2-56 



GLEANINGS IN 13EE CULTUllE. 



Apr. 



inoriiing' with hens' eggs, and reverse them all day 

 wltliout cracking- a shell. 



Your plan of starting' a branch snpply-housc at 

 the South, I think, is an excellent one, os it will be 

 a g-rcat saving- of freight and cxijress charges to 

 your customers, in that section. We have also 

 rtarted a factory to accommodate our friends who 

 want extractors at the far West and Southwest. 

 The new works arc located at Topcka, Kansas, 

 and arc carried on by J. E. Stanley, my brother, 

 ■who has been, for (he past five years, in company 

 with me. G. W. SxANFiEY. 



Wyoming-, N. Y. 



HOW TO CHANGE HYBRIDS TO PURE 

 ITALIANS. 



ALSO SO.METHING ABOUT FEEDING CHEAP FOOD TO 



FILL THE BROOD-DEPAKTMENT JUST BEFORE 



THE HONEY SEASON OPENS. 



T HAVE Ave swarms of pure Italians, and nine 

 ||p STarms of hybrids and blacks. I -wish to raise 

 lir queens from my Italians, and Italianize all my 

 ^ hjbrids and blacks, this spring-, before they can 

 raise drones to mate with their young queens. 

 I am sick of the hybrids and blacks. Now, what 

 is my best and surest way to do it? 



When granulated sugar can be bought for 8 cts. 

 per lb., and comb honey can be sold for 11 to 13 cts. per 

 lb., will it not pay to fe3d bees enough sugar syrup 

 for breeding purposes, and to fill the brood-combs, 

 so that what honey they gather may be stored in 

 the sections or bo.xcs? 



I mail you, in a small box, a small vial containing- 

 a sample of sorghum, which ccst me 15 cts. per gal. 

 How would it do to feed bees with, after the weath- 

 er gets warm enough so that they Hy nearly every 

 day? W. H. C. 



Bucklin, Mo., Feb. 27, 1886. 



Friend C., if you have no black bees in 

 your vicinity, the matter can be very easily 

 managed. Encourage the production of 

 drones in yonr hybrids and full-blood colo- 

 nies by every means in your power, such as 

 stimulative feeding, and put drone-comb in 

 the center of the brood-nest, before the 

 black bees will ordinarily want it to start 

 drones. Then cut out all drone-brood from 

 your blacks as soon as it appears. Now raise 

 young queens from your best Italian stocks, 

 and there will be a great probability that 

 they will be purely mated ; yes, even if there 

 are black bees in your neighborhood. As 

 soon as you find, by tlieir progeny, they are 

 purely mated, well and good ; if not, discard 

 them, and soon.— If your bees are lacking in 

 stores, and do not get all they need from 

 fruit-bloom, it will most assuredly pay you 

 to fill up the brood-apartment pretty well 

 just before honey begins to come in. For 

 this kind of spring feeding you can take any 

 kind of food the bees will carry into their 

 hives. Your sorghum syrup is just as good 

 to raise brood as granulated sugar; and per- 

 haps better, if the bees will take it, and they 

 generally will in the spring, when they can 

 fly. Of course, if you value your reputation 

 as a honey-producer, you want to be very 

 sure that not a drop of this goes into the 

 sections. I do not think it will be a very 

 dilticult matter to manage this. 



HOUSE APIARIES, AND THE WINTER- 

 ING PROBLEM. 



OLIVER FOSTER'S 14-HIVE HOUSE-APIARV. 



N page 178, March 1, friend Wm. F. Chirke auks 

 for the republication of my description of a 

 house-apiary as given in May, 1883. In his 

 foot-notes to friend Clarke's article, the edit- 

 or says: "Before republishing the article, 

 we should like to have him tell us how it answers by 

 this time." 



After the added experience of four j'ears, I can 

 say that there are important advantages in the 

 house-apiary i-eferred to. In fact, I am more firmly 

 decided than ever that the fundamental principles 

 of the most successful system of management are 

 comprehended in the main features of this plan. 

 You remember that I "set my foot down" on this 

 point at the time, and it is there as flat as ever to- 

 day. While nearly all hands and minds of the bee- 

 fraternit.y have been at work on the wintering prob- 

 lem, bringing about important developments on 

 the line of cellars and sub-earth ventilators, a con- 

 siderable proportion of my time, money, and mid- 

 night meditations have been expended in the effort 

 to avoid the disadvantages, and appropriate the ad- 

 vantages, of the H-hive house-apiary, with special 

 reference to the wintering problem. 



I have each year added improvements; each win- 

 ter I have tested the new plan as far as developed, 

 w-ith nearly my whole number of colonies, but 

 never following the same plan any two years. After 

 these numerous modifications, the careless observer 

 might not recognize in my present appliances and 

 methods the original house - apiary; but the im- 

 portant principles are all there. 



1. Economj' of ground room in the apiary. 



2. Econom.y of steps in handling. 



3. Economy of chaff in packing. 



4. And, most important, economy of the heat of 

 the bees by bringing- the colonies so close together 

 that they keep each other warm. But, 



WHY ECONOMIZE HEAT 



so carefully while we hear of so many colonies 

 dying- from being " packed up too warm "? 



Beg pardon, but I don't believe bees were ever 

 packed too warm, if they had plenty of /rc«?i air; 

 and it is to enable us to give this air that we wish to 

 economize heat as far as possible. If 3'ou will pre- 

 sent your nose at the entrance of one of these 

 closely packed colonies I think you will be con- 

 vinced that something more than heat and mois- 

 ture is escaping. 



The fact, that from five to ten pounds of honey 

 (but a small per cent of which is water) passes off 

 through the air from a colony during winter con- 

 finemejt, tells the same story. 



Does the science of ventilating a bee-hive differ 

 so much, after all, from that of ventilating- public 

 buildings? In scientific discussions on the ventila- 

 tion of buildings we do not hear veiy much about 

 the injurious effects of moisture. We do not find 

 the attics of our churches and schoolhouses packed 

 with " absorbing materials." They tell us that poi- 

 sonous impurities, carbonic acid, etc., are constant- 

 ly being thrown into the air from every breathing 

 tiling, and that these poisons cause-certain death to 

 man, beast, or insect, unless carried away by the 

 air. 



\Vc would not undere; timfVte the importance of 



