1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13? 



we can hardly remember. Had it been day- 

 light we should have saved the bees, but as it 

 -was we regretted far more, being obliged to 

 ikill the over zealous little fellows, than any 

 injury they did us. We really do hope some- 

 thing" will turn up to do away with "lugging" 

 hives about at any season of the year. An 

 •examination of the Bee House since shows all 

 •quiet again. In fact it is hard to believe the 

 room contains any living thing at all, when 

 we enter on tip toe in the night time. This 

 really seems like the year we first built the 

 house. We lost none then. 



The bees in the Green House now work 

 beautifully on the meal, and one hive shows 

 perhaps 50 square inches of sealed brood. Af- 

 ter they have hatched out perfect bees we are 

 .going to sail our hat higher than it ever went 

 before. If our readers should hear any thing 

 unusual about Nov. 15th or 20th, they can 

 •conclude it was probably Novice giving three 

 cheers for the successful solution of Problem 

 No. Nineteen. 



A few bees got out at the door to-day when 

 we went in for something ; supposing these lost, 

 we thought no more about it, but toward night 

 .seeing some bees about the door we opened it 

 and let them in, and sure enough they flew in 

 immediately to their respective hives. 



Just think of it : It may be that we after all 

 shall be under no necessity of having the sash 

 removable, but shall only be obliged to open 

 the door to our Green House whenever the 

 weather will admit of their going abroad ; still 

 further, is it positively among the impossibili- 

 ties that a small door may be so arranged that 

 it can be left open at all seasons allowing the 

 bees to work abroad or in doors according to 

 their own "sweet will," for we really do dislike 

 making prisoners of any animated thing, and 

 bees most of all V We really feel that we are 

 but "groping in the dark" in this business, yet 

 as light is daily coming we will try to be con- 

 tent. Help would be quite acceptable, and we 

 should welcome with pleasure the result of 

 any similar experiments. 



We found our hybrid Queen safely introdu- 

 ced to-day and had we not already spun out 

 such a very long yarn we would tell about the 

 remarkably large white eggs she lays. As it 

 is, we'll say nothing about them now, but they 

 really are remarkably large. By the way her 

 bees, — nearly black hybrids — have an "aston- 

 ishingly" cool way ol giving a body decidedly 

 pungent stings for no offense in the world ex- 

 cept "jest trying to get a peep" at the aforesaid 

 ;arge white eggs. 



Don't you believe we're tired ? Besides wri- 

 ting all this gossip, we have been at work 

 since daylight on the extension to the Green 

 House ; nailing boards over our head until our 

 nock ached, working all doubled up in cramp- 

 (d places with insufficient "understanding," 

 scratching ones' head when it is already full 

 of saw-dust and dirt, in the vain attempt to 

 decide how a Green House should be made for 

 bees, when there's not a mortal on the face of 

 1he earth who has ever heard of such a thing 

 before, (nor since for that matter). Can't we 

 say good night now? Blue Eyes was 

 asleep hours ago dreaming perhaps that it's 

 "too bad" that "Papa sobusy" he couldn't even 

 help her up when she "fa'd down" over his 



"naughty boards" when she went out to see 

 him work. 



Nov. 1th — We opened the door again this 

 morning and very soon the bees deserted the 

 glass and rushed out and in at a great rate. 

 After an hour's exercise in the open air — it is 

 as warm as June — they go back contented, and 

 work on the meal with more avidity than any 

 day before, this fall. They have also eaten or 

 carried away nearly a whole sweet potato — 

 see Heads of Grain — but we were so bvxy we 

 did not even see how they did it. In our work 

 of enlarging the structure we uncovered the 

 whole room in the afternoon, and finally had 

 the hives so covered with boards, and timber, 

 carpenter's tools, spades shovels etc., that it 

 was a wonder indeed that a bee could ever 

 identify any trace of their usual home, yet to 

 our astonishment they labored as happily as if 

 nothing was amiss ; and even repelled sonw: 

 black robbers vigorously toward night that 

 proposed to share their "meal and potatoes." 



Nov. 12(h — As sure as you are alive nice 

 young Italians are hatching out! Wings are 

 as good, and all else apparently as perfect as 

 bees reared entirely under the broad canopy of 

 heaven. 



If it were not for the bees that still die dai- 

 ly from trying to get out, we fear we should be 

 about as happy as we ever expect to be in this 

 world. "Cause why ?" When fruit trees are 

 in bloom next spring, we could then have each 

 individual hive ready to swarm if we chose, 

 and then each would 'perhaps give 500 lbs. or 



more, and 68 times 500 is but they do die as 



yet though not quite as fast as the new ones 

 hatch, so we will keep hopeful. 



Nov. 2'Sth — We have made many experiments 

 since our last, have torn down and built up, 

 moved the sash, changed its angle of obliquity 

 etc. etc., but with no good result toward keep- 

 ing the bees from clustering on it worth men- 

 tion, until we raised the sash so nearly level 

 that the south side is only one foot lower than 

 the north. Mr. Burch was certainly right, yet 

 we could see no reason for it until we had 

 made the experiment ; it seems that bees like 

 all winged insects and birds, in their flights 

 for exercise, swing around on circles nearly 

 level with the horizon. They may ascend or 

 descend, spirally, but find it very inconvenient 

 to shape their circular flights so as to avoid 

 striking a glass placed obliquely ; whereas, 

 with the sash level or nearly so, they describe 

 circles or figure 8s, with no danger of touch- 

 ing any thing unless it be the sash bars which 

 they naturally avoid without effort. Seeing 

 nothing but the blank sky overhead, instead of 

 familiar objects may also have something to do 

 with the matter. After changing the sash as 

 mentioned, we put a fire in the stove, which 

 was incorporated with the apartment hav- 

 ing no glass, and soon raised the temperature 

 to 80° ; this caused the bees to pour out of 

 their hives as they do when a warm spell oc- 

 curs sometimes after a storm ; after an hour's 

 circling about under the sash, which was ap- 

 parently quite satisfactory, they all returned 

 to their hives or to their labors on the meal 

 and syrup, except perhaps 2 or 3 dozen. If we 

 can reduce the daily mortality to 8 or 10 bees 

 per hive, we are all right, for they are even 

 now, rearing brood much faster. The pet nu- 



