426 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the Amerlcaii Bee JonmaL 



Wintering iu Cliaff Hires. 



LUCIAN FRENCH. 



In September, 1880, I transferred 

 the bees from 6 of my old L;ingstroth 

 hives into Root's chaff hives, and 

 they have wintered without loss. One 

 colony seems rather weali, but I think 

 will live. 



1 packed 12 colonies in cliaff— the 

 same as in 1879 ; 3 died, and 2 were so 

 weak that I took one colony from the 

 cellar and put with them to save them. 

 Six colonies in Root's simplicity hive 

 were packed in straw and cliaff in 

 large dry goods boxes. One of these 

 died, and 1 was so weak I united it 

 with the others. Twenty-seven colo- 

 nies on the summer stands came 

 through all right. Of the 23 colonies 

 placed in the cellar 11 died, 6 were 

 very weak, and the remaining 6 were 

 strong. Some bee-keepers in this 

 section of the country wintered their 

 bees on summer stands in the old- 

 fashioned box hive, and met with lit- 

 tle, or no loss, though they have but 

 few colonies. I woiild like to know 

 if overstocking has anything to do 

 with loss in wintering ? 



I have been experimenting for a 

 number of years, endeavoring to de- 

 termine the best manner of winter- 

 ing, and would be pleased to know the 

 method L. .Tames pursues ; for surely 

 the wintering of bees should be as 

 simple as that of cattle, horses, etc. 

 I am glad to see the awakening on 

 this subject. I know there are very 

 many attending circumstances to in- 

 fluence, and bring about this end, 

 whicli we sliall all be so glad to at- 

 tain, and I think S. Valentine, on 

 page 129 of the Bee Jouknal for 

 1881, names some of the important 

 causes of loss. 



I have thus far had good success 



with Root's chaff hives, but as it 



takes " more tlian one robin to make 



a spring," I will not shout too soon. ^ 



Dexter, Maine. 



your queen in the cage and then stop 

 the end with the sponge. She is now 

 a prisoner in the cage between the 

 sponge and paper, the honey in the 

 sponge furnishing her with food. You 

 are now ready to put her into the 

 hive. 



To prepare the hive for her, if a 

 frame hive, open it and take out the 

 queen if it has one ; if not destroy all 

 the queen cells if there are any. It 

 the hive has any sealed honey over 

 brood in the tra'mes, uncap a small 

 place on one of the combs, place the 

 cage with the (jueen in between this 

 and the next comb, bring the combs 

 close enough together to hold the cage 

 in place, then clos'e up the hive and 

 let them severely alone for 3 or 4 days. 

 The bees will bite through the paper 

 and let tlie queen out among them 

 very quietly, and there is very little, 

 if any danger of the new queen suf- 

 fering any harm from the bees. In 

 the last four or five years I have used 

 this way of introducing queens in at 

 least 500 cases without a single fail- 

 ure, and I have tried other methods 

 without success. 



Woodbury, Conn. 



Connecticut Farmer. 



How to Introduce a New (Jiieen. 



H. L. JEFFREY. 



The first requisite for the safe in- 

 troducing of a strange queen is the 

 right kind of a cage to use. As good 

 a one as any is made of fine wire cloth 

 about 8 threads to the inch each way. 

 Cut a strip 3 inches wide by fourlong, 

 turn the edges over on the long sides 

 a quarter of an inch ; this makes a 

 hem and prevents raveling out ; then 

 pull out two or three wires on the 

 ends, bring both ends of cloth and 

 twist the wires together. Now you 

 have a wire cage about 2% inches 

 long by 114 inch across. Press it flat 

 till it is a half inch oval ; then tie two 

 thicknesses of wrapping paper neatly 

 over one end, as close to the end as 

 possible, and trim off the edges of the 

 paper above the string. Take a piece 

 of sponge large enough to fill the 

 other^nd quite full, wash the sponge 

 perfectly clean and squeeze it dry. 

 Saturate the sponge with honey, put 







it is high time they were turning 

 their attention to honey-gathering. 

 My neighbors' bees are doing the 

 same way. If some more experienced 

 bee-keeper would explain the cause, 

 and give a plan to prevent so much, 

 swarming, I would be very grateful. 

 \V. G. McLendon. 

 Lake Village, Ark., June 21, 1882. 



[The cause is that in swarming 

 your colonies are never entirely de- 

 pleted of field-workers. We think if 

 you will hereafter adopt the plan of 

 moving the parent colony from its 

 old stand after a swarm has issued, 

 and placing tlie new swarm on the old 

 stand, you will have no trouble, as the 

 mature field workers will desert the 

 parent colony, and there will be no old 

 bees to go with the first young queen 

 when hatched. — Ed.1 



Arter Swarming.— I commenced the 

 season after the water went down 

 with 70 colonies ; they commenced to 

 swarm on the 27th of March and con- 

 tinued to swarm up to the 5th ot May. 

 They suddenly stopped, and up to this 

 time there lias been just enough 

 honey coming in for them to live on. 

 At this time (the 5th of May) the 

 honey flow ceased entirely, and I 

 thought I would have to feed them to 

 keep them from starving ; but on the 

 night of the 9th of May there came a 

 tremendous fall of honey dew, when 

 all the leaves with a smooth upper 

 surface were covered. It accumula- 

 ted in large drops, as if it had been 

 poured from a spoon. On tlie 9th and 

 10th the bees were working like mad, 

 and seemed to send out every worker 

 that could be spared from the hive. 

 They stored a great deal of honey in 

 those two days ; then came a heavy 

 rain on the night of the 10th, and that 

 ended the honey flow up to .Tune 7th. 

 That honey dew was a godsend, for if 

 it liad not come I would have had to 

 feed nearly every colony till June 7th. 

 The honey flow has been heavy up to 

 date, and on the 13th inst. they com- 

 menced to swarm again. They have 

 been swarming at the rate of 2 or 3 

 a day up till now. Young swarms 

 that had only one-fifth of their frames 

 filled with comb are swarming. Such 

 as those I return to the hive after 

 pinching off the queen cells, and clip- 

 ping the old queen's wing. Some of 

 them, after staying 2 or 3 days, will 

 come out again with queen cells 

 barely started. I have kept the honey 

 closely extracted from them, yet they 

 swarm. If they continue to swarm 

 it will cut short my "honey yield, for 



Lamp Moth Trap.— We have had 

 much rain and flooding the past four 

 weeks, and such cold wind, it has de- 

 terred our bees from swarming early, 

 but during the last few days the 

 temperature has been about 90^ F., 

 and we are receiving some enormous 

 large swarms. In spite of all our wet 

 weather bees have done excellently. 

 White clover lias been with us two 

 weeks or more, and promises a splen- 

 did yield of honey. I am' trying the 

 plan of setting a lamp in a pan of 

 water in my apiary at night, and find 

 it very profitable. It Is sure destruc- 

 tion to the bee liioth. My neighbor, 

 Mr. David Witt, was last evening 

 showing me his method of manage-i- 

 ment, and called my attention to a 

 strong colony which he said was "cut- 

 ting down an awful sight of rubbish 

 every night." Being anxious to know 

 the cause, I send you a small package 

 of it. 1. What is it, and what should 

 be done with the colony V 2. Will 

 bees do well put into a Langstroth 

 liive. without either combs or founda- 

 tion '? Frank B. Rife. 



Malaby,0., June 14, 1882. 



[1. The package mentioned above ' 

 has not been received at this oflSce. 



2. Yes, the bees will do well enough, 

 but they are very liable to build 

 crooked. It is mistaken economy to 

 suppose good foundation is an article 

 of extravagance.— Ed.] 



Storms in Kentucky. -After a few 



days of encouraging honey flow, the 

 16th of June opened with violent rain 

 storms, continuing over the 17th, and 

 accompanied by very high tempera- 

 ture, resulting in the destfuction of 

 great numbers of field workers, the 

 sections in many hives presenting the 

 appearance of those left by swarming. 

 \Vork in the sections was suspended 

 for nearly a week, and many colonies 

 destroyed their drones, even to pull- 

 ing them from the cells. This, at a 

 time when linden was just opening, 

 was discouraging indeed. This morn- 

 ing it is again raining more violently 

 than ever, accompanied by very heavy 

 winds and thunder, and everything 



