AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



799 



Some Tliiiiis Leanieil In Bee-Keepins. 



O. W. WARNER. 



When I commenced to take care of 

 bees T bought a pattern hive ; it had 

 holes, and a screen over them, and as I 

 had no experience with bees, I thought 

 the holes were necessary, so the first 

 hives I made were 10x11 inches, and 11 

 inches deep, with an alighti«g-board at 

 the top'in front of each box; sol used 

 two boxes, which made a hive 22 inches 

 deep. I bored a 1}4 inch hole in the 

 back of each box, on which I tacked 

 wire screens. 



I soon found that where there was a 

 strong colony, they would seal up all 

 cracks, and also would seal up the 

 wire screen. The reason the weak 

 colonies did not seal up the ventilator, 

 was because there was not enough 

 warmth to make their wax" congeal. If 

 you will examine you will find particles 

 of wax that have dropped, whereas if 

 there had been enough heat, the wax 

 would have stuck. 



I find that tin-pan and bell rattling is 

 not necessary to settle swarming bees. 

 Instead of making all the noise I could, 

 though it was necessary to do something 

 to keep the bees from running away, I 

 do not make any noise, but let the bees 

 settle. I never use water, unless there 

 is a swarm that has come out unseen, 

 and is found clustered, then I sprinkle 

 them for fear the scouts will return 

 before getting them hived. 



The other day a swarm came out, 

 and as they were alighting, another 

 issued, and commenced to alight on the 

 first swarm. I put a quilt around them, 

 and the second swarm commenced to 

 alight on a pear limb near the ground. 

 Soon they commenced to alight on the 

 ground. I got the hive, put it on the 

 ground under the limb, shook the, bees 

 off the limb, and they went into the 

 hive. When I went to move them to a 

 stand, I saw a few bees running around, 

 excited, on the ground. I locked, and 

 there I found a dead virgin queen. I 

 found a frame of comb with a queen-cell 

 on it, and put it in, and they stayed, 

 and are at work." What killed the 

 queen ? 



I find the best hive for extracting is 

 14x14 inches, and 11 inches deep. The 

 front and back are 16 inches, sides 14, 

 and then a strip 1& Inches long, and 

 1x114 inches nailed at the bottom out- 

 side; the top strip 18 inches. Now let 

 the top strip extend 2 Inches in front, 

 and take a strip 1x8 by 16 in. nailed in 



front for an alighting-board. I use two 

 boxes. I can put either box on top if I 

 wish, and can take the boxes apart, and 

 divide the bees, as the frames will fit 

 either part. 

 Moab, Utah. 



Bee-Keeplii£ In Colo. Jowa aiiJ Wisconsin 



C. W. DAYTON. 



Hearing much about Colorado as a bee 

 and honey country, about the middle of 

 April I sold my apiary in Wisconsin and 

 came to work in an apiary this summer 

 in contemplation of moving my Iowa 

 apiary here by another season. 



Having been here, now, a little more 

 than a month, and as we are nearing the 

 honey harvest, I can begin to look back 

 over the records of the colonies and see 

 how they compare with those of Iowa 

 and Wisconsin. 



First, Coloradoans claim that they can 

 winter the bees well out-of-doors, in 

 single-walled hives. That is a fact. 

 They nearly all do. But they are doing 

 the same, too, in Iowa and Wisconsin, 

 these easy winters. We have had so 

 many easy winters lately, that they 

 leave the colonies on the summer stands 

 more and more. I remember in 1876, 

 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, and 1881 

 they did just that way, too — let the bees 

 remain on the summer stands. One bee- 

 keeper had one colony left out of 137; 

 another 3 out of 60 ; another 60 out of 

 170 ; another none out of 20, and so 

 on. The next winter the bees all went 

 into the cellar in hot haste ; every last 

 bee went into the cellar, or a big chaff 

 hive. 



Now it looks as if we were as liable as 

 ever to experience a winter that is no 

 joke to the bee-man, but a big joke for 

 old Borealis to play. 



It was described in one of the March 

 numbers of the American Bee Journal 

 how I winter my bees in a special reposi- 

 tory where the temperature was at 62'^. 

 Those colonies were put out on April 

 16, and were apparently as populous as 

 when put into winter quarters. Most of 

 them crowded every space in 8-frarae 

 Langstroth hives. 



The colonies which were wintered in- 

 doors were almost entirely without 

 brood — not more than 3 square inches 

 in any hive. Very few colonies wintered 

 out-of-doors had a patch of brood half 

 as large as my hand on April 15. That 

 has been the condition of my colonies 

 right along one winter after another in 



