THE GENESEE FARMER. 



M5 



MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



Editors Genesee Farmer :— The many losses of 

 bees during severe -winters proves their manage- 

 ment is not well understood. One of my neighbors 

 last winter lost thirty swarms, I lost six. 1 find 

 that the greatest loss arises from the accumulation 

 of frost and ice in the hives. Bees consume all the 

 honey where they are clustered, and in attempting 

 to change their situation are benumbed and lost — 

 literally starving to death in the midst of plenty. 

 Many who have lost swarms in this way, are at a 

 loss to discover the reason. The hive being tilled 

 with frost and ice, they conclude they have frozen 

 to death. If the hives are examined in very cold 

 weather, they will be found more or less filled with 

 frost. This arises from the moisture given oft' by 

 the bees becoming frozen. If there is a warm day 

 occasionally, it will thaw and not do much harm ; 

 but if there is two or three months of steady cold 

 weather, then look out for your bees. 



Now, what should be done ? I say ventilate your 

 hives; Uike your half-inch bit and make several 

 holes near the top of the hive, and let the moisture 

 escape. But this does not always answer the pur- 

 pose in the common hive, the combs preventing all 

 the moisture from escaping. There are many hives 

 made of a superior kind, generally patented, that 

 do not require attention in this particular, — care 

 having Iteen taken in their construction to provide 

 for ventilation. It is important that hives should 

 be kept dry. Early attention to the subject may 

 save many valuable swai'ms. 

 Niagara Co.. JV. Y., 185S. C. C. W. 



FSETFUL FARMEKS. 



The New York Trlhmie well says : "Men make 

 themselves uncomfortable, destroy the peace of 

 their families, and actually make themselves hated 

 by fretfulness." Beecher says : 



" It is not work that kills men ; it is worry. — 

 Work is healthy ; you can hardly put more upon a 

 man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the 

 blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the 

 machinery, but the friction. Fear secretes acid, 

 but love and trust are sweet juices." 



We know a man with a patient, good. Christian 

 wife, and we never heard him speak a kind, pleas- 

 ant word to her, and doubt if he ever did in the 

 half century they have lived together. 



He is always in a fret. Everything goes wrong. 

 You wonld think that he was made of cross-grained 

 timber, and had always been trying to digest a 

 cross-cut saw. He is eternally cross, and always 

 thinks that his wife and children, hired hands, and 

 aU the domestic animals have entered into a combi- 

 nation to worry him to death. He is not only 

 rusty, but fairly crusted over with it. He is in- 

 cased in a shell of acid secretions, through which 

 no sweet juices ever distill. Friction has literally 

 worn him out, and he will soon worry himselt to 

 death. Of course he has never worked to any 

 advantage to himself or anybody else. With him 

 everything always goes wrong. He superstitiously 

 believes " it is because the devil has a spite against 

 hun," when in truth it is nothing l»ut his own fret- 

 fulness. 



CONSTETJCTION OF ICE-HOUSES. 



As many farmers and dairymen consider an ice- 

 house an article of prime necessity, as well as a 

 means of many luxuries, we give an illustration of 

 a common ioe-house, with such description and in- 

 structions as will enable our readers to construct 

 one if desired. They are so cheaply and easily 

 made, that no family need be deprived of the com- 

 fort, convenience, and advantages, to be derived 

 from a supply of ice during the summer months. 



Experience has shown that ice-houses are best^ 

 built entirely above ground, keeping ice better,, 

 being more easily and thoroughly drained. All the 

 large houses of wholesale dealers in the cities of the- 

 United States are above ground. An ice-house is 

 built on the plan of having a double partition or 

 wall with a hollow space filled in with some non- 

 conducting substance. The frame of the sides- 

 may be formed of two ranges of upright posts of 

 4 by 6 joists, placing the lower ends in the ground 

 without any sill, as more eftectually excluding the 

 air. The two ranges of posts should be two and a 

 half feet apart at the bottom, and two feet at top. 

 and lined with rough boards nailed on the inside of 

 the space thus made. At the top, these upright 

 joists should be morticed into cross-beams that are 

 to support the floor overhead. On these beams lay 

 a tight floor and cover a foot with dry tan or ssxw 

 dust. The spaces between these boardings may be 

 filled with wet tan or saw dust, as is cheapest or 

 most convenient. It is the practice to pack it in 

 wet, that it may freeze, and thus the better render 

 the house air tight. The bottom of the ice-vault 

 should be filled ten or twelve inches with blocks of 

 wood, over which plac« a coating of wood shavings 

 or straw, on which lay a plank floor. The roof 

 should have considerable pitch, and the space be- 

 tween the floor and the roof should be well venti- 

 lated by a lattice window in each end, or an equiv- 

 alent, so as to pass out the warm air that accumu- 

 lates under the roof. A door will be required in the 

 I side or end of the building, to fill and discharge it. 



