1048 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



tion, affording- the bees frequent flights, for 

 in the south of Connecticut there are often 

 mild and sunny days even in mid-winter. 

 A fire is kept in the lower room of the stable 

 in severe weather, and this, with the ani- 

 mal heat constantly radiated, maintains an 

 even moderate temperature. The advan- 

 tage of this position lies in the fact that it 

 is a compromise between the exposure of 

 outdoor wintering and the confinement of 

 the usual indoor practice. 



Two horses belonging to a physician are 

 stabled directly under the hives; and as 

 feed is kept in the loft, and all stable work 

 done in the barn, the bees are subject to 

 disturbance at all hours of day and night. 

 Even with other conditions in their favor I 

 did not believe it possible that bees could 

 winter well in a location when they would 

 be so continuously disturbed. Much to my 

 surprise they came through in extremely 

 good condition; in fact, they wintered so 

 well that I have increased them during the 

 present season to eight colonies, although I 

 attribute part of my success in securing 

 this increase to my good fortune in obtain- 

 ing extremely good Italian queens to supply 

 the new colonies. 



If it can be proved that noise and jarring 

 are not detrimental to bees in winter quar- 

 ters, the knowledge may be useful to bee- 

 keepers of all classes; yet my chief motive 

 in relating this experience is that it gives 

 encouragement to those who, like myself, 

 have but limited room, and can not keep bees 

 except in a building where disturbances 

 are unavoidable. 



Of course, this is the result of but a 

 single year and with a small number of 

 stocks; but this fall, in addition to the eight 

 mentioned above, I have four others which 

 were recently given me by a friend. The 

 latter stocks have but little honey, and must 

 be fed during the winter, one of them de- 

 pending entirely upon unsealed stores. My 

 indoor apiary now occupies the entire south 

 and east sides of the loft, and I am looking 

 forward to the results of a second winter 

 with much interest. 



Stamford, Conn., Nov. 17. 



[You need have no fears whatever that 

 disturbance below will have any detrimen- 

 tal effect upon the bees. For several win- 

 ters we have had one hundred colonies in a 

 room beneath our machine-shop, where 

 there was heavy machinery rumbling over- 

 head, trucks running back and forth, and 

 occasionally a heavy casting dropped or 

 dumped on the floor. This disturbance 

 keeps up ten hours a day, six days in a 

 week, through the period of confinement. 

 As our readers know, the bees in this shop 

 cellar have wintered remarkably well. The 

 consumpt'on of stores has been very light, 

 and the results all in all have been so grati- 

 fying that we have been seriously consider- 

 ing the matter of wintering all our bees in- 

 doors ; for, unless we are very much mis- 

 taken, indoor bees do not consume within 

 ten pounds as much stores as bees outdoors. 



Ten pounds of syrup ripened up to about 

 eleven pounds to the gallon will mean a 

 s.iving of 60 cents per colony, for I am in- 

 cluding the cost and fussiness of feeding. 

 On 500 colonies that would net the Root 

 Company $300. 



But you suggest another thing, for bee- 

 keepers located in mild climates Indoor 

 wintering is not satisfactory where the wia- 

 ter is comparatively mild ; but if the bees 

 can have a flii,'ht when it warms up out- 

 doors, same as your bees, it does not matter 

 how warm it gets ; they can fly out, cleanse 

 themselves and retarn to the hives; and it 

 is ceitainly true that for very cold snaps a 

 stove inside of the building would be an 

 advantage. Years ato when we were try- 

 ing a house apiary on a similar plan, we 

 found that a stove wi hin the bee-ri om was 

 too much of a good thing. The bees would 

 feel the direct radiation of the heat, and 

 warm up to an activity that would start 

 them flying out into cold air where they 

 would chill and die. But in your case the 

 stove was in a separate room, and the direct 

 effect of it would be to moderate very gradu- 

 ally extremes of ttmperatu'e. Your plan 

 of combining the advantages of inioor and 

 outdoor wintering in your present locality 

 would give much better results than if the 

 bees were shu up in a collar, the tempera- 

 ture of which could not be kept down to the 

 45 degree mark. Doubtless if you were 

 back at your old locality in New York you 

 would think the indoor method of wintering 

 equally good or better. — Ed] 



MODERN QUEEN-REARING 



As Practiced at the Root Ci.'s Yards ; a Brief and 



Comprehensive Treatise on the Latest and Best 



Methods, Gleaned from all Sources. 



BY GEO. W. PHILLIPS. 



In writing the following articles on 

 queen-rearing I do not desire to claim ab- 

 solute originality for myself or my employ- 

 ers. Instead of setting to work to invent a 

 system of our own, we have endeavored to 

 select the best points from systems already 

 in vogue and combine them into one harmo- 

 nious whole. True, here and there weak 

 points have been strengthened, objectiona- 

 ble features discarded, and new additions 

 made in order to bring the system describ- 

 ed up to its present state of relative perfec- 

 tion; yet we have no desire to hang on to 

 these improvements; and should further ex- 

 perience show any thing which we have 

 described and recommended to be objec- 

 tionable, or should plans be set forth by 

 others which, in our opinion, are more de- 

 sirable, we shall be perfectly willing to 

 forego our present sj-stem and adopt and 

 recommend the best. 



PREPARING COLONIES TO ACCEPT CELLS. 



The following are four different kinds of 

 colonies which may be used to good advan- 

 tage in building cells: 



