592 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



onies; which is better than most people have done. 

 I wish to submit one question to you and the many 

 bee-keepers that read Gleanings, in regard to win- 

 tering bees under the snow. I have never tried it, 

 and therefore I ask for information. I have four 

 hives that sat where the snow will drift over them 

 four feet deep— one of them a chaff hive. Will it be 

 safe to let them sit there through the winter? 



Charles B. Ellts. 

 Corinna Center, Me., Oct. 16, 1880. 



I believe it is generally conceded, that bees 

 are a great deal better off covered with snow 

 than without it ; and the more snow the 

 better. The only point that needs to be 

 looked to, so far as I have learned, is to be 

 sure- that they do not stand in a low spot, 

 lest, when the snow melts, the water run in- 

 to the hive. Snow is sufficiently porous to 

 allow all the ventilation needed, without 

 taking any pains to clear it away from the 

 entrance. Of course, mice should have no 

 possible means of access to the inside of the 

 hive. 



I will now report my progress as a bee-keeper for 

 1880. I have taken 320 lbs. of section honey from 10 

 stocks, 30 lbs. being the most from any one single 

 hive. I had no increase. Other bee-keepers in the 

 neighborhood have realized comparatively nothing, 

 so to speak, and complain of the season as being a 

 poor one. White clover yielded nothing, and we 

 have no basswood to speak of. Honey retails at 15c 

 per lb. for comb, but there is no extracted in the 

 market; but if nothing happens to prevent, I think 

 I will place some on the market here next season. 



EVAPORATING CANE JUICE, ETC., BY STEAM. 



I believe you have made a beginning toward revo- 

 lutionizing the manufacture of molasses. There 

 are advantages in your mode of boiling the juice of 

 the cane that can not be had with any other mode 

 where the heat of the Are comes in direct contact 

 with the juice. This is one cause of so much dark- 

 colored syrup; the boiling is uneven. By boiling 

 with steam, you not only have a steady heat, but all 

 danger of burning the syrup is removed. 



I was not bothered by the bees this year again, and 

 I seem to think that they don't care much for cane 

 juice or molasses, for my bees had quit storing hon- 

 ey, and, before I was half through working at the 

 mill, the honey tlow stopped, and until then I did 

 not see one bee about; but then I saw about two or 

 three a day until I was doue, and they did not seem 

 to care much for it. Nearly all I worked was early 

 amber. I have about 2 lbs. of early-amber seed that 

 I am going to thrash out. I believe the seed of early 

 amber here is much larger than it is further north. 

 1 got some from Wisconsin last spring, and it was 

 much smaller than ours here, and the seed I got 

 from it is as large and tine as any. 



A suggestion.— Why will your mode of boiling cane 

 juice not be just the thing to cure green, unripe, ex- 

 tracted honey, make bee candy, etc.? No danger of 

 burning, I think. Please give us your method of 

 thrashing cane seed. T.J.Cook. 



Newpoint, Ind., Oct. 21), 1880. 



I did not invent boiling syrup by steam, 

 friend C, but only the plan of making these 

 tubes in a cheap and cleanly way. of tin. I 

 confess I am greatly surprised at the rate 

 these small pans boil, and I presume it is 

 much owing to their being made of such 

 thin tubes. It is a most excellent arrange- 



ment for melting candied honey, evaporat- 

 ing thin honey, melting grape sugar, or any 

 thing of that sort.— We thrash our seed with 

 a flail, but it don't thrash as easily as wheat 

 and oats, by considerable. 



WINTERING ON CANDY ONLY. 



Did you ever winter bees on your candy feed with- 

 out other feed? I have had weak swarms in the 

 spring cluster against it and die. I think it was be- 

 cause they had no honey. S. H. Hough. 



New Milford, Portage Co., Ohio, Oct. 26, 1880. 



It is always dangerous to depend on candy 

 for a weak colony in cool weather, and that, 

 too, with any kind of candy. If we have a 

 strong cluster that will warm up and melt 

 the lumps so they can get them into their 

 combs, I have no fear of them ; but in giv- 

 ing any colony candy when they are out, or 

 very nearly out, of stores, we must watch 

 them until they get started on it. After 

 they have got to consuming it briskly, it will 

 furnish animal heat enough so they will go 

 on without danger, unless there comes a very 

 cold snap. There is nothing so safe as a 

 frame of sealed stores, in such cases ; but 

 these stores may just as well be sugar syrup 

 that has been fed in warm weather, as combs 

 of honey. I have wintered a colony on candy 

 alone. 



A NEW WATER-FONT, OR FEEDEH. 



1 have just sent you a 

 water - font. To fill it, 

 put it in a pail of water, 

 with one hole out of wa- 

 ter. When filled, hang or 

 set it level. If this font 

 meets your approbation, 

 and you would like a 

 number of them, I will 

 furnish them for 10 c. 

 apiece, at the shop, or on 

 board the cars, in good 

 order. 



Henry Talman. 

 Eldora, la., May 25, 1880. 



This water-font is made of stoneware, and 

 is a very pretty-looking utensil for only 10c. 

 As they are a little heavy to ship, perhaps 

 our friends who want them would do better 

 to send direct to friend T. I presume they 

 can be made readily at any potter's, for I saw 

 the same thing on my recent visit to friend 

 Stahl's, in Mogadore. In having them made, 

 be sure to tell the potter to make the holes 

 so small that bees can not get inside. In 

 using some of our board feeders, I first got 

 the grooves too large, and the bees, in their 

 eagerness, would push into them, even un- 

 der the liquid, and be drawn up into the jar 

 by atmospheric pressure. Something of the 

 kind made of glass would be very neat, and 

 I presume they will answer just as well to 

 water small chickens as bees. Is there a 

 glass-worker among our readers? The font 

 sent us would, I should guess, hold about a 

 half-gallon. 



DANGER FUOM TWO QUEENS IN A H1VF. 



The queen you sent me Sept. 13th came all right. 

 She was very dark-somuch so that if 1 had seen her 

 with black bees, I would have taken her lor a black 

 queen every time. 1 was just five days in getting 



