269 



GLEAWliNwo TIT 2EE CULTUliE.. 



Hot, 



CHAFF PACKI><;, AND ir.EAVlI\X; IT ON, 



A]>» AUOFNDXHE SECTIOO* BOXES, 



AEE SVMItlEK. 



¥OUR letter of inquii-j- of tlic 5tli is at hand. I see 

 by Gleanings this season, that you are on the 

 — right track now to winter and spring your bees 

 Euccessl'uUy. Don't, I beg of you, make a failure of 

 chaft" packing, as you have of so many other exiieri- 

 ments you liave tried in ihe past three years. M you 

 fail in chall' packing, in my Oi-inion you can have no 

 possible excuse to ofl'er, except lack of thoroughness 

 in doing it. You ask somewhere in last Gleanings, 

 about packing underneath the hive, I started with the 

 idea that the under packing was most important of 

 all, and am so well satisfied that I shall make no ex- 

 periments on that head, but let every one pack as he 

 pleases. If you are going to let the frost in at the 

 bottom, why keep it out at the top? You might as 

 well lock your front door against a thief, and leave 

 the back one wide open. Buckwheat chaff is not po- 

 rous enough lor top packing, I prefer very coarse dry 

 sawdust, as I am firmly opposed to any absorbent. I 

 want the moisture to pass off freely, and get entirely 

 rid of it; then, at any time I put my hand between 

 the pillow of sawdu3t, and the woolen blanket ii.nder- 

 neath, I always find it dry and warm, and they are 

 also very handy to examine, which it is well to do 

 once or twice between Xovember and April to know 

 that they have suflicient stores, as you know that some 

 stocks will persist in eating just about three times as 

 much as others. If any are found short of rations, 

 lumps of loaf sugar can be put under the blanket. 1 

 commenced feeding two stocks ilius last February, 

 and brought them through nicely; of course I com- 

 menced feeding before they were entirely out of hon- 

 63'. I have very little confidence in ycur house 

 apiary, with the thin paper walls, for wintering bees. 

 If you will get two good thick doors, and have both 

 shut tight on list, then jjack your house outside with 

 6 inches of chaff or sawdust, and put pillows of saw- 

 dust on each hive, you can probably winter bees well 

 enough in it. You say you can pack them in the 

 house very readily, but that would leave the side next 

 the thin pajier wall exposed, without any protection 

 whatever, unless you draw the frames all back, put in 

 a division board and pack between it and the wall, 

 extending the entrance under the packing. Last win- 

 ter, you probably had not as manj' bees in fen of your 

 hives in the house apiar}', as I had in one of my non- 

 swarmers. I have no objeclion to the house apiary as 

 I have it, tor wintering or springing bees, and the}' 

 will work and store just as much honey through the 

 summer, but it is a very inconvenient plan in which 

 to handle brood or boxes, and bees are much crosser. 

 I can handle them twice as fast out of doors, where I 

 can get at them on all sides. I run two stocks in the 

 packing boxes this season ; one swarmed out the sec- 

 ond time, and insisted on having a new hive. I 

 bothered with them about two hours more or less, 

 trying to get them to go back into the old hive full of 

 emiJty frames, but did not succeed. I finally gave 

 them a new hive and had peace ; but then I had one 

 or two others that insisted on having a new hive in 

 the same way, that were not jiacked. How quickly 

 such swarms would go to the woods if their queen 

 ■was not clipped. They had to be humoi-ed and have 

 their own way at the time, and afterward I had mine, 

 as the next day I lified the rack of boxes from the old 

 hive into the new, and in five days I filled the new 

 swarm out with the old brood combs, leaving only 

 such now combs as were nearly finished. The other 



hive that was packed (both L. with the packing 

 under and on the sides to the top of the brood cham- 

 ber, none around the boxes— large entrances on both 

 sides at side of comb) had to build several brood 

 combs, and did not swarui, but large quantities of 

 of bees covered the sides of the box all summer, as the 

 heat from the Ijrood was all retained. Another hive 

 was run in a box without packing, using only the roof 

 to cover the boxes; this hive hung out less than anj- 

 other, and seemed to do well ; it was ventilated throu' 

 the bottom of the box. And now, to sum up this mat- 

 ter of winter protection : My conclusion at present 

 is, that the best and cheapest way to do it is to ailopt 

 the closed end frames, and make the outer case so as 

 to be right for chaff box in winter, and shade for the 

 hives and boxes in summer. If the cases are made 

 high enough to cover two tiers of boxes on top, then 

 for winter the hive can be raised up 5 or (i inches on a 

 false bottom, and packed under and all round, and 

 still leave 4 or 5 inches between the pillows and the 

 roof. I find with practice and a little little instruct- 

 ion from those who have used them, that I can handle 

 brood and hunt up queens, early and late in the sea- 

 son, with more facility, than with the hanging frame, 

 of same size, and you are aware that I don't propose 

 to handle brood combs much in the height of the sea- 

 son. Such frames are very hand}' for nuclei, and I 

 don't see why they would not be handy to extract 

 from, but I say let every one use that which suits him 

 best; as in my opinion there is a great deal more 

 in this bee culture, than the mere dollars and cents 

 we are likely to get out of it. 



You probably opened your bee house door, and let 

 the light shine into the boxes through the glass on the 

 inside, and for that reason they worked stronger next 

 the wall, where light was excluded. At all events, I 

 found at once V7hen I commenced using the bee house, 

 that I would have to shade; and have done it with 

 building paper tacked on to a light frame. Where 

 they are thus shaded from the light, and stocks are 

 strong, I find they generally store honey rather faster 

 in the inside row of boxes, than in those next the 

 wall, unless the yield is slow, or the weather cool. If 

 you make the sides of your rack or holder of ?i or '^a 

 inch stufl', and as wide as the boxes are high, you will 

 exclude the light, and retain all the heat necessary. 

 I understand that the most extensive lioney produ- 

 cers in the States, don't use a particle of glass about 

 their hives. If they can run thousands of stocks in 

 that way, it strikes me, that we ought to be able to 

 run a few dozens. I knov»' this is different from what 

 I talked last winter, but like yourself I claim the right 

 to reverse former conclusions, when I see they are 

 likely to block the wheels of progress. 



I probably would not have replied to your letter at 

 all, but the other day I saw your extractor in Mr. 

 King's office, in New York, and I was so well pleased 

 with it, that I ielt that the bee-keepers of the country 

 owe you a debt lor perfecting and cheapening that 

 implement. 



Your section boxes don't suit me at all, for manj' 

 reasons, and then the course you take in regard to the 

 fdn., why, lor box honey I put them alongside of glu- 

 cose ; the customer that buys comb honey, io entitled 

 to what the bees make, but you sell him wax fdn., 

 lience you i)erpetratc a fraud, and ought to be put in 

 the "Humbug and Swindle" column. 



When I get my hive to suit me and know just what 

 frame I shall use and no other, I will order an ex- 

 tractor from you. My apiary has been an experi- 

 mental one so i'ar, and will be ior one season more at 

 least. It looks to me now as though I should settle 

 down on a frame with closed end 11 'i inches high, 

 and 18 in. long outside, as I have several of that size, 

 and the combs in tliroe- fourths of mv hives will fit 

 such a frame. "J. P. Mooke. 



Binghamp.ton, N. Y.. Oct. 9th, 1S76. 



