168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



pipe. You now have a simple, con- 

 venient, and most effective upward 

 ventilator, which is greatly superior to 

 one leading directly outside, for the 

 reason that. In consequence of the 

 draft of the stove, tlie upward rush of 

 air is greatly increased, and hence a 

 3-inch ventilator, in such a position, 

 is more effective tlian one twice as 

 large in tlie ordinary position. If 

 your cellar is large you can repeat 

 tliis arrangement .in the other stove 

 or stoves standing over the cellar. If 

 you have but one stove standing over 

 your cellar, and are wintering your 

 bees in the cellar, put them directly 

 under the stove where the ventilator 

 will go up from about their centre. 

 If Mr. Mason will adopt this plan of 

 upward cellar ventilation, together 

 with the following method for the in- 

 gress of fresh air, I will stake my 

 reputation he will winter liis bees 

 successfully in his cellar, even though 

 it have half a dozen springs of water 

 in it. Of course, in cases of wet cel- 

 lars, the bees must be elevated 2 feet 

 or more from the cellar floor. I have 

 had this arrangement for cellar venti- 

 lation in use fi dozen years, and am 

 perfectly satisfied of its great superi- 

 ority over other methods. Although 

 I have an outside bee-house (illed in 

 with sawdust, 1 always, of late years, 

 winter my bees in my cellar, with ex- 

 cellent results. This winter, which 

 has been unusually long and severe, 

 they have now been in winter quar- 

 ters nearly four months, yet they are 

 still quiet and healthy with the ex- 

 ception of one or two colonies, which 

 were slightly out of order two or three 

 weeks ago. The weather is still, at 

 this writing (March 17), cold and 

 raw, with no prospect of getting bees 

 out to fly for some days yet. 



As to under cellar ventilation for 

 the introduction of pure air from 

 without, tlie subterranean convey- 

 ance of the air for some distance to 

 raise its temperature in transit is un- 

 doubtedly the best method ; but unless 

 this matter has been attended to 

 when the cellar was being built, it is 

 scarcely practicable in most cases. 

 The next best plan then is to intro- 

 duce the air through a pipe leading 

 from the outside through the cellar 

 door near the bottom, to be also pro- 

 vided witli a damper. If there is no 

 door leading from the cellar outside, 

 the pipe may be put tlirough a cellar 

 window ; or there may be a little door 

 on hinges put in place of one of the 

 window lights to be opened warm 

 days. 



Let every reader of this ventilate 

 his cellar if it is not already done. 

 Let him do it for the sake of his 

 family as well as his bees. At this 

 particular season of the year, cellar 

 air is proverbially impure, and taken 

 into the lungs and blood is disease- 

 producing. We are more careful to 

 guard our bees from disease than our- 

 selves and our families. Let us guard 

 both, but first our families. 



I hope that every reader of the Bee 

 Journal, who neglects cellar venti- 

 lation, will mark this article and read 

 it again next fall, before he puts his 

 bees in the cellar. 



Selby, Ont. 



For tlie Anierlcan Bee Journal. 



Honey Rack for Sections. 



H. LAMPMAN. 



I send to the Museum a sample of my 

 improved comb honey rack, complete. 

 It is very simple, easily adjusted, and 

 cheap. One rack holds 8 sections 5x6 

 xl?|, which are tlie size I use, and 4 

 cover a hive. They are put on the 

 hive crosswise. In the spring you can 

 put on one or two tiers of sections or 

 more, as may be desired, by turning 

 the quilt back enough to admit them. 

 In tiering up, one can be set directly 

 on the other, and when they are filled, 

 they are crated for the liome market, 

 and are as cheap as anything you can 

 get ; and, using them for crates, sepa- 

 rators are not needed. When any rack 

 is finished, it can be removed without 

 disturbing the rest. They are made 

 like this : Take 2 pieces of heavy tin, 

 16 inches long and 1 wide, bend at 

 right angles ; cut a J^ inch slot in the 

 end, bend so as to make a square cor- 

 ner ; now take a piece of wood J^ inch 

 thick, 3 wide and .5 long, place it in 

 the corners and nail with small nails. 

 Cut a slot in the tin, % inch long, 23^ 

 from the end, and a little slanting, so 

 as to run % inch beWw the top of the 

 end piece ; now, take a piece of tin }4 

 inch wide, put it through the slot", 

 clinch and nail to the end piece. This 

 brace is to stay the top so as to key 

 the sections in. Cut two pieces of 

 glass, the same size as the sections, 

 and place one at each end, and key all 

 together. It would be necessary to 

 watch, in case of damp weather. I 

 have shown it to a number of my 

 brother bee-keepers and they all think 

 it a good thing and will use it. 



Rockton, 111. 



[The section rack is not a new one. 

 We have had one of them in our 

 Museum ever since 1877, which was 

 made and used by Mr. O. J. Hether- 

 ington, of East Saginaw, Mich., for 

 several years before that. They were 

 mentioned in the Bee Journal at 

 that time, and the engraving used in 



this article was the same one then 

 made to describe them, the only differ- 

 ence being the four stays across the 

 corners to strengthen them. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees in Florida vs. Iowa. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



I see, by late numbeiS of the Jour- 

 nal, that our homes in tlie Northwest 

 are actually surrounded by cold 

 weather, snow, ice, blizzards and 



dead bees, but it is hard for us, who 

 happen to be stopping in this far- 

 away corner of the world, to realize 

 that such things can be. Here it is 

 considered extremely cold when the 

 thermometer marks the freezing 

 point ; it ranging at present from 

 about 55^ in the morning to 80-* in the 

 afternoon. Bees are booming; one 

 of my colonies cast a natural swarm 

 Feb. 2.5. and a .second swarm ten days 

 later, tilling up their hives with honey 

 and brood, in fact, are in the same 

 condition now that I hope my bees in 

 Iowa will be by the middle of next 

 June. 



I am heartily in favor of organizing 

 an Iowa State Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, and should have done what little 

 1 could toward that object had I not 

 been so far absent from the State, 

 both last winter and this. The plan 

 of holding the first convention during 

 our next State Fair at Des Moines, 

 seems the most feasible, and I hope 

 some bee-keeper, living in or near 

 that place, will take the responsibility 

 of calling a convention and making 

 the necessary local arrangements. 



On page 104, Mr. Demaree says that 

 his bees " rarely ever supersede their 

 queens during the early and late 

 honey harvests." The exact reverse 

 of this has been true in my apiary, 

 nearly all the superseding being done 

 during the late harvest, usually dur- 

 ing the month of August. Difference 

 of localities is, of course, the cause of 

 our different experiences. 



He says further, on same page, 

 " that hedoes not remember of ever 

 liaving had a queen to survive two 

 whole seasons whose wings had been 

 cropped in the usual way." This is 

 also directly contrary to my experi- 

 ence, as I liave had scores of them 

 retained through their second and 

 third seasons, and some through 

 their fourth. I do not believe that 

 clipping a queen's wings has a particle 

 to do with their being superseded, or 

 with causing natural swarming. 



I have practiced clipping queens' 

 wings for several years past, and 

 have not been able to see a particle of 

 harm result from the practice, but do 

 know that it has been quite a help. I 

 hardly think that mere theoretical 

 reasoiis will induce me to change my 

 light Italian bees for hybrids, or dis- 

 continue clipping queens' wings so 

 long as, by their aid, I can keep my 

 average production of honey away up 

 among the best. 



I used to catch queens while clip- 

 Iting their wings, between thumb and 

 forefinger, but have lately used a pair 

 of jeweler's tweezers for that purpose. 

 I think all who give the tweezers a 

 trial will continue their use. 



Tampa, Fla., March 12, 1883. 



Emerson Binders — made especially 

 for the Bee Journal, are lettered in 

 gold on the back, and make a very 

 convenient way of preserving the Bee 

 Journal as fast as received. They 

 will be sent, post-pnid, for 75 cents, for 

 the Weekly; or for the Monthly, SO 

 cents. They cannot be sent by mail 

 to Canada. 



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