February, 1908. 



' American l^ee Journal i 



cellar average low, for the passage of air 

 through the hive, caused by the two 

 openings, would cool the bees more rap- 

 idly than if top or bottom were entirely 

 closed. 



Of late some advocate having a bot- 

 tom-board 2 inches deep. They claim 

 that in the cellar this is much the same' 

 as having the bottom entirely open, with- 

 out the trouble of removing the bottom, 

 while rightly managed it is also con- 

 venient for summer. 



Selling Colonies of Bees Without 

 Combs 



Some years ago considerable business 

 was done in this countrv at selling bees 

 by the pound. Just a little in this line 

 is the selling of what are called "naked 

 colonies" in Germany. These sales, how- 

 ever, occur in the fall, and a queen ac- 

 companies the bees. In fact, each lot 

 sold is a colony of bees with its queen, 

 their combs having been taken from 

 them for the sake of the honey and the 

 wax. Those who buy them feed them 

 up for winter. One man in Praktischer 

 Wegweiser advertises 1,500 of these 

 "naked colonies" for sale. He probably 

 makes a business of buying them to sell 

 again. From the middle of September 

 to the end of October, he offers 4 to 

 S pounds of Carno-Italian bees with a 

 young fertile queen for $1.00. 



Brood-Rearing in and out of Cellar 



Bee-keepers of experience have some- 

 times insisted that brood-rearing begins 

 earlier in colonies wintered in cellar than 

 in those wintered out. That perhaps is 

 because their experience has been only 

 with wintering in cellar, and they have 

 reasoned somewhat after this fashion: 

 Warmth is a necessary factor in brood- 

 rearing; it is warmer in than out; there- 

 fore, breeding begins sooner in than out. 

 In such matters observation is more re- 

 liable than reasoning, and observation in 

 the spring easily shows that in general 

 breeding begins outdoors sooner than in 

 the cellar. 



Naturally one seeks an explanation for 

 this apparent contradiction. The ex- 

 planation that has been given is itself 

 something of a paradox. It is colder 

 out than in; therefore it is warmer in a 

 brood-nest outdoors than in one in the 

 cellar. A little thought will show that 

 there is nothing so very paradoxical 

 about this. The heat in the brood-nest is 

 always kept up to a certain temperature 

 by the cluster as a sort of stove, the 

 bees consuming the honey as fuel. In 

 the cellar, where it is warmer, the fire 

 burns low; outdoors, where it is colder, 

 the heat of the stove must be greater ; 

 so outdoors the greater fire needed 

 makes it warmer in the center of the 

 cluster than in a cluster in the cellar. 



Paper Receptacles for Honey 



At a conversazione of the British Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, as reported in the 

 British Bee Journal, 433, "The secretary 

 (Mr. Young) showed some vessels made 

 from paper, which had been recently put 

 on the market as receptacles for holding 

 cream, and from all accounts were fairly 

 solid and effective when filled. They 

 were fitted with water-tight caps, which 

 we believe were coated inside with 



some preparation of milk albumen. He 

 thought they would be of interest that 

 evening, as it was quite possible to util- 

 ize them for conveying honey, although 

 there was a possible danger (remote, 

 perhaps) of the wad being blown out 

 of place during transit if fermentation 

 of the honey was set up. They could 

 be produced at from $7.50 to $12.50 per 

 thousand, but could be used only once, 

 while at the same time they could be 

 packed and sent away probably with less 

 risk than was incurred with honey-jars 

 made of glass." 



Perhaps the paper caps are the same 

 as those in common use in this coun- 

 try in milk bottles. They would cer- 

 tainly be thrown out by fermentation, 

 but is that any real objection? If fer- 

 menting honey is put on the market, per- 

 haps it is best it should be lost by an 

 explosion. Then it will not spoil the 

 market for careful producers. 



White Italian Clover Inferior 



Italian clover, known more com- 

 monly under the name of crim.son 

 clover, is now pretty well known, with 

 its brilliant plumelike spikes of b'oom, 

 but it seems there is also a white va- 

 riety lauded in the catalogs. Of this, 

 A. R. Lockhart says in Gleanings, that 

 planted side by side with the crimson, 

 and with like advantages, the white was 

 so late in starting that it was choked 

 virith weeds and almost a failure, the 

 crimson being a success. 



Basswood as a Honey- Yielder 



G- M. Doolittle says in Gleanings, 

 "I once had a colony which gave a 

 yield of 66 pounds of basswood in 3 

 days, and 302 in 10 days." He further 

 says: 



"By going back over my account with 

 my bees for the past 30 years I find that, 

 from basswood alone, my yield of 

 honey has been about 55 pounds on an 

 average from each colony, each year. 

 This is the average yield of the apiary, 

 not the yield of an individual colony." 



Many a bee-keeper would be well sat- 

 isfied with an average of 55 pounds per 

 colony for a series of years from all 

 sources, whereas Mr. Doolittle can rely 

 as well as others on white clover and 

 several other good yielders. Certainly 

 there is much in locality, and Mr. Doo- 

 little is to be congratulated. 



Comb and Extracted from Same 

 Colony 



Some have strongly advocated the ad- 

 vantage of having sections and extract- 

 ing combs on the same hive at the same 

 time. Whether or not it may be suc- 

 cessful in some cases, it is at least cer- 

 tain that it may be a failure in some 

 cases, as reported by G. M. Doolittle, in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review. He says : 



"I have tried just that plan several 

 times, varying it each time to see if I 

 could not overcome the difficulties which 

 presented themselves at every trial, and 

 I will say frankly, that I have not suc- 

 ceeded in producing a single section of 

 'fancy' honey when so working; and 

 only a very few that would grade as 



No. I ; that is, at any time when the 

 extracting super and the sections were 

 on the hive at the same time. 



"It is correct that, by putting an ex- 

 tracting super on the hive as soon as the 

 colony bcomes populous enough to enter 

 the same, the bees will at once take pos- 

 session of the combs therein, but it is 

 not correct that the bees will begin work 

 in a super of sections, to any advantage, 

 until the combs in that extracting super 

 are nearly or quite filled, no matter 

 how much crowded for room the col- 

 ony may be. 



"Empty comb in an extracting super, 

 and section honey, do not go together 

 any better than does poultry, at liberty, 

 and a bed of ripe strawberries. The 

 honey will all go into the empty combs 

 every time, no matter how many sec- 

 tions filled with foundation there are be- 

 tween that extracting super or empty 

 combs and the brood-chamber below; 

 and, with all of the skill at my com- 

 mand, I have never been able to over- 

 come this difficulty." 



He also adds that if the extracting 

 combs are old, the cappings of the sec- 

 tions will be darkened by the bits of 

 dark material carried from the extract- 

 ing-combs. 



Comb Honey Versus Extracted 



E. D. Townsend, in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review, tells about trying side by side 

 for a number of years colonies produc- 

 ing comb honey and others producing 

 extracted, and says ; 



"After these years of comparison of 

 results between colonies worked for 

 comb honey, and those worked for ex- 

 tracted honey; we (the boys and I) 

 have come to the conclusion that, after 

 the yards are established, we can work 

 three yards for extracted honey, with 

 the same labor that it requires to work 

 one yard for comb honey; and harvest 

 just as many dollars' worth of honey, 

 from each of the extracted yards-" 



Editor Hutchinson adds this : 



"Leonard Griggs, of this place, runs 

 three apiaries, and has been producing 

 both comb and extracted honey, and, 

 last fall, he told me most emphatically, 

 that he was going to cut out comb 

 honey, as he found that it cost him 

 three times the labor, besides making 

 a complication in the management." 



This should cause the man who has 

 never tried producing anything but comb 

 honey to do some thinking. It does not 

 necessarily follow, however, that every 

 bee-keeper can make three times as 

 much with extracted as with comb. 

 There are many intelligent bee-keepers 

 who have had experience in producing 

 both kinds of honey, who yet continue 

 producing comb honey in part or wholly. 

 They would hardly do so unless in 

 their locality and under their conditions 

 there was money in doing so. "Let 

 each man be fully assured in his own 

 mind." 



Feeding Bees in Winter 



The wise bee-keeper will seldom have 

 occasion to feed bees in winter; if very 

 wise, never. For he will take care in 

 advance that there shall be not only 

 a plenty but an abundance of food in 

 the hives to last through the winter, and 



