THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



I ever saw. The Italians are not so cross 

 as the hlaoks, and it does not take as nnioii 

 tokeep tlieni. You can j;ive the Italinns 

 some advice and they will take it, luit little 

 advice tlie bhick bees will take. Tiiey 

 would sooner give you a sting. 



I). H. OODEX. 



Wooster, Ohio. 



For thi- Aiiui'uau Beo .Journal. 



How I Wintered. 



I have not seen anythinc; for a longtime 

 from Mr. (iallup. rerhaps the abuse he lias 

 received has dis,i;uste<l him with the bee- 

 keepers. Myself as well as others have 

 been buying the New Idea hive, and amsat- 

 istietl that in a good location for honey it 

 will give large results. Those who have 

 failed to obtain large surplus have eitluH- a 

 bad location or else 'they do not numage it 

 properly, an<l if Mr. (i. does not furnish the 

 brains to run them, they should not blame 

 him. I made a Gallup hive last spring, four 

 feet long, found it larger than necessary for 

 this place as honey is rather scarce here in 

 town, but it gave lue twice as much sur])lu3 

 as any otherlT Last fall I prepared them to 

 winter on their sunuuer stand according to 

 Mr. G. direction, but I confess I did not liave 

 full faith in their wintering well. After we 

 had had two months of the coldest weather 

 known in this climate, I went to the hive to 

 see if there was any of them alive but got 

 no audible sound from them, and concluded 

 they were all dead, gave them no further 

 notice until March lOtk. when the thermom- 

 eter rose to 4C1 deg. the first time in months, 

 I concluded to open the hive and know the 

 result. Imagine my smprise to find them 

 in the best possible condition ; combs bright 

 and clean, not more than half a pint of dead 

 bees, very little of the stores consumed, and 

 four frames containing brood. I could not 

 help giving one good "hurrah for Galhip 

 and the New Idea Hive." 



I do not presume to give advice to any one, 

 but for myself I shall winter my bees on 

 their summer stands, in the above named 

 hive, hereafter. I put ten swarms in a frost 

 proof cellar, but none of tiu'in wintered so 

 well as the one left out. B. L. Taylor. 



Minneapolis, Minn. 



For tlie Anitrican Bee .Tournnl. 



"Bee Lines" from Teias. 



"Candid honey, a test of purity and excel- 

 lence."' That's the key-note", "^Ir. Editor. 

 .Sound it so loixl. Bro. Dadant, that all bee- 

 keepers and adulterators too, shall hear it, 

 and let the latter tremble, we were really 



flad to see both of you take that stand. For 

 have long since considered granulated 

 honey the best of all honey. I have bi en 

 greatly surprised at apiarians making the 

 inquiry how they niigiit pn-vent their honey 

 from candying, fn order to change it back to 

 a liquid state. But m\- greatest astonish- 

 ment has been, that honey dealers should 

 reject candied honey as unsaleable. But '.t is 

 very evident thai tlie dealers wished to get 

 the honey at as low figures as possil)le, that 

 they might make the larger profits out of it. 

 I hope that all bee-keepers will fall into line 

 and make "candied honey" a test of excel- 



lence, and head off those honey adulterators. 



I will say to Charles Sonne, of Sigel, Illi- 

 nois, that we are troubled very much with 

 the "Asilus tly.'' We have at least a half 

 dozen that [>rey upon our bees, a large brown 

 and 1'4 inch long (I'romachus), and another 

 1 inch long, redisli brown with green head. 

 (Dasypo/.au), and still another % inches, 

 very much reseiiiblinga buml)le bee in color. 

 They jney on other insects, and ev<'n ou 

 each other. I have seen them capture the 

 Dragon Ity, much larger than themselves. 



The largest sized Dragon tly (Mus(iuito 

 Hawk), is one of our greatest bee enemies. 

 They hover over our a))iaries by the hun- 

 dreds, and take the unwary bee on the wing, 

 continuing their llight wl'iile they devour 

 their victims bodily, or else alighting on 

 .some limb near by and take their meals 

 more leisurely. I have written several 

 articles on enemies of the bee, particularly 

 of the "Asilus fiy," and I am a little sur- 

 prised that Mr. Some lias not read them. 



Our winter is pretty severe for Texas, but 

 our bees are wintering well. 



Kaufman, Texas. A. II. R. Bryaxt. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How we Wintered. 



Tlie plan of wintering bees, by which 

 we have succeeded in saving every stock, 

 on natural stores, all coming out in splen- 

 did condition, no signs of dysente'y or bee 

 disease, and with but very few dead bees 

 under the frames, is as follows : 



Fii-st, remove the cap and boxes, cover 

 the frames with a piece of cotton sheet- 

 ing, putting a tack in each corner to keep 

 it in place. Then place the hives in a 

 shed, boarded tight to keep out all storms, 

 in rows about three inches apart ; then 

 pack straw between and around and on 

 top of the frames, so tliey will be covered 

 three inches with wheat straw ; then lay 

 plank on top, to keep the straw in place 

 or you can put another tier of hives, ou 

 them. We prefer wheat straw for sev- 

 eral reason : In extreme cold weather, 

 there would a steam or vapor come out of 

 the straw, like a person's breath; in mild 

 weather it could not be seen. That 

 vapor is what killed tfie bees, we think. 

 Our bees had the same chance to get at 

 cider, bug poison, honey dew, &c., as 

 others in our vicinity, and why did they 

 not die It teas the manner vf winttrinrj^ 

 we think. 



Several years ago we tried covering 

 half of the hive with straw and the other 

 h ilf empty boxes turned as for storing 

 honey, all covered with cap, with two 

 ventilating holes open in it. In the half 

 of hive covered with straw the combs 

 were wet, and mouldy, and the bees 

 dead ; whilst the other half was all right, 

 combs dry, and bees alive, dry and nice. 

 Can it be possible there was ditlercnt kinds 

 of honey in that half of the hive? No, 



