1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



11 



Italian cells are the right age, any 

 colony that swarms can have its cells 

 cut out, and an Italian cell given it, 

 which will settle the matter for that 

 colony. 



By this management I should ex- 

 j)ect that the end of the harvest would 

 find me with a few Italian queens al- 

 ready introduced, as just explained, 

 and by the side of each colony not 

 thus furnished with a queen would be 

 a nucleus containing a laying Italian 

 queen, I would then remove the 

 black queens, leave the colonies 

 queenless until they have sealed over 

 some queen cells, when I would cut 

 out the cells and introduce the Italian 

 queens by simply lifting the combs, 

 bees, and queens from each nucleus 

 and setting them in the queenless 

 hive. Possibly the precaution of 

 leaving the bees queenless so long is 

 not needed, but it is a sure thing, 



I should be glad of criticisms and 

 suggestions upon the above. — Bee- 

 Keejperi Review 



AVINTERING BEES IN CLOSED APARTMENTS. 



In warm countries, as in Italy, for 

 instance, the hives are often placed in 

 frame buildings, each hive having a 

 hole in the southern wall, through 

 which the bees can fly out. The 

 room is carefully closed in winter, 

 and, as the outside temperture gets 

 rarely lower than a few degrees under 

 the freezing point, the bees can stay 

 in good health for the winter, even 

 when they have nothing else to live 

 on but heath honey or honey-dew. 

 But in this country, such a dwelling 

 would not succeed. AVe have seen it 

 tried, and the owner of the bees lost 

 all — about 40 colonies — when he 

 made the experiment. 



It is true such a room could be 

 « warmed, but the result would* be 

 about the same, for it is difficult, if 

 not impossible, to maintain the tem- 

 perature of the room exactly between 

 45° and 46° ; for, very often, a warm 

 day is followed by a very cold night, 

 or vice verm. When the mercury rises 

 to 48°, or more , the queen begins to 

 lay, and the bees, unable to fly out, 

 become uneasy. On the other hand, 

 at 35° or 38°, the bees eat more to 

 raise the temperature, and as soon as 

 their intestines are filled, they get the 

 diarrhea. Besides, in both cases, they 

 suffer from dampness. 



It is therefore less difiicult and 

 more safe to winter bees in silos or in 

 cellars. I have tried the silos for 

 three years. These silos were dug in 

 a sound well-drained field. They 

 consisted in ditches as long, large and 

 deep as was necessary to accommodate 

 the hives. On the bottom of these 

 ditches I placed two scantlings to sup- 

 port the hives a few inches above the 

 the ground. When the hives, with- 

 out tops or bottoms, were placed, I 

 covered the ditch with a slanting roof 

 made also of scantlings, on which I 

 spread a good coat of straw, then of 

 earth, and a second coat of straw and 

 earth. To give some air to bees, I 

 built two chimneys, two inches square 

 inside, at both ends of the silos. 



During the first two years, the win- 

 ter having been dry and cold, I suc- 

 ceeded splendidly ; but, when I un- 

 earthed my hives after the third win- 

 ter, I found every comb damp, or even 

 moldy, a part of the colonies were 

 dead, and all the others were more or 

 less depopulated, the winter having 

 been warm and moist during the usu- 

 ally coldest mouths. 



