266 



THE- AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



answer, so that he may be thorotighly 

 acquainted with the science of bee- 

 culture. Mr. Heddon says in an arti- 

 cle on page 73, tlia* tlie art is acquired 

 by the majority. Of course it is, but 

 I thinlt it would be a great deal 

 easier to acquire the art after or when 

 a person is studying the science with 

 the art. A very large number start 

 to keep bees every year, and 1 might 

 say that a large number of them never 

 get past the first year or two, unless 

 they just swarm them in boxes, and 

 let them have their own way. I think 

 a great deal of good could be done if 

 some one that is more able than my- 

 self would take up the subject and do 

 it justice. Wm. H. Weston. 



London, Ont. 



Cannot be Beat. 



I think the Bee Jouhnal cannot 

 be beat. I would not lose a number 

 for the price of it a year. 



F. M. Taintok. 



Elm Grove, Mass., May 15, 1883. 



Bees Wintered Without Loss. 



My 35 colonies of bees were packed, 

 last fall, by putting chaff cushions in 

 the caps, and they wintered all safely ; 

 I did not even lose a queen. Tliey 

 are now doing well, and there is a 

 good prospect ahead. My experience 

 teaches me to keep a laying queen in 

 the hive, if possible, all the time, Mr. 

 Heddon to the contrary, notwithstand- 

 ing. Isaac Sharp. 



Waveland, Ind., May 16, 1883. 



3. What do the experienced apiarist 

 think of Alley's new method of queen- 

 breeding V I have -a colony engaged 

 in the business already. I think it 

 will be a grand success. 



S. J. YOUNGJIAN. 

 Cato, Mich., May 15, 1883. 



[1. In the excellent article on page 

 260, by Mr. Doolittle, will be found 

 instructions for spring management, 

 building up weak colonies, etc. 



2. It is too early in this latitude to 

 think of shipping queens, even if they 

 were ready for shipment. The nights 

 are cold ; and the exposure they would 

 get would be detrimental. 



3. As you are rearing queens accord- 

 ing to the plan given in Mr. Alley's 

 book, of course there is no necessity 

 of further answers in detail. We re- 

 fer you to the book, which meets with 

 very general approval by apiarist 

 everywhere. — Ed.] 



had no queen-cells, but some brood. 

 I emptied them in front of the hive ; 

 they did not go in the hive very good ; 

 some of them crawled over to the 

 other hive, which was about a foot 

 away,, and clustered on the hive in 

 large bunches. I brushed them down 

 in front of the hive, but they would 

 not go in. I left them there all night, 

 still they would not go in ; so the next 

 day I took the cover of the hive, 

 placed the boxes over the chambers 

 and drammed and smoked them up' 

 and dumped in front of the other hive, 

 which, by the way, had but few bees, 

 in it, so they went into the hive (at 

 least some of them did) and staid in. 

 I do not understand why they acted 

 so. To-day. which is about a week 

 since I transferred them, the strong 

 colony gave a swarm. I hived it in 

 good time ; in ten minutes they were 

 back to the same hive they came 

 from. C. Vanculin. 



Delaware, Del. 



Spring Management, etc. 



I have a few questions which I 

 would like to have answered in the 

 next number of the Bee Journal. 

 They are of great importance to bee- 

 keepers at this time of year, especially 

 those that have several hundred 

 combs and but very few bees ; which 

 is the case here with several. One 

 man at Mecosta, Mich., put in the 

 cellar 54 heavy natural swarms in the 

 fall ; on the lirst of May he had only 

 10 weak ones left ; another at Coral, 

 Mich., packed 38 natural swarms in 

 straw ; he has only 7 weak ones left. 

 These men want to know how to 

 build up these little handsfuU of bees, 

 so as to make use of these combs. 



1. Is it any advantage to feed this 

 honey back to them, the combs can 

 be placed in the caps of the hives, so 

 that the bees can have access to them 

 very easily, and those on the outside 

 be none the wiser, and will take all of 

 the honey out of the combs and clean 

 the combs up some too ; but is it any 

 gain ? Will the bees breed any faster 

 for having plenty of honey in the hiveV 



2. For all of the advertising of 

 queens, none can be found for sale at 

 present ; although all queen breeders 

 are willing to receive your orders for 

 queens, wliicli will be lilled in the or- 

 der received, sometime in June or 

 July. IIow early can queens be 

 reared in tliis latitude? IIow soon 

 should queen-rearing be commenced, 

 when there is such a demand for 

 them y Cannot queens be reared suc- 

 cessfully at any time, when drones are 

 plentiful '? I have drones in any 

 quantity at this date. 



Splendid Honey Harvest Expected. 



My colonies are in splendid condi- 

 tion ; full of brood, andstrong in bees. 

 The locusts are just opening, and the 

 surplus arrangements are placed on ; 

 the hives have a surplus of fruit 

 bloom honey ; the first of the kind in 

 three years (that is, surplus above 

 what they needed for rearing brood). 

 It is fine weather now, but we had 

 cool weather up to last week ; some 

 days it has been too cold for bees to 

 fly. We hope, and have the indica- 

 tions of a splendid honey harvest; 

 white clover looks well, and basswood 

 trees are full of buds. 



J. W. Sturwold. 



Raymond, Ind., May 18, 1883. 



Troubles in Transferring. 



I had 2 colonies in box hives ; I 

 transferred them, last week, into 

 movable frame hives, according to 

 your instructions, and succeeded be- 

 yond my expectations, without any 

 bee-vail, and received no stings, but 

 I do not understand the way they 

 acted. The first hive was very 

 strong ; a peck of bees, at least, and 

 five queen-cells, and one was capped 

 over, and two others with larvoe in 

 them. I put eight frames in the hive 

 with most all the brood, and very 

 little honey. I placed the new hive 

 on the old stand, in the same place, 

 and dumped the bees in front of the 

 liive,. which were about a peck in 

 bulk ; part of them went into the 

 hive, and some of them raised in the 

 air and clustered about 30 yards from 

 the hive. There v*'as about a quart of 

 them. I hived them at once; went 

 into dinner, and when I came out 

 they were clustered in one corner of 

 theliive; in about half an hour they 

 were gone, perhaps to tlie old hive. 

 They would not go in the hive, so I 

 raised the hive in front and they went 

 into the chambers outside of the 

 division-board, and staid there until 

 I took them out. The next colony I 

 transferred acted much like the first ; 

 it had about a half-peck of bees ; they 



A Degenerated Langstrotli Hive. 



Mr. Editor:— Will you please to 

 give me your reasons for calling the 

 Simplicity hive a '■ degenerated Lang- 

 stroth hive ?" I am only a beginner 

 in the art of bee-culture. I want to 

 learn all I can, and do not like to 

 start with the wrong hive. I read 

 your Journal with great interest, 

 and could not do without it. Please 

 answer through the Bee Journal. 

 O. H. Carpenter. 



Camanche, Iowa, May 17, 1883. 



[Our correspondent has evidently 

 been dmmiing. The Simplicity hive 

 is to all intents and purposes a Lang- 

 stroth hive. It uses the Langstroth 

 frame, and only gets its name by the 

 manner of making the outer box. We 

 have never used any such language, 

 either in the Bee Journal or in 

 public speaking. Our correspondent 

 should have designated the place in 

 the Journal where it might be 

 found, or given the time and place, if 

 we were reported to have used such a 

 phrase in public speaking. We sus- 

 pect that Mr. Carpenter has been 

 dreaminy, and this time is "caught 

 napping."— Ed.] 



Ho w the Bees were Prepared for W inter. 



We packed 5 colonies of bees in chaff 

 and 5 with planer shavings, 4 inches 

 in the bottom and sides, and 10 inch 

 chaff cushions, on A. I. Boot's plan. 

 On October 27, the snow drifted over 

 them ; we shoveled them out in Feb- 

 ruary, during a thaw, and some of the 

 bees Hew out. We examined them and 

 found them all right. In April, we 

 found some wet in the bottom of the 

 hive ; the cushions were moldy on 

 top, but the bottom was dry and 

 warm, and 4 showed signs of dysen- 

 tery. We cleaned the hive of dead 

 bees, but we lost 4 colonies, and 4 

 more are weak. At this date they 

 have brood. I think if we had put 

 them up out of the snow, they would 

 have been dry ; the snow is so heavy 



