1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



831 



dollars per thousand more than the lumber 

 for the Langstroth. This, of course, is an 

 item to be considered. 



I want it distinctly understood that I am 

 not fighting the large-sized hive. Were I in 

 Illinois, and had to start anew, I'd adopt the 

 Dadant-Quinby or one equally commodious. 

 Here and Illinois is another proposition. I 

 am open to conviction when I can see my er- 

 ror, and I may do some experimenting in the 

 line of a new design the coming season, the 

 result of which I shall report, Providence per- 

 mitting. 



In your footnote to Mr. O. O. Poppleton's 

 valuable article, entitled " The Long-Idea 

 Hive," you say, "After all, the proposition 

 simmers itself down to this: ' Can we make 

 more dollars in our locality with a large hive 

 than with a small one? ' ' ' That fits the case to a 

 dot, and every one must study the conditions 

 and surroundings; and let me drop a little 

 prophecy right here. The coming hive for 

 extracting purposes will not be any less in 

 cubic dimensions than the ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth; and where wintering is a factor to be 

 considered, a hive of larger dimensions will 

 be necessary for the average locality. 



HOW TO MOVE BEES IN HOT WEATHER. 



Moving bees during hot weather, and when 

 the colonies are very populous, is considered 

 out of the question by many of our best bee- 

 keepers; but, as will be attested by many, I 

 successfully moved my bees in Illinois from 

 the high lands to the low lands for several 

 seasons, thus securing a fall flow from Span- 

 ish needle and heartsease on the low lands 

 after the clover and basswood harvests were 

 over. The perfect success of this venture was 

 more attributable to the ventilator Mr. Dra- 

 per mentions than any other one point in 

 their preparation; and I must claim the honor 

 of its invention. It was simply a rim three 

 inches deep, cut exactly as an upper body, to 

 fit directly under the lid. A groove was cut 

 one inch wide clear through on all four sides, 

 within three inches of the corners. This is 

 done by setting the saw wabbling. The 

 groove is, of course, covered on the inside 

 with wire cloth. All heavy combs must be 

 previously extracted, and all combs securely 

 spaced and tacked at the top with strips to 

 prevent their sliding. The Dadant wire spac- 

 ers always did the work safely at the bottom 

 for me. All my combs were wired horizon- 

 tally with three strands of wire. I would 

 leave an upper story on, and in the event of 

 an extraordinarily populous colony I would 

 put two ventilators under the lid. All lids 

 and platforms were secured to the bodies of 

 the hives. 



The work of preparing the bees for moving 

 was, of course, done during the day; but the 

 loading and moving were performed between 

 two suns and when we had a full moon. We 

 used ordinary farm wagons, with racks made 

 for the purpose, which would accommodate 

 from 16 to 24 at a load, and, of course, we would 

 drive very slowly and cautiously. We have 

 moved as many as 150 colonies without the 

 loss of a quart of bees. As Mr. Draper ex- 



presses it, as soon as the bees are jolted a few 

 times they emigrate to the highest point, and 

 there they cluster. 



The entrance is secured with wire cloth; 

 and as soon as the body of the bees leaves the 

 Gombs the excess of animal heat passes out 

 through the ventilators, and the combs be- 

 come sufficiently cool to prevent breakage. 



With care and judgment, bees can be suc- 

 cessfully moved any time in the year. I be- 

 lieve the ventilators would make a necessary 

 adjunct in your catalog. 



Escondido, Cal. 



[When we move bees we use a rim 2 inches 

 deep covered with wire cloth. This is put on 

 in place of the cover. While this is good, 

 experience of a kind that nearly resulted in 

 the smothering of several strong colonies one 

 hot summer night, when we were hauling a 

 load of bees, leads me to believe that j our ar- 

 rangement is far better. I've a notion to try 

 it next summer. At the approach of a honey- 

 flow it is very expensive to let even 25 per 

 cent of the bees smother in moving. — Ed.] 



RAMBLE 178. 



Gold-mining vs. Bee-keeping. 



BY RAMBLER. 



We passed another apiary having a goodly 

 number of hives, but Mr. Brodbeck and I were 

 so busy in our respective spheres that we did 

 not halt to examine them. That 17 miles up 

 the canyon was a delightful journey to me; 

 but Mr. Brodbeck looked real tired when we 

 reached our camping-place in a cosy nook un- 

 der the willows with a purling stream on one 

 side and the steep mountain upon the other. 



Several miners were camping near, and in 

 the evening we had quite a circle of these men, 

 who live rough and lonely lives, around our 

 campfire. Mining and gold nuggets were the 

 chief topic under discussion; and, though they 

 could talk familiarly about nuggets, they had 

 none to show. Occasionally one of the men 

 would become quite fluent in the use of oaths 

 and otherwise scandalous language. Now, I 

 have always noticed that, when a man begins 

 to interlard his conversation with such words, 

 if the listener laughs or even smiles it will be 

 looked upon as an approval, and the oaths will 

 increase; but on this occasion Mr. Brodbeck 

 and I looked solemnly into the fire, and were 

 pleased to note a diminishing of the objec- 

 tionable language. 



There has been a great amount of gold tak- 

 en out of this canyon, and the evidences of 

 work in years past are visible upon almost 

 every foot of ground — tunnels into the moun- 

 tains, in every direction, some of them dug by 

 the Indians under the direction of the Span- 

 ish padres early in the century. At present 

 the State will not allow hydraulic mining, and 

 the so-called dry washer is used instead. One 

 of our miners was using one of these machines 

 just above our camp, and I present a photo of 

 the same. Fill the hopper with dirt; turn the 

 crank; the screens are shaken; a bellows un- 



