74 



THE AMEBIC xiN APICULTURIST. 



"were prepared for winter. All 

 were in good condition and had a 

 great abundance of winter stores. 

 When I came to the black colony 

 mentioned above, I found, to my 

 great surprise, almost all the 

 combs of the second story con- 

 sumed b}' moth, while the condition 

 of the brood chambers was such 

 that I had to supply the colony 

 with a new hive and new combs, 

 leaving them only the best after 

 the worms and webs were picked 

 off. The colony was still strong 

 in numbers. AYe had a few pleas- 

 ant days at the beginning of this 

 month (Februar}^) during which 

 time I overhauled my bees. Our 

 winter had been a severe one with 

 the thermometer ranging between 

 18 and 22° below zero for several 

 da3's, and when I here state that 

 the condition of my bees challenges 

 that of any in-door winterer, it is 

 no exaggeration ; only two colonies 

 queenless and the black colony 

 mentioned above conquered by the 

 moth. Most of the large worms 

 were frozen to death with the bees, 

 and I was surprised at the head- 

 waj' the moth had made during the 

 winter months. 



It may be stated here that I win- 

 tered thirty-four colonies on the 

 roof of my house, and twenty-two in 

 the front yard of the farmhouse. 

 These latter can hardly be sur- 

 passed in regard to strength of 

 colonies, although thCy are all in 

 single-walled hives with no other 

 prolection than a straw mat above 

 them, and their entrance at the 

 alighting board entirely open. My 

 house apiary is composed of chaff 



double-walled and single-walled 

 hives. It is this spring, as it has 

 been for twelve years past or more, 

 hard for me to decide in which 

 kind of hive my bees wintered 

 best. Give me, therefore, the 

 single-walled hive. All of my 

 bees wintered on nine or ten combs 

 without division-boards. But I 

 have put now the colonies of my 

 home apiary on five, six, or eight 

 combs by the means of division- 

 boards (excepting five or six stands 

 at which I could not yet get) 

 while division-boards at the farm 

 apiar}^ were entirely useless. 

 Cincinnati, Feb. 15, 1884. 



CONCERNING AN ORGAN 



OF THE BEE NO T YE T 



DESCRIBED. 



[ From the " Bulletin d' Apiculture," by A. Zou- 

 hareff. Translated by Mr. Frank Benton.] 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Mr. C. Thompson, of Brighton, 

 Mich., writes in "Gleanings" for 

 June, 1880, that "bees when fed 

 very thin food fill themselves, take 

 wing, expel the water, and store 

 the remainder in the combs," and 

 that " this is the way the bees evap- 

 orate their honey, in part at least." 

 Tlien he wonders " if the honej^-sac 

 is not a sort of laboratory or a fil- 

 ter, which separates the water from 

 the sweet." Well, I do not suppose 

 that he or any of the rest of you 

 thought then that some of the bee- 

 brothers away over in Russia 

 would be telling how this possibly 

 does take place. Perhaps they 

 have not hit upon just the right the- 

 ories, nor attributed the correct 



