184 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Winter-bred Queen. 



Mr. Editor : — I winter my bees in a bee-cellar, 

 formed by digging a bole, seven feet by ten, in 

 tlie ground in a dry place. The bottom is paved 

 with stone ; sides studded, and boarded outside 

 the studding ; the rafters are put on at half pitch, 

 with straw and dirt cover over the whole, two 

 feet thick. It has a door in the wall, and another 

 clap-door at the top of the steps. It is an out- 

 door cellar. A ventilator, three bj^ four inches, 

 goes down from under the eaves, at one end, to 

 the floor ; and a chimney five by si.x inches, from 

 the apex of the roof at the other. It is dark, 

 still, and at a uniform temperature of 35° to 40°. 

 I have used it four winters with perfect satis- 

 faction. I am confident it has saved me many 

 bees, and that we have no business to attempt 

 Vv'intering bees out-doors in this temperature. 

 They must be put in dry, before any frost has 

 formed in the hive, or they will mould. I think 

 this was the trouble with Novice's bees last win- 

 ter ; they were put away with frost or damp on 

 the combs. If bees are dry and free from frost 

 when put away, they will, with proper ventila- 

 tion, be freeTrom damp through the winter. 



In January of last winter I had occasion to 

 look into my bee-cellar. In one of my hives, 

 containing an Italian queen which I received 

 from Rev. L. L. Langstroth in July previous, I 

 found a small cluster of brood in the centre of 

 the hive. It was about two inches square, and 

 in this a queen cell with a grub half-grown, and 

 by its side a drone grub in a worker cell length- 

 eaed out. I did not see the old queen. 



After thinking the matter over, and suspecting 

 that I had lost my queen, I opened the hive 

 again three weeks later, and found a medium- 

 sized young queen. There can be no mistake in 

 this, as I had clipped the wing of the old one, 

 which was a very fine large queen of much 

 value. The wings of this young one were per- 

 fect. 



My bees remained in the cellar until the 26tli 

 of March, when two very fine days occurred, 

 and they flew freely. It then turned cold, and I 

 returned them to the cellar, (which I frequently 

 do.) After a week in the cellar I took them out 

 again. In a few days I found this queen had 

 laid worker eggs freely. I expected that this 

 winter-bred queen would be worthless ; but she 

 did well, and gave a swarm last summer. 



Now, this instance must be one in which a 

 queen, conscious of her approaching decease, 

 had provided for the emergency, though in mid 

 winter and in a dark cellar, by rearing both a 

 queen and a drone to fertilize her ; and a fine day 

 occurring in March, she must have flown, and 

 copulation have taken place with the drone reared 

 by her side. 



Is this change of queen in winter as rare as is 

 supposed? W. Gill. 



River Falls, Wis. 



"When robbing has become a habit with bees, 

 they are sometimes so infatuated with it as to 

 neglect their own brood. — Langstroth. 



[For the American Bee JournaL] 



Yield of Surplus Honey— in Decimals! 



Mr. Editor : — Among all the " Wonders of the 

 Bee Hive," there is one that I have never seen 

 treated of or explained in any of the numerous 

 books or periodicals on apiculture. In fact, none 

 of them seem to have noticed it. It is this : In 

 making surplus honey the bees always make a 

 round number of pounds, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, or 

 some multiple of those numbers. -I say " always," 

 though I should perhaps say that it is the rule, 

 which, like all good rules, has its exceptions. 

 But the exceptions are so few that I am inclined 

 to the belief that those who report them are 

 honestly mistaken ; or that their bees are not in 

 good condition ; or have been wrongly managed ; 

 or are in a disorganized condition ; or that they 

 guess at it. 



Take the American Bee Journal and look 

 over the numerous reports of the yield of honey 

 in apiaries all over the country, from one hive up 

 to hundreds, and all of them that are reported 

 with any attempt at exactness prove my position. 

 If I had time I would like to collect them all in a 

 tabular form and present them to your readers, 

 but I will only take the January number as a 

 sample of the whole : 



Pounds. 



1st — One hive, in Kane county, 111 35 



2d— One hive, in Chicago, 111 40 



3d— One hive, in St. Charles, 111 250 



(Of this there was extracted with 

 the machine 190 lbs.; box honey, 

 60 lbs. 

 4th — One hundred stocks and increase, 



same apiary 6,000 



(Of this there was machine honey, 



3, 000 lbs.; box honey, 3,000 lbs.) 



5th — One hive, in Cook county, 111., and 



increase 50 



6th— Seven hives, in Virden, 111 700 



7th— One hive, in Fulton, 111., (machine 



honey) 218 



There was something seriously the matter with 

 these latter bees ; or it may be, as Mr. M. says, 

 ' ' I could have got more if I had employed the 

 machine oftener." He ought to have got at least 

 two pounds more or three pounds less. May be 

 his " honey-slinger " wasted some. 



8th — Number not given, Monmouth, 



111., average to each hive 110 



9th — One hive, Albany, 111., 4 swarms, 



and 200 



If he had had a " smelatore,^^ could get either 

 50 or 75 pounds more, one or the other. 



These were, to be sure, Ilhnois bees ; but they 

 are not different from other bees, as you will find 

 by looking over the reports from other parts of 

 the world. 



Here we have reported 114 hives of bees, yield- 

 ing an average of 65f pounds, or an aggregate of 

 7,593 pounds. 



Joking aside, I have no doubt about this being 

 an approximation to the truth, as no person ac- 

 quainted with tlie parties would suspect them of 

 untruth. It is a loose way we have gotten into 

 of stating things in round numbers, and ought to 

 be avoided. 



