TMl^ JEMSRICKH MMM JOURIfSlL'. 



217 



when returned to the stove), and a 

 good tea-spoonful of sulphur thrown 

 on, and the door closed. As soon as 

 "killed," the bees should be buried, as 

 they would revive in the air and 

 warmth. 



I am free to confess that it is a verj' 

 unpleasant job ; as much as I dislike it, 

 it seems as much of a necessitj' as the 

 killing of other domestic animals. 



It sometimes occurs, that vvc have 

 seasons almost honeyless. When the 

 revenue from the sale of honey is cut 

 off, with even 100 or 200 colonies, the 

 onlj- alternative is to buy sugar for win- 

 ter stores, or reduce the number of 

 colonies. Such a season occurred here 

 in 1871, and the autumn found me 

 with 130 colonies, with honey for only 

 50. I "took up" 80 colonies. The 

 nest season being favorable, and hav- 

 ing clean, empty combs for 80 hives, I 

 found no difficulty in filling them. 

 [1 Youngsville, Pa. 



UNPAINTED HIVES. 



Their A(Ivanta^e§ Over 

 that are Painted. 



those 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. THEILMANK. 



For a number of years I have in- 

 tended to write an article on painted 

 and unpaiuted bee-hives, as they have 

 proven their merits under my observa- 

 tion for the past twenty years ; but I 

 have always been somewhat afraid to 

 give my experiments publiclj', because 

 mo.st of our best bee-keepers take a 

 position in their writings entirely con- 

 trary to the results of ni}' experiments. 

 However, I will now give my views of 

 the question. 



The first year (1869), I kept bees in 

 a log, which I found in my timber. I 

 increased them to 5 colonies that sea- 

 sou, some of which I put into store- 

 boxes, nail-kegs, and whatever was 

 handiest to put the swarms in. 



The next season I got painted Lang- 

 stroth hives, and also in the third, 

 fourth and tifth seasons, but the fifth 

 season I also got 24 hives which were 

 not planed or painted on the outside, 

 but planed on the inside. By that 

 time I took quite an interest in bee- 

 keeping, and noticed that the un- 

 paiuted hives did not get so hot in 

 summer, and kept much drier in win- 

 der, and the bees wintered better in 

 them than in the painted hives. . 



This, of course, was a big thing for 

 me at that time, as I had a good deal 

 of trouble and loss in wintering my 

 bees ; therefore I did not paint any 

 more hives after that, though I did not 

 study the theory much, but I was satis- 

 fied that my bees did better, summer 



and winter, in the unpainted hives, 

 until I read Prof. Cook's experiments, 

 published ill thr Amekic;an Bee Jouu- 

 NAL, telling tluil his students blew out 

 a candle-light, llirough the pores of an 

 oak plank. 



This set me to thinking about my 

 unpainted bee-hives, and it became 

 clear to me, that the pores in the wood 

 are the correct theory, and I have 

 made very practical use of it ever 

 since ; though it never was clear to 

 me, that, after all the Professor's ex- 

 periments (whicli we have no reason 

 to doubt, even if we have to admit 

 that there must have been some big 

 "blowers" at the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College), he not only paints his 

 hives, but advises others to do so ; 

 hence I have asked myself many times, 

 to know what those experiments were 

 made for. Will Prof. Cook please tell ? 



It seems hardly reasonable, that 

 after the above-described experiments, 

 we should paint bee-hives, when we 

 consider the facts, that the paint will 

 close all the pores of the wood, 

 stop all circulation of air, and contract 

 the heat of the sun, so that the hives 

 get so hot that if a person put his hand 

 on the top or sides, he would get it 

 blistered in a short time ; and many 

 combs have melted down in the hives 

 from the same effect ; when, if the 

 wood were left unplaned and un- 

 painted, but little or no reflection 

 would be created, circulation would 

 not be stopped, and in cool nights the 

 vapor would not condense on the in- 

 side of the hive, as it would have a 

 chance to escape through the pores — 

 in a word, an unpainted hive keeps 

 nicer, drier, and does not get so hot 

 in summer as does a painted hive. 



Some will say that unpainted hives 

 look homely. Well, they may look 

 homely to some, but I can say that I 

 know some peojyle who look homely, 

 but when I get better acquainted, I 

 find that they have good hearts, and I 

 like them ; or, when I sit down hungry, 

 at a table, and it is loaded with a lot 

 of nice-looking dishes, some empty, 

 and some containing unfit food, then 

 my apetite will not get a bit of satis- 

 faction. 



Some pretend that painted hives will 

 last longer. This is only talk and 

 theory, without actual practice — at 

 least I find it so here. The hives that 

 I got 15 years ago, show that the un- 

 painted ones are, to-day, in better con- 

 dition than the painted ones that I got 

 the same year. Lately a number of 

 bee-keepers who visited me, wondered 

 that I do not paint my hives ; but when 

 I explained the advantage that there 

 was in it, and showed them the hives 

 used for 15 years, side by side, they 

 acknowledged that I had given facts. 



Theilmanton, Minn. 



PRIZE ESSAY. 



Exlraelcd Honey — How Pro- 

 duced l>}' the BccN. 



Wrlltdi for the American Bee Jfjumal 



BY MRS. L. HAKUISON. 



"The bee sits on the bloom, ex- 

 tracting li(iuid sweets." 



Many persons have a mistaken idea, 

 with reference to extracted honey ; 

 they think that it is an essence, ob- 

 tained by some chemical process. Pure 

 extracted honey knows no chemist but 

 the bee (or ever has known), which 

 sits on the flower, extracting or draw- 

 ing out sweets, made in Nature's own 

 laboratories, which are the corollas of 

 flowers. When the bee draws out the 

 honey from a blossom, she deposits it 

 in her sac, and flies to another flower. 

 In her rapid flight, much of the water 

 in the nectar is evaporated, and when 

 her load is completed, she flies home 

 and deposits it in a waxen cell, or 

 gives it to young bees to feed the 

 brood. 



THE WORK IN THE HIVE. 



In the economy of the bee-hive, each 

 inmate has its allotted task — the field- 

 workers gather nectar, propolis, pollen 

 or water, while those in the hive 

 secrete wax, build cells, prepare the 

 food for the queen, drones or brood, 

 store the honey when brought in, pro- 

 tect the colonj' against its enemies, 

 and are always on the alert to pre- 

 serve the happiness and prosperity of 

 the colony. 



GATHERING AND STORING HONEY. 



Now let us watch a colony of bees 

 during a high day in clover bloom. 

 See the well-laden bees, come sailing 

 in and dropping at the entrance, like 

 ships after a long voyage, coming into 

 port. The stevedores unload her 

 quickly, and she sails away with her 

 gauzy canvas spread to the wind, 

 after another cargo. ' 



Now let us take a look at what is 

 going on within the hive, as to the 

 deposition of the surplus honey brought 

 in. At night, all the workers are in- 

 vited to a grand " evaporating frolic," 

 and no youngster, at a sugaring-oft" in 

 a maple-sugar camp, ever enjoyed the 

 fun more. The thin honey is taken 

 from the cell, and worked back and 

 forth on their proboscides, in a similar 

 manner to the candy-workers ; while 

 the ventilators are plying their wings 

 vigorousl}', to waft off the moisture. 

 When the "sap" is boiled down to 

 honey, it is again stored in the cells. 



Now let US watch the building and 

 storing of a cell of honej-. The tiny 

 base is first constructed, a little con- 

 cave, and a drop of honev deposited ; 



