373 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



GLEANmCS m BEE CULTURE. 



Published ITIontlily, 



^^. I- DFLOOT- 

 EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



[Inchidinff Postage] 

 For Club Bates see Last Page. 



Thkse are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye 

 every man the truth to his neisIiboiTr ; execute the 

 jufigement of truth and pence in your gates : Anti let 

 noneof vou imagfne evil iw your hearts against bis 

 neighbor ; and love no faTsc oath : for all these are 

 things tViat I bate, saith the Lokd'.- Zech. 8': 16, 17. 



The conflicting reports in regard to tbe anionnt of 

 stores needed for winter, are probably caused by the 

 Jifference in tile si7,e of the colonies. Five lbs. of stores 

 for every quart of bees will, we think, not be far out of 

 the way, and if you can winter a quart, you will probably 

 find five lbs. sealed honey enough, but with eight quarts 

 of bees it mijrht require the whole 40 lbs. The medium 

 would be 4 quarts of bees, and 20 lbs of stores, and that 

 is about .".s they average, we are inclined to think. 



TriE Mitchell clique, seem getting to be a regular organ- 

 ized band. A few days ago a farmer inquired if we used 

 the new bee-hive that was taking the place of the old 

 style all over the country, and when questioned further, 

 said rights had been sold 'or it to many of the leading 

 men in his neighborhood. This was in our own county, 

 find yet so positive were they that it was the hive, that 

 we felt it almost hopeless to think of convincing them they 

 had been swindled. His plan was evidently to avoid ex- 

 perienced bee-keepers, and get his victims among the 

 farmers v/ho had heard of the great crops of honey secur- 

 ed of late yeara, but knew nothing of how it was done. 

 Will people ever leara the folly of paying their money to 

 utter strangers, instead of to the practical men in their 

 own vicinity, who are surrounded with the evidences of 

 their succes, and truthfulness, in the shape of flourishing 

 apiaries, and fine crops of honey ? Have you learned by 

 experience that you are not smart enough to keep your 

 own money ill your own ]X)cket ? If ho, lock your doors 

 as some of the women about here do, when they see a 

 well dressed stranger approaching. 



HIVES FOR OUT-DOOR AVINTERIXK. 



sc|^5^0U have been "f 

 Y\\ and have gathe 



'Gleaning" a great many years, 

 gathered a great many -'Heads of 

 Grain," now will you please tell us In November 

 Gleaning f?, what plan you are going to advise for 

 wintering bees. We do not want any one's hobby, but 

 jnst lell us candidly which plan has been the most 

 sucee.-sful and has given the most satisfaction all 

 things ccnsidered. Ila Michenek. 



Low Banks, Ontario, Canada, Oct. 2d, '76. 



Without any doubt, the most favorable re- 

 ports come from those who winter in good dry 

 cellars, and if such were in the reach of all 

 our readers, perhaps no Ijetter advice could be 

 given, than to winter in that vvay. A cellar 

 can hardly be called a good one, unless bees 

 can be kept in it in qnietoess all through such 

 a winter as the last. We do uot know tha' 

 we have licard of a single house, constructed 



especially for wintering, that did not become 

 so warm as to necpessitate taking the bces^ 

 out. Those who have reportec?, without ex- 

 ception we believe, favoF the ?dea snggestecT 

 by Mr. Quiuby, of leaving them in the cellar 

 nntil May,^ or until f?owers bloom. To do- 

 [this, we must have aa extremely good cellar, 

 "and such are yi^T^ barf? to get, iraless in dry 

 sandy soils. Those wbo cannot hare them, 

 .and who use lj»ee houses, must get their bees- 

 ! out every warm spell, or must suffer loss by 

 having the bees get out in the room, or worry"- 

 themselves to death, by wanting to get out. 

 Even after they are wintrred safely, they 

 dwindle down, and often get so weak that 

 they are very little profit after they are takeit 

 from the house or cellar. Tlie profitable- 

 j stocks with us have been the extra heavy 

 [ ones, and it is quite inconvenient to winter 

 such in any repository with us. It has beeci 

 said, tTiey would do well almost any where. 

 Now we wish to have an apiary of catra; 

 stocks, and we wish each one to do extra welK; 

 in short we crave an apiary just like the 

 Quinby hive, and if we don't get honey, we 

 shall certainly be able to sell good swarms for 

 ^5.00 each or less. We think not one unfavor- 

 able report has been received where a hive 

 was packed as Townley directed us to do 

 that one, and to test it well, we shall try the 

 wliole 36 in the" house apiary on that plan, and 

 18 out-doors. The idea we have is that the 

 chaff must come close to the cluster of be^s^ 

 and most surround them on all sides ; if you 

 wisli an illustration, tuck yourself up warmly 

 in bed some frosty night, and then try the 

 difference, by pushing the clothing a foot 

 away from your body all around. One thing- 

 more, tte can by no means take the time to 

 pack loose chaff around the bees, and then 

 take it away every spring ; neither can we 

 afford to buy five chaff cushions for every 

 hive. Those in the house apiary, require but 

 two, to put them in nice trim, and that we 

 can stand very well. Those out doors, re- 

 quire but one and that is of course on top. 

 The hives are two story, and as the chat!' 

 packing goes clear to the top, the frames must 

 all be taken out from above without removing 

 the upper story. To do this, we have the top 

 story larger than the lower, and have the up- 

 per frames hang at right angles to the lower. 

 We have decided on ten frames for the brood 

 and wintering apartment below, and 14 for 

 the upper story. In place of the 14 above, we 

 can have 88 section boxes ; but sections or 

 frames can be used at pleasure without a 

 particle of change being made. The chaff 

 cushion half fills the upper story in winter, or 

 completely fills it when one set of sections is 

 on. The outer case is just two feet square 

 inside. 



Now we felt we could hardly spare thr 

 money for the lumber for 18 such boxes, nor 

 could "vve afford to take the neccessary pains 

 required to do nice work on them, yet we do 

 want our hives painted and nice looking. 

 Now see if we cannot interest j^ou : at almost 

 any lumber vard, verv fair lumber can be pur- 

 chased for $10.00 per"M., but it is of all width 

 and all lengths. We purchased some of this, 

 cut it up into lengths of two feet, and then 

 rippel these into 3 inch strips. Instead of 

 cutting these strips squarel\', we fixed a 



