November, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



special runs. There is a window in this 

 room opposite the door. 



The loft is stored with hives, es- 

 pecially those made for comb honey, 

 many of which were never used. There 

 must be over a hundred of them. We 

 store our surplus and surplus hives in 

 the lean-to. 



I think this is the first time I have 

 ever described in detail our apiary. 



My ambition was to run my bees to 

 the fullest capacity of our hives (125), 

 and after the first summer's vicissitudes, 

 when winter set in and the bees were 

 safe in the cellar, I proceeded promptly 

 and with great earnestness to devour 

 everything in the shape of bee-litera- 

 ture that I could lay my fingers on. The 

 old numbers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal were unearthed very effectually, and 

 pored over. 



The following spring began what I've 

 always considered my first real work, 

 the former season having been but a 

 preliminary skirmish. With that ex- 

 perience and my winter study combined, 

 I sailed in to win, and am quite con- 

 fident that, although we have had some 

 serious backsets, we have made, on the 

 whole, a very fair showing, and today 

 the "Mistress of Clovernook" is more 

 interested in her apiary than in any 

 other branch of her work, or than she 

 has been at any period subsequent to 

 the first year. 



There have been poor seasons for 

 honey, and seasons when the calls from 

 other work necessitated neglect of the 

 bees at critical times. I know of no 

 other employment that so emphasizes 

 the Bible warning, "Noiv is the accept- 

 ed time. Now is the Day of Salvation !" 

 If we miss the day that is "just right," 

 it is quite likely never to come again, 

 or to come only to show us what we 

 have lost by not attending to the first 

 one. 



I think my bees winter better than my 

 brother's did. I keep them nearer the 

 center of the cellar. We also get along 

 more successfully and more easily with 

 artificial increase. I have got down to 

 3 frames of capped brood and bees for 

 nucleus, adding extra combs of brood 

 as fast as they can take care of them. 

 W . "aake our new colonies in the after- 



Apiary of Miss Wheeler. 



noon and release the bees the following 

 evening at dusk. ■ 



This fall we have been very success- 

 ful in introducing Italian queens, and, if 

 spared, expect from now on to make 

 our apiary as it should be— the most 



important feature of our work; white 

 Holland turkeys, Pekin ducks, currants, 

 and strawberries, being "side-issues," al- 

 though we have over a thousand extra 

 fine strawberry plants set out this fall, 

 and our currant crop this season was 

 800 pounds. But we hope to do better 

 yet with these same bushes. 



(Miss) Fr.\nces E. Wheeler. 

 Chazy, N. Y. 



[Miss Wheeler and the writer decided 

 to surprise Miss Wilson, who knew 

 nothing about the above interesting 

 sketch and pictures appearing in this 

 number. But she'll be delighted with it 

 all.— G. W. Y.] 



Sunflowers. 



A British sister, Mrs. Mary Spencer, 

 reports in the British Bee Journal that 

 she planted sunflowers, expecting much 

 from them, but finds no bees but bumble- 

 bees on them. About the same thing 

 occurs at Marengo, as we once found 

 upon having quite a large plot of sun- 

 flowers. 



Bees and Poultry. 



Prof. A. J. Cook says in Gleanings: 

 "I have been successful with both bees 



and poultry, and I am persuaded that no 

 other line of work will prove better 

 suited to the average bee-keeper than 

 the care of poultry." If that be true of 

 bee-keepers in general, it is probably 

 true in a more emphatic degree of bee- 

 keeping sisters. Whatever the reason 

 may be, the care of poultry throughout 

 the country in general is probably in 

 9 cases out of 10 in the hands of women. 

 There may be more of the brothers 

 writing about the biddies, but if you go 

 about the country you will generally find 

 it is the sisters who are feeding the 

 chicks, gathering the eggs, and tying 

 hens to posts by one leg to break them 

 of sitting. 



But because Prof. Cook, a successful 

 bee-keeper, is a success with poultry, 

 does it follow that his success with poul- 

 try is in any way because of his success 

 with bees, and that another equally suc- 

 cessful bee-keeper would be equally suc- 

 cessful with poultry? In any case, it 

 would be interesting if a number of the 

 sisters would tell us something of their 

 actual experience, not merely with poul- 

 try, but with any other line in connec- 

 tion with bee-keeping. That ought to 

 help at least a little to tell us what a 

 woman can successfully do in connection 

 with bee-keeping. 



Winter Ventilation of Hives 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Every now and then, I receive en- 

 quiries as to the amount of ventilation 

 necessary for healthy colonies of bees 

 during cold weather. Allow me to lay 

 down the following propositions : 



1. Moisture absorbents over the clus- 

 ter are better than upper ventilation. 



2. A slight amount of upper ventila- 

 tion is better than a tight ceiling im- 

 pervious to moisture. 



3. Entrance ventilation in a moderate 

 degree is needed. 



I will now proceed to tell how I came 

 to consider these propositions as cor- 

 rect. 



The winter of 1884-5 was one of the 

 coldest that we have seen in this sec- 

 tion. For two months or more together 

 the bees were confined to the hive and 

 unable to take flight. For fully two 

 weeks the thermometer did not get above 

 ID degrees above zero in the warmest 

 part of the day. We had a number of 

 colonies packed with a cushion full of 

 chaff or of forest leaves in the cap, 

 laid right over the brood-frames with- 

 out honey-board or oil-cloth to inter- 

 vene. We also had a number of colo- 

 nies which had a moisture-proof oilcloth 

 over the frames under the cushion. . We 

 had in the same apiaries some colonies 

 which had nothing over the oilcloth ex- 



cept the wooden cover, but in a number 

 of cases the oilcloth had holes in if 

 which had been made by the bees, as 

 they will do when the cloth is more or 

 less defective. 



Now as to the result : In nearly ev- 

 ery instance where the oilcloth was 

 absolutely moisture proof, the moisture 

 had condensed upon the combs at their 

 upper portion to such an extent that 

 when the thaw came, the bees were 

 practically soaked with the melting frost 

 The hives were in pitiful condition, for 

 not only were the bees dampened by this 

 cold, thawing ice which had slowly gath- 

 ered over the cluster during the long 

 months of cold, but they were also 

 loaded within their intestines with the 

 unavoidable excrements due to a long 

 confinement. Fully half of the colo- 

 nies that were found in this condition 

 died within a short time. 



The colonies that had holes in the 

 oilcloth were in much better condition. 

 They had suffered from the cold, from 

 having to remain so long in the hive, 

 but their excrements being discharged 

 at the first warm day, the hives became 

 habitable at once, for the moisture had 

 worked its way into the cap, and when 

 it melted the water ran out along the 

 outer edges without dampening the bees. 

 The colonies that were lost in this lot 

 were the weaker ones, and they had 

 died before the thaw came. 



