THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



419 



that impression was correct or other- 

 wise. After considerable time spent, 

 as directed, the writer is pleased to 

 report tliat he has not yet been able 

 to find any mention whatever of sweet 

 clover as a noxious or pernicious 

 weed, and imagines that the enemies 

 to this wonderful honey plant would 

 have their hands full to make it ap- 

 pear, upon a proper investigation, 

 that it really belongs to such a bad 

 family. To conclude, it may be well 

 for those interested in the growth and 

 culture of sweet clover to keep a close 

 watch of our legislators, pending their 

 sessions at Springfield, that some one 

 does not slip through an act that may 

 give us more or less trouble in the 

 future, for its enemies are already 

 upon the war-path I 

 St. Charles, 111. 



For the American Bee Juumal. 



My Experiments in Wintering Bees. 



H. S. HACKMAN. 



The weather is once more warm, 

 and the bees are again working on 

 sweet clover, and also some are still 

 at work on white clover. Bees com- 

 menced working on white clover on 

 June 5, this season, and until then 

 there was no honey laid up. The sea- 

 son was cool, with the exception of a 

 few hot days ; but bees have done 

 well until the latter part of July, 

 when it turned cool again for 10 or 12 

 days, but it has now become warm 

 and dry, so that the bees are in good 

 humor and gathering honey. 



I started with 105 colonies on June 

 15, 1883 ; I had but a few natural 

 swarms ; I divided a few, and have 

 now about 140 colonies. I have taken 

 from 70 colonies 2,500 pounds of comb 

 honey, and 180 gallons of extracted 

 honey, all white clover. The balance, 

 35 colonies, have not yet filled their 

 cases. So far, my Holy Lands, Ital- 

 ians and Cyprians are not doing much 

 in storing surplus comb honey ; it is 

 the hybrids that are doing the busi- 

 ness. 



This has been, with me, a very busy 

 season. I never knew that less than 

 500 colonies could keep me busy, but 

 I found my mistake. I began winter 

 with 230 colonies of bees packed in oak 

 leaves, on their summer stands. Bees 

 are in rows, east and west, 2 feet from 

 centre to centre, and packed on the 

 north side and between only ; the 

 south, fronting the sun, areopen. The 

 caps were nearly all filled with honey, 

 except the one-story hives,and all were 

 packed to the top, except that the 

 one-story hives were packed over the 

 top and all. 



Now for the result : 125 colonies in 

 one-story hives all died but 23 colo- 

 nies; 105 in two-story hives were all 

 alive but 5, although from the middle 

 of April until the middle of June, I 

 lost 18 more, mostly in two-story 

 hives. What killed my bees in the 

 one-story hives V and what saved 

 them in the two-story hives V My 

 hives are 12 inches deep, and 14x14 

 inches wide, and long entrance (^5^x4 

 inches). By two-story, I mean two 

 brood-chambers on top of one another, 



Where I had two-story, both upper 

 and lower entrances were open all the 

 winter. In most cases the bees were 

 clustered in the upper story ; and I 

 imagine the air space for the foul air 

 to settle to, and the two entrances to 

 circulate through and carry off the 

 foul air, is what saved my bees. 



The above conditions, as far as 

 packing is concerned, was not always 

 the same in the bees that lived. In 

 at least one-third of the colonies, the 

 surplus racks were left on ; some 

 empty, some partly filled, some with a 

 flat cap, and cover the same as the 

 one-story hives ; so the upward venti- 

 lation was about the same in all cases, 

 single or double story hives. 



Much has been said and written on 

 the wintering of bees ; and what I 

 have read, and what little experience 

 I have had, I must say I am still lost 

 for want of certainty, hoping, how- 

 ever, that the last winter's experience 

 is worth something to me. 



I was much pleased with Mr. South- 

 wick's article on the best style of 

 frame and hive. I think my success 

 in wintering in the two-story hive, 

 coincides with his ideas. Reason 

 teaches us that bees can protect and 

 reach their property and stores much 

 better in a tall than a flat hive of the 

 same capacity. 



Peru, 111., Aug. 12, 1883. 



For the Ametican B«;e JournaL 



Bees Removing Eggs. 



DR. A. DREVAB. 



Dear Editor : — By the same mail 

 that this will go by I send you an 

 empty queen-cell, from which a very 

 beautiful Italian queen hatched yes- 

 terday. My reason for sending it is, 

 that it proves that bees do sometimes 

 remove the egg from one cell to 

 another. The eggs, which it was 

 intended to raise queens from, were 

 taken from a hive containing a beau- 

 tiful queen which I got from Henry 

 Alley, and placed according to his 

 method in a hive from which all brood 

 and eggs had been removed. Twenty 

 eggs only were given in alternate cells, 

 cut down to }4 inch in depth. You 

 will perceive by the peculiar broad and 

 deep neck to this cell, that the bees 

 added quite a quantity of wax to the 

 strip of comb before commencing to 

 build the cell proper. The cell is very 

 large, and the queen which emerged 

 from it, is also very large, though not 

 larger than others which 1 have reared 

 from the same mother. 



I keep bees only on a small scale, to 

 supply our'own household with a pure 

 sweet, and I believe honey is the only 

 pure sweet which we can now get. 

 Ttie public, as well as the bee-kee|)ers, 

 owe you a debt of gratitude for the 

 stand you have taken against that 

 fearful fraud, glucose, which has al- 

 ready sent many a man to his grave. 



Although we are only a very small 

 family (three), we manage to get 

 away with about 500 pounds of honey 

 in the year. We use it three times a 

 day at the table, besides preserving 

 apples, peaches and grapes with it. 

 What we do not want to use, we sell 



in quart glass cans at 15 cents per 

 pound, and at that price I have found 

 ready sale for all we have to spare. 



Another thing I wish to remark : 

 It has often been said in the bee books 

 and journals that it does not pay the 

 small bee-keeper to make his own 

 foundation. There I quite differ, as 

 I think nothing relating to the man- 

 agement of my bees has paid me bet- 

 ter than the Pelham foundation mill. 

 The great advantage of owning a 

 mill is to have the foundation fresh, 

 and when one wants it ; that is im- 

 possible when trusting to dealers. 



Our honey season here has been a 

 good one, the yield from locust was 

 immense; the white clover came in 

 before the locust was done, and there 

 are still a few flowers of it. The bees 

 are now working on the Alsike, and I 

 have noticed more bees on the red 

 clover, this year, than ever before. 



Annapolis, Md., Aug. 10, 1883. 



The queen cell is as described, and 

 the comb foundation good, for that 

 made by plates.— Ed.] 



Translated from the Bienen Zeitung. 



A ftueen with Crippled Wings 

 Impregnated. 



rev. dr. dzieezon. 



"Is it not a contradiction or a re- 

 traction of your opinion, when you 

 formerly made the assertion that a 

 young queen could only be impregna- 

 ted in the air, and consequently must 

 be able to fly, and now to speak of the 

 possibility of the fertilization of a 

 queen which had left the cell with 

 crippled wings 'i"' 



This thought might naturally occur 

 to people, and such a remark be made 

 in reading the heading of this article. 

 In explanation of this apparent con- 

 tradiction, I will relate to you my ex- 

 perience with a young queen last 

 summer. In one of my queen-breed- 

 ing boxes, a beautiful and strong 

 Italian queen was hatched, which, on 

 account of one of its left wings being 

 considerably shorter than the corre- 

 sponding right wing, was unable, in 

 spite of all exertions, to rise up into 

 the air, and immediately fell to the 

 ground in an apparently perpendicu- 

 lar direction. I should not have hesi- 

 tated to destroy her at once, if I had 

 had anotlier queen or a royal cell at 

 my disposal ; but this not being the 

 case, I allowed her to remain in the 

 hive. Two days later I examined the 

 colony again, and tried the queen 

 once more, thinking she might, in the 

 meantime, have gained strengtii, and 

 perhaps be able to fly ; but the result 

 was the same. The queen was, and 

 evidently would remain, incapable of 

 keeping on the wing. It then occurred 

 to me that I might be able to restore 

 the power of the flight to the queen by 

 shortening the longer wing a little, in 

 order to establish symmetry and the 

 equilibrium. 



This enabled tlie queen to keep on 

 the wing for a short time, after which 

 she again fell to the ground. But 

 when I had cliptjed the wing still 

 more, and made it almost like the 



