GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MaK. IT). 



broke the camel's back? Such a quotation as 

 you make, it seems to me, savors of heresy; and 

 haven't we had heresy enough for a month or 

 two back? I lierehy caution any American, or 

 German either, against undertaking to make 

 foundation with the least particle of ceresin 

 mixed with the wax. I obtained specimens of 

 the substance from different markets, and I 

 think I tested the matter thoroughly. Even 

 the least admixture of ceresin. paraffine, or any 

 other substitute for beeswax that has ever been 

 found, will surely cause the combs to break 

 down during the extreme heat of the summer. 

 I onae thought the thing was going to work 

 nicely, and even put it on the market, as you 

 may remember. It did work nicely until the 

 hot weather came; and some of us had such a 

 sad experience we thought we would remember 

 it for at least fifteen or twenty years. Will 

 some of our German friends sift this matter? 

 If that item about 40,000 lbs. is a canard, like 

 the machine-comb honey, it wants to be uiiiped 

 in the bud before it goes a step further. Now. 

 doctor, do you see what you came pretty near 

 doing? A. i. R. 



WINTER LOSSES AT MEDINA. 



Wk have had a very severe winter, as you 

 know; and so far it has been very severe on the 

 bees: and the worst part of it is yet to come, if 

 we may .iudge by former seasons. It is only bv 

 keeping account of our errors that we are able 

 10 arrive at perfection. 



We went into winter quarters with 1.50 colo- 

 nies. A careful examination at this date, 

 March 10. shows that HO colonies, or 20 per cent 

 of them, are dead. Not since the terrible win- 

 ter of 1880-'81 have we been obliged to record a 

 greater mortality than 5 per cent, with the 

 single exception of the winter of 189()-'itl, when 

 we lost 15 per cent of those outdoors. Hut dur- 

 ing that winter we lost only 3 per cent in the 

 cellar. It is pretty evident, that, if a large 

 proportion had been wintered indoors this year 

 — they are all outdoors— our percentage of loss 

 would have been greatly reduced. Last fall, 

 for experimental purposes (as we have before 

 announced), we prepared our bees in several 

 different ways. Nearly half were under sealed 

 covers; and the rest were under the old absorb- 

 ing cushions. Now, here are the figures for the 

 percentage of losses up to date: 



Of the 37 put into small chaff' hives with seal- 

 ed covers, ;2tj per cent have gone up; of the 51 

 put into winter cases. 17 per cent are dead; of 

 the 57 in old-fashioned chaff hives, with ab- 

 sorbing cushions. 10 per cent fail to respond; 

 of the 5 in the house-apiary, alt are dead. 



We want the truth to come out, no matter if 

 it does demolish some of our pet hobbies in 

 regard to wintering; and from th.- above report 

 it would look as if the sealed-cover idea had 

 received an "awful black eye;" and we pre- 

 sume that our friend C. P. Dadant, as soon as 

 he sees this, will throw up his hat, and shout 

 back toward Medina. "I told you so." Now, 

 look here, friend C. P., we are not going to give 

 up just yet on sealed covers: for we f)mj/c we 

 see where our mistake was made. We have 

 held, for a few months back, that lots of pack- 

 ing was not so necessary above and around 

 covers that were sealed, and accor lingly used 

 very much less; but we take that all back now. 

 Bees must have just about as much packing on 

 one plan as the other. Again, on account of 

 the late feeding, about lialf the supposed sealed 

 covers were not sealed, because it was too cold 

 for the bees to do much of that work. 



There is another factor that comes in; and 

 that is, that our colonies were fed much later 

 than usual, and the winter, coming on much 

 earlier, caught us in rather bad shape. This is 



a rather bad confession to make, when the ad- 

 vice given in our catalogue, and through the 

 columns of Gleanings, has been to prepare for 

 winter earJij. But you know how it is, where 

 colonies have been running to their highest 

 notch in queen-rearing; and uniting a lot of 

 queenless nuclei never makes a good and satis- 

 factory colony. Perhaps 50 per cent of our 

 bees were of this sort. This, together with the 

 late feeding and severe winter, gives us a rather 

 bad showing. 



Reports show that bees in the cellar or in 

 special repositories are wintering nicely; and 

 while reports from those outdoors show nothing 

 like as bad a state of affairs as in the winter of 

 ]880-'81, the losses for outdoors are heavier 

 than usual. Up till this winter we have been 

 having from 33 to 50 per cent of our bees in the 

 cellar: but last fall we put in a furnace, and 

 Mrs. Hoot wanted the only available bee-cellar 

 for the storage of vegetables. We thought, 

 therefore, we would try them all outdoors. It 

 is a pretty safe way to winter both ways. Dur- 

 ing very severe winters the advantage is in 

 favor of those in the cellar; but in warm win- 

 ters, or in milder climates, they are better off' 

 outdoors. 



PUNICS— SHOUI,D THEY BE INTRODUCED INTO 

 THIS COUNTRY? 



The editor of the ApicxMurint thinks we are 

 unfair, because, he says, we publish'only testi- 

 monials that are against the so-called Punic 

 bees. Having seen only two favorable reports, 

 outside of those intei'ested in their sale, l)oth of 

 which we published, it seemed to us that we 

 were giving them their fair measure of justice. 

 Speaking of fairness in giving of both sides, it 

 is a little singular that Mr. Alley publishes of 

 late none of the adverse reports regarding those 

 African bees. Is it quite fair on his part to be 

 so one-sided ? or is it fair to say that the testi- 

 monials from good reliable correspondents are 

 untrue, because they differ from him? And, 

 again, he says, '"Nearly every issue of this 

 paper [his own] has contained one or more let- 

 ters. »7i.s()/(cito? Iry us" (the italics are ours), 

 " from those who have I'unics, and nearly all 

 speak in the highest terms of them." We were 

 astonished at this statement, and proceeded to 

 go carefully over the last 1;.' months of the Api- 

 culturist. Now for results: Instead of finding 

 " one or more unsolicited testimonials in nearly 

 every issue" we found only five for the whole 

 year', that could be considered as in any wise fa- 

 vorable, outside of those who are interested in 

 their sale. One of these reports was ours, given 

 early in the season; and, as our readers know, 

 we have since had reason to reverse our opinion. 

 Two more of these reports were given very 

 cautiously, the writers being unable at the 

 time to give a decided opinion, although they 

 thought the funics promised well. This would 

 \ea,ve. really only two favorable reports; and it 

 is quite probable the writers since, after further 

 experience, have had good reason to change 

 their minds. First impressions are by no means 

 correct, as we all know. If Mr. Alley will give 

 us the pages where in "nearly every issue . . 

 . . . one or more unsolicited testimonials'" 

 will be found, it will give us an opportunity to 

 correct ourselves, if wrong. 



We admit that we have published a good 

 many unfavorable things regarding Punics. 

 One of them came from a breeder, H. Fitz Hart, 

 who advertised Punic queens early in the sea- 

 son: but after he had given them a careful 

 test he pronounced them the " biggest frauds," 

 and added that he could not advertise them 

 further, and accordingly withdrew his adver- 

 tising—see page 817, Nov. 1st. Another one, J. 

 S. Clock. I'rban, Pa., who advertised the same 



