1S79 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



123 



apiaries. Every one has bees enough. You can 

 hardly sell an apiary for as much as it would cost to 

 buv as many new. empty hives. A new, 2 story, ex- 

 tracting hive is uow offered in the flat at $1.00 each, 

 which price has changed the minds of some who 

 contemplated putting swarms into boxes to bo 

 brimstoned next fall. 



Many of us packed our section boxes last fall in 

 cases with slides to show the honey, putting only 

 about 30 lbs. in a case. This has proved a great mis- 

 take, on account of the additional freight we have 

 to pav. We will have to hold on to the old 4 box 

 case of 60 Ins. of honev, the tare of which is only 7 

 lb*., so that the freight shall not take the honev. 



When can you send off imported queens? What 

 is the express charge to San Diego? 



G. F. Merriam. 



San Luis Rey, Cal., Feb. 20, 1879. 



We can send imported queens now, if you 

 wish, friend M. The express charge to San 

 Diego, Cal., is 95c. Four or Ave queens can 

 be sent in one package, as cheaply as one. 



TOWNLEY, AND CHAFF HIVES IN THE 

 PAST WINTER. 



ALSO HIS OPINION OF MY LOSSES. 



m CCORDIXG to Gle aninos for March, you have 



L\ lost 27 stocks of bees. Could not every one of 

 — ._ those stocks have been saved, if they had been 

 well protected on all sides with chaff, and with a di- 

 vision board, the hive being- contracted to suit the 

 size of the swarm? And, if saved, would they not 

 now have been worth more than enousrh to pay for 

 chaff hives for every unprotected stock you under- 

 took to winter? 



Friend Root, why will you persist in trying to win- 

 ter bees without protection, when you know that in 

 a severe winter they are liable to be lost, and that 

 good protection will save them? 



March 3d, bees here had a good fly for the first 

 time since Nov. I commenced the winter with 85 

 stocks in my home apiary, and 37 in the apiary 3 

 miles from home, all in chaff. All are alive now— 

 not a stock missing, and. with the exception of per- 

 haps half a dozen colonies, there is no perceptible 

 loss of bees. Young bees were flying from many of 

 the hives to-day, March 6th. I can see nothing but 

 carelessness on my part that will cause the loss of a 

 colony now. J. H. Townley. 



Tompkins, Mich., March 6, 1870. 



If not right, friend T., you are pretty near- 

 ly right. Instead of 27 colonies, we have 

 lost 40, out of 161, and but one of the whole 

 number was in the chaff hives; that one was 

 very weak, and not properly protected. I 

 have no doubt but that .50 more chaff hives 

 in my apiary would have saved more in bees 

 than the cost of the hives. There are two 

 other points to be noticed. The bees that 

 died so badly had been used for queen rear- 

 ing, and were united so late in the fall, 

 that they had no opportunity to get into 

 good shape as were those in the chaff hives 

 which had been used for box honey, and had 

 not, as a general thing, been divided. The 

 other point is that they were not, as a gen- 

 eral thing, as strong as those in the chaff 

 hives. Many imported queens were win- 

 tered in Simplicity hives, but they were 

 doubled up very strong, and fed in the fall. 

 The hives that were fed, in order to get 

 them to fill sections late in the fall, were the 

 very best of any in the spring. One colony 

 in the house apiary was found dead, which 

 seemed in perfect order in every respect; 

 sealed honey was in all the combs, and there 

 were plenty of bees. An exceedingly pow- 

 erful colony out doors in an American hive 

 which I had purchased late in the fall, was 

 also dead. The hive contained more than 

 50 lbs. of sealed clover honey, when they 



were found dead. I think it very likely that 

 powerful colonies in chaff hives, fed bounti- 

 fully until late in the fall, would never die. 

 If the queen died, there would be bees 

 enough left to rear another, if they were 

 given a chance in the spring. Next winter. 

 I will try and have my apiary composed of 

 only such, and I wish you, friend Townley, 

 would remind me to turn to this page about 

 next Nov. If you will do so, I will send you 

 Gleanings tor 18S0. 



SI DE STORING SECTIONS, INTRODUCIN ti 



UUEENS, ETC. 



5fjjJJ AST spring I had 13 colonies of bees, have now 

 j»r. ii 23, and made 800 lbs. of comb honey in section 

 s-La| boxes, mostly by side storing. I find that my 

 bees build straighter combs in side sections, than 

 on top, without separators. 1 also find that bees are 

 more apt to build straight combs in narrow top sec- 

 tions than in wide ones. 



I packed and sent some honey, by freight, to Bal- 

 timore, which was received sound. The first lot net 

 niG 13c per pound which is low for comb honey, but 

 we must remember that almost everything is low in 

 price at this time. 



As favorable reports of side storing are so 

 rare, I immediately wrote friend Larkin for 

 further particulars, which he gives below. 



My section boxes are of two sizes; one is 5x0 in., 

 and' 6 sections, arranged 3 in length, and 2 in height,, 

 constitute one row, and come up level with the tops 

 of the frames. I had in some hives 36, atid in some 

 42, and even more according to the strength of the 

 colony, etc. 



My other size of sections, was made to fit inside of 

 broad frames, of the same size as the other frames. 

 The sections were made of pine and nailed together; 

 the tops and bottoms are J4 by 1 ■''.,', the ends, Js by 2. 

 I put my section boxes on each side of the larvae 

 department with a tin separator between. Some 

 hung in frames, as described above (6 in a frame), 

 and some were placed on the bottom board, without 

 frames, and generally without separators, except 

 between the first row and the brood frames. 



Most of my swarms, I put into two story Simplic- 

 ity hives made from your directions in Gleanings. 

 Iii those, I made surplus honey in sections on top; 

 some made 36 sections, averaging about l^lbs. to 

 the section, and 8 to 10 lbs. to the frame. I have one 

 frame that weighs 10 pounds. 



The honey built on top was very nice and white, 

 but the sections in the side storing hives were built 

 straighter than those on top. For top storing sec- 

 tions, I think the top and bottom pieces should not 

 be more than 1J4 in. wide. 



You will perceive that I had only new swarms in 

 the two story hives; therefore I had not a fair chance 

 to test top and side storing. I will have a better 

 chance this year, if nothing happens to prevent. 



I have 10 pure Italian colonies, and the balance are 

 hybrids. They carried considerable honey from red 

 clover. I have purchased 4 dollar queens, and one 

 warranted queen, and all of them proved pure. 



Before closing, I must tell you 



HOW I INTRODUCE MY QUEENS. 



I received them about noon. I opened thejhive in 

 which I wished to place a new queen, caught and de- 

 stroyed the old one, parted the frames, placed the 

 cage containing the new queen between, and closed 

 them so as to hold the cage from falling to the bot- 

 tom of the hive, closed the hive, and went to my 

 work. At sun set, I went to the hive and smoked 

 the bees well, with tobacco smoke, and turned the 

 new queen loose. So far, 1 have been very success- 

 ful. I know you will say, it is a. cruel way of intro- 

 ducins", but it certainly answers and the bees are all 

 right by morning. < >f course, in a few days I look 

 to sic that she is all right. John S. Larkin. 



Lander, Md., .Ian. 6, 1879. 



My bees have wintered well in the Simplicity 

 hives; I have only lost 2 out of 28. The bees have 

 been bringing in pollen for 2 days, from elm and ma- 

 ple. Mercury is 76° in the shade at noon: how is 

 that for "high?" I have not had to feed any. 



Jonesboro, 111., March 8, 1879. W. J. Willard. 



