upon another, leaving the bees to work ABILITY TO SUPPLY A QUEEN. 23 downward, taking from the top full ones either of honey- combs or bees,- as wanted, supplying empty ones under- neath. Sometimes this seems to work, both swarms, when a division is thus made, prospering for a time ; at other times one or the other of the two portions proving a fail- ure altogether. It was not till after several yeV^^ that this system, so fascinating in theory, was found *to be worthless and the reasons pointed out. As this mode of multiplication sometimes seems to loork and at other times to fail, and these failures result at different times from different causes, we shall be under the necessity of in- quiring what the bees of each division do under every phase of circumstances. Let three boxes, A, B, C, placed one above the other, represent one of these hives, A being at the top. In attempting to artificially swarm the bees with this hive, suppose A to be moved to a new location, and a new box, D, placed beneath B C — if the queen and most of the bees happen to be left in B C — what will be the result ? I venture to say, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the bees will leave A and go back to B C, carrying the honey with them. Now suppose the queen to be taken in the box A, what will be the result ? In nine times out of ten, the establishment of a new colony in A, especially if a considerable number of bees and brood in the combs accompany the queen thither. But the greater portion of the swarm will return to the accus- tomed spot, BCD, which is sought to be prevented by removing BCD also a little distance. In either case considerable new comb will be built in D before the ma- turity of the young queen, the quantity being in propor- tion to the number of bees in the hive, not unfrequently filling it up with worthless comhs ; since every colony of bees, while destitute of a queen, build drone combs only. 24 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. These dj'one cells number four to the inch each way, ma- king sixteen on each side, or thirty-two cells to the 13. — Drone and Worker Comb, showing the transition from one to the other. square inch of comb ; while the worker cells are five each way, or fifty to the square inch of comb. Let it be remembered that queenless colonies build drone combs ONLY,* and that worlter bees never issue from drone cells, and it will be evident why the " Piling" system is a fail- * Except sometimes for about a day immediately following the removal of the queen. ABILITY TO SUPPLY A QUEEN. 25 Tire. So also, as a general rule, bees construct store combs — deep cells^ — or large drone cells in all side or top boxes, or other apartments than that in which the queen and the broods are at the time. The JDividing Hive was only another form of the same thing, and is open to the same objections and from pre- cisely similar causes. Another plan still, called the Colonizing System — and I speak of and expose the falacies of these various methods here because they are still adhered to by some who know no better, and shameless pretenders are to-day imposing upon public credulity by vending these exploded humbugs — is to make a box, and partition it oif into two or more apartments having communications or openings between them, and also direct outlets to the fields. Into one of these a swarm of bees is put, it being intended that when the parent hive becomes filled, the bees, for want of room, shall pass through into the side apartments, gradually filling them with combs and brood. When this is done, the communication is to be cut off by means of a slide, and the part which is thus made queenless left to rear queens and colonize themselves. Like the methods before noticed, this, too, would seem to work sometimes, and why not always ? Because the system is based upon error and cannot possibly succeed, for the reason that not until the queen becomes crowded for cells in the main apartment in which to deposit her eggs will she pass into a side apartment. Before she passes into the side apartment, drone and store combs for the most part are built in that apartment ; and if during her absence from it and before it is occu- pied by brood, an attempt to swarm the bees be made by cutting off the communication, they will soon find it out 26 succEssrnL bee-xieepin'g. and leave for home, for borne is where the queen and the broods are, and there, too, the honey will go. If the sep- aration happen to take place w^hile the qneen is in the side apartment, the thing may seem to work ; the parent stock prospering, but the new colony is pent up for breed- ing space for worker bees, and will never thrive. — By ■which I do not mean that it may not live, and struggle along for several years, and be called a swarm of bees ; but that it will not throw off good strong swarms, nor yield any considerable amount of surplus honey. Indeed, all these hives have the same faults ; the greatest being the over-production of drone comb, thus contracting the breeding space for the queen till the sea- son for drone rearing comes, when a flood of these appear, consuming all the surplus of the workers, now daily diminishing in numbers. Thus it is that the apiary soon " runs out," as the phrase is. But this is only the legiti- mate result of a system founded in error ; and it cannot be remedied even by the use of movable frames operated on the same erroneous principle, as many have sought to do. It is true, the scientific lee-keeperr may, with considera- ble diligence and care, control drone breeding to a certain extent by the use of frames on the system above de- scribed ; yet he must be exceedingly careful that his queen-rearing swarms are not large and in possession of vacant space to be filled up with worthless combs. It is conceded that bees consume from twenty to twenty-five pounds of honey to elaborate one of wax.=^ Besides this, a swarm destitute of a queeu is in an unnatural condition, and, however large, labors mainly to supply the present necessity, which is to rear a queen and drones to fecund- * Whether it takes twenty-five pounds of honey to make one of wax, I am not prepared to prove ; probably it is near the truth.— Qui^jfty. ABILITY TO SUPPLY A QUEEN. 27 ate her ; hence it is that no worker comb is built till a young- queen hatches. That no stores of surplus honey are ordinarily gathered at such a time, one may satisfy himself by examining the honey boxes between the issue of a first and second swarm — the greatest amount being found about twenty-four hours before the issue of the first swarm. Again, a pint of bees will rear a queen in twelve days, and a bushel will do it no sooner. The great secret of successful lee-keeping lies in keeping the slocks strong, and in sicarming them artificially by a method that shall secure the construction of perfect worker combs in the great- est possible abundance, and save all the swarms without loss by flight to the woods. Such a method will aiso secure the greatest number of worker bees early in tJie season, and their greatest ac- tivity throughout the honey harvest. A safeguard against loss of swarms during our cold winters is also an essential element in a hive. To combine these advantages, among- others, into a practical system, has long taxed the ingenuity of intelli- gent bee-keepers. For the last thirty years there has been a marked advance in the right direction. A device, simple, cheap, and practicable, for obtaining control of the combs, has been one of the objects sought. Amateur apiarians placed a single card of comb in a thin case with glass sides, in order to observe the bees at work, and learn their habits. To insure the building of the comb in the right direction, Huber started it by fastening a small piece of comb to the ceiling ; he also combined eight of these cases or frames, hanging them by hinges, so that they would swing like a door, leaving out the glass sides, except the two outer ones, making the " Leaf Hive ;" which was invented more than sixty years ago. Bevan, Gelding, Huish, Dzierzon. and others, used " bars,^^ placed 28 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. ■Tajlor Frame. across the hives in rabbets, to which the bees built their combs. The side attachments had to be removed by cut- ting them loose with a knife. Bars led to frames. Henry Taylor, in his Bee-Keeper's Manual, (first published in 1838,) 6th edition, Lon- don, 1860, p. 73, describes a frame like Fig. 14, and gives an illustration of which Fig. 15 is a copy. Describ- ing his observing hive, he says : " For the purpose of preventing the bees from attaching the combs to the glass, thin upright strips of wood, rather more than half an inch wide, are tacked under the cen- tre of each bar, at both ends, extending from top to bottom inside of the hive. Or some might prefer to use frame-bars, like the one described and illustrated at page 58," as follows : " It may be well here to allude to what some have thought to be an improvement in the construction of the bars, the object being to render the combs more accessi- ble, and the usual cutting, to detach them from the sides of the hive, avoided. A reference to the accom- panying engraving will exhibit a bar with a frame suspended beneath \ii^^^' it, but so made as not to touch eith- 15.— Taylor Frame, q^ the sides or bottom of the hive, and within which the combs are, or ought to be, wrought." W. Augustus Munn, invented the " Bar-and-Frame Hive," and published a description of it in London, in 1844. He then used the " oblong bar-frames to take out of the back of the bee-box." He afterwards discarded the PATENT HIVES — FRAMES. 29 oblong frame, and in April, 1851, published a second edi. tion of his pamphlet, describing' his " improved hive" with his " triangular bar-frames, made to lift out of the top." Others have made their frames to slide in and out edge- wise ; in others, the frames partly lift and partly slide out edgewise, as in the "California hive." PATENT HIVES.— FRAMES. " The Langstroth Hive, like the Huber and Munn hives, is con- structed on the movable-comb principle ; but more properly com- bines the oblong-bar-frame, as originally used by Munn, with Be- van's bee-box, and other additional improvements, making it more simple and practical than either of its predecessors." — /. S. Harbi- son in Bee Culture, p. 149. Mr. Langstroth says,* "I have before me a small pamphlet, pub- lished in London in 1851, describing the construction of tlie Bar-and- Frame Hive of W. A. Munn, Esq. The object of this invention is to elevate the frames one at a time into a case with glass sides, so that they may be examined without risk of annoyance from the bees. " Great ingenuity is exhibited by the inventor of this very costly (?) and very complicated hive, who seems to imagine that smoke must be injurious, both to the bees and their brood." Great as Mr. Munn's " ingenuity" may have been, it falls some- what short of that exhibited by Mr. L., in the above quotation, by which it would appear that the hive of Mr. Munn was an observation hive only, whereas the facts are, that it was intended to combine all the desired advantages of a practical bee-hive for every day use. Mr. Munn says, p. 23, in speaking of other hives, " But how- ever, I should not be doing justice to Mr. E. Goldiug, if I did not particularly mention his improved Grecian hive, by the use of which combs may be removed from the interior of the hive and in- spected at pleasure." Again, same page, " My object has been to point out briefly to those anxious for the better, more extended, *Honey Bee, 3d edition, 1860, page 200.-~Note. 30 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. and economical mode of bee management, the difficulties to be pro- vided against, and to recommend to their consideration the advan- tages offered in the bar-frame-hive." A little history will make this matter more plain.' Mr. Munn's hive, with the " oblong-bar-frames," was described in a pamphlet, published in London in 1844. In April, 1851, a sec- ond edition was issued, in which the inventor refers to the " oblong- bar-frames, and introduces the triangular ones in their stead. On the lifth of October, 1852, Mr. Langstroth obtained a patent on " improvements in bee-hives," under which he is understood to claim " all movable frames in bee-hives !" Mr. Otis, in one of the Langstroth circulars, says, " This is the original movable comb bee-hive" ! ! ! and calls all those persons who claim the use of the movable comb frame, " pirates" ! ! [This latter clause is a dangerous weapon in the hands of tlie Langstroth men ; it points the wrong way^ " Rev. L. L. Langstroth is the original inventor of the mova- ble comb frame" !! C. B. Biglow, in Bee Journal, Sept. 1861, p. 212. In a small treatise, compiled by permission, from Langstroth on the Honey Bee, by Richard Oolvin, the author says, pp. 36, 31, " Mr. Langstroth is the original inventor and sole patentee of mova- ble frames in Bee Hives ! ! !" We had hoped that these absurd pretentions of his agents had not fallen under Mr. Langstroth's eye, and had done him the justice to believe that, when brought to his notice, he would relieve him- self from complicity in them by a disclaimer over his own signa- ture ; but we regret to say, that further developments have seri- ously disturbed these favorable anticipations. This matter is dwelt upon somewhat, because it is threateningly claimed by interested parties, as above cited, who perhaps(?) know no better, that the Langstroth patent secures to its holder the sole use of movable frames. For the benefit of such, and to aid the curious, we give herein a few of the facts, and subjoin an illustration of the Munn Hive. " With hasty judgment ne'er decide ; First hear what's said on t'other side." PATENT HITKS— FRAMES. 31 16— The Munn Iliye of 1851 Munn's Movable Frames. — In the preface to the pamphlet from which Mr. Langstroth quotes, as before cited, Mr. Munn says he has " very mate- rially simplified the construction of the Bar-frame Hive, by forming the ' oblong- bar -frames' into ' triangular-frames,' and ■ - - I of I M ■■■III a , riti uacK or me lice-Dox.- mr. Munns mode of using his movable frames may be ^ SUCCESSFUL BEE KEEPING. xssaseen by the following, from the same pamphlet. " The frames with their contents, may be lifted out into the ' observation frame' * * when- ever it is wished to examine the bees, &c., as the half-inch spaces be- tween thii bee-frames, will allow of a sufficient distance to be preserved I'ig- 18* oetween the lateral surfaces of the perpendicular combs formed in the bee-frames, and thus permit them to lift out by each other with facility," p. 14. Again, " The whole interior of the hive is thus open to inspection at any moment, and a choice can be made of the combs containing the most honey, or the bee' owner enabled to trace the devastations of the honey moth." p. 1*7. Still further, the hive should be so constructed as to allow of every part of the combs to be inspected at any moment, and capable of removal when requisite," p. 20. "We now give Mr. Langstroth's claim of movable frames : " Second. — The use of the movable frames, A. A., fig. 4, or their equivalents, substantially as described ; also their use in combina- tion with the shallow chamber, with or without my arrangement for spare honey receptacles !" Mr. Langstroth's frames, patented in 1852, are substantially the " oblong bar-frames" of Mr. Munn, described in 1844 ; and how his mode of using them compares with Mr. Munn's mode of using his triangular frames, described in April, 1851, as shown in the above quotations, the reader will be able to judge after consulting Mr. Langstroth's work on the Honey Bee, pp. 15, 148, 149, or ex- amining one of his hives. Munn's Divider. — On page 10 of his pai " One of the triangular bee-frames can be can be used as a divider between any nur and thus form the box into two compartm PATENT HIVES FRAMES. 33 or diminish the space io the box, according to the size of the swarm, or the increasing wants of the bees for more room." Mr. L's claim of the divider : " Third. — A divider substantially as described, in combination with a movable cover, allowing the divider to be inserted from above between the ranges of comb." He says, " By means of a movable partition, my hive can be readily adjusted to the wants of either, large or small colonies." — Honey Bee, p. 96. Ilunn's space around the frames. — " The divider is made to fit close to the box at the two sides, by means of extra slips of wood, to prevent the bees crawling between the frames and outer box, as they can do around the bee-frames." — p. 14. " The bee-frames form, as it were, a smaller box within the triangular box, and are not in immediate contact with the external air, but have a half-inch space nearly all around them," p. 17. Mr. L's claim : " First. — The use of a shallow chamber, substantially as described, in combination with a perforated cover, for enlarging or diminish- ing at will the size and number of the spare honey receptacles." What are the " essential and patented features" of Mr. L's inven- tion ? Above we have given them as gleaned from his book, to which we have added his claims. On page 15 of his work, after djscribjng and condemmn^ the Huber, Munn, and all other hives, and having before him Mr. Munn's pamphlet of 1851, containing THE ABOVE ILLUSTRATION OF MuNN'S MoVABLE BaR-FRAMB HiVE, Mr. L. says, " One thing, however, was still wanting. The cutting of the combs from their attachments to the sides of the hive [! ! !] was attended with much loss of time, both to myself and the bees. This led me to invent a method by which the combs were attached to MOVABLE frames, SO Suspended in the hives as to touch neither top, bottom nor sides." ! ! ! In the Bee Journal for June, 1861, p. 142, Mr. L. says, " If Hu- ber had only contrived a plan for suspending his frames, instead of folding them together like the leaves of a book, I believe that the cause of apiarian science would have been fifty years in advance of what it n(iw is. 34 ■ SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING " Now if I had known that my hive was not so much better than Iluber's as to deserve a patent, and if I had been base enough to attempt to palm upon the public substantially his invention as my own, can any man of common sense believe that I would have pub- lished to the world, just where and how I stole my pretended inven- tion ?" Of course not. In the same communication, speaking of American movable comb bee-hives, he says : " In my opinion all op them have ap- propriated to a greater or less extent, the essential and patented features of my invention." * * That he believes the courts will sus- tain this opinion, and that he should long since have sought their protection, but for his limited pecuniary resources, the state of his health, and the fact that other parties own the greater share of his patent ? Having sold the territory, and got the money, he leaves the luck- less purchasers of supposed " rights" to take care of themselves ! Consistency, indeed thou art a jewel ! But we will not quarrel with Mr. L. about that. The concluding portion of his very interesting Bee Journal article, above cited, runs thus : •' If any one can show that before my invention there existed any movable frame hive adapted to practical use, or any invention that used the essential and patented features of mine, I will try to be the first to acknowl- edge that although an original inventor, I was not Vclq first inven- tor of such a hive." Will he do it ? We shall see. Much more testimony of the same import might be given, but let this suffice. I would not detract from the j/wrf claims of Mr. Langstroth ; nei- ther am I willing that he should have credit for inventions not his own. He has combined in his hive some of the most practical fea- tures of European inventions ; and he deserves to be, and has been well paid for the best compilation on the Honey Bee. But justice to Bee-keeping, as well as to Mr. Harbison, compels me to add, that he is entitled to all praise for the best original work on that subject — notwithstanding its many errors — yet published in this country. THE MICHIGAN HIVES. 35 Although inventive skill nas not done all in this inter- esting field that bee-culturists desire, its achievements have, nevertheless, been of great value. The main fea- tures of success attained by the hives already noticed, are the well established convictions among intelligent bee- keepers — 1. That bees may be induced to build their combs with considerable regularity on frames put into their hives in a proper manner. 2. That they may be thus handle 1 with safety to the apiarian and the bees. 3. That bees may be artificially swarmed, and losses by natural swarming prevented. Their failures thus — 1. To provide a style of frames and method of using them that will not irritate the bees, nor injure them nor their combs. 2. To provide a convenient and reliable system of arti- ficial swarming. 3. To provide safe and economical wintering. Many and repeated experiments, by diflx;rent persons, under a great variety of circumstances, and living in parts of the country remota from each other, have satisfied those who are acquainted with the facts, that in the hive and system now about to be presented, the three points last named have been reached, and that by their use much greater profits may be derived from bee culture than by any other hive and system. The Michigan Hives, invented by the author, consist of a Quadruple hive, a Double hive, and a Single hive. 36 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. m j> ' ""W'^^ife. ) « ■•-(t-^r-^ 19.— THE QUADEUPLE HIVE. In the above cut, A B C D represent the ground plan of the four apartments of the quadruple hive, each of which, when full for wintering-, should contain a good strong swarm of bees. The bottom board of the hive pro- jects at the point C, or front, for an alighting board for the bees, the whole width of which is left open by re- moving the slide underneath the movable front as soon as warm weather approaches and blossoms are sufficiently THE QUADRUPLE HIVE. 3t numerous to ensure safety from the depredations of rob- ber bees. The movable front is secured in place by but- tons on the side of the hive, and held up by the cleat on its front, resting on cleats o i the permanent sides of the hive. When the hive is all together, this cleat, or stay, runs all the way around the hive, and also serves as a support to the top, or surplus honey chamber. The whole hive rests on a cross, made equal to the width of the hive. A centre point projects from this, fitted to a hole made half way through the bottom, on which the whole turns. At the point d in the frames, cylinders of tin or other suitable material, five-eighths of an inch in diameter and of the same depth, are placed for the purpose of securing an opening through the combs at this point, when they shall have been constructed all through the hive. The manner of operating with this hive depends some- what on what we wish to do with it. If we desire only to double the number of our stocks in a single season, and hence secure the largest amount of surplus honey, as soon as bees have begun their labors in the spring we transfer bees and brood combs to other hives, leaving but two stocks in the premises, and occu- pying opposite apartments, as follows : — Early in the morning we close in all four of the swarms, and gently remove the old hive a little off its stand, and put a clean one in its place in exactly the same position the old one occupied. We blow a whiff or two of smoke of burning cotton rags, wood, or tobacco, in among the bees to alarm them. They at once fill themselves with honey, so that when we open the hive, if we are deliberate and careful in our movements, they will not sting us. "We now transfer the swarm in A, by means of +1)6 movable frames, into tlie department A of the new hive ; placing the frames always in the same relative position 38 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. in respect to the hive and each other that they occupied in the old hive, and so adjusting the inner passage ways that the bees of A may pass through the enapty part, B, in going to and from the fields, while they also use the larger and more direct outlet at a. So, also, we transfer the stock from the hive C to the corresponding apartment of the new hive, leaving this swarm to work out of C at a and through the empty apartment D, in like manner ; the two swarms being thus entirely separate from each other. The movable fronts in the tenantless apartments B and D are now left out, and the top cover is put on to protect the hive from the weather. We now provide a 7iew stand and hive for the remaining two swarms, which are to be transferred in the same mannei', placing them in the new location. Then we renovate ike old hive, cleaning it with water boiling hot, so as to remove any gum which the bees may have placed upon the gauze wire curtains in the partition walls, and destroy every vestige of the moth that may be lurking in any crevice of the hive, j^ny needed repairs should now be attended to. Our bees are thus put into summer quarters and are ready for AKTIFICIAIi SWAEMING. This is done as soon as the drones^— the male bees — make their appearance, and in the following manner, viz. : We open the hive A, and selecting a comb, containing sr^rii[©}j brood in all stages of develo-ime7it, p;'*'""j>^(j from the egg to the capped larva, as shown in Fig. 20, we transfer it, with ills adhering bees (being careful not J to get the queen), to the empty part iii^^^ilMViiiii'j B, putting in its place an empty 20.-Brood Comb. ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ shutting off the com- ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 39 munication between the apartments A and JB at the point b. This card of comb we lean over a trifle, so that it shall re- main firmly in position, putting in place the movable front and slide so as to leave only the small opening, like that shown at a. We thus detach a small portion of the bees from the parent stock, A, for the purpose of rearing queens, which they will immediately set themselves about doing from the brood furnished them. Such of these bees as have been in the habit of using the hitherto empty apartment for a passage way, will remain, to be joined from day to day by numbers from the parent hive that have also used that apartment as a passage way ; while those we have transferred, that have been accustomed to use the direct outlet from A, will of course return thither. We thug secure only a comparatively small portion of the bees for the purpose of queen rearing, while the labors of the parent stock go on undisturbed. Indeed, the old hive will breed all the faster, for the reason that the vacant space ^^p, will be rapidly filled with new worker ^^^ comb, in which the queen will imme- L diately deposit eggs ; while in.the in- ^ fant colony no combs are constructed at all, because the bees have enough fy already. Tlie tenth day after starting L the queen cluster, if no royal cells C had been begun when the comb was F transferred, we open the hive B, and r with a sharp penknife cut out all but one of the queen cells, using these imme- diately in starting other queen clus- ters ■ — attaching one of them to a 21 -Queen Cell Inserted. ^^^^ ^f ^^^^-^ ^nd bees (fig. 21), ta- k^ni from the hive C, and transferred to D, in the manner 40 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING, before described ; being- careful always to cut off the com- munication between the new queen cluster and the old swarm, or the queen will not be allowed to mature, and the bees will ixturn to the parent stock. In transferring- queen cells, it is of no consequence how we place them in the combs, so that we do not injure them. I have placed them in every imaginable position with equally favorable results. Great care must be taken not to press them with the fingers, nor let them lie in the sun, or exposed to the chill of morning- or evening, for fear of destroying the royal occupants. The tip of the cell should not touch the comb, as, if it does, the bees may stick it fast at that point, and thus prevent the hatching of the queen. The inexperienced bee-keeper had better tr?.ns- fer only one of the queen cells at a time, returning the frame from which it is taken to its place in the hive til? the royal cell is properly adjusted in its new location, in order to prevent injury to the young larva. Each i.ew colony should receive only one queen cell, because it is found that a queen emerging in a small colony, with no rivals in prospect, will make her excursion to meet the drones several days sooner than one emerging in a popu- lous colony, or having rival queens in prospect to be dis- posed of. The following letter from the author, was published in the Bee Journal for September, 1861,^. 212 ; and the ed- itor, in his remarks on the same, clearly endorses the views here set forth : A great diversity of opinion exists as to the time wlien the .^/sl; excursion of a young queen in quest of drones for impregnation ffuiy be looked for. The June number of the Journal (page 130.) states the time at from the fifth to the twelfth day after issuing from the cell. I think this is a mistake ; at least it has not been true with me. ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 41 I have practised artificial swarming exclusively, and made a re- cord of the facts. The queen may be confidently expected to issue from the hive, between noon and half-past two o'clock P. M., on the second day after emero^ing from the cell — frequently on the first, — and if drones are abundant, she usually meets them after one or two flights. A practised eye will readily recognize the marks of impregna- tion with which she returns when successful ; and in from two to ten days thereafter she will generally be found depositing eggs in the cells. One queen which issued from the cell on the 4th of July, took wing on the 5th, and had deposited quite a quantity of eggs on the 1th. Out of six which issued on the 26th ult., three became fertile on the 29th, two on the 30th, and one on the 1st inst. These are instances of the earliest fertility, however, I have ever known. It is accomplished in the following way, viz : hy permitting only one queen cell to remain in the hive. In rearing queens, I always use small clusters only. If more than one queen be allowed to ma- ture, and the swarm be large, the bees are apt to cluster around and imprison the queens : besides this, the queen will destroy all surplus cells before leaving ; which, it is imagined, delays her impregnation. I have known the bees to thus imprison a qu-een for ten days ! By allowing only one royal cell to remain in the hive after the tenth day, no such result will ensue. The only difficulty in thus rearing queens by small clusters, in warm weather, is the greater liability of the bees to take flight with the queen when she seeks the drones, and then leave for the woods. This source of vexation and anxiety, is. avoided by taking the precaution of having some larvis or capped brood in the cells at this time. The bees will not then de- sert their nurselings, and the queen will return — except an occa- sional one. A few will be lost by accidents, such as being de- stroyed by birds. Sec, to which risk all queens are once exposed. Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 4, 1861. Editor's Kemarks. — There is greater diversity in this important matter than is commonly supposed ; and observers may differ widely iu their statements and inferences, while each narrates the 42 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. facts correctly. Circumstances exert a controlling influence and materially affect the result. Thus queens reared in small nuclei, such as our correspondent uses, will certainly issue earlier and usu- ally become fertile sooner, than such as are reared in larger colo- nies : and the seasonable removal of all surplus royal cells, will efficiently contribute to bring about the desired consummation. On the other hand, the young queen of a populous colony, whose hive ^Su?, full of comb, well supplied with brood and honey, has been known not to be impregnated, though drones abounded, till more than three weeks after she left her cell. The truth seems to be, that there is no definite term — circumstances governing in every case. After we have thus adjusted the new colonies, we let them remain for from six to ten days, when, if drones are abundant, and we have safely transferred the cells, we shall probably find our queens have become fertile, and have commenced the work of depositing- eg-gs. We now catch the queen — &he will not sting — between the thumb and finger, and with a pair of scissors, clip one wing, so that she cannot fly. This is to guard against losing a swarm at a future time, should we neglect to swarm the bees, or give them work to do. We also now cage the queen for about three days, by placing her in a case of gauze wire cloth a little larger than a thimble, and sus- pended in the hive, or laid upon the top of the frames through one of the holes in the honey board, while we are swarming the bees. After thus securing the queen, and filling up the hives with empty comb frames, we turn the whole one-fourth the way round, thus causing the parent and infant colonies to exchange places, throwing out of the parent stocks swarms of worker bees, into the infant colonies. The hive should not be turned between the hatching of the young queens, and their fertilization, because Sees lelonging to swarms of fertile and unfertile queens will not fraternize, but will quarrel. It might be turned ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 43 with safety a day or two before the hatching of the queens, but it is more difficult to find the queen among the greater number of bees ; hence, soon after her fertil- ization is the best time. It may sometimes liappen, when this operation is performed at a time when the honey har- vest has received a check from a storm or otherwise, that the bees, thus empty of honey, and consequently more quarrelsome, suddenly thrown into the presence of a strange queen, are inclined to sting her. It is to prevent this, that she is caged for the space of three days, after which she may safely be liberated. The bees cannot harm her through gauze wire cloth not coarser than four- teen meshes to the inch. The swarm will suffer no par- ticular detriment by her confinement, since comb building will go on as if she were at liberty. But this is only a precaution to beginners, the experienced apiarian will always know when to cage the queen ; since in the midst of the swarming season, when the honey blossonis are yielding in profusion, little or no precaution is needed to protect either the queen or the operator. Where great rapidity of multiplication of swarms is the object, one stock only is left in the quadruple hive in spring, leaving out, in this case, the movable fronts of all the un- occupied apartments, and opening all the passage ways through the inner walls. We now transfer a card of comb, bees, and brood from A to S, proceeding as before described. The tenth day thereafter, from some other hive, take two more cards of comb and bees, for C and D, giving to each of these a queen cell, taken from B, and always capped over. We should use no other, as the bees will be likely to destroy them. When our young queens have matured, we turn the hive half the way round, let- ting it thus remain from eighteen to twenty days, or un- 44 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING, til the hive C is nearly filled with combs. We now turn the hive one-fourth, and swarming is done, having- from one good swarm thrown off three new ones by the time natural swarming has commenced ! There are other methods of swarming the bees by re- volving the hive, which -will suggest themselves to the apiarist, and by which he may be able to multiply them to any extent. Let no one misunderstand, however,, and expect from fifty to one hundred pounds of surplus honey from each of them ; for it is an extraordinary year indeed for honey, that will aiford a supply sufficient for winter- ing, where three swarms are taken from one. Bees must have stores to live on through the winter, like everything else in our climate, and it should be remembered that they are first entitled to their stores, and we should be content with the surplus for our care and attention. Sometimes the combs become so filled with bee-bread and honey, that there is not sufficient room for breeding faster than the bees perish, — hence the hive proves un- profitable. An exchange of combs, giving empty for full ones, will rapidly augment their numbers. Every good piece of worker comb should be saved for this purpose — they can be readily attached to the top of the frame, by a little melted bees wax applied with a feather, or the edge of the comb may be dipped in a little melted bees wax, and then placed quickly on the frame. If plenty of such empty worker combs be furnished them early in the season, at a time when comb building is conducted the most slowly, they will be immediately filled with eggs, insur- ing the multiplication of the bees with the greatest ra- pidity ; so that when the honey harvest comes, a supply of laborers will be on hand to collect it. Those who know how rapidly bees breed under favorable circumstan- DOUBLE HIVES. 45 ces iit this season of the year, and in bow incredibly short a space of time their abundant stores are collected imme- diately thereafter, will appreciate the advantages thus secured. If empty combs are not at hand, give empty frames, letting them alternate with full ones, so as to se- cure true, even combs. In my process of artificial swarm- ing, bees build all their combs tme, for the reason that a guide is furnished them, which is a frame filled with even comb. On this they cluster, building the first new comb parallel with the one furnished them ; this becomes the guide for the next, and so on till all the frames are filled. Worker combs are secured in consequence of having a young queen, drone comb being seldom built in any hive during the first year of the queen's existence. DOUBLE HIVES. The Michigan Double Hive consists of two apartments, with entrances at the middle of each end, and gauze wire curtain and bee passage between the two apartments. In swarming artificially, this hive is to be turned one-half round, making the two apartments change places precisely. Those who keep only a few swarms may prefer the double to the quadruple hive, as it is more simple in management ; but in wintering, the quadruple has decidedly the advan- tage over the double hive. If the directions herein given are followed, the hive will work, and heekeejping prove satisfactory ; but let no one flatter him- self that because he has a patent hive his bees will take care of themselves and the improvident bee-keeper be- sides, and endure our long winters without honey. Bees may die of starvation in any hive, however well con- structed. 46 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING, m"^ w'^ Mi' SINGLE HIVES. Fig. 22 is a side view of the hive, showing the manner of adjusting the frames. The single hive is made exactly like, and of the same inte- rior dimensions of, one-quar- ter of a quadruple one ; that is, twelve by twelve inches, and seventeen inches high. Eight frames fill the hive. Those who prefer inclined bottom boards, can rest the frames on wedge shaped cleats secured on the in- side, and near the bottom of the side walls of the hive. This will allow the bottom to be hung by hooks, and swung up close to the lower edge of the Fig. 22 movable front, dispensing with the slide, This style of hive, with my improved frames, possesses many advantages over any other single hive. It is simple, easily made, and cheap ; readily cleaned of all filth, by swinging the bottom board down, without in the least disturbing the bees, affords not the slightest point, inside of the hive, inaccessible to them, for the moth to deposit her eggs,* and combines the most practical form of the movable comb frame, and manner of using it, in a plain box hive. * " There being no such thing as a moth-proof hive in existence, nor any prospect of such a discovery ever being made, we are compelled to be content with that which makes the nearest approach to it, viz., one that gives the bee- keeper easy access to the worms." — Bee Culture, p, 115. 1/ FEAME — MOTH, 47 'z:k IHA-LONC- 24.— Moth. 25.— Female. 26.— Male. 27.— Moth Gallery. Fig. 23 is a frame. F, plan view of top bar. F, cylin- der for winter passage. The figures give the dimensions. Fig. 24 is the moth worm ; Figs. 25 and 26 the winged moth, or miller ; and Fig. 27, section of moth gallery. The female is somewhat lorger than the male. She entors the hive at night and deposits her eggs, preferring to 48 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. leave them on the brood combs. As soon as, hatched, the worm encloses itself for jDrotection in a silken case, which, extended, becomes its gallery, or course, through the comb along its central wall. The nearest approach to a "mothproof" tiive, is one so constructed that the miller can find no crevice in its inte- rior, to which the bees do not have access, in which to deposit her eggs. Where two pieces of wood come together is the place sought by the moth, thrusting in her ovipositor and leaving the egg to hatch and begin its gallery beyond the reach of the bees. In passing from this point through the hive and combs, the worm continues to spin its silken protection, which is proof against all assaults of the honey bee. Once safely within the comb, the moth, protected by its gallery, passes along the wall at the base of the cells, sticking fast in its silken toils the unhatched bees. I have seen thousands of them just ready to emerge, vainly struggling to free their ex- tremities from the grasp of the destroyer ; these soon per- ish. The only remedy is, to cut away the worm gallery and remove the dead and dying brood. The moth does not directly destroy the brood, but only feeds on the wax of the cells and the food deposited therein for the devel- opment of the young bees. A strong, vigorous stock, having a fertile queen, will not allow the moth thus to get possession of the hive ; and if, while destitute of a queen, a foothold is gained, the bees, on the maturity of the young queen, will cut away the comb possessed by the worms, letting it fall to the bottom. They will then carry from the hive by piece- meal such portions of it as they can separate from the mass, plastering over the remainder, if any, with their propolis. Swarms not sufficiently populous to cover all "moth proof" hives. 49 their combs, and especiallj^ queenless ones, are most ex- posed to the moth ; and old black comb is more liable to be destorjed than new. The removal of the moth gallery by the bees subjects them to great labor and much loss of time, which the use of movable frames will entirely obviate, as they will ena- ble the bee-keeper to inspect the combs at any time, and remove the worms and any portion of the comb occupied by their gallery ; or give any other relief that the swarm may need. Hence writers on bees are agreed as to the uecegsity of using movable frames, as a means to suc- cessful bee-keeping. The only open question in the mat- ter is, the style of frames and the manner of using them. There should be as little contact of surfaces inside the hive as possible : hence it is obvious that the frame which has the least bearing in the hive, and makes the least crevice inaccessible to the bees, is the best for this pur- pose. Some inventors of hives are aware of this ; and one of them says that in his hive, such a place is found -only " where the frames hang in the rabbets." My hive is so constructed that no crevice is found in Us interior in which the miller may deposit her eggs be- yond the reach of the bees, not even where the frames touch the hive. There is no " moth-proof" hive, and cannot be ; for the reason that the miller will go anywhere that a bee can. Many ingenious devices have been invented for excluding them. For example : A " pedal" is fitted in the en- trance intended to be operated by the weight of the bee, but so nicely adjusted that the lighter body of the miller will not open it. Beautiful in theory, but worthless in practice ; for the reasons, that in hot weather the bees so SUCCESSFCL BEE-KEElPIXff. will lie in and about the entrance niglrt and day, keeping- it open all the time, and soon cement the " pedal" immov- ablj fast with their propolis. SURPLUS HONEY BOXES, When swarming is done, the honey boxes should bs placed upon the hive. These should have a bottom with holes to correspond with those in the cover, or honey board, so as to be readily removed. Honey boxes should never be put on the honey board without bottoms, nor on the frames without a honey board." If they are, it is diffi- cult to remove them without injury to the combs. If glass sides and ends are made to the boxes, so that the honey can be seen, it will sell for enough more in market to pay the extra expense. Two boxes should be placed upon each hive, or swarm, six inches wide by five deep and twelve inches long, as represented in Fig, 19, p, 36. •wiKrTEai]srGv To prevent loss of bees by starvation in winter, with plenty of honey on hand, is the object, in part, for which the quadruple hive and the winter passages are construct- ed. In a single hive, without a passage through the combs, it frequently happens, that during cold, freezing weather, long continued, the combs outside the cluster of the bees, become covered with frost, the congelation of their breath, which they are totally unable to remove — and they will not go over it — and so perish of hunger and fall to the BOTTOM board WITH PLENTY OP STORES ALL AROUND THEM ; and while the bees between the ranges of comb are in pros- perous condition, in consequence of the greater degree of aniAal heat nearer the centre of the cluster. In low, broad hives, even with winter passages provided, whole swarms often perish in like manner, having- eaten their way to the honey board.* With the tliermometer at or near zero, a large swarm of bees will cluster in a circle of eight or ten inches. Hence it becomes evident, that in a hive of proper proportiona, with suitable winter passages, the bees will pass through them to the interior of the hive — the swarm thus expand- ing and contracting as the cold diminishes or increases. For similar reasons bees winter more safely in the four- colony hive than in either double or single ones, where both are alike exposed to the winds and frosts of winter. Ventilation. — A ventilating passage should be secured for a supply of fresh air, even during the coldest weather. This may be done by making a small bee passage through the movable front near its top, like that at its bottom, and leaving both open. A better way, however, to ventilaTe a swarm of bees in my hive is, to place in the fall, clean, gauze-wire cloth over the holes in the honey boardj^ and fill the top chamber with fine straw, chafi*, shavings, or other dry, porous material. This will allow sufficient air, and at the same time absorb the moisture * " The Langstroth hive had also been introduceil into a number of apiaries, curs among others. From the glovping accounts which I had heard of it while in California, I expected to find the desideratum long sought for by apiarists, and as a result of its introduction into our apiaries, that they would be in a highly flourishing condition, particularly that portion of the stock eontiined in the new style of hive. In this I was doomed to disappointment, as most of the bees that had been put into them had died of starvation, they having eaten all the stores from the bottom to the top of the hive, in the centre of a diameter equal to the size of the cluster, leaving an abundance of stores still within the hive, but owing to the severe cold, the bees were unable to reach them." — J. S. Harbison, in Bee CiUture, p. 31. 52 StJCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPtNG. contained in the breath of the bees, keeping them dry- and sweet, and preventing a current of cold air through the hive, which iKS fatal. The slide should occasionally be removed, and all dead bees and dirt drawn out from the bottom. A convenient scraper for doing this ma}' be made of a 3-1 6th inch bra- vier's rod sixteen inches long, and the end turned about )ne inch and flattened. Bees thus cared for, in my hives, and placed where the sun shall not shine ttpon and disturb theiii in the middle of the warm- est days of ivinter, will not peri&h while there is honey in THE HIVE By those who do not keep bees in such numbers as to render such a course irr.practicable, something may, per- haps, be gained by carrying the hives in early winter into a dry, dark, quiet cellar. The bees will thus remain more quiet, and consume less honey, than otherwise ; but this costs time, and is attended with care and trouble ; and, besides, most cellars are so damp as to render the de- struction of the bees certain : so that it is not probable that this method could be adopted to any considerable extent. TALL HIVES. Intelligent bee-keepers are generally agreed that tall hives are better to winter bees in than low ones. Even Mr. Langstroth, whose hive is a low one, says : "A hive toll in proportion to its other dimensions, has some obvi- ous advantages ; for, as bees are disposed to carry their stores as far as possible from the entrance, they will fill its upper part with honey, using the lower part mainl}'- for brood, thus escaping the danger of being caught, in cold weather, among empty ranges of comb, while they WINTERING, 53 still have honey unconsumed." — Honey Bee, pp. 329, 330. Mr. J. S Harbison to the same effect : " Many eminent apiarists bear testimony to the superiority of deep hives over those that are low and of large diameter." — Bee Culture, p. 132. Mr. Lang-stroth's/rflwe^ coinpel him to forego the " obvi- ous advaiitc^cs'" of a tall hive. He saj^s (Hone;,' Bee, p. 330) : " It would be impossible to use frames in it to ad- vantage" — true in regard to his frames and his mode of using them — and in a foot note he gives the following very good reason : " The deeper the frames the more diffi- cult it is to make them hang true on the rabbets, and the greater the difBculty of handling them without crushing the bees, or breaking the combs." In the Michigan quadruple hive are combined Ihe ad- vantages of both height and depth — the frames being so constructed and operated as to admit any desired height of hive, and the main entrance of each apartment being at the corner most remote from the centre, around which the bees, each colony in its own apartment, cluster in winter. The qurdruple hive gives each colony the benefit to be derived from a single one equal in length to the diag- onal of the quadruple, in addition to the advantages of nearly four times the lateral space to be had in an or- dinary single hive. Hence the quadruple hive is adapted to fully gratify the " disposition of the bees to carry their stores as far as possible from the entrance," a feature not attainable in any otlier hive.* * Those who have bees in low hives, will find they will winter better if the hive be set on its end Inte in the fall, keeping the combs in a perpendiculnr position. Before doing this, the Irames and honey board should be made fast, 60 as to be kept in place. 64 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. GKEATES, AETIMAIi HEAT. In the quadruple hive, only one-half of the wall surface of each apartment is exposed to the weather ; and, in winter, the four swarms cluster about its centre, thereby producing in the hive, for the benefit of each swarm, four times the amount of animal heat produced in a single hive. "WINTEE. PASSAGES. Many colonies of bees are lost in winter, from want of winter passages through their combs. Seeing this neces- sity, the writer contrived his present mode of making such passages, and securing them against being filled up by the bees, by cylinders made of tin or other material, and painted on the inside, and suspended in the empty frames, or placed in the combs. Mr. Langstroth, in his book on the Honey Bee, third edition, 1860,^9 337, recommends cutting a hole through each comb late in the fall ; and in a foot note, gives Mr. Wm. W. Gary's method of making such a passage, de- scribes his instrument for doing it, says an application for a patent on " this device" was pending, and that, " if the patent issues, the right to use it, will be free to all owning the right to use the movable-comb hive." It may be remarked, here, that he saj's nothing about securing the passage against being filled up by the bees. Yet, in the Be-e Journal for June, ISGl, p. 136, Mr. L. says, " Some years ago Mr. W. W. Gary, of Coleraine, Mass., after cutting winter passages in the combs, put in them a coiled shaving, to prevent the bees filling them up. I contrived a mode of suspending this shaving in an empty frame." DYSENTERY. 65 It is a Singular coincidence! that between the two writ ing's of Mr. L., my hive, with its winter passages, had fallen in his way, and that at the time of his latter writ- ing, my patent, embracing said winter passages, had already been ordered to issue ! Mr. Langstroth's " some years ago''' were included between 1860, and June, 1861 !II "DYSENTERY." Once during winter, it is desirable, and in long winters quite necessary, that bees should be allowed to fly, to dis- charge their fasces, or they are apt to be attacked with what is improperly called " dysentery." This arises from the inability of bees, after long confinement, to retain their fseces, consequently on the approach of a mild day,- at such times, even when the weather is too inclement for them to safely fly, many will venture out for this purpose, and drop down upon the snow, while some evacuate about the entrance and in the hive. \Vhen the latter takes place to any considerable extent, the whole swarm is aroused to great activity ; and, if the weather continues cold, perish. A swarm in this condition should be given air, and carefully shaded. As soon as the thermomett^r marks 45" in the shade, place them in the sun, and open the hive to let them fly. I have saved swarms, in mid-winter by allowing them to fly in a room, setting the hive by the window, and returning them with a ladle or spoon. But a room is quickly so soiled by the bees that it is not fit for anything else. After the bees have thus relieved themselves, the disease disappears. FEEDING. Bees should not be fed with liquid sweets in winter, when it can be safely avoided. Swarms, light in the fall, should be united, or their insufficient stores replenished, 56 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING, by cards of comb well filled with honey fiom other hives ; or, a box. of, honey icith its bottom and the honey board re- moved, so that the bees shall have ready access to it, may be placed on the frames. They may starve with it above the honey board. Bees may be fed in the fall to some ad- vantage, when the swarm happens to have been started late, or removed from the woods ; candy, or anything of that nature, may be placed immediately above the frames and accessible to the bees in cold ueather ; or liquid sweets may be given them, but I have always found sealed honey the lest and cheapest bee food. They do not need water, as some suppose, unless we want to encourage breeding, which is not advisable in winter, as it causes them to use more honey. But in spring, for breeding purposes, a considerable quantity both of honey and water is needed. Even after blossoms appear, if the weather continues for several days too cold and stormy for them to fly, they will often perish if not fed. A sponge kept saturated with sweetened water, placed on the wire curtains covering the holes in the honey boards, will save them, and in any case do no harm. BOBBEKS. Should robbers be enticed thereby, or at any time, from any cause, contract the entrance, and if they still persist, close it up, so that but a single bee can crawl through at a time. This will give the defenders of the place the best of the fight, and they will soon rid the prem- ises of their assailants. How to tale them.-:— It sometimes happens that a power- ful swarm from the neighboring forest attacks a weak swarm and nearly ruins it before discovered. In such BOBBERS. 5t case, close up the hive entirely ; place by its side a hive having within it a card of honey, or comb filled with sweetened water ; let the bees come and '^o a few times, and the}' will fah-ly swarm about you, encouraged by their success. When in the midst of their labors, place a tube in the hive, fitted to the bee entrance, and long enough to reach about half way through the hive, with its inner end elevated a little from the bottom. Now open one side of the hive, so as to let in the light — it should have one side of glass covered with a shutter — until the bees have filled and want to go home, when they will fly for the light, and find themselves trapped. Having provided a hole in the top of this hive, which can be opened and closed by means of a gate, place a hive on the top of this, containing a piece of brood comb freshly taken from a hive. Open the g'ate, close the shutter and entrance below, and open the shutter of the upper hive, until the bees, thus caged, have ascended into the upper hive ; then close the gate and the shutter of the upper, and open the shutter and entrance to the lower hive, letting in another band of robbers ; and thus continue till you have caged the whole gang. The hives are now to be re- moved ; the top one to a permanent place in the apiary, where it is to stand till about an hour before sun down of the fourth day. It is then to be opened, and the bees given their liberty, when it will be found, that several queens have been started, and your robbers have con- cluded to stay with you altogether, and you can count one more swarm in the apiary. If small tin valves are placed upon the inner end of the tube, to be operated by the bees themselves, they are more easily caged, and without the gate and shutter. I discovered this device — the valves — about two years ago, and thought it new, but S§ SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. found that Mr. R. B. Merritt, of Battle Creek, Mich., was ahead of me, although inventing it for a different pur- pose. He did not patent it, however, and I believe it is now public propertj^ any one having a right use it. The idea of thus stai^ting a swarm of bees, I believe to be original with myself. I first practiced it about six years ago, by catching a few bees from the blossoms in the fields for the purpose of experimenting, not thinking, at the time, to what use the principle thus demonstrated might be applied. TBANSFEBRING FBOMBOX HIVES TO MOVABLE FBAMES. Having provided a box, called the " driving box," so made that its mouth will exactly fit the open end of the hive from which the bees are to be driven, blow a few whiffs of smoke from burning wood, cotton rags, or to- bacco, in among the bees — not too much so as to sicken and cause them to fall down from among the combs upon the bottom board, but only enough to alarm and induce them to fill themselves with honey. Let the hive stand five minutes, to give the bees which may be out gather- ing honey, time to return ; then blow in a little more smoke, driving them all up among the combs. Now re- move the hive two or three rods from the apiar.y, under a convenient shade, if such is at hand, and carefully turn it over on a clean spot, (but never upon loose dii-t or culti- vated ground,) with its bottom or open end upwards. As quickly as possible cut a small piece of brood comb, or comb containing eggs and j'Qung bees, from near the cen- tre of the hive, and suspend it by a nail, or otherwise, in a box, for a temporary hive, placed upon the stand from which the box hive was removed, to catch up such bees TRAN8FERKING FROM BOX HIVES TO MOVABLE FRAMES. 59 as may be out seeking their old hive. These will cluster upon the comb thus furnished them, till they are wanted, and be prevented from entering other contiguous hives. Place the driving box upon the box hive, so that they will exactly fit each other, mouth to mouth, tacking the two together with a couple of nails, and with rags close every crevice, so that not a bee shall escape. Now lightly rap on the top- — now bottom — of the hive, grad- ually moving up, from fifteen to thirty minutes. By this time nearly all the bees will have ascended into the top box, which will be known by the humming noise within, on applying the ear to the side of the hive. A window of glass, or wire cloth, provided with a shutter, may be in- serted in the side of the driving box, through which to see the bees. If the driving box have sticks nailed across its interior, for the bees to cluster upon, all the better. When the bees have nearly all ascended into the top box, it is to be removed, and a cloth, or wire curtain, open enough to give plenty of fresh air, is to be placed over its mouth, to prevent the escape of the bees, letting it stand in a cool, shady place while transferring the comb. After removing the side of the box running nearest parallel with the comb, as care- fully as possible, cut out one card, placing it upon a common tea salver, and with a frame lying upon it in such a manner that the honey and breeding cells shall re- main in the same relative posi- tion in the frame that they occu- pied in the hive, as in Fig. 28, cut the comb a trifle larger than to fit, so as the better to fasten it 28 —Comb fitted for frame. 60 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KKEPINQ. in place, using only the truest, evenest combs, and dls carding all drone cells and combs of much greater thick ness than one inch. Old black combs that are true and even, are just as good as new, white ones. Having thus fitted the comb to the frame, tack on each side a strip of wood, previ- ously prepared, of about | by | of an inch material, and long enough to reach from the bottom to the top of the frame, to hold the comb in its place for three or four days, or until the bees shall permanently attach it to the frame. If a little melted bees wax is at hand, the combs may be partially attached with this by means of a feather, but except during the midst of the honey harvest, the fumes from burning wax or combs shouldbe avoided on account of greater liability to entice robbers. When thus prepared, the frame, witli its comb and brood, is carefully placed in the hive, and its entrance closed up to keep out inquisitive stranger bees. Thus, one by one, are the combs removed, without honey, ex- cept what little there may be near the corners of the frames, the surplus being immediately taken to the house out of the reach of the bees. Having thus placed all the combs in position in the new hive, the small box is brought from the old stand, and the bees it contains shook out at the entrance of their new domicil, having first re- moved the slide, so as to give them room to enter. A little smoke may be needed before removing it, as the bees in it have probably already begun the work of queen rearing, and may be loth to leave the comb furnished them, which should now be removed. If we intend to practice artificial swarming, and prevent our bees from absconding to the woods, we have now to find the queen. This is easily accomplished after having been once done, and TRANSFERRING FROM BOX HIVES TO MOVABLE FRAMES. 61 the inexperienced will have but little trouble to find her by turning- up the driving box on its side, and gently dipping the bees with a spoon, or ladle, from thai to the entrance of another box, after the manner of hiving a natural swarm, looking over each spoonful carefully for the queen. A few of the fn-st spoonfuls may turn back toward the greater noise in the driving box ; but perse- verance and a little sprinkling of water, will soon get them started the other way ; and if a bee is seen a trifle larger around the body and nearly twice the length of a worker, and considerably less bulky than a drone, you may be sure you have the queen. If she is not found the first time, exchange boxes and search again. When found, clip one of her wings, so that she shall be unable to fly. This will not impair her usefulness in any degree, for her wings are now of no use whatever, except to lead off a swarm to the woods. But, it should be remembered, that it is safe to clip the wings of fertile queens only. All queens become fertile, if at all, within the first twen- ty-one days of their cxistenee ; otherwise they are drone layers. For this and other reasons, previously noticed, it is not safe to transfer a swarm, with their combs, from, box hives at any time between the issue of a first and any after swarm of the current year ; nor to " drive" a swarm at such times, for similar reasons ("Why?"), because, either no young queens are yet hatched, and we run the risk of destroying them in their cells, or they are unfertile, since they do not fly to meet the drones until after leading off their swarms, and if we drive out the only queen in the parent colony while there are no eggs in the combs from which the bees can rear another, its final de- struction becomes inevitable. The reasons are here given, that the inexperienced may rot fall into an error, often 62 BDCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPIXG. committed, and not immediately remedied as it should be, by supplying a fertile queen from another liive, leaving the stock from which she is taken to rear a new one. Another reason why it is unsafe to transfer a swarm of bees while they have yet an unfertile queen is, that a dis- turbance of the swarm at this time is apt to cause the bees to accompany the young queen upon her bridal trip, sometimes returning, but often absconding with her to the forests. This result may be prevented by timely giving such swarms brood comb, containing eggs and larvce, from other hives. It is also an effectual remed}^ against any loss of swarms by flight after hiving ; for lees ivill not desert their young. In four to six days after transferring, the combs are to be righted, and the temporary slats re- moved, and any needed correction of position attended to. "DRIVING," OB FORCED S^W" ARMING. This operation is performed precisely as if j^ou intended to transfer the combs, with this difference only, namely : when you have separated the bees from the combs con- tained in the old hive, cover the latter with a gauze-wire cloth, or other suitable material, while the queen is being hunted up. When found, she is placed with one-fourth of the bees in a new hive upon the old stand, while three- fourths of the bees are taken with the old hive, and placed in a new location. If this operation be performed tea days before others are going to be driven, queen cells may he. taken from this for supplying other hives. But to swarm bees in this manner, requires considerable skill, and a good degree of knowledge of bees ; — and even then is liable to fail, from the fact that we work in a great measure in the dark, and can never know, as we ought, BEE PASTURAGE. 63 whether a mew fertile queen is provided or not, until it is quite too late to remedy the evil, if one be wanting-. In thus transferring- bees and combs from box hives to mova- ble frames, we have purposely left them unsupplied with honey to any extent. When transferring is performed in the midst of the honey season, none is needed ; but if, as is often the case, we change bees to new hives late in the season, they may be unable to collect a supply of stores for the winter ; especially will this be the case if consid- erable empty space is left to be supplied with new combs. In such cases, a box four or five inches deep should be provided, without top or bottom, made twelve by twelve inches inside, so as to fit the hive. After the combs in the hive are righted, this should be placed on the top of the hive, making a chamber above the frames 12 by 12 inches and 4 or 5 deep, into which, properly spaced, a sup- ply of sealed honey should be placed, and the honey board put on. Twenty-five pounds of honey so provided, will safely winter a large swarm any where that bees can be wintered, even though no other stores are in the hive. When apple trees are in full bloom, remove this box, blowing in a little smoke to drive the bees below. Let every bee-keeper see that his bees have "enough and to spare," remembering that they are faithful stewards and will return the trust with interest a hundred fold. BEE PASTUEAGE. " Bees work for man ; and yet they never bruise Their master's flower, but lenve it, having done, As fair as ever, and as fit for use." Propolis is a resinous g-um, obtained by bees mainly from the leaves, buds, and trunks of plants and trees, 64 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. and used chiefly to fill up the holes, and plaster the in- ner surfaces of the hive. Bee-bread, called also pollen and farina, consists of the fecundating' dust of blossoms, and is also collected by the bees from the fine dust of flour — rye flour is best — and constitutes especially the food of their young. Honey is the great staple of the bee-hive. It varies in quality and value, according to the source from which it is obtained. The three principal honey harvests with us are, 1. From the blossoms of fruit trees in spring ; 2. and greatest of all. From white clover ; 3. Buckwheat. The honey locust, the basswood, the whitewood, oak, ma- ple, and other forest trees, and the flowers of a great va- riety of plants, also yield large quantities of honey. Our surplus honey should, if possible, be secured from the white clover, it being of the best quality. This is also the pe- riod of the most rapid comb building, empty hives being sometimes filled with comb in six days. Bees will often gather sufficient honey for their winter stores from buck- wheat alone, when it is near by, the season favorable, and they have plenty of empty comb in which to store it. Mr. Alvin Wilcox, of West Bloomfield, N. Y,, is said to have had two swarms increase in weight twenty pounds from buckwheat in a single day. The field was within fifteen rods of the apiary. " The Baron of Berlepsch has had single colonies in his apiary which increased eleven pounds in weight in one day. Mr. Kader, of Mayence, had one which increased twenty-one pounds, and the Eev. Mr. Stein, of the same place, one which increased twenty- eight pounds, in a day." — Bee Journal for July, 1861,^ 164.* *I hiivo known ti pmall second swarm, in the honey season, to store suffi- cient for winter in ten days, when empty combs were provided. — M. Quinby RANGE OF PASTURE. OVERSTOCKING. f)5 RANGE OF PASTUEE.-OVEaSTOCKINQ. Bees will bring- stores from a distance of three or four miles ; but the nearer they find supplies, the more rap- idly they accumulate them ; and they will often accept an inferior quality, rather than go a great distance for a superior. So great is the yield of good pasturage, that xhere is but little danger of overstocking. From a re- port made to the Austrian government, on the state of bee culture in twenty-one states of that Empire, furnished in an excellent article on " Bee Culture," by Mr. Bruckisch, of Texas, in the U. S. Patent OfQce Report for 1860, p. 282, we quote as follows : "Average number of bee-hives to one square mile : Transylvania 300 Croatia 320 Gorz 340 Galacia 350 Lombardy 360 Serbia Banat 400 Carintliia .500 Styria .510 Caruiola 900 In Mr. Langstroth's valuable work on the Honey Bee, we find statements from Mr. Samuel Wagner, Editor of the Bee Journal, Philadelphia, in which he sa3's, that the present opinion of the coiiespondents of the German Bee Journal appears to be that a district cannot readily be overstocked, and Dzierzon says in practice at least, " it IS never done." In Russia and Hungary, apiaries number- ing from 2,000 to 5,000 colonies are frequent ; and 4,060 hives are sometimes congregated, in autumn, on the heaths in Germany. Oettl sa3's : — " When a large flock of sheep is grazing on a limited area, there may soon be a deficiency of pasture. But this cannot be asserted of bees, as a good honey-district can- not readily be overstocked with them. To-day, when the 00 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING, air is moist and warm, the plants may yield a superabun- dance of nectar ; while to-morrow, being- cold and wet, there may be a total want of it. When there is sufiScient heat and moisture, the saccharine juices of plants will readily fill the nectaries, and will be quickly replenished when carried off by the bees. Every cold night checks the flow of honey, and every clear, warm day reopens the fountain. Tim flowtrs expanded to-day must be visited while open ; for, if left to wither, their stores are lost. The same re- marks will apply substantial!}' in the case of honey-dews. Hence, bees cannot, as many suppose, collect to-morrow what is left ungathered to-day, as sheep may graze here- after on the pasturage they do not need now. Strong colonies and large Apiaries are in a position to collect ample stores when forage suddenly abounds, while, by patient, persevering industry, they may still gather a sufficiency and even a surplus, when the supply is small, but more regular and protracted." Localities differ as widely in their resources of honey as in pasturage for cattle ; and the yield of any particu- lar locality is very much affected by the season : hence it is impossible to say how many stocks can be sustained to the square mile. Very few places in our country, are, as yet, in any danger of being overstocked. PEOFITS OP BEE CULTURE). "A penny saved, is two pence earned." — Poor Richard. The profits resulting from bee-keeping, depend mainly upon the locality and season — presuming, of course, that the bees are well taken care of. The bee editor of the Rural New Yorker, (in No. for Tan. 21, I860,) says, " We are satisfied that nothing AV'ill PROFITS OF BEE CULTUEE. 67 pay better than keeping- bees ; but care is required, and a knowledge of their habits, and, for want of this, many fail." The same number contains the Bee acctjunt of Mr. Hiram W. Eulkley, of Saratoga co., for 1859, reported to the State Agricultural Societ}', as follows : 1859. ■ JDr. June 1. — To 29 swarms wintered, worth $1 each ^203 00 30 hives for new swarms, $1,.50 45 00 .100 honey boxes, 18c 18 .00 13 frames on wliich hives are suspended, 50c. 6 50 labor be-3to wed, estimated at 10 00 expenses of marketing 3 46 ^285 96 Cr. By sales of 520)^ lbs. clover honey, including boxes, 25c. $130 12 By 489 lbs. buckwheat honey, including boxes, 14c 68 46 By seven swarms taken up, lioney estimated at .f3 each. . 21 00 By 7 hives for use again, $1,50 10 50 _ By honey on band and used in family, estimated 30 00 By 35 swarms on hand, $6 210 00 By 17 swarms sold after honey season 100 00 By First premium at State Fair 5 00 By First premium at Saratoga County Fair 1 00 $576 08 Deduct debits 285 96 Profits $290 12 In the same paper for March 3, 1860, Mr. T. S. Under- bill, of St. Johnsville, N. Y., writes : " The amount to be obtained from any particular sec- tion, of course depends on its fertility and the sources of honey. Mr. A. W. Ford, of Middleville, Herkimer Co., N. Y., has, the past season, from an apiary of 130 stocks, I'eceived an increase of 170 swarms, and 6,000 lbs. sur- plus honey, which sold at 20 cents, and the swarms at 5 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPIKQ. [, making- an income of about $1,800 from a capital of or $700. This, he says, is better than he has ever done before, but it shows what may be done in a g-ood locality, with a favorable season. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsville, N. Y., who has, I believe, the most extensive apiaries in this country, and is a practical bee-keeper, says, in his treatise on bee-keeping- : ' Tn some seasons, particularly favorable, your stocks collectively will yield from one to two hundred per cent. I have known a sin- gle stock in one season to produce more than twenty dol- lars in swarms and honey, and ninety stocks to produce over nine hundre-d dollars.' He speaks of these as instan- ces of an extra yield, and further remarks, ' that a proper estimate can be made only by the averag-e of proceeds of several years;' but that ' a single stock, rig'htly managed, in the long run, is worth more than $100 at interest.'" Mr. E. H. Davis, of Larone, Somerset count}'-. Me., is reported in the Maine Farmer, as having received from four swarms a clear profit of $61 25, that is, a net of over three hundred per cent. But California is the Paradise of bees. Mr. Hamilton, of Stockton, reports in the Sacramento Union for Jan. 14, 1861, that he had, the previous season, thirty-five swarms of bees, which increased to five hundred, and the yield of honey for the season was 20,0T5 pounds, making an aver- age from the thirty-five original swarms of 573 pounds each ! Mr. H. moved his bees Feb. 1, 1860, from Stock- ton to Santa Clara, where they remained till July 1st, when the swarms had increased to 270. He then returned v/ith them to Stockton, and by the first of October the swarms had increased to 500. In 18 60 bees were worth in California $25 a swarm, and honey 50 cents a pound. With these figures, the reader HUNTING AND HIVING WILD BEES 69 may make his own estimate of the profits of bee culture in California. Incredible as the figures appear, other par- ties report results nearly as great. In view of the facts given — and they agree with the ex- perience of intelligent bee-keepers every where — it ap- pears safe to estimate the net profits of keeping bees at least at one hundred per cent, per annum, when they re- ceive the attention and care that a farmer gives to any other kind of stock. Even at this low estimate, can the farmer give his attention to any thing else that will pay as well ? Considering the small capital needed to begin with ; the ease with which it may be expanded, and the safety of the business — with the right kind of hive — the lightness of the labor, and little attention needed ; the very small waste from " wear and tear," and that what the bees gather is so much actually saved — bee-keeping commends itself to every jDroducer whose situation will admit of it. Every family in the country, and many families in cities, might keep a few swarms of bees ; and thus, if they did not sell any honey, they would add a material item to their own tables. Millions of dollars are lost in our coun- try every year from want of bees to save it. ■ HUNTING AND HIVING WILD BEES I will give the method practised by myself, whereby I have no difficulty in soon determining the exact locality of the swarm, and securing it. As something depends upon the season of the year in which it is proposed to hunt them, I will give the differ- ent methods suitable for each season, beginning with early spring. Take the middle of a warm sunny day, the TO ' succjESsruL bee-keeping. thermometer about 48° in the shade ; go to the woods near. the supposed locality of the wild swarm, and with a lighted match or candle, burn a little dry honey-comb, beeswax, or piece of wood, on which a few drops of oil of anise have been poured. Keep a gentle "smudge" (to use a bee-hunter's phrase) going for 15 to 30 minutes, or until the bees come searching along close to the ground, following the line of the smoke. A foot or two from the " smudge," in the direction in which the wind is blowing, elevated a foot or two from the ground, if the surface be smooth — if bushy, higher, so as to have it the highest ob- ject near the smoke — place a piece of honey-c-omb, par- tially filled with sweet, freshly diluted honey ; or sweet- ened water will do if the swarm is close by, otherwise they are not so sure to readily accept it. If a drop or two of the oil of anise be added to it, or sprinkled on the comb, the bees will be attracted by its strong scent, and work all the more rapidly. The bees will soon begin to collect upon the comb, and if the weather continues favor- able, with but little wind, and the swarm is near by (by which I mean within half a mile), a steady line of bees will be seen going from the combs, laden with the sweets, to their home, wherever that may be. The first time a bee starts for home, and sometimes for several of the first trips, it will be seen to describe a cir- cle immediately around the comb, the circles gradually becoming larger and larger, till apparently the true bear- ing is found, when a " bee line" is struck for home. In order to watch their course as far as possible, an open space must be chosen, or what is better, an open field, even if it be somewhat further off, when we shall be able, by keeping the eye as close to the ground as possible while the bees fly against the sky for a back -ground, un- HUNTIXG AND HIVING WILD BEES." 71 obstructed by trees or other objects, to more perfectly line them. Of coiirse newcomers are constantly arriving^ and these latter will fill the air with their spiral curvings ; but a little practice will enable the hunter's eye to catch those whose flight will now be straight for home, without more than a part of a single circle, while even those striking spirals (if it be not windy), will evidently lean toward home, or circle from the combs in that direction. Many different swarms are often thus set at work from the same spot at once, sometimes causing much vexation. This will at once be known by constant quarreling. If, no"W, we desire to divide them and get rid of all but those which go in a direction indicating that they are probably wild, we have only to place a box supplied with clean honey- comb, and a little honey in the cells, in the spot from which the bees have been working, removing all other comb, and after the bees have collected therein, close them in with a cover, and carry them in the direction where we suppose the swarm to be, and as nearly to the spot as we can guess. If we diverge a little out of the line, and yet, when we set them again at work, be considerably nearer the swarm we are in quest of, while we are farther off from the others, we shall pretty effectually di- vide them. But we must not move too far at a time, for if we chance to go beyond the tree, our bees will not be lik(>ly to return. If we have chosen the right spot, we shall now probably get a " cross-line," and by following both lines accurately to the point lohere the one crosses the other, we shall be in theii' immediate neighborhood. If left to themselves, one swarm only will be at work after two or three hours, usually the nearest and hungriest swarm driv- ing the others off. Hence not the best, but the poorest and least valuable, is often found if we do not divide them. Since it often happens that a hungry and more distant *12 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. swarm will work more rapidly than one having a good supply of stores on hand that is nearer by, and as we cannot always determine whether the swarm be located in the adjacent woods or at a hive beyond, by guessing, the distance may be very nearly found in the following man- ner ; Get the bees at work at two points a little distance from each other, and with suitable instruments construct a triangle, making the distance between these two points its base, as J. ^ in the annexed diagram : the bees diverging from the line A B \u the directions A D, and B C, respectively. A C D Fig. 29. If we have constructed the triangle correctly, the dis- tance between the points A and B is proportional to the distances between E, where the lines A D and .B C cross each other, and A and B respectively. If, now, the distance between the two points where we have the bees at work, be 20 rods, and the length of the line A B, in our trian- gle, be made 20 inches, as many inches as there are in the line A E ov B E, the location of the swarm is distant from the points A and B, in rods. When their vicinity is found, as indicated by the point where the lines cross each otljer, we must carefully mark t'aa place and commence searching for the tree. This is the most tedious of the whole process, often requiring the nicest skill in getting into the right position to discover bees HUNTING AND HIVING WILD BEES. T3 at altitudes in which they are often found. When the trees are short and small, it is not a difficult matter to see them ; but when the bees are 40 to 60 feet from the ground, it is another thing altogether. In any case, the way to find them is, when you have nothing to aid the naked eye, to get into the shadow of the tree, and walk slowly backward and forward so as to bring every point of its body and larger branches in range between the eye and the sun, looking at the sides of the tree just below the sun and outwardly, carefully and slowly. The bees will be seen very easily while in this position, and ap- pear quite large from the reflection of the sun's rays strik- ing upon their wings. A good spy-glass is a great help, however, and by its aid one can readily determine whether bees are working in and out of a tree or not, even by look- ing over the top and sides of the branches, or through openings almost anywhere about the tree. Bees will work honey at any time, even in mid-sum- mer, if it be fresh from the hive. The way to set them at work in the summer season is, with a cup or box, with a cover, catch one at a time from the blossoms, set the cup on the stump of a tree, or other convenient point, till no humming is beard in the cup, when the cover is very carefully removed, and the bee allowed to get its fill of honey undisturbed. It is usual with bee-hunters to make a bee -box for hunting purposes, with a slide two inches from its bottom, so that the comb and honey may be shut out from the bees while catching and carrying them, to prevent their becoming besmeared with honey ; for when they do ever so little, there is no use trying to do any- thing with them, for they know as well as you can tell them, that honey is of no consequence so long as they can not get home with it. A bee-tree should never be cut, Hi srCCESSFUL BEE KEEPlXff, except by a person of experience, before the middle of May of after the first of September, since it will be ex- tremely difficult to save the bees at such times. During these months no trouble need be feared by any person. Simply remove the honey and comb, after subduing the bees a little with smoke of old rags or tobacco, and with a stick or nail fasten a small piece of the comb, contain- ing eggs and brood only, in a box, for a temporary hive. Now hive the bees precisely as you would a young swarm in swarming time. Kemove them at night to your dom- icil, having previously placed the brood combs as evenly and carefully in a hive as it is possible for you to do, transferring thither the bees, and giving them but little or no honey. If movable frame hives are at hand, this is easily done. Should the queen have been destroyed, they will soon rear another, and collect far more honey, and prove a thousand times more satisfactory to you, than if you had waited till fall, and then cruelly destroyed them all, as is so often done for their stores alone. I have no patience with that class of bee-hunters, or b-ee-keepers who practice this latter barbarity. It is too much like the practice of the rude Indians of the forest, who annu- ally slay whole herds of deer for their skins alone. A more perfect parallel still would be found in the farmer who should make yearly slaughter of his beeves and oth- er stock for their hides, throwing their carcasses to the winds 1 After a bee tree is cut and the bees "broken up," rob- bers from neighboring trees or otherwise soon make their appearance, appropriating the spoils. If any wild swarms are in the vicinity, as is most always the case if the tree contains an old one, they are easily followed home and captured. I have often found three or four in a circuit of a hundred rods. ITALIAN- BEES. W Fig 30 — Queen Magnified. Fig. 33.— Queen. Fig. 32.— "Worker Magnified. Fig 35.— Worker. t6' SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPI.VG. ITALIAN BEES. The Italian Bee, called also the Ligurian Bee, is found in a small Alps-pent district, embracing- portions of northern Italy and southern Switzerland. They were once more largely distributed ; and are described by Aristotle, Virgil, and other ancient writers, as " small and round in size and shape, and variegated iv. color," and the most valuable of any then known. Various accounts of bees answering the above description, as once known but perhaps lost, have reached our day, but had com.e to be regarded, for the most part, by sober matter-of-fact moderns as among the fictions of ancient mj'thology. But it is now believed that these wonderful little creatures, thus thought worthy of preservation in song by one of the world's greatest poets, still exist and are identical with those now called Italian bees. As they were described two thousand years ago, so they are found now, the most valuable and industrious of their kind. Why they should have been lost sight of for so many years, does not ap- pear, unless it be in consequence of that universal, well known law of nature by which the inferior type predomi- nates over the superior, if neglected ; the golden -hued bee being thus gradually displaced by its black rival, ex- cept (so far as is known) in the district named, where the superior race appears to have held exclusive posses- sion, the surrounding mountains, covered with perpetual snow, being impassable by their wings. They were accidentally discovered by Capt. Balden- stein, while stationed in Northern Italy in the wars of Na- poleon ; who after returning to his castle in Switzerland, procured, in 1843, a colony near Lake Como, and trans- ported them over the Alps to his northern home. They ITALIAN BEES. 77 were introduced into Germany by Mr. Dzierzon in 1853, and soon became very popular. The first successful importations into this country were made m 1860, by Messrs. S. B. Parsons, of Flushing-, L. T., P. J. Mahan, of Philadelphia, and R. Colvin, of Baltimore. In 1861, Mr. C. W. Rose, of New York city, succeeded in bringing six colonies to this country, out of forty-nine purchased in their native district. I believe one or two other importations have been made. The Italians have already been extensively introduced into the apiaries of both the Atlantic and Pacific sections of the United States, and are becoming great favorites. If I am rightly informed, the importations of Messrs. Mahan and Colvin were from Germany ; while those of Messrs. Parsons and Rose were direct from Italy, the lat- ter under the personal care of Mr. August Bodmer, an experienced Tyrolean bee-keeper, who selected them in tlieir native fastness and brought them hither. It is claimed by each of these importers, that he has the gemdne. Ilallan bee. Whether there is any choice or differ- ent degi'ees of purity in these stocks, I do not pretend to decide, but do know that very great cars is requisite to breed them ptre, and the purchaser cannot be too careful of whora he obtains his queens. I have examined samples of most, I believe all, of these importations, have queens bred from two of them, and am 7iol yet satisfied as to what consti- tutes the distinctive characteristics of the Italian race. If • color be the test, I am still lost ; for I have failed to find any that are constant in this respect, or in the number and breadth of the yellow bands on their abdominal rings. So far as my experiments with them go — and they have now been extended through a period of two years — they indicate that the lightest colored queens produce the most t8 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. brilliant drones ; and if the drones are the offspring- purely of the queens, as is generally admitted, may it not be in- ferred that possibly nione are pure, but that all have a trace of black blood in them, showing itself most strikingly in queens and drones, which must be carefully bred out be* fore we can determine their real characteristics and ren- der them uniform in shape, and constant in color ? The illustrations (magnified) on page 75, were engraved from selected specimens, and show the distinctive mark- ings and bands in great perfection — the yellow portions being represented by white. It will be observed that the body is more round and slender, and a little longer, the wings somewhat larger in proportion to the body — in fact the whole bee appearing more delicate in form and tex- ture — than the common bee. The testimony of several well known apiarians who have had experience with the Italians, is here given, that the reader may the better judge whether this new variety is worthy of his attention. From the Baron of Berlepsch and Mr. Dzierzon : The Baron of Berlepsch and Mr. Dzierzon, among the most intelligent and skillful bee-keepers of Germany, give the Italian decided preference over the common bee. The former says he has found — " 1. That the Italian bees are less sensitive to cold than the common kind. 2. That their queens are more pro- lific. 3. That the colonies swarm earlier and more fre- quently, though of this he has less experience than Dzierzon. 4, That they are less apt to sting. Not only are they less apt, but scarcely are they inclined to sting, though they will do so if intentionally annoyed or irritated. 5. Thev are more industrious. Of this fact ITALIAN BEES. 19 he had tjut one summer^s experience, but all the results and indications g'O to confirna Dzierzon's statements, and satisfy him of the superiority of this kind in every point of view. 6. That they are more disposed to rob than common bees, and more courageous and active in self-defence. They strive on all hands to force their Way into colonies of common bees ; but when strange bees attack their hives, thej' fight with great fierceness, and with an incredible adroitness." From Mr. F. A. Deus, and others : Mr. F. A. Deus, who with three other members of the German Apiarian Convention, held at Mayence, in 1856, in that year made a tour of France, Switzerland, and Italy, in search for and observations on Italian bees, in his re- port, as quoted in the American Bee, Journal for Sept., 1861, ^.213, says : " At the Villa di Negro, near the latter city (Genoa), the genuine Italian bee exists in all its beauty and perfec- tion. It was delightful to observe the celerity, agility and grace displayed in all their motions by the busy workers, as they rifled the flowers of their sweets. Their bodies were so slender and delicate, their colors so bright, and their markings so clear and distinct, as to surpass greatly any specimens of the race which had previously corao under our notice. We caught a num- ber of them, and preserved them in alcohol for future comparison. * * * It is evident that the Italian bee is not a mere climatic variety, but really a distinct race. Wo were repeatedly assured also that the common kind only was found in the Kingdom of Naples and in the warmer districts of Upper Itah'. We chanced to fall in with a 80 SUCCESSFULL BEE-KEEPING. bee-keeper from Normandy, who informed us that two kinds of bees were cultivated in that country — the com- mon kind and also a yellowish or orange variety. The latter, he stated, were much preferred, as being more gentle and more industrious. The common kind, he said, were particularly irascible and wild. This ac- count likewise corroborates the opinion that the Italian bee is not the common insect m^:)dified by special cli- matic influences, because Normandy differs little in that respect from Central Germany. " At Lago Maggiore and Lago di Como, we found Ital- ian bees exclusively, and of the most perfect type, like those of Genoa. These districts, indeed, appear to be their chief habitat P From the American Agriculturist : " The fact that so many of our oldest apiarians have con- siderable confidence in them, argues well in their favor. We have watched their multiplication from a single swarm, and if the rate of increase be as great at other points to which the queens ax'e being daily dispatched, it will not take long to fill the country with them — if such a consummation be desirable. Below we give' an extract from a letter, dated August 10, written by Mr. E. A. Brack- ■ ett, the well known sculptor, who is an enthusiastic ama- teur in bees also. His suggestion in regard to improving bees, by care in selecting breeding queens, is worthy of attention. All kinds of domestic animals have been brought to a much higher standard, by special care in breeding. Why may not our common bees be in like manner improved ? " ' My experience thus far, satisfies me that they have ITALIAN BEES. 81 not been overrated. The queens are larger and more prolific. The workers, when bred in comb of their own building, are longer and their honey sacs larger. They are Jess sensitive to cold, and more industrious. " ' In all my handling of them — and I have done so pretty freely, lifting' the comb?, and examining them almost daily — I have never known one to offer to sting. A queen that I received in June, and introduced to a strong stock of bees, in eleven days filled thirteen sheets of comb with brood and eggs. There is at present scarcely a black bee in the hive, so rapid has been the change. Although I have taken from it large quantities of worker brood and sealed drones, the hive is still overflowing.' " From the California Culturist : " We believe, however, that the superiority of the Ital- ian bee is no longer questionable, even among apiarians who have large stocks of the common bee for sale. We take pleasure in introducing proof of this, that those who may have been in doubt may have their doubts removed, and at once obtain this superior breed ; just as the stock- grower would a superior breed of horses, cattle, or sheep." From Mr. L. L. Langstroth : " It is hardly necessary to say, that a species of the honey-bee so much more productive than the common kind, and so much less sensitive to cold, will be of very great value to all sections of our country. Its superior docility would make it worthy of high regard, even if in other respects it had no peculiar merits. Its introduction into this countr}' will, it is confidently believed, consti- tute a new era in bee-keeping, and impart an interest to its pursuit which will enable us, ere long, to vie with any part of the world in the production of honey." 82 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. A year later, (Aug. 24, I860,) Mr. L. wrote to Mr. Parsons as follows : " I have three colonies (artificial swarms) to which Italian queens were given in June. All of the common bees appear to have died ; and if we may judge from the working of these colonies, the Italians will fully sustain their European reputation. They have gathered more than twice as much honey as the swarms of the common bee. This, however, has been chiefly gathered within the last few weeks ; during which time, the swarms of com- mon bees have increased but very little in weight. The sea- son has been eminently unfavorable for the new swarms, (one of the very worst I ever knew) and the prospect is, that I shall have to feed all of them except the Italians. L. L. Langstroth." From J. P. Kirtland, Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 13, 1860 : " First. — Their disposition to labor far excels that of the common kind. From the earliest dawn of day to the ar- rival of evening, they are invariably passing in and out of the hive, and rarely suspend their work for winds, heat or moderate showers — at times when not a solitary indi- vidual of the common kind is to be seen. Two hours each day, their labors are extended beyond the working time of the last named kind. "Second. — Power of endurance, and especially of resisting the impression of cold, they possess in a marked degree. Since the buckwheat, salidagoes, and astors have flowered in this vicinity, the nights have been remarkably cold. This low temperature has in a great measure suspended the efforts of the common bees, and they have been eating their previously accumulated stores. Not so with the Italians ; they have been steadily accumulating honey ITALIAN BEES. ©3 and bee-bread, and rapidly multiplying their numbers They seem peculiarly adapted to resist the chilly atmos- phere and high winds, which predominate in autumn, on the shores of Lake Erie. " Third. — Prolificness they equally excel in. Both my fall and half-blooded stocks have become numerous and strong in numbers, as well as in stores, at this late season of the year, when the common kind have ceased increasing, and have become nearly passive. " Fourth. — Their individual strength is greater ; and this is well illustrated in their prompt manner of tossing to a great distance any robber that chances to approach their hive. " Fifth. — Their beauty of color and graceful form render them an object of interest to every person of taste. My colonies are daily watched and admired by many visitors. " Sixth. — Of their moral character, I cannot speak favor- ably. If robbery of weaker colonies is going on, these yellow-jackets are sure to be on hand. So far as my ex- perience has gone with them, I find every statement in re- gard to their superiority sustained. " They will no doubt prove a valuable acquisition to localities of high altitudes ; and will be peculiarly adapted to the climate of Washington Territory, Oregon, and the mountainous regions of California. J. P. KlETLAND." From the American Apiarian Convention : The following from the report of the American Apiarian Convention, held at Cleveland, Ohio, March 12-14, 1862, is valuable in their favor, after a trial of three years : " Italian Bees. — All agreed as to the superiority of the 84 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. Italian to the common black bee. They deserve all th*? good things that European bee-keepers had said of them, save one. They are not more peaceable, but more iras- cible than the black I ee, and their sting is more poison- ous. Mr. Langstroth gave it as his experience, and that of some of his friends, that the Italian bees, instead of being more peaceable than our common kind, are more irascible (except in the season of honey gather- ing), and are more difficult to quiet when once excited. The Italian who brought all Mr. Parsons' bees, said that our bees were far more peaceable than the black bees of Germany. A German writer who furnished a valuable article on bee-keeping, for the Patent Office Report of 1860, says that our bees are much more easily handled than those of Germany. This accounts for the belief in Germany, that the Italian bees are more peaceable than the black species. The r'emarks of Prof. Kirtland seemed to sum np all that other gentlemen had said of the Italian bee. The professor prefaced his remarks by saying that he had no " ax to grind," and no bees to sell, and would not have until his experiments had been completed, which would be three or more years. After discussing the good qualities of the Italian bee, he said that it was as much superior to the black bee as Short- horn cows and Chester hogs are to the " scrubs" of the country; and that the Italian bee is: — 1. Stronger, more active, and resists lake winds and chills better than the common bee. 2. It works more hours every day. 3. It collects more stores. 4. It works on some flowers which the black bee cannot operate on. 5. It breeds more freely. 6. It is more irritable, and its sting more painful. Y. It is more beautiful. 8. It, in short, compares with the common bee as the Short-horn HOW TO ITALIANIZE COMMON STOCKS, 85 Durham does to the native scrub. The Dr. cautioned against breedin.e; " in and in," and he and other gentle- men advised bee-keepers to purchase queens both from the Parsons and Rose stock, to prevent too close breed- ing." My own experience with Italian bees, differing some- what from those above given, has not yet been such as to warrant a decided opinion in all respects. Of their gen- eral superiority, however, there can be no question. I have found them quite as gentle as the common kind ; for, though quicker on the wing, I have been stung only twice by them, so as to cause any swelling or pain, dur- ing a daily and almost hourl}' handling of them for two years. I have, moreover, been too much engaged in queen rearing and experiments to determine defin tely their comparative industry. They seem to fly swifter and work more hours than common bees, which they easily mas- ter, and whose stores they appropriate, I noticed, the past season, that one of my Italian hives was rapidly accumu- lating honey, while others were diminishing in weight. Looking into the hive, a short time after, I found it run- ning over with bees, a large portion of them being black. I did not see them com-e nor know whence they came, as I had in previous instances of robbing ; but they were doubtless a subdued colony of blacks (not " contra- bands"), which, after hard fighting, being spoiled of their treasures, had sought protection under the " segis of the union," HO"W TO ITALIANIZE COMMON STOCKS. The process of introducing the Italian race has been, to procure a queen, and after rendering a swarm of common bees hopelessly queenless hj taking away its queen and 86 SrccEssruL bee-keepino. successively destroying all queen cells for eight days, to introduce the Italian queen. It is found that the black bees will then accept her. And since the queen, once fer- tile, continues so for life, her progeny which will begin to appear in twentj^-one days after her introduction, will be- come the exclusiye possessors of the hive in a period of from three to six months. So far the process is successful and perfect : but the theory has been, further, that inasmuch as the drone progeny of the queen was of necessity as pure as herself, whether she had met pure or impure drones, or, indeed, any drones at all, all we had to do to breed the Italian race in purity was, to get a pure queen, purely impregnated, and rear from her eggs a new race of queens for all our hives, when all our drones, being the oifspring of pure Italian queens, would be pure Italians : then our queens, having been im- pregnated by black drones and hence producing hybrid workers, must be replaced with new ones reared from the original queen ; these new queens, meeting only pure drones, would irsure the perfect Italianization of the entire apiary. All this is theoreticall}^ plain enough, and it is presumed that not one person in ten will anticipate any difficulty in effecting a change of the apiary from one race to the oth- er ; whereas, not one in a thousand, probably, will be able to do this on the first trial, if, indeed, at all. Let us look at the practical difficulties in the way of accomplishing it. We will suppose that a pure Italian queen, purely im- pregnated, is obtained, and successfully transferred to a hive of common bees. After the lapse of twenty-four days, all progeny of the old queen will have disappeared from the combs. If we now exterminate the drones, we will insure Italian male bees in purity from the one hive only. But HOW TO ITALIANIZE COMMON STOCKS. 81 while rearing ouv first installment of queens for the pur- pose of procuring pure Italian drones for the impregna- tion of our second installment, \evy few worker bees of the Italian race are to be found in the apiary : hence the young queens, as well as others, are nursed by Mack and hybrid bees, producing in some way yet to be accounted for, a degeneration towards the black race. The fact of such deterioration is admitted by those who have had the best of opportunities for judging, and can have no motive for misrepresentation. Although a few maintain that because dark colored queens sometimes produce as finely marked workers as the most brilliant ones, there is no degeneration ; forgetting that the char- acteristics of the workers are determined more by the im- pregnating drone than by the queen herself. Prof. Kirtland, of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the closest observers, has entirely failed, we are informed, through two years of careful experiments, to produce a single pure queen from Italian brood transferred to hives of com- mon bees. Prof. E. Kirby, of Henrietta, N. Y., in attempting to ac- count for this degeneration, suggests that the sperm or vitalizing fluid of the drone is perhaps supplied to the young larva while in process of transformation from a worker to a queen. Mr. Langstroth, in Bee Journal fur July, 1861, p. 166, although not admitting the point in issue, says : " It seems very singular that the larvae, which if de- •veloped as a worker would have been strongly colored, phould in its transformation into a queen, lose all its bril- liiint yellow." Again, while rearing queens by the removal of the reigning one, from any hive, there are more or less drone 88 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. eg-g-s deposited therein by u-orker lees ; and if the latter are not purely Italian, we shall breed a race oi drones of inferior quality, by which our queens may be impregnated, when, theoretically, we could not by any possibility have a black drone in the apiary. Hence, it becomes evident, that if we hope to breed the Italian race in purity, we must establish a colony isolated from the black race, where they are to remain long enoug-h to allow the prog-eny of the old queen to be displaced by the new. When the black bees have entirely disappeared, the queen may be removed, and the bees left to rear oth- ers. When capped over, the cells may be transferred to other hives, and the queen returned ; repeating the ope- ration when more are wanted. In establishing the Italian colony, it is believed to be of some importance that the Italian workers be allowed to renew the contents of the hive by filling it up with combs of their own construction ; the cells built by them being somewhat larger than those built by the black race, and not having been used by the latter, may secure our queens from any possible taint. In rearing Italian queens in great numbers, or indeed any other, it is advisable to establish small nuclei, or col- onies of not more than one quart of bees to each. From such all impure drones may be easily destroyed ; and the queens w'ill mature and become fertile even sooner than from large swarms. But it should be borne in mind, that small colonies are more liable to the attacks of robber bees, and are more apt to accompany the queen in her flight to meet the drones. To prevent the latter, the presence of brood in the hive, in the earlier stages of de- de opment, should not be v/anting. Such nuclei are perfect swarms in miniature : the prudent apiarian will keep a surplus on hand in summer to supply queens as wanted. RENE^riNG QUEKNS TO PEESERVE HOKET C0MB3. 89 EEWEWIK-G QUEEWS. Queens gradually lose their fertility as they advance in age, producing fewer eggs and a greater proportion of drones. For this reason, after about the fourth year, the old ones should be destroyed and new ones substituted. In the recent Apiarian Convention at Cleveland, " Profes- ' sor Kirtland said that after the third year the queen was nearly worthless, and should be killed, and a fertile queen put in her place instantlj^ So tliought Mr. Lang- stroth : he said a vigorous fertile queen was worth half a swarm. Mr. Sturtevant thought the q leen as good in the third year as at any time : and at four years he would not kill her, unless he knew that he could instantly get a young fertile queen in her stead ; — the risk was great, for at that season of the year the loss of a week or two was a serious loss." " A fertile queen lays her eggs in regular order, com- mencing at a point and distributing them in circles, each surrounding the first, and on both sides exactly alike. . . Sealed worker brood should present a regular, smooth sur- face. An irregular brood denotes an unprolific queen."* A portion of raised oval cells in worker comb shows the presence of drone brood, and is objectionable, as indica- tive, except in the first laying of a young queen, of ap- proaching barrenness. TO PRESERVE HONET COMBS. They should be kept in a tightly closed box, and occa- sionally exposed to the fum.es of burning brimstone to de- stroy ail eggs of the moth. They are worth at any time during the summer almost their weight in gold. * Bee Culture, pp. 162, 163. 90 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPIN(J. PEEVENTION" OF SWARMING. For about twenty days, in the swarming season, the bees may attempt to swarm. There is no way of con- fining the queen to the hive by contracting the entrance with "blocks," " gauges," or other traps, for the reason, among others, that bees vary greatly in size. Many fer- tile queens are able to go any where that a worker can, being longer but no larger. If our queens cannot fly, no swarms will be lost. But the queen may get down on the ground, in attempting to go with the swarm, and if a board be adjusted to the hive with one edge on the ground, she will be likely to crawl back into the hive, attracted by the great noise of the bees returning in search of her. If the attempt be seen, she should be found and returned. This rarely takes place, and only through neglect Even if a queen be occasionally lost, the swarm will rear another, or her place may be supplied from small nuclei kept on hand at this season for emergencies. Destroying, onoe in ten or twelve days, all queen cells, and giving the bees more room, will effectually prevent such attempts. PURCHASING BEES. Look into the hive to see that it contains a good stock of bees : they will show themselves at once, on being dis- turbed. The combs should be pretty regular, consisting of broad sheets of worker cells, and not small, irregular combs, or patches of drone cells which are worthless to transfer to movable frames. These things equal, the most valuable hive is the one whose contents will weigh the most. A CHAPTER OF WELL SETTLED FACTS. 91 MOVING BEES. Bees may be moved to any distance at any time, but the summer is the best time. They should be shaded from the sun, kept as quiet as possible, and all jarring avoided. On a long journe}', in hot weather, opportuni- ties should be given them to fly daily, if convenient : the longer their confinement, the greater the liability of loss by disease. If in box hives, the hive should be invei'ted, its open end covered with gauze-wire cloth, and near its opposite end holes should be provided and covered with the same material for admission of fresh air. If in the Langstroth or similar hives, the combs must be first se- cured, or they may be broken down by the swinging of the frames, and the bees thus destroyed. Bees in my hives may be moved without preparation, except having the gauze-wire cloths in the honey board cleaned, and the front slide removed and a curtain of wire cloth substi- tuted in its place. The combs are secure as in a box hive, for the frames cannot move. A CHAPTER OF "WELL SETTLED PACTS. 1. All stocks of bees should be kept strong in numbers. A well garrisoned city may defy assault. 2. A m-oderate increase of swarms will keep them strong, and secure the largest yield of honey. As the calves are raised at the cost of butter and cheese, so bees are multiplied at the expense of honey. 3. Bees filled with honey, are not inclined to sting. As the robber's knife is stayed by your purse, so bees are bribed with proffered sweets. 4. In natural swarming, bees fill themselves with honey. Emigrants to a new cou-ntry carry their treasures along as capital to begin with. 92 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. 5. Bees, alarmed with smoke or otherwise, instinctively seize upon their stores. The householder at the cry of fire, secures what he can. 6. There should be no communication between occupied hives, allowing the bees of one to pass directly into the other. " No house is large enough for two families." 1. A swarm of bees destitute of a queen fast dwindles away ; and, unless supplied with one, soon perishes either by robbers or moths. A country without a government, a farm without an owner. 8. Swarms having combs insufficiently protected by bees, furnish a retreat for millers and food for worms. Unguarded treasures invite thieves. 9. An excess of drones should be avoided by discourag- ing the construction of the cells that produce them. Drones are the " dead heads" of the hive — the iisdess males in the farmer's herds. 10. The building of drone comb may, to a great extent, be prevented — first, by securing the construction of new combs in hives containing young queens ; and, second, by placing frames to be filled, in other hives, near the centre. " An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure." 11. Queens are most economically reared in small swarms. Who would employ ten men to do what one would do better ? 12. Small swarms, if united in the fall, will winter more safely, and consume less hone3\' " In union there is strength." A CHAPTER GF SPECULATIONS. 93 13. Bees of coloriies containing fertile and unfertile queens, should not be put together without first " break- ing them up,-' i. e., inducing them to fill with honey, and destrojdng the unfertile queen. 14, Natural swarming, always uncertain and 'periplexing, exposes the lee-lceeper to viuch loss of time and money; while artificial swarming, securing at all times the presence of a worker- laying queen, doing avmy with all watching, and loss by flight to the woods, is both sure and economical. A CHAPTER OF SPECULATIONS. The production of sex — has the queen any volition in it ? If the queen be watched during the early spring, while en- gaged in depositing eggs, she will be observed to pass by the drone cells ; but when the blossoms begin to yield honey in abundance, and bees become numerous, and dis- posed to swarm, the drone cells are prepared and eggs deposited therein. These latter eggs produce drones only, the kind of cell in which the egg is deposited seem- ing to determine, for the most part, the sex of the bee. It is found that eggs laid in drone cells produce drones only, while eggs transferred from drone to worker cells still produce drones. What determines the sex — the queen, the cell, or the nursing bees? The prevalent theory ha^g been, that the sperm sack of the queen, in the act of cop- ulation with the drone, becomes filled with the sperm or vitalizing fluid of the male, without which all eggs pos- sess sufficient vitality to germinate. Plausibility is giv- en to this theory b}' the fact that the sperm sac of an un- fecundated queen is found to be destitute of spermatozoa, while that of a fertile one is filled with them. 94 SCCCESSFDL BEE-KEEPING. 36. — Ovaries of queen. Samuel Wagner, of Phil- adelphia, has suggested that in the act of deposit- ing an egg in a worker cell the abdomen of the queen becomes compressed, forc- ing the sperm into con- tact with the egg in pass- ing, the sac, and changing it from a drone to a worker. [See Fig. 36.] But it is found that the queen will deposit eggs in cells but just began, when no possible compression of the abdo- men can take place, these eggs producing workers. Besides, it ofte-n happens that drones mature from the very smallest worker cells. It appears, after all, that not only the queen, but the workers also, know what the egg will produce ; for drone cells are not prepared until the season when they are wanted approaches, nor can the queen be induced to place eggs therein much in advance of this period. For myself, I am satisfied that the queen has volition in the matter ; and that the bees have the power, by a par- ticular process of nursing, suitable for each, to produce FROM WORKEB EGGS EITHER QUEENS, 'WOBKEBS 0R DRONES ! ! I am aware that this idea is somewhat new and ahead of " the books," but in my practice of rearing queens by very small nuclei, I have often found drone brood maturing in a small piece of worker comb cut from cards full of eggs taken from the centre of the hive, where it is scarcely possible drone eggs would be found. INDEX. Artificial Swarming, what founded on, 22 ; how attempted, 22 to 27 ; how done, 35, 37 to 46; advantages of, 43 to 45, 93 ; find queen, 60, 6 1, 90. Bars, 27, 28. Bee-bread, 64. Bees, a swarm of. 11 ; will not desert their j'oung, 62; hybrid, 86 to 88; purchasing, 90 ; moving, 91. Bridal trip, 15. Brood, time of least and of most, 12 ; maturity of, 12. California, bees in, 68, 69, T7, 81. Cai'tion, clipping wings of queens, 42. 61; tr.ansferring, 61, 62; driving, 61 to 63 ; renewing queans, 42, 43, 89 Cells, worker, 18, 19 ; queen, 19, 20, 21, 39, 40 to 43, use one only, 40, 41 ; of queen, destroyed, 20, 86. Colony, a prosperous, consists of, 11 Comb, drone and worker, 23, 25 ; cost of, 26; valueof, 44,45, 89; to insure true, 27, 35, 38, 39, 45, 62 : how to preserve, 89. Double Hive, 45. Driving bees, 62, 63. Driving box, 58, 59. Drones, 11, 19; male bees, 11, 15, 16 17; number of in hive, 11; short lived, 11, 16, 17; time of maturity, 12; excess of, 21 to 26, 92, how prevented, 26, 33 to 45, 92 ; neces- sary, 11, 15, 38, 42; pure, 86 to 88. I-o!ie in Ihe. dark,h'.\t bavc aeccss to the interior of the;- hive and can inspect the combs at .all iiiiic« ;<•(! i!,i-ir condition, remove them ' if necessary, orsu[iply any wapt. 3a. By the use of a new, and entirely i*.... . . : ; -i-yie of comb-frames, we are enibled to exch.in.'je empty fjr fall ons.^, giving tlia bees i;o exoiifO fur lying idle ; at tlio same time thereby inerei^siwj tboir, Jl'lmnbci-?'. 4;h Vvhc.T the Stocks become sufficiently populous, w&rctr new queens and swarm than, y\si preoisely as wo woiiM Jalse poultiy ..j.i^>r-,.or rhoeo. ■\Ve don't wait for the " hws to set"— often on a J'ii;;;!© addled c;^g— while tl season for that buiir.a.-a i- fis". pa^siiig asAy. We th-u C) awr.y with the ne- cessity for watching them. T _ 5tb. The manner of prodaclng new swarms, artificially, is new, easy, nn i rendered eminently successful by revolving, tlie hive, ginn^ the infant col- cay the strength ail 1 vigor (^ftbenareB.t stock. Gth. "We mrdic a-'i our ncv, sw.r.-ms -really /rsf swarm.^, saving ten days' lime in breeding over niiturai swar^nine:-; no'eggs boin- laid in the combs ol any young swarm orttr )!/wJiirs/ for ten days. 7th. The old ar.d fertile qnccn remnining in the parent hive, honoy^th- Cling and breeding go on :uj before; while in n..tural swarming, honey gath er:rg is nearly suspended for ten days, till a new ntuecn is Iiatchod, and no eggs are laid for twenty days^ or until her fertilization. Dua-=^^^