1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



303 



cultivation; but back of that, clear to the sea, 

 eight miles south, are forests and swamps 

 which make the finest bee-pasture. I had 

 bought two small apiaries about ten miles 

 from my new location, and this week I moved 

 them over. They came for them with two 

 large carts, each drawn by four oxen. The 

 two wheels were six feet across, and were able 

 to carry 10,000 pounds of sugar-cane, so the 

 eighty colonies of bees with all of the fixtures, 

 loose boards, etc., did not make much of a 

 load for them. It took until midnight to get 

 started, and then the drivers got lost, and 

 wandered for miles over the very worst apol- 

 ogy to the name of road one can imagine — ■ 

 pitch-holes three feet deep ; stones as big as 

 bushel boxes, and in one place a river ford — 

 every thing bad imaginable, to say. nothing of 

 the loose bees. About the first jolt smashed 

 one big box hive out flat, and the second 

 opened the joints on several more on the load 

 on which I rode. 



Pretty soon the driver gave a war-whoop 

 and a big jump which landed him out on the 

 ox-yoke of the first team. There he rode the 

 rest of the way while I sat on the back end of 

 the tongue with a smoker, and kept the bees 

 off the oxen. 



The other loads were in American hives, 

 and stayed tight except one which got a hole 

 in the wire screen. But all things end; and 

 just before sunrise we landed at the proposed 

 location, and I began to unload alone. No 

 one else would touch them. The bees were 

 all over the outside of the hives and all over 

 the cart. Now, to take 80 big colonies of 

 bees out of a high cart, and carry them out and 

 put them in place, takes some time, and is 

 rather hard work for a man who has worked 

 for the previous twenty-four hours, but it had 

 to be done. 



When the last entrance was open, and I 

 had time to take account of stock, only two 

 were completely done for. This was a great 

 surprise to me. 



I put all of the broken comb in one pail 

 aside from the one that was completely 

 smashed. I had a big pile of railroad iron to 

 use for hive-stands, but no one to help put it 

 in place ; so after I had my dinner I got on 

 my wheel and rode over to the next town, 

 twenty miles, and hired an American friend 

 to come back with me the next day. I now 

 have this lot of 80 standing in pairs on the 

 railroad iron, waiting for my sheds to be fin- 

 ished. The two other apiaries will be put in 

 place in a few days. Then I shall go in to 

 make my increase for the next season. 



The present apiary is still waiting for a 

 name. There is a pumping engine for irri- 

 gating, handy by, to use in cooking wax and 

 making foundation. One of the other apia- 

 ries will also be near a pumping-plant. These 

 private irrigating-plants are all over here. 

 Generally they are worked by a horse or a 

 yoke of oxen. The well near me is 10 feet 

 across, and 180 deep. A six-horse-power 

 boiler and a duplex pump brings up a lot of 

 water, while the increased growth of the to- 

 bacco shows the value of it. 



San Francisco de Paula, Mar. 19. 



FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS. 



Temperature in Cellars ; a few Questions for Dr. 

 Miller to Answer. 



BY MORLEY PETTIT. 



Dr. Miller's Stray Straws are always very in- 

 teresting ; and as I glance over them I am 

 tempted to make comments. 



First, I should like to ask the doctor which 

 way he hangs foundation in sections. I have 

 handled a great many sections which had 

 foundation fitted as close as R. F. Holtermann 

 describes, p. 924, but hung the "strong way," 

 i. e , with corrugations vertical, and there was 

 no buckling. The bottom starter makes twice 

 the trouble, and should be avoided if possible. 



That wet cloth, p. 6, for quieting the bees, 

 is a capital idea, I should imagine. How 

 about an entrance-guard ? A little porch can 

 be made of wire cloth and four pieces of lath ; 

 two end pieces of whole lath 3 in. long, and 

 two strips of lath ripped in two, one against 

 the hive and the other against the floor-board. 

 We have enough to go over the whole apiary, 

 and they are very convenient to lay on the 

 entrance whenever hives are to be closed for a 

 while. 



In taking temperature readings in the cellar, 

 where should the thermometer hang for best 

 results when it registers 45° F. ? Mine hangs 

 about the center ; and at 45° I consider the 

 bees decidedly noisy. Du.ing some zero 

 weather at New Year's day it got down to 38 

 to 40°, and they were almost absolutely quiet. 

 The trouble this winter has been to keep the 

 temperature low enough. I should like to 

 hear the verdict of others on the temperature 

 question. 



Now, I should like to ask Mr. Doolittle 

 what is the nature of his soil. It must be very 

 light, for with our clay loam I could not con- 

 ceive of his cellar being sweet without some 

 sort of ventilator. His bees must be like Dr. 

 Miller's, which so ungratefully desert the wa- 

 tering-trough during a honey-flow. 



Belmont, Ont., Jan. 20. 



[Dr. Miller replies :] 



I have generally, if not always, hung foun- 

 dation in sections running up and down the 

 long way of the strips received from the man- 

 ufacturers. I have had blind faith in them 

 that they knew which way was best ; and if 

 the other way is better I hepe they will change. 

 Even suppose there is no buckling, I am won- 

 dering if there will be quite as good work done 

 without a bottom starter. If so, I should cer- 

 tainly prefer to omit the bottom starter. 



A proper entrance-guard that will quickly 

 close and unclose a hive is a very desirable 

 thing. I used them exactly as described un- 

 til I found something I like better. The ones 

 I now use are entirely of wire cloth, with a 

 single stick to fasten them on the hive. They 

 are made especially to suit the entrance when 

 the bottom-board h-as the deep side up, mak- 

 ing an entrance 12i^x2, but might be varied 

 for any entrance. A piece of wnre cloth 13^ 

 X 4 inches is doubled over at the bottom, and 

 at each end s^f inch or less (bending it over a 



