1136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



and it is easily seen that a few times flying at 

 that time will take them all. 



Then, again, those old bees become more or 

 less restless; and dying, as they do, they must 

 disturb the colony more or less. Is it cruel thus 

 to treat them after their days of usefulness are 

 past.'' I have always furnished them shelter, 

 only to find them soon with the great majority. 



TIME TO MOVE. 



This will depend on locality and conditions. 

 I should say, as soon as they are no longer need- 

 ed at this season. Do not wait until too late, 

 because you might lose some that would be of 

 use in very early spring; but every bee-keeper 

 knows his bees are at the weakest point just be- 

 fore the spring brood begins to hatch, and it is 

 safe to say every bee that gathered honey the 

 season previous has long been dead. 



Oswego, N. Y., Aug. 7. 



[At first thought this may seem like rank her- 

 esy, bnt we are not sure but there may be some- 

 thing in it. We do know that, if a hive has 

 nothing but old bees, it will be numbered among 

 the dead next spring. — Ed.] 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



PROTECTION OF BOTTOM - BOARDS IN COLD 

 WEATHER. 



After having read the article on page 98, Jan. 

 15, by Joseph Rose, on double bottom-boards, 

 1 wish to shnw the board (see illustration) I used 

 under fourteen stands in the winter of 1906. I had 

 to take my hives oflt all these boards in the latter 

 part of January to save the bees, as fully one- 

 third of each colony were dead, the dead bees be- 

 ing mostly on the upper bottom-board, and at 

 the sides of the hive inside. 



A DOUBLE BOTTO.M-BOARD TRIED AND FOUND 

 WANTING. 



I used three-story alternating hives, top story 

 chalf, and hives all well protected outside with 

 excelsior and outer casing. When they quit 

 work at the close of the season they had arranged 

 their winter brood-nests to their own liking. 



When I placed this bottom-board with an open- 



ing clear to the back of the hive I simply disar- 

 ranged the whole work the bees had been weeks 

 in planning; and had I left it till spring I should 

 have lost most of the colonies. The cold air 

 passing through under the bottom-board had 

 kept the upper board cold, and driven the bees 

 up into the cold combs of honey. It served me 

 right lor interfering with their plans. 



But the past winter of 1907 I left the summer 

 bottom-board sealed just as the bees had fixed it, 

 and slipped an extra board under, making a 

 dead-air space between the two. I then placed 

 the hives in some large thin cracker-boxes and 

 set them on about four inches of dry hay, leav- 

 ing the front of the boxes all open, facing the 

 east. I crowded excelsior in between the sides 

 of the boxes and the hives, and placed supers 

 on the hives partly filled with leaves. 



I have never had bees come through in finer 

 condition. In the middle of January I tried to 

 clean out the bottom of the hives with a wire; 

 and as it was a very cold day I was sure I would 

 have no trouble. But I had trouble just the 

 same. Every hive I looked into had the bottom- 

 board covered solid with live warm bees, and 

 not a dead bee could I find. The bottom-boards 

 covered with warm lively bees in mid-winter, 

 and plenty of honey above, looked good to me, 

 and convinced me that we should be sure that 

 the bottom is well protected and warm, as well 

 as the top of the hive. I did not find a moldy 

 or damp frame this spring, but all were dry, with 

 plenty of honey and bees. C. B. Palmer. 



Bradshaw, Neb. 



[We may explain to our readers that on p. 98, 

 Jan. 15, we illustrated a bottom-board made on 

 very much the same principle as the one here 

 shown, and which proved to be so unsatisfactory 

 in the hands of Mr. Palmer. 



It will be remembered that the final results of 

 our obstructing all the sunlight from the en- 

 trances of our hives by a lean-to board, storm- 

 door, or other device, were somewhat in doubt. 

 Apparently, early in the fall it prevented bees 

 from flying out on cool days and thus becoming 

 chilled, never to return. We are not sure but 

 that colonies without the storm-doors were in al- 

 most as good condition as those with them. 



We believe our correspondent is right, how- 

 ever, in urging the importance of a warm bot- 

 tom-board, against which the bees may cluster 

 and not get chilled. — Ed.] 



bees LOST FROM SUPERS THAT ARE TAKEN AWAY 

 before the BEES ARE OUT. 



Referring to your request, page 701, June 1, I 

 will say that, in 1907, I took one super off with 

 all the bees on theextracting-combs, as advised in 

 a book on bees, and for experiment I took them 

 to my laboratory, nearly 700 feet away, where I 

 brushed all the frames, one by one, clean of bees, 

 and placed them where bees could not gain ac- 

 cess to them. The bees flew around as if lost. 

 Some strangers or robbers came in and out ; but 

 the bulk of them settled down in little bunches, 

 of which I carried back to the hive a great many, 

 and those left in or out of the laboratory died. 

 Jo.^QuiN Perez y Perez. 



Monovar, Spain, Aug. 11. 



