September, 1916. 



American Hae Journal 



convict labor for the profit of contrac- 

 tors, resulting in practices neither re- 

 formative in principle nor profitable 

 to the State. The present management, 

 by establishing a variety of industries, 

 now provides more useful and refor- 

 mative employment to the unfortunates 

 under its care with manifest advantage 

 to all concerned; and as a result, an 

 annual deficit approximating $90,000 

 has been turned into a profit. 



There are now over 1000 inmates in 

 the institution who are more than self- 

 sustaining. The management has 

 drawn no State money for current ex- 

 penses for several years, has accumu- 

 lated a surplus and is permitting the 

 inmates to earn and receive substantial 

 sums for themselves. 



Among the industries carried on are 

 farming, which involves nearly 3000 

 acres of land, mostly owned by the 

 State, employing several hundred in- 

 mates who live on the farms in dormi- 

 tories or are provided from the insti- 

 tution under proper supervision; but 

 in the main, all farm hands work on 

 honor much the same as free men, and 

 this plan is being extended as rapidly 

 as circumstances permit. The farm 

 industries include stock raising, dairy- 

 ing, chickens, meat, fruit, gardening, 

 and supplies all the food consumed ex- 

 cepting salt, pepper, tea and cofifee and 

 some sugar, although sugar cane is 

 raised for syrups used in cooking and 

 otherwise. 



Much building, ditching, draining, 

 tiling, clearing, fencing and other per- 

 manent work is being done. Most of 

 the tools and much of the machinery 

 used are home-made, including wagons, 

 sleighs, harness, horseshoeing, general 

 repairs, etc. There is an up-to-date 

 sanitary canning establishment through 

 which surplus farm products are pre- 

 served and marketed involving huge 

 sums; these include peas, beans, apples, 

 berries, beets, corn, sauerkraut, cider 

 vinegar, jellies, and many other items. 



There is also a stone shop where 

 many inmates are employed and be- 

 come skilled artisans in stone craft, 

 such as making monuments and the 

 like. A tile and brick plant employs a 

 large number, and is supplying high 

 grade building materials for the insti- 

 tution as well as to the citizens of the 

 State. 



Then there is the twine plant, which 

 last year produced over 12,000.000 

 pounds of sisal twine not excelled in 

 quality by any free industry in the 

 world. A chair factory employing sev- 

 eral hundred inmates, a broom shop, 

 printing plant, tailor shop and many 

 other activities which go to make the 

 institution very nearly independent of 

 outside industries, including the mani- 

 fold activities of preparing food, cloth- 

 ing and other necessities for the insti- 

 tution. 



As a cap stone to these varied indus- 

 tries and activities there is the prison 

 school and its curriculum devised to 

 facilitate and supplement the practical 

 knowledge gained by work in the vo- 

 cational industries. This is not only a 

 school in name, but in fact, teaching 

 all grades up to the 12th, and its cer- 

 tificates given under the supervision of 

 the State Board of Public Instruction, 

 admit to the University, Michigan Ag- 

 ricultural College or School of Mines. 



With the foregoing in mind, you will 

 grasp the purpose in the minds of the 

 authorities when it was decided to add 

 apiculture to the othei prison indus- 

 tries. No industry, unless it is con- 

 ducted on a profitable basis according 

 to the best standards prevailing in suc- 

 cessful free industries, is either instruc- 

 tive or reformative ; and therefore fails 

 in its purpose as a desirable State ac- 

 count prison vocation. Whether bee- 



culture will justify our expectations on 

 tliis basis cannot at this time be fore- 

 told, but it is hoped that the members 

 of your association and all other bee- 

 keepers everywhere will lend us their 

 helpful support to make it a success, 

 so that the State apiaries at Jackson 

 Prison may become model institutions 

 of their kind, affording examples of 

 profitable beekeeping. 

 Jackson, Mich. 



BEE-IftEPiNC ^ For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Mareneo, 111. 



Cellar Wintering 



^For years we wintered in a cellar 

 which, left to itself, was too cold for 

 best results with bees. So to keep it 

 near 45 degrees, which at that time was 

 supposed to be the orthodox tempera- 

 ture, we kept coal fires going in the 

 cellar during the coldest weather. 



We succeeded in wintering pretty 

 well with this arrangement, too, but 

 when the furnace supplanted stoves it 

 was impossible to keep the tempera- 

 ture as low as 45 degrees, it often going 

 as high as 50 degrees, and sometimes 

 even 60 degrees, though the furnace- 

 room was separate from the bee-room. 

 In order that the bee-room might be 

 kept cooler the outside cellar doors 

 which open into the furnace-room were 

 left open, most of the time, and the 

 door from the bee-room into the fur- 

 nace-room was left open practically 

 always, so the bees had plenty of fresh 

 outdoor air all of the time except in 

 the very coldest weather. 



At first we were somewhat anxious 

 as to how the bees would winter with 

 the furnace. With higher temperature 

 and greater activity they consumed 

 more stores, making it necessary that 

 they go into winter quarters with 

 heavier stores than previously. Since 

 the installment of the furnace the bees 

 have wintered better, coming out in 

 the spring stronger and in better con- 

 dition. The bees look brighter, the 

 hives and combs are dry, never any 

 wet or moldy hives or combs, and very 

 few dead bees on the bottom-boards, 

 often none. Either the bees clean out 

 the dead or they leave the hive to die 

 on the cellar floor. We no longer 

 know what spring dwindling is; and it 

 surely is a comfort not to have to doc- 

 tor up weak colonies in the spring. 



The question as to why bees winter 

 better in a cellar with a furnace was 

 for years answered by saying that they 

 wintered better because of the greater 

 amount of fresh air in spite of the too 

 high temperature. 



Since Dr. Phillips very thorough ex- 

 periments upon wintering bees, we may 

 now say that bees winter better in a 

 cellar with a furnace, not only because 

 of the pure air, but because of the 

 higher temperature. In his book, "Bee- 

 keeping," Dr. Phillips says, page 347, 

 "The majority of beekeepers consider 

 40 to 45 degrees Fahr. as the cellar 



temperature, but it is clear that the 

 temperature can usually be raised to at 

 least 50 degrees Fahr. with beneficial 

 results," and on page 353 he says: "In 

 general a cellar temperature of 50 de- 

 grees Fahr. or higher, results in a sav- 

 ing of the vitality of the bees." 



Results of Excessive Swarming 



In the fall of 1914 we bought six 

 hives of bees and wintered them in a 

 log building where they were sheltered 

 from the winds and snow, but had 

 plenty of light and ventilation. 



In the spring of 1915, when we took 

 them out-of-doors, one hive seemed to 

 have lost its queen. The bees of this 

 hive were united with another one. 



Some of the colonies swarmed sev- 

 eral times during the season, but we 

 lost every swarm. The bees left in the 

 hives very little honey, and this spring 

 some of these colonies were dead. 



Here in Marinette Co., Wis., there is 

 bisswood, acres of white clover, hun- 

 dreds of acres of red clover and alsike ; 

 wild berry bloom everywhere ; also 

 fields of buckwheat. An ideal place, it 

 seems to me, for honey production. 



Could you through the columns of 

 your journal give me a solution of this 

 problem ? Could there be moth or any 

 sickness among the bees ? Is it too 

 late to get a queen for a swarm of 

 bees? [Mrs.] Lucy L. Ferguson. 



The trouble was that your colonies 

 " swarmed themselves to death." You 

 should never allow a colony to swarm 

 more than once. It is a difficult thing 

 to prevent prime swarms, but compara- 

 tively easy to prevent afterswarms. 

 When the first, or prime, swarm issues, 

 hive it and set its hive on the old stand, 

 setting the old hive close beside it. 

 A week later move the old hive to 

 a new stand two yards or more distant 

 —that's all. The bees will do the rest, 

 for all the field-bees that go from the 

 old hive to gather nectar, will upon 

 their return go to the old location and 

 join the swarm, thus weakening the old 

 colony so much that they will give up 

 all thought of swarming. Neither will 

 this lessen your honey-crop, but rather 

 increase it, for the swarm will store so 

 much the more. 



With the pasturage you mention, 

 bees should do splendidly, but they 

 must not be allowed to waste all their 



