AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



341 



Descrlplion of a Bee-Honse, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY ANDREW M. THOMPSON. 



On page 409 (1893) I promised a 

 description of my bee-house made in the 

 fall of 1892. The dimensions on the 

 ground are 14x20 feet; the studding 

 are sawed 2x10 inches, and 12 feet 

 long. These studding were slit when 

 sawed nearly half way, leaving 6 inches 

 for the upper story, and in framing 

 these studding the 4 inches were sawed 

 off to the saw kerf, leaving 6 Inches 

 above and 10 below to be filled with 

 sawdust. The upper joice were 2x10 

 inches, and 14 feet long. The space be- 

 tween the ceiling overhead and the floor 

 in the upper story was filled in the same 

 way. 



The outside is boarded with rough 

 hemlock lumber, and the cracks were 

 battened. The lower story was sheeted 

 upon the inside, and the cracks were 

 battened between the studding on the 

 inside, and filled with sawdust to the 

 ceiling. The upper story was sheeted 

 in the same manner below, and also 

 filled with sawdust to the roof, leaving 

 one door in the lower story to move the 

 bees in and out, and also a trap door in 

 one corner to ventilate the bees in win- 

 ter, and also to go down from the upper 

 story so that I can see to my bees at any 

 time during the winter months. There 

 is one window and a door in the upper 

 story, and entered by stairs on the out- 

 side, leading from the ground. 



I put in on Nov. 24, 1892, 65 colo- 

 nies of my own, all in good condition ex- 

 cept two which were light with bees, 

 from the effects of being queenless, but 

 with plenty of stores. The mercury 

 stood at 44-^ until March, when it raised 

 to 50^. A neighbor of mine had 18 col- 

 onies — 11 in frame hives and 7 in the 

 old-fashion box-hive. The 11 he put 

 into my bee-house on Nov. 24th, and 

 the others were left at home on the sum- 

 mer stands. 



I put ray bees on the summer stands 

 on April 8, 1893, with a loss of one of 

 those light colonies, which had diarrhea. 

 The 11 belonging to my neighbor all 

 came through O. K., and the 7 left on 

 the summer stands all died. 



Bees that were wintered out-of-doors 

 in this locality in the winter of 1892- 

 93 nearly all died, one man losing 100 

 out of an apiary of 109. 



The winter in this section was mild 

 until the last few weeks. We have had 



a taste of those good old-fashioned win- 

 ters we used to have when we were boys. 



The honey crop in this section was 

 poor last season, there being no honey 

 after June 20th or July 1st ; colonies 

 starved out, leaving food and hive — a 

 case I never saw since I have kept bees. 

 There were two colonies came from my 

 neighbors and alighted on the balsams 

 in my apiary. 



The honey we had was very nice, be- 

 ing Alsike and white clover, there being 

 no timber in this section. I have 89 

 colonies In my bee-house this winter, all 

 in fine condition. 



Canaseraga, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1894. 



Tie So-Calleil Mistakes of Darwin. 



Written for the American Bee Jcnimal 

 BY CHAS. DADANT. 



Although I am very little competent 

 in the matter, I desire to redress the 

 ideas of Mr. Templin on the teachings 

 of Darwin, as given on page 215. 



Mr. Templin quotes Darwin, who 

 wrote : 



"All vertebrate animals, all insects, 

 and some other large animals, pair for 

 each birth." Then he adds: "As I 

 understand it, every egg that is laid and 

 hatched is a birth. If this is correct, it 

 is evident that Mr. Darwin is away from 

 the truth, for every intelligent person 

 knows that bees, wasps, and some other 

 insects do not pair for each birth." 



So it is on the meaning of the word 

 birth that the criticisms of Mr. Templin 

 rely. If we open the Webster dictionary 

 at the word birth, we find: 



" 4. Birth is the act of bringing 

 forth ; as, ' she had two children at a 

 birth.'— (Milton.)" 



"8. That which is produced, whether 

 animal or vegetable : ' Other hatch their 

 eggs and send the birth till it is able to 

 shift for itself.' — (Addison.)" 



So it is certain that Darwin was not so 

 void of common-sense as to suppose that 

 every one of the 2,000 eggs laid by a 

 queen-bee every day for months, had to 

 be impregnated by as many copulations. 



Darwin was not a bee-keeper ; there- 

 fore it is not astonishing that he did 

 know neither the parthenogenesis nor 

 the ways used by bees to build combs. 

 But in writing on these matters, he is 

 far from being positive, for he says 

 about the building of combs, "That the 

 work of construction seems to be a sort 

 of balance struck between many bees, 

 all standing instinctively at the same 



