1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



127 



being about 8000 lbs., and of later flowers 9500, mak- 

 ing 17,500 lbs. of extracted, and increase 200 swarms; 

 and while many have reported doing much better 

 than this, I am satisfied with the result, as I did bet- 

 ter than r expected, which ought to satisfy any one. 

 We watched only one lot regularly, but depended on 

 controlling swarming by cropping all old queens, 

 and cutting out cells, and taking brood from the 

 strongest; and yet we are not positive of losing but 

 three swarms. We have one lot ten miles from 

 home; another seven. Having them so far away, 

 and moving all young swarms, kept three of us so 

 busy through June and July that we had but little 

 time to go fishing or play ball. 



In regard to the wintering problem: I see that 

 many think they have solved it, and in their particu- 

 lar location they probably have; but should they try 

 some other, it might be they would modify some- 

 what their present views, as, in my opinion, loca- 

 tion has much to do with success or loss in winter- 

 ing, and that the wintering depends upon the sum- 

 mer's gathering; otherwise, how shall we account 

 for one lot wintering well and another dying under 

 the same treatment a short distance awaj'? It is 

 possible that, by takiug all natural stores away, and 

 feeding sugar, they might all be wintered in a season 

 when they would die on natural stores; but as we 

 can hardly tell when disaster is coming, and as it is 

 a big job to take the honey from them and feed a 

 large lot, I have so far taken the chances of their 

 wintering on their own stores. 



I take no stock in the theory that we must have 

 them breed late in winter, for I have known them to 

 winter well without feeding, when all honey sources 

 had failed in August. 



I have 103 swarms, chaff packed, outdoors, and 250 

 in cellars. They seem to be doing fairly so far, both 

 out and in. Those out were carrying water in the 

 warm part of the day on several days during Novem- 

 ber and December. S.I.Freeborn. 



Ithaca, Wis., Jan., 1883. 



HONEY FROM BASSWOOD, AND HONEY 

 FKOM THISTLES. 



fjiHOUGH my report is not very brilliant, and per- 

 haps, also, a little out of season, I will try to 

 let you know what I have been doing the past 

 summer. When the honey season began in real 

 earnest, I found that I had only 30 colonies out of 39 

 that were strong enough to make a start in the box- 

 es. At the close of the basswood flow of honey I 

 took off 3130 lbs. of nice white comb honey, an average 

 of 71 lbs. per colony, and double increase. They 

 would swarm and swarm; no amount of boxing 

 would control them. I have douliled up and sold 

 down to 66, which I am wintering in Langstroth 

 hives on their summer stands. 



THISTLES AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



Now, f'-iend Root, allow me a little space to tell the 

 readers of Gleanings who have possession of land 

 where our common thistle grows, not to destroy 

 them, for they are a good honey-plant in just the 

 right time. In looking over my bees after the sur- 

 plus arrangements were removed,! found plenty of 

 brood, but very litf.e honey. Some time near the 

 last of July I noticed that the bees were coming in 

 heavily laden with honey. 



" Hallo !" says I to mjself, "Mr. Root need not 

 'kick up such a dust' about one red-clover queen; 



why, my whole apiary is of that stamp. I must real- 

 ly go and see that large clover field." 



I put my smoker away, and before many minutes 

 I was standing in a field of red. Imagine my sur- 

 prise to see very few bees. I started home, greatly 

 disappointed. As I got about half way home my 

 silence was broken by a loud humming of bees pass- 

 ing overhead. They led me to a large thistle patch 

 where I found them so many in number that they 

 were crowding, it seemed, to see how many could 

 get one flower. I beat a hasty retreat homeward, 

 well pleased with my two hours' ramble, and with a 

 strong resolution that I would destroy no more 

 thistles. Day by day they gathered their sweet 

 treasures, and at the end of one month the combs 

 were bulged out with a beautiful golden-colored 

 honey. T. C. Chilly. 



Grafton, Lorain Co , O., Jan 30, 1883. 



I liaven't a doubt of what you say, friend 

 C. ; but if you go to recommending thistles, 

 some of the friends wouldn't sleep nights. 

 You see, it Avould seed the land of your 

 neighbors ; and as the common thistle grows 

 a second year, it would be even worse than 

 the much-abused, but comparatively inno- 

 cent, blue thistle we had such a time about 

 a year or more ago. I have seen bees get 

 quite a little honey from thistles some sea- 

 sons, but I hardly think it is a very common 

 occurrence. 



A TRIP TO JEFFERSON, WISCONSIN. 



BY ONE OF THE "BLASTED HOPERS." 



CHAPTEK I. 

 ^fit^'A'i' 1, 1881, I had but 13 colonies of bees and 3 

 |l/)(|l very weak nuclei in my bee-yard, where from 

 ' 60 to 100 colonies usually stand. They looked 

 so lonesome, and I felt so blue after my losses, that 

 I determined to buy more if pos.ible. After corres- 

 ponding with several having bees to sell, and finding 

 their ^prices too high for my pocket-book, I deter- 

 minedon a trip to Jefferson, the home of theGrimras 

 and many other quite extensive bee-keepers. For 

 the want of a better conveyance, I proposed bring- 

 ing them home in the lumber wagon. Under the box, 

 rubber springs were improvised by cutting up old 

 rubber boots and shoes, and in the box was placed 

 hiird and tough brushwood upon which boards were 

 laid so that the hives would be level. An hour be- 

 fore sunrise. May 30, 1 was on the road leading north- 

 westward, and, rough and stony though it was, I was 

 intending to do the 30 miles by noon. The morning 

 was pleasant. The team needed no urging, and my 

 spirits rose as I thought that perhaps to-morrow I 

 might be returning with 30 colonies of nice yellow 

 bees to work on the yellow blossoms of the dandeli- 

 ons with which the roadsides were nearly covered. 

 White clover, too, had also begun to show its small 

 pink and white flowers, on which I saw many bees 

 before arriving at Jefferson. As I passed through a 

 small village, two or three men were seen giving 

 their horses water at the town pump. I, too, drew 

 rein and saluted them with a good-morning, which 

 was pleasantly returned, after which they were asked 

 of the prospect for buying bees in that locality. 

 One of them laughed as he remarked, that nearly 

 every one had gone out of the bee business, and, 

 pointing to a house near by, said, "A bee-raan lives 

 there, but he has only one weak swarm left from the 

 forty he had in the fall, and he is a sample of all." 



