558 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that the heat of the bees be confined, 

 consequently I set ray box hives on 

 tlie bottom boards in the cellar as 

 they stood in the yard, without any 

 ventilation, except a small three-cor- 

 nered notch, for a flyhole, in the edge 

 of the hive. Mr. Webster's cellar was 

 an ordinary one for household pur- 

 poses, but roomy and frost-proof. 

 Mine should have been tlie better of 

 the two because I had an exhaust pipe 

 and a short sub-earth pipe for fresh 

 air. 



Now for the result : In the spring, 

 8 of my 10 colonies in box liives were 

 dead, and the remaining 2 died before 

 the 1st of June. The bees vpere a wet 

 moldy mass ; the combs daubed with 

 discharges and dripping with wet, and 

 the honey, of which there was plenty, 

 thin and soured. My other 20 colonies 

 in the same cellar covered with a 

 quilt, and in hives having 2 sides of 

 straw, wintered well, as my bees had 

 done in the same cellar for several 

 years before. Mr. Webster's 32 colo- 

 nies came out every one in good con- 

 dition. Now what was the cause of 

 the diilerence in the results 'i It 

 could hardly be in the honey, for even if 

 colonies in the same yard do sometimes 

 gather from different sources, it is 

 extremely improbable that I should 

 happen to get only those having bad 

 honey, and that Mr. Webster should 

 get all the others. For the same rea- 

 son it will not be contended that I got 

 all those having pollen in the middle 

 of the hive or floating pollen in the 

 honey. They were not selected on 

 this basis, for the pollen theory had 

 not then being "guessed," and the 

 bees had as good access to their stores 

 in the one case as in the other. The 

 true explanation is that my bees were 

 killed by their own breath, while Mr. 

 Webster's, having similar conditions 

 in every respect, except as to ventila- 

 tion, kept dry and came out in good 

 order. 



In the " Bee-Keepers' Instructor " 

 for April, 1882, Mr. Heddon says: 

 " When I see a colony of bees that 

 have nothing to eat but pure sweet 

 cane syrup, of proper consistency, 

 have the dysentery, I will of necessity 

 change my mind, and honestly say so, 

 publicly, at once." A few days ago I 

 asked him to put a colony on combs of 

 best cane sugar syrup without a grain 

 of pollen and place it in a hive covered 

 outside with pitch, bottom, sides and 

 top, the joints to be made air-tight, 

 the fly-hole to be reduced to half an 

 inch by one quarter or three-eighths, 

 and sealed after the bees had cluster- 

 ed ; the hive to be placed in a cellar so 

 that the bees could not get into dry 

 air till next spring. If he follows 

 those directions I think he will have 

 a case of dysentery without pollen. I 

 also asked him to supply several colo- 

 nies with combs discarded from others 

 on account of having too much pollen, 

 but containing also plenty of honey. 

 Tlit'se hives were to have the entrance 

 open full size and the back end of the 

 frame exposed, leaving an opening 

 across them as large as the entrance, 

 the same as is done with such good 

 success by Mr. Geo. Grimm. Ijut for 

 fear the old bees should die and stop 

 the circulation, I asked him to bore 



two auger holes, one at each end of 

 the frames, two-thirds of the way up. 

 The hives were to be placed in a cellar 

 having a steady temperature of from 

 44^' to 50° and a relative humidity of 

 from 55 to 75 ; and about the latter 

 two conditions there was to be no 

 guesswork, but accurate determina- 

 tion by proper instruments. If I were 

 running an insurance company I 

 would insure bees put up in that way 

 to live for a premium of 5 per cent, 

 and have a margin for profit. 

 Lindsay, Out., Oct. 14th, 1883. 



For the American Beo Journal. 



Section-Storing Cases- 



JA3IES HEDDON. 



Ere some of the less experienced be 

 led, what seems to me, astray, I will 

 comment upon Mr. Turner's article 

 on page 514 of the current volume. 



Since I have kept bees, I have made 

 and tested as many as a dozen differ- 

 ent devices for holding sections on 

 the hives and to their sides, and gen- 

 erally made these tests upon quite an 

 extensive scale. 



I am well aware that no one system 

 of surplusage embraces all the good 

 points, but of all the most impractical 

 and objectionable ones, two mem- 

 tioned by Mr. Turner are the worst, 

 viz. : " glassed " and " movable side " 

 cases. Movable sides render a case 

 not only more expensive, but imprac- 

 ticable and less durable. A movable- 

 sided case was on exhibition at our 

 late rousing Northwestern Conven- 

 tion. Of course there were no divisions 

 in the case, such would not be adapted 

 to the movable side. The dependence 

 was upon clamping the sections, to 

 prevent their falling through, and as 

 long as there is any variation in the 

 shrink and swell of "wood, this method 

 of supporting sections will ever be 

 dangerous and impracticable, and 

 used only by inexperienced bee-keep- 

 ers. Such a case is weak, and incapa- 

 ble of enduring some of the most 

 important manipulations. 



" Glass " is one of the most objec- 

 tionable materials that can be placed 

 next to bees. They sorely neglect 

 those combs that are next to glass. 

 It may be true that the novice may 

 learn more by looking through a glass 

 at the outside of the outside comb of 

 a range of 6 or 8 than he can by look- 

 ing between the ranges of all the 

 combs (both at their topsand bottoms) 

 of a properly-constructed case, but 

 the experienced producer will discover 

 the condition of all the sections in a 

 case in less than half the time con- 

 sumed in peeking through glass at 

 their sides, and with four times as 

 great accuracy. 



I can remove any one section up 

 out of my case as quickly aa any mov- 

 able-sided case gentleman can do the 

 same job. Admitting that any one of 

 my sections require more time for re- 

 moval than does his, after his side is 

 removed, yet the fact that this remov- 

 ing and re-adjusting of said side re- 

 quires time, it leaves the speed of the 

 removal of any one section in favor 

 of the solid case. 



Now, as regards the total emptying 

 of all the sections in a case, the 

 " knock down " process will discount 

 the movable-side plan. I can empty 

 a case in less time than Mr. Turner 

 can open and re-adjust the side of his 

 case, I think. We can more than 

 doubly discount the time required to 

 take the same number from broad 

 fraaies, and all who have ever seen 

 the case manipulated here, agree that 

 no system admits of the rapid and 

 easy removal that we enjoy with the 

 case. 



Mr. Turner's statement that the 

 sections should rest flat on the slats 

 of the honey board, and flat on each 

 other, is certainly laughable, and 

 brought out a hearty laugh from three 

 or four of our large honey producers 

 who read it in the Journal office at 

 the time of the Northwestern Conven- 

 tion. 



Certainly, Mr. Turner never had a 

 large apiary to attend to. The idea 

 of the practical and ready manipula- 

 tion of tiers of sectionSj that set flat 

 down upon each other, is something 

 that I cannot conceive that any prac- 

 tical producer can entertain. Now, 

 as regards any advantage of any such 

 a bee-smashing arrangement, there 

 is none whatever. Bees will not put 

 as much glue upon the face of a sec- 

 tion that is % from any other surface, 

 as they will squirt in between two 

 pieces that do not fit each other per- 

 fectly tight, which is the case with all 

 sections that lie together. 



Regarding these spaces interfering 

 with the work in the surplus recep- 

 tacles, we find they do nothing of the 

 kind ; nearly every year we have had 

 a portion of our bees without honey 

 boards, thus leaving off the thickness 

 of the board and one bee space, and 

 no one can detect any difference in 

 our surplus success, between the two 

 methods. 



Mr. Turner's mention of shoving 

 one section past another, thus " run- 

 ning the risk of breaking the capping," 

 proves that he does not understand 

 our system ; that he does not know 

 that we use % spaces between the 

 tops and bottoms of our sections ; that 

 with our foundation and method of 

 using the same, we get our combs 

 nearly as straight as with separators ; 

 that when we push out our sections, 

 we push them six at a time, which 

 makes the entire row, leaving no 

 chance for breaking the cappings, 

 were the combs ever so crookedly 

 built. I am willing to leave the mat- 

 ter now to the coming practice of 

 honey producers ; the same offer I 

 made regarding the Dean case, two 

 years ago. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Oct. 25, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Central Illinois Convention. 



The Central Illinois J5ee-Keepers' 

 Association met at Bloomington, 111., 

 Oct. 10. President Wolcott in the 

 Chair. 



On motion of Mr. Vandervort. a re- 

 port from each member is requested 

 to be made, and returned by Dec. 10 ; 

 blank reports to be sent by Secretary 

 to members. 



