682 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



been puzzling for years. Many a one 

 has sadly given up the problem as one 

 impossible of solution. Different plans 

 have been tried with more or less suc- 

 cess — generally less — among them the 

 plan of Simrains, of England. He claims 

 that bees will not swarm so long as they 

 have plenty of opportunity to build 

 comb between the brood-nest and the 

 entrance. So he puts sections with 

 starters under the brRod-chamber, and 

 when sufficiently worked he puts these 

 sections above, putting fresh ones below. 



Mr. H. P. Langdon has patented an 

 arrangement which is now exciting no 

 little interest. It was described in the 

 Bee Journal for May 18th. The prin- 

 ciple is to have the two hives standing 

 side by side, alternately throwing the 

 whole field force into one hive, then into 

 the other, always shifting the supers to 

 the hive that has the bees. This weak- 

 ening at stated times each colony before 

 preparations can be begun for swarm- 

 ing, prevents any desire in that direc- 

 tion. The plan will no doubt have 

 thorough trial the present season, and 

 it certainly promises great things. 



If you want to handle your combs, you 

 must certainly have them in frames. 

 You can transfer, or you can drive out 

 two-thirds of the bees with the queen 

 into a hive with frames filled with foun- 

 dation about the time bees begin to 

 swarm ; or, as soon as they get strong 

 enough, put the old hive near by the 

 new one which is to be placed on the 

 old stand, then in three weeks drive out 

 the rest of the bees, and add to the new 

 hive. 



Probably Killed by the Cold. 



I had 3 colonies of bees in a row on a 

 box 8 inches high during the past win- 

 ter; there was plenty of honey in the 

 brood-chamber, but I left 6 or 8 sections 

 in the super that were filled with honey, 

 so they could have plenty in the spring. 

 They went into the super and ate all 

 the honey, and died in the cells, with 

 plenty of honey below. Some of the 

 cells had three bees in them, and many 

 had two. The rabbits worked under 

 the box. Could that have disturbed the 

 bees ? There was an oil-cloth over the 

 hives, fastened down good and close. 

 A Mr. Tesky here put up his bees in the 

 same way, and saved all but one colony. 



MARV J. DUNKIN. 



Lake View, Iowa. 



Answer. — The rabbits were hardly to 

 blame, and if the wint(M- had been mild 

 so that the bees could have had fre- 



quent opportunities to shift their quar- 

 ters, they probably would have come 

 through all right. But the winter was 

 severe, and there were long spells when 

 bees would not break cluster. It is 

 natural for bees to work upwards, and 

 there being very free communication be- 

 tween the hive and super, the bees 

 worked up into it, used up all the honey 

 within reach, and then starved rather 

 than to try to go below for stores. In- 

 deed, if a bee had gone down she would 

 probably have been chilled so she could 

 not return. 



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R. F. HOLTERMAXW. 



Again we find it a pleasure to present 

 to our readers a Canadian bee-keeper 

 and apiarian writer — perhaps the young- 

 est, and at the same time one of the 

 most experienced, to be found among 

 our cousins over in the Dominion. Mr. 

 Holtermann's name is quite well known 

 to the apicultural world, through his 

 many interesting and practical contribu- 

 tions to the literature of apiculture dur- 

 ing the past perhaps ten years. The 

 following presents some of the principal 

 points of interest in his life : 



Richard Ferdinand Holtermann was 

 born in Hamburg, Germany, on June 

 14, 1860, thus making him exactly 33 

 years old in about two weeks. The gen- 

 eral impression is that he is much older, 

 but he began bee-keeping and his career 

 as an apiarian writer very young. He 

 is from Norwegian extraction on his 

 father's side, the late Ivar S. Young 

 having been acquainted with many of 

 his relatives, who hold some of the lead- 

 ing positions in Norway. 



At the age of two years, Mr. H.'s 

 parents removed with him to Canada, 

 settling ill the county of Renfrew, in 

 Ontario. He received a fair education 

 through a governess, a private school 



