1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



331 



spaces filled with bees between the combs, and mark 

 it on the hive; this enables you to tell a friend just 

 the strength of a colony without opening the hive. 

 Do not open except when it is actually necessary ; 

 then close as soon as possible. 



Next comes feed, to stimulate brood-rearing. 

 About four rods north of the apiary is a small creek 

 that has cut into the soft earth some eight feet deep, 

 just opposite the apiary. Now remember, the bank 

 that faces the south is almost perpendicular; here is 

 where I do my outdoor feeding, when it is warm 

 enough for the bees to fly. It is several degrees warm- 

 er here than on the level above, and consequently 

 the bees start home warm with a warm load of feed. 

 I fed about 250 pounds of old candied honey in the 

 combs last spring in this place. If the combs of 

 lioney are put in the proper position it would warm 

 up as soon as the bees would fly. I kept a box right 

 beside the honey, with wheat flour in it, with some 

 bran and fine straw on top to keep the bees from 

 getting daubed. If the day gets too warm, shade 

 the combs, or else the bees will carry the honey too 

 fast. When it begins to get cool, drive them all out 

 of the hives of feed and close them up for the day. 

 This saves many bees that would get chilled and 

 never return. Do not uncap the honey, for they 

 will carry it too fast. When j'ou run out of honey 

 go to a hive that has plenty, and exchange an 

 empty comb for a frame of honey. Water being 

 close at hand, there is no necessity of supplying 

 that. When bees begin to rear brood they requii-e 

 much water. When it is too cool for them to fly I 

 sweeten some water quite sweet, and warm it up to 

 about 130°. It will get cool fast enough. Raise up 

 the quilt at the back end of the hive, and pour the 

 water on to some of the bees. Have the front end of 

 the hive a little the "higher, so it will run back. You 

 need not put water into the hive more than once in 

 two or three days. You must use judgment about 

 the amount to use; that will be according to the 

 size of the eolonj-, and how much brood they have 

 in the larval state. Be sure to feed until honey 

 comes from the flowers; and then if any thing 

 should cut off the supply, feed. When the flowers 

 secrete but little honey, and the colony is strong and 

 short of honey, exchange an empty frame of comb 

 with a colony that has plenty of honey, placing the 

 frame of honey in the center of the brood-nest; if 

 the hive from whence the frame of honey came is 

 strong, place the frame of empty comb in the center 

 of the brood-nest also; this requires judgment, or 

 you may do a positive injury by chilling the brood. 



I in-crease, as far as possible, by artificial swarm- 

 ing; that is, when a colony gets strong enough to 

 spare a frame of brood, I draw it out and either give 

 it to a weak colony, or take several other frames of 

 brood from other colonies and form a new colony. 



It is needless to use valuable space to go over the 

 ground of queen-rearing, dividing, and equalizing, 

 as I gave it last spring, and you should have re- 

 membered it until now. Clover yielded only enough 

 to keep up brood-rearing before basswood came; 

 when basswood came I found I had 20 colonies strong 

 enough to box. These I put on sections and ran for 

 comb honey. The next 20 wore not so strong. These 

 I gave an upper story supplied with empty combs, 

 and ran for extracted honey. Then there were a 

 few too weak to think of getting any surplus. Now 

 and then I drew a frame of brood; these I took as 

 often as they would have them to form nuclei, which 

 I strengthened into good eolonit-P. getting frames of 



brood from any hive that could spare them. In this 

 way I keep all hands at work. One of my neighbors 

 has been watching me for the past two years, as he 

 thinks of going into the bee business. He came 

 over about the time I got off my surplus, and took a 

 survey of the bee-yard, then asked me if I got much 

 surplus. I took him into the honey-room and 

 showed him. Says he, " There is not a man in the 

 world you can make believe this, unless he has been 

 with you and seen for himself from spring until 

 now." Wm. H. Balch. 



Oran, N. Y. 



Friend 13., your plan of having a feeding- 

 ground protected from the winds, and ex- 

 posed to the full rays of the sun, is an old 

 idea, and is a very good one too, I believe, if 

 you are careful to avoid inducing bees, by 

 feeding, to come out in unseasonable weath- 

 er. No doubt great things might be accom- 

 plished \)\ pusliiiig our colonies so as to get 

 them powerful Ijefore the honey-crop comes. 

 Your honey-yield comes late in the season, 

 and this gives you a chance to get your bees 

 V)uilt up strong" in time to be ready for it.— 

 It seems to me as though that " grin " of the 

 neighbors was a pretty good thing in your 

 case, was it not, friend B. '? And this only 

 verifies the little text, that " all things shall 

 work together for good to those who love the 

 Lord." 



UPRIGHT EXTRACTOR-GEARING. 



AN IMPUOVEMKNT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 

 GEARINO. 



niLE it seems to me by far the most 

 ilA'f convenient form of gearing is that 

 which we have for years used on our 

 extractors, whicli may be, for the 

 sake of distinction, called horizontal 

 gearing, there is still quite a number of 

 the friends who insist on having the gearing 

 stand upright so as to turn like a grindstone, 

 as shown in the cut below. 



The gearing generally used for this purpose 

 is that designed for churns, if I am correct, 

 and a piece of wood has to be put across the ex^ 

 tractor to hold it. The above we luive luul 

 modified, so as to attach directly to the sides 

 of tlie can, making it all metal, strong and 

 light. Tiie lower p:\rt of the upright siiaft 

 is made s(iuare,and goes into a s(iiiare casting 

 securely soldered into the upper part of the 

 revolving basket. Extractois made with 

 this sort of gearing will be 50 cts. more than 

 our ordinary style; aiid wliere parties want 

 just the gearing, as shown in the cut, for 

 making thejr own extractors, the price will 



