586 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the colonies and the honey taken 

 from each : 



No. 1, hybrids 113 lbs. 9 oz. 



No. 2, Italians 71 lbs. 10 oz. 



No.S, '■ 62 lbs. 12 oz. 



No. 4, " -51 lbs. 7 oz. 



No. 5, " 28 lbs. 1.5 oz. 



No. 6, " 19 lbs. 10 oz. 



No. 7, " 10 lbs. 14 oz. 



Total, 7 colonies 358 lbs. 13 oz. 



The above was all stored in two- 

 pound sections, and each section 

 accurately weighed. Had it not been 

 that No. 2 swarmed out on account o( 

 my absence for a few days, there is 

 no" reason to believe that it would not 

 have done as well as No. 1. The 

 swarm came out on the next morning 

 after my return, and I removed the 

 old hive, put a new one filled with 

 combs drawn out, on the old stand, 

 put the bees into it, and gave them 

 the upper story. Thus I got the Held 

 bees that wereout, in vk'ith the swarm. 

 They had to till a new set of frames 

 by the operation. The old colony was 

 used to make new ones. Just what 

 the ditference was cannot be given, 

 but I do not think it over-estimating 

 to say that it would have made the 

 total a round 100 pounds. Eight new 

 colonies have been made from the 7, 

 and so I have lo ready for winter. 



I aim to keep all Italians, but the 

 queen in No. 1 was from a good Ital- 

 ian strain, mated with a dark drone. 

 Her bees are about two-thirds well 

 marked Italians, the rest being as 

 black as any bees could be. I cannot 

 account for it, but the black bees in 

 that hive are much more active while 

 at work thnn tlie others. They go out 

 and in like a " black streak " of 

 lightning. 



In writing the above, I do not seek 

 to set an example in this pursuit. I 

 keep bees because it is a very pleas- 

 ant recreation, and for what little 

 time I can devote to it aside from of- 

 fice duties, I receive much benefit. If 

 others approve of the method herein 

 given, and any one is benefited. I 

 shall feel repaid for having tried to 

 explain it. 



Randolph, p N. Y., Aug. 29, 1885. 



Prairie Farmer. 



Irascible Bees— Italianizing. 



MRS. L. HARKISON. 



Several times this summer, mem- 

 bers of the family have politely re- 

 quested me to brimstone a certain 

 colony of bees. They declared the 

 bees an intolerable nuisance, though 

 one of the best in the apiary in 

 strength and honey gathering. As I 

 have never brimstoned a colony, I do 

 not intend to begin on this one. As 

 soon as the honey season closes, I pro- 

 pose to introduce a new queen, and by 

 another season the fighting bees will 

 all be gone. I shall feed the colony 

 for two or three days, before I try to 

 remove the queen, so if possible to 

 mollify their temper. If I can dis 

 cover the queen by removing the 

 combs, they may not get greatly ex- 

 cited, but if I have to brush them off 



and put them into a new hive and run 

 the bees through a queen-excluder, I 

 may have the whole colony about my 

 ears ; yet that queen must be removed 

 at all hazards. 



Those desiring to Italianize their 

 bees, or remove undesirable queens, 

 can do so cheaply now, as untested 

 queens are so low by the dozen, and 

 no time will be lost; the only draw- 

 back will be the uncertainty of win- 

 tering. A very successfuly bee-keeper 

 in this State removes in the fall all 

 the queens that are three years old, 

 and claims that he makes money by 

 so doing, as old queens, like old hens, 

 lav but few eggs. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



For the American Kee JoumaL 



The Honey Crop, Bee-Cellars, etc. 



7— DANIEL WHITSIER, (7.5—180). 



When at the Northwestern Conven- 

 tion held at Chicago last fall, I re- 

 ported that my last year's crop was 

 3,500 pounds ; but I now correct it 

 and wish to say that it was 4,000 

 pounds. I get "all of my surplus 

 honey with small V-shaped starters 

 in the sections, as I think it too ex- 

 pensive to use full sheets of founda- 

 tion at the present price of honey. In 

 this locality the market was injured 

 by some injudicious bee-keepers who 

 came to South Bend with honey 

 from Michigan, and sold it at 10 

 cents per pound, thereby not doing 

 justice to their fellow-bee-keepers. I 

 am very sorry that some honey-pro- 

 ducers should pursue such a course. 



Last fall I prepared 1.57 colonies of 

 bees for winter— 67 were put into a 

 cellar repository, and 90 were left on 

 the summer stands. I succeeded in 

 wintering S3 colonies, butonly 7G were 

 in fair condition, the other 7 being 

 merely nuclei. I now have ISO colo- 

 nies in good condition, and will give 

 the report of my honey crop when 

 the season is over. I will say, how- 

 ever, that I have taken nearly 5,000 

 pounds of white honey. 



Of the colonies wintered in the cel- 

 lar last winter, I lost none. I favor 

 cellar-wintering, and my bees had 

 natural stores— plenty of honey and 

 pollen. 



My bee-cellar is situated on the east 

 side of the main two-story part of my 

 house, imder the kitchen. I have 

 three cellars, one for produce, which 

 is under the main part of the house, 

 the long way of the building, north 

 and south, and is 18x24 feet. It has 

 three windows, two on the west side 

 and one on the east, all above ground. 

 It has one outside door at the north 

 end, and one entering the bee-cellar 

 at the west end. The bee-cellar has 

 another door at the north side (the 

 long way of the bee- cellar being east 

 and west), entering the third cellar 

 (the long way of which is north and 

 south). Another door entering the 

 third cellar from the outside at the 

 north end, is the aperture through 

 which I take my bees in and out, and 

 through which I get perfect ventila- 

 tion to raise and lower the tempera- 

 ture in the bee-cellar. It will be seen 



that I get ventilation through another 

 cellar into the bee-cellar. 



The bee-cellar has two windows, 

 one in the south side, and one in the 

 east end, all above ground. The win- 

 dows have sash with double lights, 

 and are hung on hinges, and can be 

 raised, when no bees are in the cellar. 

 On the outside of the window-frames 

 I have wire-screen to exclude mice or 

 other vermin that might infest the 

 cellar in summer. I darken the win- 

 dows with straw on the outside, and 

 between the screen and window sash, 

 so not a ray of light can penetrate the 

 cellar, except as I wish to examine 

 the temperature of the cellar when I 

 use a lantern. 



The bee-cellar is 6J^ feet in depth, 

 and has a gravel bottom, and is per- 

 fectly dry. It is not ceiled above. In 

 the kitchen above, 8 feet from the 

 east wall of my bee-cellar, I have a 

 brick rtue for the cook-stove. My 

 bee-cellar is 14x24 feet. Behind the 

 flue, and from the bee-cellar below, I 

 liave a pipe 4 inches in diameter, in- 

 tersecting the chimney with an elbow 

 just above, and opposite the entrance 

 in the chimney for the stove-pipe. 

 On the lower end of the pipe in the 

 cellar, 18 inches below the floor, I 

 have a funnel-shaped ventilator to 

 draw out the impure air of the cellar, 

 and it is a success. By placing the 

 hand in the mouth of the funnel, a 

 draft of air can plainly be felt. The 

 funnel is 12 inches wide at the bot- 

 tom, and 10 inches high. I keep a 

 thermometer in the centre and 4 feet 

 from the bottom of the cellar, and an 

 even temperature of 45'^ Fahr. was 

 obtained during the past winter for 

 about live months. 



I leave the full size of the hive en- 

 trance open, which is Hx\\}4 inches. 

 I use the Ileddon-Langstroth hive, 

 and want no other. I place the hives 

 one upon the other, next to the wall, 

 with the honey-boards inverted on 

 top of the hives, leaving a J|-incb 

 space between each honey-board and 

 tlie brood-frames, with an absorbent 

 on the honey-board. On the absorb- 

 ent I place two strips of wood between 

 the hives, leaving spaces between 

 each tier, as they are piled on top of 

 one another. I open and shut the 

 doors of the bee-repository and the 

 adjoining cellars as may be required 

 for the comfort of the bees. The col- 

 onies on the summer stands had the 

 hive-entrances wide open, and honey- 

 boards inverted, with absorbent, and 

 the caps fllled with planer shavings. 

 But cellar-wintering is best for this 

 locality. 



My apiary is located on sandy and 

 gravelly soil, and has, on the south 

 side, a large orchard, and west of the 

 orchard, apiary, buildings, etc., there 

 is a dense forest of young, vigorous 

 oak, hickory, etc., from 20 to 50 feet 

 high, which makes quite a valuable 

 protection against wind-storms and 

 severe cold. 



I will say that cotemporary with 

 Mr. Ileddon, I have practiced the 

 " contraction system," both for sum- 

 mer and for winter, for four years, 

 more or less, contracting the hives to 

 five frames, and I like it very much 

 for the production of comb honey and 



