808 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



felt I could not afford to open the hives again to 

 overhaul the frames. 



Does not Doolittle urge the importance of " mil- 

 lions in the hive" in the beginning of winter.'' 

 So I proceeded to feed each side of the hives from 

 above, night after night, until the bees seemed to 

 be unable to take down any more. I noted par- 

 ticularly that No. 1, my original, and a very 

 strong hive, took by far the most; No. 3, my sec- 

 ond best, took down very little; but No. 2, the 

 weakest, did fairly well. These facts are worth 

 remembering in view of the developments in the 

 following spring, and 1 had food for much thought 

 in the summer and fall of 1907 in an endeavor to 

 account for the unexpected way they behaved in 

 the building-up season. 



In the beginning of December, 1906, I bunch- 

 ed my hives side by side and enclosed them in a 

 strong packing-box 8 feet long and 4 feet square, 

 filling up every nook with dry leaves. I left an 

 open space six inches wide in front of the en- 

 trances, and set a sloping portico to protect from 

 strong winds and drifting snow. The entrances 

 were contracted to 3 inches by H for each divi- 

 sion. The bees wintered finely, very few dead 

 being found at the entrances or on the bottom- 

 board at the end of winter. They had a flight 

 the first week in January and again in the middle 

 of February. 



Toward the end of December I saw a dead lar- 

 va at the entrance of the side of hive No. 3, in 

 which was the new queen. I had seen a few 

 eggs and the queen herself at the last examination, 

 so felt hopeful. January 5 I saw four drones fly- 

 iug from this side, and now I had cause for won- 

 der; but all I could do was to wait until spring. 



During the winter my interest in bees contin- 

 ued to develop at a rapid rate. In my day I 

 have had many hobbies, but this was the first 

 with living animals I had ever got inretested in. 

 Chickens had never appealed to me, though I 

 had kept them in a perfunctory way for the sake 

 of their product. Speaking of chickens reminds 

 nie of one of my neighbors who, for several years, 

 kept the finest strains in the market, and most 

 methodically followed all the rules and regula- 

 tions recommended by the authorities. Never 

 did I see such beautiful birds as his Wyandottes 

 and Orpingtons: never were chickens so comfort- 

 ably housed, methodically fed and cared for, yet 

 not one egg did my neighbor get for eighteen 

 months. Of course, we teased him unmercifully 

 — that is part of the fun of suburbanites. When 

 I was busy trying to introduce the duplicate 

 ijueens, one of my boys' was reading up the sub- 

 ject in the books. \\'hen he came to where it is 

 told that in the spring a queen may lay as many 

 as 4000 eggs in one day he dropped the book and 

 exclained, "Why does not Mr. Thomson get a 

 cross between one of our queens and his chickens.' 

 He would get eggs then for sure." Thomson's 

 hybrids added a little to the gaity of the village 

 for a few days. 



Two books I found specially interesting at this 

 period, and some of my readers may be glad to 

 hear of them. One was Maeterlinck's classic 

 book on the bee, writtep in a style that is both 

 poetic and scientific. It is not a book on prac- 

 tical bee-keeping, but is a charming study of the 

 social arrangements of a hive. Even more fas- 

 cinating to me is "A Level of Social Motion," 



by M. A. Lane, which is published by McMil- 

 lan. Primarily this book is intended as a proph- 

 ecy of the final outcome of the evolution of hu- 

 man society, the limit being when it shall become 

 in stable equilibrium with its environment. Bees, 

 the author considers, have already attained that 

 condition; and, using the hive as a prototype, he 

 works out a very interesting theory. Any bee- 

 keeper who happens to be interested in sociologi- 

 cal subjects will find in this volume an epitome 

 of our present-day knowledge perfectly marshal- 

 ed, and applied in a new way. A very important 

 conclusion is arrived at. 

 Medford, Oregon. 



EXTRACTING HONEY IN COLD 

 WEATHER. 



Leaving Honey on the Hives until Fall, 

 and Extracting the "Whole Crop at One 

 Time by "Warming it Artificially ; the 

 Use of Bee-escapes. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



Several bee-keepers in this part of the country 

 have out-yards near the home yard, and draw all 

 the honey home to extract. Mr. F. J. Miller, 

 of London, Ont., Can., has a full equipment at 

 his home yard, including a gasoline-engine, to 

 run his extractor, honey-tank in basement, etc. 

 The honey runs by gravity into the tank, and 

 from the tank into the can on the scales. In this 

 way there is no handling of honey, for it is nec- 

 essary only to lift the full can from the scales 

 and put an empty one in its place. Every thing 

 is arranged with such complete system that Mr. 

 Miller alone, with his one-horse wagon, draws 

 home and extracts all the honey from 500 col- 

 onies. 



One of the secrets of his success is in having 

 plenty of empty combs, for he does not extract 

 during the honey season, but on rainy days later, 

 when nothing else can be done. He is thus in- 

 dependent so far as help is concerned, for if he 

 gets in a "pinch" he can at least give his colonies 

 more room. 



We have drawn home considerable honey to 

 extract, but we found the work a little on the 

 strenuous order since we did not have every thing 

 arranged for doing so much at once. With Mr. 

 Miller's system I can see where failure might be 

 turned into success. 



Mr. E. E. Coveyou, of Petoskey, .Michigan, 

 has his two main bee-yards located along a rail- 

 road. Hs formerly shipped his eight-frame ex- 

 tractor, gasoline-engine, honey-cans, etc., to these 

 yards each spring, and then, after the har- 

 vest was over, he shipped the apparatus and all 

 the honey back to Petoskey where he bottled the 

 honey for the grocery trade. Sime his large 

 bottling-room in Petoskey could just as well be 

 used for an extracting-room also, he will now 

 ship all of his honey there to be extracted, and 

 he will, therefore, be able to have every thing 

 arranged as conveniently as possible. In the 

 spring the empty combs will be shipped back to 

 the yards. Of course, there will be a large 

 freight-bill to pay when following the new plan — 

 possibly there will not be much difference in the 

 expense of transportation between the new plan 



