1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



115 



this .section don't like extracted honey, and my bees 

 don't like syrup too well; so J guess I will leave the 

 honey where it is until spring. I will then extract 

 enough to keep it from interfering with breeding. 



James Boein, West Lodi, <>. 



L wrote Grimm and has just ree'd a letter from 



that gentleman stating that he has 12000 lbs. ext'd and 

 soon lbs. com!). M. H. Tweed, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Have taken 3036)3 lbs. of honey. 



J. F. MONTGOMERY, Lincoln, Tenn. Aug. 26th, 1874. 



Short and sweet friend M. but you don't tell 



how many bees produced it. 



^ ■ > ii m 



[For Gleanings.; 



ABOIT HONEY. 



sggSiRIEND NOVICE :— We have heard many com- 



Isn plaints made about extracted honey put up in 

 *■=; common glass jars, with corks or metal tops. 

 Even "Novice"" says in the last Gleanings, that 

 honey which he put up last year, oozed out of the 

 tops of the jars or candied during the winter. We 

 once experienced the same difficulty but have since 

 learned how to take care of honey better and now 

 have no such trouble. The plan of extracting honey 

 as soon as gathered, straining it from the machine 

 into the barrel, and drawing it off at once into jars, 

 has caused much of this trouble. 



Before commencing to extract, a portion of the 

 honey in each frame should be sealed. This may be 

 taken as an indication that the whole of that yield 

 is evaporated and ripened sufficiently to be taken 

 from the hive. After extracting, strain it or not as 

 you like; it makes no difference in the end. Just 

 draw it ofl' into buckets holding from three to live 

 gallons each, and allow it to stand about two weeks, 

 skimming it every day or two. Unless there is old 

 honey candied in" the combs, and thus mixed with 

 the new in extracting, there will be no sediment. 

 The skimmings will remove everything else, inclu- 

 ding what it is important to have removed, namely 

 the little frothy substance which rises on the honey 

 and which seems to be the cause of the fermenting 

 and oozing out at the top of the jar. 



Evaporation takes place while the honey remains 

 in the buckets which leaves it still thicker" to bottle. 

 Honey treated in this way will be of good consistency, 

 clear, of better flavor than if put up without being 

 allowed to stand and have the scum removed, and it 

 will be wholly free from the tendency to ferment and 

 ooze out, while it remains liquid much longer than if 

 put up in the ordinary manner. 



A visit to the Apiary of a friend in Nashville, Tenn., 

 reveals the result of "the same plan, only carried a 

 little farther. This progressive amateur bee culturist 

 has some very fine samples of honey which he put up 

 over three years ago, and which is now liquid and as 

 clear as when put up. As he is too modest to state 

 Ills method through the Bee Journals we think of 

 making it known in some future article. 



Frank Benton, Edgefield Junction, Tenn 



■» ■• ■ »■ 



FEYINO REES UNDERCLASS DURING 

 THE WINTER. 



Wf> Y reference to Problem No. 8, (April 1873) 

 JjQ^ and No. 19, (Jan. 74) it will be seen we 

 have been much interested in the feasibility of 

 taking advantage of the natural heat of the 

 sun, by cutting oft' the cold winds with glass 

 sashes, as gardeners do in caring for choice 

 plants and early vegetables. The only doubt 

 that beset us Avas that it seemed somewhat 

 improbable, from what we knew of the habits 

 of bees, that they would go back safely to 

 their hives instead of flying against the glass 

 as they do in our dwellings. Our experiment 

 mentioned on page 22 Jan. No., rather discour- 

 aged us, but we have no south windows, 

 therefore could not give the bees the full rays 

 of the sun. Friend Palmer, of Hart, Mich., 

 succeeded better, and he sent us in May, a pos- 

 tal card that we really believe has been more 

 valued than all other documents ree'd on win- 

 tering troubles. It would have appeared at 



the proper time but P. G. urged us to "go slow" 

 this time, and if possible test the matter our- 

 selves before going into print with it. As 

 natural pollen has been coining in ever since 

 its reception no such experiment has been 

 made. This is the precious document : 



I have had a swarm in a cold frame. Size of sash 

 2>jx4 feet, frame 3 feet high in front and i feet high 

 at back or north end. Placed the hive close to the 

 back end, facing south, with a dish of rye Hour on top. 

 They worked on the Hour and weni back in the hive 

 all right. IIenkv Palmek, Hart, Mich., May, nth, 1874. 



In the reports given of Mich. Bee-keeper's 

 Convention, May 6th, 74, brief allusion was 

 made to a paper from H. E. Bidwell detailing 

 something new in regard to wintering, but 

 either the matter was regarded as unimportant, 

 or for some other reason, nothing intelligible 

 was made public in regard to it until the Bee- 

 Keeper's Ma fin zinc gave the whole paper in their 

 Sept. No. While thanking them for bringing 

 forward a paper of such apparently great val- 

 ue, we cannot see why it was so delayed. If 

 it is perfectly authentic, all of the various pa- 

 pers on ventilation, diet, beehouses etc., have 

 been misdirected zeal. Again, in all that is 

 to be seen on the subject, Mr. Bidwell's post 

 office address is carefully suppressed. Is this 

 characteristic of we Americans and our insti- 

 tutions? If Mr. B. will himself state to the 

 public that he prefers to answer no questions 

 in regard to the matter, 'tis our impression that 

 none of the readers of any of our Bee Journals 

 would be so impolite as to intrude on him. 

 We extract from the B. K. M., the most impor- 

 tant part of the paper as follows : 



"Having bought some bees last winter, which we 

 were anxious to fly before putting them in the cellar, 

 and having near at hand some empty hot-beds— which 

 had been dug out in the fall for the purpose of filling 

 early in the spring— we thought perhaps a swarm 

 might fly in one ; something risked, something gain- 

 ed ; so we put one in. The beds were roomy, 6x12 feet, 

 so that four sash .3x6 feet would cover them. The 

 depth was about three feet. With a slope to the glass 

 of one foot. In about twenty minutes after putting on 

 the sash— it being mid-day, with a clear sky— the tem- 

 perature arose within to 70°, and the bees commenced 

 flying briskly and voiding freely. At night we found 

 every bee hud returned to the hive. 



The next day being clear, we put in two more ; the 

 next four; and the next eight. These all returned, so 

 well to their respective hives, that we next put in 

 eight more, two deep. Being so well satisfied with 

 the result, and having six of these large hot-beds dug 

 out. we flew 111 stocks, as occasion required until 

 spring. 



The only caution I would suggest would be not to 

 fly them too often, which can be readily prevented by 

 covering the sash with boards. 



Occasionally the bees will alight on the hives or 

 collect on the glass, if the atmosphere gets hot and 

 close within ; they can easily be dispersed bv sprink- 

 ling straw on the glass to shade the bees and cool oil' 

 the bed. A similar occurrence frequently happens 

 out of doors, on a warm, close day, after the bees have 

 been confined some time in their hives ; they alight 

 on everything, and remain until cold or hunger re- 

 minds them of their home. 



The advantages accruing to this method of winter- 

 ing bees are— you can safely fly them at your pleas- 

 ure; none are lost in the chilly winds or snow, or on 

 the cold ground, which increases their value in our 

 estimation two-fold." 



From this brief paper we found it impossible 

 to gather : First, whether the sun was the sole 

 source of heat and these were only "cold pits" 

 or "cold frames" as they are variously termed, 

 or whether it was a veritable "hot bed." Sec- 

 ondly, did the bees remain in the pits or were 

 they only lugged in occasionally from some 

 where else? 



