1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



391 



then sit on it and ride to BoKton; it would make a 

 comfortable seat. " But," lie says, " young men, if 

 you should pull the tow all out you would And it a 

 very pointed seat. Now leave the tow out of your 

 sermons. Let them just be full of clean sharp 

 points, that can not fail to prick the hearers." 



We do not want too much tow in our articles 

 either, so that, when one gets through reading, the 

 points will have been all smothered in his mind by 

 the mass of unnecessary words. T. B. Terry. 



Hudson, Ohio, May 3, 18H7. 



Friend Terry, yon have given us some 

 very important suggestions, and I have been 

 for a long time tliinking of the importance 

 of keeping our ceUars, especially our vegeta- 

 ble-cellars, as cold as possible and still avoid 

 freezing. A good deal of attention has been 

 given to cold-storage rooms, that cost ever 

 so much money ; but I believe it has been 

 decided that fruit and vegetables of many 

 kinds can be kept almost as well on the plan 

 you give— that is, keeping the air in the cel- 

 lar cold by opening and closing the windows 

 at the proper time. I can readily under- 

 stand how the coal'Oil stove would be very 

 much better, and I think cheaper too, than 

 making our cellars too warm just because of 

 the rarely occurring severe days and nights 

 that might let the frost in. This subject is 

 intensely interesting to me ; but perhaps I 

 shall have to set an example too, by being 

 brief. But I want to say, before closing, that 

 I do not believe that a single one of the 7000 

 subscribers to Gleanings has thought that 

 ijou, friend Terry, had even once written at 

 too great length. Your talk concerns the 

 homes we live in, and this all-important 

 matter of the health of the inmates; and 

 the most of what you give us has never ap- 

 peared elsewhere. 



ABOUT SPREADING BROOD. 



KRIENl) DOOtilTTLE TELLS US HOW TO DO IT AND 

 HOW NOT TO DO IT. 



f EARING that all do not understand just how 

 to manage the spreading of brood so as to 

 have it an advantage rather than a disad- 

 vantage, I thought a few words at this 

 time from one who has practiced it for the 

 past 1.5 years might not be amiss. Some think that 

 at best there is no gain in such an operation, or, at 

 least, not a gain proportionate to the labor involv- 

 ed; hut from several tests made by leaving whole 

 rows of hives through the bee-yard undisturbed, 

 while a row alongside had the brood spread as 

 about to be given, I find those manipulated gave 

 results above the others more than double enough 

 to pay for the extra labor. The trouble with most 

 of those who try the plan for the first time is, that 

 they begin to manipulate the brood too early, 

 'fheic can be nothing gained where there are three 

 or four eoinhs one-fourth full of brood, by spread- 

 ing them apart and putting an empty comb be- 

 tween; for by so doing we simply spread the brood 

 out in an unnatural position, and work on the 

 plan of scattering the heat instead of concentrating 

 it. Besidrs as long as this state of affairs exists 

 they have already got brood in more combs than 

 they should have; for all will see that, if all this 

 l)rood were put in one comb, and that comb placed 

 in the center of a chaff hive made for only one 



comb, the bees that hardly covered it before could 

 hardly crowd into the space it now occupies. 



To get at what I wish to illustrate, let us suppose 

 that we could get that ordinary colony of bees 

 with its brood in four combs as above, all on one 

 comb, and no room for the bees except in this 

 space, it will be seen that quite a proportion of the 

 bees would be obliged to cluster outside. To obvi- 

 ate this outside clustering we will enlarge our 

 hives so as to take one more comb, which comb is 

 put in. Now having our heat and bees condensed 

 to the right proportion, we would find that the 

 queen would lay in this comb at the same rate she 

 would in July, filling it with eggs in three or four 

 days; while, had we not done this, the brood in the 

 four combs with a whole hive to carry off the ra- 

 diating heat would not have advanced to the 

 amount of one-sixth of a frame. In a few days, 

 more young bees from our first frame have hatch- 

 ed to such an extent that they are again crowding 

 out at the entrance, when we once more enlarge 

 the hive and put in another comb (putting it in the 

 center this time), which is filled as quickly as be- 

 fore, and so we keep on, till one hive is enlarged to 

 the breeding capacity of the queen. Does any one 

 doubt but that we shall have a hive full of brood 

 and bees long before we should if nothing had been 

 done? If such doubt exists, an e.\periment or two 

 along that line will convince any. 



Well, now, to practical work. As soon in spring as 

 the first pollen appears, shut the colony on to the 

 number of combs containing brood, using some- 

 thing to confine the heat as much as possible for a 

 division-board. If these combs of brood do not 

 contain honey enough, use a feeder such as T de- 

 scribed a few months back for that division-board, 

 and feed, or leave combs of honey beyond the 

 board so the bees can have access to it. Now leave 

 them till the two central combs have brood clear 

 down to the bottom outside corners of the frames; 

 for manipulation previous to this would not help 

 a bit, as they already have all the chance for 

 spreading their own brood that is needed. As soon 

 as you find the two central combs thus filled, re- 

 verse the brood-nest, by which I mean put these 

 two central combs of brood on the outside, and 

 those outside in the center, when, in a very few 

 days, we shall have our combs and colony in just 

 the shape of the supposed colony we spoke of 

 above, and are to proceed in the future on the 

 same plan. The main idea is, in the concentrating 

 of the heat, and that in such a way that the young 

 brood and eggs are always in the warmest part, 

 rather than all around on the outside, or in the 

 coolest part, as they are in the manipulated hive. 

 It will also be seen, that, if we work as above, there 

 is not the least shadow of a chance of chilling the 

 brood; for room is given only as the bees need it. 

 The spreading of the brood in a full hive where 

 there is brood in from four to six frames, and those 

 only from \j to ^.i full, is only labor thrown away, 

 and a risky operation besides; for the bees have 

 already too much room; but the concentration of 

 heat, and the management as given in this article, 

 is a sure road to success; or, at least, so says an ex- 

 ' perience of a dozen or more years. 



Borodino, N. V., Apr., 1887. G. M. Doolittle. 



I quite agree with you, friend D., only I 



do not believe I would want to undertake 



crowding the bees on to one frame very 



early in the season. I have done it in the 



