12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



and will pour out ag-ain by the entraace, and the 

 lower temperature in the lower chamber is secured 

 again. 



But this arrangement has some other advantages. 

 By this ventilation, some air, but not more than is 

 necessary, will leave the hive, and with It a part of 

 the water, breathed out by the bees, will go away. 

 If any water will condense, it will be always where 

 cold and warm air meet; that is, near the entrance. 

 The upper part of the hive will remain dry. The 

 cluster of the bees is, if the upper chamber is not 

 too high, always just above the entrance, and so 

 the bees can, if necessary, have access to the con- 

 densed water here, and have dry winter quarters 

 nevertheless. 



In Poland bee-keeping has been a pursuit for 

 many hundreds of years, and was very important 

 some centuries ago. Many tons of honey and wax 

 were exported every year. Here they used log 

 gums with an entrance half of the height of the 

 hive. In the fall, that part of the combs lower 

 than the entrance was cut out, and so the condi- 

 tion just described was secured. This manage- 

 ment may not seem very good, but winter losses 

 were and are nearly unknown in that country, with 

 very severe winters. In Russia it is the general 

 opinion that no colony can be wintered by any oth- 

 er arrangement, either outdoors or in cellars or 

 clamps. 



In the province of Hanover, Germany, too, is an 

 old kind of bee-keeping a pursuit. The bee-keep- 

 ers of that country use a straw skep about 18 

 inches high, and the entrance is somewhat nearer 

 the top than the bottom of the hive, and winter 

 losses are very rare. 



The modern bee-keepers of Germany use frames 

 about 14 inches high. Some claim, as here in the 

 United SI ates for some years, that they are better 

 than shallow frames for wintering. The entrance 

 was at first on the bottom of the hive, and the re- 

 sults of wintering not very good. Since some 

 years it is recommended, and now quite generally 

 in use, to make the entrance about 6 inches above 

 the bottom on the front, and not on the side of the 

 hive, every one says that the bees winter much bet- 

 ter in these hives than before. 



It is surely correct, that the bees always adjust 

 their winter quarters near and above the entrance, 

 and so the winter quarters in these hives is in fact 

 only 8 inches high, and not 14 inches, and the 6 

 inches undei the entrance act like the empty 

 chamber spoken of before. 



We can easily secure all these advantages with 

 the Simplicity hive. Just slip in, in the fall, a 

 frame about 5 inches high, and the same size as the 

 Simplicity, with the entrance cut in the upper edge, 

 under the hive, and pack all as well as possible, of 

 course leaving the entrance open, but nothing else. 

 This will do for outdoor wintering, if a board is 

 leaned against the entrance to keep out winds. In 

 a very cold climate, cellar wintering is surely pref- 

 erable; but if the cellar is not very warm, or the 

 temperature is inclined to change, it is advisable to 

 use a similar arrangement; but packing, I think, 

 will not be necessary. Very probably it will be 

 simplest to nail this frame firmly to the bottom- 

 board, and use this in winter, set upside down. I 

 will not say that, by this arrangement, only good 

 wintering is secured, but it is advisable, because 

 many requisites for good wintering are secured au- 

 tomatically. 



It is too late to try this arrangement for this win- 

 ter; but I should be glad if some bee-keepers 

 would try it next year, and report in Gleanings 

 the result, with all the other circumstances. 



Selma, Tex., Nov. 1, 1889. L. Stachelhausbn. 



Friend S., your arrangement is by no 

 means new. Our older readers well remem- 

 ber that the same thing has been recom- 

 mended at different times for fifteen or 

 twenty years back. The old original Amer- 

 ican hive was made with auger-hole en- 

 trances just half way up. The Simplicity 

 hive has been used for wintering by turning 

 the bottom-board upside down. This, how- 

 ever, gives only a two-inch space below the 

 combs. Dr. Miller mentioned it at the 

 Chicago convention, and I believe his hives 

 are all arranged during this present winter 

 to have a considerable space below the 

 combs. One advantage you did not men- 

 tion is, that dead bees, and dust and other 

 debris, fall down below the entrance so as 

 to be in no danger of clogging it. There is 

 a division among the brethren, however, in 

 regard to having the hive above the brood- 

 nest made air-tight, or as nearly as may be. 

 Some of our friends claim that bees will 

 winter in an inverted glass jar, perfectly 

 well, provided the mouth be of a good size, 

 say like that of a candy-jar, and be left 

 open. I do not know that this has been 

 tested by actual experiment, but I think 

 very likely it is true ; and if so, no doubt 

 the bees would winter with a better econo- 

 my of stores than by almost any other ar- 

 rangement. 



MANUM IN THE APIARY WITH 

 MEN. 



HIS 



SOME VERY PRACTICAL, DIRECTIONS FOK PREPAR- 

 ING COMB HONEY FOR MARKET. 



Ai/:(/i(s( 7.— " Well, Ed, here we are home again. 

 Fred, you may hitch up another horse after dinner, 

 and go after Scott. 1 expect Leslie to come from 

 his yard to-night by stage, then the boys will all 

 be home again from their yards. 



" Hello! there is Scott now. How under the suu 

 did you get here, Scott? Fred was just going after 

 you." 



"Well, Mr. M., you told me, Ihe last time you 

 were at my yard, that you would probably send for 

 me to-day; and as I got my work all done at about 

 9 o'clock I thought I'd rather walk home than to 

 wait there with nothing to do. 1 have walked five 

 miles many a time. 



"Hello, Scott!" say Ed, Fred, and Will; and here 

 they have a general hand-shake all around. 

 Scott inquires: 

 " Where is LeslieV" 



" Oh ! he will be here to-night, I suppose." 

 " Well, then, boys," says Scott, " what hinders our 

 having a bee-convention all to ourselves, this even- 

 ing, as I understand some of you go to your homes 

 to-morrow?" 

 " Ves! yes! yes!" all cry out; "say we do." 

 fn the evening all gather in the sitting-room for 

 a general good time, and the time was well im- 

 proved, as each related his experience during the 

 past eight or nine weeks; and as the boys all go to 

 their respective homes in the morning except Scott 



