1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE (^ULTURE. 



341 



ready to hatch. Now, the fault was not j ours, but 

 mine, because of my own stupidity. You see, I un- 

 derstood you to asli about brood; and as some of 

 the friends had l)antered me iibout making the 

 " baby bees " sick by inverting their cradles, 1 

 laughingly told you it was all nonsense. 

 Oberlin, Ohio, Mar. U'l. Chalon Fowls. 



A LOW YIELD PEl! DAY. 



I send you a clipping taken from March 15th No. 

 of Farm (ind Home. Now, don't you think there is 

 a mistake somewhere? for during the best honey 

 season the best day gave a gain of only :3?4 lbs. I 

 had bees do better than that on fall bloom. Last 

 season one colony I weighed gave me Ti.") lbs. in :J0 

 days; the best day was (>}< lbs. : and to think that a 

 colony during white clover and basswood gained 

 only V'o lbs. in June and July— it would not half 

 winter them. Had you not better investigate it a 

 little, and, if wrong, have it changed? Perhaps 

 some poor fellow may have just started in the busi- 

 ness, and may see that article, and live in a place 

 where sugar is high, and could not afford to keep 

 bees at that rate, and go out of the business. Here 

 is the clipping: 



An interesting: trial of the industry of bees has just been 

 made at the Rliode Island Experiment Station, bv placing a 

 hive on soales and frequrntlv recordine its weight. Begin- 

 ning' with June 11. on wliirli date no gain was made, the in- 

 crease fluctuated from in.tliini;' to 2^ lbs. perdav. During July 

 the greatest increase during any 21 hours was 2', lbs. per day. 

 This was a hive of fair strength, and the weighing wa.s done 

 between 4 and 5 A, Ji.. bef.ire the bees left the hive. There 

 were 211 days during which a decided gain was noticed, six in 

 which no gain nor loss took i»Iace, and 18 days of loss. The 

 gam was 22)^, and the loss 15 lbs., leaving a balance of 7}^ lbs. 



Watson, Mich., Mar. 21. A. C. Fassett. 



You are right, friend F. The locality 

 must have been very poor or the colony 

 very weak, to give so small a result as re- 

 ported by the Experiment Station. We 

 have several times had 10 lbs. gathered in a 

 single day from white clover. 



EXTRA SPACE UNDER BROOD-FRAMES; REVERSING. 



Some writers claim an advantage in wintering 

 bees by having a large space under the frames. 

 Would not this advantage work equally well by 

 having a space of ,'+ or 1 inch or more under the 

 frames summer and wintrr? Is it injurious to a 

 frame of brood to reverse or turn upside down in 

 any stage? What kind of flour is best for feeding 

 bees in the spring? Subscriber. 



The claim is made as you say. Experi- 

 ment this summer will decide whether it 

 would be an advantage or not. We never 

 could see that it hurt the brood to turn 

 it upside down. It may sometimes kill 

 larvae in queen-cells. We use rye flour. 

 You may have to start them with a little 

 syrup in order to get them to take it. Nat- 

 ural pollen comes in so soon with us that 

 we have lately given no meal.— See page 12u 

 in regard to a large amount of space under 

 the comb. 



4RE bees in A CELLAR UNHEALTHFUL? ETC. 



1. Would wintering bees in a cellirunder the house 

 make the living-room unhealthful on account of 

 the exhalations from the hives? 



3. Do you think chaff hives for wintering out of 

 doors would be cheaper in the end than single-wall- 

 ed hives put close together and protected by leaves, 

 chaff, or some such substance? 



;!. Are the flat covers a sufficient protection to 

 the hives from the weather? 



4. In using supers, would not the white-clover 

 honey be put into the brood chamber first, and the 



inferior honey later on in the supers? If so, would 

 there be an advantage in using an upper story? 



Daniel J. Naftel. 

 Goderich, Ont., Can., Feb. 1. 



1. No, if the cellar is ventilated occasion- 

 ally by opening a door or window at night, 

 and if the dead bees on the cellar tloor are 

 not allowed to accumulate in too great 

 numbers. 



2. Chaff hives would be cheaper in the 

 end. 



3. They are. Most bee-keepers prefer 

 them. 



4. If stores are scarce, the white honey, 

 when it did come, would go into the brood- 

 chamber first. Bees will be pretty apt, es- 

 pecially the Italians, to fill brood-chamber 

 first, no matter what the honey is ; after 

 that they will go into the supers if the colo- 

 ny is strong enough, and there is a good 

 flow of nectar. As a general rule, there 

 will, or ought to be, enough inferior honey 

 in the brood-nest to cause the first white 

 honey to go above. 



NUCLEI FROM STRONG COLONIES IN THE SPRING ; 



A QUESTION. 



When the colonies become rousing strong in the 

 fore part of May, will it lessen the number of 

 pounds of honey in June and July, if I take a cou- 

 ple of frames with adhering bees to start a nucle- 

 us from each hive, and put frames in their place, 

 filled with foundation? C. Reynolds. 



Fremont, O , Feb. 28. 



Friend I^,it will most assiu'edly lessen 

 the honey yield if you take brood or bees 

 from any"hive at any time, especially in the 

 fore part of the season. Where brood-rear- 

 ing is stopped, or brood is taken away just 

 before the honey season closes, you may, by 

 reducing the number of consumers, save a 

 little honey. It has also been recommend- 

 ed to prevent swarming, by taking away 

 brood and bees, for this will be a kind of 

 artificial swarming. 



ALF.A.LFA ALONG THE ARKANSAS RIVER BOTTOM. 



Kinsley is about a mile from the Arkansas River, 

 and the river-bottom is from 3 to 7 miles wide. On 

 this bottom there can be good water found any- 

 where at a depth of from 8 to 12 ft. (sweet water). 

 The farmers here are beginning to sow alfalfa clo- 

 ver very extensively. The history of alfalfa is, 

 that the root u-ill go down 30 ft. if the soil is so that 

 it can penetrate it; and such is the nature of the 

 soil here. Once there, it is good for 20 years, and 

 once you have a good stand you can cut two or 

 three crops a year, and two and three tons per 

 acre. When alfalfa is in bloom, and you drive 

 alongside of a patch, and the wind comes over it, 

 its fragrance is very strong and sweet. 



Kinsley, Kan , Feb. 13. Franklin Spiegle. 



THE MOSS BACKED COUNTRY ; OR, BEES AND ] 

 BASSWOOD. 



I have never yet seen a word in Gleanings from 

 up here in the moss-backed country. Perhaps you 

 have never heard of such a place. It is a new 

 country yet, comparatively, for the oldest settlers 

 have to look back only about from Id to 15 years 

 when it was a wilderness. Ours is a manufactur- 

 ing town, where the timber is worked up into but- 

 ter-plates, broom-handles, lumber, etc. There are 



