1881 



GLP^ANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



285 



cret of it was, so many young mouths to 

 feed, and but few old ones to do the gather- 

 ing. If a cold rainy day should happen, 

 these little fellows would suffer. Who knows 

 how much they often suffer in that way'r* 



■ !>■ i^ 



VENTIIiATION, ANI> ITS RELATION TO 

 OUR AVINTERING TROUBLES. 



fKIEND ROOT:— The speculation as to the cause 

 of the terrible fatality to bees through the 

 West, and its remedies, have been the theme 

 for some time. Permit me to add, from my experi- 

 ence and observation, that bad or no ventilation I 

 believe to be the most proliflc source of dysentery. 

 One year ago this past winter I had some 33 colo- 

 nies in a new hive. 1 was apprehensive that the 

 kind of hive had some thing to do with success in 

 wintering. I took special pains to give them up- 

 ward ventilation. The lid of the hive is in two 

 parts; the front end of the lid is 6 inches wide, the 

 back end 16, dividing the bees nearly ^^ of the way. 

 I opened it about one inch, coming nearly over the 

 center of the cluster. My hive is so arranged that I 

 can give them one inch by ten at the entrance; this 

 I did. I had no dysentery; lost none out of 53 col- 

 onies. This past winter I was careless, and opened 

 in front, but not on top. Some of them were badly 

 diseased with dysentery; lost 10 out of 86, not all 

 from dysentery, however; made some other mis- 

 takes, from which I lost. 



One of my neighbors who was wintering five col- 

 onies under my instructions called my attention to 

 his bees in March; said they were laying out on the 

 hive in the cellar. I told him I thought they needed 

 more air; went to look at them; 2 colonics were in 

 8-frame Sayles hive (L. frame), the other 3 in box 

 hives were tiered up, the two Sayles hives imder- 

 neath, with no upward ventilation. The two lower 

 hives showed considerable dysenters'; they were in 

 two tiers, three and two; the two top hives with good 

 ventilation had no dysentery; the one between two 

 showed some; the dysentery showed itself in pro- 

 portion as they had ventilation. Tt is the opinion of 

 some, that the same opening that a colony needs or 

 has in mid-summer is sulHcient for winter; but this 

 is a mistake; they need more. A cellar under an 

 out-house, or under a room where there is no Are, is 

 objectionable, and four out of five times will prove 

 disastrous. 



MOVING BEES FROM CELLAR IN THE DAYTIME. 



In an essay read before an Eastern convention by 

 one of the Dadants, in referring to taking bees out 

 of the cellar, he said they should be set out before 

 noon, meaning that they should be set out in the 

 daytime. This is a serious mistake. It is impossi- 

 ble to prevent them from crowding out; they don't 

 take their location, but crowd into other hiv'es than 

 their own; disorder prevails, resulting in demoraliza- 

 tion and a free fight generally. Set them out in the 

 night, quietly and carefully. By next morning they 

 are quiet — no rushing out, and every bee knows its 

 location. My estimation is, that one hundred colo- 

 onies set out in the night are worth at least fifty 

 dollars more than if set out in the daytime. 



Brush Creek, Iowa, May 9, 1881. B. F. Little. 



Very likely there is something in your po- 

 sition, friend L., for the reports we have re- 

 cently had in regard to leaving sections on 

 all winter seem to imply as much. On the 

 other hand, I have repeatedly killed moder- 



ate-sized colonies outright, Ijy leaving a full 

 draft of air right through the hive, after they 

 had commenced breeding rapidly in the 

 spring. One case was where I replaced a 

 hybrid queen, in a colony that was doing 

 nicely. The cage containing the new queen 

 was a large one, that kept the mat up so the 

 air passed freely through. They had con- 

 siderable brood for the luimber of bees, aad, 

 a cold spell occurring, they were killed out- 

 right. Other colonies of equal strength, 

 well and closely covered, came through 

 without injury. What is it, then, that is 

 wanted? 1 am much inclined to let the bees 

 answer. In the house apiary, with a two- 

 inch auger-hole entrance, they narrowed it 

 down with walls of propolis, before winter, 

 to about a f-incli hole. Colonies with sec- 

 tion boxes left over them will close most of 

 tlie apertures over them, leaving several 

 where one or two bees can just pass, and 

 bees will be seen down through these holes, 

 nearly all winter. Of course, this is the case 

 only where the colony is strong, and they 

 are undisturbed .for several weeks before 

 winter sets in. The combs from which our 

 bees died were wet and damp this spring, 

 and many of them are wet, damp, and sticky 

 yet.— One of the great objections I have to 

 cellar wintering is the troubles you mention, 

 after setting them out in the spring. .Set- 

 ting them out very carefully in the night 

 would, I think, help matters at least. Mr. 

 Quinby, in his book, advised setting them 

 out the evening before a fine day is expect- 

 ed, and Doolittle, in his comments, gives 

 substantially the same directions. 



Or Enemies'oflBees Among Insect Tribes. 



MOSQUITO HAWK, OR DRAGON-FLY. 



S' SEND you by this mail a gentleman who had 

 cheek enough to catch one of my bees and light 

 on ray shoulder to eat him. I brought him up- 

 stairs and fastened him to my table with a needle 

 through his body, but he just went on with bis din- 

 ner as unconcerned as if he were not in the condi- 

 tion of a man with a crowbar through his chest. In 

 fifteen minutes he was done, and for the first time 

 seemed to notice that "something ailed him." I 

 send him, thinking some of your friends might like 

 to add him to their collection. I can count a dozen 

 more sailing around my hives as I write. 



Geo. L. Shaw. 

 ThomasvlUe, Thomas Co., Ga., May 1, 1881. 

 The " gentleman '' alluded to is a very fine 

 specimen of the bee-hawk, or mosquito- 

 hawk, spoken of in Cook's Manual, and de- 

 scribed in Gleanings in back volumes. 

 Send the boys after them with sticks and 

 whips. I think they are seldom plenty 

 enough to do any considerable harm, and 

 they are naturally so shy as to be pretty eas- 

 ily frightened awav. The one you mention 

 must have been slightly idiotic, I should 

 think, to liehave in the way he did. "We 

 have them here, of a smaller species, which 

 we call dragon-flies, but I never saw them 

 eating bees. 



