THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



761 



agents begs for niiscluins, vvicli sum 

 say is inVrtv often (taint nothin to 

 me, wat 1 give aint nothin' to nobody), 

 but o bee-keeper, U shel ten tlious- 

 and bees, workers, an brood, speshally 

 the latter, up in a tite place, an every 

 1 on 'em brethes, in an out, an out an 

 in, say 50 times a minnit, or 1 million 

 l)relhs an our ; now how long will a 

 hiveful of are last at that rate I ask 

 you — say b) minnits— and then wats 

 to be did ? Why then they must 

 brethe it all over agin, an then agin, 

 an so on till all has took it down at 

 least 10 times, an let it up agin, an 

 wots more, the same individoal doant 

 hev the privilege of brethin his own 

 are, an no one else's. Each one must 

 take whatever comes to him. O bee- 

 keeper, doant you know our lungs is 

 belluses ; to bio the tier of life," an 

 keep it from going out ; an liow can 

 belluses bio without wind ; an aint 

 wind are? I put it to your conschens. 

 Are is the same to us as milk to 

 babies, or water to fish, or pendlums 

 to clox, or roots an airbs unto an In- 

 jim doctor, or little pills unto an 

 omepath, or boys to girls. Are is for 

 us to brethe. What signifies lots of 

 honey if 1 cant brethe V What mat- 

 ters pollen or no pollen to bees that 

 are ded, ded for want of breth, why, 

 bee-keeper, when we dy, its only coz 

 we cant brethe no more, that's all. 

 An now, o bee-keeper, let me beg of 

 you, tu let a little are into our hive. It 

 a'nt much trouble, only make a hole, 

 an' the are will come of itself ; an' we 

 will warm it up to suit us." 



I have said enough to make the 

 principle plain, and I ask my fellow- 

 apiarists to co-operate with me in 

 working out the practical application 

 of it. I make the modest request 

 that yon will each try at least one col- 

 ony on my plan by way of experiment. 

 The method I have devised has been 

 already described in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and I will here repeat it. I have 

 constructed a hive-stand, consisting 

 of a box about table-high ; just the 

 height at which you can handle bees 

 without getting the back-ache. The 

 bottom of the box is one wide board 

 1% inches thick, 20 by 26 inches ; the 

 dimensions being calculated for a 

 Langstroth-Simplicity hive. The box 

 is air-tight, with the exception of 

 having four one-inch auger holes 

 covered with wire gauze, which are 

 bored within 6 inches of the top. The 

 extra size of the box is meant to af- 

 ford an opportunity of covering the 

 hive with a rough shell in winter, to 

 be packed with chaff. It also gives a 

 wide alrghting-board in front, and 

 some shelving on the sides, and at the 

 rear, which will be found handy dur- 

 ing the working season. The hive to 

 be used is without a bottom-board, but 

 a sliding bottom-board, put in and 

 taken out from the rear is to be used 

 during the honey harvest. When that 

 is over, and all danger of comb-exten- 

 sion is past, it is to be removed. Im- 

 mediately below it is a hopper fitting 

 tightly to the stand just beneath the 

 hive, its flaring sides terminating in 

 a square tube 4 inches wide each way 

 inside, which reaches down to within 

 a few inches of the bottom of the 

 box. The usual entrance to the hive 



is to be left sufficiently open to admit 

 of passage out and in by the bees. 

 Through it, and the four auger holes, 

 abundance of air will lind its way into 

 the hive. No dead bees will choke 

 the entrance, as they will fall to the 

 bottom of the box. A little door in 

 the box enables tlie bee-keeper to see 

 the dead bees, dry excrement, etc., 

 that may have dropped from above, 

 and thus the state of the colony may 

 be seen at a glance, and without the 

 slightest disturbance of the bees, to 

 the extent that these signs reveal it. 



A correspondent of Gieant'ii^.s thinks 

 that all this box-arrangement is need- 

 less. He says : " There's that man 

 Clarke, of Canada, who had a rheu- 

 matic vision of tree-top wintering. 

 What'll I do with him V * * 

 To elevate his hive above the foul, 

 damp gases, we would put it on four 

 3-foot locust pins, driven a foot in the 

 ground ; to secure plenty of pure, still 

 air, we would get them within a high 

 board-fence enclosure. For the re- 

 moval of dead bees, etc., having the 

 whole entrance open, clean oS the 

 bottom-board weekly with a bent 

 wire." I have already stated why 

 this rough-and-ready plan will not an- 

 swer. It is not enough to leave the 

 ordinary entrance, even if it were sure 

 of being always unobstructed, which 

 it is not. A few hours stoppage of it 

 may prove fatal. Besides, I want a 

 perpendicular column of air beneath 

 the hive. Moreover, why be at the 

 trouble of poking a bent wire in at 

 the entrance, when a perpendicular 

 air-shaft will be a self-regulating af- 

 fair y My box gives me a reservoir of 

 pure, stili air, obtained two feet from 

 the ground, and being tight, cuts off 

 dampness and excludes foul gases. 

 It should be added, that the bottom- 

 board of the box is spiked to pieces 

 of round cedar, slightly flattened on 

 the lower side, giving the least pos- 

 sible contact of the box with its round 

 sills. 



Mr. Heddon objects that my plan is 

 not practical. I cannot, for the life 

 of me, see why it is not. It is less 

 costly than cellars or bee-houses, and 

 avoids all the trouble of setting bees 

 into and out of repositories. As long 

 ago as 1868, Mr. Laugstroth said in 

 Vol. Ill of the Bee Journal, page 

 209 : " For many years I have been 

 persuaded that bee-keeping would 

 never flourish as it should, unless 

 some cheap and simple method could 

 be devised, by which bees may be 

 safely wintered on the summer stands, 

 instead of being placed in special 

 depositories. To say nothing of the 

 cost of such structures, and the great 

 labor and judgment needed for their 

 proper use, they are open to disad- 

 vantages which cannot be remedied, 

 even by the most skillful and prudent 

 management. After the bees have 

 been placed on the stands, if the 

 weather suddenly changes, a cold 

 wind springing up and clouds obscur- 

 ing the sun, it is often found that as 

 many bees are lost as if the colonies 

 had wintered in the open air. Colo- 

 nies which have wintered well on the 

 summer stands, are usually more 

 forward in breeding than those of 

 equal strength which have been put 



in special depositories. When first 

 put out, the latter have a deceptive 

 appearance of strength ; for the old 

 and feeble bees which would have 

 died if they had been wintered in the 

 open air, perish soon after they begin 

 to lly." These are wise and true 

 words. But I believe that if bees are 

 wintered so that they can hibernate, 

 fewer bees will die. They will attain 

 greater longevity if they get a nat- 

 ural and prolonged winter rest. 

 Moreover, I have little doubt that the 

 method I have been advocating will 

 prove an effectual antidote to spring 

 dwindling— next to bee-diarrlio?a, our 

 chief trouble in keeping bees. But 

 on this and various other points, I 

 cannot now enlarge. In closing, let 

 me insist upon it that the mortality 

 of our bees in winter is the result of 

 some violation on our part of natural 

 law. We have on this Continent the 

 best honey field in the world. It was, 

 therefore, plainly designed by Provi- 

 dence that bees" should flourish here. 

 There must then be some feasible 

 plan of wintering these insects, and we 

 ought to find it out. We must wrench 

 this secret from nature's store-house 

 of mysteries. As already said, I be- 

 lieve I have the clue which has only 

 to be followed to secure the result 

 which we all so earnestly desire. If, 

 however, I am mistaken, let us " try, 

 try again." I have stated my views, 

 modestly, I hope, yet with all the 

 confidence of firm conviction. I only 

 beg that they be fairly tested, and not 

 pooh-poohed as childish and chimer- 

 ical. This is the only method of win- 

 tering bees that is based on a scien- 

 tific principle. If the principle is 

 correct, the details will not long be 

 wanting. My one fear about it is, 

 that it will so simplify bee-keeping 

 that it will become distressingly com- 

 mon, and that those who follow it as 

 an exclusive business, may liave cause 

 to mourn over " Othello's occupation 

 gone." 

 Speedside, Ont. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Those Continuous Passage-Ways. 



DK. G. L. TINKER. O 



At the Northwestern Bee-Keepers' 

 Oomvention, as reported on page 679, 

 Mr. Heddon took exceptions to the 

 principle of " continuous passage- 

 ways " in hives used for the produc- 

 tion of comb honey. 



I believe that Mr. Heddon was 

 honest in his views, but like many 

 who have hastily condemned inven- 

 tions, he condemns without cause. 

 This is apparent from the statement 

 made, that it is " a great saving of 

 jack-knives" not to allow the top 

 and bottom pieces of sections to touch 

 each other; and again, " not only are 

 bees killed when the case of sections 

 is put in place, but propolis is put 

 along the edges of the sections where 

 they come in contact." In answer to 

 these objections, I will say that 

 there is no sticking of the sections on 

 hives the supers of which are properly 

 arranged for " continuous passage- 

 ways," thus requiring no lever to pry 



