34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Jan. 



"doctors" who disagree, etc. 



I liko to read Gleanings. I have read it now 

 nearly a year, and I read of many ways to keep bees. 

 One says this is the best way; the other, that; and 

 they have all lost about alike. One says they had 

 dysentery, and honey is the cause of it; the other 

 says pollen; another, confinement, etc. Now, thej- 

 have not proven yet, to my patisfaction, that they 

 have dysentery at nil. I know the bees spatter their 

 hives around sometimes, but don't they do that nat- j 

 urally? The reason that I believe so is because, 

 when 1 was a little boy my father bought a stand of 

 bees, and those bees lived In that hive .30 years or 

 more. I know they spattered their hive all around. 

 "Why did they not die out, if that is dysentery? That 

 was a three-story box hive, or a drawer hive; each 

 drawer had its own entrance; the brood-nest was in 

 the middle drawer. They had a passage from the 

 lower to the upper story. A neijjhbor of mine has 

 had eight tor many years, and they act the same 

 way. Why don't they die? His hives have en- 

 trances 3 Inches deep, and the breadth of the hive 

 open all winter, and they come through strong. Tie 

 put a few swarms in Langstroth hives, and they died 

 for him; they were not so airy as the Ijox hives. 

 Does not that show that they smother rather than 

 freeze? Another neighbor had live — 4 in a frame 

 hive, and one in box hive: the four frame died; box 

 i:ame through; it had an empty surplus box on top; 

 it sat on a plank two feet from the ground; had 

 large entrance; the wind could blowthrough the en- 

 tire hive, and he got two good swarms from it this 

 summer. Geo. Fauskight. 



Middle Brunch, Stark Co.. O., Nov., 1881. 



Thanks, friend F. : but I do not think jou 

 are quite correct in saying they winter"^ all 

 about alike. ^V'e have a few men who, we 

 might almost say, never lose in wintering. 

 Our friend George Grimm, for instance, and 

 friend Hill, of Mount Healthy. By looking 

 over our back numbers you will find many 

 more. Dysentery does not always kill bees. 

 If not too severe, they get over it. Again : 

 A few years ago we had losses where there 

 were no traces of dysentery; they "'just 

 died," and that was about all vou could say 

 about it. Two of our successful neighbors, 

 Shane and Blakeslee, used to laugh at the 

 rest of us about our losses ; but they have 

 both had seasons of spring dwindling that 

 have taken at least some of the '' conceit " 

 out of them . They winter pretty fairly now^; 

 but they don't often brag a greait deal about 

 their ability to do so. 



A business opening for our SOI'THKItN FRIENDS, 

 SUGGESTED. 



If this is an open winter I shall take my o stand.-? 

 through. My experience has been, that there is no 

 trouble in wintering bees, if the winter is moder- 

 ate. I think I have found out, that if aman wants to 

 make money by the aale of bees he must go south; 

 then he will have a mai-kct north for three years out 

 of five, when the bees in the North are winter- 

 killed. The same with fruits. Whf n peaches are 

 ripe ia this climate, the North has been supplied 

 from the South, as we learned two years ago, hun- 

 dreds of bushels rotting on the ground, and no de- 

 mand. There, now, what do you think of this essay? 



G. W. HOUSELL. 



Bainbridge, Putnam Co., Ind., Nov. 20, 1881. 

 Well, I think it quite an interesting essay, 



friend II. ; but I can not quite agree to the 

 statement, that we here in the North lose 

 our bees in wintering, three times out of 

 five. I admit there is a pretty good demand 

 for bees as often as that, and that there are 

 usually a good many bad losses •. but, my 

 friend, we are going tg do better. Never 

 mind; bring on the bees from the South; 

 there will always be a good market for them. 



UUUBEH FOUND.VTION PLATES. 



I was anxious to be able to say I could make good 

 work, which I can not exaclly say yet; but the sea- 

 son was almost past before I got them, so that we 

 have not had much experience yet. I can at times 

 make perfect sheets, but not \iniformly. I have no 

 trouble in getting them off, but the sheets have 

 white blisters in them here and there, mostly in the 

 center, as if it were air-bubbles. I saw some in the 

 sheet sent me. (.'an it be remedied any way, as they 

 look so badly? Leslie Tait. 



Foveran. Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Sept. 27, 1881. 



It is true, that fdn. made on the rubber 

 plates has not the finish and nice appear- 

 ance of that made with the rolls, because 

 they compress the wax so as to put a gloss 

 and accurate outline to it; but, my friend, 

 this finish in the hard wax is just Avhat tlie 

 bees do not like, and you will find they will 

 work out your fdn. with that soft look and 

 jagged outline very much easier than that 

 made on rolls. In "fact, the latter is worked 

 clear down like natural comb, because it is 

 virtually wax in the state it is in natural 

 comb, without any of the liardening or com- 

 pressing. The white blisters you mention 

 do no harm at all for actual work. Shall we 

 sacrifice utility for looks simply ? 



SEEDING ALONG OUR RAILWAYS WITH HONEY- 

 PLANTS, ETC. 



During the past fall there has been thrown up the 

 roadway of a new railroad that i)asses within a few 

 hundred feet from my apiary. Now, I have availed 

 myself of the opportunity of getting quite a lot of 

 fine bee pasture by sowing the entire roadbed (some 

 hundred feet wide) for a distance of some two miles, 

 in white Dutch clover, sweet clover (melilot), gold- 

 en honey plant, motherwort, and catnip. As a great 

 part of the roadbed was of loose, fresh earth, the 

 seeds (all mi.Yed together) when sown were covered 

 by the first rain that fell, and much of it is up al- 

 ready. Now, as the land in question would soon 

 have been covered with tall coarse weeds, was it not 

 better to give the seeds of well-known honey-plants 

 the first and best chance to occupy the ground? Of 

 course, it costs something; cuite an item, in fact, to 

 get seeds and time to sow them; but I feci convinced 

 that within reach of the majority of the wide-awake 

 bee-keepers of the U. S., there i« enough waste or 

 idle land to give their bees ample stores to gather, 

 if these lands in question were only sown in honey- 

 producing plants, that would seed themselves from 

 year to year, or become perennial. We bee-keepers, 

 as a class, have not enough faith in the outcome of 

 our business, and coasequently our works are few 

 compared with what they ought to lie. Let some one 

 in each township decide to do a little, and stick to it, 

 even through repeated failures, and the result will 

 be almost magical in its effects on improved beo 

 culture and the production of honey. 



Belleville, Illg., Oct. 12, 188L E. T. Flanagan. 



