1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



43 



r 



KENTUCKY. 



CORN SILK FOR WINTERING. 



LE are having one of the severest winters ever 

 known in Kentucky. The fall, and until 

 the middle of December, was delightful. 

 December ]6th it commenced snowing, and has eith- 

 er snowed, rained, or been very cold, every day 

 since. On the morning of January 5th the ther- 

 mometer registered 20° below zero — a cold never 

 known here in the memory of any. 



Bees were in a fine condition in the fall, both in 

 stores and numbers, and where properly prepared 

 will likely go through all right; but many bee-keep- 

 ers, through neglect, will lose heavily. My 70 colo- 

 nies, so far as I can discover, are doing well, and I 

 have no fears of losing any, except from long con- 

 Hnemcnt. 1 winter on the summer stands, and pack 

 them a little differently from most persons. I spread 

 the combs so that eight or nine will fill same space 

 occupied in summer Dy ten. Then placing sticks 

 crosswise of the frames, to allow a passway for the 

 bees, 1 spread a cloth above them, and pack on the 

 top of this two or three inches of corn silks. For 

 packing, these are superior to any thing I have yet 

 seen or heard of. They are clean, and excellent 

 non-conductors, and will more readily absorb the 

 moisture than either chaff or sawdust, and yet re- 

 main perfectly dry. They are easily collected by a 

 boy when men are husking in the fields; and when 

 taken off in the spring can be stored away for an- 

 other winter. Knowing the value of them by ex- 

 perience, I hope that many of our brother bee- 

 keepers will give them a fair trial. Please give us 

 your opinion of them in Gleanings. 



Walton, Ky., Jan. 12, 1884. L. Johnson. 



SOMETHING mORE ABOUT THE JONES 

 PERFORATED ZINC. 



HOW THEY LIKE THEM IN CANADA; AND SOME KIND 

 WORDS BESIDES. 



M S you desire information from Canadian bee- 

 J^^ keepers who have used Jones's zinc honey- 



' boards, we thought perhaps our experience 



with them would be of some interest to the readers 

 of Gleanings. 



We tried the first over a colony of strong Italians, 

 which were in splendid condition to commence 

 work in the upper story. We put on our honey- 

 board, and after about a week we removed it agsin, 

 feeling sure that we were losing honey, for not a bee 

 would commence work above that honey-board, al- 

 though we tried to tempt them up by putting ten 

 frames filled with fdn. in the upper story. 



We tried it next time over a colony that was just 

 overflowing with honey, so that they were compelled 

 to commence in the upper story. At first we thought 

 all was going to be right this time; but when we ex- 

 amined the frames we found them full of brood, so 

 we concluded that the queen got through the zinc. 

 We also tried the guards, to prevent swarms on Sun- 

 days, but we proved to our entire satisfaction that 

 the queens got through them also. 



While we leel that our experience with Jones's 

 honey-boards has not been a complete success, we 

 think it very possible that D. A. Jones will so im- 

 prove them that they will yet work in an entirely 

 satisfactory manner. 



We have used your little bread-pan feeders, but 



found that the bees would get drowned, more or less, 

 in spite of the cloth. We think that we improved 

 them by painting them outside and inside, and 

 sprinkling them while wet with fine sand. Try it. 



You can not imagine how much we enjoyed all 

 you said in Oct. No. Gleanings about Canada and 

 us Canadians. It was indeed a great pleasure to 

 shake hands with you (we had the honor); but the 

 way in which you spoke of Old England and our Queen 

 made us feel that there was not so much difference be- 

 tween us after all. Such language will do more 

 toward annexation than all the American army on 

 our frontier. Grainger & Duke. 



Deer Park, Toronto, Ont., Jan. 14, 1881. 



Friends G. & D., we are very much oblig- 

 ed indeed for your report, as well as your 

 kind concluding words. I am inclined to 

 think, from your st;itement, that the bees 

 will work through the zinc honey-board, if 

 they are started all right. 1 have a great 

 many times seen Italians that would not 

 readily at tirst take to the frames filled with 

 fdn. in the upper story, although when I lift- 

 ed one of the brood combs from below, 

 and put a sheet of fdn. in its place, they 

 all went up in a rush. Now, was not this the 

 case with your first experiment, and would 

 it not have been pretty much the same, if 

 you had not used the zinc honey-board at 

 all y Your second experiment proved noth- 

 ing against the honey-board, more than that 

 it let the queen through ; for if she went up, 

 the bees certainly went up first, so the hon- 

 ey-board was no hindrance. Perhaps some 

 further trials might work all right, especial- 

 ly if the hive contained a queen with a little 

 broader shoulders. One great use of the 

 zinc honey-boards, as I understand it, is to 

 keep the bees from building combs between 

 the upper and lower stories ; for this, with a 

 great many colonies, has proved a very 

 great nuisance. 



LETTER FROIVI ONE OF THE ABC 

 SCHOLARS. 



SOMETHING, ALSO, 



ELL, here I come, a subject for the waste- 

 basket. Hardly got my A B C's learned yet, 

 but have done as well as I could, and over- 

 sec a farm besides. I thought I had done my share 

 of hard work in years past, and took up bee-keep- 

 ing for both pleasure and profit. One year ago last 

 fall I bought three swarms in what was but little 

 better than store-boxes. One, I think, was a boot- 

 box. Of course, I had to get them home, and just 

 how to do it successfully was the question. Well, I 

 waited till cold weather, and tied the bottom-boards 

 on with ropes, stopped all open places with rags, and 

 their name was legion ; set them on some hay in the 

 wagon, packed the same around, and drove slowly 

 home. When I began I knew about as much about 

 bees as a guinea-pig does about the north pole (or 

 some of our late explorers either; can't see much 

 difference). All I knew to a certainty was. that they 

 had one sharp end, and gathered honey. 



T got them homo all right, made a little shed for 

 them fronting the south, and just north of a peach- 

 grove, just far enough from it so the sun would 

 jitfike the hives over the treee, pacjied all around, 



