360 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in where the owner can sell it in its 

 natural shape, as the bees make it, so 

 dispensing with the extractor, honey- 

 boards, and single-walled hives. 



One item more: Single-walled hives 

 cannot with safety winter bees on the 

 summer stands, and for one, I will 

 quit the business if I c#,nnot winter 

 my bees on the summer stands. 



I winter bees on the summer stands 

 as follows: First, I contract the 

 brood-frames to six, and push up the 

 division-boards snug. This I do 

 aboufSept. 15, after taking all surplus 

 caps away. Afterwards I put the 

 surplus-arrangement above the brood- 

 nest, which is the same size as the 

 six frames below. Into that I put five 

 frames of solid, well-ripened honey, 

 which gives the bees at once a suf- 

 ficiency of natural stores. I cover 

 them with a woolen sack of sawdust. 

 I now have a hive inside of another, 

 as one would say, 9 inches wide by 15 

 inches long, and 21 inches in depth, 

 surrounded with 5 inches of packing 

 on all sides and the front, both with 

 sawdust 21 inches deep, and the sack 

 on top makes 4 inches more. I now 

 bank up on the back and sides with 

 earth nearly 4 inches, so that no air 

 can get under the hive. The entrance 

 I leave open 5 inches by %. On that 

 plan I have been successful. 



It will be noticed that I place the 

 honey above the bees, which is where 

 they would place it if they bad the 

 chance to do so. Naturally bees go 

 up instead of sidewise in search of 

 stores. I never look for pollen, neither 

 do I feed sugar. Honey is what they 

 want, and honey they shall have. You 

 may say it is extravagant to give the 

 bees so much honey. What do they 

 want with 50 or 60 pounds of stores ? 

 Well, I know how to dispose of what 

 they do not consume. In the spring 

 I take away the five upper frames, 

 and replace with frames of sections 

 with foundation starters as early as it 

 is safe to unpack them. What honey 

 is left in the frames taken away I un- 

 cap and put them below, outside the 

 division-boards, which space allows 

 two frames on each side. The bees 

 will have a busy time elevating the 

 honey to the sections, and will set the 

 queen to at once put the crown on her 

 head and make things hum. 



Here I am in the sixth season, with 

 the best record yet as to wintering 

 my bees. Here I am the third season 

 with the best record I ever had, get- 

 ting on the average, spring count, hoc 

 hundred and eighty pounds per colony. 

 So much in favor of reversilale frames 

 and double-walled hives, being a sur- 

 plus over single-walled hives and 

 suspended frames of 200 pounds per 

 colony in the same locality. 



Now, to be more detinite in setting 

 forth the claims of reversible frames 

 as compared with suspended ones, I 

 make the following calculations : 

 Safety in wintering, 20 points. This 

 is because they are packed early, 

 giving them natural stores in their 

 proper position, and left on the sum- 

 mer stands where they are not looked 

 at nor disturbed in the least until 

 settled weather in the spring. 



Economy, 20 points in two ways : 

 Firstj not so many hives to handle ; 



second, placing the honey in a com- 

 pact form, easy to sell, and dispensing 

 with the extractor, and daubing up 

 the entire apiary with cappings and 

 empty frames. 



Convenience, 10 points, because we 

 manipulate a hive in 20 minutes or 

 less, and the hive is as easy and light 

 as a single-walled hive. 



Superiority, 40 points, because we 

 can get nearly 60 per cent, more honey 

 out of our bees. The reversible frame 

 is no longer an experiment. Experi- 

 ence has demonstrated its superiority, 

 and if I were obliged to return to the 

 suspended frame, I would quit the 

 business altogether. The reversible 

 frame is tree from all complications, 

 and easy to manipulate. Its rival, the 

 suspended frame, has received honor- 

 able dismissal from my apiary, its day 

 being done, its usefulness gone, and 

 its place more effectively filled by its 

 reversible successor. 



Guelph, Out. 



For tbe American Bee JournrJ. 



f intering Bees in Warm Temperatiires. 



IKA liAEBER. 



Mr. C. Theilmann, on page 311, 

 tells us that he has had trouble with 

 bees this spring, by their getting too 

 hot. He says that he kept them in a 

 building above ground, and that be- 

 tween the warm weather and the 

 great heat that the bees created, they 

 became so hot that they nearly suf- 

 focated. I do not doubt his state- 

 ment in the least, for I had just such 

 a case as he describes, some 30 years 

 ago. 



[ do not consider his criticisms of 

 my plan of wintering bees just or 

 manly ; nor do I think that he has any 

 reason for connecting it with the 

 plan that I gave in the essay that he 

 mentioned. I stated that the cellar 

 should be damp where the tempera- 

 ture was allowed to become so high, 

 and that no currents of fresh air 

 should reach the bees. 



Mr. T. asks if my article would not 

 have misled many bee-keepers had it 

 not been for Mr. Doolittle's sad ex- 

 perience in warming his cellar by 

 burning coal oil. Now I wish to say 

 that I have never recommended his 

 plan, for the reason that it did not 

 prove a success with me. I have 

 never tried Mr. Doolittle's plan, for 

 the reason that it proved a failure 

 with him ; but I did wish last winter, 

 that I knew of some way to raise the 

 temperature of my bee-cellar about 

 40^ higher than it was. 



Again, he says that I have gone 

 down one-half in my idea of the 

 proper temperature, and asks me to 

 account for it. The explanation is 

 very easy, for my bees are now at 

 home, and are wintered in a large 

 cellar, one that 600 colonies could be 

 wintered in, and not crowd it as the 

 one was crowded when the high tem- 

 perature was given. 



The reason why a thermometer was 

 not used, was because my bees were 

 20 miles from my home, and I was 

 satisfied with the tests that I was able 



to make in November and April. I 

 have not given a colony ventilation at 

 the top of the hive for 20 years, while 

 in winter quarters. Mr. Doolittle 

 said that I knew nothing about the 

 temperature of my bee-cellar. Is it 

 not reasonable to suppose that if the 

 temperature was 65^ in the cellar, 

 when the mercury was near zero out- 

 side, and at 65° outside the mercury 

 showed 90° inside, that the tempera- 

 ture was but slightly affected either 

 with heat or cold V 



Mr. T. thinks that the mass of bees 

 5 feet high were smart bees to be able 

 to separate all right. As he only gave 

 the height of the mass I will give the 

 length of the pile, which was 19 feet, 

 and the width 13 feet — all one solid 

 mass of bees, to all appearance, apd 

 yet all the loss was just one queen. 

 Does any experienced bee-keeper be- 

 lieve that a door could have been 

 opened to cool them off, without a 

 great loss V They were left to. cool off 

 slowly, when the weather changed. 



I have no time to follow Mr. Theil- 

 mann in all the points he has taken 

 exceptions to regarding my high-tem- 

 perature theory, but I will say to him, 

 and all others who may doubt my 

 statements, that there can be nothing 

 said by any one that can change the 

 fact, that it proved a complete suc- 

 cess for the 6 or 7 winters that I win- 

 tered my bees in that way. Why, I 

 have been wintering my bees at 45° 

 to 50° for the past two years, is be- 

 cause they winter fairly well ; and I 

 have not yet been to the expense of 

 partitioning off the cellar, for the 

 reason that I may take my bees away 

 to better fields at any time when our 

 pasture for bees fails in this locality. 

 I hope that none will try to winter 

 their bees at so high a temperature in 

 a dry room or dry cellar, for my ex- 

 perience is that it cannot be done 

 without heavy loss. 



De Kalb Junction, 5 N. Y. 



For the American IJee Journal. 



EradicatM Foul Broofl, 



JOS. H. FISHER. 



In this neighborhood foul brood has 

 existed for nearly a year, and most of 

 our bees, both tame and wild, have 

 been thoroughly inocculated with the 

 disease. Even if we could effect a 

 cure, under these circumstances, 

 would they not bring the disease home 

 again from our neighbor's defunct 

 apiary, old combs and hives lying 

 around loose, bee-trees, etc. ? 



I would not discourage apiculture 

 by any means, for the value of honey 

 for medicine alone, if for nothing else, 

 could not be dispensed with. But, 

 let us face the truth and the evil, and 

 fight our best to exterminate it. There 

 are remedies to stay the disease and 

 keep it in bounds, that are but little 

 expense or trouble, but I cannot say 

 that it will effect a cure, except with 

 the aid of time and surrounding cir- 

 cumstances. 



I have melted all my old combs into 

 wax, and subjected my frames to a 

 heat that would kill any animal or 



