April, 1908. 



American ^ae Journal 



tabic is constructed with a movable top. 

 The lumber is secured to the table top, 

 the whole being pushed to the saw, and 

 you have to push, too, when the wind is 

 blowing. 



I made the whole outfit here at my 

 shop except the saw, and would have 

 made that also if I could have had a 

 piece of suitable steel. 



Any one with moderate mechanical 

 ability and good judgment can construct 

 this mill, as somewhere near right will 

 do, but when you go to making the pul- 

 leys and saw mandrel to run true and 

 correct, without the aid of turning lathes 

 and machine auger, you have to be a 

 mechanic and .do things right. 



The material for the construction of 

 a lo-frame hive, complete with super, 

 20 frames, nails, wire and paint, costs 

 about 65 cents. How does this compare 

 with the Northern made hive of the 

 same kind quoted at $2.30 each, with no 

 paint furnished? The same hive laid 

 down here will bill out thus : One ten- 

 story hive, $2.30; freight on the hive, 

 30 cents ; paint for same, 5 cents. To- 

 tal, $2.65. 



This shows a difference of $2 per hive 

 in favor of the wind-motor saw. I can 

 easily make 20 complete hives in a day. 



at a low estimate, which shows a net 

 saving of $40 per day. The windinill 

 paid for itself the first 4 hours that I 

 ran it. 



I have nothing against the bee-hive 

 manufacturers at all. They are badly 

 needed, and are doing a good work, but 

 it is not necessary for me to pay $2 

 per hive extra just to be changing mon- 

 ey from place to place, when the mill 

 will do the work, costs nothing for 

 power, and uses only about 5 cents 

 worth of grease per year. I have had 

 the mill in operation about 10 months, 

 'i . P. Robinson. 



Central Tennessee Convention 



The Central Tennessee Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will meet in the rooms of 

 the Board of Trade, at Nashville, Tenn., 

 on Saturday. April 2$, at 10 a. m. This 

 being the regular annual meeting for 

 the election of officers, etc., a full attend- 

 ance of the members is desired. 



An interesting program has been ar- 

 ranged, including essays and discussions 

 on subjects that will be of interest to 

 all bee-keepers. 



J. M. BUCH.\NAN, Sec. 

 Franklin. Tenn. 



Conducted by J. L. BYER. Mount Joy. Ont. 



Brood-Rearing in Winter. 



It seems to be a generally accepted 

 view, that bees wintering outdoors do 

 little if any brood-rearing during the 

 winter months. So good an authority 

 as O. O. Poppleton, in comparing bee- 

 keeping conditions of the North and 

 South, says in the March American Bee- 

 Keeper : 



"In Iowa, and I suppose over the North 

 generally, bees often cease all broon- 

 rearing in October — almost alwa\s iii 

 November, and do not commence again 

 till late in March. Durine nearly all 

 this time they do very little outdoor 

 work, and are not dying o!T rapidly as 

 they would if active." 



As regards cellar-wintered bees. Mr. 

 Poppleton's statement could be, in many 

 cases, correct, but the last clause of the 

 quotation clearly shows that he has 

 bees outdoors in mind, and with all due 

 regards for the opinions of others, the 

 writer desires to take issue with the com- 

 mon idea that bees in that condition do 

 not rear any brood. 



Three years ago, I helped to destroy 

 2 strong colonics in the last week of 

 December. The owner had noticed a 

 few cells of foul brood in each of these 

 colonies when preparing the bees for 

 winter, and not wishing to take any 

 trouble with them, he decided to leave 

 them till cold weather, destroy the bees 



and melt up the combs into wa.x. In 

 both colonies we found brood in 3 combs, 

 in all stages from the egg to hatching 

 bees, showing conclusively that brood- 

 rearing had been going on as early (or 

 late) as Dec. 9. 



About the 15th of February, of the 

 present cold winter, a farmer 3 miles 

 from us cut down a large basswood 

 tree, and found that there vv-as a colony 

 of bees in the tree some 40 feet from 

 the ground. He sent word to a bee- 

 keeper, — Mr. D. Ramer, of Cedar Grove, 

 Ont. — to come and get the bees. Just 

 for the novelty of the thing, Mr. Ramer 

 fitted up a hiift with some combs of 

 honey, and cold as it was, scooped up the 

 bees from among the crushed combs, 

 and took them home with him. Wheth- 

 er they will survive the winter or not, 

 is not for me to say. 



Meeting Mr. Ramer a few days after 

 he had the bees, I inquired as to the 

 condition of the tree, and amount of 

 brood and honey the bees had. He said 

 that there was sufficient honey to have 

 wintered them ; and as for br.ood, it 

 was there in all stages, from eggs to 

 lots of hatching bees, .^s a low estimate 

 he would say that there was brood to 

 at least the equivalent of 12 inches 

 square. The tree at the part where the 

 bees had their stores, was a shell of 

 about 4 inches sound wood, with about 



the same thickness of rotten wood in- 

 side of that. Readers will bear in mind 

 the extreme conditions these bees were 

 subjected to. Forty feet from the 

 ground, no flight from November till 

 time the tree was cut, and on at least 

 three different cold spells, the tem- 

 perature had been 25 degrees below 

 zero., 



In every case I have heard of, where 

 through accident or otherwise, a colony 

 has had the brood-nest exposed to view 

 during any of the winter months, every 

 time brood has been present, and I firm- 

 ly believe that the colony with no brood 

 during these months, is the exception 

 rather than the rule. This, of course, 

 refers to ordinary colonies of bees — quite 

 weak colonies we would reasonably as- 

 sume would be unable to care for much 

 brood in cold weather. But as we have 

 had no experience to prove the matter, 

 for aught I know, even very weak col- 

 onies may have some brood. 



Caucasian Bees and Funics. 



In the same issue of the American 

 Bee-Keeper already referred too, ap- 

 pears a good photograph, of our own 

 ]. B. nail — a man whose opinions are 

 second to none in America, as regards 

 sound judgment in things apicultural. 

 His estimate of the Caucasian bees has 

 been well known to the most of us for 

 some years, and it now seems that Mr. 

 Hall has been testing the Funics — a 

 race much lauded by a few in "Merr-'e 

 England." Their qualities as found by 

 Mr. Hall arc, in a nutshell, something 

 like this — very gentle, great propolizers, 

 rear both workers and drones right into 

 October, thus using up all their stores; 

 and they are great svvarmers. They also 

 excell in the matter of building queen- 

 cells, Mr. Flail and his assistant having 

 cut out of one colony, 179 perfect cells, 

 to say nothing of many others just 

 started. 



.\ny one breeding Punic queens for 

 sale, certainly would not have to dip 

 any artificial cell-cups. 



"Fall Dwindling" of Bees. 



Morlep Pettit wrote me recently, and 

 among other things he refers to what I 

 have said relative to our bees going in- 

 to winter quarters last fall with ab- 

 normally small clusters. He says that 

 the same things were true in his apiaries, 

 and makes a guess that the peculiar fall 

 weather was accountable, causing a sort 

 of "fall dwindling." 



As a possible remedy he suggests that 

 the storm-door as used on the Holter- 

 mann hive, be used with an entrance on 

 top of the door instead of the bottom 

 during the fall season, as this arrange- 

 ment would keep out the wind and light. 

 The device would serve that purpose 

 all right, the only objectionable feature 

 that I see being that it might discourage 

 a flight on a suitable day in the late fall 

 if the apiarist should not happen to be 

 on hand. 



Mr. Pettit also endorses my view on 

 the question of sugar syrup, and in- 

 cidentally remarks that his bees have 

 all buckwheat stores this winter, and 

 although they are in a perfect cellar yet 

 quite a few show slight signs of dysent- 



