THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



471 



add a single trutli, more than to show 

 that ill had met the same conditions. 



Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, on paRe 309 

 of Gleanings^siiys : " Well, my friends, 

 packing or somelhing, has again en- 

 abled ' Cyula Linsvvik ' and her sister 

 to successfully winter their entire 

 apiary of 61 colonies. Please do not 

 say it is locality, because nearly all 

 the other bees in that vicinity are 

 dead." On page 373 of Oleanings. Mr. 

 A. H. K. Blood, of Massachusetts, 

 says: "Our home apiary has win- 

 tered as usual, without loss. . . . 

 In the past ten years we have lost 

 bees twice. One winter they had a 

 short supply of honey, and as we were 

 away from home, about one-fourth of 

 them starved ; at another time we 

 tried to winter several small colonies 

 which should have been united. These 

 two experiments are all we need." 

 On the same page of Gleanings, Mr. 

 H. 11. Boardman, of Ohio, says : " My 

 bees are in a prosperous condition. 

 . . 1 liave three large apiaries 

 to care for and look after, with at 

 present but one assistant ; this I am 

 sure will be a sulHcient apology for 

 not trying to add one more to the 

 voluminous list of articles on winter- 

 ing. Yes, I wintered my bees in 

 spite of honey-dew. Not only had I 

 tliousands of pounds of it in the win- 

 ter stores, but I fed up several colo- 

 nies upon it after taking away every 

 thing and giving them only empty 

 frames or foundation, and these with- 

 out exception wintered in perfect con- 

 dition as well as the very best." 



I mention the above three instances 

 of successful wintering because they 

 are convenient and to the point, and 

 are widely separated from each other, 

 embracing both out-door and in-door 

 wintering; (many more could be men- 

 tioned). Some apiarists have boasted 

 of their success with only sugar 

 syrup; in the face of the foregoing 

 statements, the instances of winter- 

 ing on sugar stores only show that 

 such apiarists have met the conditions 

 necessary to successful wintering, 

 and their success does not add one 

 whit in favor of the " pollen theory." 

 Instances like those mentioned above, 

 cannot in the least be considered ac- 

 cidental, embracing a period of years 

 which includes at least two- (1880-1 

 and 18S4-5) of the most disastrous 

 winters on bees on record. 



Notwithstanding Mr. Heddon's 

 statements in reply to my article, 

 "tliey come through the winter in 

 nice condition, with almost no air at 

 all," and "they die of diarrliea, in 

 dry repositoi'ies, with the best of ven- 

 tilation," we find that those who win- 

 ter bees with a success vniprecedented 

 by any of the advocates of the " pol- 

 len theory," do so by securing to their 

 bees an abundance of ventilation. Mr. 

 Boardman puts his bees into winter 

 quarters, without bottom-boards to 

 the hives, about Nov. 1.5, and takes 

 them out about April 1.5. The success 

 of this well-known apiarist,duringtlie 

 past winter of unparalleled severity 

 on bees, with the poorest of all stores, 

 (if we except glucose), and his liun- 

 dreds of prosperous colonies set at 

 naught the last vestige of experi- 

 ment and argument in favor of the 



" pollen theory," and severs the last 

 thread of truth in its support; thus 

 crusliing at a single blow, a theory 

 that has cost ttie bee-keepers of 

 America hundreds of dollars, occupied 

 space enough in our most prominent 

 apicultural periodicals to coTistitute a 

 volume larger than any work extant 

 on apicultural science, and for the 

 glory of which eminent men in the 

 science and art of apiculture have 

 clamored. Bee keepers, I am sorry, 

 but " truth munt and will prevail." 

 Liverpool, Jills. 



American Agriculturist. 



Management of Bees During August. 



L. C. ROOT. 



Bee-keepers are liable to make a 

 mistake at this season, either in sup- 

 plying their colonies with surplus 

 boxes, or extracting honey too late. 

 We should keep in mind the condi- 

 tions of successful wintering. I am 

 fully convinced that the cause of the 

 heavy losses in bees during the win- 

 ter, may be found in the conditions 

 produced by securing too large a yield 

 of surplus honey, and too little atten- 

 tion to proper preparation for winter- 

 ing. The gain in quantity of honey 

 secured is much less than "the result- 

 ing loss sustained in bees. If the 

 colonies store late in the season, more 

 honey than is required for wintering, 

 the combs containing it can easily be 

 removed, and preserved for use when 

 needed in the spring. This late-gath- 

 ered honey, which is usually of poor 

 quality, if properly used, will be 

 found, as a rule, to be worth more to 

 the bee-keeper than will be realized 

 for it when sold. Much might be 

 written upon the great need of ob- 

 taining less honey than usual, and the 

 importance of making every effort to 

 produce only that which is fine in 

 quality, and in the best marketable 

 shape. 



The honey market has become 

 much unsettled ; this is largely the 

 result of a great effort on the part of 

 bee-keepers to secure large yields of 

 poorly cured honey, both in the ex- 

 tracted form and in the comb, partly 

 sealed in scantily tilled boxes. What 

 the honey market of the future is to 

 be, will depend greatly upon the 

 action of the bee-keepers. We must 

 first perform our own part well in 

 producing a standard article, after 

 W'hich we may make reasonable de- 

 mands of the trade. Having brought 

 our products up to a proper standard, 

 let us make suitable elfort to bring 

 them into notice. Well arranged ex- 

 t'.ibits at our county Fairs will do 

 much towards establishing a profitable 

 home trade, which is of great impor- 

 tance to every bee-keeper. We have 

 injured ourselves by neglecting to 

 create such a home market. The 

 custom of sending our honey from all 

 quarters to the New York market, 

 has done more to injure our industry 

 than any other one thing. If every 

 bee-keeper would realize the truth of 

 this statement, and do his part in 

 establishing a home trade for a higher 

 grade of honey, we should soon liave 



as firm a market for our various prod- 

 uces as do producers in other branches 

 of agriculture. 

 Mohawk, 5 N. Y. 



For tbe Amencan Bee Journal. 



Wind-Breaks for Apiaries. 



W. n. STKWABT. 



On the evening of July 8, a terrific 

 wind-stinin passed through a portion 

 of our county, doing much damage to 

 buildings, fences, orchards, etc., and 

 among other damages done, we are 

 informed that " Mr. J. 0. Hatch had 

 all Ills bee-hives turned over, and 

 fences and orchard entirely blown 

 down." 



I have kept bees several years 

 where I now live, on quite a high 

 knoll, and exposed to the northwest 

 winds that sometimes come very 

 heavy ; I have always been fearful 

 that iny hives would be blown over, 

 and luy bees ruined, and for this rea- 

 son I have kept several hea^y stones 

 on the hives, which I must liftoff and 

 on again, every time that there is 

 anything done with the bees. This 

 makes much hard work, especially for 

 an old man who is somewhat crippled 

 with rlieumatism ; and many times it 

 has made my poor, old, lame back 

 amost cry. 



1 am not informed whether Mr. 

 Hatch saved any of his bees or not, 

 but it does seem to me that a wind 

 that would turn over a hive would 

 keep it rolling until all the combs 

 would be mashed, and the colony 

 completely ruined. Because of this 

 danger, I have tried to devise some 

 plan to hold the hives firmly, without 

 the use of those heavy rocks ; but I 

 failed to hit on anything as yet, that 

 appears like much of an improve- 

 ment. Cannot some one give in the 

 Bke Journal a cheap, practical and 

 effectual plan? I have sometimes 

 thought of building a tight board- 

 fence on the vv-est side of the hives, 

 but my yard is only 132 feet wide, and 

 it would" be necessary to build several 

 of these wind-breaks running parallel 

 with each other, to accommodate or 

 protect all the hives, which make 

 several rows across the yard. 



I work my hives on the " tieriug-up 

 plan." as I like to have the honey re- 

 main in the hive initil it is all capped 

 over and well cured ; I get a much 

 better quality of honey in that way. 

 It is sometimes necessary to tier up 

 the hives three, and even four deep, 

 in order to keep plenty of empty 

 combs in some sections, while the 

 older honey is being capped in other 

 parts. I find that during the bass- 

 wood flow (which is now in its height) 

 the bees store honey very rapidly if 

 we give them plenty "of empty combs, 

 but if we give them no new combs 

 until all they have are completely 

 capped, the work of storing goes on 

 slowly during the completion of the 

 work on the one set of combs. The 

 capping and curing can be done for 

 many combs after the honey-fiow 

 slacks up a little. I work all for ex- 

 tracted honey. I think that working 

 for comb honey is wasting much time 



