March, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



203 



B 



C 



LJ= 



I Y way of 

 setting oi;r 

 aim high for 

 this season of 

 1917, let us eon- 

 sider for a 

 moment the re- 

 port of one of 

 our b a e k 1 o t 



friends. Mr. E. J. Thompson, an insur- 

 ance agent in Andover, Ohio, writes that 

 in 1916 he took off 346 pounds of extracted 

 honey and 452 sections from seven colonies, 

 spring count, and increased to sixteen colo- 

 nies. The honey sold promptly, the cash 

 receipts being $89.25. 



Now by way of forestalling disappoint- 

 ment from blasted hopes, let us for another 

 moment consider another report. Mr. J. 

 C. Parks, a farmer, fruit-grower, and bee- 

 keeper of Scottsboro, Ala., writing in the 

 late summer of 1916, says, " The sourwood 

 flow was almost totally lost and the floods 

 have destroyed the goldenrod and aster 

 in the swamps and lowlands. I guess I 

 shall have to feed this fall again. The 

 season set out early to be a good one, the 

 best in years, but the weather spoiled all 

 these fine prospects." 



Not having heard from Mr. Pai'ks later, 

 I do not know just how the year did finally 

 come out for him. But the point is that, 

 while honey crops will, of course, be greater 

 or less according to the experience and skill 

 of the beekeeper, it is the season itself and 

 the weather conditions thereof that decide 

 the vital point of Avhether there shall be any 

 crop or no crop at all. 



SUMMER STANDS AND WINTER CASES. 



Mr. A. Gordon Dye, of Rochester, N. Y., 

 " a backlotter of only two seasons' experi- 

 ence," as he frankly terms himself, has been 

 making a particular study of convenience 

 and economy in apparatus, and reports in 

 the following extract how he has worked 

 out the winter-case problem. 



" A year ago in trying to decide how best 

 to winter my six Golonies, I read up on 

 the various ways of wintering, and as a 

 conclusion decided in favor of the quadruple 

 winter case. I built two of these last fall 

 and found them satisfactory for winter 

 protection, but heavy and cumbersome to 

 put up, take down, and store away. So 

 this summer I developed a summer stand 

 which may be readily changed into a win- 

 ter case. The summer stand is a platform 

 4x4% ft., resting on legs one foot high. 

 The framework of the platform is made 

 with four six-inch boards, nailed at the 

 eorners. The legs, 2 x 4's, 1 foot long, are 

 nailed to the inside of the end boards, set 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



3 



Grace Allen 



^^^^^^^^ 



in two inches 

 from the cor- 

 ners. Three nar- 

 row boards are 

 then cut to fit 

 crosswise inside 

 the frame, ,one 

 for the center 

 and one for each 

 end, to be nailed to the insides of the 

 legs and to the side pieces of the frames. 

 This makes a light and strong frame for 

 the flooring, which may be of any material 

 desired or convenient. 



" By setting the legs two inches from the 

 outside board, a two-inch square hole is 

 left to receive the lower end of my corner 

 posts when I wish to set up my winter 

 cases. For these cases I take 2 x 4's, 30 

 inches long, and fit them to the corner 

 sockets by notching away a section 2 in. by 

 6 in. I then build my sides and ends 

 separate, and secure them in place by hooks 

 and staples attached to the corner posts. 

 The roof is made in two parts with a 

 cleat at each end which fits outside the case. 

 The roof may be covered with prepared 

 roofing material, an overlap being left on 

 one piece to prevent snow and water get- 

 ting in at the peak. 



" In the summer the hives are moved out 

 near the corners for convenience in Avork- 

 ing around them, but in the winter they are 

 concentrated in the middle and raised. on 

 small hive-stands made by nailing two 

 narrow strips, 26 inches long, on top of 

 two boards, 3 in. by 14 in. This allows 

 packing material under the hives, and by 

 laying a couple of boards, separated by 

 cleats, across the front end, a shallow 

 tunnel is provided for the bees, to corre- 

 sponding slots in the end pieces of the 

 winter case. 



" I find cases made in this way easy to 

 handle and store, as there is nothing" but 

 flat pieces and none V3ry large or heavy. 

 By removing either side of the roof, two 

 hives become easily accessible." 



The overlapping piece of roofing will 

 need to be held down in place, oi- in 

 stormy weather the wind may blow it 

 back and let the rain beat in anyway. We 

 have had this experience with a similar 

 overlapping piece on an outdoor hoppei' 

 in onr chicken-yard. And the corners of 

 the case, secured by hooks and staples, will 

 need to fit perfectly not to allow the rains 

 to seep in and the packing to become Avet. 

 But this use of the summer stand for 

 the floor of the winter case is certainly 

 good management, and is right in line 

 with wh^t Mr. Bartholomew advocates. 



