1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



345 



greater there. But a shed is good 

 for any apiary, were it not for the 

 cost. Deep snow, so near the sunny 

 Riviera, reminds one of Southern 

 California, where you may make a 

 big snowball and, in the space of a 

 couple of hours, bring it down to the 

 bathing beach, where it will melt on 

 the warm sand of the Pacific shore. — 

 Editor. 



The Winter Cushion 



By L. A. Greeley 



I USE shallow extracting supers 

 and metal covers. For a winter 

 cushion over the frames I find 

 that an ordinary sack is just the 

 thing, without any cutting off or 

 sewing shut. The super is laid down 

 on a level floor and the sack is loose- 

 ly filled with maple or other forest 

 leaves. The leaves are now crowded 

 down until the sack will go into the 

 super lying on the side. By reaching 

 inside the sack the leaves are now 

 carefully pushed into the corners of 

 the super, after which the top of the 

 sack is smoothly laid back over the 

 cushion. Next I get onto the cush- 

 ion with both feet and tramp it until 

 it fits the super so closely that it may 

 be carried to the hive without falling 

 out. All is then placed over the 

 frames and a 1-inch strip of paper is 

 pasted over the intervening crack to 

 exclude every particle of wind or air. 

 This pasted strip is protected from 

 rain and moisture by a curtain of 

 oiled paper 7 inches wide hanging 

 from top edge of super. Lastly, the 

 metal hive cover is put in place on 

 top of the super. Fertilizer sacks are 

 thoroughly washed and aired before 

 using. 



Morenci, Mich. 



Taking Bees From a Tree 



In your August, 1917, issue, South 

 Dakota wants to know how to take 

 bees from a bee tree. In answer, I 

 will give my experience. 



Make a shelf or bracket on the 

 tree where the bees enter; bore a 

 hole in a hive and insert a rubber 

 hose or short piece of gas pipe. Con- 

 nect with the tree, plugging all 

 spaces around pipe so that bees must 

 go in and out through hive and pipe. 

 Before doing this, prepare the hive 

 by putting in full-sheet foundation, 

 or, if you can get it, drawn-comb is 

 good; or, better yet, if you can get 

 it, use a frame of young brood. In 

 four or five weeks all the bees and 

 brood will be in the hive, having 

 transferred themselves. If left there 

 too long, until the hive is filled with 

 bees and honey, they will store the 

 surplus in the tree. Look in at times, 

 and when the hive has eggs and 

 brood in it, remove it; but leave long 

 enough for the brood in the tree to 

 hatch. This may be done from April 

 until in August. It is best not to use 

 good hives, as there is danger of 

 them being stolen or destroyed. Af- 

 ter losing seven good hives I used 

 common store boxes with Hoffman 

 brood-frames. By the above method 



I got 20 stands of bees. All my 

 neighboring bee-men thought I did 

 fine. The next spring I had sixteen 

 nice stands of European foulbrood. 

 So, in my case, I don't think it paid 

 to bother, as I lost the hives and got 

 foulbrood. It is better, I believe, to 

 buy a stand from a good bee-man, 

 buy a good queen, increasing slowly, 

 and whenever possible make the bees 

 nay for their own supplies and fix- 

 tures. In this way an amateur may 

 gain bees and experience together, 

 and much information not obtainable 

 in books. CHAS. L. PIERCE, 

 De Pue, 111. 



Breeding Good Queens 



By L. Sherman 



HERE is the plan I follow to 

 rear good queens : Select 

 your two best colonies to rear 

 drones and your third best to fur- 

 nish queen-cells. In the rest of 

 your yard have in each hive an up- 

 per story with a queen excluder un- 

 der it and an outer entrance for that 

 upper story with a drone trap. Place 

 all the combs containing drones in 

 those upper stories and you will have 

 no inferior drones to mate with your 

 queens and no drone traps at the 

 main entrance to bother the bees in 

 their flight. 

 Alabama. 



Results of Wide Spacing for 

 Extracting 



By Alphonse Veith 



DURING the past season I closely 

 observed the advantage of 

 wide spacing for extracting. 

 The average yield of honey from 7 

 combs, full depth L. frames in an 8- 

 frame hive-body, was 46J4 pounds. 

 The yield of 8 combs in the same 

 kind of hive-body was 40 pounds 

 only. Consequently, there would be 

 a difference of 150 pounds for every 



hundred combs in favor of wide spac- 

 ing. In using a 10-frame hive, how 

 would it work to use 8 combs only, 

 for extracting, with equal spacing? 



Old Time Subscriber 



I started back in the 50's with 

 Quinby's "Mysteries of Beekeeping" 

 and have been at it ever since. I read 

 the American Bee Journal when 

 Newman published it in Chicago. I 

 lived in Montana, near the Bozeman 

 tunnel in 1883, '84 and '85. I bought a 

 colony of bees from James Heddon, 

 of Michigan, which cost me $18 deliv- 

 ered by express. The altitude was 

 too high, as there was about 2 feet 

 of snow fell on June 14 and half an 

 inch of ice on the 4th of July. We 

 went to a picnic at Bozeman with 

 Buffalo overcoats on.. My poor bees 

 took to the boarding-house table af- 

 ter sweets and drove the boarders 

 out. The boarders were going to 

 mob me and I had to destroy the 

 bees. JAMES HERON, 



Kittitas, Wash. 



Packing Bees for Winter 



By Alphonse Veith 



THE late Henry Alley once wrote 

 an article on this important sub- 

 ject, and he put special stress 

 on the importance of top ventilation. 

 He said bees need for their comfort 

 about the same as a human being — a 

 warm bed and plenty of fresh air. If 

 bees are packed heavily, without any 

 top ventilation, they will surely suf- 

 fer from foul air and moisture. 

 Therefore, do not place your top- 

 board on the packing too tight; 

 raise it about an eighth of an inch, 

 and there will be a slight current of 

 air that will dispel the moisture that 

 would otherwise remain in the top 

 packing. Long ago I made the ex- 

 perience that want of fresh air will 

 kill the bees quicker than a severe 

 cold winter. 



7/ 



I i 



-2r 



h 



• <*i 



s- 



h 



Cu 



K 



AAA, brood-chamber; B, inner cover showing bee-escape hole; C, bottom-board; 

 D, bottom insulating board, in place on bottom-board; EEE, shadow of 

 packing case, resting on extra rim; GG, entrance; H, space tor absorbent 

 cushion. 



