22 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 
Feb. 
need a quin t oyster cun, one of the tall ones with n I 
corn col) and some little sticks In them anil on the out- | 
side, it Is a real tedious job the way we had to feed 
our bees. Mrs. S. J. W. AXTKLL, 
Roseville, Warren Co., Ills. Nov. 22nd, 1873. 
Our Friends certainly deserve success after 
the discouragements they have met with, and 
we have no doubt but they will be prepared to 
give us an encouraging report next season. 
With the sugar stores they have so bountifully 
supplied them we should consider their chances 
for safe wintering almost a certainty. 
DEAR NOVJCF: On page r> of No. 1. Vol. TT. of 
Gleanings 1 find a very proper expression, which 
deserves mentioning. Sometime ago we were taught j 
to measure hoes by tin* quart, bv brother Hosmcr. 
This has done a great deal of mischief. All of my I 
friends and myself included, understood a quart of 
bees to be a very small swarm. One of my zealous 
friends reduced his swarms to a quart, by shaking 
the superfluous bees on the snow. The large number 
of bees in the hives was what had ruined his bees In 
winters before this. Now he had it ; hut alas ! that 
winter, my friend lost, almost all he had. I had sup- 
posed that and told my friend so when I learned what 
he had done. Now, we understand a quart of bees to 
l>e a good strong swarm, that Is. what wo call a good 
strong 8 warm in winter. 1 don't blame brother ilos- 
mer ; no doubt he knew what he meant, hut the ex- 
pression “a quart of bees” was very unhappy indeed. 
Now, answering Mr. Patterson's questions who asks 
how many combs should he covered by a colony in 
October to enable them to winter, you say J ‘‘If you 
do not see bees clustered In at least three spaces du- 
ring a cool day yon had better not undertake to win- 
ter them. If they can be seen In four spaces call 
them fair, live spaces good, six spaces line, seven 
tip top,” etc. 
This is perfectly plain and cannot he misunderstood 
by anybody. I therefore move that all quart measures 
he abolished when speaking about our bees hence- 
forth. 
Charles F. Mutu, Cincinnati, 0. 
I am wintering 3 swarms of bees on box honey one 
year old, the bees in like condition as near as possible 
to last winter, to And out If I can whether It was 
honey or season that caused destruction among my 
bees one year ago. 
Thomas Pierson, Ghent, Ohio. 
Give us the result by nil means friend P. such 
experiments are worth more than whole col- 
umns of theory. 
Mr. N. what am I to do, in looking over my bees In 
the middle of Dec. I found they wore getting In a bad 
condition, the combs were wet and mouldy. I went to 
work as per Gi.kaninoh and made each hive a quilt, 
1 put them on top of frames over the bees and put the 
lioncv board over them, the honey boards have three 
ventilator holes In them, have I ‘done right? I have 
them in a room in the house, the temperature ranges 
from 3-1° to . r ii " so far. I am keeping a diary of the tem- 
perature in the room from the first of .Jim. ; the fourth 
of Jan. was a warm day. 1 carried most of them out, 
they had a good fly, carried them hack at night and 
so they remain. 
I have a small room I am keening a light stock of 
bees in for experiment and feeding them all they will 
lake of sugar syrup, the temperature ranges from 40° 
to V 0 ° do you think they will Increase In strength be- 
fore spring? They are very lively now, I have a cage 
for them right against the window so they can exer- 
cise themselves when they choose. I have no trouble 
with them going hack in the hive. 
Would 11. answer at the time when we use the ex- 
tractor to move the hives and bees say 6<> feet from 
their stand ? 
M. Richardson, Port Colborne, Canada. 
Don’t put a honey-board over the quilt by 
any means. At a temperature of 50® we 
should prefer removing: even the quilt if the 
bees were kept in by wire-clot it. We are very 
glad to bear you have succeeded in letting the 
bees fly in doors, tell us how the colony turns 
out by all means, as we have told friend Pier- 
son just before you. Your plan for extracting 
we think would not do; you would get the 
young bees lost and possibly the Queen. 
1 have extracted is gallons this month, warmed the 
room to about 85" had no trouble extracting; have put 
up a few jins. And them full of particles of wax. is there 
any way to get rid of it ? give me what information 
you can and much oblige. J. II. holies. 
Jan. 23rd, 1874. Watertown,\Vls. 
If you use a strainer of cheese cloth, such as 
we described in Vol. 1, attached to your ex- 
tractor, you will have no such trouble. Heat- 
ing honey to the boiling point injures the sale 
of it by darkening the color, but the honey 
may be evaporated to any desired consistency, 
even to candy, in a slow oven without injury. 
I cannot agree with .J. Bolin as to cold killing bees; 
in the winter ol 71 72 1 wintered asti ck In a. ‘1-8 pine 
Rail keg, very open, which stood on the west side of a 
shed some three feet, off the ground so as to get all the 
hcnellt of all the Cold winter blasts; they came out all 
right in the spring. 
We have many such reports which it seems 
to us Mr. Quinby too, would do well to con- 
sider in rendering his decisions. Our friend 
goes on to attribute the cause to dampness 
from frost etc. but we have many severe cases 
of it where they were kept in dry cellars that 
did not freeze at all. He adds further : 
I dug a hole and nut one In, put hoards over It 
and piled on straw, fed it all winter on sugar-syrup, 
and my experience was. and I examined them every 
time it was warm, that If there came a thaw lasting 
some days, hut not so bees could fly, thov would com- 
mence to soil their frames; If they could Ay it would 
cease. Ed. Wellington*, Klvertoii, Iowa. 
Just as we should expect, for syrup fed in 
.cold weather unless days occur that the bees 
can fly, Invariably produces dysentery or some- 
thing much like it; as we have said repeatedly, 
it must be wiled vp in warm weather 
Sealed honey, however often produces the 
most aggravated cases. We, should have pre- 
ferred to have the bees out of the hole, and in 
the sun. 
< oN< i;KrM\G i>uoiim:i?i ivo. id. 
*1 fij RIEND NOVICE 1 have been lotting a few of 
jirj my bees Ay according to the following plan. 
ilLj Make a light frame about two feet square, 
cover the four sides with wire-cloth and the top with 
thin hoards except a square hole in the center, about 
as large as the Inside of the hive; place a swarm of 
bees on this cage in a warm room and let them Ay. 
Do you think it will be an injury to the bees? 
Jan. oth, 1874. Henry Palmer, Hart, Mich. 
An appeal fee further particulars brought 
the following : 
The bees do get hack Into the cluster all right. In 
all those examined since their flight, have found 
brood: they had none before. 
Jan. 10th, 1874. JI. P. 
It seems the above must answer the purpose. 
It might prove an injury to a strong colony to 
start brood-fearing in Jan., but we think it. 
would certainly prove advantageous to a weak 
one, providing they could have warm quarters 
in which to mature their brood. 
Our own experimental colony after losing 
quite a number of their force in the wire-cloth 
house experiment, survived but a short time 
after a second reduction of their numbers, 
caused by carelessly shutting down the wire- 
cloth cover to their hive. Of course they flew 
to the windows and as it was just about the 
first of the year, in our hurry they were not 
noticed until ’twas too lute. 
With the Simplicity hive we think flying 
room could be given In extra stories placed 
either above or below with wire-cloth, to ad- 
mit. light and to prevent them from getting 
out and lost. 
