P875 



<iLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



\Va 



It Jiiay not be known to all our readers that 

 ■'>ois will not di-owu in -a iVoiU-r wliei'O the 

 .-.siiles are not more than one-hall" ineh ^ipart, in 

 :'aet there is hut little danijer where they are 

 •even an iiK-h oi" nwre, it' the sides are roui^h so 

 the beet? do !K)t slip. .Xow we will tell vou of, 

 a pretty little eicperinjent that we have jusi 

 l>een luakins:; in anakiny,' one of oiu- new colo- 

 nies we inadvertently pl<ice<l a brood conil) 

 next the sjktss <l:vi*k)n biuuxl, and also lelt a 

 space between the ti\vo hir<;c enoiiiih I'or a 

 ■ronili. When the younu' Queen became textile 

 the very nicest thinix to do, '-of course," was to 

 start a tiny white cocnb. Xow ^is no hojiev 

 was coinin-a: in, thi^ could not continue \<>uix, 

 but for the beneJlt of '-Ijlue eyes" ^iud the rest 

 ^)tthe children we ina<Ie a teod-er by pliiciuir a 

 tin trou4>-k a little longer than the frame, 1'*;; 

 inches wide and alx)Ut 2"., deep, so placed that 

 the iiottoni bar of the frame luin.'i.- directly in 

 it. This you will observe was all close to the 

 i^lass, riij;ht iu front of the '-spectators" in tact, 

 and tije way these bei^utiful rejiular worker- 

 combs do iirow, is truly worth witnessin;^, 

 A'ven with a V'cry small amount. of t^eed. Du- 

 ring the }>ast rainy weather wc hardly know 

 '.low we should have contented ourselves had 

 it not l)een for the "house Apiary." 



Aiiff. 24th — But it wo"ld jnst do you all gooil 

 to see how the house Apiary works with the 

 ■comb foundations. You see we have had some 

 very wet, cool weather, and the l)ees out doors 

 iiave ceased operations of all kinds, yet by 

 "eedms:, and with tlie aid siveu by the lamp 

 nursery in the way of an even temperature of 

 •about 75 desrrces. we are enabled to push along 

 ')rood-rearing with a speed and certainty that 

 is truly soothing to the feelings of one who has 

 worked so long for the accomplishment of this 

 very i)oint, viz , being enabled to work inde- 

 pemix'ut of the caprices of the weather. 



We procured 10 lbs. of the foundations, and 

 by the way 3Ir. Long strangely forgets how 

 rloseh" we bee-keepers are obliged to econo- 

 '.nize, when he sends the above (juantity by ex- 

 press in tsro separate packages. Again, one of 

 our readers sent him §1-00, ordering it to be 

 sent by mail ; instead of doing this he sent it 

 by express at an expense ofJt'l.oO; whereas the 

 whole expense by mail Vould not have excecd- 

 «'d *20c ; we presume it was the duty of our 

 friend to have remitted the 20c for postage, 

 with the «1.00. We mention this that thought- 

 less people may avoid giving themselves and 

 friends needless trouble and expense in future. 



Now in regard to the foundations: we have 

 made several very careful exi)erimeuts, and we 

 •ire Avell satisfied that the bees will raise the 

 most beautiful light combs in much less time 

 than it takes them to build new, and what is 

 still more important is that they make the en- 

 tire comb from the material furnished in the 

 foundations. We determined this by giving 

 them a comb or sheet made of two different 

 I'ieces, one of white and one of yellow Avax; 

 the cells wdien raised to their full length were 

 of the color of the original foundations clear to 

 the top. The white sheets furnished by Mv. L. 

 are raised into combs of a delicacy, whiteness, 

 ami beauty that make the finest specimens of 

 comb made by the bees look cheap and aAvk- 

 ward when compared to it. 



Just imagine yourself a visitor, invited into 



the house Apiary ; as we raise the <|Uilt cover- 

 ing the glass (.iivision Ijoarils you will see 

 the liees so intent on their work that they do 

 not seem inclined to pay the lea^^'t attention Xo 

 our interrujitifin, and we may even uncover 

 the top, and lift out the combs, if we move 

 back the glas^s side a little, and work gently, 

 without a single bee leaving the combs, and 

 perhaps we nuiy also see tin- Queen continue 

 to deposit eggs while the comb is held up for 

 insiiection. Jn fact they heJiave just as you 

 have seen them in -Inne, although should we 

 try to do the same thing ontsiiie, we should 

 be beset by robbers at once. The secret is, 

 that we have just sucJi a temperature for com!> 

 building as we wish, they are supplied with 

 fo<xl just al)out as they get it naturally, and no 

 robber can by any po.ssibility annoy either 

 ourselves or the bees during any f>f the neces- 

 sary operations ot opening tlie hives, leeding. 

 hunting Queens or eggs, etc., etc. 



Now all this is "done during weather in 

 which the bees can fiy outside, and to lie frank, 

 we really know of no" way iu which they could 

 be handled thus, in cold weather, tor w hen the 

 glass doors are shut we always have more or 

 less ))ees collecting on these windows, that are 

 to l)e released and allowed to go nonie — to 

 their own "auger holes" — as soon as we open 

 the tloors to g-o out. It is our opinion that 

 bees should not be handled in a house Apiary, 

 only w^hen the weather is such that they ctw 

 go home. Of course a )K?e could tly such a 

 short distance to its home, even in rather cool 

 weather. 



Notwithstanding all we are .siiyiug in favor 

 of this house, we hope no one will go to in- 

 vesting largely in it until we have given it at 

 least a trial for one whole year. It may turn 

 out like the "glass house" before next June, 

 and we haven't forgotten the mouey that that 

 cost ; does any body want to buy some hot- 

 bed sash ver^- cheap V 



About 10 days ago we thought we had better 

 have a few more Queen cells for emergencies, 

 and to get bees we lifted an empty story from 

 one of the two-story hives. As the ([Uilt had 

 been put down hastily, we found a quart or 

 two of bees lolling on the inner sides of this 

 hive. They were "all carried carefully to the 

 new stand and then some combs were 

 taken from two other hives, these also covered 

 with bees, thus having bees from three ditlerent 

 stocks- Nothing was given them but a small 

 piece of brood such as we send by mail for SHc. 

 yet they hmltiiPenty-foiu-hirgQtiui^ Queen cells, 

 and large fine Queens are now h.atching from 

 them iu the nursery. 



Is it not true that by taking bees from sever- 

 al hives we get more and finer Queen cells V 



It is of no use to write to us for Queens, we 

 cannot undertake this in addition to our other 

 duties. We tell of what we have done only to 

 show how easy it all is; couUl you see the 

 heap of unansw'ered letters on our table this 

 minute, you would not wonder that we fear to 

 assume more responsibilities. 



Ang. 2Wi—\\g purchased an imported 

 Queen of Dadant about the middle of June ; 

 only gave her 4 combs of hatching brood to 

 "set up house-keeping Avith." Well, she soon 

 filled her hive, and Avhen Ave started the house 

 Apiary Ave divided the colony and put iier iu 



