1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



75 



tumbling 011 the bed where he lay, long enough 

 to direct that stove wood be piled on the cover 

 until the cracks were closed. This was done, 

 and Mrs. N. for additional security placed on 

 the centre of the top of the hive a large stone 

 jar, inverted. 



When Novice awoke next morning at about 

 his usual hour — 5 o'clock — although a little sad- 

 der, and perhaps wiser than usual, his head 

 was free from pain, and he of course repaired 

 at once to the Apiary, the scene of yesterday's 

 troubles and turmoils. 



A refreshing shower, that had been much 

 Deeded had materially changed the aspect of 

 things, and as the locust blossoms had opened 

 during the night, all robbing had ceased and 

 every thing was lovely. 



On turning his €yes toward the Quinby hive 

 which stood under the shade of a dwarf pear 

 tree, he beheld a perfect circle of bees for all 

 the world like beads strung on a string, greed- 

 ily sipping the rain water from the concave 

 bottom of that inverted stone jar. It was 

 raised up so they could lind it readily, was 

 clean, and so shallow it could not drown them, 

 and altogether seemed just the thing. Later, 

 after Blue Eyes was up the numbers had in- 

 creased, and so intent were they on sipping 

 the pure water, that she could touch them witn 

 her ringers without their scarcely noticing the 

 interruption. Of course the supply was soon 

 out, or would have been had we not replenish- 

 ed it; the concavity held about a tea-cup-ful, 

 and Miss Maudie was commissioned to see 

 that they did not "get out." But they did for 

 ail that, lor during hot days several tea-cup - 

 fuls were needed, partly on account of evapora- 

 tion, and it only remained for Novice to devise 

 a cheap and simple mechanical arrangement to 

 keep constantly full the shallow cavity in the i 

 bottom of that stone jar. This he did very i 

 quickly by rilling a quart glass fruit jar with j 

 water ; a piece of paper was laid over the 

 mouth until it could be inverted on the stone j 

 jar, and then the paper was drawn out. Of ; 

 course when the water became exhausted so [ 

 as to allow a bubble of air to go up into the J 

 jar, a little more water comes down and so on. j 

 A quart of water lasts several days, and the j 

 receptacle being glass we can always see when 

 it needs replenishing. We were amused this \ 

 morning to see the usual number of bees ! 

 around it, and more going and coming quick- 

 ly, even though it was raining quite briskly. 

 Many of the bees were quite young Italians, 

 that it seems had become so accustomed to 

 going to a certain spot for water, that they 

 couldn't think of doing otherwise even though 

 water was raining down all about them. We j 

 are well aware the principle of the above is not 

 new, as feeders on a similar plan are in use, 

 but the plan of supplying fresh water is new 

 to us at least. We have in former years tried 

 arrangements with shavings, water allowed to 

 drip on a board, and a cloth laid over a vessel 

 full of water, but all of them were sown aban- 

 doned because they were too much trouble, or 

 were untidy etc., and the bees were allowed to 

 go to distant muddy streams, to the pump etc. 

 Is it not a fact that during the working season 

 the workers mostly fail from worn our wings, 

 and if this is the case should we not save them 

 ali we can bv having supplies near at hand; at 



least water if we can do nothing further 'i 



Our 4000 Basswood trees were planted with 

 this end in view, that is, to give them as much 

 forage within one fourth mile of their hives, 

 as they usually get in an area of one and a 

 half or two miles around their hives. 



The device we have mentioned can of course 

 be used for out door feeding, and it is perfectly 

 secure from waste; by inverting a tumbler of 

 syrup in a saucer, we can also use it tor feed- 

 ing in the hives, when there is no occasion to 

 feed rapidly. This latter plan has been given 

 several times in print already. 



QUILTS. 



J J UDGING from the number of inquiries, 

 and from the erroneous impression the 

 writers evidently have in the matter we shouid 

 judge that we had not been sufficiently ex- 

 plicit in regard to the manner of making, and 

 the office of this very useful substitute for the 

 honey-board. 



The principal error seems to be the impres- 

 sion that they are only used during the winter 

 and spring, whereas, with hives made with a 

 light cover, hinged on, as we make the Sim- 

 plicity, Standard, and intact all hives ordered, 

 a quilt is a positive necessity at all times of the 

 year. If they are omitted, the bees not only 

 get crushed under the cover when it is shu\ 

 down, but they proceed at once to gum it fast 

 with propolis, making it necessary to pry up 

 the cover with a knife when we wish to open 

 it, an operation that is at once fatal to the 

 morals of both bees and owner. 



The bees should never be allowed to get above 

 the quilt under the cover at all, and to ensure 

 this the quilts must be nicely fitted. As they 

 are liable to shrink in time', they should be 

 made rather large, and before the cover is 

 closed they should be carefully tucked down 

 all around so that not a crevice is left open, 

 and not a particle of the quilt sticks out so as 

 to interfere with the close shutting of the cov- 

 er. Considerable complaint has been made of 

 the bees eating through the quilts, and we have 

 had a little trouble of that kind, but not when 

 proper cloth was used. We visited a neighbor 

 a few days ago who has between 40 and 50 col- 

 onies, and could but admire the nice fitting 

 perfect quilts he used; Avhen questioned he 

 remarked that he had used them for two years 

 and had never had one gnawed through in all 

 that time. An examination showed that they 

 were made of very coarse, hard twisted cotton 

 sheeting. They were sewed on a sewing ma- 

 chine, and when done were quilted across with 

 very long machine stitches as in tha followiiu 

 fknire. 



They were tilled with three thicknesses of 

 wadding. Should these quilts be found superi- 

 or to those we have before described, give the 

 credit to Mr. E. C. Blakeslee of this place, the 

 man of the "rail-way Apiary" p'an for conveni- 

 ence in extracting; and by the way his uniform 

 success in the ' bee business" bids' fair to place 

 him way ahead of "us Novices." 



