THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



291 



temperature of about 40". The colonies 

 should be covered warmly. lu the fall each 

 colony is supplied with sections tilled with 

 foundation. These sections will bo partly, 

 and in some instances fully, drawn out and 

 filled with honey. Later the honey is ex- 

 tracted and the sections set out some fine 

 afternoon for the bees to clean them up. In 

 the winter the combs are leveled with a 

 comb leveler to a uniform thickness and 

 then used the next season in securing the 

 crop. The swarms are to be hived in empty 

 brood chambers. That is, those having 

 starters only in the frames. Mr. Taylor said 

 " I know I can get more comb honey by 

 hiving swarms in empty brood chambers. " 

 Mr. Ira Barber thought the temperature 

 too low. Mr, Pettit thought it just about 

 right. Mr. Barber wanted to know if Mr. 

 Pettit's cellar was dry. Mr. Pettit did not 

 care whether it was wet or dry so far as 

 successful wintering was concerned. On 

 this point there was considerable difference 

 of opinion. Mr. Barber and several others 

 found old bees just as good as young ones 

 for wintering. If bees don't work they re- 

 main young in one sense, that is, they retain 

 their vitality. Mr. Hall put sawdust on the 

 cellar floor. When the dead bees drop down 

 on this they dry up instead of moulding. 



WiNTEEiNG Bees, who should do it out of 

 doors, who in-doors, was the title of a paper 

 by F. A. Gemmill in which he did not stick 

 to his text very closely, giving as a reason 

 " that seasons, conditions and surroundings 

 really seem to differ, even in the same local- 

 ities, one year with another, that the safest 

 method for each individual to follow, is the 

 one which, after a thorough trial, has been 

 found most successful. " Mr. Gemmill then 

 proceeded to give what I should call " ortho- 

 dox " rules regarding food, temperature, 

 ventilation, packing, etc. 



Inteoducing Queens — Mr. S. T. Pettit 

 read a paper on this subject in which he 

 alluded to what might be termed the " hu- 

 man nature " of bees and queens. He be- 

 lieved that the queen had a strong, mother- 

 ly affection and yearning for her own family 

 and blood relations, and that there was a 

 mutual fear and mistrust between the queen 

 and a strange colony of bees. There is also 

 another point: a strong man, society, com- 

 pany, mob or nation, or a hive of bees, is 

 more self-confident, or more self-assertive 

 than a weak one. The moral is to have a 

 colony weak and hopelessly queenless, and 



the queen kept away from the bees until 

 she, too, is in a lonely, forlorn, forsaken 

 frame of mind, and ready to welcome the 

 bees of any colony. When the bees show 

 by their behavior that they are mourning for 

 a queen, then release her about a foot from 

 the entrance. By the commotion among 

 the bees she will understand their frame of 

 mind, and the bees, perceiving the queen's 

 humility, will gladly reciprocate her over- 

 tures of peace and good will and escort her 

 into their kingdom and proclaim her queen 

 of all the realm. A queen may be success- 

 fully introduced to a new swarm by hiving 

 it on the old stand and removing the old 

 queen. As soon as the bees show signs of 

 distress, release the new queen. Mr. Pettit 

 thought that more queens were injured by 

 imperfect methods of introduction than by 

 the hardships of transportation. 



"Mistakes of Bee-keepers and Bee- Jour- 

 nals " was the title of a most excellent pa- 

 per by Allen Pringle. Some of the most 

 prominent mistakes mentioned are as fol- 

 lows : Many make a mistake in becoming 

 bee-keepers at all. The world is full of 

 these misfits — round people in square holes 

 and vice versa — but bee-keeping probably 

 furnishes as few as any pursuit, because a 

 large majority of bee-keepers are such, first 

 and foremost, because they love the business 

 as a business. In many trades the profes- 

 sion is selected for the boy, but in bee-keep- 

 ing the business is usually selected spon- 

 taneously by the subjects themselves. 

 While there is much blundering in the low- 

 er walks of bee-keeping the failures and 

 mistakes in the higher grades are less com- 

 mon than in most other occupations. When 

 a man finds that it was a mistake to engage 

 in bee-keeping, it is a mistake not to get 

 out again before he and his money have 

 parted. It is a mistake for a novice to 

 spend time and money in inventing and 

 patenting hives and fixtures. Neglecting to 

 thoroughly inform one's self in regard to 

 the best methods of wintering bees is a 

 most fatal mistake in these latitudes. Feed- 

 ing bees in the fall is a mistake, not because 

 the bees will not winter on the syrup but 

 because honey is the natural, and, therefore, 

 the best food, the excitement wears out the 

 bees' lives, some syrup will be left unsealed 

 and will absorb moisture, the use of sugar 

 puts so much more honey on the market 

 and excites prejudice in the minds of con- 

 sumers. Both comb and extracted honey 



