Nov. 8, 1900 



AMERICAN BEE J0UPNA1« 



711 



icry. This law of mimicry is a great savior in the lower 

 realm of life. In the horntail it keeps the bird away ; in the 

 Phymata it hides the foe so that the bee runs into the very 

 jaws of death. The student of insects, indeed of all life, 

 sees countless examples of this mimicry in his quests, and 

 soon comes to regard it as a great factor in the economy of 

 life. 



The Phymata is curious in the wonderful development 

 of its leg-jaws, which I have figured in detail in my " Bee- 

 Keepers' Guide." On pages 419-21 will be found full draw- 

 ings and description of the structure of the insect and its 

 work. 



SWARMING CRITICISMS. 



Mr. Editor, why can we not all be as kindly and sweet 

 in our criticisms as is Mr. Hasty ? I will tell you why it 

 is — we have not all the same measure of the Christ 

 spirit as he has. Wouldn't it be blessed if we had ? Hasty 

 illustrates most perfectly the passage, " Out of the abun- 

 dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." I wish all hearts 

 had the abundance of kindly feeling and sympathy that is 

 ever shown by our friend. I would like to visit his place ; 

 and there is one thing that moves me thus, and that is the 

 man there that every bee-keeper has learned to love. 



I, of course, meant famine swarms in speaking of 

 swarming because of no food. Swarms that occur early in 

 the spring — disturbance is surely what sends them off. I 

 still believe it is in other normal cases. We know that bees 

 often prepare the home in advance. This being true, we 

 may believe that they always do, till our good friend, or 

 some other, shows to the contrary. 



"2^ I have always wondered that the opinion so generally 

 prevails that bees will not cluster without the queen, as 

 that is almost always the case, as I have observed for years. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Successful Cellar-Wintering of Bees. 



BY DANIEL WHITMBR. 



MY hives are the 8-frame Langstroth, with honey- 

 boards on all, some with wood and others with per- 

 forated-zinc boards, and having a super of my own 

 construction for surplus comb honey, altho I use some of 

 the Heddon reversible supers with good success. 



~ I place bricks having two holes in each on all hives, 

 and use small, flat blocks, fitting them in the holes for sum- 

 mer use as sign-blocks. One side of the block is painted, 

 and the other is left the color of the wood, but planed, 

 upon which I make any record necessary in the manipula- 

 tion of my bees. By the position of the bricks, sign-blocks, 

 and entrance-blocks on the hives, I can see at a glance, no 

 matter what part of the yard I may be in, any colony that 

 has swarmed, any that may be queenless, any that may be 

 weak, and almost anything that needs to be done without 

 opening the hive for investigation. 



I pass thru the yard every day in swarming-time to see 

 by the sign-blocks any colony needing internal work of any 

 kind, such as pruning queen-cells, introducing queens to 

 queenless colonies, grafting cells, liberating queens, etc. 

 Of course, I use numbers on the hives, and keep a record on 

 a double slate for each season. 



I have catalpa trees in my apiary, which are very pro- 

 fuse bloomers, and do not make as dense a shade as some 

 other trees, but enough so I do not need shade-boards. 



My apiary contains 160 colonies, nearly all being pure 

 Italian bees, and are docile and amiable to handle. I have 

 not purchast a queen for 10 years or more, but rely on my 

 own rearing of queens for purity. 



i^- The front row of hives to the right in the yard is I'j 

 rods from my dwelling and bee-cellar, and just north of 

 them the rows of hives run east and west and due north 

 and south. The rows of trees are located the same way, 

 presenting a very attractive appearance to visitors in the 

 summer time. 



Under my dwelling, or a part of it, is located my winter 

 repository for the bees. The main part of the house stands 

 with the gable end north, and on the east of this, or to the 

 left, is an addition 14x24 feet, under which I place the bees, 

 on the floor ; and on a level with the floor of the main house 

 is our dining-room. In the east end of this addition is a 

 honey-room, made by a partition thru it 10 feet from the 

 east wall, and a door from the dining-room opens into it. 

 In this room I keep comb and extracted honey, as well as 

 doing the extracting, putting sections together, putting 

 foundation in brood-combs and sections, etc. In the parti- 

 tion an-d in^the dining-room there is a chimney, and in the 



back of the flue in the honey-room there is a 4-inch hole 

 just opposite the hole in the flue in the dining-room ; and 

 in the floor of the honey-room there is also a 4-inch hole 

 with a thimble in it to receive a 4-inch pipe running from 

 10 inches of the cellar-floor upward, intersecting the hole 

 in the flue in the honey-room, making a ventilator of 12 

 feet in length from the bottom of the ventilator. I have a 

 funnel-shaped apparatus to assist in drawing out the im- 

 purities of the cellar, if any have collected, and it is quite a 

 success, as there is quite a draft when the hand is placed in 

 the mouth of the ventilator. 



When the temperature of the cellar gets too low I close 

 the mouth of the ventilator with a stop with springs riveted 

 to it, pressing it against the inside of the pipe. I keep the 

 temperature as near 45 degrees, Fahr., as I can, and, 

 strange to say, it is not a difficult task to do this. 



Besides this ventilator, I have two windows in this cel- 

 lar — one on the south side of the cellar wall, and midway 

 from each corner. This window is under the veranda, the 

 latter being on three brick pillars, hence all open underneath, 

 giving plenty of air to the windows. 



Midway in the wall on the east end of the cellar I have 

 another window the same size as the first mentioned, 

 namely, 12x24 inches. These wiiadows lie the long way 

 horizontally with the wall on the outside of the window- 

 frame. I have wire-screen tackt on, such as is used for 

 screen doors and windows. This is for the purpose of keep- 

 ing bees, flies and varmints out of the cellar, as well as to 

 protect the straw in the ventilating-frame, which I am now 

 going to describe. 



This ventilator is composed of a frame made of H-inoh 

 lumber, made to fit exactly the inside of the window-frame, 

 and as large as the window-frame is wide inside, less the 

 jam or rabbet in which the glass window-sash fits. On one 

 side of these ventilating frames I nail strips of wood '2 inch 

 by J4 , then fill and pack snugly with §traw or marsh hay. 

 Then on the other side nail the saine kind and size strips. 

 These strips of wood keep the straw from falling out of 

 the frames. Wlien I place my bees in the cellar I shove 

 these ventilating frames in the window-frames of the cellar. 

 These frames are a necessity for the very good reason that 

 they keep the cellar dark so the bees will not leave the hives 

 in wintering, and at the same time give sufficient pure air, 

 which is quite satisfactory. 



On the inside of the window-frame I have a window- 

 sash containing six lights, three on each side of the sash, 

 giving a dead-air space when the sash is placed in the jam 

 and closed. These windows are used in cold weather to 

 prevent the cellar from getting too cold. The sash is hung 

 on hinges on the upper side, and to the upper jam of the 

 cellar window-frame, so that when I wish to raise the win- 

 dow-sash for ventilation, or for any other cause, all I have 

 to do is to take hold of the lower side of the sash and raise 

 it up, fastening it to the ceiling of the cellar. This gives 

 me perfect control of the interior of the cellar, so far as 

 humidity and temperature are concerned. 



My bee-cellar is 24x14 feet, outside measure, 6'2 feet 

 deep, is walled with stone from the bottom up, and is 

 18 inches thick. I would not have any other kind in this 

 locality. The bottom of the cellar is composed of sand and 

 gravel, and is perfectly dry. By the way, I am considering 

 the propriety of cementing the bottom of my cellar, for the 

 only reason that it would be more convenient and satisfac- 

 tory to sweep the dead bees off the cellar floor, yet I do not 

 know whether it would be for the best. Will some one hav- 

 ing experience come to my rescue by informing me about 

 it ? I wish to let good enough alone. 



I have another building north of the one just described, 

 11x24 feet, and a cellar under this one also. This cellar 

 runs northward toward the apiary, and is the same depth 

 as the bee-cellar. There is a door opening into it, thru 

 which I carry the bees into the repository. In cold weather 

 I keep this door closed, which is also used as a means of 

 ventilation. Pretty big tube, isn't it (this cellar) thru 

 which to breathe oxygen ? But, you see, I like much of it for 

 my pets, and it makes me rest at night. 



In the north end of this cellar I have another door with 

 a window in it, also a window on each side, so that I can 

 ventilate as I please, and darken them if I choose. 



I have but three steps to get on a level with the bottom of 

 the bee-cellar, as my house is on a hill, and the bottom of the 

 last cellar mentioned opens out in the side-hill. This makes 

 it easy to get into the cellar with the bees, which I carry by 

 means of a rope doubled just long enough so I can place it 

 over my neck and around the opposite side of the hive from 

 me, and under the cleat on the hive ,'2 inch below the top of 



