THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



125 



friends to dispense with the subject en- 

 tirely, at their meetings in tlie future, and 

 publish the same from year to year, de- 

 voting their whole time to something else. 

 No disrespect, gentlemen. 



Ventilation in winter. It is difficult, 

 sometmes, to determine, what the author 

 means by ventilation, — whether of the 

 hives, or of the repository in which the 

 bees are wintered. Every hive containing 

 bees, placed in a winter repository, should 

 have more or less upward ventilation, in 

 order to help preserve the combs from 

 mould, and keep the stock in a dry and 

 healthy condition. If it has not, the 

 combs are apt to become so mouldy, and 

 the bees so demoralized and disgusted 

 with it, that they are almost sure to desert 

 it the first warm day that comes, after 

 being set out. The amount consumed 

 should not betaken into consideration for 

 a moment, because you have got to give 

 them enough to eat, whether they have 

 dysentery or constipation. In fact, I find 

 that a stock badly diseased will sustain 

 themselves much longer, if they can have 

 access to some clean, pure comb-honey, un- 

 candied. And I will add here, that in 

 whatever part of the hive the cluster 

 may be, the first of January, it should be 

 the effort of the bee-keeper to keep them 

 there until spring, without compelling 

 them to shift to get at their stores, as this 

 shifting is more or less the cause of dis- 

 ease. This can be done by placing pure 

 comb-honey above them, where they can 

 get it. 1 am speaking, of course, of a 

 broad, shallow hive, as I suppose every 

 bee-keeper knows, who knows anything, 

 that that is about the only form of hive 

 that can be depended upon for surplus. 

 Although I believe that there are a few of 

 the old veterans who still advocate dog- 

 kennel hives, or side-surplus receptacles. 

 So much for ventilation of hives. 



VENTILATION OF WINTER REPOSITORIES. 



Upon this depeuds the degree of success 

 in wintering. A half-dozen stocks, placed 

 in a winter repository, would probably go 

 through all right without any ventilation, 

 where one hundred would become foul 

 and diseased. It makes but very little 

 difference how it is ventilated, provided it 

 is arranged so you can give enough, and 

 exclude the light when desirable. 



I have had the best success in wintering 

 in the cellar, under the dwelling. It 

 would require too much space to give 

 explicit rules enough to enable every one 

 to govern ventilation. I will endeavor 

 to renew this subject at some other time. 

 I will merely add, don't try to keep them 

 too quiet, or dormant; and don't let the 

 mercury go below freezing. The less 

 ventilation you give, the more quiet they 

 keep. Every stock in a natural condition 

 contains, at this date, Jan. 10, 1876, more 

 or less brood, in every stage of develop- 



ment, and the more air you can give them, 

 and keep the mercury at 35 or 40 degrees, 

 the more brood they will develop ; and 

 upon the result of that breeding depends 

 the strength of your stocks in April and 

 May. As the season advances, it will be 

 necessary to shut off nearly all ventilation, 

 at times, to keep them from coming out 

 and getting down. If the mercury goes 

 below 32 degrees, shut off all ventilation. 

 This ventilation business requires more 

 experience and closer observation than 

 anything pertaining to the bee business. 

 And as I stated before, success in winter- 

 ing depends almost entirely upon proper 

 ventilation. Stocks, for the first thirty 

 days after having been placed in their 

 winter quarters, should have an abun- 

 dance of air. I do not even exclude the 

 light, any more than the direct rays of the 

 sun. One more caution, and 1 am done. 

 Don't let your bees starve to death, and 

 call it some abominable disease. You 

 cannot rely upon old honey, that has 

 been in the combs for years, to winter 

 them upon. Place fresh, new honey in 

 the comb, where they can have access 

 to it, and renew the atmosphere properly, 

 and I think we will get rid of that notori- 

 ous bee-disease. A. Beeasticus. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 "Ripened** Honey. 



With your permission, Mr. Editor, I 

 will take our old friend Charles F. 

 Muth to task a little, for what he says in 

 regard to "ripening" honey. For two 

 years past I have employed 72 four gallon 

 stone crocks, as extracted-honey reser- 

 voirs, keeping them when filled uncover- 

 ed, in a cool, dry place. Of clover honey 

 I know but little, but of basswood honey 

 I can say that I believe after five years 

 experience, that there is but one way to 

 get a good article, and that is not to take 

 it from the bees until nearly or quite all 

 the cells are capped over. But, says one, 

 "Such a course increases our labor, and 

 decreases the number of pounds surplus." 

 True, but that does not prove that " such 

 a course" is not the only way we can pro- 

 cure Honey, and not sour nectar. When 

 we get a goodly yield of uncapped honey, 

 it has to go begging a purchaser. The 

 day has come to most of us when we must 

 expect to find a home demand for our 

 honey, and must necessarily do something 

 to increase this demand ; I will warrant 

 uncapped honey to decrease it. Does not 

 every one of us know that basswood 

 honey, extracted before capped, is more 

 like poor syrup or molasses than like the 

 same honey in the comb, stored on the 

 same day? 



I have employed two large tin tanks 

 holding 1,000 Its. that have always been 

 left open for the very purpose Mr. M. 

 speaks of, and I have yet to see the first 



