1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1351 



"Don't the bees Hy out while moving 

 them?" 



"No, sir. My hive-ljottoms are fast and 

 the entrances closed." 



"Will not the ))ees smother".'" 



"No, sir. We make (luiclv work of it. 

 The bees are loailed as (iixiekly as possible; 

 and when we get them to the eellarway we 

 run them from the wagon down a cliute into 

 the cellar. One man m the cellar takes the 

 hives out of the way as fast as two men can 

 run them down. Then two men pile the 

 hives up in the cellar, while one man gets 

 another load; anil it takes three men and a 

 team about l.J hours to put 100 colonies into 

 a cellar." 



"Mr. West, do your bees get noisy in the 

 cellar in the spring, when the weather is 

 warm outside?" 



"Sometimes they do." 



" What do you do?" 



"I open the outside door at night, when 

 the weather is cooler outside than in the cel- 

 lar. Never open the tloor when the south 

 wind is blowing hartl. I have one cellar 

 with water running in a ditch on three sides 

 of the bees, and this is the best cellar I have 

 to winter bees in." 



"Do you ever feeil bees in the cellar?" 



"I never have, worth mentioning." 



"How much more honey will it take to 

 winter a colony of l)ees out of doors than in 

 a good (cellar?" 



"From 8 to 10 lbs. It depends. If you 

 mean in well-packed chaff hives, some years 

 there will not l)e very much difference." 



' ' Are your bees that are wintered in the 

 cellars as strong by the 15th of May as those 

 wintered outdoors in chaft" hives?" 



"Yes, Mr. Jones; when 1 put good colonies 

 of bees that are well supplied with plenty of 

 good honey into my cellars I feel as confident 

 of wintering them as I do other stock on my 

 farm. The chief thing to loc k out for is to see 

 that the day is just the right kind, when the 

 bees have their first ff ight, after being carried 

 out of the cellar in the spring of the year. 

 Mr. Jones, I have now given you some of my 

 experience that I have found to be good in 

 wintering bees in such cellars as I have de- 

 scribed. I trust you will now understand 

 what I consider the I'equirements for the 

 successful cellar wintering of bees. Be sure 

 to build the cellar large enough — better too 

 large than too small. You can control tem- 

 perature and ventilation better in a large 

 cellar, and keep the bees more quiet late in 

 the winter, if the weather should be very 

 warm for some days at a time. I would 

 build a pretty good building over a bee-cel- 

 lar, and use the building for a shop or for a 

 room to store bee-supplies, or use it for a 

 dwelling-house, and locate it where it will be 

 most convenient for the purpose for which it 

 is used." 



Middleburgh, N. Y. 



[I wish to emphasize especially Mr. West's 

 last point, viz., be sure to have the cellar 

 large enough so that you can conti-ol tem- 

 perature and ventilation better. — Ed.] 



THE CHAMBERS NON-SWARMiNCJ DE- 

 VICE. 



The Possible Reasons for Failures : Strong 



vs. Weak Nuclei for Rearing- Queensj 



Why a Queen-breeder should Have 



a Cooil 3Iany Imported Breeders. 



BY J. E. CHAMBEKS. 



I note Mr. Burns' failui-e'"'with the non- 

 swarming device, p. 824. I think his failure 

 was due to one of thi-ee causes. As all bee- 

 keepers should know, bees in certain seasons 

 and localities swarm out when the young 

 queen takes her flight. The remedy for this 

 is to put a frame of open brood in the lower 

 hive at the time the cells are cut. Lack of 

 open Ijrood is fre<iuently the cause of this 

 swarming-out at this stage of the manipula- 

 tion. However, I am seldom troubled in 

 this part of the country by swarming out. 



Another possible cause is failure to get eve- 

 ry cell but one. Yet there is another cause; 

 and from the tenor of Mr. Burns' letter I 

 think he used the older model, illustrated in 

 the issue f(u- Nov. 15. 1905. This older mod- 

 el had no tin slides to enal.)le the operator to 

 cut off' communication between the upper 

 and lower hives; and in that ease it some- 

 times happened that the old queen above and 

 the young one below would try to get togeth- 

 er through the zinc-covered holes. The pip- 

 ing of the young queen would then he almost 

 sure to alarm the bees that were able to pass 

 back and forth through the zinc-covered holes 

 to such an extent as to cause swarming; but 

 with the tin slides communication can rje cut 

 oft' until the young queen has mated. Then, 

 as I suppose all experts know, the young 

 queen raised in the hive will superse'de the 

 old one certainly. A frame of young brood 

 given at the time the cells are cut, with the 

 tin slides shoved in, will obviate every possi- 

 ble chance of swarming out. I do not know 

 why a careful operator should fail to get the 

 most satisfactory results. I have never failed 

 in a single instance. 



In this connection there is one thing I wish 

 to caution all parties about ; that is, do not 

 have a small trap chute, for the reason that, 

 where the colonies have many drones, as 

 they hatch and try to take ftight they lodge 

 against the zinc exit and clog up the passage 

 so that the bees can't get out; and, \^hlle 

 smothering will not often be likely to result, 

 yet the upper hive or hives will not be able 

 to empty out the young bees that are dailv 

 hatching. 



I also note on p. 826 that Mr. Yates takes 

 me to task for using too many imported 

 queens in cell-building and drone-getting. 

 He says it is useless to use so many hue 

 queens when home-bred ones are just a.s good 

 for cell-starting, etc. I am surprised that 

 any breeder shoukl think that the whole ob- 

 ject in using imported queens is to get cells, 

 or that I have ever recommended (others to 

 use even one imported queen. My ol)ject in 

 using them is to get a large numl)er of pure 

 drones; and not alone to get them, but to 

 have young drones coming on all the time. 



