THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



41 



room can be kept warm in cold weath- 

 er and cool in warm weather. Then 

 I am coming- to the conclusion that 

 many colonies of bees become restless 

 in the dark, and leave their hives when 

 they would not if located with the 

 entrance continually open to the light. 

 My practice of keeping- a supply of 

 feed to continue breeding when the 

 natural flow of honey was not suffi- 

 cient, has proved a marked success. I 



^^^^^^'T^^ 



have used a feed composed of honey, 

 g-ranulated sugar, and rye flour, using 

 it during- early spring with g-ood 

 results. I am more inclined to believe 

 that the house- apiary will yet come to 

 stay. 



I would like to be located where I 

 could build such a one as I have in 

 mind. 



Stamford, Conn., June 3. 1904. 



f^^^^^'q;^<r^ 



nmteFini 



e-^^piar^c 



BY S. A. NIVER. 



yRIEND HUTCHINSON:— The Re- 

 -i-"" • view for December is here, and I 

 feel just like yanking a bit of chin 

 music over it, for it hits me on a tender 

 spot. The first article I ever "spieled" 

 for a bee journal, was an illustrated 

 description of my own "North Star" 

 house-apiary. It appeared in the 

 "American Bee Journal," and was a 

 case of "blasted hopes" — for I lost 90 

 per cent, of my bees trying- to winter 



them in the d d thing. They were 



packed warm and snug, too, in a Jboi 

 thick of planer shavings. Coggshall 

 bought half of it, moved it to an out- 

 yard for a honey house (it was a 

 "knock-down" affair), but did not get 

 it there in time to erect it that fall, so 

 piled it up in a corner of the yard; and 

 he always declared that it killed 50 

 per cent, of his bees — piled up there in 

 the corner ! The "harp struck by 

 lightning!" Why??? Don't you see, 

 a harp struck by lightning is a blasted 

 lyre— Eh ? 



Loucks has, obviously, hit upon ways 

 to overcome some, if not most, of the 

 objections; the two most serious of 

 which are loss of queens in mating. 



and of bees in wintering-. You were 

 not at the Minneapolis convention, as 

 you expected to be, hence you missed a 

 point brought out there along this same 

 line. That is, a member reported 

 perfect wintering in a bee cellar in the 

 bottom of which was a living- spring of 

 water, from which flowed a good sized 

 stream. A stream of water to equalize 

 temperature — and — carrj' ofi^ the car- 

 bonic acid gas (?) (this con- 

 founded pen is running away again.) 

 It looks as if that would solve the 

 wintering problem for house-apiaries. 



COLONIES BECOME QUEENLESS FROM AN 



EXASPERATING LOT OF CAUSES IN 



A HOUSE-APIARY. 



I see he gives up trying to mate 

 queens in the house-apiary, and 

 rears queens at home; preventing 

 swarming by his system of manipula- 

 tion. Guess that's right, too, but 

 queens disappear in a house- apiary 

 from other causes; notably, strange 

 bees mistaking entrances when so close 

 together. You may paint the thing 

 until it is a regular zebra — nail patches 

 of brush, rags, or any old thing, over, 



