270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUltE. 



J UNE 



KOOFS TO CHAFF HIVES. 



SOME VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM A "OXE YEAlt'' 

 PUPIL. 



m LTIIOUGH I have been an A B C scholar only 



/IA\ 



jr-JVi one year, I could give in quite an experience; 

 -- — — ' but I will not impose on your good nature to 

 that extent at this time. I want to call your atten- 

 tion to an improvement as I know it to be by ex- 

 perience on your chaff hive cover. And first I 

 would like to know why you pitched the roof towards 

 the entrance, since it throws the water down in 

 front of the hive. I am making mine to throw ic to 

 the sides which seems to me to be correct. My im- 

 provement consists in the manner of hanging- the 

 cover. It has always bothered me to know what to 

 do with the frames of comb and bees when I take 

 them out of the hive for examination, etc. I have 

 tried setting- them on the ground, but that is too 

 rude and dirty; I also made a portable rack, but 

 it was too much trouble to carry it about; so after 

 studying the matter over, I hit upon the idea which 

 you will understand by the accompanying drawing. 



cooper's improvement. 



You will notice that the cover is hung to the hive 

 by two wooden strips at either end, pivoted to the 

 cover and hive so that the cover may be raised and 

 thrown off to the side with one hand; in fact, with 

 one finger, so nicely is it balanced, leaving the other 

 hand to carry any thing necessary. Then, the strips 

 being the proper length, the cover will be held just 

 the right distance from the hive to form, with the 

 edge of the hive, a perfect rack that will hold all the 

 frames that you want to remove. Your cover too 

 is always in its place ready to be replaced on the 

 hive without having to hunt it or even stoop to pick 

 it up. I made the two side pieces of the frame of 

 i he cover long enough to come flush with the edge 

 of the hive. Make the strips ot strong wood ^xl 1 ^ 

 inches, and of the necessary length to hold the cover 

 the distance before stated. Pivot the strips with Hi 

 inch wood screws to the projections on the cover, 

 and to corner posts of the hive, as you see by the 

 drawiug. Try hanging one and sec if you will not 

 find it as convenient as I do. J. W. Cooper. 



Salem, Ind., Mar. 5, 1880. 



I too, friend C, have felt the need of some 

 t/ond place to put the frames when I lifted 

 them out, especially the first one; and I 

 agree with yon, too," that it' we have an im- 

 plement for the purpose it is often not at 

 hand when wanted. I presume I open hives 

 most in the evening, as I happen to walk 

 about among them, and I seldom wish to 

 take the time to go after a smoker or tools. 

 I have rather objected, of late years, to hing- 

 ing covers, because it is often unhandy to 

 have them hinged, and they sometimes get 



broken, just by being hinged; but in the 

 past few weeks we have had some very 

 heavy winds, and the covers to the chaff 

 hives have gone off flying, even those cover- 

 ed with tin. I told the boys I guessed it 

 would not happen again, but it lias happened 

 several times, and, in one case the cushions 

 were drenched with rain. I presume your 

 device would keep a tin cover, at least, in 

 its place, and then the convenience of al- 

 ways having a place to set the combs from 

 the upper story, where they would not get 

 blown over would be quite an item. Per- 

 haps some will like the contrivance and 

 some will not, so they might be prepared 

 and sold with or without the hives. We 

 make the roof with the eaves as we do, be- 

 cause the siding, or rather the poorest pieces 

 of siding, will then make the roof. Where- 

 as, if we turned the eaves the 61 her way, it 

 would not. The matter has been often 

 talked about, but I can not find that the bees 

 are often much inconvenienced by the drip. 



FRIEND THOMSON'S STORY. 



HOW THE BEES REMOVE THE WATER FROM THIN 

 HONEY, ETC. 



ESAW an article in April No. of Gleanings, p. 

 154, headed "Feeding Sorghum to Bees." It 



J seems that the writer has fed it to his bees 

 quite freely, and he gives his plan of feeding. In 

 his closing remarks he says, "We don't think that 

 our bees expelled any of the water on the wing be 

 tween the troughs and the hives; every thing kept 

 dry. When fed very thin, it was thin in the hives." 

 Now, I would like to wager my old hat against his 

 old hat, that he is very much mistakeifin his obser- 

 vations. Again, I would like to wager him a barrel 

 of good winter apples (that is, if we should happen 

 to have a good crop this year), that the syrup was 

 quite a bit thicker when stored in the hives than it 

 was when taken from the troughs. I think you 

 know, and I am very sure I know, that bees do expel 

 the water from very thin liquid sweets, while on the 

 wing. I think that I can prove it satisfactorily to 

 any one who has a mind to try it. 



Perhaps I would better tell how I came to be so 

 very wise. Well, it happened in this way: We had 

 an early frost last fall, which killed off nearly all of 

 the flowers. This, of course, put the bees on short 

 rations from the fields. As the weather became 

 very warm after the frost, the bees were out in 

 large numbers in search of stores. They soon dis- 

 covered a nucleus swarm that was rather light in 

 bees, and they pitched into it, and would have 

 cleaned it out in short order, had I not been on hand 

 to take care of them. I took a blanket and threw 

 over them, and poured water on it. This seemed 

 to dampen the nrdor of the robbers. About this 

 time, an old bee man came along and said, - 



"What arc you doing there?" 



Said I, "I am trying to stop robbing." 



He replied, "When my bees get to robbing 1 feed 

 them." 



"Feed them?" said I, "What do you feed them?" 



"Sugar and water." 



"Sugar and water? Why, Mr. Boot says in Glvax- 

 ings, if you feed sugar and water to bees outside of 

 the hives, it is almost sure to start robbing." 



"Yes, if you give it to them too thick. I makp it 

 very thin, just sweet enough so that the bees will 



