770 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Dec. 7, 1899. 



are reared in the early fall so the colonies are composed 

 larg'ely of bees reared during September and early October. 



For many years I hav-ie packt about 40 colonies each 

 fall to winter out-of-doors. Of course, different methods 

 have been tried with varied successes and failures. The 

 new ways were tried with a few colonies only, as I have 

 held fast in the main to that which had proven good, vmtil 

 I found something which proved better after a trial of at 

 least three winters, knowing that one winter only is a very 

 slight test of any method. 



One experiment made some 25 years ago with three col- 

 onies proved a perfect failure, as the bees all perisht before 

 warm spring weather came. 



It is said with much truth that we often learn more 

 from our failures than from our successes. I know this 

 was a good lesson to me, and has been kept well in my mind 

 ever since. 



I have a shed 80 feet in length, 2'i in width, and 2'2 

 high at the eaves. Posts are set 8 feet apart, to which the 

 front, back and roof joists are fastened. The front and 

 back are of shiplap lumber, so fastened as to exclude all 

 storms. The roof is made of wide boards of good quality, 

 which should be kept well painted to exclude all storms. 

 These roof-boards, as well as front and back boards, are 16 

 feet long, running lengthwise of the bee-shed or house, as 

 one pleases to style it. 



A rack made of 16 feet fence-boards with cross-pieces 

 4 feet apart, into which nails are driven thru the fence- 

 boards, afford strong stands upon which the colonies stand 

 during winter. During summer I have a row of hives 

 standing about two feet from this shed and in front of it. 

 The shed or bee-house faces the south, so the bees ma3' get 

 the benefit of the sun when flying from their hives during 

 winter. 



In placing the bees for winter, the front and roof are 

 easily removed. The chaff packing is thrown over onto the 

 roof at the north side of the shed. The hives are then set 

 on the rack in the shed, a few at a time, or all, as preferred 

 bv the apiarist. I usually put in one length, and then 

 fasten on the front to the shed ; next pack the chaff in front, 

 between, and at the back of the hives. A frame covered 

 with wire-screen is placed on top of the brood-chamber over 

 the top-bars, and chaff packt on top of the hives and solid 

 up to the roof of the house, which is then placed on for win- 

 ter, excluding all storms. 



The next length of the house is then filled, setting the 

 hives near the shed back of where they were during the 

 summer, and bring other hives from any near-by part of the 

 yard to fill up all the available space in the house. The 

 work is continued until the space is filled, and closed up for 

 winter. 



A passage-way is given the bees over the top-bars, un- 

 der the screen ; the latter excludes all mice, and permits 

 the moisture from the bees to pass off, leaving the hives 

 and combs dry, and at the same time retaining the heat of 

 the bees mostly within the hives. Too much importance 

 cannot be put on keeping the bees, hives, combs and food 

 dry and warm during winter. 



An entrance-way is given the bees to and from the hive 

 by placing a piece of '2 or 1 inch board the width of the 

 hive in length, and 4 inches in width, nailed to is-inch 

 strips 4 inches long, and laying these pieces of boards flat 

 at the hive-entrance with the cleats down. The packing at 

 the front of the hives rests on top of these, and the bees 

 pass under in going out or in. 



The width of entrance to the hive can be varied to suit 

 the wishes of each bee-keeper. I am not fully decided as to 

 just what is the best width, but for strong colonies I think 

 6 to 8 inches in width by jj-inch deep is about right. I 

 have tried widths from IJ'i inches to full width of my hives, 

 which is 15 inches in the clear. 



Such a house as here described, with good, careful pack- 

 ing, I think can only be surpast by a good, dry cellar, in 

 any Northern winter or cold climate, for safe wintering 

 of bees. 



During winter at least, the hives should tip forward so 

 as to run off the moisture if any accumulates on the hive- 

 bottom. 



The hive-covers are left off during winter with ray 

 methods of wintering bees, either in the cellar or out-of- 

 doors. 



There are some advantages that may accrue from win- 

 tering a part of our bees in the cellar and a part outside. 

 Should our house burn down during winter, and our bees 

 be all stored in the house-cellar, we would meet with the 

 loss of all our bees, when, if a part are packt outside, they 

 would probably be spared, and a nice start could be made 



the following season, if it should prove a fair one. With 

 40 colonies in the spring, and a good season, the number 

 could be increast to 80 or 100 by fall, and some little surplus 

 honey secured, with good management. 



During mild winters the flights had by the outdoor bees 

 are pleasing, and, if the stores are not very good, quite 

 beneficial. 



I have used, on a small scale, chaff hives for wintering, 

 but on the whole I do not like them. These hives are un- 

 handy to work with in summer, and the packing becomes 

 damp, and, too, seems to furnish a place for ants and their 

 nests. However, I have not tried the later patterns or 

 styles. Carroll Co., 111. 



" Hundred-Dollar Queens "--Historical. 



BY HENRY DIDWELL. 



ONE April day, some j-ears ago, I sent Rev. L,. X,. Lang- 

 stroth S25 for one Italian queen, and while I was wait- 

 ing for her arrival I removed a German queen from one 

 of my strongest colonies, and the drone-comb from all the 

 others, replacing it with worker-comb. 



The queen arrived by express about May 10, costing 

 $3.75 for charges. I introduced her into the queenless col- 

 ony, and in the course of one month her worker-brood ap- 

 peared in great numbers, and some ten days later drones 

 appeared — about the time I first found eggs in the queen- 

 cells. These queen-cells I removed, replacing them with 

 cup-cells from the other hives, and gave the cells with eggs 

 in, one to each of the strongest colonies, first removing the 

 queen the day before and subsequently destroying all the 

 other cells. I also removed the drone-combs as fast as the 

 queen laid in them, and put them into the strongest colonies 

 to mature, replacing them with drone-comb. With all my 

 care I found some drones of the brown variety in a number 

 of hives, but I have this to relate, that the young queens 

 were more apt to mate with a similar drone to those in her 

 hive. 



From the Langstroth queen I reared 302 queens, and 

 sold her in August for $20. 



The 3'ellow bees did twice as well as the brown ones on 

 account of their superiority, which was principally due to 

 their greater prolificness, the yellow queens laying 4,000 to 

 5,000 eggs a day in the working season, while the brown 

 queens laid about 2,000 ; and I had to double the capacity of 

 the hives the yellow queens were in by giving them an ad- 

 ditional story, which the.v occupied with brood. This en- 

 abled the yellow bees to reproduce themselves so that the 

 young queens were as good as the mother queen, and this is 

 the secret of getting and preserving SlOO queens. 



A mile south of where I lived was a long lake, '4 mile 

 wide, beyond which the brown bees could not be found, but 

 the yellow bees flew across and brought back some 2,000 

 pounds of thistle honey the first season I g-ot them, and I 

 was satisfied that they doubled my j-ield of honey. To 

 avoid in-breeding, I offered Mr. Langstroth $100 for another 

 queen as good as the one he had sent me, but I subse- 

 quently' learned that Nature had provided a remedy to oft'- 

 set the evil effects of in-breeding, by feeding the males and 

 females different kinds of food to grow them apart, so they 

 could be bred together. 



My yellow bees were very uniform in color, but I no- 

 ticed an occasional bee more clear and transparent than the 

 others, and it occurred to me that if I could get queens 

 from these eggs they would be more yellow, and after three 

 years of careful selection I got rid of the brown on the end 

 of the queen, but, unfortunately, in wintering my bees in 

 trenches, in Minnesota, a gopher got in and filled the 

 trench with dirt, and I lost what I had gained there. I have 

 been trying the same experiment here, and have succeeded 

 in producing, the past season, three queens purely mated, 

 all yellow. Sedgwick Co., Kan. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the new bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a "hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us o?!C ne?u yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



