1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl., 



805 



In those northern States, when the ground freezes It Is 

 for Kood, there Is no chance for moisture to creep in, unless It 

 is there already, bat after our usual dry falls there Is but lit- 

 tle fear of that, and in a country where the sleighing Is good 

 from the first of December till the last of March, much less 

 precaution need be taken than in our latitude, where we can- 

 not be sure of good sleighing 24 hours ahead. We pile the 

 hives in the cellar, two or three or even four tiers high, usually 



Cellar-Blind to Oive Air Without Light — LanrjstroUi Revised. 



putting the lower tier on timbers raised a foot or so from the 

 ground. We have always noticed that the colonies nearest 

 the ground were the ones that suffered. If any did. 



After the hives are in, darkness, quietness, a proper tem- 

 perature, and a sufficient amount of ventilation are all that is 

 necessary. For these hives, as well as for those that are out 

 in cold days, it is a great point to have everything perfectly 

 quiet. The man who will disturb his bees every other day, 

 just to see whether they are still alive, will be unsuccessful if 

 the circumstances are at all unfavorable; for it Is very easy 

 to kill the bees with too much kindness of this sort. 



To give air without light to our bee-cellar we have devised 

 a sort of blind — a picture of which is here shown, taken from 

 "Langstroth Revised." 



C.3 The time of removal of the bees In the spring is of utmost 

 Importance to consider. If they are taken out too early, they 



Cellar- Blind in Place — From Lanrjsirolh Revised. 



may not have occasion to fly much, and their power of endur- 

 ance during a late cold seems to have been taken away from 

 them by their prolonged stay in the cellar. They are very 

 much like a horse that Is kept in a warm barn. He Is more 

 apt to be fretful of the cold and to suffer than one that stays 

 all winter in a cold stable. Yet our sympathies are all in the 

 direction of the softer treatment. With the bees, there was 

 on our part, as in the fall, a tendency to be too much afraid of 



a long confinement. I believe it was Dr. Miller who said the 

 best time to remove the bees from the cellar was In March or 

 April, at the opening of the first buds of soft maple bloom. 

 This is a very good criterion. 



But above all things, a warm day must be selected to re- 

 move the bees from their confinement. If you take them out 

 on a cold day, their anxious desire to take a flight will Induce 

 them to venture when the temperature is too low for their 

 safety, and many of them will perish. If the day Is warm and 

 pleasant, they will take a cleansing flight within a very few 

 minutes after they have been brought out, and are thereafter 

 ready for their habitual duties. 



I have often been askt whether it Is advisable to take the 

 bees out on a warm day during the winter for a good flight, 

 and put them back again. I have never tried this, but from 

 all that I ever heard, I do not believe such a course is suc- 

 cessful. The bees, after their flight, begin to rear some brood 

 and remain less quiet than if they had been kept In-doors all 

 winter. Hancock Co., 111. 



Experience with Two-8-Frame Story Colonies. 



BY FRANK COVEEDALE. 



The middle of May I tried placing underneath ten colonies 

 an extra hive-body, each filled with worker-combs and an aver- 

 age of say about five pounds of honey. These bees received 

 this with much favor, and set to work rearing an extra 

 amount of brood, and by the time clover began to yield all 

 seemed to be, and were, chock-full of brood and bees; or, in 

 other words, were filled with brood, pollen and honey. One 

 thing I noticed, these colonies had stored a large quantity of 

 pollen. However, I could see at once that this plan had 

 brought forth a multitude of bees ready for theclover harvest, 

 and now as to whether they would work or swarm — that was 

 the question that so deeply Interested me. 



Supers were put on all around at the time, both on the 

 double deckers and sjngle deckers, and as the harvest came on 

 swarming began, and, I must confess, to my surprise, these 16- 

 frame colonies rather too badly. None of the 10 filled any 

 section-cases with honey from clover ; 80 single-story colonies 

 produced my small crop (all the above in one yard) ; 8 of the 

 latter filled and completed two cases of 22J^ pounds each, or 

 45 pounds of comb honey ; the next best 8 filled only one case, 

 and so on down until many, even single bodies, yielded no sur- 

 plus at all. 



But to return : The 10 double-deck hives, I estimate, 

 have for winter 25 pounds more than the 80, on an average. 

 This certainly must be taken into consideration, besides 43^ 

 pounds of comb honey must be added ; this gives 29, V pounds 

 as an average, while the 80 have a fraction over 8 pounds on 

 the average, all comb, at 12 cents — 96 cents. 



For the 10, 25 pounds of extracted, at 7 cents, $1.75 ; 

 and 4:14 pounds of comb honey, at 12 cents, 54 cents — total, 

 $2.29. 



I think it would be safe to say that If the story having the 

 least brood had been taken off and supers put in their place, 

 at the beginning of the main flow, far better results would 

 have been obtained in comb honey ; and I think that the 

 swarming-fever would have run at a lower ebb. 



But more about this at the next writing. 



Jackson Co., Iowa. 



The " Notre Dame Hive "—Further Explana- 

 tions and Replies to Comments. 



Bi' B. J. CHRYSOSTOM. 



The frame the Inventor of the "Notre Dame hive '" uses 

 Is the full-depth Langstroth. 



" But should he use a frame even not much larger than 

 the Langstroth frame, a colony occupying 40 frames by July 

 1 would be Incredible." So says one writer. It may appear 

 to be so at first sight, but perhaps not so after an explanation. 



The bees in question are wintered on 16 full-depth Lang- 

 stroth frames, having from 50 to 70 pounds of stores. This 

 year they are lighter than usual. The average gross weight 

 per colony is only 83 pounds; allowing o2 pounds for hive 

 and frames, leaves a net weight of bees and stores of 51 

 pounds per colony. They are wintered on the summer stands 

 in houses, packt in chaff to the depth of three feet. Thus 

 wintered they fly out in the spring clean and frisky. The ab- 

 sence of dead bees, in some hives, is remarkable. 



About the first of May these hives are full of bees and 

 brood. To prevent swarming, a full-depth super Is put on ; 

 then about the first of June another super Is added, and If the 



