358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



river, at or voi-y near the same spot where Per- 

 rine, of Chicago, once had a large apiary. Tlie 

 prospects for a good crop of honey were fair, 

 when, a few days ago. a brealt occurred in the 

 levee from tlic great pressure of the high water. 

 A crevasse was formed, and it was with difficul- 

 ty that our friends saved their bees by hastily 

 moving tliem to the levee. Of course, their 

 prospect for a crop of honey now is a very slim 

 one. with water from r> to 15 feet deep for miles 

 in every direction ai'ound them, and they will 

 certainly have to move the bees to some other 

 locality, and quickly, too. involving more labor 

 and expense, if they expect to get any honey 

 down there this spi'ing. 



Some of your readers may remember that, in 

 a former article, some time ago, I mentioned 

 friend E. Stahl. of Keuner. La., as having 1000 

 full colonies of bees, in one yard, and as having 

 secured a large crop of honey from them. Well, 

 it seems that the flowers down there last fall, 

 while blooming profusely as they do up here quite 

 frequently, yielded no honey: and the result is. 

 that friend Stahl (so I aiu informed) has lost 

 800 out of 1000 colonies, by starvation. This is 

 a good illustration of the uncertainties of mi- 

 gratory bee-keeping; for had any one taken 

 several carloads of bees (as I once did) down 

 there, prepared to secure a big crop from the 

 fall flowers, he too would have had to feed his 

 bees to keep them alive (at a loss, of course), or 

 let them starve, as friend Stahl did; and let 

 me say that this is one of the snags that our 

 bee-friends, who favor migratory bee-keeping, 

 will )-un against much more often than they 

 think for. 



As regards friend Stahl's loss, from which I 

 know personally of him he will not care great- 

 ly, he will simply cut the combs out of the 

 frames (not try to save them from moths, and 

 fill them with bees again as we would do up 

 here) and render them into wax. and stack 

 hives and frames away (to use again), and in 

 an incredibly short time have them all roaring 

 with bees again; for if there is one man in the 

 extreme south who understands southern bee- 

 keeping, and understands how to make it pay 

 at the least cost of material and labor, and who 

 is always enthusiastic in regard to bee-keeping, 

 and seldom discouraged, that man is (as I knew 

 him) friend Stahl. E. T. Fi-ANA(iAX. 



Belleville, Ills., March 28. 



BEARING QUEENS UNDER THE REGULAR 

 BROOD-NEST. 



ANOTHEK HAS TKIED IT, AX1> FINDS IT WORKS. 



I have reared a number of fine queens this 

 spring, under similar conditions to those given 

 by Dr. Miller, on page 270. To explain more 

 fully, I will state that I usd a two-story eight- 

 frame hive for a brood-nest up to the time our 

 harvest comes, when I contract to one section 

 by means of a plain zinc queen-excluder, and 

 at the same time raise the upper story and place 

 between it and the lower one a set of empty 

 combs or frames of foundation, always seeing 

 that the queens are below. Now to the point. 

 This spring, not having enough queen-exclud- 

 ers to go round, I placed upon some 18 or ;.'0 col- 

 onies a case of partly drawn sections (left over 

 from last year) between the two upper stories 

 and the brood-nest below, thinking this would 

 cause these sections to be filled quickly, and 

 also discourage the queens from going above. 

 I was right as far as getting the sections filled; 

 but about half of the queens went up and es- 

 tablished their brood-nest in the upper stories. 

 and in all these cases the bees built from three 

 to a dozen queen-cells below. Most of these I 



removed and saved, but left one cell in each of 

 five or six colonies, and in due season I found 

 laying queens in these; and it was surprising 

 to see how quick they filled those eight combs 

 with brood. At this point queen-cells were 

 started. So I removed this lower brood-nest 

 and placed it upon a new stand, giving it a 

 case of empty combs, and in the course of a 

 week those new colonies were in good shape to 

 store honey. Now, all the while these young 

 queens were below, the old ones were doing 

 good work abov(>. You may be sure this gave 

 rousing big colonies just when they were need- 

 ed; but during our orange bloom it set into 

 rain, and kept it up steadily for two weeks, 

 which caused us to store two-thirds of our crop 

 fi'om this source. During this rain, these large 

 colonies huUt from 12 to 15 frames of nice combs 

 from one-inch starters, and also managed to 

 store an average of 25 lbs. of honey each, while 

 average colonies built only from 3 to! of combs, 

 and did not get any surplus honey. I should 

 have mentioned above, that these large colo- 

 nies were in hives tiered four stories, besides 

 the case of sections mentioned, and that the 

 combs were built in the upper stories, and also 

 that they would average about 25 per cent 

 drone comb. This is doing well considei'ing the 

 conditions they were built under just before 

 the swarming season. The queens were about 

 one year old, part Italian and part hybrid. 

 Huntington. Fla.. April 5. A. F. Bkown. 



SAFEST METHOD OF WINTERING. 



CKLEAK I'LAN I'UKFEKIJEI). 



Mr. Root: — I have been very much interested 

 in reading the opinions of many of your sub- 

 scribers as to the best and safest way of winter- 

 ing bees, and I will not undertake to say which 

 of the many are correct, as the locality may 

 have something to do with their success. It 

 may be well in large apiaries to experiment and 

 test the difterenl plans recommended, as the 

 loss of a fi^w stands to them would hardly be 

 noticed, while the beginner in expeiimenting 

 might lose all. or .*o cripple his business that it 

 might take yeai's to n^cover. 



It might be a<lvisable for beginners, and those 

 having a limited number of stands, to retain 

 the old and tried methods until they become 

 satisfied that a change will be more satisfac- 

 tory, taking into consideration the climate, lo- 

 cation, and l(Migtli of wintei'. which should be 

 carefully studied. In this latitude and locality, 

 cellar wintering has given the best results. I 

 have wintered in the cellar for eight years suc- 

 cessfully, and at no time has the loss exceeded 

 ten per cent, while the average would fall far 

 below. One year ago I tried the experiment of 

 wintering nine stands outdoors in single-walled 

 hives packed with chaff and straw, and w'ell 

 protected from the winds by a grove on the 

 north and west. All went into winter quarters 

 in splendid condition, with plenty of stores, and 

 in the spring only one stand was left to tell the 

 tale of outdoor wintering in this locality. Those 

 wintered in the cellar came out in splendid con- 

 dition, without the loss of a single stand. 



Last year, Dec. 2, I put 30 stands into winter 

 quarters in the cellar, all in fair condition, 

 while some were in the very best condition. 

 My loss was one stand. Twenty-nine stands 

 came out of the cellar in good condition April 

 ()th, and to-day are gathering pollen from the 

 maple and box-elder. 



My plan has been to place the stands in the 

 cellar in the same condition as when prepared 

 for winter, leaving the cushions and covers on. 

 As soon as they get settled down a little, remove 



