22 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



ment in which we have a heating plant 

 for the house, and we have placed the 

 hives in the basement and have left 

 the entrances open. The bees fly out, 

 and, of course, get cold and imme- 

 diately fall to the floor. Can you advise 

 me how to winter them under such 

 conditions. [Mrs.] A. J. Berg. 



Thief River Falls, Minn. 



You say you have placed your bees 

 in the cellar. It was a mistake to put 

 bees in cellar in October. No wonder 

 they are not quiet in their hives. The 

 first thing to be done is to hustle them 

 out of the cellar and onto the summer 

 stands. Then put them into the cellar 

 again the next day after the last flight 

 they take before winter sets in. It will 

 take some guessing to know just when 

 that will be, and possibly, in your local- 

 ity in Minnesota, it may be safe to as- 

 sume that when bees fly any day after 

 the middle of November that that is 

 their last flight, and that they should 

 be cellared the next day. 



With a heating plant in the cellar, 

 like enough the problem will be to 

 keep the cellar cool enough without 

 letting too much light in ; for the cel- 

 lar must be kept dark. But if it is with 

 you as it is here, the heat in the cellar 

 will be an advantage, for it will allow 

 you to have abundance of pure air with- 

 out cooling the cellar too much. Pos- 

 sibly it is so that you can let the air 

 come into the room where the bees are, 

 in some indirect way, so as to leave the 

 bees in the dark. If not, then you can 

 cool the bees off at night and keep all 

 closed daytime. You will likely find a 

 temperature of about 50 degrees best, 

 but at any rate try to keep it at that 

 point where the bees are quietest. Keep 

 the bees content in their hives by keep- 

 ing the cellar dark, at the right tem- 

 perature, and with plenty of pure air. 



Queen-Rearing 



Since having the pleasure of meeting 

 the Editor at Hondo, Medina Co., Tex., 

 last spring, I had a visitor to my apiary 

 here in Castroville, in the person of 

 Mr. Henry Brenner, of Seguin. He 

 came in response to an inquiry of mine 

 for more light on the subject of queen 

 rearing. His article on that subject, 

 which I read last spring in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, seemed to me to be 

 filled with very valuable suggestions, 

 and if I don't succeed in rearing some 



good queens after his very kind in- 

 structions, it certainly will not be Mr. 

 Brenner's fault. 



My son, age 14, has been a beekeeper 

 for five years with seven colonies of 

 his own, which he has paid for out of 

 the proceeds from his honey. He is 

 also a subscriber of the American Bee 

 Journal and takes great interest in 

 reading it. Mr. Brenner praised the 

 condition of his hives and he is now 

 more enthusiastic than ever. 



I am writing this to let you know 

 that I feel very thankful to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for being the means 

 of my becoming acquainted with Mr. 

 Brenner and his method of queen rear- 

 ing. [Mrs ] J. T. Fitzsimon. 



Castroville, Tex. 



It is good to know that you are in- 



terested in rearing queens, for that 

 almost certainly means improvement 

 of stock, since you will no doubt keep 

 track of the yield of each colony and 

 breed from the best. 



In the picture you are seen holding 

 a frame flat, and you may be told that 

 a frame should never be held in that 

 way, lest the comb break out, and that 

 a certain routine of motions should be 

 made in turning a frame over, so as to 

 avoid holding a frame flat at any time. 

 That was all right 50 years or so ago, 

 but in these days of wiring and foun- 

 dation splints there is no need to have 

 combs so insecure that they will fall 

 out when held flat. Generally one can 

 see into the cells better when holding 

 the frame flat, and it saves time in 

 handling. At any rate, in this locality 

 frames are held just as you hold them. 



MRS. J. T. FITZSIMON AND HER SON IN THEIR SMALL APIARY AT 

 CASTROVILLE, TEX. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Mr, Brenner, of Texas, Pointing Out 

 the queen 



Honey Crop of 1916 — The monthly 

 crop report of the Department of Agri- 

 culture for November, 191(j, gives a 

 comparison of the average per-colony 

 yield in the years 1915-1916. The total 

 average for 1915, in the entire United 

 States is 42.3 pounds per colony, and in 

 191(i 52.8, a difference of 10>4 pounds, 

 with an increased spring-count number 

 of colonies of 2.8 percent. The crop 

 of section comb honey is 40.3 percent, 

 that of extracted 39 5 percent, and that 

 of bulk comb honey 20.2 percent. 



Florida reports the largest crop per 

 colony in 1916, 85 pounds, while Mis- 

 souri shows the largest increase over 

 the 1915 crop, 75 pounds in 1916 to 35 

 in 1915. The pporest showing is made 



by North Carolina, which shows only 

 23 pounds per colony, a decrease from 

 1915 of 19 pounds. 



The total increase of production of 

 honey is 23.3 percent, and as prices are 

 about as high as last year, the dollar 

 and cent result will prove very satis- 

 factory. 



Of the total crop, 67.7 percent is sold 

 locally, and 32.3 percent is shipped to 

 outside markets, an increase of local 

 consumption of about 7 percent, over 

 the sales of 1915. 



Texas News Items.— Mr. Henry Bren- 

 ner, of Seguin, one of the best known 

 Texas beekeepers sailed for Porto Rico 

 Nov. 18, from New York on the steamer 

 Carolina to do some special investiga- 



