]882 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULT QUE. 



225 



utterly impossible to do this ia any other way than 

 by first larg-cly increasing the number of colonics, 

 and then lying in wait for the fall honey. If any 

 comrade wants to take my daily i uus and win a big- 

 ger harvest from them, let him raise the hand. 

 Kichards, O., April 10, 1883. E. E. Hasty. 



Friend II., I have heard a story of how 

 Bonaparte ordered a smith to make a coat of 

 mail for him that would turn bullets. When 

 he brought it home, the great general bade 

 him put it on. When done, he very coolly 

 walked off a proper distance, and tired bul- 

 lets at him until the poor fellow was almost 

 scared out of his wits. When he found he 

 wasn't hurt, nor the coat of mail either, Bo- 

 naparte explained that he was simply trying 

 it, to see if it were a good one. I fell a deep 

 interest in your theory, as I do, in fact, in 

 the grains of truth gathered and brought in 

 by all the " comrades," as you term them ; 

 and if I have found a great deal of fault, and 

 objected a great deal, it was only to see how 

 they would ''stand fire." I can not remem- 

 ber that I ever saw the bees do a staving 

 business within half a day after it had rained 

 ''like suds." Let us all take notice right 

 now, amid the fruit-bloom, and see how it is. 

 We have been often accused, by wise old 

 heads too, of publishing a great deal that 

 soon transpires to be all moonshine. Jiy the 

 way, friend H., wliy is it that you do not 

 have any larger daily yields? In this paper, 

 if I am correct, you have not gone higher 

 than '64: oz., and yet your colony was strong 

 enough to make preparations for swarm- 

 ing. With us, we have, almost every sea- 

 son, single days in which a good colony 

 would gather 8 or 10 lbs. in a day. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



BOTH INDOORS AND OUT. 



ifp^j LEANINGS comes to our house regularly, about 

 whfifr' the third of each month, and is a most wel- 

 ^'^^ come visitor. I noticed in it last evening, 

 that W. Z. Hutchinson queries in regard to water 

 for his uneasy colony. I will venture the opinion, 

 that if he had given it drink it would not have been 

 necessary to remove it from the cellar. I have 65 

 stocks in wintering-house, and during the first of 

 March I made an examination, and found 6 or 8 very 

 uneasy; took a coflfee-pot of water, and turned it in- 

 to the entrances, and the little chaps gathered round 

 the pools of water and drank as eagerly as pigs. I 

 have an idea, but do not know to a certainty, that 

 these uneasy, thirsty stocks were breedmg, while 

 the others were not. Will Mr. H. tell us if his were 

 or not? 



The next morning after watering these bees, I 

 went into the house again, and found all quiet. 

 Perhaps the above does not prove my opinion to be 

 correct; yet, "straws show which way the wind 

 blows." I notice that Mr. Duster has had just my 

 experience with water too; so that goes to strength- 

 en my conviction, that water is sometimes beneficial 

 during winter. Mj' wintering-house has been too 

 warm this winter, and as a consequence I expect 

 brood has been reared nearly all winter. I have lost 

 more bees than usual by their getting on the floor. 



SINQLE-WALLED HIVES. 



I have built my last single hive, unless something 



occurs to change my mind. Last fall 1 built 4 twin 

 hives, which I like very much. They are packed 

 with 6 inches of chaff on sides, 4 inches on bottom, 

 and 8 or 10 on top. Loss on 73 stocks, 2; died from 

 starvation, with plenty of filled combs in honey- 

 house,— well, perhaps I'll learn by and by. 



F. H. Comings. 

 East Berkshire, Vt., Apr. 5, 1883. 



I am sure you are right, friend C; and 

 furthermore, I am convinced it is not only 

 bees in the cellar that suffer for want of 

 water, but bees outdoors as well. Listen : 

 AVe have had a week of weather that did not 

 permit the bees to fly. Well, on Friday 

 night, the 1-lth, we had quite a little frost, 

 and, to please the children, I tapiied a couple 

 of the maple-trees over. Toward noon, as it 

 got warm enough for the bees to fly, they 

 came out in great numbers, and were all 

 over the ground so one could hardly step 

 withoutkillingthem. At one time I thought 

 they were robbing somewhere. They crawl- 

 ed down through the grass, and seemed 

 searching everywhere for something they 

 had lost. Finding a place where it was low 

 and damp, where they seemed in unusually 

 great numbers, I carried a grooved board 

 and jar of the new sap, as shown in the A B 

 C. It was black with bees as long as it was 

 warm enough . The weather was still warm- 

 er on ISunday morning, and I kept jars full 

 of sap on the grooved board, while I sat by 

 studying my Sunda3'-school lesson. "If it 

 wasn't Sunday," said I to my wife, " I 

 would tap every one of our 40 maple-trees 

 this morning, and teach the bees to gather 

 every drop of the sap as fast as it runs." 

 You see, the trouble had been, heretofore, 

 that the sap ran on days the bees could not 

 fly ; but this day, the conditions were just 

 right. It was church time, and I had to 

 leave them ; but just as soon as Sabbath- 

 school was over 1 filled the jar again. To 

 my great surprise, they had lost their appe- 

 tite for sap. Now, it began to be clear to me. 

 It was water the bees wanted, and they 

 Avould have behaved almost the same had I 

 taken water from the well. During the 

 warm and pleasant day, they went to the 

 creek and brought as much water as they 

 needed, and therefore my jar was compara- 

 tively unnoticed, because the sap does not 

 contain sugar enough to make it an object 

 to them, aside from the water it contains. 



Moral. — If you want your bees to keep 

 away from the sugar-bushes, teach them to 

 get water at a convenient spot near the 

 apiary. Tlie grooved board and water-jar 

 is perhaps the most convenient way in which 

 it can be given them. 



Moral No. 2. — When a number of days 

 occur in the early spring, when it is too cool 

 for the bees to fly, they often suffer greatly 

 for water with which to dilute the thick old 

 honey, that it may be worked up with the 

 pollen, as food for the great quantity of 

 brood that is to be supplied; and pure water, 

 or quite thin syrup, given warm in a Kendel 

 feeder, at the entrance, would no doubt com-' 

 fort the bees, as well as the pocket-books (V) 

 of their owners. 



Query. — Is it not possible that the water 

 in the feed, in spring, is often of as much 

 value as the sugar? 



