;^08 



CiLEANmGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



for the queen to join them they will come back and 

 enter what they suppose to be their old home. 

 While they are passing in, release the queen and 

 she will enter with them; then carry them where 

 you want them to remain; put the old hive hack in 

 its place, and the work is done. 



If there is no one to assist you moving- hives, tie 

 your queen-cage, with queen in it, to a pole, and 

 they will cluster ai-ound it nine times out of ten, 

 and you can carry them to the hive without assist- 

 ance. Clipped queens for me, every time. 



Hilliard, O. Jenxie Gulp. 



HEDDONS AERANGEMENT. 



COVERS WITHOUT ENAMEL SHEETS, ETC. 



TTpS to friend Snow's article in Gleanings for 

 ^|b| April 15, page 375, I'll venture to say that he 

 jPjf never saw a Heddon hive or a Heddou crate ; 

 •'-"■^ or if he did, never used either. As to the 

 cover, it suits me "to a letter;" don't want 

 any " telescope" hives around me. 



On page 274, same number, at the close of the 

 tirst article, you say that you w<mld like to look 

 through Heddon's apiary and see if he or his stu- 

 dents did not mash hundreds of bees when they 

 lilaced the cover back on the hives in a hurry. Now, 

 if you can't imagine how to put on a board cover 

 Avithout smashing bees, I will try to tell j-ou. Sim- 

 |ily place one edge of the cover on one corner of the 

 hive; now shove the cover over the hive as quick as 

 you have a mind to; not a bee will be killed, for the 

 edge of the cover will brush off all bees on the edge 

 of the hive; no smoking all around the edge of the 

 hive, to drive the bees off. They arc cheaper, cost 

 less, and are easier to haudle than the kind you use. 



I have seen hundreds in actual vise, but never 

 saw one (that was properly made) that had warped 

 enough to admit a bee ur.der it. Even if they do 

 kill a few bees, I think that the time wasted in 

 bothering with a cloth or any kind of a mat over 

 the frames is worth more than the few bees killed. 



As to that hibernating business that Mr. Doolittle 

 speaks of, I will say that it is no use trying. I have 

 tried the same thing that he has, over and over 

 again, with honey and without honey, and every 

 other way, but they would not survive after a lapse 

 of fifty or sixty hours— no use. I think that Mr. 

 Heddon has "hit the nail right on the head in re- 

 gard to wintering." Bee. 



Malone, N. Y., April 18, 1885. 



Friend B., we do not, as a rule, publish let- 

 ters witli no name appended. Of comse, we 

 withliold tlie name where the paity desires 

 it, but your letter was sent without any sig- 

 nature whatever, except the one given above. 

 By the way, it seems to me your remarks to 

 the editor of your bee-journal are not very 

 respectful, whereTyou say, " If vou can not 

 imagine how to put on a board cover,'' etc. 

 It has often been said, if you have no respect 

 for the man. courtesy dictates that you 

 should show iesi)ect for the office he holds. 

 JJefore bee-journals had an existence, Lang- 

 stroth hives, and many others, were made 

 with a cover to slide over the top, as you 

 suggest, and they Avorked beautifully w'itli- 

 out any bees in the hives. Yes. tliey did 

 well for the first season, perhaps, or until 

 fall ; and in localities where propolis was 

 not plentiful, may be they did well year aft- 



er year. But our bee-keepers of Medina 

 County, and I guess a great part of our Ohio 

 bee-keepers, will likely smile when they 

 read your directions as given above. Our 

 bees go to work, and cement their cover 

 down tight with propolis. Sometimes they 

 put it on so thick that it runs down inside 

 of the hive, even lilling the rabbets, and 

 they seem to be especially fond of daubing 

 great quantities around where there is a 

 joint, such as is made by laying a smooth 

 board on top of hive. Well, with both cover 

 and the top edge of the hive plastered up 

 with tliis propolis, sliding covers on is rath- 

 er up-hill business. I have covered hives 

 hundreds of times in the way you indicate ; 

 for before the Simplicity liive was given to 

 the world, it was the only way we had of 

 doing. I do not know but 1 shall have to 

 take a trip up to ^Michigan, expressly to see 

 some of the brethren handle Heddon hives 

 without killing bees. I think I should pre- 

 fer botliering with the cloth or mat, how- 

 ever, rather than see my bees killed every 

 time the hives are opened.— In regard to 

 Friend Snow's criticism on page 27.5, I ad- 

 mit that it is hardly kind or courteous ; and, 

 by the way, it impresses me just n(nv that I 

 have been allowing almost too much liberty 

 in tills direction. Now, friends, if it be- 

 comes necessary for ns to criticise, can we 

 not all try to be a little more friendly about 

 it, and show a little more of a Christian 

 spirit V 



NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. 



HOW THE BEES WINTERED. 



AST fall some of our colonies were given sugar 

 J stores in whole, others in part, while others 



^\' had wholly natural stores. Twenty-flve were 

 in chaff hives, with the additional protection 

 of maniu'C banked up around them. Twenty- 

 four were packed about one foot thick with hay, 

 sawdust, and forest-leaves. Eleven were buried in 

 a clamp, and 'SS placed in the cellar. Of those in the 

 chaff' hives, five are alive. Some of those that died 

 perished of diarrhoea, and the others show no signs 

 of this trouble; they are "just dead." Of those 

 packed in di-y leaves, every one is dead; a few show 

 ifUilht traces of diarrhoea, but the majority are sim- 

 pl\) dead, with clean, di-y combs of sugar stores. 

 With the c.vception of one colony, and that starved 

 by getting over to one side of the hive, the bees in 

 the clamp came out bright, clean, dry, healthy, and 

 strong in numbers. They have wintered the most 

 perfectly that 1 have ever seen bees wintered. In 

 the cellar, 8 colonies have perished, some of diar- 

 rh(ea, and others showing no symptoms of it. 



One fact stands out beautif>illy in hold relief— not 

 a colony with nothing but pure sugar stores has 

 perished from, or showed a symptom ol, diarrha'a. 

 I have noticed this ever since I began experiment- 

 ing with sugar stores. Last year, when I lost near- 

 ly (it) colonies in a clamp, iiof one with sugar stores 

 showed any symptoms of diarrhcea. At last, we 

 have that arch flend, diarrha'a, under our foot; 

 Having conciuered this enemy, we And, however, 

 that there is nnoUier one. Mr. Heddon says his 

 name is Jack Frost. This we are not yet prepared 



