886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



larger cluster between the combs. I may not be 

 correct in this, but it seems to me that it is better 

 for the bees." 



" Here, Mr. Manum, is a light colony. There are 

 only four spaces filled with bees. What shall I do 

 with it?" 



" Wait a moment, Scott, until I get through with 

 this one, and I will show you. Sure enough, they 

 are light, and that is not all. They have no honey. 

 Why! they have been robbed, so I will remove all 

 but five combs, and unite with them two of those 

 nuclei we brought with us. There, set in the combs 

 from the nuclei, with the bees adhering to them. 

 Now they have plenty of bees, and twelve pounds 

 of honey, so we shall have to feed this colony eight- 

 een pounds. They may quarrel a little, but I hard- 

 ly think they will very much after this dose of pep- 

 permint-water. 



"There, Scott, we have them all looked over; and 

 I find, by figuring up, that we shall need to feed 

 1450 pounds of syrup, which means about 850 pounds 

 of dry sugar." 



Scott asks, on the way home: 



" How do you prepare your sugar for feeding?" 



" Well, in the first place I buy the fine granulated 

 sugar. I prefer the fine to the coarse, because it 

 dissolves so much quicker; and as it costs no more, 

 and is just as pure, I prefer it to the other. I have 

 used coffee A sugar, which I think is just as good 

 for the bees; but as there is no saving in dollars 

 and cents by using it, and as it is so liable to harden 

 in the barrels, making it sometimes very difficult 

 to dig it out, I have of late years used granulated 

 altogether. Now, in making the syrup I proceed 

 as follows: To 35 pounds of sugar I use 14 of hot wa- 

 ter, 1 ounce cider vinegar, and 1 teaspoonful of salt. 

 I put the sugar into a large tin can, then add the 

 vinegar and salt, and then pour on the water and 

 stir until the sugar is all dissolved. Then the syrup 

 is poured into tin cans, with tight-fitting covers, 

 and it is carried to the different apiaries and fed to 

 the bees, though to the furthest yards the dry 

 sugar only is taken and prepared and fed out there. 

 I feed each colony from 5 to 10 pounds at a time, 

 just at night, when it is warm and pleasant; but 

 when the weather is lowery. so the bees do not fly 

 much, we are able to rush the feed to them all day. 

 Hence I prefer warm lowery weather for quick 

 work. 



" This year we shall have but very little feeding 

 to do, as there is nearly honey enough in all the 

 other apiaries to winter the bees by dividing it 

 among them, as some of the colonies have more 

 than they need." 



Scott asks: 



"What do you use for feeding the syrup to the 

 bees? You do not pour it into the feeders with a 

 dipper, do you?" 



"Oh, no! I use a common tin tea-kettle— the larg- 

 est I can find. 1 have had tin pots made for the 

 purpose, but nothing suits me better than a large 

 tea-kettle. With one of these 1 can feed 100 colo- 

 nies 10(10 pounds of syrup in two hours, and make 

 out the records to each hive. 



"Well, here we are home again. As there is a 

 little time before dark, you may prepare a few nu- 

 clei to take with us to-morrow, as we may find now 

 and then a colony that will need a queen or more 

 bees." 



NOVEMBER 1. 



" Well, Fred, we are left alone now to pack the 



bees for winter, and we had better go right at it 

 and have it done. We will pack the home yard to- 

 day. I will carry out the sheets for covering the 

 frames, while you carry out the cushions. There, I 

 will show you how to fix one hive, then you can 

 take the next row. 



" First, remove the brood-box cover and shove it 

 under the hive to keep'it dry. Now take this cot- 

 ton cloth sheet and spread it over the frames ino 

 bridge sticks across the frames, as my frames are 

 10 small the bees can go around them); now take 

 this enameled cloth and spread that over the cotton 

 cloth, black side down, in such a manner as to cover 

 half of the brood-chamber— the back half— thus 

 leaving the front half covered only, with the cotton 

 sheet, which leaves a chance for upward ventila- 

 tion, and for the moisture to pass up into the cush- 

 ion. T now put on the cushion over all; and as the 

 cushion is large enough to completely fill the outer 

 case, there seems to be but little chance for the cold 

 to get to the bees. 



" Now put in the entrance slide, which cuts the en- 

 trance down to 2 inches long by % wide. Now we 

 will drive these stakes in the ground, one on each 

 side of the hive, and tie this twine, one end to each 

 stake, after passing it over the hive; this will pre- 

 vent the hive from being blown over. There, now, 

 this hive is all fixed for winter, and is to be let alone 

 until spring, unless there should come a warm 

 spell so the bees can fly. If so, we will simply pull 

 the entrance-slide to see that the entrance is not 

 clogged, and the slide is returned at once. This is 

 just the right kind of weather for this work, as it is 

 cool enough so the bees are nicely clustered below 

 the top-bars, and yet not so cold as to make it un- 

 comfortable to work bare-handed." A. E. Manum. 



Bristol, Vt. 



Friend M., I never before heard of suiting 

 winter food for bees ; but as we have plenty 

 of demonstration that the bees like salt, I 

 think very likely it will do thern good. Our 

 friend Betsiuger claims that it will keep 

 away foul brood. I wish it were true. We 

 should infer that yon have tremendous 

 winds in your locality. May be it is the 

 hives that stand on the hill that requite to 

 have the covers staked down ; and, by the 

 way, do you winter outdoors? One might 

 iLfer so from the fact that you give each 

 colony 80 pounds of sealed stores. My ex- 

 perience has been, with chaff hives, that 20 

 pounds is a great plenty, while those who 

 winter in cellars get it down to 15 or 18. — 

 Our first apiary was made with the inten- 

 tion of having the ground always kept clean 

 between the hives. As soon as weeds made 

 their appearance it was scraped over with a 

 sharp hoe. and then swept clean with a 

 broom. This gave it a very neat and tidy 

 appearnce ; but it required so much work 

 that we thought we could not stand it. 

 Where an apiary is kept so clean, any thing 

 dropped on the ground looks untidy. Even 

 a discarded queen-cell, trimmings from the 

 grapevines, a bunch of clover or grass used 

 to brush the bees off the combs, or any thing 

 of the sort, must be gathered up and swept 

 away in order to have it look pleasing to the 

 eye ; but I confess that the pleasure of work- 

 ing in an apiary that is always kept perfect- 

 ly clean and neat is worth a good deal, to 

 say the least. 



