74 
“ NOVICE'S ” GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
and many times when some new arrange- | 
incut has been tried, the credit has been 
given that , whereas it simply did not hin- 
der them from wintering well. Many 
cases are mentioned of bees wintering 
lirirly in hives without bottom boards or 
with great cracks in, and, in some cases, 
almost without hives; yet no one advo- j; 
cates such a plan. To sum up, wc should 1 
say the arrangement for out-door winter- 
ing that gave them most sunshine, with . 
the fullest protection from the wind and 
rain, would .succeed best. 
A single colony cannot generate the j 
amount of heat that forty or fifty would, 
and we think it very doubttul about their j 
being benefited, even bad they a cover- 
ing one foot in thickness on all sides. 
Would not a single pail ot water freeze 
under such circumstances? ^ ct il it 
were buried in the ground, below where 
trust would reach, it assuredly would not, 
and so we would put our one colony in a 
trust proof cellar, or leave them lull in 
the Min. It is well known that they will 
bear a very low temperature for a short 
time — a few days or a week — it they can 
only bo warmed up occasionally, to ena- 
ble them to lix up for another cold snap. 
1 1 you live in a region where the cold may 
continue ten days or more below a zero 
temperature, we advise a cellar or frost- 
proof bee house, by all means. 
To those who have five colonies or about 
that number, wc should advise as above, 
only that it would probably pay to have a 
small part of your cellar enclosed, so as 
to be perfectly dark. Objections have 
been made to fastening the bees in with 
wire cloth, yet, when housed, many suc- 
ceed in so doing without irritating the bees 
at all, and if has the advantage of pre- 
serving the floor free from dead bees at 
nil limes: also, if the temperature should 
rise- to 50° or more, many get out and fail 
lo find their way back; besides, in carry- 
ing the bees into their winter quarters 
and back again, a bump carelessly given 
would not result in the loss ot bees. 
More experiments arc needed on this 
point, and we hope to be able to give the 
result of some in our next. 
AVc have just seen an apiary of forty 
slocks or more that were so confined, and 
Kept in a cellar that was but slightly dark- 
ened ;• yet no bees objected to the confine- 
ment, and very few were found dead on 
the bottom boards: no colonies were lost 
ai all. They were fed on sugar syrup, oj 
ruiirsr. 
A - soon as you have a do'/.en colonies, 
v, <• would advise a boo house such as we 
have described. A good collar may an- 
swer, it is true, hut a house made especial- 
Iv is much more convenient. We really 
hope our friends will have all feeding fin- 
i -■ lied up soon after they receive this, for 
we wish to advise in regard to placing the 
different hinds of hives in-doors in our 
next. 
Sept. 27th. Bees are working quietly on 
u half barrel of sugar. Cidor-inill deserted. 
OVKEN IIEAR1XU. 
sQ? to press a number of cool nights 
nights rendered our fifty-four cage queen 
nursery inefficient to keep up a brooding 
temperature, and many queen cells were 
lost, hut its great convenience during 
warm weather made us loth to give it up. 
While studying on the matter wc observed 
that the copper reservoir of water on our 
Stewart stove, kept warm even after an 
interval of many hours, without lire, and 
that a body of water changes temperature 
quite slowly. To be brief, in less than 
half a day, Novice, with some assistance 
from his friends the tin-smiths, made a 
simplicity hive, all of tin, with double 
walls and having a fixed bottom double 
also; the space between the two contain- 
ing about eight gallons of water. The 
stove used last spring was again set up in 
the bee house, the top removed and our 
hatching nursery placed on it, making the 
joint close with strips of woolen cloth be- 
tween the tin and iron. A shallow tin 
lamp made to hold about a gallon, and 
supplied with a common burner and 
chimney, was placed on the bottom ol the 
stove, and so arranged that it could be 
replenished with oil by simply opening 
the stove door. 
After about twelve hours, our thermom- 
eter inside showing a temperature ol 
about 1 00, the lamp was turned down con- 
siderably, for hives rearing queen cells 
showed on an average only from 86° to 
1)0°. Well, with some solicitude we re- 
moved several frames, containing cells to 
our miniature conservatory, and were re- 
warded by seeing very soon large yellow 
queens uncap their cells and walk lortli 
with all the strength and vigor of those 
reared in June and July. 
As we dislike to out combs and brood, 
as we must do to give each cell a separ- 
ate cage, we propose leaving them all as 
built in Ishc hive and trust to our skill lo 
"keep peace in the family” by visits four 
or five times a day. Now please try and 
imagine our exultation, kind reader, 
when wc discovered that the queens could 
be plainly heard gnawing out of their 
cells, and that by holding the comb to tin- 
ear the precise cell could be selected and 
tbe queen liberated, and safely caged an 
til wc nre ready to introduce them. The 
apparatus works most beautifully, for the 
temperature can lie kept to a degree, il 
necessary, by turning the screw to the 
]am]i, and lifter the cells are sealed we 
think them safer thus than in their own 
hive even. From one strip of comb con- 
taining thirteen cells we hatched out 
twelve fine queens, and at one time wc 
hatched eight in one day. In fact, wc 
have supplied each one of our queen 
rearing colonies with fine yellow queens 
in so short a time since starting the ap- 
paratus that we begin to wonder what we 
shall do with our rapidly increasing fam- 
ily of infantile aspirants to royalty. 
