202 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March, 



that if he treated his bees in as reckless a man- 

 ner as I did mine he should ruin his whole apiary. 

 I wish that Mr. Hiilman could have given me a 

 call a few days later, when I could have shown 

 him how my two queens were received. 



I have often kept queens caged, together with 

 a few workers, on the top of brood frames, until 

 I could make the proper use of them, the queena 

 would keep alive in some instances for weeks, 

 while the workers generally soon died. But last 

 fall I had a valuable queen killed in the cage on 

 the second day, her legs being bitten off, &c. 

 Brother Hulman suggested that the presence of 

 the strange workers in the cage irritated the bees 

 in the hive and caused them to attack the queen. 

 This is reasonable, and since I cage queens alone 

 when introducing, or when I put them for safe- 

 keeping on brood frames. 



C. F. MUTH, 



Cincinnati, Jan. 15, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



An Item on Upward Ventilation. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN WINTERING. 



About the 20th of November we had a few 

 days of unusually cold weather for the time of 

 year in this latitude. It happened that some 

 two weeks before I had equalized the honey by 

 changing frames in several of my stocks, and 

 had inadvertently left all the holes in the frames 

 open in those hives. In my other hives they had 

 all been closed with small blocks when the honey 

 boxes were removed. On the 1st of December I 

 put my bees in winter quarters. I was surprised 

 to find fewer dead bees in every hive that was 

 thus left with a free upward ventilation than in 

 those that were closed. Noticed also that these 

 hives were perfectly dry on the inside, while in 

 the othei's, in almost every instance, ridges of 

 ice were plainly to be seen leading fnjm the 

 entrance, showing that condensation had taken 

 place within the hive, and the water had run 

 down the sides and out of the hives. 



I have on trial an experiment in wintering. 

 It may not be new to many of your readers. I 

 placed my hives in a double row about twelve 

 inches apart each way, on boards covered three 

 or four inches deep with common prairie hay. I 

 then drove posts in the ground, to which com- 

 mon fence boards were tacked, so as to form a 

 large box entirely surrounding the hives, fixed a 

 six inch board about seven inches above the 

 entrances, in such a way as to prevent the hay 

 from closing the entrances to the hives, then 

 crowded the hay all around and on top of the 

 hives. I left half of the slats open in the frames 

 and tilled the caps with hay. Of course the re- 

 sult is about the same as if all my hives were 

 buried in a hay stack with the entrances left 

 open. 



I fear that trouble may arise whenever the 

 weather is warm enough to cause the bees to 

 fiy, from the fact that many will enter the wrong 

 hives and thus be destroyed. As the double row 

 extends north and south, of course the sun will 



shine on each row of hives but half the day, and 

 as the rays strike upon but a few inches of each 

 hive, I think there will be but a few days during 

 the winter when the bees will be warmed up 

 enough to cause them to fly. 



I have tried to winter a few stocks on their 

 summer stands. Will give you the results of my 

 experiments in the s^jring. 



E. A. Gastman. 



Decatur, Ills., Jan. 6, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



On Supplying New Swarms with Eeady Made 

 Combs. 



Some beekeepers assert that supplying ready 

 made combs to new swarms is a great a,dvantage, 

 while others allege that it is an actual damage. 

 Both parties are right. Allow me to explain. 

 If we have a swarm come out at any time when 

 bees are gathering very little honey, and we sup- 

 ply them with ready made comb, the queen can 

 at once go to depositing eggs as rapidly as she 

 chooses, provided the bees gather just sufficient 

 honey to keep her breeding actively, without 

 storing any in the cells to be in her way. Now 

 we know positively that under such circum- 

 stances ready made comb is a great advantage. 

 On the other hand, if we have a swarm come out 

 while the basswood is in bloom, or at any time 

 when the bees are gathering honey rapidly, and 

 we supply them with ready made comb they will 

 fill it so quickly that no room is left for the 

 queen to deposit eggs. The consequence is that 

 the swarm, unless attended to and relieved by 

 means of the extractor is actually ruined, for we 

 have a hive completely filled with honey and no 

 bees in the fall. But if we allow them to build 

 their combs they consume so much honey in the 

 elaboration of wax and manufacturing the combs 

 that it gives the queen a chance to deposit eggs, 

 and the swarm turns out to be a good one. Give 

 us the combs ready made, and we will use it 

 under all circumstances, and with our manage- 

 ment and the use of the extractor call it an 

 advantage. In fact we can see no chance for 

 argument on this question when properly under- 

 stood. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Product of a Swarm. 



Mr. Editor : — The honey season is over and 

 our bees are put up in winter quarters. The 

 past season has been what we here call a very 

 fair one. I wintered seventeen colonies last 

 winter, and increased them to thirty. More 

 than one half of my swarms were natural ones. 

 I aimed to keep my colonies strong, with the 

 hives full of bees ; but about the time I got 

 them as wanted, they would swarm. The Ital- 

 lians are given to such tricks. Early in the 

 honey season I selected a strong stock of Italians, 



