THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



615 



painted white, and the scale of tlie 

 thermometer copied on the slat of 

 wood so that it can be read from the 

 outside of the hive without disturbing 

 the bees. The wire reaching through 

 the top of the tube should be long 

 enough so that when moved up or 

 down both ends will have to point to 

 the same degree. If the lower end is 

 even with, say 60, the upper end of 

 the wire will have to be even with 50 

 on the slat on the outside of the hive. 

 This instrument can be used for 

 linding out tlie correct temperature 

 inside of the hive, or for a ventilator 

 both for out-door or cellar wintering, 

 by connecting a battery of two cells of 

 Le Clanche batteries with the wires 

 of the thermometer. The wire from 

 the positive pole should be connected 

 with a binding post of an electric 

 bell, and a second wire connected 

 with the other post from there to the 

 long wire of the thermometer. The 

 lower wire is connected with the neg- 

 ative pole of the battery, and the 

 upper wire is to be drawn up and set 

 even with any degree one wishes. 

 Whenever the mercury reaches that 

 degree at which the wire is set it con- 

 nects with the wire in the tube, and 

 the circuit is closed, and the bell will 

 ring. ]}y this means the correct tem- 

 perature in the hive is secured by 

 drawing the wire up or down ; this 

 can be done without disturbing the 

 bees. 



To keep the inside of the hive be- 

 low a certain degree, I used an electro- 

 magnet instead of the bell, the arma- 

 ture of this magnet being placed so that 

 it would regulate the size of the en- 

 , trance, their being a sheet-iron shut- 

 " ter 7 inches long and % of an inch 

 wide hinged to the hive and connect- 

 ing with the armature of the magnet, 

 so as to work freelj^. The entrance to 

 this hive was 12 inches by %, and 1 

 set the wire at 7i» on the slat, and left 

 it that way all winter until March 1, 

 when I raised it to 95, and removed it 

 from the hive on April 9. Now, at 70 

 above, this shutter would open two 

 or three times per day, and every time 

 it opened the entrance would be 

 %xl2 inches, which would remain 

 open from 10 to 15 minutes, when the 

 mercury would leave the iron wire, 

 the magnet would become demagnet- 

 ized, and the armature with the 

 shutter would drop back again, leav- 

 ing an entrance %x5 inches ; and so 

 on every time the mercury would 

 reach 70. 



I do not call this upward ventila- 

 tion, for above the frames I had good, 

 warm packing, and there could have 

 been no draft through the hive. This 

 colony was very quiet during the win- 

 ter, and had it not been for seeing the 

 iron shutter moving, I would have 

 been very uneasy about them. I 

 would often look into the entrance to 

 see if dead bees would get clogged 

 behind the shutter, but I found none, 

 and in fact I found only 49 dead bees 

 on the bottom- board by March 1. My 

 opinion is, if this entrance-regulator 

 had not been attached to this hive 

 the bees would have suffered with the 

 rest of the bees in the apiary. This 

 colony surely clustered better than 

 did the others, for it never got warm 



enough for them to spread over the 

 combs. This, I think, was what kept 

 them so quiet, and accounts for the 

 small loss of bees. 



The cause of so many dead bees 

 being found on the bottom-board 

 was mainly brought about by the 

 cluster spreading during a rise of 

 temperature in the hive, and if the 

 temperature should drop very sud- 

 denly, as is frequently the case, then 

 there will be plenty of chilled and 

 dead bees on the bottom-board. Some 

 say they are old bees, and their time 

 of life is up. I find this all wrong, to 

 some extent, for I have often scraped 

 bees from the bottom-boards which 

 showed no sign of life ; but upon tak- 

 ing them into a warm room they 

 would revive. This proves that they 

 chill and drop to the bottom-board 

 and die while there ; but the 49 dead 

 bees I found in this hive were actually 

 old bees. AVhy did I not tind young 

 bees among lliem y and why so few 

 dead ones V They must have clustered 

 well, and when they mflved they all 

 moved in a body and kept within the 

 cluster, and could not have spread 

 much, or I would have found more on 

 the bottom-board. 



I will again try this experiment the 

 coming winter, and report the result 

 in due time. 



Aurora,<x Ind. 



For tbe American Bee JouroaL 



Discussions, Black Bees, etc. 



15— C. A. CAMP, (31—46). 



It is perhaps unfortunate that most 

 apiarian discussions assume personal 

 mention, as " his " hive, book, feeder, 

 frame, and last, and worst of all, 

 "his" theory. 



One of the last subjects for discus- 

 sion is the "contraction system "as 

 practiced by Messrs. Doolittle and 

 Heddon. It is, no doubt, detrimental 

 to any colony so treated, because the 

 bees are not allowed to go as Nature 

 taught them. A colony confined on 4 

 to a frames, and forced to put their 

 honey above or at the sides, and not 

 allowed sufficient breeding-space, 

 comes out at the end of the honey 

 season a small colony, not fit for the 

 winter— and is like cramped Chinese 

 feet — all out of shape. Two or three 

 such colonies must be united to make 

 one of good size, as regards numbers ; 

 and I venture to assert that each in- 

 dividual bee is cramped in its vitality 

 to withstand a severe winter. 



Also, these colonies must be fed, 

 and they are set to work near winter, 

 or late in the fall, to store for them- 

 selves, and some of these sugar-fed 

 colonies have much of their stores un- 

 capped. After the honey harvest, bees 

 should rest, and save their strength 

 for the preparations of the winter. 

 Mr. A. I. Root tried to compel one 

 colony to do the storing for a whole 

 apiary, the frames being removed 

 when filled, and their places supplied 

 with others, but the project failed. 

 The reader is left to draw his own 

 conclusions. 



Now, how successful are Messrs. 

 Doolittle and lleddon , in wintering 



their bees V In 1880 Mr. Doolittle had 

 112 colonies, and last spring he bad 

 only 50 colonies left, having sold 

 some. The other advocate of con- 

 traction, is said to have expended 

 $700 for bees with which to " re-stock 

 his apiary," last spring. 



Deep and shallow frames must al- 

 ways be talked about. Who are 

 among the successful apiarists of the 

 world V Capt. E. J. Iletherington of 

 New York, is one of them. In one 

 year he is said to have sold $2.5,000 

 worth of honey. Bee-keepers, Mr. 

 Iletherington's frames are deep ones, 

 being 10>< inches in depth. Mr. Chaa. 

 Dadant says that bees winter better 

 on deep frames than on shallow ones. 

 We should follow those who are suc- 

 cessful, if we follow any at all. 



Another point is to prove the Ger- 

 man bees the best. Among the ad- 

 vertisements in the back volumes of 

 the Bee Journal, Mr. Johnson 

 charged $1.50 and upward for Italian 

 queens, and Mr. J. sold many bees; 

 but finally he changed his base and 

 began Germanizing his bees, and he 

 has at the present time over 150 colo- 

 nies of good lioney-gatherers, and 

 says that producing honey is more 

 profitable than queen-rearing. Still 

 Mr. J. keeps a colony or two of the 

 Holy Lands and Cyprians to test them 

 by the side of the German bees. He 

 also has a $5 queen from a well-known 

 apiarist to see how her colony- would 

 perform, and the end of the season 

 gives this report : " Black bees are a 

 long ways ahead." A prominent bee- 

 keeper says : "It seems tome that 

 the black bees winter the best." 



Painesville,!^ Ohio. 



The Ohio State Convention. 



The bee-keepers of Ohio met at 

 the State -Fair Grounds, and assem- 

 bled at 9:30 a. m. on Thursday, Sept. 

 3, 1885, in the room over the Apia- 

 rian Hall. Mr. A. I. Root, President, 

 called the meeting to order. 



Dr. Besse introduced the subject of 

 '' Bees Trespassing." 



He cited the case of a Wisconsin 

 farmer who had brought suit against 

 a bee-keeper whose bees, he claimed, 

 trespassed on his clover fields. The 

 Doctor said : " I do not think that 

 bees ever trespass. I think it pre- 

 posterous for a man to sue for bees' 

 trespassing. Bees are an advantage 

 to all farmers, by assisting nature in 

 the fertilization of flowers." 



C.E.Jones: I never had any com- 

 plaint, and I think them a blessing. 



A. I. Root : In my opinion, nothing 

 can be made out of the case. 



Secretary : In our town a neighbor 

 complains of bees trespassing in the 

 kitchens, and of eating their grapes. 



A. Benedict : Some people think 

 that bees puncture grapes ; but this is 

 a mistake. They work on grapes 

 after wasps and other insects having 

 strong mandibles, puncture them. 

 They never injure sound fruit. 



President: t have several hundred 

 grape-vines right over my hives, and 

 the grapes are never injured by the 

 bees. 



