1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1333 



day with a strong wind, and it kept the 

 bees down to a minimum. 

 Phoenix, Ariz., June 27. 



[Mr. Lossing has a good thing ; and the 

 idea of having a robber-trap to catch stray 

 robbers which, unless taken care of, would 

 be the cause of a great deal of annoyance, is 

 also excellent.— Ed.] 



CHAFF HIVES. 



I do not wish to have it understood that 1 

 am condemning the Danzenbaker hive nor 

 Mr. Stanley's explanations of the hive. For 

 wintering it may be all right for most loca- 

 tions; but I would say to him that, if he were 

 situated in my location, about two miles 

 from the south shore of Lake Erie, to make 

 much success in wintering bees without loss 

 he would soon find he would need some pro- 

 tection for them other than the summer 

 stand, wintering in hives of any shape. 

 Ashtabula, O. • 



Colonies in Such Hives go Through 

 Severest Winters Without Loss. 



the 



BY THOS. H. CLARK. 



A COLONY OF BEES THAT BUILT 



COMB AND LIVED IN THE OPEN 



AIR. 



In reading Gleanings, p. 93, I notice Mr. 

 Stanley says the "chaff hive" has seen its 

 day. 1 don't agree with him on this point. 

 As I never used the Danzenbaker hive I know 

 nothing of its merits for wintering or for 

 producing honey. 



The winter of 1903 was a very severe one 

 for bees. My colonies were packed in chaff 

 hives. They had brood in January, Febru- 

 ary, and Mai'ch. My 

 first swarm was on 

 May 8. That winter 

 two-thirds of the bees 

 in this locality per- 

 ished, all of which 

 were wintered on sum- 

 mer stands. Not one 

 colony in this section 

 that 1 know of had 

 any protection, either 

 by packing or in cel- 

 lar. They were also 

 well supplied with 

 stores; three or four 

 of the outside combs 

 were frozen solid. The 

 cause was nothing 

 more than continued 

 extreme cold weather. 

 The hives were of va- 

 rious makes, includ- 

 ing the Danzenbaker 

 hives. What few hap- 

 pened to pull through 

 were late in getting 

 built up, as the first 



swarms from them were the last of May 

 and in June, while my last swarm issued 

 May 33. I never lost a colony of bees win- 

 tered in a chaff or planer-shaving-packed 

 hive. Mr. Stanley speaks of its requiring 

 several days of warm weather to warm up a 

 chaff _ hive sufficiently to have the bees fiy. 

 This Is new to me. Is not a colony properly 

 packed in a good chaff hive already warm? 

 in my experience bees so packed need only 

 a few hours of the first warm day when I 

 find all of my bees flying in fine shape. I 

 have never failed to findT)ees flying from my 

 hives on the first fine day if warm enough, 

 even if the day previous had been too cool. 



BY M. A. SALAZAR. 



I inclose a picture of a colony of bees that 

 was discovered on the 11th of June by my 

 boy, six years old, about 130 feet from our 

 back door. When we cut them down, on 

 the 13th, they had a good bit of honey, eggs, 

 and larva3, and a few cells of sealed brood. 



Falfurrias, Texas, June 17. 



A COLONY OF BEES THAT BUILT COMB, AND LIVED IX THE 

 OPEN AIR. 



[It is not often that bees hanging on a 

 bush or tree will build combs like this. 

 However, if they remain overnight and then 

 depart for a more permanent home one may 

 find little spurs of wax clinging to the limb 

 or point of support. In rare instances it 

 happens that a colony does not seem to have 

 any location picked out in advance. During 

 their state of uncertainty they will begin 

 comb-building, and this almost immediately 

 suggests the idea of permanency. The illus- 

 tration hei'ewith is a case of this kind. Such 

 a colony out in the open is almost sure to 

 die from exposure in our northern climates. 

 —Ed.] 



