434 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



that are weak, but many very strong for this 

 time of the year. Some of our neighbors report 

 heavy losses; but I think it was where the bees 

 were not properly prepared for winter. A per- 

 son who does not understand bees, and will not 

 take pains to learn their habits, it is just as 

 well, an.i better, for his bees to be in good-sized 

 box hives where their owner can not rob them 

 very easily. They can get surplus by setting a 

 box on top of the hive, with some white comb 

 stuck into the box for starters, or they may 

 stick comb or foundation into sections, and set 

 into the box; but before setting on the box, 

 large holes should first be made in the top of 

 the hive — the larger the more readily will the 

 bees go up to work. 



A deep jar makes a good feeder of water. 

 Put into it a handful of salt, and take a clean 

 gunny sack and wet it and hang it in the jar, 

 letting one end hang over on the outside. It 

 acts as a syphon, and keeps wet, even on the 

 outside, and no bees are drowned or chilled, as 

 they are in all open water in cool weather. It 

 being in a jar, the poultry can not get the salt- 

 ed water to drink. I don't know that it would 

 hurt them, but I have been told it would. 



I should have stated, that, when feeding bees 

 for winter, the rest of the frames should be 

 covered where the pan was set on except some 

 little openings around the pan, and the cloth 

 should reach over the side of the pan down to 

 the frames; and over the pan lay a block to 

 keep the quilt up out of the syrup, and cover 

 all snug and warm. By feeding in a tin pan 

 there is no leaking, as there almost always is 

 with all wooden feeders. 



THE HILI. FEEDER. 



If not taken off the hives as soon as empty, 

 the bees seal up the little perforations or holes 

 so the syrup can not get out quick enough, and 

 so sours if filled the second time, unless they are 

 heated and rubbed clean with cloth or paper, 

 which takes time. 



SPRAYING FRUIT-TREES WHILE IN BLOOM. 



I think every bee-keeper should have an item 

 put into his county or town paper, not to spray 

 fruit-trees while in bloom. I feel certain our 

 bees have been injured two different years in 

 that way. Our bees took to dying off just about 

 fruit-bloom; and a little after there would be 

 but very few old bees left in the hives— lots of 

 capped and hatching brood; and as I did not 

 know of any of our neighbors spraying their 

 fruit-trees I thought we killed them ourselves 

 by spraying after the petals had fallen; but I 

 have since learned that one of our neighbors 

 did spray while in bloom. He said he did not 

 know it would do harm. Spraying while fruit 

 is in bloom has been talked and written about 

 so much one would think every farmer would 

 know better; and yet there are some who never 

 read any but their local papers, and don't seem 

 to know any better. 



Roseville, III. 



WINTER REPOSITORIES. 



THE UPGROUND AND THE UNDERGROUND, AND 

 THE ADVANTAGES OF EACH COMPARED. AND 

 WHY THE FORMER IS PREFERRED: DOES THE 

 MATTER OF MOISTURE HAVE ANY BEARING 

 ON THE SUCCESS OF WINTERING? A VERY 

 VALUABLE AND INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM 

 THE MAN WITH THE REPUTATION OF AL- 

 WAYS WINTERING HIS BEES. 



By H. R. Boardman. 



Friend Boardman:— I shall probably lose 20 

 per cent of my bees in my home apiary, owing 

 to the honey candying in the combs, as I think. 

 You fellows who winter in regular bee-reposi- 

 tories will come through this hard winter with 

 flying colors as usual, I suppose. Well, you 

 have got the trade learned, and understand 

 just the conditions needed for successful win- 

 tering indoors. If I had a perfect bee-cellar I 

 should like to try wintering in that way, but 

 am fearful I should not succeed in building a 

 perfect one, nor succeed in controlling the tem- 

 perature or the humidity. But now comes 

 Doolittle (see Gleanings, page 59, current vol- 

 ume) with an article claiming that moisture 

 does no harm in a bee-cellar providing the 

 temperature. does not run down too low. I had 

 supposed that a bee-cellar should be dry; and 

 as I have understood that yours was always 

 dry I should like to know if you think this dry- 

 ness essential to success, as I know that no one 

 has had better success in wintering than your- 

 self. Suppose you give us your views through 

 Gleanings, on the proper conditions necessary 

 for indoor wintering. Chalon Fowls. 



Oberlin, O., Mar. 25. 



"Many seem to suppose that a bee-cellar in 

 which bees are wintered should be dry in all 

 its parts."— Doolittle in Gleanings, Jan. 15, 

 page 59. 



That hits me. I must own up I am one of 

 those fellows. I have for many years had a 

 very comfortable conviction that, in order to 

 secure the best results in the bee-cellar, it 

 should be dry in all its parts, and I have always 

 tried to secure this condition as far as possible. 

 That they do winter well in a moist or even 

 wet repository is not new to me. But I am not 

 quite ready to admit that the moisture contrib- 

 utes to the success of wintering. 



Mr. Doolittle describes his cellar as not only 

 moist but wet — actually wet and dripping, and 

 filled with mold— sometimes great patches of 

 mold on the walls as big as a hat-crown, and 

 ready to seize upon the combs in the hives 

 when not protected (see Gleanings for Feb. 15, 

 1894) and upon every thing where it could get a 

 foothold. The glowing terms with which Mr. 

 D. describes the nice condition of his bees in 



