THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



stored and reserved imlil spring. 



While extriicting we often observe that 

 cells of certain con\hs are about two-thirds 

 tilled with pollen while the other third is 

 filled with lioney and capped over. This 

 was evidently put up for spring use. The 

 honey being put in with it for its better 

 preservation. We all know that pollen 

 moulds very easily. Can we not learn 

 something from this fact also? Several 

 combs containing pollen could be preserved 

 in honey. And we want to know what 

 would give the queen the laying fever in the 

 spring more readily than the insertion of a 

 frame of pollen dripping with honey. 



We trust these facts will receive due at- 

 tention during the coming fall. 



" Scientific." 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Chips from Sweet Home. 



Dear Editor : — Ten years ago we be- 

 came interested in bees by taking orders 

 for the Thomas Hive. We handled bees 

 some for six years and four years ago 

 Palmer Bro's made a special business of 

 them for two years, then we dissolved 

 partnership and I bought Sweet Home. In 

 the winter of '72 and '78 I lost all (54 hives) 

 the bees I had. Of some 700 or 800 hives be- 

 tween New Boston and Muscatine (20 miles) 

 only about 15 or 20 were alive in the spring, 

 and last winter took the most of them to 

 parts unknown. In the spring of '73 two 

 neighbors and I bought 96 hives in Ken- 

 tucky, I shipped them 80 miles by rail and 

 about 600 miles by boat. I increased my 

 share (4<t) to 95 hives, this spring had 85 

 living. I now have (July 10,) 67 hives, am 

 running them for extracted and box honey. 

 I use Longstroth and Thomas Hives, am 29 

 years old, weigh 140 lbs., have a library of 

 books and geological specimens, have an 

 observing hive in the parlor, the bees pass 

 out and in through the wall, all the work- 

 ings of the once mysterious hive can be 

 seen by lamp-light or sun; it consists of one 

 comb and glass on each side. Our apiary 

 is shaded by a natural grove. Our Sweet 

 Home Honey Slinger consists of a station- 

 ary tub w^ith handles and a faucet at the 

 side or the bottom, and a revolving frame 

 which is run by fanning mill gearing, it is 

 much better than a revolvahle can. W^e 

 carry our combs to and from the hives in a 

 rectangular frame supported by four legs 

 which are long enough to keep the frames 

 from the ground; the frame is carried in 

 front of the peason by grasping the two 

 end pieces; the combs are so placed in the 

 frames that the ends are to and from us. 

 If robbers are plenty we jar it as we enter 

 the honey-room, and if a few follow us in 

 they fly to the windows, which are made 

 revolvahle, so that a Jiip puts them outside. 



now WK SAVE COMBS FltOM THE MOTU. 



The roe just mentioned consists of my« 

 self and a blue-eyed boy of 21 months old, 

 we two complete Uie i'aniily of Sweet Home. 

 We have had a great amount of good comb 

 destroyed by moths. We tried limestone, 

 and last season we hung them on poles iu 

 the shade ; the wind blew them down, 

 damaging them, hut now we have them 

 safe at last in our cellar, which is 20x24 

 feet, having a chimney in the center with 

 a draft-hole at tlie base which is continu- 

 ally drawing the damp bottom air out ; al- 

 so 2 windows on each side covered now 

 with fine wire-cloth. Last spring we put 

 our combs (enough for a hundred hives) ia 

 there, soon we found the moth eggs hatch- 

 ing, it being cold in the cellar the worms 

 nestled closely together and we readily fed 

 them to our poultry ; but some few were 

 overlooked and are coming out winged 

 moths and are seen to fiy to the windows 

 where I am certain to put my fingers on 

 them. My bee-shirts I have made as oth- 

 ers except buttons a little closer on the 

 bosom and elastic in the waist-bands. 



While on a visit to Dadant & Son., of 

 Hamilton, 111., I became very much in favor 

 of using the black-board instead of a book 

 as I had formerly been doing ; but seeing 

 C. P. Dadant use a slate pencil, I thought 

 why could not slates be used instead of 

 boards, I accordingly procured a few 

 school slates from which I took the frames 

 and cut them in pieces of 2^x3 inches bore- 

 ing a hole in the middle of one end and 

 hung them on nails, these slates cost me a 

 little over a cent apiece and the cutting is 

 readily done by any sharp instrument and 

 a straight-edge. They are cheap, durable, 

 writing-lasting, and always just where we 

 want them. 



Mercer Co., 111. D. D. Palmer. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Experience. 



I have just noticed Mr. C. Hester's "Ran- 

 dom Notes" in the June number of the 

 National Bee Joitrnal, as we live only 

 eight miles apart, I will give you my mode 

 of operating with my bees last winter, my 

 success this season &c., &c. I have no 

 cellar to winter in, consequently I winter as 

 you may say out of doors, it's true I have 

 them under a shed, and protected from the 

 north and west winds. I went into win- 

 ter quarters last winter with 14 colonies, at 

 the time I put them up, there was not one 

 pound of honey iu the 14 stocks. I fed 

 them sugar syrup, made precisely as Judge 

 Hester did his and fed them in like man- 

 ner, by pouring in the empty combs, but I 

 fed mine at intervals through the winter, 

 that is on warm days. I (>ame through the 

 winter with 10 stocks losing four, which I 



