Tmm mmkmmit^mn m^nm jo^rnsx. 



267 



mometer indicated 20^ below freezing. 

 So fatal is the sun wlien sliining 

 directly on the hives, that I early 

 learned to use wide boards, set up to 

 shade the hives from the sun ; and 

 when there is snow on the ground I 

 (flften scatter straw around, so the bees 

 may fall on that, and not be chilled by 

 the snow ; then some of- them will get 

 back into the hives. 



I do not know the lowest tempera- 

 ture at which a bee can fly with safety. 

 It must be considerably over 40-, for a 

 bee will perish at a temperature of 40^. 

 Bees will sometimes rise from a hard 

 crust of snow, but when it is new and 

 S(jft, I have seldom seen one rise from 

 it. Such has been my experience in 

 this latitude ; how it is in West Vir- 

 ginia, I do not know. 



North Clarendon, Vt. 



HONEY-BOARDS. 



HoAV tliey Should be 9Ia<le and 

 Used. 



JTritten for Ihc American lice Journal 

 BY JAMES HEDDON. 



In Dr. Tinker's reply to Query 521, 

 he advises placing between the slats of 

 a honev-board, queen-excluding metal 

 containing two rows of queen-exclud- 

 ing passages. Let us investigate this 

 theory by the light of what is well 

 known to those who can correctly be 

 called practical honey-producers. 



In the first place the Doctor does not 

 say whether he is using a Heddon 

 honey-board (that is, one containing 

 either, or both, the bee-space and 

 break-joint principle) — I would rather 

 use no honej'-board, than one with 

 either of these features left out. If 

 the bee-space is not u.sed, the tiering 

 method is impracticable. If the break- 

 joint feature is omitted, brace-combs 

 will bother greatly between the top 

 surface of the honey-board and the 

 bottoms of tlie wide-frames, or sec- 

 tions, next to it, as the case ma^- be. 



Supjjose the slats of the Doctor's 

 honej-board are placed upon the 

 break-joint principle. If they are that 

 distance apart wliich just lets in one 

 row of perfora<i(jns (which, say is ] to 

 J of an inch), there will be no trouble 

 with brace-combs between so narrow a 

 strip of zinc and .surplus cases above. 



But one now asks, "Wliy. trouble 

 with combs there ?" I will answer 

 from experience. All know that to 

 have the least brace-combs in a bee- 

 space, it should not be deeper thai. | 

 of an inch, scant, or 5-16 of an inch. 

 As the zinc is J of an inch furtlier 

 away than the general slat-surface of 

 the honey-board, if this further-away 

 surface is wider than J of an inch, in 

 go the brace-combs — the verv things 



that we use the honey-board to prevent. 

 To be sure, the zinc might be tacked 

 to the upjoer surface of the slats, but 

 in that case the quantity of brace- 

 combs below (that is, between the 

 lower surface of the honey-board and 

 the toj)-bars of the brood-frames) will 

 be vastly multiplied — would be much 

 more than are now found between the 

 top-bars and surplus-cases, where no 

 honej'-board is used. While it is true 

 that brace-coml:is below the honey- 

 board are not to be compared with 

 those above, as for the trouble they 

 make, still though it be a fact that the 

 honej--board does not, and was never 

 devised to lessen the brace-comb build- 

 ing below it, yet it is a step backward 

 to have them increased there. 



Again, to have the slats far enough 

 apart to admit of a strip of zinc so 

 wide as to contain two rows of per- 

 forations, is to make the honey-board 

 weaker ; and last, but most of all, eight 

 rows lengthwise of the Langstroth 

 hive is ample to give a passage-wa}' to 

 more than twice ,as many workers as 

 an}' Langstroth hive ever contained. 

 The last I know to be a fact, from re- 

 peated tests made in difl'erent years in 

 both of my apiaries. I made these 

 on a large scale, and I am proud to go 

 on record as controverting the fallacy 

 of want of passage-room. If it was 

 desirable, enough testimonials to fill a 

 whole bee-paper could be obtained 

 from those who can corroborate this 

 statement, from actual experience. 



The pride and pleasure which I take 

 in placing before my fellow bee-keep- 

 ers improvements in hives, is all the 

 time marred by the proposed altera- 

 tions by those who do not compre- 

 hend the things which they are imitat- 

 ing and proposing to improve. Cer- 

 tainly it makes one feel badly to see 

 wholly original, worthless inventions 

 setting forth claims of superiority ; 

 but when we find our own inventions 

 altered and made impracticable on 

 account of the alterations, then our 

 pride as well as interest in the success 

 of our brothers, is aroused. 



I shall consider it .a great iiwor if, 

 in the future, those who claim to test 

 any of my inventions, will not presume 

 beforehand that they know more about 

 it than I do ; but be sure that they use 

 them exactly as I make them ; when, 

 after proper experimenting on a com- 

 prehensive scale, tlieir reports will be 

 gladlj- received by all. 



Surely the reports published on page 

 253, of those who have my New Hive 

 in practical use, give sufficient reply to 

 th(? criticisms by Messrs. Hamljaugh 

 and Dadant, on page lfl9. Those re- 

 ports also settle the (piestion of its mer- 

 its, and hereafter it will onl}' be neces- 

 sary to discu.ss the best way to use it. 

 Dowagiac, Midi. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1888. Tlnit and PUice of MeeUng. 



Apr. 121.- MarsliHll Co., at Marsballtown, Iowa. 



.1. W. Sanders, Sec. LeGranae. Iowa, 

 Apr. 21.— Central Michia'Hn, at Ijauaing, Mich. 



W. A. Barnes, Sec, DeWltt, Mich. 

 Apr. 21.— Eastern Indiana, at Richmond, Ind. 



M. o. Reynolds. Sec, Williamsburg, Ind. 

 Apr. 24.— Des Moines (?ounty. at Burlintjton, Iowa. 

 John Nau. Sec, Middletown, Iowa. 

 Apr. 27.— Darlte County, at Ansonia. O. 



J. A. Koe, Sec-, Union City. Ind. 

 May 2, 3.— Texas Suite, at Greenville. Te,ife 



B. F. Carroll, Sec. Blooming Grove, Tex. 

 May 3.— Progressive, at Bainbridge Center. Oliio. 



Miss Dema Bennett Sec, Bedford, O. 

 May 5.— Susquehanna County, at New Mil ford. Pa. 

 H. M. Seeley. Sec, Hartord, Pa. 

 May 7.— Welland County, at Welland, Ont. 



J. )f'. Dunn, See, Ridgeway, Ont. 

 May 8.— Keystone, at Scranton. Pa. 



Arthur A. Davis. Sec, Clark's Green, Pa. 

 May 8.— Cortland Union, at Cortland, N. Y. 



W. U. Beach, Sec, Cortland, N. Y. 

 May 19.— Nashua, at Nashua. Iowa. 



U. L. Rouse. Sec Ionia. Iowa. 

 May 22.— N. W. Ills. & S. W. Wis., at Rooliton. Ills. 



D. A. Fuller, Sec, Cherry Valley, Ills. 

 May 31.— Wis. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 



Ferd. Zastrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 

 Aug. 14.- Colorado State, at Denver, Colo. 



J. M. Clark. Sec, Denver, Colo. 



C^'~ In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— E]». 



»»»»»«»»»«H«»H»»«»««««»HTTgTT 





iBi?i>r 



storing' n»ney and Pollen.— B. 



M. Fari.s Fort MUl, S. C, on Marcli 38, 

 1888, says : 



Bees are all in good condition. I win- 

 tered 18 colonies on the summer stands in 

 Georgia hives, with no loss. Bees stored 

 honey and pollen in February from aliler, 

 maple and elm. Peaches and plums are in 

 full bloom now. 



[Some of the flowers were enclosed. It is 

 refreshing to know that our fruit trees will 

 soon commence to bloom. — Ed.] 



Colonics Strong in Bees.— John F. 

 Dipman, Fremont, O., on April 10, 1888, 

 says: 



I have been examining my bees for the 

 last few days, and I find that tliey liave 

 wintered well out-of-doors. 1 lost only one 

 colony out of 7.3. They are all strong in 

 bees except 4 colonies. 



l\ot a Colony I..ost in Xm'o Years. 



—Ferd. Zastrow, Millhome, Wis., on April 

 9, 1888, writes thus : 



The past winter has been the most severe 

 for many years. I have lived here tor 23 

 years, but 1 have not seen one like it. The 

 thermometer indicated from V to 26° below 

 zero on 2.") different days, and on a t'ood 

 many days at zero and a few degrees above. 

 Bees had no regular flight from Nov. 2:5,1887, 

 to April 3, 1888 ; but the long coulinement 

 and Ihe pinching cold-snaps did not injure 

 bees properly packed in chaff on the sun- 

 nier stands, while I have heard a good many 

 complaints about colonies kept in the cellsr. 

 What 1 call proiierly packed in chaff, I will 

 describe in a future letter. I have not lost 

 a colony in the last two years, while every 

 year before, as long as I have kept bees, 

 was recorded as disastrous. 



