630 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. S, 



are favorable, such as a uearly uniform temperature, with a 

 sufficient quantity of pure air, accessible at all times, in such 

 a manner as not to disturb the occupants of the hives. As to 

 what should be the temperature, this can best be decided upon 

 by studying the point at which the bees are best behaved, a 

 damp cellar naturally requiring a higher temperature than a 

 dry one. Pure air can be supplied either through sub-earth 

 pipes, or by allowing it first to enter an outer repository, and 

 afterwards allowed to find its way in, when not too cold to 

 produce disturbance and in order to remove the foul air, a 

 small tin pipe may come within three or four inches of the 

 floor, and attached to a stove-pipe overhead, or direct commu- 

 nication may be given through an opening in the chimney bot- 

 tom, providing it extends sufficiently low down in the cellar. 

 There are, however, many cellars which admit pure air in suf- 

 ficent quantity, that no other provision need be made for such. 



As to what preparation the hives themselves should have 

 on going in and after being stored, possibly ihe most general 

 one is to remove the propolized quilt, and placing thereon 

 another new one, covered in some instances with a cushion of 

 some porous or absorbing material, and the ordinary summer 

 entrance left open at the bottom; still, this is not necessary, 

 nor in all cases desirable, as success is attained by leaving the 

 propolized quilt on as in summer, and as often, if not oftener, 

 by simply leaving the ordinary wood cover on the hive and 

 giving all the ventilation at the bottom — by either raising the 

 front of the hive from the bottom-board, say three or four 

 inches, or, in fact, removing the bottom-board altogether. 



The above system certainly has the advantage over out- 

 side wintering, in that less material is required, and less labor 

 needed to secure the object sought for, although at present 

 circumstances do not permit it being carried out. 



And now, to those who, from necessity, or others, again, 

 who from choice, prefer to winter bees out-of-doors, a few 

 concluding retnarks may not be out of place, if indeed not act- 

 ually hoped for, even from this now already too lengthy arti- 

 cle. 



First of all, then, outside cases are of course indispensa- 

 ble, and there being so many different kinds in vogue, I am at 

 a loss which to recommend, as however cheapness combined 

 with utility is essential ; possibly one that will contain two or 

 more colonies, and made of plain, unpainted, rough boards, 

 will, on account of to some extent utilizing the combined heat 

 of the bees, prove as satisfactory as any other, especially if a 

 large amount of packing is used; yet, I am not by any means 

 satisfied from my own experiments, as also those of others of 

 late years, that this arrangement is superior, or even as good, 

 as if a less quantity of packing is used (say two inches), with a 

 separate case for each and painted a dark red color, with no 

 upward ventilation whatever, so that at times the advantages 

 of solar heat absorbed from the sun's rays might assist in 

 rousing up the bees and thus dispelling the accumulated mois- 

 ture through the entrance instead of allowing it to pass out at 

 the top, through the porus packing, in which much of the 

 natural heat generated by the bees is almost lost. This 1 

 trust may be profitably discussed at this meeting, although it 

 may not appear to some a part and parcel of my article proper. 



In order, therefore, to be brief, I need only further add 

 that the quality of the stores as well as the position in the 

 hive, which they occupy, is far more requisite in this than in 

 cellar-wintering; and while I have no desire or motive in at- 

 tempting to appear eccentric, I will state that bees that are 

 well crowded on combs of sealed stores, with little or no 

 empty comb on which to cluster, have always wintered exceed- 

 ingly well with me, as well as with others in Canada, notably 

 Mr. Wm. McEvoy, who is a strong advocate of having the 

 "constitutional condition "of the hive, as he is pleased to 

 term it, just so; that I prefer a hive well packed with bees, 

 and 25 or 30 pounds of well ripened sealed stores on the ap- 

 proach of winter, even if the hive be made small for the pur- 

 pose, and again enlarged in spring when required. 



Nothing further remains except that a two-inch rim may, 

 if one chooses, be added under the hives ; this I have found 

 nol; an important factor, if the entrance proper is not allowed 

 to become too long obstructed by snow, ice or dead bees; and, 

 lastly, a caution that the hives are not permitted to become 

 completely covered over with snow, which, if allowed to re- 

 main too long, results as a rule in no good to the colony. Hav- 

 ing done this, and complied with the requisites regarding up- 

 ward ventilation, through from six to eight inches of chaff or 

 forest leaves, (the same material being used for packing the 

 sides), with an entrance of about four inches long by ^i inch 

 high, little, if indeed anything, more can be done in order to 

 reasonably succeed in this particular branch of apiculture. 



I do know that success has attended ray efforts in the past 

 by the above system, yet I at the same time have succeeded 



in very cold winters, such as the past, by allowing no upward 

 ventilation whatever, and giving a generous^yes, even large — 

 amount of lower ventilation ; the latter plan, however, does 

 require that the other proper conditions are more strictly ad- 

 hered to. 



It is almost unnecessary to still further add, that there is 

 with apiculture quite a sufficiency of uncertainly to cause 

 those who intend following it to be timely and orderly in doing 

 what ought to be done, as a laggard is not any more likely to 

 succeed in this work, if as much so, as in any other pursuit; 

 while those will best succeed who aside from the dollars-and- 

 cents point of view have a real love for the calling, and who 

 also possess common-sense in sufficient quantity not to be 

 carried away with the idea that bees always " work for noth- 

 ing and board themselves," without some consideration from 

 the apiarist. F. A. Gemmill. 



Mr. Gemmill's essay was then discussed as follows: 



S. T. Pettit — Why must a damp cellar have a high tem- 

 perature ? 



Mr. Gemmill — I have found it necessary. 



Pres. Holtermann — I think that we often make a mistake 

 in thinking a cellar damp unless it is tested with a wet and 

 dry bulb thermometer, 



Wra. McEvoy — Crowd the bees dowu on solid combs of 

 honey, then there is no chance for the queen to lay until 

 toward spring. 



Dr. Mason — Why does Messrs. Hall and Pettit raise one 

 end of the hive 1 



Mr. Pettit — To be sure there is plenty of circulation. 



Mr. Hall — Mr. Pettit is correct ; but that isn't why I do 

 it. My object is to get rid of mouldy comb and dead bees. 



Mr. Pettit — For some reason I can get better results by 

 using bottom-boards. 



The convention then adjourned until 2 p.m. 

 (Continued on page 645.) 



Coj;)tnbuted Abides. 



On Important Apiarian Sub^eots. 



Section Honey Production and Swarming. 



BT G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



My excuse for writing this article at this time, instead of 

 for the month of June, lies in the fact that a bee-keeper from 

 one of the Western States is considerably agitated over the re- 

 sult of the past season, and requests me to write an article on 

 the above subject for the American Bee Journal as soon as 

 possible. He writes that he has had no trouble in following 

 the ideas I have sometimes advanced in regard to spreading 

 the brood, which some of our bee-friends seem to think as mis- 

 leading to the bee-keeping fraternity as a whole, for there was 

 no trouble in getting the hives filled with brood and bees by 

 the time the honey harvest arrived by using the plan ; but the 

 trouble was, that when the hives were thus filled and the flow 

 of honey occurred, excessive swarming was sure to result, 

 which gave a loss in honey and often in queens, owing to the 

 fact that the queens were not allowed to go with the swarms. 



Swarming, when working for section honey, cannot very 

 well be avoided, or at least bee-keepers have not been very 

 successful in avoiding it, without sacrificing a large amount 

 of the honey crop. In fact, so far, it would seem better to have 

 excessive swarming than to try to hinder it altogether by any 

 of the plans so far given to the public, for by any of these, 

 where the ordinary hive is used, the bees are so thrown out of 

 their normal condition that they will not work to their best 

 advantage. 



Again, I think that a mistaken idea prevails with some, in 

 thinking that the brood-chambers must be kept full of brood 

 the whole season through. This is not the secret of the suc- 

 cessful honey-production, but it lies in having the brood-cham- 

 ber filled with brood before it is filled with honey. Thus doing 

 we get the laborers for the first harvest, and, so far as my 

 knowledge extends, when the brood-chamber is thus filled when 

 honey harvest commences, there will be bees enough reared 

 for all practical purposes after this, even though the combs 

 may be filled, later on, two-thirds full of honey. 



There are two plans, or ways of management, which can 

 be used successfully during the swarming season. In this 

 locality, and if I lived in any of the Western States I would 

 try them there, and then, if they did not work, I would study 

 out something else. And right here I wish to say that there 



