1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



597 



■ends ill vr^xation and trouble. Such a man 

 had better buy his honey. See what I have 

 said about friend Teiry's farming in the month 

 of .Inly, in anotiier column.] 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



SUIPinNO BEES IN LARGE CHAFF HIVES: HOW 

 IT WAS DONE. 



I sliipped 24 colonies of bees by freight from 

 Hardin, Colorado. April :.'.5, arriving at Payson. 

 Utah, late in the afternoon of the 28th. My 

 hives are two-story chafl' hives, holding 24 Sim- 

 plicity frames. The hives wcM-e overflowing 

 with bees. I left but very little honey in any 

 one frame. Many of the hives had ten frames 

 each of brood in all stages of growth. I did not 

 lose a colony until after I arilved here. I lost 

 three in hauling two miles from the depot, over 

 the roughest road I ever attempted to haul bees 

 ■on. Tbe three colonies were not all kilh^d; but 

 the queen and so many of the worliers were 

 killed that I united them with other colonies. 

 They have been building up so fast that I now 

 have 42 colonies. I shall have to extract a few 

 hundred pounds in a few days, as many of them 

 have the twelve upper-stoi'y frames full and 

 pretty nearly capped. 



I prepared my bees for the trip as follows: I 

 ■divided the brood and scattered it throughout 

 both stories of the hive. I closed the entrance 

 and left the cover off. covering the top with 

 common wire screen. Of course, I fastened the 

 frames in place. I loaded the hives on lumber, 

 which was so arranged on slats, alternated, 

 that it served as a very good spring. I put 

 eighteen inches of straw in the end of the car. 

 to break the force of the terrible knocking and 

 bumping, and six inches at the sides. I had a 

 deck temporarily built two feet above the top 

 of the hives. . When it was hot I kept the end 

 ■door and one side door open sufficiently to fur- 

 nish a good draft. During the first day and a 

 half it was raining and cool; after that it was 

 very hot. I had a horse and cow in the car 

 next to the bees; and although the bees escaped 

 .some, they did not sting the stock. When a 

 bee came out of the hive it struck straight out 

 for a window, and was lost. A thermometer, 

 which I placed just above the straw cushion at 

 ■one side of the car, not directly ovei' the bees, 

 did not. at any time, show over 02 degrees. 



I think this is a good honey country. There 

 is a great deal of alfalfa (called '"lucerne" 

 here) and sweet clover, and fruit-bloom of all 

 kinds. The country is full of bees. 



Payson, Utah, June 23. James A. Todd. 



QUEENS IN THE SECTIONS, AND AVIIV: BRICK 



HIVES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF COMB 



HONEY. 



On page 474. June 1. E. H. Schaeffle \\'ants to 

 know why his tjueens raised brood in his sec- 

 tions. I think it was on account of the cold 

 weather, and lack of honey in the tirst part of 

 the season, causing the bees to hang in the su- 

 pers a long time, drawing the combs slowly, 

 and no honey to store. The queens went up 

 there to keep warm, and got into mischief. I 

 do not use queen-excluders. I made ;30,000 lbs. 

 of comb honey last season, all in 4V by 1J< sec- 

 tions, and had but four sections with brood in 

 them. This season I have found about two 

 dozen sections with drone brood in them, which 

 I account for as above, and pai'tly Ixicause I did 

 not use full sheets of foundation in those sec- 

 tions. Those with full foundation did not have 



brood. I nearly always use full sheets of foun- 

 dation in sections. 



I have 128 stands of bees this season. They 

 are storing honey very fast now — the finest I 

 ever saw. The weather is rather cool for this 

 time of yeai'. It may indicate a long honey 

 harvest. I have built six brick bee-hives as an 

 experiment, for comb honey. I think the bricks 

 will warm through during the day. and give off 

 heat all night. kee])ing the supers warm, so the 

 bees can draw comb all night. Who has tried 

 brick hives? My bees seem to like them first 

 rate so far. Tell us all you can about Piniic 

 bees. The Aw erica )i Bee Journal gave them 

 a big iiuff lately. If we had that kind of be(>s 

 in California, half a dozen swarms would make 

 a man rich. A. B. Meelen. 



Acton, Cal., June 13. 



[Mr. Schaefflo's experience was very unusual. 

 Old bee-keepers like W. Z. Hutchinson and Dr. 

 Miller have since said as much. No, I shall 

 still advise comb-honey producers not to bother 

 with queen-excluders, even if friend S. did 

 think such advice pernicious. No one else has 

 had such experience.— There may not be a bad 

 idea in the brick hives for you: but in our cli- 

 mate, in the spring they would gather too much 

 cold at night, and give it off even during the 

 day, when the bees need the warmth.] E. R. 



THOSE r)-BANDED BEES OF ELMER HUTCHIN- 

 SON'S. 



Friend Root;— All the bees from my breeding 

 queen are five-banded, like the sample I sent 

 you. and all are equally light-colored when 

 young. When they become old, say six weeks 

 to two months, they turn a little darker: but 

 the five bands remain, and are all yellow, only 

 a slightly darker color. The queen herself is 

 very light-colored, with not even a tip of black 

 on the tip of her abdomen. 



The prospects for a good honey crop are bet- 

 ter than they have been for the last five years. 

 White clover is very abundant: basswood 

 hangs full of buds, and'the bees are rcry strong. 

 Elmer Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Mich., June 20. 



FEEDING IN THE BROOD-NEST; DOVETAILED 

 HIVE, VAN DEUSEN FRAMES, ETC. 



In the March numlier, page 200, 18fK), Mrs. 

 Axtell speaks of feeding outdoors in troughs, 

 preferring the plan to the use of saucers, pans, 

 and inverted cans above the brood-chamber. I 

 heartily coincide in her methods, but I use the 

 trough inside the brood-chamber. A tin recep- 

 tacle the full length of the inside of the hive, 

 one inch wide— it may be made the width of 

 two frames if desired, and three to six inches 

 deep, with half-inch nrojections that it may 

 hang suspended in the hive, taking the place of 

 the one frame removed for its reception. A slat, 

 fitting the trough loosely, and perforated with 

 many small holes through which the bees feed, 

 floats on the surface of tlie syrup. A trough of 

 the above dimensions, six inches deep, will 

 have a capacity of over half a gallon: one may 

 be placed on each side of the brood-chambei-, 

 and feeding be done quickly, and without the 

 melancholy drowning of our bees. 



HOW TO REMOVE PROPOLIS. 



I see many remedies recommended for the re- 

 moval of propolis from the hands. Alcohol will 

 be found to entirely answer the purpose. A 

 small quantity poured upon the hands and rub- 

 bed vigorously, will convince anyone. 



INTRODUCING WITH PEPPERMINT. 



There are numerous and diverse ways by 

 which a queen may be successfully introduced 



