343 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



snow. The first half of April was wet and 

 cold. April 20 all the bees were looked over, 

 and fed some. May was dry — too dry for clo- 

 ver, and we had 12 frosts in May. June gave 

 us some rain. Colonies, spring count, were 580, 

 and the honey crop was 30,000 lbs. 



In the spring of 1892 the number of colonies, 

 spring count, was 620. That was a poor year 

 for honey — too wet; very rainy season; thou- 

 sands of clover-stalks came up from seed, and 

 grew finely. The bees barely made a living, 

 getting nothing from the clover. July 11 was 

 the first day that we could open a hive without 

 using a tent. The bees got a little honey from 

 basswood, but not enough to winter on. We 

 fed 14 barrels of sugar, and it looked as if 1893 

 would be a good honey year, and that we should 

 have to save the bees if possible, so we fed and 

 fixed them up as well as we knew how. 



The winter of 1893-'4 was a very hard one — 

 deep snow, and a very cold average. The con- 

 dition of the bees was not as good as during 

 the previous year. It was cold and wet through 

 March and April. Bees had to be nursed care- 

 fully to save them. May 1, queens quit laying; 

 no uncapped brood in the combs in any of the 

 colonies ; cold wet weather until the 8th of 

 May; then it turned off warm, and egg-laying 

 commenced again. We lost a great many bees. 

 When we got into working order we had 323 

 colonies alive, some of them weak. Clover was 

 very abundant, but there was not much honey 

 in it until June 20. Then we had a busy time 

 until July 20, when the basswood was finished ; 

 and by that time the clover was all dried up. 

 What young clover there was from seed was 

 dead. In 1893 we extracted 3S» 24.5 lbs. of honey, 

 besides taking honey in brood -combs from the 

 home yard — over 2000 lbs. — that I put into our 

 comb-room for feeding, if it should be wanted. 

 All the bees went into winter quarters well 

 supplied with honey. 



In the spring of 1894 we had 426 colonies — 

 spring count. May 28 the bees were in good 

 condition, but there was but little to gather. 

 The drouth killed the clover the previous year; 

 cold and hot by spells, getting too dry for grass, 

 and it was a very dry summer. Bees got a win- 

 ter supply from basswood. and we extracted 

 3700 lbs. 



Ill the spring of 1895. owing to the very dry 

 weather since June. 1893, nearly every thing 

 was dried up. There was no hay that year, 

 and oats not a fourth of a crop, and very little 

 corn. Small fruit plants died. We had four 

 acres of blackberries, and all died— not a single 

 berry last year. We had a late frost that killed 

 the most of the basswood -blossoms. There 

 was no clover. We fed some to keep the bees 

 alive, in hopes they would get a winter supply 

 from basswood. Vain hope I They got some; 

 but when fall came we found ourselves obliged 

 to feed heavily or let the bees starve. We 



bought 7 barrels of sugar; fed that, and killed 

 160 colonies, and let the other bees take what 

 little honey they had, saving the combs. I do 

 not know how many colonies we are trying to 

 winter — about 300, more or less. Why did we 

 not feed all? First, want of money; second, I 

 didn't think it would pay. Clover is all dead — 

 no prospect of a honey -crop next year, and the 

 case is very different from what it was in the 

 fall of 1892. Then there was a big crop of clo- 

 ver on the ground. It looked then as though it 

 would pay to feed, and it did; but now every 

 thing is dried up. If it is as dry next year as it 

 has been the last two years, there will be noth- 

 ing raised about here. Wells are giving out in 

 all directions. Well-drillers are busy sinking 

 wells deeper. One man had a well 80 feet deep. 

 He bragged about his well being so strong; but 

 it gave out. He has drilled 120 feet below the 

 bottom, making the well 200 feet, but no water 

 yet. My nice large Dutchess apple-trees are 

 nearly all dried to death. My sister has a tine 

 grove of oak timber about her house. Three- 

 fourths of the trees are dead. Drouth did it. I 

 just mention these things to show how dry it is 

 here. There has been a great deal of rain in 

 the north part of this State this summer, but 

 we have been skipped. 



I hated dreadfully to kill the bees, but who 

 can blame me for doing it? Perhaps some 

 would like to know how we did it — kill the bees 

 and let the other bees have the honey. First 

 we examined them all in the yard. Nearly all 

 had some honey in most of the combs, at their 

 tops. The amount varied greatly. Some would 

 have enough to winter, some half, some less, a 

 few nothing. We parted the combs so we could 

 see what they had, and marked on top of the 

 honey-board 2 or 4, 6 or 8, or " kill." Those fig- 

 ures meant so many 3-lb. feeders. Then we put 

 on the feeders of sugar syrup. We would then 

 go to a hive marked " kill," and, with the smo- 

 ker filled with tobacco-stems afire, blow into 

 the hive a thick smudge of smoke. That made 

 the bees helpless. Then we opened the hive 

 and swept the bees off the combs and out of the 

 hive into a box, setting the combs outside of the 

 hive. The other bees would pile on to the 

 combs to clean up the honey. When the combs 

 were covered with bees we set them in the hive 

 and let the bees work out the honey and carry 

 it home. We dug a hole in the ground and 

 buried the bees, then went home.n When ' we 

 came back in a couple of days to get the feeders 

 we carried the empty combs home. 



Platteville, Wis., Nov. 28. 



[It seems .ike a foolish thing to do, destroy 

 properly — that is. to kill the bees outright in- 

 stead of letting them take their chances; but 

 perhaps under the circumstances it was the 

 best that could be done. It strikes me I would 

 have scratched around hard for some other ex- 

 pedient. If you had advertised that you had so 

 many colonies that you would give away pro- 

 viding some one would be willing to pay for the 



