l^^Ol 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



out of fifty that I could not niiike do satis- 

 factory work. Two of them were poor 

 comb-builders, and the other capped the 

 honey so badlj' that it was not fit to sell. 

 Those queens will lose their heads next 

 spring-." 



"How much do you find it profitable to 

 feed at a time? " 



" I give them all they will take up in 12 

 hours if they are buildinj^ comb; if not. I 

 feed about a quart per day until comb- 

 buildini,'- is started nicel}'. My best colo- 

 nies would take about 2 qts. every 12 hours. " 



" How long- would they keep this up? " 



•• They kept it up this j'ear from Aug. 1 

 to Sept. 25, when the weather became too 

 cool for comb-building-." 



" ^^'hat kind of hive do you consider the 

 best suited to feeding- back? " 



'■ There is onU' one kind of hive that I 

 know anv' thing- about that is at all suited 

 to feeding- back. It must have a very shal- 

 low frame, and must be capable of .contrac- 

 tion horizontalh' so that the brood will be 

 spread out evenly under the super. The 

 Heddon is the only one that will do it." 



"How deep is the frame in the hive j'ou 

 use? " 



" My frame is 4'4X17 inches, comb sur- 

 face, and 8 of these combs make a section 

 of my brood-chamber as I use it for feeding- 

 back. There is a queen-excluding- honey- 

 board between the brood-chamber and su- 

 per, just as in hiving- swarms." 



"But will not such contraction of the 

 brood-chamber, combined with heavy feed- 

 ing-, induce swarming? " 



" No, not to amount to any thing-. I wish 

 it would, for then they would build comb 

 faster and cap the honey whiter. I had 

 only two such swarms this year." 



"Have you ever tried producing comb 

 honey from foundation by this feeding-back 

 process? " 



" Yes, I have produced over 2000 lbs. this 

 year of extra-fancy comb hone^^ from foun- 

 dation by this sj'stem. I can assure j'ou it 

 is no mere theory with me, and there is 

 nothing I like better." 



" Well, f: lend H., how is it that you suc- 

 ceed in getting your bees to accept founda- 

 tion when others report nothing but fail- 

 ure? " 



" Well, friend Charles, it is as I told you 

 before — it all depends on using the right 

 kind of appliances. There are several dif- 

 ferent kinds and makes of foundation, and 

 it may be possible that the^' have not tried 

 thein all yet, and this may account for it in 

 a measure. If you will excuse me, it is 

 getting nearly time for the local, and I have 

 to ship two crates of honej'. Come over 

 again and I will tell you all about how it is 

 done, as well as I can." 



" Thank you, friend H. I am very much 

 interested in this subject, and I assure you 

 I shall not fail to avail myself of this privi- 

 lege." 



[Mr. Hand has promised to write a series 

 of articles telling of his experience along 



various lines, and this is the first of the 

 series. He uses the conversational method, 

 as that is very easy to follow, and, besides, 

 it has the further advantage that the ques- 

 tion bring^s out in everj' case the reason for 

 using- this or that method. Mr. Hand, it 

 seems, has made a success of feeding beick 

 on foundation. This is going further than 

 most of us have practiced, and we await 

 with interest what he will have to say on 

 this subject next time. — Ed.] 



THE VENTILATION OF BEE=CELLARS. 

 The Construction of the Bingham Bee^cellar. 



BV IC. K. ROOT. 



As explained elsewhere in this issue, w^e 

 have at our basswood j'ard a 12X20 bee- 

 cellar, built on the lines of the Bingham re- 

 pository, which we described earl}' last 

 year. As some will probably have forgot- 

 ten how this was built, I present a cross- 

 sectional view, giving its general construc- 

 tion. As indicated in the diagram, the 

 cellar is 16 feet square at the top, and 12 at 



^'''''''''^/// S////v///////M^yy/^^^^^ 



the bottom. The sides are sloping (to pre- 

 vent caving in), and lined with cement, A 

 double floor, packed with sawdust, covers 

 it, and over this is a gable roof. Through 

 this floor there is a trap-door, and along- 

 about the center a lb-inch ventilating-flue 

 connects through the top of the cellar to the 

 roof in the upper structure. Mr. Bingham's 

 idea seemed to be that the bees need a great 

 deal of ventilation. In the drawing the 

 ventilator is shown to be only about 3 inch- 

 es in diameter; but, as he explains, this 

 was not found to be large enough, and was 

 subsequently replaced by the larger one. 



Our cellar at the out-yard was built on 

 the same general plan, with the exception 

 that the sides are less sloping, and are lin- 

 ed with a single thickness of hard brick 

 laid in cement — that is, the sides are lined 

 with a 4-inch wall. In our clay soil we 

 were afraid to trust the cement lining; but 

 to strengthen the wall further, the sides 

 and ends were made slanting, so that the 

 top of the cellar is 8 inches wider and lon- 

 ger than the bottom. 



Instead of constructing a plain cheap ga- 

 ble roof we moved a building, which was 

 out of use, over this cellar, put in it a dou- 

 ble floor packed with sawdust 10 in. thick. 



