1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



31 



$eUi <md %w*hh 



THE CHAFF HIVES AHEAD AGAIN, FOR COMB HONEY. 



HAVE 64 colonies, one oaly being- in a chaff hive. 



It has been a very poor honey year with me. 



I've taken only liUO tt>. of comb honey, and 72 fi>. 

 of it came from the chaff hive. I use the one pound 

 sections and the Hat bottomed fdn. I let my bees 

 swarm the natural way, and did not lose a swarm, 

 but my father lost one. 



CHOOSING A LOCATION BEFORE SWARMING. 



It first lit about 6 rods south of the old swarm. 

 He hived it, and let it remain under the tree in the 

 shade. In about 4 hours, it went north until it got 

 in range of the old swarm, then it started west for 

 the woods, which shows that they select their place 

 before swarming - , as they took a bee-line from the 

 old swarm. A. M. Sawdey. 



Poolville, Madison Co., N. Y., Dec. '.), 1879. 



[It seems from this, and a great many other facts, 

 that they do, at least very often, choose their tree 

 before swarming-.] 



FOUNDATION FOR COMB HONEY. 



"What kind of fdn. would you prefer for boxes, for 

 surplus comb honey only? and how large pieces 

 could be used with safety and not injure the s de of 

 the honev? D. \V. Fletcher. 



Lansiugville, N. Y., Dec. IT, 1879. 



[If I could have very thin fdn. that would not 

 leave any piece of hard wax in the honey, under any 

 circumstances, such as Mr. Washburn is now at 

 work at, I would have the starters nearly or quite 

 fill the section, because I am sure the bees would 

 make more rapid progress, by so doing. The start- 

 ers in the sections we ship are only about one inch 

 deep, because they would be broken out in transit, 

 if larger.] 



dark honey and old bees. 



I told you, March 10th, 1H79, I thought I would 

 have about 25 swarms left out of 70. 1 had only 3 

 left. There w>s not much candied honey in last 

 year's combs, but a g >od deal of dark, muddy color- 

 ed honey. 1 have 20 set of cembs of that honey yet, 

 left from last year. I examined my bees, Sept. 1st, 

 and found the combs all full of honey and pollen, all 

 capped over; so you see they are all ol i bees, which 

 have gone into winter quarters. I had no empty 

 combs to give them. Stephen Hill. 



Port Huron, St. Clair Co., Mich., Dec. 13, 1879. 



[Your dark honey, I would prefer feeding to the 

 bees when they can fly out; but perhaps it will do 

 them no harm, if they are in chaff packed hives. If 

 you had a good yield of honey in the fall, I can hard- 

 ly understand how the bees can be all old. Even if 

 the honey did come, so as to fill all the combs, I 

 think enough brood would have been started to 

 make them safe to winter. In my experience, I 

 have always found that a b mntiful flow in the fall, 

 whether f rom natural sources, or not, is just what is 

 wanted.] 



HOW NEAR TO EACH OTHER HIVES MAY BE PLACED. 



Please state in Gleanings whether or not the 

 bees ever get Into the wrong hives, in such numbers 

 as to cause serious loss of both the bees and queens. 

 when ihey are set 8 ft. by 8 ft. apart, the hiv s being 

 alt alike, and facing- to the east with trellises on 

 south side of each, as you have them in the hexag- 

 onal apiary. Many of my hives are sadly depopu- 

 lated, and 1 judge it is from this very cause. What 

 say you? The honey season has been the worst I 

 ever knew, and in consequence, I had to feed 200 Tr>. 

 of sugar to winter 38 hives; hut I think I have been 

 well paid, as I have sold about 500 lb. of honey in 

 sections, besides having- on hand about 300 ft. of 

 honey, extracted and in brood frames. 



Chadd's Ford, P*., Dec. 18, '7a. W.u. T. Seal. 



[If hives are exactly alike, and facing- the same 

 way. there will probably be some trouble, unless 

 there are trees, buildings, or -om ■ other objects for 

 land-marks. In our old apiary, we had no trouble at 

 6 feet, hut we have had s ime in our new. with 7 feet. 

 Bv making the entrances point in different direc- 

 tions, as explained in the A H C, you will have little 

 or no trouble, even if the hives are exactly alike.] ' 



CAN HIVES BE TOO WARM? AND BROWN SUGAR FOR 

 WINTER FOOD. 



I have 2 swarms of Italian bees. This is my first 

 experience in bee-keeping. I have put them up in 

 chaff hives, and do not know but I have got them 

 too warm. One of my colonies is not so strong as 

 the other, and 1 fed them some in the fall, on sugar 

 syrup, some of which was made of brown and some 

 of white sugar. My chaff hives are made of inch 

 b >ards, and then shingled. There are 4 inches of 

 chaff on all sides, and about 8 inch s on top and 3 

 inches at the bottom. I made the entrance quite 

 small so that as little cold as possible would get in 

 there. Every warm day, all the bees come out. and 

 fly, and oue day it was so e<ild that they could not 

 fly, but many of them came out and froze before 

 they could get back in again. Is the hive too warm 

 fur them, or was it some disease that drove them 

 out in the cold? My 2 hives are just alike, but only 

 a few bees come out of the strong colony, while 

 many come out of the small one. If it is some dis- 

 ease, what can I do for them? or can nothing bo 

 done? If bees are close to the road, does the rum- 

 bling of wagons interfere with them, duriug the 

 winter? How do bees act when they have the dys- 

 entery? F. W. Winters. 



Onondaga, Ingham Co., Mich., Dec. 21, 1879. 



[I do not know what the trouble is, friend W., un- 

 less the brown sugar you fed them has produced 

 dysentery. It is hardly possible that the bees are 

 too warm, unless the colonies are very strong indeed; 

 and. in that case, the stronger one would be most af- 

 fected. In dysentery, or dwindling, the bees often 

 crawl out of the hive during cool weather; some- 

 times it is only the very old bees that do this, and 

 soon ceases. We trust it may be so in your ease. 

 The teams passing along the road would 'not harm 

 them, I think.] 



SETTING BEES NEAR TO A MAIN ROAD. 



Will I be likely to uret into trouble by putting 30 

 stocks of Italians and 35 of hybrids, 6 to 8 rods from 

 the road, where 150 teams pass daily, with nothing 

 between bees and road. It is a good place to set 

 bees. 



[I think it will do no harm; certainly not, unless 

 you are careless, and get them to robbing.] 



GETTING BEES TH vT ARE TO BE BKIMSTONED. 



I went 9 miles, to a man who was going to sulphur 

 some bees, and took them out in pails, brought them 

 home, and put them »u combs taken from other 

 hives. They were blacks. Will this pi.v ? 



[I think it will pay excellently, so long as you have 

 surplus combs to put I he bees on. It will also pay 

 to s tve combs of honey, especi illy for this purp >so, 

 so long as you can fltid bees that are to be taken 

 up.] 



INCREASING FROM 2 TO 25 IN ONE SEASON. 



I winter iu chaff hives. I started with 2 hives and 

 increased to 25 the first year, how is that for a nov- 

 ice? I 1 bought 18. 



[I 1 rather think, friend H., I would advise a 



novice to increase from 2 to 7. without buying 18. 

 However, all is well that ends well.] 



HOW TO CONTRACT THE ENTRANCE TO CHAFF HIVES 

 FOR WINTER. 



How long should winter entrances be? 



[With a strong colony, wo leave the chaff hive en- 

 trances open the whole 8 inches; but, this winter, as 

 so many of ours are weak, we h tve contracted the 

 entrances to about 2 inches. We do this with tho 

 following arrangement: Take .' little board", 4x(5, 

 and % thick: slip these into a little bag of burlap, 

 and till between the boards with chaff, until the little 

 cushion will just press nicely into the entrance. If 

 dead bees fill the passage, pull out the cushion, get 

 them out with as ick, and then replace the cushion.] 



Jackson, Mich., Dec. 15, '79. W. D. Higdon. 



EXTRACTING ALL UNSEALED H3NEY FOR WINTER. 



Extracting from the brood nest, all the honey that 

 is nut sealed, I think, is nonsense. Did you or »ny 

 one else ever open a swarm of bees, and find the 

 honey all sealed up? If you have, you have found 

 something I have not; they alwa» s have some open 

 lor their own use. I have put 150 swarms iu a small 

 cellar, without taking any honey from the brood 

 department, and all wintered we'll. My bees have 

 done well this season, giving me nearly 3 tuns of 

 box honey. Albert Potter. 



Eureka, Wis., Dec. 9, 1879. 



