GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



jAIf. 



I)ee.s will work and rear brood in a glass en- 

 closure, we think we may safely call it 



PKOBLEM NO. 37. 



We invite suggestions, and the result of ex- 

 periments from all. The difficulty mentioned, 

 of a draft through the hive, is easily remedied 

 l)y placing the hive a few inches from, and 

 with the entrance facing the wall of the struc- 

 ture. An opening in the wall, before each hive, 

 permits them to go out in suitable weather, 

 aiitl when gathering honey they can readily 

 alight as near the entrance as they do ordina- 

 rily with a Langstroth portico. As the interi- 

 or of this building is expected to be kept above 

 the freezing point, without any artificial heat, 

 at all seasons of the year, these entrance holes 

 should be closed whenever the bees have no 

 need of them. To do this quicklj^ a single lev- 

 er can be so arranged as to close 50 or 100 at 

 once and with but little effort. We would 

 have the entrances to the hives nearly on a 

 level with the ground outside, for reasons re- 

 peatedly given, and as the extractor is to be 

 used on the inside, our building need be onlj^ 

 wide enough, to permit a car on the Blakeslee 

 plan, to run between the rows of liives that are 

 up and down each side of the building. If the 

 I'oof is of glass the air inside will permit the 

 bees to work almost any day in winter when 

 the sun shines, but what is to be done when 

 the sun doesn't shine in winter, and also to avoid 

 the excessive heat, and to shade the hives in 

 summer ? This is one of the most important 

 points in the problem, especially as we want it 

 done without laborious manipulations whenev- 

 er we have sudden and extreme changes of 

 weather. Peter Henderson {Am. Agrleidturist 

 for June 1873) has happily solved the most 

 difficult part, by recommending that green 

 houses have spacious cellars beneath them, and 

 that the lloor above be laid with the boards 

 slightly apart, permitting the air to mix freeljs. 

 That in the cellar, will equalize the tempera- 

 ture of that in the greenhouse so as to prevent 

 Its becoming unpleasantly warm in summer, 

 and will also prevent its ever going lower than 

 freezing in winter, if shutters are used during 

 the most severe weather, for the natural tem- 

 perature of the earth is al)out 40«. As strong 

 stocks bear a freezing temperature for a short 

 time without injury, we think bee-keepers 

 might dispense with the shutters, were it not 

 for shading the house in summer. This last 

 item bothers us most of all, but we feel pretty 

 sure it is not necessary and perhaps not advi- 

 sable, to have the roof all glass ; if one half 

 were shingles we think we should have all the 

 heat and light needed. Again, bees work bet- 

 ter with a level ceiling of glass above them, 

 and as this will not shed rain, we shall need 

 two sashes. In that case the dead air si)ace 

 between the two will be of great service in 

 keeping out frost. To those who are inclined 

 to think this is going to a great amount of 

 fuss and expense for so little, we rejjly, that it 

 is all to enable us to have plenty of bees, and to 

 liave them early, and most of our readers are 

 well aware that if we can secure this, indepen- 

 dently of the weather, reward is easily secured. 

 If it pays iMarket gardeners to have green 

 houses, and to keep them also warmed for 

 months artificially, will it not pay us, espec- 

 ially as a hive of bees will endure variations 



of temperature safely that would be at once 

 fatal to vegetable life. 



Our best colony in the greenhouse, and it is 

 one that would not winter ordinarily, is now 

 rearing brood quite briskly, and yet it is near 

 the middle of Dec. Won't a greenhouse pay in 

 the spring think youV 



We are very much interested in your forcing house, 

 we do not adinire your calling it greenhouse, for we 

 do not think there will be any tiling green in it, when 

 you succeed so admirablv. 



B. H. Staiu & C«>.,"Cleveland, O. Dec. 8th, 1874. 



We beg pardon but there is something 

 "green" in it ; viz : three geraniums, one bud- 

 ded almost ready to blossom, and a hyacinth, 

 just peeping out of the ground. Since you 

 have mentioned it we think we will call it a 

 "forcing house" and thank you for the correct- 

 ion. 



Meal placed inside of the lamp nursery does 

 no good, the Queen lays eggw daily and some 

 of them are liatched into minute larva?, but 

 they get no farther. Although the rest are 

 busy on tlie meal within a few feet of them 

 they pay no attention to it whatever. Very 

 likely a pint or so of bees, added to their one 

 teacupful, might start brood but we want to 

 find out why they can't do it ; they are kept 

 warm, have plenty of food, water and all es- 

 sentials so far as we know. Not only is pollen 

 essential to the life of the larvae, but it needs 

 a pretty large amount daily, as we have ample 

 means of seeing, for if several cold cloudy 

 days occur and we do not warm up the room 

 by the stove, the larva? is sure to perish. None 

 of our attempts to get them to use meal in the 

 hive, cither dry or wet up with syrup or hon- 

 ey, have been of the least avail. 



Dec. lOih — Have put five more weak colonies 

 in the forcing house ; as these have not hail a 

 fly for a week or two, we were agreeably sur- 

 prised to see them hover before the hives, be- 

 fore flying against the glass as did those put 

 in first, and the consequence is, they nearly 

 all regain their hives without any confusion. 

 As we can now set them at work any day by 

 starting a fire in the stove, we propose to keep 

 these nine colonies (including the nucleus) 

 rearing brood until spring, or at least until all 

 are strong. 



Dec. 2Ut — But this don't work just as we 

 propositi either. It seems that bees get "lazy," 

 if they can't fiy out in the open air. We were 

 half inclined to think this the case many times, 

 but concluded it was the cool weather that 

 prevented them working on the syrup as they 

 did in Oct. AVhen we first put the three small 

 stocks in the forcing house, they covered a uni- 

 versal feeder so as ^o look like a small swarm 

 hanging to the strip of wood, and they took 

 away half a cofiee-pot full of syrup in a day, 

 during favorable weather. By the way we 

 believe we have not not mentioned that bees 

 do not drown in their feeders even if left un- 

 covered, for they will walk down the cloth 

 sides, which gives them a secure foot hold, and 

 load uyy with the greatest apparent satisfaction. 

 Well after they got the combs i)retty well filled, 

 they seemed to iiave lost their enthusiasm, and 

 and althouiih hives just brouijht in, seem to 

 have all their natural disposition for robbing 

 it soon gives way to a kind of listless disregard 

 of the amount of honey or syrup that may be 

 left exposed about the interior ; warming the 



