GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



to the exit at the lop of the chimney. The 

 moisture is also condensed ; and as the pipe 

 through the cellar runs on an incline, the hot 

 water all goes off through proper drainage. 

 Now for the result. Almost the whole floor of 

 our house is kept constantly so warm that you 

 can get around in the morning barefooted on 

 the painted floor of the kitchen, without giving 

 you the toothache; and I tell you it is worth a 

 big lot to feel even the carpets under your feet 

 constantly warm. The moral you are to gather 

 is this. The first thing toward warming your 

 buildings should be to make the floors warm. 

 If your house is not well banked or well pro- 

 tected all round, go at it and do it all at once. 

 Make the cellar-windows so they can't rattle, 

 or so you can't feel the breeze around the 

 cracks ; and I feel sure that double windows 

 will soon pay for themselves in the one item of 

 fuel ; and for the outside entrance of your cel- 

 lar, you want at least two well-titting doors. 

 We did not have two till last winter: and when 

 we put in the extra one, and had it fit very 

 closely, the change in the temperature of our 

 floors was perceptible at once. Now. after you 

 have done all this, if you will put a stove in 

 your cellar, and make the cellar itself warm 

 when the weather is very cold, I think you will 

 find it not only a saving of fuel, but very likely 

 a saving in doctor-bills; and it may save the 

 life of some precious little one who is now 

 spending the most of its time with its play- 

 things on the floor. Dear father and mother, 

 can't you afford to give this precious little 

 chick a warm comfortable floor to play on? 

 While you think of it, just catch him up and 

 give him a kiss for his Uncle Amos. I forgot to 

 say that, after the exhaust steam has passed 

 through 400 feet of hot earth, it forgets to stop 

 work when the engine stops ; and even this 

 exluiust-steam pipe is hot all night for fully 

 half its leiigth. This, of course, is in addition 

 to the hot-water pipes. They are only II4- 

 inch iron pipe, and they, together with the 

 radiators in the rooms above, keep hot all 

 night, and remain hot over Sunday and toler- 

 ably hot even Sundoy night. 



Trjide Notes. 



SHALLOW HIVES AND FRAMES. 



SOME STKONG POINTS IN THEIR FAVOR, AS SET 

 FORTH BY ONE WHO IS USING THEM. 



Mr. Heddon's item on p. 818 wakes me up a 

 little; and as you invite further remarks from 

 somebody, as I understood it, that may mean 

 me, as I am more interested in the Bingham 

 hive at present, probably, than any one else 

 (the patent having expired). I still have about 

 80 colonies in the Bingham hive, and prefer it 

 to any other for proHt and convenience in han- 

 dling, as I have used it for over 20 years with 

 more or less success, and have tried others in 

 my yard side by side, notably the ten and eight 

 frame Langstroth hive, the square-framed hive 

 (frames 10x13), the Shirley hive, and others. 



COMPARATIVE TESTS BETWEEN SHALLOW AND 

 DEEP FRAMES. 



My first fair trial on their merits for surplus 

 was with the ten-frame L. hive. I bought ten 

 of them of Mr. House (then of Saugatuck, 

 Mich.). All frames were well filled with clean 

 comb. I increased by natural swarming at 

 that time (16 or 18 years ago), so I put a first 

 swarm in the L. hive, one in a Bingham hive, 

 and one in an L. hive, etc., alternately. All of 



these were put up in precisely the same manner 

 as nearly as possible, with boxes for surplus, 

 until the ten L. hives were full. At the end of 

 the season 1 counted up boxes full of honey (as 

 I had marked each witli the hive number. We 

 used the small 3-lb. glassed houey-boxes, thin), 

 and I lost on an average ^lAM and a few cents 

 on each L. hive in use, merely in surplus honey, 

 without any reference to prices of hives; that 

 is, I mean I made §1.00 surplus more on each 

 Bingham hive in use in the experiment. I tried 

 a part of the wintered-over colonies next sea- 

 son with nearly the same result, thinking 

 that, perhaps, it would be a fairer trial — as the 

 swarms in the Bingham hives had their sur- 

 plus well under way before those in the L. 

 hives had begun on surplus, or had the hive 

 body all occupied. I also tried the same varie- 

 ty of hives in wintering, both outdoors and in 

 the cellar, with results favorable to the Bing- 

 ham hive generally— always so in a severe sea- 

 son out of doors. I used only the L. hives after 

 that, for extracted honey, and I will say they 

 came quite handy to " pile up " on top of the 

 Bingham hives to "sling" honey from, as the 

 L. cases are rabbeted to fit each other. 



I next tried the eight-frame L. hive a few 

 seasons (in 1880, '81, '83, I think), just after our 

 big loss (I bought a few from Indiana to fill up). 

 Well, they did some better than the ten-frame 

 L.; but compared side by side with our old 

 Bingham hives they were far behind for comb 

 honey, especially in short honey-flows. So I 

 traded them off when I could fairly; and, in 

 fact, that was my object in trying to get started 

 with the L. hive; viz., to have a hive I could 

 sell bees in. as the L. hive is well known and 

 popular. I have tried the eight-frame L. hive 

 ever since with one or two hives, and find I 

 generally get three cases of sections each of 24 

 on the L. hive, in nearly the same time that I 

 get tivo cases each of 44 sections on the Bing- 

 ham hive. But the second case on the Bing- 

 ham hive is nearer finished than the third case 

 on the L. hive at the end of the flow, generally, 

 and especially in the time of a short flow, or a 

 gradual closing-up of the honey season. Of 

 course, there is a reason for these things, thirst, 

 the surplus is so close to the brood in the Bing- 

 ham hive that the bees carry nearly ail (or in 

 some cases (dl) of the honey into the surplus 

 chambers, excepting that used for brood -rear- 

 ing, which, by the way. is considerable, and 

 is a very important factor in the problem. 

 Toward the close of the honey-flow there can 

 always be found sealed honey over the brood- 

 nest, and this space of honey is always deeper 

 in deeper frames. Sometimes it is only a thin 

 I'ne in these extra shallow frames; and the 

 fiist tun' of sections receives all or neaiiy all of 

 that good honey. On the same principle as 

 when tiering up. more hcney is obtained if the 

 first tier is raised up and a light case is put 

 under it. 



Now. the upper part of deep combs takes the 

 place of the lower tier of sections as soon as the 

 brood-nest is beginning to contract; and with 

 the additional item that the combs are all 

 built out to receive the honey. Of course, the 

 Langstroth hive will have more honey in the 

 brood-chamber— sometimes too much. On the 

 other hand, the Bingham hive needs to be look- 

 ed to in the fall, to see that there is honey 

 enough for winter. 



SHALLOW FRAMES FOR WINTERING, AND THEIR 

 ADVANTAGES. 



As to wintering, the problem may never 

 be wholly settled, possibly, so we can all see it 

 alike. The bees naturally cluster near the cen- 

 ter of the frames, directly under the sealed 

 honey, or the most of it; and if the frame is 



