1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEp: CULTURE. 



21 



SWAKMING AND LAKGE HIVES. 



The very fact that Holtermann has a queen- 

 cell detector to his hive as described in 

 Gleanings proves that it does not entirely 

 prevent swarming. See Mr. E. F. Atwater's 

 remarks, page 1237. The supers have to be 

 managed properly; the entrance, ventilation, 

 and the brood-chamlier. There will be less 

 swarming under proper management, but it 

 can not be depended on absolutely, even 

 then. I did not have two per cent of my 

 bees with the swarming impulse this last 

 season. Let me tell Mr. Atwater that the 

 countiyman of mine he refers to allowed his 

 stocks to get so crowded that, through lack 

 of room, entrance, and ventilation, I have 

 seen the entire front of the hive covered with 

 bees; he used (or, rather, abused) my hive, 

 but that is not my system. 



PLACING HIVES OF BEES IN THE CELLAR. 



The majority of bee-keepers, when placing 

 bees in cellar repositories, set them upon 

 stands, bringing the hives a greater or less 

 distance from the ground. We are taught 

 and we teach that the foul air, supposed to 

 be largely carbonic-acid gas, is heavier than 

 the air, and sinks to the bottom. In theory 

 this is partially true; but such a tendency is 

 overcome by air-currents more or less active 

 in any ordinary cellar intensified by air- 

 movements, the result of slight activity in 

 the hive by the bees. Long observation has 

 taught me that there is, as a rule, greater 

 indication of moisture about hievs in proximi- 

 ty to the cellar floor. The reason, in my es- 

 timation, is that the temperature in a good 

 cellar is, as a rule, lower close to the ground 

 than it is further up, and the lower the tem- 

 perature the more readily condensation takes 

 place. 



UNCOOKED FOOD. 



On page 1196 Mr. A. I. Root tells us how 

 he is living on uncooked food, nuts, grain, 

 and the like; he has also been living in a log 

 cabin up in Michigan. I should judge he 

 was getting pretty close to a state of savage 

 splendor. The savages, of course, kept no 

 sabbath; and on another page Mr. Root tells 

 us how, after a very short period on this diet, 

 his grandson breaks out into this lack of ob- 

 servance of the sabbath. I fancy, brother 

 Root, it would take some time longer for you 

 to show the symptoms; but better quit in 

 time. In any case I'll guarantee if you had 

 a serious sickness it would not be tincooked 

 food you would resort to, but Dr. J. M. Lew- 

 is, Rose Building, Cleveland, and the lean 

 broiled-meat diet under his supervision. 

 Boys and men will stray when they are well, 

 but real sickness often brings them back 

 home if they get able to get there. 



BRANT COUNTY BEE-KEEPERS' CONVENTION. 



The above association had a more than or- 

 dinarily interesting meeting at Brantford, 

 Oct. 27. In the immediate vicinity, say a 

 circle of two miles or a little over, and in the 



city, I counted up at least 1000 colonies of 

 bees, and there are quite a few bee-keepers 

 in the county, outside of this circle. Last 

 year the president was Mr. Chris. Edmanson, 

 and vice-president J. H. Shaver, both thor- 

 oughly good bee-keepei's. This year the oi'- 

 der is reversed. 



OUTSIDE IDEAS SOUGHT. 



The writer here suggested that a little 

 surplus fund on hand be spent in bringing 

 some good bee-keeper from the United States 

 to give new ideas. New York State is in 

 winter the nearest point, and he thought 

 some one from there would come for actual 

 expenses — all that the county society could 

 afford. It would be well to have the event 

 take place when the district convention took 

 place, which would likely be the latter part 

 of January. The plan was decided upon, 

 and the matter left in the hands of the execu- 

 tive committee. 



FEEDING BEES FOR WINTER STORES. 



In the discussion upon this subject, Mr. 

 Wm. McEvoy, inspector of apiaries, who 

 was at the meeting, certainly gave some val- 

 uable suggestions as to how a colony might 

 be fed late in the fall. He advocated, if 

 feeding until late had been delayed, feeding 

 from under the brood-chamber. He would 

 remove the center combs in the hive — "pull 

 the heai't out of it," as he expressed it. So 

 contracting the brood-chamber would in- 

 crease the temperature and enable the bees 

 to take up the feed in pretty cold weather. 

 Even at the date of the convention the bees 

 would yet ripen the honey, build comb if 

 necessary, and cap the honey. The feeder 

 would be a modified Miller feeder, so arrang- 

 ed that the bees would go into the feeder 

 from the top. Where the bottom-board was 

 attached to the brood-chamber, as in chaff- 

 packed hives, he would take glass jars, such 

 as the Gem (Mason), put a perforated zinc 

 with a rV-iJi^ti hole in place of the glass, the 

 rubber band over this, and then the screw 

 cap tightened over all, the jar being, of 

 course, first filled with the syrup. An oil- 

 cloth with three or four round holes is now 

 placed on top of the frames; two sticks, i 

 inch thick, placed across the holes, and the 

 jars inverted upon the sticks. Packing 

 should then be placed about the jars and up- 

 on the oil cloth to keep all warm. A hive 

 properly contracted could take up 15 lbs. of 

 syrup in two feeds, and ripen the food as 

 well. One member, Mr. John Clarke, stated 

 he had fed a colony in this way in the depth 

 of winter, and with success. 



LARGE OR SMALL HIVES. 



A discussion on large hives created a smile 

 when the writer asked Mr. Edmanson to give 

 his experience with a small hive and the 

 twelve-frame Langstroth hive. Mr. Edman- 

 son said he had the Richardson hive (capaci- 

 ty between eight and nine fi'ame Langstroth 

 hive), and his son, Gladstone, had in the 

 same apiary a dozen of the twelve-frame 

 Langstroth-Holtermann hives The flow had 

 been very poor, but the latter hives had aver- 



