20 



"novice's" gleanings in bee culture. 



NOVICE'S 

 gleanings iit $cc Sitltitre. 



A. I. ROOT & CO., 



E I) I T R S A N I) rnilPHI K T R s 



Published Monthly, at Medina, Ohio. 



Terms: 75o. per A.nnum. 



Ami one tending us 5 Subscribers can retain75c. for 



Ik] ir trouble, mnl in tht tamt proportion 



for a larg< r numbi i • 



fPRINTED AT MEDINA COUNTY GAZETTE OFFICE! 



. Medin a, March 1, 1873. 



Yor can work nearly twice as fast in 

 catting up stuff for hives and frames, if 

 you have a child to assist, by handing the 



pieces and taking them away. 



We shall really have to give up telling 

 what we are going to give next month, 

 for so many new things are coming up 

 continually, that the best we can do on 

 our limited number of pages is to con- 

 sider what seems to be of the most inter- 

 est to the greatest number at the time. 



We most heartily commend President 



Quinby's address to N. E. Bee Keepers 



Association, given in Dtica Morning 



Herald of Feb. 6th. We really wish our 



pages were sufficient to give complete, 



one of the. ablest efforts of a great and 



good man. 



■ — .►.-»♦. — 



Problem four develops such a variety 



of opinions that our "Table ' at present 



would be a sorry affair. Please don't get 



into any argument for we want truth in 



this matter, and argument seldom calls it 



forth; and don't theorize, for we want 



facts only from experience in this. 



m » » 



In our first two numbers we made an 

 error in giving the price of Mossi'3. Shaw 

 .\ Daniel's untested queens, after Aug. 1st 

 81.50, instead of $2.50 as it appears in 

 this number. Mr. Shaw's plan of winter- 

 ing queens in a hive containing <i frames 

 just half the length of the standard 

 Langstroth frame seems to work well. 

 The little hives are neatly made and it 



seems to us there ran be no cheaper way 

 of getting a queen safely, very early in 

 the season, for they answer almost every 

 purpose of a full colony, and the expense 

 of shipping is much less. For shipping 

 for wintering -urplus queens, we are 



inclined to think such small hives will 

 pay, and we should like to hear from bee 

 keepers on the subject. For the sake of hav- 

 ing them a regular uniform size we sug- 

 gest a frame 8jS;x9£, and then five frames 

 would make them just one-fourth the ca- 

 pacity of the standard Langstroth hive ; 

 at any rate do let us have them with 

 frames interchangeable when we buy and 

 sell hives. 



We learn the great yield of honey ob. 

 tained by Mr. Davis, of Delhi, Mich., was 

 principally from a yellow fiower that 

 sprang up after a swamp was burned over 

 in the fall of '71. Will he please give us 

 a full account of his swarms and surplus, 

 and also of the plant mentioned, and how 

 "the bees filled with honey, combs built 

 on the outside of their /decs" because he 



"hadn't time" to give them room inside. 



m — * 



We hope our readers will excuse us for 

 declining to send any articles pertaining 

 to Bee Culture C. 0. D. Our profit is 

 too small to even pay "return charges'' on 

 money. Send us Post Office orders pay- 

 able in Medina, or New York draft. As 

 letters rarely miscarry now a days, small 

 sums can be sent safely by mail. We 

 have heard of but few failures in over 500 

 letters sent us in the past two months. 



Ocu bees were placed on their summer 

 stands and enjoyed a full flight Feb. 19th 

 and 20th, but we put them back again 

 "cause it went below zero;"' and we are 

 sure it paid, for we found one queenless 

 colony and one almost "bee-less," also, 

 that we combined much to their satisfac- 

 tion as well as ours. All were in fine 

 condition except some weak nucleus 

 colonies made quite late to save surplus 

 queens. Seven out of twelve of these 

 were all right, but the remaining five were 

 fed as late as November and having too 

 few bees to seal up their syrup before 

 being "housed," they quietly "slid out, 

 and now we have only 69 "living hives, 

 all good except one with a drone-laying 

 queen and all old bees for an experiment, 

 but with sealed combs of syrup, they are 

 healthy and bright, although their num- 

 bers are decreasing. When we returned 

 them to the house, mercury stood tour be- 

 low zero, and even Hybrids, when dis- 

 turbed were content to dive down into 

 the cluster after a "very brief" show ot 

 war. such as "standing on their heads, 

 etc." Although they were "housed with 

 a rush," scai'cely a bee was lost. 



