1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1501 



When these were full of combs they were wheel- 

 ed into the extracting-house, and a load of emp- 

 ties brought back to take the place of those re- 

 moved. 



HIS METHOD OF WINTERING. 



Mr. Coggshall, notwithstanding the general 

 practice of bee-keepers in the vicinity, of winter- 

 ing indoors, keeps his bees outdoors in double- 

 walled hives, and there they are left the entire 

 year. His apiaries are worked on the intensive 

 plan, being visited only a few times during the 

 year — in the spring, during the extracting season 

 as often as needed to takeoff the honey, and once 

 or twice in the fall to put the bees in condition 

 for winter. 



HOW HE HANDLES THE SWARMING PROBLEM. 



While I was visiting some of Mr. Coggshall's 

 neighbors, one of them said he knew of one yard 

 where he thought Coggshall had lost a good 

 many swarms. I mentioned this to Mr. C. in a 

 later interview, and he told me that that yard 

 was remote from his home, and that season it had 

 been somewhat neglected, owing to his inability 

 to get help. The bees had become overcrowded, 

 and, of course, swarmed. " But," said he, with a 

 twinkle in his eye, " I could better afford to let, 

 even under these conditions, a few swarms run 

 away, than to hire a man to see to the bees all 

 the time, as is the practice of some bee-keepers. 

 At the price my honey brings, I can not afford 

 to keep one man for each yard; and for that mat- 

 ter I do not believe any one else can if he stops 

 to figure up the costs. But," said he, "I can 



raise bees for fifty cents a colony; and suppose 

 eight or ten swarms do go, only five dollars is 

 lost, and that would pay a man for only half a 

 week's wages No, sir; my help and four or five 

 men can manage the whole twenty yards, and do 

 considerable other work." 



HOW HE SUCCEEDS WHEN OTHERS FAIL. 



Mr. Coggshall is a genius in that he will buy 

 up yards that do not pay their owners to run, and 

 very often in one season he will make that lot of 

 bees give him a good profit in one season over 

 and above the cost of the yard; and, stranger still, 

 he will make those bees pay in any frame or hive, 

 although his preference is decidedly for the old- 

 style Langstroth frame with a staple at the bot- 

 tom of the end-bar, and the ordinary Langstroth 

 hive. 



Mr. Coggshall has been a very hard worker in 

 his day; but during the last few years he has 

 found it necessary to husband his strength, as he 

 found he was overdoing. I believe he now sim- 

 ply furnishes the "brains" and lets his men do 

 the work. 



WORKING THE BEES AND THE FARM. 



I do not know how he manages to prevent his 

 farm and bee work from conflicting; but I am of 

 the opinion that he does it on the basis of grow- 

 ing certain crops, the harvesting of which will 

 not interfere with his extracting season; for it 

 must be remembered that his main honey crop 

 is from buckwheat, and that most of the extract- 

 ing takes place some time after the main honey 

 harvest of clover and basswood. 



DOUBLE-WALLLU HIVES USED BY \V. L. COGGSHALL AT ONE OF HIS OUTYARDS. PHOTO BY VERNE 



MORTON. 



