AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



519 



sugar and honey, and yet 1 do not believe 

 I would advise people to buy such feed 

 for their bees, when they can get such 

 nice granulated sugar for about 4J^ to 

 4:H cents by the barrel, and poorer grades 

 cheaper still. 



As to hurting the bees, I think 

 they should not be fed a poor grade 

 of sugar or molasses in the Fall or 

 Winter, nor in early Spring until they 

 fly freely. Good sorghum syrup, I be- 

 lieve, would be as good for them in 

 April and May as sugar, and I would 

 feed it by all means if I had it. But the 

 bees would have to be taught to eat it, as 

 I have before mentioned, by feeding but 

 little at first, and adding more each day. 

 I think it could be fed safely in the hive, 

 as it would not sour any quicker than 

 sugar syrup. 



In feeding the poor syrups, if I fed at 

 all, I would give less than two-thirds 

 sugar and one-third of the poor syrup, 

 as it might injure the bees if the syrup 

 was very bad. — Mrs. L. C. Axtell, in 

 an Exchange. 



Dead-Air Space. 



Many are advocating a dead air space 

 about the bees during Winter, rather 

 than chaff packing, as used by the older 

 heads, claiming that the latter is not as 

 beneficial to the bees as the former. 

 The Yoxing Scientist says: "If we have 

 two spaces, each four inches thick, one 

 with what is called a 'dead air space' 

 and the other filled with some very light 

 and porous material like chaff, the chaff- 

 packed will have four or five times the 

 non-conducting power of the air-filled 

 space, and this whether it is around a 

 bee hive an ice house, or a steam pipe." 

 If the Young Scientist is right, and I be- 

 lieve it is, then some of our bee-keepers 

 are wrong. — G. M. Doolittle, in Bural 

 Home. • 



Removing the Winter Packing. 



When the bees are flying nicely, the 

 breeze in the south ; snow all gone ; and 

 grass beginning to show green ; take an 

 empty hive, a smoker, a dust broom, a 

 hatchet, a few nails, and a knife and 

 begin. 



Give the guards a whiff or two of 

 smoke, and remove the lid. Pass down 

 a little smoke, and take the top box 

 away. Remove the combs, bees and all, 

 into the empty hive ; dump the remain- 

 ing bees out on the ground in front of 

 the entrance, and scrape all fragments 

 of comb, knots of wax, etc., from the 

 hive. Sweep it clean ; drive a nail or 



two if needed, and replace on the stand ; 

 then I take one of the combs containing 

 brood or honey and pollen, and shake the 

 bees into the hive just cleaned ; scrape 

 the top-bar clean, cut the comb down to 

 the width of the top-bar, and replace the 

 bees in the clean hive on the stand. All 

 combs not empty are treated in the same 

 way. While handling these combs I find 

 the queen and clip one wing, if not 

 clipped before, and have all snugly re- 

 placed in the hive as before ; clean and 

 space more closel^- with an addition of 

 a comb of honey, or syrup if needed, and 

 a division-board inclosing all compactly 

 to one side of the hive. 



I now replace the carpet and packing, 

 sometimes even the leaves or cushion, 

 close the entrance in proportion to the 

 strength of the colony, and 1 have as 

 -happy and lively a set of little folks as 

 ever enjoyed a clean, easy, and warm 

 home. 



If the colony is strong, one may re- 

 place all the combs at once. If weak, he 

 should do as above, and feed a half pint 

 of syrup every evening at dusk, for a 

 month or so. This stimulates the queen 

 to lay, and builds up the colony rapidly, 

 — E. H. Collins, in the Indiana Farmer^ 



Taking Bees Out of the Cellar. 



The bees, of course, should be put out 

 on the summer stands, if wintered in- 

 doors, as soon as the weather becomes 

 reasonably warm and settled. Should it 

 suddenly grow warm, this sometimes 

 becomes a rather difficult and disagree- 

 able job, as the bees now get very un- 

 easy, and opening the doors a few times, 

 with a glimpse of sunshine and a little 

 warm air from outside, will make them 

 crazy to get out. 



At such times I find it a good plan to 

 open the doors at night if the moon does 

 not shine too brightly, and get up at 3 

 or 4 o'clock in the morning and put out 

 from 30 to 50 colonies at a time. 



It is not best to put out too many at a 

 time, as they get more or less mixed up, 

 and it does not tire one so much. 

 Usually, too, there is really not so much 

 hurry about getting them out as we 

 think there is, and sometimes the 

 weather suddenly turns cold and stormy, 

 and we are glad we left them in the 

 cellar yet awhile. 



To keep the bees from rushing out of 

 the hives in carrying them out, it is a 

 capital idea to lay a cloth, dripping wet, 

 in front of the entrance. This keeps 

 them quiet and peaceable, A stick or 

 dry cloth does not generally fasten them' 



