350 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1918 



I HAD hoped 

 to find in 

 Gleanings for 

 May full reports 

 of the wintering 

 of bees in the 

 new style of 

 winter case sug- 

 gested by Dr. 

 Phillips, with 



frames set on ends, but not a word so far. 

 [In our locality the " stand-on-end colonies" 

 wintered well, if not better than those in 

 the regulation double-walled hives. We will 

 have a further report next September. — Edi- 

 tor.] 



* * * 



In an editorial, page 268 of Gleanings 

 for May, the loss of bees in consequence of 

 a large entrance is mentioned. A loss of 

 90 per cent ought to satisfy the advocates of 

 large winter entrances that their method is 

 not the best. If we multiply the size of an 

 ordinary brood-chamber by 12, we shall have 

 the size of the ordinary living room we our- 

 selves live in during winter. Now let us 

 also multiply the one-inch entrance across 

 the end that some beekeepers advocate, 

 and we shall have an opening at the end 

 one foot high clear across the end of our 

 room. "Well, how would you like it with 

 the mercury 30 degrees below zero? 



There has been a greater loss of bees in 

 this section in wintering than I had thought 

 earlier in the season. The loss seems to be 

 confined largely to inexperienced beekeepers, 

 or to shiftless ones who have given the bees 

 "little thought or care. My own loss has 

 been a little more than usual, but not large. 

 Last week I examined one yard that went 

 into winter with 120 colonies, and I dis- 

 covered a loss of only four dead. I broke 

 up another colony, it being weak, thus mak- 

 ing a loss of five colonies or four per cent. 

 Most of the others were in good shape. 

 This shows that with care bees can be win- 

 tered in the most severe winters, on sum- 

 mer stands, here in the North without seri- 

 ous loss. In another out-yard where con- 

 siderable honeydew was stored last year, and 

 the yard moved during winter, there was 

 some dysentery and a loss of 12 per cent. 

 [There is no question but that the past 

 winter, east of the Mississippi, was_ very 

 hard on bees. It may go down in history 

 as worse than the winter of 1880 and 1881. 

 In the western States bees wintered well. 

 —Editor.] 



* * * 



That is a decidedly interesting article 

 by the editor on "May Work" among the 

 bees, and especially in regard to "Equaliz- 

 ing Brood," pages 274 and 275. The il- 

 lustrations are good, and so plain that the 

 beginner can not fail to see the point. How- 

 ever, I find myself more frequently working 

 on a little different plan in trying to. bring 

 up weak colonies. Instead of leaving the 



brood in three or 

 more patches in 

 as many combs, 

 I move the 

 brood to one side 

 of the brood- 

 c h a m b e r and 

 confine it to two 

 or three combs, 

 by using a di- 

 vision-board or a heavy comb of honey. It 

 has seemed to me that bees will spread their 

 brood faster when allowed to put their brood 

 into several combs. As soon as we get two 

 combs well filled with brood, it is an easy 

 matter to spread them and give a comb of 

 mature brood from another hive. Also, 

 sometimes where a colony is too weak to 

 care for brood, I give to it all the bees that 

 adhere to the comb removed from the strong 

 colony, taking care that the. queen is not 

 on the comb. More or less of these bees 

 may go back, but not faster than the young 

 bees are hatched to take their place. I was 

 at first a good deal exercised for fear the 

 bees that were removed with a comb of 

 brood might kill the queen of the weak colo- 

 ny when introduced with the brood, but I 

 have rarely had it happen. 



On page 277, Harry T. Huff tells us how 

 he uses comb foundation for extracted hon- 

 ey, and he would have us believe that by his 

 superior method of using the foundation he 

 can get as much or more than where drawn 

 combs are used. He also says he secured 

 50 pounds of surplus, while 160 colonies 

 with drawn combs gave only 25 pounds of 

 honey per colony. Had he stated whether 

 the 160 colonies were equally strong in the 

 spring and the locations equally good and 

 flowers equally abundant, his statements 

 would be more convincing. [The universal 

 rule is that drawn combs are far superior to 

 fuH sheets of foundation. — Editor.] 



Grace Allen informs us on page 287 that 

 she picked the first clover blossoms March 

 .SI. It is May here in Vermont and we are 

 yet looking forward to some time in June 

 before we shall enjoy such a pleasure. I 

 have been wondering if they have any win- 

 ter down there in Tennessee. Her experience 

 with winter protection for bees is interest- 

 ing, and I am not surprised that she found 

 all her moldy combs under sealed covers. 

 It is surprising that she received no more 

 benefit from winter packing. I wonder if 

 the leaves were dry and packed down firmly. 

 Leaves are apt to be too loosely packed to 

 be of much use, unless they are pressed down 

 and made to stay put by some weight. 



T-i looking over "Bees, Men, and Things," 

 I ran across our old friend, Eugene Secor, 

 and I was glad to hear from him. He still 

 has ideas that are worth our attention. 



