THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



majority gave their opinion in favor 

 of artificial swarming. Messrs. Wm 

 Kindree and Wm. Abbott gave their 

 plans for securing swarms. 



Hoie to Rear Good Queens.— Mr. Arm- 

 strong preferred rearing queens in a 

 full colony, on full sized frames, and 

 explained his method at some length. 



How to Introduce Queens.— Mr. Arm- 

 strong recomemded the Peet cage, 

 keeping the queen confined until tlie 

 bees became reconciled to her. The 

 secretary mentioned the plan adopted 

 by Mr. Simmins, of England, who in- 

 troduced the queen on a frame of 

 bees, with good success. 



Hcno to Secure Comb Honey. — Mr. 

 Buckley advocated the use of metal 

 division-boards and section boxes, in 

 the body of the hive. Mr. Gloyd also 

 spoke in favor of that plan, and said 

 it was recommended by prominent 

 bee-keepers. Mr. Kindree was in 

 favor of section boxes in the upper 

 story, leaving the lower story undis- 

 turbed. 



Register of Each Hive— Its Value.— 

 The president recommended the use 

 of a register for each hive, so that he 

 could tell the condition of his hives 

 without the trouble of examining 

 them every day. 



Books and Periodicals.— The secre- 

 tary advocated the reading of books 

 and periodicals devoted to bee-culture, 

 and thought no progressive bee-keeper 

 should be without one or more good 

 bee papers. In one number of the 

 American Bee Journal he had ob- 

 tained information worth more than 

 the subscription price for a whole year. 



Moved by Mr. Armstrong, seconded 

 by Mr. Campbell, that each bee-keeper 

 give a correct report of the number 

 of colonies kept, and the number of 

 pounds of comb and extracted honey 

 from each colony, and what kind of 

 bees. 



It was resolved that the next meet- 

 ing be held on June 16, at 10 a. m., at 

 Cheapside, Ont. 



The following statement will show 

 the loses sustained during the past 

 winter : 



Nov. 1882. April 1883. 



Edmund DeCew, 15 5 



Robert Buckley, 38 33 



James Armstrong, 32 31 



Wm. Harrison, 2 2 



Ambrose Gloyd, 16 15 



Wm.Jack. 8 4 



Joseph Carter, 10 9 



Robert Coverdale, 6 5 



■R. W. Beam. 12 9 



Wm. Kindree, 15 11 



Henry Smith, 2 2 



A. Vanderburgh, 9 9 



r. Mehlenbacher, 1 1 



David Byers, 13 12 



Robert Anguish, 37 25 



Ephraim Gee, 1 1 



E. C. Campbell, 35 32 



David Anguish, 4 3 



Daniel Rose, 15 7 

 E. C. Campkell, ^'ec. 



P. S. By the above table it will be 

 seen that the loses during the past 

 severe winter have not been very 

 high, and was caused principally by 

 want of stores. I took mine out of 

 cellar April 9, having been confined 

 for over five months, without a Higlit. 



Three colonies were dead for want of 

 stores ; the rest are in good condi- 

 tion, with the exception of two or 

 three, affected with dysentery.— E. C. 



For fhe American Bee JournaL 



Eemarks on Various Matters. 



J. o. shearman. 



The wintering problem seems to be 

 pretty well worn ; but not finally set- 

 tled yet. My hobby has been pack- 

 ing in chaff, in which way I have 

 been ordinarily successful. I wintered 

 over 100 colonies, last winter and this, 

 without the loss of a colony so far. 

 I had all of my weakest colonies in 

 the cellar, including some that were 

 intended for doubling up ; but the 

 weak and strong all seemed to stand, 

 in the cellar, about alike, except a 

 weak one that had the dysentery ; an 

 examination showed that they had 

 only uncapped honey left, though 

 they had sealed honey in the fall. 

 Also two nuclei, with reserved queens, 

 starved. The temperature of the cellar 

 was as near to freezing as I could 

 keep it ; it was below only once. I 

 found that when the thermometer in- 

 dicated near 40-' (as often advised 

 through the papers), they would be- 

 come uneasy. I had only 27 in cellar. 

 Those out of doors, packed in chaff, 

 did well, so far, set close to tire 

 ground, on a little bed of straw, for 

 under packing. That goes to show 

 that it is not quite sure death. 



I once thought that I had a good 

 thing on them, if only they were cov- 

 ered by snow, and said the deeper the 

 snow the better, with a sloping board 

 over the entrance, of course ; but now 

 I have got bravely over that. The 

 winter of 1880-81 was our test on that 

 point. Those deep under the snow 

 were very uneasy, while others sit- 

 uated on the south side of a bill, where 

 the wind blew the snow all away from 

 the front of the hives, came out 

 bright, strong and healthy. That was 

 a damp confinement, while, this win- 

 ter, though snowed under, 2 feet or 

 more, they came out nearly dry, with 

 much better results. My conclusions 

 are that a number of causes may in- 

 duce dysentery : 1 . Extreme changes 

 of temperature, p;uticularly if damp. 

 2. Thin honey, more especially if 

 soured by changes of temperature. 3. 

 Long confinement, if in conjunction 

 with either or both of the above un- 

 favorable conditions. 4. Undue breed- 

 ing while confined, or anything that 

 disturbs them while unable to fly. 



On the half-pound sections, my ad- 

 vice is to put a variety of packages 

 upon the market, to supply all kinds 

 of customers ; the half-pounds are 

 well enough for part of the supply, 

 but if all the honey was put up that 

 way, it would be no higher in price 

 than if all were in one-pound pack- 

 ages. The novelty helps the price at 

 first. 



During the past season I increased 

 only from 90 to 107 colonies ; though 

 it was a noted season tor svi'arming, 

 for over two months. I did it, partly, 

 by putting one swarm into another 

 hive, from which a swarm had lately 



issued, increasing the surplus room ; 

 and partly, before they got so feverish, 

 by gradual extension of the brood- 

 chamber; at the same time, giving 

 more surplus room. The hive I use 

 enables me to do the latter more 

 readily, as the back of the brood- 

 chamber is movable, the same as a 

 division-board, and I can set them to 

 work in three old-fasliioned boxes, 

 with two brood frames, or use 18 

 of the same sized boxes on the top of 

 12 brood frames. 



I have run 12 colonies all through 

 an entire season without swarming, 

 increasing them to 18 by division, and 

 giving them plenty of surplus room. 

 That was four years ago, in a fast- 

 swarming season ; but it takes too 

 much time for a large stock to increase 

 a little at a time. 



I had the above mentioned 12 colo- 

 nies in a location where they gathered 

 plenty of the red raspberry honev, 

 while it was too wet for them to do 

 much on the white clover. It was of 

 very fine quality and flavor, though 

 not so light in color as the white 

 clover honey. 



New Richmond, Mich., Mar. 6, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Water for Bees in Winter. 



EUGENE SBCOR. 



I suppose some of our Southern 

 brethren, who have been basking in 

 the sunshine for two months, and 

 whose bees have been " out to pas- 

 ture" so long that they have forgotten 

 tlie past winter,' will shrug their 

 shoulders and thank God that they 

 do not live in this borean land, when 

 we tell them that we are just taking 

 our hives to their summer stands. 

 Well, I suppose the South is a delight- 

 ful place to live in, but I have yet to 

 learn that they accomplish more in 

 any of the departments of industry 

 during their long summers, than we 

 in the North do in our short ones. A 

 small portion of Texas came to the 

 front last year in the production of 

 honey, but year by year, the North 

 supplies our leading honey markets, 

 with as fine a quality as can be found 

 this side of California. So, while we 

 can successfully compete with them 

 in the production of honey, perhaps 

 we ought not to be so modest in dis- 

 cussing the wintering problems, 

 which, undoubtedly is anything but 

 interesting reading to them. 



I have, to-day, taken my bees from 

 the cellar, wheie they have been since 

 Nov. 13. The last flight they had last 

 fall, was on Nov. 10. This is the 

 longest period I have ever kept them 

 confined without a flight. My experi- 

 ence, to-day, seems to indicate that 

 they could have endured a much 

 longer night. I never before saw 

 bees so cross in the spring. They are 

 usually so glad to get out and fly, to 

 void their feces, that they did 

 not attempt to sting; but, to-day, I 

 was compelled to don bee-vail and 

 gloves, and, in spite of both, I am 

 now far from " spring poor." There 

 are no signs of dysentery. They did 

 not " spot " their hives during the 



