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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



Good rains are being reported for South- 

 ern California. Let 'em come— the more 

 the better. 



The bee-keepers of Michigan are plan- 

 ning for a big affair at their annual State 

 convention, held this year at Grand Rapids, 

 Feb. 23, 24. There are to be exhibitions of 

 both comb and extracted honey, for which 

 liberal prizes are offered by several different 

 supply-dealers and manufacturers, as well 

 as by the editors of some of the bee jour- 

 nals. The National Biscuit Co. will also 

 make a display of their goods that are made 

 with honey. See Convention Notices. 



Just as we go to press we have received 

 the announcement of the death of Mr. Geo. 

 W. Brodbeck, of Los Angeles, Cal., Secre- 

 tary of the National Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion. He died on Monday, Feb. 6. No oth- 

 er particulars have been received. Mr. B. 

 was a lovable man, and his death will be 

 mourned by his fellow bee-keepers. It will 

 be remembered that, at the last election, 

 the votes were all to be sent to Mr. Brod- 

 beck, the Secretary. As no announcement 

 had been made of the result, many were be- 

 ginning to wonder what was the trouble. 

 His sickness and death probably explain. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF CLOSING THE ENTRANCES 

 OF OUTDOOR-WINTERED BEES. 



I HAVE just been looking at some outdoor- 

 wintered bees at one of our outyards, and 

 found them in splendid condition. The tem- 

 perature was about 10 above at the time of 

 the examination. The .entrances were all 

 covered with snow, so that no cold air could 

 be blown in and out. What was the result? 

 The bees were fairly well spread out over 

 the frames in many cases, for the heat of 

 the cluster was sufficient to make the com- 

 partment reasonably warm, so they did not 

 nave to draw up in the usual small compact 

 masses. Heretofore when we examined our 

 outdoor-wintered bees I have noted that 

 they were drawn up into a mass not much 

 larger than a good-sized snowball, because 

 the heat of the cluster would escape at the 

 open entrance. But this winter we are cov- 

 ering our outdoor entrances with snow or 

 straw to confine the heat and yet allow a 

 sufficient circulation of fresh air. Both the 

 snow and the straw confine the bees; then 

 when we have a nice day for thawing, the 

 snow is melted, and the straw is pulled away 

 to give the necessary flight. 



I would urge our subscribers to try this 

 entrance-closing for their outdoor bees, and 

 see if they do not get better results than by 



the old plan of leaving the entrances open 

 the full width of the hive. Of course, it is 

 necessary that the dead bees be raked out 

 on warm days to prevent their clogging the 

 entrance, and always see that it is not her- 

 metically sealed with ice. Loose straw 

 around the entrance shuts out the light and 

 allows of ventilation, but prevents draftsjof 

 cold air. 



Coggshall put me on the track of this when 

 he wrote some time ago of the value of 

 strewing loose sawdust over each entrance 

 in early spring to prevent the chilling ^of 

 brood on cool days. The bees can easily 

 push the sawdust out of the way when it is 

 warm enough for them to fly, so there will 

 be no danger of suffocation or imprisonment. 



HATCHING CHICKENS OVER A COLONY OF 

 BEES. 



This thing has been done, and it has been 

 reported and discussed on our pages several 

 times in years past. Now, although I have 

 never made the experiment I feel sure that, 

 were we to make use of the animal heat 

 generated by a strong colony of bees for 

 some purpose besides hatching their own 

 brood, it would be detrimental to the colony 

 more or less. In other words, if we hatch 

 chickens by the heat generated by the clus- 

 ter of bees we can not hatch out young bees 

 with the same heat; and I think the young 

 bees will be of more importance to the gen- 

 eral bee-keeper than the chickens. Will 

 the friends who have had experience please 

 let us know about it? It keeps popping up 

 every little while in the agricultural papers; 

 and a bee-keeper in Ashtabula Co., Ohio, is 

 credited with having said that a colony of 

 bees will hatch every hen's egg that is fer- 

 tile, without any care or attention what- 

 ever. One reason why I am doubtful about 

 the matter is that I have seen so many col- 

 onies injured or killed outright in trying to 

 put a feeder above the cluster in March or 

 April weather, and have the bees keep the 

 feeder warm enough. The same thing is 

 true in a less degree with lumps of candy 

 put right over the cluster. If your lump of 

 candy is very large, and severe weather 

 comes on, the heat that escapes around the 

 candy, or the heat that is absorbed in warm- 

 ing up the lump of candy, may prove the 

 ruin of the colony unless it is a very strong 

 one. Keeping twenty eggs up to incubator 

 heat, as the above writer claims, would be 

 a pretty severe test on almost any hive of 

 bees unless it were a tremendously strong 

 one.— A. I. R. 



ONE VERY IMPORTANT ESSENTIAL FOR EVERY 

 COLONY OF BEES. 



It has often been remarked, friends— in 

 fact, I think it is one of father Langstroth's 

 axioms in bee culture— that there can be no 

 real prosperity in a colony without a con- 

 stant accession of young blood; and in the 

 bee-hive there should be young bees hatch- 

 ing out every day. I do not suppose our be- 

 loved President Roosevelt knows much con- 



