724 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



the nights are cool, as in the Green Mountains 

 of Vermont, the goldenrod yields much honey, 

 and the heads of bloom are full of bees at 

 such limes; but here, where the nights are 

 warm during its blooming, it yields sparingly." 

 Pain d'epice is a sort of giiigei'bread. ^old in 

 immense quantities at fairs in Europe, having 

 the good quality of keeping aveiylong time. 

 Honey is used in its manufacture, and just now 

 there is considerable stir because a poisonous 

 salt of tin is used to some extent, that allows 

 molasses to be used instead of honey, and poor 

 flour instead of good. The trouble might soon 

 be stopped if every man who uses chloride of 

 tin should be compelled to swallow as much as 

 he uses. 



HOW TO VENTILATE OUR BEES. 



DOOLITTLE PiXPLAINS THE MATTER. 



Among the pleasant recollections of the past, 

 the bees are ever foremost: and at ten years of 

 age I N\ as an anxious watchir of these little in- 

 sects, of which father had some twenty colonies 

 or moi-e. These were kept in the Weeks patent 

 hive, where the bottom-board was attached to 

 the hive with wire hooks and staples, and with 

 a button so arranged that, for winter, the bot- 

 tom was allowed to hang suspended an inch 

 below the hive, while in summer the button 

 was so turned as to bring the bottom-board 

 tight to the bottom of the hive except the en- 

 trance. With his hive, father had poor success 

 in wintering bees, while a neighbor wintered 

 his safely with a hive closed tight at the bot- 

 tom and a two-inch auger-hole at the top. 

 This success of a neighbor, and our poor success, 

 caused father to fasten the bottom -boards of 

 the Weeks hive in winter, or, rather, to leav 

 them in winter the same as they had been all 

 summer, while the holes in the top, through 

 which the bees had access to the surplus apart- 

 ment, were opened, and the surplus chamber 

 filled with fine hay, straw, a lot of old garments, 

 or something of the kind, which came mo-t 

 handy. Fixed in this way the bees wintered 

 much better than formerly, and gave me the 

 idea that what has since been termed '• upward 

 ventilation" was the proper ventilation for 

 good wintering. Soon aftei' this all the bees 

 were lost by that dread disease, foul brood, and 

 no more were kept in the family till ]8()9. when 

 I purchased two colonies, whicli were the foun- 

 dation of my present apiary. At that time 

 (1869) there were plenty of bees kept near me in 

 box hives, many of which were I'aised on half- 

 inch blocks at the bottom all around, that be- 

 ing something similar to the rim one inch deep 

 recommended by some of the great lights of 

 to-day. I adopted the plan of upward ventila- 

 tion, as it was then termed, although I now 

 look at it as practically no direct ventilation, 

 unless you can call it ventilation which we 

 have when sleeping unflei'our warm comforters 

 on a cold winter night. 



After a series of severe winters, myself and 

 four othei'S, all wintering witii packing above 

 the liees. or with upward ventilation as above, 

 had HOO colonies of bees, while not one of the 

 box-hive ur lower-ventilation men had a single 

 colon}. 15y lookiiigat beesiii their natural home 

 in the liollow of a tree, we find that the hollow 

 is composed of partly decayed wood, especially 

 above the combs. Thus in winter the moisture 

 from the bees passes into the decayed wood 

 which surrounds them, and is expelled each 

 summer by the heat. In this we laave some- 

 thing pointing toward the porous covering 

 which many of our be.^-keepers have used of 

 late years, and al^o toward the chaff hives of 



the present. With these chaff hives, and the 

 slow change of air taking place through the 

 chaff or sawdust cushions we have something 

 even better than the home nature provided for 

 the bee; and with hives so arranged there need 

 belittle provisions for venti;ation: for. should ' 

 the entrance become obstructed by snow, ice, or 

 dead bees, so that all air is cut oft" at the bottom, 

 the bees can secure all the ventilation they re- 

 quire through the cushion from above, thus 

 passing quietly along till a warm spell occurs, 

 when they can clear their dooi'way. After 

 years'of e.xperience with chaff hives, with saw- 

 dust cushions over the top of the brood-cham- 

 ber. I have become convinced that there is 

 nothing better along the line of hives for win- 

 tering bees than this, and I would hereby ask 

 every reader of Gle.\nings, who is at all skep- 

 tical on this i)oint. to prepari' five colonies in 

 chaft' hives with sawdust cushions as above, 

 which is according to the best approved meth- 

 ods, and take five others as nearly like them as 

 possible, except that they be left in ordinary 

 hives with lower ventilation, and see if all 

 skepticism does not vanish at the end of three 

 years. I even use these chaft' hives with saw- 

 dust cushions for cellar wintering, and think 

 that they have an advantage when bees are 

 wintered in the cellar. 



In connection with ventilation through por- 

 ous covering, some think that, as all the mois- 

 ture is caiTied oft', the bees need water given 

 them to keep them in a healthy condition: but 

 I think it wholly unnecessary, for the reason 

 that I believe it a bad plan for bees to breed 

 much, if any, before the middle of ]\Iarcli to the 

 middle of April, according to the season. Col- 

 onies that commence breeding earlier are not 

 as good, as a rule, on the first of June, as those 

 of the same s rength as to number of bees that 

 do not commence to rear brood before the first 

 of April. 



I am becoming more firmly convinced that the 

 practice of keeping bees in the cellar till pollen 

 is plentiful in the fields is the correct one; and 

 where bees are wintered out of doors it is a 

 great help, where they are packed in chaff, 

 along this line, for the sun's rays will not arouse 

 the bees to activity, and from this to brood- 

 rearing, every time it shines on them for a lit- 

 tle while in the middle of the day. when the 

 air is cool otherwise. This early breeding 

 causes a much gi'eater consumption of honey, 

 and a greater lo^s of bees, without a corres- 

 ponding benefit. When it comes steady warm 

 weather, two bees are reared for an old one lost: 

 while in early spring or late winter, two old 

 bees are lost to where one young bee is reared; 

 hence any thing that causes eaily breeding 

 becomes a loss to us. both in bees and stores. 

 Several have asked my vimvs on this subject, 

 and I have given them thus eai'ly. so that they 

 maybe in time f(U' all to take advantage of 

 them this fall, who wish to do so. 



G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y.. Sept. 17. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



DR. MIM.EK AS WEI.T. AS DOOLITTLE BAFFLED. 



How I did prick up my ears when I read on 

 page (517. at the head of an article about intro- 

 ducing queens, '■ Even Doolittle baffled 1" and 

 with what relish I read the whole article I Was 

 it " pure cussedness" in me that made me en- 

 jov Doolittle's discomfiture? Hardly that, for 

 J like the man; but it's always interesting to 

 see a man like him getting into trouble, for it 

 gives you a bit of comfort to think that others 

 besides yourself are sometimes beaten by the 



