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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



(ditch 2 to 4 feet at top, and where it caved in it was 

 some two rods). J. D. Adams. 



Nira, la., Nov. 25, 1885. 



Friend A., I should suppose, from the size 

 of your tile, and the depth you were work- 

 ing, that you intended it for a sub-earth 

 ventilator. My experience lias been, that 

 such sandy soils as you describe seldom need 

 tiling at all, unless there are springs. I 

 hope your experience may be a warning to 

 our readers when digging in the ground at 

 such a depth as you mention. In our clay 

 soil there would have been no trouble. I 

 hardly need say, that great numbers of 

 good people have lost their lives in a manner 

 similar to the one you describe. 



SOME QUERIES FROM AN ABC 

 SCHOLAR. 



DOUBLING UP, ETC. 



'P^ RNEST R. ROOT:— I am so pleased that you 

 '^Elj have begun a series of articles, "Our Own 

 p r Apiarj'," in Gleanings, that I am going: to 

 -*" sit down and tell you so. I am just an A 1? C 

 pupil in bee - keeping. I began with one 

 swarm late last year. There is so mucli I want to 

 learn, I am often puzzled to know the liest way of 

 managing my bses, and I think I wish I knew just 

 how they would do in Mr. Root's apiary; for though 

 I read most of the articles in Gleanings from dif- 

 ferent writers, it some way seems to me that Mr. 

 Root's way is usually the most easily understood, 

 the simplest, and most practical. And now your 

 articles are going to be a help to me. 



In your first article you say, " Doubling up has 

 already commenced." Now, undoubtedly, that is 

 perfectly understood by apiarists who know their 

 business; but, will not Ernest, or some one else, 

 through Gleanings, be kind enough to explain, 

 for the benefit of myself and others just beginning, 

 just how that is done— every little item precisely? 

 Suppose you have two small swarms of cross hy- 

 brids in Simplicity hives, and you wish to unite them 

 into a chaflf hive for winter; what is the first thing 

 —smoker, bee-hat, or neither? You can not get all 

 the frames into the new hive. Do you alternate a 

 part of them, and brush the bees from the remain- 

 ing combs in front of the hive? Do jou hunt out 

 one queen and kill her, or let tlip bees do that? 

 Would you set the chaff hive where one of the old 

 ones stood, or in a new place? Very simple ques- 

 tions, no doubt, to one who has worked for years 

 among bees, but not so much so to one who knows 

 but little about them. Also please tell me, how do 

 you know when a colony has stores enough for win- 

 ter? How do you know when they have 25 lbs.? 

 Guess at it? You surely do not take the trouble to 

 brush the bees from every comb and weigh it, do 

 you? Do snails do any harm to bees? After a 

 swarm has filled the brood-combs, and you have put 

 on one layer of sections, and they have nearly 

 filled them, is it better to add more sections above 

 the first, or remove the first and place new ones 

 with foundation starters in their place? How do 

 you get your extra frames of honey that you save 

 in case the bees need them? Do you use a Sim- 

 plicity hive on top of a chaff hive, and put brood- 

 combs in these? When you want to form a nu- 

 cleus, how far from the old hive must you place the 



new one? Which is better for packing— wheat or 

 oat chaff? My husband says he thinks the wheat 

 chaff would keep dryer, but it seems to me the oat 

 chaff would be warmer. 



I use the Falcon chaff hive, which is made at Fal- 

 coner's, seven miles from here. It is packed with 

 fine shavings, and so are the chaff cushions. Do you 

 think shavings would be as warm as chaff? 



I have not as yet made my bees very profitable. 

 Increased from one to two last year, and wintered 

 nicely. This season they increased from two to six, 

 and took up about 70 lbs. of beautiful section 

 honey. I am learning all the time, and I think I 

 can manage them much better next year. 



I am going to try Mr. Heddon's plan, and Mr. 

 Doolittle's, for preventing after-swarms. I think 

 either one will work nicely. 



My only bit of bad luck with my bees so far is the 

 loss, just before basswood-bloom, of my best swarm, 

 and a tested queen I sent to you for. And, by the 

 way, she was such a nice queen, and came through 

 in splendid condition. Some four days before, I 

 had taken three frames of bees and brood and put 

 in a now hive. I put the queen on a frame of hon- 

 ej'-comb in the cage, and hung it in the hive. In 

 less than half an hour they had worked the comb 

 away and let her out. In four weeks' time— per- 

 haps two or three days over— they had filled 7 brood- 

 frames and nearly the side sections, then sent out a 

 nice swarm, and left a fair quantity of bees in the 

 hive. I hived them and they seemed contented, 

 and went to work. They stayed that day and the 

 forenoon of the next; but toward night, when I 

 went out to look at them, behold, they were miss- 

 ing. The weather was very warm, and, the hive not 

 shaded. That was probably the reason why they 

 left— rather an expensive lesson, and I was so sorry 

 to lose my nice queen! Perhaps if I had known 

 just how, I might have clipped her wings at first; 

 but it seems almost cruel to cripple the pretty 

 creatures. 



Notwithstanding directions for managing are 

 plain in the ABC book, I often wish they were 

 more explicit in little things which I suppose tact 

 and common sense ought to teach me. Perhaps I 

 am unusually dull; but I often think, " If I could 

 only ask Mr. Root a few questions!" 



lam much pleased with Gleanings, and like it 

 much better because it is not wholly devoted to 

 bees. My children enjoy the Juvenile department, 

 and I read the children's sermons to them. The 

 Home sermons are also read, and I feel thankful 

 that at least one man is trying to prove to the world 

 that religion is our daily life— not that 1 wish to be 

 understood that there are not many more than one, 

 but the ranks ought to be much fuller, both of men 

 and women, who realize that, every day, home and 

 business life should be our religious life. 



I always read Mrs. Chaddock's letters. There is 

 much lively human nature in them, and they dem- 

 onstrate to me that other farmers' wives in the 

 land are busy, and trying to make the best of sur- 

 rounding circumstances, as well as myself. 



I also feel that 1 should like to thank Mrs. Gulp 

 for her letters, teaching us Christian charity, love, 

 and trust. 



Count on me as a subscriber as long as my bees 

 make honey enough to pay the subscription price. 



Fluvanna, N. Y. Sarah M. Bently. 



" Doubling up " is only another name for 



