THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



41 



HOW THE BEES ABE WINTEKINU AT THE HOME 

 OF THE REVIEW. 



As I had several times noticed that bees 

 near the floor in a cellar d d not winter so 

 well, I, last fall, had some platforms or ta- 

 bles made out of scantling in my cellar. The 

 tops of these platforms are 18 inches above 

 the cellar bottom. The hives are placed 

 upon these platforms. One hive is placed 

 on the platform : a two inch block is placed 

 at each corner on the toi) of the hive, then 

 another hive set on those blocks. This gives 

 plenty of ventilation and allows the dead 

 bees to drop away from the cluster. I have a 

 three-burner oil stove in the cellar. Over 

 the top of the stove is a sort of hood made of 

 tin and in the top of the hood is a tin pipe 

 three and one-half inches in diameter that 

 passes up through the floor and connects 

 with the pipe of the coal stove. Whenever 

 the mercury shows a disposition to go below 

 40 I light the oil stove. The pipe carries 

 ofl:" all of the gases of combustion. Besides 

 this, the draft from the coal stove causes a 

 CDnstont draft through the pipe whether the 

 oil stove is being used or not. This furnishes 

 abundant ventilation. I am not certain 

 whether this ventilation is needed, or not, 

 but it is a great comfort to know that it is 

 not doing any harm. The bees never win- 

 tered better than they have done so far, and 

 the absence of that " beey " smell in the cel- 

 lar is a source of considerable comfort and 

 satisfaction to myself. 



SELLING GLASS AT THE PRICE OF HONEY. 



At both the Albany and Washington 

 meetings of the North American I heard Mr. 

 Segelken of the tirm of Hildreth Bros, it 

 Segelken express his suprise that so few bee- 

 keepers, especially those at the West, did not 

 glass their sections. The reason, so far as 

 tlie West is concerned, is that the Western 

 markets do not seem to take kindly to such 

 packages. In New York, glassed sections 

 tind a more ready sale and sometimes even 

 bring higher prices, notwithstanding that 

 the glass is weighed with the honey and paid 

 for at the price of the honey. If the New York 

 market demands glassed sections, why don't 

 bee-keepers furnish it put up in that shape 'i 

 Fifty feet of glass will glass about 325 pound 

 sections on both sides. The glass costs 

 $3.00, and weighs 60 pounds. So, for the 

 work of glassing, the bee-keeper would re- 



ceive the price of 60 pounds of honey, less 

 the cost of the glass, and this work can be 

 done by cheap labor or by the bee - keeper 

 after the busy season is over. 



A WOODEN QUEEN EXCLUDER THAT IS A 



Sl5cCESS. 



Some of the readers of the Review may 

 know that the G. B. Lewis Co. has for 

 several years been making a wood queen ex- 

 cluder. How well these wooden boards are 

 answering the purpose is shown by the fol- 

 lowing from the Secretary of the Company : 



"In looking over your book. Advanced 

 Bee-Culture, we notice what you say on page 

 19 about our all-wood queen excluder. When 

 we lirst began to make these excluders we 

 made them of basswood % of an inch in 

 thickness, but we soon learned that it would 

 be better to make the material thinner ; we 

 then and since have been making them of 

 birch and maple 1-lG of an inch thick, and 

 have heard no complaints from them, but on 

 the contrary more are ordered every season, 

 and they are well spoken of. They used to 

 say down East that ' the proof of the pud- 

 ding is in chewing the string :' those cus- 

 tomers who have been ' chewing the string ' 

 seem to be well pleased with the pudding as 

 they order more each year. Hence we con- 

 clude that our all-wood honey board is a 

 very good thing. 



Of course we can readily See how you fail- 

 ed in the manufacture of these as you made 

 your slots running lengthwise of the grain, 

 and it is well known that all lumber, with 

 the exception of red wood, shrinks sidewise, 

 but none, except red wood, shrinks endwise ; 

 so, when we cut a slot across and through 

 the grain, we obtain a perforation that does 

 not change ; and since we have used a ma- 

 terial 1-16 of an inch thick, we have heard no 

 complaint of bees plugging up the holes." 



ARE THE WASHINGTON RULES FOR GRADING 

 HONEY UNFAIR ? 



In another place in this issue, Mr. Hasty 

 pays his respects to the rules for grading 

 honey that were adopted at the Washington 

 meeting of the North American. From the 

 very first I have plead for a grade that should 

 be perfection, but the dealers say, no, we 

 don't want any such grade. There will be 

 very little honey of this kind, and the slight 

 advance at which it will be sold will be more 



