To keep bees quiet the longest possible time I would recommend: 1st. A good bee cellar in a bank, covered all over with no less than 3 feet of earth, and an even temperature maintained inside at 44° to 45°; 2d. Hives so constructed that chaff could entirely surround the bees to the depth of 4 inches. To sum up, we should winter one-half of our apiary one way and one-half the other, inasmuch as our winters vary so that one winter has come out the best on summer stands, and another the best from the cellar. I will refer to this subject again in the next Weekly Bee Journal.
Borodino, N. Y., March 22, 1881.
For the American Bee Journal.
Extracting Bees.—The New Industry.
H. T. COLLINS.
As the exigencies of the times have created the new industry of “extracting dead bees” from the cells, and as many of the bee-keeping fraternity may want to do so without delay in order to save time, I give my plan, as I think the one suggested by our editor, though good in the main, is apt to break the combs too much. The necessary tools are a small pair of tweezers (such as taxidermists use), a light and sharp darning needle, and last but not least, a shallow tin pan, say one inch deep and 13¾ × 17¾ inches. Every keeper of 10 or more colonies should have one or more pans—they just fill the bottom of a 10-frame Langstroth hive, and are as handy as a pocket in a shirt. Instead of the pan, a common table waiter will answer. Sitting in a good light, place the pan lengthwise across the lap, and lay the frame across the pan, but parallel with the lap. The use of the pan is to give a convenient rest to the frame, and to hold the dead bees. If you are right-handed, let the top of the frame be towards the right hand, if not, vice versa. Holding the tweezers in the hand, which is right (often the left one), grasp the bee and pull it out slowly and gently, and with the motion of the hand towards the top of the frame. As in the natural position, the base of the cell is horizontally the lowest, the above mentioned motion extracts the bee with the least friction. But in some combs they will stick so tight as to break off at the junction of the abdomen, and to prevent this, with the darning needle pierce the thorax as it comes to the edge of the cell, and by its help you can nearly every time drag out the too-tightly lodged bee. A cup of warm water will be convenient in removing the sticky deposit that will often adhere to the end of the tweezers. To the inexperienced, the above may seem to be a slow and tedious way of extracting bees, but a little practice will make one skillful, and if any one has a better way please communicate it promptly, as this new industry promises, from the weekly reports, to be a large and growing one.
Jacksonville, Ill.
For the American Bee Journal.