THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



137 



yet. Perhaps some may say that here 

 IS where the advantage of a " pool "' 

 would come in ; the grocer would be 

 made to pay a little more at least. 



1 presume if the business was all in 

 the hands of specialists, and grocers 

 ■would handle it, and their customers 

 purchase it at prices fixed, such a pool 

 might be effectual. But those are the 

 rubs. In the first place very few will 

 purchase honey at any price. The 

 Mr. W. before mentioned, told me 

 that lie had sold considerable honey 

 at 12K cents that he would not other- 

 wise liave sold at all. But he could 

 see that it cut into the syrup trade. 



Again, specialists cannot always 

 control the markets, and all markets 

 cannot be controlled alike. In Spring- 

 field is a prominent lawyer and a 

 wealthy druggist who keep bees 

 largelv for pleasure. Together they 

 produced nearly 2,000 pounds of nice 

 ■comb honey which they sell at 12}4 

 cents per pound in trade. That knocks 

 me out. as I want cash, while an opu- 

 lent lawyer or merchant can very 

 easily consume that much in groceries. 



Again, here is an old, retired farmer 

 who potters with bees largely as a 

 pastime, and he finds it very conven- 

 ient to pay for his groceries in the 

 same way. What do these men want 

 with combinations? They take no 

 interest in the honey business, prop- 

 erly speaking, and could not be pre- 

 vailed upon to join any combination. 

 And there are enough of such men to 

 defeat any pool that might be formed 

 in a flush season. 



Mechanicsburg.O Ills. 



For tue American Bee Joonsal. 



Tlie Hiye-Entrances in Winter. 



G. M. DOOHTTLE. 



A correspondent wishes to know 

 " if the entrance of the hives should 

 be closed while the ground is covered 

 with snow." As I have experimented 

 largely along this line, perhaps I can- 

 not do better than answer this ques- 

 tion through the Bee Journal. 



Soon after I began keeping bees a 

 friend recommended closing the en- 

 trances to keep the bees in the hives 

 at times when mild weather occurred 

 with snow on the ground, for, said he, 

 " if you do not do this, lots of bees 

 will be lost on the snow, especially 

 toward and in early spring." He also 

 said that if plenty of upward ventila- 

 tion was given, the bees would get 

 all the air they required from above, 

 80 no harm could possibly arise from 

 the supply of air being cut off below. 



I closed the entrances as advised,all 

 going well as long as it kept cold and 

 cloudy. One bright, sunshiny day, 

 although quite cold in all other places 

 except where the sun shone on the 

 front side of the hives, I was out in 

 the bee-yard when I heard a little 

 clicking noise all about me. Wonder- 

 ing what it was, I listened and soon 

 found that the noise came from the 

 hives, a closer inspection revealing 

 that it was produced by the bees 

 gnawing at the hive-entrances, trying 

 to get out. Several such days occur- 



red, during which I found that all 

 was quiet in the hives until about 1 

 p.m., by which time the sun would 

 so warm the interior of the hives that 

 the cluster would be broken and un- 

 rest maintained until about 7 p.m., 

 when the cluster would again be 

 formed. In this way the life of the 

 bees was being worried out, and I 

 thought to open the entrances, for I 

 began to realize that I should lose my 

 bees if something was not done. 



Upon opening the entrance to one 

 hive I soon saw that such a course 

 would not answer, for out rushed the 

 bees en masse, as though they had es- 

 caped from prison, taking wing and 

 rising above the hive. As soon as 

 they came above the hive the cold 

 north air struck them, when they 

 were soon spinning on their backs on 

 the snow or wallowing in the same, 

 never to rise again. 



The next day I was called some dis- 

 tance from home, and on the way I 

 saw a man sweeping snow up about 

 his hives. I sto|)ped and asked him 

 the reason for so doing. He said he 

 had two reasons, the first of which 

 was that in times of extreme cold the 

 snow greatly protected the hives ; and 

 second, that at times when the sun 

 shone brightly (yet the air was not 

 warm enough "for bees to fly in safety) 

 the snow kept the hives cool, so that 

 the bees had no desire to fly. I now 

 had learned a way to obviate my 

 trouble, as he told me that every time 

 the snow fell he swept it about the 

 hives, thus having snow about them 

 when there was any on the ground. 



From this on for two or three years, 

 after every fall of snow I piled it 

 around the hives until they were 

 covered up, the entrances being closed 

 all the time. All proved satisfactory, 

 except the work part of it, until one 

 winter nearly all of the colonies so 

 treated seemed to get too warm, and 

 about Feb. 1 broke cluster and went 

 to breeding. After I ascertained this 

 fact I took the snow away from a few 

 hives down as far as the lower edge 

 of the cap or corner, which caused 

 them to quiet down, and when spring 

 opened these few were about all I had 

 left. 



About this time I had a number of 

 colonies to drift under some 10 feet 

 deep, so that I lost all track of them, 

 and after trying once or twice to 

 shovel down and find them, I gave it 

 up and waited until spring. When 

 they came out, only 3 out of 12 were 

 alive, and of the 3 alive only 1 came 

 through to June, and that was very 

 weak. These 12 only represent the 

 success I have had with bees drifted 

 in snow whether the entrance was 

 open or closed, although others report 

 successful wintering under like cir- 

 cumstances. 



Xot being satisfied with anything 

 so far attained, I next left the en- 

 trance open and swept snow up 

 against the hive as far as the brood- 

 thamber extended. This appeared 

 to give better results, still I kept on 

 trying other experiments until four 

 years ago, at which time my hives 

 were fixed as follows : 



The entrance of each hive was open 

 4 inches in length, and a board as 



wide and as long as the front side of 

 the brood-chamber was stood on the 

 bottom-board out in front and away 

 from the entrance 4 inches, and then 

 leaned against the hive. When snow 

 falls I only sweep it up over this board 

 and front side of the hive.closing each 

 end between the board and hive with 

 snow, while the rest of the hive is 

 left as it was. In all cases the bees 

 are in chaff hives with a 4-inch thick 

 cushion filled with sawdust over the 

 frames above the quilt. In this way 

 my bees have wintered to please me, 

 except as dead bees sometimes accu- 

 mulate on the bottom -board to such 

 an extent as to cause the combs to 

 mold ; still the most of the old bees go 

 out into the vacant space in front of 

 the entrance to die, yet not all. 



To obviate even this occasional 

 trouble, I have this winter made for a 

 part of my colonies a rim 1}^ inches 

 wide, and as large as the bottom of 

 the hive, which is placed on the bot- 

 tom, and the hive placed on this ; 

 which gives room below the combs 

 for all the dead bees that may accu- 

 mulate, besides plenty of air. The 

 colonies thus fixed seem to be in the 

 best of condition at this writing, 

 while some not so fixed are getting 

 restless on account of their not having 

 a chance to fly since the five days of 

 last November, and our winter being 

 unusually severe thus far. 



Now about bees flying when the 

 snow is on the ground : I find that 

 bees can take wing from the snow as 

 well as from bare ground, provided it 

 is warm enough. The degree of 

 warmth I find necessary for such suc- 

 cessful flight is 45° in the shade, pro- 

 viding it is perfectly still and the sun 

 shining brightly. If partly cloudy or 

 the wind blowing lightly, it must be 

 .50^ in the shade, or else we suffer loss. 

 With a high wind and cloudy a little 

 loss will occur with it as warm as 57° 

 to 60°. At all times not warm enough 

 for flight the bees remain quiet if 

 fixed as above, providing they are not 

 restless at a temperature of freezing 

 and below. Colonies suffering from 

 the so-called diarrhea are never clus- 

 tered quietly. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



For tne American Bee JoornaL 



Getting Extra Comlis for Extracting. 



JOHN KEY. 



In reply to the question, " How 

 shall I proceed to get combs built at 

 the least expense ?" I will give the 

 plan that I have been using the last 

 three years. I always save the drone 

 comb when I examine a hive in the 

 apiary, or whenever I find a brood- 

 comb that has any drone comb in it I 

 cut it out and insert worker comb in 

 its place. I do not allow any drone 

 comb in the brood-chamber. 



My brood-frames are theLangstroth 

 size, in 10-frame hives; the surplus 

 cases are only half as deep, and hold 

 7 brood-frames for comb honey, each 

 brood-frame holding four one-pound 

 sections with separator. My extract- 

 ing combs I work in the same cases, 



