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is safe to give the bees for winter. 

 Some bee-keepers object to autumn 

 honey for wintering ; I liave tried such 

 repeatedly, and with the best results. 

 I think that the safe rule is this : Give 

 to bees any honey that you would rel- 

 ish on your table. 



Sometimes the bees gather nectar 

 which is secreted by various insects ; 

 some of this is rank and unwholesome; 

 it smells and tastes bad. Such honey 

 is fit neither for table nor bees, and if 

 used for wintering, it will almost surely 

 bring disaster. Such honey should 

 always be sold for manufacturing pui-- 

 poses, where it often serves as well as 

 any. 

 Xemperature of* Bees in Winter. 



The matter of temperature is not so 

 easily provided for. There are three 

 ways to arrange bees so that they may 

 not succumb to our most severe win- 

 ters. Messrs. Root, Hilton and Pop- 

 pleton advocate chaff hives. These 

 are double-walled hives with 4 inches 

 of chaff or dry sawdust between the 

 walls. The objections to these are, 

 that they are expensive, heavy to 

 handle, and do not always save the 

 bees. If they would always succeed, 

 as their advocates claim will be the 

 case when rightly managed, they 

 would have much to recommend them. 

 Messrs. Bingham and Southard have 

 been signally successful by packing. 

 They place a large box about the hive, 

 and fill in with chaff or sawdust, al- 

 ways arranging so that the bees can 

 fly whenever the weather permits. If 

 so successful (and I see no reason why 

 it should not be) I should, on the 

 ground of cheapness and convenience, 

 perfer this to chaff hives. Mr. Bing- 

 ham places six or eight hives close to- 

 gether, and makes one box do for all. 



After trying all the ways, I much 

 prefer cellar wintering. I think that 

 the large majority of Canadian and 

 American bee-keepers in our Northern 

 States agree with me. The only re- 

 quisites for a good cellar are, that it 

 should be dark, well ventilated, and 

 should preserve a uniform temperature 

 between 38° and 45°, Fahr. It would 

 be best if the temperature could be 

 kept uniformly at 45°. This keeps tlie 

 bees very quiet, so that they eat and 

 move but little, and so remain in good 

 health even from October to April. 



If the cellar becomes too cold or too 

 warm, the bees stir more, eat more, 

 and very likely become diarrhetic, and 

 come out in the spring weak, if alive. 

 It is easier, of course, to keep a cellar 

 at the right temperature if wholly un- 

 der ground. If found troublesome to 

 preserve the temperature at the proper 

 point, as may be true in very cold or 

 in rather mild regions, we can secure 

 tliis result by sub-earth ventilation, by 



artificial heat, or by having a large 

 cistei'n in the cellar. 



I have sub-earth ventilation. A long, 

 8-inch pipe runs from the bottom of 

 the cellar at least 6 feet underground 

 for many rods before it comes to the 

 sui'faee. A chimney or fine extends 

 from the bottom of the cellar to some 

 feet above the top of the house. By 

 aid of fires in the house above, this 

 flue is kept warm. Thus the cellar is 

 kept warm and well ventilated. The 

 air di'awn in through this sub-earth 

 pipe comes into the cellar warmed, and 

 my object is secured. This arrange- 

 ment is common in this part of the 

 country, and works well. This how- 

 ever, is expensive, and better not be 

 adopted unless found to be absolutely 

 necessary. 



I know of several who have wintered 

 bees successfully for years, just in a 

 common cellar. I know of others who 

 control the tempei'ature admirably by 

 means of a large cistern full of water. 

 Dr.C.C. Miller, of Illinois, keeps a small 

 coal-stove in his cellar, by which he 

 keeps the temperature to his liking. I 

 feel certain that with a good cellar and 

 proper care to secure good food, we 

 may winter bees without loss. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



honey. My long experience as a bee- 

 keeper and bee-hunter has shown me 

 that the golden-rod familj' yields but 

 small amounts of honey. 



If I were asked to name the flower 

 that was the best friend to the bee- 

 keeper, taking one year with another, 

 for the Noi-thern and Western States, 

 I should say, the " little, white, Dutch 

 clover." 



Ripon, Wis. 



MIGRATION. 



Sending Bees to the South to be 

 Wintered. 



GOLDEN-ROD. 



Written for the American BeeJounxal 



BY JOHN CRAYCRAFT. 



The 



Plant as a Family Yields 

 but Little Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY R. DART. 



The golden-rod family is large, and 

 grows in great quantities in the new 

 States and Territories in the West. It 

 is wild, and stands no cultivation. 



Mr. Eugene Secor, of Iowa, tells the 

 truth when he says that there is a yel- 

 low aster in bloom at the same time 

 with the goldeu-rod. On river banks 

 and mud lakes this aster grows 5 feet 

 high ; on wet marshes it grows close to 

 the water a few inches above, and is of 

 the dwarf species. 



I have been a bee-keeper forty j'ears, 

 and have tried to .know what my bees 

 get their honey from during the sea- 

 son. The first twenty years of my life 

 were spent in the wild-oak openings of 

 Wisconsin. I was a bee-hunter, and 

 have taken thousands of pounds of 

 hone}' from bee-trees. Many of these 

 trees were located close by these large 

 marshes covered with this aster, and 

 when the hollow in the tree was large 

 enough to hold the honey, I have taken 

 large quantities of this yellow honey. 

 The quality is very fine. 



Other trees located miles away, and 

 surrounded by golden-rod, when cut, 

 I would find but few pounds of fall 



I have read Mr. Doolittle's article 

 on page 581, concerning the transmis- 

 sion of bees by the pound through the 

 mails, and I am pleased to know that 

 such a thing can be done ; but I fear 

 that the Postal Rules may be drawn 

 down on our already especially-favored 

 traffic in queens, although I see no- 

 good reason why a pound of bees may 

 not go by mail as safely as a dozen, 

 and no doubt such a permit will be 

 granted ; but the fear would be that 

 some of the careless ones would not 

 use that care and caution that would 

 be necessary at all times to prove a 

 safe transportation of them by mail, 

 and if there were to be a few disasters, 

 and loss of mail-matter, then the en- 

 tire queen-traffic through the mails 

 would be prohibited, I fear. 



I do not think that the express 

 charges on bees per pound, put up in 

 suitable cages, carrying from one to 

 three pounds of bees, according to the 

 quantity desired, would be any more 

 expensive than that of the mail — that 

 is as Mr. Doolittle suggests in shipping- 

 bees to the North iu the spring. Then 

 this brings up this question whether it 

 is profitable, in case of loss of bees 

 during the winter, to send South and 

 get a pound of bees and a queen, and 

 put upon the combs, and soon have a 

 prosperous colon}' of bees. 



This then brings out the shipping 

 idea — say about Sept. 1, the bee-keeper 

 in Michigan puts up all his bees in 

 cages containing one, two or more 

 pounds of bees, that ai-e in each colony 

 with their queen ; crates the cages in 

 convenient i)ackages of five or ten, as 

 might be deemed best, and ships them 

 to the South, as far down as the St. 

 John's river, iu Florida, to some bee- 

 keeping friend, or partner in the busi- 

 ness, who is prepared with hives filled 

 with either comb or foundation, and 

 who will turn tliem on the combs and 

 care for them (for at this very date, 

 Sept. 21, my bees are busy carrying 



