honey in new cans and cases, knowing 

 full well the objections to the coal-oil 

 cans, formerly in use. A cubic can, 

 made of 12x12 inch tin and holding 

 about 80 lbs. seems to be preferred to 

 either smaller or larger cans for the 

 general trade, while some favor 25 gall, 

 barrels, principally for exportation to 

 Europe. Success to the American 

 Bee Journal. 

 Los Angeles Co., CaL, March, 1879. 



From the Journal of Agriculture. 



Wintering Bees. 



N. CAMERON. 



A peculiarity of the honey bee from 

 all the other insects is that they do not 

 hibernate in a torpid condition. ' If they 

 did, this vexed question of wintering 

 would be removed from the field of 

 discussion. 



Of late years there has appeared a 

 disease generally called dysentery, that 

 destroys whole apiaries, and some sea- 

 sons half or more of all the bees in the 

 country. This disease and its cause 

 have been discussed scientifically in the 

 bee papers pro and con for years, and 

 yet we are ahout as much in the dark 

 as ever. Leading apiarists differ as to 

 the cause and cure. The late M. Quinby 

 ascribed it to the severe and cold winds, 

 many others ascribe it to uncapped 

 honey, and still others to unwholesome 

 and sour honey. Hence we have the 

 various remedies to meet these various 

 conditions. Protection from the winds, 

 extract in the fall all uncapped honey, 

 also extract all unwholesome honey, and 

 feed with sugar syrup, if there is not 

 enough left to winter on. I might say 

 in this connection that some think 

 honey-dew is unhealthy to winter on. 

 We will have an opportunity to test 

 that this winter. What I know about 

 the dysentery is that I had 80 colonies 

 of bees one season in the fall, and the 

 next spring had only 13. Before that I 

 had been claiming that bees could be 

 wintered with as much certainty as any 

 other live stock, but that effectually 

 took the wind out of my pretensions. 

 My great hobby then was to put bees in 

 a dark cellar that was frost-proof. Since 

 I have wholly abandoned cellar winter- 

 ing as being non-essential in this 

 climate, and doubt whether it is in any. 

 I know that a colony of bees so small 

 that they will actually freeze, is practi- 

 cally worthless any way, provided they 

 were kept through the winter by nurs- 

 ing, they would be apt to dwindle away 

 in the spring. 



While it is necessary to have empty 



comb or space below, it is absolutely 

 essential to have honey directly above 

 the cluster ; especially in all latitudes 

 where there is any liability to be pro- 

 tracted cold. But it has been my ob- 

 servation that there is a space secured 

 sufficient for the cluster from the time 

 that frost cuts off the honey supply till 

 the weather gets so cold that it would 

 be dangerous for the bees to remain 

 between the combs full of honey. So 

 that it is my belief that there is very 

 little doctoring needed to winter bees. 

 The essentials are good strong colonies 

 and plenty of good wholesome honey 

 directly over the cluster, and a protec- 

 tion against the cold winds would do 

 no harm, also protect your hives from 

 the sun's rays on all days that the ther- 

 mometer is below 60°, otherwise, many 

 times bees will be enticed out by the 

 warming of the hives, when it is so cold 

 that they can never return. Theseason 

 that my bees suffered most from dysen- 

 tery they were short of honey in the 

 fall, and worked a great deal on decayed 

 fruit and oh grapes, and while it is our 

 opinion that it is the juice of fruits or 

 thin honey that has soured and is the 

 cause of dysentery we are not positive 

 but there are other things that cause it; 

 it may be certain kinds of honey, and 

 as far as we can see are all right. And 

 while we have no specific for its cure or 

 prevention it would do no harm to keep 

 your bees as much as possible from the 

 juice of fruits in the fall of the year, 

 especially if their hives are not well 

 filled with honey, for then they will be 

 all the more eager to gather anything to 

 store. But if bees are taken with this 

 disease, we are satisfied that the most 

 profitable plan for the bee-keeper would 

 be to clear out every hive in which the 

 disease is certainly established, destroy- 

 ing the bees, and saving the comb and 

 honey for use next season. 

 Lawrence, Kan. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How Bees Mark their Location. 



F. P. TURNER. 



I am a " bee-keeper" on a small scale 

 and handle only Italians. I consider 

 them better than the blacks, in every 

 respect, for this latitude. I have for 

 the last two years been very closely con- 

 fined at book-keeping, and in order to 

 pay more attention to my bees, placed 

 the hives above my office— in the end of 

 the store — and bored holes through the 

 planks to let my bees go out. They 

 have done finely and I have found them 

 profitable. The latter part of the sum- 

 mer the house was white-washed and 



