THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



system of railroad over which they 

 will travel in coming^ to the convention. 

 Speakers present will be Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips of Washington, D. C, K. R. 

 Root and E. L. Pratt (Swarthmore). 

 A cordial invitation is extended to 

 all. 



The Mixing up of the bees of different 

 colonies when the^y are first set out of 

 the cellar is sometimes a serious affair. 

 Some say that this can be avoided bj' 

 placing- each colony upon the same 

 stand as occupied the previous season ; 

 this may help a little, but it will not 

 entirely prevent it. If a strong colony 

 comes out with a rush, then some one 

 near it follows out, the bees of the 

 latter are quite likely to join in with 

 the former. If the bees are taken out 

 when it is warm enough for ihem to 

 fly, something can be done to avoid 

 mixing by scattering the colonies as 

 the}' are carried out. Carrj' the first 

 colony to the northeast corner of the 

 yard, the next to the southwest corner, 

 the next to the southeast corner, and 

 so on, never putting two colonies near 

 each other when they have just been 

 brougiit out. In this waj', a colony 

 will have quieted down before another 

 is set out near it. 



Another aid in this matter is that of 

 contracting the entrances to all hives, 

 so that no more than two or three bees 

 can pass the entrance at once. Then a 

 strong colony can not throw all of the 

 bees into the air at once — it can make 

 no more demonstration than can be 

 made by a weak colony. 



A Honey House, and a work-shop, are 

 something that every bee-keeper must 

 have. I e.xpect to build one up north 

 the coming spring. I intend to build 

 it over a cellar dug in a sandy hillside, 

 the cellar to be used in wintering the 

 bees. The house will be used as a 

 storage room for honey and hives, for 

 extracting honey, and as a general 



work shop. I expect to put ui> a par- 

 tition across the center, so as to use 

 one end for storing honey before it is 

 extracted, and warming it up with a 

 fire before extracting it. When the 

 honey is extracted, I expect to strain 

 it in the extractor a la Holtermann, 

 and run the honey down through the 

 floor, with a rubber hose, and fill up 

 the tin cans as I extract, storing them 

 in the cellar until sent to market. I 

 wish for criticisms and suggestions in 

 regard to building this cellar and 

 house. In the first place, it must be 

 built as cheaply as possible, as I may 

 not wish to remain in that location 

 more than two or three years, at the 

 most — and I may — that is uncertain. I 

 had thought of putting down cedar 

 posts and boarding up the walls of the 

 cellar with hemlock lumber to keep the 

 earth in place. In building the house 

 I would use cheap lumber for the sides, 

 batten the cracks and cover the roof 

 with some kind of roofing; perhaps 

 Paroid: Is there anything more de- 

 sirable ? What size shall I make it ? I 

 may wish to put 500 colonies of bees in 

 the cellar next winter. By the way, I ex- 

 pect to have double floors, and the space 

 between, from eight to twelve inches, 

 filled with saw dust or planer shavings. 

 Mr. S. W. Cressy, of Corinth, Maine, 

 wishes to build a workshop and ex- 

 tracting room the coming season, to 

 accommodate for working from 250 to 

 300 colonies, and he, too, would like 

 some "working pointers." 



Co-Operation. 



Co-operation is, I believe, the next 

 step that bee-keepers need to take. I 

 know we have talked this before, and 

 felt that something might be done in a 

 National wa3', but it has always 

 ended in talk- there are too many ob- 

 stacles and complications. Perhaps 1 

 ought to except the fact that the mem- 

 bers of the National Association are 



