sitates the omission of another. Hence, 

 it requires not a little judgment to de- 

 cide correctly which of all the many 

 hives (all claimed to be the best) is the 

 right one to adopt. For the above rea- 

 sons, we have changed from one to 

 another, and perhaps back to the first 

 one again, and no doubt many at the 

 present time are yet undecided as to 

 which is the best hive. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., January, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Stray Thoughts from Kentucky. 



W. VAN ANT WERT 



To-day is pleasant and warm ; though 

 we had a sharp frost last night. Bees 

 are hying as merrily as in June. I have 

 taken much care to learn the 

 status of bees in this county and I find 

 fully one-third are already dead, and I 

 fear the result of this open winter ; 

 while it does not kill by freezing, yet 

 the frequent flights will exhaust the 

 honey and deplete the hives. The in- 

 telligent bee-keeper has naught to fear, 

 for with the feeder during warm nights 

 he can feed up for several weeks of bad 

 weather. I have 18 colonies in winter 

 quarters, all in good condition. I use a 

 common-sense hive of my own manu- 

 facture. 



The frames are 11x12 inches outside 

 measure, with space all around % inch ; 

 not having hiding places for moths, 

 and strong colonies of Italians, make a 

 moth proof hive ; they have a division 

 board at each end and a blanket on the 

 top, to absorb the moisture, and I feel 

 safe. I was more than pleased to know 

 that some .person had succeeded in 

 fertilization of queens in confinement 

 and in a somewhat similar manner to 

 my own, which I gave at the meeting of 

 the Kentucky Bee-Keepers' Association 

 at Lexington. I have great faith that 

 it will be accomplished in an easy man- 

 ner ; we must recognize the require- 

 ments of Nature, and conform as nearly 

 as possible to them. 



The two-story hive for extracting and 

 prize sections for comb honey, with 

 foundation starters, are my methods for 

 obtaining surplus. I saw in the 

 Journal another method of using the 

 prize sections. I have succeeded ad- 

 mirably by using a section holder 

 similar to the old honey box, minus 

 top and bottom, with cleats for the bot- 

 tom of the sections to rest on. This 

 tilled with section frames gives oppor- 

 tunity for the whole lot to ue raised up 

 when full ; I then insert an empty one 

 over the brood-chamber, replacing the 



first one on top of it to season it, and 

 get it capped over; thereby utilizing the 

 heat that ascends and save time, for the 

 under-holder of sections are half full 

 by the time the upper ones are entirely 

 tinished. 



I obtained from 4 colonies of Italians 

 572 lbs. of comb honey in 1878 ; last sea- 

 son was a total failure, and I only ob- 

 tained 130 lbs. of surplus from all of 

 my IS colonies ; strange to say it was 

 the yellow banded fellows exclusively 

 that gave this, not a colony of blacks- 

 gave any surplus or even worked in the 

 upper story. 



I Italianized all my blacks last Aug. 

 Mr. H. Alley, of Mass., sent me 

 splendid queens, and everything was 

 just as represented, which I cannot say 

 for every one that I have traded with. 

 I do not wish to disparage all other 

 queen breedei*, for I know of many 

 good ones ; as a class they are honorable 

 gentlemen. 



Mt. Sterling, Ky., Jan. 10, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Description of my Section-Boxes. 



D. P. CAMPBELL. 



They are 434x4J^ inches; the sides and 

 ends are the same width, making much 

 neater boxes than the ones with narrow 

 bottoms and tops. I use tin separators 

 \% long by 3% wide. I get strips of 

 basswood %x 14 , and groove them in the 

 center, 3-16 deep, and the same width as 

 the thickness of the tin ; then I cut the 

 strips up 414 inches long and put one on 

 each end of the tin ; that will leave 

 7-16 above and below the tin separator, 

 which stands on the rack between the 

 section-boxes, and it leaves 34 inch be- 

 tween the sections for the bees to go in, 

 and they will build the comb in each 

 section 14 inch thicker, so that a \% 

 section made in this way, holds the 

 same amount of honey as a 2 inch one 

 made in the old way. The outside 

 separators are made with wood on both 

 ends and top and are the same size as 

 the section. 



To hold the sections and separators 

 together, I use a wire coil spring about 

 2 inches long and % in diameter and 

 tie a cord to each end, a little shorter 

 than goes around 7 sections with separ- 

 tors in place ; then I put the cord around 

 them and the spring gives enough to let 

 it on easily, and holds them so solid 

 that they will lift off the rack without 

 moving the least. I would like to ob- 

 tain the opinions of other bee-keepers 

 on this plan. 



Park Hill, Out., Canada. 



