■fHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



Explanatory.— The BgTires before the 

 names Indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those afteu, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 6 north of the center; ? south; O* east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; ^ northwest: 

 o» southeast; and ? southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



VoT tne American Bee Joumat 



Putting Bees into tlie Cellar, 



EUGENE SECOK. 



Query, No. 336, appears to me to 

 be one of the most practical ques- 

 tions ever put in the query de- 

 partment ; and the replies thereto are 

 ao strikingly uniform one would sup- 

 pose that everybody understood the 

 importance of housing bees early. 

 Yet I am led by observation to be- 

 lieve that as a general thing bees are 

 left out-doors too long. There is a 

 lamentable amount of ignorance on 

 the subject of wintering. This is 

 probably one reason why so many 

 losses are reported. 



I have noticed advice in agricul- 

 tural papers to the effect that bees 

 should be left on the summer stands 

 just as long as there is a possibility of 

 a flight, arguing that they could not 

 endure a long confinement, and that 

 the imprisonment should be reduced 

 to the minimum. And from the prac- 

 tice throughout the country by those 

 who are not experts, it would seem 

 that one of the things hardest to learn 

 in the art of bee-keeping is to house 

 early and not remove them until late. 

 My advice to my neighbors has been 

 to put their bees into the cellar early 

 — before cold, freezing weather en- 

 ervates theoa— by the same parity of 

 reasoning that I would house my 

 domestic animals before they lose 

 flesh and become weak from exposure. 



Bees will better stand a confinement 

 of six months if housi'd while in a 

 vigorous, healthy cmiJition, than 

 three, if forced by exposure to eat 

 more than would otherwise be neces- 

 sary, distending their abdomens and 

 weakening their constituti<ins by the 

 enforced accumulations which un- 

 favorable weatlier will not permit 

 them to discharge. 



If the bees that are first carried in 

 and the last carried out, prove to be 

 the best colonies tlie following season, 

 it pretty thoroughly disproves the 

 theory that they cannot stand the 

 necessary confinement. 



It might be well to state, however, 

 that the temperature of the cellar has 

 much to do with successful winter- 

 ing. If it is too cold perhaps the bees 

 would be as well off in the open air. 

 A great deal of this much-talked-of 

 diarrhea is caused by too cold cellars. 



Many persons with whom I have 

 talked do not seem to comprehend 

 wliy tees will not do better in a cellar 

 where the temperature sometimes goes 

 down to the freezing point, than out- 

 doors where it often goes down to zero. 

 They will say, " Why, back in Xew 

 York, or in Ohib, we never used to 

 house them at all." My observation 

 is, that a damp, cold cellar is generally 

 fatal. 



One reason why bees ought to be 

 housed early is, after the cessation of 

 field-labor the less they exercise the 

 better. If the fall is pleasant they 

 will fiy every day from force of habit. 

 They will often be seen a mile or more 

 from home, although there is not the 

 shadow of a possibility of their find- 

 ing anything they need. Every flight 

 they take wears them out. The col- 

 ony is fast being depleted at a time 

 when the queen is not laying an egg. 

 It would be better for them if the 

 temptation to fly were removed. An 

 early housing will keep the colony 

 stronger, and save thousands of bees 

 that may possibly live long enough to 

 render good service in the cluster 

 when breeding begins. 



I think the length of time that bees 

 can be confined without a flight has 

 lengthened somewhat in the minds of 

 bee keepers in the last 25 years. When 

 Langstroth wrote his book a forced 

 confinement of four months would 

 have been thought extravagant. Now 

 we think nothing of leaving them in 

 the cellar five months, and under 

 favorable conditions, longer. Thus 

 the improved methods are " marching 

 on." 



Forest City. 5 Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Tlie Winter Stores of Bees. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



Of this matter of feeding sugar for 

 winter stores there are two very 

 broad sides. The first question of 

 moment is, whether sugar is better 

 or safer than pure honev. My first 

 idea is this : Ilad the Maker of the 

 bees and flowers at the time of the 

 creation been aware that there was a 

 food that was better suited to the 

 wants and requirements of the bees, 

 then the flower would have loeen 

 arranged for its distillation. As to 

 its determination by man, we know 

 that where one succeeds with sugar 

 hundreds succeed with honey ; but 

 perhaps it requires less experience 

 and knowledge of the wants of the 

 bees for one to succeed with sugar. 

 This may very likely be the case. 



The next question is the cost of the 

 sugar as compared with honey. I 

 made the estimate once, that taking 

 the honey from the hives and selling 

 it to buy sugar to put in the place of 

 the honey, would take time and labor 

 enough to make the cost of the sugar 

 15 cents per pound. As to honey being 

 cheaper than sugar, I think there is 

 no mistake. To be sure the best 

 grade of sugar and honey are about 

 the same price, and the addition of 

 the water to the sugar increases its 



bulk one-half; but if we take the 

 trouble we can obtain pure honey of 

 buckwheat or fall flowers for one-half 

 the price of sugar, and I think that 

 pure fall honey is as accessible as 

 pure cane sugar. 



But there is one point which sugar 

 feeders have overlooked or kept to 

 themselves. That is the loss of feed 

 wlien feeding colonies in this way. I 

 have known many colonies when fed 

 10 pounds of syrup to put 3 pounds 

 of it somewhere else than in the 

 combs. Some colonies fall short one 

 pound; others 4 pounds ; making the 

 average 2,% pounds loss. It is plain 

 to many that it is easier, cheaper and 

 quicker, to slip into one side of the 

 brood-chamber 2 or 3 well filled combs 

 of honey that we did not take the 

 trouble to extract, than it is to adjust 

 feeders, cart and melt sugar, or fight 

 robber bees. The brood-chamber must 

 be examined or overhauled, feed or 

 no feed ; and if it must be feed, that it 

 can be supplied in a more satisfactory 

 manner than by the insertion of 

 combs of honey is very questionable. 



Two of the last five winters I win- 

 tered my bees without the total loss 

 of a colony. Early on every cold 

 morning in October, I am in the 

 apiary stealing combs (on which the 

 bees do not cluster) from the sides of 

 the brood-chamber. After obtaining 

 a comb, another is moved so that the 

 next morning finds another uncovered 

 by bees. This plan is carried out 

 two or three times, or until only three 

 or four combs remain, when on a very 

 cold morning their winter stores are 

 supplied and division-boards adjusted. 

 No smoke is used, no stings received, 

 and no robbing is excited. Many 

 times their winter stores were sup- 

 plied only a few minutes before carry- 

 ing them into the cellar, and I could 

 see no difference in their wintering. 



In the manipulation of 100 colonies 

 for the production of honey, the bee- 

 veil has remained entirely unused. I 

 have just finished a week of prepar- 

 ing the bees for winter, and the total 

 number of stings received during the 

 time was one. 



Sugar-feeding, the pollen theory, 

 etc., are quite well answered in the 

 words of Hazen— •' If you are so kindly 

 disposed toward us, pray, let us alone; 

 we certainly will prosper when you 

 don't care a bit about us." 



Bradford, (5 Iowa, Nov. 13, 1886. 



For tne American Bee JoomaL 



Curing Foul Brood witli Salicylic Acifl. 



JOSEPH A. SAVAGE. 



My first trial was by using an ato- 

 mizer to spray the combs, and a small 

 round stick to insert in all cells in 

 which I could discover any matter. 

 This method left the bacteria con- 

 cealed in the honey, and probably in 

 the pollen, not being reached by the 

 treatment. 



The next inethod was to extract the 

 honey from all combs containing no 

 brood, and immerse the extracted 

 comb in a solution of the acid, in all 

 cases washing the hive thoroughly 



