1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



353 



he thought was wrong, and for that reason 

 made some enemies; out he was not resent- 

 ful himself when others criticised him. 



In 1883 was published "The Bee-keeper's 

 Handy Book," by Henry Alley, wherein he 

 gave the world the benefit of his 37 years' ex- 

 perience, of which 24 had been as a specialist 

 in queen-breeding This work was well re- 

 ceived, and 2000 copies were sold within a 

 year and a half. Much of it is taken up with 

 his method of rearing queens. This, being 

 well illustrated and clearly described, en- 

 hanced his reputation as an expert bee- 

 breeder. 



As is well known, he reared his queens 

 from the egg by cutting a comb containing 

 eggs into narrow strips (about three cells 

 wide). A certain num' er of the eggs were 

 (or are) destroyed with a match-stick, so 

 that those which are left may have ample 

 room to allow of the construction of a queen- 

 cell. When the strip has been duly pre- 

 pared, the under side of it is dipped into 

 melted wax, and by this means it is attach- 

 ed to the lower edge of a comb which has 

 been built half way to the bottom-bar. The 

 bees seeing the cells arranged mouth down- 

 ward, and every thing so handy, proceed to 

 build queen-cells around each egg; and as 

 they are absolutely queenless. yet strong in 

 numbers, they seldom fail to rear a large 

 proportion into good queens. It is true that 

 the various operations require a lightness of 

 touch and a delicacy of treatment wh'ch 

 some are incapable of; but Mr Alley always 

 maintained that such people ought not to at- 

 tempt to rear queens. 



In 1883 Mr. Silas M Locke, of Salem, 

 Mass.. one of Mr. Alley's students, started 

 his sprightly bee journal. The Ani' rican Api- 

 rullurist. and in this paper the subject of our 

 sketch had the opportunity to state his views 

 freely. It was one of the best bee-papers 

 ever started in this country; but. most un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Locke died just as the jour- 

 nal had succeeded in fully demonstrating its 

 usefulness. Mr. Alley then put on the edi- 

 tor's harness; but journalism was not his 

 forte, and the paper died a natural death in 

 1894. 



From time to time Mr. Alley issued his 

 book on queen-rearing, which consisted of a 

 part of his "Handy Book," adding little im- 

 provements and inventions which he had 

 made in the interim. He also kept up his 

 queen- breeding operations to the last, hav- 

 ing established a reputation for the high 

 quality of his queens. 



One of his last acts was to write (Jan. 24) 

 a personal letter to Mr. E. R. Root, in which 

 he expressed his appreciation of Gleanings 

 in this wise: 



"Had I been well I surely would have sent 

 you some strong praise of the several late 

 copies of Gleanings. You have outdone 

 even yourselves. No magazine or publica- 

 tion I have seen comes up to the beauty, 

 both outside and in, of any copy of Glean- 

 ings." 



Peace to his ashes. He was a great bee- 

 keeper. 



STORM DOORS. 



Bees Flying Out on Bright Days and Dy- 

 ing on the Snow. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



On page 96 of our issue for Jan. 15, in a 

 footnote to the article by C H. W. Weber I 

 referred to storm-doors, so to speak, that 

 we had placed on all of our outdoor hives, 

 embodying a principle suggested to us by 

 Mr. A. J. Halter, of Akron. It will be re- 

 membered that he has been using them for 

 over two seasons, and believes them to be not 

 only a saver of bee-life, but a protection from 

 piercing winds which might otherwise blow 

 directly into the entrances, thus chilling the 

 colony. 



As we are now approaching spring, a 

 further report on these storm-doors ought to 

 be made. We had been having a very cold 

 spell of weather, for us, during which there 

 had been a heavy fall of snow. On the 10th 

 and lllh the weather moderated very decid- 

 edly. There was a clear sky, and the sun 

 shone with a brilliancy that we do not often 

 see in February. The hives had storm-doors 

 a la Halter over all entrances, and I was 

 curious to know just what the effect of these 

 might be in keeping the bees in. The at- 

 mosphere was balmy from 10 to 2 o'clock on 

 both days; but there was such a large amount 

 of snow I was certain that any bees that 

 lodged thereon would never return to their 

 hives. The storm-doors, because they kept 

 out the sun. had the eft'ect of keeping the 

 bees in the hive till about the mi'idle of the 

 day; but as the atmosphere warmed up it 

 percolated through the entrances to the colo- 

 nies. The bees, allured by the warmth, but 

 not by the light, came out. The air was full 

 of them: and the way they clustered over the 

 hives was alarming I did not fear so much 

 for those that lodged on wooden ol)jects or 

 on bare ground as I did those that fell di 

 rectlyou the snow. These. I was sure, would 

 never get back, and they did not. But those 

 on the hives and on ground where there was 

 no snow, after resting for a few moments, 

 would take wing and return to the hive. 



In order to give the reader an idea of what 

 was prevailing in our yard among the hives 

 I am reproducing here a number of photos 

 which I took on the occasion. Fig. 1 shows 

 one of our regular double-walled chaff hivet^, 

 over the entrance of which was leaning a so- 

 called storm-door. Just notice how the bees 

 were clustered over the hive and on top of 

 it! They had discovered that it was warm, 

 and the temperature induced them to come 

 out and have a playspell and void their feces. 

 Whil3 I was taking the pictures my clothes 

 became badly spotted— not from unhealthy 

 droppings, but from those as a result of the 

 natural retention on the part of the bees that 

 were wintering in an ordinary normal way. 



I do not care how well the bees are doing: 

 if they have been confined in the hive for 

 over a week, either summer or winter, they 

 will spot objects round about. But this spot- 

 ting does not indicate any condition that is 



