1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



619 



Tour Blasted Hopes depaitmeut seems to be al- 

 most going begging. I think I can give you a case. 

 1 started bee-keeping with the hope of making 

 about $5 00 per hive; have not done so yet. Started 

 this spring with 185 colonies; sold honey and wax 

 for twenty- two dollars and a dime. Looks like 

 Blasted Hopes, doesn't it? Sold bees, $244; have 130 

 colonies, mostly weak. D. M. Caurolton. 



New Orleans, La., Nov. 21, 1882. 



THAT INDOLENT COIiONY. 



UEES TH.VT WON'T WORK, ETC. [SEE P. 480, OCT. NO.] 



'^^ W THINK that colony could have been made 

 to work." Just what I thduyht when I was 

 exercising my poor endeavors to induce 

 them to work. But I have yet to become acquaint- 

 ed with the bee that won't resent the whip or spur. 

 Interfere with her daily routine in a manner that 

 will create a necessity for repairs, and she is your 

 humble servant: let a job forecast, and Miss Apis is 

 very dull in comprehension. Leading will ac- 

 complish wonders; but when pushing is resorted to, 

 others besides the operator demand the privilege of 

 playing in the game. At such time an analogy, 

 characteristic of the genus homo and genus apis, is 

 very conspicuously displayed; especially when the 

 gender of both is represented by the worker-bee. 



"But, I am not sure I should have known just what 

 to do." "Same here," without presumption; being 

 sensible of the limits of apiarian knowledge possess- 

 ed, also experience; this being my first defeat in the 

 attempt, having heretofore always got something 

 from a hive of bees. 



"I should have tried moving the old stock away, 

 and giving a youngqueen to the bees clustering out- 

 fide." After you had built up your stock for the 

 purpose of obtaining comb honey (increase being a 

 secondary consideration), and failed, by not getting 

 the bees to meet your efforts in the short time that 

 comprised the season for surplus in this vicinity, 

 with indications of a severe drought in prospect; 

 with due deference, J surmise Mr. Hoot would have 

 done about as I did — tried to get them in a condi- 

 tion to winter without dividing, thinking it would be 

 less trouble and expense to care for one colony than 

 two, in case feeding to supply winter stores should 

 be compulsory. But I did divide them. Sept. Ist I 

 took eight frames of comb, loaded with bees and 

 brood, from the old stock, put them in a new hive, 

 introduced a queen "the first time trying," and to- 

 day, Oct. 11, they are a thriving little colony, with 

 nice white "bulging" combs, and so strong that I 

 am obliged to be very careful when handling them 

 without smoke. Still, on contemplation I can't rec- 

 oncile myself to any idea other than that the fumes 

 of burning sulphur would have been the most ju- 

 dicious treatment, after giving the combs contain- 

 ing brood to another C'llony. 



" How much honey did you get from your best 

 workers, of nearly the same strength?" An aggre- 

 gate of 58!4 lbs. My best result was from a colony 

 of pure blacks, 62 lbs. of white comb honey. In both 

 reckonings, partially filled boxes are not counted. 

 There are 27 of those nearly full of comb, with Pome 

 honey. They would have been filled, probably, had 

 not the flow of honey been interrupted by the 

 drought. My bees stored no surplus of any accnunt 

 after the 20th of July. At that time the clover be- 

 gan to brown from lack of moisture. Basswood, 



that usually opens about the 20th of July, gave no 

 honey, except from a few scattering young trees — 

 the old trees not blooming at all. 



BUTTON-BUSH. 



Button-busb, that grows in clumps, at intervals 

 for some two miles on the borders of a small stream, 

 within easy reach of my bees, follows basswood, and 

 always displays a succession of flowers in profusion, 

 for about two weeks. Although while in blodm this 

 season it was roaring with bees, no surplus was stor- 

 ed from its nectar. (Here I would wish to ask if any 

 bee-keeper has ever obtained much surplus honey, 

 and, in fact, in any other form, from this thrub.) 

 About Aug. 20, button ceased to bloom, and my 

 black bees killed their drones. In favorable seasons, 

 goldenrod and asters are in bloom when button- 

 bush closes. This season the early varieties were 

 blasted. These plants usually occupy the attention 

 of bees until cut off by severe frosts. 



I.S VEItY LATE HONEY DESIRABLE? 



My bees have been working very busily on them 

 for the past three weeks, bringing in poUen, and, 

 judging from their gale as they waddle up the alight- 

 Ing-board, honey also. If objecting would avail, I 

 Would say, "Let the honey alone," for I have fed 

 sugar syrup until the tops of the snow-white combs 

 show a repletion. As to pollen, I would not object 

 to the requirements of brood-rearing. Late honey, 

 unless the season is very mild, and moderately dry, 

 when it is being stored, is " no good." In cool damp 

 weather it sours quickly, and in that condition 

 nourishes the fungoid germs that are active agents 

 in producing — dysentery, 1 believe. 



This prompts another thought, and it is, "Don't 

 feed thin sugar syrups to bees late in the fall." 

 Sometimes they will cap it after it sours in the cells, 

 or it sours after it is capped, 1 can't tell which, for I 

 have found cells capped containing sour sugar 

 syrup. Proof by analogy is this: Let any person 

 live on sour bread a couple of weeks, and if human 

 bowels won't (qu)ake in that time, I'll admit that 

 sour honey, or (acetic fermentation is meant) pollen, 

 will not disturb the assimilating apparatus of the 

 honey-bee. Caution: Remove all uncapped stores 

 on preparing bees for winter, if they are in the 

 afore-mentiooed condition — sour. 



Cumberland, Me., Oct. 12, 1882. J. F. Latham. 



HY BEE-KEEPING FOR 1881 AND '82. 



FROM 3 TO 17, AND 1140 LBS. OF SURPLUS HONEY. 



fHE spring of 1881 found me without a single bee 

 or "buzz." Thinking that the bees here bad 

 — ■ run out and become diseased, 1 tried to get 

 some more from a distance, but failed. A friend 

 gave me one hive on trial; if 1 got it through I was 

 to pay him two dollars. I fed it up and it swarmed 

 twice, so I went into winter with 3 and came out 

 with 3 in the spring of '82. The 9ih and 10th of June 

 they swarmed the first time; I waited for swarms 

 for the next 10 days, then put on upper storit s with 

 sections (all L. or Simplicity hives). They began 

 swarming again 13 days from first, and kept it up 

 to the end t)f the 19th day from first issue; that got 

 away with all my " bee knowledge." I thought then 

 that some of the old bcc-men were mistaken too. I 

 put one back the 18th and one the 19i h day from first 

 issue; total, 13 colonies. Next, the swarms swarmed 

 4 times more. One of the first swarms filled 56 2-lb. 



