little by the weight of his load before he 

 has his wings fully under control, and, 

 therefore, instead of starting out as a bee 

 ordinarily does, he takes a downward curve, 

 coming quite near the ground before he 

 rises safely and surely. 



With a little practice you can tell a robber 

 at a glance by his way of coming out of the 

 hive. As soon as you rind bees coming out of 

 the hive loaded, shut it up at once. If there 

 are not many of them there will be but lit- 

 tle danger of suffocation, but if the colony 

 is strong you will have to give them venti- 

 lation. Remove the block from the entrance 

 at sunset to allow the robbers to escape, then 

 close it again, leaving room for 1 or 2 bees to 

 pass at a time. When you find bees rob- 

 bing, contract the entrance of each hive and 

 it will help them to protect their stores. If 

 robbing is not stopped, and the work is un- 

 der real headway, the honey of a strong 

 colony will disappear in from 2 to 12 hours, 

 and the bees will then starve in the hive, or 

 go home with the pillagers, or scatter about 

 and die. This is not all. When the passion 

 is fully aroused they will not hesitate to at- 

 tack the strongest colonies, and you will 

 find your bees stung to death in heaps be- 

 fore the entrances, and at such times the 

 robbers will attack passers-by, and some- 

 times venture an attack on cats, dogs or 

 anything that comes within reach. The 

 Italian bees will protect their hives much 

 better and are not as liable to rob as the 

 common bee. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Successful Wintering of Bees. 



D. A. 31. HILLS. 



I am located nearly at the top of the 

 Allegheny mountains. The mercury 

 often goes down to 20° and 25°, some- 

 times for days together below zero. 

 Such has been the case during the past 

 winter, with a great amount of snow, 

 there not being 1 day out of 20 fit for 

 bees to fly. 



I put 23 colonies of bees in American 

 hives into winter quarters as follows : 

 I made a chaff cushion long enough to 

 go all around the hive and wide enough 

 to reach from the top to the bottom of 

 the hive. I shut up the bottom vent 

 pretty close, took off the cap entirely, 

 laid a small stick or cornstalk right 

 across the holes to the surplus boxes, in 

 the top of the frames, and over this put 

 two or three thicknesses of carpet, 

 leaving one hole on each side uncov- 

 ered. Then I laid a chaff cushion, six 

 inches thick, on top, having it large 

 enough to rest on the edges of the hive 

 and not let it down on the frames. 

 Then over this I turned a " W " dry- 

 goods box, which was puttied and 

 painted on the bottom to prevent leak- 

 age. The edge of the box rested on the 

 ground all around and shut the bees en- 

 tirely in the dark, so they would not 



become restless on sunny days when it 

 was too cold to fly. 



March 5th being warm and sunny, I 

 opened them up, taking the boxes clear 

 off, as well as the cushions, and opened 

 up the hive below, cleaned out the dead 

 bees and opened the top and gave them 

 a good fly. Before and all around on 

 the snow, which was over one foot deep, 

 I spread paper, old carpet and burlaps 

 or straw. I tell you it was a pleasing 

 sight, all well, hearty and strong, and 

 the happiest things I ever saw. 



But I have learned that even in this 

 cold climate bees can be kept too warm, 

 for every colony where I had not put on 

 a long cushion around the hive was in 

 a better condition than those which had 

 the cushion around them — fewer dead 

 bees and much dryer. So hereafter all 

 bees that I winter on summer stands I 

 shall cushion on top, with plenty of up- 

 ward ventilation, and a box turned 

 over them, closing up around the bot- 

 tom of the box tight with sawdust. 



I had 7 colonies in the cellar. I set 

 them out to fly, and they were in a most 

 perfect state, there not being a gill of 

 dead bees in any one hive. 



Clearfield, Pa., March, 1879. 



Popular Illusions. 



Lazy Bees. — One of our most successful 

 and intelligent farmers said: "The bees 

 seem to get lazy and quit work during the 

 hot weather." He was right in his obser- 

 vation but mistaken as to the cause. Clo- 

 ver and other flowers yield but little honey 

 during hot, dry weather, and the bees al- 

 ways quit work when there is no honey for 

 them to gather. 



Blacks Killed by Italians.— An aged 

 lady who had been rather successful in 

 managing bees, said : " The Italians killed 

 all of our black bees." The black queens 

 had been removed and Italians introduced 

 in their stead. And it did not occur to the 

 lady that the bees in any colony are con- 

 tinually changing— the old dying and the 

 young taking their places. 



Comb Made from Pollen.— An elo- 

 quent and popular divine told us in his ser- 

 mon about the patient, industrious bee 

 gathering the farina from the flowers and 

 working it into comb. Now, readers, did 

 the preacher make a mistake ? 



Will They Stino; ?— A bee often alights 

 on a person just as it would on a fence or a 

 tree, and if let alone it will fly away in a 

 few seconds, and not once in a thousond 

 times will it sting. It is only in the vicinity 

 of their hive that bees sting intentionally. 



Comb Guides.— Not long ago some one 

 advertised a comb guide, ciaiininu: that by 

 its use the bees would be compelled to be- 

 gin and to continue to build worker comb. 

 Now the man who makes any such claim is 

 either ignorant or dishonest— possibly both. 



