24 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



At 26° below zero I bounce into bed and cover over 

 my head, but soon have to uncover my face. Why 

 have good quilts on, if my face is uncovered ? They 

 are a necessity for comfort and health. The frost- 

 proof wall is to keep above freezing in cellar ; a good 

 house (hive) with door opeu is to winter bees in safe- 

 ly; that is why so much writing and ado in the North, 

 "to winter bees safely." How true your closing 

 comment is on same page : The single-walled hive 

 gets warmed up in winter or spring when the sun 

 shines on it for several hours at a time; but how is it 

 for several hours before the sun comes up, or when 

 several windy and cloudy days come at a time ? 

 Again, if we have melting snow or rain and then it 

 freezes ice an inch thick on hives and every thing 

 else for days, as we get it here, what will you do ? I 

 have no chaff hives; but last winter I had 8 hives 

 packed in chafC, entrance wide open 3x5 in., with a 

 3-inch hole in the bottom-board, straw under. I left 

 them that way till in May, warm all around, and 

 they did about as well in summer as any. Will 

 heart's-easc honey granulate ? E. Pickup. 



Limerick, Ills. 



Who can answer about hear t's-ease honey? 



stands. Before the honey season is over, when all 

 of the brood is out of the outside combs, I take the 

 two outside ones out, and put in division-boards. I 

 don't do any thing more to them till after the honey 

 season closes, which is about the first of October. 

 Then I put chaff or cut straw on them, and let them 

 alone. My bees always spot their hives some after 

 long confinement, but I never lost any by it nor by 

 spring dwindling. R. Robinson, 131. 



Laclede, 111 , Dec. 18, 188:!. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Foul brood seems to be threatennig more 

 trouble than it has ever made before. It 

 has cropped out in several places during the 

 past season. Many times it was obtained in 

 buying bees — the person selling them being 

 evidently ignorant of the matter, and the 

 great harm he is doing. T am repeatedly 

 asked what advice to give in the matter. I 

 have a good many times referred the inquir- 

 ers to friend Muth ; but I fear we shall over- 

 tax both his time and his patience. Here is 

 a sample: 



We bought five hives this spring, and this fall 

 three of the five have foul brood. I have taken out 

 9 frames, and the young queens kept laying later 

 than any of my others, 21 in all. What would you 

 advise me to do with them? There are no other 

 bees in the county, and I want to build up a nice 

 little business; they are all stowed in a room with 

 sawdust walls, or between the walls. 



C. C. Bkiggs. 

 Will Mr. Muth be so kind as to tell our 

 friend what to do, and thus answer a good 

 many others? 



ON WINTERING BEES. 



Inasmuch as there is so much diflference in lo- 

 calities in wintering bees as to the mode of prepar- 

 ing them for winter, I will give my plan and result 

 in our locality. 



WHAT I don't do. 



I don't unite weak colonies to make them winter 

 better. I don't cut any holes for winter passages. I 

 don't feed in the fall to stimulate breeding. I don't 

 weigh their honey to see how much they have. I 

 don't guess at what they have. I don't try to find 

 out whether they have any. I consider that their 

 bubiness. I don't take off the honey boards. I don't 

 contract the entrance. I don't disturb them after 

 the honey season is over, but let them severely 

 alone. Last, but not least, I never lose any worth 

 mentioning. I wintered eight nucleus hives, the 

 cold winter of 1880, with no protection except chaff 

 on top, two in a hive, that came out the nicest of any 

 bees I ever had. I winter in one-story Langslroth 

 bive, single wall, nine frames. Winter on summer 



I*ERF0R.A.TED ZINC. 



Bro. Doolittle's experience with perforated zinc, 

 or, as it should be put, D. A. Jones's plan of obtain- 

 ing comb honey, reminds me quite vividly of my 

 Waterloo, nearly ten years ago. The plan was iden- 

 tical with the Jones plan; only two comb-boxes were 

 used, and I had to use slats instead of perforated 

 zinc. That theory will do to dream over till such 

 time as it may be tried, and no longer, unless the 

 operator be more skillful than I. Once I had four 

 brood-nests in the same hive, queen-cells in three, 

 pollen in my boxes, and plenty of disgust plainly 

 marked all over my countenance, when I had expect- 

 ed self-satisfaction to shine forth as a beacon to those 

 who were less thoughtful than I. My hivea are large, 

 and the size is regulated by two division-boards. 

 The width of my hive is 20 inches, length 30?i inches, 

 depth 13 inches. When I wish to arrange for extract- 

 ed honey, I spread the brood; that is, I place three 

 frames of brood on each side of the hive outside, 

 and fill in the middle with empty combs; now I am 

 nearly certain to find queen-cells on one side or the 

 other, within the allotted time, and have had the 

 queen hatch, mated, and start on a race against the 

 old queen for the middle of that hive. The same ef- 

 fect can be brought about by a similar use of brood 

 in a two-story hive, especially if the close connec- 

 tion of the upper and lower frames is cut off in any 

 way. I have no doubt but these extra large colonies 

 and extra large yields are the product of more than 

 one queen, resulting from some manipulation simi- 

 lar to the above. Certainly, if Bro. Jones can get 

 comb honey by that method, he has a wrinkle or two 

 that some of us don't know. J. M. Shuck. 



Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 21, 188.3. 



Now, friends, we have had two adverse re- 

 ports in regard to perforated zinc ; but if I 

 am not mistaken, there are many others who 

 will come forward and tell us how it is to be 

 used. I am pretty sure there are a good 

 many, at least among our Canadian friends, 

 who have succeeded hnely with it. — I, too, 

 have often seen two queens in one hive, 

 where, by some accident, the brood had been 

 separated by two or more combs containing 

 no brood. 



THE FARMER'S MOST ACTIVE ENEMY. 



The above is the way the American Agri- 

 culturist \iats it; but I do not know but we 

 might truthfully say, the bee-keeper's most 

 active enemy, or even mankind's most ac- 

 tive enemy." I always feel glad when I get 

 a subscription for the above paper. The 

 reason is, I am sure somebody is going to 

 have some good done him. Here is an item 

 under the above head we clip from their 

 January number: 



This destroyer of the farmer's hard-earned sav- 

 ings is on every farm, in every house, and never 

 leaves us day or night, summer or winter. It dam- 

 ages at midnight, and destroys at noonday. The 



