XHIE ffiMERICMr* BE® JQ^URNSIL-. 



729 



did not store quite as much honey as 

 they otherwise would have done. 

 When I saw that no brood was being 

 reared at a period when sucli brood 

 was to become the bees whieh slionld 

 be the laborers in the honey harvest, I 

 became oonvineed that no large crop 

 of honey could be obtained ; for it is 

 the bees that liatch from the eggs laid 

 by the queen 37 days before tlie lioney 

 harvest, that become the honej'-gath- 

 erers during that harvest. 



On June 13 the weather became 

 warm again, and the bees poured out 

 of their hives in search of supplies, and 

 brood-rearing then commenced in 

 earnest. White clover was unusually 

 abundant for tliis section, but as it con- 

 tinued to rain nearly every day, the 

 bees obtained little more from it than 

 enough to sustain the large amount of 

 brood tliat they were rearing. 



Basswood opened on July 4, still 

 verj' little lioney was secret(Hl in the 

 flowers until about a week later, when 

 the bees seemed to obtain honey from 

 it as fast as I ever knew them to do ; 

 th.it is, they came in so heavily loaded, 

 that for several days they droi)ped 

 short of the entrance, in the same way 

 that they always do when honey is 

 very abund.ant. To my surprise, I 

 found that although the honcj' was 

 seemingly coming in verj' fast, still 

 work in the sections was going on very 

 slow, for the honey brought in was 

 ver3' thin, owing to the rain whicli still 

 kept up. 



Basswood lasted about three weeks 

 in all, the bees getting honey from it 

 onl^^ about two weeks. Teasel gave a 

 little honey for a week after the bass- 

 wood was gone, when the honey sea- 

 son for 1889 was over. 



As usual during the past twelve 

 years, buckwlieat gave no more hone}^ 

 than was consumed by the bees while 

 they were at work upon it ; and as for 

 otlier fall llowers, we have none, so to 

 speak. 



About Aug. 28 the bees began to 

 come in quite heavily loaded, and I 

 was curious to know what they were 

 getting. A search soon revealed that 

 the leaves of the oak and hickory trees 

 were glossy with a sweet, sticky sub- 

 stance, which is known as "honey- 

 dew." The bees worked ou this till 

 about Sept. 8, when a rain slopped 

 operations. Of this they stored about 

 10 pounds per colony, which, with the 

 honey that they had on hand before, 

 gave them enough for winter. I am 

 somewhat fearful regarding tlie result 

 of their wintering on such honey, but 

 lack of time prevented my extracting 

 it and feeding. 



I now have 48 colonies ready for 

 winter, having sold some tliis fall. Tlic 

 result in lioney from the 2G (iiiceus is, 

 651 pounds of comb honey and 103 



pounds of extracted, making a total of 

 754 pounds of lioney in all, or an aver- 

 age of 29 pounds for the colony of 

 each queen. This I believe is the 

 poorest yield that I have had since I 

 commenced the business of bee-keep- 

 ing, except during the year 1809, 

 when there was no surplus obtained 

 from any source, and the bees had to 

 be fed for winter. 



Mailing' Ilecs l>y tlic Pound. 



Since the editor of the American 

 Bee Journal published my letter on 

 page 581, telling of the trial package 

 of the J-poiind of bees which were 

 maileil to me by Mr. E. L. Pratt, I 

 liave been somewliat amused at the 

 comments thereon in the bee-papers. 

 Especially was I amused by Messrs. 

 Root and Alley "taking us up" so 

 sharply for thus doing, because it was 



a " VIOLATION OF THE LAW"tOSend 



bees in that manner. 



Of course it was but natural for nie 

 to think back to the time when Mr. 

 Alley boasted of how he was too sh.arp 

 for the government when queens were 

 not mailable, in getting them through 

 contrary to law in sealed packages ; 

 and how Mr. Root sent queens to 

 Canada, and received them from that 

 country contrary to law ; as well as 

 how all parties are now receiving 

 queens from Mr. Benton and others 

 across the water, in as open violation 

 of the law, and more so, than is the 

 mailing of "bees by the pound" in 

 our own countiy. 



If these " GREAT LIGHTS " have led 

 the way, was it more than would be 

 expect(Hl that m'c lesser ones should 

 follow ? 



Now thej' should not be too severe 

 on us because we followed their ex- 

 ample. I do not know that the time 

 has arrived yet to push the sending of 

 bees by mail, and I think that perhaps 

 it has not ; yet I iirnilj' believe that the 

 time will come when they will be thus 

 sent, for their lies a necessity in that 

 direction. None wlio have censured 

 the plan hiive seen wherein that neces- 

 sity lies. 



Mr. Alley sajs that scarcely any one 

 would want to receive bees in that 

 way, or words of like import, if my 

 memory serves me rightly. Now I 

 wish to say, that, according to my best 

 belief, based on tlie thousands of let- 

 ters that I have received, two-thinls 

 of those keeping bees do not live with- 

 in easy reach of an}- express office — 

 many living from 10 to 30 miles avvay 

 — which almost practically excludes 

 thcmi from receiving bees by express, 

 withinit trouble and worry. I am 8 

 miles from the nearest express office, 

 and I know what I am talking about. 



Because every train that "comes 

 in " is met by Messrs. Alley and Root, 



it iloes not follow that no one else has 

 dillerciit wants from tlieirs. It was not 

 tlie saving of cost that I was thinking 

 about when I desired bees by the 

 pound in the mails, but it was that we 

 who live miles from the express office 

 might be equally independent with 

 our more-favored brethren. I think 

 that when Mr. Alley comes to look at 

 it in this light, he will see that he was 

 wrong in tliinking of sending in peti- 

 tions opposed to tliose of Mr. Pratt. 

 Borodino. N. Y. 



BEES IN WINTER. 



Preparing Becii io tiial lliey will 

 Winter. 



Written for the American BeeJmvmal 



BY DR. .1. M. HICKS. 



I have received many letters enquir- 

 ing as to tlic best method of wintering 

 bees. While I am willing to impart 

 all the kncjwlcdge that I can for tlie 

 Ijenelit of the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal, and especially to those 

 who seein anxious to succeed in win- 

 tering their bees, I am fully aware 

 that the same process or plan that I 

 might suggest at present, would not 

 prove as successful in some localities 

 as it might in others ; hence I will give 

 a plan which, if followed out, will no 

 doubt prove successful in localities 

 wliere the necessity seems to call into 

 practice a plan that is easiest managed 

 by the greater number, as well as by 

 tliose who live in localities that are 

 usuallj' most severe on the bees. 



I have arranged several bee-houses 

 in the last few years, for many who 

 are interested in the welfare of many 

 colonies of bees, and knowing also 

 how easy it will be to add the extra 

 lumber, as well as some extra labor, 

 in order to save the bees during the 

 approaching winter. 



I suggest that the hives be placed 

 on a close-fitting platform or lloor, 

 which may be laid temporarily ; on 

 this, place tlie hives about 6 inches 

 apart, leaving about the same amount 

 of space at the front and rear of all 

 the hives, the platform being wide 

 enough, of course, to admit of a back 

 and front wall of plank. The back 

 wall should fit down on the ])Iatform, 

 and the front should have 2-inch blocks 

 laid or 8 feet apart, so as to lay a 6- 

 inch board along in front of the hives 

 on the blocks, and the edge of the 

 board to lit close up to all the hives, 

 which will ail be in perfect line. 



The front wall will also rest on the 

 2-iiich blocks, and form a G-inch space 

 in front of the hives, and the G-inch 

 board will form the bottom of the 

 sp.ace, leaving an open entrance to all 



