THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



59 



to ton days. An artificial queen, hatched in 



from I'levt'ii to tiftceii days, is as gootl as a 

 uatural ((lU'i'n. 



Mr. Quinhy liad raised (luecns for ten years. 

 Ho never raised one which came out short of 

 ten days, lie knew nothinu; of five or seven 

 days (lueens. lie pive the bees brood and 

 watched the time; tliey never gained but a few 

 hours on llie ten days. He could not see what 

 was meant by forced iiueens. IIoav are tlu;y 

 distinguislied" from a natural ([ueeny They 

 are raised in a small box containing forty t)r 

 fifty eggs. Tlie bees find they have no (lueen 

 and go to make one. The whole attention of 

 the group is directed to producing a (jucen. 

 In a full hive there are combs to be taken 

 care of. In the box the bees can work for the 

 queen. The fertility of queens raised in a lit- 

 tle box shows the better care their rearing has 

 had. 



Mr. Doolittle's idea was that queens could 

 be hatched in seven days, taking larva* five 

 days old. He had raised such ([ueens and they 

 were useless. It may be done in a full hive 

 or in a nucleus box, the result is the same. 



Captain Heutheringtou asked how he could 

 estimate the age of a larva. 



Mr. Doolittle said a larva live days old 

 nearly filled the cell, and the bees can convert 

 sucli a larva into a queen. His method of 

 raising queens is by taking the queen out of the 

 hive, and inserting brood of another species if 

 he wishes to make a change. In the hurry 

 to get a queen the bees will take the larvie 

 which can make queens soonest. 



Mr. Bettsinger used the small box first, and 

 then raised (lueeus artificially in a natural way 

 in a full stock of bees. First take away the 

 queen, then in G or 8 days cut off tlie- cells 

 started and introduce eggs of the kind wished 

 for. As the egg hatches into a larva, the bees 

 feed it and thus secure natural queens, arti- 

 ficially. 



Mr. Vandervort had raised queens since 

 1868, and had never known a queen to hatch 

 in less than 10 days. 



Mr. Doolittle said his experiments were 

 very accurate, and he was satisfied with his re- 

 sults. 



SECOND DAY. j 



Mr. Quinby culled for the discussion of the j 

 question, " The best mode of wintering bees." 

 Mr. Bacon said his trouble is in " springing" ! 

 bee«, and he wished that added to the ques- i 

 tion. The discussion followed : '• 



Mr. Quinby. For forty years I have kept 

 bees, and during the last two years I lost ma- 1 

 ny more than usual. I propose to inciuire \ 

 into tlie causes of the fatality. If the cause ' 

 is in the honey, or in tlie temperatun', wt; i 

 should know it. The honey has probably j 

 not changed from year to year. The cold | 

 weather Iiks been severe and protracted. 



Experience should be related upon this ques- 

 tion of cau.ses. 



,Mr. Bacon, of Verona. My first lesson in 

 bee-keeping was severe. I was nearly stung 

 to di'atli in ( hildliood. 1 have kept bees ever 

 since. 1 never liad any experience with dys- 

 entery ill bees until the last two years. I have, 

 until two years, kept bees successfully in a 

 cellar. 1 have had h'ss difficulty with tlie old 

 box hives than with the franu! hives. I nev- 

 er had, until lately, any cases of dysentery 

 witli the box hives. Last jear I noticed it, 

 but it was in frame hives. I put out the bees 

 in good condition in April. Tlie weather was 

 cold. My l)est bees were goni^ by the first of 

 j\lay. They died seemingly in the fields. I 

 believe the cold winds killed them. Their 

 constitutions were first weakened by the long 

 winter and by the poorer quality of the hon- 

 ey, and the cold air struck tliein down. Aliout 

 the first of June the Aveather changed, and 

 bees which had any life revived. I have now 

 built a bee-house. I dug a trench two feet 

 deep, twelve by eighteen feet. I filled it with 

 stone. This was the foundation for the sills. 

 My .studs were five inches deep. I boarded 

 outside and inside and filled in with dry earth. 

 Overhead the ceiling was close and filled in 

 to the tops of the joists with earth also. I 

 filled the windows with closely fitting saw- 

 dust boxes. The doors were like safe doors 

 and filled with sawdust. My walls have three 

 thicknesses of boards, five inches of dry earth 

 and two inclies of dead air. I ventilate with 

 a tube six inches square made of boards nail- 

 ed together. This tube has a damper in it, 

 and runs along the fioor, and has holes bored 

 in it to let the air escape into the room. I 

 have top ventilation with two five-inch aper- 

 tures, which may be closed. I put in the 

 bees, packed closely, one stock above anoth- 

 er. The room is darkened comfortably. I 

 put the bees in, in November. The weather 

 Avas very severe about the middle of the 

 month. Before the bees Avere put in, I heat- 

 ed the room A^ery warm to drive out the moist- 

 ure, then put out the fire and let it gradually 

 cool doAvn. In January, on a fine day, 1 took 

 out half the bees and gave them a chance to 

 fiy. After a time, those taken out had no 

 dysentery, Avhile those Avliich had not been 

 aired had it. I am very reluctant to enter 

 the bee-house Avith a light. The temperature 

 runs about forty degrees on an average. It 

 is Avarmer than I ever kept them before. The 

 cost of my building Avas $125 in cash; no 

 charge being made for my time. A building 

 of the .same kind might be built rougher and 

 cheaper. I believe sugar feeding Avill not 

 save bees. It may lie a little better than hon- 

 ey in some respects, but not generally trust- 

 Avorthy. My frame liives Avliich failed to 

 Avinter Avcre scA'cnteeu by nine and one-half 

 inches. I never Avill use any frames short of a 

 foot di'ei) in the clcitr. Bees will winter be ter 



