90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



C. B. P., Mich. — You can not very well 

 winter bees under the schoolhouse, on account 

 of too much heat and too much light. The 

 room should be almost absolutely dark, and 

 should have a temperature that does not vary 

 very much above 50 nor below 40; 45 is a de- 

 sirable point to hold it at. The noise of the 

 children in the rooms above would not disturb 

 the bees after the latter have become a little 

 accustomed to it, as bees are wintered right 

 along year after year in cellars under a floor 

 frequented by romping children ; but the 

 steam-pipes and the large amount of light in 

 the schoolhouse basement would be very ob- 

 jectionable. You might get along very well 

 providing you could give the colonies access 

 to the open air by means of entrance-ways 

 just under the windows. 



/. 5. W., la. — I should hesitate to advise 

 you to go to Colorado to keep bees, as the 

 State now has all the bee-keepers it can sup- 

 port to any advantage. Only one-tenth of the 

 whole area is under cultivation, and on only a 

 part of that can bees be kept. Rocky Ford, 

 however, is a good bee country, and you could 

 possibly find a location. I would not advise 

 you to move unless you think it is necessary 

 for your health. There are a good many draw- 

 backs in the State, and I would advise you to 

 wait until you have read all the series of arti- 

 cles that I am to write for our journal. I hard- 

 ly think it would pay you to move your bees, 

 on account of freight. I would suggest that 

 you do this : You and your boy go out to Col- 

 orado, hire out to some bee-keeper, or man- 

 age bees on shares for a season ; leave your 

 wife at home, and then after you have been 

 there a summer, and know something of the 

 conditions, you can make arrangements to 

 move your whole family, and sell out if it 

 should seem best. By this arrangement your 

 son will have the benefit of the climate for one 

 summer at least, and it may be enough to give 

 him a start on the road to good health, even if 

 you should decide that you had had enough of 

 it in one season. Colorado isn't a good coun- 

 try for nervous troubles. In the regions of ir- 

 rigation, lakes, and ditches, consumptives 

 sometimes get worse instead of better, for there 

 is a good deal of moisture in those vicinities. 

 The best place for a consumptive in Colorado 

 is out in the dry air away from irrigation. 

 Such localities are practically in the desert, 

 away from moisture as far as possible, and are 

 decidedly lonely. 



R C, Ohio. — The ten-frame Dovetailed hive 

 you will find is just the right dimensions with- 

 out the follower to accommodate ten frames. 

 In a few cases the bees bulge the outside sur- 

 faces of the combs in the two outside frames ; 

 but they would do that with the eight-frame 

 hive with the follower. In either case, after 

 all the frames are in the hive the whole set 

 must be crowded close together and then 

 spaced to the center of the hive so that the 

 space between the outside surfaces of the combs 

 will be equal. If you do this in practice you 

 will not experience the trouble you fear. The 

 new hive-follower for 1900 will be very much 

 better than that for 1899, and will carry out in 

 theory as well as practice the very object we 



desire to secure in facilitating the removal of 

 the frames ; but even then it is an extra ex- 

 pense, and about as difficult to remove as any 

 one frame. To take out the first frame, shove 

 the whole set over as far as they will go to one 

 side. Then split the set at a point next to the 

 one you desire to take out, separating the two 

 parts as far as possible. Then shove the de- 

 sired frame into the middle of the space thus 

 formed, and you will find that it will come out 

 without difficulty. With regard to the advisa- 

 bility of using single-walled or chaff hives for 

 wintering pu.^ poses for Southern Ohio, I should 

 be inclined to think that Chas. F. Muth was 

 right ; but a short and very cold spell down to 

 30 degrees below zero is not nearly so destruct- 

 ive to bees' life as long-continued chilly weath- 

 er in March and April. If in your locality the 

 bees can fly almost any day in April — that is to 

 say, if they can gather pollen during the fore 

 part of that month and the latter part of March, 

 then we should say that the chaff hive would 

 be a superfluous expense. We have not kept 

 data in regard to morning temperatures in our 

 locality for the last 30 days. We have had very 

 variable weather, ranging from 10 above to 50 

 or 60 above. From before Christmas till four 

 or five days after Jan. 1st the temperature 

 ranged from 10 degrees with high winds. 

 This would be worse than 10 or 20 below 

 without wind. Possibly by applying to the 

 Government Bureau you could get ranges of 

 temperature for any date for the two localities. 

 Referring to a cheap binder for Gleanings, I 

 would say that we have something that we 

 could supply you for 15 cts., postpaid, that is 

 very neat and pretty. It has been advertised 

 but very little, but it is not as handy nor as 

 good, of course, as our more expensive binders. 



Igremento -Presto -Change!. 



RAMBLER BECOMES A MIND-READER. 



(A dream of our artist.) 



