184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



means whereby all might Ije brought up to 

 the desired strength in time for the first 

 yield of clover honey. As market gardeners 

 and others hasten the early vegetables by 

 artificial heat, or by taking advantage of the 

 sun's rays by means of green houses, «&c., it 

 would seem that something of the kind 

 might be done with bees ; in fact we have 

 by the aid of glass, and the heat of a stove, 

 succeeded in rearing young bees every 

 month in the year, even while the weather 

 was at zero or lower outside ; but so far as 

 we can learn, all artificial work of this kind, 

 has resulted in failure, so far as profit is 

 concerned. The bees, it is true, learned to 

 fly under the glass and come back to their 

 hives, but for every bee. that was raised in 

 confinement, two or three were sure to die, 

 from one cause or another, and we at length 

 decided it was best to wait for summer 

 weather, and then take full advantage of it. 



Later, we made experiments with artific- 

 ial heat while the bees were allowed to fly 

 out at pleasure, and although it seemed at 

 first to have just the desired effect, so far as 

 hastening brood rearing was concerned, the 

 result was in the end, just about as before ; 

 more bees were hatched, but the unseasona- 

 ble activity or something else killed off 

 twice as many as were reared, and the stocks 

 that were let alone in the good old way, came 

 out ahead. >Since then we have ratlier en- 

 deavored to check very early brood rearing, 

 and with, we believe, better results. 



A few experiments with artificial heat, 

 have, apparently succeeded, and it may be 

 that it will eventually be made a success ; 

 but our impression is, that we had much 

 better turn our energies to. something else, 

 until we have settled warm weather. Pack- 

 ing the hives with chatt\ sawdust, or any 

 other warm dry porous material, so as to 

 economize the natiu-al.heat of the cluster, 

 seems to answer the purpose much better, 

 and such treatment seems to have none of 

 the objectionable features that working 

 with artificial heat does. The chaff needs 

 to be as close to the bees as possible : and to 

 this end, we would have all the combs re- 

 moved except such as are needed to hold 

 their stores. Bees thus prepared seem to 

 escape all tJie ill effects of frosty nights 

 in the early part of the season, and we ac- 

 complish for brood rearing, exactly what 

 was hoped for by the use of artificial heat. 



For the benefit of those who may be in- 

 clined to experiment, I would state that I 

 covered almost our entire apiary with 

 manure on the plan of a hot l>ed. one s[)ring. 



and had the satisfaction of seeing almost all 

 die of spring dwindling. At anotlier time I 

 kept the house apiary warmed up to a sum- 

 mer temperature with a large oil lamp, for 

 several weeks, just to have them beat those 

 out of doors. The investment resulted in 

 losing nearly all in the house apiary with 

 spring dwindling, while those outside stayed 

 in their hives as honest bees should, imtil 

 settled warm weather, and then did finely 

 just Ijecause I was "too busy to take care of 

 them" (V) as I then used to express it. Af- 

 ter you have had experience enough to count 

 your profitable colonies by the hundred, and 

 your crops of honey by the ton, it will do 

 very well to experiment with green houses 

 and cold frames, but beginners had better 

 let such appliances alone unless they have 

 plenty of money to spare for more bees. 



Since icriting "alighting boards" ive 

 have devised the following : 



To those who insist on the three cornered 

 blocks and a board in front, for door step, 

 we offer the following to be attached to any 

 hive having a movable bottom. Get out of 

 a I board a piece -If inches wide, and as -long 

 as the width of the front of your hive. Now. 

 a piece of the same length, and width, but 

 only f thick ; nail these together as shown 

 in the accompanying cut : 



ALIGTING i;OAHD, DETACHABLE. 



The thick piece being nailed into the edge 

 of the tliin one. The three cornered pieces 

 are to be nailed on the top of both, and their 

 shape and dimensions will be seen at a 

 glance ; they are to be only f thick, for the 

 entrance is contracted and enlarged by mo- 

 ving the hive backward or forward on the 

 bottom board, and we wish tliem so that no 

 mice can get in under any circumstances. 

 When the entrance is very large as in the 

 summer time, the l^ees gain access by crawl- 

 ing up the sides of these blocks, and to fa- 

 cilitate this, we have blocks sawed on a bev- 

 el. This is very quickly and nicely done by 

 cutting a square board from one corner to 

 tlie other as in the diagram. 



-HA 



now TO SAW THE EXTKAKCE BLOCKS. 



Tlie dotted line represents the course of 



