THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



In wliat case of animal life does the mois- 

 ture emanating from their bodies, condense 

 to such an extent as to dampen and mould 

 their beds ? Then why should a swarm of 

 bees be so exceedingly productive of water. 

 From my reading, from conversations with 

 bee-keepers and from my own small ex- 

 perience, I think 1 can pcJint out the prin- 

 cipal causes of our want of success in win- 

 tering. 



The extended use of frame hives makes it 

 so easy to take away honey that they are 

 often left with insufficient stores. It is so 

 easy to divide or swarm artificially, that in 

 the" fall our swarms are often too weak in 

 bees, to keep up sufficient animal heat for 

 winter. The beauty of the Italian queens 

 and the apparent prosperity indicated oy the 

 number oi swarms, hniderus from doubling 

 Tip, consequently we are very likely to go 

 into winter witli a large number of weak 

 swarms with insufficient food, and come out 

 in spring with one half or one tenth of the 

 number of weaker swarms in starving con- 

 dition. 



At the Pittsburgh Convention, on the dis- 

 cussion of the question whether it would pay 

 to carry bees to a warmer climate to winter, 

 bringing them back in the spring to this 

 neighborhood, several old oee-keepers 

 seemed to think that such a process would 

 be useless, because nature provides that in 

 very cold weather bees become torpid, and 

 in tnat condition consume almost no food, 

 and that the difficulty of wintering is not 

 directly from the extreme cold but from the 

 lack of means of resisting the effects of the 

 cold. 



My conclusion from all the foregoing is, 

 that, if swarms are strong in numbers of 

 bees in the fall, and have plenty of honey, 

 all the difficulties of wintering would vanish. 

 Therefore bee-keepers must avoid extract- 

 ing honey to an extreme point. If they mul- 

 tiply swarms in summer oeyong propriety, 

 they must reduce the number in the fall by 

 doubling up or joining to-gether. 



It is mucn better to lose several queens in 

 the fall, than to lose both bees and queens 

 in the spring. If the swarms are strong in 

 winter and nave plenty of honey, all ex- 

 perience shows that the dangers from want 

 of ventilation, extra moisture &c., are very 

 small snd very remote. Use as many blan- 

 kets and other non-conductors as you please 

 they are generally very useful, and strong 

 swarms can stand a good deal of ventilation 

 if vour ideas run strongly in that direction. 



Cincinnati. O. H. W. S. 



Standard Frames.— S. D. McLean, in 

 the Bee World, says : "The size of a sus- 

 pension frame I use in my own apiary is 

 fourteen and one-quarter by nine and one- 

 quarter inches, though not the size I prefer. 

 Were 1 to commence anew I would make 

 my frames fifteen by ten inches, exactly, 

 outside measure, with three-fourths of an 

 inch extension at each end of top bars to 

 rest on the rabbets of the hive. I suggest 

 that size to the advocates of a standard 

 frame, as a compromise among the many 

 now in use. The length would be about a 

 medium between the Quinby and the Gal- 

 lop frames — the longest and the shortest 

 frames made— and the depth would be amp- 

 ly sufficient for brood combs, and not so 

 deep as to be liable to swing together at the 

 bottom or have the wavy combs in them," 



For the American Bcc Journal, 



Answer to Mrs. Spaids. 



If the copy books of the Chicago Honey 

 were not burned, ]\Irs. Spaids would see that 

 her answer to my incpiiry of what they were 

 paying for fall honey, was simply, "We are- 

 paying fifteen cents,''— without any condi- 

 tion of its being good. And as to my saying 

 it was nice, I made no such assertion. 

 When shipped to them, it was candied.. 

 They had it in their posession for several 

 weeks, and when it was turned over to Per- 

 rine, it was thin and watery. How the 

 change come, I cannot say. Has anyone 

 ever known candied honey to turn thin and 

 watery? My advise to bee keepers, and 

 what I intend to do in future, is to keep the 

 fall honey for winter supply, or increase of 

 bees, and sell only the summer honey. 



William W. 13ird. 



Napoleon, O. 



Honey Dew.— A. H. K. Bryant, Kauf- 

 man, Texas, says : "Some two years since 

 I was attracted, by the hum of bees, to a 

 box elder that stood in my yard, and when 

 I looked for the cause, I found not only the- 

 leaves of the tree covered witn honey dew, 

 but the limbs, and also the weeds and the- 

 grass underneath, liberally covered with 

 the honey dew. On my first examination I 

 did not find the aphis, and came to the con- 

 clusion that it was sure enough, honey dew 

 from the atmosphere; but on a closer in- 

 spection, I found the young, tender twigs — 

 which are very green— Utterly covered with 

 a very green aphis, (plant louse), hence the 

 abundance of tne so-called honey dew, that: 

 was litterally dripping from the tree to the- 

 weeds and grass below," 



Traveling Apiaries.— The New Tork 

 Tribune says ; "Some of our apiarians 

 are talking of a wagon with frames for a. 

 large number of hives, that can be moved 

 about from one location to another. The 

 benefits claimed are to take advantage, first, 

 of the maple and willow blooms; next come 

 back to orchards and white clover; then off 

 to the forest for the basswood and other 

 flowers; then for the blossoms of the tulip 

 tree, and finally back to the fields of buck- 

 wheat and flowers of Autumn. The plan 

 has been pursued in a small way for some 

 years." 



> » ♦ ♦ > 



In the ordinary glass honey boxes now in 

 use, it requires about 35 cubic inches to hold' 

 a pound of honey. Larger boxes lose less 

 space, and hence require a less number of 

 cubic inches. Thus a box 4x5x(i inches con- 

 tains 120 cubic inches, and, therefore, when 

 well filled and sealed over, holds about 3>^ 

 pounds. A 5tt) box requires about 33 inches 

 to the pound, and a lOib box about 30 cubic- 

 inches. 



I get rid of fertile workers thus : Change 

 places with a strong stock and let theni 

 remain a few days. Then open the hive, 

 and if no eggs are found, I introduce a^ 

 queen. I succeeded once in rearing a queen, 

 having her fertilized, and remain m a stock 

 with a fertile worker, and she did well. It. 

 was a stand of pure Italians, very quiet and 

 peaceable. — W. H. Nicholson. 



