£Jan. 11, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



29 



incident to the main business of his life. It should furnish 

 material for thought and speculation in such measure 

 lead him on in the pursuit of answers to questions arising 

 naturally in the course of his work gratifying his curiosity 

 just enough to whet his appetite for deeper research. It 

 should offer some pecuniary reward for his labor so that be 

 would feel justified in continuing his work from an economic 

 point of view. And above all other considerations, this ai oca- 

 tion should be of such a nature as to entice him into God's 

 out-of-doors, where he, whose daily occupation holds him in 

 close, shaded rooms, may breathe in sunshine and breathe 

 pure air. 



Few occupations can answer all these demands so thor- 



OUghly as bee-keeping. Gardening might do so if it were 



1e to adapt it to the crowded conditions of city and 



suburban life. But gardening is an impossible consideration 



ousands who might easily employ bee-keeping as a means 



of recreation. Contrary to the popular notion, bee-keeping 



of the most adaptable of rural pursuits. The back yard, 



the house-top, the dining-room window, all furnish suitable 



locations for a hive of bees. 



The first and most necessary asset of bee-keeping, whether 

 for profit or pleasure, is a fund of knowledge. This sugges- 

 tion may have a dampening effect on the interest of one 

 1 suffering from "brain, fag." But the acquisition of this 

 fund of knowledge ought to prove one of the most delightful 

 and restful occupations for the long evenings of the winter 

 months. Next to actual work with the bees, the perusal of 

 books and papers on the subject of bee-keeping is a most 

 helpful recreation. Many an hour will be relieved of its 

 tedium, and many a necessary task will be the better per- 

 formed, because the mind has been engaged in the wholesome 

 occupation of delving into some of Nature's mysteries. 



With the first appearance of spring the knowledge thus 

 acquired will verily demand demonstration in practice. A 

 colony or two of bees in modern hives will be the first visible 

 result of the winter's cogitations. As the season progresses 

 things will begin and continue to happen among the bees and 

 to the bee-keeper The bee-keeper's friends will fairly wear 

 out the old joke about his having "a bee in his bonnet." In 

 spite of the joke, however, his interest will increase rather 

 than diminish, because at every step he is called upon to 

 produce some portion of the knowledge stored away during 

 the winter, and. if his eyes are open, it will be his pleasure to 

 add to that fund from time to time. 



Finally, the day will come when his table will be adorned 

 with the "first fruits" of his hives, and without the least twinge 

 or compunction of conscience as to the possible cost of that 

 pound of honey, he will eat of it, and have his family and 

 friends to partake with him, in the firm conviction that it is 

 an improvement on the nectar of the gods. 



When winter comes again and the parent colonies, with 

 the increase which he has made during the season, are snugly 

 tucked away, with ample stores close beside them, for their 

 long confinement, the owner will view them with satisfaction 

 as a most delightful acquisition to his life interests. His 

 carefully kept account will reveal a goodly financial "income 

 on investment." but better than all other profits of the season 

 will be the clearing of the cobwebs from his brain in the 

 pursuit of a healthful outdoor recreation. 



This garret-dusting process will have come about through 



the building up of muscular and nerve tissues as a result of 



bodily exercise in a most favorable environment. There will 



have come also mental re-invigoration in the pursuit and 



mastery of some of Nature's secrets to which there is no 



better introduction than the understanding of the economy of 



the bee-hive. Coal City, 111. 



it 

 *»? 



Wintering Bees on Solid Combs of Honey 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



J. I.. BYER, on page 744, says the plan is all right. C. P. 

 Dadant, on page 791, says it's all wrong. Suppose we 

 look at conditions with a hive containing solid sealed 

 combs of honey. 



As explained by Mr. Dadant, they' are talking about two 

 rather different things — Mr. Dadant about a colony in such 

 condition that the queen has been crowded out early enough 

 for the combs to be filled with honey, and Mr. Byer about a 

 colony in which the bee-keeper has been meddling to have 

 the brood-chamber filled solid. And yet. when they are all 

 through, you can see that while they're trying to look good- 

 natured about it, each thinks the other is wrong. 



Suppose we look at the conditions with every comb filled 

 with honey and sealed down to the bottom-bar. When bees 

 seal cells of honey they leave a space of just about a fourth of 

 an inch between two adjoining combs. A bee gets through a 

 perforation of 1-6 of an inch in excluder zinc, and it needs 

 all of that space. If a layer of bees were to stand on each 

 of the opposing faces of comb, back to back, they would need 

 a space of 2-6 or 4-12. But the space is only %, or 3-12. So 

 there's room for only one layer of bees between the two combs. 

 Even suppose two layers should crowd in, could those two 

 layers keep each other warm for a number of days of zero 

 weather? But you say there are other seams of bees to help. 

 Yes, but between this and the next seam there is, if the combs 

 laced l'x mdies, a slab of solid honey 1% inches thick. 

 Now. with one or two layers of bees in each seam, and the 

 seams 1 ' s inches apart, do you believe any number of such 

 seams of bee? can keep -; i other warm? J. L. Byer, backed 

 up by all the Canucks he can trot out, couldn't make me 

 believe it. 



"Then you're calling all those Canucks liars, are you? 

 You wait a bit, and come down into the cellar with me. 

 Look into the entrances of those hives. Y'ou see that there is 

 a space of 2 inches between the bottom-bars and the floor of 

 the hive, and you see that the cluster comes down so that a 

 good part of it rests on the floor. By preference the bees 

 cluster that way all winter long, food being passed down or 

 else the bees changing places as they want to get at the honey. 

 You can see from the size of the cluster that a good part of 

 the colony is down below the bottom-bars. Now to that part 

 of the colonv I don't suppose it makes a particle of difference 

 whether the cells at the lower part of the comb are filled with 

 honey or empty. In some hives you don't see any such cluster, 

 but the more I see the better I feel. A large part of the bees 

 under the bottom-bars shows two thing : Plenty of bees, and 

 plentv of honey. . . 



Now take one of those Dadant hives with their immense 

 combs tilled down solid, and only a little more than a bee- 

 space below the bottom-bars, and there isn't chance for enough 

 bees to get together to keep each other warm, and when the 

 cold is severe enough, and continues long enough, they'll be 

 sure to fr— Mr. Abbott says they'll starve— never mind which. 

 they'll die. . . 



' I wouldn't like to be dogmatic about it, but it looks at 

 least possible that the difference in the views of the French- 

 man and the Canuck lies in the fact that one allows space 

 enough for a decent cluster below the bottom-bars, and the 

 other doesn't. If it should happen that that Canuck should 

 arise to remark that his bees have only a bee-space between 

 floor and bottom-bars, then I can only meekly reply that I 

 didn't know as much as I thought I did. 



Since the foregoing was written Mr. Hasty's comment 

 appears on page 827, and. acute observer though he is, he 

 seems to think that when there are no empty cells the cluster- 

 ing must all be between and not under the combs. Give 'em 

 room below, Mr. Hasty. Marengo, 111. 



2— Dadant Methods of Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



THE next important step in bee-culture was the selec- 

 tion of the colonies from which to breed, for it was 

 very evident, in reasoning from the experience of the 

 masters, that we must not depend upon natural swarming, 

 but must select our breeders. It was then that the dif- 

 ferent races of bees were brought to our notice. The Italian 

 was the only race, outside of the common or black bee, 

 that had been given a fair trial in America, and what had 

 been reported about them was of a very favorable nature. 

 So we bought a warranted untested queen for $5 from a 

 Mr. Gray, of Butler County, Ohio, who had secured his 

 stock from the very first importations of Father Lang- 

 stroth. The bees were very line, of bright yellow color, 

 and rather a little larger than the ordinary common bee. 

 But they showed very plainly the natural traits of the 

 Italian. They were unmistakably superior to the common 



bees. , t i 



Let me here establish the known facts about the Ital- 

 ian bee. There has been too much in-breeding for color, 

 and in many cases the original qualities of the bee have 

 been neglected in order that the bee might show the very 

 brightest tint of yellow rings and a display of bright 

 color to the tip of the abdomen. The Italian bee in its 

 native country shows three yellow rings, which vary from 

 a bright orange yellow to a dull leather color. Occasion- 



