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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



grossest; Holy Land cross, dark Italians, if pure, 

 good; the very yellow Italians the gentlest of all. 

 Keep all positive black blood out of Italians for 

 best results. I have only one cross yellow Ital- 

 ian colony out of 20. We have more golden or 

 five-banded bees at present in America than we 

 ever had before. They are gentle, winter well 

 on summer stands, and are good honey-gatherers. 

 This is my experience of about 12 years. 

 Bechtelsville, Pa. H. M. Mover. 



HONEY-DEW FROM OAK LEAVES. 



The bees in this section of country have been 

 laying in honey-dew for a few weeks from oak 

 leaves. Probably something in your next issue 

 on this subject on how to treat the matter and 

 prepare for winter would prove of great value to 

 bee-keepers in general who are troubled in this 

 way. P. B. R. 



Harmony, Minn. 



[Honey-dew from oak leaves is very poor stuff 

 for bee-feed, more particularly in your locality, 

 where the winters are long and hard. It is prob- 

 ably too late now to extract the honey-dew, as 

 that would destroy the symmetry of the brood- 

 nest. You can, however, feed good thick syrup 

 made from sugar, which would counteract to a 

 great extent the evil effects of the honey-dew. 

 In doing this it is wise to disturb the bees as lit- 

 tle as possible. Feeding such bees in fall is cast- 

 ing bread upon the waters. — Ed.] 



POLLEN IN EXTRACTING COMBS. 



Last spring I put half-depth extracting-supers 

 on five of my hives, and the bees filled the upper 

 part of each frame with honey and the lower part 

 with pollen. Please tell me the cause of this, 

 and what to do with these fifty combs. They 

 are on the hives yet. H. R. Mcadams. 



Greenville, 111. 



[Bees will very often gather an excess of pol- 

 len when pollen is plentiful and nectar scarce. 

 We would not advise leaving these combs in the 

 hive for winter. So far as possible a colony 

 should have best sealed stores with little or no 

 pollen, except that one frame of it should be left 

 on the outside for early brood-rearing in the 

 spring. Where one finds he has an excess of 

 pollen in the combs in the fall of the year, we 

 advise taking them out of the hives and setting 

 them aside to be used in the spring for stimulat- 

 ive feeding. — Ed.] 



HOW TO SECURE PROPER VENTILATION OF A HIVE 

 THROUGH THE WINTER. 



I have been giving some attention to bee-keep- 

 ing for just a few years. I have read every thing 

 that came under my notice relating to bees. 1 

 have experimented somewhat, and observed very 

 closely. 



There is one thing that troubles me more than 

 any thing else; and that is, the proper hive venti- 

 lation for winter use — referring to outdoor win- 

 tering. I can keep bees warm enough; but to 

 procure what seems to me proper ventilation is a 

 question I have not seen satisfactorily explained. 

 I have no difficulty in ventilating my own sleep- 

 ing-room, for I sleep with two windows open, 

 summer and winter. I have had considerable ex- 

 perience with horses, cattle, hogs, and poultry. 



and have constructed barns with very satisfactory 

 ventilation; but to ventilate a hive properly is 

 another thing. 



I am satisfied that many bees die in winterfrom 

 no other cause than damp unventilated hives. I 

 believe bees would come through the winter in 

 much better order if kept drier and cooler rather 

 than warm and damp, the same as poultry. I 

 have been wondering why Mr. A. I. Root, with 

 his long experience with bees, and his more re- 

 cent experiments with chickens, could not make 

 some suggestion on how to ventilate a hive prop- 

 erly. I wish to expel the bad air and dry the 

 hive — not absorb it. How can it be done.' 



The standard eight-frame hive is 20 inches 

 long. Would there be any objections to a hive 

 18^4 inches or 24 inches long, same depth and 

 width.? That is, would it make any difference 

 with the working of the bees if a hive were short- 

 er or longer than the standard.? 



Storm Lake, Iowa. Geo. H. Eastman. 



LYou have struck on a much mooted question, 

 and we are sorry to say that our authorities do 

 not agree as to how the hives should be ventilat- 

 ed, either in the cellar or out of it, during win- 

 ter. But the general consensus of opinion in the 

 case of outdoor-wintered bees is in favor of a re- 

 stricted entrance, say about 6 inches long by H 

 deep. If the colony is not very strong, 3 inches 

 long by }i would be better. Experiments where 

 the entrances were entirely closed by wire cloth 

 or a small bundle of straw have usually resulted 

 disastrously for the colonies. 



The latest tendency now seems to be toward 

 shutting out the chilling blasts from prevailing 

 winds and direct sunlight, and yet at the same 

 time allow perfectly free ingress and egress of the 

 bees. 



For indoor colonies, some of our correspondents 

 say the whole bottom of the hive should be open; 

 but of late we have noticed quite a strong ten- 

 dency toward leaving no more bottom ventilation 

 than is afforded by the ordinary hive-entrance, 

 such as would be used in the fall or spring. Our 

 own experiments decidedly favor the common 

 entrance rather than have the whole bottom of 

 the hive exposed. 



You are right, that dampness is the bane of 

 successful wintering, either indoors or out. That 

 is the reason why it is not wise to restrict the en- 

 trance too much, for there must always be a 

 chance for the moisture to escape. 



Changing the dimensions of the hive would 

 make no difference with the bees, but it would 

 increase the cost of supplies and make no end of 

 confusion for you. Better not do it. — Eu. ] 



should new cans be SCALDED.? 



Is it necessary to scald new 60-lb. square cans 

 before putting honey in them.? I have been 

 scalding them; but if it is not necessary it would 

 save a lot of labor. Do you rinse them with hot 

 water before using them.? J. P. Moore. 



Morgan, Ky. 



[As a general thing we would advise rinsing 

 out a new square can, to remove the residue of 

 any soldering-salts that may be left. Boiling 

 water would, of course, be better. We should 

 like to know what is the general practice of pro- 

 ducers in this respect. — Ed.] 



