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Preiiarinsj Bees for 'WiDter. — 



Mr. H. E. Hill gives this descriptiou of his 

 method of preparing bees for winter, in the 

 Farm and Home : 



Below I give a brief description of a plan 

 of preparation that, notwithstanding the 

 pollen, hibernation and other theories, has 

 served me in the wintering of hundreds of 

 colonies with a loss not exceeding two per 

 cent. The method being simple, as it Is 

 effectual, is especially recommended to 

 those who have but few colonies to care 



for : , ,_ ,. J ,. 



Procure a box (such as may be had at any 

 dry-goods store) from 12 to 24 inches larger 

 than the hive to be packed. After cutting 

 an entrance 6 inches in length by 1}4 inches 

 high in one side at equal distances from the 

 sides, 1 place the box on the summer stand 

 of the hive, and put the hive inside, sup- 

 ported on pieces of wood, at a height that 

 brings the bottom-board to correspond with 

 the entrance. 



Then place strips IK inches high on either 

 side of the entrance from the hive to the in- 

 side of the packing case, resting on the pro- 

 jecting bottom-board, and place a snug- 

 fitting piece of stuff over these, thus form- 

 ing a passage for the bees from the hive to 

 the open air, and exculding the sawdust or 



glaner shavings which are used for packing, 

 eing now packed snugly beneath and on 

 all sides of the hive, 1 use no honey-board, 

 but simply cover the frames with a quilt ot 

 cotton cloth and a cushion of sawdust, 

 which acts as an absorbent, and may be 

 easily replaced with a dry one if it becomes 

 damp from the escaping moisture of the 

 colony during winter. Over this I put the 

 usual six IntTies of shavings— or even 24 

 inches— filling the box. Now place a good 

 roof over them, and all is complete. 



Try it, and report your success next May. 

 If by mild, sunny weather the bees are in- 

 clined to fly oftener than is desirable, place 

 a short board in front over the entrance, 

 with the bottom resting on the ground, a 

 foot from the box, and over this an armful 

 of straw. This box will darken the en- 

 trance, and tend greatly to equalize the tem- 

 perature inside. 



Xliis Uialos'iie is published in a late 

 number of the Western Chi-i^Uan Advo- 

 cate. The answers to the questions are 

 supposed to be given by one of the dis- 

 gusted purchasers of some of the patent 

 moth-trap bee-hives which abound in doors, 

 hinges, drawers, corners, etc. : 



What is the chief end of bees ? To get 

 out patent hives. 



What is the best patent hive ? The best 

 hive is not patented. 



But don't some of these patent hives fool 

 the moth ? No ; they fool the men who buy 

 them. 



What patent hive is the most useful ? 

 The new one in the barn with a hen's 

 nest in. 



But is there not more money m patent 

 hives than in bees ? Tes ; but that time is 

 almost over. 



But how are we to know a poor hive ? It 

 has a great many doors, drawers, hinges, 

 cracks, crevices, nooks and corners which 

 look like conveniences, but in which the 



Who are the great bee-savants of this 

 conntry ? The men who don't use patent 

 hives. 



Are bees profitable ? Not to those who 

 buy patent hives. 



Sense Organs in bees and other in- 

 sects are worthy of considerable study, and 

 will repay a thorough investigation. In 

 Murray^s Magazine we find the following 

 very interesting remarks on the subject : 



In the matter of sense organs we are met 

 by serious difficulties of interpretation, and 

 this difHculty is the more keenly telt in 

 studying creatures so widely different from 

 ourselves as the bee. Such an insect %vould 

 seem at first sight to be about as susceptible 

 to the delicacies of touch as an ancient 

 armor-sheathed knight. Head, thorax, ab- 

 domen, limbs, all are ensheathed in chi- 

 tinous armor. The bee has his skeleton 

 outside. The question is, how can delicate 

 impressions of touch be transmitted through 

 the tough, dense skin so as to affect the 

 sensitive "squash" within? If you will 

 examine one of the feelers of the bee you 

 will see that the surface is richly supplied 

 with hairs. It is by means of such sense 

 hairs that the bee experiences a sensation 

 of touch. Each touch hair is hollow, and 

 within it is a protoplasmic filament contain- 

 ing, it would seem, the delicate terminal 

 threadlet of a nerve. A curious modifica- 

 tion of the touch hair is found on the last 

 joint of the anteunse. They are here bent 

 sharply at right angles, so as to form 

 rectangular booklets. 



Shipping: Colonies of Bees.— The 



following concerning the shipment of full 

 colonies of bees is from the Indiana 

 Fai'mcr : 



A great many people seem to think it is 

 next to impossible to ship full colonies of 

 bees by cars, without running a risk that 

 makes it well-nigh out of the question. This 

 is a mistake. Bees properly prepared may 

 be shipped several hundred miles. The 

 frames must he secured in some way so that 

 they will not shake about the hive, and the 

 bees fastened in with wire-screen, so that 

 they can have plenty of fresh air. We 

 usually tack screen over the entrance and 

 over the brood-frames, and ship them with 

 the cover off, and mark them "This side up, 

 with care. Do not cover up. Do not leave 

 in the sun." We also recommend that, 

 where the route is known, they be shipped 

 so that the greater part ot the journey may 

 be made at night. Timid express agents 

 are apt to become greatly alarmed at a few 

 robber bees that may hover about, and con- 

 clude at once that the bees are escaping. 

 There is no danger of robber bees at night, 

 and it is the coolest part of the day. 



Xlie Nortli American Convention 

 at Columbus, O., will soon convene, and all 

 who intend to go should soon be making the 

 arrangements. The following from the Sec- 

 retary will explain about the railroad fare 

 to and from the Convention : 



IW The North American Bee-Keepers' Society 

 will hold its anDUal meeting on Oct. 3. 4 and 5, 1888, 

 in Kepresentatives' Hail at the capitol in Columbus, 

 Ohio. Tlie Passenger Traffic Associations will grant 

 reduced rates only when 100 persons are present, 

 holding railroad certificates. Owing to the short 

 honey crop it is feared that a sufficient number of 

 persons will not be present holding certificates, and 

 that an attempt on the part of the Society to avail 

 itself of the reduced rates offered by the Passenger 

 TrafQc Associations will only result in disappoint- 

 ment ; hence it has been decided that the only 

 course open will be to allow each member to shift 

 for himself, or herself, to either talie advantage of 

 such excursion rates as maybe available in his or 

 her vicinity, buy round-trip ticltets. or do something 



of the sort. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Secretan/. 



September Hints — Mr. C. H. Dib- 



bern, in the Western Plowman, gives the 

 following hints about seasonable work in 

 the apiary : 



This is the last month that bees can be 

 reasonably expected to gather any honey. 

 Usually about the 20th of the month we, in 

 this latitude, have a frost that kills the 

 flowers, but if not, the last series of flowers 

 are done blooming, and there is nothing 

 more for the bees to-do. 



Early this month is the time to know the 

 exact condition ot each colony. 



While honey is yet coming in is the time 

 to take out the frames and examine them. 

 To guess they are all right, won't do, if you 

 wish to winter them over. 



In some localities, feeding will again have 

 to be resorted to. This should be done now, 

 before the nights become too cool, and rob- 

 bing is more difficult to guard against. 



As soon as the gathering season is over, 

 remove all the surplus arrangements and 

 put the bees in condition for winter. Many, 

 especially those who have had two seasons 

 of failure, will become discouraged and 

 careless, and will let the bees shift tor them- 

 selves, with perhaps not enough honey to 

 carry them to January. That such persons 

 will ever have " no luck" with bees is cer- 

 tain, and perhaps the sooner the bees come 

 out dead, the better. The persevering, in- 

 telligent bee-keeper, however, will only 

 strive the more when others around him are 

 giving up, and my experience is that such 

 only will win in any pursuit. 



This season has been a peculiar one, in 

 regard to swarming. Usually, in this local- 

 ity, the bees commence swarming in June 

 arid end up early in July. This year they 

 commenced in May, and are swarming some 

 yet. Heretofore, we used to return second, 

 or very late, undesirable swarms by looking 

 over the combs of the swarming colony and 

 removing all the queen-cells and hiving the 

 swarm back in the old hive. We lately hit 

 upon a new wrinkle with the new hive. 

 Now when a late swarm comes out that we 

 do not want to hive separately, or have any 

 weak or queenless colonies to boom up, we 

 simply {(iDert the hive that casts the swarm, 

 and return the bees by shaking them on the 

 sheet in front of the hive. So far this has 

 worked nicely, and not one has made a sec- 

 ond attempt to swarm. This process, of 

 course, turns the queen-cells (the cause of 

 the bees swarming) wrong side up, and the 

 bees immediately tear them out. It this 

 proves to be the invariable result of invert- 

 ing, this is another point in favor of invert- 

 ible hives. 



We lately broke up a case of robbing in a 

 very neat way. Going out into the apiary 

 quite early one morning we noticed a colony 

 that seemed to be working with unusual 

 energy. In looking around a little further 

 we soon discovered another colony that was 

 evidently being robbed. Concluding that 

 this last one had lost their queen, we re- 

 moved it to the shop and examined them, 

 and soon found that to be the fact. We 

 now procured the comb from a nucleus (it 

 is well to have a few such at all times) con- 

 taining bees, brood and a queen. We ex- 

 changed this frame tor one of the queenless 

 hives. We now returned this hive to the 

 place of the one doing the robbing, which 

 was removed to the stand ot the one that 

 was being robbed. This, of course, threw 

 the robbing business into great confusion. 

 Those trying to rob would simply go into 

 their own hives ; if any returned, they only 

 carried the honey back to the hive they had 

 previously robbed. An hour afterwards, 

 all was quiet, and the robbing was com- 

 pletely stopped, and both colonies resumed 

 their honest toils. 



Voiu- Full Address, plainly written, 

 is very essential in order to avoid mistakes. 



