1/ecemter 0, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
5.7 
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IIEhe bee-keeper. 
o) 
WINTERING BEES. 
As no one year is sufficient as a test for the safe wintering of 
bees, it will be well for bee-keepers to keep a sharp eye on their 
hives, so as to be able to detect any dead bees, and to discover the 
cause. Damp is the worst enemy bees have to contend against 
during inclement weather. When a floor is damp many bees perish 
on it, and in any case damp causes a coldness detiimental to the 
bees. Frequently we hear of clusters of detached bees being found 
in the hive, as well as the floor being covered with dead bees. I 
never had a case of either in my apiary, but I may perhaps be able 
to point out a few of the causes. 
A projecting alighting board catches damp, and if it form a 
piece of the floor the damp is drawn inwards and the bees and 
combs, as well as the honey, suffer. Impervious coverings either 
next the bees or close on the top of other material on the hives also 
causes damp through condensed moisture. Too much doorway 
when the atmosphere is damp with a low temperature is also un¬ 
favourable. Bees located in a hive that is broader than high suffer 
when a low temperature occurs, and detached clusters of bees die. 
Double-cased hives that are dovetailed contract damp readily, more 
so than those nailed with a close-fitting joint. Wood or other 
material that absorbs damp next to the bees is worse for them than 
when a non-porous material is used. Wooden hives are better 
oiled, painted, or tarred on the inside, than left so as to absorb 
damp, provided a ventilating floor is employed, and with a doorway 
not more than an inch wide and in a narrow hive bees will winter 
well and come out in the spring in good health, no matter what the 
winter has been. The “ Long Idea ” or other lateral hives on the 
broad principle contract damp much more readily than the narrow 
type of hive. The honey from them, too, during summer is always 
more watery than the honey stored above the bees is in a narrow 
hive, while in winter it is both colder and more watery and causes 
disease amongst the bees, while those in a narrow hive are healthy. 
The best way to protect hives from rain and inclemency of the 
season is to have the sides, and particularly the top of the hive, well 
covered with dry meadow hay and surmounted with a projecting 
rain-proof roof, elevated a little, so that it acts as an umbrella does, 
allowing the air to pass around and over the hive without the 
possibility of rain entering or touching the hive anywhere, and 
always have the alighting board detached or moveable, so that it 
will not conduct water to the interior. The proper quantity of hay 
to employ is just as much as when pressed by the hand it will feel 
soft and the perceptibility of the wood absent. Bees cannot have 
a too ready entrance to their combs. Those having a court between 
the outer and inner wall is the cause of the death of many bees, as 
well as intercepting the air before it reaches the outer world. Such 
hives necessitate close watching and a hooked wire to draw out the 
dead bees. Hives having their combs right to the doorway may be 
termed safe, as the bees when “ airing ” come to the entrance in a 
body, keeping the combs and entrance warm, so that bees returning 
almost exhausted (as they often are in winter), when they reach 
the entrance and catch hold of the combs are safe. 
The foregoing are some of the features the bee-keeper should 
become acquainted with, and when the wintering of bees is 
mastered, the management during summer becomes more simple, 
ending in success. For two weeks now my bees have kept con¬ 
stantly within the liiv3s. Last year at the present date some of 
the Syrians had a number of dead thrown out, and had been 
prisoners for two months this year. No dead bees are around yet, 
and should seasonable weather continue for another three weeks 
breeding will be commenced. On the 9th of January, 1888, one of 
the finest days during the year, the bees began work and continued 
until dusk the same day, and wrought more or less up till the 
18th November. Never, in all my experience, have queens been 
taxed to such an extent as in the present year. The bee-keeper 
should turn his attention to all stocks having 1887 queens, for 
assuredly there is a likelihood of many of them being deposed 
before swarming time. —A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
THE “ HALLAMSHIRE ” GLASS SECTIONS. 
“A Sussex Amateur,” page 458, wants to know how the above 
can be fitted together and placed in the racks ready for use in less 
time than the present wood sections, and he would like me to supply 
the 4000 pieces of glass for 10s. To explain the first will require some 
drawings and several columns of letter-press ; in fact the glass sections 
are only part of a new system that bears about the same relation to the 
present bar-frame principle that the latter does to the skep. If your 
correspondent will refer to the Journal for November 1st, he will see 
I have promised to publish full particulars, but I do not consider it wise 
to do so just yet when everyone is sceptical about the plan. When a 
goodly number have realised that they can be done, and are willing to 
learn the process, then will be the time to instruct them. Before this 
can happen we must break down the opinion that “ the idea of glass 
for sections is absurd—a thing as impossible as perpetual motion.” 
This brings me to notice a leading article in a contemporary for 
November 1st. I sent a reply to it which dealt with every one of his 
objections against glass, but it was not published. You, Mr. Editor, 
who have seen the whole crate, can testify that it was a fair sample, 
and not the best one either, therefore I feel constrained to deal with the 
objections here. 
The first objection is the difficulty of procuring sheets of glass of 
equal thickness. This does not apply to my sections, as no matter how 
many different thicknesses of glass there may be, all are cut with the 
same tools, and yet the outside measurement of the sections will be 
exactly alike, all variations being thrown inside, where, of course, it 
does not matter. 
The second is the cost, in comparison with the American one-piece. 
He says suitable glass costs not less than 3d. per square foot, and at this 
rate a thousand sections will cost in glass alone £4 3s. 4d. The writer 
does not clearly show how he works out this litt'e sum, so I cannot test his 
arithmetic, which may be as sound as the idea of going to buy glass by 
odd square feet to make 1000 sections. Here is my answer to this, 
which all can test for themselves. My sections are 51 inches high by 
3J inches wide, by one-nine-sixteenth inch thick. This size holds 
16 ozs. of honey without the glass. A piece of glass 33.i inches by 
42£ inches—under 10 square feet—will make fifty-four sections. A 
“case” of 15-oz. glass contains 300 square feet. This will cut up into 
1620 sections at least ; it will make a few more with a little care. 
These cases can be bought for 24s. to 26s. per case ; or box glass for 
9s. to 10s. 6d. per box of 100 feet. These latter are cut for ordinary 
window panes, so that sizes can be selected that will cut up without any 
waste; thus it will be seen that if we have to use new glass it will not 
cost more than 15s. per 1000, and a pair of hands could easily cut iq> 
50,000 per day, so I do not see that the price would exceed that of the 
American wooden ones. But I do not propose to use new glass at all, as; 
in every glass warehouse throughout the country there is a vast quantity 
of waste glass made, consisting of long narrow strips, which are thrown 
under the bench with a twist to smash them as small as possible. For 
this glass, called “ cullet,” they get from 15s. to 20s. per ton. Every 
piece three-one-eighths by one-nine-sixteenths, of which will make a 
section side, and I find they will readily put all these strips in boxes for 
me for 2s. 6d. per cwt. Though 1 cwt. will not make quite 1000 one- 
pound sections, 2 cwt. will make 1000 each one and two pound. As I 
think more of this cullet will always be produced than will ever be re¬ 
quired for sections, I think I am well within the mark in saying that my 
sections do not cost in glass more than the odd 3s. 4d. named in the 
estimate already mentioned. 
The third objection is expressed by asking, “ What bee-keeper can 
afford to add a card or other fancy case to comb honey worked in such 
an expensive (?) receptacle ?” My answer is, that glass sections require 
no “ card or other fancy case they are insect and dust proof, nor could 
anything be added without spoiling their beauty. Therefore, by using 
glass sections the expense of a “fancy case” is saved. 
In the fourth he objects to “ four unattached pieces of glass ” as not 
being safe to handle. Well, the fact that the first one safely reached 
the Editor’s hands through the mail ; that another I have carried in my 
coat pocket for about 500 miles, and shown it to about 100 different 
people, should be proof sufficient that such fears are groundless. 
In his fifth he says the wax comb will leave the glass and the honey 
run out, making the section unsaleable. This, as a matter of fact, neves 
can happen, and if the glass is too cold or damp the bees cannot “ weld ”■ 
their wax to it, and in trying to do so work their combs against the 
glass with a thick “ frosted ” appearance. When this is so they never 
put honey in the cells next the glass, as instinct teaches them it would 
run out. When the glass is kept warm and dry they work their cell 
walls on it almost as thin as paper ; these being perfectly welded to the 
glass are invariably filled with honey. In connection with this there is 
a most important point to consider. It is well known that the combs in 
wooden sections crack in cold weather, setting the honey bleeding ; this- 
is caused through the honeycomb contracting within the wooden section, 
which will not expand or contract with heat and cold. Glass has this 
property ; in fact it contracts and expands almost in the same ratio that 
honeycomb does. Hence with glass there is no fear of cracked or bleeding 
