1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1699 



allows a circulation of air under it, and re- 

 moves all danger. F. H. Cyrenius. 

 Oswego, N. Y. 



CAUCASIANS NOT ALWAYS GENTLE. 



I have just read in the March 1st Glean- 

 ings, page 337, Mr. J. G. Baumgaertner's 

 experience with Caucasian bees. I have been 

 surprised that so many recommended them 

 last year for gentleness. It may be, as Mr. 

 Baumgaertner says, that the cross with Ital- 

 ians makes them irritable. I found them 

 very treacherous. One day, late in summer, 

 I was taking off honey, and, afttr giving 

 them a few puffs of smoke, I raised the lid, 

 and I think two-thirds of the swarm struck 

 ^ me at once, settling on my veil until it was 

 weighted down to my shoulders. I had enough 

 stings to kill a man who was not used to it. 

 That some beginner might not have such an 

 experience as mine. I will say that I resort- 

 ed to the ol I way of robbing bees by setting 

 them over a pan of sulphur. It is a pity that 

 such pretty bees should be such fighters. The 

 Italians are good enough for me. 



Fresno, Cal. R. E. Zimmerman. 



FEEDING FOR WINTER STORES ; SOME DATA 



TO SHOW THE SHRINKAGE WHEN 



SYRUP IS FED. 



In the Dec. 1st issue the editor asks for 

 reports of experiments made in feeding for 

 winter stores. Here are two extracts from 

 my notebooks that may interest you. The 

 syrup fed was made of equal parts of sugar 

 and water. 



Sept. 6, 1906, I put a super with six emp- 

 ty frames and queen-excluder on hive No. 

 43; weight, with feeder, 81 lbs. 



Sept. 6. 7 P.M., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 87 lbs. 



Sept. 7, 7A.M weight i-6 lbs. 



Sept 7, 7 p M weight 84% " 



Sept. 7, 7 p M., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 9o>^ " 



Sept. 8. 7 AM weight 90 lbs. 



Sept. 8, 7 P.M weight 8» lbs. 



Sept 8, 7 p M., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 94 lbs. 



Sept. 10, 7 : 30 A.M weight 90 lbs. 



Sept. 10, 7 P.M weight 89 lbs. 



Sept. 10, 7 P.M. . fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 95 lbs. 



Sept. 13, 7 :30 A.M weight 92 lbs. 



Sept. 13, 7 P.M weight 92 lbs. 



Sept. 13. 7 PM., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 98 lbs. 



Sept. 14, 7 : 30 A.M weight 97 lbs. 



Sept. 15, 6 P.M weight 95 lbs. 



Sept. 15. 6 PM., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 101 lbs. 



Sept. 17, 7 A M weight 97 lbs. 



Sept. 17 7 P.M., fed 6 lbs. syrup weight 102% lbs. 



Sept 19. 7 A.M weight ICO lbs. 



This is a net gain of 19 lbs. for 42 lbs. of 

 syrup fed. 



Oct. 4, 1907, I fed the same colony 21 lbs. 

 of syrup ; weight, after feeding, 83 lbs. ; on 

 the evening of Oct. 5 it weighed 79 lbs. ; Oct. 

 6, 76 lbs. ; Oct. 7, 72 lbs., thus showing a 

 loss of 11 lbs. in three days. 



U. H. BOWEN. 



Niagara Falls, Out., Dec. 2, 1907. 



[This is a very interesting series of fig- 

 ures. In this case, at least, there was a loss 

 of only 2 lbs. of sugar out of 21 lbs. fed. At 

 the time of year indicated there would be 

 little or no brood-rearing \t other times, 

 when they were rearing broo , the loss 



would be considerably greater; but it would 

 be a case of where sugar was converted into 

 bees. From that standpoint the trade would 

 be a good one. — Ed.] 



A GOOD YIELD OF HONEY FROM A COLONY 

 IN AN ATTIC. 



I have had what seems to be, in our coun- 

 ty at least, a phenomenal yield of honey 

 from one colony. By way of introduction i 

 might say that I am General Secretary of the 

 Sunbury R. R. Y. M. C. A., and, of course, 

 live right here in the town. The only hive 

 of bees I have is kept in the attic of my 

 home, the bees going out and in at the east 

 window. 1 have been telling some of the 

 bee-men of our county, as I see them on mar- 

 ket here, that from my one colony I have 

 taken 134 1-lb. boxes, and they look as though 

 they were not quite ready to believe me. 

 But it is. nevertheless, true. My wife and I 

 have kept accurate account of the boxes as 

 we took them off at different times The 

 only thing I did with the bees was to give 

 them plenty of room. In this way I kept 

 them from swarming. Most of the time I 

 had 96 boxes or four full supers on top of 

 the hive. My bees are quite dark in color, 

 and, in my judgment, pretty cross, although 

 my experience is limited to three or four 

 years. W. D. Hevner. 



Sunbury, Fa. 



THE LONG-IDEA HIVE. 



Being an amateur bee-keeper I like to read 

 the experiences of others. I should like to 

 see more writings of schemes of those who 

 keep only a few hives for a hobby. I have 

 one plan that has worked so well with me 

 that I should like to see others try it. It is 

 this: A 16-frame hive, the frames running 

 just opposite the regular way. This is the 

 way I manage it: I keep two frames always 

 with starters next to the entrance. This, with 

 the wide entrance, does away to a certain 

 extent with the desire to swarm. Back of 

 these two frames are the brood- combs and 

 then a division-board. As the bees need 

 more I'oom to enlarge their homes I just 

 move the division-board back to make room 

 for the extra frames. In this way the queen 

 has plenty of room for her work, the bees 

 room to store their surplus honey, and the 

 large entrance gives plenty of room for air 

 and the multitude of bees going and coming. 

 The honey is in nice large sheets. I then cut 

 squares as large as will go into a 1-lb. jar 

 nicely; strain the odds and ends, and till the 

 jars. In this way my honey sells very read- 

 ily. Fred Ames. 



Rockland, Mass. 



[The hive that you describe is the sam 

 thing as was known as the "Long Idea" 

 hive of thirty years ago. The bee- journals 

 were full of the discussion of it at that time; 

 but in later years it has been deemed more 

 practicable to tier up a brood-nest of moder- 

 ate capacity by piling one on top of the oth- 

 er.— Ed.] 



