inn. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



83 



t''RlEND NOVICE ; -Am imrliiiod to think if .von had 

 iit't your bees cut regardless of numbers, .you would not 

 lirtve had that bad luuss in .your bee housf, nor would the 

 bees that rlustered on their old stands li;vvc been lost. 

 Tlicy will enter any hive without molestation after being 

 confined in tlie same roosn. At least that is my experi- 

 mvf. I one spring set my bees all on new stands foui- 

 ivds from the place occupied the ijrevious season, and 

 tm.'t with no loss. 



[f you had taoked rausquito net ling over th<! front of 

 ;Vour hives you would have had nn dead bee« oti your door, 

 »nd more live ones in your iii^ e-s ; for when dragging out 

 their dead they fall to the tloor with them and are lost. 

 Ssince using the netting I sometimes find banks of dead 

 lUies against it. 



l-'riend Doolittlc is right in the main, in regard to ex- 

 tracting from brootl combs, but there are exceptions ; 

 .some bees are very perverse. I had two colonies that 

 would not store in the upper hive, but would till the low- 

 '"r story so full that the queen had no Kwm to lay. I sev- 

 <'rol times found the queen occupying but a part of three 

 «-ombs when honey w.is coming iti abundantly. The rest 

 was filled with sealed honey. What could you do in such 

 s case but extract r They did not swarm. 



Would not brimstone bleiK'h wax ? That is what they 

 i.se for bioora corn, straw, etc. 



When you get your metal rollers in working order and 

 The wind mil! hitched on, wo expect you to turn out foun- 

 dations cheap. Shall want a few yards then. Would like to 

 Mielt my drone combs and transfoim to worker, for they 

 ;*re a nuisance as they are. The <iueens will go above and 

 i\\\ them \\ ith eggs which makes work for the bees to 

 I huli'li, and mc to kill them. Eu-jugb were slaughtei'ed 

 f!«st season to make several got.'d colonies if they had been 

 workere. 



HaAehad an uncommonly warm winter here, and no 

 i, sjiow to sjieak of. The cellar has remained at a pretty 

 ' _, <'-\-L'n temijerature, not going below £(>'^ nor above 

 ts ' ; and the bees are as quiet as you could wish. 

 l>on't you believe a cellar is just as good a place for win- 

 tering bees as has yet been found ? 



J. L. WOLFEXDEN. 



Adams, Wis., Jan. 7th. 187ii. 



It is true that the bees will usually be well 

 received in almo-st any hive under such cir- 

 i cuiustances, but as ours had just about the 

 right uumlKT in each, we did not care to have 

 them mixed up. We have seen good stocks 

 5ose so many bees in this way, as to injure 

 ^ them seriously. Besides, we can not feel that 

 .' it is pleasant for the little fellows to be turned 

 out of their own home and made to take up 

 with some other. \Ve used wire cloth on the 

 :i'ont of the hives one season, but thought there 

 were about the usual quantity of dead bees, 

 only they were all kept in the hives. If you 

 take good sized pieces of comb for guides in 

 ttie boxes, especially new comb just built in 

 the body of the hive, as Doolittlc docs, we 

 think yon can make them work in the 

 boxes. Brimstone will not answer for bleach- 

 ing wax, as it makes it brittle, and we are in- 

 clined to thiuk that even sun bleaching has a 

 Tendency that way. We are vers' Sliid indeed 

 to hear your experience with drone comb In 

 the boxes, for the question now before tis, is 

 whether a pair of rollers to make drone comb 

 i.s also needed. See friend Moore's remarks on 

 another page. This past winter has shown 

 pretty conclusively, that a dr>/ cellar, is the 

 best place to winter bees unless they arc in a 

 hou^e apiary. 



A WOliU ABOtT COMB FOUNDATIONS. 



Last September, I did send Mr. Long ten cents lor a 

 sample comb foundation, and by return mail received 

 a sample 3x6 inches, uiade of yellow wax. I cut the 

 piece through the middle, fixed ono piece in a small 

 box and put the box on top of a hive. The bees rushed 

 into the box as if they were astonished to see such ar- 

 tificial comb. I left the box on the hive about one 

 week, then took it ofT and found it in the following 

 condition : 



The cells raised out a little and the wax as white as 

 snow. I think you need not trouble yourself to bleach 

 the wax, for the bees can do it themselves. I will keep 

 the two pieces lor a siimplc. D. N. Kekn. 



Shimersvillc, l*a. 



We were prepared to expect something of the 

 kind but not that the wax would be perfectly 

 white. In our experiments of last fall, we 

 found the yellow wax to be yellow still, even 

 when the walls were raised into full depth 

 cells. We shall very soon give the matter a 

 careful test. 



DEAR SIR:— Feb. Glkaninqs came to hand yesterday. 

 With n^gard to comb foundations, these until very lately, 

 have been sui)plied here solely by Messrs. Neighbour & 

 Sons. For the thickness of them see my Manu.xl. pase 

 100. Tlio bea-keepers of Scotland have for some tune 

 made their own sheets, and formerly used to fill (or near- 

 ly) the frames; but found the bees elongated the sheets 

 so that they had more material tlnn they know what to 

 do with, consequently the sheets became baggy. Now, I 

 believe no one gives more than a few inches of sheet. Mr. 

 Cheshire now makes his plaster block by a cast from nat- 

 ural comb. I have used a bloi'k now before me, the cells 

 are much deeper than a cast from the pl*te, but I am not 

 yet a believer in their superiority. I will make some ex- 

 periments in this direction soon. 



Seeing your note that bees frozen for 24 or 48 hours were 

 dead, I doubted it ; so froze 6 for IS hours — none revived — 

 froze 10 for 36 hours, all revived— froze them again imme- 

 diately for VI houi-s— -9 revived. I mean .to try 48 hou»!< 

 again as my unlucky (5 were scarcely a fair sample, having 

 been frozen before, as were also the 10. I give bees credit 

 for more vitality than you do— but we shall see ! I have 

 some observations maturing on frozen or torpid bees. 



Pollen or larva- food I have an observatory hivo thai 

 since Nov. (early) has had no brood, but bees have con- 

 sumed all (a fair quantity) cf its pollen. Query : for what i 

 I have another stock, Dalmatian bees, that has had no 

 pollen, yet has bred all the winter. On Christmas day 

 had brood of all sizes ; if pollen is so necessary as generally 

 believed how can we account for this ? The queen of the 

 liist hive laid three eggs yesterday; my intention was to 

 see if they would rear without pollen, but found this morn- 

 ing the eggs gone although some more were laid ; so I yef> 

 hope to decide the point. Yours, John Hcntek. 



Eaton Rise, England, Mar. 6th. 1876. 



We think it very likely that an inch or two 

 at the bottom of the comb mai/ be advisable, 

 btit as we have beautiful combs now in our 

 apiary that were built on sheets that tilled 

 the frames, we know they are not always bag- 

 gy. Having the walls of pretty good depth, 

 and pretty thick, we think will have something 

 to do wiiii it. The plan of freezing bees up in 

 the fall, and thawing them out in the spring, 

 we predict a failure. The queen will lay, and 

 the eggs will produce minute larvai without 

 pollen, but in our experiments we have never 

 been able to get the larva' old enough to seal 

 up without pollen. 



