AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



171 



Queries ajid Replies. 



Size of Brood-Ctiailier for Wintering, 



Query 778. — If you desired a brood- 

 chamber expressly for the welfare of 

 bees during the Winter (on the summer 

 stand), of what dimensions would you 

 prefer to have the same ? — Penn. 



A 1-foot cube. — G. M, Doolittle. 



The same as a 10-frame Langstroth. 

 — Eugene Secok. 



About 1,650 or 1,700 cubic inches. 

 —J. P. H. Brown. 



About 2,000 cubic inches, and nearly 

 square. — J. M. Hambaugh. 



I prefer the Langstroth hive for all 

 purposes. — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Perhaps the best size and form is 

 14x14x14 inches. — M. Mahin. 



I really do not know. I think I would 

 take the old straw skep. — C. C. Miller. 



As small as possible to accommodate 

 the wants of the entire population. — 

 Dadant & Son. 



I would make the hive 15 inches 

 square, and 16 inches deep, or there- 

 abouts. — C. H. DiBBERN. 



Do not care, but should like to have 

 the hive raised on a rim 3 inches from 

 the bottom-board. — A. J. Cook. 



If the sole object were to winter the 

 bees, I think a box-hive, a foot square 

 and 18 inches high, would be as good as 

 any. — R. L. Taylor. 



All things considered, the standard 

 Langstroth hive, with frames 17%x93^ 

 inches will produce as good results as 

 any hive — and results are what we are 

 after.— H. D. Cutting. 



I prefer, at all times, the ordinary 10- 

 frame Langstroth hive. I have always 

 wintered my bees on summer stands, 

 and find that the 10-frame hive will 

 winter a small colony just as well as 

 will a smaller hive. — J. E. Pond. 



The capacity should be large, say, 13 

 Langstroth frames, or, what is prefer- 

 able, a two-story hive of brood-chambers 

 7 inches deep, with a capacity for 1,660 

 square Inches of brood-comb. Colonies 

 in such hives winter better, come out 

 stronger in Spring, and build up faster 

 than any other. — G. L. Tinker. 



I know of none better, and few as 

 good, as one case of my divisible brood- 

 chamber hive ; 8 combs, 5 inches deep 

 by 73-2 inches long. Shallow, narrow 

 brood-chambers are best, for obvious 

 reasons — experience corroborates this 

 view. — James Heddon. 



Just the size of the standard Lang- 

 stroth frames, 17?^x9J^, 10 frames to 

 the hive. There is no better division- 

 board than a comb filled with honey. I 

 know that I stand nearly alone in this 

 matter, but I am thoroughly of the 

 opinion that bees do better in a full size 

 hive in Winter than when crowded on a 

 few frames. It is simply unnatural to 

 bees to be crowded in Winter. Their 

 nature and habit is to draw up into a 

 compact cluster so that the air can pass 

 all around between the cluster and the 

 wall of the hive. — G. W. Demaree. 



The Langstroth hive we perfer for 

 all purposes — Winter and Summer. — 

 The Editor. 



Better than Alfalfa. 



I take the liberty of sending the en- 

 closed plant, and would like to learn its 

 scientific and common name. It has 

 proved to be by far our most productive 

 honey plant — more so than the cleome, 

 of which we have an abundance, or, con- 

 sidering the amount of it, better even 

 than our alfalfa. The bees work on it 

 about the first thing in early Summer, 

 and keep working on it every day until 

 the last thing in the Fall. 



Geo. H. Eversole. 



La Plata, N. M. 



[The plant sent by Mr. Eversole is 

 known in science as Ooura coccinea. I 

 know of no common name. It is very 

 closely related to our excellent honey 

 plant Epelohium angostofoUum, or fire- 

 weed, or tall willow-herb, and so we 

 would expect good things of it. It be- 

 longs to the evening primrose family. — 

 A. J. Cook.] 



Krance. — The fact that the Govern- 

 ment so cordially and readily accepted 

 the invitation to take part in the World's 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago, is 

 matter of wide-spread satisfaction, 

 which is daily growing all over France. 

 —Les Debats, Paris, France. 



