AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



695 



of these colonies failed to get their feed, 

 and starved. I lost one other colony which 

 was queenless. but had six frames nearly 

 full of sealed honey. The temperature in 

 my cellar did not range above 45 degrees, 

 Fahr., nor below 3S degrees. I took the bees 

 out on March olst — 13 good colonies in fine 

 condition. To sum up for successful win- 

 tering : 



1st. Young or vigorous queens. 



2nd. Feed before cold weather, if neces- 

 sary. 



3rd. The above conditions will give plenty 

 of young bees. 



4th. Moderate-sized colonies — not too 

 many bees. 



5th. Plenty of room between the bottom 

 and hive, or use no bottoms in the cellar. 



*ith. Even temperature — 40 to 45 degrees, 

 Fahr. B. H. Newland. 



Melrose, Wis., April 3, 1893. 



Lioes from Wet Fall and Damp Cellar. 



Of the 32 colonies which I put into the 

 cellar on Nov. 20, 1892, only 17 came out 

 alive. They had plenty of stores, but I lay 

 the cause to the wet fall of 1892, and the 

 dampness of the cellar on that account. 



Alex. F. Kopplin. 



Zumbrota, Minn.. May 3, 1893. 



Good Report for 1892. 



Last spring I bought 4 colonies of Italian 

 bees, and put 13 into winter quarters last 

 fall; this spring I have 13 colonies that win- 

 tered. I got 300 pounds of honey last year, 

 besides the 9 colonies increase. I under- 

 stand that 50 per cent, of the bees died in 

 winter in this part of the country. Mine 

 were wintered in cases on the summer 

 stands. I think Mr. Johnson is mistaken 

 about all the bees dying that were left out. 



Jerry Bartlett. 



Audubon, Iowa, May 7, 1893. 



Big Snow-Storm — Bottom-Boards. 



We are now (April 21st) having the 

 heaviest fall of snow, in the last 48 hours, 

 that Minnesota has ever witnessed at this 

 time of the year. There is frem 18 to 24 

 inches of beautiful white snow on the 

 ground this morning. If the snow had been 

 light and dry, it would have measured 36 

 inches deep, but it is not going to last long. 

 It will retard seeding until about May 1st. 



I put 24 colonies of bees into the cellar 

 last fall, and all are alive but one, and 

 they died for want of food. I put them out 

 about April 10th, and the most of them had 

 a good flight, and that night it rained and 

 snowed and froze up, so I took all of my 

 light ones into the cellar again, and am 

 feeding them, but I have 13 still out under 

 the snow. 



On page 489 this question is asked : " Will 

 the colony swarm ?" I sent to Illinois last 

 June and got two frames of bees and brood, 

 and put one frame in each hive with a 

 queen, and I see they are as heavy as any 

 of my old colonies this spring. They don't 



often swarm, but usually fill the hive in 

 fair season. 



I have but one tight bottom-board, and 

 as soon as the weather gets warm I shall 

 loosen that. I like the bottom-boards so 

 that I can change them when I think a new 

 one is better. For wintering, some of my 

 neighbors tier up the hives, with the top 

 tight, and bottom-board off, piling them up 

 three hives high, in pyramid shape, leaving 

 a space between the hives of the two lower 

 tiers. Mark D. Judkins. 



Osakis, Minn. 



The Origin of Foul Brood. 



I have discovered the origin of foul brood. 

 If any of the readers of the Bee Journal 

 know what it is, I will give them four 

 weeks to reply through this paper, after 

 the publication of this article, then I will 

 give it to the public. C. P. Hewett. 



Kingston, Wis., May 5, 1893. 



The Blast and Draft in Bee-Smokers. 



Of course I have read with great interest 

 Mr. Cornell's experiments with smokers. 

 He states that I " do not deny the assertion 

 in regard to blast." I will say that I have 

 never denied, or compared either the honey- 

 knife or smoker. In the 14 years we have 

 been making them, we have received but 

 one complaining letter, and that came in- 

 directly and through interested parties. 



What Mr. Cornell calls " indirect cur- 

 rent," we demonstrated before bee-keepers 

 heard of a Bingham bee-smoker or Direct 

 Draft. 



Direct Draft in bee-smokers is Bingham's 

 invention, and the more direct it is, the 

 better the smoker. 



The "blast" is another thing, and old 

 bee-keepers have regarded ours as sufficient 

 and reliable. 



I have had many letters suggesting differ- 

 ent '• blasts, ■■ and read of "continuous 

 blasts," etc., in bee-papers. It would be 

 easy to show why they were not adapted 

 to the special needs of bee-keepers. 



It is proper for me to express my grati- 

 tude to bee-keepers, to Mr. Cornell, and the 

 licitie.w. T. F. Bingham. 



Abronia, Mich., May 33, 1893. 



A Cold Place, but Bees Wintered. 



I put 14 colonies of bees into the the cellar 

 on Nov. 13, 1893. and on March 28, 1893, I 

 took out 10 of them. They had a good 

 flight, and I put them back into the cellar 

 again that evening. On April 30th we had 

 a snow-storm of 16 inches, so that made the 

 season very late. We had nearly three feet 

 of snow during the winter, and very cold — it 

 got down to 33 degrees below zero. How 

 would that do for wintering bees on the 

 summer stands ? 



On April 29th I took out 7 colonies, 4 of 

 them did not have a flight since Nov. 13th, 

 or 136 days — more than that, as they did 

 not fly for a few days before I put them into 



