62 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



tell us your opinion of its quality, and whether 

 you still think the Northern States are preferable 

 for apiaries. If any one doubts these facts I will 

 give him all necessary proof. J. Osborn. 



Amherst, Va., Dec. 30. 



I will say to our readers, that the pine 

 leaves seem to be of young, vigorous-growing 

 foliage. They were literally daubed with 

 some kind of sweet, which to the taste is 

 very aromatic and pleasant. The nectar in 

 the vial corresponded to it exactly. Xow, 

 without having further facts in regard to 

 the matter, I am inclined to decide that 

 this honey-dew is an exudation or secretion 

 from the plant itself, and not of insect ori- 

 gin. This, however, never takes place, if I 

 am correct, unless the trees are of a vigor- 

 ous growth. The sample of pine leaves 

 seemed to indicate that they were, and 

 friend O. can probably tell us whether this 

 is the case right in the middle of winter, as 

 it were. I should be very glad indeed to 

 see a specimen of this honey after it is 

 stored in the sections, and ripened. I 

 should think that, in quality, it would com- 

 pare with the finest-flavored honey ever pro- 

 duced anywhere. Can anybody tell us 

 more about it ? 



Since the above was written, the follow- 

 ing comes to hand, which seems to indicate 

 it an insect secretion after all: 



MORE ABOUT PINE-TREE HONEY. 



Fi iend R(Hit:—l by this mail send you some in- 

 sects that are producing considerable honey on the 

 pine timber. Bees have gathered 10 to 30 lbs. of it, 

 to the hive, this month, and it is now candied in 

 some of the cells. The honey is quite clear, and 

 some think it the best. No honey candies here 

 while sealed in the combs. I will send you a sam- 

 ple of pine honey, if you have not seen any. It 

 does not come every year. I never saw it at this 

 season before. In 1886 it was plentiful in March 

 and April. As soon as pollen is more plentiful I 

 think I can rear queens. F. C. Morrow. 



Wallaceburg, Ark., Dec. 30, 1889. 



The insects mentioned above, so far as I 

 can see, are almost exactly like the green fly 

 of our greenhouses, only they are black in- 

 stead of green. 



CHAFF HIVES FOR CELLAR WINTER- 

 ING, ETC. 



FRIEND DOOLITTLE'S EXPERIENCE ? 



In reading the account of the International Bee 

 Convention, as given in the Canadian Bee Journal, 

 I see that Mr. J. B. Hall is represented as believing 

 that bees would be "protected too much "if they 

 were put into the cellar in chaff hives, he illustrat- 

 ing what he meant, by saying, "When I go into a 

 warm room I take off my overcoat," thus leaving 

 us to infer that he thought bees would be too 

 warm in the cellar, if in chaff hives. Now, this 

 used to be just my idea of the matter till I began to 

 experiment to find out the truth. After these ex- 

 periments, I am prepared to say that bees will win- 

 ter far better in the cellar, if in chaff hives, than 

 they will in single-walled hives, providing they are 

 fixed as they should be in the cellar. The experi- 

 ments conducted were as follows: 



One season, some four or five years ago, I had 

 some quite weak colonies, formed by uniting nu- 



clei late in the fall. These were In chaff hives, as I 

 had intended to winter them outdoors; but after all 

 the rest of the bees were in the cellar, which I had 

 intended to put in, I found that there was consid- 

 erable room left in the cellar, so I decided to try a 

 part of these small colonies in chaff hives by put- 

 ting them into the cellar, for I feared they would 

 not go through the winter where they were. Ac- 

 cordingly, I put some six or seven of them in, two 

 of which were placed in the cellar, just as they 

 stood outdoors; i. e., the bottom-board, cap, and 

 chaff or sawdust cushion were all carried into the 

 cellar, with no means provided for ventilating the 

 hives, save what air would go in and out the en- 

 trance. Two others were left the same as outdoors, 

 save that the cap or hood was left on the summer 

 stand. The remaining ones were raised from the 

 bottom-board some three inches, by way of putting 

 two sticks of ordinary stovewood between the bot- 

 tom of the hive and the bottom-board, one on eith- 

 er end of the hive, the cap being left outdoors the 

 same as with the last. That the reader may better 

 understand, 1 will say that the chaff, or fine straw (I 

 prefer the latter), is about four inches thick on all 

 sides of the hive, while over the top of the frames I 

 use two thicknesses of common cotton cloth, pre- 

 ferring that these pieces of cotton cloth be free 

 from propolis, although not all of them are so. 

 Over these pieces of cotton cloth I use a sawdust 

 cushion, which is nearly as large as the whole top 

 of the hive, this cushion coming out well over the 

 straw on all sides, thus making it impossible for 

 currents of air to pass rapidly through the hive, or 

 for the bees to get above the cotton cloth out into 

 the tops of the hive. This sawdust cushion is of 

 about the thickness of the straw at the sides; and 

 being of fine, dry, basswood sawdust, it is capable of 

 absorbing lots of dampness before it becomes wet to 

 any appreciable extent.L Now for the result: 



On setting the bees out in the spring, I found 

 both those dead which were put into the cellar, the 

 same as they would have been left outdoors; one 

 dead, and the other in a weak condition, of those 

 which had only the entrance of the hive for ven- 

 tilation, but had the cap left off; while those raised 

 from the bottom-board on sticks of stovewood, 

 were apparently in as good condition as they were 

 when put into the cellar the fall previous. Seeing 

 the success attained by these last, I now commenc- 

 ed to put more colonies into chaff hives in the 

 cellar, so that the present time finds seven-eighths 

 of all my bees in chaff hives, three-fourths of 

 which are in the cellar, all raised at the bottom, and 

 fixed as above. 



I have just been in to see them, so that I might 

 tell the reader the difference between these and 

 those in single-walled hives. Those in the single- 

 walled hives are clustered closely on all parts of the 

 cluster, bottom, top, and sides, the same as they 

 would be outdoors, only not quite so compactly; 

 while those in the chaff hives are clustered just as 

 closely as the others at the bottom of the cluster, 

 and a little way up the sides; but as you come to- 

 ward the upper half of the colony, the bees stand 

 out around on the combs the same as they would 

 in summer; while at the top, all along next the 

 cushion and cotton cloth, they make no preten- 

 sions to clustering whatever, although you can 

 look at them for a long time without any of them 

 stirring, no matter how close you hold the light to 

 the hive. In this way they have free access to all 



