806 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAJL. 



nies thus wintered are far aliead of 

 those wintered in the cellar. The combs 

 came out in the spring dry and free from 

 mildew, and the bees were active and 

 healthy, with no great lot of dead bees, 

 as is usually the case when wintered in 

 the cellar. Last winter was a mild one, 

 and it may be thought that that had 

 something to do with the wintering of 

 my bees ; but 1 know a man in Chicka- 

 saw county, Iowa, who has wintered 

 bees in chaff hives for years, and has 

 always been very successful in thus 

 wintering them. My chaff hives are 

 made of common ship-lap lumber, cov- 

 ered with flooring ; they take the Lang- 

 stroth frame, and are high enough to 

 enclose a super. 



LaFayette Noekis. 

 Aurora, Iowa, June 2, 1892. 



The Use of Bee-Escapes. 



In this day and age when there are so 

 many persons that are trying to get up 

 something new in the line of bee-sup- 

 plies, we very often are beaten by pay- 

 ing money for some useless thing, that 

 someone patented ; but we most be very 

 careful and not buy before we investi- 

 gate. I believe that a person who uses 

 his brains, and gets up a really good 

 article, ought to have the benefit of it. 

 There has been considerable in the bee- 

 papers of late about bee-escapes, and 

 our attention has often been called to 

 them. I used three different kinds of. 

 bee-escapes last season, and found that 

 two of them did the work satisfactorily, 

 viz : the Hastings and the Porter. The 

 Hastings bee-escape will clean a case of 

 sections in from 2 to 4 hours, leaving 

 the case so quietly and quickly that 

 it is nothing but fun to clean an apiary 

 of its surplus comb honey. No. bee- 

 keeper ought to be without a good bee- 

 escape, and I think after using it once, 

 he will continue to do so. 



W. E. Clark. 



Oriskany, N. Y. 



Making Swarm-Catchers. 



In years past the sentiment generally 

 expressed was unduly opposed to patent 

 rights among apiarists, but within the 

 past year I have noticed patents hav(! 

 been granted on hives and other fixtures 

 which have been in general use for 

 years. I notice in a recent number of the 

 American Bee Journal a patent has 

 been granted on a swarm-catcher which 

 I have had in use in my apiary for the 



past two years, and which was fully 

 described by'Eobert Carver, on page 403 

 of the Bee Journal for 1890. He 

 there says that he had 20 in use in his 

 apiary at that time. If I were going to 

 make them, I would be glad to do it for 

 $2.00 apiece. About the way they are 

 made, and the cost, are as follows ; Get 

 some wire-cloth 36 inches wide, cut it 

 diagonally, and you have the two side 

 pieces. Then get another piece 28 

 inches wide, cut it in two in the middle, 

 and you have two tops. We get the 

 cloth here in the country town at 15 

 cents a yard. The cost of netting for 

 each catcher would be about 25 cents ; 

 lumber not over 20 or 25 cents, leaving 

 $1.50 for a few nails, paint, and about 

 23^ hours' work by hand. 



Henry Durham. 

 Sylvania, Ind., June 6, 1892. 



Prospect of an Immense Crop. 



It has been very backward and wet 

 here this spring, having rained almost 

 every day for a good while. We have 

 had now two days without rain, and the 

 bees are making good use of the good 

 weather. I have not been around over 

 the country very much, but where I 

 have been there is a prospect of an im- 

 mense crop of white clover. It is now 

 beginning to bloom, also raspberries 

 and blackberries, and I think that the 

 bees will get along all right now. I 

 started in the winter with 10 colonies of 

 bees, and got through with 7. One 

 colony came out on May 29, and went 

 into another hive. They had no honey, 

 and but very little brood. 



H. T. Lathrop. 



Willard, Iowa, June 6, 1892. 



Stealing Eggs to Bear Q,ueens. 



Mr. Geo. E. Fellows mentions this 

 subject on page 741. I have also seen 

 the subject discussed before. The prob- 

 ability is that Mr. F. had some queens 

 in his yard that were prolific layeran to 

 that extent that several eggs were laid 

 in some cells. Of course, all but one 

 would be removed by the bees, and it 

 might be possible that some over-nice 

 house-keeper (or rather hive-keeper) 

 when carrying them from the hive, 

 dropped some at the entrance of the 

 hive containing the queenless colony. 

 This being the case, it would be nothing 

 str-ange that they should be taken to 

 rear a queen, no more than they shoulQ 

 be taken from a cell in the ordinary way^ 



