THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



entrance shaded from the sun at all times when 

 the bees can not fly. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., April 28, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Prom Pulton County, lUinois, 



Friends Novice, Langstrotli, Quinby, Gallup, 

 Grimm, Hosnier, Furman, Davis, Tupper, Da- 

 dant, Bickf(n-d, Alky and others, which I ctm- 

 not think of now, I am nmcli obliged for the 

 information derived from your writings. There 

 appears to be some wrangling about who wrote 

 first about some different ideas. Please have 

 patience, one with the other, so they are only 

 learned by the new subscribers. The same 

 ideas should be printed over again for the 

 benefit of new subscribers. What good ideas 

 are in the back numbers of the Journal, 

 before I subscribed, will do me no good, fcr I 

 have not got them. Send in your new lessons 

 which you have learned this winter, I want to 

 hear some founded on facts. I am still learning. 

 Here is my lesson ; it is new to me, jjerhaps old 

 to some of the rest of you : It won't di« to pkce 

 your stands to j near a stone wall in your cellar. 

 I lost two good stands this winter by so doing, 

 not dreaming that they would draw too much 

 moisture; but they did, and were as wet as 

 drowned cats, as the old saying goes. The 

 others, placed promiscuously around in the 

 cellar, with the hive shoved !mck to exclude 

 mice, and an old piece of carpeting, etc., placed 

 on for honey-board ventilation and to keep the 

 bees from coming out, went througli dry and 

 nice 



Novice, what do you mean when you say in 

 your circular sent me some time ago, in describ- 

 ing the Simplicity Bee Hive? " Now saw off' 

 (on a bevel) two and a lialf inches from the top 

 of the cov'cr, and then hinge it in the same 

 place and you have a perfect fit?" Do you mean 

 to hinge it like the lid of a chest, or how? 

 Your tops and bottoms are loose, and can be 

 used at either place, if I understand you right. 

 I think I would prefer the top loose, so I can 

 shake the bees off in front of tiie hive when I 

 open them and some stick to the top. I agree 

 with you. Novice, that all good honey will 

 candy if extracted in cold weather, at least 

 mine has. Now, why do our Chicago honey 

 merchants say they do want any candied honey 

 to sell, when all good honey candies? I fear 

 they want an excuse to make deductions, and 

 therefore larger profits. How does it look to 

 .others ? 



I left one Standard Gallup Hive out all 

 winter, protected by a high, tight board fence 

 and smoke-house, with an old coat for a honey- 

 board, and they went through all right, with 

 the mercury at 28o below zero January 9th, 

 29" below zero January 28th, and 12° below 

 zero one day in March. This has been the 



coldest winter ever experienced in this State, I 

 am told. I was going to protect my thirty- 

 seven stands in the same way I did that one, 

 but could not get time ; and, when we had the 

 first cold spell of 28o below zero, I told my son 

 th tt this would not do for unprotected stands; 

 so we carried twelve Langstroth's in, which I 

 intended to leave out, but two of them were 

 gou^, making four lost. One light swarm 

 hived on the 19th of November wont all right 

 In :i>y '-]r- cellar, but when I put them out this 

 spring H,n^i iUe uierLury fell to 12<) l^elow zero 

 I hey ^1 :pj) 'd bnvithing, making my total loss 

 five in thirty seven, li this had not happened 

 you would have ii'-ard me " blow " about 

 \\ intering bets, bui I will hold my pen back 

 now. Scvtrai iHGv asked me whether an out- 

 house would not be a good place to put bees 

 into in wii ter. T tcld them it was not, except 

 they make it with double walls, so the bees 

 cf-nnot freeze; but would rv.ther leave them on 

 their summer stands, where the sun can warm 

 them up now and tlien on warm days which we 

 get: they can then move their positions to their 

 stores and hive. Whereas, in an out-house, 

 with no protection, it is as cold as outside, and 

 the combs continue to be frosty until it is too 

 late. This is my idea. Am I right, brother 

 Langstrot,}. ? ]ieriiaps it is old to you. 



Do you thiiik, Brother Novice, you can keep 

 your bead above water? I see some are going 

 "heavy" for you, but I feel glad you can take 

 it io ))atiently and pres^ forward in our cause. 

 That is th'^ kind of spirit we all should let rule; 

 when our pen wants to write some hard personal 

 stop him on the sp >t, and consult with him how- 

 it looks in i^rint— and, i r he would go ahead, 

 cut off those Wiirds that would wound the 

 deepest. 



If this article is too long for one number 

 make two of it ; correct in pioof or throw it 

 aside, as y,)u tl ink proper. Long may you live 

 to do good to the bee-keepcr.-3 of this and other 

 countries, and never get stung by a drone is 

 the wish of the du^ty (mi Her ) 



Daniel. II. Keller. 



Duncan Mills, Fvlton Co., 111. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Surplus. QaoGPs. 



These should be reared in August and Sep- 

 tember, and kept in reserve for eai'ly use the 

 ensuing spring. The advantiiges are so great 

 that tiic f)p rator is amply rewarded for his 

 labor and expense. The intrinsic value of a 

 colony of bees depends mostly on a good, 

 healthy, fertile queen. Her presence and ability 

 sustain and stimulate her subjects to action; 

 without her the colony must go to ruin. Thus 

 we may see how important a queen is to the 

 prosperity of the colony. My experient-e teaches 

 me, that in this cold northern climate, where 

 our bees swarm so late in the season that our 



