932 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



room for the bees to go to and from their 

 feed. Except as a winter feeder, we hardly 

 see the need of the extra butter-dish. Even 

 in quite cold and frosty weather in March, 

 we find that the bees will readily pass up and 

 take the feed, when they would not touch 

 the syrup in a tin receptacle. So far as I 

 know, your plan for flllini^ a comb by rub- 

 bing your hand over the foundation is new 

 and practical. 



^ I m 



TWO VALUABLE FACTS. 



ARE ENRAGED BEES LIABLE TO ATTACK BLACK 

 OBJECTS ? 



fHE above is the heading of an article in 

 Gleanings, Oct. 15, page 785. You think 

 the material has more to do with it than col- 

 or. Several years ago I transferred my bees 

 from deep frames to the Langstroth, or 

 Simplicity frames; and by so much shaking of the 

 bees they became enraged. There was a hen and 

 chickens in a coop, close to the apiary; part of the 

 young chickens were white, and part were black. 

 They were attacked by the bees. I lifted the coop 

 off from them, and the black chicks were complete- 

 ly covered with bees. You could not see them. 

 They were balled, just like a balled queen, and the 

 white chickens were not touched. I poured water 

 on them, and got them away from the bees, but I 

 don't recollect whether they lived or died. Was 

 there more wool on the blacks? I think it was the 

 color of the avooI. 



WILL CHICKENS EAT WORKER-BEES? 



This is doubted by some, and I think it is very 

 seldom that chickens eat bees; but sometimes they 

 do. 1 once caught a hen catching worker-bees at 

 the entrance of the hive, as they came in loaded. 

 She would snatch the bee and jerk back, but took 

 them about half as fast as she would have picked 

 up corn. It was on Sunday, and I was eating my 

 dinner when I saw her at her feast. I jumped up 

 from the table and killed her, cut her crop open, 

 and counted 53 bees in it. I don't know which com- 

 menced first. 1 think I was half done. 1 then 

 went to work, 1 think the next day, and fenced 

 them out; but since then 1 have let them run in 

 again. Keep me a place in Blasted Hopes. I am 

 coming. R. Robinson. 



Laclede, Fayette Co., 111., Nov. 1, 1887. 



Friend R., you give us a very valuable 

 fact. In the case of chickens, if the bees 

 attacked the black ones, and did not the 

 white ones, they certainly have the power 

 of distinguishing one from the other by col- 

 or. And this would settle another point — 

 that bees know colors. Before deciding, 

 however, that there could have been no 

 mistake in the matter, we should be glad to 

 hear if anybody else has had the same ex- 

 perience. — I have never seen chickens eat 

 worker-bees ; but I have been assured they 

 sometimes do, and on such good authority 

 that I have been satisfied of the fact. We 

 allow chickens to run about among the bee- 

 hives as they choose, and I often see them 

 snap up moth worms that have been carried 

 out by the bees. If I should see any thing, 

 however, that looks suspicious, as the case 

 you have mentioned, I think I should adopt 

 about as prompt measures as you did. I 



presume it is only occasionally that a chick- 

 en happens to*learn that heavily laden bees 

 are good. 



SUCCESSFUL CELLAR WINTERING. 



HOW ONE OF THE FRIENDS ACCOMPLISHES IT 



WITHOUT SUB-EARTH VENTILATORS OR 



ARTIFICIAL HEAT. 



T HAVE just read Dr. Miller's article, on page 

 ^ 812, with much interest. As I have been win- 

 W tering bees in cellars for about 28 years, I 

 -*■ will give my views as to what 1 think on this 

 important matter. I have not, in all my ex- 

 periments, found any place so good to winter bees 

 in as a good cellar. I desire a very dry one. Our 

 cellar is under our house, or, rather, the main 

 parts, which are each 16 x 24 ft., in the form of an 

 L. There is no partition through it. There are 

 four windows, through which fresh air is admitted. 

 In one part of the cellar we keep our bees. As we 

 use it, the vegetables are in the cooler part and 

 the bees in the warmer part, or under the base- 

 burner. We can winter, in the room stated, from 

 50 to 125 colonies. We have an old carpet hung up 

 between the bees and cooler part of the cellar. 

 We never resort to artificial heat. The tempera- 

 ture is well under control, and in the bee-part it 

 can be kept at from 50 to 60° If desired, in our 

 coldest winters. It is usually kept at 45 to 50°, 

 as we prefer that temperature. Last winter there 

 was not a variation of over 4° from Nov. 18 to 

 Apr. 10— the time the bees were in the cellar. The 

 depth of my cellar is 7 ft., of which Wt ft. is above 

 ground. The wall is 18 inches thick from the bot- 

 tom up, to within 3 ft. of the top. The upper 3-ft. 

 wall is 15 inches thick, leaving room for studding 

 and lathing, which is plastered with two coats of 

 mortar. This gives two walls and a hollow air- 

 space, where most exposed to the cold. As it is 

 plastered up tight to the floor above, it is about 

 mouse-proof, which is good in that respect. The 

 floor is cemented so that bees and litter can be 

 easily taken up when desired. This, also, makes a 

 drier air, as is well known. The window-frames 

 are supplied with screen-frames, which sit in near 

 the window-sash, and are packed full with chaff, 

 through which we admit pure air and exclude 

 light. The windows are left open or ajar, in the 

 bee-apartment all winter, excepting during very 

 severe spells of cold, and then only for a short 

 time. Variation in temperature in such a cellar is 

 very slight, even if we have a week or two of 

 thawing weather. In fact, our bees are as quiet in 

 April as during the winter. When desired, the 

 carpet can be swung to one side a little, and cooler 

 air admitted gradually from the other apartment. 

 One thing is evident: Where a change of tempera- 

 ture is desired, that change should not be abrupt, 

 but very gradual. We have never found an ex- 

 ception to this. 



We do not wish our bees to breed to any great 

 extent while in the cellar. Very little brood is 

 found when removed from the cellar in April. 

 The entrances to the hives are left open full width, 

 and are H x 15 inches. The space between the 

 bottom-bar and bottom-board is half an inch, 

 summer and winter. I have never had combs built 

 where this space was one inch, as you speak of 

 having also tried. 



