1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4ft 



STRAW MATS, AND AMPLK VENTILATION OF CKLLAKS. 



Wo are havini; a very ej-frcine winter, but owiiif? to iire- 

 ^•nutioiis taken httve our yellow pets in nice shape, and 

 'tis a pleasure to know tliat notwithstanding the whist- 

 Un;j; of "old Koreas" outsiile, xre never have had xo few 

 (lead bees on our cellar bottrntw:, nor had thcni in a more 

 (Witented shape. Perhaps the fact of our having m.ide 

 :J00 straw mats last fall may have somethins to do with 

 their condition, but wr attribute it mainly to the fermper- 

 i-f^Hre we maintain (38 to 10°— docs not go above 10) and 

 to the fact of frequent airings of our cellar. Every ni,s?ht 

 whea the outside temperature is 20" or over we throw 

 open our out-^ide cellar door and close it in the morning. 

 Uy this process we not only regulate temperature but 

 keep a constant supply of fresh air in our repositories, 

 which experiemce teaches us is best to safely winter. Let 

 a cold snap come to prevent our opening the cellar for ,5 

 ur t days— still keepini? the temperature at the proper 

 <legree— and you would have a "big roar"' among them. 

 Go among them with a light at that time and you would 

 1)0 greeted by numbers of restless bees flying in your face i 

 and buzzing around the light. But let us open the door 

 for a few hours, and mark the result among them with a 

 (lo'/.en lights if you wish, leave the daylight streaming in- 

 to their room and all is "quiet on the Potomac" not a bee 

 starring, and some of the stocks are dead, as far as sound 

 from them is concerned. We have carefully noted these 

 facts in our winter experiments and have become satisfied 

 that (Hany losses may be traced to the fact of crowding 

 too many stocks into a room, and then poorly supplying 

 them, with the necessary elements to sustain life. 



J. Oatmau & Co., Dundee, 111. Jan. 13th, 1877. 



Friend O. you are striking on another point 

 on whicli Doctors disagree, for several have 

 strongly objected to the disturbance caused by 

 ojjening the doors thus in winter. Have you 

 (lone the same in former seasons, and not had 

 much trouble with "spring dwindling':"' 

 Would not a tube attached to your stove pipe, 

 ventilate just as well, and be a great saving of 

 time and trouble ? Of course the mats are 

 good, but are not chaff cushions cheaper, 

 cleaner, and handier ? 



FEKTILE WORKERS. 



Please tell me how you find a fertile worker, to be 

 ■replaced by a queen. I have had one in a hive which 

 killed evei-y queen introduced ; I failed to find her 

 and had to break the hive up and secure the 

 combs. W. T. Seal. 



Chadds' Ford, Pa., Dec. 14th, 1876. 



You do not need to And the fertile worker, 

 and it would do very little good if you did, for 

 others would take her place if you killed her, 

 and in fact there are usually if not always, 

 several workers, which do this kind of egg lay- 

 ing. The remedy and prevention, are one and 

 tiie same ; never allow a colony to be for one 

 week without eggs and brood, under nvij cir- 

 cumstances, and if you are so careless as to 

 get a case of the kind on your hands, go at 

 once and give them as many combs of unseal- 

 ed brood as they can cover ; yon can then in- 

 troduce a queen in this, as well as to any other 

 >itock. 



hives did but llttlo ia this part of Missouri, eoTCi ;\'v- 

 iug no surplus whatever. My hoicy i» nicely candied 

 and sells as readily as honey in the comb. Hare re- 

 tailed about 200 lbs. and am trying t» sell it ixU near 

 home. I retail at i2>i cts., and wk«lesale at 11 cts. 

 If desired I will glre my modun operandi In selling 

 honey and establishing honey nsarkels, etc. 



Shelbyville, Mo., Jan. 11th, 1877. 



Let us have it by all means. 



extracting, when to do it, TRIANGULAR COMB 

 GUIDES, ETC. 



Do you extract honey before the bees have 

 swarmed ? How ofte» during wne season should the 

 honey be extracted from one hive ? Whea does the 

 extracting season ead, if the beca arc to be wintered 

 on the summer stand ? Is It CTar safe to extract from 

 Mrst swarms if we want them to winter well ? I use 

 the Quinby hive and expect t» ase your comb founda- 

 tions. Is it necessary to mak* the top of the frames 

 triangular if I use the fdn. ? 



Charles W. Whbttington. 



Paddy's Mills, Va., Dec. 26th, 1876. 



As we often receive questions like the above, 

 it may be well to attempt an answer, even if it 

 does seem like asking the same questions in 

 regard to gathering hen's eggs — we gather 

 them as long as the hens continue to lay. 

 Briefly, we of course extract before swarming, 

 for it is almost the only way to prevent 

 swarming, and we extract as often as the 

 hives are filled — sometimes as often as every 

 third day, and again at intervals of two or 

 three weeks. We prefer to use two story 

 hives, and in that case we let them fill the 

 lower story towards the last of the season, or 

 even in the middle, and do all our extracting 

 from the upper combs. In this case we of 

 course extract all they put into the upper 

 combs. A first swarm that did no more than 

 to fill its combs once, we should regard as 

 rather slow. The honey may be taken from 

 them before the hive is half filled with comb, 

 and they seem to get along just as well, with 

 a good yield. We consider a triangular comb 

 guide a waste of space inside of the hive, as 

 well as a waste of lumber under any circum- 

 stances. More than that, the bees find it al- 

 most impossible to fasten their combs securely 

 to such a top bar. It has for a long time, 

 been pretty generally abandoned. 



M. E. McMaster's report for 1876. 

 I took my 3o stands of bees through the winter of 

 lS7.i-76 without loss, increased them during the season 

 to 48 and took ."^OOO lbs. of extracted honey and 100 lbs. 

 «fcomb. In all 5100 lbs, of first-class honey, Ijcsides 

 loaving the bees plenty in" the hives. Average num- 

 ber of lbs. to original stand over lif. Uees in box 



I have just received from 3Ir. L. U. Root, son-in-law 

 of the greatly lamented M. Quinby, one of their im- 

 proved smokeri. I have now used one of these, wliich 

 cost me only $1,50, two years. I consider it an inval- 

 uable aid in the operations of the apiary, and would 

 not be without it at double the price. My old one is 

 as good as new. The leather broke last fall, but 25 

 cents worth of material and an hour's work, made it 

 as good as ever. Mr. Bingham of thi? state has two 

 forms of smokers, essentially the same as the Quinby. 

 They are of a still stronger material, and draft, but 

 cost 50 cents more. 



I wish especially Mr. Editor, to express regret that 

 I stated in the "Manual of the Apiary" that thie was 

 patented by Mr. Quinby, the more as it was charac- 

 teristic of this generous man, to give his inventions to 

 the public, which practice I believe knew no excep- 

 tion. The excellence and cheapness of the Quinb.jr 

 smoker, I think leaves little to be desired. 



A. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich., Jan. 20th, 1877. 



There are quite a number of our friends, 

 that we think would do well to follow our la- 

 mented friend's example, especially, as the 

 greater part of them never rcali/e a tenth part 

 of the luouey, that they pay the Patent Oflicc. 



