456 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



four months of the season, and that you are a 

 young man of good habits, and anxious to learn 

 the business. You asij if I expect my men to do 

 other work not pertaining to the bee-business. 

 Yes, I do those who work before and after the 

 swarming-season. I have a small farm— 40 acres— 

 and when not busy with the bees I sometimes ask 

 my men to assist in planting, and in the fall in har- 

 vesting; but my farm being small, and there being 

 so many of us, the farm work is light, and quickly 

 done. Now, in view of these considerations, and 

 what you say about yourself, I will pay you $60 for 

 May, June, July, and August. 



HIVING TWO OR MORE SWARMS TOGETHER. 



Mr. Manum:— When you hive two or more swarms 

 in one hive, how do you unite them without their 

 quarreling? and what do you do with the extra 

 queens? My answer is, that, in a large apiary, 

 there will usually be several swarms out in one day 

 —we sometimes have 20. In that case two or more 

 maybe hived together without fear of their quar- 

 reling; but if they issue one per day, or one has 

 been hived two or three days, and it is desired to 

 unite another with them, I first cage the queen al- 

 ready in the hive, and hang the cage in the hive, 

 and then shake the bees off the combs in front of 

 the hive, and at once dump the new swarm with 

 them, having first secured their queen, and at once 

 sprinkle them, hive and all, with sweetened water 

 well flavored with peppermint, and allow them to 

 run into the hive. Just at night I liberate the 

 queen. Now, if the extra queen is an old or inferi- 

 or one, I pinch off her head: but if she is only one 

 year old, and a good one, I either introduce her in 

 place of some old or poor queen, or return her to 

 the hive from which she Issued, after first remov- 

 ing all queen-cells. Having lost so many bees by 

 swarming, she wiu not be likely to attempt to 

 swarm again the same season. At this time I usu- 

 ally discard all my two-year-old queens, and for the 

 past two years I have had calls for all such at 50 

 cents each. Cy this practice I winter no queen 

 over one year old. If you wish much increase you 

 can hive the extra queen with just enough bees to 

 cover one card of hatching brood; and by giving 

 them a card of brood occasionally, you will soon 

 have a colony in good condition for winter, without 

 having much reduced the working force in those 

 hives run for surplus. 



WILL, IT PAY TO CONTRACT? 



Another makes the following inquiry : 

 Having read much of your writing in Gleanings, 

 with interest, I venture to ask whether you think 

 it pays to contract the brood-chamber during the 

 honey-flow, to secure all the honey in the surplus 

 receptacles. 



My answer to this question is this: In a locality 

 where no fall (or dark) honey is stored in sufficient 

 quantities to winter the bees, it will not pay, at the 

 present low price of honey and high price of sugar. 

 When honey sold at 20 to 25 cents per lb., I practic- 

 ed contracting with profit. But I prefer now to al- 

 low them the full number of combs, so that the 

 bees may store enough, or nearly enough, honey 

 for winter, while the white-honey flow lasts, as we 

 very seldom get any honey here after the basswood 

 season. Butif in your locality you are quite sure 

 of securing fall honey enough for winter stores I 

 would advise contracting during the white-honey 

 flow. You should be governed in this by your 



locality, both as regards quantity and quality of 

 honey, as well as by the price your honey sells for. 



packing FOR chaff HIVES. 



Another man asks: 



What is, in your opinion, the best material for 

 packing the so-called chaff hives? I have made a 

 few Bristol hives from your description of them in 

 Gleanings, and the only material for packing I 

 can get near by is unseasoned basswood sawdust. 

 Do you think this would soon dry after packing, so 

 it would answer the purpose? 



Answer: 



No: I would hardly dare use it, for basswood will 

 mildew very quickly in hot weather; and, again, 

 sawdust alone will pack too hard to answer a good 

 purpose; because the harder any such material is 

 packed, the more it becomes a conductor for both 

 heat and cold. I believe fine dry planer shavings, 

 such as are made by planing well-seasoned lumber, 

 are as good as any thing which can be got cheaply. 

 Now, if the bottom of the hiv'e around the outside 

 walls is air-tie:ht, these shavings will form a multi- 

 tude of little dead-air spaces; while if, on the other 

 hand, the bottom of the hive is not tight, so but 

 that it will admit of air, these same shavings will 

 form a multitude of little air-channels up through 

 which fresh air will continually circulate, which 

 would doubtless be a benefit to the bees in hot 

 weather, if not in cold. So, then, my preference is 

 dry planer shavings. Oat chaff, or very fine cut 

 straw, are good. 



a call from a neighbor. 



" Halloo, Charles! walk in. lam glad to see you 

 this lonely rainy day." 



" Well, I have called to have a little chat with you 

 about the bees. Jennie said you were in your 

 office, so I walked right in. I hope I am not inter- 

 fering with your writing." 



"Oh, no! not at all. I was just having a little 

 mechanical chat with our friend Root. Well, have 

 you been out to your apiary recently?" 



"Yes: I was there yesterday, and I found things 

 a little mixed. You remember I told you in April 

 that I had lost only 4 per cent in wintering. Well, 

 that was true; but since then every one of my 

 light colonies has gone up; and some that were not 

 so very light are missing. The boy I have there 

 says that a number of them have swarmed out, and 

 left some brood and lots of honey, and I have called 

 to ask you to tell me the cause of such conduct." 



" Well, Charles, you know we have had a very 

 cold backward spring, which has been a trying 

 time for the bees, especially light colonies. They 

 all being so short of pollen, they have worked hard 

 to get a little whenever they could fly out, and 

 many times they ventured out when they ought 

 not to; consequently the old bees have wasted 

 away to an alarming extent. In fact, there are 

 scarcely any old bees left in any of my hives; 

 therefore those that came through light did not 

 have the strength to rally and survive the 

 wasting-away of their small numbers, and had to 

 succumb to their fate— dwindling." 



" But, what was the cause of fairly good colonies 

 in the spring swarming out and leaving their brood 

 and plenty of honey?" 



" Well, now, let me ask you a question. Did 

 those that have swarmed out have young or old 

 queens?" 



"Nearly all of them had old queens. Two of 

 them had young queens hatched last August, but 



