1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



373 



to be conceived that it would so suddenly 

 conclude that its past persistent efforts in 

 any g-iven line of prog'i-ess were all wrong-, 

 and that, vacillating- at the behest of some 

 member or two or three members, it would 

 at once jump over to Dr. Miller's apparent 

 view, that the best way to secure action in 

 a forward line is to begin by quibbling- as 

 to just how the first step is to be taken! No; 

 they are men of action, whose words are 

 but to chronicle results. And what an ex- 

 ample their unity should be for not only the 

 National Bee-keepers' Association, but also 

 every other one on this continent! 

 Washington, D. C. 



[From what I know of Dr. Miller I am 

 sure he did not intend to throw cold water 

 on any work in the bee line that the govern- 

 ment might sanction. Indeed, I know he 

 has been much pleased with some things 

 that have already been done through its api- 

 cultural investigator, Frank Benton. I re- 

 fer to the quietus he has given to some of 

 the newspaper lies about comb honey. No 

 man will do more to encourage government 

 work than Dr. Miller, and if he has &aid 

 something that looks like discouragement 

 I know he will be glad to offer due apologies 

 and to make amends so far as lies in his 

 power. — Ed.] 



HOME'MADE HIVES. 

 Experience with a Buzz=saw. 



BY D. B. THOMAS. 



I have been a bee-keeper for about fifteen 

 j^ears, with variable success, according as 

 I cared fox or neglected my bees. But I 

 had one serious drawback, namely, I had 

 to be my own pioneer, as no one who knew 

 any thing about bees lived near to help me 

 over difficult places ; and the result is I 

 have learned to not do many things as well 

 as to do some others. It has taken a good 

 deal of education in hive-making and buy- 

 ing to satisfy me, and I am still at it. A 

 long time ago I bought two Dovetailed hives 

 for comb honey, which pleased me so well 

 that I bought forty next time, and for a 

 while I bought and sold a good many. But 

 a succession of oft" years knocked the bot- 

 tom out of the honey business, and my bees 

 died for want of proper attention. After a 

 business once gets a good hold on a person, 

 it seems, like a bad habit, to be next to im- 

 possible to shake it off; so three years ago 

 found me relapsing into the bee fever, and 

 I have been getting worse ever since. We 

 have had extremely dry weather in this lo- 

 cality for two years, and, as a consequence, 

 when a man has outwitted an elusive dol- 

 lar he is slow to part company with it. For 

 this reason I made my hives last year by 

 hand, which, for ten hives, spring count, 

 which were increased to twenty during the 

 season, did not, of course, require a great 

 deal of labor. They were run entirely for 

 extracted honey; and although the season 



was much the dryest we ever had, they net- 

 ted me $70, or $7.00 apiece. 



This spring a new condition confronted 

 me. I must either make or buy about 40 

 hives for myself, besides supplying my 

 neighbors. That would take about 80 dol- 

 lars. I could not see my way clear to 

 spend so much money at once, so I bought 

 goods as follows: 



1 combined saw, cost at home, $38.00. 



1 lot of supplies, such as frames, 

 fences, and sections, not easi- 

 ly manufactured at home. - 30.00. 



$15 worth of lumber at $3 per 100 15,00. 



Total $83.00. 



By working like a Trojan I have the 

 prospect of 50 hives in the future. 



Candidly I no longer envy the supply 

 manufacturer his hard-earned cash; and in 

 order to carry my conviction still further I 

 would sell my outfit at cost, for a buzz-saw 

 is a veritable terror; and if I ever get rich 

 on what I save I am afraid it will be at the 

 cost of precious fingers. 



Odin, Mo., April 1. 



[As a general rule it does not pay any 

 one to make his own hives; but there are 

 localities remote from a dealer or manufac- 

 turer, and where lumber is reasonably 

 cheap, where one can to advantage do his 

 own work, providing, of course, he is a fair 

 mechanic. Nearly every one who attempts 

 to run a small circular saw finds out, soon- 

 er or later, that it will cut fingers about as 

 easily as it does boards. — Ed.] 



THE WINTERING PROBLEM. 



The Truth of Some Old Teachings Questioned ; 



How Much Ventilation do Bees Require ? Mois= 



ture ; Weather to Set Bees Out in the 



Spring. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The wintering problem, which the Ger- 

 mans call the masterpiece {Dleisterstueck^ 

 of bee-keeping, seems likely to remain of 

 perennial interest to bee-keepers north of 

 Mason and Dixon's line. I am watching 

 with interest the outcome of the wintering 

 at Medina in the cellar under the machine- 

 shop and the other cellar. While we may 

 not all have just the same advantages, the 

 light thrown upon the problem by those 

 two cellars may still be of general profit. 



The present discussions in Gleanings 

 as to winter ventilation remind one of the 

 days of old, when a government document 

 advocated buryingbees, with no provision for 

 ventilation, and when there were those who 

 talked about blowing a candle through a 

 two-inch plank, and iibout having colonies 

 hermetically sealed. 



I suppose no one will insist that impure 

 air is a benefit to bees, although it comes 

 pretty near it when it has been asserted 

 that the least particle of outside air admit- 

 ted during the latter part of winter will 

 make the bees uneasy b3' reminding them 



