584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



sections. He also lent me the A B C of Bee Culture 

 and some copies of Gleanings. 



After putting on the sections I got about thirty 

 pounds of dark honey. This interested me, and in 

 the spring I bought enough bees so that I had ten 

 good colonies and two nuclei. From these I secured 

 700 pounds of honey, and increased to 24 colonies. 

 The best colony gave me 130 pounds. We now have 

 about 100 colonies. The best one last year gave 180 

 pounds of comb honey. I have had a colony of black 

 bees for five years that has never swarmed, and 

 which has made about 100 pounds each season for 

 four years out of the five. The other year this colony 

 made about 80 pounds. This is by far the best aver- 

 age of any colony I have ever owned. 



Lottsville, Pa., Feb. 7. Edward Care. 



Bees and Chickens 



The frequent articles in Gleanings regarding 

 the action of poultry toward bees lead me to report 

 my own observations. I have so planned my build- 

 ing for housing a few chickens in the city that my 

 half-dozen colonies of bees can be wintered in the 

 same building. The entrances are placed about 2^4 

 feet from the ground. Although the alighting-boards 

 are higher than a tall fowl can reach, yet several of 

 the young cockerels in some manner acquired the 

 habit of jumping up and catching bees while flying. 

 The hens seemed to pay little attention to the bees, 

 although I observe that a bee flying too near a hen 

 is pretty sure to be caught. 



This season I have been troubled with bees at- 

 tacking chicks only a few days old. They would 

 often fasten themselves in the down upon the wings 

 and back, and would at times keep the mother hen 

 busy picking them off, which she was able to do with 

 great dexterity. In some oases I found the chicks 

 suffering, and on examination I would find stings in 

 the feet. As a last straw before deciding to remove 

 all bees from the building, I found a chick four or 

 five days old in convulsions, and deserted by the 

 mother hen. The chick was determined to tie its 

 neck into a knot, and seemed to be doomed. On 

 opening its mouth, a bee-sting was found in the tip of 

 the tongue. The sting was removed, but the convul- 

 sions continued for three or four hours, when the 

 chick completely recovered. I believe that the chick 

 had swallowed a live bee, which, without doubt, was 

 raving about in its crop. I think the experience 

 shows that bees are apt to be worse for chickens than 

 chickens are for bees. Although none of the chicks 

 were killed, I feel sure that several were severely 

 stung. 



Ypsilanti, Mich. F. R. Gorton. 



Light-colored Hives Cooler than Darii-colored Ones 



I have just read with keen interest the friendly 

 " scrap '' between our genial friend Dr. Miller and 

 his alert and keen adversary, the editor ; and if the 

 latter will be so kind as to give these few lines space 

 I should like to state a few experiences and observa- 

 tions in my own little apiary of 14 colonies. I have 

 my hives painted in three colors — light gray, dark 

 red, and dark olive green. To-day, June 21, the 

 weather is hot, partly cloudy, and sultry — 90 in the 

 shade at 1 p. M. Walking among the hives I notice 

 that the bees in the gi'ay hives are working busily- — ■ 

 probably ten bees ventilating on the outside on an 

 average. Those in the red hives seem to feel the 

 heat more, and there are at least twice as many . 

 fanning, and as many more walking back and forth 

 on the alighting-boards, doing nothing. 



Coming to the dark-green hives I notice about a 

 quart of bees covering the fronts of the hives, above 

 the entrance, and several knots of them hanging be- 

 low the entrances besides. These bees seem to feel 

 the heat the mos-t, and there are several rows of bees 

 extending at least six inches from the entrances, al- 



most fanning themselves oflf their feet in an endeav- 

 or to keep their habitation properly ventilated. I 

 also find that the covers of the latter are by far the 

 hottest. 



It is evident that our worthy editor is entirely 

 right in maintaining that bees do better in a hive 

 painted white or light gray than those in dark-col- 

 ored hives, as the latter absorb the heat, while the 

 former repel it. For the same reason light colors in 

 clothing, shoes, etc., are much cooler in hot weather 

 than black. I intend to paint all of my hives white 

 next fall. 



Cincinnati, O., June 21. Albin Platz 



Bees Building Comb to Fences 



I had my first experience in taking honey. Hav- 

 ing noticed, some days ago, that the boxes were be- 

 ing filled, I removed the super to-day and replaced 

 it with an empty one. Although nearly every box 

 was filled with superb honey I found, much to my 

 chagrin, that the honey in nearly every box was 

 attached to the three-panel fence, and I got only 

 about half a dozen salable boxes. Now I am writing 

 to know what hive I can use to avoid this difficulty. 

 I am contemplating going into the bee business to a 

 small extent, but this, my first experience, is dis- 

 heartening. Surely there are hives in which honey 

 can be produced without running such risks. 



Angola, N. Y., July 21. C. S. Palmer. 



[Occasionally we run across a queen whose bees 

 will build the comb up against the slats and posts of 

 fences, but cases of this kind are not common. You 

 would have no trouble with such a queen by using 

 what is known as the old-style slotted sections and 

 separators. Your difficulty can be avoided, however, 

 to some extent by giving the bees more room while 

 they are filling. In other words, give them an extra 

 super on top while they are filling the lower one. 

 Sometimes it is advisable to put the extra super un- 

 der while they are working on the upper one. As 

 the season draws to a close, take away the partly 

 filled super and allow the bees to finish up the work 

 in the supers nearly completed. — Ed.] 



Bees Confused by the Moving of a House that 

 Stood Close to the Hives 



I have my bees in my backyard about 20 feet from 

 the house. I moved the house back to build in front. 

 We began moving the house back without having 

 changed the positiorr of the bees. When we had 

 moved it back about 16 feet we noticed that the 

 air was full of flying bees ; but we never thought of 

 any trouble until one of the men was stung. 



I knew then that there was something wrong; so 

 I watched them a while and soon found the trouble. 

 I picked up one of the hives and moved it about the 

 same distance from the house that it had been in the 

 first place. The bees all settled down again, so I 

 carried the two other hives to the new location, and 

 in a few minutes the bees were as quiet as ever. 



Horse Cave, Ky., May 26. C. S. Rhea. 



Do the Northern bees that have been bred to with- 

 stand the winter cold thrive in the far South where 

 they may be busy every month of the year ? 



Dawes, Ala., July 10. E. M. Downer. 



[There is no difference, so far as we know, be- 

 tween Northern and Southern bees. They will work 

 just as well in one locality as another, providing 

 there is honey to be gathered. Some strains of bees, 

 notably the darker ones, it is thought, will stand the 

 cold winters in the North better than the extra-yel- 

 low bees from the tropics, but the difference is very 

 slight if any.- — Ed.] 



