58 



GLEANINOS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.Tax. l.i 



found llu'iu wauling: but the Pnnics no one 

 seemed to know verj' much about. 



AUTOMATIC SVVARMmG-I)p;VICES 



was another new fad that was discussed. A 

 few had faith iu them, and thought they would 

 some time amount to someihing; but tlie chief 

 objection seemed to be their expense, and fail- 

 ure to get ail oi- a large part of tlie bees of the 

 swarm into the new hive. It ^vas argued by 

 President Taylor and others that the labor of 

 attaching them to the hive, and helping them 

 to complete the unfinished work, would be very 

 nearly as much as hiving the swarms outright. 

 Mr. Hutchinson had faith in them. 



THE I5EE-ESCAPE. 



Thei-e was no dissenting voice, so far as I 

 can remember, as to the great value of this 

 labor-saving device. A number testified how 

 much time it had saved them, and what fun it 

 was to take off crops of honey. Mi-. Larrabee 

 said his brother had taken off r.'700 lbs. of e.\- 

 tracted honey without so much as brushing or 

 shaking the combs, the bees being freed fiom 

 the supers by the bee-escape. Some one asked 

 Mr. Larrabee what sort of escape his brother 

 used. It was one of his own construction, on 

 the horizontal-cone plan. As many of our read- 

 ers may be interested in this escape, we hereby 

 ask one of the Larrabees to send us one of the 

 escapes, with description, and we shall be 

 pleased to place it before our readers. 



Mr. Ray and President Taylor had used with 

 satisfaction Dr. Miller's bee-tent, the same 

 thing that was described in Gleanings several 

 years ago. They piled up the supers, put one 

 of these bee-tents on the top case, and let the 

 bees crawl out at their will. I believe they 

 said they hastened the matter by shaking out 

 as many bees as possible in the first place, and 

 then smoking them upward. 



Among other new things were the late meth- 

 ods of wiring. M. H. Hunt preferred the old 

 style, with perpendicular wires, and secured 

 perfect combs. One or two others had tried the 

 Keeney plan with good results: but I, of course, 

 argued for the horizontal wiring, as being 

 cheaper and requiring less labor. 



WINTEKING IN MICHIGAN. 



A. J. Acker, Martiney. Mich., gave us an in- 

 teresting talk on the subject of cellar versus 

 outdoor wintering. He did not have success 

 with the outdoor plan, and finally necessity 

 obliged him to winter indoors. His plan was, 

 to have the covers sealed down, and set 

 the hives on top of trays four inches deep, 

 one end of the tray being open for an en- 

 trance. This gave ample bottom ventilation. 

 F^oi' a winter repository he used an upground 

 cellar, something as G. M. Doolittle has lately 

 described. In these he puts his colonies, pil- 

 ing them in closely, but each hive having a 

 four-inch space under the frames. The results 

 had been most excellent. J. P. Berg. Traverse 

 City, Mich., the fun-maker at this convention, 

 not so much for what he said as for his innnner 

 of saying it. wintered both ways: but colonies 

 that wintered outdoors in chaff hives not only 

 wintered the best, but were stronger in the 

 spring, and cast swarms earlier. Geo. E. Hil- 

 ton. M. H. Hunt, and J. H. Larrabee corrobo- 

 rated this testimony, and stated that that was 

 the general expc^rience in their localities. I'res- 

 ident Taylor could do nothing at outdoor win- 

 tering, but indoors he had success. There were 

 advocates at this convention of both plans: and 

 it .seemed to me. as I listened to their testimo- 

 nies, that, while one wintered indoors and the 

 other outdoors, the result was due largely to 

 locality. I learned afterward that there was a 

 great difference in Michigan localities. Where 



it was very cold, there cellar wintering gener- 

 ally prevails: and in milder places the outdoor 

 plan gives better results. 



BKK-KKEPING AND OTHER BUSINESS. 



Mr. \V. E. (lould discussed the question as to 

 what business can be combined with V)ee-keep- 

 ing: and Mr. A. .1. Pieice, a little later on, the 

 subject of bees, poultry, and fruit. The two 

 topics naturally covered the same ground: and 

 in order to save space I will endeavor to give 

 the gist of both discussions in one. Mr. Gould 

 argued that, where one had two or three out- 

 apiaries, he was. in a sense, a specialist, and 

 therefore would hardly have time to do much 

 with any other business: but if he had only one 

 yard of only a hundred colonies, it might be 

 well for him to consider what other business he 

 could combine profitably with it. Localities 

 and men differ very much: and what would be 

 a success with one would not necessarily be so 

 with other men in other locations. Other things 

 might be combined with the bee-business, such 

 as fruit culture, teaching school, and poultry- 

 business. Mr. Pierce, from the standpoint of 

 the fi'uit-grower. gave some valuable sugges- 

 tions along this line. Fi'uit and poultry com- 

 bine very nicely together. The latter help very 

 materially to diminish insects on the fruits, 

 such as the destructive curculio on the plums. 

 The small breeds of poultry, such as the Leg- 

 horns, are bettei- for this purpose. The Asiatic 

 kinds are not so good foragers. The manure 

 from eight hens is equal in fertilizing value to 

 that from one cow. As with bees, fruit-men 

 sometimes experience poor seasons. At such 

 times the poultry and bees are a great help, and 

 make all the diflference between profit and loss. 

 It seems to be a recognized fact, said Mr. Pierce, 

 among all fruit-men. that bees are necessary to 

 the proper fertilization of the blossoms; and if 

 his neighbor didn't own bees, he must have a 

 few colonies for himself. It would pay him, 

 even if he secured no honey. Mr. Berg gave us 

 some excellent suggestions along this line. He 

 is both a fruit-grower and a bee-keeper, and he 

 found that his poultry had so reduced the evil 

 resulting from the curculios in his plum- 

 orchai'ds that the cui'culio was not to him a 

 pest. In fact, he wanted a few to kill off some 

 of the fruit, as his trees would bear too heavily 

 otherwise. Along with these discussions came 

 up the matter of 



SPRAYING FRUIT AND POISONING BEES. 



This convention, like the North American at 

 Albany, furnished abundant proof to the eflfect 

 that bees have been poisoned in great numbers 

 when the trees have been sprayed during the 

 time of blossoming. Mr. Pierce gave us some 

 of his own experience. He had had his apiary 

 nearly cleaned out by a neighbor who had 

 sprayed his trees during the time of bloom. 

 This neighbor did it ignorantly. and stopped at 

 once when he learned of the consequences. The 

 bees had becm in the most promising condition 

 for a good honey crop; but the spraying had 

 utterly ruined its prospects. The neighbor in 

 question followed the directions of the pump- 

 maker; and it was suggested that all pump- 

 makers or manufactuivi's of spraying-apparatus 

 be labored with, who advise spraying during 

 fruit-bloom. Two oi' three bee-keepers. Mr. 

 }*ierce among the number, said that, so far as 

 they had learned, they were all very glad to 

 modify their directions as soon as they were 

 informed of the evil results to the bees. The 

 opinion seemed to i)revail that, as soon as fruit- 

 men and manufacturers of spraying -outfits 

 were properly informed, bee-keepers would 

 have no fui'ther trouble: although it was urged 

 that every State pass a bill, more for its educa- 

 tional effect than for legal coercion. 



