486 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



aphides on a stalk of buckwheat, and a lot 

 of black ants were all over them, sucking 

 the sweet juice as it exuded. These ants 

 treat the aphides something as we do cows, 

 for the cows eat the green herbage, and con- 

 vert it into milk, and we follow them about 

 for it, and draw it away as it collects. On 

 the same ground, we need not spleen against 

 honey from honey-dew, any more than we do 

 against milk from cows ; for the process by 

 which it is made in Nature's laboratory is 

 not so very unlike. Aside from the honey- 

 dew fiom the aphides, we have it also as a 

 vegetable secretion without the agency of 

 animals at all. In this case the plant itself 

 seems to make the change, and exude the 

 honey, as in the case of the wheat, the catal- 

 pa leaves, and other cases that have been re- 

 ported during the past few months. The 

 idea, that honey-dew rains down from the 

 clouds, will hardly bear investigation as yet; 

 not that we doubt any of the statements, but 

 that we think the observers were mistaken. 

 A mist falls from the clouds, and it falls on 

 the leaves that have this honey-dew dried 

 upon their upper surfaces, and the bees are 

 seen eagerly gathering it up ; but I think 

 every case will show that the dew, as it falls 

 from the clouds, is pure water, and nothing 

 more. To prove it, catch the dew, mist, or 

 tine rain, as the case may be, on a clean tin 

 pan, away from any trees, and I think it will 

 be water, and no sweet about it. 



BEES, Bl .SIIVESS, AND CHRISTIANITY. 



ALSO [SOMETHING ABOUT BUYING UP CONDEMNED 

 STOCKS IN THE FALL. 



SHAVE been a subscriber to Gleanings for over 

 a year. At the time I began to take it I was 

 — ' wondering if a man could be mucli of a busi- 

 ness man and be a Christian. Gleanings has ans- 

 wered it emphatically in the afHrmative. It has done 

 me a great deal of good, for I confess I was rather 

 cold in regard to religion, although a professor of it. 



I began keeping bees one year ago last spring, 

 with 3 swarms in box hives; had 3 in fall; traded for 

 4 more; wintered the seven without loss, and in the 

 spring I moved to this place (thinking it the best lo- 

 cality Iq this part of the country), and traded a wag- 

 on and team for 30 colonies, and material for 34 

 hives. The spring and most of the summer has been 

 very pooi". Bees have made only enough to live on; 

 but the last few weeks back they have been doing 

 exceedingly well on goldenrod, wild sunflowers, and 

 some other autumn flowers. I think I may get hon- 

 ey enough yet to amount to the price of team; have 

 got about $100 now. I now have 53 colonies, includ- 

 ing 5 nuclei. There is a man near me who kills the 

 increase of about 60 swarms every fall. Would it 

 not pay mo to get them (about 40 swarms), and take 

 some of my surplus honey, which is in Langstroth 

 frames, and with one or two frames of candy per 

 colony, winter them through in a cellar well venti- 

 lated? then in spring, if all my bees Jive, start an 

 apiary in another place about six or eight miles 

 from here. I intend to make bee culture my sole 

 business. 



Do you think it would be safe to take so many? 

 Would they winter on candy alone, with a few combs 

 with candy, to cluster on? Would it not cost about 



$3.00 per swarm for candy? Should the candy be 

 one-fifth flour? It would probab'y be quite cold be- 

 fore I could get them. Wm. Fuller. 

 Brookville, Wis., Sept. 8, 1883. 



Friend F., as I see it, there are few things 

 more needed in this world than to bring re- 

 ligion into business, and business into relig- 

 ion. We want to do it, too, unflinchingly, 

 even though some do insist that business is 

 one thing and religion another. No matter 

 what men may say, when they find a teligion 

 lived that makes men honest, and above any 

 kind of prevarication, the men who have 

 that religion will be eagerly sought for both 

 by believers and unbelievers; and therefore 

 the thing for us to do, if we do not wish the 

 name of our Savior dishonored, is to make 

 all our business transactions straight and 

 sure. It is often urged, that a Christian is 

 as liable to have bad luck, and be unable to 

 pay, as any other man. I do not believe 

 this. A Christian has no right to take the 

 chances that another man might ; for if he 

 fails, it is not his own dishonor he has to 

 bear, but the dishonor of Christ our Lord. 

 Therefore, friend F., unless you can well af- 

 ford to lose the 40 swarms of bees you men- 

 tion, if they should all die after feeding the 

 i?80 worth of su^ar, do not go into it. If 

 you are new at the business, try a few, say 

 four or five, until you know what you can 

 do. Don't take any ventures and run risks, 

 unless you can do "it withoxit inconvenienc- 

 ing any other man. An old expert hand at 

 the business could probably take the whole 

 forty now, while it is warm, and make them 

 winter, by giving them $2.00 worth of sugar 

 each, but'it should be done the very minute 

 you get this. Perhaps I might say, instead 

 of " old and experienced," a careful and thor- 

 ough man, for I would to-day give more for 

 these qualities than age or experience, where 

 I could not have both. At present, I think 

 I would omit the fiour in preparing candy for 

 winter. As granulated sugar stirred up with 

 honey is proving to be the best bee-food for 

 shipping bees, I should not wonder if it were 

 the very best we can get for wintering. AVill 

 not friend Good and o'thers help us to give it 

 a thorough trial V It can be fed without any 

 feeder.— Do not start a second apiary until 

 you can surely and safely manage the first 

 one. Bees can be wintered successfully on 

 candy alone. I have done it repeatedly. 



THE SWARMS ! OH, THE SAVARMS : 



SOME SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO THE CAUSES OF 

 EXCESSIVE SWARMING. 



IIP FIND I have had, by actual tally, 167 natural 

 III swarms this season from a start of 68 colonics. 



I also made about 15 colonies by division, a 

 number of them early, with intent to prevent 

 swarming, and the net result was to increase the 

 number of natural swarms instead of decreasing 

 them. When swarming gets fashionable, both parts 

 of a divided colony will send out swarms. To help 

 in making things lively, I have had 35 cases, in addi- 

 tion to the above, of swarms coming out and going 

 back into the hive again. I have had 13 swarms 

 come out in one day, and 5 swarms, or parts of 

 swarms, tangled up in one mess. Change of season 



