THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



795 





Facts Abont Bees.— A knowledge of 

 some facts familiar to bee-hunters will 

 aid any one wlio may propose to repeat 

 Sir J. Lubbock's experiments quoted 

 on page 738 of the last number of the 

 Bke Journal. Bees cannot be in- 

 duced to work freely on lioney when 

 honey-bearing flowers are in bloom. 

 A single bee may continue for hours 

 to carry to the hive the honey it has 

 found and linally stop without having 

 any companions. The case is very 

 different after frosts have ended the 

 natural honey harvest. Then, if on a 

 bright, warm day a stray bee can be 

 caught ranging the Helds and allowed 

 to quietly till itself with lioney and de- 

 part without alarm, by the time it has 

 made a second return, if not before, it 

 is almost sure to be accompanied or 



E receded l)y other bees, even if the 

 ive is a mile or two away. I presume 

 the experiment might also be made 

 successfull); in warm days of early 

 spring. It is the opinion of many who 

 have hunted wild bees that bees do 

 find their way from the hive to the 

 honey without accompanying a bee 

 who knows the way, but I have never 

 observed any fact to positively sustain 

 the theory and it is very improbable. 

 Vv. Bradford. 

 Louisville, N. Y. 



[ Sir John Lubbock's experiments 

 were made in England, where bee pas- 

 turage is very limited and can not be 

 compared to that found in America. 

 Some of his experiments were no doubt 

 made when the honey harvest was in 

 its height, and this may have given 

 an erroneous conclusion to some of his 

 experiments. But his book is very in- 

 teresting to the student.— Ed.] 



Good !— From 16 colonies, spring 

 count, I took 1,710 lbs. of comb honey 

 in 1 pound sections. Long life to the 

 Bee Journal. I hope you will never 

 come in contact with my " Coming 

 Bees." Jamks Ronian. 



Villisca, Iowa, Dec. 1, 1882. 



Lime for Wintering. — I have just 

 read the article by F. Delia Torre, in 

 No. 46 of the Bee Journal, and agree 

 with him, although I have no ac- 

 quaintance with the gentleman. I am 

 surprised that others do not see the 

 advantages lime presents over all 

 other modus operandi. 1 have read, in 

 the Bee Journal, all the methods of 

 wintering that have been published, 

 and his is the first mention of the true 

 method. The lime cushion can be 

 applied to almost any hive, either un- 

 der, over, or at the side, effectively. 

 It is a common sense and scientitic 

 protection. It absorbs all the moisture 

 and gives some heat. Mr. S. Cornell 

 sounds the key note as to the cause of 

 dysentery, when he savs in the Bee 

 Journal, No. 46, pfige 728, " that 

 bees, when clustered, can endure se- 



vere cold, but cannot stand damp- 

 ness." It is plain that if the air, 

 heated by the bees, be overloaded with 

 moisture, the large amount of water 

 generated by the consumption of 

 honey will not be inhaled by evapora- 

 tion from the respiratory membrane, 

 but will remain in the bees bodies, and 

 if this condition of the air be long 

 continued, it is sufficient cause of dys- 

 entery. 1 only have 12 colonies, but I 

 am as desirous of saving them through 

 the winter as though I had a thou- 

 sand. I have no axe to grind and give 

 my opinion for what it is worth, as I 

 have used the lime and know whereof 

 I speak. Dr. J. C. Oldham. 



Springfleld, O., Dec. 3, 1882. 



Poor Honey for Winter Use.— Hav- 

 ing 8 colonies of bees which have not 

 swarmed the past season (and I can 

 not hear of one which has in this vi- 

 cinity), and none of the bee-keepers 

 here have obtained more than 10 lbs. of 

 comb honey (and some none) and that 

 very dark and slightly offensive, last 

 spring beingvery coldand the summer 

 the driest weeverexperienced, I write 

 to inquire if their store of honey is 

 judged safe for their winter food Y If 

 not, should it be taken from them or 

 may sugar be fed to them and let them 

 take their choice 'i* I have packed 

 them so heavily in dry sawdust as to 

 require nearly two feet of inlet which 

 is I x3 inches. Is the length objection- 

 able? L. H. Merritt. 



Ilartland, Vt., Nov., 1882. 



[The honey may or may not be safe 

 winter feed— we cannot tell unless we 

 knew more of its quality. Sugar 

 would be safe, if made into a syrup, 

 as often stated in the Bee Journal. 

 There is nothing objectionable about 

 a passage way of even 2 feet for bees 

 entering a hive, except the time taken 

 to travel it. We have seen several as 

 long or even longer in observatory 

 hives at Fairs. We fear you have 

 wasted packing- boards in using so 

 liberal an amount of sawdust. — Ed.] 



Old Fogy Bee-Keepers.— I have 50 

 colonies of Italian bees ; my neis;libor 

 has about the same number with the 

 exception there is very few Italian 

 bees within several miles. We are 

 greatly annoyed with old fogy bee- 

 k *jpers who will not Italianize or even 

 transfer to movable frames or take a 

 bee paper of any kind. Let me give 

 an instance of this. One of these (an 

 old neighbor of mine) who boasts of 

 having kept bees for 30 years, and who 

 has heretofore staled that he knew all 

 about bees that is to be known. In 

 conversation with him a few days ago 

 in relation to queen-rearing and cell- 

 building, he asked me how they got 

 the eggs from the queen to make the 

 queen cells, and when I informed him 

 how it was done, he said, " oh, yes, 

 that would do ; 1 thought they had to 

 take them out of the queen." evi- 

 dently thinking the best queen in the 

 apiary had to be sacriliced to get a few 

 eggs. This is too good a juke to be 

 lost ; let us have it in the Bee Jour- 



nal for the benefit of others who 

 think " what they oon't know is not 

 worth knowing," and as a sample of 

 the gross ignorance and innocence of 

 "old fogies." Henry Large. 



Whigville, O., Nov. 20, 1882. 



My Report. — I commenced in the 



spring with 100 colonies ; increased to 

 173 by natural swarming. I obtained 

 15,000 lbs. of comb honey and 500 lbs. 

 of extracted. I now have 170 cohmies 

 in winter quarters, with plenty of 

 honey and bees. I winter in a cellar 

 and bee-house. II. F. Putnam. 



Galesburg, 111., Dec. 4, 1882. 



Poor Honey Season; — We had a poor 

 season here for honey. From 30 colo- 

 nies in spring, I received 500 lbs. of 

 comb honey and 400 of extracted, be- 

 sides 90 swarms and nuclei. 



Holt, Mich. John L. Davis. 



Snow, and Upward Ventilation. — 



Will it be detrimental to bees to have 

 snow drift over the entrance V When 

 the hives are packed with chaff, on 

 the top, must I keep more top ventila- 

 tion when the thermometer is below 

 zero, than when it is 40 degrees above'i* 

 Nineveh, Ind. W. D. Smyser. 



[Snow is not detrimental, if it is not 

 permitted to thaw and freeze and run 

 down over and close up the entrance. 

 If a board is slanted over the front, to 

 protect the entrance, the snow is a 

 protection against the cold. 



The chaff packing will give sufficient 

 ventilation at any time in winter ; it 

 should not touch the outer cover, how- 

 ever, or it may become frozen in severe 

 weather. An air space, above the 

 chaff, is an advantage in keeping out 

 the cold as well as allowing the mois- 

 ture to escape, leaving the chaff-pack- 

 ing dry. Too much ventilation ia 

 conducive to dysentery. The heat 

 should not be allowed to escape from 

 the cluster. — Ed.] 



Spring Dwindling.— Last spring I 

 had 64 colonies of bees, all in good 

 condition, which dwindled down until 

 I had only 48 left. On M}»y 24lh they 

 were in good condition at which time 

 I first noticed drones. A cold storm, 

 June 7-9, came on and killed all the 

 drones ; all the stores were exhausted 

 and there was nothing coming in from- 

 the fields. About Sept. 1, they began 

 to gain. I had but two natural swarms^ 

 one of which got away. I have in- 

 creased by artificial swarming to 66, 

 but have only obtained about 300 lbs. 

 of comb honey and 400 of extracted. 

 J. G. A. Wallace. 



Brighton, Ont. 



A, No. 1.— I have found the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal to be "A, No. 1," 

 as an advertising medium, and I shall, 

 of course, advertise, during ttie com- 

 ing year, in both the Weekly and 

 Monthly editions. 



E. T. Flanagan. 



Belleville, 111., Nov. 27, 1882. 



