112 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct- 



fact that the economy of the bee hive demands 

 that hundreds of drones be reared where only 

 one is needed? The pollen is borne so much 

 above the seed blossoms that the winds in 

 wafting it are almost sure to fertilize the blos- 

 soms of some neighboring plant, and the drones 

 as they circle up in mid air impelled by that 

 wonderful instinct, are more than likely to 

 meet with Queens from other hives than their 

 own. 



We reached church in very good season, and 

 in a much more devout frame of mind than if 

 we had spent the whole of the morning sleepily 

 over books and papers. 



The spring scales showed at night a gain of 

 i»ie half lb., which though a small matter was 

 enough to set us rejoicing. As the suspended 

 colony is less than an average one, we can 

 safely say we got 35 lbs. of honey during the 

 day, from the Autumn Wild Flowers ; and 

 to-day they show y A of a lb., or about 52 lbs. 

 from the whole Apiary. 



Sept. 1st — One half lb. again to-day, and we 

 think that they really have neglected the cider 

 mill, as our neighbor promised to send his 

 little boy up to notify us, if they troubled him 

 again as they did last week. 



Sept. 18th — Nearly three weeks have passed 

 and the bees have been busy, some of them on 

 the Autumn wild flowers, others on dry sugar 

 in the open air, but by far too many at the 

 cider mill from which we have labored in vain 

 to entice them, especially when they made 

 "sweet apple" cider. With the extremely warm 

 dry weather we have had this month, we have 

 not succeeded in keeping them away entirely, 

 although pollen in abundance, and considera- 

 ble honey has been brought from the woods 

 mentioned. Since writing before, Ave have 

 learned there are about 200 acres of the wood- 

 land fenced close from all kinds of stock, and 

 also that the reason for this is, that same 

 White Snake root that literally whitens the 

 ground, is the cause of a species of "milk sick- 

 ness." Since several people and many cows 

 and horses have died from this, the woodland 

 has been carefully fenced up. The honey from 

 the weed has something of a hoarhound flavor, 

 and gives the hives a peculiar odor. It has 

 been suggested that our bees too, died from 

 this same "milk sickness," but we are more in- 

 clined to accord it to the cider mill. At any 

 rate our hives are now most of them heavy 

 with nicely sealed stoi'es and pollen ; these 

 stores are a mixture of honey and cider with 

 liberal doses of sugar syrup given every eve- 

 ning, and all we can do is to hope the latter 

 will counterbalance all ill effects of the former. 

 As they have all been kept rearing brood 

 briskly we trust at least two thirds of these 

 stores are sugar. 



We have loaned our Quiuby smoker to the 

 cider mill folks, and we are again using our 

 "sauce pan." It certainly has one advantage, 

 and that is, that it don't "go out" even if we 

 do forget to "squeeze" it incessantly, but on 

 the other hand it smokes ones eyes badly at 

 times, and when the smoke don't happen to go 

 in the right direction we sometimes get a sally 

 from the hybrids that make us long for the 

 bellows smoker again. The latter does good 

 service at the mill, but it doubtless takes much 

 time to drive the bees a little ways. We can 



only congratulate ourselves that 'twill soon 

 be cool, and then such troubles will be over. 



Sept. 19th — 'Twas just one year ago to-day 

 that we moved our bees to the swamp on ac- 

 count of the cider mill, and the "cider mill 

 man" has just been here to tell us that some- 

 thing must be done with "them bees." Of 

 course we dampened the sugar, and soon had 

 all the bees tame and wild from a mile or more 

 around, having a grand free picnic at our ex- 

 pense. The weather has been unusually warm. 

 and sultry ; cool days that must soon come, 

 will probably end this trouble for this season. 



Sept. 21st — We have tried putting a strong 

 colony in our bee house, placing it before the 

 window so that it could receive the full 

 rays of the morning sun. The great problem 

 was, to see whether after collecting on the 

 windows, they would regain their hive. It is- 

 with much joy that we are able to state they 

 did, nearly all, after they had once learned 

 how. The young Italians learned the pro- 

 gramme readily, and even made foraging voy- 

 ages to remote corners of the room to some 

 combs of honey, and returned with the spoils, 

 safely to their hive. The old bees, accustomed 

 to the fields, as we anticipated, buzzed on the 

 window until tired and then formed in a Large 

 cluster at the top of the window. In about an 

 hour a few found the hive again and set up a 

 loud call, and by noon, the entrance was cov- 

 ered with bees that with elevated bodies were 

 fanning their wings at a great rate to make 

 known to their comrades the joyful intelli- 

 gence. By sundown, all were in safely except 

 perhaps a dozen or two. 



With space for them to enjoy the full sun 

 shine, we have no fear but that all would regain 

 the hive safely, but we confess it seems quite 

 improbable that the bees from a dozen hives or 

 more in a small enclosure would all regain 

 their respective hives ; still, until we have tes- 

 ted the matter, we have no real right to doubt. 



We have before made mention of bees with 

 distended bodies found around on the ground 

 during "cider time." .Well, among those on 

 the window, we found quite a number such, 

 and they soon fell to the floor. Later in the 

 day the floor was soiled with their exex'ement 

 and this soon had quite an unpleasant smell 

 that reminded us vividly of two years ago, yet 

 this was quite a warm day. Could they have 

 had ample room to fly farther from the hive 

 perhaps this would not have been observable, 

 but we caunot help thinking it is the effect of 

 the cider mill. Perhaps giving them a fly ev- 

 ery week or two during the winter might do 

 much to avoid the evil effects of such diet but 

 that it will prove a perfect remedy for the 

 gradual dwindling away as did ours last spring,, 

 we hardly dare hope. Our bees did not die 

 with dysentery as has been intimated. 



From an experiment made we would decide 

 that bees do not make honey, but simply gather 

 it. AVe threw out some of the thinnest, raw 

 unripened honey that we could find during the 

 basswood harvest, and put it in a fruit jar cov- 

 ering the mouth with thin guaze only. After 

 keeping it in a very warm place for several 

 weeks it was found to be as thick as the thick- 

 est honey, to have lost its raw taste, and to 

 have become nice honey, such as is taken out 

 of sealed comb. 



