cellar would have all the merits of a 

 first-class, dry, under-ground , cellar, 

 yet possess the advantages of getting 

 into without the laborious job of climb- 

 ing stairs, and would be much easier to 

 ventilate. 



No doubt an apiary can be bred " in 

 and in," so that it is much harder to 

 winter. A queen should be used that is 

 known to be of no k ' kin " to any in the 

 apiary and she should! have been tested 

 one year if we are aiming to improve 

 our bees. No indiscriminate breeding 

 has been done in my apiary for years. 

 Before breeding from a queen, she must 

 be known to breed the light-colored, 

 amiable, three-banded Italian workers ; 

 she must also be of medium size ; beau- 

 tifully tapering back from the wings, 

 and active ; she must be prolific and 

 handsome. Her workers must be the 

 very best honey-gatherers. They must 

 not be apt to sting, and her colony must 

 have wintered well nor would I breed 

 from a queen that was prone to swarm. 



Many are crazy about double-wall 

 hives. There is just as much sense in 

 the double-walled idea to me, as the chaff 

 and quilts. Such are nothing but an 

 unnecessary expense. Just as well ask 

 me to put on my overcoat in August to 

 keep cool, as to ask me to put my bees 

 in a double- walled hive. When bees 

 are storing honey there is always an 

 excess of heat, instead of a deficien- 

 ancy. I tried a double-walled hive for 

 years and every time it got strong 

 enough to gather honey, it would swarm. 

 There may be a time in early spring 

 when it may be of some benefit, but 

 there is so much of the time it would 

 be a cubersome nuisance, that this ad- 

 vantage is largely over balanced. 



Strawtown, Ihd. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey Season of 1879, and Wintering. 



JOHN F. EGGLESTON. 



Perhaps it would be interesting to 

 some of your readers to know how the 

 little " honey gatherers " have pros- 

 pered in this part of the country, for 

 the past year. The loss in wintering 

 was generally heavy, but we have no 

 reason to complain, farther than of a 

 short crop of honey. In the fall of 

 1878 I wintered 68 colonies ; 31 in the 

 house and 32 on the summer stands ; 15 

 of those wintered outside were enclosed 

 in large boxes and packed in chaff ; two 

 having glass in front of the boxes, but 

 I could discover no advantage arising 

 from the glass. The balance were pre- 

 pared by removing a part of the brood- 

 combs and inserting double paper or 



chaff partitions on each side of the 

 brood-nest. The paper partitions were 

 made by cutting heavy sheeting paper 

 into sheets just large enough to fit the 

 hive closely, and tacking one sheet on 

 each side of an ordinary brood-frame. 

 I placed a thin muslin cloth on the top 

 and filled the upper story Y 2 or % f nil of 

 chaff, and allowed them to remain un- 

 molested till spring, with the following 

 results : They wintered without the 

 loss of a single* colony, or the marks of 

 disease in a single hive. 



Those wintered in the house were 

 put in on the 18th of Nov. and taken 

 out the 9th of April ; they marked the 

 snow much less than they ever did when 

 they were taken out in the winter, but 

 last winter there was no time after they 

 were put in, that the weather was suit- 

 able for them to fly, till the 1st of March ; 

 and at that time they seemed so com- 

 fortable and quiet that I allowed them 

 to remain till spring. I have generally 

 put them out once in the winter for a 

 cleansing flight. 



My honey crop for the past season 

 was a failure ; I reduced my stock by 

 sales to 58 colonies to open the season 

 with ; I increased to 79, and obtained 

 1,453 lbs. of honey ; 25 lbs. of extracted, 

 the balance was comb honey in 5x6 sec- 

 tions, which was sold for 15c. per pound 

 at wholesale (would bring 20c. now). 

 Many bees in this and Crawford county 

 are in poor condition to winter; the 

 prospect is now for as heavy a loss the 

 coining winter as we had last. 

 • Garland, Pa., Dec. 21, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Transferring Bees. 



JOHN BARFOOT. 



In the September number of the 

 American Bee Journal I noticed a 

 method for transferring bees by L. E. 

 Bemis, as it is usually done; in the Oct. 

 number a method by J. D. Enos, also 

 giving his method of fastening combs 

 in frames by using bent wires, which is 

 very good ; and in the November num- 

 ber an improvement, in the form of 

 wires as used by Mr. Enos, for holding 

 combs in frames by Dr. J. W. Greene. 



I have been using wire fastenings of 

 my own make for many years. I simply 

 used a wire % inch longer than it was 

 from the center of the upper bar of the 

 frame to the center of the lower bar, 

 and bent it at each end 5-16 of an inch 

 at right angles with the frame, and 

 drove one end into the upper and the 

 other end into the lower bar, using 

 about 3 pairs for each frame. However, 



