THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



57 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Pollen and Bees-Misreiireseiitatioii, 



W. ADDENBROOKE. 



I fully endorse the article by G. M. 

 Doolittle, on page 6, on " Pollen car- 

 ried from flower to flower." Most of 

 the readers of the Ameiucan Bee 

 Journal are aware that in England, 

 melons, cucumbers, punupkins and 

 squashes cannot be raised in the open 

 air ; they are all raised in green- 

 houses and hot-bed frames, and many 

 hours have I worked in the garden at 

 home in England, with a fine, long 

 camel's-hair brush, conveying the 

 pollen from blossom to blossom where 

 the bees could not get to do the work ; 

 and even now in this climate, if we 

 do not have good weather for the bees 

 to work on the fruit bloom, and 

 especially on red clover saved for 

 seed, we ^et but a poor crop. Last 

 year I had a good crop of mammoth 

 clover (pea-vine) seed, while a few 

 miles from here there was none, and 

 I think that I owe it to my colonies 

 of Italian bees, for they worked on it 

 first-rate. 



I think that if people would only 

 open their eyes, and study " Nature's 

 laws," there would be no need to 

 fight lawsuits caused by spite or 

 ignorance. 



I was pleased to see the stand that 

 you have taken in the Bee Journal, 

 on page 19, concerning " more mis- 

 representations about comb honey." 

 I think that the beft-keepers of the 

 country are greatly interested in 

 causing a stop to be put to all such 

 misrepresentations, and should spare 

 no expense to put to shame such false 

 articles as are now published. 



North Prairie, o^ Wis. 



For tTie Amcncan Bee Journal. 



Upward Ventilation in Wintering, 



•5— J. M. GOODRICH, (1)2— 12U). 



Having read Dr. G. L. Tinker's 

 able article on the hibernation of 

 bees, page 5, and having found much 

 in it that is instructive, and which I 

 can endorse, especially the tempera- 

 ture of bee-cellars, yet I must take 

 exception to the remark that, " Some- 

 how I am becoming impressed with 

 the idea that a great part of our win- 

 tering troubles comes from upward 

 ventilation in hives." My experience 

 in this climate where bees must stay 

 in the cellar about four months of the 

 year, has led me to just the opposite 

 conclusion after an experience of five 

 years in cellar-wintering. 



I cannot keep bees in a cellar here 

 for any length of time without up- 

 ward ventilation, as they will become 

 so damp that the water will run out 

 of the hive-entrances, and the combs 

 will become so wet that the bees will 

 become diseased and die. Almost 

 every year, until this year, I have put 

 into the cellar some colonies, from 

 some cause either small colonies or 

 covered with quilts (I use board- 

 covers), without upward ventilation, 



and in every case water was sure to 

 run out of the hive in a short time ; 

 while other hives by the side of tliem, 

 with upward ventilation, were all 

 right. 



In the fall of 1884 I liad quite a 

 number of very small colonies— so 

 small that they ought to have been 

 doubled up, but I was very busy and 

 was not aware of their condition 

 until it was too late to unite them ; 

 thinking that they were so small 

 that they would not need upward 

 ventilation, I put them (b> in number) 

 into the cellar without moving the 

 covers forward one-quarter of an 

 inch, as in my practice for upward 

 ventilation ; the result was that every 

 colony had water running out of its 

 hive i'n a short time ; and when the 

 covers were moved forward, the water 

 stopped coming out of the hive in less 

 than 24 hours, which I find to be the 

 result every time. 



My conclusions are that the cellar 

 wants but little ventilation, and out- 

 side air let into the cellar when there 

 is much difference in the temperature, 

 is sure to arouse the bees and do 

 harm. But keep the entrances open, 

 with reasonable upward ventilation 

 so that the moisture will not accumu- 

 late in the hive, and the bees will be 

 all right. 



Concerning the temperature of cel- 

 lars : My bees will be quiet at from 

 40° to 43° above zero, but above that 

 point they are uneasy, and get worse 

 as the temperature is raised. 



South rrankfort,-o Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees on tlie Great American Desert, 



D. M. IMLAY. 



A few years ago people said that 

 "bees won't do any good in this 

 country." Well, I did not dispute it, 

 for I did not know anything about 

 it ; but some soon began to try keep- 

 ing a few bees, and this " Desert " will 

 soon begin to export honey instead of 

 importing it. In 1881 I obtained a 

 colony of bees in a Langstrotb hive 

 (luckily), and subscribed for the 

 Kansas Bee-Keeper, and afterward for 

 the Bee Journal. Then I went to 

 school two years and did not do much 

 with bees except to get stung and be- 

 daubed with honey ; but I will sub- 

 mit my reports, which are as follows : 



In 1881 I increased my apiary from 

 lto2 colonies, and got no honey ; in 

 1882 I increased it from 2 to 4 colo- 

 nies, and secured 100 pounds of honey. 

 I lost one colony in the spring ; I 

 think that it was queenless, but I did 

 not know it then. In 1883 I increased 

 my apiary from 3 to 11 colonies, and 

 I lost 4 colonies and bought 8. In 

 1884 I began with lo colonies, increased 

 them to 39, and secured 800 pounds of 

 honey. I lost 8 colonies and bought 1, 

 and 2 1-frame nuclei. In 1885 I began 

 with 34 colonies (nominally),increased 

 them to 70, and obtained 1,800 pounds 

 of extracted honey, and 500 pounds of 

 comb honey. With my present ex- 

 perience, and with the bees in about 



50 hives, I could have gotten nearly 

 double that amount. The colonies 

 were very weak in the spring to begin 

 with, and they got scarcely any honey 

 until the middle of June, and then 

 only enough to keep up brood-rearing 

 until about the middle of July. After 

 that they got no more until about the 

 middle of August, when they began 

 on buckwheat, and from that to 

 heart's-ease ; from these two plants 

 we get our surplus crop. I had only 

 3 or 4 colonies ready at tlie right time 

 to take advantage of the flow, but all 

 of these gave over 100 pounds each. 



A neighbor had 10 colonies in the 

 spring, increased them to 25, and took 

 2,500 pounds of honey. He said that 

 he could have taken 1,000 pounds 

 more, had he been at home. It was 

 extracted before being capped, and as 

 I handled some of it, I can say that 

 with the mercury at SO^Fahr., I could 

 take up 2 pounds of it on a large 

 spoon. I would like to ask Mr. Doo- 

 little if such honey should be left on 

 the hive until capped before extract- 

 ing. The honey was put in screw-top 

 cans as soon as extracted. 



I sell all of my honey in the home 

 market, by using pails, and by the 

 means of a sign on my shop. At a 

 very little expense I think I can sell 

 10,000 pounds next year without leav- 

 ing our own town, which has about 

 2,000 inhabitants. This matter of 

 creating a local market cannot be too 

 strongly urged by our lights in api- 

 culture. 



My experience in apiculture has 

 been very limited, as I have farmed 

 and worfted at other things most of 

 the time, but I may in the near future 

 devote my whole attention to bee- 

 keeping. I rescued 2 colonies from 

 the brimstone-pit, and bought 23, 

 then sold one, and brimstoned one 

 that was queenless. During the fine 

 weather in December the others fell 

 to robbing, so my apiary now consists 

 of 93 colonies. 



Last year I had some trouble in 

 feeding bees. Will some reader of 

 the Bee Journal say whether the 

 following would be a good bee-feeder 

 or not y Take a solid bottom-board 

 and run saw cuts one-half way 

 through the board, ij of an inch wide 

 and almost across the bottom ; then 

 if the hive tips a little forward and 

 the feed is poui-ed in through a slant- 

 ing hole in the rear of the hive by 

 means of a funnel, the syrup will run 

 toward the front of the hive, filling 

 the saw cuts. In this way a bottom- 

 board could be made to hold a pound 

 of syrup. Is it good, or not V 



Last March I moved my bees about 

 75 yards without loss. They had a 

 good flight the day before, and were 

 moved in the morning and had a 

 flight soon after ; the only precaution 

 taken being to disfigure the old place 

 and lean something up in front of 

 each hive. 



In looking over the apiarian cata- 

 logues that I have, I noticed that 

 whenever anything is said on labels 

 for honey about candying, it reads 

 like this: "All pure honey will 

 candy," or " It will candy on the 

 approach of cool weather." Well, I 

 wanted some labels, but my honey 



