Friend novice:—Enclosed find 75 cents for the next year’s crop of
“GLEANINGS.” I have just sewed 1874 together and I would not take
$5.00 for it if I couldn’t get another. My bees are sound asleep in
their pit at present, and will remain there until about “St.
Pathrick’s day in the mornin’.” I took the precaution this fall of
planking the top and sides of the pit, also of putting two doors in
the front end, something as described in Dec. GLEANINGS. My
observing neighbors tell me that I had better have let well enough
alone, and buried them in the dirt as usual, but I thought a
permanent place if as successful, would be better. If you remember,
I used to have trouble about my bees swarming as soon as strong.
Well as you told me, I found regular and thorough extracting a
perfect remedy, but I soon had my hives jam full of brood. The two
story plan was “no good,” as my hives are practically _three_ story
ones now. I did not want to get new hives and I could see no way of
building a story, like Pat’s house “on behint.” I solved the
difficulty in this manner, I moved the hive half its width to the
right or left and set another hive exactly like it, by its side,
with the entrance the same way, and took half of the combs from the
old stock and placed them in (without any care which hive had the
Queen) and filled up each with empty combs, and run them through the
height of the season in that manner, supplying the Queenless one
with brood from the other as I extracted, and carefully destroying
all Queen cells as I extracted each week. Of course I only practised
this with Queens that were very prolific and had their hives
_boiling_ over with bees, and united again as soon as honey failed
and the brood was sufficiently contracted. I foresee and forebear
all the objections that will be urged to this plan, and the main one
will be, “Why didn’t you let your Queenless hive hatch a Queen?”
Well, I’ll tell you, I wanted to see how much honey _I_ could get
from 25 stocks of bees even if some of the stocks did live in what
we call out West a “double house.” I don’t pretend that it is any
better than the “long idea” plan, except that when I wanted to
contract my stock I had no “empty rooms” to carry into winter
quarters. I am satisfied that the mammoth yields are from mammoth
colonies. My yield is called enormous here but is small to what some
report. I started with 17 colonies that had to be fed until June
15th. I increased by dividing, to 25 Queens, and gave 3 of them,
double colonies as before described. I got 2150 lbs. of honey, 2000
lbs. of which was choice, and put 24 colonies into winter quarters
well supplied with stores. I wasted the time of four of the best,
for four weeks of the best part of the season trying to get some box
honey. All I got for my trouble, was my pains, and the natural
swarms, which I summarily returned, after throwing those honey boxes
as far as I could send them, extracting every one of their _sealed
combs_ full of honey and destroying their queen cells. Let those who
can, _raise_ box honey, I had rather raise extracted for 4c per lb.
than to wait all summer for box honey and then get none, for a
dollar a pound. The boxes were put on “according to Hoyle,” they had
nice starters, they were tight, and all right every way only the
bees would not move in. I am afraid they are the Novice breed and
aren’t in the box honey business. After I took off the boxes and
took their honey, _didn’t_ they work though?
Well Novice, I’ve spun this yarn long enough now and am not half
done, if you get tired reading why throw the whole away. If I ever
come within fifty miles of Medina I am going to stop and see you and
bore you worse than I do by letter. I’ll tell you how I sold my
honey.
Wyoming, Wis. Dec. 16th, 1874.
Don’t go to the expense of coming here, friend J., it would hardly pay
you we fear, but do keep on giving us just such sketches from your
Apiary. We _do_ believe you have hit on a plan that will prove many
times quite practicable. For instance the Simplicity hive with,
Langstroth frames, _so long as one story will hold the bees_, is to us
the simplest, and easiest handled of any thing we have ever used in the
shape of a bee hive, and we have studied long and earnestly in regard to
some plan of uniting two of them side by side. All of these plans
required too much tinkering. If we made holes for communication, through
either hive, bottom board, or cover, these holes would have to be
plugged up at other times, and would look ungainly. Your plan of using
them without other means of communication, than through the entrance, we
confess is novel and so far as your experiment is concerned, seems quite
practicable.
He who shows us how we can keep pace with modern improvements, and still
keep the hives we have already in use, is truly a benefactor. To use the
Simplicity hives thus, both entrances should be turned to the south, and
the two hives placed close together. The covers in this case should be
hinged to the front so as to turn up against the grape vine trellis, or
hinges may be dispensed with entirely. In the height of the season, both
hives can be pushed, well forward over the bottom boards, thus making
the entrances the whole length. Should this prove “too much entrance,”
bank sawdust up by the outside corners. In making so many new colonies
last season, we governed the size of the entrances to exclude robbers,
almost entirely with sawdust, and it answered the purpose more
completely to our satisfaction, than any other plan we have ever used.
Also, when the nights became cool, we banked sawdust clear around the
hives, to close the cracks between the hive and bottom board. We are a
great friend to sawdust; it keeps down the weeds, gives you a clean
place to work, is clean and orderly for a small dooryard for the bees,
and enables you to make just such an entrance as you desire. Beg pardon
we forgot _sawdust_ wasn’t our topic.
Our Standard hive with its permanent bottom board without cracks, and
its capacity for 18 or 20 combs without any fussing etc. etc., would
perhaps be best, but then, “we haven’t got ’em,” as friend J. says, and
just at present we rather prefer to use the hives we have already in
use.
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