418 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



OIK PRESENT SEASON'S REPORT. 



SOMETHING THAT IS NOT "BLASTED HOPES. 



WjE regret to notice so many reports of poor 

 yields of honey, from nearly all parts of 

 the United States. In our own section, 

 most bee-keepers have taken no surplus honey, ow- 

 ing chiefly to the fact that most of them allow their 

 bees to swarm. 



In our own apiaries, we have allowed no natural 

 swarming, and have thus secured a fair yield for the 

 season. From 17(5 colonies, we get over 15,000 lbs. 

 During the busiest time, we are often obliged to 

 crowd our work very rapidly. As a result of this, 

 we took, in one day, with one extractor, from 50 

 swarms, 1,565 lbs. of honey. 



We hand you this report, not so much because we 

 are ambitious to have our success known, but be- 

 cause it indicates the value of the methods devel- 

 oped by long experience, and the great contrast 

 with the results attained in the past. 



How long will it be before the mass of bee-keep- 

 ers will inform themselves, and be ready to take 

 hold of these advanced methods intelligently, and 

 not be found reporting "entire failures." Of course, 

 there are seasons and locations, such as '69 was with 

 us, when no honey at all is obtained ; but we now re- 

 fer to such localities as our own, the present year. 



It should be remembered that half a crop in a poor 

 year is nearly as good as a full one in best seasons. 

 L. C. ROOT & Bbo. 



Mohawk, N. Y., Aug. 18, 1880. 



Many thanks, friend R. Your report 

 comes pretty near verifying what I said last 

 month in an editorial, concerning Blasted 

 Hopes. Now, if any one in your vicinity 

 sends us a complaining report, we shall know 

 pretty well, that it is the fault of the bee- 

 keeper, and not the season. 



DADANT'S PLAN OF WINTERING HIS 

 BEES. 



T is cheering to know that so good a bee- 

 keeper as friend Dadant is following 

 — ' substantially our regular plan of win- 

 tering bees out of doors, even if he does car- 

 ry it a little farther with an extra outside 

 covering of hay. I should hardly think this 

 necessary with a good chaff hive. Read : 



HOW I WINTERED BEES. 



Mr. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa, fur- 

 nishes The Homestead with the following history of 

 his experience in keeping bees over the winter: 



I have kept bees with the usual varying success 

 for many years— though on the whole they have 

 paid me very well,— probably better than almost any 

 other kind of farm stock. I have wintered them in 

 the cellar until last winter, when we tried a new ex- 

 periment—that of leaving them on the summer 

 stands. While more or less died in the cellar, we 

 did not lose a single colony out of doors. But it 

 would hardly be fair to attribute this latter success 

 entirely to the benign effects of "out of doors." For 

 many years my bees were kept partly in the Lang- 

 stroth and partly in the American hives. But two or 

 three years ago I induced a nephew who is living 

 with me to learn the bee-keeping business, and so 

 have myself escaped its labors. I was tolerably well 

 posted, but he has gone far ahead of me, and I now 

 regard him as a very well informed bee-keeper. 

 Soon after he commenced the work, I had to provide 

 him with a lot of books and various bee journals, and 

 also sent him a couple of times to visit Mr. Charles 

 Dadant, the noted apiarian of Hamilton, 111. He re- 

 turned, thoroughly indoctrined with Mr. Dadant's 

 system, upon which our bees are now managed. Our 



old hives have been wholly discarded, and we now 

 use a thoroughly well made Quinby hive. It is 

 shaped like the old Langstroth, but is much larger. 



When we came to the question of wintering, last 

 autumn, "Fred" decided on a "new departure." 

 He prepared the hives for wintering by removing all 

 of the frames, excepting from four to six in the 

 centre of the hives. These were placed in their us- 

 ual position, with a " division board " at each side. 

 This left a space between the division board and side 

 of the hive of about three inches. This space was 

 filled with chaff, closely packed. Then a stout piece 

 of brown duck cloth was spread on the top of the 

 frames, reaching to the outside of the hive all 

 round. The top of the hive was then filled with 

 chaff, which came down in contact with the cloth as 

 soon as the top was placed in position. The bees 

 were in this manner surrounded overhead and on 

 each side with chaff, one of the most excellent non- 

 conductors of heat. The back ends of the hives 

 which faced the north were made double. It will 

 thus be seen that for cold weather we had a very 

 warm hive. The only ventilation was at the en- 

 trance, which was always much contracted. When 

 winter fairly set in, we procured several loads of 

 coarse slough hay, and built a hay-cock over and 

 about the hive— except that the south end of the 

 hive was exposed. Some loose hay was left conven- 

 iently at hand, and whenever a cold snap or a "bliz- 

 zard" came along it was snugly filled in front of the 

 hive— fully protecting it from the rigors of winter. 

 When the temperature became milder, the hay was 

 removed from before the entrance, so that the bees 

 could fly out at will. They went through the winter 

 in fine condition, and were always wide-awake and 

 lively. We like this plan so well that we shall try it 

 again, with little change, aside from making our ar- 

 rangements as perfect as possible. 



Of course it will not do to be egotistical about any 

 plan for wintering bees which may happen on a sin- 

 gle trial to prove successful. But it really seems to 

 us now that this mode is calculated to secure to 

 "The Blessed Bees" more of the conditions neces- 

 sary to perpetuate insect life through the winter 

 than any other with which I am acquainted. One 

 great reason why bees are lost so frequently is this: 

 There are days and weeks during which many own- 

 ers know little or nothing about the condition they 

 are in. It is during these seasons of neglect or ig- 

 norance that most losses occur. If we left any other 

 species of live stock for long periods, without know- 

 ing clearly their precise condition, immense losses 

 could not but be frequent. We neglect our bees, 

 leave them to suffer from a lack of some of the nec- 

 essary conditions of their existence, and then won- 

 der why they die! There is, of course, nothing orig- 

 inal about this plan, but it succeeded so well with us 

 upon one trial, that it may be worth the considera- 

 tion of other persons similarly situated. 



'%, 



at 



A BOY'S TRIALS IN DIVIDING AND INTRODUCING. 



f]HE queen came in good condition without the 

 loss of a bee. When I ordered her, I agreed 

 for the first swarm that should come from 

 one of my neighbor's colonies, which I intended to 

 divide, as I hated to destroy the black queen, and 

 thought by dividing and feeding I could make two 

 good swarms by fall. 



The hive was filled with fdn. and removed to my 

 place the night after swarming. I allowed them to 

 stay on stand No. 1 for two days, and then attempted 

 to divide by putting another hive filled with fdn. in 

 its place, and putting them on stand No. 2. Every 

 bee that came home knew the hive was new, and 

 would run all over the hive inside and out. I found 

 this would not work, so I hunted up their queen and 

 put her with them, and thought I had done it now 

 sure, because I supposed that not more than half of 

 the bees had ever left the hive on No. 1 stand, in the 

 two days they had been there, and when they did 

 leave now, they would come back to No. 2, even if 



