THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Winter Ventilation. 



My bees were put in the cellar on the loth of 

 ]Srovember,averaging 25 pounds net. The honey- 

 boards wore raised one-tourth of an inch on 

 blocks, and the lower holes closed. This carries 

 off dampness from the sides of the hives better 

 than tlie top holes open, witlioul circulation 

 through the mass of bees. — April 14th, the bees 

 averaged 15 pounds, having used ten pounds, 

 each, in five months. The strongest family 

 used twelve pounds ; the weakest used seven 

 pounds. April 17th, set out the best hives. 

 They had no bee bread, and had raised no 

 brood. They made no spots of faeces on tlie 

 hive or the adjoining fence — which, according 

 to Mr. Salisbury, B. J., page 116, showed 

 them perfectly healthy. April 25th, saw first 

 pollen gathered. April 26th, saw plenty of 

 eggs, but no larvfe. Have moved drone combs 

 to sides of the hive, to retard drone breeding ; 

 and bj'' placing empty worker comb in centre of 

 cluster, my best hive has over 31,000 brood in 

 all stages, with no drones emerged yet. The 

 second best had 21,000 ; others 10,000 to 12,000. 

 Brood combs all free from mould. 



In 1867, put iu hives without upward ventila- 

 tion. Last of January water began to run down 

 the sides, and in movable comb hives blue 

 mould an eighth of an inch long began to ap- 

 pear. I inverted the box hive and raised the 

 honey board. The water on the sides disap- 

 peared, but the mould did not ; and after setting 

 out in the spring the bees made sawdust of 

 those combs for a month, removing nearly one- 

 third of some of them. 



H. D. Miner. 

 Washington Harbor, Wisconsin, June 12, '69. 



[For the American Bhs Joarnal. 



The Buck-eye Tree, as a Honey-produe- 

 ing Plant. 



I do not remember seeing the buck-eye reck- 

 oned among tlie honey-producing plants. Some 

 of my colonies have made comb and stored 

 thirty pounds of surplus honey from the buck- 

 eye blossoms this spring. They come into 

 bloom a few days belbre the white clover, and 

 just al'ter the fruit trees. The quality of the 

 honey is good. It is very thick, dark colored 

 as the bass-wood honey ; but not ciuite eciual 

 to it in quality. 



For the information of those who never saw 

 a buck-eye tree, I would state that it grows here 

 on the bottom lands of streams, aui* is the first 

 to leaf out in the spring. The tree, blossoms, 

 and nuts, look like a horse chestnut, and can 

 hardly be distinguished from it, except in smell 

 — which is very offensive. 



White clover began to blossom here the first 

 of June, but the season has been so wet up to 

 July 4th, that 1 doubt if any ono; colony has 

 gathered two pounds of honey from it. 



II. M, 



SaiiMiTT County, Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal 



The Cheapest and Best Bee Feeder. 



I have seen none ot those bee-feeders the merits 

 of which have been so widely spread abroad 

 through the Bee Journal. I do not claim for 

 myself much iuventive srenius. In the one I 

 am about to describe I have simply taken what 

 I consider the better parts of two already de- 

 scribed, and combined them into one. 



One described, was a self-sealing glass jar ; 

 the top punched full of fine holes ; a piece 

 of strainer wire-cloth soldered over them ; 

 and through these openings the bees were to 

 suck their feed, after the jar is inverted. "A tin 

 rim I to 1^ inch wide was soldered around the 

 top, to hold the jar up from the honey board, 

 and so give a larger number of bees a chance 

 to work on the same at one time. 



Another described, was a tumbler with a 

 piece of fine cotton-cloth put over the top, and 

 supported by an india-rubber band ; and this in- 

 verted over a hole in the honey-board. 



What I have done, is to add the tin rim 

 on the first described, to the latter. This I have 

 done by making a rim ^ inch wide, large enough 

 to fit loosely over the top of the tumbler. On 

 the middle of the rim put a small band pro- 

 jecting inwards. This, when the tumbler is 

 inverted, will hold it up from the honey-board, 

 and give the whole surface of the top of the 

 tumbler for the bees {o work on at once. We 

 can thus see how fast the feed lowers. The 

 whole cost of these was eleven cents each. 

 When nol wanted for feeders, the tumblers are 

 worth just as much for anj^ other purpose as 

 they ever were. 



Alonzo Barnard. 



Bangor, Maine. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queens Mating Twice. 



Mr. Editor : — With your permission, I will 

 give Mr. Pond and the readers of the Journal 

 some facts, that he may endorse me. 



First. I never said that old queens, or queens 

 after they once begin lay freely, will mate with 

 drones. I now say that they will not. 



Second. I say young que/ns, before they be- 

 gin to lay, may, and otten do, pair or copulate 

 more than once. As the drone dies in the act 

 of copulation, of course she mates with more 

 than one. in such cases — which drone effected 

 her impregnation, I will leave for Mr. Pond to 

 saj''; but I believe they all influenced her progeny. 



"The queen alluded to on page 140, Bee Jour- 

 nal, vol. 4, was raised miles from the nearest 

 Italian drones. She could not have met one 

 of them. Yet her progeny was two and three yel- 

 low banded. She lived three years, and never 

 produced a black bee. 



Delhi, June 4, 1869. John L. Davis. 



The bees throughout the world, as known 

 collectively to the richest cabinets, number 

 about two thousand species. 



