11874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



105 



fE«&&b'<ti3 <©€ €rS*&'&tt$ 

 FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



f;J RIEND NOVICE :— Mr. Martin is no doubt right 

 ' in thinking I do not deserve much credit for 

 wintering my bees without loss, as there are 

 plenty of others tha have done the same thing, and 

 he may be right in thinking 1 may yet find my "Wat- 

 erloo." Of one thing I am pretty "certain, however, 

 ami that is, when it comes, if it ever does so, it will 

 not find me with my arms folded, trusting to luck for 

 success; but like Napoleon's old guard, in the Held 

 ready for the tight. But as 1 am not much inclined to 

 cross bridges before 1 come to them, 1 will try not to 

 borrow any trouble from thai source at present. 



Now to show friend Martin that it is not altogether 

 fair sailing for bee-keepers in this section. I will men- 

 tion that a neighbor living within 80 rods of me put 

 his bees in the cellar la-t fall and disturbed them all 

 to death before spring. Another put his three 

 swarms in a cold out-buiiding an I only had one left 

 the first o. May, and tluv vvere not worth 25 cts. Of 

 two other neighbor,-, one living one mile east and the 

 other the same distance vves^, one had one swarm out 

 Of five, and the other three out of ten left. The above 

 are the nearest neighbors ! have that keep i>e<-s. and 

 their luck is a pretty fair sample tit the waj bee-keep- 

 ers have fared for some years | asi, where the) were 

 not properly cared tor. 



i never wintered more than one swarm on the sum- 

 mer stand. That w r as the first swarm I owned, and 

 the amount of honey they consumed, and the number 

 of bees that perished during the winter, determined 

 me to try some other mode of wintei ing. 



At the" time, I was engaged in suppJj ing the neigh- 

 bors with what dry goods, notions etc. they needed, 

 and when 1 talked of putting my bees in the cellar, 

 many were the smiles exchanged ai my expense, i 

 might know how to sell goods, but bee-keeping was 

 evidently out of my line of business. Well, the bees 

 were put in the cellar, and in spite of all prophecies 

 to the contrary, came out all right, and diu the same 

 each succeeding winter, until tailing health compelled 

 me to seek some eniplov ment affording more out-door 

 exercise. A natural liking for bees, and the belief 

 that there was money in them, indicated plainly 

 enough what that employment should be. 



On moving here, I had no cellar suitable for winter- 

 ing bees in, i therefore built a nouse tor that purpose, 

 which has more than met m> expectations »o far, as 

 my losses in wintering have amounted to almost noth- 

 ing, whilst bees kept on the Old hap-hazard plan are 

 i apidh disappearing. 



Now" in regard to bees sometimes wintering well 

 without any kind of care,— is it not generally owing to 

 their being, by chance, in about the same condition, 

 so far as bees,"stoies and empty combs are concerned, 

 as a careful Apiarian would put them in, belore win- 

 ter ? I have thought such was the case. It is seldom 

 such chance work pays very long, for carelessness in 

 auj business is sure to bring" its reward, sooner or la- 

 ter, and bee-keeping forms no exception to the rule. 

 Carelessness is no safeguard against the "many vary- 

 ing circumstances*' mentioned by Mr. Martin, and 

 which I cannot help thinking it tne dutj of the bee- 

 keeper to guard against. For instance"; most of the 

 bees that died last winter and spring were lost by the 

 bees leaving their hives in quest oi pollen or honey 

 when the weather was too cold lor them to be out, 

 and as a consequence the old bees dieu before young 

 ones were reared to take their place, thus leaving the 

 hives bee-less, or nearh so. Now i think there is a 

 remedy for this kind ol .oss. If I found the old bees 

 were dying at a rate that threatened the safety of my 

 bees, 1 should put Litem in the house again, feed them 

 tost them to breeding, and keep them in the house 

 until they could be put out with safety. 



Alter bees have been out ami had a purifying flight, 

 they may be kept in-doors for some time with safety, 

 ami set to breeding by feeding. 1 have to see the first 

 swarm vet that cannot be set to breeding, if put in a 

 warm place, ami fed. 



in conclusion ; Mr. Editor, just say to your farmer 

 friends, who laugh at "Scientific" bee culture, that 

 neither the extractor, sugar-syrup, or tin Italians are 

 the cause of the loss of so many bees; as ! have till 

 the above mimed "varying circumstances'* and thej 

 have failed to kill mine." 



Jame» Bolin, West Lodi, O. July 16th, 1874. 



i have observed that bees will store surplus honey 

 in small hives more readily on a moderate supply, 

 than they will in large hives, but the use id the ex- 

 tractor greatly modifies the rule and to in}' mind 



nearly annihilates the necessity of diversity in frames 

 and hives. 1 am only making a start in bee-keeping 

 for myself, but have handled, and can handle bees for 

 others. I did what I think most others should do, 1 

 served an apprenticeship in a large apiary, and if 

 some of your correspondents would submit to the 

 same kind of discipline they would not need to ask so 

 many silly questions and let everybody know it. 

 In a former number of Gleanings a subscriber want- 

 ed to know what to do. -wanted to examine his bees 

 when the weather was too cold— Novice "did not 

 know :" why Amice ! 1 carry them into a moderately 

 warm room— do it in any kind of weather. If mi 

 bees don't sing "Never mind the weather," I do. 



Geo. W. Horner. Dubuque, la. 

 Now friend H. if we all followed your ad- 

 vice there wouldn't be any more novices. A 

 letter is now before us from a lady, who has 

 just been through her hives with the extract- 

 or for the first time, asking how soon she can 

 extract them again; of course we replied pleas- 

 antly, "as soon as they are full again," and 

 we hope our readers will not hesitate to ask 

 anything they may feel disposed. We have 

 tried taking the bees in doors to examine, but 

 they had a way of getting around loose on tin 

 floor, and after somebody had stepped on them 

 they vvere "all spiled" or as Blue Eyes would 

 express it, "broke, broke, broke, real hard !" 



FlilEND NOVICE:— I see a good deal said about 

 "Quinby's new .Smoker" as though he were the in > en- 

 tor of it. 1 have never seen it. but from descripiii n 

 should think it the same as one Mr. Davis of Clear 

 Water, Wright Co., Minn., tried to sell me seven years 

 ago. It was made of tin, perhaps 2 inches in dh.meti r 

 amis inches (more or less) in length, with a folded 

 seam like those in tin pans (as the heat melted these 

 fastened only with solder) one end terminated in a 

 small tube, to the other end was attached a small bel- 

 lows, which could be readily removed when wishing 

 to till it. Who was the inventor I know not, he made 

 them originally to kill lice on calves or ticks on sheep, 

 with tobacco smoke, but when he went to keeping 

 bees he used one of them to smoke his bees. 



Have taken 56 Its. of honey from 4 of my ."> .-w aims, 

 all ol which were weak in spring; will not extract 

 from brood chamber this year and see if they will not 

 winter better on early gathered' honey. Wintered 

 bees successfully when I ext'd only from top storv. 



S. Howell, Faribault, Minn. Aug. _nd,"lb74. 



Thanks for the item. We see B. K. M. also 

 mentions that combining the smoker with the 

 bellows is not new. However, the most inge* 

 nious part of Quinby's is • erhaps the arrange- 

 ment of valves that open when it is stood up- 

 right, but close when laid down ; so far at 

 least, w r e believe Mr. Q. is entitled to credit. 



We really hope leaving the honey near the 

 brood may prove an advantage, but if this is 

 ttll the trouble why have box hives fared so 

 badly? We certainly should be sure that the 

 bees have an abundance of well sealed ripened 

 honey for winter, and where fall stores abound 

 your plan will probably be best, say, after the 

 1st of August at least. We never extract after 

 that time here. 



Should not to. fertile Queen begin to lay eggs immedi- 

 ately, on being placed with and received by a swarm 

 of bees, after being caged with about a dozen workers 

 4 or 5 days 'i X. E. 1'kentkk, Castalia, O. 



She should lay within 24 hours at least, but 

 before deciding, we would give them a good 

 feed ; (hen if she would not lay we would say 

 "off iroes her head." 



You should have said in starting a colony with so 

 few bees to do the work, "try to do as much of it as 

 you can yourself." Keep them warm, fight their ene- 

 mies, give them plenty ol both honey and pollen. I 

 built up a colony so last year, and two this summer. 

 They consume an enormous quantity of pollen and 

 should he allowed to fly every evening." One of these I 

 found hail a great man} dead; I noticed too that the 



