1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



5-.'l 



as though thoy were rather iincorafortablo. 

 The next inornlng I put a ventilatod bottom 

 under them, and they have been comfortable 

 ever since. Friend S. writes me that he leaves 

 the same bottoms on during summer and win- 

 ter. 



Now I suppose every one who has bees thinks 

 ho must have a house for them; and as there has 

 been so much said in its praise he thinks there 

 is no chance of there being any objections; but 

 I find there is one, and a very serious one too. 



Often, in the early spring, the sun shines 

 brightly in the morning, and gives promise of 

 being a beautiful day. The bees sally forth. 

 Some return heavy laden, miss the entrance, 

 and drop to the ground. Those on the east 

 side soon rest, and, taking wing, enter the hive; 

 those on the west side at once become chilled, 

 and, if the day should happen to turn cloudy, 

 they are lost. Those on the east, after 4 p. m. 

 encounter the same difficulty; and if they are 

 not helped into the hives they will surely per- 

 ish. I have picl*ed up a pint of these bees at a 

 time, and poured them into the first hive I 

 came to, hoping in that way to save them. 



A house running east and west would be very 

 objectionable on account of the sun never 

 reaching the north side. The best plan would 

 be a house facing southwest, and bees all on 

 one side. 



I am highly pleased with my house, and 

 would not go back to the old way of having 

 them scattered all over the yard, under any 

 consideration. While working with them this 

 morning a shower came up; but I continued 

 the work just as well as if it had not been 

 raining. How often, under just such circum- 

 stances, do I remember of hastily scrambling 

 my tools together in order to seek shelter! 



As to wintering, I am sure the house will be 

 ahead of leaving out of doors. I lost 10 colonies 

 out of <X); but that was due to my starving them 

 by feeding them candy made after the instruc- 

 tions given in the ABC and Gleanings. I 

 have succeeded in studying out a plan that is a 

 success, and will report at some future time. 



I am using the poultry-wire staples for end- 

 spacers on my frames, and think very well of 

 them at present. I get them at the hardware 

 store for 10 cts. per lb. 



Lebanon, Ohio. 



[However near the house-apiary you now 

 have (and which was built twenty years ago) 

 may be like the one now used by friend Salis- 

 bury, I am sure he was entirely original in the 

 planning of the general design of the one which 

 he has. It only goes to show that the old Shaker 

 and Mr. Salisbury, realizing some of the defects 

 of the former house-apiaries, set about to rem- 

 edy them by making one that would not have 

 these faults; and that their minds ran in the 

 same channel is nothing very significant, as 

 many another pair of great minds have done 

 the same thing. 



In view of the fact that our bees at the bass- 

 wood apiary have been tampered with by 



thieves, and in view of the further fact that we 

 have no building in which to store tools, we 

 expect this fall to put up a modern house apiary, 

 a hi Salisbury, at the basswood yard. The 

 structure will be strongly built, and have a 

 good bar and padlock to secure the door or 

 doors. When I visit Mr. Salisbury this sum- 

 mer I expect to take special note of his house- 

 apiary; and if he knows of any faults, we shall, 

 of course, remedy them, so far as possible, in 

 oup new structure.— Ei).] 



DRONE COMB. 



Question. — Can you tell me why my bees 

 build so much drone comb? In hiving my 

 swarms I give them one or two combs already 

 built to help them start in their new home, and 

 I find, on opening the hives a few days after- 

 ward, that from one-half to two-thirds of the 

 comb they build is of the drone size of cells. 

 Can you tell me how I can prevent this ? 



Answer.— Yes, it is easily told. Put in full 

 frames of nice worker comb, filling the hive 

 full; or fill every frame set in any hive full of 

 foundation. See how easy it is! But I am 

 reminded that you may not want to use founda- 

 tion, or have not the full worker combs on 

 hand, so I will give a few words on comb- 

 building, in which you may possibly find a 

 solution to your difficulty. 



All observing apiarists know that, as the day 

 of swarming draws near, the queen ceases her 

 prolificness, so as to be able to fly and go with 

 the swarm, so that, when the swarming does 

 occur, the old mother-queen is scarcely larger 

 than a virgin queen. Nature has so ordained 

 things for two reasons, the first of which is that 

 the queen may fly; for if a queen is taken from 

 a colony when she is most prolific in eggs she 

 can not fly at all, as she is so heavy with eggs. 

 The second reason is, that the queen need not 

 be inconvenienced with an over-accumulation 

 of eggs before there is time for the bees to con- 

 struct comb in the new home for her to deposit 

 her eggs in ; and so we find that all good queens 

 do not become fully prolific again until about a 

 week has elapsed after the new colony has ar- 

 rived at its new location. 



During this week comb has been built very 

 rapidly, especially if honey is coming in plen- 

 tifully from the fields, while the queen has not 

 been able to keep up with the workers; the 

 result of which is that the bees commence to 

 build store comb, which is always of the drone 

 size of cells. This comb is mainly filled with 

 honey the first season (although in many cases 

 some drone brood is found if the bees feel dis- 

 posed to think of swarming again, or feel dis- 

 posed to supersede their queen, or the honey- 



