136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURIE. 



Mar. 



Now, had you not put that clause into the book, it is 

 not liliely I should have attended to the bees until 

 April. I regard it as a timely warning-. I am in- 

 tensely interested in the little workers. They have 

 done well for me. From every dollar I have invest- 

 ed thus far, I have received fovr in return. My best 

 hive made me 106 lbs. in the 1-lb. sections last sea- 

 son, which I sold at 30 cts. per lb. I paid only $4.00 

 for the colony in the spring. In the fall I gave 68 

 lbs. of honey for four good strong colonies, and each 

 as much as one could lift. Thus far they are winter- 

 ing well — no dead bees of any consequence in any 

 of the hives. C. S. Burke. 



Albion, N. Y., Feb. 6, 1883. 



HOW TO KEEP SQUARE. 



Place me along with the " square men," every 

 time. Why! I expect to live eternalhj with that class 

 of persons. Here is one way I have been trying to 

 keep square with every one for two years past: Up- 

 on receiving an order from a customer, I " book " 

 his order upon his envelope, and leave his money, 

 postal order, or draft, with his letter in the envelope, 

 until his order is filled. If I can not fill the order at 

 once, he is informed; and if he wants his money 

 back, it is returned as he sent it, postpaid. I have 

 no right to use it until the order is filled. This saves 

 getting a new order, and prevents bankruptcy (?). 



QUESTION. 



I should like to ask Mr. George Grimm how he 

 controlled natural swarming in his five apiaries, 

 with one assistant. I am thinking of estab.ishlug a 

 new apiary this spring. 



AT HOME. 



While we were reading in Mr. Frank Benton's 

 article about his "little prize queen" that came to 

 his " home in Cyprus," Sept. 5th, my dear wife 

 looked up with glistening eyes and said, " That was 

 the same day that our little Victor was born "—a 

 bright, ruddy little " king-bee," or bee king, as he 

 might have become. But, Mr. Root, we hope some 

 day to know why it was best that the angels should 

 come and take him home just as our hopes had be- 

 come almost unbounded. Oliver Foster. 



Mt, Vernon, Iowa, Feb. 7, 1882. 



excrement op the bees in health. 



One bright sunny forenoon in Feb.. 1880, my hive 

 of bees (blacks) were taking a flight, after having 

 been confined for a long time. I was perched on 

 our grape-arbor at the time, about 15 ft. from the 

 ground, trimming the vines. A bee alighted on one 

 of the slats of the arbor, not two feet distant from 

 the tip of my nose, passed its excrement, and flew 

 off again. The excrement, which, I judge, was over 

 % inch long, looked, in shape, like that of a dog (on 

 a small scale, of course); as the bee was voiding it, 

 the end broke off and rolled from the slat, which is 

 fastened to the arbor slantingly; the remaining 

 piece of excrement also rolled from the slat, when 

 the bee had finished. At that time I was only a be- 

 ginner; and although I watched the proceedings 

 closely, I did not know that this was something 

 about which there was any uncertainty. 



F. Hahman, Jr. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 9, 1883. 



BEES in a greenhouse. 



Do I understand that friend Merrybanks, In Feb. 

 Gleanings, had more than one hive in one apart- 

 ment? Is there no danger of bees getting in wrong 



hive or fighting? I shall put two hives in my green- 

 house the 1st of March, for an experiment. What 

 temperature should the house be so that they can 

 work fdn. inside the hive? It was an open winter 

 here, until about the middle of January. Now the 

 hives are completely buried in show. All right Jan. 

 S6th. Two nights in January the thermometer went 

 down to 35° below zero, but they came through it. 

 Chas. O. Meloon. 

 Portsmouth, N. H., Feb. 7, 1883. 



Your humble servant had three colonies in 

 a greenhouse, or under glass, and all re- 

 turned to their own hives just as well as 

 they do outside in the summer. Let the 

 temperature run up until they begin to fly 

 pretty freely, and then hold it there. Give 

 plenty of fresh air, and they will, after they 

 get a little used to the surroundings, work 

 all right. 



WINTERING without POLLEN. 



Bees are apparently wintering all right in Root 

 chaff hives. No good free flight since Dec. 18th. 

 Those without pollen keep the quietest, and have 

 the fewest dead bees, and this was our experience 

 last winter. We have several stocks without pol- 

 len; and if these are the strongest, when we get 

 clear "out of the woods," then good-by pollen for 

 wintering, as far as our bees are concerned. Last 

 winter, one stock which we put up with but very 

 little pollen never showed a live bee at the entrance, 

 from some time in Nov. till the 19th day of March 

 (when they had a good purifying flight), sent out a 

 good strong swarm on the 37th day of May, which, 

 so far as we could learn, was the earliest swarm in 

 the county. G. W. Jones. 



West Bend, Wash. Co., Wis., Feb. 6, 1883. 



A swArm that wouldn't be "bossed." 

 I sometimes get "bee on the brain." As there is 

 no rush of honey or swarming [cold, and 10 to 13 in. 

 of snow], I wish j'ou or some apiarian to look over 

 the following, and see if any one has had like tor- 

 ment or experience. June 15th, large swarm is- 

 sued; did not cluster, and went back; I supposed 

 the queen was lost. On the 34:th, out again; re- 

 turned as before. July 6th, alighted on a cherry- 

 tree; very cross; used water freely; went in hive 

 nice; in about an hour they commenced coming out 

 slowly, and going back until all were at their old 

 home. On the 10th, out again; hived them; they 

 did not stay; about one-half went back, and the oth- 

 ers clustered again; put them in hive, and about 

 half of them came out and made an effort to leave; 

 the queen and part of the bees remained in the hive, 

 and the most of the others went to the old hive. On 

 the 13th, I put them in hive; went back as usual; 

 15th, hived them; came out, and alighted again; 

 hived again; came out, and struck for the moun- 

 tain, and I was glad of it, as they were mean, small, 

 cross hybrids. I have had bees for 55 years, and 

 was always "boss" until this swarm got ahead of 

 me. I never had many; 89 is the highest at any one 

 time. Thos. G. Williams. 



Shartlesville, Berks Co , Pa. 

 Why, friend W., yours is the old-fashioned 

 way of managing, it seems to me. I have 

 had colonies try to act the same way, but I 

 soon cured them by dividing them up small, 

 and making them rear queens, or do some- 

 thing else useful. I believe putting colonies 



