1875. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



n 



make it a self sust;iinin<;, and payiiia; institu- 

 tion. Unless we did our ftite niiglit be as sad 

 ;is he wiio comes next portrays it. We will 

 bear tlie oHor in mind. 



If by j)ul)lisliin<j "(ii.EANiNOS" and mukinj:: us all 

 <')irlstinas ()resi'nts for 7.')C,, you get stMit "Over tlie 

 Siills to the i)oor house" voifvc only to give us ;i 

 *'l)last" from the wind-mill before starting aud we will 

 surely eonie to your rescue. 



L. B. IIOGUK, Loydsville, <). 



Mit. ROOT, Dear Sir:— I will commence Nov. l.')th, 

 187;i. I put its colonies into 2 cellars, dividing nearly 

 •equally, which was a mistake for they all should have 

 been i)ut into one cellar but 1 was afraid of keeplnj;: 

 them too warm. One of my cellars was a new one 

 and built late and therefore was very (hinip and wet; 

 it snowed and blowed into it a foot or two and I did 

 not keep it warm enough -kept it four degrees above 

 freezing, which I lind is not sulHcient. They all come 

 out alive excci)t one which was Queenless, but some 

 of them were quite weak and died during the sjiring, 

 as it was very cold and backward. Well, I made up 

 luy mind that 1 had more bees at home than I wantetl, 

 to do well, so I let '25 swarms to a novice to '"run." 

 The place was Auroraville, some eight miles north- 

 west from here. 1 took them up there in April. Two 

 or three ran down so they hart to be built up again, 

 but we extracted 1050 lbs. of honey, got almost a ton 

 of box honey and increased the io to 50. I tliink if 

 they had been rightly managed I might have got ."iOO 

 lbs. more. I will try and run them myself there next 

 year. Those at home diil not do as well, the honey i 

 i)Oxes that I generally use hold from 14 to i5 lbs., set 

 ci'osswise of the hive next to the frames. 



Novice J do not have anj- trouble to get bees to work 

 in boxes. I have one swarm, or divided half, that put 

 120 lbs. in boxes. 1 was obliged to sell my honey for I 

 -0 cts. My hives are 20,V inches in length, outside 

 measurement and 11 deep, holding 8 frames. My bees 

 worked on flour this fall as late as Nov. I'ith, or 14th, 

 quite briskly. 1 have put my bees in a drj' cellar in 

 the sand with a good wall ; a double floor above the 8 

 inch joists and lineo under the joists and stufled with 

 <;hafl' and straw. The north end is also lined. Five 

 ventilators overhead from one foot to two feet square. 

 The bottom is also covered with chafl"and the outside 

 hatchway idled wiih chall so you see that I have got 

 them warm. There is l.io swarms and no need of a 

 glass house, at least I cannot see it. The temperature 

 .seems to want to keep at 45' and that I think is about 

 right, one end of each hive is raised about half an inch 

 and honey boards raised U of an inch where they do 

 not have quilts. 



One of my neighbors, Mr. J. Noble has wintered his 

 t)ees in a dry cellar and hardly ever loses any ; they 

 came o»it very strong. Mr. Teiiaut, another bee-keep- 

 er wintered his in a bee house above ground very 

 sticcessfullv. though both keep them dry and warm. 

 AL15KUT PoTTEis, Eureka, Wis. Dec. 6th, 1874. 



We sincerely trust friend P. you may never 

 have anj^ need of a "glass house'" and that good 

 colonies in good warm, well ventilated cellars, 

 may always winter safely. We shall be most 

 liappy to be convinced that we have no worse 

 trouble to contend with. 



ICEl'OUT FOIl 1874. 



My bees wintered well; all came out alive, except 

 one, (Queenless) and four others being weak dwindled 

 down and "went out" during the cold rainy weather 

 of April and May, leaving me 30 to begin the season 

 with. I obtained i.'ioO lbs. ext'd honey from the 30 

 stands— average 85 lbs. each— and after the honey sea- 

 son was over increased my stands to 40. I think this 

 has been the poorest year here for honey I ever knew. 

 My bees had a good fly on Dec. '2nd, and the next day 

 I put them all in the cellar in nice condition, and now 

 they are all as still as death. Yours, well satisfled, 



W. J. llo.VALi), Grandview, Iowa. Dec. lOth, 1874. 



And well you might be, with the above re- 

 port of the "poorest season you ever knew." 



During the winter of the bee maladv, all the bees in 

 Langstroth hives died, and two-thirtfs in others rticd. 

 -Ml now use common box hives. 



W. McBuiDK, Chardon, O. Dec. 16th, 1874. 



Such reports came in so often a year or two 

 ago, that we could not have printed them even 

 had we deemed best, but we are glad to note a 



better state of attairs now, and we believe it 

 has generally been agreed that it was rather 

 the improper manner in which the moval)h' 

 comb hives were managed, rather than any 

 inherent defect in them. 



I am much Interested in yolir experiments, but lia\ c 

 no necessity for them hei'o as our beis liave never 

 been diseased. They winter safely in cellar or on 

 summer stands. We have not much but clover hone v 

 and when that is i)lfnly all goes well. Last season 1 

 realized ^U'M in box luiney and ten natural s>\anns 

 from :;4 colonics, Lung.stroih hives of course. 



John T. SMrm, Uniontown, Fayette Co., \':u 



1 have sold '2700 lbs. honey and have 1000 on ham', 

 also have sold Sl,50.00 worth of Queens, amounting in 

 all to over S700.00 without counting new swarms, as I 

 reduce them annually. John L. Davis. 



Holt, Ingham Co., Mi ch. Dec . 11th, 1874. 



I started last May with '23 very light swarms of bees, 

 mostly hybrids and about 300 good worker comb 

 besides, i got between 3700 and 3800 lbs. of slung hon- 

 ey and now have 59 good swarms and gave one away. 

 The honey brought 17 cts. per lb. clear of expense. 1 

 have no trouble in getting worker comb in any swarm 

 by taking away their capped brood, I do this about 

 the time basswood gives out. I make new swarms oC 

 the sealed brood by initting 6 or 8 frames in a new 

 hive and giving them a Queen or cell. I get ihc 

 poor fall honey made into combs. 



EuwiN STANHOPK, Pentwater, Oceana Co., Mich. 



Thanks friend S., for what is, at least to us, 

 a new idea. We think it ver}^ probable the 

 bees would build only worker comb if deprived 

 of their sealed brood, for they would then see 

 the necessity of it. Is not this another missing 

 link that will explain friend Dean's plan, as 

 given on page 91, Vol. 2. If combs can be se- 

 cured in the fall, made from honey not as val- 

 uable, it is quite an important item. 



Wintered 17 stands, all I had, without loss last win- 

 ter, and received about 500 lbs. honey. Have now '27 

 stands prepared on same plan. One of the two, dollar 

 Queens ordered of you, and sent by Mr. Phelps, pro- 

 duces all three banded workers, the other produces 

 all kinds of workei's. I am very well pleased with my 

 bargain. What has become of Mr. Phelps; I don't 

 see his advertisement any more ? 



C. A. HiGOLD, Arcadia, Morgan Co., Ills. 



Mr. P., with the rest we presume, withdrew 

 his advertisement because he had more oi'ders 

 than he could All, but all will be on hand 

 again ])i'ight and early next season, we think. 

 The pure Queen you mention, as she is daugh- 

 ter of an Imported Queen, is well Avorth $5.00 

 to any one with a dozen hives of bees. 



C.VN BEES BE KEPT IN A CITY ? 



Was asked on page 84, Vol. 1. Our reply 

 was giveii on the same page, and the following 

 from the querist will show how far we were 

 right. 



I wintered three swarms in my cellar under my 

 kitchen ; they came out ttnelj* in the spring. They 

 were in three kinds of hives,— no movable combs. In 

 May had them transferred into Langstroth hives. In 

 June got some Queens (black) and started three more 

 swarms, one from each old one. The way 1 did it was 

 by driving out some bees from the old swarm and 

 l)utting them in the new hive which was i)laced on 

 the old stand. My frames were all filled with combs 

 and some honey when I bought them. They have 

 done very well this season. 1 have taken LW lbs. (or 

 more) box honey. And the frames are well tilled with 

 honey, for wintering. Bought one Italian swarm thl-s 

 fall, so now I have seven swarms in my cellar. My 

 cellar is a dry sandy one. 



Please don't, put me down among "Blasted Hopes," 

 till ('?io//(rr spring. T woubl like to know how to se- 

 cure straight combs in small boxes, where there is no 

 comb to start them. My boxes hold about 5,S lbs. of 

 honey, which is the most convenient market size here. 

 My bees would build across them, where there was 

 no old comb ))ut in to stop them. Have sold some of 

 mv honey at 40 cts. per lb. How is this for City life ? 

 Not a failure yet. Stei'iien Williams, Nashua, N. H. 



