AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VIII. 



OCTOBER, 1@"^S. 



No. 4. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



NOVICE. 



Dear Bee Journal : — We have bad many 

 little successes since we last wrote you, and some 

 of our "pet ideas" have not been quite a 

 success. 



For instance, our half-ton feeder don't work 

 quite as smoothly as the tea-kettle feeder. In the 

 first place, the bees objected to going down into 

 so large a box, so we took away their hive, and 

 hung twenty-rive combs just above the float and 

 these were speedily filled in good shape. We 

 removed them, and gave them fifty combs next ; 

 these were partially filled, and then they began 

 to grow lazy, and robbers began to get in. As 

 the float lowered matters grew worse, and now 

 they are dying on the tloat in spite of ventilation 

 and all the care we can give them. 



Perhaps, as a friend suggests, they are worked 

 to death, for bringing two hundred pounds of 

 syrup two feet high in twenty-four hours, is quite 

 a job, and may be, our project of making one 

 colony prepare the winter food for seventy, is 

 not going to do after all ; but we are going to 

 supply them with brood, and give it a further 

 trial. 



We were at one time quite hopeful of getting 

 combs built by supplying the bees with sugar 

 worked up with wax, on Adair's plan, but so far 

 the amount of comb built is not more than the 

 consumption of the same amount of sugar alone 

 would produce, and the wax is left in irregular 

 shaped masses, with rude cells partly fashioned 

 thereon. We followed directions very carefully 

 at two different times. Who has had better 

 success? 



Mr. Editor, the types in our last have, in sev- 

 eral places, made our communica ion rather ob- 

 scure, viz.. page 51, left hand column, line 15 

 from top, read "fair" instead of firs', and in 

 middle of same column, read " nailed " instead 

 of railed, and omit the word "one" before par- 

 tiality. Also, in middle of right-hand column, 

 same page, read "chemically pure food" instead 

 of chemicals for food, for we certainly would not 

 drug our bees. 



Some one writes us to please be a little more 

 explicit in regard to the entrance to our hive, 

 which we try to do as follows. 



If youshove thehive forward, so that it projects 

 over the bottom enough for an entrance, you will, 

 of course, have an entrance as wide as the hive 

 as soon as you have any that will allow a bee to 

 pass ; but. if you cut away the lower insideedgQ 

 of the front end board, and cut it deepest in the 

 middle, you will have an entrance that is small 

 at first and enlarges as the hive is moved farther 

 forward. 



Dr. J. A. Newton, of Booneville, Indiana, asks 

 the following questions : 



How deep are your frames, inside measure- 

 ment, and how long? 



Can bees be wintered on their summer stands 

 in your hives, if protected by straw? 



What is your opinion about double-wall 

 hives, say four or six inch space all round, filled 

 in with straw or sawdust? 



Have your frames a cross-piece in centre? 



My frames stand in the hive, on a fixed bottom 

 board, and do not like it. 



Would a frame twelve inches high be too tall 

 to lift out easily, and would the combs be likely 

 to break down ? 



Our frames are, inside, 8f deep by 17} long. Bees 

 can be wint- red as well in the hive we mention, 

 as any on their summer stand. And we should 

 give them no protection whatever, unless it be 

 from the wind, but should endeavor to have them 

 receive all the sun, possible. Give them about 

 ten pounds more food than when housed, and we 

 think there will be little trouble. 



In regard to double wads for hives for winter- 

 ing, perhaps they have been as often tried and 

 discarded by every one who becomes a bee-cul- 

 turer, as almost anything else (unless it be fix- 

 ing the frames at equal distances) and probably 

 will be for some time to come. We will say 

 briefly, that such a plan deprives your bees of 

 very much of the warmth of the sun, and gives 

 almo-t none of the advantages of a frost-proof, 

 special depository. 



Unless bees can be, kept tchere water will not 

 freeze, they had far better be as much in the sun 

 as possible. 



Wo really shall have to beg to be excused an- 

 swering the last three questions, more than by 

 referring to our circular, or we might be accused 

 of using these pages for something we have to 

 sell. 



In answer to several inquiries, we would sug- 



