136 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



O. J. Hetherington — At Lansing, 

 last winter, our President, R. L. Tay- 

 lor, said that he had prepared nearly 

 ail of his 200 colonies for winter by 

 selecting combs that were practically 

 free from bee-bread, feeding the bees 

 sugar, and wintered them in a cellar. 

 I should like to know how they 

 wintered. 



Pres. Taylor — I never had bees win- 

 ter better. They seemed to be stronger 

 in the spring. I do not mean stronger 

 in numbers, but healthier, as though 

 they had wintered perfectly. They 

 seemed unusually bright, clean, strong 

 and active, and there was no dwind- 

 ling. 



\V. E. Harris— The feeding of sugar 

 puts more honey upon the market, it 

 causes the public to look with sus- 

 picion upon our honey, while sugar is 

 not much cheaper than the darker 

 grades of honey which are almost 

 impossible to sell. 



R. L. Taylor— It is true that fall 

 honey sells slowly, and at a low price, 

 but the question is, is it not better to 

 take out this fall honey and sell it for 

 what it will bring, and then feed 

 sugar, than to leave it in and lose the 

 bees ? 



VV. E. Harris— Yes, if you are sure 

 that the sugar will save them. I 

 should fear that late feeding would 

 start breeding. How long does it take 

 to feed a colony 'i 



R. L. Taylor— The feeding is done 

 so quickly, never requiring more than 

 3 or 4 days, that brood-rearing is not 

 started at this season of the year. 



W. F. Card— AVhen should bees be 

 taken from the cellar 'i 



R. li. Taylor— Leave them in until 

 there is something for them to do. 



W. F. Card— Is it advisable to take 

 them out for a flight, and then return 

 them ? 



VV. Z. Hutchinson— I have tried 

 thj^. Those that were in a healthy 

 condition remained so ; those that 

 were diseased, it did not save. 



DIFFEKENT RACES OF BEES. 



W. Z Hutchinson- Were Qiy apiary I 

 devoted exclusively to the production 

 of comb honey, I think I should choose 

 pure blacks. 



Dr. Jlulison— I am surprised to see 

 a man stand up in a convention and 

 make such an avowal. I prefer Cyp- 

 rians, Syrians or Italians. The Cyp- 

 rians are the best honey-gatherers. 

 When I have plenty of time I can 

 handle Cyprians without a veil or 

 gloves ; when in a hurry I want both. 



Dr. Whiting— In a poor season the 

 Italians will gather more honey than 

 the blacks. Of course blacks make 

 whiter, stniighter combs, and are less 

 inclined to till the brood-nest with 

 honey. 



W.Z. Hutchinson— I agree to all 

 this, and will add that when the great 

 honey harvests come, from which we 

 get our surplus, the blacks will store 

 just as much. 



Dr. Whiting— I think there is a 

 great difference in different strains 

 of the same variety of bees. I was 

 much annoyed by some colonies that I 

 had a strange propensity to build 

 brace-combs in every conceivable 



and giving them others, I finally suc- 

 ceeded in nearly eradicating this 

 trouble from my apiary. I think much 

 can be done by selection. 



TOP-STOKING vs. SIDE-STOKING. 



Dr. Rulison— With me the bees 

 work more readily in the side boxes, 

 but they put in too much pollen, and 

 I have abandoned it. 



Dr. Whiting — Bees are inclined to 

 put their pollen in the combs nearest 

 the entrance. If the combs are used 

 crosswise to the entrance, and the 

 sections put in the back end of the 

 hive, there will be no pollen placed in 

 them. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



W. E. Harris— I have found it quite 

 an advantage to cut into strips the 

 comb containing the eggs from which 

 I wish to rear queens, and put tliese 

 strips, with the cells, in a vertical 

 position, between the upper edges of 

 the combs, holding them in position 

 by pressing the combs together against 

 the strips. The colony must of course 

 have no other eggs or unsealed brood. 

 By destroying some of the eggs, a la 

 Alley, the cells can be secured in the 

 places wanted. When the cells are 

 finished they can be easily removed 

 by simply moving the combs apart. 



HIVING SWARMS WITH WING-CLIPPED 



QUEENS. 



R. L. Taylor— I clip my queens' 

 wings, and do not see how I could get 

 along without so doing. When several 

 swarms issue at nearly the same time, 

 I simply cage the queens. If the 

 swarms cluster together it does not 

 trouble me. I Just take enough from 

 the cluster to make a swarm, hive 

 them and give them a queen, and con- 

 tinue to do this as long as the supply 

 of bees and queens holds out. 



The officers are as follows : Presi- 

 dent, R. L. Taylor, Lapeer, Mich. ; 

 Vice President, W. E. Harris. South 

 Bay City ; Secretary, W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son, Rogersville ; Treasurer, Dr. L. C. 

 Whiting. East Saginaw. 



The convention adjourned to meet 

 in Bay City, Mich., on the first 

 Wednesday in February. 1SS7. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



r"or the American Bee JoumaL 



Wintering Bees in tlie Cellar, 



EUGENE SECOK. 



January was a cold month ; Feb- 

 ruary, so far, has been quite mild. 

 On some days bees could liave flown. 

 My 32 colonies, put into the cellar 

 during the forepart of November, 

 have not seen daylight since, and I 

 hope that they will not until the 

 middle of April. They appear to be 

 wintering finely— showing but few 

 dead bees and small consumption of 

 honey. A thermometer, lianging in 

 the room all the time, has shown ex- 

 tremes of "37" to 48°, the mercury 

 generally standing at or near 44'^. 

 Part of the liives are raised one inch 

 from the bottom-boards, and the 



, ., ... - — I honey-boards lie evenly on top. They 



place, hy destroying their queens, ' appear to be dryer and sweeter than 



those resting down on the bottom- 

 boards. The cellar is quite dry. A 

 soft-coal furnace is in constant use in 

 an adjoining room, which overcomes 

 the natural dampness in the whole 

 cellar. 



I am satisfied that a great many 

 who winter bees in cellars do not 

 keep them warm enough. If the bees 

 are uneasy, some people think it is 

 because they are too warm, when the 

 contrary is the fact. To illustrate : 

 A neighbor has had a colony in the 

 north side of his house for a number 

 of years. They are next to his bed- 

 room. He tells me that when the 

 weather is severe he can hear the bees 

 roar. He then leaves the sitting- 

 room door open, and as soon as the 

 room gets warm next to the bees, 

 they quiet down immediately. My 

 neighbors who have lost their bees in 

 trying to winter them in cellars, have 

 allowed the rooms to become too cold. 

 If very damp, cold is fatal to bees, so 

 I believe, and so I teach ; and the fact 

 that I have had the best success in 

 wintering bees of any one in this part 

 of the Slate, is evidence, to me, of the 

 soundness of the doctrine. 



Forest City, 5 Iowa, Feb. 22, 1886. 



OUR CLUBBIiVG LIST. 



We supply the American Bee Journal 



one year, and any of ttie following publicsp 

 tions, at the prices quoted in the last eolumii 

 of figures. The first column gives the regru- 

 lar price of both. AH postage prepaid. 



Price of both. Club 

 The American Bee Journal 1 00 . . 



and Gleanings in Bee-Culture 2 00.. 1 75 



Bee-Keepers'Magazine 2 00.. 175 



Bee-Keepers' Guide 150.. 140 



The Apiculturist 2 00.- 1 75 



Canadian Bee Journal 2 00.. 1 75 



Texas Uee Journal 2 00.. 1 75 



The 7 above-named papers 6 30 . . 5 50 



and City and Country 2 00.. 1 50 



New York Independent 4 00.. 3 30 



American Agriculturist 250.. 2 2.5 



American Poultry Journal ...225.. 175 

 Journal of Carp Culture 1 50.. 1 40 



and Cook's Manual 2 25.. 2 00 



Bees and Houey (Newman). . .2 00. . 1 75 

 Binder for Am. Bee Journal..! 75.. 1 60 

 Apiar,v Register — 100 colonies 2 25. . 2 00 

 Dzierzon's Bee-Book (cloth). . .3 00.. 2 DO 

 Dzierzon's Bee-Book (paper) . . 2 50 . . 2 00 

 Quinby's New Bee-Keeping ..2 .50.. 2 25 

 Langstroth's Standard Work .3 CO.. 2 75 

 Root's A B C ot Bee-Culture. .2 25. . 2 10 



Alley's Queen-Rearing 2 50.. 2 25 



Farmer's .\ccount Book 4 00.. 3 00 



Guide and Hand-Book 1 50 . . 1 30 



Heddon's book, "Success,".. 1 50.. 140 



Convention Notice. 



tS~ The New Jersey and Eastern Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold tlieir ninth 

 serai-annual convention at Cooper Union 

 (Room 22) in New York Citv, on Wednesday, 

 March 10, 18S6, at B:30 a.m. All who are 

 interestecl in liee-culture or honey are re- 

 spectfully invited to attend. We e.xpect a 

 large delegation from the Philadelphia 

 Association to meet with us, and it promises 

 to be one of the most interesting as well as 

 instructive conventions that this Associa- 

 tion has ever held. A special invitation is 

 e.xtendeil to ladies, well knowing that they 

 are by no means a small factor in our in- 

 dustry. Beginners, it is well known, will 

 learn more by attending one good conven- 

 tion than a year of practical experiments 

 will teach them. All are requested to bring 

 something to exhibit, and if you cannot 

 come, send us an essay to read on some live 

 subject. W. B. Tre.vdwell, Sec. 



