THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



325 



full sheets of comb foundation in the 

 brood-chamber— to prevent an excess 

 of drones.— The Editor. 



Honey for Bees in Winter. 



<luer)' -iaS.— Having a few llprbt colonies 

 of bees last fall, I Rave each full combs of boney 

 from stronii colooies. and put them into the cellar 

 on Nov. 19. Upon examination recently, I found 

 the combs tllthy with the excrement of the bees, 

 with lots of honey in the hive, but the bees were 

 dead. iB it practical to winter bees in solitary 

 confinement on honey gathered by other colonies? 

 — B. 8., New York. 



Yes.— G. L. Tinker. 



It is practical in many cases. Read 

 my article on page 184, in regard to 

 small colonies.— C. W. Dayton. 



I should say the temperature of 

 your cellar was not high enough, 

 rather than a fault of the honey.— G. 



M. DOOLITTLE. 



It is practicable to winter bees on 

 combs of honey gathered by other 

 bees, but weak colonies are liable to 

 dwindle and perish with the best of 

 stores, if the cold is protracted.— J. 

 P. II. Brown. 



I do not understand your meaning 

 of " solitary confinement." Bees will 

 winter on good honey whether they 

 or some other colony gathered it. — EI. 

 D. Cutting. 



The honey of other colonies has 

 nothing to do with the question, if it 

 is wholesome. But outside of this 

 the circumstances in which your bees 

 were placed may have been unfavor- 

 able. We could not say what was 

 wrong, unless we were acquainted 

 with all the particulars.- Dadant & 

 Son. 



Most assuredly ; I have done it re- 

 peatedly. The probable reason of 

 your loss is that your cellar was too 

 cold, and your bees to few in num- 

 bers.— A. J. Cook. 



The bees died with the diarrhea. 

 That the honey was gathered by other 

 colonies probably made no difference. 

 Perhaps they were not strong enough 

 in numbers to keep up the requisite 

 heat.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I am not sure I understand the 

 question, but I believe that combs of 

 honey upon which the bees that gath- 

 ered it would winter well, would be 

 just as good for any other colony.— C. 

 C. Miller. 



To the last part of your question I 

 say yes, most certainly so. But if 

 you give the bees a new supply of 

 stores and put them in confinement 

 at once, they are likely to gorge them- 

 selves to their ruin, unless they can 

 have a flight in the open air till' they 

 resume a normal condition. Con- 

 tinued confinement with low tempera- 

 ture will destroy any colony of bees, 

 but conditions may vary the time all 

 the way from successful wintering to 

 the worst sort of failures.— G. W. 



DiaiAREE. 



Yes I most certainly, if preparation 

 is made at the proper time. Honey is 

 honey; comb is comb, and bees 

 utilize both at all times, whether 

 their own or of other colonies. You 

 Inust look deeper for the source of 



your troubles. You do not say that 

 it is so, but I judge that you put the 

 bees on strange combs on the day you 

 put them into the cellar. If such was 

 the case, it should have been ex- 

 pected the bees would die, ars they had 

 no opportunity to construct a brood- 

 nest before cold weather.— J. E. Pond. 



Your bees have that disease known 

 as bee-diarrhea. It was not caused 

 by " solitary confinement," nor the 

 transferred honey. It was caused by 

 the consumption of pollen, and that 

 consumption was caused by some con- 

 dition present with your colonies, 

 which is not known to me. — Jambs 

 Heddon. 



" Solitary confinement " may do for 

 criminals; but for bees, weyer. They 

 need company for warmth. It makes 

 no difference as to what bees gath- 

 ered the honey, so long as it is "come- 

 at-able "for the nourishment of bees 

 in winter quarters. Your colonies 

 were evidently too "weak", to keep 

 up the necessary temperature, and 

 therefore " succumbed to the inevit- 

 able."— The Editor. 



Housekeeper. 



WeiEliii tlie Baliy. 



EUGENE SECOR. 



"The baby is three months old to-day ; 



We want to see what the cherub will weigh— 



So if paua has leisure. 



I know he'll take pleasure 

 In bringing the scalei containing the tray." 



'Twas mamma, wlio thus from my book 

 Enticed me, with speech and with look 



So happy, so winning, 



I had surely been sinning. 

 Had I not left, with pleasure, my nook. 



The clumsy scale.s to the room were brought ; 

 The same by whuh flsh and potatoeswere bought. 



As if, in une measure. 



And just at one's pleasure, 

 A bushel of turnips could balance a thought. 



As if with gTuciTs' scaleB could be weighed 

 A sunbeam, a jn>- -or a reckoning made 



In puutnls, to a fraction, 



Of the subtle attraction 

 Of a lily, in all Us beauty arrayed ! 



The treasure wav wrapped in mamma's shawl. 

 The little pink toes and fingers and all— 

 'Twould not do to chill her 

 With tlie scales from the cellar— 

 For 'twas cold, cold weather late in the fall. 



The balance was turned at ten and four. 

 Nor could we mnke it a fraction more ; 



When she looked up so smiling, 



So bewitching, beguiling. 

 That in our estimation the weight was fourscore. 



Then for those dimples add at least eight. 

 For blue eyes thitl twinkle a sum twice as great ; 

 To the ernwing and cooing— 

 Liike wdud-pheasants wooing — 

 Add the charm.4 unseen that tomama have weight. 



And what do you u'ueas is the total amount ? 

 'Tis a sum too lnrt,'e for papa tc» count. 



So back with the?e cumbersome 



Scales to the lumber room- 

 To weigh neavcn'fl gifts they're just no account. 

 Forest City. Iowa. 



Convention Notices. 



tW The next meeting of the Darke County 

 Union Bee-Koept-rs' Society will be held at Green- 

 ville, O.. on Friday, May 27, IH87. 



J. A. Roe, A$Bt. Sec. 



^F" The next meeting of the West Lake Shore 

 Central Bee-Keepers' Association will be held on 

 May 26, 1887, in Koekrlng Hall, at Kiel. Wis. 



Feed Zastrow, See. 



Covrjes:pondcnte. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named; 

 6 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 •O west; and this 6 northeast ; X3 northwest: 

 t^ southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



Contraction of tlie Brood-Nest. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



^r" The Biion" and Hendricks Counties Bee- 

 Keepera' A^Bociution meets at John Ridgway'a, 

 southwest of Br"\vnBburK. Ind..on Thursday. June 

 2, 1887. All arc invited to come Willi baskets well 

 filled, and have ii nice time. 



A. Cox, Chairman Committee. 



On page 278, Mr. Demaree, in speak- 

 ing of the contraction system, says : 

 " Such treatment would bring ruin to 

 my apiary in an average season, un- 

 less I should feed the colonies through 

 the heated months of summer, and 

 supply them with winter stores again 

 in the fall, in which case I would lose 

 rather than gain by the operation." 



Farther on he says that "to so 

 manipulate the hive arrangements 

 as to throw all the honey into the 

 ' surplus ' costs the life of the colony. 

 Now, if we feed back to counteract 

 the loss on the side of the bees, we 

 have gained nothing— nay, lost in the 

 operation." 



Let us consider for a moment what 

 contraction of the brood-nest really 

 does. Perhaps I cannot explain the 

 matter more clearly" than I have in 

 "The Production of Comb Honey." 

 I quote as follows : "To rear the 

 great army of workers needed for the 

 harvest, there must be, in the fore- 

 part of the season, a good-sized brood- 

 nest— not larger, however, than an 

 ordinarily prolific queen will keep 

 well filled with brood— but when the 

 bountiful harvest has finally arrived, 

 and been ushered in by swarming, 

 then we wish the now existing workers 

 to go into the fields, to gather in the 

 nectar and cure and seal it, instead of 

 wasting their time, vitality and stores 

 in rearing another army of workers 

 that will come upon the field when 

 the harvest is over and gone. Fortu- 

 nately, our desire and the bees' in- 

 stinct are exactly parallel in this in- 

 stance. Give a swarm a large brood- 

 nest and the bees will fill it— partly 

 with brood, but mostly with honey ; 

 put a swarm into a hive with a small 

 brood-chamber, allow the bees to 

 build their own combs therein, at the 

 same time give them access to a super 

 furnished with comb, and they will 

 fill the super with honey, and the 

 brood-nest— slightly with honey, but 

 mostly with brood." 



Contraction carried to an extreme 

 will curtail the production of brood, 

 but increase the immediate production 

 of honey ; moderately employed, it 

 will not lessen the rearing of brood 

 nor augment the amount of honey, 

 but effects a comparatively complete 

 separation of brood and honey ; i. «., 

 the brood will be in one apartment 

 and the honey in another. This is 

 what contraction does, it secures 

 nearly all of the white honey in the 

 most marketable shape, leaving the 

 brood-nest filled with brood instead 



