660 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ing about 2 inches higher than the 

 top of the rim. In a windy situation 



1 would advise Laving the rim made 

 wide enongli to come to the ground 

 at sides and bacli end ; here we do not 

 need it, as we have but little wind 

 within our 8 feet board fence, and 

 saw dust is plenty. Straw, chaff and 

 leaves or almost any thing can be 

 used to pack with. 



Now adjust the shade board, H, as 

 shown in the engraving, to keep the 

 snow and rain from the packing. 

 This board is 2x3 feet, and any mois- 

 ture that drives into the top of the 

 saw dust will dry ^ut before it gets 

 one inch deep ; no dampness will arise 



2 inches above the ground. I place a 

 15 lb. stone on the board to hold it 

 there ; this stone I use both in winter 

 and summer, and it is clean and con- 

 venient to handle. We open our bees 

 but very little between the time of 

 packing in the fall and unpacking late 

 in the spring, and when we are warned 

 by outside appearances that something 

 is wrong within, we take a bushel 

 basket, and take out the sawdust at 

 the top till we are below the top of tlie 

 brood-chamber; by lifting the honey 

 board or rack, the whole upper part is 

 removed at once, and our bees ex- 

 amined, and aided, if any help is 

 needed, and all replaced in a moment. 

 You will see that though we accom- 

 plish a most thorough system of win- 

 ter protection against cold and damp- 

 ness, we do it, with the extra use of 

 only 1 piece of cloth, the little bridge 

 and the 15 or 16 feet of rough lumber 

 in tlie rim, G. 



Since I have been a bee-keeper, 1 

 have wintered bees in the following 

 different ways, on quite an extensive 

 scale : in the cellar ; let alone, out- 

 doors ; put in clamps, above the sur- 

 face level; in house apiary, with sev- 

 eral modifications ; in three different 

 double-walled houses ; packed in horse 

 manure ; flown in cold frames ; fed 

 with sugar, and almost every experi- 

 ment, I could hear or think of ; and 

 my present opinion is that whatever, 

 the cause of this dysentery may be, 

 its influences against us are much 

 lessened by the system of protection 

 in winter and spring, described in the 

 foregoing. I feel that chances of any 

 serious loss in winter, are now drawn 

 to such a limit, that no further guard 

 against it, pays its cost. I have tried 

 to give such lucid description of the 

 above method as would enable those 

 who use a different style of hive, to 

 make such slight variations as are 

 needed to adapt the principles to it. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Sept. 22, 1882. 



he had some bees, but knew nothing 

 about the business, having never read 

 any works on the subject, I loaned 

 him one volume of tho American 

 Bee Journal besides telling him as 

 best 1 could, how to proceed. Several 

 times since Dr. Drane and I have 

 " given him lessons "and prevailed on 

 him to subscribe for the Bee Jour- 

 nal. Dr. Drane and I sold him some 

 Italian queens to start with and now 

 I have paid him a visit. On entering 

 his apiary I was so completely " taken 

 in " that I have hardly gotten over it 

 yet. Such an apiary in so short j> 

 time, and that too by a novice. He 

 has 40 colonies, all in tip top condition; 

 everything as neat as a pin ; the best 

 of hives, well painted, and no two 

 hardly of one color. Bees were stor- 

 ing honey in boxes on every hive, in 

 good style. He has the prettiest apiary 

 I have yet seen. In a few years you 

 will find him away up among the most 

 progressive bee-keepers of the age. 



That visit richly paid me; where 

 shall I go next ? 1 believe many bee- 

 keepers could not spend a few days, or 

 dollars, better than in visiting each 

 other ; every visit will learn us some- 

 thing useful, and then it is a real 

 pleasure besides. 



Now a few words concerning my 

 own prospects, I have moved from 

 town, four miles in the country, and 

 taken in, as a partner, Mr. M. B. 

 Moody, who knows but little about 

 bees, but lie owns nearly a thousand 

 acres of Hne land, mostly well set in 

 pastures, and we are going to plant for 

 honey on a large scale. Besides, we 

 are in tlie small-fruit and gardening 

 business and such another home-made 

 location for bees and honey will be 

 hard to find in this country ; with no 

 other bees near, we shall be able to 

 keep our bees pure. We want no 

 Cyprians ; give us pure Italian bees, 

 plenty of figwort, motherwort, catnip 

 and melilot, and a good season, and 

 we will risk tlie rest, for a big report. 



But, Mr. Editor, don't ask me for a 

 report, this year. I tell you what I 

 have got " to get :"two barrels of cof- 

 fee A sugar, to winter our bees on. 

 That's my report. 



Eminence, Ky., Oct. 1, 1882. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



bee-Keepers Yislting One Another. 



W. T. STEWART. 



Messrs. Jones, Clark, Demaree and 

 others have given accounts of their 

 visits, among other bee-keepers, which 

 have been very interesting, and now 

 I too have been on a visit to see a 

 brother bee-keeper and will report. 



Two years ago Mr. G. W. Kiii>,'ht,of 

 Ballardsville, Ky., came to me asking 

 bow to keep bees scientifically, saying 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Staippiug liees .to Australia. 



S. MAC DONNELL. 



On 22d of July Mr. Alfred H. New- 

 man of your city, shipped to me, via 

 San Francisco, an assortment of six 

 queens, in four-frame nuclei. The 

 queens were described as follows : 



No. 1 . A homebred American Ital- 

 ian. 



No. 2 and 3. Prize queens. 



No. 4. A Syrian queen mated with 

 an Italian drone. 



No. 5 and 6. Imported Italians. 



The bees arrived on 25th ultimo by 

 the steamer " Lealandia," and no time 

 was lost in getting possession and giv- 

 ing them a fly. 1 ordered this assort- 

 ment on joint account with a friend 

 and we were botli much pleased on in- 

 spection to find that the queens were 

 all alive. Tbe quantity of dead beea 



was very large, and in many cases the 

 surviving bees were much exhausted, 

 in fact their general condition was not 

 as good as that of the bees which Mr. 

 Newman sent me last year, although 

 in the present case the bees were im- 

 mured for 35 or 36 days only, and in 

 the former for 42 days. I attribute 

 the difference in condition to the en- 

 trance having been closed, whereby 

 the portico of the Langstroth hive 

 was not made available as a prome- 

 nade for the inhabitants. Immedi- 

 ately the bees were allowed to fly they 

 exuded their feces, plentifully spotting 

 the entrance. This did not occur last 

 year, when, during a longer term of 

 incarceration, the condition of the 

 surviving bees were far better, and 

 there was no visible dropping of feces 

 on the first flight. Then the bees had 

 access to the portico, covered by wire 

 cloth. 



I won the toss for first choice, in 

 which I was guided by the manager 

 of the Italian Bee Co., Mr. Abram, 

 an expert holding excellent credentials 

 from Datheand other celebrated Ger- 

 man bee-men. For 1st, 3d and 5th 

 choice I selected respectfully Nos. 2, 

 1 and 5, and my friend Nos. 3, 4 and 6. 



The exhausted condition of the bees 

 was so much against their building 

 up into good colonies that I united my 

 three with three black colonies, so far 

 successfully. 



All the larvae packed in the nuclei 

 bad not hatched ont. There were no 

 signs of their having been killed, but 

 there were signs of foul brood. 



These particulars may be useful to 

 those having to send bees long dis- 

 tances. 



Sydney, Australia, Sept. 1. 1882. 



[Mr. A. H. Newman informs us that 

 the nuclei were prepared by putting 

 a partition, or division board, in the 

 center each of three 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth hives ; the entrances were en- 

 tirely closed, but a thorough ventila- 

 tion was provided, by tacking wire 

 cloth over the entire hive ; following 

 this were three wooden strips nailed 

 crosswise over the top of the hive, 

 which left about one-half of its upper 

 surface comparatively open ; a cotton 

 cloth, doubled several thicknesses, was 

 then wet and tucked under one of the 

 wooden cross strips. Instructions •• 

 were tacked on each hive to wet this 

 cloth frequently on the trip. Proba- 

 bly too much water was used in this 

 operation, or the brood may have been 

 chilled, and the bees being constiuitly 

 in confinement, could not remove it, 

 but left it to putrefy in the cells. 



For extended journeys, a chamber 

 above is preferable, which gives the 

 bees an opportunity to escape from the 

 combs in case of accident. AVith the 

 portico covered with wire cloth and 

 the entrance left open, the queen and 

 most of the bees are very liable to 

 desert the brood chamber, when un- 



