1898 



GIvE\NINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



731 



with batting or old rags. Ventilate them so 

 they will not smother, then get some burlap 

 and make a sack which will hold the hive 

 nicely, and, after fastening the top and bot- 

 tom boards on tightly, put the hive into the 

 sack and sew it up as you would a sack of 

 barley or wheat, and you can drive over rough 

 or rocky roads, or any kind, and not a bee 

 can get out to bother man or beast. I have 

 moved hundreds of them in this way without 

 accident of any kind. 



I thought every one knew that bees dislike 

 dark colors. If any one doubts this, let him, 

 after extracting in light clothing for a few 

 days, until the bees get thoroughly roiled up, 

 go out among them dressed in black. If he 

 is not convinced I will treat to the doughnuts. 



Los Alamos, Cdl. Joel Hilton. 



[To put ever}^ hive in a sack strikes me as 

 being a good deal of labor. I'd prefer to have 

 a few bees get out than to go to so much 

 trouble. — Ed.] 



DR. miller's glossometer. 

 I couldn't resist the temptation to stop 

 writing Straws long enough to give you my 

 conception of a simple glossometer. I don't 

 know whether it's original or not. A box 12 

 inches long or longer (important to have it as 

 long as possible), 2 inches wide, 1 inch deep. 

 An inside bottom, a, (>, inclining at the proper 

 angle, and a covering of something like wire 



ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE BAD WORK FOUL 



BROOD IS DOING IN NORTHEASTERN 



NEW YORK. 



We have just returned from a visit to the 

 various bee-keepers throughout Albany and 

 Schoharie Counties, and we must say they are 

 a splendid lot of fellows, and did every thing 

 to make our visit pleasant. All of them want- 

 ed us to look over their stock of bees ; but, 

 not expecting to embark in the business, we 

 declined, and came home without a sting. 



Foul brood, as they call it, has made its 

 appearance in many yards in certain localities, 

 and fears are entertained that it will spread 

 throughout these entire counties, notwith- 

 standing that nearly all hives affected with 

 it have been destroyed by burning up bees, 

 brood, and honey. Some producers, losing 

 their entire stock, have had to retire from the 

 business. We came across one man who had 

 lost all but two colonies, and these two have 

 produced him over 400 pounds of honey. The 

 loss of the others seems to have given these 

 two a better opportunity to gather honey. 



The crop of buckwheat comb and extracted 

 will be quite large, but clover is a short crop. 

 The quality is fine. Chas. McCulloch. 



Schenectady, N. Y., Sept. 15. 



DEEP ENTRANCES AND SHADE-TREES. 



I have just read Gleanings for Aug. 15, 

 and note what Mr. Doolittle says about deep 



cloth, r, fl'. That's the whole story. Not quite, 

 for across the bottom must be lines regularly 

 placed, measuring it off. At d the depth is 

 such that any common plug of a bee can 

 reach the feed and lower it to 1 . One with a 

 little longer tongue can lower it to 2. No bee 

 in the apiary can lower it to more than 5 or 6, 

 and it is left for future generations to get it 

 down to 10. The Frenchmen say there's 

 quite a variation in the length of bees' tongues 

 in the same apiary. Level a hive perfectly, 

 put the thing into an empty super, cover up, 

 and, after the bees have had time to lower 

 it, make your entry. For company, one could 

 be made with a glass cover so you could see 

 'em stretch their tongues. C. C. MiLLER. 

 Marengo, 111. 



[I am very sorry, doctor, but somehow I 

 have not the ambition or enthusiasm to make 

 any thing of this kind ; but if you will go 

 ahead and have it tested I will give you all the 

 space in Gleanings you want, to tell about 

 it. The glossometer is your hobby — yes, your 

 baby. — Ed.] 



entrances doing away with bees clustering 

 out. I had 2-1 colonies in eight-frame L. 

 hives this season, and had 8 swarms issue, 

 which I hived in new Dovetail hives, eight- 

 frame, with Hoffman self-spacing brood- 

 frames. I raised the rear end of these hives 

 about >4-inch, or enough to give pitch so 

 water would run out if driven in by heavy 

 storms, then I raised the front of hive (not 

 bottom-board) % inch which gave me an en- 

 trance 5-^-inch deep. The bees in the deep- 

 entrance hives did not cluster out as did those 

 with a shallow entrance, but they did cluster 

 under the brood-frames, and did not seem to 

 work as they do in cooler weather. The ques- 

 tion in my mind is this: Was the entrance 

 deep enough, or is the weather sometimes too 

 warm for bees to work actively ? or was the in- 

 activity caused by a light honey-flow, and those 

 bees I noticed seemingly doing nothing, house- 

 bees who had no honey to do with ? These 

 questions, it seems to me, are all of impor- 

 tance, as the more the bee-keeper can control 

 surrounding conditions to induce greater ac- 



