874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1-3. 



mer is the preferable plan, as it requires a less 

 investment in frames of comb, together with 

 less storage room and handling of frames; but 

 where time is of great value during the summer 

 months, and of little value at other times, it 

 may pay to adopt the latter plan. In either 

 case the white honey should be left on the hive 

 as long as possible, taking it off just as the dark 

 honey is beginning to appear, so that it may be 

 as thoroughly ripened as possible without being 

 mixed with the dark. 



WINTERING BEES WHERE SNOW DRIFTS. 



Question.— We have twenty colonies of bees 

 in chaff hives which stand where the snow 

 ■drifts badly. Would it do to put them in a 

 room during winter? or could we fix a shelter 

 over them where they are, moving them togeth- 

 er under this shelter? or could we set up a 

 shelter in front of each hive and let the snow 

 drift over hive, shelter, and all ? 



Answer.— If the room spoken of in the first 

 question is an underground room or cellar, then 

 I should say move the bees into this cellar dur- 

 ing winter, providing an even temperature of 

 from 42 to 48° could be maintained; for I have 

 the best of success in wintering bees in my bee- 

 cellar, and in this the temperature stands at 

 from 43 to 45°. A part of my bees are in chaff 

 hives and a part in single-walled hives, and I 

 find that the chaff hives winter fully as well in 

 the cellar as do the others. The only disadvan- 

 tage chaff hives have for cellar wintering lies 

 in their extra weight and the room they take 

 up in the cellar; but these disadvantages are 

 more than overcome by the advantage they 

 possess during the cool and cold weather com- 

 ing in the fall before they are set in the cellar, 

 and in the spring after they are set on their 

 stands. A spring wheelbarrow overcomes the 

 difficulty of carrying chaff hives, while the 

 packing of one hive on top of the other to the 

 ceiling of the cellar overcomes the lack of room, 

 in a measure. 



If the room spoken of is to be a room above 

 ground, with no special provision made so the 

 temperature can be controlled at about 4.5°, 

 then I should say try almost any other way of 

 wintering than in a room with an ungovern- 

 able temperature; for where the temperature 

 in any room goes below the freezing-point, and 

 remains thus for weeks, and during a warm 

 spell rises to 50° or more, bees are almost sure to 

 perish before spring arrives. Moving the bees 

 together under a shelter might answer, provid- 

 ing they can have a chance to fly during warm 

 <lays in winter; still, there is much work to 

 this process, and, worse still, many bees are 

 liable to he lost or become badly mixed up when 

 the hives are placed back where they are want- 

 ed during the summer, after having been thus 

 wintered. The plan of having a shelter over 

 the entrance of each hive, and letting shelter 

 and hive drift over, I have tried several times; 

 but with me it is not a success. Several of our 



best apiarists claim that this plan is a success 

 with them, and advise the svintering of bees in 

 this way; but I have yet to see the colony of 

 bees, over which the snow has been drifted 

 three months, that has not become uneasy, 

 gone to breeding, contracted the diarrhea, and 

 exhausted its vitality to an extent sufficient to 

 cause a bad case of spring dwindling, or a loss 

 of the colony altogether. After a process of 

 time the bees seem to become too warm, break 

 the cluster, commence brood -rearing to replace 

 the bees dying of exhausted vitality, run to the 

 entrance, and fan there as in summer, the com- 

 motion thawing the snow all about the hive 

 till a cat or small dog could run all around the 

 lower part of the hive, this causing them to 

 consume their stores of honey and pollen very 

 rapidly, which consumption brings on diarrhea 

 and death, unless the bees have a chance to fly 

 about the time brood-rearing commences, and 

 even then the colony is so weakened that it is 

 of little use the following season. Where the 

 snow stays about the hives only a few weeks at 

 a time, it will do no particular harm; but other- 

 wise I would advise carrying the bees to some 

 higher ground, where the snow does not drift, 

 or else fix an underground cellar to winter in. 



COAI. TAR FOR MAKING FEEDERS TIGHT. 



Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws, wishes to know 

 what is best to make water-tight the inside 

 corners of f eders. Well, doctor, try coal-tar 

 boiled down a half, and poured in hot. If that 

 doesn't do it, I will send you a lump of our 

 adobe mud, which is warranted to stick. 



Oakland, Cal., Oct. 33. P. L. Norton. 



GALVANIZED -IRON UTENSILS ALL RIGHT FOR 

 HONEY AND OTHER PURPOSES. 



You ask about the experience of those using 

 galvanized iron. I have used buckets, also 

 cans, that would hold 20 gallons. I have two 

 water-buckets that have been in use 15 years. 

 When new the water tastes slightly of the zinc. 

 The utensils are very handy about sorghum- 

 making. I left some partly boiled juice in a 

 bucket a few days. It fermented, and ate the 

 zinc oft' from the inside. So you see it will not 

 do to leave acid in it. J. P. Morey. 



Neosho, Kan. 



HOW MUCH (iAIN IS THERE IN USING SEPARA- 

 TORS ? 



Dr. C. C. Miller would be a good man to ans- 

 wer this, as I am using the same T super he is, 

 but without separators, as I find my sections are 

 spread out the full thickness of the sections, 

 making II4 lbs. in some. My T supersare made 

 to hold just 24 sections without separators; and 



