150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



TEMPEKATUKE FOK BKOO» KEAKING. 



M S many stoclss of bees have ccme out weak in num- 

 iM^ bers in this stale this pprin? and perhaps else- 

 taZ^i where, a few words in repaid to the besl jneans of 

 fietiiiif!; and kefjjinjr the degree of heat required by the 

 law cf nsiiure, with the fev,est bfes demanded for the suc- 

 cessful rearing of young bets, wcnld not ccme amiss. In 

 ( rder that btccd reaiii^g m^y go on successfully, the tem- 

 rerature inside the cluster of bees must be at least 80°. 

 Suppose we have a cluster of bees ihat on a ircderately 

 ccol morning recupies thice or four spaces between the 

 combs in a lull hive ccjitainfng 2000 cubic inches ; we will 

 usually lind breed en but two ctmbs ai d but small patch- 

 es at that. Now if we set the two combs of brood close to 

 one side oMhe hive and by means of the division board 

 shut all the bees on these two frames, we shall find that 

 the queen can and will occupy from two to three times 

 the space that she did when they were in the centre of a 

 full sized hive. 



• i\s spring fussing bKS been s'-oken lightly of by some, 

 we made some expeiin ents in icgard to it and as an ex- 

 ample will give one. We selected two stocks as nearly 

 equal as possible, both being clustered between 6 ranges 

 of ccmb and shut the one on three combs while the 

 other had the whole hive. Both have been treated as 

 nearly alike as possible up to date, and the result is that 

 the one shut en the three Ivrmes has them fllkd with 

 brocd to the bottom bar and out at the corners while the 

 other has brood in four frames to the amount of about one 

 frame full, or one-thiid of what the other has. It will be 

 seen that we can put an empty fiyme in the biccd nest 

 of this hive and the queen w ill fill it with breed in a very 

 short time and that to the bottom and side bais, while if 

 we undertake to spread the other we shall be likely to 

 luinmore or less of the biood they already have. As 

 scon as the bees become crowded, we shove along the di- 

 Tiision beard and put in the center one empty comb, so 

 crntinuing to do until the hive is full, which will be long 

 before the other thinks of being so. 1 his is what we call 

 a judicious spreading (f ihe brood. N'exei spread brood 

 ■when the bees are not crowded for room for it is only a 

 waste of tim.e, breed and heat. 



We don't know but friend Townl^y ran ^et a handful of 

 bees up to agoed swarm as quickly in his chalf hive but 

 we can not do it. Another thing to be com-idered is the 

 size of frame. Take for instance the large Quinby fran e 

 and the Gallup, let a practical bee-keeper manage both 

 and he will scon lii.d that with the same ciuanlity of 

 Ives, pnd with qrcens of eriual fertility the fiJime tirsr 

 mentie.ned can nor be managed so as to have every cell 

 occupied with breed while the other can. Purihermoie 

 the hive with the small frames can be managed so that 

 double the ciuantity of woikers can to into the fields 

 while with the larire frame they have to slay at heme to 

 keep up the necessary hial for breed rcaiing. With the 

 large frame the bees arc spread e ut e\er too large a sur- 

 face, while with the small frame they are in a more 

 compact and nr lural form. To illusirate more fully, sup- 

 pose we hive a good swarm in a Vox 10 incht s square and 

 5 feet high, they will till it the first season if the .\ield cf 

 honey is good and if they winter well so as to eon&ume 

 but I'ittle of their stores, we shall find that the bees and 

 brood will be at the bottom while the heat is at the top. 

 Cut off the tot) and bring the size of the hive down to 12 

 inches deep and ciouble the quantify of brood will be 

 reared and double the bees go into the fields to labor. 

 Again, in the spring we often want to strengthen a weak 

 colony by inserting a fiame of brci d from a strong swarm 

 without injuiing it. and have the weak stock protect the 

 iirood given thnn. This we can do with a small frame 

 while with the large one it is f;ir more difficult. If we 

 have a very small swarm we take a frame fremr which we 

 can seen few be( s gtiawing, shake all the bees in the 

 sinaii stuck on to it Mid eoiiline ihtm to this one frame 

 aiicl in a few days thty will be strong enouiih to take one 

 empty frame. This is for ordinary spring weather and 

 not when the nierrnrv is 9.5° in the shade. 



G. M. DooiJiTLK, Korodhio, N. Y., May 4th, ISW.- 



We quite agree with all jou say friend D.,' 

 unless it is tliat .you place too much stress on 

 the matter of division boards and a small 

 brood framo. What is the reason you York 

 ►Slate follis have so many weak stocks in the 

 sprin,";, and liavc to ktei> I'P such an endless 

 fussing with them V (That is pretty coo! wo 

 know after having succeeded tolerably well 

 for just one winter, but we want you to keep 

 on talking). We went to-day and opered our 

 20 frame long idea hive just to see how they 

 got along ; they liad not been disturbed this 



spring at all, and in fact the hive had not been 

 opened since the time they chased us away 

 from our corn popper smoker last October. 

 We raised the cushions at one end, and con- 

 cluded the bees had all worked over that way. 

 But on going to the other, it was just the same. 

 Next we opened the middle and they were just 

 as closely packed there, and when we raised 

 out a frame they were clear dovt^n to the bot- 

 tom board, the whole length of the hive. 

 Thfy are in fact the strongest stock in th« api- 

 ary, and the strongest we ever saw for the 9th 

 day of May. What did it? They have had 

 no division board,, but on the contrary have 

 had an entrance at each end of the hive open 

 all winter. They had cbafl" cushions over the 

 frames, about 6 ii chfrs thick, and they are 

 there now, but they had nothing at the sides 

 at all. Every one of their 20 frames was full 

 of sealed honey in the fall, for they were con- 

 trary and would not work in the boxes, and 

 Mrs. R. says that is why they are now so 

 strong- She thinks they took a look at the 

 great quantity of stores they had on hand, and 

 concluded it was safe to start brcod in nearly 

 every frame in the hive as they are doing now. 

 We haven't jet decided what we shall do with 

 them, whether to clean out the cistern and 

 work thtm for extracted honey, to raise 

 comb honey and run the price down to 10c. , or 

 to swarm them artificially every Monday 

 morning and sell bees, or — or — or to put in a 

 division board and "build 'em up." 



FKIENB MAKTIN-S CSRCUIiAR APIA- 

 RY, &f. 



^^j LEANINGS for May is in hand ard finds us very 

 UnBf^ Vusy with our pe^s. We have (iiven up fr.ot-power 

 ^ri aid now run our buzz saw with a ''vtee bit' of a 

 steam engine, a 1/2 horse power, iind how much easier it 

 is to dispense wiih working yrur legs oti while your 

 hands aiift Ticad have all ihey can a; tend to. Our bees 

 winteied finelj tind on a recent \i.'-it laiie-ng bee men we 

 fird all that were wintered in cellars or hout-es have 

 come cut in excellfiit conditii>n, and there will be many 

 Mayswaims. 1 hnd a few swamps en the 5th that h»d 

 started ii cijiient queen cells. I wintered 84 colonies in 

 cellar and found that those 1 deaihled in the fall came 

 out strongest, anel those that were kept In ee ding until 

 late in the fall were in the very best conditic n. Five 

 were wintered on summer stands, Iwowilh chafi only on 

 top, died. Three packed wiih chall' as per Townley, win- 

 tered, but two of them are now rather weak, whilr! one is 

 very strong, but no better if ps good as those from the 

 cellar. I iLade one mistake in wintering several old 

 queens and now am perceivin.' its effects ; ttey are about 

 used up and are being superseded, 



I wish to give you an encouraging word in relation to 

 yourABCin bee culture. The manner in which you 

 have commenced it, reminds me of the boys and the snow 

 ball ; you commence on a small lasis but if you keep 

 rolling," yen will yet get a magnificent collection of facts 

 Mr.el piciiirea. It vtIII be to tee ciiliuie the same as 

 Knight's Mechanical Dictionary is to mechanics. You 

 out: ht to ill r in a few of the patent humbugs as well. I 

 nc-tice \iu huve v:'ii(us knuSs of aj.iaiies described. 

 Where is the log si m apiary down ly the pig sty with 

 weeds and i e;rlect sui rounding it ? 



My aj iary is laid out and managed on a little different 

 ydan from any desctibed. I have been hoping to send 

 you a photograph of it but have not brought a camera to 

 bear upon it as yet. I set my hives in circles. The inner 

 circle is 12 feet in diameter, nine hives .set in the circum- 

 ference fatinrj the center four feel apart. As each hive 

 faces a d'ilTerent point of the C( mpa<s this is not too near. 

 The next circle has 2P hives which /«ce ouHvarcl from the 

 centre with room in rear of each circle to run a, two 

 wheeled cart. In examination or extracting, we start in 

 at one side of the circle and when we get through we are 

 comitig out where we started from, on the side nearest 

 the bee house. I shade the hives with vines of various 

 kinds, iiourds, morning glories, and even garden pole 

 beans, all trained on a fan shaped trellis, made by slitting 

 a board nearly the whole leng'h and spreadin,-? the tops. 



