214 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



building. Bees do not use new wax for covering 

 brood ce'!s in old comb. The cell covers are 

 ahvays of the color of the comb, which leads me 

 to think that the wax for capping brood, and also 

 for building queen cells, is taken from the ad- 

 jacent comb in all cases. 



It cannot be said, in explanation of this, that 

 these three wax-bearing bees may have died last 

 summer, during the comb-building season, for 

 they were found on the top of the covering laid 

 over the frames of the hive, where they must 

 liave crawled and died within ten days of the 

 above date, as I removed all dead bees from that 

 place at that time. 



My bees are wintering finely in the shallow 

 form of the Langstroth hive, ten inches deep, 

 with all honey-boards removed, and the frames 

 covered with a sort of cotton batting comforter, 

 made precisely like a comforter for a bed. I like 

 these much better than old carpeting or old 

 clothes. I had one made for each hive, costing 

 twenty cents apiece. By lifting one corner of 

 these comforters, I can see the condilion of each 

 hive at a glance. The bees are always found 

 clustered up against these warm comforters, and 

 communicate over the tops of the frames, instead 

 of through winter passages. The only swarm 

 lost this winter was in a tight-top box hive, set 

 inside of an empty Langstroth hive. 



R. BiCKFOKD. 



Henecn Falls, N. Y., Feb. 20, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Maple Sap for Bee Feed. 



Mr. Editok : — As I See many articles in the 

 Journal on feeding bees, I will give you or j^our 

 readers one for spring feed. 



When you set out your hives in the spring, and 

 the weather gets warm enough for the bees to 

 carry in rye meal or pollen, bore some maple 

 trees, and in a proper vessel catch the sap that 

 runs from them. To three quarts of this sap add 

 one pint of honey, and when your bees get to fly- 

 ing briskly, make the mixture lukewarm, pour it in 

 a sugar trough and lay some empty combs or cut 

 straw on it, to keep the bees from drowning. If 

 you have no honey, make a syrup of white coffee 

 sugar as a substitute ; but honey is better. This 

 makes a light thin feed ; but it answers every pur- 

 pose for si)ring feeding, to rear brood. 



If, as .Mr. Quinby says, it will attract some of 

 your neighbors' bees, remember it is so cheap 

 that you can afford to help them a little, for the 

 great advantage you will derive from it yourself. 



You can use the maple sap during the time the 

 trees will yield it, and have some of it boiled 

 down to a molasses. This you can afterwards 

 dilute, and keep up feeding till the fruit blossoms 

 come in. Where you have from forty to sixty 

 stocks, there is little danger of feeding too much ; 

 though the bees should not fill up the combs in 

 the brooding apartment, so as to stop breeding. 

 Nor are you likely to feed too much in that way, 

 at this time of the year, as so many cold days 

 occur, on which bees cannot fly out. The more 

 you feed, the more you stimulate the queen, the 

 more she will lay. My bees added more honey 



to each colony last spring, with spring feedinff, 

 than they did in the time of fruit blossoms. It is 

 the best plan I have tried to promote early breed- 

 ing or early swarming, and Jo have plenty of bees 

 when the locust and fruit trees come in. 



If you feed inside of the hive, make your feed 

 much stronger, and also feed with warm feed in 

 all cases. 



To make passage ways through combs of frame 

 honey, take a half inch bit and bore a hole in the 

 end of a small piece of wood ; saw blocks one and 

 a fourth inches long ; split pieces off very thin, 

 cut a hole in the comb aiid insert the wooden 

 block, and the bees with not close the hole. Small 

 tin tubes inserted in the same manner, will also 

 answer the purpose. A. Chapman. 



New Cumberland, West Va. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cost of producing Honey. 



Mr. Editor:— I lately saw a statement in the 

 Minnesota papers, copied from the Onatonna 

 Journal, stating that J. W. Hosmer, of Janes- 

 ville, Minnesota, " jjlaces the cost of pro(#ucing 

 honey at four cenls per pound. One hive pur- 

 chased in June last, produced four hundred 

 pounds of honey and six swarms of bees." This 

 is a truly wonderful yield. If J. W. H.'s bees 

 winter well, he will no doubt be able to show the 

 most prolific record of any man living, of suc- 

 cess in bee-culture. 



My experience in the last ten years has been 

 that, on an average, bees have not produced over 

 twenty-five pounds of honey, per colony, and 

 one good swarm of bees each. In the jiast three 

 years, great improvements have been made in the 

 cultivation of bees ; and the time may come 

 when honey could be produced at twelve cents 

 per pound ; but at present twenty cents is as low 

 as man can make it profitable to sell for. Four 

 cents i^er pound is all gammon 1 It would not 

 pay for taking out losses which occur yearly. 



We should like to hear from diflerent practical 

 bee-keepers on this question, through the Jour- 

 nal ; and if aay way has been devised to produce 

 honey at four cents per pound, we would delight 

 to see the figures and get hold of the science. 



S. B. 



StocUon. 



The swarming season varies exceedingly in the 

 United States. In Texas, swarms issue early in 

 March, and in the Southern States they are quite 

 common in April. In the Middle States, May 

 and June is the usual period ; and it is somewhat 

 later as we proceed further North. 



After-sw*arms usually build the most regular 

 worker combs ; and if they lay up sufficient stores 

 for the winter, they generally make the best 

 stock colonies. 



If colonies are moved in the line of their flight, 

 and a short distance onhf at a time, no loss of bees 

 will be incurred. — Langstroth. 



