42 



TrnW, MMERICTtPf SBM J@13;RHS1.. 



6 feet below the surface, and pai't of 

 the distance the one end enters the 

 cellar, the other terminating by a pipe 

 several feet along the surface of the 

 ground. There was a drain below tlie 

 pipe, to keep the air-pipe from acting 

 as a drain and containing water. The 

 degree of cold outside made some 

 change in the temperature, as it en- 

 tered the cellar ; also the velocity of 

 the wind. The temperature of the 

 cellar ranges from 'iS'-' to 40°, gener- 

 ally ; at that temperature there ap- 

 peared to be no In-ceding, and the 

 bees seemed to come out vigorous. At 

 450 to 48° more bees died, and they 

 consumed more stores, and would 

 breed. 



W. R. Brown — My cellar is very 

 dry, and the temperature ranges from 

 35^ to 37'-'. I have never lost a colony. 



Mr. Pettit — Of course the covering- 

 over the frames makes a difference. If 

 much covering is used, the tempera- 

 ture of the hive is higher than if there 

 is not so much covering. 



President Anguish said that much 

 depended upon the soil the cellar is in. 

 In reference to outside and inside win- 

 tering, bees wintered outside would 

 dwindle less in the spring than those 

 kept inside. He gave his experience 

 in burying bees. 



Mr. Pettit said that burying bees 

 would be a thing of the past in Canada. 

 It was important to have ventilation 

 inside or outside regular. 



R. F. Holtermann reported that his 

 bees appeared to be doing nicely. 

 There were very few dead bees, and 

 the rest were verj' quiet. 



A vote of thanks was unanimously 

 accorded to Mr. Pettit for his presence, 

 to which he replied in a pleasant 

 manner. R. F. Holtermann, Sec. 



LAYING WORKERS. 



My Experience avUIi Laying 

 Workers, etc. 



Wrltttn Sor tli^ Amerir^n Bee Journal 

 BY FRED BECHLY. 



Last summer I had a colon}' with 

 laying workers. I divided it into four 

 parts, and gave a young queen to each 

 part. Two of these small colonies liad 

 laying workers, and these workers 

 continued to lay, until the queens were 

 mated and laying ; after that I could 

 tell nothing more about them. 



Now it would seem that the laying 

 workers do not destroj' queens, but 

 are, nevertheless, the cause of some 

 trouble. They seem to cause a divi- 

 sion in the colony. It looks as if 

 some of the bees consider themselves 

 queenless, while otliers do not ; some 

 build queen-cells, while othei-s destroy 

 them. 



I commenced the season of 1888 

 with 22 colonies, increased them to 33, 

 and obtained 930 pounds of honey — 

 about 60 pounds being comb honey, 

 mostly gathered from fall flowers. 



Care of Surplus Combs. 



I take the combs from the extractor 

 without allowing the bees to clean 

 them, and store them away in emptj' 

 hives, or surplus cases. I crowd from 

 12 to 13 frames into a 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive. I lind the moths do not 

 like to lay their eggs in combs wet with 

 hone}'. Of course the hives must be 

 closed against bees. 



Searsboro, Iowa, Jan. (i, 1889. 



QUEENS. 



Renewing tlie Vigor of a Colony 

 by Giving a Mew <tuecii. 



Written for the American Rural Home 



BY J. H. ANDRE. 



If the majorit}' of bee-keepers that 

 keep black or hj-brid bees, knew how 

 easy a matter it is under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances to introduce a queen, bee- 

 keeping would advance with a zeal 

 never known before, within the next 

 five years. 



Suppose one has a few colonies in 

 his apiarj' that are only just holding 

 their own, while others are storing 

 surplus. An examination reveals the 

 fact that it is a weak colony from the 

 cause of a poor queen. If j'ou destroy 

 such a queen, and allow the bees to 

 rear another, you lose from 20 to 30 

 days' time, according to whether they 

 take eggs just laid, or larvre, from 

 which to rear one. After all, you may 

 have an inferior queen by this method. 



If you wait until it is too late for 

 them to rear a queen from their own 

 resources, and destroy all queen-cells, 

 giving them eggs from another colony, 

 you lose a longer period of time. 

 Therefore, taking the loss of time and 

 change of blood into consideration, it 

 is a better way to send to some reliable 

 dealer for a queen. 



The combined "shipping and in- 

 troducing cage " I do not like, as it is 

 too large, and admits the chance of 

 giving the bees too much shaking in 

 transit ; also it is apt to warp or swell, 

 rendering it almost impossible to draw 

 the tin .slide. Then when you try to 

 put it in the hive, it will not slip in 

 between the regular space between 

 two frames ; and last but not least, one 

 must destroy larvae and brood in push- 

 ing the tins through the combs, and 

 where the cage rests against the face 

 of the combs, brood is frequently de- 

 stroyed also. 



The shipping-cage used by G. M. 

 Doolittle suits me well. It is 2J inches 



long by li wide, and nearly 1\ thick, 

 with an inch hole one inch deep close 

 to one end in the narrow side of the 

 cage. A seven-sixteenths hole is bored 

 through the solid end of the block, 

 and near enougli to the opposite side 

 of the block from which the larger 

 hole is, so that the small one intercepts 

 the latter below its bottom about one- 

 fourth the widtli of the smaller hole, 

 thus forming a shoulder so that a stick 

 of candy will stay in place, and not 

 slip into the cage and kill the bees. 

 With such a cage as this, all one has 

 to do in introducing is to cut a hole in 

 a comb the size of the cage, and slip it 

 in so that the side with the screen on 

 is even with the surface of the comb, 

 so as to allow the bees to feed the 

 queen, when they will own her. 



In 24 hours remove the netting 

 carefully, slide the frame in place, 

 and the queen is introduced. The 

 cage may be removed at some future 

 time. 



The cage could be made so that it 

 could be used Ij inches wide, when I 

 should consider it perfect, as li inches 

 is almost too wide to go into most 

 frames. I think that a small cros.s- 

 pin would hold the candy, and this 

 would dispense witli the shoulder, and 

 the cajie could be used narrower. 



SEASON OF 1888. 



Report for tlie Past Season- 

 marketing Honey. 



WrUUn for the American Bee Journal 

 BY EVAN R. STYER. 



On March 28, 1888, I examined 11 

 colonies that I had in winter quarters. 

 It was a warm day, and having all 

 things ready, I commenced with No. Ij 

 and having transferred it to a new 

 hive, I gave sealed honey, contract- 

 ing the brood-chamber, and replacing 

 the chaif cushions. Thus I continued 

 until I had the 11 all nicely cleaned 

 and repacked. Nine colonies were in 

 good condition, 2 were rather weak, 

 and during April they dwindled to 

 almost nothing. 



Sometime in Api-il I moved them 

 about three miles, to a farm which I 

 now occupy. The move was a success- 

 ful one, having lost scarcely any bees 

 by the operation. 



The spring was backward and cold, 

 and the bees did not build up vei-y 

 fast. I had six swarms in June 

 and July, and one in September. Dur- 

 ing June 6 colonies gave me IGO 

 pounds of extra fine white clover 

 honey, nicely capped, in sections com- 

 pletely filled. In July I took off 150 

 pounds more of the same quality. 



For August I got nothing. In Sep- 

 tember I obtained about 100 pounds of 



