1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



175 



over the bees, does not directly reach the 

 outside. 



The value of this modifying room will be 

 better understood by the fact that it is in reali- 

 ty a part of the cellar, and not merely a roof. 

 The cellar is in all respects a cistern. It is 16 

 Xl6 ft. on the level of the ground, and 12X12 

 ft. at the bottom. The sills are 2x12 inches, 

 and 18 ft. long, and lie flat in the cement of 

 which the sices and bottom of the cellar are 

 composed. The roof, as you will note, ex- 

 tends below the level of the ground, and dis- 

 charges its water into board conductors lead- 

 ing to lower ground. 



The floor above the cellar is 2 inches thick, 

 composed of dry inch boards. Three inches 

 of dry pine sawdust covers this floor. Every 

 corner and crack through which air could circu- 

 late is closed with Portland cement. Three trap- 

 doors are of the same thickness as the floor, 

 and an easy stairway leads to the cellar. The 

 hives are in rows on all sides, three high, di- 

 rectly over each other, leaving an open square 

 in the middle of the room. 



The square hives stand on their regular bot- 

 tom-boards, and have a back and front entrance 

 11 inches by "s, with no possible upward ven- 

 tilation or communication. The roof is made 

 of tamerack (larch-tree) boards, one foot wide 

 and battened with the same kind of lumber 6 

 inches wide, and covered with coal tar. 



The cost every one will want to know. It 

 was from $50 to S55. It now holds 90 colonies, 

 and would hold 90 more if necessary. 



The ventilaling-tube reaching to the bottom 

 of the cellar proved to be a failure. While it 

 supplied cold air, and kept the temperature all 

 right, it failed to dilute the carbonic gas, and 

 has been taken out. Only the three-inch hole 

 in the upper floor has been used for the last 

 month, and seems all right. The extreme va- 

 riation in the cellar has been 4°, being below 

 50 all the time, but no time as low as 45°. 

 • Feb. 14.— Bees O K., 47°. Outdoors, about 

 6°. Death-rate about 2 lbs. of dead per month 

 for the 90 colonies. The last sweeping gave 

 an increase of >^ lb. They are swept out every 

 12th day of the month, and the dead weighed. 

 They were put in the cellar Nov. 12. 



Farwell, Mich. 



[As I have said elsewhere in this issue, I be- 

 lieve it is to be one of the cheapest and best 

 repositories ever devised. The scheme of hav- 

 ing a gable roof and a good thick frost-proof 

 floor over the cellar, the latter below ground- 

 level, is most excellent. The objection to the 

 cellars of ordinary dwellings is, that about 

 two feet of the cellar is above ground ; and in 

 the two feet of wall there is liable to be one 

 or more windows through which cold and 

 light enter. By the Bingham plan, the whole, 

 or practically the whole, of the repository is un- 

 der ground. The thick frost-proof ceiling or 

 floor overhead, further protected by a gable 

 roof, makes almost an ideal protection. 



Incidentally it is interesting to note how 

 little ventilation, if the temperature is right, 

 is required. I hardly need say that Mr. Bing- 

 ham, the inventor of the smoker, honey-knife, 

 and hive bearing his name, is a man of no or- 



dinary ability. He is a fine mechanic himself, 

 and a practical bee-keeper ; and whatever he 

 says is good, is good in my estimation. 



In an early issue we will describe in detail 

 the hive he invented years ago, and which he 

 has recently perfected by adding some new 

 features.] 



MAKING NUCLEI, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

 INCREASE, ETC. 



Two postal cards lie before me, covered with 

 questions put on as thick as possible ; and in 

 reading them I imagine that the questioners 

 are right here in my ofiace, and that we are 

 talking face to face. Here is the conversation 

 we are having about making nuclei, natural 

 and artificial increase, using foundation, and 

 clipping the wings of the queens : 



" I see by Gleanings that you are in the 

 habit of talking with beginners who call on 

 you, telling them about how you would work 

 with bees to secure the best results. I am 

 thinking of dividing my bees the coming sum- 

 mer, and want to prepare for this during the 

 early spring months. When dividing bees, is 

 it best to rear queens for them or let the queen- 

 less part of the division rear a queen for them- 

 selves ? ' ' 



"I consider any plan of division, which 

 compels the queenless part to rear their own 

 queen, as faulty." 



" Why so? " 



" Because, in the first place, ^(?o^ queens 

 are reared only in a colony very populous in 

 bees, of all ages, with honey and pollen com- 

 ing in from the fields, enough to supply their 

 wants. Of course, this honey and pollen part 

 can be supplied by the apiarist, if deficient in 

 nature ; but the populous in bees part can not 

 possibly obtain with a divided colony." 



" Is that all the fault there would be? " 



"No. Where the queenless part of a divi- 

 sion is obliged to rear its own queen, such 

 queen will not usually emerge from her cell 

 before the twelfth day. If she emerges earlier 

 she will be likely to be of even more inferior 

 quality than she would be otherwise. Then it 

 will naturally be ten days before she will com- 

 mence to lay. Now add to this 21 days, as the 

 time before any of her eggs will produce bees, 

 and we have a period of 43 days without any 

 addition of bees to that divided part, except 

 what came from the eggs of the mother queen 

 before the division. By this time the colony 

 becomes very weak in bees, from the constant 

 loss which is occurring, so that such a division 

 is not likely to do more than become ready 

 for winter, if it does even that much." 



"What would be the gain by the other 

 plan ? ' ' 



" If a young laying queen were given at the 

 time of the division, as always should be done, 

 there need be no more than from one to three 



