14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



the transmission of disease throug-h the me- 

 dium of germs knows that nothing- but actu- 

 al boiling-, or, better still, heating- those 

 points redhot,will render them safe to punch 

 into healthy brood at another apiary. I am 

 sure I am rig-ht in this, and therefore I 

 most respectfully urge Mr. Bowen to dis- 

 continue the practice or he will scatter the 

 disease. My practice is to take a spear of 

 grass, or, better, a wooden toothpick, and 

 punch it into the suspected cell. After hav- 

 ing used it I shove it into the comb and 

 leave it there. Then I take a new pick for 

 another colony. After that I wash my 

 hands thoroughly. Inspectors should pro- 

 vide themselves with a whole box of tooth- 

 picks on their inspection tours. 



So 3'ou think. Rambler, I was fond of 

 apricots, and I was. But now look here. 

 Don't you know I was trying to eat as many 

 2lS. you did, and couldn't? Apricots — yes, I 

 ate them wherever I could get them, all 

 through California. Why, the dried fruit 

 does not compare with the fresh. 



Yes, that jouncer is a capital device. I 

 think so well of it I am going to have it 

 shown in the next edition of the A B C of 

 Bee Culture. On my recent trip I saw 

 where it had been put to use, and I know 

 what it can and will do. It is a great 

 thing. Rambler should have a "vote of 

 thanks " for giving to the general bee-keep- 

 ing public so good an idea, even if he is 

 mean enough to malign me about my weak- 

 ness for apricots. — Ed.] 



WINTERING BEES UNDER SNOW. 



"Good evening, Mr. Doolittle. I have 

 been told that bees winter well under snow; 

 and as we have an unusual amount of it for 

 this time of the year ( November 29 ) I thought 

 I would run in a little while and see what 

 you thought about the matter." 



"Yes, w^e are having lots of snow, Mr. 

 Brown — fully a foot on the level, I think, 

 though the wind has so piled it vip that it 

 would be hard telling just how deep it is. 

 How did you find the roads?" 



"Find them! I had hard work to get 

 here at all. You remember that place up 

 by Hemlock Hill? Well, the snow is fully 

 six feet deep there, and I hear that the 

 stage will not try to start at all to-morrow 

 unless it stills down; and the snow is drift- 

 ing over a part of my hives next the west 

 side of the apiary, and that is the reason I 

 came to see you." 



" The question has been frequently asked 

 in our bee-papers whether it was best to al- 

 1 )w the hives containing bees to drift under 

 in winter, and some have talked of putting 

 up a partial windbreak, to the end that the 

 bees might be drifted under." 



" And what was the reply to these ques- 

 tions?" 



" The reply has generally been, ' Yes, the 

 more snow over the hives the better; ' but I 

 do not indorse it. ' ' 

 "Why?" 



" Because my experience has been, where 

 hives are covered with snow the bees inhab- 

 iting them did not winter well. In fact, I 

 believe that the bees are worse off where 

 the hives are thus covered than they are ■ 

 where there is no snow about any part of 

 the hive during the whole winter. But 

 where the snow can come up to near the top 

 of the brood-chamber, and no higher, it may 

 possibly be a little help; but even then I 

 would about as soon risk their safe winter- 

 ing with no snow about them." 



"This is rather unexpected talk. Can 

 you give me something of your experience, 

 so I can judge somewhat in the matter? " 



" I am always free to tell any thing I 

 know that may be of help to any one. For 

 the first few winters after commencing to 

 keep bees I wintered all I had in the cellar, 

 as the man from whom I bovight my two 

 first colonies wintered in the cellar. As 

 there was only a small cellar under the 

 house where I lived, and this mostly occu- 

 pied with vegetables and things needed by 

 the average family, it became crowded as 

 the bees increased, until one winter they 

 did not winter well, so I decided to winter 

 on the summer stand thereafter all that the 

 cellar would not hold without encroaching 

 on the room needed in the same for family 

 use. At this time I ran across a newly 

 found bee-friend who swept the snow up 

 around his hives as it fell, and the idea 

 pleased me." 



"What? Goto the trouble of sweeping 

 snow around the hives? " 



"Yes; it was only good exercise, you 

 know, or at least that was the way he put 

 it before me; and this exercise, even if it 

 was called work, was much cheaper than 

 it would be to build a cellar for the bees. 

 And so I went to sweeping the snow as it 

 fell around the bees, and by December 10th 

 I had the hives all covered from sight. And 

 let me tell you that the pyriimids of white 

 snow all over the bee-yard made a very 

 picturesque view which was quite enchant- 

 ing." 



" Well, I should think it would. But did 

 it stay so all winter? " 



"No. At the end of a month we had a 

 thaw; and when I went out to look at the 

 hives I found that the warmth from the bees 

 within had so thawed the snow that a cat 

 or small dog could go all around between 

 the hives and snow. This pleased me, 

 and I said to myself, ' This is just the way 

 to winter bees.' On examination, however, 

 I found that the bees were very uneasy, 

 and, upon raising one corner of the quilt, 

 were ready to fly out and perish on the 

 snow instead of being quiet, as all good 

 bees should be when not warm enough for 

 them to fly." 



" How did the matter come out?" 



