50 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



food prepared for workers. My opin- 

 ion is tliat the food for queens and 

 worker-larvae the first three days is 

 chemically not different, and that is the 

 .reason I prefer to use larvae about twen- 

 ty-four or thirty-six hours old. Hereby 

 I can get more cells started and I can 

 use any comb and do not need to give 

 an empty comb to the selected hive 

 four days before I need the strips for 

 queen-rearing. 



L. Stachelhausen. 



We do not disagree as badly as you 

 tMnk, friend S Bees will build cell-cups 

 around eggs when the comb is prepared 

 for cell-building according to the method 

 given in mj^ work "Thirty Years Among 

 the Bees." 



If eggs thus prepared are given queen- 

 less bees too soon after being deprived 

 of a queen, many of them, but not aU the 

 eggs wiU be destroyed.— Ed. 



SOMETHING ABOUT MINNESOTA 

 BEEKEEPEIiS. 



There are twenty or thirty beekeep- 

 ers in this part of Minnesota within the 

 range of my acquaintance, and perhaps 

 the readers of the Api would like to 

 know how they are getting along out 

 here. Well, properly speaking, they are 

 not all beekeepers, some let the bees 

 keep themselves. They expect the bees 

 to work for nothing and board them- 

 selves, and bring in their owners a large 

 amount of surplus honey. Some use 

 the old box-hives, and think they are 

 just as good as any, they say they have 

 kept bees for ten or fifteen years, and 

 of course know all about them. You 

 could not tell them anything, or per- 

 suade them to take a bee-journal, they 

 say that is all theory and amounts to 

 nothing. Others that try to learn some- 

 thing and give their bees proper atten- 

 tion realized last year from loo to 150 

 lbs. of surplus honey per hive, spring 

 count. Last year with us was a good 

 year as long as the white clover 'asted, 

 but after that failed the dry weather set 

 in, and there was not fonige enough for 

 them to lay in a sufficient supply of 



winter stores, consequently those that 

 were not fed will not winter very well. 



I have used Alley's queen-and-drone 

 traps in controlling swarming with very 

 good success. I don't pretend to 

 know much about bees myself, I have 

 only been in the business about two 

 years ; and what I don't know would 

 make a very large book. However, I 

 am trying to learn as fast as I can. 1 

 read everything I can get hold of about 

 bees, and ask everybody that I come 

 in contact with that I think knows more 

 than I do, all the -questions I can think 

 of. I have been taking the Api, the 

 last year ; besides I have copies of all 

 the bee journals published in the United 

 States and Canada, also several of the 

 best books that I could get hold of on 

 bee culture. I will now tell you tlie 

 different ways bees are wintered in this 

 part of Minnesota. Some few leave 

 their hives on their summer stands, 

 without any protection whatever. Oth- 

 ers winter their bees in cellars. One 

 man places a box over each hive, al)Out 

 six inches larger each way than the hive 

 is, and packs the space with chaff or fine 

 cut straw. 



But the most common way of win- 

 tering bees out here is to bury them ; 

 this process has been in vogue for the 

 last ten or fifteen years with very good 

 success, provided the bees have plenty 

 of stores ; and they winter this way 

 with a very small amount. I 



And this is the way it is done. A | 



ditch is dug in the ground about two j 



and one-half feet deep and long enough \ 



to hold the hives, and wide enough to ' 



set the hives in crossways of the tlitch. 

 In the centre of the bottom of the *1 



ditch, a small trench is dug, the width ] 



and length of a spade, then a two by j 



four scantling is laid on the shoulders, ; 



made by the small trench, the hives are I 



set on these scantling with the bottoms 

 off, which gives a free circulation of air 

 under the combs. 



Then at each end of the ditch are 

 two ventilators made by nailing four 

 fence boards together. The ventilators 

 extend down to the bottom of the small 



