1874 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
137 
■wc can hardly remember. Ilad it been day- 
light we should have saved the bees, but as it 
was we regretted far more, being obliged to 
hill the over zealous little fellows, than any 
injury they did us. We really do hope some- 
thing will turn up to do away with “lugging” 
hives about at any season of the year. An 
•examination of the Bee House since shows all 
.quiet again. In fact it is hard to believe the 
u'oom contains any living thing at all, when 
we enter on tip toe in the night time. This 
really seems like the year we first built the 
house. We lost none then.. 
The bees in the Green House now work 
beautifully on the meal, and one hive shows 
perhaps 50 square inches of scaled brood. Af- 
ter they have hatched out perfect bees we arc 
<n>ing to sail our hat higher than it ever went 
before. If our readers should hear any thing 
unusual about Nov. 15th or 20th, they can 
conclude it was probably Novice giving three 
cheers for the successful solution of Problem 
No. Nineteen. 
A few bees got out at the door to-day when 
we went in for something ; supposing these lost, 
we thought no more about it, but toward night 
seeing some bees about the door we opened it 
and let them in, and sure enough they flew in 
immediately to their respective hives. 
Just think of it : It may be that we after all 
shall be under no necessity of having the sash 
removable, but shall only be obliged to open 
the door to our Green House whenever the 
weather will admit of their going abroad ; still 
further, is it positively among the impossibili- 
ties that a small door may be so arranged that 
it can be left open at all seasons allowing the 
bees to work abroad or in doors according to 
their own “sweet will,” for we really do dislike 
making prisoners of any animated thing, and 
bees most of all? We really feel that we are 
but "groping in the dark” in this business, yet 
as light is daily coming we will try to be con- 
tent. Help would be quite acceptable, and we 
should welcome with pleasure the result of 
any similar experiments. 
We found our hybrid Queen safely introdu- 
ced to-day and had we not already spun out 
such a very long yarn we would tell about the 
remarkably large white eggs she lays. As it 
is, we’ll say nothing about them now, butlhey 
really are remarkably large. By the way her 
bees, — nearly black hybrids — have an “aston- 
ishingly” cool way ol giving a body decidedly 
pungent stings for no offense in the world ex- 
cept “jest trying to get a peep” at the aforesaid 
-arge white eggs. 
Don’t you believe we’re tired ? Besides wri- 
ting all this gossip, we have been at work 
since daylight on the extension to the Green 
House ; nailing boards over our head until our 
nick ached, working all doubled up in cramp- 
ed places with insufficient “understanding,” 
scratching ones’ head when it is already lull 
of saw-dust and dirt, in the vain attempt to 
decide how a Green House should be made for 
bees, when there's not a mortal on the face of 
the earth who has ever heard of such a thing 
before, (nor since for that matter). Can’t we 
say good night now? Blue Eyes was 
asleep hours ago dreaming perhaps that it’s 
“too bad” that “Rapa so busy” he couldn’t even 
hclpjier up When she “fa’d down” over his 
“naughty boards” when she went out to see 
him work. 
Noe. 1th — We opened the door again this 
morning and very soon the bees deserted the 
glass and rushed out and in at a great rate. 
After an hour’s exercise in the open air — it is 
as warm as June — they go back contented, and 
work on the meal with more avidity than any 
day before, this fall. They have also eaten or 
carried away nearly a whole sweet potato- 
see Heads oi' Grain — but we were so busy we 
did not even see how they did it. In our work 
of enlarging the structure we uncovered the 
whole room in the afternoon, and finally had 
the hives so covered with boards, and timber, 
carpenter’s tools, spades shovels etc., that it 
was a wonder indeed that a bee could ever 
identify any trace of their usual home, yet to 
our astonishment they labored as happily as if 
nothing was amiss; and even repelled some 
black robbers vigorously toward night that 
proposed to share their “meal and potatoes.” 
Nov. 12th — As sure as you are alive nice 
young Italians are hatching out! Wings arc 
as good, and all else apparently as perfect as 
bees reared entirely under the broad canopy of 
heaven. 
If it were not for the bees that still die dai- 
ly from trying to get out, we fear we should be 
about as happy as we ever expect to be in this 
world. “Cause why ?” When fruit trees arc 
in bloom next spring, we could then have each 
individual hive ready to sicann if we chose, 
and then each would perhaps give 500 lbs. or 
more, and 68 times 500 is but they do die as 
yet though not quite as fast as the new ones 
hatch, so we will keep hopeful. 
Nov. 23 th — We have made many experiments 
since our last, have torn down and built up, 
moved the sash, changed its angle of obliquity 
etc. etc., but with no good result toward keep- 
ing the bees from clustering on it worth men- 
tion, until we raised the sash so nearly level 
that the south side is only ouc foot lower than 
the north. Mr. Burch was certainly right, yet 
we could see no reason for it until we had 
made the experiment ; it seems that bees like 
all winged insects and birds, in their flights 
for exercise, swing around on circles nearly 
level with the horizon. They may ascend or 
descend, spirally, but find it very inconvenient 
to shape their circular flights so as to avoid 
striking a glass placed obliquely ; whereas, 
with the sash level or nearly so, they describe 
circles or figure 8s, with no danger of touch- 
ing any thing unless it be the sash bars which 
they naturally avoid without effort. Seeing 
nothing but the blank sky overhead, instead of 
familiar objects may also have something to do 
with the matter. After changing the sash as 
mentioned, we put a tire in the stove, which 
was incorporated with the apartment hav- 
ing no glass, and soon raised tlie temperature 
to 80° ; this caused the bees to pour out of 
their hives as they do when a warm spell oc- 
curs sometimes after a storm ; after an hour’s 
circling about under the sash, which was ap- 
parently quite satisfactory, they all returned 
to their hives or to their labors on the meal 
and syrup, except perhaps 2 or 3 dozen. If we 
can reduce the daily mortality to 8 or 10 bees 
per hive, we are all right, for they are even 
now, rearing brood much faster. The pet uu- 
