1881 



GLEANIXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



with it, but I am sure a great abuu dance of 

 stores, so that -vvhetlier the bees get over to 

 llie north side or the south side, they are 

 sure to lind sealed stores all about them, 

 have much to do with making it a sure 

 thing. Do you not think soV "Well, we want 

 the owner just like such a colony. His 

 work should be of such a kind that one 

 would say, in looking at it, •• Why, of course 

 it will come out all right ; anybody might 

 see that at a glance.'' 1 used to think our 

 friend L. C. Root extravagant when he said 

 it needs .SO lbs. to the hive ; but I begin to 

 think, of late, he was just about right. 

 What do you think? 



liEAVIXG THE SECTIONS ON A LI. WIN- 

 TER. 



ANOTHER NEW IDEA IN WINTERING. 



UR conscience has been troubled considerably 

 ''I of late because we had been unable, by the 

 unfavorable weather, to put ourselves in full 

 sympathy with our 22 hives of bees at our home in 

 the city. Yesterday we examined all, and gave them 

 full frames of sealed stores and trays of candy 

 where needed. Our report is, 19 alive (one of them 

 very weak, 18 in good order), 3 dead. One of the 

 dead ones was in chaff hive, but we had decided last 

 autumn that they had no queen; still, in the pres- 

 sure of other business, it was neglected. This hive 

 has 10 full frames of capped honey, and some sec- 

 lions in it now. Five of our chaff hives never had 

 the second crop of sections taken off, the cold in 

 November coming one day too soon to finish, and i 

 of these are strong and in splendid order. AVe have 

 as heretofore fed up for late brood-raising with 

 syrup of 10 lbs. grape, 5 lbs. coffee A, and 3 quarts 

 of water, fed nights in Simplicity feeders. We still 

 attribute our good success in wintering out of doors 

 to the late brood-raising, which gives us bees that 

 live until March. The 4 chaff hives with the 10 wide 

 frames of sections still on, and no further protec- 

 tion (not even a cover of any kind between the 

 brood-frames and broad frames), arc in just as good 

 condition as those in chaffs, well covered with cush- 

 ions. They were, we think, a little more quiet dur- 

 ing the slight thaws in February, which of course 

 was a great advantage, as there were serious losses 

 in numbers on those days. 



We have chaff. Simplicity, and old L. hives. All 

 were alike good, but we feel much more comforta- 

 ble about the pets in chaff hives M'ell covered, when 

 the mercury falls below zero. A. C. Kendel. 



Cleveland, O., March 11, 1881. 



!Nou% friend K., this reminds me of some 

 thing I have never told anybody. Yes, my 

 friends, it is a positive fact, there is one 

 "whole idea" in my head that I believe I 

 have kept pretty much all to myself. One 

 spring, in looking over our bees we found 

 one colony that, by some strange accident, 

 had a case of sections over them, precisely as 

 it was in the fall. "•• Why, that is awful," 

 thought I ; and as the winter had been cold, 

 I expected to find them all frozen stiff. Xot 

 a bit of it ; they were clustered clear up into 

 the sections, some of them, and a brighter, 

 nicer colony I never saw. Of course, I took 

 off the sections, made the bees get out of 

 them, and after stirring them up a great deal, 

 got them under a chaff cushion, and felt bet- 



ter. After this there was a severe zero 

 freeze, and, to my astonishment, this colony, 

 for some reason or other, dwindled down 

 and died. Well, now, it could not be pro- 

 tection was not needed, because I tried win- 

 tering a strong colony with nothing but a 

 cover over them, as some of you may recol- 

 lect; and, although they held out pretty 

 well, it killed them before sprmg. Well, one 

 spring I was down at neighbor Dean's, and 

 he startled me with the abrupt intelligence, 

 that a colony with the honej-boxes all on, 

 and nothing else over them, would winter 

 better than any other way you could fix them. 

 I very kindly reproved (':') him, and told him 

 how unreasonable such a theory was ; but he 

 held on pretty hard, for a neighbor of his 

 left a colony just that way, and it came out 

 better than any of his protected ones, even 

 those wintered" in his nice wintering-house. 

 Now, it has occurred to me that, with the 

 sections waxed up between the passages as 

 they usually are, tliere is a very much better 

 covering than none at all. as in my experi- 

 ment ; and is it not possible that the rest of 

 the boxes hinder, to some extent, a circula- 

 tion of air (very coarse chaff or shavings), and 

 yet secure the Idea of perfect dryness which 

 we need':* Now, has anybody else ever been 

 guilty of leaving the sections on all winter, 

 and, in fact, clear into the next season, 

 ready for the new' crop of honey':* If there is 

 such an individual in the company, let him 

 stand up! but wouldn't that be an easy way 

 of fixing the bees for winter and summer 

 too"? I do not think, however, I will put it 

 in the ABC book until another season. 



UNDER THE BOX-EIjDERS. 



fN passing the pleasant residence of our chatty 

 friend Mr. Duster, a few days after our last 

 — ' talk, we saw him seated under his favorite 

 shade trees. He signaled us to join him. He had 

 evidently been reading, as one or two bee journals 

 lay near him, and he at once broke out by saying, 

 "I see several of the bee journals advise 



REQL'EENING 



late in the season, and so on. This is all well 

 enough, but I would never give such advice without 

 also giving proper caution at the same time. 



" Xow, for instance, take such a year as last sea- 

 son. Bees made but little surplus honey, and in 

 Sept. had just about enough stores to go through 

 the winter. Those who requeened at that time 

 found that the young queens, as a rule, had been a 

 little ambitious to show what they could do, and so 

 had gone to breeding; and when the careful owner 

 was about to place them in winter-quarters he was 

 greatly sui'prised to find his stocks so light ; and the 

 careless owner found them in the spring, dead,— 

 starved. 



"My experience has been about this: If the hives 

 are heavy with honey in the fall, there is but little 

 to do but to introduce the queen, and all is right. 

 But if the hives are light, or can just pass inspection 

 for wintering, and you give such, a young queen, she 

 is almost sure to go to breeding and raising more 

 bees than the one in the full hive, for she finds 

 more room to do so. I think that, nine times out of 

 ten, the light hive will need to be fed to prepare 

 them for winter, if a young queen is introduced late 

 in the season. But if proper care is used, requeen- 



