1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



5(31 



A MARKET-GARDEXER WANTS BP:ES FOR FER- 

 TILIZING BLOSSOMS. 



The simplicity hives ordered are for a mar- 

 ket-gardener who keeps bees to fertilize cucum- 

 bers in his greenhouses. The greenhouses 

 cover ovei' an acre of ground, and are now near- 

 ly filled with cucumbers. He lost nearly all 

 his bees this winter by confining them in the 

 hive and leaving them in the greenhouse; and 

 between the time he lost them and when he 

 bought more (about two weeks) he says the loss 

 of cucumbers by their failure to set would have 

 more than paid for the bees (six hives). The 

 fore part of the winter his houses are filled 

 witii lettuce, radish, and pie-plant, and by 

 ;\Iarch 1st they are replaced by cucumbers, and 

 lettuce and radishes are grown in hot-beds. 



Bloomington. Minn.. Mav 3(5. E. R. Pond. 



0aR 0WN ^PiHRY, 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST K. ROOT. 



AN EXCELLENT FEEDER FOR STIMULATING 

 I5KES. 



Some time ago our engraver sent us a hasty 

 sketch of the feeder shown below, remarking 

 that he thought it might be a good thing, and 

 that possibly we would like to examine into the 

 merits of it. Away long back in 18S1 I remem- 

 ber that the senior editor was very enthusiastic 

 ■over a feeder similarlv constructed. 



MASOX-.JAR ENTRANCE FEEDER. 



He had some made and put into the yard: 

 but on account of his burden of duties at the 

 time, the matter seems to have been dropped un- 

 til some bee-keeping friend resurrected it, and 

 forwarded it to the engi'aver to I'eproduce. We 

 do not know who the bee-keeper is, but perhaps 

 he will recognize the device from the engrav- 

 ing, and possibly tell us more about it. At any 

 rate, we uad some made in our tinshop, and 

 they are now in the apiary. 



The great beauty of this feeder is. it forms a 

 part of a common household article — a quart 

 Mason jar. To the zinc cap is fastened a sort 

 ■of tongue, with pei-foratcd metal in front. This 

 front extension is only ^4 inch thick, and about 

 4 inches long, and can readily be slid into any 

 entrance. During feeding, the syrup passes 

 down on the atmospheric principle, and oozes 

 out slowly at the perforated metal, clear inside 

 of the hiVe. The great convenience of this 

 feeder is, that no opening of liives is necessary. 

 All you have to do is to. fill a couple of half- 

 bushel baskets full of them, and go around to 

 the hives where the slates or stones on top in- 

 dicate they are short of stoi'es. and slip one of 

 these feeders into the entrance, when, presto! 

 the whole work is done. No robbers will both- 

 er, because the point where the bees get the 

 feed is four inches from the entrance "under the 



frames. The glass jar shows readily when it is 

 empty. It will take but a few minutes to put 

 about two dozen of these feeders to each hive; 

 and during a dearth of honey, just when these 

 feeders are likely to be used, and robbers are 

 moving around, no thieving bee need get even 

 a taste of honey from the hive. This feeder is 

 only for stimulative purposes. For winter we 

 very much prefer the Miller feeder, and feed up 

 all at once. 



REVIVING THE IIOUSE-APIARY. 



I have been conducting, during the past two 

 weeks, quite a siiies of experiments, to prove or 

 disprove some of the latest ideas, and among 

 them the bee-escape for the house-apiary. 

 You will remember that W. Z. Hutchinson, of 

 the Review, as well as the senior editor of 

 Gleanings, suggested that the escape might 

 overcome some of its most serious objections. I 

 had been thinking the matter over for about a 

 week: and the upshot of it was. I told the boys 

 to clean out the upper story of all rubbish and 

 unused traps, for this is all the use the building 

 has had for six or eight years. AVhen in use it 

 had two-inch auger-hole entrances. We tacked 

 Reese cone bee-escapes over a dozen of these 

 entrances so that the bee^^ in the dark would 

 see these holes if they got inside of the room, 

 and escape. Those entrances which we expect- 

 ed to use were closed temporarily until we could 

 put in nuclei. There are windows on three of 

 the eight sides, hinged at the top. opening on 

 the inside. These were darkened by nailing 

 black tarred paper on the sash. To make the 

 room comfortable while working in the build- 

 ing, these sashes are hooked to the ceiling 

 above: and to prevent robbers from coming in 

 from the outside, wire cloth was nailed on the 

 outside window-casing. This wire cloth must 

 permit the escape of the bees from out of the 

 room, but prohibit the entrance of bees from 

 the outside. Accotdingly. it was cut eight 

 inches longer than the casing, and allowed to 

 project that length above the top of the win- 

 dow. The upper rim of the casing was cut 

 away a quarter of an inch dee]) and clear across, 

 so as to allow the b(>es crawling up inside to 

 pass up and out. Those on the outside would 

 not. of cour.><e. think of running down the pas- 

 sageway eight inches, and then entering the 

 house-apiary — at least, very few would do so. 

 Lest some of you may not get an idea of what 

 this sort of window bee-escape is like. I here- 

 with reproduce an engraving made two or three 

 years ago. taken from Langstroth Revised. 



the window bee-escape. 



From the cut. I think there will be no trouble 

 about getting a correct idea. It is the same 

 thing used by the Dadants, Dr. Miller, and 

 other prominent apiarists, to cover the windows 

 of their honey -rooms. The bees that happened 

 to collect on the inside of the room fly toward 

 the light, crawl up on the sci'een. and finally 

 pass out. If they return they will not strike 

 the point above the opening in the window. 



Well, now. how does it work? Nicely, so fai". 

 The screened windows make tlie I'oom nice and 

 cool, and the small Reese cone bee-escapes 

 nailed to the entrance permit what few bees 



