AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 471 



promise you to keep all decaying stuff out of the cellar, and I think I can keep it fit 

 to live over, or even in, and I want pure air in it for my bees. I'm strongly inclined 

 to the belief that bees don't winter so well in cellars as in mild winters out-doors, 

 just because the nasty rotting stuff down cellar makes the air unfit to breathe. 



You leave me in rather bad shape in another direction. One of the cisterns to 

 our house has water fit to drink, and the other doesn't smell good, and isu't used. 

 Now if you insist on it, I might burn down the house and build another at some 

 distance — that vs^ould give a chance to have a later style of paper on the walls— but 

 then the new cistern in the new place would get to having the same smell, and then 

 another conflagration would be necessary. Now if you'll just tell us how to make 

 that cistern sweet — it was cleaned out only a little while ago — if it's anything within 

 reason, I'll try to take the medicine like a little man. Marengo, III. 



[*Say, Doctor, don't you think you'd better offer an apology instanter, and with 

 out any "kinks" about it, after reading pages 465 and 466? We believe you 

 ought to, and do it as meekly as you can. — Editok.] 



SOMH PERSONAI. BEE-HXPERIENCES. 



BY EDVFIN BEVINS. 



A few years ago the writer thought he would like to. have some bees. I had 

 never had anything to do with bees except to shy away from them for fear of getting 

 stung. I had seen other folks have bees — some in sections of hollow logs, and some 

 in box-hives with holes in the top, over which in summer was placed a smaller box 

 or " cap," inside of which was a many-cornered piece of glass covering a circular 

 hole. I had never read any bee-book or bee-papers, but was taking some agricul- 

 tural papers, some of which had a bee-department. One of the writers for one of 

 these departments said that a beginner should begin with one colony, and increase 

 his colonies with his increase of knowledge and experience. 



This writer, or some other, recommended the use of the dovetailed hive ; so 

 looking over a stray copy of the American Bee Jouenal, which I happened to have 

 at that time, for the advertisement of the nearest supply dealer, I sent to him, a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles or so, for a dovetailed hive. It came, and had on it something 

 which I afterwards found was called a super, which was filled with something I did 

 not know at the time were called sections. This hive, super, sections and all, I took 

 just before swarming-time to a neighbor, and engaged with him for a dollar to hive 

 an early swarm for me. The swarm I left with this neighbor until fall. When 

 taken home the hive was found to be entirely filled with honey — brood-chamber, 

 sections and all, with lots of bridges and brace-bombs intermixed, though I did not 

 know at that time by what names to call them. 



That same fall I came into possession of some more colonies of black bees, which 

 were in log hives. These came through the winter succeeding all right, but my bees 

 in the dovetailed hive died before spring. 



I wish here to record my opinion, parenthetically, that the bee-department in 

 the agricultural paper is not altogether indispensable to the modern bee-keeper. 



When apple-bloom came, I tried my hand at transferring the bees in the log 

 hives to dovetailed hives, and was reasonably successful. The winter previous I 

 had procured some more dovetailed hives, this time not sending so far for them, but 

 when they came to hand I found to my surprise and disgust that they were not like 

 the first one. In other words, I found that there were dovetailed hives and dove- 

 tailed hives. The first had what I found by reference to the catalogues were called 



