1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



96S 



(on which he hangs these combs) driven in 

 the sides of the buildings surrounding the 

 bee-yard. Notwithstanding he has at times 

 exposed a hundred or so such combs, and the 

 bees pounced on them in great numbers, he 

 has never experienced any bad results. But 

 he says outdoor feeding must not be prac- 

 ticed when the bees are on the verge of 

 starvation — a fact which we had recently 

 pounded into us by some experience that we 

 will remember for a time. 



Another thing, our friend has found that 

 the bees should not be given a mere taste, 

 but a lot of feed at one time; then they must 

 be allowed to clean up the syrup (or honey 

 in combs) entirely until they are satisfied 

 that it is all gone. If the combs are taken 

 away from them when the job is only half 

 finished the bees will be liable to pounce on 

 weak colonies in the yard. 



boardman's entrance feeder. 



Mr. Boardman is still using his feeder for 

 in- hive feeding where he desires to favor 

 one colony above another; for it will be re- 

 membered that he is the man who brought 

 out the Boardman entrance feeder — a very 

 excellent feeder when used carefully and in 

 a proper manner. 



KEEPING HONEY LIQUID. 



Our friend has a method of keeping honey 

 liquid almost indefinitely. He has not yet 

 made it pubhc, and whether he will or not 

 will depend on future developments. He 

 does quite a large business in bottling ex- 

 tracted honey, and he has no diflficulty in 

 keeping that honey in liquid condition at all 

 the retail stores until it is sold. Of course, 

 I did not ask him, even for my own private 

 information, what it was; but he said this 

 much: He puts absolutely nothing in the 

 honey by way of preserving it. The plan is 

 only a method of treatment of the honey it- 

 self. 



BOARDMAN THE MAN. 



We have already given a picture of Mr. 

 Boardman, of his bee- cellar, and bee-yard. 

 By referring to the ABC book, under the 

 head of "Wintering," the reader will find 

 some of these reproduced; but for the pur- 

 pose of this article I took two snapshots, 

 the results of which are given herewith. I 

 had asked Mr. Boardman to sit out on his 

 porch with his little girl— to assume his nat- 

 ural easy position while working out some 

 of his new schemes. I pressed the bulb, 

 and the result is before you. 



Even a casual acquaintance would reveal 

 the fact that here is a man of no ordinary 

 ability. He impresses one as being a deep 

 student of nature, a conservative and a 

 careful thinker; and, while he is modest, 

 yet one can not help being impressed with 

 his scholarly manner, notwithstanding that 

 he protests he has never had any extended 

 school training. 



Another view shows a cool retreat just off 

 the porch of the house, looking over toward 

 the bee-yard and the winter repository. 

 The hammock is delightfully inviting. The 

 shade, the soft breezes, and the merry hum 



of the bees all combine to suggest quiet 

 rest. If you desire to know more about 

 this man you are referred to the biograph- 

 ical sketch in the back part of our A B C of 

 Bee Culture. 



OUTDOOR WINTERING OF BEES. 



Hives, if Packed Warm Enough, will Winter' 

 Bees as Well as a Cellar. 



BY E. N. WOODWARD. 



The bee-keeper who has kept himself 

 within the safe beaten paths of his own ex- 

 perience, and who has avoided the many 

 new forms and fancies that spring up and 

 seem to flourish for a day, may congratulate 

 himself that he is not thrown off his base or 

 led into temporary disaster by following 

 some line of manipulation or some plan of 

 management that is not practical or pro- 

 gressive. 



I would not discourage experiment nor lay 

 a straw in the way of progress. Thought, 

 theory, experiment, each is a key that un- 

 locks the door to hidden truth. We may 

 fall into error at times, but the success 

 attained is the reward of investigation and 

 experience; and this leads me to say, in 

 regard to wintering bees in this northern 

 climate, that a plan or a practice that has 

 proved itself true for a period of years with- 

 out a failure is a safe plan to follow for the 

 one making the trial, if not for others. 



In this locality the temperature often goes 

 down from zero to 20 below; and one great 

 reason, and perhaps the chief reason, why 

 some have failed in outdoor wintering of 

 bees is that they are not packed warm. I 

 formerly wintered my bees in the cellar, 

 and lost them in the spring by the score. I 

 then tried an outside repository with about 

 the same percentage of loss. I have also 

 packed them in chaff, and still lost a large 

 number; but for the past several years I 

 have lost no bees of any account. 



I now place them in winter cases, three 

 hives in a case. These cases are made of 

 good lumber, and papered with thick build- 

 ing-paper all around the sides and bottom. 

 I placed 91 colonies in these winter boxes 

 last fall, and every one of them is in fine 

 condition except one in a single box that I 

 overlooked in packing. Since I have adopt- 

 ed my present plan I have not been troubled 

 with spring dwindling. What I wish to em- 

 phasize in this connection is, that bees must 

 be packed warm, and here is where the 

 secret lies. 



The chaff hives made by the different 

 firms are all right provided there is sufficient 

 packing of the right material on the top. 

 My argument is that they must be packed 

 so warm that the moisture will not condense 

 —so warm that the bees can move to any 

 part of the hive without any danger of be- 

 ing caught in a "bhzzard;" so warm that 

 they just laugh when they hear the winds 

 blow with the temperature going down be- 

 low zero. But some will say, ''Pack your 



