3DE^V"OTEID EiXlCIuTJSI'VELTSr TO BEES -A.3SriD HOnSTE^^- 



Vol. III. 



JANUARY, 1, 1875. 



No. I. 



OIR OW'TS APIARY. 



bright and "Happy New Year" to all old 

 friends, whom we may be so fortunate as 

 to greet once more through these pau:es. As 

 we write this 3rd day of Dec., 1874, we of 

 course can not tell how many of our friends of 

 '78 and 74, may have concluded to "go with 

 us" through 1875. However, be the numtjer 

 great or small, we once more wish you a hap- 

 py and prosperous year witli j'our bees, and 

 hope we may be so fortunate as to succeed in 

 assisting in the matter. 



In Vol. 1, we tried to tell you "How to Start 

 an x\.piary;" in Vol. 2, "How to Conduct an 

 Apiary," and we fear we are now better quali- 

 fied to tell }ou what we are doing in Our Own 

 Apiarj', than anj- thing else, and so we com- 

 mence the task without further apology. 



In our last, we informed you that we had 

 raised the sash in our greenhouse nearly level; 

 well, editorial duties compelled us to neglect 

 it entirely while we were getting out our Dec. 

 No. and new price list, and meanwhile we had 

 some wintry weather so severe, that all vn- 

 »e((Ud brood in all the hives in greenhouse was 

 destroyed. This would not have happened 

 had not the sash been left so that the interior 

 was very much exposed. The larvje in the 

 lamp nursery shared the same fiite, although 

 the temperature at no time fell below GO", but 

 they had so few bees that the heat of the lamp 

 was their only safety. From this we should 

 judge the vitality of brood and eggs is destroy- 

 ed by exposure to a temperature of GO" for any 

 length of time. This accords with our experi- 

 ments in sending eggs by mail. It can only 

 succeed during the hottest part of the summer, 

 and even then small larvti? among sealed brood 

 seems to give best results; the sealed brood 

 retaining considerable animal heat. 



The weather has now moderated again, but 

 sill too many bees are found deail on the floor 

 and clinging to the sash. To test another 

 'Ijright conception" we have to-day arranged 

 each hive so that the bees have an entrance 

 outside the house as Avell as inside. Will they 

 learn to locate the two entrances think you, 

 so as to make no blunders? We'll tell j'ou 

 after the next pleasant day. 



Dec. S(h — It don't work, and after we tell you 

 why, very likely you will think as we do, that 

 we were stupid not to have foreseen the ditti- 

 culty. As soon as the sun had warmed the 

 interior, the hives "drew" like stoves, that is 

 they drew in the cool out-door air, and sent a 

 strong draft out of the entrance of each hive i 

 into the greenhouse. This draft kept the bees I 



so cool they wouldn't fly at all, and even 

 should the air be ((uite warm outside, we think 

 such a current through the hive, of (luestion- 

 ablc utility unless forsooth it be used in hot 

 weather for a "patent ventilator;" if hives are 

 shaded from the sun, we doubt much whether 

 a draft through the liiye is ever desirable, no 

 matter how hot may be tlie weather. As you 

 may have inferred, our experiments ai-e now 

 tending toward the feasibility of a greenhouse, 

 or similar structure, that will enable us to 

 locate our bees permanently, the year round ; 

 that is, have them so situated that they can go 

 out in the spring at pleasure, when the weath- 

 er permits, or gather meal for their brood and 

 take the needed exercise in the bright sun- 

 shine inside, where wind and frost are entirely 

 excluded. If it is among the possibilities we 

 should want such a structure to be so made 

 that little if any engineering would be re- 

 quired ; such as sliding sash, shutters etc. To 

 convey our meaning we append a precious (to 

 us) little note just at hand. 



Apropos, a neighbor told me of an experiment he 

 tried a tew years ago, that someljody might test. He 

 had two weak hite swarms that he expected to lose 

 any how, and as P. G. says "just lor the liin of it," put 

 them over the family room, in a tightly i)lastered room 

 with the stove pipe "running up through the floor into 

 the chimnev. They were put 4 feet hack from the 

 window, and on a level with the sill, with a board lor 

 a bridge from the window to each hive. The chil- 

 dren's beds occupied the same room. The result was 

 they flew whenever they wanted to on the window 

 and all over the chamber. They soon got used to it 

 and as they were few in numbers'and scant in stores, 

 he fed them all winter daily with honey and rye meal, 

 in little troughs placeil on the sill. They woiild come 

 and work on it every day when warm enougli and go 

 home with it, industriously traveling back and forth 

 on their respective bridges; each returning to their 

 own hive, however much thev might get mi'^ed up at 

 the troughs. They came through all right. Tliev 

 were in box hives and the only trouble was,' be h;id to 

 mix the honey and meal as he fed it, in small (luaati- 

 ties or it would sour. They soon learned to come 

 home if they couldn't get out of the window; although 

 the children slept in the chamber they did noi Ijotber 

 each other at all. Noises did not dibtiu-b Ihem nor did 

 they soil the chamber badly. 



II. HiDSO.v, Douglas, Allegan t\>., Mich. 



There! do you see how near this ma;! came 

 to a perfect accomplishment of all we can de- 

 sire. Had he fountl that t)y opening tli,' win- 

 dow when the weather became suitable 

 (which he may have done, we have written for 

 further particulai'N; the bees returned all 

 right, why could he not liave left them thus 

 all summer? JMany experiments will l)e need- 

 ed before we are ready to arrange an apiary in 

 this way, and to proi)erly economize labor 

 both for the apiarist and the bees, it seems to 

 us is to be the grand i)roblem at the jiresent 

 stage of Apiculture. !>ince we now know tiiat 



