146 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl^ 



colonies. Jfc had plenty of honey, more 

 than any other colony, yet as before but 

 little! brood. The next season this col- 

 ony was to be noticed closely. 



They started in the sanoe as before — 

 when other colonies had their hives well 

 filled with brood, this colony had per- 

 haps enough brood to well fill four or 

 five frames ; but when the honey-flow 

 c^me, they were in splendid condition — 

 in fact, they stored more honey than any 

 other colony. 



I then decided to use this queen for 

 breeding purposes ; while I had queens 

 that produced better looking bees, yet I 

 thought that the other good qualities of 

 this queen would more than overbalance 

 the looks, as large crops of honey are 

 usually wanted first, then looks may be 

 considered. 



Now while the bees of this queen lived 

 longer, they not ©nly had from five to 

 ten days more to gather honey in, but 

 all the honey that was saved in rearing 

 l^ss brood than other colonies did, went 

 in with the surplus, which surely should 

 be considered ; besides, there were less 

 bees required to stay in the hive ior 

 feeding larvae, etc. 



Now, if these bees did not live longer, 

 why was it that they were "at all times 

 strong, with but little brood at any time, 

 and always stored a surplus when any 

 was to be had ? 1 myself was satisfied 

 that they lived longer, before I ever 

 read a word on this subject. 



DR. miller's pulled QUEENS. 



In regard to Dr. Miller's pulled queens, 

 I will say that I have practiced pulling 

 queens to a considerable extent, and 

 with good results. Of course, care should 

 be taken not to pull them too soon — if 

 pulled while quite white, I have no use 

 for them, yet I prefer to let them pull 

 themselves. 



A queen-cell will often be accepted 

 when a pulled queen will not. Suppose 

 you have a colony that has been made 

 queenless an hour since. You find you 

 have an extra queen-cell — one that is 

 just about ready to hatch ; if this cell 

 be placed in the queenless colony, it will 

 most likely be accepted, while if you 

 pull the queen and place her in the 

 colony, she will more than likely be 

 pulled out at the entrance. 



As I have other business besides bees 

 to attend to, I have often neglected to 

 cut out the cells soon enough. I don't 

 believe in cutting out queen-cells as 

 soon as they are sealed, or a little after, 

 but prefer to leave them in the hive 

 where they were built, as long as pos- 



sible. I ofteti cut them out at tvirp or 

 three different times — this I do as fol- 

 lows : 



Take out the frame having the cells ; 

 hold it before the sun, or a light, then 

 cut out all cells in which you see the 

 queen moving. Replace the frame, and 

 in an hour look them over again. 



As above stated, a queen-cell will 

 often be accepted, where a pulled or a 

 virgin queen will not. When it does 

 occur that five or six queens hatch out 

 before the cells have been disturbed, I 

 often catch the queens, put them back 

 into the cells, and cover the point of the 

 cells with a thin piece of wax — not too 

 much wax should be used, neither 

 should it be made airrtight. These cells 

 may be distributed, and will be accepted 

 as though the queens had never been 

 out of the cells. 



Of course these methods are used 

 mostly when no honey is coming in. 

 When plenty of honey to be had, almost 

 any kind of a queen or cell will be ac- 

 cepted by a queenless colony. 



Steeleville, Ills. 



Wintering Bees in Orepn, Etc, 



Written for the American BeeJcnmml 



BY J. H. BERRY. 



As this climate is warm and damp, 

 wintering bees here properly is quite 

 different from that of a cold climate. 

 The important thing is to keep them 

 dry, and the way I do that is by placing 

 burlap on the brood-frames, then set the 

 top story on, and fill it full of dry saw- 

 dust, and the bees come through dry and 

 nice, with the loss of but very few of 

 them.. They commence brood-rearing 

 in January. 



FEEDING BEES IN WINTER. 



The best way I have yet tried to feed 

 bees in the winter, is as follows : • 



Make thick syrup of granulated sugar, 

 and fill a 3-.2-gallon fruit-jar, tying a 

 piece of thin cloth over the mouth of the 

 jar — such as flour sacking is good. 

 Spread a burlap cover over the brood- 

 frames, and cut a piece % out and turn 

 it up, then set the fruit-jar of syrup 

 bottom side up on the frames where the 

 hole is in the burlap. Have the hole 

 just large enough for the can. 



Then put on an empty story and fill 

 it with dry loaves, sawdust or chaff. 

 The bees will cluster on or close around 

 the jar, and will winter as well as they 

 would if they were in a hive full of 



