1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



83 



only bees enough to keep from freezing. They are 

 the ones that are breeding now; but I don't know 

 just how much brood they have. 



Green R. SntRER. 

 Adamsville, Musk'm Co., O., Dec. 151, 1881. 

 Keep them raising brood, friend S., by 

 giving tbem candy made of granulated su- 

 gar, and it may prove the best stock yon 

 have. Although brood-rearing ia winter 

 seems sometimes to make trouble, it is by 

 no means always the case, as many reports 

 in our l)ack volumes show. 



RAPE AS A HONEV-PLANT. 



The pound of rape seed I got of you came up very 

 well. The weather was too dry for it to do as well 

 as it might have done. I got from 15 to 20 lbs. of 

 seed from the one pound. The bees were very busy 

 on it while it was in bloom. AVhat will you pay per 

 pound for seed? JonN C. Bowman. 



North Lima, Mahoning Co., O., Dec. 20, 1881. 



We are glad to know that some of the 

 rape seed we sent out last season grew. We 

 are going to make our greenhouse tell us 

 this season all about all the seeds we 

 sell, so as to take no more such risks. 

 The winter rape, mentioned in former num- 

 bers, is, at this date, looking beautifully 

 rank and green, and we have great hopes 

 now that we can raise winter rape here Avith- 

 out trouble. At present, we could pay about 

 5 cts. per lb. for good clean fresh seed deliv- 

 ered here. 



CELLARS vs. OUTDOOR -WINTERINO IN CANADA. 



Bees did well in this vicinity, this season. Several 

 apiarians wintered in cellars and bee-houses with 

 but about five per cent loss. Those who wintered 

 outdoors lost an average of 90 per cent. Above- 

 mentioned cellars and houses are so constructed 

 that an even temperature of 40 to 48^ F. can be main- 

 tained, and have a complete change of air, free from 

 malarial dampness, every six to nine hours. The 

 honey flow lasted about six weeks, with best bass- 

 wood flow known in many years. The increase is 

 about an average of 100 per cent, with about an av- 

 erage of 100 lbs. of honey to the original stock, 

 which, from fair to good prices, helped to balance 

 losses of last winter. Bees are principally put 

 away in cellars and houses for the present winter, 

 and so far are doing well. As the new j'ear is with- 

 in about three hours "drive," we will wish you and 

 your many readers a very happy new year. 



J. E. Frith. 



Burgessville, Ont., Can., Dec. 31, 1881. 



BEES AND GRAPES. SEE P. 'A~, NOV. NO. 



The bees do not injure the grapes, but they are a 

 nuisance. It is often an inconvenience to have the 

 fruit-rooms closed, and the grape-packers have to 

 work almost in a swarm of bees. I think they are 

 very patient to say as little as they do. 



Brocton, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1S32. M. Simons. 



Thanks, my friend. In such a case as you 

 mention, I would by all means furnish wire 

 cloth to cover the windows, and put it on 

 too. It is a comparatively easy matter to 

 keep the bees out of any kind of a covered 

 structure, such as a cider-mill, or fruit-house 

 of any kind, by the i>se of wire cloth. I be- 

 lieve the best establishments of the kind do 

 use wire cloth to keep the tlies out, to say 



nothing of the bees. Who would want flies 

 and fly-specks around fruit, or on the pack- 

 ages containing fruit to be sent to market V 

 In regard to bees on the fruit while on the 

 vines, the following from the American Acj- 

 rkidtiirist for Jan. would seem to imply that 

 bees are certainly not the only enemy the 

 grape-grower has to contend with : — 



Birds and Grapes.— C. Lauppc, Champaign Co., 

 Ohio, has much trouble with the birds, which des- 

 troy his grapes. The robin, the cat-bird, and the 

 jay, do much mischief; but the oriole is the worst 

 enemy, as it cuts a hole in the berry to get at the 

 juice, and one will soon injure all the fruit on the 

 vine, while the others take the whole berry and soon 

 get their lill. Mr. L. has had the best success in the 

 use of small steel traps, which he baits with some 

 blue variety, such as the I^■es. He does not care to 

 catch the birds, as the snapping of the trap scares 

 them away. Though Mr. L has upward of 70 varie- 

 ties, ho says, it coulined to a single variety, it would 

 be the Concord. 



Well, do you not think it likely that the 

 bees would be accused of mischief, if they 

 should happen to follow after the work of 

 the birds, as described above? 



TELLING OF GRE.\T HONEY YIELDS, ETC. 



I see in the Jan. No. of Gleanings, page .33, Juno, 

 La Porte, Iowa, says if he had a large yield of honey 

 he would be afraid to tell of it. I don't see why he 

 should be. I think one need not be afraid to tell the 

 truth. I wish friend Juno had been in my apiary 

 this summer, and seen me take off the boxes of hon- 

 ey, and my wife and daughter carrying them into 

 the house. Perhaps ho would have been as aston- 

 ished as an old fogy visitor I had one daj- was when 

 I took from the hives 54 boxes of 2 lbs. each, and 30 

 boxes of 1 lb. each, and extracted from one hive 120 

 lbs. Still, I think no one was more astonished at my 

 crop than myself, and I too sometimes wondered if 

 it didn't "rain honey." H. Newhaus. 



Burlington, Wis., Jan. 10, 1882. 



You are right, I think, friend N.; for those 

 who have read our journals do know that 

 honey comes at times almost as if it rained 

 down. Again, we are all on such friendly 

 terms here in the journal, that I believe few. 

 if any, are so uncharitable as to doubt what 

 another communicates, without some very 

 good reason . 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY LETTING THE BEES EAT 

 THROUGH THE CANDY. 



I bought 2 queens of you last summer. I have felt 

 ever since that I ought to tell you how I introduced 

 the first one. It had candy; no water in cage; bees 

 clean and lively. Instead of taking out frames, 

 spiking on combs to have them gnawed through, 

 and the same to get the cage out again, I just slip 

 the tin back enough to show a part of the candy in 

 the hole; turn it down on the top of the frames, and 

 let the bees work through the candy. The second 

 queen, with bottles of water, was a little daubed. 



F. Graves. 



Onarga, Iroqouis Co., 111., Jan. 2, 1882. 



MY REPORT l-'OR 1881. 



Commenced the season with 28 swarms, 20 good 

 and 8 light ; increased to 70, and took 1500 lbs. honey 

 — 1150 lbs. comb, the rest extracted. Lost last win- 

 ter 130 swarms, nicely packed with chaff, on summer 

 stands. The 28 saved were in the cellar from about 

 Nov. 1.5, 1880, to April 20, 1881. Chaff packing on 

 summer stands will do in an ope winter like the 



