74 



" NOVICE'S " GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUttE. 



and main times when some new arrange- 

 ment has been tried, the credit has 1 >*-€mi 

 given that, whereas it simply did not hin- 

 der them from wintering well. Many 

 eases sin; mentioned of bees winteriug 

 finely in hives without bottom boards or 

 ■ Lb great cracks in, and, in some eases, 

 almost without hives; yet no one advo- 

 cates such a plan. To sum up, weshould 

 >;\ the arrangement for out-door winter- 

 ing thai gave them most sunshine, with 

 the fullest ^protection from the wind and 

 i ain, would succeed best. 



A single colony cannot generate the 

 amount of heat that forty or fifty would, 

 and we think ii very doubtful about, their 

 being benefited, even had they a cover- 

 ing one foot in thickness on all .-ides. 

 Would not a single pail of water freeze 

 under such cireumstances ? Yet it' it 

 were buried in the ground, below where 

 frOsl would reach, it assuredly would not, 

 and so we would put our one colony in a 

 frost-proof cellar, or leave them full in 

 the sun. It is well known that they will 

 bear a vers low temperature for a short 



tie -a few day-- or a week— if they can 

 only bo warmed up occasionally, to ena- 

 ble [hern to fix up for another cold snap. 

 it you live in a region where the cold maj 

 i outiuue ten days or more below a zero 

 temperature, we advise a cellar or frost- 

 proof bee house, h\ all means. 



To those who have five colonies orabout 

 that number, we should advise as above, 

 only that it. would probably pay to have a 

 : mall part of your cellar enclosed, so as 

 to be perfectly dark. Objections have 

 been made to fastening the bees in with 

 wire doth, yet, when housed, many suc- 

 ceed in so doing without irritating the bees 

 at all, and il has the advantage of pre- 

 serving the floor free from dead bees at. 

 all times; also, if the temperature should 

 rise to 50° or more, many get out and fail 

 to find their way back; besides, in carry- 

 ing the bees into their winter quarters 

 and back again, a bump carelessly given 

 would not result, in the loss of bees. 

 Mure experiments are needed on this 

 point, and we hope to be able to give the 

 result of some in our next. 



We have just seen an apiary of forty 

 stocks i>y more that were so confined, and 

 kept in a. cellar that was but slightly dark- 

 ened: yet no bees objected to the contine- 

 nt in, and very few were found dead on 

 the bottom boards; no colonies were lost 

 al all. They were fed on sugar syrup, <//' 



As soon as you have a dozen colonies, 

 we would advise a bee house such as we 

 have described. A good cellar may an- 

 swer, it is true, but a house made especial- 

 ly is much more convenient. We realU 

 hope our friends will have all feeding fin- 

 ished up soon after they receive this, for 

 we wish to advise in regard to placing the 

 different kind- of hives in-doors in our 

 next. 



Sept. 27th. Dec- are working quiet ly on 

 ■■'■ half barrel of sugar. < lider-mill deserted 



QUEEN REARING. 



1J. HOR'J l.V after our last number went 

 *~( to press a, number of cool night- 

 nights rendered our fifty-four cage queen 

 nursery inefficient to keep up a brooding 



temperature, and many queen cells were 

 lost, but its great convenience during 

 warm weather made us loth to give it up. 

 While studying on the matter we observed 

 that the copper reservoir of water on our 

 Sttewart stove, kept warm even after an 

 interval of many hours, without fire, and 

 that a body of water changes temperature. 

 quite slowly. To be brief, in less than 

 half a day, Novice, with some assistance 

 from his friends the tin-smiths, made a. 

 simplicity hive, all of tin, with double 

 walls and having a fixed bottom double 

 also: the space between the two contain- 

 ing about, eight gallons of water. The 

 stove used last spring was again set up in 

 the bee house, the top removed and our 

 hatching nursery placed on it, making the 

 joint (dose with strips of woolen cloth be- 

 tween the tin and iron. A shallow tin 

 lamp made to hold about a gallon, and 

 supplied with a common burner and 

 chimney, was placed on the bottom of the 

 stove, and so arranged thai it could be 

 replenished with oil by simply opening 

 the stove door. 



After about twelve hours, our thermom- 

 eter inside showing a temperature of 

 about 100, the lamp was turned down con- 

 siderably, for hives rearing queen cells 

 showed on an average only from 8G° to 

 '.10°. Well, with some solicitude we re- 

 moved several frames, containing cells to 

 our miniature conservatory, and were re- 

 warded by seeing very soon large yellow 

 queens uncap their cells and walk forth 

 with all the strength and vigor of those 

 reared in .June and July. 



As we dislike to mit combs and brood, 

 as we must do to give each cell a separ- 

 ate cage, we propose leaving them all as 

 built in the hive and trust to our skill to 

 "keep peace in the family" by visits four 

 or five times a day. Now please try and 

 imagine our exultation, kind reader, 

 when we discovered that the queens could 

 be plainly heard gnawing out of their 

 cells, and that by holding the comb to the 

 ear the precise cell could be selected and 

 the queen liberated, and safely caned un- 

 til we are read}' to introduce them. The 

 apparatus works most beautifully, for the 

 temperature can be kept to a degree, if 

 necessary, by turning the screw to the 

 lamp, and after the cells are sealed we 

 think them safer thus than in their own 

 hive even. From one strip of comb con- 

 taining thirteen cells we hatched out 

 twelve line queens, and al one time we 

 hatched eight in one day. In fact we 

 have supplied each one of our queen 

 rearing colonies with fine yellow queens 

 in so short a time since starting the ap- 

 paratus that we begin to wonder what we 

 shall do with our rapidly increasing fam- 

 ily of infantile aspirants to royalty. 



