1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



297 



rangemeuts of the next few years, but come at once to the 

 present winter. I now (April 2) have in the cellar 32 colo- 

 nies of bees in S-frame Langstroth hives, having loose covers 

 and bottom-boards. The covers are sealed down as the bees 

 left them in the fall. On each bottom-board I place a rim + 

 inches high, the same length and width of the hives, with 

 wire-screen over one end, and set the hives on these rims. 

 This gives a -i-inch space below the bottom of the brood- 

 frames, and an open front 4.\12 inches covered with wire- 

 screen. This seems to admit plenty of air, the bees cluster 

 more or less in the open space, and all dead bees drop entirely 

 away from the cluster. There are no dead bees on the cellar 

 floor, and the annoyance mentioned by "Tidiness " is entirely 

 avoided. I carried the bees to the cellar Nov. 14, and they 

 have remained very quiet until this time. Soon they will be 

 out on the summer stands to begin the labors of another 

 season. 



I have learned that a good circulation of air in warm 

 weather is more necessary to the comfort of the bees than 

 total darkness, and 1 have left the bee-cellar door open all 

 winter. (I refer of course to the inside door first mentioned.) 

 The outside cellar-door is open in mild weather, and closed in 

 cold weather. The temperature in the bee-cellar the past 

 winter has been as low as 38-, and as high as 48-: 



For a good colony of bees to winter successfully in a cellar 

 I would name three conditions, viz.: Plenty of good food ; 

 plenty of pure air ; and proper temperature. 



THE PREVENTION OF INCREASE. 



Regarding the prevention of increase, I am as anxious as 

 any bee-keeper to have my bees forget to swarm in their 

 haste to gather honey ; but they don't forget. I have man- 

 aged them according to different plans, but I will only give my 

 experience for the year 1898. When a swarm issued, the 

 queen was caught and caged; queen-cells cut out of the old 

 hive, the caged queen put in one of the brood-frames, and the 

 swarm returned. In about eight days we again cut out the 

 queen-cells, and in about two weeks from the time the swarm 

 issued we released the queen, which at the time appeared 

 lively and all right. We managed about a dozen hives in this 

 way, but all the queens disappeared without laying any eggs. 

 They were evidently destroyed by the bees as soon as released. 

 Why were they not accepted ? Perhaps some reader will sug- 

 gest an answer. Their wings were not clipped. 



Romeo, Mich. 



Killing the Bees Instead of Wintering. 



BY .JOHN m'AETIIUR. 



In reply to Mr. Bevins, on page 263 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1894, to his kindly criticism of my article on page 

 306, I would say that a generation has come and gone since I 

 took my first lessons in bee-keeping. Many important changes 

 during that period have been made in managing and manipu- 

 lating the apiary. Owing to climatic and other changing 

 conditions, we may look forward to as much change in the 

 next generation — nay, even more than the past. There is no 

 industry on this continent that has made more advance than 

 bee-keeping, especially when we consider the many discour- 

 agements and difficulties that lie in the path that leads to 

 success. Comparing past and present prices, there is cer- 

 tainly not much to encourage one to persevere in the business, 

 were it not for the somct)ii}ia in it that fascinates beyond the 

 profits derived from the same. There is food for the mind— 

 a great field for scientific research; and to those endowed 

 vriih large observing faculties, there is a vast field awaiting 

 new discovery, notwithstanding all that is written or known 

 about the honey-bee from the time of Democritus to the 

 present. 



Therefore, I see no need of any one being chilled, by 

 reading the article referred to, or even by following the direc- 

 tions of the writer regarding migratory bee-keeping, espe- 

 cially when it can be demonstrated that by doing so we can 

 put dollars into our pockets. That is the main object of us 

 all, I believe, notwithstanding the labors of Langstroth, Da- 

 dant, and a thousand others who have given their mite to as- 

 sist in making known the natural history of the honey-bee and 

 its economy. 



Then Mr. Bevins charges me with being a wholesale 

 murderer. Were bees not given to man for his own use ? 

 Why kill the cow ? She gives milk and butter — is she not as 

 dear to our affections as the honey-bee ? Would it be profit- 

 able to keep and feed her eight months out of twelve, without 

 any returns ? No, no, Mr. Bevins; 1 like your sentiment and 

 fine feeling, but that will not keep us alive. You let your 



feelings get the better of your judgment. I am afraid Mr. 

 Bevins doesn't keep the sixth commandment himself. Does 

 he not partake of the flesh of beasts, birds, or fish, killed ? 

 In the eyes of the law he who receives is as bad as he who 

 steals. Are you guilty, or not guilty? 



Then Mr. Bevins draws consolation from the thought that 

 the wintering problem is not so serious in Iowa as in Toronto. 

 The writer can say of the wintering problem, as the Hon. R. 

 L. Taylor says of foul brood, it has no terrors, having solved 

 that many years ago, either on the summer stands or in a re- 

 pository. On the summer stands with a packing of 2)3 inches 

 of cork sawdust around the hives, with 5 inches on top, and 

 sufficient stores will bring them through our severest winters. 

 The winter repository is perfect of its kind, being in use for 

 14 years, and is 19 feet below the surface of the ground. The 

 floor of the bee-cellar and bee-yard are on the same level — 

 like a cellar. It is 26 feet by 40, and 6 feet high. It is the 

 consumption of honey, coupled with '2}:< months' labor in the 

 spring and fall — bees too weak to gather surplus from the' 

 early honey flow, which is considerable in this locality. A 

 large proportion of the bees were put into the repository on 

 Nov. 20, and averaged 40 pounds of honey. If the spring of 

 1895 should prove as bad as its three predecessors, every 

 pound will be used before we get an ounce of new. 



Now, Mr. Bevins, if you are anything of an enterprising 

 or enthusiastic bee-keeper, you can go South and purchase 

 full colonies in May, and have them laid down in your bee- 

 yard at, or very near, the price of two or three pound nuclei 

 with queen, in the pink of condition ; saving you the trouble 

 of buying sugar and feeding. You seem to prefer nuclei to 

 full colonies. Why, I should like to know, except it be to fuss 

 and tinker with them, spending money on sugar just for the 

 pleasure it gives you in seeing them develop into full colo- 

 nies, forming attachments so strong that they must not be 

 killed, after costing more than a full colony, not to speak of 

 the labor. 



I think any extensive Northern bee-keeper would be better 

 employed, say in April and May, down South, working up his 

 bees among the sunshine and flowers, than eking out a mis- 

 erable existence 1,000 miles north, among snow and ice. 



I shall be very glad indeed to meet Mr. Bevins, and a 

 thousand more brother bee-keepers from across the line, at 

 that mammoth convention to be held next September, in the 

 city of Toronto, Canada ; and no matter how we may differ, 

 let us agree to disagree. Toronto, "Ont. 



Soui1r)crr) Departrr)ei;)t> 



CONUUCTED BV 



DR. J. P. II. BROWX, AUGUST^i, GA. 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping In the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department. — ED.l 



The Cotton States and Industrial Exposition. 



This will be held at Atlanta, Ga., Sept. IS to Dec. 81, 

 and will be a big thing. It is the desire of the directors to 

 have a big honey exhibit, and an International Bee- Keepers' 

 Congress. I would be pleased to hear from all bee-keepers 

 who are favorable to calling a convention of this kind. 



Putting on the Supers. 



Our spring being nearly a month behind the average of 

 other years, all bloom is behind time, and bees have not bred 

 up to what they should be at this date. Supers should now 

 be on all your strong colonies, but you nted not expect bees to 

 go up into the sections as long as they can find room to place 

 their honey below. When they commence to make new comb 

 and bulge it out below the top-bar, they are about ready to go 

 above. Now is the time to do your coaxing. It is objection- 

 able to use any sections with brood in, but fill as many sec- 

 tions as you can with nice, clean, white comb, and alternate 

 them with those with foundation. 



If you wish to side store in wide frames in the brood- 

 chamber, use separators if you wish the sections tilled with 

 nice comb ; but for top-storing, if the sections are not too 

 wide, and are two-thirds filled with foundation, separators are 

 not necessary. It is one of the incontrovertible facts that the 

 further the surplus department is from the brood-chamber, 

 and the more obtructions are placed in it, the slower the bees 

 are to go to work in it. 



