THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



were covered witli mold. I use no 

 ventilation in my cellar, but it is 

 frost-liroof. unless on niiilits like Jan. 

 4, when It innelied the leaves oil of 

 some Mowers. The thermometer then 

 registered .'!- below zero on the morn- 

 ing of .Ian. •'). It never goes above iS-. 



UKII.VUD (JUIXSELL. 



Uaden, Mo., .Jan. 30, IfvS4. 



Eeport of a Beginner. 



I bmight one colony of pure Italians 

 in the spring of 1882." It was dry dur- 

 ing the sunnner, and they hardly 

 gathered honev enough to winter on. 

 In the Sluing 'tliey increased to H, and 

 gathered about liu lbs. of comb honey. 

 Tliey are now on the summer stands, 

 protected with chaff cushions. My 

 father takes the Bee .Journal for me 

 to read. Ilikeitverv much. 



S. F. Daily. 



Mt. Hope, Kans.. Feb. .5, 188-t. 



Bees " On the Wing " Again. 



.My bees were all " on the wing " 

 yesterday ; it has been :-!.5 below zero 

 in this county. It made me feel rather 

 silk to have ttie little fellows out in 

 the cold. 1 had ti weak colonies in the 

 cellar. There are U colonies inCJallup 

 liives with dry leaves over them, and 

 • 14 in Laugstroth hives without any 

 protection but the honey board. They 

 are all nice and dry. I think that it is 

 tlie main thing, to keep our bees dry 

 all the time. I sometimes think tliat 

 chaff hives and cushions are of no use 

 ill wintering bees, when they come 

 tlirough just as well without. An 

 American hive of black bees which I 

 snid in 1882, came here in 1877 from 

 Inwa, and never had any protection 

 that I know of. and this winter they 

 are still out-of-docu'S, 8 feet from the 

 tiriiund. I should think. Xow this same 

 old colony of bees gathered 7.5 lbs. of 

 surplus honey last year. My son took 

 it off. .Jas. .J.\kdine. 



Ashland, Xeb., .Ian. 14, 18S4. 



Button Bush Honey. 



I noticed R. S. Becktell's article in 

 reference to button bush honey, and 

 at the time intended to write out my 

 experience with that kind of honey, 

 but it slipped my mind, until I read 

 in the Bee Jouknal of .Jan. 10, what 

 the Rev. M. Mahin, D. D., said of it. 

 I could no longer delay for my experi- 

 ence with this honey agrees with Mr. 

 Mahin's to the letter, except the 

 granulation. I cannot say as to that, 

 for my honey was all in" the comb. 

 About one niile south from my place 

 is an old sawmill pond of about 2.5 or 

 30 acres in extent, in winch is a thick 

 growth of button bush, except a nar- 

 row channel through the centre; the 

 water is shallow, only from 2 to 4 feet 

 deep : up to about foiu- years ago this 

 bush Ijlossomed very full, and my bees 

 had a very busy sweet time, for a 

 w eek or ten days ; and the way they 

 carried in the honey, and such honey 

 too, was enough to make any hce- 

 keeperfeel good-natured. During the 

 winter of 187!t-S0 this shrub seemed to 

 have badly winter-killed, since which 

 time it has blossomed very little, and 



my bees are cut olt from one of their 

 best liclds. I can endorse what the 

 Rev. ^I. .Mahin says of button linsh 

 honey, as witli me it was very white 

 and of good llavor. 



RoBEUT Downs. 

 Naugatuck, Conn., Jan. 28, 1S84. 



Artificial Q,ueens. 



I have 4.") colonies of bees on the 

 summer stands, in excellent condition. 

 I could never get along without the 

 Bee Jouunal. On page 67, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, you say " we have no use for the 

 word artificial, in all the vocabulary 

 of bee-keeping." Well, let us see about 

 that : A year ago last summer a man 

 stepped into my apiary to see me work 

 with the bees. I was dividing for in- 

 crease at the time, and he had a great 

 many questions to ask. lie asked me 

 what I was looking for. I told him, 

 the queen ; he asked me whether I 

 ever used any "artificial queens," 

 made out of wax. After I recovered 

 from laughing, I told him no, I had 

 never used any artificial queens as yet. 

 Well, he said lie had heard of the like 

 among some of tlie old-tashioned bee- 

 keepers, and the bees did well. I pos- 

 itively was asked that question once 

 before. Now, Mr. Editor, I will just 

 ask you whether yiui would not call 

 such queens artificial y 



S. F. Miller. 



North Manchester, Ind.,Feb.6,1884. 



[Yes ; of course, such a fraud as " a 

 wax queen " would be entitled to be 

 called artificial. One of Webster's 

 definitions of the word would just fit 

 that idea— thus : " made or contrived 

 by art, or by human skill or labor, in 

 opposition to natural.'''' Next time we 

 expect to hear of bees working on 

 artificial "wax flowers" as well as 

 having an "artificial" wax queen I 

 What " bosh "!— Ed.] 



Experience with Cellar-Wintering. 



In the fall of 1882, I put 12 colonies 

 of Italian bees in the cellar, and 

 packed 2(5 colonies on the summer 

 stands, according to Mr. Heddon's 

 plan. They were packed in 5 inches 

 of sawdust, with the frames covered 

 with burlap, and top stories filled with 

 wheat cliaft. Now, for results. The 

 12 colonies wintered in the cellar were 

 taken out on April ti, strong in bees 

 and lieavy in stores, and did exceed- 

 ingly well, while the 26 colonies 

 packed in sawdust, all died with dys- 

 entery, except o. I have, at the pres- 

 ent time, 18 colonies packed in chaff, 

 .5 inches on all sides, with the top 

 stories on and filled with chaff. I also 

 have 27 colonies stored in the cellar. 

 They all seem to be doing well now. 



I use the Simplicity hive with Gallup 

 frames. My hive is 19i^ inches long 

 by 14 wide and 12 inches deep. I use 



II Gallup frames to the hive, and a 

 rack which holds 20 one-pound sec- 

 tions, with a movable side, which I 

 consider an improvement on the tight 

 rack, as they are more easy of mani- 

 pulation. I tier them up, making 40 

 on a hive, which is enough at one 



time. My bees are all Italians in their 

 I)urity. I want no leather-colored 

 Italians, wliicli are nothing more or 

 less than hybrids. If a man wants 

 such bees, let him purchase a 'pure 

 Italian queen, and he will get hybrid 

 bees enough without buying them. I 

 am much interested in the warm-cel- 

 lar wintering of lices, as practiced by 

 ^Ir. Ira Barber. I hope Mr. Barber 

 will tell us more about it through the 

 I5ee Journal. E. W. Wales, 4.5. 

 Disco, Mich., Jan. 22,1884. 



A Square Deal. 



Mr. Editor.— In your article in the 

 December Bee Journal, on " Calling 

 Things by their Right Names," where 

 yon criticize a writer who says his 

 stands came out in bad shape, you 

 seem surprised that he should convey 

 the idea that the " stands " changed 

 their shape, and ask, as an example, 

 this question : •' If the pieces of wood 

 were nailed in a rectangular form, did 

 they change of their own accord to a 

 square sliape V" Now, I would ask 

 you : If they went into winter quar- 

 ters in a rectangular form, might 

 they not come out in the spring in a 

 square shape, without changing iu 

 any manner ? 1 think you will find 

 that a square is always a rectangle, 

 though a rectangle may not always be 

 square. Alson Mead. 



Sedley, Iiid. 



[Mr. Mead is correct. We used the 

 term in another sense. If we intend 

 to " call things by the right names," 

 let us have them right. " Hew to the 

 line, let the chips fall where they 

 may."— Ed.] 



My Eeport for 1883. 



On Nov. 15, 1882. I placed in the 

 cellar 36 colonies of bees, leaving 72 

 on the summer stands, in good condi- 

 tion. I lost 1 in the cellar, and 3 on 

 the summer stands, by starvation, and 

 4 by spring dwindlin'g, leaving 100 to 

 start with, in the spring of 1883. 

 Though the season was only an ordi- 

 nary one for honey, my bees gave me 

 a surplus of 4,000 lbs., one-half comb 

 and one-half extracted, and an in- 

 crease of .50 colonies. On Nov. 15, 

 1883, 1 placed iti the cellar 66, leaving 

 81 on the summer stands, in good con- 

 dition ; they are doing well so far, this 

 winter, though it has been very cold. 

 Daniel Whitmer. 



South Bend, Ind., Jan. 26, 1884. 



Sweet Home Bee Feeder. 



I send one of my bee feeders to the 

 Bee Journal museum, for the bene- 

 fit of bee-keepers. I have tried differ- 

 ent kinds, but think this is the cheap- 

 est and handiest of any I ever saw. I 

 take a common tomato can to a tinner 

 and get a caji of about m inch diame- 

 ter made to fit on a flange in tlie center 

 of the end, the top of the cap being 

 made of perforated tin. When filled, 

 invert the can on to a block of wood 

 about 4 inches square and IJa inches 

 thick, having a ^U inch hole in it for 

 the projection w^th the perforated-cap 

 to go into, and as this reaches only % 



