Vol. XI. 



MAR. 1, 1883. 



No. 3. 



A. I. ROOT, ] 



Publisher and Proprietor, \ 

 Medina, O. 



riiblislietl Monthly. 



TERMS: Sl.OO Per Axnvm. in Advance; 

 2 Coiiies for $1.90; 3 for 82.75; 5 for 84.00, 10 

 or more, 75 cts. each. Single Number, 19 cts, 

 Ailditions to eluba may oe made at club 

 rates. Above are all to he sent to onk post- 



J Established in 187 S. \:^^J^}^<^"^'"'''°'^'''''''''' 



NOTES FROM TH^ BANNER APIARY. 



NO. 40. 



AMONG THE BEES AND BEE-KEEPEUS OP MICHIGAN. 



fi HAVE just returned from a visit to some of the 

 most prominent apiarists of this State; and 

 — ' thinking that a description of their apiaries 

 and methods might be interesting to the readers of 

 Gleanings, I venture to send an account of the trip. 



MK. J. H. ROBERTSON'S APIARY. 



First upon the list of bee-keepers is Mr. J. H. Rob- 

 ertson, of Pewamo. Mr. R. commenced bee-keeping 

 about 20 years ago, when log gums and box hives 

 were the rule, and the getting of honey by having it 

 stored in large boxes placed upon the tops of the 

 hives was considered the nexilus ultra of perfection. 



A ONE-ARMED BEE-KEEPER. 



Although friend R. left his good right arm upon a 

 Southern battle-field, he did not leave his Scotch de- 

 termination and will; and the misfortune that 

 would have dampened the ardor of most bee-keepers 

 seemed only to spur him on to greater efforts. I 

 have been informed that friend R. can handle bees 

 as rapidly with his one hand as mauy bee-keepers do 

 with both; and after passing two days in his com- 

 pany I can easily believe it, as he gets about and 

 handles everything so easily and rapidly that I some- 

 times really forgot that he had only one hand. He 

 has owned as many as 500 colonies at one time, and 

 obtained as high as 30,000 lbs. of extracted honey in 

 one season. Although others may find that the pro- 

 duction of comb honey is the most profitable, friend 

 R. feels certain that extracted honey is the most 



profitable for him to raise. He says, that if he does 

 not extract the honey, his bees get the swarming 

 fever, and he loses all control of them in this respect. 



THE RAILROAD ARRANGEMENT. 



His lines stand in long rows, and he has a track 

 upon which to run a car for carrying hives, colonies, 

 honey, etc., to and from the apiary. 



A MODEL WINTERING CELLAR. 



At one side of the track stands his wintering cel- 

 lar, which it will scarcely do to pass without a de- 

 scription. It is perhaps 16 feet wide by 40 feet long, 

 outside measurement. First an excavation, 3 or 4 

 feet deep, and as long as the inside of the cellar, was 

 made, then two walls of boards, or 7 feet high, and 

 about 3 feet apart, were built around the outside. 

 The space between the walls was filled with dry 

 earth, a covering of boards or planks laid over the 

 cellar, and then a roof of boards over the whole. 

 The chamber floor was made frost-proof by cover- 

 ing it deeply with sawdust. The cellar is ventilated 

 by one or more tubes passiug up through the cham- 

 ber floor and its covering of sawdust. A thermom- 

 eter is let down, by means of a string, through a 

 tube that passes through the sawdust and chamber 

 floor. The thermometer can be drawn up, and the 

 temperature ascertained at any time without enter- 

 ing the cellar. Friend R, says that the temperature 

 is very even throughout the entire winter and 

 spring. The cellar is furnished with double doors. 



RUNNING WATER IN A WINTERING CELLAR. 



At one end of the cellar is a spring that usually 

 causes a stream of water to flow through the cellar; 

 but at the time of my visit it was not furnishing any 

 water, and friend R. shoveled bushels of snow into 



