1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1195 



CAN WOOD BE SPLIT IN THE SAME CELLAR 

 WITH THE BEES? 



1. I keep my bees in the cellar. Do you 

 think it will do harm to them if I split wood 

 in the cellar, 15 or 20 feet from the hives? 



2. Give me your idea about wintering my 

 bees, and what I ought to do with them in 

 order to keep them good and strong. 



Appleton, Wis. j. Geo. Breitrick. 



[1. I do not think that the splitting'of wood 

 occasionally in your cellar would have any 

 serious effect on the bees, especially if you 

 did it at regular intervals and every day. 

 The bees would make a buzz or roar, possbily, 

 at the first splitting; but they would very 

 soon get so they would pay no attention to 

 it. 



2. Your cellar ought to be dry, and capable 

 of maintaing a temperature not higher than 

 50 nor lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If 

 the bees get uneasy, ventilate the outer 

 cellar or the other end, then let the air into 

 the inner cellar. If there be no outer cellar, 

 let in fresh air direct from outdoors. This 

 can be done best at night, closing the win- 

 dows or window before morning. A cellar 

 where bees are kept should be pitch dark. 

 If the wood is in one end of the cellar, and 

 the bees in the other end, you had better 

 partition off with boarding, carpeting, or any 

 kind of screen that will shut off the light. 

 If for some reason you can not put up a par- 

 tition, darken all the windows in the cellar, 

 then when you go down to split wood take 

 along a lamp or open up a window for a few 

 minutes while you split wood. You will find 

 fuller particulars on this subject by referring 

 to the subject of Cellar Wintering under the 

 head of Wintering, in the back of the ABC 

 book you have. — Ed.] 



moisture one of the causes of winter 



troubles; the folly of scant 



feeding. 



In my opinion it is not the cold bh'zzards 

 ror the long cold spells, but the moisture 

 dampening the colonies that caused the trou- 

 ble in the winter. As my experience goes, 

 I find that a colony of bees can stand almost 

 any eegree of heat or cold if they are kept 

 dry. They must also have plenty of feed, 

 and the quicker'the bees get the feed inside 

 of the hive, the better it is for the apiary 

 and all concerned. When I have to feed I 

 want the bees to take the feed just as fast 

 as they can, or I do not want them to take 

 it at all. 



Just once in a while there is a bee-keeper 

 that feeds his bees what he ©ught. The 



great trouble is, most of us do not feed our 

 bees enough to do them any good. I have 

 fed an apiary of 400 swarms 250 gallons be- 

 fore it showed one pound in the hives. Of 

 course, some one will ask, "What did the 

 bees do with that 250 gallons of feed that it 

 did not show up in the hive?" Well, I do 

 not know what they did with it. I leave 

 that for Dr. Miller to answer. But one 

 thing I do know is that, when I feed an api- 

 ary of 400 swarms 1000 gallons of feed, it 

 begins to show increase in brood; and when 

 I feed that same apiary 10,000 gallons that 

 apiary is insured for the honey crop if it 

 comes; and if it does not come, my bees are 

 in good shape for winter. 

 Matanzas, Cuba. C. E. Woodward. 



[You are just exactly right on this subject 

 of dampness. The sooner bee-keepers get 

 over the idea that an excess of moisture is 

 not harmful when accompanied with cold, 

 the better will be their profits.— Ed.] 



packing dovetailed hives for winter. 



I find nothing in your journal about the 

 preparation necessary for packing the Dove- 

 tailed hives— I mean for outdoor wintering. 

 I pack in large cases. Do you put a quilt 

 between the super and brood-chamber, leav- 

 ing the super on? If so, what kind of quilt 

 or cloth do you use? Do you then fill the 

 super, which, of course, is destitute of all 

 frames, with chaff or leaves? 



Last winter I removed the supers, putting 

 the covers right down next to the brood- 

 chamber. I lost one colony out of eleven 

 by so doing. Is there not danger of damp? 



Corunna, Mich. E. W. Harding. 



[Particulars for preparing chaff hives for 

 winter are given in our regular catalog. In- 

 stead of a cloth on top of the brood-nest, we 

 now recommend a thin board cover, or what 

 we call a "super cover." This consists of 

 two or more boards f'V thick, tongued and 

 grooved together, and held from warping by 

 a tin binding at each end. Over the top of 

 this we put a large cushion, or, better still, 

 a tray nearly as deep as the telescoping cov- 

 er, and just large enough to slip inside. 

 This tray has for a bottom a piece of burlap 

 loosely nailed on. This makes a complete 

 tray which is then filled with planer-shavings, 

 chaff, or forest- leaves. When so filled it rests 

 on top of the thin super-cover, and the 

 water-table of the hive as well. The chaff- 

 hive cover then sets down over the whole. 

 We formerly used burlap or some other 

 loose material between the brood-nest and 

 the cushion or chaff tray on top; but on the 

 whole we think we get better results with 

 the sealed- board cover. —Ed.] 



honey-dew unfit for bees; a new kind 



FROM acorns. 



You no doubt remember I wrote you in 



regard to the trouble I was having with 



honey-dew from the buds. At that time 



you said honey-dew from the buds is gener- 



