122 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURANL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Winter Protection. 



Here is a -winter protection wortli trying, i 

 Take tliree boards about a foot longer tlian your 

 hive ; lean them against your hive even with the 

 top, and fill out the space so made with hay, lit- \ 

 ter, evergreen tops, &c. In front where the fly- 

 hole is you can set a board also, if the colony is : 

 very weak, and leave a small space open for the i 

 bees to fly out of. j 



Last February I set my bees out-doors. In 

 March the thermometer sunk below zero. My 

 stands, then very weak, so protected did not die. j 

 The same boards I use in summer for shading. ! 



When wintered in the cellar, Mr. Thomas says j 

 it does not matter whether you shut the fly-hole i 

 or not. When the temperature rises above fifty, 

 my experience is that the bees leave the hives, ; 



Last spring I had three stands left out of fifty- ! 

 five. The rest died of the diseasie prevalent here | 

 last year. I used the same frames, hives and j 

 honey this summer ; bought four colonies, and i 

 now have thirty-eight. Last year at this time i 

 they had commenced dying ; this year none have 

 died as yet. Old age did not kill my bees last , 

 year, for I raised bees all summer and till late in [ 

 the fall ; nor was the disease contagious, as some : 

 one thought. Neither did the black bees alone i 

 die, for mine were all Italians, except a few ; and ' 



the three stands that survived were hybrids 



lost some young queens this year, after they had 

 commenced laying, and last year likewise — which 1 

 I think may have some connection with the dis- ] 

 ease. They left the hive, and were not accepted i 

 when put m queenless colonies. Can anybody ] 

 explain this ? j 



The season here was a very good one ; but un- j 

 fortunately for me, my bees had to multiply, in- { 

 stead of storing honey. Once this summer, I j 

 opened a hive that had an Italian queen intro- 

 duced about ten weeks before. The black bees | 

 seemed to have ^11 gone ; but suddenly I was | 

 stung on t\u' hand, and on looking, I saw, to my | 

 great surprise, that it was by a black bee. All i 

 the other bees in sight were Italians. This cer- 

 tainly speaks well for the good temper of the 

 Italians. It "was the best proof I have ever had. 

 The bees and queen were very fine, and the lat- 

 ter came from Mr. Gray's apiary. 



T. HuiiMAN, Sr. 



Terre Haute, Ind. 



[For t!ie American Bee Journal.; 



A Horizontal Queen Cell. 



When raising queens to Italianize my bees 

 this season I found a queen cell placed in a hori- 

 zontal position, and for curiosity's sake I saved 

 the cell, and succeeded in raising a perfect queen, 

 which mated with a black drone and produced 

 bastard progeny. Some apiarians think that the 

 vertical position of the cell with the opening 

 downward materially affects, in some way, the 

 developement of royal larvae. A fact like the 

 above-mentioned furnishes conclusive evidence 

 that the position of the queen cell does affect the 

 developement of the queen. 



In his work on the '■'Hive and Honey Bee,''^ 

 third edition page 63, Mr. Langstroth says — 

 " While the other cells open sideways, the queen 

 cells alwaya hang with their mouth downwards, " 

 and further on says — " Thejr open downwards 

 simply to save roomy Mr. L. says the}'' always 

 open downwards. I think he is mistaken in this, 

 as I have found one in a horizontal position. 

 Perhaps I may never find another so placed. I 

 think he is right in saying that they open down- 

 ward simply to save room. The queen cell I 

 speak of was in a nucleus hive, with plenty of 

 room either downward or sidegways. Have ex- 

 perienced queen-raisers had a like experience or 

 is this an exception ? 



D. H. COGGSHALL, Jr. 



West Groton, N. Y. 



i 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Wliy Natural Swarms Excel Artificial 

 Swarms. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Sugar Candy.— An Inquiry. 



As pure sugar candy is considered good feed 

 for bees, by Mr. Langstroth and other apiarians, 

 I would like to have some of those who have had 

 experience in making candy, give us, through 

 the Bee Journal, the receipt for making it. This 

 would grr atly oblige me and others, as bees in 

 this section need feeding, and a good receipt 

 would come in play. We have obtained no box 

 honey, and very few swarms, this season, in this 

 neighborhood. 



D. H. COGGSHALL, Jr. 



Wbst Groton, N. Y. 



Querist says (and truly) that an artificial 

 swarm located in an empty hive, will not, du- 

 ring the first week, gather as much honey, or 

 build as much comb, as a natural swarm ; and 

 asks the reason why. Several reasons have been 

 given in the Bee Journal with which Querist is 

 not satisfied and calls for further reasons. Here 

 is mine : 



An artificial swarm will not prosper, at first, 

 like a natural swarm, because, as generally made, 

 they have not a supply of young bees, while a na- 

 tural stcarm has. A natural swarm is made up 

 of all the bees i'- the hive at the time the swarm 

 comes off, from the oldest with their ragged 

 wings, to the youngest that can fly. Many even 

 too young and weak to fly come out, or are 

 crowded out, with the swarm, and may be seen 

 on the ground near the hive, after the swarm has 

 settled. Having, in a natural swarm, bees of 

 all ages, we have therefore bees qualified to per- 

 form all the duties necessary for the prosperity 

 of a new colony, viz : we have the younger bees 

 whose occupation within the hive is to generate 

 the wax, to build comb, and to find the larvae, 

 wiien developed from the eggs of the queen. 

 Then we have all the older bees of the hive, ex- 

 cept those that were out foraging at the time the 

 swarm came off, and these last, together with 

 the just hatching bees, are now the sole occu- 

 pants of the old hives. 



The older bees of our new swarm are the out- 

 door workers, who gather the honey while the 



