182 



i'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



page 139) has stated. Where bees are 

 kept ill a temperature from -iCP to -io-, 

 througli the winter, they seem to get 

 dry, and are in need of water, towards 

 spring. Mine have been keptontlie 

 above temperature, and, althougli, in 

 a healthy state, they liave been very 

 uneasy tor the past month, and a great 

 many came out, probably in searcli of 

 water, and dropped on the floor. I 

 could not think of such a convenient 

 and practical way to water my bees, 

 like Mrs. Winder, and when the Bee 

 Journal, with its precious contents, 

 came to hand, it was too late for my 

 bees, as I had them out, already. H. 

 M. Morris, on page 14-5, refers to my 

 experience. Here, corn does not yield 

 honey every season ; at least, not 

 enough to notice. I have only ex- 

 perienced 2 seasons in 8, that rny bees 

 gathered large quantities of honey on 

 corn. Some years I could hardly see 

 a bee visiting the corn, while in 

 bloom, with large fields close by the 

 apiary. Corn honey is the very finest 

 and best that my bees gather. 



C. Theilmann. 

 Theilmanton, Minn., March 19, 1883. 



Fruit Trees Killed by the Frost. 



I have now set a part of my bees on 

 their summer stands. I lost 3 out of 

 60. 1 am now satisfied that they will 

 winter in this cold country, packed in 

 sawdust, without freezing. The past 

 winter has been the coldest one on 

 record in Iowa. Many apple trees 

 froze so hard that it will kill them. I 

 liad 150 trees that had been bearing ; 

 all were killed but 5. Where trees are 

 planted on high ridges, probably only 

 about one-fourth are dead. 



H. C. Clark. 



Palmyra, Iowa, March 26, 1883. 



Tight Top Bars of Frames. 



I wish to say through the Bee 

 Journal that I have been using the 

 American hive, improved to suit my 

 own notions, and I find it very con- 

 venient ; and the alteration is in cut- 

 ting the hive down to lo inches in 

 length, also varying the pitch of the 

 bottom board, s"hortening the frames 

 and making them ll,i>|xlli.^ in the 

 clear. The top bars of the frames fill 

 the hive, over the top, leavings inches 

 closed at each end of the frame, then 

 cutting 3 inches, »s of an inch in 

 width, at eHch side of hive, leav- 

 ing 2 inches closed in the centre ; then 

 the quilt is placed on top, pressed 

 down with a thin board, till the time 

 of putting on my racks, which hold 

 12 two-pound sectiiiiis. And as this 

 rack of sections is filled, I raise it up 

 and put another under, and as long as 

 there is a flow of nectar, the bees keep 

 filling them ; here is one advantage of 

 the closed frames, concentrating the 

 heat and throwing it immediately into 

 the surplus box, where you cannot 

 get too much, as long as it arises from 

 the bees ; the next advantage is in 

 economizing the labor of the bees, in 

 regard to gathering propolis, where 

 they could as well be gathering honey, 

 and would be, if you had frames with 

 closed top bars for 3 inches at each 

 «nd. I have never handled open or 

 narrow top frames till within the last 



two years ; in this length of time I 

 have handled quite a number, for iny 

 neighbors, and in those I have opened, 

 I find more propolis in one hive than 

 in ten of mine, that have closed 

 frames. I believe if the labor of the 

 propolis-gathering was spent in honey- 

 gathering, it would make from -5 to 10 

 pounds of honey to each strong colony, 

 which would be of some account, 

 while the propolis is of no account to 

 you or to the bees, while packed be- 

 tween the frames. R. Coubett. 

 Manhattan, Kans. 



American Hive, Honey Vinegar, Etc. 



Please give the proper dimensions 

 of the American hive and frame, as I 

 find there are several sizes in use in 

 this vicinity. Also please give the 

 dimensions of frame to fit extractors 

 marked for 13x13 inches. My frames 

 are 12^^x11 inches, with 14 inch top 

 bar, with cross bar in the middle, con- 

 sequently are built down to from 12 to 

 13 inches, and I find the long ones are 

 set on the bottom of the basket, and 

 slip about at the top, ^id occasionally 

 the top bar strikes the can. 



In the Bee Journal, page 143. Mi'. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson gives us Mr. IJing- 

 ham's plan for making honey vinegar, 

 which he says was good. We made 

 some last fall from the washings of 

 vessels, after extracting. The honey 

 was first-class, smartweed honey, but 

 the vinegar had a sickening taste 

 about it, and the only way we could 

 use it was to mix it with sorglium 

 vinegar, the kind we were using. 

 Does honey vinegar usually have such 

 a taste i* Joseph Beath. 



Corning, Iowa. 



[The American frame should be 

 12x12 inches, but that hive has had so 

 many changes, and been varied by so 

 many that use it, that it would be 

 difficult now to determine a standard 

 size for it. Mr. King does not give 

 any size for it in his new Text Book. 



As your frames are 12i-^ with a 14 

 inch top bar, an extractor, with comb 

 basket 13x13 inches, is just the thing; 

 the ends of the top bar will rest on 

 the top of the comb basket. 



We never heard of honey vinegar 

 having a sickening taste, though we 

 have used considerable of it.— Ed.J 



(Jueens Reared in the Soiitli. 



On page 141, G. M. Doolittle writes 

 that he has a colony of bees to which 

 he gave a Texas queen last Jnjie, 

 that they were the first to show signs 

 of dysentery, that they were nearly 

 all dead, and what remained were in 

 a deplorable condition. As I have 

 been thinking of sending to Texas for 

 queens, this spring, I would like to 

 ask Mr. Doolittle if he thinks bees, 

 from a queen reared in the South, are 

 as hardy and well able to stand the 

 long^cold winters of the North, as 

 those from a queen reared here y It 

 seems to me they are not. but I may 

 be wrong. I merely ask for informa- 

 tion. It is true we can get queens 

 earlier and cheaper, but will it be ad- 



visable to send there for them ? I 

 would like to hear from any others 

 who have liad experience with .South- 

 ern queens. T. S. Johnson. 

 Bogart, O. 



Hints About Rearing Drones, Etc. 



Professors Siebold and Leuckhart 

 were right; drone and worker eggs 

 are not alike, yet they iire all fertilized 

 by the male bee. The queen has 

 nothing to do in fertilizing her own 

 eggs, when laying. A queen is like 

 all other winged insects; not like 

 frogs and fish. The drone does not 

 accompany the queen when she is 

 laying. When they want drones, the 

 whole colony engage in the work ; 

 the same in rearing queens. Bees 

 make drones and queens, when they 

 want them ; it is the workers that reg- 

 ulate the laying, not the queen alone. 

 Bees never eat nor remove eggs from 

 one cell to another ; they can destroy 

 eggs when they desire, but never eat 

 them. Bee-men should be careful 

 about importing new kinds of bees, 

 and not let the drones fly, until proved 

 to be better than any we now have, 

 for they may do a great deal of dam- 

 age. Cyprian drones fly faster and 

 farther than Italians. I think Italians 

 are better then any I have yet seen, 

 for honey-gathering. 



Delhi, K. Y. John McCandlish. 



Bees Strong and Healthy. 



I removed my bees from the cellar, 

 where they have been confined for 135 

 days, and they had no flight for 10 or 

 15 days before they were put in the 

 cellar. The bees never wintered bet- 

 ter. J. J. HURLBERT, 40. 



Lyndon, 111., March 30, 1883. 



tSIIxat mitX goxu. 



ANSWERS BY 



James Eeddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Transferring Bees, Etc. 



Will Mr. Heddon please answer the 

 following questions through the 

 " How and What " department of the 

 Bee Journal : I have 8 colonies of 

 bees in box hives, which I wish to 

 transfer to frame hives, this spring, 

 according to your " Progressive 

 Method " (published in No. 28 of the 

 present volume of the Bee .Iournal), 

 but I do not understand the method 

 fully. You say : " With smoker, drum 

 box, etc., drive a colony from the 

 ' old gum ' into the frame hive, filled 

 with found:ition. After 21 days the 

 worker brood is all hatched, and a 

 new queen, just begun to lay, in the 

 ' old gum.' " " Now, I can unite with 

 my first drive." 



2. How do you manage to catch the 

 young queen, to keep her from going 

 into the frame hive and raising a row 

 with the queen already there ? If I 

 can catch the young queen, I would 

 much prefer this method to the old 

 one. Do celonies, so transferred, 

 have to be fed for a few days V 



3. What are the distinguishing 



