THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



171 



Double- Walled Hives, etc- 



A friend asks privately for an an- 

 swer tliroiijili tliis department in re- 

 gard to my opinion of donble-walled 

 liives f(n' protectint; tlie bees against 

 Ileal in the summer. In this I agree 

 witli Mr. Cheeney in the Bee Jour- 

 nal of Dee. Ut, 1883. page tioS), and not 

 witli J. E. I'ond, as contained on page 

 1.54, present volume. If tlie sun was 

 allowed to strike a hive during the 

 heat of summer, the donl)le-vvall 

 wonld have a tendency to equalize the 

 heat between night and day, but 

 ■where hives are shaded, as all sliould 

 be, the thinest wall hive is cooler than 

 any double-wall. No matter what 

 may be the outside temperature, the 

 presence of animal life Avill raise tliat 

 temperatnre if it can exist witliin it. 

 Mr. Cheeney is also correct in saying 

 that •■ the dead air space will contain 

 a higher temperature than the air 

 outside," if shaded. Jlr. Pond says 

 scientilic men tell us that " dead air 

 is an almost perfect non-conductor of 

 heat and cold." True scientists never 

 speak in this manner. There is no 

 such thing as cold. We mean only a 

 condition indicating the absence of 

 heat ; hence, nothing is a conductor 

 or non-conductor of cold. If bees 

 were in a hive that was a perfect con- 

 ductor of their lieat, and admitted of 

 no circulation of their heat outward, 

 the combs wonld soon melt down, 

 place the hive where you might. 

 When the outside temperature is 

 cooler than that needed by the bees, 

 the non-conducting wall is good for 

 them the same as before, it preserves 

 their heat, raising the temperature. 



Another inquirer asks if foulTjrood 

 would be propagated by the introduc- 

 tion of queens from foul-broody colo- 

 nies y As I have before said, I have 

 no experience with foul brood, liut I 

 think if the accompanying workers 

 and cage were burned or buried, and 

 the queen introduced in a cage in 

 w'hich she was kept for a few hours, 

 until the honey in her stomach was 

 all digested, that no foul brood would 

 be disseminated. Whether I am cor- 

 rect or not, I would urge upon all, the 

 expediency of this practice in these 

 days of the alarming spread of foul 

 brood. I will reply to Bro. Pond's 

 article on page 149, as soon as time 

 and space will permit. 





Bees all right yet. 



The winter has been very cold here. 

 The mercury l-.aving been as low as 

 30° below zero a good many times, 

 and was this morning, Feb. 29. My 

 bees have been buried under the snow 

 all winter, packed in sawdust. I ex- 

 amuied lately, and found them all 

 right yet. I hope for an early spring, 

 but every thing bids fair for jslenty of 

 cold weather yet. I have just received 

 a Heddon hive for comb and extracted 

 honey, and 1 think it is the easiest 

 hive ' to manipulate tliat I have yet 



sepn, and the sections are the nicest 

 I ever saw, nearly as white as snow. 

 I think any pcrsoii having one colony 

 of bees ought to take the Weekly Bee 

 Journal ; it will pay them twice over 

 in the extra amoimt of honey that they 

 would get, by following its "teachings. 

 G. L. Pr.vy. 

 Petoskey, Mich., Feb. 29, 1884. 



Straw Bee Hive. 



Editor of Bee Journal.— I send 

 to the museum one of my square straw 

 bee hives for Langstroth frames ; they 

 can be made for any frame that is in 

 use. The walls of the hive can be 

 made of any thickness desired. You 

 were right when you said, "prepare 

 your bees for a cold winter, and if it 

 is warm it will not harm them." Mine 

 are safe so far, by your advice. 



A. Hoke. 



Union City, Ind., Feb. 29, 1884. 



[The hive is placed in our museum. 

 It is made of straw tied with wire ; 

 the straw walls are on the ft)ur sides of 

 the brood chamber ; the bottom and 

 cap being like a regular Langstroth 

 hive. The end walls of straw have 

 rabbets cut out for the ends of the 

 frames to rest on— the straws standing 

 " up and down "' on their ends. Our 

 advice in " preparing the bees for a 

 cold winter," if left on the summer 

 stands, was " good and timely," and 

 such should always be done ; if it 

 proves to be a warm winter, there is 

 no harm done, and if it should be a 

 cold one, they are ready for it.— Ed.] 



Temperature of Bee Cellars- 



Will Mr. II. S. Ilartman please de- 

 scribe through the Bee Journal, 

 how he raises the temperature in his 

 bee cellar from 45^ to 50°, as mentioned 

 on page 124 ¥ A Bee-Keeper. 



Burgessville, Out., Feb. 28, 1884. 



Drones from Worker Eggs. 



In reply to an editorial note on 

 " Drones from worker larvje," Oct. 31, 

 1883, 1 would say that after removing 

 all eggs and brood from a colony and 

 giving them a small piece of comb 

 containing eggs only for queen rear- 

 ing, I, in due time, found not only 

 queen cells but drone and worker cells 

 also, but as I did not see them again 

 after the queens hatched, I could not 

 say what hateiied from them. I also 

 had another case, similar to the 

 above, where I had placed a strip of 

 comb containing eggs between top- 

 bars of frames of a queen-rearing col- 

 ony ; they were nearly all capped over 

 as drones, but, as in the first case, I 

 did not watch the result. I will, how- 

 ever, another season, try the experi- 

 ment of rearing drones from worker 

 eggs, if it can be done. We are now 

 having tlie coldest weather of the 

 season, it being .30" below zero at 6 

 o'clock this nn)rning. What the re- 

 sult will be to our pels (the bees) none 

 dare conjecture. S. J. Youngjian. 



Cato, Mich., Feb. 29, 1884. 



Planting Honey Trees. 



I began bee-keeping in 1880, know- 

 ing but little about it. I have met 

 with many losses, yet I am encour- 

 aged to continue. 1 am a carpenter, 

 and make and use the Langstroth 

 hive, except one glass hive of my own 

 make, which has proven to be the best 

 for wintering and increase of bees. 

 That colony sent off 4 lai-ge swarms 

 last season"; the first on .Nlay 21) ; the 

 other 3 within 12 days; the first swarm 

 sent off 2 swarms ; maknigan increase 

 of 6 from 1, in one season. In 18S2, 1 

 planted 2 rows of mignonette in my 

 fjarden ; rows 3 feet apart ; plants \% 

 feet in rows. It made a perfect mat 

 of flowers •> feet wide, and for weeks 

 (not rememl)ering about the dates) 

 the bees worked on it continually from 

 morning until night. The pollen is 

 red like^that of red clover! I think It 

 a profitable plant for bees in this 

 climate. This is a "blue grass " and 

 " white clover " region. Some linden; 

 and after these are gone, there are but 

 few honey plants hei'e in this section. 



1. Would it be advisable for a mid- 

 dle aged man to set out 50 or 60 young 

 linden trees this spring, as the older 

 trees are getting scarce V The youn^ 

 trees can be had without cost, except 

 time and labor, from thickets that are 

 being cleared up. Five miles south of 

 me there are none. I have only one 

 grown linden tree on my place ; a few 

 more near by, and you cannot pass 

 without noticing the swarms of bees 

 at work on them, while in full bloom. 



2. Where can teasel seed be bought, 

 and at what price ? They could not 

 be obtained in Louisville in any seed 

 store, in 1SS2. 



3. Would teasel be a profitable 

 honey plant in this climate, clay 

 ground, lime stone country. 



Todd's Point, Ky. J. M. Pratt. 



[1. All things considered, we think 

 it would pay you to set out the 

 young lindens. In this climate we 

 have nothing better as a shade tree. 

 2. Probably N. jSI". Betsinger, Mar- 

 cellus, N. Y., can supply it. 3. We do 

 not know. Ask Mr. Betsinger.— Ed.] 



Poorest Honey Crop in Ten Years. 



Since Aug. 15 there has been no 

 honey for the bees to gather ; even 

 the buckwheat yielded none in con- 

 sequence of drouth. The white clover 

 was excellent while it was in bloom, 

 which I should have taken advantage 

 of, by means of an extractor. The 

 honey crop of last year was almost a 

 total failure ; 22 bee-keepers around 

 here, with over 200 colonies of bees, 

 report less than 2,000 lbs. in all. 



RoUa, "Slo. Wji. RonsoN. 



Good Beginning. 



In 1882 a stray swarm came to me, 

 and in a few days another came. I 

 hived them and got a third one out of 

 a tree. I wintered the three in the 

 cellar, and in the spring transferred 

 them to chaff hives. I now have 11 

 colonies in good condition. 



John Hood. 



Iron Hill, Iowa, Feb. 28, 1884. 



