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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
1^0 
* troth. Will lie describe his honey boxes and tell us 
whether they are put only on top or the frames. 
\VK presume many will read the California report 
with interest. We would be very glad to hear what 
you are doing, friend W. Could we have a climate 
permitting queen rearing every month in the year, 
it, seems to us we could not only supply the world 
with dollar queens, but could get six tons of honev 
from 48 colonies, even with our average seasons, with 
.m 11 ease. We can't well pull up stakes and go to Cali- 
fornia, but if the greenhouse will enable us to push 
•brood-rearing regardless of weather, it will be the 
next best thing. 
Is it possible that any one who will take, and read 
the American Agriculturist can fail to be benelitted to 
the amount of As a vehicle of civilization, and 
lor keeping up with the industries of the present 
time, whether one he farmer, mechanic, merchant or 
anything else, we do not see how they can fail to feel 
an interest in its pages. Every page of it, even 
ihe advertising columns if read, will have a tendency 
to improve your homes, improve your morals, and 
just as surely, augment the contents of your pocket 
books. Sent with Cleanings postpaid for 8 2.10 
^ — 
SOME RmAKKS IIV KEGAKO TO 
OU’JVJDOOll WINTERING. 
« veil AS. F. MUTJI. 
S winter is approaching I suppose almost every 
jjitk one of us has been taking care to put Ills bees 
l — in proper shape l'or wintering, i. e.. lias seen the 
Queen in every colony, given each hive the necessary 
supply of winter stores, cut winter passages through 
Ihe combs and arranged them so that the combs with 
brood, if any such be found, hang in the middle, and 
honey comb’s next to them etc. 1 have given my hoes 
ihe full size of the lower story of a Lahgstroth hive, 
with ten frames, honey in each one, without regard to 
the strength of the swarm or to the honey being cap- 
ped or uncapped. Why should the honey sour in the 
cells, when it does not. sour in an open vessel ? But I 
have a straw mat on top of the whole and an air pas- 
sage above the mat. Let us give our bees a warm 
covering in winter, but at the same time 1 prefer up- 
ward ventilation, whether this is efl’ceted by the aid 
of a straw mat or something else makes no difference. 
1 know there is much said in favor of giving our bees 
just as many frames as the colony can cover, vetl 
have failed to see the difference in spring, in the bees 
of those of my friends who put them up in that man- 
ner, and my own bees. To test this matter 1 have left 
a medium sized swarm in a one story hive containing 
-0 LangstroUi frames, every frame tilled or partly till- 
ed with honey. J don't believe that anybody's bees 
wintered better last winter than my own," and "those of 
my neighbor's who put them up similar to my own. 
friend Curry's bees oceanic strong in spring perhaps 
lister than any other bees In the neighborhood, caus- 
ed by a splendid natural protection. Their apiary 
iieing situated in a hollow, opening to the south anil 
protected from cold winds almost completely. 1 wish 
you would give our way of wintering a 'fair test, 
brother Novice. It might be the means of saving you 
and others n good deal of labor and disappointment. 
I should not hesitate to winter bees in Minnesota or 
Wisconsin, on their summer stands and protected as 
stated above with the same coutidencc of success. 
Cincinnati, O. Oct. 25th, 1874. 
Thanks for your very excellent hints friend 
M. In regard to honey souring in the cells, 
0 tr experiments have given us some light. 
1 he pet nudes, ns we have called it, when first 
put in the greenhouse, gathered a large quan- 
tity of thick syrup — much more than the clus- 
ter could cover, and after having cool nights, 
they began to have a peculiar disagreeable 
'•'Uiell. We supposed this was caused by the 
moisture from so small a cluster, mixing with 
the honey, for in fact right about the cluster 
was visible a peculiar damp kind of mold, 
ihis all disappeared after we kept them up to 
t'b or 70«> , by means of the lamp nursery. I lad 
tiicre been bees enough to keep the whole hive 
" nniK this we think would not have been the 
vv* Se ’ f° r other colonies near “smelled” all right, 
tve never hesitate to “poke” our nose into any 
thing, even bee hives, if we think any thing is to 
, gleaned thereby. Perhaps a good large duster of 
bees would get along well on unsealed stores, 
but we feel sure weak ones will not. To di- 
gress a little, we last month mentioned symp- 
toms of dysentery in the greenhouse; this has 
all ceased since we enlarged it enough to pre- 
vent a temperature of 100° or over occurring. 
In Feb. 18C9 wc had about 40 colonies in our 
i cellar ; in order to give the strong colonies 
enough ventilation to keep them quiet, we re- 
moved honey boards and cap entirely. A\ e 
had perhaps ten days of weather almost as 
warm as summer, and opening the door and 
windows nights, seemed only to make them 
warmer. In spite of all wc could do, all but; 
eleven died of dysentery. Now the smell wc 
noticed in the greenhouse when the thermom- 
eter stood at 120«, was precisely the old fainiP 
iar one emitted by these diseased colonies. 
Many of them had unsealed stores. Could 
they have had a good fly — wc put them out 
just after the warm spell was all over — they 
might have rallied. All had natural stores. 
Is it not possible that getting too warm lias as 
much to do with the disease as getting too 
cold? As bees never get too warm when win- 
tered out of doors, we certainly secure one 
condition by your plan, friend M. The testi- 
mony in favor of straw hives and straw mats 
is certainly too strong to be passed over un- 
heeded. But do you believe Mend M. you 
could thus winter a colony whose stores were 
half from the cider mills, or some equally un- 
healthy diet? We too have often had serious 
doubts of the utility of division boards for win 
tering, but are at present hardly prepared to 
decide them useless. Very many things that 
wc “fuss” with are perhaps useless, and we 
know of no point neecding the benefit of clear 
cool judgment more than this, viz: to deter- 
mine what may lie safely dropped and what 
may not. Wc are testing a straw mat, and 
have three colonies wintering out doors. 
HAVE two barrels of white clover and basswood 
i.*jl honev and about 400 lbs. or Aug. and Sept, honey, 
4 — " mostly golden rod. that I could sell, it is all can- 
died.- ‘ A. Buks, Forest , O. Oct. 26th, 1874. 
If the Semi-weekly Tribune (N. Y.) of Oct. 
27th from which we clip the two following 
items, has been correctly informed, it seems 
friend Grimm has quite a formidable rival in 
the honey business, in'the East, as well as J. S. 
Harbison of San Diego, California, who is said 
to have produced seventy Jive tons this season. 
We arc making an effort to get at the real facts 
of the case from the gentlemen themselves. 
The second item seeing to be a revival of Prob- 
lem 17, as given on page 80, Vol. 1. 
Wc rend that John E. Iletherington, Cherry Valley, 
N. Y., “shipped one day last week a car load of io 
tons of choice white honey. He had previously sliip- 
kmI three tons, besides two tons of strained honey, 
lis crop this season will hardly fall short of 80 tons.” 
Some of our apiarians are talking of a wagon with 
frames for a large number of hives, that can he moved 
about from one location to another. The benefits 
claimed are to take advantage, first, of the maple and 
willow blooms: next come back to orchards and white 
clover; then oil’ to the forests for the basswood ancl 
other flowers ; then for the blossoms of the tulip tree, 
and Anally back to the Helds of buckwheat and flowers 
of Autumn. This plan has been pursued in a small 
way for some years. 
