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CtLeanings in bee culturk 



131 



that may render it neccessary to feed the same 

 back again. Of all the blunders iu l>ee-culture 

 we feel there are few gi'eater than fussing to 

 get the honev out of the combs where it is 

 iiicely sealed up, -and tiieu fussing at still 

 greater lengths to get it back in the same 

 combs and sealed up in the same way (f' ic-e. 

 ■i-mi. "And give u^j feeding r"' At present we 

 ■ii^ould give lip feeding,, at least where one has 

 its much to do as we have. Why, just think of 

 it ! the best colony in our apiary has not had 

 one minute's time expended on it for the jiast 

 six months. At that rate, one pei'son could 

 take charge of 1000 hives until the time for 

 surplus honey catne, and should there be none, 

 lie might do it the year round, for all that 

 would then be requirtd would be to see that 

 each one had a good queen, and the bees 

 would do the rest. At the rate at which good 

 colonies of bees sell, he could do a thriving 

 business selling them if he didn't get an ounce 

 of honey, and should a great yield of honey 

 ■come, he ought to be able to hire help at a 

 price that would pay for the taking care of it, 

 if he were not burdened with too many "new 

 inventions"'. Now all these bright visions 

 could be realized without trouble, it" every col- 

 ony as well supplied as was the one from 

 which we are taking this text, would only 

 thrive iu the same way. 



The Standard hive wintered beautifully, win- 

 ter before last, because it contained two good 

 colonies ; but during the past winter a fair col- 

 ony went down to about a pint, and the rest of 

 our apiary has gone down iu the same way 

 more or less during the month of April, or as 

 .soon as they commenced to raise brood brisk- 

 ly. Is it ix)ssible that this spring dwindling 

 has all been caused by allowing the juvenile 

 bees to get sore throats, etc., on account of the 

 brisk draft that our modern hives allow when 

 they are of just the age to want to be tucked 

 aipV Keeping them warm with a tight board 

 l)ox has been no better, for a tight board box 

 would be small comfort to one of us on a frosty 

 night; but plenty of warm, pm'otis bed clothing 

 would enable even an infant to keep comforta- 

 ble. Corn fodder and straw put around hives 

 and over them might keep the wind oft", but 

 they assuredly could not contiue the animal 

 heat in any such manner as the .soft dry oat 

 chaff that was only separated from the btes on 

 'dl sides by a thin piece of cloth. Again, a 

 packing of stra^r, or a straw mat over a strong- 

 colony of bees may be a very good thing, but 

 can it amount to very much when there are 

 innumerable cracks all around where the warm 

 air can creep out, and when the sides are only 

 cold hard boards after all ? How would you 

 like to sleep in a bed made in that way ? 

 Would not the children begin to dwindle out 

 in just about the way the bees do ? Another 

 thing, we don't cover our children with a board, 

 nor an oil cloth, nor paper, nor canvas, but we 

 have wool and flannel ; as the bees seem pecu- 

 liarly sensitive to accumulations of dampness 

 we are inclined to think that even these would 

 be apt to get damp and mouldy. In fact we 

 have had some such experience, but the soft 

 chaft" we think is going to fully meet the re- 

 <iuiremeuts. Is it not possible that our fathers 

 knew what wasfcest when they decided on the 

 old straw hive ';' Now before goiny anv far- 



ther we are going to try and make some exper- 

 iments during this cool May weather. If 

 standing the L. frames on end, covering them 

 with cloth and then chaft" on all sides and 

 above, will get them into something near the 

 condition of the Quinby hive, why we shall 

 know a little t^etter what to do next winter. 

 ^Several weak colonies have starved because it 

 was too cool lor them to crawl up to a feeder 

 containing syrup, while this Q. Jiive has bec!< 

 all day and all night walking around on the 

 bare ground in front of the entrance which is 

 kept warm by this blast of warm air that is 

 constantly passing out of one of the entrances, 

 while a stream ot cold air goes in at the other. 



Several years ago we had a very weak nu- 

 cleus in the fall, and as they were out of stores 

 — they were iu the American hive — we gave 

 them one frame moderately filled with stores. 

 To get this frame into the A. hive we were 

 obliged to stand it en <;ud, and as this looked 

 iike rather a cold and '"loose" arrangement, we 

 packed some very fine, soft hay all around and 

 over the top. As there was but the one hive, 

 we did it well and carefully, and so closely 

 was the hay or grass packed, not a bee found 

 a chance to get out during the whole four 

 months. Well, we supposed this frame of 

 stores would last them only a month or so, 

 and to determine when they would need more 

 food we tapped on the hive occasionally, they 

 were in the cellar, to see if they responded 

 promptly. Well, they answered every time 

 until the next April, and when they were put 

 out they were all alive and had nearly all of 

 their frame of honey lel"t. As this was our 

 first experiment with in-door wintering we 

 were jubilant over it, and the next winter put 

 all our colonies in the cellar — omitting the hay; 

 of course, Uiat could not be important, and it 

 may be a good place right here to apologise to 

 those whom we have ridiculed for packing 

 their bees and putting them in the cellar be- 

 sides — and when they died with the dysentery 

 worse than ever before, it did not occur to us 

 then that the hay had anything to do with the 

 matter. If after all these years, our unlucky 

 nose has at last by accident been turned in the 

 right direction, we shall be very thankful. 



M<iy IStk. — We are happy to say th- aspect of 

 aft"airs in the apiary has much improved dur- 

 ing the last 10 days. After the dwindling had 

 reduced us down to 53 colonies the weither 

 changed, and even colonies with only a half tea- 

 cujiuil of bees began to build up. The house 

 apiary too has caught the inspiration — caus- 

 ed by new honey, plenty of new pollen and 

 soft balmy air as nearly as we can determine — 

 and now, bee-culture seems the very easiest 

 thing in the world. About that idea of feed- 

 ing: there was very little danger of our fall- 

 ing into the other extreme as friend Doolittle 

 apprehended, for with all our sugar, honey 

 and candy, we were unable to feed the bees iu 

 the unlucky house apiary, for the simple rea- 

 son that they would not take it; or at least 

 enough to do any good. They wanted out 

 door air and sunshine, just as we do this min- 

 ute ; and although hea[)s of letters from many 

 in<iuiring friends debar u,s from the luxury, we 

 are determined our bees shall henceforth be 

 tormented no more with any such privations. 

 About a week ago, we got an idea in our head 



