American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. V. 



MEAItCH, IST^O. 



No. 



[For the American 



NOVICE. 



Journal.] 



Dear Bee Journal : — Here we are, February 

 8th, with our bees so near through the winter 

 and in just the nicest condition that can be im- 

 a.i:ined ; (we mean the bees ;) but if any one \ 

 siiould understand the remark to apply to us in- j 

 dividually, he would not be very far wrong after 

 all, for if the bees are all right, we generally are, 

 as nothing else can upset us. j 



Mr. Editor, that bee-house of ours is all we 

 could ask for thus far, and we have little fear of 

 any bee-disease now. We have had some quite j 

 warm weather, and a few times some of the bees : 

 came out on the floor, perhaps half a teacupful [ 

 in a week. This was a small matter, but we did i 

 not just like it ; and upon a careful examination 

 of all the hives, we thought we perceived a faint 

 smell of something that reminded us of last winter. 

 Accordingly, we that evening opened the doors 

 until just before da5dight next morning, when we 

 found everything pure and sweet as we could 

 wish. That was about three weeks ago. Since 

 then we manage to open the doors over night 

 once or twice every week — that is, when the night 

 is not very cold, and we have many such this win- 

 ter. Another fact ; our pine doors were made to 

 fit as close as they could without sticking. After 

 the house had been shut about a week, the inside 

 door is so tight that it can hardly be opened, and 

 after being open all night, the bees are all quiet 

 and the door shuts without touching, although 

 made of the best seasoned pine. Does not this 

 rather look as though our ventilators were not 

 large enough ? They are seven inches across, 

 unobstructed, and the temperature very rarely 

 goes above forty degrees. 



Tliere is yet one' other thing. Our sawdust 

 was not Cjuite drj' when put in, and we really do 

 not know how anything could have been drj' last 

 summer. In the fall our little stove helped it 

 soiue, but with sucli thick walls we do not sup- 

 pose it got dried through. The bees seem amply 

 able to keep warm enough, as thej^ keep at 

 steady forty degrees in the coldest weather we 

 have had, wliich has not been lower than 10" 

 above zero. 

 So far we can hardly believe any honey at all 



has been consumed, as the sealed cells yet cover 

 the tops of the frames. 



Now, Mr. Editor, while the bees are all quiet 

 and all right, we should like to have " our say" 

 on bee-hives. If we have not said anything on 

 the subject before, we have kept up an "awful 

 thinking," and have some ideas of our own on* 

 the subject — though we should dislike to imngiue 

 that, as a correspondent suggested on page 210 of 

 vol. 4, we are too well Rooted to be instructed. 

 Far from it, for the very same article in which 

 that expression is used, has been worth very 

 much to us, and we hereby tender our sincere 

 thanks to the writer for the light he then gave us. 



Perhaps, Mr. Editor, you had better say 



" Novice on Hives," 



and then we will try and stick to our subject. 



In the first place, kind readers, we have no 

 idea that a hive can be made that will just suit 

 every one, for so many perhaps have a particular 

 way of doing a thing, and each one can do it 

 better in his own way than by any other plan. We 

 said some time ago that our Langstroth hives 

 universally gave us more honey than the Ameri- 

 can, though we could not tell why — which has 

 been kindly answered by the Baroness of Ber- 

 lepsch. But we should have said then, and meant 

 to say, both "bees and honey." Mr. Truesdell 

 and Mr. Gallup started us in the right channel of 

 thought, and we think we can now give the true 

 reason in our locality. 



Wheii we wintered our bees out-doors, many 

 of them were sure to be quite weak in the spring, 

 and it took a considerable part of the season to 

 build up before they were ready for business. 

 Those in the American hive would be near the 

 top, and we have invariably found much trouble 

 and delay in getting the queens to laying below 

 that wood cross bar, (which Gallup refers to 

 when he speaks of the waste heat uecessarj^ in 

 brooding a stick !) Well, the Langstroth hive in- 

 variably becomes full of bees, long before the bees 

 in the American hive have used the combs down 

 to the bottom board ; because they have only to 

 work out horizontally, in preciuly the same man- 

 ner iliat Qidnhy gets such lurgeyiclch in side boxes. 

 This is really no myth. Quinhy don't speak so 

 strongly unless he is sure of what he is saying. 



