THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



115 



all clover and basswood, as there was no 

 fall flow this season or last, which made 

 a good many light colonies. We fed 

 1,300 pounds of sugar and some honey; 

 and got ours into fair shape; and they 

 seem to be wintering perfectly, thus far. 

 We increased to 170. and purchased a 

 few, and no-w have about 184 colonies. 

 all in the cellar. We winter in caves; tier 

 the hives up on top of one another, with 

 bottoms off, tops on. and two-inch strips 

 between each two hives. If for any 

 reason we find a light one when putting 

 them in, we take off the cover, and lay 

 five or six, or more, sections of honey 

 directly over the clusters, put two or three 

 thicknesses of burlap over all, leaving the 

 bottom on. As a rule, 1 think these 

 winter better than those with bottom off 

 and cover on. We are trying 18 or 20 

 colonies this winter with bottoms on, 

 covers off, and quilts over the frames, 

 with inch-strips between each two hives. 

 By the way 1 do not remember of see- 

 ing anything in the journals about using 

 smoke in putting bees in, or taking them 

 out of the cellar. Did you ever try it ? 

 I consider a smoker about as valuable at 

 putting bees into a cellar, as at any other 

 manipulation. A great many colonies will 

 get pretty well roused up by the change 

 from the outside air to the comparatively 

 warm air of the cave, and when several 

 such are in, the smell of the venom gets 

 quite noticeable in a cave, which I think 

 aggravates the trouble considerably. 

 Now, have a good smoker well going, puff 

 smoke all over the floor before putting 

 any bees in. and let the smoker set and 

 '"smudge away" till the cellar is about as 

 full of smoke as one can stand to breath 

 fairly well. This overcomes the smell of 

 the excited bees and also intimidates thein 

 so they soon settle down to that peculiar 

 hum that you know but 1 can't describe: 

 and, by using the right amount of smoke 

 all the time while putting them in, they 

 can be kept that way, and very few will 

 leave the cluster. If an extra cross one 

 needs more, I do not hesitate to use the 

 smoke directly, and enough to make the 



bees go back to the cluster and set up 

 that "hum." 



The same holds good at setting-out 

 time. Smoke up the cellar thoroughly 

 before starting to set 'em out, and they 

 won't fly out nearly as bad. I expect, 

 friend H., this is all old to you, but 1 have 

 often wondered some one didn't say 

 something about it in the papers, if it is 

 generally known and practiced. 



DEVELOPING A NON-SWARMING STRAIN OF 

 BEES. 



Now, friend H.. 1 want to ask you 

 whether you think it possible to produce a 

 non-swarming strain of baes by select 

 breeding? And, whether you answer 

 yes, or, no, I am going to tell you that 1 

 have been at that for five or six years. 

 We have over 100 such colonies. A year 

 ago, we had, 1 think, 12 swarms from 

 about 138 colonies. This last season we 

 had seven swarms from about 140 col- 

 onies. I say "about," because 1 am going 

 from memory; although we keep a full 

 record with each colony. I am not looking 

 it up just now. These swarms, however, 

 were from other than the non-swarming 

 strain, except two or three; or, in other 

 words, we have not had from this strain 

 altogether more than four or five swarms. 

 We usually put on one shallow extracting 

 super, then, sections. We do not have 

 much trouble, however, with any strain 

 swarming, where we run for extracted 

 honey alone. We are expecting to have 

 some more time to devote to the breeding 

 next season, and hope to requeen every- 

 thing with this strain, and then we 

 shall see what we shall see ! We 

 raise our queens in queenless colonies, 

 using Doolittle artificial cups and transfer 

 the larvae. The original queen of this 

 strain we purchased of W. Z. H. in the 

 fall of 1896, but we have not been able 

 in the 10 years following to buy anything 

 equal to this stock, though we have 

 bought several dozen from five or six dif- 

 ferent sources. Those of the J. P. Moore 

 stock, that we got of you about five or six 

 years ago, did not pan out very well. 



