726 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



When all are packed iu this way, I 

 ■close and bank up the cellar, includ- 

 ing the windows, and let them entirely 

 ■alone, until it is time to put them out, 

 which, as a rule, is the latter part of 

 April or first of May. The hives are 

 placed close together ; no spaces or 

 alleys left. Many will want to know 

 how bee.s appear in a close, warm cel- 

 lar. I will say that the atmosphere is 

 warm, and that the bees are comforta- 

 ble, outside of the hive as in it, and 

 do not cluster, but stand on the combs 

 just as they will in summer. I have 

 left them there in November, when 

 the bees were standing out on the 

 ends of every hive, that I could see, 

 and found them just so when I went 

 there in April, t found no dead bees 

 on the bottom baards, and the loss 

 last winter was less than three bushels 

 from 193 colonies, in one cellar; and 

 1}4 bushels in the other cellar, where 

 VM> were kept, but as a rule I find 

 about 3 bushels to KIO colonies. I Hnd 

 Llie hives bright and clean when the 

 ci'llar is lirst opened, showing plainly 

 that if there is any discharge from the 

 bees, it is in a dry state, for they can- 

 not get the dysentery in as warm a 

 room as the one in which mine are 

 wintered. When they are carried out 

 in the spring, their bodies are not dis- 

 tended, but look as they did all through 

 May and June of the past season, in 

 this section. 



To those that question this plan of 

 wintering on so higli a pressure as I 

 have described, I will say that I will 

 sliow bees that I bought of M. Quinbv, 

 in 18G3, or rather the hives and combs 

 that have stood 19 winters and are 

 good for many more, if wintered as I 

 Lave described. 



Uees wintered thus will come 

 through in as good condition as they 

 were in the fall ; and if not put out 

 until there is sonietliing for them to 

 do, they will not dwindle, but be ready 

 for swarming in about forty days after 

 leaving the cellar, as a rule. 



I would not attempt to winter bees 

 in a very dry cellar, as warm as I have 

 described, for they require more mois- 

 tuie than could be found in so warm a 

 room. Had I an exceedingly dry cel- 

 lar, and was obliged to use it, I should 

 thoroughly drench the bottom with 

 water before using it. I once used a 

 dry cellar in which to winter my bees, 

 .and found it the worst cellar that I 

 ever tried. Bees were not quiet for a 

 single day while in it. I have thought 

 that a solid cold winter was best for 

 bees, on the plan that I have described, 

 but as last winter was the warmest 

 that I ever knew, and that the bees 

 came through in line condition, I can 

 now say that either hot or cold, the 

 warm damp cellar does not fail to 

 bring them through in good condition. 



Where bees require feeding I use 

 coffee A sugar, and feed enough in 

 one night. I give the feed hot, and 

 use common tui pans for feeders, and 

 if one does not hold enough, give them 

 two at the same time. I put the pans 

 on the ground, near the hive to be fed, 

 till it with hot syrup, break up some 

 old comb for (ioats, to keep the bees 

 out of the liquid, then put the colony 

 over the pan, wrap them up at the 

 bottom to keep out the cold air, and 



find in the morning that all the feed 

 is up in the hive ; the hive should then 

 be put back on the stand, and all pans 

 taken away. I feed as late in the sea- 

 son as I caii ; then I know what they 

 have. It is not necessary to have the 

 feed sealed, when wintered in my 

 warm cellar. When a hive is but one- 

 third, or half hlled with combs, I pre- 

 fer to lay combs of honey on top of 

 the frames, well wrapped in clotli, and 

 the cap of the hive over all ; this I 

 prefer to any other plan of feeding. 

 DeKalb Junction, N. Y.,Oct24, '82. 



Kansas Bee-Keeper. 



Bee-Keepers' Visits to One Another. 



J. E. POND. 



If our brother bee-keepers would 

 often make interchanges of visits 

 with each other, much benefit, as well 

 as pleasure, would be derived there- 

 from. While we gain much by read- 

 ing accounts of experience, far more 

 could bf gained by seeing the results 

 in person, and a personal conversation 

 will often cause truth to rise and error 

 to disperse, when a discussion carried 

 on in print might only serve to more 

 firmly fasten the different views of 

 the rnatter under consideration in the 

 minds of those conducting the dis- 

 cussion. 



Acting on the above idea, I lately 

 stole a day from my business and 

 made a trip to the beautiful town of 

 Wenham.in this State,where is located 

 the apiary of Henry Alley, the largest 

 queen breeder in New England and 

 one of the largest in the whole coun- 

 try. I luckily found friend Alley at 

 home, and he, although quite busy, 

 devoted a half day to showing me his 

 apiary and making the visit a pleasant 

 one to me. At present he is breeding 

 Italian, Cyprian and IIolv Land 

 queens, having dropped tlie Egyi)tian 

 and Hungarian. lie has his queen 

 cells built in full colonies in his home 

 apiary, but has the different races fer- 

 tilized in different yards, located about 

 three miles apart. As no bees other 

 than his own are kept in town, he has 

 no trouble with impure fertilization, 

 but is enabled to warrant every- queen 

 he sends out. He has been engaged 

 in breeding queens since the first in- 

 troduction of the Italian, some twenty 

 years ago, and as he has made that 

 business a specialty, and his exper- 

 ience has enabled him to arrive at re- 

 sults far in advance of the ordinary 

 queen breeder. 



By the aid of much study, and by 

 experiment largely, he has at last dis- 

 covered a plan by which he accom- 

 plishes what a short time ago would 

 have been considered almost a mira- 

 cle. I opened hive after hive devoted 

 to building queen cells, and found 

 such cells, built in straight rows, each 

 cell spaced as evenly apart as the teeth 

 of a coar.se comb, and not a single cell 

 among the four or five hundred, that 

 I saw, but could be transferred from 

 the comb without injury to its neigh- 

 bor. Each cell pointing downwards 

 in the position naturally given it by 

 the bees, and this witliout the use of 

 any sticks or slats. I was much sur- 



prised at what I saw, for it far excels 

 anything which I had ever seen or 

 heard of, and after much persuasion • 

 I induced Mr. Alley to inform me 

 how it was done, and after receiving 

 the desired information, I was more 

 surprised in thinking that no one had 

 hit upon the idea before, so simple is 

 it, and so little labor to be done in 

 operating it. 



By his plan he has all cells built in 

 full colonies, which are never queen- 

 less, and consequently never without 

 brood. The cells are built in exactly 

 that position in the hive which the 

 owner desires, with their points down- 

 ward, and so regularly spaced that not 

 a cell need be destroyed. As his plan 

 gi ves plenty of room there is no crowd- 

 ing, and every queen reared is large 

 and full size. Everything is laid out 

 to a certainty by the owner, and noth- 

 ing is left to the whims or vagaries of 

 the bees. They must build tlie cells 

 in just the position desired, and the 

 only chance there is to have an im- 

 perfect cell, is an egg being carried 

 out from the cell given them, to some 

 other cell, a thing which, in practice, 

 by this plan, Mr. Alley has never seen 

 done. W^ere I to take up the business 

 of breeding queens I would adopt this 

 plan and use no other, for it combines 

 simplicity, economy and certainty to 

 a remarkable degree. 



Foxboro, Mass. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Comments on the Chicago Convention. 



MOUCH AMIEL. 



I have read in the Bee Journal 

 with more than usual interest, the 

 proceedings of the Northwestern Con- 

 vention, held at Chicago, Oct. IS. The 

 discussions are valuable when reported 

 by an experienced bee-keeper, but are 

 usually of very little value when re- 

 ported by ordinary newspaper or peri- 

 odical reporters; so that, as a rule, I 

 much prefer the reading of essays. 

 All cannot attend the conventions, or 

 all of them ; and but few men, in the 

 liasteof description, can communicate 

 their knowledge as lucidly as they 

 would in an essay. 



Mr. Bussey asked, "What is the 

 best fuel for smokers V" Why not 

 roll blotting paper, and, if it is burned 

 too fast, roll it very line, and also 

 alternate with the sheets, common 

 straw paper, or, what may be better, 

 procure pulp from paper mills, mold 

 it into rolls, pressing it very firm. 



Mr. Valentine said that in feeding 

 winter stores, he mixes two measures 

 of sugar and one of water. I tried it, 

 (crushed sugar,) and in twenty-four 

 hours one half was granulated. Acid 

 may prevent it, but I think not. I 

 tried strong vinegar, and the vial with 

 acid in it, had mold on it in three 

 months ; the other had not, but both 

 had a few perfect chrystals, % inches- 

 square, at the bottom. I am of opin- 

 ion that the proportions given by Mr. 

 Oatman would be rather thin, "if fed 

 late. 



Permit me to ask those that have 

 fed bees mostly, or entirely with sugar 

 syrup (fed in season for the bees to 



