THE AMi:Kit'AiN BblK JUUilNAL. 



-rw 



For the American Bee .Tourniil. 



Wintering Bees. 



Ou the 31st of OctoluT last your, I put in 

 my cellar, 12 stands of bees ; and before the 

 loth of November 120 stands. The cellar 

 is lGx'24, and dry. I took from 50 stands 

 from one to live frames each. So ten or 

 twelve swarms had only 3 frames left. 

 The 50 hives had three to seven frames in 

 each. All are 8 frame hives. I took them 

 from the cellar ^larch 17 and 18th, and of 

 the 120 hives but two swarms were dead. 

 I afterward lost G more, by being qiteen- 

 less. jNIy bees were never in better con- 

 dition than last spring. I saw little dif- 

 ference between those from which I took 

 the frames and, those I did not. I would 

 not recommend the removal of more than 

 two frames, and think that beneficial. 



When swarming began, I had 98 swarms, 

 which I inc:reased by natural and artiticial 

 swarming to 175. I lost several swarms 

 which went to the woods. Swarming 

 closed July 1st. I took with the extractor 

 G,OUU pounds of honey in two weeks, all of 

 which was linden or basswood. Have on 

 hand 8,000 lbs. >• The crop was cut short by 

 not less than 10,000 lbs. 



Of all honey plants I have tried, the Mel- 

 iott Clover is the best. The drouth does 

 not aftect its product of honey. I shall 

 have ten acres in bloom next year. Seven 

 years experience teaches me that it pays 

 to have plenty of artiticial pasture. 



My lowest average hive, was 40 lbs. per 

 Mve old and young, the highest 80 lbs. I 

 think the proper average should be 50 to 

 75 lbs. each. 



j\Iy bees wintered so well in the cellar, 

 I have enlarged the cellar to 24x58. and 7 

 feet high, and shall try it again. 



R. Miller. 



Campton, Lee Co., 111. 



For the American Bee Jourual. 



My Report. 



We are having an uncommon good run of 

 basswood honey this season. In fact honey 

 has been too plenty for those not having 

 extractors. I have been moving about 

 with mine pretty lively for the past week, 

 and the experience I have liad among my 

 neighbors I think would convince the most 

 skeptical of the usefulness of the extractor, 

 as I have found stock after stock without 

 an egg or young grub in the hive and every 

 cell full of honey, except a very little cap- 

 ped brood. I would like to ask some of 

 those who do not believe there is any use 

 in the extractor, what they would do in 

 that case without it ? It is no use to give 

 them empty frames, for as fast as a cell is 

 built and sufficiently lengthened out to con- 

 tain a drop of honey it is filled, and some 



hives that I nearly emptied last Saturday 

 (five days ago) were filled again so quick 

 that the ((ueen did not get in a patch of 

 eggs as big as my hand. So much for 

 Michigan. Now a word for the moth. 



My advice to those that raise such a "hue 

 and cry" about the moth, is to get a 

 mechanic to make their hives. I do not 

 mean a man that lias jack-plane and scratch 

 awl and calls himself a joiner, but a man 

 tliat can and will fit two iiieces of board to- 

 gether so that tiie worms cannot build a 

 nest between them. Then let your stocks 

 be either strong or weak and you will have 

 no trouble with worms. I have thirteen 

 stocks of bees and I do not think I have 

 found to exceed three or four moth worms 

 about the hives this season, and only one 

 inside the hive at that. The only secret 

 there is in it is this : I make my hives so 

 that there is no crack or crevice in them 

 where a worm can hide, and the bees keep 

 them out. Now all you unbelievers come 

 and see for yourselves. But perhaps you 

 will think as the negro told the Irishman 

 wnen he asked what made him so black : 

 "I'ts the climate." Not so, my friends, 

 for my neighbors have the same climate 

 that I have and some of them have plenty 

 of moth-worms in their hives. They buy 

 cheap hives. 



I very often see advertisements of patent 

 hives with moth-trap attachments, etc. 

 Please let me give my experience with a 

 Buckeye hive ; moth trap and all. Last 

 month in the natural course of events there 

 fell into my hands a stock of bees in a 

 Buckeye hive, and also an empty hive of 

 the same sort. Two or three days after I 

 got them home they swarmed, and not 

 having anything else handy, I hived them 

 in the empty Buckeye hive (after inserting 

 a couple of cards of comb from the other 

 hive) ; and to save speculation I might as 

 well remark that I saw the queen safely on 

 a card of comb, and then closed the hive. 

 They appeared to go to work all right but 

 in about 8 or 10 days they swarmed out. 

 I opened the hive and found they had 

 made but very little comb, and that all 

 drone comb. There was not an egg in the 

 hive — pretty good evidence that they had 

 raised a young queen. Now the question 

 was what had become of the old queen. 

 Time will show. I cut out the queen-cells 

 and hived them back again and the first 

 spare time I had I made a hive and trans- 

 ferred them, when I found that the young 

 queen and the swarm were in the body of 

 the hive, while the old queen and a little 

 handful of bees were down in the moth 

 trap ! 



That was the reason they raised a young 

 queen and swarmed out, by my not ex- 

 pecting any such thing and cutting the 

 queen cells out. 



