S80 



Gl.K.WTNGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Grace Allen 



THE DIXIE BEE I NashviUe,Ten„. 



Now wliere should one keep that 

 precious October 1st Gleaxixgs — 

 in the regular Cleaxixgs file or 

 among: the cook-books? They are 

 both clamoring for it. Yes, I know 

 what Solomon said to do to the 

 babv. but I do hate to cut it in 



half. 



It looks like an early fall here; and if 

 we should have a " regular old-fashioned '' 

 cold winter, I fancy it's no more than is 

 due us, as the last two or three have been 

 mild enough. Everybody in this section 

 wintei"s outdoors in single-walled hives, and 

 it will soon be time to look into the question 

 of winter stores. 



» * « 



One day early in October, while we were 

 tramping through the autumn sunshine, in 

 the old deer park of the once famous Belle 

 Meade farm, looking for huts, we came 

 ipon gi-eat stretches of white aster and 

 goldenrod. There were plenty of bumble- 

 bees and butterflies on them both, but not 

 one honey-bee could we find. 

 • » * 



I have read of bees and chickens not liv- 

 ing in perfect accord. Our half-gi'own 

 Rhode Island Red chicks wander around 

 among the hives, snapping flies otf the 

 alighting-boards, and never . trouble the 

 bees. Nor, apparently, do the bees trouble 

 them. If they are buzzing around too 

 thick, the chick shakes his queer little head, 

 half baby-fuzz and half feathers, and just 

 snaps up another fly. But he makes no 

 mistake about snapping bees. And when, 

 during a recent illness, the water-jars men- 

 tioned in a previous page were neglected 

 and allowed to become empty, and the bees, 

 hunting another watering-place, appropri- 

 ated one of the chickens' drinking-vessels, it 

 was quietly relinquished in their favor. Now 

 they claim it fully as their own. 

 » » * 



When I looked into a few hives yesterday 

 I was genuinely dismayed to find a lot of 

 dead brood. There were great patches of 

 sealed brood, with numbers of fully matur- 

 ed bees, heads partly out, dead. I did not 

 have time to go through all the hives nor 

 to examine very thoroughly those I did 

 open, but practically every one of them had 

 more or less of this dead brood. I am at a 

 loss to understand it, unless the suddenly 

 severe weather, that came upon us recently 

 with heaw frosts, chilled it. No signs of 



eggs or lan« either. Brood-rearing evi- 

 dently stopped almost entirely, if not utter- 

 ly, for the lime, ten days or more ago. But 

 it does seem as though the bees could have 

 kept such mature brood warm. I hope it's 

 nothing worse than the cold weather. Being 

 unite inexperienced in bee dl'^eases 1 felt at 

 first a wild desire to send immediately for 

 r>r. Ward, our slate inspector, for a diag- 

 nosis, but refrained for further personal 



investigation. 



* « • 



FOR BEGINNERS. 



As to these winter stores, you want each 

 colony to Imva from 25 to 30 pounds of 

 honey to winter on. And if it is difiicult 

 for 30U to estimate it, scattered as it is 

 through difl'erent combs, just weigh a few 

 colonies until you accustom yourself to the 

 feel of a properly hea\-y colony. If you 

 have only a few hives, you can easily weigh 

 them all. The hive itself, with bottom- 

 board and cover, and ten combs, will weigh 

 from 2.T to 30 pounds (weigh one first your- 

 self, tlmugh, and \erify — there's nothing so 

 valuable as first-hand knowledge) : so with 

 its occupants and the honey for winter you 

 SCO you should show 55 or 60 pounds on 

 your scales. 



The contraption we rigged up when we 

 first wanted to weigh hives was very ama- 

 teurish; but it did the work and we still 

 have it. We took two stout cords, each 

 long enough to be laid across the top ot the 

 hive and reach on each side to the bottom 

 of the bol torn-board. To each end we at- 

 tach.ed a hook that would catch underneath. 

 The two cords are then placed about a foot 

 apart across the hive, so it will balance 

 easily, and the hooks adjusted. Then we' 

 slip a strong narrow stick (a short piece 

 sawed from a broom-handle would bo good ) 

 under the two cords. You see this would 

 make an excellent handle for lifting. The 

 hook of the spring scales is then put under 

 this improvised handle, the whole alfaii- 

 raised clear, and the weight thereof read on 

 the scales. 



Another thing: Of course you want to be 

 prepared ahead of time for increase and 

 crops and all that; but don't go putting 

 t\)undation into a whole lot of frames that 

 }ou merely hope you may use, and then 

 later in the se;\son. with a forlorn hope of 

 getting them drawn, may be stick them in 

 sujters on top of some nuclei that won't do 

 ar.ything but gnaw holes in them and leave 

 them dark and stained, and looking as sorry 

 as vou will feel. 



