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Vol. V. 



JANUARY 1, 1877. 



No. 1 



CHAFF AS 



A REMEDY FOR 



©WIWI>I.-Il>f«. 



SPRING 



I 



Tif HOPE t'nough has Ij'.'en said in relation to win- 

 tering; bees packed in chad' to induce every rea- 

 '^^^ der ol Uleanincjs who has not a good winter- 

 ing honsc to give it a trial with a few hives this 

 winter, and report the result next spring. And now 

 a few words to those who have good wintering 

 houses or cellars, where they always winter bees 

 successfully. Next spring when you take yo\ir bees 

 from their winter quarters, select two or three good 

 lair average size colonies, with honey and pollen 

 sufficient to last them till they can obtain a supply 

 from natural sources, set them in boxes enough lar- 

 ger than the hive to afford a space of about three 

 inches between the liive and box en all sides and 

 over the top of the hive, and after arranging a pass- 

 age for the bc-cs so that they can go out and in as 

 they choose when the box is lllled, fill the space 

 and pack it snugly with dry chafl' and leave them 

 there unmolested, undisturbed, until after fruit blos- 

 soms, or until freezing nights are past. Now select 

 an equal number of colonies as nearly equal as pos- 

 sible in size, and set them on their summer stands 

 without protection, and after doing all that you can 

 from the time they are set out till the latter part of 

 May or lirst of June to build them up, make strong 

 stocks of them by stimulative feeding, spreading the 

 brood combs apart and putting empty combs between 

 them, contracting the hive with a division board to 

 suit the size of the swarm, notice the difference 

 l)etween theio and those tliat you packed in chaff, 

 if it does not convince you that "springing" bees 

 packed in chaff will pay, while spring fitssing with 

 bees will not pay, your esperience will be different 

 from v.hat mine has been. 



I am not very particular about the kind of chaff 

 used, but after having tried wheat, oat, buckwheat 

 and clover, I prefer the first named, as it does not get 

 wet or damp as easily cither from rains or by damp- 

 ness from the cluster of bees. J. il. Townley. 



Jackson, Michigan. 



SECTJ01X.9, FOIZVISATIO?*!, 

 E\, ETC. 



COMR HON- 



5S^^OW this is my club and I proiiose to add toitdu- 

 l^ll ring the year, so "set 'er down." 1 have put 

 away 33 stands of bees in the cellar in prime or- 

 der; it is less trouble than to dig a pit, and if done 

 light I think it is as good, "llans" has his in a root 

 house: it would be a good place if he did not have to 

 go in every day for root ■. 



My report is, from 22 stocks in spi-ing 1,230 lbs. ex- 

 tracted honey, 11 new stocks in hand and two out 

 in the vvood? somewhere. Only 3 days good clover 

 honey weather, and 14 days good fall honey. I never 

 doubt big honey stories it I am assured they have a 

 long spell of continuous honey flow. 



Now about your sections and our fdn. I suppos- 

 you thought you liad got ahead of me by sending me 

 gratis a pound of fdn. to replace that which 

 kinked so badly. We want you to understand that the 

 fdn. was our experiment as well as yours, and nothing 

 remains to be made good, so here's your 75 cents for it. 

 All I complained ol was that you sent by express in- 

 stead of freight as we ordered. 



We do not like the Iioop arrangement for surplus 

 boxes as they are too cold niglits. We finallj' succeed- 

 ed in getting 11 sections out of 30 filled. 



AVe took premiums at two fairs, and were beaten 

 at one. Our iioney was dark and although all ad- 

 mitted the package to be superior, the premium was 

 given in one instance to some superb honey in a 

 glass box, as it should have been. At the other two 

 fairs we had dark honey to compete with, and beat 

 other packages, however fancy, all hollow. 



We have decided for ourselves, and '■'■our bees," 

 mind you, that natural comb is better tlian fdn; 

 tliat the sections should be of a size to fit inside ol 

 a Langstroth frame— t; in a frame ; th;;t the* tin sep- 

 arators have more objectionable features than use- 

 ful ones, chief one being the distances between 

 combs, two spaces, one each side of tlie tin, and 

 difiiculty of handling sections when waxed in ; that 

 comb built on fdn. has a hard core, and does not 

 melt In the mouth as does natural comb, when nice. 



The problem for you to solve is, to make fdn. so 

 delicate that it cannot be told from nice, new, nat- 

 ural comb; and for us to solve, is how to get them 

 filled of a uniform thickness, with not more than 3( 

 inch between surfaces after finished. 



We cannot get our bees to produce natural comb 

 to fill sections as Doolittle does, except when honey 

 is coming in rapidly ; then it is too expensive. So 

 we intend to use fdn. if we can. To make it a suc- 

 cess the sections must be kept warm night as well 

 as day. 



Novice, your chaff hobby is the most sensible one 

 you ride. We hope you will make it a success. We 

 hope you will add a naught to 1,S43 this year, in- 

 stead of tumbling, as yon fear. 



Our lioney went off like hot cakes at 15 cents for 

 clover and 12X for fall honey. K. J>. Joineii. 



Wyoming, Iowa Co., Wisconsin. 



