SS74 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CLLTCTtE. 



when winter comes to keep up proper temper- 

 ature, and of course must perish. Was not 

 such the case with your own ? The extractor 

 is almost the only remedy for such troubles, 



FRIEND NOVICE :- -Those eggs came to hand after 

 ii() hours from the time yon mailed them, but the comb, 

 l>ox and al! was pretty much smashed fiue ; still I have 

 from one end of it/where there was a cell or two 

 which was not smashed down to the base, two larva 

 ■hatched, but no Queen cells found over them as yet. 

 Now I want you to put me up some more as I direct: 

 i >n the morning of the 24th of July put a nearly new 

 worker comb in the centre of the brood next where 

 vour imported Queen is. Look at it on the morning 

 ■of the 25th and if there are eggs in it send them to me 

 by the first mail on Monday the 27th of July. Now 

 how to put them up: Make a box of wood % inch 

 thick. Make it three inches square by two inches 

 -deep. Have the top or cover go on with screws so as 

 not to jar the comb. Now go to the hive and get the 

 -oldest eggs in the comb above mentioned, cut out a 

 piece two inches square and wrap it up in soft paper 

 m> _\ on cannot see a bit of comb. Put .^ inch of cotton 

 wadding in the bottom of box, put in comb and tuck 

 in wadding on each of the four sides, then put in wad- 

 dling until box is full. Screw on top, and send. Please 

 excuse us for becoming teacher to au older member of 

 the bee-keeping fraternity, for we have faith that if 

 the eggs are put up so they will not jar we can hatch 

 them, tor since we seut you for the eggs just received, 

 we have placed a frame of worker eggs in a hive and 

 and had them hatch all right, after they had been left 

 in our shop away fiom bees, eight days. You ask on 

 your card if we are certain that eggs will hatch after 

 being kept a mouth. We will give you the facts. In 

 using our small hive described in "A. B. J. we some- 

 times get drone brood in boxes. On finding such we 

 set them out, thinking to spoil it and left them out in 

 one instance nearly a month, and then put them in 

 The hive again and to our surprise the next day but 

 mi' found plenty of larvae in the boxes. We now take 

 precaution to see that the eggs are hatched, and then 

 we can set them out a day or two until the brood sut- 

 lers when all will be right unless the Queen lays in 

 them again. 



The poorest season so far, we have ever known. 

 -» lur hives will not average 3 lbs. of honey in each at 

 date. Cause, cold and wet. Basswood just opening 

 and we are hoping for better times. 



G. M. DooLmi.E, Borodino, X. Y. July 18th, 1874. 



P. S. — In the comb of worker eggs referred to above 

 the bees only hatched those that would hatch in 24 

 hours. The rest were all cleaned out. 



No excuse is ever needed friend D. for pre- 

 suming to teach us ; our capacity for taking in 

 instruction is boundless, and we will faithful- 

 ly perform our part of the experiment so long 

 as there is any hope of success. When we are 

 desired to send the comb in such wooden boxes, 

 as are described we shall have to request that 

 nbout 10c. additional be sent. 



The following is just at hand. Our opinion 

 in that the whole secret is warm weather. 

 Such as we invariably have in July for instance. 



Hurrah ! Off with old hats and new. We have two 

 flue Queen cells nearly ready to seal, out of our two 

 larva?, hatched from "the comb of eggs we received 

 from you all smashed up. Our heart went down to 

 our boots when we found that the bees had taken all 

 the larva out of the comb we had away from the bees 

 s days, and we expected our imported larva had fared 

 the same; but we really have two line Queen cells 

 from them. G. M. D. 



A. I. ROOT & Co.— There now, you have told on me 

 for losing my two hum/red and fifty hives of bees last 

 spring, but 1 do not mind that so much since you did 

 not tell the fact that 1 lost near jour hundred colonies 

 the previous spring and near two hundred colonies the 

 spring before that, not leaving me five per cent of my 

 -lock each time. I started with 17 hives this spring 

 and now have 80 good colonies from them besides 

 taking fifteen hundred pounds extracted honey, and 

 now 1 will give any of those who know the cause of, 

 and remedy for the bee malady, two dollars each to 

 ensure all my good colonies to live over until next 

 May, and I used to winter so safely tb.it I would not 

 give 20c. per hive for insurance. Two thirds of the 

 bees in this region have swarmed and perhaps one 

 ball' of them have made some box honey. Clover was 



entirely gone July 1st. Basswood we may say com* 

 menced yielding that day and lasted until the 0th. 



R. Wilkin, Oskaloosa, Iowa, July 16th, 1874. 



From seventeen to eighty, and 1500 lbs. of 

 honey is certainly ahead of us friend W., but 

 we think you mentioned having purchased 

 Queens for them, in a former letter. If Bass- 

 wood only lasted nine days with you, we are 

 certainly ahead here, if we are not a Basswood 

 country ; we have had almost three weeks 

 and considerable is gathered yet from occa* 

 sional trees that blossom late. 



FRIEND NOVICE :-Our 100 colonies have increns- 

 to 125, mainly by natural swarming, and that not- 

 withstanding all the opposition I could bring to bear, 

 short of extracting the honev from the breeding 

 apartment, which I did not wish to do, as I wanted 

 all the box honey I could get. Bees obtained more 

 honey than usual from fruit blossoms, but the yield 

 from white clover is comparatively light in this sec- 

 tion, owing to the clover being badly winter killed, 

 and also injured by drouth. In many places bees 

 obtained just honey enough to keep them breeding 

 and swarming, and where they were permitted to 

 swarm at will the yield of surplus honey must be 

 light. A friend told me he knew six swarms to issue 

 from one of his stocks, and he did not know how manv 

 more came out and went to the woods. 



I only permitted my colonies to swarm once, with 

 the exception of one which swarmed twice, conse- 

 quently they were full of bees when Basswood bloom- 

 ed, and worked on it accordingly. All of my old 

 stocks, with one exception, and many of the swarms 

 are at work in surplus boxes. I have from t> to 22, 4 or 

 5 lb. boxes on each. I have taken off a few hundred 

 pounds and there are more ready to come off as soon 

 as 1 can find time to attend to it. But most of the 

 boxes are not quite ready to come off yet, as the honey 

 is not all sealed up. Bees are beginning to work oil 

 the second crop of red clover where it was cut early ; 

 and if drouth or the grasshoppers do not use it up as 

 they did last year, 1 hope for a fair yield of honey, 

 notwithstanding the unfavorable spring. The one old 

 stock that has not worked in surplus boxes was the 

 weakest I had in the spring. It has become quite 

 strong, but I have kept it as a kind of reserve upon 

 which to draw whenever I want a frame of brood or 

 honey for any purpose. 



Honey seems to be thicker and heavier this year 

 than common, as boxes that seldom contained more 

 than four lbs. hold almost five. The dry weather evi- 

 dently had something to do with it. 



All of my old colonies have too much honey in the 

 breeding apartment ; many of them twice what they 

 should have, and it will have to be extracted after 

 that in the boxes is sealed up. I do not wish to do so 

 now, as I have found by experience that extracting 

 much out of the breeding apartment during the work- 

 ing season always detracts from the box honey. 



James Bolin, West Lodi, O. July 20th, 1874. 



We must say friend B., that we are disap- 

 pointed in your report. We had fixed our 

 opinion on having you report at this date 

 about 10.000 lbs of extracted honey, or 100 lbs. 

 to the colon} r on an average, and here you have 

 been allowing your 100 stocks to "fool away 

 their time" (begging your pardon) on box hon- 

 ey. Of course, you may know best. Our bee- 

 keepers here, who brought their stocks through 

 in any kind of shape are making a good yield 

 with the extractor, but taking an Apiary 

 through, they would not get one fourth the 

 amount in boxes, so far as we can learn ; and 

 yet the prices are constantly quoted in our 

 Cleveland papers at nearly the same. Thick, 

 well ripened, transparent honey, is rapidly 

 making for itself a market at a price but very 

 little below box honey, and if you do not re- 

 port at least G000 lbs. of box honey we shall 

 think you have erred in summer management, 

 whatever may be your skill in wintering. 

 There ! we'll stop now lest some one may 

 think our 2}. 2 barrels of hone}' and 45 colonies, 

 are making us "sassy' 1 again. 



