Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1871-01-06


loss of the queen as befure, but the mortal.
ity in the hive is, during the working sea-
son, so great, that if She is not present to
keep up the supply Of brood, the colony
soon diminishcs away, the honey falls
prey to the robber bees and the combs ID
the moth worm each individual bee, how
ever, living neither longer nor shorter
than if the loss had not occurred.
That the loss of the sting is necessarily
fatal, is fast becoming one of the obsolete
theories. Instances have occurred where
thousands Of the bees in single hive
have lost their stings, by mouse or other
small animal getting into their hive, with
out any unusual appearance of dead bees,
either about the entrance or upon the bot
tom board. myself have seen single
bee fly from my hand to the window in
my sitting room, leaving its sting in my
finger, and buzz for an hour upon the win
dow pane, apparently unhurt, and, when
released, sly to the hive. Once in transfer
ing, I carelessly allowed the bees to be-
come enraged, and received probably one
hundred stings in as many seconds, and
observed no bees die from the effects, but
on the contrary, as [ proceeded with the
work, could see those same bees lowering
around the hive and crawling upon the
combs, dozens of them with the white
thread hanging to their abdomens, show
ing that they had lost their stings. That
it is sometimes fatal / do not doubt, but
that 1T is necessarily and always so, l do
deny.
That natural swarming is best because
it is natural, is an argument which, if fol-
lowed out, would condemn all of the arti-
fetal operations of the aplary, place bee
culture among the lost arts, and confine
honey lovers to the methods practiced by
savages, viz: hunting the wild bee in the
forest.
That surplus honey is most profitably
stored in boxes is also behind the times.
Except that the honey is in better shape
for market and free from bee bread and
brood, the honey box would have been con-
fined to the old fashioned gum, upon the
advent of movable frame hives; as the
first experiments proved that twice the
honey would be stored in the main hive,
all other things being equal, if removed
aad the vacancies filled by empty frames.
In fact fer home consumption in small
apiares, this method is recommended by
almost all bee authorities. AS soon, how
ever. as the fact became knoWnthat wax
was spontaneous production OF the bee,
growing in scales from the abdominal rings
of the bee, and that to produce one pound
of wax a swarm must eat an unusual
quantity, of from fifteen to twenty pounds
of honey. The utility Of devising some
method to get the honey and return the
combs to the bees, became plain to any
one giving it a moments thought.
Honey extractors have been within the
last few years invented, and are no longer
an experiment with which we get, not on
ly the double quantity that bees will store
in the main hive, but we again double and
treble, (some say quadruple,) that quanti-
ty by returning the combs unlnjured for
the bees to fill again. We thus free the
honey from wax, (Which is absolutely in
digestible in the stomach of anything save
the moth worm bee bread and brood, and
put our honey in shape that it may be
sold in any market in the world, by the
BARREL quart, pint or pound.
Bee bread is necessary portion, only
of the food Of the young brood, and is not
required by the mature bee. A swarm
may be wintered in warm room among q
few empty combs, by feeding honey alone,
but can raise no brood, until bee bread is
either furnished or gathered from the
fields. Bees will work in glass hives,
without shutters to darken, if shaded from
the glare of the sun, and the bees are
transferred from a frame hive, bees,
combs and all. Several snch hives are
now in operation in different apiaries as
observation hives.
No person who has permanent home,
whether a lot in the village, a garden in
the country, or farm, can afford TO be
without bees. The care of bees is pleas
ant and, if rightly managed, profitable
occupation for those seeking employment.
A few stands will furnish an agreeable
healthful and remunerative pastime for
those who are driven with business. No
person who owns bees or contemplates
purchasing, should, or can afford to do
without one of the many forms of nova
bic frame hives. Most hives have peculiar
advantages Of their own. That hive
should be selected that combines in the
simplest form most of the requisites of
perfect hive, which conceive to be, LIST.
A side opening movable frame hive. I'd.
So constructed that shrinking and swell
ling will not open cracks into the hive nor
tighten the joints so that the hive cannot
be opened without jar. Sd. The frames
to touch the hive and each other only on
points and edges so that the bees cannot
wax them fast. 4th Frames hung from
the top. 5th Stationary bottom board.
9Th. The hive to contain 1000 cubic inch
es, and to be the long way perpendicular
to winter successfully out of doors in this
climate. 7th. Some arrangement of the
frames by which the combs, in dividing
and uniting, may, in the former case, be
made to occupy natural position in the
top of the hive, and in the latter, may all
be economically used without being cut
out of one frame and placed in the other.
If the honey wasted by evaperatioH, an
nually, in our orchards, fields, pastures
and meadows, was gathered as it might be !;
if every one kept bees, this county would
be thousands of dollars richer. Mr., Quin-
by thinks that any farming country in this
climate will support fifteen stands of bees
upon square mile, upon an average.
The town of Wyoming has the most
bees to the square mile probably of any
town in the county, and has an average
only of four stands per square mile.
APIARIAN.
Wyoming Iowa Co., Dec. 20, 1870.