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AMERICAN BEE JOUBNAL. 



Dec. 19, 1901. 



tirely at its door. Sometimes I get a notion that some new 

 way will be an improvement, and it turns out so poorly that I 

 wish I hadn't tried it on so larse a scale. But ]"11 tell you just 

 what I think I would do if I were to begin all over again. 



The first thing I would do would be to get a good text-book 

 and study it with care. In that you ought to find much or all 

 of the "explicit directions " you ask for. Then if you expect 

 to go into bee-keeping somewhat extensively it will be well to 

 get another text-book and study that. Also read with interest 

 what you find given weekly in the American Bee Journal, and 

 perhaps in other journals. Thus you can sp^nd a very prolit- 

 able winter, and at the opening of spring be much better pre- 

 pared to care for your bees than you are now. In the course 

 of your readings you will find some things hard for you to un- 

 derstand. After you have puzzled over them a reasonabli'> 

 length of time, write for answer in this department. Don't be 

 afraid to ask questions. That's what this department's for. 

 But there are two kinds of questions that may l)e well for vou 

 to steer clear of. 



One kind of cjuestions to avoid is the kind that vou find 

 fully answered in every text-book. Such, for instance, as: 

 " Do the drones lay eggs?" "How long is it from the time 

 the egg is laid till the young worker hatches out ?" 



Theother kind of questions to avoid is the kind that is too 

 comprehensivf', including those that expect an answer without 

 giving particulars. In this category would come the ques- 

 tion : "Give explicit directions for getting a big crop of ex- 

 tracted honey." "What is the reason my bees stored no honey 

 this year ? " 



Then when spring opens up, and you begin work with the 

 bees, keep referring to your text-book, and keep asking ques- 

 tions. I'll try and find answers for all that are not too hard. 



Moving Bees in Winter. 



I expect to move 150 miles west about December 20. and 

 want to take my 45 colonies of bees. I expect to charter a 

 car. Can they be moved successfully at that time ? Iowa. 



Answer. — Something depends on the weather. If it 

 should be exceedingly cold, the combs will be brittle, and there 

 will be danger that some combs may be broken. 1 can give 

 you little light additional to what you find in the books, the 

 chief points to look after being: To have the frames station- 

 ary in the car ; to have plenty of ventilation (although much 

 less ventilation is needed than in hot weather) ; and to see 

 that the hives are loaded into the car so that the ends of the 

 frames point toward the engine. 



Wintering Bees in tiie Cellar. 



I put 3G colonies of bees in the cellar this fall, raising 

 them one inch from the bottom-board. I put burlap over the 

 frames, and supers without the slats, filling them with chaff. 

 For ventilation 1 left the covers off. Is this a good way ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — The preparation you have described is all 

 right, and is a good deal more preparation than many feel 

 necessary, for bees will winter well with the covers sealed on 

 when there is plenty of opening below. Read carefully what 

 your bee book says about temperature and ventilation of tlie 

 cellar. 



Feeding Bees. 



When, what and how can I feed my bees ? I have two 

 colonies of Italians, and have had them about eight months. I 

 get lots of information from the American Bee Journal, but it 

 seems to be for advanced bee-keepers. Missouri. 



Answer —This department has its field and its limita- 

 tions, and it is not hard to account for the fact that some 

 things will not be found in it, nor indeed in any part of the 

 .lourual. There are some things — many things— which every 

 bee-keeper shouhl know when he enters the business. If 

 these things were told in these pages, it would take several 

 numbers, without leaving room for anything else. By the 

 tim(( they were all told a new set of subscribers would" want 

 them begun over again, and as new subscribers are coming in 

 all the time the American Bee Jounal would be (>ntireiy oc- 

 cupied printing over and over again the same things." To 

 avoid this, instruction books or text-books on liiT-k(!eping 

 have been published, and one of the first things for a Kcginner 

 in bee-keeping to do is to get one of these text bonier and ne- 

 conie familiar with its contents. After lu' has d.pin tins lie 



will find plenty of questions still that he would like to ask. and 

 the very fact that there is no need to repeat the things in the 

 text-book makes it possible to answer more full upon any 

 point not fully treated in the text-book. 



Upon consulting your text-book you will find that the 

 best time to feed bees is much earlier in the year than Decem- 

 ber ; and that the best thing to use for feed is combs of sealed 

 honey ; and the best way to feed these is to put them directly 

 in the brood-chamber, in or close to the cluster of bees. Of 

 course, much minute information is also given, which would 

 occupy pages, and after yon have studied it all carefully it is 

 quite "possible you may desire light upon some point not given, 

 and these columns are freely open to answer any further ques- 

 tions you may have. If your bees do not have enough to- 

 carry them through the winter, combs of sealed honey may 

 be yet given, the next best thing being candv. 



Conducted bij Prof. f\. J. Cook, Claremont, Calif. 



KINDNESS AND TRUST. 



It was a blessed hour. It was a good day. Where ? At 

 the Bible class. One felt lifted up. The good words spoken, 

 the impulses felt, the resolves felt but unspoken, came like an 

 inspiration to the nearly two score in that class. Dear friends 

 of the home circles, do you enjoy such hours, such days, such 

 times of precious uplift ? I covet for all of you the very best 

 gifts, and none more than that these so wholesome and so 

 precious Bible study hours may make in your lives the best 

 sympathy, love and trust. 



It was our last hour with the great Joseph. And wasn't 

 he greM? He could bravely push away temptation, and hav& 

 none of that bitterest grief of yielding to wrong impulse. He 

 could till a life of bitterest trial and misfortune in most useful 

 work, so that a prison became an opportunity. Work and 

 sympath}- for others are good and probable companions. Of 

 course, he made friends of all whose lives he touched. 

 Worked on ability, and kindliness of heart, which grew and 

 ripened fast with much of exercise, made him touch with 

 blessings great and many all such lives. 



Best of all, Joseph was great enough to forgive the sorest 

 and most grievous wrongs, and by kindness he strove to bury 

 the memory of the evils in the thought of those who wrought 

 them. The full forgiveness was more to those brothers whose, 

 murderous thoughts and deeds struck so cruelly at this splen- 

 did brother, than was the corn of the full granaries of Egypt. 

 That only fed the bodily life; the other, the spiritual; and 

 the brothers were all saved to work evil no more. 



Sunday we discussed the priiblems of kindness to evil- 

 doers, and the great power of trust and confidence. Joseph 

 gives one of the most glorious examples in history of kindness 

 to those, his brethren, too, who had raised the murderous 

 hand against him. And the results, as always, proved the 

 glory of such conduct. We rightly expect the best love, 

 sympathy, and appreciation from our brothers and sisters. 

 Failure in this usually works havoc. The one wronged feels 

 bitter, strikes back harder blows, if he may ; and that worst 

 — the family feud — blackens history's page. Joseph struck no 

 blow, but overcame evil with good. It was a proud day for 

 the world when he. in its full view, set this grand example. 

 Christ did more gloriously. He breathed that marvelous 

 prayer of forgiveness, with far worse evils heaped upou him ; 

 and when death — their awful fruitage — was pushing life from 

 his poor. sulTering body. 



How well for us all to read — oh, so often — until it is 

 firmly lodged in memory's pages, those last words of that best 

 of chapters of the best of books— Matthew 5th. The thief 

 steals our coat; we must give him our cloak. We must have 

 the impulse not to crush, not to curse, but to enfold in Kind- 

 ness' arms, and to bless with sympathy and love. Whv is 

 " Les Miserables "—Victor Hugo's great novel — the greatest 

 ever penned V Only because it reveals the power of kindness 

 and love to waken manhood, and to save a life from sin and 

 give it to God. The bishop, by his great heart of love, which 

 could only sympathize and desire to help the poor convict 

 who had suttered such terrible and multiplied wrongs, won a 

 great soul back' to virtue and to God. 



I like I u read those last verses of Romans 12th. Paul 

 was a nuisicr soul. That whole chapter is grand: the last 



