i88S 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



389 



This makes the interior very warm in the after- 

 noon of any clear day ; and when there are piles of 

 honey in it they get wai-m enough to carry the heat 

 over to the next day, so that I often get the heat 

 inside to avei-age from 85 to 90 degrees for weeks at 

 a time. In cloudy weather I resort to an oil-stove 

 to keep the heat up. 



We are now ready for Fig. 3, which shows the inte- 

 rior of the honey-room as seen through the open 

 door, from the inside of the shop. This room is 7 feet 

 wide by 10 long, it being 8 feet high. In this room 1 

 had in 1877 nearly 11,000 pounds of honey, which is 

 about all it will hold and give room for the ope- 

 rator. To the left, through the door, can be seen 

 one of the platforms on which the honey is stored, 

 and the pile as it looks when first started. On the 

 floor 1 first place sticks of the right length that are 

 a foot wide by 4 inches thick, setting them up edge- 

 wise so as to raise the pile of honey sufficiently 

 from the floor to fumigate it with sulphur should 

 the moth larva be troublesome. Across the top of 

 these sticks I place two plank of the right length, 

 they being a foot wide. This, with the numerous 

 •Zx'^ sticks upon which the honey immediately rests, 

 raises the pile up from the floor IG inches. The 

 honey is now piled upon these platforms in the fol- 

 lowing manner: A section is taken to space the 3x3 

 sticks, so that they are far enough apart so that the 

 ends of the sections safely rest on the edges of each 

 stick on either side, and set out from the wall 4 

 inches each way, so that the air can circulate freely 

 all about the pile. Then another stick is placed so 

 the next section rests on that, and also on the stick 

 the last section before it rested on. In this way I 

 keep on till 1 have one tier of sections horizontal, 

 clear acr(»ss the room the 7-foot way, when another 

 tier is placed in front of the first, so we have two 

 tiers across, and only one tier high. The next tier 

 is placed directly on top of the first, and the next, 

 or fourth tier, on the sticks in front of the second, 

 while the next is placed on top of the second, and 

 the next on top of the highest one, or the third one 

 we piled. In this way I keep piling till the top of 

 the room is reached, when our pile looks like a 

 stairway of little short steps; yet, as will be seen, 

 if I have made it plain, the air can go up between 

 every tier, all around the whole pile, and through it 

 from front to rear; also the fumes of burning 

 sulphur, if it should be needed. Both the outside 

 door to the shop and the one into the honey-room 

 are made large and wide so a wheelbarrow can be 

 run in full of honey and out when empty. Now, if 

 we keep the temperature of this room at from 80 to 

 100 degrees our honey will grow better and riper 

 every day till it gets so thick and good that the once 

 thin honey in the open cells, around the edge of 

 the box, will not run out, and the whole will be like 

 " jack wax " as we boys used to term thick maple 

 molasses put on snow. If this temperature is kept 

 up, the honey will not deteriorate one particle for all 

 time to come, as I said in the Query Department 

 not long ago, as 1 know from a test of four j'ears' 

 duration; but let the temperature go down to .50, 

 and sweating and deterioration soon begin. If all 

 is not plain, tell what it is, and 1 will most gladly 

 explain. G. M. DoofjIttle. 



Borodino, N. Y., April Iti, 1888. 



Old I'riend, it is quite a privilege to me to 

 be able to look into your workshop and hon- 

 ey-room, as well as to look at the outside. I 

 wonder if it looks as slick and clean and 



tidy as we see it in Fig. 2.— We thank you 

 for the compliment you have paid to the 

 supply-dealers who have survived the close 

 competition of later years. We thank you, 

 too, for putting it so good naturedly, even if 

 you did not happen to be one of the " sur- 

 vivals.""— In the matter of ripening honey, I 

 believe you are right, and it is all very plain 

 and clear, except the matter of keeping up 

 the temperature every winter. You surely 

 do not keep the temperature above 70 in the 

 winter jtime, do you ? I know it is an easy 

 matter to keep a high temperature all night 

 in the summer time. We have liad rooms 

 that kept a high temperature when we did 

 not want it, where they happened to be shut 



lip- ^-^—^ 



BEES AND BEE-KEEPING— VOL. II. 



A CONTINUATION 



OF THK REVIEW FOUND ON 

 PAGE 394. 



X the last issue 1 believe we had gotten 

 as far as the third chapter. Ciiapter 



I IV. considers the subject. of natural in- 

 crease ; under this, the effect of advanc- 

 ing spring breeding, increase, premoni- 

 tory signs of swarming. While on this sub- 

 ject, speaking of a swarm about to come 

 forth, Mr. Cheshire says: "Some tell us 

 that a signal within is given, since the 

 teeming thousands seem to be seized sim- 

 ultaneously with the same violent agitation. 

 Kilt of this it is best to confess we know 

 nothing, except that the bees about to leave 

 the place of their nativity for 'pastures new" 

 commence to run about the interior of the 

 hive in wild excitement." 



Speaking of the peculiar way in which a 

 new swarm enters the hive just alter the 

 queen has entered, he says : " Singularly no 

 writers mention what I have always observ- 

 ed ; viz., if the queen be within, bees will 

 continue to issue from the skep, running 

 from fanner to fanner in alternate diagonals, 

 giving each one two quick taps with the an- 

 tenute, which seem to me to convey : ' All 

 right ; keep it up ; mother's at home, but 

 she is terribly hot." The fanners thus en- 

 couraged do not relax their exertions for a 

 moment."" 



On page 132 we see copies of engravings of 

 swarming-devices, which are given in the 

 ABC book. The Shepherd device, the au- 

 thor has moditied in such a way that the 

 box will always remain perpendicular, no 

 matter at what angle the pole may be. 



Under the head of wing-clipping, Mr. Che- 

 shire thinks that, after the fecundation of 

 the queen, the process in no way interferes 

 with the queeifs natural movements. lie 

 says that perfect wings receive nutrition 

 during the whole life oif the bee. and that 

 both nerves and tracheie pass into them. 

 He concludes, therefore, that the removal 

 of the wing may not be so absolutely unim- 

 portant as some" assume, although he thinks 

 it is not prejudicial, and that " Prof. Cook's 

 suggestion (that the queen may be made 

 even more vigorous through the excision, 

 ■• as useless organs are always nourished at 

 the expense of the organism," is quite ac- 

 curate."' We are glad to see that Mr. Che- 

 shire indorses our Prof .Cook ; and especially 



