176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



an exception to the rule ; but when you say 

 you have thirty jars of unripe honey that 

 will not candy, even though unsealed, since 

 you scalded the honey to make it thicker, I 

 can not even suggest an explanation. As a 

 usual thing, sealing up certainly helps to 

 prevent candying, although honey some- 

 times does not candy, even though left un- 

 sealed. If, however, it once gets started to 

 candying it will candy very rapidly.— In re- 

 gard to honey vinegar for pickles, Dr. A. B. 

 Mason, who is now at my elbow, says they 

 never have any difficulty at all in making 

 nice pickles of honey vinegar ; and all his 

 neighbors get their vinegar from him just 

 because it makes better pickles. 



BEE-FEVER AND THE ABC; ITALIANS AHEAD. 



About six years ago my husband took the bee- 

 fever. He concluded he must have some bee-litera- 

 ture and go at bee-keeping right; so for the first 

 dose he took ttie A B C of Bee Culture. That di- 

 gested, he wanted bees. He made some frame 

 hives, and transferred our four " stands " into 

 frame hives. Having success in this he sent to Dan 

 White for a few nuclei of Italian bees ; worked them • 

 up to full colonies, as per bee-books (having In the 

 mean time procured Cook's Manual and Glean- 

 ings), and got 75 lbs. of honey in 1-lb. sections from 

 each, and that year was a poor honey season; but 

 we saw at a glance that Italians worked when our 

 blacks "didn't turn awheel." We lost all our bees 

 last winter except four colonies. Two or three 

 died with honey in the hives. Last spring we in- 

 creased to 13, and had 350 lbs. of surplus honey In 

 1-lb. sections. We like Gleanings very much. A. E. 

 Manum's talks are very instructive, also G. M. Doo- 

 Uttle's and others'. Jessie G. Dickebson. 



Nioga, O., Feb. 10. 



bees making a raid on the pickers in a 

 strawberry-patch. 



'Tis a real pleasure to see bees coming and going 

 on their errands all day long. Besides, we are 

 once In a while treated to a "circus " gratis, as was 

 the case in 1887. I had 23 strawberry-pickers who 

 were much interested In seeing a swarm of vicious 

 hybrids on the war-path. To make a long story 

 short, the bees cleaned out the ranch, and the whole 

 population in the vicinity were compelled to " hunt 

 their holes" without the dignity or ceremony of 

 leave-taking. The recollection of the scene is still 

 green in my memory; and it is too ludicrous to be 

 easily forgotten. E. D. Cox. 



Marquette, Mich., Feb. 8. 



Friend C, if your bees should prove to be 

 an annoyance and a nuisance to people in 

 your neighborhood, I am afraid the memory 

 would follow me in another way than on the 

 ludicrous side. I would look out that this 

 does not happen very often, or there may 

 be talk among your people about banishing 

 bees and bee-keepers, that we have heard 

 about in connection with the Bee-keepers' 

 Union. 



sun shone on It. It stood at just 40°, and got no 

 higher that day. They fiew till after three, when it 

 stood at 36°— 4° above freezing. It froze in the 

 shade all day. My yard slopes to the northwest, so 

 the wind struck It fair. My thermometer is a good 

 cheap metal one. It hangs 10 feet from the first 

 hive. So you see you can't tell at what degree they 

 will fly. My bees are nice Italians, from Root's and 

 Doollttle's queens, in chaff and Simplicity hives, 

 shaded with grapevines. Strange, but the bees in 

 chaff hives commence flying first this winter; usu- 

 ally the opposite of this has been true. 



Harpersfield, O., Jan. 28. Daniel Bishop. 



Friend B., you can not tell what the tem- 

 perature is when the sun is shining. No 

 doubt it was 40 in the shade ; but had your 

 thermometer been directly in the sun, it 

 would have indicated 60 or 70 , I feel pretty 

 sure. If you want to test the matter fairly, 

 choose a still cloudy day. 



^EP0]^Tg ENC0n^^6IN6. 



25 CENTS PER pound FOR 4000 POUNDS OP HONEY. 



I sold all my honey at retail in the Norristown 

 market, at '25 cents per pound, just as it came off 

 the hives, all in combs, one and two pound boxes, 

 and about 200 pounds in five-pound boxes. I got 

 about 4000 pounds of honey. J. W. Swartley. 



Norristown, Pa., Feb. 7. 



AT WHAT TEMPERATURE BEES MAY FLY. 



At twelve to-day it was clear, with a cold breeze 

 from the west. It had been cloudy nearly all the 

 forenoon. On going to my bee-yard I found all my 

 bees flying furiously except three swarms. I have 

 a thermometer hanging on the east side of a small 

 round post, twenty feet south of my house. The 



NEW HONEY. 



To-day I replaced my best hive on the scales, from 

 which it was removed on the 4th of December. It 

 then weighed 76^4 lbs. The present weight is 80 

 lbs. Some other hives would have made a better 

 record still, if they had been weighed. The season 

 is very forward. Dewberries are as large as a shirt- 

 button, but not ripe yet. H. Fitz Hart. 



Avery, La., Feb. 4, 1890. 



NO WINTER IN NORTHERN ARKANSAS. 



Thus far we have had no winter. Bees have been 

 gathering pollen since Dec. 15. They have brood In 

 all stages, and are in good condition; but I suspect 

 springing them will be where the trouble will come. 

 Gleanings and the Americari Bee Journal come 

 regularly, and are prized highly by all who can af- 

 ford to take the two. R. H. Guthrie. 



Powhatan, Ark., Feb. 10. 



3500 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 33 COLONIES ; CHUNK 

 HONEY. 



We started last spring with 33 colonies, and In- 

 creased to 68. We took 3500 lbs. of honey, both ex- 

 tracted and comb, all put up In jars and pails. I be- 

 lieve you call it chunk honey. It was nearly all 

 sold before cool weather, at 10 cents a pound. I 

 don't use any sections. 1 think I can manage bet- 

 ter against swarming with brood-frames when they 

 raise brood in the upper story. I take it out and 

 put it into a nucleus, and they get discouraged aft- 

 er two or three times taking out. The most of our 

 colonies swarmed only once, and soon did not 

 swarm at all. A. R. Dioke. 



Hettlck, 111., Feb. 4. 



Friend D., you say you got 10 cents a 

 pound for your chunk honey, and also that 

 you do not use sections. Now, I think you 

 are making a mistake. Had your honey 

 been put into nice sections, and put on the 

 market in your neat cases, it would have 



