1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



SEALED COVERS VS. QtlLTS; VALUABLE TES- 

 TIMONY. 



.Ernest:— Those seah'd covers that you have 

 been experimenting witli are all right -sometimes 

 and sometimes they are all wrong — like a balky 

 horse that will pull whin every thing is favora- 

 ble, but when the hill is too long and rough he 

 will stop before he gets to the top of the hill. 

 But quilts or cushions that will let the moisture 

 pass up are like the true horse that will pull 

 when the other horse won't. I have wintered 

 bees for 20 years both ways, pari with sealed 

 covers and part with quilts only. But I winter 

 ia cellars, and I find that, in some of .my cellars. 

 bees will winter just as well under sealed covers 

 as under quilts, and in other cellars they will 

 not winter well unless under quilts. But my 

 bees will winter well in all of my cellars with 

 the quilts, so I nm in favor of iiuilts for cellar 

 wintering, and I think the same will prove true 

 in outdoor wintering, unless it is in a warmer cli- 

 mate than it is here in Central New York. 



Middlebui'gh, N, Y. N. D. West. 



[It Is somewhat of a nuisance to pull off the 

 bottom-boards of hives; and if the absorbing 

 cushion on top of the hive will work as well as 

 sealed-covered hives with no bottom-boards in 

 the cellar, we shall like it. In practice we pre- 

 fer most of our hive bottoms permanently fas- 

 tened.] 



SEALED covers AND ABSORBENTS; THE DIF- 

 FERENT PACKING MATERIAL CONSIDERED. 



My Strongest colonies went through the win- 

 ter with sealed covers, with the seal broken in 

 mid -winter. I can see no difference between 

 chaff cushions, as usually applied, and sealed 

 covers, outside case with two inches all around, 

 and 4 to 8 inches on top, with dry sawdust or 

 chaff. Mineral wool is the best, for packing 

 outside cases, that I know, and it is clieap 

 enough ($1.25 per 100 lbs.). 



I tried one strong colony with cork packing 

 and 6-inch cushion (cork) on top. It strikes me 

 as being too porous; in fact, this proved to be 

 so porous that all that I found in the spring 

 (March Sth) was pores. Bees dead? do you 

 say? r should remark! Chaff cushions are 

 good; sealed covers with lots of sawdust, chaff, 

 excelsior, or mineral wool, on top and around, 

 kept dry. are also good, providing vou have vig- 

 orous queens. D. Lindbeck. 



Bishop Hill, 111., April 15. 



[Mineral wool at $1.25 per 100 lbs. is rather 

 expensive— too much so for the average bee- 

 keeper; so also is ground cork.] 



stings and rheumatism. 



There seems to be a growing conviction that 

 bee-stings are good for rheumatism. My expe- 

 rience seems to point in that direction. B^or a 

 great many years I had been subject to muscu- 

 lar rheumatism in my back and shoulders; and 

 at times it would get into my arms till I felt as 

 if I had the toothache all through the muscles 

 of those limbs. Two years ago I purchased a 

 dozen colonies of bees. They were in different 

 styles of hives, some with movable frames and 

 some without. I was told that they had not 

 been opened for three years. At first they 

 were inclined to resent the presence of a person 

 in the apiary as an unwarranted intrusion. In 

 transferring and manipulating them, of course 

 I received plenty of stings. In a short tim'^ I 

 noticed that my rheumatism was gone, and so 

 far it has not returned. L. J. Templin.' 



Canon City, Col. 



Reading of "pollen plenty," "balmy April 

 weather," and " lots of bees hatching," in last 



Gleanings, makes me almost homesick, for my 

 bees are still in the cellar, while rain, snow, and 

 high winds have been the order of things the 

 most of the time in this locality, so far. dnring 

 1893. Neither soft maple nor elm is in blossom 

 yet, while I see by Dr. Miller's "' Straws," the 

 same opened with him April lirst. The bees 

 have been in the cellar IfiT days, and seem quiet 

 and nice, although the waste on the cellar- bot- 

 tom has been great for the past thi'ce wc^eks. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino. N. Y.. April 2<5. 



A CORRECTION. 



I notice a slight error in my article in April 

 1st Gleanings, in which yon have the name of 

 Henry Alley instead of Henry Utley in sevi'ral 

 places. C. H. Dibbern. 



Milan, 111., April 29. 



[By referring to the original manuscript we 

 see that friend Dibbern wrote " Halley " as 

 plainly as pen can make it, and our proof-reader 

 supposed it was meant for our "old reliable" 

 friend H. Alley. This shows that too much 



Sains can not be taken in writing names. We 

 ope the above will make matters right.] 



Why not make the top-bars of brood-frames 

 wide enough to be queen-excluding, and thus 

 do away with the metallic queen-excluder? 



Pee Dee, N. C, April 12. A. A. Cox. 



[This has been suggested bei'oi'e, but it is not 

 practicable.] 



If Doolittle (page 29(5) will take a fine saw and 

 cut kerfs half way through the board on which 

 he cuts foundation, he will not need any gauge- 

 boards, and will find that it will cut much 

 better. The nearer the handle of the knife is 

 held down to the board, the better it will work. 



Answers to Questions 



FROM BEGINNERS. 



W. E. D.. of IFesf Virginia, asks whether we 

 use chaff' hives summer and winter. Answer. — 

 We do: but at the approach of warm weather 

 we remove the chiiff cushions — otherwise the 

 colonies are protected the sanie as in winter. 



W. C. F., of Mrgivia, says he has five strong 

 colonies, one of which is pure Italians and one 

 common black bees, and he asks how he can 

 Italianize the blacks. ^?)s«)er. — We would 

 recommend the plan given in our answer to T. 

 T. ¥., Tennessee, below. 



0. H., of Illinois, asks whether, when put- 

 ting foundation into brood- frames, tlie same 

 should touch the bottom -bar. ^7is«'c?'.— Ex- 

 cept for perpendicular wiring there should be a 

 quarter-inch space between the bottom edge of 

 the foundation and the bottom-bar. The foun- 

 dation sags a little when the l)ees draw it out, 

 and a little allowance should be made. 



H. C. C, having read our article on transfer- 

 ring, in our catalogue, wants to know when 

 transferring should be done. Ansioer. — Prefer- 

 ably in the spring, when b(>es are getting a lit- 

 tle honey from some source; and when. too. 

 there is very little honey in the combs. How • 

 ever, we transfer any time duiing the season. 

 Mr. Heddon's short method is the one we prefer. 



O. R. W.. of Indiana, wants to know what 

 to do with the queens of after-swarms that are 

 returned to the parent colony, ylriswe?'.— As 

 a general thing there will be queens in the api- 

 ary that are either pretty old or else not very 



