1887 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CUETUllE. 



751 



liive is removed from its stiiiid. and a clean 

 oiieissiibstituted. The bees are tlien ;dl slmk- 

 eii into the new home, and tjiven IVanies of 

 foundation. Tiie diseased chaff hive is last 

 of all taken away and boiled, in a manner 

 which will be described in a future issue. 

 Thus we not only cure the disease in the 

 colonies themselves, but have i»revented its 

 Sjiread into other hives. Most of the hives 

 in our apiary have more or less healthy 

 brood. If the disease were present in any 

 of the hives, it would in all i)robability 

 have shown itself ere this. 



UNlTIXii, AND rUKrAUIN(; KOK WINTEK. 



In consequence of not bein^' able to till or- 

 ders for bees by the pound, our colonies are 

 very stron.u:, so that we can not double up 

 to the same extent we did last year. The 

 total number of colonies which we shall put 

 inlo winter (juarters will be 2-10 when all are 

 united a somewliat larger innnber than 

 last year, .\(ni will peicei\e. Not only that, 

 but the individual colonies will be, in the 

 nuijoi'ity of cases, douljle the strength of the 

 average colonies of last year. 



It was very ditlicult, in conseciuence of the 

 robbers acting so badly, to unite during the 

 day. We did a good deal of it in the even- 

 ings, but even then the robbers leained the 

 trick of '• staying out nights."" Pretty soon i 

 the equinox came, accompanied by the usu- 

 al rainy weather. '• Now," said I to the 

 boys one morning, as there was a light cold 

 drizzle, '• you will have acapital time for 

 doing all the uniting yon wish."" The work 

 which had been needing attention was now 

 done with perfect ease. Pretty soon the 

 drizzlti turned into a light rain. Mr. Smith 

 came in and said, '' Do you think we had 

 better oiien the hives now':"' 



•• Oh, yes 1 "" said I, " providing //ow can 

 stand it."" 



I hunted up a rubber overcoat for Mr. 

 Smith (Mr. SpalTord having one already on). 



When robbers are very bad during pleas- 

 ant weather, and I am anxions to Ikia e prep- 

 arations for getting the hives in proper win- 

 ter shape complete, there is n(»thing that I 

 welcome more than light rainy weather. 

 With an old hat, rubber overcoat, and rub- 

 ber boots, it is jusi: fun to perform the oper- 

 ations which, during pleasant weathei-, are 

 just out of the (juestion. because of the per- 

 sistence of the robbeis. This morning, 

 while feeding the bees, I was out during the 

 light rain. \Vhat a pleasure it was to open 

 the hi\('s and pour in the feed, without a 

 hundred or so of buzzing l)ees around I I 

 could set the feeder-can down anywhere, 

 and not be at all afraid that the little pesky 

 thieves would have their noses in it. 



Speaking of rubber boots reminds me that 

 my light rubber b )ots which 1 mentioned in 

 ( ; LEA N I VGs last winter are good yet. They 

 cost only $1.7'). They are very light, and 

 are not so disposed to cause sweaty feet as 

 the heavier ones. 



WOODEN r.l'TTEU-niSHES AS FEEDEUS. 



Some of ovu" last-year's subscribers will 

 remember that 1 gave my prefeience de- 

 cidedly in favor of wooden feeders ov«'r 

 those constructetl of tin. During the cool 

 months of last fall I found that bees would 



take feed readily lioni the wooden feeder, 

 when tlie\ would not notice one' of tin. 

 The past year I liave been looking for some 

 kind of wooden feeder that would be cheap, 

 and yet answer e\ ery purpose. A few days 

 since, a correspondent incidentally remark- 

 ed in his letter, that he had been using 

 wooden butter-disla^s with good success. 



''There,"" sai<l I to myself, as 1 read that, 

 " is just the feeder that I have been looking 

 for."" 



Taking the letter in ray hand 1 walked 

 over to Mr. Calvert, our biiyer, and showed 

 it to him, puttiim- my linger ujion the 

 paragraph mentioning the wooden buttei- 

 dishes. Aftei' he had read it I said, " See 

 wliat yo\i can do about getting wooden but- 

 ter-dishes. 1 belie\e they would be just the 

 thing, and the cost would be almost noth- 

 ing. Why, a bee-kcepei' could afford to buy 

 a couple Of hundred of them; and wheii 

 they were worn out he could burn them up 

 and buy more." 



^Ir. Calvert, as yon lemembei', wintered 

 our bees successfully one year, and has had 

 considerable to do with feeding. He saw 

 the point at once, and set about immediate- 

 ly to see what he could do in the way of 

 getting some cheap bee-feeders. In the 

 course of a couple of weeks we had a con- 

 signment of wooden butter-dishes and — 

 what do you think ?— wooden pie-plates— 

 the latter as neat and pretty in design as 

 any thing you ever saw. The sides were 

 scalloped, or corrugated, and the bottom 

 was perfectly Hat. It is hardly necessary 

 for me to describe the woo(len butter-dishes, 

 as every one of our subscribers has no doubt 

 bought a ])ound (n* so of butter in one of 

 these receptacles. 



They were left in the crate until rainy 

 weather. Accordingly last night you might 

 have seen me with a synip-can in one hand 

 and a pack of wooden butter-dishes and pie- 

 plates in the other. I placed one of each 

 kind in the hives I desired to feed: and 

 then with the feeder-can I poured the syr- 

 uj) into one and then into the other. After 

 Itoth were tilled I lei the drip fall on to a 

 few bees down in the cluster, that they 

 might give notice of what there was above-. 

 After having filled all the feedeis, I left 

 them until next morning, without luakiug 

 any provision foi- lloats, as 1 desiied to 

 see whether these shallow wooden dishes 

 would re(inire il. This morning I more 

 than half expected to lind a few bees drown- 

 ed. Examination, however, showed that 

 the feed had been licked up clean, and not a 

 bee was seen in any of the feedeis. As it 

 continued to rain .somewhat this morning. 1 

 refilled the wooden dishes, then watched the 

 bees at one of the hives, as Ihey greedily 

 piled over each other, three or four bees 

 high, to get at the feed on the edges of the 

 dish. A few in their haste plunged over in- 

 to the sjTup. I stood holding the (;over up. 

 watching and waiting to see whether these 

 bees would be able to get out. They swam 

 along in the syruj) : and when tliey reached 

 the edges of the feeder they caught Iiold ot 

 the wood and shook themselves very nuicli 

 as a dog does when he first comes out of tiie 

 river. Now. why is it that these wooden 



