THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



587 



often and so much. In all my experi- 

 ence in liiuidlins; bees. I never had 

 one-foni'th the trouble thai I have 

 liad in the last ten months in Cuba. 

 I have resorted to all the devices that 

 my experience could suggest, but all 

 have tailed to remedy this serious 

 trouble. Any suggestions from my 

 fellow bee-keepers in relation to this 

 matter would be most gratefully re- 

 ceived. 



I am in hopes, if the above named 

 trouble can be stopped, to be able to 

 make a favorable report of modern 

 bee-keeping on this Island. That the 

 natural honey-resources of this coun- 

 try are superior to any country I ever 

 saw. I am convinced"; and coming as 

 it does, in the winter, makes it doubly 

 advantageous to the apiarist, for it is 

 at a time of the year when there is 

 not the least danger of swarming, and 

 however strong you build up the col- 

 onies, they will stay together and 

 attend strictly to the business of 

 honey-gathering. Such a state of 

 affairs would be called a great boon, 

 indeed a fortune, in the North, and in 

 reality it would be. We are going to 

 try the experiment of producing comb 

 honey during the coming winter, and 

 it is my impression that it will be a 

 grand success, for the honey-How is of 

 long duration, the honey is white and 

 of fine Hayor, and the comb is as 

 white as any that ever was produced 

 from white clover or basswood ; and 

 owing to the great length of the 

 honey-season, a great number of sec- 

 tions can be tilled and finished by a 

 single colony. 



Cuba, W. "I., Aug. 1.5, 1884. 



Wihnt and gloiu. 



ANSWERS BY 



James Heddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Rules for this Department. 



1. Give your name and post-oflice address. 



2. Be brief, and to the point. 



3. Send no simple questions, such as are 

 answered in the bee-books. 



4. Ask only such questions as are of 

 general interest. 



5. This department is not intended for 

 advertising- any one's wares — therefore 

 questions concerning the manufacture of 

 goods for sale are not appropriate. 



6. Direct all questions to the editor — 



THOS. G. IVEWTTIAN, 

 923 West JIadison St., CHICAGO, ILL. 



Queries. 



War- 

 what 



1. ^Vhen parties advertise 

 ranted Italian Queens for Sale 

 are buyers entitled to '* 



2. Is C. C. :Miller, of Marengo, 111., 

 the one who used to sign his name in 

 " Song Messenger," "P. Benson, Sr. V" 



I received .SOO pounds of comb honey 

 from 7 colonies, and increased them to 

 16. John O. Brandon. 



New Palestine, Ind., Aug. 22, 1884. 



Answers.— 1. That is according to 

 what the queen is "warranted" to 

 be or do. Until recently the terms 

 "tested," "warranted," and "un- 

 tested " meant as follows : A tested 



Italian queen was one that had been 

 held by the one who reared her until 

 all her progeny were seen by him to 

 possess three yellow bands. A war- 

 ranted iiueen was one not so tested, 

 but warranted to stand that test in 

 the apiary of the purchaser, which, if 

 she failed to do, aiwther would be 

 sent. An untested queen is the same 

 as the warranted queen, only without 

 any guarantee as to what the workers 

 would be. These queens were all to 

 be reared from pure mothers, and 

 all the terms have reference to the 

 purity of the queens and their off- 

 spring, ^lany queens are now reared 

 and tested for qualities instead of 

 color. A whole year instead of 2.5 

 days being devoted to the testing of 

 queens. Warranted queens aie gen- 

 erally left out of the catalogues at 

 present. 

 [2. Yes.— Ed.] 



How to Winter Bees. 



1. How do you arrange the hives 

 for cellar- wintering V and also the 

 cellar V Do you consider the cellar 

 preferable to" your out-door packing, 

 in this latitude, southern Wisconsin V 

 I have wintered bees for 11 seasons, 

 but never with as good success as last 

 winter, and that was with your out- 

 door packing arrangement. It is more 

 work, and I think that it takes more 

 honey. 



2. What grade of sugar do you use 

 for winter feed, and how do you make 

 the syrup V 



8. Have you ever tried perforated 

 zinc for keeping the queen out of the 

 extracting supers ? If so, what is 

 your opinion of it V Inse your honey- 

 board and comb-honey case, and in 

 using 100, I had no trouble with the 

 queen above, except in two cases ; but 

 in the extracting hives the queens 

 went through the honey-board in two- 

 thirds of tne hives, alter the combs 

 were extracted and put back ; and in 

 a few cases they went up and took 

 possession before any extracting had 

 been done. They were not crowded 

 with honey below, but were all full of 

 brood. E. J. Scofield. 



Hanover, Wis., Aug. 25, 1884. 



Answers. — 1. I consider the cellar 

 preferable to out-door wintering in 

 your climate, as a rule. My preferred 

 plan of arranging the hives is to re- 

 move as much honey and bee-bread as 

 possible, and feed sugar syrup. Also 

 reduce the combs to about 5 in num- 

 ber, give the hive all the lower venti- 

 lation that yon can handily, and but 

 little upper ventilation which I would 

 prefer should pass through a quilt, 

 mat, cushion, or what I use, 2 inches 

 of planer shavings in a box with a 

 cloth bottom. Regarding ventilating 

 the cellar, I know but little about 

 what is required. Certainly pure air 

 will do no harm. I prefer a cellar 

 deep in the ground, with not too many 

 colonies in it, and to keep the temper- 

 ature as steadily at about 4.5° as possi- 

 ble. All this is" mostly theory. 



2. I use the best grade of pure 

 granulated sugar. I boil it in a copper 

 pan that covers the whole top of a 

 stove. The pan is 24x28 inches, and 

 9 inches deep. It will conveniently 



take a half barrel of sugar at a time. 

 The followiug is the proportion : 

 sugai', 10 ll)s.; water, 6 lbs. ; cream of 

 tartar, a level tea-spoonful, or tartaric 

 acid, a lump the size of a large pea. 

 First put ill the water and bring to 

 the boiling point, then throw in the 

 acid ; have a wide wooden paddle and 

 stir the sugar as you dip it into the 

 water, that it may dissolve before it 

 settles to the bottom. Boil it -5 min- 

 utes, and then remove it ; when it has 

 cooled down so that it is just warm, 

 it is ready to feed. We use a feeder 

 that covers the whole top of the 

 hive and holds from 1.5 to 18 lbs., 

 with net-work inside to prevent the 

 drowning or daubing of the bees. 

 We feed in the evening, and are very 

 careful to avoid danger of robbing. 

 Three men feed 1000 lbs. in an hour. 

 Should yon feed too late in the season 

 for the bees to evaporate the syrup to 

 the consistency of good, ripe honey, 

 you had best make it so in the first 

 place, by using 3 lbs. instead of 6 of 

 water, to every 10 lbs. of sugar. I 

 trust that this will answer the same 

 question asked by several correspond- 

 ents. If I have omitted any point 

 desired, ask for it through The Eke 

 Journal. 



3. Yes. We experimented with 4 

 zinc honey-boards last year, and some 

 20 this year. We are not yet satisfied 

 that it is practical or best to use the 

 perforated zinc any where. We feel 

 that we need another season, and 

 more zinc, to test it to our satisfaction. 

 For comb honey we know we do not 

 need it, much preferring the wood, 

 skeleton honey-board, which is pre- 

 ferrable everywhere, and for all pur- 

 poses, except for excluding the queen. 

 Should we find them possessing no 

 serious drawback, and successfully 

 excluding the queen, we should like 

 them between brood-chambers and 

 extracting-supers. We know that the 

 queen goes through the skeleton 

 honey-board into the extracting- 

 supers just as you say, but this action 

 has some advantages, and its disad- 

 vantages are quite easily gotten along 

 with, after getting used to them. 



How to Ventilate Cellars. 



1. IIow shall I ventilate my cellar 

 for 125 colonies of bees ? It is under 

 a part of the house not used by the 

 family and no lire is used above it, 

 with an inside and outside door. It 

 is 8 feet deep, and 20x30 feet in size, 

 all under ground, the wall is laid up 

 without mortar, and a flue extends 

 down into it. I can drain it by dig- 

 ging about 3 rods. How will it do to 

 lay large drain-tile below the frost 

 point V How large should they be ? 

 Is that far enough to modify the air 

 sufficiently so that the bees will not 

 be disturbed by a continual draft ? 



2. Are the fumes of a wood-stove 

 injurious to bees in confinement V 



F. Minnich. 

 North Freedom, Wis., Aug. 29, 1884. 



Answers. — 1. So far as I know the 

 cellar-ventilation question is one of 

 minor importance in wintering bees. 

 I say this because I have seen bees 

 winter so nicely in cellars with no 

 ventilation, the air seeming very foul; 



