110 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 



if there should be much chaii;;cable wcatlier. The lirst. 

 wann weather in May, the loth or '2Uth as it may be. 

 j^-o at them "hammer and tougs," and get their 

 sM^mbs full as soon as possible, handle every day if 

 \iecessary, ami not less than twice a \veelv ; e(iualize 

 brood, get all strong bv the time the yield comes; gut 

 the S or 'J frames so^packed with brood, that when the 

 honey comes ii must go into the boxes. Then when 

 they commence in the boxes, handle no more brood 

 iinlL'Ss they swarm out. 



J. 1^. MoouE, Ijinghampton, N. Y., Aug., 3d '7J 



Are you not a little velienieut, fricud M. V 

 We, at least, did not meau to say bees would 

 not sting in the house Apiary, but bless your 

 heart, you don't mean to say they will stini,^ 

 wheu the outer glass doors arc shut V Rvbberts 

 \-ery frequently ?r?/ to follow us as they often do 

 follow a person out of doors; but as soon as 

 they llud themselves imprisoned they imiitedi- 

 ateiy devote themselves to trying to get Lhro' 

 the glass ; and whether it rains or shines we 

 cut out brood, open hives and do whatever we 

 please, regardless of robbers or anything else. 



It seem? that your hives cannot be Uke ours, 

 or you would not speak of "less trouble"; does 

 it not lessen labor to (Mspsnsc 2)c?'ma,nentli/ with 

 all covers and one side of all the hives V The 

 very plan you refer to, it seems to us, will ans- 

 wer beautifully in the house, and by swinging 

 open the large" doors we can at any time be ai- 

 most lis much out of doors as if we had no house. 



If it should ever be decided that it is safe to 

 undertake wintering bees out of doors, we ad- 

 jnit the house to be an expense ; but if you are 

 going to build a wintering house or cellar, and 

 hives besides, the expense is undeniably in fa- 

 vor of building them all in one. Again, how 

 lyin bees possibly ))e packed for spring at so lit 

 tie e.Kpense, and at the same time receive all th' 

 l)enefit of the collective warmth of so many col- 

 onies, as in the liouse Apiary, where they can 

 fly av pleasure in any season, should a suitable 

 day oiler V We are very much obliged for your 

 kind hints in regard to getting box honey, and 

 hope to profit by them. 



I want a house to winter in, and And by making it 8 

 !5'iuare with snace fur two tiers of lour hives each, 

 the saving of lumber in 48 liives over the hives for 

 out-doors, will make the house; aiji inclined to try 

 file cxiieriment. Have tried luucliing C^ueens in the 

 iaiai) nursery, anil have succeeiled linely ; 1 find it the 

 (_asiest wav iiatehing and introducing. 



J. ii. Keelek, Carlinville, Ills. 



Xcxt season I .shall establish another Apiary, and as 

 ii must be C miles away irom iiome, (next station on 

 tile II. Jl.), I am thinking strongly of u "house Apia- 

 ry.-' 1 lliiulc now 1 should build square, for corners 

 cost more than lumber, in this "wooden country." 1 

 iV.vor 1 foiit walls, only just in front of the hives; 

 tliere. l inches, and soine" tins fixed around each en- 

 trance to keep my eliijped ijueeii in tlie liive during 

 swarming time, a ia J^angstroth and (Juinbj'. 1 sliail 

 ;irrange exclusively for eo«il> honey. 



Jamks IIeduon, DoAvagiac, Mich. 



A'v'e do not think 6 miles necessary ; after ta- 

 king considerable pains, we have satisfied onr- 

 self that our liees seldom work more than 1}., 

 miles from home, and we shall start another 

 house Apiary 2/^ ifiilcs from liome next season 

 as soon as we ascertain that the house will w'iu- 

 ter them as successfully as it answers for oth- 

 er purposes. Our objection to having it square 

 is that the bees are not so easily driven out. 



As ours is, the walls always present an inclin- 

 ed plane toward the doors, oli'ering every in- 

 ducement to them to "slide out" ; if large doors 

 were put directly in opposite corners of a square 

 house, it might do equally well ;but then you 



would have so many hives in a straight row 

 that tJie bees and Queens woitld not so readily 

 hnd their owi: hives. We are inclined to tliink 

 now that not a Queen lias been lost in making 

 her In-idal trip. Of the 18 on the south side not 

 one has been lost at all from any cause. The 

 4 in. walls with the dead air space*, we think, 

 will keep out more frost than 1 ft. saw dust 

 walls. The contracted entrances, we believe, 

 only result in Itaving the old Queens killed ; it 

 was a long time ago that Mr. L. thought they 

 might be a success. We think the house must 

 prove very desirable for comb honey, on ac- 

 count of tiie very warm and even temperature ; 

 a very little feeding keeping up comb-building, 

 no matter lnow cool the nights may be. 



XOVICE:--In 1SG2, during the war in Dixie, I v/as 

 ordered to liichmond, Va. ; while on my way home, i 

 stoi)ped over, for a day, at a little station near Atlan- 

 ta, Ga. ; the hotel-keeper had some line honey on the 

 table, anil being a bee man, I was at once interested. 

 I asked him to let me look at his Apiary ; he shewed 

 nie a liouse about 10 feet high, with about 1(5 sides ; 

 each side was divided into 4 spaces or squares, each 

 scpiare painted with ditl'erent colors, and at the en- 

 trixnces to the hives there were steps about G inches 

 wide. On going inside, the hives were ranged ou 

 shelves 4 high, ilie hives wera about the size of the 

 Simplicity two story ; the upper story was 3 sections, 

 or .i large" frames, lower story, same as a box hive, 

 witli a lixed honey board, and a '2 inch hole, going 

 into eaeli section; after sliowiug nic the arrangemenr 

 of the hives, he closed the door,— all was then dark- 

 removed a section, carried it to a little trap d.oor, ami 

 Ijlaced it on a shelf, opened the tra)) door, blew some 

 cigar smoke on the bees, and in a lew minutes all of 

 the bees were gone. This mode of keeping bees was 

 a great surprise to me, and 1 was delighted with it. 

 It was my intention to build a ]iouse of the same kind 

 on a small scale, to test it, but my profession pre- 

 venteil my doing so, but 1 intend it next year when I 

 quit the city, and go on my farm ; but 1 presume you 

 will have tested it oy iliat time. So > our idea is thir- 

 teen years old to my knowledge; tliis liotel-keeper was 

 the "King bee man'' in that" country, as he never lost 

 bees, and raised plenty of honey. 



A. J. MfiiKAY, Memphis, Tenn. 



I.<»AFll^«i BEES. 



BV A. ('. KENDALT., OF FIKM OF 15. H. STAIK A: CO. 



^rr"!;. NOVICE, Dear Sir:— lu Gleanings lor Aug. 

 WM\ ^^'*^ notice you thought bees hanging out were 

 ^?^, v.'asting time ; this is the very subject we have 

 been wishing for several months to vvrite to you about. 

 You inobablv remember we are a bee-keeper on a 

 small scale, having only .'j to (i swarms, and our lot be- 

 ing cast in the city of Cleveland we have not been 

 able to increase, as the colonies are kept weak by the 

 members- going away to the many allurements and 

 temptations of city life, by getting into coniectioners' 

 stores, etc., where their exit is not always certain. 



Years ago when our little farm, which is now in the 

 heart of the city, was in the suburbs, as we then tho't, 

 our 5 to Ii colonies gave us about S4(i. v/orth annually 

 of beautiful white box honey in excess of what we, 

 with the assistance of our friends, could eat. At that 

 time we observed a large lot of bees hanging out a; 

 one of our strong swarms, and having half an hour 

 leisure, we watched them closely and came to iJie 

 same conclusion that you did, that they were idling 

 away their time when the harvest was ripe; besiiles 

 this we saw that many bees coming in laden with 

 honey were Intercepted outside, and they would kinu- 

 !v give u)) their earnings to these idlers, all this loo 

 wliilst the boxes were empty ; we thought "here m\ 

 boys, this will not do, no use in fooling away your 

 time in this way, at the end of June."' We got a dust 

 pan and turkey's wing, which laller, by the way, is 

 not a tool to be desiJised, look the cover olV their 

 Langstroth hive, took the glass out of the ends ot the 

 two large -JO )b. boxes, brushed the cluster ou to the 

 dust i)a'n and poured them into the empty boxes ; in 

 three davs all the combs were started, and in about 

 ten davs" the boxes were full ami sealed. 



We think if vou had lilled your second story with 

 empty combs or frames, and jioured these idlers in, 

 they vvould have gone to work readily. 



Cleveland, O., Aug. 7lh, "75. 



