136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Mae. 



pense. When he can manage the hox hives, 

 he certainly can the others, and if he makes 

 a failure, he is not very much more out of 

 pocket. 



LANGSTROTH FRAME FOB COLD CLIMATES. 



Would you advise the L. frame for a cold climate? 

 Is not a deeper hive better? Will it not protect the 

 bees better in winter? H. K. Ghegohy. 



Youngsville, Sullivan Co., N. Y., Jan. 17, 1881. 



A colony without protection might some- 

 times winter better in a deep frame ; but 

 the best arrangement for winter is to have 

 the top and bottom of the combs so near 

 each other that the bees are clustered on 

 both, and over a good part of the bottom- 

 board to tlie hive. If the bees filled the in- 

 terior of the hive, so that there were bees all 

 through, and even part way into the en- 

 trance, even in the coldest of weather we 

 should have the best condition, and no other 

 frame admits of this so well as a shallow 

 one. A shorter frame might be better, 

 perhaps ; but if we have a pretty strong 

 colony, it makes little dilference. As a gen- 

 eral thing, I think the L. frame better for 

 wintering than a deep one, where they are 

 properly fixed up for winter. 



HONEY THAT IS GRANULATED IN THE COMBS. 



We use the L. frame, and wish to extract JOO 

 frames, all in the super. Our bees have plenty 

 honey in brood-chamber to winter on. The honey 

 in frames has granulated on lower and some on up- 

 per edges of combs, and the other is so thick that we 

 can't throw it out of combs. Please let us know if 

 there is any way by which we can extract it. What 

 effect will warm weather have on it? How will bees 

 winter on granulated honey? 



There has been more cold weather here than evar 

 known before. Flournoy & Foster. 



San Antonio, Bexar Co., Tex., Jan. 20, 1881. 



Tlie thick honey can be extracted without 

 trouble with any good extractor. First 

 warm the combs up gradually, until the 

 honey runs easily. This will take quite a 

 little time, for solid honey is a poor con- 

 ductor of heat, and warms slowly. It will 

 not do to have the room in which the combs 

 are stored too hot, or they will break and 

 fall out of the frames, as has happened more 

 than once in trying to extract in cold weath- 

 er. With the granulated honey, you have a 

 harder matter still ; but if you can warm it 

 so it will' come out of the combs, you can 

 easilj^ melt it afterward. If you do not suc- 

 ceed in getting it out, I would use the heavy 

 combs in building up stocks. The bees will 

 use the candied honey readily, when the 

 weather is warm, and without any waste. 

 Bees will winter on granulated honey if they 

 can get water to dissolve it ; but it is apt to 

 be somewhat like grape sug|^% which it real- 

 ly is, virtually. 



HOPES NOT BLASTED AFTER ALL. 



I thought I would drop you a few lines concerning 

 ray bees. Last spring my colonies numberod 10, 

 which were in fine condition, except 2 or 3, which 

 were prevented from breeding until quite late, on 

 account of not having pollen; but still they all 

 turned out to be fair colonics. At the beginning of 

 the honey harvest, which was very poor here this 

 season, apple-bloom came and passed away, yielding 



scarcely any honey. White clover was a failure; 

 basswood was a failure; in fact, the bees barely 

 made a living until the fall flowers opened out. 

 Buckwheat did not amount to much, on account of 

 the dry weather; the bees worked on it only awhile 

 in the morning. Smartweed, Spanish needle, and 

 other late flowers, yielded abundantly. The bees 

 soon filled their hives with honey, seemingly in a 

 fine condition for winter. The first of November I 

 prepared them for their winter nap, removing all 

 the frames but 6, filling in with chaff on each side, 

 and on top of the frames; I then placed the hives in 

 a row, and packed straw around them; the swarm 

 with my Italian queen was put in a chaff hive with 4 

 inches of chaff on each side, and I filled the upper 

 story with straw, thinking they were in fine condi- 

 tion for winter. They were not examined until the 

 last week in January. I thought I would look at 

 them; but, alas! what did I find? V stands out of 

 the 11, including my chaff hive, were as dead as 

 mackerel. They had the dysentery, which was 

 caused from the late fall honey, and the long-contin- 

 ued cold weather. Mr. Root, don't this look like 

 Blasted Hopes? This leaves me with 4 stands at 

 present; but I haven't much hopes for them if it 

 don't come out warm pretty soon, so that they can 

 take a fly. However, my hopes are not blasted yet. 

 Cicero, Tnd., Feb. 2, 1881. Elias Berg. 



I fear, friend B., we shall have to go back 

 to the sugar feeding, as so strongly recom- 

 mended by (tLeanings the first year it was 

 started. I have never seen a case of dysen- 

 tery under the conditions you mention,where 

 they had stores of pure sugar. I think, how- 

 ever, I should have preferred the hives left 

 on their usual stands, instead of placing 

 them in a row with straw around them. 

 You see, the sun and wind could not get at 

 the outside of the hives to dry them out, and 

 I fear they became damp. 



WINTERING IN CEI,LARS. 



I have kept bees for m,,re than fifty years, but I 

 have all these years had but little knowledge of 

 them, and not until about four or five years sinco 

 had my attention called to the fact of my ignorance 

 in this matter. The thought had not entered my 

 mind but that the colonies of this insect in the com- 

 mon box hive must occupy their summer stand 

 through the long winter months, and suffer the 

 freezing and thawing, and take their chances of life 

 or death as best they could; and if they survived, all 

 well: if the poor things died, it was but incidental to 

 bee-keeping. In 1854 I ca me from the State of New 

 York to this place. In 1860 a friend presented me 

 with a swarm of bees, giving varied success of yearly 

 harvests of honey and increase of bees, with losses, 

 etc. About four years ago a new light dawned upon 

 me. I saw most clearly that I had been groping in 

 darkness in relation to bee culture. I had gathered 

 around me over 100 swarms (all from the one) in 

 box hives. I offered them for sale, and within the 

 two years past, have sold over 100 colonies, and have 

 now 34 swarms in Langstroth hives — 15 of them 

 Italians, in my cellar, and, so far as I can see, in 

 first-rate order. I think this is the sixth winter that 

 1 have put bees in cellar. One or two winters I took 

 off entirely the bottom-board, the hives standing on 

 two scantling 2x4. This winter I set them on the 

 timbers with bottom-board, and in the honey-board 

 a ventilator, with wire cloth over it. My cellar is 



