136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec:. 



OIK OWN APIARY. 



\|"j] YEN with the curtain down, the heat has 

 i'-tii j been so great to-day (Oct. 29th) that we 

 made a door of wire cloth and now begin to 

 think the sole cause of the bees dying may 

 have been the high temperature. The follow- 

 ing note from friend Palmer corroborates this 

 view. 



The colony under glass seemed to "thrive" until it 

 was warm enough for those outside to gather pollen. 

 When tin' thermometer indicated 20° in the shade 

 outside it marked 50° to 55° under the glass; when it 

 was 50° outside it was sn to 90° inside. Then the bees 

 commenced to die and I let them out. Is it any won- 

 der the bees died in 90° of heat and no fresh air? 

 Thanks for the picture. H. Palmek. 



Hart, Mich. Oct. -2(>th, 1871. 



Nov. 2nd — We have at length had a day so 

 cold, that the temperature out doors even in 

 the sun, was not such as to induce bees to fly, 

 and the green house does much better. In fact 

 the bees now scarcely touch the glass, and yet 

 they work on the meal almost as lively as if 

 'twere spring. The strong stocks arc rearing 

 brood nicely, but the cool nights have spoiled 

 all but the eggs in our pet nucleus. 



The house is too hot days, but too cold nights ; 

 to obviate this, we are about to build on at the 

 end, so as to more than double its capacity, yet 

 using the same sash which is about 6 x v,xl3. 

 Every part of it except the glass is to be cov- 

 ered with a thickness of about 18 inches of dry 

 earth to prevent frost from penetrating ; and to 

 keep all dry it has an additional protection of j 

 shingle roof over all except the sash. We ex- 

 pect this large body of air will when once 

 warmed to about 70°, — we now think the tem- 

 perature should never much exceed 70° when 

 bees are confined to a room — keep warm 

 all night, especially if the glass is also protec- 

 ted at night by a curtain. The dimensions 

 inside are now 7 to be about 12x24 and feet in 

 hight. We think it advisable to have the 

 room as low as it can be consistent with com- 

 fort, while working among the bees ; for the 

 same reason a flat ceiling over head is to be 

 pref rred, as the bees collect in the ridge, and 

 the warm air rising makes it so hot as to be 

 quite unhealthy lor them, while they only 

 struggle to regain the open air. 



We are making preparations to put our bees 

 in their winter quarters before cold and stormy 

 weather, the hives are dry now, and the bees 

 seem quite healthy. 



Sixty eight colonies now, counting nuclei 

 and all. One of those under the glass was 

 found Queenless, caused probably by bees from 

 other hives getting in by mistake when first 

 put in. We united it with a nucleus, but their 

 artificial abode yet so nearly approximates na- 

 ture that we found the Queen in the midst of a 

 ' i of bees on the bottom board an hour after. 

 was promptly caged and now all seems 

 well. 



Nov. 3rd — Our bees are all housed for the 



wi.iler, except a few weak ones that are to be 



■luil in the green house. We would like 



to say they are all nicely housed, and w r e sup- 



pos our readers of course presume we did 



everything just right. To be frank, we only 



dec! in getting through with the first 20 



<• •' <n>. 3 when we set out to cut winter passa- 



Remodeling and enlarging the Green 



lias taken much of our time and — we 



concluded to let the rest go. 



Why do we house them so early V Well, 

 principally because the hives are dry and nice 

 to handle ; they seem very quiet, and have had 

 their stores all nicely sealed for some time, and 

 *vc thought it might be well to get them in 

 before damp and stormy weather. 



We have left on their quilts just as they 

 were in summer and carried in bottom-boards 

 and all, that we might disturb them as little 

 as possible. Quinby advises that they be 

 housed so quietly that they will know nothing 

 about it. This we started out to do, but some 

 of the hybrids found out more of what was 

 going on than was really comfortable to one's 

 feelings. The weak ones — and a large propor- 

 tion really are weak again in spite of us — were 

 docile enough it is true, but the heavy colonies 

 of hybrids are rather averse to being disturbed. 

 We know of no reason why our colonies should 

 dwindle down as they do in the fall unless 'tis 

 the cider mill, and we shall in the future have 

 no more of this trouble we really believe, 

 P. G.'s cloth curtains having proved a perfect 

 remedy, yet great numbers were lost before 

 they were used. 



Oct. &h — Although we have had a couple of 

 remarkably warm days for Nov., oar bees 

 seem as quiet as one could wish, and by the 

 way there is something unusual about them 

 this fall in this respect. For instauce : in 

 building our Green House, two hives that 

 stood handy, were used as "saw horses" to 

 hold lumber, and as the sawing did not seem 

 to disturb them, we even ventured to nail inch 

 pine boards together on tap of these hives. In- 

 credible as it may seem, not a bee showed his 

 "phiz ;" to assure ourselves they were alive we 

 raised the quilt and there they were, full blood 

 Italians, grandchildren of our Imported Queen, 

 and they were so densely packed that it almost, 

 seemed they would never get "untangled." 

 After we had looked at them a moment in 

 amazement, they began to rouse up with a be- 

 haviour that seemed to say, "what in the 'dick- 

 ens' do you want of us this cool weather?" 



A man that we have in our employ to "dig" 

 (we can dig some alone, but when a "very big 



hole" is required we that is some how 



'"tother man" seems to be the most profitable) 

 insists that our bees this fall really are a differ- 

 ent kind, or they would never stand hammer- 

 ing on the hives in that way. How is it kind 

 readers t is it the new importation, or has the 

 sealed stores given them in Aug. and Sept., 

 something to do with it ? or is it both ? Now 

 while we were putting them in the house we 

 probably calculated on this sublime indiffer- 

 ence to this world's "bumps" and as it was 

 almost dark — by the way do you know that it 

 sometimes "gets dark" at provokingly inoppor- 

 tune times? — but we finished putting them in. 

 As we were obliged to hold the entrance 

 against us in setting them on the upper shelves, 

 two or three of the hybrid colonies which were 

 very full of bees and correspondingly "sassy,"' 

 "biled out." It was too dark to sec them 

 plainly, but from the neighborhood of our 

 waist there came a peculiar hissing sound, fa- 

 miliar to most of our readers, plainly indicating 

 that thcij were anything but, "dormant." Were 

 we stung? Well really, as we went on with 

 our work after brushing them off with a broom, 



