150 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ting tube and a door of entrance through one 

 side of the bee-house— which is used mainly for 

 a workshop and store room. In this clamp, so 

 arranged with a thermometer, I can regulate 

 the temperature as I please. I find that when 

 the temperatnre is raised above 40° F. the stocks 

 generally manifest uneasiness ; but are most 

 quiet when the temperature stands at from 39° 

 to 40° F. ; which, in my clamp, requires the in- 

 troduction of considerable fresh air. This is let 

 in in such a way as not to admit light. I do not 

 like to have the walls of a wintering house so 

 cold that frost will form from bee breath on the 

 inside. In that case, on every change to suffi- 

 cient warmth, moisture and a damp room will 

 be the result. 



J. W. Truesdell. 

 Warwick, Canada, Dec. 25, 1868. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Feeding Bees. 



Mr. Editor : — In this section (Chatauqua 

 county, N. Y.) bees as a general thing have 

 done very poorly last summer, probably because 

 of the dry hot weather that continued through 

 the entire honey season. The spring was cold 

 and wet, thus making early forage almost a total 

 failure. Early bee forage is not usually to be 

 depended on here, in consequence of late frosts 

 and cold high winds. Our principal honey-pro- 

 ducing plants are white clover and basswood, 

 mostly the former. 



As white clover is our main dependence for 

 honey, and it continues in bloom only a short 

 time — five or six weeks at longest — we cannot 

 take too much pains to have our hives well 

 populated at its beginning. It is a well estab- 

 lished fact that when bees are excited by daily 

 employment in feeding or gathering honey, 

 breeding is carried on most vigorously; whereas, 

 if they are idle, the queen will lay only moder- 

 ately, or cease entirely, until honey is again to 

 be obtained, which may be too late, so far as 

 white clover is concerned. The bees that gather 

 honey from clover must be matured from eggs 

 laid at least a month previous to its blossoming; 

 because it requires twenty-one days to hatch a 

 worker bee from the egg, and eight or ten days 

 more for it to gain sufficient strength to work. 

 Thus it will readily be seen that bees matured 

 from eggs when white clover is already in 

 bloom, would be consumers instead of producers 

 in this locality. It is on the rising generation 

 that we have to depend for surplus honey; and 

 if we have our hives well filled with young bees, 

 at the commencement of the honey harvest, we 

 may well expect to obtain early swarms and a 

 good yield of surplus honey. But if not, we 

 shall certainly be disappointed if we expect 

 either. 



I have practised feeding my bees in early 

 spring for the past three seasons, and feel confi- 

 dent that they have paid me for the little extra 

 expense and trouble, as they swarmed several 

 days earlier, and gave me double the quantity 

 of surplus honey. As I feed all my bees, I have 

 an opportunity to compare with my neighbors 



who do not feed. All bee-keepers know the ad- 

 vantage which early swarms have over late 

 ones. In the season of 1867, I received from 

 seventeen colonies 1,020 pounds of beautiful 

 honey, and twenty -four young swarms. This 

 season, 1868, I obtained from thirty colonies 850 

 pounds of equally as nice box honey, and thirty- 

 four swarms. It will be seen from the above 

 figures, that bees in this section have not stored 

 as much surplus by more than fifty per cent, 

 as they did in the preceding year — although 

 they were fed and cared for precisely alike in 

 both years. When the flowers do not yield 

 honey of course the bees cannot gather it. 



The construction of my feeder is such that I 

 furnish my bees with water, rye flour, and 

 sugar syrup, all at the same time, without at- 

 tracting the attention of robber bees; and they 

 feed on these readily, without diminishing the 

 warmth of the hive, which is important in ma- 

 turing brood in early spring. 



I have tried many ways of wintering, but I 

 prefer to leave them on their summer stands 

 when in a suitable hive. I have used many 

 kinds of bee hives, but for the past two seasons 

 have been using one of my own invention, not 

 feeling satisfied with those I had in use before. 

 It is intended for wintering bees in the open' 

 air, being double — the frames, which are move- 

 able, form the inner hive. It is simple and 

 cheap in construction, calculated to be packed 

 in winter with cut straw, chaff, or shavings ; 

 and is so arranged that all moisture arising from 

 the bees passes into the packing, thus always 

 keeping the bees warm and dry. As the con- 

 struction of both my hive and feeder is differ- 

 ent from any I have seen described in the Jour- 

 nal, I will give a description of them, illustra- 

 ted by an electrotype of each, if desired by you 

 or the readers of the Journal. 



J. B. Beebee. 

 Cassadago, Chatauqua Co., N. Y. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Hives, Queens, and Pollen-Substitute. 



Mr. Editor : — My first real commencement 

 in the bee business was last spring. I bought 

 twenty swarms, transferred nine into American 

 Hives, and the remainder into Langstroth Stand- 

 ard Hives. I cannot say that the American meets 

 my expectations as a convenient hive. The 

 bees have built their combs with a bulge here 

 and a depression there, that I find it impossible 

 to take full frames out of one hive and put them 

 in another without too much trimming. In 

 fact I can scarcely get them out without break- 

 ing, which I never find to be the case with the 

 Langstroth frames, even if built up in the same 

 manner. The Langstroth frames being open 

 their full length makes them decidedly easier 

 to handle, as they do not require to be put back 

 with such exactness as demanded by closed top 

 frames. 



My mode of transferring was to drive out the 

 bees, and use all the combs that could be fitted. 

 in the frames. I first, used fine store twine for 

 fastening; then tried strips of brown paper, as 



