Am(*rican Hee Journal 



responsible for the excellent wintering 

 of these nuclei. 



Later. — Today (April 15) the weather 

 moderated enough to allow a hasty ex- 

 amination of the home apiary, and out 

 of 106 colonies I find 6 dead and that 

 many more with only a few bees left. 

 The trouble is just the same as at the 

 Altona yard — granulated honey, and in 

 every instance the affected colonies were 

 last fall heavy in natural stores and fed 

 no sugar syrup. As I write, I have been 

 called to the 'phone by a friend who 

 tells me he has just come from visit- 

 ing one of our well-known bee-keepers — 

 a bee-keeper who has been remarkably 

 successful in the past in wintering his 

 bees. Yet my friend tells me that over 

 half of his bees wintered out-doors are 

 dead, and of the balance not more than 

 half a dozen colonies are in good con- 

 dition. 



On my asking for cause of the disas- 

 ter, I was told that granulated honey 

 was responsible, even the combs where 

 the bees had clustered were granulated 

 solid, and the bees were dead with great 

 quantities of this solid article in the 

 hives. 



While we have had a severe winter, 

 yet I hardly think that factor has any 

 bearing on the case, as previous winters 

 have been just as cold and no granu- 

 lating of the honey took place. Person- 

 ally, I would be glad if some one would 

 advance a reasonable solution as to the 

 cause of the honey graulating in such a 

 wholesale manner. In this connection 

 it is worth noticing that under condi- 

 tions which caused the honey to granu- 

 late, the 2 to I sugar syrup, with no 

 acid or honey added, wintered the bees 

 splendidly. Seriously, I wonder if any 

 one ever had much trouble with sugar 

 granulating, if made either thick or thin, 

 provided it was not fed too late in the 

 fall. _ 



Apiary of Mr. D. Measer. 



The pictures herewith are two differ- 

 ent parts of the same apiarj', so that 

 the colonies shown on the summer 

 stands are not the ones that are packed 

 in the winter hive-cases. 



The apiary consists of 55 colonies, and 

 are all wintered on the summer stands. 

 The hive-cases in the first row are made 

 to hold 4 colonies placed back to back, 

 allowing 4 inches of space for pack- 

 ing all around, and there is room 

 enough for 12 inches on top, but I 

 use a screen-bottomed box 4 inches deep, 

 and the same size as the top of the 

 hive, filled with dry sawdust. I first 

 remove the propolized cloth and put on 

 a clean one, then set the box with saw- 

 dust directly on top, and the flat hive- 

 cover is put on top of that, but not 

 tight-fitting. There are still 7 or 8 inches 

 of empty space between that and the 

 roof of the hive-case. The hive-cases 

 in the second row were made about 20 

 years ago, of rough hemlock lumber, and 

 are still as good as new except the roof. 

 The packing is left around the hives in 

 the old cases all the year around, and 

 some colonies have occupied the same 

 hives for at least 15 years, to my knowl- 

 edge. I use old carpets and chaff cush- 

 ions for top packing on these hives, but 

 the chaff seems to get damp and moldy, 

 whereas the sawdust on the others keeps 

 dry. 



Bees had their first flight March 12, 

 with still 2 fed of snow on the ground 

 at the time, but there was a hard crust 

 on top so that tew bees got chilled. All 

 colonies were living at that time in spite 

 of the fact thai they had been buried 

 in 2 and 3 feet of snow for about 4 

 weeks, with zero weather about half that 

 time and twice 24 degrees below. No- 

 tice the storm-door and alighting-board 

 combination, made of 2 pieces hinged 

 together in the center with a small butt 

 hinge. When open it acts as an alight- 

 ing-board, and when closed the outer' 



tributions on the subject are naturally 

 of a controversial nature, yet with 

 comparatively few exceptions contribu- 

 tors to bee-papers seem to be actuated 

 by a spirit of willingness to "agree to 

 disagree," no matter how diametrically 

 their views may be opposed to those of 

 opponents. To the writer's mind this is 

 as it should be, as I fail to see any good 

 purpose accomplished by the sarcastic, 

 vitriolic effusions that appear once in a 

 great while in some of the papers. 



In the April number some of the 

 views of Mr. Chrysler on the matter of 



Winter and Summkr View.s ofithe Apiary^of D. Mevskr. 



piece acts as a storm-door. It certainly 

 served its purpose well the past winter 

 in keeping the entrances free from snow 

 and ice. 



The weather has been verj' cold and 

 backward here so far, but bees are 

 flying today, and all colonies are still 

 aiive. D. Meuser. 



Elmwood, Ont.. .\pril 14. 



Controversialists Should Keep Cool. 



The editor of tlie Farmers Advocate, 

 commenting on some rather pungent let- 

 ters on a controverted subject, sent by 

 subscribers for publication in his jour- 

 nal, remarks, "It is a good plan, when 

 writing letters for publication, especially 

 on controversial subjects, to draft them 

 out, lay them aside for a week to cool 

 off, and then re-write." Pretty good ad- 

 vice even for writers for bee-papers, as 

 well as for contributors to the Farmer's 

 Advocate — advice, by the way, which is 

 not likely very often followed. 



However, as bee-keeping is notorious 

 for its many seeming contradictions, con- 



co-operation were given. In the March 

 20 Farmer's Advocate the discussion is 

 continued by Mr. Brown, another past- 

 president of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' 

 Association. As will be noticed, Mr. 

 Brown takes somewhat different views 

 than Mr. Chrysler : 



Co-oper.\tion Without Organiz.\tion. 



Editor "The Farmer's .Advocate": — 



In my humble opinion, co-operation in 

 marketing honey is a matter that re- 

 quires considerable forethought, for 

 many reasons. One reason is that we 

 do not have a regular crop of honey 

 every year to harvest or dispose of. 

 Again, organization has to take place 

 among the honey-producers before co- 

 operation can be established. Bee-keepers 

 are only human beings, and, as a rule, 

 would not care about entering into a 

 thing they did not see their way clear 

 to get some benefit from. 



Of course, the bee-keeper who is sure 

 of having a crop of honey to dispose 

 of every year, over and above what his 

 home market demands, would say co- 



