130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



"NVliy not make the foundations of combs intended ex- 

 <'lusi\ely for the reception of honey, with cells ji little lar- 

 •^ov than drone cells V Would not the bees com plete them, 

 and till them with honey? In consequence of the size, 

 would not the (|ueen be entirely jM-ecluded from depositing 

 M'Sgs ill theraV Who will try the experiment and report ? 



If our tViend Otis Fuller (see page 99) will rub she de- 

 pendant edges of the comb guides in the Barker & Dicer 

 sectional honey boxes, thoroughly with a solid lump of 

 clean beeswax, his bees will all "fall into line" and obey 

 orders promptly ; /. e. if his bees are as well trained as mine 

 are. Of course this must be done with so much care as 

 not to smear wax on any other portion of the box. The 

 least speck of wax in the toji of a clean box or hive will be 

 taken by the bees as an invitation to commence comb 

 building at that place. A well defined line of beeswax on 

 a dependant edge, is as certain a guide, as is a piece of 

 well formed comb. 6. E. Cokbin. 



St. Johns, Mich., May 5lh, 1870. 



OlIK OWN APIAKY. 



Cti^,N paire 13-] Vol III, friend Townley gave 

 18)1 ' =^ ^ 'T, 



J^ (lirectious for out door wintering, and in- 

 sisted that we sliould prepare just one liive in 

 that manner. Just to malvc the experiment we 

 did so, and tixed them up just as nearly as he 

 directed as we l<new how. The success of that 

 hive is fast turning our head, and we are now 

 looking about to see who can furnish us with 

 a ton or two of chaff at the lowest rates. If 

 you don't lilje to hear us go wild on some new 

 hol)l)y or other every little while, you should 

 not subscribe to Gleanings. We will try and 

 be truthful even if we do get excited. 



It is now May !)th, and the bees in the house 

 apiary are going so rapidly that we fear none 

 will be left. Those outside are most of them 

 building up, but a few of the wcalvcst are yet 

 going down with the Avell known spring dwind- 

 ling." Now this Quinby hive that has 

 the chaff over it, is as we have before said con- 

 siderably the best colony in the apiary; they are 

 out first in the morning, and fly when it is cold 

 and rainy, and so far as we can see, have not 

 lost a bee; to tell the truth they are so covered 

 up that we could not open and overhaul them 

 if we would, and perhaps that is one searet of 

 their prosperity. Day l)efore yesterday, while 

 walking near the hive a bit oi chaff flew out of 

 the entrance as if impelled by a draft of wind, 

 "halloo! said we, have you really become so 

 strong as to send out a current of air for ven- 

 tilation ':"' and we approached and held the 

 back of our hand before the entrance. Sure 

 enough there was a steady, strong blast, and 

 what astonished us more, was to find it so 

 warm that it seemed almost as if it must come 

 from an oven. 



We at once proceeded to our other hives and 

 not a breath of air could be perceived coming 

 from the entrance of even the strongest. We 

 went back to the Q. hive and pushed our hand 

 down in the chaft", and long before it reached 

 the bees, the warmth was very appartnt; as 

 we touched the cloth that covered the combs 

 we made the remark that we must have touch- 

 ed the cluster the first time, but as we slid it 

 lo liic other end of the hive and then over and 

 around the sides, we were obliged to admit 

 that the cluster either filled S of "the large Q. 

 frames, or that the chalf had the astonishing 

 property of so cor.tinir.g the heat that the 



whole hive was warmed up to a temperature 

 that reminded one of handling a setting hen. 

 Perhaps it were well to state here just how 

 this hive was prepared last fall. The hive is 

 wide enough inside to hold 1(5 Irames side by 

 side, and the side boards are tall enough to 

 hold 1(5 more set on top of the lower ones. 

 Well, the directions Mr.Q. sent with the hive, 

 were to remove all but 8 of the frames for win- 

 ter, and to turn these 8 frames at right angles 

 from their usual position so tliat when set in 

 the middle of the hive, there would bo a space 

 of about 4 inches left on all sides for the chafl' 

 etc. and over the top of the frames a space of 

 nearly a foot. Now if a Quinby hive prepared 

 in this way will always winter like this one, 

 why has the plan been abandoned V We once 

 wrote in regard to the matter to Mr. Elvvood 

 we think, and if we are correct his reply was 

 that the plan did not succeed so well generally 

 as wintering in the cellar. At all events, in 

 Mr. Q's neighborhood the plan of out-door 

 packing seems to have been pn.'tty generally 

 abandoned in favor of cellar wintering not- 

 withstanding that the hive used (Q.) is most 

 excellently adapted to being packed. Now 

 we cannot help wondering wluj they failed. If 

 it were possible to have lUO stocks in the con- 

 dition this one is, by the 1st of May, bee-keep 

 iug would be perfectly "splendid" as the little 

 girls say; and such colonies would be cheap 

 even if it cost $10.00 to put them in the neces- 

 saiy condition in the fall. If our friend Town- 

 ley can and does winter a whole apiary in this 

 way every time, why have others failed ? it is 

 true our friend Butler did insist that we were 

 stubborn in the matter, and perliaps we had 

 better own up that we were and beg his par- 

 don, for he certainly has been quite successful. 

 For the benefit of those who did not have Vol. 

 Ill, we will say that in obedience to friend 

 Towoley's commands we, after turning the 

 frames around as mentioned, covered litem 

 with a common grain bag cut up, expressly to 

 have every thing just as he said, and then 

 poured in and packed all around the bees 

 about V) bushels of oat chafl". Of course we 

 made a passage to the entrance by lajiug a 

 shingle over a couple ot}.. incli sticks as men- 

 tioned on page 49. To get at the truth of this 

 matter we are going to waste some time and 

 — chaff. In fact we have alreadj' taken one of 

 the weak colonies that was likely to die, stood 

 the L. frames on end, slipped a grain bag over 

 all, put on an upper story and filled both with 

 chaft". They haven't got "hot" yet, but per- 

 haps it needs more than a J., Pi"t of bees for 

 such an experiment. The hive we have been 

 talking about is the swarm that came frointhe 

 suspended hive July24th, last year, and as we 

 tried again to get them to fill the Quinby box- 

 es, and they would not, they had every comb 

 full of stores. We let them have it all, think- 

 ing we would try for once the conseqtieuces of 

 loo much food, if such a thing were possible. 

 We are now going to have for our next hobby, 

 hives crammed full of stores and no tinkering 

 during cool, or cold weather ; no dividing un- 

 til natural swirming commences, and if honey 

 is the object perhaps no dividing or swarming 

 at all if it can be avoided. No extracting un- 

 til the combs below are filled to their utmost, 

 and no extracting under any circumstances 



