THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



17 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, JULY, 1869. 



I^Subscribers to the Bee Journal residing 

 in Canada, whose subscriptions ended with the 

 fourth volume, will please renew them If they 

 desire to have the paper continued, as the post- 

 age has to be prepared here. Mr. J. H. 

 Thoma?, of Brooklin, Ontario, is our authorized 

 agent there. 



Want of room, in this number, compelled us 

 to omit a portion of Mr. Lambreclit's article, in 

 wliich he further illustrates his views of the bad 

 qualities of wooden hives, and advises the 

 adoption of straw hives instead — especially one 

 devised by Mr. Giavenhorbt. Of this we shall 

 endeavor to furnish a description hereafter ; 

 though vre are inclined to think American bee- 

 keepers would prefer the straw hive patented, 

 in this country, by Mr. Henchen, of Minnesota ; 

 if such are to be adopt-d. 



Wooden liives, as used in Europe— and here 

 too, if used in the same manner— may be, or at 

 times become, 1 able to the objection urged 

 against them by Mr. L. ; but they possess so 

 many advantages and conveniences in olhei 

 re9(j«ct», that the use of them is not likely to be 

 abandoned either abroad or here. The effort, 

 therefore, should rather be to devise some mode 

 of obviaiing the olijection, than to discard the 

 material. This we conceive is best attained, in 

 Odl-door win'er ng at least, by the judicious use 

 of upward ventilation, whereby excessive con- 

 densation of moisture in hives is prevented, at a 

 season when it cnnnot read ly be reniov.d by 

 the bees. As soon in autumn, or the early pan 

 of winter, as moisture begins to he condt-nsed in 

 a hive, give just suffic'ent upward veutilatiim to 

 check this condensation and keep the hive and 

 it» inm'tes dry. Let this be thus coutiuued un • 

 til lowaids ilie approach of t-pring, when brood 

 ing recommences; then watir is needed, and the 

 bees can appropriate condensed moisture in 

 prepar ng food fur the larv«. Thus managed. 

 the possible cause of fuulbrood //•«??« ihia source. 

 ■will be removed, the combs will not be envel- 

 oped in mouUi, nor the bees likely to be troubled 

 with dysentery. 



The condensed moisture is mainly deiived 

 from the ordinary insensible perspiration of the 

 l»««t. Thia perspiration should be allowed to 



pass off freely in winter, and without condensa- 

 tion, if the bees are to remain healthy. Nor 

 should a hive be so warm and tight as to increase 

 the perspiration to a regular sudation, and keep 

 it in petpeiual flow. Bees could no more survive 

 such tieatment and keep in health, than men 

 could if confined in the surlorific aMnosphere 

 of a close chamber. In a wooden hive having 

 a good, thick, close-fitting bottom board, with 

 tight and stout side walla, out-door wintering 

 can be successfully accomplished, if judicious 

 use be made of upward ventilation. Ibis, Ger- 

 man beekeepers, proficient as they are in other 

 re?pects, have yet to harn. They condemn top- 

 opening hives as allowing heat to escape too 

 Ireely in winter, which they legard as certain 

 to prove ruinous to a colony ; whereas, were 

 the truth as they conceive it to be, we 

 should not have had a liive survive the ^\ inter 

 years ago. How, when, whether, or to what 

 extent, if at all, upward ventila ion should be 

 used, w^here bees are wintered in cellars, 

 vaults, or special repositories, we do not und< r- 

 tike to say, as we have had n'> expeiience In 

 that line. Experiments, with careful observa- 

 tion, can alone furnish satisfiictory lepliea to 

 those questions. 



One of our earliest subscribers, remitting f.iT 

 our filth volume, sent us his photograph, and 

 suggests that other beekeepers should folio «tr 

 his example, to enable us by and by to g't up, 

 for our gratilicafon, "a big vi[\mm, viith three 

 yellow hands''^ The idea is original, and a 

 volume exceedingly interesting to an editor 

 n)iglit thus be compi ed. One of <ui- North 

 Caiolina friends sent us, some time ago, a 

 photogr.iph of his ap'a'y, exhibHiug tasteful 

 ..rran'gement and evidencing careful manage- 

 ment. 



Many persons when first told that, in this 

 'atitude, and in the g- n al mouths of JMay and 

 June, the queen bee lays about two tiiousani 

 eggs a day, and can, and ofiimes does, lay 

 three thousand in that brief period, receive the 

 information with evident incredulity— seeming- 

 ly assenting to the statement only on the 

 g-ound of imp')ssibi ity and irom courtesy. 

 These have mujh yet to h-arn of the wonders 

 and mysteries of ins^-ct life, and will fiiul, as 

 they pioceed, if they do proceed, tliat that which 

 they received with surprise beyond bel.ef, U 



