156 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Heddon's Honey-Board.— 1. Canyon 

 give me ;iny ide;i or description of tiie 

 noney-board of "peculiar construc- 

 tion " tliat Heddon mentions, on page 

 55 of Bee Journal V In tiering up 

 regular Langstroth hives, we get a 

 space of % inch between the two 

 stories ; even where the space is only 

 %, there is some difliculty in handling 

 top frames ; bees are very liable to 

 build up the lower combs between the 

 top ones if they chance to hang a little 

 out of place. 2. Should honey kegs 

 be bunged up tight, if honey is kept 

 for a long while ? 3. 8honld they be 

 kept in the honey house, or in cellar, 

 during very hot or cold weather. Last 

 summer I liad a half barrel of honey 

 in the cellar— it was closed up tight- 

 one day I examined it, took out the 

 bung, and it was all right; I closed it 

 up again. Half an hour tliereafter 

 the bung Ijanged against the ceiling 

 oi the cellar, and the honey ran out 

 at the top of the cask. 4. Did the air 

 I let in cause the trouble V tliere was 

 no gas in the cask when I opened it. 

 H. W. Funk. 



Bloomington, 111. 



[1. Heddon's honey-board of " pecu- 

 liar construction " consists of strips 

 just the width of the sections to be 

 placed on them. These strips, about 

 % of an inch thick, are joined by a 

 •strip nailed at each end, and to reach 

 the full width of the honey-board. 



Heddon'' s Honey Board. 

 This honey-board rests on the top of 

 the hive, so as to give % of an inch 

 between the top-bars of the frames 

 and tlie bottom of the honey-board. 

 Regular Langstroth hives should only 

 allow % of an inch between the lower 

 -or brood frames and the bottoms of 

 the upper or surplus frames. If more 

 space is given, the bees will invariably 

 bridge them. With hive.? properly 

 leveled, and accurately made, the 

 frames should never " hang a little 

 •out of place." 



2. Honey kegs should never be filled 

 to their utmost capacity ; for the 

 variations from cold to heat, and vice 

 versa, expand and contract the volume 

 of honey, and will produce leakage in 

 any wooden package. 



3. The honey should be kept in some 

 dry, cool place— either cellar or honey- 

 house. If thoroughly ripened, keep 

 it bunged tightly ; if not, scald it. 



4. Tliere was a slight tendency to 

 fermentation, and the admission of 

 fresh air gave it activity. — Ed.] 



Moldy Combs.— On the 16th of 

 November 1 put 6 colonies of bees in 

 my cellar, and to all appearance they 

 have done nicely since then. To-day 

 being line, I was anxious to examine 

 one; so I took it out, weighed it, and 

 found the loss to be just 3 lbs., or 1 lb. 

 per month. They did not tly much, 

 but acted very much as they do in 

 summer when smoked. The queen 

 was lively, bees very easy to handle, 

 and not a bit cross, though I used no 

 smoke, lots of stores and no dead bees, 

 but I found mold on tlie lower half 

 of the sealed honey where not covered 

 with bees, giving the part affected a 

 bluish color. Mold caused, I tliink, 

 by the hive sitting down tight on the 

 bottom board, leaving only the sum- 

 mer entrance open, 3 being left tliat 

 way; the other 3 are raised up an inch 

 from the bottom board with a sheet 

 and chaff cushions over all of them. 

 Will the bees open the moldy comb 

 when they need. itV I intend to ex- 

 amine them all the first tine day. 

 Would it be well to pare off the caps, 

 and would the bees recap itV When 

 bees liave plenty of stores, does it 

 stimulate Airly breeding to feedV I 

 was surprised at the small quantity 

 of liouey used. I was particular in 

 weighing. I do not understand your 

 description of U. E. Dodge's feeder — 

 how deep is the boxV Why put in 

 cotton cloth bottom? If bees go into 

 the box will they not drown in the 

 feedy John Yodee. 



Springfield, Ont., Feb. 16, 1882. 



[Let the moldy combs alone, as the 

 bees will take care of them. Lift out 

 all combs but those actually needed, 

 then add as the queen may need room, 

 and the bees will do all uncapping 

 necessary, and the cleaning. When 

 bees have plenty of honey, there is no 

 object in feeding except to stimulate 

 to brood-rearing; then a thin syrup of 

 honey and water, or honey, sugar and 

 water, is better tlian a thicker feed. 

 It is impossible to describe Dodge's 

 feeder intelligibly ; better send to 

 him for a sample. — Ed.] 



A Fair Record.— I commenced last 

 spring with 29 colonies of Italians; in- 

 creased to 96 by natural swarming; 

 obtained 1,000 lbs. of extracted, and 

 200 lbs. of comb honey; sold at an 

 average of 15 cents per lb; sold 6 

 colonies at $10 each, and went into 

 winter quarters with 90 colonies, 

 mostly Italians. They are all right 

 yet. My plan for wintering is to pack 

 in chaff, on summer stands. I pre- 

 fer this to any way I have yet tried. 

 This has been a very favorable winter 

 for tlie safe wintering of our little 

 pets. The coldest we have had this 

 winter registered 9° above zero. 

 Brother bee-keepers, let us try and 

 breed our bees up to a higher stand- 

 ard. I know that our bees can be 

 improved by systematic breeding. I 

 think we should breed for the greatest 

 honey gaUierers. most hardy, most 

 proliiic, and most amiable, all in one. 



Van Wert, O. Frank McCoy. 



Bees Gathering Pollen.— I put 45 



colonies in a cool, dry cellar in Decem- 

 ber, and in January the weather be- 

 came so warm that the bees became 

 uneasy, and I carried them out for a 

 fly. I returned them to the cellar in 

 a few days for fear of a cold spell. 

 But there has been no cold weather 

 at all worth mentioning, and for the 

 two weeks last past, the weather has 

 been very warm, and the bees became 

 so uneasy ag;iin that I set them out 

 on the 15th of February, and to-day 

 (Feb. 15), it is as warm as May, and 

 the bees are gathering pollen from 

 soft maple and elm. This is unprece- 

 dented for this part of the country, 

 and as the queens are laying finely, if 

 we should get a cold spell of three or 

 four weeks' duration, later in the 

 season, will it not prove disastrous to 

 the brood? At about what period is 

 it best for brood rearing to commence 

 actively? My colonies all have plenty 

 of stores of a good quality. I had 

 charge of Mrs. VVirt's apiary last sea- 

 son, and increased from 30 colonies to 

 74, by natural swarming, and 

 harvested nearly 3,000 pounds of ex- 

 cellent comb honey, which we sold at 

 home for 20 cents per pound. My 

 bees are nearly all Italians and hy- 

 brids. The best result in my apiary 

 last season was from hybrids. I am 

 a close student of Professor Cook and 

 read everything in the Bee Journal 

 every week, and to these two sources 

 I am indebted for the pleasure and 

 the profit I derive from my "blessed 

 bees." J. R. Baker. 



Keithsburg, 111., Feb. 15, 1882. 



[Yes ; three or four weeks of cold 

 weather would kill most of the brood. 

 Brood-rearing is controlled much by 

 circumstances, and when soft maples 

 and elms are in bloom or furnish 

 natural pollen, it will commence 

 actively. You should, however, re- 

 duce tlie capacity of your brood-cham- 

 bers to the minimum of frames neces- 

 sary, and only add to them as they be- 

 come well filled with brood, in order 

 to prevent disastrous chilling, as the 

 capped brood will do much in keeping 

 up animal heat in the hive. — Ed.] 



An Early Start. — The maples are in 

 full bloom here now ; I send you a few 

 blossoms. My bees commenced carry- 

 ing in pollen on the 10th and honey 

 on the 11th, making .several pounds 

 of honey during the past week, which 

 continued very warm and pleasant till 

 Saturday afternoon, when it com- 

 menced raining, and rained till Mon- 

 day afternoon ; then turned off colder. 

 If the weather had kept warm a few 

 days longer the peacli trees here would 

 have been in bloom. On the 12th 

 the thermometer stood 71^ in the 

 shade, and 9P in the sun. I com- 

 menced with 3 colonies in 1881 ; now I 

 have 7 all in good condition. I took 

 about 60 pounds of comb honey from 

 them which I sold at 25c. a pound ; 

 sold it at home. 



Peter Moerlein. 



Brussels. 111., Feb. 22, 1882. 



