THE AMERICAN r>]<:E JOURNAL. 



155 



[For tho American Bee Journal.] 



West GEonoiA, Vt. 

 Mr. Rditor: — I liavo cortninly obtaiued more 

 valuable iut'ormatiou from a few numbers of the 

 Bee Jouuxal thau from twenty-five years' ex- 

 perience with bees, bee-rooms, dividing-hives, 

 and such nonsense. Now, I jiropo.se to avail 

 myself of tlie generously protFered experience of 

 scientific men, who have better ability and op- 

 jiortunity than have fallen to my lot. 1 liave 

 built a bee-house of cedar i)lank in a hill side: it 

 is eight by twelve feet, and eight feet inside at 

 tlie upper or highest point. The roof descends to 

 the north and is just above the turf, and is lined 

 with boards and tilled with six inches of saAv- 

 dnst. "While the cold has been Irom 10 to 38 de- 

 grees below zero for ten successive days in the 

 open air, it has not frozen in the bee-lio'use. 



JMy "Langstroth" frames are about eight inches 

 deep. Is it necessary to cut winter passages 

 through the combs, or is it warm enough thereto 

 enable them to reacli all the honeyV 



The new cedar walls and posts render the air 

 very otf'ensiv-e to me Avhen in the room, and the 

 honey must partake of the flavor, for hen's eggs 

 packed in cedar sawdust were spoiled in two 

 days. Is this odor or t:.ste disagreeable or un- 

 healthy to the bees? Arc wild bees sometimes 

 found in cedar trees? The house will contain 

 thirty swarms. It now has nine, llow large 

 should the ventilators be, and how constructed? 

 Last spring my bees were nearly destitute of 

 honey. I transferred them into the Langstroth 

 hive. I did not know then how to cut down the 

 comb to advantage, and did not get in all my 

 frames; thinking the honey-board a disadvan- 

 tage, I left it out and used frames above and 

 below, which enabled me to feed forced, late, or 

 light colonies with surplus honey conveniently 

 and safely. There was, however, one difficulty. 

 The bees continued their combs upward from 

 the lower frames, instead of down from the guide 

 combs above. The objections to the honey- 

 board are its thickness, which makes more climb- 

 ing for the bees, and its tendency to reduce the 

 communication, and therefore the temperature 

 in the drawers is too low for the bees to work 

 their wax to advantage, if at all. 



Now, with a vicAV of obviating this objection, 

 I propose to use honey-boards made of slats 

 three-sixteenths of an inch thick and one and a 

 half inches wide, witli each end inserted in pieces 

 of wood, like the sides of tlic slat frames; tlie 

 slats to be half an inch apart, for the free admis- 

 sion of the bees and warm air from below. The 

 openings are crosswise as iisual. 



For convenience, I design to use common 

 frames adapted to the lower part of the hives, 

 until I have increased my colonies sufhciently; 

 then, if the}- prosper, dispense with the frames 

 and use drawers (for market) with slat bottoms 

 to correspond with the honey-board, unless 

 frames arc saleable or portable in some form. 

 Now what departure from the above course would 

 your experience advise? 



I have in my care a large and productive col- 

 ony that had not killed all their drones, up to the 

 lasl fair day in November. Is this a positive 

 evidence that they arc queeulcss? They are in- 

 a log hive and cannot be examined. 



These questions may have all been answered 

 in the Jouhnal; if so, I am ignorant, and so I 

 presume are many otliers. ' A. Novice. 



[For the Aiiinican IJee Journal.] 



Experience in Wintering Bees in the 

 Open Air. 



Editou Bee Jouunai.:— Wintering bees is 

 one of tlie greatest perplexities the apiarian has 

 to contend with. 1 prefer to liave my bees re- 

 main on their summer stands, enclosed with 

 a tight board fence about live feet high, with 

 the hive setting near the ground. I use frame 

 hives, and have no trouble to winter bees in 

 them successfully, by removing ihe hoacy-board 

 just before winter sets in, and taking out one 

 or more frames, setting these away in an empty 

 hive until the cold weather is over and then re- 

 placing them. The frames in tlie hive are now 

 moved further apart, which gives tlie bees a 

 good chance to protect tliemselves from the 

 cold. To confine the heat and absorl) the mois- 

 ture, straw cut to a suitable length is placed on 

 the top of the frames. Some of your readers 

 might perhaps say that bees would get out of 

 honey in cold weather, if clustered between 

 three or four ranges of comb. This might be 

 the casein hives that are very wide. Such 

 hives are not tit to winter bees in., as they can- 

 not go through the combs in cold weather to 

 get at their honey, even if winter passages are 

 used. I have had liees in broad frame hives 

 with winter passages in the combs, each frame 

 had also a cross piece through the centre, which 

 gave more room still for the bees to pass through. 

 Yet they died with honey in their hives. Still, 

 these passages should not be neglected. 



My hives are narrow which makes the frames 

 of medium depth and long, so the bees can pass 

 up from front to rear in the coldest weather; 

 thus giving them access to at least twenty 

 pounds of honey. Tliese frames are not quite 

 so convenient to handle as shallow frames; but 

 I have no trouble in doing it. A board placed 

 loosely in the side of all frame hives, which can 

 be drawn out, thus leaving a vacant space, will 

 much facilitate the removal of the frames. Fre- 

 quent handling the frames and disturbing the 

 bees as much as some do, is wrong, and will 

 always prove more or less injurious. 



East Springfield, Pa. C. Gere. 



[Few the American Bee Journal.] 



Terke Haute, Ind., Dec.-30, 18G7. 



Mr. Editor: — AVill you or some of your cor- 

 respondents who know, or think they know, be 

 so good as to state what is the best thickness for 

 lumber of which to make bee hives, when they 

 are to stand out of doors all tho time, say in lat- 

 itude about 40 degress? 



Also, please state whether it would be advisa- 

 ble to cut out the drone comb or a portion of it 

 to prevent tlie raising of too muny drones. If 

 cut out, would the bees be most likely to fill the 

 space with drone or worker comb? 



A. Dun LAP. 



