VOL, 1!. 



FLINT, MICHIGAH, JUNE 10, 1889, 



NO. 6, 



Shade for Both the Bees and Their Keeper — 



Circulation of Air Needed — ftuilts 



and Honey-Boards Once More. 



DB. C. C. MILLEK. 



'^yp WANT shade principally for the coiii- 

 m) fort of those at work with the bees when 

 „^ the .sun is hot. One of njy apiaries is iu 

 an everf^reen grove, which makes a de- 

 lightful shade, but, in coal days, especially 

 in spring t\nd early suiiuner, it is too cool 

 for the bees. Another is iu a burr oak grove 

 which is very satisfactory, as the foliage does 

 not become dense until hot weather. The 

 other two have apple tree^ for shade, which 

 are nearly as good, bul the low branches 

 trouble sometimes. Very decidedly, I want 

 shade for my own comfort. For tlie bees, I 

 think it may be best when very hot, and 

 harmful when too cold. 



If no trees shaded my hives, I think I 

 would provide some kind of shade when the 

 sun became hot. Your shingle cover, Mr. 

 Editor, is good : and now I'll tell you of a 

 very simiile shade I once used when there 

 were no trees for shade. I took fresh-cut, 

 tall grass, laid it over the cover so as to 

 project over on all sides except the nortli, 

 then laid on a stick of stove wood to keei) it 

 from blowing away. In a day or two it was 

 dry, and fitted down upon the cover, and 

 lasted through the season. I'm not sure but 

 it was better tli;in a board shade. 



You say you never kuev,' combs to melt in 

 a iiivc^ painted white. I have seen combs 

 melt down iu hives that stood in a shade so 

 dense that the suu never shone upon them. 

 I'm not sure, now, about the color, but, as 

 the sun never touched them, it would prob- 

 ably make no difference, whether the hives 

 were black or white. The trouble was that 

 growing corn on one side, and dense brush 

 ui)0ii the other, made it so close that no air 

 circidated, and the heat of the bees prolj;d>ly 

 melted tlm combs. Of course, a white hive, 

 ichi'ii standiiKj in the sun, is cooler than any 

 other. 



Friend Ilutchiuson, I'm not going to be 

 j)nt down so easily about quilts and houey- 

 b'>urds. It is possible that I caujujt manip- 

 ulate a honey-board so well as you can, but I 

 liad considerable practice with solid honey- 

 boards before quilts were ever hei^rd of, and 

 I have handled slatted honey-bo;irds by tlie 

 hundred ever since they were known. Now, 



I'll tell you what I think. If you take honey 

 boards and quilts, as I have known them in 

 my apiary, I think I can take off a quilt in 

 one-fifth the time ii<ni can take off a honey- 

 board ; and do it with less "snap and sput- 

 ter." The very fact that a quilt can be 

 in'eled off, I count an advantage, for the at- 

 tachments are broken a little at a time, but 

 so rapidly one after another, that a second 

 of time takes off the whole quilt. I have 

 read and re-read your statement as to the 

 way bees propolize (luilts : whatever your 

 bees may do, mine do nothing of the kind. 

 Brace combs are built under the quilt just 

 as they are under the honey-board, only in 

 time the brace combs under the quilt be- 

 come higher than under the honey-board, 

 for the bees raise ui) the quilt by means of 

 the brace combs, and this is an objection to 

 quilts. The only way I can think it possible 

 for your bees to do as you say, is that pres- 

 sure of some- kind keeps the quilt down close 

 to the top bars : whereas, only the weight of 

 the quilt keeps mine down : and I have seen 

 brace combs an inch high built under them. 

 The quilt may be. as you say, "going," and 

 it is possible that I may discard it entirely, 

 but not because of any difficulty of removal. 

 And it is possible that I may retain it in part 

 for the very reason that it can be handled so 

 easily and with so little irritation to the bees. 



You have discussed, in the May number, 

 the prevention and control of increase : and 

 I wait patiently for the time to come when 

 you will discuss prevention, not of increase, 

 but of suHirniiny. That's what I would like 

 to know about. 



Makengo, III. May 23, 1889. 



What Shade is Worth, and How to Get It. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



THEN I began bee-keei)ing under 

 '/'^ the guidance of my father-in-law, 

 twenty-one years <igo, one of his 

 hobbies was shade for hives iu 

 summer. At that time, he was the most 

 skillful and best posted in modern apicul- 

 ture (as well as l)eing a natural genius) of 

 any bee-keeper in this part of the state. He 

 had experimeuted a great deal with shading 

 hives, and used to say to me that, if a man 

 had to i)ay $r).(X) a year for something to 

 nicely shade each hive, he could better 

 afford to pay it than go without it. The 



