44 



"novice's" gleanings in bee culture. 



NOVICE'S 



j^Ietmiitg 



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»ce Cfithurc. 



A. I. ROOT & CO., 



EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. 



Published Monthly, at Medina, Ohio. 



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I PRINTED AT ME DINA CO UN TY GAZETTE OFF ICE.] 



Medina, June 1, 1873. 



Ik our January number wo gave the 

 credit of the "Railroad idea" to Mr. E. B. 

 Blakeslee; it should have been E. C. 

 Blakeslee, Medina, Ohio. 



m » m 



At present, May 22d, both the bees and 

 "Novice" are rejoicing over a yield of 

 honey from apple blossoms that we have 

 never before seen excelled. Some colo- 

 nies have filled one story so full that we 

 have given them a second one, and at this 

 rate extracting will have to be the order 

 in less than three days ; yet not more than 

 a week ago we were feeding to prevent 

 starvation. "Such is (not life, but) bee 

 keeping. 



We are really fearful at the present 

 date, May 28th, that "eggs for hatching" 

 will only answer when mailed short dis- 

 tances ; for our third piece of comb from 

 Mr. McGaw has also failed to produce 

 any brood although the weather was 

 quite favorable during transit. As an 

 experiment we have to-day placed a piece 

 of comb with eggs in our bee house and 

 will report just before going to press 

 whether it retains vitality three days. As 

 . we can get no imported queens until 

 Dadants first importations, we are obliged 

 to send such eggs as we have, or forward 

 ihe orders to Mr. McGaw. We consider 

 a queen received last fall from It. M. 

 Argo, Lowell, Kentucky, our best for 

 disposition, and abundant egg laying, and 

 shall send comb and eggs from her. Of 

 three queens received from Mr. Cary, of 

 Colerain, Mass., we succeeded in bungling 

 them all out of existence finally, and 

 Novice sorrowfully remarks that he fears 

 he shall be a "Novice" always. 



Latest: — Eggs out of hive three days, 

 all right. Temperature 50 to 80°. 



God helps those who help themselves, 

 is an adage quite true in bee-keeping. In 

 the spring of 1869 we lost all of our forty 

 colonies by dysentery except eleven. 

 These eleven were increased to forty-sev- 

 en colonies that season, for our losses on- 

 ly strengthened a "dogged" determina- 

 tion that we would conquer, and with the 

 aid of our bee house we wintered every 

 one of the forty-seven, and secured (>l(12 

 lbs. of honey from them in 1870, which 

 was sold mostly for 25c. per lb. We 

 worked for this result, for the sting of 

 loss in wintering was not lessened by the 

 prophesies of "wise heads" that such en- 

 ormous increase could not be healthy and 

 and natural; but the three tons of honey 

 was both "healthy and natural," and we 

 laughed in turn at those who had talked 

 "nature" versus artificial swarming. 



ROBBING. 



M'ANY complaints have been made 

 i this spring about robbing and that 



even Italians not only failed to defend 

 themselves at times, but allowed the in- 

 vaders to carry off their honej' with per- 

 fect unconcern and good nature. Now we 

 have prided ourselves on having hept our 

 bees all honest this spring, and have told 

 our friends that the fault must have been 

 their own carelessness, etc. But just as 

 fruit blossoms were yielding their best, it 

 occurred to us that our Quinby hive 

 should be brushed out and got ready for a 

 new stock of bees. The hive contained 

 perhaps twenty or thirty pounds of sealed 

 honey, natural stores which remained 

 after a strong colony had died of dysen- 

 tery in it in March; (exclusive natural 

 stores as a last experiment) ; well after 

 all our care and experience we forgot and 

 left the entrance open, and of course toe 

 had robbing too. The mischief was 

 stopped as soon as discovered (only a few- 

 hours) but not before three colonies were 

 in turn attacked and demoralized before 

 we could get them sufficiently over their 

 astonishment to defend themselves from 

 the ruin that the} 7 , for a wonder, seemed 

 to be entirely unaware was threatening 

 them; two of the queens were found, but 

 died afterward. They were caged and 

 their hives "swapped" for those of the 

 robbers ; this gave plenty of bees and 

 stores, but we now have queen cells in- 

 stead of queens, which we think a bad 

 "swap" for the first of June. Novice 

 really begins to think that if things con- 

 tinue thus he will have to turn back and 

 learn over again. Moral. — Be very care- 

 ful how you leave combs of honey at any 

 season where bees may get at them and 

 thus acquire bad habits. 



