Vol. XIII. 



JULY 15, 1885. 



No. 14. 



TERMS; $1.00 Pkr Annum, IN ADVANCR;1 TP .,4- r^l-.!-; c^'U n/l Vti 1 Q 'V 9 f Chibs to different postofflcPB. NOT LKP8 

 2Oopieafor«l.90;3tor$2.75;5for»4.00; JlitSllLOl Lb flCiV ill ±0 / t? . I than 90ctK. enoh. Sent postpaid, in the 

 10 )r in )rd, 75cta. eacli. Simple Niiniher, I ', U. S. and Canadns. To all other conn- 



lOets. Additions to idiibs maybe made [ publisiieu semi-monthi-V by ''. tries of the rnivcrsal Postal Union, 18c 



atclubrates. Above are ..11 to be sent j 4 r ^}(\^\n•\ mt,''T'»TXT\ (WIM\ I peryenr extra. To all conntricsNOT of 

 to o.VE PO8TOFFICR. J -'V. i. it*JV7J., l>lJliJJl^>.i^X.,UllHJ. itheXj. P. U.,42cperjear extra. 



• CELLARS VS. CHAFF PACKING., 



CELLAH WINTEKINO, CHAFl' PACKING, ETC. 



'T^ IVING about si.v miles t'l-oin here is an old man 

 hii^ who has no beobook, and reads no bce-papcr, 

 J^j but who has for the past eight jears success- 

 ^^ fully wintered his bees in an apartment of 

 his cellar. He buys his hi\cs of beekeepers 

 who have «-ivcn up the business in diss'ust, never 

 l)aying- more than twenty-live cents ai)iece for them. 

 He has never raised very much honey for 

 sale, very seldom opens a hive, but sells bees 

 in the spring- to bee-keepers who are g-ood hands 

 at raising- honey, but poor ones at winteriii!? 

 their bees. We visited him a few weeks ago, stayed 

 to dinner, had a j^ood long chat, and bought five 

 colonies of bees. In one corner of his cellar is a 

 room about ten feet square. The Hoor is cement, 

 the walls and ceiling- are plastered. It has two out- 

 side windows, which are closed and protected in the 

 winter. Upon the approach of cold weather he car- 

 ries his bees into the cellar, and simply stacks the 

 hives up as we would so many bo.xes. He takes 

 them out again "when the snow is gone." He has 

 never lost a colony, except some late swarms that 

 starved. He has tried once or twice leaving one or 

 two colonics out of doors, but has lost them every 

 time. We noticed that the fronts of some of the 

 hives were considerably soiled, and asked if they 

 were in that condition when he bought them. 



"Oh, no I" said he; " almost all of them get that 

 way in the winter. They look pretty bad when we 

 bring- them out, but the rain soon washes it off. 

 Whenever we go into the room in the winter we 

 find bees out running around upon the front of the 

 hives; they empty themselves, and go back into the 

 hives." 



We asked him how warm he kept the room, but 

 he "didn't know." He knew it never froze in the 

 cellar. Whenever icc find a hive daubed up like 

 this in the cellar, we mentally write "dead" upon 

 its side. We have known of this man's success for 

 some time, and have attributed it to locality. To 

 test it we have often thought of taking^ a load of 

 bees over there the latter part of the summer, and 

 getting- him to put them into the cellar upon the 

 approach of winter. Last fall a son-in-law of his 

 brought eight ciolonies there— brougrht them after 

 cold weather had set in, and put them into the cel- 

 lar without even g-iving- them a flight, and last 

 spring came and carted them home again, alive and 

 all O. K. All this was rather "upsetting;" but 

 there was no dodg-ing it, Uccnui^c they had the Iieea to 

 nhow. So much for cellar wintering. Now let us 

 talk <,f 



C/IAKF PACKINO. 



" There is no great loss without some small g:ain;" 

 if we lose our bees every winter we have the 

 pleasure in the spring: of a trip to the home and 

 apiary of Cyula Linswik and her sister. Last spring- 

 was no exception, as we again brought home in 

 triumph thirty-one of their best colonies. Although 

 their bees are what would be called light Italians, 

 we have no hesitation in saying that, taking every 

 thing into consideration, they are as good Italians 

 as we have ever had. They are very peaceable, but 

 also very energetic workers. In accordance with 

 our request, one colony had been left packed so 

 that we could see "just how it was done." The 

 hive stood upon a board platform, about three feet 

 square, said platform being raised three or four 

 inches from the ground. A bo.x nearly as large as 

 this platform, but without top or bottom, was set 

 down over the hive, the top i-eaching four or five 



