THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



243 



Salem, Ills., March 34.— I have taken my stocks 

 out of their winter (juartcrs. They are very lively, 

 and o-ntherins: pollen rapidly from the maples, &c. I 

 have a number of hybrid stocks, and am anxious to 

 got tlie full blood as soon as may bo. I think when 

 the people see the benefit of papers in the increased 

 yield of honey ;" in the beautiful yellow workers ; and 

 in the security against loss of queens or damat^e from 

 the moth ; they will think a two dollar investment for 

 the Bee JouKNAL will pay them. — R. W. Pkatt. 



St. Catiiaki-ne's, Canada, April 4. — My bees have 

 wintered splendidly on their summer stands, thanks 

 to your valuable paper, while black bees all around 

 me in every direction, for scores of miles, have gone 

 (as Jim Fisk says) " where the woodbine twineth." 

 I wish the A. B. Journal eanie, as Sunday comes, 

 once a week. — O. Fitz Wilkins. 



St. Chakles, III., April 9.— We finished setting 

 out our bees on the Cth inst. Loss less than ten per 

 cent. Stocks the strongest for several years. We 

 have sold the balance of oiu' comb honey at 35 cents 

 _per pound and the extracted at 30 cents. At this 

 price, will it pay to use boxes ? The honey extractor 

 has been a great help towards the well wintering of 

 our bees. — J. M. Mauvin. 



Lewistojt, April 8. — Who has catnip seed for sale ? 

 I have tried the bee-feeder described by Novice in 

 your April number, and it works splendid. Many 

 thanks to Novice. — H. Libbt. 



Charleston, III., April 9.— Allow me to say that 

 yours is the ablest and by far the most reliable bee 

 paper I have yet seen, and I- am inclined to give it as 

 my opinion that the " American Bee Joukmal" will 

 survive the day of mushroom publications, and stand 

 the more firmly when the storm shall have passed, by 

 reason of the opporUcniii/ of couipanmn. — H. C. Bar- 

 nard. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Wintering Bees. 



Mr. Editor : — I am still of the opinion that 

 bee-keepers should give their experience every 

 sjiring in wintering tlieir bees, the number of 

 hives, the kind of hives, kind of bees, where 

 kept, and the results. 



I am well satisfied that the onlj^ true policy in 

 wintejing bees, is to put them in some kind of 

 suitable winter quarters. I have a double walled 

 house, built of good pine lumber, tightly buttoned, 

 with good shingle roof. It is twelve Ijy sixteen 

 leet outside, vv^ith two feet space between the 

 outer and inner walls, filled in tightly with dry 

 straw all around and overhead ; a room cut oif 

 four feet in front for keeping tools, honey boxes, 

 ifcc., Avith double doors in front, and ventilated 

 by two zinc tubes, two inches in diameter, 

 througli the walls, opposite each other, on the 

 east and west sides, with a ventilator six inches 

 square through the roof, making a room eight 

 feet square inside, dark as midnight, and of a 

 perfectly even temperature. 



Into this house I put sixteen colonies of Italian 

 bees on the 27th of November ; seven of them 

 in Langstrotli's shallow, movable comb hives, 

 four in the Hotchkiss dividing hive, three in deep 

 movable comb hives, and two in Eddy box-hives. 

 At the time I put them in, one in a deep frame 



hive was weak in bees, and one in the shallow 

 hive short in stores. I took out all the honey 

 boxes, but left the lioney-boards on, and set them 

 in rows, one on the top of the oilier, three and 

 four deep ; lining the top cover of the Laug- 

 stroth hive, aitfl inserting a stick half an inch 

 thick for ventilation, and opening the doors of 

 the remainder about the same distance. Ilere 

 they were left undisturbed all winter. 



Now for the result. On the 25th of March, 

 which was a nice bright day, I brought out five 

 of them, two of the deep hives, and one of each 

 of the other kinds, and on opening them found 

 they were in the finest possible condition, with 

 scarcely any perceptible diminution of stores, 

 much stronger in numbers, and with plenty of 

 eggs and young bees in every stage of develop- 

 ment. The one that was weak in the fall seemed 

 as strong as any of the others. I was perfectly 

 astonished to see many young bees with appar- 

 ently so little loss of honey. 



The next day, and as the weather permitted, I 

 removed all the rest and found them as lively 

 and brisk, as if they had only been resting over 

 night, and on bringing out my meal trough well 

 supplied with finely chopped rye and oats, they 

 " pitched in " as though they were determined 

 to carry box and all away. 



Now I want to hear from all our beekeeping 

 friends who read the Journal. Give us your 

 mode of wintering, with all the particulars con- 

 nected therewith. It seems to me that this 

 would be productive of great good to young be- 

 ginners. We might learn much from each otiier's 

 experience. 



I cannot tell why it is but I have somehow 

 become warmly attached to the Bee Journal 

 and all its correspondents. They all seem like 

 old acquaintances, yet I have never seen one of 

 them ; but I love beautiful little bees and every 

 one who takes an interest in them. 



Geo. Hardesty. 



Malvern^ Ohio, April 2, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Gallup on Hives. 



On page 172, February number, Mr. L. IVI. 

 Lindley wishes to know what Gallup thinks of 

 his form of hive for Minnesota climate ; and as 

 he acknowledges himself a new beginner, sup- 

 pose Gallup has a little talk with him about hives, 

 through the Bee Journal, for his benefit as well 

 as the benefit of others. 



In old box hive times, a circular hive, about 

 twelve or fourteen inches high and twelve inches 

 in diameter, in the clear, or inside measure, would 

 produce more bees than any other form of hive I 

 ever saw. Queens would commence breeding 

 earlier, breed more abundantly, and they would 

 send out earlier and larger swarms, and more of 

 them than any other form. A hive two inches 

 less in diameter, and enough taller to make the 

 same capacity, would not come up to the above ; 

 and a hive two inches larger in diameter and ten 

 inches high, did not prove satisfactory. 



From repeated observations, I have found that 



