I want to say to those who have not 

 bought smokers to get the largest sized 

 smokers (hot or cold blast is of no ac- 

 count) ; I speak of this because I have 

 had experience with both, and find it a 

 great annoyance to have the smoke give 

 out when it is wanted most. I like the 

 Bingham the best, but any kind will do 

 if large enough. 



There is one fixture that I want, and 

 that is something that will enable me to 

 turn the Laugstroth frame bottom side 

 up, so that when clover and bass wood 

 cease to yield honey, the frames can be 

 turned over, and if done a little before 

 the honey ceases to flow, the bees will 

 uncap the honey in these frames and 

 carry it up into the boxes, and in place 

 of honey the frames will be filled with 

 brood for the fall harvest, and the honey 

 be in good marketable shape in the 

 boxes. 



My experience has been that the dol- 

 lar queens, if reared from imported 

 mothers, are as likely to be good as any. 

 By waiting for them to be tested the 

 season is past before getting them. 

 Some of the best queens I ever had 

 were small. I prefer to buy more 

 queens and weed out the poor ones than 

 to pay a high price and have to ex- 

 change. All the old queen breeders know 

 the importance of rearing queens from 

 good stock, and if so reared you cannot 

 test them without placing them in a 

 good colony of bees. I have paid as 

 high as $8.00 for a queen, and the same 

 season bought a better one for $1.00. 



East Saginaw, Mich., March 13, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Wintering Bees, &c. 



R. S. BECKTELL. 



The past winter has been a very 

 severe one on bees— nearly everywhere 

 we hear of losses. I believe fully one- 

 half of the bees about here are dead; 

 they all died of dysentery, which was 

 in nine cases out of ten caused by con- 

 finement, in severe cold weather, to the 

 hives for a long time on combs of honey 

 that were more or less sour. 



Last season was wet and cool in many 

 places, and the result was our clover 

 honey soured in the hives. The old 

 colonies that cast swarms in June are 

 the ones that suffered most ; they 

 swarmed and left unsealed honey 

 which soured. I have seen honey sour 

 even in good, strong colonies. When 

 it rains about every other day in June, 

 you must expect poor honey ; it will be 

 so thin when it is first gathered that it 

 never will be as good and thick as it is 



in a favorable season. My advice to all, 

 is to keep all colonies strong; don't 

 divide your bees to death when the 

 honey is liable to sour and your bees 

 die the next winter and spring. As we 

 do not want any more sour honey in the 

 market, please do not extract your 

 honey till it is all capped over, and if 

 the yield of honey is not too great, so 

 you have room in the hive, it would be 

 better to leave the honey in the hive for 

 a week or two after it is capped over, 

 for it gets thicker and better after it is 

 capped over. 



I never extracted any honey till it 

 was fully two-thirds capped over, and 

 yet, about three years ago, I had some 

 clover honey that was "more or less 

 sour." C. O. Perrine would not believe 

 it was clover honey, but I know it was 

 for there was nothing else for the bees 

 to work on. I did not extract any of 

 the clover honey that year (1876) till I 

 saw the basswood was a failure, then I 

 extracted it from the 17th to the 20th of 

 July. I do not claim that poor honey is 

 the cause of the loss of all our bees ; but 

 it is the main cause. Weak colonies 

 cannot stand long cold winters as well 

 as strong ones. The season was too 

 cold in September last, so the bees did 

 not breed good, and then it was too 

 warm in October and November, so the 

 bees died off till they were only about 

 half as strong as they should have been 

 on the first of December. I believe 

 some think that if the old bees do not 

 die off in the fall they will before spring, 

 but such has not been my experience. 

 Old bees will live a longtime in cold 

 weather, and they help to keep up the 

 necessary temperature in the hive. I 

 have succeeded best in wintering bees 

 on 8 combs that have fully 80 lbs. of 

 honey in them, and the upper story 

 packed with straw, and left on the sum- 

 mer stands unprotected in any other 

 way, except that they were nearly 

 covered up for a while in December and 

 January. I left two colonies without 

 any quilt, straw, or honey-board in the 

 upper story, and yet they wintered, and 

 are now in fair condition. They were 

 fair colonies last fall, and had the hives 

 full of as good honey as a poor season 

 could produce. I had three colonies 

 smothered from want of upward venti- 

 lation ; ice froze in the entrances. 



One great cause of mortality among 

 bees is too much pollen ; it stimulates 

 the bees to breeding in winter or early 

 spring, and if there is much very cold 

 weather afterwards the bees and brood 

 will be injured or entirely destroyed. 

 Especially is pollen detrimental to the 

 bees if much of it is left unsealed in 

 the fall, as is sometimes the case, when 



