596 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



so as to warm the air from the bottom 

 and top of the bee room V 

 Hamilton, Ont. A Subscriber. 



Answer. — Your stove above your 

 cellar will not " warm " the air in any 

 part of your bee room at all. Should 

 that word warm not be draw ? 

 Changing it thus, I would say that I 

 would not use any branch to the main 

 pipe ; I would run the main pipe to 

 the bottom of the cellar, resting it up 

 on legs, 5 or 6 inches, and I would 

 prefer a pipe 5 or 6 inches in diameter. 





Good Qualities ©f Cyprian Bees. 



As they are often condemned for 

 stinging so readily, I will enumerate 

 their good qualities: 1. They never 

 volunteer an attack on anything. You 

 can pass the hive, and thev may alight 

 on you. but they do not sting, i. They 

 are superior honey-gatlierers. 3. Tliey 

 winter better than any others. AVHien 

 at the St. Louis fair, all thought them 

 "the coming bee." When thev are 

 pure, you can handle them with pleas- 

 ure by using a little smoke. This is 

 the second year that I have kept pure 

 Cyprians, and I think them ahead of 

 all others. I started the last season 

 with 26 colonies — increased to 53, 

 mostly by natural swarming. Though 

 there was no fall honey, they go into 

 winter quarters in good condition. On 

 Oct. 7, two swarms of bees came to 

 my apiary from a neighbor 4 miles 

 away, wlio kept them on the old-fogy 

 plan. I bived them and they are doing 

 well. What caused them to swarm V 



Casey, 111. D. R. Kosebrough. 



[They were evidently dissatisfied 

 with their surroundings, and, being 

 disgusted with their condition, they 

 concluded to seek other quarters.— Ed.] 



Bees Buried in a Clamp. 



My bees have done very well, this 

 season. I have 33 colonies in fair 

 condition. I am burying them in a 

 clamp. W. W. Trussel. 



Colby, Mich., Nov. 12, 1883. 



Wintering Bees in Northern Kentucliy. 



The way I winter my bees, here in 

 northern Kentucky, has proved a per- 

 fect success every time, so far. I 

 simply make a slied long enough to 

 hold my bees, and about 6 feet wide, 

 three sides sided up as tightly as pos- 

 sible, leaving the side facing the 

 southeast open. I then place on the 

 ground about 3 feet of straw, then set 

 the bench on top of the straw, which 

 will sink down about level with the 

 top of the straw, in a short time ; I 

 then put on the hives, with tlie en- 

 trance facing the southeast. This 

 may not do in a colder part of the 

 country, but here in Kentucky it does 



well, or at least it has done so with 

 me. I have 3 colonies as good Ital- 

 ians as I can get ; the rest in my 

 apiary are liylirids ; although I am 

 partial to the Italians, I must confess 

 that the hybrids are the best honey 

 gathers ; at least, mine are. 



Adron B'IIymer. 

 Kenton Co., Ky., Nov. 11, 1883. 



Special Premium. 



Your correspondent H., in his re- 

 port of the St. Joseph Inter-State Ex- 

 position, omitted to mention the 

 special premium for the best 30 pounds 

 of comb honey on exhibition (J29.00), 

 which was awarded to me. I think 

 the report, as it stands, is hardly just 

 to me. The entry upon which i took 

 a second premium required quantity 

 as well as quality. 



J. B. Stanclift. 



Brookfleld, Mo., Nov. 7, 1883. 



Too Large. 



At our Fair a " Monarch " bee hive 

 was exhibited, but it is not a practical 

 hive at all. 1. It is too large to be 

 carried aroinid — and would require 2 

 men to move it at all. 2. It is too 

 large for one colony to keep up the re- 

 quired heat. 3. A man should be 

 made of iron to manage an ajiiary of 

 such. 4 The brood-chamber is large 

 enough for 2 colonies ; it has apart- 

 ments for extracted honey on top, and 

 at one side of the brood-chamber it 

 has 144 sections, quite enough for 2 

 hives. Beginners should be careful 

 not to use such a hive. 



W. R. Stirling. 



Fairfield, Out., Nov. 12, 1883. 



Lath Hires. 



^ly bees are all packed in sawdust 

 in hives, which neighbor Clow and I 

 use ; we make them of laths, and put 

 2 colonies in a hive. We use the 

 Gallup frame, and can extend the 

 hive, when the packing is removed 

 from the sides, making room for 13 or 

 14 frames. Wlien the honey season is 

 over, we take out the side frames, iind 

 put in tiie division boards, which are 

 made of laths, to make the hive porous; 

 that leaves the hive 12x14 inches in- 

 side. I leave 9 frames for winter, and 

 crowd the liees on to them. I tlien 

 put some % inch strips on the top of 

 the frames, and cover all with burlap, 

 then put sawdust on the top of the 

 whole hive, to the depth of about 3 

 inches. The hive is 2 feet high, to 

 receive surplus boxes. The space is 

 all open up to the roof, which is made 

 of shingles, which makes a good roof. 

 Bees did not do very well this season ; 

 we only had about half a crop. Two 

 of my colonies gave' 1.50 pounds of 

 comb honey in one-pound sections ; 

 the others did not do so well. One of 

 these qneens was a cross between the 

 Cyprian and Italian ; the other a cross 

 between the Cyprian and German or 

 brown bee. They are both tolerably 

 firey. Tlie one with the German 

 blood makes the whitest coml)s ; tlie 

 other has the most delicate and docile 

 bees. I have but 22 colonies. I might 

 have had more if had let them swarm. 

 I use racks holding 30 pound boxes in 

 each, which fills the top of the brood- 



chamber. I have no trouble in know- 

 ing when sections are full, and no 

 trouble to speak of in taking them off. 

 D. C. McLeod. 

 Pana, 111., Nov. 14, 1883. 



Honey Crop, Red- Headed Drones, etc. 



My bees are hybrids from Syrian, 

 Italian and blacks. This year 1 com- 

 menced with 28 colonies ; increased to 

 •54, and extracted 2,800 pounds of 

 honey. The least, from my poorest 

 colony, being 30 pounds ; and "the most, 

 from my best, a pure Syrian colony, 

 was 160 pounds. This is the best I 

 have ever done, with any kind of bees. 

 The most serious drawback to the 

 Syrians, is that it takes about 10 days 

 before the young queen begins to lay. 

 The bees go into the sections with "a 

 will. Syrian queens need 2 more 

 brood frames than any others. I could 

 have had .5,000 pounds, this summer, 

 if I had extracted every 4 days ; I only 

 extracted 3 times in as many weeks. 

 During the basswood bloom, I took 

 900 pounds in one day, just what the 

 boxes held. I have 62 colonies in the 

 cellar in good condition. I have sold 

 my honey at home at an average of 11 

 cents per pound. I have a number of 

 colonies which had red-headed drones. 

 Where did they come from V I had 2 

 with white eyes. The queens are 

 from a pure Syrian colony, and have 

 half black and half red heads. 



F'ayette Lee. 



Cokato. Minn., Nov. 7, 1883. 



fRed-headed drones, as well as grey- 

 headed ones, have been often men- 

 tioned. It is simply a freak of na- 

 ture. — Ed.] 



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