264 



THE AMERICAISI BEE JOURJSfAL. 



For tne American Bee JoumaL 



Metlioils of Wintering Bees. 



C. W. PAYTON. 



On page 151, Mr. Ileddon renders a 

 decision thus : '• Our great enemy is 

 conquered, andtlie wintering problem 

 is practically solved." I would change 

 it somewhat ; it is proved that our 

 great enemy may be avoided, but in 

 so doing the wintering problem is 

 impractically solved. Should Mr. 

 Heddon succeed in wintering quite 

 all of his colonies he will be no more 

 successful than many of his neighbors 

 in apiculture who winter their bees 

 on natural stores. The winter prob- 

 lem has been solved to such extents 

 as that, hundreds of times, but in a 

 general sense it has not been very 

 universal. It is considerably known, 

 however, that a colony without pollen 

 or brood and with stores of sugar 

 syrup is not always subject to the 

 usual amount of disease of ordinary 

 wintering; but that that method 

 would be safer and practical with 

 more than a few, is another moment- 

 ous question. 



That cellarfuls of bees do winter 

 well and without loss on natural 

 stores, one winter after another, ought 

 to be sufficient evidence to show 

 that there must be other solutions of 

 the winter problem, and for all we 

 know there mav be several of them. 

 That Mr. H. has, or will, winter his 

 bees successfully this time, probably 

 settles the winter problem with him, 

 so long as he can afford large expense; 

 but the greater share of bee-keepers 

 will go on trying again and again 

 with natural stores, as they will be 

 obliged to do, and some will discover, 

 as many already have done, a safe and 

 really practical method of wintering 

 bees. 



As I understand it, for fear the bees 

 will freeze, Mr. Heddon maintains an 

 even temperature of no less than 45'^. 

 That is the temperature required to 

 winter on natural stores, but to leave 

 the hives tightly covered, as he does, 

 fixes the difference between life and 

 death. Simply remove the covers and 

 the pure natural stores are as good as 

 syrup. There seems to be a fancied, 

 (though ever so idle) consolation in 

 leaving the brood-chambers tightly 

 sealed above. If Mr. H. has conduct- 

 ed a thoroughly logical test in winter- 

 ing bees on natural stores, I believe 

 it has not appeared in the bee-papers. 

 That bees void substances of a solid 

 nature is not an unfortunate occur- 

 rence so long as it is the effects of the 

 watery part that kills the bees; if the 

 cause of the liquid portion is removed 

 there will be no liquid ; consequently 

 no disease or disorder. Where the evac- 

 uations are moderate and of a solid 

 nature the bees do well ; in fact it is 

 nature and health themselves. 



Good authority says that it is harder 

 to sell anything after we get it than 

 it is to produce it in the first place. 

 If this is as true everywhere as it is 

 in my locality it brhigsthe cost of the 

 said-to-be-cheap syrup up to 15 cts. 

 per pound, if honey in the hive is 

 worth 6 or 7 cents. It will be a tine (V) 



state of affairs, indeed, when every 

 bee-keeper will be rushing his honey 

 on glutted and "hibernating" markets 

 early in the season, and all at once, in 

 order to purchase, with the proceeds, 

 winter feed for his bees ; and, as will 

 be the case, not one bee-keeper in 10 

 is so " fore-handed" as to be able to 

 hold his honev and buy sugar. 



While it is desirable to know how 

 to winter bees with the least expense, 

 we must winter them cheaply as well 

 as successfully, because it is so easy 

 for expense to overbalance profit. 



Bradford, d Iowa. 



Fur the Amennan Bee Journal. 



Soutli Florida for Bee-Keeping, 



HARPY G. BURNET. 



light golden in color, and fully as 

 heavy as the penny-royal honey. 

 That from the cabbage palm is also of 

 fine flavor, color and weight. 



As to quantity : I will " draw it 

 mild" and say that we get about 200 

 lbs. per colony per year, and an in- 

 crease of one. This will seem— and 

 is— a large yield. I cannot be very 

 definite, as I have not kept weight 

 before, but will do so this season and 

 report accordingly. Comb honey does 

 not pay and is not produced. There 

 is room for many bee-keepers here, 

 but to those desiring to come, I would 

 say, come first, look around, and see 

 how you like it— do not decide hastily. 



Alva, 9 Fla. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



In answer to many who are contin- 

 ually writing for information, I will 

 set forth as briefly as possible, the 

 honey-flora of this section of Florida. 

 By South Florida, I mean tliat portion 

 of the State south of a line drawn 

 eastward from Tampa. Monroe 

 county is the southernmost county in 

 Florida. Alva is situated in the 

 northern part of the county, on the 

 lovely Caloosahatchee river, 35 miles 

 in an air-line from the Gulf-coast. 

 This as to location. 



As to the honey-flow : We call 

 about Dec. 1st the opening of the 

 " season, " as that is the time when 

 the penny -royal, (Saturia Rigida), not 

 the penny-royal of the North, opens its 

 diminutive blossoms to the impatient 

 bees. This plant is found growing on 

 the second-class pine and "scrub" 

 lands. All through the Manatee, Bre- 

 vard and Monroe counties, and dur- 

 ing the season of bloom, the whole 

 country is scented with its minty 

 odor. There are thousands and tens 

 of thousands of acres of this bloom 

 going to waste in South Florida every 

 year. The period of bloom extends 

 from about Dec. 1 to Apr. 1, or a little 

 later ; but about that time the saw- 

 palmetto opens its creamy blossoms 

 in countless millions, and the bees 

 desert the stronger flavored penny- 

 royal, for the milder flavored, golden- 

 tinted nectar it affords so bountifully. 

 The bees work on the saw-palmetto, 

 [Sabal Semdata) until about June 1 

 to June 15, when they take a vaca- 

 tion until the advent of the bloom 

 among the broad leaves of the tall 

 cabbage palms (Sabal Palvietto), about 

 July 15. Very little surplus is gath- 

 ered from this source as a general 

 thing, on account of its blooming in 

 the rainy season ; but if the weather 

 is propitious, they will do well. This 

 bloom lasts only about two weeks. 



There are many other flowers that 

 yield honey here, but not enough to 

 afford surplus. Feeding is unknown. 

 On the coast they have the much- 

 talked-of black mangrove, but mos- 

 quitoes and sand-flies are such pests 

 as to make life a burden. 



As to quality of our honey : That 

 from penny-myal is light-colored and 

 heavy— 18 to 13}^ lbs. to the gallon ; 

 but it has too much of the penny-royal 

 flavor to suit m?/ taste. The honey from 

 the saw-palmetto is delicious in flavor. 



Tlie Kretcliffler Alternating Hive. 



E. KRETCHMER. 



Dear Editor :— I send you one of 

 my alternating brood-chamber sec- 

 tions for bee-hives (half-width), with 

 bottom and honey-board all made as 

 described in the patent, with letters 

 of reference from the drawings 

 marked thereon. Please examine it 

 and compare it with the patent, and 

 you will find that Mr. Heddon errs in 

 some of his assertions made on page 

 213. You will find that it has nof and 

 never had a " fast bottom," and that 

 it is " capable of being inverted," 

 although it never was made with that 

 purpose in view; and in justice to 

 Mr. Heddon I will say that I do not 

 know of its being used in an inverted 

 position. 



By referring to mv article on page 

 18-5, it will be seen that I gave it as a 

 scrap of history, and with no desire 

 to wrong Mr. Heddon ; it will further 

 be found that I described the sectional 

 brood-chamber idea as old and not 

 as patented by me. I simply arranged 

 such sectional brood-chambers with a 

 series of frames clamped within such 

 a chamber with a wedge ; standing on 

 a metal strip, the brood-chambers 

 standing on cleats raised above the 

 face of the bottom, as described in 

 my catalogue issued in January, 1884; 

 and above the brood-frames a honey- 

 board with bars arranged for interme- 

 diate passage-ways described in the 

 specification of my patent. Then 

 who would not say, when a hive is 

 named with the same arrangements, 

 that such arrangements aie not new V 

 Sinf-e then I have carefully ex- 

 amined Mr. Heddon's hive, and the 

 special system for which it was con- 

 structed ; and since Mr. Ileddon ad- 

 mits as old the " double brood-cham- 

 ber " device, unless made in the par- 

 ticular manner in which he makes 

 them, I most cheerfully admit, with 

 all due honor to Mr. Heddon, that 

 many of the various combinations are 

 ?!e«), when applied to that system of 

 management and manipulations laid 

 down in his book ; and since reading 

 Ills patent I believe that the claims 

 and combinations in it are valid. 

 Coburg,p Iowa. 



[See Editorial remarks on the above, 

 on page 259.— Ed.] 



