1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



121 



to the hives for two or th'-ee days. Separate 

 the frames to be moved in pairs beforehand, 

 and set by the side of the hive where they 

 aie to go, so they can be handled quickly. 

 The queen in the colony to which ihe united 

 bees are to be added must be previously re- 

 moved If more than one queen is allowed 

 in the hive, and the weather is warm enough 

 for the cluster to break up, there will some- 

 times be trouble A strong queenless colo- 

 ny can be united with a two-frame nucleus 

 with a queen, and I have never had a fail- 

 ure. Be sure the day is quite frosty. The 

 chill they get will not hurt them, but will 

 cause them to cluster closer and unite quick- 

 er. 

 New Paltz, N. Y. 



[We observe that you are using standard 

 double- walled chaff hives and that the cush- 

 ions are filled so full of oat chaff that the 

 cover crowds it down hard on the frames, 

 "leaving no space between the cushion and 

 the cover." Practically all of those who re- 

 port in favor of absorbmg cus-hions, without 

 a sealed cover between the cushions and the 

 frames, have e nphasized the great impor- 

 tance of leaving an air space between the 

 cushion or packing material and the cover, 

 so as to let the absorbents dry out. Assum- 

 ing that moisture passes up through absorb- 

 in r cushions, we are unable to understand 

 how that moisture can escape when the coy- 

 er comes in contact with the cushion, and is 

 further protected by a tarred-telt cap over 

 the whole. This moisture is bound to ac- 

 cumulate, and it seems very remarkable to 

 us that your cushions should not be very 

 damp before spring. — Ed.] 



ABSORBENT CUSHION'S VS. SEALED 

 COVERS. 



Sealed Covers Not Entirely Sealed; Wheat 

 Chaff Better than Oat. 



BY W. H. KIRBY. 



It is about twenty-five years since I started 

 keeping bees, and from the start I adopted 

 the system of wintering that I still follow — 

 that of packing on summer stands in small 

 open sheds, as per bottom illustration on p. 

 468 of the 1908 edition of the A B C and X Y Z 

 which shows one of my sheds and my whole 

 plan of packing with leaves, etc. With a sev- 

 en-inch-deep teles^ opic cover, and under cov- 

 ers on top of brood-frames, a chaff box, the 

 length and width of the hive, with a burlap 

 bottom, is placed. These chaff boxes are 

 four inches deep, and tilled full of wheat 

 chaff. No other kind is as good f>r the pur- 

 pose. It remains open, and does not pack 

 down close like oat cnaff when a little damp. 

 With the hivt s packed between and at the 

 back with maple leaves, bolid to the tops, 

 the tops and fronts of the hives being with- 

 out packing, they are exposed to the weath- 

 er, and in low temperatures the moisture is 



condensed on them, and inside the front end 

 ice will form. This does no harm to the col- 

 ony, as it melts and runs out of the entrances 

 in mild spells of weather. The covers, hav- 

 ing no ventilation, retam the heat of the col- 

 ony, and the small amount of moisture that 

 rises up through the chatf is attracted to the 

 under side of the top of the cover, and a 

 small portion of moisture settles on the top 

 of the chaff. I have never yet seen any ice 

 under the cover or on top of the chaff — only 

 a mere dampness under the cover; and it 

 was very seldom the top or only a part of the 

 top of the chaff was wet much below a quar- 

 ter of an inch. 



In the spring, when taking off these chaff 

 boxes I have f mnd grains of wheat, that 

 were left in the chaff, sprouted and a growth 

 of 4 inches ma le, thus showmg that there 

 was considerable heat in the chaff to cause 

 this amount of germination. 



One fall a number of years ago I had not 

 enough chaff to go over all, there being some 

 eight or ten hi^es that I put tine hard-wood 

 sawdust on instead of chaff. This was prac- 

 tically the same as sealed covers. Every 

 one of these colonies was injured, and most 

 of them became extinct in the spring. They 

 were attacked with dysentery, and outside 

 combs were badly molded This convnced 

 me that fine sawdust is a failure for absorb- 

 ents, and I have never used it since. 



I think that if those who winter with cush- 

 ions or chaff boxes on sealed covers were 

 to examine closely, they would find some 

 openings around neir covers that allow up- 

 per vent lation and let the most of the mois- 

 ture escape. Two years ago this month I 

 bought a hive of bees from a neighbor who 

 brought them in from the country. It had a 

 single-board rover nailed on with a little 

 crevice near one top corner. They had been 

 out btside a strawstack without any protec- 

 tion. We brought them home one night 

 when the mercury was a little below zero, and 

 placed them in leaves. They wintered per- 

 fectly, notwithstanding this late cold disturb- 

 ance. This experiment makt s me think 

 there must be some openings in these sealed 

 covers to let off vapor. 



As long as I keep bees I must have a deep 

 telescopic cover, and wheat chaff and maple 

 leaves for wintering. The last two or three 

 winters I have tested some double-walled 

 hives packed with leaves, and find them all 

 right. 



Oshawa, Ont., Can. 



NOT IN FAVOR OF HOLDING THE NA- 

 TIONAL AT ANY FIXED PLACE 

 YEAR AFTER YEAR. 



BY J. W. R USE, 



President of the Missouri Bee-keepers ' Association. 



The next best thing to attending a conven- 

 tion is gettingareportof the sessions When 

 one attends the meetings he talks with many 

 other bee-keepers and gets ideas that, of 

 course, are not given in the reports. Then, 



