in p. tiKKKt^EPtRS' RKVltW. 



155 



cellar that caused the suddeu dying off iu 

 the latter jmrt of the wiuter ? Perchance 

 the distnrbintr factor might have been the 

 fruit juice iu their wiuter stores, or the 

 wiuter breediug. The experiment does 

 not seem to afford the means of settling the 

 «luestiou with certaiutj-. I will venture the 

 conjecture that all three things combined to 

 work the same result — or rather that fruit 

 juice and extra temperature caused internal 

 activity (although silent) and resulted in an 

 unusual amount of brood: and then all three 

 things together exhausted vitality and 

 brought the term of life nearer to a sum- 

 mer standard. It will be interesting to see 

 whether the young bees raised pay for the 

 old ones lost, and the extra amoant of hon- 

 ey consumed. 



So a heavy majority of a German conven- 

 tion, (and German bee conventions are apt 

 to be big ones) favor entrances quite a dis- 

 tance above the bottom of the hive. Re- 

 view !tr>. Surely the bottom is the most 

 natural and convenient place for an en- 

 trance. Only practical way to avoid a bank 

 of rubbish at the bottom, liable to become a 

 mass of moth larvip; yet away go live bee 

 men (not only iu Germany but in america 

 also) in favor of entrances up end or side. 

 I used to regard the plan with contempt; 

 but of late I feel more respectful about it. 

 Hard to believe that a mere troublesome 

 whim with nothing to back it could show 

 so much vitality. I suspect that with an 

 elevated entrance the air inside is purer; 

 and that purer air results in better winter- 

 ing and improved stamina of the bees in 

 summer. Still it seems to me that a small 

 hole up the end of the hive, and a good 

 sized entrance at the bottom also, ought to 

 secure the same results, in addition to the 

 obvious advantages of a bottom entrance. 



Canadian Bee Journal. 



Most of our bee papers are not making 

 many changes these hard times and the 

 Canadian is no exception. To hold one's 

 own, and live through until the sun of pros- 

 perity rises on the land is about all most 

 people try for. So the (!auadian sliali have 

 its turn this time not by a general character- 

 ization and writing up, but by si)ecial at- 

 tention to its contents in detail. 



On page H)M'.t (The C B. .7. is queer in the 

 way it lets its pages rtiii up from year to 

 year) on page 10S'.» what looks like a new 

 department of questions and answers opens 



out. (Questioner wants advice about clip- 

 ping queens and the why of it. Replies 

 come from nine clippers and seven anti- 

 clippers. Not very much that is new devel- 

 oped. The heavy shot of the antis is that 

 clipping doesn't work according to program. 

 The heavy shot of the clippers is that you 

 can leave an out-apiary for days in swarm- 

 ing time and (whether the thing works just 

 according to program or not) your bees will 

 all be in the yard somewhere. Then there 

 is a parting shot from the anti camp to the 

 effect that a dozen days later you will have 

 swarms with virgin queens, and then you'll 

 lose bees— quite likely in stupid ignorance 

 that anything of the kind is taking place. 



The editor on page 1085 announces his 

 strong belief that when bees are doing noth- 

 ing and comfortable there is little loss of 

 vitality — that is nearly the same as saying 

 that they do not age — go into the winter 

 practically young although hatched in mid- 

 summer. If the bee-keeper sets them at 

 work, and also lets them breed at will, the 

 young bees produced will keep the balance 

 of the colony against the old bees whose 

 vitality is worn out. But if the keeper sets 

 them at work and hinders them from breed- 

 ing, then the colony is thrown badly out 

 of balance, to its great peril in the coming 

 winter. 



N. D. West, being a clipper, has a grand 

 spell of finding his queens every spring and 

 clipping wherever supersession has occurr- 

 ed. He finds it well to have three persons 

 to watch as the combs are rapidly taken 

 out, one sitting on each side of the hive and 

 one standing over it. As he scrapes burr 

 comb and equalizes brood and honey at the 

 same time the extra hands are kept busy at 

 these matters, except for a very few min- 

 utes on each hive. A hundred hives a day 

 is the tune to which he thus performs. 



After uniting he polks a few slices of onion 

 in the entrance. Then one set of fellows 

 can't smell the odor of the other fellows' 

 unwashed feet and be compelled to com- 

 mit murder. 



( )uce he fed tliree apiaries with warm 

 thin syrup in a wash tub. Kept the bees 

 from drowning by putting in straw. Page 

 10H(!. To avoid the heavy unbroken masses 

 of bees that a strong apiary would heap up- 

 on a single wash tub, probably a large 

 amount of straw ought to be crowded in. 

 Hardly a premium plan at the best, I should 

 say. 



