408 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May lo. 



MANUM VISITING H. B. ISHAM. 



BEES AND CHICKENS. 



"Good aftei'noon, Henry. I have come over to 

 look after the bees, and see your r)00 chicks, and 

 have brought Mr. H. B. Warner with me for a 

 ride." 



" Well, gentlemen, I am glad to see you, and 

 will show you the chicks with pleasure. Man- 

 nm, I have been thinking for the. past few days 

 that I would go over and learn your new way 

 of caging queens to prevent swarming. But 

 here you are, and I hope you will favor me 

 with your new method before you return." 



"All right. Henry, I will. How have the 

 bees wintered here?" 



"Very well indeed. I have lost but two out 

 of 48 colonies. All are strong, but rather short 

 of feed. I am determined to crowd the feed to 

 them this spring, to induce brood-rearing alj I 

 can." 



ciently, and consumes only 3.5 lbs. of coal in 24 

 hours. It is done with hot water conducted in 

 pipes the whole length of the building under 

 this walk in the center." 



" Well. Henry, I should think you had things 

 well arranged for this business. These chicks 

 certainly seem to be contented without a moth- 

 er, and it seems so strange to me that they 

 should thrive so well without the old hen. And 

 now let me tell you that I think I have caught 

 on to something new by coming over here. You 

 know that Mr. Ira Barber advocates a warm 

 place in which to winter bees. Now, why 

 couldn't you have a cellar under this building, 

 in which to winter your bees and regulate the 

 temperature in it with this same apparatus, 

 and without extra expense ? In this way you 

 can have business both summer and winter — 

 bees in summer and broilers in winter." 



•• Why. I had never ihought of the cellar bus- 

 iness. I wish now I had made a cellar under 

 this brooder- house." 



MH. II. H. ISHAM's bee- yard, WITH HIS POULTKY-HOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND. 



" I want to see the chicks. Let us go into 

 the brooder-house. Oh my! what a lot of 

 chickens! and all as white as snow. How nice 

 and plump they are! Why. some of these must 

 be large enough to dress, are they not?" 



" Yes, nearly so. I expect soon to dress 200 to 

 make room for more that will hatch in a few 

 days." 



" What breed are they ? I never saw any like 

 them. Are they the new breed you told me 

 about?" 



" Yes, they are an entirely new breed origi- 

 nated by my partner, Mr. Wm. N. French, of 

 New Haven, which he has named 'The White 

 Wonder.' " 



" Henry, how do you warm this building? It 

 can't be you warm it with this little dummy of 

 a stove ?" 



" Yes, that little "dummy of a stove,' as you 

 call it, does the business. It is a heater made 

 for the purpose by Bramhall, Deane it Co., of 

 New York. This building, as you see, is simply 

 boarded and papered, and is (5.5 feet long by 17 

 feet wide; and this little heater warms it suffi- 



" Now, let us think a little further. Why not 

 build a long narrow bee-house, say long enough 

 to hold 1.50 colonies, 50 on a side, and allow 

 them to remain in it summer and winter? Set 

 the hives close up to the sides of the building, 

 and make entrances through the building to 

 allow the bees to fly out whenever they wish, 

 the same as when wintered on summer stands, 

 and then warm the building with one of these 

 heaters whenever necessary; and, further in 

 spring, when brooding commences, and we 

 have a cold sour spell like the present unfavor- 

 able weather for bees, why, just fire up and 

 keep the bees warm and allow them to go on 

 with brood -rearing. In that way we could 

 succeed nicely in getting strong colonies by the 

 time clover blooms; and, besides, we should 

 have less dwindling. Your brood-house here 

 might be made with another story, and keep 

 the bees above and chicks below. In that way 

 one heater would do the business for both bees 

 and chicks." 



" Say, now. Manum, I am just going to try 

 that next fall, on a small scale, and we shal 



