1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1193 



his own hives unless he has foot-power buzz- 

 saws, with a full equipment of gauges, and, 

 I might add, some mechanical skill besides. 

 -Ed.] 



BEE-TREE HUNTING. 



How to Make a Bee-hunting Box. 



The picture I am sending you speaks for 

 itself. This is an apple-tree out in an old 

 pasture lot. 



The way we hunt bees here, we have a 

 box in two parts, the bottom having some 

 comb with honey diluted with water, or we 

 use a little oil of anise, as this draws the 

 bees, and they come back better. The top 

 part of the box rests over the bottom. We 

 catch a bee in the top part of the box, put 

 it on the box, draw a slide, and let the bee 

 down on the honey; tilt the lid back a little; 

 set them up on a stick about eight feet long 

 or high, and wait for Mrs. Bee to come out 

 with her load. If the tree is near enough 

 to pay to look for she will be back in from 

 nine to fifteen minutes. I never had one 

 come back in less than six minutes, and they 

 were only about fifty rods away. After sev- 

 eral get to working on a line, and are com- 

 ing back in good time, I usually have an- 

 other box. I catch all I can that are in the 

 box at work; set box No. 2 up on the stick, 

 and move several rods to the right or left, 

 as may be most convenient, and set them up 

 again. In this way you get a cross-line, 

 and we can generally find them in half a 

 day, and sometimes less. Hunting bees isn't 

 a profitable business, but there is real sport 

 in it and I enjoy it. Frank P. Stowe. 



Seymour, Conn., Aug. 9. 



[The bee-hunting box you describe is quite 

 similar in principle to the one shown in our 

 A B C of Bee Culture. It is very satisfac- 

 tory for the purpose. —Ed.] 



SWEET CLOVER GROWING TO A GREAT 

 HEIGHT. 



Mr. iSooi.-— Inclosed you will find a picture 

 of a bunch of sweet clover. You can see it 

 is very tall. I am five feet ten inches, and 

 the picture shows how much taller the clo- 

 ver is. It almost reaches the electric wires, 

 as you see, which are on the usual length of 

 poles. This clover is just roaring with bees. 



One peculiar thing about my keeping bees 

 is this: To the best of my knowledge I have 

 never had a swarm get up and leave. This, 

 certainly, is through no good management 

 of mine, and I do not claim to have any con- 

 trol over the bees in this way. 



JOSEPH Egge. 



Willamette, Ore., July 20, 1905. 



[This is certainly a large growth of sweet 

 clover. I have seen it on the top of some 

 yellow clay embankments just as high. It 

 thrives best where nothing else grows, and 

 hence can never be a noxious weed. 



If any one can show a taller specimen we 



should be glad to have him send a picture of 

 it. -Ed.] 



FIXING HIVES FOR CELLAR WINTERING. 



"Good evening, Mr. DooHttle. Evenings 

 are getting longer now." 



"Yes, Mr. Smith; these longer evenings 

 remind me that winter will soon be upon us. 

 Take it as a whole we have had a pleasant 

 summer and fall, and I think that we should 

 have had a good honey year had it not hap- 

 pened that our cool rainy spells came just at 

 the time the honey-producing bloom was at 

 its height. ' ' 



' ' I quite agree. Those rainy spells came 

 right in the center of the clover bloom, in 

 the center of the basswood bloom, and in 

 the center of the buckwheat bloom. It 

 rarely happens thus with all of the bloom 

 which is likely to give us a surplus of 

 honey. ' ' 



"That is right. But what was especially 

 on your mind this evening? You rarely 

 come over unless you have some particular 

 topic you wish to talk upon." 



"These long evenings and cool weather 

 set me to thinking about putting the bees in 

 the cellar. I have not been satisfied with 

 the way my bees winter. ' ' 



"In what respect?" 



"There are too many bees dead on the 

 bottom-boards each spring, these dead bees 

 often going up between the ranges of comb 

 to such an extent that some of the center 

 combs are moldy and nearly rotten at the 

 bottom. It doesn't seem to me that such a 

 condition is best for the bees, to say nothing 

 about the combs, so I came over this even- 

 ing to see if you could not help me out in 

 the matter. ' ' 



"You do not leave the hives down on the 

 bottom-boards during the winter as they 

 were in summer, do you? " 



"That is the way I have always done. 

 Please tell me how you fix the hives for cel- 

 lar wintering, as to roof and bottoms." 



"The tops are left just as they were dur- 

 ing the summer except that the shade board 

 is left on the summer- stand. " 



" What? Do you take the cap or hood in 

 the cellar? " 



"Where hives have a cap or hood this is 

 left on the stand with the shade-boards, but 

 of late years I have not used hives having 

 these." 



' ' And the loose bottom-boards — do you 

 take these in the cellar?" 



"No. Do your hives have a cap and 

 loose bottom-boards? " 



' ' Part do. But this year I have a part of 



