66 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



thermometer stands at 65° in the shade in the day 

 time, and very little frost at night. 

 Jewett, Ohio, Deo. 21. David Lucas. 



SOFT MAPLES OPEN IN DECEMBER. 



I find this day that the bees are working on the 

 soft-maple and the peach, which are in full bloom. 

 Temperature is 70 in the shade. What is this world 

 coming to? John F. Hepp. 



Boonville, Ind., Dec. 38. 



A REMARKABLE SEASON. 



We are having a very remarkable season. Pas- 

 tures are green enough to be tolerably good grazing. 

 Peach and plum trees are blooming; fig trees have 

 young leaves and young figs, some of them as large 

 as the end of your thumb. T. N. Bedford. 



Payette, Miss., Dec. 30. 



THE UNUSUAL CLIMATE OF TEXAS. 



This is an unusually mild fwll. This county, Fay- 

 ette, is lOJ miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, and is 

 by no means the mildest county of this great State. 

 We had a light frost about Nov. IS, which killed the 

 tenderest vegetation in the low lands; but now 

 cotton is still blooming on the high lands, a blossom 

 of which 1 here inclose you. Bees have been quite 

 busy for the last two weeks gathering pollen and 

 honey from elm, cottonwood, and wild peach, all of 

 which are blooming profusely now ; but we expect 

 a norther soon, which will drive the busy little bee 

 home, and kill most of the flowers and blossoms, 

 and give us a chance to kill hogs for meat. In this 

 mild climate we can kill only when a norther blows 

 up. We have had good crops of all kinds, and mon- 

 ey is flush. J. C. Mblcher. 



O'Quinn, Tex., Dec. 30. 



A mild winter in TEXAS. 



This has been a poor year for bees here. My bees 

 have not made a pound of .surplus honey this year. 

 In fact, I thought I should have to feed them up for 

 winter, but they made some honey from cotton and 

 broomweed, very late, perhaps enough to winter 

 them. I increased my stock from 7 to 17. The 

 weather here for the last three or four weeks has 

 been very warm. We go in our shirt-sleeves; bees 

 are flying every day. It rained a great deal through- 

 out the summer, which accounts, I suppose, for no 

 honey. Most of my bees are Italian now; but I 

 had one hive of blacks, or hybrids, that brought in 

 more honey than any of them, though no stronger 

 than some. W. A. Cartmell. 



Crowley, Texas, Dec. U. 



A CALL for a convention OF MAKYLANU BEE- 

 KEEPERS. 



Having so often wondered why the bee-keepers 

 of Maryland could not organize and properly sup- 

 port an association, I, some months ago, broached 

 the subject to several bee-keepers in this vicinity, 

 and wrote an article, which was published in the 

 America ti Bee Journal, page 7.56, 1888. This called 

 forth but one reply (page 80;?, 1888); and being very 

 much engaged I dropped the subject for the time 

 being. 1 should now like to propose it again 

 through your columns. 



When speaking on the subject to a member of 

 the Tri State Bee-keepers' Association he informed 

 me that he was awaiting the call of the secretary; 

 but, alas! he has been waiting many years in vain. 

 The last convention of that association was held, 

 he told me, several years ago, in Hagarstown, Md, 



Can you not stir them up a little, or are they dead 

 and buried? and if so, can you give us any informa- 

 tion as to their death and burial ? 



Baltimore, Md., Dec. 24. Horace Banks. 



We hope the bee-keepers of Maryland will 

 respond to this at once. Write to friend 

 Banks, if you are interested. 



FEEDING SOURED HONEV. 



I have a quantity of strained honey which is three 

 years old, and may have soured. I wish to feed it 

 to my bees, but I do not know whether it will an- 

 swer the purpose as it now is. Will you be kind 

 enough to advise me what to do, how to prepare it, 

 etc.? W. Stickney. 



Rathboneville, N. Y., Dec. 37. 



The first thing to be done, friend S., is to 

 ascertain whether the honey is soured or 

 not. If it is, it must be scalded, and be 

 sure not to burn it or scorch it. You can 

 then feed it like any other. It is a pretty 

 hard matter to feed liquid food, however, 

 in the depth of winter — that is, unless we 

 have weather so warm that the bees can fly. 

 If, after having scalded it, there is still any 

 trace of honey being spoiled, do not think of 

 feeding it until we have settled warm 

 weather, say April or May. If you feed it 

 during cold weather, it will surely give your 

 bees the dysentery. 



TO GET RID OF ANTS' NESTS ; BEE-STINGS A CURE 

 FOR RHEUMATISM. 



I use lye to destroy ant-heaps around the bees. 

 Make it weak where it is to be used around the 

 roots of trees. Now about rheumatism. I had it 

 over forty years in my right arm, from my elbow 

 to my shoulders. In transferring a very cross 

 swarm of bees they everlastingly went for my 

 wrists. The rheumatism is gone, and I can now 

 throw a stone with that arm as well as ever, and 

 the bee-stings did it. J. B. Whiton. 



Ithaca, Mich., Dec. 33, 1889. 



BROOD IN THE SECTIONS, CAUSED BY TOO LARGE 

 OPENINGS. 



I used Other sections last season, and I got ter- 

 ribly beat. The openings were too large, and about 

 one-half the flrst-erop honey could not be taken on 

 account of brood in them. I noticed this by using 

 yours first, and the others, last season. 



Farmington, Mo., Dec. 16. Jacob Helber. 



Friend H., you have started something 

 that I had not thought of before, or, at 

 least, I do not remember that it has ever 

 come up. Your experiment seems to be 

 quite conclusive. We should be glad to 

 hear from others in regard to this very mat- 

 ter. 



BEE-STINGS NOT A CURE FOR RHEUMATISM. 



I have been troubled with rheumatism more or 

 less all summer; and when 1 went to fix my bees for 

 winter I got tremendously stung. As a rule, I don't 

 care much whether I'm stung or not; but on this 

 occasion I was almost glad, on account of the rheu- 

 matism. Well, a day or two after the stinging I 

 had the worst attack of rheumatism I ever had in 

 my life. Are we to understand by that that the 

 stinging was the cause of the severe attack? 



This has been a very dry summer. From about 

 the first of June till very lately, when the wet 



