November, 1914. 



381 



American l^ee Journal^ 



The hives he intends to discard I 

 will leave alone. During May, in his 

 locality, there is a fine flow of nectar 

 from the soft and vine maples. So 

 plentiful is the secretion in most sea- 

 sons I am convinced a really good bee- 

 man could harvest about 40 or 50 

 pounds surplus from these sources. 

 As a matter of fact I occasionally 

 stumble across a strong colony with 

 that amount of freshly-gathered honey 

 stored away by the beginning of June, 

 so I am not guessing any, and a very 

 dainty honey it is. 



Well, May is when he can get new 

 combs drawn out, so I will show him 

 how to fit his new hives, all frames 

 filled with full sheets of foundation, on 

 top of the ones he is going to discard, 

 and advise him to wait until the end of 

 August or later, when he will probably 

 find the bees have settled for the 

 winter in the upper story, and he can 

 take the old hive away. 



The soap boxes will be turned upside 

 down, a new hive fitted to them, and I 

 will expect them to be out of use by 

 the end of the season. 



If I happen to be passing his village 

 in the course of my wanderings, I will 

 probably stop over the time between 

 two cars just to see how he is getting 

 along, and above all to keep up his 

 enthjsiasm. British Columbia imports 

 over 80 tons of honey annually. We 

 have a plant in existence right now 

 that ought to produce pretty near all 

 that, so it is evidentlv our business to 



see that the owners know how to run 

 the bees to advantage. 

 Victoria, B. C. 



B 



Wintering Bees Outside 



BY H .\ .\I.\NLEY. 



lUILD a tight board fence about :^0 

 inches high, place the summer 

 stands in front of this fence (I 

 prefer to have them face the east) 

 about 4 inches from the fence and 3 

 inches apart. Fill these stands with 

 dry leaves, place the hives on the 

 stands, leaving on one empty super. 

 Lay two or three corncobs across the 

 brood-frames about one inch apart, to 

 give the bees passageway to all parts 

 of the hive ; cover the super with a 

 gunny sack large enough to overlap 

 good, and on this gunny sack fill the 

 super with oat chaff or dry leaves 

 pressed down good, and fold the edges 

 of the gunny and put on the cover; 

 then place a 10-inch board at the top of 

 the brood-chamber to form a shelter 

 over the entrance, and stand on edge 

 an 8-inch board on this, just in front of 

 the supers. Place a 4-inch board on 

 edge in front of the alighting-boards ; 

 this forms a space under the 10-inch 

 board for holding straw in front to 

 keep out the storms. Now fill behind, 

 between, and every space with dry 

 leaves packed down good and tight. A 

 light frame work on top will be suffi- 

 cient to receive the prepared roofing. 



When the mercury gets up to about 

 4.5 degrees, and the weather looks favor- 

 able, I remove the straw in front to 

 give the bees a flight, but always put it 

 back in the evening. I have followed 

 this plan of wintering for more than 

 2") years, except a few years that I was 

 out of the business, and have been very 

 successful in getting them through the 

 winter. One time I tried them in the 

 cellar and failed. 



I now have 80 colonies, and they are 

 in good condition. I use dry leaves 

 for packing, for they are the cleanest 

 thing that I can get, and then mice 

 don't nest in them. The straw used in 

 front should be free of grain so as not 

 lo encourage mice. 



One advantage in this plan is that 

 the bees can be kept in winter quarters 

 through the bad weather in April, 

 which is sometimes quite an item. 



Milo, Iowa. 



Smoke Netliod of Introducing 

 Queens 



BY ELVIN M. COLE. 



WILL you allow an amateur to offer 

 a few suggestions on introducing 

 queens by the smoke method. I 

 doubt if the scent of smoke, or distress 

 as asserted by Mr. Arthur C. Miller, or 

 violent emotion according to J. E. 

 Crane, accounts for the successful in- 

 troduction and acceptance of queens 

 by this method. It seems more rea- 



OUTDOOR WINTERING IX lOWA-B. A. MANLEY I.\ HIS AI'lARY IN MILO. 



