1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



843 



balls, and they qiiiot down. We winter onr 

 bees as an Englislinian takes his beer — " 'alf 

 and "alf."' One spring, the bees out of doors 

 carried in lai'ge loads of i>aie yellow pollen the 

 rid and 3d of March: and it seemed too bad that 

 the bees in the cellar could not have any of 

 this fresh new bread. The sju'lng proved to be 

 a cold, inclement one, and bees could uot fly 

 for six weeks: and wheu' the bc^es were removed 

 from the cellar they were the strongest. We 

 usually sell a few colonies every spi'ing. and 

 say to our customers. ""Pick out \()ur bees." and 

 invariably they have chosen bei's tiiat wintered 

 in the cellar. 



BEET SUGAK, AND WHAT MK. THUS. WII.I.IAM 

 COWAN SAYS OF IT. 



Some one remarked, at the late convention, 

 that white sugar is white sugar, whethei' made 

 from sugar-cane, beets, oi' sorghum. It nuiy be 

 so, but I very much doubt it. Diamonds and 

 charcoal are both carbon: but. are they the 

 same? British bee-keejjcrs have had experi- 

 ence with beet sugar: ami if sugar is sugar, 

 why does Mr. Cowan say that beet sugar will 

 not do for winter feeding, but cane sugar must 

 be used? I never knew of his having a sugar- 

 cane plantation. Mns. L. Harhisox. 



Peoria, 111., Nov. \2. 



My good friend INIrs. 11. . your reasoning is 

 good in regard to cellar wintering, and I hope 

 practice corroborates it: but with our open 

 winters south of Lake Erie, as we are, I am not 

 sure that horses and cattle would be in greater 

 vigor kept in basement stables, than if they had 

 the run of the open air during mild weather; 

 and in our localities bees certainly seem to have 

 more vigor when they have a flight at least 

 every month in the year. — I feel a little sorry 

 that this matter of be(>t sugar being inferior 

 has come into print at all, for it is surely a 

 great big blunder. Before answering you I 

 tried to hunt up a copy of a government report, 

 telling of the progress made by the beet-sugar in- 

 dustry, and stating that the sugar consumed in 

 the United States was now over 60 per cent made 

 from beets. If the sugar from the beet indus- 

 try differed in any respect whatsoever from 

 that made from cane (of course I refer to white 

 sugar), our government surely would have 

 mentioned it. Will Prt)f. Cook please corrobo- 

 rate what I say? 



CONTROLLING INCREASE. 



TIIKEE METHODS. 



Two years ago, when the honey-season prov- 

 ed such a failure, I had my bees at a distance 

 from home: and. deciding to bring them back 

 in the fall, for two reasons I aimed to keep 

 down increase within certain limits: viz., to 

 have the fewer to team, and the fewer to put 

 into winter quarters, as the capacity of my 

 prospective cellar, which was not yet exca- 

 vated, was going to l)e very limited. I was 

 then woi-king with the .lones single-story hive 

 principally: and as. in the locality there was 

 just enough honey came in during the season 

 to provide liberally for brood-rearing witliout 

 occujiying any room for storing, the queen had 

 full sway of the hives, and the bees multiplied 

 "prodigiously.'" as the Anticpiarv would have 

 said. 



I had strong compinictions against control- 

 ling the increase by pinching the heads of good 

 queens: and so. when I iiad all the bees desired, 

 I ri^sorted to the iilan of hiving swarms liack 

 into the old hive without a queen, having 

 picked up the (lueen. which is always clipped, 

 and placed her with two or three combs and 

 adhering bees, in an emi)ty hive, which was 

 placed at an angl(> alongside the ofher. and 

 tinally doubl(>(l \\\> with it a little later on. wlnui 

 the swarming season was ovei-. This was done 

 when 1 had nuule all tiie addition to stock 

 wanted, and when the honey-season was so 

 well advanced that I had ceased to loolv for any 

 more surplus honey. 



All I had taken or did tinally take that sea- 

 son, amoinited to 4(M) lbs. from some <iO hives, 

 spring count. I considered this way of pre- 

 venting increase only a make-shift plan, of 

 course: but the way I have managed the mat- 

 ter this past season has. I believe, a good deal 

 more to commend it. I am still a learner — a 

 novice you might say — but that tough old 

 schoolmaster. Experience, has been knocking 

 some things gradually into my liead: and 

 among them is this: That, with a two-story 

 hive, increase can be controlled to a nuich bet- 

 ter advantage, and. I believe, the i)rospects for 

 surplus honey improved. I don"t like the idea 

 of resorting to the old barbarous habit of sul- 

 phuring the siuplus bees at the end of the sea- 

 son, as some suggest. To me it seems at least 

 unscientific, if not cruel, and I think there is 

 surely a better way. 



This season I was changing my frame from 

 12}i inches deep, 10% wide, to 10% deep, 13,1^ 

 wide, and the transferring was attended to 

 right through the honey-flow, just as I could 

 best crowd it in, and this reduced me to the 

 following methods, which I found to work ad- 

 mirably: 



1. As stocks got strong enough I added an 

 empty super with, say, half a complement of 

 frames of the new style, filled either with foun- 

 dation or transferred comb, and the numbin- of 

 combs was added to gradually till the full quan- 

 tity was made out. Two division-boards, of 

 course, were used meantitue. In only about 

 one case in thirteen where I did this did I have 

 a swarm, though the bees were remarkably 

 strong. Our honey-season was a very poor one, 

 however, and the queens, having so much 

 scope for the exercise of their function, may on 

 this account have been satisfied to stay at 

 home. 



The stocks in these hives were, at the end of 

 the season, when breeding was over, shaken 

 out of the lower story, which was removed, the 

 bees being left to winter on the new-style 

 frame of the upper story, which now takes the 

 place of the original hive. The lower-story 

 combs were then freed for extracting and trans- 

 ferring for next season. Part of the yard was 

 attended to this way, and the other part as fol- 

 lows : 



2. WHien a swarm would issue it was liived on 

 the old stand on foundation, in the new-style 

 hive, and the old hive placed on top. 



When the brood had well hatched out, the 

 queen-cells having been removed at the right 

 time, the combs were extracti'd and transferred, 

 then placed back on the swarm, in a super 

 without a bottom-board, tin- (piilt on the under 

 hive being the only thing separating the two 

 lots of bees. The upper-story entrance was 

 left open for a few days. 



The day after extracting and transferring 

 frames, the separating ((uilt was pulled back 

 an inch from the front, to let bees gradiuilly 

 mingle, and next day they might lie renujved 

 altogether, and the upjx'r entrance closed at 

 nightfall w.ith a strip. The bees would mingle 



