74 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that is, for yourself, as thus : If you 

 and your bees in the fall with good 

 honey in the hive capped over, never 

 take it out on anyljody's advice to 

 feed sugar in its place ; but if you 

 find your bees deficient in stores, it 

 ■will be perfectly safe to feed them 

 with svrup made from No. 1 sugar, 

 provided you do it in time for them to 

 cap it over. As to the wintering, if 

 you find yourself with a good cellar, 

 by all means put all the weaker colo- 

 nies into it, and leave the strongest 

 outside, especially any that you may 

 have in double-walled hives, other- 

 wise you can protect those outside 

 from severe frost, in the manner 

 most convenient — packed with saw- 

 dust, chaff, straw, or something else. 

 I have kept colonies in single-walled 

 hives comfortable through the win- 

 ter outside by simply keeping the 

 snow shoveled up about them and 

 over them, with no other protection 

 than the second story on top filled 

 with sawdust, and well packed. 

 There was, of course, a free space left 

 over the frames for the bees, and a 

 porous cloth between that and the 

 sawdust With regard to the other 

 point — the much-vexed question of 

 upward or downward ventilation, or 

 both — each proposition is true or 

 false, depending upon the circum- 

 stances. This may seem very para- 

 doxical, but it is true all the same. 

 Under ordinary circumstances, how- 

 ever, I think there should be upward 

 ventilation to allow the moisture to 

 escape that way, especially in cellar 

 ■wintering; but it is enually true that 

 a strong colony of bees with other 

 conditions favorable, will winter well 

 hermetically sealed at the top. 

 Purthermore the principle is the same 

 in both cases, as will be seen if the 

 rationale is understood. 



As to Mr. Bull's other difiiculty : 

 It is certain that Xature abounds 

 in monstrosities and imperfections, 

 and tliat we are continually improv- 

 ing upon her works and methods. 

 And even the instinct of the bees, 

 which Mr. 15. imagines so perfect and 

 unerring is, in fact, by no means so, 

 which he might have observed if he 

 has long handled them. Mr. Ileddon 

 is quite right in saying that our su- 

 perior reason must come in and guide 

 the bees' imperfect instinct. Allow 

 me to give liere one instance of im- 

 perfect instinct out of many I have 

 noticed : Last spring a rather weak 

 colony of bees, with a queen some- 

 what advanced in age, and failing in 

 fertility, commenced to supersede the 

 mother long before the proper time — 

 before the snow was off, and five or 

 six weeks before any drones appeared. 

 When I found them out, the queen- 

 cells were capped over, no drone- 

 brood or eggs in the hive, and the 

 queen was "in the dumps" in the 

 corner. Now, even Mr. 15. must ad- 

 mit that this premature movement 

 was a great mistake on the part of 

 those foolish bees, for their queen, 

 although failing, was laying mod- 

 erately—enough to keep them up till 

 the proper time came for superseding. 

 As they were going, guided by their 

 instinct, they would undoubtedly 

 have perished. 

 Selby, Out. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



N. E. Ohio and N. W. Pa. Convention. 



The Northeastern Ohio and North- 

 western Pennsylvania Bee-Keepers' 

 Association held its sixth annual 

 meeting in the Y. M. C. A. rooms at 

 Erie, Pa., on Jan. U and 1-5, 1885. 

 The meeting was called to order by 

 President Twitchel, and the roll-call 

 was responded to by about twenty of 

 the old members. The Secretary's 

 report was read and accepted. Treas- 

 urer Phelps not being able to attend 

 the convention, Mr. J. H. Woodworth, 

 of West Williamsfield, O., was elected 

 Treasurer pro tern. Thirty-three bee- 

 keepers paid the annual membership 

 fee. The first subject presented for 

 discussion was, " The best method of 

 increasing colonies." 



Mr. U. E. Dodge, of Fredonia, N. 

 Y., said that he always obtained the 

 best results, both in honey and in- 

 crease, by employing natural swarm- 

 ing. 



Mr. D. Videto, of North East, Pa., 

 said that only a very few bee-keepers 

 desired increase ; but for such as do 

 want more bees, he would recommend 

 the following plan, as it had proved 

 successful with him : Hive the first 

 swarms that issue, and divide the 

 parent colonies into 2-trame nuclei 

 (each having at least one good queen- 

 cell) till you get the number required, 

 then divide all remaining parent colo- 

 nies which cast swarms, by adding 

 the frames (being sure to destroy all 

 queen- cells on these frames), one at a 

 time, to the nuclei, until they are all 

 built up into strong colonies, each of 

 which will have a laying queen much 

 earlier than if all were left to rear 

 queens for themselves after having 

 cast a swarm. 



" How to prevent swarming where 

 increase is not desired ';"' 



Mr. C. A. Camp, of Painesville, O., 

 said that he had been fairly success- 

 ful by removing the queen just before 

 a colony was ready to swarm, and let 

 them rear a young queen which would 

 hardly ever leave with a swarm. 



Mr. Videto said that he had tried 

 all the plans and methods that he had 

 ever read or heard of, and had never 

 found one yet that was successful 

 when running the apiary for comb 

 honey. He can suppress swarming to 

 a certain extent by tiering up to three 

 stories and running the apiary for ex- 

 tracted honey, and he would get just 

 about enough increase to make up for 

 loss in winter, thus keeping his num- 

 ber of bees good. If comb honey is 

 what he desires, he lets his bees 

 swarm, ^d then in the fall he doubles 

 the colonies back to the number he 

 wishes to winter. 



Mr. U. E. Dodge said that the more 

 room he can give his bees, the less 

 swarming there would be; but as this 

 can be done only when running for 

 extracted honey, and as there is com- 

 paratively little demand for that kind 

 of honey in this vicinity, he produces 

 comb honey and lets the bees swarm. 

 " What shall be done with the sec- 

 tions which are but partly filled or 

 capped, when taking off honey in the 

 fall V" 



The Secretary said that he ex- 

 tracted the honey from the unfinished 

 sections, and sent it to the kitchen to 

 be used in cooking, making vinegar, 

 etc., and put the combs into the su- 

 pers for the bees to clean the remain- 

 ing honey from them, after which he 

 put them" away to be used the next 

 spring, and it is surprising to see how 

 quickly the bees will fill these combs 

 with nice honey from fruit bloom. 



Mr. B. F. Jenkins, of Willoughby^ 

 O., objected to the use of these combs, 

 saying that they did not look as white, 

 when filled and capped, as newly built 

 combs. He said that he cuts the 

 honey out of the sections and sells it 

 in bulk to his neighbors at a low 

 price ; and leaves a wedge-shaped 

 piece of comb adhering to the top-bar 

 of the section, and being the same 

 length. These sections he replaced 

 in the supers in the spring, and he 

 thinks that his bees fill them nearly 

 as readily as though the whole combs 

 had been left in. 



" Is it advisable to destroy old 

 queens and replace them with young 

 ones V" 



J. McGonnell, of Waterford, Pa., 

 thought that it was better not to al- 

 low a queen to become over three 

 years old. In his apiary he always 

 supersedes them at that age, and 

 thinks that it pays to do so. 



Mr. A. S. Peck, AV^attsburg, Pa., 

 said that he thought that the bees- 

 themselves were the best judges of 

 when it was necessary to supersede 

 their queen ; and that they would 

 always attend to that business when 

 it was necessary. 



Mr. M. E. Mason, Andover, Ohio, 

 said that he thought that the old 

 queens often died In the winter, leav- 

 ing the colony without the means of 

 rearing another, and that this condi- 

 tion was not discovered in the spring- 

 until it is too late to save the colony. 



Mr. Videto remarked that the best 

 way to have good queens is, when 

 doubling up in the fall, to save the 

 best queens and destroy the poor ones. 

 By pursuing this plan tor a few years, 

 any one can make a wonderful im- 

 provement in his bees. 



'• AVhich is the better to- hold sec- 

 tions, wide frames or cases ?" 



Mr. M. E. Mason said that he was 

 well aware that the wide frames, as 

 made at present, are not perfect ; but 

 he has not seen any device yet that 

 suits him better, lie thinks that the 

 Heddon case comes the nearest to 

 being what he desires, and thinks that 

 if it was constructed so as to be used 

 with separators, that he would adopt 

 it ; but he does not want any arrange- 

 ment whicli will not admit of the use 

 of separators. Mr. Dodge's ideas coin- 

 cided with those of Mr. Mason. 



" Is it advisable to use comb foun- 

 dation in sections V" 



Pres. Twitchel, of Andover, O., said 

 that he knew of no other way to get 

 sections perfectly filled except by 

 using full sheets of foundation. 



Mr. McGonnell thought that the less 

 we use, and get straight combs, the 

 better. 



Mr. Videto advised the use of small 

 starters ; for if full sheets were used 

 as thin as he would want them, the 



