1001 



(tLkanings in bee culture. 



785 



upon full colonies, but upon nuclei. De- 

 velopment will be retarded in nuclei. In the 

 ,/;;/. Bee Journal , Vol. I., page 143, father 

 Langstroth reports a case in which a queen 

 in a nucleus was 21 days in coming to ma- 

 turit}'. In m_y early days of bee-keeping I 

 knew no better than to have queens started 

 in nuclei, and I had cases like that of fa- 

 ther Langstroth. But in full colonies I 

 have had many, man}^ incidental proofs 

 that 15 da^'s was the limit. Ought we not 

 to change our belief from 16 to 15? 

 Marengo, 111. 



[I had not a little difficulty in under- 

 standing vour experiment; but finally Mr. 

 F. W. L. Shiden, of Ripple Court. England, 

 who is visiting- us now, after studying on it 

 a while finally got your meaning. You 

 leave out one or two important points that 

 left us, for the time being, in the dark. As 

 we understand it, No. 85 was a normal col- 

 ony with a laying queen ; and this one 

 comb containing some sealed brood was put 

 into the hive for the queen to lay in. After 

 she had been laying in it for four days, you 

 gave it to queenless colony No. 35. Eight 

 days from that date you found plentv' of 

 queen-cells. All of this is now plain. 



The only criticism I have to oft'er is that 

 you are relying for yovu- data on one exper- 

 iment only, and I should not think it would 

 be wise to change the time from 16 to 15 

 daj''s until other experiments have been 

 made and are to the same eft'ect. — Ed.] 



PREPARING BEKS FOR WINTER. 



"Hello! what are you doing with the bees 

 this morning? I supposed all work with 

 them was over for this year." 



"In this you are mistaken, Mr. Smith; 

 for, in my opinion, to reap the best results 

 in wintering- bees, September is the month 

 in which they should be prepared for win- 

 ter. This gives thein a chance to g-et their 

 stores for winter placed just where they 

 wish them, so that, by the latter part of 

 October, they are ready to go into that qui- 

 escent state which is always conducive to 

 the best results." 



"Well, this is something new to me, as I 

 always thought November would do very 

 well as to time to fix the bees for winter. 

 But what do you do now by way of prepa- 

 ration?" 



"The early preparation consists in open- 

 ing each hive and seeing that each colony 

 has a good queen, plenty of bees, and, most 

 of all, plenty of stores." 



"Howinuch do you calculate for stores?" 



"I allow 25 to 30 lbs. for each colony, 

 which should be in the hive from September 

 10 to 25." 



"But suppose some colonies do not have 

 that much." 



"If there is not so much as this, feeding 

 must be resorted to; and if we have to feed, 

 it should be done in Septeinber, surely, in 

 order that the bees may cap it over before 

 cool or cold weather; for unsealed stores 

 often sour and get thin during winter, thus 

 causing disease. Multitudes of bees are 

 lost each year, where feeding is put oft" till 

 October and November, by being obliged to 

 eat poor thin stores, this causing bee diar- 

 rhea on account of the bees not being able 

 to hold their feces, because they can not 

 evaporate all the water out of their food, it 

 being so thin." 



"But suppose the bees are still getting 

 honej' from the fields." 



"In places where fall flowers abound, so 

 that the bees are storing at this time of the 

 year, of course they should need no feeding 

 if the apiarist manages rightly." 



"Do you think if one needed feeding all 

 would? " 



"This is to be ascertained by looking 

 them over, as you see me doing. If I find 

 some colonies are heavy with stores while 

 others are light, the light ones can be fed 

 by taking from the heavy; and if there are 

 some light in stores after so equalizing, 

 then we feed what still remain without a 

 sufficient supply." 



"Having all fixed as to stores, etc., what 

 next is to be done? I wish to learn." 



"The next thing to do is to put on the 

 quilt, where such is used, and over this the 

 sawdust cushion, or whatever packing ma- 

 terial is used, thus tucking them nice, snug, 

 and warm for winter." 



"Do you use common enameled cloth for 

 quilts? " 



"I do not during winter. Some so use, 

 but the most of our practical bee-keepers 

 prefer some porous substance, like woolen 

 blankets, pieces of old carpet, or something 

 of that kind. For colonies to be left on 

 summer stands, I use chaff hives, which 

 chaff is left on in the hives both winter and 

 summer. Over the tops of the frames I pre- 

 fer a quilt, as just spoken of, and on top of 

 the quilt a cushion two or three inches 

 thick, made of common factory cotton cloth, 

 filled with cork dust if possible; if not, then 

 filled with dry basswood sawdust. Such 

 cushions seem to keep the bees in better 

 condition than any thing else I am ac- 

 quainted with. The cork dust allows the 

 moisture to pass up through it and out at 

 the top of the hive, while the basswood saw- 

 dust will absorb nearly its bulk in water, 

 so that either keeps all dry, warm, and 

 nice." 



"Do you do an3' thing else by way of 

 preparation?" 



"When winter sets iii, a board about 8 or 

 10 inches wide should be set up slanting 

 from the alighting-board to the hive, in 

 front of the entrance, so as to keep out snow 

 and cold winds, as well as to shade the 

 front of the hive, where the hives face south, 

 as they should during winter, so the bright 



