1574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIIE. 



m 



stroth. Will he describe his honey boxes and tell us 

 whether they arc put only on top of the frames. 



We presume many will read the California report 

 with interest. We would be very glad to hear what 

 you are doing, friend W. Could we have a climate 

 permitting queen rearing every month in the year, 

 it seems to us we could not only supply the world 

 with dollar queens, but could get six tons of honey 

 sfrom 48 colonies, even with our average seasons, with 

 all ease. We can't well pull up stakes and go to Cali- 

 fornia, but if the greenhouse will enable us to push 

 ■brood-rearing regardless of weather, it will be the 

 ■next best thing. 



Is it possible that ang one who will take, and read 

 the American Agriculturist can fait to be benefitted to 

 the amount of $i.f>0 ? As a vehicle of civilization, and 

 lor keeping up with the industries of the present 

 time, whether one be farmer, mechanic, merchant or 

 anything else, we do not sec how they -can fail to feel 

 an" interest in its pages. Every page of it, even 

 the advertising columns if read, will have a tendency 

 to improve your homes, improve your morals, and 

 just as surely, augment the contents of your pocket 

 Jiooks. Sent with Cleanings postpaid for § 2.10 



SOME RKMAICKS IN REUAKD TO 

 OUT-BOOK WINTERING. 



I!5. C1IAS. F. MUTII. 



1% S winter is approaching I suppose almost every 

 yjk*^, one of us has been taking care to put his bees 

 '-_ ! i " 1 ' i in proper shape for wintering, i. e.. has seen the 

 Queen in every colony, given each hive the necessary 

 supply of winter stores, cut winter passages through 

 the combs and arranged them so that the combs with 

 brood, if any such be found, hang in the middle, and 

 honey comb's next to them etc. 1 have given my bees 

 'the full size of the lower story of a Langstroth hive, 

 with ten frames, honey in each one, without regard to 

 the strength of the swarm or to the honey being cap- 

 ped or uncapped. Why should the honey sour in the 

 veils, when it does not "sour in an open vessel ? But I 

 have a straw mat on top of the whole and an air pas- 

 sage above the mat. Let us give our bees a warm 

 covering in winter, but at the same time 1 prefer up- 

 ward ventilation, whether this is effected by the aid 

 of a straw mat or something else makes no difference. 

 I know there is much said in favor of giving our bees 

 just as many frames as the colony can cover, yet I 

 have failed to see the difference in spring, in the bees 

 ofthoseofmy friends who put them up in that man- 

 ner, and my own bees. To test this matter I have left 

 a medium sized swarm in a one story hive containing 

 ••JO Langstroth frames, every frame tilled or partly till- 

 ed with honey. 1 don't believe that anybody's bees 

 wintered better last winter than my own, and those of 

 my neighbor's who put them up similar to my own. 

 Friend Curry's bees became strong in spring perhaps 

 Vaster than any other bees in the neighborhood, caus- 

 ed by a splendid natural protection. Their apiary 

 being situated in a hollow, opening to the south and 

 protected from cold winds almost completely. 1 wish 

 you would give our way of wintering a fair test, 

 brother Novice. It might be the means of saving you 

 and others a good deal of labor and disappointment, 

 i should not hesitate to winter bees in Minnesota or 

 Wisconsin, on their summer stands and protected as 

 stated above witli the same conlidence of success. 



Cincinnati, O. Oct. 25th, 1874. 



Thanks for your very excellent hints friend 

 M. In regard to honey souring in. the cells, 

 our experiments have given us some light. 

 The pet nucles, as we have called it, when first 

 put in the greenhouse, gathered a large quan- 

 tity of thick syrup — much more than the clus- 

 ter could cover, and after having cool nights, 

 they began to have a peculiar disagreeable 

 smell. We supposed this was caused by the 

 moisture from so small a cluster, mixing with 

 the honey, for in fact right about the cluster 

 was visible a peculiar damp kind of mold. 

 This all disappeared after we kept them up to 

 <i0 or 70" , by means of the lamp nursery. 1 [ad 

 there been bees enough to keep the whole hive 

 warm, this we think would not have been the 

 case, for other colonies near "smelled" all right. 

 We never hesitate to "poke" our nose into any 



thing, even bee hives, if we think any thing is to 

 gleaned thereby. Perhaps a good large cluster of 

 bees would get along well on unsealed stores, 

 but we feel sure weak ones will not. To di- 

 gress a little, we last month mentioned symp- 

 toms, of dysentery in the greenhouse; this has 

 all ceased since we enlarged it enough to pre- 

 vent a temperature of 100<> or over occurring. 

 In Feb. 1809 we had about 40 colonies in our 

 cellar ; in order to give the strong colonies 

 enough ventilation to keep them quiet, we re- 

 moved honey boards and cap entirely. We 

 had perhaps ten days of weather almost ;:s 

 warm as summer, and opening the door and 

 '■ windows nights, seemed only to make them 

 warmer. In spite of all we could do, all but 

 eleven died of dysentery. Now the smell we 

 noticed in the greenhouse when the thermom- 

 eter stood at 120°, was precisely the old famil- 

 iar one emitted by these diseased colonies. 

 Many of them had unsealed stores. Could 

 they have had a good fly — we put them out 

 just after the warm spell was nil over — they 

 raight have rallied. All had natural stores. 

 Is it not possible that getting too inarm has as 

 much to do with the disease as getting too 

 cold? As bees never get too warm when win- 

 tered out of doors, we certainly secure one 

 condition by your plan, friend M. The testi- 

 mony in favor of straw hives and straw mats 

 is certainly too strong to be passed over un- 

 heeded. But do you believe friend M. you 

 could thus winter a colony whose stores were 

 half from the cider mills, or some equally un- 

 healthy diet? We too have often had serious 

 doubts of the utility of division boards for win 

 tering, but are at present hardly prepared to 

 decide them useless. Very many things that 

 we "fuss" with are perhaps useless, and we 

 know of no point neeedingthe benefit of clear 

 cool judgment more than this, viz: to deter- 

 mine what may be safely dropped and what 

 may not. We are testing a straw mat, and 

 have three colonies wintering out doors. 



W&MWSE coi'ui 



• 



f> HAVE two barrels of white clover and basswood 

 honey and about 400 lbs. of Aug. and Sept. honey, 

 *— ■!' mostly golden rod. that I could sell. It is all can- 

 died. A. Bites . Forest , O. Oct. 26th, 1S74. 



If the Semi-weekly Tribune (N. Y.) of Oct, 

 27th from which we clip the two following 

 items, has been correctly informed, it seems 

 friend Grimm has quite a formidable rival in 

 the honey business, in the East, as well as J. S. 

 Harbison of San Diego, California, who is said 

 to have produced seventy five tons this season. 

 We are making an effort to get at the real facts 

 of the case from the gentlemen themselves. 

 The second item seems to be a revival cf Prob- 

 lem 17, as given on page 80, Vol. 1. 



We read that John E. Iletherington, Cherry Valley, 

 X. V., "shipped one day last week a car load <>\' 10 

 tons of choice white honey. lie had previously ship- 

 ped three tons, besides two tons of strained 'honey. 

 Ilis crop this season will hardly fall short ol'30 tonsi" 



Some of our apiarians are talking of a wagon with 

 frames lor a large number of hives, that can be moved 

 about from one location to another. The benefits 

 claimed an' to take advantage, first, of the maple and 

 Willow blooms ; next come back to orchards and white 

 clover: then off to the forests for the basswood and 

 otherflowers; then for the blossoms of the tulip tree. 

 and finally back to the fields of buckwheat and flowers 

 of Autumn. This plan has been pursued in a small 

 way for some year-. 



