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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 6, 



ity expressed themselves as being in favor of the slatted honey- 

 board. The tables now seem to be pretty nearly turned in 

 favor of top-bars and bee-spaces as against the slatted boards ; 

 but I notice that none of the respondents sl-rike upon this 

 point — that the honey-board does away with only one set of 

 burr-combs between the slatted board and the super. Be- 

 tween it and the brood-frames below, if the old-fashioned spac- 

 ing is used, und narrow top-bars, there is the usual set of burr- 

 combs. By the use of thicker and wider top-bars, and a bee- 

 space of li inch, we do away with practically all the burr- 

 combs. It seems there is no comparison between one system 

 and the other. The slatted honey-board only half does the 

 work, and the other system does it all, or practically so. — 

 Gleanings. 



Amalgamation. 



A union of the North American Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 and the National Bee-Keepers' Union, seems quite evident and 

 eminently desirable. There is indeed a "broad field of labor" 

 for such an organization, and, I opine, hundreds of dollars 

 waiting only for the announcement that the union has been ef- 

 fected, to pour into the treasury. My dollar is ready. — H. E. 

 Hill, in American Bee-Keeper. 



Bees and Grapes. 



Mr. Bonart, of this county, has a large vineyard on the 

 same ranch, and the vineyard is not injured by the bees. Mr. 

 B. says that one year, when the grapei^ines were in bloom, 

 there was a continuation of "northers" that kept the bees 

 from working upon the whole vineyard. Only that portion 

 nearest the apiary was worked thoroughly ; and when grapes 

 ripened, this portion of the vineyard had the most grapes. 

 Still, there are people who will conplain when a bee looks at a 

 grape. — Rambleb, in Gleanings. 



Winter Food and Packing. 



E. France says in Gleanings: "The article, by J. A. 

 Green, is excellent. His ideas of an abundance of feed for 

 winter just suit me, as my motto is that a great deal too much 

 honey is just enough. I don't want to feed bees in the spring 

 if it can be avoided. It doesn't do any harm if the bees have 

 a few pounds left over. I believe all who winter outdoors in 

 the North agree that the hives must have thick walls, or dou- 

 ble, filled in with chaflf or some other packing. I see that Mr. 

 Green packs four hives together to winter, and puts a large 

 box around the four packs inside of the large box, around the 

 single hives. I think it would be less trouble for him to use a 

 quadruple hive, without side packing. He would then have 

 his four colonies ready at any time for winter by filling the top 

 chamber with straw, or putting on top cushions. That is the 

 way we do it. It is just as good, and saves lots of hard work. 

 I see he also uses sealed covers. So do we." 



Feeding Back. 



I have had considerable experience in this direction just 

 how much does not matter, but I could give some figures show- 

 ing the actual results of some experiments that I have made 

 that would look very flattering. Some of my experiments in 

 feeding back have been profitable and some have not. Those 

 which have not I think are in the majority. Of course, I am 

 better prepared now to avoid the mistakes and blunders that 

 have made this work unprofitable; but I am not as enthusias- 

 tic over this subject as I once was. If properly conducted and 

 the conditions are favorable, without doubt it might be made 

 profitable in tlieright hands ; but with the average bee-keeper 

 I am sure it would result in disappointment and loss. — H. R. 

 BoABDMAN, in Review. 



Amount of Stores for Winter. 



Besides having winter stores in place early, emphasis is 

 put upon the matter of having not only enough, but an abun- 

 dance of stores— not only stores to last through the winter, 

 but to last through the critical time from the first flight in 

 spring till the main harvest begins. Here, however, there is 

 some conflict of opinion. B.Taylor is convinced " that bees 

 winter better with just enough always accessible honey in 

 their hives to feed them safely until warm weather." Wheth- 

 er his belief is correct or not, I feel pretty sure that in prac- 

 tice he gives his bees more than he thinks they will use before 

 warm weather, if by " warm weather" he means the time of 

 taking out of cellar ; for there is a difference of several pounds 

 in the amount different colonies use ; and as he doesn't know 

 beforehand which will be the heavy consumers, he must in his 

 winter preparations consider all heavy consumers. If he 

 gives all enough so that he feels snre they will have enough 

 until first spring flight, some of them will have enough to carry 



them through until the harvest. Whether it is best to have 

 such an abundance in the hive that no colony will need any 

 looking after until the main harvest, is one of the things that 

 may well belong to that "further discussion." Whether my 

 own theory agrees with his or not, my practice agrees at least 

 so far that it is with me a very comfortable thing to know 

 that I have some extra combs of honey ready to be given to 

 any colony that may ask for it before the harvest. 



As to the manner of ascertaining the amount of stores, not 

 much is said — the little that is said inclining to the opinion 

 that the colonies are weighed " with the eyes," as J. E. Crane 

 expresses it — that is, by looking in the hive at the frames. 

 Considering the uncertainty of this, unless every frame is care- 

 fully inspected, and that even then it's a hard matter to come 

 within several pounds of the exact weight, I can not help 

 thinking that most would prefer to weigh their hives if they 

 knew how easy a thing it is. With a spring-balance properly 

 rigged you can weigh the hives with less time and labor than 

 you can take out and inspect the frames. And then there's a 

 comfortable feeling in the thought that you know, and that 

 there's no guess about it. True, you'll not know to a certainty 

 just how much honey there is in the hive, but you will know 

 for a certainty the total weight, and from that you can make 

 a safer guess as to the amount of stores than in any other 

 way. — Db. Miller, in Gleanings. 



Feeding for Profit. 



Many bee-keepers must change their location, go to the 

 flowers, or change their methods of management. The bee- 

 keeping public says at present, and perhaps always will say, 

 that sugar-honey must not be produced, but there is no objec- 

 tion to bees living on 4-cent sugar instead of 15-cent honey. 

 It has been estimated, and I think fairly, that a colony of bees 

 consumes 60 or 70 pounds of honey during the year. If a 

 good portion of this can be cheap sugar instead of high-priced 

 honey it may make all the difference between a fair profit and 

 a serious loss. 



A change to a better location is preferable, if a change 

 can be made, as there is more profit in plenty of honey from 

 natural sources than in exchanging sugar for honey in a poor 

 locality ; but there are many in the latter kind of locality who 

 can't well change their place of residence but can still keep 

 bees at a profit, if not so large a one, by pursuing tactics sim- 

 ilar to those followed by our practical friend of East Town- 

 send, Ohio. — Review Editorial. 



Temperattire for Queen-Cells. 



The atmosphere ought to be about 80^ when we are 

 transferring the larvas. Our work is so rapidly done that we 

 have successfully manipulated our grafting-plan with the tem- 

 perature at 65^'. Only a few moments, and it is all done. I 

 will say five minutes is as long as we expose the larvae for 

 grafting 20 cells. Mr. Doolittle's plan is slower than ours, as 

 it is quite tedious to take and replace the larvie. Any day 

 from April 1st, to Nov. 1st is all right for this work here, un- 

 less it is raining. 



Ripe queen-cells may be exposed a short while, say an 

 hour or so, in a temperature as low as 65-. There is more 

 danger of the weather being too hot here in summer, than too 

 cool, for such work. A ripe queen-cell (or any other) exposed 

 to the sun's rays a few minutes, will be ruined. In either 

 grafting or removing ripe cells, you will be safe to expose the 

 larvaj or cells a short while in a temperaturefrom 65- to SO'^. 

 — Southland Queen. 



Dampness and Temperature of Cellars. 



I believe dampness in winter respositories is one of the 

 agencies in causing bee-diarrhea, only when the temperature 

 is so low as to condense the vapor on the inside of the hives 

 and combs. It would be well to consider the difference in ef- 

 fect on animal life, between a warm, damp atmosphere and a 

 cool damp one, in all our talk in the matter of cellar-winter- 

 ing. But, unless that front end of the cellar is well covered 

 with earth I should fear too low a temperature during cold 

 spells in winter. I should be much more concerned to have 

 the temperature entirely in my control, than about dampness. 

 Give me a cellar that will not vary from 45-, and good stores, 

 and I have little fear as to how the bees will come out in the 

 spring. This I say after many years of successful cellar-win- 

 tering, and after watching others who have invariably win- 

 tered their bees well also.— G. M. Doolittle, in Gleanings. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. 



