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taining to bee-culture without its being 

 a real pleasure to nie, and this was 

 brouglit about by those winter even- 

 ings when I first began to read up the 

 subject. Many a night have I been 

 awake from one to three hours, plan- 

 ning how to accomplish some result 

 I desired to achieve in regard to the 

 practical part of apiculture, which with 

 the help of what I had read, caused 

 me to accomplish what I had sough*, 

 after. 



I have found that if I woidd suc- 

 ceed, that as far as possible I should 

 read mainly those articles which came 

 from the pens of practical bee-keepers, 

 for such were the ones who made a 

 success of their calling, and told how 

 they did it. If you wish to learn farm- 

 ing, to whom do j-ou go, the man 

 whose farm grows up to weeds and 

 briars, or to tlie man who produces 

 good crops each year ? To the latter, 

 of course ; and so you should do in bee- 

 keeping. 



I know that manjr of our most prac- 

 tical bee-men do not write for publica- 

 tion, and for this reason we can bring 

 in visiting, during the winter, as 

 another help along this line of our 

 qualification. Then we have our bee- 

 . conventions, which are held for this 

 special purpose, and while the cost 

 may be considerable, yet if we im- 

 prove the time as we sliould, we can 

 learn more than enough to make that 

 cost good, beside the benefit which wo 

 derive socially. 



All of these things are great helps to 

 us, and should be eagerly sought after, 

 as they will be if we have a natural 

 qualification for the calling which we 

 have chosen. If any persons love 

 toniethiug else more than they do to 

 study into bee-keeping, and only do 

 this as a sort of duty, let them be as- 

 sured that they have mistaken their 

 calling, and the sooner they leave it 

 and go.to that which at all times gives 

 them pleasure, the better they will be 

 oil", and the better it will be for the 

 wol'ld. 



Up^'ard Ventilation in Hives. 



If no upward ventilation is provided 

 for our bees during the winter, the 

 moisture exhaled by them condenses 

 and forms ice on tlie walls and top of 

 the hive, making their home uncom- 

 fortable in cold weather, and as soon 

 as the weath(!r moderates suthciently, 

 the ice above and at the side melts, 

 causing wet and damp combs, whieli 

 tends to dilute the honey, thus making 

 it in a condition to cause bee-diarrhea, 

 by the bees being obliged to take so 

 mucli thin liquid into the stomach. In 

 many cases the water comes in direct 

 contact with the combs occupied by 

 the cluster. Wlien this occurs, if the 

 temperature lowers suddenly, as it 



often does in mid-winter, the colony is 

 often lost. This shows that upward 

 ventilation is very desirable, still it 

 should be so given as not to cause a 

 direct current of air through the hive. 

 Borodino, K. Y. 



FEEDING BEES. 



An Experience in Feeding and 

 IJnitinff Colonies. 



Written for thcAm&'ican Bee Journal 



BY MRS. L. C. AXTELL. 



For three years our bees have done 

 very poorlj', but we did not have to 

 feed them until the fall of 1887, when 

 we fed cut loaf-sugar to a few colonies 

 that seemed short of stores: but vcrj* 

 few of the colonies worked upon the 

 sugar, because it was so hard and dry. 

 We thought so last spring, as we had 

 it all to gather oflf, and melt up and 

 feed in a liquid state ; so through the 

 spring and summer we fed 9 barrels of 

 sugar, counting those two. 



We ceased feeding about a month 

 in clover time, but had to begin again 

 in July, to keep some colonies alive. 

 We fussed with them a good deal, and 

 equalized their stores to prevent the 

 necessity of feeding, as far as possible, 

 as there is no work about bee-keeping 

 that we dread so much as feeding, and 

 we never feed our bees if they can 

 gather enougli from Nature's stores. 

 For one reason or another, it tends to 

 make people suspicious of honey, if 

 they know that bee-keepers feed their 

 bees sugar when they know that bees 

 can get natural stores. But it does not 

 pay to let oiie's horses, that have done 

 the best they could, die for want of 

 food in winter. 



Many bees in this neighborhood died 

 for want of food, bnt some lived over 

 winter, where there were bnt few col- 

 onies, without any feeding, and this 

 fall they gave a few pounds of surplus 

 honey. 



Our bees were in good condition 

 when the fall lioney-liow began, and 

 for 3 weeks they brought in honey 

 lively, until the brood-combs became 

 solid " slabs" of honey, which I can 

 assure you deliglited our eyes, and 

 gave 800 or 1,000 pounds of surplus. 

 I think that I never saw honey come 

 in faster than it did for a short time, 

 and then is tlic time one should do all 

 the imiting of weak colonies, as it 

 can then be done so successfully, and 

 with so little loss of bees or robbing. 



It does not pay, at that season of 

 the year, to trj' to build up weak colo- 

 nies bj' drawing Ijrood fnnn the strong 

 late in the fall, unless one has young 

 queens that they do not care to kill, 

 and then it is better to remove old or 



rejected queens, and give their colo- 

 nies the young queens, getting all col- 

 onies in fair wintering condition while 

 honey is coming in. 



Roseville, Ills., Dec. 19, 1888. 



SEASON OF 1888. 



Bee-Keeping: in maine — The 

 Open-!>>ide Seetion§. 



Written for the American Dee Journal 



BY J. F. LATHAM. 



From May 1, 1888, to the present 

 time, the weather in this section of our 

 broad land, has been inimical to al- 

 most every branch of tlie pursuit of 

 those who derive their sustenance from 

 the bounties of Nature. Cold and wet 

 has been the order of the times. 

 Among the difl'erent branches of agri- 

 culture, that of apiculture has failed to 

 be remunerative, except in some 

 favored localities. Collectively speak- 

 ing, there have been but few swarms, 

 and a very small quantity of surplus 

 honey has been stored to reward the 

 efforts of the bee-keeper. 



My 59 colonies of bees passed the 

 winter of 1887-88 successfully. During 

 the first stage of brood-rearing in the 

 spring, 2 colonies lost their queens, but 

 bj' uniting, and supplying them with 

 emerging brood and eggs, until drones 

 commenced llj'ing, my number was re- 

 duced but one colony. 



During the tiirfe for " building up." 

 the weather was so unfavorable that, 

 with few exceptions, my bees failed to 

 respond to my usual treatment for in- 

 creasing the brood ; consequently, 

 when the white honey harvest tinir 

 arrived, manj- of the colonies were too 

 weak, numerically, to enter the surplus 

 receptacles in time to meet the first 

 yield. A few of the strongest colonies 

 stored 40 pounds of surplus honey 

 each, the weaker ones from 3 pounds 

 to 20 pounds each. My whole crop of 

 honey in the comb amounted to some 

 over 800 pounds, which, with 10 pounds 

 of wax and an increase of 4 colonies 

 from 9 .swarms, represents the income 

 of a working force of 58 colonies for 

 the season. 



From the foregoing it is readily per- 

 ceivable that the pursuit of bee-keep- 

 ing as a specialty, is somewhat pre- 

 carious when absolute assurance in a 

 pecuniary sense is considered. I feel 

 prompted to admit that the time spent 

 in caring for my colonies during tin- 

 time of surplus storing the past two 

 seasons, those of 1887 and 1888, in 

 procuring 2,000 pounds of honej', was 

 more than double that spent in the 

 season of 1880 in procuring the same 

 (piantity, plus the time spent in caring 



