GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



50 stands for comb honey, along came those 

 bad clover years, idle supplies, hard winters, 

 moth-eaten combs, and the like; but to top 

 matters oft, I was completely cleaned out in 

 the winter of 1911. There I was, beeless, 

 but not hiveless (I had the hives right). 



In the jDhoto you will notice that $75.00 

 fence for protection. The winds got over it 

 somehow all the same; and those chaff hives, 

 about 40 in all, were of no avail — certainly 

 ti';^'ing. 



The fall of 1912 I again bought 25 colo- 

 nies; and after tucking them away in their 

 winter quarters as carefully as I knew how 

 r Avas again ready for a new start. 



How did I spend the winter of 1912 while 

 those bees were sleeping? Let me assure 

 you I did some tall thinking and also some 

 reading that often carried me into the wee 

 Iiours of the night. 



I already had requeened my bees with 

 young queens, for that is a settled matter 

 with me — the first step toward success, all 

 things considered. 



The next matter I settled on was single- 

 walled hives to be set in winter cases for 

 protection in winter. My bees never breed 

 up fast in chaff hives, but always show up 

 well in single-walled. 



No Alexander feeder could be attached to 

 them as to the single-walled, and many 

 other manipulations are all out of the ques- 

 tion with double-walled hives; and, before 

 I forget it, let me state that the bees tucked 

 away in winter cases with five inches of 

 packing all around were as dry as a chijD 

 when I peeped into them April 1. 



AFTER REMOVIKG THE CASES. 



About this time in spring I equalize 

 stores, tack over each hive a sheet of heavy 

 building-paper, which holds every bit of 



heat in the hives. An Alexander feeder is 

 placed underneath, and left alone until 

 about May 1. Then I equalize brood, to be 

 repeated about May 18 or 20. 



Last spring my bees wei'e in splendid 

 condition managed on this system.. 



In closing allow me to say that the out- 

 look last spring was great. Anywhere one 

 looked the ground was white with clover; 

 but I did not see a single bee on the blos- 

 soms. Basswood was not touched by bees 

 so far as I know ; and had it not been for 

 sweet clover I should not have a pound of 

 honey. This yielded about 900 lbs. on 18 

 colonies. I have increased my yard to 60 

 colonies, and hope to have an outyard next 

 year if things are promising. 



Findlay, Ohio. 



[The winter when you lost so heavily was 

 severe all over the United States. Even if 

 your bees had been in winter cases your loss 

 probably would have been about the same. 

 Outdoor bees suffered everywhere, no mat- 

 ter Avhere they were kept. 



One lesson we learned during that event- 

 ful winter was that a tight board fence 

 is not as g'ood a windbreak as trees or 

 shrubbery. The objection to a solid fenc-e 

 is that the wind strikes it, glances upward, 

 then dives downward, hitting some of the 

 hives; it starts counter-currents and whirl- 

 ing eddies. A picket fence is better; and 

 better still would be two or three picket 

 fences, one in front of the other, and about 

 four or five yards apart ; but as this would 

 be expensive, shrubbei-y answers as an ex- 

 cellent substitute. A screen consisting of 

 farm buildings, barns, houses, etc., if high 

 enough so the winds will skip clear over the 

 hives, are excellent. Behind such a screen, 

 bees in. single-walled hives will often winter 

 nieelv. — Ed.1 



BEEKEEPING IN THE RED HILLS 



BY J. J. WILDER 



Seemingly, if there is any section in our 

 oreat country where beekeeping would be a 

 failure or a total impossibility it is in the 

 great Red Hill belt ; but no ; it is profitable 

 there, and is progressing; yet the amount of 

 honey-plants there is very small and widely 

 scattered. Such is the case in middle 

 Georgia, where some of our most progres- 

 sive beekeepers are located, such as Mr. J. 

 R. Durden and W. L. Wilder, of Macon, 

 Ga., and John W. Cash, Bogart, Ga.; the 

 latter operating over 20 apiaries. 



The forest in this great belt consists 



mostly of second-growth pines. The land, 

 lying very rolling, was worn out and broken 

 up in gullies many years ago, and this 

 growth of pines came up on it; but along 

 these larger gullies and branches and creeks 

 are a good many scrubby poplar-trees, some 

 sourwoods and wild plum scattered here and 

 there ; and along larger streams are some 

 tupelo gum; but there is not much of this. 

 On the teiTaces and around the patches 

 that are in cultivation, and the old fields 

 that are lying out, there are considerable 

 goldenrods and asters growing which yield 



