188-1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



SOME QUESTIONS IN REGARD TO HOUSE-APIARIES. 



You speak of a cellar under your house-apiary. 

 AVhat is its use? Is it not too small to be of value, 

 and also makes a floor necessary? And is not an 

 earth or cement floor on the g-round preferable? for 

 would not a wooden floor disturb and annoy the bees 

 by jarring with every footstep within? (see Root's 

 Qidnliy, p. V8, last edition). 



If I understand you on p. 17, ABC, you extract 

 from lower story only; in fact, there is but one sto- 

 ry. Am I rig-ht? Is not the second story impractic- 

 able in a house-apiary, and is not this a disadvan- 

 tage? What is the smallest practicable distance be- 

 tween top of lower row of hives and bottom of ne.xt 

 upper tier? 



Would not a short low wide window, with revolv- 

 ing screen over each hive, be a good thing to clear 

 the house of flying bees when the hives are opened? 



How high from the ground can j'ou have the high- 

 est tier of entrances, without seriously lessening 

 the amount of honey stored, and how high can you 

 place queen-rearing entrances without serious in- 

 jury? H. P. Cove. 



West Granville, Wash. Co., N. Y., Aug. 'Zr,, 1884. 



I presume a honse-aiiiary with a cement 

 floor on the ground would aiiswer every pur- 

 pose. One reason for advising a cellar was, 

 that it can be used for storing extracted 

 honey, and the honey easily be allowed to 

 run through the floor into a large storage- 

 can set underneath. We have not found 

 that the jarring by walking on the floor dis- 

 turbed the bees to amount to any thing. In 

 extracting in the house-apiary, we intended 

 to put in "enough coml)s horizontally to take 

 all the honey stored, so another story would 

 not be necessary. We did, however, use 

 two stories in the hotise-apiary, but it was a 

 little more trouble than where they were 

 worked in a single story. The upper and 

 lower hives may be just as close together as 

 the operator can have it, and get room to 

 work the lower ones. In ours, Ave had the 

 first tier of hives on the floor; the next one 

 raised about three feet ; that is, they sat 

 on a shelf three feet high. You can go as 

 high up from the ground as you choose; in 

 fact, we have had large yields of honey stor- 

 ed in the upper story of the house-apiary. 

 ^Ve have also had queens reared in hives i'n 

 the second story, without trouble. If there 

 are only three "entrances on one side of a 

 building, as described in the ABC book, 

 the bees will make fewer mistakes than 

 where hives are arranged as they usually are 

 oxit (if doors. Now. 1 am sorry to add, triend 

 C, tliat, notwithstanding all the above ob- 

 jections aic easily met, house-apiaries are 

 mostly discai'ded. and stand empty. We 

 liave not had any bees in ours for two or 

 three years, and I believe that is the case 

 with most house - apiaries throughout the 

 land. The reason is, probably, no one wants 

 to woik with l)ees in a building in hot weath- 

 er ; and in cold weather, bees do not need 

 working with. J. II. Nellis, of ( 'anajoliarie, 

 N. Y., used a revolving window ovei- each 

 hive, but 1 tliink that he, too, has discarded 

 his house-apiary. 



WINTERING BEES UNDER A HAYSTACK. 



I dug a hole three feet deep, and as big as needed, 

 and set 3x4 pieces over it, nailed together like raft- 



ers, and stuck a stack of hay over it, and after it 

 was settled took a hay-knife and cut a doorway in, 

 put a foot of hay in the bottom, and set my bees on 

 it, put up some loose boards for a door, and some 

 hay against them. The hay above and beneath 

 takes all the moisture, leaving it free from frost. 

 At any time you can look at them, and, if needed, 

 set them out for a flight. I always put my bees in 

 the end of a stack that I want to feed last in the 

 spring, so I am out no hay. We stack all ouv hay 

 outdoors here. 



SWARiMS WITH VIRGIN QUEENS. 



If bees swarm out with a queen when she takes 

 her wedding-flight, what will they do if you hive 

 them? I had a swarm go out with a queen but 

 three days old; they clustered, and I carried them 

 back, and put them in the hive they came from. 

 Riley N. Leach. 



Humphrey, Neb., Aug., 1884. 



Your haystack wintering cellar, friend L., 

 is quite ingenious, and it seems to me it 

 should answer a very good purpose. The 

 ventilation is all that could be desired, if I 

 am correct. There is one trouble, however. 

 Many of our most successful men who win- 

 ter in cellars prefer to have the cellar under- 

 neath the cooking-stove. This gives a tem- 

 perature considerably higher than if there 

 Avere no stove ; and by means of a pipe at- 

 tached to the stovepipe, the air may be 

 changed often. I suppose, of course, you 

 AA'ould not recommend the plan you give, un- 

 less you tried it and fouiul it to answer Avell. 

 —A swarm in the condition you mention 

 would be simply like any other after-swarm. 

 After-swai-ms almost ahvays contain virgin 

 queens. Sometimes they go out to get fer- 

 tilized tlie same dav the swarm is hived, and 

 I believe the l)ees usually adhere to their 

 home after they have been hived in a new 

 place. I should, hoAvever, prefer to give 

 them a comb of unsealed brood, to make 

 sure they did not desert Avhen the queen Avas 

 out on her Avedding-trip. 



FROM 4 TO 40 IN A SINGLE SEASON. 



When I first started I bought 4 colonies in the 

 spring, which increased to 40. During the winter I 

 lost 4 colonies, which left me 36 for another start. 

 I had some honey the first year, but not very much 

 the second year. My 36 colonies increased to 125, 

 and I took off 3000 lbs., neai'ly, of very nice honey. 

 I do not extract. At the present tim(! I have 120 

 colonies, having also sold about 1"; so far this sea- 

 son I have taken off about 1200 lbs. comb honey in 

 sections and frames. I find sale at 20 cts. per lb. for 

 honey in sections; frame honey, 15 cts. 



Query.— Do bees make comb from honey? Do 

 they carry the honey on their legs as they do pol- 

 len? AV. U. PlNKEKTON. 



IJerdan, 111., .Vug. 11, ISSl. 



Friend P., it seems to me that you report 

 the above enormous increase pretty coolly. 

 If you have not made any mistake in ligur- 

 ing, it is something rather unusual.— IJees do 

 make comb fiom honey, but they do not car- 

 ry honey on their legs. AH these questions 

 are fully discussed in the A B C book. 



I have extracted, up to this date, 6000 lbs. of nice 

 honey, and will have as much more bj^ the first of 

 July. Anthony Oim». 



Helena, Ark., .June 11, 1884. 



