THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



125 



■^0^^^m^m:^., 



Rutledge, Pa., June 13, 1898. 

 Dear Editor — I saw in a bee journal 

 recently a suggestion about getting rid 

 of the after effects of foul brood by pour- 

 ing kerosene on the inside of the hive 

 and igniting it. It strikes me that if heat 

 be the thing wanted, a plumber's gaso- 

 line torch would be just the thing, be- 

 cause it generates an intense heat. 

 Some apiarians are using formalin in 

 solution. 



M. F. REEVE. 



United States Dept. of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C. 



June 7, 1898. 

 W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co., Falconer N. Y. 

 Dear Sirs — The hive material ordered 

 from you recently was duly received, 

 and has given satisfaction — in fact, 

 though I have bought bee-supplies to a 

 greater or less extent every year for 

 twenty-five years past, I have never 

 seen greater accuracy nor any better 

 material than your goods show. 



Yours truly, 

 FRANK BENTON. 



Verdoy, N. Y., March 28, 1898. 

 Editor American Bee-Keeper: 



Dear Sir — Permit me to say for the 

 benefit of your .readers, that in winter- 

 ing out of doors in an eight-frame hive, 

 I find it an advantage to remove one 

 frame — leaving but seven. In this way 

 you get more bees together and they 

 are kept warmer. Give a little venti- 

 lation at the top, and if the seven 

 frames are full of honey they will win- 

 ter out of doors all right, without pro- 

 tection. And furthermore, without 

 protection they feel the cold winds 

 strike the outside of the hive and will 

 not come out every bright day to be 



chilled and die, which they will do if 

 protected on the northwest, as I have 

 proven during the past winter. You 

 cannot freeze a colony to death that 

 has plenty of stores and ventilation. 

 Heat without ventilation produces 

 mould, and that is what kills the bees. 

 The cover was blown off of one of my 

 hives last winter when the mercury 

 was twenty degrees below zero, and 

 when I found it the bees' only covering 

 was a piece of canvass, still they came 

 through all right. 



Yours truly, 

 E. CHARLES McCLEARY. 



Freeport, Me., April 5, 1898. 

 Editor American Bee-Keeper: 



Dear Sir — I began my bee-keeping 

 with two colonies in the fall of 1894, 

 never having anything to do with 

 them before, and I now have eight in 

 good condition this spring; have sold 

 some to keep the number small. The 

 winter of '94 I put my two colonies in 

 the attic, but found the temperature 

 so uneven that I lost most of the bees 

 before it was time to put them out 

 doors. In April one built up rapidly 

 and gave me two swarms and twenty 

 pounds of honey that season, while the 

 other failed to swarm or make any 

 honey. The next winter I used dry 

 goods boxes for outside cases, after fill- 

 ing the half-story full of fine hay from 

 the lawn. I set them in the boxes fac- 

 ing the southeast and then filled the 

 box full of hay and leaves. My only 

 trouble with that was the rain running 

 through and freezing around Lhe hives, 

 still, with that trouble the bees win- 

 tered well. Two years ago I built a 

 bee house for summer and winter use, 

 large enough for nineteen colonies. 1 

 use portico hives and fit the front into 

 openings left in the walls for that pur- 

 pose. My bees are thus protected from 

 wet and heat of summer, and still may 

 pass freely in and out at any time. The 

 house is of benefit in cool nights in 

 summer and fall, when the bees have 



