1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



407 



thing were put upon me as to have 25 to 40 different hives 

 in use, I might soon reach the lunatic asylum." 



Mr. Editor, if anything will save Friend Miller from the 

 lunatic asylum, one of my handy wire-end frame hives will 

 do it. I am not making thciu for sale, and have no motive in 

 making the proposition I did to the Doctor; but to save him 

 and others from losing their minds, I have been hoping for 

 some time that the " Ideal " hive would appear and assert its 

 superiority. But instead, the confusion seems increasing, so 

 I propose to send one of ray hives to the Doctor, and let him 

 pronounce upon it theoretically, then hive a swarm into it, 

 and after carefully testing in actual use, pronounce judgment. 

 Let others who think they have the best hive in the world do 

 the same, and then we will have some data to go upon as to 

 the best hive. 



It is not the size of my hive I propose to test (they can be 

 made of any size), but the best method of constructing and 

 suspending movable frames. In this matter we seem to be no 

 nearer settlement than 20 years ago. In that time the bee- 

 papers have been filled with articles on the question, and 

 many new styles of frames have been invented. I have given 

 nearly every style mentioned a fair trial, and now honestly 

 believe my wire-end frame, as I use it, is entirely ahead of 

 any other in use ; and for the purpose of settling that ques- 

 tion in the interest of the bee-keeping fraternity, I propose 

 this test. " Let us have peace." 



CAUSE OF LOSS IN WINTEKING. 



Another paragraph in the Doctor's letter reads thus : 



" Sorry to hear of your bees coming out so badly, and am 

 waiting to see in print what you think is the reason." 



In both the winters and springs of 1894 and 1S93, I 

 have lost heavily in bees. Last spring I explained what I be- 

 lieved to be the cause of the losses in the previous winter, 

 charging it to the fact of having mostly old bees in the colo- 

 nies at the commencement of winter. The season of 1894 

 was a repetition of that of 1893 here. Drouth prevailed dur- 

 ing the entire summer and fall, and bees did poorly, but few 

 bee-keepers getting any surplus in both 1893 and 1894. I 

 secured 100 pounds of surplus from good colonies ; this was 

 all white honey, and was collected from Alsike clover and 

 basswood. 



At the end of basswood (the last of July) all the surplus 

 was removed. The hives at that time were heavy with honey 

 in the brood-nest, but the drouth continued through the fall, 

 the Powers dried up, and but little further honey was col- 

 lected by the bees. The consequence was, that brood-rearing 

 was mostly suspended, and by Sept. 15 many colonies had not 

 a particle of brood. When the time came for putting the col- 

 onies into winter quarters, I found them fairly heavy with 

 stores, but generally light in bees. I prepared thera with 

 great care, and put them into a first-class cellar where the 

 temperature was under complete control, and kept them at 

 about 42'. The bees remained very quiet during the entire 

 winter. I swept the dead bees from the cemented floor often, 

 and from the first there was many dead. This continued all 

 winter, and by March 15 many colonies were entirely cleaned 

 of bees, leaving hives with splendid clean combs, well filled 

 with honey. * 



March 20 I began putting the live colonies on the sum- 

 mer stands, and continued it at intervals until April 8, when 

 all were out. The weather was fine, honey began to come in 

 freely very early, and I had great hope of escaping further 

 loss, but each day I noticed hives from which bees had ceased 

 to fly. Examination generally found a handful of young, 

 downy bees with a queen and a little brood in all stages ; but 

 despite all warm covers and care, in a few days they were 

 gone — there not being any field-bees to supply the family 

 needs — and I now have 70 hives from which the bees so 

 perished. 



Now, friends, don't spend a bit of pity for me. 1 am not 

 in tlie least discouraged. Never more confident in my life in 

 bee-keeping ! These 70 hives are filled with splendid brood- 

 combs, and thousands of pounds of honey. I have now 60 

 colonies in splendid condition. Swarms have just begun to 

 come (May 28), and none but a skillful apiarist can know how 

 easily and rapidly my lost colonies can be restored. 



The last two years have been the most instructive in my 

 experience, in regard to winter losses and spring dwindling. 

 Seeming mysterious results were continually happening in these 

 lines. The pollen and many other theories have been ad- 

 vanced to account for them. For the pollen theory I never 

 had respect enough to argue. To collect pollen is Ndturc's 

 voice, and I think she knows more than the conceity bee- 



keeper who claims to have "doubled the profits of honey- 

 production." 



I have for some time been squinting in the direction of 

 the age and condition of the bees themselves in our colonies 

 when put into winter quarters, as the key to safe results, and 

 I now know that no style of hive or perfection of quarters can 

 keep alive a colony of old bees, five or six months, and rear 

 young bees to take their place. If my bees had been fed a 

 few ounces each day during the last of August and early Sep- 

 tember, they would have continued rearing brood, and my 70 

 empty hives would mostly now be filled with good colonies of 

 live bees. I have proved that bees will not continue brood- 

 rearing when the surplus is suddenly taken away, and honey 

 ceases to come from the fields, even when the hives are well 

 stored with honey. Hereafter, when there is no fall flow, 

 feeding will be invoked as a substitute. 



Now, Dr. Miller, there is my explanation of my heavy loss, 

 "in print." Forestville, Minn. 



Successful Wiuteriug ou Very Deep Frames. 



BY THOS. THURLOW. 



On page 67, is published an article that I wrote about 

 how I put up part of my bees for winter, by standing the 

 Langstroth frame on end as an experiment, to see if I could 

 not have them strong enough in the spring to get locust 

 bloom, of which there is a great deal about here. The experi- 

 ment has been a decided success. First, they are strong, and 

 locust is not yet in bloom ; second, very few bees died in this 

 very hard winter — so few, that the bees kept the bottom clean, 

 and I never could find any to scrape out ; thirdly, they must 

 have been very comfortable all winter, for they consumed the 

 least honey that I have ever known a colony to get through 

 with, the proof of which is that when I examined them about 

 the middle of March, they had brood in the upper end of 

 three and four frames, and the next cells to the brood was 

 capped honey. I judged that the queen was, or would be, 

 crowded, and took out a frame of nearly solid honey, and put 

 an empty comb in the center of each hive. " Rather early to 

 spread brood, even if it is right to do it at all," old bee-men 

 would say ; but " circumstances alter cases." With a hive 

 less than 10 inches square horizontally, and a good colony in 

 the upper part of it, there is no danger from spreading brood. 



On May 3 fruit-bloom began, and on the 7th I looked at 

 them again — about four days too late — every cell that had not 

 brood in was packed full of honey ; two of them with capped 

 drone-brood and queen-cells started. The next day they were 

 taken out of winter quarters, and a full complement of frames 

 given them in their natural position. 



Now about the other 5 wintered with frames in their nat- 

 ural position: One "wont up" in the February blizzard, with 

 honey within an inch of the cluster. The other four consumed 

 nearly all their stores, and in consequence had diarrhea badly ; 

 lost the best of their numbers through the winter, and had to 

 be helped out with food taken from those wintered on the 

 right plan. 



This trial settles in my mind the great controversy going 

 on about the depth of frames. I extract my honey, and the 

 Langstroth frame is deep enough to extract from, and uncap 

 handily. Anybody that has two sets of frames, a deep one for 

 the brood-nest, and a shallow one for surplus, will wish they 

 hadn't before they are done. 



All my hives will have the frames on end next winter, 

 with this change from this first trial : Instead of setting the 

 top-bars all one way, they will be alternated, to try to keep 

 the bees from going to the top and leaving honey below them. 

 My expectation was, that they would keep below the honey 

 the past winter, and only go up as they consumed it, but they 

 didn't. They worked up along the bottom-bars where there 

 was the least honey and the most room, and began to breed at 

 the top. 



Here let me fasten a truth : Bees will (in this Northern 

 clime) go to the top of the comb in winter, where it is the tvarm- 

 est, even if they have to go Uirouah capped honey to get thcfre. 



This will answer the inquiries of several bee-keepers who, 

 having read the article on page 67, wanted to know how the 

 experiment turned out. Lancaster, Pa., May 14. 



Xliat I^'ew Song: — "Queenie Jeanette" — which is being 

 sung everywhere, we can send you for 40 cents, postpaid, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for one year — both for only 

 SI. 10. Or, send us one new subscriber for a year (with -Jl.OO), and 

 we will mail you a copy of the song free. 



