1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



191 



From Different Fields. 



OKE YEAR'S EXPERIENCE WITH UEES. 



BOUGHT a colony last fall, packed them In 

 chaff, and they wintered well. My brother, 

 G. A. Beach, and I tended them this summer. 

 They increased to 5 colonies. The last of August we 

 united two of the weakest, then sold out and went 

 west. We had ii lamp nurserj- made, and tested it 

 with success. We introduced nine virgin queens 

 for one of our neighbors. All were received and 

 purely mated, except one, which was probably lost 

 in taking her flight. We also introduced several 

 virgin queens to our own colonies. One stand lost 

 their queen twice. We had one comb with 83 queen- 

 cells on it. This was built in a colony of light- 

 colored Italians. Does this not beat Hayhurst's 

 Cyprians? We transferred several stands with suc- 

 cess, so you sec we had a little experience in several 

 branches of the business. W. O. Beach. 



Quitman, Nodaway Co.. Mo., Nov. 11, 1881. 



HOW A NEW HAND INTRODUCED HIS QUEENS, ETC. 



For years I have kept bees as a secondary busi- 

 ness, and in a go-as-you-please manner, and they 

 have usually paid me very well for the attention 

 they received. Bui last winter hit me hard, and at 

 its close I had ten hives with living bees, and ten 

 with dead ones. To save my combs, I placed tbem 

 on the hives that had bees. When they were strong 

 enough to divide, I sent to headquarters of Glean- 

 ings for Italian queens, and prepared for their re- 

 ception by separating the two hives that had formed 

 one colony. Four of those upper hives I left on the 

 old stands, and moved the lower ones with the 

 queens to a new place. When the strangers arrived 

 I looked those eight over and found queen-cells in 

 the four on the old stands, and fresh eggs in the 

 others. I introduced the queen according to direc- 

 tions; and when I looked them up I found three of 

 them balled. The other one appeared to be at home; 

 but the next morning a dead queen lay at the en- 

 trance of the hive. But an examination showed 

 that the lady from Medina held the fort, and that 

 the dead queen was a black. The unexpected pres- 

 ence of a queen in that hive made me look over the 

 others, and I found a queen iti each of the others on 

 the old stands, and queen-cells started in those that 

 had been moved. This satisfled me that those 

 queens had come out when I examined their hives, 

 and went back to their old stands. As my bees were 

 quite weak last spring, and the season poor, I ob- 

 tained but a little over 200 lbs. surplus. But I intro- 

 duced 6 Italian queens successfully; raised 4 queens 

 from their progeny, and went into winter quarters 

 with 20 hives, all of which were able to clean house 

 lively on the 5th of March. J. M. Beatty. 



Shaw's Landing, Pa., March 10, 1882. 



BEBS IN SICILY; SEE P. 77, FEB. NO. 



Perhaps you would like to have a little informa- 

 tion concerning bees in Sicily. Most of the bees 

 here are black, although some of the queens are 

 marked very much like " Ligurlans," but their pro- 

 geny are black, with the exception of about half a 

 dozen well-marked workers in a stock. Now,whether 

 they have a strain of the yellow-jackets in them, or 



whether they are a distinct race, I can not as yet 

 tell; but certainly their habits are not the same as 

 theyellow-jickets, for they do not stick to the combs 

 when handled, nor do they rise so much as the 

 blacks. Kegarding their honcj'-gathering power, 1 

 can not as yet say, but hope to do so in due time. 

 The hives that are mostly used here are something 

 wretched — boxes about* feet long and 9 or 10 inches 

 square, made either of rough boards or reeds plas- 

 tered over with mud, both ends opening. They are 

 arranged just as you would build a single row of 

 bricks with their ends out. It matters not how 

 many the bee-master may have (if I might be per- 

 mitted to call him a master). The advanced bee- 

 keepers have a frame hive which contains two stories 

 of comb. The bees have the range of the whole 

 hive all the season. The hive opens fi-om the back 

 with a door, from whence they are always worked. 

 They pile them up one above the other as high as 

 five tiers. I had the pleasure of seeing 7(5 in one 

 house 18 feet by 13, and besides that a number of 

 empty stands from whence hives had been removed. 

 Sicily, Italy, Feb., 1883. W. Mann, 



Well, friends, the above would look very 

 much as if there were black bees in some 

 parts of Italy, after all. It is a little queer 

 that they should be found on the island of 

 Sicily, so near the main land, and none on 

 the main land ; and again, that all the bees 

 should be yellow in the island of Cyprus. 

 Eriend Mann, are you sure your bees are not 

 dark Italians, after all? How are they, to 

 stingy 



MILD WINTERS, LITTLE STORES CONSUMED, ETC. 



My bees are in the best condition I ever had them 

 at this season of the j'car. Thus far we have had a 

 very mild winter, and they had a very good fly every 

 ten days or two weeks. Storing no honey last fall, I 

 fed them with sugar syrup. They are wintering 

 with but little loss, having consumed but a small 

 amount of their stores. My experience this winter 

 compels me to question the theory taught by most 

 bee-keepers, that bees consume more honey during 

 a mild winter than they do when it is very cold. 

 They have been bringmg in pollen for over a month. 



M.^NAGINO ROBBERS. 



The only trouble I have is with robbers. One col* 

 ony of Italians particularly, seem to have organized 

 into a regular band of outlaws. I had exhausted 

 every means I could think of, and my temper too, 

 almost, to stop them, when I commenced feeding 

 them thin sugar syrup, which appears to have satis- 

 fled them. I had one colony swarm out on the Ist 

 Inst. 1 caught the queen as she came out with them; 

 caged her a short time; returned her to the hive, 

 when in a very short time the bees, all on the wing, 

 returned to the hive. What caused them to come 

 out? They had an abundance of stores, strong with 

 bees, no dampness; in fact, so far as I could see, 

 were in splendid condition. 



SOWING BUCKWHEAT EARLY. 



Will it pay to sow buckwheat in April for bees? 

 Merrett, 111., March 1.3, 1883. H. W. Hitt. 



I believe your decision in regard to mild 

 winters is right, as a general thing, friend 

 II. Your plan of stopping the bees from 

 robbing is also the orthodox one, if rightly 

 managed, I believe.— Your bees had the 

 absconding mania, described in the A B C, 

 but it is rather unusual for a good healthy 



